Godelsensei

[QUOTE=Momiji Love][SIZE=1]And Rheanna and Kim who are obsessed with "The Ring 2" and the part where the momma says to the boy warming up (with clothes on) in the bathtub of hot water,"Do you want me to get in there with you?" I just think they should've chose their words more carefully.Its just the perverseness (sp?) of society.[/SIZE][/QUOTE] I haven't seen the Ring, but I can assume that it was just a mother being affectionate. Secondly, perverse and perverted are different words! They mean completely different things! Gah! (I can't stand people making that mistake...nothing against you in particular. : /)

The basis for creating a law against something is that it is hurting other people. In the case of incest, one can argue that any child produced through it will be subject to genetic defects, therefore incest is hurting that potential child. However, if one of the participants is sterile, or if the couple is homosexual, there is no possibility of harm coming to a potential child. If a man and a woman, both capable of reproduction, are involved in an incestuous relationship, but use multiple contraceptives and do not plan to, under any circumstances, have a child (morning-after pill, etc...), no one is being hurt through the act of incest. Therefore, incest should not be illegal, as long as there is no chance of it resulting in the birth of a child.

I'm always reading about seventeen books at once. I have books I started reading years ago that I pick up no more than biannually and am no more than halfway through, then I have books I pay a lot of money for and read in an hour and a half, like with "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress". I have books I cart around with me all the time, yet never read a word of and books I've read countless times, despite no one having ever seen me with them. I never find myself digging through earlier chapters, trying to remember who certain characters are, forgetting plots, or confusing themes. Perhaps it's all the practice I've had juggling more story-lines than is practical at once? To be perfectly honest, I simply cannot understand how any one can be reading fewer than three books at once. I mean, what would you [i]think[/i] about?

A friend is some one who'll make fun of you to your face, but never while you can't hear them.

Lady Dust, your entire argument here proves that failing to teach history is a terrible, misguided course of action, that no nation should take. If all of Japan's young people have the same concept of the happenings of the Second World War as you do, a large number of them are likely to be shot while traveling. That's how serious WW2 was. That's how critical it is to understand what went on during it. This isn't some blame-fest and this isn't about who had to suffer through the worst ****; this isn't about Japan, America, or even Germany. This is about the World. The [i]Entire[/i] World. This is about knowing what war is and that it should be avoided at all costs. I agree with everything Lunox just said. And my hands are shaking, too.

[quote name='IceRose']Yeah, I read it I am Otaku...Yippeeee, I mean yay. Well I am half asian so I'm bound to like anime[/quote] That statement weirds me out to no end, I promise you. O_o I am very into anime, games, and whatnot, but I don't call myself an "otaku". I call myself a geek. Because "otaku" wouldn't be fair to the Dungeons & Dragons part of me. This one time, I was at the mall with my friend, who isn't [i]as[/i] into anime as me, and we saw this rather rotund mouth-breather fellow talking very loudly and with lousy pronunciation about how much he hated dubs. We quickly decided he was an otaku, then walked off shaking our heads. I guess the general rule is that geeks are sexy, while otaku are just posers who know squat about anything to do with Japan, including otaku's current connotation there.

[quote name='Lady Dust']And not teaching the events that my country of Japan did in the past is in fact doing good for the students. It's supposed to be sheltered from them because they will not likely to repeat again later on. Isn't that what history is about Godelnesensei?[/quote] No, [i]actually[/i] history is about...history. You need to know your mistakes to avoid them in future. Why do you think Japan no longer has a military? Some reason other than Hiroshima and Nagasaki? I think not. Additionally, [b]do not compare WW2 to Iraq.[/b] Do you know how many people were killed in WW2? [b]Thirty million.[/b] Any number of deaths is tragic, but comparing thousands to millions is ridiculous. Ignoring the past won't make it go away. Pretending that a war never happened teaches no one how terrible a thing it was. It makes light work of re-shaping the world and destroying most of an entire culture. Cultivating misconceptions about the events of WW2 within the minds of Japan's young people will not do any good for international relations. It will not help a business person to claim Pearl Harbor was justified, when striking up an agreement in America. And it will not help any one to realize they've been denied the truth about the most significant international conflict in history. It's like the story of the blind black man who grew up to be a vicious racist. You cannot raise a nation on the belief that they were the ones wronged in a war fed by their desire to eliminate all other cultures. I hold nothing against Japanese people (which would be ridiculous, considering the circumstances under which I'm typing this), just as I hold nothing against Germans or Italians. However, I hold everything against people who claim the years during which my ancestors had to eat tulip bulbs because there was no other food available, during which they had to plan in case men with guns game to their houses, demanding they give up the family living in their attic, never happened.

