Aatch
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Posts posted by Aatch
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Ok, reading through more of these posts, I'm seeing too many "Well the person could be great, they could be president/prime minister/pope".
There are two logical fallicies in this argument:
1. You are attempting to predict the future, you are relying on conjecture and making a feeble stab at peoples emotions to make them sway to your view.
2. You are assuming that the person may be a good person. In many states, the death penalty is still in effect, what if the child turns out to be a murderous brute? What if they become a sociopathic killer? There are many cases where someone like this has been sentenced to death. By your own argument, abortion is merely a pre-emptive strike.
Ok, now onto the teen parents argument. Many anti-abortionists (or pro-life) claim that its not a valid argument because there is nothing stopping them from breaking out of poverty and becoming something better. While this may be technically true, statistics say otherwise. Statistics show that people born into a low socio-economic bracket, have trouble breaking out of that bracket, or they may only raise up a small amount in their life. My parents are in a middle-ish bracket, we are well off, but not rolling in money. Now if my plans go right, I may end up in a higher bracket, a much higher bracket. But my parents were ready to have a child, they were married, they both had stable jobs. But had they been in the situation of being 17 year-olds, they wouldn't have had that oppurtunity to get decent, stable jobs, and without those resources behind them, it would be nigh-impossible for their child to go to a tertiary institute.
Teen parents are just that, teenagers, they aren't adults and have not finished developing, they have not had the chance to do what they can.
Now, there will always be teenage parents, but in many cases, abortion is not out of the question, most of the time its the most logical and appropriate solution.
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Before I start, I should let you know that I am a fairly harsh critic, but I always try to help, to improve. Except in horrific cases, where improvement is equal to destruction.
I like the mystery of it, the strange fighter, the cyan-haired assassiness. (Though with a name like Autum, red hair seems more appropriate, personal opinion though)
I'm intrigued by the time-travel aspect. Though some of the new aspects you've introduced are somwhat cheesy. "Dimensional Police" reminds me of "The One", an over-the-top Jet Li movie.
I think the pace changes too much. You move between fast-moving story progression, and slow character building too much. As a reader it is confusing and makes it seem like you want to know how the story ends more than the audience.
I suggest reading the story with new eyes. Pretend you've never read it before. Make changes, add drama to the dramatic bits, slow down the hectic bits where it needs to be taken slowly. Use more adjectives, there are more ways to describe Link than "The blonde".
Oh, and for the love of all things literary, never, ever, use a word like "doggiepoo".
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Uhh... Excuse me, I'm 17, I've been programming since I was 12. Actionscript is piss-easy to learn. I am also competent in C, C#, C++, Ruby, Java, ECMAScript (Java- and Actionscript) and Python. I am going to university at the end of this year, getting an engineering degree.
I also agree that most of the stuff on Newgrounds is crap. But there are some shining examples of pure excellence.
You said that you're doing programming at college right now? Well try making something. Nobody will hire you on your Game Maker skills, or your prowess manipulating RPG Maker. Just because you're only doing the basics in class, doesn't mean you cant move ahead.
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Nice to see I'm not the only one around here capable of forming a logical argument.
I would like to quickly point out that the argument set out in my first post is not neccesarily my personal opinion. I would not get an abortion. But that's not my argument. Nor is that the poll.
Making abortion illegal goes against a standard that many countries strive for; personal freedom.
How would you like it if somebody in an office, with no idea what you're going through, not even capable of imagining your situation, decided that you cant have an abortion?
Many laws are designed to protect us. From one another, from ourselves. Homocide laws protect us from others, drug use laws protect us from ourselves. But an Abortion law would only protect the minds of the religious. As an atheist, living in a predominantly religious world, I strongly disagree with politics being led with religion. I disagree with notion that the strongest group should impose its own laws freely.
Many of you are basing your opinions on a religious point. But when the world contains so many different religions and religious viewpoints, its purely unethical to decide that, that should be law.
My basic argument is that abortion should be a personal choice, guided by a set of rules, ones that retain freedom without allowing outright murder. The blob of cells I was referring to in my first post contains ~35 cells. 35 cells is not a human being.
I do not wish to get into the whole "Sex before marriage argument" that is something for another topic.
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Ok, since I have just read all 3-and-a-bit pages of this topic, I feel that I am allowed to post here.
Just before though: Dustin, in my absence did you miss the sex topics I put up?
Ok, religious opinion and morals aside. Some historical and cultural context for you guys.
