Claire

[FONT="Arial"]I got a 30GB iPod video for Christmas in 2006. Unfortunately that one only lasted several months, but I took it to the Apple store and got a new one for free. Right now my iPod has over 700 songs on it, but as it has the capacity to hold over 7000 I would love to vastly expand my music collection. Other iPod owners: when you first set yours up, what did you name it? Most people I've talked to just call it "(Their name)'s iPod," but that just seems too boring. My first one was called Julian, and the one I have now is Lucio. I'm not planning on having to get a new one anytime soon, but I'm sure I will eventually, and when the time comes I'll probably christen it Edward (unless I gain new favorite names by then). I don't think I'd feel comfortable with anything other than an iPod video. I just really love the iPod's interface and size...my sister has a nano and I'm afraid I would lose one very fast. :/[/FONT]

[FONT="Arial"]Happy birthday in advance. :] My birthday was on the 20th of July, and I also turned 16. Since I don't really believe in that whole "sweet sixteen" business I wasn't all too excited about the number. Of course I was pleased to be another year older, as a lot of businesses here hire kids ages 16+, and of course, I'd be old enough for a driver's license (except I don't even have my permit yet, xD). I think I was much more excited about the presents. This year I'm focusing completely on my band, so I only asked my friends and relatives for money and my parents for a half stack amplifier. I only got a Sam Ash gift card from my parents, but altogether I probably received a little over $300. I only have $40 left since I bought that amp, a nice microphone, and the game The Movies (which my sister owes me a little money for). I'll probably spend the rest on the book Eclipse and tickets to see The Academy Is in October.

[FONT="Arial"]I would probably be some kind of cookies and cream bar, but with bits of Heath and caramel inside. Haha, it would pretty much be the candy bar version of my typical bowl of ice cream. The wrapper would probably be white with a bunch of random winter imagery, like dead trees and snow. I think it would just be called CLURR, in a cursive type font. Ohman, now I want candy too. :[[/FONT]

[quote name='Darren']And I feel that if it were going to be a trilogy, it should have been less conclusive. [/QUOTE] [FONT="Arial"]Actually, it's going to be a quadrilogy. :] MORE FOR ME. And I suppose since vampires don't actually exist, people can recreate them however they want; like in some stories Elves are human-sized and in others they're like pixies. My own vampires don't automatically burst into flame in the sunlight (but that's not to say they can run around in it). How you like the representation of the vampires is entirely up to you, though. (I absolutely hated them in the book [B]Thirsty[/B]). [/FONT]

[FONT="Arial"]Has anyone read the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer? Right now it includes Twilight and New Moon, but the newest book, Eclipse, is coming out tomorrow (and I am bursting with excitement!). Since I'm terrible at summarizing... [quote name='Wikipedia']Twilight is a young adult/horror/fantasy/romance novel written by author Stephenie Meyer, originally published in hardcover in 2005. The story is about seventeen-year-old Isabella Swan, a girl who moves to Forks, Washington and finds her life in danger when she falls in love with vampire Edward Cullen.[/quote] Sure, the books aren't exactly exquisite literature, but they are very well written and addicting. I read the first book casually at first, but I became so enthralled with the story that I ended up finishing the last 200 pages or so late one night (and then became inspired to create the vampire characters that appear in some of my short stories here in Anthology). I got New Moon a few days after that and devoured it's five hundred plus pages in only seven or eight hours. As of this moment, my favorite in the series is Twilight. New Moon was just as interesting, but [spoiler]very shortly into the book all the vampire characters disappeared, making Bella terribly depressed and whatnot, and they didn't return until about three hundred damn pages later. That made me want to throw the book at the wall and scream "BRING BACK EDWARD!"[/spoiler] I think I cried when I finished it, though. [spoiler]Probably from frustration that Bella was still human, haha.[/spoiler] Vampires are my absolute most favorite things to read and write about, and I think Stephenie Meyer does them the best. It might be a little girly, as the romance is so obvious, but I think if you like vampires at all you should give these books a chance.[/FONT]

