FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

VILLAGE ALERT!!! VILLAGE ALERT!!!!
It appears the delusional "Emperor" is trying to dun his invisible clothes and the court jester is jeering him on... We need the First Reprimanders to get the tar pots simmering and the torch bearers should be stretching and limbering up. Also, the pitch fork honers should already be working the tines. Ah, I love the smell of fresh hot tar pitch in the mornings.... ATTENTION: THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!!!!!!!!!!

Intheswamp wrote: ↑Sun Feb 11, 2024 2:44 pm @Jade, I can see you've had a good many challenges and yet, here you are, working through them. I've found that it's not the challenges that define a person's character, but rather how they handle those challenges. They do tend to make you look at other's trials in a bit different light. Distractions help us (me) decompress from all the pressures we encounter in life. Even if it's for a few minutes we can get lost in them and the less desirable realities drift into the distance...turning those minutes into an hour or three can be even better. And, when we come back from those distractions we are somewhat refreshed and more able to deal with our situations...even to the point of reveling and challenging the challenge (if that makes sense). Like the fellow said, "Just keep on keepin' on!". It sounds like you have done an admirable job of doing that!

I enjoy photography, too. One day I hope to get good at it! I shot 35mm back in the 80's and 90's and had a black-and-white darkroom. When digital started getting popular in the early 2000's I kind of got left behind...digital cameras were pricey and I just couldn't rationalize spending the money on one. My photography got laid to the side, not just because of the "digital revolution" but also some personal/family issues. A few years later, though, I bought a used Canon T3i, crop sensor and later a 6D...and I've never yearned to smell fixer again. Being able to shoot and see your captured image immediately helps to refine your shooting and keep you from having to make a second trip to shoot that tree stump or whatever. Yeah, I don't really miss the darkroom. But, seeing an image come up on a blank white sheet of photo paper is still...magical. I never did get into color in the darkroom...too precise conditions for me to maintain (but...I was "OCD-Me" way back then, too! ).

I understand about the cellphone camera versus the camera. I'm kind of in the same situation except my cell phone camera isn't any good...but other folks cellphone cameras are good. The cell phones to day can be handed to a gorilla and they'll make good photos with them (it's been documented!!! ). Remember, good technique beats tech any time. Keep on shootin'!!!!

Back in college and the days that followed I wrote some, myself. Then "something" happened and I stopped. I've just recently started trying to put together something, just a poem, but I think I feel some metre rising in it.

All of your "distractions" are good. Keep at them. As for the folks here on the forum...they are all all absolute nuts!!!! Harmless...but nuts!!! I've been the only sane person here, but now with you showing up there's two sane people here!!!

You have cats? If you ever end up with kittens *be sure* to send a couple of them to ChefDean...he simply ADORES them. He has one of the largest kitten orphanages east of the Mississippi. And evenwind likes to go on cruises...the only thing is that folks say he insists being called "The Skipper" and constantly goes around asking if anybody has seen Gilligan...I dunno what that's all about.

Btw, I write novels, too.
Now, I saw some "Alabama" comments I need to go address. Cya!

Good gracious, Ignacious! I have found my forum twin it seems.

At the moment I wouldn’t say I’m strong or reveling. I complain too much for that, but I’m still here for a handful of simple things in my life. Which is still something I just feel like getting compliments for getting through it when I moan about it (was going to use another phrase but I think these are clean swear word free forums rah cheer so I’m trying to curb my sailor’s mouth) feels like I’m lying by omission or something. I do have some slight OCD things. I’m not sure if my radical honesty thing is due to that or getting lied to a bunch when I was younger, but I feel 100% compelled to honesty. Annoying.

I never had a darkroom before, so I had to roll with black and white film, and it always looked kinda like what graywash is in tattoos. It didn’t ever have the striking contrasts of like an Ansel Adams photo. It’s a shame too because back in late 90s, early oughts I had a small abandoned and partially burned amusement park to photograph and my word did it look gorgeous in the film I had. Black and white and color. I can imagine how much crisper it would have been with a camera meant for that.

Hey two suggestions if you’re ever interested in sharing your writing (totally disregard if you’re not a sharing type with that stuff everyone is different) 1. Reddit has some good poetry subs that are helpful at suggestions but can be frustrating sometimes because some of them, but not all, seem to want everything to be masked in metaphors that are difficult to discern, but there are also really good suggestions in there. And 2. If you’re into polite but radical honesty I’m always interested in reading that stuff. Sometimes it seems like it unlocks my creativity. It just doesn’t stay unlocked.

