This is where you can talk about anything that doesn't have to do with atheism in order to get to know everyone better than mere introductions.

Reply to post #1 (show post):
Nice. I have one: I've just looked over the groups and discussions here and they all sounded pretty "DEAD". I guess, quoting my own behaviour, people comment and discuss directly on the posts on their blogs and the ones they follow. "Groups" aren´t working here on BL. Don´t know if they work on GR, or anywhere outside FB and some closed foruns by the way. Do you have Twitter, FB, or other social media account besides BL?

They don't seem to. When they first started up, they were pretty active, but now it's only a once in a while kind of deal. The groups and discussions work really well on GR, but they also seem to have a much larger group. I have a GR, but not much else.

Reply to post #3 (show post):
Thought so. I'm not in any "group" even in FB. Dont think I have the time to. Even following/reading/commenting the posts of people I follow here on BL is impossible kkk(guess I have to stop following so many people). The same goes on twitter, FB, etc It's too much. How do you find the time? :-)
As this is off-topic, I watch some tv shows(more time), movies(more time), read(more time), play video games(more time), listen to music,podcasts(more time), exercise(more time), go out(more time)... hell, I'm "retired"(haven´t worked) for about 3 years now, but even with "all the time of the world" I can´t find time to do all I want, and I don't have "that" many friends(less than 30) to be friends with, imagine people who "have" hundreds, thousands of them(on FB, twitter,instagran,etc). Maybe I'm getting old, or am introverted but I'm trying to reduce my "world" even more. I'd like to hear what everybody has to say(even people who I don´t agree with) to keep my mind open, but I'm just one person and I simple can´t(no time). It has come the time to choose and give attention to the people who think like me, who like the things I like, who can point me to other books, movies, etc on the subjects I like. That lead me to you kkk

About GR, how are things there? As bad as Youtube comments sections? Going in that direction? Or even with all the childish STGRB(or whatever the acronym is), author crying, and all, there still A LOT of good people there? I know someone has to stand and show the world why this childish behavior is, well... childish, but I don't have the patience(and time). I'm thankful for those who are. Nowadays I just link to youtube videos and south park episodes in hope for people to watch it and "get" my point or "go to hell, I have better things to do" :-)

Feel free to comment anything you want to. At least for a week(won't promise more) I will follow this thread.

I can understand your frustration about not enough time in the world. Going through my first semester at university was an eye opener. It was quite difficult to study, read, play video games, and go out when I wanted or needed to, especially with all the distractions that often come with internet access, text messages, etc.

GR isn't anywhere near as bad as Youtube comments just yet. Most of the good people from Goodreads have all but closed their accounts and moved over to Booklikes. I haven't reviewed or even listed my books on Goodreads since they put their new policy, but I do hang out on there for a couple good conversations.

Reply to post #5 (show post):
Nice to hear that. Can you recommend some people/friends in your group from GR who are here or on GR, Twitter, and some forums with good discussions?

Ps: since "anything that doesn't have to do with atheism" doesn't help much choosing a subject :-)
and because "I guess" I know a lot about USA and american culture, do you wanna know something about Brazil or Brazilian culture? Maybe something you heard...for example, do americans think we are all soccer players(that's half true) and Carnival/Samba lovers(definitely not true) living in a jungle?(don´t know for sure, guess not kkk)

I used to be a fan of soccer but nowadays I just play it with some friends once or twice a month(much better than watching it). What sports do people enjoy in USA these days?(heard that soccer will be the biggest one soon). Is some sport practice mandatory at your university too?(here it is) If so, what are you practicing? If not, do you like some sport or your sport is reading/play video games?

You can skip all that sport thing before, if you like. Bring up some other subject if you want. I don´t mind.

None of my friends are on, but there are a number of people who are on Booklikes from GR that I followed. THere's Old Rocker's Mad Mumblings, Indie Angie, and NoSpin.

