they are expensive..and they've even gone up since the last time I looked.
But , yes, its off topic.

but i surely don't care

cough

'it's not pinin'! 'it's passed on! This Forum is no more! It has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'it's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'it rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed 'it to the perch 'it'd be pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'it's off the twig! 'it's kicked the bucket, 'it's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-FORUM!!

(sorry Python crew!)

I'm not dead.

     'Ere, he says he's not dead.
         Yes he is.

I'm not.
     He isn't.
        Well, he will be soon, he's very ill.

I'm getting better.
        No you're not, you'll be stone dead in a moment.
    Well, I can't take him like that. It's against regulations.

****I don't want to go on the cart.
        Oh, don't be such a baby.
    I can't take him.

****I feel fine.

Quote - cough

 

'it's not pinin'! 'it's passed on! This Forum is no more! It has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'it's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'it rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed 'it to the perch 'it'd be pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'it's off the twig! 'it's kicked the bucket, 'it's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-FORUM!!

 

(sorry Python crew!)

Not it isn't.  It moved.

As I gaze upon these forums, thoughts of yesteryear , times long gone, flit accross mine eyes. Do I chase my youth in vain with such endeavors? Facing the enevitible decline, as I know I must, am I wasting what lucidity I have left reaching for this unatainable thing?

The curse is not so much  the fog and loss of clarity. The curse is the memories of a time it was not so, and knowing  what I have lost. There was a time, seems so, of a confident stride, a sharp, clear, mind, and a purpose straight and obvious. I remember these things and know them to be true as I gaze upon the world through this dark, thick, shroud.

There are precious mornings I awaken to that old self, if but for a few hours, half a day. I work on my figures to focus my mind, fighting  to hang on to the vision but a few hours more. In the end the things I create a mere shadow of what I once could have done. Back to the dull grey, a half life you might say, where I function with the efficiency of learned wrote, but no vision, no spark. Thoughtless, mindless, grey.

Irascible and ill tempered, for no apparent reason. I imagine the horror that lies ahead on this road. There are no side roads, no turn offs, and walk it I must.  I am so tired.

Tell me, what month is this? Is it the month of rain? The month of sorrows, regretts, a month of death waiting to be reborn to the light.

The darkness gathers so, deep and cloying. Yet so soft and inviting, like the soft hushed sound of falling snow, the warm sweet sleep in a feather bed. Come it says, sleep, peace, rest for the weary

A thought flutters, like a bird caught by chance indoors, smashing, battering, frantic to escape. Run! Get up! Fight damn you. Open your eyes and see. 'Tis the spirit fighting on. How long the spirit?

Are we dead yet?

So render, that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan, which moves
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed
By your 3 dimensional art, approach thy grave
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.

Apologies to William Cullen Bryant

Do you come here then with your soul so black and shrivelled? Leaprous pustules of self riteous hate bursting to spew forth their vile brew, do you come here so? Your nose in the air calling for a bell hop to get your bags? These things have a physical manifestation here and can be clearly seen by all.

Make no mistake, we all come here be we pauper or king. Have you not realised yet the futility of such posturings? The absurdity of it? There is no front or back of the bus here. Nay, here you shall walk like the rest, gnashing your teeth, bemoaning the loss of your exaulted status.

Where shall you be when next you venture forth? Here you go when your called, master or slave the choice not our own.

With the irony of luck you shall feel the cruel lash upon your back, the contemptuous cuff of the boot. Whispers and laughter drifting to your dark cell from your supposed betters.

No rest upon the filthy straw, cast out and wretched, as you have done to so many in your past. To feel the human pain of the friendless and reviled, never knowing the reason, but that one of the masters took a dislike.

From whence comes this endless cycle? From where in the blackness of our evolution comes this desire to walk upon our fellow? The desire for someone to revile, to whisper dark tales and dirty deeds of? Does it truely exalt oneself to be so, or rather blacken us all?

