W_L

A few of those are mine, I have learned in recent years that the best way to write is to write it all at once and then edit rather than try to do it piecemeal or on a schedule. I should take a poll after I finish my novel to ask what readers want me to finish first.

Time to watch some movies and I pick the 2014 Brazilian film "The Way He Looks"; ironically, the movie is about a gay blind boy, like I could relate to that Sometimes, I feel like a unicorn, being both gay and legally blind (I am fully blind in my left eye and have 20/300 distance with 20/70 reading in my right eye). It's a rare subject and it's a rare concept. To me, this subject is extremely interesting and important. Through boyfriends and hook ups, one thing I learned about modern gay males is that there is a shallowness to perception and desire. People are attracted by a picture or a living image of their fantasy without substance. If you assume that homosexuality or any type of sexuality for that matter is derived by visual stimuli, a blind person should not be capable of sexual predilection. They would not know about twinks, bears, leather, or muscular men, which popular and pornographic media would portray as the subjects of gay fantasy. However, I would argue that sexuality does not need to be about aesthetics, it can exist without phyical beauty being any part of the equation. With that said, this Brazilian movie, which is in Portuguese by the way, is charming and explores this idea that love can exist without first sight. Leonardo is a blind teenage boy, who gets picked on at school without ever noticing (That's a reality; kids are cruel and don't get how hard people with disability have to get by). He has one female friend, who is in love with him, but he does not reciprocate her feelings. Then, like in a lot of gay movies (Why can't it happen in real life? or at least for me ! ), a new boy joins his school named Gabriel and they slowly fall for one another. Gabriel and Leonardo don't have rough and tumble sex, but the simple kissing and embrace between them is more than enough. If I ever fall for a guy, I pray that he is as understanding, compassionate, fun loving, and open minded as Gabriel. I am not going to ruin this movie for people with too many spoilers, but suffice to say I really thought they were being authentic with this movie. They even used braille and while I could not actually feel the braille on the page to verify this kid was typing the real thing (I can actually touch read braille a little), the producer was being authentic and I can attest that a real brailler is that noisy and clunky. I used a laptop in school for note taking, but I do have a brailler at home, in case I ever lose my sight in the one good eye. This movie might not appeal to everyone, but to me, it was a spotlight for me I give this 9.5 out of 10 as a near perfect representation of a blind teenage boy growing into his sexuality

Try using the Ablative, it's a weird case in Latin too

Yeah, against White Europeans, who conquered half the countries and sold drugs that destroyed millions of lives. Asian slang from China to India still exists that is derogatory to White people. That's a history lesson to reconcile eventually. (Btw, I wouldn't mind visiting the UK, next time I go to Europe, I like your toffee and I do fancy bonking green lads ). Latinos are another story altogether; there has been no war, no animosity, and no real history of hate or vindictiveness. That's the scary part Zombie, you don't need to have a long history when you are caught in a moment of political will. If Hitler could convince the other 60% of Germany that did not vote for him to follow him into genocide; it just seems like there's a powerful pull to messages.

