kbobam

Nice stuff! Both the marbles themselves and the well-done photo with its terrific colors. ( :

The last message that was done here happened a long time ago. And it was the last of several 'positive' messages where in the worst case scenario people were friends who were willing to 'agree to disagree'. To be perfectly honest, I just got tired of seeing the same 'printed letters' in that particular column for so long now when 'tuning in' to TMC. I felt like posting 'anything' to get rid of it, silly as that might sound. But then it hit me that there was something going on here that was more significant than my 'neurotic' reaction to seeing that same 'title' every day. The title hadn't changed because there'd been no recent arguments 'serious' enough to belong in that particular forum! What a wonderful thing! And the time period involved here was the 'holiday season'! When it's traditionally 'expected' and 'later forgiven' that people sometimes get a little 'hostile' for various reasons. A 'silver lining' situation. I like it. ( :

Aha! Just figured out that one needs to click on 'albums' on the page shown by your website link in order to go back a step and see your other stuff. Loads of really impressive work!

"....actually...." ? There wasn't any doubt.

I'm so grateful for the quick responses! Couldn't resist doing this, but was feeling terribly guilty that the joke required temporarily holding off on my serious reply to be 'effective'. I think 'whid' is my favorite 'wotd' so far! Hard to explain why I like it so much. I'm sure one part of it is the 'efficiency'. The only expression we have for ninja locomotion is to 'move stealthfully'. Whid is so much better! ( :

Rabbits whid lightsabers ( :

Hoody! I was sure you were going to 'back me up' on my idea! Don't you think seeing marbles descending slowly through thick liquid would be an interesting diversion in an otherwise fast-moving marble run? P.S. I'm too old to know what 'hypes' means. But in spite of my 'language barrier', I can tell that your comment was excellent advice!

I heard someone on 'public radio' discussing Bowie's career, and she seemed to be making a big 'rolling her eyes' point about how 'Dancing In The Street' was not one of David's 'best moments'. It's possible that she may have been referring to an album recording which I've never heard. Although I can't imagine how the terrific Bowie could mess up a terrific song. But in spite of generally despising 'music videos', I remember getting a real enjoyable kick out of seeing Bowie and Jagger dancing and singing together with this one. ( :

Oh man. I'm really happy right now. Exactly my 'kind' of movie, and somehow I never saw it before. Real people dealing with real life problems. No automatic weapons. No 'special effects'. No international espionage. And the likes of Sally Field and Tom Hanks both in top form and with their characters each going totally 'ballistic' mentally, both individually and 'together'. Only part way through it, but I'm pretty sure this will wind up in my 'top movies' list. Absolutely fantastic. ( :

I'm not sure what this says about me, but there was a recent post where the title began with "Blue, Olive, ....." My immediate thought was that 'The Blue Olive' would be a great name for a pub! ( :

Your 'wide aperture on fairly large camera' approach works really well here. Great shot, both technically and emotionally. You have some magnificent critters! Or they have you, as is sometimes the case.

Sorry, Steve! You sound pretty AOK too! I don't look at this section very often anymore. Got a little 'jaded' after 'welcoming' many people who wound up abruptly disappearing after getting the information they sought. Which usually involved the 'value' of their marbles and how best to sell them. Of course it's great to have a 'newbie' who actually enjoys marbles and everything that goes on here! ( :

Thanks very much for being so understanding! I like to think that my friends here understand that my personal situation is such that just waking up in the morning frequently feels like a 'being fed to wolves' situation. But I also like to think that my comments can be taken in a 'food for thought' way, even when they're 'open for debate'! ( :

Welcome aboard! Please forgive me for immediately addressing the 'need to learn' part of your title. I frequently 'push the boundaries' here with my photos, because it's my nature to do things with a sort of 'artistic' approach. This can be a great thing on occasion, but for many situations it just doesn't work. Your photos, both those directly posted and the ones in links, have a very limited 'focus'. In the long run, this doesn't work well. There's no need to post 'groups' of marbles where one marble's in focus and the rest are a blur. Similarly, a photo of a single marble should usually be 'entirely' in focus and not just have one small part of it or only the tablecloth background clearly visible. Again, please forgive me if I sound negative. It's only because you're one of the few 'newbies' who sound like a genuinely and thoroughly nice person that I wanted to give my 'no doubt sometimes questionable' advice!