Yesterday I was going to add a comment to a thread in the Blender forum. I was almost ready to press the save and post button when I stopped wondering... nah! it's going to be the start of a flame war (because the it was a negative comment towards SketchUp) and after a couple of seconds of meditation I simply closed the window.

Negative comments are taken as personal attacks or, even worse, belittlement of pet techniques and are the start of a quarrel so it is better to stick to the 'Talk is silver, silence is gold' maxim. And silence is the death sentence of a community.

Bye.

P.S.: after being banned by DAZ forums by resident Gestapo troopers I have noticed that I was losing less time by not posting and I have started a generalized go-back-to-lurking campaign. Nowadays I have reduced my contributions to 3/4 comments at most per week in total on all the forums I visit (it was 3/4 comments per day ). My information gathering has not suffered, it is the others who do not get the information I find...

alexcoppo and all, it depends on what your negative comment was. If it was a negitive comment at another member personally, than no it shouldn't be posted. If you are disagreeing with a member about a topic that is not a personal attack.

It comes down to using common sense when posting as you would if talking to someone face to face. Would some of you say the things you do online to a person's face? Most not.

Also, if you all feel the forum is dying do something about it. Stop whining in this thread and post questions, new tech help, tuts that help with dynamic clothing etc. that is what the forum is for.

A man wandering and lost in the desert, came upon a beutiful oasis. There were gaily painted birds, flowers in abundance, figs, dates and pemegranites and a little pond of clear blue water.

On the far side of the pond the man noticed tables and pavillions all set up around a central podium. People of all lands and dress were seated at the various tables seeming in animated discussion. Wanting to meet these people he walked around the pond. "Hello" he cried. Silence...not a one responded to his calls. Hmm he wandered to himself if he may be invisible to them.

The traveler watched awhile and noticed that every once in awhile a person from one of the tables would get up, walk over to the podium and loudly make an anouncement. To which no one from the individual groups at any table but the speakers own would respond. So strange this, could no one but the speakers table hear him? Not so! He noticed surepticious glances and sour looks from the other tables, so he surmised, they heard the speaker but were ignoring him.

This continued on and on, the fruit began to rot and the people table by table began to die off rotting and decaying with the rest. Untill there was but one small pitifull table left, those best at ignoring the others. Their finery worn and tattered, their noses still in the air, they began to turn on eachother.

In the end there was but one person left, walking around talking to himself.

Quote - My information gathering has not suffered, it is the others who do not get the information I find...

I liked this.

... Seasons don't fear the reaper

Nor do the wind, the sun or the rain

We can be like they are ...

Quote -
It comes down to using common sense when posting as you would if talking to someone face to face. Would some of you say the things you do online to a person's face? Most not.

I would.  Every time, without a shadow of a doubt.  Most people who know me in RL would tell you I'm a damn sight more diplomatic here than there.  :)

Quote - > Quote -

It comes down to using common sense when posting as you would if talking to someone face to face. Would some of you say the things you do online to a person's face? Most not.

I would.  Every time, without a shadow of a doubt.  Most people who know me in RL would tell you I'm a damn sight more diplomatic here than there.  :)

Oh me too. 

And actually Alexcoppo does have a point. Look what happens when Gamma Correction is even mentioned? I happen to like what Gamma Correction does for my images, but I'm not a die hard convert. If some new technique or invension is to my likings, I'll adopt it. If not. Then I won't. Which is why I haven't got the newest GIRL or the newest Kids - I have no use for them. Their older counterparts fulfil my needs in that department.

I've rarely been known to be among the people who must own something just because it's the newest fad. I have bought the latest Poser and there's a few other programs I happily buy every time there's a new iteration out - but that's becaus they offer me an improvement of some sort, not just because they're new. I took a long time to decide on getting PP2010 after being happy as a clam with Poser 8. But I wanted this Gamma Correction thing because I could SEE it made things better.

