eleanor

[font="trebuchet ms"] 1) That kid was being pretty obnoxious. 2) But the police were stupid to use a taser.[/font] [quote name='Aceburner']Quick Google search leads me to dig up this on Skull and Bones: [URL="http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0122-10.htm"]http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0122-10.htm[/URL] Cripes. I went on wikipedia to play 6 degrees with these guys. I only needed 4 to connect them to Voldemort. Creepy rituals and self-serving agendas... do not like.[/QUOTE] [font="trebuchet ms"] It's a secret college society for elite society and whoever they think is promising students... what do people expect? Its prestige and powerful alumni just add to the whole secrecy and whatnot. Though it would be funny if Yale decided to get rid of it or something...even though that'd be near damn impossible. I was surprised when I read that a lot of people don't know about the Skull & Bones society, though. I pretty much thought it was common knowledge, lol.[/font]

[font="trebuchet ms"] I'm planning on watching it because 1) Clive Owen is very sexy and 2) I'm an action movie junkie. I'm pretty sure I'll love it beyond any other. [spoiler]I heard about the carrot, too.[/spoiler][/font]

[quote name='ChibiHorsewoman'][color=#9933ff][font=lucida calligraphy] The Shipping School Showdown (or was it School Shipping Showdown?) was the funniest by far [spoiler]Katara ends up going to the dance with the Blue Spirit[/spoiler] This was a much better bonus DVD than what came with the first season box set. [/color][/font][/QUOTE] [font="trebuchet ms"] Ah, School Shipping was great! :) It was very cute and lovable. I just saw the trailer for season 3, and I have to say, it looks pretty kickass. Katara and Zuko both look about ten times better ([spoiler]But Iroh in a jail cell is just not acceptable! ;_;[/spoiler]), but I'll have to get used to Aang's hair. lol[/font]

[font="trebuchet ms"] I don't care is someone smokes, but I care if someone smokes obnoxiously around other people and make them cough. Like, what is that? "I'm really cool, so I'm going to sit here and make everyone around me smell how gross cigarette smoke is and not take a hint when people around me start hacking." It's like how people take pictures of themselves getting drunk and post them on Facebook or wherever. You don't look cool, you're pale and sweaty and you look piss-disgusting. [/font]

[quote name='Rachmaninoff'] I'd rather see them totally get nailed instead of being given the chance to bargain their way out of a charge that carries less weight. Anyway, people who would do that to another person are sick.[/QUOTE] [quote name='Lunox'][font="trebuchet ms"] Well, that was part of my point. They should get full time, and if committing a hate crime adds ten more years to their sentence, so be it. I don't know how the legal system really works, though, so I might just be talking out of my butt here.[/font][/QUOTE] [font="trebuchet ms"] But I'm guessing that adding the hate crime would probably end up complicating the legal actions and just make it a longer process. [/font]

[quote name='Gavin'][SIZE="1"]Beth summed it up pretty well, instead of getting in a twist that they're not pursuing this as a hate crime, people should be more supportive of the fact that the DA is pursuing this in such a way as to get the maximum possible sentences for those involved. Honestly though, I think no amount of prison time would be just for the absolutely monstrous acts those guys committed. [/SIZE][/QUOTE] [font="trebuchet ms"] Well, that was part of my point. They should get full time, and if committing a hate crime adds ten more years to their sentence, so be it. I don't know how the legal system really works, though, so I might just be talking out of my butt here.[/font]

[quote name='ForestCrusader']I'm from Wast Virginia and this little snippet, "(although the fact that is happened in a small rural town of W. Virginia explained some of it)", is a load of ignorant ****. It's true that we don't have many minorities up there but it doesn't mean we are all racist inbred hicks, and that stereotype is getting really ****ing old.[/QUOTE] [font="trebuchet ms"] If this happened in Georgia, I would write "although the fact that this happened in a small rural town of Georgia explained some of it". I'm basically saying "small rural town in the south". It just so happened that it happened in W. Virginia this time. [/font]

[quote name='Konata']Hm... Maybe we should set a time and date for a PChat gathering. So many people can hopefully be participating it at one time rather than just one or two people at random times. It'll be the first OtakuBoards PChat...eh...Gathering~ Any suggestions?[/QUOTE] [font="trebuchet ms"] We could just set up a weekly time at which everyone can log on if they wish (i.e. every Sunday at 5 PM, etc.).[/font]

