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I got a reply but I don't have a lot of time off before it ends. I'm hoping I can squeeze in a day or two. Any sort of compensation would be beside the point, I'd love the experience alone.

Not a lot of choice. 1 Gig? Interesting. 7 days? Frustrating. After that's stated the only following posts can be, "Oh."

At the risk of sounding almost sort of racist against accents, I must say the american one really irritates me. I (seriously) get a headache from listening to George Bush, and Bill Clinton did much the same. When I watched the 9/11 reports on TV, the thing that stuck out most to me was how stupid those people sounded. I know it's all about what you get used to etc, but I didn't think an accent would grate that much with me...

I'm with you on that one. Honestly, I started to get defensive and wanted to rant about how those aren't the only American accent. A second later, adjusted perspective kicked in.  Keep in mind that Clinton & Bush have southern accents (Not that you wouldn't find mine equally annoying). Clinton's got the Arkansas thing going whereas Bush's is an amalgamation of Texan and Paleolithic.

Until 7 days pass...

I can see that most of you have bought into the lie that smoking is bad for you.  Alright.  I won't try to dissuade you. Wallow in your ignorance.  

Cigarettes are good for you. They've got calcium, niacin, vitamin B12 & contain no hydrogenated soybean oil.  It's what you light it with that matters. Do you light up using matches? They're killing you. Do you use a butane-filled lighter? Burning butane is a carcinogen. How about a coil heated by electricity? Those heated iron molecules are kicking your ass. I smoke the way that Buddha intended.. I light my cigarette using a magnifying glass and the beautiful rays of the sun - in other words, the natural way.  If it's nighttime and I need a smoke, I simply rub two cigarettes together until one bursts into flame.

Alright. I don't have a point. I smoke. I wish I hadn't started but I do enjoy it. I figure I'll give it up about the time I experience shortness of breath or don't enjoy each one.  I throw my butts away, I tap my ashes in an ashtray, I smoke at least 30-40 feet away from doorways & people. I chew gum, use mouthwash, brush my teeth, wash my hands, or wear different clothing when I'm around non-smokers so they don't have to deal with the stench of it.

I've got so much goddamn consideration for non-smokers you'd think they'd begrudge me a little elbow room. Sorry, I'm not actually referring to non-smokers.  I'm referring to the anti-smokers (not to be confused with the anti-cigarette crowd). I'm only hurting myself here, and spending my own cash that I obtain from working 60-72 hours a week. Yet somehow, people think they've got the right to approach me when I'm sitting on my porch smoking - despite the fact that the sidewalk's 60 feet away - to tell me that it's bad for me and that I'm killing myself.  

That's incredible! My holy shiva, buddha, jesus & batman, you've astounded me with your brilliance.  Really? Causes cancer? Causes emphysema? Causes problems with pregnan-- do I look pregnant to you?  So? Did you read that off a pack?  No? You got it from an anti-smoking lecture.. got it.  Well, they probably didn't tell you this Mr. Door-to-door dumbass but every carton I buy, every pack within, every lighter I buy to go with the pack (soon, it'll be on every cigarette as well) tells me exactly what you just told me.  Am I supposed to congratulate you at this point? I'm certainly not going to argue against it, I'm just curious as to how it concerns you.  It pollutes your air? I'm 60 feet away from the street, what are you? A bloodhound? Oh, the ozone layer.  I hope you'll forgive my tresspasses as I forgive your V8 4WD SUV.  I'm setting a bad example for the youth? Have you seen the youth lately? If anything, they're more likely to set a bad example for me. Besides, I'm sitting here in sweats and a t-shirt.. my hairs standing straight up in back.. I just woke up. I'm not exactly a glimmering example of cool here, if anything I'm a human billboard announcing to the world that you oughtn't to smoke otherwise you'll be in danger of becoming like this loser.

My lengthy rant explains my feelings about smoking and all drugs in general. I'm not as pissy as it sounds but when communicating in text you've got to be hyperbolic to get your point across sometimes.  Be against drugs, just say no, take the stand, walk the straight & narrow, stand tall, be proud..  I've got zero problem with that.  Start condemning people instead of the substances, then we'll have words. Of course, I won't be listening to yours if you're chugging a triple-venti-breve-mocha as you preach to the black kettle.  

[/obnoxious rant]

I'm with Shbaz..  pizza's the way to go.  Not the ultra-franchisey fast-food pizza either. I'm a fan of a Chicago-style joint in town. A large has got 1/2 cup of sauce, nice thick sourdough crust & a 1/2 - 3/4 pound of cheese. The whole thing weighs around 5 pounds and will certainly kill me someday.  I would love to insist that I've got taste and classier favorites but I found ultimate satisfaction in the consumption of a medium pizza & a mug of Guinness.