And I can't personally understand why people who own PP2010 won't use GC. But it's their decision. Their loss if you want. I'm not going to preach to the choir.

But if someone is afraid to post because you have a (right or wrong) idea that someone will not like them for saying so.. then the forum has a problem. The forum either has some nasty forumites or some lazy moderators.
In a well-moderated forum, no one should be afraid to speak up, nor should they be afraid to unwittingly break a rule and be banned.

WHEN someone chose to break the rules and then are banned, it shouldn't, on the other hand, come as a big surprise that would warrant tear-soaked laments about how "nobody understands them"

I dont see people speaking their minds on a SUBJECT as the problem here. What I see is just the oposite, people not speaking up. The reasons for that? watch the dynamics of the group closely for awhile and it will be obvious.

TrekkieGrrrl: We do our best here to make sure all problems are taken care of. I'm sorry to say but the forum should not be "baby sitted". Also, we do not ban people for breaking the rules. Bans only happen after many violations of the TOS.

In all, no one should be concerned of posting to any forum. The staff are human like all of our members. So if something has been over looked tell us.

Quote - > Quote -

It comes down to using common sense when posting as you would if talking to someone face to face. Would some of you say the things you do online to a person's face? Most not.

I would.  Every time, without a shadow of a doubt.  Most people who know me in RL would tell you I'm a damn sight more diplomatic here than there.  :)

S I said most. :P

you wouldn;t believe hoe much i tell people my mind in RL...in fact when I'm quiet my boss asks me if there's something wrong.

and Kimberly ...fess up already if you are you or who.

I will say, this forum, even though I get real po'd often and its not even anywhere near as open and friendly as it used to be, allows much more banter than another forum i regularly used to comment in which rhymes with spaz homins

..Dave-So in RL I normally keep most in unless I get really upset. OH...and I am who am I. I don't understand lol

Then lets all work to make this forum what you want. Its not the just the staff that can do it but you guys. :)

who you are...we have been asking if your avatar is really you or some other very beautiful woman.

I would ask you that on the street too... :) LOL

Quote - who you are...we have been asking if your avatar is really you or some other very beautiful woman.

I would ask you that on the street too... :) LOL

Could have sworn I answered you all. Wow..its been a blah week for me. Yes that is me.  lol

watch out now :)

Don't like gamma correction?, we can discuss Fresnel, this hasn't been discused yet, but you can be sure, it will be worst........

ryuslilangel, I never said there was anything wrong with the way the mods worked here. I was speaking in general terms :) I thoguht I'd made it clear (but I can see it was a bit convoluted) that my opinion is, if someone feels slighted here, it is mostly unwarranted, IE paranoia (although that is too harsh a word to use, just that some members here seems to have a "I can never say anything, whereas this-and-that person can say whatever they plase. Woe is me!" attitude, which I frankly find rather boring.

Just as some people seems to only speak up whenever they have something to complain about. Some seem to focus only on negative things in live, not just here but generally (I meet a lot of them in my day job as a train conductor) and.. it gets old very fast!

And then of course there's those who thinks that "it's a free world, we can act as we please". Which, of course, isn't so. Quite a lot of people tend to forget that Renderosity is a private place and not their own property!

TrekkieGrrrl, I was merely just saying. I wasn't taking any offense to what you said. :)

Its funny you say something about negative. My husband told me today that he was so tired of everyone around him or he meets being so negative. And... it gets old very fast. Wow..that is weird.

This is pretty lively for a dead forum!  ; D

its hard to be positive when everything SUCKS so bad you maybe want to just run away and forget it all. When your job sucks, your financial situation sucks, your marraige sucks, half the people you know are out of work, the other half are on tension just waiting for the ax to drop, people not caring about anyone except themselves...on and on....

sittting by the water helps a lot, but now its frozen over.

Don't forget, some of the usual suspects have't posted much lately-odf is MIA, BB is heads down working until his commission expires at the end of the month and Dave Hoadley has been pretty scarce since he was reinstated, to name a few.

