Toa Nidhiki05

I want you to read very, very carefully what you just wrote there, because it's an inherent contradiction. You say that we are free to live our lives as we please, so long as it does not offend your sensibilities or notion of right or wrong. So long as we don't offend you, we are free to do as we wish. So long as we don't do the things you don't want us to do, we have your support. Do you not see how wrong that is? Can you not see how I am being dehumanized? Can you not see how I cannot live my life as a normal human being just because you don't like who I am? Why can't I celebrate the same things that you? Why am I not allowed to experience the joys of marriage just because I would choose to do so with a man. Why can't I experience life like a normal person just because I find girls just as cute as guys? Why do I not feel like a normal human being even though I know I am? Why am I stuck being a second class citizen? Do you not see the lunacy of it? Do you not see the madness? Do you not see how you are essentially saying, "I completely disagree with you as a person and who you are, but I still support you except for basic rights that everyone else enjoys." Do you not see it? You are delegating me to the closet. You are telling me to stay in there. You are telling me that you support me in everything I do, so long as you don't see it because you might be offended. You are not an ally. You are not helping us. Your message is not comforting. It does not make me feel good. It does not fill me with confidence. It does not make me feel normal. It does not make me feel like a human being. Whether you are willing to recognize it or not, Toa Nidhiki05, you are a part of the problem. I've never said any of that. I never said you can do whatever you want as long as it doesn't offend me, and I never said you should hide who you are if it offends me. I really, really don't know where you read that from my comment. You know what? I think you should be able to do whatever you want, even if I disagree with it. You should be able to live your live as you wish, just as I can live life the way I wish. As for the marriage thing, my stance on marriage is exactly what Barack Obama's was in 2008. It may not be 100% what you agree with, but it is far closer than you may think. That aside, your reaction really disappoints me. I'm suggesting everyone team up to stop oppressive regimes in the middle east from executing gay people. How is that not something we should and can work to end? Why focus only on the plight of gay people here? America is not the only place in the world. In virtually every middle-eastern country it is either a crime to be homosexual or you will be killed for it. I want that inhuman barbarity to end. If that's not enough for you, I don't know what is. If you don't want or accept the help of people who may not agree with you 100%, I doubt those problems will resolve any time soon, and that is a crying shame. All that does is spread the alienation between us, and that doesn't do anything to solve problems.

I like the sentiment here, but I am also concerned about the 'if you aren't with me, you are against me' mentality. I know for a fact that many people that are on my side of the aisle (the political right) are strongly supportive of the right for gay people to live their lives how they please. We may not all support gay marriage or civil unions, and we may not all see it as 'right', but the vast majority of us will absolutely defend the right for you to live how you please. In fact, I would wager that if there were to be a serious, international effort to pressure oppressive middle-eastern countries into decriminalizing homosexuality and to stop the stoning, murder, and oppression of all gay, lesbian, and otherwise non-gender conformative peoples, the vast majority of my side would support it - and many of us would be vocal and leading the charge. Is that a bit of a lofty goal? Sure. But the vast majority of people would support it, my side included, because only hateful, cruel people love to see oppression and tyranny. I think there is a lot more common ground between both sides on this issue than people may think - we may not support exactly what you do, and I think the bigots and violent people are not just a tiny minority, but a minority that violates the fiber of who we are and what we believe. I hope I haven't angered or offended anyone with that, I just feel it needs to be said. I'd like to see less anger on both sides and more discussion, because I truly believe that we would be better off with it.

I don't disagree with you that some ideas (ie. Nazism, racism, sexism, bigotry, etc.) are bad, and those bad ideas need to be discredited and rejected. I just don't think all people who believe those bad ideas need to discredited and rejected. That's what I'm trying to get at. I very much appreciate your respectful comment.

