So I actually ended up doing something on this Valentine day. That’s right, I went out and ate lunch with somebody I like.

… As in, like as a friend. Did anybody get their hopes up? :P

That part was fun though, hadn’t seen him for a long while. The part which came after – going to university to pick something up, being delayed several times, discovering I already had the thing, forgetting my copy card at university and then heading back with more delays? Not quite as much fun.

Oh well, back to reading.

I’m fairly sure I’m heterosexual. I have yet to feel any kind of sexual/love-related attraction to men. If anything, the whole man-on-man sex thing is a bit of a turn-off for me. I’m fine with other people doing it, I just can’t imagine me ever doing it myself. It doesn’t seem like something I’d enjoy.

For those who do though: All the more power to you!

Man, I didn't even notice that most of the thread was a year old until I had read half of it. :P

Well, for this year I have no plans. No special person to try and kidnap, tie up and hide in my closet. And I'm kind of fine with that.

Hell, I'm not even much a fan of all these celebrations. Valentine includes the expectation that you buy gifts for those you love. If you ask me, you should not need such an excuse to buy gifts. However, the really sad part is that because there is an expectation from society that you give gifts and/or do special things on Valentine with your loved one, you actually need a damned good excuse if you [b]don't[/b] celebrate it (unless you have no lover/nobody you like). Hell, even people who oppose the whole commercialisation thing have a tendency of secretly expecting something on Valentine, and potentially getting upset when they don't get/do anything.

My dislike for the whole commercialisation/gifting thing runs further than that though. For instance, I don't see the need for gifts during Christmas or when somebody's celebrating his/her birthday. I know that I hate looking for gifts, since I never know what to buy. Personally, I haven't seriously celebrated my birthday since around 10 years ago. I do get some gifts, but I could go without them, to be honest. Besides, it's not like I achieved anything special by ageing. It just happens, provided that you don't die along the way. :P

Mind you, I don't mind the celebrations on their own. Valentine is a good opportunity for some to push themselves and confess their love to the boy/girl they have a crush on. And I like Christmas because it gives us a good excuse to gather up the family again and just enjoy each other's company. I just don't need the somewhat materialistic pressure from society.

If I want to give somebody a gift, I don't need some sort of special day filled with high-strung expectations to do it.

It’s hard to take a post which heaps abuse on the usage of capital letters seriously. Therefore, I won’t even try.

Also, it’s “justifies,” not “justify’s.” That’s basic spelling there.

My name is Mercure, and I approve of this thread.

Carry on.

I’m mostly still amazed the rest of the world is fine with the USA unilaterally deciding which sites should go and which should stay. Apparently, no politicians in other nations have the guts to stand up and actually protest this.

You’d think that at least in Europe, [b]some[/b] politicians would raise their voices about it. In truth, none of them even considers the matter, despite it obviously affecting the sovereignty of other states, including their own. I wish some of our politicians would grow a spine as well as an IQ higher than 80.

As for Mega Upload: Not a site I particularly liked, to be honest, but it was handy for transferring legal files as well. I made use of it a couple of times to get large legal files moved over to other people.

Want to know how to hurt the backers of SOPA by the way? Just stop buying their products. I’m not saying pirate it all (that’s a personal choice which I do not necessarily endorse), but just don’t spend money on it, or at least as little as possible. For instance, wait until movies are brought out on DVD and their prices have dropped, and then buy (or even better, rent) it and watch it with as many people as possible, or even just share the DVD with everybody you know. In this case, you still get to see the movies you want to see, and as an added bonus, if you handle the sharing part well (everybody involved gets one movie), it can even be dirt cheap. If 10 people each buy a movie for 10 euro’s and then share the bought movies with each other, each person pays just 1 euro for every movie they see, and they still get to see the movie [b]legally![/b]

Unless they put in some bullshit rule/law that you can’t share the movies you bought with others, but by that time people should be boycotting the industry entirely.

Man, I’m kind of jealous of the people who received one now. I should lurk less. :P

sylphin said:
SPOIL ME PLS XD..

post some awasome sex cg LOL i can imagine deaf-mute but well other disability are interesting lol

I have yet to play the game myself, so spoiling things for you will be a bit hard. That said, I would like to ask people not to spoil the game for others in this thread, just in case.

