Lugh

Sighs and we wonder why I homeschool.... Seriously, I was having these kinds of problems for 4th grade. The teacher did not know a verbal from a noun, nor could she do SIMPLE maths. It took me gathering together fifty mis-graded pages (in one nine-week period) and sending them to the STATE schoolboard before they even looked into the problem. The local schoolboard tried to tell me "the teacher is always correct". During all this, they would send notes home, or call, to have me come in for conferences, trying to tell me that my son was 'mouthy' because he would question the teacher. It is my firm belief that most school boards do not want students who think for themselves, they want children, teenagers, and adults, who accept what 'authority figures' say without question, and they do this systematically beginning in kindergarten. What is worse is how parents respond. There is a little girl in our neighborhood, she constantly gets put on "yellow" for talking. She is in the first grade. Her mother did not ask her why she was talking, only punished her for getting on yellow. This went on for weeks. Finally it came out that another child was bullying her, and when she tried to speak up, she was repremanded by the teacher. How did this all come out? The bully cut 12 inches of hair off the little girl -- literally removing one of her pigtails. Why did she sit there and let him? She had been told by the teacher if she so much as moved she would go on red... and the child had been made to terrify going on red more than having the other child cut her hair. Granted, these are 'extreme' cases. But they are not unusual ones. I don't believe so much in teacher apathy... I do believe that the 5 to 7 classes a teacher must have in order to teach does not adequately prepare a person to face 20 - 40 children. They speak of 'student teaching' -- in most places that is ONE college semester. Maybe the key to teacher preperation is in actually preparing teachers. I know budget cuts have a lot to do with the mounting tensions on teachers. They no longer have aides so they have to do all the prep work, all the 'grunt' work, all the paperwork... for ever-increasing class sizes. I also believe that "no student left behind" is a bunch of bull. Some students need to be left behind -- those who do not try, who are just biding their time until they are old enough to drop out... but the kids who have learning differences, they are the ones who are getting shafted Many of them receive a "certificate of completion" instead of a high school diploma at the end of twelfth grade. If these differences were addressed better the difference wouldn't be a difference at all. In Virginia they have the "standards of learning", basically they "standardized" teaching. The teachers were given a schedule and told to follow the plan... they teach the same thing in every classroom in that grade across the state. This means if there are 30 students in the class and the teacher has spent the 3 allowed days on long division and 21 students mostly understand it (enough to pass a test with 70% accuracy). The other 7 are not given remedial instruction, it's now time to study fractions. Sorry. Can't leave you behind, but can't take the time to teach either. Hope you catch it next year. I guess what my rambling is trying to say is the problem isn't necessarily with the teacher. It's with the system, and it's not going to change until people start questioning why the system is like it is. In the school system that DC should be attending 70% of high school graduates only read on the 8th grade level. This is acceptable for the system. You want to know how to fix it? In a way you already are... you see a problem. It will get worse before it gets better, unfortunately for the kids stuck in it for now. But it has to get better. Sighs, anyway that's my rant... Lugh

Interesting question. As an author who writes erotica, I have, will, and do WRITE erotic scenes in my stories whether the people involved are male, female, or something else entirely. Nor are the participants always limited to two beings of any specific gender -- or even to two beings for that matter. As a reader of homo-erotic fiction -- sex does not bother me in any form -- so long as the sex is not gratuitous. I'm not quite sure what you mean by straight sex being "embedded" in gay fiction though... generally erotic stories are catagorized by the orientation of the Protagonist and his/her/its partner so gay erotica would have a gay couple in the thick of the trouble and hetero-erotica would have a male/female partnership in the thick of it... NEITHER limit the orientations of other people in the story. I think what would make me scream and run is the tab A into Slot B type of writing... or more to the point the stories that start out: My name is Gemini. I am fourteen years old. I have a ten inch dick with a thick bush of black pubic hair. I stand 6'2 in my socks and have green eyes. I would never scream and run, nor would I not read the author again... if it's in there and it's not gratuitous, then there must be a reason for it. Sometimes a very good one. heh, answered above I think, but the short answer is... no. Lugh

hum.... I'm running FF 2.0 and that's all I use when surfing. There are a few reasons to have IE installed (basically because it comes with and can not be uninstalled (microsoft virus anyone?)) Mostly for comparison purposes when coding. I also have Opera installed but I don't care for it too much. Oddly people keep telling me that IE won the browser wars... but I don't quite see it that way.

