Victoria

Something musical for TGIF

As far as ACTUAL Wristchecks of yours go, this is my favourite now. Great shot!

Marshall?

Magiko, I was sure someone better qualified than I would've answered, but just to get the ball rolling, I believe you're talking of EdgeKote.

http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/products.asp?dept=174

Greg Stevens uses it for many of his rough-hewn but finished straps. This what the CHII looks like new:

And the older CH Classic, aged.

@Magiko: Alas! It's not my own made-strap. Please read again.

They're from the famous strapmaker from Paneristi.com -- Greg Stevens. These two examples can be found on his blog: gregstraps.blogspot.com.

Perhaps he has more details, although I am sure V, Tootall, and others will let you know better!

Quart is less complicated, easier to repair and maintain, and cheaper to purchase. What are your thoughts?

I love my lady Cartiers, and other Quartz watches. But I have never liked the implication that women are not as detail-oriented as men, and thus would fail to handwind or maintain their watches properly.

Conceding this may be indeed true, just upsets me more.

That's what a quartz means to me. It's the microwave to the oven. It's the automatic to the 5-speed. It's one less skill to master as a human.

Darn if they aren't convenient though.

Nanuq, what do you know of the sufferings of Vicki Sue Robinson, of Blue Suede Schubert, of Disco Tex and his Sex-O-Letts?

Maybe it took them years to bust out their one-hit wonder only for a Mozart aficionado to dismiss their musical efforts as bubble-gumminess!

...

Of course, that is NOT my real reply. Your post and the words behind it are sublime.

Whilst I don't judge mechanical breakdowns as character, it cannot be denied that one always remembers most that which was ornery, and made you WORK to use it. When great care and tradition went into its making, it'll always be perfect.

Thanks for the insight, Nanook of the North!

Any e-mail to tracking-service.info bounces b/c the mailbox is full.

E-mail to cool-watches.com goes unanswered.

It's no bother at all, that's why these forums exist, Zotter. Welcome to the forum, BTW!

Unfortunately, the name didn't ring a bell. There are a list of forum-suggested dealers, available to all upgraded Supporters, and cool-watches.com is not one of their sites. In fact, according member Dax, they are a scam site.

http://www.rwg.cc/members/index.php?showto...mp;#entry376144

Group Six, which was rated as a higher than average scam site.

I wish I could give you better news, and indeed, this info may turn out to be wrong, but that's what I could find out for you. Hope another member has dealt with them, and can give you more satisfying news.

Good luck, either way!

Life is Good

YAY! I'm so glad to hear it, Klink!

Okay, guys another techie problem. See if you can help me out, Cornerstone.

VICTORIA'S COMPUTER WOES TALE

I just got my 2 y.o. Dell XPS 200 computer back from techies who installed a fresh 320GB HD.

Previous to this, I had a half-year's worth of my computer shutting down at unexpected moments. The front of the tower, had blinked amber lights instead of a steady green, when doing so. I always disconnected it, and it rebooted until one day, it just wouldn't any more. (Please don't scold; I know I should've taken care of it earlier). Techies assured me my HD had gone bad, and I needed to change it.

I picked the new one up two weeks ago, and last night, SECONDS after posting my last reply to the religion thread (5 AMish), it does the same thing -- HD shuts down forcibly, and I get amber lights in front of tower.

Having paid $500 something dollars (!) for a complete diagnosis, itself $199, install of a new Western Digital HD, paid for a new external Seagate 250GB, and backup of my old HD, I expected it never to cause me these problems again.

I can only assume the problem was not a bad HD, or it was a combination of factors, which these techies didn't ferret out.

What do you think is going on?

BTW, I left instructions to check the CD/DVD writer because though it burns 8x, it was slogging at 2x at the most. The techie said because the HD was bad, it was doing that. With the minty HD, it should be working at speed again. At first yes, but I'm at 2x again. Now this.

HELP!

Thanks!

You don't get door-to-door atheists, or soap-box atheists in the town square.

Ah, but you get them on the internet, in newsgroups, in forums, in academia, many places.

Now, I'm not talking about you. From what I can see, though passionate, you are rational, Pug (as condenscending as that sounds, for which I apologise -- unfortunately, even when observing something positive about another human, one has to be careful not to offend).

Having seen your jolly Christmas tree, I realised immediately you are not completely immune to the cultural pull of religion around you. I have met many many Atheists who shun those who accept a modicum of religiosity around them.

