Azvareth

I take it he's really into anime? Yes...How did you guess? :o :P Well, the only thing missing really is the boots-of-his-favourite-animu-character, oh and also the compulsory Naruto/Bleach/DBZ t-shirt, can't forget that. But I'm guessing those would be there too had they only been in the editor. But to answer your question, I think the ridiculous amount of japanese weaponry gave it away (the nunchucks pretty much sealed the deal). Not to mention the general appearance of him just looks a lot like someone who sits in his basement and watches animu all night (hence the tired eyes). Also the red pants. I'm sorry, you just made it too obvious, I simply felt obliged.

I take it he's really into anime?

fake edit: not a girl.

You're right on track to spreading a rumor yourself (about them lying). Well, it still seems weird that they wrote that. And all I was doing was thinking that they might be lying about something. That's not a bad thing, really. Stop over-analyzing; it doesn't matter. This is how silly conspiracy theories are created. Not a big fan of their music, but it's always sad to see another young (or old) musician pass away, so RIP nonetheless.

Just a question for anyone here that plays guitar, if you notice that you have any clear advantage over people that don't? Like, do you use your pinky a lot in this game, do you double pick etc? Because I read somewhere - I don't remember whether it was from a review of the game on some site or if I read it at a forum - that guitar players will have a disadvantage from people that don't play guitar. I just can't see how that could be, and I've never really played any of the GH games so I'm curious.

Deep Purple - April.

I want this game so bad.

Basically just talking about it helped a lot, really. Also teaching me different techniques; breathing is important, the "silent sigh" thing I explained earlier etc. But I believe I just grew out of it myself mostly. Lots of people who begins to stutter at an early age just gets better and better the older they get. And no, I don't have any experience with lisping, so I'm afraid I can't help you there. Like I've said, if it bothers you a lot, then perhaps see a speech therapist about it? You can probably find some information if you google it as well.

Needs more effects.

Uhh, not exactly sure what you mean by that, but you will be able to play co-op and multiplayer on the PC as well. Not sure how multiplayer will work though... if you will have to know the person beforehand, or if there will be some sort of serverlist-a-la-Counter Strike and people host their own servers or something. How does it work on the Xbox 360/PS3? My guess is that PC will be the same.

Just wondering, is anyone here getting it for the PC? Would be sweet to play multiplayer with people I at least recognise. Twin guitars = as rock'n roll as it possibly gets. 9 days left.

I didn't see that one on there :? . Yeah, it's on . His review of is also worth seeing.

Facebook is the lesser of the two evils, so I'm gonna go with that. I swear, the people on myspace who use their "favorite band" or whatever as their profile background - which seems to be around 80% of the userbase - deserves to have molten lava thrown at their face. How can anyone think that is ever a good idea?

Yeah, the one where he reviews the "Powerglove" is pretty brilliant. I also like the "Nightmare on Elm Street" review. Also Yahtzee's "Fable" review is great.

Rainbow - Catch The Rainbow.

Partly that, partly because my spoken English is quite bad, but mostly it's because I honestly don't understand what the hell you're saying most of the time. :P I do remember being on Skype with you two some time ago and I was basically just a big question mark the entire time. No offense, of course! :P I just think Scottish English is very hard to understand most of the time. I have skyped with some people here on TIF though, so I don't completely dismiss the idea - but yeah, I'd rather just talk through msn. And stuttering doesn't really work like that. I would most likely stutter anyway, so I don't think it'd make a difference to be honest. Besides, the only situation it would really be useful would in be when it's something pre-decided, like a public speech or something, when you know exactly what to say. Not stuttering while singing and acting is very common. The reason for that is because certain conditions are "fluency enhancing", since they use areas of the brain that aren't exclusively speech-driven (mostly the right-hemisphere), so what you're doing isn't strictly speaking, per se, and thus you aren't likely to stutter. Several well-known singers and actors stutter (Marilyn Monroe for example) so there's definitely some truth to that theory. And really, don't make fun of people for stuttering. Even if he's a close friend and even if he seems to just laugh it off every time. Chances are it annoys him, but he doesn't want to seem like a "prude" so he pretends like it's as funny to him as it is to you. :)

When I do stutter, it's usually on the very first word. I can carry out a long sentence and I will usually just stutter on the very first letter of the first word - I usually just need that "kickstart" and then I'm rollin'. :P I seem to have a bit of a problem with letters like "B" and "P". Ironically my first name starts with a "P". So when I'm introducing myself I will usually say, "My name's Patrik" or, "I'm Patrik". If I just say my name and only that, chances are I will have a minor stutter. My biggest enemies are vowels though. I remember when we had to read aloud in school, like a sentence or a piece from a text, I'd always check to see if my sentence started with a vowel or not. A good technique that might feel a bit weird though, is if you put a small, almost soundless "H" (almost like a small sigh) in front of the word you're going to say. Like "(hh)I'm pleased to meet you". It softens up the vocal cords, so you will most likely not stutter. Takes some practice though but it works very well.

