Kent

When I think of this subject, I often think about what drives the advances. Im not really personally thinking of computers, I actually end up thinking in a much broader sense. I think of history and the driving forces behind tech from the days of ancient greece, to the days of the old west. In most cases I think of the tech being pushed by war. Whether medical or otherwise, the advancments of technoligy have been limited to certain feilds up until the recent years of computers and the space race. I personally often wonder about what actually drives the minds of those who build weapons like the gatlin gun. I also often think about the fact that because of those same advancments, things like goss wrap for wounds with freeze dried clotting agents contained in them are developed. I wanted to know what you guys thought about the tech advancments of the last thousand years? Everything from the gun to the anti-biotic.

I hate math with all of my heart. I think I may have a specific form of dislexia that applies to math. I dont really know, and I do understand some, but Ive never done well with math and Ive always hated it. Im in a math class now. Its rediculus. I am an oddity in math. On test and placement exams, things like the SAT or the ACT, I have consistantly scored higher on the geometry and trigonometry than I have on algebra and pre-algebra. That is odd to me. But geometry comes to me easily and algebra is just craziness.

I got a job through a friend of mine. It was at a resturant named sals. I was a bus boy. I cleaned tables and washed dishes as well as set the tables up again. It was a hellish job, but I made tips and an hourly. The only thing I would change about what I did was the time I spent there. I worked there for 15 months and never thought that there was a better job for me somewhere. My advice for anyone looking for a job is simple, dont take a bad job, and if you learn that your current one is a bad job... start looking for a new one.

On my way back from virginia I was passing through atlanta on I-85. This guy driving an audi TT cut me off hardcore and just about hit me. Normally Im a passive guy, but this time I lost it to some extent and flicked the fella off. (big mistake, although he deserved it, still a mistake on my behalf.) This guy turns around in his car, looks at my bro and I, then flicks us off and turns back around. (it would have been great if thats where it ended) After that, the dude slammed his brakes to the point of skidding, I did the same to avoid the accident and then we ended up sitting there... just sitting in the middle of a highway that has a 70 mph speed limit and everyone is going 80. People are flying around me and fishtailing. So the guy starts to move again and right as I start again, he stops dead again. Slowly we pick up speed and I try to get out from behind him, switching lanes and what not. He cuts into the same lane as me and stays in front of me. The whole time we are going really slow. All the while people are dodging us for their lives. Eventually we are back up to highway speeds, but Im not staying behind this jerk. So when I got my chance... 2 cars pass on my left riding on each others butts. I let the first one pass and then the second, that instint while the second car is passing him and next to him, I switch into the other lane behind those two. Eventually he sees this happening and tries to take aggressive manuevers once more, but this time I was ready. My camry raced it gran turismo style and put up the most amazing display of defensive driving on the eisenhower interstate system to date. His attempts to get in front of me fail and I lost him to the rear. Eventually I took my exit and he took his, but since that day I never have been worried about anything while driving. Now when Im on the highway Ive got nerves of steal and the sense to take advatage of that by being curtius and never tail gating another driver. Plus, when others ride my butt, it has no effect, its just impossible to freak someone out after something like what I went through. So, to get to the point of the thread... I believe what that jerk did was attempted vehicular homicide.

I play lacrosse with a passion when I can find others to play with, but here where I live (in the south) no one even knows what the game is. I also used to mountain bike, but that sorta went out the window when I moved to the south. (its swampy and flat down here) As for all the "normal" sports, I dont really play many of those, they just dont have the same fun to me. Although, I do love to play a sport with my friends, so if I get the chance to play basketball or soccer or football, Im lovin it for every second the game is on. However, baseball has too much time for me where you are just standing around waiting to do something. I also noticed that people wrote down their loves for martial arts, and I love those too, but I dont think of them when I think of sports simply because I dont get the chance to "play" them with my friends. Martial arts are a little different than the average game. sooo... although I love them and technically they are a sport, martial arts in my book are more of a hobbie than a sport to play.

