W_L

You need a few of these hugs. Psychological ghosts, they are just as horrifying as the worst poltergeist of fiction

Seems like we are discussing UFO's and ghosts together, so I changed the title. I get strange feelings when I enter certain houses like there is something in there. It's pretty odd feeling, I can't truly describe it, but it's just odd. They look like normal homes and seem fine to most people, but I get this strange feeling as I enter them. Maybe, I'm psychic. (Honestly, it's sometimes just nerves, but there are places that does cause my senses to go overdrive.) I've seen a few possible ghosts in my life; once in a hospital after a surgery, and a second time possibly walking home. In the hospital, it was just a creepy experience as a kid just finishing surgery and meeting a cancer patient. I would explain it more from post surgery Anastassia and blurred vision from the eye surgery creating false sense of perception. Next experience was walking home one night and being told by some stranger to take another route home. I walked a bit and turned my head, then he was gone. There was nothing wrong with walking my usual path home like an accident or something, but I don't know, perhaps there was. That experience was just plain creepy. As for UFO's, I have seen the occasional light in the sky, but I am betting they are satellites rather than alien space craft. I do believe there has been first contact with other species, but it would be kept secret more for our benefit than anything else. Think what would happen if Religious fanatics learned we are not the chosen race of God. It would destroy a lot of our society with the implications of alien life forms, who are not human looking like in Sci-fi.

Happy early B-Day!

I've heard about the experimental Aurora project with hypersonic atmospheric speed research beyond Mach 5. I think if ET's would rather not make first contact with human beings i.e. formal relations as we are far too hostile and territorial at this stage in our development. Perhaps, they might try indirect contact or simply observation. UFO's and maybe rare occasions one time alien abductions would make sense in a scientific way. I guess, I am skeptical in some ways on the potential of human beings with technology i.e potentially a great amount of UFO's are secret project. I still believe more than a few reports were possible alien visitations, just not the majority of reports. I am also skeptical with the prejudicial observation in the Scientific Theory/Method that has as some believed become a religion onto itself. I guess when it comes down to it, you can say this core belief, "I am skeptical of any ingrained belief system that has become an absolute institution in human consciousness".

I actually like both, UFO's are interesting for the social ramifications of first contact. Ghosts are interesting for continuity of existence. It does not need to separate down scientific lines as ghosts and UFO's can mutually exists in scientific order. There is nothing stopping our universe from having alien life forms and spirits of deceased people around. I will say that famous line of Chinese Empiricist Zhuxi in his Essay, "No Ghost", "If you believe it, there will be, but if you don't, there will not." It's a famous line in philosophical notions for eastern philosophers, the cornerstone for belief systems and ideals. Reality is based on each individual under this notion rather than the view based on society or religious practice.

That's explained by chaos theory in a controlled system. Computer theory is interesting. It's odd that people believe in UFO's and aliens, but they do not believe in ghosts. UFO's have fascinated people for just as long as ghosts have. Stories of strange flying objects have been around for centuries; they use to be associated with Angels and God/Gods. Aliens have become focused in the mid-20th century and onward.

Mark, I thought you were an intellectual. Come on, Ghosts should be something that are interesting to an intellectual. By the way, my Summer Anthology entry could be considered 1/3rd ghost story and 2/3rd psychological introspection. Ghost are not believed by Christians mainly as there are traditions that state souls either go to Heaven or Hell/Purgatory rather than wander the earth as spirits. The Chinese and Far Eastern traditions have a full compilation of ghost and human morality tales about the issue of holding on to life, love between the living and the dead, the existence Karmic resonance (Cause and Effect Buddhist principle that entered philosophical and active practice), and the eternal spirits of human beings. If Graeme responds to this thread, I would direct him to seek out some of the Far East Asian Immigrants in Australia during our Ghost day coming up in a month. Officially Lunar calendar ghost day is the 7th month and 14th day. It's a festival in China, Korea, and Japan as far as I know with stories being told of ghosts, the spirit world, and famous human/ghost love stories that stretch multiple lifetimes and planes of existence. The Cowherd story comes highly recommended during this holiday.

Hey guys, while doing research for a new short story, I came across some interesting things about Chicago and Ghost stories. Ghost stories are usually associated with horror, but I love a mixture of ghost stories that can deal with a wide variety of ideas and genres. Haunted Illinois Ghost are the most interesting idea and I wonder if anyone here is a believer or interested in ghost stories? PS: I am about to finish my western short story; it should be posted by this weekend, it took a while to dig up my old research and some new research to get it done. It's not your traditional western; there are shades of gray, I hope it will be interesting to everyone once it is uploaded.

