l0rd

Originally contrived as a way to celebrate the success of the Plymouth Plantation in the colonies by means of exploitation of the indigenous, Thanksgiving has since transformed into something much more ambiguous. Interpreted by some as the time of the year where thanks are given to something, I guess the world, the Universe, or to one's respective God for food, technology, their life, family, etc. As an atheist, a skeptic, and someone who doesn't care about holidays, I find myself slightly sickened by this holiday every year it comes around. Not to say that I don't find myself lucky in my current situation, living in a decent home in America, well fed, insured, having a good education and so on. But why should we give thanks? In a civilization that indirectly pushes down the unfortunate and allows for greater opportunity those who were born in such situations, I find the whole thing a bit selfish. It just seems a bit oxymoronic to me that those who lead fortunate lives to celebrate their luck/success/fortune in a traditionally gluttonous way. From this, I've concluded that I am not thankful for anything, aside from favors directly given to me by other people. And in fact giving thanks in the context of my beliefs would be nothing less than arrogance. I am not thankful for our medical technology, but rather the people who advanced it. It is a fact that the desire for humans to live longer, healthy lives and thanking the world or our species for bringing about our advancement is the same as thanking any other scientific fact. I wouldn't thank the "universe" for giving me gravity. I am not thankful for being alive. Out of all the possible outcomes of my mother and biological father of procreating, I just happened to be the product. Thousands of other people could have existed, it is nothing but chance. That would be like thanking the government for letting you winning the lottery. And so on... More onto the belief side of things, I think the whole concept of giving thanks to be a bit dumb. Why must we give thanks to non-living world or universe? Possibly the issue lies within the insecurities within the human psyche, thinking that if we give thanks, we feel a little less bad about letting half the world rot in their own poo (figuratively speaking), or in the case of the founders of this holiday, having a cleaner conscience about committing genocide against the Native American population. Anyways, I didn't make this thread solely so we can discuss my views on this holiday. What does Thanksgiving mean to you? I'm curious as to why people (specifically people who don't think they are talking to a deity who can hear them) feel the need to give thanks, and what this holiday means to you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0s7fFTRXT0o

Dude... And no, it wasn't for anything really bad. I just left the actual crime and details out of the story to give you the visual image of a high-octane cinematic chase, knocking over fruit stands and such.

-Avoided being caught by the cops in my first ever "chase", not to use the word "first" as if this sort of thing will happen in the future. -Successfully gained sufficient knowledge of eBay to start selling stuff making money on the side. -Helped spark a wave of civil disobedience regarding the strict dress code at my school. The resolve is not yet complete, but reform is within good possibility. -Saw The Twilight Saga: New Moon on it's premiere day. Nice thread, but fix the spelling of "awesome". Made me think of the end of Wanted.

Facebook is a wonderful tool that should be embraced by all in my opinion. You don't have to check it every day, or every month for that matter. But assuming Facebook stays the same, it will exist as a medium for direct contact to you for the rest of your life. With Facebook, you'll no longer have to refer to someone as"long-lost". The long-term aside, I use it for school groups and teams, collaboration on study matters, and as a communal way to share relevant pictures. Maybe you terminated your account because you were getting too distracted by it, or you were embarrassed about tagged photos. Nonetheless, I'm an advocate for Facebook for all.

School: Khakis/shorts + polo + undershirt or Khakis + button-down + undershirt (and possibly sports coat and tie) Outside of school: Khakis/khaki shorts + plain Ts Not too into the brand names or the cultural fashion types.

only web comic I've ever paid any mind to is Electric[developmentally delayed]

Germans are taking over my ChatRoulettez! Requesting backup!

Holy cow is that real? XD This is sweet! :thumbup:

Yes! I will. I missed last week, time caught up with me.

Introverted (I) 100% Extroverted (E) 0% Sensing (S) 73.08% Intuitive (N) 26.92% Thinking (T) 88.46% Feeling (F) 11.54% Perceiving (P) 90% Judging (J) 10% ISTP Cool to see I've changed. I got INTP last month.

Thanks for posting that site Wong. :blink: The first stranger I encountered said my TIF username, and turned out to be Istolethepie!

On a Tip by The Halo Benders http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQ6dSvVUwHE I recommend the whole CD.