One More Political Observation, I really am trying to get away from this, but for some reason; I keep getting pulled in by how ridiculous this stuff is getting. Also for the people who keep saying wait it's only summer, this is not too early to speak politics or candidates; remember Citizens United ruling has made the idea of a honeymoon moot in politics. As long as you have one major Super PAC left, you are always running. It's an ugly concept and I think older Republicans and Democrats don't get it as well as us Millennials, the vetting process is no longer about sound bites, but a continuum of a politicians development, sort of like writing a novel (By the way, another reason why I am trying to get out of talking politics or involved in any way, I am writing a novella ). The speed of communications has made everything raw and live, while monetary limits being lifted has made even the most outlandish politicians into heroes. Yes, I almost fell for Trump last night; I don't feel proud about it, but it felt right in a way. I think everyone has heard that Trump forced out Jorge Ramos, the Latino American reporter from Univision. In theory, I actually support Jorge's positions and his outrage at Trump for demanding the deportation of 11 million people, including American children. I want to see a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants and an end to the half measures in Washington about this issue. Yet, last night, when I channel flipped to Trump's press conference, I instantly got hooked by Ramos' charge against Donald Trump turn into a disruption to his Press conference. When Trump told his security to remove Ramos, I cheered. In my mind, I was thrilled to see a Politician not be scared of the Almighty 1st Amendment's "Freedom of Speech and Press". For the last 6 years with the rise of the Tea Party movement on the right, the Occupy Wall Street movement and Black Lives Matter movement on the Left, I was getting fed up by the way people reacted to these protesters, who think disruption is the only solution to social and political issues. Yet, there is fear that if you attempt to stop or control these people from disrupting your life, your event, and your "audience as "Free Speech" does not guarantee a "free Audience", which would paradoxically violate the 1st Amendment right to "free association".. People have been hiding behind the 1st Amendment's free speech for far too long for reasons that are neither progressive, nor necessary. When Trump threw out Ramos, I jumped and thought, "Wow, he did it. He actually pushed back against the tide of protest/disrupters. No one else on the GOP or Democratic side have been willing to take such a hard stance. Maybe, I was wrong about him and he really can lead this country to a better place without all this PC baggage we've built up in the last decade." I was charmed and excited by the man; I am cerebral guy and even as a centre right conservative, I don't let my emotions carry me away. After several minutes of deep breathing and a cup of hot jasmine tea, I calmed down and realized what I had basically supported. Jorge Ramos was wrong in what he did acting like a member of Black Lives Matter, Trump did the right thing by kicking him out for violating his rules of decorum and disrupting his event. Yet, I realized I just supported the idea of "deporting" a latino guy metaphorically, because he broke the "law" of common courtesy and professional restraint. He represents the "illegal" immigrant of Trump's speeches; the "entitled" foreign born guy, who believes he deserves to get whatever he wants without following rules. Ramos made Trump's point a living fact and now I fear that if I can so easily fall into such a generalized fury, the rest of the Conservative base would not be far beyond me. Trump made his case and proved it in that one exchange Maybe it's the bland candidates, maybe it's the lack of resolution, or the partisan groups that keep popping up, but I actually fully fell for Trump in one moment of weakness and supported his position of kicking out Latino Americans. I know it's wrong, I know Ramos has legitimate reason to hate Trump. I know most Americans don't want to relate to racists and bigots, but there is a cautionary reality to our modern world. If you get caught up in the living reality, you can easily fall into ideological traps that dwell within. As an Asian man, I don't think I am racist, but I now understand how easy "soft" racism can be created in a moment of connection. That's my Cautionary tale and hopefully the end of my political talk for a while, WL

Rant Start: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/08/south-carolina-republican-party-donald-trump-run-2016-121725.html?hp=rc2_4_b1 Loyalty Oaths? What the hell is wrong with these guys? This is not the People's Republic of the United States, we don't need to pledge unconditional loyalty ot a political party in order to make our way in life. I don't like Trump, I made that extremely clear, but this is stupid and is only causing the rifts within the GOP to grow bigger. He's got no real chance of winning this election, nor even the candidacy, but the GOP is risking everything, including unfettered political expression in order to keep him out of the candidacy. A Civil War is only a step away within the Conservative Coalition, because the GOP's leadership is too old, too rigid, and too orthodoxed to keep it together. I've worked on Republican campaigns, went to state meets, and had some fun debates (MA and NH Republicans are really different from Southern Republicans, it's less Gay bashing and more clam bakes/Sam Adams Ales ). Still, this is getting ugly and despicably destructive. Whatever "respect" I had left for this party is gone. Not to mention Jeb Bush's offhand racial slur against legal Asian immigrants (Your dad was the Ambassador of China, for Pete sakes). Everyone knows Jeb was talking about Latino babies, but in a fit of political calculus, he just threw the Asians under the bus to keep his popularity with the Hispanic voters. This is symptomatic of a political party that cares so little about its constituency beyond population growth patterns. Right now half of America does not vote for any party, because of crap like this. This so fucked up, I can't vote for Jeb Bush, who is the establishment go to guy, and I can't bring myself to vote for Trump. I don't like Hilary Clinton, both from a political and professional level (I had worked with her people on something years ago, it's a really long story involving my Non-Profit work in community health care). What am I supposed to do?

