Mr. Pumpkinhead
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Posts posted by Mr. Pumpkinhead
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Colombia has been very impressive.
I'll worry about tomorrow come tomorrow.
For today I'm interested in seeing how strong Argentina and France look heading into the round of 16. France can cost if they want to in my mind, because they've been very good. Argentina needs to win and find some momentum, confidence and goal scoring from anyone not named Messi. -
Been watching a ton of World Cup Soccer. Kristin, we might need ya with Jozy Altidore out against Germany.
GO USA tomorrow!
Now that England is eliminated perhaps Rupert is rooting for France?
If Emma follows the World Cup perhaps she is (or always has been) rooting for France to win now too?
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Widu, teams coming out of Manaus are winless with a combined -7 goal differential. That doesn't look too promising for the U.S.. Nevermind the fact that it's Germany we play.
I hope for you and for my friend Sabine that Germany gets the tie.
For myself I hope the U.S. wins. 
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Arghhhhh!
I want to spin it positively but that was heartbreaking!
I need to catch my breath.
The challenge is not to look back and only look forward to Monday. IF the unmentionable happens though, there will inevitably be a lot of looking back. >.<
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U.S.A.
I've actually watched more matches already in this years World Cup than ever in my life previously. I think that there has been a good deal of "fair play" in most of the matches. I thought Chile kind of milked the clock a bit on Spain, which I wish they hadn't done, because to me it detracted a bit from an otherwise great victory. They didn't need to do it either.
In spite of their two defeats I think that Australia gave a good account of itself and Iran has played better than I anticipated. Even Brazil and Argentina have not looked like World Beaters to me yet, of course, they've done what they've needed to do to advance and that's all that matters at this point.
I made first round predictions on my blog and the ONLY country I pretty much summarily dismissed before the tournament was Costa Rica!
Shows what I know about the sport.
Colombia, Chile and Mexico have impressed me the most so far out of the teams I've seen play. I've been working when France and Germany have played so I have not seen them yet even though I know they are formidable teams.
Take courage Tom, England still has a proud history to fall back on.
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I miss you dad. Happy Father's Day. You're still the best! <3
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The New Year --- as sung by Death Cab for Cutie
http://soundcloud.com/sinstone/death-cab-for-cutie-the-new-year
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Omg Sabine. Don't get me started on the German Beer. I LOVE Dickelacker it's very probably my favorite Pilsner EVER. Unfortunately I heard that they or their international sales were purchased by Spaten, and I can no longer get Dinkelacker in the states. :'(
Spaten's good too, but it's no Dinkelacker. >.<
I did hear that it's still available on tap in the U.S., but I've yet to find a bar (of course I'm not much of a bar fly anyways) that sells it on tap.
Bringing things back to Ron and Hermione. I propose a toast to our favorite shipping couple and the Detroit Bears. Oh crumb... I don't have any Dinkelacker to toast with.
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I agree it would likely be impossible to gather allthose peopoe online at the same time. I misunderstood, Jon, that was purely me being "stupid" not you being misleading. ;-)
Sometimes it's fun to think how it would be to meet some of the online people. Would we even have something to talk about besides HP? Would there be embarrassed silence or would wee connectmore easily because you have to be a certain kind of person to become attached to a fictional couple the way we do?
Haha Sabine. You are not stupid about anything. Gosh, you simply came to a logical conclusion from my comments. Your mistake was thinking logically.
I'm sure we'd all find something else to talk about. YOU ARE ALL American sports fans, listen to alternative rock music and enjoy playing Scrabble.... right?
I think that it's easy to think of the forums in terms of their theme and to want to stick to that theme. But maybe we can create something of a shipper forum "bar and grill" thread where the shipping community can discuss life, society, politics, religion, family and friends, hobbies or what ever's on their mind. Of course there are other places on the ew.net forum to do that, but the thread could be specific to our shipping community. Of course others would be able to access it as well, but I'm just thinking out loud, well... on paper rather... or on computer screen.
As to the "certain kind of person" comment Sabine. C'mon, you can say "crazy". It's okay to drop the political correctness between friends.
Did someone mention an online party? I'M HEEEEREEE!
