To Think of Elephants discussion

Hello! Welcome to the Elephant Thoughts group!

I'm Klymene, but most call me Klymy. :D My dream is a bit difficult to explain. How many of you have heard of Leo Baekeland? Most haven't. He made the first purely synthetic plastic, a substance we all use today. Without it, many of the simple things we take for granted, as well as several surgical procedures, would not exist.

But I love the fact that people don't know him. That's my dream: to benevolently touch every person's life without living in the public eye.

Please introduce yourselves! What's your name and what's your dream?

Baekeland ... made me think of "bakelite: Aha! Now I know why that early plastic was called bakelite.

Bakelite is a synthetic resin chemically formulated and named after its Belgian inventor, Chemist L.H.Baekeland c.1909. It is pronounced "Bay Ka Lite". Originally it was used for molding items that were previously done of celluloid or hard rubber. One of the original uses was for pool balls. It is collectible in all its forms including jewelry, buttons, radio cases, lamps, dresser sets and many more items. It was used commercially for parts especially in electrical wiring. After bakelite and the introduction of so many other plastics and composition materials it was easy to confuse them all. People began to lump all plastics into one generic term "Bakelite". However, experienced collectors developed ways of testing for bakelite some of which follow. None, however, can take the place of your own experience and careful inspection. Check out books in your local library (see the end of this article) and talk to other collectors.

My current dream is to finish my historical novel. I have a busy life with many worthy projects. My own creative challenge, the historical novel, is being neglected.

Hmm, hello, all I really want is to know stuff, I want to know how the world works, I dont even have to work in that field, but I wnt to know.

Hey, I'm Aprille. My dream is to make a living from my writing, traveling the world for inspiration.

Don't want much, do I? :p

Hiiii, I'm Soph

My dream is to set up schools for the less fortunes children around the world...... I want to visit as many if front countries as I can before I die. :)

Thank you for the invitation :)
My whole life has been chasing a dream. As an artist and writer, I have always wanted to help people challenge everything they've been told to believe.

Why? I have nooooooo idea; I'm just a passionate doctrine-breaker.

I note that a couple of you have writing-related dreams. As an editor for a publisher, and as a writer, I'd love to help. I can assist in any number of ways (for free!) - from edits to telling you about what's happening in publishing (chaos - lol).
Go to Amazon - look inside my books - judge for yourself whether the writing is of a standard that you require - or go to WriterLot and look there.

Expect Civilian Casualties http://www.amazon.co.uk/Expect-Civili...
The Evil and the Fear http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Evil-And-...

http://writerlot.net/writerlot.htm

Lovely to meet you all!

Thanks for the invite!

So hi everyone. My name is Kara, and my biggest dream is to become a published author. Erm, yes, I do dream big. (;

Thank you for the invite.
Helloo everyone, my name is Georgia and my dream is to become a veterinary surgeon.

(failing that, an author or a fine artist haha the only jobs that interest me are the difficult ones)

Welcome, everyone! I'm honestly glad you joined! Thank you to who ever sent out the second round of invites. I was a little worried about this group, but I think it's going to be amazing.

Published authors seem to be a theme here... What would you guys like to help you with your dreams? Would you like us to make a topic with friendly feedbacks?

Hey guys :D A lot of you already know me but I'm Cheyla. I'm 16. And honestly? My dreams change A LOT.

You see, a year ago I wanted to just make a living off of publishing books. Then I started getting really into graphic arts, like making book covers. After that came this fascination with film editing, followed by a desire to be a director. And lately? I've been interested in becoming a video game designer.

So it's safe to say I have absolutely no clue what I want to be, exactly.

... You know, it's not unusal for dreams to change pretty consistently. In the past year, I went from wanting to be a Piano Performance major, to a business major and piano minor, to a Finance and Piano dual degree, to just a Finance degree, to a Psychology major, to a Finance and Piano Dual degree (again), an engineering and Piano dual degree, and finally, A Biomedical Engineering and Finance Dual degree.

Yeah. Talk about indecision. But indecision is a part of life. Although we have our dreams and want to pursue them, we need to keep our mind open to other opportunities.

You all are doing what you should be doing at this stage in life -- exploring possibilities. Anyway, many people end up with more than one career in a life time.

Hi, I'm Mifalda (haha, that is just a pen name), and my dream is to tell a story nobody else has told before, and make a place where good stories can thrive. Or something like that, anyway. I suppose that could be done in a number of ways...