Razor, Please note my suggestions... none of them are seasonal in nature... honestly I think we should vote on everything in one list and the top four get to be anthologies. But that is only my opinion. Lugh

"What's My Age Again?" Blink182 and most any of the older Fugues...

just cross posting... these are ideas I listed on the other thread: possible suggestions would be "Love Shack" (Winter), "Children of the Night" (Fall), "Super Heroes" (Summer) , "The Road Not Taken" (Winter/Spring), "Living in the Shadows" (Summer), "Odd (wo)Man Out (Any)" and adding more: "Return to Innocence" (Winter/Spring), "Surrender" (Fall), "Sounds of Silence" (Any), "Worth Fighting For" (Any), "Untrue" (Any), "Wasn't that a Party" (Summer/Fall), "Summer Loving" (Duh!) heh... maybe I'll add more later...

Ok so I was thinking about taking DC to visit the Grand Canyon next year at some point.... but I know nothing about that portion of the USA so.... can someone give me some advice as to when would be a good time to visit... the camping areas are open from mid-march to mid-november... I'd like tent weather but no snow traveling from VA to there by car. Thanks, Lugh

So would that be a couple of twinks or some loving on?

thanks guys! I'm pleased to announce the opening of my new website, which should be happening sometime this weekend.

sighs.. I'm not a postaholic, but can I post here anyway? I mean are you going to discriminate against semi-lurkers or what?

Hey guys, I'm considering choosing a domain name but I'm having a hard time deciding... tell me what you think...

congrats guys!

Aye Matey! Best get to writing or we'll make ya walk tha plank, we will! LughbieLughbiedugh

lemme see... duct tape... for hems that come out just before interviews... for fixing hoses in the engine long enough to get to the shop... for miscellaneous things... like fishing up the keys that dropped through the water drain grate... and just because sometimes only duct tape will do.... remember silence is golden; ducttape is silver.

See and this is why guys should have kids! for the first 5 years of DC's life... when i had him with me his diaper/toy bag doubled as my "man bag". now we just share a backpack. and the stuff in it? heh.. well other than meds... first aid kit (including tweezers, scissors, needle, safety pins) current reading material for both of us hand lotion, hand sanitizer, condoms, lube, sunscreen, blistex, carmex, deoderant, razor tea bags, splenda packets my pda, cell phone, his gameboy, portable chargers, extra batteries trail mix and assorted candies multitool (the one with the bit attachments) assorted pens, pencils, paper, notebooks sudoko book(s) duct tape hum yep I think that about covers it, my watch hangs from my beltloop, my cards are in my back pocket, my cash is in my front pocket, and the keys could end up anywhere!

well, I don't know about everyone, but I have a list of people I keep on a disk that my sister is to notify upon my death. Some of them are people here.... I think it's up to the individual how they want it handled. Otherwise you may never know. Lugh

I'm guessing that orange/red/white is really a bad place to try and see a meteor shower....

Virginia has it on the ballot too... lets not forget. Not so sure it will pass, but one never knows...

Kitty, I'm not sure which way I'm going yet, which is why I'm looking for input.. the more input the better. Thanks. Lugh

I'm considering working on a story soon that has dragons, but I need to know of some of the mythology surrounding them before I can begin... here is a short list of what I can think of off the top of my head... can you add to it? eat virgins fly although their size says they shouldn't be able to breath fire / acid / ice / other substance horde their 'treasure' live for 'eons' magical various body parts are used for magical ritual / healing (crossposted in blog / "land of the fey" forum)

Bob, Did you do it on the blog entry or did you go to the page (necessary page to go to)?

well as you all know there are two sides to every story and I'm guessing you will never hear the entire thing so I'm going to give you the "short" version: Myr and I had a difference of opinion over copyright law and the new rules regarding authoritorial access to their hosted pages. I was given the choice of comply or no longer be hosted. I refused the restrictions which automatically made me non-hosted. I really don't understand why they removed the forum though because I had it for months before I was hosted to begin with, but such is life. The stories will still be available as soon as I can upload them at the first land of the fey. In the meantime, look around and see what you've been missing (snickers). Lugh

HOPPY DIRTDAY, Julesie-baby!!!! Yer now LEGAL!!!! Lub, Lugh

the efiction program is designed to work with basic text... if you are having a problem with special formatting here is what I did: Copy and paste the story (you will get the special formatting from word right along with the story) Select the option at the bottom to preview the story. Select to preview the story again. By this time you should have plain text -- except for footnotes (and maybe a few other features I've not come across) which you have to take out by hand. Proceed from there. Hope that helps. Lugh