eleanor

[QUOTE=Gavin][SIZE=1]Interesting, most interesting. Wow, so now North Korea and "Kimmy" (arguably the funniest thing I've heard in ages) potentially have a tiny nuclear arsenal with which they might eventually try to take on the United States and Japan, both of whom have arsenals far larger and more sophisticated than the Koreans. Perhaps it's the cold here, but I'm not liking North Korea's chances of actually being able to win this fight without being turned into a nuclear wasteland. While Kim Jong Il may be the typical example of a Third World dictator, he along with his counterparts in Africa mouth off against the West and occasionally try and flex a bicep before they're *****-slapped back down into their place. If the jumpsuit wearing freak thinks this does him any benefit he's sadly mistaken, as he's managed to get China from being a neutral "supporter" if that makes sense, to openly criticising him. [/SIZE][/QUOTE] [color=dimgray] I fundamentally agree with you, but I also believe there are technicalities that people miss when they view this topic. Most of the people here are blowing Kim Jon Il off as a attention-hungry dictator and needs to be put in his place. Yeah, that's probably true, but "*****-slapping" third-world countries back into their place only increases the schism between the western/eastern struggle. And what I'm about to say isn't directed at anyone in this thread, it's just that pisses me off. There's so many people at my school blowing off North Korea as something trivial and too unimportant for the US to deal with. This is possibly the biggest bull I've heard in a while. There are eight countries that haven't signed onto the CWC convention, and the threat they pose cannot be dismissed by claiming their weapons are less sophisticated or that they're too poor to do anything. World leaders and organizations need to be going into those problems [b]now[/b]. The whole "the US is world's only superpower lol" attitude is such a ***** for other countries to deal with, and part of the reason Kim is acting up so much is because we haven't been dealing with him properly. North Korean officials don't believe George W. Bush takes them seriously, and I doubt he truly does. [/color]

[color=dimgray] Pulling out of Iraq is probably out of the questions. We started the war, we stay for reconstruction. The only safe course of action is further diplomatic dialogue. UN sanctions, although meritable, can only do so much. UN is a system that is bogged down and limited. Ideas such as mutual disarming and transparency of nations' chemical weapons would be ideal, but Kim Jong-Il is too power hungry to agree to any regulations set by MUN or the OPCW/CWC. I have no suggested course of action, partly because I'm not fully knowledgable of what's going on, but the answer for right now would lie in more aggresive meetings with other countries.[/color]

[color=dimgray] Our school has a "spirit week", which is actually pretty fun. Each day we assign a theme (i.e. Cowboy day) and dress up accordingly. We've made Harry Potter day an official one. P: But it's not a huge deal or anything. This year my friends and I are possibly going laser-tagging for homecoming.[/color]

[color=dimgray] *clears throat* OMFG, IS THE WAIT OVER? [img]http://xs107.xs.to/xs107/06411/NED01.jpg[/img] [img]http://xs107.xs.to/xs107/06411/kankurotjtalanpj8.jpg[/img] New ED for Naruto... Studio Pierrot, this better be a damn sign. >_> Though I'm guessing this is just another false alarm, judging from released episode titles. But judging from Time-Jump Naruto shown int eh new ED, he doesn't look all that... [i]older[/i]. Which sort of dissappointed me. Or I'm reading into this way too much. Also, the new OP is pretty Bleach-esque. I like it. :] [images taken from [url]http://www.community.livejournal.com/chuunin[/url]][/color]

[color=dimgray]As part of our grade in newspaper, we have to sumbit something to our school's literary magazine. I'm not too keen on writing a poem, so I decided to sumbit artwork. [img]http://xs107.xs.to/xs107/06400/wip2.png[/img] So, this is my first attempt at background coloring. I'm not too happy over my clouds, and I have no idea how to begin coloring the building. If anyone has any good reference pictures for me to use, I'd be very grateful. :] Criticism on coloring, proportion, and etc. are needed. Thanks![/color]

[quote name='duoikari]I thought the ending wasn't that bad and the part where [spoiler] Haruhi falls off the bridge[/spoiler] was just a way of showing that [spoiler] Haruhi was in love with tamaki[/spoiler]. You could guess that by what she said before the [spoiler] falling scene[/spoiler'] happened.[/quote] [color=dimgray]Well, I had no problem with the actual event, it's just that the animation was... poorly done. Just a lot of anime 'poses' are really cheesy and would never happen in real life. Ever. [/color]