[FONT="Arial"]The one time I caught Monty Python on TV, I don't remember finding it very funny at all. It's been a very long time since then, though, and I've yet to see any of the movies. One of my friends can ramble on and on about how awesome it is or whatever. However, I do love the Spam skit from Flying Circus. On a school trip, another friend made me listen to the dialogue mp3 she had on her iPod and I thought it was hilarious. Eventually I saw the actual skit on YouTube and it still made me laugh pretty hard. I can't quite do the "SPAM!" voice, but whenever that friend does it I can't help but giggle.[/FONT]

[FONT="Arial"]Most of my free time revolves around music. I'm either listening to it, playing it, writing it, or recording it. Some of the stuff I've done is on the [U][URL="http://myspace.com/nogband"]Nectar of the Gods myspace[/URL][/U] (though right now we only have one song up, a cover of the Windmill Hut Theme from Legend of Zelda) and my solo project myspace, [U][URL="http://myspace.com/clurracoustic"]The Cheshire Clurr[/URL][/U]. Right now I'm planning to record an EP with NOG. All I know for sure are the four tracks we're putting on it. I'm also in the middle of composing a new song for the band. My other hobbies include writing stories (which pretty much always revolve around a "family" of vampires), doodling (the vampires again), and talking to friends online. [/FONT]

[FONT="Arial"]I can't really think of any misconceptions about me, since I'm never quite certain what other people think. I do know I can be incredibly difficult to figure out, though; I can hardly ever do that myself. xD I think people are usually right about me, though. If they think I'm a wet blanket, it's because I am (about most things). They think I easily become obsessed with things--I do, all the time. The one misconception I can think of is that sometimes people think I'm pessimistic and therefore a downer. That's not entirely true; there are some things I want very badly and I'm much too optimistic about them. For everything else, I'm a realist. If I have a pretty good idea that something won't happen, I won't expect it to. Though I guess pessimism and being realistic can be the same thing sometimes. Really though, more often than not it's not just whether my glass is half empty or half full. It's that my glass is all the way full. Oh, people might think I'm a friendly person, too. I can't really agree with them. I'm not mean or anything, but it's really hard for me to make friends and even harder to start a conversation. I'm nice, but sometimes that's because I'm a doormat and don't have the heart to tell someone to leave me alone. :/[/FONT]

[FONT="Arial"]Heelies. Every where I go, I can't escape them. There are always little kids wearing those dumb shoes, and they don't have the willpower to just WALK in them. I really don't know why I hate them so much, but every time I see someone skating with them, I get so angry. I also have a new extreme dislike: trains. I just rode on one for about twenty-one hours. I couldn't get comfortable to sleep, I couldn't use the bathroom (I never even went in one, my mom was complaining about how disgusting it was), and there was nothing interesting to see out the window. I traveled through four or five states and they all had the exact same trees and landfills and suburbs. So yeah. I can't even look at a train without wanting to throw up now. Eeew.[/FONT]

[quote name='Billy Shears'][SIZE="1"][COLOR="DarkRed"]Make sure all the bass frequencies on the amp and the pedal are at a resonable level. Can you show me the control settings on the amp and the pedal before you found the new, better-sounding ones? I could probably help you out in terms of making it not sound so muddy during shows.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/QUOTE] [FONT="Arial"][IMG]http://www.bossus.com/ProductImages/DS-1.jpg[/IMG] With my old amp, I kept all the knobs at the maximum. Amp: [url]http://http://www.switchmusic.com/images/g15v_small.jpg[/url] When I had the pedal on, I usually had the gain either off or below one, and the volume and band knobs all the way up. I haven't tried the pedal on the new amp since the built-in crunch started sounding better, and I'm currently on vacation so I can't toy with it until I get home.[/FONT]

