Panda

I just found out about Des. and I am heartbroken. We became friends though our mutual love of theO and working together to help the community. Back in the day we would always send each other birthday messages since we shared the same day. He deserved many, many more birthdays. I am really at a loss for words as nothing I can think of really can covey all I am feeling. My thoughts and prayers to his family and friends, we will miss you always Des.

You know I feel your pain Japan since I am stuck in the same snowy state as you! Luckily for me I live in the Moses Lake which isn't as far north as Spokane so we didn't get the really bad snow storm. It's bad when the airplanes at the airport in Spokane are sliding off the runway! I hope the snow removal crews make it to your neighborhood soon. My hubby did get the car stuck in the snow right in front of our house since the snow was so high in the street. He was on his way to pick me up from work. Luckily for me one of the girls I work with has a vehicle better suited to the snow and she drove me home. I am ready for winter to be over. I really don't want to shovel any more snow. The weatherman says we are suppose to be getting more snow all this week. Joy. :animesigh

My gift list is pretty small since we didn't have our usual extended family gathering for Christmas this year. I ended up with a new dress form to help with my cosplay creations, Final Fantasy 12 Revenant Wings, Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations, $100 cash, $50 gift certificate and a DVD player. My DVD player was dying a slow and painful death. I was trying to get it to work when my brother stopped by one day to visit. Being the great guy he is and seeing that I was just about ready to throw the stupid DVD player across the room, he went out and got me a new one! Woo Hoo! Perhaps next year I will complain about my car so he'll buy me a new one... I can dream can't I?!

New Year's Eve will be spent like it has been for the past few years, with friends and family. My brother-in-law and his new wife, my brother and a pile of our friends will invade my house for food, drinks, games and conversation. After the typical midnight toasts and kisses, we will break into "Happy Birthday" since we also use the gathering to celebrate my brother-in-law's (Jan. 1st), my brother (Jan. 4th) and my (Jan. 3) birthday. We have an epic Guitar Hero tournament planned. We shall be rockin'! But not too loud since my next door neighbor is a cop. lol

I am not a cook, that is why I married a man who loves to cook and is really good at it. I can cook but I just don't enjoy it. I find it a chore versus fun. It's just something that needs to be done. I am more of a special occasion cook. I enjoy making cheesecake from scratch and making my family's secret teriyaki sauce that has been passed down through the women of our family. But when it comes to everyday, I would rather not cook.

This may just be one of those things that has always been happening but it's just now it was noticed. Kind of like if you take the time to make note of how many people in their late twenties/ early thirties that have braces on their teeth. Normally braces are associated with pre-teens/teenagers, not for thirty-somethings. When you start to look for it, you start to see there are quite a few in that age bracket that have braces. I see the cane thing in the same way. You don't really notice it until you start to purposely seek it out. In response to the arthritis in young people increasing: I use a cane (or wheelchair) when my RA flares up. I didn't get the disease until I was in my mid-twenties but there are plenty of kids who suffer from JRA (Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis) and must use them from a very young age. Arthritis isn't a geriatric disease which is probably another reason people think it's weird to see kids with canes. One child in a thousand will be affected by arthritis and add to that the kids who suffer some sort of accident requiring a cane, so when you think of it that way, the chances of seeing a young person with a cane or in a wheelchair isn't so odd. So, I guess what it comes down to is that I don't think it's a trend and arthritis isn't just a disease old people get.

I love the pictures! The kids look totally amused by seeing a Storm Trooper at Wal-Mart. :animesmil I really want to go to Dragon-con to see the big costume parade and the huge Star Wars gathering. I've seen pictures but never seen it in person. It looks like it would be so much fun. I really need to get involved in SW costuming...

I enjoy the boards because it isn't filled with lame threads that flame, insult or just put something/someone down just to be catty. The topics, as well as the members here, are quite interesting. I've made quite a few friends here and I just like being on the OtakuBoards.

Welcome to the OtakuBoards SakuraOkashiiXD! Your best way of learning the ropes around here is to first check out the Rules and FAQ for the site. They can be found in the menu bar to the left. You should also introduce yourself over in the [URL="http://www.otakuboards.com/showthread.php?t=57985"]New Members: Introduce Yourself Here![/URL] thread which is stickied at the top of The Lounge. Since this thread should have been a post in the new member thread I am going to go ahead and lock this one. If you have questions about the rules or how the site works, feel free to PM any of the staff members here on the site. Welcome once again to the site and I'll see you around the boards! :catgirl: Edit: Shoot, in the time it took me to write/edit this post James posted! LOL Since he posed a question I guess I'll unlock this thread.

Email received and the issue is being addressed.

I have no idea about Taurine and humans but I can give you my professional veterinary input on Taurine and cats. Cats have to have Taurine as a part of their diets. Without it they can have all kinds of health issues such as feline dilated cardiomyopathy (heart problems) and/or eye issues including blindness. Taurine for your kitty is a good thing. Taurine for you, I have no clue. As for energy drinks, I've never had one. I prefer coffee as my "energy drink" of choice. I am a coffee junkie and can't imagine my life without it. Coffee just doesn't seem as damaging to my health as those extreme energy drinks with 500x the daily recommended amounts of supplements, vitamins and misc. chemicals.