[color=dimgray] I'm impressed. :] I've always been a fan of high school football, and I liked the movie enough, so I decided to try the show out. It follows the movie's outline, but it'll get more in-depth and such. The show is well-paced and entertaining, and I just liked the overall feel of it. The actual shooting of the show is very real-life/documentary-ish; the camera moves around a lot and there are a good number of cut-scenes throughout the whole thing. The pilot was enough to hook a lot of people on, which is what matters. If the show wis fleshed out well, there's great potential in character development/analysis and other big themes such as dealing with loss, poverty, etc. If anyone's interested and they missed yesterday's premiere, there's another showing of it tonight at 8 PM (Eastern) on NBC.[/color]

[color=dimgray] Tetris box, baby. For Halloween my friends and I have a scary movie sleepover. It's pretty self-explanatory. But we always have candy corn and cheesy poofs as snacks. :D It's one of my favorite get-togethers of the year; there's something nice about squeezing onto a big couch in a dark basement and freaking out together.[/color]

[color=dimgray] 326 [spoiler] I was expecting all the stuff about Asuma's team to be really exciting, but I'm not feeling it at all. Hidan and his Akatsuki partner (see? I don't even remember the guy's name.) are possibly the most boring characters ever*.[/spoiler] Nothing about this chapter was remotely surprising or interesting. *All the "OMG HIDAN ROCKS HE IS SO AMAZING AND HOT" I've seeing in the Naruto fandom is making me have a 'wtf' moment. I used to love Naruto, but with the current fillers and the manga slump...[/color]

[color=dimgray]I thought the ending wasn't as horrific and so many fans made it out to be (just another thing to put on my list of What I Hate about Big Fandoms), and it was enjoyable. Which is what Ouran is all about. :] Thought the animation of Haruhi [spoiler]falling off the bridge and Tamaki jumping to catch her[/spoiler] was painful to watch. Very, very painful. And for something of interest: I had noticed it, and there were some posts on the Ouran LJ community about it, but Ouran is full of Jungian psychology. Which I love, because I'm a Jung fan. :D The whole thing with different colored roses, roses in general, the twins reading/doodling Jungian-related things, and 56830 other things. [/color]

[QUOTE=Retribution][size=1]...No. One is naivety and stupidity, and one is calculated maliciousness. One is sad, and the other disgusting. Not the same case at all.[/size][/QUOTE] [color=dimgray] I'm saying just because you do something bad doesn't mean you deserve national humiliation. All of this is fueled by the media- it's a way to get more viewers by touching on a 'taboo' subject. Why aren't there shows on major networks about nationally humiliating corrupt Congressmen? Because it's a boring topic. America is obsessed with sex, even if it's pedophilism. It's why Law & Order: SVU gets better ratings than it's sisters. And seriously, catching someone doing something illegal and then shoving it in their face on national television isn't deserved. A lot of pedophiles need help, not to be degraded. Obviously I don't really mean we should make a show where we pretend to be online predators. [/color]

[color=dimgray] I think it's just another sign that the executive branch of our government is gaining too much control. Considering everything that is going on, it's not surprising, but that doesn't excuse any injustice. It's a foul move made by Bush, and another reason I'm glad he'll be out of office next year.[/color]

[color=dimgray]I can't help but think that the minors these guys would be preying on are just as stupid, if not stupider. Let's make a show where we pretend to be pedophiles and then nationally humiliate the dumb tweens who agree to meet them! Do you see what I'm trying to say?[/color]

[QUOTE=Gavin] [SIZE=1]Lethal injection is actually the most sadistic of all executions in my mind, at least of modern ones, the LI actually stops your lungs before it stops your heart, while paralysing you, ergo you actually suffocate to death without being able to alert people to your predicament. Now regardless of a person's crime, suffocating them while they're paralysed is a really screwed up way to kill anyone.[/SIZE][/QUOTE] [color=dimgray] Well, the thing is they make you unconscious before everything else happens. That way you don't feel any pain. The most common problems that occur during lethal injections are 1) the vein collapses or 2) they can't find the vein. I'm sure there are complications at times, but I think it's better than dying slowly in excruciating pain if the electric chair malfunctions.[/color]

