All ready to go out for Oz! ( trying on my clothes, but plenty of photos of me in the "day before" photos. With backpack, and Ryo jacket on me!)

And you cannot blame the current state of Africa on the slave trade. Certain, and often major parts of Africa's history on a whole remains to this day rather sketchy, because - as Gil Scott-Heron so eloquently and sarcastically stated - "nothin was written down on paper."

No, you can absolutely link much of the trouble Africa faces today on what the destructive forces of Europe and America did. This really is factual. And the legacy of the slave trade is still with us today. There have been no reparations made for this HUGE debt to the African people owed by America and Europe, and that debt of life is the real debt that countries like America (which was built by slaves) owe, forget all this deficit BS. African countries are now dealing with the issues that colonisation left them with, and are now also facing neo-imperialism.

And there is actually plenty of recorded history of Africa and it's many empires, rich culture, art , ect.

To build for a better future, you must first acknowledge the past. Otherwise, if you were to ignore all the mistakes you'd made, what would stop you from making them again and again and again?

EDIT: @Ryudo: Taking that away from the Egyptians is like saying cavemen didn't create the wheel because it wasn't perfectly rounded, so the prize for wheel invention goes to Mr. Carpenter because he managed to do so with no edges. The concept was there, the material used was changed.

Went to the tiger direct store and bought this computer case to be the helm of my beast that is being created. saved $70 on it too

Hostess, I already miss you so...

In my defence, Nas woulda probably listened to me, nod his head, interrupt me more than a few times, wait til I said my peace then school the shit outta me. With books n'all.

But yeah, I obviously understand where you're coming from, and it's the most logical train of thought. I just tend to try thinkin outside the box and look at things objectively from a neutral standpoint. Sometimes to the point of dehumanisation, if I'm using the right word there. Either way, I wouldn't say you're wrong, and I wouldn't say I'm wrong either, coz at the end of the day we'll never know.

If we cast aside slavery for a minute, I think the best way to sum it up is that I don't condone slavery or owt, but I'm grateful for the people who were born out of this and went on to make my life - and many others - a little better along the way.

Brothaman wrote:

Haha, never heard of that brand, tread softly

Apple isn't innovative.

Hey guys! Hope all is well here!! :D

Now my 5th day in Sydney, and despite a lot of bad luck and things going wrong, i absolutely love this place! On my first day at Bondi, i got 3rd degree burns on my feet, lost my phone (but got it back), lost the room card countless times, had arguments with French people, locked my padlock key in my locker..... the list goes on. But still smiling and not letting things bother me. Learned to surf yesterday which was a blast, and have a lot more activities lined up for the rest of the week.

Hows things anyways? Have i missed anything? :nice!:

I saw people holding up ipads at Rockerfeller Center during the Christmas Tree lighting and I'm like 'who the hell brings an ipad to this?

keep the people confused and in fear to avoid them reacting to the obvious issues at hand

People like David Icke and Alex Jones are government agents. If the "Illuminati" didn't want these men to tell you the "truth" they would have been killed a long time ago. It's their job to give you about 5% of truth, with the rest designed to keep you in a mind set of fear.

So the conspiracy theorists are actually part of the conspiracy themselves? :-s
Have to admit, I'd not thought of it like that before, I just thought that the general ridicule these people pick up woulda been effective enough to blunt any truths they did say...

People like David Icke and Alex Jones are government agents. If the "Illuminati" didn't want these men to tell you the "truth" they would have been killed a long time ago. It's their job to give you about 5% of truth, with the rest designed to keep you in a mind set of fear.

The people need to know the truth! Now give me money and I'll tell you!

Seen most of these uploaded to youtube though.Alex Jones is a nutcase.