Besides the family gathering on Christmas day itself the only thing that is an annual event for me around the holidays is going to Starbucks with my hubby, sometimes with some friends in tow, and we get coffee and drive around the town looking at all the holiday lights. There are quite a few of those extreme holiday decorators we check out every year and a few neighborhoods that go all out. Music, lights down the curbs, tons of decorations... it's quite impressive. Since both my hubby and I are e-commuters we don't have a work related holiday party. But this year my best friend who works at the vet clinic I use to work at has asked me to be her date for the clinic Christmas party. It's going to be fun to see my old co-workers and catch up. :animesmil

I consider myself pretty truthful. I do tell little white lies as much as every other person does. For instance, if someone asks me how I am doing I will automatically say "great" or "fine" even if I am not. I doubt a store clerk asking me the question really wants to know about my sore joints.

Lunox pretty much summed it up for me. I am straight but I can appreciate the form of a beautiful woman.

I would have my left index finger surgically amputated for one million dollars. Heck, I would probably do it for less. It's not like I really need that finger, PLUS it would make my hands even since I am already missing my right index finger. Come to think of it, if I were to get a million for each finger I would be willing to give up a few more.

I feel old. I started watching anime when I was really little on VHS tapes my family and friends would send to us from Japan. So everything was in the raw. No subs, no dubs. Just as it aired on television. Doraemon was my first anime memory. I later remember when Robotech came on back in the mid-80's that it looked like anime but was in English! I was hooked. It was really weird to see anime, newer anime, on my television that wasn't in Japanese. Needless to say I have a very soft spot for Robotech since it gave me anime that my friends could understand.

If I get a cold or flu I just go off my immune suppressive medication and let my immune system take care of it. Heck, if it's overactive I might as well let it do what it wants to do, which is to attack things that aren't suppose to be messing with my body. Much better than having it attack my joints like it usually does. Stupid Rheumatoid! :animeangr Sleep, sleep, sleep! I also love a good hot bubble bath which helps take some of the achy feelings away. Otherwise I put on my flannel panda jammies, my favorite pair of socks, get a huge blanket and chill out in front of the television watching anime, mindless daytime television or playing a video game. I whine and complain about how awful I feel and eat comfort food. Hot chicken noodle soup = happiness.

The fall is my favorite time of the year. I love the changing colors of the trees, the crisp air and of course, Thanksgiving. I've always spent the holiday with my family. Great food, conversation and a day full of football! Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday. I love that it hasn't become all commercialized like some of the other holidays. Being with family is the big part of this holiday. When I got older I planned my wedding the weekend after Thanksgiving. The Thursday of Thanksgiving that year we had the biggest family gathering. Both my hubby and my families together for a huge meal. The Friday after T-day we did our rehearsal, decorating for the wedding and the ever important rehearsal dinner. Then on Saturday had a wonderful wedding. The sun was shining, the beautiful fall colors, brisk air... it was a gorgeous and memorable autumn day. Since getting married my family and my hubby's family have celebrated the holiday together. One year we will drive to their home, the next we will have it at my house or my parents' house (we live in the same town). But things are going to be changing soon. This year it's going to be a bit of a repeat of a decade ago. My brother-in-law is getting married! So pretty much repeat what we did about 12 years earlier. The only change is on Sunday we are having a big family brunch which will fall on my 12th anniversary. It will be nice to have all the family together to celebrate both my brother-in-law's marriage, our anniversary and Thanksgiving. It's going to be a really busy week! It's going to be interesting to see how the holidays change with the addition of another person and their family traditions. I love Thanksgiving. :catgirl:

Well, it's about time I responded to this thread. I've been thinking about it for a while. I would not step down if there was someone "just as good", I would want someone better than me to take over my watch since I want the site to continue to grow versus just stay the same. Hopefully that makes some sense. As for my old job as Lounge Moderator, well, as Moderator of The Square it doesn't really feel like I've given that old job up. That along with the fact we've got great mods in the Lounge there is no reason for me to go back to my old mod job. :catgirl:

Wow, this thread was so packed full of information my brain is all a flutter. Needless to say I am a huge MST3K fan and have, in fact, been to Hopkins, Minnesota which was the highlight of that particular trip. I will definitely check out all these sites listed. I am looking forward to the new work but still feel a little worried that the flair and fun of the originals will be lost. Classics like Manos: Hands of Fate and Pod People are going to be hard to top with todays movies. Now, I must check out all the sites you listed John. Thanks again for the wonderful posting. Hearing some current MST3K news totally made my day. :catgirl:

When I was little we would go trick or treating with friends who lived in town. It would really be lame to trick or treat in my neighborhood since our closest neighbor was a mile away. Darn farm land! My parents didn't have any objections to us (my bro and I) taking part in Halloween parties and stuff. They saw it as a bit of fun, not as "Satan's Holiday". As an adult my husband and I buy several of those big bags of candy and pass them out until they are gone. We get tons of kids since I live in an area that is pretty much ideal for trick or treating. The houses aren't too far apart, well lit, wide sidewalks and since it's all housing around here there isn't fast moving traffic. We make some hot cocoa and sit in front of our big picture window and watch the kids come and go from the neighborhood. My favorite recent memory of Halloween came from this little boy who was dressed as Spiderman. My hubby answers the door and says "It's Spiderman!" and the boy took his mask off and in a really serious voice says "Oh no, I'm not the real Spiderman". He said it in a way that came across like he didn't want us to think he was lying. It was so cute we gave him a big handful of candy for being so honest and cute!

Since we have lots of little kids come to the house I don't like to wear scary costumes. I will probably do what I've been doing for the past few years and wear my panda hoodie, black leggings and my furry boots. It's warm (it's really cold here in Washington state this time of year), comfy and not scary to the little ones. Who knows, I have only one more thing to do on my Katamari Damacy costume. I might wear that one. We'll see. If I do I'll take some pictures and post them for everyone to gawk at. :p