Graeme

Happy Birthday, Bev! :music: :music: I hope you have a great day and that your family spoils you rotten :

Good news for Steve! Given that The Dukes of Hazzard Car sold for AUD$9.9M, I think we can be confident that Eric will be trying sell Chase and Shawn's car for at least half that amount, if not more. So it is unlikely that the car has been cut up.

You're too sensitive They are good pictures with a good looking subject. I especially like the second one from an artistic point of view -- very effective.

The truth is that I'm trying to catch up with a certain goat, but he posts a lot faster than I do. I just goes to show that goats are faster than echidnas -- even on the internet. Well, since this has evolved into an educational thread, I thought it was about time I taught something about Australia (we're mainly a desert continent, so there IS a link). Biologists hated it when Australia was discovered. Not only did they have to revise their definition of what constitutes a mammal when the monotremes were discovered, but all those biologists that claimed there was not such thing as a black swan ended up with egg (variety uncertain) on their face....

Hedgehog? HEDGEHOG?!? I'll show you hedgehog! :mace: Please -- there are NO hedgehog's in Australia. The echidna is one of two members of the exclusive monotreme club -- egg laying mammals. (The other is the platypus). A mere surface resemblence to a 'hedgehog' does not turn a noble echidna into a base hedgehog, I assure you....

Yes, but the camera's and computer in question occured in Lonesome Valley. The site was hosted in Hawaii. As far as I can tell, there was no part of the crime that would give Peidmont jurisdiction over Lonesome Valley in the porn site investigation. If the FBI required help, they would be asking Lonesome Valley first. If they couldn't help (because of severe staffing shortages), then I would expect the Lonesome Valley sheriff to recommend someone else -- and NOT Piedmont. It is possible that the FBI contact Piedmont independently, but I can't see that being likely.

I should clarify -- I didn't get to see the chapter until last night (my time). My assistance has been more an ongoing discussion on writing with CJ -- he seems to be under the delusion I know what I'm talking about. As this is "be kind to goats" week, I haven't corrected him... yet. Jack, I had the same thought late last night. I suspect it is possession is nine tenths of the law. However, there are other consequences. Even if the DA in Peidmont dismisses the charges, they will be in BIG trouble if they just let Eric go, as he is wanted in Lonesome Valley county for shooting a policeman (amongst others). I therefore see them holding Eric indefinitely, though he'll probably be staying with the sheriff again. They can't afford to dismiss the charges this time, but equally they don't want him charged with anything serious, so he will be held either on a minor charge, held without charge (and without protest -- hmm... can someone else protest on his behalf?), or he'll be found dead in his cell for being too much of a problem. I also spotted the deputy's reactions -- I don't think he's in on whatever it is. He wanted to get to the bottom of what was going on and wasn't happy when his boss hijacked the interview.

A good solid chapter. Putting together some pieces for us poor readers, giving us some hints as to how things will turn out, but still leaving lots of questions unanswered. One thing that struck me -- I thought pornography, and child pornography in particular, was an FBI issue. The sheriff should not be investigating it if the FBI has already stepped in. Of course, that doesn't mean he can't investigate it, especially if he has a grudge or secret agenda, but to do so openly in front of a lawyer wasn't smart. Another thing -- Chris believes there is a two step encryption (ie. the data was encrypted with one password, and then the encrypted data was encrypted again using a second password -- that makes it hard to break because the results of the first decryption is still 'garbage' that is indistinguishable from incorrectly decrypted data). I don't believe there has been anything definite said by the parties concerned on that subject. From memory, Dex may have postulated that was what was done, but there is no reason the couldn't be a third layer of encryption. I loved the ending. I have to wonder if the sheriff had found an excuse to swap guns since the shooting. I'm hoping he hasn't.... And I have to agree with Bondwriter -- Steve was definitely more upset about the Charger than anything else. That was a really accurate characterisation -- well done, CJ!

I don't have a problem with putting up a photo of me, but as I think it is cruel to make people throw up after looking at the good looking people above, I'll refrain. To be honest, the only reason I won't put up a photo is because I have a wife and two boys that I'm protecting. Sooner or later the word will get out, but until then I'm staying behind a thin veneer of anonymity. Of course, C James will tell everyone that my avatar is a self portrait. I refuse to confirm or deny the rumour.....

I'm glad that you had a good time. Good luck for the future!

I don't know if it is the case in the USA, but in Australia you are required to sign the declaration about your fitness to give blood in front of a witness, and it is explained that you are signing a legally binding declaration -- it is an offense to make a false declaration. I haven't heard that they have ever tried to prosecute someone who lied, but it possible that they could do so.

I was sure you had indicated previously that it would be about 30 chapters.... Admittedly, I know the experience of stories growing well beyond their original intended length.

Thank you! I worry when too many people agree with me -- it makes me think we're all suffering from the same delusions. I don't have a problem with what you've said Ultimately, every reader is different and takes something different from the stories. The same applies to every writer.

