Whoa, apparently all this went down last night while I was freaking out like a mental person. Anyway. I like the Derps. He's a'ight.

No stealin' of the man, though, but Boots knows that. xD

cnw64 : Flush like, even with the side of the layout. And I see, that makes perfect sense.

Edit: It appears that the problem has to do with my resolution size, specifically. So, it doesn't look that thin for anyone else. Whoops.

This is an awesome idea for a forum, and I approve mightily.

Thread for cooking disasters. Not like I'd have anything at all to contribute to that, HA. Never.

sop281 : needs to make a thread all about Ramen noodles. 'Nuff said.

Nitpicker here! I decided to critique everyone's layout on this page because wynaut.

cnw64 : In general your layout looks amazing... you did a really good job with the colors and the horizontal soft lines in your image are really nice. If I could give just a couple suggestions, your image seems noticeably skinnier than it should be? But I am curious if it shows up the same for others, as I have noticed a lot of people's layouts have the same problem for me on my screen. If the problem *isn't* just on my end, perhaps if you cut off the left part of your image the character in the image won't look so slender? The other nitpicky thing is that the image barely cuts into the right side of your layout. If you could get it flush I think it would look a bit better.

TheJmsGamer : Looks good! Really nice font and color choice for the image. The only suggestion that I'd have is the huge white text at the bottom of your layout is pretty distracting.

Gamin'Gal : I think your layout came out nicely; again, nice font choice for the background image.

imamonster : I think your layout looks pretty good. If I may make a color palette critique, I think changing the text box color to something other than blue might help it look better with the background image. You might also move the box up a little more, to a little below the white text in your image.

juuldude : Yeah, your layout looks amazing, just need a readable font color.

Yes, indeed. A rather embarrassing story of my supposedly eagle-eyed friend who was with me somehow not picking up on the fact that I was carrying a newspaper out of Wal-Mart without paying for it. And it wasn't that long ago, either, maybe a year back or so.

The thing is, at my old school, there are newspaper racks where you can pick up a free copy of the school paper and USA Today, probably among other things. So, I assumed they were free and picked up a nice, big heavy copy of some local paper. This was when I was still planning on pursuing my dreams of becoming a reporter, so I wanted to know what was happening around town.

...I still intend to go back to the store and pay for it.

On the calling his place of work, based on the situation you described, if you were going to make a day- or a couple-day-long celebration out of his birthday, I think it might be a better idea to go ahead and tell him in advance so he can ask for the days off himself. Not as much of a surprise, sure, but you could always be vague on what you are planning.

On finding information, if you're wanting to research buildings in Birmingham while avoiding certain aspects of the city's history, it still might be a good idea to physically go to one of the museums in the city on your own for information. My tiny little city in Arkansas has its own museum, even, and the curator is this city's guru... I've never met a man like him. Internet research is grand and all, but I've never been able to beat the kind of information and tips you can get from an actual person who is well-versed in the city's history. I'd try going to one of the museums and seeing if you can talk to one of the curators, or at least a tour guide, for suggestions, both on places to visit and on sources of information.

Gingercream1 : No problem! I guess I can only be half right on this, alas. (':

Hey, Ginger, Mags and I are trying to settle a debate. When you do panels or conversation bubbles, do they run left to right, or right to left?

You keep my soul from crouching in fear.
You fill up the dark corners with light.
You keep me from collapsing inward,
or from looking ahead without first recognizing myself.

The cracked boards at the top of the churchyard
let your light in, illuminating the flowers inside
and giving them the strength to grow.

Maybe sometimes we have to break to heal,
I don't know enough to say.
I only know you were there for me when I was broken.

~ ~ ~

It has been a long time since I have been actively writing, and my writer's block has only passed a few days ago. I don't write as well I used to, and that frustrates me. But at the same time, I am starting over, and I know it is unlikely I will start over right where I left off.

This poem was inspired by several people, and I choose not to name them here. Only know that they have made it much easier for me to avoid a darkness that could have consumed me. Their company and love have given me so much strength.

Thank you.

