Manic Webb

A lot of Rat-Pack movies are timeless like that. This movie is especially good, because you can almost forget what decade the movie was filmed in. The plot and the message are always strong. I was born in the mid-80s (1984), had a childhood in the 90s, and my teenaged years are primarily in the 00s. The movie still appeals to me and that's what I like about it.

Geeks are the lawyers, the doctors, the politicians, the people who run their own businesses, the actors who can actually act, the singers with good lyrics that they write themselves, the kids who sell you half of their school lunch, that guy at the boardwalk who sketched out a picture of you with a big head driving a go-cart, that one guy at that one McDonalds who you didn't have to repeat your order to because they actually got it right the first time... Everyone is a geek to someone. It all depends on the guy/gal standing next to you and what they think. I've seen people who are more geeky than me and I've met people who think I'm a geek. It's all relative.

What does everyone think of unisex names? You know, names that both boys and girls have. Personally, I'd sooner give my daughter a unisex name than my son. I just don't know any both-gender names that I'd like to give my hypothetical son. For example, I'd rather name my daughter Frances instead of naming my son Francis. It's not because Francis sounds like a girly name (I think I've heard of more guys named Francis than girls); I just don't like the nickname Frank.

El Pollo Loco is the name of a chicken restaurant, although the name does translate to "The Crazy Chicken."

I've [b]never[/b] want to give my kids a very common name. If I had a dime for every Mike, Joe, or Mary I've ever met (and that includes Michelle, Miguel, Jose, Marie and Maria and any other translation of those names you can think of) I'd be rich enough to be the new Bachelor. Anyway... There are names I'd probably give to my son... [b]Cyrus[/b] (I also named a character in my story this) [b]Kobe[/b] (Ko-Bey. Like the Iron Chef, not the basketball player) [b]Ken[/b] (after my father) And for my daughter... [b]Jordan[/b] (or possibly [b]Jordanne[/b]) [b]Leona[/b] (my mom's middle name) [b]Angela[/b] (was going to be my older sister's name, but my mom had a miscarriage)

I only have a [i]few[/i] resolutions... 1. Lose some weight 2. Get in a serious relationship. No more being a "guy friend" for me! 3. Start college this January (I've already registered) 4. Do well in school. 5. Get a job. 6. Get a car. 7. Collect the entire Red Dwarf series (or at least start) 8. Start drawing again. 9. Write more movie scripts and parodies. 10. Create volume one of "Save ME!" comic book. 11. Get my hair braided so my grandmother will stop complaining about my semi-dredlock look. 12. Practice my singing so my range is broader than half an octave. 13. Boost up my anime collection to more than 4 movies. 14. Get even better at playing as Xiaoyu in Tekken 4 (I will be unstoppable!)

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by genkai [/i] [B]gaz is cooler than gir, but gir is cooler than dib, but dib is cooler than zim[/B][/QUOTE] I agree with you there. Gaz is my favorite character, then comes Gir. I'm not sure who's better between Zim and Dib, though. My favorite episode is the one where Gaz went to the mall to buy a new video game. She grabbed a baseball bat right before she walked out the door. When her father warned her that it's too dangerous for her to go out alone, she told him that's why she had the bat. Then there was that one kid she almost killed when he took the very last game... Nickelodeon cancelled it earlier this year. It's a shame. It didn't become popular until after it went into syndication.

Cedric's show is too funny! My favorite sketch was the Spanish soap opera named "Que Hora Es?" Everyone just kept saying random words in Spanish that anyone taking a beginner's Spanish class could understand. I nearly died when the woman started crying "El Pollo Loco es muy delicioso!" after someone just asked her what time it is. I don't think I could watch a spin-off of the Steve Harvey Show with Cedric and Lavita teaching a new group of kids. Sounds a lot like "Saved By The Bell: The New Class" to me.

Endymion is the name of one of the most handsome men in Greek mythology. He ranks in 3rd place, just behind Narcisis and Adonis. He married the moon goddess known as Selene and the two of them had a few dozen chilren together. Endymion, being mortal, decided to rest in an eternal sleep so that he could never grow any older or die. Selene promised to watch over his sleeping body for all eternity. I though Endymion would be a good name and I don't mind being called Endy.

Read through the FAQs. They said... [quote]The movie is intentionally being named The Two Towers in order to capitalize on the tragedy of September 11.[/quote] Then they said... [quote]Many of our members are actually fans of JRR Tolkien's books[/quote] If they were [b]really[/b] fans of Tolkien's books, they'd [B]know[/b] that the movie was named after a book written years ago, and not named to "capitalize on the tragedy of September 11." The home page of this site has a little space set aside labeled "some of our feedback" where the only feedback quoted is somebody who supports their cause. How can they have Frequently Asked Questions that ask why they're doing this, but have only gotten positive feedback from visitors? I'm gonna go take a nap. Wake me up either when the world makes sense or when I break a Guiness sleeping record... whichever comes first.

I just saw The Two Towers this afternoon... which is funny, becvause I've never seen The Fellowship of the Ring. I think it was really good. A little lengthy for my taste (It was day when I entered the theatre, and the sun was setting set on my way out), but it was a good movie.

