Former Member

You must not have been paying attention. More than a billion people haven’t exactly been quiet about their preparation. Our local casinos love having two New Years celebrations to hype! They don’t do that with Jewish, Persian, or (South) Asian New Year’s Days. ;–)

@daveymars, you need to post more often! I may not agree with you (eg Harry Hamlin), but I love how you say what you do! We need to have more people like you around here! ;–)

Gong Hei Fat Choi! apparent loose translation: Congratulations and be prosperous! The (East) Asian Lunar New Year is coming up soon (February 5 in 2019)! It’s the year of the boar/pig. My year! ;–) Will the gang be celebrating? More than a billion others will. It’s celebrated in China, Taiwan, Korea, Vietnam (Tét), and Tibet, but not in Japan. ;–)

The next time you’re about to interrupt a woman while she’s speaking, stop. Ask yourself if you’d be interrupting a man while he’s saying the very same thing. Sorry, this isn’t a quote. And it’s more advice than inspiration. This was inspired by something said on today's PBS Newshour’s Brief but Spectacular segment which wasn’t up yet when I checked for links. ;–)

Can they reset our nuclear clock? It’s been sitting at 11:58pm for quite awhile now. Jerry Brown just made this year’s announcement a few days ago… :–(

I feel ancient! I turned 47 that year! I’m almost old enough to be your grandpa! ;–P Stay warm, @Page Scrawler. I’ll be thinking of you when it dips below 50°F at night a couple times this week. It’ll be around 60°F during the days… ;–)

Even in your first attempt, your skill shines through even if it’s less polished than your later work. If Gary were real, he’d be turning 29 this year! In a few years, he too could be dealing with a teenager. How does that make you feel, Grandpa @Ronyx? ;–)

I believe the guardianship option would have meant that Robbie would have remained in Donnie’s house, but not have given them total control over Robbie’s life. There are minor, but important, differences between the two legal statuses. Guardianship was the default option while adoption was a legal change in status. ;–)

They have an annual Black Cowboy Parade in Oakland. ;–)

Robbie’s biggest mistake was allowing Donnie and Susie to adopt him. That gave them more control than if they had only remained his guardians. There might have been more legal oversight of Robbie’s situation. This is all due to his incredible stupidity.

Clay killed Steve? But he has no motive! He’s just a kid! ;–) Oh, you meant Jake’s dad! What was his motive? I don’t see any reason why his dad (or his mother) has any reason to kill Steve. They might have had a reason to not have Jake around anymore, but not Steve.

Which one do you think she did? ;–) My impression is that she is guilty of both. She might not have intended to kill either one of them, but her reactions seem to suggest she did. If not Natalie, who killed the other guy? ;–)

Okay now they know Natalie did it. I hope the two ‘pops’ were the bag dropping on the floor and cops shooting after they heard the ‘pop’ from inside the apartment and kicked the door in! It would be incredibly anticlimactic if Natalie was killed after all this. And Ben can’t die!

I guessed that, but it was much funnier (to me) to intentionally misinterpret the line anyway! ;–)

The examples I noticed had multiple chapters yet zero Comments. I don’t think I’ve ever read a story where no one Commented. I guess it’s partly because I use the number of Comments as a crude scale for how popular a story is – the Likes and other Reactions aren’t visible on the Newest Stories page. And I’m sure it’s partly because I would almost certainly Comment if I planned to read more than just one chapter… ;–)

I hope you’re not driving while you read the story! ;–) Especially when combined with his reaction to Don & Marco, it’s obvious what’s coming next! ;–)

An Olivetti Praxis! It was an office typewriter. Certainly too heavy to be portable – and electric to boot! It was a fine machine when it was new, but technology progressed very swiftly and the ball-type fonts were surpassed by the disk daisywheel fonts that made the machinery involved much simpler, lighter, and cheaper! The typewriter only needed to revolve the disk daisywheel on a single plane. I’d forgotten the model name until I read your reply! ;–) Occasionally (at least for me), the @ name process is a little finicky. If it doesn’t work, delete the name and the @ symbol and start again. Sometimes I have to have my browser redraw the page to get it to work. ;–)

I’m amazingly fluent in a language I’ve never learned! Too bad that only works virtually. I’d love to be able to speak a second language and German is on the short list of the ones I’d most want to speak! ;–) The men I’m most attracted to seem to have origins around the North Sea area! ;–)

When I was homeless, there were people who would pretend to need to use a cane so they could skip to the front of the line. It was pitiful. It made the others who really did require assistance less likely to be treated sympathetically. My ex has good medical insurance and has been able to see specialists whenever necessary.

My ex-boyfriend has long had back problems. Over the decades we’ve known each other things have gotten worse. He sent me a copy of a medical report that was filled with terms and descriptions that were way beyond my understanding, but sounded scary. His doctor is referring him to a specialist because the treatment they’ve tried has not been successful. The report doesn’t say what can be done or the chances of improvement. I think the unknown is scaring my ex more than anything.

As long as it’s by your choice, being alone can be nice. ;–) It’s when it’s not by choice that it becomes unpleasant. Unfortunately, at the same time that many older people feel more isolated from family and friends, they become less mobile. This often requires someone else to make an extra effort to pick up the isolated individual. If no one thinks to do this, an invitation is pointless since they can’t get there anyway. Using public transportation requires a certain amount of mobility and there is also less (or no) service on holidays.

You know… maybe Eric and Andy could do a gardening podcast together! ;–)

My mother had long typed Sunday Programs and church bulletins for my minister father. Since those were mimeographed, she had to cut stencils. You didn’t want to make mistakes because you had to stop typing and use a liquid correction fluid. She was very good and rarely needed to make corrections. She was a very accomplished and experienced typist who had started on a manual typewriter and graduated to an electric one. It wasn't an IBM, the Selectric was much too expensive and they bought a very sleek Italian Olivetti with replaceable font balls and expensive single-use ribbons. Unlike many people her age, QWERTY was very familiar to her. ;–) My mother used our then-new Apple IIe once, to test a typing game. When we first got it in 1984. But never again. ;–) She later got a job in the local community college ‘Learning Resource Center’ (which everyone else calls a library). She had to learn how to use their computer to check books in and out. But she refused to use any other computers. ;–) On the other hand, she learned how to record the programs she liked on the Betamax VCR I bought in 1980. I got tired of setting it up for her and eventually refused to do it anymore. Since she wanted her programs recorded, she reluctantly learned. And as they bought newer models over the years, she learned how to program them too. Because it was something she wanted done. ;–)

I’ve had to apologize for things I’ve said that were misinterpreted (to put it mildly). When I post what I intend as a joke, it seems obviously humorous to me and I have been surprised that I’ve insulted someone unintentionally. I try to make sure I don’t repeat my mistakes, but written words can imply different things to people with varying backgrounds and experiences. I’ve had to apologize to people I respect very much and have edited posts to try to minimize the damage I’ve caused. It’s never enough, but I do try. I am Risk Averse and shy too. But I’ve gotten comfortable here on GA. I hope with time, you’ll be able to relax a little more. I’ve read a few of your Comments in the past. I like hearing from as many different people as possible. There have been many times when others have mentioned things that I’ve overlooked and I like to mention things others haven’t noticed. But there have been times when others have expressed what I thought so well that I could only say ‘Ditto.’ ;–)