Gavin

[SIZE="1"]To try and lighten the mood in this thread a little...[/SIZE] [quote name='Sandy']Education is the base of civilization, and that goes for sex as well.[/QUOTE] [SIZE="1"]Sex is the base of civilisation ?[/SIZE]

[quote name='Shy'][size=1]Does this mean you're okay with "LadyBoys of London?" And yes, this is something I'm genuinely interested in knowing. PS: If any doesn't know what a "LadyBoy" is, please don't Google it. The results are gross. -Shy[/size][/QUOTE] [SIZE="1"]Quick, someone edit out the "don't" and the last sentence. The reactions to that will be priceless. :p[/SIZE]

[quote name='Dbzman26'][FONT="Garamond"][SIZE="2"][spoiler]Anyway's, chapter 366 was awesome, to say the least. It wasn't so much the bout between Naruto and Itachi that did it for me though. It was rather the confrontation of Sasuke and Itachi again. Although I actually can't bring myself to believing it, it just seems to me that this isn't quite what it looks like. What do you guys think?[/spoiler][/SIZE][/FONT][/QUOTE] [SIZE="1"][spoiler]Just read the translated version yesterday and I'm really excited to see where this one is going. Even though Sasuke is powerful, I have to wonder is he strong enough to take Itachi on his own ? My gut says no. It was cool to see Jiraiya and Tsunade talk about Orochimaru, even after all he did they seem to not only have forgiven him but also mourn his death. One wonders if the same fate will befall Team 7. I'm also curious to know what it was Itachi wanted to talk to Naruto about. He seemed pretty insistent.[/spoiler][/SIZE]

[quote name='The Blue Jihad']I know I'd off Gavin, whether he wanted me to or not. Euthanasia ftw[/QUOTE] [SIZE="1"]And here I always expected you to turn up as the Reaper Alex...[/SIZE]

[SIZE="1"]Patting some of the smoke out of his robes, Alexander glanced at Zeta, as his feet touched the ground. She met his gaze for a moment before lowering it, in an almost embarrassed manner. After she had warned the students of the utter necessity of care when it came to dealing with these creatures, they began to disperse from the stands still chatting among themselves on either how cool it would be to be able to summon a creature of that power, or how both professors had warped them to their wills. After a few minutes the two professors were left as they had been an hour or so before, completely alone. Alexander took the opportunity to give Zeta's shoulder an encouraging squeeze. "[b]Don't worry about it. You were just doing what you would have as an Auror.[/b]" She smiled back at him, nodding her head. ?[b]Can I ask you something Alexander ?[/b]? His eyebrows raised slightly. ?[b]About the parchment ?[/b]?Her colleague nodded slowly. He sighed for a moment for nodding himself. ?[b]Why ?[/b]? Alexander frowned at the thought behind the question. ?[b]Because I choose to.[/b]? Moving off, Alexander knew he?d be a few minutes late to deal with his first class, but it wouldn?t really matter. They?d all still be ready to bombard him about summoning magic, and he?d respond by telling them to wait for the next Duelling Club meeting. Internally he was still in turmoil over what he?d revealed to Professor Conroy, the fact that she was an ex-Auror had made it a difficult decision but she was the only person who?d be able to do what he requested, for a moment he wished that Severus was still alive. The class settled much as he?d expected, Professor Corvidae?s students went silent the moment he entered the class, after he?d transfigured a particularly talkative student into a mouse for a day as punishment. Professor McGonagall hadn?t been impressed but hadn?t found out until the following day. He sat down in the large leather chair behind his desk, and watched as the first hand shot into the air. ?[b]Yes ?[/b]? ||||| I?ll let whoever wants to continue this do so.[/SIZE]

[SIZE="1"]I apologise if my last post was a little harsh, but honestly this topic is very close to home for me. Cancer is the biggest killer in my family, and I've spent a lot of time by a bedside watching someone I've known my entire life fade away because of something that is literally eating them from within. I didn't mean to infer that anyone else had a lesser understanding of it than I did, I was simply trying to say that until we are in that situation of being terminally ill, that we don't have the right to say whether or not is it right of wrong. In regard to arguing this from or against a religious point I view, I was probably unclear about that. What I simply meant was that people's views on assisted suicide should be treated equally regardless of where they come from, and that there was no black and white answer to it. I know that people have been rational and polite in regard to this, and probably I was just expecting it to go like other threads were religion collides with atheism over whether or not religious belief has any place in an argument and we end up with a lot of bad blood on both sides. And Chibi, don't worry about it, I worked on a hospital myself for a while, so I know exactly what you're talking about.[/SIZE]

