What's Going On in Maxhell? A Whole Lotta Nothing, Pt. 2

[Jana814]

The pictures are cute. But NR-Anna deffently looks washed out. 

[Toothfairy]

On Monday, July 25, 2016 at 0:16 PM, Cassia said:

Oh my word, is he ever a terrible photographer! 

What is he trying to accomplish with these washed out pics? Is he going for some ethereal, angelic look? Cuz it's not working...

And also, learn how to crop, Chris!! 

 

Does he charge? Because I would want a refund. 

[sparkles]

I've always been in the "Anna is very pretty" camp but there's something about a couple of those photos that's very unsettling. I think it's the angle that has her looking up that gives her kind of a sinister look. I finally realized what she reminded me of.

Pretzels Baby.

Just me then? Okay!

(For peeps outside of the US, Pretzels Baby is a very creepy commercial/advert for Snyders pretzels)

 

[MamaJunebug]

27 minutes ago, sparkles said:

I've always been in the "Anna is very pretty" camp but there's something about a couple of those photos that's very unsettling. I think it's the angle that has her looking up that gives her kind of a sinister look. I finally realized what she reminded me of.

Pretzels Baby.

Just me then? Okay!

(For peeps outside of the US, Pretzels Baby is a very creepy commercial/advert for Snyders pretzels)

 

I *knew* there was something unsettling about PB !!

[Melissa1977]

On 25/7/2016 at 6:19 PM, usmcmom said:

What struck me with the photos was that there was one with Joshua and Daniel but not one with each of the little girls. Why can't Ruthie and Lydia have their own photos?  Minutes after Daniel was born they took pictures of him in the arms of every "relative" but they can't do a formal pose with each big sister?  

 

His sisters are 1 and 2 years old. If you're able to take good pictures of a smiley toddler and a non-crying newborn, both quiet and posing, then congratulations. But it's not easy. Probably they took a million pictures but just post the best ones.

I think that having a good picture of the whole family of six is a success. When I say a good picture I mean a picture with all the people eye-opened and smiling.

(And yes, I have kids and I know what I'm talking about)

On 25/7/2016 at 9:55 PM, Burpies said:

 

Perhaps it's because she's just a second daughter? Not special enough to be born an honored first daughter position, and not born a boy?

This is purely speculation on my part, and me trying to make sense of twisty fundie thinking.

Maxwells post thousands pictures of Bethany or Christina.

I think sometimes people snark too much and forget that kids are kids even at Maxwell's (sorry, I'm talking in general, not about you). Lydia is 1 year old, she probably is a too active to pose or maybe she cries a lot, and they cannot take good pictures of her.

[Lady Grass Lake]

This seems picky but is anyone else bothered by the wrong use of me and I.   The picture of Sarah and Ruthie, has a caption Ruthie and I.  It should be Ruthie and Me.   I was taught use each person separately in a sentence, this is a picture of I or this is a picture of me.   She went to the store, me went to the store or person and I went to the store.  I notice this a lot when they discuss pictures.  I know picky.  OFF soapbox now.  

[Grimalkin]

On July 26, 2016 at 6:35 PM, sparkles said:

I've always been in the "Anna is very pretty" camp but there's something about a couple of those photos that's very unsettling. I think it's the angle that has her looking up that gives her kind of a sinister look. I finally realized what she reminded me of.

Pretzels Baby.

Just me then? Okay!

(For peeps outside of the US, Pretzels Baby is a very creepy commercial/advert for Snyders pretzels)

 

I think she is pretty too. I didn't see her looking sinister in this photo, but I scrolled down and the other one does look a bit sinister.

       I'm torn because I don't like snarking on Sarah but she reminded me of Gollum holding on to Ruthie. My Precious.

[uber frau]

1 hour ago, Lady Grass Lake said:

This seems picky but is anyone else bothered by the wrong use of me and I.   The picture of Sarah and Ruthie, has a caption Ruthie and I.  It should be Ruthie and Me.   I was taught use each person separately in a sentence, this is a picture of I or this is a picture of me.   She went to the store, me went to the store or person and I went to the store.  I notice this a lot when they discuss pictures.  I know picky.  OFF soapbox now.  

It would be a bit more forgivable if they weren't so goddam smug about their superior methods of education and they didn't insist on trotting Sarah out as a successful writer. Even if they have different educational aims and definitions of words like 'successful' and 'superior', basic grammatical skills are pretty elementary.  It's not even as though they can use the excuse that their children write rather than read; the KJV might be stilted and overly formal, but it is not grammatically incorrect.  It's the one thing those kids should be able to do.

