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46
Chrono News / Re: Square Enix registers "Chrono Bind" domain
« on: February 27, 2012, 11:48:42 am »It's most likely this: http://playstationlifestyle.net/2012/02/27/relax-chrono-bind-is-not-chrono-trigger-3-or-chrono-break/
That explanation sounds the most logical to me.
I was extremely through-the-roof excited for about five seconds until I read this. *sigh*
JUST GIVE US ANOTHER CHRONO GAME, DAMMIT!! *shakes fist*
47
General Discussion / Re: The $%*! frustration thread
« on: February 23, 2012, 04:01:01 am »...for example, I know a guy who named his kid Tron...
That... is... awesome!
Anyway, while I would never give a child an embarrassing name, like... oh, I don't know, something that sounds like a pet's name or food (Coco comes to mind...), I am all about unusual names.
Sajainta, I used to love the name "Aiden" as a boy's name, until I noticed that apparently all the other women my age liked the name, too, and gave it to their kids. It soured me on the name, so now I kind of don't like it anymore. *sigh* Something a little more rare can be cool, but when it's so extremely commonplace it loses its luster.
48
Fan Art / Re: New webcomic
« on: February 21, 2012, 03:13:59 am »
Yay, updates! And I have to say, there's something about the artwork on these last two that are just absolutely exquisite. Just amazing. Keep up the good Chrono work! 
49
Chrono Series Tarot Card Project / Re: Cups Suit: Page of Cups - Janus
« on: February 21, 2012, 02:35:40 am »
I am way, waaaaay late with this, but THE CARD LOOKS AMAZING OMG. Great job, you guys!
50
Chrono Series Tarot Card Project / Re: General Tarot Discussion thread
« on: December 25, 2011, 03:35:12 am »
Thank you, Tushantin, heh.
I'm afraid that for the foreseeable future, I'm just simply not going to have the time to write these little poetic intros, even though I really want to (and by foreseeable future, I mean for many months). If a few months down the line, the project is still moving along slowly, perhaps I can return at that time. However, if someone else would like to step up in the meantime and write it, they are more than welcome to.
It's just not fair for me to commit when I can't actually devote the time to it.
I'm afraid that for the foreseeable future, I'm just simply not going to have the time to write these little poetic intros, even though I really want to (and by foreseeable future, I mean for many months). If a few months down the line, the project is still moving along slowly, perhaps I can return at that time. However, if someone else would like to step up in the meantime and write it, they are more than welcome to.
It's just not fair for me to commit when I can't actually devote the time to it.
51
Chrono Series Tarot Card Project / Re: General Tarot Discussion thread
« on: December 14, 2011, 04:55:20 am »Hey RushingWind, if you are still game to do the poetic summaries, I saved a spot for them in the threads I made. =D
I am still very interested, but at the moment I am stretched so thin that I don't know if I can be considered reliable.
I'll have a better idea on my ability to keep up with this project in about a week.
52
Fan Art / Re: New webcomic
« on: December 14, 2011, 04:18:26 am »
Yay! A new comic! The artwork in this is quite lovely!
Ah, Lucca. I always kind of cringed when the game would make that "thunk" sound, but I guess she really likes using her guns as hammers. ^_^
Ah, Lucca. I always kind of cringed when the game would make that "thunk" sound, but I guess she really likes using her guns as hammers. ^_^
53
General Discussion / Re: Fuck Sexism
« on: December 10, 2011, 05:44:41 am »
Normally, I would post this in my own journal or in my SoY thread, but I thought it might be of some interest here. As for a little bit of context, I've been coming off of a long, long depression. I have things buried so deeply that I don't even remember how much they hurt me. While talking with someone the other day, I uncovered something that, like many other realizations, made me cry in the retelling of the story.
In my senior year of high school, we took a ski trip. I had signed up for a snowboarding lesson, and everyone was kind of joking around with me about being the only girl that dared to go snowboarding. I thought they were just joking. When we finally went on the trip, we all had to line up to meet the snowbaording instructor. There were six of us, and the instructor proclaimed he could only take five people, and it didn't matter that six had paid. The five boys instantly counted themselves off, and the instructor didn't even look at me. He pointed at the boys and said, "All right, guys! Let's go!"
