cithien

Hmm...y'know, blowing a raspberry at a dog made of pixels really makes me want to go out and kick/mutilate some real dogs... Seriously, anyone who makes this connection should stop having any sort of interaction with games, TV, the internet, and the vast majority of society. If you're one of those people who can actually see a meaningful connection between shooing a block of pixels and torturing animals, please get off your computer and seek help. First off, you're blowing a freaking raspberry. I tease my dog all the time (it's hysterical how much she hates the vacuum), and she still seems perfectly content and unscarred. There's a line between shooing a stray who may or may not have rabies/fleas/a propensity for biting small children, and hacking a dog to bits for fun. As far as I can see, Jagex has remained well on the safe side of the line. Second, if you wish to draw connections between violence in-and-out-of game, why not use more obvious things such as murder and animal slaughter? I'm sure the Varrock dog wouldn't trade places with other creatures or people in Runescape for all the world. Sure he runs away when you shoo him, but he seems to bounce back to annoy other players with no problem. His life sure beats that of the average wild dog, so why should I feel sorry for him? Really, the only issue I see here is with the handful of crazies who actually think they have a case for Jagex promoting animal abuse. Yes, animal abuse is a horrible thing. I am in no way undermining the value of animal life. I just think that these people's efforts would be better spent volunteering in an animal shelter, or donating money to an organization than it is creating problems where no problem exists.

How is it that you can't dedicate enough time to warrant paying for members, but you're more than willing to spend time with things that are given free? If you're not poor, what is it about paying $5 a month that's such an issue? Sure you may not be able to utilize it to its full benefit, but isn't the increase in pleasure during playing time worth the scant cost? The whole thing about money vs time being such a hangup for people just doesn't fly with me. I'm a college student with little time and less money. I'm taking 15 credit hours, working 25 hours a week, trying to plan a wedding, and bringing in barely enough for expenses. Still, to me the $5 that I spend each month seems worth it. So I eat a few less hamburgers to pay for something I only get to play a couple times a week; big deal. That $5 makes one of my favorite hobbies more enjoyable, so it just doesn't matter that I'm not taking full advantage of it.

The multiple server aspect of Runescape is something that makes it unique. It allows you to form parties with people you meet elsewhere, without having to create another account. The ability to move to a less crowded server makes training at slow respawns less infuriating. We have 'special' servers for activities such as trading and mini games, where we're certain to find others to participate with. Most importantly, it's not just like WoW. Honestly, the best thing about Runescape is that it doesn't try to imitate other MMORPGs; why eliminate one of its most unique features in a vain attempt to combat a problem encountered everywhere on and off-line?

Wow...what's with all the 'Jessica' loving? I've always hated my name :XD: So very...overused. Boy: Caleb, William Girl: Olivia, Aspen, Cadence

It's a transaction fee. Basically, Ebay has to verify that your credit card is valid, and the standard fee for that is $1.00. We have to do the same thing with new member accounts at Blockbuster; it's quite a common service charge.

Boy do I ever NOT miss the days of taking a bus to school...except when I have to put gas in my car, which happens all too frequently these days (the half hour commute to campus is just more than my poor Neon and $6.75 an hour job can keep up with). Seriously though, through grade school my parents would have murdered me if I'd ever missed school for something as trivial as not catching the bus. There's always another way there, and they expected me to be in class.

Oh, so that's what happened, Astralinre? You mean all 10 of these friends developed clinical depression at the same time, and the timing just happened to coincide with the rising popularity of the emo culture? Makes perfect sense to me...oh wait, no it doesn't. I can't think of a single factor, outside the rising popularity of emo, that would have triggered the change I described in my friends. No death, no crime surge, no previous history of mental illness, no traumatic or life-changing events. Of course though, we can't just attribute the change to the logical source. No, there must be something besides a pop culture movement that triggered insanity in 10 of my friends simultaneously. If you figure out what the real cause was, please enlighten me.

I think, as a girl, that there's a fine line between too short and what looks good. Because I have a rounder face shape, I happen to look best when my hair just reaches my shoulders at its longest, with layers as short as about my nose. Of course, I'm also getting less brave as I get older; back in middle school and high school, my hair was always some sort of red/auburn, but lately I've just been leaving it my natural honey-blonde color. I blame poverty.

