eleanor

[color=darkslateblue] I think space programs are valid and deserve the money that is funding them. Throughout history, people have always been pushing to further their knowledge, or at least discover new things to benefit economies and whatnot. Space exploration is just another one of them. Thought I'm guessing a lot of people think it's not the same as the Age of Exploration, I think it's just as important. As for the moving onto other places before the original land was in peace... I don't think that will ever happen. Things in Europe weren't exactly fine and dandy-ho when everyone started colonizing the Americas to reap profit. I mean, yeah, I'd be happier if more money was spent on Education and the Fine Arts Programs, but NASA is also important.[/color]

[color=darkslateblue] Second place. :] Don't have any riddles, but someone else can probably fill my gap.[/color]

[color=darkslateblue] Eh, cheer up hon! My older sister got the pretty genes, too. Also, I'm not trying to insult any half-Asians who don't know much about their Asian culture. Being American is a great thing, but I'm just saying that knowing the best of two cultures is also a great thing. I don't rag on any half-racial people for not knowing one of their cultures well, I'm just saying it'd be a good thing if they did. Any knowledge of any different culture, whether you are racially a part of it or not, will broaden your knowledge of the world and also give you a sense of who you are. My mom made me enroll in a Korean school held each Saturday when I was in little, and I've been going ever since (I'm graduating this year, hopefully). The sad thing is that I never really took the school seriously, and I still don't give it much attention compared to what I do at my high school. While I consider myself bilingual, I still have tons of problem with the Korean language. I don't understand Korean music lyrics, I can't write an essay without heaps of help from my mom, and I have a really hard time understanding any written literature unless it's intermediate-level. My mom speaks better English then I do Korean, and she only started learning when she was in high school. Sad fact is, I speak better Spanish than I do Korean, and I've only been studying Spanish for 3 years. I don't even hang out with Asians at my school, and most of the Asian people I meet usually annoy the **** out of me or are incredibly boring for me to hang out with. All of my friends are white and I once swore to myself I would never go out with any Korean guy, [i]ever[/i]. I hate the Korean music scene, their dramas, and their entertainment. I like Korean food. Basically I'm the whitest Asian you'll ever meet. However I do know a lot about its culture (simply because I grew up being Korean) and the simple fact that I do know the language more than enough to communicate with foreignors gives me something to fall back on. [/color]

[color=darkslateblue] I'm not half-anything, but I love how half-Asians look. I envy their amazing skin and hair and um... yeah. :] The world should have more half-Asians. *cough*APOLOANTONOHNO*cough* Most half-Asians I know don't have a great knowledge of the Asian culture (they don't know how to speak or write it fluently and they don't eat Asian cuisine often), which I think is a bit sad. Knowing the best of two cultures is a great thing to add to your characteristics.[/color]

[color=darkslateblue] I think the 'real' emos are ones that wear really colorful clothing and are actually happy. The term 'emo' came from emo music and the artistic and musical kids who expressed their emotions through whatever art they performed. I have no idea how it changed into what it is now, though. I suppose I would like the first emos. XD[/color]

[QUOTE=KatanaViolet]It was definately not fun I'll tell ya. I've never fallen that hard since skiing though. I've taken some pretty rough tumbles snowboarding but I always just get back up and keep going. I find that falling is a given, at least until you can get the hang of balancing your edge and carving and all that stuff. But you can be expected to fall, and definately be expected to be hurting the next day! Man, I wanna go snowboarding now. :animecry:[/QUOTE] [color=darkslateblue] Definately. Falling is like a given whenever anyone was 'learning' and 'snowboarding' in the same sentence. When I first learned, I was in pain for the next two days. My knees looked like some guy had taken a bat and started whamming on them...the bruises lasted for forever. :/ [/color]

[color=darkslateblue] Santino, Daniel V., and Chloe all made it to Olympus Fashion Week. I sort of hate Santino for being an arrogant jerk, but it does seem like he has a lot of talent. I was still pissed when Nick was kicked off, though. Santino's completely ****** jumpsuit for Kara was falling apart and poorly presented. And he started making stuff up about how Kara was excited backstage, so she was jumping around and the seam popped... [/color]

[color=darkslateblue] [spoiler] Ok, so Germany won first in getting the most medals in all three medals (gold, silver, bronze). I actually had no idea they were that good! And Ohno won the 500 m! I'm so glad, I love Ohno. He also snagged bronze in the 5000 m relay. Go USA![/spoiler][/color]

[color=darkslateblue] I agree. The people wanting to have the cartoonists hanged and such should also shut up and sit down, just to be frank. Unfortunately, it probably won't happen. :/[/color]