As I side point, I remember talking to a young man in England once who claimed to have had 100 different sexual partners -- and he was straight and in his very early twenties. Some of that may be boastful exaggeration, but there are definitely straight guys who are very promiscuous. My main concern with any sort of research on homosexuality is that they are unlikely to get a representative sample, simply because there is still a large percentage of homosexuals that won't tell anyone that they are gay. This means that they are automatically excluded from any research and hence distorts the results of that research. It's like the old cartoon of someone doing research on voter intentions outside a G.O.P or Democratic convention -- it's not going to give accurate results. As for the rest, I don't think the circumstances make it worthwhile trying to argue with the pastor. If you want to take action, I would assemble a small paper on the subject, with detailed creditable references, and drop it off to him, with a note that says you want to correct the mistakes and misunderstandings in his talk from the other week.

Australia doesn't have a question like the number 34 you mentioned. They limit it to a period of time. From woody's comment above, it appears to be male-male sexual activity in the last 12 months. What is challenging is to come up with a set of questions that, if answered honestly, give a fair chance of identifying an at risk person without excluding too many people. I would suggest something like: 1. Have you had unprotected sex with more than one person in the last 12 months? 2. Have any of your sexual partners with whom you have had unprotected sex in the last 12 months had unprotected sex with another person in the 12 months prior to your last sexual encounter? The idea is to target anyone with more than one sexual partner without using protection. That seems to be largest at risk group. The question is is that good enough?

I can't suggest laptops -- the only ones I've ever had have been supplied by work and they have all been fine (Dell's, FYI), but I'm not fussy. I don't try to make them to EVERYTHING -- just what I want to normally do. As for software, I use OpenOffice at home (www.openoffice.org) rather than MS Office, and it's big commercial brother, StarOffice, at work. There are differences to MS Word, and some MS Word templates don't come out properly in OpenOffice writer, BUT for almost all purposes it is just as good... and a lot cheaper (ie. free ). It also has features that MS Word doesn't have (such as the ability to export to PDF format, and the HTML pages it produces are a lot better than MS Words). My antivirus at home is AVG, as has been suggested above. It is reliable and appears effective. It is also free My firewall at home is the free version of zonealarm (www.zonealarm.com). It took a little while for it to get used to what programs I wanted to allow to connect to the internet, but once that is done, it does its job well. Other software would depend on what it is to do, but the above is a good start. Since all of them are free, your daughter can trial them and you only need to buy additional software if she doesn't like them or if they don't do what is needed.

My understanding is that they are unable to come up with a reliable test for HIV for the period of time that blood products can be kept for. HIV tests require a followup a few months later, as the initial test may show a false negative if the infection was only a few days prior. Blood products generally can't be kept for that long (I think whole blood has a shelf-life of less than a month). As there are well documented cases of people acquiring HIV from blood transfusions in the 80s, I can understand why they are cautious.

Generally a creature of habit, but with a sprinkling of impulse and spontenaity to lighten things up

I don't know about the USA, but the relevant Australian questions were along the lines of: Have you engaged in male-male sexual activity? Have any of your sexual partners engaged in male-male sexual activity? The second one was there largely to pick up the female partners of men who engaged in homosexual activity. Please note that this is from over 10 years ago because that was the last time I donated (I'm not eligble because I lived in the UK for more than six months in the 1980s and hence am a potential vCJD carrier). There has been a push to get the focus changed to risky sexual practises, rather than the generic "male-male" sexual activity, but I don't know if that has happened yet. So, even though I'm homosexual (and known that since I was a teen), I donated blood for many years because I was not in the "at-risk" group. You'll be fine

I'm having a motivation-bypass day, so I'll just say... DITTO

Justin would have been between my two boys in age. I'm so, so sorry....

I can see the point, but I think it can be exaggerated. Most people know they are reading fiction and that it doesn't represent reality. They can dream that it happens to them, but most won't get false expectations from the stories. Some will, but I don't think the author can be held responsible for that. Many people read for escapism (it's probably one of the reasons I read huge amounts of fantasy and science fiction when I was a teenager). They don't want reality -- they want to dream. There will always be a few that think their dreams will become reality, but that's true in all fields of endeavour (think of the aspiring football player who thinks they'll make it to the NFL -- most won't, but is it wrong to dream? No, but it IS wrong to expect....). Some of the questions above could also be raised at the large Romance book marketplace, where there are endless stories of dream romances. I think we have to accept that they are generally harmless. Closeted gays may get more into a story than the typical straight romance reader, but the vast majority are not going to take more out of it than a feeling of happiness. To write something that has a universally positive impact I think is impossible. When I think of the stories I read and enjoyed only a few years ago, I knew they weren't reality, but they helped me accept myself. Overall, they had a positive impact and I think that suffices.

Happy 21st Birthday, Dio! I hope you have a great day. Best wishes for the year(s) ahead

I'm not sure what to make of this. I think I'll be charitable and say that after what they had been through, Steve and Chris were not thinking clearly. They've made numerous errors of judgement, as Bondwriter has pointed out, but given what they have been through, I think they can be justified in not being 100% rational. I remember the comment about how hard it was to hammer in the stakes, so the way they got out was plausible, if a touch melodramatic. Waiting until Chris had lost consciousness before Steve broke free was slightly cliched, but, hey, this is an adventure drama. As if most action drama isn't melodramatic Nicely done, CJ!