Comments on: Ventura County Barbie Collection

By: evan

evan — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 23:19:53 +0000

LTOR, your clarity delights me! i'll take your suggestions and encouragement to heart, and may call on you again for advice! you can email me anytime!

By: Tyler

Tyler — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 05:08:28 +0000

all good – you don’t get 20 comments when everyone just says “ha! funny. ROTFLOL!”

By: LTOR

LTOR — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 03:17:37 +0000

Sorry, I guess we did get carried away (especially considering the comic content of the original post).

By: OLD CROW

OLD CROW — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 01:21:14 +0000

I like big booty Judy Michael Didj! Thanks for providing some relief on this thread.

By: Michael Didj

Michael Didj — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 00:32:57 +0000

Hey every body, here's some good news:Giant Barbie dolls for sale, starting at $6500.

By: LTOR

LTOR — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 13:51:58 +0000

The best mind is an open one and to be able to both realize and embrace that concept at a young age is truly a gift. Add to that your kind heart, Evan, and I’ve no doubt you’ll end up a wonderful “grown-up”.
Keep on doing what you do…and best of luck to you as you approach the challenges of young fatherhood. I think you would be the perfect person to do a thread on the difficulty of raising a small child AND being vigilant and faithful to your ideals. The environmental debate over “cloth vs. plastic”, diapers, for example, is just one example of what new (or would-be) young mothers and fathers would be interested in from your point of view. Or how might your thoughts on censorship change when you become the guardian of a young mind….There are so many more examples where, as time progress and the baby grows, you will begin to encounter enormous challenges as well as “those life-changing, clear-cut-issue-blurring situations” and you’re personal insights could be very inspiring to many. Keep us “posted”…

By: evan

evan — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 04:03:12 +0000

wow, who knew that a gag about stereotype-peddling Barbies would turn into an in-depth discussion such as this? gotta love community blogging…
LTOR, you are very refreshing to me…and i thank you for continuing to engage me in an intelligent and respectful way!
as far as an update on both of the outstanding cryptic messages directed at me recently (one on the Baby Austin thread, and one here), i’ve received no clarity on either one…nobody’s bothered to contact me per my invitation to sort it out.
you mention the rarity of forums for intergenerational dialogue, and i agree with you. this prompts me to send some lovin’ once again Tyler’s way for providing us this wonderful tool for doing so.
LTOR, your last paragraph perfectly captures part of what i held back from going into earlier: that it’s hard for me to be extremely certain about my current state of energy/idealism/activism precisely because i’m in the midst of it right now. i’m sure that every other person who has since “moved on” in one way or another found that youthful state to be blissfully eternal until they grew and stretched beyond it. i think you characterize it well from the perspective of younger generations as far as looking like a fading away…and i’m encouraged to know that it isnt necessarily as it seems. when it IS, however, i hope that those both young and seasoned can participate in an energy exchange that rekindles the idealist in some and tempers the idealist in others.
i’m joyful that there are plenty of adult persons in this valley (and certainly the Ojai Post is one place where they seem to gather) who follow Tyler’s philosophy that “The adult world is what you make it, and having fun and playing are a byproduct of having a positive outlook.”
i think having kids is going to bring about some of those life-changing, clear-cut-issue-blurring situations that LTOR alludes to…but i welcome the challenge. finally in my life i feel strong and convicted enough to face those kinds of things head-on and be confident in my ability to be cautious, wise, AND idealistic about them.
i mentioned that i’d thought of some other issues…
first is that i want to put the war movement on notice that it has about six months to cease and desist. i loathe the idea of my first child born during wartime, which is the antithesis of everything i work for.
BUT…i have to responsibly wonder if i would be who i am without 9/11 and the ensuing wars and atrocities. i almost hate to think that that’s what it took, and i almost hate to think that i have social perversions to “thank” for my development, but if i’m to be real i think i have to grit my teeth and embrace those uncomfortable origins. my challenge? to end war, then teach my children to be passionate even during peacetime.

By: Tyler

Tyler — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 01:05:12 +0000

The adult world is what you make it, and having fun and playing are a byproduct of having a positive outlook.
I would posit that when you say that the “adult world” sucks the life out of the young, perhaps you are just referring to our treadmill consumerism capitalism at any cost culture.

By: Dennis Leary

Dennis Leary — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 22:35:49 +0000

I’m 67 and going on 6 or 7 as far as idealism and realism goes.
What I’m saying is that the older I get in the body, the younger I get in spirit.
The adult world sucks, for the most part. It sucks the life out of the young. The young should be nursed by the old but instead children have to nurse adults.
Rage, rage, rage
Whatever your age
At the evils of this age

By: Long Time Ojai Resident

Long Time Ojai Resident — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 22:12:39 +0000

Touché (and well said) Evan:
I often wonder “what a wonderful world it would be” if we all retained our youthful zeal and enthusiasm all our lives and were able to successfully fight off the urge to become mellow (and yes, even sometimes jaded) as time marches on.
I meant no disrespect whatsoever (truly). I was inspired to comment not because I personally find anything negative about your enthusiasm (quite the contrary), but more to say “Hey, lighten up!” to the authors of the few negative posts recently (i.e. your Baby Austin thread)…is flippant the right word to describe some of them? And specifically to the one crude post above (still not sure what that meant).
While we’re on the subject, I think this is a great topic for discussion as many times in this day and age (and perhaps even more so in this country) you don’t find many venues for people of different generations to interact in a meaningful way when it comes to issues that ultimately affect us all.
So, in defense of getting older and “mellowing out” over the years, I would just like to throw out there that, as one does get older, as more life-experiences pile up and the more we see, hear, learn…sometimes ideas, beliefs, ways of expressing oneself, suggestions for solutions, etc., etc. may change in unexpected ways. Some may evolve or temper or even disappear…some may do a complete 360 [or would that be a 180?]. Some may exasperate you because they become “not as comfortingly clear-cut” as they once were. Sometimes several different beliefs converge and conflict and suddenly compromise is needed where you never thought it was…And I think far too often, this can sometimes appear to a younger generation like the fading away of idealism which I would argue (and hope) it is not. What do you think?