larryb123456

@LostInSpace2012: You say "apt". Of course, that's the abbreviation for "apartment", as everyone knows. But again, you provide incomplete information. Which apartment ??? apt #6 ??? apt B ??? apt #485-F ??? Please get your act together, LostInSpace 2012, and make well-thought-out music posts, like I do. In the meantime, here's a song just for you, "Apartment", by Young the Giant:

@LostInSpace2012; You say, "Oh, I've been around." A round what ??? A round tomato ??? A round bowling ball ??? A round basketball ??? A round lunatic ??? Ah, I've got it !!! Round and Round, like a Ratt !!!

Welcome back, LostInSpace2012 !!! Where ya been for so long, you lunatic ??? Probably in a straight-jacket in some psycho ward would be my guess. lol So, this one's especially for you, dude. "Lunatic Fringe" by Red Rider:

This is just a short message -- (with an image) -- to say "HI" to all the MSFN members and guests who might be reading this post. And the image is free of any subliminal content !!!

A great old song, "Dreams", by the Irish group, The Cranberries:

This post concerns two of the basic axioms of algebra, the reflexive axiom and the symmetric axiom. reflexive axiom: a number is equal to itself, a = a symmetric axiom: if a = b then b = a an example of a real-world application of the symmetric axiom: if jaclaz = dencorso thendencorso = jaclaz I'm gettin' out of here, PRONTO !!! just kiddin', jaclazyou're one great guy(for an Italian, that is) just kiddin', jaclaz you're one great guy(for an Italian, that is) an example of a real-world application of the reflexive axiom: L A R R Y B E Q U A L S L A R R Y B B Y E B Y E F O R N O W F I N I S !

WOW, dencorso!!! Thanks for posting that. The animation is profoundly beautiful. It's clear that you follow the wisdom of the Tao. In saying nothing, you say everything.

One of my all-time favorite designs is the yin-yang symbol. From Wikipedia: In Chinese philosophy, yin and yang are concepts used to describe how apparently opposite forces in the natural world are actually complementary, interconnected, and interdependent, and how they give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another. Many tangible dualities (such as light and dark, high and low, hot and cold, fire and water, life and death, male and female, sun and moon, and so on) are thought of as physical manifestations of the duality of yin and yang. Everything has both yin and yang aspects, (for instance shadow cannot exist without light). On January 19 of this year, I made the following userbar about yin-yang: It was based on the following images: the "standard" yin-yang symbol and a variation that I like. The beauty of the yin-yang symbol is that many variations can be made illustrating the yin-yang duality concept. Here are some variations that I like: The yin-yang symbol is also associated with Taoism, a philosophical, ethical, and religious tradition of Chinese origin, and the teachings of Lao-tzu, a poet and sage and contemporary of Confucius, 2500 years ago. Lao-tzu wrote the Tao Te Ching, considered by many to be the wisest book ever written. The book has only 81 short verses and can be read quickly, if desired. But the nature of the Tao Te Ching is that each time it is re-read, further interpretations are gained by the reader. I have a book by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, "Change Your Thoughts -- Change Your Life, Living the Wisdom of the Tao", in which he gives his own interpretation of each verse in the Tao Te Ching. I have found this book to be invaluable in understanding the Tao Te Ching. There is a copy available on eBay now for $4.19 USD, total, including shipping: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Change-Your-Thoughts-Change-Your-Life-Living-the-Wisdom-of-the-Tao-Dyer-Dr-/261540745531?pt=US_Nonfiction_Book&hash=item3ce50b113bThis book gives great insights on how to live a naturally peaceful, fulfilled life, without having to rely on "religious dogma". Quotations by Lao-tzu: “Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power. If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich.” “Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” “When you are content to be simply yourself and don't compare or compete, everyone will respect you.” “When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” “Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habit. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.” “Because one believes in oneself, one doesn't try to convince others. Because one is content with oneself, one doesn't need others' approval. Because one accepts oneself, the whole world accepts him or her.” “Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.” “A man with outward courage dares to die; a man with inner courage dares to live.” “At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.”

A beautiful song, dencorso. I find this song to be very beautiful, also. When it first came out, I just couldn't get enough of hearing it. The Verve, Bitter Sweet Symphony