[quote name='Lady Dust][FONT=Verdana][SIZE=1][COLOR=Green]America had war with Germany, I don't see American's yellign at the Germans saying how they went to war once. HAH! The number one nationality in the country of America is German. Explain that.[/COLOR][/SIZE'][/FONT][/quote] To begin with, I'm not sure most of the USA is German. However, I'm going to focus on the words, [b]"went to war once"[/b]. The implications of the second World War are far greater than what you've heard suggested. The number of people who were killed amounts to the [i]entire population of Canada[/i]. Additionally, though Hiroshima and Nagasaki were terrible, tragic events, Japan left the Allies no choice. There was no other way to get them to stop what they were doing. The actions of the Japanese forces in China, Korea, and throughout the rest of Asia, were brutal and savage. They tortured and killed countless innocent people. Keeping that information from later generations does not change the past. It sounds as though, in Japan, students are taught that WW2 was just a matter of having "gone to war once". Either that or they're just not taught it at all. Bring up the same war in a Canadian classroom, and every one goes silent, and those who don't are looked upon with disgust. I imagine it's the same just about everywhere.

Quite frankly, I am appalled that the Japanese government would try to "shelter" their country's youth from the truth of WW2. When I first heard about the modification of the textbooks, I could have screamed. A lot of people do not take what went on during WW2 seriously. I have heard too many stupid, immature remarks. It's as though many individuals have no concept of what it means for [b]30 000 000[/b] people to die. When [i]nations[/i], especially those who were [i]to blame[/i] for many of these deaths start acting as though it's no big deal, there is simply no excuse, no justification. No, Japanese people should not have to feel personally guilty for what their ancestors did during the war--it had nothing to do with them, [i]as individuals[/i]. But it has everything to do with [i]the country[/i], especially since the way it operates today is a direct result of Hiroshima. Hell, the entire [i]world[/i] was reshaped by the events of WW2. That's not something to gloss over in the history books.

I'll just go with the person [whom I barely know] who posted last. [b]Aiyisha.[/b] You're obviously a Mac person, which is always accompanied by contempt for almost everybody else because you know you're so much cooler than they are. The text in your signature demonstrates that you find double-entendres to be one hella time and also that you don't mind pink. You also don't mind animals who are also people, which makes you pretty f'ing creepy.

I have a black cat, myself, though I didn't get to name him. (Some acquaintances found him in their back yard, named him, then asked us if we wanted to take him in.) So, Zack, it is. We usually refer to him as "Zackie", though, since cats naturally respond better to names ending in "ee". (It's true, though I haven't the faintest as to why.) He has a host of other nicknames, like "Zackadoodle" and "Zackaroo" and "Little Bastard", as my dad calls him when he tears up the furniture. ^^" Anyway, I would have probably named him something with a little more oomph, had it been up to me. Holden-Antonio or something snazzy like that. : ) If you want to learn more about naming cats, you should look into TS Elliot.

I'm about 5' 6", taller than all but one of my female friends, and shorter than all but two of my guy friends. So I'm of pretty average height. However, I almost always wear shoes with at least three or four centimeters worth of heel, so people tend to get the impression that I'm tall. Actually, having a hurty tendon has caused me to go back to my running shoes for a day or two, so I've been feeling quite short lately. Having mostly male friends, I'm getting sick of looking over a decameter up at people to talk to them.

[quote name='Lore][color=indigo']And on Tuesdays, between 4:30 and 6:00 pm, I buy myself a slushie with tapioca balls in it from BobaBoca. :)[/color][/quote] That would be bubble-slushie, I guess, seeing as it isn't tea. I wake up far too late to eat breakfast, and am always starving by the end of my first class. I always have nice lunches (no cafeteria food for me) but it seems as though I can never get enough sustenance out of them to really tide me over 'til dinner. I end up eating a lot of apples between the time I get home and the time I have dinner, which is always a rather large helping of whatever it is. And I drink quite a bit of milk. So you could say I have a big appetite. : /

Dogs are too obsequious for my liking, not to mention the fact that they need to be [i]trained[/i] not to **** on the carpet. They're loud, drooly, frequently smelly, and are overall unrefined. Cats, on the other hand, are pretty much awesome, what with their aloofness and ability to seem streamline, even when rather pudgy. They know what the litter-box is for and use it. They are happy to just sit with you while you read, play video games, or type. When you get them chasing something, they don't just run after it, they [i]stalk[/i]. Not to mention they scare the crap out of the undead.

