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I'm kinda handicapped in this game in that I don't have any of the GBA pokemon games and in that I suck at the safari game, so there are some pokemon that can only be found these ways that I cannot catch myself. I can't ask for them over the GTS because I haven't seen them in game. So I'm looking for them here. I'll list what I'm looking for and what I have to offer. In any case, an evolution of the pokemon is also acceptable, and is preferred since it's easier to breed for base forms than to evovle.

In here are also some swarmers that never seem to show up for me and starters that I've yet to obtain.

Looking for:
Paras
Shroomish
Gulpin
Delibird
Electrike
Spoink
Tangela
Caterpie
Ekans
Growlithe
Elekid (with electrizer, please)
Lotad
Sableye
Seviper
Lunatone
Seedot
Mawile
Zangoose
Solrock
Pineco
Gligar
Chikorita
Any legend which can only be obtained via transfer from one of the GBA games.

Offering:
Togepi
Chimchar (some with thunderpunch as an egg move)
Spiritomb (paihsplit as an egg move)
Charmander
Cyndiquil
Mudkip
Treecko
Torchick
Piplup
Turtwig
Sandshrew
Farfetch'd
Voltorb
Nosepass
Tauros
Nidoran (either gender)
Dunsparce
Surskit
Absol
Smoochum
Snubbull
Ralts
Makuhita
Combee
Heracross
Aipom
Swinub
Doduo
Drifloon
Spinda
Zigzagoon
Whismur
Eevee (willing to evolve for you)
Ditto
Cubone
Pidgey
Vulpix
Shuckle
Teddiursa
Weedle
Feebas
Meowth
Lickitung
Natu
Skarmory
Phanphy
Slakoth
Makuhita
Claydol
Duskull
Rotom
Tropius
Absol
Any Diamond or pearl exclusive (unevolved)

This is a pretty massive list of trades, so I'm probably going to be bumping this every day or two until I get a good amount of these done.

Hey, everybody. I'm just introducing myself here. Those of you that were in the D/P forum tournament may remember me. I bought Diamond a week after it came out and I've been playing it ever since. I joined the forum for the tournament and I'm staying... well... for trades and in hopes of another.

You guys have probably heard all about this by now, but in case you haven't, here's a poster with the details.

I remember back when I joined, BC was going through a huge pokemon craze... I figured that right now, since a lot of people have reset their games, would be a good time to try to organize another BC pokemon championship.

The championship would be a tournament with two divisions: one for game-resetters and one for people that didn't reset. This would mean that someone who had reset their game wouldn't auto-lose round one to a team that's been perfected and purified for over a year. After both divisions have finished their games, the champions from each division play eachother for first place over-all. Without further ado, here are the rules.

Rules:

Evasion clause
No use of moves or items that increase evasion. Abilities granting conditional evasion are okay, as is making use of them. Sand cloak/Snow cloak can be used on a sandstorm/hailstorm team without breaking this rule. It is also okay to use acupressure (the random stat boost move), even though it can randomly increase evasion. Use of these moves in a match invalidates the match. It must be replayed without the evading pokemon in the team, or without the evasion item being held. If the pokemon was using an evasion move, that pokemon is banned from your team for the rest of the tournament.

No ubers
We'll use Smogon's uber tier list with the exception that Latias isn't uber unless it's holding Soul Dew and Wobuffet is uber. If your Latias is holding Soul Dew, it will be obvious because of how much damage it will deal. This rule is to prevent the incredibly fast-paced play that comes from allowing use of legends like Mewtwo, Palkia, Kyogre, and Rayqaza, and to stop the incredible stalling powers of Lugia, Ho-oh, and Giratina. Ditto is also banned, not for power reasons, but to prevent situations where both players are left with only their ditto surviving (struggle matches are annoying). Teams containing these pokemon will not be verified. Using Soul Dew Latias carries the same penalty as using an impossible hack.

No impossibly-hacked pokemon
Okay, this is tricky... Technically... You can use a hacked pokemon, but no illegal movesets [aqua jet and ice punch on an Azumarill is as illegal as ice beam on an infernape, it has to be a moveset of moves that you can put on the same pokemon in the same game without the aid of a hacking device], no illegal stats [anything with IV's that are all 30 or 31 is assumed hacked, anything with 999 in all stats is hacked, anything with any one impossible stat is hacked, anything with more than max EVs is hacked, etc.] otherwise, if you want to use a hacking device to make a realistic pokemon in a reasonable amount of time, that's fine. Breaking this rule disqualifies you from the tournament.

No OHKO moves
This rule is self-explanatory, but I'll explain it more anyways. Lock-on and Sheer Cold is an unavoidable OHKO, exept by protect/detect, and we don't want to make sure everyone packs those moves on every pokemon to avoid getting killed by a single guy. Breaking this rule invalidates your match, you have to play it with a different team, and whichever pokemon had this move in its moveset is not allowed on your team for the rest of the tournament.

Sleep clause
Only one pokemon per team can be put to sleep at a time. A pokemon with natural cure that's been retreated doesn't count as being asleep. A pokemon that rested to sleep doesn't count as being asleep. This means that if my snorlax uses rest, then I switch it out to a natural cure blissey and the opponent's gengar is allowed to use hypnosis, then if I switch to my Umbreon he can use hypnosis again. Breaking of this rule the first time in a match means the match is invalid and can be replayed at the request of the opponent. Breaking it a second time in the same match means that you lose the match.

Species clause
You cannot have two of the same pokemon on the same team. Breaking this rule means you have to re-sign-up your team.

Selfdestruct clause
If both players only have one pokemon left, a move that causes both pokemon to die (either from recoil or as an effect of the move) counts as a loss for the move's user, not the recipient. So an Electrode as the last pokemon exploding and killing a Snorlax means the Electrode loses.

Rules of matches
Unlike other BC tournaments, we don't all have to be online at the same time. For the first round, players have a week to find their opponent for their first match and play them. As long as their next opponent is available as well, they can play their next match in that week, too. This means that people won't have to stay up late or get up early to deal with time zone issues in order to make the tournament. Matches are 6 vs. 6 single battle level 100 set. Matches not played in this way are invalid, and need to be replayed correctly, except for the following occurrence. If one player's team has had enough of its pokemon banned due to breaking of the evasion clause / OHKO clause, they must play the match with a team of as many unbanned pokemon as they can and the match is legal. Their opponent may still use a full team of 6.

Rules for signing up
You sign up a team of 8 pokemon by posting that team in this thread, along with your FC (it's okay to just point out that it's in your signature), and whether or not your game has been reset (this decides your division). You're allowed to make the team you use out of 6 of any of the 8 pokemon you signed up. The sign up list will be made public, so be careful of that. You don't need to make movesets, natures, or hold items public for the pokemon that you sign up, but if you are suspected of hacking or using Soul Dew Latias you will need to PM me your pokemon's stats, and the opponent needs to PM me the stats of one of their pokemon that faced this one down, and a description of the situation that made them think it was hacked. I'll check to see if this situation can occur without hacks and, if it can, then everything's fine.

Re-signing up
As long as sign ups still are continuing, you may sign up a different team of 8 instead of your original. I'm doing this because I know some of the game resetters may not have a team that they like for this tournament at the moment and could be busy training a team, but don't want to be caught only having half of the pokemon with the team they signed up. The rule applies to both divisions, though, to be fair.

