I went through a phase like that when I was about 19. I was too self-conscious to go to a hairdresser so I just let my hair grow out. Mind you, it only lasted a year or two. By then it was nearly shoulder length and I eventually got sick of it being in my eyes. What I eventually did was find a barber shop. A man cut my hair, not a woman that wouldn't shut up. It was awesome, and it made me feel welcome and comfortable. I enjoyed getting my hair cut by him. If you can, try to find a barber shop run by men. They will most likely make you feel more comfortable than a woman run shop would.

Alas, about 5 years after I found this barber shop the man decided to retire with his wife. His wife was running a hair salon on the other side of the shop. They ended up selling the entire shop to a woman on the other side, and she ran the entire operation. She was cutting the men's hair for a while, and I could tolerate her, but eventually she hired other women and a different woman started cutting the men's hair. And this broad would not shut up. She made going to get a haircut hell again so I reverted back to shaving it off myself.

I've been doing that ever since. I just wait for it to get long enough that I don't like it or it's annoying and then I use a pair of clippers to shave it right off. If I'm feeling really ambitious I will even take a razor and shave it smooth. I rather like to be completely bald. I think I look good that way. It definitely shaves off 5 or 10 years. Anyway, my finacée doesn't like me shaved so I usually let my hair and beard go for a few months longer than I like before I shave again.

Insert: A word of warning though. My hair grows very slowly now. I couldn't grow it out shoulder length if I tried. It might be partially age related (I'm in my 30's), or might be related to wearing a baseball cap everywhere I go for the last 4 years, but it's probably also related to shaving it off every time. I don't know. I haven't researched it. I like being bald so I don't care, though at the time I actually did enjoy having longer hair too.

He can't even get through one verse without babbling. I can't follow along because he keeps digressing mid-verse.

An interesting thing comes up if you Google his name. It warns not to take anybody seriously that believes in the teachings of Pastor Arnold Murray.

I have to be honest, he does seem like a quack from that video.

I went to a barber once about ten years ago and had a decent experience. The guy did a good job cutting my hair and didn't gossip or engage in mindless chit-chat like a lot of hairdressers do. It was one of the few haircuts I actually liked (most I just "get used to" after a week or so). Giving a barbershop a go isn't a bad idea.

My main gripe with run-of-the-mill haircut places is that they are too girly. I'm not used to the frilly stuff. It's just not my usual habitat, so it's inherently unfamiliar to me. Beyond that, I dislike how the hairdressers pretend to be my best friend while I'm there (waiters do the same thing, which I likewise dislike). I honestly don't care how their day has been, and I'd rather not talk about my day. It's all canned questions anyway. "Where do you live? Where do you go to school? What do you do for work? What's your family like? How's your day been?" It's not genuine.

Once they figure out I'm not interested in talking, it ends up just being 15 minutes of awkward silence. And then where do I look while sitting there? At myself in the mirror? At the hairdresser in the mirror? There are eyes everywhere... More often than not, I'd focus on an inanimate object (like a plant or a poster) until the ordeal was done with.

You're not alone. Phone calls are the worst, but I don't know why. It doesn't make sense. Phone calls are stupidly simple in concept, but they make my anxiety go through the roof. I absolutely dread phone calls and will more often than not let a call go to voicemail. There's a service called "Slydial" which I use often to leave messages directly on people's answering machines (only works for mobile devices). You should check it out. Best part is that it's free. You have to listen to an ad at the beginning, but basically you call it, listen to an ad, then type the phone number you want to actually call, and then it'll connect you directly to that number's voicemail system. It's much better than talking to someone in real-time.

I get my hair cut about twice a year at the same place. The last few times I had a nice woman cut it and she done a nice job and is very friendly. I'll probably be heading back there in April when the weather improves.

"Edgar", no thanks, I know how to read my Bible. I have read it cover to cover several times over now and studied it in depth, including the original Hebrew, Aramaic (book of Daniel) and Greek, so I know what it says.

Thanks. I liked it.

In other news, been doing more 3D programming. This time on a newer 3D terrain project which uses older OpenGL code. Finally got code down pat where I can detect which polygon I am over on the terrain which is nice. Got a lunar landscape, the data I got from a lunar heightmap and image of the actual moon. Not sure what I want to do with this, thinking of having a 3D lunar lander game maybe? <shrug> Got the space skybox that I used in another project.

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I done that once, except I know my Bible better than they do and I was proving some of their doctrines wrong from the Bible. I had one guy so stumped that he had to come back at a later date as he didn't know what to say. He brought back an ex-Catholic turned JW... he didn't fair much better. Had a similar experience with two Mormon girls. One of the girls done all the talking and the other just tagged along with her, a trainee perhaps. As I pointed out verses which proved some of their ideas to be false, the quiet girl was heard by both of us mumbling to herself, but out loud "you know... he's right"... the girl that done all the talking turned into a very angry look, it was priceless.

Eventually I had to tell them all to stop coming to my place as I was starting to feel like the training ground for all these churches.

On another note, celebrating my 33rd wedding anniversary today. My wife still looks good now, me on the other hand... didn't fair so well.

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She still looks almost the same. Older than I am, but no grey that is noticeable. It's not fair I tells ya!!!

They were about average looking as I recall. But they could send supermodels and I wouldn't attend their church. But then, my wife might start answering the door at that time.