[nausicaa]

11 hours ago, uber frau said:

It would be a bit more forgivable if they weren't so goddam smug about their superior methods of education and they didn't insist on trotting Sarah out as a successful writer. Even if they have different educational aims and definitions of words like 'successful' and 'superior', basic grammatical skills are pretty elementary.  It's not even as though they can use the excuse that their children write rather than read; the KJV might be stilted and overly formal, but it is not grammatically incorrect.  It's the one thing those kids should be able to do.

It's one thing I'm very surprised the Maxwell kids don't know, since grammar can be learned via the rote method and by just doing lots of repetitive worksheets on it. With Steve's love of rules, I'd think all of the kids would be intense grammarians (with zero creative writing skills).

How shitty was that Flowing Streams School?

[Coconutwater]

3 minutes ago, nausicaa said:

It's one thing I'm very surprised the Maxwell kids don't know, since grammar can be learned via the rote method and by just doing lots of repetitive worksheets on it. With Steve's love of rules, I'd think all of the kids would be intense grammarians (with zero creative writing skills).

How shitty was that Flowing Streams School?

Terri made sure in an old blog post to let everyone know its unaccredited...so, that says a lot. I wonder if John has his GED, he seems to be the most out in the world, real estate, and irrigation with conferences and all. 

[sparkles]

The grammatical errors in casual blogs don't really bother me that much, except in the case of the Maxwells, as UberFrau says, they're so damned smug about their superior textbook education. Personal blogs are much looser, reader-friendly platforms that don't really demand grammatical perfection. I've heard extremely well-educated people use incorrect grammar in casual speech and writing and I KNOW they're not doing it out of ignorance. Personally, I have excellent grammar when the situation calls for it but if you read my blog (or my posts here), you'd never know it. I have a blogging style that would probably make a grammarian cringe, but the subject matter just doesn't call for strict adherence to the rules.

Of course, I could be totally wrong about the Maxwells' grammar usage. It may, in fact, not be their blogging style at all, but true ignorance.

[SPHASH]

The fair is going on now.  Wonder if Lolly the fucking ass clown made an appearance

[nastyhobbitses]

46 minutes ago, sparkles said:

The grammatical errors in casual blogs don't really bother me that much, except in the case of the Maxwells, as UberFrau says, they're so damned smug about their superior textbook education. Personal blogs are much looser, reader-friendly platforms that don't really demand grammatical perfection. I've heard extremely well-educated people use incorrect grammar in casual speech and writing and I KNOW they're not doing it out of ignorance. Personally, I have excellent grammar when the situation calls for it but if you read my blog (or my posts here), you'd never know it. I have a blogging style that would probably make a grammarian cringe, but the subject matter just doesn't call for strict adherence to the rules.

Of course, I could be totally wrong about the Maxwells' grammar usage. It may, in fact, not be their blogging style at all, but true ignorance.

For me (Sociolinguist hat on), it's not so much improper grammar, since grammar is pretty mutable and more like guidelines, really, but the very awkward turns of phrase and sentence structures. To me, that's not so much a problem of not knowing grammar rules as much as never interacting with other people. You learn your language by talking with other people, reading, listening to music, and hearing lots of different ways to say or write things. When you limit input so stringently, the output's going to be similarly limited and awkward.

[sparkles]

10 minutes ago, nastyhobbitses said:

For me (Sociolinguist hat on), it's not so much improper grammar, since grammar is pretty mutable and more like guidelines, really, but the very awkward turns of phrase and sentence structures. To me, that's not so much a problem of not knowing grammar rules as much as never interacting with other people. You learn your language by talking with other people, reading, listening to music, and hearing lots of different ways to say or write things. When you limit input so stringently, the output's going to be similarly limited and awkward.

I agree. That awkwardness, I think, is why we comment when they use a word like "selfie."  It's just so out of character. I often wonder if they talk to each other in the same tortured style they use to write. "Thank you, sweet sister, for the way the burritos were passed. Mouths were open when the lord put it upon your heart."

[FloraKitty35]

3 hours ago, sparkles said:

I agree. That awkwardness, I think, is why we comment when they use a word like "selfie."  It's just so out of character. I often wonder if they talk to each other in the same tortured style they use to write. "Thank you, sweet sister, for the way the burritos were passed. Mouths were open when the lord put it upon your heart."

Are they even allowed to talk at the dinner table?  

[RoseWilder]

On 7/25/2016 at 0:16 PM, Cassia said:

 

My eyes are having trouble adjusting to the lack of a frumper on Anna. It's almost like seeing someone naked. She looks so much better in an outfit that actually fits, instead of that baggy monstrosity she normally wears. 

On 7/25/2016 at 3:45 PM, FloraDoraDolly said:

For some reason, the Maxwells don't take a lot of pictures of Lydia. If we see her at all, it's usually in a group photo. Very, very rarely is she ever photographed by herself.

Maybe she's like my two-year-old niece. Every time someone gets out a camera she yells out, "No, don't take my picture." 

