Former Member

My cousins in Chicago manage to get ‘pop’ to sound incredibly nasal! But having grown up in Hawaii and California, I drink soda. And none of it comes out of my nose unless I’m laughing! ;-)

And I have to laugh since yesterday I read Comments from early chapters where people were getting upset with @Timothy M. assuring us that Russ & Jacob weren’t going to be in a BDSM relationship! Cleverly, he neglected to make the same promise about Russ’s twin! Sneaky author! ;-)

I was the lone drummer in the Comments of another story. It’s very lonely when seemingly everyone has forgiven a character who claims to have changed. I feel your pain (even as I march to the other beat in this story). ;-)

Yeah, I thought those flat rocks at Hippie Hollow were kind of weird. Certainly not like any other beach I’ve ever seen. Queen’s Beach at Waikiki (in the ‘60s, at least) is the Gold Standard for me. ;-) It was so great when California banned smoking in almost every public place! But only a few cities here ban smoking in public parks. Berkeley bans smoking in the entire downtown business district – unfortunately they don’t enforce the ban and there’s no real wold difference.

One way to minimize hard drive crashes is to set up a RAID – there are different variations of RAIDs with some increasing the risk and one designed to copy data onto two different drives. ;-) It is also very important to use a surge protector at a minimum. Even better is to use a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply – ie a big battery) which in addition to providing surge protection, also gives you a couple minutes of electricity when you have a power outage or brownout. The power adapter of a laptop should provide surge protection too - what sometimes looks like a fried computer is a dead adapter. ;-) And as has been mentioned, data can often be recovered from hard drives. If there’s nothing actually wrong with the drive itself, the drive can be moved into an external case and plugged into a different computer. If the drive is damaged, there are often ways to recover the data, but depending on the damage, it could be extremely expensive. But you might think the cost is worth it if the data is extremely valuable (as with baby pictures?). ;-)

Well it’s a good thing we didn’t take bets on who and when Liz would slap somebody! Three slaps in just a minute! I know she feels better for getting them out of her system, but does she have one saved for Mike too? ;-) A truce between Liz and Ryder is a start. It’s probably the best he could have hoped for. She feels there’s too big of a gap between them. ;-) I’m trying to picture my high school's Class President/Mr Popularity/Water Polo Captain sinking that far into depression in our Senior year and I just can’t imagine it! The Annual naturally has a picture of the water polo team in their speedos. Brian Wilber’s huge (for the ‘70s) chest on full display. ;-)

Every time it seems like things are getting better for TJ, something happens that makes him doubt that things will ever improve for him! His past has made him doubt everyone and everything. His past has taught him to expect the worst. He’s so worried about what might happen next that he can’t see all the good things that are happening around him – or he misattributes them to them solely to Randy. Most of their classmates aren’t really bothered by having a visible Gay couple in school. There are just a few who , cowardly, call out slurs from within crowds. And Deanna and Dennis who are openly hostile. Four of their friends were very supportive with Wilson and Dean protecting them physically, and Trisha and Steph bringing them lunch! ;-)

I’m sorry if that I sounded angry or offended. That wasn’t my intent. I just wanted to point out that some of us are more fortunate than others. I love that you pointed out that we are where we are because others fought for our rights! Too many people are unaware of the sacrifices made by those who came before us. Nobody teaches us our history, we have to go search for it ourselves (which helps explains the many faux pas committed by newly Out celebrities and athletes). Fortunately, there are many excellent books, movies, and documentaries out there if we spend a little time looking. The LGBTQ community does not have a way for our ‘grandparents’ to tell their stories to our young people except through those books, movies, and documentaries… ;-)

So you’d be okay as long as they turn the soundtrack off? ;-)

If I remember correctly, you’re a cop with the training that goes along with the job – plus you have ID that identifies you as such. Most of the rest of us don’t have that. Some don’t live in places where the government and much of the population supports LGBTQ rights like you and I do. We are very fortunate to live where we do, but some others live where it is less safe to be so visible…

