Graeme

When I first read this chapter, my immediate thought was that it was Mario. I'll admit that I didn't consider other possibilities beside Mario and Dimitri, but I noted the differences between them: Mario doesn't have the military background that Dimitri has, and Dimitri doesn't have the killing experience that Mario has. On that basis, I would have assumed that Mario would have been the point man -- Dimitri would have made it sound like Mario was the best suited for that position (having had the most experience with killing), while Dimitri has had more experience in a combat situation and is hence more aware of the possibilities of something going wrong. It's not definite, but I felt that Dimitri would not have wanted to lead, and that Mario doesn't have enough experience to argue that Dimitri should lead. There's also the boss vs employee thing, so Dimitri would have gotten his own way. Having said all of that, I didn't consider any other possibility besides those two. I just made an assumption... possibly incorrectly.

I voted no, based on the Australian and New Zealand versions, which may not be equivalents to the USA version. The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras is the biggest, and is a major tourism event. It is watched by many, many straight people. It used to be telecast on TV, too, to widen the available audience. It tends to have a political commentary component to it, beside the traditional Dykes on Bikes and the Marching Boys (in skimpy clothing). The political commentary is not always about GLBT issues, either -- I remember one year where it was about certain racist comments by an Australian politiican. Many years ago I was working in Auckland, New Zealand, at the time of their Hero Pride March. The person I was working with took me to see it as something interesting to see. Melbourne's march is lower key, and aimed more as family entertainment, rather than raunchy displays. In all cases, they are there to help show straight people that the GLBT community covers a wide gamut of people. Besides the outlandish, there are also just normal people marching. Melbourne's march had representative from high schools, as well as serving police. PFLAG always has people marching. Focusing on the more extreme displays is normal for those who want to point to something to hold up as 'wrong', but there are too many people attending these things for those items to be the only ones that define what is going on.

Happy Birthday, Chris! Good luck with everything, my friend!

:wizard: Happy Birthday, Myr! I hope you have a great day. Start celebrating now and don't stop until it's no longer your birthday in Hawaii!

Unfortunately, the displayed age is a manually altered field. But do not despair, a simple search for last year's Happy Birthday thread reveals the date of Kevin's birthday, so I'm sure some of us will remember that one day in August that he wants to forget....

Okay, Steve. I think you're right. The goat wants absolute power....

I think negative examples are legitimate. Someone who keeps trying to quit smoking is, I think, fine to tell others not to smoke. Their struggle to overcome their addiction, even if they fail, sends a message. I agree with Kit, though, that if they don't try to quit then that's another message. Of course, you can always tell the kids that it's a grown-up thing. That's what we do when it comes to alcoholic drinks Though our boys keep telling us to drink less. Our youngest told us that we shouldn't have more than two bottles of wine a day I think he meant glasses, and two glasses a week.... If someone says something that is contradicted by their own actions, then you need to look at the bigger picture. Ted Haggard, for example, appeared to believe the messages he was preaching, even if he couldn't resist temptation himself. I disagree with the message he was preaching, but his hypocrisy was in not admitting that he was suffering. It's one of the reasons the ex-gay message is so seductive for parents who believe that homosexuality is a major sin. The people in the ex-gay organisations have been there and appear to have overcome. I'm not condoning them, but I can see why the ex-gay movement prospers in some places.

Congratulations to Dan and Robert I wish you all the best. Just don't kill each other during the planning and everything will be great

Oops A happy belated birthday, Tom! I've been so busy lately that I haven't been keeping up to date with what's been going on.

Damn! Another year when I failed to slip by without notice.... Thanks everyone! I've had a wonderful day so far, and I'm looking forward to continue to celebrate tomorrow, since it'll still be the 15th in the USA (I'm going until midnight in Hawaii). No BBQ (it's getting a bit cool outside, and if it was a BBQ, I'd be doing the cooking), but my family cooked me a wonderful roast and made my favourite dessert -- a fantastic lemon cheesecake using a recipe I was given almost twenty years ago. Last year I made it for myself, but this year my mother-in-law made it for me. I'll be taking some to work tomorrow for lunch And, as an extra bonus, I even managed to get some writing done today! I'm working hard to try to have something ready for the next anthology. I'm not promising, but I'm hopeful. Cheers, everyone! :fire:

Happy 21st Birthday, Menzo! I hope you have a great day.