Well, it appears I (thankfully) missed another blow-up on here. I have no clue what happened, but I assume someone made an insensitive or offensive comment and people took offense to it. If that's the case, (s)he probably deserved it... But that's not the biggest problem I see here. The community is split in half. One half has one view, one half the other. Most people are respectful, but a few on both sides can't stand everyone on the other. That is a major problem. A split of opinion is not a bad things - much good has come from people who have different views, but respect each other and try and get around those differences. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams are a good example, and in more recent times it would be George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. No good can come from people - regardless of which side they stand on, which beliefs they endorse, which religion they are - disrespecting huge chunks of society. People who think everyone that disagrees with them is a disgusting bigot who deserves to be belittled, ridiculed, and robbed of the respect that we all as human beings are entitled to are the problem in our society. Being a 'tolerant' person does not give you the excuse to treat others poorly, and being a 'righteous' person does not give you a right to treat others poorly... As a matter of fact, nothing gives you the right to treat others poorly. I can't speak for everyone who believes what I do, but I believe that everyone is equal and that, regardless of how you see someone else's beliefs or lifestyle, they are human and you are just as messed up as they are. I believe we share more in common than not, and I believe we would truly understand our neighbor more if we laid down the pitchforks and started talking about things. Does that mean that you can't disagree with someone, or view something they do as wrong? Of course it doesn't - we are given a moral compass for a reason, and calling out true evil deserves to be done. But it does mean you should treat them as you would treat yourself, your family, your friends, your beliefs, and your country. I'm not perfect, and I mess up on this a lot... But I want to strive to view things that way. And you know what? Nothing can excuse not reaching out to someone. If you disagree with them, guess what? That's life. Nobody is going to think exactly the way you do, and you are going to disagree with people. To me, I think if we could just sit down and talk, we'd find more in common than you might think. We are all human, and most all of us strive to do what is right by our beliefs and our country... Even if it is just that little, that's still a great thing we share. You might have to agree to disagree, but who knows - maybe that could help you, and your opposite, out a little bit. People are different - we're all different - but we are all people. But, it's a shame that such an event could likely never happen here. It pains me to see this community I've been a part of for a third of my life be torn apart by intolerance from people, and that's really all I'm getting at. Can't we just agree to disagree, get on with our lives, and get back to being the best LEGO community on the internet? I miss the days when I could truly say that about our community. I miss the days when, instead of yelling at each other and taking sides and names, we could just talk about our shared interest. -TN05

Yes. It's frozen five times now, during the game - on most of them it sent me back to the menu and restarted the game. I've played regular DS games (Mario Party DS, SimCity DS) without issue. Most of them have been in the last two days.

I've been enjoying my 3DS very much for the past few days, aside from one issue... Freezing. For some reason, Animal Crossing: New Leaf has frozen at least four times now. I have a physical copy, and am using the SD card that came with the system; when the game freezes, it returns me to the home screen. Most recently, the game froze while I was on the island (and after having earned well over 70,000 bells). Any advice, guys? I don't want to lose my town data, and I have no clue if this is a hardware issue with the 3DS or an issue with the game cartridge or SD card. -TN05

Do you by chance have a net? Nooklings have been selling shovels and nets for the past three days.

I picked up Animal Crossing: New Leaf; I'm think about getting Luigi's Mansion, Super Mario 3D land, and the new Mario & Luigi game at some point.

Grandpa Joe lol wut? iNCSACBCCVCiDN Winner

I had a fun little mini-adventure for a 3DS today, and I've got to say I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. So, to begin I decided to go to Best Buy to get a red, regular 3DS. They have them going for $154.99 online (a significant discount from the $169.99 MSRP), but the model is discontinued so there just aren't too many out there. By the time I got there, they had already sold it. At this point, I'm pretty bummed. I don't have enough to get the full-price ones. We spent a tittle longer out and finally get to Sam's Club. After enjoying a delicious pretzel with Cherry Coke, I decided to see their price for the heck of it. Turns out they have a ton of purple 3DSes going for $139.99 each. After confirming with a cashier that they are indeed that low (she was more shocked they had 23 of them in stock), I bought it and a full 1-year warranty that covers basically everything but intentionally destroying it, bringing the total to just under $160. So yeah, I get a new 3DS and full warranty for well under the MSRP. Oh, and we got Mexican Coke too. What better way is there to celebrate a great deal that imbibing in sugary soda? -TN05