Simple solution: [b]get a freakin' Mac.[/b] There's a certain smugness that attaches itself to one after being told that file that was not compatible with your operating system was some kind of hard drive-destroying son of a ***** worm or whatever.

[quote name='r2vq']Many believe that our lives are consequential and have no purpose.[/quote] Um...what? Did you mean "[b]in[/b]consequential"? : P Silly Arvie. Anyway, any learned fellow or lady knows the answer is [b]"42"[/b]. I mean, come [i]on[/i].

[quote name='x kakashi x']maybe its just me, but that seemed a bit stuck up? I understand because I have shared classes with people who well, aren't smart, but you can't expect to critique someone elses art and not expect them to the same to your's. So you used a longer word, did you really give a more detailed critique then the other person? No, they said they hated your's and you said you didn't like their's. Neither of you provided any information on how to better each others work in some way. The whole idea seems stuck-up, are you better then someone else because you use the word "barbaric" while critiqing art? And if these people are really "stupid", or your just smarter then them, then why did you take it upon yourself to critique their artwork, figured it would suck, since they're stupid right? Sorry if it seems like I'm bashing on you, I love having intelligent conversations and critiqing good artwork as much as the next guy. But because someone seems to be stupid, doesn't mean that they are, and life is hard enough without people thinking that they're better then you when they really have no idea what kind of person you are.[/quote] If all you can take out of a Kahlo piece is, "I hate it it is so ugly you're gay," then you are stupid for all earthly purposes. That aside, I agree with Arvie (No, [i]actually[/i], I've been in the seventh grade for the past three years, genius. -_-) and probably a lot of other contributors about the useless assignments thing: I've had French assignments that constituted nothing but applying pencil crayon to paper, and it's really just a waste of time/energy/trees. (No, it wasn't a colour by number or anything that involved French, itself.) Also, a lot of teachers seem to enjoy assigning things without teaching the skills necessary. And then they give the same assignment the next year, acting all surprised when nobody's improved. Then, you have the teachers who give tests before covering the goddam material, and I am left asking, "Why...? Just...why?"

It's trendy to be depressed/victimized/angsty these days, and it's pretty depressing in itself. I know so many people who go out of their respective ways to find some life-shattering problem too earn them pity/depth. It's very frustrating, especially when they're your close friends, who turn around and start spewing "anarchist/anti-conformist" filth at you all hours of the day. (MSN and the telephone really help them along with this.) I enjoy all but one or two of my classes, have a wide range of friends, fair-weather or no, and my teachers aren't exactly Devil-incarnates, bar one. A lot of people seem to think just the opposite, however, and it drives me freaking [i]crazy[/i]. Especially when there is only the most abstract reasoning behind their accusations. The one thing I really can't stand about the high-school environment is the fact that I get stuck sharing a classroom with abrasively stupid people. Art class is always a perfect example of this: it's hard to get anywhere when most people's only ability to critique is, "I hate it it is so ugly you're gay." Also, I used the word "barbaric" to describe the way a figure was portrayed in an anti-fur-garments piece, and the whole class started laughing, because they were reminded of "Dave the Barbarian." Consequentially, I am glad that I am taking no open-strand courses next year, bar one. Aaaaaahh... (Sigh of relief, if you were wondering.)

[quote name='Dagger']I'm sure I'd be a little better at French if I sat down to watch some French movies every weekend.[/quote] Just so you know, the French version of Disney's Aladdin is simply [i]amazing[/i]. "Prince Ali" was, like, the best few minutes of francophone song of my life. If you really want to help build comprehension of a language, you can't just watch anything. Start with shows/movies for little kids, that feature uncomplicated vocabulary and grammar. If you can't watch the Japanese equivalent of, say, Rupert or Arthur, you definitely can't watch Ghost in the Shell or Speed Grapher and expect to get anything out of it. (Not that you're likely to get much out of the latter, anyway, but hey. : P)

Don't ever make the mistake of letting something said/done by a total jackass modify your thinking. It doesn't really help you achieve anything. General civility is something to be held sacred, and it's usually greeted with some sort of "thank you", even if it's just a nod or a smile. Because everybody has it in them to be generally civil. Some people ignore this ability, though, and, consequentially, have no real friends, or chance of gaining any.

