The sunbathing is much healthier at night.

I'm learning Babylon by David Gray at the moment. Requires a capo unless (as always) you're an absolute magician with barre chords. Use [http://www.sorrowfulmoon.com/tabs/babyl ontab.htm] that tab, because that's the most correct one I've found. After about two days I can play that intro without much issue, all that's left is the verse and being able to put it all together.

Other than that, I dunno. I also like some tabs on [http://www.heartwoodguitar.com/chords.h tm](good overall 'cause it just tells you the strum pattern). I'll Follow You into the Dark--Death Cab for Cutie is just barely intermediate, but consider learning that.

At 11/18/09 11:54 AM, Luke-Bassett wrote: that looks immense

It's an illusion. There's one LITERAL serving of chicken, one apple, a quarter of an onion, and something like 2 tablespoons of salsa. That all adds up to something about the size of a taco bell gordita or something. The cabbage leaf makes it look bigger 'cause it gives it shape.

At 11/18/09 12:44 PM, Stickman91 wrote: Oh gosh, that's awesome! So much variety! So much good food! This is seriously making my mouth water. How long did it take to whip that up?

Can't have been much longer than 20 minutes to make, eat, and clean up. Depends how good you are, really.

Gather round, folks. Behold the brilliance of an amazing lunch. Gather the following:
- One Granny Smith apple (the green skinned ones)
- One piece of leftover grilled chicken from last night's dinner
- One Onion
- One head of cabbage
- Salsa (I happened to use pre-made store salsa in a small tub)
- Provolone from deli

Then, prepare it thusly:
- Core apple and cut w/ skin into chunks (I halved and thirded mine)
- Slice chicken thinly, then halve or third (aim for uniform piece size)
- Cut onion ends, peel, and dice 1/4 of said onion

Place onion on skillet and cook on whatever for however long. At some point, add chicken. At another point, add the apple. Then add the salsa. Mix constantly.

While you're waiting, feel free to burn some toast unecessarily, if you'd like to follow the traditional preparation, anyway. Discard toast.

Pull off full leaf from cabbage head. Pour half of contents from skillet into cabbage head. Put slice of provolone on top. Pour remaining contents of skillet into leaf.

Place on plate of choice. Photograph. Chow.

Any other staggering works of culinary genius should find their home here.

Raine Maida of Our Lady Peace.

People sometimes feel his vocals get whiney, though. Which I guess I can understand, I just happen to like the style anyway.

Skyscrapers should have windows on them. I actually like the simplistic fire and other elements, but the buildings are too plain for something of such importance. Dress up the title text a little more, too. Perhaps a black outline for the lettering?

Take a look at a picture of actual city-scape. If you want to only draw a 2d representation of buildings they should be spaced apart. When they're all in a row like that there's no room for streets! If you want to make it a little more 3d sillouette-ish, keep the spacing. More realistic city-scapes have variety in building heights, building characteristics, amount/size of windows, etc.

At 11/17/09 04:00 PM, LOLT wrote: Can anyone explain to me why drinking alone is considered wrong? It's just one of those things people repeat over and over but don't even take the time to consider their own opinion. So please enlighten me, how is drinking alone less acceptable than drinking with at least 1 or more other person?

It's just typically symptomatic of a problem with will and motivation. One who drinks alone may not have the willpower to stop themselves from drinking, but that doesn't matter because they're not ALWAYS surrounded by others drinking so by consequence they aren't ALWAYS drinking.

If there isn't that stupid little boundary, whatever it is, that stops you from drinking as an unconscious choice over more relevant and useful activities, such as getting a job so you could actually support a social drinking habit, then people consider the drinking problematic.

NBA Live '95 SNES.
Every year or two I'll play through EarthBound again. That game... <3 But yea, I loved Halo CE back in the day, don't think I'd pick it up again though. It was tons of fun when my buddies in HS and I would have 16-player Halo parties (4 xboxes, 4 TVs, 16 controllers, 4 cat5s and a router... awww yea) but after beating the campaign on legendary solo the game didn't have replay value for me anymore.

Protip: next time gently wake her and inform her that you charge for your scrotal pillow service.

At 11/17/09 10:01 PM, NOTunowned wrote: I do not support drugs that discourage productivity.

And if you're in the business of creativity for your product?

