Posts by BenWilson
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I managed to make one cat actually useful in Australia by training it to catch insects. Moths and blowflies that chanced to find their way into my apartment lasted about 25 seconds, and she dutifully ate them too. She managed to catch a pigeon that was about her size once too, but I managed to save it. Turned out that it had only fainted from the shock.
Strange cat. Sickly from birth, she languished and we had fears she would just die from lack of eating. Then one day she managed to fall through the railings on the balcony and plummetted about 70 feet. She was totally unharmed, and seemed to have got a new lease on life, started eating, playing etc. Perhaps her whole life flashed before her eyes, or something like that, and she realized there was more to it than just lying around feeling sorry for herself.
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My approach to PAS began a little like my take on Wikipedia. That it was generally better to say something, anything, whatever little you know or think about something, than to say nothing. It all contributes to the big project.
But PAS has matured somewhat, as has Wiki. It's not so easy to write a large piece of Wikipedia anymore, and there are expectations that you don't just write gobshite. Unless it's clearly just chatty, get an idea out stuff, I'm generally deleting most of what I write these days. This post, for instance, is about a fifth of the actual words I wrote.
It does seem a bit odd to do that, but I've found that once I've written something, then I can look at it, and think about it. I tend to think about it then from how other people might see it and argue against it, or just judge it. After that I tend to respond to that. Quite often that's led to going off to find some research or evidence. Which has very often killed my original enthusiasm for even saying the first thing. But the time was not wasted, and what I do usually give at that point is better for it.
I'm not entirely sure this is a better way to do things. But it's how this forum is, so I'm getting with the program. In a funny way, I'm moving back towards lurking.
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I can understand David Cauchi's point, a little. Being a community, there are some things that don't go down well here, that might in other contexts, even polite contexts. You will get smacked down for some things, without fail. I'd give a for instance, but I'll get smacked down.
But that's how it goes in any conversation, anywhere, anytime. So you have to choose if you want to antagonize people and have a long and pointless fight with them, risking getting banned etc, or to change your style, or to leave.
I've tried all of these options. Leaving was by far the best one. It makes you realize (and it can take some time, in my case about 8 months of avoidance) that some discussions are worth having and some are not. I missed the ones that were worth having more than I hated having the other kind. I also realized that my participation in the other kind was at least half the reason they had happened, so I'm trying to change that. If I walk over a taboo subject, spark up the flames, I figure it's just the wrong place to talk about that subject. Doesn't mean you're wrong, or a bad person. Nor does it mean the other person is wrong or a bad person. Just that talking that way, in this place, is pointless, unless it is your purpose to antagonize.
Antagonism can sometimes be worthwhile, if you have a new or interesting point, or a good way of putting it. If you just insist, though, then it doesn't seem worthwhile to me.
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Not flirting is a gamble too. It could be seen as a snub.
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You're 4 times more likely to rear end a vehicle with something written on the back of it.
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FletcherB, Craig doesn't need to explain it unless you are a young buck who can't read between the lines.
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And my inability to codify this in some kind of bullet-pointed form really disturbs me. You just know.
How not to be a dirty old man 101? It's not hard. Never crack on.
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the retort 'so where do you think you came from?' doesn't work.
I blame sex education for casting it as "when a mummy and a daddy love each other very, very much, and want to have a little baby, then...". If they put it as "when a man and a woman shag without precautions...". But I already told the only sordid story I'm game for.
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'jpgs or it didn't happen'
If only.
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Ya, it's kinda strange how the young are always bitter on the expectations that the old have of them, but have very strong views on what it is acceptable for the old to do. Especially when it comes to sex.
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