[FONT="Arial"]I just bought a Hartke 60 watt half stack today. I'm pretty sure it's loud enough to power a show, but my parents would freak out if I played it above the low volume setting. The crunch doesn't sound all that great, and my distortion pedal sounds even worse. I'm hoping it's just the volume setting, though, or maybe I need to play around with the settings a bit. I also had my first band practice last night--if you could call it that. The bassist has never played before and we were already playing short songs together. Today she told me that she learned Pennywise's cover of Stand By Me. So, I'm hoping that with my new amp I'll be able to play some kind of show soon. EDIT: The distortion sounds a LOT better now. I don't know what changed but before it was very deep and thick, and now it's very clear. I love that I have the volume on 1 and I can feel the sounds vibrations through my chair.

[FONT="Arial"]Oh man. I am all over the internet. I'll start here, though. I remember first signing up as [B]Ailes de Velour[/B], (although there used to be a member called [B]CaramelGhost[/B], which was most likely me as well, regardless of me having no remembrance of signing up under that name) and I remained under that name, which supposedly meant Wings of Velvet, for several months. Much later, I resigned up as [B]Amelia[/B] (I didn't know we could request a name changed). That was and still is my favorite girl's name, and at the time I considered it a kind of pseudonym. Eventually I changed the name to [B]Marsh[/B], which was derived from the name of the Runescape character one of my friends gave me. Finally, I decided to change to [B]Clurr[/B], which is what a lot of my friends call me and is kind of a nickname (my real name is Claire). I don't plan on changing anytime soon, as this name fits the best. I go by Clurr on two other message boards as well, and it has been my myspace display name for well over a year. Now, my AIM, Livejournal, and Blogspot username is [B]nils nectar[/B]. Nils is my favorite male name, and nectar pays homage to my band (Nectar of the Gods). Plus, they both begin with the letter N, so it sounds pretty cool. Pretty much any username I have that isn't one of those two names is probably taken from some AFI song ([size=1]like my old Yahoo screen name, intobanality, is from Death of Seasons: "writhing with sickness, thrown into banality, I decay."[/size]) I very rarely sign up for anything under any name other than Clurr, though.[/FONT]

[quote name='MadHatter']I probably should not be saying a word seeing as no one enjoys my posts anyway and just you watch, no one will ever reply to this thread again after I post this but oh well. Excuse me for having an opinion. I write probably more than anything else so this may or may not help you at all...[/quote] [FONT="Arial"]I think you're being a little too pessimistic, haha. Don't worry so much about people reading your posts--trust me, if you jump into a discussion you're bound to receive some attention.[/FONT] [quote]What you might be suffering from is having too many ideas at once that your mind draws a blank when you actually need it. Instead try these and see what works.[/quote] [FONT="Arial"]That might be what happens to me all the time. I have a ton of ideas for situational stories and such in my head, but whenever I want to write something I can't think of anything to say. I don't do this much myself, but if you're only struggling with the beginning of a story, skip ahead and write part of the main conflict, or at least a part where you can put actual words on the paper. I'm pretty sure that once you've gotten a segment of the story down, the rest will be easy enough to write. In fact, my most recent story (still not sure whether or not I'll post it here, hah) was pretty difficult to begin. I ended up having to write the middle first, then I typed that up and wrote the beginning and finally, the end. I think it was the fastest I've ever written a short story.[/FONT] [quote]And Clurr, had I known it was your birthday I would have said it sooner but Happy Early Birthday. It is always nice to wish someone a Happy Birthday. There is no harm in it eh?[/QUOTE] [FONT="Arial"] Thanks again, lolz :][/FONT]

