birdingnut's Profile

What do you do for a living?

birdingnut comments on Mar 8, 2018:

Yes, I like what I do at the moment; teaching English as a Second Language. Travel the world doing bird photography, writing books. I'm actually doing that right now.

Have you ever pissed off your neighbors from being too loud?

birdingnut comments on Mar 8, 2018:

A year ago, some new Thai tenant in the apartment next to mine complained to the apartment building management that I was disturbing the peace. I asked how, and he said my door hinges were making too much noise in the morning when I left for work. The tenant moved a couple of months later, but it's rare that Thai people complain about anything. Since we're so close to the Malaysia border, he could have been influenced by that culture.

Why is it there are so few "awake" and agnostic gay or open minded men near me?

birdingnut comments on Mar 8, 2018:

Sorry about that. I don't get why gay people would continue to believe in a religion that condemns them to hell. White evangelical Christianity and being LGBTQ seem mutually exclusive, to me.

IDK

birdingnut comments on Mar 8, 2018:

LOL!

Mrs. Betty Bowers, America's Best Christian

birdingnut comments on Mar 8, 2018:

LOL!

The Lovely Comments Republican Atheists Receives from Left Leaning Atheists - YouTube

birdingnut comments on Mar 8, 2018:

Sheesh. I agree with the comments she was reading. It IS an oxymoron.

Something that’s always kinda bugged me is when I was talking to a suicidal friend of mine who was...

birdingnut comments on Mar 8, 2018:

They are driven by fear, thinking you will burn in hell. Sad to claim a god who would burn and torture people for eternity "loves" everyone.

An odd experience

birdingnut comments on Mar 8, 2018:

Hmm..or you have extraordinary control of your sensory perceptions. Growing up I would mentally slow down speeding objects, such as baseballs, tennis balls, or ping pong balls to see their spin, and how to hit and return them. I would imagine the basketball hoop being huge, so it was easy to sink a shot from anywhere. Later, I read that being able to "slow perceived time" was common in professional athletes.

Do you cry when you have to put your suffering pet to sleep.

birdingnut comments on Mar 8, 2018:

Yup. I cry for weeks after I lose a pet to old age sometimes. I still tear up whenever I think about my long gone pets. Pic: Toy Fox Terrier and rescue Jack Russell Terrier, my kids on their horses, and me on Whistle- horses died of old age.

Who are your people?

birdingnut comments on Mar 8, 2018:

Third Culture Kids, musicians, writers, agnostics, horse and mule lovers, book lovers, dancers, travelers, nonbinary and trans people, highly creative/high IQ people, people who have lived in Haiti, Mexico, or Thailand.

What are your hobbies?

birdingnut comments on Mar 8, 2018:

Beautiful! My hobbies: bird and wildlife photography, writing, art, designing and sewing my own clothes, hiking, swimming, building new invention prototypes, training gaited horses for trail riding, casual jumping, and driving, traveling, jamming with other musicians, reading, ballroom/jitterubg dancing Pic: me jumping a log during a trail ride with my TN Walking Horse, Banjo, near Soldier, KY

I was offered a BIBLE !

birdingnut comments on Mar 8, 2018:

How about, "No thank you. I'm an atheist." You'd do the same if someone offered you a Hindu holy book or the Koran.

GOD vs. Happiness

birdingnut comments on Mar 8, 2018:

Having god in their lives doesn't make Christians happy. They just obediently say that, in hopes they make to heaven and don't burn in imaginary hell. If you think your "loving god" might burn and torture your family and friends for eternity, how happy could you be?

A little light reading

birdingnut comments on Mar 8, 2018:

??? Why would I want to read about it, or debate it? Do you read Easter Bunny books and have arguments over them. Or Hindu books? Or the Torah? I don't really care what people believe as long as they allow me to do the same.

How are you handling your Facebook page?

birdingnut comments on Mar 8, 2018:

Yup. Loudly, and often. I doubt my family reads my posts, or would care if they did. I already defriended most of my childhood Christian friends, and the one's left never post anything so I assume they have "unfollowed" me to avoid my snarky political comments, and links to negative Trump coverage..

