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To an extent, true. I'd say only New York could rival you on that one. I've always just thought of West Coast cities (maybe except SF) as too decentralized and un-pedestrian to build the kind of truly dense and "urban canyon" type downtowns that BosWash does. Not necessarily a bad thing per say, just different depending on taste.

You say you want to tone up but don't want to "gain muscle". Since you said your out of shape and have never been one for athletic things, you probably don't have any significant muscle mass to speak of. If you were to just "tone up" and skipped any muscle building activity, you'd end up as skinny fat or just flabby. To tone up, you need to put on muscle mass, and to put on muscle mass you need to start weight lifting. One of the biggest misconceptions about weight lifting is that it only makes you big. Wrong. To tone up, you have to lift weights to build a better physique. My suggestion to you as someone who works out on the regular. Go onto http://www.bodybuilding.com and find a beginner workout that you think would suit you and that you could see yourself sticking to. Join a gym (most gyms have cheap discount rates for kids home from college over summer) and start. Gradually you'll start to see strength and physique gains, and when you start to see physical change you'll become addicted (or at least I did). Also, things like running outside or other physical activities work. For example, I play in a flag football league, and now that the weather is warm, like to go for jogs through the city.

The original still terrifies me as an adult. The book, while very long, is great too. Too bad the ending absolutely sucked though. I'm looking forward to this.

I first joined this site when I was 17. Back then there were a lot more active teenage members between 15-19, but most of us are in our early and mid 20s now. The 'Gay Teens' forum was a lot more active back then too, but now it seems like it has just sort of slid into the abyss. GA also hasn't seemed to have attracted a group of active teenage members to replace the ones like me who aged out over the years.

Well you can't really defend a skyline as ugly as LA's. Leave it to us East Coasters to build build sexy skylines.

So this past week was Teacher Appreciation Week, and I think it is all very important that everybody thank a teacher that really taught you something valuable. The very fact that you can enjoy reading on Gay Authors all stems from an early elementary school teacher showing you all the skills and techniques of being an effective reader. The fact that so many of you can write wonderful, sweeping, complex stories all began with learning how to write basic sentences in preschool, kindergarden, and 1st grade. What a lot of people don't realize is how much work it takes to be a teacher. Its not a "just during school hours" job, as some idiotic detractors will have you believe. Its an around the clock, non-stop passion. Papers don't grade themselves, supplies don't just magically appear, and parent emails don't get answered by magic. All that has to be done outside school hours on the teacher's own time. With the economic clusterfuckery of today, school budgets are being squeezed tighter and tighter, even in nicer districts. Who do you think buys all those supplies for your kids when the budget doesn't allow for it? Yeah, teachers out of their own paycheck. And as a teacher myself, I can tell you that teachers are woefully underpaid for any worker, let alone a skilled professional who works considerable hours. Republicans love to demonize us for being public employee leeches, but those who do are just fucking morons. Have you ever met a rich teacher? Yeah, neither have I. And you should especially thank those teachers who work in tough areas, often inner cities, under considerable stress for even less pay, and with hardly any resources. Not only are they just teachers, but often stand-in parents, social workers, psychologists, and behavior specialists, all rolled into one without proper pay or training. They are the only support group that many of those kids have, and we as inner city teachers often work so hard for so little progress. Remember that. So whether you came up through the boarding school elite or the rough and tumble inner-city public system, thank a teacher because they did a lot for all of us.

Oh my god, I heard this song in the club last weekend and was wondering what the name of it was!

My dad took me to see IV, V, and VI when they re-released them into theaters in the '90s. I still remember almost crying when Obi-Wan got struck down.

Throwin' it back to the Disco Era. Stayin' Alive, by Bee Gees. Seriously, how can people say disco sucks with awesome songs like this?

Some of the most beautiful sounds to ever be made.

J.R. Celski is an example of a much hotter half White/half Asian boy.

Theoretically yes, but in practice its pretty much used as a free ride off society by those too lazy to contribute. I think that rule holds true not just in the USA, but other countries as well.

1.) Brazil 2.) South Korea 3.) Philippines The rest were just kind of, eeehh. The hottest guys, IMO, are Colombians, Argentines, and East Asians.

Maybe he's strictly a backdoor kinda guy.

My favorite novel length story is Crosscurrents, by Adam Phillips. My favorite short story (and favorite story overall) on Gay Authors is All I Wanted, by Viv. Its so damn cute and brings back a lot of memories.

The whole sexualization of the lumberjack look in the gay world has just gone too far. Not to mention it's just not attractive in the first place.....

That would be interesting. I can think of 3 or 4 other couples who are GA members and met first through here.

I like your style. I'm from the New England region originally, and therefor I have an intense interest in this story. I still remember watching on CNN the standoff in Watertown that Saturday when they finally found him. I hope they send him to an early grave as well. He's quite clearly a scared little coward unworthy of human life. He murdered an 8 year old kid for fuck's sake. That alone should be a forfeiture to the right to live.

We weren't the first ones, nor were we the last.

I met him right here on GA, circa 2009 when I was 17. With the exception of a short period of time in 2013, we've been together ever since, going on almost 5 1/2 years now.

Or any first world country for that matter. Only in the West can the poorest also be the fattest and laziest.

Also, being a fat bum should not be counted as a disability. I see (sometimes very) fat people working hard like everyone else. She's an entitled POS who should have her benefits yanked.

This is absolutely the most absurd thing I've ever heard. http://www.inquisitr.com/2015388/woman-on-welfare-wants-taxpayers-to-pay-for-15000-wedding-being-a-bride-is-a-basic-human-right/#utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Feed

If you want to know about police misconduct, just do some reading up on the Philadelphia Police Department. They are the longest running, most systematically corrupt law enforcement agency in the country. They make the NYPD and LAPD look like squeaky clean boy scouts. Every year there is always some major scandal. Its one of the main reasons I turned down a job opportunity from them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misconduct_in_the_Philadelphia_Police_Department#2015

Sometimes, on certain days like today, I like to wander around Center City pretending I'm a complete stranger to this place and seeing it for the first time. I take random turns down streets without looking at their signs as if I have no idea where I'm going. I try to look for little details in the surrounding buildings that I've never noticed in order for them to seem new again. New and shiny like that first time I stepped foot in this city when I was 18 in October of 2010. I try and recapture that excitement of the hustle and bustle that was so foreign to a country boy like me. Usually when I try to do this, I fail at getting myself into the right frame of mind for it to even work, or it only lasts for a minute or so before I snap back into reality. It usually ends up as a disappointment. But today was different. I had been on vacation in Europe the past week and a half, then I got really sick and was bed ridden for 4 days and didn't leave my apartment. I got so engrossed in vacation mode that it was like I forgot everything about everyday life here in the city. So today, the first day since leaving that I actually got out and did things, it all felt so new and interesting and exciting again. I recaptured a small glimmer of that feeling I used to get when I'd come into the city to visit, but didn't live here. I actually had myself convinced for a while that I was a newbie to this place and I spent a good hour just walking around and exploring like it was my first time. I noticed so many details about this place that during "the every day" I never even bothered to notice. It was so exciting, and a bit depressing when reality finally snapped me back. I don't know why I crave that feeling of nostalgia so much, but I do.