[FONT="Arial"]Right now I'm completely obsessed with "Stiff Kittens" by Blaqk Audio. It's really not a silly song, despite the silly title (which was supposedly taken from the name Joy Division was first advertised as). Considering how much I love their first two tracks, I bet Blaqk Audio's premiere album is going to knock me off my feet. Davey's voice in this song is very reminiscent of that of Depeche Mode (at least compared to the few songs I've actually heard of DM, but I'm not the only one who thinks so). [SIZE="1"][I] We are all still the same dear. I have owned this life forever, I'll always remain. If it's just the same dear, why have you left before "forever" yet returned again? If you show me heaven I will meet you there. How it breaks their hearts that we've made and art of desecrating our sanctuaries. We're one and the same dear, you were born for this. Forever forget your restraint. Remnants of a past here pass like light through dust as memories fall fleeting like pain. If you show me heaven I will meet you there.[/I][/SIZE] As I've said before, Blaqk Audio is the electronica side project of Davey and Jade from AFI, and it is just so so SO GOOD. If you like AFI or electronica or both, I urge you to go listen to Blaqk Audio ([URL="http://myspace.com/blaqkaudio"][u]myspace[/u][/URL]) right now.[/FONT]

[FONT="Arial"]I can't really do anything creative when I'm around other people, not even my friends and family. I would draw and scribble random story ideas in Spanish class and people kept talking to me about them, which I hated. The other day, I was sitting at the dining table writing something and whenever my parents came through the room I would have to close my composition book until they left. My mom said she would never read over my shoulder, though, which is comforting. Also, I can't STAND writing on wide-ruled paper. Unfortunately, that's exactly the kind of ruling in both my composition books. Bleh. I don't know why I hate it so much, I just much prefer college ruled. Does anyone think the method of writing might have something to do with it? I don't know; whether it's notebook paper, Microsoft Word, or a type writer, the blank page does a good job of frightening me.[/FONT]

[quote name='Break']Write for [u]you[/u] and then see if she likes it. Writers are supposed to be arrogant and egotistical - [i]do it![/i] lol[/QUOTE] [FONT="Arial"]Woops, I didn't mean that I wrote specifically FOR her. I do love what I write and I wouldn't write anything just because someone else wants me to.[/FONT]

[quote name='Break']Maybe I'm having problems because I write with me in mind lol.[/QUOTE] [FONT="Arial"]Haha, well, even with my "ideal reader" I have troubles writing things. In fact, more often than not she'll get mad at me that I honestly can't write a story for her. :/[/FONT]

[FONT="Arial"]My problem is not that I have no ideas--I have plenty, both good and bad. I just can't seem to get the idea on paper and flesh it out. I usually get these ideas watching TV, as bad as that might sound. I have a large group of characters (all vampires, lolz) that I love writing situational stories about. The situations range from buying a car to being passengers on the Titanic, and unfortunately I haven't been able to write EITHER story. Anyway, when I'm watching TV (let's say the episode of Fresh Prince when Aunt Vivian goes into labor) I'll think "This how this character would react to that!" And then I have a potential story. I also wrote some cute vignettes based on an episode of the Cosby Show. Of course, I was talking to the friend who urges me to write these stories, so that probably had something to do with my ideas. Right now I'm reading "On Writing" by Stephen King for my AP Language class next school year, and it's turned out to be a pretty interesting read. Whenever I close the book I feel the urge to write something. He has pretty good advice on how to actually write something (grammar, plot, "bells and whistles" such as symbolism and theme). King also suggests you find an Ideal Reader: someone you feel you're writing for. Mine is the friend I mentioned before--I write almost everything with her in mind. I suppose if you have an Ideal Reader then you'll be more inspired to right something for them. It might help to try to write something while listening to music. Once I made a huge playlist full of dark, wintry songs, turned off my lamp and plugged in some Christmas lights, and went to work. (I don't remember if I actually wrote anything worthwhile, but I was definitely in the mood). [SIZE="1"]By the way, I actually did write a story inspired by that episode of Fresh Prince, but it seems awfully silly to me. I'm still considering whether or not to post it here.[/SIZE] [/FONT]

[quote name='Bombu'][color=darkred]That's cool. I personally hate the look of Telecasters. Flying Vs are just a bit tough to sit down with, but it just takes getting used to just as playing standing up takes getting used to. But Les Paul's are [i]freakin heavy[/i], whether you're standing or sitting.[/color][/QUOTE] [FONT="Arial"]Do you know how they compare to a bass guitar? Because my guitar is extremely lightweight (it's a lot smaller than most guitars), but I also play bass, so the weight of a guitar shouldn't bother me too much.[/FONT]

