Sandy

[quote name='Who?']Well, the whole reason incest was ok in those times was because God was trying to populate the Earth, and I can only assume that birth defects didn't occur because, simply enough, he made them not. That's why he's God, lol.[/quote] Sure, you can explain everything by that... ;P It's the same as "the wizard did it!" Your faith is a practical little thing, isn't it? It takes away all needs to think for yourself, or actually wonder about anything ever. Simple solution to simple people, I say...

It's sad that you don't see yourself how wrong it is to "offer" drugs to a kid (I know offer is not the right word here, but I can't think of another word for it now). :( It's also sad that you believe drugs to be an answer to depression and whatnot, when there are many more healthier and beneficial options around. I'm quite the tee-totaller myself, the strongest stuff I use is tea and sugar, but still I'm not judging people on the basis of what they pour into their bodies. It would be wrong of me, as a future social worker of some sort. But what I greatly recent is glorifying the use of drugs and alcohol, especially when there's kids who can hear it. They're toxins, you can't get pass that. Their abuse and over-use have ruined millions of lives - they nearly ruined mine, although by a second hand. I simply don't see what's the point in using them! Getting high can't be so good that it would excuse all those deaths caused by drugs! Oh well, this is not the right thread for this kind of subject, so I won't go on. But you're free to PM me if you like, Ilium. I'm trying my damnest not to judge you by your actions. ;)

[QUOTE=Ilium][COLOR=DarkRed] Awww comon, shrooms and weed do NOT mess up your life. It's Crack, Heroin, PCP and that ilk that'll **** you up. Shrooms and Weed (Ok, the smoke MAYBE) have no lasting effect. Trust me, pick up some shrooms for your favourit dealer, grab a copy of Sultans of Swing, and things can really pick up.[/COLOR][/QUOTE] I'm sorry, but you just lost the respect I had for you, Ilium (although I think you couldn't care less). :( You have the [I]nerves[/I] to say to a little kid (that Tearsanddust obviously is) that taking some drugs will make his/her life that much better?! That's sickening in it's wrongness! Although your "shrooms and weed" might not be as bad as the heavier drugs, they're right up there with alcohol. They DO have a lasting effect, although it's not instantly visible. They cause damage to braincells, lungs and other organs. They make your mind dizzy and affect your senses. In an underdeveloped kid the effects are many times worse! I don't care if you want to get kicks out of toxins, but I strongly advice you not to spread "the good word" around or you'll find yourself in deep ****, in real life as well as in this here forum! [B]To Tearsanddust[/B], my advice to get out of depression is simply a change of attitude. Think positive, it's as simple as that! It's not always easy, but you don't have to be happy-go-lucky all the time. ;) Inspiration comes when it comes, you can't really rush it. You can seek it though, in things that interest you. Or you can just relax and let your imagination flow, the best ideas come out that way. ;D

[QUOTE=Ilium][COLOR=DarkRed] What would you think if I told you that The Great Whizzbang created the earth by blowing his nose in the Kerchief of the Universe? [/COLOR][/QUOTE] You'd surely gain devoted followers, and after two thousand years people everywhere would worship the Almighty Whizzbang and his son Ilium who descended from the heavens in a roll of toilet paper (which would be a sacred object that shan't be touched). Few would dare to question this "truth", and that's the way religion works. I agree with you that the people who really believe in the symbolic, mostly naïve stories in the Bible are true to the word have to be a bit crazy. On the other hand tough, aren't we all? ;D You say that religiousness is outdated, and I think you're partly right, Ilium, but religion has always been around, in one form or another, so I believe people will always have some sort of faith in something. Because I do not believe that Christianity is the true thing, I think the people of year 3000 will surely worship something completely different, but still, they'll worship something. And asides those who "have faith", there will always be those who don't, and those who just don't know or don't care. ;)