[meee]

@RoseWilder I feel like if that were the case they'd go out of their way to take pics of her.  I'm remembering the scene in the Moody books when a stranger was holding one of the Moody babies, he/she got scared and cried, and Mr. Moody said something like, "You can keep holding him. We don't want him to learn that crying gets him what he wants."  That's not a direct quote, but near enough.

[RoseWilder]

1 minute ago, meee said:

@RoseWilder I feel like if that were the case they'd go out of their way to take pics of her.  I'm remembering the scene in the Moody books when a stranger was holding one of the Moody babies, he/she got scared and cried, and Mr. Moody said something like, "You can keep holding him. We don't want him to learn that crying gets him what he wants."  That's not a direct quote, but near enough.

Holy hell that's a horrifying way to raise children. 

 

[Granwych]

4 hours ago, nastyhobbitses said:

For me (Sociolinguist hat on), it's not so much improper grammar, since grammar is pretty mutable and more like guidelines, really, but the very awkward turns of phrase and sentence structures. To me, that's not so much a problem of not knowing grammar rules as much as never interacting with other people. You learn your language by talking with other people, reading, listening to music, and hearing lots of different ways to say or write things. When you limit input so stringently, the output's going to be similarly limited and awkward.

This!  And the Maxwells had the chutzpah to write about how to be conversationalists.

[nastyhobbitses]

Just now, Granwych said:

This!  And the Maxwells had the chutzpah to write about how to be conversationalists.

I would kill to do a study of isolated fundie families' speech patterns and speech development; I know we've also commented a bit on the way the Duggar kids speak, but they're far less isolated than the Maxwells are and it turned out that a lot of things people thought were idiosyncrasies (saying "whenever" where most people would say "when") seemed to be fairly common regionalisms. I'd also love to see how foreign language learning works in an environment that so heavily restricts information and what can be said (though then again, I taught English in China, so I guess I have a bit of insight to that).

[Cassia]

27 minutes ago, meee said:

@RoseWilder I feel like if that were the case they'd go out of their way to take pics of her.  I'm remembering the scene in the Moody books when a stranger was holding one of the Moody babies, he/she got scared and cried, and Mr. Moody said something like, "You can keep holding him. We don't want him to learn that crying gets him what he wants."  That's not a direct quote, but near enough.

A - a stranger is holding their baby? Hopefully it's an acquaintance and not an actual stranger because YIKES!

B - So basically: "Nah, you keep holding him. We don't want baby to learn that crying from his fear of strangers is reason for parental comfort in any way. We save our love for the important moments - like when our children are crying from their fear of hell."

[CyborgKin]

The conversations in their conversationalists book are so stilted and unnatural that their painful to read aloud.  It's easy to doubt the words were composed by humans.

[SPHASH]

3 hours ago, meee said:

@RoseWilder I feel like if that were the case they'd go out of their way to take pics of her.  I'm remembering the scene in the Moody books when a stranger was holding one of the Moody babies, he/she got scared and cried, and Mr. Moody said something like, "You can keep holding him. We don't want him to learn that crying gets him what he wants."  That's not a direct quote, but near enough.

Obviously the Moodys Never heard of Stranger Danger.

[FloraKitty35]

NR Anna is giving me Kathy Bates in Misery vibes.

[Chevreuil]

I always think of an flds woman when i see NR Anna. 

I know no one is really talking about the dog thing anymore but i really felt bad and scared for sarah and ellie. And it was really refreshing to see a fundie take their animal for proper medical treatment as i kind of feel like most of the fundies treat animals as expendable but sarah treats ellie like family which is nice to see in an otherwise bleak situation.

I grew up around a lot of feral and aggressive dogs (not mine, just people not taking care of their dogs) so i've had my fair share of moments as a kid being chased by dogs. I didnt develop a fear of dogs, just caution. When i first started dating my (now) husband, we went to go help his grandparents with something when we came across a woman screaming "stop stop!" while on the ground as a pitbull was attacking a chihuahua (i only mention the breeds because of the size difference). My husband tossed the pitbull to the ground (not like roughly, my husband loves dogs and wouldnt dare harm one unless it was to save a life) and pinned the dog with his boot. The screaming woman gets up and starts screaming at my husband that he is hurting her dog (he wasnt, he was just holding the dog down) and the chihuahua's owner finally caught up with us and had a large bite wound on his hand. Hubby called the police, the screaming woman kept screaming and i patched up the chihuahua's owner's hand and cleaned the blood off the chihuahua to see if he had any wounds (he didnt, all the blood was from his owner). It probably wasnt the smartest way to deal with a dog attack but it is still my favourite hubby story because that was the moment that i knew what a good person he is and that i could see myself being with him the rest of my life.