http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/594240 THIS!

I really wish I was able to answer this question.

http://grognor.newgrounds.com/stats/medals/ This is the short answer to the question. I am aware that Newgrounds is generally a terrible place, but believe it or not, it has some good games.

I hate what achievements have done to me. It's gotten to the point where I no longer play games that don't have achievements unless they're sufficiently famous (like Super Mario RPG, which I played for Christmas 2011). When I do play games that have achievements, I go out of my way to get them if I like the game or if they're easy to get - this sends mixed signals, which is a problem - even if I don't enjoy getting them, which I usually don't.

I feel like I'm forced to do stupid shit for a meaningless number. And you could call them 'voluntary', but that's the same sort of argument for the lottery. The lottery is 'voluntary', but that doesn't change the undisputable fact that its main contribution to society is making poor people poorer.

Also, I don't know why human brains (in particular, MINE) respond so heavily to watching self-inflicted meaningless numbers increase. It works both with video games and khan academy, I just can't stop getting those numbers up. It might be an association with modern numerical status indicators like yearly income or number of bathrooms in your house, or maybe it's a hard-wired adaptation for using numbers (be they meaningless or elsewise) as a proxy for perception of societal status. (An experimental consequence of this hypothesis would be low socioeconomic status people responding more to game achievements - that'd be a good experiment.)

It would be a travesty to see either type of bacon removed from the world, but if I had to pick one, American.

August-November 2011 was one for me.

It is not accurate to call Grognor from before that period the same person as Grognor after that period.

No.

The Powerpuff Girls, a few minutes ago

I assume you're asking this because of my wording: "one of the greatest gifts humanity has ever given itself".

It's because, of all the things that have ever happened to me, watching Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann has benefited me the most. It helped cure my depression, it helped me realize that humanity has potential (this was not generalizing from fictional evidence. I had just not thought the issue through before watching TTGL), it gave me a glimmer of hope for the future, it made it easier for me to persevere through difficult times, and it made me A BETTER, MORE EFFECTIVE HUMAN BEING. I'm not saying it will do this for everyone. In fact, I don't think it will. But for those people it can help like it helped me, it deserves that chance. And it's entertaining as fuck besides, so it surely won't have been wasted time.

Everyone deserves to have watched it. I do what I can to spread the word around. I personally introduced it to six acquaintances. Three of them ignored it completely, two of them watched one or two episodes and said they were really good and never watched it again, and the last person watched the whole series, introduced it to HIS friends (who loved it), bought over a hundred dollars worth of merchandise, and agreed with my analysis that it's one of the best things ever. So I don't think I'm alone in this regard, but it's hard to show your appreciation for this anime without looking like a nerd or otaku or whatever. At least its popular, but I wish everyone could see it instead of, "a lot of people", because "a lot of people" usually ends up being a tiny fraction of humanity.

But that's not enough, you see. I still haven't explained why it has this power to make people better.

One of the lessons TTGL teaches is the importance of the face, the voice, and the will, named "Kamina" in the show. Kamina has no power on his own. He's just a face, a voice, and a will. What he does is show those who do have power but don't know it, the Simons, that terrible situations are optional. If you look around and are not satisfied with what you see, you do not have to say, "shikata ga nai" and accept it. You can, and you must, do absolutely everything you can to fix the broken world, even if there's only a small chance of success or it looks impossible on the surface.

On the surface, TTGL is a coming-of-age story for Simon, but just beyond this, you can easily see that it's a coming-of-age story for all humanity, which is strikingly apt in today's dangerous times. When everything's at stake, it's time to grow up, because failure is the worst! possible! thing!

I could get into the implicit and explicit symbolism for hours. I'm not going to, but I'm telling you, it's essential stuff to understand, and it's fucking beautiful. All the stuff about spinning and moving forward and digging holes and getting bigger while staying the same shape, like a spiral, it's deep god damn stuff.

These are not experiences you can have by reading the answers to Formspring questions. You have to watch the series. Some works of art, when you complete them and feel joyous and new, it's like you've just climbed a mountain, and the view from the top is so great it brings tears to your eyes. With Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, it's like an archon comes to you, lighting up the world, showing you that you've been standing atop the mountain the whole time, and the view, the view is just... perfect.