Sign ups:

No-Reset Division
Kennisiou: (Spiritomb, Infernape, Alakazam, Umbreon, Milotic, Snorlax, Arcanine, Latias){2363-2868-5636}
Turtleman: (Exeggutor, Crobat, Umbreon, Electrode, Charizard, Hitmonchan, Drifblim, Zapdos) {1762-3285-6753}

Reset Division
Jumpin' Jack Flash (?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?) {????-????-????}

Prizes:

That's right, prizes. This tournament will have four awards given out: an overall first place award, an overall second place award, and a separate second place award for each division. I'll be able to provide each of these awards, but... That's not how I'm going to run this tournament. Since I'm a participant, I want a prize if I win, too, right? So I want someone's help with this. If someone can sign up as another prize-giver, I'd appreciate it. They'll give either first or second place (deciding on who the first-place winner wants a prize from) overall prizes and one of the second place division prizes, while I give the other prize. Here's how the prize system will work:

First place (overall): Wins an uber-tier legend from R/S/E (if they choose me as prize-giver) or an uber-tier legend from FR/LG or from D/P or wins an event legend (if they choose the other prize-giver).
Second place (overall): Wins either one of the regi-trio from R/S/E (if the first-place winner chooses the other person as prize-giver, I give second place their prize) or wins one of the runners or birds from FR/LG or one of the fairies from D/P (if first-place chooses me as prize-giver, the other giver gives a prize of matching power)
Second place (division): The prize-givers decide amongst themselves which division they'll give the second-place prize to. Second place division prizes are a useful hold item (leftovers, focus sash, king's rock, etc) on a pokemon that is hard to obtain (one of the starters, a rare non-legend, maybe a shiny). The division-winners can request their pokemon to be any of the starters that the division-prize-giver can breed for them, otherwise the prize-giver determines the prize.

For first and second place overall, I'd like to emphasize, the giver chooses which legend to give, and not the receiver. I'll try to farm some good-natured legends off of my emerald version, but I don't know how lucky I'll be (or how willing I'll be to part with them once I have them XD).

Sign-ups will end in a week or two, and the tournament starts right after that.

So, today's my birthday and I got a game that I was looking at for a while: Luminous Arc. It's an Atlus game, so you know that it's quality. I'm wondering why there isn't already a thread for it here? Anyone else get it?

Hey, look at me, guys! I'm a spam bot!

POST 300!

Yay and stuff!

:laugh: :dance:

Sick of BC being down or bot spam covering up topics you want to see?
Sick of the tagging database? Sick of a bot having more post counts than you?

MendedControllers

Join the revolution.

So... I just beat Bonetail, the final boss at the end of the pit of 100 trials in Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door. Not only that, but I just got a call saying I won honorary prize in a local writing cotest. I feel totally awesome. All others who have achieved either of these feats can come and share your strategies for victory.

(In Gamecube discussion for the Bonetail thing)

I have just finished fully EV training my party. I'm going to be levelling my Milotic a bit, but I'd be more than happy to take a break from that to accept a challenge. If you want to battle me my FC is in my sig. Post here, meet me on Gabbly, or AIM me (my ID is Kennisiou).

So a few weeks ago I discovered this really weird videogame on my computer that I think was put there by some sort of virus or spyware (at least, I believe these to be its possible origins since I didn't install this game myself). After running my trusty virus-buster, I decided to open up the game.

It's called solitaire, maybe you've heard of it?

The game is confusing at first, but you can find the rules on wikipedia if you search (apparently there is a similar game that can be played with a deck of actual playing cards, an innovation new to the industry) and after that it's easier to play.

The goal of the game is to organize the cards in the deck into four piles based on their suits. Sounds like a simple game, doesn't it? But it's not a simple game, no sir-ee. You see, before you can start a pile you have to find that suit's Ace, and then you have to place each card in the pile going up by increments of one (for example, you play ace, two, three) until you reach the king (the last three cards are jack, queen, king, in that order).

Now this still may sound rather easy, but consider this extra dimension to the game: the cards start out in 8 piles: the deck, and then 7 other piles consisting of a face-up card and an increasing number of face-down cards (0 in the 1st pile, 6 in the 7th). You can move the face-up cards onto other cards, but only if they're one higher and are a different color than the card you're moving. You can also pull a card from the top of the deck to move onto these piles. Only by moving cards from these piles until there are no face-up cards can you turn over a face-down card, and then you may only turn up the top of the face-down pile.

Now, this still seems simple, but realize this: you can only put a card on one of the seven bottom piles onto the top 4 piles if there are no cards attached to it. Want to move that six of diamonds up to your diamond pile? Too bad, pal, you should've thought of that before putting the five of spades on there.

This game can be very difficult to beat, but I'll let you in on a secret that helps you win: if you manage to create an empty space you can move a king onto it! This improves your game immensely.

Well, that's my review of this game. Do any of you have experience with it?

Right now I'm looking for any of the Safari rares except for Carnivine, any of the honey tree rares except for Burmy and combee, any of the starters except for Torchic and the D/P starters, and any of the pokemon that can only be caught with a gamepak inserted. I'm also looking for any of the items that raise specific EVs after each value (power brace, power belt, etc).

I'm willing to give any of the D/P starters, Burmy, Combee, any of the diamond exclusives, select pearl exclusives, Carnivine, or Torchic. If you want anything else I may be able to get it, but I'll have to look around a bit. I'm not trading any legendaries.

Sorry if there's a post for trades in D/P already or if this is the wrong forum.

Edit: My friend code is 0129 8339 5772

I was reading the VGCats blog today (I don't do it often, but it paid off), and I saw this link! It's a trailer for a new Nights Into Dreams game that'll be coming out for the wii. Considering Sega's been tantalizing fans with the promise of a new Nights game pretty much ever since it came out the fact that they're actually making it is huge awesome news.

So do I have to be the only one to break down in a fit of laughter, tears, and incoherence because of this game or are any of you gentleman and ladies going to join me?

I need a freaking wii...

IN THE BACKYARD, SHAVIN' THE OLD PLIES

(if you guys can do it with shitty pop songs, I'll do it with kick-ass ska punk songs)

My DS if fixed!

Also, my sister and I bought a wii, an extra controller, and three games (Twilight Princess, Pokemon Battle Revolution, and Wii Play).

Now I'm saving for a classic controller and another nunchuck. I'll be putting up Friend codes in the proper threads.

Just wanted to share my joy with all of you guys.

Is posting in the writer's workshop and video club. I'm sorry, man, that's too much. That's wrong. Get him out of both of those clubs. Or, better yet, get rid of him.

The workshop club is for stuff written by people from BC. It's not a spot to put ads for manga (what the bot keeps doing).

