Tristan Thinks

Quite - It was surreal at the time and seems more-so now I think about it. One thing, my life is anything but uneventful! He assumed I would have the same psychological make-up as him; spurned and wanting to get retribution, hurt the object of his obsession. He expected I'd be a typical scene-queen I guess, ready to dish the dirt and conspire against my ex. He couldn't comprehend that I could be angry with my ex but not be prepared to strike out at him as a result. That would have been to debase and devalue what we had when we were together. Yeah. I'd all but forgotten the whole incident until this thread kicked my memory cells. I'll have to incorporate it into one of my stories

Okay, I was hoping to avoid allowing my age to come out and I deliberately obscured it on my profile, because I *hate* how people make snap judgements of others and their opinions based on it. I prefer to work purely on the basis of what someone says, and how they conduct themselves. I'm 42 - you know, as Douglas Adams said: The answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything! Now, how does *that* change your view of my attitude to life, and how well I've thought it out?

You totally miss the point, I think. My attitude came about as a result of a lot of healthy consideration and debate with myself and others. I spent a long time self-analysing my thoughts on the whole HIV issue - probably more than two years - and I started from the point of view that I didn't want to be near someone who was HIV+. However, through analysing my instinctive reactions I came to realise that they were irrational, often illogical, and if I followed through on them I'd be as bad as some of the people I aspire not to emulate in terms of bigotry, prejudice, and so on. On a parallel but totally unrelated track I spent a long time - again, years - working out my view about life and it's value to me. That started because I was fed up with the way human society is becoming so self-centered: the me, me, me, attitude of selfishness with no consideration of the overall situation. They may be brutal, but the facts are there are over 6,000,000,000 people on this planet, many of them struggling to live even half-way decent lives, they live with all sorts of ills; those people especially live precarious lives with many more risks than those of us who enjoy the privilege of living in so-called civilised modern societies. Unfortunately, instead of being seen as a privilege we should be grateful for the privileges are taken for granted and as time goes on there's a received wisdom that we have to continually reduce risks, to the point now where it impinges on peoples ability to follow through on the choices they make and attitudes they take. All that flies in the face of reality, which is that the human species itself is resilient but individuals are neither important nor irreplaceable - in fact each of us is as disposable as the wrapper on a microwave meal. Sure, the loss of one person is troubling to those immediately around them, but in a wider context it is not in the least bit important. I came to realise that in the great scheme of things, that although I enjoy my life to the full, I'm not important. I lost the arrogance of thinking it was vital to preserve my life and lifestyle at all costs. Since then I've not been concerned with doing so-called risky things if I choose to. That doesn't mean I take reckless risks - I always consider things very carefully - but it does mean I discount my own infinite well-being in some circumstances. Much of my attitude can be attributed to a farm upbringing where being in touch with the realities of the fragility of life in all its forms is more in your face. That has been lost by 'civilised' societies now they are so predominantly urban. I've found over time that my attitude means I appreciate every aspect of life, myself, my friends and people around me all the more. The simplest and most trivial things astound and amaze me and every day I think about how privileged I am to live such a rich and fulfilling life. All that folds back into the issue of HIV. As I said, it's almost a non-issue to me, but that's because I've done my research and know myself well. As I said at the beginning of my first post on this, it would be in the context of a loving relationship for me, and if my partner chose not to tell me his HIV status was positive when we got together it wouldn't bother me one bit. I fall in love with a person's spirit and soul, how they treat other people and deal with themselves, and how they return my love. I don't fall in love with their health status. I can't imagine how callous it must feel to those people who are HIV positive, maybe unsure of themselves, who feel they are a part of a caring 'community' of other gay people, and then suddenly discover these strident reactions to their condition. I know it must be something of a kick in the teeth, and it's something I wouldn't wish anyone to have to experience.