One of the reasons I like the dojo so much is because of all the interesting characters. It's like our own little soap-opera. :P

Hope you guys are doin ok. Just been partying and spending far too much money in Sydney. But tomorrow that all ends, and i really try to get a job. Been scary at times, and have even thought about going home once or twice. The financial aspect brings so much pressure, never mind the fact that i am with my sister and her 2 friends who constantly talk abouy guys and sex. In Sydney, i cannot get a girl for shit, there are just far too many good looking guys here. But i need a job. Badily. But hope all is well, and i will try and check in more often :)

the courier company my company is currently dealing with is called "skynet" needless to say I don't trust them at all

I think this describes the current atmosphere http://i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/353/279/e31.jpg

so let's shift gears. Still can't adjust back to Chicago time. I still wake up as if I'm still in London haha. And usually people say you will miss it later on when the holidays are over, but I'm kinda missing everyone and everything from there right now. Maybe I just need to adjust back and give it time, but It felt so much different (in a good way) when I was there.

^
The only reason why it's a CGI mockup is because Batman wouldn't let us see the real thing.

For Ziming.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twH93a4JYgI[/youtube]

Sonikku wrote:

Meth before and after.

meth has the power to make people in to potato's

@kiba, ah that

Last week I was at a holiday party by one of my insurance carriers. It turns out I was the only agent invited to the head table by this carrier. I sat right next to the VP of the company that night and for some reason they really like me lol. They must be sick or something haha. Anyways, I met this Italian chick and really hit it off with her, tonight we had our first date and it went quite well. Hoping it amounts to something good. :)

I got a prescription for my adult ADD. I just picked it up and found out it has meth as one of the ingredients, though it's a low dosage obviously. Then I started having second thoughts about this and thought of what I could become from this, like a slippery slope, I thought of this scene from The Other Guys.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk5_RS6_H8g

I guess I'll take it though, what the fuck...

I think we tend to forget that extreme violence like this has always existed. Since we have the media now, all these incidents seem connected to eachother instead of just a series of isolated incidents. I honestly believe if we didn't glorify these stories and feature them 24 hours a day, we wouldn't have major incidents like this as often. They need to just localize the story and make it as boring as possible in the newspaper and tv coverage.

Why is it when people talk gun control everyone always thinks in terms of two extremes? Why does it have to be guns of any shape and size are freely available for all or impossible to have by any? Surely there is a way to allow private citizens to own their hunting rifle their dad gave them when they were younger or a hand gun for self defense without letting them have high powered assault rifles and magazines designed to kill dozens of people in seconds. What do private citizens need with assault rifles anyway? I can't imagine this is what the founding fathers had in mind when they penned the second amendment.

Cadillac Black cologne. It smells like leather and hot sex, just the way I like it.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcJFdCmN98s[/youtube]

You are not authorised to read this forum.

Cori, the girl with the plush yoshi back bag. We have kinda been on a couple dates, but mainly just as friends, we have been talking and texting alot. I saw her today and she kept messin with me, she was putting stickers on me all day and flirting alot. Later we were sitting in my car and she said she had to go, and I said I needed hugs before she left, so she got out of my car and walked all the way around to my side of the car, and i looked up at her for a second and got out. Then she like clinged onto me and hugged me and then looked up at me, then we said good bye and she left. Cutest moment I have had in a while, I felt all warm inside and happy afterwards. :)

Spoke to Henry recently. He seems better, which was good to hear..

http://shenmuedojo.net/new/news/happy.jpg

We're happy to bring a small present of our own for the holiday season, in that we've moved on to an upgraded server hence no more down or lag time.

"Your website will be migrated to one of our newest and highest performance servers with the maximum amount of available resources."

As most of you are aware, regular members and lurkers alike, Shenmue Dojo is hosted in an ad free environment. To do this however is not cheap and leaves the owner to pay any and all fees out of pocket.

This past billing cycle was paid for completely by the members, as promised. However due to the account changes, our new billing cycle will be starting the first of the new year, less than a month away. Any and all donations go towards the health of our website and towards any future projects that may occur within the community. If you don't know how to donate, click here to find out how.

Users who donate, as always, will be awarded special account privileges. Those who donate in excess of $50 will receive something special on our end, but please, only donate as you see fit within your budget. We thank our members for making this community what it is today, to both those that can and can not donate. Your knowledge and presence means more than anything.

Happy Holidays from the Shenmue Dojo!