James

[color=olive]Actually you want to give her an apple with testosterone. As far as I know it's testosterone that partly governs libido (don't forget that women have both testosterone and estrogen - they just have more of the latter). [/color]

[color=olive]As a practical matter, you're this girl's friend but you also have strong romantic feelings for her. I think the worst thing someone can do - if they know a friend has strong romantic feelings for them - is to lead them on. This isn't always done intentionally. This girl can tell you she "needs space" but if she ends up telling you that for years - without ever actually outright saying "No, I don't want to be in a relationship" - that's an example of leading you on. I'm not saying she's doing that right now. However, I do think that you sometimes need to stand back and look at your emotional wellbeing. If you remain this girl's friend for a long time but she doesn't commit one way or the other (i.e. friendship or relationship), my advice would be to reconsider your position with her. Ultimately I think it's usually very important to be clear with people. If this really causes you problems, I would just literally tell her that you're interested in more than a friendship and you really feel you need an answer one way or the other. Even if she goes out with you, it doesn't mean she's going to marry you tomorrow - you're simply asking whether or not she wants to attempt something romantic. If she really doesn't, she should not be afraid to say so. Yes it will hurt, but it could save your friendship. Also don't forget one important rule - if you develop a romance with a friend, you face one greast risk: if the romance ends (for whatever reason) it can be very hard or impossible to salvage that original friendship. Love is indeed complicated but sometimes you do have to try to look at your situation objectively...sometimes it can help. Everyone here as done a great job talking about philosophy related to love and stuff, but I wanted to try to give you a more practical opinion if you're looking for one. :catgirl:[/color]

[color=olive]D'oh. Thanks so much for fixing everything Deb. We luff you.[/color]

[color=olive]If announcements aren't loading try F5-ing your page and see if that comes through. Other than that I don't know. Any problems we're having now seem to relate to this error but I don't know exactly what happened, so I'm waiting on Desbreko to complete what he was working on. Please be patient - if the site is too frustrating to use now, I'd urge you to try again later on. :catgirl: [b]Edit:[/b] There you go, looks like Desbreko has returned! :animesmil [/color]

[color=olive]I've just made an announcement about this. It's a technical error that has to be fixed. Desbreko was working on something and he was forced to stop halfway - he will be back to finish everything soon. Sorry about that![/color]

[color=olive]There are two reasons for that, Felix. One is time (in that I don't have a great deal to invest on skins - I am spending a lot more time on development of the new site (and it will have multiple styles - far more than two! Haha) The other is a coding-related issue. Each new skin needs to point to a different image folder. Of course, I can create the relevant folder on the server without issue. I just don't know how to point the new skin to that folder. So I'm getting Desbreko to look at that, as he's far more clever with the style templates and such. Also the default skin regularly needs updating because it's the one most people see and use. Geisha is desperately in need of an update - but again, that's a timing issue really. But I'll do my best! :catgirl:[/color]

[color=olive]Thanks. The last banner wasn't really consistent and I agree that we needed colour on more than just the sidebar. I figured it would be better to just showcase the pattern (which is probably interesting enough on its own without requiring additional imagery). This way we can also kinda emphasize the logo a bit more. If I can sort out some of the backend stuff I will be able to work on an additional skin. I actually need to completely redesign the Geisha skin, too. But it can't be tackled with imagery alone, it really is going to need some HTML changes.[/color]