Oooo good, a techie thread I have a public 54Mbps 802.11g wireless connection. Over that I run two encypted virtual private networks (VPNs), one to my servers in the U.S.A., the other to my servers in the U.K.. All my internet access goes via one or the other VPN so my usage can't be intercepted, or details of sessions stolen. Which one is determined dynamically by some routing rules I've set. The geopgraphical location of the destination IP address is analysed, and then my local router uses the VPN that will provide the theoretically fasted response times. In practice it doesn't work out so perfectly, because the GeoIP database is sometimes rather inaccurate, and sometimes also the routes from the data-centers aren't perfect. It also uses the alternate VPN if one of them is currently fully utilised so it's partially fault-tolerant, especially as the WiFi network here has multiple Internet gateways and uses IGMP quite cleverly.

This got me hooked last night. I'm Too Shy - Paige Claire Copyright 1971, from the self-titled album. Republished by Vivid Sound, 2000 Available from Amazon Listen Here How do I tell that guy, What I feel inside of me, If I could, Oh I would, But the words won't come to me, Like to tell him, How much I need him, How much I'd like to be the one, To satisfy, But I'm too shy. Why do I shiver all over, Every time he comes near to me? If only I were a little bit bolder, He'd see another side of me, I could tell him, How much I need him, How much I'd like to be the one, To satisfy, But I'm too shy. Can't you tell him, How much I need him, How much I'd like to be the one, To satisfy, But I'm too shy.

Steve, I'm crying here just because of that beautiful sentiment which I fully share and endorse! Good on ya, man, you're a star.

For me the sex is always in the context of a relationship, since I don't do it otherwise. That said, I couldn't care less what my partner's health situation is, because I'd want to have sex with him to celebrate the love in our relationship. I'd take sensible precautions for sure, but it wouldn't bother me unduly, since I do that with all partners anyhow. There's more risk of contracting serious STDs than HIV because many of them don't require transmission of fluids. I don't care what someone's HIV status is and I'd think it kind of daft to be told it up front, because people's health issues are personal - I wouldn't expect to be told someone has cancer, say, or is diabetic, or a leper, unless they wanted to share. As for the comments about being scared - why? You've got more chance of being in an auto accident. I guess some would be worried that they couldn't cope with the drugs regime if they contracted HIV, but for me that's a non-issue. I've always had the attitude that the only certainty in life is death. It isn't a matter of avoiding it, just a matter of when. It could be tomorrow as I cross the road whilst distracted by a cute guy. I have an ex boyfriend who is now 23. We were dating when he was 18. I found out quite by chance he is HIV positive when he was 20. If it weren't for the fact he can't help cheating on his partners, I'd have no problem being in a relationship with him and having sex. I live my life to get maximum enjoyment now, not to prolong it indefinitely, and if that involves having sex with someone I love and they are HIV positive, so what?

I interpretted this not as getting some seal of approval (because like you I live my life my way and if people don't like that then tough) but in terms of it being important to ensure that the relationship between me and my boyfriend wasn't affected by stresses caused by conflicts with his family and friends. If they got on at him because he chose to be with me and that gave him stress and/or upset him, then to that extent it is important to me that I could get on with those people. I can't think of any instance where I haven't got on with family and friends of my boyfriends so I'm talking of a hypothetical conflict in my case, but if I got into a new guy and there were issues like this from the start I would seriously question whether we both wanted to deal with that, especially if those people were close to him and he couldn't walk away from the situation. If the relationship were already well established and issues came up, then I would try to work them out but if we couldn't I'd live with it, I certainly wouldn't think of changing my relationship with him because of it, although I might be concerned that over time he might have problems dealing with it.