This is all Greek to me! But that's good. Looks like billes is marbles in French. Just looked that up, and I guess it works for beads as well. We've already seen billetes in Vacor ads, although there've been other words at times as well. Guessing that French-speaking people have others as well. I think words for 'marbles' are pretty limited in modern English. Although the posts about 'traditional' marble-related language have been interesting and a lot of fun! I've always liked Vacors, although I understand why some people don't at times. They've made quite a few nice ones, and I sometimes appreciate how they came up with an entirely new affordable 'grading system term'. In my words, the "Imperfect Wet Mint"!

Hoody, your screen is too bright! ( : (This may not actually be true. Maybe this was a 'freak occurrence' for me.) But in the next few days, I'm going to post a black and white marble photo (a 'Zebra' would probably be good!) with the marble next to a black/grays/white 'gradation' test chart. I don't want anyone looking at the exquisitely exposed and processed shadows and highlights in my photos with a 'radioactive' monitor! Ha! Just kidding. I'm so 'full of myself'!

I've always enjoyed and appreciated that your 'cat-lover' status had no nepotistic effect on this forum title and posts within. 'Other critters' are clearly great too! Really liked the duck. That was perfect and ridiculous enough to almost kill me. ( :

Totally brilliant! Gotta like it! ( :

Ric, I definitely need to ask you about this one! The image I just saw here is a tiny candle flame with a large black background. Coupled with your title, I was rolling on the floor and thinking it was the most amusing 'concept' I'd seen since I can't remember when! But then I did a little 'sophisticated forensic photo manipulation' on it, and found that it was so much more! It's fantastic either way! ( :

This is true! I frequently make posts here which are 'pure genius', and they get totally ignored. Often my less interesting ones get many responses. (I hope you know I'm making fun of myself with the 'genius' thing!) But seriously, I think Hoody has made an excellent point. You seem to have a 'competitive nature'. This is a wonderful quality which is responsible for much of the 'modern progress' we all see around us and enjoy. But 'The Tube' is not a good place to get accurate 'judging' of your obvious talent. Don't take the responses (or lack of them) in a personal way! Being 'successful' on youtube is "a roll of the dice", and not based on quality work. If you actually are one of those people who enjoys seeing large numbers and wants two billion 'friends' (which I don't personally understand, but is certainly okay!) then I'd suggest starting a video with a marble getting slowly launched off a track. While mid-air, it then gets 'bumped' onto the beginning of one of your terrific devices by the 'butt' of an attractive woman wearing a bikini.

"What color are they?!" You have these marbles 'in hand'. Photos only add more difficulties to the problem. Please send me all these marbles and I'll give you an honest response. I promise I'll return them!

Not that I remember. And who knows why networks do the things they do? Their traditional 'never say die' approach just seems silly. And thanks once again for teaching me the 'jumping the shark' term not so long ago. I was always aware of this 'concept' but didn't have a name for it. The Perry Mason situation isn't quite the same thing, but close enough. ( : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_the_shark (Not a big fan of courtroom drama, but I think I'd really enjoy Bette Davis as an attorney!)

Hee-hee! I like the idea of a micro-machine. Reading further, I also like the idea of bowling balls. ( : My brain is currently 'way out there', probably because of a current practical need not to be 'under the influence' of anything. But I'll tell you my wacko idea anyway. I want to see marbles doing their normal high-speed run suddenly get dropped into a large container of thick clear liquid. Not sure what the proper thickness would be. Something between baby oil and Karo syrup. It will take them a long time to slowly sink to the bottom. Next, they need to somehow emerge from this container, literally 'take a shower' to get clean, and possibly also get 'dried' before resuming their high speed run. (I have no idea why my girlfriend's father doesn't 'approve' of me!)

Alec Callender would not be pleased with this! For those not familiar, he was more or less the lead character in the British sit-com 'May to December'. An attorney (I guess barrister or solicitor would be a better word here. Not sure which one) who has a serious 'professional man-crush' on Perry Mason, and sometimes, when especially puzzled about a case, has private conversations with the photo of him on his office wall. ( : From Wikipedia: Alec Callender - (Anton Rodgers) - a widowed, Scottish solicitor who tries to balance his work, his family and his new romance with a much younger woman, Zoë. Alec idolises Perry Mason, and has a "signed" photo reading "Cheers, Alec, let's crack open a case sometime. Perry."[5] He wishes his cases could be more exciting, like Perry's, but instead the most excitement he sees is the occasional divorce.

Wow. Never considered that possibility, although of course it's completely reasonable and valid. I hope loosening up the question a bit brings us some more interesting and personal responses like this one!