It was that idea that got me to write Worlds of Difference, which is still set in ancient China right now, but it will eventually cover the entire realm of space and time. There are many ways to write a alternate history story, so it depends on the individual. For me, I like reading alternate time line stories; one event links to another. For my time travel story, I wanted to break the mold of linear observation and move toward grand perspective through events and actions. Since, most alternate future or time line stories will be a result of past actions changing history; what I wanted to do was create a variant concept that what you do today can result in changes to the past, present, and future at the same time? If I ever finish off the first book of Worlds of difference, you will see what I mean, I just need to get the editing done (You know it's funny. I can teach kids how to write better than editing my own work). However, this story is your concept; you are the writer and creator, so you can craft the idea of temporal observation as you like. By the way, do more research than simply military or political; think also in terms of cultural and scientific. Cultural history is closely aligned with gay history (some will say it does not exists, but I would argue it's a specialized portion of cultural history). For example, if you want to do a gay attribute understand what gay Israelis and Palestinians thought and did during this time. What type of clubs, bars, and social areas were catering to them? Who were among this group? Who were their opponents? Scientific developments, especially in the 20th century must be a cornerstone. Talk about the development of cassette tapes, communication technology of the 1950-1990's, and the little nuances of each era.

Wohoo! I knew you and Trebs were busy. Make sure your Sims don't turn into sex addicts. As for me, I enjoy giving my Sims fun little obstacles in life and keep them guessing, when it becomes too boring around the house, I will do something to my characters like creating love triangles, giving the sims cosmetic surgery, and fun cheats options like I am god or something.

Welcome to Gay New England, hope you boys will join me, here in the gay friendly northeast.

Wonder, what those two are doing to their poor Sims? I hope the reviews are correct, because I want to get it, too. The original Sims and Sims 2 are fun, but a new set of games would be awesome.

happy Birthday Sweet prince!

Agreed fun, but off I am not that good. I might not poison a king, but I am willing to kill a tyrant. --------------- You Are: Lawful Good Lawful Good- A lawful good character acts as a good person is expected or required to act. He combines a commitment to oppose evil with the discipline to fight relentlessly. He tells the truth, keeps his word, helps those in need, and speaks out against injustice. A lawful good character hates to see the guilty go unpunished. Lawful good is the best alignment you can be because it combines honor and compassion. However, lawful good can be a dangerous alignment because it restricts freedom and criminalizes self-interest. Detailed Results: Alignment: Lawful Good ----- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (24) Neutral Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (23) Chaotic Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (21) Lawful Neutral -- XXXXXXXXXXX (11) True Neutral ---- XXXXXXXXXX (10) Chaotic Neutral - XXXXXXXX (8) Lawful Evil ----- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (16) Neutral Evil ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (15) Chaotic Evil ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXX (13) Law & Chaos: Law ----- XXXXXXXXX (9) Neutral - XXXXXXXX (8) Chaos --- XXXXXX (6) Good & Evil: Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (15) Neutral - XX (2) Evil ---- XXXXXXX (7)

Happy Birthday Eric!!!

Or perhaps, men can turn into women. (Sexual malleability; odd, but possible in our modern context) Gender has its place in scientific reference, but culturally, it might be harder to nail down a single point of what gender truly is.

Oh No! We are all Evil! However, if we have the opposite sign answer as correct, then we are all good. You still have not factored in whether woman are "imaginary" or "real". If woman are imaginary, then there are no real "women".

I will give it some time, but gay rights' organization should be prepared to make new alliances. In the wake of Prop 8 and the northeastern and mid-west moves toward gay marriage and equality legislation, it might lead to a new geographic migration. In the previous examples of Spain and France, the economic collapse of both states was due to the exile of these groups. The Netherlands and England gained from their enemies losses and the financial experience of the Jews and Protestants would spur on their mutual empires. -On a side note on American Migration, you might not remember this event in American History, but back in the 1930's, the migration of black farmers/sharecroppers to northern factories was significant to current day political and social alignments. The Grapes of Wrath is an interesting famous example from the Midwestern move to California, but the southern to northern migration had significant realities for the emergence of a new political paradigm. The Democrats began to take in the progressive wings of the Republican party and it pushed radicalization with generational conflicts between northern blacks with southern blacks. Why did I give that history lesson? Simple, we might be seeing migration movements to northern states again if the equality movement is headed here, but this time with homosexuals. It will be an interesting time to see what will happen, when our different views collide. I am getting more and more into Richard Wrights' Native Son and Black Boy novels about the merging of groups and the American differences.

