Godelsensei

"Do you feel sorry for the little creamer? That is because you are crazy. It is just a creamer; it doesn't have feelings. Besides, the new one is much better." That commercial has everything: action, sex, suspense, emotion. Talk about a good time.

[color=blue][b]"Wow, [size=5]Azure[/size], what a [size=3]pretty[/size] [size=1]little[/size] [size=7][i]girl[/i][/size] you must be, [size=4]in real life[/size]!"[/b][/color]

All religions are the same. That is: they're all elitist, discriminatory cliques run by crazy, sexist, homophobic, racist old guys who love to claim that it is only through [paying, worshipping, and waiting on] them that any one might achieve a half decent afterlife. Unfortunately, people believe them.

"Shit." Myrtle glanced irritably, once more, at the red-brown, quarter-sized blotch and set about digging through her bag, for a tampon. She couldn't actually see what she was doing--with her bag, that was impossible. It was just a smallish sort of rectangular sac with a shoulder strap, but it held everything. She felt about the bottom of the faux-leather work in desperation until her figers came in contact with and object of the appropriate shape and size, then decided she really ought to go to her next class. Second period had been some form of math--she couldn't remember what she had decided to take this term, precisely. She had not been in the mood for calculations, though she now thought that automatic, mindless calculation mightent have been so bad, after all. Besides, she was in [i]Canada[/i] now. That meant North America. It was all hopelessly easy here, when it came to math, as long as no one asked her to explain her thought process. Slowly, deliberately washing her hands several times over, then shifting her position to the nearest paper towel dispenser, Myrtle once again began to think of home. Just as she was remembering striding boastfully, defiantly down the corridors of that poorly reputed highschool, her best friend by her side, both of them reaking of his cigarette smoke, some one else entered the washroom. They did a double-take when they saw her, then reached into a pink purse. The girl retrieved a hairbrush from her bag and began to critically examine herself in the mirror, dealing with any imperfections as she went. Something rose up inside Myrtle's gut then, a tiny lick of anger. No one would have even dared look at her once back home. Even the seniors had kept their eyes close to the floor when passing her in the halls. They knew who she was and, more importantly, who she was friends with. "What was that?" "What?" The girl narrowed her eyes, but didn't stop what she was doing. "You looked at me in a very...unwholesome way when you came in here." Myrtle raised an inquiring eyebrow as the girl shot her a look. "I didn't. You don't have to get all worked up, anyway. It's not like I said anything." "Why'd you look at me that way?" She crossed her arms, expression and stance threatening. The girl sighed and turned to her. "Know why? Because my friend pointed to you in the hall during lunch and--" Myrtle shouldered her bag and left the room. She didn't need this. Not now. She didn't need to bump into Leo Fibonacci, either, but life was funny that way. "Crying your eyes out in the bathroom because every one's talking about you?" "Bleeding, actually. You wouldn't happen to have a quarter, would you?"

The whole ordeal of being trapped is really well presented here. Impressive, though I don't understand the motivation behind crossing out some of the words. Oh well, I'm sure it's all on artistic grounds. : ) Just couldn't resist adding the part about the dried instant noodles, could you? *shove* Very haunting--different from "Senpai", but similar to that thing about the guy getting the lift home. Good work.

Almost every group project I have ever participated in has involved me getting pissed off. I hate working in group projects, for the simple reason that I always end up with some nitpicky, brownosed perfectionist who is incapable of developing anything beyond the most fundamentally lame and boring ideas possible. Every one else does their work, fits it together nicely enough, and then that one person comes and gets mad because it isn't text-book boring or looks different than the example the teacher showed us, as means of suggestion or inspiration. They proceed to try and re-do everything themselves, then bring it in on the day the assignment is due, and create conflict by accusing every one else of doing nothing. I call it work-mongering, but I'm sure you could find something outwardly nice to say about people like that.

Being mistaken for the opposite gender can have funny resulst, most of the time. It would take so much away from OB if we could really know for sure whether Azure was a man or a woman. Besides, who gives a crap? It's the internet.

