Godelsensei

[COLOR=Gray][FONT=Courier New]I agree with Azure that homosexuality is some kind of disorder, but I still don't have a problem with it. Homosexuality, even if it is "unnatural" or "illogical" or "disgusting" still exists and being homosexual does not automatically make you a pervert. It does not mean you go around raping bunnies or other women or dead people. It simply means you are attracted to members of the same gender, in a way that it can only be interpreted as the same as the attraction between heterosexual couples. And if men are going to marry their sons all of a sudden, why aren't they already marrying their daughters? I am for gay marriage because homosexuality is something that you can't control and persecuting people for something they can't control is wrong, according to [i]my[/i] morals. Gay people aren't hurting you, they aren't destroying our society, and their getting married is simply a recognition of a long-term relationship. And when I say married, I mean married as in visiting rights, not married as in The Bible.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[COLOR=Gray][FONT=Courier New]*raises hand* Additionally, the said novel is all over Canadian bookstores' shelves, as well.*cough* I'll pick up my own copy sooner, rather than later, I guess. Once I find money or my library card. I also have tons of books I'd love to share. Cool idea. You get 50 points.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[quote name='Afire][FONT=Trebuchet MS][SIZE=2][COLOR=RED]I'm sorry Maladjusted, but how could a child learn true communication with the opposite sex with two same sex parents?[/COLOR][/SIZE'][/FONT][/quote] [COLOR=Gray][FONT=Courier New][i]Oh please.[/i] Boys don't talk to their mothers as though they were "girls", and girls don't talk to their fathers as though they were "boys". They're Mom and Dad. You learn to communicate with the opposite gender from your peers before you even come to think of your parents as husband and wife as oppose to Mum and Dad. Additionally, Reap3r, gay marriage is now legal in Canada and I don't feel any bedrock shattering. I think the ol' Shield can take a bit of guy-on-guy action without crumbling. Honestly--[i]some people[/i], eh?[/FONT][/COLOR]

[COLOR=Gray][FONT=Courier New]Adahn, it isn't exactly possible for a woman to penetrate a man. By your logic, that makes heterosexual sex immoral.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[COLOR=Gray][FONT=Courier New]This is the revised begining for the second, third, or possibly seventeenth attempt at a rewrite of a story idea of mine. I wont reveal the details of the plot, however, because I want to know what a reader would anticipate from this sort of opening. Also, I was wondering if any one could contribute some criticism to do with use of adjectives or dialogue or whatever else. [i]Domo.[/i][/FONT][/COLOR] Standing on the back steps of an Italian restaurant, Izumi?s world was snow, broken beer bottles, and a dumpster. The way she was standing, slouched ever so slightly forward, compounded by the well-worn jacket that clung to her shoulders, gave the impression of a cigarette held between slender, chilled fingers. But Izumi didn?t smoke. The closest she ever came to smoking was watching her breath float away, carried by the wind, late at night, on the steps of an Italian restaurant. She did this now, in lieu of tobacco, watching the snow fall, silently, calmly, and feeling it as well. She felt every flake that landed in her hair or on her gloveless hands. Gloveless, in negative ten weather, yet strangely bereft of chill?indeed, no part of her shivered. She was a ghost of pale skin and fair hair, grey eyes and chipped nail polish. An old jacket and scuffed dress shoes. ?Stand there any longer and you?ll be indistinguishable from a wall, or perhaps a stop sign.? Her lips curved faintly and she looked back, over her shoulder. ?Why would there be a stop sign in an alleyway?? ?To tell those kids who make habits of mugging each other that what they?re doing is wrong? I don?t know, Izumi.? He put a hand on her shoulder, standing a step higher than she was. ?You?ve been here late all week. Just go home early today, okay?? She shook her head, her expression static. ?No, no. I can?t do that. I need the hours, Liam.? He squeezed her shoulder, a sign of his concern. ?Go home. And take something to eat with you?you?re looking skinny these days, kiddo.? Nodding her consent, she turned and made her way up the stairs. When her foot was hovering just above the top step, her hand outstretched for the doorknob, he added a paternal, ?And get some gloves. Jesus,? before putting a cigarette to his lips. He waited for her to be inside before taking out his lighter.