I wrote since I was a kid probably into my early to mid 20s, but I had a not so great partner (although back then I wasn’t a picnic either probably always melting down) had me completely twisted up and then - to use a phrase that seems too polite for the circumstances - unalived himself and is about half of what sent me looking for help. The help I found after realizing that most meds wouldn’t touch some of my problems ended up being enough antipsychotics to knock out an elephant and random attempts at other less extreme drugs during. I didn’t try to take my life back until Dec 2013 when I decided to titrate completely off the antipsychotic and try living in the world with emotions turned back on. So probably 6 months to a year after that was extra crazy, but all that time without the antipsychotic but with the crazy feeling I could write. Then I started kind of settling down and was trying new meds. I think the reason that people who have mental problems and are musicians don’t end up on meds to even out might be the problem I have. There’s a rhythm I feel when writing and I don’t feel it on most meds. It could be just me but it’s a pet theory I’ve had for awhile. At least they’re starting to look at alternative things like psilocybin and ketamine for treatment. Afaik they’re not at the MDMA stage that I think is being studied abroad, but it’s shocking they’re considering any hallucinogens considering the current atmosphere is “all drugs are bad no matter what “ here. Anyhoo. I keep getting interrupted when writing this and I’m pretty sure it’s already too long so I’ll wrap up my meandering.

It’s been so long since anyone referenced Gilligans Island I had to look up what it was called lol. Otherwise it would have been on the tip of my tongue but unreachable for days probably.

I’m sane? I’m definitely sending out cards to let all and sundry know that

I will likely never have another kitten unfortunately. I love them at that age but I do rescues and either they will come from the streets or from a shelter and I would probably look for cats and dogs being passed over and probably going to be euthanized if not adopted. Although Mahjin and Kaito have different stories. Mahjin was off the street my partner found and gave her to me for Xmas one year and Kai was with a family member who has issues and was abusing him. He is extremely friendly and outgoing now so you’d never know. Animals are pretty amazing.

Never been on a cruise. Always wanted to do an Alaskan one. Never been on a plane though either so I’m not experienced in such things. Ok meandering over for real

Twins... Maybe so. We're all akin somewhere down the line.

I can't say that I've had diagnosed issues, but most of us do have to deal with hard things. It's part of life. But, people cope in many different ways...some good and some bad. As long as we strive to do things right we make progress. Many times we can be our own worst enemy. In my belief *every person* is here for a reason...there are no coincidences in life, "luck" does not exist.

Honesty is a good character to have, we just have to know when to express it. For instance, if I saw a rather large woman wearing a black and white striped dress I wouldn't tell her that she reminded me of a mama zebra (even if she did ) because it would hurt her feelings and not do anybody any good. Or, if I saw Chef wearing a striped gray and black fur jacket I wouldn't go up to him and tell him he looked like a flea-bitten, mangy kitten...hmmm, on second thought maybe... But, hopefully you get my point. Hang in there, it seems you're making your way through the paths in front of you. What I've found is that there's always light at the end of the tunnels...we just have to be sure we don't lose our sight before we get there and understand the light might not be the exact color we anticipated...but, it's still light!

Ansel Adams was a master photographer. At one time he was a bad photographer. We all have to learn. He had a gift where he could "see" the image he wanted to capture and he worked on how to make it happen...razor sharp focusing, lighting, composition, he seemed to like high horizons. He developed his own technique in both imaging and processing...we call it the Zone System these days. For us, sending black and white film out to processors for processing and printing is a crap shoot...they're going to either give a "balanced" exposure that makes the whites "dingy" and the blacks "gray'ish" or go to one end of the tonal spectrum or the other too much. Adams used a lot of burning and dodging...something you won't get in a commercial/retail processor. You can get good blacks in digital, it just takes a good image and some decent processing. Keep shooting and keep experimenting, but most of all enjoy the journey while you're on it.

As for medications... Some are needed. Many are not. And I'm far, far from being smart enough to talk about them. I will say that you do have to be your own advocate with your health, to either agree with this treatment, that treatment, or no treatment. You also have to know when to hand that power over to someone else maybe for a short time or maybe even a longer time. At some point in our lives we all need a little help, loving help.

My writing stopped abruptly decades ago, POOF!...things happened and...it was gone. I usually hold my writings "close to the chest", if you know what I mean. But, if I ever feel like sharing I'll give you a holler.

