Questions of the Week

1. Do you bother to vote on things from YouThink?
Added by: 96_Relic_96

2. Do you act like your gender stereotype?
Added by: lithium86

3. If you could, would you decide to be home schooled?
Added by: chaos-marine

4. Have you ever had a recurring nightmare that was like a story with different installments?
Added by: bballchick19

5. If marijuana was legal, would you smoke it?
Added by: RaverPeace

1. The Big Fat 'What Would Your Dream Job Be?' Quiz
Added by: snowmanshoes

2. What type of Dream are you?
Added by: Refrigerate

3. Where do you rank in a wolf pack?
Added by: Ninja421

4. Are you a Veterinarian, Paramedic, or Doctor?
Added by: allamerican8

5. Do you believe in the Paranormal?
Added by: innereye

Funniest Comments of the Week

In "Bill Maher anti-pontiff rant fuels outrage" thread in the News forum:
DaveW: When did offending people become such a problem? FFS, if someone's view causes you offence, counter it with an eloquent response. Moaning about it just makes you sound like a whinger. F*cking whinging Catholics, they're no better than ...*. * Fill in your own word(s) here to make an appropriately offensive joke.
Floor Demon: F*cking whinging Catholics, they're no better than DaveW?

In a question about marines:
allamerican8: You spelled marine rong its Marine!

Random Thread:
Electric: dungeons and dragons scares girls?
heatherlw: It's not exactly between "tall" and "sense of humor" on their checklist.

From two threads:
lyntess: Oh-- Divi! My moonstone works. Holy wow, amazing!
DeeMoon: What does a moon stone do that makes it work?
Raphael: dee,it evolves clefairy into clefable.
jealousblues: I don't get it, tbh. Are those Pokemon?
Cindy_ : Yes, they are. Sadly, I knew this.
MightyRhinox: I live in Japan and work with Japanese children, what's your excuse?
k8fearsnoart: She has like 15 kids?
holly_bolly: And lives in a shoe.

From a News thread about a man charged with having sex with a picnic table:
Ongooshk: He got wood.
Falconwing: Maybe his wife is a real birch and he was pining for a good piece of ash?

Joke of the Week

Cheating Man

Guilt twanged his nerves raw. Maybe he shouldn’t. As he watched his wife nurse the baby, as he thought about the sleepless nights they’d shared, he felt like he just couldn’t stand to lie to her like this, like she didn’t deserve to be treated this way. But the feeling passed.

He was a man, dammit. He had needs. Needs that weren’t being met since that colicky baby had entered their lives. Needs that he could satisfy in secret, at that motel room. He looked at his watch. OK, time to go, he thought to himself. Just pretend like it’s any other day. A mechanical kiss and he was out the door.

From his car, he called the office. He told his secretary he wouldn’t be in today, but that if anyone called, to tell them he was in meetings. Yes, even his wife. Even the woman who bore his child, who so carefully picked out the watch with the black dial and the blue face, just for him. Somehow, she’d known he’d love the luminous hands. And now, he was about to betray her.

No, no, he thought. Can’t think like that. He turned the car into the motel parking lot. Swiping the keycard to open the door of the room, he took a deep breath. It’s really happening. I’m really going through with it. In the gloom, the watch’s hands told him he had nine glorious hours to indulge himself before his wife would expect him home. Nine hours of sin. He pulled back the covers and climbed in. I’m sorry, honey, he thought. I never wanted to hurt you. But I really, really need some sleep.

Member of the Week

The member of the week is Rik_Khaos. Members since December 2001, Rik's been around for ages, and has always kept us laughing with his fun-loving style. His many adventures through picture threads are always a blast. Congrats!

JoeInterview's Member Feature

This week's interview features Kungfullama. This interview was conducted by chips2001 and travbowman.

JoeInterview: How did you find YT? Feel free to make up a tall tale, if the truth isn't that exciting!

Kungfullama: Like most people, I found YT through I-am-bored.com. If I recall, I was so bored at one time that I googled "I am bored", and I still don't know what I was expecting to find, but it showed me I-am-bored. I watched some funny videos, played some games, and then bookmarked it and forgot about it. Later on I was clearing out my bookmarks, noticed it, visited again, and wrote it off. Before I deleted it off of my bookmarks though, I noticed a poll question on the side. When I answered it, it brought me here. The rest is history, as they say.

