The ***OFFICIAL*** Weekend Singles' Thread -- "Alaska Singles Thread (January 05 - 07, 2007,)

various | 5th January 2007 | Proud_yank

[snugs]

The 49th State - The Last Frontier
by proud_yank

Having recently moved here, I thought an Alaskan Singles Thread would be pretty fun.

Alaska is the largest state in America, roughly twice the size of Texas (sorry Texas!).

Putting Alaska into perspective. The Aleutian Islands over California, and South-eastern Alaska over Georgia.

An interesting fact I learned the other day is that in addition to being the Western and Northern-most state, Alaska is also the Eastern-most state too. The Western tip of the Aleutian Islands is just West of the International Dateline.

Alaska can be separated into five regions. The Far North (Also known as the 'North Slope') extends from the Brooks Range (the Northern-most extension of the Rocky Mountains) to the Arctic Ocean. Here are some photos of the Brooks Range, and the North Slope region. Barrow is the most Northern city in America. For fun, here is Barrow's weather.

Most people in Alaska live in Southcentral Alaska (Anchorage), and then the Interior (Fairbanks). Temperatures in the interior are sometimes colder than in the Arctic. Western Alaska is famous for the finish of the Iditarod dog-sled race in Nome. Southeastern, and the Interior, are famous for the Klondike gold rush.

Juneau, the state capitol is located in Southeastern Alaska. As a staunch conservative, it makes me smile that the govt. is located somewhere that can only be reached by boat or plane :-).

The Regions of Alaska

There are lots of moose here, and you really have to be careful driving. In the winter moose will come down from the mountains, and casually stroll through downtown Anchorage. We had one right outside the front door of our main office today! Other animals here include caribou, grizzly, polar, and black bears, muskoxen, beaver, otters, wolves, wolverines, tons of birds, and lots of delicious fish!

Some other interesting info about Alaska....

At 20,320 ft., Alaska has North America's highest peak, Denali.
State bird - Willow Ptarmigan.
State fish - King Salmon.
State tree - Sitka Spruce.
State spore - Dog mushing.
State animal - Moose.
State flower - Wild Native Forget-me-Not.
State song - 'Alaska's Flag'.

Eight stars of gold on a field of blue -
Alaska's flag. May it mean to you
The blue of the sea, the evening sky,
The mountain lakes, and the flow'rs nearby;
The gold of the early sourdough's dreams,
The precious gold of the hills and streams;
The brilliant stars in the northern sky,
The "Bear" - the "Dipper" - and, shining high,
The great North Star with its steady light,
Over land and sea a beacon bright.
Alaska's flag - to Alaskans dear,
The simple flag of a last frontier.

Here are some of my photos that I've put online so far

[bannie]

Dolly...Please put me in that older group.

I'm a happily sage 54!

[WFTR]

Dolly and others,

While people are free to start whatever threads they wish, I hope that we won't divide the singles' thread by age. I have a couple of reasons for feeling this way.

1. The management of Free Republic has never been entirely comfortable with having a singles' thread. I think we've done a good job of making this thread into something that is a credit to the site. While I personally think that there's nothing wrong with a "hook-up thread," the management seems to have some great fear of that kind of thread developing. If we split by ages, there will be more of an appearance that we're creating "hook-up threads" either by design or by accident. Furthermore, if managment is uncomfortable with one thread for whatever reason, management will be even more uncomfortable with two threads.

2. I don't know, nor do I particularly care, how old all the members of this thread are. I think we have a good group, and I'd hate to see this group split. We have enough "dead thread alerts" as it is. I think splitting the group will just mean two dead threads instead of one.

3. Another problem with splitting is that all of us are in different situations and will have different things in common. When it comes to experience in relationships, I'm less experienced than most of the college students. If we split by ages, the "older" thread could easily become a place where people sit around and talk about their kids. That's nice for them, but that's a conversation that offers nothing to me. Without the continuity of being in a basic family unit, all singles will have a different mixture of things in common and things not in common. Any kind of division takes away from what the thread could be.

