Heaven's Cloud

[color=indigo]Deathbug, I no longer understand the point you are trying to make. At first I thought that you were debating because you thought that the confederate flag was a symbol of oppression and slavery in the civil war and it shouldn?t be depicted in state flags any longer. But later you stated that having a depiction in a state flag didn?t bother you, but it did bother you that people are wearing or displaying the flag because the flag was corrupted by hate groups like the KKK, however, at the same time you said that you know people that wear the flag that aren?t stupid or racist. Now it seems that you have abandoned that perspective and you are once again saying that the confederacy was a stupid thing, but you said earlier that you understood that the confederacy wasn?t created because of slavery, so I don?t understand where you are coming from. I am not posting this to attack you, but I am unsure of where you are coming from. I am not a fan of most people that wear or hang the confederate flag, mainly because 90% of the people that I have met that do so are racist, ignorant people. But I don?t think that the flag was intended for that, it seems that you are upset at an icon, not the people that have soiled its intended nature.[/color]

[color=indigo]I saw the video for Weak and Powerless today. The song was very mellow, which I thought was odd because my buddy told me that this APC album was going to be harder than the previous?anyway I tend to think that anything Maynard is involved in has to be cool, he has such a wicked voice. I haven?t had a chance to pick up Thirteenth Step yet, but I defiantly suggest checking out Fuse and MTV2 to try and catch a glimpse of the Weak and Powerless video, it is cool in an dark and disturbing kind of way (and it has a naked chick in it :) )?[/color]

[color=indigo]Heh, Semjaza, back I my head days (you know [b]those[/b] days ^_-) my buddy and I tried to do the whole Dark Side/Wizard of Oz trick?unfortunately his CD player shuffled between tracks so it was out of sync. It was still amusing?most things are when you?re stoned. I saw Roger Waters in concert when I was a sophomore in college. It was amazing. They are just one of those bands I wish I could have seen live, before they ?split? up. My favorite Pink Floyd song will always be ?Wish You Were Here?, because it was the first song I learned to play on my guitar while singing?[/color]

[color=#993300]I sleep in the orchard And dream of you Under the orange apple tree Under sky blue I count the clouds And our memories Under the orange apple tree Pillowed on autumn leaves I play our song On a flute of grass Under the orange apple tree I celebrate the past Huddled together Before the frost Under the orange apple tree Innocence lost [/color]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by DeathBug [/i] [B]I believe that I've never said that. However, when you say that "80% of those that wear it are racist rednecks", you illustrate my point perfectly. You've made a very vast generalization based soley on that flag, which is exactly what vexes me. I know several people who wear/display it, and the vast majority of them are not racist, nor rednecks. Yet, they, and by assocation, myself and many other Southerners, are branded as such instantly. I feel they are doing a disservice to themselves and the very region they which to exhault by holding onto the flag. The South is not a bunch of hicks, and it irritates me greatly when people assume so, or joke exclusivly at our expense. I believe that by keeping that flag, we invite more of the same. [/B][/QUOTE] [color=indigo]Well, I am from the south, and that remark was made as joke...hence the civil war reenactors as the second part...but sometimes (usually) I am the only person that finds my jokes funny. Also, being from the south I can tell you that the majority of people that I know that wear the confederate flag are racist hillbillies...but that is just my experience from living in the south. I agree that us southerners get a lot of grief about being degenerate rednecks, but I think it is more due to our accents than the display of the confederate flag. Unfortunatly groups of people get labeled, by living in the south that is a label that you'll have to deal with.[/color]

[color=indigo]We have a Kenshin thread one page back...also we don't allow threads that are used to promote links to other sites. ~HC, neighborhood mod friendly dislexic[/color]