I do believe that there are drugs yet to be discovered that could do humans much good. God put many plants on this earth for man's use. But, man has been a not-so-good steward of many of them...destroying and abusing many. Then there are the synthetic drugs that humans concoct themselves...some good, some not. The problem isn't the drugs, though, but rather humans' weakness in abusing them. The sidewalks in major cities are now experiencing open drug use and sales...and overdoses. It seems everybody panicked and secluded themselves, wearing masks to the bathroom or go to the refrigerator, when the "COVID pandemic" was here...but, nobody seems to much care about the fentanyl, meth, heroin, and even the mega-THC-content cannabis epidemic that is running through the veins of our country. It's here. People are selling, buying, and dying on the sidewalks. Adding more easily abused drugs to the market needs to be carefully considered...we can't deal with the problems we have now. I'm not in the “all drugs are bad no matter what “ camp, but I do feel that great care needs to be used in new drug development and possible FDA approval. Having said all that, I graduated in '76 and have been around the block three or four times on my bicycle, and I pedaled hard at times...and lost some good friends early on. So, I may get flamed from somewhere for all of that...but that is part of who I am.

Kitten, cats, sacks, and wives... Oh, sorry, went off on a tangent. I had to put our old dog down a few years ago. He was the best dog I think we ever had, I think he was a mind-reader. For different reasons we decided we wouldn't get another one after he was gone. We had no other animals. Last year an old gray tabby tomcat started creeping up to the house occasionally. Then one day I started talking to him from a distance...and he talked back! Eventually, he got comfortable coming closer to us. Then finally one day he came up to me and lightly rubbed against my leg...I just hung my hand down and let him brush against it. The rest is history. He's a big old block-headed cat...and he's a survivor. We live in a rural area...we see nobody's streetlights from here. But, the cat has survived going from house to house...1/4 to 1/2 mile apart and mooching food when he'd find it, catching mice and whatnot in the woods to fill in the blanks, dodging the coyotes and bobcats, and creating an uneasy truce with the possums. Anyhow, we named him George. We then figured out that was his last name and his first initials were "W.C."...for either "Wonder Cat" or "Wander Cat" being as he's a little paranoid and jumpy still so it makes us "Wonder" about him...and at other times he disappears for a few days, thus the "Wander" part. Anyhow, he's a grumpy old cat...kinda like me. Here's a shot of him in his luxury condo (which, of course, he's decided he doesn't like anymore! ).<grin> I've only been on one cruise, it was an Alaskan cruise! Well, actually it was a 1/2 cruise...another story, another day.

I'll leave you with some bible verses. Whether a person is a believer or not, it is good advice for getting and staying out of dark places that we can sometimes find ourselves headed into. Phillipians 4:8

I agree with you about there not being coincidences. I’m a believer as well just not as much in the extremely judgmental God I was given in my childhood. Although a favorite phrase of mine is and always will be “if I didn’t have bad luck I wouldn’t have any at all” it’s a good way to quickly sum things up for the doctors and whatever else people I see. If I need to make that long story short.

Yeah I wouldn’t just say things that are hurtful or anything, but if my best friend asked me if she looks fat in an outfit (she never does, but you get what I mean), I would find a kinder way to put it that is still a yes, and I expect those questions to be answered honestly if I’m asking too. Better to feel a bit bummed that something I really like doesn’t fit quite right than finding out and feeling bad about it from strangers with less tact. Jmo on that. I did warn new people when meeting them about this so they knew if they asked they’d not get smoke blown up their nevermind. But there is certainly a kind way to say most things and still remain honest and I only feel that omission is a lie if it’s a truth you would be obligated to tell someone.

Ah I would adore being as brilliant as Ansel Adams, but I like the photos I take, and it is one of very few things that I actually can do without being obsessive about it being perfect. It takes my mind off my pain and lets me just lose myself in appreciating whatever beautiful or beautifully desolate place I am trying to capture for myself. It almost never looks like it does when I’m viewing it live, but that doesn’t bother me which is quite nice.

I had to learn to be my own advocate and I still have trouble with it sometimes. When I struggled more with my rage and impulse control I was too “loud” with opinions to doctors, but now that I’ve swung over to being a control freak most of the time I don’t as often challenge doctors even if I should. I hope it’s just on behalf of myself that this effects, but I’d like to be in something like the Milgram Experiment without knowing just to test it. I’m curious about whether or not my nature to try to be as kind and not hurtful as possible would be circumvented. I really hope not.

And no problem. I think writing for yourself is better sometimes because you don’t have other people yammering about what they think you should have written on line whatever and how it should have been this metaphor or whatever. I didn’t use that Reddit sub long for that reason really. I was more curious how others would read what I wrote. Every few years I miss it enough to try again, but so far the poetry really only works when I’m chronically depressed. And I haven’t tried the book in a good while because I know I wouldn’t be able to keep going right now.