I'd kick around Fresnel nodes, but I'd be bringing a knife to a gunfight... :biggrin:

I've talked about Fresnel in this forum 213 times. Not once did it lead to a fight.

Quote - its hard to be positive when everything SUCKS so bad you maybe want to just run away and forget it all. When your job sucks, your financial situation sucks, your marraige sucks, half the people you know are out of work, the other half are on tension just waiting for the ax to drop, people not caring about anyone except themselves...on and on....

sittting by the water helps a lot, but now its frozen over.

Ok, if we're playing Misery Poker, suck on this...

I'm unemployed and flat broke, my wife, 15 month old son and I live in a tiny 1 bedroom apartment - which has barely enough room for the three of us - and we have another child on the way, and nowhere for her to sleep.  I am in constant pain from a damaged knee and had to cancel my op due to bad weather.  I now have to wait until next year.  The painkillers I'm taking don't allow me to drink alcohol and they have spectacular withdrawal symptoms so I can't even stop taking them to have a drink or two over Christmas.  Not that I could afford it, anyhow.

I was the victim of a violent attack 2 years ago and I'm still suffering the physical and mental effects of that.  I have 3 separate legal actions ongoing, one against the Police, one against the local authority and one against the people who attacked me.

And of course, my dad died a couple of months ago.

Am I negative? Bollocks to that.  If I let myself be miserable it spoils any chance of happiness and makes things worse for those around me.  I deal with what I can and let the rest take care of itself.  At least we are warm and dry and what little we have, we enjoy.  If I give in to negativity, the bastards have won.  I won't ever let that happen.

"Never give up! Never surrender!"   : )

Exactly!  :)

I have to set an example for my little boy.  Besides which, it's hard to be miserable with him around.  One of life's natural comedians, he is.  Just learned to climb, too.  That makes for interesting times.

 I’m a believer that: “What I think about…I bring about”…For me to focus on the negativity, only brings me more negativity. But in contrast, If I focus on the positive, I bring more positive into my life.

 Let’s say Monday and Tuesday are pretty much identical days…On Monday…I have a very positive outlook and feel relatively good…But on Tuesday…I’m restless, irritable, and discontent. Nothing on the outside has changed (The weather is the same, no life problems presented themselves, etc.)…What HAS changed is my perception somehow.

 This helps illustrate (To me anyway…) that usually “Things Don’t Happen TO Me”…Things just happen…and it’s my choice on how I act or react to them. Sure. I can play the victim and take some sort of twisted satisfaction in living in “Justified Misery”…But it usually doesn’t solve anything if I wallow in self pity.

So I have a choice…Live in the Problem…or Live in the Solution.
There are no Victims…Only volunteers.

Tom

i have to admit I've fallen into the negativity trap...not always, but often...
extracation has been hard.

Although that dingle ball thing on your hat, Tom, does throw some positive humerous feelings into me. Even some humorous ones.

To all of you who feel so "optimistic": just wait for the day in which you will stare at yourself in the mirror and ask: why? to what purpose? and find no answer at all or, better, understand that the only sensible answer is that there is no purpose at all.

It won't be a happy day, trust me.

Bye and remember that this "enthusiam" is the usual seasonal disease which runs rampant every year at the end of December. Nothing to worry about.

Quote - To all of you who feel so "optimistic": just wait for the day in which you will stare at yourself in the mirror and ask: why? to what purpose? and find no answer at all or, better, understand that the only sensible answer is that there is no purpose at all.

It won't be a happy day, trust me.

Bye and remember that this "enthusiam" is the usual seasonal disease which runs rampant every year at the end of December. Nothing to worry about.

Not so.  There is a purpose, albeit one I chose to impose on myself.  That is, to do the best I can to bring up my children in a loving and caring environment, to give them a good grounding in everything I believe necessary and to - hopefully, when I'm gainfully employed - be a good provider.  My children didn't ask to be born.  We - Claire and I - have a responsibility to do right by them.