[color=indigo]I used to love Goldberg back in the WCW, but I don't think they are doing a good job with his story lines in the WWE. The Rock is such a great mic man that it is hard not to like him. I think that he may be my all time favorite wrestler. I do think that John Cena and Shawn O'Hare are both phenomenal talents...Cena has great mic skills and is a pretty solid wrestler, O'Haire is just a beast, they need to market him better.[/color]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by DeathBug [/i] [B] Also, like it or not, the Confederate flag [i]is[/i] used by hate groups and white supremists. They're not going to stop using it, either. You can try to explain "Heritage, not Hate", but face it: it doesn't really help. I say, let them keep it, and really prove how far the South as come. [/B][/QUOTE] [color=indigo]Well they hide behind the cross as well, but you don't see political groups getting their panties all bunched up about it. Granted it isn't the same, but you seem more concerned about peopel that have a confederate flag bumper sticker or a T-shirt that depicts the flag. Eighty percent of those people are probably ignorant racist rednecks, the other twenty percent are civil war reenactors. However, if you want states to rid their state flags of a confederate symbol, then I think you are being ridiculous. The confederate flag symbolizes the civil war (much like the swastika represents World War Two) whether it was intended to or not. Attempting to rid yourself of an icon that represents a part of history never accomplished anything...[/color]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Semjaza Azazel [/i] [B] All I know is that I act mature when I need to or should. I think part of maturity is knowing the difference between situations where you can act immature or situations where you can act mature (whatever it is you feel fits into these categories is up to you, I guess). I find a lot of people just cannot differentiate between the two. [/B][/QUOTE] [color=indigo]Bingo. I think that too many people feel that they are mature because they don't find burp and fart jokes funny anymore. Maturity comes with experience and time, and there are different branches of maturity that you have to deal with throughout life. There are levels of maturity when it comes to raising children, dealing with relationships, dealing with money ect...I think that you can definatly be mature in one aspect but not another...[/color]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Drix D'Zanth [/i] [B]No one has a favorite drink? No one enjoys the true value of some spectacular wines? Ugh, I didn't think of myself as the only afficionado of the finer aspects of alchohol. As for beer, I detest it, once you taste a fine burbon, the swelling of the pallate as your sinuses fill with the overwhelming fumes. It's just an enjoyable experience. I belive getting drunk only subdues the flavor, the overall enjoyment of a drink. Oh yeah.. one more post before I'm Junior Member :) [/B][/QUOTE] [color=indigo] I have several poisons of choice I guess. Whiskey/Bourbon: I've had several really good brands of both, but they are too expensive to make it worth my while to remember their names (too expensive for me ^_^) ; I usually just keep a bottle of Jameson in my house...it is good enough to drink yet cheap enough to mix Beer: Anything dark and heavy. I love Guinness, but drinking a pint is like eating a loaf of bread....it is sooo filling. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is a good beer if you want something lighter. Wine: I am not a big wine connoisseur but I've had a couple reds from Australia and Italy that I thought were pretty good...but I only drink wine when I go to dinner with a girl or with my folks Tequila- You should only drink Cabo Wabo tequila...if you drink anything else you are risking a severe hangover. There are too many impurities in Cuervo[/color]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by DeathBug [/i] [B] The North was not opressing the South; the North was changing with the times, while the South was remaining stagnant. The majority of the South was dirt-poor, slaves excluded. Rather than modernize, the leaders in the south remained stubborn, and resorted to violence prematurely. Slavery would not have ended in the south; it was too thoroughly entrenched in their economy. The Confederation was doomed to start with, and there's nothing worh celebrating. As a Southerner, I couldn't think of a worse symbol to represent my region. [/B][/QUOTE] [color=indigo]Well, if you want to view in a purely economic way the North was oppressing the South. The Southern economy was doing very well thanks to the high demand of both cotton and tobacco as well as other staple foods and commodities (such as hogs, chicken, ect?). When the railroads were first being constructed in the North, companies received huge government subsidies, however, the same federal aide was not offered once companies were ready to build in the South. The United States government was providing quite a bit more aide to Northern industrial states than to Southern states that relied on an aggregate economy. Many people thought that this was a great injustice, especially since many of the founding fathers wanted our country to rely on agriculture as a means to sustain itself. This rift grew so large that several states decided to secede from the Union, which they had every constitional right to do. Luckily our leaders realized how much this would affect the future of both areas and they were able to rebuild the Union. If anything, the confederate flag should be symbol for the group of people that followed the beliefs of our founding fathers and fought for the rights that they believed they were guaranteed under the constitution. That being said, I think the overwhelming majority of people that sport the confederate flag tend to be racist rednecks, and entirely miss the ?Heritage not Hate? standpoint.[/color] [quote] Why does the South need a flag to "represent" itself when the North doesn't have one? I feel like I'm in the 1800s... North and South lol. Think what you want about the heritage stuff. I agree with it all. I personally have no problem with the flag itself... but this is one country, we have one flag. I think stuff like this just divides it all up needlessly (and no, state and city flags are another matter entirely).[/quote] [color=indigo]Southerners are some of the most patriotic people in the country, and I doubt that too many of them want the confederate flag to symbolize the US or the South. I think that the issue is that people want it taken out of existing state flags because of what they think it stands for, which is ridiculous. [/color]

