Meso

Nice shots, what lens you shooting with? That bird on the rock is pretty. And that giraffe and tree make a great scene. (I'd probably have tried to compose it so they were on the right of the image with white space on the left, but I'm a sucker for white space) I'm trying to organize to make a trip to other countries in Africa in the next odd year. Lots to see in Botswana too.

Loving the 550D so far. It was a good upgrade from the 350D. The AF is a lot better, the LCD is almost double the size, and much clearer in displaying the current settings. It can also be used for live view which can come in handy. The HD video recording mode is great, with good sound quality too- and allows for taking photos while filming. The body itself fits nicely in the hand, quite similar to the 350D in that aspect. I'm currently saving for a Canon 400mm L 5.6 prime lens. The budget sigma 70-300mm just isn't sharp enough for me anymore, especially with my increasing interest in wildlife and bird photography. Some shots from the 550D.

My job... Is keeping all of you in line. Best massage will earn extra site privileges (no dudes).

I don't think this thread illustrates this at all, while people may strike out against Christianity, maybe I missed it, but I don't recall seeing a statement that said that one didn't look into the Christian faith. It's funny because most of my friends are Atheists and even the ones that were raised that way have read the bible and have an understanding of how the religion works. The way an Atheist with any credibility would. You can't argue that which you don't know, nor can you reject it - without being ignorant. A deep understanding of the message, values and beliefs of the religion is a good idea if you plan on debating it. And Atheists have no reason not to explore religions for factual information, I don't know of any Atheists that would say "Don't you dare study up on Christianity for the purpose of knowledge.", however I do know many church goers and pastors who definitely say that about other religions. "Stay away from the occult! It'll suck you in, the devil will get you!", "Don't listen to the scientists, they're trying to take away your faith! Look the other way."

Probably the most common action in religions. In fact in Christianity, you are told it's wrong to look into other religions because it shows you are doubtful of your own God. And doubting God is definitely a big no-no. The religion relies heavily on not investigating anything else. It always astounds me how little of everything else Christians know. They think the primary Satanic 'religion' involves sacrificing animals and follow the Satan as an actual deity. Or they think that science claims that mankind has evolved from your every day monkey. It's not always the case, but in my experience there's probably 20 people raised Christian and who never investigate anything else properly to every 1 person that has actually explored the religions and lack thereof and then decided to become a Christian.

Hah, the only thing that could make things worse than they are at the moment was if I lost my job, so I'd be living on the street. I'm currently helping my unemployed mother (hasn't had a job in 2.5 years), unemployed younger sister (who just had a child 6 months ago and who's boyfriend is studying and doesn't have a job). While also having to worry about my grandmother who can't afford food due to low pension payout. I'm not really one to complain, but if this is good, it's certainly not worth living to see the bad. As for the good. The good for me would be my family being able to get jobs and not rely on me. And I have no future plans to get married (a relationship that lasts longer than 2 months would be amazing in itself). I don't really plan on getting married and I'm 100% set on never having kids. I find no joy in children, they annoy me - and they hate me as much as I hate them. :) The good things in my life is the fact that I have a job. That's pretty much it. Though I can't afford to do what I'd like with my money since I'm stuck giving most of it to family who are unable to get jobs. Every day is a struggle up in here. But as I said, I'll be happy as soon as I don't have people relying on my money to survive, I can deal with the lack of romance and all that.

Just go onto a co-workers computer, backup their most essential files on disk or in a hidden folder. And then proceed to watch them freak out when they need to access them. Personally, maybe I'll sticky all of Shah's threads

Alcohol is definitely one of the worst when it comes to behaviour, though depends on the person - it can get very ugly if a person has a violent nature. As for the age for legal alcohol consumption, here in South Africa the legal drinking age is 18, but I don't think any changes would be seen if it was upped to 21. Most of the kids start drinking and going out at 14-15 anyway, even most of the people out at clubs are about 16-17 usually, and drunk. I find the mentality of people at 21 are still immature when it comes to alcohol, I've never been into alcohol myself but I noticed that my friends tended to begin to slow down on the 'getting wasted' thing when they approached their mid-20s. At 18-22 most of them still has the childish, "Yeah I wanna go get wasted this weekend!!!" attitude. Though it seems some carry this mentality throughout their lives. Problems tend to occur mostly when those kinds end up having families.