I don't stutter when I sing, nor when I talk to myself (I'm not crazy)... I don't think I stutter when I whisper either... but I'm not completely sure on that one.

If you'd like to become more social and talkative, then yeah, seeing a speech therapist is definitely what I'd recommend. About 80% of the time was spent talking about it: experiences, worries, relationships, friends, what kind of things/situations that make me stutter, difficult words etc. and the rest was spent basically learning different techniques that would help to decrease my stuttering as well as learning about the condition as a whole. It certainly helped me come to terms with it, and basically accept that I do stutter, which in turn made me a lot more outgoing and talkative than before (I also believe this helped decrease my stuttering). Yeah, same with me. I've never been very active in discussions in classes. It has definitely lowered my grades in the more discussion-friendly classes like Swedish, English, history etc. I would get A's on the exams and essays, but I was always told I needed to be more active in discussions in order to get it as a final grade. However, my English teachers in high-school didn't seem to think it was very important, because I got A's in both English A, B and C. :P

I just saw the trailer yesterday on the Scream Award Show, and whoa, the CGI looks utterly horrific, especially for a film that is all CGI. I don't think I could make myself watch it.

There's no cure, since nobody knows what causes it. They've tried using hypnosis as a way to cure people, have them blow plastic balls across a table repeatedly, and even tried putting plastic balls into their mouths and have them spit them out, and probably thousands of other potential "cures". None of it has worked. There are several theories for what's causing it, but there's really only a very few that I find plausible. One theory is that stutterers have differences in the way their hemispheres coordinate their interaction, so structures among the midline - especially the articulators - don't coordinate properly, which causes the stuttering. So the parts of the brain that deal with speech is essentially "damaged". It is also believed that it's a genetic thing. My grandmas brother stutters quite a lot (prolongation), but I don't know if it's something he's done all his life, or if it's an age thing. Hasn't occurred to me to ask anyone either. :P Yup. I can most of the time predict when I'm about to stutter. It's easier to feel a blocking than prolongation though, since the blocking just "clogs" up the throat entirely, not letting any air get through - and like I said, it physically feels like you're choking. The prolongation is harder to "predict", so I usually just stutter it out. Yeah, the speech therapy classes you can get at school usually doesn't help you in any way. So if you're open to it, I highly recommend going to a professional speech therapist outside school, they're much more knowledgeable about the condition so it's really worth it. That doesn't sound like stuttering to me, more like a slur or, like you said, you're talking too fast for your own good. I find how you put up your finger like that to be simply awesome though. :D But yeah, if it's something that bothers you, I'd just try to talk slower. You might very well have more than one speech-impediment. I don't know you, and I'm not familiar with all speech-impediments that exist. So if you're truly curious about it, I'd go see a speech therapist and you'll get a proper answer. I could just make half-assed guesses at best. What do you mean by "mental block" exactly? Do you know what to say, but you just can't make yourself say it, or do you just forget what you were about to say? If it's the first, you most likely have a case of blocking, and if it's the latter... then it's something else. Maybe you're talking really fast? To be honest, I was expecting more "juicy" questions! Remember, as long as you sincerely wish to know, you can ask me anything. :)

I think I've actually heard about that method, long ago, but I am very skeptical as to whether it would have any effect or not. But some believe that stuttering is caused by the vocal cords not "responding" properly, so the chewing gums might, so to speak, warm them up. I don't know. And stuttering is a thing that, at days, or even weeks, might be a right pain in the [wagon], while at other times, your speaking is fluent and there's no sign of stuttering whatsoever. He could have one of those "better" periods now, or he might actually be growing out of it a bit and getting better. It totally is. For you people that don't stutter, if you want to say something, you just say it. For people that stutter, there can be an entire thought process going into it before even starting a conversation, like, "how should I start? Will this word make me stutter? What words can I use instead of that one? Can I formulate it differently?" etc. But mostly this process of thought comes natural and automatically, at least for me, so I can quickly discern which words to use and whether I could formulate the entire sentence differently. I'm very grateful that my parents got me into reading books at an early age, so I have a pretty big vocabulary.

