Shinmaru

[quote name='Dagger]I barely ever log in except to post birthday messages, but it's a nice way to stay connected. Ironically, knowing that my old friends are just a click away has kind of discouraged me from keeping in close contact with them. I tell myself that I can talk to them whenever I feel like it, and somehow having that ability keeps me from [i]ever[/i'] feeling like it.[/quote] Actually, that's how my pattern of usage has gone, too, with both Facebook and MySpace. Oh well, even if I don't contact people as much as I'd like, it's at least nice to know they still exist. On MySpace I recently got a message from a friend I haven't been in touch with since middle school, which is pretty wild. And thanks to Facebook, I found out a good friend from high school will be transferring to my college next quarter. :) Anyway, uh, obviously I have a Facebook page lol. I joined when it was still a college-only site, just to have one, I guess. I've got a few OBers on my page... Syk3, Sara, Queen Asuka, Arcadia, Generic NPC #3, Ben, Solo Tremaine, AJeh, and I think that's about it. I'm so connected! Ooh, I just remembered a big reason I like Facebook right now - the NCAA tournament pool!! I doubt I'll win anything, and I'll probably come in 69th place in my school or something, but whatever. It's a fun random thing. We should set up some sort of OB pool if there's time left and anyone other than me is interested... EDIT: Whoops, the tournament's already started; guess there's no time left! :p

I'd spit on Britney Spears, because, really, how could I ignore such a shiny target?

Oh, reading and studying writing styles definitely affects your writing ability. To be honest, most of what I've learned about writing has come from reading and noticing how authors use words, puncuation, different types and lengths of sentences, and so on and so forth. I'd say general observation taught me around 85% of what I know and use when writing. A college course I took in grammar taught me everything else I find useful. So, yeah, reading more can only have a positive effect on your writing. :)

Haha, I knew right away that [spoiler]Edmund would be hit by a bus. It seemed like just the kind of thing the Others would pull. I had to stifle a laugh seeing the bus in the background during that scene raring to go lol.[/spoiler] I also figured that [spoiler]Juliet would ace Pickett. Immediately after he told Juliet that he knew Ben would rather die than let Sawyer and Kate escape, I knew he was a goner.[/spoiler] Sucks to be him, I guess. Anyway, random stuff I liked: - [spoiler]Tom's[/spoiler] awkward ice breaker to Jack was HILARIOUS. Jack's quick death stare in return was nearly as funny. It's amusing how [spoiler]Tom has become such a dope since Ben has been clearly established as the Others' leader. I swear, the transformation was instantaneous when Ben showed up at the dock in the season two finale, haha.[/spoiler] - [spoiler]That creepy [i]A Clockwork Orange[/i]-esque room was crazy. I wonder if that's the type of thing Walt was subjected to when he got out of line or as part of an experiment.[/spoiler] - More [spoiler]Alex~![/spoiler]

Yeah, it's pretty silly. The guys should've received clearance from the city beforehand just in case (even though, as mentioned earlier, the damn things had been up for weeks in other major cities with no problems), but still, I don't know how anybody can look at those things and think "BOMB." They sure as hell don't look like bombs to me. [url=http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070201/ap_on_re_us/suspicious_devices_32][b]Here's an article on Yahoo! News with a picture of it in case someone here has yet to see it.[/b][/url] Also, has everyone seen the news conference that aired on Fox News? Hilarious stuff. The two guys completely blew off the media lol. If I were there, I would've played along with them. They're not going to answer questions, anyway, so why the hell not? Let's talk about hair! [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx2ytr2Oyv4][b]Here's the news conference.[/b][/url] "I feel like my hair is pretty perfect..." :animesmil

If you enjoy [b]Scarling[/b], then I assume you're already familiar with [b]Jack Off Jill[/b]. If not, then definitely check them out, especially [i]Clear Hearts, Grey Flowers[/i], which is so much better than [i]Sexless Demons and Scars[/i] it isn't even funny. Most of what JoJ and Scarling have in common stops with Jessicka, but they're good regardless. I've got to second the [b]Siouxsie and the Banshees[/b] recommendation. They're wonderful. If you like them, seek out some more Gothic/New Wave-ish stuff too... [b]The Cure[/b], [b]Depeche Mode[/b], [b]Echo & The Bunnymen[/b], [b]Joy Division[/b], [b]New Order[/b], [b]Talking Heads[/b], [b]Au Pairs[/b], etc. I