[color=indigo]I thought it would be a bit hypocritical if I was to sit here an admonish drinking, after all one of my first posts was a poem about alcohol. I do think that getting drunk at thirteen or fourteen is a bit early; I remember swiping small amounts of my parents booze and catching a buzz with it when was sixteen, but I don?t think I got drunk until I went to a summer school for music when I was seventeen. I enjoy having a drink once or twice a month (I rarely drink anymore), and I?ll still go out and catch a buzz with some of my buddies when I go home. Despite what others have said, being drunk around the right people is fun, you just have to no your limits between catching a buzz and being plastered. One thing I will preach about is under age drinking and driving. If you are under 21 do not, under any circumstances drive a car with any amount of alcohol in your system?if you are pulled over you will (at minimum) loose your license for a year and have about $3000 in fines. I know from experience how much this can screw up your life?[/color]

[color=indigo]Well, I have been messing around lately and I drew this sketch of the angels... From left to right: Asuki, BabyGirl, Lady Mac...[/color] [url=http://www.members.aol.com/shadowedcloudx/angels]Angels[/url]

[color=indigo]Coincidence, I had planned on having to go dig up an old AFI thread, but someone started a new one.... Anyway, I had been listening to [i]Sing the Sorrow[/i] quite a bit lately. At first I wan't overly impressed, because I wasn't sure what to think of the lead singers voice. I kept listening to the CD because I thought the instrumentals were excellent and I guess the vocals just grew on me. Yesterday I bought [i]Art of Drowning[/i] (along with some other stuff) and it is pretty cool, a little faster paced than their latest CD. The art inside the CD is pretty cool as well (actually it is worth the $10 just for the art). I am not sure if I like it better than [i]Sing the Sorrow[/i] yet but it is a pretty cool album...[/color]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Shy [/i] [B][size=1] [b]What song do you sing occasionally?[/b] I usually sing songs from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical. ^_^" -Shy[/size] [/B][/QUOTE] [color=indigo]I never thought I would see "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "musical" used in the same phrase... Anyway, I sing all the time, in the shower, while playing the guitar, and especially when I'm driving. [/color]

[color=indigo]I am not sure where some of you guys are getting your information from. Ninja were not super human killing machines that assassinated their targets with a flashy arsenal of aerial combat maneuvers. A clan of ninja could be comprised of men and women that were usually sold to or adopted by the clan leader at a young age. From an early age disciples were trained in the use of explosives, poisons, flying weapons (darts, shaken, crossbows, throwing knives, all usually dipped in poison), short cutting weapons (such as knives and short swords?like the ninja-to that has been mentioned), and firearms. A ninja, or group of ninja, were usually only used for one mission. After the assassination the ninja responsible were expected to commit suicide (a ritual of one group of Ninja was to scratch the back of their hand with a poisoned instrument and then jam a knife through their throat underneath the jaw bone). This is all very broad information though. There were several well known clans of Ninja, and I would guess that each had various techniques and rituals that they followed? [/color]

[color=indigo]I wouldn?t mind being a woman for about an hour, just to do a little self ?ahem? exploration, and gain a little first hand perspective on how certain nerve endings feel. I think that an hour would be enough though. I really enjoy being a guy.[/color]

[color=indigo]?::sigh::?we?ve had this topic soooo many times, but I guess it has been a little while since we allowed one to remain open, so I will let it continue as long as members do a better job [b]explaining[/b] why they like the music of a particular anime. As most of you know, it is my opinion that the sound track from Cowboy Bebop, written by Yoko Kano, is possibly the best music ever written for a TV show. The music fits the show perfectly, combining a nostalgic jazzy sound with modern rhythms which parallels the shows dual old west/space age thriller theme. [/color]

[color=indigo]Harsh? I said it was mediocre not horrible. I can think of at least a dozen anime series with better artwork, a dozen series that are funnier, a dozen series with superior action scenes, a dozen series that do a better job with character development (which, [b]in my opinion[/b], is the worst aspect of this show?the series could have been a phenomenal story of Vash?s self discovery but in the end Vash was good Knives was evil, the lines were as simple as those drawn in DBZ), and I can think of quite a few series that surpass Trigun in every one of these aspects. It is not the worst series I have ever seen, I just fail to see why so many of you think it so excellent.[/color]

[color=indigo]My ideal vacation would be to go to Rehobeth, Delaware between 1980 and 1990, before it became overly commercial. Although it is still a beautiful area, it often becomes super crowded during the summer and the surrounding town has grown from a small local community to a bustling micro city. I guess people can?t live without a Lowe?s Home Improvement or a Walmart within spitting distance. I remember waking up and going fishing in the morning with my grandfather, spending all day playing football on the beach and swimming in the ocean, and spending all night walking up and down the wooden boardwalk eating ice cream and listening to whatever band was playing on the center stage. It is still wonderful going there during the summer, but I guess my nostalgia factor is full blown after spending the entire summer landlocked in Ohio. [/color]