Myrtle tugged absent-mindedly at the array of ribbons woven into her hair and thought about home. What time was it there, now? She didn't know. All she knew was that something, despite her having long-since gotten over her prolonged jet-lag, told her she should not have been where she was. It told her she should have been sleeping--or, more accurately, pretending to be asleep. She would wait until the house was completely silent, then tip-toe down the stairs and out the back door, as silently as anything. She would pad around, to the front of the house, feeling the cool air against her mostly-bare legs and cheeks. Then, she would stand there for a moment, look up and down the unfamiliar street, and go back the way she came; there was nothing to do here. No one to do anything with, at least. That was what she should have been doing. In actuality, she was standing at her locker, the door open, reading the words generations past had left behind--all business about so and so's face and ugly shoes. Without thinking, she took a permanent marker from the depths of the small closet and uncapped it. Instantly, a smell she was very used to from model building filled the air. She reached out, towards the back of the locker and noted, deliberately, with great attention to detail,"M+"-- What came next? "Ki", so that meant "K". She pondered her most likely being the only member of the school to have to think about this kind of thing. Myrtle filled in the missing letter and began to encircle it with a highly-predictable shape. Something bumped her arm, forming a fantastic streak across the surface she was preoccupied with. Gritting her teeth, she whirled about, permanent marker in hand. Her flaring nostrils and bulging eyes would have scared, Kizuna had told her, all but one person, that being him. But the offending tots were already chasing each other down the hall, screaming, and she thought that Kizuna might have been wrong. There were two people and she wasn't sure of how she would deal with one of them.

[B]Following Bio's...[/B] The words had lept, if in a rather cautious, inquisitive manner, from her tongue before she could think to restrain herself. "I am me." Alice had let go her hold on the fish's fin and was peering across and some ways over the massive cake. She nearly let one of her hands rest upon the "table", but a firm, though not entirely unkind, collection of fingers drew it back. "I would avoid...touching things, if I were you," said the pale man. "'I am me'?" "Aren't you, though?" The man sat down upon a stack of sandwich cookies, all in one fluid movement. There was something elegant about his meanness, Alice thought. "Oh, and you may sit, as is characteristic of human intruders, though I would be warry of laying your hands upon anything...unusual." She nodded and plopped down upon a browny, which proved to have the same ability to relax as an overstuffed easychair. "I am sorry if I happen to offend, sir, but...who are you? And why are you here? I've read many stories of people who live in gingerbread houses, but you..." Her voice trailed off. She feared she may have, indeed, offended. The pale man sighed and turned to the fish, who had been watching with an expression of mild amusement. Once again, his fish lips began to open and close: "Young lady, I think my friend here is doing a poor job of implying that the answer to your questions has already rolled off your own tongue. Not a moment ago, I might add." Alice's eyes returned to the book. Then, they rested upon the pale man. "If it means so much to you, then go ahead," he said. "But I warn you: it contains neither a great deal of pictures or conversation."

I'd be more caught up with the skill points and things like the Box Breaker. (Correction--I am caught up with those things.) Since there's already a thread with the appropriate title, I cannot resist delving into how much I adore this game. I spend hours daily playing it, even if I make no progress other than to unlike the "Ratchet has a big head." cheat. I love the creature designs and the innocuous humour of the cut scenes. I love the range of weapons and how unbelievably...different some of them are. (The Sheepinator, for one.) I love the fact that you actually have to use your brain while playing this game and that it encompasses so many different scenarios--arena battles, basic platformer mode, let's-gun-down-Thugs4Less. And I love the fact that there is so much to do. I only recently got my own console, so perhaps I am a tad naive, but the fact that, after getting certain items and weapons, you can venture back to the first level and find mini-bosses and quests that are actually a challenge really makes me happy. That and Clank is the most ***-kickingest little hunk of metal and glass to ever come into existance.

I haven't heard much of what Dream Theater has to offer, but I have to say I love what I have heard. (I have a total frigging zealot of a friend, or else I wouldn't have heard anything.) I love their style, I love their sound, and, for my friend's sake, I love their bass.

