Xtro

I've got to say I really cannot stand Jafakan Mockney (Fake Jamaican and Mock Cockney - and my father was a genuine Cockney, born 1911) I mean, bro, I is axing you, like wha'evs? (Best I've heard for a wicked send-up:- "I don't want no bush, reggin - I wanna be so lean I can't fink, I can't get a job, an' I go skitzo, because I'm soooo nang for the skunk." (Synchromystickz - Superfood Shottas with KP and Mike Stanton))

There wasn't much happening around us until we started up a support group. I appreciate that the climate (social) is probably different, but until someone makes the first move to do something, then nothing is going to get changed.

As in the old Rockin' Pneumonia an' the Boogie-Woogie Flu? (Ah, those old psychobilly days of yore...) Latest amusement still remains the expression 'To rock up' - meaning 'to arrive somewhere.'

Perhaps the general mindset is that, with the state capital being so close, there's no need for any Gay Friendly organisational support. And a Pride march can be sometimes considered 'intimidating' to those on the 'outside.' (Which is sometime where the more flamboyant members of our tribe can be a little too 'stereotypical' - even for those of us in the same club.) I think you need to turn your expectations around a little. Have you thought about becoming a gay activist and working to build up a successful gay support structure? In a town of 15,000 you're not going to be the only gay man, believe me - so maybe it's time to start taking the initiative. And if it's any consolation, the UK Government didn't de-criminalise Homosexuality until 1967. The first UK/London based Pride 'Marches' didn't happen until 1970/1972. In other words, it didn't happen overnight. As it is, Pride these days has become a business venture, rather than a show of solidarity and support - so in some respects it's not all Wine & Roses:- "In late 2012, a group of individuals from within the LGBTQ community formed London LGBT+ Community Pride, a registered community interest company, and the company organised the Pride in London festival and parade in 2013. The organisation has been awarded a contract to organise Pride in London for five years by the Greater London Authority, together with funding of £500,000 over five years." But, if you really want to make a difference, and see a change in the situation around you, then you have to do something yourself. It's either that, or move to another part of the country, alas.

Any language mutates - it has to in order for the various 'generations' to talk amongst themselves without others 'listening in.' To role this back to the original line - Liberal has had itself hijacked in the same way that MoR did (MoR - Middle of the Road - however, it isn't known as MotR, is it.) A simple (and, to me, surprising) example is that children, deaf from birth, will create their own 'slang' sign language within a group. They will also 'teach' other groups who, in turn, mutate and create. Others are created through media popularity - here in the UK, the expression 'lush' and 'sick' were jacked and can also mean Good, Nice, 'I really like this.' - to the point that, depending on the age of the audience, 'That's really sick!' takes on different, and opposite, meanings. Or are we now at the point in civilization where we need to recycle words like we recycle the garbage/trash/rubbish/waste/junk?

Hmmmm, I can appreciate that an apple is a fruit - but that doesn't necessarily make it gay. Does it?

There is also the angle that sexual activity can be pursued for recreational rather than genetic or procreative needs - something which may come with a perceived higher order of intelligence.

To extend that even further - I suspect that the physical side is okay with a lot of people, regardless of orientation or gender, because it does not involve any long term commitment to a relationship - or emotional involvement. Once you get into the commitment and responsibilities - emotions and feelings for each other, beyond the purely physical - then it becomes a whole new ball game (no pun intended.) For me, the cuddling and spooning and touching and relaxing is sometimes more important. And, as an old friend said to me a long time ago - you need something to keep the two of you together once the sex goes.

Okay, here's something else to dwell on. An awful lot of straight men find F/F (two women) material to be fantastically erotic. Apart from the obvious - they would like to assume the role of either woman - the fascination with same sex 'erotica' is mirrored by the amount of straight women who find M/M material equally erotic. And this is before we get to the Oral phobias. "So if you won't go down on me, why should I go down on you?" Yeah, I know. The only difference between a straight and a gay man is a six pack. Or half a bottle of Jack Daniels...

The Kindle 'mechanism' seems to have been 'quirky' for more than a few days now - some comments filtering through from the Kindle Dashboard forums about bits dropping off, suddenly lost, variations on colour quality. I'm in the process of trying to push an anthology with a dozen of us in it, but Amazon seem to be doing their best to mess us around. I have no idea way they cannot set up a UK-based mirror operation - not only would it mean less hassle, it would also mean less diddling around with various other things like US non-resident tax at 30%...

The problem comes when you factor in the Amazon policy for reviewing in the wake of the sock puppet business. As an author on Amazon I cannot review another author's work because that is now not allowed (regardless of what the review has in content - if it is a good review then it's trying to influence sales, and if its a bad review then it's trying to kill off sales.) Does that then mean that my years of Goodreads reviews will be wiped out? Although I may well use Amazon as a production tool (ie, publishing through Kindle) I can also use the likes of Smashwords as an alternative. The one thing I cannot do is review and comment through Amazon once I am registered as an author or a publisher - so how else do I publicise? Especially when the site (Amazon) encourages authors to do so in order to create sales and add to their profit.