[color=darkslateblue] So... ice-skating. Edit: I just realized that the ice-skating event was at 1 PM today. v_v Sasha Cohen got silver, and Japan got gold. Maybe next time. I'm also pretty excited about the 500 M short-track. I really like Ohno, so I hope he wins, but the South Koreans are amazing as well. [/color]

[quote name='Harry']I do have a problem with it when you're protesting against a country for letting them have freedom of the press. Muslims have never been too big on freedom of speech though (especially arabic muslims) so I wouldn't expect you to understand.[/quote] [color=darkslateblue] Dude, wtf. That last part was a low blow and completely unnecesary. Now I haven't read every post in this thread, I'm sorry, but to people saying that this is too much of an uproar against just cartoons, obviously you should realize that then the uproar is really NOT only about the cartoons. It is a long build-up of tensions between the Muslims and the government. The cartoons were just the thing that tipped everything over. Considering that Europe has endured three major terrorist events, relations between Europeans and the Muslims aren't exactly hunky-dory over there. So, European governments should start working on making new policies or some structural changes to adapt. The social and economic isolation that Muslims face should be something the government should be concerned about, as well as building good relations with Muslim leaders. If they don't, stuff will happen and bigger problems will occur. It doesn't help that Denmark just passed some new laws or whatever making citizenship harder to obtain and putting restrictions on inter-racial marraiges. And also, the people who freaking made the cartoons should be somewhat ashamed. Yeah, I believe in freedom of speech and whatnot, but obviously if they knew something like drawing Muhammed was considered sacriligeous and very offensive.... Seriously, what point were they trying to make? Ok, whatever, I guess they're 'brave' or whatever, but they should just shut up and sit down and have a little think-over about what they did.[/color]

[color=darkslateblue] [b]Moulin Rouge[/b], definately. It's the only muscial I an watch over and over again without getting bored. I loved [b]Chicago[/b] when I saw it in theatres, but when I was watching it a second time at a friend's house, I kept on drifting in and out of sleep because I was so incredibly bored. And [b]Grease[/b], man! What a great movie to watch with friends. And sing to. I like [b]West Side Story[/b] and [b]My Fair Lady[/b] as well, but not as much as the previous two. I'm so mainstream. :] And don't kill me, but for some reason I couldn't even get through [b]Phantom of the Opera[/b]. *yawn*[/color]

[QUOTE=KatanaViolet]I haven't gone snowboarding in a few years :animecry: There's a mountain here, but I don't know the way, and my car isn't exactly built for driving up a mountain. I don't really have anyone to go with either. :animedepr That sucks too, because I was just starting to get better... I hope it's like riding a bike, you know, once you stop for a long time, you can still pick it back up. Skiing is a definate no no for me though.... I only tried going once and that was in 6th grade... and it was my first time ever, and my friend decides that 20 minutes on the bunny hill is good enough practice and drags me up to the chair lift. Yea, I barely made it half way down the hill when I started to pick up way to much speed and bailed, HARD. My knee is still messed up from that... but then again, I have bad knees as it is. Anyways... haven't skiied since.[/QUOTE] [color=darkslateblue] I so know where you're coming from. When I first learned snowboarding, I was with a friend, and we had been practicing on the bunny hill for about twenty minutes (which is like, [i]nothing[/i], considering how hard it is to pick up snowboarding basics). Then my dad shows up and forces us to go down the intermediate slope... It actually helped me, though. The bunny hill really didn't do anything for me. It was too small and short, so you barely had time while going down it to actually practice. For the first half of that intermediate course, I felt like dying. There was one point where there was so much snow that I fell, got up, and then fell immediately again four times in a row. Much pain. But then I was pretty pissed at myself, so I put on a 'screw it' attitude and I got it then. v_v[/color]

[color=darkslateblue] I've been skiing since I was five and I learned how to snowboard about three years ago, so I was just wondering how many OB users skied or snowboarded. :] I'm not really into summer sports, but I love winter sports a whole lot better. My interest in snowboarding rised up after watching the snowboarding events in the winter olympics this year, so I'm trying to get better at snowboarding. I've been freeriding (basically just riding the mountain) even since I've learned, and I'm looking into learning how to halfpipe. Seems fun, but of course it's probably harder than first learning how to snowboard. >_>I'm also looking into a snowboarding camp during the summer to learn halfpipe, so I wouldn't need to buy a new board for it at the moment. I wish snowboarding wasn't such an expensive sport. I've got an Atomic Tika 151, but I'm looking into saving up for a new board when I graduate high school (really want to go to Williams, Middlebury, or get a scholarship to one of the Colorado schools because of ski/snowboard resorts they offer). I'm hoping I can look into the future models of the Burton Feelgood and the Rome Blue, and future Atomic boards for women.[/color]

