EVA Unit 100

I haven't had any loves that really lasted that long, but I've had a few crushes here and there. There was a girl I was madly in love with who went to summer camp with me when I was 10 but she got freaked out when I told her my feelings. Then at the beginning of this school year there was a girl I liked in my class who I decided to wait on telling her but word leaked out and things didn't go so well. I basically gave up on her this year. Now there's this boy who's kind of cute that I'm trying to get to know. Then there's Jasmine Trias (a hot American Idol contestant from last year) and a bunch of anime characters who I find hot, but that's another story! :animesmil

[quote name='elfpirate][b']Meaning... religion.[/b][/quote] I think there are some organized religions such as Buddism that don't believe in God.

[quote name='Retribution][SIZE=1']And technically, Jesus did fulfull all of the Old Testament prophecies. Like having a virgin birth, being a direct descendant of David, along with a whole bunch of other ones. I suppose Jews don't believe in Him partially because of all the politics that went with being a "Christian" back 2,000 years ago. But aside from that, I don't understand why they don't acknowledge Jesus as a person who performed these miracles, fulfilled prophecies, and died for us. Ahh well.[/SIZE][/quote] Elijah was a direct descendant of David. In Jewish teaching he is the one who is thought to bring The Messiah. I don't remember any prophecy about a virgin birth or anything of that sort (I don't claim to be the biggest expert on religion). Ultimately the reason I personally don't believe in Jesus is basically that I have trouble with the concept of him being the son of God, especially if we are all God's children in a sense. All those miracles were just God's doing being presented through Jesus, similar to the splitting of the Red Sea. People thinking Moses did the miracles at the Red Sea while forgetting it was really God's doing led to the Golden Calf disaster. Also the possibility of a perfect human raises some delemas about equality and such. I respect your thinking about the subject, and if it leads you to do good things then may God bless you. As for me, I'll just think my way and also do good things. In the end, the spiritual side of religion nobody will ever agree on (I personally have some doubts about even the Old Testament myself), but as long as we seek God (if that's the term you feel comfortable with) and do good deeds then everything will be fine in the end.

[quote name='Sepiroth']Though anime is just the translation for cartoons, they are differnet. Cartoons are like short skits and each epsode usually is not related to the last. Anime is continuing from the last episode, ya miss an episode then technically you are clueless to what is happening (but the real otaku has a story outline on standby :D )[/quote] That is a complete misconsception. American cartoons can be full half-hours or even hours on length (2 hours at most if you are counting movies) and can have continuity in it. A great example would be the ongoing serial of Mask of Phantasm/Batman: The Animated Series/Superman: The Animated Series/SubZero/The New Batman Adventures/Justice League/Mystery of the Batwoman/Starcrossed/Justice League Unlimited/Awakening/Return of the Joker/Batman Beyond. While some episodes are standalones, the continuity is so intense most of the time that you'd be 200% clueless watching some episodes of Justice League Unlimited or Batman Beyond if you hadn't seen certain episodes of Batman the Animated Series that probably aired not long after, if not before, their target 9-14 audiences were born! And anime can be episodic. Not only would you not miss any plotpoints if you came in at any random point through the series of Azumanga Daioh, you wouldn't even miss any plotpoints if you came in at any point through an [I]episode[/I] of Azumanga Daioh! I bet you wouldn't even know the rest of the series/episode existed if you started watching when you did! You wouldn't even know there was a plot! Wait, there [I]was[/I] a plot!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! But the plot doesn't matter because you'll laugh your *** off even without any plot whatsoever! America has its Animaniacs and its Batman: The Animated Serieses, Japan has its Azumanga Daiohs and its Full Metal Alchemists. It's that variety that creates great, fresh, interesting, and fun shows!

