Graeme

This may be a cultural difference, because I know that while I wasn't banned from girls, I had very limited interaction with them, and that was also true for my best man (who attended a completely different school -- I didn't meet him until I went to university). Apart from school, my main other activity was basketball. While there were girls around, again I was still largely interacting with other guys (and even there, generally not on a social basis). Yes, if I was extroverted and was able to easily mix with other people, I'd have more interaction with girls, but I was shy and retiring. If I didn't have to mix with other people, I generally didn't. That meant I didn't mix with girls. I don't see the logic on the bullying comment. There was bullying at the school I went to (I wasn't bullied, happily), and, if anything, I'd say that there was more risk of bullying for any guys who didn't fit the 'guy stereotype', because they couldn't escape into a non-boy environment (ie. they couldn't mix with the girls at school breaks to avoid the bullies). Again, this sounds like a cultural difference. I don't know of any single-gender schools here that put on plays that bring in students from other schools. What I think is more likely to happen here is that the school wouldn't put on a play at all.... Which makes you sound extroverted. As I said in my post, it's the introverted guys like myself and the best man at my wedding who I think suffer more than they gain by going to a single-gender school.

Actually, James, the problem is not political correctness -- it's whether this is really better for the kids. I agree that what's better for the kids is what's important. For some kids, being in a single gender setting is what's best for them. But from my own experiences, and Skyline's comments above reinforce that, being in a single gender setting is definitely not what's best for some kids. While academically I did really well, socially I was a complete failure. Being gay and not accepting it was part of my low self-esteem, but being unable to relate to females in a social situation didn't help at all. Other boys who had those skills enjoyed going to parties and dances. I didn't, because I just didn't know how to interact. That fed into my naturally introverted personality so that I ended up not going out, which meant I didn't make friends... of either gender. If I'd had more self-confidence in social situations, I may have been able to come out when I went to university where there was a public gay and lesbian group. Unfortunately, my education at an all-boys school left me without the social education that I needed. As a rough generalisation, I'd say that for boys, being in a single-gender school would be good for the extroverts, but bad for the introverts. The introverts need to learn how to interact socially, and if they go to a single-gender school, they miss out on seeing that interaction on a daily basis -- with long term consequences to their social development, and their self-esteem.

Both myself and the best man at my wedding attended single-sex schools. We are both highly intelligent (at least I like to think so), but introverted. As a consequence, when we finished our schooling and went to university, we found ourselves significantly deficient when it came to social skills and interactions with females. We both eventually overcame that (it took me until I was in my mid twenties before I did so), but it was a distinct handicap for many, many years. If a boy is extroverted, he'll find opportunities to gain the social skills outside of school. However, for introverted boys, removing daily interaction with girls can and, in the case of myself and my best man, did produce adverse social education results. Tim used the word 'serious', and I agree that the results were not serious in that we eventually overcame them, but at that stage of our lives it had a very significant effect. Today, schools are more than just academic education centres. They are also social education centres. While the 'official' focus is on the academic, the schools (at least here in Australia) also recognise their social education curriculum, to the extent that we've had the school talk to us about issues that could impact on our boys' social interactions with their peers. If a school had a purely academic focus, that wouldn't be something that the school should concern themselves with. That's not necessarily true. The arts and music programs at the school I went to (back in the 70s) were almost non-existent. It was a tech school, which mean that beside maths, science and English, it had strong metal and woodworking classes (which I hated, because I'm mechanically inept). If the school doesn't give a strong emphasis on arts and music, then a single-sex boys school isn't going to provide any significant benefits in that area. However, I do agree that girls do tend to do better in maths and science if there are no boys in the class, and boys are less inhibited in arts and music if it's only guys -- but only as long as the teacher allows them to do 'guy stuff' in those classes. eg. Less Bach and more Rock

I got a message from CJ today. I couldn't make out all of it, but he mentioned volcanoes, cliffs, goats and having a wonderful time! Personally, I think he took a detour to Iceland to test if his theories on how to set off a volcano actually worked, but I've got no evidence

It's possible to love someone, even if you hate what they've done. eg. I know I love my boys, even when they've just done something really naughty. I may yell at them, but I still love them. Would I still love them if they killed someone? I'd like to think so...