So, of course, I did it. I bought the most hyped game to be released this year. It’s been in production since before Nintendo launched the Wii, since it was called the “revolution” and people thought the controller would look like something that came when an Atari joystick had a baby with a computer mouse. I’m talking about Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the game released here in the US last Sunday.
And, to be completely fair to the game, it didn’t live up to the hype. Nothing could, really. With all of the delays and the announcements and everything, people were expecting the cure for cancer, world peace, and Jesus Christ rolled up into one and stuffed on a game disc.
It’s not that. I’m sorry to disappoint any of you who haven’t played the game, but that’s not what it is.
It is, however, safely the best video game I’ve ever played in my life.
I’ve played a lot of them, so that’s saying something.
The gameplay is, like that of its predecessors, an amazing mix of marvelously simple, intriguingly subtle, and undeniably fun. Part of this is due to the control options. There are four (Wiimote sideways, Wiimote and nunchuck, Classic Controller, and Gamecube controller), so you can pick whichever suits you best. Personally, I’m a fan of the Gamecube controls, just because I’m used to them from Super Smash Bros. Melee.
That said, there are some differences. Some of the main features of combat in Brawl are vastly different from the combat in Melee. The “wavedash” glitch is finally gone, and now air-dodging doesn’t cause you to lose your ability to act while in the air, which makes aerial combat very different. All of the characters are slower and heavier, so the game isn’t quite as mind-bogglingly fast and KO’s are harder-won. This also means that the characters don’t separate into such different “tiers,” and it’s hotly contested whether the slow characters or the fast ones have the advantage now in this new game.
But this isn’t as important to the casual player as it is to the old tourney-players from Melee. The thing that I’ve noticed about this game is that character unlocking is much easier. In the first game, I remember how it was such a struggle for me while I awkwardly held the N64 controller to beat Normal mode with three lives using no continues to finally get a chance to unlock the elusive Ness. Having to do it three times because I couldn’t beat Ness in the fight afterwards was even more difficult. The second game was nice for me, because I wound up unlocking some of the hardest characters (Pichu, Falco, Mewtwo), not with their primary “do this” unlock condition but by racking up multiplayer “melee” matches where I desperately tried to handle level seven and eight computers (multiples, of course, because a single computer at any level was much too easy for mr. “still can’t beat the first level of hard-mode” here). This game makes it even easier by adding a third unlock condition to every character: finding them in the single-player “Subspace Emissary Mode.”
This mode is probably one of my favorite features of the game, which is weird, since most people seem to hate it. It’s a not-too difficult variant of the old “adventure mode” from melee that has, shock among shocks, an actual plot: something entirely new to the Smashbros. Series. The mode, like every mode, has multiple levels of difficulty (Easy, Normal, Hard, Very Hard, and Intense), and is therefore able to be played at any level you feel comfortable with. Because I decided I’m a tough-guy now, I moved up to the second level, even though I knew that I would have to play characters that I was absolutely terrible with (I’m looking at you, Yoshi) and that any death would mean the loss of precious stickers, one of the many collectible items in this game.
I think the thing that impressed me most was the plot. There is only ever spoken dialogue in the plot once. In fact, it’s not dialogue. It’s two words completely iconic to this series. “Falcon Punch.” That’s it. Everything else is conveyed with gestures, cartoony facial expressions, and occasionally in-jokes from the game (every sequence with Kirby or Snake in it was completely worthwhile just to see how unique their means of conveying emotions were). The mode also manages to be faithful to every aspect of the characters, managing to capture Peach’s ditzy-but-somehow-loveable princess personality perfectly, a feat that the Mario team has been unable to pull off since Super Mario Sunshine (in which Peach makes the deer-in-the-headlights statement “Wait, I’m your mother? I don’t remember having a baby,” with perfect seriousness. More crack-whore than ditz, there, Nintendo) as well as capturing the friendship dynamic between Lucas and Ness and Snake’s goofier-version-of-James-Bond-that-actually-kills-his-enemies charm.
The thing that impressed me most, though, was how they captured King Dedede. Not since the first Kirby game have I ever been able to respect him as a character, but with this game they managed to show me that Dedede was, once again, not actually the bumbling, goofy villain that he’s made out to be. The man has a plan, a circuitous crazy plan where he may not even recognize the goal, but he’s got one.
The entire mode is, in fact, reminiscent of Kirby at its peak in the game Kirby Super Star. The levels involve simple combat and platforming challenges paired with quests to “fully complete” them by finding all of the hidden goodies. This is classic adventure gaming at its best, so I can understand why the current mainstream market with its “RPG, Fighter, or Shoot-em-up” attitudes towards games may not exactly be happy with its throwback gameplay, but I was very pleased.
As I mentioned, unlocking characters in this mode is not difficult, since playing through the entire plot will unlock all but three of them, and those can be found by checking around levels that you haven’t fully completed looking for new doors. Beating this mode isn’t difficult, but it is time-consuming. It’s not like past games where you can play the whole mode in one sit-down. You’ll have a save file and it could take you anywhere from a whole day of crunching to a relaxing week or two of idly smacking down baddies to get through the whole plot.
So, with all of the characters this easy to unlock, what is there left to do? Why, complete the collection quests, of course. There are a multitude of songs, stages, game trials, trophies, and stickers to unlock either by luckily finding them or by going to the “challenges” section and looking to see what needs to be done to finally get your hands on the one stage your missing (or, should you find that clearing target practice level five in under twenty seconds just a bit beyond your difficulty, you can smash open the glass with your handy hammer to find your trophy or music reward). The challenges are everything from the mind-numbingly easy and boring (play on stage X ten times for a song or something), to the “this’ll happen eventually” (move over 30,000 feet with all characters total) to those that actually deserve the name challenge (I have to beat which of these modes on intense without using continues? And I’m not allowed to hammer this one open?).
There are also multiple post-unlocking-everybody in-game modes to complete. All-Star mode can’t be played until you’ve unlocked every last character, and neither can some of the one-player event matches.
Finally, the thing I’m sure all of you community gamers are wondering about, Brawl’s online abilities.
I’ll be honest with you. I’m a fan of just about everything Nintendo does. The Wii and DS are innovative, not gimmicky. Pokemon is fun and competitive, not just childish. Mario, although nowhere near as cool as Sonic, is a sustainable gaming icon. But I just can’t praise their online capabilities. Just can’t do it.
Brawl online isn’t that bad, if your connection works with Nintendo. Unfortunately, mine doesn’t do so hot, so I wind up randomly being unable to connect or disconnected. Most of the time it’s fine, but those times where it’s not are very frustrating and I know that I’m not the only one that has these problems.
The game also lags a lot in online play, making fast characters hard to play. When I used Sonic, I kept running off the stage because I’d be trying to move in the opposite direction after doing a nice, solid, dash attack in order to avoid going off the edge, and the few seconds of lag between command and response would be enough to send the wise-cracking blue pinball off of the stage. I guess that with some adjustment the lag wouldn’t be much of an issue, but I just don’t see myself getting the opportunity to adjust given how finicky the connection is.
It’s a good thing, then, that I didn’t get this for the wi-fi, and if any of you are planning on that I suggest you make sure you’ve got a good internet system for Nintendo gaming and that you try not to play during peak hours when lag will be the highest.
After hearing this almost wishy-washy review so far, you may be left wondering why I find this game so amazing? Well, the devil’s in the details. There’s so much to do that it’s hard to decide what challenge I want to attempt next. Everything has rewards in addition to just the fun of doing it, whether it’s more songs, more trophies, or more stickers. You can find your own level of difficulty to suit your own playing abilities, and with all of the different single-player and multi-player modes there’s sure to be something that you find enjoyable in this game. The customizability even extends to making your own stage, which carries rewards in the form of gaining more items to use to make more stages.
The game has the right mix of collecting, competition, storytelling, and just general beauty (the graphics and music are just amazing) for a great gaming experience, and the little details from how fans cheer for each character when they’re doing well (“Snake! Snake! Snaaaake!” For Snake is my favorite, with “We like Ike!” for Ike as my least favorite) to how each character moves differently when they air dodge just continues to amaze me.
The game is a piece of craftsmanship. It’s probably the best video-game I’ve ever played. It’s not going to live up to all of the hype, but, then, I don’t think the cancer-curing, peace-bearing Jesus I mentioned earlier could even live up to the hype this game’s got. Come to this game not expecting a miracle, but expecting an amazing game, and I guarantee you your expectations will be met or surpassed.

Kirby Superstar DS is released tomorrow.

It will be awesome.

I'm looking to get some leftovers, considering that I'm going to add another wall and a tank to my team I think I'm going to want to have something to keep healing them and rest/chesto berry combo is a one-shot thing and only works for one of the pokemon I'll be adding.

So I'm willing to offer rare pokemon (any of the safari or honey tree rares, the r/s/e or d/p starters, Charmander, Cyndiquil, Spiritomb, Feebas, pokeradar rares, Diamond or pearl exclusives except for houndour, and swarming rares except for togepii and pidgey)

Also, anyone who can get me a houndour, togepii, or pidgey will be doubly rewarded, as I can't get a houndour via GTS because I haven't seen one and I'm in the same boat with togepii and pidgey.

I'm in gabbly now if anyone wants to try to reach me there.

