Sara

That is a lot of money. I can't imagine what I would do with it, because even breaking it down, the numbers are huge and unrealistic. But, hey. Hypothetical question, right? If it were given to me, I would probably give half away, straight out. I can't imagine what I would use that much money for! And I have a habit of giving things away. Between presents, charity, church, my favorite non-profits, and setting up a scholarship for cool people, I think I'd be pretty happy with that. Obviously, it wouldn't all go POOF! at the same time, but it would be set aside for such things. Of the remaining money--$500,000! I would set aside a good chunk--say, $100,000--for traveling. Study abroad, partly, and just having money to go cool places, and maybe treat some of my family and friends. $400,000 left to think about. I would put aside enough to buy a nice house and a nice bit of land in an inexpensive area. Say that's $250,000 including (perhaps quite a bit) extra put aside for keeping the house up. $150,000... I can't even think of what I would do with the money at this point. Set it aside, I suppose, for when I wanted to buy things for myself, or use it as the proverbial "nest-egg." Yeah. That's a lot of money, and I don't really need anything, heh.

[quote name='James][font=franklin gothic medium']I am thinking of ditching all of our smilies and having someone develop a custom set specifically for OtakuBoards. Obviously that's a more difficult solution, but it's something I'd like to do. The question is whether or not we get that done on this version or the next.[/font][/quote]That would be [i]fantastic[/i]. Do you have an idea of what direction you're hoping to go with that? Like, just new stock smilies? Or any kind of smiley that fit the style of the new OB smilies? I could see a set of custom, slightly-larger smilies specific to OB. It would be cool to have something more... professional? than the hodge-podge we have now. (Not that I don't have my favorites. I think everyone does. I just think it would be cool.)

[quote name='Stark']Notice how it's always the 'damsel in distress' image you see in fairy tales and on cartoons. How come the girl never saves the boy? Hm?[/quote]When I was in first grade, I wrote a story about how I saved my cousin, who was being blown away with his kite. So [i]I[/i] was definitely off saving young men at an early age. :) Oh, and [i]The Paper Bag Princess[/i] owns [i]Rapunzel[/i]. Anyway. Until possibly the last year, I've never considered myself feminine. I wasn't really a tomboy (not in the sense that my sister is), but the fact that I was female meant little more than having to deal with girls' PE (which was always stricter than boys' PE at my schools. We would have "units" and "tests" and they would play kickball every day) and five days of annoyance and paranoia every month. I'd wear what I wanted to (although I often fought with my mom on the point of wearing dresses to church programs. Eventually, I got nice dress pants, and it ceased to be an issue.) Right now, my tastes in clothing and color (I only recently discovered the color pink) are markedly more feminine than at any rememberable point in my life. I'm also dating, which coincided roughly with the change in taste, although not, I think, causally. I'm not physically strong, but this is because I'm a lazy butt who spends her days on the computer, [i]not[/i] because I'm female. To me, [b]being female means[/b] being hyperaware of my surroundings when I'm out for a walk at night. It means always having something at hand (keys, a pointy pen, a rock) to hit someone with if I need to. It means being escorted to my car when I leave a friends' house late at night. It means staying in lighted, popular areas, and not always going where I will. It means I'll never hitchhike out to the coast. It means going crazy with wonder and worry when a friend does something inappropriate. It means beating myself up for not being assertive enough, and never being sure what's really okay anymore. Frankly, it tends to piss me off.

[quote name='kuroinuyoukai']I personally don't understand all these shows with decks of cards in them. Yu-Gi-Oh, DuelMasters,etc. all seem the same to me. I don't get how they are so popular. hoew does playing a card game get so popular? i'm confusing myself now. I would like to hear your thoughts![/quote]My siblings really liked YuGiOh! for a while, and while I never got into it as much as they did, I did enjoy it. I think the biggest fan of the show was my sister, who never played the card game. Yeah, the show was about people playing a card game. But it was also about dark and light, good and evil, faith, trickery, friendship, hope, determination, magic, quirky villains, ancient Egypt, ghosts, secrets, love, cute creatures, kickass monsters--you get the idea. So there's definitely something there to enjoy.

[i]My Neighbor Totoro[/i] [b]never[/b] gets old for me. I have no [u]idea[/u] how many times I've watched it over the years, but it's been many. And it never fails to make me happy. It's a great film--funny and sweet, without being sappy. I love it just as much now as I did when I was a lass. I could probably watch it once a month for the rest of my life and still never tire of it.

I think it would be snazzy to have a uniform size/style for all smilies, but I don't know if that's going to happen. I like the different colors. I do kinda wish we'd get rid of all the flaming/angry smilies, though. Or at least hide them at the very end of the list, heh.

[quote name='IceRose']I agree with you Hell Fire, those shows just need to end and also Digimon add to the list, the first and second season were sort of good but people will not get the point that they are boring.[/quote]I'm pretty sure Digimon is over and done with. I enjoyed the first three seasons, but never had time to watch any of the fourth, so I never got into it. I was under the impression that 4 was the end. [quote]The original Power Rangers? It was great. Sure it was a poor storyline, and it was put together terribly, but we thought it was awesome. The blatant rehashes? Disgusting.[/quote]So the first crap version of the show was okay, but all subsequent ones... are crap? I'm confused. My only passionate comment on the state of television today is that Cookie Monster [i]now eats fruit[/i] and proclaims that cookies are "a sometimes food." It breaks my little heart.

I watched almost every episode of Lightspeed Rescue... [i]but I missed the last one.[/i] I was so upset, heh. Anyway, never saw any of the other series, although Mighty Morphin was unbelieveably huge back in the day... I think I was eight? Or nine? Anyway, there was a huge playground game organised every recess for a while. It was something.

You can still taste the pepper spray in the air. It's a few hours after midnight, the day before Halloween. Two, three o' clock in the morning, but you'd never guess it. The street is lit up bright as day from the giant ballpark lights they brought in for the weekend. Policemen dressed in full riot gear march up and down the street in formation. No one speaks, and you can hear the rhythmic stomping of the police, the hum of the giant lights far above the street. You stare at the marching police force. Inhuman faces look straight ahead, features hidden and distorted by gas masks. One turns to look at you, and you catch your breath, only relaxing when he passes by, uninterested. "Like Stormtroopers," your friend whispers. He's drunk, but he's right. [i]Pack it up, Luke, the Empire won. [/i] The street is eerily empty. Eerily quiet. Just goddamned [i]eerie[/i]. Fuck. Two hours ago, you wouldn't have recognised the place. State Street. Fucking [i]State Street[/i] on Halloween night. You'd never seen so many people in your life. Every mother's son in costume and hittin' it hard. The colors, the costumes, the sounds--you spent two hours being stepped on, pushed against, yelled at, and groped by hundreds of happy drunk people dressed in costumes to make Lon Chaney weep. Out-of-towners, out-of-staters, come to riot for Halloween. And riot they did. It isn't that no one tried to stop them... and things did go smoothly for a while. All the precautions seemed to have worked. No glass bottles allowed. No open alcohol. Mounted police officers, enough to storm San Juan Hill. And a pedestrian police presence that put all others to shame. Officers standing around, working the corners, standing in clusters watching the drunken parade. Dressed in black, industrial-size pepper spray at their sides, each equipped with a dozen plastic hand restraints and sporting a blue-and-red blinking badge. That was how you could tell the real police officers from the revelers. The costumed wannabe police didn't have light-up toy badges. ...Admit it. The night was surreal from the start. Arrests began early in the night. You watched crying 90-pound girls, hands locked behind them being escorted off the street by police officers--six riot-ready bouncers to every bent-winged, glitter-smeared fairy or angel. Belligerent drunken frat boys got arrested, too, of course. But those didn't catch your attention like the stumbling anorexic girls with the tear-streaked make-up and glitter. You wonder, briefly, what they did wrong... but your mind doesn't stay on it for long. Like everyone else, you're here for a good time. Seeing, and being seen. The stadium lights flood the street with light, effectively blinding everyone who's unfortunate enough to have forgotten their sunglasses. The ones wearing sunglasses can't see the horse shit in the middle of the road and walk through it, spreading it through the street. Why did they decide to have mounted police officers in a crowded street? The world reeks of alcohol and horseshit. --------- Not exactly finished... I'm really tired, so I stopped writing. Might finish it later. Kinda started out as something with an ending, but I don't think my original ending would fit, since this kinda went in a different direction than I thought. Madison's a fun place to be on Halloween. [url]http://nbc15.madison.com/news/headlines/1931492.html[/url]