Porn has been around before you were born, before your parents where born, before the country most of you live in had a centralised and organised government (i.e. USA, england and some of europe). Porn has been found on ancient urns in Egyptian temples. Stories describing assorted sexual exploits have been found in Greek and Roman ruins. And if you think the current porn is to over-the-top etc. Bestiality is over 5000 years old. Paedophilia (which I personally dont agree with, but am maintaining a neutral position) is just as old.
Looking at the cultural landscape, you range from "Sex only when married, and only occasionally then" to "Sex happens, as long as its consensual, we dont care". America, and by extension much of the english-speaking world, is actually very prudish on the global scale. The Japanese are some of the most liberal people in the world, taking a very, by our standards, blunt approach to sex, sexuality and death. They dont view sex as something sacred or wrong, they view it as something that just happens. This doesn't mean that all japanese people participate in group sex and star in porn. Since most people prefer sex in solitude and privacy, despite their culture.
Porn, as an industry, balances on the fine line between shady dealings and legitimate business. Advertising on specially selected sites, and making sure they are out of the light enough that people still feel both safe and nervous when accessing it. It is not a case of "all porn should be destroyed", since it is out of the public eye (apart from illegal porn), and only there if you look for it.
In fact, Porn has produced, if indirectly, some notable technological progressions. Many sexual health discoveries have come out of the porn industry, keeping the actors healthy is very important. The old (before my time) betamax vs. VHS war was ended by porn, as they chose VHS, and this sparked VHS to be the primary carrier of video.
There is more to porn than just two people going at it. It often provides a psyochological release. Either fulfilling, partially, the primal urge to reproduce, or knowing that at least those two people are enjoying themselves. (I've remedied several "oh the world is terrible" episodes by watch a good bt of porn).
That my two-cents. I believe that porn should just let to be. Its here to stay. And always will be.
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How does one define life? Using "MRS GREN" you can say that almost everything that is biological and moves is alive, with the notable exception of virii.
This means that the sperm is alive, and the egg is alive, so technically, life was not created at conception, but before conception. Am I committing murder right now because my body is absorbing three-day-old sperm that is about to die? No of course not.
With out a solid definition of life, or at least a solid definition of human life, trying to rationalise being against abortion is pointless, especially considering the arguments for it.
First take a look at the conditions under which abortion is considered: Rape and unplanned.
Rape is the major one here, as 95%* of the abortions considered are because a rape victim did not get the morning-after pill in time (should also be considered illegal under your terms as it prevents a fertilised egg from embedding itself in the placenta, and would "die"). Imagine the horror of having to give birth and raise the child of your rapist. Imagine looking at your child, which you are expected to love and care for, and being reminded of the most horrific moment in oyur life. Post-natal depression is a real issue as it is in society, a "rape-baby" would never recieve the same amount of love and care as a "regular" baby.
And unplanned baby is more of a sticking point. But I can atleast draw on personal experience here. I was in a sexually-active relationship. As such me and my girlfriend accepted the risks and did the best we could to prevent any unwanted outcomes. However, she did, once, miss her period, we both accepted that pregnancy was a possibility and she took a pregnancy test. However, in the few days before she could take a pregancy test, we drew up plans for what we would do if she was pregnant. All of them required one or both of us to leave school, either immediately or at the end of the year. No plan could be seen where our current plans could be kept. At 16, being a father did not appeal to me.
Now these plans were drawn up because she did not want an abortion, because of her own personal decision. I respected this. She was not however preganant, and all things returned to normal.
Had she wanted an abortion, I would have respected that choice as well. Since teenage pregnancies have such a big blow on the parents lives, abortion is an option to make it go away. Making abortions illegal would force that decision for many people.
My final point is that shouldn't a woman have say over her own body? There are already rules about abortion in place, most doctors will only perform abortions while the child is still an embryo, a simple blob of cells. The emotional attachment a woman feels for her unborn child is enough to make this more than a lifestyle decision.
I believe that, given the overall populus, the rules should stay the same. A few weeks window while abortion is still an option, otherwise the child has to be born. Forcing personal and religious opinion on an entire country goes against the entire idea of democracy and commitee.
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Ahh!!! RPG Maker! ::Eyes burn from over-exposure to un-originalness::
Now I'm sure you must have a great storyline, and solid-ish gameplay. But the fact that this looks like its going to be like every other RPG Maker- made game on the internet means that I dont even want to download it.
