blaze242

I believe any human relationship requires some adjustments and understanding. If this can be called 'changing yourself' then I do it all the time. Even the most happily married couples argue with one another, they then make adjustments/changes and work it out, thats a successful relationship.

I change fo no one except for me and the good of my own.

But I must agree with this statement 100%. In the end people only change for themselves, because they feel its worth the effort. If you truly love and care for someone then you'll feel its for the better of your own good to change, and you'll do it. If you don't care that much for the person then you'll probably pass on making the difficult effort.

I don't believe Communism, Capitalism, or any theories we put into existence are the main problems. It comes down to human greed and selfishness. Capitalism does breed some of these attitudes and makes our society think we must keep making more profit. People constantly re-assess their values and societies change based on those values (very slow process and happens over hundreds of years). I think capitalism will eventually have its down fall (all things change over time) and we'll hopefully see a society with less focus on money.

My professor for Geography & Environmental Issues had a great quote that I think anybody can understand.

"The earth's going to be fine, the question is will we be capable of living on it."

Whether you want to admit it to yourself or not, human population impacts the environment. I can go into a whole slew of issues we need to fix in our environment. Climate change (what you called global warming) is just one factor but definately the largest one we need to fix. Biodiversity (heavy extinction of species causes ecosystems to suffer), Air Pollution, Water Pollution, Agriculture, human population (the fact so many more people now occupy the earth is a problem; only so many resources are available), heavy Fossil Fuel use, could go on for quite awhile, but all of these issues have their own scientific factors that are impacting the earth.

I would ask people like KosmikFunkSquad to not just listen to the opinions of scientists. Go out and read books which contain case studies about the environment, and then formulate your own opinion after looking at the facts. Numbers don't lie, people quite often do. I don't want to bash your total opinion though alot of comments you made are very true. We need the greenhouse effect to sustain life on this planet, the earth does fluctuate in temperture, carbon monoxide and methane do let sunlight through the atmosphere, but all these facts are only part of the story and in a way being very nieve towards the truth.

The Earth has fluctuated in temperture for years and it always will thats not a contested fact. The problem is that when you look at it in a larger scale (millions of years) we are on a steady increase that is happening at way too fast a clip. The Earth's temperture is rising at a rate that it never has before in its existence.

The definition of pollution should be cleared up for people to understand why carbon monoxide, methane, CFCs, etc. are considered so bad to the environment. Pollution is an excess of any substance that adversely affects the usefulness of a resource. These are all natural occurring gases that get produced by trees and other systems on earth all the time. The problem is we are creating too many of these gases for our environment to handle. So to sit there and say we need them is true, but to then act like the excess we are creating isn't having a negative impact, is a bit like putting your head in the sand and only listen what you want to hear.

This post is only skimming the surface of information but I'm realizing its way too long by now. One last sad fact though, United States has 4% of the Earth's population yet produces 25% of its carbon dioxide emissions. People, but us Americans in particular, need to rethink our values. Do we want the world to be a clean place for our grand children? or will we sit idoly by and say nothing can be done? Humans are the most resourceful and genius creatures in the world we can figure it out, we just need to care enough to.

I now need to get back to my studying for my Environmental Issues exam which is on Friday.

Lucid dreaming happens to me a good amount of times. I remember many of my dreams (at least for that day or so) and sometimes I become aware that I'm in the dream. When this does happen to me though I don't usually just do whatever I want to in the dream. Normally I'll do something that will hurt/help the incidents that are occurring in the dream. So I don't usually feel like God but its still an interesting occurrence.

Just kill me as quickly and painlessly as possible... thats all I ask for (piano falling on my head from a ten foot story building sounds fast). Oh and I hope I don't live too long, I can't imagine anything worse then getting so old your body and mind can no longer make it worth your time.

Wonder Bread. That would at least be my guess.

The plot will have a big impact on my decision. But in the end I think I prefer watching movies. Only because I feel its easier to find movies with mature themes. I do believe that alot of animes have mature themes, but a good number of them are targeted for younger audiences, and I typically lose interest in watching those shows. But when you look at my DVD collection I definately own more animes then movies (mainly because in order to collect one show you end up buying 6-12 DVDs). So yeah who knows lol.

For years I was in the same boat as most people, where I couldn't even stand the thought of cleaning my room. But in the past year or so I've come to really enjoy the fact that I keep my room clean. I finally realized that doing little chores everyday helped avoid having a mess of a room by the end of the month. So instead of ever having to clean my room for a whole day, I just keep on doing the 'little things' and my room never ends up looking that bad.

I agree with all the comments that have been made so far and feel they all have an impact on why anime hasnt taken off in America. One more side of it that I don't think has been touched yet is the economic side (for the companies that sell/distribute anime). I know alot of college students who watch anime but most of these people just download anime and never go out and buy the DVDs. The main people who purchase anime DVDs are younger kids (and the parents of younger kids). When companies see that younger audiences are their main target, and main way of attaining money, they won't tend to put the extra money into advertising more adult oriented shows. I strongly believe if companies advertised more adult shows and really made a push towards the mainstream public that alot of these shows could succeed, but what reason do they have to do such a thing? Just like any company they are out to make money (thats their primary objective), if young kids remain their primary targets then your always going to see more childish shows dominate.

I'm a huge fan of Cookie Dough, next in line would probably be mint chocolate chip. I also rather enjoy Red Bean and Green Tea ice cream, I just need to find a japanese market by my new apartment so I can go get some.

I feel that badminton is better for me, since its much faster paced than Tennis

I prefear Badmintaion over tennis cause I like the fast pace of it.