Thanks. Time sure flies. I couldn't imagine what life would have been like without her.

None of his comments are "babble". If he takes a moment to explain something, you should listen to it.

gotquestions.org? Really? You're going to use them as a reliable source of information? Pretty much everything they said there was a bald faced lie. It does not surprise me in the least bit. Satan will do everything he can to discredit people who teach the truth of God's word.

No, you don't. It's very clear that you don't understand what happened in the Garden of Eden, and if you don't understand what happened there, then nothing else is going to make sense either.

You've repeatedly insulted me. When you ask for proof of what I say and I give it to you, instead of looking at what it says, you stick your head in the sand and claim to have "superior" knowledge of what it really says.

"Neil" why do you use my name in quotes? You already revealed it earlier, and I trusted you to keep it to yourself. I can see you're not a man of honor at all. I chose not to use my real name on these forums because of people who were stalking me. I don't appreciate you threatening to "out" me. My real name is none of anyone's business, and I shouldn't have trusted you with it.

Let's put this BS to bed already.

Here's a segment of Pastor Murray's teaching on Genesis 4. It covers everything you need to know to understand what I've said.

https://youtu.be/e2AJdc81j0I?t=647

What was the beginning? Genesis. Who was Cain of? The wicked one, Satan.

Jesus is speaking to the Kenites, the generation (offspring) of vipers. Who murdered Abel? Cain.

Their father is the devil. He was a murderer from the beginning. Who was the first murderer? Cain. The Kenites are chilren of Cain, who was a child of Satan. From Genesis 5, Cain isn't listed in Adam's genealogy. If he was his son, he would be listed there.

What more proof do you need? There's more than this to back me up, and so far you haven't posted proof of anything. All you say is you "know your Bible". Yeah, right. You're just ashamed because you don't have a deeper knowledge of what is there. Your knowledge of the bible is superficial and shallow, just like all of your insults.

Watch the video on Chapter 4. It explains it all.

I've honestly never heard "Cain is the son of the Devil" before. It's interesting... I'll have to read up on it...

[edit] Ah...

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Serpent_seed

[edit]

!! I didn't know you were a white supremacist, Edgar! I should have invited you to our meetings! (Wait...)

I honestly have no idea why "white surpemecists" aren't pro-Israel/jews. Like... they're white. So if you want whites... like... why "all whites... but not those whites." It's so absurd. Then again, I can't expect much rationality from a hate movement.

I like that idea... I have to try it. But I'm not really sure how to start a persona - probably should have done so a long time ago then I would have one now I could use.

Not sure talking to an answering machine makes it easier - I normally just hang up quickly if a call directs me to an answering machine :p

Well, if you've ever role played and you've decided to talk in character, that's basically all you're doing. I decided that a good people-person talks in a confident unrushed voice, and that's how I started talking when I was working. I also talk that way now when I'm in stores, hair-dressers, etc.

When I'm talking in my normal voice I'm very quiet and speak too quickly for most people to understand me easily. I also miss out words or use a completely random word instead of the question without realizing it. That also makes it difficulty for people to understand me normally.

It's not a full persona. There's no name or background. It's more like a shell, or piece of armour. Sometimes I think of it as a veneer layer that sits over me and reflects normalness. Somehow it works.

Update:

I don't think many people realize this. Pretty much any encounter that someone with social anxiety takes up a lot of energy, and it all builds up.

I was working 60-80 hour weeks for most of the time I was in hospitality and getting an average of 3 hours sleep a day. I don't know how I made it last for 15 years before something finally gave way.

If the forum takes too long to respond, you can end up double (or even triple) posting. I think I actually did it once.

My guess, however you end up sending two copies of the post to the server, two scripts are running, and they both end up checking if you were the last to post before each other gets to the insert part.

And if multiple PHP scripts can't run in parallel and the SQL service is multi-threaded, then maybe there is a delay from one script's insert being fully committed to disk or cache or whatever, and another script's select doesn't see the latest inset yet. If there's multiple SQL servers running, I can see this as being possible. (Seeing as the post ids are not skipping numbers... maybe not)

That is part of the reason why I absolutely cannot stand the whole Satan's seed doctrine. Setting aside the fact that scripture simply doesn't support it. One of the reasons it was invented was to claim that either black people or Jews are some sort of evil sons of Cain who was some sort of son of Satan. I don't know how people come up with any of it. It's just an excuse to be racist, and racism is one of those topics where I will get very angry as I absolutely cannot stand it. Anyone who judges a person based on their skin tone is a blithering idiot.

Also, even IF that were all true, Cain was the ONLY one that got the mark, whatever it was, we are not told. And Cain along with ALL of his descendents were killed in the flood. NONE of them survived at all, only NOAH and his family survived, and they have a totally different genealogical line than Cain.

That also wipes out any idea that the Jews were some sort of Satan's children, and I think I know where that putrid, vile lie comes from, but it cannot withstand the fact that only Noah survived.

Go around using God's word as an excuse to hate people based on their race will not win anyone over and it shows off your total ignorance.

Bah... I didn't want to reply to this garbage, but racism always makes my blood boil, especially when so called "Christians" use the Bible to support it.

Got more programming done on my 3D Terrain project. I finally figured out how to detect the polygon I am standing on, and the exact position within it to determine my height on the terrain I am moving over. The beauty is, the math wasn't all that difficult. So that made my day.