Ashi

Happy Birthday Methodwriter. Be young and stay young.

Oh, Happy Birthday ComicFan!

I don't like crying. It's like a raining day. Rain is needed sometimes, but I hope it doesn't last too long.

OMG, how can I miss this? Happy Birthday, Mikie!

Your blog answered all my questions I want to ask you: where have you been hiding? how are you lately? are you parents alright? what have you been doing? So nice when I read your status again. I thought you abandoned us.... Nice you're back, dear Yettie. And what health problem.... (don't scare me like that).

Yeah, totallyy is totally awesome. You guys got to read his work! Keep up the great job, totallyy!

My Foolish Heart: It's very hard to find a perfect version with a vocal. The one that impressed me when I first heard it is this arrangement with excellent intro/outro by Bob Mintzer Big Band and sung by Michael Franks. It's a little slower and mellower than other versions, so be patient (and admire the sublime quality of it), but I do believe it's better than Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennet, or Astrud Gilberto's version (the last is my favorite version sung by a female vocalist). http://youtu.be/tSdYjgMgJT4 Lyrics: The night is like a lovely tune. Beware! my foolish heart. How white the ever constant moon. Take care..., my foolish heart. There's a line between love and fascination, That's hard to see on an evening such as this, For they both give the very same sensation. When you are lost in the passion of a kiss. His lips are much too close to mine Beware! my foolish heart. But should our eager lips combine, then let the fire start! For this time it isn't fascination, or a dream that will fade and fall apart, This time it's love, this time it's love, my foolish heart! It's love, this time it's love, my foolish heart! And another good jazz standard is I Fall in Love Too Easily. This one is the young Chet Baker version. http://youtu.be/3zrSoHgAAWo I am sure there are some more jazz numbers I do remember, particularly Ella Fitzgeral, Duke Ellington, and Billie Holiday (and nobody mentioned Coltrane and Monk yet?).

Happy Birthday KC!

Totallyy, you know I like your writing. It's kinda sad, but it happens in RL. I think the narrator has a certain expectation, that's not fulfilled by his love interest, and left his heart empty. Great first chapter.

One thing I like about DC is, museums are free!!! Absolutely free. I could live there. Smithsonian is a complex of museums like a dozen or more museums, all free. Most fascinating stuff for display, and FREE (did I say free?). As long as you're not a terrorist, and pass the door gate, go roam in there freely. Don't remember how much NYC trip costs, since mostly my brother paid the bills. Do reserve some budget to see the city from the top of Empire State Building, take a ferry to see Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. You could go to fancy restaurants near Central Park or be frugal eating at food truck/carts (some are very good, there is a Halal rice bowl/sawarma cart near 6th Avenue or somewhere close, that's very good and you'll see people line up for it). The price point is similar to San Francisco Bay Area (don't know where you're from so don't know the price level you're comfortable with). Do expect ~8% sales taxes as part of your budget. I believe my brother told me there is no sales taxes on clothing as part of economic incentives. You might want to buy some clothes there, so include that as part of the budget. Buy a Metro weekly pass or similar for your transportation (I remember my brother told me something about some pass that's cheaper than tourist pass). Strolling on Rockefeller Center and Fifth Avenue is free. Window shopping is free. Bergdorf Goodman's holiday window display browsing is nice. Go see the ice rinks and imagine Holden Caulfield was skating in it. There are two ice rinks I know of. Beside the famous Rockefeller rink, the other one I went was near the main library (the one Holy Golightly went in Breakfast at Tiffany's). It had a lot of holiday booths set up there, a great stop for souvenirs and some small foods. Someone put some origami flowers on John Lennon's "Imagine" memorial plaque on the ground of Central Park the day I went there. Visit 911 Memorial can be an emotional experience. The day I went to see The Cloisters it was closed, but a little hike in that area and see George Washington Bridge on the hill that museum is situated is nice. I didn't get to see Guggenheim, but Met was very nice. They're very close to each other. And people already mentioned Times Square. If you happened to visit Grand Central (or transfer your train there), it is nice for some photos. Lots of great scenes of NYC are at night, so do bring a camera with good high ISO performance and/or a small tripod (so you don't kill your back and pedestrians. I didn't bring a tripod, but you could use some newspaper dispenser to steady your camera, if you could find one where you want to take a photo. I highly recommend bringing a camera with image stabilization).

My name is Ashi; I am currently at Gay Authors. I am thirty-five years of age. I have black hair and dark brown eyes and I am a Virgin. It was incredibly hard for me when people asked me why I am still a virgin. It's a slow day at GA, so instead of wiping fingerprints off my typewriter keys, I figured I could lose my virginity in front of the public (limited to 100 dandy perverts) as an art performance. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so this is a once-a-life-time experience. It'll make people question whether virginity is a cultural value or just sore in the back. I hope you'd get it off as much as me on the idea. Just kidding of course.... Long live my virginity.