So, the area of North Carolina I live in has become victim to a massive flash flood over the past 12 hours or so. The flooding is covering bridges and roads, causing pretty big sink holes to form over said roads and bridges, and all sorts of other nasty stuff. This is just another part of a really bizarre summer we've been having around here - the weather has basically alternated between hot, drought-type weather (90+ degrees) and very rainy weather. Thankfully there are no reported fatalities or injuries yet, but emergency services are urging everyone to stay indoors (except for one residential area near a dam, which is being urged to evacuate). Hopefully people follow that advice. -TN05

So we can say YouTube now, but we still can't say cool dude? Lame. -TN05

It's a shame anyone has to hide who they are. I don't like that at all. Be it something important like your sexual orientation, religion, or relationship partner, or something trivial like your favorite hobby or band, nobody should have to hide who they are and what they believe. And that's why I talking here today. I don't think we'll ever truly get rid of the closet. Why? Because we can't talk to each other without getting into a fight. People with different views can't have a discussion without one of them lashing out in anger. People can't explain why they believe in something, because people don't want to hear it. This isn't just a left-right deal; it is internal, even inside movements that supposedly unite people. Our lack of ability to communicate is pulling all of us back. The fact is, there is more common ground between us than we all might think. -TN05

What I see you arguing is akin to saying that, circa 1945, it would be invalid to oppose racism because you were bullied in school, and thus empathized with people that were being bullied to an extreme degree all the time. I don't think that sort of argument makes much sense at all. People draw sympathy from all sorts of things, and personal experience is one of them. I don't see sympathizing with people to be a bad thing.

He is saying that he sympathizes more with those in the closet due to his own experience with having to hide his feelings. Please explain how that is so terrible, because I'd really like to know how sympathizing with people is a bad thing. It may feel a little bit better to pull out the pitchforks and torches because he doesn't agree with you 100% on everything, but I don't think doing that is founded on the facts here. I think what is happening here really does draw back to his argument - that many of the ills of our society is that people just can't communicate with each other. I think if people actually did try to communicate with each other instead of pulling out the pitchforks because they disagree, we'd find a lot more common ground and get a lot more done. But when you can't even sympathize with people, we have a problem.

I think you express a wonderful sentiment here. Expressing sympathy towards basically everyone might not be enough for some people, but I think most people would find it to be rather nice.

So, I've pretty much set in mind I am going to get a 3DS in the next few weeks. I have more than enough money at the moment, but I think I'm only going to buy the console and one game at the moment. Now, the difficult thing is deciding which game to buy. I'm wavering between Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon and Animal Crossing: New Leaf. So, BZP, which would you recommend? -TN05

So $12.50 plus shipping for the Dume Helmet and discs (171, 442, 589, 212, 265)? PM me and we can hammer out the details. For $2 for four masks and me paying the cost of shipping, I don't really think it is worth it. -TN05

Yes, it's still available. -TN05

Sorry, but I've already sold that - Toa Lhikan Hordika made a very good offer for it. -TN05

Could you give a picture of the Pohatu Mata? I am very interested in purchasing it - he's the only Mata I don't have (or have the pieces to build, I should say) at the moment. -TN05

Well, the discs would be 2.50 total (0.50 each); as for the Dume helmet, I'm not sure what it would be worth and if it would be worth shipping if I don't even get $7.50 (cause PayPal takes out a bit of money). -TN05

Don't forget we had control of Haiti, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic at points too.

Egypt had a princess? I did not hear about this in the media.

Just think - if we hadn't won, we'd still be wearing top hats and speaking in British accents, we'd be saluting the queen, and we'd be playing cricket instead of baseball and soccer instead of football. Also, go Egypt! -TN05