I helped develop dencorso's current signature, during many e-mail and PM exchanges between us, over the past few years. It was an absolute pleasure for me to work with this extremely intelligent, perceptive, and kind MSFN member. dencorso gave me permission to share this development with you. My motivations for making this post are twofold: #1 -- to show how this development slowly progressed #2 -- to share with you and other Photoshop graphic designers a technique I came up with to obtain a perfectly-smooth linear color-gradient fade over a region, analytically, rather than visually Originally, dencorso had as his signature only the Supercharged Windows 9X userbar as shown in the top image in the following graphic. I had absolutely nothing to do with making this image and I don't know where dencorso got it. http://postimage.org/'> On Jan.17, 2012, I pointed out to dencorso that the 2 Ws in the word "Windows" were not of the same pixel font, but that they were different. And I showed the 2 different versions that would have consistent letters, V1 and V2. We agreed that V2 would be best, since the internal, slanted legs of the Ws would fit in better with the slanted legs of the Rs in "Supercharged" and the X in 9X. So, dencorso used V2 as part of his signature for a couple of years, even after a new addition was made, as discussed immediately below. On August 17, 2012 dencorso asked me to make an "Unstoppable Windows XP" userbar -- (he came up with that great title) -- to add to his Supercharged Windows 9X signature. He wanted the blue to be taken from the XP taskbar and he wanted to include the XP logo. And he wanted an image in the userbar. As a first thought, he suggested a cloud. But I thought a lightning bolt would be more dynamic and tie in better with the word "Unstoppable". dencorso liked that idea. I had an animated GIF of a lightning flash, and I picked out a frame from it to get a general idea of a valid shape, and I force-fit that shape to fill up the space to the left of the XP logo. But it took much experimentation to characterize the fractal, bifurcation (fork-like) nature of lightning (with the purplish outline that I used, and all). dencorso provided great suggestions about lightning characteristics to help me out. I developed a version rather quickly that dencorso used. But, as time went on, I returned to look at dencorso's signature again and again, with "fresh eyes", and I'd invariably find ways to improve the lightning bolt. Finally, on November 11, 2012 I made the final version of the XP userbar, version 7. Of course, the top userbar, Supercharged Windows 9X, remained unchanged from its previous version. http://postimage.org/'> dencorso is a perfectionist about his graphics, a great quality of his, and as time went on, an aspect of his (formerly perfect, in his opinion) Supercharged Windows 9X userbar began to bother him, more and more, and on May 7, 2014 he PM'd me saying, "There's a boot in my userbar!" and he made this graphic to show me exactly what he meant: http://postimage.org/'> He asked me if I could remove the boot. This would have been an easy task had I been the one to have made the original graphic, since I would have had each component of the userbar on separate Photoshop layers. So to make the change, I followed the approach of deconstructing the problematic area and then reconstructing an improved version. (In retrospect, I would have removed the *entire background* from the right side of the 9X logo all the way to the extreme right side of the userbar, and then replaced it with a perfectly smooth linear-gradient fade. But, somehow (?), at the time, I didn't think of it, and I made many unsuccessful attempts at deconstructing and reconstructing.) In version 5, I was getting close. I eliminated the yellow glow on the right side of the 9X logo, which dencorso approved, and pretty much filled the problematic area with the background color near the bottom of the ellipse layer. But the color transition under the word "Supercharged" was not smooth enough, as you can see here: http://postimage.org/'> And then I made 2 more versions that were not perfect enough. Finally, dencorso suggested, "take, on one hand, the orange below the "S" in "SUPERCHARGED" as the lighter hue and, on the other hand, the orange below the "D" as the darker hue, and create a degrade going from "S" to "D", so that the change takes place very gradually, along the whole word "SUPERCHARGED." So, it was then that I thought of an analytical (i.e., mathematical) way to do this, a "trick" that I'd never used before. (I looked online to see whether or not this was a "standard" approach, and I didn't find anything about it. It seems so very simple to me, now, in retrospect.) Here is a summary of my approach in making version 8, the final version: At the "S" under SUPERCHARGED, r,g,b = 255,205,110 -- 0% At the "D" under SUPERCHARGED, r,g,b = 255,142,40 -- 100% To look at it in another way, from 0% to 100%, the color components vary as: r goes from 255 to 255 g goes from 205 to 142 b goes from 110 to 40 So, I broke up the *individual* component r,g,b value ranges into 5 parts, to specify the r,g,b values to use at 0%, 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, and 100% in the Photoshop linear-gradient editor (we already know the values at 0% and 100%): for r, 255, 255, 255, 255, 255, 255 for g, 205, 192, 180, 167, 155, 142 for b, 110, 96, 82, 68, 54, 40 And then I applied the linear-gradient tool over the "S" to "D" background region to make version 8, the final version: http://postimage.org/'> And as I told dencorso, I consider him to be the *major* co-creator of this improved, sans boot, Supercharged Windows 9X userbar. Larry

Thanks for expressing your opinions, ROTS. It seems that now we have these situations characterized, from the yin to the yang.

You say, "I call that a success story." And I call you a success story, Noel!

You're so very welcome, Kel. I wish I were able to donate more. There's not much worse than the hideous pressure associated with a financial difficulty. Here's hoping that things get straightened out for you soon.

Of course, the word "God" has a different meaning for everyone. So, the above message will apply to whomever your God happens to be.

Bless you and your wife, Noel. If only there were more people like you two, the world would be in a much better situation. And it's great to see your picture, Noel. You are a very handsome specimen. But I have a question: What is the name of the bearded gentleman upon whose shoulder you are standing?

