Dagger

[quote name='Allamorph'][FONT=Arial]Kind of hard to fix those with equivalent exchange, bucko.[/FONT][/QUOTE] I was going to say "the economy!" until you reminded me of this little catch. Darn. This brings up another question--what if I wanted to, say, switch a messy first draft of something for a perfect final draft? It's only words on paper, so assuming one overwrote to begin with (to make the final draft end up the same length or shorter, rather than longer), the material used wouldn't change. Hm. ~Dagger~

Enough with the personal attacks, you two. It isn't making anyone look better. ~Dagger~

[quote name='James'][font=franklin gothic medium] Also I want to look at putting little blurbs or quotes for the franchise-specific forum descriptions (rather than the boring old "Discuss FMA here!" type stuff).[/font][/QUOTE] Any ideas? C'mon, I know you guys are clever. [url="http://www.otakuboards.com/member.php?u=23060"][u]Magus[/u][/url] has proposed including something to do with tiny mini-skirts. :devil: ~Dagger~

[quote name='2009DigitalBoy']There's 'that cute girl in my art class' but her personality is like a brick wall that all conversations ram into.[/QUOTE] Sounds like an eroge character, haha. Guess tsundere isn't the only personality type that doesn't work so well in real life. ~Dagger~

[quote name='Lunox'][font=trebuchet ms] One might ask why there isn't a white history month- it's because in school you learn about a lot of the major achievements of white people. And let's face it, US history is mostly about white people. The US is mostly made up of white people. Having white history month in the US would be like celebrating "breathing is healthy" month. [/font][/QUOTE] Exactly. Here's a link which might be illuminating for those who wonder what the big deal is: [url="http://mmcisaac.faculty.asu.edu/emc598ge/Unpacking.html"][u]White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack[/u][/url] It's 101-level stuff, but it's always surprising how many people haven't encountered it. ~Dagger~

Just posted about this at theO and can't stop giggling over it. [url="http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/authors/jane_austen_versus_zombies_107139.asp"][u]GalleyCat news link[/u][/url] [quote]Pride and Prejudice and Zombies features the original text of Jane Austen's beloved novel with all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie action. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton—and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she's soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers—and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield as Elizabeth wages war against hordes of flesh-eating undead. Complete with 20 illustrations in the style of C. E. Brock (the original illustrator of Pride and Prejudice), this insanely funny expanded edition will introduce Jane Austen's classic novel to new legions of fans. [/quote] Unrelated to the book in question, but Maureen Johnson, a popular young adult author, has also demonstrated how [url="http://www.insideadog.com.au/residence/index.php/maureen-johnson/incompetence-is-free/"][u]Pride and Prejudice might be improved by the addition of a zombie or two[/u][/url] (it's the blue text in the lower half of her post). What other classic books would mix well with the undead? (Jane Eyre, for instance, is so obvious that it hardly bears mentioning...) ~Dagger~

Hohoho, how laziness pays off. Almost everything and everyone I immediately thought about nominating has already been nominated, and with great warmth and eloquence. So I'll just chip in with one that hasn't been mentioned yet. [strike]Unless it has, in which case I shall hurry off to commit ritual Internet pseuicide.[/strike] [b]Seasonal threads[/b] Apparently I joined OB in '03 (wait, what?!). And I'm not gonna lie, I have a terrible memory, both for online stuff and in real life. So whenever the Nifty Fifty comes around, I tend to find myself drawing a blank at first--as in, "Uh, what exactly happened this past year?" I'm afraid that even the most epic threads and events of yore have long since slipped my mind. But there are some topics that you can pretty much count on to reappear every single year. Halloween. Thanksgiving. Christmas. Valentine's Day. April Fool's. Summer break. And of course the list goes on. It's comforting, and familiar, and somehow it never gets old. ~Dagger~

