Former Member

I didn’t spend a lot of time with them while they were still alive. I have my regrets, but they were never really able to get me to do everything they wanted. As I said, I’m stubborn. ;–) We don’t get to choose our parents, but we grow up dealing with them so not much of what they did was a surprise. ;–) My younger niece is 19 and my older grandniece is only 4. I’d prefer to think that you’d be more like a nephew! ;–) I struggled with my finances about a decade ago and my brothers demanded that I stop giving their kids gifts. I was homeless for a little over two years, but have been housed for nearly six years now. I’m on Disability now and have a very limited income. So the only gifts anyone gets are things I’ve made. ;–) When my youngest cousin was around 7, I started working and I started sending him Lego for Christmas. When my nieces and nephews were young, I gave them Lego and Duplo. I also bought Lego and Duplo to keep at grandma & grandpa’s house. I also bought wooden blocks to keep there too. I don’t think the kids knew who bought all the toys that were there – I’m not sure if my brothers and sisters-in-law knew either. I wanted to be the fun uncle, but I think they think I’m their weird uncle instead (I’m okay with that). ;–) I used to buy a new game every year when we would get together for Christmas. I tried to teach them how to fold some simple origami unit origami designs. But I never spent enough time with them when they were younger. ;–)

Young marines can be hot, but they eat too much of Uncle Sam's free food and after a few years, they get fat. Plus the pretty ones get huge, ugly tattoos to butch up their bodies and to prove how macho they are. Too many of them get steroided up thinking they’re bodybuilders. And I don’t agree with the political opinions of the vast majority of them. ;–) But the blond architect sounds promising! ;–)

My parents never tried to get me to marry a woman, they know I’m too stubborn to do that! But they treated it like a huge embarrassment that needed to be hidden. My (Protestant minister) father eventually realized he’d rather stay in contact with me than drive me out of his life. He still didn’t understand why I would ‘choose’ to be Gay though. He was sad that I wasn’t going to be there in ‘heaven’ with my mother and him. ;–) My brothers gave my parents one grandson and one granddaughter each. And my oldest nephew has two daughters and a third on the way, but my grandnieces never met their great-grandparents. But then my parents have been gone for more than a decade now. As an Agnostic, I’ll be with all the fun people instead! ;–)

If something similar had happened in my family, there would be an attempt to contain and control the damage. Nobody would talk about it. it would be a huge family secret that was never discussed even though everybody knew about it. It would be humiliating to the family that such a scandal ever occurred. Everyone would pretend that it never happened. That’s how my Asian family would handle it. Or not… ;–)

How weird that an Asian family would voluntarily move to Missouri (or as Mitchell Pritchett on Modern Family pronounces it, ‘Misery’)! ;–) I know all about Asian family dynamics. We just dealt with the death of my Lesbian(?) Aunt at 89. There was no way that they’d ever talk about her probably being a Lesbian even though we talked about her two long-term ‘roommates.’ They probably won’t talk about my being Gay either, after I die, even though it’s no secret. I’m about 60 now, but if I live anywhere near as long as my other relatives have, it’ll only be because I’m stubborn, not because I take good care of myself or anything. ;–) Fremont has a relatively high percentage of Asians – my dad grew up in Centerville, now a district of Fremont, where there are now so many Afghanistani businesses that they unsuccessfully tried to get Fremont to officially designate it ‘Little Kabul!’ Santa Clara County’s West Valley area is part of the Bay Area with majority Asian/Asian-American population. Lots of Vietnamese in San José, Filipinos seem to have congregated in Milpitas and Daly City (my Filipino friends used to joke: ‘What’s the first word a Filipino baby learns?’ Serramonte.), and there are several Korean neighborhoods in Oakland. ;–)

That’d be considered theft if it didn’t involve family. Legally, it might be anyway. No matter what, it’s morally wrong!

Okay, ‘hella’ is very Oakland and Bay Area so I know what that means. But I’m just glad that Wikipedia includes most of these initialisms that come from fandom and IM. It’s like learning yet another language. When I was homeless I learned rudimentary Ebonics (eg ‘Can ya feel me?’). But like all the other languages I’ve tried to learn, I’m not fluent and could never carry on a conversation – I only know a few words! ;–)

Heath is junior? ;–)

I checked and I got Notified about Thorn’s and your two Comments (Replying to Thorn and to me). Nothing about an Update and I get them about other author updates seemingly regardless of how I’ve subscribed. Something’s screwed up in the software… ;–)

Something weird about the way you’re posting new chapters is preventing Notifications. I only got a Notification when @Thorn Wilde posted a Comment. I’ve switched from subscribing from subscribing to the story to your story page. The GA Notification system does slightly different things depending on where you subscribe and it’s never been clear to me why. Sarcastic bastard! ;–)

Dallas, St Elsewhere, Newhart… ;–)

You could create a redo by having the unplanned tangent be a dream sequence… It’s been done before. ;–)

That was supposed to prepare you for working with others in your eventual career. Assuming you don’t choose a job where you work alone. Although almost everyone has to deal with others at some point… ;–)

Still waiting for that! ;–)

Surprisingly, the two directors are the very same guys who directed the very explicit Paris 05:59: Theó & Hugo (aka Theo and Hugo)! At the Frameline showing of this movie (aka Ma vraie vie à Rouen), I got them both to autograph my Drôle de Félix (aka The Adventures of Felix) DVD, they were very excited that anyone would want their autographs. One of the joys of attending the oldest and largest LGBTQ film festival in the world. ;–)

Better the FBI than Chad! ;–)

Was Todd inspired by the notorious scene in Fast Times at Ridgemont High where one girl is demonstrating how to practice with a carrot and everyone notices? ;–) It’s good to find out that Shaun was feeling guilty over his role in Outing Gary! ;–)

I knew who you meant! ;–) I’ve been corrected more than once when I misremembered a name. ;–)

Any Australian readers? There’s a guy who hasn’t been around in over a year who’s from Hong Kong, but I think he was reading this too.

I figured that @hobo is using a translation utility to translate the whole page anyway… The clue was the quotes appearing in German! ;–) I hope I didn’t seem insensitive.

Eeeeewwww! ;–)

I hope it wasn’t one of Alex’s misguided attempts at a love tap! ;–)

And you live(d) in a place enlightened enough not to block you from fostering legislatively! ;–)

A future story about a blacksmith shoeing horses? ;–)

At least you don’t have to worry about mascara smearing – or did this chapter get you really excited? ;–)