Retribution

OOC: I had to name the teacher. Hope you guys don't mind it. --- IC: The teacher's frantic eyes darted from person to person. He was looking for another victim -- a person to read their poem outloud. His eyes rested on his favorite and most advanced student. Alex. If it had been any other class, Alex wouldnt've been at the top, maybe in the top 10 in the class, but this wasn't another class. "Mr. Harrison, why don't you read your poem to us." Alex's heart dropped. He became nervous, but didn't want to let this teacher have his way. Alex stood up, and dropped his eyes onto his paper, not able to look the teacher in his eyes. Those black, glazed, annoying beetle eyes is what made him afraid of speaking. "I call it 'Love.' It's a haiku... which compares love to a game without using 'like' or 'as,' therefore making it a metaphor. This is I don't think there are any other poetic devices." Alex cleared his throat, and read: [CENTER]"Love, a game of chance What if they don't love you back? A toss of the dice."[/CENTER] Alex turned his eyes upon the teacher once again. Did he like it? "Very interesting poem, Mr. Harrison. What do you think it means?" "I think it's very obvious. I love someone, but I'm not sure if they love me back. When you toss dice, you can't be sure of the outcome. Just like love." "Thank you. You may take a seat." He quickly sat back down, and took a look around the room. Oscar was leaning over Rae's shoulder, a few other people were shooting rubber band volleys across the room, a couple was making out just outside the door, and making a racket. Mr. Sanchez walked over to the door, knocked on it, and the couple scurried away like rats. "Any others want to present their poems?"

[CENTER][b]The Test[/b] Through adversity The tested will always fight Til the bitter end.[/CENTER] Argg. I'm addicted to haikus. Again, I'm writing these faster and faster now. This one took 20 seconds. Literally. I'm timing myself now. How do you like it?

Once, at a red light, there was a guy who didn't try to gun it through the yellow light. And the man behind him was obviously in a hurry, because he started to get out of his car and walk towards the other guy's car. The guy who didn't run the light got out too, and they started yelling at each other, spouting profanity, and pushing each other. Luckily, a cop came by and broke things up. I think it would've escalated to something more if the cop didn't come in time.

Instead of making it the way they tell you on the pack with hot water, I use hot milk. It tastes ALOT better. I also add a little bit of a chocolate bar, so that it actually tastes like chocolate. Not just some water with powered-chocolate mix. Yuck!

Alex quickly wrote his short story. He wanted to be an author, probably just like the rest of the kids in the room. After all, Creative Writing was an elective. His story was his favorite genre: Science Fiction. His parents liked the classic novels of 'Catcher in the Rye,' or 'Animal Farm,' the boring stuff, but they let him do what he wanted. He turned his paper into the teacher, who grinned at him like a hungry animal. It was his way of saying "Good Job!" to Alex. He was the top of his writing class, so he quickly gained the respect of him. Alex's eyes instictly went to the short teacher's focal point -- his shiny bald head. Blinking quickly, he spun around and went back to his seat and watched others scribble down their stories in their notebook. Alex picked up a pencil and started twirling it dexterously in his fingers, bored. A few people turned their papers in, and were met with the annoyed look of the proffesor's smile. Soon, all of the class had turned in their short stories. It had taken 20 minutes. "Wonderful, now, if you would please write for me a poem, of any kind. I will call upon a few of you to read your poem out-loud." The class went back to scribbling their poems on paper, some rubbing their head to massage their thoughts out onto the paper. Poetry was not quite as easy as coming up with some lame, short plot. This took a little more time. "This is a pop-quiz. I won't grade you on how good it is, only on your use of poetic devices." "Of course, you're lying," Alex whispered under his breath. The teacher always lied. "Did you say something, Alex? Maybe I heard something..." "Oh, nothing. Sorry."