To everyone saying to stop worrying about emos and goths because 'their lifestyle doesn't affect yours': stop making assumptions. I lost half my friends to the so-called 'emo' culture. Call me shallow, but when they started talking about their depressing lives and lamenting in shoddily-worded poetry that nobody could possibly understand their inner pain (now mind you, this was a group movement and completely unrelated to any actual psychological distress), I found myself standing on the outside. Why? Because I truly fail to understand why a group of girls with loving families, comfortable middle-upper class lifestyles, ample food, unlimited spending money, secure jobs, and adorable faces would actively choose to be unhappy and feel 'misunderstood.' Seriously, if anyone understands this mentality, please enlighten me. I'd sincerely like to know what it is about the emo culture that draws people with everything in the world to be happy about like moths to a flame. All I can see is that it's damaged a whole lot of people who were once really close to me, and that I therefore have no wish to get caught up in any part of it.

Serenity; though in all fairness, we weren't exactly watching the movie :3> It was like 9 in the morning; I'd just been at a meeting for work, and one of the guys I work with decided we needed to hang out, which translated to an afternoon of cuddling and smootches. *sigh* Now I see why people say not to date co-workers. Awkward work envirnoment FTW! Luckily I'd already seen Serenity, so I'm not totally missing out on the awesomeness. Caleb on the other hand...let's just say there'll be no more watching movies he hasn't already seen.

Most sport fishing, especially deep sea, is strictly catch-and-release. They don't just let anyone go out and kill marlin 'for fun'.

I broke my ankle once jumping into a pile of leaves on uneven ground...the funny part is that I was 13 at the time :shock: I've also had my toe broken by an errant kick during soccer, and cracked a couple ribs against my steering wheel hydroplaning into the back of an Expedition. *sniff* Poor little Tercel...never stood a chance. The Expedition drove away missing a few paint chips, while I was left with a totalled heap of metal, a very sore chest (I'm rather on the busty side), a couple cracked ribs, a towing bill and a ticket :XD: ...and then the insurance rate hiked. Not one of my better days.

I don't say it to 'save' anybody; I only say it as something to think about. An athiest has no more proof that there is nothing after life than I do that there is something. The underlying point of the quote is that if a believer is wrong about God and does simply cease to exist after death, there is absolutely no repercussion. You're dead, therefore nothing you believed in life matters at all. An athiest, on the other hand, will find his/herself in quite the interesting situation if there is indeed an existence beyond mortality. Quite frankly, if it makes you happy to believe that humanity is the end-all, be-all of existence, power to you. I personally can't stand the thought that nothing better and more meaningful exists. Another quote to chew on, this one from Voltaire, who was actually an athiest: "If there were no God, it would be necessary to create one." Apparently I'm not the only one who needs something larger than herself to believe in; for millenia belief in a higher power has kept mankind in check (largely; human nature still dictates in many situations, as anyone with even an inkling of history can tell) and preserved society.

I see nothing but good coming of a belief in magic or a higher power (or what you will). In fact, I pity those who truly believe that we are nothing more than a freak cosmic accident whose purpose ends with our individual existence. What a depressing basis for a life! Honestly, even if magic and religion are just a bunch of nonsense, does it really hurt to believe? After all, according to the major critics of believers, nothing we do or say or think during life is important anyway. On those grounds then, it actually makes more sense for us to make our existence happier with 'delusions' of purpose and magic; if we're all just doomed to death anyway, it doesn't matter that our lives were a big lie. This whole debate of magic/religion vs. science actually remind me of something I heard once: "I'd rather spend my life believing in a God that doesn't exist than to spend my life fighting against one that does, only to find myself on his doorstep after death." Bottom line: If you want to believe that religion and magic are all a load of nonsense, and that the people who believe in them are delusional freaks, go right ahead and believe that. But even if you're right, I much prefer my delusions to your reality. Let me keep them; they aren't harming you.

Wow things have changed a lot since I was ten... Back when I was ten, you gave away who you had a crush on by targeting that person during recess games of kissing tag; of course, in today's society kissing tag is synonymous with 'sexual harassment', so there goes that idea (I feel so sorry for my younger siblings who have to miss out on all the fun and crazy things I did as a child...) Having a crush on someone was never a huge deal when I was younger either. Sure, the entire 4th grade was 'going out' with someone or another, but we all knew that it meant absolutely nothing. And really, that's exactly what a crush at such a young age is. By all means, have your fun, but don't take it too seriously either. And don't worry...as strange as it may seem, we girls are just as shy about relationships as guys are; in fact, even if we don't like a guy, we appreciate the guts it takes for them to 'fess up to their feelings, and will have much more respect for a guy who can than for one who sneaks around the whole issue.