Draxon

Here's my lock screen (kind of big, so in a spoiler): Unfortunately, I don't know who the artist is.

I'm actually brewing a cup in the next forty minutes - need to stay awake for Dungeons & Dragons with my friends. I try to limit how much I drink, though, mostly to avoid forming a dependency on it, but also so that it has more of an affect when I really need it. I actually like the taste of black coffee, which I can't really explain. It's not something I would describe as appealing.

My first car is the one I'm still driving, a white 1998 Toyota Camry, one of the most common color/make/model combinations on the road. All the same, I love my car, although a myriad of unexpected repairs has resulted in some unhappy blows to my savings account. But that's the cost of owning a car, I suppose.

A little bit of good news from yesterday's elections here in the United States: http://www.vox.com/2014/11/5/7160477/women-in-congress-first-time-100-legislators-midterms We're still making progress, even if it does seem to go slowly.

Everything I'm listing I would never tell my family. I feel like I can tell my friends anything. That's kind of sad, isn't it? 1. I'm pagan. My family is Catholic and my mom used to be a nun. 2. I love My Little Pony. 3. I'm happy being by myself and am not actively pursuing a relationship (meeting another brony would be cool, though). Disclaimer: I'm not antisocial, and I have a lot of friends. I just don't see a romantic relationship as something which is necessary. 4. I invest almost no time keeping up on current events. 5. I think most news programs promote a greater sense of fear and paranoia (this is an argument I don't want to start). 6. I'm not a virgin. This sounds kind of odd, actually, because usually the opposite is what people are afraid of saying. But my family is the sort who believe in chastity, so it might not be taken well. 7. Some of the biggest Christian holidays have pagan roots (actually mentioned this to my mom in reference to Christmas trees once. It did not go over well.) I do enjoy seeing her happily watching the Yule log on television, so I don't want to ruin things for her. But come on, it's right in the name, for goodness sake!

So many things are replaceable, and I don't have much of monetary value, so from a necessity standpoint, I'd have to go with my glasses. I wear contacts, but those get thrown out every month, anyway. But going from a sentimental standpoint, I'd go with the figurines I got from my mom and grandpa. They're not easily replaceable.

I wouldn't say I argue, per se. I would say there's a warm, laid back, trusting side of me which always converses with a coldly logical, cautious side of me, and they just try to come to an agreement. I even have different voices for them, and will speak out loud if nobody's around.

Doom. Seeing those bunny heads on stakes was horrible when I was little (still kind of is, actually). Also, The Neverhood. That game had a very satisfying ending (no matter which ending you chose).

Bought three bags of candy in preparation, and then found out that I would probably not get any trick-or-treaters since I'm in a small apartment building. Dressed up as Harry Potter just in case (I was playing D&D and video chatting with my friends over Skype, anyway), but nobody came. Now I have a ton of candy to myself (I only bought kinds I like). I'm disappointed, but the excessive candy helps.

I'd say my favorite article of clothing which I own is my bowler hat. I'm fortunate to be someone who looks good wearing one, but I rarely wear it because I feel so conspicuous when I do. Other than that, I love my pea coat, and consequently hope for really cold weather so I can wear it. Shoes are important to me, too. Once you've worn a pair of truly comfortable shoes, there's no going back.

Mine is Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. I've seen it about a dozen times at this point, and have a large, framed movie poster of it on my wall, not to mention the manga and a book of watercolor art by Miyazaki related to both adaptations. I get kind of obsessed sometimes. I just love the main character. She's strong and intelligent, wants humanity and nature to live in harmony with one another, and extends compassion to her enemies. Speaking of which, the antagonists are great, too. Kushana is absolutely ruthless, and Kurotowa is often very amusing. I've watched quite a few of Ghibli's films at this point, and haven't found any I don't like. I can't wait for The Wind Rises to finally be released on DVD.

I once sprained my pinky after catching a Nerf Vortex football with that pinky. Does that count? Oh, and I have scars on my fingers from being bitten by a squirrel when I was little. My sister and I were trying to get back inside the house from the backyard, and a squirrel was in our way. She instinctively ran up to the squirrel and started petting it and pulling its tail, which caused it to attack both of us. When my mom came outside, it was still hanging from my sister's hand. And that was the first time I rode in the back of an ambulance (I think my mom overreacted a little bit).