JI: And what keeps you coming back for more?

KFL: I learn a lot here. Honestly, if it weren't for the people in News & Politics, I wouldn't be able to BS my friends into thinking I understand politics. I don't really, but I can sound like it! I get to share opinions on basically everything with people in Journals. I get to complain about things in my life, and pretend that the people who read it care. But most of all, it's the humour. Some of the funniest people I've ever encountered are from here. More than once I've laughed out loud from comments made, and you've all gotten me very strange looks when the parents look over my shoulder.

JI: You've been a member for a while now. What do you think about the way YT has changed in that time?

KFL: It's changed quite a bit from how I remember. The obvious change of how the whole site layout was recreated, and everybody got up in arms over a slightly different color and design. But nobody comes to the site because of it's design, it's the people. There were a lot of YTers that I used to talk to here that just stopped coming, and that's disappointing. Luckily there are always new people coming in and out to keep the place fresh.

Probably the biggest thing to happen while I was a member ( and I was taking a break from here when it happened) was the Eb meltdown. It sounds like it would have been great fun. Anyways, I think it's definitely changed, but it's still got the same overall flavor it always has, and hopefully as long as there are still people who were here from the beginning stick around, it'll stay that way.

JI: And how have you changed in the time you've been a YTer?

KFL: I feel like I've grown up. I know that I still have a lot of that to do, but looking back, the maturity level from 13 to 16 has been a pretty big leap. I've been looking in the Questions section before when I'll find a comment from years ago and think, "I said that? I thought that?" I saw just a few days ago a comment of mine calling evolution something that someone thought up during a drunken stupor, and I deleted it out of shame. I don't even recall being a creationist! A lot of my views have taken a complete 180, and I'm rather embarrassed about how I've acted here (and everywhere for that matter) in the past. I'm sure that everyone understands though, I was young and stupid.

Ha, I'm sure that sounds strange while I'm still only 16. But does anybody really write *themselves* off due to age? That would probably take a lot.

JI: You list The Odyssey as your favourite book. What is it about that story that you love?

KFL: That it's so many stories in one book, and that they all still make sense to me after aging for thousands of years. I've always liked fantasy books, and when we read something like my Magic: The Gathering books except it actually originated in Ancient Greece, that captivated me like no other. When Odysseus and his men encountered the Cyclops, and tricked him by saying his name was Nobody, that really made me laugh. And to think the story was that old, and the humour was still relevant today! That's probably the most impressive thing, that it's withstood the test of time. It truly deserves the title of an Epic Poem.

JI: What sort of music are you into?

KFL: I'm all over the place. The only thing I've consistently liked my whole life is 80's rock. Besides that, there's classical, jazz, metal, swing, and pretty much any other genre you can come up with, I've got some albums for it. I've recently been getting into hip-hop, which I had an aversion to just because of the culture for a long time. However, when one of my friends bought me Tupac's Greatest Hits, I listened to it and haven't turned back. I wish I knew more about hip-hop and rap, but as for now I can at least say I'm a Tupac fan.

I still don't understand most of the music on the Billboard 200 but everything else is fair game.

JI: What's the plan, college-wise? do you have any ideas of where you're headed?

KFL: I've really just started looking, so while I don't know specifically where I'm going, I know that I want to do pre-med. It's funny, there are classes at my high school that I immediately think might be too hard for me, and then I remember that I plan on going through medical school some day. Idealistic as I am, even I can see that it's unlikely to come to fruition, but I'll still pursue for as long as I can.

I've definitely decided that I want to go somewhere else in the country for college. Even out of the country if that's an option. I don't know how international student programs work, but I'd really like to go to school in Dublin. I looked at Alaska for a while too, but I didn't see any schools I liked there. It's a shame too, I think I would have been comfortable there. Not too hot like the rest of the continental US.

JI: What is it about the medical profession that appeals to you?

KFL: It's the combination of science and people. I've always been a very literal and left-brain kind of person, so the science just naturally appeals to me. I've always liked it over my other classes because it could actually be applied eventually. Of course, most people would say that understanding the ins and outs of atoms and molecules doesn't matter to them a bit, but hopefully someday that's not the case for me. So as far as the medical profession goes, it's just as much the workings of the human body that I'm interested in as I am using that to help people. I'd probably be good at a job doing research in a lab somewhere, but that's not me either. I've always strived to help people as best I can. Using something that I'm good at and enjoy, to help people? I can't think of anything greater to reach for.

