thebrinkoftime

I have a pretty funny story about this. I don't remember exactly when it was, so let's just say it was around the time when I was still trying to figure out what happens to the poor people trapped inside the TV when you turn it off. One day in a morals and values class at school, the teacher was going over what you should say to grown-ups who are doing things you don't like and somebody brought up smoking. We'd all seen the demonstration of the robot smoking five cigarettes. The teacher asked what you should say if somebody starts smoking around you. So I raised my hand and when the teacher called on me, I answered, "You should shoot them." Later that day, when my dad came to pick me up, my teacher talked to him about what I said. I distinctly remember getting a nasty look from him before he turned to the teacher, thanked her and nodded. Before we got home, he took me to a secluded area where nobody was around and took out his gun. He showed it to me and said, "Have you ever touched this or anything like it before?" I shook my head. "Good. Do you want to?" I shook my head. "Good. Are you ever going to touch a lethal weapon like this?" I shook my head. "Good, because if you ever even so much as come to think that touching one of these is cool, do you know what I'm going to do?" I shook my head. He took the gun and aimed it right between my eyes. "Do you know what I'm going to do?" I furiously nodded my head. "Good. That's settled. Now for smoking. Who's allowed to smoke?" "Grown-ups." "That's right. Why don't they smoke around kids?" "Because it's bad for us." "That's right too. Now then, when you overheard me saying I should shoot anyone who smokes around you or the other boys, who was I talking to?" "A grown-up." "Do you think grown-ups are allowed to talk like that?" I nodded. "That's right. Do you think kids are allowed to talk like that?" I shook my head. "When are you allowed to talk like that?" "When I'm a grown-up?" "Yup. Now until then, what do you think I'm going to do if I see you talking like that or smoking?" I was really, profoundly nervous. "S-s-shoot me?" My dad started laughing uncontrollably at the look on my face and stooped down and gave me a big kiss and looked into my eyes and said very slowly, "The reason you think that is because you're not an adult yet." He stood back up again and said to me, "Now you embarassed yourself, me and your family. What do you think I'm going to do about that?" I had no idea. He put the gun in his mouth. I started freaking out. I heard a loud crunching sound and when he took the gun out of his mouth, a good piece of the barrel was missing. I looked at him like he was Superman. "My dad just ate a gun!" I thought. He handed it to me and I looked at him like he had completely lost his mind. Hadn't he just told me I was never to so much as think it was alright to touch a gun? "Not this one, my dear little idiot boy--" my dad's term for us whenever we messed up (if you can read Japanese, 大好きなアホ君), "this one's chocolate. Have a bite."

I imagine the zombie who wrote this using a big toddler's crayon on wrinkled paper and moaning in displeasure at his discrimination before sending it off to the reader editorial department at the local newspaper. While reading, I was reminded of vegans, though I couldn't tell you why. This musing on zombie society is amusing with many smile-inducing ideas, including a great first sentence, but the best part is the great laugh it ends on. I can just imagine the conversation at the zombie dinner table, "Wow, mom, this tastes great! Must've been gay! Can you pass the salt, Uncle Gwooooargh?" Your ideas remind of Warm Bodies, the Nicholas Hoult movie adapted from a novel, wherein a zombie falls in love with a human. In that story, there are two types of zombies, ones who have a vague memory of what it's like to be human and are more moral and try not to be so bad about eating humans, and a second type that has lost all memory of being human and are like feral undead animals. I'm not saying you jigged anything from that one, it's just a recommendation for anyone who wants to see a story with some similarities to the zombie society Kitt thought up.