I know a little bit about Brazil; unfortunately a good deal of it is limited; however, I am always interested in learning about other cultures. I know Brazil is known for its beautiful beaches, soccer, Samba, the Amazon rainforest, and of course Carnival. I've also read an article for one of my cultural anthropology classes that discussed how Brazilian people view race, but I'm not sure how accurate it was. I don't think most Americans think of Brazilians as all soccer players or Carnival/samba enthusiasts who live in the jungle. Most people in America think of the beaches and tan bikini clad bodies more than anything else.

People in the US enjoy baseball and American football, but soccer is on the rise in some parts, especially those with a lot of international influence. Thankfully, athletics are not mandatory at university here; I'm about the least coordinated person on the planet. Last semester, I ended up stepping off a curb and spraining my ankle, if that gives you an idea of how clumsy I am. Most of the physical activities I enjoy involve hiking; we have some beautiful trails in my city, so a lot of people hike here. I used to roller skate when I was in secondary school, but most of the skating rinks closed here by my final year of secondary school.

Reply to post #7 (show post):
Thanks for the tips. I've started following them too.

About Brazil, in general I'd like to think that's like USA but 5 years behind it. The military coup(closed markets with the rest of the world) was responsible for that(I guess). In some areas that gap has reduced, but still exists. As an example Youtube videos(and comments war) are trending NOW, Facebook/WhatsApp is trending NOW, 3G is trending NOW. 4G, Netflix, Streaming services, etc all that still a thing in the future. We lack infrastructure(my Internet is just 1MB), corruption is overwhelming, middle class has to support the poor and the rich(that causes tension and lots of rage speech against the poor(which in majority are black), the government, and so on. To finish, religious groups are strong(in my opinion because the lack of education and poverty), with millions of followers so they elect let's say, "bad" people who from time to time try to pass laws against homosexuals(gay cure), atheists, pray hate speech, etc. Well, just like USA some time ago(or not :-) right?

But that are the extremists. Yes, we have them too - and the Internet trolls :-( - but the majority, about 85% are "normal" good people, who respect others(even if we don't agree with their views), we like to party, talk, go out, make friends, in general we are fit, easygoing and happy(I guess our weather - sunny/hot - is responsible for that). Our race diversity is high and differently from USA(from what I heard) here we interact with immigrants and welcome them INTO our lives, so instead of creating disctricts(japanese district, for example) the immigrants fully integrate and live among other brazilians and with time became brazilian themselves. And that's something I'm proud of. If just we can get rid of poverty, bad education, corruption and the violence(with murder rates higher than Gaza, Afghanistan, Israel) we will be the better country to live in ever :-) Unfortunately, for now we must stay away from big cities here because compared to them, the most violent cities in USA are paradises compared to.

My sister ended up stepping off a curb and spraining her ankle too a couple of months ago. :-) It can happens to everybody. I like hiking too, and cycling, and running, and soccer, and swimming, well you got it: I love outdoor activities(and travel - if only I can afford it I would travel all around the world). What is in my plans is to learn skating and surfing soon. I have a feeling I will love both of them. I hope I'm not too old for them :-)

So, where do you live? Which state? It's hot or cold? What do you prefer? Do you have plans to visit other countries?

I had no idea you were far behind on technology. I wish I could say that the social problems you describe are a thing of the past in the US, but there are a number of states that will not let an atheist run for public office. While we are working on getting gay marriage legalized nationally, conversion therapy is still popular, and gay people are still bullied and attacked to the point where there are still murdered and driven to suicide from the hate. There is some unrest because the middle class is getting taxed quite heavily while the rich are able to evade their taxes legally; worse yet, our supreme court ruled that corporations owned by extremely religious people can opt out of having birth control covered by their health insurance.