Turned 27 yesterday and because of the drunken splendor of the past couple of weeks in Florida, I'm feeling much older.

THAT'S YOUR FAULT FOR WANTING TO BE ALL GROSS AND STUFF!!

I'm getting the feeling that . . . well, how can I put this tactfully?

I'm thinking that most people's are like this:  *
And your asshole's more like this:  ∙
(And, of course, DG's is like this:  o  )

Marriage is not a strictly religious concept.  I'm definately shouting alongside some of the others here, "Religion's got nothing to do with an act of government!"  However, the reality is that a very significant portion of American society is raised with a Christian upbringing and still keeps Christian values in the forefront, regardless of whether or not they're still practicing their faith.  Since these are the people who will be backing the constitutional amendment proposition, these are the people we've got to argue against.  Those here of this particular faith, I don't mean to pick on you but without generalizations, these posts become novellas.

Yufster: It could be rude of me to say but you're pulling facts, quotes, contradictions and theories out of second-hand knowledge, internet searches and suppositions.  What the fundamentalist you talked to should've replied with is that the death for homosexuality law was done away with.  God ruled more stringently and required adherance to precise guidelines that he had set.  In the new testament (and it's called that for this very reason) Jesus said [paraphrased] "I say to you, no more an eye for an eye, for through me God has made a new convenant." He goes on to talk about 'turning the other cheek,' 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you', 'love thy neighbor as thyself.'  So, the death-penalty for all thing doesn't quite work.  

Similarly, it should be mentioned that not all sins are created equal.  That is, different sins merited different penalties.  There were some sins atoned for by sacrificing animals, others by asking forgiveness of the person you wronged and still others punishable by death.  There is even one sin that the New Testament mentions is unforgivable - blasphemy of the Holy Spirit's work giving testimony to Jesus.  (somewhere around Mk. 3:29; Lk. 12:10) Of course, it's not as plausible a sin today since the Jesus guy isn't strolling around so much anymore.  

The thread ought to be re-labelled or simply done away with, it's so far off-topic with no resolution in sight.  I'll bow out now.

Massive low-loss compression algorithms, dumbshit.

Oh, Yakspit -- You and your witty play on words!

WTF? You recognized a play on words without a freakin' smiley? There's hope for mankind yet.

Edit:

* YakSpit reads "Nigel's" post and shrugs.  What the hell? I'll tag along with the Satan dude.

Quick comment on the faith & works issue.  It's my understanding that according to the bible, good works are a side-effect or by-product of faith  (e.g. A man who's generous of heart is likely to give to others). Not contradiction but additional information: good works do not mean you have faith (e.g. A man who gives to others isn't always a generous person... modern example being a person/business who gives to charities merely for the tax-break).  Since it's said multiple times that you go to heaven because of your faith and not because of your actions, I really don't see why they would list this as a contradiction.  

The contradictions site was fairly interesting but I don't see why they bothered with their questions if they weren't going to do a little basic study.  Anyway, I don't distrust biblical text because of contradictions (perceived or otherwise), I distrust it because it's come from far too many sources (all of them human and therefore somewhat flawed). It speaks in metaphors and parables without distinguishing reality from fantasy.  It is subject to interpretation.  That is, a person could derive multiple meanings from the same sections.  Many of the basics are stated rather concretely but some varied aspects of the faith are described rather vaguely.  I also don't see how you (plural) can take things at face-value that are haphazardly translated from several different languages into an archaic dialect of English. If you read the NIV or equivalent, that only adds to the possible errors.  I'm not Christian but was raised to be (18 years).  Despite the fact that some things were taught in a very black & white manner (whether metaphor or not), I've always been doubtful that the bible was meant to be a word-for-word textbook.  I think it ought to be taken more as somebody teaching through a book of poetry.  The words aren't as important as the principles and the emotions they convey.  

Aside from the fact that we're entirely off-topic and into religious debate (again) we're also grasping at straws and nit-picking.  It's the internet for CJ's sake! If you want precise and serious debates, why not compose reports or talk to somebody in person? I think it's usually best to be a bit more generalized when dealing with forum posts (looking at the length of this one so far, I guess I'm being hypocritical  :).

How do these guys fit into the bible?

Massive low-loss compression algorithms, dumbshit.  

Depending upon the sect, you'll probably be referred to Behemoth & Leviathan or to one of several other theories I posted about once-upon-a-thread.

