Marron347

[FONT=Arial][COLOR=DarkRed]I usually eat instant ramen after cooking it in the microwave. I break it up while it is still in the package, put it in a bowl, cover it with water, then put it in the microwave for three minutes. It never gets cooked all the way but that's how I like it. Sometimes I even eat it raw. :animesmil I actually have never eaten non-instant ramen. What is that like? Oh yeah, and my favorite flavor is teriaki.[/COLOR][/FONT]

[COLOR=DarkRed][FONT=Courier New]That's kind of weird, I think, that they would no longer offer the extra points. They haven't messed with the AP classes at my school. I had the impression that when you took an Advanced Placement course, and you passed the test at the end of the year with a 3, 4, or 5, you got six credits that mostly every college considers credit for whatever subject you took. So, I don't understand why you'd say that colleges don't care about AP credit. Am I missing something here? Who told you colleges don't consider them?[/FONT][/COLOR]

My favorite thing about Christmas is singing carols to and about Jesus. And that leads to a tradition that my church family has. On the second Sabbath of every December, we have our Cantata, which is a huge Christmas program with a big choir that I try to be in when I can, narration of the story of Jesus's birth, a live nativity, a children's choir, prayer, congregational Christmas hymns, and various talented musicians. Our 34th annual Cantata was yesterday night, and it was so cool. :D We had a 52 voice choir (including myself), which is the largest we've ever had. And part of the tradition is that we have it in the sanctuary every year, but the Cantata grows every year. Last night, all of the pews were packed full of people, and there were folding chairs in the aisles. There were even people standing and sitting in the doorway. :animeswea On the last Sabbath before Christmas Day though, we always have a special church service, which is set up especially for family participation. I also try to go caroling every year, with friends. (My family doesn't like doing that kind of stuff.) At my house with my immediate family, we always have a Christmas tree with presents underneath. One of my uncles and my oldest brother usually come over on Christmas Day, when we all open our presents.

[FONT=Courier New][COLOR=DarkRed]I must first mention that I am not an expert on religion or on Christianity, of which I am part. I do not know everything, so if I have made a mistake, please argue your point against mine. :animeswea The comments posted so far in this thread have inspired me to do some studying of the Holy Bible and some reflection on my own philosophy. I have derived six questions from the first post of this thread that I felt obligated to try to answer, as a Christian woman: [B]Are we in the final days of Earth?[/B] The "final days" of Earth can be interpreted to mean the days since Christ's promise to return. If those final days are what we are referring to, then yes, we certainly are. If we are speaking of the "final days" meaning a short period of time, then it is very possible, but the Bible says that no one knows the date that Christ will return. (Matthew 24:36) I believe that the final days are close, because of the signs of the times. [B]How to current events apply to the final days?[/B] These signs include false messiahs, wars/rumors of wars, famine, false prophets, and earthquakes, all provided by the Holy Bible in Matthew 24:4-7, 11, 12. This passage also states that the love of many will grow cold. It is true that these signs have been seen throughout history, so it is hard to tell if the wars, famine, natural disasters, and false prophets/messiahs are those Christ speaks of. Truly though, the love of many has grown cold. The cruelty of the world today is evident even on the evening news. New tragedies occur all the time. For instance, the murders and child molestation in the Groene family. I do not know if you know of that incident, because it was kind of local for me, but I know it was nationally covered. [B]Is the Bible vague, and how does it apply to the last days of Earth?[/B] The Bible is vague in that it does not give us enough information to figure out what the date of Christ's return is. However, it does give a great amount of information concerning the end of the world. Many people think that the book of Revelation is sealed and nearly immpossible to understand, but the Bible says that God offers a blessing to those who read Revelation and do what it says. The angel declares that the book is not sealed. (Revelation 1:3; 22:7-10) The language that is used in the book of Revelation is mostly borrowed from other books of the Bible, notably Daniel. Isaiah 28: 10 gives its own approach to interpretation of Bible prophecy. I believe that the Holy Bible is the Word of God and it gives us all we need to know to live a full and happy life, and to be ready for the end. [B]What is the significance of "Armageddon?"[/B] The word 'Armageddon" comes from the Hebrew phrase "Har Megiddon," which means "mountain of Meggido." The largest mountain in the Vally of Megiddo is Mount Carmel, where Elijah proposed a spiritual challenge to those involved in false religion. [B]Is George W. Bush the antichrist?[/B] George W. Bush is not the antichrist. He is too much of a fool; he could onlybe a pawn if anything. That is my opinion. In Thessalonians 2:1-4, the Bible says, among other things that the antichrist will pretend to be God. Bush claims to be a Christian and has not claimed to be God yet. Please update me if I am wrong. I have additional information and insight on this topic, but some of it may seem offensive and I do not want to provoke anger or hostility. If you are interested in getting more information, please do not hesitate to send me a private message. I would be glad to help in any way I can. :animesmil I must conclude with the message that we should just live our lives in the moment, though that is a very hard thing to do. Worrysome and frightening are the events that are unfolding. The best thing to do is to live a simple life, requiring only God's love and guidance. Even those who aren't Christians need not worry, and just try to be the best people that we can, remembering to love others as ourselves. The end will come when it comes.[/COLOR][/FONT]

