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Not really? That's an ugly as poo poo cake no matter what the theme of it is. But at least it wasn't the theme of the whole wedding.
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Jul 9, 2012 22:39
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I thought groom cakes were supposed to be silly. Also I doubt your groom was dressed like a fat scruffy leprechaun because green is the color Link wears.
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Jul 9, 2012 23:03
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I cannot believe that Lissadae poo poo was over five years ago. I'm feeling loving old...
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Jul 9, 2012 23:55
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I hung out with some pretty darned nerdy people in high school (including a group of girls who assigned us each our own Sailor Moon character), but apparently have needed to wait a good 10 years after high school to meet the true crazies. I spend time at a place that is considered to be haunted by a good number of people, including some who live there. This reputation for being haunted has drawn some rather interesting individuals from the paranormal community to the space, and after years of somehow spending time around relatively sane people, I am finally getting to experience some real insanity. I hesitated to post these at first, because some of these people would be very very easy to find online, so please, let's not go all internet detective on the Yeti lovers. The Woman Who Believes in Everything My (least?) favorite of the bunch is a woman who we will call Lily. Lily believes in everything paranormal. Everything. You name it, she believes in it. Yeti, aliens, djinn, shadow people, fairies, vampires, werewolves, ghosts, demons, angels, mummies, astral projection, psychic powers, Frank's Boxes, downloaded knowledge, EVPs, auras, moth man, orbs, the magical powers of crystal skulls and a million other things that my mind simply cannot fathom someone actually, truly believing in all at once. Many of her beliefs seem to directly contradict one another. A couple of my friends and I have discussed the possibility that she is punking us all. I sort of hope she is. Once, while having an otherwise normal dinner party, Lily informed everyone at the table that aliens had downloaded huge amounts of knowledge into her brain and that she is slowly deciphering it and learning what it is that the aliens want from her. When asked to elaborate (because that's definitely a conversation starter) she refused to give any details other than that the knowledge probably had something to do with how the aliens will reveal themselves to us and what their plans are in regards to Earth. She made certain to assure us that she has never been abducted, though. You know, in case we were concerned about this. She also tends to get on kicks with certain paranormal creatures or phenomenon, and then, for a time, everything else becomes that target of her obsession. For example, if she is obsessing about fairies, then shadow people, aliens, and yeti are all actually fairies. And so is the moth man. And your neighbor's dog. And so on. I've been present for a couple of sessions with one of her many spirit boxes (http://www.ghost-tech.com/franks.php), and we literally spent 15 minutes scanning radio stations. Of course, there was a "perfectly valid" explanation each time for why we heard absolutely nothing (never, oddly, that the whole thing was just silly), once having to do with a friend of mine who the spirits didn't like having around because he's a stick in the mud about the spirit box. (he's all  and stuff)Every so often, Lily will do podcasts. One particular exchange is burned in my mind for its utter absurdity.  - So I hear you've had some owl experiences. Care to talk about those? - Yes. Owls communicate with me regularly. - How have you been communicated with by the owls? - Well, sometimes they're flying. And sometimes they're in trees.Yes. Of course they are. Because they are loving owls, you crazy broad! That was the entirety of her explanation about her "owl experiences". By this definition, I've had owl experiences and should go fashion myself a tinfoil hat immediately. This is one of the things that gives a couple of my friends and I pause to wonder if perhaps this is all some sort of elaborate performance art - she never actually goes into true detail about anything. My other friends and acquaintances who are really into the paranormal will talk your ear off with their theories, but Lily is remarkably detail-lite in her discussions. A few of us have considered making up a monster or creature of some sort and seeing if she will claim to believe in it, too, but insofar we're all talk. Possible Upcoming Stories: The Paranormal Brothers Everybody's Favorite Warlock I don't find everyone who is into the paranormal to be complete crazies. I've actually made good friends with a girl who is on one of the teams that came to check out the supposedly haunted place I hang out at, but I also felt like her team didn't go over the top, presuming every little noise or dust mote must be a ghost.