I generally don't stay in touch with ex-boyfriends but that's usually because they did something that didn't respect me, like cheating or whatever. That said, I'm still okay chatting online with my last BF and I caught him red-handed with another guy in bed! A while back I had an 18-month on-off relationship with a guy and it was wonderful a lot of the time, but he was confused about what he really wanted so when it ended there was some vindicative stuff we said and did to each other that took a long time to heal. I had basically forgotten about him a couple years later when something unusual happened that made me contact him again. I was browsing profiles on gaydar and found a photo of him that I'd taken when we were together, on the London Eye. The profile was asking if anyone knew the guy in the photo, which I thought was odd since only my ex and me had copies of the photo. So I sent a message, the guy replied and then we switched to MSN. The guy said he knew my ex and was trying to trace him since he'd recently moved back to his parents and he didn't know where that was. He was also pumping me for information about my ex and assumed from what I said about how we broke up that I hated my ex. I might have hurt feelings about most of my exes but I'd never wish them ill, so I took it upon myself to phone my ex, even though we hadn't spoken in over two years. He was surprised to hear from me to put it mildly but when I explained why I called he got really upset and said he'd have to call me later that night when he got home. So he calls me, asks if he can come over and see me right away. I was beginning to wonder what the hell I was getting myself into since I wasn't sure I wanted to see him face to face - I knew my old feelings for him would be reignited. Anyhow, he came over and we spent a long night talking. It didn't help that he looked as hot as I remembered him. It turned out that my ex had, whilst living in London, got interested in another guy that lived in Birmingham and they'd been getting into each other over six months or so, but then recently this guy had started blackmailing my ex. My ex should have known better because he'd never actually met this other guy, or seen him on camera, but he'd done some 'sex' shows for the guy via webcam on MSN and it turned out the guy had recorded them and was now threatening to send them to my ex's work and to his parents. I know that his parents would have been really upset and it would destroy their relationship so you can imagine my ex was in a living hell. My ex's best mate in London, a middle-aged podgy balding guy, had tried to help him out. They tried to figure out who this blackmailer was but couldn't find anything out. His best-mate was trying to give him emotional support but it was too much for my ex and he'd resigned his job in London and moved back to live with his parents near Leicester, about 120 miles north of London. The blackmailer guy was basically saying if my ex didn't do everything he told him he'd send these videos, so my ex was continuing to do stuff even though he was petrified. He was in a really fragile state, scared every day that something was going to arrive in the mail for his parents. My heart really went out to my ex, and I could tell he was having similar rekindled feelings for me, because I'd always looked after him. We were looking at each other and talking like we did when we were together, and although it felt good as we did it, the realisation a few minutes later that it couldn't happen was really upsetting. Anyhow, I promised to do what I could to find out who the blackmailer was so we could deal with him. Over the next few days I continued to chat to the blackmailer, him not aware I'd met with my ex or anything. Being a bit of an Internet guru I set up a honey-trap for the blackmailer to capture some personal data about him. I was then able to trace his Internet connection and through my connections found out the blackmailer wasn't in Birmingham at all, but in London. I did a whole load of cross-referencing of various bits of data I was pulling together and started to get suspicions. I asked my ex to get his best-mate to join us in a three-way conference on MSN so we could discuss strategies and ideas. Then I put some stuff on my web-site for them to look at. We did a bit more talking then I made my excuses and left them to it. What my ex's best-mate didn't know was, I wanted him to visit my server so I could get his IP address. As I had suspected, it was the same one that the blackmailer had used when I'd set the honey-trap! I did a bit more research and got the entire run-down on this creep in London, and then invited my ex over to my place, not telling him why I wanted to see him. When he came over, I asked him to tell me about the best-mate, and one thing that came out of that was the guy was really sweet, and had wanted to get in a relationship with my ex, but my ex didn't have feelings for him and had said they could only be friends. I asked my ex when he'd first started talking to this blackmailer guy, and it turned out the blackmailer had contacted him first soon after he'd turned down the relationship with his best-mate in London. I then told my ex that the blackmailer was his supposed best-mate in London. The look on his face was indescribable. He thought about it some and then said, in that quiet, surprised, voice of his, "It's all starting to make sense now" - well, duh! So, we then plotted what to do. I told him he had to carry on like he knew nothing whilst I arranged some things. First off I recommend my ex contact the police and make it official, because this blackmailer was dangerous. My ex eventually decided he didn't want to do that because of the risk of publicity plus the humiliation of it all. I then got one of my cop friends involved and he offered to go call on this blackmailer and put the frighteners on him, big style. Eventually, my ex decided he would confront his best-mate, threaten him with the cops unless the videos were handed over and the guy had nothing more to do with him. So, that's what he did. I witnessed the MSN conversation and it was amazing. The 'best-mate' was so shocked but we laid it out how much we knew and he caved. First he cried and whined and apologised and basically tried to get my ex to forgive him. I made sure *that* didn't happen. Then he pleaded with us not to involve the cops, so we made sure he understood that if anything ever happened with those videos being distributed the transcript of our conversations plus all the evidence would be given to the cops immediately. By this point it was me doing the talking and the guy knew I didn't mess about. Then he started threatening to kill himself, so we said well don't just threaten, go do it A few hours after he'd gone my ex got a series of text messages from the now ex-best-mate saying goodbye, he had taken an overdose. We heard nothing more. A few days later my ex noticed that the last access date of the ex-best-mate's gaydar profile had miraculously changed, so he sent the guy a text saying he was amazed that they had Internet access in Hell We never heard anything more and so far as I know, the videos are no longer a threat. Obviously, after the intensity of dealing with the whole thing me and my ex were feeling pretty close. After all, he'd had to reveal stuff to me he hadn't previously dared tell anyone else, and his feelings of relief were focused on me since he still couldn't tell anyone else what had happened. Over the next weeks it seemed to me like he was trying to re-establish something between us, he was getting touchy-feely, but I thought if he could still get himself in messes like the one I'd just sorted out, I really didn't want to be involved with him again so I stopped taking his calls and blocked him on MSN. It was and still is pretty painful to think about at times, because I know we could have developed a long-term relationship, even allowing for bumps in the road, but the whole thought of our history just made me move on despite the wishful thinking. Tris.