What countries would euthanize someone who is perhaps dying of a terminal illness besides Holland?

birdingnut comments on Mar 8, 2018:

The general fear is that family members, tired of paying nursing home costs, will pressure "grandma" to ask to be euthanized. They could use guilt, fear, bribes, anything to get rid of people they don't want. On the other hand, people are afraid of shutting the door to euthanization, in case they themselves want to die in peace. My own parents took care of it themselves, the same way Native Americans did. They grew tired of me talking into extending their lives, using guilt like, "You can't die now; you don't want to ruin Christmas holidays for Mom" or "If you get well first, Mom, you can die next year." My mom was suspicious, but she made me promise, before recovering from what was supposed to be a fatal heart attack. The next year, on the day, she hosted my daughter's birthday dinner, then reminded me of my promise. I laughed, thinking it was a joke, but my ex and I left on an overnight business trip, and she died that night..probably rushed to die before I could talk her out of it. After she died, and my dad was put into nursing care, once my dad understood what had happened, he refused food and water until he died also. Afterward, I felt guilty I'd kept them living past their desired expiration point.

Do any of your family members have silly superstitions?

birdingnut comments on Mar 8, 2018:

Nope. My siblings, and wealthy relatives on my mom's side are mostly liberal, non-practicing United Methodists. I have some religious conservative cousins on my dad's side, but I mostly avoid them. None of them are superstitious in the "knock on wood" sense and most of them consider ME the wild eyed eccentric for going to Thailand and wasting my time photographing birds.

LOL .... sobs

birdingnut comments on Mar 8, 2018:

LOL!

Dawkins or Hitchens?

birdingnut comments on Mar 7, 2018:

What do I care what people say about god's existance? There's no point in reading about, or discussing, some imaginary construct, except those in movie plots and literature.

What is a (harmless) silly childhood prank you remember doing?

birdingnut comments on Mar 7, 2018:

This is a pic of me at 14 yrs old, with my Haitian mustang, Lightning. I seldom used a bridle or saddle, and I used to ride him to rope half grown feral European boars in our mission corn.

OMG!!! Who else is super proud and thinks it's super cute that a U.

birdingnut comments on Mar 7, 2018:

LOL! Especially sweet after I was attacked by the Religious Right on an MK (missionary kid) Facebook page a couple of months ago. One woman declared Trump to be a good Christian family man and that if it was ever proven that Trump "committed adultery" then she'd renounce him. Pointing out the many sexual assault accusations did no good, since she declared it all "fake news!"

How important is sexual chemistry in a relationship?

birdingnut comments on Mar 7, 2018:

Somewhat. I'm demisexual, so sexual chemistry was never behind a relationship, but an excuse to hang with a jolly male "pal," since that's the only socially acceptable reason for opposite genders to live, and do things together.

When did you KNOW you were agnostic or atheist?

birdingnut comments on Mar 7, 2018:

It was a process, accelerated by the Religious Right attacking President Obama, and childhood missionary kid (MK) friends flooding my Facebook page with hate memes against minorities, LGBTQ people, etc. The 2016 election was the final straw, when I ditched the entire religion business, stopped even being neutral about it. Also, that was about when I first read the Sumerian texts, written 2000 years before the Bible, and obviously what the Bible writers (badly) copied. I felt total relief after reading the texts, preferring being genetically engineered (as is alleged by the texts) by aliens than being created by the Hebrew god. But most of all, I was glad to dump the whole Bible concept since it was so disturbingly evil.

Humor

birdingnut comments on Mar 7, 2018:

Yes.

Atheist that admire Churches and other religious architecture?

birdingnut comments on Mar 7, 2018:

I love to take photos of mosques here in Thailand, but especially the glittering Buddhist temples, statues, etc. Photos: is my daughter and I posing by the 99-foot reclining Buddha at Ko Yo Island, near Songkhla, Thailand, a Buddhist temple at a school where I was teaching, a Guardian Naga at a temple near Samila Beach, me at a Buddhist temple in Nakhon, Thailand.

If you could teach everyone in the world one concept, what concept would have the biggest positive ...

birdingnut comments on Mar 7, 2018:

That we are all made of energy, which is all connected, and that everything we do affects the rest of the universe. Even the Bible Jesus allegedly says that anything we do to one person, is doing it to all people, and that we are all one.

