Teacher arrested over Teddy

I generally prefer to not talk about religion since it is such a controversial subject, but I feel like talking about it now.

A British teacher in Sudan was found guilty of insulting Islam because she allowed her seven year old students to name the class bear Muhammad. Personally I don't view her guilty of anything except being ignorant of Muslim ways. Her punishment is 15 days jail and deportation. I don't think she should have been punished because she didn't mean any insult, but really the entire thing with her doesn't overly bother me she should have known more about Muslim ways considering the area she was living in and while I think her punishment is worse than she deserves, she could have had a much worse punishment under the laws of the area. What does bother me is how the Muslims always get upset when they perceive some insult to Muhammad but don't get upset when other prophets of theirs are insulted. Many Muslims appear to be treating Muhammad like he was a deity when he is not, he is a great prophet but not God. The Christians who do believe Jesus their greatest prophet to actually be God do not get upset as the Muslims do (in general, some do of course). The Muslims should be just as upset when someone insults Jesus, Moses, and Isaac seeing how they too are prophets in Muslim religion and yet they don't. I find this to be some what hypocritical, particularly those Muslims who insult Jesus (two reasons Muslims consider him to be a great prophet as well and them not seeing how it is obviously wrong to expect others to not insult their greatest prophet when they insult the other religions greatest prophet).

While I am not Muslim and can't speak for the Muslim people, I am pretty sure the vast majority of Muslims really are not upset about this mistake brought on by ignorance (she didn't know that people see naming a toy or animal after Muhammad is considered an insult) the teacher made. I'm pretty sure the reason so much noise is being made over this misunderstanding is political in nature and not being brought about because of religious upset.

BTW I'm not Muslim, I'm Catholic.

edit: She was pardoned and sent back to her home country.

Did Ranma ½ change your life in anyway?

The poll had been up for over a year and the results are:
Yes 81%
No 4%
Insignificantly 13%
Never heard of Ranma ½, came to the site for another reason 2%
Total votes: 47

Even though the poll is no longer up, If you would like to you could still leave a comment on how Ranma ½ changed your life, or if it didn't, that it didn't.

I'd like to say that Ranma changed my life, it did, but the changes weren't really for the better, they also weren't for the worst. They were just changes neither really positive or negative.

I was using (and still do to some degree) books as a way of escaping from my life. While I was reading I'd get involved in the book and not have to think about life. I read (and still do) all types of books on all kinds of subjects Sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, historical, science, self help, religious texts, books on mathematics, comic books, etc. Reading was my drug of choice, which is much better for my body then real drugs would've been though I need glasses now to see stuff far away.

Finding Ranma was rather unremarkable, I had walked to the library (didn't have a car and it was winter so couldn't bike to it - plus I think that was around one of the times my bike was stolen which has happened to me several times) and found it on the shelf. I enjoyed it a great deal and read the other volumes the library had. Since I enjoyed it, I went looking for more which lead to me looking on the computer (again at the library didn't have a computer at the time) and finding fan fiction. I really enjoyed the Ranma fan fiction and read all that I could of it (which wasn't that much since I had to read it on the library's computer, though I did print out some for reading at home). Suffice it to say I eventually got a used computer and internet access (which at the time was free since several companies where giving it out I used altavista internet mostly at that time). I then spent far too much time reading fan fiction, even wrote some that I never published (I was and still am unhappy with basically everything I write including this, feel it is not written well). Ranma changed my life because it lead me to computers, the internet, anime, Japanese culture, and probably other things.

Ranma was my gateway to several things which is probably why I still enjoy it so much. Though unlike some people I also tend to, when I like something, continue liking it for years.

Tinman's Ranma Colorazation Project

This site: Tinman's Ranma Colorization Project has pages from the Manga that were colored. These are very nicely done. It's too bad that the site is no longer being updated.

moola

I've recently tried the games at moola.com. Moola is a pay to play site, meaning they pay you to play games. (You pay nothing) You start out with a penny they give you and play versus another person wagering your penny. Then if you win you get two pennies and can wager two pennies, etc. This continues, You can supposedly get millions of dollars but I really doubt it. Playing the games it will take awhile just to get ten dollars and the games are not very enjoyable.

Personally I've had little luck with the games only getting to the 8 cent level and I can't verify my account because I don't have a mobile phone (hence can't receive the text message) and I don't want to do the boosters since you have to pay for some of the offers or sign up for stuff I don't want to. Also only for people in the US and Canada.

If you want to sign up and try the games yourself (you can get $10.00 without verifying your account). Use the link below (supposedly it's by invitation only but invites are very easy to find on the net, the link is an invite).

http://www.moola.com:80/moopubs/b2b/exc/join.jsp?sid=4d5449744f4467334e7a493d-2

VIZ's Censoring of Manga

It annoys me that VIZ censors the manga they release.

