EKen132

Horatio Alger? Wow, I didn't know his books were still read.

I just got back from seeing Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Wow, was it good! If Cinderalla Man, which I have yet to see, isn't top notch, then Brad Pitt if moving from actor number 2 on my list to replace Crowe as number 1. Here are some more "favorites" Funniest movie: Airplane, probably. Funniest book: Catch 22, it's great! The dialogue is always hilarious. Favorite place to visit: Not that I've really been to any place more than once, but the virgin islands are paradise! Favorite TV show: None, but I hardly ever watch TV, so what can I say. Favorite Video Games: AoK for computer, Ocarina of Time for N64. Those two stand above the rest.

That's pretty funny.

He doesn't have to. Some people just love life and wouldn't trade it for anything. Sure it would be fun to be a celebrity, but if I wanted to do it that bad, I'd earn the title myself. If I could be one for a day, great, but when those 24 hours are over, I'm back in my own boots .

I like... Actor: Russell Crowe and Brad Pitt Actress: This is a tough one, I'll repost if I can narrow it down past four Movie: Oh no, another toughie. Probably Ocean's Eleven with Star Wars IV and Master and Commander close behind. Color: Blue and Yellow, but not really together (reminds me of cubscouts) Band: Green Day and Flogging Molly, but I'm also into classical, and my favorite there is Beethoven Book: probably Lord of the Flies. What a great book... Food: Anything you can get in Italy, read: pizza, pasta, ice cream (mmm ) Hobby: I compose music and run

Man, that is my kind of race! (then again, I seem to like just about anything that involves a stopwatch and going faster than someone else) Make sure to keep us updated Des! EDIT: Here are some links to get a better picture of it http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge/ DARPA home site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA_Grand_Challenge Wikipedia Entry

Well she's a complete ditz, but... And no, I'm just not a huge fan of Tom Cruise. Minority report was great, he was pretty good in Rainman, but Dustin Hoffman was far better. I didn't like Top Gun, and I never saw The Last Samurai, although I suspect it will be good. Oh yeah, and I haven't seen War of the Worlds yet, but I plan to sometime.

And I wouldn't mind being Tom Cruise because he's marrying Katie Holmes. ...On second though, I'm sure I could think of something better than that- I really don't like Tom Cruise that much anyways.

I pick up my T-Shirts from wherever I go to do stuff, like vacation or a track meet or a club I'm in or whatever. Everything else comes from the usual stores and stuff.

No, but to a degree one would think it points in the right direction. That is the point here. Besides, this really isn't a debate.

No. I am a Catholic, as I said, and so I know that a lot of Catholics (in name only, it appears) "pick and choose", like in a cafeteria, which rules they would like to follow. It follows along the same lines as Zezar saying that America appears to be a Christian country yet our movies and shows are filled with curses.

While we're all sneaking political statements into here, let us not forget those thousands of lives silenced every day around the world by abortion and infanticide. It's a sad, sad world. I agree with Yiuel- these bombings really brought down the joy and elation of winning the Olympic games. It's too bad that there are those who only want to make others fear. You have to wonder, to paraphrase "Mississippi Burning"- where does all this hate come from? The only thing that bugs me about the article is this "He said it was an "indiscriminate" attempt at slaughter with no consideration for age or religion"- it's not as though if it were discriminate it's any more justified!

I don't believe he said that. And in "times of crisis", you'd think there would be a little more leniancy. But as for the characters in American Pie, they are in no terrible crisis. As for h*ll and Christ, I'd say those are thrown around pretty frequently in everyday conversation. Here, let me just make a list of when these words are used: H*ll: day-to-day adults and teens, plenty of movies, not the most socially acceptable word to use if you're talking about anything other than the place itself (ha, and even that bugs some people). D*mn: day-to-day adults and teens, plenty of movies (mostly PG-13 and up), also not a great word to use in public. Sh*t: day-to-day teens, maybe for some adults, plenty of movies (PG-13+), don't really use it in public. F*ck: day-to-day for some teenagers, but usually they are, like I said earlier "not on the right track in life" anyways. Rarer for most teens, and not very frequent in most adults (at least that I know). Movies gain R if they have it a bunch, and definately don't say it in public. C*nt, p*ssy, c*ck: Yeah these are pretty vulgar and very rare among adults. As for teens, anyone that uses them could be considered vulgar and they're definately curse words. The movies that have these are those few dozen or so a year that have no bounds on language. Also you could throw in a few race names here too. Also, saying God or Christ is pretty much acceptable anywhere, even though you don't see it in most G or PG movies anyways. As for the movies making Americans look fake: you are right. But in the movies, the situations are usually completely different than in day-to-day life (that's why they make them into movies, huh ). That basically covers all the action and war movies. For the comedies, especially the male 13-35 aimed ones, they are a representation of the most vulgar of Americans. Those people don't usually concern themselves with Christianity anyhow. As for the rest of the movies, or sitcoms like Friends, those should probably show just about how much Americans swear in their day-to-day lives. You are right Zezar, there is a lot of hypocrisy in American culture. It is good that you are trying to point it out, because for the seemingly Christian facade we have, especially to the rest of the world, many Christians in America don't do a whole lot to live up to their religion. Me being Catholic, I know that "Cafeteria Catholicism" is popular- you pick and choose which rules you want to follow, and you wouldn't believe what some people do and still call themselves Christian here. Anyhow, hypocrisy has been around just as long as human beings, and every religion, belief system, and code has it's hypocrites. Those who don't want to follow what they still want to belong to are doing a disservice to themselves and the others who do try to follow the religion. Anyhow, ZeZar, I'm glad that you are concerned about this problem, and in a way, I'm glad you are mad at it. You know, about the only name that Jesus ever called anyone was "hypocrite", so know that it's good you sense something wrong with this picture here.