We have a pretty bad fentanyl epidemic in Ohio, but we also have swung from the extreme of giving kids unlimited prescriptions for Oxy for a sprained ankle to refusing even folks who are dying pain relief because they might get addicted in the short while they have left. I feel like that probably exacerbates that heroin/fentanyl problem for people who are in desperate distress and can’t find help from conventional means. I was a partier when I was younger and if I did half or even most of that stuff now I definitely wouldn’t have survived, but I tell ya I could use a couple low milligram pain killers a month even. Sometimes my pain feels unbearable, but I don’t bother asking. And they recently even made a non-narcotic pill I was taking with success maybe a quarter of the time scheduled, so now I have nothing but ibuprofen. I feel like we need an intervention for the people who make the rules. We have never had a happy medium we should be striving to get there for the folks who need help. In all aspects of that category.

Your cat sounds like a great one to have chosen you, and he’s extremely adorable. My mom and I just had to get through a surprise emergency euthanizing of her dog in late October and it was heartbreaking. We had previously lost a dog to cancer and the most recent doggo was the dog that was adopted a few years after that one. She was one of a kind for my mom for sure. 100% sweet with everyone but only really my mom’s dog and thought she hung the moon. We’d had some trouble with her appetite, but had her checked at the vet and had bloodwork and they just thought she might have a bit of infection and gave her antibiotics. A few weeks later she got really bad and we took her to an emergency vet who told us she had been bleeding internally and they couldn’t tell for how long, but it was 99% likely it was cancer so we didn’t get to bring her home. It has been hard trying to adjust to that and obviously extremely hard for my mom.

My kitties I think are helpful for her to be around, but it’s easier because they’re cats I think for her.

Ah that 1/2 cruise sounds like a story lol.

Thank you for the verse. Reading that made me tear up, and I feel like I needed to read that today so much appreciated.

Okay, I think my fingers aren’t as agile as yours. I usually am at a keyboard but using a phone at the moment. Stay the course and keep you faith. Good things are ahead!

Oh man am I late to this thread!

Anyways, I’m Spunro but you can also call me Eric! I’m 15 (16 In July!) I’m from Scotland, and I started growing carnivorous plants in 2021 after the Youtube algorithm decided to give me venus flytrap care guides. I got my first CP on July 5th 2021, which was a venus flytrap. Then last February, I began branching out and quickly gained a purple pitcher plant, a cape sundew, and a few others. (I’ve heard that’s normally how this hobby goes )

Outside of carnivorous plants, I like drawing cartoony animals and making my own silly characters and such. I’m not really sure what else to write so I guess I’ll make a fun facts list?

• My favourite song is Juliet by Cavetown
• I really like finding all sorts of insects
• I tend to ask stupid questions

That’s all I guess?

Just a note to you, Spunro. There is no such thing as a stupid question.

Intheswamp wrote: ↑Thu Feb 15, 2024 7:56 pm There is no such thing as a stupid question.

Is this a challenge?

OK. I'll go: What's the speed of dark?

evenwind wrote: ↑Fri Feb 16, 2024 4:41 am OK. I'll go: What's the speed of dark?

That's NOT a stupid question http://www.elizabethmoon.com/books-nonseries.html#speed

IMHO, a stupid question would be one that there is no definitive answer for.

andynorth wrote: ↑Fri Feb 16, 2024 5:46 pm That's NOT a stupid question http://www.elizabethmoon.com/books-nonseries.html#speed

Feh! All that means is Elizabeth Moon is also a Steven Wright fan!

...this could get interesting!

Hello! I'm pretty late to this thread lol but just happened to stumble upon it.

My name is Gabe, I'm 25 yrs old and live out in CT, USA! Born and raised in Rhode Island but made a move to be with family and so here I've been since!
I currently work for Medical Marijuana Dispensary as a Dispensary Technician and can say I very much enjoy my job! I've learned a lot about cannabis, terpenes and all sorts of stuff! Before that I was in and out of different retail positions and was not happy with it at the time so it's been a nice change!
My dream is to go to college eventually, I want to get into botany but mainly about carnivorous plants (surprise!) and maybe open a nursery of my own eventually.
I live with my partner and our two cats, Prinze and Ms. Kitty. My cats are my little babies, I love them dearly spending time then, caring for my plants (buying new ones), video games and cooking are my hobbies and favorite past times! I love a lot more I would like to get into but time just doesn't allow I love to learn new things and am always finding myself falling into researching traps where next thing I know 4-5 hours have passed!