Allamorph

[FONT=Arial]Make that two. This semester will be amazing, so I'm good. *wonders if [COLOR="DarkRed"]Sakura[/COLOR] is still around*[/FONT]

“Technically they were dead the moment we entered the building.” Surprised, the shinigami turned around to find Nathan standing over the Count’s remains, studying them intently. The blue figure glanced up and sent Alex an innocent look. “...technically,” he added, raising his eyebrows briefly. Lucia opened her mouth to respond, but by this point she was so utterly flabbergasted by the previous five minutes that no sound escaped her, and she could no longer decide whether she wanted more to vent some of her frustrations on Nathan or ask him how in the world he had managed to get into the room, and behind her no less. As if he were reading her thoughts, Nathan shrugged. “Back door,” he said matter-of-factly. Lucia’s mouth snapped shut. Nathan’s gaze drifted to Adrian, who was leaning painfully against the wall yet somehow retaining the same irritated expression, and his eyes narrowed slightly. “I see someone’s been playing a very dangerous game,” he remarked. Adrian glared at him. “Maybe . . . ,” he managed, “. . . if somebody else . . . had—” Nathan held up his hand to stop him. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I should have worded that better.” He paused, turned back to the ashes, and to Adrian again. “You look like ****.” Adrian grunted disapprovingly and closed his eyes again, but he said nothing, and Nathan knew the injured shinigami was at least partially amused. He crouched and began tracing a strange sigil in the ashes, idly twirling his scythe between his fingers. “Counto . . . sama??” Nathan’s eyes darted up. The little vampire girl from before was tottering uncertainly towards him with a glazed expression, completely focused on the pile of dust below him. Still twirling his scythe, he came slowly to his feet, bringing the weapon across his body close to his opposite shoulder. He leaned forward. Alex was just stepping forward to stop Nevril when Nathan moved. To him, it seemed like a scene straight out of an anime; one instant Nathan was across the room, the next he was three inches from Alex’s face, his scythe held behind him. Alex recoiled with a shout. Aeru watched in disbelief as Nevril’s body gave one violent jerk and stiffened; the vampiress’s shocked eyes stared vacantly at the ceiling, and her mouth hung dumbly open. “Nevril!” cried Aeru, rushing to her charge’s side. Nathan turned and watched curiously as the distraught shinigami tried to get a response from the little girl. “You’re wasting your time,” he told her calmly. Aeru whirled on him. “What have you done to her?!” “What should have been done in the first place.” “But we needed her to get here!!” screamed Aeru furiously. Nathan’s brow furrowed. “No,” he said, “we didn’t.” “But you were—!” Lucia’s voice interrupted the argument. “Excuse me, Nathan,” she started, clearly not caring if she were excused or not, “but would you care to inform me how you can move like that?” Nathan stopped and shot Adrian a sideways glance; Adrian’s little companion was looking at him conspiratorially, so Nathan doubted Lucia knew what he had done, either. He raised his eyebrows. “Very carefully,” he replied, and was rewarded with a giggle from Astera and an angry stomp from Lucia. “That doesn’t matter,” he continued. “But this does.” He held up his left hand, which held a misshapen black object that looked like an organ of some kind. “You asked what I did to her,” Nathan said to Aeru, “...I removed her soul. “Well, almost.” He stepped forward, tossing the sac gently in the air. With each moist slap of the object against his palm, Nevril’s body quivered; Nathan stopped when he reached her and stood there for a moment. “I seem to be monologuing a lot today,” he mumbled to himself as he sheathed his scythe. “But I’m the good guy.... He cleared his throat. “Anyway, this stuff I’m holding right now is actually encasing Nevril’s soul. Every vampire has one of these inside them; in the moments before a human dies and becomes a vampire, their soul is surrounded by this material and not allowed to pass on. It also prevents us from knowing of their death, and because of this we’re usually not around to intervene. “Once the vampire is fully turned or resurrected, their abilities are immediately enhanced, and they are able to interact directly with our plane of existence. They’re not terribly powerful at first, but they grow stronger with age, and vampires that have lived for a while can begin to hold their own against us, whom they view as their natural enemies. “Also,” he patted Nevril’s shoulder, “this little girl is pretty young, and her soul was simple to remove. The older a vampire becomes, the thicker the casing grows, and the more difficult it is for us remove it like I just did, or even to penetrate it. I knew of a vampire once who withstood seven direct hits from a scythe before finally dying.” “You saw this happen?” asked Alex. “Yes,” Nathan answered quietly. “I was swinging.” Alex fell silent. “Vampires are often perceived as immortal because there isn’t a lot that humans can do to kill them.” Nathan went on. “Our scythes and the cleansing fire are the only things capable of penetrating their soul casings and allowing their souls to break free of their life. Vampires will die if they lose enough blood, or sustain an extremely fatal injury such as a severed head, but those events cause their soul casings to weaken considerably, and one of us is always there to finish the job. That’s another reason vampires hate us: we can directly kill them, and we’re allowed to be there if they die by other means. “Speaking of finishing the job, though,” he said, tossing the sac high into the air, “this is my favorite part.” He grasped his right wrist as if to brace it and, fingers extending again, he raised his arm to track the fleshy object as it fell. A thin laser of blue fire burst from his fingertips and seared through it, slicing it cleanly in half, and it disintegrated before it hit the ground. Nevril’s body collapsed, and Aeru leaped to catch her. “Well then,” said Nathan, stepping over to add a finishing mark to his dust drawings. “Seems like we’re done here. Let’s get out of this place.” “But, Nevril!” started Aeru. “Leave her,” Nathan ordered flatly. “But she’s—” “She’s dead.” “You killed her!!” she screamed, charging furiously at him. He caught her arms easily before she had the chance to strike him. “That’s what we do,” he told her as she fought his grip. “Aeru—Aeru!” Nathan locked eyes with her, waiting until she was decently calm again. “That’s what we do.” He released her slowly. “Let her go. She may have been a nice person, but she’d lived past her time, and she had to move on.” Adrian uttered a short, derisive laugh. “Is that what you—?” “No,” Nathan interrupted. “And you will not speak of that subject again unless I allow it. Now let’s get you moving. Alex,” he called over his shoulder as he made for his ally, “gimme a hand with this guy.” “What about the other vampires?” Lucia interjected. “How are we supposed to get rid of them, with only two of us left?” “Don’t worry about that,” said Nathan. “I already cleared them out.” “What?!” “The stuff in the anteroom didn’t take me as long as I expected,” he continued as he and Alex hoisted Adrian to his feet. “So I went back and cleared out the rest of them. There weren’t many,” he reasoned, “and I found the back door to this room in the process, so we can just head out. “Now,” he said, as they started to exit, “what the hell happened to you people?”