And if you've got a good sense of humor and a thing for b-movies, watch this movie. :thumbup: This was nothing of a B movie. It was a mainstream, over-advertised piece of crap that tries to be sensational. I probably would have found the movie funnier if everyone in my theater wasn't reacting so outwardly, I wasn't sitting next to a guy with down-syndrome who rubbed his hands together rapidly at any sort of action, and my Christian fundamentalist step-father wasn't constantly pointing out the allusions to the Bible throughout.

2012 - So bad, so, so bad. I'm not even going to bother with a review. But I will say if you're looking to kill 2.5 hours and have nothing of any sort to do, see this movie. However, if you're looking for anything beyond special effects and a script that was written by someone over the age of 13, then don't see this movie.

Superhuman Zombies! But yes, from what I hear these new vaccines are free of thimersol, which is a mercury-based ingredient that's used for something or the other. Not saying that I know the first thing about chemical engineering, or the making of vaccines, but I'm pretty sure I would rather not inject something with neurotoxins into my [bleeping] bloodstream.

My school will be giving out shots fairly soon methinks. I will not be getting one because 1. I secretly buy into anti-vaccine propaganda, 2. I've already had swine flu, and 3. Even if I did get a different form of it, it wouldn't be something I'd miss more than a day of school for.

There are YouTube rules in place obviously. And In the main post of this thread I sort of cover that. Basically anything that is meant specifically for the TIF community.

I am past existential nausea, nihilistic pessimism, the sternness of a religious doctrine; I dont wish to any longer set the ever-so-thin lining of my eyeball with the cataract of abstract philosophy. I will no longer examine philosophy in the sense that any sort of thinking should take place, but rather a look into simplicity, into perceptible truth. It is said that humans are best at riddles at age five, when ones worldly knowledge is not yet tainted by mans muddy depths of consciousness. It is within the human mind that we have the ability to make whatever reality we so choose into a stern belief impressed into us and bled out into our lifes experiences, but in only few can one perceive reality in its purity. Going back to a time of truth, contrast, and, on top of that, innumerable sense of contentedness. In the middle of a most pleasant song, one can simply appreciate the chemical exchange that is going in ones mind as something good, bad, or a variation thereof. It is within stress that there is so much pretense, so much irrationality, yet within the impending pain that one experiences a sense of purity. Holding a dead soldier in your arms, tucking him to your breast and holding his progressively lifeless body until the reality sinks in and pretense hits a brick wall. He is deadthe realization has been made. This is a beautiful moment, for within the human psyche, the established fact has been made with no strings attached. One minute later, or one week later, depending on the composure of the bystander, the empathetic hand reaches out, or the tear duct starts to swell. Either way, empathy and sympathy are undeniably a default for such a situation for any mentally sane person of any kind, and an example of a distorted reality that humans project for themselves. Where does this empathy take root? Not looking too deeply into the large gapes of evolutionary biology or psychology, it takes root in the individuals weakness. It takes root in the natural insecurities of the unanswerable questions and the ineffable themes within a human conscience, it takes root in humans need to purge reality for a happy one. No, no, no! Give me truth or let me die in the mothers' of the worlds tender embrace. With an expression of hysterical happiness, I march on through the trudges of corpses. Drinking the ever-so-sweet nectar from the teet of reality. Mmmm!

I was rather hyper. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqSLw406lBc Subscribe to ForumTipIt on YouTube to see videos when they're uploaded.

I was rather hyper. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqSLw406lBc Subscribe to ForumTipIt on YouTube to see videos when they're uploaded.

From my understanding "the" is pronounced thee when it precedes a word beginning in a vowel or a syllable that sounds like a pure vowel and pronounced thuh in all other cases. I don't believe there are any rules of pronunciation for "a", however.

It would be helpful if you simply put the hostname and port number in the main post of this thread for people who already know how to use Ventrilo, so they don't have to go shuffling through a bunch of pictures to find the info they need to get in. Also, I remember when this was tried before in early 2008 or late 2007. It never really took off, but I wish the opposite for this, since Ventrilo has grown more popular as has these forums.

I should have clarified. She visits Jagex at Gamecity.

Racheya visits Jagex at Gamecity http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hAROA-vXbo Subscribe to the ForumTipIt YouTube channel to see videos when they're uploaded.