J.T.

It's actually a work injury lol wrist cast and all

I can't seem to get more power in my arms without straining my wrist or elbow ( both work injuries) So I make myself feel better and do the leg press and punch it at 350# and call it even. I don't think my work out plan is working hahahàhha

It's similar in most cities with prominent gay neighborhoods. There are a few gyms I'll never set foot into after the first time. Gold's (now Fitness SF) is one of them I just despise. I'm here to work out for me, ultimately. Whether I like it or not I don't have to have the competition to make me feel like shit. I've actually started to go to the 24 across the city away from it all. Sadly it meant it's out of the way so much it generally gets too out of the way to justify going after a long day at work leaving at 11pm to the point I've been skipping. Men...

In many respects, when I tried to write my Fixing My Destiny story, it would have literally been me exploring where my own "roads untaken" would take me. While I got a chance to start the story many years ago, at a certain point I decided to accept the choices I've made and move on with what I've got. It didn't derail the writing process, I just wasn't as passionate with writing for the main character to change himself, and I read two chapters of junk that I knew wouldn't cut it even as a beta. I'm sure the idea for the story's premise is still sound, I just need a lot of work to drive myself to finish it amidst my crazy work life

I think part of it was I was really ready to settle down and he was still just trying to explore the untaken roads. I hope he just finds the happiness he was trying to look for eventually. I don't hate him, just wished he and I had the opportunity to fix whatever it was truly urking him before he decided that bringing a 3rd party into the mix would somehow be an acceptable solution. Thanks guys

Most of you don't remember me when I used to write and beta on a regular basis. However, since the majority of my friends and family don't know much about me - and I'm trying to figure out a delicate balance between keeping my mother happy by not blasting "my unacceptable lifestyle" (trust me, this is a separate issue way too complicated for one single blog post) and keeping my boyfriend happy - I wrote a section of this as a Facebook note, and promptly deleted before posting. Two years ago, what started to be a slow process to become serious with my then-ex-boyfriend who I really thought I'd live the rest of my life with decided it were best if we took a step back and allowed each other to date other people. He suggested it would be better so he wouldn't feel trapped. I contemplated that if the relationship needed another person into the mix, then we're not the right match to stay together for the long haul. Two years have gone by and I don't regret this decision. Instead, I reflect on the decision I made, which took two days to formulate, weigh out, and gather enough strength to end things. I don't think either of us were ready to just end things completely, but I didn't think it would have ended well either way. He had too much temptation from moving into a "gayer" neighborhood, and I guess from his raise in status from his startup being bought out, he felt he had to date upwards. I, on the other hand, was ready to settle down, see the world with him, and even started throwing out ideas about engagement (but not to him directly). The strangest thing happened during this time. I was an emotional mess, the one friend who I met online and we chatted in a coffee shop eventually became my boyfriend. My ex apparently thought SF was too bougie (yeah... I didn't understand that either) and moved to Chicago. Two years tomorrow will mark 2 years I broke up, and 2/20 will mark the day I added my current boyfriend on FB. It's so weird looking back at my facebook timeline and have "You became friends with... February 20th" with a picture of the two of us. So yeah, what the hell have I been doing? Well for one thing, work's been crazy. (yeah, yeah, we've all heard this before) I ended up getting promoted to a slightly higher managerial position that now requires me to be suddenly artzy as hell. I now do visual merchandising and I have no art degree! Trust me my color coordination is all over the place and people in the company hate how I can generate numbers for the company without being the artzy snotty stature the role requires me to be. I got a drunk text from my ex that said he wanted to apologize at how he ended things. I'm not sure if I got the closure I wanted, but I think it's safe to say that we're both strong people who take a lot of time to get over something once something's been decided.

Yeah, I just placed my story to On Hold status for now. I haven't worked on it in over a year and a half, and I need to revisit the concept and work around that damn catch 22 in the story I've never really been able to work out. It has been a wild year and a half though. I am very thankful for Sara and Maria for helping me through the initial processes of my story. I don't think I would have published the story and kept writing without them constantly pushing me to do so. The story is on hold, eventually I'm going to just edit the chapters directly instead of taking the story down completely. It will mean you'll probably have to reread the entire thing when I'm done, but we'll see what happens. I have a plan to work around certain aspects of the plot that's been putting my entire story to a dead halt. It involves a rubber mallet and very loud music. My boyfriend would hate being in the same room when this happens. Oh yeah, bf! Yeah that happened - almost five months and we're acting like an old married couple already. Hell, we're so damn co-dependent I officially miss him while he's across the country spending Thanksgiving with his college buddy. Also, I have officially banished the bed in my house and deemed it as absolute crap... even if my bf has the exact bed from IKEA in his apartment. (his mattress is waaaaay firmer) I've taken a constant hobby of cuddling, something that he enjoys, so it works out. However, I have definitely done some weight gain because of my inactivity, which means guess who's back on a diet??? Reading through my old chapters, it seems like I had a very polished writing style - one I probably wouldn't repeat. There's a constant nagging feeling I got when reading through that there's like a neat, overly-polished writing, as if I took a little too much time fixing grammar (which Sara and I in fact did)... and honestly it's nice to read, but it's kind of sterile at the same time. I probably have a bit more dialog, internal or conversational, but it will be more casual to see if I can get potential readers to be able to connect with the character faster. Aghhhh soooooo much to fix... Anyways, I hope everyone's having a wonderful Thanksgiving today. I have work on Black Friday, so I'm really not looking forward to it. Seriously, only in America would we spend one day to be thankful for what we have, only to line up like drones and stomp all over each other the very next day to get whatever they can grab their hands on. Irony, folks, include it in your writing (subtle or not). Turkey or not, think of those in your life who have influenced your life that you want to be thankful for, big or small. Spend a moment to thank them in person, or at the very least, poke them on facebook or something. Let them know they matter - you have no idea how many people spend Thanksgivings alone - and that thank you can make their day. :-) ~Jay

I am really glad I was part of the beta-reading process of this story. The story is powerful and impactful without the length, something I hadn't expect Sara to be able to grasp immediately since her last story was technically a multi-part story. It always amazes me when amazing authors could deliver such vivid and rich characters within one or two chapters and be able to have readers identify with them so quickly. It is definitely an art Sara has mastered and has done well. I'm happy for her participation in this summer's Anthology and look forward to her many works to come.

If they can make it so they can run about monthly or bi-monthly it would be pretty damn cool for SpaceX... it'll take them a long, long time for them to achieve that sort of schedule though...and that's what's going to be part of SpaceX's growing pains...

I remember some blaming the design of the shuttle as the sole reason of the Columbia incident back in 2003. It was tragic how the people who originally designed a short term (20 year max life cycle) space vehicle were blamed when the shuttle program was stretched out to what the shuttle program eventually became - decades past its intended expiration date. I loved seeing the day and night launches (night launches were always amazing in my book though to be honest) and I can proudly say I was one of those nerds watching from the causeway as they launched the shuttle every time. SpaceX still has a lot of issues and kinks to work out. And while yes, I agree that they are the first ones to actually make physical progress towards the goals they've set out to do, I still see major flaws in their structure. Although, I do agree, I can do without the "job creation" pitch. I'm not a fan of people making jokes about how many people it takes to replace a light bulb in the space shuttle...

Well, I see someone read up on their homework It's always nice to be able to nerd-speak space chat.

That may be, but SpaceX/ULA aren't exactly replacing the massive amounts of jobs left behind by the shutdown in the Space Coast...

I still say it's a damn shame that everything they did for the Constellation program is reduced to a mere escape pod for the ISS...

lonetomato#1685

that's hilarious