Graeme - great minds think alike I was just thinking about this from the other side of the coin, and it made me chuckle. My father doesn't approve deep-down of my sexuality and we've had the odd raised-voice argument over the fundamentals although most of the time he's fine and he has the attitude that he raised me to have my own opinions and he respects those and the way I choose to live without interfering. When I would bring guys home - whether friends or boyfriends - he would be polite and friendly to them to the extent that they'd be telling me how nice he was, which would make me cringe, because of course I know his little eccentricities too well and they embarrass me greatly. One of them is, he's really into reading books about 'paranormal' stuff, weird spirituality and similar stuff and holds some very embarrassing and forceful views on them. So, especially when my boyfriends decide to stop and be polite and chat to him I always run away and hide somewhere and leave them to it, because I can't stand to be there when he goes off on one of his 'sermons' about 'how the world *really* is' - honestly it is *so* embarrassing. I remember he used to have an insurance guy come round the house once a month to collect premiums, and every time he'd get into one of these 'sermons' and the poor guy would always try to be polite so he'd get his money. Anyhow, after a particularly forceful 'sermon' the guy suddenly switched dad to automated bank payments so he didn't have to visit again :wacko: There was also the time, very early one Saturday morning, I woke up to hear a car wheel-spinning away from the farm drive. I pulled some pants on and went downstairs to find out what was going on and dad was in the doorway chuckling to himself. I asked what was up, and he said that a pair of Jehovah's Witnesses had turned up at the door trying to preach to him so he'd told them how things *really* are - apparently he scared them so much they literally ran away So, even when the boyfriend's parents are great and *you* get on well with them, just remember he might be scared he'll be severely embarrassed by them at any moment, and be on edge whenever you are around them!

There are so many shades to this it's impossible to give a simple Yes/No answer. If my boyfriend is on good terms with his parents then my being friends with them too is important, because otherwise any awkwardness or stress will affect us and our relationship. It's not so critical with his friends but still important, because if we're out socialising the last thing we want to encounter is awkwardness. I think if there were problems from the start of a relationship it'd make it more difficult to sustain if they're close friends of his. What it comes down to is whether you could be comfortable compartmentalising aspects of your relationship if there are problems between his family and friends and you. It doesn't make for well-rounded relationships, I know that.

What happens if the adopted child discovers they prefer men later in life? Maybe someone should talk to Princes William and Harry in the U.K., you never know, it might start a trend, and it'd sure be a pretty exclusive club

Okay, I'm gonna kick off a series of IFW (Inspiration For Writers) topics. I suppose they would seem to fit more into the Writer's Corner forum, except that the intention is to get inspiration from readers that might help writers in developing character personalities. With IFWs what I'm hoping to do is prompt readers especially to explain reasons for choices of one thing over another, and describe their feelings as to why they like one thing and don't like another. It'll help if some of the IFWs have a sexy undercurrent of course, and if you choose to describe sexual feelings in responding, that's fine. So, this first one is more for the guys I guess, although you girls are free to join in if you wish: What underwear do you prefer and what do you dislike, why, and how does it make you feel. Has your opinion changed over time and if so, why did it change?