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Jul 17, 2012 05:47
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My only Owl Experience was when I was attacked by a wounded owl that my father had brought home when I was about 5.
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Jul 17, 2012 08:04
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It was probably an alien. You have secret alien knowledge in your brain now. Or you're going to turn into a wereowl. Or something.
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Jul 17, 2012 13:39
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HyacinthGirl posted:Wonderfully insane person. Tell her about the SCP institute. http://www.scp-wiki.net/
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Jul 17, 2012 15:39
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I would bet good money that she knows all about the SCP institute. She's pretty deeply into everything even remotely paranormal or conspiracy theory. Next time I see her I'll have a crazy conversation starter! Hooray!
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Jul 17, 2012 16:14
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HyacinthGirl posted:It was probably an alien. You have secret alien knowledge in your brain now. Or you're going to turn into a wereowl. Or something. One can only wonder what this means for the Owl Experience I had: The owl was sitting on a human's gloved hand and, I guess, communicating with her about his home planet.
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Jul 17, 2012 18:41
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I talked to a very nice woman who was obviously distressed and uneasy about having seen a white owl! fly by one night. So I talked cheerfully about how awesome barn owls were. I showed her some pictures and talked about the effects of habitat loss and basically tried to make them real birds for her. She seemed normal, if a bit superstitious, but the kicker was she lied to a sick woman about not seeing the bird, because she wasn't sure the woman had seen it and didn't want to upset her. I don't know if that backfired or not. Yes, if I were very sick, I'd much rather see flitting white shapes no one else saw than be one of two people to see an owl.
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Jul 17, 2012 19:04
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HyacinthGirl posted:Paranormal girl Sounds like a textbook case of Schizotypal personality disorder. Edit: Sorry for quoting whole story ChipNDip fucked around with this message at 23:22 on Jul 17, 2012 |
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Jul 17, 2012 21:33
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ChipNDip posted:Sounds like a textbook case of Schizotypal personality disorder.
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Jul 17, 2012 21:36
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ChipNDip posted:Sounds like a textbook case of Schizotypal personality disorder. On one hand, yes, but what I didn't mention about Lily (but planned to in my next story) is that she is remarkably personable and popular and somehow manages to come off as completely rational at first. As far as I can tell she is not at all suffering from social anxiety. Though I know that's not necessarily part of Schizotypal, it seems to feature in the descriptions.
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Jul 17, 2012 21:49
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Do owls have some deep symbolic meaning I don't get or is this just: crazy people?
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Jul 17, 2012 22:03
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Rose Wreck posted:She seemed normal, if a bit superstitious, but the kicker was she lied to a sick woman about not seeing the bird, because she wasn't sure the woman had seen it and didn't want to upset her. I don't know if that backfired or not. Yes, if I were very sick, I'd much rather see flitting white shapes no one else saw than be one of two people to see an owl. In English, Apache, and other cultures, there is a widespread folk belief that owls signify impending death. I'm not saying it was right for her to lie, but it's probably easier to convince a superstitious person that they didn't see an owl, than to change a belief they've held all their life. I have a much older friend who has spent thousands of dollars trying to become a naturopathic "doctor." We've had some heated discussions about biofeedback, homeopathy and the like. Last time we spoke, she was trying to cure a cancerous tumor on her face with one of these.
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Jul 17, 2012 22:15
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Antivehicular posted:This is completely magical. The fact that I'm picturing it in my head as the little GOTTA GO FAST crayon-Sonic-blob only makes it better. I kind of want this drawing, honestly. I'm imagining it ending up like this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WF9CS3L_ezw
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Jul 18, 2012 00:07
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Baronjutter posted:Do owls have some deep symbolic meaning I don't get or is this just: crazy people? The owls are not what they seem. But otherwise no, I don't think so. Unless you're some uber superstitious wiccan.
