Aussie Rob

make it so!

Thanks Stephen! I never pictured Cole as Frankenfurter I must admit but now Ive got the song stuck in my head too.! Glad you liked the scene, I have to let him have some fun at least before it gets too serious. I am glad you like Cole, though he is not always going to be easy to like as future chapters will attest. He rewards patience though. Hero or anti-hero, he will hopefully never be boring.

Thank you Bee, here's hoping I can keep it up!

III Silence lay across the town like a blanket. In another time and another world that would have been reassuring, but not here. Long gone were the days when warfare was an open battle between organised armies. There was no one for the Federation to fight except the occasional rebellious planet, and guerrilla warfare was all he ever experienced. “Peacekeeping” the newscasts called it. “Asymmetric warfare” they called it in staff college. The sterile names made him snort out loud in spite of

A beautiful tribute mate. May he rest in peace, but live on in your memory. Rob

Yes Finn it does happen, and make sense, or at least did. But perhaps also what you are seeing is partly an age related phenomena, or geographic. In my school year of 126 students, there were no out kids. Not one. At least 6 have come out in the 20 years since. The idea of being out then, would have been crazy. You would have painted a big neon sign on yourself. Now, I talk to my nieces and nephews, and its just normal that some of their classmates are gay. It's just another fact about them, like what football team they support. This is however in a big city and affluent schools. So it would be a natural for someone of my age perhaps to write that sort of scenario, but maybe as time goes on it will become less an assumption you can make. Your question gives me hope though, that we can get to where we should be, and perhaps in some places we are getting there. My feeling always had been, that this crap ends when people start asking themselves why on earth would you have a problem with someone being gay, rather than why wouldn't you. When we actually sit down and say, it does not make sense. So perhaps your question is a sign on the road to where I hope we are going, to the point where homophobia seems as sensible as phrenology.

II The grav-lifter shuddered slightly as it moved out of the protective embrace of the land cradle and began its slow ascent. Four long boring hours later it clawed its way out of the planetary gravity well, and slipped outside the thin atmosphere to reach New London high spaceport, orbiting above the blue and green sphere below. He felt the movements of the lifter throughout his body with a series of often nauseating manoeuvres as it climbed giving way to a steady course buffeted by the occas

Thank you Stephen, hopfully I can keep it tight though I am very new to the caper. There is a bit more establishment work to be done as we learn first about our hero, his past and his purpose, then it goes into hyperdrive.

Thank you Michael. Glad you are looking forward to more! We will learn more each chapter, and be prepared for shocks.

Thank you Iarwain. Yes, the language is a part of being inside his head, or those in his world. He uses words sparingly and when he does he uses them as sword and shield in one. I'm glad you like his bad-ass soul, though it has darker places as we will find. He is no natural hero, his current persona the result of many forces, a lot of them bad. As to the purpose of his dire message, well we will see, maybe not next chapter, but soon.

I'm guessing The Caine Mutiny? If so, next one is "private is saved everyone else dies"

Correct Podga. The best comment on Atlas Shrugged I have seen was the review by Dorothy Parker; “It is not a novel that should be thrown aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.” Awaiting Comicfan to start off, I know the rules now

The year is 2318, and Mankind has gone to the stars leaving a dying Earth. Mankind's descendants now populate the Terran Federation, a group of 200 worlds held together by uneasy bonds. A veneer of calm hides tensions; Man may have left Earth but he has brought most of its problems with him to the stars. The veneer of calm is about to be shattered though, and one man finds himself reluctantly thrown into the vortex, his fate and the Federation's linked.

I. The alarm buzzed insistently. Ignoring his attempts to swat the snooze button and return to the embrace of a blissful sleep, and with an exasperated grumble, he resigned himself to waking sufficiently to do the job properly by slamming a better aimed finger at the contact. Nothing happened. Inasmuch as the buzzing continued, its artificially bright and sunny tone contrasted with his mood and raised his level of consciousness another notch. The fundamental problem was not his clock m

A worn but comfortable couch. O.k, so the fabric is tattered and there are annoying lumps where the springs have let go, but how do you get rid of a couch that has worn perfectly to accomdate the shape of your body while you watch footy and drink beer.? hmm....same question again.

I think I get the idea of this, so I will have a go. This one may be too easy, but here goes. "There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil."

Well Monopoly was always fun. I was a demon, refusing to trade unless someone was going bankrupt and I could give them just enough to keep them in the game while sucking their properties into my armageddon pile. mwahhahaha. Should have taken that job with Macquarie Bank clearly. Geek alert. Back when I was in school, there were a whole lot of boardgames that were popular with the same crowd who were into Dungeons and Dragons. I used to go to conventions and actually get into tournaments. My favourites then were Diplomacy and Kingmaker. I cant even remember much of the rules now.

As the owner of a fine beard with a hint of salt and pepper, I approve this message. Get freaky tonight.!

We will spend it on beer at least.

No. Never. Flirted yes, as has Emma, but that is about it. Hmmmmm...... If you were to be reincarnated as an animal, what would it be?

Armidale, NSW, Australia

Started off mostly beer, and I still love a nice ale at times. Sometimes I feel a hankering for Guinness. Red wine is my favourite these days though. I went off vodka after a few too many bad nights, now prefer single malt whiskey. And I have fallen for Armagnac, an expensive but rewarding habit.

He bought the goat for a case of beer......classic. Hope it was XXXX or Westend and not real beer.

Unfortunately import parity pricing will mean it wont be any cheaper Bee. Whether we import everything or export, we will pay world market price for crude (usually Singapore TAPIS benchmark). The better way to bring down local petrol prices would be refinery capacity increase, our crack spread is one of the highest. That and lowering tax take. 3.5 billion to 233 billion is not so much a range as a guesstimate, but still an interesting development. South Australia has been depressed for ages, and has mostly missed out on the mining boom. Coober Pedy is seriously remote though. Best known currently for opal mining, living underground and Mad Max, it is one serioulsy desolate place even by Australian mining standards. The power generation angle looks stronger, with a new large capacity link being commissioned linking SOuth Australia to Victoria, bringing SA capacity onto the naional grid. With Victorian and New South Wales demand outstripping supply in peak, SA power exports will become important.

Wishing you a very happy birthday CassieQ !