• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.
Okay, well, this would probably freak some people the hell out, but I took it as a sign from the gods that I'm on the right track:
Some of you will probably know that, as well as being a meter reader in my day job, I'm an author. I write historical fiction, generally of the action adventure type, but my current work-in-progress is about a young girl taken from her home in Germania to be a slave for a Roman tribune in Britannia. She, and the novel, are called Lucia. Not exactly a common name in the Glasgow area....
Anyway, I went into Morrisons in Erskine for some shopping yesterday, came back out and spotted something on the ground right beside my car door. It was a bracelet type thing with a name engraved on it - I'm sure you can guess what the name was.

To add to the tale, I've not worked in Erskine very often, it was never part of my "patch" until recently. The last time I was here 6 months ago the idea for Lucia came to me in a flash of inspiration, something that has never happened to me before. It honestly felt like the idea was dropped fully formed into my head from somewhere else and the book is really not like my other ones at all.
I wrote a little blog post about the find here if anyone is interested although it mostly just says the same as this post.

Just to round out this story - that novel, Lucia, was very heavily influenced by the Audible versions of Jane Eyre and Rebecca in particular, but also The Woman in White and My Cousin Rachel, all produced by Audible's own studios. Not at all my usual type of reading, but I tried the audio versions and loved them so much I wanted to write something kinda similar.

Well, Lucia has just been bought by a publisher - guess who...:joyf:

(It's Audible Studios just in case you don't guess lol.)
 
Just to round out this story - that novel, Lucia, was very heavily influenced by the Audible versions of Jane Eyre and Rebecca in particular, but also The Woman in White and My Cousin Rachel, all produced by Audible's own studios. Not at all my usual type of reading, but I tried the audio versions and loved them so much I wanted to write something kinda similar.

Well, Lucia has just been bought by a publisher - guess who...:joyf:

(It's Audible Studios just in case you don't guess lol.)

Congrats :)
 
Just to round out this story - that novel, Lucia, was very heavily influenced by the Audible versions of Jane Eyre and Rebecca in particular, but also The Woman in White and My Cousin Rachel, all produced by Audible's own studios. Not at all my usual type of reading, but I tried the audio versions and loved them so much I wanted to write something kinda similar.

Well, Lucia has just been bought by a publisher - guess who...:joyf:

(It's Audible Studios just in case you don't guess lol.)
Needs more than just a like, that. Congratulations! I'm thrilled for you.
 
I think we are in charge of our destiny in the moral choices we make, but we get a helping hand in life from G-D.
This happens every day but is not always apparent to us.


The trouble with this is: some posters on this thread have posted some stories of magical coincidences that have enriched their lives - and, of course, we are all very pleased for them. Is this the hand of God, as you suggest? Yet there is a spanner in the works: I am sure that we all know people who have suffered random and even inexplicable reverses and tragedies too.

So we are left with this: (a) God sometimes behaves in a spiteful manner towards people. If so then, even if this God exists, is He (She) really worthy of our worship? Or, (b) God only does the nice stuff and all the bad things that beset people are just the result of random forces - or some other deity. The problem with this hypothesis is that it renders God not so omnipotent - and hence not very Godlike after all.

And if you are someone who thinks that bad things only happen to bad people then, well...shame on you.

It is for these reasons,among some others, that I am an agnostic.
 
Congratulations Xeper and I hope it becomes a success for you.
 
The trouble with this is: some posters on this thread have posted some stories of magical coincidences that have enriched their lives - and, of course, we are all very pleased for them. Is this the hand of God, as you suggest? Yet there is a spanner in the works: I am sure that we all know people who have suffered random and even inexplicable reverses and tragedies too.

So we are left with this: (a) God sometimes behaves in a spiteful manner towards people. If so then, even if this God exists, is He (She) really worthy of our worship? Or, (b) God only does the nice stuff and all the bad things that beset people are just the result of random forces - or some other deity. The problem with this hypothesis is that it renders God not so omnipotent - and hence not very Godlike after all.

And if you are someone who thinks that bad things only happen to bad people then, well...shame on you.