I tried to argue with him. I said that I'd paid to be there, and the ski resort had a contract with the school and he had to take me. He rolled his eyes, looked me up and down (which was extremely embarrassing as an overweight 17 year old), and exhaled sharply. And then he said, "Look, lady, it's not my problem. Go get a lesson from someone who wants to teach you." And then he just walked off.
I stood there in shock for a moment, then cried. I felt so awful. I went back into the lodge and turned in all my snowboard equipment, as I was quite done with skiing around for the day. I sat in the lobby and cried, and one of my classmates asked me what was wrong. I told her, and she went and got the teacher. When I told the teacher what happened, she walked off and said she'd take care of it. Eventually she came back and said the manager had talked to the instructor and he would be giving me a lesson at 4pm, and he wouldn't be able to get out of it. I didn't go. I couldn't even stomach the though of it. I didn't want a lesson with that instructor. No one seemed to care that this guy overlooked me and treated me badly just because I was a woman.
That's pretty much the whole story, but it amazed me that when I started telling it to my roommate, I started to cry. I never realized how much it had actually hurt. I was in a very sensitive position at that time in my life (I mean, who isn't? But I was entering into a phase of depression and that did NOT help). I just shrugged it off and said, "Eh, no big deal." But it was a big deal, and I should have spoken up and said so, but I was just a scared teenager, not sure of herself or of what to do.
Long story short: People need to be more careful of how they treat young women and girls. I know that's pretty much the whole point of this thread, but it's important to note that even small things, small comments, and seemingly meaningless events (such as the little story above) can still hurt the recipient of those words a decade later. (I'm okay now. I cried it out. I feel better. I can now let it go. But I won't stand idly by if there's a next time.)
We need to change society. Somehow, we need to fix this. Stuff like this is not okay.
In my senior year of high school, we took a ski trip. I had signed up for a snowboarding lesson, and everyone was kind of joking around with me about being the only girl that dared to go snowboarding. I thought they were just joking. When we finally went on the trip, we all had to line up to meet the snowbaording instructor. There were six of us, and the instructor proclaimed he could only take five people, and it didn't matter that six had paid. The five boys instantly counted themselves off, and the instructor didn't even look at me. He pointed at the boys and said, "All right, guys! Let's go!"
I tried to argue with him. I said that I'd paid to be there, and the ski resort had a contract with the school and he had to take me. He rolled his eyes, looked me up and down (which was extremely embarrassing as an overweight 17 year old), and exhaled sharply. And then he said, "Look, lady, it's not my problem. Go get a lesson from someone who wants to teach you." And then he just walked off.
I stood there in shock for a moment, then cried. I felt so awful. I went back into the lodge and turned in all my snowboard equipment, as I was quite done with skiing around for the day. I sat in the lobby and cried, and one of my classmates asked me what was wrong. I told her, and she went and got the teacher. When I told the teacher what happened, she walked off and said she'd take care of it. Eventually she came back and said the manager had talked to the instructor and he would be giving me a lesson at 4pm, and he wouldn't be able to get out of it. I didn't go. I couldn't even stomach the though of it. I didn't want a lesson with that instructor. No one seemed to care that this guy overlooked me and treated me badly just because I was a woman.
That's pretty much the whole story, but it amazed me that when I started telling it to my roommate, I started to cry. I never realized how much it had actually hurt. I was in a very sensitive position at that time in my life (I mean, who isn't? But I was entering into a phase of depression and that did NOT help). I just shrugged it off and said, "Eh, no big deal." But it was a big deal, and I should have spoken up and said so, but I was just a scared teenager, not sure of herself or of what to do.
Long story short: People need to be more careful of how they treat young women and girls. I know that's pretty much the whole point of this thread, but it's important to note that even small things, small comments, and seemingly meaningless events (such as the little story above) can still hurt the recipient of those words a decade later. (I'm okay now. I cried it out. I feel better. I can now let it go. But I won't stand idly by if there's a next time.)
We need to change society. Somehow, we need to fix this. Stuff like this is not okay.