It depends on the context of the betrayal, and on similar (even if less harmful) situations which occurred in the past. I've discovered that I always forgive people who wrong me, but it can sometimes take a very long time for that to happen. But even if I can forgive someone for what they've done, I need to consider whether being friends with them is still beneficial. Unfortunately, I recently experienced a betrayal from one of my best friends, who I've known for almost two decades. Due to the nature of the betrayal, as well as on their change in personality over the past few years, I decided that their friendship with me had become toxic. Consequently, I have not renewed our friendship. I feel sad to conclude that discontinuing such a long friendship has become necessary, but I can't see any good coming from it anymore. A friendship needs to be mutually beneficial. If you can't trust someone, or if you think associating with them will cause more harm than good, you need to think things over carefully. But sometimes it can be salvaged, so don't lose heart if you feel it's worth saving.

After reading the responses so far, I decided to search for a concrete definition of the term which I use to describe my theology, and from what I'm finding, there is some debate over what the term "pagan" really means. Some people ascribe it to established, ancient, non-Christian religions, and others consider the term to also relate to nature based religions. I belong in the latter category, and will continue to identify myself as pagan. That said, I revere Mother Nature; that is, I believe in a goddess. I also believe in reincarnation, and I do not believe in kharma. However, evil deeds often have profoundly negative effects in real life, and I therefore strive to be a good person. Plus, I feel good when I do good, and generally feel bad when I do bad. I was raised Catholic (and my mom used to be a nun), attended church every week, and was confirmed, but started questioning my beliefs when I was in high school. There was one particularly profound moment when I was having an argument with my friend, who was Jewish, about Jesus being the Son of God. I kept insisting he was, and he kept insisting he wasn't, and I thought he was an absolute idiot. Then his dad stepped in and explained to us that Christians and Jews simply believe different things. I had always taken what I was taught as fact, and never considered it to be based on belief. After some considering, I became agnostic (which was not easy to relate to my mom). My current views were formed fairly recently, and reflect an increased amount of time spent in the wilderness, paired with a desire to explain certain mysteries of life (such as why bad things happen to good people), and a feeling that the universe is feminine in nature. I cannot "prove" Her existence to anyone, but I'm definitely not agnostic anymore - I'm firm in my belief. I feel compelled to add that I enjoy learning about theology in general, and respect the beliefs of anyone, whether they believe in the Christian model of God, or if they believe that God is a perpetually flaming, invisible gorilla in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. To each their own. In fact, I'm currently attending a Catholic college, and have the privilege of learning alongside Benedictine monks. It's interesting to coexist with people who have devoted their whole lives to their faith.

As we grow older, we lose some freedoms and gain others. Unfortunately, many of those others rely on our opportunity to make money, and between making money and fulfilling other responsibilities, we generally don't have a lot of free time as adults, so it might feel like we have less freedom. To put it another way: when we are young, we have time and energy, but no money; when we are adults, we have money and energy, but no time; when we retire, we have money and time, but no energy. Per your list, I disagree with a few points. I'm 27 years old and have friends who are in their teens as well as friends who are in their 40s, and the older ones aren't all boring (one of them even drives a hearse as his everyday car). I also still attend conventions and don't feel out of place. In a nutshell, I'm finding that age differences don't have as much of an effect as I used to think. As far as dress goes, you do need to wear appropriate clothing for work or other formal settings, but outside of those settings, you can wear whatever you want. There's always going to be somebody who doesn't approve of your tastes, but that's going to be the case no matter how you dress. May as well just be yourself.

Behold: Gorillas. This game was awesome.

The Simpsons. Personally, the last few episodes I liked were in season 11, and then the quality of the show really went down the drain. They seemed to start adopting plot devices from Family Guy, celebrity guests became more frequent, and old plots were reused (how many times did Marge and Homer remarry?). It's also startling to compare the current personalities of the characters with their personalities back in the show's early seasons. Homer used to be a stupid but caring family man. Now he's stupid, loud, and obnoxious.

