aquariusman

I have to agree with you. It has been almost entirely people I personally know rather than the community that have determined most of my life, but TIF has affected little bits of me.

Well, seeing as how the old schoolers thread (I'm really not that old school in the first place) sparked a bit of nostalgia from me, mostly about the TIF msn chats (Might be familiar to some), I got to thinking about the fact that I've been with TIF for about a third of my life so far. I realized that it's hard for something to be around you for so long and not impact you in some way, so of course I went down that trail of thought. For me, I don't think I actually know what TIF has done for me/done to me. It's certainly the reason I consider myself so computer-literate. I remember spending nights playing Runescape, where the highlight wasn't the game, it was reading about the game on TIF, going through guides I'd never use because I wasn't going to make the jump to P2P. I was quite content to spend hours on end reading through the vast collection of articles, discussions, guides and just general gossip there was. Several times I'd be so immersed in the forum that I'd forget I was playing the game, only to come back to the login-screen. It's been years since I last played the game for any prolonged period of time, although I do on occasion make the odd visit, do a bit of woodcutting, maybe some mining or just check out the new features. Yet I'm still fairly active on TIF, probably more active than I was while still playing Runescape. I used to just be a reader, with the exception of the Bugs and Suggestions forum, which I loved. I actually find it hard to break myself away from the forum, something I tried for two weeks just last month. I found myself missing TIF, whether because I just have too much time on my hands, not enough motivation to stay away, or the community is that good. To get to my actual point though, TIF has been a companion. There are some of you that I know quite well, but most of those people have since left, or simply dropped out of all contact as was one case. You've taught me a lot, both about myself and others. You (well, could specifically name who) showed me 4chan, which I do actually regret, as it's a pretty horrid place. Maybe if TIF hadn't existed, I would be interested in other careers, I would be better at sports, a person less inclined to procrastinate, more social. In fact, I believe all of those are actually true, and that TIF is part of the reason I have some unfavourable habits, but nonetheless I am happy with who I am. As far as I'm concerned, you helped me through my teenage years, and now I am the person I am today. Thank you, because without you I truly do not know who I might have been. So I ask you: What have the TIF done for you, what impact have they made on your life, your person, yourself?

I guess I might be old school? Never would have guessed until I looked at my join date. Didn't really head over to OT until probably a year or two after joining though. I do recognize a few of the names. Used to talk to viktorkrum a lot on msn, he had some damn interesting hobbies. Also I particularly remember mypurplecrayon because he was the only other person on the forums I knew of that was into Streetlight Manifesto. Also, always thought his name way mypurpleCANYON instead of crayon, until I went through and deleted all of my old messages about a year or two ago. Damn, doesn't feel like I've been here for 5 years. I do remember all of the bubsa happenings. Also, I'm surprised no one has mentioned Matt and Suzi? Also echofish, lionheart_0, speedofsound, paperclips. There's so many people from what I know as "The TIF msn chats". Damn I miss those, they were a hectic, good time. Yeah, this brings back a lot of fond memories. EDIT: When I was reading the thread I was thinking that I joined about 2008, 2007 at the earliest. I was very surprised when I checked my profile. fuuuuuuu I'm getting old. I remember when i used to be 13, so young and innocent and new to the forums.

By William Arthur Ward To laugh is to risk appearing a fool, To weep is to risk appearing sentimental. To reach out to another is to risk involvement, To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self. To place your ideas and dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss. To love is to risk not being loved in return, To live is to risk dying, To hope is to risk despair, To try is to risk failure. But risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, But he cannot learn, feel, change, grow or live. Chained by his servitude he is a slave who has forfeited all freedom. Only a person who risks is free.

A girl does wonders for your general mood. Especially when you don't really have to worry about a relationship. I now get why people go for casual relationships, so much less wondering. EDIT: I guess it's not so casual as I thought/hoped? Oh well. Still good to have.