Now Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann isn't perfect. It makes death seem okay (the TTGL universe has an afterlife), it has a clip show episode, the fanservice bothers some people, it has lots of wacky pseudoscience like human shape being the perfect form and love being an all-powerful force, but you should watch it anyway.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann rules. I love you all. Goodnight.

No. I wish I did. For a while, I kept a dream journal by my bedside, but every day when I woke up, if I had remembered my dream, I would think (and to this day, I still don't know why) that the dream was not worth writing down, for one reason or another. My dream log remains empty. It seems I won't be learning to lucid dream, which is sad. I really, really wanted to learn lucid dreaming.

But my dream log remains empty.

The most important thing is that "art" is not an on/off switch. Some things are more art than others.

Also, giving it a definition in so many words is an exercise in failure. You just can't do it without there being effective counterexamples, so I'm just going to give a very long list of things that are art, and things that are not, to follow:

Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door: art
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker: art
Kirby Super Star: art
Fire Emblem: The Blazing Sword: art
Call of Duty: not art
http://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/theshadling/of-wenches-and-mead : art
a cross floating in urine: not art
Bruce Lee's fighting style: art
Die Hard: mostly art
Hotel California, by the Eagles: art
a flower: not art
George Carlin's standup: art
Abduction in the Caucasus http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DDY1qHxKYs (Russian Movie): art
interpretive dance: not art
Dragon Ball Z: kind of art
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6svFLIUKB-M : art
Reptiles (M.C. Escher): art
The Divine Comedy: art
Modern Art: not art
this poem http://www.raikoth.net/johndarcy.html : art
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: MAXIMUM POWER ART
"trolling": not art
Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series: kind of art
debate: not art
The Old Man and the Sea: art
1984: art

You might notice that all of the things that are "art" on this list have a few things in common, that the "not art" doesn't share, but as soon as you put that into words, some jerk comes up and says "BUT X HAS THIS QUALITY! IS THAT ART? HUH?" when it obviously isn't.

I'm sure you get it by now.

Play

Play

The name of an object or concept is like an arrow pointing at a thing that you can understand without the name of the object. The arrow is a tool. A definition of a word is like instructions on how to build the arrow.

A person's name is most functionally used to refer to that multitude of concepts that resemble a specific person in some fairly consistent way. It can also signify parental expectations of the person, or perhaps if he chose his own name, the way he'd like to be thought of by others. These things may have subtle personality effects. (You can read "subtle" as "unimportant" and still be very accurate.)

Some people have really awesome names, like Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, or Lieutenant Colonel John Malcolm Thorpe Fleming "Jack" Churchill, or Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov. Really awesome names tend to go with really awesome people, but not always.

This all changes in a work of fiction. Then the names of characters can range from meaningless to vital importance. The name of the work itself can also mean a whole lot, if it's fine art.

And it may not be so poetic to say so, but roses really wouldn't smell as sweet if they were named "angry shit plant that will prick your fingers and symbolize the dying of your love when they wilt". Juliet didn't have a clue what she was talking about. I think Shakespeare knew that, too. That's what I think.

Animation.

Unfortunately useless, since I can't draw.

Sunsets are prettier because night is better than day, but let me tell you

the best thing about being nocturnal is being awake when the sun sets, and then still being awake when the sun rises a little while later. Get to see both in one sitting, without even moving if I don't want to. That's pretty great.

Well yeah but I only have six followers and none of them even have a clue who I am so it's not like I should expect any.

Dancing has precisely three purposes: fun, attracting members of the interesting sex, and making money. None of these things is for me.

I do not dance. I am white. I do not look like someone who can dance, will dance, or has ever danced. Now, contrary to popular opinion, looks are not always deceiving.

Don't tell me to 'loosen up' either. I know that's what you're thinking, so don't say it. A true warrior is always prepared, even in times of dance.

Anyway, those are my rationalizations for not dancing. Here are the real reasons:

1) I have internalized a negative stereotype about white people, and
2) I am pathologically afraid of failure in all things.

The hardest boss I've beaten is probably The Guy, but a more interesting question is "Which boss terrified you the most as a kid?" and the answer is Magman from Kirby 64

because holy smokes
that guy was terrifying

Akrasia has stolen my soul - please help, for I am never prepared anymore - all because of akrasia

politics is the mind-killer

A lot, and yes (but don't tell anyone I said that).

I desire to improve myself and the world as much as possible, forever.

I must break you