anonemouse

I'll ditto this, too. I have horrible skin. Oily, acne scars, current acne, freckles, you name it.

Well, hell. I need a 28" inseam.

Think of it this way: Someone was named "Person" by their nutty parents. Now, every human in existance is a person, but only Person is Person. That make sense?

BTW, Wheetsin, would you mind if I kinda stole your "token atheist" thingie?

Kinda like how "Dad" is a commonly used name for a specific person's father, but "dad" is another name for anyone's father. The capitalization makes the difference. "Did you do this, Dad?" versus "Did your dad do this?"

I generally do, too, but it just brings out the anal grammar bitch in me. All the gods are gods-with-lower-case-g, but God-with-a-capital-G is the common name for the Christian god, just as Allah is the common name of the Mulim god-with-a-lower-case-g.

Very good advice. My surgeon charges $18,000 to people doing self-pay, but the bill they sent my insurance was just under $50,000 for just over 24 hours in the hospital.

Anyone else suddenly finding the word "god" to be incredibly weird?

God (with a capital G) is the name of the Christian god. A god (with a lower-case g) is by definition a supreme being according to some particular conception or one of several deities presiding over some portion of worldly affairs. There is a difference between the two. Yes, the Christian God is a god, as are Allah and Buddha. Allah is not the Christian God. Allah is a god, but he is the Muslim god. May be semantics, but one god does not equal another god. They may both be gods but they are not both God.

I'm short enough that capri-length regulars look like regular pants that have shrunk. If I go with tall-length capris, I can have regular pants! I went to a Vanity Fair outlet and found PERFECT khakis. So I went back and got the next two sizes down. I'm ALMOST in the middle size. I can fit in them and zip them, but they're a little snugger than I like to wear them (I generally prefer my pants to be a little loose, probably 1/4-1/2 size too large).

Every person with a religion has a god. A god is different from God, though. God is a god, but all gods aren't God. And I'm an Atheist, too, so I'll answer your question, along with Wheetsin. I don't see any difference between a Satanist, a Christian, a Muslim, or a Buddhist. Or any other believer in a higher power, for that matter. They're just people that need to believe that something out there is bigger than them. They aren't WRONG for believing what they believe, I just don't believe with them.

That's another reason why I don't go in Lane Bryant! :biggrin1: I carry my fat more on my belly than on my rear or hips, so if I found some of their pants that would go around my belly, the ass and hips could fit another person in there.

That wasn't what I was trying to say. I was trying to say that the basis of a religion, IMO, is fulfillment of certain needs that a population has. People feel the need to be taken care of, so they invent a caring deity. They feel the need to believe that they will be rewarded for suffering that they've experienced, so they invent heaven or another similar place, depending on the religion. They feel the need to believe that the people that torture and torment them will themselves be tortured and tormented, so they invent hell. If the population is a punishment-driven society, they invent a vengeful deity. Etc, etc, etc.

That's what you believe, though. I bet if you ask certain members of other religions whether their deity is the same as another deity, they'd disagree. It just depends on how they believe.

Very true. Religion, for some people, isn't about comforting. Therefore, they believe that any belief that leads people to feel "comforted" doesn't "work." I think the best way (at least for me) to describe it is that "religion does what it does." If people want to get comfort out of it, that's what they get. If they want fear, they get fear. If they want vengeance, they get vengeance. In that way, I'd say it definitely works.

I'd take that bet! It's seriously a pain in the ass. Whenever I find pants that do fit, I have to get multiple pairs, just because I can never find them if I go back. Petites are generally a little too short (except for a few brands) and regulars are generally too long. And like I said, I don't even bother to go into Lane Bryant anymore. All their petite-length pants are literally 4" too long. I wouldn't want to be really tall, either. I'm sure that's probably the same story.

To me, that quote is saying that there is no God, that people believe in whatever they believe in (whether it is Allah, or God, or Buddha, etc.) because they need to believe in something, to believe that there is someone or something taking care of them, that no matter what they go through or suffer in this life, they will be taken care of and rewarded. It's just human nature to want to be taken care of, to want to be loved. I totally agree with that.

1) I'd be taller. I'm 5'3" now and it's a pain in the ass. Depending on the manufacturer, I'm either petite, very petite (Try finding petites that are for actual short people at Lane Bryant. Good luck - they're all 4" too long.), or in-between petite and regular-length (in which case, NOTHING fits). I'm too short to reach tall cabinets, can't see over people in a crowd or from the back of a classroom, and it's a pain in the ass to climb up into a tree to place a camera and still not be able to reach the right spot (like I had to do last summer). 2) Not sure on this one. Maybe be less self-conscious? Or more outgoing? Faith's #2 would work, too.

Hi! Welcome to LBT! It sounds like you would probably do very well with the lap-band. Remember, though, weightloss would probably be slow. We're expected to lose an average of 1-2 pounds per week. About the scars... Banding is a laparoscopic surgery, so most of the scars are very small. The largest one is maybe 2.5 inches long, and that's where they inserted the port. The others are 0.5 inch in size, at most. Except for the port incision, they are basically key-hole incisions. There are many people here that can attest to the fact that, yes, banding does work. So far, I've only lost 16 pounds, but I'm right on track, since I was banded on July 3. I wish it would come off faster, but I just now got good restriction. I had my third fill last week, and I haven't experienced real hunger since then. I've actually been having to force myself to consume enough calories during the day.

http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f7/christian-bandsters-33345/

One thing I was thinking about the Sandy thing... Is it not the responsibility of the people that know what she's doing to say something? I mean, she's conning people and misrepresenting herself. Shouldn't those people that know what she's doing, know it's wrong and even illegal, warn other people? I get the feeling sometimes that we're supposed to just shut up and let her be, let her get away with it. At least, that's the feeling that I get from some of these posts. Yet, isn't that doing a misservice to the people that she's going after, the people she's conning? At what point does it go from letting someone's past go unmentioned to not saying anything because it would reflect badly on us? IMO, it's one thing to not talk about someone's past secrets because they've become an upstanding member of society. It's a far, far different thing when that person is breaking the law, using her past to do it.

Like the breakfast bar commercials? The ones where they have the cinnamon-bun rear or a donut around the middle?

Hey, the best thing about LBT is that there are no grudges held. We can bitch and fight to our hearts' content in Rant and Raves and still be the best support on the rest of the board.

We'll have to do a LBT get-together sometime. Maybe in Vegas or New York or something.

I've always wanted to try it, but haven't gotten around to it. I really don't think we become susceptible to spices. I still love spicy food just as much as I did before banding, just can't eat as much.