Omnislash42

Not too much man, I'm still surviving high school. It's alright, but I'm ready for some of it to be over. You still out in Cali? I had the chance to be around L.A. about a month ago, it seems like a pretty cool place. I'd definitely like to check out UCLA and maybe UC San Diego now, but I can't afford it and theres some parent issues, but you know, the normal. ZF needs to be defined sometime... I dunno. Always reminded me of Zion. And it really was a home to a lotta people for a while when it was going well. Never was the strongest or greatest, and always had its problems, but it meant something to a lotta people. Anyways, it was a good place. It's kinda cool to see ST doing so well these days, since theres a lot of the Ex-ZF guys there... Also interesting to see the history of fringe groups :lol: ZF and MC outta GK, ST and uhh... EoS outta ZF. So I guess the torch has been passed, in a way.

Malicious Intent was a freaking joke. "We intend to be malicious to you! I'm not kidding, I'm getting MEAN! Watch me strike fear into 5-year-olds and fluffy bunnies everywhere!" Their reputation just wasn't quite what they wanted it to be.

I'd heard the story before but hadn't seen the pictures. Nice find.

Well, it's a little more complicated than that. The guys running the ball are gonna be as fast and as athletic as any of the soccer players, the linemen are the only fatties really... I'm 6'0" at 195, and I'm one of the smallest linemen on my team :shock: And comparatively, we're a small team. But hey, the cuteness factor of not being lard-ful outweights the advantage of being fat enough to be an effective lineman. Yeah, as for US hope for the world cup, I'd like to see us get to the next round but uh... US has to beat Ghana and Italy has to beat the Czechs. Based on what's happened so far, Ghana could definitely beat the US and the Czechs could beat Italy. It's another one of those possible things but unlikely. But yeah, there's hope!

I've got a permanent retainer on the lower teeth, its nice because it keeps the teeth straight without any hassle and it really isn't irritating. Basically the one I have is likea little wire i guess glued onto the back of the teeth. It's really not a big deal. Hey, wear your retainer and be nice to your braces and you'll have nice pretty teeth in high school, because crooked teeth are definitely NOT HOT. Well, unless theres something to make up for it. Annnnyways, before this gets too far... Just another public service announcement.

Idk about Rs, maybe something else at night. :-s Well someone had to say it, i might as well be the immature one. Hah. After one of the guys said this.... I was going to say "What exactly are you insinuating by use more times the bathroom? You know, I don't think that's good for the wrists either..." Anyways, uhh.... Go easy on the wrists.

Yeah, I turn to uncontrolled substances, but had a bit of an issue with Codine at one point. Never, ever do codine. Especially not Tylenol 3. An incident with tylenol 3 scared the crap outta me. I'm not usually a violent person, but tylenol 3 made me FREAK OUT. I mean, I scared myself a lot, and luckily I didn't do anything too stupid. But yeah. People die of that stuff. Be effing careful, or stay away. Best choice, stay away. Anyways, I'm not suggesting anyone abuses drugs. It's a bad way out and is a good way to get into a hole you might not be able to get out of. I had a friend die of an incident related to acid a couple of months ago, and it sucked for everyone. I mean, you never know where that stuff is going to lead you. As I said, it's a bad way out, but sometimes it's easy to look at it as the best way out still available. Here's something to think about if you're ever depressed enough to think about suicide... No matter how few people you think care about you, people do. That friend of mine who died in that acid incident? She wasn't a very close friend. I had been in one class with her and thought she was a kinda cool kid, but we never hung out or anything. But you know what? I cried. And I know a lot of other people did too. It's hard to see sometimes, but people care. Mods, I'm feelin a no-talk-about-drugs beatdown coming from you guys. I know you guys are just trying to do your jobs, but let this one go on. I'll say it, drugs aren't a good idea, but drug use happens. You have to let it be spoken about.

Uhh, I don't think there's really been too many names that were exceptionally original. A gladiator fights stuff. A Black Knight gets his limbs cut off by Arthur. A black dragon knight is... I guess a dragon ish person? Maybe. A sabre is a sword and stuff. On the other hand, I still have no idea what a Zeonic Force is, and I led that clan :wink: The names themselves don't strike fear into anyone, it's their reputation. If Damage, Inc sucked, nobody would really think their name was cool either. But they've been kinda dominant and stuff. I dunno, maybe they're not anymore, I haven't paid attention. I'm not exactly sure how you loose an effect, but...

You should proooooooobably take a break. I knew this kid who was in the top 100 players in the world in starcraft who played so obsessively that his wrists sent him to the ER several times. He eventually was forced to just retire. So definitely tone it down a few notches for a bit.