Yay! People finally intrigued enough to give it a try

Hang on, hang on! My girlfriends are always moaning to me and asking why all the cute guys are gay! I think it's a case of the grass is always greener on the other side going on here, or just that after all the makeup and hairstyling and computer enhancements they can make even Harry Potter's Hagrid look like a California surf dude when it's TV or movie

LOL yeah. I did some at the farm during daytime once, and despite the double-glazing I was interrupted several times by tractors and lorries turning into the drive! This, I can help you with. I'm a GNU/Linux guru and so I use things such as the free open-source ffmpeg which can convert audio and video between almost all formats. There are a couple of sites that provide the Windows binaries ready-built, such as Unofficial FFmpeg Win32 Builds, but I suspect you'd get lost with the command line options. I could help you with that so you had a batch file or simple template, but I'd highly recommend you give the Windows Shareware package, Goldwave, a try out. When I was a Windows user this was my premiere audio editor and processor. It is immensely powerful and yet easy to use, allowing you to easily apply advanced filtering and processing to the raw audio files to make them sparkle. I used to use a Goldwave script to process recordings of my father's vast vinyl record collection. With five operations it'd remove the scratches and hiss, adjust the loudness, apply fade-in and fade-out, and boost some frequencies. Goldwave can save as MP3 if you also install the lame MP3 codec. If you like Goldwave let me know because I have a now unused license for it and can probably arrange to transfer it. If that's not comfortable, I can set up a service on one of my servers where you could upload the raw WAV file and have the server process it and then give you a download link for the MP3, but I suspect you'll get the hang of Goldwave really easily. Tris.

Oh Graeme, they are fabulous! By the last one, An Email to my Dad, I was literally rocking back and forth in my chair laughing until I had tears - the humour of the situation at the wedding and the misunderstandings that Dad had about the wedding and the 'wife' from the start is just... hilarious Your accent was no problem for me but then again maybe my ears are more attuned to the antipodean drawl than them-there yankies I love your intonation and stress that really high-lights how funny it is 'scuse me while I dry my eyes! My only advice, if you should choose to record others, is to do some tests by recording the first four paragraphs at different paces, with appropriate silences between paragraphs and changes of scene. Think about how news-readers take it slowly, or really good orators talk. See which of your tests you prefer and use that pace in your main recording - or ask friends to listen to the tests and recommend their favourite. But please, if you have the inclination, do continue to record or get others to do so, because it is great to listen to

Just a reminder, if you know or can find the URL of a story that has gone missing, or the site it was on, it's always worth searching on the WayBack Machine at the Internet Archive and then sifting through the various dated snapshots that go back years. The Advanced search can often be very useful at quickly finding things that don't show up immediately in a simple search.

You know what, I guess it'd help for those who want to try audio books, to publish a few links to free web sites where they are available. There are several projects around the world dedicated to producing them, staffed by enthusiastic and talented volunteers, and many of the voice actors are really good. Free Classic Audio Books Librivox Project Gutenberg:The Audio Books Project AudioBooks Audio Books for Free Literal Systems And, of course, if you want recent books and don't object to spending some money, there's Audible for thousands of professionally produced books.

Yay! Go you. Douglas Adams is great. I've got all his Hitchhikers books and I really love the BBC Radio episodes where they were first published. You really should hear the voice of Marvin, the Paranoid Anadroid - I used to go around mimicking it to great laughter when I thought someone was boring Terry Pratchett's Discworld series are really classics of understated British sense of humour, that humourously ironic observational sarcasm which pierces the puffery and plumage of life and really makes you think deep-down about society and prejudice whilst you're actually laughing out loud as yet another realisation of how acute his observations are, hits you. I have all the Discword series as both printed and audio books, and I must have re-read every one at least 10 times by now, although many I've re-read more than that. Every time I do I discover another strand of observational irony and humour I'd missed previously. If you like Moist von Lipwig you'll find his adventures in the next novel, Making Money, where he's in charge of the bank, a darker and much different read than the hell-for-leather action of Going Postal. He really becomes a complex and skilful character which gives hope he'll appear more in the future. That is a travesty! I'll dig out my copy and let you have the last page, no one should suffer that kind of cruel and unusual torture I'm currently listening to the audio book 'Wind in the Willows' from Free Classic Audio Books and enjoying it more than I ever did the printed version.