I am making this post to announce the fact that this is a milestone for me, my 700th post. And it will be official at the "NOW" moment at which this post will be added to this thread. Of course, each post that I make in the following moments of "NOW" will increase my post total -- (as indicated by the post number below my avatar) -- by one, of course. Of course, when I make an infinite number of posts, the above statement will no longer be true, since infinity + 1 = infinity, of course. So, the post number "700" won't be around for long, I'm sure, unless Mother Nature steps in and kills me with a heart attack or some other sick scheme, which She might have tucked under Her petticoat. To celebrate this momentous 700th-post occasion, my conjoined twin Scuzzy and I are jumping for joy in the sunset, as shown below. Scuzzy is on the right and I'm on the left. Scuzzy and I are forever joined at the lower two leg bones, the tibia *and* the fibia. Due to the complicated nature of the bone entanglements, a surgical separation was not possible. Scuzzy and I have learned to live together, and I've learned to tolerate him, even though he always has horrendously bad breath. Scuzzy is so much smaller than me because he is seven years younger than me. (It was a very difficult delivery for Mom. Those details are perhaps best left for a later post.) L A R R Y & S C U Z Z Y S A Y B Y E F O R N O W

Thanks, monroe. The story about Satao was on the NBC or MSNBC news a while back. So sad, indeed. The story touched me deeply. There will be a special place in Hell for all those poachers, where they can spend an eternity, amidst the flames, anally penetrated by reciprocating 8-foot elephant tusks. I think all the illegal poachers, when caught, should have their penises cut off. The Bible says, "An eye for an eye", and my solution says, in effect, "An extension for an extension." I think I should stop now, since I think I'm beginning to sound like MSFN member ROTS (whose posts I always enjoy reading because of their uninhibited linguistic poetry). And many thanks for the update on the happy (finally) story about Raju.

Thanks so much, monroe, for posting this. I've seen other stories and videos like this, which prove that animals are very sensitive creatures with definite deeply-felt emotions. The video below, showing cows jumping for joy after being allowed to go to the pasture after being kept in the barn all winter, almost made me cry. Man's insensitivity and cruelty to his fellow man and the Earth are deplorable, and his insensitivity and cruelty to animals are even more deplorable, IMO, since the poor creatures can't defend themselves. Here's the video -- (in this video, there isn't cruelty, since these cows have been saved from slaughter, but the video definitely shows how they feel emotion) -- and there are more like this on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgIUJM0nKRk

One of my all-time favorites from the 1990s, "Pure Morning" by the British alternative rock band Placebo. I love the black fingernail polish on the fingers and toes of the lead singer and main character in the video. Since I have to function in the "real world", I think if I painted all my fingernails black, people would think I'm weird or maybe even scary. I'm telling the truth here: as an alternative to painting all my fingernails black -- (which I definitely would do if I lived in an artists' or musicians' colony) -- on my left hand, I wear a bracelet, three thumb rings, and I have my thumb fingernail painted black. I'm pretty sure (?) that most people would be OK with that. "If you care what people think of you, you will always be their prisoner." Lao-tzu, an ancient Chinese sage and philosopher and author of the Tao Te Ching, a book which I highly recommend to everyone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQQmAP9Poo4

@Trip: Regarding your post at http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/152748-custom-avatars-and-signatures/?p=1081837 Thanks so much for promoting me to the NEX TLEVEL as you characterize it in your graphic. I had been at the NEX SLEVEL for so long, that I thought that I'd never advance. To celebrate my accomplishment, I think I'm going to get drunk, pass out, and then fall into a coma.

@Kel: Regarding your post at http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/152748-custom-avatars-and-signatures/?p=1081830 Nine of my ten distinct, separate personalities completely understood what you were saying in your original post at http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/152748-custom-avatars-and-signatures/?p=1081826. And when Ugga Ugga explained it to Einstein, all ten then knew, and to celebrate their complete understanding, each personality got drunk and passed out.

@jaclaz: Regarding your post at http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/152748-custom-avatars-and-signatures/?p=1081829 Sorry to inform you, jaclaz, but you are WRONG !!! (lol) Boom Boom and Ugga Ugga are NOTrepetetive personalities. It's true that Boom Boom and Ugga Ugga are both prehistoric cavemen, but Boom Boom is Cro-Magnon while Ugga Ugga is Neanderthal, the only Neanderthal to escape extinction. jaclaz, you are WRONG !!! jaclaz, you are WRONG !!! jaclaz, you are WRONG !!! I just don't understand why it gives me so such pleasure to tell jaclaz that he is wrong.

Hello again Kel. As you can tell by reading a few of my posts, I have a multiple personality disorder (now called a dissociative identity disorder) -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissociative_identity_disorder -- and I have 10 distinct personalities, and I never know which personality is going to write a post of mine. And I've just consulted with each of my 10 personalities, and Willie Tommy Boom Boom Marilyn Ugga Ugga Beulah Eisenhower Hillary Peter Einstein all say, "What in the world are you talkin' bout, Kel?"

Thanks so much, jaclaz, for explaining "binary" to me. Now, I know what the word means. I'd always thought that a binary is a nary who swings "both ways". Of course, by "both ways", I mean between zero and one, of course. Of course, if you thought of a "different" interpretation, that means you have a dirty mind, IMO, of course.

Of course, I'll stop now, at the not so subtle threat of jaclaz either beating me to death or shooting me, of course.