First I want to thank my Team:
NotNoNever- Thanks for keeping me anchored to the vernacular and keeping the story simple enough for readers
BlueSoxWSJ- Thanks for being my secondary source for finance information as we both come from different viewpoints, it's a thrill to do this together.
SidLove- You are a great beta and insightful on ideas. I will need to work with you and Blue on the financial appendix very soon, so readers can track back on meanings
Harcallard- Don't worry Harc, you
Okay, I have started it and began my introductions into the characters.
http://www.gayauthors.org/forums/story/w-l/thebigsqueeze
There are three perspectives in this story with 2008 Financial crisis as its moving plot point. I am creating a modern gay business fiction story with technical details embedded in the story and descriptions on how modern finance actually works.
My three characters present three views from which forms the greatest crisis of our recent history:
Mike- the
I am going to try to reinvent myself and my stories.
I really do write too cerebral for my own good or readers. I need to create a story with characters people can easily understand, plots that are fact filled but not going to be too rich with connections, and a concept that people get right away.
I love economics and business issues, but I don't use it as the basis of my writing. I don't know why, since I've read freakonomics several times and know it can be fun.
I mean I write stor
I saw this movies years ago and thought it was funny back then, now I am still laughing, but for other reasons:
My fellow Americans 1996
http://youtu.be/uYgaEQXYtG0
My favorite line in the movie is in this particular part during a Gay Pride Parade:
A Gay guy in Dorothy Drag shocked to see the former Democratic ex-President: "Oh My God, Are you coming out?"
The ex-Democratic President: "No, I've always supported gay rights...I'm not coming out...he is" pointing to the Republic
I think there's a piece of us in each other, liberal and conservative, which is what makes us fight so hard against the other.
As an accountant by education and trade, I have to be very stern and tight fisted with my firm's money and spending. I won't give you an extra penny that you do not deserve, because one penny taken away from one person, means some one else has to pay for it. That's how I have to operate or else the vultures will come circling. When I first started my job, I was prett
This is the part of being the man behind the numbers that I hate.
Let's start at the beginning, I had already projected a $250,000 deficit in our businesses budget, which I could fix by reducing the contract labor lines. Basically, like most businesses in the US, we have a rotating pool of contract labor from temp firms for maintenance. If we reduce the contracting and ask for more internal care and watchful of incidents, we could keep cost down without cutting jobs of full-time people in an
Not sure, how many of you were fans of this old TV show, I caught it in re-runs growing up, but even after a decade, the show still holds a strong resonance for me.
http://youtu.be/NI-qCUK_G4U
Early Edition was brilliant in many ways, because in almost every episode, a regular guy named Gary Hobson had to make choices for people and their fates based on a Newspaper that foretold tomorrow's events and tragedy.
This particular episode is remembered by fans as one of the great classic
While my story is short, it carries some interesting ideas.
My story is quite sad, but within it I tried to give people a deeper understanding on the issue of peaceful resistance against foes such as the businessman in my story. A critical flaw in the concept of nonviolence is that nonviolent solution requires human beings to have equal consciences and equal beliefs in what is right and wrong. Morality is relative to a culture, whether it is Christian, Islamic, Taoist, Hindi, or any other be
The Hangman
Shall we hang alone or hang together:
By Maurice Ogden
Into our town the hangman came,
smelling of gold and blood and flame.
He paced our bricks with a different air,
and built his frame on the courthouse square.
The scaffold stood by the courthouse side,
only as wide as the door was wide
with a frame as tall, or a little more,
than the capping sill of the courthouse door.
And we wondered whenever we had the time,
Who the criminal? What the crime?
Gene Roddenberry was a drama writer with a science fiction genre basis, I have been viewing some of my favorite TV shows created by the legendary film creator. Most people remember Star Trek as his greatest work, I freely admit that I was influenced by its exploration of mankind and social commentary.
There was another show, which was also just as good as Star Trek with marvelous stories and human introspective issues. Earth Final Conflict was originally conceived as the predecessor series t
One of the things I have been able to enjoy in the last few weeks was going to a underground Chinese website to watch a very well received, but now "banned Chinese Drama". It's English name is "Scarlet Heart". The story revolves around a modern girl transported back in time via soul migration to the past, Qing Dynasty China. She eventually falls in love with half the princes in the Imperial Palace as they all fought for the coveted role of Emperor, while knowing the final outcome of their strugg
Seriously, nothing happened today.
I woke up, checked my emails, thanked people for wishing me happy birthday, then I watched a movie.
No special party, no drinking games, no surprise inside a cake (I'd love to have that happen with a hot male stripper), and no real thrills. It was just me by my lonesome. Everyone is busy with their own lives, careers, and stuff. I am grateful to get happy birthdays, but I miss the old birthdays with actual parties and games.,
I guess I have grown up
Originally, I had conceived The Phoenix on the Dragon Chair as an entry into the Anthology, but I thought nope, it's too complex and not many people will get the gangland references or chinese idioms I am introducing, let alone the concept of customs. The idea was shelved for Which Do You Want To Die.