[quote name='Chabichou][COLOR=#004a6f']I just htink its silly for people to actually wonder wether their religion is correct if they believe in it. If you believe in your religion, you should be certain.[/COLOR][/quote] I don't think there's really a way to be certain. There's so many religions being tossed around, where it's 'my way or the highway' kind of deal. You can be certain it's what you believe, and there's no way of changing that, but you can't be certain that your God exists, as far as someone saying their religion is correct. I guess it's sort of like if you are on one side of a wall, and a book is on the other, and you are told there is something over there, you must guess as to what it is. They show you a very small section of it, for instance, a page of it. How could you be certain that it was a book, or just a page from a book you saw? You would have to guess, really, and hope you were right. You could extrapolate, and say that they probably wouldn't just tear a page from a book, therefore it must be the entire book. You could say that you were 'certain it was a page' or 'certain it is a book, with just a page of it being shown,' and that no matter what happened, your belief would not change. But you couldn't be [B]certain[/B], for one way or the other, if it were a torn out page, or just a book, unless you were presented more evidence to base a guess off of. We will only figure out if God really exists for 'certain' if God provides some sort of revelation, to further base our faith in God's existance. Besides, we're all humans. I can believe in Jesus, but that doesn't mean I don't doubt Him sometimes. I try to believe in His power, but if I pray and I feel He turned a deaf ear to me, I lose faith. If I pray, and I feel He heard me, I gain faith. Of course I will wonder if Christianity is the real way. I already said, I'm a human, loaded with self-doubts and insecurities. It's hard for me to grasp something that in my opinion, transends time, space, and thought. My feeble mind can't fathom such awesome power, so I wonder if it's possible. Eventually, I come around and conclude that it is, but I do have times of lost-faith.

It was another day, as the alarm sounded in Alex's bedroom. He stood up, got dressed, brushed his teeth, and went downstairs. Breakfast, as usual, was cereal, which was hastily wolfed down in an attempt not to be late for school. "Good morning Alex" "Same to you too, Mom," Alex returned the greeting to his mother. He put on his Adidas, and grabbed the car keyes. He exited his house, and ran to his car -- one of those generic Toyota five seaters, about two years old and navy blue in color. It wasn't a half-bad ride. He pulled away from the curb, and after a rather short 5 minute drive he was at school. He sprinted inside the school to avoid getting drenched. Being wet sucked. He stopped for a few minutes, chatting with his friends, talking about nothing really. All of them sauntered around the halls, and milled about with no real purpose, then scattered like crazy as soon as the bell rang to signify the start of classes. Alex wasn't stupid enough to wait that long though; he got his books, threw them into his book bag, and walked into his first period class. As usual, Rae was sitting two rows ahead of him, and soaking wet from the rain. The teacher made his way to the front of the room, begging for the rowdy class' attention. [i]"Excuse me. [b]Excuse me!"[/b][/i] No one even looked at him. And who would? He was rather short, soft-spoken, and wasn't very interesting or funny. Maybe the class took pity on him, as they started to lower their voices, so that he could be heard above the din of teenage conversations. He seemed rather pleased. [I]"Alright, class. Today..."[/I] -------- OOC: Some one make something happen on this. I put myself in Rae's class so that I could at least be in contact with one of the people in the role-play.

Well, I think that real thing that has scientists dumbfounded is that they say that the big bang started out as a little speck that contained the entire universe within it. That doesn't solve the problem of where the universe came from. All the big bang theory does is condense the universe, like it solves the way things were created. I think the big bang theory is just a way to explain it's decompression. The thing that baffles us is: Where the heck did that speck of dust come from? I'm believe it was God. [quote name='Chabichou][COLOR=#004a6f']Those who actually read the words sent down by their lord would see he clearly gives us enough evidence of his existence. He even tells us to look at these signs; yet people turn a blind eye towards them.[/quote] It's not that people try to be blind to them, but try to seek the scientific definition of it. Science is something that humans can understand. Spirituallity is something that (i believe) transcends us, therefore making it hard to believe. We don't really see the beauty of a mountain and automatically accept it as proof of God. We see it as a scientific phenomena. Tectonic (sp?) plates crashed against one another, forcing the earth in the only direction left -- up, which formed the mountain. It's alot easier to understand that than "God made it." It's something we can grip with. [quote] But what will you say to your lord after finding out he exists if he does? Afterall, he punishes those who do not believe in him, as Muslims, Jews and Christians believe. [/COLOR][/QUOTE] How do you know that your religion is the right one for sure? Christians believe their way is the only way, I'm not sure about other religions. How can I be sure my religion is the right one? I can't. It's all about faith. Maybe you'll be a goner, since you're not a Christian. What will you say to Jesus? Maybe I'm a goner. What will I say to Allah? That's why I believe that if your religion focuses on being a genuinely good person, helping others, etc., your religion is correct. God wouldn't be so unjust as to punish a virtuous person of another (hypothetically 'wrong') religion, and save a mediocre person from the (hypothetically 'correct') religion. Personally, I find it cool that Muslims call Jews and Christians 'People of the Book.'