I don't recall much bad happening to the motorcycle in LiS. Unlike Steve's car in FTL, which was run into things, stolen, and almost chopped up into little pieces (or at least painted and given a new identity). You were a lot more cruel to that car than Shadowgod was ever to the motorcycle in LiS.

Practise That, and reading. Read other stories that you enjoy and see how they do it. Don't copy, because there are different styles, but learn from how others do things. Next, find some friends who you can trust will give you an honest opinion. Let them let you know if the story is too hard to read. An author is often too close to the story to be able to judge these things them self. There are no real rules on things to avoid, because sometimes breaking 'rules' can be very effective. Sometimes having a story jump around is what you want, because the author wants the reader to be confused. However, these are things that should be done deliberately, not accidentally. If, as an author, you want to do these things, then be aware of why and what the impact will be on the reader.

You don't think a little breather was appropriate? There are few things setting things up that I could see. One was the General's actions. Another was Dimitri and Mario's actions. The last was the gun practise. I don't know how long CJ will string it out for, but I believe there is a small chance of some gun fire in the upcoming chapters

You do that I'll stop beta-reading for you I'm a romantic at heart and while I accept other endings when they are appropriate, I don't think this one is appropriate to the story so far. I'm already unhappy that you had a nuclear device detonated in Australia. Did you consider the possible mutation effects on the local echidnas? You have been warned...

I'll agree with Kevin -- a very interesting topic! To a large degree, I agree with what Kevin has said. However, I would summarise it as follows: 1. Illnesses are often a combination of suspectibility and triggers. A person could suspectible to something (eg. bee stings), but until they encounter the trigger, it doesn't affect them. 2. The triggers are in the environment that the person exists in. As Kevin said, gay people are often in situations where they are more likely to encounter triggers for depression than a straight person. So, because of pressures from the environment, gay people are more likely to suffer from clinical depression than straight people. This is not because they are more suspectible, but because they are more likely to encounter the triggers -- and that is directly due to the attitude of society to the subject of homosexuality. Can they cope better? As a general rule, if someone is exposed to small doses of something, they can build up an immunity to it (this is the principle behind vaccinations). Because gay people suffer more society pressures that straight people, as a general rule, they have the opportunity to strengthen their internal defenses against those pressures. This will aid them if they become clinically depressed. However, it is by no means universal. Some people don't learn to cope with the smaller pressures and so they don't build up their 'immunity'. Putting it on a personal note, I never developed any effective coping strategies while I was in the closet. My strategy was largely one of isolation -- I never let people get close to me. This would not have helped me if I had become clinically depressed. On the other hand, now that I have accepted myself and come out to my wife, I feel I'm more able to resist pressure and less suspectible to the opinions of others if I don't believe they are justified. Similarly, my wife, who came close to clinical depression after I came out to her -- she contemplated suicide at one point -- is also a lot stronger now. She says that after going through that experience, she is less fazed by outside things.

You have to remember that, while he was redeeming himself, Eric and Jon had made statements earlier that Chase had objected to -- and showed his objection by playing his drums in their room while they had a hangover They were also the ones who had asked Brandon to go along with Charity's blackmail. So, neither one had a promsing start in the story. The original voting probably reflected that. They have both been working hard to improve their image, and, I think, largely succeeded. Jon is still a largely minor character in the band -- his part in the story is considerably smaller than the other three band members, but Eric has done a lot to make us like him after his initial bad start. I'm not voting yet. I want to think about it some more.

I use an old fashioned method -- I go look I usually start with the forums, and check to see if anyone has started a thread on a new story or chapter. I then go check out the places where the stories are hosted to see if there's anything new.

Only CJ would use sex as an analogy for a nuclear explosion.... though, thinking about it, I can see the similarities. I should stop now before I get into trouble Thanks for the notes, CJ! While I knew some of it from private exchanges, I still find it interesting.