[quote name='Japan][COLOR=Navy']Jesus didn't bring a new book. He is the fulfillment that the whole Old Testiment was about...the coming of Christ, the Savior of the world.[/COLOR][/quote] Not exactly. Many Jewish people (including me) do believe in a Messiah, but that it was Elijah who will bring it and not Jesus. I'm not saying you are wrong. Right and wrong are terms that can't be used assigned to very iffy religious factoids. I'm just saying that I could argue your point, though I don't want to get into a "Who's right?" discussion and stick with it being a more educational thread. [QUOTE=]Here is his story: One day while he was up in the cave, an angel (Gabriel) came to him. Muhammad was completely terrified. No, angels do not look like beautiful human beings with wings and halos. All we know is this: They have wings, how many we're not sure, but Gabriel specifically has 300 pairs of wings. Angels are huge, and they are terrifying in their true form, at least in a human's point of view.[/QUOTE] [IMG]http://mywebpages.comcast.net/Juzzam/NGEAngels/adam1.jpg[/IMG] Sorry, just had to do that! :laugh: Anyway, reading this thread has been very interesting. It's taught me a bit about Islam and a lot of our members' faith without turning into a big debate like most religion-oriented topics around here do. With all of terrible stuff going on in Iraq and other places, its nice to know about the actual texts the terrorists are corrupting. 'Just makes them seem even worse. It's too bad most people don't know about the story of Mohammed because if they did, there would probably be a lot less discrimination.

[quote name='Konami']he says he was conditioned as a child to think of cartoons as only being funny, and he doesn't WANT to try and uncondition himself.[/quote] I feel very, very sorry for his parents trying to explain what happened to Bambie's mom...

Let us look at our anime options on TV: Kids' WB: Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh, both of which suck, editted dub or uneditted sub, but the dubbing and editting both make them worse. 4KidsTV: THEY RUINED ONE PIECE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now that I have that off my back, I can say they butchered the one good anime on the block, and the other average-to-terrible animes are only made worse by dubbing and editting. Miguzi: Rave Master, which is downright terrible between the show, edits, and the dub. Toonami: Seems to be slipping animewise, albietly improving with their inhouse programming. Duel Masters is actually better in the dub but supposedly the 2nd season will be worse, DICE is the most horrid thing in the hostory of mankind, Zatch Bell has a mediocre dub with bits of Americanization, DBGT is skimping on the edits but the dub and the show both suck, and as of next week Kenshin is dead. Hopefully things will improve with Naruto, Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, and hopefully the returns of Yuyu Hakusho and Gundam SEED. Adult Swim: Excuse Milk-Chan and depending on your tastes Inu-Yasha or Wolfs' Rain and suddenly you have the best outlet for anime on TV. Fullmetal Alchemist is now the most successful anime to air on TV since Gundam Wing, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex is beautiful, Cowboy Bebop is awesome, The Big O was cool until the very end, Trigun is returning, and soon we'll be getting Samurai Champloo and Paranoia Agent! G4TechTV: Last Exile, ROD, and Abenoishi are worth checking out, Gad Guard is OK as well, and Gungrave has a big following. A limited but decent outlet. The Anime Network: The most variety of anime for sure. However, a very diverse cataloug prevents any stable quality judgement. Azumanga Daioh and Samurai X can't fully make up for Happy Lesson and Gravion, so it's all pick-and-choose with with this network. Overall things will improve over the year: Kids' WB will lose the rights to Pokemon, 4KidsTV will have its final season, Miguzi will probably still be in suck mode, but Toonami will improve, AS will improve even more than it already has, and hopefully more homes will find goodness in G4TechTV and The Anime Network. As for the person in the first post who was talking about "rip-offs", HAVE YOU EVEN SEEN AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER? It has to be the most beautifully animated thing I've ever seen on TV other than Stand Alone Complex, Samurai Jack, and Clone Wars! I swear, give those animators one more yen in their paycheck and it you couldn't tell the difference between Avatar and a Miyazaki movie! It's that good!