54
General Discussion / Re: Stuff you hate
« on: December 07, 2011, 12:15:59 am »No, as much my detractors would have people believe it. I'm suggesting very strong enforcement of law to break the cycle of damaging culture. Roma kids are taught to steal from infancy, paired off with others and forced to mate in their preteens, etc.,, etc. There is a massive exploitation of children here, and I don't see how the cycle can be broken unless these children are removed from this environment.
Okay, good. That makes more sense. I had a very WTF reaction when I thought otherwise!
I know far too little about the Roma to comment on what to do about the situation...
55
General Discussion / Re: Stuff you hate
« on: December 06, 2011, 11:25:57 pm »What other options are on the table, except use of governmental force to separate the culture from the people?
I know I'm a few days late, and have only been somewhat paying attention to this thread (I've been busy), but this got my attention. After reading back through these posts, though, I hope I'm seriously misunderstanding this. ZeaLitY, are you actually suggesting that genocide is a reasonable option here?
56
General Discussion / Re: The $%*! frustration thread
« on: December 04, 2011, 11:29:59 pm »
As someone who's been trying to teach herself Spanish for years, both in college and on my own, it is not easy. It is, in fact, not even the easiest language I've ever tried to tackle. A few years ago, I tried to learn Arabic, which was FAR easier to understand and construct correct sentences out of (now the writing system, that was a NIGHTMARE. I could not train my brain to read in the correct direction). And I like Spanish, too! It just gets the best of me, sometimes. I can now hold passable conversations, but I have to ask everyone to slow down constantly (and I always hope no one starts speaking in subjuntive tenses, or I get really confused... but I'm working on it).
But anyway...
My frustration right now is that I had my college orientation yesterday for transfer students. Nearly a thousand students were there, so I spent the day waiting all excited to meet my fellow science geeks. I found out later on that I was the only person going into geology OR physics, and on top of that, there was only one chemistry major. There was one other environmental science major there, a guy going into meteorology. Several were there for engineering, but they were all men... I was the only female! Happily, a few women were there for biology, but I was sad to see no other females going into the hard sciences.
Presumably, there are people already enrolled and in the system who are going into these sciences, but it just made me sad to see so few transfer students going into the sciences (and the lack of women just made me feel kind of all alone there).
But anyway...
My frustration right now is that I had my college orientation yesterday for transfer students. Nearly a thousand students were there, so I spent the day waiting all excited to meet my fellow science geeks. I found out later on that I was the only person going into geology OR physics, and on top of that, there was only one chemistry major. There was one other environmental science major there, a guy going into meteorology. Several were there for engineering, but they were all men... I was the only female! Happily, a few women were there for biology, but I was sad to see no other females going into the hard sciences.
Presumably, there are people already enrolled and in the system who are going into these sciences, but it just made me sad to see so few transfer students going into the sciences (and the lack of women just made me feel kind of all alone there).
57
General Discussion / Re: The $%*! frustration thread
« on: December 03, 2011, 04:17:38 am »Trying to passionately learn other languages has given me a new appreciation of English's simplicity. Fucking bullshit declension and gender. Declension is redundant as all fucking hell in most applications at this stage in the game, and where it's not, it could be solved with much, much, MUCH fucking simpler constructs. Who the FUCK cares if it's DER or DEM or DEN or DES?! IT MEANS THE SAME FUCKING THING: "THE"!!!!
And gender? WHY THE FUCK DOES GENDER IN LANGUAGE EVEN FUCKING EXIST? Destroy that shit. English reigns fucking supreme. Fucking gender-neutral language with simple conjugations. It has its weird cases here and there, but I'll be damned if it has anything like this:
http://www.123teachme.com/spanish_verb_conjugation/estar
Holy god, what the fuck?! How many untold painful nights of studying and years of practice would it take to ever achieve that on a natural level? Jesus goddamned fuck, why so much needless ornamentation? Beauty is to be found in the varied synonyms and sounds of a language, not in making it inaccessible as holy mother of shit with complicated, useless fucking rules. For FUCK'S sake, this is totally unnecessary. It's no fucking wonder English became the lingua franca; it's damn easier to pick up than most. Please support your local world federalist chapter so that, even if it's not English, we can finally get one language in this fucking world for common communication, with regional and local languages relegated to traditional, bilingual status. And then I'll build a new Tower of Babylon in the shape of a middle finger towards the sky, with "FUCK YOU" in 1000 different languages engraved upon it.