[QUOTE=Retribution][SIZE=1]As for the adversity in your life -- evil inflicted upon humans has nothing to do with God's actions. He gave us free will (or so I believe), and so things like the Holocaust, the dropping of the atom bombs, etc were all deeds done by humans alone. God's not being a ***** -- and I kind of resent that you said that -- he's giving us humans free will, and you're seeing the evil come out in us. [/SIZE][/QUOTE] I'm sorry, but I'm not convinced. See, this is one of the points that always manage to confuse me. You Christians claim that God's work can be seen in every day life, yet when one sees bad things happen, you Christians somehow take God out of the equation, saying that God gave people free will and they use it for evil. So your God is only around when good things happen, and he turns his back on bad things? I'm not an agnostic to the least, so there's no point in trying to convert me, but I find it interesting how people with faith in unseeable things explain their beliefs. Too often I just see people desperately clinging to something they were taught, word to word. As if the whole truth about the universe and its infinite mysteries is contained within one book written 2000 years ago by numerous unknown sources and compiled a little later by a quarreling group of old men, and afterwards translated to countless languages by countless translators. And yet people want to believe that every word in "the Book" is from a supreme being, thus the ultimate truth. I realize many people (the non-fundamentalistic Christians) have figured out that not everything said in the Bible fits our modern way of living, but still there are few favorite parts that tend to come up that are abused for an excuse to discrimination (mainly meaning the parts about women and homosexuals). Surely there's many good and honorable morals in the Bible, but do you honestly think that they wouldn't exist without the Bible? That without the Book, people would feel free to kill each other freely, steal stuff and rape rampantly? Do you honestly believe humans are evil in nature, even in birth, and only godly blessing can "cure" us? If that's so, your view of the world is way more depressing than mine. PS. Now I wish I wouldn't've written to this thread in the first place, but now it's too late to back away - I feel compelled to debate! I just hope this isn't going to turn into a flame-war like so many other religious threads before this. I personally am trying my best to keep it polite and reasonable...

[QUOTE=Bombu][color=darkred] As for Resident Evil, I find some of the puzzles amongst the games to be good past timers, but most of the time you're just required to back-track your routes. You know, find item X to acquire item Y in order to retrieve item Z. That kind of thing.[/color][/QUOTE] I prefer my puzzles to be zombie-free. ;) There's nothing more agonizing than to try to find some minuscule item while fighting off hordes of undead boogies. :( Seriously, I played Resident Evil Nemesis for a few hours, but then the game just went too freaky to me (much thanks goes to that hulky bastard Nemesis), and I didn't touch it after that... :nervous:

[QUOTE=Baron Samedi][size=1] Often, it seems that religious people think that 'everyone needs spirituality', as Rasetsutaisho said. And that is rubbish. I'm doing fine without it.[/size][/QUOTE] When I went to the local church's office to resign myself from the institution as soon as I turned eighteen, a minister came to talk to me, as if to direct a stray lamb back to the right path. I felt a bit uneasy, but we talked about my decision for a good five minutes or so. At the end, the minister had nothing else to say than (free translation to English) "you think like this now when everything is alright in your life, but you will surely need spiritual guidance when you face sickness or death". It felt a bit odd to me, as if the church was only there for desperate people. What the minister didn't know was that I had already gone through hell in my past life, and not once did I kneel down and pray to some higher powers to save me. That's because the hell I lived in showed me that there was no benevolent higher powers, there was just life in all of it's quirky coincidences. Of course some devoted Christians might see my suffering as a trial from the God, but if God's such a *****, I really don't want anything to do with him/her/it, even if God existed. I'm not bitter, it's just that higher powers don't fit into my view on world and life. And mind you, my views aren't pessimistic or depressive at the least. I believe that in every human being there's some good and some bad - the balance might just be way off at some cases. ;)