[color=olive]Very cool guys. Keep the suggestions coming! It's great to get recommendations for a site like YouTube...just browsing in a vaccuum can be annoying. Anyway, I thought I'd share some stuff related to my favourite music video director, Chris Cunningham. [b][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjAoBKagWQA"]All is Full of Love - Bjork[/url][/b] This is probably my favourite music video. It's probably tied only with Aphex Twin's Windowlicker. Despite the fact that this video apparently brought out the more ignorant members of YouTube in droves, it still stands on its own as being absolutely gorgeous - subtle, elegant and truly beautiful. It complements the music perfectly. I know OBers will appreciate it where others may not. [b][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1P3Wc-37pC4"]Windowlicker - Aphex Twin[/url][/b] A word of warning - there's a great deal of profanity and such in this video. So you watch at your own risk. This video was banned by MTV in the United States (though it was never banned here - in fact it still plays at night occasionally on MTV Australia or Channel V). Having said that, it is really designed to be a bit of a parody of various "gangsta" films (and really of the whole culture that goes along with it). Throw some random Michael Jackson moves in there and you have a pretty unique video. Funnily enough I like the mix of Windowlicker that the guys are playing in their car more than the actual track. There are also some funky hidden messages in this track - the high-pitched noise at the end actually produces an image when read by the right machine. [b][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3far9oHZOsI"]Rubber Johnny[/url][/b] This was originally intended to be a music video for Aphex Twin but became a short film. It actually won an award at the Melbourne International Film Festival. Basically it's about a boy called Johnny who is a hyperactive shape-shifting child. He's locked away in a dark room without light and with only his scared pet for company. This video pretty much shows how Johnny amuses himself when he's alone with his pet. It's a freaky video but it's actually supposed to be humorous (especially the way Johnny stops "performing" every time the door opens!) There are a bunch of other great Cunningham videos but I won't list them all here. For the uninitiated, Cunningham also did the clip for Madonna's single Frozen. So pretty much everyone's seen that.[/color]

[color=olive]The banner is likely to be changed at some point - the problem was that the old banner didn't really suit the other new graphics on the skin. So it needed to be changed. But you can expect it to be refined significantly. The main reason I didn't make a third skin is because I didn't intend to. I wasn't going for a completely new colour scheme or anything - I was just updating our standard skin. I have to get Desbreko to assist me with new skins because we need to point the styles to new folders on the server and that's one thing I'm unable to do in the backend (I literally don't have the first idea of where to look for that). Deb helped me with the link colours so that'll be his next task I think. Once that is done you can definitely expect further skin development beyond the two we have now.[/color]

[color=olive]If you press F5 in IE it should work for you. Please don't make a final judgement just yet - there's a lot more I want to do. The primary skin is being renamed from Liquid to OB Standard. Quite a bit more has to be done - including adjustment of the site's banner. This is a bit of a precursor to something exciting. I'm going to get the whole community involved in this process shortly. It'll be something fun for the Art Studio. I'm intending to freshen up v7 in a few areas to last us a bit longer while we develop OB Evolution (which is coming along beautifully). OBE will take a while to develop because it's so new...we are doing a lot of things with vB that haven't been done before. So there are lots of ways we can keep OB v7 fresh for a while longer. Hopefully I can get most of the stuff done over this weekend.[/color]

[color=olive]So I'm a fan of YouTube at times. There's some pretty great stuff on there - lately I've been watching all the videos related to iPhone (the more I see stuff about it the more I seem to want one!) But there are a ton of cool things on YouTube and usually I don't even know where to begin when I search there. So I thought we could give recommendations to each other in this thread. Let me get the ball rolling! [img]http://img.youtube.com/vi/jQCR02Unqhg/2.jpg[/img] [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQCR02Unqhg"][size=5] Tom Cruise on Psychiatry[/size][/url] I thought this was rather funny. I went to post a second video involving Tom Cruise laughing hysterically on David Letterman after making a pretty horrible joke...but then I accidentally went back in the browser (this is what happens when you use an Apple keyboard in Windows, apparently). So I can't be bothered posting that again. So here's something to make up for it: [img]http://img.youtube.com/vi/SIT-rpzx90E/2.jpg[/img] [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIT-rpzx90E"][size=5]Grandma Kicks Baby[/size][/url] These may not be the best YouTube has to offer, so I thought I'd ask everyone to join in! What YouTube videos do you like? They can be funny, educational or just plain cool. I'm always happy to look at something interesting on YouTube and I've found that recommendations work best.[/color]

