Former Member

I’m not likely to pay for a companion to accompany me if I knew I were going to kill him in the end. I would want to know as little as possible about the person. It’s a bit like how farmers don’t name (and make pets of) the animals they plan to eat… ;–)

I think it’s interesting that Striver Stravor (stupid autocorrect!) is surprised to hear Keter’s thoughts, but not shocked. This suggests that this ability to project thoughts is not common, but also not unheard of in their world. Someone experiencing that in this world (without mechanical or electronic assistance) would make a much bigger fuss! ;–) Striver Stravor usually seems to treat others with more respect and kindness than is typical. He pays well and ungrudgingly when others with his power might be more of a bully. The reaction of fear to his mere presence suggests that other Searchers are not as polite. Keter is very empathic and assisted Galeth in cleaning up the mess without prompting. He then went to Dayson to suggest that he hire Galeth. These actions appear to be less unusual than in my CA at least… ;–)

This is a cute little story about some high school students who learn about more than just reading, ‘riting, and ‘rithmatic! As usual, I want to read more about these characters. I want to see them have more adventures. I want them to meet Charlie Boone! ;–)

First of all, congratulations on doing so well in the competition! I’ll have to go back some day to read the other stories. The picture reminds me of a black-and-white Frameline festival trailer from many years ago where two straight couples from the Fifties are on a double-date at the movies. The two women sit in the center, next to each other – they smile and giggle over something that they see on the screen and start to hold hands. The two guys each reach their arms around their dates and pull away immediately when they accidentally brush hands. The guys glance at each other, then eventually begin to hold hands behind the women’s backs. ;–) I’m glad you didn’t have Jerry double-dating the siblings. I’m sure there are people who do things like that, but I don’t think that’s particularly realistic behavior for high school students. Maybe I’m just old, out of touch, and prudish… ;–)

Rutger Hauer (left) and Derek de Lint (right) dancing together in a scene from the war drama film Soldaat van Oranje (Soldier of Orange, 1977, Netherlands, directed by Paul Verhoeven)

I watch a lot of LGBTQ movies, but wondered why I hadn’t heard of Handsome Devil. From the guys’ description, it sounds like it wouldn’t have had enough LGBTQ content to have made it to Frameline (San Francisco’s annual LGBTQ film festival) unless it had been from a country with no history of LGBTQ cinema (as with some Eastern European, African, South Asian, or Central Asian countries). But looking at the Program for Frameline41, I see it was shown twice at one of the smaller venues in San Francisco, not the Castro Theatre that I basically camp out in during the festivals. ;–) I remember seeing a very funny short film from Ireland that had dad following mom to an apartment, not knowing that mom was investigating where the daughter was going, and all of them discovering that there were some very interesting secrets in the family! ;–)

All the familiar faces here! How come nobody invited me to the party? If GA were more like Amazon, this would have been a recommended story for me for sure! ;–) Like @JeffreyL and @FanLit, I was overwhelmed by the Calculus. Intermediate Algebra never made sense to me and was the last math class I ever took. I’ve only used addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and percentages since then. Even geometry was a wasted class for me… ;–) The synopsis on the story page seemed to suggest to me that Sean was a customer whose groceries were bagged by Tyler rather than a coworker. I probably misread and misinterpreted that though. I was more focused on the unusual combination of @chris191070 and @AC Benus liking the same story! ;–) I’m glad I was curious enough to read this chapter! ;–)

The only Samuel Beckett I’m interested in was in Quantum Leap! Scott Bakula was pretty hot back then. He was still hot in Star Trek: Enterprise and on Looking. I’ve seen most of Quantum Leap, but I’ve only seen some of Enterprise and Looking. I watched the backdoor pilot of NCIS: New Orleans, but never got into the show even though I’m a faithful fan of the original NCIS. Scott has played at least two Gay roles: Jim Olmeyer in American Beauty and Looking's Lynn. But one of his first roles was the Off-Broadway production (and later, the Pasadena Playhouse production) of Three Guys Naked from the Waist Down – I’m sure I’m not the only pervert here who would want to see pictures of him in that play! He was on the cover of Playgirl in 1995, but that suggests he didn’t appear in a nude pictorial. Scott also had a role in Life as a House, the movie that proved that, contrary to all the green-screen evidence in Star Wars, Hayden Christensen actually could act. ;–)

If, like me, the tag ‘magic’ normally scares you away from reading a story, I hope you’ll take a chance and read this story. @Mikiesboy has a way of transcending genres with his carefully researched tales. His previous series have caused me to fall in love with a sentient salamander, a (non-sentient) pony in a post-apocalyptic world, and a couple dealing with a very serious disability, among many others. His descriptions pull you in and when the story concludes, you beg him to keep writing about your friends! With just a single chapter posted so far, we are already begging Tim for more! ;–)

