Hey Madan,

I don't know much about Grail message, but I just scanned through a couple of lectures in the book on their website (http://grailmessage.com). See the excerpt below from the creation of man:

===================
Thus the great epoch in the development of Creation had come: On the one side in the Gross Material World stood the most highly developed animal, which was to provide the gross material body as a vessel for the coming man; on the other side in the Ethereal World stood the developed human soul who was waiting to unite with the gross material vessel, and thereby give a further impetus for spiritualisation to everything gross material.

Now when an act of procreation took place between the noblest pair of these highly developed animals, there was incarnated at the hour of incarnation not an animal soul1, as hitherto, but instead the waiting human soul bearing within it the immortal spirit spark. The ethereal human souls with predominantly developed positive abilities incarnated in male animal bodies, corresponding to the homogeneity; those with predominantly negative, more delicate abilities in female bodies, which were closer to their nature.2

This process does not support the assertion that man, whose real origin lies in the spiritual, descends from the animal “primeval man”, which could only provide the gross material intermediate vessel. Even today it would not occur to the most extreme materialists to consider themselves directly related to an animal, and yet there is now, as there was then, a close physical relationship, hence a gross material homogeneity, whereas the really “living” man, that is, the actual spiritual “ego” of man, has no homogeneity with or derivation from the animal whatever.
=============

Interesting, right?!!! I also checked out the lecture titled "11. Christ said…!," and had to run as fast and far as my legs (or mouse) could get me out of the site.

A lot of great advice have been given on this thread already, so all I'll say is: a word is enough for the wise.

WOW!!! We are back in time. We lost almost 6 electronic months. I'm not sure how or where to pick up.
Good to see someone's grandma again

Wow!!! I give it to Wallace. The smaller drawing (shaded one) is just too cool. I can literally count the hair on the head of the model.
Simple and scanty eye browse gave me nightmare when I drew my face. I wish I could watch him draw. Anyway, I should be able to do a good copy job.

Grandma coming up soon!!!

. . . and the last one.

Here are my drawings.

Happy new year in Advance!

Onegai:

Lol, hair is always hard. One good suggestion I got from someone is to draw it the way you would any other part, in other words, don't overthink it. Shadows are hard, so what I'm going to do is show you a technique called Mapping and then we'll go over the basic guidelines for positioning features. Well done.

Thanks for the comment. I look forward to the next class.

Hi,

Below is my second drawing.

I had trouble depicting the hair on my face, like my eyebrows and mustache. Also, separating my color from shadow was not easy. Any suggestions you can offer in this areas?

So, where is everybody? I'd hate to win the prize unchallenged.

Here is the my first drawing:

I must confess that the tonal bar as helped greatly with my shading. I can now see how the different shading tones are bringing out the drawing in 3d.

Although the eyes drawing is a bit intimidating, I'll get to it shortly.

Thanks a million.

Babymumsy: Hello all....I got married around January and God has bin rily faithful in my marriage; He gave me a wonderful husband and also blessed me wit the fruit of the womb around June. The issue is this: during my visit to the Clinic for antenatals,I discovered I was hepatitis B positive,rly surprised cos I dnt feel anything at all and I rarely fall sick. My hubby has been prayerful and we have bin lookin unto God for deliverance and with high hopes that our yet unborn baby will not contract the virus.My hubby has also started vaccination and has received the 2nd injection out of 3 but he doesn't kiss me anymore,we practise safe sex with condom BUT I'm virtually sex starved. I really want to bond with my husband like b4 but he's so scared.And my friends who av babies alredi advised we shd av sex regularly so as to give space to the place wea the baby will pass...My hubby always gives me the excuse that we are prayin and fasting,so we should not have sex.let's jst say I'm not rily happy wit the way tins are going.what am I to do?

Since the medical folks have provided some good info, I will concentrate on the part in red.