Discuss.

Looking for:
Modest Ditto
Modest Pokemon with the synchronize ability
Female Modest Feebas or Milotic

Offering:
Chimchar (w/thunderpunch)
Togepi
Cyndiquil
Treecko
Charmander
Torchic
Piplup
Turtwig
Any Diamond Exclusive pokemon
Omanyte Egg

Now I know in the past few months you've all gotten accustomed to seeing my beautiful flowing prosaic posts around these forums, and it is because of this that I regret to inform you that I will have limited computer access in Iowa, and will likely not visit this site often in the coming months until I get a laptop sometime during my first break from school.

That is all.

I'm posting one of my stories here, just the first chapter, and an incomplete version at that. I need to do a bit of reworking here, there are just some things that don't quite feel right, but over-all I'm proud of what I've got.

I'll be continuing the story at a later date, but right now it's not my top priority.

Anyways, without further ado, the story.

CHAPTER 1, “I CALLED HER BEAUTIFUL”

I watched as the wind blew against her dress, outlining her curves, and couldn’t take my eyes away. Why would she wear it on such a cold night? She shivered, and, blushing purple, I looked away.
“What do you want?” she said, looking at me plainly. She spoke without nuance. There was no direction to the question. Its bluntness and simplicity made it grand, all encompassing. What do you want? What is the one thing you desire most in the world?
“I just want something I can hold in my arms without breaking,” I said to the concrete rooftop.
She looked across the street, down at the party. You could see where the glass had been broken when I busted the window so we could make our escape. The police crews were cleaning up the Sinister Soldier’s latest failed “war crime.” The party-goers in the penthouse were being treated for their wounds, but I knew that the people in the ambulances would never be able to medicate away the horror they felt as they watched those around them randomly slaughtered. No reason, no method to the madness, just pure, fear-inducing murder. I thought for a minute about the kind of madness it took to turn this sort of mass homicide into a gimmick. I wondered what sort of mass homicide this was. Aristocricide? Sociocide? I wondered why she seemed so pivotal to all of these things in the city, why she always seemed to be there.
A hand on my arm, “You called me beautiful.”
“I mean what I say,” I lack the discretion for anything else but complete and utter honesty.
Her lips worked for a moment, and I was lost in guessing at the words they sought to form. “What is beautiful to you?” she said finally. I was surprised, then contemplative.
“Beauty is what you wish to always hold in your arms,” yet tuck away in a drawer away from clumsy hands instead.
She came closer now; her perfume filled my nostrils: a familiar scent, yet one I couldn’t place. It reminded me of home. “You called me beautiful.”
“I mean what I say.”
And the embrace never ended.
But the dream did.

I wake up, and immediately realize that I can’t breathe. Solomon is lying on my face, and his fur is filling my mouth and nostrils. I shove the lazy cat off, and walk down the hall to the kitchen to open up another can of his cat food. I realize that I haven't taken my medicine when my grip crushes the can and cat food explodes into my face.
The scent is familiar to me, and the memory of my dream forces its way to me. I wonder for a moment why in my dream made she smelled like my cat.
I called her beautiful.
I remember, then, the events of the last night. Another villain, another failed scheme, and another encounter with her. Her. I don’t even know her name.
I grab the metal mug I keep in the oaken kitchen cabinet and fill it with water. Heavily dented, it serves its purpose well. In the mornings, before I have control, this is one of the few things in the house I can reliably grip without destroying it. I open up the cabinet and pull down what the doctor has prescribed to ease my troubles. The pills. The suppressants. I take my medicine, feeling the cool sensation in my veins, and wonder for a moment if there are actually nerves there, or maybe if I only imagine that the feeling is something in my blood. I sit, and wait for it to start to take effect, for it to be safe for me to handle cans of cat food without worry. I sit, and wait, and remember.
I called Her beautiful.
In the night streets, I held her carefully, to keep the gash on my shoulder from bleeding onto her white blouse. The poison on the Silver Fox’s epee was beginning to take affect. I can never keep straight what poison he’s supposed to use. Hemlock, cyanide, it’s unimportant. Honestly, my body doesn’t see a difference between them anyways. I was woozy, drowsy; my mind was separate from my body. She looked up at me, and in her eyes, just for that moment, I saw as much fear of me there was of the villain. I almost dropped her.
I almost cried.
My arms become smaller as the suppressant works its way through my body. My shoulders narrow, and my nightshirt begins to fit loosely again. The doctor prescribed these pills for me after I went to see him about the strange muscular growth. If I don’t take them, my muscles grow quickly and uncontrollably. My skin tints greenish-blue and my shoulders hunch. I look like a monster. It becomes impossible for me to avoid attention. I wash my face in the sink, free now of the smell but unable to shake the recollections it has brought upon me, and open another can for Solomon, this time without my muscles getting in the way. I turn the can over and its contents land in the food dish with a wet plunk.
I called her beautiful.
Maybe it was the way I had looked at her, or maybe I had just misunderstood the look in her eyes to begin with, but she seemed less scared now. I smiled. We ran, but I was becoming tired. Another side effect of this muscular growth was a strengthening of my other organs. My liver could handle this life-threatening toxin without much danger. It was the equivalent of binge drinking, for me.
We stopped and I leaned against a light post. Somewhere, the distant part of me wanted to ask her for money for coffee, or a soda, or anything to make this intoxication fade more quickly, but I could do nothing. We just stood there, me becoming drunker by the moment, while she was probably scared out of her wits.
She looked at me, right in the eyes. “Why is it that you’re always there to save me?”
I think back; there were thousands of responses. “It’s what I have to do” “Why shouldn’t I?” “Why do you always need saving?” those are just the first ones to pop into my head this morning. I didn’t say any of those things.
I pour a bowl of corn flakes, and sit down at my table.
I called her beautiful.
My hand pauses in the middle of spooning the cereal into my mouth.
What was I thinking?
I have a small urge to hide from my shame by drowning myself in my breakfast.

After finishing my breakfast, I change into my clothes for work. A basic suit and tie, the attire of your average office worker. I work for a small publishing company in the city called
Slater Printing. I’m something like a receptionist, but our office environment is made to encourage “shared labor.” Some days I’m kept away from the phones because I’m busy going through a large influx of manuscripts.
Those are good days.
After dressing, I get ready to walk out the door. When I reach in to my pants pocket for my keys to lock up before leaving, I find them empty. Sighing, I go back inside. Every morning, this happens. Sometimes I wonder why I put up with that cat.
I search around the house for a few moments looking for Solomon and find him sitting under the table, the keys in his mouth. He likes to steal them. As far as I can tell, he likes the jingling noise they make, but he can’t figure out how to make them do it. I pull the keys from his mouth and give them a shake. Solomon purrs contentedly and rubs up against my arm.
Sometimes, I wonder if my life would be better if I were as simple as my cat. I hold the keys by my ear and shake them. Jingle, jingle, jingle… Nothing.
“Solomon, you have no idea how lucky you are.”
Solomon meows in response, and then begins to walk off. He walks into a table leg, backs up, shakes his head, and walks into it again.
“Now you’re just trying to make me feel better about myself.” I do feel better, though. At least my life is good enough for me to know how bad I have it.