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Jul 18, 2012 16:56
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RoeCocoa posted:In English, Apache, and other cultures, there is a widespread folk belief that owls signify impending death. I'm not saying it was right for her to lie, but it's probably easier to convince a superstitious person that they didn't see an owl, than to change a belief they've held all their life. That makes a little more sense. I've just heard they were supposed to be messengers from the Underworld. Also, actually cancerous tumor, or precancerous? One of those has at least a longer time limit for her to quit messing around and get it taken care of.
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Jul 18, 2012 17:55
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Rose Wreck posted:That makes a little more sense. I've just heard they were supposed to be messengers from the Underworld. They are in some cultures (can't think of specific ones and sadly my copy of the Dictionary of Symbolism my Illustration professor made me memorize years and years ago is inaccessible). Basically, you can't be a large-eyed, silently-moving, meat-eating, weird-noise-making nocturnal flyer with a vaguely humanlike face and expect humans to not think weird things about you. Rahonavis fucked around with this message at 19:29 on Jul 19, 2012 |
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Jul 18, 2012 18:04
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Yeah basically it's no surprised that people in the past saw stuff like this and thought owls had to have something mystical about them:
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Jul 18, 2012 18:11
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Rahonavis posted:Basically, you can't be a large-eyed, silently-moving, meat-eating, weird-noise-making nocturnal flyer with a vaguely humanlike face and expect humans to not think weird things about you. So what you're saying is, people keep shooting at my midnight hang-gliding carolling trips because I'm not vegan? I guess the part that throws me is that people can't possibly die every time you see an owl if you live in the woods (or, with barn owls, on a farm.)
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Jul 18, 2012 18:17
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Install Gentoo posted:Yeah basically it's no surprised that people in the past saw stuff like this and thought owls had to have something mystical about them: FYI, that interesting head movement that is so typical of owls is just the owl attempting to get a precise fix on an object in space. They are not able to move their eyeballs the way many animals do. They are fixed in the sockets, so they have to move their whole head. The combination of the motion and the "stare" is what we find eerie. Also, their ears are not exactly symmetrical; one is a bit higher on the head than the other. This permits location of sounds in 3D space, not just left or right, but also up and down. When flying, vertical precision is important if your prey happens to be in a tree.
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Jul 18, 2012 18:59
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Rose Wreck posted:Also, actually cancerous tumor, or precancerous? One of those has at least a longer time limit for her to quit messing around and get it taken care of. Lisa wasn't too clear on that, but she's had the tumor for more than a year. At least she's started taking advice from a real doctor in addition to her own remedies. She had a very bad experience with a hospital many years ago, so it's hard to convince her to give modern medicine a fair shake. I don't see her very often anymore, but when I do, I encourage her to do what the doctor tells her. I haven't talked about Lisa in this thread until now because she is not an obnoxious, media-imitating shut-in. She's sweet and generous, has dealt with a lot of hardship in her life (very little of it self-inflicted), and exhibits a deep and genuine love for other people. She's also needy, irrational, and a bit of a hypochondriac. She is allergic to electricity. When she needs to use a computer or telephone, she wears gloves and stands as far away from the machine as possible. Cell phone radiation bothers her, even if the phone is turned off, but only if she knows you have a phone with you-- her explanation for this is that some phones have better shielding than others. She avoids going inside newer buildings because there is just TOO MUCH ELECTRICITY in them. When she's out and about, she wears a bag of saline solution on her head for protection. She self-identifies as a conservative Christian, and is very wary of anything remotely un-Christian, but she talks about health in terms of qi and chakras. There's this weird disconnect where if something is couched in scientific-sounding terms (biofeedback, zero-point energy, etc.), she doesn't care if it's based on sympathetic magic or Pagan philosophy. She believes in the goodness of all plants (except marijuana, which is literally demonic), and is quick to offer homeopathic herbal remedies for all ailments. I was ambivalent about this at first, since she doesn't charge for her snakeoil, and she avoids funding other quacks by gathering her own herbs in the wild. Then she did this to me a couple of times:  Look at this plant I just picked. I'm not sure what it is, but I'll bet it's medicinal. Here, hold this while I look it up. Okay. Hmm... um... you should probably put that down and wash your hands right now.The trouble is, a few of her remedies work just often enough to convince her that they all work all the time. She has this one topical formula for poison oak that is very effective... on some people... if applied immediately... and it's totally because it's infused with a special blend of herbs, not because it's mostly alcohol. She points to things like this as a rationale for treating her EYE CANCER with crystal energy and tincture of polk berries. I once did some computer work for her at an agreed-upon hourly rate. At the end of the day, she tried to pay me in turnips.