[quote name='Gavin][SIZE="1"']Go watch Casino Royale. M's real name apparently begins with the same letter.[/SIZE][/quote] [FONT=Arial]And the first M was actually Sir Miles somethingorother. I got the reference. :p Easy, people.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]Didn't we already have a [URL="http://www.otakuboards.com/showthread.php?t=58504"][COLOR="Blue"]thread about this[/COLOR][/URL]? Or is this a different type of discussion?[/FONT]

[quote name='Gavin'][SIZE="1"]Ah, new chapter and there's apparently a James Bond theme going, does this mean we can call James "J" ? :animesmil[/SIZE][/QUOTE] [FONT=Arial]Dude, that was Men in Black. Get a clue. :animesmil[/FONT]

[CENTER][IMG]http://www.smashbros.com/en_us/characters/images/zelda/zelda_080121b-l.jpg[/IMG] [FONT=Arial][B]Hellz yeah.[/B][/FONT][/CENTER] [FONT=Arial]Also, apparently [URL="http://www.brawlcentral.com/"][COLOR="Blue"]Lucario is confirmed for Brawl[/COLOR][/URL]? What the??[/FONT]

[quote name='Desbreko][color=#4B0082']At the time I did consider that it might just start off slowly. But I had other stuff to watch instead that I knew I'd like and I'm not much a fan of shounen action series in the first place. I may get back to it eventually but at this point there are a couple series in my collection that I'd probably watch over again before that.[/color][/quote] [FONT=Arial]Completely understandable, on all counts. I kinda feel the same way about it, too; if it airs on [as] again, I'll more than likely watch it, but there are other series I'll be purchasing before I get around to adding that one.[/FONT]