In Ranma and Inuyasha both Ranma and Inuyasha use direct, rude, and occasionally profane language (Inuyasha more so than Ranma though Ranma does occasionally use very rude language). VIZ removed the profanity entirely from Ranma. (You didn't really think that Ryoga spanked Yoiko -Ranma in disguise - For saying "like FUN I'm having fun" did you.)

Some edits they've made to other manga:
-I's they put stars over a girls nipples - this in my opinion makes it worse than if they had shown the nipples.
-FMA Greed is chained to a cross as he is reunited with Hoho twin (father) and killed in the VIZ version they changed it to a slab of rock.
-Naruto they edit out some of the hand gestures, make Sakura's shorts longer, changed a swastika to an X
-Dragonball they removed nudity, changed a gun to a laser gun, etc.
-Pokemon they made Misty's clothing cover more area. See an example below.

Inspirations for Ranma ½ manga 2

Edvard Munch's painting The Cry (also called The Scream) inspired many scenes in the manga including the two below. It is used to depict angst or horror.

Scanners at book sales

I frequent library book sales several times a year. I went to one today and noticed that people are carrying around scanners. This isn't new the last several book sales I went to had people with scanners as well. What makes today's different is that the people with scanners out numbered the people who didn't have them.

I dislike scanners. These people are not buying the books to read only judging them on their monetary value. I buy books to read not to sell and because of these scanners and other book hoarders it is becoming increasingly more difficult to find good books at book sales. The hoarders without scanners are worse though for instance at a book sale three weeks ago a person grabbed up every single manga volume without even looking through them. Some of these people are incredibly rude grabbing up a lot of books off of the shelves then taking them to a corner, scanning them, then dropping the rejects on the floor in the corner. Others will shove you out of their way or get a friend to help block off an aisle so that you can't pursue it until they are finished.

While I'm criticizing them, I also understand why they do it. Some books could be sold for hundreds if not thousands of dollars. I don't mind that they buy the books to sell so much as them taking all the good books. If this continues I may stop going to library book sales. With volunteers and their friends cherry-picking, scanners, book hoarders, and the raising price of the books at book sales it seems that it soon won't be worth my time to go.

Pixy Misa

I was browsing the internet and came upon this picture of Pixy Misa. I haven't watched Pretty Sammy (Magical Project S) in a long time but the thing I remember liking most about the anime was Pixy Misa. Dark magical girls are cool. My clearest memory about the show is Pixy Misa singing Mahou Shojo the lyrics of which can be found here:

http://nayuki.eigenstate.org/pixymisa.html English Translation at bottom of the page.

I think the picture is from a doujinshi but don't know which. The signature kana in the bottom left corner is of Atchi who I think is a doujinshi artist.

Be a conscious consumer

If you click on the above image it will take you to a site in which they ask you to make a small change in your life. The small change will reduce your impact on the climate change (i.e. global warming). This months pledge is to wash clothes in cold water instead of hot water, this simple change will use less energy and therefor cause less of an impact on the environment as well as cost you less money (because your not paying to heat the water unnecessarily). While the pledge is only for the United States you can still cut back on the amount of hot water you use even if you don't live in the US.

Book Trading Websites

I enjoy trading books I don't want (duplicates, accidental purchases, gifts I didn't want, etc.) to get books I do want. I use both Paperbackswap and Bookmooch. I've found some pretty rare books from those sites that I really wanted, many of which are hard to find in book stores, or are expensive (for instance I got some manga in the original Japanese). Its also often cheaper than buying the books since you only have to pay the postage to send them out (also paperbackswap gives you the option of buying credits and the price of a credit is often cheaper than buying the book online when you factor in shipping).

I read a lot but have accidentally bought several books that I already had and have been given books I did not want. I also occasionally have to get rid of books to make room for new books (some I got only to read but don't want to keep). My number one entertainment expense is on books. I own several thousand, problem is I don't have room for them or new ones. Throwing away a book is in my opinion a terrible thing to do. I do and have donated books to the library and other organizations.