It is for these reasons,among some others, that I am an agnostic.

Concise reply to you, otherwise the thread goes off on a tangent
1.) What initially appears "spiteful" is for the good in the long run.
2.) I believe it is possible to be punished by G-D, or "nudged" in a certain way to make one consider one's actions and change them for the better, so a coincidence could be part of these processes.
 
Wandering along the hairy edge of being off-topic, but related.

From Victory.

..1.) What initially appears "spiteful" is for the good in the long run. ..

I don't know how many here watched Trump's State of The Union speech. But in this he used a chap who was saved from the Nazis by the skin of his teeth.

The story goes something like this.

He had been loaded onto a train with others to be taken to another camp. The train suddenly stopped and it was the American soldiers who had come to liberate the camps.

This guy says ' this shows there is a God.'.

Question is, so this God stepped in to save this person (he believes), but where was God for the other millions when they needed saving ?

If God had existed, or if He/She/It really cared a jot about people, then this almighty being should have been capable of stopping the whole mess; But He/She/It didn't .

SO, what was the 'good in the long run' that was brought about by allowing the extermination of the Jews ?

Dare one posit 'the future creation of the State of Israel' ?

INT21.

Mods may wish to move this to a different thread.
 
INT21

It has been discussed in Jewish circles at length how G-D could justify the murder of 6 million Jews, and many millions of other people of course?
But also go back in Jewish history and you will see many millions more murdered and tortured etc.
People ask "Where was G-D at Auschwitz?"

So any answer is highly controversial, and how can I look a concentration camp survivor in the eye and tell them I have an answer as to why they, an innocent kid, was taken and starved?

In all of my reading and study I have read one explanation which made sense to me, but only if one believes in reincarnation.
It was written by a highly educated Rabbi In Israel.

It is connected to a rectification of Souls which was needed as a repentance for major sins in the past, and would pave the way for the coming of the Messiah. It is connected to the state of Israel too.

It makes sense to some on a spiritual level, but can one expect a concentration camp survivor to say "Oh yeah, well that was all OK then, I do not mind what happened?"
 
This was a very strange co-incidence that threw me and Hubby when it happened. My Dad was a real joker and a big fan of the film Zulu and interested in all things relative to the battle. I even have a huge print he bought some years before he passed away. I have it stored away in the attic. My Dad passed away some years ago and we often joke about his antics etc. Anyway one afternoon some years back we were sat in the lounge and Hubby was watching Zulu ( for the umpteenth time *sigh*). I was lying on the sofa reading a book. Suddenly there was a tremendous BANG!!! We both jumped out of our skins ( I nearly had to prise my nails out of the ceiling kind of shock). A large and very heavy radiator had fallen off the wall. We both looked at each other in shock then laughed as I said sarcastically "That's Dad for you... trust him!" It wasn't of course but it made us laugh about the timing of it happening anyway.
 
This was a very strange co-incidence that threw me and Hubby when it happened. My Dad was a real joker and a big fan of the film Zulu and interested in all things relative to the battle. I even have a huge print he bought some years before he passed away. I have it stored away in the attic. My Dad passed away some years ago and we often joke about his antics etc. Anyway one afternoon some years back we were sat in the lounge and Hubby was watching Zulu ( for the umpteenth time *sigh*). I was lying on the sofa reading a book. Suddenly there was a tremendous BANG!!! We both jumped out of our skins ( I nearly had to prise my nails out of the ceiling kind of shock). A large and very heavy radiator had fallen off the wall. We both looked at each other in shock then laughed as I said sarcastically "That's Dad for you... trust him!" It wasn't of course but it made us laugh about the timing of it happening anyway.
The radiator fell off the wall? Was there a major water leak?
 
There was a bit of a leak yes. However we managed to prop the radiator up and use a bowl. Then get an emergency Plumber out PDQ.
 
Here's a small home grown coincidence.

I was reading this Thread today, which mentions Edward Bulwer-Lytton. I've never heard of him before, and as Peripart mentions in the thread, he is "famous" for two things, trying to have his wife committed, and writing the line "It was a dark and stormy night".

