Matthew

Kyle is your average 16 year old boy. He's nice, smart, and just happens to be in love with his best friend, Justin. Unfortunately, Justin is straight...right?

Four boring classes and one bell ring later, I was rushing home. The walk from school usually took a half hour, but my rushing feet brought me home in ten minutes. I crossed the lawn in three bounds, and almost collided into the door. I took a minute to get my heart rate to calm down, and I opened the door. A blast of artic air from the AC hit my skin, and I immediately felt goosebumps pop up all along my arms. I rushed inside, and shut the door behind me. I threw my pack down in the corner

Chapter One Justin's Heart Talking to Justin was almost a religious experience. The way his lips moved to form syllables, the hazel flash of his eyes whenever they caught the light, the subtle haziness of his voice, all of it was magic. Occasionally, he would brush the hair out of his face, only to have the red locks fall back into place within seconds. His skin was lightly tanned, and his face bore a few freckles. He was about five and a half feet tall, and was skinny, but not anorexically s

Thanks everyone! It really means a lot to me, especially since I haven't been around all that much lately. Oh Kevey, no matter how old I get, I'll never feel old knowing that I'm still younger than you.

ME? Never.

I want at least eight children, but I really don't care if they're gay. I answered that I'd rather have a gay son and not a lesbian daughter, simply because, as has been said, I'd better know how to relate them. I don't think having preferences in any way undermines your ability to love your child. I'd rather my child not be a drug addict, but I (hope I) wouldn't love them any less if they were.

While I'm sure it's made in jest, I don't see how these kind of shirts help anything. I don't see it as any more acceptable to do, or suggest doing, that to those who hold views different than your own than for the same to us.

Guess who's going to be in Houston for two hours tomorrow! I don't know about the trip, I need to see how much I have after grants and stuff, and right now the trips looking like it'll be just around $500 for the flight, hotel, and car. With food, gas, and everything else, that's a lot for a 2 day trip. Maybe if I had someone to room with... And besides all that, I'd have to get time off my job. It's really up in the air right now.

And not all postaholics are going, as seen by a lack of CJ... I'm thinking about coming, but I'd have to get a leave of absence from my RA job.

It seems like we have a bunch of places we want. It seems like the best way to fix this is to have it rotate. The first gathering in SF this year, next year in Dallas, Ney York in 2009, and continue the eastward journey to Europe in 2010. And I think the straight girls might find themselves a bit lonely.

Or not so covered...

But they have something better than science, they have rumor and dogma and hyperbole. That tends to be listened to more than well-reasoned scientific analysis.

It's hard to find counter articles that even try to be scientific. This Family Research Institute article says that homosexuality is a choice, and attempts to refute Dr. Dobson's assertion that it is a disorder brought about by nurture. "In FRI

I'll take this opportunity to remind all of you responsible persons that links to nudity would be similarly not allowed. We have minors in these forums and things need to be kept teen friendly. Not that I need to remind you; you're all great at keeping things (mostly) appropriate.

Why do you think Tom Riddle's a horcrux? I saw nothing to indicate that, and I think that contradicts what a horcrux is. I think it's very interesting that each horcrux was destroyed by a different person, respectively: 1. (I don't think this is a horcrux) 2. Harry 3. Hermione 4. Dumbledore 5. Goyle (or was it Crabb?) 6. Neville 7. Voldemort 8. Ron As for deaths, how could you forget Dobby? I think that was the most significant in the book (in the number of pages talking about it, and him being buried). Also, Severus Snape, Lupin, Tonks, Voldemort, Nagini, and I'm sure there's more.

1) Apparentally. I'm wondering though, if someone was actually holding it and a Gryffindor needed it, would it just disappear out of their hands? 2) I think this was an ongoing process. That was what Umbridge was doing as part of her job. So I think it's possible that he was a muggle-born who they just hadn't gotten to yet. He was still allowed to go to school there, he was in the great hall and McGonagall kicked him out.

I liked the onion referring to "this page, which was sent to us over an archaic phone based network of low quality pritners."

I haven't read the other comments, but I really liked the story. The images were vivid, the emotions real. Although I do feel I have to say, it's spelled "haole". Awesome story.

Simply awesome.

Although it's important to note that you can disable autorun capabilities of these items. It's not too visible on Windows XP, but Windows Vista makes it pretty simple (at least the business versions I've used) as the thumb drive threat is growing quickly. When I worked as a security specialist for the government, officers would just stick their thumb drive in top secret laptops to listen to their music. Unfortunately that thumbdrive was then automatically also classified, and it would be at least 10 years before they'd get it back.

I can see the confusion on the time line, it's very subtly woven in. I wasn't distracted by those indicators as being homeschooled left me with little sense of when teams and cliques formed. And I see your point. It's just written so well that I felt really angry at Aaron for what he did. But, to echo Conner:

The third from last scene indicated its in middle school. The second to last says a month has passed. The last talks of "high school summers." I may be wrong, but I took this to mean that a gap of several years had taken place. He chose to tell his friend the truth, somewhat better, but we don't know that he would do anything at school or anywhere else contrary to his earlier selfish nature, so I have no reason to believe he's anywhere higher than just above dirt. I agree that he's the only one who can decide when to come out of the closet. However, sticking up for your friend of several years against a stupid rumor is not coming out, it's being a real friend. I don't condemn him, only his actions and feel that there was an appropriate retribution for them. Edit for cross post: I love how most compliments I receive seem to be code for: you argue too much. But I thank you for it all the same. And, for the record, I do realize that I am over-argumentative, but I only get this way during long breaks from formal debate.

Well, I must be heartless because, despite all these terrific arguments, I still don't feel bad for him at all/ The dichotomy for me is: he treated Joey like dirt when he himself is dirt. His motivation for turning away doesn't affect my belief that it's a terrible thing to do. And even then there's no reason to believe he did it for anything other then his selfish desire to cling to popularity. He's clearly not all that, but he's also no prince charming. I have to disagree. There are certain things that can be done by someone you trust that cannot be undone and that cannot be forgotten. I'm not saying this is one of them, but certain things cannot be gotten past. I'm not condemning myself as I've never stood somewhere watching someone get beaten. I'm not saying I'm better than Aaron, but that deserves some kind of backlash. Also, to me at least, telling him the truth does not make things ok, nor does it make years of ignoring your friend be forgotten. I'm sorry, but I don't give people who allow their best friends to be beaten the benefit of the doubt as to how stepping in would have affected him in a life or death manner.

There's no reason, IMHO, to believe that he's a loner or a loser. Well, he is a loser in terms of character, but he's probably still the cool jock with all the friends and I'm sure he'll marry some wonderful girl and ruin her life. Yes, in the last scene, he's sad. But in my book coming back to your friend several years later does not redeem you. It's a bare minimal effort.