I miss Bluesox, who was a former member here from Boston in the Finance industry. Being an accountant, I am technically his mortal foe on valuation purposes ,but I loved arguing with him over the future of Capital markets and Capitalism itself. Beyond politics, my first love is Economics and we are seeing a classic example of Supply surplus with weak demand. Yes, the great recession was started with too much hype over Supply side economics, but the current situation really shows that there is merit in my side of the debate as well. We have been disinflating for too long, relying on a steady demand that was not matching supply surpluses in Chinese labor or Oil, and ultimately there's a large problem in our market that was not resolved with the 2008 Financial bailouts, leverage. We still have to much debt on our balance sheets, inbued with federal stimulus and federal reserve low lending rates. I know I am speaking a little too technical for most readers, but it is really amazing to see something this happen as theoretical ideas would point. The bigger question now is how do you solve this issue?

Beyond the jokes, I will get serious and add one point that should not be forgotten: On the flip side, Amazon is also a public marketplace for independent producers and writers. Some GA authors have published through amazon as well, so while their operations may not be what we prefer for employers; they do deliver an invaluable service. Not spending money at Amazon does not merely hurt Amazon's bottom line, it hurts individuals reliant on Amazon as their marketplace. There's a lot of angles to the consumerism and it is not always black and white.

Zombie, sound like you support some kind of security check on train terminals and training for train crews Am I rubbing off on you after so many years that we have exchanged blows? Military training is great, but medical training is what saved the life of the Frenchman. I think we have to consider some more basic medical training for civilians to stop bleeding and administer small first aid. That kind of stuff will be more important as terrorism continues between life and death of its victims

Google and Facebook at least have kool aid, parties, and break rooms to indoctrinate their cult-----employees Amazon's low margin squeeze them til they're dead business model gives nothing to their employees.

Sorry, I switched to Eve about 10 years ago, but I quit MMO's a few months ago.

There's mention of some sort of civilian medical and self defense training against terrorist attacks now. It sounds like a good idea. You don't need a gun to fight a gun holder, or stop bleeding from a gunshot or knife wound. Personally, I think the current policy of "see something, say something" needs to be adjusted to "see something, do something". We're all capable of bravery or at least helping the wounded stay alive during these incidents with some basic medical aid. During the 9/11 attacks, Flight 93's passenger showed us that it was better to try and stop suicidal terrorists, at least you can save others if not yourselves. I am not saying the other flight passengers were cowardly, because they did not know what would happen or the suicidal nature of these attacks like flight 93's passenger learned from their example. The governments can only do so much; it will take ordinary people to act as the last line of defense in this world conflict that has been escalating for the last two decades.

This is not a political post, but an honest congratulations to all those brave men involved. I have been watching the unfolding story of the 3 Americans, a British national, and a Frenchman fight off a terrorist armed with an automatic weapon on a high speed train heading to Paris. If there's a good reason why we should be in the fight together as a collective whole rather than a unilateral force, this incident proves that unity can triumph over terror. This could have been a lot worse, it could have ended as a massacre with the amount of ammunition and weaponry that the terrorist had, many people owe their lives to these guys. It is not merely about the "Americans save the day" like some action movie, the reality is that it took a lot of courage from 2 American military personnel who knew the odds were against them, an American collge student, a scared British Civilian who found his courage, and a french national to stop this man. Everyone involved in preventing this mass murder deserves applause and the honor that is being given to them. While Americans might have took down the terrorist, it took a lot of courage to jump in and support them, when the situation wasn't clear or safe. http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/22/europe/france-train-shooting-heroes/index.html