As always, the pleasure in the details. The protagonist remembers Jason's tentative smile more than any other type of smile, which seems to suggest their relationship always tiptoed on a knife edge or that Jason was always walking between two worlds: his personal beliefs and those he thought the world wanted him to have. That's what the story's title means to me: It's like Jason crossed a certain boundary when he gave up his love for his career, a threshold anyone crosses when they decide that societal harmony comes before personal harmony. Once you cross that threshold, all of the dissonant melodies you left behind can't be re-arranged into a new rhythm, because you've left them behind to find their own new rhythm. Though not necessarily actors or stars, I've met people like this and they always seem to think you will remain stationary and unchanged for them to pick up whenever they please, like an old toy. But like an old toy, you can come back and play with it again perhaps, but the fun won't be the same it was when you were a child. Nevertheless, I don't come away with the impression that the protagonist is bitter or that Jason is so self-absorbed as to be unlikable and there are many other good details to soak up. I enjoyed all the references to Jason's manipulative facial and body gestures and how the protagonist teased Jason in the same way I imagine he had to wait for Jason to stop teasing him and make a decision back when they were together. A little bit of cute revenge! My favorite two details were Jason's crumpled hair underneath the baseball cap in the flashback and the way his eyes moved and took in the bench on the porch. I liked the reference to crumpled baseball hat hair because it reminds me that what we often like best about the people we come to love are their unique little imperfections. As well, it seemed to me that Jason's eyes taking in a bench, which is usually used to sit together with significant others in the same house, was his first clue that the protagonist's life hadn't been as frozen in time as he thought. That, and it's a pleasure to read such specific details that flesh out what makes these characters differ from all the many thousands we've encounted before. Specifically clever was the protagonist mentioning the renewal of his TV show first. After you've read the ending, it comes across as a tiny hint that the protagonist is telling Jason he's going to have to continue in the world he chose when he crossed the threshold. On that note, there were some areas that were a little disappointedly rote for such a short story, though I realize you didn't exactly write this over a space of five years in a peaceful vacation colony. The flashback about their break-up and the accompanying present day dialogue reads like something you'd see on a billion TV soap operas throughout time and space and I kind of wish, if it was necessary to have it be realistic dialogue we've heard a zillion times before, there were more idiosyncratic details to set it apart from the others. That and for a couple of descriptions -- like sinking into the cushions of the couch -- I feel like I've read the exact same words in an infinite number of other stories. These stand out because other descriptions -- particularly, the television turning off and Jason picking at his jeans -- are so vivid. Overall though, this was cleary meant as a straightforward story and it is a snappy, cute little snapshot of what's it is like to be two human men in the 21st century caught up in the horde of millions.

I wasn't born in 1995, but my memory starts around that time. Not being American or a native English speaker, a lot of these don't apply to me, but... Eminem and LL Cool J could show up at parents’ weekend. Why wouldn't they? As you can see in that embarassing country music collaboration earlier this year, LL Cool J is an irrelevant old man and hasn't Eminem always had a daughter? Also, what's parents' weekend? Is it like a senior citizen discount? They are the sharing generation, having shown tendencies to share everything, including possessions, no matter how personal. ??? This puzzles me. Why wouldn't you share something if somebody needs or wants it and you don't? Is this really so different? Do they mean internet sharing? GM means food that is Genetically Modified. This is American English, so...Gay Male, General Mills, Georgia on my Mind? What else would it stand for? As they started to crawl, so did the news across the bottom of the television screen. I'm not sure about before or after I learned to crawl, but I can't remember a time when this wasn't the case. It's not exactly high tech, is it? “Dude” has never had a negative tone. Has it ever had a negative tone? Their TV screens keep getting smaller as their parents’ screens grow ever larger. The first TV I ever owned was on my cell phone in high school, so yeah I guess, but my parents were never really into the "bigger is better" thing. Rites of passage have more to do with having their own cell phone and Skype accounts than with getting a driver’s license and car. I guess so. I got my first cell phone when I was 10 and I still have neither a driver's license, nor a car, nor do I want either. Skype can go suck a dick though. While they’ve grown up with a World Trade Organization, they have never known an Interstate Commerce Commission. Well, I remember thinking when it got hit, "The what?" I had no idea there was any such thing as a World Trade Organization before that infamous day. And yeah, I truly have no idea what the Interstate Commerce Commission was or is, though I'm assuming it was some sort of pre-World Trade Organization? Java has never been just a cup of coffee. I remember thinking, "Oh, so that's why it looks like a cup of coffee!" Olympic fever has always erupted every two years. Well, yeah? I thought the Olympics restarted around the turn of last century and the Winter Olympics alternating with Summer every two years has been a tradition since the Winter Olympics were invented? Their parents have always bemoaned the passing of precocious little Calvin and sarcastic stuffy Hobbes. Now wait a minute! I object! Everybody knows (and better love) Calvin and Hobbes! It has nothing to do with age! No kid should ever do without dinosaurs in F-15s, Spaceman Spiff or contemplative sled rides with Hobbes. Though I will admit, some of the strips I read as a kid made me scratch my head and now as I re-read them, I can understand them better. Smokers in California have always been searching for their special areas, which have been harder to find each year. They have never attended a concert in a smoke-filled arena. Eh? This isn't just in California! I mean, it's just common sense for it to work like this, isn't it? You have to protect people from insensitive jerks who would expose them to second-hand smoke. It isn't like we're in the 1930s and 40s where people weren't aware of just how bad it was for you. They may have been introduced to video games with a new Sony PlayStation left in their cribs by their moms. I'm not sure what the first video game I actually ever played was, but the first one I can remember is Ridge Racer. A Wiki has always been a cooperative web application rather than a shuttle bus in Hawaii. This seems kind of strange. Unless it was the name of some exotic bird, did Wiki ever really mean anything to the greater majority of people before Wikipedia? I can't imagine a Hawaiian shuttle bus was all that well-known. They have always been able to plug into USB ports I've seen older computers before, I've even used older computers before. The only thing I can remember is there was some place with a lot of holes for you to stick the mouse in. And then the really old computers, you couldn't use a mouse and were the keyboards stuck together with the computer...I don't remember. Now I feel weird. I feel certain there must been something out there, but what on earth did they do before USB when they wanted to plug something in? Their parents’ car CD player is soooooo ancient and embarrassing. I've never even heard of this. Though I've seen CD players in electronics stores before, and of course I've put a CD into a computer before, I've never owned one. I always feel like owning a CD player wouldn't be worth the money when you can just put it in the computer and rip MP3s from it. I imagine it's only really useful for DJs or musicians. They have always known that there are “five hundred and twenty five thousand, six hundred minutes in a year.” I cannot stand that song, or the musical it comes from. It makes me want to claw at things.