The worst thing about living in the big city is not having a car. It means I have to walk. That’s not to say that walking isn’t an effective way of getting around: I live fifteen minutes from work, five from the nearest grocery store, and there’s a mall that sells anything else I’d need just twenty minutes away. It’s the people.
In television shows you bump into the same two or three people all the time in a big city.
Television lies.
The streets are crowded, overflowing with strangers. I’ll never see these people again in my life, but for some reason I always am worried about what they think of me. In my attempts to make a good impression, I invariably bump into people I couldn’t see, say the wrong things near the wrong people, and generally make a mess.
I try to make a good impression, but I never do.
Running into these strangers always makes me think about my childhood, where there were never any strangers to be found. I remember awkwardly trying to remember the names of all of the kids who knew mine, fumbling for an excuse to avoid a party, trying not to offend anyone no matter how little I truly valued their opinion since I knew they could make my life hell… And that makes me think about what a breath of fresh air college was.
I’d call one of my old college friends, but I don’t know their phone numbers anymore.
As I walk, I think about my dream. Dreams are one of the few things that didn’t change with my body. I keep a list of these things in a drawer by my bed. It only has three or four things. Dreams are only one of the two items on the list that I can always remember.
I’d rather not think about the other one that I can always remember.
My dreams have always been like this. Sort of surreal, but in a way more real than the things I see from day to day. I can take in more details from my dreams than I can from real life. I always remember my dreams. Every little part of them.
What I wonder about first was why the Sinister Soldier was in my dream. Normally, my dreams would be something that could happen currently, but the Sinister Soldier is in prison now, and unlikely to get out on parole. A jailbreak is less likely, I’ve heard, since he’s at the bottom of the prison pecking-order, and doesn’t have any friends on the outside. He is no threat, so it seemed odd that my dream had picked him to menace me.
So this dream wasn’t meant to take place in the present. To place this dream in a timeline of the real, it would have to be the distant future, since there was no way I’d be dealing with the Sinister Soldier again any time soon. My subconscious had constructed a dream for me that took place in the future. Nothing prophetic – I heard once that you have to believe in prophecy to make it real and I’ve never believed in prophecy – just a situation that couldn’t be now, but could be later. Not my normal dreaming fare, which is usually more boring, more related to the things that are currently happening to me than the things that could happen to me.
Somehow, this context makes the dream safer to understand.
So, in this dream, she remembered when I called her beautiful. Although it was a recent event, since the dream was in the distant future, then that meant that she had remembered it for a long time. I try to figure when in the future my subconscious wanted this dream to be, but the Sinister Soldier wasn’t going to be out for at least two more years.
I wonder, for a moment, if I wanted her to remember it, and if that was why I had dreamed it, but I stop thinking about it when I realize I was blushing. Even in the context of dreams, fantasizing about her makes me embarrassed and uncomfortable.
So I stop thinking of her as her, and start thinking of the woman in my dreams as me. After all, it was my dream, and, as pathetic as it seems since I don’t know her name, I’m closer to her than to anyone else in the city. It seems only natural, then, for her to represent a second part of myself, a part that I was conversing with.
I stop at an intersection to let the cars pass and check my watch. I’m making good time. If I keep going at this rate I’ll only be a minute or two late for work.
So if that was me… Maybe those questions were the things that I should be thinking about. Or maybe it was my subconscious telling me the things that it was thinking about, some sort of surreal progress report. So I want something I can hold in my arms without hurting, but beauty is that which I keep apart from myself so that I cannot hurt it.
But that doesn’t seem to make sense either.
I give up. It was a vivid dream, but it was meaningless. A fantasy. I decide that all that mattered was the end, and everything else was my mind scrambling to get there. Pseudo-philosophy and pseudo-psychology from the stupidest parts of my mind, the parts that understand nothing of who I am and what I feel but my desires, that’s all that the conversation was.
I check my watch again. I’m almost at work, just another block to go. I’m glad. If I lost this job, I don’t know where I’d find work.
I keep thinking that, until I smelled the smoke, until I heard the maniacal laughter. Even then, I want to keep on walking until I hear the screams.
I hope that I can wrap this up quickly. My boss says if I show up half-an-hour late to work again he’ll fire me.
Funny, I think, I’m about to run into a burning building, and I’m only scared of losing my job.

Do it.

Direct Link

Hehehe.

I asked a girl out and she said yes.

Just thought it was important enough that you guys should know.

Over at the marriland forums. Read it. You'll lol.

Seriously.

...It would look like this.

Direct Link

I know most of you guys recently started your D/P files over. Any of you up for a challenge against my current team?

FC is in sig, but the team won't necessarily be the one on the trainer card. No ubers (ie nothing with more than 600 base stats except Slaking), no hax, sleep clause (only put one pokemon on each team to sleep at a time), evasion clause (no spamming double team or sand attack), no ditto no wobuffet.

Otherwise it's a standard 6 vs. 6 lv. 100 set. Any takers?

I found something cool, so I'm posting it before the fucking RSS bot does.

Hey, guys, look, members can "post content" too. A-fucking-mazing, am i rite?!

Mario 2 Drums

The fucking RSS bot makes me sick.
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And it's seriously good times, man.

I'm messing around with the double element classes instead of just the single element ones, so things are weird here at the start, but I figure it'll pick up when I get more djinn and get access to more healing psynergy.

And the Healing Ring is freaking tight.

So, yeah. I invite all of you to replay the game with me, I guess? I dunno. Compare our parties or something like that? I'll move on to the second game as soon as I beat this one and level my guys a bit to make their transfer to game two smoother.

Have you ever heard about something and thought “my god, that’s so simple and ingenious that it can’t possibly be real?” That was my reaction when I first heard about Audiosurf, a reflex-driven, music-based puzzle game.

At it’s most basic level, it’s your typical matching game. You play as a mouse-controlled ship trying to run into colored blocks. When you hit a block, it falls on the ground in front of you. You try to make matching groups of three blocks of the same color or more. “That’s fine,” you say, “but you mentioned music.” Yes, I did. Here’s the ingenious part of the game: the levels you play are based on songs you upload to the game. Upload something fast and you’ll get lots of red and yellow blocks, the two worth the most points, and will move by very quickly. When you hit slower parts of the song you get more blue and purple blocks, the two worth the least points, and will be traveling more slowly.

To give you a more visual description, you are controlling a ship on a highway as you come flying towards blocks. The highway (usually) has three lanes and a shoulder. There are seven square-shaped empty spots in each of the lanes where the blocks get placed when you hit them. Blocks only appear in the lanes, so you can use the shoulder to rest or to dodge blocks you don’t want to hit, but you need to be careful because power-ups appear in the shoulder and sometimes it’s not the best idea to get them (painting all of your blocks purple is bad if you have a big match of red and yellow blocks going on, for example). You have to be careful collecting blocks, because if any of your columns gets over-full you get an over-flow penalty, meaning you lose points and, in pro and elite difficulty modes, you have to “respawn” before you can collect more blocks.

The game features multiple modes of play at three difficulty levels. One of the more popular modes is mono, where all of the blocks are two colors: either gray, which does nothing but clog the areas where you place blocks, and colored blocks. The point of mono is to avoid the gray and hit the colored blocks. The more you avoid gray blocks the more points you get, and if you avoid all of them you get a 30% score boost at the end of the song. This mode is available at all three of the game’s difficulty levels, casual, pro, and elite, but has some major variations in each mode. In casual, there’s a shoulder to the side of the road where the blocks come so you can dodge away from grays. In pro, there’s no shoulder, but if you right click you can jump and by holding the left mouse button you can extend “wings” over all of the rows to collect colored blocks more easily.

Elite level is called “mono ninja” and is one of the most challenging modes of play. In this mode, you can’t jump and there’s no shoulder. Right clicking instead “shurikens” any grays you’ve collected, causing them to disappear, but costing you points. In other modes the grays will disappear after a while, but in this mode you can only get rid of them using the “shuriken” technique.

Another main mode of play is pointman, my personal favorite mode. This mode features multiple colors of blocks, but no grays, and always has a shoulder. By holding the left mouse button you can pick up a block and then you can right click to place it where you want. You can also pick up power-ups, like sort (moves all of your collected blocks to make big matches), paint (turns all of your blocks into one color), or one of the “multiple block” power ups (spreads 2 blocks of a single color on each column). This mode is less reflex-using than the mono modes, and you can do a lot of things by thinking ahead (saving up a yellow or red paint to use at the end, for example, in order to get the bonus for finishing the level with no collected blocks and to finish with a big match).