With the amazing things you can do with computers now, its a shame that nobody bothers to pick up a programming language, team-up with a artsy friend and write a proper game.
I'm not talking about something comparable to Crysis. But if a team of 5 professionals can create an hour-long 3D game in 24 hours. I'm sure a team of two amatuers can create a half-decent game in a few weeks. And learn something along the way.
My issue with RPG Maker is how much it removes from the creation process. Yes there is alot you can do with it. But there is also a limit. You are limited to those horrible sprite graphics, of a limited size. Your game has to be compiled with RPG Maker, making it more bloated than it needs to be. And the graphics supplied hampen the creative process by allowing developers to be lazy.
I, personally, cannot draw or create graphics to save my life. Even my web-design skills leave much to be desired. But I am a damn good programmer, and I could find someone good at computer graphics to draw the graphics.
If you dont want to jump straight into code-driven graphics. Take a gander at Flash. Look at some of the games on Newgrounds and get some inspiration. Grab a copy of Flash from Adobe, even just a trial, and see what you can do with it. Even if its just creating an umpteenth clone of breakout, it will provide more experience than a million-and-one RPG Maker games.
P.S. (You can get a key generator for adobe/macromedia products)
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Grr, Gingerlink and your logic. Stupid logic, getting in the way of my plans. Like sending monkey's to the moon...
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Hmm. A good story, I think. Its fairly well written and seems to have the beginnings of a good story. We're getting to know the character, which is something that isn't normally focussed on in these forums. I have a small issue with the prologue, the spirit's speech near the end. The capitals scream "I'm a noobish writer that doesn't know anything", but the rest of your writing shows that you aren't.
Other than that, its a good beginning lets hope that you can continue the good work.
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Ok. Its not too bad. I've certainly read worse. Link talking is bit of sticking point for me, but thats just personal opinion, and I know how hard it is to write where the main character doesn't speak.
My only real critique is Zelda talking to the Hylian Spirit, its seems too... Strange. And the spirits manner does not fit what it should be. The spirits should be very wise, giving overaching advice, not minutia. And it should certainly not be asking questions, other than "Do you beleive you are ready" and other dramatic things like that.
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Its the light, the fact that your skin has also changed colour is indicative of this.
Eye colours only change in the first few months, from blue to whatever colour.
Genes do not change dominance, they are either recessive or dominant, they cannot change. Enviromental influences can affect the colour of your hair, intensity of sunlight, hobbies. My 15-yr old brother's hair went grey during the summer because of chlorine damage from a high-intesity swimming schedule.
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I'm English, but I live in New Zealand. It not as great as all that.
My X amount of facts.
1. Helen Clark may be a female Prime Minister, but she is a terrible leader. The Labour government is losing its grip on the people and Helen Clark is not helping.
2. The school system is terrible. It hurts bright students and helps stupid ones. It is also based on an outcast of the UK's which decided that a points-based system is not a good way to run a secondary school system.
3. New Zealanders are not good on looking at the facts. They did not look at the pro/cons of nuclear power, and are now considering changing the laws in face of the oil crisis.
4. Despite the "Clean, Green" stance of New Zealand, it is in fact one of the dirtiest countries per capita.
5. Although the legal driving age is technically 15, it is not that simple. At 15, you are eligible to get a "Learners License" this is obtained by sitting a road rules test. On a Learner license, you can drive supervised by a holder of a full license. 6 months after getting your Learners, you can get your "Restricted" License. This is a simple practical test and allows you to drive without supervision, but you cannot take passengers unless you have a full license holder in the car. 12-18 months after getting a restricted license, you can get your full license, this is a harder practical test that allows you to take passengers and drive at all hours of the day.
The licensing system is as such where, in theory it is good, but in practice it fails. Kiwi drivers are bad, they are unobservant and inconsiderant, they are not taught well, and often lack basic car handling skills.
6. The Royal and National Anthems do not take equal standing. If they did, kiwis would know the Royal Anthem, most do not. Only those that have spent time in england know the "Royal" anthem. The Royal Anthem being the english national anthem.
7. New Zealand may have broken off official ties with countries, but economically, it is very vunerable to the sway of other countries. The current US reccession is causing a reccession here, nullified only slightly by the booming Chinese economy.