[quote name='Neuvoxraiha'][COLOR="DarkOrchid"][FONT="Times New Roman"][i]It felt like a James Bond movie. Without Halle Berry.[/i][/FONT][/COLOR][/quote] [FONT=Arial]Thank the Lord. I disagreed with her initiation into the prestigious club that is the Bond Girls. She's all right, but she does not deserve that pedestal.[/FONT]

[quote name='Desbreko][color=#4B0082']For both I was so bored through the entire first episode that I decided they weren't worth continuing.[/color][/quote] [FONT=Arial]I'm terribly sorry you feel that way. I will immediately agree that s-CRY-ed's first episode is killer on the consciousness, like Mozart, but I stuck with it and it turned out to be not half bad. A plus, I thought, was the intro music [I]Reckless Fire[/I], which had a bit of Latin influence that I enjoyed. Granted, it is heavily shounen, with a lot of things going BOOM for the audience's viewing pleasure, but I liked the general story once it got past the idiotic Native vs. HOLD part and got going. Haven't seen any of Bubblegum Crisis, but I'd recommend giving s-CRY-ed another whirl, at least for ten episodes. (I wanna say five, but I can't remember whether or not the beginning moves [I]á la[/I] DBZ speed. :p) If you still hate it, that's okay. I just think, having seen most of it and all of the end, that it deserves a bit more than a one-episode viewing before a verdict, neh?[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial][strike]Right, so, I'm having a little bit of technical difficulty right now. As soon as I'm able to get you the images I will.[/strike] Fix'd.[/FONT] [QUOTE=Darren]I had a total of 8 sign-ups. There were others who said they'd take a stab at the game, who never signed up at all. Not to mention that 3 of the players that did sign up haven't even submitted their characters to me yet. So, I really don't have much of an option but to postpone The Abyss until I get more sign-ups, because five simpy isn't enough. :animesigh[/QUOTE] [FONT=Arial]I've been working on getting some players in, but one was a definite no and I haven't heard back from the other yet (because of understandable issues). Still, character building doesn't take all that long, guys. (Except every now and then when I have to fight for a name....) Hit up deviantArt, imageshack, Photobucket, or [I]something[/I], grab and crop (or ask somebody to crop), and fill in the data. Take forty-five minutes, if that, to image hunt one day, and create the basics in twenty minutes the next. It's very little involvement, and easy to break up. And really, I spent forty-five minutes image-hunting because I grabbed six or seven images and chose two from there. You don't even have to do that. Let's go, guys. This is a good series, and it doesn't deserve to die. :animesmil[/FONT]

[quote name='Rachmaninoff']I don?t know about statistics, but it seems like cheating is becoming more common period. I honestly wonder if it?s because people are rushing their relationship into the next level before they are truly ready for such a commitment.[/quote] [FONT=Arial]I'm reminded of the French idea of Free Love during the Renaissance, where basically true love could be found only when it was forbidden. ...which, admittedly, is an excuse to fool around with anybody you want to. Not so much people rushing into commitments they're not ready for, then, but people not actually wanting a commitment in the first place. "Love as thou wilt," in the words of the D'Angeline. (Jacqueline Carey. Good author. Bit graphic, though. [COLOR="DarkRed"]Raiha[/COLOR] would like her.)[/FONT]

[quote name='Panache']Ok...because you like pissed on an anime greats work...[/quote] [FONT=Arial]Easy there, man. Just 'cause he spoke his mind don't mean you gotta act like a royal snot about it. :animesmil I don't care for it all that much, myself. I probably would have about a decade ago, but there's so little story to it that I can't see it as anything other than a Saturday morning cartoon. The animation isn't the point there, it's the material. Worst? Of course not. It's not all that great, though. A classic at best.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]I can honestly say that I've never had block that bad. Two weeks was my high mark, but [I]six months[/I] would have driven me up the wall, back down, around all four for maybe seventy laps, and then I might have started knocking things down. Hmm. What to say? Well, a couple of the center paragraphs felt a little thick, especially the one about Inspiration vs Distraction, but offhand I can't really see anything that looks out of whack. Some excellent stream of consciousness going on, though. Bravo. Oh. Wait. You changed tense near the end, except for most of the final paragraph. Easy thing to do; I fought a tense change for half an hour in a recent post because that's how I heard it writing itself, and boy was a sneaky little bugger. Anyway, here it is: [QUOTE][SIZE="1"][COLOR="DimGray"]Distraction is on his way to an all-you-can-eat lard buffet, and he is definitely going to be hopping the lines. It still befuddles the living daylights out of me as to how two intangible abstractions can have eating disorders. That'd be like -               [B]"Johnny!"[/B] My sister [COLOR="Red"]was[/COLOR] standing in my doorway.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/QUOTE] Keep it in present for the entire thing. "My sister [B]is[/B] standing in the doorway," etc., etc. You know what to do. Very nice piece of work. I enjoyed it. [B]Edit:[/B] Oh, and thanks for teaching me how to indent. You have no idea how much I appreciate that.[/FONT]