[QUOTE=Bloodseeker]You want some good puzzles, go out and buy Myst and its sequels. I remember Riven and Exile having some real mind benders... but that was also several years ago... [/QUOTE] I'd like to disagree with you. I bought about a year ago both Myst and Riven in the same package. At first I enjoyed Myst quite a lot, but then it began to go too difficult, as nothing was explained in the game - not what you should do next and why you should do it. Then I found this neat-o little help button, and the rest of the game was a wheeze after that. Well, after that I started playing Riven. To my surprise, the neat-o help option was gone, and I was stranded in a strange world all my own, with no objectives and no goals, just trying to figure out what the feck I was supposed to do next. Of course, I got stuck and haven't played the game since. :/ So there is something of a balance that is required to good puzzles - they should be mind-intriguing and challenging, but not impossible to figure out without a walkthrough.

I fell in love with the puzzles of Golden Sun: The Lost Age (haven't played the prequel). I mean, you'd have to use magic to remove obstacles, move objects, and find hidden paths. The dungeons seemed very innovative to me, and I enjoyed them thoroughly. I should probably start a new game now that I don't remember clearly how each dungeon went... I've also played one installment of Tomb Raider, and there were some awesome dungeons that required for you to really work your brains (or read a walkthrough). I also finally found a good excuse to know all the names and looks of the nine planets in order, as one puzzle required you to put them in correct order in a planetarium. ;)

I have to add to this, after doing some research, that there are [B]nine countries[/B] where homosexuality is punishable for death. They are (according to the links provided beneath): [list][*]Afghanistan [*]Iran [*]Mauritania [*]Nigeria [*]Pakistan [*]Saudi-Arabia [*]Sudan [*]United Arab Emirates [*]Yemen[/list] Here's a link to a WikiPedia site concerning this issue: [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_laws_of_the_world[/url] And here's another link concerning sodomy laws: [url]http://www.sodomylaws.org/world/world.htm[/url] Tough read, I must say.

It's shocking to see that a part of the world still lives in the medieval times, isn't it? I find it odd that this issue hasn't been discussed in the past, but on the other hand it's good that it came up now, so that people can really perceive the barbaric laws that are in effect in islamic countries. I'm not saying that the World Police should attack Iran next (because what would that solve?), I'm saying that international pressure should put upon the middle-eastern countries to change their laws according to the human rights, simply because living up to the human rights doesn't do any harm to anybody but much good to everybody. Gawd, didn't I just sound naïvely idealistic there? Too bad the world doesn't work that way...

[QUOTE=RiflesAtRecess] I am also looking forward to FFXII and KH2 this year! I keep hearing that FFXII is a lot like Vagrant Story, one of my favorite games ever. And KH2 is... well... Kingdom Hearts... Nuff said.[/QUOTE] I'm sorry, but you aren't getting FFXII this year. The Japanese release date announced at the Square-Enix Party just this weekend is 16th March 2006, so it'll probably hit US by summer and us poor wee Europeans in fall that year. Long wait, sigh... Oh, adding to my previous post within this thread, I also choose Shadow Hearts Covenant for the reason that it's the only game in the poll that I've actually played. :sweat:

Are you sure that those are the only RPGs released in 2004? Because if they aren't, then the whole poll is pretty pointless. ;) My vote went to [B]Shadow Hearts: Covenant[/B], because the game has an inventive battle system, a hilarious cast of characters, an original storyline tied to our own history, and incredible amounts of sarcastic humor - the best kind. :D I'm totally waiting for the next instalment of the SH-series, From The New World! I hope it'll be as good as the prequel, if not even better.

