TikiPrincess

I had to go to my cousin's Sweet Sixteenth yesterday. The party was at some hotel hall about 50 miles from where I live, so it should take a little less than an hour to get there. But not when you're driving the 101 North on a Sunday afternoon in LA County. Nope, it's bumper to bumper traffic from the 134 interchange all the way to the 405. It takes 20 minutes to go 2 miles! What's worse is I'm driving a manual transmission. Stick shift and stop-and-go traffic don't play well together. It's not like automatic where you just let off the brake when traffic goes or apply pressure when it stops. I've got to shift gears to go about 3 feet forward, otherwise someone will try to cut me off because they think they're getting somewhere when they're really not. If I do let someone in, then the guy behind me starts honking and yelling, and I really don't want to get involved in someone else's road rage. If it wasn't so stop-and-go, then I could just ride the clutch, but I have to sit and wait awhile for traffic to move. So I've got to shift into first and sometimes second, then back into neutral. It SUCKS!!! Luckily I can usually avoid traffic, and most of the places I go aren't in the city.

Welcome to the Trap! And you won't have to look any further for free hosting, because Xisto.com is awesome! The other free sites, and most of the low pay sites, don't have nearly as many of the features that Trap offers. Make sure you look through the Readme, which should answer most of your questions about the forums and services and how to earn your free site. Pay special attention to the Board Rules and the Presignup FAQ to make sure you get your site as quickly as possible. You'll definitely be able to earn quite a few credits sharing your knowledge in Computer Engineering. Welcome again and see you around the forums!

I still say she looks like Nicole Richie. And I find your placement of some of your strokes very interesting.I do like the way it looks like she's sprouting like a flower, but it's just too dark for my tastes. Nice work though Mike.

Well, I'm pretty sure my dog dreams when she sleeps. She does all the running, barking, and whining, but sometimes she also eats in her dreams. You can hear her tongue lapping up stuff in her mouth and then her swallowing. It's really odd. Sometimes she'll also get a really big smile on her face, like when you're scratching her right on the side of her neck and it makes her leg twitch.The other thing that's weird is that her eyes don't close all the way when she's asleep, so you can actually see the rapid eye movements (REM) while she sleeps. Scientists say that our brains are actually active during the REM phase of sleep, and this is when our most vivid dreams occur. So if my dog is experiencing REM sleep, then her brain should be active and probably dreaming.

Nothing like the presence of the opposite sex to distract you from what you should be doing. Makes me kinda happy that I went to an all-girls school. At least no guy was going to notice me doodling his name all over my notebook. Anyways, back to the issue at hand. Pretty girls like to be complimented, especially when they spend so much time making themselves pretty. But don't compliment her overall appearance, pick something specific, like her eyes or her smile. And if you want to stand out from the crowd, look for other things to compliment her on too. Did she say something really smart in class? Does the green in her shirt really bring out the green in her eyes? Does she draw well? Does she have really good taste in music? Find something that she's good at or interested in doing and compliment her on it. As for your second question... Unfortunately, nice guys usually finish last in high school. More often than not, they get trapped in the friend zone. The popular girls are looking for a guy that will raise their status symbol in class, so if they can hook up with the most popular boy, they're set. If you're lucky, she's not one of those and has her head on straight, but it's high school, so it doesn't look very promising. The good news is that when you get to college, things are much different. Women date guys based on personality rather than just looks because there's no popularity status. Of course, there's always exceptions, expecially if you're in a frat or a sorority where it seems like high school rules still apply.

Well, I've been working on two sigs for the SOTW contest. I'm not sure which one to enter because they're so different. Here's sig #1. I was flipping through a tattoo magazine and got inspired by some of the flash in the back. An artist had drawn women leaning and lying on tiki gods except that the style was much more shag so the women had a very 70s playboy bunny look, which is definitely not me. But I liked the idea, so I had to render two different pics and blend them together. And sig #2. I wanted to try something with an actual person. And since my friends and I have been going to the beach every weekend and learning to surf, beach and surfing are synonymous right now. I'm not entirely satisfied with it, but I can only do so much with Photoshop 5.5.

At my friend's funeral, someone played Eric Clapton's Tears in Heaven acapella. I still cry everytime I hear that song. And my aunt used to sing in the choir and was noted for singing Ave Maria beautifully, so they, of course, sang it at her funeral. It just wasn't the same though. Honestly, I have no idea what they'll play. Maybe some Sarah McLauchlin or something like that. Cheesy and sentimental is totally like me.