Weed doesn't "contribute" anything to society any more than anything else. I mean... what does coffee "contribute" to our society? Define contribute, really. It's PEOPLE and PEOPLE ALONE that progress our society to higher and higher levels of sophistication. It's people that either improve the world we live in or don't. It doesn't matter what they've been involved with, if a person's life sums to a contribution to my world then they've succeeded, IMO. It doesn't matter if it affects me, and it doesn't matter what path they took to get there.

So... yea. Live your own life and don't worry about what other people are doing with theirs. Because it's getting bogged down with stupid meddling shit like "hey you guys probably shouldn't do [something they're doing]" that really distracts society from the important shit.

Jesus Hitler.

At 11/17/09 03:05 PM, LOLT wrote: Tuesday afternoon, it's only 2PM and so far I've cracked 3 beers and a bottle of wine, not to mention the shots of tequila.

Im unemployed, but is drinking alone on a Tuesday considered wrong?

Yep. Unless you're on vacation. If you're unemployed this is time you could be spending looking for a job if you weren't already buzzed.

Any process whereby you are aging and culturing something beyond it's living cycle produces vast differences in taste. There are thousands of types of beers. Thousands of types of wine. Alcohol has many different kinds. There are many different types of cheeses. It's usually because different regions developed different preferences because they had different ingredients available to add to their food.

Personally, I find brie to be absolutely vile, but that doesn't mean I'd remove it from the classification of 'cheese'. No more than I'd like to see coors light lose it's label as 'beer'.

At 11/17/09 01:23 AM, BlueHippo wrote: If every generation of kids were taller than their predecessors then we'd all be gigantic monsters :0

Actually, we've been in an upward growth spurt as a species for many generations now. Thanks to better nutrition overall and women tending to select for tallness in men. Longer lifespans, too.

Anyway, I'm taller than my dad, but I think I'm the same height he was when he was my age. I'm 6'.5" (I think, been ages since I actually was measured), I believe he may have been as tall as 6' 1" 1.5" in his youth. When you get older, your spine compresses slightly and you lose anywhere from half an inch to a couple inches height.

At 11/9/09 07:33 PM, Chavic wrote: --Wheres the BIPARTISANSHIP you promised? One Republican voted for the Health Care bill. And in your first private meeting with Congressional Republicans, instead of reaching across the aisle, you said, "I won."

He said he would make a bipartisan effort, which he certainly has. The bill passed in the House of Representatives with multiple Republican votes, the issue that helped broker those votes? Concessions on a lack of government funding for abortion.

--Where is our promised government transparency? The Healthcare bill is 1990 pages of legal jargon.

... That's a foolish question. The bill is available for anyone to read, just because you're too busy to take advantage doesn't mean it's Obama's fault. The whole point of the healthcare bill is to STOP Americans in need from being denied treatment. If bad-practice isn't explicitly forbidden, people will take advantage, so EVERYTHING needs to be specified. But, none of that matters, because Obama doesn't write the bills, that's a job for the Legislative branch (Congress).

--Why isn't our deficit being cut in half like promised? Your first year adds $1.75 trillion, with trillions more through 2012.

Extenuating circumstances, not to mention he still appears to be committed to lowering the deficit. He won't sign the healthcare bill if it adds to the deficit in any way. He has a plan to lower our deficit in a large way by 2020, from what I understood.

--Why didn't your $800 billion stimulus keep unemployment under 8.5% as was promised? Its now 10.2%

It stopped the economy from tanking, and now the US GDP is actually posting gains for the first time in a long time. The increase in unemployment has been leveling off last I checked, so I don't think it's unreasonable to suppose it's only a matter of time until unemployment drops back under the promised 8.5%.

--Why didn't you publish all non-emergency legislation to the website for five days before the you sign it like you promised?

I don't remember this at all. I do know that pretty much all legislation is published to that website, however. Seems unrealistic to me that anyone would promise to purposely delay signing ALL legislation when there are much more important matters to tend to.

--Why didn't you recognize the Armenian Genocide, like you promised?

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/
promises/promise/511/recognize-armenian-
genocide/
"Obama did issue the statement on the 24th, in which he described the 'heavy weight' of history and the 'terrible events of 1915,' adding 'I have consistently stated my own view of what occurred in 1915, and my view of that history has not changed.'"

Since apparently his promise is open to interpretation, I guess for the sake of argument I'll consider a statement alluding to his prior views and blatantly saying they haven't changed as a passive-aggressive way to say he recognizes the genocide. The website I link takes the opposite view.