Life on other planets: if life on other planets is found--especially if that life is more advanced ...

birdingnut comments on Mar 7, 2018:

The church survived such startling revelations as finding out the earth wasn't the center of the solar system, and that our solar system system is only one part of the Milky Way, etc. Religious leaders just change their story to accommodate the new information, once they can't refute it. Their main goal is to continue to control their worshipers in order to gain money and power. But Christians are Christians because they are afraid of burning in hell. Fear and guilt are the motivators of "faith," which is why people continue to attend Catholic churches, for instance, despite rampant priesthood pedeophilia.

If "the meaning of life is to make life meaningful," how are you making your life meaningful today?

birdingnut comments on Mar 7, 2018:

I thought the meaning of life was to be happy..within yourself.

Has anyone ever had an encounter with a celebrity?

birdingnut comments on Mar 7, 2018:

Yes. I've been an extra in two major movies; "Secretariat," and "Seabiscuit, " so got to hang with the stars, although I didn't talk to them. I was in scenes near them though, as part of the crowd background, and John Malchovich flirted with my daughter, who was also an extra in Secretariat. Growing up in Haiti, I was sort of a star myself. I sang on the radio with my siblings live on air for music request programs, played instruments, sang in three different languages, made island tours, cut two records-one when I was 15 yrs old, in 1967, and one in 1970. One the singles from the second record, recorded in Spanish, was a top hit for three months on the top pop Port-au-Prince radio station. Also, since I moved to Thailand in 2010 to teach, almost two years ago I acted in a Thai pop hit music video, so Thai people recognized me in the streets and yelled my lines to me. The photo is from the record cover in 1968. I'm the one holding my Hispaniola Amazon parrot, from Haiti, which I had hand raised from a chick.

Are you a night owl, a morning person, or both?

birdingnut comments on Mar 7, 2018:

I'm up before dawn, full of energy, and I don't drink coffee. Or eat meat or processed food, so that's probably why.

Where do you stand on education in Liberal Arts?

birdingnut comments on Mar 7, 2018:

I think education should be free, and self-directed. Any textbook can be found for free online and most top universities give free online classes and degrees anyway.

I became a "sole family survivor" at the young age of 45.

birdingnut comments on Mar 7, 2018:

No cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. either? My parents passed away in 2008, but I'm 65.

Is he just not into me?

birdingnut comments on Mar 7, 2018:

I like the advice in the book, The Rules, given especially for women with strong male traits, who tend to chase after men, can act needy on dates, and who typically worry about what men think of them, etc. Your job is let the men be the ones who worry. Let men be the predators; you only react to the ones chasing YOU. Otherwise, it's "Next!"

Hi Carlos and I'm new on here and I'm 22 years old.

birdingnut comments on Mar 7, 2018:

Hi!

Could you be with someone that is sort of religious, let’s say an apologist?

birdingnut comments on Mar 7, 2018:

No.

Am I crazy for wanting to take a relationship super slow and let it become something wonderful ...

birdingnut comments on Mar 7, 2018:

I don't think "hook ups" qualify as proper "dates," but I suppose some people think so. Most women I know are in no hurry to rush to sex and committment, since courtship is the fun part of a relationship.

How close are you to your animal protien?

birdingnut comments on Mar 6, 2018:

Interesting. The only animal meat I eat is ocean cold water fish, for the Omega-3 oil, but if someone eats meat, raising your own would at least avoid factory farms, cruelty, GMOs, pesticides, drugs, and hormone additives. Still, despite my realization that people do eat meat, and despite my own having to eat fish for my health, I would never date anyone who actually enjoyed hunting, fishing, or who raised animals to slaughter.

Do you learn your lesson better the hard way or if someone tells you it's a bad idea?

birdingnut comments on Mar 6, 2018:

I've found that not only do I not learn from the advice of others, but I don't learn from experience. It makes no difference what happened in the past, I'm still going to be who I am, so instead, I try to take my inclinations into consideration and try to at least mitigate the result. Example: I could lecture myself all day about taking life seriously and staying in a conventional indoor job, but I know that only makes me unhappy and restless, so why go there?

