Questions of the Week

1. Would you rather learn a language with a similar alphabet or a different one?
Added by: _Murklins_

2. Have you ever made a move on someone you knew was completely off-limits?
Added by: ellablue

3. Does it bother you when people refer to a baby as "it"?
Added by: 96_Relic_96

4. Do you think the Forums section of this site should be better regulated?
Added by: pinkmonkey77

5. Do you have a reason to be paranoid?
Added by: GeekyPenguin

1. What kind of mythical creature are you?
Added by: Mizuho

2. Which Starbucks drink are you?
Added by: Refrigerate

3. Do You Know Your Slang?
Added by: snowmanshoes

4. What soup are you?
Added by: dotygirl63

5. Which character are you from the Princess Bride?
Added by: bruin101

Funniest Comments of the Week

In a thread talking about how it sucks to move back to your parents' place after college:
blindmanpb: Plus it's tough to get nookie in your parents' house.
Brunnen_G: Not in Austria. Too soon?

Random Journal:
ichabod00x: You are obsessed with strippers and bullet holes. Only a man from G-Vegas.
1bunnyfoofoo: Why do people stupidly add 'Vegas' onto any city or shortened form of that city to make it sound fun and/or exciting? I find it really ridiculous.
ichabod00x: I knew you were reading the thread and I did it merely to piss you off. Mission accomplished.
1bunnyfoofoo: Considering I'm not pissed off, I'd say you failed.
face: failed. . .or failed-Vegas?

Q: What do you think about online/long distant relationships?:
thh: I think online relationships are great, but my wife really wants me to stop having them.

From the "What I learned today" thread:
skinlessguy: Who me? i learned to hang out at graduation parties instead of high schools.
DoYouWash: And do you wear your Canadian tuxedo? You know, to really class it up.
skinlessguy: Nope, I usually wear really tight acid wash jeans with bandannas tied around them from my ankles to my knees, and also my Skid Row t-shirt to let chicks know I like to rock but also have a soft side too.

Random Thread:
holly_bolly: What's a milf?
Sammy: Mother I'd like to f-ck
holly_bolly: Oh. I have obviously used it in the wrong context in the past then...How awkward.

Joke of the Week

A man has six children...

A man has six children and is very proud of his achievement. He is so proud of himself that he starts calling his wife "Mother of Six" in spite of her objections.

One night, they go to a party. The man decides that it's time to go home and wants to find out if his wife is ready to leave as well.

He shouts at the top of his voice, 'Shall we go home now Mother of Six?"

His wife, finally fed up with her husband, shouts back, "Anytime you're ready, Father of Four!"

Member of the Week

The member of the week is Refrigerate. A member since March 2007, Refrigerate spends most of her time in the Quiz section of the site. Sure, there's a sea of "Would you date me?" and "Which Halo character?" are you quizzes in there, but Refrigerate comes up with some fun, original, and well thought out quizzes that are always fun to take. Be sure to check 'em out. Congrats!

JoeInterview's Member Feature

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

JoeInterview: How did you find YT?

anthropology: I found it the typical way, by googling "I am bored" which brought me to IAB where I hung out for awhile just clicking on links. After a couple of months, I got to the point where I wanted to post responses so I clicked on the link to sign up, it brought me to YT, I signed up and promptly forgot about it since all I cared about was that I could post on IAB.

I posted around there for about a year before I got bored, looked around the front page and saw the questions link, clicked and was hooked on questions thereafter. I didn't really like the screen name I was using at the time, buyer's remorse and all that, so after a month or so here I decided to switch to a new name, so technically anthropology is an alter.

JI: And what keeps you coming back for more?

A: At this point it's the friendships I've made here. Although I have others ways to contact the people I'm closest with, this is still the primary place we talk. There are other sites I visit on a regular basis like stumbleupon, flickr and lifehacker to name a few, but this is the only place where I've actually put roots down and called home. It just feels comfy here.

JI: You're well known for having striking profiles. where do you draw inspiration from? What do you think is the key to a good-looking profile?

A: I have a deep love for art in all of it's incarnations whether it's photography, painting, architecture, writing, music or what have you. I admit wholeheartedly to an extreme jealousy of the creativity of those people who are able to go inside of their own head and draw from whatever well/spring they find there and create something that is unique to that person, to that time in their life. I just don't have that. I can copy someones else's work and it looks pretty good. I can play a piece that someone else has written, but I'm barren of artistic invention.

I guess now that I think about it, the profiles are another thing that keeps me coming back to YT. It's something that I AM able to create, a type of collage of others original ideas, something that isn't mine, but might still be pleasing to the eye and to the mind.

As far as in a what's the key? Hmmmm, haven't quite figured that one out yet, I'll let you know about the same time as everyone has the same likes and dislikes. I know that my tastes change from day to day, month to month and year to year and so then do my profiles. The only thing I do know is that I personally like congruency between my avy and my profile. I have 1000's of pictures saved in my google reader and photobucket just waiting for the other half of the picture to come together, but then I had those before I ever found YT.