I'm just really curious what form of Tennis and Badminton all you guys are playing. Hearing people say that badminton is faster paced then Tennis is kind of baffling to me. I understand the birdie can come to the player quicker because the court is so small. But in all fairness a ball in a tennis match is moving much much faster then any birdie can in badminton. The larger court and an inability to play may cause some people to think tennis is slow. But if you've ever played tennis on a compedative basis you would realize that its a much faster sport then badminton. I can understand if you prefer playing badminton to tennis but hearing people say its faster paced is kind of startling to me. Obviously my choice is tennis over badminton.

Gankutsuou had to be one of the saddest animes, in general. I don't necessarily feel the ending in particular was sad but throughout most of the anime the characters are just getting put through such torture. I constantly felt like my stomach was turning in knots because of the tough situations the characters were put in.

Now and Then, Here and There is a very depressing one as well. While its always tough to watch a sad ending, I also feel like sad endings are part of what makes animes great to watch. You never know for sure if the ending will turn out for the better or not when your watching an anime, and that surprise keeps me coming back again and again.

I'm in my senior year for a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art + Technology. The degree tries to set you up to be an artist in any field that you may enjoy but focuses your artistic talent in using computers and technology as your medium. I can't wait to graduate, but then I've gotta decide whether I want to go to graduate school or get a job.

On the realistic side I wouldn't mind having a life like Onizuka has in GTO. Even if I just got to be one of the kids in his class, its pretty amazing to have a teacher (or any person for that matter) who cares about helping you along in life.

On a fantasy side I guess I wouldn't mind being a Newtype in any of the Gundam U.C. Universe shows. Having some amazing powers like they do and getting to fly around in gigantic robots seems like a dream come true for me.

I live in the US; originally from New Jersey, now living in Ohio. Obviously native language is English, know a little bit of Italian from older relatives of mine, and I'm in the process of learning Japanese. In the end I don't think I would call myself bi-lingual yet because I don't feel I have a strong handle on any other language but English. Eventually though I'd like my Japanese to be as strong as my English, hopefully one day.

I think the stigma of "girls in pink, boys in blue" is merely semantics. You dress an infant in these colors to indicate their sex, so clearly pink means "girl" and blue means "boy".

I've got to agree with you that probably the only reason this whole talk about whether men should wear pink probably stems from the fact that we always have infants dressed in a specific color to indicate their sexuality. I'm a man and have no quams with wearing pink and don't feel it represents anything about my sexuality. But then again I do believe many people use simple things like this to make judgements about others. In the end I do feel wearing pink has an effect on how others might see you, the bigger question becomes, do you care that they make these judgements. For me the answer will always be "No".

Berserk would get my vote for an amazing story and one that has still kept me captivated to this day. Amazing characters helped lift the show to great heights as well but the plot line is one thats complex and can keep you interested for a long time to come. Dealing heavily with concepts about Fate and Free Will, Berserk was the first show that made me realize how deep and meaningful some anime shows could be.

If the person knows you really well then a present is so much more exciting because it will be more of a surprise. Money is a very boring gift but you can use it for whatever your heart desires, and that is a plus.

Videogame Enjoyment List:

1) RPGs - Great stories, interesting characters, customization, and long hours of game play make it the most enjoyable genre for me. 2) FPSs - Constant action, amazing weapons, great atmosphere (Doom 3), and multiplayer capabilities are all good qualities for me. 3) Action/Adventure - Another genre with constant fighting, great boss fights, and somewhat of a story line. 4) Fighting - I love working on combos and learning all the different types of attacks and blocks you might need to use in different situations. 5) Sports - Just downright fun playing against your friends and seeing who understands the sport more (but the real thing is always better then the videogame)

I definately believe that cruelty towards animals is an awful event and no human should par take in it. But on the other hand I do realize that humans are omnivorous and in order to eat any sort of meat another animal must die in the process. The only thing I don't want to see happen is having the animal get carved up when its still conscious. By now we should have ways for companies to avoid that scenario, but sometimes it still happens. On a side note I would like to see the United States cut down on its meat consumption, but thats mainly for dieting concerns, since we seem to have forgotten about other food groups like vegetables and fruits.

I wouldn't call it a great game, but I enjoyed playing it. Graphics were definately top notch. The golem design and collection idea was a big plus for me. Battle system and Musical score both were kinda bland in my opinion. But my biggest enjoyment came from Atsuma. He is an archetype and he's definately annoying/idiotic, but I think he made me laugh out loud more often then any character in a videogame has before. The game would prolly get rated a 7/10 for me. I would recommend it, but its nothing amazing.

Cowboy Bebop and Ghost In the Shell SAC 1 and 2 would get my vote. I don't feel many series have good english dubbed voices, which is why i typically go with sub. I do always give a series a listen though in the english dub just to see if its respectable. I have to say that I do feel the english dub has improved dramatically over the past few years, but still not up to par with japanese voice actors.

My last obsession for an anime series was Eureka Seven. Watched the whole series, from beginning to end, twice in about 6 days. But since then I've been rather lean on my anime consumption. Had stopped watching Bleach for quite sometime because of all the fillers it was having. But now I hear its back on track so that will probably be my new anime obsession for awhile.

3- Do you think there will ever be a tennis player like Ryoma in real life?

Well I haven't watched all of the Prince of Tennis (only about 30 episodes or so) and I don't know any real life tennis player who can actually do all the phsyical things that Echizen does. But I do watch a ton of Pro Tennis and Roger Federer is an absolutely incredible player who will probably go down as the greatest tennis player of all time, once everything is said and done. I do feel that both Echizen and Federer share the same type of mental approach to the game and are extremely cool headed and figure out ways to beat their opponents even when their having difficulties. Plus it doesn't hurt that both have incredible talents.