Graeme

Thank you!

The party was great. Not perfect, because Claire spent too much time with Keith for my liking, but otherwise it was a lot of fun. Claire started a contest at one point to try to determine who was the better kisser: Keith or me. She called for two tie-breaker rounds before ending the game without declaring a winner. I noticed that Keith put his board shorts back on before the second tie breaker. At some point, Angus realised that Drew wasn’t going to do anything serious, and settled down to have

Thanks, W_L. Hopefully the drug will be successful....

Spoken like someone who has never had a catastrophic illness touch their lives. I sincerely hope that does not change. But there are situations you cannot control, such as cancer, which must be treated with drugs that sometimes seem worse than the illness they treat, and to be quite frank most if it is out of our hands! I said to one of my doctors that basically they were pumping me full of poison, and hoping the cancer dies before I do. After a moment of complete shock, she nodded her head and said "That about sums it up". To be fair, Ghostboy said "a lot less money". He didn't say that drugs wouldn't be needed. There is a lot of things that can be either prevented, or have reduced likelihood of problems. I have a friend who had a heart-attack at the age of 35. This is not because he was in a high risk category because of his lifestyle, but because of a medical condition that increased his risk. That condition could be controlled, to a degree, through maintaining a high degree of fitness, but he hadn't maintained that fitness level. He was lucky that he was talking to his doctor (who was also a personal friend) when the heart-attack started, and the doctor picked up on it straight away. That's an example of how a non-drug approach can sometimes be an alternative to drugs, but it's not a universal solution because it was only appropriate for his particular medical condition. I have a family member who had a heart attack a few years ago who again wasn't in the high-risk category. Indeed, the doctors afterwards expressed surprise that she'd had a heart-attack at all, because the only thing they found was a blockage in one small artery. It was just one of those things. However, to ensure it doesn't happen again (because the heart attack did damage the heart), she had a large set of pills that she takes on a daily basis. In her case, the drugs are necessary, given what has happened. That's two examples of heart-attacks. One can be controlled through non-drugs and one has to be controlled through drugs. This is what I believe Ghostboy is saying. Drugs should not be the first port-of-call for fixing a medical issue. Sometimes, they will be (often, even), but they shouldn't always be the solution. Modern society does not give enough support to preventative measures, because it's hard to gauge their cost-benefit. Insurance companies are starting to work it out, though, which is why some health insurance policies include coverage for gym memberships -- they are recognising that staying fit and healthy helps keep medical bills down (and hence makes health insurance companies more profitable).

You have to remember that Drew probably believes that Rick will like that 'sexual crap'.

“This is wonderful, Mrs. Wakeland!” Mum laughed. “You don’t have to exaggerate, Drew. It’s only chicken schnitzel and roast vegetables. And, please, call me Jessica.” “Even so, it’s absolutely delicious. Can I stay for dinner more often?” He gave Mum one of his angelic looks, which seemed to fool her completely. “Of course, dear.” She glanced at my dad. “Though between you and Brandon, we might need a larger pantry.” Though it was unstated, I took that dinner to be a partial apology from Mum

Or, to put it another way, TMZ released what they thought would be best for their business. They're not a charity -- they make their money by trying to publish something that will attract a lot of interest. Do they have any reason to post things that would put Justin Bieber in a good light? Do they have any reason to post things that would put Justin Bieber in a bad light? To answer my own questions, I would say that the answers are No and Yes, respectively. It's quite possible that he's a jerk throughout the whole four and a half hours. To only show six and a half minutes, though, and not even in chronological order, makes me cynical.

This is six minutes out of what appears to be more than four hours of video evidence. The last minute of the video appears to be an early part of the deposition, where he's giving answers. That timestamp is at 11:33. The video starts at 14:58 with the off-screen questioner asking if he remembers something from earlier that today and Justin saying no. The earliest timestamp I saw was 10:49 -- more than four hours earlier. I think it's reasonable to not remember something earlier when in the middle of several hours of video testimony. This is not a fair video. He might be a jerk, but you can't use this video as evidence. The video includes Justin refusing to answer questions about an (ex?) girlfriend, with his lawyer objecting to the questioning. Why? If he's allowed to not answer the question (as per his lawyer's complaints), then why is his refusal to answer those question part of this six and a half minute extract? It has been clearly edited to present him in the worst possible light. If anything, if that's all they can come up with after hours of video evidence, I think it shows that most of the time he probably wasn't a jerk. Oh, and the YouTube clip is titled Justin Bieber Deposition (Full Video). Can someone explain to me how this is the "full video" of his deposition? I personally don't listen to his music and I don't follow his exploits, but I don't think I've ever seen a more blatant smear attempt in my life. If anything, this makes me feel sympathy for the guy.

