Japan

[COLOR=Navy]I watched over 30 episodes of the first season. I am not too sure what I think of it as of right now. It just feels to be dragging on and on until recently. Nanami is pretty annoying but she is fun to watch. [spoiler] Like in that episode where she thought she laid an egg and was taking care of it. [/spoiler] I really love the music that plays before the main duel that happens near the end of the episodes. Though, I am confused. [spoiler] What the heck is the End of The World and why does the chairman keep on showing up in odd places with his red car and they drive off into the darkness with the chairman sitting on the car's hood. [/spoiler] Anyone mind explaining that?[/COLOR]

[COLOR=Navy]I miss my old room, but I guess my new room isn't so bad. It used to be my mom's room, so the walls and the bed set is all purple -gag- But what is not so bad is that I transformed it in to a black and purple room. There is a black cushion on the floor where my dog sleeps next to my bed. I have my Asian things such as a Chinese fan, two Chinese hats, a Japanese wall scrowl, and a hand painted wall scrowl of InuYasha that my friend's mom painted for me on my wall. I also have my tv, vcr, and ps2 near the window at the end of my bed. Near my closet is my dresser, which has my lava lamp, Japanese caligraphy of my name, and a rug of my name that my dad got me in Turkey. By the door next to my bed is my glass cupboard. My things from Vietnam, China, and Japan are in the top shelf, my European things are in the middle shelf and the in the bottom shelf, is my box collection that I started, which is from all over the world. That is pretty much my room, though there is my closet full of clothes, shoes, art supplies and my n64, and there is a quilt rack, stereo, and a basket of my favorite beanie babies by the window. It is not as big as my old room, but it is better than no room at all.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=Navy]Also, bring a deck of cards with you as well as a notebook. That way you can have a lot of fun staying up till late playing war or some other game with your friends. If you bring a notebook, a pencil, and a pen, you have a way to jot down anything that comes to mind and if you like to draw, you can also use it to draw with too. If you are a girl, do not bring perfume as that will make the bugs eat you alive, but make sure you have deodorant. Also, I remember when I was younger, I spilled syrup all over my one pair of pants and I had to wear that the rest of the week, so always bring a pair of sweats, and extra socks and other clothes. Be prepared. Bring band aids and hand wipes as well. Other than that, wear sneakers, bring an extra pair, an extra blanket besides your sleeping bag as it may get too cold or be to hot to have just the sleeping bag. Use a pillow case you like, but do not mind to get dirty as it will get dirty. If you sleep in a tent, make sure you take off your shoes and not wear them in the tent, and do not leave the shoes outside because someone may pull a prank on you and take your shoes or put something in them. Put your name on everything you bring. That way no one can take it and if they do, you can get it back. Also, if you sleep in a tent, always keep the screen or tent flap closed, otherwise you will have a lot of visitors flying around. Same goes for a cabin, keep the door closed. Avoid touching random plants as it could be poisonous ivy, etc. Other than that....I think that is about it. Though the biggest advice I can give you, HAVE FUN! I hope that helped. ^^[/COLOR]

[COLOR=navy]Pre-school:Never play the mom in house because you will just get beat up emotionally First grade: Legos in speech class is fun Second grade: Puffins live in Maine, Oregon, and Alaska Third Grade: The teacher was an idiot Fourth grade: If I'm not shy, I'm the most popular girl in the grade. Fifth Grade: A lot of people besides the teacher are idiots. The Sheriff of Nottingham is Black and very nice. Sixth grade: I learned how to conjugate a sentence. Seventh grade: CATS and Phantom of the Opera are musicals Eighth grade: Never trust the teachers or students Ninth Grade: Terrorism is real, death is real (9/11) Tenth Grade: Never do group projects Eleventh grade: You can never get what you want. (exp: no Japan trip) Twelveth grade: Almost all people in high school do not matter and all social events are stupid so do not waste your time. [/COLOR]

[COLOR=Navy]There wasn't too many things that I remember about my sixth grade year. That year I was home schooled. I'm sure I did a lot of traveling that year. Germany, Scotland, Northern England, etc. I am pretty sure I went to the Prime Meridian on a class field trip there as well. It was tons of fun. Though, I know for a fact, I did not have very many friends.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=Navy]My natural hair colour is brown with brown, blonde, and red highlights. No I have never died it nor do I plan to in fear of destroying my natural highlights. I am very satisfied with my hair colour/or colours. I am not to sure what my favourite hairstyle is exactly as I only had hair either as short as my shoulders or as long as my waist. I usually do not like bangs because they are a pain to curl. I may cut my hair in a way so that my hair is parted on the side with bangs cut unevenly. As for the opposite sex, it depends on the shape of their face. But, I mostly prefer just enough hair to play with to shoulderwidth/waist length hair[/COLOR].