I am laughing about this because until very recently, as in, a few weeks ago recently, my main, and indeed, my only personal computer at home ran off of XP. It was an ancient HP Pavillion and the bae overheated pretty easily. I called him Trooper.

For me it's not so much nostalgia for the old system as sweet release now that I have finally upgraded to a machine that runs Windows 7.

Welcome, Sebrex. Your love of dinosaurs puts you among two very fine men, namely, Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes, and Hoban Washburne of Firefly. I salute you.

Maaaan, that sucks. I hope that this will be a shorter, rather than a longer, thing. Whenever you make it back, let us know if you've developed any new hobbies in the absence of internet.

Best of luck to you.

cnw64 : "I use to pour hot sauce in the bag, shake it up and eat it." That... actually sounds like something that could be really good. Did it make the chips all soggy after a while?

I like BBQ potato chips and years ago I used to have an insane obsession with Doritos, as I get the impression most kids had. They were the best.

These days my absolute favorites are salt and vinegar chips and jalepeño chips. I've had bad experiences with off-brand types of jalepeño chips, though, so you obviously have to be careful about that. When you get a good bag, though, they make your mouth burn, clear out your sinuses, and have excellent flavor. What could be better?

Nice thread idea. A friend had posted this on his Goodreads and it rings true to me.

“what we call our despair is often only the painful eagerness of unfed hope.”
- George Eliot, Middlemarch

I have been wanting to reply to this thread for a while, even though I have little to say about it. I know how much something like this hurts. If I didn't have my friends there for me I would likely be right where you are now. I could feel your pain when I read this, or at least a part of it, and that alone was awful. I may not have tremendous advice for you, man, but just know I think you're pretty cool and worth not just having around but enjoying.

I hope someday you'll experience the kind of love that you deserve. Other than that, I'm really good at the internet hugs thing.

This warms my heart. Threads like this make me believe in the positive power of the Vizzed community, which, for those who know me well, means quite a bit. I am glad I could be a small encouragement to you. Though I gotta admit, I did laugh pretty hard when I read "half the time," about me being hilarious in chat. I figure the other half I'm probably being a pill or griping about personal problems. (; Regardless, it makes me pretty happy that I make you laugh.

Just another user here saying that if you want to talk about any of the stuff that's been going on, I am more than willing to listen. My personality and life experiences are such that I sincerely doubt anything you can say will surprise or shock me. I would enjoy learning more about your situation, should you ever feel the desire to tell me.

I hate to jump straight on the bandwagon here, and I'd really love to hear from some people who are looking to date for some other reason than eternal happiness. But, I too, am only interested in dating if I think there is a chance that I might someday want to spend the rest of my life with that person.

As a female who spends a lot of her time on the internet, I don't typically have the problem of a lack of suitors. I think this makes it a lot easier for me to not act out of desperation. I'm not quite as prone to think that "this is my only chance" at romance as others who don't experience the same level of attention.

I also have the unfortunate experience of a lot of failed and sometimes abusive relationships under my belt. When somebody says the word "romance," it conjures up a very mixed and often negative image in my mind. Ending romantic relationships, abusive or no, is harder for me than starting them, even now, so there is no way I want to screw around with romance if it isn't something I think at least could last.

I've considered friendship to be more important than romance for a long time, though. The reason that one significant other is so much more important than everyone else isn't because you're romantically involved; for me it is because they become your best friend.

This still doesn't really answer the question directly. Why do I date? What's my goal? Recently, and in the future, I do it for love. So much love, that I want to do anything I rightly can for that person, and the fact is I can be there in more ways in a dating relationship than outside of one. And, of course, knowing that the other person can do the same for you ain't so bad, either.

thing1 : Because he's Cloud Strife, duh.

Does it even bear saying?
LeggyxLeggy of course.

Ahh, I see my former enemy has found love.

*Puts on hipster spectacles* From everything I've seen of the two of you together, you've got me convinced that you're really good together. Both of you seem really happy and peaceful, and that makes me glad. I ship this hard.

Be sure to pass on any tips you pick up on long distance relationships to me and Monstrous; we're gonna need them. I wish you all the best.

(And yeah, guys, it's not a joke. I like to think I know these two pretty well; they are obviously not faking.)