Backwoods Boy

Only temporarily, but I think it aggravated later behavior. 😈

I'm becoming concerned about your BS filter ... 😉

Good morning, and thanks much for those. Now I can justify all the swearing I do. Too bad I can't share them with my mother. The designated punishment for cursing was having one's mouth washed out with soap, a regular event in my childhood, even when the only words in my swearing vocabulary were "jobbie, wee-wee, toilet!" I think you can guess the first given the more-common second one. I'll pass those links on to a few fellow foul-mouths.

Likewise, and likewise. What would I do without the Urban Dictionary?

Perhaps both would be improved by the strategic application of a glass of wine ...

Oh, my! The opportunity here for inappropriate comments are endless. But I'll refrain...

Different. An interesting transition in twelve lines. Not what one expects, to be sure.

Nicely done! (he says through his tears).

There's another perspective on this. Perhaps you were doing your co-workers a favor. I'm going into old-fart mode now, so bear with me. Remember when you commented that the members of the household weren't interested in your home cooking? I didn't comment at the time, but my thought was that they were probably too used to eating worthless crap like Crispy Cremes to appreciate what you produced. Eh?

Glad to hear I'm not alone in that regard.

Do you mean to say that's not toothpaste on the mirror?

I bet it feels weird. Were it I, my self-preservation warning system would be screaming, "Run! Run! Run!". However, as the least likely person here to start an "Ann Landers" column (how outdated is that?), I would only observe that your parenthetical comment is likely your own advice to yourself.

I always get emotional when I read this story, and I don't understand why. I think it is largely your writing skill; the detail puts me so much into the picture that the story becomes more real than reality. One thing I noted here: With as many characters as you present, writing in first person simply would not work. I've noticed that with each character addition, it becomes more difficult, and not in a linear fashion either. I think it's more exponential.

Aha! The penalty for the raise and bonus rears its ugly head.

Naps are my salvation. Good morning.

Good one. My first thought, and repartee for the day, is that a return to Calvin Coolidge would be refreshing.

The positive thing in this post is that you are smart enough to recognize the contradiction and appreciate the irony. Pity the sheeple, mostly younger, who don't. It's too bad that getting a degree is basically game playing BS. Spot on.

Thanks for that explanation. I've wondered about various lifestyles within DiC specifically, but have been reluctant to ask. I've lived a rather sheltered life, "closeted" in more than one sense. I'm fully accepting of the choices of others, but am often ignorant of what those choices involve, so many words like "Dom" and "sub" are only vague concepts.

Blowing snow out here in the wild, wild west. Not enough to drift, though, fortunately. I haven't even opened the door all day. Drinking lots of tea to stay warm.

I wish I could pick both Sad and Love. Sad for how I feel and Love for the gift you have given us here from your heart. Thank you

Thanks for the tips. I've seen One Note in use before but haven't used it. I'll take a look. Even though my career was in computer science, I tend to do a lot on paper. It's a generational thing, I think. Up to this point, I've maintained paper records of characteristics. My outlines tend to be the starting point of the file in which I plan to write the chapter. Other records have been on paper. I probably need to move into the twenty-first century.

The point is well taken, and if the reader is to be provided with details, they should be presented only as necessary, in my opinion. I've seen too many stories on another site that start with a dump of what should be the author's private character attribute spreadsheet. By the time you're done reading the first two pages, you're overwhelmed with detail, and by the time you get to where a detail is important, it's been forgotten. Besides leaving room for the reader, there's another reason for not going into too much detail, especially for those of us who don't plan well. It's hard to retract those blue eyes when you realize three published chapters later that they really need to be brown. Contact lenses maybe? The advice I have received here has helped me understand that I need to add more detail, but to concentrate on the right detail. So now, a comment from a beta reader on the first pass that says "Tyler is so cute" makes me realize that, yes, that was my intention, but maybe there are there some subtle things I can do to make him cuter. And it's almost always actions and dialogue rather than physical details that make the difference. That was today's real experience, by the way, and I'm torn between acknowledging/not embarrassing my adviser So that is probably a longer re-hash of what has been better and more succinctly said before, but thank you for sharing your thoughts on this subject and letting us think and reflect on how we might improve.

The clouds cleared a bit and I can see across the river to the mountains on the other side. I'm at about 100 ft above sea level, and the mountains rise abruptly to about 4000 ft. Snow/ice level is at about 200 ft. Lucked out this time. It's supposed to warm up now for a few days.

That's where I'm at this morning. And yesterday too, now that I think about it. 35 deg F so no ice - that's the good thing this morning. Hope everyone has a fine Saturday.