Raiha

[COLOR="DarkOrchid"][FONT="Times New Roman"][i]Do not be afraid little one, for soon you shall not be so little and thou shalt know the meaning of pride. I remember being just as afraid, yeah I know, you can't imagine it, but it went away. And since I'm not there in person to do for you what a very kind upperclasswoman did for me, I'll reiterate the story for you.[/i] I will come up to you, and you'll be sitting on a bench during lunch alone, and looking fearful. Reassuringly I'll tell you that high school will make you or break you, but you look like you're going to make it. And while it seems difficult now it really will get easier, and soon it'll all be something to look forward to instead of dread every day. "So cheer up. I'll have your back. Just walk from point to point like you own the place, and nobody will mess with you."[/FONT][/COLOR]

[COLOR="DarkOrchid"][FONT="Times New Roman"]Most of my friends would say: "Oh that crazy Cali girl. She sent us pronz. Har har har." Others I know personally would regret the passing of the 'life of the party' and have to go in search of new lives of parties. My family would remember me for being defensive and cynical but always working single minded towards work, graduation, etc. And my siblings would be mad because their free and lenient babysitter would be gone.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[COLOR="DarkOrchid"][FONT="Times New Roman"]You know, I think that picture of Goku is very distressing. He better go on some form of Spartanification diet before I can believe that he can pick up trees and shoot ki balls and make bad guys explodie. That and Bulma looks like a dithering moron. Oh wait... ANYWAYS I will withhold my complete judgement until I see it, which seems fair. And I will hold this 'Certificate of not Crap' to be awarded or perhaps not awarded.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[COLOR="DarkOrchid"][FONT="Times New Roman"]Well it's about time. I watched this film in matinee [probably proving my prescience] and discovered that while it was worth the 6 dollars I had forked over, it would not have been worth the 10 that would've been charged to me otherwise. It was animated so badly in some places that I seriously felt like whoever had been in charge of Twi'lek seductiveness and voluptuousity had completely phoned it in. As we all know, Jabba the Hutt likes his slave girls sexy and curvy. The ones in the movies were jerky and uncoordinated and looked like dancing stick figures. However the dialogue, while painful in many places, was not in fact so painful as to be distracting as me and my friend contented ourselves by laughing in highly inappropriate places. Loud and long. Helped that the theater was mostly devoid of humans. And even if the words were no speaky good, at least there were no real humans to torture us to death with bad acting. It's pretty sad that I was happy about that actually.... Perhaps the funniest moment was when it was revealed that Jabba the Hutt referred to his son as "Punky Muffin." An actual employee heard us from outside and came in to shush us.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[COLOR="DarkOrchid"][FONT="Times New Roman"]Since I've been traveling lately, I will list, in order, the books I've read in the last 48 hours and enjoyed the most. A 1-10 scale will be used. [center][b]Orson Scott Card's "Children of the Mind[/b] - 5 [b]Frank Herbert's "Dune Messiah"[/b] - 6 [b]Rex Pickett's "Sideways"[/b] -8 [b]Christopher Buckley's "No Way To Treat A First Lady"[/b] -10 [b]Dianna Wynne Jones's "House Of Many Ways"[/b] - 10[/center][/FONT][/COLOR]

[COLOR="DarkOrchid"][FONT="Times New Roman"]Oh great googly moogly, it's Allamorph and Indi! [IMG]http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/funny-pictures-ceilingcat-basementcat-bffs.jpg[/IMG] And then came the n00bs. [img]http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/funny-pictures-nom-snails.jpg[/img][/FONT][/COLOR]