Maybe I should save it for a review, and not say anything, so I don't attract Comican's rage for giving away something about his story, but I just wanted to let people know that I thought it was a lovely story and well worth reading. I'll save my other thoughts for a review when it goes up! Oh, just one other thing. I see that "Fairy Tale" tag sir and I'm not sure I approve of it, sir! No really, there is a reason I'm being so anal about this and while it isn't 100% consensus, it is pretty well accepted amongst scholars of fairy tales what the requirements of a fairy tale are, and one of the biggies is that the author of the tale is unknown and the tale only becomes known be being passed on. I'm sure you're wondering if the horror-story-like urban legends of today qualify and I can only say there's a lot of rousing discussion amongst folk tale/fairy tale/oral tale researchers. In any case, the reasons why it is important to keep actual, real fairy tales separate in categorization from other types of stories is a long, long story that I'm sure nobody in the forum is interested in, but that's why I get on Comicfan's case about it! That said, actual fairy tale or not, this story about a troll is absolutely marvelous and I recommend you check it out.

I'm not sure whether this post is considered too political for the forum, but my intention was simply to give curious people a little of my perspective on a society I know well, not debate politics. In the interest of giving some perspective, I thought I'd elaborate on this one. Outlawing sodomy only lasted for 8 years in Japan. It was instituted in 1872 and repealed later on. It hadn't been prior and wasn't ever reinstitued ever since. A lot of people get this image of Japan in that era as a country that was influenced by Western culture so completely that it modernized so quickly that it took all the bad traits as well, I would argue that really wasn't the case at all. Basically, there was so much infighting over what the future of Japan should entail that there are a lot of interesting things going on with the government that are rather shocking or seem ridiculous or impressive in hindsight. There were areas where the pre-War government was ridiculously progressive, especially in terms of equality and areas where they had some rather bone-headed decisions (one missive that almost got passed was the banning of our writing system and wholesale adoption of the alphabet, dodged a bullet there). So in our view of history, this 8-year-old law was kind of like Prohibition and more an example of, "What the hell were they thinking?" rather than any societal pressure toward gays. Apparently, even the people of that time thought that was ridiculous. As for today, the only real issue that gets in the way of gay marriage is legalizing doesn't hold much of an incentive for any of the many political parties here, despite a majority of them saying they have no issue with it and every single one publically stating that there should be equality in all forms for gays (I should use the term sexual minorities to be more accurate to what we call it over here, but whatever). It might have gotten a push a few years ago when a major shift in the ruling parties occured and politicians would have needed any kind of popularity they could find, but that was entirely swept away by the earthquake two years ago and the accompanying chaos it brought on this country, which hasn't been this politically volatile for around 40 years. If you ask a lot of gays who are well-versed in politics here, they all tend to agree -- and so do I -- that it's likely to get legalized as a part of some non-event update to marriage laws. The issue is almost entirely removed from the bigotry narrative I hear in other countries -- the issue is apathy.