[QUOTE=Chabichou][COLOR=#004A6F]Although America has done many good things, like aiding third world countries or even saving the people of a country form cruel leaders, as they do sometimes in Arab countries, why do they always end up killing innocent muslims in the process? Why should the general Arab and Muslim population suffer because of what their corrupt governments do? Haha, but they don't belong to America, they aren't on American land, so it doesn't have the right to start wars to take them. I'm pretty sure that America, having the best economy and being the richest nation on earth, doesn't need these resources as much as these countries do.[/COLOR][/QUOTE] I'm not sure that we go out of our way to gun down innocent civilians in a war. Every war will have civilian casualties. People get shot, caught in cross-fire, are thought to be enemies after not identifying themselves. Seriously, in a high-pressure situtation like that, if a person doesn't say friend or foe, you pull the trigger to prevent another car-bombing situation at a check-point. And duh, gas and oil in the middle east doesn't belong to us. We buy the oil, and try to become allies with the countries that have it, so that we get cheaper oil. I'm not sure that's how it works, as far as allies giving preference to their allies, but it sounds logical. With the greatest-economy comes the greatest demand. I'm sure you've heard of suppy and demand somewhere in your life. In order to meet that demand, we must supply alot of gas, so that cars can be driven, machines can run, buildings can be heated, what have you. We consume more oil than most countries because we are industrialized, and when we use that oil, it helps our economy stay on its feet. Maybe I'm rambling in circles, but I hope I got myp point across to you.

[QUOTE=DeathBug]My views on abortion are simple: Within the first trimester, (prior to the fetus having brain activity), I think the mother should be able to do whatever she wishes. That's a three-month period, so there's pleanty of time to make the call. Clrification: I think [i]the mother should be able to get an abortion if she wants within the first three-month period.[/i] Do I think she should make that choice? Nope. A fetus is a human being, and having an abortion is killing one. I bel.ieve that some instances can arise where the killing of human beings is necessary (war, the death penalty), but it's never a good thing when you've come to that point. I'd uge any person considering abortion to explore other options first. And, of course, partial-birth abortions should be outlawed, and those involved with them should be tried for murder. (Partial birth abortions involve inducing labour and then cutting open the b ack of the baby's skull to remove the brain, then slicing the child's limbs off. The baby, by the way, is at this point old enough to otherwie survive outside the mother's body.)[/QUOTE] I definetly agree with you. 100%. I think that a fetus is just a collection of cells, until it develops brainwaves. Once it develops brain cells, I can't stand the idea of killing a baby that can feel, hear, and see later on in its development. Late-term abortions are just sick... DeathBug already basically outlined what they do for those.

Well, I suppose the question you pose is rather vague, but I will try to say what I think on the matter. I think cloning a body part to save a person is perfectly acceptable. Cloning a human just to run tests on it or treat it like a slave is crazy. Clones still have rights, just like uncloned people do. Cloning animals might be a good idea. If a species is endangered, you might be able to aid it's return to nature. If you clone an animal like a cow, who people eat alot, it would help alleviate hunger problems in alot of places. I think we should be careful about cloning. We might start to make stupid decisions, such as enslaving clones, etc. which would put the world in bad shape. Slavery would be OK again, and we'd have a relapse back to about 300 years ago. Cloning humans and then freezing them just for the body parts is also bad. Because once again, they're still humans - just frozen and can't say "NO! Dont cut me!" Clones and uncloned unhumans might have a little bit of difficulty getting along though, one might think they're better than the other. We shouldn't shun out cloning all together, because it could have so many cures to things. We could run tests on specific organs (if we learn how to grow only organs) to solve things that might be harmful on a human test subject. We could find the cure to cancer, or many other diseases if we use the information for good.

yeah, I know. I wouldn't make a good RPG plot maker guy. I can't really manage events and plots and such. Anyway, I'm thinking about my crush. Again.

I wish I could time travel. That would rock. I wish I had some ice cream. Cookie Dough from Edys (sp?). Television these days sucks. I wish I had a new camera and a new laptop. And more manga. I just realized I'm materialistic Maybe I should go to bed soon. I'm still tired from last night. Why don't more people post on here?

[center] [B]Paths[/B] The path of life twists And gets lost in the thick woods How many are left?[/center] Well, I sort of wrote this one in 2 minutes. Good for a speed haiku?

