vision

Actually you're pretty spot on there Graeme, the Sydney gay scene is incredibly shallow. I know guys who avoid it and many more who can't live without it. Personally I love going out and partying on the scene, for me the superficial crap is far outweighed by the fun aspects, though I'm probably not the best person to comment on this cause I tend to go out and party with a big group of friends, most pretty boys, so the superficial attitudes don't tend to be focused on us that much. In my group of friends we can be pretty shallow at times, but overall it's rare, especially when I see how others on the scene act. Personally I place a high importance on looks when it comes to attraction to a guy, but I don't carry that over into letting appearance dictate if I'll be friends with someone, afterall there isn't much point in being friends with good looking, rude, arrogant arseholes. At the end of the day I think personality is as important as looks in a guy, because without both the attraction will only be half complete. Let's be honest, looks aren't irrelevant, but they're only part of the equation. LMAO funniest thing I've heard all week Gary.

Anything of Dio's is good, I think he could write about almost anything and make it interesting... On another note, how can anyone live somewhere that gets below 10 degrees Celsius/50 Fahrenheit? I wouldn't want to go out...though I've gotta say the 40/104 degree plus summer days are a killer here. Enjoy the holidays as much as you can Dom, which means lots of alcohol to deal with some family...

What can one say other than, sorry, it sucks and Green will be missed. I hope you stop by from time to time to let us know how you are/what you're up to Chaz

Congrats Jakob and Seb.

Happy Birthday (sorry about the lateness, I've had a long, busy week at work and couldn't post sooner).

Happy Birthday Ben, I hope the surprise was good and highly enjoyable Remember you're not old for a couple of years yet *hugs*

I vote for eating the cookies, as for the hand I hope you put it under cold water right away *end of mothering*. My music tastes are quite unique, so listening to Country at work would be hard to deal with, my advice, get an MP3 player and it won't matter. Which hand is it by the way? Injury of hands is always bad for guys

Happy Birthday Dan

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Chris, hope you enjoy it and that it's memorable....or not

I'm not bitter about the day because to me it's just another day, always has been, including previous years when I wasn't single like this year. Having said that, I think people are crazy to spend $110 on a bunch of roses, I mean that's dinner at a nice restaurant, a night out clubbing or a new pair of jeans! Don't even get me started on the cards, I'm sure Hallmark and other companies love you spending money on a card. However if you really wanna show someone you care about/love them then it should be every chance you get, not once a year with flowers/chocolate and a card. The whole frog thing is cute, and little kids are ok till you have to actually do parent things like feed/clean/change them, that's when you hand them back to the parents.

Yes, sit her down in front of the tv while Martha Stewart is on She might even get some great investment tips at the same time

How to fold a fitted sheet? Roll it into a ball and throw it in the cupboard, best not tackle the mysteries of the fitted sheet....or just get one of those highly useful things called a mother to do it, they have mastered such mysteries quite well I find.

Hey Dom, I wouldn't worry about the people who complain about drug use in literature, because they are either closed minded, living in a bubble or a former addict that hasn't come to terms with it being portrayed in an objective light. I think it would be rather remiss of any author who writes fiction with teen characters to not have any form of drug use in their works at some point, from what I've read over 50% of teens have tried illegal drugs, however I think it would be safe to say the number would more likely be around 60% or more. The stats I have seen which are a few years old (because I haven't found any new ones) would also show that 25% of teens use illegal drugs once a month, yet again I think that number is rather low and incorrect. Many people have mentioned the consequences of drug use, outside of financial there are often none for recreational use, go to most clubs on a saturday night and likely half the crowd will have had some drug, the majority of them aren't addicts.....For every person who is an addict, there will be 10 who use drugs recreationally without addiction, so if you can distiguish between recreation and addiction then there is realism in your stories on the subject. I think the way you have portrayed drug use is realistic, in TLW it was recreational, sitting around having fun and relaxing in a social way, in TOU Trina had issues she wasn't dealing with and tried to escape them by drinking heavily and regulary. Safer sex requires condoms, lube, PEP (Post-Exposure Prophylaxis) if a condom breaks, regular blood testing if sexually active and the list goes on.....Not everyone will take those steps, you can't control what people do, you can try and influence them but yet again it comes back to realism.... As for unsafe sex in stories, I don't know what effect it has on younger guys, but I do know that the rate of unsafe sex is increasing, mainly due to young guys not seeing their friends dying in hospital like what happened in the 80's-early 90's. If young guys insist on unsafe sex then make sure it is an exclusive relationship (after sexual health testing) with a guy under 25, simply because the number of guys under 25 with an STD or HIV is really low compaired to those over 25, with those in the 30-50 range being the most HIV/STD infected group. I have no doubt someone over 30 will attack me for what i just said, but look at the facts. I have also worked in the sexual health field so I do know what I'm talking about, however not everyone will practice safer sex all the time, so there has to be a multi-layered approach to it. I know that in relation to gay sex education in particular that school's have a lot to answer for, since they provide next to no information, I imagine it's worse in the US with that abstinence only nonsense. That of any help Dom?

If at 19 you believe life has nothing worth living for then you must not have experienced many things, because while there are shit things and people in the world there are great things and people to. That said, I'm not going to say you can do anything you want if you try hard enough cause that's not true, however you can choose to not kill yourself. You can blame other people or 'faith' all you want, but at the end of the day it's your choice, you choose what you do, no one else. If you're not willing to invoke changes in your life then you put up with things the way they are. No one can say that they can't cut out the negative influences in their life, because it's simply not true. I won't regale you with stories of down moments in life, because if no one elses have had any effect why would mine? Life is for living, if you choose not to live it then don't complain about what could have been, you have no right to if you aren't willing to try harder at sorting things out. When in tough times, tough decisions are called for, if you're not strong enough to make them, then atleast don't drag other people down with you. I hope you don't kill yourself, because there is no reason to, at the end of the day death has a nasty habbit of being perminant, once you do it there is no turning back and I can think of nothing enjoyable that happens after death.