[FONT="Arial"]I really don't like oblong guitar shapes, like the Flying V, for some reason. I tried playing one once and it felt all wrong. I'm pretty prejudiced against anything that isn't a Les Paul, and I've never even played one. I just think they're the prettiest. :] My amp is pretty crappy, too. I have a Drive 15 watt that came with the guitar. It has an alright tone for it's size, I guess, except I can't turn the Gain up at all because combined with the distortion pedal, it sounds absolutely vomituous. So my clean tone is very weak (all the songs I know with clean tone also have distortion at some point). My friend has a Fender strat (which I'm going to use whenever I play live, unless I get the Epiphone for my birthday) and a Mark II amp that is absolutely TERRIBLE for distortion, but has a really nice clean tone. I also have to run my bass through the drive amp, since I don't have an actual bass amp. I just turn the treble and middle way down and leave the bass on full, and it sounds okay. I'm not a sound connoisseur though, so I bet it could sound better. [center][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v630/ShikyoKasu/0815018.jpg[/IMG] [SIZE="1"]This picture is almost a year old, but that's my amp and my pedal. [/SIZE][/center] [u][URL="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v630/ShikyoKasu/HardcoreVeruca174.jpg"]Electric[/URL] [Url="http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v630/ShikyoKasu/?action=view¤t=Clairesbass.jpg"]Bass[/url] [url=http://a509.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/59/l_f2d8c97bd2f81d52cd2c59411a0f533c.jpg]Acoustic[/url][/u][/FONT]

[quote name='Premonition'][COLOR="Navy"]Now I don't sound very loving of my instrament, I like playing it, but I just hate it! I've played a regular guitar and it feels very nice to play, the bass gets a little boring becasue you can't really do that much with it and the low sound makes me droopy.[/COLOR][/QUOTE] [FONT="Arial"]People have already told you that there really is a lot you can do with a bass, but I'll just reiterate it. I don't know how bassists can stand playing music that consists of eight of the same notes per measure. I'm sure everyone is sick of my AFI-praise, but their bassist, Hunter, has done some very exciting stuff. So many of their songs begin with an awesome bass intro: Death of Seasons, the Nephilim, Lost Souls, etc. Not to mention the absolutely perfect bass lines in other songs, such as Now the World, 6 to 8, and the Great Disappointment. I love playing bass almost as much as I love playing guitar, as long as what I'm playing is actually challenging. And to every musician: how do you compose? I use this great program, [U][URL="http://www.power-tab.net/"]Power Tab,[/URL][/U] which is fairly easy to use as long as you have some knowledge of music theory. After you tab out a piece, you can export it as a text file and a midi. Unfortunately, sometimes I'll write a song and absolutely love it, but there'll be something about it that I just can't do myself. My best song, "Of Sound Mind," has a cute little solo at the end, but since I'm horrible at alternate picking I can't do it. Power Tab is also very very helpful if you're trying to learn a song. [U][URL="http://www.powertabs.net"]Power Tab Archive[/URL][/U] has tons of fully tabbed out songs that you can play along to.[/FONT]

