knotme

Joe, I agree with Trebs and Vic that you should consider talking this out with your Mom. Also, I would not assume that you must forego your college fund as a price for freedom. Can you come up with a good reason for attending a college farther away? If you've got an A average and decent Boards, then you'll have a choice of colleges, include some specialty schools that are not close. One wrinkle is that you'll have to pay room and board far away. You may need a good enough argument for a remote school to counter your Mom's argument that expenses are lower at home. But it seems doable. Good luck!

Chirp if you're gay. Dolphins do.

Happy Birthday! If you don't mind sharing with loony, laid-back St. Croix sheep, I've got a lot of grass for you.

I voted "Doesn't matter" because I wouldn't want all authors to release on the same day of the week, no matter which that is. Alternatively, we could all agree on a uniform Saturday-morning release, and authors would agree to wait patiently for up to a week for the first comment, and think nothing of it. km

I recommend the almost forgotten conventional (hard-sided) waterbed, Cal-King of course. High-end mattresses with extra support and wave damping don't cost much more. No box springs or mattress to get funky. And they're easier to move than King conventional beds. (Longer set-up though. ) km

So, I can vote in my own poll. I wanna be an editor when I grow up, so I chose Editor's Tips & Tricks. km

I learned quickly that this entry was going to be weird: A few years ago I received from a friend of a friend a coupon for one free "clogger" from Jack in the Box. I can't remember the actual name; JB doesn't sell it any more. It was a triple or quadruple cheeseburger with Secret Sauce. Never one to turn down free food, I ate one! I got that mayonnaise feeling you describe, but I survived! Aware, thanks to the dying breath of A. F. Face, that self-parody can kill you, I was commissioned by FDA to write a warning label: This product should be avoided, or consumed sparingly, by verbose people who not only know that they will die if they eat too much, but intend to write about it from beyond the grave, in a style that parodies their own lives. Time to stop. km

Ditto, but I hope you don't think that a new chapter is the price of admission around here. Man, I'd be banned for life. :nuke:

What do we like best in the new GAzette? If you haven't seen in yet, check it out! Then pick your favorite page or topic within that page. I didn't offer votes for the Front or Back page as a whole; those pages are essential, unless you want a circular GAzette. Post why you like your favorite page or topic, and ideas for new features in future editions of the GAzette. Thanks! Disclaimer: I am a new member of the Writer Support Team and the Newsletter Staff. Being so new, I contributed nothing to this first edition of the GAzette. I do want to know what people think.

Nick, With election approaching, your comments in this thread remind a little of me a long time back. Was I fifteen? Not sure; too young to vote, for sure. I'd received a small printing press on my previous birthday. I could set a few lines of rubber type and then run off copies. The threat of nuclear war with the Soviet Union had been on everyone's back burner. All the time. For years. My idea of fun that year: run off thousands of slips of paper reading BETTER DEAD THAN RED ("RED" as in Red October), and then scatter them around the polling place on election day. It was politically correct but illegal . Great fun overall, I thought at the time. What's the point of this? km

What lovely inauguration of your blog! Thank you!

Yipes! I guess my spam filter has caught them so far, but I'll keep watch. Thanks! km

Like most folks, this scientist and engineer (me) has on occasion daydreamed that I was President. I do a lot less of that post-Carter. I'm not saying we're alike (for one thing, I would never lose sleep over "lust in my heart" ), but in several important ways, Carter was and is what I aspire to be. And look what happened. On second thought, we'd be better off with Carter as President today. Gosh, who would have thought, when we first elected Shrub, that he'd actually have to do something? Joke's on us! :wacko: On a lighter note: This is my first visit to Nick's blog (yeah, I'm slow), and I note the huge fonts in most of his posts. I guess he had to shrink down a bit this time just to fit that long list in a reasonable space I previously considered that Nick liked to shout in forums. Now I think he's enthusiastic. km

