Saturday 17 April 1999

Pic of the day: There's no stopping the Glenmoril Witches of Ilessan Hills when they have a ritual to perform. Certainly not a little snow on their skin. Do you risk your very soul, not to mention 200 000 gold and pneumonia, by summoning the Horned One?
(I couldn't resist teasing my American friends, too. You know, this is not exactly an adult site. In fact, it's often unbelievably childish, such as this.)

OK, the first thumbnail calenders are up on my Diary Farm. They take quite a lot of time to load, at least from here. Then again, they are not real thumbnails either, but the actual diary JPGs squeezed into thumbnail size. You may want to start them in a fast browser and go make your self some hot chocolate. :) On the bright side, once they're loaded it should be faster to go to any single day-ary in that month.

Had a visit today from an old pietist friend. (You know, like fundamentalist only without the violence.) He told me, among other things, that God does not allow him to read any single Christian writer for a long time. This makes eminently sense to me: Even the Bible consists of many small books rather than one large. Reading too much of any single person will tend to make you copy that person rather than getting the greater picture. Once when I was young, a penfriend of mine remarked that I was starting to write like St Paul. I trust y'all agree that I don't do that now...

Neither do I think this applies to religion only. I have earlier commented on the fact that people tend to read that which supports their current view. Conservatives will read conservative papers, socialists will read socialist papers. In my humble opinion, this is admitting defeat. In fact, it amounts to admitting that you believe you are probably wrong and prefer to hide your head under the pillow. Feel free to, but in my experience hiding one's head is a quick way to make an ass of oneself.
(Of course, I don't imply that you should take the time to thoroughly research any loony theory. Life is too short for that. But sampling enough alternate views to know what most people are thinking sounds like a worthy pursuit.)

On a slightly related topic, the latest issue of Psychology Today had (among others) an article about former gays who were converted to hetero, more or less, often by christian psychologists. The article was reporting stuff most of the way, but near the end it became quite critical and voiced strong doubts that such a change was possible.

I have of course a couple of thoughts about this, though it may not be my primary area of expertise... Firstly, if people want to become hetero, were they truly gay in the first place? But more importantly, I feel that the magazine fell into a trap in neatly sorting people into two boxes. Unless things have changed recently, the majority of grown-ups have had some kind of sexual experience different from their primary alignment, at the very least dreams or fantasies, but often more than that. This was certainly common enough when I was a teen. The process of self-reinforcement, similar to what I described above, will tend to pull you to one side after a while. But that does not mean that the potential is not there for a different choice later.

For instance, as a (vaguely) hetero guy I don't have any instinctive block against reacting sexually to married women. Instincts just ain't that sensitive. But in practice I do have such a filter, which is saving me a lot of grief probably. I mean, I may see a married woman and recognize that she looks sexy, but that's it. I don't lie awake at night replaying her bouncy breasts and swaying hips and tossing hair and ... well, I guess that's plenty enough of what I don't do.

On an even less related note, perhaps, a comment on Dorothy ("Love, Curiosity, Freckles & Doubt") Web journal of April 16:
"I need a boyfriend. I really do. Aside from Bob, who only lasted about twenty minutes, it's been years. But I'm way too picky. Or so you'd think. Intelligence, integrity, and no creepiness. Is this too much to ask?"
In my humble opinion, yes: Intelligent males are inherently creepy. And I do not base this on myself alone. Take for instance Chris de Burgh. He writes his own melodies and lyrics and sing and play himself, so he gotta be bright. Known for his nice ballads like "Lady in red" and "Missing you". But he's also written stuff like "Spanish train" and "Don't pay the ferryman". Creepy. Of course, most stupid males are creepy too, and lack integrity to boot.