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Okay people, this could be very looooooooong, or very shrt...

DO NOT... go see All the King's Men, that godawful piece of garbage that is AT THIS MOMENT... SOMEWHERE... is tainting the careers of the few, I mean TWO, fine actors that decided to play in it.

The dialogue ALONE was enough to ruin the first... I don't know, 10 minutes. Jason's character, a farmer, has a DARK and MYSTERIOUS past... OOOOooh! Everyone calls him Farmer, EVEN HIS OWN SON! How tarded is that!? The graphics, well, SFX crew did a fair decent job. The acting well, lets just say the director was too busy coking himself into a coma to realize he'd called ACTION. Camera work was terrible, there are these things called Kruggs... or Krudds? I can't remember, I did a line of cocoa powder after I ranted in the lobby and now my mind is just twisted like the Animaniacs. Anyway, they are basically orks, if anyone knows about Warhammer 40k, they pretty much resemble a less cartoony Space Ork. However, because this farmer has been genetically programmed like the Terminator to be able to kill EVERYHTING with his massive genocidal machete which he uses like a baseball bat, the camera is like, I DUNNO, tied to some magically invisible rope attached to Statham's chestal section so that whenever he moves, the camera moves. I don't know, that, or the camera guy had a bad case of PD. Either way, motion sickness, PROBABLY, will occur.

Yeah, Ray Liota crawled out of his hole to make this film, not sure why...

Umm... physics, yeah, apparently women who to vine-circe du sole in their spare time are better rock huckers than most over muscled football players. I won't get into the details, but basically, all sense of whatever you previously thought WASN'T possible by idle, sickly thin women, IS POSSIBLE. She did have a great set on her though.

And wow, it droned on, worse even than Return of the Kind with its 27 endings. Just when you think the credits are coming... BAM!! Another scene hits you, more shite dialogue, more witty f*******g puns, more terrible acting. It's like WATCHING cancer eek . Seriously, you feel as if you're getting cancer from watching this movie and can feel yourself dying, wishing you had never bought the ticket.

I'm gonna stop before this gets to be about Drew Length. I need water, this headache is killing me.

the Lion

16 degrees? Where do you live to get such madness? It's only 54 here... Once the people in the news told us it would get down to 30 in the night, so I put out a pan of water to see if it would freeze... it didn't. emo

You people are all confusing me with your higher numbers... I live in Canada. Do you know the highest number we got to with Celsius? I think like 45, at the most. And that is in the middle of the summer, and I die because its too hot to move.
Fahrenheit confuses the hell out of me. XD If it were 30 at night where I'm from, no one would go outside during the day for fear of heat exhaustion. burning_eyes whee

Actually, no, its minus eight. Which isn't actually that bad, considering it goes down to minus thirty sometimes.

Tommy: yeah, i forget the math... need a conversion chart... but it's cold, that was the point, someone was somewhat complaining when it's like 56deg f.. which is perfect weather where i'm at.

Dark_angel: Yeah i got to go to one of those, though it was a USA vs Germany hockey game so it was indoors. though we did go to a concert (which was like $100 per person and 6 of us went) which was cold, but they had so pyrotechnics( torches that went to the music) with it so that made it warmer.

Are you talking about the olypics concerts that they had? There was some place in Layton (which is where I lived at the time) that was giving them away for free (they weren't that great of seats, but still...). You had to wait in line at like 5 in the morning to get them though. My mom had actually gotten a bunch to several concerts. And she just sold the tickets for whichever ones we didn't go to.

Yes...I believe that things are working out.

Isn't it interesting, how memory, knowledge, emotion, and relation change things? Not just perceptions either. Actual situations. Reality. As new truths are uncovered--or old truths reclaimed--the nature of our world changes, if ever so slightly, due to our perception of the world changing.

There is a theory among anthropologists that we change society even by observing it; no matter how detached we become, we are reminded, ever so subtly sometimes, that we are interconnected with the world. Even the windows to our souls connect us to the world, rather than divide.

In my case, I have reclaimed the knowledge--at the moment of Andy's tackle-hug--that most people, that friends, take happiness, even pride from helping their friends. I do, too. Most people, I think, are willing to lend a hand--sympathy is innate to humanity. Even to someone they don't know, most people try to be friendly, or at least polite. 'Tolerant', sometimes. Few people act with hostility--and fewer, sheer animosity--towards others. I am very glad for this: it is a course for humanity I would like to see taken on an evolutionary scale.

But perhaps 'evolutionary' is the wrong word.... Global, maybe?