From Friday night to right now, life has been great. For about the past week, two weeks, me and this girl have been flirting, nothing special. Then Friday we hit things off at a friends, resulting in us being in my friends basement for an hour and a half, with the lights off (Did I mention I have some great friends with amazing sense humour?). She described it as "frolicking", and I can only agree. The next night was poker and UFC, more importantly GSP (I love watching him fight, his style is just pure calm), with about 16-20 of my friends packed into a basement bedroom. Great time. Sunday I was kinda lazy for most of the day, watched some Boardwalk Empire (Just getting into, and I love it), then went to see a movie with friends, The Tourist. Pretty good movie I'd say, although I wasn't paying complete attention to it, flirting with Vivian most of the movie. Went to a friends after, we all played Pictionairy, got closer with her, came home and watched the Dexter season finale, sooo good. Yeah, today was just a pretty lazy Monday, chilling in spare with my friends + Vivian, easy classes, coffee at lunch made me jittery the entire afternoon. Just spent the last couple hours playing with my 4 month old puppy in the snow, and drinking hot chocolate. Damn it feels good to be 17 right about now. Holiday break in 4 days! Oh, and if you're a guy that's quite ticklish, it means that you have a very good way to flirt with girls and get some very good body contact going. Tickling is definitely playful, and usually ends of in wrestling. It only really works if you're more ticklish than the girl, since as a guy you're probably able to overpower her. That really does sound bad, but I mean that it levels the playing field. And makes her that much more enticed to try and start the tickle war. It's gonna become a game you two play quite a bit, or at least that's the case for me.

Does anyone else enjoy my coincidence of fooling around with one of my friend (Who is Asian), only to come home to "Chinese" food? Once I started eating it made me laugh. But yeah, good couple of hours spent in my (other) friend's basement. :thumbup:

Yeah, so remember how I talked about that girl that's two years younger than me? Pretty much I'm confused as [bleep] right now. We were just hanging out, watching How I Met Your Mother, talking, and playing with my 4 month-old puppy (:3). But yeah, I have no clue what my feelings are for her, not sure if I see her as a friend or more than a friend; I'm not even sure of how much I liked hanging out with her. If she was closer to my age, I definitely think I'd make a move, but because of the fact that I'm still undecided about the age issue, I can't. Oh, and it is completely a mental thing. I think she's pretty, I don't think she looks that much younger than me, and she doesn't act that young either. I definitely just need to decide whether man'ing up is actually man'ing up, or just being plain creepy.

My link An interesting article I happened across while looking into weight training stuff, basically all about having the confidence to do what you want to do. One point is brought up that I've seen come up here a few times: "Fake it to make it". Pretending to be what you want to be, you'll eventually become it. Also, as far as an update of what I asked about dating a 15 year old when I'm 17, I've decided against it, or at least nothing has happened. If anything I'm now going after a girl in my biology class and circle of friends, and things are going well with that. Oh, and I've decided to focus on not being so absent-minded, which has lead to a very annoying running joke with my friends.

Three weeks later and I've only worked out twice since that workout, including my workout today. This is entirely because I've had a unit of swimming followed by a unit of health in my fitness class, but that's all done with, and it feels good to be working out again. Decided to reset my overhead press back to just the bar (dropped only 20 pounds total on it anyways), because my back was arching too much. Now I just have to make sure that I get in the core exercises that is part of the 5x5, which means paying the meager $20 to use my school's weight room at lunch. So yeah, 5 (<2 weeks) workouts and I hit 200lbs for squat, which I'm expecting to be my bodyweight. That's pretty much my biggest landmark, squatting my own weight. Next after that is breaking 300lbs deadlift, which is hopefully in 6 weeks (7.5lbs every week, 45 lbs to go). Time to see if Stronglifts is what it claims to be.

Hard work, relaxation, people. Hard work meaning anything that gets my mind thinking, my lungs rasping, or my heart beating. Relaxation can be anything from reading to sleeping to eating to sitting on a computer typing this. People is pretty self-explanatory. I just enjoy interacting with people. I'd put change up there if it was a holy quartet.

You guys completely misunderstand sports and athletic ability - most of you anyways. I'm not surprised that an internet argument is producing stuff like this, but seriously. Every sport is different, to say one is better than another is ridiculous. [American/Canadian] Football and rugby and hockey are completely different games. [American/Canadian]Football requires quick-thinking and hunger for the ball. Rugby requires just general hard as nails determination. Hockey requires a whole lot more precision skill than physical skill. Yeah, there's hitting, but any hockey player would get destroyed by a football or rugby player. Yet the professionals for their sports are incredible athletes. Stop saying that one is better than another, a world-class athlete is a world-class athlete. Just because they wouldn't do well at your favourite sport doesn't mean they don't dominate their own. And how can I talk about these sports? I play all of them. And to make give an example of how you can't compare athletes across sports, me and my friend both play rugby and [Canadian] football. He's a far better football player, I'm absolute garbage, and I wouldn't be surprised if he gets a scholarship for uni. We're just about equal when it comes to rugby, that is to say that we're two of our team's best players. Then when it comes to hockey, I'm an average player. He doesn't even know how to skate. I can also ski, swim and run much better than him. He's a very good goalkeeper, or used to be. So wanna know who's the better athlete? I'd personally say he is, he dedicates more of his life to it.

