That was what I was indeed referring to (although you're probably right about Mudkip insulting himself, I find that self deprecation of his a good reason to not insult the guy further ._."). It's interesting as an anecdotal point of view, but I don't see how specific negative examples are truly necessary. You could, perhaps, have used only positive examples (perhaps with more variety or specific details), or you could continue to use negative examples simply without referring to a specific username.

From a logical standpoint, I think that singling people out in a negative light like that can be damaging to an argument (even an otherwise good one, like yours) since most anyone would be disinclined to agree with somebody who called them pretentious and full of bullsh**. o_O"

While I admit that you made many fine points that I agree with (I say, as if my opinion is so important), you lost my "appreciate" vote once you started making negative examples of other users. >_> I find it unnecessary to your argument and pointlessly hurtful.

I could have communicated this reaction without an actual post with the old FLIGS system, but since that is no longer with us, you get this brief comment instead.

Not even other Latin students are very good conversationalists in the language. ._." It's kind of sad, really.

I don't think anybody still needs to sell the fact that the metric system is far more sensible (I prefer to use it when possible). I think the problem is the switch in and of itself, rather than the system. Kind of like how different countries drive on different sides of the road, I suppose: even though it would make more sense for all countries to use the same side, switching over would be very difficult to implement and adjust to.

You don't really need to be some great go-getter to play the violin (Otherwise, I wouldn't be playing the violin). You just have to have some grasp of music and be able to practice some. With instruction, it's not so hard. ^_^"

I suppose being able to immerse yourself in the language you want to learn would help, but it's still an accomplishment! (Hmmm... that's also a handy excuse as to why I'm still not so great with Latin! :D)

Levels *would* be handy when referring to real life skills, but it would probably be hard to implement a worldwide scale to that effect. I sense an excellent project there...

Eh, it's really not. Actually, there also seems to be a first chair for second violins, so I guess it's the same sort of situation for both the harmonic and the melodic parts. As I said earlier, though, orchestral hierarchy is a foreign and intimidating subject for me, so I'm not really certain on that.

Well, I think teaching yourself English is a pretty good accomplishment! o_O" I grew up speaking it and even I can see that it makes little sense at times.

Um, well, I can generally play whatever my school group's playing, which would be high school level stuff, I guess. It's hard to put music into 'levels' like that. I've been getting a lot better at sight reading in the past couple of years or so; it used to be practically the bane of my musical existence.

Orchestral hierarchy confuses me, but I think all of the attention generally goes to the first chair violinist... so you could play melody/first violin and not really be in the spotlight as long as you weren't first chair. :)

Oh yeah. Playing violin *is* really boring when you first start out... it gets better, though! I'm pretty sure teaching yourself violin is really difficult (more so than some other instruments, quite possibly). If you manage to stick with it for at least a few months this time around, you should have a better chance at it.

Playing, mostly. Minor stuff, though, I'm not in a big orchestra or anything. I like playing second violin more than playing first (first and second violin are *usually* melody and harmony, respectively), which is good, because I always get stuck playing second violin anyway. ^_^"

Aw, you weren't insufferable! Just slightly of confusing. Or maybe I am simply easily confused. ^_^" It's good to know you are happier though! I'm glad. :)

Hmmm.... you are calling on me to make conversation! Well, I can't really talk about the weather since I bet it's a lot different in Brazil than it is here (where people have recently been amusing themselves by throwing cups of boiling water out of windows and watching the water turn to snow before even touching the ground), so I guess I'll just ask you about violin stuff again. Do you play, compose, or just listen?

Yes! I guessed who the murderer was! :D It wasn't exactly obvious, though. I mean, there were enough hints so that I could guess correctly, and so that it didn't seem incongruous with the rest of the play, but the poll results show that it clearly was not that predictable of an ending.

But yes, I quite like it (and I'm not just saying that because I feel pleased about having guessed the murderer). :)

Yeah, he's not the sort to fly off the handle and start smashing faces without very sufficient provocation (though I suppose I could set the incident farther back into the past, closer to when his dad went missing... hmmm)

Although it *is* weird that he's narrating everything to himself, when you think about it. Willing Suspension of Disbelief applies with this method of storytelling, I guess. ._."

I just went and read that! I like it! Is it finished anywhere? I want to know if I guessed the murderer correctly. ^_^"

Thank you! And it's good to have some contrasting advice, probably! This way I'll have a more balanced view of what needs to be done overall.

It's good to know that not describing him is okay too (I know I personally don't mind when authors don't really say much about what the character looks like, except for worrying slightly that I am imagining the character WRONG somehow xD). Mentioning traits offhandedly was my original intent (for example, in the next chapter, a side effect of being infected with the nanobots is anemia, so I was going to have him notice how unusually dark his eyes looked in contrast to his skin tone and be weirded out by that). If I can't write in a description in there somewhere that doesn't sound all stilted, I'll fall back on this plan.

Also. Writing plays--sounds interesting! :D

Oh, good point there! I really ought to have thought of that, having had my IQ tested as a child. o_O"

I thought it made sense, there but it's good to hear someone else does too! It's a little bit of a narrative aside for the sake of characterization, so I didn't want to make it too long.

I suppose Patrick either went to middle (or elementary - I haven't decided when his dad will disappear yet) school with him or heard his mother calling him that... but I completely hadn't thought oh how that situation arose at all! o_O"

The dog's kind of messed up neurologically, so it's supposed to have an eerie zombie-ish lurching walk, but you're right, it doesn't sound that scary at all! I'll try to think of some scarier words for that bit. Or I could just say it bit him.

Uh... well, my plan was to start off with him at the laboratory, speaking in first person, present tense, then slip back to past tense to explain how he got there, then move back into the present when the events of the story start moving, but maybe that's too much moving of the tenses?! I wrote it that way because a guy saying the world's about to end is a little bit more exciting than a guy walking home from school. You're right about that line sounding odd, though; I don't like it much either. It would make sense to just have him think about the circumstances of that day, since he's certainly not narrating to another person at this point.

I guess writing the whole thing in past tense wouldn't be so bad, it's just not what I was intending to do. If present tense starts looking odd, I'll try switching the whole thing over.

But thank you! I don't mind at all that your post was long; it was thorough and quite helpful! ^_^ I've got a bunch of stuff I know I ought to fix now, and I can't wait until I have the spare time to do so.