I'm wondering when someone will open a really fun RPG. Something that doens't involve zombies and death like the ones that are starting now. Something romanic, like the Watermelons and sun RPG thingy... I'm wondering if horoscopes are right. They always describe what's happening in my life rather accurately. What will I do tommorow? I want to buy alot of manga. I came back from christmas shopping, and I bought my friends all the good mangas i wanted. [I][B]HUM BUG![/B][/I] heh. I want a robotic friend. Some robot who could follow me around, act semi-human, listen to me, give me feedback, etc. That would be awesome. And you'd never have a fight, unless you were really mean to it. When will I get a new-er compute-r? This one bites. I want my website to not be under rennovation anymore. This sucks. I want to meet Janet Jackson. I want to call someone...

I love the meter on this poem. You can predict where the beat's going, and the rhymes are in the appropriate places. Sometimes I sit And even cry. - I didn't like this part of the poem. It doesn't seem to fit very well. You just said you can't hide your love for her, and you can't hide it. I was assuming you expressed your love openly like hugs and kisses, but I guess not. Maybe its your way of describing your circumstance. I also don't understand the title of this poem. Do you mean that your love is without a doubt in the sense that it's completely genuine? Meh. I'm not too deep. Only a bucket at tops.

[quote name='Annie']From every church that I've been in (Baptist, Methodist, Luthren, Catholic), they are all the same. Donations going to hungry children? No, instead it goes to the lovely stained-glass window in the entrance hallway. And whatever money is left, is stored in the bank for the church's next project.[/quote] This may not be the time or the place, but I want to comment on that. Not all churches are the same, in the respect that they use donations for their own ends. There are churches out there that feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give shelter to the homeless, etc. I hope you find a church somewhere in your life that isn't selfish. [quote] In fact, it's out of a church family's heart and kindness ([b]and out of their own wallets[/b]) that those needy families get a hot holiday dinner, warm clothes, toys, gift certificates to the local supermarket, school supplies, shoes, toiletries..you get my drift. This, my family and I have done personally. The church had nothing to do with this act of compassion and generosity.[/QUOTE] That's too bad that your church doesn't take any action in helping the less fortunate. I think you may be over generalizing that all churches are stingy, because once again, there are plenty that aren't. My church, for example, goes and offers shelter to whomever needs it. We work at the soup kitchen every so often, and raise money for local charities to help less fortunate families. Sure, the families attending church donate a great deal of money and time to these projects, but that's the only way it will get done. A church without members to help it is just a building.

A little haiku I wrote about a week ago. I wanted to see what you thought of it. [center][b]Love[/b] Love, a game of chance What if they don't love you back? A toss of the dice. [/center] I don't really like it as much as my first one, but hey that's how it can be with this poetry stuff.

I like linking sunlight better, mainly because it seems more unified. The lines go in the same direction and the circles are all near one another on the lines. I think road to nowhere seems a little bit random, with that jagged shape on the left side of it and circles were spread out like salt.

Tell Jack. It's only fair to him that he knows what his girl-friend is doing.

Aw well. I guess I thought I did better. I wasn't planning on using it here. He's not hiding under a coat either, it's just the picture I used... better luck next time I suppose.

My hands are cold and numb. They smell like wood from the rake I was using. It's dark outside. My brothers argue over petty things. Janet Jackson's "China Love" is a rockin' tune. I'm bored again. I wish I had a pair of good jeans.

I already know how Batman got started. All the movies never did this guy ANY justice. His story is really a good one. Basically, the reason why he's such a kickass fighter is because he [spoiler]got trained by the best in the world, learned every method of combat there is to know and mastered it.[/spoiler]. I sure hope you know already that [spoiler]his parents got killed by some thugs. He was bordering on psyco/insane, and the only think keeping him off the streets was his inheritance. He channeled all his pent up anger, torment, and hate for crime to stand against it.[/spoiler] It's about friggin time they showed what he actually went through, not some happily-ever-after flick.

The random thoughts keep coming in folks. Do I have to keep raking? I've been working on those stupid leaves for the last hour and a half. What a wasted saturday. I want some gum -- watermelon flavor. Orange soda tastes good. If anyone has a secret crush on me (^.^) Who I should hang out with this break. When will I get people presents? Do I have enough courage to call the girl I like? Why do people dream? I don't understand the point of it. My hands feel dry. I need some lotion. I wish I could go paintballing tommorow.

This topic again? Well, I'm a Protestant Christian. Methodist to be specific.