Not to spoil your enthusiasm, hh5, but I think this video will help explain why some people are less enthused about One Direction: http://blip.tv/todds-pop-song-reviews/little-things-by-one-direction-a-pop-song-review-6551534

I've been reading this thread over the past few days, while I'm not sure I want to participate, two things came to mind as suggestions: 1) The talk about skills and points and such would, if I were interested in playing, kind of dampen my enthusiasm for joining. Reason being that there are dozens upon dozens of options, both table top, net-based and digital if I want that and I wouldn't think a forum-based anything here would compete. On the other hand, the obvious advantage of an RPG on a reader/writer's forum is that it can be very flexible in a way that games that use math can't be. So my suggestion would be to ditch the conventional idea of points and growth and try for an adjective based system. So, for example, you give each new player three adjectives to describe their character. They can choose to be an extremely smart and lithe bounty hunter, where extremely, smart and lithe are the three adjectives and they chose to sacrifice one adjective to modify the strength of another. Or a boisterous, hot, lecherous assassin, or an emotionally enlightened and sophisticated dilettante. Somebody in the game, maybe the DMs? PMs? Whatever you call them, maybe them, maybe some other member who shares the responsibility, keeps track of these attributes for each character. Furthermore, somebody can award an extra adjective to a player who has contributed something particularly well-written, creative, cooperative or otherwise provided an excellent addition to the community. This would be presented not based on any reliable metric, but vaguely awarded when applicable to help motivate people to give their best effort for the game. So the boisterous, hot, lecherous assassin can become a boisterous, uberhot, lecherous assassin or a boisterous, hot, lecherous, flexible assassin, or a boisterious, hot, lecherous assassin skilled at knifework. Something like that might easily go well with forum tags or signatures to remind other players really easily about what the other players are like and allow new players to enter and understand what's going on more quickly. Last, there would also be somebody, maybe the same people who manage everything else, maybe not, who can work in the opposite direction. That is, this person can take away an adjective from a character and perhaps does so at regular intervals to keep the narrative spicy. Stolen adjectives can be won back (i.e. the person in charge says, "Sasha Distan - proficiency at wolf transformation taken away by curse from the Wolf Gods," and that proficiency can be won back by Sasha Distan creating a narrative -- that maybe other characters can help should they choose to -- that sees the removal of the curse). Not sure if you would want this to be approved by some official or not. Or maybe stolen adjectives can also be replaced with new ones (maybe the lecherous assassin can become a monogamous assassin), by doing the same type of thing. And perhaps characters who have more adjectives or more extreme adjectives (incredibly > extremely > really > very and so on) get picked for stolen adjectives more often than characters who do not. Anyway, I'm not saying it should work like that, but something a little more easily trackable, fluid and less typically like every other RPG I've heard of, would make me prick up my ears. 2) I think you should either keep very heavy limits or completely ban the idea of using terminology akin to "like _____" where the blank is a copyrighted or otherwise well-known piece of entertainment meant for comparison. Not just in the RPG proper but the discussion of it. I think this only because it seems like a lot of potential players would be put off instantly if they saw discussion revolving "like so-and-so" no matter what the context. Also because if you're arguing about the rules, you ought to be using a level of expression that does not rely on easy comparisons and can forge through the abstract waters without them; I think active thought like this which cannot fall into easy definitions, and benefits the game being discussed.

That's because I didn't want this thread to become a debate. I feel rather strongly about showering before beddy time in the typical Japanese way, you know, shower in a place removed from the bath tub so the tub can remain clean, then soak in a bath or hot spring afterwards. Obviously, just like any courteous person, I clean up more frequently if necessary. Especially in the summer, I especially love those Gatsby face and body wipes that feel deliciously cold. They are a lifesaver at work or school. Also, I make sure not to turn on the air conditioner after a shower because I know it wrecks havoc with your body's internal temperature control and I don't want to sweat profusely at night. That last part is the the debate I got into before I started this thread. I think it's kind of na-na-na-nasty to go sleep dirty so to speak -- to grace the sheets of one's bed with the dirt of the day. But the debatee disagreed; this person argued that it's equally nasty not to clean off the sweat from sleep. I claimed different people sweat different amounts at night and if you're smart about it, it's a negligible amount that's about equal to that your body naturally sweats a bit throughout the day, though it isn't noticeable or bad enough to require immediate action. We went back and forth, and on and on. The argument materialized because I was telling him how I've been reading a lot of English writing lately and how I sometimes feel a little weirded out that the characters go to sleep without showering. I wonder if the opposite is true when people who are used to a morning shower culture (the Irish Springers, you could call them) read Japanese stories where the characters often don't shower when they wake up (the Sekken Densetsu, you might say). I realize of course that in first world countries, it's a moot point. Most people are clean enough where it really doesn't matter that much and it's more of a preference.

