James

[color=#707875]I haven't read Harry Potter 5. So someone can jump in and talk about that if they like. ~_^ But try not to give away too much. Hehe Actually, I'm nearly finished reading Harry Potter 4 right now. I don't really love the series or anything, I'm mostly reading it because I have nothing else to read. And I always need to have a book by my bed. ^_^[/color]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Raiha [/i] [B][COLOR=royalblue]You're not quite grasping the concept here James. The point I'm trying to make here is that we have untapped potential. Some of which can be used to do taht. Physics. Physics have nothing to do with it. The mind can exert power, obviously. Or maybe you've never meet people with forceful character.[/COLOR] [/B][/QUOTE] [color=#707875]That doesn't make any sense. Telekinetic power is an act of physics...it's an act of movement and physical manipulation. Having a forceful character has absolutely nothing to do with the ability to project telekinetic force and manipulate an object. I still don't see how a person's brain can physically affect objects that surround it. If you talk about untapped potential of the brain, I'd only say that it would relate to the ability to memorize things...or to perform very complex mathematics. But I can't see any way for a lump of flesh in your skull to magically maniuplate objects that sit on the other side of the room. lol[/color]

[color=#707875]I'm glad someone finally took the initiative to make this thread. Well done. ^_^ Regarding your art...if you submit art to the wrong category and it gets approved, you can fix that. You can delete your art (in your Backroom setup on myOtaku) and simply resubmit it in the correct category. That'll fix your problem. ^_^ Regarding fan fiction...this is a site that we are working on. It will be going up soon. And it'll be just like Fan Art. It'll also connect to myOtaku.[/color]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Valen [/i] [B]Thank you Raiha. I have to agree with you on that too, I mean, we barely use what? 5%, maybe 10% of our brains? It's highly likely that with the right exercises, anyone could pull it off... if they have the patience... [/B][/QUOTE] [color=#707875]We've already used another thread to establish that the 10% thing is a misnomer. And even if it were the case, how do you translate 90% of dormant brain into telekinetic power? Think about the sheer physics of it. How does your brain inside your skull influence the physics of an external object? The logic just completely destroys the whole concept. lol[/color]

[color=#707875]It's that time again...I need a new book to read. The thing is, I really don't have a clue about [i]what[/i] to read. And I know that some of you are avid readers with fantastic taste! So, I thought I'd start a little book club of sorts here. ~_^ I guess that right now, what I'm looking for...is for people to recommend books for myself (and others) to read. So, list the title and author...and maybe write a little synopsis and mini-review of it. Or something along those lines anyway. The book can be fiction or non-fiction, too. For me personally, if I'm reading fiction, I prefer science fiction or fantasy. There are variations on that, but it really depends on whether the story captures my imagination. I generally don't like to read fiction about "real life", if that makes sense. So anyway, I'll kick the discussion off. ^_^ [b]Geisha of Gion [size=1]Mineko Iwasaki[/size][/b] This is the most recent book that I have read. I also recommended it to Zidargh, who also enjoyed it. If you're interested in Japanese culture, I guarantee that you'll love it. And even if you're not, you may still enjoy it. The book is basically about the life of Mineko Iwasaki, who is Japan's most famous Geisha for a generation. The autobiography basically talks about her experiences as a Geisha in Gion Kobu and how she "rose to the top", so to speak. The book also describes what it's like to live as a Geisha. It's somewhat like living as a nun, but with more freedom in some ways...and more constraints in others. Geisha are truly fascinating to study. Their entire life is surrounded by mystery and magic. And their careers are incredibly interesting. For those of you who don't know, a Geisha is basically a hostess. That's the most crude way of describing her job. She is actually a number of professions tied into one person -- she's a professional hostess (Geisha are famous for their Tea Ceremonies in Japan) and she is also a professional dancer. Geisha perform all sorts of traditional dance across Japan and this is a huge part of their career. [spoiler]There is one moment in the book where Mineko describes a visit by Prince Charles to Japan. She describes a moment where he took her fan from her and signed it without her permission. Mineko was so upset (as it was her favourite fan), that she ordered her maid to dispose of it that very evening. She thought he had ruined it. I found that pretty interesting. ~_^ Also, she recalls how she sat next to Queen Elizabeth II during a state dinner. The Queen did not speak to her all night and basically ignored her. Mineko felt that this was very rude behavior...so she deliberately sat very close to Prince Phillip and flirted with him. She recalls the icy stare that she received from the Queen on that night. lol[/spoiler] Mineko also talks about other famous people who she hosted, including Henry Kissinger and others. It's very interesting. So, I could go on and on about this book here. Go and borrow it from your local library or better yet, buy it. You won't regret it. It even has some interesting photographs and historical details about Japan. Great stuff. So there you have it. Anyone else got a recommendation for me? ^_^[/color]