[quote name='Retribution][size=1']You're completely right, but the fact of the matter is that win or lose, it was something she shouldn't've attempted. All she had to do was sail on in to win the gold -- unfortunately she did not. She definitely had the right to show off, but she also had the right to accept whatever consequences become of it, be they good or bad.[/size][/quote] [color=darkslateblue] Yeah, I agree. I'm just saying that people should stop ragging on her so much. She probably has enough to deal with coming from her own criticism and regret, which is probably the worst out of everything. You can't expect someone to train for four years and then be ok with losing the gold.[/color]

[color=darkslateblue] I like natural beauty, so I don't really enjoy looking about piercings in places other than on ears and contacts such as cat-eye or some bizarre colored contacts bug me as well. I do like colored contacts that have natural eye colors, though. I would love to get some honey or hazel contacts, or gray ones. [/color]

[color=darkslateblue] What Jacobellis did was pretty unfortunate. In all seriousness, I think she still deserved the gold. If she had done that grab and won the gold, people would be praising her and be like "she wanted to show off a bit and she had the right to" and all that stuff. And fyi the grab she did really isn't difficult at all. It's probably the most common of snowboard grabs... Anyways. She's still a talented rider, and I hope she competes in the next winter olympics. [/color]

[color=darkslateblue] There is not correlation between my feelings of anger and pictures I draw of people being violent or anything. Like Ezekiel, I usually draw calm people... and I also just usually draw brooding people no matter how I feel, lol. I'm sure the point you brought up can be applied to other artists, though. I just think art is another way to release your emotions by taking your mind off of things and concentrating on drawing.[/color]

[quote name='Renate']x3 Can I love you? I'm loving you! Finally as big a Shaun fan as I am! I must say I don't really care about his skateboarding, I'm only interested in his snowboarding. XD He makes me want to be a snowboard champion myself! Plus, he's superfunny! [/quote] [color=darkslateblue] :] We will be Shaun White loving buddies. After watching the olympics this year I've really been wanting to learn freestyle snowboarding. Right now I've only done freeride (basically carving down mountain trails), but I think learning snowboard half-pipe would be amazing. I'm actually looking into this summer snowboarding camp so I can learn... Sorry this post was incredibly OT. v_v[/color]

[color=darkslateblue] I'm actually a believer that sometimes strangers' perceptions of you are the most accurate. I'm fully aware that in some cases, this is complete BS, but at times it's just very true. I don't know if it's been said by some famous person before, but I believe that people who are inclined in judging others and are often correct in their predictions have the hardest time knowing themselves. At times, anyway. I can't stress that enough. I like to think that most everyone doesn't know the whole part of me, and for each person, I'm sure that there is a side to them that a lot of their companions have no clue about. But it's also ridiculous to reject anything people say about you using a flimsy "they don't know the real me" attitude. In reality, there is probably at least a kernel of truth in what they say. As for me, I dunno. Sometimes people see me wearing my Duke hoodie and being quiet and they think I'm some genius-nerd. Sometimes people see me wearing Abercrombie & Fitch and being social with my friends and they think I'm flunking most of my classes. I like to describe myself as a social dork. *shrug* A preppy nerd. Whatever. As for my friends... we don't exactly sit in a circle every weekend and share our personal thoughts about each other, lol. I do know that I have one friend I get into argument with a lot, and we clash a lot, and she thinks I'm narrow-minded and insensitive. On this particular judgement, I would have to say she's made this judgement because when I argue with her, I'm not careful about what I say. I say about 59206830 racial jokes a day, and I tend to be very blunt with my opinions. On the other hand, when I go to the summer studies camp I go to at Duke every summer (like a nerd camp for high schoolers), people see me differently. My last two professors have labeled me as a mature thinker and more open-minded than others. The factors I bring into this is that the atmosphere at the camp is completely different from the world at high school. Everyone there is intelluctual and ambitious, and you just subconsciously act differently. I also have a passion for literature, and do very careful thinking when I'm attending the lit classes I have signed up for. Although this post may seem poorly argued, I think the answer to the main question is rather simple. Perceptions are based on the perceptor's mind and how the perceptee is at that moment acting (I don't even know if perceptor and perceptee are [i]words[/i]). Perceptions can vary, they can be consistent, and sometimes perceptions are not even made because the person being judged hides aspects of their life from everyone.[/color]

