eleanor

[font=trebuchet ms] I'll pick [i]Light[/i]. :) [b][color=red]edit:[/color][/b] [img]http://xs129.xs.to/xs129/08314/ob20themeslightupload783.png[/img][/font]

[font=trebuchet ms] In no particular order, ten of my favorite movies: -[b]American Beauty[/b] (1999): This movie really took off well with the "suburban nightmare" theme, and it was just so well done. The acting, writing, and directing of this movie were all done superbly-- Kevin Spacey's performance was top-notch and the writing was darkly humorous and meaningful. The only nitpick I have was the end scene, another "thank you Captain Obvious" monologue that was just unecessary. -[b]Pride & Prejudice[/b] (2005): One of the only romance movies that I have gone back to again and again. As well as being a good piece of eye candy (Knightley, MacFayden, the scenery, etc.), the movie is everything I ask for in a romance movie. A get-together movie, not too melodramatic, at times humorous, and subtly incredibly sexy. The [spoiler]rain scene where Darcy first confesses his love[/spoiler] took my breath away the first time I saw it. -[b]Fight Club[/b] (1999): Another amazing performance by Edward Norton (

[font=trebuchet ms] [b]Nada Surf[/b] is also a band you might like, seeing as you like Darren's recs. Their song [i]Do It Again[/i] is one of my favorite right now.[/font]

[quote name='Matt']Or you could just say that it is the best and worst of anime twisted on it's head and given a slap on the arse while a rocket is strapped to its back. Yeah, that essentially describes TTGL's qualities in a nutshell.[/QUOTE] [font=trebuchet ms] That works hella fine as well. :)[/font]

[font=trebuchet ms] I see where people are coming from (sort of). By no means is [b]The Dark Knight[/b] a bad movie, it was good. But not amazing. What confuses me is how people somehow look past the bad parts of the movie and just rave about how "dark" it was and how awesome the Joker was. I can list about 10 things that are bad about the movie, but only about 2 things that are good. The Joker does not make up for an otherwise dull movie. The action scenes never once got me boiling, Harvey Dent's magical transformation was almost ridiculous, and it was like the director decided to cram 3 plot lines and 2 villains into one giant, overly long movie and have people call the movie epic. I know [spoiler]Dent's transformation is supposed to be like part of Joker's master plan, but seriously. Seriously, the guy transforms into an evil villain and dies in the next 30 minutes in what seemed to be a cheap plot device. Not to mention that the transformation itself took about 2 minutes. And then the end scene, with the voice over that directors like to put in because they're afraid the audience is too stupid. Which in retrospect was why they had that equally annoying blonde kid who had to ask the questions. I just found it cheesy. Batman is the "dark knight" because he has to play the anti-hero, but is really a hero for taking the blame! The themes of free will and evil are so poignant! By now my bitterness is showing through. [/spoiler] Part of it comes out of the movie being hyped up to the max. I literally had someone I know shake my shoulders and yell in my face "IT'S SO AMAZING OH MY GOD" minutes before the movie, so I was expecting the movie to blow me the hell away. Long movies are fine, but come on...they have to focus [spoiler](like [b]The Godfather[/b] movies, dammit)[/spoiler]. The more I think about it, the more and more confused I become. I do not want to see this movie get hailed as one of the greatest films of our time and the best of the year, when [b]Wall-E[/b] was a better movie. Hopefully it receives no major Oscar nods, excepting a Best Actor for Ledger. [/bitterness][/font]

[font=trebuchet ms] Oh yes, I mean the movie. I sincerely have no idea why people think this movie is so explosively good. I just am not seeing the magic or something, lol. And I know this a petty rant, and IMDb's ratings system is flawed and the fact that I care is sad, but seeing [b]The Dark Knight[/b] beat [b]The Godfather[/b] on IMDb's Top 250 fills me with inner rage and fury. Especially when people smell a fanboy mob at work, seeing as how [b]The Shawshank Redemption[/b] inexplicably overtook [b]The Godfather[/b]. I love that movie, but it's suspicious. Part of me wonders what the hell I missed in that theatre. It just annoys me that America is screaming about how mind-blowingly awesome the movie was and I walked out of AMC screaming about how I spent $12 bucks on the movie. [/font]