I personally like "gwarg" because it's so versatile. It could be an alien or an evil witch dying, somebody doing something completely disgusting or the incomprehensible beeping of a robot menace. Japanese has tons and tons of onomatopeia and it's a lot of fun to include it in writing. For a little breath of fresh air, here's some examples: Teku teku - One of my favorites because it's so specific, it is supposed to represent the likeness of walking, but not just ordinary, walking in contrast to not using a vehicle, in other words it's there to show the fortitude and perservance when you decide to get there by your own two feet. Odo odo - This is an expression for when you can't calm down because you're afraid or anxious about something. Kasa kasa - This is the sound of two dried out things scraping or moving against each others, like dried leaves or a dry hand brushing against denim. Gabatto - The motion of somebody getting up quickly or suddenly diving down and other such similar motions. Shittori - The feel of something soft and velvety, calm and quiet, like deliciously smooth chocolate cake or rich shampoo. Gito gito - The disgusting, sticky, gooey feel of grease and oil.

Ha ha, thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it! Of course you can post a link to the story wherever you like. I'd love to share the laughs to dog lovers! I'm glad you to hear you noticed all the tiny Easter Eggs I hid, because I put a lot of work into them! BTW, I hope you didn't stain anything with your wine!

Another review and thanks to you! I'm glad you enjoyed it! Especially since your excellent prompt was responsible for it! Yeah, I wasn't sure whether to put in what happened to Danny's real parents, because it could be a downer. But in a story that already stretches the limits of believability, I thought it would be a necessary explanation. Though I did think of the possibility that they submitted to this experiment -- then I thought better, because really dying of an OD is the kinder characterization, if you ask me.

A young man backpacking in the wild. I'd say his equipment is a little under par though. I wonder if he got teed off. He should probably rush more down the mountain. Perhaps a little birdie helped his game.

It's probably the self-reflection after the reviews that made you improve the way you think about, interact with or criticize people. I know a lot of other people who have had the same experience as you have and the only thing they've taken away from it is how awesome they are and how the rest of the world sucks for not agreeing with them. A lot of people have become worshippers of the almighty opinion and don't realize how fallible or flawed they can sometimes be. For my part, I would encourage you to still communicate your feelings honestly. If something got you so out of sorts to get into that fiasco in the first place, there's probably something valuable you can salvage out of your reaction. I think the trick might be to analyze why you felt that way and communicate that, rather than simply spray emotions like a cat marking their territory. Sometimes, especially for an established writer who has had more than one successful story, a harsh, but reasonable point of view is just the ticket they need to take their writing to the next level. Other times, you may feel like a particular work has a negative or destructive idea contained in the soul of its writing that you need to get off your chest or it will suffocate you. Positivity is important. No doubt that smiles and hugs and acceptance beats frowns and punches and rejection. But just like, in many cases, there would be no story without a problem to solve, reasonable negativity can be just as important. One galvanizing motive for my writing was a reaction to something I found appalling in somebody else's writing (none of it here, thankfully), so if you are planning to put into action your vague ideas for some writing purpose, turning your opinions on the rights and wrongs of storytelling into a story can be a great outlet. Your first post in this thread does show that you have a good set of skills and knowledge about writing to start from.

Friends, city folk, Lego enthusiasts, lend me your sneers! To shower in the morning or the night? That is the question! Whether tis nobler to the nose to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous BO at the breakfast table or when woken in the middle of the night, or take arms against a sea of dirt in the evening, and by opposing end them?

I don't know. I saw this video last week and my reaction was just, "Cute." I mean I don't mind at all, but a whopping 100% of that video doesn't apply to me. I was in the game before I graduated from college. It's not hard to do these days. I both love to eat nasty things while I write and can let the creativity flow without anything. It would have been smarter to point out that people don't realize that even though you may not be using your entire body, writing takes just as much energy as construction work or singing and dancing in a 2-hour concert and thus writers have different ways of dealing with those energy demands. I've used a typewriter before, but in my country the "true writer" writes by pen because penmanship is part of the art, but everyone has to submit to modern practices. *shrugs* It just kind of reminds me that the best comic humor can transcend borders, but a lot of lazy humor tends to come up with the excuse of, "You have to be ______" in order to get it. Speaking of lazy, the working writers thing is the laziest part of the humor -- of course there's a diversity in the way writers look, just like there is for any other job. It doesn't make for a good punch line. Some writers are loners while other prefer to interact with a community? Wow! You don't say? Obvious jokes work better when they're so obvious the way you pretend they're not is the ridiculous part. The first draft getting bank vs. confusing and needs work part is probably the only one that is really on the dot with respect to how crazily a writer can build up their self-confidence into over confidence as they write. The next one is confusing though, what writer cliche are they picking from here? I thought the more common perception was of the pretentious Starbucks poet who wears a beret and types away on his laptop? The idea of the writer's workshop as a stationary place began to die as technology made it easier for writers to work away from home, lamps, paper and flat writing surfaces, and I think even the thickest of the thick know this, so the joke completely falls flat. Now I'm not a fan of self-publishing at all, but that comparison between the writer's quaint bungalow and the poor guy writing in his car kind of misses the point completely. If you surveyed the living conditions of what are considered the greatest writers of all time, you'd get a lot of people writing in absolutely horrible conditions and getting slammed by the peers of their day. So...what is this? For maximum funny one would think you'd work backwards -- writing would allow you to purge your demons, instead your demons come and purge you. The last one isn't particularly offensive, it's just kind of "eh" because for the humor to work it has to invalidate the first part of the comparison and realizing that once you've been successful you have to do it again if you want to eat doesn't invalidate anything. In my experience it tends to give you strength, you think, "I did it once, I can do it again!" But it's all good, because the video ends with a nice and very true message that applies to every writer and one gets the feeling the point is to encourage people who are disillusioned about their career choice. It's kind of like a video about one popular conception of writing vs. another one. The reason they are both popular conceptions is that they both happen with alarming frequency. A lot of authors (good or bad) do have successful careers after they graduate and just as many get stuck in a rut. So on and so forth. The problem with the video's humor is that while I'm sure it's amusing to people who have no idea what writing is like and to the people who can relate, writers have such varied lives it's hard to make a video that would apply as a stereotype, because they've all but disappeared over the last century or so. If they wanted to go for accuracy, they might have had more luck with a video that compared the image of our idealized intellectuals like Hemingway and Woolf, and their actual lives. But it's Buzzfeed. I mean, this isn't the New Yorker or even Cracked. It's drive-in humor -- you get something quick and easy, but the quality of your food and the accuracy of your order is not guaranteed. I will maintain until the day I die that floppy, greasy, salty fries are my idea of gourmet desserts.