I totally agree Jon and Sabine. There are definitely people from the 'old days' whose posting I miss. I'm not ashamed to admit that when I check the shipper forums and see that certain people were the last posters - yourselves included - I always feel a rush of enthusiasm to read those posts. Personally I haven't been one for really talking to forum members much outside the forum threads and the occasional message, but as you've said I still feel a certain attachment to a lot of you. I feel comforted to know that members who have been here a while are still around as much as I love new members coming to share in the community. I know which members I can rely on to make me laugh, to inspire my positivity about the ship (yes, I'm looking at you, Kristin!) and those I can always have an in-depth conversation with and who will present well thought-out arguments. As much as I miss the old forums, where more people posted frequently and the conversation never stopped, it is also nice now that things have got quieter, that I am able to recognise not only the most prominent usernames, but those of the majority of semi-regular posters. It's nice in a way to have a smaller community where not everyone has to fight to be heard. I'm not criticising the shippers of the past by that statement - I loved how it used to be - but at least now it is easier to keep up with more threads and have more general discussion to get to know fellow shippers.
I'm not really sure where I'm going with this except that I love you all!
But yes, back to the original topic - I would love to see some old members posting again! Let us hunt them down and force them here! Or something that sounds slightly less like the Imperius curse...
Thanks Katharine!
You expressed my feelings about our shipping community so nicely. I was not a member of the forums during the busiest times of the ship as some of you were... that said...
You also made a very good point about how an oversaturation of shippers can cause some great comments/observations to get lost. More isn't always merrier. There is also something that is kind of cool about the exclusivity of our faithful lot.
If you all think the bar and grille thread idea might be worth a try we can try it. If it dies, it dies, if it works it works. Or please if anyone has a better idea feel free to express that. I'm open to giving things a try.
Hopefully I didn't just plant the seed for the distruction of the Shipper Forums.
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When I mentioned that I was hoping for a conversation with all the former and current shippers I wasn't even considering a joint conversation at the same time. Too much coordination involved in a conversation like that over several time zones. I simply meant if some of the former members posted some of their shipping memories or something akin to that here. My egg hunt" analogy was probably a bit misleading too in the sense that I don't really have the contact info for many of the former members, simply the ability to make an appeal on the chance they might still occasionally read the shipper forum.
The friendships we form online are definitely a different form of friendship than the more personal ones we share with people face to face Sabine. I'm guessing that there are some people here who if they met me in person might even think to themselves, "that's the guy I thought was the coolest Ron and Hermione Shipper and possibly even the coolest PERSON ever????
" And Yes... I quoted an emoticon there. Ha ha!With that said, there is a parculiar sort of uniqueness to the people we meet via online communities that make those bonds special in there own way.
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Thanks Sabine! Happy Easter to you too!
I'm on a different sort of "egg hunt". I was thinking yesterday about how nice it would be even if for just one shipper conversation vida, start.a.revolution., luciana, cbmac12, galadriel12, Dumbledore's woman, pat, 2pints, Joannedern, Lumos, Trixie, Tick Tock, Lolli, Flamemist, Feathersbend, whomever else I'm forgetting and yours truly could reunite. While I know the logistics of that given how long it's been since some of those members stopped frequenting the site means that "ship has (probably) sailed"
it's still fun for me to think about. I know that the internet in general is not the most conducive medium for enduring friendships, but I only regularly visit two forums this forum for the past 4 and a half years and a sports forum I've been a part of for the last 15 years now. I'm not a social media guy and don't even have a face book account, so this place has been my "internet family". As such the lovely people I've befriended via this site mean a lot to me and if I ever had the chance to realize my imagined reunification convo, it's something I would not take for granted. Alas it seems that sometimes we're all just "ships passing in the night". 
Give me any opportunity to throw in a corny play on words and I can't resist. >.<
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OMG Dina! What happens when wolfy attacks horsey?! :'(
hmmm... this is a tough one. It's changed over the years. Right now it's possum (Australian) not American opossum. The Oz ones are cuter.
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Top 5 Currently... even though this list changes minute by minute it seems.
5. River by Civil Twilight
4. Your Body is a Weapon by The Wombats
3. Bad Reputation by Freedy Johnston
2. These Days by Nico (cover of original by Jackson Browne)
1. Say Hello Wave Goodbye by David Gray (cover of original by Soft Cell)
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Lullaby by the Cure
My best friend George when I was growing up was a huge Cure fan. I never really listened to them. As I've grown older I've come to like their music. I was talking to a teenager at work about the Cure several months ago when hearing Love Song over the radio as sung by Adele. Love song has been sung by many artists and was re-popularized by 311 over a decade ago before being re-popularized again by Adele a couple of years back. Tori Amos also has a hauntingly beautiful piano version of Love Song. The Cure who were something of a Cult phenomenon when I was a high-schooler were the original composers of Love Song.