Two things. Did you actually cheat on her, or did she just assume you did? Also, she's already cheated on one boyfriend, and even if she cheated on him with you, then either she cheats easily, or isn't able to admit to herself that she was wrong - basically she's likely to cheat again if you two really aren't "meant" for each other, which I highly doubt. Yes you are young and I definitely think your feelings are being way to thrown out of proportion. First of all, the way you describe these things is very immature, your story reminds me of things that happened in grade 7/8. You need to just calm down about her, give yourself some time to decide whether you're really "in love" with her, or just you think you are. But if you really want to date this girl, I hope you're still talking to her. Especially if there's this other guy trying to get with her (Regardless of being an ex, that actually makes it worse Find her in the halls and just straight up ask her if she wants to go to semi with you. Use said friend to find out where she is, and just ask.

Time for me to go back to a fairly often-asked question. I'm beginning to think I grow attached this girl, but the one problem is that she's just over 2 years younger than me - I turn 18 in February, she turns 16 in April. I'm really not sure about whether I'm personally "okay" with that kind of an age gap, mostly because she is younger. So, anyone care to start up the whole age debate, to see if it will help me make up my mind? I'll probably decide in two weeks anyways, but it's always nice to get these things out of the way, less to worry about, and then I can start working on what I want my relationship to become with her (Being friends or dating). Btw, for anyone who's curious, the age/2+7 rule is not met, and I should mention that I'd be interested in a real relationship with her, not just friends with benefits, we talk for hours at a time, and I probably would be escalating with her, if it wasn't because I'm not sure whether her age bothers me. [hide=Unnecessary side story] Really, this is something I would go to my friends for, but this guy that used to be one of our friends ruined it. Long story short he pretty much has dated 14/15 year olds for the past 4 years. We're all almost 18 now, and he's at the point where it's just plain creepy. We haven't been friends with him for the past 3 years now, partly because of that, partly because he's just turned into a very "fake" person. So yeah, he has what we refer to as his daycare, his collection of friends and girls he's going after, that are all about two years younger than him. Because of this, I'm just keeping my relationship with this girl quiet, not hiding it, but I'm not about to shove it in my friends' faces. Actually, I never do that anyways, I did pretty much the same thing with my last girlfriend; some of my friends were only just finding out we were dating, after we had already been dating for at least a month. Don't you love it when your problems solve themselves? I'ma just keep on doing as I'm doing. Of course, feel free to give me your opinion on this girl, specifically her age. [/hide] tl;dr I'm considering dating a chick two years younger than my 17 year-old self, but not sure. What do?

Monday I did: Squats 5x5x165 Bench 5x5x90 Deadlift 1x5x250 Yeah, just starting Stronglifts 5x5 (I'm aware that this isn't technically a Stronglifts workout, it should've been Push press instead of bench). Regardless, I love the feeling of increasing my squat every day. Being able to constantly progress, and just doing squats in general, I love working out so much now. Today I swam and played a bit of water polo, so that tired me out nice and good. For reference, I am 190lbs, 6'3". Definitely got a long way to go on every single on of my lifts. My goals are 200 squat in a month and a half, 300 deadlift in two, two and a half months. Note that I'm not just doing stronglifts, I'm also playing football, rugby, and hockey right now. However in a couple weeks, it'll be just hockey, 2 times a week. Can't wait to be able to dedicate time to working out, I can only find the time to do so during my fitness class. I have plenty of time to get my workout in, but the problem is that the schedule is a bit unreliable.

That's more of a salary penalty than a salary cap. Go the way the NHL did and make it a mandatory limit.

8tracks A different twist on free music, you can browse different "mixes" people have put up, and listen to the songs. The one exception is that you do have limited control over what you can listen to. You can only skip 3 songs per hour, and I believe there is a limit to the number of mixes you can listen to in an hour. Also, after you've listened to a mix once, the songs are shuffled the next time you try to listen to it. Even with these restrictions, it's still a great site. A very good way to discover new music, almost every mix has some sort of theme, so you can pick a mix according to your mood, and some of the more popular mixes are quite good. This outlines how it works. Essentially, they're internet radio, but users choose the sets of songs to play.