8. Maoris are not looked upon that kindly by "Pakeha". The vast majority (there are a few that do not fall into this category, but they are few) are uneducated and have an inflated sense of entitlement. Most are in gangs. This attitude is not helped by government hand-outs and scientific studies. The government gives out millions each year to Maoris in land and benifit, merely for being them. A recent scientific study showed that Maoris apparently have a "warrior" gene to explain their predominately violent behaviour. As an example of this bullshit: I am english, England once owned 25% of the world, we did not do this with tea and crumpets. The English were, and probably are the most ruthless race of people in the world. But no studies explain away this.
I am done for now.
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Well, from the point of view from someone that is close to moving out of home, and going to Uni, I say this.
Most people seem to say the traditional stuff, do well at school, do well at my job, travel, get married have kids. Since about 1/2 of you guys are probably less than age 14 I have to say that you dont really know what you're talking about. No offense.
What I want to do with my life:
Get that annoying piece of paper proving that I can do what I already know I can do. (Programming Degree)
Have an awesome time at uni (Get horrendusly drunk and sleep with girls I dont know and will likely never meet again)
Partner up with somebody and start a business, grow to the point where I can sleep all day and still earn $15,000 a week.
Travel everywhere, spend the ridiculous amounts of money that I earn on things I dont need from places I can't pronounce.
If I can find somebody willing to share all that with me, Yay! If not, I think I'll survive.
And G333, I do like your answer.
And also, I will not remove item two, or change it. I stand by my aim to have casual sex. Its fun. Try it.
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Computer:
Everything, I have never come across something that I didn't understand on a computer. Or any technology for that matter.
Real Life:
Maths, Physics, anything logical.
I have a good knowledge of psychology and how to apply it.
Good at solving problems, except my own.
Arguing with christians.
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First, I don't care if you are a seasoned professional, or a first-timer, I give the same opinion.
Ok, this hurt to read. In no way is this, funny, entertaining or good. There is no discernible plot. And you included links in the story.
I have to give this a 0 out of 10. Because its not a story. Its just whatever you randomly thought up.
Trying thinking. You'll find it useful.
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Any programming experience, at all? Making a game isn't just graphics and ideas, there is helluva lot of technical stuff that goes into it.
Ever looked at the DirectX API? Very complicated, even trying to make a simple object appear on screen is a challenge.
There is waay more to making a game than you think. And not just whats been mentioned. Unless you do programming your screwed.
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But saying that prayer is a placebo doesn't justify it. No more than giving saline pills to a cancer sufferer is justified.
If prayer makes people more confident and motivated, then it could very well be said that their religion is an emotional crutch. If these people could learn to be confident without the church, wouldn't that be better.
Its the ties to the church and the emotional and psychological crutch it gives people. And its not a good thing. It means that if the church crumbles, all these people will collapse. Like staying on crutches, it gives your ailment time to heal, but it wont fully heal without walking on it. Same way that people can use the church to gain their confidence, but not use it a source of it.
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With the especially difficult task of trying to keep this clean while I post... here goes.
Prayer. The cure all solution for <religious text> bashers everywhere. "Hunger in Zimbabwe, lets pray for food", "Disease in Sudan, lets pray for health".
I know that this doesn't apply to every <religious denomination> out there. But when I see people asking me to "pray" for something, I see red.
Now, for the question, what does prayer do? Well the preachers, whatever their religion may be, will tell you it is asking god to help the people involved with whatever is wrong with them (odd thing to ask a loving, omnipotent god, but thats not the issue). The reality is that is takes good, willing people and forces them to sit in churches and think they are helping. If anything good happens, God(s) are thanked and the prayee's feel like they did something.
Bull-- Err.. Droppings, they did. The people that did something are the people working their asses off, digging wells, teaching skills, providing resources and helping the sick and injured. They are there, on the front line, doing something about what is happening the world. I dont care if they are Jewish, Christian, athiest, pagan, or whatever. Its the fact they are doing something that matters, which is more than the hundreds of millions of praying people around the world are doing.
Please note that I am /not/ attacking a specific religion, just all of them.
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Thank you LDGM. As a continuation of his point. I'd like to say that, as this is your first fanfic, that means you should put more effort into it, not less.
10 minutes, I spend that writing an introduction, usually about 3 or 4 times.
If you write a terrible story, expect a terrible review. Saying "its my first fanfic" or "It only took me 10 minutes" will not improve the quality of your writing. Only serve to lower the opinion of fellow writers of you.
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I have no words. No words can fully express the terribleness of this story.
Ok, lets go through this phrase by phrase...
Porlodue: you mean Prelude, or more correctly, Prologue.