I know most readers see my writing as cerebral and deep, which it is and I usually go into that direction. However, I do have other interests, including Chinese triad crime fiction. I think it
I realized something today, everyone that argues, whether liberal, conservative, or libertarian. Rich, middle, or poor. We are all arguing about the same point.
One or Many?
It can't that simple, but it really is that simple.
On a side, you have people advocating for individuals defining themselves, their actions, behaviors, and even destinies as they choose. On the other side, you have people advocating for groups whether it is a society, a state, a subset of human beings (gay, blac
Well, the trip was fun and relaxing; no pressure, no hassle, it was a simple affair between strangers, who are equivalent to pen pals of old. Sometimes, I wonder how much people on site actually think about the "real" you as in the actual person behind the avatar. We're all different people with our own backgrounds and tastes.
I didn't picture Q being Mr. Dad or how cute lil' Q was in real life versus just pictures.
Cassie and I shared a hotel together, it was fun to be traveling compani
Checklist:
1. GA anthology stories downloaded Can't do it, hope there's wi-fi at the hotel
2. Alternative reading for long train ride, The Lost Bank- Check
3. Clothing appropriate for DC in the summer (I am not going nude, it'd make a bigger scene than the protesters in front of the Capitol and White House)- Check, Cargo shorts and shirts
4. Music for the ride- Check, just downloaded the new album by The Maine and The Fray + my other favorite bands
5. An emergency escape pla
You have given me a lot of things to think about in terms of philosophical arguments and concerns over the nature of “Natural Laws”. I am not sure if this is the best answer, but it is a probable answer to a question that is uncertain.
What is “natural law”? There are several ways to interpret the concept and I’ve seen several different perspectives trying to frame the idea.
First, some people assume natural laws mean absolute rules, based on certain facts of nature, i.e. there is
I was browsing Billboard to see what was hot in today's music just out of curiosity as I haven't gone on that site in ages and I want to prove my astrological chart wrong that I can enjoy popular things. To be honest, I don't follow many popular bands anymore outside my small circle of pop, punk, and rock groups, but I saw Linkin Park had a #1 rock song, so I thought why not, they're usually good.
Oh I love it!
So I went to Cafeastrology.com and tried it out. It hit me right now on the mark, sadly.
Look at the quotes:
I actually do feel that way right now about my life and job. Heck, I'd love to be free being able to live my life as I want to and doing what I "feel". Like right now, if not for obligations, I'm feeling like flying South America and traveling down the amazon or going back to school and learning molecular biology.
That was just an attribute according to the chart, my core
Somewhere between the mock up spaceship, the android David, and the gut puncher coming out of someone's belly; I just said been there and done that.
I really tried to like this movie, it has everything the Alien franchise movies had, a good story, a decent cast more or less, and superb sci-fi themes. Problem is that the movie has been done over and over again for so many decades and I have seen enough incarnations to really stop "believing" as the movie holds as its central tenet.
I won'
What is human nature? A complex array of interactions, emotions, and systems of belief that conjures up a myriad of potential outcomes.
I guess for me I look to the future as much as I look to the past. A great thought of the nature of existence is that time is arbitrary, consequences are not. We can measure time based on human terms of seconds, minutes, hours, days, years, and centuries, but how can we measure consequences.
This is just me musing on the nature of existence, we base our
I saw the posting in the Soapbox and I promised not to get involved in any debates in there, but I have to at least correct some people's understanding on how non-profits work.
I hear people say, "You are scamming us and not giving our money to charity." a lot, since I've worked with charities and foundations in the past. I have worked with charities, sat on their boards as an unpaid director, and generally understand why on the accounting side of thing, it's hard to make them functional.
If I were to post this in the open forums it will probably be moved to the soapbox and I have made it my promise not to get involved in a soapbox debate until my novella is done, which is coming along nicely. Also for those waiting on the last two parts of my play from the prior anthology, they are almost done and I am also wondering if my fictional play is actually being mirrored by non-fictional realities in Virginia. I'm not Arthur Miller, but sometimes, I wonder if the crucible that we curre
This might sound strange, but I was on the bus today and I was looking around aimlessly until I spotted a girl, who I thought was a guy. No I am not attracted to trannies and she was definitely not one just really boyish-manly looking, but from just the side of the face, I was really captivated. Maybe, the strong exposed forearm, the muscular legs, and the face was just too cute in a manly type of way. Her hair was cut in a short bowl cut and it was my favorite shade of maroon.
Like any gay
The Episode is titled "Choices", but there are almost no choices in the episode as the final outcome and nature of the characters were already in existence. The writer is probably making a creative shot across the bow about homosexuality, which I appreciate.
Since the moment I saw the scraggly beard, murderous eyes, and heard his snarky remarks, I could sense he was gay. I speak of Micheletto, Cesare Borgia's assassin in the the TV series, the Borgias.
It was a great revelation and he wa