[color=indigo]Well, if you enjoy books that deal with Japanese culture then the following books are both pretty good. [b]Musashi[/b] by Eiji Yoshikawa is a story about Japan?s most famous swordsman and his struggle to fin d the true way. The best aspect of this book is that it written in a very humanistic fashion depicting the samurai class in the same way that [b]Gone With The Wind[/b] humanized southerners during the Civil War. It is a very solid epic novel. [b]Kokoro[/b] is a very insightful novel that follows the relationship between a young Japanese student and his teacher at the end of Meiji Era. The author reminds me a lot of Fitzgerald, every sentence seems to be symbolic and every paragraph seems to be a metaphor, yet it is accomplished without seeming to scholarly. If you are looking for a book that is interesting and funny, check out [b]Good Omens[/b] by Neil Gaimen and Terry Somethingoranother (I think his last name is Hachet, but I am not sure). It is a story about an angel and a demon that work together in an attempt to stop the apocalypse because they enjoy living among humans. It is worth reading the book just to see how the antichrist?s hell hound ends up being manipulated to fit the antichrist?s personality. If you are looking for a Sci-Fi/fantasy type book check out [b]American Gods[/b] or [b]Neverwhere[/b] by Neil Gaimen (yeah I?ve been on a Neil Gaimen kick lately). [b]American Gods[/b] is a bizarre book about a battle between forgotten ?gods? of America. [b]Neverwhere[/b] is about a young man that gets caught up in the magical underworld of London?it is a really cool principle for a novel. Another good Sci-Fi book is [b]Shadowland[/b] by Peter Straub. It is about two young boys and their apprenticeship into the dark arts. Sorry if the summaries are a bit brief, but I really hate giving away the gist of a books plot?[/color]

[color=indigo]Son Song I used to dream Of being someone else Someone other than me A Fireman With a shiny red truck Saving kittens from tall trees But time has passed Dreams have passed And I have grown a little older To be half the man my father is Is enough weight For my dreams to shoulder I used to hope Of being the best At what it didn?t matter I?d excel at sports Or exceed in the arts Just to surpass my father But the seasons changed Hopes have changed And my feelings have evolved If I could give What my father gave My strife would be resolved I used to pray To be a good man Following examples set by others I learned my morals From rogues and villains That I treated as brothers Thoughts linger Prayers fade away But comfort remains by my side For though I am not The man my father is The love for me is in his eyes [/color]

[color=indigo]For all their musicality I can?t stand Rush?something about the lead singers voice drives me insane. Anyway, the majority of the music I listen to is ?classic? Rock, so I love many of the bands that have already been mentioned. [b]The Allman Brother?s Band[/b]- In my opinion they are the greatest southern rock band of all time. Dick Betts and Duane Allman are incredible guitar players (Dicky Betts wrote ?Jessica? to be played with two fingers for a friend that was missing several appendages), Chuck Lavell is an insane pianist, and although Greg had a rough voice, it suited their music well. [b]Eat a Peach[/b] is the pinnacle of all southern rock albums so if you like Skynryd give it a chance [b]The Rolling Stones[/b]-They have too many good songs to mention. Keith Richards is and always will be one of the best rhythm guitar players of all time. [b]Derrick and the Dominos[/b]-Although short lived due to the death of Duane Allman, both Clapton and Allman wrote some of their best songs during this time; both Layla and Bellbottom Blues came out of Derrick and the Dominos. There are so many other great old bands: Santana, Led Zepplin, Ziggy Stardust/Bowie, Frank Zappa, The Beatles, Cream, and my favorite band of all time The Doors. I?m sure someone else will write about a band that I like and I?ll respond with a ?Dude! I can?t believe I forgot about them!??[/color]

[color=indigo]I think that Trigun is mediocre at best. The art work has some moments of absolute brilliance but it also is blotchy and choppy at some points. The music is typical, neither bad nor good, but it sometimes seems out of place in certain segments. I am not a big fan of the story line, mainly because they don?t develop the characters that well, all of the characters are pretty one dimensional with the exception of Wolfwood. I never found the goofy scenes even remotely humorous but the action scenes did have some redeeming value.[/color]

[color=indigo]I have said before that if I have any connection to an animal, it would have to be the stereotypical collie/sheep herding canine, just because we have similar characteristics. Despite being very loyal and affectionate to their immediate family/master, collies are usually independent animals. They learn tasks simply and work hard when they must, but if allowed they remain lazy and idol creatures. They are also greedy animals at time , and enjoy being pampered with food and affection, although they are content at going without for long periods of time. Those polar opposite characteristics also tend to sum me up somewhat?that and I enjoy chasing cars?[/color]