That's my music history lesson for the day for anyone who might have taken the time to read it.
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To be honest, I haven't seen Emma ever dress "sexy" and if she's wearing something that would be considered "sexy" it's usually worn in a classy way.
Emma's never dressed "trashy" like Miley Cyrus....
And I think she is still the same down to earth normal girl that we have all admired for so long. She still wears sweat pants and hoodies in pap pics for gods sake.
First off, I know I'm late with this... but welcome back Ashley.
I agree that Emma tends to dress nicely and for comfort and is certainly not a trashy dresser.
As far as dressing sexy, or even trashy though, it's always going to be a function of personal perception. Some of those perceptions are going to be cultural manifestations and when you're an international celebrity how Emma dresses is going to be viewed differently in Asia, America, The Middle East and Africa for example.
Something I might see as classy or sexy might be viewed as trashy by another culture. Does that make it a fair critique? I'm not sure because I don't see it from the other perspective. IF I was seeing it from a different culture though I hope that I might consider how she dresses relative to how others dress in her culture. In so doing I would say that her personal fashion is very classy. Her magazine fashion is to sell magazines and will undoubtedly be more sexy or revealing.
The human body can also be artful and doesn't HAVE to be sexual. So I think the differing perceptions of how she dresses and how one describes it is unavoidable, and not necessarily wrong.. just different.
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Happy belated b-day Emma! Now .... make a wish!
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I love the Chuck Palahniuk quote that you posted Ling. It speaks an important truth, because much of how we conduct ourselves is part and parcel to the things we have seen and been given by the people around us. That's why it's soooo important to be mindful of the people we are, having enough self-awareness of the fact that our actions and behaviors (both directly and indirectly) can be of benefit or a detriment to someone else. Many times we don't appreciate fully the power and influence a. that others have had on us and b. that we have upon others. Mr. Palahniuk's quote nicely expresses the potential power of our influence.
I'm glad in a way that HorseWhisperer put her opinion out there. First off, however anyone here agrees or disagrees with her, the fact that she has the freedom to, and the venue for expressing an opinion without being only ridiculed for it is important. Secondly, hopefully the sharing of disparate views allows for some self discovery and growth. That isn't guaranteed, it all comes down to how the different messages here are internalized. What is guarenteed is opportunity. Which brings me to Kitty's comment...
Kitty:
Speaking for myself, I hope that learning never stops in life. This forum has given me many opportunities to learn. Sometimes it was something whimsical and at other times something deeper and more personal. I've learned things from both teens here and adults here. I feel honored by your comment. Thank you.
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Personally I don't have role models either. There are aspects of people that I admire and hope I come to embody, but on my own terms. People have to live their lives for themselves. Emma didn't sign up to be confined to a little box to reinforce your life choices or provide you with guidance. She's not Hillary Clinton, Mother Theresa or Marie Curie... she's an actor who has appeared in one lengthy film franchise and a handful of other good movies (not groundbreaking masterpieces of cinematic achievement, just good movies). There are obviously traits of Emma's that I think are great and something people should aspire to, but I don't think anyone's self worth should be tied up in a 23 year old woman whose life is NOT normal, who is just figuring things out like the rest of us, and who will likely never even know you exist.
I don't think anyone's self worth should be tied up in other people, period.
Ling, Perhaps I define role model differently, but what I bolded in your quote is exactly how I define a role model to myself. I think that's a healthy definition of a role model. Perhaps the discussion here has skewed "role models" in a negative way? I agree with everything else you said, and I would just add a caveat to your comment that people have to live their lives for themselves, as I agree with that so long as it's with the understanding that when we do that we balance it with the needs and wants/desires of others who matter to us. When I say that I simply mean that there are decisions that I have made for myself, my own needs, my own desires, my own satisfaction or happiness, but there are times when someone I loved's needs and yes sometimes even their desires outweighed living my life for myself (this is something I imagine we really discover when we have children LOL). I also live for them and when I've done so hopefully their need or desire has taken precedence to living my life for myself. Obviously it's not good to do that all the time. Balance.