This happened to a person I know extremely well; so, it is first hand info. In 2002, this guy found out he was HBV infected when he went for employment medical test with an oil company in Lagos. As at that time, he was contracting with another oil company; he had another test with the company and it was confirmed. Fast forward to 2005, this guy went for another med test for immigration and his HBV status was confirmed again. Having relocated to North America, he met this sweet babe in 2007 and they hit it off. Note that within the space of 5yrs he lived a normal life, no serious sickness and no HBV infection symptoms. In 2008, he made his HBV status known to the babe and they prayed about it. About 2 weeks after the prayer, he woke up one day and without any apparent reasons went for another test and HBV had disappeared without any traces!!! Now, from my little knowledge of HBV, if the body immunity was able to conquer the virus, there would be antibodies produced that would be picked up by subsequent HBV tests. In this case, there were no antibodies detected and the HB virus were no where to be found. It was as if he never had the infection. If that was not a miracle, I don't know what it was. They are now married with a kid. And yes, the babe got immunized before their wedding.

So, hang in there my sister! There is still balm in Gilead.

Shalom

Thanks for your comments. See the correction of my tonal bar below and a new drawing. I couldn't make it to class on Saturday as I'm based outside Nigeria. Is there any of the info from the class you can share with us online ?

Questions:
Is there any technique that can help to achieve good consistency with shade tone when shading large areas of a drawing?
Do you have Youtube videos?

Thanks again for this thread.

Below are my drawings.

Questions:
Is there a particular direction to shade for the best result?
How do you reconcile the colors of the object with light to get the correct tone ? Seems confusing a bit.

Thank you.

Hi OP,

Thanks for this thread. Please see my drawings below. Shey I try small?

macjive01: For the record, I disagreed with her and told her to reconsider but she is adamant and insist the house girl owes her life to her . As she feeds and cloths her. Sends her to private local night school. Where she gets a few hours of lessons a day.

I asked about the maids parents, what would their reaction be if they were to find out.
She said they girl has no parents for all she knows.
She complains thats she had to paid an agent through her nose a huge one off fee for the girl.

Please ooooooo . . . . What does the bolded portion mean? One off fee? Does it mean she bought the child?

2ndChance:
No wahala. We go build am together this time. All the evil third-parties are being exposed and will soon leave the way. I think I will just take things calmly. She just called me now to say she's on her way home from work still feeling remorseful. I have forgiven her but can never sleep with both eyes closed with her again. So sad.

Good that you forgave her. For trusting her again, it might take time to re-build the trust; however, I believe you can speed up the process. How? By getting to the root cause of the issue. When you understand why she did it, and both of you walk through it, trust should not be far away any longer.

If she has not told you why she did yet ? Sit her down, and ask for the whole truth. While she is at it, ensure she maintains eye contact with you, and read her body language. Hopefully, she will tell you everything and both of you can deal with it. Meanwhile, be prepare for the truth; it might be deeper than you thought. Come what may, try and work it out with her.

Shalom

It is very sad to see a sweet innocent relationship go sour.

In as much as parents should be "friends" with their children there has to be clear boundaries.

Dad enters toilet to pee when daughter is bathing
Dad enters room when daughter is dressing /undressing
Dad slaps daughter's bums
Dad gives extended hugs
Daughter steals dad's meat
Sleeping over in dad's room

All these are telltale signs that dad/daughter boundary was either never established or has been broken down. When boundaries do not exist or got broken there is bound to be problems. Parents should be sensitive to their children's transition periods and establish appropriate boundaries as they (kids) transitioned from stage to stage.

The inordinate familiarity between the dad and her daughter has led to ungodly attraction. Constant exposure to her daughters youthful juicy endowments has desensitized the dad to the blood relationship between them.

While I'm not completely ruling our spiritual aspect to this issue, it will be better to start seeking resolution by first tackling the obvious physical errors. You should start by cutting off the excesses I mentioned above - lock door whenever you need to be naked, don't condone any act of sexual advancement e.t.c. In a nut shell, all those unusual things that have been normalized should by corrected.

Answers to your questions:
Is it normal for men to be attracted to their daughters? It is not normal, but could happen. As it has been mentioned on this thread, men are quite visual; however, self control is the key. If the father could control himself with women outside of his home, he should be able to control himself where his daughter is concerned. A proper boundary would've helped to keep any unlawful attraction at manageable level.

Her behavior towards him ?
Obviously, the dad does not only need help with self control but also with his child upbringing principles. I will go with helping him especially when she has not succeeded in him ungodly quest. She should continue to relate to him as the loving and caring dad she knows him to be, but put up and maintain that boundary mentioned above.