I was more interested in how interested others might be in the option of listening to erotic stories as audio books. I was surprised when I first started listening to them at how good they are. I find the stories somehow gain an added dimension from the richness of the voice of the reader which surprised me since I'd always thought making up all the voices in my head as I read couldn't be bettered. I first got interested in them when I realised I was really enjoying listening to BBC Radio plays and book serialisations., something the 'Beeb' does so well. I'm fully aware of the legal and technical mechanics required to produce the books, and I have the resources, technology, and access to a large number of people with a variety of accents across many countries who'd both be willing to do it, and would be able to deliver a quality result. The essence is to have a paced delivery rather than it being as fast as regular conversation. There's also an accessibility issue of making stories available to people who have eyesight issues, whether blind or just with reading difficulties like a former boyfriend of mine who would suffer severe headaches after reading about a page of regular text and therefore hated reading anything, due to the pain, not a dislike of stories. What I find strange is that when I ask people about audio books there's almost an automatic negative reaction, but when questioned most have never tried listening to good audio books and are just making a knee-jerk reaction. I tested it out on several friends once, during a sleep-over, leaving a book playing when we went to bed, and I was amazed that the next few days all of them were asking to borrow the audio book and then all of them, independently, went out and got their own recordings of various books. Tiff: You may be surprised, but recording them can actually be a hell of a lot of fun, really!

Relatively recently I discovered I prefer audio books to reading text. Mostly it is because after long days staring at PC screens it is nice to rest my eyes and still enjoy a good story. I also find it much nicer to go to bed and listen to an audio book and fall asleep as it continues than try to stay awake with tired eyes reading a book because it's so entralling. It also means I can 'read' a book whilst travelling, walking, or of course, with my eyes closed! It got me to thinking how nice it'd be to have some of the nifty/gayauthors/awesomedude and other books available in audio format too. I began thinking about launching a project to do that but I was wondering how many other people out there would like the opportunity to listen to these stories too? My primary audio collection began with, and consists of, 36 or so Terry Pratchett Discworld novels. Recently I began downloading from several of the free audio book collections and building the multiple mp3 files into one m4b file that the iPod can bookmark automatically. I've got a script that converts from the 20-50 individual chapter mp3s to the one m4b which makes handling the books much easier.

Not so much what I'm reading right now, but two books I re-read every few months because they're so rich and inspirational, are Mary Renault's Fire from Heaven and Persian Boy. In exquisitely rich detail they describe the childhood and life of Alexander the Great, from his tempestuous upbringing by a fiery mother and adulterous father, to his growing love for Hephaestion, the son of a senior noble, and the way they become inseparable and how their love is respected by some, and regarded jealously by others. In Persian Boy the scene moves to the court of the Persian King Darius II, written through the eyes of Bagoas, a court eunuch originally taken from his home when his father's fort was attacked by a traitor. It follows how Alexander challenges, overcomes, and chases Darius and his armies until eventually Bagoas is given to Alexander in a surrender offering by one of Darius's nobles. From that day on it details Bagoas and Alexander slowly but inevitably falling in love as Alexander continues his conquest of Asia. The depth of love and loyalty intertwined with accurate historical context, the counterpointing with Alexander and Hephaestion's continuing relationship, and the richness of the lovingly described events, make the story incredibly inspirational. What I find so... incredible... about the story is it is based around historical records. Alexander and Hephaestion's close relationship is well-documented, and although Bagoas was 'just' a eunuch, he is also reported kissing Alexander passionately in front of large crowds at a major event in south Asia. Considering Alexander's known character it is pretty clear Mary Renault has probably got very close to the truth. It ends with Hephaestion's death and Alexander's great grief at his loss, the extraordinary funeral pyre, and then shortly after with Alexander's own slow demise through some kind of infection. First time I read it, I wanted to be Bagoas... second time, Alexander, now, my laptop is named Hephaestion! Tris.

