Gavin

[LEFT][FONT=Verdana][COLOR=Black][size=1][b]Name:[/b] Alexander Corvidae [b]Gender:[/b] Male [b]Age:[/b] 43 [b]Staff Position:[/b] Defence Against the Dark Arts [b]House:[/b] Incumbent head of Ravenclaw [b]Wand:[/b] Rowan, 14 inches, Vampire hair core. [b]Appearance:[/b] As seen [url=http://www.geocities.com/orkney5/toptable.jpg][B]here[/B][/url]. Voice as heard [url=http://www.michaelwincott.org/Wavs/Rochcorp.wav][B]here[/B][/url]. Tall, thin and pale. These are the three most common words to describe Alexander physically, indeed had he picked up the habit of wearing black one might have question as to whether there was any blood relation between himself and Severus Snape, though the former undertakes a rigorous, near fervent regimen towards his personal hygiene. Alexander's attire, as seen [url=http://fc04.deviantart.com/fs13/f/2007/075/4/5/Voles_II_by_ionen.jpg][B]here[/B][/URL] (Credit to [url=http://ionen.deviantart.com/]Ionen[/url]), reflects his status as coming from an old and respected pureblood family. Generally his wand is hidden just up his right sleeve for easy access. One of the first registered animagus of the 21st century, Alexander's animal form is the raven, which is of little surprise. [b]Personality:[/b] Though only entering his fourth year of teaching in Hogwarts, Alexander is generally perceived as being stern and unappeasable to all but members his own House and those who are capable of scoring in the top percentile of his class, the fact these two groups are generally one in the same is little surprising. However that said, Alexander has never given his own House any preferential treatment or marks, indeed many Ravenclaws will bemoan him as an even stricter taskmaster to them than he is to other Houses. In reality, Alexander merely wishes to provide students with as broad ranging and thorough an education he can provide to make them strong wizards. His unappeasable nature is linked to this, but also in the fact that the professor epitomises the emphasised characteristics of the House, having an abnormally high intelligence as well as a near photographic memory which effectively made his schoolboy days at Hogwarts an easy affair. To those who manage to break through Alexander?s brusque demeanour, though this is not often, will find him to be a man of great wisdom and surprising humour. [b]Bio:[/b] "[B]I'm not interested Minerva and that's final.[/B]" Alexander returned the book he'd been scanning through to it's proper space in the bookcase and returned to his seat in front of the recently retired Hogwarts headmistress. ?[B]Alexander.[/B]? He hated it when she used that tone with him, it was half demanding, half pleading and reminded him far too much of his days at school. He sighed, steepling his fingers in front of his face. ?[B]Let?s just say for arguments sake I actually seriously consider your offer, I?m not trained to teach.[/B]? Alexander spotted the change in expression on his old teacher?s face, she?d realised he?s intentionally used the word trained as opposed to qualified. He was certainly qualified to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts, he simply had to intention to give up his travelling in order to do it, even if it was Hogwarts. Hogwarts, his mind slipped back to his first day there. How even for the so called purity of his blood, he?d still been as scared and confused as any of the Muggle born kids. Hard to believe it was thirty-three years ago, but then it seemed only yesterday that he?d gotten his NEWTS and left to pursue his study of the arcane... mostly he just wanted to get away from England, get away from his family and their much overvalued legacy. Alexander had spent nearly a quarter of a century of his life in that endeavour and returned a much more realistic, even pessimistic man than he had when he?d left. ?[B]I know you wrote to Albus as a lot over the course of your trip. I imagine you felt it was easier to talk to him than it was to talk to your father.[/B]? His jaw clenched, instantly Professor McGonagall realised she?d said exactly the wrong thing. ?[B]My correspondence with Professor Dumbledore, rest his soul, had to do with my studies and nothing more.[/B]? Alexander?s response had been perilously close to outright rage. He rose from his seat with every intention of showing his old teacher to the front door of the castle. He watched as she removed a sealed letter from his cloak, the seal in the wax was Hogwarts, but the writing which he recognised immediately belonged to someone who?d been dead for two decades. Tentatively he reached out and took it. ?[B]I think he?d have wanted you to have it. He wrote it shortly before he died, along with dozens of other letters and left them in my keeping. I?m sorry for troubling you Alexander. I?ll let you get back to preparing for Mexico.[/B]? Gathering her cloak into her arms, Minerva McGonagall walked silently towards the hall door. Alexander?s eyes sped over the contents of the letter, his hand holding it dropped to his side after a moment. He moved forward and blocked her passage through the doorway with his free hand. ?[B]...Wait, Minerva. I?ll take the job on one condition.[/B]? ?[B]Name it.[/B]? Her voice was a surprised, but sincere. ?[B]Make me House head of Ravenclaw. I know Professor Flitwick retired recently and that it?s available.[/B]? Professor McGongall?s eyes narrowed in an almost predatory fashion. ?[B]Why would you want that ? As I recall Alexander you turned down being a prefect because responsibility did not suit you.[/B]? That stung, but it was a fair point. ?[B]Let?s just say a I?m operating on some very sound advice.[/B]? He brought the letter up between them. The professor merely smiled and exited the room with a pop. He reread the letter again, more carefully this time. He?d respected Dumbledore immensely as a wizard, but far more as a man. Alexander had been lying when he said there?d been nothing personal in what he wrote to Dumbledore as a young man, indeed it had been mostly personal, not that he?d admit it to anyone. Alexander shut his eyes and allowed his mind to wander back on his old memories, while he tried to figure out how he?d teach a subject as important and complicated as Defence Against the Dark Arts.[/LEFT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]