I guess I could say that YT feeds my other addiction and vice versa.

JI: Is it safe to assume that your screenname is a subject that you enjoy studying?

A: Although I do enjoy the cultural and archaeological aspects of anthropology, the name is more based on the fact that I enjoy people watching, and in this forum that translates into lurking. That's probably why some who are reading this right now are saying to themselves "Who the hell is anthropology?

JI: Your occupation is listed simply as "design". Would you like to elaborate for the rest of us?

A: I put that in there on a lark because I enjoy designing profiles. The work that I do is rather complicated. I hate trying to explain it to people because the description is rather long and boring. Also there's the fact that if I wrote it all down, it would describe where I work not to mention what I do. My boss is a very private person and I don't think he'd take too kindly to me putting it all out there. Let's just say it involves a lot of paperwork. Sorry I couldn't answer that one better!

JI: What did you study in college to get into paperwork for private bosses?

A: I never actually finished my degree. I've gone back a time or two, but life seemed to keep getting in the way. Recently I've been considering changing fields, so that would mean heading back to school again. I have a hard time with that because of the little time I do get to spend with my kids would shrink even further. I'm still torn if I should just bite the bullet for the greater good or wait at least until my youngest is high school and could care less if she spent time with me which would be around 5 more years.

JI: How did you and your husband meet?

A: Eek, that's a long story. Let me see if I can shorten it up. We dated my senior year in high school and after graduation went our separate ways. It just wasn't a healthy relationship for either of us at the time. I saw him only one time about 8 or 9 years later at which time he told me that he was living in Arizona.

Skip forward another 5 years and I was living in Arizona. I thought about trying to look him up, but he has a VERY common name, almost a John Smith, so there was really no point in trying to find him. One night, I was sitting out by the pool reading a book and a little voice in my head said "He's in P***". I wasn't even thinking about him at the time I swear. Fortunately, the town I thought of was a small town. I called information and got 3 listings, dialed the first one, he answered and the rest, as they say is history.

JI: Wow...that's amazing! How long have you been married now?

A: We got married 7 years ago in June out in Vegas. If you're not a person who cares about a big wedding, I would so recommend doing it there. We decided to go ill-prepared on purpose, letting things fall into place as they would. The idea of maybe dressing up as a showgirl and Elvis for kicks and giggles was on the table at one point!

I ended up finding a beautiful dress at Caesar's Palace, so "we" (okay, me) decided to go traditional with our closest friends as witnesses. There is NOTHING that compares to riding the roller coaster at New York New York in your wedding dress.

JI: Had you been to Vegas before?

A: Yeah. I'm not much of a gambler or shopper, but it's fun to just sit around with a drink in one hand and a cup of quarters in the other at the slots and people watch.

JI: Where are you just dying to travel that you've never been before?

A: If I had friends that lived over there to let me know what are the absolutely must sees from a local's opinion, I'd love to see the UK. I just don't want to go on one of those pre-planned tours but I don't want to waste a lot of time getting lost either.

After that, my second pick would be to see New Zealand. I have family over in Germany, I suppose I should go see them at some point.

Honestly, I'd just love to travel anywhere outside of the continental United States. I grew up traveling all over North America but after becoming an adult, I hardly go anywhere. I guess traveling was more of a priority for my parents than for myself.

JI: How many of the United States have you visited?

A: Oh geez. I did that interactive map online showing where you've been once and I think I missed like 9 or 10 states including Alaska and Hawaii. The rest of the ones I haven't been to were in the Northeast so of course I want to visit there, aside from the fact I have friends up there I'd like to see.

I've also been to a few Canadian provinces (British Columbia was my favorite, Victoria and Vancouver especially) and Mexico, just a few beaches there. I always thought it would be neat to go WAY down south away from all the rest of the turistas.

Sounds like I need to put more towards the travel fund, eh?

JI: What are you most looking forward to this Summer?

A: We're going to hit the beach at some point. It's been 4 years since we've been there, so we're really looking forward to it. We also like to camp, so I'm sure we'll be doing a lot of that. There's also been talk about taking a 4-5 day hiking/camping trip, but it's getting a little late in the spring to do that, and summer is just too humid. Maybe in the fall.

I think my kids look forward to summer more than I do. It just means bugs, heat and humidity to me. It's the time of the year that I miss the West the most.

JI: Do you make special efforts to make sure your kids aren't bored all summer?

A: My oldest will be working through the summer and hanging with her friends, so I doubt I'll see much of her. She's like the little bird on the edge of the nest spreading her wings out right before she jumps off for her first flight. Part of life, but it's still hard to deal with sometimes.

My youngest will be attending an awesome day camp that has different activities each week like rock climbing, photo editing, golf, basketball, etc. One week she'll be going to a week long summer camp. Yep, I'm jealous of her summer.