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Jul 18, 2012 21:21
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^^^ I have heard about that electricity thing before. Also does she have the bag of saline under a hat, or just kinda sittin' there on her head all the time?Rose Wreck posted:I guess the part that throws me is that people can't possibly die every time you see an owl if you live in the woods (or, with barn owls, on a farm.) It's also retarded to think that one twelfth of the entire population will have the same daily experiences as you because you were born with the same star sign. But no one thinks logically about that stuff because that's no fun.
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Jul 18, 2012 22:51
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RoeCocoa posted:She believes in the goodness of all plants (except marijuana, which is literally demonic), and is quick to offer homeopathic herbal remedies for all ailments. I was ambivalent about this at first, since she doesn't charge for her snakeoil, and she avoids funding other quacks by gathering her own herbs in the wild. Then she did this to me a couple of times: If she ever offers you a mushroom of any kind, for God's sake don't eat it. Fake edit: Yes, I know mushrooms are not plants. That's not the point.
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Jul 19, 2012 03:42
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RalAegidius posted:FYI, that interesting head movement that is so typical of owls is just the owl attempting to get a precise fix on an object in space. They are not able to move their eyeballs the way many animals do. They are fixed in the sockets, so they have to move their whole head. The combination of the motion and the "stare" is what we find eerie. The fact that they can spin their head all the way around is part of it too I think, and their call is also very eerie and you mostly hear it at night. Owls rule.
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Jul 19, 2012 04:06
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Earwicker posted:Owls rule. Another thing about owls is if you are walking around after dark and one decides to check you out, it will just go floating over you completely silent... when a big white owl with a four foot wingspan does that a couple times it is pretty spooky. (And awesome.) As for whether "signs" like seeing owls actually predict anything, its easy to get caught by confirmation bias, which is only paying attention to confirming cases and ignoring or failing to notice contrary evidence. So, if you see an owl and nobody dies, it doesn't take long to forget that you saw an owl, whereas if grandma dies the next day, or month, or year, or your dog, or some random guy three towns over, and you remember you saw an owl, that becomes a confirming example of the "phenomenon". It is really hard to convince people otherwise, especially when they have an experience like that.
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Jul 19, 2012 07:33
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Corridor posted:^^^ I have heard about that electricity thing before. Also does she have the bag of saline under a hat, or just kinda sittin' there on her head all the time?
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Jul 19, 2012 08:21
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Base Emitter posted:As for whether "signs" like seeing owls actually predict anything, its easy to get caught by confirmation bias, which is only paying attention to confirming cases and ignoring or failing to notice contrary evidence. So, if you see an owl and nobody dies, it doesn't take long to forget that you saw an owl, whereas if grandma dies the next day, or month, or year, or your dog, or some random guy three towns over, and you remember you saw an owl, that becomes a confirming example of the "phenomenon". It is really hard to convince people otherwise, especially when they have an experience like that. There's also that people who are superstitious about owls will have some ritual or whatever that they'll do after seeing one which will "protect" them from consequences. Really, this holds for any superstition that "if you see x thing happen you or someone you know is gonna die", there's always some "magic" amulet or ritual or whatever that you can do to "block" the bad thing. Even though it really wasn't going to mean someone would die anyway.
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Jul 19, 2012 15:43
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Apparently, the UFO crazies also believe that owls are related to alien abductions: if you have a memory of owls staring at you from outside your window, it means you actually got abducted and the aliens made you think it was just owls (because apparently they are good enough at altering memories to do that, but not to make you forget completely.) All I know is, if I ever meet a UFO conspiracy guy, I'm totally telling them about the time there was an awesome barn owl outside my house when I was five.