[QUOTE=ChibiHorsewoman][color=darkviolet]Until the other person decides that there's something better and isn't willing to try and work things out.... [/color][/QUOTE] I'm very aware of that. ;) I expressed myself badly, I meant to stress it differently, like this: "Marriage is a SYMBOL of commitment!" I was talking about how marriage is nothing (?) more than a symbol. People can very well live without it and be totally committed to each other, and on the other hand people who marry each other can cheat without a bad consciense. So, I think this whole "saving self until marriage" shouldn't be taken as granted as so many of you are taking it. Hope I got my point across this time. ;)

Thanks, Jamesy. You spoke for me very well. ;) It's sometimes very difficult for me to get my point across due to me not having English as my first language. :/ So, Goddess. We actually agreed on some of the things. I haven't got anything against marriage, I was just trying to point out that it's way too overvalued. Like in the past, when sex before marriage was a horrid sin. Kamuro, that "sexmap" of yours really was unbelievably hilarious! Especially that one guy who'd done it with eight girls and one guy (who had also done it with two of the eight girls). I really believe that the map is actually real. ;)

What is this whole "get married" issue with you guys?! That's very concervative to think that two people can't really love each other until they get married. Do you even know what marriage is? It's a symbol of commitment! The idea of marrying somebody is when you think you're ready to spend the rest of your life with that person. But many couples spend their entire lives together [I]without[/I] getting married, and they don't even feel the need to go through the ceremony. To some people it's not even possible to get married in the laws of the majority of countries (speaking of us homosexuals of course). Marriage has ultimately little to do with loving somebody. Love comes first, then marriage. But I believe that love is enough, it in itself is a great symbol of commitment - a very natural one since it's a feeling we get inside. So why wait until you get married if you've already found somebody to love and who you want to share your everything with? What's the point? As I said earlier, marriage doesn't make sex any better or worthwhile, it's the love!

I sincerely think that if you've reached middle-age and you still haven't had sex, that then it's hardly your choice. ;) But of course I don't go judging people who "don't get laid", it doesn't define you as a person. In fact, my cherry got picked, so to speak, only two months ago by my first (and hopefully only) boyfriend, who was a virgin himself too. We're both 21. The sex, it's lovelicious and we enjoy it everytime we meet, but that really didn't change us at all. It changed what we did with our time given, but we're basically the same two silly gay guys we were before that. I was extremely lucky to lose my butt-virginity to someone I sincerely love and adore, and who loves me in return. [I]That[/I] is worth waiting for. [I]Marriage[/I] has nothing to do with sex, it won't make it feel any better. It's [I]the love[/I], people! The love! :love:

Excuse me, but where exactly is all that language, violence and perverted romance you warned about? I saw one "darn", and if that counts as a swear word, I don't want to live in this world anymore. :/ This is a friggin' [I]Pokémon[/I] fanfic, is there any need for such materials in this?! It seems like ever since the ratings came compulsory, there has been a [LVS]-mark on each and every rpg/fanfic published! It's quite ridiculous, actually. I'm not bashing your story, though, it builds up nicely. ;D

[QUOTE=MistressRoxie][color=#9933ff] Why are they so interested in bombing London? They should leave Englanders alone, because you guys are cool. =/ Can't they cause terror in some other country - say... France? ~_~ [/color][/QUOTE] Well that was a cruel thing to say, Roxie! Don't tell me you're one of those "France is against freedom, they don't approve us bombing Middle East into ruins!! They must die like their Muslim pals!!" -type of people! I can't believe it of you... :( Of course the extremists bomb England and USA instead of France, because those two are the most influential countries involved in this whole lunatic "Anti-terrorist war"! Anyway, it's very sad that you Americans hate French only because they don't agree with you. FYI, most Finnish people don't agree with this war either. War has never solved anything in the entire history of mankind. It only spreads hatred and ill will. You should think more about what you say, Roxie, because with your comment you might've just made somebody feel even more against you Americans.