?Oh. It?s you.? It took Nobuhiro less than half a second to have jumped to his feet, spun around, and pointed an accusing finger at the person standing in his doorway. ?Y-y?YOU!? He stuttered incoherently for a time before taking a few steps forward, furious, and stopping himself from slapping his little sister in the face. ?What the hell are you doing here?!? He paused for a moment, let his hand drop to his side, raised an eyebrow, and asked the obvious question of, ?And why are all the lights off?? ?I was sleeping.? ?With the door unlocked?! What if some one aside from me had happened to come here! And where the hell did you get a key?? He exhaled loudly, exasperated and more confused than he?d been at any recent point he could remember. ?Junko-neesan gave it to me. And I worried you?d forget your keys again.? The girl stuck her chin out, managing to look almost exactly like Toru. Her hair was longer, though, and tied back, somehow contrasting with her striped pajama bottoms. ?Junko? You talked to Junko? Why are you here, anyway? And would you mind letting me in?? She stepped back and he shuffled past her, still irritated to the utmost degree, and tossed his jacket aside, not caring where it landed: it was his house, after all. ?I?m in Tokyo to visit a friend.? ?Then why aren?t you at your friend?s house?? ?She wasn?t home when I went by.? He gave her a look, kicking his shoes off. ?She knows you?re coming, I take it?? ?No.? Nobuhiro stopped walking towards the stairs and stood very still, his back still. He put together everything his sister had just told him, as best as he could, then burst out laughing. He remembered what his sister had said to him before he had gone to Tokyo, and it was almost a laugh of malice. ?He got rid of you, too?? ?What?? ?As in, he now has only one kid left, as far as he?s concerned, and as far as she?s going to act upon. Jesus, Reiko, what?d you do?? She said nothing. He waited. She kept saying nothing. ?Are you okay?? He waited for her to respond, but she didn?t, and he began to climb the stairs. ?Help yourself to anything in the fridge, Reiko. And answer the phone if it rings?I?m going to take a shower. Okay?? ???kay.? When Toue Nobuhiro left his bedroom in search of the kitchen, seeking a meal he could prepare in less than six minutes, he, for a second, was genuinely convinced that he was going to throw up. He would have rushed back into his bedroom to put on a shirt (he only ever slept in a pair of pants he found comfortable, but he had lived with his sister for over twenty years and had discounted having that female in the house as nothing special) but they had both already spotted him. ?There you are! What the hell? She kept telling me you didn?t live here and that she was going to call the police!? Winnie was flustered, a new look for her, as far as he had experienced. ?Who is this kid, anyway?? Reiko whirled around and demanded the same information of Winnie. Nobuhiro stood, at the top of the stairs, shirtless, wondering what he ought to do. He could dive back over the threshold behind him and crawl into bed, waiting for the both of them to leave, then very quickly lock the door behind whoever exited last. But that wouldn?t be very tactful of him. So, instead, he decided to deal with it. ?This is my friend, Reiko. Her name is Winnie. Why did you tell her I didn?t live here?? His sister glared at him. Winnie put her hands on her hips and looked at the floor. Reiko had put their shoes away, along with doing a general job of tidying up. He didn?t feel like thanking her, though. ?I think I?ll go now, Toue-san. Sorry for showing up so late.? She bowed stiffly, turned, and began to walk back down his driveway. He stared at his sister, fuming, for a minute, then turned around and headed back the way he had come, himself. Only he followed this by running out the front door, having barely stepped into his shoes, still pulling on his jacket, wishing he?d been born any one else. [COLOR=Gray][FONT=Courier New]I hate Reiko she iz such a b*****88 y duznt she just dye Also, I have created a character I thoroughly dislike. That's quite an accomplishment, for me. o_o[/FONT][/COLOR]

