Do you need both genders to function?

Today, I caught wind of this in the news:



Granted, Bill O'Reilly and his Fox news band of idiots are all, well, idiots. But what do you guys think? Is it better for children to grow up with a mother and a father? Will it hurt their transition into adulthood to be missing one or the other? What about gay parents? Where do you draw the line between what is 'natural' and what is just as good, provided that the family is functional?

Candillis' Avatar

Some of you may have noticed that our friend Cand has a new avatar. She does that sometimes.

But what is so noteworthy about this avatar, you say? Is it another trampoline jumping elephant, is it her dressed as a pirate, is it Vic reacting to her nipple? Surely, you wonder, could it really be that bad? Yes. It is that bad. So bad, in fact, her avatar should be banned in the interest of everyone's safety.

Exhibit A:


This avatar depicts a kitten - a small, fuzzy, universally adorable creature snuggling into something soft and yawning. Harmless, right?

WRONG!

That's the kind of thinking that makes you vulnerable.

You're typing up a paper for work, let's say, and you happen to scroll past Cand's avatar. You stop. You cock your head to the side and smile and you think to yourself, 'aww'. It's precious, right? So precious that suddenly, you've seen it loop thousands of times, you're late for work, and your boss fires you!

You're driving down the road. You recall the adorable squirming, toothless infant cat, you smile and think to yourself, 'aww'. Suddenly you've swerved and killed an old lady!

Such is the danger of Cand's avatar. I move to strike it from all of Matazone. This is about safety.

Do you like gaming!?

Do you like..Ragnarok Online?

Some of you may say, what is Ragnarok, syuu-cake? And I shall smile down upon you with a knowing gleam in my eye and tell you, Ragnarok Online is a korean MMORPG. Sadly, the original server, kRO, cost money - But fear not! there are thousands upon thousands of branch off servers, one in particular that Oniko, Fuzzra, Vic, myself, and one of my good friends play on. We have our own guild and will be wreaking havoc upon the main guild, Candy Land, just to show them who's boss.

The concept of Ragnarok Online is very similar to WoW. You begin in a world called Rune-Midgard, whose capital is Braisilis. You start off as a novice. I wont even bother posting a picture of the novice, because you wont be one very long. At job level ten, you can become another class - either an Archer, Thief, Acolyte, Mage, Swordsman, Merchant, and whatever it is gunslingers and taekwons become. Ignore those last two, they suck. From there, you can do a little more leveling up until job level forty. It takes a whole two seconds. That's where the real classing begins - each original class allows you to pick between two new classes. For instance, a thief can turn into an assassin or a rogue. From there, you level this class to 100 and are reborn into a novice again where you become the final class of that set. Or what was final up until recently. For example, if I were that assassin, I'd rebirth into a high novice, change into a high thief, and finally reach Assassin Cross. RO has implemented third classes now, meaning, once I reach 300 as an Assassin Cross, I have the choice to become a Guillotine Cross, the final form of that class chain.

RO naturally has guilds and something called War of Emperium, where you can sneak into any of twelve castles, break the emperium, and claim it. Other guilds will fight you for this. There are also quests, raids, bosses, and every customization imaginable - the GMs also host events. Four occur on the hour, and then there are custom ones held by GMs.



Those are all of the current trans classes. Not shown are the third classes, novices, or first job classes (thief etc.)



A screen shot of a warlock inside the Yggdrasil tree.



The same warlock wreaking holy storm gust havoc upon Eddga, a monocle-and-tophat-wearing tiger MVP.



The main town of Braisilis.

Now, why else would you like to join? I'll show you a few of the monsters, ladies and gentlemen.


This fine specimen is a demon called Cat O'Ninetails. I lovingly call her Catto.


While here we have a lovely half-mechanical dead schoolgirl called.. you guessed it, Alicel.


And what is that, you say? Why, it's a succubus!

So, are you sold? Do you want to have tons of fun chatting with a few of your favorite MZians while slaughtering a scantily clad kitty-cat with a huge bell? What are you waiting for?

weiss-ro.net

I recommend the full install.

Photos, Videos, or in Person?

I was just thinking about this as an odd topic this morning -
While watching a new show for the first time that starred women whose pictures I'd looked at, I was struck by one in particular. In every photograph of her that has come across my screen, I've thought of her as fairly unattractive, but as soon as I saw her on television, I automatically considered her gorgeous. Likewise, I have a friend who is generally pretty and has ideal features (cupid's bow lips, large eyes, small nose, heart shaped face, clear skin, well shaped eyebrows) and who isn't terribly striking in person, but in photographs looks absolutely stunning.

As for me, it's been weird considering how often I change my 'look', but my general idea of myself is that I look worst in videos, alright in pictures, and best in person - the four MZers I've met can judge that how they like, except for candoop who happened to catch me on a bad hair..year.

So, what about you? In which medium do you find yourself most attractive?

Did you know?

Back in the very distant past of these here forums, (2003) we had a thing called e-weddings. Now, just about everyone in their youth e-married off another lucky mzer for sh*ts and giggles and general cuteness all around - but there is one glaring, modly exception, someone whose social butterfly status acts as a glaring contradiction to her e-single peril. I speak of none other than the gorgeous, vivacious, sexalicious LoLo.

I know what you're thinking: you want a piece of that. You need to break off a bite of that white chocolate and savor the taste as it melts in your mouth, but she isn't just any lovely lady, my dears, she needs someone special and amazing.

And so, this is part tentative e-bachelorette and part 'what makes you good enough for this Goddess?' So please, ladies and gents and anyone willing and wanting to plunder this uncharted territory with your e-moves, tell us why you're worthy of looting this treasure trove.