MJ85

Or not...

Sorry. I'm feeling a little self-conscious at the moment. Although you would have won by default if Mann's only suggestion had been the Smurf pic that he sent me. (Cute, BTW. )

For those of y'all who haven't yet noticed, amidst the consolidation of staff groups happening onsite, I have moved over to the Writer Support Team. This, however, means that my omni-present Libra scales pic no longer matches my color...again. Now, I'm not anticipating yet another color change any time soon, but in anticipation of that possibility, and the fact that I've had the scales pic for a while...I've grown bored with it. That said, as far as what I want to replace it with...well...right now, I'm open to suggestions. Hence...this blog entry. So - fire away! Mike

One has to wonder just how..."straight", the guy actually is if that...works.

Which seems to be why we're seeing what will eventually lead to him learning that very thing in the hardest possible way right now...and there's also the opportunity for "him and Jeff" to go south even if (obviously) not for that reason.

Those who are saying that Will shouldn't be the one to tell Jeff should probably accept that that's exactly what's likely to happen - I wouldn't be surprised if that's one of the first things to happen next. It just wouldn't be "Paternity" if Will didn't blurt it out to him.

Hee hee, this was nice for breaking up the heavy, serious, and dark moments of the anthology. Next time though, let the readers find out "no sex" for themselves instead of greeting them with that at the door.

Anytime I listen to something on Windows Media Player, I have a visual effect set that more-or-less creates what Jade did for McKay at the end. It is very cool. Would it be cliche if I told Jade, "You go, girl"?

MS Word 2007 grammar checker: The kind that leaves you having to pick up the slack.

That scene in the kink room makes me think that it's a question of when, not if, Matt goes too far. I mean since they're not exactly experts...

So, I've read about half of the completed Premium stories so far...and thus far, this one is easily my favorite of those I've read. Of CJ's novel-lengths, I've read For the Love, Let the Music Play, Changing Lanes, and now this one. This one really seems to have the most in common with Changing Lanes, in two ways. One, both of them involve characters for which being gay (or at least bisexual, in Eric's case) is somewhat unexpected, and two, both of them have a central focus on the emotional dynamics of the relationships involved.

Word is that the judge is going to wait for the SCOTUS ruling on the California case before making a definitive ruling here.

Tomorrow, U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman will hear arguments as to the legality of Michigan's gay marriage ban, passed in 2004. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Typically the best thing to do with AVG is to tell it to update as the first thing you do once you've got your computer booted up. Because yes, everything else will run slow while it's updating. But taking care of updates first is probably the best trade-off between that and the security issues, IMO.

I on the other hand am not disappointed that Noah isn't a "love interest" for Will at all. Sorry, but that just seems like too obvious a choice. On the other hand, Noah talked about where he was "flirting" with Ferris, and that makes me think of the decade to come, where more and more guys can seemingly appear to not be straight even when they really are. We're two years away from Queer Eye and the "metrosexual" trend to come, but putting all things like that aside, I wonder - how soon into the decade did it really start to show where guys could...walk such a fine line, so to speak? I guess, what I'm trying to say is, is Noah more of a sign of things to come, or is he more of just an anomaly for around 2001?

Between yours and Wayne's postings, one thing that can be taken from this is that it is NOT set up with a clear, linear "levelling" style of system in mind, with "regular" Authors, then promoted to Promising, then promoted to Hosted. Do I have that correct?

I at least trim, because I'm not fond of having a forest either. I say "at least trim" because sometimes I go so far as to shave it totally.

"Have to wonder if Mark hasn't been dropping hints..." Is that what they're calling it these days? This sounds very much like making your case for that to be true. If I sound annoyed right here, it's because it feels like a "spoiling the surprise" moment if you are correct.

Ah. I hadn't thought of that, that only so much of the family knows about Wade's abuse. I was thinking of us the readers, to whom it is painfully obvious. I'm thinking you're right that Wade wouldn't feel comfortable sharing that with JJ all on his own - but that could be where Matt comes in to help with that. Even then, I'm under no illusions that it'd be just that simple, but I do think that the most likely "common ground" scenario would involve Matt.

At the risk of donning a Captain Obvious hat ... With Wade and JJ, again we have a case of common ground. I suspect that will be something that could be built on VERY quickly, depending largely on how often (or not) Wade interacts with him.

Actually, in many cases, wouldn't old threads be archived by now anyway? (Meaning, No Replies Allowed.) I prefer the interactive nature of the forums as well, but given the nature of the site, I can't imagine that reviews would ever be phased out.

Now that I think about it, the heat of the fight likely prevented Matt from making that connection, with or without Will cutting things off. And you're right that Matt wouldn't likely share his experience with Jeff on his own - if anything, I would likely see it as Wade is the one to think of it. He wouldn't want Matt and Jeff fighting again, and wouldn't want to be pissed off at either one over it, so he'd play the peacemaker between them.

You assume that I'm thinking that the dynamic has something to do with fidelity. I know that they (usually) don't - it's putting the two things onto the same person, even as separate entities, that's bugging me. With the way this chapter played out, though, it's not unreasonable to think that the dynamic could bleed into the whole relationship from the bedroom. Either way, I just don't get the vibe that it's something that should or will stick permanently - wouldn't Wade get sick of being physically dominated at some point, assuming things don't screw up in the bedroom first?

I am a bit surprised that Matt didn't bring up how his (original) parents didn't exactly react well to his coming-out, either. When Jeff said how he was disowned, I was waiting for the parallel to come up from Matt almost reflexively...so I was surprised when that didn't happen. Granted, it doesn't quite compare to Jeff's being disowned, but that very thing is likely what would have happened had Matt's original parents also been his biological ones - I can't imagine that an effort would have been able to be made to prove the error of their ways had Matt's parents disowned him in that scenario.

Something that I have to wonder is, what's going to happen when Matt pushes the whole "dominance" thing that one step too far, and it triggers a reaction from Wade? Yeah, Matt wouldn't be intentionally degrading him, but it would be something that neither one would be able to see coming, and even you have stated that they're not going to be "experts" at this, Mark. One more reason why the whole thing just rubs me the wrong way, though, is...Matt is the one who stepped out on Wade in the first place, and now he's the one who gets to be this "dominant stud"? Really?? It's odd how, now that Jeff's finally said why he doesn't like Matt, with the way that scene played out, his reasons just seem like such an afterthought, like...why did we even care about that?