Yes, and you used it for your recent, brilliant, Christmas story Bravo

Clearly the cameramen and the directors who are deciding who to show on camera during the Opening and Closing Ceremonies for NBC are either straight men or Lesbians! If you only saw TV coverage, you’d think the majority of the athletes competing were young women! Yes, Girl Power and all that, but I want to see the guys! ;-)

I used to pick up my mother’s cousin for holiday gatherings. It was a twice-a-year task and she would forget the names and relationships of my brothers, cousins, and their kids. She sometimes got confused about my two brothers and thought I only had a single brother. She even thought I was her Aunt’s son rather than her Aunt's grandson (my maternal grandmother only had daughters)! To be fair, she hadn’t spent much time with my family even before that period and she was elderly by then. I spent time while we drove to go over who she’d be seeing and how everybody was related to each other. Fortunately, my family is fairly basic (the only divorcé on that side of the family lives on the opposite coast; and a single remarriage on the other side of the family). ;-)

But we already know that Robbie and Tom slept together (in both senses) at the beginning of the story! We know that Tom isn’t a Zero on the Kinsey Scale even if he identifies as straight. The only question is whether Tom has explored his feelings with other guys. ;-) Will Daniel discover that he’s not quite as straight as he always claimed? Everyone pondered Alex and Tom, but what if Daniel gets tempted to explore with Tom? Tom might seem safer for Daniel since he’ll be going back to England in a few days… ;-)

In college, an ESL friend of mine asked out of the blue one evening, as we were about to head over for dinner, a similar question. He said some word had come up in his class "as the most beautiful" - oh, yes; it was paradise. I told him for the combined meaning and sound, no word in English is more perfect than 'absolution.' I suppose I still hold that opinion today. But on a purely phonetic level, I have thought many Japanese words are lovely just for their sound, that is, within the aesthetic of that language. One such is (I'll do it phonetically first) Sheen-Kahn-seine. The three characters mean "new light echo" and shinkansen is what the entire bullet train system is known by.

Will it inspire you to continue if we chase you when you edit? ;-)

If we leave you comments on your older chapters are you more inspired to get the boys hitched? ;-)

What about books like the Goosebumps series the I recall had a new title every month (at least back in the ‘90s)! ;-)

When I worked in a bookstore, Stephen King’s books sold very well. We’d refer those who asked about similar authors to Clive Barker. They’re both fine authors, just not my taste. ;-)

By my count, Team LGBTQ had 11 members during this Olympics. Belle Brockhoff, Australia – Women’s Normal Hill Individual Ski Jump Brittany Bowe, US – Women’s Speedskate Julie Wu Chu, US – Women’s Ice Hockey Daniela Iraschko-Stolz, Austria – Women’s Normal Hill Individual Ski Jump Gus Kenworthy, US – Men’s Slopestyle Cheryl Maas, Netherlands – Women’s Slopestyle Kim Meylemans, Belgium – Women’s Skeleton Šárka Pančochová, Czech Republic – Women’s Slopestyle Eric Redford, Canada – Men’s Figure Skating Adam Ripon, US – Men’s Figure Skating Sophie Veercryssen, Belgium – Women’s Bobsled

I thought the other thing that was significant was that Matthew Wilkas was specifically described as Gus Kenworthy’s boyfriend by NBC’s commentators and they didn’t make a big fuss over the kiss! The group included multiple Rainbow Flags too. LGBT athletes were also featured in several major TV ads. ;-)

My problem is way too many writers think they’re good enough to write a believable story. I need to have a large percentage of realism for any sort of paranormal to work. And it all depends on what exactly you are describing as paranormal. ;-) I’m not a big fan of Stephen King-type paranormal. I used to read mostly Science Fiction/Fantasy where there are lots of paranormal aspects included. JRR Tolkien’s wizards, elves, and Sauron are all paranormal in some way. JK Rowlings’s wizards are also paranormal. Most Superheroes are paranormal. Religion is paranormal. ;-) You know I’ll tell you what I think of your stories! ;-) What sort of paranormal are you actually intending to write about? ;-)

I thought the phrase was ‘slap and tickle’! ;-)

Womb envy? ;-)

They’d all have to sit to pee! ;-)