Former Member

When I get these Notifications, I can never tell whether they’re the first chapter of a continuing story or if they’re a single part story. Somehow, I can imagine this being a stand-alone story with the cruel author forcing readers to decide what the mystery is by ourselves, like the French do with their movies! And if I had to speculate on what comes next, I’d say that Finn’s father is related to D’Saimquatimaquatee, making Finn only half human. ;–) This feels like a very creepy fairytale! ;–) By the way, thank you, Tim, for promising further chapters so I don’t have to write the story for myself in my head! ;–)

You mean like ‘Warui kodomo’? Or like the two words I mentioned on sandrewn’s Status Update? (Or did you learn them from Anime or Manga?) You, my friend, are a most fascinating person with the most unusual talents, interests, and knowledge! ;–)

You forgot the ‘accidental’ nude photos or ‘stolen’ sex tape! ;–)

Well, I know you know at least several words in Japanese and Chinese, will you be learning them soon? ;–)

With everyone buying all the ‘smart’ appliances, it’ll only take a virus or worm to infect and take control of a home. I don’t want my TV to be monitoring what I say, much less my kitchen appliances. It all seems like technology searching for a purpose for existing. It’s like the cars that keep automatically you in your lane or prevent you from rear ending the vehicle in front of you. Kids learning how to drive won’t know how to do that by themselves. They won’t know what to do when they need to take over from a vehicle that wasn’t programmed to deal with an unusual situation. They already don’t know what to do with a clutch and a manual transmission! ;–)

What about the ‘ç,’ ‘é,’ ‘è,’ and ‘ö’ en Français as well as the ‘ñ’ en Español? (There’s also the ‘ß’ in German and the ‘ø’ in some Scandinavian languages.) And they all use the basic Latin alphabet. ;–) I’m guessing it also means you won’t be taking Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or any of the numerous South and Southeast Asian languages with their less commonly known written languages either! ;–)

I couldn’t read this all at once. That’s very unusual for me. If I have nightmares tonight, it’s all your fault! ;–) I don’t like cobwebs and I’m not particularly fond of spiders, but I’d rather have them around than the insects they eat! ;–)

But Bob is kind of a clueless fool. I don’t think he really knows what was going on. He’ll reveal lots of useless information, but won’t know enough to really reveal the interesting stuff! ;–)

I guess everyone else was so traumatized by this story, they can’t Comment on it yet! ;–)

If you sell photos to a local newspaper or TV station, make sure you keep the rights to the image. Don’t let them sell or give the image to other affiliates or agencies. Make all the others buy the rights from you separately! (Using their app to upload the image gives them all the rights at no cost to them. And don’t post the images to Facebook, Instagram, or other Social Media sites because that gives them the rights to use the image however they wish.) ;–) If you sell your story, you want to have an experienced lawyer look over the contract. You don’t want someone to buy the exclusive rights only to bury the story – as happened with Stormy Daniels (Stephanie Gregory). You want to make sure you get a good price for the story as well as a sympathetic interviewer who will write a story that is accurate. If the story is big enough, you should be able to demand an LGBTQ interviewer or someone else who you’d be comfortable with. ;–)

Poor Andy! He falls of the ledge while naked and ends up in the hospital. The first thing he sees when he wakes up is fat, ugly Bob! Followed by a very sleazy tabloid newspaper reporter. Then it’s Dewsbury and the annoying and amazingly talentless Tyrone! Celebrities often get a boost from these sorts of scandalous events (eg Hugh Grant). But the unfortunate innocents caught up in them usually get the worst end of the deal. Their names are dragged through muck, their past is examined for any hint of poor behavior, and fans of the celebrity blame them for causing their hero to undergo renewed scrutiny over the event. It’s often a case of blaming the victim.

Very creepy!

I'm a bit confused about pictures of New York being attached to this chapter.

Why do I get the feeling that Novy’s grandfather will be sponsoring Novy & AJ’s team? ;–)

So Gabriella and Betty get to plan it, but they can’t attend it?