[quote name='SunfallE][COLOR=#DAA520']Though not new in the world of music, one of the best in my experience is Enya, having just become familiar with the album Watermark. With my favorite song in it being Orinoco Flow (Sail Away) I like the new age and Celtic themes and instrumentation. I also like how it has a ballad sound with the piano and vocal harmonies and symphonic synthesizer movements. I'm definitely going to go and get some more albums by this artist.[/COLOR][/quote] [color=olive]I hear ya. I have Sail Away on my iPod - it is my favourite Enya track. I've always liked it. My tastes are incredibly varied so I wouldn't even know where to start. Most recently I've been getting back into Rage Against the Machine a little. I've been playing Renegades of Funk quite a bit lately - 'tis rather good. On the completely other side of the coin, I've also been playing a pop song called Stay by Australian group Emaar. They're a very small dance/pop outfit and although this song is completely mainstream fare, it's rather catchy (I quite like the guitar build-up toward the beginning, which is fairly inoffensive but rather unique nonetheless). I have also been listening to a bit of Moloko lately (the band which [b]stole[/b] the word I was going to use for...something!) Anyhoo, they only have the one album as far as I know (Catalogue) but I've found myself getting into some tracks that I never used to like. The Time is Now and Indigo come to mind. Oh, I also recently (finally) bought Leftfield's Rhythm & Stealth. Beautiful album. I'm loving Dusted and Afrika Shox (the latter of which I bought on single a very long time ago...but I'd been very late buying this album, which is one of their earlier ones). Also, I've been quite enjoying Eat Me, Drink Me by Marilyn Manson. Not sure if I like it as much as some of the older albums, but I [i]love[/i] Putting Holes in Happiness. It may very well be my new Dope Show.[/color]

[color=olive]I don't think Dead really specified dimensions at the beginning, he just asked for wallpapers/desktops. Some people (as I know all too well from development) have pretty small monitor resolutions. Plus, desktop images don't necessarily have to fit the entire screen - you can center them and use a background colour if necessary. So yeah, I recommend just posting as you were, guys.[/color] :catgirl:

[quote]in Art Studio, people get brutally slaughtered if they don't post the art work to go along with a discussion. For example, you don't see someone saying "Hey, I made this picture of a duck but I can't show it; let's talk about it." [/quote] [color=olive]That's because it's an artwork forum, lol. Comparing material that is often of an explicit sexual nature to someone showing a picture of a duck is probably the best comparison you could make in terms of shooting down the whole argument in favor of the hentai forum, lol. I know that the whole debate is essentially a mock one, but still, I felt it was worth pointing that out just to further confirm to anyone who isn't part of this that we will in fact not be introducing Hentai on OB. [/color]

[QUOTE=The Kuja][size=3][font=century gothic][color=crimson]There's also the option of resizing the avatars. Quite a mammoth task, I know. But if you had a team working on that, it might work. ^_^ That is, of course, if the avatar increase isn't big enough that the avatars pixellate when blown up. My, that would be quite horrid. ;) [/size][/font][/color][/QUOTE] [color=olive]I wouldn't upsize avatars anyway. Upsizing any raster image reduces its quality significantly. When we were asking people to make avatars for OB one of the most important elements was sharpness/quality. So if we make avatars that are bigger than we have now...they would unfortunately have to be made from scratch. That's the dilemma we face. :animedepr And there you go, Alan's just given everyone the width for the new forums. So that'll give you an idea of the space we have to work with.[/color]

[color=olive]Deb pretty much said it all. Banner sizes are probably due for an increase of some kind - the limits we have now come from ages ago when just about everyone was tired of the massive signatures people used to use. Does anyone remember those? Some people had signatures with half a dozen banners, each of which was like 500x500 pixels, lol. Still, we can increase the size limit without allowing signatures that are too annoying. As for avatars...I would like to incorporate larger avatars on the new site, but I would feel bad for all the people who contributed to our current library. Perhaps we can just open up a thread before the launch so that members can start a brand new library or something. :catgirl: The new site will have a bigger resolution but most of that extra space will be dedicated to new content panels that will sit on the right of the forums. There won't be a left navigation menu on the new site though. I'm not sure how wide the new forum width actually is, I'll have to check. I do think it's a little wider than what we have now though.[/color]