--Why didn't you stop the practice of "signing statements" like you promised?

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/
promises/promise/516/no-signing-statemen ts-nullify-instruction-congress/ Seems you've misunderstood his promise. The website lists that as a compromise.

--Why didn't you adopt a dog from the shelter like you promised? Instead you bought a purebred.

The decision wasn't his to make alone. Not to mention, I don't believe he bought the dog, I believe it was gifted to him.

--Why didn't you stop Federal funding for religious organizations like you promised?

I don't remember that, nor can I find anything about it on the PolitiFact website.

--Why didn't you stop CIA renditions like you promised?

Don't remember that either.

--Why didn't you give the $4000 credit for college tuition that you promised?

This I remember. I'd imagine it has something to do with heavy criticism relating to the deficit, etc. But... I really hope he keeps this promise because I could sure use the break.

--Where is your responsible government that you promised? Annette Nazareth, Nancy Killefer, Tim Geithne, and Tom Daschle who you nominated or appointed all had tax evasion issues.

All back-taxes were paid. Seems responsible to me.

--Why didn't you stop the government fear tactics like you promised? You used them on the Swine Flu and the Stimulus Bill

Ha ha ha. There's a difference between fear-mongering to promote a war-time agenda and simply ensuring that there's a vaccination to protect people from a potential pandemic. As for the stimulus... I don't know, I don't really interpret the president's statements as fear-mongering. He seems to choose his words very matter-of-factly. He concedes others' arguments as a way to strengthen his stance on a particular issue, usually not to further strengthen the urgency of a non-situation. But, I guess I'll have to just give you this one as a legitimate concern.

Just some food for thought here: nobody laughs with a cock in their mouth. Regardless of foreskin status.

At 11/17/09 12:22 AM, stick101 wrote: '' Your the best i ever had, The best i ever had'' something like that

The Who? Did you hear that in a car commercial?

Every morning I make myself a smoothie featuring some, but not all of the following:
- Yoghurt
- some milk
- small amt. of crushed ice
- orange juice
- apple juice
- carrot juice
- a brocolli spear
- a full banana
- pecans
- Trader Joe's pourable tomato soup in a box

Then I drink it with my morning cup of coffee. Kinda tangential, but I guess we're talking about daily eating habits here.

Expendable heroes. The intro would be James Bond style, except after the muzzle flash you'd see the figure that turned to fire slump over and bleed all over the ground. There'd be a scene with a color-blind bomb-tech pressured to make a decision, etc. It'd make millions.

At 11/16/09 11:53 PM, Sensationalism wrote: I pull out loose eyelash hairs. I bite my lip a lot.

Gah, I used to have this TERRIBLE habit of chewing the loose/dead skin off my lip with my teeth. It'd make my lips all dry/cracked/bleeding constantly. Managed to stop it by only biting off the dead skin, so I was clipping instead of yanking off more skin than necessary.

I also know what TLH's talking about. Agnails. I typically just tear those things off and deal with the ensuing cut and pain. They always heal up just fine.

As for unique bad habits, when I was younger I used to tap my teeth together, usually to the beat of my stride. Like, I'd move my jaw back and forth left and right, clicking the teeth each time I was stepping. Glad I don't do that anymore.

HPPD is a DIAGNOSIS that a DOCTOR may make. You simply fear that you have HPPD, which is pretty much exactly what the article states happens to those with high anxiety. I suspect that your prior commitment to 'never taking hard drugs' has caused you stress enough that you are reacting to normal visual effects as if they were abnormal. The wikipedia article you linked talks about a strong correlation (though not necessarily causation) between depression, anxiety and HPPD.

The disorder is extremely rare, and additionally little is known about it because so few people are willing to report having taken hallucinogens when they arrive with symptoms.

So, I'm going to have to go with folk wisdom on this one: it's all in your head. Relax, realize that EVERYONE sees floaters, trails, persisting images, etc. It's completely natural. You should work on not letting it bother you until it starts bothering you less and less.

Shin guards. Before you've deadened your shins from years of kicking them as hard as you can into another dude's shins, you need those guards to keep from doubling over in pain on the ground at what you're sure is a broken leg. The socks keep them from moving as much.

Call the police. Tell them I heard what sounded like a large group of heavily armed men break into my house [address] and that I'm frightened for my life.