While we do have those problems, it is like you say in that people with those views are largely extremists, who unfortunately now control our legislature. Luckily we have a moderate president who can veto any really crazy bills that will come through. Aside from the part where you mentioned fitness, your picture of what Brazilians are like is very much like Americans too. We just have a severe problem with crazy food portions and sedentary activities; my husband was shocked when he saw how small the portions of soda were when he visited Argentina to the point where he cut his own portions dramatically when he returned to the states. The racial diversity is radically different from what you describe in the sense that we still have a large amount of discrimination toward minorities; I have cousins who still hate black people on the merits of them being black and deny our Mexican heritage. I wish we could be as integrative as Brazilians; I've actually discussed fostering child refugees that have crossed the border alone once my husband gets more stable on his medicine in order to give them a chance at a better life.

Skating is really simple; I was able to teach myself when I was eleven, and I'm not very coordinated. You should have no problems as long as you take it easy until you get used to being on wheels.

I'm in Arizona, where it's cold right now at about fifteen degrees Celsius during the day and gets down to zero at night. However, during the summer we get around forty to fifty degrees. It's a relatively moist desert, but we still can have 200 days without seeing so much as a cloud, let alone any rain, so it's pretty dry. We do have a monsoon season where we have flash floods from all the rain, though, so we do have some rain. I prefer it to be warm and humid; I suffer from asthma, so I need humidity to help me breathe better. I would love to travel the world, but it may be a while before my husband and I can do that due to my being in school and struggling to pay my tuition. We want to go see a world expo, and to visit Scotland to see where our ancestors are buried.

What about you? Do you have any plans to travel?

Reply to post #9 (show post):
Wow! Thanks for sharing... I'm in a backpackers group here in Brazil(forum) where people share info on their travels and the most commented thing is that travel made them see people and the world as one, a common place, kinda they learned to respect and welcome the differences, that in general, people are good, even in "no way I'm gonna there countries"(like Iran, China). People are good, the problem are the ones in power(damn politicians and greedy businessmen). People just wanna live their lives in peace. Maybe the solution is to make these extremists travel around the world so maybe they would change their minds too :-) ...just saying, because you and I know that, in fact, unfortunately they won't :-(

Leaving this humanist talk aside, I hope one day to travel to UK, Japan and Greece(honeymooning in Santorini would be awesome!).

I prefer "summer all the time" weather too. Right now I'm in SC(south of Brazil, near Argentina) and here we have well defined seasons just like Arizona(and I hate winters). I'm planing moving to the Northeast(maybe Salvador,BA) where is summer all the time. Right now is summer here and on weekends everybody(me included) goes to the beach. We have wonderful beaches here :-)

I guess I have to include San Francisco/Las Vegas too in my "places I'd like to visit" because of all the LA,Hollywood movies, tv shows(like CSI) and Colorado desert in general(used to read a lot of western graphic novels as a kid - Tex and Zagor).
What do you do on vacation with all these options? Have you visited/traveled some of these? Did you liked it?

I think you're right; the majority of people are good, but the bad apples are the ones remember the most.

While our summers and winters are well defined, we only have two seasons in Arizona, so if you like seeing trees change color in autumn or trees bloom in spring, Arizona doesn't have those. I've seen pictures of the beaches in Brazil and they look incredible.

I've visited Las Vegas a few times. While I've gone to Disneyland a lot, I've never really seen anything outside of Anaheim except a couple hotels and the grave of my husband's uncle whose body was shipped back during WWII and left without a headstone for 60 years, when my father in-law found out and bought a headstone. Vegas is great if you like to gamble or to see a show, but is kind of something you drive to, spend a weekend gambling and seeing maybe a show, and then go home. At least that's what we've done ever since Star Trek: The Experience closed. I loved Disneyland and the drive on the way to seeing the grave I mentioned was really cool because you go from this ritzy resort area to the street signs having both Vietnamese and English and all these pho restaurants in five blocks. As someone who never saw anywhere with a large Vietnamese population, it was quite interesting. I have never visited Colorado, but I do have friends there, so we might drive there sometime. I didn't get to visit Argentina because my husband was working on a mine site with no barracks for family to visit or stay while they worked.