[font="trebuchet ms"] I'm pretty sure everyone has heard about this, but here's a summary: [i]"Megan Williams, 20, who is black, was tortured for days at a remote hillside home in Big Creek, sexually assaulted and forced to eat rat droppings. Williams' captors, all of them white, also choked her with a cable cord and stabbed her in the leg while calling her a racial slur, poured hot water over her, made her drink from a toilet and beat and sexually assaulted her during a span of about a week, according to criminal complaints. At one point, an assailant cut the woman's ankle with a knife and used the N-word in telling her she was victimized because she is black, according to the criminal complaints It wasn't until an anonymous tip led Logan County Sheriff's deputies to the property on Saturday that her ordeal ended. She limped toward the deputies, her arms outstretched as she cried, "Help me!""[/i] -FOX News And for some absurd reason, these six people are not being charged with hate crime because "Logan County prosecutors say they have not ruled out hate-crime charges but are focusing on the counts already filed, including kidnapping and sexual assault, which have tougher maximum sentences. Federal prosecutors, meanwhile, have not sought civil-rights charges." But seriously, aside from this being horrible and disgusting, I think this officially makes West Virginia the most hated state in the US right now. Like, once a upon a time there was a small state in the US that no one cared about and did not produce anything of great value. [spoiler]I'm joking. I said the same thing about New Hampshire and Louisiana earlier in the year, lol.[/spoiler] I know this is naive of me, but I was shocked when I heard this (although the fact that is happened in a small rural town of W. Virginia explained some of it). I hear about hate crimes, but hearing the specifics of the kidnappers' torture is just sickening. [/font]

[quote name='cancer'][SIZE="1"]Yes, I do know that it will take extra effort, but I will practice piano as I practice visual art: with perfectionism. I am learning from a book called Group Piano for Adults, which is a book that teaches the basics, so I'm going to spend my entire college career in piano practice rooms every weekday for say, one or two hours a day at the least. [/SIZE][/QUOTE] [font="trebuchet ms"] With your attitude, you should do great. :) [/font]

[quote name='cancer'][SIZE="1"]All right, those were some good replies, thank you. I do have another question though. What is the best way for me to learn where the keys of the piano are so I'll be able to play with both hands and quickly find the keys? I know that for different songs your hands start out at different places and move all over, so I can't really rely on muscle memory of keeping my hand in a certain position every time, so I don't know, what should I do?[/SIZE][/QUOTE] [font="trebuchet ms"] I'm going to go against the crowd and say that's a bad idea. Never try to play with both hands when you're first learning to play piano. It will just make things harder and you won't have a fuller understanding of the basics. Trying to sightread as a beginner is just asking for hell. Unless you're a prodigy, don't do it. There's one thing you should remember: Scales are you friends. Practice them, memorize them, use them as warm-ups every day, love them. Scales are essential to [i]any[/i] instrument playing, and it especially helps on the piano. PLAY SCALES. The first piano book you should buy is a scale book, and there are plenty of other beginner books to build off of. As for learning where the notes are, it's just clear-cut memorization and practice. When you practice scales, write the letters of the notes underneath, and you'll eventually find your way around with enough practice. I don't want to be a bummer, but it's rather difficult to learn any instrument at your age, but it's definitely possible with consistent practice and passion. It's just harder for your fingers to react and for your mind to memorize those notes as you get older, so you'll probably need to put in extra effort. But it pays off! Piano is one the most enjoyable instruments to play. That's my personal opinion, anyway. :)[/font]

[font="trebuchet ms"] 9/11 has always been sort of removed from me in terms of emotion. I was in sixth grade, and I had no idea what had happened but an announcement came on telling students not to panic or leave school (because middle schoolers have cars, lol). It was later that I found out that a plane had crashed into the Twin Towers. I hate to sound like a douche bag, but it didn't affect me much. I think it's because I believed at the time that this sort of stuff happened all over the world. And I still do, to some extent. Not in terms of planes crashing into buildings, but there are countries that go through things like this every day. And I don't want to compare the US with the rest of the world in terms of pity points, but what I thought about the issue affected how I reacted to 9/11. To this day, I'm not very emotionally concerned about it when compared to other people at my school. The idea of crying over it did not ever occur to me, and while I deeply respect our observance of 9/11 and recognize the impact it has had, it has always been just another catastrophe to me. [/font]