Kachü Tenshin Amaguriken

• The Amaguriken isn't really a special technique it's just a flurry of really high speed punches. Cologne even showed surprise when Ranma used his newly obtained speed to throw a myriad amount of punches in such away as to overcome Ryoga's resistance to blunt force.
• Throwing a large amount of high speed punches/kicks in not limited to Ranma. Ryoga, for example, has done the many punches moving in just blurs thing as well. E.g. He does it to female Ranma during the Koi Rod of Love storyline, Ranma deflects all the punches and then Ranma's entire body becomes a blur surprising Ryoga and she kicks him in the head. Ranma occasionally does a flurry of high speeds kicks as well.
• Ranma does not have to yell Amaguriken (chest-nuts-roasting-over-an-open-fire). He doesn't yell it in the manga. Even his first time doing it while hitting Ryoga he did not yell it. Yelling it doesn't make sense since it takes longer to say than it does to execute.
• I'm not going to try and calculate the speed of it but it is much faster than humanly possible (others have tried to calculate it and it just leads to lots of arguments). I will say this though, Before speed training with Cologne Ranma was capable of throwing dozens of punches per second. This was demonstrated by his battle with Mikado in which he threw 518 punches in a matter of seconds (we know the exact number because Akane counted them). After the speed training Ranma was moving so fast that Akane could only see a blur which she thought of as one punch this implies a much greater speed (because if the speed was only say 3 times as fast Akane should have been able to still tell that they were many individual punches and not one punch though she would have no longer been able to count them). Ryoga and Cologne also agree with Akane. Ryoga commenting that did you think that a few hundred punches would even hurt me and Cologne commenting that the speed training now pays off for him now. During later story arcs Ranma gets more speed training and becomes even faster (Martial art dining). Ranma's battles occur at super human speed. Even the audience (i.e. us and anyone watching) can't tell. In the manga we/anyone watching only see after images or the final position of the arm or leg. (Examples kick done to Kuno, time Ranma did all those hits to the skater that kissed him, Ranma feeding people during the martial arts dining story arc, etc.)
  
• We have Ranma uses his flurry of punches in two ways. (This came from some posts on fukufics before its crash between Obsidian Fox and Pale Wolf trying to figure out the benefits of and how the Amaguriken works, though I have added some on my own.)
  

Against Ryoga in which Ranma threw as a bunch of shallow punches which are good for damaging muscle, breaking bones near the skin, chaining attacks, and keeps the opponent in place followed by a deep punch (which are good for damaging internal organs). The reason Ranma did not use his full strength punches/kicks and decided to use his speed in this manner is because his much more damaging deep punches sent his opponent flying giving him time to recover, are easier to dodge/block, and he would have to go hunt his opponent down since he just sent him flying. Even though the punches were shallow that does not mean weak, though they do disperse less energy into the target at one time, Ranma's shallow punches would still be strong enough to punch a hole through a regular person's chest. Ranma is not pulling his arm back all the way for each hit, doing so would serve no purpose and would be a waste of time and energy. For those of you who are having trouble understanding how this works do this: Take your finger and poke your other hand hard - that's a deep punch. Now do like Ranma and poke your hand 200-300 times but use less power (2/3) your hand will become sore from all the poking. Ranma could have trapped the opponent(Ryoga) with a wall or a tree and used his deep hits but because of the strength of the hits the wall or tree would just have been destroyed and the opponent (Ryoga) would still have gone flying (Ranma hit Ryoga into a wall, wall collapsed and both can punch through trees with ease) and unless the opponent is really dumb he will try to keep from being cornered. Though if your skilled enough to, you could continuously hit him into walls and trees until you run out of them of course they would also have to be unable to flip in mid air and then bounce off the tree. Grappling the opponent and then punching him a lot or using the Amaguriken in this way is good for opponents who are tough enough to take your deep punches and you don't want to cause serious possibly permanent injury (If you didn't care about how much you damage the opponent you could target weaker spots such as the eye balls, punching their ears to cause pain, kicking them in the balls repeatedly, using a weapon like a sword, kicks to the spinal column, hitting them in vital spots, etc.). Though grappling could also back fire if the person your grappling with is skilled or strong enough to prevent you from getting good hits or keep you from effectively using your speed or strength.

The other way to use it is to fill the air with punches (this is the way Ranma most commonly does it in the manga). Using it this way is good because it is very hard to dodge and incredibly hard to block. Best solution to counter this would be to be fast enough to knock every punch away, get out of range which is hard, catch the fist which is even harder (and would probably just make Ranma start hitting you with his other fist), or go on the offensive (would recommend trying to kick him in the legs) and take hits.

• Easy way to power Ranma up without added training, conditioning, or magic. Have Ranma do the Amaguriken holding a knife/sword (slicing his opponent to pieces), wearing some type of brass knuckles or holding an object (increases strength of hits). That would easily multiply the damage done. Another way would be if two opponents were close enough to one another have Ranma bounce his fist between them this would cause a lot less energy to be wasted and allow Ranma to hit harder and even faster (rebounding off one to hit the other).
  

Drawing Shampoo a guide

This site has a tutorial for drawing Shampoo just like the above picture taken from the site: http://www.drawingnow.com/how-to-draw-shampoo.html

Halloween 2007

I don't know how your Halloween was but mine was fairly disappointing. I dressed up in a scary costume and was planning on handing out candy. I wasn't stingy and giving out only one piece; I was giving out 5 mini candy bars per child. The disappointing thing is only 13 children showed up for candy (which left me with a lot of left over candy). I blame my neighbors. On my part of the street only one other house had their light on. The kids I assume didn't want to walk down the street just to hit two houses when the other section of the street had a lot of lights on.