I wholeheartedly agree with Lunox's post. @Drizzt: You're correct, that be an interesting Lounge topic in its own right--but I'll let you decide whether or not to start a thread for it. [quote name='Shy'][size=1] [b]Edit:[/b] Alamorph actually bring sup a good point that many of the character designs for these 'Japanese' programs portray the main characters as being Caucasian. There is certainly a larger issue at hand here (and I'd hate to derail the conversation) but seriously... what's up with that? Sailor Moon is blond for chrissake.[/size][/QUOTE] I thought the same thing for years, until I learned enough Japanese to start reading 2ch and such. It's an entirely foreign perspective to think that these characters are supposed to look or be Causcasian. In general, regardless of character design, JP fans accept characters who are called Asian in the story itself as being Asian. The Sailor Moon franchise has a bunch of live-action movies and musicals, but all they do to make the actresses look like the character is give them a wig and maybe color contacts. Similarly, it's not like Asian cosplayers try to look more white; they just change very superficial things like hair and eye color, which most cosplayers of any ethnicity would have to change anyway, when it comes to all the characters out there with green or pink hair and stuff. They wouldn't think that Caucasians are somehow better equipped to cosplay a blonde, blue-eyed character [I]unless[/I] said character is literally supposed to be a foreigner. So basically, it took me a while to get this, but assuming that any character is supposed to look Caucasian is very much a Western way of viewing it. It's also worth noting that the more realistic anime character designs get, the more "Japanese" characters (who are supposed to be Japanese) tend to look. Less-realistic character designs aren't more Caucasian--they're just more stylized in general. And besides, blue hair has no ethnicity. :catgirl: ~Dagger~

Haha, oh wow, if [url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-02-04/kadokawa-shoten-reportedly-says-april-haruhi-is-rerun][u]this[/u][/url] is really the case, it just might be the best way they've trolled fans to date. ~Dagger~

[quote name='Drizzt Do'urden']Though I still don't think ANYBODY should be offended, of course the casting director's comments (igorant as they may be) were not meant to offend in anyway.[/QUOTE] Not to pick on you, but I wanted to point this out, because it's a mistaken assumption a lot of people seem to make in all kinds of situations: Not [i]intending[/i] to offend doesn't clear anyone, ever, of being offensive when it comes to racial matters. If a person's words are hurtful, the fact that they didn't speak out of malice is inconsequential next to the fact that their words actually hurt someone. ~Dagger~

[CENTER][youtube]Js7wxoqeVK0[/youtube][/CENTER] Hits US theaters on February 6. Am mad jealous of those of you who will get to see this movie in 3-D. It's based on a dark, surreal children's novel by Neil Gaiman. The entire movie is done via stop-motion animation, which makes it impressive as a technical feat in its own right. Reviews have been very positive so far, and the author himself is 100% behind the production. I really hope Coraline is a success, personally. Anyone planning to go watch it? :p ~Dagger~

Again, I don't really care either way about enabling reputation at OB--the prospect of it didn't even occur to me until it came up in this thread. That said, I voted yes because I still have trouble seeing the harm in giving it a try--at worst, it would be an experiment with boring results (i.e. nobody notices or cares). No harm done. But as someone who frequents a couple of nice forums where the reputation system does get used regularly, I guess I feel somewhat obliged to defend it. Using reputation doesn't mean anyone judges people solely based on the amount of rep they have--by that logic, we should erase post counts again immediately. Saying so is the equivalent of arguing that people judge artwork at theO solely by the number of hugs it gets, which is obviously pretty silly. It's the same sort of thing. Rep is not really an indicator of the person's intelligence or how much you should value their posts or whatever, and I have never come across someone who views it that way, any more than I've come across people who truly judge others solely by their post counts. Obviously the content of a member's post always says a whole lot more about them than the window dressing in their postbit or signature. Like post counts, rep shows the level of a person's participation. That's all. If someone has a lot of rep, you might think, "Wow, they're really helpful," or "Hey, they're really involved in this community." Not, "Whoa, man, this must mean every single thing they post is OB's holy writ." If anything, it's a much [I]better[/I] indicator of positive participation than post count or join date. Besides, in the same way that individual posters here can toggle their own post count on and off, you usually get the option to disable reputation for yourself. In addition to rep, vB has a similar feature where you can click a button to "Thank" the OP of a thread (or sometimes an individual post in any thread). This is almost exactly like theO hugs, since it's a super-easy, one-click thing and doesn't have a negative equivalent. But anyway, I'm not necessarily advocating that rep or Thanking be added to OB--I just think that a lot of the objections here show either a basic misunderstanding of how rep actually functions in a decent community, or else are coming from a "We're better than that" angle, which is kind of irritating. ~Dagger~

