Ron

Mead? That was like so 7,000 BC ago.

My feedback won't change anything now sure, but there's always the next time. And now the idea can be given time to percolate.

I haven't participated in the last few anthologies primarily since what is accepted as theme I view as a title for an actual theme. Yeah, I get that folks see the three-words-or-less thing as something to strive for, and go for it if that's sufficient, but it leaves a lot to be lacking in my opinion. Specifically, what is lacking is direction. Sure, if you must limit the anthology to simple wording then call it what it is: a title. If you expand on those titular words to create an actual theme which means requiring some direction, then you have an anthology. Otherwise, the whole anthology idea can only be seen as a glorified prompt situation. I've written a few anthology stories, and I realize that what I've been doing is nothing more than writing something for one of Comicfan's simpler promptings, albeit with more words. I've been stewing about this subject for some time, and I think giving the membership an anthology title (three-words-or-less) without needing to vote for it and a thematic direction to follow is the way to go. To the best of my knowledge, it hasn't been tried yet and maybe the time is ripe to do this as it's long been established that having too many options leads to overload, a paradox of choice.

Congratulations on your promotion Dodger.

I never thought I would care for Harry Style's music, and then he recorded Sign of the Times which I liked. Then came Harry's House, which is overall quite good, and I listened to the whole recording again earlier this evening. Despite my reading material, or because of that material (I was reading a Stereophile magazine issue from years past on Zinio, which some of you may have experience with - message me if you need an explanation of its merits) I found myself raising my head from my computer and focusing on the music of this most recent of Harry's releases. Here is an example:

Congratulations on your promotion kbois.

I like classical music but I'm not a fan of opera. I've had the pleasure of hearing the Cleveland Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, and Boston Symphony along with the Boston Baroque, I enjoyed them all. My post isn't to discuss music because I really don't have anything to offer you on this topic. But I ran across this in the Boston Globe, and I thought you all would like to read it. Shushed at the symphony

@Page Scrawler and @W_L We authors don't usually go for acronyms and short cuts as we are wordy people. Every writer knows that if it's worth saying it's worth spelling out! Word count, baby!

Note to self: Ignore anyone who uses DNF, TPE, and or D/s among other shorthand usages as descriptors.

Yes, I agree that this is a good series overall. I thought the first two books were truly something new and exciting, but the third book managed to meander off for me.

I am enjoying the "Happy Birthdays" and "Happy Anniversaries", and the occasional "Congratulations" being given here, and they are wonderful sentiments to be sure. I can't help thinking that what Gay Authors has been doing these many years is more... than. My few short words will undoubtably fail to express the impact GA has had for so many of us toward encouraging and moving so many toward a new experience -- that our voices do have an impact through the written word. This is absolutely a result of the sometimes-stimulating interchange among authors and again on the various other forums (contributers, thank you), but also those interactions (be they public or private) between the author and the reader -- they have an impact. We all grow, or fade, as each person wants to do, but overall, and without doubt this organization and this website strikes me as a place worth the time and effort afforded by each one of us. Thank you everyone.

@northie We are apparently alike according to the "test". I didn't try to guess ahead, I answered as honestly (and privately using Google's Incognito browser) as I could, though I did have to think about some of my private opinions prior to checking a response.

It's a curious examination but one, I think, that has more to do with where you are in life (age for example) and situation (employed, unemployed, retired, location of residence, single or partnered, etc.) now than an overall definition of the individual throughout time. At this point in my life, I am considered a high 9: The Peacemaker - With a secondary peak at 5: The Investigator - And a smaller peak at 4: The individualist. I know that I would have answered the personality questions differently at other times in my life. I will note that I have often been a peacemaker of a kind so that's been a recurring attribute of mine, so there's that. I do think that at other times in my life the numbers for the various personality equations would have been more evenly spread for me.

You're so bad!

Looks like they're sending Nichelle Nichols into space. Follow the link for a free to read article from the Boston Globe.

Congratulations on your promotion, northie.

Safari browser on iPad works fine. PC using latest Chrome and I'm still seeing double avatars in various posts. But Chrome has been acting weird for this site over the last couple of updates -- I occasionally get a black page stating the GA's site is not secure and asks if I want to continue to the site. The lock is ahead of the site address, so I don't know what's going on there either.

It's not hard to understand that the youngest and the oldest members would make up a smaller piece of the chart. But overall, there's a good spread among the rest of the age groups. Seems like an author wouldn't have too hard of a time finding their age demographic to write for. I divide my time between my PC and my iPad in turn to access GA, sometimes this and sometimes that, and I'm just a little over two months away from being sixty-three years old. I've just earned the rare badge of being on-site 365 days in a row, but before badges I was here consistently regardless using one thing or the other.

Speaking of sad metaphors and innuendos, maybe I should’ve added a Ba-dum-ch at the end. My bad!

Sorry, @Zombie it’s just far too long for me.

Oh, it's come to this... sad metaphors.

This is an exceptionally effective way to keep the temperature down, it helps considerably with air-con cost, too. Sadly, but not too sadly, I never see my garden, but then again, it's too hot to spend time in the garden and quite frankly it's overgrown which is great for the bees and other pollinators, but the garden is looking scruffy beyond imagination. Then again, I don't see it with the curtains closed and I don't spend time in it either because it's surrounded by brick and it radiates heat which makes the garden too hot to spend time in it, and so I don't worry about my garden's condition... Is that a solution where everyone benefits? I have direct access to the garden, but other condominium owners in my mid 1800's townhouse do not; they must traverse down the fire escape or travel around the block and enter through the back gate; a journey of a full city block. This is to say that I have the sole use and I am also the only one to perform all the maintenance work which I have zero desire to do now in my dotage (if one can make fun of one's aging and make [sad] jokes about his aging that's a good sign right?). Anyway, stay cool as you can do.

Reading improves comprehension! But, no, I'm not saying they can read. @Mancunian has it right, you just need pictures; diagrams or line drawings work equally well.

I just noticed that the instruction manual for the car repair shows the same position the two men are in. One could say that they were just following directions.

Never mind.