[quote name='Lunox][color=darkslateblue']I don't know what age group you're talking about when you say 'kids', but doesn't Justice League air at like....10:30 or something? And I didn't even know that Evangelion and Utena were aimed at kids... *raises thoughtful eyebrow* Then again, the culture in Japan is so different.[/color][/quote] Justice League's target demographic is ages 7-14, with a secondary demographic of ages 15-24. However, because Bruce Timm made a contract with Cartoon Network that they couldn't edit his material, to keep safe the show premiered Season 1 at 8:00, Season 2 at 10:00, and currently Seasons 3 and 4 (aka Justice League Unlimited) are airing at 8:30 and will be moved 9:00 soon. Season 1 was very kid-friendly, and while Unlimited has a few more sophisticated stories, they haven't done anything really risky outside of a few bits of innuendo and [SPOILER]the deaths of Terry and Static via electricution in the alternate future[/SPOILER]. Season 2, however, had a lot of content that barely seemed it could work in a kid-oriented show. Blood, skimpy outfits, impotence, sex slaves, threats of the middle finger, lobotomies, [SPOILER]a very convincing faked death of Superman[/SPOILER], vomit, Green Lantern's heart stopping, the Joker as a pedophile, implied interspecies sex, cursing, strangling, limbs nearly chopped off, a halfway implosion of Earth, lots of stuff you wouldn't want to find "Little Jimmy" watching. As for EVA and Utena, they premiered advertised for the 8-18 set. However, the average anime viewers in the timeslot were in the younger half of the demographic, and the intense content was considered mostly unsuitable for that half, so controversy errupted and nobody since their orginal airings really considers them to be geared for kids. I'm surprised that no controversy over FMA occured. After last night's big revalation [SPOILER](Soilent green!!! :D )[/SPOILER] I don't see how controversy couldn't have occured!

Dagger, I noticed that your post didn't mention Full Metal Alchemist, one of the most nuanced shonens of all time. With a few filler episodes excused, most of the time I have trouble beleiving it was even a kids' show! It probably ranks up there with EVA, Utena, and Justice League Season 2 in terms of "kids' shows that were really not kids' shows".