He’s also one of three Openly LGBTQ actors playing LGBTQ characters on the show. Wilson Cruz plays his now-former live-in partner. Tig Notaro plays an engineer who was revealed to have had a wife who was killed in the war. This is the fulfillment of a promise made by Gene Roddenberry. Later producers made very weak moves to followthrough, but never came close to having regular (or recurring as in the case of Tig Notaro) LGBTQ characters in any previous Star Trek series. Star Trek has long had a very strong LGBTQ fan presence and there have been LGBTQs involved in the production in the past as well. ;–)

I believe his character is described as being some sort of exobiologist or mycologist. His character has been researching the use of fungal spores as a propulsion source for starships. Does this count? ;–)

I’m enjoying Star Trek: Discovery (recorded in Toronto) especially because of Anthony Rapp! ;–)

What’s that? ;–) Yeah, I’m guessing it’s a show about fishing for exotic aquatic fauna. But I’ve never seen it. Why would I want to watch people, probably nearly all men, pointlessly tormenting wild fish?

That has been a discussion topic with another of my favorite GA authors. He prefers to post very long stories. This is complicated by GA restrictions on posting more than one chapter in too short a time. But he has bowed to public opinion and usually splits his longer stories.

I hate trying to read a novel that has no chapter divisions, just paragraph after paragraph after paragraph. There’s no obvious stopping place. Did the author expect me to read the novel from cover to cover without pausing? (I can’t remember the title, but it was an Oprah Book Club selection and I think it had a post-apocalyptic setting.)

A rockin' trifecta. Michael Hofstetter and Anna Bonitatibus bring alive Cimarosa's 32-minute long scene of unbroken music from Act Two of Gli Orazi e i Curiazi, 1796. That war-torn decade produced the turmoil represented in this Classical story of two families driving their nations to war, despite the blood and sorrow it means. This scene is the rushing moment war becomes inevitable. (Sorry for the over-use of the wind machine at the start of the scene... It goes away quickly.) Cimarosa's grand opera is considered by many to be the greatest of the entire 18th century. A recording like this show why.

I read the GOT books while I was homeless and staying at the very religious rescue mission. I violated their rules about reading during their mockery of a religious service. The only thing we were supposed to be reading was their holy fairytale. I guess the big, fat hardcover copy from the library looked like one of their religious fairytale books and they ignored what I was doing. People were awaken if they fell asleep. Men who wore hats were forced to remove them during the service. With one very visible exception, headphones and earbuds were not allowed during the service (and I could never figure out why they let him wear his cans). We were not allowed to discuss or talk back during the service on pain of being thrown out of the mission. Attendance of the service was mandatory if you wanted to eat dinner and/or stay in their dorm. It was sometimes difficult to tell which was more dominated by hypocrisy, the mission or GOT. It was difficult to know which was more violent, their fairytale stories or GOT. But there was a whole lot more nudity and sex in GOT than either of the other two! ;–)

I think the guy in brown waving his arms around next to the wall is the one who will expose his much too fleshy self to Cercei (who had previously discussed her disgust with Robert’s too fleshy body), dancing in front of her, and wagging his unimpressive member at her to the enormous delight of the rest of the crowd. ;–)

I took a series of psychology tests a couple years ago. One of them was to look at a black and white drawing and create a story about what I saw. There were several pictures I was given to create stories about. Each story had to have a beginning, middle, and ending. My stories were more like sketches, but were accepted as being sufficiently complete for the purpose. None had any dialogue. I think, in part, the stories were depressing because most of them were pretty dark. And, strangely enough, they all seemed to involve Gay characters! I wonder why that would be! ;–) I don’t know who creates the rules on what constitutes a story, but I think the definition is broader than any that a pedant might create. And I know pedantics. I only have to look in a mirror! ;–)

Quite successful as a story because it has a beginning, a middle, and an end. It’s an interesting little tale too. Easy to picture in my mind even with your minimal descriptions. ;–) Folded paper boats are among the West’s traditional origami designs. ;–) The boys should use a glossy magazine instead of the traditional newspaper as their source material, although that would mean their boats would be much smaller. ;–)

We just thought you didn’t love us anymore… ;–)

It was ironic that the Septas called out, ‘Shame! Shame! Shame!’ when they were the ones who should have been ashamed of their own behavior. Cersei had even more to be ashamed of, but that doesn’t absolve the Septas (and Septons) of guilt. The Faith of the Seven was corrupt to the core. ;–)

The real problem is that they never really communicated honestly with each other. Based on the half-truths (aka lies) that they told each other, Aidan made a logical and self-protective choice. Why should either one of them have trusted the other when they weren’t open and honest?

I believe that Aidan left the smoking gun proof on Heathcliff’s doorstep! Heathcliff’s problem is how to get out of his contract without any financial or legal penalties. Exposing the ‘Healthy’ Shakers will be easy compared with that! ;–)

We bit. He set the hook. And now he’s reeling us in. Slowly, so the line won’t snap! Just a tidbit a week… And how was that for a non-fisherman who refuses to eat fish or most other forms of seafood? ;–)