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Jul 19, 2012 16:22
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I found a screech owl feather the other night and brought it home but I'm confused now, should I be watching out for MiB or Ghostbusters?
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Jul 19, 2012 16:52
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I think the cops, keeping raptor feathers is illegal. I'd be surprised if you got in trouble for a screech owl feather, but I'm pretty sure they're covered. [e] Yeah cops is hyperbolic but getting fined by wardens sucks.
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Jul 19, 2012 17:00
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Countdown to fish and wildlife services kicking in my apartment door - as they drag me flailing and screaming down the stairs, I'll catch a glimpse of the owl sitting in the tree outside my window. Watching. That fucker.
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Jul 19, 2012 17:06
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Watching. Giggling. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3wNuEcbHag [e: if it is not clear from context, WS screech owl. Giggling.] If only you'd done drugs instead. Rose Wreck fucked around with this message at 17:24 on Jul 19, 2012 |
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Jul 19, 2012 17:17
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Corridor posted:I have heard about that electricity thing before. Also does she have the bag of saline under a hat, or just kinda sittin' there on her head all the time? She wears soft, oversized hats that would actually look good on her, if they weren't so lumpy. I once asked her why salt water would shield her from electricity when it's actually a great electrical conductor. She said, "I don't know, it just helps me." Maybe she just likes having something cold on her head? In my less charitable moments, I've thought about trying to sell her on the merits of the aluminum foil deflector beanie.
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Jul 19, 2012 18:16
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Voltin Bolt posted:Countdown to fish and wildlife services kicking in my apartment door - as they drag me flailing and screaming down the stairs, I'll catch a glimpse of the owl sitting in the tree outside my window. Watching. That fucker. You can always just say it's bound to an owl spirit that is your familiar, so it is a key to the free exercise of your religious beliefs and therefore protected by the First Amendment.
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Jul 19, 2012 19:20
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Rose Wreck posted:So what you're saying is, people keep shooting at my midnight hang-gliding carolling trips because I'm not vegan? Fun Fact: Humans think weird things about animals that eat other animals. Yes, even though we eat meat too. We're kind of dumb like that. I shall use this next time somebody whose knowledge of avian life extends the length of the KFC menu and no further tries to argue that feathered dinosaurs aren't scary. Jesus, HEADS SHOULD NOT BE ABLE TO MOVE THAT WAY!?!  Only problem of this image is that it is silent. Barn Owls like to frighten enemies away not just by suddenly appearing freakish but also making the sound you'd expect to hear right before you die. RoeCocoa posted:She is allergic to electricity. When she needs to use a computer or telephone, she wears gloves and stands as far away from the machine as possible. Cell phone radiation bothers her, even if the phone is turned off, but only if she knows you have a phone with you-- her explanation for this is that some phones have better shielding than others. She avoids going inside newer buildings because there is just TOO MUCH ELECTRICITY in them. When she's out and about, she wears a bag of saline solution on her head for protection. Emphasis mine because... what? Has she explained how that works, even?
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Jul 19, 2012 19:31
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Rahonavis posted:Fun Fact: Humans think weird things about animals that eat other animals. Yes, even though we eat meat too. We're kind of dumb like that... I joke, not mock. I get it, but even though nature tries to kill me a lot I don't get it when people are freaked out by it. To me they just look like freaked-out fluffy juveniles swinging their heads side to side on long necks. I love the far right one, trying to look menacing and clued-in while being clumsy as hell. Watch out, he'll plop over on his side at you!
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Jul 19, 2012 22:03
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RoeCocoa posted:She wears soft, oversized hats that would actually look good on her, if they weren't so lumpy. There's not much point in making reasonable sense of someone's actions once they reach that point beyond it being a conditioned response of some kind. It might as well be a security blanket or a teddy bear.
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Jul 19, 2012 22:04
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Wrong thread. Sorry!
Pan Dulce fucked around with this message at 22:36 on Jul 19, 2012 |
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Jul 19, 2012 22:27
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