I don't think you were denying that in what you said. If I'm right, you're just saying that we should not let other people's behavior determine our every behavior. Obviously it's not healthy for anyone here to idealize Emma or put her on a pedestal. When they do so, they risk either compromising the things they find important to them OR having an unfavorable opinion of her. It would be a lot healthier for them to pick the things that they admire about her and try to self-incorporate those qualities (something you pointed to when you mentioned there are aspects of how she lives her life that are good things to aspire to).
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We chose our role models.
If you think that Emma Watson does not stand by her word and is failing or falling short as a role model... well... maybe it's time to find a new role model? Or adjust your idea of what a role model is/should be?
People are faulted. All of my role models in life have had faults. I have my own faults. Thankfully, there is a lot more I admire about my role models than I take issue with. Hopefully if anyone looks up to me they see me for who I am (not just look past my faults but recognize them) and decide that I'm still worth looking up to.
Given the unique nature of humanity, we're all going to perceive Miss Watson differently. We have our own unique morality and values. Those develop and change over time for each and every one of us. Emma Watson does not decide how she fits into your picture of morality. Nor does dookdook, Nor does Johnny, Nor does Ling, Nor do I. You're responsible for those decisions. The answers you might seek about Emma Watson and how she behaves are likely not found in others, they're probably found in yourself.
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Dee, Emma's perceived flip flopping has never bothered me... I thought Emma changing her mind simply makes her a woman.
Crumb! Just earned myself some more time in the brig I think. >.<
Rupert is Emma's Rock though, so no flip flopping there.
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Shark Attack by Group Love
( I like the background calypso type music they sprinkle in there)
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Jon!!! LOL just what are you saying-do we need another brig timeout?
Oh....Nothing. You ladies are just so innocent. 
And No I don't need a timeout. -
I love the comment about the "smartest witch of her age" quoting Harry from the story, Kristin. It should say something that the smartest witch who could have chosen to be with anyone chose to be with Ron. The other point you made in regards to Hermione that I liked a lot was that she did not dumb herself down for Ron. There were going to be times when neither Ron, nor Harry or any wizard or witch were going to be able to understand what Hermione was getting at. Hermione knew that Ron was plenty smart enough to meet her on equal footing most of the time though. She didn't have to try and make Ron love her by being someone she wasn't. She knew that he could love her for who she was.
Ron was protective of everyone he loved it's true. Always listening to the radio worrying about Ginny and Fred and George during the hunt for the Horcruxes. Giving himself up as the chess piece. Rescuing Harry from drowning. Standing up for Hermione whenever Draco called her a Mudblood or made fun of her in class. Even looking out for the House Elves during the Battle of Hogwarts. It's almost as if some of Ron's inferiority made him especially intuned to looking out for everyone, making sure no one was left out or forgotten. With Hermione that protective nature was ratcheted up to another degree. Hermione and especially Harry could be so task oriented and that focus is what gave them the strength to deal with the amulet better than Ron. I think the fact that Ron kind of cast his net a bit wider and tended to think more about everyone and everything, wishing he could be there to help protect them is what made him more vulnerable to the locket.
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leave it to the ladies to find that picture. It took me a full two days before I noticed what ya'll were talking about. They had just gotten out of the cold water too!
2014 FIFA World Cup
in Sports Forum
Posted
Really? America wants to be the best in everything so it was only a matter of time before the public got behind soccer.
What I'm interested in seeing for myself and for other new U.S. soccer fans is if once the U.S. is out of it, or if there is a disapointing defeat, will the fervor reamain the same or build during the period between this World Cup and the next one? Or will the new bandwagoners (myself included) fade out only to reappear four years later? Will it be European football we support or the U.S. soccer league?
As for where I stand. I'm starting to understand the game better. I still don't love it like I do baseball or american football or even hockey, but I am enjoying the World Cup. I'm learning the names of some of the elite players, but I can't even pretend to know soccer like most Europeans or South Americans or Asians might. There have been more goals then I expected and a lot of skill displayed. The ONE thing I want to see more of is some great goal tending. It seems that any time a player doesn't miss the net that the goalies are not aggresive enough and fall victim to falling backwards or falling down passively, ultimately letting in goals that they might have saved with a more aggresive approach. I know it's easy to say when I'm not having a soccer ball kicked at my head. I did see one of the players have his arm hit today and it looked like he broke his arm!
Right now the biggest thing that can bring U.S. support is U.S. success. The other reason it's burgeoning popularity here shouldn't be surprising is because I am pretty sure that for over a decade now Soccer has been the number one sport played by American children in the United States. That has to amount to some kind of growth in fandom I would think.