StormyParis

1) google 2) wikipedia 3) arstechnica 4) youtube 5) nifty ? (ducks)

I'm a bit of a tablet nerd, I got 4 right now, and have probably been through 10 since they came up (been giving them to friends and family). Never got an iPad though, too expensive, and I'm trying to avoid lock-in into iTunes. Stepping back, some features are important in all cases (battery life, screen quality, ability to play HD videos in all formats) and some are important for some, negligible for others (size, sound quality, CPU performance, GPU performance). I've found sound and GPS to be the most underrated: people will pay attention to the screen, but not check sound power and quality, and end up with a tablet that the kids have trouble hearing in the car. Or they'll get a tablet... and then a separate GPS. The funniest tablet I have right now is the 13" Archos FamilyPad. I wouldn't call it good though: the screen has very narrow viewing angles, the CPU is way underpowered, and the video player is fussy about formats. It's a monster though, with 177% of the size (and screen real estate) of a 10" tablet. I use it as a 3rd screen at my desk, to monitor email and rss. I'm trying to pawn it off but nobody wants it :-p The most surprisingly good tablet I've had is the 7" Nook Color. It's got CM10, is very stable, has a gorgeous screen... and still gets used occasionally (it's 4 years old ?) and works OK. I'm going for Android-based mini PCs now. Just received my first one, still waiting for other doodads to try and make it into a cheap Web/email/Skype station for dummies. Sorry, for my elderly parents. $40 PC, $40 keyboard+mouse, $20 webcam, $150 MVA screen... The 'rents caught on quick to their tablet, I'm thinking they'll like that PC better than their Windows one, especially if I manage to set it up to do double duty as as a TV.

I'm not even sure what "gay" means. Is it being/having been out ? in a committed homosexual relationship ? falling in love / wishing for a relationship with the same sex ? liking homo sex better ? disliking hetero sex ? defining oneself as "gay" ? I don't even like the term "homosexual" that much. My plumbing works fine with females (or did, haven't tried in a while), but I never loved them. Am I homolovual 'coz I only love men ? does that count as gay ? Plus I'm having trouble differentiating what's due to personal choice, and what to societal pressure. If gays were completely well accepted, if we could marry, have kids, make our parents proud... how many "heteros" that haunt gay sex clubs at night would fully come out ? My ex colleague who kept wanting to show me his scars as soon s he'd had a couple of beers sounds like a good example...

It really depends on what you mean by "young". There's the physical/sexual aspect, which really depends on how well you keep in shape. I'm 42 now, but even at 25 there were people 50+ I found damn sexy. (plus they've got all those skills and experience, which is a big plus, but I digress). Mostly, I'd say 35. There's the psychological aspect, ie when y'oure still supposed to make mistakes and think mainly of yourself, vs when you're supposed to know your stuff, and be thoughtful of others. I'd say the cutoff should be around 25; but it really depends on a person's experiences. My last relationship was with a 24yo (I was 35), and it failed basically because he never had to pull his own weight, and still needed much mothering. In spite of his many other qualities (he was intelligent, funny, affectionate, honest...), this "youth" eventually proved fatal to me. So cut off = 25, or when you've lived on your own, from your own money (earned from your own work) for a year. Finally, there's the social aspect. It's a long journey to know who you really are, to stop being controlled by fads / advertising / peer pressure. It's a fine line vs being jaded or cynical, and some never get there, or overdo it. Knowing what's really important to YOU, as opposed to what you think is important to people you want/need to like you. Looking at my 18yo niece... she's right in that phase where she buys stuff 'coz that's what needed to be popular, clothes that don't really suit her but are the right brand... There's that debate about fashion vs style, she's on the wrong side of it right now. Same goes for activities, musical tastes... At some point in people get to realize that books, films, music, even TV series do not exist in vacuum, and that there's some very good stuff that's not known/advertized/popular, but still, better than 99.9% of the current productions. There's not cutoff age for that really. Hopefully the process in under way by 30 ?

Something about beauty being in the eye of the beholder. If I'd met him in the subway while on my way to work, I'd probably wouldn't have stopped either, maybe not even heard him at all.

First time I've hard that mixing drinks is gay ! But in general, yes, I'm tired of stereotypes... and stereotypical gays...

not just contact... graby !

I'm very leery of Bis for 2 reasons: 1- When I was younger and not at ease with my homosexuality, it was kind of a cop out for me, to avoid facing the truth. Is that guy really ready to fully accept his gay side and commit to a long term gay relationship ? 2- Twice the competition. It's already hard to keep a fully guy gay in our clutches, if we've got to fight against the dark side on top of that... ^^ Plus I wonder, when you like both, can you do without one in the long run ? I'd tread very cautiously.