Other modes of play include double-vision, the game’s two-player mode, eraser, a mode in which you can erase all blocks you’ve collected of a certain color, Pusher, a mode where you can move a block one row left or right when you hit it, and Vegas, a mode where you can “shuffle” your collected blocks to try to make matches.

Now, on to the more fun part of this review: the songs. One of the best things about this game is that you can choose exactly what kind of level you want to experience. Want something difficult? Go for some fast songs, or a song that has a lot of rhythm changes (Streetlight Manifesto songs fling me into gray blocks when I play mono because of their random speed-ups). Want something easy? Kick back with some mellow reggae or a Jack Johnson song or something. The game experience is entirely up to you.

That said, some songs are definitely better for this game than others. I’d highly suggest “The Tanbark Is Hot Lava” by Dredg for some fun (going from a crawl to a mad rush right at the beginning is the coolest thing I’ve seen any game do, ever), “The Blonde Lead The Blind” by Streetlight Manifesto, “Short On Ideas/One Last Cigarette” by Less Than Jake, or “Prophetic” by Rx Bandits.

If you’re looking for something tough, black metal, death metal, and fast abrasive techno are definitely the way to go. Dragonforce can get a traffic rating of 290 (higher than most of what I’d play, but about 100 less than the average death metal song), and the Dr. Wily levels 1 & 2 music from Megaman 2 for the NES gets a whopping 473 traffic rating, which is Audiosurfer-speak for completely impossible to Ninja.

Overall, I’d give the game a 10 out of 10. The only way to become disappointed by this game is to disappoint yourself with it, since you have such a huge amount of control over the type of gaming experience you’ll get.

Here's what I have so far in a story that I'm writing through a mentorship and through workshop programs out of a place in Minneapolis called Intermedia Arts.

----

“Y’know, there’s something about working fast-food that makes me want to fucking shoot myself,” Johnny said before taking a long drag on his cigarette. “I don’t know what it is. It’s not the customers. I hate ‘em, but it’s not the fucking customers, right? It’s not my manager or the pay. My bosses always sucked when I worked at SEARS, and I’ve never got paid more than the shit on my slips now, but nothing about that place fucked me around like working here.” He took another drag. “Shit, man, I dunno.”
I shifted my legs; the curb was getting uncomfortable. I lifted my cigarette to my lips, sucked in, and then sighed the smoke out of my mouth. I let my hand fall, my arm hanging limp off of my leg. The cigarette ashes were falling into the gutter beneath my feet. “Do you ever feel like this city isn’t really there?” I asked, changing the subject. “Like none of this is real? It’s all just some sort of mindfuck, or a trap, or a dream?” Johnny looked at me like I was insane.
“I mean, I’ve just been having this weird feeling lately, alright? Like… Like I’m the genie, and this place is the bottle, y’know? Like I’m some sort of all-powerful fucking demigod, and this place is the only thing that’s keeping me down. Someone just needs to rub it and set me free.”
“It’s not the city that’s keeping you here, shithead. You’re a drop-out, that’s what it is.”
I looked down at the cigarette, watching as the paper burned away, peeling off of the little bits of ash and sending them down into the gutter.
“Shit, man, if you really feel that way, you should just quit, alright. I mean, Andy, if you’re that fed up with this shit, just quit. There’s no trap here. You can set yourself free.”
We were quiet for the next few minutes, just sitting and smoking. After a while, I put the cigarette out and turned around, walking back into the Burger King.
“While you’re in there, can you find me a gun?” Johnny asked, “I wanna just get it over with and shoot myself now.” He pantomimed putting a gun to his head and firing. “Blow my fucking brains out, man.”

----

Thoughts so far?

I'm looking to collect dittos of every non-neutral nature so that I can everstone breed them. I've caught a bunch myself, and have some redundant natures in my collection (some of them quite useful), so I'm looking to exchange them.

I'll give away a ditto with any of the following natures...
Jolly
Timid
Lax
Adamant
Modest
Gentle
Bashful

For a ditto with any of these natures:
*Impish
*Hasty
*Sassy
Lonely
Naughty
Mild
Rash

Starred ones are the ones I want the most. I also have starters (Cyndoquil, Totodile, Charmander, all R/S/E starters and all D/P starters) and some other mildly rare pokemon that I'm willing to trade for dittos.

PM me or respond if you want to take me up on this offer. I'll also accept pokemon with the synchronize ability and one of the natures I want.

I was going to post this in marriland, but currently my connection to that site is terrible (it usually is, this time of day).

But I did not shoot the deputy.

Does that make it okay?

It’s been four years in the making, but last November Streetlight Manifesto finally graced us with their second original album, Somewhere In The Between. The album, as with their other two, has had mixed critical review but mostly it was positive. Some critics claim that it lacks the aggression of Everything Went Numb, their first release, some call it too polished, and some say it sounds too much like their first album. I’d say that this is all wrong.
When you first play the CD, it’s easy to see where some people say the albums are similar. They both start the same way: with loud, in-your-face horns playing minor-key melodies, something that marks Streetlight as unique when set against other ska bands, who all tend to play major-key only. However, there are some big differences. “We Will Fall Together,” the first song, is much slower than anything you’d hear on Everything Goes Numb. One of the defining characteristics of Streetlight’s work is the rapid-fire singing of Tomas Kalnoky, the band’s lead-singer, guitarist, and songwriter. In this song, and the entire CD as a whole, even, you see a lot less of that, which is fun for people who like to sing along with the songs without having to confront the lyrics booklet to figure out what was just said.
Despite these differences, the CD still definitely has the Streetlight sound and attitude. It’s kind of funny to notice how the albums they’ve recorded sound ideologically. Everything Went Numb features depressing songs about suicide and dealing with death, Keasbey Nights focuses on fun times as a kid, and the aptly named Somewhere In The Between falls in the middle with a sort of optimistic acknowledgement of how rotten life can be sometimes.
Every song on this CD is completely excellent, but some of the songs are particularly amazing. A favorite of mine is “Down, Down, Down To Mephisto’s Café,” a song in which Kalnoky bucked his usual trend of applying minor key to his more depressing or serious songs and major key to his happier, more light-hearted songs by writing a serious song in major key. I’ve been waiting for this to happen for a while, because I love the sort of irony that comes from hearing a happy song about a depressing subject.
This song starts out with Kalnoky strumming on his acoustic guitar singing “If I were you/I would take this as a sign/Believe it’s true/We were never meant to fly,” and then leads straight into a powerful, aggressive blast of what can be best described as “party horns.” The entire song sounds like this, with Kalnoky happily singing about how he’s fated to go to “Mephisto’s Café” for not being a Christian. The music in the background really helps you understand the sarcasm in the lyrics.
The band did a good job in choosing which song to use as the album’s title. “Somewhere In The Between” is an excellent example of the band’s tendency to reject being pigeonholed by the sometimes-stifling sound of the “skacore” genre, a descriptor that never really fit them anyway, since their sound has been best described using the non-existent “jazzcore” label since the start.
For this song, though, “jazzcore” doesn’t cut it. Imagine an arena-rock anthem with Kalnoky’s usual rough-yet-gentle hardcore shouting combined with a marching band beat and horns. That’s right, in this song, Streetlight Manifesto invented the genre “Marching-bandcore,” and it’s amazing.
The song also does a great job of helping to explain the ideas behind the album, with lines like “So you were born, and that was a good day/Some day you’ll die, and that is a shame/But somewhere in the between is a life of which we all dream/And nothing and no-one will ever take that away,” “Maybe the times we had, they weren’t that bad/And everything else was part of a plan/We sang ‘I don’t know where we go from here,’” and “This is the anthem, the slogan, the summary of events/And we all just idealize the past.” The horn duet in the middle between their Trombonist and their Saxophonist is a good reminder of why I started listening to the band in the first place: their horn section is absolutely amazing.
“Forty Days” is another excellent song in which the band defies genre conventions once more by playing what can only be best described as a trippy, funky tango. The band has been experimenting with Gypsy and Latin sounds since the start, and this song seems like the end result of all of that experimentation. The lyrics are equally experimental, they seem to describe a conversation between Satan and Jesus during his forty days in the desert, mixed in with Kalnoky’s views on religion. The meaning is a bit inaccessible at parts, but it definitely seems critical of why people go to heaven and hell.
But I think the song that impressed me most on the whole album was “The Blonde Lead The Blind.” Catch 22, Kalnoky’s first band, and Streetlight Manifesto are both known for having some heavy swing influence, leading to some songs that fit a genre-splice best described as “swing punk.” Most albums from either band have one or two songs that fit this description, so I was disappointed when I bought Everything Goes Numb last year and it didn’t have anything like that at all.
This song is the swing-punker that would’ve been on that album if Kalnoky had finished it on time, but in a way I’m glad he didn’t. The lyrics definitely fit more firmly with the songs on this album than with the songs on any of the others. Lines like “Come one come all to observe the fall/Free tickets for the free-for-all,” and “In time you will cross the line and you’ll realize that everything you thought was right” are too broad of scope for Everything Went Numb, which was mostly a concept album about death, suicide, and grief.
But it wasn’t the lyrics that blew me away in this song, amazing as they were. It was the work of the band’s newest member, Matthew Stewart, who is one of the most amazing trumpeters I’ve ever heard. His music is what leads the song and he makes every verse and chorus soar. Every instrumental bridge just makes me want to dance, and his solo in the middle makes me feel like I’m flying, a comment that Kalnoky made about it in the song’s description in the album insert.
The album ends like it begins, with two minor-key hard rockers, “The Receiving End of It All” and “What a Wicked Gang Are We.” They make an excellent ending to the album, but are perhaps a bit too similar. Sometimes when I’m listening I forget which song it is that’s playing, which bugs me a little but doesn’t really hurt my appreciation of the album.
In short, this album is an excellent choice for those of you that like ska, hardcore, horn-driven music, socio-religious commentary, and inaccessible lyrics. For anyone that really loves swing music I’d highly suggest downloading “The Blonde Lead The Blind,” from iTunes or your favorite torrent and if you like experimental music or tango then “Forty Days” will probably be a favorite of yours once you’ve heard it a few times.

