Graeme

I'm celebrating being home. I've been away for the last week on a business trip. I'm looking forward to a weekend with the family.

Happy Belated Birthday, frenchcanadian! Sorry I'm late. I'm blaming the International Date Line....

Happy Belated Birthday, WrathofMagento! Sorry I'm late...

Happy Belated Birthday, Andy Sorry I'm so late... it looks like I missed the party

Have a good time away, CJ! Don't worry about us -- we'll still be here waiting when you get back

The Australian Army base at Puckapunyal in Victoria has a large fence around it. The kangaroos that live inside that area bred to the point where they had to be culled. It was either that or watch them starve themselves to death. Their numbers had grown so far there wasn't enough food to support them anymore. Also, as Shadowfire pointed out (hi, by the way ), the roads in Australia are very, very long. Australia has a similar size to mainland USA, but with less than 10% of the population, and hence less than 10% of the income for doing things like building 1000+ mile fences.....

I should point out that Instinct are CJ's characters. I can't write about what they were up to as that would be breech of copyright... If you want to know what they were doing, you'll have to ask CJ

My first reaction was to vote for Eric, but then I realised I was just refusing to vote for either Chase or Brandon because I hate to be predictable. On reflection, I have to say Brandon -- but a lot of that is because I know more about him than the others and hence I have a stronger emotional connection to him. If I knew more of the trials and tribulations of the other members, I may have voted for one of them, instead.

I think all of the statistics above just reinforce what I've said before -- I've been trying hard to post as many times as CJ but he's too fast for me.... I think the statement has been made before that labels are for clothes. I think they are useful to help describe something, but there is no need to get too anal about them. If CJ wants to call himself a lurker, I don't mind. That doesn't mean I agree, though -- just that I'm not arguing with him.

As requested "And in today's top story, we cross to Dimitri in the Australian Outback." "Thank you, James. We are here at the scene of the latest success story from the Global Overt Anti-Terrorism unit, known colloquially as GOAT. The factory you can see behind me was being used by a sinister organisation of international arms dealers for the manufacture of nuclear weapons. The eventual purpose to which those weapons were to be put has not been revealed, but what we do know is that the plot was only foiled through the brave actions of an undercover GOAT operative. For security reasons the name and face of that operative have been suppressed, but we can reveal that he goes by the alias 'Shadowgod'. In the meantime, teams are busy dismantling the bombs prior to transportation to a secure location. The person in charge has fervently denied the rumours that the Australian government will be using the bombs as part of the negotiations currently underway with the USA to get Australian Rules Football on American TV. Back to you, James." "Thank you, Dimitri. Coming up after the break, the latest on rock sensation Instinct and their tour Downunder. You won't believe what they did in Sydney today."

Note to self: Keep a low profile while in the USA and let other people take the lead when going somewhere new...

Made perfect sense to me, but then I have the advantage of having two sons even if they're not at the age where their sexuality is apparent. One of my sons has said he'd like to marry his brother when he's older, but there's also a girl who he intends to marry (as well another girl who's going to be his girlfriend). We're just waiting for him to grow up a bit more and then we'll find out....

I enjoyed that -- thanks, Jack!

This is, unfortunately, a common enough occurrence that a lot of Australian vehicles that travel regularly in kangaroo populated areas have "roo bars" on the front to stop the kangaroo from damaging the front of the vehicle. I can still remember the first time a kangaroon bounded in front of my vehicle as I was driving along a highway. I had seen several dead kangaroos on the side of the road and had been feeling angry at the callous people who had hit them. I was then admiring on kangaroo that was bounding along next to me when it decided to change direction and jump in front of me.... I managed to slam on the brakes and not hit it, but I changed my opinion of the other drivers who hit the earlier dead kangaroos.

I agree -- he's very talented about writing fiction.

I agree Exactly! It's one of the reasons I had for voting no, too. To be honest, I've thought on this subject before. I believe I can still love my sons, even if they perform acts that I find repugnant. If nothing else, I've got the good memories of them from when they were growing up and I can love them for that. I may be saddened if they turn out to be sadistic murderers, I may withdraw my support for them, I may even turn them in to the police myself, but I wouldn't withdraw my love (I hope).

I picked the first one. Our new bedroom has one wall of windows and that's what I look out of when I'm in bed. It's a wonderful country scene -- I don't think I'm ever going to get tired of it.

The phrase would have to be reworked because it's not a direct replacement, but the phrase "gays sleep around" or "gays sleep around a lot" would show the same meaning, and would be a lot easier for a drunk guy to say

I agree with CJ (yeah, I know, but I've got a budget of three agreements a month and since it's the start of the month, I thought I'd use one....) -- the anthologies are for fun, not a competition!

Happy Birthday, The BeaStKid! Sorry I didn't start this thread, but I was on a plane. At least that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it...

Does this mean that the following has the names around the wrong way?

That is, unless there are a sudden influx of stories at the last minute. Emoe -- surely you can whip something up quickly? If you submit in HTML format, you've still got a couple of days

It was discussed before, and my view was that Dimitri is too much of a professional. The danger in trying to get rid of him, and failing, is too high, and, being a professional, the risk of him releasing details of the scheme are low. On that basis, The Scar has probably thought about it, and Dimitri has probably thought that The Scar has thought about it, but nothing will happen. I could be wrong, though....

Yes, because it's an accusation that the new lead singer AND the drummer are both gay AND a couple. Given that females will probably make up a sizeable percentage of their fan base, and some of those will have been drooling over Chase, finding out he's unattainable could be a cruel blow. I remember reading about the manager for the boy band Take That telling them that they weren't allowed to have girlfriends. They had to be seen to be available, even if they weren't. Instinct is in a different situation, as they are a rock band, not a pop band. They can be expected to be "wild" at times (which is why I'm curious as to exactly what Helen is going to jump on the guys about -- how much "wild" is acceptable and how much isn't?) but they are also supposed to fit the rock image. Gay couples aren't that common in rock bands and it may upset the image enough to cause them to lose fans or, worse, bookings. Yes, the guys could deny it if the girls start to spread rumours (though Joe Lump could be called on to confirm them -- and that's a different situation to him outing the Chase himself so he might get away with it), but that will just come back and bite them in the future. The entire band and Helen KNOWS they are a couple and it won't be long before the roadies do, too. Trying to deny it would be a recipe for a disaster down the track. I thought it was funny, too. He obviously hasn't seen enough of them. Having a kangaroo bound in front of your car as you're driving along a highway is scary.... It's tough to write a conversation when someone isn't in their normal state of mind. I'm happy to accept it as written. Dialogue isn't supposed to be real -- it is just supposed to sound real. Authors already leave out all those hesitations that real people use when they speak -- stretching things a bit when needed is just doing the same thing -- making it readable