[quote name='Rachmaninoff']If this was a contest... I'd say you just won. =P [/QUOTE] [COLOR="DarkOrchid"][FONT="Times New Roman"]Actually I've been here longer than he has. Just ask James. I like to navigate my way up staircases in the dark even if it means walking into tipped furniture, discarded toys, etc, just so I can feel like Batman.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[quote name='Vicky'][size=1] ...why the hell is [i]Ping Pong[/i] an Olympic sport? O_o[/size][/QUOTE] [COLOR="DarkOrchid"][FONT="Times New Roman"]Balls of Fury clearly was the reason why... .........oh god I can't even say that with a straight face. And as far as badminton goes, it's about the same as Ping Pong, only I enjoy it far more. One, it's easier than tennis, and two, the birdie doesn't ever threaten to badly wound you no matter what those Vitamin Water commercials imply. *grumble grumble* But in other news, if you didn't hear about the Spanish Basketball team controversy where they posted a picture of them making their eyes all slanty... The general gist is that some Chinese pride groups in AMERICA not China mind you, have gotten their panties in a bunch. Which is moronic. I mean Jesus why can't people just joke around anymore? Does everyone have to subscribe to this self victimizing, whiney, I'M OFFENDED nonsense? Strictly speaking as a Chinese American girl, I laughed myself silly at the picture. Reminds me of when I was teased in middle school. The snappy comeback being: "Well it's too bad your eyes are just plain and round and the color of washed out laundry."[/FONT][/COLOR]

[quote name='DeLarge'][SIZE=1] It's possible that I also have a problem with the opening ceremonies because I'm not sure how our opening ceremony in London 2012 is going to compare. Dancing cockney chimney sweeps, perhaps? [/SIZE][/QUOTE] [COLOR="DarkOrchid"][FONT="Times New Roman"]Well one thing's for sure. Anything before and after this is just going to look like a bloody country festival. Not that I know for sure, I tend to just pay attention when it's Rhythmics, Swimming, and the Javelin. I figure we would've gotten more medals right away if we'd trained all of our athletes in Los Angeles or something.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[COLOR="DarkOrchid"][FONT="Times New Roman"]They're the Olympics. Hosting them anywhere is going to eventually be problematic because every country has its own skeletons. Some less apparent than others, and some more obvious. Are you telling me that if the U.S.A. had hosted the Olympics this year it'd all be okay? Let he who is without sin you know. It isn't like they're being done in Iran this year. Or Russia. China has a dark and tangled history and has banned Trent Reznor and virtually every other band on earth from performing in their country. They've banned the Falun Gong from the internet, it's impossible to access the Sexy Losers website and I've been there several times. Not just the Great Wall, not just the Forbidden City, but I've been to the rural areas where the ducks crowd the road and people still plow their fields with buffalo. It's not a cruel den of horrors, and while it is easy for someone to simply dismiss China's government as an evil hellhole, the majority of the Chinese are proud to have the Olympics in their country and proud to be a part of something that goes beyond foreign policy issues.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[COLOR="DarkOrchid"][FONT="Times New Roman"]Well, in another stunning example of why I shouldn't read people's posts while strung out on valium and ginger ale, I discovered that I had completely steam rolled you DeLarge! Sorry darling. Actually I'm pretty sure that at the time of your phone call to mine, my character was barely capable of staggering up a staircase, much less talking coherently on the phone short of animal grunting noises.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[COLOR="DarkOrchid"][FONT="Times New Roman"]California, but because I've lived in both the North and South, I think I'll just talk about the Bay Area, which is naturally in Northern California. I live in the East Bay, which is a nice way of saying, not San Francisco, not Oakland, and not San Jose. In fact, it's relatively nice here in the sense of it's exceedingly diverse. We live across from a Chinese couple, down further are two Indian families with two daughters that do traditional dance every Sunday in their garage. And there's a Kenyan couple two doors across. The East Bay is noteworthy for its odd mix of both the biggest car industry in the state as well as it's thriving music, art, and social sect. We have a yearly Art and Wine festival that shuts down six city blocks in the name of getting completely smashed while looking at very cool artwork. [URL="http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5258478"]Wenland's flowers is one of the booths that was there this year but it's so cool, I'll show you instead of just telling you.[/URL] The weather waffles between completely overcast and 50 degrees to sunny and roughly 80. The nice part about being on the coast is the weather is relatively mild, it's not too dry, but it never gets hot enough to be welteringly humid. That's probably why a moderately sized four bedroom house in these parts is now usually sold for 900,000 USD.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[COLOR="DarkOrchid"][FONT="Times New Roman"]While I might believe in the existence of some supernatural life [if it can even be called that] on the other hand I find these hoaxes cheap, abominable, and a distraction from perfectly reasonable questions about real animals. Like, what the hell is an Okapi and why does it look that way? But honestly if there is supernatural life/unlife, sea monsters, and other such cryptozoological beings, they're definitely much much smarter than us. Otherwise we would've caught, hung, dried, and stuffed one by now.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[COLOR="DarkOrchid"][FONT="Times New Roman"][SIZE="3"]This is a MMORPG!!![/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR]