Lately, there has been a lot of controversy over Kids' WB's new show Loonatics. However, I figured out a way it could be good. Mostly, I've made it less of an action-adventure show and more of a satirical comedy, along the lines of Duck Dodgers only more toyetic and with a drop of anime inspiration. If only the show could turn out as funny as my ideas... [B][U]Loonatics[/U][/B] [B]Episode 1: Not-So-Secret Origins[/B] Our series begins at the decaying remains of Termite Terrance in Neo-Acme. The only drawings that haven?t rotted away or been shredded into pieces were 3 cells, one of them featuring Elmer Fudd, one featuring Marvin the Martian, and one featuring Yosemite Sam. However, the last drop on ink in the inkwells had been filled with radioactive poison, bringing the drawings to life and turning Elmer, Marvin, and Sam into the evil supervillains E, Marv, and Yo. In need of defense against the Sinister Trio, the Acme Comedy Corporation was able to recover scraps of cells of Bugs, Daffy, Taz, Roadrunner, Coyote, and ?some girl that should never have existed? and, combined with their DNA technology, created the super-team of the Loonatics! [B]Episode 2: Dragonball ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ[/B] Having just been created, Buzz, Duck, Spaz, Speedster, Slick, and Lexi might have superpowers, but are stuck in the mindset of their previous counterparts. In the middle of their first training battle, a confused young monkey-warrior named Ukog confuses the newly anime-styled Loonatics for his own team of Snayias and takes them to the Great Tournament. The Lunatics have to face off against the great Nijam Uub, and to do so they?ll need the power of anvils! [B]Episode 3: The Speil-BORG 8000[/B] Having won the Great Tornament, the Loonatics need to return to Neo-Acme to battle The Sinister Trio. The Loonatics have given them a beating, but they now have to face The Sinister Trio?s back-up fighter: the all-powerful Speil-BORG 8000. Needing their own backup, the Acme Comedy Corporation gives the Loonatics 6 back-up robots of their own: Buster-BORG, Babs-BORG, Yakko-BORG, Wakko-BORG, Dot-BORG, and Freaka-BORG. Dysfunctional antics ensure. Eventually, the Loonatics and their back-up robots take down the Speil-BORG 8000, only to find out the one powering it was just a very old team of lab mice trying to take over the world one last time. [B]Episode 4: White (and Black) Supremacists Beat The Brain Too It[/B] The Sinister Trio has created a new super-weapon: The Technicolor Destroyer. Using it, they?ve rid the Loonatics of their most important power: their color! Powerless without their color, it is up to Bosko, Buddy, and Porky to teach them how to battle ?30s style. [B]Episode 5: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Crappiness[/B] The Sinister Trio has taken over the WB Scheduling. Unaware of new shows put in their timeslot, the Loonatics have to battle their way through 30-minute toy commercials, mystery-solving dogs, and more campy Saturday morning crap than you can survive! [B]Episode 6: Titanic (Sorry, but Robin PWNS Leonardo DiCaprio)[/B] Loonatics meet the Teen Titans. Take it from there. [B]Episode 7: Bum and Bummer[/B] Upset about having to eat up their own words, the TV critics who bashed the idea of Loonatics have all been dropped on the streets by their networks. Now, they seek their revenge to trying to make Loonatics into the worst show on television! [B]Episode 8: Guess Who?s Coming to Destroy Dinner[/B] Even though they are now teammates, Slick still has the desperate desire to eat Speedster. When The Sinister Trio offers a to help Slick catch Speedster. However, once Speedster is caught, an associate of The Sinister Trio is in need of a helping of birdie: Vestor. Slick and Vestor battle it out, while Buzz, Duck, Spaz, and Lexi have to rescue Speedster. [B]Episodes 9 and 10: Let?s Not Do the Time Warp Again[/B] The Sinister Trio has sent the Loonatics through a time portal to the 24th and 1/2 century. Their only hope for returning to the future: Duck Dodgers? alter-ego Samurai Quack and his Cadet. Duck finds Dodgers annoying and irritating, but there?s one problem: if he were to kill Dodgers, he?d be killing himself! Luckily, censorship saves the day when the BS&P prevent any of Duck?s attacks from hurting anyone. [B]Episodes 11, 12, and 13: Of Course You Know, This Means Warner Brothers[/B] The Loonatics have the final showdown at The Sinister Trio?s HQ: The Warner Bros. Film vault! In Part I, Lexi and Speedster fight against Yo at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In Part II, Spaz and Slick battle Marv in the city of Metropolis. And in Part III, Buzz and Duck take down E after breaking through The Matrix.

[QUOTE=Dagger]Howl's Moving Castle will probably do relatively well, box office-wise. What was Spirited Away's total take? But to me Steamboy seems like more of a stretch. ~Dagger~[/QUOTE] Spirited Away's total take was about $12 million. However, if you did the multiplication, had it been in a release of around 1,000 theaters (the minimum for a wide-release movie, and likely what Howl will get) while still pulling in the same ammount of money-per-theater it pulled in, it would have topped $140 million, about as much money as the opening weekend of Harry Potter. With Howl probably going to be in 4 times as many theaters as Spirited Away, that means more people will see it but there will be a 1/4 less money-per-theater likelyhood. Add to the fact Howl is based off of a British novel instead of a manga or Japanese folklore, which rises the marketability of it probably at least 3 times more than that of Spirited Away, and you end up with an estimated gross of about $60-70 million, which would be the best gross for any anime movie in America other than Pokemon 2000. As for Steamboy, it has potential. Most media experts think it might be a bit more successful than Howl, given that it is a more Americanized story than Howl, has more college appeal, an all-star cast, the director of Akira behind it, and a lot more CGI.

