Canuk

M'writer85, I have to disagree tho' I understand where it is possible to get the impression that JP's "softened". JP seems to be as inward focussed as ever however as he is not now the focus of the last few chapters we only seem him when he does interact, or more appropriatly he is forced to interact with others. This, to me, shows JP to be the same as ever with only the slightest of changes due to age and his expanding family. He is the same great mate, awful acquaintance and truly scary enemy he has always been.

frankly, I am just sorry I asked........:wacko:

OK so we have sorted out the cuffing.... but why Alfredo sauce?

I realise that in certain parts of the world "taking people out" or "whacking" them is still an option, however I would hope that JP is able to come up with a far more intelligent response to this man's villianry.... I think punishments where people have the rest of their lives to reflect on the decisions they made is a FAR better result than a simple period to said life.....

and you wouldn't think it would be hard to be like that. After all, what he has done is accepted his own child for what she is. How hard is that?

the high percentage of condom use among the young fits in with the annecdotal evidence of my two sons (now 23 & 26) and their friends /cohort. I am not sure whether it was school, friends, or the attempts by their father to guide them , but I am astounded by the level of understanding of the need for protection, the dangers of drink-driving and issues around recreational drugs. Now neither of my boys are angels (far bloody from it), but them and their mates seem to have a FAR more mature approach to these issues than, dare I say it, I did at that age. it does give me some hope for the future......

in my own situation, even with the benefit of hindsight, I am not sure what I knew about myself and when I knew it. . As a 12-14 year old I recall be fascinated by greek and roman sculptures of naked men. but then I used to thoroughly enjoy going to "dancing classes" (I went to a single sex school, dancing classes and french conversation clases were done with the girls school on the next hill). through the latter part of senior school a girl I had known since kindergarten and I were considered a "couple". When at university (in a different city) I had brief physical relationships with both sexes (while maintaining the "relationship" with the girl "back home"). I considered myself straight....I think, if in fact I thought about it at all. at the end of university I married a girl , we had two children. we bought a small business that after 5 years became a real stressor, causing the marriage to fail. six month after seperating I was picked up by a bloke in a coffee shop and had a 4 year affair with him (bloody disasterous, abusive relationship) at that point I figured I must be gay. 11 years ago I met my current partner and we have lived happily ever since. Now when did I think I was gay? not sure. The only thing I insist is I am NOT "bisexual"; at this point in time i am not attracted to women in any shape or form. For all the time I was married (to the mother of my children) I was never attracted to any man..... I never announced to the world I was gay on facebook or any other medium (I did tell my mother a year or so into my first gay realtionship, however as we were trying to fix a photocopier at the time, she replied that that was fine, but it wouldn't help fix the photocopier!) "knowing" when I was gay - I really don't know....... and I am not sure it matters, to me anyway.....

Methodwriter85, sometimes your knowledge of this family is scary!! I barely recall who is related to whom, let alone minutiae such as that Brad is now as old as his biological father was when he died!!

my first thought, too - Alexis carrington made to look like am amateur! I am looking forward to see how Mark does pure evil!

mark has us all on a string! i suspect he has a lurking god-complex and we are but his playthings......... but we love it!

Interesting - I did the "life expectancy test" part of the same website..... somehow I am to live to 91...... I have a feeling that this is slightly optimistic! otherwise, interesting site. For those hung up on "accuracy" it does give the basis for it's calculations, and as far as I can see, does admit that these are estimates based on known data. obvioulsy the unknown is not included!

good manners will win me every time!

LOL! I am so glad, Graeme, you made that correction - here I was all prepared fora "planet" 30% larger than earth and I now know I would have been woefully underprepared!

very best wishes for the future; may this achievement help you find the strength to keep on keeping on.

do you think she has names for them?

Great! Grainger doing what he does best! This boy is my perfect fantasy; he does everything with such aplomb! Many thanks for this latest installment and I look forward to the contuing saga......