My local newspaper announced yesterday that three local elementary schools have received federal grants of $38,000 each to "help prevent bullying". Of course, school spokespersons were quick to say that "bullying is not a huge problem on campus". Elementary school seems to me like the best place to start anti-bully awareness training. More details:

Me, too. (Gotta have that comma ) As one of JS's earlier blogs points out, the Hubble is old--age-translated to car years, it would be a classic. Not too shabby for a telescope that was severely crippled at launch! In this era of almost unfathomable waste, in hundred-billion-dollar gobs, the Hubble stands out as one our best investments ever. km

Well, after one section of 'Unleashed", I'm going to take stab at my own question: Yes. But as usual, as one question fades, more pop into view. For instance, how does a wolf-pack of kids (or whatever they are ) resemble a clique in the Mafia? The next chapter may tell us! Wesley's slow transformation, his awareness of it, and his complex feelings about it, continue to fascinate me. For me, this is the best part of the story, and one which sets Savage Moon above and apart from most stories in this genre. Notice how I escaped from the paragraph without saying what genre I'm talking about! Mom didn't raise no fool , or so I keep telling myself. km

Kurt's initiative give us the opportunity to discuss this. The Gay Authors Community provides the venu. Thanks to both! A brief discussion of two trends that might help us glimpse the causes of the increase in school violence: (1) the economic decline of the US within the world system and (2) the decline of religion within the US. I emphasize: these trends themselves do not cause violence. The US is past it's prime as a world power. I see my country somewhat in denial over that fact, and one result is the inattention to the the pain that rusticmonk described after he asked "How did we get this depraved?". I see large segments of my country increasingly poor, desperate, and hopeless. Parents without hope cannot nurture the spirits of their children. The increasing fragmented little nuclear families that characterize society in much of the Western developed world worsens this situation, every little fragment sinking or swimming on its own. In the current issue of Foreign Affairs, Walter Russell Mead offers an insightful look at religion and US foreign policy. Setting aside foreign policy, his analysis of the dynamics of religion in the US tells me this: The increased religiosity we often hear and read about is a symptom, not of a broad revival of religion, but rather of a cyclical increase in evangelical fervor within a broad, slow decline in religion. This decline is part of and partly caused by increased freedom of thought, and a reduced hold of dogmas of all kinds. In my church yesterday, a young man stood and reminisced about the strong youth participation in church where he previously lived. As I listened to him, I recalled processes my church, and other churches I've known, use to spread the faith. I'm sorry to say this, and I really don't mean to offend anyone, but I need to say it: the process benefits from minds less free thinking, more susceptible to dogma, and there are fewer such minds these days. Reduced dogma makes possible reduced prejudice, and increased tolerance and cooperation. Someday it will allow a world community largely to supplant the current system of nation states, which is looking long in the tooth. The slow transition, however, leaves us in an unstable moral environment. Receding dogma can leave a void. Anything goes. The unthinkable is now thinkable, as I said above. As Marty suggested, we don't get much help filling this void from the mass media, also unstable, as the funding-by-advertizing paradigm flounders. Internet-based broadcasts and discussions are coming on strong to replace the old media, but it's still a big mess. In summary, we live in an unstable moral environment where, more than ever, the blinders are off and anything goes. Economic pain, uncertainty, lack of hope, and a feeling of powerlessness are more common that we admit. What do do? For one thing, realize that the steps that Michael has outlined are needed today more than ever.

I agree with above posts. It seems to me that this kind of thing is happening more now than at any time I can remember. I cannot pinpoint a reason for the increase. In particular, it seems to me (no expert) that none of Michael's 3 causes have worsened recently: #2 got worse in the 70's and 80's and seems to have stabilitized; and #1 and #3 have, I think, improved. That's how it looks to me, anyway. (If this happens in my neighborhood, the answer is likely to be #2 after all, owing to an ice epidemic. Parents on ice totally space out; they might as well not be there.) What do others think? Can anyone help me understand why this is getting worse? One possibility scares me: that what used to be unthinkable is now thinkable. You cannot undo that quickly in a free society. If this is the cause, it's going to be with us for a while. I'd sure like to be wrong.