My personal view is that a person's private life is their own, and it is up to them to decide what to tell to whom. Given the potential negativity associated with being gay, I think no one should have the right to out someone else. Now, if there was no negativity associated with it, that's different -- it would be like 'outing' someone's favourite flavour of ice cream (not really a big deal). There's a potential exception to this view, and that's to do with public figures who perform hypocrisy when it comes to this subject. eg. the 'homophobic' politician or public figure who campaigns to prevent gays from being free from discrimination, etc. I'm still not comfortable with that, but I can see why it's done.

I have the guide for Platinum, but I only looked at it if I was stuck, or looking for a particular Pokemon. For Diamond, I'd look up one of the online walkthroughs if I needed to find something. My boys are rather impressed, too, and they won't battle me any more It seems that I have a tendency to beat them most of the time, even if they are using higher level pokemon than me I just have most of the type weaknesses memorised and I just hit them with super effective attacks all the time. I think they consider that cheating

I've always liked Pokemon, Dragonball Z and Yu-Gi-Oh, though the latter two TV shows were annoying in that you can go for two or even three episodes and the fight is still not finished.... At least with Pokemon, each episode has a start and finish, with a longer term plot going on at the same time. We have seasons 1, 2 and 3 of Pokemon on DVD, plus one of the movies. As for the games, I've got Diamond and Platinum, and I'm hoping to get either SoulSilver or HeartGold for my birthday The boys have got, between them, Leaf Green, Ruby, Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, and a pirate copy of Sapphire (he got it for Christmas, via eBay, and was really disappointed when it turned out to be a pirate copy and you can't migrate Pokeman from it to Diamond/Pearl/Platinum, and if you put in a real version into the DS slot, it wipes the save file from the GBA game).

Pre-arranged cliffhanger... the next chapter is slightly delayed I'm sure it'll be posted sometime soon, but we have to wait until Shadowgod is able to get online to do so.

A followup report from the NY Times blog has the lawyer for the defendants claiming that it was initially presented as a domestic violence issue, and that's why they were separated. As this is now before the courts, I'm happy to let them sort out the truth from the spin.

No. Tooboroc is about an hour northwest of the outskirts Melbourne, and Donvale is in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. On another topic, I'm sure CJ would have preferred to be in San Francisco at the moment. Apparently, "The Oakland City Council will probably approve on Tuesday night a $250,000 payment to some goats and their human and canine herders." (from the New York Times). I don't see CJ turning down $250,000, if the council is willing to pay...

Er... this report is from here in Melbourne -- less than an hour from where I live. CJ claimed that he's heading to the Arctic, but you know what his sense of direction is like (he doesn't seem to be able to see cliffs, even when he's right on the edge of one), so it's possible he's gone the wrong way and is heading to Antarctica via Australia. You'll notice in the report that at least one person said they hadn't seen that particular goat before.

Rogue goat puts three in hospital

One of the radio commentators here in Melbourne announced the other day that his was the only program in Australia that would tell the listeners the name of the volcano. He then did so, and said that that was why no other program would tell the listeners the name -- it's just too bloody hard to pronounce! One of the newspaper blogs here raised an interesting question -- what if the volcano keeps emitting volcanic ash? What would be the impact on Europe and elsewhere, if aircraft were restricted because of the danger? I saw an article today that the impact is already being felt in Kenya. They produce a lot of gourmet fruit and vegetables for Europe, and some of it is being dumped because they can't fly them to Europe.

Wow! That looks pretty swollen. I hope it's not as painful as it looks, Matt!

No, it doesn't have any impact on your posting on the forums. And you definitely don't get banned for having a low reputation The reputation system is largely irrelevant, apart for people who like ego trips

Well done, James! I, too, thought he had made a decision, but he seemed too positive for it to be suicide. The ending, therefore, took me by surprise.

I've got a question, since we're discussing sports. Australia has a strong sporting culture, and I got a rude shock when I went to the UK for year. I had expected to be able to find a basketball team to join, to keep up my fitness, but I couldn't find a local competition, let alone a team. In Australia, sporting organisations are essentially independent of anything else. For example, there are local basketball competitions ranging from under eights, through to under eighteens, then a variety of open competitions from the semi-professional down to the once-a-week-just-want-play hacks, and then finally to, er, over-age competitions (eg. I used to ref an over thirty-five competition, which included players up to their seventies, from memory). Any major city, and most country areas, will have a variety of sporting organisations and it's not difficult to find something in your area. How is it with other countries? The UK, when I was there in the 90s, didn't seem to have much in the way of sporting activities for the general population. My impression of the USA is that most of the sporting activities revolve around the schools and colleges. Is that right, or is there a healthy sporting competition network outside of the education system, too?