[quote name='Phenom'] The scantly dressed girl, is perhaps, where my issues lies. While I have nothing against her personally, it's just that the series is screaming fanservice atleast every other episode. If it's your thing, cheers, as for me, I don't mind it, but I don't care for it. (Too much of it is a turn off) I lost count at how many times there was a close up of her T&A, mainly during the parts where they were crawling through the tunnel. (Err... That's a bit ironic) [/QUOTE] [font=trebuchet ms] TTGL isn't exactly a fanservice-oriented anime, but seeing as how it's a parody of mecha anime and anime in general, there are a lot of fanservice moments that serve to spin-off of and tease archetypes (the scantily clad action girl, the moe girl, the manly man, the possibly gay guy, etc). There's even a beach episode that turns the stereotypical episode on its head. It's a mixture of serious, tear-jerking moments and contained WTF-ery and ridiculousness (and everything in between).[/font]

[font=trebuchet ms] If that's the case, I for one thought it was a huge disappointment. :D[/font]

[font=trebuchet ms]I like your stuff! Especially the first one, which is probably my favorite out of the three. The hair looks very animated and free-flowing, which I like, and your proportions seem to be down pat. :) The only nitpick I have, which is the one I give most often, is that you just need more practice to start getting your lines smoother, longer, and more confident. It's something that comes naturally with more practice. You seem to be on the verge, which to me just means you're very good for someone who just draws for fun. I don't know if you'll ever try and make art a career for you, but it looks like you're going in the right direction. I'd love to see the comic you're working on![/font]

[quote name='yakiimo'] But when it comes to anime and manga, it's hard to find the 'happy medium' without studying real people. Look at xxxHolic. Dragonball. Two examples of the too-thin extreme and the super-muscled extreme. Finding the in-between will take practice, so don't give up![/QUOTE] [font=trebuchet ms] I agree that studying real people is always the best way to get better at anatomy/proportions/etc. However, I think artists like CLAMP have sort of "earned" their extreme stylization- their super-skinny thing they got going on isn't out of a lack of practice and/or talent, just something that came out of their style. Although I have to agree, sometimes it's sort of comedic how out of proportion their manga drawings are. :p[/font]

[quote name='yakiimo'] Anatomy differs from one person to the next, so the length of the neck could actually be okay. But shoulders do tend to slope down more than up. The thing that drew my eye the most was the arm. Arms have joints just like many other parts of the body. When the arm leads into the elbow, it narrows then comes out to widen at the joint. Once past the elbow, it begins to slim until you reach the wrist. The most recurring issue I've seen are that your peoples' arms don't have any joints.[/quote] [font=trebuchet ms] I have to disagree. Anatomy differs with everybody, yes, but I don't think mangamaniack21's drawings of necks/shoulders is because she's trying to give a unique anatomy to each of her characters. It seems to me that it's just a problem of a beginner artist. In any case, even if she were, some of the necks drawn are almost are wide as the character's abdomen, which isn't very accurate even when it comes to anime. [/font]

[font=trebuchet ms] I agree with James, the only part I'm concerned about is if the hormones had some sort of negative effect on the baby. Just think of the baby as you would any other baby, something born out of a sperm and egg and grown in a uterus. Not a huge deal.[/font]

[font=trebuchet ms][b]Mother[/b] by The Police is just...lol. I literally laughed out loud while listening to this song. Sometimes I think it was meant to be comedic. [youtube]fip7MjLx6aY[/youtube][/font]

[quote name='Lady Aura'][CENTER][FONT="Palatino Linotype"] I'll also need a company to sponser me. It's $1200 dollars that has to come out of my parent's pockets, unless I can get a local store or fast-food place to help with the payment.[/FONT][/CENTER][/QUOTE] [font=trebuchet ms] In addition to sponsoring, if you're part of any youth group at church you can ask if you can hold some sort of bake sale to help raise funds for your trip. I know several people who have done that to sponsor trips like these. Good luck with everything.[/font]

[font=trebuchet ms] Hey, that's awesome! Sounds like a great experience. Congratulations on being chosen. Maybe your English teacher was hard on you because she say potential. :)[/font]

[font=trebuchet ms] Only when it's weaved. [img]http://xs329.xs.to/xs329/08305/20070615bacon456.jpg[/img][/font]

[font=trebuchet ms] I'm Korean myself, and I don't get red when I consume alcohol. Neither do my parents, or any of my relatives, for that matter. Maybe we're immune to it or something. :P Though I do know that a lot of Asians don't handle alcohol well, so that may be a part of it.[/font]