Do you find giving advice to someone who disregards it, is a waste of time.

birdingnut comments on Mar 6, 2018:

Why do you care? It's always best to mind one's own business, unless asked, then just give your advice and move on. No time to worry about others if you are busy with your own life and love interests.

Do you own any exercise equipment or props?

birdingnut comments on Mar 6, 2018:

Yes; I use my own 2010 invention, a "gallopers" device which gives me "the four-footed advantage," allowing me to lope for hours uphill and down on steep stony or treacherous trails, without slipping or even tiring, at about the speed of a slow jog. I can also move very fast, such as when playing "galloper ball" soccer with my friends. Oddly, using them for even a few seconds, as when friends grab the gallopers and make a run across the courtyard, causes people to wake up with hardened ab muscles, and muscled shoulders. It also slims the waist, develops back muscles and makes the entire body so limber that when I use them only a few minutes I can stand there with my palms flat on the floor, without pain. It also puts weight on a pressure point that gives one a sense of euphoria and peacefulness, which might be why my friends become hostile about returning the gallopers to me after briefly using them. Because people get so angry about it, I now don't allow people to borrow them, although I've made extra pairs for my ex and a close friend, so we could zip around the hills together. But I didn't give the gallopers to them, since that would be considered "disclosure," and could cancel future patenting rights. While using them, the sensation is as though one is in an "avatar" animal body, since I can effortless bound and leap over ditches like a deer. It feels like my primative "lizard brain" is awakened, and I "remember" being four-footed, finally "coming home." The animals and birds see me as a deer as well, allowing me to approach closely. Once, a pack of feral wild dogs started hunting me while I was loping through a Thailand jungle area, circling out around me to cut me off. I had to stop, and hold the gallopers away from me to convince them I was human.

Well, friends, I had a very scary experience the other day, and I wanted to share just in case ...

birdingnut comments on Mar 6, 2018:

Eeek! I'll tape my camera right now!

Preferences in dating

birdingnut comments on Mar 6, 2018:

I am open to dating someone of any gender, gender variation, any sexual orientation except for gay males, since they are typically only attracted to cis males, but not race or age. I am panromantic, so can fall in love with anyone and anything, but for a possible life partner, age differences can be a problem because of lack of shared memories of past decades. I not only limit my dating to Caucasians, but to Americans, or (possibly) Australians, of my social class, education level, and economic background. There are too many ethnic people of both genders who pursue me in order to get green cards, or improve their social status, etc., and most, if not all, other cultures are patriarchal. Even with white Americans, I avoid blue collar types who are typically also patriarchal, no matter what they claim to the contrary.

A Cooper's hawk I encountered on my way home from work, tonight.

birdingnut comments on Mar 6, 2018:

A juvenile Cooper! Nice.

Being on this site has given me a lot of food for thought in particular about dating.

birdingnut comments on Mar 6, 2018:

I don't think it's likely I'd find someone for me on this site, but at least it's somewhat possible. If nothing else, it gives me relief from alt-right attacks and condemning Scriptures whenever I mention LGBTQ issues or science.

My shadow

birdingnut comments on Mar 6, 2018:

For a moment I thought it was a min pin with a big shadow!

If we are all supposedly created in God's image, wouldn't that mean God is everyone, every race, ...

birdingnut comments on Mar 6, 2018:

If there were a god, that would be the case. And in the case of aliens, god would be unlimited in shapes.

A chilly killdeer at the soccer field near where I live.

birdingnut comments on Mar 6, 2018:

Nice! I've helped chicks before that were too tiny to climb the curb to follow their mom..so DARLIN'.

How'd "just being yourself" work out for you?

birdingnut comments on Mar 5, 2018:

When I stopped trying to copy females and just accepted that I'm a partial transmale I felt much better. Not that I would have changed anything about my behavior, or even could, but at least I stopped consciously trying to do so, whenever it occurred to me.

Would you date someone who was overweight?

birdingnut comments on Mar 5, 2018:

No, flabby, overweight bodies don't attract me in the least.