Ironically, this absolutism, this derisive attitude reminds one of the most extreme of religious people.

...well, the thread is coming to a close I fancy. It reminded me of the Teddy Bear thread, and I learnt much from the many opinions here. Let's see what "tomorrow" brings, but I think I am outties.

Thanks TeeJay, Demon, Pug, Raijor and all of you! It ain't easy talking of religion. I think RWG did well again.

I personally have gone through too much over the years to accept that there could be the remotest possiblity there could be a God.

Yes, I've personally met Holocaust survivors who lost all belief in God after their ordeal. And likewise, I have met Holocaust survivors whose faith in God was never stronger than after their ordeal.

How does one argue about Atheism or Belief to these people? I wouldn't even dare.

Having said that, whatever I go through personally, does not influence concepts which may exist outside my own life. That's kind of tough to say and not be really pedantic, so I never say it (save now).

Every religion thinks their God is the God. How can they all be right for a start?

Because people mix up the concept of God, with the concept of religion? I don't know. I just offer that as an opinion.

But historians disagree whether or not Constantine actually became a Christian. His character certainly did not reflect the teachings of Jesus. Constantine was vain, violent and superstitious and he waited until he was dying before asking to be baptized. Constantine did not care about the theological issues as much as he did keeping the peace and his power in the Empire. Christianity was useful to him in that aim.

A word about this, in passing.

His conversion and subsequent life may have been problematic in Christian terms, but his conversion transformed his aged mother's life.

St. Helena, as she later was known, was over 80 years old when she travelled to Jerusalem, charged with bringing back the Holy Relics, like the True Cross, from the Holy Lands. This woman became famous for her piety, kindness, penitence, and humility though she was made "Augusta", the highest rank in the land.

She can be said to have lived a Christ-like life the moment Christ touched her heart.

Not everyone's conversion is as dramatic as hers. But there are many kinds of Christians, and clearly both Constantine I and St. Helena encompass them, contradicting each other, in a very human way.

Can't say I associated watches with being Macho. Most of the people I know wear cheap watches (Fossil, Tommy Bahama, or the like - a $300 rep would be an upgrade - and these people can afford the good stuff). The ones with good watches are normally wearing a Rolex (especially true at the last place I worked). I've only seen one PAM. I believe it was a white dialed daylight. The gentleman wearing it was about 75 years old. I could be wrong but I dont' think very many people wear replicas in the area where I live.

This has been an interesting thread, with surprising replies, at least for me.

Now I wonder how much guys being WISses here has to do with this.

Do the Fossil and Tommy Bahama guys who aren't necessarily too knowledgeable, judge Sub-wearing guys as loaded and macho? Or are watches just not on the radar for masculine points with you lads?

See, being a woman sometimes has pitfalls in trying to "read" how men interact.

My wife will never trade in her gen Rolly for this! Nice idea though and you are right this watch is now way too small.

Don't do it, Emmzy! In 10 years, small watches will be back in style.

And oh, they'll also be mobiles! And possibly pizzas too.

Time to move on to the next chapter of human progress.

Ironically enough, Pug, you are championing a concept which takes away the very thing which allows you to be an atheist -- choice. Leave it up to people, and thereto society, what they "should" believe in.

I've noticed there's nothing more intolerant in this world than Atheists. Religious people, incredibly enough, by acknowledging that there IS or MIGHT BE a Higher Being than themselves, are wrestling with incertitude about life.

But Atheists presume to answer that there is nothing out there greater than the sum of our parts. And worse, they're preachier than a holy roller in the Bible Belt.

Here's an exercise in speculation, Pug.

I, as a person who believes completely in God, can intellectually accept that hey, maybe there is no God.

Can you do the same? Can you admit your most deeply held beliefs are or might be wrong?

Classic...elegant...understated...versatile...

Couldn't agree more with you, Toad.

Also, H&P, please pay close attention to Gioarmani. I've noticed these past months, that he has flawless taste. That was a great suggestion of the salmon-dial DJ (even if it is round).

My apologies if you found my post unfriendly or intollerant, that was never my intention, I was simply posting facts, as they related to the discussion.

TeeJay, if you'll permit, I think the problem in discussing religion tends to lie in comparing two religions. Because when you compare, even to try to elucidate points, value judgements enter the dialogue.