[COLOR=Navy]In about two weeks time, I jump from 134-140 pounds and vice versa and I am 5'11". I'm just tall and very slim. I do need to work on building my muscles some and eat better but I'm working on it. I could be more flexible than I am and I know that I need to stretch. [/COLOR]

[COLOR=Navy]If they want to pass that, good bye Halo and other games like that. Good bye first person shooters and hello role playing games That's what will happen if they take away those sites. They will get rid of those sites, and eventually those games too. Yeah[/COLOR]

[CENTER][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Japan_86/2006013090184.jpg[/IMG][/CENTER] [COLOR=DarkRed][CENTER][B][U]Prologue[/U][/B][/CENTER] [/COLOR] [COLOR=Navy] Sirens blare in the shady part of town in downtown San Francisco, California as several police cars speed up and down the many streets. It is a little past midnight as the cars finally stop in front of a rundown abandoned apartment building. The lights from the cars as well as floodlights that the policemen have just set up gave the apartment an eerie glow. Its fading red paint on the outside chipping with age just another tree in this forest of crumbling warehouses and other abandoned buildings. One of the police, a tall handsome man of great rank, pulled out a megaphone from his car and shouted through its mouthpiece. ?Come out with your hands up!?[/color] [COLOR=DarkRed][CENTER]-------------------------------------------------------[/CENTER][/COLOR] [COLOR=Navy]Stephen glanced through the window briefly and scowled with amusement. Not wanting his prey to escape, he passed the window without giving a second thought to the man standing below. His sensitive ears picked up nervous feet scurry up the stairs to the upper floor level of the building. Ruffling his chin length black hair, his green eyes sparkled with amusement. Grinning, he hurried his pace and sped upstairs.[/COLOR] [COLOR=DarkRed][CENTER]-------------------------------------------------------[/CENTER][/COLOR] [COLOR=Navy]?Captain Kelly!? The man with the megaphone turned to the direction of the voice. ?What the hell do you want, Austin?? ?I thought I saw something in the third story window. Want to send up some men to check it out?? Something crashed in one of the rooms on the third level of the apartment. Captain Kelly and the others flinched from the unexpected sound. ?Sir?? Austin asked.[/COLOR] [COLOR=DarkRed][CENTER]-----------------------------------------------[/CENTER][/COLOR] [COLOR=Navy]Stephen chuckled as the short and plump man winced in pain as he tripped over an end table that he was hiding behind. ?Wha?what do you want with me, mister? I didn? do nothin? wrong. Promise!? the man squealed. Stephen grabbed the man by the collar and slammed him into the wall. ?You know what I want,? he growled. ?Tell me where Marcus Locke is.? ?I?I don? know who you are talkin? bouts mister.? ?Yeah right, speak up or you?ll die.? The man whimpered, ?He?s at 1543 S Bernard Street.? Stephen released the puny man. Stumbling to the ground, the man landed on his knees and hands, panting. After catching his breath, he ran out of the room and down the hallway to the stairs leading to the entrance four floors below. ?Going somewhere?? The short man froze in place and slowly turned around. Seeing nothing but a green foggy mist that quickly scattered, he sighed in relief. That was short-lived, however as the hair on the back of his neck rose as something or someone breathed down upon him. Turning back around, he screamed. There right before him blocking his way was his captor. The man turned around yet again and headed up the stairs that led to the roof. Licking his lips, Stephen followed. Even though the man was hiding, Stephen easily found him. Grabbing the guy by the shoulders, he reached down and whispered into his ears. ?I?m sorry, but I?m feeling really hungry, mortal. You just look too delicious.? With that, he moved down lower and bit into the man?s neck. [I]Oh, so sweet[/I]. He thought as he continued to feast on the delicious blood. The man?s eyes fluttered for a moment before they closed totally, his body turning ice cold as death overtook him.[/COLOR] [COLOR=DarkRed][CENTER]------------------------------------------------[/CENTER][/COLOR] [COLOR=Navy]?Go in an search the place!? Captain Kelly shouted. ?Yes Sir!? his men yelled in reply as several of them entered the building. A half an hour passed before they returned with a body. They all had questioning looks. Captain Kelly eyed those that returned from the search suspiciously and sighed. [I]This is going to be a long night[/I], Captain Kelly thought to himself. [/COLOR]