At 11/16/09 04:33 PM, Sensationalism wrote: At least the chicks they are drooling over are actually hot. This Edward dude is fuckin hideous!!

/me shrugs. I don't know what women want, I just like to think I've got it.

At 11/16/09 04:20 PM, evan210 wrote: I'm not denying that.
But you won't hear "SQUEAKY-SQUEAK! OMG SQUEAK!!!!!!"

It's the same thing though. I mean... you want the bitch you're fucking to have some whiney moan accompanying your efforts, right? And women want their dudes to have some low-pitched grunt/raspy voice/etc. at the same time, yes? So a bunch of dudes standing around getting boisterous about hot women stars is pretty much the exact same thing as a buncha chicks standing around squealing about hot dude stars. It's just translated across the genders.

Yea, colleges don't try to convert your GPA into THEIR GPA. The whole point of it is that you earn the letter grade that you've earned. In college, EVERY CLASS might have a different scale to determine your letter grade. I took a class that gave an A for 85 or greater. It was hard as balls to do that, because it was an advanced physics course, but that was a fair way to scale grades for the class.

Your GPA at college is typically out of 4.0. 3.5+=A 3.0+=B 2.5+=C 2.0+= D <2.0=F.

At 11/16/09 04:11 PM, evan210 wrote: Yeah, but we don't squeal about them like retards.

Bull-fucking-shit. Go strike up a conversation with ANY group of dudes about ANY super hot famous bitch and how great an ass she has etc. and see if you don't have a lively conversation within 20-30 seconds involving the whole group.

At 11/16/09 04:12 PM, qygibo wrote: That's because the girls are too busy trying to figure out how to look like those girls that guys ogle over.

I know why it is, I just find the difference in reactions amusing.

It's funny, when I was the same age as you kids are the cool 'hot boy' movie star to hate on was Leonardo DeCaprio. I think it's great that girls get all hot and bothered over whichever 'it' teen star of the moment and guys respond with equal disaffection for the dude. I mean, girls don't get all catty over whichever super hot woman we're oggling.

Anyway.

I type pretty much alway above 90 wpm. On that test, that includes a brief pause between some words, and a couple minor corrections when I accidentally hit the wrong key. The problem is that there's a vastly different performance depending on what I'm doing. If I have to read, comprehend and understand what each word is so that I can spell it correctly, because you can't type fast if you're just typing letter by letter. Then if you make a mistake and hit space you've PERMANENTLY fucked the word on the test, so it reflects in your score. Whereas, if I'm in an IM and typing off-the-cuff directly thoughts-to-words, my typing speed is usually 120+ wpm.

Anything over 150 is pretty much entirely unrealistic. 2.5 words a second? Average? Bullshit. Especially not if you don't know the words you're typing ahead of time.

It had a bunch of different phases for me, as my tolerance to THC developed and changed. The first time I smoked I didn't really notice much. My friend who later smoked for the first time said it felt to him like a really tame alcohol buzz (which it basically is... THC is an alcohol and it similarly fills your blood-stream).

The first time I really got high, however, I had fun. I'm normally an extremely coordinated person with a well-defined sense of balance, but I would have trouble placing steps. The first time I smoked too much, I was pretty much unable to comprehend movement, I was scared to drive myself anywhere and even though I could manage to walk it was with much difficulty. I was quiet and introverted, unable to participate in my friends fast-paced semantics because I couldn't get my thoughts into speech.

As I smoked subsequently, movement and speech became easier. Anxiousness subsided into a general calm, comfort, even amusement. My mind would race a mile-a-minute, however. I recall once pacing around for a solid half an hour before going to bed, just answering questions in my head. Stupid shit, deep shit, whatever.

Ultimately, you just get to a point where you tell the difference between being high and not. You feel normal when not high, and then you feel slightly different when you are. Like you've got this secret that nobody knows, a private joke between you and yourself. It can either make you anxious in large groups of people (because you think everyone cares enough to notice something is wrong, or is judging you or whatever), or it can be downright hilarious. Depends on your personality.

Ultimately: don't get carried away with it. It's a great occasional time-killer, but it's best to avoid if you've got anything else you want to get done. I didn't even try it until I was 20 years old, because I have always believed that the mind is still maturing through your late teenage years and I didn't want to introduce any chemicals that may alter that.