I got the game a couple of days ago. Believe it or not, this is the first WarioWare game I've played. Based on my experience here, I seriously need to pick up the other games in the series lol. The games are great fun, and the random, surreal imagery cracks me up. I like all of the different ways that the Wiimote is used as well. One of the complaints about that I read in EGM was that it's cumbersome to switch positions every five seconds, but it's not as if they're complex or anything. They spoke out against the goofier positions, too, which I think misses the point of the game. You're [i]supposed[/i] to look like a complete goofball playing the game lol. As for the multiplayer... well, it's sort of annoying in that you can only use one controller to play, meaning that you must pass the Wiimote around as turns switch. That hasn't messed up any of my multiplayer games, but I've been playing with a relatively small group of people. When the multiplayer parties get large, I'd imagine that it gets tougher to coordinate things. So that's one aspect of multiplayer that's disappointing. Still, it's fun to continuously switch around and play the games. I completely agree with Syk3 about the stance explanations, by the way. They slow down the game a bit, sure, but they make up for it with their hilarity. I love the announcer's voice... it's so dry and serious lol. I, too, would be interested in seeing those movies again without having to play through the levels if anyone finds out how to do that. EDIT: My brother found out how to do it. You go to the Form section in the Temple of Form, click on whatever form you want to see, and then click on it again once your in that form's section (I hope I made that confusing enough for everybody!).

[quote name='Sara][color=#b0000b][size=1]Just to be sure I'm clear: We're allowed to have other people take these photos, right?[/size'][/color][/quote] I can't imagine why not; that's what I did lol. There's more to a picture than actually taking it, after all. :)

With black and white as the template, I wanted to create a photo that manipulated light in a manner befitting the very finest of the film noir tradition, influenced of course by the magnificence of German Expressionism. But since either me or my camera is apparently incompetent (I'm still figuring out which), please instead behold the utterly fascinating image of me reading the 'How To' guide on responding to juror summons. Enjoy. I know I did. [center][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v388/Shinmaru/ShinTheJuror.jpg[/IMG][/center] [b]What's your favorite hobby?[/b] I imagine that this will be the cliché response, but writing is my favorite hobby. I love all of the oddities of the English language; it's so bizarre, but it's also so versatile and so much fun to use. (Side note: I nearly die whenever I read news reports about people attempting to dumb down English. Please desist raping the language, you fools.) For the most part, it doesn't even matter what I'm writing: It could be a short story, a blog post, a school essay, or a Post-It Note reminding me to stop wasting Post-It Notes - I'd be happy writing any of them. The writing process is just so much fun. To me, the best of writing is like putting together a great puzzle, only without the family dog eating half the pieces. Or maybe it [i]is[/i] like that sometimes. Hm. [b]What do you think your best personality trait would be?[/b] I am once again digging into the pile of clichés by saying my sense of humor. Making people laugh is something that I enjoy greatly (unless they're laughing [i]at[/i] me and not [i]with[/i] me; then it's horrible and leaves disturbing mental scars that last a lifetime), and sans a sense of humor, I would certainly be a lot more boring and a lot less sane. If that's even possible. Also, I'd make far fewer retarded puns per day, but my family would probably prefer that. Too bad for them though! Second would be my raging narcissism.

[QUOTE=Sara][color=#b0000b][size=1]What is it? [b][url=http://www.otakuboards.com/showthread.php?t=54921]Harem of Celebrity Lust[/b][/url] [Thread] [b]Why is it nifty?[/b] Not only did the thread contain one of the [i]highest concentrations of beautiful people ever[/i], it was a blast reading the captions and comments and seeing what (physically and personality-wise) people found attractive about their celebrity crushes. What is it? [b][url=http://www.otakuboards.com/showthread.php?t=54085]Pirates or Ninjas?[/b][/url] [Thread] [b]Why is it nifty?[/b] This was one of the funnest threads I've seen on OtakuBoards in the five-odd years I've been here. The arguments, great picture evidence, and enthusiastic back-and-forth between Ninja and Pirate supporters made this thread the best thing to happen to OB all summer [/color][/size][/QUOTE] I would just like to second these two fine, fine nominations. If these two aren't included on the list, I will hang myself, come back from the dead, and then make a thread about my angry feelings in OL. I'll include some actual nominations of my own later.