[FONT="Arial"]What kind of distortion pedal do you have? I use a Boss DS-1, but once I get a half stack I'm going to get a footswitch so I can just use the amp's distortion. I really want a Marshall; apart from being a very well-known and well-reviewed amp, I loved the tone it produced when I played one at the local Sam Ash. (Unfortunately I had to ask for a measly old Hartke for my birthday, booo). Right now, my favorite songs to play are "Despair Factor" and "6 to 8" both by AFI and on their Art of Drowning album. I know how to play over twenty AFI songs, though, my favorites to play change as I continue learning new songs. As for strings, I don't think I'd be comfortable using anything other than D'addario on all of my guitars. I don't even remember how any other kind of string felt, I've been using them for so long. For anyone looking to learn guitar, my advice would be to buy an electric before acoustic. When I was confined to my acoustics, there were so many songs I couldn't play that I could automatically do once I got my electric. Of course, I still can't do some important techniques (alternate picking, pinch/artificial harmonics) but I blame that on my lack of a teacher. Oh yeah, picks. I prefer Jim Dunlop, medium, but I've lost so many picks that I'll just use whatever I can find. I have an autographed Trans-Siberian Orchestra pick, but it's very heavy, and I'm much more accustomed to the thinner kind. Agh, edit number a thousand: I keep my guitar tuned to E flat, which I started doing because the songs I was learning to play (AFI, of course) were tuned down. I just use the tuning in place of standard for everything else, though, and all my own songs are in E flat.[/FONT]

[FONT="Arial"]I've been playing guitar for about seven years now. I'm self-taught so I'm definitely not as good as a should be over that amount of time. My first guitar was a very cheap Mark II acoustic my mom probably got at Walmart. For Christmas 2004, I asked for an electric, but got a nice but enormous Esteban acoustic instead (which was very disappointing). Finally, three or four months later, I bought a Wildfire electric package. It's falling apart now, though; the bottom strap knob came out because the screw hole got warped somehow, and the jack is being held on by duct tape (its hold on the cord is terrible, though). I asked for an Epiphone Les Paul Studio (alpine white) for my birthday, but I put greater emphasis on my need of a half stack of amps so my parents are probably going to give me that instead. What I REALLY want is a full-fledged Gibson Les Paul Studio, in pretty much every color they come in. I would have to say my favorite guitarist is Jade Puget of AFI. His work really helped the band progress forward, as evident from the major difference between their first three albums and Black Sails in the Sunset forward. I consider him to be a musical genius, his guitar compositions are so amazing. On top of that, he has a vibrant stage presence (and is very attractive :] ).[/FONT]

[FONT="Arial"]From my Livejournal: [quote]I DID IT. I HAD A LUCID DREAM. Two, in fact, though they were very short. The first one I dream that I was trying to lucid dream, which is pretty cool. So I finally opened my eyes (I think you have to use your imagination for that one, but once you get them open everything feels real). I was in my old house and I was walking around just for the feel of it. I opened the laundry room door and stepped in and looked around. Then I walked back out and decided to fly, so I took off and flew THROUGH A WINDOW. However I was already starting to lose control then so flying didn't really feel so real. It was too dark to actually see how high I was, anyway. Then I drifted into another dream that I was backstage (my schools backstage) during a production of Beauty and the Beast, which was at my church (but still backstage at my school) for some reason. Now that I think about it, it was a pretty long regular dream. I just don't remember any specific events...except that they had an extra part to fill and the first time my friend Dani ran out and did it, and the second time she made another friend, Lexi, do it. I felt kind of like I woke up, but I was having that sleep paralysis feeling again (I don't think I was actually immobilized, though), and eventually I ended up in a car with my mom and sisters, driving around near my grandma's house. I was bored of riding so I opened the door and jumped out in an attempt to fly. (I tried imagining I had wings but that didn't quite work). I fell on the ground, laughing, and then I got up and started walking again. I tried to fly, but it stopped working. The dream ended when I somehow made it to the baseball field at a local park. So, despite having extremely dull situations, I am very pleased. It kind of makes me want to go back to sleep, hah.[/quote] I had a LOT of dreams last night, including a false awakening (right before I woke up for real). It's very strange that I'm remembering most of the events in them, too, since I usually can't even recall one dream I have. [/FONT]

[quote name='Retribution'][size=1]I'm black, therefore: [b]I love watermelon more than any other fruit.[/b] True story.)[/size][/QUOTE] [quote name='Starfire0567; 783821'] Watermelon is awesome![/quote] [FONT="Arial"]You guys don't salt watermelon, do you? Because my mom did that the other day and freaked me quite out.[/FONT]