I was then reading the David Bowie thread, and Skinny links to an article which mentions that “Oh! You Pretty Things,” with its warning that “Homo sapiens have outgrown their use.” Pegg believes this is a nod to the writing of Edward Bulwer-Lytton."

As an aside, Bulwer-Lytton also coined the term "Vril", which is a very Fortean subject all on it's own.
 
Here's a small home grown coincidence.

I was reading this Thread today, which mentions Edward Bulwer-Lytton. I've never heard of him before, and as Peripart mentions in the thread, he is "famous" for two things, trying to have his wife committed, and writing the line "It was a dark and stormy night".

I was then reading the David Bowie thread, and Skinny links to an article which mentions that “Oh! You Pretty Things,” with its warning that “Homo sapiens have outgrown their use.” Pegg believes this is a nod to the writing of Edward Bulwer-Lytton."

As an aside, Bulwer-Lytton also coined the term "Vril", which is a very Fortean subject all on it's own.

Add my coincidence to yours - I was just listening to Oh! You Pretty Things not long ago. There was one of those twitter jokes going around that "the last song you listened to will be the title of your biography" and that was mine. :joyf:
 
Add my coincidence to yours - I was just listening to Oh! You Pretty Things not long ago. There was one of those twitter jokes going around that "the last song you listened to will be the title of your biography" and that was mine. :joyf:

Well, crap. Just before I read your post I heard "Judas" by Lady Gaga.
 
I picked up a random scrap of paper amongst many that had computer game cheat codes scrawled on it that I didn't need anymore yesterday .. I only wanted it because there was a blank bit that I could write the words spit spectral & santon church to pass onto a friend .. I tore the square bit of paper out then, as an afterthought decided to check if anything personal was written on the back of the paper before writing the four words on and then giving it to him. The words spit spectral santon church were (written previously three weeks ago by me) framed perfectly on the other side of the bit I tore out.

What are the odds? .. it saved me having to write those four words on the torn out bit anyway, I challenge anyone to rustle through about ten random sheets of paper with all sorts of pre written and not needed anymore crap on, tear a square out of one of them to write on, turn it around and find exactly what you were about to write on the other side.

Ok, there's more impressive coincidences than this one in the world but anyway ..

anote01.jpg


anote02.jpg
 
Last edited:
The words spit spectral santon church were (written previously three weeks ago by me) framed perfectly on the other side of the bit I tore out.

What are the odds?

I once accidentally cut a extra length from the last bit of an expensive wallpaper. By a miracle it matched exactly so I didn't have to buy a whole new roll just for that piece.

Shared this wonderful coincidence on a message board and was told 'Well that's what you get with woodchip!' ;)

Smartarse.
 
I picked up a random scrap of paper amongst many that had computer game cheat codes scrawled on it that I didn't need anymore yesterday .. I only wanted it because there was a blank bit that I could write the words spit spectral & santon church to pass onto a friend .. I tore the square bit of paper out then, as an afterthought decided to check if anything personal was written on the back of the paper before writing the four words on and then giving it to him. The words spit spectral santon church were (written previously three weeks ago by me) framed perfectly on the other side of the bit I tore out.

What are the odds? .. it saved me having to write those four words on the torn out bit anyway, I challenge anyone to rustle through about ten random sheets of paper with all sorts of pre written and not needed anymore crap on, tear a square out of one of them to write on, turn it around and find exactly what you were about to write on the other side.

Ok, there's more impressive coincidences than this one in the world but anyway ..

View attachment 15299

View attachment 15300

Right - the only thing we need to know now is wtf is Spit Spectral Stanton Church about.
 
Is it wrong that I watched that and all I could think was 'I like his kitchen floor...'
 
Recently I've had a sore left side (I don't know whether it is my lung or a muscle strain) but it is only minor. I went to see my mum today who is in a home near us. She is well cared for, has her own room and is relatively independent. Anyway, i got in and she complained that her left lung hurt.

A couple of decades ago she suffered from abcesses under onr arm. Despite them not being 'catching', a few months later I also briefly suffered from them.

I can't have 'owt on my own.
 
Back
Top