[quote name='Lethargy'][SIZE=1][COLOR=DarkGreen]Does this happen to anyone else here: I get very congested and stuffed-up during the allergy season, especially when I lie down. I generally sleep on my side, and in doing so, all the fluids in my sinuses and nasal cavities migrates toward the side that I'm sleeping on. Therefore, when I sleep on my right side, I can't breathe out of my right nostril, and vice versa. Nothing is more frustrating than only being able to breathe at 50% capacity.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/QUOTE] [SIZE="1"]Yep, happens to me every time I get a cold or a dose of hayfever, I don't think it's an uncommon thing though.[/SIZE]

[SIZE="1"]Guys, can we please stop this argument where those who don't believe religious belief is a valid argument for disagreeing with assisted suicide, we get into this in any thread where religious beliefs form one side of an argument. No they can't prove God exists, that's why it's called [I]faith[/I] or [I]belief[/I], but that doesn't make it any less reasonable to them than it is to you. By the same token, Lethargy there is absolutely no point in saying something extreme like "So since you don't believe in a higher power, killing people is okay then, right?", because it isn't something that simple. Nothing in life is black and white, everything is a shade of grey and you can only work from there. All of you who haven't should go visit an terminal cancer ward some time and ask the people there they're opinion of it. Because right at this moment, not one of us has the right to give an opinion on this subject.[/SIZE]

[quote name='Desbreko'][color=#4B0082]I'm not better than the rest of you because I'm an admin. I'm an admin because I'm better than the rest of you. :smirk:[/color][/QUOTE] [SIZE="1"]...Well that's me beaten then... [/SIZE]

[SIZE="1"]Teach it at the same time you give hetero sex-ed, problem solved. Whatever a person's feelings on homosexuality are, it's never better to be ignorant about something, as ignorance as we've seen so often breeds prejudice. And prejudice leads to many, many horrible things. Maybe we should have that thread on what age kids learn sex-ed at, because honestly I think at ten, they are a bit young.[/SIZE]

[SIZE="1"]You brought up Chuck Norris Allamorph, now live with the consequences. [list][*][FONT="Verdana"][SIZE="1"]Chuck Norris doesn?t wear a watch, HE decides what time it is.[/SIZE][/FONT] [*][FONT="Verdana"][SIZE="1"]Chuck Norris gave Mona Lisa that smile.[/SIZE][/FONT] [*][FONT="Verdana"][SIZE="1"]Chuck Norris is so fast, he can run around the world and punch himself in the back of the head.[/SIZE][/FONT] [*][FONT="Verdana"][SIZE="1"]Chuck Norris CAN believe it's not butter[/SIZE][/FONT][/list] More will come.[/SIZE]

[SIZE="1"]I worked as an assistant to the supervisor in my local high school for the state exams this year, which basically involved me doing four things: [list][*][size=1][font=verdana]Sitting on my *** reading/doing nothing.[/size][/font] [*][size=1][font=verdana]Logging out people when they finished exams early.[/size][/font] [*][size=1][font=verdana]Taking messages to other supervisors.[/size][/font] [*][size=1][font=verdana]Bringing the supervisor her lunch or tea.[/size][/font][/list] Made nearly ?300 for two weeks "work", as honestly, I couldn't even call what it that for what I did.[/SIZE]

[quote name='SunfallE'][COLOR="goldenrod"][FONT="Comic Sans MS"]Rach just laughed, ?[B]Yup, it?s full of rabid fan girls.[/B]? [/FONT][/COLOR][/QUOTE] [SIZE="1"]I can taste the irony, and I have to say, it tastes good. ;) I really enjoyed the story SunfallE and as weird as this sounds, I hope you dream about OB more often, just so you can supply us with a few more cool stories.[/SIZE]

[SIZE="1"]James pretty much summed up all my thoughts on the subject, this can't be called a "conspiracy" when it's simply likely that the developers or publishers are busy with other projects when many developers are responsible for many different projects, like Ubisoft for instance.[/SIZE]

[quote name='Desbreko'][color=#4B0082]Heh, sorry for not mentioning this earlier. I completely overlooked the fact that members would be able to use this too because I'm used to thinking they can't edit the titles in the thread listing. :p[/color][/QUOTE] [SIZE="1"]Aha ! Finally definitive proof that Des [strike]knows[/strike] thinks he's better than the rest of us because he's an Admin. [CENTER][IMG]http://home.earthlink.net/~zolanhunter/images/BanHim.jpg[/IMG][/CENTER][/SIZE]