[COLOR="DarkOrchid"][FONT="Times New Roman"]Today we take a closer look at the bastardization of the English language and the lovely words that it has spawned that sound dirty, racist, unacceptable socially etc, but in fact are harmless. Your job is to find one, give a few synonyms, a definition, use it in a complete sentence, and then have a good laugh at your cleverness. I pick [b]niggardly[/b]. Def: grudging: petty or reluctant in giving or spending; "a niggardly tip" Syn: Stingy, miserly. "Seeing her sadness he felt like the most [b]niggardly[/b] coward alive, having denied her access to his own feelings.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[INDENT][COLOR="DarkOrchid"][FONT="Times New Roman"]*leaps into action to get in this pic before ALLAMORPH DOES!* BWAHAHAHAHA.[/FONT][/COLOR][/INDENT]

[quote name='Chabichou'][COLOR="#004a6f"]I feel like an idiot, because I still don't always understand certain customs. Is there a difference between a wedding ring and and an engagement ring? When a man proposes to a woman and gives her an engagement ring, is that the ring the woman continues to wear after they get married, or is a different ring used in the wedding ceremony? If the wedding band is a different ring, what happens to the engagement ring? [/COLOR][/QUOTE] [COLOR="DarkOrchid"][FONT="Times New Roman"]Usually the two are soldered together to form a cohesive whole. My mother's is her engagement ring with a second band and a spiral of three leaf like diamonds encircling the main stone. So it partially depends on if the engagement ring has sentimental value [was grandmother's] or if it was bought with the intention of becoming part of the wedding band.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[COLOR="DarkOrchid"][FONT="Times New Roman"][i]When my eyes open I was confused at first. Why was I staring at the coffee table instead of the ceiling in my bedroom? Why was half of me warm and half of me freezing? And what smelled like cologne? I turned my head and found myself staring up Kenso's left hand, draped against the curve of my couch, and I slowly pulled myself into a sitting position, feeling stiffness in every joint. At my movement, he woke up as well, and I started to say something but yawned instead. He smiled vaguely and checked his cell phone on the table.[/i] "It's 10 a.m. How do you feel?" "Little sore. You?" "I'm just dandy. Glad work is tomorrow and not today." [i]I stood up and walked towards my bathroom, leaving him to his own devices and starting a shower. I gathered up my clothes and picked another towel out of the linen closet, holding it up where Kenso could see it. Hot water crashing down around my sore shoulders and neck, I inhaled the steam and breathed steadily while I lathered up my hair. "Calm yourself Rai, you just spent the night sleeping on Kenso's lap. No reason to panic, to think it means anything but what it was. Jae would kick you for thinking anything else of- Oh hell." With soap in my eyes, I reached blindly for the stream of water, turning it to angle upwards a little more. As my vision cleared and the stinging went away I finished rinsing off the soapsuds and shampoo, squeegied the door, and wrapped my hair up in the towel, clasping on bra, buttoning up my shirt, and slithering into my jeans. While my hair was still dripping I combed it quickly and then caught it up in a twist of rag. Painting day. Outside I smelled eggs frying and sat down at the counter in the high barstool, choking down the orange juice he had poured for me. [/i] "Helping yourself to my larder?" "It's just eggs and OJ." "The breakfast of champions." [i]I automatically ate when he put down the plate in front of me, noticing out of the corner of my eye the bowl of Cherrios he had already consumed in the sink and smirked. Just eggs and OJ. For me maybe. He finished and ate standing up, holding his plate over the sink. I talked aloud, partially to him, partially to all men everywhere.[/i] "If I ever go crazy and decide to make a restaurant, I'll make one for men and make it with no tables or chairs, just kitchen sinks. They can eat standing up over them when the waiters bring out the plates." "I'd eat there." [i]His enthusiasm didn't surprise me and I rolled my eyes heavenwards, calling all to witness this aggravation when my cell phone beeped once at me and I picked it up, seeing the hospital's number pop up on the caller ID. [/i][/FONT][/COLOR]