Hehe, I did that for a little while at my apartment before I moved into my house. My husband's parents had AOL, so he used that as his provider since he didn't have to pay for it no matter where he moved. The problem was that he had to share the access with two other connections: his parents and his sister. So if one of the others was on, we couldn't connect to the internet. Even though his parents didn't use the internet that often, they felt that since they're paying the bill, they should be able to connect whenever they want, so they got first dibs, which meant that our access was limited to after 9-10PM at night! Then we had to try to log on before his sister. Did I mention the fact that it's AOL and not even AOL for broadband! It totally sucked. Then we got new neighbors in the apartment next door. I was typing up a paper for school on my laptop and it did the autocheck for wireless access for some reason and I had signal! A really strong signal too! I was sooooooo happy! About a month or so later I baked cookies, brought them over and asked if it would be alright if I tapped into their wireless. I figured it was the least I could do since I was already using it. They said it was totally fine with them, so I didn't have to feel guilty about it anymore. Then my laptop got sick and pretty much died. But now I'm in a new place. I convinced my husband that we need to stop mooching off his parents and get our own (and better) DSL. I would have gone for cable, but the provider here makes you sign up for both the TV and the internet since too many people know how to hack into the internet line for cable TV. We didn't think cable was a luxury we could afford, so we went with DSL instead.

@mermaid - I can understand when an older sibling stays home once in awhile to watch their younger brothers and sisters, though I don't condone it. It's your job as a parent to care for ALL your children, so you should figure out a way to care for a sick one without depriving another one of classtime. But this mom wanted to withdraw her daughter completely out of school and probably would have if someone hadn't stepped in and said something about it.I know that regulating procreation should never, and hopefully will never, happen in the US. In fact, I would be one of the first to protest such measures. But sometimes I get angry and frustrated by people who just don't realize what it means to be a parent. There are women out there like Brittney Spears that haven't a clue about child safety or just want a baby because they think it'll be cute to dress them up or only think about how cute and cuddly they are. If that's the case, they should just get a dog rather than have a baby, especially since they have no idea what to do with the baby after it's born. Or there are the welfare moms who keep popping babies out to keep the checks coming in the mail. Unfortunately, these parents exist and there will always be someone out there abusing the system, just as there are people who use the system as it was intended to help them get back on their feet. My sister-in-law was completely mortified whenever she used food stamps to pay for formula and diapers, but she was still applying for a teaching position and hadn't gotten an offer when summer rolled around, so she needed something to help her get through it.I just think that if people really realized how much time and effort is involved in raising a child, they might think twice before bringing a child into this world. We'd have less need for the Super Nanny to save parents from their out of control children and far less cases of "ADHD." And if parents would do more parenting, teachers would be able to teach what they're supposed to.

AHAHAHAHA! I love it! And yes, we filipinos are dorky enough to do something like this. I remember everyone spontaneously doing this at an 80th birthday. It seems like the entire prison was there, but you're right Pleno, I wonder what they did with the ones that didn't want to participate. I think the "female" in the prison acted more feminine than the girl in the original video.

That sounds to me like you are ridiculing others for believing in the "nonsense that people and media have passed down over the years." As someone stated on the other moon thread, the full moon may influence how we act simply because we believe in it. Or there may be some undiscovered scientific connection. Or the whole thing could be some anthropological, biological throw back to a different time or age. There are as many reasons to believe as there are not to believe. I'm sure you had your own preconceptions about this theory even before you looked up your source, which simply reinforced those beliefs. My point about your sig is to note that even though there may not be scientific proof, there are those of us who still choose to believe in the moon's influence despite the "absence of evidence." It will be a sad, sad world when people believe only in science and fact and lose their faith, beliefs, ideas and imagination. Possibility is what inspires us beyond the mundane. You asked whether other Trappers believe that the moon can play a role in the behavior of humans. Seems like a pretty direct question. It would be spam to just say, "Yes, I do." So I give you reasons why people may act differently during the full moon that are not addressed in the website you sourced. Just offering another side to the discussion. I mean how boring would this thread be if everyone just agreed with you. It would make life so much easier, but quite boring. I would like to point out, though, that you stated that you "have not experienced this" and you "don't intend to either." You said in the shoutbox that you work in a nursing home, just like your mother did. So by saying that you don't inted to experience the things she said, that means you're basically closing yourself off to the possibility of it happening. Since you can't control how the patients at the nursing home act, it seems more likely that you will attribute those actions to something else rather than thinking that it might be caused by the full moon. And it's perfectly fine for you to believe in what you believe and defend it as you will. I just think you shouldn't go around saying that other people's beliefs are silly or nonsense, that's all.