[COLOR=Navy]When I was in middle school, I did an art from South Korea called Kuk Sol Won. I wasn't the best because of my disability but I did pretty good. I got up to red belt which is the belt right before brown. It's white, yellow, blue, red, brown, 8 black stripes, and first degree black belt. I ended up moving back to the states after those three years. (I was living in England at the time.) Spending time doing kuk sol won was a blast. I got to practice out on the beach once and we got to go to an amusement park once too. Not only that, I got to paticipate in the nationwide tournament in Norwich in June 1999. Schools in over 25 cities throughout the UK participated in it. I didn't win anything but I don't care. Being there was enough. After the tournament, there was a demonstration done by all the black belts. Oh it was so amazing. I got to meet the Grandmaster of the entire martial art there too. I made so many friends in there and a few of my friends whom tested in the 4 hour gap between the tournament and demonstration got their black belt! I don't think I could ever get black belt even if I tried. Anyways, from England, I moved to Washington state and alas there are no kuk sol wan schools here. There are a few odd kinds around here, but I think I will go into karate soon.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=Navy][QUOTE=orbindo][COLOR=Red]What extreme sport am i into? Extreme pyrotechnics!!!!!!!! not officially an extreme sport, but it soon will be. :animestun [/COLOR][/QUOTE] Then I suggest you go to a Rammstein concert. I do a little bit of rollerblading, skateboarding, and snowboarding. Snowboarding is the man one I'm good or decent at and rollerblading my second best. With skateboarding however, I can only do an ollie and just ride on it really fast. I can do ramps on rollerskates but not had much practice. Snowboarding is my most favorite to do though, but I love watching Skateboarding vert and BMX/FMX. I watch the Summer and Winter X Games faithfully every year. [/COLOR]

[COLOR=Navy]Here is what mine currently is. Fatal Frame 3:The Tormented. An excellant survival horror game that I just love to death.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=Navy]There are a few things I am known for. My pottery, drawing, jewelry, and writing. I'm also known to be very quiet, shy and serious around people I'm not comfortable with and when I'm with very good friends who are older than me or the same age, etc...I'm really silly and out going. So, basically, people that do not know me well, think I'm quiet and serious and when I'm just around people I'm close to, I'm silly.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=Navy]Explosions will occur and a lot of buildings collapsing and on fire. Big breasted girls with big eyes will be chasing after the guys making some guys run for it and others run to them obsessing over their breasts. There will be several panty shots throughout the day. Those panties being white and pink with red hearts on the bottom. All girls will be wearing revealing clothing and obsessing over things like rice balls or pocky. Then, there is the aspect of men walking around in moble suits, etc.. Point is, it'll be a crazy world if it were real life.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=Navy]And what of the people that actually tell you that they are older than 30 after you spoke for them a looooong time. Like a few years. I am not going to meet them. I do know that MySpace is a breeding ground for that kind of stuff. I get several requests a day from random people wanting to be my friend that I changed the privacy settings. I get really irritated all the time when someone I do not know IM's me. I stop being a jerk when I find out that it is from Achaea or Otakuboards, but yeah. I do admit that I have a lot of friends here, but only a handful I have kept close.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=Navy]Charlie: Must I explain why? He is the only one on this message board that I got the closest to. He's sweet, funny, I can't help but love him. The bestest friend anyone can have. The best thing about ever joining this message board. Panda, Des: would be nice to meet cause I remember pulling a few allnighters on AIM with Des and chatting with Panda. Some day I will travel the 1 hour it takes to get to her town and see her....one of these days.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=Navy]Well, as of right now I am really trying hard to get a job at McDonald's. So, I guess that is the top of the list of what I want most as of right now. Once I get that job, I'm want to buy an IPOD shuffle. I also cannot wait for my friend from Romania to come visit me and another friend who will come visit me sometime in August. Heh, yeah, a lot of things I want and can't wait for.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=Navy][URL=http://dojo.fi/~rancid/loituma__.swf]This[/URL] is what I am reminded of when I do anything with vegetables or go shopping Watch it and you will see why.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=Navy]A year ago, well, I only just got out of high school. I was getting ready to enter community college and I had a lot of friends. Now I lost a lot of old friends and made a whole new bunch of friends. I was single, and I dated a total of two guys in the past year. I wish I never broke up with the first guy and wish I never met the second. It was a tough year. Now, I have my priorities straight and I think I have a job for sure. [/COLOR]