If you believe in the spaghetti monster, Yes, but if you start talking about the possibility of Meatballs or Sausages cohabitating with the Supreme Pasta or Tomato sauce can change into Marinara sauce, you might get a schism

Still not talking about Politics I am holding my nose and head away from that shit storm. Instead, I went to a nice summer BBQ, had a hot dog (no I am not eating dogs that would be cannibalism ), and just enjoying my day. Something I realized today though is that you can make a dry, non mayo Potato salad taste pretty good, but I think it robs the dish of the flavor it should have. I am not a huge healthy eater type of guy; although, I did bring a fruit plate to the BBQ as a gift (It's a Chinese hing, you're supposed to bring a gift if you are attending a party at some one else's house or food if it is a dinner). Personally, I feel potato salad needs fat to really make it shine, but I guess I am going against the mainstream here. This is what I want:

Faith is what keeps you alive in the darkest times Faith is the sustenance of the poor, the unwanted, and the dying Faith sustains mankind I am less religious than I am faithful, I believe in a God and even am open to the idea of him/her/it being mankind's progenitor (creator is an absolute term, but I think progenitor is a better concept, but that's mincing words). Religion is not bad or good, it is merely an organized interpretation, which groups of people coalesce around. I share some tenets wth Christians, Jews, Muslims, Taoist, and buddhists, so to me, Religion really isn't a big deal, just an interpretation.

Hmm, I don't know, isn't it illegal to follow a 15 year old boy around

You got my vote Tet, I wish some one would just call up a new convention and start a new political party altogether. I'd faithfully serve as Treasurer

I don't need to imagine with that

Happy Belated Birthday Bill W, may the black and white one smile upon you.

Happy belated Birthday Cia, puppies are fun

Oh, I am an old dog Junjo Romantica and its sequels are excellent for Homo-erotic and outright funny gay moments, plus it's actually an interesting show when they get into relationships of the main characters, who have 10 year age differences. PS: After years of waiting Season 3 has been picked up by the Japanese Animators and started showing since July 19th 2015! Wohoo!

Alright, let me drop politics for a bit and blog about something I seldom talk about, my nascent love of compression gear Yes, I have a naughty fashion edge to me; especially towards runner outfits and exercise outfits It's just so hot! It's also so form fitting Let me add a few more for fun: Yum Anyone else?

Mexico's economy is strong, the problem with them is that their wealth disparity is even worse than ours in the US. Nearly half their people live below the poverty line, despite having a relatively lower unemployment rate. When your country has the richest man in the world, Carlos Slim, it shows that they have potential for major wealth and growth. Trade will not solve this problem, we must reconcile both of our nation's immigration and economic practices. If NAFTA is to work, you have to develop a common council that can regulate North American practices in a manner similar to the EU's predecessor, EEC or European Economic community, which I think might be what the EU will go back to if the agreements do collapse in the wake of Greek and other national debts. That part of the EU made a lot of good sense and it strengthened economic growth across the region.

I agree Rustie,Abortion is probably going to be a new wedge issue, but immigration is getting more wedge problems as my position is being held by half the Republican base and the other half are fiercely against immigrants. That issue is already causing problems.. Personally, I tie my stance on Abortion to my stance on Euthanasia and "end of Life" planning. I believe that every sentient human being has a right to a "quality" of life and if the quality of that life is reduced due to age or extreme cases of injury, they should have the right to end it without being declared mentally unfit. Abortion takes away one person's choice to life, especially if it is late stage abortion, and that choice should not be taken without clear reasoning just like we cannot use the death penalty without a clear reason. On the flip side, I don't believe that God dictates how we should die, it is a matter of an individual and he/she has that free will to choose death for themselves. Being Pro-Life is not always a religious concept as media pundit try to tie; in my case, I just believe in a rational and logical concept of free will.