Not reading your spoilers because I'm only up to episode 15 (or was it 14?). I watched the first half of season 2 over the course of a day or two, and I realized that this is pretty much the only way I'm going to be able to follow this series and not get crushed by nervous anticipation during the wait between episodes. So I'll see y'all a little after the last episode. :catgirl: One comment I must make, however--[spoiler]Neil >>>>>> Lyle.[/spoiler] It's a fact. Not that I don't like the latter. ~Dagger~

[quote name='Allamorph'][FONT=Arial]I mean, if I have a beef with somebody, I'm not going to go around "thumbing-down" every post or thread they make.[/FONT][/QUOTE] In my experience, this usually isn't possible to begin with. I'm guessing that the parameters can be adjusted, but most forums don't let you rep the same person (positively or negatively) twice in a row; you have to spread around your reputation-giving for a while before you can go back to them. ~Dagger~

Absolutely nothing. I live and die by my purse. :) When I'm on campus or staying in an apartment or something, and I clearly don't need anything except my keyring, sure, I'll shove it in my front pants pocket. Anything else--gloves, change, tickets, whatever--goes in my jacket pockets. I never put anything in one of my back pockets; too paranoid for that. But yeah, everything of importance goes in my purse, which is pretty much glued to my body at all times. ~Dagger~

Wouldn't using the built-in reputation system be easier than using post rating? (Or are they not two separate things?) Granted, I'm not convinced that enabling reputation would add much to OB in particular, but it's worked okay at other forums I've been at. *shrugs* The greatest risk you run is that most people are just going to ignore or not notice it. ~Dagger~

Well, then I'll just recommend some authors instead of specific titles, since most BL (released here) is only one or two volumes. [url=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Fumi%20Yoshinaga][u]Fumi Yoshinaga[/u][/url] [url=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Hyouta%20Fujiyama][u]Hyouta Fujiyama[/u][/url] [url=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Toko%20Kawai][u]Toko Kawai[/u][/url] [url=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Yamimaru%20Enjin][u]Yamimaru Enjin[/u][/url] [url=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Youka%20Nitta][u]Youka Nitta[/u][/url] [url=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Yugi%20Yamada][u]Yugi Yamada[/u][/url] As far as I'm concerned, Toko Kawai and Hyouta Fujiyama are the best when it comes to modern-day stories with a fairly realistic setting. Kawai leans a little more toward drama, and Fujiyama toward comedy; Yugi Yamada's works also tend to be more comedic, but all three have a lot of slice-of-life elements. Chances are you've already tried something by Youka Nitta (etc.) and know whether or not you like her stuff, but what the hey. Tell me if you want more details on any of these manga-ka, or if they're totally not what you're looking for. ~Dagger~

Well, there's an incredible variety out there. For starters, what kind of stories/characters do you like? :) For that matter, it might also help to know what kinds of BL you dislike. ~Dagger~

Oh, Sankaku. The site whose stories I'm always dying to link on the front page of theO, but can't because it's so NSFW. The recently released second volume of the manga is still lying in my to-read pile, but the Korean character was so minor a presence in the first (if he appeared at all) that I didn't realize there, uh, was a Korea. Hetalia as a whole is very good-natured; I have yet to see any mean-spirited gags in it. Of course, maybe I'm just saying that because [strike]America[/strike] Alfred is the best character. :devil: ~Dagger~