[quote name='Lunox][color=dimgray]I have question, though. [spoiler] Is the hidden skills warrior Link from OoT/MM? I know he says that only heroes can learn the hidden skills, but does that mean Hero of Time heroes or just any heroes? And the songs you howl are all from OoT/MM, so I'm guessing if it is another Link, it'd be that one.[/spoiler'][/color][/quote] [spoiler]There's a ton of evidence in the game that heavily suggests that the warrior who teaches you all of the hidden skills is the Hero from the past who is mentioned every so often (and if you don't catch on to all of that beforehand, the guy basically admits to being the Hero when you get the final skill, anyway lol). Whether that Hero is another version of Link (such as OoT/MM Link), or someone completely different, I don't know; I'd like to think that he's another Link though. It's fun to think that in some bizarre way Link is teaching himself these skills.[/spoiler]

I'll go with the unoriginal answer and say that my favorite Tarantino film is Pulp Fiction. It's just got so much wit, so many memorable characters, and it grabs me every time I watch it. Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill are like that, too, but not to the same extent. I haven't seen Jackie Brown, unfortunately. I keep sliding too many other films ahead of it. Grindhouse is looking to be pretty damn fun; Tarantino's portion should be good. Kurt Russell as a homicidal stunt man? Oh yes.

So, yeah, I eventually found my way through the seventh temple, haha. As Des posted earlier, that definitely was the best boss battle up to that point, and maybe even the best in the whole game (the last battle is a lot of fun, too, but the final part of that battle is sort of disappointing). The sheer epic nature of the battle is fantastic. [spoiler]I tell you, it's nice to [i]finally[/i] have the Hookshot/Clawshot's ability to raise Link to amazing heights be used in a boss battle. Scaling the columns and then Clawshotting from Peahat to Peahat (I think they're Peahats, anyway lol) to evade the dragon's fire is great fun.[/spoiler] The eighth dungeon is solid. [spoiler]The stuff with the Sols is okay, the Light Sword is kickass for the short time that you have it, and scaling that one gigantic room with the floating light platforms and the weird Easter Island head enemies is a lot of fun. Too bad that the mini-boss fights were so damned easy. Blargh.[/spoiler] Zant's treatment is also bizarre, to say the least lol. [spoiler]I was expecting him to be a bit more formidable, though considering how petty he is throughout the game, I suppose it makes some sense that he's such a whiny little *****. Even when Ganon makes him his puppet, Zant can't stop with the emo. Anyway, his boss battle was definitely disappointing. Rehashing earlier boss battles with slight twists isn't that much fun; I only really enjoyed myself at the end, where Zant becomes absurdly desperate and wails at you nonstop with his attacks. His constant disappearing/reappearing act cracked me up, along with that frustrated shout he makes whenever he misses an attack or you hit him. It was fun seeing Zant's true character shine through during that part of the battle, though obviously it doesn't make him the most intimidating of villains... lol. I suppose that's the point though. Zant's not an unrelentingly evil figure like Ganon; he's just some dumb, pitiable sap who got greedy for power and met an unfortunate (yet cool-looking) end because of it.[/spoiler] Final dungeon is also great, for the reasons Des mentioned. It's great that the dungeon made use of just about every item in your inventory ([spoiler]even a small section for the Spinner, yay![/spoiler]). I wish more of the dungeons were like that; only the Clawshot is consistently used from the time that you get it until the end, and it doesn't figure into puzzles all that much (though it is a hell of a lot of fun navigating around dungeons with it). Still, the main items are used solidly throughout, so whatever. I can only hope that your entire inventory is used to better effect in the next Zelda game. Final battle is a pretty good capper to the game. [spoiler]The first part is pretty simple and easy, but I wasn't expecting any different; the look of Evil Zelda~! made it fun, and it was cool doing the classic back-and-forth stuff with the Wiimote. The second part of the fight is tougher, and I'd say that it's the toughest part of the battle. Demon Ganon is a beast... he rammed the crap out of me pretty handily before I got the timing down and took him out, haha. The wolf part of the fight is a bit frustrating, though, as Des said. However, at least it's a nice payoff for all of the goat/Goron wrestling Link did earlier in the game. :p The last part is fun but I felt that it could've been a lot more. I mean, Ganon had that big ghost army but it didn't even figure into the battle I fought (do they even do damage to you at all?). I just cut off Ganon's path, let Zelda hit him with the Light Arrows (should've let the player take care of that), and then I got him with a quick swipe of the sword. Not too difficult. The final swordfight is a kickass way to end the game, and the atmosphere is so wonderful, but again, it's just too damn easy. Since the only way to damage Ganon is to wait for the right prompting, there's really no reason to try to engage Ganon with any of your normal swordfighting techniques. It would've been great to have been able to chip away slowly at Ganon, after which you'd then be able to counter his attack and send him flying. The fight feels too abbreviated the way it is, to me, which is annoying because what's there is pretty damn fun. It just could've been so much more. I'll give it this, however: Using the finishing blow on Ganon is a cool as **** way to end the battle. The final image of Link and Zelda standing before the sunset and Ganon off to the side with the Master Sword running him straight through is awesome in ways that I can't even express. It's amazing how Ganon's death scenes continue to surpass each other game after game.[/spoiler] Even with the minor disappointments, though, I enjoyed the hell out of Twilight Princess. The fun combat, solid dungeons, ginormous boss battles, and surprisingly engaging storyline are more than enough to make up for any slight disappointment TP gave me. As for its place among the 3D Zeldas, well, I'd have to think about that a bit more before I make any sort of statement about that, especially because it's been a while since I played the others. I will say that TP is pretty high up, at least. *joins Des in waiting for Wii Zelda*