I've attended private school for most of my education and, aside from the A.A. I earned at a community college, that includes university. My husband and all of his friends attended public school, so we have talked about the differences.For example, my high school, an all-girls college prep, had the worst science lab ever. We only dissected a fetal pig, while the public schools apparently worked their way up and did worms and frogs first. We also had outdated equipment. I swear, the science room looked like it was from the 1970's. Believe it or not, most private schools actually spend less per child than publicly funded schools, aside from the fact that the students are responsible for buying their own textbooks, uniforms, gym uniforms, and paying for any number of other things. We also had less extra-curricular activities that we could join because resources are limited. There was no band and very few clubs, not to mention our drama productions were almost entirely female. We did cast a male in the lead for some of the musical productions, but otherwise it was all girls.We did, however, have an excellent choir and leadership possibilities. I was also reading Beowulf, Chaucer and Spenser while my friends were reading The Scarlet Letter and House on Mango Street. Not that those aren't great works of literature. But my college professors were surprised that I was familiar with those works. I went to Washington D.C. as part of a leadership conference even though I wasn't on student council. It was simply because my speech teacher thought it would be a good experience for me. I also loved wearing a uniform because I could crawl out of bed and throw on whatever clothes were clean. I didn't have to really care about what I looked like, while most girls my age were obsessing about clothes or makeup. There were still popular groups and some people made fun of you if you were fat, anti-social or otherwise non-conformist, but there weren't any big physical fights, girls just excluded other girls and all the other catty things that girls can do. We also had to go to every class period, no free periods, so I ended up taking some classes that I wouldn't normally take, like photography and drawing. I also think that I learned to be more confident and outspoken whereas my friends that went to public school are less verbal and hesitant to express themselves. Since I was supposed to dress like everyone else, I learned to express myself in other ways and not to depend on my looks to prove my individuality. And it was just as diverse a population as any of the surrounding public high schools. Coincidentally, my high school did have a world religions course where we learned about all the different major world religions. I'm sure some teachers out there would probably skew the course so that it put a particular religion in favorable or ill light, but my teacher was pretty fair. I think that both public and private schools have their pros and cons and neither one is better than the other because they offer different things.

I pulled it off a sticker from purplemoon.com. I also grabbed a few others to render for the future. I'm using one of them as my personal photo display right now.

Believe it or not, my uncle's wife is related to Cardinal Sin. I also did some data entry, and one of the files was for a woman named Janet Planet. My husband's neice is named Hadley, which apparently means field of heather, Heather being my sister-in-law's name.

I tried planting an Italian herb garden a few years ago with basil, oregano, rosemary and thyme. Since I'm in California, too much sun is the biggest problem, so I planted them in a container so that I could move them around as the light changed. I've actually got a green thumb when I apply myself, but I'm easily distracted and forget to water or move them to a spot that gets a good ratio of sun & shade. They all dried up and died. But I did get the start of a nice rosemary bush in one of the areas that I set the container down. It must have bloomed or something.Other than that, I planted some carrots that were yummy to some gopher and a little section of California poppies that turned into a field of poppies after awhile.

I'm totally going to redo yours Mike. I definitely think it needs more cowbell. And yes, I'm completely twisted and demented. I blame these other S & M guys.

More evil stick people! AHHHHHHH! For BordaForx, who seems to be MIA at the moment. Either that or I'm keeping him trapped in the basement. I need to check the basement... This one's for my fellow Filipino, master_bacarra. I always want to say barraca for some reason. I'm just making these as the inspiration comes, so I'm not sure who the next stick figure will be.

I saw this pic and immediately thought of you! So I thought I'd mess around a bit with it. I wanted it to look like she was in the ocean depths kinda thing with the sun filtering through the water. And I made a display pic for you too I think she looks very evil, don't you?

Where did you find this picture? No one was supposed to see me like that! Great job Mike. I'm not seeing the spec that you mentioned. It's a lot bigger and looks a lot simpler than some of the stuff I've been doing. If only I wasn't so picky...