[COLOR=DarkRed][FONT=Courier New]If I could change one thing about my life, I would make myself more confident; I have thrown away so many once-in-a-lifetime experiences because I was too much of a coward to express my inner feelings and talents. I have also been embarrassed for things I did not need to be embarrassed for, because I thought very lowly of myself.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[QUOTE=Pumpkin][SIZE=1] Most teachers assumed my real name was Katherine and when they saw [i]Katie[/i] on roll call they would always stop and ask if I wanted to be called by my real name. It takes me ages to explain to them that I'm not a Katherine or Kaitlyn and that Katie is my real name and not just a nickname. Either that or they call me Kate. How I dispise that name. [/SIZE][/QUOTE] That happens to me too. My name is Luci, but everyone seems to think that my full name is Lucille. I think that names are interesting too, and it is kind of cool to study people's names and see if they are actually like that, but one should never judge a person on their name or anything else for that matter. Personally, I think it is a huge coincidence if two people I know with the same name have similar personalities. For instance, once there was a guy named Craig who molested my sister, but I also have a very good friend named Craig, who would never do anything like that and is a comepletely different sort of person. There are other examples I could share, but I think you get the idea.

Once upon a time, when I had cable, I used to watch anime all the time. (Now I hardly get any. :( ) But, anyway, I used to watch Dragonball every day. Then, I started to dream about it all the time. I know it sounds dumb, but I dreamt that I was like in the middle of it and stuff like that. It was craaaaazzzzzy. :wigout:

Just because there are no biblical or Christian references in an anime doesn't mean that the anime does not teach Christian values. Despite the vast differences between Shintoism and Christianity, the religions have many of the same values. I have learned many good things, that I have even discussed with people at my church, from anime that have nothing to do with Christianity as a religion at all.

I don't get revenge. Revenge is for the Lord. You would do well to keep that the last thing on your priority list. Forgiveness will give you more relief than revenge.

I still have my blankie. It's Precious Moments, and has a picture of a swan and a girl on it and little pink and yellow flowers all over the rest; it's really cute. I don't still use it though. My sister is 27 years old, and she still has her blankie, and she uses it too. It's crocheted in beige and green and pink. Her aunt made it for her when she was a baby, and she's used it ever since. It's falling apart now. It has so many holes in it that it doesn't even look like it ever was a blanket. She even bought a special bag for it so that she could wash it in the washing machine and dry it in the dryer. I know she still uses it because I was at her house in CA a few months ago, and I was in her room talking to her, and it was laying on her bed among her other blankets. SHe admitted that she still sleeps with it, and I think that's really cool that she could keep something like that for so long. I still pick on her about it though. There's a guy I know who has something like that too, except it's not a blankie, it's a stuffed animal. It is a big elephant named Hubert, and this guy takes it with him where ever he goes. He uses it as a pillow.