I read the Jay Roberts story the day Luc Rosen posted it here.... I didn't finish it, though it's a very griping story. It bothers me a lot, but I didn't know how to properly make a response in here.... I just want to say, as gay men, we're a lot more vulnerable to people like Randy Kraft. Partly due to our "secret" and partly because we want to be loved, and yet the society denied us of it, so we tend to go for desperate measures. And people like Kraft can use that to manipulate gay people very easily. We have many enemies: STDs (especially if one engaged in rear penetration), perverts like Kraft, religious fanatics, our inner insecurity. I mean, who doesn't want to be loved? I do, but I still have to be careful not to be taken advantage of, not to be blackmailed, and now after reading the story, I guess I have to be careful not to be dismembered.... The tragedy can only end when society finally accepts the fact we need to be loved, too. When our love courtship can go more open in broad daylight, our own personal safety will improve.

You * are * envied! (or should that be "you are enviable") Just get over with university work and you two get married already! LOL Don't worry about the memory thingy. I am kind of bad at memorizing stuff myself. I never find it something I should concern about. Just be yourself, JC. You're one heck of a guy.

Are you going to compile a punk rock/alternative rock list? That'll be cool.

Happy Birthday.

Happy birthday bumblebee!

I don't mean I need help finding names... (though I'm going to have a jock character in my story called Brad, incidentally). I mean I need someone to fix my CPU, because it's apparently a single core CISC processor.

I tend to agree with Gaeme and Cia's opinion. Though I must point out the title is "Is Censorship Acceptable," then you wandered into self-sensorship. I think self-censorship is the author's freedom (i.e, I self-censor my work according to my own comfortable level). It's only when the censorship that's imposed on the creator of the story by an external force, that's when it might become controversial.

Back in my time, the popular girl names were Jennifer (which is given) and Susie (but the full name Susan not so much). Beth/Liza/Lisa was pretty popular, too (but apparently the full name Elizabeth/Isabella wasn't). Popular guys' name was always Michael/Mike.... Matthew/Matt and Andrew/Andy were common also. And who knows how many Johns and Bills were there. Robert/Rob was also popular (but Bob variation wasn't). Never like names like Jaden, Cayden, Aiden or whatever -den they came up with. My cousin named one of my nephews that, and he is just your typical manipulative kid you see so much of nowadays. Maybe that's why I don't like that sort of name too much. Jessica..., this is funny. One of my middle school teachers has that name, and she told us how unpopular that name was. Emily was not popular back then, but it's a nice name to me. The resurgence of Sophia is weird. If a girl was named Sophia back my time, she probably would have been teased for being a Golden Girl. Who knows, maybe the next big girl name would be Bea or Blanche.... I know a girl in RL named Estee. If I ever had kids, the girl would be Lori. I don't know why I've never thought about boy's name. I probably would name them after exes.... Someone help me.

So where is he? Maybe you have a better clue than I do. Do you miss him?

TW..., don't feel guilty. You're depressed so it's impossible to look for work due to it (isn't that like the definition of it? ). Feeling guilty isn't going to help, so stop thinking about it. But I do agree with Zombie's plan. Though I think the crucial part here is go back to a routine, and participate in some social circles (like coming to GA helps ). Stop thinking about money (that part really doesn't help). I agree with Jo Ann. Play some music or whatever you enjoy for a while (mine is photography). It takes time to get out of depression. There is no magic pill that'll take you through it in minutes. Everything takes time, so be patient. And do get out of the house once a while. This is highly unscientific I am going to say here, but I believe Vitamin D is tied to hormone regulation. I know how hard it is to get out of the house when one is still in depression, but please by all means get out and have a walk, get yourself some sunshine. That's why when I was in depression, I did some gardening and took landscape photos. They really help! And as for the medication, if it's causing you trouble, you DEFINITELY have to talk to your doctor about it. While I was doing research, a lot of people said certain drugs work for them but not others. Everyone is tuned a little differently. And dosage is also crucial here. Please talk to your doctor.

Okay.... What's your username, and how do I join you?

Hmm.... Interesting, totallyy. I'll try to be as professional about this review as possible, but it's very very..., blush-worthy for the reader, without being vulgar. I must say it's very difficult to understand during the first scan. A few word choices confused me. Combine that with a very literary and poetical way of delivering your verses, it took me a few scans of the story to fully understand what you are trying to say. Once I learned the meaning of the story. Wow. It's like a rushing heat in the Summer of midnight, lingering. An ambivalent feeling of bliss and uncertainty can be felt. I think it would work very well as a love letter. And I wish you will find someone you can give this love letter to, hopefully soon. (or perhaps you already did)

OMG. Happy birthday.

Welcome, welcome. Have fun here.