Welcome to the Trap! I'm glad you decided to give us a chance, though you'll soon realize that this is the best provider for free webhosting. Unlike most of the other post-to-host forums, Trap uses a credit system, so you could conceivably earn enough credits in a few weeks to keep your site active for over a year! As his modship, rvalkass, said the credit system awards you based on quality not quantity, so putting a little time and effort into your posts gives you a better chance at getting that domain. Spam and plagiarism are not tolerated, so try to be original. There are a lot of different subjects with a variety of subforums in each where your posts are counted towards your credits. We're a pretty friendly community, so if you've got any questions and can't find the answer in the Readme, feel free to ask. The moderating team and most of the other members should be able to help you find what you need. Hope to see you around!

I'm not quite sure if this is exactly what you're looking for, but the main page on trap gives you a list of stuff you get in the free webhosting package. Hope this helps.

I'm currently going through the process of getting a teaching credential and have been seeing parents from that perspective. I have come to the decision that there are a lot of people out there who aren't fit to be parents. There's the mother who wanted to pull her 13-yr-old daughter out of school to watch the girl's 7-yr-old sister. Or there's the dad who taught his 6-yr-old son how to cook and administer his crack. Then there's the couple that still sleep in the same bed as their 11-yr-old. It sickens me to think that these people are doing this to their children. But social services can only do so much and the foster system can be worse on a child. As teachers, we only have 6 hours out of 24 to make an impact on a child's life. And that's only during school days! There's less than 200 days in a school year. In high school, we've only got the students for one or two periods, so it's even less. But there's rigorous training beyond learning the subject that you're teaching, at least here in California. We have to learn how to teach effectively, how to manage a classroom, how to resolve conflicts, and it's hammered into our heads that what we do and say will affect our students both positively and negatively. I wouldn't have it any differently because I do believe that teachers can influence a child's life in both good and bad ways. A teacher can completely demoralize a student in class and crush that student's self esteem, or inspire a student to reach new heights and help that student awaken the genius inside. But sometimes it seems that our efforts as teachers can be futile when the other 18 or so hours are spent under the care of someone who obviously doesn't. I think that if there's an intense training program for a person to become a teacher, there should be an equally intense course or system for someone to become a parent. I wish we could regulate who is allowed to raise a child because there are people out there that don't deserve the wonderful children they have. And there are kids out there who deserve better parents. Of course, it would never happen...

There were a lot of interesting points that were brought up which I would like to address. First of all, how do we truly know that someone is a real murderer and not framed up or something... But even then, you can go through the appeals process to overturn the decision. There's really only one person who knows, without a doubt, who the real killer is and that is the killer. Photos and video can be doctored, DNA planted, eyewitnesses fooled. If we as a jury are to play judge and executioner, we must be certain, without a trace of doubt, that the person is guilty. According to the US Constitution, all are presumed innocent until proven guilty. However, people can be prejudiced or easily swayed by the silvered tongue of a smooth-talking lawyer. I'd have to agree with Joshua, heehee, I love it! Takin' it back Old Testament style! Unfortunately, we also have this part in the Constitution that says something about not subjecting people to "cruel or unsual punishment." I think starvation and torture would fall under that category. We know that the system is flawed, but I don't think killing a killer is the answer. Two wrongs don't make a right. Killing that person isn't justice and it's not going to bring the dead back. You won't even have a focus for your anger, just another empty void. Maybe instead of looking for a solution, we should try to prevent the problem. Our penal system emphasizes incarceration as the punishment, being taken out of society and locked up. For most of the people in prison, they have already rejected or been rejected from society, if they were ever part of it in the first place. Or the prison is simply an extension of their society as with gangs. Instead of trying so hard to keep the problems out of society by locking them away, we should try to figure out how that individual and society went wrong so we can prevent it from happening in someone else.

My husband told me about this the other night. I think it's totally bogus to charge him with the deaths of the people in the helicopters. Like Pleno said, they people in the helicopters were doing their job, trying to catch the best angle for the news. It's the pilot's job to make sure that they are safe while doing this. If it had been a news chopper that crashed into a police chopper, I think that the police would feel differently. Personally, though, I think it's stupid to watch high speed chases. Then again, I don't watch COPS or things like that. I'd much rather watch something informative rather than some idiot trying to run from the police. I gave up on the evening news long ago because it's become more of an entertainment/tabloidish show than real journalism. I'll stick to the AP wire and the BBC News.