JI: What is the best thing that your children have that you didn't growing up?

A: A father who is there for them all the time. My dad was an absent father, although he has since come to his senses and we have a great relationship now.

JI: Your favourite celebrity is coming over for dinner. Who is it, and what are you making for them?

b>A: Ummm....I really don't have a favorite celebrity I guess? I'm very wishy washy; it all depends on what the last thing I watched was. I'll go with Robert Downey, Jr. right now. He would make for an interesting dinner guest, don't you think? Imagine the tales he could tell.

As far as what I'm making for him, you'll have to ask my husband, he does most of the cooking. As he says, he puts love in his cooking while I just throw things in a pan and hope for the best.

JI: What's one thing most YTers would be surprised to learn about you?

A: Aside from the people I PM with, not many people on here know me unless they go into questions since that's where I've posted most often. By that logic, pretty much anything I write would be a surprise to most.

How about this: Most people think I'm really laid back and chill, but in reality I get annoyed very easily. I just conceal my annoyance from others well.

Lame I know, but it's not like I'm going to lay out some major life secret here or anything, right?

JI: Do you think that most people's online personae are the opposite--they claim to be calm in real life but come across as overly affected by the stuff that's posted?

A: I've become friends with a few people outside of online forums, but only over the phone which is a step up from the keyboard. It's a voice to go along with the words, and inflection is 100x's easier to interpret than a smiley.

From those experiences, I believe that unless someone has mental issues, what you see here is fairly close to what you get IRL with maybe a touch more self-confidence for some because of the anonymous factor. For those that claim to be calm but come across as overly affected, maybe that's just the anon self-confidence at work; they don't feel like they can say the things they say here online IRL without upsetting someone else that they have to deal with on an everyday basis. Who knows. I don't even claim to know myself completely, let alone the rest of the world.

What I said about the annoyance thing with myself, I'm the same way IRL, faking it well. I think the only thing different between here and RL for me is that here I tend to come off as a bit shy, whereas I'm not in reality. I just don't necessarily want to be around people all the time. Here I'm given the option of being here, but not having to BE here.

JI: You list "The Professional" and "Shaun of the Dead" as favourite movies in your profile--two violent (though very different in tone) flicks. Any coincedence?

A: No real coincidence. I love a good action flick, but with the the two movies I listed, in the case of The Professional it was the combination of action and emotions and with Shaun of the Dead, action and comedy.

I don't do well with just your typical chick flick, action or drama. I need a little something, something to keep me entertained on a different level at the same time.

As far as in the violence in movies and television I, like so many others, have become inured to it. If I know it's "make-believe" it doesn't faze me a bit, no matter how gruesome or gory it is.

Now on the other hand, I don't handle real life violence very well. I "accidentally" watched a beheading a year or so ago. Once I started, for whatever morbid reason I had at the time, I wanted to stop but I couldn't turn away. That vision stayed with me for weeks.

JI: How do you feel regarding your children and violent movies or video games?

A: They're both self-regulating with the movies. They weren't allowed to watch violent movies when they were younger, and now that I'm much more lenient with them in that regard, they choose not to themselves. In other words, they're both pretty squeamish.

My youngest got me Twisted Metal Head On for Mother's Day but she covers her eyes when Sweet Tooth comes on the screen because he freaks her out. But then, she doesn't mind trying to shoot "me" to smithereens either. Video games are make believe and she knows it, although she won't even watch, let alone play any of my husband's more graphic games. My oldest doesn't really like video games.

When I drive my youngest to school everyday, we listen to NPR and what's going on in the world around us. I don't censor what she listens to so we end up having conversations about why people might do the things they do, including engaging in wars and random acts of violence like school shootings.

She said to me just last week that she thought she knew more about what was going on in the world around her than other kids her age. She made this comment after saying "Do we really have to wait until November for this election to be over with?" Now THAT made me giggle.

JI: Any words of wisdom to share with your fellow YTers?

A: Words of wisdom. Hmmmm. I guess I would say to any younger people out there to find the direction you want to go in life early and use that as a compass to guide you. I was without any type of goal for so long and I'm just now getting to the point where I know what I might want to do with my life. I think if someone would have helped guide me and identify what my strengths were at a young age, I would have been much happier and not made so many poor decisions as I stumbled through life aimlessly.

This week's article is titled 'Woman accidentally stabs lover in sex game', and the thread was posted by Sammy.

This week's link is titled 'Passively Multiplayer Online Game', and the link was posted by Djm984.

Best Avatar of the Week	Best Profile Design of the Week
Cindy_	"Blondie" by Pantala

Featured Article of the Week

Why you should be happy
Excerpt: It has long been my assertion that you can smile yourself happier. I really do believe that we are more in control of our emotions than we give ourselves credit for, and I don’t buy the idea that our happiness is the product purely of outside influences.

Written by Mizu

Check it all out at YouThink.com!