learning. how?

I learned a new word (nacelles) today!

I thought geeks were circus performers that bit the heads off chickens (or University of Georgia students).

Nerds make the world go round.

What this has to do with bonsai who knows.... we better watch out or we'll become one of those other bonsai forums

Rob Kempinski wrote: What this has to do with bonsai who knows.... we better watch out or we'll become one of those other bonsai forums

Ah you may very well be right Rob. But then again the very fact that we have a forum which discusses the minutiae of things bonsai, puts us, I would suggest, well on the way to qualification in nerdism, geekery (minus the chickens I hope) or anorakerjacky. However, in my own defence, please accept that my contribution to this post was as a means of respite from having been laying kitchen floor tiles for the last two days; appropriate to this post in that one of the frequent cries of the Much Spotted Anorak is "I don't get out much", which I have now adapted for personal use to "I don't grout much".

And to get myself back to bonsai, I shall reword the tee-shirt to read "Do my nebari look big in this?".

LOL too funny!!!

I've learned THREE new words today:
Anorak, boffin, and nacelles. I thought I was well-spoken! I can plead ignorance on the first two due to the fact I am American. If there is one thing we are good at, that would be ignorance.

In relation to the topic:
I believe I got my first bonsai at Wal-Mart. Looking back at that, I was around 10 or so, frequently switching hobbies, and had no patience whatsoever. It was a "mallsai." It was also a juniper species that had a set of indoor directions. Liars, the lot of them. Or ignorant Americans. Or perhaps just good marketers, any way you slice it my first plant was dead in a few months. Clipping branches off was very satisfying on the beautiful tree. I also got a second tree the next year or year after and restricted my scissors as much as possible, yet still had a dead juniper after about (this time around) six months.

I now know that everything I thought I knew then was, how do you say? Bollocks?

I got a kit at 12 or 13 toting "grow your own bonsai from seed!" as the label across the top. The booklet that accompanied the kit had in-depth information on stratification of seeds, with no reference to what seeds were included or what the seeds for each species (and thus the details of the stratification) looked like. It is hard to guess a seed by its shell. Very hard at the age of 12. We didn't have dial-up yet either, so the world wide web was out of reach.

Fast forward 10 years. I was 22 and went through a period of, shall we say, self-discovery. I realized that not only was my focus at college (partying and girls) wrong, but that I had still nurtured an interest in bonsai through all those years. Looking up pictures from time to time, reading an article sometimes years apart, but there it remained in my subconscious. I finished my last semester in college with a perfect GPA, got my degree in Management Information Systems in May, and since have moved home and cared for my 23rd birthday Ficus salicifolia and all my newer plants to pass the time while attempting to find a suitable job.

All that I know about bonsai I have learned looking at a computer screen. I have heard of the Bibles of bonsai many times, John Naka springs to mind. What I have realized is that the more I read, the more I UNDERSTAND what is going on with these little plants in pots sitting not two meters away from me. The flow of energy within each plant, the time scale (years) that an enthusiast thinks in when caring for their bonsai, and the level of devotion that the true enthusiasts have for their plants. I read an article on a maple tree that was the sole survivor of a masterpiece group planting by one artist, whose wife took a bottle of Round-Up to it due to the jealousy she felt between her husband and his hobby. Boffers, anoraks, geeks, nerds and all other forms of bonsai lovers have their work cut out for them.

So who taught me? You did. All of you who are willing to share online, show pictures of their lifeblood and all the little tidbits they have picked up along the way. Thank you guys.

First expeience was the roadside juniper 8 or 10 years back. I still have the pot, the tree ??? I never could figure out if I killed it or it was already dead and just not showing it.

From there it was books, 15 to 20 so far. 2003 took my first club course. I still have that tree. Lots of deadwood, a plethera of hours on the Internet reading and looking at photos of other people's bonsai. Four or five forums and now resting comfortably here at the IBC.

Still a novice, collecting lots of potensai and working on gathering more quality stuf, while still playing with the cheap and available stuff.

There are volumes of books yet unwritten (and may never be written) in the minds and experiences of the members here at IBC, so the education continues.

Jay

Except possibly substitute/add "anorak". Is there a USA equivalent of anorak as a term?

Yeah. It's kind of a raincoat. Inuit word, I think.

No wonder there is confusion. Elroy

- An anorak or parka is a type of heavy jacket with a hood, often lined with fur or fake fur, so as to protect the face ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anorak

- In British slang an anorak is a person, typically a man, who is an enthusiast interested in information regarded as boring or unfathomable by the rest of the population. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anorak_(slang)

JimLewis wrote:

Except possibly substitute/add "anorak". Is there a USA equivalent of anorak as a term?

Yeah. It's kind of a raincoat. Inuit word, I think.

I read and read anything bonsai for years and then I killed many trees before I eventually kept a few alive. I'm almost entirely book taught until recent years.

[quote="elroy"]
- In British slang an anorak is a person, typically a man, who is an enthusiast interested in information regarded as boring or unfathomable by the rest of the population. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anorak_(slang)

[quote="JimLewis"]

Except possibly substitute/add "anorak". Is there a USA equivalent of anorak as a term?

In the US he would be called a nudnik. From Yiddish, but today part of the American English language. I read in another thread here that such people are called anoraks because they go out & watch birds (or other outdoor interests) for hours in all kinds of weather.
Iris

It was actually this very thread, Iris. Lord knows why/how it has resurfaced after a gap of three or four months.

Maybe bonsaiists are anoraks after all and keep going over all the same details time and again!