List the 5 activities that energize you the most. How can you spend more time with them?

birdingnut comments on Mar 5, 2018:

Energizing: Being out in nature, doing extreme bird photography, reading, dancing, jamming with fellow musicians, art, working with horses. Draining: Being too long around people, entertaining people at my home, shopping

If someone made a movie about your life, who would you want to play you and why?

birdingnut comments on Mar 5, 2018:

Hmm..some slender, athletic person who can ride horses without bridles or saddles.

Any asexuals out there?

birdingnut comments on Mar 5, 2018:

LOL! You are so right. I used to belong to an asexual dating forum, and people would go weeks, even months between posts, most threads running for over a year, with few responses, and nobody ever seemed to get together with anyone. I concluded that sexual attraction drives most courtship. For instance, I'm demisexual, with a very high libido, but not for a particular person or gender. Since I can only be attracted to one person at a time, and only after over a year of courtship, I have little motivation to seek out or respond to people seeking mates. That's why I joined this website, which seems to be as much, or more, for conversation as dating. It's highly unlikely I'd find someone my age and interests who lives near me on this small website, but there's always a chance, so I gave it a go.

Who on here has experienced age discrimination during the interview or job application process?

birdingnut comments on Mar 5, 2018:

Yup. Here in Thailand several schools made me teach a sample class, fill out forms, etc, then after wasting my time all day, would tell me I'm too old, so I began putting my age first on my resumes to eliminate these time wasters. Most Thai schools pay foreign teachers the same salary, so I began choosing small, remote beach side temple schools with small classes, and plenty of wild birds to photograph.

What word(s) do you never want to apply to you?

birdingnut comments on Mar 5, 2018:

Conventional.

Why?

birdingnut comments on Mar 5, 2018:

I got tired of being attacked by the alt-right on an MK (missionary kid) Facebook page I recently joined.

Does where you live have any regional peculiarities that confuse visitors?

birdingnut comments on Mar 5, 2018:

Here in Thailand, people have distinct names for small localities, intersections, etc. like they do in Haiti, instead of using the western custom of naming streets and cardinal directions. That's because, as in Haiti, roads don't run north/south, some roads spiral, and even in Songkhla, intersections can have five or more streets crossing each other. Luckily, most Thai are good at describing how to get somewhere using their hands to illustrate where you should go; I.e. go straight (they point their hand in the correct direction), curve to the left at the intersection (they swoop their hand to the left, while bending their fingers backwards, to indicate the curve) and it's on the right, on the corner (indicating a right hand bend with their hand). They also tell me the names of the local areas, but I ignore this, since I'm usually not familiar with them.

Equal pay!

birdingnut comments on Mar 5, 2018:

If women in competitions were allowed to take testosterone, then the sets could be equal, unless men want to compete against women in delicate hand-eye coordination competitions.

Food security.

birdingnut comments on Mar 5, 2018:

I think growing food locally, or even personally, is the answer. Urban Farming: How City Restaurants Can Get the Freshest Local Produce - https://goo.gl/xfR4jB Ikea just launched a DIY flat-pack indoor garden that can feed a whole lot of people at once http://read.bi/2lq6ZV4 via @businessinsider This incredible vertical farm skyscraper could feed an entire town http://www.businessinsider.com/mashambas-vertical-farm-skyscraper-evolo-competition-2017-4

Are you able to recognize your own accent when someone else speaks it, or do you swear you and your ...

birdingnut comments on Mar 5, 2018:

I am unaware when I have an accent, but American friends tell me I do, after I've been working alongside someone from New Zealand for months here in Thailand, or after traveling in Australia.

I wanna hold your hand

birdingnut comments on Mar 5, 2018:

But of course that's so..bio feedback can even allow patients to regulate their blood pressure, heart rates, and improve medical conditions. The "placebo effect" has already proven that people can heal themselves. It amazes me that so many people on this forum don't seem to realize that matter is another form of energy..declaring that only what we can touch is "real," yet they use electricity, wi-fi, and know there's software that can work devices from thought only.

Hypocritical Christian Bastards (in a nice way, of course)

birdingnut comments on Mar 5, 2018:

I posted this meme on my own Facebook page today, before I saw this one.