Ahahaha!
And don't forget! In Spanish, "estar" means "to be." But you also have the verb "ser," which also means "to be." So not only do you have to memorize two different ways of conjugation for verbs that say the same thing, but you must learn all the rules that define which one must be used. Even though they both mean "to be." And then there are all the irregular conjugations to memorize, too!
58
General Discussion / Re: The interesting and informative links and resources thread.
« on: November 30, 2011, 02:06:34 am »
Neil deGrasse Tyson is awesome. I, too, wish we had an army of people like him. The world could be a better place!
59
General Discussion / Re: Stuff you hate
« on: November 29, 2011, 09:06:13 pm »
The very fact that we condone sexist jokes, such as the kitchen jokes spoken of here, are indicative of a huge problem. Instead of recognizing them as representative of an underlying problem that absolutely DOES exist, we satirize and laugh at the plight of the women. I used to laugh at those jokes a long time ago, too. However, knowing what I know now, I realize my behavior was rooted in sheer ignorance. I laughed about it because I thought, "Oh, of course, he doesn't really mean it." All the while, I completely missed the point: Our society is saying it's totally okay to make fun of women like that. This is not okay.
Zeality's comparison about joking to a black person to get back to the cotton fields is exactly equivalent. 50 or 60 years ago, it would have been "just a joke," and we'd have been telling people to lighten up (sound familiar?). I hope in about 50 years (hopefully much less), we'll understand that the kitchen jokes are exactly the same. And we'll stop.
Zeality's comparison about joking to a black person to get back to the cotton fields is exactly equivalent. 50 or 60 years ago, it would have been "just a joke," and we'd have been telling people to lighten up (sound familiar?). I hope in about 50 years (hopefully much less), we'll understand that the kitchen jokes are exactly the same. And we'll stop.
60
General Discussion / Re: Stuff you hate
« on: November 26, 2011, 07:16:36 am »
In Z's defense, it is sometimes difficult to not explode sometimes. (And trust me, if disagreeing with him made you prone to punishment, there would be far fewer people here, myself included!)
I am a very calm peacemaker. I'll make a million concessions that I don't actually want tot make sometimes, just to preserve the peace. But as an atheist myself, I know exactly where he's coming from. It was known at my last workplace that I was an atheist, and that very often made things extremely difficult for me. I complained to the company, but no one listened. I talked about it with a law student friend, and she said it probably wouldn't get anywhere in court (being that we live in the rural South). Our theater would rent out some of its auditoriums to a church early every Sunday morning (Surprisingly, this is a very common practice for theaters now, trying to make money in this economy). My boss forced me to come in at 5am some Sundays and open everything up for the church, even after telling him how terribly uncomfortable it made me feel. He took the liberty of telling the pastor that I was an atheist, and asked him if there'd be a problem with it. His response? "She won't throw anything at us, will she?"
It was supposed to be a joke, but I didn't find it funny. I was forced, upon threat of termination, to open for them many times, even after being ridiculed once because of being atheist. No one in the company cared, but if it had been the other way around (if I'd been Christian and ridiculed by an atheist), I'm sure I would have had a lot of support.
That's just a workplace example, but I've lost friends over religion. I've had religious friends who were so intent on converting me that they'd get upset and start yelling. They'd insult me, tell me about how I had the worst suffering awaiting me in hell, and everything. Eventually, when exposed to that kind of constant abuse, even a peacemaker like me will explode. The great irony in this is that I once was a evangelical Christian in the junior ministry, pursing a Bachelor's degree in Divinity. I thought, at that time, that I was oppressed, discriminated against, and attacked by non-Christians. To be frank, I had no fucking clue about reality at that time. I would soon learn.
When you see what you consider to be outrageous outbursts on the Internet by atheists, I would ask that you instead see it for what it probably is: These people are discriminated against in ways that you simply cannot concieve of, and the Internet becomes their only semi-anonymous platform to speak what's really in their hearts. Trust me, I've been there.