Y'all should check out [B]Ride Back[/B]. Very nice first episode--I would've called it worth watching just for the ballet at the beginning (hey, I have a soft spot for dance sequences in anime), but they totally top it once the mecha element comes in. Great premise. The way it transmits the pure joy of movement reminded me a bit of Kaleido Star. It's hard to tell where the story will go from here, so if the rest sucks, I'll just pretend episode 1 was a one-shot. :p Oh, and apparently the first episode of [B]Munto[/B] was pretty much a TV edit of the first OVA (part of it, anyway), so I guess I'll wait until they reach new material to jump in... ~Dagger~

I'm not sure why people try to suggest that video games had absolutely nothing to do with it. They were clearly an influence in this case, and doubtless in others as well. Does that mean they were the direct cause of what happened? Hardly. But I'm also not sure that I see the need for gamers to react defensively about news pieces of this sort in a day and age where video games aren't a creepy niche thing anymore. If the kid had been into slasher flicks or whatever instead, no doubt his lawyers would have used that as a defense. It's their job. No one's singling out video games here as an influence somehow more potent or poisonous than any other; they're just what happened to be involved with this particular tragic case. Besides, his defense was rejected. ~Dagger~

Hey, Alla. *waves* As a disclaimer, I should say that I don't actually have a very strong pro or anti opinion about the death penalty issue. I don't quite follow your logic, though, so this is more a request for clarification than an actual counterargument. [quote name='Allamorph'][FONT=Arial]But let's consider another case: one where something of value was stolen, the criminal captured and convicted, and the item(s) recovered. The punishment for the criminal here is jail time. The consequence is that they must reimburse the owner of the stolen article(s), and often above and beyond the original value. The logic here is simple: you have taken something that is not yours, and you must give it back. But say the article(s) cannot be recovered. Not much difference then, except that the convicted person must reimburse the wronged by an equivalent (or greater, depending on the court ruling) value.[/FONT][/QUOTE] How does this logic apply to other crimes that involve the theft, so to speak, of something irrecoverable? Rape, for instance. There are quite a lot of crimes that have no natural, logical "consequence," as far as I can tell. And as for the crimes that do have logical consequences--well, I'd say that there are cases where implementing them would be monstrous. [quote name='Allamorph'][FONT=Arial] That fact does not erase the debt that [I]must[/I] be paid. And because life is priceless, it cannot in good conscience have any material price set upon it. The only compensation that has the possibility for equal value is another life.[/FONT][/QUOTE] Is life the only priceless commodity out there? Can we then put a price on everything else? You make it sound like the law is the enforcer of some kind of primal principle, but that seems awfully eye-for-eye to me. ~Dagger~

Hetalia!! Wait, there are other shows coming out? :confused: Haha. Theoretically, I am interested in the Munto TV series and Marimite, and maybe the Genji series (if only to see how the heck they plan on fitting it into 11 episodes), but history suggests that I won't get around to actually watching much of any of them. Thank heaven for mini-episodes. There is some stuff I'm absolutely dying to see later in 2009, but now, not so much. ~Dagger~

To be honest? I think it's irrelevant. People can find an endless number of definitions online. How many of you have used a paper dictionary in the past year? Anyway, seven to nine-year-olds know that they can get quicker answers by simply asking someone if they hit a word they don't know. I frankly can't recall ever using a paper dictionary much, especially as a kid--too much of a hassle. ~Dagger~

Is *that* where they made the announcement? Haha! I own and have read the damn book, and I didn't even notice! :animesmil Granted, I did have the cover wrapped the whole time (so I never saw the advertisement obi once after I took it up to the register...), and I bought it well after the release date, so I'd already heard about the new series. Maybe it was unconscious on my part. I really hope they include the novel storyline in the third season. It's amazing. ~Dagger~