I've noticed that the conversation about this didn't continue very much: I have to say I vehemently disagree. While everyone has their own personal quirks that can evolve into annoying pet peeves you don't like to read, I welcome this kind of gimmicky experimentation wholeheartedly. No doubt a lot of writers will use it as a cute story wrapper without thinking much about it, but it has a lot of potential. It reminds me that literature of its time has always been heavily influenced by the way people of the time communicated. Classical epic poetry and fairy tales are influenced greatly by the need to preserve communication through oral repitition because they had no other way of communicating. As people began to write letters to each other, you can see it influence literature until you get something like Bram Stoker's Dracula. That's a vision of horror that is completely out of sync with our modern society -- it's about people taking long, ponderous, thoughtful draughts of the paragraph and the page to explain things to others and it is completely influenced by a society that I am guessing had to learn how to accurately portray complex emotions and make sure they remained an accurate portrayal for the days, weeks or months until they received a reply to their letters. This meant they took their training of writing very seriously and used the full extent of their vocabulary to detail the emotions and particulars. And as televisions came into play, you can sense the shift in novels to setting up increasingly visual scenes with less context, ripe for us to analyze. And the advent of the telephone transformed the believability of pages and paragraphs of one person speaking dialogue to an increasing sensitivity to shorter sentences by more speakers. Now that we have all these methods of near instant communication, it is obvious that they've also come into the story as props, but I think they could also help shape some interesting new avenues for exposition and story development. Consider this scenario: one chapter of a modern romance tale is told entirely as a blog post as it is being written -- that is, we get to see the writer of the post delete words and re-write, correct typos and go back and delete portions. But we don't get to see the character, hear their thoughts while they type, or feel any of the scenery surrounding the computer or their mind. It becomes apparent that the poster becoming unhinged with rage as they continue to write it. The chapter ends at the end of the blog post, which is now a rather scathing and ill-considered invective. We as the reader anticipate lots of fecal matter hitting cooling devices in the next chapter. However, the next few chapters, which consist of nothing but e-mails, Twitter messages, chatting and texts, show no reaction from the people we know as readers who would have read the writer's blog. Why is this? Eventually something nasty happens that could have been entirely prevented if the characters knew what was written in the blog post. It comes out through a text message that the writer deleted the whole thing before they posted because they thought it in bad taste. This, I would consider an effective twist on an old and worn out staple: that of miscommunication providing problems for our romance tale. I think a lot of readers of modern romances are getting sick of contrived scenes where somebody really ought to just come out and say something and solve a whole lot of problems, but they won't. This can still be done effectively, sure, but it's getting harder and harder the more we have to face palm as the knowing reader, at the lack of common sense in the main characters. However, I think people can relate to just how utterly screwed up communication can get when you're spreading it around social media and electronic text communication, and if you're one of the people who grew up on the Internet you might sympathize with the person who has learned to control their temper, step back and just let go of the argument. Furthermore, the suspense of just what on earth is going on is kept fresher than the usual story where we're getting tired of waiting for the characters to catch up to us. There are a lot of scenarios I can envision. Stories where gossip, back-stabbing and manipulation play as key themes might thrive by omitting more common narrative threads and only including the drive-by shootings that are modern text communication. A story that is made up of nothing but fake message board conversation and fake news sites and fake Twitter accounts, but whose main character is a popular actor or singer whom all of that revolves around might be an extremely compelling form of invoking the unreliable third person narrator(s). Long distance romance stories could benefit by showing only the communication between the main characters and their circle in their location and the next chapter switching to the alternate location of the romantic partner. Cell phone novels were a huge fad in the middle part of last decade in Japan (I'm not sure about the rest of the world) and while they are still around, they have evolved in interesting ways. There is a new form of fiction where you subscribe to an author by adding a set of e-mail addresses to your address book and then create a folder labeled as the name of the work. You get e-mails from fictitious people addressed to each other, all written by the author you described to and when added together in that folder, they make up one book. They're really fun to read and they really do exploit the limitations and possibilities of such a strange storytelling structure. Has anyone else read one of these? So I see a lot of potential in this structure, especially because the overwhelming ubiquity of internet access and always-available computer technology seems to be having rather alarming effects on people's attention span, patience levels and required levels of stimulation -- which are ripe for exploitation in romance scenarios.

One good Nifty hint for making the place more tolerable is to use a browser like Firefox with adblock -- I can't see any images from the site at all with it installed, so it's just text on every page. And before you visit start up a private browsing session -- even if you luck out and get one of the good stories there, you never know when it will go into frog scat* territory and you don't want your buddy who you lend your laptop to one day coming to you with the question, "Dude, you read gay frog scat erotica?" Doesn't matter if you backed out so quickly, you tried to apply for residence to another planet where the species won't write gunk like that -- it's still a record no one would like to have on their computer. Another good Nifty hint is if the characters speak in a strange, stilted fashion that no actual human being would ever use, there is bound to be some equally strange kinkiness on the horizon. I think it is some sort of psychological thing that the worst Nifty authors use, where they know what they are writing is just an excuse to justify some really strange fantasies they have and so the characters speak in a way to make their secret thoughts more acceptable. *I think the absolute worst Nifty story experience I've ever had was once when I was reading a seemingly normal story about love in the big city it suddenly veered into Planet Crazy with a plot where the characters tried to do it while falling off of skyscrapers to their suicidal doom. It wasn't some bizarre, surreal metaphor either. The author clearly got excited about the concept. I'm Japanese, and one of our more popular fetishes right now is licking your partner's eyeballs, not eyelids or eye region, eyeballs, as in cornea and iris! (Not that I've ever done this, so don't ask me for the details.) So you would think I would be used to weird crap like this by now (oh that one time as a kid we stole that movie where the girls stuck dynamite in their -- ahem, sorry), but I swear to God, that day I just wanted to hide under my pillow and deny my brain access to my memories.