From our perspective, the current political climate is terrifying. We see people who are insistent on legislating Christianity into law, which in the end will make us no different than the much decried Sharia courts of the Middle East. We see science (real and proven stuff) being replaced with pseduoscience because it fits better with what the Bible says. As a geology student, I have fielded discussions from at least two people who were determined to prove to me that "flood geology" was real and true, and that "polystrate fossils" proved it. Introductory Geology 101 clearly explains why all of this is simply nonsense. But even then, explaining to them that "flood geology" was disproven by a Creationist geologist more than 100 years ago doesn't convince them. The mindbogglingly simple explanation of so-called polystrate fossils doesn't convince them. No, they come into the argument convinced they're right, and that I'm wrong, and there's nothing I can say or do to make them see the simple truth before their eyes. They cannot see the simple truth because they have "faith." They'd rather believe in a story (one that would have them believe their god has purposely tried to deceive them about the nature of the Earth and the universe) than pay attention to fact.
From our standpoint, the more people who deconvert, the better the prospects for humanity's future. Yes, even those Christians who are quiet, non-zealous, and not really bothering anyone. Religion encourages too many bad things. Mystery is supposedly good, and should be revered. Even after being an atheist for more than seven years, I only this summer finally understood why faith is such a horrible, horrible thing. It leads people to inaction, to taking incorrect actions, and more.
I know you don't know me, so you don't know what kind of a person I am. I am a very nice person. But I've had angry outbursts of my own about religion. I watched a video where people were burning witches in Kenya because of witchcraft a few weeks ago, and it disturbed me to my core. While these were clearly extremeists, they are representative of the religious mindset as a whole, as much as the more mild-mannered religious folks scream that they have nothing to do withone another. Those who do not fit into the specified religious mindset are the Enemy, and will die. For the extremeists, that translates into literal execution. For the mildly religious, that means I will suffer an eternity in Hell, the "second death." In either case, for both the mild mannered and the extremist, my fate of eternal suffering is exactly the same, and absolutely deserved. Thus, in the end, both the "polite Christians" and the extremists believe the same things, just different methods. One says, "Let God take care of it." The other says, "We'll do God's work ourselves and take care of it."
Like Z, and others here, I don't respect religion either. And until you find some distance from religion yourself, you have yet to truly appreciate how oppressive and destructive the concept of "god" has become. Before I left, I could have never imagined it.
I hope my post hasn't come off as argumentative or condescending, Katie. That's not been my intent here. I'm simply trying to provide insight into a mindset you may not be familiar with. We atheists get pushed around, harrassed, mistreated, and more, for no other reason than we are atheist. In some places, it is extremely dangerous to our lives to dare say we don't believe in god. The Internet, then, becomes about the only outlet some atheists ever get. And even then, if you speak your opinion clearly and honestly, you incur bad things as a result. People get defensive. Then tempers flare. It's all a very bad recipe.
And Tushantin: Atheists escape persecution because they keep it to themselves. That's it, unless they are born into some magical, special place somewhere I've never heard of. The silent, secret atheists are the only ones who do not become the target of oppression, anger, and mistreatment. The moment you come out as an atheist, the target is on your back forever. Obviously, it is worse in some places in the world than others.
Annnd.... Now it's off to bed with me. I'm exhausted, so I hope this post made some sense. I should have gone to bed hours ago, heh.
I am a very calm peacemaker. I'll make a million concessions that I don't actually want tot make sometimes, just to preserve the peace. But as an atheist myself, I know exactly where he's coming from. It was known at my last workplace that I was an atheist, and that very often made things extremely difficult for me. I complained to the company, but no one listened. I talked about it with a law student friend, and she said it probably wouldn't get anywhere in court (being that we live in the rural South). Our theater would rent out some of its auditoriums to a church early every Sunday morning (Surprisingly, this is a very common practice for theaters now, trying to make money in this economy). My boss forced me to come in at 5am some Sundays and open everything up for the church, even after telling him how terribly uncomfortable it made me feel. He took the liberty of telling the pastor that I was an atheist, and asked him if there'd be a problem with it. His response? "She won't throw anything at us, will she?"
It was supposed to be a joke, but I didn't find it funny. I was forced, upon threat of termination, to open for them many times, even after being ridiculed once because of being atheist. No one in the company cared, but if it had been the other way around (if I'd been Christian and ridiculed by an atheist), I'm sure I would have had a lot of support.
