Sonic Boom

I think my worst was on my birthday a a few years ago, not necessarily because I barfed, but because of the situation. At the time, I had a crush on a friend of mine named Taryn. At the time, I thought she was the be all, end all of women and my quest for the perfect woman ended with her. So for my birthday, my roommate at the time decided to throw a party for me. It was a great party, a ton of people came and I'm fairly certain everybody brought alcohol. So seeing it was my birthday, it was as if I wasn't allowed to not have a drink in hand. As soon as I'd finish off a beer, somone would put another in my hand and who was I to say no? So, many beers later (I honestly think it was between 14 and 18, it was a lot and I'd never drank so much in my life) I could hardly stand. I was sitting outside,barely coherent, trying to hold a conversation. I don't remember much, but I remember what happened clear as day. Taryn came out and asked if I was okay. I looked her right in the eye and said "Taryn, I'm in love with you." I remember the look of shock on her face as all of the conversation stopped and right then, I threw up more and harder than I ever had in my life and blacked out. I woke up the next morning with the worst hangover I've ever had and asked my roommate if what I thought had happened had really happened. He assured me it did. I think Taryn just thought it was the booze talking, but it was a long time before I could look her in the eye. Epilogue- Eventually, I got over the Taryn thing and six and a half months later I met the true love of my life, who I'll be marrying in March.

[quote name='ChibiHorsewoman][color=#9933ff][font=lucida calligraphy]You know what? I read that and I suddenly didn't feel that old anymore. Because sixth grade for me was only 13 years ago (92-93) Thanks.[/color'][/font][/quote] Glad I could help. ;)

Wow, 6th grade... For me that was 20 years ago (85-86). To be honest, you couldn't pay me to go through 6th grade again, I don't think I was ever as miserable as I was then. It was a weird experience, everything started changing and all of a sudden I didn't know how to relate to anyone anymore. I guess I didn't understand that being into things like Dungeons and Dragons and Star Trek weren't considered cool and were nothing more than a bully magnet. So needless to say, I wasn't popular and got beat up pretty much on a daily basis. To make things worse, my best friend was very popular, but because I'd been deemed a nerd he'd have nothing to do with me while we were at school.I'd hoped maybe if he'd hang out with me at lunch or something, that would make me cool by association, but he'd just ignore me. It sounds crappy I know, but to be honest, if I were in his shoes I would have done the exact same thing. I think sometimes people my age tend to forget how cruel we can all be at this age, and just how cutthroat junior high life is. 6th grade is when I also experienced my first real crush, a girl by the name of Stephanie Walls. I still remember the first time I saw her on the first day of school. It was in my third period health class. She was wearing a red sweater, Guess jeans and Keds sneakers that matched her sweater. She had long, curly golden brown hair and at the time, was the prettiest girl I'd ever seen. A couple of weeks after school started, a back to school dance was announced I wanted to ask her to it more than anything, but couldn't work up the nerve. After all, she was a cheerleader and I was a nobody. After high school, we wound up going to the same college and actually became friends. When I told her about how I had a crush on her in middle school, her response was "We went to the same middle school?". Ouch. I'm sure there were some good times too, but in my determination to remember how miserable I was I'm sure I've forgotten about them. I don't get how people my age could like back at this being such an idyllic time, the one thing that sticks out in my mind was how miserable I was. Of course, the next year I discovered punk rock, heavy metal and skateboarding and that's when things started to get interesting. :)

I picked up Brain Age last week and have been hooked ever since. I've never had a game that has made me feel so smart at times only to turn right around and make me feel completely retarded. Still, I like having a game like this that is actually forcing me to think and use my head. The tasks my seem mundane at first, but they're actually a lot of fun. The only thing I don't like is the word memorization exercise, and that's mainly because I suck at it. I've also become hopelessly addicted to Sudoku. In one marathon session I finished five puzzles back to back. I think I might also have to pick up Sudoku Gridmaster before too long.