It's gotten a bit off-topic has it?  I see the gay marriage situation a bit more pragmatically.  We've got government and religion.  Government dictates how people in a certain location live.  It determines what they can and cannot do.  It gives certain privileges and enforces certain restrictions.  

What is marriage? More or less, the joining of two citizens financially and intimately.  The two are meant to be intimate with each other, live in the same place and share their finances, problems and the bits and pieces of experience that we call life.  This doesn't sound like an issue that needs to be handled by a religious institution or even our more "morally-upstanding" citizens.  A marriage can be performed by any justice of the peace (basically a title of judge, only not restricted to a particular precinct).  If churches want to deny gays a religious ceremony then I suppose they've got every right.  The KKK is more than welcome to turn down black people who wish to join its organization.

Why are people so emotional about this? (particularly on the conservative side) It's not like the US gives a damn about marriage. 68% will end in divorce.  Of the remaining 32%, 2/3 will have been married at least once previously.  In the military, the divorce rate is +10%.  More and more couples are signing pre-nup agreements, ensuring that their possessions remain theirs in case the marriage doesn't work out.  The youth of the US (on average) is more violent, more ignorant, less patient, and is much more likely to have come from a broken home.  What is it that "straight" people are doing so well? What makes us think gays couldn't do an adequate job themselves?  I'm kind of with Sylpher on this..  the adoption issue I would definately have to think about.  However, a male-female couple has to go through numerous interviews and evaluations in order to adopt a child.  If the gay couple does the same things and passes the tests, why assume they'll do a worse job of it?

If homosexuality is a choice, then this is more of a moral issue than anything.  If it's genetic (or even a fraction of homosexuals are) then any denial of equal rights constitues bigotry on our part.  The adoption issue aside, why not deny them driver's licenses as well?

Thread's still not moving but maybe if it's bumped up someone will remember to move it.

Had a quadruple date last night. Went out with 4 females to drink & dance.  Seemed like it could go interesting places, or at least improve chances.  Two were light-weights and had to leave fairly quickly.  I blew about 80 bucks on drinks and went home.  Had an absolutely excellent time but paying for it today.  Ouch.  

For practice, I recommend re-visiting the basics.  Try drawing grids, try drawing shapes.  Do tic-tac-toe style grids and draw a geometric figure in each.  If you know what you'd like to draw, you could start with that but I find that doing geometrical patterns helps with my technique, sturdiness & helps me associate a point on the tablet with a point on the screen.  To help get used to it (particularly the tablet point vs. monitor point) I used the pen for windows navigation & a couple top-down-games: solitaire & Mahjongg.  I do not recommend it for Half-Life (I've still got a hangover from that, I think).

3 topics up, there's one that's "sticky." It's a listing of drawing programs.

The free ones I've tried and thought were much good were i-draw, graphics gale (req. registration for .gif), imageforge (though controls are clumsy), The Gimp (though it's not very intuitive).  I use mainly PhotoImpact 7 but am trying to force myself to get used to PS Elements instead.

Well, for a desert, why not some hills or a line with little heat-waves coming up? It could be simplistic enough to be a passable birthmark.   If you've just got bumps to represent dunes then it might be confused with hills.  One way to pick the birthmark symbol might be to look up a chinese symbol for desert (you mentioned looking for oriental names).  

Saying "oriental" is a bit vague but maybe this dude's site can help?

Software design and development project?  I'd hafta agree with Las and check your course instructor or the project guidelines.  

I'd definately consider an AGS game *your* game but wouldn't go so far as to say that it'd qualify as software design or development.  No more so than webpage creation or an excellent Flash application really.  If the teacher/guidelines say you can then it's definately one of the better projects you could do (as far as enjoyment goes).

I don't think you'll find much better than ProTools Free - Link

The downside is that it's for Mac OS 9 or Win 98,Me but won't work on XP (at least without some tweaking).

Yep, probably have to do the on-line thing.  I don't know San Francisco for sh** and my little town has 2 music stores with any kind of selection.  

As far as BF goes, I don't think you can categorize it in a specific genre. I've heard stuff by them that strongly resembles: Bluegrass, Classical, Modern Jazz, New Age, Easy Listening, Rockabilly, et al.  I think I'll just classify the group as "Musicians" and leave it at that.  For that matter, I can't think of much categorization for GYBE either, somewhere in a mixture of rock, industrial, instrumental . . . maybe that's why I can't find 'em.

What I wonder is: How did Mr. p3n1$h score an appearance on anything?  Does internet infamy have that kind of pull?