Not if it's addressed to his parents. They pay the school fees. Umm, just outta curiousity... who cares? Somehow I'm just failing to understand the big deal about opening it and then just tossing it to your parents opened. And I'd have to agree. That's a pretty sweet sig.

Umm yeah, you know, as far as that technology argument, I'd probably just drop that one. It's not going anywhere. So, I was watching South Park last night, and the words of Cartman come to mind randomly... "Hitting a Brit isn't a hate crime is it?" Yeah, South Park is silly, and i guess it's not really that funny out of context. Actually as far as I can remember, you're the only one.

Yeah, there was a two-entire-teams brawl at this football camp thing I was at last week... :mrgreen: It was pretty sweet. Oh, american football. I'd have to agree... Soccer is a lot less boring than baseball. I just can't really get into baseball that much.

Ehh, free press means we have to allow people to print even when its insulting, riduculous, or otherwise idiotic. I wouldn't take it too personally. Although the idea of soccer riots is kinda amusing... So, funny story. A friend of mine, who referees soccer and is fluent in spanish, was talking to one of our school janitors about soccer, i guess the janitor is from mexico or south america, about the world cup a while back, i think in the 1950 cup game between Uruguay and Brazil. Anyways, apparently the ref made a bad call, giving Uruguay (or whatever team it really was, I can't remember!) a penalty kick, which they scored to win the game, and the soccer fans LYNCHED the ref afterwards. So, that friend of mine referees soccer. I was thinking that a big group of us should show up at one of his like, 12 year old girls games (The games are in a rec league in the suburbs, so they're really tame) and just going crazy. Like, yelling, rioting, cheering really loudly, penguin dives, etc, and then when the game ends, running onto the field and carrying the ref off and throwing him into a car. But we're afraid we'd get the cops called on us. Anyways. I'm american, and a big fan of soccer. If I was better, I'd probably be playing it instead of american football...

I know what you mean about not feeling like you have anyone to talk to in real life. I'll go ahead and ramble for a bit. I've got issues, I'll admit it. Home life hasn't been too great for years. I'm expected to be a person that I'm not, expected to have values that I don't, and expected to accept things that I just can't take. I don't feel like I can talk to my family about anything, there's just a rift. I've become the bad guy, and the parents just don't seem to be able to accept how I feel and the way I want to make decisions. It seemed to start 3 years ago. My mom's mom died and she started becoming a control freak, or it least it seems that way to me. I understand stuff like that can really mess you up, coping and all. But I've felt for a while that my parents don't trust me. I'd have to say feeling distrusted by parents is one of the worst feelings in the world. But they just want to decide who I'm going to be. One of the examples is they have this college picked out. It's this super Catholic, very conservative college out of the way from society. They have a set curriculum, no class choices. It's math, philosophy, theology, and reading the books of old dead guys. No sports, no music program, no journalism. About none of the things I love. It's become a big disagreement between me and the parents, and that just leads to problems in everything else. As for other people to talk to, I've got a lot of friends. I'm well liked. I play football, tennis, do journalism, music program stuff, some other academic clubs and groups, and I know about everybody and I'm liked by about everybody. But, like you, I don't feel like theres people to talk to. I used to open up a lot more. But I just started feeling guilty about it. I felt guilty about bringing my friends into my own messed up world and telling them what goes on in my head, taking them out of their happy world to complain. It made me feel like a whiner. It's probably just me, but even when they say that I can talk to them about stuff like this, I feel like they don't really care. It's tough, and it's probably not true. But sometimes you can't change the way things seem. Then I got involved with drugs. Nothing too dangerous. But it's alienated me a little bit from some of the people I used to talk to about how I feel. They don't approve of it, and I don't want to feel like I'm being judged. I respect people's opinions when it comes to an anti-drug stance, but I don't want to be looked down upon for it. I'm an escapist. I really don't know what to do with free time, and it's rough during the summer. During school, I've got football in the fall, weights, tennis, journalism, some other stuff I compete in... A lot of stuff that lets me hide from the bad. Summer, there's too much time to think. Anyways. I figure I just have to make sure I don't do anything too stupid for the next year. I think things'll turn out alright when I get to college. Things'll mellow out, even out, problems will disappear and I'll start to figure things out. Writing helps. I was having a bad time, picked up a notebook and started rambling. It's good to let loose your story, whether its somewhere like here or just in a hidden journal. Music... The music I start to listen to when I get depressed just makes things worse. It's tough, but you'll make it through. Thanks to anyone who actually read all of this.