[color=#707875]Wait a minute. You just said that an anime that can make you think and can put a smile on your face is worthy of being a good anime. Yet, in the same breath, you're asking Semjaza [i]not[/i] to think. You're asking him to look past the flaws. I can understand the whole idea of not wanting to criticize something to death...but if Trigun is encouraging you to think about its storyline, surely that only makes Semjaza's complaints even more legitimate.[/color]

[color=#707875]Feriomkr...firstly, you're posting this in the wrong forum. Secondly, it's a BMP, which is the incorrect format. Please be a bit more careful with this sort of thing in future. You can resubmit your card in JPEG or GIF format if you like, in the correct forum (Greeting Card Workshop, in Art & Design).[/color]

[color=#707875]I have to agree with doukeshi03 here. Religion is a personal belief system...it's something that every individual makes some sort of decision on. Your religious beliefs do not necessarily affect those around you...nor are they necessarily anyone's business. It's mostly a question of how much you want to tell your parents and what you think is appropriate for them to know. If I made a decision today about following a particular religion, I wouldn't hide it from anyone, but I also wouldn't shout it from the rooftops. It's like having a particular political ideology. Some people like to keep their political beliefs entirely secret, while others want to go around and preach to everyone. And most people probably fall somewhere in the middle. So as I said, it's just a question of how much you think you need to explain to those around you.[/color]

[color=#707875]Aw. Hehe. I remember when I used to say "10 and eight months". ~_^ I've never caused chaos in stores...though I probably giggled too much as a little kid and annoyed fellow shoppers. o_O Other than that, I don't think I've ever gotten really rowdy or anything.[/color]

[color=#707875]The whole marriage thing is extremely old and tired in my book...like a dead horse being dragged around a cornfield by a drunk hippie in a cement truck. But, more to the point, I'm not actually married on here. Although Shy is my fiance. We've not had the chance for a ceremony yet though...so I guess someone can nominate themself to be the minister. ~_^ Of course, that means the honeymoon will come sooner. I don't know how online honeymoons work, but I'm sure they're entertaining.[/color]

[color=#707875]I didn't play all the way through CC, so maybe my perspective isn't as well-rounded on it. In fact, I barely even remember the story. lol I had borrowed the game from a friend and given it back about a week later...but I was very disappointed to do so. I've never bought it, but it was an RPG that really grabbed my interest. I must stay that I preferred CC to FFX in most ways, except the battle system. I've never played a game where I've enjoyed battles so much, as in FFX. I just feel that FFX got the formula so damn right in that regard. ~_^ Although, I preferred CC's battle system to the one in FFVII, for example. So it wasn't all negative, as such. I agree with Tony to the extent that FFX was goofy in quite a few areas. In fact...I really didn't enjoy the FFX story at all. It just seems so cliche and boring. So many of the characters were flat and lifeless...the whole thing just seemed tired to me. I was dying to forward through a lot of the talking in the game, because it bored me to death. I actually played the game primarily for the battles and little else. Now, if only I could get a FFVII-2 with FFVII's story, CC's music and characters and FFX's battle system. Am I crazy? Yes. Crazy like a fox.[/color]