4. I don't expect to find romance on Free Republic. I don't come to this thread or any other thread trying to check out the women as possible partners. Even without that expectation, a chemistry developing from regular conversations would be nice, and I don't want to close the door entirely on that possibility. However, I'd strongly prefer to marry someone quite a bit younger than I am. If we split the thread by age, the thread is less likely to be a place where I might meet someone who would be right for me. I don't like the idea of reducing my chances by splitting the thread that way.

Bill

[krunkygirl]

Hi Dolly--

Nothing happened, really.
I simply came to the realization that I was on a 'singles' thread that seemed to be populated by much younger people.
After posting for several weekends, I didn't want to just disappear without some explanation...hence, my post last night.

Since I'm not trying to fool anybody about me/my relative [don't ask for numbers... ;) ] age(part of why I posted my picture was so others can get a general feel for who they're talking to) it seemed inappropriate to continue posting.

I felt confused about other apparently regular posters, too. Some seem to be in ongoing relationships, one lucky twosome is planning a wedding and some are even married(!)

It seemed that the 'singles' thread had no clearly defined parameters...Just speaking for me, (an admitted flirt...) I certainly didn't want to offend someone with some silly thing I might say. What may be innocent fun for me may be received with less than an enthusiastic response because of a personal situtation I'm not aware of...
Then, uh oh, you've got those durned , 'unintended consequences'...

Life is complicated enough [this is starting to sound really series ;) ]...I do not want to step on toes or make enemies (I think we have all seen threads/posts where meanings can be misconstrued and, before you know it, there are hurt feelings, ruffled feathers or even real flashes of anger.) All I'm trying to do is make friends...preferably among the great, conservative, smart, funny, age-appropriate single guy population here at FR...

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

rezzy's last link is just tooo funny!

[Dr. Scarpetta]

I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED Pursuit of Happyness.. such a warm fuzzy movie.. and it is a true story, which makes it even better!

I'm going to see it as soon as I get over this bronchitis! Thanks for the review. Did you see 'Freedom Writers' yet?

[WFTR]

First, I'm glad that your van is running well for you again. Having a vehicle that isn't running properly is always stressful, and I'm happy that you can get that stress out of your life.

Secondly, it's a free country, and you're free to say what you want to your co-workers as long as those conversations don't get in the way of working together effectively. I don't think that you were wrong to say what you said. Without knowing all of the history, I can't tell whether you were "out of place." "Out of place" really depends on what you hoped to accomplish and how you think that goal can be accomplished.

The whole situation seems a little "dysfunctional" for lack of a better word. If the "usual jokes" about you are not meant or not taken in a positive way, the "usual jokes" are another bad sign. The way you've described it, he seems to have gone out of his way to talk about his weekend plans in a way that would be offensive. On the other hand, if he feels that your whole attitude towards him is that of condemnation, his words could be primarily a defensive reaction. I don't know that there's a solution, but the whole situation doesn't sound like much fun.

I work with people who are active, practicing, born-again Christians. Because I realize that Christianity is a positive force in many people's lives, I don't automatically dislike what they represent. I don't feel an automatic need to attack what they represent. I even share many of their viewpoints on various issues. On the other hand, I don't trust their ways or their teachings in the way that they do. Overall, I think we do a pretty good job of keeping everything at a respectful level. They wouldn't approve of everything that I do, so I don't get in their faces with those differences. Likewise, I'm not interesting in repeating the same mistakes that I made giving too much of myself to church, and they've learned to respect my boundaries on those issues.

One of the teachings that I remember from my church days is that God gives each Christian different jobs to do in accomplishing His will. If you're confident that your comments fit within what God needs you to do in your relationship with your co-workers and you're confident that the working relationship is good enough that you aren't cheating your employer or clients, then your comments are fine.

Bill

[Dr. Scarpetta]

However, I'd strongly prefer to marry someone quite a bit younger than I am.

Just wondering why...

[Kate of Spice Island]

Dr. Kate it will be.

[Mama_Bear]

and some are even married(!)