[quote name='Sandy']I'm confused... What does the phrase "getting on a bit" mean, then?[/QUOTE] [SIZE="1"]Getting old Sandy. Anyway, I've made enough off-topic posts for one thread. Sorry Lionheart.[/SIZE]

[quote name='Sandy']I disagree. Dumbledore lived for hundreds of years, [spoiler]why couldn't McGonagall be the same? Rowling hints that she became the headmistress of Hogwarts after Snape's short term, and having her in this game would be great. But ultimately it's Lionheart's choice, we're not exactly going with canon material here. ;P[/spoiler][/QUOTE] [size=1]True enough, [spoiler]but according to [url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19959323/][B]this article[/B][/url] and Rowling herself, McGonagall isn't headmistress of future Hogwarts. And I still imagine many of the older teachers would have retired after the final battle, let the next generation pick up the slack so to speak.[/spoiler] But you're right it is of course Lionheart's choice in the end.[/size]

[SIZE="1"]Wow, TV sensationalism has really reached a new low with this one hasn't it ? On a side note, I don't know what this guy did for a living, but his sister will not get $105 million out of NBC for being the cause of his death, which is going to be hard to prove in and of itself. Anyone who says this guy got what he deserved for preying on kids, as disgusting and abhorrent as that is, reread the article a little more carefully.[/SIZE] [QUOTE]NBC was about to confront Mr Conradt with evidence that he had took part in a sexually explicit online chat with an adult posing as a 13-year-old boy. [/QUOTE] [SIZE="1"]Paedophiles are sick, sick people, both in a literal and mental sense who need psychiatric help as much as locking up. But this show is exactly as Crystia put it, sensationalist garbage designed to get ratings. Police have hard enough jobs dealing with these people already without the media creating witch hunts designed to evoke mob-creation from the audience. Leave the police do their ****ing jobs people, that's what we pay them for.[/SIZE] [QUOTE]According to the lawsuit, a police officer at the scene of the shooting told a Dateline NBC producer: ?That?ll make good TV". [/QUOTE] [SIZE="1"]Worst. Choice. Of. Words. Ever.[/SIZE]