I really don't know. I don't have children, so I'm vicariously loving my nephews and nieces as sons/daughters, though it's not the same. If I knew one of them was evil, and a stranger good, I'd have a hard time choosing. It would depend a lot on how well I knew the other one, and how convinced I'd be that mine were un-correctably evil: how old he is, how long I'd tried to "fix" him, if I envision other ways to try or not...

Another big thumbs up for Between Lives (edit: and not worlds ^). I find the story very engaging. I reaaaaally hope you'll find the inspiration to get back to it... someone's overdue for a first kiss !

Guys, the forum is censoring a very nice pic of Mr Beckham... your loss http://www.celebritique.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/david_beckham1_300x400.jpg

I'm hoping the Great American Offensive of soccer into the US will lead to a bit of cross-pollination. I'm wondering how a nation as prudish as the US is outfitting their players with bum-enhancing, bulge-highlighting, figure-tweaking outfits like american football, but I'm longing for the day when our soccer players will be turned into semi pornstars too. ^^ yep, it's that guy... whoddathunk ?

I've given up on Glee. The singing voices are way too artificial, the characters on-dimensional, and the plot is kinda boring. Many of the actors are way cute though... especially the blonde woman who used to be in Pushing Daisies. I find Community ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ez9xiDsSX4 ), Modern Family, and (still) 30Rock, in that order, way funnier and more interesting. Plus there's always Arrested Development and early Scrubs reruns for really slow evenings, and to try and forget my team's (France) showing at the world cup :wacko:

I think there's degrees to it: - regular stuff, as in stuff you have to do for your job, or that any human being should do:

Is it une banalité to say that English writer are usually more understated, and US ones more brash ? It may indeed be a consequence of a more homogenous society, the strong English one allowing slight discrepancies to mean a lot, whereas in the US 2 guys are not really enemies until they fight ? Also, I find US writers (and US people in general) grant more importance, are more upfront, and more first-degree about feelings. I remember that from my couple of years over there: it seemed it's not really important if you're right or wrong, but how you feel about it is very important. To us cartesian French, the question of who's right and wrong is, I think, more important (and if you're wrong, you should feel bad about it, dammit :-p). To the English... the question is more... who's the Duke ? 'coz His Highnesss right by definitio,and if not, nobody'll tell him.

not sure I could fall in love with a guy who had "a white teeth" (sic) :-p More seriously, I can't say with just 1 sentence if I'd read the novel or not. Terseness works well in certain cases, rambling descriptions.. too. In general, I like description of actions, interactions and feelings better than physical descriptions, though. Especially if the subject is the standard blue-eyed blond-haired jock or twink. For example, I'd like if that description was interspersed with the narrator's feelings about how the guy looks, with his preconceptions; with his current preoccupations; with flashbacks to his past... more than excruciating minutiae about how exactly his teeth shine... unless the minutiae is a second-degree way to convey those feelings, flashbacks... This is where I should insert an example of what I like. Fat chance !

I would sample it. The theme is OK, can be very good indeed (stories about falling from grace are numerous, some are damn good), but won't carry an otherwise badly written story. I enjoy VLista's stories, which are about abuse, though not the loving kind, and not in a downwards spiral.

I think, as with music, people mainly like familiarity, and to differentiate from the previous generation. Sad as it is, I think it means taste are mainly generational, especially earlier in life. Later on some people manage to diversify their interest a bit. And early on, some people jump into a subculture, but it's still basically herd mentality. I'm trying to use time as a sift: anything that's still there 5/10 years later must be good enough, so worth investigating even if it's not spot in my primary tastes.

What about Dessin Anime, the Euroversion ? There's major works there, like Le Roi et l'Oiseau (Wikipedia Article, Youtube Link

Cool, thanks !

Hi. I'm moving my reading more and more form the PC to my webphone, and a tablet may be in the near future. That's having quite an impact on my screen real estate. Some parts of the site are really good about that (the "Print Story" option on "regular" authors' site), the site in general and many authors' sites are not small-screen friendly. 2 things are particularly bothersome: 1- Superfluous content (ie, story list, chapter list...) displayed at all times even while actually reading the stories 2- Very intrusive layout with text boxes, low-contrast pastel colors, graphics... they look very good, but are a pain to navigate and read on a small screen , in sunlight. I understand authors are all about expressing themselves, including via web layout, and that those are smallish inconveniences to suffer for having the pleasure of reading many great stories. It'd be great if Webmasters could keep in mind that screens are getting much smaller these days, not bigger :-p It would be great, for

These fine writers, and others, have stopped writing mid-stories moths ago.. and are sorely missed. No warning, update, news on their blogs either. On a related note, it would be great if the site had a front page, updated every few days, with a recap of the newest stories/chapters :-) Thanks for the stories guys !

I've just finished the first chapter... looks promising, as always. One problem: any story about someone habing to move to Arizona should have "Arizona. Ari-fri-kin-zona" as early as possible in it. Too bad a Worthington couldn't be expected such a common turn of phrase. Thanks for the stories Dan

Sung by ... lots,