Messages

Daniel? Are you feeling okay? No humourlessly offensive witticisms or ANYTHING?!

Kinoko; Harvester; whoever else - absolutely no offence taken.

Mostly because I've shared your christian beliefs for the last 18 years or so, and would probably be saying EXACTLY what you're saying were this happening to someone else and NOT me.

I completely respect that you see homosexuality as a sin; and as far as the bible goes, I'd have to agree with you 100%. I think everyone know's everyone else's viewpoints, so there's little point to saying "you're wrong: here's why!". You just can't change what someone else emphatically believes in a 100 word post!

I honestly don't mind the open, argumentative disucssion, though. I'm genuinely interested to see what other people think of this whole thing.

Oh, bravo! This is MUCH better paced than the midi and has a much richer feel to it. The little scream sounds you have in there are fabulous as well. It's the same song, but the midi really felt like it was dragging, and you had to wait a long time for the drums to kick in and to let the piano melody be introduced. This mp3 has everything timed extremely well. What I assume are the little high hat kicks (the very first drum beats we hear) are nice, but I wouldn't mind some accents to give it a bit of a syncopated feel.

Very very nice. Well done

Firstly let me say that the clouds are my favourite part of the whole thing! With just a touch more shading on them, I think they'll look perfect. The only other comment regarding them is: you say the castle is already in the sky? And yet the ONLY clouds in the pic are above the castle, suggesting that THAT is the sky, as opposed to the whole picture. You need to add clouds to the BOTTOM, ie - covering up portions of the floating mand-lass, so people realise that it's sky EVERYWHERE.

Regarding the castle, I wouldn't say it's too "jagged"; rather that it's too "wobbly". Having bits look they'll be sliding around  is a little off-putting. Also, as far as castles go, it's quite small - it's only about 6 cactuses (cacti?) high!

The colours for the UPPER sky work well, though I think the gradient change between the purple and black happens a little too quickly. For the lower sky, it's a bit "in your face" to have all purple. I'd try incorporating blues and creams to make it look  more natural, and as I said above, try adding clouds around there to take up space and make it more obvious that the whole thing is in the sky.

As for the moon, I don't really have a problem with it. A little more shading could be nice, but I think all it needs is for you to tuck a bit of it behind a cloud, so that we only see a bit of it (e.g - the top two thirds sticking out from behind a cloud).

Overall I love the picture and think it has great potential. Just a few little quirks ironed out and you'll be well on your way

Peter, just some questions, don't take this the wrong way though, I am just wondering:
Do you still believe in a God that gives you these urges, and then tells you they are a sin?
Do you believe you are "sinning"?
Or have you found some "loophole" in your religious teachings that say that it is not wrong?

This is an incredibly hard thing to answer. As I've said a million times, I haven't abandoned my christian faith altogether. That is to say I still believe in the same God (though sometimes maybe not...) and whenever I read stupid bible-bashing posts, I'm still at the ready to totally defend scripture, and I do NOT believe that homosexuality is compatible with being christian. How can I feel this way? I'm not too sure, and I think that's a major part of my stress. I really don't understand how I can be gay and still be at the ready to defend scripture which says I'm destined for hell. Maybe it's just my social upbringing in the church. Maybe it's something deeper.

Homosexuality is your decision, (i.e. he/she who feels that way). If you decide to be homosexual, that's your buisiness, but you can't change the facts, and these are 1: homosexuals and lesbians are the way they are, they aint gonna change brother, 2: they obviously like their chosen lifestyle, so leave em to enjoy it

I respect the fact that you're not being ANTI gay, however the manner in which you're being PRO gay is a little puzzling. Believe me, if I had my say in the matter, I would be heterosexual in the blink of an eye. I didn't wake up and think gee, I WANT to be gay. I prayed religiously every day for FOUR YEARS specifically that God would take away this temptation and I'd be free to get on with a heterosexual lifestyle. But after four years and absolutely NO change (if anything, the 'temptation' had become 10 times stronger) you feel like there's little or no point to resisting what apparently is going to stay with you forever. And whilst I don't DISLIKE my lifestyle, I think I would be MUCH happier as a heterosexual, so you can't say I'm gay because I like it.

And you'd be surprised the number of gay people who SHIFT from being gay to straight and back again and then doubling back and doing loop the loops with their sexuality. It's a funny business.

I love world peace. Everyone here is just so darn......

Wanderlady, I don't presume to know anything for sure. I may very well be deluded into thinking I'm something I'm not, however, for the moment, this is who I think I am. It's hard to give a reason. Why do you think you're heterosexual? It's not the sort of question you can give a one sentence answer to.

As for why I revealed this, well, it was largely because I'd pretended to be something I'm not for so long, and it is INCREDIBLY oppressive, and destroys your self confidence. Revealing it publicly is sort of proof to myself that i CAN deal with this regardless of what peple think.