I must say, I hate AIM more than I hate alot of things, but one must take into consideration that there are alot more things in the world than I have opinions on. I hate obscenely warm weather and when people complain about being perpetually cold when it is anywhere above negative ten. I hate the Imperial system and that sign in front of that one church that always has some irksomely Jesus-loving slogan upon it. I hate when people forget to include apostrophes and think I ought to be full up with guilt for discounting every religion that has ever come into extistance by jokingly blaming everything that goes wrong on, "those ****ing zealots." I hate crappy staplers, Raleigh bicycles, and sour cream and onion chips. I hate having morons in my school and listening to them whine about how stupid and boring George Orwell's books are. I also hate it when people say I need to stop being addicted to 'Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando'. ******* zealots.

[QUOTE=Dagger IX1]Er... on what are you basing the assumption that it'll be targeted at eight year olds? ~Dagger~[/QUOTE] Perhaps the fact that it is scheduled to air on Toonami and that any anime that ever goes to television is targeted at eight year olds. (Aside from those few occasions where one might air at midnight or something like that.) One cannot pretend to be optimistic when things like American One Piece exist. *dies*

[B]Following James'...[/B] As the fish's movement slowed, then finally stopped, Alice studied the sight before her with the kind of caution that is of one who knows just what they are looking at. Being one with a great appreciation for books involving much in the way of both pictures and conversation, she knew well enough to tell herself not to accept candy from strangers--if the strangers happened to be very close to a shade of green and unusually pleasant, that only made the situation worse. "Pardon me, but--" The fish released a bubbling sigh and shook its head. "I know what you are about to say, miss, and I guarentee you it is...misguided, at best." He swam a few feet closer to the house before turning about and demanding of her what business she could possibly have standing in one spot, with her mouth open. "Am I mistaken, or was it but a few fleeting moments ago that you were worried to steep yourself entirely in water? And now she stands letting it fill her lungs as though it weren't there at all! What a fickle breed of creature you humans are." But Alice wasn't listening--before her, in the doorway, was a man of pale skin and an expression that revealed a set of canine teeth one would barely believe in, had they surfaced upon a cat. An expression--it was not a smile, by any set of standards. "Indeed, I am aware of such things--I fear I used to be one. Nasty things, especially the children," he sniffed and inquired as to why she had her feet planted in his garden.

The thing that pisses me off, more than anything else, is how the franchise's reputation is going to take a serious beating. Targeting Naruto at eight year olds was something we were all hoping would be avoided, but, alas, it was not to be.

[quote name='MistressRoxie][color=#9933ff']And by the way, who says that these "arranged" marriages are a bad thing? Yes, the can definitely be that way, but people can also turn out all right. As the divorce rate in the country is over 50% I don't think that by arranging these marriages, they're doing any worse than we are.[/color][/quote] I can say arranged marriages are a bad thing and are doing worse things than marriages that end in divorce, since you asked. If so many people are getting divorced, how does shoving together two people who are as likely to hate each other as anything else help the divorce rate go down? And spouting non-sequitous facts about divorce has nothing to do with this topic, anyway. The point is arranged marriages, to whatever degree, impede on the rights that any civilized country has set in place for all of its citizens. Trading children or even virtually selling them is not something that I stand for. I should hope you don't believe in such things, either. And the idea of "well, sometimes it can turn out okay" just isn't enough to justify the above. Like I am forever insisting, tradition has no bearing on your right to detract from the quality and freedom of the lives of others. If some one thinks it does, they shouldn't have immigrated here in the first place.

