B1ue

That Borders actually closed a few months ago. I think there's currently a second hand bookstore in that location, but I haven't really investigated. The Aquarium is still open, as well as one of the movie theatres, I think. And it's still a nice area as a whole, just a bit run down, but that's everywhere I suppose. I can't help feel that Southern Californa expedition must include some stretch of Coastline and city life. Long Beach has these things, as well as low-key gay community. Long Beach is also handy to Disneyland, if we really want to have a gay day out. Santa Monica has the Third Street Promenade, is pretty close to Venice Beach, and not far from Malibu. MatthewK and PriviteTim would also have things to say about these locations.

Wandering back towards the original thread topic, I came across this add while I was driving from home this weekened. Since Bakersfield is imminent, I thought I'd share the point of view Central Californians have of themselves. In other news, I miss my pickup, though my wind-up toy is a lot easier to park and fuel.

You're doing it wrong you know. I turned, abandoning for now the sidewalk chalk drawing I had been working on. There stood a young man, no older than his mid twenties, clothed in a black leather jacket and, judging by his smirk, enough arrogance that I dropped my guess to his age by five years. "Doing what wrong?" I asked, That sigil, he replied, pointing to my half finished art. You should use blue chalk for that line, or you'll never get it work properly. "I haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about." This was more or less what I got for drawing outside where everyone could comment. Not that I minded the comments, when I was finished, but kibitzing, especially from someone old enough to be dating my sister already out of college made my teeth grind. No one that old every got what I was trying to see before, and wouldn't now. And he smiled back at my denial like it was too cute for words. Right, you don't know what I'm talking about. You just happened to make the sigil to protect against the walking dead all on accident. And why are you talking out loud?

And what Will would have to say does not bear thinking on. That more or less what I meant when I mentioned all this as a plot point for Brad or Will, though truly, JJ would tell this story best himself, the drama, the fighting, the pain of potentially losing his father and brother over an increasingly competitive sport with an increasingly ludicrous expectations when he's off the ice. And if all this sacrifice and hardship does not result in a chance to compete...yeah, to paraphrase Robin Williams, JJ in THAT diva-rage would make Tonya Harding look like Gigdet. But I'll compromise, Will can co-narrate this story as well, when Mark gets around to writng it.

It is sounding like JJ going up in the skating world is going to be a non-starter. No matter how pristine his personal image is, he's still going to be Will's older brother, Brad and Jeanine's son, Stef's nephew, and Tiffany's student. (And Ella's uncle, but whatever. Actually, I bet she'd call him Aunt JJ if she was bratty at all. I would.) Never mind the gay aspect, which seems bad enough, but Robbie is a Hollywood producer, who with his partner regularly attends exactly the kind of parties they'd find so troubling. Anyways, my point is that there is no real way to play by their rules, because his very existence, birth, and nurturing seem anathema to one trying to maintain a pristine image. And yeah, he could say, "They're just my family, I'm sane." But, could he really say that? And would it work anyways? He could also try the "f**k the police" route, and let his talent open doors that his behavior may not. Either way, it could turn into an interesting story, perhaps if he gets a go at narrating. If not, it'd be an interesting plot point for either Brad or Will, or even Matt if Tiffany, Jeanine, and JJ split the family up and head to NJ.

I don't have a brother, but I have a legion of cousins, some of whom are fairly close in age to me. And as is typical of many large families, I'm closer to those cousins than I am to my sisters, for all that my sisters and I have the common ground of parents. I never got up the nerve to jack off with my cousins, but we did do show and tell, while erect, a couple of times.

I think putting an obviously Middle Eastern guy in the middle of a unit stationed in Iraq is a terrific way to kill said guy. I am grateful and thankful for our men and women in uniform, including my own sisters. But ain't none of them, including agai my sisters, wrapped too tightly when they come back from over there.

I'm trying to refrain from sounding like I am ranting myself, which is difficult, because I am in basic disagreement with the thrust of your deabte, if not your evidence. So, while I believe you when you say that this is not a rant-post, I intitially thought that's exactly what it was. In fact, I still would, if you had not backpedaled and stated theat you were only raising awareness of an issue. I feel it was an easy conclusion to reach when your initial post boiled down to, "internet stories are crap and do not often reach emotional tenors that are interesting to me." Obviously, that's not what you meant, but that sounds like what you said. As I said, I cannot argue with your evidence, which is pretty plain on even a cursory glance through the Nifty Archives. Cliches abound in many of thsoe stories, to the point where they are mocked, cited, and annotated as the attributes of gay fiction. My first story I wrote specifically because I wanted to read a protagonist that I found lacking on the archive, someone to whom angst was a foreign concept and was quite fine with being gay, thank you. I've since found others (the opening arc of Kaimona Tales on CRVboy springs to mind most readily), but of course not many. But I do disagree with the idea, almost obscured by the smirking identification of other cliches authors run, headlong, into in this little world, that the plethora of happy, upbeat fiction is a herald of the end times. That is a matter of taste, and opinion, I think. You are certainly free to dislike them, but to call it a problem of the genre and not how you, personally, approach the genre is going a bit too far. Personally, I can't stand the creepy, the maudlin, and the potentially insane in stories I read. I prefer bubblegum literature, which at least won't leave me scratching my head wondering if it was the characters who were crazy, the authors, or myself. After a time, the answer may as well have been myself. Christopher's Story bothered me for, oh, two years I think. I have yet to finish a Carl Holiday story, despite the high quality of the prose, because they are simply too dark for me. Nephy I've made an exception for, but even her I need to take in small doses. But none of this dislike is a relfection on the stories. I'm the one with a problem; the words are there whether I can deal with them or not. It is unreasonable to demand the Archive, and the authors on it, adjust to suit my tastes. Do you not see how it might be the same for yours?