And that's where human beings take DEEP offence.

Demon earlier referenced reincarnation. Your reply was like me replying to him, "Well, we Roman Catholics do not believe in reincarnation, which to boot is a ridiculous concept, since we have immortal souls. If you take reincarnation at face value, then you can never help poor people, because they obviously are suffering for past misdeeds."

That would've been both rude, and arrogant of me, in the context of the discussion. That's how your words about Christianity sounded, if you get my meaning.

You're a gentle man.

But converts tend to speak in absolutes which can cause offence. Heck, even us cafeteria Catholics have to be careful.

Hey TeeJay, wassup.

Ahh, Freud... I've heard that he created the concept of the Oedipus Complex to assuage his own feelings of guilt about his attraction to his step-mother. While some of his concepts are interesting, they are a little formulaic (and self-aimed) for my taste...

Right. But they were an important start, you'll agree. There's nothing wrong,

"I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours" - Stephen Roberts

Congratulations! You are now a member of the Rational Responders Forum. Please click here to upgrade your account with godless money.

Yes I understand what you mean Raijor, no one's religious beliefs should be poked fun at or attacked. However, that is what Muslims believe, that Judaism and Christianity is the corrupted form of God's message.

Quick, someone call me a bi.tch so we can merge the Dog and Religion threads...

We can all debate 'which religion is the right one' all day long. At the end of the day its all about faith, we follow that religion which we believe to be the correct one based on scripture and evidence.

Actually, one of the undercurrents of this thread, indeed about all discussion regarding religion, is the universality of certain beliefs.

This is why, to people of small intellect, certain religious stories (or myths in their view) have the exact same attributes, convincing them that one religion is just a "rip off" of another.

For example, Mariolatory is nothing new under the Sun. The veneration of the Virgin Mary follows the tradition of many belief-systems in history, where a woman is held as model-absolute to all. Hera was a Mother Goddess, so was Isis, so was Kwan Yin, Lakshmi, etc. etc. etc.

Buddha is also believed to be a product of parthenogenesis, that is, the product of a mother's non-sexual intercourse.

(If you leave it to the geniuses at Zeitgeist, they'll make the argument that Buddha and Jesus are the same person...)

What does this mean? That humans have a primordial need to explain their human story in much the same way. We clearly also need to believe in SOMETHING.

And then tear it down.

Very valid points Victoria, but I was trying to buy CN movements and he (Crippler - it does sound funny does it?) sounded convincing with his factory connection. Try to find a good deal on movements nowadays and you try anything ...

As convincing as a Spaniard-Swede with rep factory connections in Sweden but no individual watch photos can ever sound!

It's a gen. Here are some hi-res shots of another 112 (though F-series) that will help you evaluate:

PAM112

If I may piggyback a question here about engraving. Wasn't one of the rep PAM owner's beefs always that the Officine PanerAI was cut off?

In this EXCELLENT link you provided, Anton, the gen has that too. Angle perhaps?

hi victoria,

the greeny strap is more petrol and it's a custom made strapmasters shark, special made for me.

Brilliant, cheers Rolls.

Funny you should mention "petrol" because just the other day I commented to a friend that Americans don't have that name in their fashion palette -- petrol blue.

It's a very distinct colour, and if you go to Italy, France, Germany, you'll hear it very often.

I always love a Movado on a woman's wrist. Perfect combination of glitz, class & mystery. Nice look, Vic.

Thank you, Freddilein! You know, it's a not a favourite anymore (to put it mildly), but every dog has its day.

Movados were excellent starter watches for me, and I'm grateful to have it still. And you know what, I'll give you the "mystery" bit. That's spot on.

Sounds like a second ID, Surpur.

As a complete aside, why would anyone buy a watch from someone called "Crippler"?

Other IDs I wouldn't buy from:

- Clobberer

- Smasher

- Grabber

- Raper

- Tickler

And also "Chuckles", but that's just me.

Here's my new desktop!

I like to show the creators of said wallpaper that I really AM using their wallpapers, hence the attachments. Thanks, Cronsell! I didn't notice your arms until too late, now I just stare at them.

***Hey***

How does one get rid of an attachment? I had uploaded the wrong one.

Palp crown transforms it, great shots Rolli!

Love the balcony pics, and especially the strap combos shot (could you tell me the make of the greeny strap?).