otg

The acting was fantastic. To me, what makes an incredible actor is if you couldn't see his face, and you would have never guessed it was him. If I hadn't known, I would have NEVER guessed that Heath Ledger was the joker, and to me thats what made him so incredible. The movie was twisted to say the least and disturbing in the fact that anytime the joker presented a choice, you found yourself asking "what would I do" and rarely coming up with an answer, if ever. The other actors were great, but Heath Ledger was phenomenal. It's horrible for me to know I can't see his next great role. I don't usually care for batman since he is usually so cheesy in movies, but this was awesome.

For years, I believe that it was only an addiction if you couldn't stop yourself from doing something you were addicted to.

Recently, however, a friend brought up the fact that even if you are able to control yourself from doing something or not, there is an urge.

I have a gambling addiction under the 2nd rule. I can control it, to an extent. I can go cold turkey. Or rather, that's my best option. I just love the chance game, and whenever I start the gambling, it's hard to stop. especially if you're winning big or losing just as much. You keep thinking "I can win more" or, "I can recover from this" and most of the time, end up losing money in both instances.

So, personally, I believe that if you have an excessively high 'urge' to do something you like, more than you should have, I believe you are addicted. How you deal with that addiction on the other hand, is another story.

Even alcoholics who have been sober for xx amount of years. They can very well control themselves from drinking. But it doesn't change the fact that they enjoy the taste of alcohol and enjoy drinking as a whole. That urge will most likely always be there.

Thinking this way, I don't think there really is a way of getting rid of your addiction, unless extremely measures are implicated. Such as making yourself sick of said addiction to the point of hatred. High levels of psychological alteration may be required. Easier said than done

I think one reason so many take place in high schools is because teenagers and younger people are probably the intended demographic for those anime. I suppose it could be considered overdone, but North American tv overuses many plot elements too. I can't count how many suburban family sitcoms have come and gone lately.

I guess one thing about anime often involving teenagers is because teenagers tend to be at an important sort of phase in their lives. At a high school setting, they have the opportunity to react often with a diverse number of people so it creates opportunity for the characters to meet other characters. Plus I think there's something appealing about a younger hero because young people aren't necessarily as knowledgeable or as cynical as older people. So they are more open to experiencing the events around them and accepting what's going on. Also because teens are sort of at a phase where their identity is still being shaped so there's the potential for teenager characters to undergo a lot of mental growth and development throughout the series.

My brother loves anime as much as I do. We generally have similar tastes, so we can usually suggest stuff the other hasn't seen before. And all my cousins watch anime, they may not be hardcore fans, but they do watch some series and some even buy the dvds.

As for my parents... My mom could never understand why me and my brother love anime so much and are willing to spend so much money during conventions. Every time I watch anime she says "You're still watching those big-eyed chickens?" (directly translated from Chinese) But she did watch Totoro and Doraemon with us, though it was the Chinese dub. My dad watches anime when we watch it in the living room. He doesn't like it, but he comments on them sometimes. My parents would always prefer Chinese dramas over animes.

My mother doesn't mind anime that much. But I think my sister really dislikes it. Mainly since I drag her along all those anime conventions with me... (buwhahahahaha!)

And I've got a few friends who is into anime. But they are more into manga than anime. I think because my friends are bookworms, like me! XP I've got a friend to like OHSHC and D.Gray-man. I plan to spread the love of manga first before I spread anime, since manga is more cheaper to get. DVDs are like 30 bucks where I am and a boxset is around 120... =.=

It so true its insane. I mean, I'm a senior in high school and all my fellow seniors look at the Freshmen and go "Were we that bad?" My Little brother's freshmen class (which are now sophomores) has caused my school to set most of the incoming freshmen in a whole separate building. They have their own lunch hour, and are even set into the theater for study hour. My brother's class was horrible, they didn't do their work, and were always getting in trouble.

Its not just in schools though. I look at little kids now a days and its pure madness. Their attention seekers most of the time. They don't use proper english and make up their own language. None of them read, on their own, without the teachers telling them to. I'm 17 and don't have a cell phone, and there are 7 year olds running around with a PSP, a cell phone, or an MP3 player. If I EVER talked back to my mother the way some kids do now a days, I would have been spanked on the spot. I was never allowed to watch some of the things they show on TV now a days. Course my mom never specified that we were or were not allowed to watch certain things, my little brothers and I just had enough common sense not too. I'm 17, never had a boyfriend, and I know little kids that have gone through like three or four. WTF!?

Violence has always existed, but it seems to have kicked it up a few notches in the last 5 or 6 years. Kids think its cool to act 'gangsta,' I've even watched my little brother do it, he loves saying "I'll pop a cap in your @$$!!" because he thinks its funny. Last year during my Junior year there was a bomb threat at my school (it was a false alarm, some idiot trying to get out of finals...), but it was a big deal for all of us. They had us all crammed into the multi in the middle school across the street from the high school, and racial fights started breaking out. I have never seen people move so fast before, and it was to go attack another person. At least 3 fights broke out that I saw, but I heard of so many more. There were people being arrested, and because several were black, people were saying the cops were being racist (I don't know the full story on those who were arrested, I just saw it). Its ridiculous that racial fights would break out during a bomb threat all because of one stupid comment made by an ignorant person. Stupid, moronic, and just plain sad.

Things have changed a lot, and its scary to think what it will be like in a few more years. I mean, little kids are getting abducted from their front yards.

I don't even know if theres anything that can be done to reverse whats been happening.

Today's games have not gone the way I've predicted but goes to show you how unpredictable these tournements and the world of football/soccer is 'eh? The France game was one of the worst games I've ever seen in my life and I've been watching with a keen interest for about 10 years now so I've seen some pretty bad games in my time.

As for the Holland one. >_>... That... was not expected. I know I highlighted the defence problem before but I didn't know it'd be THAT bad. I mean, Holland completely destroyed them. An absolutely amazing game.

I love this tournament already!

The Russian team isn't an exciting one and one which is fairly defensive and strikes gold on the counter-attack or so I've noticed whilst the Swedish team has some talent but not a massive amount of it. It could be a decent game but I'm not going to put my hopes up, I'm predicting 1-0 to the Swedes and the Spaniards to beat the Russians either 1-0 or 2-0.