[quote name='AzureWolf][FONT=book antiqua][SIZE=2][COLOR=blue]To toss this thread into a slightly different angle, do you think hentai will play a prominent role in making anime more popular to Western fans? If not to build popularity, do you think it'll play a key role in changing the "for kids" mindset?[/COLOR][/SIZE'][/FONT][/quote] NO! Hentai was what got most westerners against anime in the first place! Something like, say, The Sopranos or South Park is definately not made for kids, but wouldn't be considered pornography either. You can find plenty of non-Hentai anime that break the "for kids" mold. The best-case scenario for anime in the USA: Steamboy and Howl's Moving Castle are released in multiple theaters and make at least $50 million at the box office. At least one of them gets an Oscar nomination. Adult Swim pushes Full Metal Alchemist and Samurai Champloo bigtime and announces a 2006 run of EVA Platinum. Toonami airs Naruto at a TV-PG and becomes huge with teens, while Zatch Bell sells, One Piece gets renewed with less-editted episodes, and Bandai gives SEED a 2nd chance. Avatar continues in the Top 10 Cable Ratings, and IGPX does well once it premieres. TNT runs Cowboy Bebop in primetime. A new manga title becomes a breakout hit and sells as well as a Dan Brown or Steven King novel. Everything is good.

[quote name='fynessajynx']as for finding meaning and depth in anime, I watch it to be entertained, not to fulfill my ideologic destiny. I'm the same with movies and books. if I want to gain knowledge I'll watch discovery channel or read a non fiction book :p[/quote] Funny, I thought you liked EVA, one of those animes with meaning and depth. Of course, there's other good things about it too.

[quote name='Dagger']Yay! Someone else who dislikes FLCL![/quote] One thing you must understand is that what people (well, me and a few others) like about FLCL isn't that it is great comedy. Far from it, actually. I got a laugh out of it the first time but barely chuckled the 2nd time onward. What makes it so popular is that it is great art. The designs are wacky but yet at the same time carry more realism that the stereotypical anime style, the animation is consistant and lively, the music rocks, and most importantly if you sift through all the downright bizzare junk you can find a very deep and somber story told in an over-the-top comedic way. That is what it is so brilliant about it. A lot of what attracted me to Cowboy Bebop was that it was almost as if Shakespeare was pitching his next Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet to a confused Monkey Punch who was treating it as another season of Lupin 3rd. FLCL has that brilliant quality to it, only the comedy covering up the story is overdone to the extent you can barely tell the story exists even though it does. This overdoing makes the show very ingenius, making it more of a mindscrew show like Paranoia Agent or Lain, but also makes it annoying for some. I can understand if FLCL is not your cup of tea, but you should not doubt its excellence. [quote name='Siren']And actually, Powerpuff Girls reminds me of another point (because Powerpuff Girls excels in this): Characterization. If a show has lousy characterization, I'm not going to be able to watch for very long.[/quote] I'm thinking you might like Bebop. Its characterization is outstanding. The show has a lot of hype that might lower you enjoyment, but actually it deserves a lot of it, moreso than Evangelion (also a great show that might seem to have flat characterization at first but has some very good character deconstruction and development once you get into the meat of the show in episodes 15-20, also episodes 21-24 to some extent, but outside of DBZ, SM, Mobile Suit Gundam, Inu-Yasha, and probably Naruto it is the most overhyped thing to ever hit Japanese airwaves). By the way, Bubbles is awesome, but if you want to count the villains Mojo and Him are the best. :catgirl:

[quote name='gaarasgirl90][COLOR=DarkRed][FONT=Fixedsys]I wish people I knew were more understanding. You try to get away with wearing a kyo hat to my school, ears and all and see how that goes. :animesigh [/FONT'][/COLOR][/quote] Everyone at my school thinks that my Yuki hat is cool. Nobody knows who Yuki even is though :animeswea . Anyway, about my Laputa comment, I understand if someone didn't like it. What I'm trying to get at is that Miyazaki is so great he's made at least one movie for everyy person to enjoy, and Laputa is one of the safer bets in general. Someone who thought anime was all gore and sex could try to ignore any quality, plot, or beauty in Mononoke to try to prove their points. On the reverse side of the spectrum, someone who thought anime was all little kids stuff could take one look at the DVD cover for Totoro and just dismiss it as kiddie crap without even watching it. Laputa is in the middle-of-the-road of Miyazaki's demographics, so it is one of the safer bets, but if someone doesn't like Laputa, they still would probably like at least one other Miyazaki movie.