[COLOR=Navy]An amusement park is my ideal date because I'm a dare devil and hyperactive. Though I would not say no to a movie and time at the arcade. Especially if it is not a chick flick and the arcade has Dance Dance Revolution. The only thing I do not like about eating out is that I feel like they are watching my every move. I'm very clumsy and when I get nervous I am even more so. Coffee places are fun especially if there are a lot of interesting things in the place to look at and stuff. Oh, if you have an AppleBees around there, they have a thing at night where the apitizers and deserts are half off. You can go take your date there. Plus, AppleBee's is an interesting resturant because they have so many things up around the walls. Good conversation starters. Also, if your date likes sports, there's sports on tv near the bar! Perfect date without breaking your wallet![/COLOR]

[COLOR=Navy]Whenever I read Eldest by Chistopher Paolini, I have this entire dance hit album stuck in my head so that each time I read it, I listen to the music in my head as well. What happened was that I was out at the lake, taking a break from swimming. I just bought that book a couple of days ago and I was almost finished. Not wanting to be bothered, I listened to my discman and zoned out all the people there. So, I listened to this one song over and over on that dance album.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=Navy]Isn't that a given, Kira? True, I adore chocolate. Not to the point of eating several tons of chocolate in a week and gaining 700 pounds....anyways... The Person below me has a friend outside of their own country.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=Navy]Another tip that really helped me when I made one: Download a lot of AMVs from that site that Sara mentioned. Ones that are highly rated are best. They will give you ideas you need. You can also download a couple not so highly rated and compare the two, so you know what to do and what not to do with yours. Windows Movie Maker on Windows XP cannot really give you all that is needed to make a top notch AMV, but it works for a beginner. I do not know what type of programs that you need, but it tells you if you look on the AMV making guides found [URL=http://www.animemusicvideos.org/guides/]here. [/URL] Also, before you start, you need to have an idea of the AMV's theme, song, and the things that will be included. Like, if you have a lot of a certain anime, use that instead of something you barely have. For instance, my friend let me borrow the entire Gravitation fan subbed series on about seven discs and I worked on that. From there, I listened to the song I used, Queen, "The Show Must Go On," everywhere I went and all the time. Make sure you know the song to the point of knowing every beat, every word, and every sound by heart. Also, watch that anime all the way through from beginning to end repeatedly. If you can do that, you are well on your way to be a great AMV artist. Oh, before I forget. Make sure you maturely take any critism you may get, good or bad. Just upload it on the that AMV site and go from there. You can't expect to be as good as one who's been doing it for years. Now good luck, have fun, and private message me if you have any more questions.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=Navy]I had a total of...three different names. Japan_86, Japan, and Ryli. Why the Ryli you ask? I was sick and tired of getting Private Messages in my inbox asking, "Are you Japanese?" Then, a few weeks, or month, I can't remember, with Ryli, I missed my old name so, Japan_86, here I am. No longer to be changed ever. Besides, people like to call and call me this anyhow. It is stuck with me forever. As for the set personality... Japan_86 is just me...really. There is no set trait that comes with it. It's just...Laura. The meaning is rather simple. I like everything about Japan (though I am not as obsessed as I used to be) and the 86 is the year I was born. Japan_86... Unlike other people I saw when I first joined, I didn't want to be Gundam something or DBZ something. I love all anime, not just those two. (Though DBZ annoys the heck out of me now) I like to be unique.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=Navy]It's been so long ago that it is all a blur. I mean. I first came to TheOtaku around 2000 looking at Digimon, Outlaw Star, and DragonBall Z stuff. When I got into Tenchi Muyo and Tenchi's Universe, Gundam Wing etc when they were airing it on Cartoon Network, I spent more time on the site listening to midis, printing pictures, and looking at epsiode summaries. Around September, I joined here and I posted a few times in the Gundam forum. Then I left here and came back about two years later...where I met many new faces and a lot of old ones. (Some I hold dear to my heart to this day. You know who you are) I spent a lot of time in the .hack//SIGN forum as well as the other anime forums and RPGs. Then MyOtaku came around. I was so excited when Adam announced the site's launching that I joined there immediately after a couple days, being one of the first to join. When I'm bored or curious about what is happening here or any of it's sister sites, I come around. I don't come here as much as I used to but I post from time to time. I usually don't go to TheOtaku much anymore unless Adam posts something on his MyOtaku about it. Yep, that's my story. Boring, isn't it.[/COLOR]