[COLOR="DarkOrchid"][FONT="Times New Roman"]I can't think of anybody who would be like Egalia. I mean personality wise she's probably like the Linda character from "Penelope" not that any of you have ever seen it but hey.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[COLOR="DarkOrchid"][FONT="Times New Roman"]I had the most absurdly bizarre dream that I was taping up my arms and wrists ninja/Naruto style ...well...tape. And then for some reason I was already at the convention, like a time warp forward, and then I was applying makeup to JASON STATHAM'S face. Yes, it sounds like it's a dream come true, and to be fair he was really nice in person but then of course time warped again and I was sitting outside the convention hall late at night with some of my old school mates sitting around me from high school and elementary. Some were older but I knew who they were anyway just by looking at them. And we sat and watched people come out of the building for a long time, and then of course things got a little weirder so hey.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[COLOR="DarkOrchid"][FONT="Times New Roman"]Well of COURSE the dentists office will have lost my paperwork and proved themselves incapable of finding my chart. Why it wasn't merely filed with the hundreds of others we'll never know. Of course once I had been sitting in the office for an hour while they vaguely pattered through filing cabinets they finally found it wedged in a corner. And then, then they made a mistake with the insurance company so now a consultation fee to SPEAK with an endodontist capable of sawing into my back left molar will be over 300 dollars which means no bloody chance you unreasonable dicks. And now we do the Kabuki dance of insurance agent and patient with a serious pain in her molar. Oh what I wouldn't give to be an arsonist.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[quote name='Sara'][font=trebuchet ms]I was surprised when I saw James's post, and even more so now that I've seen yours. Until just now I had never heard of anyone having teeth removed to make way for wisdom teeth. The general pattern in my area seems to be: "There's not enough room for your wisdom teeth. They will not fit in your mouth, so they will come in crooked and at weird angles, if at all. We will then chloroform you and yank them out. You will be in pain for the next week."[/font][/QUOTE] [COLOR="DarkOrchid"][FONT="Times New Roman"]In my case it's a genetics dice roll that I lost. My mother has a small jaw and big teeth. My father has a big jaw and big teeth. No extra points for guessing how I got my jaw built for me. So they had to take out four teeth in purpose before my braces with looking to the future of when they would have to take out my wisdom teeth as well. And in point of fact they didnt' even wait for those to come in fully before they were in there hacking away. At least for that they knocked me out completely and I didn't realize anything had happened until I woke up with blood caked on my face. Actually I'm pretty sure it was blood AND drool. .....urgh. But as far as tomorrow's joyous occasion it may very well turn out to be root canal(s) plural. I figure at least this time as opposed to when I was 9 I won't be terrified of the needle to numb the pain. In a bid to become less of a wuss I started donating blood recently, so it can't be so bad. Can it? *psycho theme music*[/FONT][/COLOR]

[quote name='DeathKnight'][color=crimson]His point is that a politician cannot point out something most Americans fail to do on their cars which would improve their gas mileage noticeably. That is far beneath a politician, to offer practical advice.[/color][/QUOTE] [COLOR="DarkOrchid"][FONT="Times New Roman"]Well coming from a nominee that people have already determined to be occasionally "arrogant" and "Messianic" it's not really clever for any politician to do that. Practical advice from someone who has a cadre of people to do every day things for him like blow his nose and wipe his behind just comes off as snooty. And patronizing.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[COLOR="DarkOrchid"][FONT="Times New Roman"]I'm not really following here either. Obama's plan is more or less a non plan. "We can't keep our houses at 70 degrees, and eat as much as we want and use as much energy as we want.." Etc etc etc you get the drift. In point of fact, McCain's sound bytes which you haven't bothered to link us to have been spliced to stay pretty much whatever you want it to say. In short McCain's switched his energy plan from not drilling offshore to drilling offshore, which is actually a very good idea. He only did it of course, to stave off a mass lynching from his constituents in the Republican party, and while I have no great love for him, it's a step in the right direction.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[COLOR="DarkOrchid"][FONT="Times New Roman"]I'd kind of like to know, so I can get in a really good last meal. Like a really really good sourdough bun burger with tillamook cheese, onion strings, avacados, and ketchup. Followed later by a perfect strawberry laced creme brulee. And then after that of course I could die happy. In gastronomic nirvana. But otherwise, I'd prefer not to know, because it'd be a terrible burden.[/FONT][/COLOR]