Biggest disappointment: easily the last two episodes of EVA. Other less obvious dissapointments for me included Wolf's Rain, a brilliant plot that had way too much padding and way too little development for me to enjoy it, and Rave Master, which had a decent manga but a downright unwatchable anime.

[quote name='SakuraMinomino][B][COLOR=DarkGreen][SIZE=1]There's Bugs Bunny, and there's Family Guy.[/SIZE][/COLOR'][/B][/quote] Um, the original '40s-'50s Bugs Bunny cartoons were made for adults. Perhaps moreso than Family Guy, given that FG tries to aim for teens about as much as adults. Don't be fooled by the editted-for-syndication cuts from the '70s and '80s or the multiple spin-off TV shows that Bugs got. The classic Looney Tunes shorts were violent, sexy, racy, satirical, and subversive, and I liked 'em like that! :cool: Anyway, there is one cure for people who hate anime: Force them to watch Castle in the Sky. Seriously, it is perfect. It's serious enough to disprove the Yu-Gi-Oh stereotypes, lighthearted enough to disprove the hentai stereotypes, exciting without being scary, emotional without being depressing, funny without being wacky, artistic without being pretentious, there is no way someone could hate that movie!

I must be lucky. My school provides the SGT Frog, Gundam Wing, and CLAMP School Dectectives manga in the media center (I've thought about lending them some of my older Ranma 1/2 or Naruto volumes), and most teachers get embarassed when they admit they haven't seen Spirited Away (things get even worse when they mix it up with that ****ing horse movie Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmaron). The school guidance counselor even knows every episode of Cowboy Bebop by heart. Plus there's an afterschool "Art in Japan" class, and despite the ptiched premise for the class we spend less time doing traditional Japanese art and more time drawing manga/watching Miyazaki movies.

[quote name='Pumpkin][FONT=Georgia][SIZE=2][i] Make sure that he's not just a big flirt that flirts with any girl though, I've made that mistake many times before.[/SIZE][/i'][/FONT][/quote] That advice is no help to me because I'm a boy as well. Which makes things a lot harder.

I want to get 3 earlobe piercings (two in one ear, one in the other), one cartalidge piercing, one eyebrow piercing, a nose piercing, and maybe a labret piercing. I'll probably get them when I go off to college. I might get a tattoo, but it'll have to be something important. They're permanenant, so I'd have to make a good choice or else. Overall piercings and tattoos look good in small-medium quantities. Maybe a large tattoo would look good on someone if it really fit them, but once you become Lizard Man they look butt-ugly.

OK, there's this guy at my school. I'm not completely sure that I have a crush on him, but there's a very high chance that I do. Obviously there's almost no chance he'd have any interest in me. How should I tell him about my feelings (if I even should) without freaking him out?