The first thing he noticed about the door, when he went up to open it, was that it was open. Not swung back on its hinges, in a painfully obvious fashion, but unlocked. He had locked the door?he knew he?d locked the door because, well, he always locked the door. But it wasn?t locked. Had he locked the door? Yes, he had. He knew that he had locked the door because, just as he had finished doing so, the phone had started to ring and he had made a possibly critical decision to ignore it. So, Nobuhiro decided that, instead of entering a house that might contain any one in the world, by this point, he would sit on his porch and think of who might have a copy of his house key. He had a vague memory of giving one to Junko, but could not be certain of this and doubted that she would have entered his house late at night and neglected to turn the lights on. Therein, he assured himself that his older sister was not, in fact, inside his house. Could it be Toru? No?he never would have, under any circumstance, as much as he loved him, left a copy of his house key in the hands of his younger brother. He knew this, and was very relieved in its regard. After deducing that no one but he himself had a copy of his house key, as far as he was aware, Toue Nobuhiro?s thought process went a little like this: If I have the only key and remember locking the door before leaving, some one I do not want in my house is most definitely in my house, but why do I remember going to get a copy of my house key made, now that I think about it, and oh God: Emi. Indeed, before slamming the door behind her and after hurling a desk lamp at him and missing, because he was never around any more and because his father had yelled at her for wearing a miniskirt or tight pants or something and also because she, incidentally, didn?t love him any more and was, it had turned out, a lesbian, she had said something along the lines of she was going to come back and kill him while he was sleeping. Then it occurred to Nobuhiro that his ex-fiancée, who no one cared to talk about, especially around him, returning to kill him while he was sleeping was highly unlikely, seeing as she had moved to Australia, or so he had heard from a friend of hers who had approached him on his way home from work, one day, three weeks after leaving him and that had been a year and a half ago. Nobuhiro wished he had more photographs to rip in half, the desire to do so entirely related to that subject, but they?d all been taken care of by this point and there was still some one in his house. He wondered how they had decided to enter his house, specifically, and not any other. He surely hadn?t been the only one to not be home or to have turned the lights off before leaving that day. There was nothing special about his house: his garden wasn?t exactly a garden, per se, but some grass and a bush, and the house itself looked like every other on the street. In fact, the building and property were both painfully regular. The intruder would probably realize this sooner or later and leave, to find Nobuhiro sitting, glumly, on the porch, wondering why any one would want to break into his house. ?Christ, I suck,? he said, to the night air. And he probably did. [COLOR=Gray][FONT=Courier New] I know it's short, but it's [i]there[/i], okay? Okay.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[COLOR=Gray][FONT=Courier New]If you've read any of Orson Scott Card's work, this is the kind of thing he likes to look at. His Earth was able to remain peaceful because of the threat of the Buggers, along with all the world's most brilliant minds being trained in outer space, where they could not hold any kind of political sway. Once the Bugger threat is removed, however, the world becomes very unstable, and countries form a sort of world-wide Cold War. The only way to achieve world peace would be to end nationalism and any other fanatic trends one could think of. But this depends on your view of world peace. There will always be conflict, but mass conflict (i.e. wars) is something on a seperate level. I believe that alot of the world is pretty much at peace with itself, in the sense that Canada, England, America, Japan, Australia, Switzerland, France, Italy, Greece, China, etc... manage to get along (that is: not bomb the crap out of each other), as a whole. However, there will always be specific regions who feel the need to create conflict, for whatever reason, or are simply conflict-ridden. The Global Community is becoming much more emphasized, what with immigration and everything else, so a sizeable chunk of people are willing to set aside differences for the greater good. (Though whether it is all good is debatable, in itself.)[/FONT][/COLOR]

[COLOR=Gray][FONT=Courier New]I would most definately go with pressing charges, regardless of whether it is simply to save your marriage. Your brother stole your pin number. That is an extremely serious offense, and he can't get off thinking it's okay. I know I sound like some one's mom, but you're older than he is, and you ought to set an example, especially since every one knows that males between the ages of 18 and 24 are irrational. (It's statistically proven.) If he gets off with doing something like that now, he'll just do it again, since that seems to be what has happened in the past. If it was the first time, you could have let him off saying you'd call the police if you ever heard of anything like this happening again. But it's not the first time. If your daughter stole a chocolate bar, you'd make her admit it to the shop owner, right? [/FONT][/COLOR]