I dont have a sword anymore because I thought the cheap piece of crap was a real deal sword that could actually cut something... yea, it broke. But, I do have a true piece of history. Although I feel bad about how I got it... My grandfather is a ww2 pacific vet. He did mop up ops in the pacific after the war ended and did fighting before that during the actual war. He managed to get his hands on several samurai swords and a piece that he gave me... what we (westerners) call a "harry carry" sword. Its the real deal, not just something that was made for ww2. Its a real piece of art, but its also the sharpest damn thing in the house. My gramps is a big collector of all kinds of stuff, and has a real passion for swords. And so, I just happen to know a good deal about how the original samurai swords (quality ones only) were made. As well as where some of the most important and oldest ones are today. Story goes like this... (very condensed) The original quality swords were made by men who would build a fire in a huge pit. The fire would burn for a full month constantly. Then the maker would get tons of snow from the mountains, this snow would be put on the fire and melted down. This would continue for a long time. Eventually the maker would put out the fire, and at the bottom of the pit would be the raw iron-ore which was melted out of the snow. He would take that and melt it down. Then he would take the liquid metal and spill it across a floor. After cooling, the "grain" and quality of the iron would be inspected and if it was high enough quality it would be used to make the famous thousand fold swords. (if you dont know what those are please ask, dont be embarressed.) That is how the ancient samurai swords were made. Now, about where those things ended up. When japan was opening up to the world towards the end of its fuedal era, the foreign dipolmates (believed to be british, but Im not sure) were asked about how to help build up the economy of japan. The diplomates said they needed to lose the samurai. (they did nothing and were one of the highest and most powerful classes of people) They decided to get rid of the samurai, and allegedly they did this by making everyone a samurai, hence, the samurai was no longer a postion to be valued. When they did this the samurai had to get real jobs. This is where the swords go. When they went to get jobs, many decided to become law enforcment types. (cops) When they did this, they couldnt carry those big ol' swords, so instead of just letting them go, the samurai would have their sword makers cut and resize the swords to be roughly the size of a night stick. This way they could continue carrying their swords. And so, some of the oldest and most valued samurai swords are now half their original size and stashed away in museums as pieces that police carried after the fuedal era in japan. hope you guys enjoyed that.

Ya know, when I read this question and the responses here, I think about abortion...lol. I guess everything becomes politics to me. I would save the baby or the teen. Most likely the baby simply because so many of the people that are just younger than me are punks and I would rather save the life of a perfect little baby than the life of an ungrateful punk. As for the old woman, I would have to talk to her and see what she wanted to do, Im willing to bet that any woman worth saving would tell you to save the baby first. Any elder woman that said to save her before the baby wouldnt be worth saving in my book. As for the money for the game... I wouldnt do it. My life is worth more to me than anything.

I think this is the perfect example of an oversight by the producers of the series. Its most likely that they had so many things they wanted to get into the dbz sagas that they just neglected to remember the "promises" of the past. This really is one of those perfect examples of what can happen with a series that spans such a long time. 291 dbz episodes in combination with however many db episodes makes for a hard time keeping to every little indicated future adventure. This is nothing more than a small mistake. They just left him out. Plus, they probably didnt have much place for him with all of the new levels that everyone was at. Master Roshi was most likely enough to fill the gap for an "old man" role.

Yup, its obvious. Terrorist with a really big trampolin got up to 207,000 feet and cut the communications lines right before they rigged dynamite to the shuttles main hull. Yup, thats what it is... Im just kidding of course. I however and quite unhappy about this for many reasons: loss of human life is the first reason that this is bad, but its also horrible that there was an isreali on the shuttle. I hope that this can become a situation of damage control because at this point based on the video footage I've been watching I would say that the astronauts are dead.(unfortunatly) So now we have to worry about keeping this stuff from raining down on all the civilian population. And "luckily" I think that the entire craft will be destroyed by the time it gets to the ground. Im hearing now that the shuttle was going 12,500 mph, and people all over texas are reporting hearing a huge bang. This isnt looking good... Ok, early speculation is leading to 2 possible causes... 1. the delay for the original date of launch in july 2002 was a problem with oxegen line leaks. 2. damage suffered to the wing from foam that was "spit" out of the boosters on launch. In space the engineers inspected the damage and thought is was not anything to worry about. Either way, its most likely over for those people. I guess this is where some of us pray for those unlucky souls.