JI: Do you have any branch of medicine in mind?

KFL: I'm interested in psychiatry and neurology, but that's just at a glance. I think I'd have to get into the thick of medical school and see what a lot of them are about before I make any kind of concrete decision like that. Who knows, you could be looking at a future gastroenterologist. Even though I don't think I'm all that interested in the digestive system, I've also never studied it (or any other part of the body or medicine in general) in depth before, so that just might be my calling. I have a good feeling about psychiatry though. When I volunteered at the hospital over the summer, that ward intrigued me. Probably because it was off-limits and closed with a vault-like door.

JI: The 'religion' thing in your profile is 'other' rather than 'decline to state'. Could you tell me what that means?

KG29: I consider myself a spiritual atheist, if that makes any sense. I've been wondering if it does for a while, actually. I might have just put atheist if that didn't come with it's own baggage, like people assuming I'm an anti-religious fanatic. I actually don't have any problems with religion, and I'll probably continue going to church because, despite all of the supernatural, they have some good ideas. The Catholic Church is the reason I ended up becoming a big anti-death penalty advocate.

I honestly think that most atheists just go about their lives and manage to not complain about religion all the time, because it doesn't matter to them. Why should it? I don't believe, but I don't have any problem with the people that do. Or the organized religions that they follow. It doesn't make any sense to me, but I wouldn't expect it to. I don't believe in it. So basically, it's "other" because I don't consider myself to be what the term "atheist" brings to mind.

JI: What's the screen name all about?

KFL: It's all about being an immature 12-year old when I thought of it. I thought I was the funniest person to grace the Earth at the time, so I wrote a "hilarious" story about llamas that knew kung-fu, spoke spanish, and lived on the moon. Looking back, being 12 and being on mushrooms are probably more similar than most people are willing to admit. I don't *hate* the screen name, so I haven't tried making a new one and getting confused for a newbie. But I definitely wouldn't pick it if I had to start over. I get way too many "LOL LLAMAS" PM's than I know what do with.

JI: Do you do any extracurricular activities in school?

KFL: It's too late now, but next year I'm signing up to write for the school newspaper. At it's current state, it's more or less the most atrocious thing ever to be published, and I recently found out that that's even after weeks of editing! An article about Jews keeping Hispanic slaves and aborting fetuses with pointy sticks, which they later set fire in the woods and started the California wildfires a couple months back, made it past the crapfiltering stage. Apparently that was one of the ones more suitable for print. I really wish I was making this up because it sounds unbelievable, but it's that bad. So I'm signing up to maybe salvage it a little, and maybe block an article defaming Jews here and there.

I've also been working all year trying to find a teacher who would sponsor a Debate Club. The Honors Civics teacher wanted to start a Debate Team, which is slightly different.

We would go around to other schools and participate in competitions. That would be fun, but I didn't really want that. I was looking for more of a group that could meet after school once a week, after the topics are prepared, and debate on current issues. Maybe we'd all learn something, who knows. I argue/complain about politics with my friends all the time as it is, and if this goes through, I could put it on a college application later.

JI: Do you wish that more teens would engage in political discussions?

KFL: I think that they'd learn a lot from it. The key is actual discussion, because I haven't seen that between teens in a long time. You won't learn anything by spreading your opinion everywhere and not listening to everyone else's. It's not that I haven't seen teens *talking* about politics, I've just not seen any that actually considered their opponents view. If you aren't doing that, you might as well be talking to yourself and patting yourself on the back every once in a while.

World politics seems, to me anyways, to be one of the most important subjects of, well, the world. I don't see a lot of teens noticing that they even exist a lot of the time. I'm willing to bet that a good 3/4 of the wouldn't be able to find Tibet on a map. If we aren't going to be screwed when they all turn 18, I think they should at least read the newspaper every once in a while.

JI: What do you think can be done to make Americans as a whole more aware of international news?