Probably because we've never talked through a mic or telephone. I obviously don't go parading around that I stutter, for the same reason people with dyslexia or people that lisp don't do it. In fact, a few years ago, I had never even said the word "stutter" aloud, and back then I'd probably rather have gotten my [wagon] kicked than openly talked about it. What people don't seem to realise is that a lot/most people that stutter are very self-conscious about it. I've grown out of it thanks to therapy and the fact that I know better than feel insulted by people being [wagon] about it. But I've read about people who've had their entire school time ruined by bullies and such. It's really frustrating because they probably don't grasp what they're doing to this kid by yelling, "Hi R-R-Robert!" after him. Kids really can be bastards. I really enjoy reading forums and talking to people I'll never meet over the internet, but I don't prefer it to meeting people in person. I am a very sociable person despite my stuttering, and I really enjoy meeting new people. However, I might be a bit reserved to you in the beginning, but that completely wears off after a while. It's a matter of trust really. I am however, not a fan of calling people. I much prefer texting to calling. With that said, however, I will, 80% of the time call anyway. If I just met you though, it's basically a 50/50 between them. Like I said, the therapy has changed me a lot.

I figured this could be a nice change from all the "post your favorite" and the recent invasion of news threads that's started to crowd OT lately. When I have talked about my stuttering with friends and such, it has always raised a fair bit of interest; they're always pretty curious and have plenty of questions. So I figured I'd share my experiences with the TIF community and try to answer any questions that you (hopefully) might have, seeing as there isn't much that is actually known about it. :) So, I've been a stutterer for as long as I can remember. My parents say they started noticing it shortly after I began to speak as a child, so it all basically started around the age of 2 and 3. I'm 19 now. However, for the past three years or so, my stuttering has subsided vastly, up to a point where it is now almost gone entirely. Before this, I suppose my stuttering could have been described as "moderate". Now, I'd just describe it as "mild". It has thankfully never been very extreme. I went to a speech therapist for almost four years outside school when I was in 9th grade up to the third year of high-school, and in grade one or two (or one to two, I don't remember exactly how long I went there) I also went to a speech therapist in school, however this one hardly helped me other than making me aware of, and realise, that I have a speech impediment. I don't know why, but I stopped going there after a while. The other two really helped and changed me in a lot of ways. For you psych-inclined folks, I would guess that my first therapist - whom I went to for around three years - used social psychology mixed with behaviorism as major guidelines for his sessions, and I think that the second one used psychodynamic and social psychology, but like I said, don't hold me on either. I went to her for a year. The most frequent "types" of stutters that exist are prolongation and blocking. You probably already know how each one works, but I'll clarify just in case. A good description I've heard for blocking is if you imagine that your throat is a "traintrack" and the words you're trying to say is a "train". Now imagine that train derailing from the track and getting stuck in your throat; that's what it feels like. The word you're trying to say just gets stuck in your throat. It doesn't choke you, but the physical feeling is about the same. It can then, depending on how severe of a stutterer you are, make you react in different ways, I've seen people start pinching their eyes closed and literally try to force the word out by sheer willpower, or if the person is an extreme stutterer, they have started twitching and shaking because they are so desperately trying to say that damn word. I'm fortunate enough to not had to experience either of those yet (although I've witnessed them both plenty of times), because I learned at an early age to just relax, take a small pause, then start over again. There are of course other types of reactions as well, it all depends on the person and the severity of his or hers' stuttering. Prolongation is probably the most common type (or the one you hear the most about), and it's when you're trying to say something, but you're either "caught up" in it, or you just can't for the life of you seem to make yourself say the next letter, for example, "w-w-wa-waffles". This one irritates me the most, because it is relatively easy to cover up the blocking bit by, for example, pretending you were considering something deeply* (sounds stupid but it actually works very well :P), but the prolongation is a much more apparent and clear stutter, so there's really no way to cover it up well. I'll stop rambling now, and just let you guys decide what I should explain/talk about. I have very few reservations when it comes to talking about my "condition"; my experiences, techniques and what I've gone through. As far as I'm concerned, there aren't any "dumb" questions, so don't hesitate to ask if there's something you're wondering about. :) *this one naturally only "works" if you're the one attempting to "initiate" a conversation with someone, or if you're right in the beginning of answering something - because, as you can imagine, it wouldn't work very well if you're in the middle of a conversation to just suddenly drop it and look totally oblivious and in deep thought.

There should be a reset button underneath it actually. You'll have to use something thin and pointy though (paperclip or similar).