Former Member

I forgot about the reveal! ;-) Mrs Lynch was clever in talking to Kevin’s mother alone. She was able to speak without fear that Kevin would hear things that would upset him even more! And now Kevin’s mother can take the time to absorb this new information about her son and his boyfriend. ;-) TMJ is Too Much Information for languages that sometimes confuse ‘i’ with ‘j’? ;-)

Following up on a couple things others have mentioned. If Jimmy were, as some pondered, not biologically male, he would still be a man if that’s how he identified regardless of physical genitalia, hormone treatments or lack thereof, and surgical intervention or not. Just because someone is not cis-gendered does not mean they are not or cannot identify as male (or female). It is not up to us to decide who is or is not male (or female), just as it is not up to others to decide our sexual orientation for us. That being said, I’m shallow, I’d personally have a difficult time entering a relationship with a man who lacks a penis. Second, the US Post Office identifies both Canada and California by the same abbreviation: ‘CA’. Canadians also love to playfully insult their southwestern-most Province (so far), British Columbia, by calling it British California! California owns the URL www.ca.gov! Of course, if we joined the Canadian federation, we’d more than double the Canadian population! Linguistically, we are similar to Canada in the percentage of English speakers (California: 57.4%, Canada: 56.9 + 16.1 who speak both English & French), but we have a similar percentage of native Spanish language speakers (28.5%) to their French language speakers (21.3%). In addition, 2.8% of Californians speak Chinese and 2.2% speak Filipino. The LA metro area (13.3 million) and the San Francisco metro are (7.68 million) would overtake Toronto (5.9 million) in population. The San Diego metro area is 3 million but the San Diego-Tijuana metro area is 4.9 million. Sacramento metro area is 2.2 million. If we bring Washington and Oregon with us, the Seattle metro area is only 3.8 million and the Portland metro area is just 2.4 million. Maybe we could negotiate to make Canada trilingual when we join the Federation. ;-) Lots of Canadians have already migrated to California. Most have been very welcome here. But one or two [Justin Bieber]… ;-)

Shhh! You don’t want him to switch to the @Timothy M. schedule for updates, do you? ;-)

Wow! You really analyzed this in depth! The rest of us just blindly agreed with what Brett said because we could see that Billy was so wrong to not tell Brett after all the prompts. I cannot disagree with anything you wrote! ;-)

Ryder has turned the corner and he’s setting up the next few projects for his future. One personal (his marriage to Teddy) and the other two musical (the Messiah epilogue and his new work with Oli)! All this means is that @Aceinthehole with come up with some sort of obstacle for Ryder to navigate! Nate? Messiah’s record company? The tabloids? Ryder’s own health condition? ;-)

Oh, TMZ will have a field day with Ryder starting a band with his soon-to-be brother-in-law! They’ll say he’s trying to recapture his youth when they find pictures of Teddy on stage with Messiah and compare him with Oli! But Journey’s Neil Schon was only 15 when he joined Santana! (Neil Schon had to choose between Eric Clapton’s offer to join Derek and the Dominos or the Santana invitation at the time. Clapton’s group was having health problems at the time and that was the reason he chose Santana. He recorded two albums with them. He formed Journey in 1973.)

Every time Billy thinks something like that, he proves himself wrong! He doesn’t just not understand other people, he doesn’t understand himself! I asked to be tested for Asperger’s/Autism Spectrum last year. I was given a whole series of tests, not just for Autism. When the results were analyzed, they decided that although I met several of the criteria for Autism, I didn’t check off enough boxes. I also was told that I am in the top 5% in intelligence. They allowed that my high IQ might be masking some of the other symptoms of Autism Spectrum. Much like Billy, I may have a high IQ, but social interactions are always difficult for me. I still haven’t found my Brett. ;-)

I don’t see Detective Diamond as a particularly clever crooked cop. He’s been too transparently obvious to be too intelligent. Quite often, those who are attracted to hateful churches are just looking for justification for their existing prejudices. They aren’t looking to be challenged intellectually or morally. ;-)

But couldn’t they add a second percussionist to Messiah? There are other groups with two drummers in them (but please don’t ask me to remember their names). Or they could trade off drumming duties for various songs. ;-)

But the detective was as crooked as we suspected. And the connection was exactly what we thought. It is a good thing that the female police officer witnessed the pictures before they were deleted. But in some cases, deleted images aren’t really removed from the drive, the directory listing is erased, but the actual data is still there. I’m not sure how flash memory, as used in cell phones, works. I’m only familiar with the older hard drive technology. Still, it’s something that could possibly be investigated. ;-)

It’s small consolation for Troy, but at least it was only attempted rape. It’s a good thing the dog walker was out with the dog at that precise time! It’s not quite as bad as we had feared. ;-)

Applebee's is using Melissa Etheridge’s Come to My Window in their current TV ads. Is this the first time that anyone has used a Lesbian’s music on a national ad? It’s the first time I can remember, in any case. 😉 But until 2008, they used another Lesbian, Wanda Sykes, to voice their Applebee’s Apple mascot saying ‘Together is good’ or ‘Get it together, baby!’ 😉 Maybe Melissa can keep Applebee’s from having to close even more locations.