CJ left me some quotes to use if appropriate. Let's see if I can find one.... Aha! Here we go:

I used to play and referee basketball, but after snapping my achilles tendon and then going to the UK for a year, I never got back into it. I haven't played an organised sport for over ten years now. At my peak, I played twice a week (two different competitions) and refereed twice a week, plus training. We've told our boys that they have to do a sport. The elder is playing basketball, while the younger is still considering (he doesn't have to decide until he's finished all his certificates in swimming -- that's one thing we've insisted on, that both boys learn to swim). Yesterday, it was soccer, but he has in the past considered swimming as a sport. He'll probably finish his swimming certificates this year, so he'll have to make a decision soon. Of course, he can change his mind if he wants to We just think some sort of organised physical activity is good for them.

I agree with Agincourt that the story has to carry the reader along or it's a waste of time. Having said that, I personally would find fantasy and science fiction more difficult than contemporary fiction. The reason is that not only would I have to have an interesting plot, but I also need to educate the reader on the world the story is set in, and do it in a way that feels natural. I've read enough science fiction stories where there is a page or more of background information to explain what is going on, and sometimes that is just so boring! The author needs to make the background information part of the story, and let it slip in naturally. JK Rowlings did that pretty well -- the information we needed to understand what was going on was presented as part of the story. She used the easy technique of having someone from outside of that 'world' (Harry) entering it, so it was easy to have explanations supplied because Harry wouldn't have understood otherwise, allowing Harry and the reader to be educated at the same time. It's much more difficult when the characters are part of the world, because you need to tell the reader things that the characters already know, and do it in a way that feels part of the story. It's a big challenge. After overcoming that hurdle, the author, as again Agincourt has pointed out, needs to be self-consistent. Misdirection is allowable, but solving a problem by introducing some unforeshadowed construct is essentially cheating. eg. "Captain, the black hole is pulling us in. We're all doomed!" "No problem, Scotty. I'll just get the Ytralian device my mother gave me for my birthday, and we'll warp the gravity away and escape easily. However, maybe this is the time to ask a question that I've been wondering about for a long time. Why are all engineers called 'Scotty'?" If the Ytralian device and it's properties were not foreshadowed, this is a cheap trick. The reader would have had no chance to work out the solution for themselves. This is why I've ended up being disappointed by some science fiction and fantasy novels, because the ending was essentially used an unforeshadowed resolution. There's more freedom science fiction and fantasy, but I think that increases the difficulty, not decreases.

Okay, I think that's enough. I'm speaking as a member, not a moderator, but can't you guys see that you're making Gaytron89 uncomfortable by continuing this topic? It's not like any of you are adding anything new. For the sake of common decency, how about dropping the subject?

And, for the lazy, here's the link to chapter 21

Good luck, James, and best wishes. Take as much time as you need. Graeme

Thanks, everyone! My wife wants me to get a Subaru, so that's definitely something I need to have a close look at. Unfortunately, reluctantly, I've decided I can't afford a new vehicle. For our American friends, vehicles here in Australia tend to be at least 50% more expensive in Australia, and sometime the price difference approaches 100%. While there is a special on at the moment where I could get a Ford Escape for $30K, more vehicles in the list above start at about $33K and some start from $35K. With some annual expenses coming up, I've decided to cut back on my budget, and that's eliminated all of the new vehicles. Regarding 'pretend' or 'pseudo' SUV's, that's actually fine for what I want them for. I don't intend to do any serious off roading. It's just that where we go camping on a monthly basis is in a field on a private property, so there's a risk of getting bogged, especially in winter. An AWD or 4WD is useful in that situation though, honestly, if I did get stuck, there'd be other vehicles around that would be able to pull me out. The Subaru Forester and Honda CRV are currently at the top of my prospective list, though I haven't had a chance to have a close look at either one so far. Based on one of the premier Australian car websites (http://www.drive.com.au) there are plenty of both in my new price bracket that are 2006 or later models. And on a completely unrelated topic, there are apparently no Ferrari's in my price bracket...