There are plenty of Gay men who have dreamed all their lives of planning a wedding, but never thought the wedding would be their own. In the past, they did wedding planning as a career. They had to enjoy the pomp and ceremony vicariously. Those men aren’t the majority of Gay men, but they do form a significant segment of our community. ;–) Men are not targeted by all the marketers of wedding clothing, decorations, venues, musicians/DJs, photographers, wedding magazines and other providers. Boys are not socialized (ie programmed) to dream of their one special day. Boys are not encouraged to fantasize about being a prince for a day. On the contrary, boys are discouraged from expressing emotions other than anger. Boys are told that men don’t cry. Boys are expected to man up. Our culture is creating generation after generation of aggressive, but emotionless robots.

I prefer Cherish with its Herb Ritts-directed video with the mermen in black & white. Especially the mermen – one of whom was Tony Ward, later to become Madonna’s boyfriend for a while, but was also featured in two nude layouts in In Touch for Men Magazine (credited as Anthony Borden Ward), Madonna’s SEX book, and in Bruce LaBruce's movie, Hustler White. The other three mermen were water polo players who were ironically from Pepperdine University, a conservative religious school. ;–)

I don’t know. When you’re a closeted teenager, playing Twister with a clueless jock is pretty exciting! Even if your equally clueless sister is there. I still hope Kyle was able to get copies of the pictures – for ‘later.’ ;–)

I’ve seen the video, but I’m not much of a dancer. I don’t think I’ve ever danced to Vogue. I know I don’t know the motions she does. ;–) I did see the documentary about her dancers from somewhere around that time – it’s worth seeing if you enjoy her music at all. ;–)

You know, just the other day I was polishing the tines on my pitchfork when @Timothy M. posted that chapter of The Cardmaker and the Caretaker… ;–)

My impression, based on my brothers and a few of my (hetero) friends who had babies, is that even straight couples struggle at least a little to get used to dealing with a new baby. They have about nine months to get prepared. Connor didn’t have that preparation time, but at least Leon was probably off the bottle and potty trained! ;–) And it sounds like no one threw him a baby shower, so he had to buy everything himself! I realize Connor doesn’t have regular work colleagues, but hasn’t anyone offered to babysit or help him by bringing him casseroles or potluck meals? He seems incredibly isolated! I forget if you mentioned his family, but my parents, aunts & uncles, and all of my other relatives wanted to spend time with my nieces and nephews, especially my older nephew since he was the only baby of his generation in my mother’s family until his sister was born four years later! Even if the family Black Sheep (me) had had a baby, they would have wanted to spoil the baby and take tons of pictures! Where is Connor’s family? ;–)

Were they watching the original version of Queer as Folk? Or the US/Canadian version? The original version’s Nathan (Charlie Hunnam) was supposed to be only 15 years old and fits the student/teacher fantasy better than Justin (Randy Harrison) who was supposed to be 17. ;–)

I’m kind of surprised that she didn’t use a computer or tablet to create them. They could, of course, be scanned into a computer and printed out too. But I used to work in a computer store and I have all the equipment (including a small Wacom drawing tablet) to do it even though I’m no artist! ;–)

It’s a testament to your skill as an author! :–)

I used to watch Eastenders in the ‘80s. When Den & Angie used to run the Vic. I remember seeing the first scene when the Gay guy (who later went on the become a member of the European Parliament) – somehow I knew he was Gay even though the scene was basically silent. I watched through Dot’s AIDS panic arc. I saw a few more major events, including the large blonde woman taking over behind the bar (who also later Came Out, as a Lesbian). I read about Pauline Fowler’s demise in the story and Wendy Richard’s real-life death. I have no idea who the Slaters are. I think I stopped watching in the ‘90s or so. ;–) But I learned how to understand most of what they said. And laughed when Angie talked about ‘match-o’! I was surprised to find out that Walford’s Albert Square was all a huge set, it looked so real and dirty – so very unlike Hollywood’s fake street scenes. ;–)