You know, when I first watched Berserk a couple of years ago and got to the ending, I was mad. I hated the way they let it end on a cliffhanger like that. But since going back and rewatching it I've definitely come to appreciate this series and now consider it to be one of my favorites. I'd recommend to anyone who has watched the series to try out the manga. There is so much that was left out and lots of questions will be answered. I'm only on volume 8 so far, so I haven't caught up to the anime just yet, but I'm getting there. Still, even in the first story arc there is so much that was left out of the anime, so it's definitely worth checking out.

The only anime I can think of that has made me cry is Grave of the Fireflies. The main character so earnestly wants to make a better life for himself and his sister, but to see him consistently fail, it's just heart wrenching.

Paradise Kiss is one of the few Shoujo series that I found interesting. I've read volumes 1-4 and enjoyed them quite a bit. I like Ai Yazawa's style quite a bit, it's very distinct and suits the story well. I'll probably pick up volume 5 in the next couple of weeks, I have a stack of unread manga I need to finish first.

[QUOTE=RiflesAtRecess][font=trebuchet ms]I like to begin posts with some introductory point to make, but after five minutes of re-reading things and staring around thinking about it... I'm just going to skip it. I listen to emo music and I'm a complete purist in regards to it. Most music that people call "emo" and "screamo" are just marketed as such, or based off of some misunderstand 14-year-old's perception of the term. Emo stands for emocore which itself is an abbreviation of emotive hardcore, a genre made up of fast and sometimes textured guitars, at least two screamers at nearly all times, segments of spoken word, and some emotion present in the lyrics or instrument playing that is not present in regular hardcore. Most kids who are "emo" wouldn't touch that ****. Honestly, I'm really sick of seeing clothing styles differenciating who is emo and who isn't. People say that their style is to break outside of the box, to speak out agianst whatever is ailing them. To quote a brilliant emo band, The Assistant: [i]you want to be an individual, right? You look like you're wearing a uniform.[/i] Sigh. It's really sad when people take a word that signified a genre of music breaking barriers of creativity, creating art, into a word that degrades and judges people. Real "emos" are artists.[/font][/QUOTE] Yeah, the term Emo has been so watered down people try to apply it to any band wearing black and playing guitar rock. I heard some kid the other day refer to Green Day as emo, which made me chuckle. But I can't judge, I know I'll never forget what a tool I felt like after getting laughed at by a buch of punks when I referred to Public Image Limited as hardcore. I was thirteen, maybe fourteen at the time and just didn't know better.

At the moment I guess the bands I've been listening to the most are Mogwai and The Mars Volta. I think they're pretty similar in a lot of ways in that they don't follow the traditional pop song formula (not that there's anything wrong with that, if that's what you dig), but rather aren't afraid to draw things out. Mogwai are a lot more psychedelic, rarely use vocals and if they do they're often so distorted you can't understand them. As for The Mars Volta, I don't think I could add anything that Tical hasn't said already.

I don't worry about it, it's just another form of self expression. Some kids are identifying with the emo thing the same way I identified with the new wave/goth thing when I was in high school. The tight jeans and shag haircuts have just replaced the leather jackets, creepers and Morrissey hair I used to have. You know, some kids are into football, other kids are into AFI. Everybody's different and it's all cool. Having said that, I seriously doubt 99% of the kids who claim to be emo have any idea who Grey Matter or Rites of Spring are.

I know it's going to sound a little cheesy, but I'm going to say my fiance. She's my best friend and I don't know what I'd do without her. Sometimes it blows my mind to think that there was a time she wasn't in my life.

I used to post a lot on the now defunct boards at Anime Genesis and had a lot of fun there. I got into some good discussions and made some cool online friends there. But due to work and life I started posting there less and less, and finally the site was shut down. Anyway, the other day I was thinking about how I kinda missed it, so I just did a search for anime on Yahoo and found TheOtaku.com. I liked the site and the boards, so I joined. I look forward to getting to know everyone here.