Hmmm, you have one, or you'd like one? I suspect, having been sexually active in the 1970s (and that was back when street legal was 21, not 18) I remember the fears of the 2 H's - Herpes and Hepatitis. The 1980s came and yes, the Gay Plague decimated friends, characters, and people. There was a massive campaign in the UK, that then stopped almost overnight. That did not stop me having sex (I lost my first LTP back in 1982, to the Falklands - not to AIDS) but it did make me realise that things had to change. However, over the last 30 years (and being gay in the UK has only been legal for 46 years this year) the lack of awareness of any STD/Virus in regard to the gay community has been its own downfall. Ignorance kills - despite the invincibility of youth, and AIDS does not discriminate against orientation. Whatever happened to taking a moment of time to get yourself checked out on a regular basis? And yes, there is sex after 40, and 50, and 60 - I have an energetic partner to prove it (hence the worn out backspace key... )

England/Italy - it's understandable why the Italians got man of the match. Lot of work has been put into getting the side to produce quality game play - and England almost did their usual of relaxing too early before the final whistle. Not sure how things will go in Cardiff - Wales on home turf isn't going to be easy, regardless of the Slam.

Provided it doesn't degenerate into a kicking game, then fine - but the last French match must have been 79 minutes of kicking, and 1 minute of game...

Not forgetting that some days you can't even get out the door before the sky starts falling. Well, one of those pesky space rocks...

Back when I used to live out in Suffolk with my mother, the house was always full of paperback and hardback books - my own collection came to around 4,000, plus small press magazines, chapbooks, anthologies - it was the old family house, 4 bedroom, 7 ground floor rooms, and just the two of us rolling around in it. Sadly, most of that became lost and destroyed via my darling sister and her manipulations. Falling in love with books is a bad disease - and thankfully there's no cure for it. You cannot beat paper, and although some friends have seemingly converted over to e-books, etc, I still have a love of them as well. And if you think that books are bad, you should also keep away from the black vinyl discs...

Nope, not got a clue what that means, but as long as it doesn't terrify the horses...

That last picture - is there a close-up of the debris down the bottom there? Only I'm going to be in the market for a new car soon, and I figure if it isn't a make/model down in that heap, then it should have pretty good road holding....

And thus we see that, in reality, no one is a philosopher in their home town...

Interesting, and something I would have missed if you hadn't flagged it up. Thanks!

I have to admit that although I publish to Kindle & the other readers, I don't own one myself - or a smartphone. Some people have said I should get one due to the possibility of poor emulation, but I've not found a problem with the software I use at the moment. We still have a laptop in the house, however... There are at least 4 fully functioning 'desktops' - one for general use, one for the other half (Linux), one for video editing, and one for audio/studio work. The writing/authoring is usually done on the general machine, though depends. I've still to hook up the DVD player into the wi-fi, but no doubt that will come in time. There again, I still have a love of paper, but I used to collect them for decades before several radical changes in my life.

I'm still keeping my fingers crossed for the England grand slam - provided we can keep the penalties down to a bare minimum - that was the one thing I was dreading in the last few minutes of the French game last Saturday. For me, it's got to be Farrell and Flood when it comes down to some rugby eye-candy. Mr. Farrell about to give it some serious boot, And Mr. Flood - both such nice boys...

I suspect, with the adoption by other 'causes' - and the general absorption of 'rainbow' design/colour strips into the mainstream - there has been a lessening of 'meaning behind' personal displays. The use of the Pink Triangle (Germany/Third Reich) is believed to be the foundation of the Pink/Gay association (and it was America which apparently gave the world Pink for a Girl and Blue for a Boy in the early 1900s - before that, most young children were in 'dresses' as a matter of course - hence the sometimes odd looking Victorian photos, and the retention of the 'Christening Dress'.) It has been used to very good and stark effect in the past, especially with ACT UP, back when AIDS was being touted as The Gay Plague. I also feel it may well be a generational thing - in that now there is less to 'reclaim' because there is less bigotry (although still some marginalisation in regard to various Governmental support agencies.) One indicator of this is that, here in the UK, in four years' time it will be 50 years since the legalisation of gay men. Before 1967, any gay activity was considered a criminal offense, punishable by a prison sentence and medical correction (the good old Edison Medicine - electro-shock therapy.) Most gays under the age of 30 to 35 have little or no idea of that part of the Gay History, because it isn't part of any educational system - either sociological or historical. So while I would consider myself more Stonewall than OUTRage, and agree with you regarding the use of active involvement, I can also see the power of conversation as an educational tool. You can break eggs on the side of a bowl, or with the head of a sledgehammer. It just depends on how you're feeling at the time.

Probably the only joy of a suit & tie is that you can be as colourful with the tie as you like. Pink & silver grey crosshatch design. Made some people ask, which gave me an opening to discuss.

Life is a real fickle bitch. One way to defeat the sadness is to remember all the good times, all the happiness, all the being together. Celebrate the life you had together, rather than dwell on the loss of what might have been. You had good times, and you had one hell of a great friend. Remember him smiling, remember him laughing, remember him as the kind and loving person he was to you - and you to him. Cry the pain out of your system, because you will never forget the good times - tears will never wash those memories away. Love & Hugz whenever & wherever you need them John C