I finished the book the day before yesterday, and I've been reading your opinions about it ever since. I felt like contributing, but honestly, I have nothing to add. I liked the book very much, although I didn't drool all over it (my bf would've killed me if I'd done that literally :P ). I have to say I agree with those of you who think [spoiler]Snape is a goody goody and killed Dumbledore because Dumby told him to[/spoiler], only because it is a very Rowling-like plot-twist - she tries to avoid the most straightforward solutions, that's one of the reasons I love H.P.-books. ;) I loved the fact that Harry [spoiler]had grown out from the previous book's ANGST!!!11[/spoiler], and that Draco's character got developed finally. I don't understand, though, why so many of you are whining about why there was so little of [insert favorite character] - there are already so many characters in the story, one book cannot possibly concentrate on every single one of them! I am sure that the seventh book will tell what happens to everybody, this book's purpose was to [spoiler]recount Voldy's background and clarify what exactly Harry must do in order to beat Voldy[/spoiler]. As for [spoiler]Dumbledore's death, I believe he fulfilled his task in the story, and so he was removable for dramatic effect[/spoiler]. I know I sound a bit too technical when it comes to the plotline, but I just enjoy analyzing great stories, trying to delve into what makes them as good as they are. And I must say, the storyline of Harry Potter books is one of the most unique and engaging I've ever come across. :D

I totally agree with you that the plot had more holes than a strainer, but it doesn't make the movie any less impressive, and the characters were believable even if the story wasn't. I think the movie didn't even try to make perfect sense (few sci-fi movies do), but concentrated more on the emotional side. It certainly touched my emotions, I didn't even bother to try to explain the plotholes to myself.

Well, now the book is out, and spoilers are about. I'm totally paranoid right now about spoilers, and I'm steering clear from all H.P.-related site. ;) By now many many people have read the book, and some of them take pleasure in ruining it for others... :( Anyway, the lineparty was pretty fun, except I ended up sleeping for most of the night. X( But the younger kids (gotta admire their energy) kept it going all through the night by dancing and doing waves with their hands and shouting (way too much). It was nice to finally meet some of my bf's friends though (and over hundred complete strangers :p ). My bf took hundreds of photographs from the lineparty, and some of them can be viewed [url=http://www.stayoung.org/potter/lineparty05/][U]here[/U][/url]. ;) Unfortunately I'm not in any of the photos (don't know why...). :/ But I'm getting my hands on the book on Monday, after bf has read it. I must admit that I can hardly wait... :D

I'm sorry, but I think there's no other solution to this than to edit your or the other person's post. The problem is quite minuscule, because it happens rarely, and even more rarely the two posts conflict with each other. Well, it [I]has[/I] happened to me in an RPG, but it's really not a big effort to correct the post. ;)

I whole-heartedly agree with previous posters. Bullying has absolutely no good sides in it, it does nothing good to either the victim or the bully. Sure, some kids might say they enjoy bullying others, that it makes them feel superior and strong, but I believe it only enforces the bad feeling they have inside. Same goes with the victims, they might grow up to be stronger persons because of that, but they will always carry the scars within them. Many aren't even that lucky, they become introverted or scared or paranoid or skeptical, or in worst case take their own life (or even the lives of innocent others). The talk about bullying being a "rite-of-passage" that everybody must endure is total b.s., in my opinion. Nobody should endure ridiculing or violence or social isolation - they only cause problems in the future. Although I loath bullies and bullying, I don't think it's quite the same between siblings, because if you live with somebody for few decades you form a special bond. Surely siblings fight, they might even hurt each other seriously, but as long as they can also play with each other, have fun and care for each other, it's more acceptable. Of course it isn't necessary that siblings hit each other or give each other hard time, it's just not as detrimental as bullying in school or elsewhere. Oh, and welcome to the OtakuBoards, Faust! You'll surely like it here. ;D

[QUOTE=Ailes de Velour][font=arial][color=darkorchid][size=1] I had to ban Maxi and Cervantes. People don't know how to not buttonmash.[/font][/color][/size][/QUOTE] I totally agree with you, Ailes! I'm envious of the computer-controller Cervantes, for he does all kinds of neat tricks, but if I try to play him, all I can do is slash the air... :( Same goes with Maxi and Ivy - I just hate their technical guts! :mad: