wildone

Wow!! Congratulations Graeme Like the others have expressed, we are all better off having you contribute here. I think of the ways that you contribute, and I'm impressed. You act as an author, with great contributions to the anthologies (and stories at the Dude). You act as a moderator, keeping the unsavory folk like me in line . You help make the anthology become a reality. You help edit and beta read for authors. You contribute honest, and straight forward comments that help broaden our knowledge and also make some of us think. Your humour is second to none, and we know that you have fun ribbing some of us that need it . And you probably are the sole person here at GA that can keep an unruly goat in line with the fear of what you will do to him if he gets out of line . Graeme, it has been great that you have been around for four thousand posts, and I look forward to the next four thousand knowing they will be just as good. Thank You!! Steve

Noodles? OMG Could it be another fabulous pool party is in store!!! All the guys in the pool (some in speedos hopefully), and beating each others up with pool noodles? I could only hope !! Steve

Funny you mention that, as I was finishing my alphabets this morning, guess what word was left in my milk at the end? Now, now Sacha, we must look at who the author is. Is this the same author that had Dimitri take Vladimir's original assistant to work on the 'fertilizer project'? If you take it for its word, then the assistant was to assume that he was just moving to another job. Much could be said about the unsavory paparazzi and that they should be fine. Since we don't have clarification if they are fine, and may not know until the next chapter, or maybe never, I still have to declare this a cliffhanger. Steve

I think I may have expressed my belief to his name before, but in case I didn't.... I do believe it is: Cornelius James, esq. Has a nice ring to it, eh? Steve

Okay, I have kept quite for a few days but I think it is time to bring up a sensitive subject to the Goat ! What a cliffhanger in this chapter!!!! I'm shocked that nobody picked up on it I guess CJ put it in the story just to affirm the title recently given to him; King of Cliffhangers :king: . I believe it even qualifies for two of the three rules CJ has laid down for determining a cliffhanger What am I talking about??? Currently, right now, we have some members of the not so esteemed press drifting afloat out in the ocean with no way of reaching shore with no prop. Just think of the danger these people are facing right now. They could be attacked by men in grey suits, they could capsize and drown, they could suffer from dehydration (can't drink saltwater), or they may expire do to heat stroke ! Yes they may not be the favourite characters in the story, but their lives are in danger, and what did CJ do, he left us hanging. Actually this probably ranks up there with the cliffhanger in FTL Shame on you CJ Steve

Did anyone else pick up on that this was the first time we had Vladimir's POV? I feel that since CJ actually included this in the story at this time, he might not be disappearing as soon as we think. Why would he suddenly change from J/S's and Dimitri's commentary and views about him to actually telling us what he is thinking? Not something that is usually done with secondary characters. Just my opinion. Steve

Maybe so, but I'm still going to maintain that Mario is somewhere in the background. I believe that J/S at the current moment knows exactly where Joe is, and what he is going through. I still believe that Mario somehow got Joe addicted to the Meth and whatever, with the intention of getting him to commit suicide or do irreparable harm to himself. Remember, someone famous was suppose to be eliminated while looking like an accident. I think things are going to get more hard for Joe before they get better . I have a feeling that he isn't in a public hospital, more so a private one, where his amnesia can be maintained. Which brings up the question, as Joe was fading from consciousness, he felt the poke of a paramedic putting in a needle. He was alone in the flop house hotel, who called the paramedics, who knew he was there, who would have cared enough to make a call to EMS? I think this has all been engineered by Mario. Ugh, actually no :wacko: ! Let's just write if off as a Freudian slip..... Steve

Okay, one of those times to date myself . I honestly had one video in mind the entire time I was reading about the jungle video for Instinct. And that was "Union of the Snake" by Duran Duran. Now technically they were labeled as New Wave and not pop, but in their case I would put them in the poop category. If I recall the video correctly it involved all the members of the band, wearing little more than cargo shorts trampling through a jungle. Just my thoughts Steve Edit: Okay ignore this entire post, found the video and it has them fully dressed in a desert. Hmm, wondering what I was thinking

What a great chapter!! We had a lot of words (I believe it was a longer chapter than normal), we had tons of speedo scenes, we had a glimpse into the mind of Vladimir, we got a snapshot of Joe's current state, and we got the paparazzi getting nailed by Eric again. It had a bit of everything for everyone. I went back and read this chapter a second time, hopefully CJ doesn't mind me saying that he gives us some great clues (IMHO) which are not as obvious as the ones he just came out and told us about But as a true great author, he really didn't give us too much information. Things like where are the bombs going to be transported to? Who exactly in the US is J/S going to get the money from to buy off the generals in Paraguay? How will Vladimir not only have some extra riches, but will ensure he will survive his planned demise? What could have caused Joe to suddenly get amnesia? Will anything come to the bartender who tipped off the paparazzi? Why the change in J/S, where he suddenly didn't allude to offing the Instinct gang? I really like the way this story is heating up. Not only with the guys all in speedos, but with the introduction of Vladimir's point of view on things as well. Can't we have a late Valentines present and get the next chapter tonight? Please, please, please! Steve

Yes!!!! The people have spoken. Check it out here Steve

Congratulations Your Majesty Although the readers have selected you as our King, to those of us who love you, you will always be our :king: Queen :king: Now that that has finally been settled, I must congratulate you on Best Anthology Story as well Time to load up some new awards on your index page Steve

I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think Shadowgod has ever outright denied using a cliffhanger . I believe that is the sole domain of a goat .

***Breaking News**** In a effort to find a certain quote by CJ, I have stumbled upon another post of his, where if you read the post and pay attention to the quotes indicated, he admits that he uses cliffhangers !! You can read the post here. Now don't let CJ convince you that it is someone else's words!! We have to take the way the post was posted for its face value. It is great to finally have CJ admitting that he has used a cliffhanger. Steve

Is it me, or if you read this passage by CJ, that he has admitted that he used a cliffhanger of 2.5 on his cliffhanger scale? Don't let the goat deceive you into believing anything else. We finally have the evidence. Steve

Sorry Sacha, that won't work. I would have to delete all the yes votes and delete all the no votes. I can not edit the options as they are and still retain the number of votes. Besides, any of us including myself, would not be able to vote in the poll again. Also thinking about this, I imagine if someone with tech access could possibly go in and alter the source code they could reverse the titles 'yes' and 'no', but all that would do is make 40 people saying no and 4 people saying yes. Unfortunately that would be a little far fetched.

Since I may or may not have started this poll, I thought I would look into this a bit more. So after much playing around, I did indeed find out that the poll can be changed. Not in the way that may have been suggested though. I can go in and add up to four more questions, each with fifteen more options for each question. Likewise I can add 13 more options to the one question already posted there. I can also enable multiple choices, meaning if I did so, I could allow a new voter to choose both 'yes' and 'no' for their answer. I also have the ability to delete a question, or delete the entire option and those corresponding votes. The things that I can not do as the poll initiator is to change the number of votes or to allow someone who has already voted, the ability to vote again. Even if I deleted an option and all the votes, and then recreated it, nobody who has already voted would be able to vote again. I guess after looking at all this, the only feasible way to alter the vote would be for me to eliminate the 'no' option, then go back and recreate it, resetting that option to zero votes. Let me assure you that until ten minutes ago, I did not know this and have not attempted to do this, as like I mentioned earlier, this is all in fun, and where would the fun be in messing with the results. Personally I am having more fun in reading CJ's posts in him trying to justify why the vote has gone the way it has !!! I believe he is slowly running out of excuses to justify that he never uses cliffhangers, and in a matter of time, he will finally admit defeat to his readers opinions . With all that said and done, there is one more option available to me, and that is to 'close the poll'. I have not attempted to do this, but wondering if I should, or shall we leave the poll open for future visitors to this forum? Let me know. Steve

Graeme, please do not take any offence with this post. I am giggling to myself as I think of the few times I have watched Australian Rules Football. We do not really see that much over here, but the one thing I think everyone who has seen it gets a chuckle out of is when a team scores, the umpire runs up, comes to a very rigid stance in his uniform (which is different in itself), and does a strange signal with his forearms. I just see you doing this when making a ruling on if something is a spoiler or not . Please tell me you don't ! I'm sorry ! I'm bad. Steve

Really!!! I'm shocked!! Here we started a unbiased, non-leading, opinion based poll and now it is being marred with a supposed scandal !! Wow, this is a true democracy here ! And yes, I can confirm that I too do not believe that the 'no' side has ever attained a number higher than four. The yes side has always been in the 90% range, so even if it is possible to alter the vote, I do not honestly believe that any of our honourable Admins would do that. After all, let's not forget, this is all in fun Steve

Actually just saw something interesting on TV about New Kids On The Block. It seems that they are still the most successful 'boy band' in history. They sold over 70,000,000 albums and grossed over 1 billion dollars in the four years they were around. Now there is rumour that they may be doing a comeback tour. Don't know how well that will go over . Steve

OH MY GOSH!!! This is definitely a spoiler!!! Giving us definite plot lines ahead of time. Where oh where is Graeme when we need him? Let's hope he just doesn't 'spine' him in the hooves, it may delay the next chapter. Maybe one or two sharp spines in the CJ's a$$ might be more appropriate . Steve BTW, Happy Valentines Day everyone!!!!

I was thinking the same thing. He seemed a little too over the top with his childlike attitude to seeing the roos and koalas. Really, Dimitri and J/S are totally relying on him to give them workable bombs. It would be interesting if Vlad disappeared the night before the demonstration and not the kind of disappearance that has been alluded to in the story. For some reason, I still believe that either Dimitri or Vladimir are deep, deep, deep under cover for some agency. I think J/S will be in for a big surprise within his close group very soon. I guess another person who should be looked at a little more closely too is Vlad's assistant. All we know about him is capable gunsmith. At the closing of the chapter, I was beginning to wonder about the GPS. Someone mentioned that it doesn't emit any frequency, so scanning the vehicle wouldn't necessarily detect the GPS. I imagine a visual search might do that, so let's hope Dimitri relies too much on his electronic sweep too much. Now it is interesting that if the guys get the GPS back, will they really be able to do anything with the co-ordinates. They appear to be too far away from the compound to rent a vehicle and drive out there. So does Brandon's new skills as a student pilot come into play in the near future? It probably wouldn't be too hard for the guys to convince Helen to rent them a plane and pilot under the idea of Brandon showing them what he has learned, when really they have other ideas in play. I know CJ won't comment on much or any of this, so it will have to remain as pure speculation until future chapters. So what do you all think? Steve

Okay, I'm going to date myself here . I too enjoyed the boy bands like NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, and probably the first was New Kids On The Block (yikes!!). I saw them all in concert, and always went home with the feeling of 'are they gay'? It also made me think that is exactly what the promoters picked them for, to appeal to the teenage girls, and the gay guys. When Lance came out he explained how he waited so long, as not to hurt the bands image and reputation. I always wondered though if they could have attracted the teenage girl dollar, how much more could the have got from the gay dollar? Someone mentioned that an actor would always be casted in 'gay roles', which I don't know if it is necessarily true. The first one that comes to mind is Neil Patrick Harris. I think I had a feeling about him even back in his Doogie Howser M.D. days. From what I understand he has been out personally for some time, but only came out to the public to avoid the tabloids exposing him. To my knowledge he has never been casted as gay.

Darn, my previous post kinda killed any discussion, so I guess I shouldn't say : But since I didn't say that, I'm really looking forward to the next chapter. Obviously the plot will thicken greatly over the next 24 hours. Steve

Uh oh! I'll hazard a guess Whitsunday = Bikini Atoll Yikes!!

CJ, I read this and finally got up the nerve to point out a typo that seems to appear every now and then in your posts. I know how you like to have everything accurate and no mistakes, so I've decided not to continue to be shy about this little mistake and point it out. Hopefully you don't take this the wrong way, as I'm only trying to help point out a little mistake. Quite often I've seen this use of words in a sentence: "Who me, I never use cliffhangers?" Shouldn't the word 'never' be removed from that sentence to make it both grammatically and factually correct? If you need any help in going back and changing the incorrect text, I'm here to help . All you have to do is ask. Steve