Depending on my mood, I mentally pronounce my screenname as Loar (rhymes with soar) or Lor-eh (sounds like "Laura" but with a shorter "au" sound.) Lore as in folklore, or Lore as in Hannelore. To give you an idea of context. ;)

So maybe this is bad of me, but my first thought was that I am worried that Misses Ashley and Mary-Kate are enough of a cultural icon that someone can be "The Olson Twins" [i]of[/i] something. Whether or not I blame the kids themselves, I don't know. Maybe not yet. I have this idea that there's sort of an age of accountabiity for what you believe--when you move further away from your parents and start questioning and figuring things out for yourself. I place it around the start of high school (obviously this isn't true for everyone), and they're still, what? Maybe 7th grade? I'd like to believe that's the case, anyway.

I have irrational fears of elevators and bridges. Or [i]had[/i], I suppose. Since moving up to school (and living on the 5th and 6th floors of my building), I admit that I ride in elevators a lot more. Strange elevators (in new places, you see... [i]unfamiliar[/i] elevators) are still a little worrisome. I hate that turning feeling just before the elevator stops at the top floor--eeeee. And as for bridges-- I don't like going over them, [i]especially[/i] when they're above water. I am always convinced that the bridge will collapse and I will fall into the watery deeps. It isn't like I'm worried that it [i]might[/i] happen, I'm [i]know[/i]that it will. Like, there isn't a question. I'm always pleasantly surprised when I get to the other side. But I've had to deal with this, too, especially since I have to walk across the Mississippi River every day to get to and from class. It's a really big river.

Came for the Digimon, stayed for the wild orgies in teh Staff forum. ^_~ I remember Rico and Anna. And [color=red][font=century gothic][size=3]kuja ;) lol...[/size][/color][/font]. Good times, good times.

You're all missing the best point: iPods are just so darn [i]stylish[/i]. :) I've been hedging on buying an iPod for a while now. I'm a hopeless Apple fangirl, so you'll have to forgive me that point. (I do really feel like I [i]deserve[/i] to [b]win[/b] an iPod, though. I've used Macs my whole life--and been teased about it just as long--and I really feel like I should get something out of the bargain, heh. :) )

I've had some wonderful online friendships, so it's not my place to doubt the validity of any romantic online relationship, which is sometimes what threads like this turn to. My thoughts are basically that it carries with it the hazards (;)) of any offline relationship, with perhaps an increased strain on trust (and physical... desires). Online relationships tend to be (almost by default) long-distance, which can be hard. I'm currently dating a young man who was an acquaintance (and, I'll admit, a crush) of mine in high school. We never exactly lost touch, but our friendship had become mostly an online one, especially after I moved up to college. We sort of got to know each other all over again via Yahoo messenger, which was interesting. I asked him out over spring break, we had a terrific summer together, and now I'm back up at school--six hours away. We see one another a few weekends a semester, but other than that, we talk online. Anyway, my point is that, being in a long-distance relationship, I can definitely see (very strongly!) the benefits and problems of communicating with your significant other online. I think (perhaps especially for girls? Sorry, that may be unwarranted stereotyping) it's very easy to form an emotional attachment to someone through words alone. But James is very much correct in that if the relationship is going to stay at that level, you need to acknowledge that--if by hook or crook you don't have a chance of getting together and advancing your relationship--you need to consider whether or not it's a good idea to consider that person your beloved. It also depends on what level you're looking at things, I think. The online equivalent of a high school three-week fling is going to have very different needs than an online long-term relationship. I'm never sure where things fall on this message board.