I'm sure somebody will inevitably post the game CGs of Katawa Shoujo in the [url=http://chan.sankakucomplex.com/]Sankaku 2D channel[/url] once people get to it though.

kudichan said:

That's disgusting!

Why is she eating spaghetti out of a toilet? She does seem to be kind of hungry, but that hungry?

Or is it some weird new kind of “fashion” bowl? I’m sure some restaurant in this world serves its meals in toilets…

giascle said:
Consensual sexual intercourse in the missionary position with the sole intent of creating a child.

Now that’s just crazy talk! O_o

H-Ero said:

I thought I was the only one who doesn't find fireworks entertaining. I think they're pretty, but I don't think they're nearly as ZOMG AMAZING!!!1!one! as everyone else tells me they are. Plus, the noise really hurts my ears.

I like fireworks. I won't buy any, mind you. I don't really have to. The whole neighbourhood does that for me, and they even launch it, free of charge!

It is good to be the king.

There were people here who had bought ridiculous amounts of (mostly pretty) firework though. Some are still going after over an hour of constant firework. I heard of at least one family (with not too much money to spare, or so the rumour goes) who bought 700 Euro's worth of firework. If I'd been them, I'd have saved that money for another trip to Japan. =P

Still, far be it from me to complain about people buying a lot of firework which I can consequently enjoy without paying a dime. (~_^)

I'm fairly sure I lost another two years of my hearing though, and I kept my ears closed most of the time too. And I certainly don't love the firework which just goes "BANG" and nothing else.

That all said, Happy New The-World-Will-Be-Destroyed-By-Tentacle-Monsters-From-Space Year. (^_^)

Enjoy 2012! (^_^)

Dragon Age 1 was a brilliant game. It reminded me of BG2 to some extent, which is incredibly high praise from me towards any other RPG.

Dragon Age 2, on the other hand…

The combat was boring and unrealistic, harder difficulties meant that your own 2-handed warriors would kill your own team, recycling of the the same maps for “different” areas…

Particularly the latter is nothing short of a disgrace. Painfully noticeable that they were cheapskates, whereas different areas to explore are vital to create an interesting game. Even graphics were downgraded at times. Consider some of the faces. I’ve seen some seriously inhuman DA 2 faces – a downgrade from DA:O. O_o

The story was interesting enough, but when my external died and I lost my saves, I did not bother to restart. No matter how good the story might be, the gameplay just wasn’t interesting enough.

As for a Dragon Age anime – I’m not sure I’d call this 3D stuff true “Anime.” Rather, I think they called it anime because they figured it sells better. Beyond that, I won’t judge yet. I don’t particularly like the art style, but I’ll wait and see what they come up with. Not particularly interested in it though.

Concerning debts: note how the federal state is the only one in trouble, largely due to politicians being unable to solve problems at a decent pace even when there's a serious economic crisis going on. Hell, when everything was finally starting to get a move on and around a week before they came to a final deal, our current prime minister, the 'formateur' Di Rupo decided to go to the King and offer his resignation. Freaking drama queen. Just because he's gay doesn't mean he has to go all the way. >_>

Yeah, I don't really hold the current political leadership in high esteem. A bunch of clowns and miserable failures, no better than children fighting over inconsequential toys whilst the mansion they're living in is burning down around them because the toys they're fighting over are on fire.

The rest of Belgium (particularly Flanders, which is precisely why they’re trying to get them to pay more to fund the federal state) is doing absolutely fine though. Kind of ridiculous, really.

To be honest, I’m surprised he didn’t just escape from prison. That’s the usual way for convicts in Belgium to leave, at any rate. >_>

I guess that at least for once, Belgium isn’t in the news for the longest ever government formation or the increasing debts of the federal state (but not the separate regions). Of course, they still don’t manage to get in the news in a positive manner…

shomonan said:

So what about 'suki'? I hear characters in anime and games confessing their love with 'suki', and I've also heard the same word translated as 'love' when used between lovers. Can't you 'suki' a friend?

Not if you mean like in a non-romantic manner. ;)

You can use 'suki' (好き) to say you like candy, school, playing the piano and various other objects and activities. However, when used to say that you like a person, it will automatically take up a romantic meaning.