[SIZE="1"]Assisted suicide is always one of those topics that has too much personal belief invested into it to ever come out with a definitively "right" answer. I'm personally against the practice because as Lethargy summed up rather accurately, I don't believe it is my place to decide when I die, as it goes against my beliefs like CHW. On the other hand however, I can perfectly understand how someone would feel if they were forced to watch one of their loved ones waste away from something like terminal cancer, and the belief that it is right and good to free them from this unnecessary pain at their request. I brought up terminal cancer due to the fact that I saw my uncle die from it a few years ago, though thankfully he did not suffer before he died. In the end, it's up to people themselves to judge the right and wrong of it, and I don't think anyone has the right to try and change someone else's mind over it.[/SIZE]

[SIZE="1"]A man walks into a bar with a duck on his head. The barman looks at him for a few seconds with a confused look on his face before finally say "[B]Derek I swear there's something different about you today.[/B]" A moment later the duck responds "[B]Jerry, you wouldn't believe me if I told you.[/B]" Got this one in an email a last year. Title is "[b]Understanding Women[/b]" A man walking along a California beach was deep in thought and prayer. All of a sudden he said out loud: "[B]Lord, grant me one wish.[/B]" Suddenly the sky clouded over above his head, and in a booming voice the Lord said "[B]Because you have tried to be faithful to me in all ways, I will grant you one wish[/B]"; The man thought and said "[B]Build a bridge to Hawaii so I can drive over anytime I want[/B]" The Lord said "[B]Your request is very materialistic. Think of the logistics of that kind of undertaking. The supports required to reach the bottom of the Pacific! The concrete and steel it would take! I can do it, but it is hard for me to justify your desire for worldly things. Take a little time and think of another wish, a wish you think would honor and glorify me.[/B]" The man thought about it for a long time. Finally he said "[B]Lord, I wish that I could understand women. I want to know how they feel inside, what they are thinking when they give me the silent treatment, why they cry, what they mean when they say 'nothing,' and how I can make a woman truly happy.[/B]" After a few minutes God said "[B]You want two or four lanes on that bridge?[/B]" [/SIZE] [quote name='Premonition'][COLOR="DarkSlateGray"]And one of my favorite jokes: Children in backseats cause accidents. Accidents in backseats cause children.[/COLOR][/QUOTE] [SIZE="1"]That is the funniest thing I've read in ages.[/SIZE]

[SIZE="1"]At this stage I'm pretty sure [B]Pokémon[/b] is the gaming equivalent of crack, because no matter how hard I try to wean myself off the series, I just keep coming back for more. I've played one of every game since the originals and honestly, I reckon I'll still be playing them the series after Diamond and Pearl. The [B]Command & Conquer[/B] and [B]Age of Empires[/B] series would be another group of games I still play, though I don't think the latest C&C game really lives up to the likes of Red Alert 2 or Tiberium Sun both of which I really enjoyed. AoE on the other hand has always been a really solid RTS series but is perhaps getting a bit repetitive in it's set up. [b]KOTOR[/b] and [b]KOTOR 2[/b] I still play fairly regularly, though the latter more so than the former because I downloaded some new mod content recently and tried to get through the game as quickly as possible to get at it. Currently getting back into [B]Legend of Zelda[/B] by replaying [B]Ocarina of Time[/B] as part of the Collectors Edition but as per usual I'm stuck in the Water Temple with no idea where to go. Little help please Des, given you're practically Link incarnate.[/SIZE]

[SIZE="1"]"[b]Optimus Prime arrested by NYPD for DWI!![/b]" "[B]Jesus sues Dan Brown for slander!![/b]" "[b]Devil in paternity row with Oprah Winfrey!![/b]"[/SIZE]

[SIZE="1"]Until last year in Tasmania, I never knew I was allergic to anything, then at a fateful dinner thrown by a friend of my aunt which I was invited to I was given shellfish for the first time. The result after one tiny little fork of it was that my lips and throat swelled up badly and I got fever, had to spent the next four hours drinking water continuously and struggling to swallow. As a result, I'm not to keen on seafood any more Get mild enough hay-fever too in the summer, but all my family seems to suffer from it. Just usually manifests as a lot of sneezing.[/SIZE]

[quote name='Blayze'][FONT=Lucida Sans Unicode]I've just written a response for you, Jamie. As you can see, Alastor is not a fan of the Summoning magic - I guess that's what comes of having a father who was once deep in the Ministry: you get a little paranoid.[/FONT][/QUOTE] [SIZE="1"]An interesting take on the whole thing Phil. Given it hasn't been used regularly in so long, I'd forgotten some people might be uncomfortable around it. I'm really curious to see where you go with it.[/SIZE]