That's just a workplace example, but I've lost friends over religion. I've had religious friends who were so intent on converting me that they'd get upset and start yelling. They'd insult me, tell me about how I had the worst suffering awaiting me in hell, and everything. Eventually, when exposed to that kind of constant abuse, even a peacemaker like me will explode. The great irony in this is that I once was a evangelical Christian in the junior ministry, pursing a Bachelor's degree in Divinity. I thought, at that time, that I was oppressed, discriminated against, and attacked by non-Christians. To be frank, I had no fucking clue about reality at that time. I would soon learn.
When you see what you consider to be outrageous outbursts on the Internet by atheists, I would ask that you instead see it for what it probably is: These people are discriminated against in ways that you simply cannot concieve of, and the Internet becomes their only semi-anonymous platform to speak what's really in their hearts. Trust me, I've been there.
From our perspective, the current political climate is terrifying. We see people who are insistent on legislating Christianity into law, which in the end will make us no different than the much decried Sharia courts of the Middle East. We see science (real and proven stuff) being replaced with pseduoscience because it fits better with what the Bible says. As a geology student, I have fielded discussions from at least two people who were determined to prove to me that "flood geology" was real and true, and that "polystrate fossils" proved it. Introductory Geology 101 clearly explains why all of this is simply nonsense. But even then, explaining to them that "flood geology" was disproven by a Creationist geologist more than 100 years ago doesn't convince them. The mindbogglingly simple explanation of so-called polystrate fossils doesn't convince them. No, they come into the argument convinced they're right, and that I'm wrong, and there's nothing I can say or do to make them see the simple truth before their eyes. They cannot see the simple truth because they have "faith." They'd rather believe in a story (one that would have them believe their god has purposely tried to deceive them about the nature of the Earth and the universe) than pay attention to fact.
From our standpoint, the more people who deconvert, the better the prospects for humanity's future. Yes, even those Christians who are quiet, non-zealous, and not really bothering anyone. Religion encourages too many bad things. Mystery is supposedly good, and should be revered. Even after being an atheist for more than seven years, I only this summer finally understood why faith is such a horrible, horrible thing. It leads people to inaction, to taking incorrect actions, and more.
I know you don't know me, so you don't know what kind of a person I am. I am a very nice person. But I've had angry outbursts of my own about religion. I watched a video where people were burning witches in Kenya because of witchcraft a few weeks ago, and it disturbed me to my core. While these were clearly extremeists, they are representative of the religious mindset as a whole, as much as the more mild-mannered religious folks scream that they have nothing to do withone another. Those who do not fit into the specified religious mindset are the Enemy, and will die. For the extremeists, that translates into literal execution. For the mildly religious, that means I will suffer an eternity in Hell, the "second death." In either case, for both the mild mannered and the extremist, my fate of eternal suffering is exactly the same, and absolutely deserved. Thus, in the end, both the "polite Christians" and the extremists believe the same things, just different methods. One says, "Let God take care of it." The other says, "We'll do God's work ourselves and take care of it."
Like Z, and others here, I don't respect religion either. And until you find some distance from religion yourself, you have yet to truly appreciate how oppressive and destructive the concept of "god" has become. Before I left, I could have never imagined it.
I hope my post hasn't come off as argumentative or condescending, Katie. That's not been my intent here. I'm simply trying to provide insight into a mindset you may not be familiar with. We atheists get pushed around, harrassed, mistreated, and more, for no other reason than we are atheist. In some places, it is extremely dangerous to our lives to dare say we don't believe in god. The Internet, then, becomes about the only outlet some atheists ever get. And even then, if you speak your opinion clearly and honestly, you incur bad things as a result. People get defensive. Then tempers flare. It's all a very bad recipe.
And Tushantin: Atheists escape persecution because they keep it to themselves. That's it, unless they are born into some magical, special place somewhere I've never heard of. The silent, secret atheists are the only ones who do not become the target of oppression, anger, and mistreatment. The moment you come out as an atheist, the target is on your back forever. Obviously, it is worse in some places in the world than others.
Annnd.... Now it's off to bed with me. I'm exhausted, so I hope this post made some sense. I should have gone to bed hours ago, heh.