[color=dimgray] Mostly I support life without parole. But if I had to argue against the death penalty, I'd bring up inhumane ways of killing death row prisoners. Death by electrocution is just ****ing lame, as well as hanging, firing squad, and gas chamber. If you're going to kill someone, just use lethal injection. And I don't know if this matters to anyone, but I'm pretty sure having death row prisoners costs the state more money than just holding prisoners for life. [/color]

[QUOTE=Sara][color=#b0000b][size=1]Well, three are normal (albeit second-hand) games. One is "Scrabble Up!" and another is "Turntiles," which is like Scrabble, but different. I also have a brand-spanking-new Scrabble game that I won in a tournament a few weeks ago.[/size][/color][/QUOTE] [color=dimgray] That's pretty amazing, I'm not going to lie. Just today we were playing Scrabble in newspaper and my got 150ish points on the first word. =_= One of my more geekier purchases was this [URL=http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-91-77-b-49-en-15-kakashi-70-1cv8.html]Kakashi plushie[/URL] that now sits on my bedstand. To make things worse, I just preordered [URL=http://www.poweranime.com/index2.cfm?pageAction=itemDetails&itemID=13875]another plushie[/URL] that's due out this winter. So, my anime-fan side hasn't died off completely. :P Also for my group's Junior shirts at our school, we made our logo [b]Junior Jedi[/b], which can is pretty sweet. Next year we're doing [b]Senior DiVAS[/b] from Kill Bill.[/color]

[color=dimgray] English used to be my favorite subject, but the literature/language classes offered at my school no longer excite or stimulate me intellectually. It's still definitely my passion, but right now at school it's no longer my favorite subject (if that makes sense). So even though I surprise myself by saying this, AP Calc is probably my most interesting subject. My teacher is amazing, although eye-stabbingly difficult. I don't think I've ever had to devote so much time to daily studying for any other subject, and the great thing about math is that once you get it, you get it. There's that breaking point you struggle to reach, but when you reach it it feels damn good. Newspaper follows closely, because it's basically a free class for us to hang out and get our extra work done. Then on final bedday everyone stays at school until about midnight trying to get the paper done. ;)[/color]

[color=dimgray] [b]Retribution[/b]: Clean, neat, and most importantly, good style. Everything I've seen from you shows an ability for basic style. Everything matches and everything is placed in the right location. Color scheme is down pat. I'm not too crazy about the actual panels you chose from the manga, but I can see where more dramatic panels wouldn't flow well with the overall piece. The text is great, though if I want to be nit-picky it's not exact. From what I see I assume that you're going for the "touch but don't overlap", but the word "strength" is overlapping the blue font by a bit. I don't know what you were aiming for, though. [b]Katana[/b]: Your concept is awesome, but your execution is lacking for me. I love, love, love the clouds, though. :] Firstly, the white shadow behind Naruto looks sort of gimmicky. In addition, I don't think that the texture of the piece works as either a contrasting or matching element. The pictures of your clouds and the Japanese text (or Chinese, I can't tell) also become mismatched because of their Asianic style. Normally, they would be associated with neatness and clean lines, and they sort of clash with the rocky texture. Great job to both you guys, but my vote goes to [b]Retribution[/b].[/color]

[color=dimgray]Everyone who's saying they deserve to be caught on national television should just get over themselves. It's people like you who make cases like Terri Schiavo get plastered all over the media, resulting in idiotic back-and-forths and wasted time in Congress. If you're that freakin' concerned about it, do something about it yourself. Jesus.[/color]

[QUOTE=Dagger]Freudian slip? ;) I actually [strike]MSTed[/strike] watched Howl's earlier tonight, and Billy Crystal just makes gobbling noises. It works quite well, really--his performance is one of the better ones in the dub version because it's so confident, although it's quite different from the Japanese performance (insofar as I even remember the Japanese version). Anyway, this theory has some merit to it. Paradoxically, though, I think that it tends to stop working once one becomes aware of it. ~Dagger~[/QUOTE] [color=dimgray] My bad. I'm more of Jungian pysch fan myself anyway. ;) So Billy Crystal did do a good job, but what I'm saying is that it changed Calcifer's cuteness factor. It sounds dumb, but it's true and it was a part of why Calcifer was so likable. The original VA is on top for this case. And I guess it would stop working for some people, but it would further aggravate others. I respect that many fans prefer the English dubs, but I find it odd because the akwardness of a lot of it is just sticks out to me. I'm guessing it has to do with my familiarity with the Asian languages and culture, but whatever. I'm definitely not a supporter of sub/dub wars.[/color]