Umm, I'm pretty sure that the Czech republic are favored to do really well in this World Cup, so I wouldn't say that was an auto-win, well, obviously. Soccer isn't too popular in the United States except in the suburbs. Where I live, just about everybody plays or has played soccer in a league, although most people still aren't any good. I like the sport and plan on getting back into an indoor league after football season this year. Football shows how insane us Americans are. It's SO freaking competitive. I play for a high school team. We conditioned (weights and running) for about 2 hours a day 4 days a week from january to september, plus camps in the summer, then 3 hour practices the entire fall, and our record was 2-7. It's borderline ridiculous how competitive the sport has gotten even at the high school level. As for the olympics and world championships in baseball and basketball, the attitude that it seems the athletes have gotten is that it doesn't matter. They seem to be interested in money, which they'll get by doing really well in the MLB or NBA. The world championships just don't seem to have meaning for most of them.

No child left behind is one of the biggest examples of stupid [cabbage] passed through congress in modern American government . Instead of teaching classes and skills, schools are starting to, arguably being forced to, start to just teach the tests. In not too many years, the government expects 100% proficiency. They haven't realized that it's impossible to have nobody fail. They also seem to have not realized that when 70% of one generation can pass, they're not going to magically get a higher proficiency with different people. No Child Left Behind is ruining education in america. Teaching the tests instead of teaching real information and skills is turning education into even more of a waste of time than it already is. Not to mention the pressure is cutting into art and music programs. The arts are important, and I hate to see them being brushed aside just because the government decrees you have to do better on tests. Anyways, rant over on that one for now. Yeah, standardized tests are a big pain. I don't mind, but that's just because I play the system. I did well enough on the PSAT that I should be able to pick up National Merit Finalist and a nice 10k a year scholarship to KU, which gets me out of going to this lame college my mom has decided I'm going to go to. She wants me to go to this small private college in california with less than 500 people, no class choices, no sports, no music. Two of the four classes are theology and philosophy, and honestly, I really don't care enough to read thousands of pages a year of old dead philosophers. Thanks to standardized tests, I have a way out. Wooh, rock chalk Jayhawk.

Are you effin' kidding? I'll agree that Bush was a better candidate than Gore or Kerry, but that isn't saying much. His entire presidency has been based on creating laws and policies that sound good by playing on emotions and therefore they get voted for but aren't effective or aren't a good idea. Lets take a look... -We invaded a nation on false intelligence. Whether or not the pres knew about that beforehand, its still a big screwup. -No Child Left Behind: In creating such a pressure to do well in test taking, schools are scaling down music and art programs to cram in test taking. Last year, my school, which is a good suburban school that sends out a dozen national merit finalists each year and received the Blue Ribbon for Excellence, an award for being one of the best public schools, and last year we didn't make the cut determined by No Child Left Behind. Why? Because ONE person in our special ed subgroup failed. Note that the special ed kids are expected to be able to pass the same tests as everyone else, no matter their capabilities. And in a couple of years, all the schools have to have 100% passing. Simply impossible, goodbye accreditation. -Patriot Act: Another emotional bill passed because lawmakers wanted to look good after 9/11. Arguably unconstitutional. -Guantanamo: Because of the 'War on Terror' and 9/11, we've got our secret cuban prison camp. We abduct those who are 'suspicious' and give them 'due course of law,' which is a military tribunal, not a jury of peers. Often times the prisoners aren't even told what they're being accused of and often times theres no evidence. Just remember, lawmakers vote for things that look good in getting them reelected. And just because something is made to sound good, it doesn't mean it is. As for monitoring calls, yeah, they're collecting your data. It doesn't mean they're listening in, but they're collecting your data. Whether or not it's ever used or ever used against you, this sets a dangerous precident. Right now the government finds it necessary 'for the greater good' to collect phone records without warrants. When the next attack happens, what else will they want? You have to remember, its not all about what a law actually does. The precident it sets is as important, if not more important, than the law itself.

On the bright side, they're not listening in, they're just seeing patterns based on who you're talking to. Still, I question whether it's right, necessary, or constitutional.