[quote name='Sandy']One specification, please: twenty years after the events of Deathly Hallows, or twenty years after the epilogue [spoiler](that takes place 19 years after the fight with Voldemort, and includes the main heroes' children attending Hogwarts).[/spoiler] It would be great to include the stuff from the epilogue [spoiler](such as Neville being the Herbology teacher)[/spoiler], but everybody would have to read the book first (or spoil themselves) to know what happened in it.[/QUOTE] [SIZE="1"]I imagine he meant twenty years after the events of Deathly Hallows as opposed to the epilogue, which would set it somewhere around 2018 as opposed to 2037 otherwise, though for all bar Muggles I doubt it would make much difference. As for staff [spoiler]McGonagall is gone as well apparently by that stage, I'd imagine Flitwick would probably have retired too, unless he's become like Prof Binns. Actually by this stage Neville is the only known member of Hogwarts staff.[/spoiler] [/SIZE]

[size=1]Seems my answers still fit. I'm just going to reorder it slightly. [LIST=1][*][font=verdana][size=1]Son Goku [Dragonball][/size][/font] [*][font=verdana][size=1]Naruto [Naruto][/size][/font] [*][font=verdana][size=1]Sasuke [Naruto][/size][/font] [*][font=verdana][size=1]Ash[Pokémon][/size][/font] [*][font=verdana][size=1]Pan [DBGT][/size][/font][/list][/size]

[quote name='Rachmaninoff']After all until I found this place I had never even heard of it. I've since learned what it means but again, that doesn't really apply here. lol Seriously the only thing I think of when I hear the word Otaku is theOtaku.com myOtaku.com and OtakuBoards, all three simply being a site for anime fans and a whole lot more. [/QUOTE] [SIZE="1"]Same here, I'd assumed the word meant some sort of anime fan but I didn't actually know the exact context until I looked it up a few years ago. Actually it was Otacon from Metal Gear Solid that I first heard the word and a kind of half-meaning.[/SIZE]

[SIZE="1"]Suppose reading would be my biggest hobby, spent a good deal of my childhood in my room just engrossed in library books, mostly sci-fi, a lot of the early Bantam-era Star Wars stuff which is pretty hard to get your hands on nowadays. Still a major hobby, though given my work loads from school, I don't really read as often for pleasure any more. Most recent book I read was mostly just to find out what happened at the end of the series rather than wanting to read it. That said, if I do get a good book, I really do enjoy it. Writing is another big one, don't get much of an opportunity during the school year as there's nothing like four hours of homework and study a night to annihilate the creative process. Movies and games would be the other main hobbies, they're pretty similar, sit in front of a TV for a couple of hours and stare vapidly at what's going on while either pushing buttons or eating popcorn, or both at the same time. I love going to the cinema though, not just for the big screen, though that is a large part, but because of the atmosphere. I swear there's nothing like paying ?15 between the ticket and the popcorn to keep your mind on the plot.[/SIZE]

[SIZE="1"]Bought a boomerang when I was coming back from Australia for about $60 [AU] as a present for my Dad. It was nice and all, but I pretty much immediately regretted paying that much for a boomerang which now sits on top of a shelf in my parents room. Paid about ?90 for a katana a few years back, one of those purchases based on a newfound interest in Japanese culture, damn thing didn't even come with a display stand.[/SIZE]

[quote name='IHZ']Wow... 2 pages already? I didn't think that so many peoples would reply to this, well I've read most of all yours posts and seriously you've changed my view out of it. I must admit I was planning on getting a bunch of hatemail from everyone who would reply, I'm really sorry for I have misjudged you all. I didn't suscribe to the forum to make rants but since the website is called "otaku" I wanted to spread the message here, you're all very smart and think how all true fans should think. I am, however, used to the real 'stupid' fans who called themselves otakus without knowing it's meaning but when I used to tell them they would enter in all CAPS LOCK mode to tell me how I suck that I know nothing of Anime and that I'm just a dip***. I'm happy to see that I finally stumbled on a good forum with peoples who actually think smoothly.[/QUOTE] [SIZE="1"]Probably has something to do with the fact that OtakuBoards hasn't been Anime-centric for the last few years. I imagine had you posted that back in 2000/2001 you probably might have got the response you were expecting. Heh, good times. [/SIZE]