KFL: That's the $64,000 question, isn't it? I think the only way to do it is to make the majority of Americans realize that there's more out there than America. I don't mean to sound like I'm bashing the country because I'm not, but a LOT of the citizens are blissfully unaware that there are other countries out there. Whether that's just from a considerable amount of isolation from the outside world or just a really big lack of caring about it, it's undeniably there. Now, how to make them care about what's going on out there? Sadly I don't think it's really going to happen until it starts affecting them personally. Just like how 9/11 jolted a lot of people into the world of Middle Eastern politics, I just really hope that's not the only sort of thing that would get us to see what's going on.

JI: Where have you never been that you would like to travel to?

b>KFL: I can't narrow it down to just one, so I'll have to say Ireland and Japan. I've always assumed I'm Irish. There's probably some way to find out, but I haven't bothered, since my whole family seems satisfied with the answer when I ask them. We could be Scottish I guess, but most people default to Irish when they see the red hair and as far as I know, they're right. Besides just feeling like I'm obligated to go, it seems like a great place. I love the accent, and pictures of the hills are just the greenest thing I've ever seen. Maybe the grass really is greener across the pond.

As far as Japan goes, I think I really just need to see it for myself. I don't know if I'll like it or not. I hear so much about how great Japan is, mostly from people who've never set foot there. A lot of them think that everyone there reads manga, watches anime, and plays video games all day. If nothing else, I'd like to go just to be able to tell them that it's a lot more like here than they'd imagine. Unless of course, it isn't, and then I'd be happy to spread that on.

JI: How has your family inspired you in life?

KFL: Even though I feel like I'm walking on eggshells around them (I get dirty looks if I say "hell"), they're always there for me, even at times when I wish they weren't. My parents have never really questioned any of the things that I've wanted to do in life, which is really encouraging. They can seem strict sometimes, but I know at the end of the day, it's for my welfare.

I really look up to my father, especially. He never fails to have a funny story of his youth, or at least it usually seems like he's talking about his youth. I've learned more from his stories about his time in the Air Force and growing up with my 8 uncles and aunts in Boston than I would have thought possible. That, and he's the funniest guy I know. I'm pretty sure he recycles jokes every few years though, a lot of them sound oddly familiar.

My extended family is enormous, and going to a family event is still a strange trip. They all look like complete strangers to me, and yet they can all recall the time I hit Uncle Jim with a golf club when I was 4. Sometimes the things they do when a keg shows up scare me, but they're all good people and I probably have someone to crash with in every city.

JI: Did Uncle Jim deserve the clubbing you gave him?

KFL: He was an innocent bystander in a very enthusiastic game of golf.

JI: Where do you see yourself in ten years?

KFL: If everything goes correctly, I should just be finishing medical school, and looking at residency programs. It's a bit overwhelming to think that most everyone I know will be finished with school in two years, and I'll still be at it in ten. In general though, I'll probably be in a city somewhere, eating a diet of ramen noodles and Sunny D. Hopefully with a decent paying job in a hospital, if nothing else. I'll need it, because whether I succeed or fail, there's going to be lots of student debt.

JI: Sunny D and Ramen, eh? Please tell me you can make something more substantial if put under the gun!

KFL: Hehe, maybe if put under that kind of pressure I'd be able to whip something up. Hopefully I'll be able to pick up some good cooking habits from my future poor-hungry-student days.

JI: You get put on death row for medical malpractice. What do you choose as your last meal?

KFL: Oooh, tough. I'd have to go with lamb steak, rare, with lots and lots of mashed potatoes.

JI: Have a parting shot to share with your fellow YTers?

KFL: I'd rather you think about something and reach the wrong conclusion, than not think at all and be correct by chance.

This week's article is titled 'TV reporter arrested with 'rope tied around genitals'', and the thread was posted by pepperdrinks.

This week's link is titled 'Cities fom Space', and the link was posted by kingconan92.

Best Avatar of the Week	Best Profile Design of the Week
w8in	"Spideycan" by Angi

Featured Article of the Week

Bob, me and jd.
Excerpt: Musically, I’m pretty sure about what I like, and what I don’t like. I’ve spent years forming opinions, and I stubbornly cling to them like a child to a security blanket once they are formed. Don’t get me wrong, I’m open to listening to new stuff, but when someone tries to challenge long-held views, I tend to be a wee bit truculent about changing my mind.

Written by chips2001

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