Oli said what I’ve been saying, that Ryder helps the Haners come together in a way they hadn’t been since Oli was born! ;-) Ryder appears to have turned a corner and is on his way back from the abyss. Between Teddy’s loving nagging and Oli’s enthusiasm and energy, Ryder is getting exactly what he needed! And he’s recovered enough to start writing a new song with Oli! ;-)

My only complaint (yes, only one!) is that Drake referred to his ‘lifestyle’! Being LGBTQ is not a lifestyle, as Romanovski & Phillips say, it’s life with style! It’s almost as annoying as when people refer to their own sexual orientation as a ‘preference’ – they’re both hateful and inaccurate descriptions that demean LGBTQ people. ;-)

I’ve been thinking about reading this story for a while. But I kept procrastinating. Shorter is better, this story seems less intimidating that starting COTT (which I think I started at one point in any case). ;-) You’ve already got plenty of interesting little tidbits to explore. Intriguing little morsels that hint at what you have planned. And quite a few mysteries to reveal! ;-)

Splat!

My older nephew (who I spent the most time with) will be 31 next month and my younger niece is 19. I’ve barely seen my two grandnieces. It’s been a long time since I’ve spent time with any toddlers. I have managed to get a couple of my toddler neighbors to wave hi and bye, but they’re shy and don’t speak much English, if at all (Spanish and Arabic?). ;-)

You might be interested in Paris 05:59: Théo & Hugo (original French title: Théo et Hugo dans le même bateau; aka Theo and Hugo). It starts off in a Gay sex club with some very graphic images. It takes off from there and shows the protagonists in real-time over the course of 93 minutes ending at 5:59am. It was directed by Olivier Ducastel & Jacques Martineau, my favorite French directors – unlike most French directors, they film the last reel of the movie!

What about a lightning strike that causes a church to burn down during a service? An act of god to punish ungodly pharisees. Divine retribution.

Maybe you can translate the second sentence for me then! I think I’m doing pretty good with @Wesley8890’s phone spellcheck that apparently doesn’t do English. I’m reading a story with a Russian immigrant to the US who is learning English, but occasionally lapses back to his native language. And then there’s @R. Eric’s stories that have included Italian, Romanian, Russian, and Ukrainian/‘Makarovian’. At least I’m not learning Danish from @Timothy M.’s stories right now… ;-) I struggle with my broken Spanish, the second most commonly spoken language in my neighborhood. I like the concept of knowing multiple languages, but I’m really bad at learning languages. I wish I were better at it, but even though I’ve tried with three different languages, I’m still very monolingual.

Have you seen Mr “I like to think that I'm gay in my art and straight in my life” James Franco’s Interior. Leather Bar. (2013)? It’s an attempt to reimagine and recreate the 40 minutes of deleted and lost sexually explicit footage from Cruising. Warning, it’s not for everybody, but you’ll probably be okay since you already saw Cruising itself. ;-) I saw the Franco movie without ever having seen Cruising. It was interesting to me. But it would probably have been more meaningful to have seen Cruising first. ;-)

That’s assuming the child lives with you. I don’t see Devin and Ashley surviving as a couple if she gets pregnant. But I can imagine Devin being legally forced to pay child support for his biological offspring.

Pulling out is very effective – if you want to be a daddy at 16! That’s a title that you’ll keep for the rest of your life! A minute between the lips, child support for 18 years! ;-) I doubt it! They seem unaware of the possibility that they’ll soon become grandparents! No parent wants to think that their babies are having sex (of any kind)! ;-)

That’s because tabloids are so predictable! They take anything that’s even remotely interesting and exaggerate it way beyond believable. They’re not above using Photoshop to ‘enhance’ the point they are trying to make! How many celebrities have been photographed having ‘gained’ 100 lbs? How many have been photographed on death’s beds doorstep? And then there’s the faked shock, pretend disgust, and disguised glee over naked celebrity pictures! ;-)

When has looking like your father been an issue for TMZ and everyone else? Do Michael Jackson’s kids look even slightly like their father? I’m almost surprised the Jackson kids weren’t blond like mini Macaulay Culkins! ;-)