First of all, your english is pretty good as your second language. I'm sure it's pretty tough to pick up English and become fluent. I'm glad you made it safely to the United States. Yeah, theres plenty of things wrong with the United States, I'll criticize it too when I feel its necessary, but it truely is a great nation. I'm certainly glad to be here with all the opportunities I have by living here. Unfortunately, wars will always be, but I hope as society progresses it can be less and less common. Yeah, society will never be perfect, but that doesn't mean it can't get better. I think we're heading the right direction, even when we take a step backwards, if that makes sense. As for current American wars, I cant remember if anyone already brought it up... But yeah. America is a country that views it as necessary to take preemptive action sometimes. It's a tough call really. Sit back and hope for the best, ignoring atrocities and death in the belief that it'll fix itself, or send your nation's sons to war and death, whether it is really necessary or not? I wouldn't want to be a politician that made that decision, whichever way I picked. It's not something I'd want to live with... It's a dilemma. But I think that the world is progressing with every good judgement as well as every mistake... Anyways, that's a little side tangent I think.

Hey, the simple fact that Mick Jagger is still alive foils the conclusion of the anti-drug campaigns. If they were right, he would have died 20 years ago. He simply did so much drugs and rocked out so much that he's become immortal. Don't be tricked when rock stars 'die,' they just go into hiding.

There's good wars and there's bad wars. And there's good people who sacrifice on both sides in both. You can respect the soldier and still have no respect for the governments who send them. PurpleCrayon, the United States hasn't declared a war since World War II. We've had Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Stuff with Somalia, Desert Storm, Afghanistan and Iraq... The senate didn't declare war on any of those. Doesn't quite fit in your black and white dictionary definition. As for your Scenarios, we weren't attacked by a nation in pretty much all of the last half-century's wars. Korea, we helped an ally because we feared the domino effect. Vietnam, the Gulf of Tonkin incident is fishy. Besides, we happened to be laying mines. Besides, we had been supporting a corrupt government because we feared communism. We invaded Grenada, put troops into Somalia, invaded Iraq twice, and took over Afghanistan. For better or for worse, we instigated all of those scenarios. America hasn't been attacked by a nation since Pearl Harbor, and that hasn't stopped us from waging a war every other year. You have to take a complex look at complex situations instead of using exaggerated scenarios. I respect and support the soldiers. They're doing what they think is right. But I don't support the politicians. Theres too much corruption and bad motives and misinterpreted intelligence, and they forget how important every single life is when they make decisions. As for gangs, the drug trade is big business. Cocaine and Meth and what not aren't kiddie stuff, its a multi-million dollar industry. And that creates these small societies of violence and the gang wars. They get used to being above the law. It's terrible, but violence has been part of the world since the beginning... I'm not a big rap fan myself, but I don't think that you can blame the music for someone's actions. These kids have been forgotten for their whole lives and haven't been brought up with the morals or respect or opportunities to keep them from the easy way out and gangs. Not to take the blame off of them, but they've been failed by society and by their parents, and it should come as no surprise that when they become adults, they'll fail society. You can't blame music. Again, complex problems have complex explanations and solutions. I'm lucky to live in a place where gangs aren't really a problem, but I feel for you. Keep on living and remember things happen for a reason even when everything seems senseless.

"You're trying your damndest, you strike out and they boo you. I act like it doesn't bother me, like I don't hear anything the fans say, but the truth is I hear every word of it and it kills me."-Mike Schmidt No matter how hard you're trying, you'll never be perfect enough for some people. It's a depressing thought, but there are just people who never see you as good enough. And it sucks. "I'm not perfect, but who are we kidding, neither are you..."- One of the guys in 'Wedding Crashers', i forget which one. A lotta imperfect people expect perfection. And it can't be done. "You've always got to remember, rock and roll's never been about giving up. For me, for a lot of kids, it was a totally positive force... not optomistic all the time, but positive. It was never--never-- about surrender."- Bruce Springsteen Ahh, Bruce... Music has always been about expressing life. He's sayin, I think, that no matter how much things suck, don't give up.

Yeah, KU losing, UNC losing, and Syracuse losing early messed me up. KU.... :cry: Two years in a row, why do you torment me?

Sheesh. Our college prices are insane. Yeah, thats per year :shock:

Yeah, I haven't been around at all in foreeevvvver. Being in state, KU will cost me about $14,000 for room,board,books and whatever else, minus whatever I can get with scholarships. UNC would cost about $26,000, University of Virginia would cost about $32,000 and Washington U would cost.. Whoa, about $45,000 a year. Yeah... and since my parents have decided where they want me to go to college, I doubt they'd hook me up with tax forms to try to get financial aid anywhere, since they've said they won't pay for any other colleges than their chosen ones. And the cool thing is I got lucky and got a good PSAT score, so i SHOULD be able to make National Merit Finalist, which'll get me $10,000 a year in scholarship to KU. Yeah, counting up the cost, Washington is way out anyways :P That's worse than I thought. And Virginia and UNC have bigger reputations and stuff, so scholarship money would be way hard to get there.