[COLOR=Gray][FONT=Courier New]Shaking hands and saying "cheers" while clinking your cups at the dinner table all have an origin. To do with shaking hands, it was to show that you weren't carrying a weapon, since left-handed people are Hell-spawn, after all. Back in the day, you'd actually tip a bit of your drink into that of your neighbor, until every one had a drink comprised of every one else's. This was to ensure that no one would poison any one else. By not doing this, much like handing some one a knife with the blade facing towards them, you are displaying hostility. Any customs of politeness (like holding doors) that are not discriminatory (i.e. women talking more politely than men in Japanese) are perfectly fine by me. It's what seperates us from the beasts. That and art.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[COLOR=Gray][FONT=Courier New]I've read through various parts of posts and have gotten the general debate going on here, and this is how I feel about it: As a general rule of thumb, no daughter should be in a relationship with a man that any reasonable father would set out to kill because of his seniority. The same can be used for the age difference between a young boy and an older woman, but it just so happens that more girls end up in relationships with people much, [i]much[/i] older than they are. This is because of gender roles. Men and women are not yet equal, something that is displayed everywhere, not to mention the fact that girls are smaller (in terms of weight etc...). It's easier to pressure some one who is at that kind of disadvantage into a relationship, not to mention [i]wrong[/i]. Pedophilia is a disorder and any grown, mentally stable, person should be able to keep inaproriate sexual feelings to themselves. A thirteen year old is still insecure sexually and has hardly any life experience. Hell, any one whose age ends in "teen" is way too immature to make a critical choice relating to relationships. Just because you're capable of having babies and wear a D-cup, it doesn't mean you're ready to face the chance of getting pregnant or give up your ambitions in some other way. It's the same as taking advantage of kids when it comes to shoplifting or gang activity. You take some one who cannot yet think things through properly and put them in a situation that demands it. What do you expect a child to do when put in such a position? They will most likely feel obligated or too afraid to say no. Another aspect of this is "young woman older man syndrome", where the father's dead or senile and can't take care of his ten year old children. No one has the right to place that kind of burden on some one. No one has the right to rob a young person of their opportunity to blossom within their own generation and reach for their potential, either. Once again, if you are in a sexual situation at too young an age, you wont be able to prioritize. School, career goals, everything important fly out the window. Kids are kids: there is a reason why child pornography is illegal. It can screw up your life permanently, especially if you get pregnant. It happened in the case of a relative of mine, who ran off with a thirty-five year old man when she was sixteen. She never went through university, never got a real job, never made a name for herself [i]any[/i]where (not within a small workplace--nothing). And her husband wasn't exactly faithful, either. At least, not until he died on her while she still needed his support. Her father disowned her. If it had been my dad, the guy would have been [i]dead[/i]. Manners should stretch as far as common courtesy: holding the door for some one, appologizing for bumping into them, etc... Of course, eating in a civilized manner is something you can legitimately expect of a person, as well. However, all this behaving in the proper manner, as a lady should, is solid bull. That's why I don't give a crap about how the Japanese I'm studying will result in me talking like a man. Additionally, I think Siren would make a perfectly awesome teacher. Get those kids asking questions! >:^O[/FONT][/COLOR]

[COLOR=Gray][FONT=Courier New]Oh [i]please[/i]. [i]Every[/i]one successfully invaded and occupied Greece at some point or another in history. One more to the count wouldn't have resulted in much. Besides, the Chinese got on quite well, mathematically, without having anything to do with my long-dead relatives. Basically, read what Azure said. The man's never wrong. [/FONT][/COLOR]

[COLOR=Gray][FONT=Courier New]What if my neighbors were secretly housing a demonic penguin, in a chicken costume, bent on world domination? I think it's more likely that we're in some ethereal loser's contemporary RPG, personally.[/FONT] [/COLOR]

[COLOR=Gray][FONT=Courier New]Legend has it Trogdor sweaters go well with cord skirts and bright red stockings. I am currently wearing a "bonus" shirt (as in the mushroom) and [b]velour pants.[/b] Whatever this means, it is most definately to be ph34r3d.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[quote name='Miryoku']I get what you meen. but what if science is rong what if the theorys were proved to be true by curcumstancial evidence and all we see, hear, and smell is just that circumsancial evidence and the whole human race is missing the whole scope of things. Then with the whole dream thing who is to say that we aren't just given our personalities as we are in the dream, when you have dreams the personalities and knowledge of the beings within it are just determined no one has any concise controll of it, much like it is in what we believe to be real life. then what if the world is just one huge connection of dreams from people in some other realm and each indevidual in this realm is the dream version of some one in another.[/quote] [COLOR=Gray][FONT=Courier New]In order for a theory (take the Cell Theory, for example: grade seven science class) to be considered applicable, it has to continue to support new findings. It's not like some one comes up with something once and it's held on to without let-up for the rest of eternity. (That would be religion.) I don't know what you're going on about to do with "concise control", but the immediate answer has already been stated. "So what?" Additionally, if the world was just some connection of dreams, those dreams would still need a physical base. Like neurons. In conclusion, "The Matrix" isn't real and do you even know what "concise" [i]means[/i]? O_o""[/FONT][/COLOR]