Another part of it is because I want people to talk to me the way I am. I'm sick of people asking "so do you have a girlfriend yet?" and I end up saying little more than "no, still happily single" when in all honesty I'd been seeing a guy for nigh on 6 months. This hasn't happened so much on the forums, but at least now I know it won't happen at ALL...

Sounds good With my eventful return to the forums, hopefully I can find time to do the Music comp once again!

Trying not to piss myself laughing while I'm typing this - people are just funny.

I was expecting Yuf to be the FIRST one to post - I can't believe it took her 'til page 7 to get a word in! Yes yes yes, you're right yuf - you're right and I'm wrong and I will never quesion you again

Harvester - I suppose you can think about homosexuality in purely physical terms if you want, but doesn't the bible say "even if a man LOOKS lustfully at another woman, then he has already commited adultery"? If it DOES (and I know it does....) then it's very much a psycho-mental-upstairs-inyourhead state of being, in which case I have already adulterated a couple of guys....

And as I said previously, this doesn't mean I'm abandoning everything I said before. It's extremely complex to explain unless you've been there yourself, but the christian faith still means something to me - I'm just not too sure exactly WHAT...

Being passed over is definitely worse, modge. It's like gay guys getting the once over from a girl. It's flattering (albeit pointless and sometimes disturbing), and much better than getting that "Are you NATURALLY that ugly?" sort of glance.

So take it as a compliment, or else we'll all start writing on the toilet walls about you!

In America, we have both crazy-ass stuff like Ren and Stimpy, and serious things like....

Yeah, I couldn't think of any either....

now THAT is quotable. Because I just did....

I think the bee will fit nicely (read: I like your bee. It's hot), but first you have to make the hive way bigger. Well not WAY bigger, but not just one or two pixels bigger, either. At the moment your hive is about half the size of one of the bricks in the wall, and from the way the tree branch is leaning, it looks like it's leaning CLOSER to the viewer, not away, meaning it should be even bigger still.

I like your character sprite, too. He looks 'ronny' (that is now an official word) without looking like a paint over of Davey or the Mayor. Good for you

Wow. And i don't even know what layabout said.

I suppose reposting it right here would allow for an awful lot of blood-shedding fun for everyone...

EDIT: Take that with a grain of salt. Unless you really ARE going to post it, in which case I guess table seasonings won't be doing you any favours.

I am talking of making that public shows, that "proudness" they talk about... Proud about what? using somewhat LasNaranjas example, imagine somebody making a "proud to be blonde day"! Stoopid, isn't it?

In part, I agree with you farl. I don't (personally) believe in gay pride marches or walking around with rainbow handkerchiefs in yer pocket (though it doesn't bother me who does...), but the reason a lot of gay people feel the need to express it is because it was - for a loooong time - and still is, in a lot of cases, taboo.

I've gathered so far that it doesn't bother YOU who loves who, but it bothers the government. Up until recently gay people could not marry (still can't in a lot countries, Aus included), I know a LOT of people who lost jobs when people found out they were gay, and there are a HUGE number of homophobes out there who think it's just downright funny to kick a gay person.

You hardly notice it when you're hetro, because none of it concerns you, which is why some gay people SHOUT it out. They're not saying "hey farlander - we're GAY!". They're simply saying "we're gay and we're going to show it because we can." That's absolutely NO different to wearing a shirt that says "I like breasts" or "Need head" or "I swapped my boyfriend for a puppy"...

I like dark haired girls. I don't know whether I was genetically predisposed to that or whether I choose, but it doesn't matter so long as the girls I'm with like guys that look like me. It doesn't effect anyone whether it's a choice or not.

Well said Las. How Precise, concice and damn straight nice! Whoo. I even SPEAK gay.

I was kinda hoping this wouldn't turn into a debate about whether it was right or wrong, but oh well.

I don't expect everyone to approve of my "choice" (won't get into that....) - that wasn't why I posted. It was purely a tidbit of information that I thought would be appropriate to signal my 'return' to the forums.

But since we're here; kudos lgm, for expressing what you feel without being a massive dickhead about it all (not that I thought you WOULD be, y'know... just thanks for NOT doing it....)

here's a little picture I drew for you, peter: Click moi, babey

And you stopped at the hips because....?

By the gods, that nearly made me PLEASED with anime, which is by and large a long shot. Congrats on having me under your spell...

Thank you, SSH. That actually means an awful lot to me.

It's certainly not a 'decision' I just made while sipping lemonade (however it does sound mightily appealing). And I'm certainly not abandoning my christian faith altogether, either. I'm still tossing things up very carefully in my mind, however the fact you're not shoving bible verses down my throat is a great encouragement

Twisted tendril? TWISTED TENDIRL?




Fair enough...

Ah, we all decided she looked like that girl from Futurama anyway, with one eye. No big loss. I've got two, I promise.