[QUOTE=AzureWolf][COLOR=maroon]This reminds me of a thread from way back, where Transtic Nerve said "masturbation" as his spare time thing, which wound up with [B]EVERYONE[/B] saying that's all they do. It was funny as hell... ...which is where people who masturbate go to! *dun dun dun*[/COLOR][/QUOTE] At least they'll never be lonely.

[quote name='Lunox][color=dimgray'] Just have to add something about the remote speaker. I find it pretty annoying. The quality of the speaker isn't that great, and I would much rather have all of the speaker sounds just come from the tv. In addition, the thing is damn loud.

[center][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v388/Shinmaru/DSCN0132.jpg[/IMG] [b]Name:[/b] Michael[/center]

[quote name='White][FONT=Tahoma][spoiler]Actually that's what you're supposed to do. Once you do that, the Hawkeye becomes available in the Malo Mart. :p[/spoiler'][/FONT][/quote] Actually, no. [spoiler]My brother skipped over that heart piece the first time the opportunity was offered to him, and he didn't attempt it until later in the game (after he had completed the seventh dungeon, I believe). By that time he had already bought the Hawkeye. He used it in the challenge, but apparently Malo only gives you rupees if you use the Hawkeye, because it's "cheating."[/spoiler] So there. :p

Haha, I was going to start commenting on the game a lot sooner, but I got a bit lazy and put it off for a long while. Right now I'm in the middle of the seventh dungeon; I got the [spoiler]double clawshot[/spoiler] (which is totally ****ing badass, by the way), and I am also quite lost lol. I have a decent idea of where I need to go... however, the actual act of [i]getting there[/i] has proven to be a bit of a toughie. Oh well. I'll figure things out eventually. If my experience with the game (and Zelda in general) is anything to go by, then there's probably something incredibly obvious that I'm overlooking, and I'm just being dumb. Anyway, some general thoughts... just to get the bad out of the way first, like most others here, I'm once again disappointed with the overall ease of the game's combat sections. The game's enemies are a cakewalk for the most part, and the minibosses and bosses aren't much tougher. However, they are fun as hell to fight at least. Especially the bosses. Like Charles posted, the boss battles feel like epic fights; that's one thing TP nails in spades. The first couple of bosses are fun to fight, and, in my opinion, the third fight is where they start to take on a larger-than-life scale. I really enjoyed the second part of that fight where [spoiler]you latch on to the boss's back and stab its eye with Link's sword; I probably looked like a complete fool doing it, but I'll be damned if I didn't enjoy the hell out of it.[/spoiler] Actually, that's probably my only real big complaint about the game. The issues with the graphics and the MIDIs are somewhat annoying but are overshadowed by everything else, for me. The graphics are solid enough for the Wii right now (and downright spectacular in some areas) and the music is still good, though I would like to see how great it would be fully orchestrated. A man can dream, though. A man can dream. Back to the combat, though... in the beginning, the controls took a bit of time to get used to, but now I'm beating the crap out of everything that moves with ease. At this point it's probably turning into a cliche to say this, but I can't imagine playing Zelda any other way now. The spin attack is [i]so[/i] useful now lol. This morning I was playing A Link to the Past yet again, and I was so annoyed at how long it took to charge up the spin attack, haha. The new moves you learn are fun, too, though I don't use all of them all the time (the shield attack/helmet slash combo, back slash, and souped-up spin attack are the only ones I use with any frequency). Again, I wish the enemies were tougher; it'd be nice to be forced to use all of your skills to beat up on everyone. Aiming with the Wiimote is easy once you get used to it as well. My hand was shaky as hell in the beginning, but now I'm sharpshooting flying enemies with arrows at some pretty decent distances. I don't even need the Hawkeye! ([spoiler]Somehow I got the piece of heart in Kakariko where you show the kids how to use the bow without using the Hawkeye.[/spoiler]) Pretty much any excuse to use the arrows in this game is fine with me. I loved taking on the big groups of spider creatures in the sixth temple, for example. Rapid-fire bow and arrow ftw! New items are pretty cool too. [spoiler]The aforementioned double clawshot is great, and I adore the spinner. I wish there were more areas that took advantage of that thing. Jumping around in that one room in the fourth temple (and the subsequent boss fight) were fun, but not nearly enough to satiate my thirst for spinning. There had better be more coming up, is all I can say. The ball and chain is okay; bashing the crap out of things is fun, but eh. The rod is okay too.[/spoiler] I'll cut this post short right now. I've got some more thoughts (Wolf Link = cool; Midna = best Zelda sidekick ever by light years; wish the dungeons made more of an effort to incorporate all of your available items; etc.), but maybe I'll save those for another time, when I'm actually finished with the game. :P