How to behave normal like it never happened?
First, she should not try to live in denial as this will make it worse. She should accept it happened, try to understand why it happened and seek healing.
Second, would it be ease to continue life as usual? No! Part of the consequences of the issue will be the awkwardness that has surfaced in their relationship. It will be a struggle at the beginning, but with time it will get better if properly handled.

How can she stop him from wanting her and she if she gets molested?

She cannot stop him; and yes, she could get molested. What should she do? Get someone else involved. Secrecy will never produce a solution. While I understand that he is seeing a shrink already, an accountability partner other than the shrink will go a long way to help. Who would be the best candidate for this task? Your guess is as good as mine - your mum! While I agree with you that this will be difficult and will rock the boat of your "blissful" home, the pros outweighs the cons. Once your mum is aware, your dad will sit up. Your mum should be able to help you get through the situation, but be prepare as this could open up a can of worm 'cos your mum will question your dad's faithfulness to her. At this point you have to use wisdom before telling your mum. If by your judgement, your mum will not be able to handle it please approach a trusted close family member. Don't keep it between you and your dad alone!!!

In whichever path you decide to follow, always have these truth at the back of your mind:
1.) You are the victim
2.) Telling your mum does not make you a bad person or guilt of destroying your "blissful" home as your dad suggested. You are only telling the truth.
3.) Your dad destroyed the bliss in his home the day he tried to have you
4.) Telling you to keep it secret is an attempt to escape from the consequences of his action

By the way, did I commend you for standing your ground when he tried to taste the forbidden fruit? Good job! I can only imagine what both of you will be going through now if you had consented.

I pray that the almighty God will grant you wisdom and courage to take the right step in Jesus name - amen.

Remain blessed.


Shalom

50calibre: There is nothing like fornication, it's just a word coined by frigid religious zealots, to repress virile men & women.

However I believe there's adultery but only for married women.

So, women commit adultery alone?!!!

I guess you won't have any problem marrying a prostitute since there is nothing like fornication, right?

Are you talking about anti-social anxiety disorder or just public speaking? There is a difference between the two even though they have parallel areas.

Anyways, for public speaking, I've found out from experience that you overcome your fear and anxiety by actually speaking in public?!!! Ok, before you get discouraged or experience serious panic attack. The secret is to start small, practice, practice and practice, and with time you will get rid of your fear and get your anxiety under control; yes, under control not eliminate. As someone has already pointed out, all public speakers experience anxiety but they learn to keep it under control and even use it to their advantage.

Ok, you are probably asking where can I practice, right? Wherever two, three or more are gathered - your home, school, with friends etc. Make up your mind to always speak in any gathering you find your self - it may just be a few words.

If you need a friendly setting to practice regularly, then I can recommend a great club - THE TOASTMASTERS. Toastmaster is a club where you learn to improve your public speaking and leadership skills in a non-threatening environment. You get to speak in front of your club members at every meeting (if you chose to) and get immediate feedbacks. You get to work on different types of speeches for different occasions. In additional to public speaking goal, you can work on your lead ship skills. In fact, I believe both go hands in hands. Furthermore, at TOASTMASTERS clubs, you will learn how to give powerful impromptu speeches. How about socials? you will make a ton of friends from all walks of life. When you are comfortable with your level of improvement, there are opportunities to contest at club, nation and even international levels.

How to join? visit http://www.toastmasters.org. TM is available world wide; there is probably a club close to your location. As you know, every organization requires money to function. So expect to pay a token as club dues. However, you may visit any TM club for free as many times as you want before joining. I can assure you, visiting TM club alone will make a difference in your confidence level.

Anxious about even visiting TM club? Relaxxxxx!!! Every member is just like you and in the club for the same purpose - improve public speaking. What you will notice during your first visit will be a mix of excellent speakers and newbie - people at different levels. Believe me, the excellent folks were once scared to even visit!!!

Does TM work? Take this for a starter - I moved from being a squeaky voiced shaky speaker with sweaty palms to become a confident, humorous chairman/facilitator of a top management meeting at my place of work. I would rather hide behind my computer screen than attend this meeting months ago. Now, I can't wait to unleash my TOASTMASTER acquired skills at the meeting. ah! ah! ah!