[quote name='Nerdsy'][color=deeppink]As for the meaning of "otaku" in Japan... most of us know. None of us care.[/color][/QUOTE] [SIZE="1"]Sums up pretty much all my thoughts on the subject.[/SIZE] [quote name='Desbreko'][center][img]http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/9665/futonjpad8.jpg[/img] [img]http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/6485/futonuspu2.jpg[/img][/center] [color=#4B0082]All your language are belong to us.[/color][/QUOTE] [size=1]Haha pwned ![/size]

[quote name='Charles']I'm going to have to ask you guys to reguate this discussion to private message instead of derailing the thread. We have a TP thread for a reason.[/quote] [SIZE="1"]Careful Charlie, you don't want to replace Shin or whoever it is now as Des' nad biatch. :p[/SIZE] [quote name='Charles']Strangely enough, Jungle Beat is the first GameCube game I've purchased since Resident Evil 4. So, that's what? Two years?[/QUOTE] [SIZE="1"]Yeah, I hadn't bought a Gamecube game in years before LoZ Collector's Edition, but to get the chance to play OOT over again and Majora's Mask for the first time was just too tempting to pass up. Shame A Link to the Past wasn't on it as well, that'd be awesome.[/SIZE]

[quote name='The13thMan'][COLOR=DarkOrange][FONT=Century Gothic]Yes, i get that point. I mentioned it. Though i think the main point should be that the unborn child is as much the man's as it is the woman's. Take this case for example: The woman wants an abortion and the man does not. What should happen? Who should have the say? It is her body... she would have to go through the months of bearing the child. Is that enough to give her the right to terminate the child's "life" when the father says otherwise? The fact that society expects a man to be supportive of whatever the women wants is a little off in my opinion. But only a tiny bit. Don't get me wrong. =D I just think instead of society expecting cooperation it should expect deliberation in this case. [/FONT][/COLOR][/QUOTE] [SIZE="1"]While I think you have a fair point 13thMan, most people will just retort that a man doesn't have to deal with nine months of pregnancy, and generally I think most women who have abortions either do so because they're not in a relationship with the unborn's father i.e. a one night stand with repercussions. I'm not agreeing with them, just saying that's the typical response you'll get.[/SIZE]

[SIZE="1"]Sounds like an interesting idea, I'm just curious Charles about how exactly our party will reflect our politics, i.e. will the Liberals all have to be tree-hugging abortionists and the Conservatives redneck bible-thumpers ? Just kidding. :p But seriously, I'm just curious as given my recent positions in the Lounge at the moment I'm not sure where I'd fit, could be an Indepedent I suppose, despite not even giving them a preference vote in the last elections. And on that final note. VOTE GAVIN FOR PRESIDENT!! ;)[/SIZE]

[quote name='Bombu'][color=darkred]Alright, thanks for the help Gavin. I'm Wi-Fi retarded, so that doesn't appeal to me, but it'd be cool if I did get it sorted out. As for Pokemon, I'll have to give it more thought.[/color][/QUOTE] [SIZE="1"]No probs, I haven't Wi-Fi either, but it just seems to be a really neat feature which could be a lot of fun. Though I imagine Des will probably just pwn everyone on OB with his addiction to these games.[/SIZE]

[quote name='Lunox'][font="trebuchet ms"][spoiler]I never realized that before. Now I have to go cry for another ten minutes over how heartbreaking this is. :animedepr [/spoiler][/font][/QUOTE] [SIZE="1"]Heh, sorry Lunox, still though [spoiler]it was nice to see there was a bit of humanity left in Snape, even if it was buried for the most part.[/spoiler][/SIZE]