[QUOTE=Chabichou][COLOR=#004a6f]No one is "arranging" anything for me. Either some of the people my mom knows will ask if I'm interested in meeting their son, or a guy who knows me a bit and likes me will ask my parents who will in turn ask me if I want to meet him, and if I like him and think he is a good muslim with personality, I will probably say yes, or if I'm not quite ready I might ask to wait a couple years. In terms of dating, that doesn't come until after the marriage contract is written. I don't need to go out on a date with a guy to see if I like him. I get to know him by asking him questions and my parents ask him questions, and we ask around the community to see what people think of him, and to see if their might have been any problems he didn't mention.[/COLOR][/QUOTE] Sounds arranged to me. Basically, the message I am getting here is that you can't go out and just meet up with whoever you want, on the grounds of you liking them. How can you possibly decide whether you like some one without meeting them in an individual-to-individual situation? I think the main concept people have of arranged marriage is something that isn't primarily exclusive between the husband and wife. Marriage is about individuals, not religion or parents. Sure, family should give input as to whether or not the person seems decent or honest, but that is but on top of the relationship two people have developed. And, as a matter of interest, what happens if a girl decides she wants to foresake her religion and live life as a spinster? Or if she has sex before marriage or decides to marry a black guy? Arranged marriage is a disregard for people's right to live as they wish. It is a disrespectful, outdated act that should not be tolerated, regardless of the traditions of whatever culture. In a society where we are granted the right to live however we choose, this should not extend to restricting the lives of our children. It's simply a matter of respect.

[quote name='Chabichou][COLOR=#004a6f']That's true, you have a point there. But there are many jobs in which the government hires you, or at least plays a role in whether companies will hire you or not. I'm sure there are some standards that all companies must follow.[/COLOR][/quote] Regarding the point I think you've been pushing throughout your posts... A huge portion of government employees, when it comes to the branches that you don't hear about on the news--Environment Canada, etc...--are immigrants with foreign qualification. And, speaking of education, it is extremely beneficial to a country (especially one like Canada, whose natural population increase is rather slow, at best) when immigrants come looking for employment, especially if they have degrees already. It costs so much for the government to educate every individual--immigration saves money in that area like crazy. Immigration is basically essential for Canada, as we have so few babies north of the border, and I'm pretty sure other places need it, too, if not quite so desperately. I think the main issues with it, however, are abuse of refugee status (though you could argue that this is a different issue) and illegal immigration, when it comes to criminals. The details of this are obvious. (Another thing that pisses me off is how some people immigrate here and then start complaining about the fact that divorce is legal or how we don't burn gay people. But that's just a small minority...bastards...)

Your question as to whether we should try to do away with gender roles has one flaw--the word "try". Like with many attempts to raise all races to the same platform, to much effort is spent on the theory behind equality. Giving people a job over another person because they are of a visual minority doesn't really achieve anything, as the issue of race is still involved in employment. Men and women, from when they are boys and girls, need to be educated so they know they have the right to achieve and live as well as any one else. They need to have an understanding of their being equal and be encouraged to live up to it. There will always be certain positions occupied by certain groups; as long as people have an educated say in any stereotypes they live up to and know they are capable of leaving them behind, we'll all be okay.

Being acquainted with many a fellow and lady newly from China, I am not able to sympethize with your amazement at how short a time your friend has been speaking English. Anyway, living in a remarkably cosmopolitan place, I have neither witnessed, nor experienced, very much in the way of racial discrimination. The US seems more uptight about the theory behind equality of race, but you hear alot of talk to do with racism occuring there. I think the best way to avoid racism is to get to a point where people simply fail to notice differences in race. I live in a place where you are as likely to see an Asian, black, or Indian dude walking down the street as a white one--and nobody cares. Simply making a big deal out of providing compensation or sympathy towards minority groups has no bearing on how people actually feel about each other. And if it does, it only makes them bitter. Racism is something that can, in fact, become a relative non-issue, when it comes to school and work life. People like to say we are incapable of getting along, but I see that as an excuse to shrug and continue to...give black kids free lunch. It really depends on how ignorant the people in question are.