[img]http://otakuboards.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=24655&stc=1[/img] I cried. :(

[quote name='James][color=#3D4038][font=trebuchet ms]If no parties end up cropping up at the last minute, I may have to wait 'till next year. >_>;[/font'][/color][/quote]Bah! Like you need a [i]party[/i] to dress up for Halloween! [i]Please[/i], James. Think about that. :p

[quote name='Godelsensei]All you people claiming to be "too old" to dress up--get a life. Honestly. That's like claiming you're too old for Christmas presents: [b']ridiculous.[/b][/quote]Quoted for truth. Props to Brasil, Corey, Lafleur, and Mr. Maul for swank costumes ideas, too. I'll be going as Kaylee from [i]Firefly[/i]. I bought a jumpsuit and a pretty-colored shirt today. I need to hack the arms off the suit, add some cutesy patches, and get myself a pair of boots or something. Good times. :)

[quote name='Howlingvampire4']awesome, well, HitorikiDJ, I may not be a moderator, but I have been on this site for a while, so if yiu have any more questions, feel free to private message me, or, try to find a moderator, I'm not sure what all of their names are, but I know one of them is called Dagger, I think.[/quote][color=#6699cc]There's a handy list of moderators [url=http://otakuboards.com/showgroups.php?]here[/url]. You can get a very good idea about the site simply by browsing the forums for a little while. The main page lists the forums as well as offers a brief description of each, and looking at the (open!) threads in each individual forum will give you a good idea of what kind of discussion we normally have. Anime Lounge is for discussion of anime anime series, movie, or topic (although it has special rules for posting, which you should be sure to read before you begin posting there). Manga Workshop is about manga, Play It (also has special rules) is about video games, etc. My favorite part of the site is Otaku Lounge, this forum. It's basically for "off topic" (read: Non gaming/anime) discussion. There's a forum to show off artwork, and the Arena is a large portion of the site devoted to writing, including multi-player RPGS (or collaborative stories).[/color]

[color=#6699cc]I actually have the same problem with myOtaku. It's very frustrating.[/color]

[color=#6699cc]If you're interested in getting to see some original films, I strongly recommend looking into your "great little indy film" scene. I'd imagine most largish cities have art film venues, and even if you don't live in a big city, you could certainly make a day (or a weekend) of it and head out. If you're looking for something different, you can also look into foreign film. There are certainly "Hollywood" films made elsewhere as well, but there are some pretty darn awesome movies out there, as well.[/color]

[color=#6699cc][b]The Good[/b]: There is a great sense of community. And better yet, most of the site is a very welcoming community. Even with close-knit groups, there's a mininum of cliqueish behavior, and new members are welcomed with open arms and encouragement. I think that's great, and it's hard to find on other sites. [b]The Bad:[/b] My main beef with the site right now is how ready and willing people are to jump all over each other in the Suggestions forum. Sage's recent thread was an extreme example of this, but people tend to immediately belittle anyone who makes an honest suggestion for improvement. OB is certainly a high-quality site, but that doesn't (and never will) mean it can't be [i]better[/i]. It also bothers me how friends of staff members tend to act as though they are above the rules. Even as a staff member, I find it hard to know where to draw the line on some of their posts, especially as precedent doesn't step in often. [b]The Ugly:[/b] The Skin selections! Dear lord, could we [i]get[/i] any [b]bluer[/b]?! :p[/color]

[color=#6699cc]Wow, I had to dig for this thread. If I'm not mistaken, [i]Corpse Bride[/i] comes out tonight. I actually got to see a free screening on Tuesday, which was pretty hot. (I got a free T-shirt and everything!) I enjoyed it. I think a lot of people went in hoping to see [i]Nightmare Before Christmas[/i], which [i]Corpse Bride[/i] definitely wasn't. But yes, I really enjoyed the film. It has a dark, poetic quality to it, and the animation is downright fun to watch. I loved how [spoiler]"upstairs" is far deader than the land of the dead could ever be[/spoiler], which is how I always pictured the Victorian age--dull, dreary, dead. [/color]

[color=#6699cc]I have to admit, the idea of a myO "feature" that lists one's anime collection would be an interesting perk, particularly if you could write notes on what you thought of it, where/when you purchased it, etc. It's something I wouldn't mind seeing.[/color]

[color=#6699cc]This forum is for intelligent discussion on anime-related topics. Unless the thread creator has a very convincing argument about their role in anime today, it is [i]not[/i] for threads about evil monkeys. I reccomend that both people who have posted in this thread acquaint themselves with our rules and post standards before they continue their activity on the boards. Thread closed.[/color]