Wow, endymion. I think you also forgot to call those people in the government a dozen other stereotypes. Maybe bigots or crackers while your at it. I guess you forgot about the other half of white rich fogeys that represent, what I assume, to be your side. (the left) such as tom daschle or ted kennedy. Or any of the other 48, I repeat, 48, democrates in the senate (with one independant). I dont want this to be about race, so I will leave it at the inflamatory statments we have both made. I would say its easier to use generalizations and stereotypes than qoutes. But I do wanna mention that I have no intention of saying mandela should agree with bush simply because of the money going to africa. I was simply saying that it takes alot of nerve to do that when the war hasnt begun nor has the war stopped for that matter. ( I mean, where was mandela, and you for that matter, when clinton was bombing Iraq for the 8 full years of his administration, I didnt hear protest then.) But the point Im making might not be clear. I am not saying mandela has to agree, I am saying however, that accussing bush of being a racist for NOT doing something that he IS doing is simply foolish. Bush has been using the U.N. and working with them and there has been no action taken yet. Coffy Anon is a black african. He is the head of the U.N. and has been working and discussing this situation with bush for the last 6 weeks. For mandela to jump in and say that bush never did that and then call him a racist would be like me saying that to you even though you have often spoken and interacted with whites and all sorts of other people. (I am assuming you have) So once again, my statment in the post before stands. To me, there is a difference between a legitimate disagrement between leaders and a blatent personal insult. (which is what it is to call someone a racist.) Disagree all you want, but personal insults have no place in diplomacy. I also gotta say I was quite suprised to see you call everyone in senate a white wealthy RIGHT WINGER. I happen to know of many who are far to the left. Infact, just to throw you off, I know of a state that is represented by 2 democrate senators (both white if that matters to you) and its my own state, which is, if you ask me, one of the most racist states Ive ever been in... Louisiana. I also want to remind you of something that I doubt you knew... Senate majority leader Bill Frist (R) from tennesse is a medical missionary to africa. He is the driving force behind this 15 billion going to africa. So think about him next time you imply white, wealthy, right wingers are gonna nix this african aid initiative. (above all else, frist was there a long time before this stuff ever came up.) And remember that you can stereotype myself and every other republican if you want, but those sorts of actions dont make me look like the ignorant one. (sad thing is, I really have liked and respected you, and I still do, but this does give me insight into your deep feelings.)

I dont really think its all that bad, but the beam saber is a trademark of the gundam and leaving that out is a major mistake. Otherwise, I think the heavy arms is an excellent gundam. Its got great weaponry (minus the saber) and the overall look is nice too. I think it strikes a nice cord (in the artistic sense)inbetween the tall geiz and the rest of the hardcore "multi colored" gundams.

Im pretty much sure there is no ssj3 or buu. I remember the makers claiming the game spanned roughly from the frieza saga to the cell saga. I think radditz is in there so its more like the sayain saga, but oh well. I dont think its really worth the time since youll just be let down when they dont have those charactors. I just hope they either dont release another game, that way they dont piss me off with more let down. Or I hope they do release another with some extra effort towards the graphics and gameplay (at least to tekken tag levels) and then work on charactors that will keep the fans happy. (buu, ssj3 and so on...)

I thought the movie was ok, but it was more about the idea behind the movie that drives debate and conversation. I had to write an essay for my eng 101 class last semester and the subject was invertero fertilization and genetic engineering. Made for some good discussion. I personally dont like the idea of engineering unless its to avoid serious stuff. I do think its a good question to ask because engineering like this (genetic) could easily make a gap between the "haves and have nots" even bigger than it already is.

Indeed asuka, the boyfriend sure does come in handy at times like this. Just try and avoid the two meeting in a face to face all alone scenerio. That could be ugly. Also, the friend dropping a hint... thats a good idea. but instead of lightly dropping a hint, make her do it more like its an anvil. Good luck again,

I gotta ask you guys if you heard what nelson mandella said just a day after the speech. It almost directly applies to the state of the union speech, in a bad way. OK, we all know bush pledged 15 billion dollars to fight aids in africa. Now for mandella. He said, the day after the speech, that bush was trying to push the world in a holocaust and that bush wouldnt work with the u.n.(which he is) because of coffi anan being black, and bush being a racist. That after bush pledges to send 15 billion to save mandella's fellow africans from as much trouble as 15 billion can. (not too much, but better than anything else Ive heard) What do you guys think of that? And what do you think of this qoute I heard... "going to war without france is like going hunting without an accordian, all your doing is leaving behind useless, noisy bagage." I thought it was funny.

I have a lil brother named blake. Hes the best. I think siblings are the best thing for alot of us. They give us friends when we need them most. They give us troubles when we need them least. (wait thats bad) I think the biggest thing about siblings is what they teach us in life. They teach us how to work and live with others. They also teach us how to share with others. The gifts they give us far out wiegh the troubles they give us.

I noticed the other day on "extended play" that a game about an online rpg that ends up trapping some kids is out for the ps2. Oddly its called "hack dot" and one of the main charactors looks just like a charactor from hack sign. Same hair style and all that. Has anyone else caught this?

Im with Endymion. I watch just as much anime as american stuff. I like them both, but I like individual shows in both. I dont like every anime, nor do I like ever "amerime." I think its all about the individual show and when it comes down to it, the americans can make a good cartoon just the same as the canadians or the japanesse or the nigerians. Anyone who will take the time to make a cartoon has a chance at making a descent one. I just think its funny if anyone here likes anime more than every other kind of animation with no particular reason. I persanally think opinions like that cited by endymion about any anime being better than any american show is just rediculus. That is the sort of opinion that shows a person who is only watching anime and is currently far more infactuated with anime than any other type of show. Chances are many of the people here arent biased. Although it should be mentioned that anime found its roots in american cartoons and that should count for something.