[quote name='Bombu'][color=darkred]Yeah I know, but this time around I'm a little tired of the same formula, so I was wondering if there was anything new about it that would make it more interesting.[/color][/QUOTE] [SIZE="1"]Well I think the Wi-Fi battling is definitely something that adds a new twist to the series. Day and night cycles from Gold/Silver are back too which is a nice feature, never understood why it was dropped from Sapphire/Ruby[/SIZE]

[SIZE="1"]Just curious Lionheart, do you have to sign up as a student ? As I'd be interested in joining as a teacher.[/SIZE]

[quote name='Bombu'][color=darkred]I'm considering buying this game (haven't decided which one yet) and the only thing holding me back is the possibility [B]that it's the same as the previous Pokemon games, but just revamped a little[/B], so could someone give me a little insight as to whether it'll be money well spent? I think I trust you guys enough.[/color][/QUOTE] [SIZE="1"]Haven't they always been that way though Bombu ? I mean sure there were a few cool little additions in between each "generation", but it's been pretty much the same thing with new graphics each time. Not saying that should stop you from buying it, I'm just debating myself which one to get. [/SIZE]

[SIZE="1"]Ah fair enough then Joe, my headset's been replaced so we can use Ventrilo properly now. Just had out first game with Chris as well, absolutely pwned three Orks, it was brilliant. On a side note, if we do eventually get enough people interested in playing, what name would we choose ? It'd have to be varied as generally we all play as different races, though we do play all as Marines a bit too. Raven Guard FTW.[/SIZE]

[quote name='Darren']So I need some help: What was the significance of Harry's eyes? J.K. said that they were important and that it would become clear in the 7th book, but I'm still just as confused. Probably moreso because I found myself with more questions than answers...[/QUOTE] [SIZE="1"][spoiler]It had to do with the fact that Snape loved Lily, and I'd guess by extention anything that reminded him of Lily. Apparently Snape asking Harry to look at him before he died was so he could see Lily's eyes one last time.[/spoiler][/SIZE]

[SIZE="1"]Bah, I nuke both bases and kill nobody ?! Bloody crap terrorist nukes. Oh well, that was just the first strike.[/SIZE]

[quote name='ChibiHorsewoman'][color=#9933ff][font=lucida calligraphy]Well happy belated birthday Gavin, but your timing is off... the flag raising was [u]prior[/u] to the opening ceromony. Gah! Now I'm doing it![/color][/font][/QUOTE] [size=1][url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_the_Flag_on_Iwo_Jima[/url] Not sure what ceremony you're talking about there CHW but the timing seems bang on, February 23rd. That said, I didn't know that particular scene is actually the second flag raising.[/size]

[quote name='The Blue Jihad']T I love TWW just as much as the next guy, and it's one of the very few GCN games I haven't gotten rid of. But as fun as the game is, [B]it's incredibly easy[/B], OoT, on the other hand, has an intensity that removes your testicles.[/QUOTE] [SIZE="1"]That's really the only aspect to the game that bothered me, I don't know how many times I died in Ocarina of Time going through the dungeons, but I'm positive I never died once playing The Wind Waker, it wasn't even a case of just spamming health potions or collecting hearts, it was just the game was so easy by comparison to other Legend of Zeldas.[/SIZE]

[SIZE="1"]Personally I love the beach as I've had some really great memories there, from hanging out with friends, to romantic walks with current and ex girlfriends or even just memories of when I was a kid with my family. I will agree with DB though, the sand is one of the biggest pains and it seems to take an inordinate amount of time to get clean. And I don't know what's wrong with your side of the pond, but ours only suffers from being really freaking cold.[/SIZE] [quote name='James'][color=#606060]Not to mention that Australia has thousands and thousands of miles of some of the world's best beaches. That helps too.[/color][/QUOTE] [SIZE="1"]Indeed, Ireland has some of the best beaches in Europe and it really shows, at least when we get the weather, which unfortunately hasn't been happening this year.[/SIZE]