That was so very nice of you to look, thank you! Unfortunately, what you found is not a prepaid card, it's pretty much a debit card that you use as a member of Suruga Bank, which I am not. You can get the VISA logo added to your bank card here, but in order to do that you need to have a steady salary job for at least a year and I'm afraid that's a big problem as I don't have that type of job. Thank you so much for trying though! I'll be sure to purchase Premium status if I find a way to do so!

Good short stories are like good songs. They have you repeating the best lines. In a song, you might hum them. But in a short story, you read them, sigh at how good they are, forget them and then find them again. And somewhere along the line they begin to hum in the subconscious recesses of your mind. That's why, after having read this first a couple of days ago, I waited until now to review it. I enjoyed remembering the lines. Specifically, I love this one: "Two deep blue eyes sat behind thick glasses like sapphires set in their sockets, lines creasing at the outer corner of his eyes." Listen up, budding writers! This is a prime example of how using a cliche can help your writing and not all cliches are inherently bad. How many times have we heard blue eyes compared to sapphires and eyes compared to jewels? Too many, I say. But here we have a rare specimen, indeed. This is a sentence that conveys so many things! My interpretation is that the owner of these eyes is a thinker, but he does not often voice his thoughts. He is a rock that does not move very often. This is suggested by repeating the color of his eyes. Normally, sapphire is all you need, but we get deep blue in addition and on top of that these eyes "sat" behind "thick" walls of glass, which are very apt words. The sapphire comparison gives us a hint as to the values of the narrator. He loves his guardians and values his dad's soul like a jewel. The eyes that stared at him in many different ways growing up. The eyes that trapped his gaze. Because we already heard something like this with the mother, we are prepared as readers to be drawn into this appraisal of the narrator's father. So when the later sentence comes that says his father is discerning and could ferret out half-truths, we are just not reading exposition, we are reading an echo of an excellent character portrayal that influences both sides. Finally, the lines creasing around the sapphires imply this man is old. No duh, you might say. Ah, but it's the beauty of the comparison. If this was an object with sapphires embedded in it and it had lines creased all around it, we might be concerned that the sapphires would soon fall out. That's a nasty image for eyes, you say? Yeah, perhaps, but it's also a hint that diamonds don't last forever and a really nice turn on another cliched depiction of old age. I could go on and on and on about so many other excellent sentences in this story. However, there is one sentence that irks me. One, that no matter I interpret it or re-read it or re-consider it, still makes me say, "Nope." It's this one: "Deep purple swathed her petite frame, coming to an end at her knees." The image I get, no matter how hard I try to correct it, is of the Purple People Eater doing unspeakable things to the late Jessica Tandy. I doubt that's the image the author was aiming for! But one bunk sentence hardly counts for anything when all the rest glitter like they do. In a novel, you can't always afford to have every sentence be royalty. But in a short story, you can't afford not to. And this is one of those short stories that proves how valuable polishing a sentence can be! Bravo!

A review! Thank you! I kept wondering if it was a little too imaginative and people would immediately push their back buttons once they got to that one crucial sentence, but it seems it worked out alright in the end.

So if it were two women instead of two men, it would be like some combination of a script to a Lifetime Movie and a Syfy Original? I am mean. If all a reader wants is what this book provides, more power to them. Exponentially even. But for me? A good premise is a terrible thing to waste. If somebody is going to take the time to flesh out a sci-fi or fantasy world, I want a little more oomph in my Oompa Loompas, if you know how and why I'm being mean.

Hmmm. Prompt 254 is no problem, already got most of the characters, the general outline, some of the incidental detail and the sequence of events leading to the end all mapped out in my brains. Though what I'm going to write is so different than how I thought I'd respond to that prompt, that I found myself surprised. Isn't that the lovely thing about writing prompts? Prompt 255 is, to me, very challenging because while I have no lack of ideas, it suggests a certain handling that might come out sounding conventional, despite the uniqueness of the prompt. So I want to make sure I avoid all the usual story beats. Props for the challenging idea! Oh and Sasha, be fierce! You can do it! Wait a minute. Tattoo? Hmmmm.

Thanks to the Y-O-U for your review! Originally the cabbie wasn't even a character, but I was having so much fun writing that butt-sniffing scene, he just kind of popped out of the narrative! Funny how that happens, isn't it?

To your review, I say, "Arigatou!" I think you can see why I was concerned about offending people (I'm not trying to say anything controversial, but I was worried my intent would be misunderstood) but I'm glad people seem to be enjoying the story!