[COLOR=Gray][FONT=Courier New]Atheism isn't a religion. There are no values, trends, or activities that go along with atheism. It's just living without God, per se. So it would have been more appropriate to put "N/A" in its place. (Just saying.) I'm an atheist. But I still celebrate Christmas and Easter and, to an extent, Chinese New Year, even though I'm not Chinese and it's not really a religious ceremony. Eh.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[COLOR=Gray][FONT=Courier New](That would be Nihon--James Clavell, as much as I love the guy, made some weird mistakes in his day. O_o) [b]Name:[/b] Francoise Violette Deneuve [b]Age:[/b] 19 [b]Sex:[/b] F [b]Personality:[/b] A observant young lady, [i]tres introvertie[/i], I am fluent in French and English, though I prefer to keep this information to myself, for the most part. If I do feel the need to communicate, it is usually to do with important information, not merely for lack of anything better to do. I never act without thinking and have a poor disposition towards impolite or roudy people, who often go hand-in-hand. [b]Biography:[/b] I was born in a French colony north of the United States as a fourth child and second daughter. My mother has been pushing me to move out of the house and marry, as she is afraid I will grow too old to attract any one's interest, and I have finally complied, if only halfway. My older brother, Louis, has taught me to use a rifle effectively, and I am a fast runner and capable of holding my prominent own in a fight, but am still able to be ladylike and polite when the situation calls for it, due to my attending finishing school. I learned English with great ease when I was fifteen or so, and hope to learn to speak Japanese, eventually, as well. I heard of this voyage and was delighted to learn it was open to women, and so I stand here, on the deck of a ship, anchored off the coast of Japan. [b]Notes of Import:[/b] I can't skate and have a paranoia of horses, but can drink more than most grown men in one sitting. Go figure. (Oh yeah, and "Gai-Jin" owns, though "Shogun" is better. : P)[/FONT][/COLOR]

[COLOR=Gray][FONT=Courier New]Flame of Recca was first suggested to me by a thirty-five year old man with a pony-tail, who was at an illegitimate DVD store in [URL=http://www.pacificmalltoronto.com/en/]P-Mall[/URL] with his four year old son, who kept trying to walk out of the store carrying unpurchased porn. That guy didn't even know Kenshin had a [spoiler]brother in law[/spoiler]. What a loser.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[COLOR=Gray][FONT=Courier New]I tend to prefer manga over anime, when it comes to most titles, as I can, like Sciros said, stare at the pictures for longer. That said, I, like Skippedry, tend to check the quality of the art when it comes to manga, before buying it. I prefer the Comic Party anime over the manga and the Naruto manga over the anime, though, so I can't generalize.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[quote name='Drix D'Zanth']Have you even paid attention to the ?slippery slope? argument? Hey, I don?t hold the keys to the future, but I don?t believe our country really needs to destroy one institution that holds meaning to me.[/quote] [COLOR=Gray] [FONT=Courier New]Since marriage is such a significant institution all over the world and is something that most people value very strongly, why should a specific group of people be disallowed from taking part in it? You can't control whether or not you're gay, and you can't control the shade of your skin. Additionally, what about couples married at City Hall, whose being wed is completely unrelated to the Church? Are they not considered married? Marriage is a significant legal practice, more than anything else. To be "married" is no longer a religious statement. It's a contract that allows two people to set up their own family unit, intact with shared posessions and custody of children. (Unless they get divorced, of course.) The whole, "Gay people are destroying marriage!!!!!1!!!1one" argument is basically invalid. Maybe they're destroying [i]Christian[/i] marriage, but that isn't what society considers marriage to be any more. Gay people marrying is offending you, and, as an atheist, gay people not being allowed to marry offends me. Incest makes no sense. I believe homosexuality is, as Azure-jiji suggested, a disorder of sorts, but does not defy the purpose of reproduction, when you think about it along those terms. Homosexuality is a woman having a man's sexual orientation, or vice versa, and that orientation would be towards females, for the purpose of reproduction. So you could say something is wired incorrectly, but it still makes sense, unlike incest which simply does not. It's going off on a tangent, but I think you learn to not be attracted to your own family. If you grow up with your older brother, for instance, you subconciously know that you should not be attracted to him. If you met your brother after being seperated your entire lives, not knowing he was your brother, you might be attracted to him, however. Oedipus-like, and all. Since humans have sex for fun, specifically, more often than not, anyway, the "unnatural" argument also flies out the window. It doesn't really make too much sense to run around fornicating for no reason, as far as evolution goes, but we do it anyway. So, if the purpose of sex isn't to reproduce, why does it matter if it can result in reproduction or not?[/FONT][/COLOR]