Passion Fruit and Lemonade will always be the tits.

And here I was thinking there would actually be a thread on non-alcoholic drinks, got me excited :/ Not the taste of alcohol I dislike, it's the millions of deaths, rapes and child abuse related to alcohol that I don't like. Best fruity drinks? The 100% pure fruit juices ;)

Oh, oh! Me! My problem has always been that when I was 11 life was too tough because of school, when I was 15 it was crappy because of girls, when I was 18 it was crappy because of school, girls and family deaths... Now I'm in my mid-20s and life is hard because of financial commitments, family, girls, and direction. And as the years go bye it feels as though I should have just appreciated how easy it was back then. Give me ages 10 - 15 again any day, when the biggest problem is girls or school. One just doesn't appreciate the good when it is there and only realizes that it was good when things get worse - at least for me. Just trying to keep positive and put more focus into the few things that do make me happy.

Thanks for alerting this, did this just happen? Over the weekend we had an issue with the ad server, though it was fixed yesterday. It's possible that it's cached since the weekend, if anyone else receives one of these issues again, please let us know so we can investigate why it's happening again, if it is.

Don't worry, I read something like that the first time too, then I read it again and thought to myself "Oh, I know some that used to get stoked to be bummed too."

Haha, well played.

Just to update you on the situation, we've been in contact with those running the ad campaigns, the issue should be fixed now and there shouldn't be any dodgy ads running anymore.

Thanks for doing so, we've been in contact with those in charge with the ads and all of the associated ad campaigns have been corrected, so there shouldn't be any more issues.

The following scam has been reported: Click here to read more about these kind of scams. Remember: DO NOT do business with anyone who offers to send you payment for a higher amount than your selling price with the understanding that you'll send back the balance. Be suspicious of anyone claiming to be acting on behalf of a "client" or another "customer". Be suspicious of anyone claiming to be from Nigeria or West Africa If you agree to accept a check payment, then do not send anything, gear or "change" before the check cleared. And be careful, if you manage to clear a fraudulent check then you may be liable for the damages if the bank finds out later. Make sure your bank authenticates the check. If it sounds to good to be true, then it probably is.This username has been disabled.

We're currently having problems with one of the ad services and are in the process of removing it, should you get such attempts to run a program through dropzone.com decline it. Hopefully this will be resolved quickly. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Of course not...The Bible is big enough without having a bunch of knowledge that is useless for spiritual development. To fit it in maybe it can cut out some of those Old Testament stories which are supposedly worthless anyway, you know - the stuff about stoning homosexuals and such things.

Thanks to those who reported this issue, we're currently in the process of taking the steps to get these ads removed from the site as soon as possible. Will keep you guys updated. PS: In the mean time, if anyone experiences any odd pop-ups requesting the installation of any software on your computer while you're browsing DZ.com, please do not allow this adverts to install on your system. If possible, close the window altogether for that period. Sorry for the inconvenience, we're trying to sort out the advertising as best we can but every now and then something seems to slip through.

I handle the administrative duties for Sangiro and have for some time now actually, he's still very much involved with the site though and I still discuss certain matters of the site with him when needed.

Some nice shots there, like the first ones lighting a lot. I went on another nature photographic mission this past weekend and got a few more. http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5259/5543079804_af63bd48a4_z.jpg http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5100/5543075434_474e626109_z.jpg http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5180/5543076330_a520a50298_z.jpg My new camera body also arrived yesterday (Canon 550D), so hoping to test it out this coming weekend.

That link just seems to time out for me

While it's admirable that you were willing to seek a way of changing, some people need something to help them, others ignore the issue completely. With that said, many people don't need the same guidance. I'm quite controlled in my life, I have no addictions, don't indulge in substances, I'm not violent. I have no need for a God in my life. And there are many others out there that are the same, as such I feel that the general idea of Christians of me 'needing God' is completely false - they may need God, but they in turn shouldn't feel as though they need to try get everyone to believe.

If it's an option between an arranged marriage and eternal pain and suffering, yeah I'm all for the arranged marriage. Unless you're trying to compare the pain caused from a bad marriage with that of Hell, in which case - I'm quite keen for hell already.