Zelgadis

I got my first wedding card today, even though my wedding is not until spring. My students were so sweet to have done that for me. ISF

OMG, today was just awful. It was my last day of classes before moving to Canada. I spent a long time saying good-bye to everyone. We talked about the good times and my Japanese students showered me with presents. I even got my first wedding card today. I was feeling depressed driving home tonight. Then it happened. Mom stopped by and took my to her house with her earlier in the afternoon. So I walked into my apartment and... no bunnies. I nearly cried... I don't mean to make this out to be a pity party for me or anything. I should feel excited about starting my new life in Toronto on Monday, but instead I'm just feeling super-depressed right now. Just needed to get it off my chest. So, nothing with alcohol today. How about a Barqs root beer? ISF

Atsumi, Japan (My second home! ) ISF

Bath defeats hippie! (Oh, I feel so Eric Cartman right now...) ISF

Evil empire sends two star destroyers to destroy all politicians! ISF

F/A 22 Raptor whoops F-16 butt! ISF

Well poop. I remember that I checked gamefaqs when I was attempting to do that, but their advice didn't work for me either. Anyway, back to the actual topic. Personally, I believe that Megaman is the best single video game character of all. The Mario crowd might disagree with me on this, but I think that Nintendo missed far too many opportunities for Mario's characterization. I have a special liking for Megaman Legends (despite the troubles) precisely because it takes advantage of the opportunity to make Megaman a character rather than just a mere sprite. Battle Network accomplishes this too, but in a way that is less commiserate with the original storyline. Battle Network is still good though. However, I had to quit playing for two reasons. One, the tiny GBA screen about makes me go blind. (Though the GBA player for Gamecube eliminates this problem!) Two, I'm not crazy about the combat system. I just couldn't get used to it. ISF

Let's see your how your chemical suit handles this! ISF

Rather likes pink, evidently. ISF

That's not really what I meant. I had more than enough experience with bullies. It's the other things that I never experienced. Young love, dating, etc. Shoot, I went all the way through college without having any romantic interest in anybody. Well, at least I bagged a Japanese guy who seems younger than me, even though he's older. Makes up for it a bit. ISF

Date: 7/26/2005 4:53:26 PM Author: GingerBlokey Actually I havent got a clue what ATP was on about. The post above was about being banned from chat for discussing virginity. Zegdalis, Im like you. I dont slip it into most conversations. Most people have forgotten Im gay. I like to talk about my orientation as I would if I was hetro. I have deffinetly experienced gay-bashing. Frank Buntain is such a twat. I have to do PE with him and when getting changed lets just call some 'awkward' situations happen. Everyone thinks its hillarious apart from me. Not good.quote> Whoops, I was afraid of this happening. I didn't see your original post, so I had no way of knowing how to respond. The fact that I can't relate to your above example of gay bashing is both a blessing and a curse for me. Naturally, who would want to experience that? That's the blessing part. But on the other hand, as I stated in an earlier post, I didn't develop any orientation, gay, straight, or bi, until I was in my early 20's. I really feel cheated out of my youth in this respect. ISF

Yugo GV! The infamous little ****box! Good show, Duke. Beat me to the X's. I took too long trying to think of a car that started with X. ISF

Gingerblokey, I empathize. I didn't read your post from before as you seemed to erase it rather quickly, but I do have a bit of advice. First of all, you are recently out. You are now testing the limits of where you are comfortable going as far as conversation. You will make mistakes. I made plenty in my first few months. The first was calling my brother sweetie. I thought it was cute, but he didn't care for it. It had nothing to do with my being gay, but rather that his wife is the only one who's allowed to call him that. Whatever you posted up there, chalk it up to just-having-come-out uncertainty. It happens. Secondly, my goal is to live my life as normally as possible. Now this is just me and how I live my life, so take what I'm going to say here with a grain of salt. It may or may not work for you. I am a bit of an idealist, so I envision a world where it's as perfectly normal for a man to speak of his boyfriend as it is for his girlfriend. (Same for women) What this means is that I'm as casual about my homosexuality as another might be about his heterosexuality. If the subject of significant others comes up, for example, I'll refer to my boyfriend just as naturally as a heterosexual man might refer to his girlfriend. Other than natural conversation flow, I don't bring it up. Some people prefer the Hey world, I'm gay! approach. Others prefer to wade into every conversation with extreme trepidation. I prefer something in the middle. If the listener doesn't like it, that's his/her problem, not mine. He/she can go talk to someone else. And it doesn't force me to waste my time dealing with them. My lifespan is limited and spending it with potential gay bashers is not what I consider time well spent. Still, it's hard not to get drawn into a argument now and then. I have found that my technique of treating my orientation naturally to be very disarming to people and most do not get the opportunity to engage in gay bashing if that's what they wanted to do. For me, keeping quiet about it isn't an option. But I don't like to be in-your-face about it either. Both are antithetical to my personality. My way is right for me, sort of quietly screaming I'm gay! (Oxymoron, but accurate) So, like I said, take that with a grain of salt. It's my way, but may not be yours. ISF