[font="trebuchet ms"] You can just hit the "Print Screen" button, which should be located at the top right hand corner of your keyboard, or around there. Then you can paste it into some sort of art program (paint works) and save it.[/font]

[font="trebuchet ms"] Awesome idea, I hope a lot of people use it. :) [url=http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs219&d=07371&f=obchat.png][img]http://xs219.xs.to/xs219/07371/obchat.png.xs.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs219&d=07371&f=obchat2.png][img]http://xs219.xs.to/xs219/07371/obchat2.png.xs.jpg[/img][/url] Those were my 'serious' ones, as the rest the pchat was more lighthearted. [/font]

[quote name='2007DigitalBoy'][COLOR="DarkOrange"] Reading it makes you a lot cooler than the people who watch it, but if you can stomach it past about tankouban 10 then you either have an iron gut or bad taste. That or you just don't know better like most Narutards. [/COLOR][/QUOTE] [font="trebuchet ms"] Ah, anime wank. Will it ever die? Naruto is the most popular anime both in Japan and in the US internet-anime base. I have no idea how it's faring on CN, though. Whether Naruto is better than Bleach is purely subjective. They're both your standard shounen anime, though I prefer Naruto. Not to say that it hasn't been going down the drain lately. o_+[/font]

[quote name='Kanji'] I too noticed that the Medicine Seller seems to be the only one with a genuinely appealing character design - many other characters have exaggerated facial features, lending to the stereotypical goofball appearance. For example, most men have large, spherical eyes in comparison to the "slitted" look of the anti-hero. A few designs also have a sinister quality, almost boldly bringing out that tired 'eyes are the window to the soul' rule that the Japanese seem to have (though it's probably too early to say for sure). [spoiler]In episodes one & two, the innkeeper's narrower eyes sheathed a grim and bloody past. I wonder if the minstrel in Umibozu will possess similar characteristics. Following this theory, the medicine seller will probably indeed have something dark beneath his usual calm surface.[/spoiler][/QUOTE] [font="trebuchet ms"] This is actually one of the qualities of [i]Mononoke[/i] that I like the best. A lot of other shows have such generic faces of beauty or evil or good. It's hard to find cartoons with genuinely unique and cartoonish character design, especially in anime. Not that I hate anime style, because one of my favorite styles is just incredibly generic, but I think [i]Mononoke[/i] has appealing character design in that their character design is actually unique and good. I just started the series (I finished the first arc), and it's really great. It's subtle (there's such a minimalistic approach to character movement) but enthralling, and it's one of those shows I can't watch more than one episode of in a day. I've never really looked at Japanese mythology, but this show has made me pretty interested in it.[/font]

[font="trebuchet ms"] My interest in video games is mainly limited to Zelda, Super Smash Bros., and DDR, so: [b]Sega Game Gear[/b]: I [i]barely[/i] remember this. It was my sister's, but I have very vague memories of playing Sonic and jumping over pits of fire. That's it, though. :p [b]Nintendo 64[/b]: It's technically my sister's, but I usually call it my own. The first game I ever played on it was [i]Mario Kart[/i], and I progressed from that to [i]Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie, Super Smash Bros., and then both Zelda: OOT[/i] and [i]MM[/i]. [b]Gamecube[/b]: I bought the GC for the sole reason of playing [i]Super Smash Brothers Melee[/i] and [i]Windwaker[/i], and those two are about the only two GC games I ever really played. I have the Zelda collection, but I never got around to it, and I never play my [i]Soul Calibur[/i] game. I got for free, and it eventually collected dust. lol [b]PS2[/b]: Similar to my GC, I only bought PS2 for [i]DDR[/i]. I got it was a present from my mom mostly because she thought it'd be excercise, which is definitely true. I played DDR nearly every day for about an hour for about 6 months while I was dieting. It helped tremendously. :) But after that, I didn't even give my PS2 a passing glance until someone gave me a copy of [i]Shadow of the Colosseus[/i]. Which is a very excellent game, I just haven't finished it yet. [b]Wii[/b]: I got this for [i]Twilight Princess[/i], basically. Other than more Zelda games, the new Super Smash and the new DDR games, I doubt I will buy many games for this console. [b]Consoles I Want[/b]: DS Lite. I think having a handheld will be fun and give me something to do in my spare time. Part of the reason why I'm not as into videogames as one might expect is because thinking about sitting down and hooking up the consoles and staring into the tv screen for hours at a time is sort of meh for me. It'd be nice to just hop into bed and turn a DS on.[/font]

