Aaron Penrose

They are extremely dangerous. At first watching this made me nervous, because I kept thinking that elk was trying to hurt him, but then the longer I watched, I kept hearing the elk say, "Man, get your ass outta here, I'm just trying to do elk stuff. You're weirding me out with the camera." He was only playing! It's a shame he was euthanized. I believe I have been to that exact place before, but we didn't see many animals. I remember in Cade's Cove, we saw two bull whitetail deer fighting, and people were getting out of their cars to film them. There was actually a semicircle of people filming around these two deer that were trying to kill each other. As in twenty feet away. It was nuts. All of us were completely expecting someone to get gored. I've heard tons of horror stories about people getting hurt by rutting deer.

You say you have no one to lean on, but you do have the GA community, no? I don't know you well, but from one soul struggling beneath the weight of the world to another, I hope things improve for you. I am lucky and young enough to never have had to deal with the pain of losing a parent, but I imagine it's awful. *hugs*

gross

steak

fire

Aaron Penrose = Azaan Parkeem... lol

I have been listening to this for days. Days. Nonstop. Everywhere. I'm not new to oOoOO but something about this songs just describes my life right now. I also got new speakers in my car recently, so I'm getting to share this loveliness with everyone. Sounds like the apocalypse or something. It's magical to write to.

There are no words. Your use of language is just phenomenal. Just beautiful. I am struggling to move on from a past relationship myself right now and this really hit home with me. When we decide to leave relationships, we can't predict that years down the road we will still be desperately in love, even when new loves are in the picture. Nothing can ease the pain of not knowing what might have been.

To be quite frank, I think parents should allow their children unrestricted internet access until they are found doing something harmful like going into adult chat rooms or on webcam (as you said--real people.) So long as you're clear about the boundaries and what jeopardizes one's safety/privacy online, what's the problem? Kids will be kids. If you tell them not to do something, they will only want to do it more. Then again I was always mature for my age, and your son may not be ready to synthesize such adult subject matter. But I think all boys are "obsessed" with porn when they're thirteen. I certainly was, and I'm not even biologically male. I may be a bit of an extreme case, but I was looking at hardcore pornography by the time I was eleven, and I don't think it affected me negatively. If anything it dispelled all the hype about sex. I come from an extremely religious background and my parents did nigh everything in their power to make me ashamed of my sexuality. The porn taught me it's something real people do, and they don't feel guilty about it later. Like I said, extreme case, but I think it applies to your situation nonetheless. At thirteen, a little worldly knowledge won't kill him. It may actually help him in the future. I applaud you for being so involved in his life. My parents never cared what I did on the internet. I can't imagine feeling comfortable enough with them to actually admit I was addicted to porn. It's wonderful that he trusts you enough to be so open.

This was hilarious! I laughed out loud at the end. Roasted--completely and totally. Feels like one of those moments those two will laugh about for a long time.

subjective

I'm amazed it didn't occur to the coaches that there might be some consequences for that kind of thing. As employees of the school system you'd think someone would have said, "Hey, don't mess with the kids's personal problems. Someone might sue us."

My great home state is the only place in the U.S. where it is actually illegal to enter a restroom if the gender on your birth certificate/driver's license does not match the one on the sign. Funnily they did not institute a bathroom police force when the law was passed. It is also illegal to change your gender on your birth certificate, so it's like the government is trying to pretend we're not even here, or at least that we don't have the right to use the restroom in public. My point is I absolutely understand your "one of them" sentiment. It's very difficult to be different in places like Tennessee. I'm out as trans and when I leave the house with a chest binder on, people stare. I'm not ashamed of who I am but sometimes others make it hard not to be.

If it makes you feel any better, young transgender guys deal with this times a thousand. There is not a day in my life where I don't obsess about not being masculine enough.

Not lolcats, but my cats because cute: If I wasn't lazy I would caption this "sup, this my white bitch"

dream (afraid I just outed myself, lol)

My AP U.S. History professor was by far the best and most intelligent instructor I have ever had, but my favorite is my American Literature professor this semester. He's way smart and he has bee giving me incredible feedback on some of my writing. Also he's smoking hot. Same question!

I don't know enough about anything to ever be of use to someone doing research, but I do have a set of skills you lot might find useful. I can do photo ops. I can also paint. Therefore I can edit photographs to make them look virtually however you want, i.e. add different hair, alter colors, change facial features, anything you like. I never have a good reason to fire up Photoshop anymore since I dropped out of art college, so if there's anyone who would like some images edited for graphics or just to have as a character reference, just ask me. I love the opportunity to help authors. As a writer I know it can make a huge difference to have a personalized image of a character. See Cole Matthews' "Gaia Town" signature title for an example of both my photo editing and graphic design skills. I can also digitally paint extremely realistic portraits, but for that you will have to compensate me.

I don't find Mick unsympathetic at all. He's certainly not without his faults but I think you do a good job of justifying him. I love him and I really, really love this story.

No, I hate cooking. I had to cook a lot growing up, so now that I have my own place I never do it unless I absolutely have to. I'm quite good at it, though, so it irritates the piss out of my girlfriend that I won't do it more often. And yet I also hate fast food and take-out, so my options are kinda limited. Probably about 70% of my diet is raw fruits and vegetables and the remaining 30% is crackers or anything cracker-like. Love crackers. New question. Favorite teacher or professor and why?

I like this so far. You have an interesting premise here. Can't wait to read more.

Glad to have made you laugh! I admit I did not sit down with the intention of taking the story that way but Jay has a way of speaking her own mind despite me. You know, it does seem a bit teeny looking back at it. I may wind up taking that bit out; I don't think the story would lose anything.

I have been reading gay fiction since I was about 12. I'm pretty evenly bisexual, but I prefer homosexual stories and porn and most things simply because they're more interesting. Physically I'm much more attracted to men than to women, but I form emotional relationships with women much easier that often translate into physical attraction of the same or greater intensity. Pansexuality probably describes me better than bisexuality, but people understand "bisexual." Anyway, to answer your question, I ended up here when I decided I wanted to try my hand at novel-writing. I have been writing off and on for years in a role playing format on a site called Elliquiy, but I started to accumulate such a wealth of characters and stories that I found myself wanting to put it all down in one place. Being transgender, there is no creative outlet that is as cathartic and just plain damn vindicating for me as writing. It's the only time I can freely express as a man without physical limitations. Thank you for this topic. I am intrigued.

The sky was a bleak and impassive gray. Not that I cared—today was my day, the nasty weather be damned. It was Nathan and I’s one month anniversary, I had an amazing gift for him, and the girl at the bookstore called me “miss” once before she heard me speak. Not to mention I looked damn precious. I had on a little red dress patterned with sailboats, bright red lipstick, cream-colored Oxfords to make my Neanderthal feet look smaller, and big hoop earrings to distract from the unforgivably mannish