Welcome to the club: Most people are drawn here by the stories, some are writers in their own ways, and others just want to connect. You can be gay, straight, bi, or some variation of transgendered; this community will try to accept you. Yeah, I will not lie about our personal foibles or possible issues due to our own individual concepts and perspectives, but we are a nice mesh. One thing about most people here at GA that may hold true of all the people around, we are all dreamers. Cynics and idealist both have great dreams, you might be attracted to that element of GA. Chase, you are still a good guy, no matter if you choose to stay or leave. Enjoy the moments and the people around you. PS: Laguna beach is stupid, but MTV has been moving further into the Cali scene and I like certain things about it. This is not much of an un-bias opinion from a guy, who found Ryan Sheckler from Life of Ryan cute.

We have exit polling data, African Americans were for prop 8 in the CNN exit polls with males predominantly for prop 8 as gender variable. CNN Exit Poll In the northeast, it is much easier due to a long history of individualism and diverse cultures mixing.

Don't worry, Kevin those are not all negative. I like a challenging, stubborn, and lazy. (PS: We are both intellectuals, but I think I make the older generations nervous as I am both conservative and progressive in policies at the same time, while not believing in realistic human progress just a shift of roles and balance.) Defining oneself is a life long journey, you desire to understand who you are? There is a basis in concept and a basis in action, which we try to understand through terms and relationships with each other. I know individualists do not want themselves to be defined, but I got to thinking about the notion of the individual and build on why we see ourselves as separate entities and not an amalgamated or combined species. If you do not define yourself personally, then how can you separate yourself from some one else or would you say everyone is the same? I can call myself gay, but I know that some people would consider me not gay for being different than perceptions of gay; for instance I am not feminine or interested in just plain sex like my early twentysomething counterparts in popular culture. I can see your point in not wanting to be defined by that type of thing, but then how do you know yourself without defining yourself? There is something in life that is abstractly true to define an individual and separate us from each other; even if we are similar in every other degree. "Who we are?" is a question of an infinite spectrum and the answer is really as diverse as the universe itself.

Well, if they rule for prop 8, we might see a new geographic migration of gay, lesbians, and Transgendered people towards the northeast. Here's another history point: The Spanish Empire expelled the the Muslims and Jews from their domains after La Reconquista; it eventually led to the economic decline and fall of the Spanish empire after its meteoric rise to power in the 16th century. Ironic since California was claimed by the Spanish empire during the end of La Reconquista and the era of exploration 1492-1550.

Suffering is an eternal part of life; defining yourself through suffering is a both ascendant and destructive. The most famous example of defining oneself through suffering would be Buddha (Siddhattha Gotama, I will just call him Sid). Sid was basically your spoiled rich boy, who found out the world was not so perfect or nice as he originally thought it was. He went through the stage of finding himself and after a while came up with some interesting life lessons that basically say the following line about defining life. "Life is suffering, because people have desires." When you have a complex world, where everyone is out for themselves to seek the best possible outcome for themselves as individuals or groups of like minds; the ground is open for suffering, since one person's loss is another person's gain (a principle most western Buddhism seem to ignore in the New Age movement, Sid actually believed in a core principle of Adam Smith's Capitalist system as part of general life, "Scarce Resources"). Don't worry, I am not trying to convert, Me and Sid have issues on the ideals of stagnation philosophy for the portion of destructive context, but just want to point out "ascendant" definition, when some one wants to define themselves and life as suffering. James, keep on fighting and living through the suffering. My own life is based on this perpetual desire to keep fighting and challenging myself and my surroundings; You may never win the war, but you will have a life goal to aim for, which many others do not. Thus, channeling your suffering in such ways might help.

The defining element of a person is important and it establishes individuals from groups, man and woman from human, teen or elderly from age, and other. It goes to our concept of who we are? What we are? Why we are? When we are? and How We are? I am wondering about defining elements today; it's an odd thing to ponder.

It's official, I will be starting my job in the Massachusetts' governor office in about a month. How did this happen to me? It's an honor, but I was not thinking that they would choose me. I am a Republican, okay, more appropriately labeled as a Fiscal conservative. The state government is one of the most over bloated budgets in the land. This position is not something that I thought would be achievable. So what does this bode for my future, will I get so enamored with the trappings of government that I become a Democrat, a red dog, or maybe some kind of weird hybrid? Ugh, I have mixed feelings about entering the public sector. The private sector is too unstable for anyone to get a good job in this environment.