[color=#707875]The Original, that is a fantastic attitude. And I wish that I saw more of it. You can see that my job is ideally to strike some sort of balance. I'll try to do that even further with OBv7. Hopefully it will be even more enjoyable for everybody, regardless of their tastes.[/color]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Ravenstorture [/i] [B][color=darkgreen][font=gothic] Australia is racist. I'm sad to say it, but it's pretty much true. Our prime minister has not apologised to the aboriginies, and although heaps gathered and did so anyway, the vast majority will still harbour some form of resentment, anger at the benefits for the ethnic races, fear of asian immigration, hatred of the middle east. [/color][/font] [/B][/QUOTE] [color=#707875]Correction, [b]Queensland[/b] is racist. lol I have never noticed a sign of racism in Melbourne/Victoria whatsoever. Even Melbourne's Lord Mayor is Chinese...and he's a very popular man down here. In my area, there is a massive Japanese population. I would say that about a third of the people in Glen Waverley are Japanese or Chinese. And if you go into the more busy inner-city areas, you see nothing but asian guys in hotted up Japanese cars. lol I think that your view is more a view of the current Government. It's not necessarily the view of Australia as a whole. I mean, some would say that George W. Bush is racist because of the war in Iraq...but that's really an easy cop out. There's no real analysis in that kind of statement. I do believe that the Prime Minister should apologize to Aborigines. But, I think I'd prefer to see an apology that comes from the Parliament (maybe a vote or something). Something more widespread. I can tell you right now that the majority of people who disregard Aborigines are older people (like my grandmother for example). People of my generation are quite the opposite; I see more crazy left-wingers than anything else in my age group. And that's both inside and outside school. So, it's important to differentiate the Government from the entire nation. I don't think that people are afraid of immigration; they just want legal immigration. I don't see a problem with that line of thinking and I don't feel that it equates to racism.[/color]

[color=#707875]Discriminating against someone based on their race/gender/sexuality/religion/nationality et al is unfortunately something that still exists in most places. I guess that the good side to it is that many younger people are starting to grow up and lose their ignorance on these subjects. And I generally think that society will always move toward being more accepting of people with differences...and this is a direct result of education. I mean, what is racism? Why does it exist? Racism is almost another word for ignorance. Racism and ignorance go hand-in-hand. People discriminate against other people simply because they don't understand them...or at least, they are ignorant enough not to be tolerant. I agree that you can't legislate racism away. It doesn't work that way. Racism only erodes by time and education. I mean, our generation...the generation of people who generally visit these boards, are probably less racist than our parents' generation. And they were less racist than theirs, etc. I think it's also true that the next generation of people will be far more tolerant than we are at this point in time. So, I see it as a natural progression. Those people who are racist probably aren't aware that the human genome project made some distinct findings about race. I remember the head of that project saying that the genetic difference between two white males is the same (in percentage terms) as the difference between a white male and a black female. In other words, our genetics are somewhat different between individuals...but no "race" is actually genetically inferior or substantially different to other races. Bleh, I hope that made sense. lol Of course, if you're [i]not[/i] a racist person, you don't really need to be told that. But, it's an interesting tidbit. [/color]

[color=#707875]Moving things with your mind has never been proven by science. And I'd say that very few cults would even approve of it. lol I have to agree with Boba here, yet again. I have to wonder if some OB members have had something nasty slipped into their drinking water lately. o_O[/color]

[color=#707875]Oh, Shinji. When man finally lands on Mars, I can tell you right now that a group of hairbrained fruitcakes will jump out of the woodwork the day after and declare it to be a government conspiracy. They will also mention the fact that they have the Roswell aliens stored in their basement, before drawing breath.[/color]