[color=dimgray] I worked as a waitress (or sorts) at a local restaurant. I didn't enjoy it because of minimal tips and because of the akwardness of doing nothing when there was no job for me to do. But I got nearly $8 an hour, so I wasn't complaining. I put work on hold as soon as I entered Junior year at high school. My schedule is driving me absolutely [i]crazy[/i]. My school is known for giving the toughest teaching for AP classes so we'll get 4/5s on the exam. I found this out after I signed up for four. *head/desk*[/color]

[color=dimgray] I disagree. I always prefer the original version rather than the dubbing, even if I hear the dub first. I'm not saying that English dubs are bad, because there are good English VAs, but I just prefer the original language. First of all, a cartoon is made to fit the linguistic style of the original language. It will usually always have a better flow and adjustment, whereas the English dubbers have to make up stuff up to fit everything. Branching off of that, the Japanese (and Asian languages in general) have different expressions and stylings. Expressions such as "kyaa" and "uwah" are used more often that English terms such as "er" or "ugh". Small things like make a difference. Right now I'm thinking of [i]Howl's Moving Castle[/i], where Calcifer makes "mah" noises while eating eggshells. No matter how I look at it, it would just be akward to replace that with an English expression such as "yum". It's just a cultural line. I'm also thinking [i]Ouran High School Host Club[/i]. I would [i]never[/i] want to see a dub of that, simply because it would not cross that cultural boundary well. Never in a million years.[/color]

[color=dimgray] *is wondering why no one has replied* Great job! The proportion and style with which you drew Byakuya are ace. He looks like he's drawn Bleach-style, which is just a habit of mine to comment on. Usually I don't like it when people draw fanart in their own style. The only peeve (a very small one at that) is that the lineart itself is a bit shaky at times. Though that can be fixed by simple inking techniques and such. The coloring is technically great, but more contrast would make it look better*. As for the background, I don't the style of the tree matches with everything else you did. It looks too airbrush-y, but background improve with practice, I guess. *I feel lame preaching this, because I still don't have the hang of coloring well. >_> And on the weapons thing... I know that the [i]How to Draw Manga[/i] series has books on perspective and fighting/poses, but I haven't heard/seen of any weapons tutorials. My advice is that tutorials can only do so much. Look around for base images from any manga that revolved around action and practice, practice, practice. :][/color]

[QUOTE=JCBaggee][color=darkred][size=1]Ah, yes, and Chase's awkward "Yo Mamma" moment had me laughing too. The show is just hands down fantastic. Even though it shouldn't be. Lets face it, its a pretty forumlaic show. Person is sick, no one knows why, House tortures the poor kid, patient ultimatly gets better because someone lied. But against all odds, the brilliant character writing, hilarious dialogue, and magnificient performances from ALL the actors, even the guest stars, make it one of the best medical dramas EVER. Even if real doctors hate the show... --Chris[/color][/size][/QUOTE] [color=dimgray] Chase is so akwardly funny this season. Remember when he patted House on the back in the first episode? And House's racist jokes towards Foreman. :P Personally I think the main thing that carries [i]House[/i] is Hugh Laurie. Yes, the other elements of the show are good, but Laurie is probably the main driver. Most of witty dialogue comes from House or Wilson, and I can't really agree that all of the performances are [i]magnificent[/i]. Solid, but not that amazing. Anyways, I look forward to the next episode, what with the whole commentor telling us they're going to prove why House is the best show on television.[/color]

[quote name='Bláse][quote=Tical Blue']I guarantee you every other suburban teenage white girl has stolen from somone or someplace on purpose without regret.[/quote] [size=1][color=slategray]Oopsie. :( (I find that white girl comment racist. XD)[/color][/size][/QUOTE] [color=dimgray] It's every other teenage girl, not every other teenage white girl. [/color]