In addition to the other reasons, I didn't want to start this hunt until we made better progress on Replay's time shifts. Also, did you post the progress of the hunt: how many responses were received and how many and what the top score so far is? (The answers would have been 0 and 0.) That might have encouraged me to give it a shot, but I didn't see it.

Back after reading Parts H and I. "Checkmate" ended a chapter a few back. Unlike a chess match, however, this checkmate has taken a while to sink in. Now I thinks it fully sunk in. The dirt balls toos at and into the house was a neat tactical move in retrospect. Without it, Wesley might have been tempted to give his family another chance. The father puzzles me a bit. Only a few hours after he seems to show some compassion, he's ready to throw Wesley into a brainwashing camp based on a preconceived notion that we refuses to test with facts. I guess that tendency is common shallower fundamentalists, but I had hoped for better from him. I especially enjoyed Wesley's view of Kyla's reaction. From her point of view, youthful rebellion is carefully circumscribed to avoid interfering with safety or creature comfort. Wesley is way past that. I wonder how Wesley's view of the world will continue to evolve. Will he lose his empathy for all people?

I hate ads. That might a small part of the reason that I moved to a state where billboards are banned. It's definitely why I use a browser that blocks ads so effectively that I had no idea that Amazon ads were present until I took the survey. :wacko: I am not willing to expose myself to these ads, but I want to pay my fair share. If someone can estimate the revenue to GA per active user generated by clicking on these ads, I would be more than happy to bump up my level of cash donation to GA by at least twice this amount. km PS. Even if everyone who could starting using my browser, it wouldn't make much difference, because it's a Mac-only browser. So don't panic.

For a while, my own signature asked "When is a signature like this too big?" Although the question was intended be rhetorical, it did attract a functional response from EMoe57. As a reader with no responsibilities within GA, I try to stay well within this guideline. Some of the really big signatures you've seen may belong to members with duties to administer or moderate. Just my $0.02. km

Old Bob probably gets the last word here, if he wants it. Why am I gay? After pondering for several decades, I'll begin with what may be the three best words in the English language ( ): I don't know. Try to not spin your your head over this 60-minutes program. The twins they discuss should surprise only if you buy into the thoroughly debunked notion of straight, gay/lesbian, and nothing in between. Kinsey showed us to have a continuum of sexual preferences, but nurture tends to follow one of two channels. Dolls or play-guns? Boys or girls? Social pressure discourages the obvious choice: both. Thus, ambiguous preference may resolve one way or the other. Or not! My hunch is that most identical twins share sexual orientations and that many of them are bi. That 60 Minutes was able to find an exception may not mean much. Yes. In some species, the mother can choose the sex of the offspring by manipulating hormone ratios. Will humans be able to make use of this, or will we find an unacceptable level of unintended consequences? I share the wary irritation from Rob and Drew over this line of discussion. Perhaps the next decade or so could see added social pressures on gays and lesbians. Before I die, however, I expect to see parents dialing size, shape, intelligence, color, ..., and sexual orientation to suit. The present gay-straight issue will get lost in a sea of new ethical dilemmas. When mankind does finally sort this out, they'll look around at a critically overpopulated world, and most will finally acknowledge that they've got to learn to live without population growth. When they do, the myths that encourage it will crumble. I take some comfort in that thought, even though I'll be long dead. In summary, I totally agree with but at my age, I'm not mad about it.

Me too, but probably not the graduates from North Dakota's Jesus Camp.

Gadzooks! When did you start your homework to finish up at 2:00AM? I ask only because I can remember not getting into the mood for certain homework until late at night. Or sometimes I'd go to bed early, , then get up at 3:30 or 4:00AM, finishing up at 6:30AM or so. Not my best work, but I got it done. This still happens, usually when I have to write a proposal (like right now). All-nighters result. km