Is it 'de rigour' to say "Hi" or is it like one of those 'clothing-optional' beaches where almost everyone wants to go, but no one wants to 'put out' ? Took me a while to register although I've read the complete works of several authors here since graduating from nifty on the recommendation of a fellow-author and buddy, 'T Storm'. What to say? I'm a Brit, farmboy born and bred, heavily into developing new computer software technology so an immense geek in some respects, now living in the south of Spain since first planning to emigrate last year and loving the decent weather! Looking forward to a long hot summer and playing plenty of sports: soccer, running, tennis, swimming, wind-surfing, squash and anything else that turns up. Hoping to see my friends come over during summer for freebie vacations so we can catch up, hang out, and generally not become strangers now I'm a few thousand kilometers away. Should make for some good material for new stories! Finally got around to tidying up and publishing some of my stories that are based around my life after a bit of motivation from 'T Storm'. I put them on nifty but they're also on my web-site. So far 'True Tales of a Farmboy' and 'Infuriating Dilemma' are being published, about a chapter a week right now. I love community sites where there's a good ethos and sense of spirit and was really chuffed to discover gayauthors. I'd searched in the past but somehow missed it. Looking forward to causing some spirited controversy with some of my opinions at some point Tris.

As an author and reader I only discovered gayauthors relatively recently through a recommendation from another author and email buddy. I've had the chance to read the complete works of several authors so far, amongst them Dan HanRatty, DomLuka, Viv, and Vlista. Mostly I read stories off-line on a PDA or 'phone using the web browser. It means I can read comfortably at bedtime, whilst travelling, or in the comfort of the sofa or armchair. I orginally started reading on nifty, and there it was a simple process to download the story index and chapters and read them offline because they are published mostly as text/plain or text/html (with .html extension) documents. However, here on gayauthors all the authors sites, indexes, and chapters are PHP scripts (.php) so when downloaded for off-line reading most browsers don't know to render them as text/html without tweaking mime-type associations. I'm not sure what the reason for using PHP is, unless for some kind of reader-count, although that could be achieved from the web-server logs. Anyhow, I threw together a small script that lets me download and convert any gayauthor sub-site for off-line reading. It converts spaces in filenames to hyphens and .php extensions to .html, ensuring that internal links are converted too so following links still works. I named the script php2html #!/bin/sh # php2html # Modify .php e-books to work offline as .html # modifies file extensions and internal links from .php to .html # fixes up spaces in filenames to hyphens, and internal links to those files wget -r -nH -U "Firefox" -L "$1" find . -exec rename 's/ /-/g' "{}" \; find . -name '*.php' -exec rename 's/\.php$/.html/' "{}" \; find . -name '*.html' -exec sed -i 's/\.php/.html/g' {} \; find . -name '*.html' -exec sed -i -e 's/\(href=".*\) \(.*\.html"\)/\1-\2/g' -e 's/\(href=".*\)%20\(.*\.html"\)/\1-\2/g' {} \; Set-up as an executable script: chmod +x php2html To grab an author's stories I do something like: mkdir vlista cd vlista php2html http://vlista.gayauthors.org/stories.html which would download all Vlista's stories, converting the indexes and chapter files to work off-line. Then, I copy the entire directory and sub-directories onto the PDA or 'phone (or memory card) and can read at my convenience. Of course, this script will only work on GNU/Linux although if you have Cygwin on Windows it will also work. I suspect it'll work on Mac OSX also with maybe minor fixups for the BSD-ness Obviously it'll also work in a GNU/Linux virtual machine on Windows, Mac, or other VM-supporting operating system. It would be cool if each authors site provided a ZIP download archive of an off-line readable version of their stories that uses .html file extension to extend the value of gayauthors to mobile off-line readers. The web sever could auto-create it using my script here to process the on-line files and then adding them to a ZIP and adding the download link(s) into the index files.