Spikora

There's a lot of things I do to cheer myself up. A lot of it depends on why I need to be cheered up. If I'm angry, I punch pillows and slam doors. At best, it makes me feel better, and at worst, after doing so I'm too tired to do any real damage. If I'm depressed, I watch movies or read a book. Both are good at distracting you from whatever is making you sad. And, of course, whenever I talk to my friends, somehow or another we end up making jokes and before you know it we're laughing our heads off.

While I agree that the vampire theme is a bit too common, I have to admit that a quality book/movie/etc. about vampires gets my attention. The whole concept of vampires is awesome, and you can go a thousand different ways with it. Tortured soul, purely evil, misunderstood hero ... you can change vampire mythology, make up where vampires came from ... there's just so many things you can do with it. Some don't sound ver appealing, but some are so interesting you can think about the philosophies, etc. for days. It's a really cool way to explore a ton of themes.

For crying out loud, Fox isn't picking Tru Calling up for a second season!!!!!!!! I just loved that show. Eliza Dushku played Tru perfectly, and it was an excellent concept (dead people ask Tru to save them, so she ends up living days. She saves them - most of the time.) Each episode was a little mystery, and now it's GONE!!!! One more episode left!

[QUOTE=Shiguru]Most of the shows you people mentioned that were cancelled were cancelled for one of 2 major reasons (usually) 1) lack of ratings (Futurama at 7:30? nobody watches tv on sunday at 7:30 unless there is a football game on.) [/QUOTE] My problem is that the Nielson ratings or whatever they're called are totally screwed up. Lycos did an article about it, so I do have evidence to back up this point. They had their top ten and compared them to how the Nielsons rated them. Take a look: 1. American Idol (2) 2. The Apprentice (5) 3. Survivor: All-Stars (4) 4. Angel (100s) 5. Friends (16) 6. 60 Minutes (20) 7. The O.C. (23) 8. CSI (1) 9. Law and Order (9) 10. That 70's Show (24) The Nielsons are in parentheses. Another thing that bugs me is that I've heard the Nielsons only sample a small group of people and count channel surfing.

Maybe I'm biased because Angel's been cancelled for some unfathomable reason, but the more I look around, the more it seems like there's tons of good shows being cancelled for no reason. I mean, please, what's this about? Those stupid Nielson's ratings which only use a really small section of the population and then, if that's not enough, also include channel surfing as watching shows? I'd like to hear other people's thoughts on this. Is it just me? Or are other people noticing this too?

Have I thought about suicide? Yes. Have I ever considered killing myself? No. I mean, some guy at my school killed himself recently, but I didn't know him. I thought about suicide after I found out about it, though. Not actually the act itself, but more the concept. I don't believe I've ever gotten to a place in life where I feel so crappy that the thought of my death doesn't conjur visions of my friends and family crying at my funeral, or hating me because I left them or whatever. The thing is, the only time suicide is really an answer is if you can't see any way out of some horrible situation. And I mean, you've checked all possible escape roots, even jumping out a window. Maybe I'm biased, or maybe I'm naive. All I know is, when someone commits suicide, the people left behind are torn appart. For example, my mom has some immune system disorder thing called Fibromyalgia (did I spell that right?). She's told me that sometimes she feels so crappy that she considers suicide, but she never goes through with it. Why? Cuz it would hurt me and Dad. and she's right. If she commited suicide, I'd kick, I'd yell, I'd scream, I'd cry, and I'd probably never forgive her.

[QUOTE=Balinese][FONT=Comic Sans MS] [b]Douglas Adams[/b]. So long, and thanks for all the fish, old pal. The [u]Hitchhiker's Trilogy[/u] is a fine example of a brilliant mind soaked in alcohol, and Dirk Gently is a perfect parody of a private richard.[/FONT][/QUOTE] I read the first few books in the Hitchhiker series, but once he started trying to give them plots they lost my interest. Those books are excellent and totally hilarious, though. They're probably the only books in the universe that can have no plot [I]and get away with it[/I]. It takes talent to be able to do that.

To me, people exist for three reasons: to have fun, to learn, and to make the world better for everyone else. Simple, yes, but still, it's what I think. I'd rather exist for a day than not exist at all. I mean, think about it: never laughing, never having friends, never doing anything or feeling anything because you simply aren't [I]there[/I]. And when you die, it doesn't matter to me if there's life after death or not, because people will [I]remember[/I] you. You'll live in their memories. You would've had an impact on all these other people around you. It's like the chaos theory - a single butterfly beating it's wings in China can cause a hurricane in the US. So, I'm sorry if the question of "Why are we here?" weighs on me every night. I'm just glad that I [I]am[/I] here.

I have some friends who will argue about this to their graves, but to me, it's a solid fact: I do not have, never had and never will have a crush on a celebrity. My friends would argue that I have a crush on James Martsers/Spike from BtVS. The facts? Yeah, he's cute, I like his personality, he's my favorite character and I have a tendancy to obsess over him. But do I have a crush on him? No. Would I go out with him? Not even if you paid me. There are a ton of reasons for this. For instance, I don't think it's possible to have a crush on someone that you haven't even met. In fact, I personally think I'd have to be friends with a guy first before getting a crush on him. So the entire celebrity-crush thing? I don't get it.

I used to *love* Animorphs. Read all 54 books, and the Chonicles, Megamorphs, etc, etc. The ending was horrible. As someone I know once said, "It's like you're going along on a road and the road suddenly stops." As for Harry Potter, I don't think there's a single person I know who doesn't like it. It's a fantastic series. Mostly, I like science fiction, and some supernatural type fantasies (I really like vampires for some reason.) I think this is because I just like the stuff that's not real - give my imagination something to wrap around, you know? There are a ton of books that I'd recommend to people, but I think the best is Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. That book is *excellent.* It's sci-fi. This alien race has invaded Earth twice and everyone is absolutely sure that they're coming back to finish the human race off. The government decides to start requiting child geniuses into the military, including the boy most likely to win the war, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin. I haven't gotten to say everything I want to about books, but, if I do, I'll end up having a post the size of Asia. Bye.

Astrology is a lot more complicated than just sun-signs, which is what people usually determine it by. However, if you actually read into astology, sun signs are how you project yourself to the world or something like that. In addition to sun signs, there are moon signs (inner self), Mercury signs (intelligence, how you learn, etc.), Venus signs, and a whole lot of other stuff. In addition, there's also people who are "on the cusp", which means they were born as the sign was changing. It also mean that they'll show traits of both signs. Check out some books for more presice info, I'm just remembering this off the top of my head. >Pisces Sun, Taurus Moon on the cusp of Gemini

The perfect bad guy thinks that evil is simply *fun*. They can destroy an entire town, kill off an entire family, and do it all while laughing his/her head off. It's also makes it interesting if you have a villain with some very "human" like qualities. If your bad guy is just 100% evil, then he becomes boring in a heartbeat. However, you can do tons of stuff to a villain to make him/her more interesting: have them be in love, or care about some kid, have a sense of humor, etc. And personally, I prefer villains that you don't really hate.