Look, you're definitely not the only one who has a hard life. I mean, I don't know what you're going through right now, but I know that everybody goes through hard times, some more than others. Sometimes bad things happen to people, and I understand why you want to hear about other people's problems, and that you just want to know that you're not alone. I'm telling you, you're not. There's a lot going on around here too that would normally make a person crazy or depressed or something.(I'd tell you about it but I don't feel like causing a bunch of contoversy.) The point is, I just deal with it by trying not to care, and by focusing on other things. Another thing that helped me, though was knowing that I wasn't alone, and even more, knowing that other people had it way worse than I do. I found this out by going to a prayer conference thing one weekend. I'd never been to one of these before, and when I went to it I didn't think I was really going to get anything out of it, but I went anyway because the other youth at my chruch wanted me to go. Anyway, when I was there we had these get-togethers where people got up and gave their testimonies. There was this one girl who had to take care of her little brother and protect him from the time she was about six years old because she and him got kidnapped by their long lost father who turned out to be a pediphile. There was another girl who's parents didn't love her and she started stealing stuff to get their attention. She couldn't stop stealing, then. Her mother left her I think, too, so it was just her and her dad. Then her dad started molesting her and stuff, so she always has to run away to get away from him. There were more, too. They were really sad to listen too, but they gave me strength. Especially at the parts where each of them said that they started talking to God about their problems instead of trying to run away from them or get around them on their own. After they did this, things gradually started to get better. They said they were glad to know that they had a real Father who they could talk to anytime and he would always listen and he would always give them the strength to make it through hard situations. I talk to God about my problems too, and he always comes through for me. I've found that as long as I have faith in him, everythingturns out okay.

[B]The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan[/B] is so far an excellent story. I have been completely immersed in it. I'm on book three right now, [B]The Dragon Reborn[/B]. Now, Jordan definately isn't the best writer in the world. (Definately not as good as Tolkien, in my opinion.) However, his unique style has captivated me. This series is very complicated; there is a lot to it, and there is a lot the reader has to remember to understand whats going on. (For this reason, the glossary included in the back of the book is quite handy.) It is pretty much impossible to start with any of the books but the first, and once you start you can't' really stop at any of the books but the tenth, the last. It got me hooked at least. The story is very interesting so far. I'm not going to try to explain it to you; you'll just have to read it for yourself. I will tell you that it is fantasy, though. There is a lot of adventure and a lot of danger. There are things to laugh at, and things to be worried about and things to get pissed off at. There's romance or whatever, also...if you like that kind of thing. There isn't action every moment, but when there is action, it's exciting. Much of the time, I can really picture the fights going on right in front of me. One of the things I really love about this series is the characters. There are so many of them and they are all unique. Many times I have been inspired to draw portraits of characters I come across reading these books. I was impressed at how Jordan has developed their personalities. Always when I think I may have figured them out, they suprise me again. Anyway, I think that there is something for everyone in this series, even for people who don't usually read fantasy. I've heard it is a pretty popular series, but I encourage anyone who has not read it to read at least the first book and see how you like it. Sometimes there are some pretty gory and perhaps frightening parts to the story, but if you don't mind that, I recommend these books to you.

Recently I have really been getting into pirates and ships and the ocean and stuff like that, and I have been looking around in the local libraries for pirate stories, but I can't seem to find anything. This must partly be because I don't know where to start. So if you have any recommendations for me I would appreciate them. I really just want to read a good pirate book with adventure and fighting and stuff, you know? Do any of you know a good pirate book I can read or an author that writes pirate stories?

Here's a banner I just made. I'd like to see people's comments on what they like or what they think I should improve or whatever.

here's a new sig i made. can i get some opinions on it?