So, what are you waiting for ? go and get rid of that fear/anxiety and start to enjoy public speaking.

Shalom

Simple definitions:

Asset: puts money in my pocket 
Liability: takes money from my pocket

So, my car is  . . . .

Visual Communication degree with the emphasis of web development, photography, graphic, multimedia, and programming is HOTCAKE everywhere in the designing/advertising/marketing/internet/media world.


uspry1, may i have a chat with you as per above. My email addy is in my profile.

I am surprised that 99.9% of replies to this tread chose to believe the obvious! Are we saying there is no longer God in heaven or better put no more genuine prayer warriors Besides, does duration of courtship or in this case "going out" guarantees the success of marriage If a marriage of donkey years could collapse in a jiffy how much more three years of ORDINARY "going out" - BFing and GFing!!! Apologies to the originator; i don't wish you broken relationship o. The originator did not claim to be a prayer warrior neither did she say that she prayed (pls correct me if am wrong) before choosing MR. Right yet the forum chose to go with her flow for reasons I cannot even guess . . . Haba! Nairalanders, is it that we have met with so much wolves in sheep clothing that we now generalized or was it because she mentioned her mum and her family's disposition to this other guy that we chose to believe they are acting this up For the fact that PRAYER WARRIORS were involved, and came up with different choice I will simply advise the originator to be cautious. What if she had sent in the name of her BF alone and the prayer warrior still said he was not the one? Furthermore, for her to have sent in the names of these "strangers" along with her BF's name, to me, simply meant she was not sure of her choice and probably needed another person's opinion and these divine folks' contribution was too good to allow to slip by since she probably believes they are in direct touch with heavens. And, like one reply rightly pointed out, her BF's reaction brought her back to the land of realities.

It takes two to tango, so goes the saying . . . If you tango with the right person, the foot steps will fall in place with the rhythm of the song and the result will be smooth and beautiful dance . But if you tango with the wrong person . . . . . . . oh-la-l-ashious!? #@ ^*& , have you heard of (not even seen o) what is called MACABRE dance before

So, my advice to you is that You and yourself alone should go to God in prayers, wait on him for as long as it takes for Him to talk to you. If you have not heard from him before, start a personal relationship with him and you will eventually learn to hear from Him. When you MUST have received a CRYSTAL clear direction from your creator, then and only then should you go to a genuine Christian (not church goer, bible carrying folks, etc o) for confirmation; your pastor, trusted prayer partner, GVA, SB, or even another set of PRAYER WARRIORS should do. The importance of making the right decision at this junction cannot be overemphasized as getting married to the right person accounts for almost 90% of one's chances of fulfilling one's divine destiny.

Best of Luck!

So nice to go down memory lane . . . . . was in Ife early 90s. Did anyone mention A.O.P at town One of the best mama puts of my time!!!!! I can vividly remember the shout of "OMOOO" from the female end of Sports hall (Akintola hall) whenever those lazy chics needed those kids to assist them with their chores. Also, the cry of "TAAAYLORRRRRRRRR" from the mobile Taylors marketing their services. Awo hall is a sh_t hole infested with beans weevil. I can remember the evergreen song " E pana, e pana o, e pana ko ni kaluku wa mu tire o!!!" ( Put off the light and let each person take his own) when moz babes are passing through the "zoo". All the "kurukere" moves at night in the female halls. Whao! boy oh boy . . . . Ife is truly great.

I can understand (having watched some BS from nollywood) those that do not seem to like Nija movies but please fasten your seat belts because our guys in the industry are waking up and they are coming up with some really cool stuffzzzzzz. As per my best movies - I have seen the ones below several times and won't mind seeing them a lot more times again:

why do fools fall in love
coming to America
Armageddon - Bruce Willis

. . . .and my best so far from Nollywood - Keeping faith and Dangerous twins (PART 1 ONLY please).

Out of curiosity, has anyone come across any other "wood" apart from Hollywood and Nollywood

Did anyone check out the so called "http://www.efton-uk.com/"? . . . such  a nice "site"!?!!?! Little wonder they wanted to leverage on ebay image rather than build their own "wazobi.com".