I was watching the timestamp. That's one heavily edited video clip. It's not in sequential order, with the time jumping backwards and forwards. I also noticed that the timestamp covers more than three hours of time. So, this six minute video is an edit of over three hours of questioning by a hostile lawyer? Sorry, it's obviously been done to put the person in question into a bad light. If I'm to express an opinion, I'd need to see the entire video, not some edited highlights.

Thank you! The names for articles of clothing seem to be one of the biggest areas of cultural differences. Another example is 'thong' which in the USA is also underwear, but in Australia is footwear (I believe they're called flip-flops in the USA). It took me a long time to work out that what the USA calls a wifebeater is what we in Australia would call a singlet.

The word is 'practical', not 'viable'. Fusion reactions have been produced in laboratories around the world (and, as the article showed, even in school laboratories). The problem is that they currently take more energy than they produce. As a means of generating energy, they're currently a failure. That doesn't mean you can't produce nuclear fusion -- it's just not currently commercially practical as an energy source. Continuing this thread, I went searching and found the Good News page from the ABC (American version, not Australia). Here's one of the stories from that page: Penn State Raises $13.3M for Pediatric Cancer Research at Dance Marathon

Er... you do realise that we're talking nuclear fusion, not nuclear fission? No one has made a practical nuclear fusion reactor -- all current designs use more energy than they create. Nuclear fusion is what powers the Sun. If we can build a practical nuclear fusion reactor, our energy problems will be solved for the foreseeable future, since hydrogen is one of the most plentiful substances on Earth (using electricity to get it from seawater). Nuclear fusion also doesn't have the long-term radioactive by-products that nuclear fission has. Sadly, the 'breakthrough' needed to get a nuclear fusion reactor to work productively has been 'on the horizon' for several decades now. I'm still waiting, and I've been waiting since I was a teenager

Thank you. I won't say anything more because I dislike giving spoilers. I will say that I don't like hurting my characters. That doesn't mean they can't get hurt -- I just don't like it when it happens.

Thank you! I wanted to write a story that was a reverse of the much more common closeted gay guy but it took me a while to come up with a scenario where I felt it would realistic. I'm happy that you said you found it believable I try to ensure that character actions derive from their personalities and situations. While I may interject special events from time to time, most of my stories run as a consequence of the initial setup and the subsequent character actions. I'll admit that even I get surprised at times as to what happens....

As I said to Gene's review, I'd never considered expanding this one into a novel, but I'll think about it I can't make any promises, though, because my muse can be rather fickle at times.

Thank you! I had fun writing that story

“Is it still okay for me to come around tonight?” Drew asked as we headed to the car park to wait for Mum to pick us up. “Yeah, sure. Mum and Dad only banned you from the house for the two days. I think it would’ve been longer if I hadn’t explained about James coming around tonight.” As I saw it, the extra punishment for surfing porn sites was just a token, with the implied threat that if I did it again I could expect worse. Since they were the two days that Drew had his after-school job at the

Thank you! I don't want to comment on some of the things you've said, though, because I don't want to give things away. Yes, there are, hopefully, still a few surprises to come.

Perhaps you'd prefer something like this Pocket money pledged for bushfire-hit children or This book is sooooo chocolate bar There are so many good news stories out there

Thank you! I like Ty, too, but then I usually like all my characters

He lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling. His right hand was behind his head, his left hand held his phone. He was trying to make a decision. He had to concede that Tony had been right. Simply knowing that there was someone else who knew about him had resulted in a lessening of the pressure he’d been experiencing. It was a relief that he could, at any time, take his phone and talk to someone about a subject that he’d been internalising for too long. Tony had said he wanted to be friends, and

For all us science geeks, some news from the UK: British schoolboy, 13, becomes the youngest to build a nuclear fusion reactor I was telling my son about this, since he's only just turned 13 and hence as a chance to break the record if he works on it this year....

"You little beauty" isn't a popular expression anymore, but it's still around. The younger generation would use it less than the older generations, but it still gets some use by some people.

Rick knows he has to resolve things, too, but that's not always easy. He wants to do it without hurting Drew and he hasn't worked out how to do that, yet.

Thank you! I like looking at things from a different angle. Sometimes there's an interesting point of view when you do that.