[SIZE="1"][B]Action Man[/B] was a big one between myself and my brother, we had a lot of fun with those figures when we were kids, even if the special ones, like Parachute Action Man didn't happen to parachute when you threw him out of a two-story window. I distinctly remember having to rescue our sister's Barbies as a crack Ranger team when they were kidnapped by Dr. X. Good times. The other big thing between us was [b]Lego[/b], off hand I would have no idea how much we spent on it over the years but we had three big containers of it which we invariably spilled out all over a blanket and spent an entire days just building stuff and having fun. Pirate Lego was the really popular one, and we had some pretty violent adventures, which for some reason I always lost... Good thread Rach, brings back a lot of good memories.[/SIZE]

[SIZE="1"]I tend to agree with Jamie, simply being able to detach your MyO profile from your OB profile seems like the best solution, given it does look rather unsightly and most people haven't used their MyO's seriously in months or years. James's idea of replacing them with images is actually interesting though, I'd like to see what that would look like too.[/SIZE]

[quote name='Sandy]That was [I]so[/I'] non-canon that I didn't know whether we had suddenly transferred to a Final Fantasy RPG or one about Pokémon. XP[/quote] [SIZE="1"]Who are you and what have you done with Sandy if you're complaining that I've mixed Final Fantasy with Harry Potter ? :p[/SIZE] [quote name='Sandy']It was a great scene, just... not very "Harry Potter"-like. Even the casting of the spell was totally different (though I assume they uttered the magic words silently).[/quote] [SIZE="1"]It was such a pain in the ass to write though, as I didn't think summoning a guardian was the same as just summoning a patronus as they're two very different types of magic. So I tried to create something that took elements from both, as well as Naruto, which I mention in Darren's quote was the real influence for this. I'm still not particularly happy with the spell itself, I think it's a very visual thing and honestly I may change it to something simpler. There aren't any words for the summoning, it's all in the head and the hands if you take my meaning, the wand movement is the most important part. Basically the wand movements "unlock" each of the twelve "gates" that prevent a guardian from just appearing in the normal human realm, after which the guardian is able to come through to the aid of their Summoner. Because it?s very different from summoning a patronus, which is essentially a personification of the good inside someone, I felt that the guardian would need a much more complex and difficult spell to call it.[/SIZE] [quote=Sandy]Anyway, I really truly hope that everybody wouldn't suddenly become Summoners as well. There are already enough Animagi to fill the quota of the generation (the power is supposed to be extra-rare...). ;P But I'm just nitpicking here, it's good that you and Zeke are brave enough to add something original (or in this case, borrowed) to the series. ;D[/quote] [SIZE="1"]Well that depends now, as I said, summoning a guardian the level Alexander, Zeta and Neville can call on takes decades of practice and work. Chances are most people seeing as they've had no training aren't going to be able to call on anything it all. And even if they do, it's not going to be impressive, think a little tiny snake as opposed to a Basilisk. And thanks for the support Sandy, our borrowing will hopefully make it more interesting.[/SIZE] [quote name='Sandy']PS. Oh, and the fire genie is actually called [I]efreet[/I], the name Ifrit is almost only used in FF.[/QUOTE] [SIZE="1"]I know, I actually couldn't decide what Alexander's summon was going to be, I was split evenly between a Griffin and Ifrit from FFX and in the end, I chose Ifrit. Which I why I use that spelling.[/SIZE] [quote name='Darren']The first thing I thought of when I read the summoning bit was of Naruto...[/QUOTE] [SIZE="1"]Yeah, that was probably the biggest influence as I'd just watched one of Gamabunta's episodes again recently.[/SIZE] [quote name='Darren']And actually, Animagi are not as rare as you think. There's a complicated spell to perform, but other than that, there's nothing preventing a wizard from becoming and animagi. In the HP series we see Rita Skeeter, Minerva Macgonagall, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, and James Potter as Animagi. There may have even been more that I'm forgetting.[/QUOTE] [SIZE="1"]Actually Sandy is right, there were only seven registered Animagus in the 20th century, though I suspect there were many more who either weren't registered or who's nature the Ministry itself kept secret like Aurors. That said, it doesn't seem to be a particularly difficult ability to master with a few years of practice.[/SIZE]

[quote name='Semjaza']With the current format they'd just be completely meshed together. It's extremely difficult to jump into existing conversations that are going anywhere unless you were part of it from the onset because at any given time all of these points (and more) are being addressed in one singular place. It very much makes me wonder whether or not many people avoid posting entirely over this.[/QUOTE] [SIZE="1"]That's pretty much exactly what I was getting at, with some franchise threads you end up with quite a few different discussions going on at the same time and as you said Tony, unless you've been in the thread since the start it can really get confusing. As I recall though, didn't we centralise the forums to try and encourage posting the last time ? It seems odd we'd revert them for the same reason.[/SIZE]