Anyone can have a purpose.  They just need to choose one.

BTW, it's not enthusiasm, it's pragmatism.  There's a huge difference between enthusiasm and avoiding negativity.  So what if there's no god, no afterlife, no ultimate point.  If this is all we have - and I firmly believe it is - why not make the best of it?  You're a long time dead.

To all of you who feel so "optimistic": just wait for the day in which you will stare at yourself in the mirror and ask: why? to what purpose? and find no answer at all or, better, understand that the only sensible answer is that there is no purpose at all.

It won't be a happy day, trust me.

Been There...and in fact...it was the most liberating day I think I ever had...again...it's all about perspective.

Bye and remember that this "enthusiam" is the usual seasonal disease which runs rampant every year at the end of December. Nothing to worry about.

I'm indifferent about the season...so evidently...I must have this disease all year round and I love it...So I choose it.

8 )

Tom

[Edit]...Heh Heh...He said "Dingle Ball".

Quote - best of it?  You're a long time dead.

Yeah ...but you won't even know you're dead or not, so once it happens, the time spent on Earth will be meaningless to you. maybe not to those you influenced, however.

Quote - > Quote - best of it?  You're a long time dead.

Yeah ...but you won't even know you're dead or not, so once it happens, the time spent on Earth will be meaningless to you. maybe not to those you influenced, however.

True.  Same as it was before I was born.  As you say, though, I may leave some impression on those still here.  Hopefully, I'll have been a positive influence.  If I can give my children the same upbringing as my Father did for me, I reckon I'll have done a good job.

My death will leave a profound mark on my... accountant (read unpayed last invoice ).

It is not a joke: should I die at the beginning of January, the first person to realize that something is amiss would be, in December next, my accountant.

It would take several years of unpayed condominium invoices to have tribunal people and police to look into my house for forced credit collection and discover my corpse in the process. Well, from time to time I read in the papers of people being discovered 1 or 2 decades after their death so my situation is not so unusual.

Actually, it is better this way; nobody is going to cry on my coffin.

jeez, what a buncha grumps!  I daresay there'll be coals in youse guys' stockings this eve (not xmas here yet).

my niece told me I was the grumpiest old man she's ever met ...

Bah Humbug! :)

I'm unemployed and flat broke, my wife, 15 month old son and I live in a tiny 1 bedroom apartment - which has barely enough room for the three of us - and we have another child on the way, and nowhere for her to sleep.  I am in constant pain from a damaged knee and had to cancel my op due to bad weather.  I now have to wait until next year.  The painkillers I'm taking don't allow me to drink alcohol and they have spectacular withdrawal symptoms so I can't even stop taking them to have a drink or two over Christmas.  Not that I could afford it, anyhow.

@Sam, you and your family are more than welcome to move in with us. 

Thanks mate.  It's all good.  We'll get through this and things will be better.  I appreciate the offer, though.

Thanks mate.  It's all good.  We'll get through this and things will be better.  I appreciate the offer, though.

Are you sure?  The soon to be ex doesn't want the house and i'm leaving in a month.  That will free up two bedrooms.  The only ones left living there will be our 2 adult children and grandchild.

Quote - jeez, what a buncha grumps!  I daresay there'll be coals in youse guys' stockings this eve (not xmas here yet).

I hope you're not including me in that.  I am definitely anything but grumpy/grouchy/pessimistic.  This year may not have been the best ever but it's had a lot of good stuff in there.

I dunno if clams are particularly happy, nor what they'd have to be happy about but if they are, then that's what I'm as happy as.  :D

To all of you who feel so "optimistic": just wait for the day in which you will stare at yourself in the mirror and ask: why? to what purpose? and find no answer at all or, better, understand that the only sensible answer is that there is no purpose at all.

As long as there's "hokey pokey" there will always be a purpose to life.