That's the thing though, I'm not looking for the "perfect one", I'm just hoping to find those people that will come to mean something to me, and I know that I'm not going to find them doing the same things I've always; I gotta change things up, meet new people. I personally think people focus too much on that "one" person they think will make the difference in their life, that will make them instantly happy. In my eyes, there are several people in your life that you can be happy with, and I'm not just talking about girlfriends and boyfriends, I'm talking about people in general. Part of looking for happiness for me is also finding out what I'm happy doing. Right now there's a few things I know. Rugby makes me happy, and is the one thing that I always love doing. Doesn't matter how I felt like that day, or what else I was doing, rugby is my release, rugby is something I plan on playing until injuries stop me from being able to play. On top of rugby is just sports in general. Then there's a few certain people that I can almost always just sit and talk with for hours. Two of them are ex girlfriends, another is a girl I just met, but I'm still deciding what to do about it, because she is I think about two and a half years younger than me. Another person is my cousin, even more are a handful of people at a camp I hope to be working at this summer. And in all honesty, one of the things that probably makes me happiest is discovering what makes me happy. New things, new places, new faces. I love it. I plan on moving away from home for university, going out to British Columbia (More than halfway across the country), and in all honesty, I don't really want to come home except for maybe Christmas. I want to try and see what I can make for myself, on my own. This is one hell of a tangent, but I think it still comes back to my original point: when I'm interacting with people, I just look for happiness. Sometimes that does come from pursuing a girl, but most often it just comes from getting to know people, and talking to them, without any intentions other than curiosity.

I embarrass myself everytime I bench, so don't worry. I did 90lbs last workout, that's about half my body weight. This Friday and Saturday I did a fair bit of swimming - probably a total of about 6-8 hours. Although it wasn't just strictly lane swimming, it all had to do with training for my NLS (Lifeguarding cert.) I finally got the hang of eggbeater. Now I just need to perfect it, and make it stronger.

In all honesty, I definitely think that the only time you're going to find a girl that you're going to hit it off with is when you aren't looking for her. Why? Because you're acting yourself at that time, you aren't thinking "Hey, I need to impress this girl", you're focussing on something else and you're just being you. Everything's natural. Of my last three relationships, during two of them I think I'd say I was genuinely happy. I met one of the girls on a school ski trip, the other at a school leadership camp (Getting involved in anything helps your chances too). The third girlfriend? She was a hookup from a party almost a year before we started dating. That one lasted about three weeks, and I lost all interest after about a week. The goal of that relationship really wasn't even a relationship, just sex, and that didn't even happen. So my tips? Give up on finding THE perfect girl for you, or even just any girl. Focus on being happy, and having fun, because why does it matter what you're doing, if you're happy? This is at least my life philosophy at the moment. This really isn't directed at anyone, just something I've been really thinking about since I was hanging out and catching up with one of those exgirlfriends tonight. Turned out to be a really good night, she (Ilana, dated her from the beginning of the year to mid march) is probably one of the few people I'd say I completely enjoy just talking to, and in general being with. The other exgirlfriend (Water polo player) is another one.

My favourite is easily This Respirator by The Flatliners. However, Turn Those Clapping Hands Into Angry Balled Fists by Against Me! drives me crazy, and just makes me want to break something. My sig has a link to that song.

Whenever I run for longer than 10 minutes, I sound like I'm chanting as I run, because I have an odd rhythm to my breathing. I breathe in, in-in, out, out, repeat. With the first in/out being the largest breathes and on my right step, then the smaller ones start on my left step. Maybe I need to change my breathing, but it works for me, and I don't run competitively anyways.

I suggest P90X as well. However, MAKE SURE that you follow the nutrition guide. That's probably the biggest benefit of the program, it tells you what to eat, and still manages to give you variety in it. If you don't want to do P90X, at least cut the carbs in your diet. Dietary fat =/= body fat, so cutting fat doesn't directly relate to weight loss.

Finally got my routine down for Stronglifts. Before I could never completely finish, I think because I was resting for too long between exercises, or I was just being lazy. But anyways, this Friday I had an amazing workout. Squats felt amazing, same with deadlifts (Easily my favourite exercises), got my push presses done with, chin ups, only thing I had to do at home were planks. I actually felt amazing after that workout. Made the day. I can't wait for tomorrow so I can workout again.

Depends on what it's filled with. It's half full if it's something I want. Half empty if I don't want whats in the glass. I'm appreciative of what I'm given and what I'm not given. The things I want, I'll focus on what I've already been given (The glass is half full). What I do not not, I'll be thankful for what I've not been given (The glass is half empty). Is this real life?