Adam

I got a letter from the Federal Trade Commission today. Here's some highlights. [b]"TO: Company President & Privacy Policy Administrator; [url]www.pokecheats.com[/url] FROM: Federal Trade Commission, Burueau of Consumer Protection"[/b] What a promising beginning! They sure did their research, I'm the President (!) of a company (!) named "pokecheats.com" (a domain that's been idle for the past two years). Hey because it's a company, maybe I should be President and CEO too! Next time someone asks me "Adam what's your job?" I can respond nonchalantly, "I AM THE PRESIDENT AND CEO OF A COMPANY." If they then asked in disbelief, "says who?" I can spit on their dirty face and say "says the Federal Trade Commission, Burueau of Consumer Protection." [b]The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) has special requirements for commercial websites directed to children under 13 or children's areas of general audience websites.[/b] That's nice but this site doesn't even make any money - how can it be commercial? [b]A recent survey by FTC staff indicates that your website may not be in full compliance with COPPA's requirements with respect to privacy policies.[/b] What? The Federal Trade Commission has a GROUP of people who get paid to look at pokecheats.com and then vote on whether or not I followed some bureaucratic rules? No wonder they're so anal, if my job was to browse pokemon sites that have been dead for years and then mail their owners I'd be pissed off too. [b]Please review your website in light of the law's requirements. FTC staff will visit your site again in the coming weeks to determine whether legal action if warranted.[/b] LEGAL ACTION. WOW, imagine if I came to court. Adam: Good evening, I am the President and CEO of a major international corporation. Federal Trade Commissioner: Hi, we understand you didn't link correctly to a privacy policy on your web page. Adam: What webpage would this be? FTC: Um... "Pok-ah-cheats dot com" Adam: You must be mistaken sir, I have clearly not updated that site for the past 2 years. FTC: Uh....Um....Uh...We understand you didn't link correctly to a privacy policy on your web page? We understand you didn't link correctly to a privacy policy on your web page?We understand you didn't link correctly to a privacy policy on your web page?We understand you didn't link correctly to a privacy policy on your web page? Adam: ........Fine you're right - you win. Judge: Case dismissed, I hereby sentence you President and CEO Adam to 100,000 years in prison. --------------- Well that wasn't a fun conclusion. So instead of fighting them and taking them to court I devilishly initiated a clever strategem... Remember this quote: "FTC staff will visit your site again in the coming weeks to determine whether legal action is warranted"? HAHAHHAHA. VISIT [url]WWW.POKECHEATS.COM[/url] RIGHT NOW AND SEE WHAT THE "FTC staff" will come upon when they visit it again. ;) Always silly, -Adam

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Cruizr [/i] [B]Lets see... [I] Begin Flashback [/I] I was walking through a food store and saw a book shelf. I had walked up to it and started flipping through them one at a time. Then, being the Pokemon fan that i was, went slower through a book, and a URL caugt my eye: PokeCHEATS.com Three months later, I had rememberd what the URL was and visited it. I followed a few links and ended up on the message boards. I joined under "cruizr131" on October 28th, 2000. I have been a member ever since. (Believe it or not) [/B][/QUOTE] What?? PokeCHEATS.com was mentioned in a food store book? Why do I never hear about these things! -Adam

Well if he's painfully shy then getting him to make the first move will be difficult though not impossible. Even the most shy guys, if you are overt and obvious enough in your advances, will eventually come through and ask you. Or you could ask him to see a movie or go for coffee, he'll get the message in a more subtle way. No need to say "Be my boyfriend" -ad

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Transtic Nerve [/i] [B]For I am a Democrat, although not one of those die-hard ones, I don't like Bush. I think he's an idiot who should have never won. But I think you are basing your opinion of the nation off of what you may hear by the media or online. As far as what he's done for the US, not much can be said. He's kinda been busy dealing with this anti-terrorism campain, which has a) taking away priorities to other things and b) made him spend a hell of alot of money.... which leads us to more debt and not living up to what he can do to help America... He did send people a tax return of $300 or whatever... which then backfired... people didn't spend it... in fact only 18% of the people spent it. This is not Bush's fault... from an economists point of view... give more people money, they are going to spend it... thats how economists think, and thats what Bush was planning on.... that, however didn't happen, and ofcourse 9/11 rolls in and now it's all gone and hit the fan.... He simply couldn't have expected this, and now we are still rebuilding from it. Overall, the economy is coming out of the recession and the country will hopfully start improving.... Which bring me to my next question: What exactly do you sidlike about the US now that Bush is president? I honestly can't think of one that thats horridly wrong with this country that has to deal with Bush's actions and not the actions of ourselves. [/B][/QUOTE] Actually I do blame the $300 thing squarely on Bush and his administration. Lots of economists didn't like the $300 idea because it went to EVERYONE. Poorer people would spend the $300 much more readily than richer ones. To someone making $100,000+ a year, what good really is $300 extra? They'd just put it in the bank. Plus I heard that the $300 was actually just a loan - that it needs to be paid back on tax day (Michael Moore said this in a lecture I heard). That's all:), just econ speak. -Adam