"One day Cat Girl (CG) and I (YLA)": No good story has ever, ever, started with the words "One Day...". Also using acronyms is really bad. For a start, its incredibly lazy, secondly, it completely dehumanizes your characters.
"playing Legend of Zelda in real life": What the Hell!. This makes no sense, do you mean playing the game, or pretending to play in a park of something?
"So we were running and I fell through a hole in the ground.": Right... there just happens to be a hole in the ground, and you fall through it? Believability is a key part of any story, even in ones filled with magic and mystery.
"CG ran to find me and ended up in Hyrule and ran into Young Link (YL)": What? Did she fall through the hole? Or did she get there some other way?
I would do more, but I think I've made my point...
Ok, As an overall critique, you seem to misunderstand what "Prologue" means, its a short background to the story, not an overview of what its about.
You are telling the story like a 5 year old. Leaving holes because you know how it works does not make a good story.
I'll give you the advice I give everybody: Re-read your story, forget that you wrote it, forget all the ideas that went into it, imagine that you just spotted it in the forum. Now, if it still makes sense, its a good story. I'll think you'll find that this wont make sense.
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It pretty good. But its lacking...something. It hard to place, but there is something about it that just make me go "Meh".
I think that you need more background into your character. I read a book once that had an entire chapter devoted to the background. Stories are like gateways into another world, but unless you're deliberately trying to convey a feeling of confusion, which I dont think you are. Take your story slow. Spend a few paragraph explaining Hale's life, his relationship with his father. Your readers should be able to know whether Hale will save the goat or not. He's not developed enough to be in a situation like that.
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Has absolutely everybody here forgotten that this a Japanese game. Therefore anything is possible. In some games, Link himself looks female. Characters look odd, and often gender indeterminable. That said, I agree with eyeoftruth. Its a game, theres no reason to argue about something like the gender of a non-human final boss.
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wuddya mean
I mean that there are several articles that are copied straight from Wikipedia. As great as the information in Wikipedia is, it often contains unnecessary information and creates bloated articles. They contain links to pages that don't need links, and omit links that would be appropriate for Hyrule Wiki.
I created a small rulebook on the wiki, outlining some basic rules for article editing and creation.
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Rather than make a new topic. I'll just say this in here. The Hyrule Wiki should NOT be copied from Wikipedia articles. I have made an incomplete rule-book to editing. And it should be used.
Texas public schools required to teach the bible
in Casual Discussion
Posted
"Texas Schools required to teach Bible"
"Seperation of Church and State"
Now I'm no expert on American Law, but isn't a law that goes against the constitution, uh, illegal?
Now I know that the bill says that school only have to offer bible studies, not make it compulsory, but its a dangerous step and far too close. Especially if some schools make it an opt-out course, many people will be forced into learning it without it being illegal.
As a related side-note, I get thoroughly pissed-off with all this "we need religion in schools" bullshit. I am currently at university, a place where relatively bright people end up, I know hardly any religious people here. Without doing a scientific study my obserations are somewhat circumstance, but I know that people that have come from highly religious communities that are relivied to finally be around people that share their beliefs, i.e. Athiest/Agnostic.
You don't need religion, or at least shouldnt. I grew up without religion, I dont feel that I am free from morals because I don't have to worry about going to hell. I do good things and help people because it helps society as a whole, and there is a social pressure to not do bad things (vandalism, murder etc). I implore you to find a historical period in which absolutely nobody was killed. The first commandment, the top rule "Thou shalt not kill" has never been listened to, whether by serial killers or "god-fearing" people, its not "Thou shalt not kill, unless the guy did something really bad and you think it's justified". While this seems like an argument for religion, its not, I'm saying that even at a time where you could be thrown in prison for blasphemy, people still disregarded some of the highest laws of Christianity. Therefore, religion, in fact doesn't work. The most religious states in the US, the so-called "Bible-Belt", have some of the worst stats regarding murders, socio-economic status and school effectiveness. This suggests to me that religion in fact has a negative effect, producing people that blindly do as they are told, with no exploratory drive, no curiosity. When you can learn everything from a little book, why do you need to learn anything else, why should you go out and experience anything? Surely just following God's teaching should be enough, I mean you get to go to Paradise after all.
This is my opinion, feel free to disagree, but I don't beleive that I have said anything that is majorly wrong, my interpretations are controversial to many people, but I implore you to forumlate any response in a similar manner to how I have set out my argument, in a calm thoughtful manner, laying out each idea unambigously. (unlike the bible)