I finished [i]The Menace From Earth[/i] a while ago. Most of the stories were enjoyable, with a couple being pretty damn good. "By His Bootstraps" is my favorite in the collection; I'm a total sucker for time travel fiction, and even though the story is essentially a recounting of one ginormous time paradox from (technically) multiple points of view, it's a fun read. The story is a bit predictable, but in a fun way: I had a good time reacting like, [spoiler]"OMG I bet a future Wilson was the one who called his past selves before their fight; I wonder why?"[/spoiler] "The Year of the Jackpot" is a fun 'end-of-the-world' scenario story, "Sky Lift" is decent, "Goldfish Bowl" is interesting though the message is pounded into your head by the end, and "The Menace From Earth" is bizarrely enjoyable considering its subject matter. "Columbus Was A Dope," "Project Nightmare," and "Water Is For Washing" are okay. I also read [i]Dave Barry Slept Here: A Sort of History of the United States[/i] by (duh) Dave Barry. It's a great, bizarre twisting of American history from the very beginning ("deflowering a virgin continent" as the book puts it) to the George H.W. Bush administration. Lots of funny stuff in this; I'd say my favorite gag is the running joke where Barry randomly mentions at various points that while white men seem to be doing all of the important things throughout history, women and minority groups were also making significant contributions, though no exact contributions are ever pointed out. The Hawley-Smoot Tariff stuff made me laugh a lot too. The Winston Churchill "quotes" were also fantastic ("Madam, I may be drunk, but BLEAAARRRGGGHHH"). Really, pretty much everything in the book is great. Dave Barry is quickly becoming my favorite humor writer; I expect that I'll be ripping through as many of his books as possible while I'm on vacation. But right now I'm finishing up [i]The Fantasies of Robert A. Heinlein[/i] by (who else) Robert Heinlein. The stories are mostly good, though I honestly didn't finish a couple of them because I didn't feel up to it. I've just got "--All You Zombies--" to go, which is the story I've most been looking forward to reading. After that, I have no idea what I'll read lol. I've got a bunch of books just waiting to be read.

I'm curious what the training mode high scores are like for everyone. Here are mine: [u]Tennis[/u] [b]Returns[/b] - 53 (Gold) [b]Timing[/b] - 32 (Gold) [b]Target[/b] - 29 (Gold] [u]Baseball[/u] [b]Home Run[/b] - 10/10 home runs, 4923 total ft. (Gold) [b]Swing Targets[/b] - 53 pts. (Silver) [b]Batting Practice[/b] - 27/30 hits (Gold) [u]Bowling[/u] [b]Spares[/b] - 7 lanes (Bronze) [b]Power[/b] - 499 pins (Bronze) [b]Spin[/b] - 11 lanes (Bronze) [u]Golf[/u] [b]Putting[/b] - 6 pts. (Bronze) [b]Green[/b] - 113.9 ft. (Gold) [b]Target[/b] - 525 pts. (Silver) [u]Boxing[/u] [b]Bag[/b] - 15 pts. (Bronze) [b]Dodge[/b] - 60 pts. (Bronze) [b]Punching[/b] - 43 pts. (Bronze) As you can see, tennis is my strong suit, haha; by far, the bulk of my time is spent playing that. It's fun. I also spend a lot of time playing the baseball and golf training mode games... both regular modes are decent in moderation, but their traning mode counterparts are fantastic. The bowling games are fun, but I have a better time just doing regular bowling (i.e. I don't stink as badly :p). Boxing is just whatever at this point lol.