[COLOR=Gray][FONT=Courier New]Like a few people have expressed, I'd like to become a successful writer. This is close enough to "getting paid to do nothing" for me, since, once you reach a certain point, you can get any crap published. Ph34r m4h 4mb1710n.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[QUOTE=Altron]Yay! I contributed useful information somewhere ^.^ And a recent trend I picked up was that girls love chocolate. May I ask this intriguing species, why do they like chocolate?[/QUOTE] [COLOR=Gray] [FONT=Courier New]Eating chocolate makes your body release endorphins, the body's natural "feel good" supplement. Basically, eating chocolate, like sun-bathing or laughing, makes you feel happy. Additionally, it tastes good.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[COLOR=Gray][FONT=Courier New]Cons can most definately get as hectic as the ones depicted in "Comic Party". I mean, come on, you haven't seen the plushie bins. I had to push and shove and throw Inu Yasha and Yusuke at people to make them leave so I could get my Sakura plushie. That thing was so expensive and is so cute, it never leaves my bedroom. Additionally, I had to run down the aisles of the original art area to claim the last edition of my shounen ai Naruto print of Sasuke grabbing Naruto's ***. I got it by half a second. Hah! Ph34r m4h m4d c0n 5k1||z, j0. Karmi's right: don't buy food at the con. I went a day without eating more than a grilled cheese sandwich and was fine, but not everybody can do that. And the shoes must, indeed, be comfortable. Have fun and be sure to scream at people, calling them by their cosplay personas.^^[/FONT][/COLOR]

