Well, when the old arthritis pains start up, it hard NOT to think about how old we are, Holly. As far as "having friends of all ages and walks of life, we sure don't....but that's us. One thing for sure, we are pretty picky about who we choose as friends.
Don't even think about splitting California into three states. Do you realize what that would do to the senate? Instead of 2 senators they have now, they would get 2 senators from each state giving them 6.
Lol, Sheldon but true. But I also think different parts of California tend to vote slightly differently but I'm not sure. About Fresno... Democrats in Fresno outnumber rival Republicans by more than 20,000 registered voters, but California’s fifth-largest city still can’t shake the perception that it’s a conservative bastion. Now there’s a study, which appears this month in the American Political Science Review. Its conclusion? Fresno, is pretty much middle of the road — at least relatively speaking. When stacked up against 67 other large American cities, it looks pretty conservative. There are only a dozen cities considered more conservative in the study. In California, Fresno is second only to Anaheim in Orange County as most conservative. That said, the study shows that nationwide, liberal big cities are far more common than conservative big cities. And the most liberal cities are far more liberal than the most conservative cities are conservative. Even Houston and Dallas in conservative Texas are considered more liberal than Fresno. According to the Pew Research Center, researchers from MIT and UCLA pooled data from seven large-scale opinion surveys, conducted between 2000 and 2011, to develop measures of public policy preference in 51 cities with populations of more than 250,000. Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/news/polit...l-notebook/article19523367.html#storylink=cpy
Around the time of Obama's second win in the Presidental race ... 2011-12 ... there was AGAIN talk of Texas wanting to become its own Country. In some circles, that has never died down. Austin is the most liberal .... population is young, college town, and Silicon Valley wannabes.
Thank you, everyone, for your confidence and kind words. I am on my Kindle Fire, lying in bed, and have never learned to do anything fancy on a tablet or anything smaller than my MacBook, so I don't know how wordy I will get, using two fingers on this annoying virtual keyboard. But I will try. I'm not perfect, and I can get testy in forum conversations myself sometimes, so I try not to expect more of others than I can deliver myself. When I err, it will probably be in favor of leniency or in taking too long to act. I know that can be frustrating because when someone is annoying you, you want something done about it. In real life, most of us don't call the police immediately when a neighbor annoys us. We put up with it for awhile, hoping he will quit doing whatever it is that annoys us. We might talk to him, realizing that there is always a chance that he doesn't realize that he is being annoying. Finally, we assess whether maybe we're making too much of it. If he doesn't care that he is being annoying, won't stop, and we can't put up with it, then we might consider calling the police if the annoyance might be a violation of a law. Some of us are more easily annoyed than others. I leased an upstairs apartment once. Since I had a whole moving truck full of stuff to bring in, I spent a few hours carrying furniture and boxes upstairs. The next morning, there was a copy of a page from the lease agreement having to do with unnecessary noise tacked to my door, with a phone number on it. I called the number and it was to the property management company. Someone had complained that I was going up and down the stairs all afternoon. How else was I supposed to move in? By helicopter? Anyhow, even when I notice that there is a little tension in a forum thread (and I don't always notice), my inclination is to see if it will pass, or if whoever's involved will be able to work it out for themselves, because that's what most people do in real life, I think. In real life, we sometimes say things in the heat of argument that aren't so nice. If we are reasonable people, we eventually realize that we have been unkind and we apologize, at least if we respect one another. I don't want to live in a world or community where every word is so closely monitored and controlled that I am not given the freedom to make a mistake once in awhile, or the opportunity to correct it myself. That's my goal for this forum. It's imperfect because none of us are perfect, and because we are individuals with varying levels of tolerance. The house on one side of me has been mostly vacant since I've lived here. A few years ago, someone bought it who had a dog. Most people in Millinocket don't have dogs for some reason. This dog barked when the owner was away. It was annoying at first, but after a week or so I barely noticed it, although it was still barking. My neighbor across the street, however, couldn't stand it. Although I have always found him to be a very good neighbor, he threatened to shoot this guy's dog, and ended up calling the police to complain about the noise. I was closer to the dog than he was, but it didn't bother me much. People might be like that in the forum, too, and I might not notice the dog that is annoying the hell out of you. Please don't think that I am being complacent or that I don't care. Maybe the barking simply didn't bother me, and you might have to let me know that it bothered you. The rules here are 1) Don't be too annoying; and 2) Don't be too easily annoyed. Anyhow, this seems to be working fairly well, and you have yourselves to thank for that too. I am glad that you are enjoying it here and hope that nothing happens to change that.
Ken, when moving to an upstairs apartment you are suppose to rent a trampoline and set it up outside the biggest window in your place and then hold as many boxes as you can and jump like heck till you can make it through the window. That way you will only need to carry the large furniture and appliances up the stairs. You'll annoy your new neighbors less that way. As for the neighbor's dog. Its funny about dogs because my husband and I both find dogs barking, traffic going by and other outdoor noises as so much white noise. Doesn't bother us at all. My brother, who lives in our back yard goes nuts with the dogs and coyotes making noise when he's trying to sleep.
That was a pretty long post using a tablet Ken, I try to do most of mine on a laptop as it is much easier using a real keyboard in my opinion, but I do know others often prefer tablets. Your philosophy concerning this forum and life in general seems to be similar to my own, so I guess that is why I feel at home here. I also like the fact that you partake in the forum as a member, which gives it more of a family feel than a school where you are the headmaster. Thanks again Ken for creating an excellent tolerant, compassionate and friendly forum.
Wow..California loves rain. The fight over water between north and south is another issue. Cody, It sounds like you ran into some snarky people in Southern Ca...I'm in northern and we have our share of everything here too...but rude is rude. I hope you don't judge all Californians by that group. shame on them for making us all look bad. I remember that we all can have a bad day but I sure try to leave folks alone if I do . I think people should just treat each other how they want to be treated...and the world would be a better place.
I can tell a good forum, when I am done for the day, I don't feel stressed or depressed. I have a lot of fun. I think "offline" clubs are like that as well, some are a good fit for me, others aren't. It's just life
I agree people here seem to play better together here. I like the kind ambiance..and who needs some of the vitriol that can happen. I am still finding my way around and having a good time.