To use a sporting analogy, if you are physically unfit you can hurt yourself playing sport. That doesn't mean sport is at fault -- the error is in performing an activity that you are not suited for. Violent games are largely a mental activity and if you are not mentally fit, you can hurt yourself. The activity is not at fault -- the error is in performing a mental activity (playing a violent game) that you are not suited or ready for. When is a person ready for such a mental activity? It depends on the person, and for children it will depend on the training they've received from their peers, family and school. Children acting out something they have seen (eg. on TV or at the movies), read or experiences is perfectly normal. My boys do it all the time (Transformers and Star Wars are the two main influences on them at the time). In your case, it sounds like the parents haven't provided the balance of other activities for the kid to experience, and so he's focused on the main thing he has experienced that he's enjoyed. There is no doubt that the kid needs help, but the violent games are a symptom, not a cause. At least in my completely unqualified (apart from being a dad) opinion.

Be careful with cause and effect. Are these games really having much of an effect, or is it other things that are making the kids anti-social? You, I think, hit the nail on the head when it comes to the parents. If the parents don't care, then the kids have to learn for themselves how they should react. Their peers are the primary source of instruction, if they parents don't do their job, and let's be honest -- young teens want to impress, especially young teen males. If it is cool to kill things and boast about how many monsters they blew up the previous night on Halo 3, then that's what they'll be doing. The games are a symptom, not the cause of the problem. That's my view. Our boys play some violent games (at one point one boy loved designing rollercoasters in Roller Coaster Tycoon 2, and having the coasters crash during testing....), but it is balanced with other play. I don't think they believe violence is the way to solve problems. Indeed, we come down heavily on them if we think they are too violent towards each other. As long as everything is in moderation and balance, I don't see a problem.

Since most of personal print library is either science fiction or fantasy, I can't really say much except that it is a popular genre, though one that not everyone likes. I can't appreciate the perception others have of the genre -- I like it! Having said that, I don't read much SF online, mainly because of a lot of it is done poorly. SF & F is a genre that needs to be done well, or it comes over as either hard to read, or just plain stupid. The author is creating a new universe, and they have to educate the reader about that universe while still telling a story. If they fail to explain the universe (at least to a degree), the reader doesn't understand the context of what is happening. If they explain the universe, but fail to tell a story while doing so, they'll lose the reader from boredom. Authors who write in 'the real world' don't have this problem -- they only have to tell a story because it is assumed that readers understand the context. I think this is probably the biggest reason why some people are reluctant to read SF & F online -- not the genre itself, but the way it's been treated.

I had a thought this morning -- what is Dimitri going to do? This is not as stupid as it first sounds. Because the tour is over, Jerry is no longer completely familiar with the movements of Instinct. He may know that they are going to Telluride to relax, but can he be confident that they will stay there? What if they separate and go to different places? What if, by the time Dimitri gets there, the guys are back in L.A. recording their next album? Dimitri isn't likely to know that, though he might be able to find that out via the Internet and the gossip sites. Regardless, simply tracking them down may not be easy or quick. Dimitri really needs to take them all out in one day, including Helen, because if he takes out some, anyone not there is going to be warned (unless he's able to make it look like an accident, which The Scar said is a lower priority than just taking them out). And I haven't forgotten the bikie gangs that are supposed to be in Telluride to help protect Instinct's privacy. I'm sure they'll be meeting Dimitri at some point. Finally, the guys have met Dimitri. Some people are good with remembering faces (I'm personally lousy), and I wouldn't be surprised if either Eric or Jon is like that. If they see Dimitri, they'll know that something is up.....

I agree with everything that's been said above. To put a different spin on things, there's this evil thing called the Cartoon Network that my boys were introduced to on our recent USA trip. One of the cartoons they watched was Tom and Jerry. Talk about violent! Er... wait. Tom and Jerry is one of the cartoons I grew up on. Another one was the coyote and roadrunner cartoons, where that poor coyote is blown up, smashed, and dumped off cliff after cliff. If you seriously go back and watch the old shows from the 60s and 70s, you'll find a lot of things that, by some standards, kids shouldn't get to see -- but we did. Kids generally have a healthy understanding of the difference between reality and fiction, and we shouldn't try to over-control what they see and do. Having said that, before we went to to the USA, my six-year-old's view of what happened in America was dictated by The Simpson's episodes....

A belated Happy Birthday, Comsie!