So with the big awards tonight, what movies do you think will win? My predictions: Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role Leonardo DiCaprio in THE AVIATOR (Miramax, Initial Entertainment Group and Warner Bros.) Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role Thomas Haden Church in SIDEWAYS (Fox Searchlight/20th Century Fox) Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role Hilary Swank in MILLION DOLLAR BABY (Warner Bros.) Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role Cate Blanchett in THE AVIATOR (Miramax, Initial Entertainment Group and Warner Bros.) Animated Feature Film of the Year THE INCREDIBLES (Buena Vista) Brad Bird Achievement in Art Direction LEMONY SNICKET'S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS (Paramount and DreamWorks) Art Direction: Rick Heinrichs Set Decoration: Cheryl A. Carasik Achievement in Cinematography HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS (Sony Pictures Classics) Zhao Xiaoding Achievement in Costume Design LEMONY SNICKET'S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS (Paramount and DreamWorks) Colleen Atwood Achievement in Directing MILLION DOLLAR BABY (Warner Bros.) Clint Eastwood Documentary Feature SUPER SIZE ME (Roadside Attractions/Samuel Goldwyn Films) Morgan Spurlock A Kathbur Productions/The Con Production Documentary Short Subject MIGHTY TIMES: THE CHILDREN'S MARCH Robert Hudson and Bobby Houston A Tell the Truth Pictures Production Achievement in Film Editing FINDING NEVERLAND (Miramax) Matt Chesse Foreign Language Film of the Year YESTERDAY South Africa A Videovision Entertainment Production Achievement in Makeup THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST (Icon and Newmarket) Keith Vanderlaan and Christien Tinsley Achievement in Music written for Motion Pictures (Original Score) HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN (Warner Bros.) John Williams Achievement in Music written for Motion Pictures (Original Song) "Accidentally In Love" from SHREK 2 (DreamWorks) Music by Adam Duritz, Charles Gillingham, Jim Bogios, David Immergluck, Matthew Mallery and David Bryson Lyric by Adam Duritz and Daniel Vickrey Best Motion Picture of the Year MILLION DOLLAR BABY (Warner Bros.) Nominees are still to be determined. A Warner Bros. Pictures Production Animated Short Film RYAN Chris Landreth A Copper Heart Entertainment & National Film Board of Canada Production Live Action Short Film WASP Andrea Arnold A Cowboy Films Production Achievement in Sound Editing SPIDER-MAN 2 (Sony Pictures Releasing) Paul N.J. Ottosson Achievement in Sound Mixing THE INCREDIBLES (Buena Vista) Randy Thom, Gary A. Rizzo and Doc Kane Achievement in Visual Effects SPIDER-MAN 2 (Sony Pictures Releasing) John Dykstra, Scott Stokdyk, Anthony LaMolinara and John Frazier Adapted Screenplay FINDING NEVERLAND (Miramax) Screenplay by David Magee Original Screenplay THE INCREDIBLES (Buena Vista) Written by Brad Bird

If I were President, the first thing I'd do would be to try to create a foolproof plan that would sort out all of the wars in the Middle East. That would cancel out about 99% of all foriegn affairs concerns. After all that is overwith I'd campaign for sepparation of Church and State. Religion would be an appropriate subject to learn about in public schools if done tastefully (most of history revolves around religion anyway), but the US wouldn't be considered a "Christian country" and the 1st Ammendment would be more enforced. This brings us to our second issue: censorship. Certainly networks need to have common sense, but government-funded censorship should end. Hearing an F-Bomb at midnight on TV when kids should be asleep doesn't hurt anyone, so the networks deserve more power in censorship than the illogical FCC. Finally, I'd get the US to finally sign that international anti-global warming petition. There's no reason why doing so would harm the nation and it would help the environment, so why not do it?

[QUOTE=Godelsensei]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.[/QUOTE] I understand where you're coming from, but that statement was a bit discrimatory. Bad people would be bad people whether they were religious or not. It is just that the religious ones usually end up in power and thus get recognized. I'm pretty sure if Abraham, Jesus, Mohammed, or any of the main founders of any religion were alive today, you'd likely find them to be decent people. If they were racist, sexist, or homophobic it would probably be more due to the political environment during their time and less due to their religiousness. Also another thing to remember is that, outside of the Torah and maybe a few things I haven't heard of, pretty much all religious docterines are believed to be human-written records of a connection with (the) God(s) and not actually words of Divinity, and since humans make mistakes, no docterine can be taken word-for-word. Even the Torah had to be scribed by Moses so not even that has to be taken word-for-word. Also the Bible, Qu'araan, and most other religious documents outlaw discrimination, so the people you talked about in your post are just being hypocrites (and yet most of them didn't vote for Kerry :animesmil ).

My list for awaited movies of 2005: Howl's Moving Castle Steamboy Batman Begins Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Star Wars: Episode III The Corpse Bride Wallace and Gromitt Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy Hopefully these movies will make up for the current movie disasters such as Son of the Mask and Hide and Seek.