Yes, it probably did. Good thinking, and nice story. Let's see if something will happen to me today that can compare to that.

Originally it meant to have sex / rape, but now (starting in the 70s) it seems to mean anything under the sun, and for those with a really low vocabulary, it can be applied to anything. Movies such as Eurotrip and American Pie are exactly what I had in mind when I said:

We're going with Machiavelli's "Prince" here (uuuugh) and Solomon's biography "Beethoven" (guess who it's about ;p).

Unfortunately, I don't have a ton of cool things lined up for today. I might head over for a parade in a few minutes, but other than watching fireworks from my porch or a local park tonight, today isn't gonna be all that different than any other day. Maybe I'll find something fun to do.

Well I definately can't speak for the whole country, since I've only been exposed to my own suburban area. As for everyone being Christian: it is definately not true. I've been to church in Europe in a few different places, and I can say that in America, there are always more people there, and always a lot more families. But the churches are never filled unless it's Christmas or Easter, and quite a few earn the nickname "Chreaster", someone who goes to church only on Christmas and Easter. What you're seeing with African Americans singing is more of a southern protestant thing, and I live in the north (and I'm Catholic), so I can't comment too much on it. As for the swearing in movies, movies that use more than the occasional d*mn and sh*t (unless they're war movies, which seems to justify it to a greater degree) definately have a narrower audience. Maybe a dozen to two dozen really popular movies a year have no restraints on their language, and that number of pop. movies usually portray teens having a lot of sex and drinking and doing drugs a lot. For movies like those, maybe 15% of the population of teenagers really likes them, and maybe a third to half of the kids have even seen the movie. A lot of kids find the movies tasteless or only a few parts funny, and only a very few actually talk like that, and most of them aren't on the right track in life in general. As for the curse words, do not get the idea that these are widely used in public. To say "mother f*cker" in public is definately unnacceptable, and the same goes for p*ssy, c*nt, d*ck, and the like. In situations where there are only teenagers around though, you'll often hear these words. But parents never like to hear them, and no one really uses them in public. And using God's name in vain is, contrary to what you might expect in a "Christian" society, quite accepted. You'll hear it all the time if you come here. The words sh*t, d*mn, h*ll, even f*ck sometimes are used in movies that are watched by all segments of the population- little kids to grandmas. But movies that use c*nt, p*ssy, c*ck- those are usually more aimed at the male 13 to 30 segment of the population. Hope that helps answer some of your questions.

If that's the Star Wars spoof for natural foods, I also liked it. I remember seeing it and thinking it was very clever.

Man, I could live on Italian food. Real pizza, tons of pastas, the best ice cream in the world... mmmmmm Well there's about a zillion churches in rome, and I went to what seemed like an awful lot, and I'm not really sure how well known they all are, but my favorite besides St. Peters Basilica was called (still is called) St. Paul outside the Walls or something of that sort. It's very quiet and peaceful, and the interior is mostly white and gold- its absolutely stunning. Such an idyllic contrast to the hot busy Roman streets outside, it's very nice. Theres a plaza- Navana, I think, where I ate lunch one day. It's great to just sit in a Cafe there for a few hours, order some Italian food and watch the locals, tourists, street vendors and musicians and all. There are some sweet fountains there too. The statues of Rome are generally very impressive overall, but I'm sure you've seen the Pieta (the best there is), and maybe the Trevi fountain. There's a small church, Santa Maria della Vittoria, that contains another beautful statue- St. Theresa in Ecstasy. It's really stunning. It was carved by Bellini, who also did the Navana fountain. It's always fun to see the pope too! Did you know he owns two mercedes? Hahaha it's funny if you think about it- no vows of poverty for his order, although I don't think he is an order priest anyways... There's also a burial site of 500,000 Romans and Christians buried between 100 and 500 AD that's four stories tall. Why have you never seen it? Because it's all underground! IT's awesome, they have tours that are quite enjoyable. It's called the Catacombs of St. Callisto, I think. If you want to be another judge, the word on the street is the best pizza in Rome is Al Marmi pizza. But don't take my word for it... go there yourself (and go early if you go, it gets crowded like you wouldn't believe).

Hey, I was just in Rome 48 hours ago! I love google maps, I can clearly see my house and everywhere in my neighborhood. It's great. Definately check out St. Peters. In my opinion, when you go to Rome, the Colisseum/Forum and St. Peters are the big two things to see. After that, there is the Pantheon, the "four major basilicas", and a bunch of fountains and squares, like Trevi and Navana. Some pretty sweet stuff. Have fun Klaas!

Leave it to Adam Vana to already know how to rave. Yes, I did mean glowstick raving. I'll check my local library .

Words to live by. I love my life. Last crazy thing done: suprise a relatively unsuspecting party of my friends by throwing waterballoons at them from the sunroof of a car being driven (and co-driven) by a pair of crazy girls who keep circling the block... and that was only the opening battle of the two-and-a-half hour waterfight to ensue! Next crazy thing to be done: learn how to rave OR maybe complete my entire US History final with my left hand (I'm right handed, and I've been working on my left handed writing this year) OR take a long run down the Champs Eylsees. I'll be there in a few days and I need to get in shape for the next cross country season.

I'm not exactly sure, but I'd like to believe, Adam, that your hair is not braided into little rubber bands.

Whooo there's nothing quite like the white 95 Ford Windstar... being driven by the completely atypical 17 year old kid . I'm rocking the school parking lot with that thing. http://pics.hoobly.com/full/T3BUHY6R61GE.jpg Not mine, but nice picture anyways.