Now at first I didnt dislike this woman because of her willingness to be nice to gokou and vegeta about life after death. But the more I see of her in db compared to dbz, I realize that she is one nasty lady. Or atleast was intended to be that way at first. So I wanna know who else got really fed up with baba? I mean, she is nasty and mean spirited as well as just plan cynical.

Unfortunatly I believe she was old enough to remember. At least 5 years old. I also want to mention that when I said this was the worst fraud ever, I meant that in a different sense than what I think some are taking as. I meant it in the sense that this was just one of the worst morally wrong crimes Ive heard about that had nothing to do with violence. I mean, your own child. Its pretty darn horrible.

I notice stuff like this all the time. But its not limited to old stuff. For example, this one you might catch if you look out for it. Johny bravo: It was a story about johnys childhood blankey. Some nut is running around the area snatching up all the thread in town. The nut takes the thread and clothe from everything. Now the part kids dont realize. The mayor is giving a breifing on whats happening. While hes doing it his clothes are stolen. Later on when the nut is caught, the mayor speaks again. The mayor is asked, "why arent you wearing clothes now?" the mayor responds " it makes it quicker for me to..." then hes interupted by a person on the side whispering into his ear, which stops him. Then the mayor steps behind the podium he is next to, takes off his boxers and waves them in the air as he says, " these underwear will be a bridge into the 21st century." Worst of all, he had a voice that was very specific. It was, well, frankly, an imitation of former pres. clinton. It struck me as odd, but I guess if one of you guys get to see it, youll know just how symbolic they made this show. That was a brand new childrens cartoon, so hopefully cartoons will never lose their ability to entertain adults as well as children.

I dont really know what sort of song is the specific one or two that do this for me. Its really about the moment. Sometimes its the music I always listen to. (which I promise none of you listen to.) And sometimes its the music that comes on the radio on my way home from a night that is just a bit too much to handle. At the moment theres nothing hitting me. But I know that almost all of the music I listen to is more important to me than almost all the music I used to listen to. If I was gonna say a song off the top of my head, I would say "travelin' man." (if you can tell me who its by, then you get a little more credit from me than the usual music board member)

I just noticed it again. Jets voice doing the narrations to "dangerous missions" on the history channel. I brought the point up before, but to no real end. I managed to find out the names of the two voice actors and it turned out that they had different first names, but the same last name. Now that could mean three things. 1. they are brothers 2. its the same guy using two different first names. (such as his first or his middle, I have a couple of friends that use their middle names and not their first.) 3. One really, really odd coincidence. I wanna mention the voice for the two are very, very similar and only an anime fan could really understand the way I recognize the similarities. Its sorta like how you recognize the actors who do more than one voice for funimation. I think its because of how you dont get to see the person, so the voice becomes a bit more important to your memory of the charactor/voice actor. Has anyone else noticed this?

Ok, This story has been out for a little while now. I caught it just now with the fox show "the pulse." Its horrible what this family did. The parents told their daughter that she had lukemia and was dying. The got as much attention about it as possible and took all the charity they could get. All in all they took an estimated 37,000. But that isnt the bad part. Its what they did to the child. They had her going to "death charity" and were shaving her head. They were giving her medication to knock her out and then when she woke they would tell her she went to the doctor for treatment while she was asleep. They most likely have done amazing amounts of damage to this child and even worse is that they got caught and now its likely this child will lose her parents. What do you guys think? Personally, this story is making me sick and breaking my heart.

Yea, I agree with shyguy. Bringing shows like eva to cn is a good idea because, for one, it will reduce the number of dbz fanatics that people are always complaining about. It just might also reduce the number of "otakus" who think themselves to be special or above other fans simply because they have seen shows like eva. I always have to say this stuff, but "something is better than nothing" flat out. I also just love to see how many people try and act hardcore with their bashing of cn. The truth is, a really hardcore anime wants one thing, for anime to become more popular and for him/herself to get their hands on more and more anime. With whinning and complaining about cn bringing us all anime that was previously unavailible not only will some people get to see some new stuff, but the rest of us will get to have free access to shows that would have before taken us hours of downloading or a bunch of money to buy dvds. I think its great that people are making anime a bit more main stream and as long as people are bashing cn for doing that I will be getting a kick out of it. Those fools are always the silliest.