Iceni

Generally the needles are plucked out, the soup is made by boiling the plant and drinking the water if I remember aright.

Despite being New Mexican and therefore in pretty good position to understand all things cactus-related, I have no idea.

I prefer food with substance to it, so I don't really like soup unless it's hearty. My views on bosoms will have hinted at this general preference.

I used to drink soup, but now I just snort a few lines of powdered beef bullion.

No, I like to eat my food.

Apparently I am enshrouded in mystery. And neck flab. But mostly mystery.

I'm just not a big fan of sweet foods in general. I like savory.

They'd want to, but they couldn't, the lardy bastard. The other thing worth pointing out is that I can't resize images properly. That and, like I said, I don't have any recent ones that are really any good.

I gave you three, isn't that enough anyway?

Try out the Magic Astronomy EP, that's some great instrumental prog.

No, I'm not embarrassed by pictures at all. It's more that I just look generally unpleasant.

Good, somebody else listening to Thy Catafalque...

Oh, I imagine you would mind.

If keeping you happy involves sarcastically insulting dickheads, I'm more than willing to keep doing it.

That's not the problem so much as that I become a lot more sensitive to the slightest hint of stupid in anything I'm saying, so I have far less confidence in trying to continue a conversation. Not that this is in any way a unique or new dilemma.

Well to be honest it can be applied to guys as well although it rarely is. Intuitively, it's easier by several orders of magnitude for me to socialize with other guys rather than attempting to converse with any given young woman, especially if I'm in any way attracted to her.

And now for the riots.

To answer mindy's question, I'm a 'rising senior' in Georgetown University's undergraduate School of Foreign Service. Maybe I didn't communicate myself clearly. I have no problem whatsoever talking to people who are cleverer than me, I do that on a regular basis when I talk to the theology postgrad students at church. It's when I come across people who are cleverer than me and are also pretty close to my own age (younger, or less than two years older) that I start to just leave conversations because I want to contribute but I have nothing. Fear of judgment certainly is part of my behavior on that front. Meeting such people just annihilates my self-esteem in the same way that seeing good art often completely kills my creativity. The mature reaction would be to humbly try to acquire some of their knowledge and admire them for their good qualities, but I'm too lazy, jealous and self-centered to do that. Usually I just remind myself that by talking to them I'd be a complete waste of their time and I sod off so I can go feel sorry for myself for a few hours. As for having the upper hand in a conversation - it's not necessarily that. I would prefer to have the impression that I've contributed something. There's one guy I'm friends with just now who is categorically superior to me with regards to Speech and Debate and knows a lot more about defense and security than I do. But I have enough facts and knowledge that it's fun to discuss these subjects with him, in localized dimensions where I'm just interested in asking questions. However, he also wants to know about African politics and conflict, and I know that I have more knowledge than he does about that subject - so at least there's some subject of mutual interest where I can contribute something. And at least I know enough about certain parts of military matters that it's fun to converse and again, I get the impression I'm contributing something. It's worth mentioning that this is primarily a social/academic thing, I don't mind not being particularly special at work as long as I know I'm doing something useful. But when it comes to socializing and recognition I definitely want the impression of being unique or else I may as well not have come to the party. At that point all I'm doing is eating all the pigs in blankets and serving as the living manifestation of inefficiency and waste, at beast, and at worse being a general eyesore that needs tidying up.

'The Rune of Destruction' by Inanimate Existence.

Ramen. Because anything else takes too long.

I especially like Misato, Ritsuko and Kaji, all of them come across as likeable and yet no more morally upright than the other so none of them are really justified in trying to hold the ethical high ground. I like that Kaji's not a kind of useless twit or just a Bond archetype but that he's fairly good at hiding what he's really like whilst his 'alternate' personality is reasonably engaging. In particular I thought the scene where he's carrying a drunk Misato home was great since what both of them were saying could well have been true, or false, or motivated by something other than candor - especially with regards to their feelings toward the other. For that matter, I like Misato, she seems to be an excellent example of what a flawed strong female character actually should be like. The show doesn't have to force you to like her, she's a likeable individual but you never lose sight of her shortcomings. I don't like the show's xenophobia though. I swear every non-Japanese character is just based on Commodore Perry. Still, it's better than Code Geass where the world has been taken over by 'the Empire of Britannia'...

By all means, ask away. Usually they have to be at least 23 or something before courtesy ceases to amaze them. I've mentioned before that I get along better with adults; that would be one example. As for what kind of females, well, they're usually the more social type. Less social girls just take my courtesy in stride and talk normally, although the less social girls are also often the very academic ones; for example, I know one girl who seems perfectly nice but she's a well-informed theology/politics major who also seems to speak fluent French. As a result, I'm generally scared to talk to her since she seems a fair distance ahead of me academically, but not so far ahead that I could simply speak to her as if she were a TA or a mentor of some description. I think she's Catholic anyway, which doesn't help matters.

I'm kinda just waiting for the inevitable bonings to start happening since that's usually the kind of thing for which 'disturbing' is shorthand; but I have to admit they're doing a very good job making these characters interesting without having to do that.