I'm going to be leaving for camp tomorrow and won't be back until the 11th.

If I programmed a robot unable of thinking about the game, would it be incapable of losing, or outright incapable of playing?

I should wear gloves before walking at night in november

Burnt-out streetlamps look really cool

Less Than Jake's Hello Rockview is my best friend

The Pita Pit is actually open until 2:00 AM

Prairie Lights is not

You cannot break Prairie Lights' windows with your hands

There is never a cinder-block lying around when you need it

If you couldn't break the windows the first time, it won't work the second time you try

Or the third time

If you have been loud enough, the police on patrol will probably show up by the fifth try

It is still breaking and entering if you intended to leave money for the books and the broken window

No, the officers would not rather arrest my good friend Mr. Lincoln instead

The officer's names are Richard Jacobs and Jacob Richards

No, they don't find that particularly funny

Neither of them would like to hear me explain why it's so funny

Yes, they are sure

They prefer not to tell people they arrest about their families

They don't want to talk about the nice weather we've been having

They are not in the mood to make small-talk with criminals

My "one phone call" would probably be better spent on a lawyer, not on reading this list to Nyles so he can put it on my Facebook (credit for this item actually goes to Officer Richards)

Coming releases from Nintendo in 08/09 for the Wii. A lot of this stuff looks actually good. As in, "looks like a real game and not a gimmick" good. Of course there's plenty of stuff that's terrible and just there to show off Wii motion controls, but whatever.

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/n10/conference2008fall/mov/wii.html?n10

Also, DS releases.

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/n10/conference2008fall/mov/ds.html?n10

So, yeah. My stuff's in the spoiler tags here so you won't read it before watching the vids unless you want to. No need to spoiler comments after this post, I think.

A friend of mine on another site (Vroum from CMC for my own reference so I don't forget who I'm talking about. Likely to do that with the amount of sleep I've gotten) had a huge pang of nostalgia for this old action movie he grew up watching, and his VHS for it is totally wrecked. I know that a lot of you guys (I'm looking at you mr. RSS Feed) know about a lot of sites where you can find movies and stuff online, and if you'd mind searching them for this movie or just linking some of these sites it would really help my friend out.

The movie is Jame's Belushi's The Principal, from 1987.

Thanks for your help. Vroum appreciates it.

I’m not really much of an avid movie-goer. I only tend to see movies based on books I’ve read or ones that are supposed to be “completely amazing,” and even then I only tend to see them on video and not in theaters. So the film Persepolis was something very new to me: a movie that made me want to read the book.
I had known about the comics for a while, and after seeing the animation in the preview I decided I had to read them and see the movie. After reading the comics, seeing the movie became almost a mania.
It didn’t disappoint. Persepolis was everything I expected it to be. It kept all of the spunky feminism of the graphic novels, as well as the mix common-sense liberal ideologies and radical communist ideals held by the characters that made the novels amazing.
The story is the autobiography of Marjane Satrapi, who grew up in Iran during the Shah’s rebellion and left for Vienna Austria in order to avoid persecution for her ideas when she was only thirteen (she was very outspoken in school, and her parents were afraid it would get her in trouble). For those interested in the politics and history of this period, the film offers some nice clarifying points. For those who aren’t interested, the information is presented in such an intriguing way that you can’t help but want to watch the film.
Like the original comic, it’s clear why it had to be made in a cartoon medium. The character’s expressions are always amazing. No actor could express themselves as well as those drawings did.
Some may find the film’s French-language dialogue annoying, but it’s subtitled in English, so anyone who can read can understand it. Personally, I loved the French voice acting, even though I never understood a word of it. It seemed to fit the characters very, very well. The only point where it seemed at all annoying was when the main character sings (more like warbles or butchers) “The Eye of The Tiger” during a transitional scene. It was endearing, yet painful. Like when an adorable kitten is clawing your arm, but you know it really doesn’t mean anything by it.
Over all, the movie was incredible. It had spunk and attitude to spare, and was entertaining and meaningful. I’d say it’s a must see for anyone interested in great cinema, although British audiences will have to wait. England doesn’t get this treat until April 24th. Something to look forward to seeing this Summer, then.

About five years ago, Less Than Jake came out with Anthem, which has been hailed by many as the best Less Than Jake album ever. Don’t get me wrong, Anthem has a great set of songs, but I feel that the album overshadowed their later and greater release, B Is For B-Sides, an album filled with all of the songs that were, mind bogglingly, deemed not to be good enough for Anthem’s final cut, which was released in 2004.
There are a couple of easily apparent reasons that some of these songs didn’t get on. The first is that Anthem was meant to show the band moving in a new musical direction, while most of the songs on ‘B-sides sound a lot like their earlier music. Some of the songs also don’t fit very well with Anthem’s themes of hopelessness, despair, and where “weeks full of weekends” will inevitably lead.
One song that fits the latter description is “A.S.A.O.K.,” a slap in the face to all of the people who ever thought that they were “losers” or “burnouts.” “This one is for everyone that said I was/programmed, hardwired, that I’d self-destruct/They’d say I was destined to always be desperate/Say I was destined to always fuck up,” they say, “But now I’m the one who’s laughing last/’Cuz you’re the one who keeps looking back/You’re the one that’s faded away.”
Still, there are quite a few stumpers. The cynicism of “Portrait of a Cigarette Smoker At Age 19” wouldn’t have sounded out-of-place on Anthem, except maybe that the horns are more noticeable than most tracks from that album, even though they do more to support the song than to carry it. And why they would take a song about poverty as amazing as “National Anthem” and put it on an album of B-Sides completely eludes me.
In short, this CD is definitely worth picking up if you’re a fan of Ska, Punk, or Less Than Jake’s older sound. If you’re into socio-political punk-rock then “National Anthem” or “Robots One, Humans Zero” are great songs for you, while fans of Less Than Jake’s newer cynicism may enjoy the stellar “Goodbye In Gasoline” or the energetic “Bridge And Tunnel Authority.”