There is something very pleasant about night time. I enjoy being up at two or three in the morning, doing whatever, really, knowing mostly every one else is asleep and will be for a while longer. The relative darkness is also very relaxing--you can look out the window, and see the street lamps and feel a sense of calm, because you're in the city and nothing bad's going to happen; they're too many people around. However, my mind switches gears dramatically once I find myself anywhere populated by less than a million people. I [i]hate[/i] being in the country at night. Last summer, my family rented a cottage up somewhere where there were no lights to be seen for kilometers, once night fell, and I could not fall asleep. I would sit there, mostly covered by a sleeping bag, with my eyes darting back and forth, lest some chain-saw-wielding silhouette appear before my monitor-loving eyes. Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep that week, and was very glad to come home.^^"

I find myself injecting sarcasm into most of what I write, even if it breaks up the flow. I just can't help it--my subconscious must really have it in for the world or something. Perhaps the biggest element that differentiates my writing from other people's is how I arrange the contents of my sentences. My English teacher, despite the fact that most people who even notice say it's pretty cool, is always on my back about it. And the worst part is, I can't even tell when/how I'm doing it, or exactly what I'm doing "abnormally". All I know is people tell me I stick subjects in arbitrary places, my response generally being along the lines of, "So? The Japanese language barely even [i]has[/i] subjects, you ungrateful cur." I'm very liberal with my punctuation, as well, which probably helps the whole "Arbitrary Structure" thing along; it's easy to be creative when you understand the proper use of the comma. In terms of names, I usually lean towards very old-fashioned, Gorey-esque things--the type you might find in Amphigorey/Too/Also. This may or may not have been influenced by the fact that my own name is quite classical/longwinded. And when I'm not naming every one "Mildred" and "Guilford", I am able to extract a strange delight from cursing the most innocent of fellows and ladies with names along the lines of "Darwinnia Pangaea Kassandra". (Ten points to whoever guesses/remembers just where I put that one to use.^_~) I guess you could say I have a thing for substance. I can also be a pretentious jackass, especially when writing essays. I'll put to work unnecessarily long, obscure words, simply because I find it fun. Then, people either tell me I'm "so smart and cool" or that I "think you're so much better than everybody!" Which is pretty funny, as both are true. : P I can also go off on the weirdest of tangents for obscenely long periods of time. After all, there is something to be said for depth.

[quote name='Dagger']Apparently the origin story is also somewhat different--which I'm more dubious about, but it's probably a wise decision for the Japanese writers to not totally imitate the original.[/quote] The origin of the Powerpuff Girls was probably one of my favourite parts of the original series: it was so ridiculous, it somehow gained merit. I was actually reminded of the elusive composition of Coke, the first time I heard it, heh. From the clip, I predict that the satirical charm the original series had will be either downplayed or modified to suit a Japanese audience. Probably both. Does any one know if Japan is familiar with the original Powerpuff Girls?

[quote name='MistressRoxie][color=#9933ff']The only good thing about the new stuff they did is that they installed a flash sensor so when you try and light up a cigarette in the bathroom, it locks the door on you.[/color][/quote] Erm. What if there's a fire and the door locks? o_o Sounds rather hazardous.

I'm nowhere near being able to hold anything resembling even the most basic conversation in Japanese, but I've been buying books on grammar and whatnot for a while now. I've read through them all many times, and tried copying things down, but you really do need some one to speak to and ask for help. I speak passable French, since I've been studying it for so long (seven years), and have gotten to a point where I know enough grammar, vocabulary, and slang to make my way around Quebec/France without any one who speaks English. If I was stuck speaking French all the time, I'd be able to improve boundlessly. However, I'm not, even within French classes. Really, you have to be immersed in the language in at least a few ways to really learn it. It has to become natural and automatic. My French knowledge that is [i]there[/i] is automatic, even though I have lots to learn. I can read a passage and understand it without having to translate in my head. Once you get the basics down so far pat you don't have to think about them, the rest will come much more easily, as you have something to fall back to. If you can pull together a basic sentence without exerting too much effort, you're halfway there. As a tip, I try and make a habit of watching the news in French every so often, to help my comprehension along. Anime works the same way, when it comes to Japanese.