Uh oh....you caught me! But it's not my fault, really. I got pinged here, I couldn't help it. LOL! ;-)

[ilovew]

I agree with you, WFTR. We've had enough run-ins with the mods in the past and I don't think making two separate threads would help that any. Also, I don't think there are really that many younger people on the thread, we just tend to talk a lot. And anyway, I'd be really disappointed if I didn't get to talk to everyone. There are people on this thread that I never see anywhere else on FR. I'd be really sad if I didn't get to talk to them anymore. :( Oh, and one last point: separating the threads would be imposing a rule on the singles' thread which is something we've avoided doing. Everyone is welcome here and I think we should keep it that way.

[Kate of Spice Island]

I am guessing it could be "The ***OFFICIAL*** Younger Singles Weekend Thread" and at this point, one of the younger singles and you should keep track of who wants to be on boths pings or deleted from this one and added to the new one.

I know that I would really hate to lose any of the regular posters here and have enjoyed reading much of what people have to say, regardless of age.

Since some of us have gotten married and/or just come here to visit on the weekends since ther is no official weekend BS thread, perhaps the verbiage for the title of this thread could be changed, but not necessarily call it the BS thread.

The open door policy of anyone being here and married and/or older folk managing the ping list/topics/etc. along with some of the younger folk will probably have to be the mentors to get the younger singles thing going well, while keeping what we ahve going...going.

We could even do younger singles, older singles and weekend BS. List maintenance might be a bit of a headache initially, but I am thinking that the younger singles and the older singles could then jointly do the weekend BS.

Just a thought so that the older singles can do the singles thing, too.

Man what a can of worms to maintain friendships and respect the needs of others... ;D

[WFTR]

I think we've been outvoted. Everyone seems to want to separate things.

[ilovew]

Well, we'll see. If we have separate ones, I probably won't participate. It kinda defeats the purpose for me if I've got limitations on who I can talk to.

[pcottraux]

Dolly, I mean this with all due respect...after all, we're all trying to get input here, right?

I don't think it's a good idea, and here's why:

First off, I don't want to be confined to "hanging out" with one group or another on this thread. I have just as many, if not more friends who are in the "older" group as I do in the "younger" group. Now if I were to post on the older thread instead of the younger thread...well, that would be 2 threads to keep up with, and I'm pretty sure I"d be offending someone on the "younger" thread if I posted more on the "older" thread.

Now, another thing. If the break-off point is 35-40, then that doesn't really split us intwo. I'm thinking the "younger" thread would have only a handful of posters. Who do we have who's in their 20s? I think 4, maybe 5 people?

[pcottraux]

And another thing that's bugging me...

I can't BELIEVE people have actually complained about this. Are there actually young people on this thread who complain because they don't want to talk to "icky old people?"

And vice versa?

[Maximus_Ridiculousness]

Hi Dolly,

I don’t think this is a good idea. This will complicate things. Two threads? We have a hard enough time trying to keep this one thread going. You can’t please all the people all the time and I think this would be the wrong way to go just to make a few people happy. No matter what you do, someone somewhere will complain. I think we should leave well enough alone and accept that there will never bee 100% satisfaction.

Take me and Phil for example. He’s 22 and I’m 38. We get along just fine. In fact, I would consider us close friends. So which thread do we go to chat? The Golden Oldies, or the Young Bucks? Personally, I like talking to everybody. I don’t care what age anyone is. If the current conversation isn’t interesting, then people need to step up to the plate and start their own. If there’s three or four separate conversations going on at one time, some young people stuff, some old…who cares?

Unless there is something going on with this thread that I am just not getting at all that would warrant this major change, I don’t see why we should break it up.

I vote no.

[pcottraux]

Aww, shucks.

*blushing*

[Maximus_Ridiculousness]

If we have separate ones, I probably won't participate.

Me too.

[WFTR]

Well, we'll see. If we have separate ones, I probably won't participate. It kinda defeats the purpose for me if I've got limitations on who I can talk to.

I don't think it will be limitations as much as the need to jump back and forth to try to catch everyone. I'm also worried about losing different perspectives on some of our conversations. I think you're right to take a "wait and see" approach.

[WFTR]

... and I’m 38.

You look much younger. You're doing something right.

[Maximus_Ridiculousness]

I'd like to know who's complaining.

So far, I only see one complaint.