[quote name='Solo Tremaine'][COLOR=#503F86]I knew this argument was going to come up: "Cartoons today are all rubbish!" No, they really aren't :p [/COLOR][/QUOTE] [font=trebuchet ms] Hear, hear. Everyone who hates [b]Spongebob Squarepants[/b] is simply just too serious for their own good. ;) I don't really watch western cartoons as avidly as when I was little, but I do know that not everything made in the 2000s is "crap". [b]Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends[/b] is a pretty kickin' cartoon, very original, but more importantly just plain fun to watch. The idea is sort of ingenious, it reminds me of [b]Monsters, Inc.[/b], and it started in 2004. Dude, and [b]Avatar: The Last Airbender[/b], which is probably one of the best tv shows in [i]general[/i] that I've ever seen. Can we just turn this into a cartoon rant thread? Probably not, so I'll part with this: [b]The Venture Brothers[/b] and [b]Futurama[/b] kick so much *** out of [b]Family Guy[/b].[/font]

[font=trebuchet ms] It came down between the banners of Boo, jigglyness, and Endrance. In the end, I picked jigglyness's, but I felt all three of those banners were great (nice job on the other banners to everyone, though!). I eventually eliminated Boo's banner, because while I really liked the creative bordering in the bottom left-hand corner, there were just some things I personally nitpicked over. I thought Endrance's banner had nice image/text matching, and the overall package looked very nice, but I picked jigglyness's because I had no real nitpicks about it. [/font]

[font=trebuchet ms] Sorry if this has been posted before, or is OT, but I found this parody of Death Note and it made me crack up. The actor's facial expresisons are just hilarious: [YOUTUBE="Debu Note"]_ihEQlIJOIA[/YOUTUBE][/font]

[font=trebuchet ms] I never understood that. Am I using that phrase correctly, or am I really supposed to say "I couldn't care less?". English confuses me. -_- But to make this post OT, Endrance, I hope everything works out well. And don't give in peer pressure. Or do drugs. Especially the illegal ones.[/font]

[font=trebuchet ms] IMO, certain drugs are made illegal by the government because they believe that they present a certain danger to people. Whether or not you agree with this I could care less, as I find the whole legalization of marijuana or whatever debate sort of pointless, and was never meant to be my argument. What I was trying to get at is that someone young and, presumably foolish, should not get mixed up with illegal drugs. There's the fact that being caught with it could be disastrous, and if someone is dumb enough to think drugs will lead the way to rockstardom, I don't know if he'd be smart enough to keep it out of the eyes of others. Just because a lot of people think it shouldn't be illegal doesn't stop the fact that it is illegal. The argument that he should be allowed to "test it out" to see that it doesn't lend to increasing musical talent is just not something I agree with. Letting people learn things first hand is great sometimes, but when it comes to kids and drugs, I'd have to say no. Even if he does realize that LSD does not lead to heightened creativity, there's a good chance he'd continue using it just to get that high, and then go into other drugs. He seems naive enough. Yeah, I know plenty of people who smoke pot and are fine. But in the end I think I'll go with my gut instinct- I wouldn't want a friend to get into drugs. Even legal ones, in a sense. I'd try and stop a friend from smoking, and from becoming a hard drinker. [/font]

[font=trebuchet ms] [b]Full Metal Alchemist[/b], one of the best anime I've seen. I really recommend that you watch it. However, it is 51 episodes. Short compared to shows like Bleach and Naruto, but not as short as shows that you mentioned. You could might give [b]Gunbuster[/b] and/or [b]Gunbuster 2[/b] (also known as [b]Diebuster[/b]) a try (Gunbuster 2 is the sequel, but it stands alone as well). They're very short, made by Gainax. [/font]

[font=trebuchet ms] I just used this word in another post, but I'll have to use it again. Spongebob Squarepants is fabulous. It's so offbeat and quirky, I love whoever made it. Some of the songs that they made for it just, like, hilarious in a gay rollerskating disco way. And with a dash of the sophisticated humor that Solo mentioned. I have no idea where all the hate comes from, it's probably one of the most original tv shows I've ever seen. It kicks the hell out of stuff like Family Guy. GOD, I Hate Family Guy So Much. Die, Seth McFarlane. [spoiler]NOTHING BEATS HEY ARNOLD HOWEVER[/spoiler][/font]

[font=trebuchet ms] I got this from browsing Sara's thread on music recs- Ray LaMontagne's [i]Hold You in My Arms[/i] is such a wonderful and romantic song. :) It's just simple and sweet but incredibly sad, it's my new favorite song.[/font]