[color=olive]BabyGirl is not back, unfortunately. BabyGirl = Charles, for anyone not aware of the FQFG RPG.[/color]

[quote name='Copycatalyst]I'm a logician so I know about organization of concepts and--by extension--OB. You can still make this site much more accessible by subcategorizing categories. Also, in another sense this thread shows credence to the fact that OB does need--to dis-attach from the hentai centerfuge--[i]a forum for 18+ members, where they can be adults away from the kiddies[/i]. So in a sense, it's quite easy to invert your logic on its head; call me Pyramid Head with a big knife called logic, but I think that since I can do that, your words kind of read like the [i]Book of the Dead[/i'] to me. Jeh, you weren't a Tyrant-Pharaoh in another life were you? :D[/quote] [color=olive]The site doesn't [i]need[/i] hentai, pure and simple. If you want something sexual, there is plenty of stuff out there to service you. I'm obviously never going to debase OtakuBoards like that. I know that this is obviously part of an RPG so I take it with a grain of salt, but please keep this thread related to discussion of the subject - as opposed to discussion of whether or not we should allow Hentai on OB. Keep the latter to Suggestions & Feedback, thanks. This thread is doing pretty well without it being de-railed. Edit: As for sub-categorizing...OB isn't large/active enough to justify that at the moment (especially in one subject area like anime). That's something to look at later down the road, probably in a new version.[/color]

[color=olive]I'd like to be added to the list, please. Hopefully I don't draw a total mental blank like I did for my second 50 Themes submission! (At least I got one out, haha).[/color]

[quote name='ForsakenUndead][COLOR=DarkOliveGreen']OMG! As you can see by my name, i am a big fan of zombies, but I haven't seen the first movie :animecry: Will I be able to follow the sequel without seeing the first one? Should I go hurry and pick up the DVD so I'll still have time to see this in theaters?![/COLOR][/quote] [font=arial][color=olive]I honestly think you need to see the first movie before seeing the second. Seeing the first movie really allows you to make sense of the sequel. With regard to the tunnel thing, my memory of that is pretty faded at the moment - I do remember seeing the Eiffel Tower but I remember thinking that they were just trying to show how far everything had progressed. You could very well be right though, Darren. And I do remember seeing that the helicopter had crashed, so that aspect makes a lot of sense - I think your explanation is probably correct there. And I agree with the biting thing - I think the infection just gives the infected the compulsion to spread the disease through whatever means necessary. And Zombie_Nosh, although you definitely have the right not to like the film...I don't think we should be ashamed for liking it, lol. The fast-paced camera work wasn't sloppy, it was deliberate. And the same technique was used in the original film. I think it very much added to the sense of desperation and hysteria - I usually don't like that technique in movies, but somehow I felt it worked in these films.[/font][/color]

[font=arial][color=olive]With all that's going on in the world these days, has anyone wondered about the possibility of these nads getting into the hands of terrorists? Weapons of mass destruction eat your heart out![/font][/color]

[font=arial][color=olive]If there's ever any doubt as to why I hired Desbreko, you need only look at his nads. If those nads can't keep things in order, I don't know what can.[/font][/color]

[font=arial][color=olive]I only have one question at this point: who decides who wins and who loses? When looking at this thread I'm not sure how Shy/Charles would determine that. I might be interrupting the flow of the thread by asking that question, but it wasn't particularly organised in the first place, so I'm sure the debate will go on around me, lol.[/font][/color]

[font=arial][color=olive]Funnily enough this has turned out to be a pretty interesting thread - I've got no problem at all with threads like this being on OB. I think this also kinda demonstrates that you can discuss Hentai here in Anime Lounge rather than it needing its own forum. You always have to prove demand before a forum can be created, anyway. Good threads help that cause, lol.[/font][/color]

[font=arial][color=olive]This sounds like a great mod. If Desbreko can install it as soon as possible that'd be good. I'm assuming it won't be too difficult to incorporate.[/font][/color]