That's right, I'm accepting challenges from anyone who wants to take on the winner of the BC forum tourney. The rules are as follows. 6 vs. 6 level 100 set one-on-one with only one legendary allowed per person (all legends must be non-uber, though, so only those with 600 Base stat total or less, also, no Mew).

My friend code is: 0129 8339 5772 Post yours in your reply.

My hair is telling you that you will hear everything in the voice of the announcer guy from the YuGiOh Abridged series.

http://www.yugiohtheabridgedseries.com/episodes/

Cardmaster Conflict is a a free-to-play, online, in-browser trading card game. The power-curve lies between magic and yu-gi-oh, with most monsters having "attack" and "life" stats in the double digits.

It's a game that uses mana of three colors, light, dark, and gray, to play your cards. If you want to hear more on the rules, check the site, found here.

One of the best aspects of the game is that the players decide the balance of the cards. Say a card is released that goes beyond "strong" and into "game-breaking," or players start finding a way to use a card that isn't in its intended purpose. The members of the game's forum discuss solutions and submit them through the game admin to the game's creator. He has ultimate veto power, but will usually be responsive to well-reasoned balances from the community.[/url]

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I met you in the third grade
I didn't know that you liked lemonade
I met you another year later
You wore a red sweater with an alligator
We chased the ice cream truck across the street
And I thought you seemed kind of neat
We held hands as we walked to the swings in the park.

[Chorus]
You're my girl
I'm your man
I don't care if we live in a garbage can
I'm your man
You're my gal
I'm so glad that we are pals.

You're not fat
You don't smell bad
You're always smiling
Never sad
I bet you take a shower every day
Hey hey hey hey hey.

But then when I saw you
Playing soccer with your friends
I knew that day
Our love would never end.
And this whole time
It blows my mind
Oh well whatever
We're so good together
When you marry me
You'll be my wife.

[Chorus]

I'm in love, its great
See you again - can't wait
There's so much to do
You're such a pretty girl
We'll travel 'round the world
To see this love through.

And if you ever went away from me
I would cry
I would fall down on one knee
And I would pray
Yes I would pray
That you would come back
To me someday....

[Chorus]

Oh well, whatever
You and me
and that red sweater
Oh well, whatever
You and me
And that red sweater
Are go!

---

Any band that can sing un-ironicaly and honestly about having a crush in the third grade is tight in my book.

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One, two!

One, two!
If you ever hear a noise in the night,
your body starts to sweat.
It shakes and shivers in fright,
you go to sleep with your
mother she hates your guts.
She knows that you love her so she holds you tight
all through the night until the broad daylight.
And when she doesn't come home you gotta sleep alone.
Then you wet your bed and I think that's sad.
For a girl of 19 that's more than sad
IT'S OBSCENE!

One, two!
And your girlfriend's sweet a little 17.
She's got the layered hair and the flared jeans.
You know what that means?
She's just a little queen.
She shares your London flat.
She thinks that London's where it's at
although it stinks and when it rains you wear your hat
and your plum colored PVC wet look maxi-Mac
You tie your ginger hair back in a bun;
you're the ugliest creature, UNDER THE SUN!

One, two, go!

[guitar]

One, two!

And you think it's about time that you die
and I agree, so you decide on suicide.
You tried, but you never quite carried it off;
you only wanted to die in order to show off.
And if you think you're gonna bleed all over me,
you're even wronger than you'd normally be.
And the only things you want to see are kitsch.
The only thing you want to be is rich.
Your little pink pointed nose begins to twitch
I know you know you're just a little bitch!

One, two!

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Sing, Michael, sing
On the route of the 19 Bus!

We hear them... sayin'
How you get a rude and a-reckless?
Don't you be so crude and a feckless
You been drinking brew for breakfast
Rudie can't fail, no, nooo

We reply
I know that my life make you nervous
But I tell you that I can't live in service
Like the doctor who was born for a purpose***
Rudie can't fail

Okay, I went to the market to realise my soul
Cos what I need I just don’t have, oh no
First they cursed then they pressed me ‘till I hurt
They say Rudie can’t fail

Woah, first you must cure your temper
Then you find a job in a paper
You need someone for a saviour
Rudie can't fail, oh no

We reply
Now we get a rude and a reckless
We been seen lookin' cool an' a speckless
We been drinking brew for breakfast
Rudie can't fail oh, no, no

I went to the market to realise my soul
Cos what I need I just don’t have – ah!
First they cursed then they pressed me ‘till I hurt
Rudie can’t fail

Okay! okay
So where you wanna go today?
Hey boss man! Hup-yeah
You're looking pretty smart
In your chicken skin suit
With your chicken skin too!

You think you're pretty hot
In the pork pie hard
In your pork pie hat
Look out, look out...
Sky juice is a topper brew!
But...Rudie can't fail
Oh yeah
Rudie can’t fail
Yeah, yeah
Rudie can’t fail
Bring it back, bring it back, bring it back
Yeah, Rudie can’t fail
Yeah Rudie can’t fail
Rudie can’t fail
Yeah-hey-hey-hey-hey
Rudie can’t fail
Yeah-hey-hey-hey-hey
Rudie can’t fail
Rudie can’t fail
Rudie can’t fail
Rudie can’t fail
Sippin' on juice!...Only!

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There's a war goin' down between my brothers and I,
I don't want no war goin' down, goin' down tonight!
(stop it) x8
(Stop The fighting) x5

Civilization? HA! I call it as i see it!
I call it bullshit! You know, I still cannot believe it.
Our revolution, now has gone the way of hate
A world evolved resolved into its stupid fate!
Everyone’s on trial for this crime of living
Others who are different are condemned and unforgiven.
We are guilty! We are all the same!
We are guilty! We are all the same!

All so different yeah, I say we're all the same
All caught up, (you know) in the division game
Self destruction fast impending like a bullet
No one can stop it, once it's fired no one can control it!
Everyone’s on trial for this crime of living
Others who are different are condemned and unforgiven.
We are guilty! We are all the same!
We are guilty! We are all the same!

A final word, wait it's not a call to action
We ain't no sect, no, we ain't no fucking faction
Unity, Unity, Unity, you've heard it all before
This time it's not exclusive, we wanna stop the war!
Stop the war!
(Stop the fighting) x5

Ain't nothin' wrong with another unity song!
Ain't nothin' wrong with another unity song!
Ain't nothin' wrong! ('cause we've all been hanging on)
Ain't nothin' wrong! (to stop being strung along)
Ain't nothin' wrong! ('cause we've been waiting for so long)
Aint' nothin' wrong! (let's all stop being strung along)

Unity, as one stand together
Unity, evolution's gotta come (right!)
Unity, as one stand together
Unity, evolution's gotta come (boy!)
Unity, as one stand together
Unity, evolution's gotta come (right!)
Unity, as one stand together
Unity, evolution's gotta come

---

A song speaking out against interracial violence and gang violence in San Francisco in '89.