Slightly off-topic, but I just want to ask about M'dwriter85's comment. Have so many people enlisted in the US that everyone in that age group is likely to know someone who has enlisted? I am not doubting it, I am just amazed that that many people have enlisted! in comparison, during the last of my ~10 years in Canada I did actually meet someone who had enlisted, but he was the first, and I have to admit here i Australia I do not know anyone in the armed forces. so methodwqriter85's comment that the enlistment levels in the US are that high I found almost shocking. it must have huge effects on the future of the US.....

at the rate lovers turn into relatives, Mark is going to have to whack a few friends as well as villains otherwise we are going to have a cast of thousands all interelated and all sleeping with their cousin/uncle/step-relation (which could be between one and three people) either way I am sure i will be fun - Mark's not bad at a decent whacking!!

24 seems so long ago! also then I was married, had a child and a mortgage. At my great age now, I still have the child, though there are now two and the youngest turns 24 in November! I also still have a mortage (different house, different continent), the wife went a good while ago, so while 24 is great, it does actually better, albeit in a different way, as time moves on..... congrats on 24, look forward to the next 24, and the 24 after that!

sorry a little off-topic, but I come from a family where debate was expected and a huge part of my growing up. I have an ex where simple questioning could be met with physical violence. it was a real shock the first time I encountered it. so I understand from whence you come. I sincerely hope that you have managed to find a way out from the history.

before i started reading this post i had a pretty good idea about what I understood to be asexual. I now have no f'ing idea. It comes down to which "filter" we apply first in determing the "label" to be applied. If a person is attacted to the opposite sex they tend to be labelled as straight ; if its the same sex , gay (or lesbian). the same applies to how a person is defined based on who they wish to be physically intimate with, (a bloke who insits he is straight, but only sleeps with men, is likely to be considered gay....isn't he?) to define a person interested in relationships but not sex, surely they would be considered straight or gay but only interested in platonic relationships. a person interested in sex only, without the realtionship is a slut, but still either gay or straight therefore to be by almost a process of exclusion someone who considers themself to "asexual" would be interested "people" completely disregarding that persons sex, and not interested in sex. so can an asexual preson be gay? not the way I look at it. but then that's me and as it has been said elsewhere, words have meaing and you can assign any meaning you like to any word - just if you are going to engage in discourse, you'd better lay down some decent guidelines! of course this still leave a few problems - I have no idea where masturbation fits into my neat paradigm, the same goes for bi-sexuality (an area I commented on elsewhere being an area of complete mystery to me). not sure I have contributed anything much, but it was an interesting intellectual exercise over coffee and toast!

but it is so much fun trying!!!

to me gay marriage is not about whether my partner and I marry or not, it's about some other person telling me I can't.

I whole-heartedly agree with this; if the spelling/grammar are so bad that the story is unintelligible then be prepared for some heavy criticism. One story I read recently came with the statement "thank you so much to (name) for editing", however the work was unreadable. Now the person named as editor has written a large number of works here and writes VERY well. I was concerned that there was something remiss, so I emailed the editor. Sure enough the author had submitted the work to the editor and then ignored the comments and uploaded the work anyway. I'd like to suggest to anyone that, to me, this is the height of rudeness; if your aim was to try and trash the editors reputation, for god's sake go and get a life.... if it was some weird thought that what was written didn't need the editors help, then don't include the editors name on your story. I am not sure why this incident got me so riled up, but it did and it was to an extent compounded when I didn't get a reply to my (private, polite and concerned) message to the author (nothing says he or she has to reply, but given I suggested that perhaps he/she had uploaded the wrong version, or there was some other simple reason for a few of the blatant errors, I thought I might get at least an acknowledgement, an"f'off" or a request for help). Being an author is more than words on a page. putting your work out in public means it is no longer all about you, it is about your readers - do them the courtesy of paying them attention too. Rant over!!

as the consanguity rules are all about not producing DNA challenged children, gay sex with cousins shouldn't be a problem.... (and before someone pipes up about father/son sexual relationships - that type of relationship is/should be frowned upon due to likely power imbalances......) Mark , I envy the lucky bastard that does the autopsy on your brain sometime 50+ years from now - I am sure what they discover will rank among the wonders of the world..... A mind that can produce a buggered spanish grandee and lovers who discover a mutual relative on a sunken submarine in completely separate stories written days apart is truly sensational; all power to ya!