He lives in the Hidden Village of the Sand, according to his myOtaku, so snow is probably a rare commodity to him. Just because you live in the Midwest with all of your precious snowflakes and visions of sugarplums dancing in your head doesn't mean that you should make light of his need to see snow just once in his life!! Have you no [i]heart[/i]??

[quote name='Desbreko][color=#4B0082]A good source of old name changes, by the way, is the list I have on [url=http://www.chromosomecowboy.com/rupees/otakufiles/misc/namechanges.php][u]OtakuFiles[/u][/url']. It's old and hasn't been updated in years but it does contain such gems as jcgoudy and mirai_torankusu. :p[/color][/quote] Why must you drag me into this with you? :mad: I'd be willing to write an article about tehsillycircus when I get the time. Before that, I need to get in contact with Syk3 to straighten out a few facts. Maybe I'll write about a couple of other things as well.

[QUOTE=Charles]Here is another: [CENTER][IMG]http://www.otakuboards.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=15521[/IMG][/CENTER][/QUOTE] Give this man the prize.

[quote name='Queen_of_Hell']It was fantastic.Have you heard of other movies made on Jane Austen's books?[/quote] There are tons of them. I've not seen all of them, myself (I haven't seen a lot of them, actually lol), but here are some of the ones that are held in fairly high regard... [b]Pride and Prejudice[/b] (year and major stars) 1995, Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle: The mini-series. Great watch if you have a decent chunk of free time on your hands. I never have the time to watch this anymore lol. 1940, Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson: Haven't seen it, but it's got a solid score on IMDb (7.6, which normally means that it's a pretty damn good film). [b]Sense and Sensibility[/b] 1995, Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet and Hugh Grant: Haven't seen it, though I'm planning to when I get the time. [b]Emma[/b] 1996, Kate Beckinsale: Once again, haven't seen it, but it has mostly positive reviews. [b]Persuasion[/b] 1995, Amanda Root and Ciarán Hinds: You know the drill, haha. Again, good reviews, probably worth watching. Those are the major ones from what I can tell. Of course, that's not even counting the adaptations that go in different directions, such as Mansfield Park (1999) and Clueless (loosely adapted from [i]Emma[/i]). Hope that helped you out! :)

Today I finished [i]The Things They Carried[/i] by Tim O'Brien. It's about 4/5 Vietnam-related short stories and 1/5 an examination of storytelling methods that blur the line between truth and fiction in order to strike a greater emotional truth. It's far more interesting than I probably made it sound there lol. Most of the stories serve as mini-memorials of sorts for O'Brien's comrades and the experiences he had during the Vietnam War. There's a lot of jumping around between past and present and reshaping of the stories throughout the book, which I think works effectively to bring the reader into the murkiness and ambiguity of the war. Above all, though, the stories are just great portraits of people who were affected by the war, for better or for worse. My favorite stories are: "The Things They Carried," "On the Rainy River," "How to Tell a True War Story," "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong," "The Man I Killed," "Speaking of Courage," "In the Field," "The Ghost Soliders," and "The Lives of the Dead." "The Lives of the Dead" is one of the best short stories I've ever read. It's essentially about how people use stories to bring the dead back to life - how even when someone is gone, the memories we have and our imaginations are so strong that the dead continue to live and grow within us, continue to feel our pain and sorrow, and help us to save our own lives. It's written in such a bittersweet, affecting way, and it honestly damn near broke my heart. In a completely different direction, right now I'm reading [i]The Menace from Earth[/i], which is a collection of short stories by Robert Heinlein. I've been meaning to read some of his stuff for a while now. Dagger: Murakami is awesome. I've read [i]Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World[/i], [i]Norwegian Wood[/i], and [i]The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle[/i]. Of those, I'd say [i]Hard-Boiled Wonderland[/i] is my favorite. Megan: I remember reading parts of [i]The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven[/i] during my junior year in high school... unfortunately, that's about all I remember about it other than bits and pieces of a few stories lol.