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Squashed Snail [/i] [B]French, or Afghan.... they sound like they're from another planet to me... o.O;; We once had French for Language class one term, and it was a complete nightmare.... I couldn't learn one single word for 3 weeks... [/B][/QUOTE] There is no "Afghan" language, people in Afghanistan speak a dialect of Persian ;) -Adam

Rumor has it that James Burns is somewhere hidden in the game as an enemy zombie. And you thought the game was scary BEFORE. ::shudder::

Arabic from what I hear is pretty hard as well.

Spider Man was amazing! I don't know about Mr. Hulk - I was never really a fan of his. Next up: Star Wars... -Adam

I'd like to see a luscious cherry red.

I had the opportunity to see an advance screening of Insomnia with Al Pacino, Robin Williams, and Hillary Swank. I must say the movie was disappointing. The premise of it was grounded in an almost absurd situation and the camera work was so bad I nearly received a headache. My verdict: Good acting but contrived story with poor premise. -Adam

I'm so shy that I don't even talk on the Internet that much!

It depends on your environment, in middle school and high school I think you might get some attitude. In college however, no one would look twice.

Well doggs, I have begun work on our "anime movie pictures" area in theOtaku.com. I have Ninja Scroll and Ghost in the Shell finished. Any requests? I like updating this section because it's easy and easy=good (most of the time). Best, -Adam

Actually, I agree with James' assessment of the console. There are far too many American-centric games. Even AMERICANS dont like that many American-centric games.

I think the Xbox is poo poo.

James and I, being born at exactly the same time, are celebrating our birthdays today. It is quite a momentous occassion. I think I have celebrated 4 birthdays online now:). -Adam

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by velvet paws [/i] [B]Who are all these crazy people saying it's the best yet??! :bawl: I think it's UGLY! It looks like the kind of thing you'd expect a Bank to set up..it's just got no character AT ALL this time. Can we have the option for a different version again instead of just the default??? This new one just doesn't agree with me at all....:( [/B][/QUOTE] I think sometime in the future James wants to make color variations on this theme. So if I'm not lazy you might get other options - just not yet ;). Maybe it will grow on you. -Ad

Here in the city it fluctuates between cold and hot. On another note I just saw a pigeon with a broken wing on the side walk, it couldn't move and could only sit there blinking, so sad:(. I wish I could have helped it. -Adam

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Alexander [/i] [B]I'm checking this out! I've got about a dozen pictures I next posted online, and here's the place to do it... Nice, Adam! EDIT: Uh-oh. Most of my pictures aren't tied into one anime. Most are originals, loosely based on Anime styles. Will there be an Original Art section? [/B][/QUOTE] Actually the thought did cross my mind. If you send in a lot of artwork and if it's good I'll make a section. -Adam

In NYC (i.e. ES) time, my birthday is still about 6 hours away:). Happy birthday though James, you crazy Australian.

:smooch: What does everyone think about the now-completed "Project Picasso"? (i.e. OtakuArtist.com). :smooch: The site took somewhere around 7 months to bring to completion. There was lots of difficulty in programming the back end. The first programmer I enlisted (Frank) disappeared off the face of the Earth half-way through. Where are you Frank? -Adam

Golly, I still can't get over how fabulous OtakuBoards v5 looks. Simply exquisite and infinitely better than v4. Anyway, I was just checking in to see what our Otaku-ites have planned for this upcoming Summer. My school year is coming to a close and, while I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do for so long a period of time, I know it will involve lots of hours working on the site, reading good literature, exercising, and writing/travel. Anyone have anything exciting planned? -Adam Oh yea, and I'm going to do plenty of: :sleep:

I like the GameCube because it looks like a purse;-). J/K I'd like it for the games but none of the ones I'm interested in are released yet.

Yea, sometimes it's scary how accurate they can be... I was having a really good week once and my horoscope said "things are going really well for you" and I had a horrible week sometime after and it said "I know everything seems like it's going wrong, but..."

I give it an A for Adam.