[COLOR=Gray][FONT=Courier New]When I'm uber-stressed-out, I like to sit down at the computer and watch a few episodes of whatever anime is at hand. It's so stress-relieving, in an almost malicious way, knowing you're totally getting a permanent copy of something for free, as oppose to having to pay sixty dollars for it. I find slaying infidels works rather well, also.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[COLOR=Gray][FONT=Courier New]I've been labeled as a geek or nerd, but the children still flock to where my friends and I eat lunch to watch us play Dungeons and Dragons. That's me: single-handedly making D&D cool again.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[COLOR=Gray][FONT=Courier New][b]Name:[/b] Myrtle Ground [b]Country of Origin:[/b] Canada, but I attended school in Japan until this year, so I might as well be Japanese. I've got an accent and everything, though it's mild and my English is fine. [b]Appearance:[/b] Brown hair, always worn in high pigtails, adorned with a multitude of ribbons. I wear a Hello Kitty watch that holds a gig. of space, and tells the time in five countries, if you press the buttons in the right order. Since I was considered so tall in Japan, I wear very flat shoes most of the time, even though I'm only 5'6" or so. [b]Auto-Biographical Description:[/b] My bangs brushed my face in the mild wind as I breathed in my best friend's cigarette smoke. His eyes were far away from here, paying no attention to me or the park bench we were sitting on at ten o'clock at night. My parents knew his parents, didn't mind me hanging out with him, even though he was five or six years older than me. He'd never made a move on me or anything; I hadn't even caught him looking down my shirt during the summer while I was wearing a tank top, or paying particularly close attention to any part of me not covered by the bathing suit I wore when we went to the pool together, every week. A woman walked past us and stopped. Her hair was greying and her face partially wrinkled, but her eyes were on fire. She looked at Kizuna, then at me, in the school uniform I still hadn't changed out of. I was wearing a jacket, but it wasn't zipped , and my skirt barely came halfway down my thighs. We were sitting not two inches apart from each other, Kizuna and I, and I could tell what she was thinking, exactly. What was I doing out so late with a grown man, who was smoking away his youth of eyeshadow and peroxide? She looked at us and Kizuna asked if she was lost. She shook her head, angrily, then looked back at me with an understandable ferocity: she probably had her own daughter at home. That daughter of hers most likely never thought of [i]boys[/i] or [i]sex[/i], as far as she knew. She went looking on, straight at me. Then, finally, to Kizuna, "You stay away from dirty foreigners. You hear me?" Suddenly, I felt cold.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[COLOR=Gray][FONT=Courier New]To begin with, on artistic grounds, I cannot stand the thought of dubbing. Some things were just meant to be Japanese (Rurouni Kenshin, [i]par example[/i], before they abandoned the [i]manga[/i] and rode off into the sunset, after rocket ships and whatever the hell else), through and through. I have only ever seen two dub-jobs in my life which I actually enjoyed: Princess Mononoke (the lengths they went to for this dub paid off) and The Castle of Cagliostro. The latter's original voice actors didn't sound too hot, to be as vague as possible, but the dub was quite enjoyable. However, as the French say, [i]l'exception confirme la regle[/i]: all the Mononokes and Cagliostros in the world will never make up for Castle In the Sky, Cowboy Bebop, Rurouni Kenshin, and countless other titles who have been brutally murdered and are currently having their corpses dragged through the mud.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[COLOR=Gray][FONT=Courier New]I'm reminded of an incoherent rant I read in the Letters to the Editor section of the Globe once, from an angry lady complaining about how Sailor Moon was only ever created to advertise the dolls. She obviously had no clue as to the origin of the show (manga, dattebaiyo), and was making assumptions based on the complete lack of knowledge about the franchise she had within her grasp. The show has, since its manga origins, been bastardized, over-marketed, and, now, every one knows about it and thinks it's an add for dolls. Such is the case with countless titles, not only within anime. Movies based on books can suck endless amounts of crap, but the book itself can have been brilliant and the author whole-hearted about writing it. Then, some one sees this, and decides to milk the product, without any regard for authenticity or sincerity. Another example I think you could take would be Fred Gallagher's brain-child: MegaTokyo. MT started out as a quick series of sketches the man did to humour his friend, however, they soon took over his life and are now extremely popular, having precipitated two published books (third one coming out this January, as far as I am aware), t-shirts, posters, cosplay concepts, wallpapers, avatars, sweaters, art-supply mini-markets, and even [i]beer mugs[/i]. The man's gained quite a hefty international fanbase, yet his [i]manga[/i] has remained touching, funny, and utterly enjoyable, constantly gaining new fans. There's gotta be some art left in what you're doing if you're able to uphold that kind of standard and even let it take over your life, as we so often read every one from Seraphim to SGD whining about. It all depends on who's behind the work. Some people will sell out as soon as they know it's safe to do so, others will beat themselves up over the concept of such things. I actually touched on this issue, a few chapters ago, in "How To Learn Engrish", down in the ol' OB Anthology [/shameless plug]. Basically, you have heartfelt, successful, inspired and inspiring work, and then you have over-marketed, watered-down, pornography of whatever medium or title. And I don't mean pornography as in sex, I mean pornography as in, "This is Yu-Gi-Oh!, buy our products, we'll even show you how to use them, only in a way you'll never be able to replicate." You can't clump all movies, books, and their creators together. Every one is different, and every story has the potential to be raped and dragged through the mud. Some people are just sincere enough about what they do to not let this happen to their work. Regarding Pokemon: I am a Pokemon fiend. I have spent countless hours seeing how fast I could beat whatever version of the game, and love to, even now, crack out the old GBC and kick the Elite Four's collective ***** into the next universe, just because it's that much fun. You could say the Pokemon franchise has been raped and dragged through the mud over and over again, but it's still damn good stuff, as far as I'm concerned, for the most part. My friend recently bought a psyduck clock, knowing it was a lame marketing scheme, but it's still the Best Thing Ever, and always will be. Pokemon is an institution, a symbol of modern culture, something we'll all identify with when we're old and complaining of back pain. We'll think back on Pokemon and remember the good old days, when every one knew the difference between real and fake cards and could convey even the most complex emotions in three or four variations on "Pikachu."[/FONT][/COLOR]