Why?

birdingnut comments on Mar 5, 2018:

I had recently joined an MK (missionary kid) Facebook page and was tired of religious attacks every time I posted something about science or the LGBTQ community. A University of Morehead collegue posted a link to agnostic.com on my Facebook page, so I tried it, as I was tired of dealing with the alt-right. The religious attacks stopped, but I was sometimes attacked by people here who disagreed with anything with which they weren't familiar, such as gender identity/trait spectrums, apparently believing in the gender binary almost as much as religious zealots do. I've also been attacked for mentioning energy fields; for some reason, some people here don't think matter is the same as energy and that if they can't touch or hold something, it doesn't exist, despite their using electricity and wi-fi, and despite the existence of software that can control devices with brain waves, continue to declare ESP nonsense. Apparently, being an atheist doesn't automatically make someone open minded or intelligent in all areas, although I noticed an overall improvement from other venues in education levels.

If you were given the option to direct your own TV show, what would it be about?

birdingnut comments on Mar 5, 2018:

I'd do a series on white, Mexican, and black children abducted and adopted by Native American tribes during the 1800s. I have books on the subject showing that if these children weren't returned to their families within six months, it was too late. By then most had forgotten English and fought against being returned. By then, most were already bonded to their new Indian families and had acquired supernatural powers taken for granted in their tribes such as controlling horses with their minds, acquiring spirit guides such as hawks, that acted as eyes in the sky to show them the location of wild game, or to warn them of danger. They could control the weather, heal animals and humans at a distance, and this happened even with adult American soldier captives. Hmm..now that I think of it, this series wouldn't work unless it was billed as fantasy fiction, since most Americans don't even realize these things happen in other cultures, don't consider that matter and energy are the same thing, and don't believe in anything they can't touch. The ones who do believe in supernatural things are usually "Christians," who would consider such ideas "blasphemy."

Why did the secular ambitions of the early United States fail? | Aeon Essays

birdingnut comments on Mar 5, 2018:

Religion..the bane of freedom. Another book besides the Bible found in most 19th century American and British homes was Anna Sewell's Black Beauty. Before the book, domestic animals like horses were routinely worked to death, seldom named, disposable. Cruel and ignorant people could own and work these animals with no consequences. Kind of how factory farm animals are treated and thought about today. By creating a horse character that tells its side of the story, Anna Sewell created a new idea..that animals like horses have feelings and rights also, and can be treated like beloved pets. Laws began to be passed to protect them as public sentiment changed.

A while back I posted the following on a Christian message board.

birdingnut comments on Mar 5, 2018:

Growing up in Haiti, with most people involved in voodoo, I definitely saw "demons" or whatever it was; people suddenly going berserk, where some little girl would sling three adult men across the room, sometimes we'd hear something banging inside a closet, footsteps running up and down the hall, the sound of rocks hitting the roof, animals falling dead suddenly the moment someone "cast a demon" out of someone, things floating in the air, articles disappearing and reappearing later in very weird places, something waking both me and my friends up in the night, choking us, etc. Whenever these things occurred, we'd use the "name of Jesus" to command them to go, or to stop the manifestation, and it instantly would. Later, when some of these things started to occur in the US, I'd had enough..I simply told any bad stuff to stop happening, and it would..no religion involved. I also noticed that these bad things mostly happened with people who believed in them; I.e., I seldom saw them happen with atheists, except for once in 1968, at Union School, the Port-au-Prince, Haiti, diplomat children's school, and there were several people present who believed in spirits, so could have been the ones subconsciously manifesting the weird happenings. Since we are matter, which is energy, and we are involved creating our own realities, I suppose we are the ones doing it, except that alleged secret government whistle blowers like Simon Parkes say that "demons" are energy beings that exist simultaneously in both our 3rd dimension, and the 4rth dimension, which is why they can sometimes be seen, even photographed, but usually seem to turn into smoke and vanish. He, and others like him, say that these beings occupied earth first and resent humans taking over their planet, so keep making bargains with humans to give them powers to hurt others through spells. Dunno. I listen, read,, consider them, wonder if there is some truth in all the theories. One thing I observed is that people who mess with the "demons" often go insane, including several friends of mine who were just "having fun" messing with spells. Of course, I don't know if they were insane to begin with, which is why they did it.

Some neat birds I encountered while bird-watching, today.