You know, Jackie Chan's "Police Story" movie series has some good plots. You might've already seen Police Story 3 (Supercop) and 4 (First Strike). The first two are ok. There's some old Jet Li movies I've seen that surprised me by having a good plot. After seeing The Black Mask *sudder* and The One *double shudder* his old movies look like poetry.

I used to live in "the hood" in Oakland, California. My mom didn't want me to go to school in Oakland (really bad education system in that town) so I moved to Union City with my grandparents. My grandmother and mom dragged me up through Oregon and into Washington (the state, not the city) to go to a funeral once. A couple of times I've gone to Reno, Nevada (the biggest little city in the world, I think it's called). I'm too young to gamble and I certainly can't pass for 21. We were just passing through. We actually had to drive out of California and into Nevada in order to get to another part of California... had to drive around a mountain range. I've gone to Los Angeles about 4 times. Once for a family reunion and twice just to go to Disneyland. Three of them were road-trips and one was a flight. You know your state is big when commercial airplanes fly from one end to the other.

Aside from Christmas, what other holidays do some of us celebrate this time of the year? (excuse my spelling, if it's wrong) Who just finished celebrating Channukah? Who's going to celebrate Kwanzaa? Who celebrates Winter Solstice? Who doesn't celebrate anything at all? What are some of the stories behind your holidays? Personally, I only celebrate Christmas. I'm just curious about some of the other holidays this time of the year.

They have an entire area of their boards dedicated to Hentai! Does anyone really need that much hentai? Homer: (drooling) So much hentai... They're pretty decent. They use Invision instead of vBulletin, which isn't half bad. I mean, at least they don't use UB or Ikon. Nothing to worry about, competition-wise.

I believe it's written somewhere in all parents' and lega guardians' job description that they provide a sense of morals to all children they take care of. A parent's job is to look out for the child and to make sure they're receiving everything they need to become a fully functional adult. There's no guarantee that school or society will provide your child with a good sense of morals [i]or[/i] the specific sense of morals that [i]you[/i] want the child to have. Any parent or guardian who doesn't tell a child the difference between right and wrong isn't doing their job. Of course, I don't have kids, so what do I know?

A lot of people like to make part of their definition of anime include things such as the plot developement and the depth of the main characters. This was never in my definition (don't know why. It just never was.) I tend to define anime [i]purely[/i] by its style of *ahem* animation. I look at how some anime use less frames than you'd normally expect or the shape of characters' eyes or the way certain characters react visually. Why don't I include things such as plot in my definition of anime? Sure, there are a lot of good anime out there that take the time to give you a feel for each character's true self and then they develope the plot at an even pace that continues throughout most of the series. Then there's shows like Hamtaro and Tokyo Pig that have absolutely none of that going on. Including a good plot developement is always good, but that doesn't define any type of animation to me. You can find all of that stuff in live-action shows and movies. Using a good plot in animation is just that; using a good plot in animation. Tokyo Pig is an anime, but no one is going to say your cartoon shows anime influences if you develope the characters or give a mood like that anime. Then you'll just have a standard stupid cartoon. If I made an action-comedy cartoon with complex characters and a well developed plot, then you'd all say it was influenced by anime (and some of you would say I'm not doing it right). In truth, my series would be influenced by live-action shows like "Angel" or other stuff I like to watch and a few novels I've probably read. To me, anime's influence wouldn't show in my cartoon until I started to give my characters large eyes that glimmer in the light and teenaged girls wearing miniskirts start riding giant robots powered by a deck of playing cards. I think anime influence in Western cartoons is all visual and has nothing to do with the maturity level of the show or anything like that. Western animators have been making mature cartoons since before anime was even popular anywhere else but Japan.

I think stuff like Powerpuff Girls and Dexter's Lab (I love the way he presents his mechs like an old 1980s anime) show a lot of anime influence. It's a good thing, really. Bubbles reading a manga written in Japanese (I don't know which writting was used) adds humor to the show. The funniest episode of Dexter's Laboratory I've ever seen was the one where Dexter and a Japanese boy named Toshi switched places with one another (as part of a student exchange program) and everyone at Dexter's new Japanese school piloted a robot high-tech vehicle. There's nothing wrong with a little Japanese influence in an American show. Nothing at all. It's a little ignorant to say something like "Big O" is an anime (with all of its Western influences flying) and then to say that [i]anything[/i] an American company puts out with Japanese influence is wrong. I think that there could be (and probably is, somewhere) an American anime, or a Western anime. All animation, especially anime, are cartoons. If someone can make a cartoon with enough anime-like design (characters, backgrounds, angles) then that could very well be an anime. I don't understand how Endytarou Mionu can make an anime, but Endy Mion can make the exact same thing and it'll be called a rip-off of anime.

