Mark Arbour

Thanks! I'm not sure that Matt and Wade will end up together, as partners, or not. I'm not sure that it matters, as long as their friendship is intact, and I think Matt is right to fight to make sure that at least holds up.

I'm glad you liked the Will/Matt conversation. I enjoyed writing it, because I could see Matt going along, thinking he had Will totally figured out, then getting completely blown away by the nude scene. Such a "Will" thing to do.

That's too funny. I really don't think that Will is going to have a problem with Matt being with Wade...unless Wade has a problem with it.

Sorry Sammy. I'll post slower, just for you. J/K. As you said, Will is a direct guy, and so is Matt. Once they're able to engage, it's almost a given that they'll hammer things out.

June 6, 2002 Escorial, CA Will’s contempt changed to anger and outrage when he saw Wade hanging off of me, unable to support himself. “What happened to him?” he demanded. “He got trashed at a party, so I brought him home,” I said, hoping to calm him down with a simple, factual response. I wasn’t surprised when it didn’t work. “You brought him home,” he mused, as if I’d never done anything nice for Wade before. H

Your insight into the Indefatigable's construction was interesting, and awesome as usual. I find I am in one of those rare situations where I disagree with you, regarding the sentence highlighted above. While there are certainly anecdotal tales of ships being well-constructed in private yards, the general consensus I have noted is that the quality of construction at Royal yards was considerably higher. You mention that Agamemnon was built at the same yard. Nelson, who was (as you noted) a huge fan of his little battleship, was also compelled to note that she was often in need of a refit. This is also noted in the Wiki page on Agamemnon: Perhaps a more insidious example of private dockyard corruption would be the Vengeur-class ships of the line, nicknamed the Forty Thieves. Agamemnon and Indefatigable both began life as Ardent-class ships of the line. I tend to attribute their successes as a product of their design, rather than their construction, but that's just my own opinion.

It is interesting that the Magnanime and Anson ( the other razees) were not as well received, nor as successful.

This one works. You feel better now?

The University where I work tries to keep our students from engaging in prurient activities like looking at porn. They have installed all kinds of filters to try and stop them. Here was one guy's post on facebook: "Fucking XXXX IT Department. I can look at any porn I want, but I can't download music."

If you like Sharpe's series, take a trip on the sea, in the same era, and read CS Forester's Hornblower books. I recommend starting with one of the following: Hornblower and the Hotspur, Beat to Quarters, or Commodore Hornblower.

As we've moved onto Flux and this once-busy forum now lies dormant, I thought I'd revive it one last time to thank all of you who voted for 9.11, and made it the GA Readers Choice Winner for Best Hosted Story. To have such an emotional story capped off with that honor is really overwhelming. Thank you all so much. Thank you.

Mine too.

That's true, but no offense to Mann, but we would have won anyway.

Enron is so 2001. World Com is the 2002 nightmare.

My sentiments exactly. I had a hard time getting into "Ramage", but I read most of the "Bolitho" books by Alexander Kent. It also has a number of errors, but I find the character of Bolitho to be a bit too erratic and passionate for my tastes. He's a bit like "Will" (from the CAP Series) transferred to the Royal Navy in the 1790s.

The banners are awesome this year! What a great job. And what an honor to be in such great company. Congrats to all the winners and nominees!

My question would be DO they get desensitized to it? I understand that we might anecdotally think so, but I'm wondering if that's really what happens, and to what proportion of the population. I'm not convinced that prohibition is an adequate preventative measure if someone really wants something, whether it's cigarettes, pot, alcohol, or sex. I'm also not convinced that everything is a gateway activity either.

Thanks for the heads-up. I fixed it.

Nonsense. For a 13 year old guy, porn is all about sex. They're not watching porn, thinking "look how he's abusing that lady by fucking her so hard", they're intrigued by the mechanics of it, and they use it to get off. And exactly what kind of porn are you watching, that you think it's all about violence? For a much older person, porn may indeed be about those things, and about the underlying industry that is exploitative, but that is not on the mind of a teenage male.

Glad to hook you with my magic pipe. Light up and inhale!

People sometimes break down when a trigger hits them, and that's what happened to Brad. With the finality of the clean-up, that was a trigger. Normally, he wouldn't be doing so badly.

That's pretty funny. Charge the rod! I'm sure those countless teenage innuendos that you heard are somewhat similar to what poor Ben has to deal with when he gets "wood" jokes. :-) I can't imagine using a firearm to do anything at a public (or private) school anymore. I'm not sure that's a bad thing.

If you go to this link, you'll see all the GA Editors listed in order of stories edited. And at the top of the list, you'll see Sharon (Sat8997), with 100 stories under her belt. Sharon has been a great e-friend of mine for well over 10 years now. She was the person who encouraged me to start writing, and the person who encouraged me to go on by not telling me my stuff was crap. Throughout our years, and thousands of words, of working together, I know I can rely on her to make me look good, and to call me out when a story line is off the deep end. She's also done a lot of work here at GA over the years, including serving on the WST. You always know with Sharon that she'll tell you what's on her mind. With her mind, that's a good thing. Thanks Sharon!

That was one of the concerns floated about with my team when I told them the name. I think it kind of helps with the theme.

Tim nails two in a row!