Hi, Mifalda... where did you get your alias from? My name's an alias too.

My simple dream is to work with movies. I mean like real, powerful, popular movies that people either love or hate. My deeper dream is to change people. Not like, I don't know, MLK, I mean in a small way. 1 million years from now, individual people will not be remembered. But 1 year from now, they will. If that makes sense.

Welll.... My name is Allison and I do almost anything involving imagination..
My dream.... hmmm...
First off, I love writing. It's the only way to stop my mind. But I prefer other things, because, well, I enjoy it as an outlet for my thoughts, I'm pretty sure nothing else. It's a fun hobby though! I love it.
I love singing even more. If I could, I would sing all day everyday, whatever I felt like listening to. It's my real dream. I'm also a songwriter.
Lastly, my dream is to travel. Which someday, if I can be a performer, like I dream to, I hope this can happen with like, tours and stuff.

That's about it...

Hello, my name is Dulce, well my dream is to see peace in the world.
My personal dream is to go to college, and help the environment, or become an artist.
Anyways, I also want to write a book, and be disciplined, because I'm such a procrastinator.

Amazingness. Some of you have dreams I've never even thought of before.

@Hannah: If I accidentally make a reference to something I thought you did before, I am SO SORRY. One of my friends in another group is named Hannah also... Ha. We've done some pretty crazy things. I'll try to keep the two of you separate in my mind! ;)

Hello! I'm Issy :)

At the moment my dream is mostly just to finish high school without having a breakdown. In the long term, my dream is to explore the world and have adventures, helping people whilst I do so.

Welcome, to both of you!

All of these dreams are amazing...

Klymene wrote: "... You know, it's not unusal for dreams to change pretty consistently. In the past year, I went from wanting to be a Piano Performance major, to a business major and piano minor, to a Finance and ..."


Me too, I don't know what to do. I am so undecided right now, and I feel so pressured to decide on something.

Dream about being grammatically correct and finding my funny bone again, now lost in the midnight dreary. The ability to change pencil lead scratchings into gold in the bank along with a cloak of invisibility would also help.

I'm Ari. I have a lot of dreams, but the current one is to make my life stop collapsing. And finish my novel, get it published. Hopefully both are possible. But I have no idea. Mine are larger elephants than you might think.

You realize how hard a question that is to answer, don't you? Ah, well, Klym, for you, I'll attempt.

My dream is to help bring life. In all ways possible. The most literal would be the fact that I want to be a mid-wife and help women birth their children in natural and peaceful ways. If bringing life means just helping people in practical and emotional ways, that's just as good. If it means writing books that bring light into the world, if it means composing music that brings beauty. I want to improve the world. As my father says in regards to other people's houses: "Leave it better than it was when you came."

Yes! Everyone makes mistakes and everyone has a hard time some time during their life, but if we can "leave it better than we found it", we will have lived a good life.

Some of these are very similar dreams to mine! I, too, want to be published and write something fantastic and maybe even travel the world :o) And I'll add that I want to fall in love with someone who's going to love me back faithfully till death do us part.
And dreams are supposed to change, especially when you're just discovering the wonderful possibilities of life. Mine certainly changed nearly daily when I was in high school - from bass player to tennis player to writer to illustrator to chemist...
And then later, when you attain one dream, then you find another.

@Robert: I'm pretty sure you have the funny bone problem fixed... I, at least, laughed at your post.

@Way-Chan: I take pride in making you think. You say the most wonderful things when you think. ;)

To everyone else: WELCOME TO THE GROUP! Please invite your friends too!

Hi my name is Yardéna. My dream is to have my own Charity that is dedicated to helping Children in orphanages. Within that charity will be a publishing department where I hope to publish my own books and perhaps record my own CD. The proceeds in return would be put back into the Charity. I have other dreams too but I think these two are the biggest right now and more a long term dream.

Klymene wrote: "Hi, Mifalda... where did you get your alias from? My name's an alias too."
My book that I'm writing (I only just started putting it up). She is one of the main characters. How 'bout you? Where did yours come from?

Hello,

well I think I want to change my name, but still thinking.
My biggest dream is to someday publish a book. A book that tells people of stories created by my imagination. Of how I see the world.
A book of appreciating life, every second of the way.
A book of True Life.