Whooee, reading 23 pages of comments takes a long time. Totally worth it. There are some truly wonderful people in here. First, I'd like to thank you all for such thoughtful commentary and for all of the insightful links to videos, articles, and the like. It's good to see issues of inequality brought to light. I do identify myself as a feminist, now, but it isn't something I've asked myself in the past. I do know that I've always been frustrated with gender norms, even at an early age, and trying to conform to notions of masculinity has culminated in some of the worst experiences in my life. At least my parents didn't care that I liked to play with my sisters' Barbies and My Little Pony figures. Additionally, I never understood why women were so underrepresented in certain professions, or why certain sports either excluded women completely or segregated them into their own league. A lot of progress has been made, but there's still a long way to go, so it's important that we support each other in challenging the issues which remain. I'm surprised that throughout the discussion, nobody has mentioned the works of Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki. They have a legacy of producing films with strong, female characters without stooping to stereotypes or sexualization. They also usually have a strong environmental message, to boot. Here's a pretty good article I found related to Miyazaki's career: http://screenrobot.com/hayao-miyazaki-great-feminist-filmmaker-time/ My favorite anime is actually Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, one of Miyazaki's films, which features strong, female characters in the roles of both protagonist and antagonist. They are both respected leaders of their people, but for completely different reasons. One conquers territories through military might, while the other is willing to sacrifice anything for peace. If you haven't seen it, you should definitely give it a chance. (Patrick Stewart voice acts for one of the characters, too!) As for feminism within MLP:FiM, I think that in their world, there isn't much of a divide between the genders, which is totally awesome. But as far as episodes go, from what I've watched so far, I think "A Dog and Pony Show" is a good place to start. Rarity successfully challenges the "damsel in distress" cliche and shows that she can use her femininity in a way which empowers her. She doesn't need to adopt traditionally masculine characteristics in order to overcome her ordeal, nor does she need to rely on a hero to save her (sorry Spike).

"I have something to say! It's better to burn out, than to fade away!" - Kurgan, Highlander "All work and no play may Jack a dull boy..." - Jack, The Shining "There's a reason why this prison is the worst hell on earth... Hope. Every man who has ventured here over the centuries has looked up to the light and imagined climbing to freedom. So easy... So simple... And like shipwrecked men turning to sea water from uncontrollable thirst, many have died trying. I learned here that there can be no true despair without hope. So, as I terrorize Gotham, I will feed its people hope to poison their souls. I will let them believe they can survive so that you can watch them clamoring over each other to "stay in the sun." You can watch me torture an entire city and when you have truly understood the depth of your failure, we will fulfill Ra's al Ghul's destiny... We will destroy Gotham and then, when it is done and Gotham is ashes, then you have my permission to die." - Bane, The Dark Knight Rises And from an old movie which I highly recommend:

Two immediately come to mind. Nacho Libre, which is a ton of really dumb humor, and Water World. It's really entertaining! It's not a good movie, but definitely fun. It just happened to be one of the biggest, high budgeted disappointments in cinematic history.

I actually have problems staying awake. There were about a dozen times when I went over my friend's place to play Dungeons and Dragons and fell asleep sitting at the table. Now, I won't ever play without bringing at least a 20 oz. coffee with me. And there have been several times when I had to pull over at a rest stop on a long drive so I wouldn't fall asleep at the wheel. And now I'm in college, and sometimes I have to keep pacing around the room as I'm studying so I won't fall asleep in my seat. I wasn't this way before, and I'm actually getting concerned about it.

I was always very quiet and reserved, and while other people were concerned about it, I never even took a moment to think about it until ninth grade. I wasn't aware of any problem, but I suppose others thought there was. In fact, at one point during elementary school, my mom forced me to call one of two people twice a week to hang out with them in order to solve the problem. That didn't prove to be effective at all, and just lowered my opinion of my mom. My younger sister, who's studying clinical psychology, suspects that I fall somewhere on the mild end of the autistic spectrum, but I don't think I'm autistic or have Asperger's. More to the point, if I found out I do, it wouldn't change how I live my life.