I have two things I want to say about the US going to war against Iraq and I'm going to leave it at that. I might explain further if someone wants to go on about it. I'm not bringing up any of my other opinions on the situation. I have two vague statements that only scratch the surface of what's on my mind and that is [i]all[/i] I'm talking about in this thread, because every last one of you (and a couple of you, especially) have the uncanny ability to blow whatever anyone says [i]way[/i] out of proportion. President George W. Bush promised the American people that he would get back at the terrorist groups for the events on September 11, 2001. He seems to have shifted his focus from these independent terrorst groups to Iraq and its iron-fisted leader. The only time I hear about Osama Bin Laden anymore is when he makes a new video tape of himself saying how much he hates America for the 400th time. Saddam is a bad leader who allows a majority of his people to live in poverty. It's time for him to be kicked out of office in an all-out revolution. Even if it means plowing through all 1,000 of his baret-wearing lookalikes, I think the people of Iraq should make the first big move in an attempt to take the man down and pluck him out of the government and then do whatever else they want to him (I'm 98% sure they'd just kill him). I know they've tried in the past, but now (or soon) is a time to try again. That's all I have to say. Whatever else you [i]think[/i] I know or don't know is not what's on trial here. I did not say everything I know is going on. I did not say everything else I think about this situation and I [i]will not[/i] say what else I think. I'm an American who forgot to register to vote last month and I have absolutely no say in what the government does. Why should I complain as much as I want to when I know I can't do anything about it?

Can someone help me out real quick? What is the connection between the collapse of the World Trade Center and the pending war against Iraq? What the hell happened to those independant terrorist groups we were targetting about 5 minutes ago? (note: I'm trying to make a point with those questions. I want someone to explain it to me) With all of the propaganda flying around on the news and in this very thread, I'm not exactly sure [i]why[/i] we're going to war with Iraq. Is it to free the Iraqi people from oppression? Is it because he's secrely hiding "weapons of mass destruction" (as everyone likes to phrase it)? Is it both? If it is both, how come I've never heard both reasons said at the same time?

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Solo Tremaine [/i] [B]For example (and I don't mean to cause any offence to anyone here), you're no longer allowed to call people of dark-coloured skin 'black'.[/B][/QUOTE] Wow. Really? So what exactly do you call black people? To me, calling me "black" isn't an offense word unless you say it in an offensive tone of voice. Words don't hurt. The people who use them do. If a person prefers their own gender over the opposite, then that person is labeled "homosexual or "gay." Eventually, somebody comes along and uses the word "gay" (which is supposed to mean "happy) in a new, more offensive context. The word "gay" is not offensive. The context its used in might just be. In reverse: When refering to black people (any kind of person with dark skin), the "N-word" was originally used as an offensive term. Later, some rapper came along and decided to use it as an expression of companionship and love between African-Americans. This word went from a bad word to a less bad word. There are no offensive words. It's the meanings we give the words that are offensive. I mean, isn't "Otaku" supposed to be an offensive word?

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Rick Hunter [/i] [B]:) Personally D7 looks like a great cartoon, I'm sorry but anything created here in america is not "anime" at least not in my opinion its like calling a cgi generated show an anime, it's an incorrect use of the word. Overall D7 will do good, personally it's great that many more people are trying to emulate the substance from an anime but few really know how to do it well, thats why I don't great this "american anime" oxy moron with open arms. [/B][/QUOTE] Opposites are what make oxymorons. "Static" and "anime" are opposites. "American" and "un-American" are opposites. "American" and "anime" are not opposites. In fact, they're two completely unrelated words. "American anime" is as much an oxymoron as "Mexican Pizza" or "French Fries." Plus, in my opinion, anything animated in typical anime style (no matter where it's made) is "anime." If I have to be Japanese to make an anime, then I guess I have to be Japanese to draw a "manga" (which I don't accept). Anyway, D7 Peacemaker seems like a pretty good movie. I'll have to wait for the website to release its trailer before I know if it looks any good.

Get Smart's main character was Maxwell Smart: Agent 86 (not 36). It's funny how he married his partner Agent 99, but they never revealed her real name.

Amidst a sea of anime with complex plot lines and well developed, serious characters... Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop, Gundam... it's great to see a show that makes absolutely no sense and spends every second using every last comedic anime cliche in the book :D The show is so wacky. I love it. I remember one episode when the main character was imagining his (apparently hot) teacher in a bathing suit. When he snapped out of it, his teacher was really standing in his room in a bathing suit. Gotta love that pig and his crazy magic powers :)

I remember Space Cases. Wasn't Suzie played by a young Denise Richards? (oooh, Denise) I remember some parts of the first episode. Like how when the kids first boarded the ship, they touched the organic walls and the ship bonded with them, but the Commander and Ms. Davenport were too freaked out by the walls to touch them, so only the kids can use the controls of the ship. (which had no weapons, despite it being constantly attacked and having shields) One of my favorite ol' school Nickelodeon shows would have to be The Round House. It was a cheaply-made, fast-paced comedy show with cardboard props where each sketch was started [i]instantly[/i] after one ended. It was the only show on Nick (besides Ren & Stimpy) that used profane language. Whenever my life gets me so down I know I can go 'round To where the music and the fun never ends. As long as the music keeps playin' You know what I'm sayin'. I know that I can find a friend Down at the Round House! (I can't believe I still remember the theme song)