Long it has become indeed. You missed our little 2-page slap-fest we had awhile back. We're over that now. Still waiting to hear back from Jemi. How are things going with your little dilemma? ISF

Hey Duke, Perhaps you know the answer to this question. In Megaman Legends 2, you have to pass a challenge to upgrade your digger's license. I could never upgrade one of them. Can't remember which one (I think it's class S), but it features a room where three robot critters make lots and lots of little robot critters. Never could pass this one. And gamefaqs was no help. Did you do it? Yeah, a bit off topic, but it's worth a shot. ISF

Date: 7/25/2005 3:03:31 PM Author: vidioman Random fact: According to Statistics Canada, Thunder Bay has 109,106 people. Of that, 99,221 of them are white christians! Crrrazy! that's 91%! We're whiter than the southern USA!quote> If my town in Kentucky isn't 100% white, it's because I'm 10% Cherokee. ISF

I'll have an order of Spam please. And don't try to serve me any of that cheap Treet stuff! I can tell the difference! Yesiree. Only authentic Spam for this Spam snob. I start my last week of classes tomorrow. Maybe I should just fail everyone and laugh diabolically all the way to Toronto. Mwa ha ha ha. ISF

Yokozuna Chiyonofuji Mitsugu. 31 yusho championships 807 makunouchi wins You don't want to get in front of him! Click here to learn more about him. ISF

Oh man, did Final Fantasy VIII stink. Your party is railroaded from place to place with little chance for exploration, the main character's gun/sword weapon is a stretch to put it mildly (i.e. stupid), the main character is a brooding, obnoxious twit, and when you finally do get the ability to explore, it's in a building that somehow has the ability to levitate off the ground and creep around ( ). This is not what an RPG is supposed to be. ISF

Whoa, racy new avatar you have there, Jamie. Might get you an AO rating from the ESRB though. You know how they can be. So, I thought the issue was with he who is courting your favor, not his girlfriend. Must have misunderstood that. Well, if her attitude is that clear and she's the only one you're worried about, have a nice date. ISF

In preparation for my move to Canada, I just finished packing up all my Star Trek toys. I feel like I've just put all of my geeky children in a box... ISF

Interesting... Here goes: 1) Star Ocean: Till the End of Time. Crummy ending, main character was as whiny as Luke Skywalker in Ep. 4, but everything else was perfect. 2) Kingdom Hearts. Seems I'm not the only one surprised by how good this is. 3) Fullmetal Alchemist. Okay, so it's not a really good game. But I love it. Sometimes I just need a game that doesn't require a lot of thought: Level start, whackity, whackity, whackity, whackity, whack, level end. 4) Final Fantasy X. One of these days, I'll finish it. And Tidus looks exactly like a Japanese surfer. (And I've seen lots of them having lived on the beach in Atsumi.) 5) Dark Cloud. A very good early PS2 game. Unique too. Just bought Samurai Legend Musashi. Hope it's good enough to make the list. And if anyone from Squaresoft is reading this, PLEASE make Final Fantasy VII for PS2! I'd be all over that like a bunny on a carrot. ISF

Ah, this thread brings back memories. I started with Megaman 2 way, way back... But I had no idea that there were so many Megaman games. Seriously, I don't think even Mario can beat that list. Be interesting though if we could get a Mario fan in here to dispute this. I think Megaman Legends was my favorite. I still enjoy it from time to time. ISF

Date: 7/21/2005 6:40:12 AM Author: itismenotyou Thats America for you. Its one of the few things that really make me hate my country. We can show people dying horrible graphic violent deaths of TV and its perfectly fine, but the moment someone sees a breast, its an obscene disgusting abomdination that must be destroyed. You'd think politicians would want to focus their attention on balancing the budget or improving education and national defense, but no, we have to 'protect the children' from pixel porn.quote> Absolutely, completely, totally correct. Anyone who's old enough to see what's in the regular game is old enough to see anything else. Blow away a police officer? Oh sure, that's fine. Show a breast and/or a little action? Can't have that! It seems that our culture has not yet caught up with the video game/anime generation, of which I'm a part. Video games were kids stuff when I was growing up, but now video games and anime are no longer just kids stuff. Many of us are adults now and have the right to see whatever we like. I'm 28 years old now and I gotta shoot stuff. Better it happen in a digital environment, yes? ISF

Just saw a commercial on TV: Hillary Duff is performing at the Kentucky State Fair. I don't know which is worse. Being a mediocre pop star performing at the Kentucky State Fair, or being a mediocre pop star having the last name of a fictional, cheap beer company. Of course, worse yet, one could be both, as is proven here. I'm not a terribly big Hillary Duff fan. Can you tell? ISF