[color=darkslateblue] WOO SHAUN WHITE! I love snowboarding, so obviously I am obliged to love this guy. Amazing runs by him in the finals... just seems like a very talented guy. I saw some videos of his skateboarding, and while I'm not really a fan of skateboarding, it was still incredibly impressive. Anywho. Shaun White is my hero. I don't know about any other gals but I'd probably be willing to marry him just because. I was dissapointed when Ohno screwed up in the 1500 M short track, because I was hoping there would be another final match between Ohno and Ahn Hyun-Soo, considering Ohno's rivalry with Kim Dong-Sung from the 2002 Winter Olympics. Oh well. I am very happy that two South Koreans won first and second place in the 1500 M. :] I think Asians in general are good at this sport because of their usual small frame. (And just as a note, the rivalry thing that followed was incredibly dumb and immature at most. Koreans suck sometimes... except with the deal with Paul Hamm. He's a jackass.) I was also disappointed when Michelle Kwan dropped out... it's really a pity that one of the most talented figure skaters in the world cannot win the gold medal in Olympics now. And I can't get the point across enough: SHAUN WHITE SHAUN WHITE SHUAN WHITE OMG. [/color]

[color=darkslateblue] When you have everyone agreeing with you, usually something is wrong. *shrug* A lot of times I see many people presenting their opinion in the wrong way. They're either shoving it someone's face or they can't shut up about it. I tried to end an arugment with a friend by saying "let's agree to disagree" once, and she banged her hands on the table and said that "I'm going to make you see that you're wrong". Seriously, we were arguing about where we shopped. Shopping, for pete's sake. If you're going to shove something in someone's face, at least do it sneakily. Anyhow... er... long live free speech! :D Probably one of the biggest things I believe in. I'd have to stamp my foot on "limited speech". 1984, anyone?[/color]

[color=darkslateblue] I watched the first episode, and I found it to my liking. I sort of hoped that it wasn't an episodic anime after I finished the first episode, but whatever. I thought the idea of the mushi and such was great. The scene with the [spoiler]little boy and the mushi creatures around him walking around/floating made my happy. :] I love magical realism.[/spoiler] Anywho, I love the subdued mood of the anime. I've never watched Victorian Romance Emma, but I'm willing to give it a shot if it's like this one.[/color]

[QUOTE=Adahn][size=2]Ok, so you say that the flag represents the entire history of the country, and therefore should not be burned. You suggest that another symbol of only the current state of the country be destroyed. As far as I can tell, the most appropriate symbol for people dissatisfied with the country to destroy would be a likeness of the president. No other thing in the country represents its present state better than its leader. What are the consequences of being more appropriate? I can only imagine how dire they would be.[/size] [size=2][/size] [size=2]So, I must stick with my argument. I know what the flag represents to some people (the entire history of the country), but it also represents where the country is, and where it is headed. Since the destruction of the most appropriate symbol is off limits, the flag serves nicely as a second choice.[/size] [size=2][/size] [size=2]You all seem to pride yourselves on the histories of your country, but you must remember that the history of your country is probably not all that great. If the flag represents people who fought to keep our country free and good, it also represents slavery, the absence of women's rights, and all the good and bad that this country has seen since its conception. There is no purpose in protesting the past, and I can almost assure you that people who burn flags are protesting the present state of the country. If, however, people do burn flags in protest of the history of our country, then you may look amicably on them, for they surely lack the same number of chromosomes that you all are blessed with.[/size][/QUOTE] [color=darkslateblue] Firstly, I never said people should destroy symbols that only represent the now. I'm not telling everyone to go beat up the president rather than burn flags. I understand that many of the people who burn flags are protesting against the current state of things, but I just really disapprove of it. In my mind, there is no way of destroying a part of something that stands for everything. I mean, why do people have to [i]destroy[/i] symbols in order to protest? I find that persuasive talking and more moving actions would have a much higher effect of making an actual difference. I do pride myself on this country's history. I know about the native americans and slavery and womens' rights and Jim Crow laws and the Japanese camps, and I knew beforehand that when I said the flag represents everything, it really does represent everything. So why should be disrespecting the men and women who have died trying to liberate and protect us? Yeah, the US has done some really disgusting things in its past, but so has every other country. People who have gone through thick and thin to try and change the wrong they saw in America, and I find it disrespectful that people now think it's ok to burn it away. Again, there are more effective ways of getting your point across. [/color]

[color=darkslateblue] I just discovered this tv show at beginning of it's current season, and I was thinking to myself why the heck I hadn't known about it before. I love this show! It's so hilarious to watch the designers freak out and say stuff like "Where the hell is my chiffon!?".... and I also love fashion. :] Some episodes are downers for me because I don't like any of the outfits (the lingerie one this season was incredibly bad), but I still enjoy watching the whole process that designers go through. Obviously, seeing as I am a teenage girl, I love Daniel V., but my other favorites are Nick, Chloe, Andre, and Santino, just because he's so evil. For those of you who don't know about the show, it's basically like America's Next Top Model, except instead of models competing it's fashion designers. They usually have 24 hours to create an outfit based on the topic they are given and then are judged by a panel of judges. [/color]