So if you somebody asks you what you think about your co-worker and you say you like him/her using 'suki,' expect people to smirk, make fun of you and possibly become silent if your co-worker happens to be the same gender as you are (homosexual relations are still a bit of a taboo in Japan, despite the massive number of yaoi/yuri manga). Either, you're risking some very awkward situations. ;)

If you want to say you like somebody in a non-romantic way, the best thing you can say is 'Ii hito desu' (良い人です). Literally, it means '[He/She] is a good person.'

Fun fact: The kanji for 'suki' (好) is made out of woman (left side) and child (right side). Kind of poetic, isn't it? :)

anoran said:
>.<
If it's not to much trouble can someone point me in the right direction. I honestly have no clue where to start and how to do it.

Start with the Hiragana. There are several ways to learn them. Personally, I just printed out a sheet with all of them, and then studied them on the train whenever I felt like it. Roughly 10-25 minutes a day, depending on whether I could be bothered. Then I had to fix the stroke orders because I messed up a few. So don’t start practising them without first learning the stroke orders. :P

A good way to learn the Hiragana and the Katakana (or at least some of those) is [url=http://www.humanjapanese.com/home.html]Human Japanese[/url]. I never tried the full version, but the trial was pretty good for learning of the Hiragana and Katakana as it shows you the correct stroke order. It also teaches some basic grammar. The downside is that it ignores Kanji completely. Whether you like it or not, Kanji are a part of the Japanese language, and the sooner you accept that fact, the better your studies will progress.

I remember wondering how on earth I’d manage with all those Kanji. Right now, even though I still don’t know plenty of them, I have no clue how I’d manage if there weren’t any Kanji. ;)

As for becoming fluent in reading/writing hiragana and katakana: Practice. Get a few word lists and just start studying them. Just make sure they’re written in hiragana/katakana, not romaji. The latter is a terrible, terrible idea. If neccesary, I can try to look around for a few functional word lists later on.

Alternatively, buy a few books on Japanese. I personally used the first 2 volumes of Minna no Nihongo (皆の日本語） at university. Despite its flaws (starts from the masu-forms as opposed to dictionary forums, doesn’t allows translate quite as accurately as I’d like, etc.), it’s a usable and decent tool for one’s studies.

I’m not sure myself, but I heard a little anecdote from a friend who was explained the difference by a bartender in the following manner:

「愛」(ai) is love which comes from the heart.

When talking about 「恋」(koi), he gestured at his lower body. ;)

That is not to say that ‘koi’ is merely sexual, but it does seem to be closer to the idea than ‘ai’, which for some reason has a… Purer ring to it, I guess.

For reference purposes, jisho.org defines ‘ai’ as ‘love; affection,’ and ‘koi’ as ‘love; tender passion.’ Seems to suggest something in the same direction.

Also, one important distinction between the two is the ‘type’ of love we’re talking about. For instance, when talking about ‘koi,’ we’re talking about boyfriend/girlfriend love (or boyfriend/boyfriend or girlfriend/girlfriend love ;)).

On the other hand, ‘ai’ can also be used as love for family (no, not incest >_> ), friends etc. Affection. That’s a pretty important distinction to keep in mind. ^_^

Expect people to shift away from you if you’re talking about how much you love your brother/sister/parents/uncles/aunts/grandparents using the word ‘koi.’ O_o

I'm a tiny bit jealous. I'm afraid my features may be a bit too manly to ever pull off a convincing cross-dressing cosplay. It certainly doesn't help that the first signs of facial hair reappear mere hours after having shaved. :P

Beyond that, I wouldn't even know who to cross-dress. That, and some friends of mine would never stop going on about it if they knew about it. I'd still totally want to force one of them to cross-dress as a maid though. We kept saying how maid-like he was, so I think it's kind of a requirement. ;)

Beyond that, no, I don’t think I’ll ever really seriously cross-dress. Maybe for laughs, but I doubt it. Not really a priority, you know? I’m not shutting the door completely (hey, it’d be an hilarious and unforgettable (as in, unforgettably embarrassing) experience), but it’s not very likely.

As for cosplaying in general, farthest I’ve gone is jokingly putting on a panda hat, panda scarf and panda mitten. That hardly constitutes cosplay. :P

Oh, my only problem with that site is that I lost the password of my account, and there’s no password recovery function in sight.

Hell, I didn’t even remember I [b]had[/b] an account. :P