[COLOR=Gray][FONT=Courier New]My school is 80% Asian, or some crazy statistic like that, so, yeah, you get alot of race-related jokes flitting about. However, it's remarkably easy to distinguish between a time when some one's just poking fun, like Shin said, and when they're spewing racist slurs and ought to be smacked a good one across the head. If some one pulls a lame "yo' mama" joke, in a heavy Cantonese accent, along the lines of, "Yo-aa mo-thaa is so fat, when she jump--she get stuck!" (believe me, I do not know...) no one really interprets it as either racist [i]or[/i] offensive towards whoever it was directed at's mother. Some people get worked up over things like that, and some people take them too far, but most people are level-witted enough to treat them as they are: mildly amusing, the first time, and restraintlessly dumb.[/FONT][/COLOR]

The weather was finally getting to be in tune with the season, rendering Nobuhiro unpleasantly chilly as he stepped off the bus. The thought that he would have to walk the next three blocks to his townhouse did not please him immensely, so he decided to think about something else. Actually, his mind grabbed his wrist and dragged him off down a specific train-track of thought, as oppose to being directed; Nobuhiro just liked to pretend he could control what he didn?t like to think of as his perversions. His breath drifted visibly through the air, something that disheartened him as the cars sped by to his left. A gust of wind tried extremely hard to rid him of his jacket and failed. It was cold out, for the first time in months, and Nobuhiro wasn?t about to pretend to be enjoying it. This thought, naturally, brought his mind back to that of Winnie. She wouldn?t be cold walking outside in this weather. She was from Canada?it was always cold there, as far as he knew. She had told him otherwise that one time at the bar, but it was going to take more than the word of some one who?d lived there her entire life to sway his subconscious? view of the world and its various climates. ?Hey, Toue-san.? The girl who lived next door to him smiled as she walked past him, her tiny dog looking foolish in the orange sweater she?d stuffed it into. He briefly considered telling her that putting a dog in a sweater would only make it colder, not warmer, but decided against it. So, instead, he began to say hi, but she was already past him. He bit his lip and tried to dig his hands deeper into his poorly insolated pockets. Damn, it was cold. He wished he?d worn a hat. He wished he?d worn a proper coat. He wished he?d not just sat there and let her snore away, leaning on him, until finally, slowly, so as to not wake her up, edging off the sofa and out the front door, careful to be as silent as possible about closing it behind him. He also wished he hadn?t run into Watanabe as soon as he?d stepped out of the apartment. He?d only raised his eyebrows and smiled a greeting, then asked him how his wrist was feeling and if he really was up to going all that way, but Nobuhiro had been embarrassed and wished he?d stayed in that apartment. He was still, a day later, wishing he?d stayed inside that apartment. How would he say that in English? ?I want-o have?iie. Watashi wa?I want-o tuu have been still?in. Pu-race?? He looked to the sidewalk, and then the sky, for help, but both remained silent, as though mocking him. But I?m still the one stepping on you, he told the sidewalk. He could not think of anything to say to the sky, aside from that it was very pretty. Maybe going to America would be good for him. Maybe it would be warmer there. Maybe they wouldn?t mind all that much if he couldn?t speak English, after all. There was no way he was going to learn in time?what was the point of trying? It just made him look and sound stupid, made his tongue tangle itself among the strange syllables and obscure sounds. He tripped over the grammar, and could not slog through the simplest of sentences without his face and ears turning a horrific red colour that rivaled that of generic apples. It was an awful, evil, vile-sounding language that he had no business learning. You?re turning into Dad, he told himself, irritably. Another chill ran through him, but it wasn?t from the cold. [COLOR=Gray][FONT=Courier New] Now, to answer some previously asked questions... [b]Does Nubohiro now have a rival for Miss Winnie's affections?[/b] That's for me to know and you to muse over.^_~ [b]Is the term "French Class" being used to imply something else?[/b] Spanish Class, maybe?! Oh, the [i]scandal[/i]!! : O [b]What kind of underwear is Godel wearing?[/b] Underwear is for pansies. [b]Or maybe it's an expansion on her dislike of being labled an outsider?[/b] You can never tell with those Foreign Devils, now, can you? Thanks, every one, for still reading this utter crap. I love you all! (Except for you, and you, and, oh God, [i]you[/i]...)[/FONT][/COLOR]