Er...he doesn't have blonde hair. It looks medium brown to me, but it's a bit hard to tell for sure. IT could be dark blonde, and the contrast with the bleached hair is making the roots seem darker. I'd object more to the blue eyes. Will would bleach strawberry blonde, wouldn't he? Red isn't an uncommon highlight to dark brown hair, and it seems to be part of his genetic heritage.

But the ability to stick both fingers in your ears and go "Lalalala" to something that upsets you is a less specialized skill, and one women of her class are known for. True, she's not doing that at the moment, but if she decides to forgive him for making out with someone else, that would be one way to deal with the knowledge.

/facepalm. Because a database consisting of reader submitted names is bound to be 100% accurate for the time and culture. In fairness, the newborn characters are also white, and the sample is a surprisingly deep one, but just looking at that list made me crosseyed.

I'm from a small town (less than 2000 people). The dating pool did not fluctuate for thirteen years; you couldn't help but date your best friend's ex. If you tried, eventually the only person left to date would be your best friend himself. While obviously that would have worked for me, others generally excepted to such behavior, so dating ex's became kind of a wash.

I was combing through some old cd's, and it occurred to me that the American Queer as Folk started airing in December 2000. Speaking of offerings of flesh on television...

Sadly, not all of them, but enough of them are. And yes you should. Honestly, Country isn't that different from Pop, especially in the last twenty years, and more so when you are talking about female country artists.

What he said. Damn straight.

John and Ella aren't in those kind of families, though. Brad is rich, as is Stephen. Claire and Ace aren't in the same league though. They aren't middle class, but they're not any better off than, say Isiodore and JP during the Be Rad era. Adjusted for inflation, they may not even be as well off, as neither Cass nor Claire seem to have incomes of their own, and Isiodore was succesful business executive at the same time JP was head of Standford's History department and Sam was teaching in his own right.

Actually, I did take an AP class load, but never mind. There's probably something to your other point, as I was beating the odds enough to graduate high school and get into college at all. Most of my cousins did not do either, and only four of us did both.

Seriously? If you needed that to get ahead in an undergraduate class, you were doing it wrong. If you needed it in high school, you were DEFINTELY doing it wrong. I'd heard of people that would take Ritalin recreationally (I'd actually never heard of Adderall), but I didn't know anyone that did it, or at least would admit to it in such a blasé manner. And that was me, taking four years of Academic Decathlon, plus all the sports, plus making the top of my class (admittedly, of twenty, but it still counts), and working twenty hours a week so I'd somehow be able to pay for college. And I had to babysit a lot. I would imagine Jack, as a doctor, would know better than to allow his children access to unprescribed medicines. He'd also be inclined to give them hell if he caught them at this.

Not saying you're wrong Tim, because I hope you are correct, but for many victims of rape, enjoying the rape on some level is a pretty serious problem. It's sex after all, our bodies are made to enjoy the motions, and that they involuntarily enjoyed the act itself or the later memories of it becomes a source of deep shame. But, I hope this is not the case here. That this guy becomes one of the good guys, and possibly attaches himself to Will, causing John to explode.

In fairness, Jerry's sense of vengence was exactly in proportion to the offense. Dan and Cary were just odd, and Brian crazy.

I think that'd be both likely and wise whatever Shane's orientation. I WANT Shane to be sexually interested in Trevor. I don't get the feeling that he is, but one of Trevor's problems, from the very first chapter, is that he never found a guy that could keep up with him in his interests and also interested him in his own right. Shane does. But, first, we have to get passed all the Bridget nonsense. And that will take at least another 25 chapters.

I can't believe how badly Aaron Carter aged. Smoene got BEAT with the ugly stick. I realize a fair amount of his looks were airbrushing anyways, but that's not a particular fall I'd wish on anyone.

There were bared abs on tv during 2000? The things I missed by preferring jogging to TV...

With the exceptions of Little House on the Prairie, which I read in school, and Star Trek and MacGuyver, I can't think of a single detail to any of the shows you listed. There's probably a fair amount of cultural resistance at play for me, though. This was a time that, as Tina Fey put it, pop culture was so white Jaclyn Smith was chocolate to Farrah Fawcett's vanilla.

The scenario still plays out reasonably well with the ages adjusted, and the preservation of his good name coming into play (as well as Grand Daddy Crampton telling Bill to sit the f**k down and do exactly what he says, or else), except that Bill would, in that case, once it became obvious he wouldn't have a legitimate son and JP's grandfather had passed away, probbaly consider himself no longer bound by those rules and seek to engage JP. He'd probably have played a more active role in Brian's life, even if he wasn't willing to dare Crampton's ghost. Still, it's an interesting thought, how Bill may have viewed his wayward sons, and if he ever wished to claim either. And what his wife would have done, or if in fact she's the real reason he didn't. Certainly more interesting than just writing him off as irresponsible. We have Jim and Rish for that .