But I digress. As I had been saying, most people are glad to help each other out. Most are willing to be lessons to one another, for one another. Whether we 'use' people or not, there they are, waiting for us to take them. Strangely enough, the more I think about it, the more wrong it feels to pointedly avoid a lesson--like it's disrespectful not to. And I have, from each of you--and each knows your place in my heart.

I was online with Taylor last night, discussing this with her. It made sense to me then, as I wondered why it bothered me so much that I ranted about it here. I think we all understand the price of friendship, of love, of family, even if we don't know how to express it. The price, and the gift. Because Love is the...forgive me, I'm not sure how else to put this...'purest' of relations with any given person, it is easiest to understand it's clearest cost.

You see, when we love someone, we give a part of ourselves to them. Our time, our words. We weave them together with ourselves and create the memory of us. Whether or not we understand this, or they, is irrelevant--it is done in a smile, a word, ceded with a hug, a kiss, a touch. It is bought with warmth. It is won with loyalty.

Like a mother cares for a child, we do not begrudge the people we love that Love, that part of ourselves that belongs to them. Our highest hopes for them become happiness, and growth. Through the people we love, we develop knowledge, generosity, care, kindness, justice, self-control, joy, wisdom. We grow with them. They change us in a wonderful, unexpected way. Even if we expect it, it is unexpected. We take pride in their pride. Joy in their joy. Sympathy develops into empathy. We find ourselves wanting to be better people, for those people we care for, we love. What mother has not wanted to be stronger for their child, what teacher, wiser and more knowledgeable?

I don't think it's as easy as people 'giving us all the answers'. Call me a romantic, but I believe that they give us the strength to look inside ourselves and find that goodness. We are mirrors for one another, road maps to different parts of ourselves--mirrors full of mirth. What will we find in one another? I have found that the mirror is harsh only if we ask it to be--but I have found that the softest touch is often best.

But what is the cost? I think you know, deep down. I have heard Justin say it, and Tommy in so many words. I have said it myself--just as my mother said it to me. It is self-sacrifice. To each person we care for, we give a part of ourselves. Tommy, you have a piece. I think it must be rainbow-colored. Justin has one, a dark red and a deep blue. Muse, a wispy, soft one. Kiyome, a strong, golden one. KiyoKyo, fluid and silver. I cannot list all of them here. But this self-sacrifice is not absolute--and besides, we also gain a piece of the other, too, let's not forget--we reserve a single piece for ourselves: it is the 'last inch' Valerie talks about in V for Vendetta. We owe it to ourselves to keep, that memory of memories. It is our core. Our soul. We can devote it to a god, to a cause, even to another person. But it is always ours.

And the prize? The prize...it may not seem like much, not in words, anyway. It is the little light inside of us that begins to shine brighter--we see it in a genuine smile, hear it's sparkle in a true laugh. It is the little jump in our step. The little sweetness in our tears. The beauty in the darkness. Our truth in the light.

Soon, we start to see it in each other. Sometimes, it's hard to see. Sometimes, we might even doubt it's there at all, but there it is. That tiny little kernel of goodness unique to that person begins to make itself known. As if it sees the little light in us, it expands in them. Love spreads, like the soft fragrance of flowers after a Spring shower. The whole world begins to seem like a different place--and just like the anthropologists say, just by seeing the world differently, we change it. Things that were previously heart-breaking, world-ending, frightening or depressing...they don't seem insurmountable anymore. Oh, it doesn't solve itself--but it becomes easier, better. A truer existence to the heart.

Don't you see? Love's gift is Hope. Undying, it spreads from spirit to spirit, like the tiny lights at a candlelight vigil. At first, there is nothing but a thick, empty darkness. Sorrow and grief rule. But then, there is one flame, then two, and before you know it, there are many, like a sea of stars, twinkling with hope and, maybe, just maybe, the strength to go on. Joy fills the soul at each moment. Clarity enters the mind because the heart is at peace. Is Love unreasonable? Maybe some would say so. But things seem a lot more helpless without it. A lot messier.

I don't mean to preach, I swear. This is not The Gospel According to Leavy-Kun. This is...this is a friend, trying so hard to say thank you, thank you for being there for me when I'm an annoying angst-monkey, or overly-flamboyant (please!) queen, or, yes, a Love-Freak. Thanks for being there for me when I need you guys most. I am so grateful for you all, and because I have a suspicion that Lion is going to roar at me about this, I'll forgive him in advance.

So...thank you. And I love you all, probably more than you know.

Love and Vale,
~Andrew/Leavaros Dapple