The problem: Everything {my only basic english, my lack of inspiration, my lack of motivation, time, my laziness etc.}

@Mifalda, Klymene is the greek Titan-Goddess of Fame. It has nothing, really, to do with my hopes or dreams (because I really don't want to become famous). I chose it because the first letter is the same as the first letter of my real name... I wonder if anyone will ever guess what it is? ;)

@Yardéna, is that your real name, or an alias? It's so beautifully unique. How do pronounce it?

@RedEye_Witch. About the name change: if you decide to change it... Can I help?! :D About everything else: WELCOME TO OUR GROUP

Ooh, Klym, can I guess your real name? ;)

It's interesting how people's dreams seem to have similarities. So many of you want to become published! It's great, because when you have goals that are similar, you can help each other to attain those goals.

Way... Can I guess yours? I don't even need a first letter. I'm that psychic. :P

You changed your Alias.

I'd say the reason so many people want to become published is because of the kind of people this site attracts. Goodreads (unlike Wattpad) is too intellectual for someone who doesn't care about life to stick around. It's too mature for young kids, so they don't last long. The not-so-attractive formatting for the pages echoes the maturity of the site.

But at the same time, it's a site about books. And when we think about it, what's the next step after falling in love with books? You make your own.

Hence the many authors.

I didn't really change it, I just shortened it so that it was more manageable. Though, I am considering changing it to my proper name... maybe... Probably not.

Oh, it makes a lot of sense! I just like to reflect on how cool it is that us book-lovers have such a site. Naturally, the more you read, the more you love words, the more you have your own words that you need to put down. It's like this never ending cycle. Except, when people say that, it usually brings to mind something negative.

Though... having words in your mind and stories that you need to write down could be looked at as something negative. I do believe that all us authors are going crazy (in the best sort of way.)

Change it to the nickname. The one with -ium at the end? The one that I call you in my head, but never actually type it out or say it out loud because it just feels strange...

It's a never ending cycle of DOOOM. No it's not. I'm just a little hyper right now. It's a never ending cycle of learning. But I guess it never truly happened to me. I'm going to be an Engineer, remember? ;)

I think you will be an engineer (or whatever practical pursuit you choose) AND a writer, Kly.

Oh, writing. I really can't finish anything I write. Although, I do believe this next book I'm working will turn out finished. I'll post the first chapter on Goodreads eventually (I use Wattpad more often now).

Oh, and I say that it'll work out because it's mildly based on my own life. And the forthcoming changes.

Is Wattpad a writing site?

@ Klymene, Yardéna is my real name. It is Hebrew. It means 'Garden of Eden' in Hebrew and 'flower garden' in Latin.

You pronounce it Yar (y as in yard)déna (as Dana). I don't know how to really type it but you get the picture I hope.

@Jeanne, Yes, Wattpad is a writing site. It's designed more for the preteen crowd, with some adults on it too. It's good for a quick, amateur romance novel. Or werewolf novels...

@Yardena: That's beautiful. That's an absolutely gorgeous name. Are you Jewish, then?

Klymene wrote: @Yardena: That's beautiful. That's an absolutely gorgeous name. Are you Jewish, then? "

I am on my dad's side of the family. My mom side is south american. But I was born and raised in Holland. What can I say, a mix of everything.

Wow. Holland has so much history! So, do you follow the Jewish faith, or that of your mother's?

Neither. We're all Christians.

Ah! I understand now. I've noticed that most people of the Jewish faith tend to marry within their own culture, and never outside, which is why I found it interesting that your father married outside the Jewish culture. But, seeing as he's Christian, that changes things. Are any of your relatives practicing the Jewish religion?

No it's actually not like that. Hè didn't grow up in a Jewish culture. Because of the 2nd world war many of the family claimde to be catholic. He is Jewish because according to Jewish Laws if your mom is Jewish than so are you.

The Sephardic Jews (in Spain) had to convert to Catholicism way back in the days of the Inquisition. They had to convert or die (or flee the country). Please correct me if this isn't correct. We had no European history studies in school.

If I am not sorely mistaken, though there were definitely a number of cases of foul play, the Inquisition didn't force conversions, but banned public services and attempted conversions of other religions. Punishment was only inflicted if 1) they lied about their religion and tried to convert people, or 2) they refused to stop holding public service and trying to convert people to their religion. Obviously, that was what it was supposed to be, there were probably a number of cases where that didn't happen how it was supposed to.