[quote name='AzureWolf'][COLOR=maroon]lol, Lunox. You know that was my point about these Korean-ignorami, right? Fans who are so obsessed but still stupid? I'm just confused, haha[/COLOR][/QUOTE] [font="trebuchet ms"] Haha, yeah, I know you know (of course).[/font]

[font="trebuchet ms"] I just started watching this series, and I've pretty much latched onto it for now. But since I'm lazy, plot summary from Wikipedia: "Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann takes place in a fictional far future where human beings have been forced underground and thrive in isolated subterranean civilizations. Jiiha Village is the home of Simon, a fourteen year old digger who was orphaned when his parents were killed in an earthquake. After discovering a special drill key deep in the ground, he is recruited by an eccentric fellow orphan named Kamina into his group, the "Gurren Brigade". Kamina dreams of the surface world, which he visited as a child with his father but had to return home because he was too weak to survive." (I pretty much massacred the Wiki entry, but it was damn long for a summary. :/) I love the eccentric style of the anime, and while its plot may not be stunning or its background very original, it's still great fun to watch. The character designs are kick-*** ([spoiler]though I've seen screen caps of Yoko's new and hideous outfit with the white pants and...*shudder*. Those outfits pretty much ALL looked horrible.[/spoiler]) and the character themselves are likable. Also, Kamina=greatest ever. Spoilers for episode 8 => [spoiler]So when he died, I was just floored. It was just so [i]soon[/i], it was insane. TT_TT Only eight episodes? Far too little.[/spoiler][/font]

[font="trebuchet ms"] I guess the carbon dioxide can go both ways in different people. My mom drinks coke when she was a headache, and I usually drink sparkling water to calm my stomach.[/font]

[font="trebuchet ms"] Lol. I have never anyone who just 'liked' diet coke. They're either obsessed with it or they absolutely hate it.[/font]

[quote name='Panda'][IMG] [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v290/Panda_chan_/misc/bun.jpg[/IMG] Brynner was adopted from the Humane Society. He is a very big and happy boy. Everyone loves Boo. He has a toy fish that he will retrieve if you ask him: "Where's the fish?". He will pick it out of all the toys. He also knows what the "ball" is. If you ask him: "Who's in the tub?". He will jump into the bathtub until you tell him he can get out. He is as tall as me when standing on his hind legs and weighs a bit over 90lbs. In the winter he packs on some weight and weighs about 100. Everyone loves Brynner and he loves everyone. He's a big teddy bear. [/QUOTE] [font="trebuchet ms"] That is one of the [i]cutest[/i] dogs I have ever seen. He looks so huggable and happy, and he reminds me of the kind of dog you sleep with. It's great that you found him! :catgirl:[/font]

[quote name='Tetra of sound']Eventually, all the unpopular people will rise up to defeat the evil popular people of the future!!! [/QUOTE] [font="trebuchet ms"] Why are popular people evil? lol Predicting random events was never my forte, but I like to think that I can predict what people do. Not anyone, but people I know well enough. Also my Harry Potter predictions have never failed me. :D[/font]

[font="trebuchet ms"] I love soda, but I limit myself. I usually only drink it at parties or when I go out to eat, which works out well. But every day? How do you manage it? lol My favorite is classic Coke. [spoiler]Also, Coke > Pepsi. Don't deny it.[/spoiler] Sprite and Dr. Pepper come in at a close second, though. And orange Fanta or Sunkist is always a yummy option, too. :) Diet sodas are sort of sketchy, though. :/ Splenda? Bleh. [/font]

[quote name='Dagger']Gunbuster 2. :p [/QUOTE] [font="trebuchet ms"] Whoops, I meant to write 'Diebuster'. So yeah, I'm the loser that saw Diebuster but hasn't seen Gunbuster. lol[/font] [quote name='Dagger']Watching: I'm (re)watching the second arc of [b]Mononoke[/b]. I can't believe this show--it pushes anime (hell, animation or even film in general) to a whole different level. It's definitely the best thing airing at the moment. [/QUOTE] [font="trebuchet ms"] *0* Totally agree with you. I have no idea where it came from, but it drew me from the first second. I've only seen the first two episodes, but I already love it. The medicine seller's design kicks ***, really.[/font]