[color=#707875]I can understand why New Yorkers first thought that this was a terrorist attack. It's a very logical conclusion to draw, especially after the experiences that NYC has been through over the years. But once it was established that it wasn't a terror attack, I'm sure that most people settled down and realized what the situation was all about. And I guess that primarily, at this point, most people in the area don't care what the cause was. They just want to get the power back on as soon as possible. I guess that it really depends how long the power is out for, before you can start declaring whether or not this is a very major incident. I mean, yes, it's major and unusual. But if the power is only off for a couple of days, it's certainly not a huge emergency. And already, power has been restored to quite a large area. From what I've seen on the American news channels, it seems like the situation is being cleared up relatively quickly. So that's good news for all concerned, I'm sure. Especially given the heat at the moment. This reminds me of a few years ago, when the main natural gas facility in Victoria suffered from an explosion (which was due to someone making a mistake or something...it wasn't an attack or anything). The explosion destroyed part of the primary infrastructure and as a result, the entire state was out of gas for about two weeks or so. It may not seem like gas is as important as electricity, but at our house, we have a natural gas system for hot water and a bunch of other things. It sucked not having hot water for two weeks. lol And our stove/oven is natural gas powered as well. So, that was also out for two weeks. In that sense, I know what it's like to have some sort of power outage. It's a big inconvenience, for sure.[/color]

[color=#707875]I can only add to that by saying that OtakuBoards is closely linked with theOtaku.com. theOtaku.com's success is what originally drove OB's growth. And, to some extent, theOtaku.com's community has been sourced from OB. OtakuBoards' community really helped to push myOtaku, for example. I think that mostly, you have to have good quality content. And you have to be able to push your site. OtakuBoards has never needed any advertising, because we've been directly affiliated/linked with theOtaku. And, theOtaku.com is a [b]much[/b] bigger site than OtakuBoards. The regular visitor base for theOtaku.com is many times what we get here. But yeah, as Boba said...there is no surefire way. You just have to work hard and develop your ideas. [/color]

[color=#707875]*cries* I give up. I think that at this point, I want to brainwash myself so that I actually believe this stuff...so that it is no longer a source of frustration.[/color]

[color=#707875]Jenna, myOtaku is a feature of theOtaku.com (as opposed to an OB-only thing). So, that might be why you haven't yet heard of it. ^_^ [url]www.myotaku.com[/url]

[color=#707875]I hated Scary Movie 2, but I did like the guy with the weird little arm. His voice made me laugh..."come over here, my child". lol But, generally the movie sucked. I really get annoyed by that guy who smokes weed. His laugh just makes me want to go him with a rusty fork. Ahem. The first movie was okay, but certainly nothing too interesting. It's the sort of thing I'd watch if I were bored. The third looks interesting based on the previews...but I'll have to wait and see. If it's at all like the second movie, I definitely won't like it.[/color]

[color=#707875]Hm, I probably should have nominated someone. Semji is right...there aren't enough people on this list. But, I'll have a shot. 1) Shy 2) Charles 3) wrist cutter 4) Desbreko 5) Dragon Warrior 6) Transtic Nerve Blah. Only 6. There are at least two dozen people that I would vote for off the top of my head. ^_^;[/color]

[color=#707875]I recommend sending a PM Charles way. He's responsible for name changing at OtakuBoards. If he has time, he'll change it for you. And please...do not use Otaku Lounge for this type of thread. At least use Suggestions & Feedback to ask questions. [/color]

[color=#707875]Super Mario RPG was alright, though I think I preferred Paper Mario. Paper Mario was less static...it just worked a lot better. I'm definitely looking forward to this game. I buy nearly anything with Mario on the cover, depending on the game. I really enjoyed Paper Mario though...so, I expect to enjoy this title. Yet another GBA release that I want. X_X[/color]

[color=#707875]We've had this question many times before...but I understand why it's being asked. Basically, "otaku" has several meanings. One meaning (perhaps the more negative version) is kind like "hardcore geek", essentially. Or in other words, someone who follows something obsessively and never leaves the house. So, in this context, "otaku" is used to describe hardcore anime fans; people who live for anime. ~_^ Over the years, the word has been used in English simply as a way of describing people who are hardcore fans of something. In a way, it's taken on its own meaning in English-speaking countries. In terms of the house reference...yes, you're right. And perhaps "house" or "home" is appropriate too. theOtaku.com...a "home" or "house" of anime. Maybe that works as well. ~_^[/color]