[quote name='Neuvoxraiha][COLOR="DarkOrchid"][FONT="Times New Roman"]If you boys are finished with your dick waving contest...I believe I have things to do with this thread now.[/FONT'][/COLOR][/quote] [FONT=Arial]But I didn't see anything waving . . . ooohhhh. Right. Of course I didn't. Ah, go for the Virgin Isles, or some such spot in the middle of one of the oceans.[/FONT]

[quote name='Aceburner']Odd. I have not experienced this problem. Does it really need to be unconscious?:shifty:[/quote] [FONT=Arial]Apparently.[/FONT]

[quote name='2008DigitalBoy'][COLOR="DarkOrange"]Allamorph, plz take screenshots![/COLOR][/quote] [quote name='Dagger']I second this request. :animesmil[/quote] [FONT=Arial]Ahahahano. Thanks, [COLOR="DarkRed"]Goodbye[/COLOR]. Your face was very helpful. :animesmil (And you as well, [COLOR="DarkRed"]Desbreko[/COLOR].) Vicky, you can go and hush. )=[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]Okey-doke. This might just be the campus internet here frilling up again (because it's actually that bad), but right now the "Reply" box in each post shows up for me as, ummm. . . . [COLOR="DarkRed"]Raiha[/COLOR]'s avatar. Yeah. Dunno. >_> When I scroll over it, it reverts to the correct image (probably because of the highlight function), but unless I'm over the Reply button itself the two images go all epileptic on me while I'm over the avi's image. So, anybody else having this issue, or is it just me? I want to hope it's just me, but I'm not certain..... [SIZE="1"]halp[/SIZE][/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]Ya, [COLOR="DarkRed"]Sunfall[/COLOR]! Your turn, milady. :animesmil I wanna git this thing done an' tie up all the loose ends so's we can figure where else we wanna go. (Assuming we still all want to go somewhere afterwards. I'm up for burgers.) I also really want to get at my next post, but I have to wait 'til you guys finish off ole' mistah vampire so I know how to lead into it. So, I wouldn't be all pushy and what except that I can't actually write anything yet. :p[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]Depends on what's available at the time. Sometimes I go salty, sometimes sweet, blah blah blah. My preferences right now are much more specific, and I am very happy if I can get at them. I am becoming extremely fond of fruit yogurt of late, and a robust meaty chili has kept me sated for several hours at times. I also have a weak spot for chocolate with raisins. I prefer dark chocolate; in fact, I am almost unable to stand milk chocolate anymore, what since I have drifted to the 60% cacao side of the spectrum. Hershey's Special Dark is only 45%, I think, but I have had 85% before, and that stuff'll knock your socks off. Literally. It's like solid coffee substitute. Woof. Also, pepperonis, cheddar cheese, and either Ritz or Town House crackers are amazing. :D[/FONT]

[QUOTE=Dagger]Oh my gosh, don't get me started on publishing categories. :p Disclaimer: it's entirely possible that I see problems with book/anime classification *because* I'm deeply into both of them. Might not be an issue at all for most people. :animeshy:[/QUOTE] [FONT=Arial]Heh. :animesmil [QUOTE][I]It sounds like you're suggesting that we divide things not by sales categories (no complaints there) but rather by "genres" like action-adventure, drama-romance... is that what you mean? I guess I feel like too many shows offer a little bit of everything; sure, we can talk about the same show's crazy mecha battles in one place and its stupid comedy somewhere else, but that seems kind of self-defeating.[/I][/QUOTE] Pretty much, yeah I was. And yeah, I know shows have elements of everything hodge-podged together, 'cause books are the same way, but that's why I said to group them by their [I]predominant[/I] element. I hardly think Gundam would fall under Comedy, even though it may have comedic moments, just as I hardly think Fruits Basket would fall under Science Fiction, even though there is the Zodiac angle tied securely into the series. And even then, one could still start a discussion about the use of comedic effect in Gundam while keeping it in that anime's forum, simply because the thread is about Gundam. What I meant by cross-foruming was more incidental mention in another, less anime-specific thread (like in General Discussion, perhaps). [QUOTE][I]Anyway, time periods might not have been the best way of putting it. Maybe unlicensed vs. licensed (in the US, for lack of a neater barometer) would be a clearer way of getting across what I meant. It would have essentially the same effect, since most unlicensed shows (that people would tend to discuss, anyway) are new, and most shows get licensed after they finish airing or even later. Basically, it would give show discussions a chance to start fresh in a different forum when an anime starts airing/getting released outside of Japan. That might be more friendly for people who are experiencing the show for the first time that way (instead of being faced with already-established threads full of comments about the fansubs or whatnot). [/I][/QUOTE] Aye, that makes sense, but then you're faced with a continually resupplied New/Unlicensed forum and an ever-growing Licensed forum, which I feel would quickly reach the same essential state as AC is right now. Sure, discussion is fomented for newer stuff, but the older shows still end up buried. [QUOTE][I]I'm not strongly attached to that concept or any other, though--just wanted to explain myself properly. ~Dagger~[/I][/QUOTE] And I'm just trying to make sure we're both on the same page about what I'm thinking, while making certain what I'm thinking works and doesn't get too complicated, since apparently I have that tendency. :p If it is decided that my proposed solution is not viable, then I will certainly not take offense. But I'm blithering, so I think I'd better shut up for a while. :p [B]Edit:[/B] Frick. Sorry. :p [QUOTE=James][font=franklin gothic medium]One option would be to start migrating franchises. So for argument's sake, let's say the most popular anime on OB right now was Gundam. What you'd do is create a Gundam forum, but all other anime would be relegated to Anime Lounge. Then as the site grows and as interest grows, you migrate [i]another[/i] franchise across to its own forum. And so on.[/font][/QUOTE] So what would happen as a franchise lost popularity? Would that basically mean a semi-constant forum rotation? I don't know; seems kind of ... meh, to me. I can't really put it into real words, though. -A[/FONT]

[quote name='Ravenstorture][color=darkgreen][font=garamond]Oh wait, I forgot - We didn't do Heart Of Darkness, we did Wuthering Heights. Which I still feel like was an extremely painful waste of time. [/font'][/color][/quote] [FONT=Arial]Did that one, too. Same class, matter of fact. :p Eh, same thing as with Achebe there, I think. Interesting story, but far, [I]far[/I] too Victorian for my tastes. I loathed every minute I spent in Dickens (yes, I know he's a different author), simply because he used [I]too many damn words.[/I] Hooray for having a vocabulary; there's no need to flaunt it. [spoiler]I wonder if Mitch would've like Dickens if they'd met....[/spoiler][/FONT]

[quote name='Dagger']It's a great idea in itself; the problem is that genre is an incredibly gnarly issue when it comes to anime. You can apply American film/TV genres to anime (which works, albeit only to a certain extent), or you can go by the Japanese demographic categories (shounen, shoujo, etc., which end up feeling sort of meaningless because the only thing separating them is marketing, and each group encompasses examples of every imaginable genre), or you can go by generally recognized genres like magical girl and mecha and so forth, but that leaves a lot of less easily defined shows without an anchor.[/quote] [FONT=Arial]True, but then that's assuming that we'd be basically assigning each individual anime a specific forum, which seems kind of silly. :p Obviously any show with multiple classifications should be allowed to be discussed if they are relevant to a given topic, no? Also, if we did this (bear with me; I know you suggested something else ^_^ ), we'd be lumping more than a single genre into a given forum, right? I think having a forum dedicated solely to, say, shounen-ai would be a bit too far for the moment, considering. Basically what I was thinking was that if an anime wants discussion, then it could this way have a place to accommodate discussion without being lost so much in the other stuff. It might then be slightly more acceptable to have separate threads for, say, Eureka 7 in general and Eureka 7's characters, or sommat like that. Time-wise separation might work, but then we'd run the problem of having to define time periods for anime. Categorization doesn't seem as problematic for me, speaking from a literary standpoint, since the easiest thing to do would be to take the most [I]predominant[/I] theme and use that for classification?again, lumping several types together in the same forum. Surely if one can classify a novel, one can classify an anime series, especially since we have multiple labels in both languages already. But yeah. Point is, maybe not anime-specific forums, but at least more focused ones.[/FONT]

[quote name='Dagger'] With our current active membership, I cannot think of a single anime franchise that would be able to sustain its own sub-forum.[/quote] [FONT=Arial]What about sub-forums for different genres? Group certain anime together so that it's not so much a mash-up, but there's still a level of cohesiveness present. Certainly there isn't enough discussion to merit individual forums for shows by themselves, but perhaps some members do not post there because there's simply too much that the forum contains. If the concentration could be slightly more focused, perhaps there might be more activity from those people who don't particularly want to have to search through so many old threads to avoid repeats. [COLOR="DarkRed"]Dagger[/COLOR], you're gonna have to help me out on the different anime/manga classifications (what since I don't exactly commit them to memory), but we could have two to four (however many works) subs devoted to different styles; one for new releases (or maybe a sticky for that discussion); and one for Classic Anime, like Big O and such.[/FONT]

[QUOTE=Lunox][font="trebuchet ms"] ... I'd have to disagree completely, lol. From what I've gathered, Conrad was a man of his times and never fully escaped that. Seeing as how the novel was written from his own experiences, and in the end the most significant reason for his being "anti-imperialist" was because if whites went to Africa they would all go crazy and become animals just like the Africans (despite Marlow's limited sympathy for the tortured slaves and disdain for the "pilgrims"...in the end, it was largely racist to me). Same thing happened to Carl Jung when he visited Africa (hence the 'shadow', I think), which just makes Conrad's racism more believable. Though I sort of respect Conrad for overcoming a lot of his prejudice, I'm an Achebe-supporter all the way. But to each his own... neither of our viewpoints can be really "proved", since none of us really know the guy, lol. :) [spoiler]Some of my personal dislike for the novel could be because we had to write a 10 page research paper on it...[/spoiler] [/font][/QUOTE] [FONT=Arial][spoiler]That could be a part of it. (^_^)[/spoiler] Incidentally, though I have known of both Conrad and Achebe for quite some time, I was not aware that the two were at odds until just recently. Also read [I][U]Things Fall Apart[/U][/I], and found it to be too easy to skim/skip while reading it. I liked the general story, but I think it was Achebe's presentation or style that distanced me. Anyway, you said that Conrad was a man of his times. I said that he wrote from that mentality. From where I stand, those statements are not incompatible. :p And again, I saw the racism present, but I also saw the attitude regarding it as just "another fact of life". I suppose that that's why I was able to see past it so easily: the characters (and mayhap even the author) were so indoctrinated with that idea that they acted on it naturally. They didn't believe it was wrong?no one did that had a voice at the time?and so they were considerably more open about it. [spoiler]Besides the fact that they were British, of course. :P[/spoiler] Anyway, I'm not attempting to rationalize the attitude. I'm just presenting what I see through their eyes.[/FONT]

[quote name='Lunox][font="trebuchet ms"] I would just like to say, [u]Heart of Darkness[/u'] sucks and I don't understand why teachers are still obsessed with it. Personally I couldn't get over the rampant racism.[/font][/quote] [FONT=Arial]The racism was solidly hammered into the English culture at the time. In fact, there was even a supposed hierarchy of race, which consisted of four "classifications" and presumed (stress [I]presumed[/I]) to place the Caucasian at the pinnacle. White Englishmen really viewed the Negro race as barbaric and almost sub-human?which of course completely rationalized the Trans-Atlantic slave trade for them. Conrad wrote from this viewpoint. I find nothing offensive about his book in that regard. It is a window to the minds of racists, really; if I were to write a book based in colonial South Carolina, it would have to be rife with more of the same. I do not agree with such a view?in fact, nothing incenses me quite as much as open racism, on either side of the skin spectrum?but I do not hate Conrad for writing it. (If he had been [I]advocating[/I] racism, that would be another matter entirely.) On a completely unrelated note, Conrad also taught me how to use dashes. :p[/FONT]