Former Member

You have seen the Empire Strikes Back movie, haven’t you? I realize those are movies of my youth, but surely you’ve seen them at some point…

In a weird way, that was kind of like Darth Vader’s sudden awareness of Luke’s (twin) sister, Leia! Maybe I’m weird, but that’s what flashed in my mind when I read that! Hopefully, it’s not going to be as adversarial as the Luke/Vader relationship – and certainly won’t have the genetic thing either! ;-) Andrew’s Jedi mind tricks didn’t work at all either! ;-)

Even with the Latin Alphabet, there are keyboard layouts that differ significantly from the standard US English keyboard. For example, the French use AZERTY instead. Others remap the layout slightly.

Very heart wrenching. Twenty years ago I took a punch to the mouth that loosened my teeth, and busted the inside of my lip up pretty bad. My mouth swelled up like I'd been socked by a prize fighter. The pain is long gone, but the shame followed me around for years.

When I first read this, I was wondering what kind of kinky people lived there before! Was there a stripper pole in one of the rooms too? And then you explained what it was and I felt incredibly stupid! I’ve never had to deal with anything like that either personally or anyone I knew (being Risk Averse has advantages). Louis and Don really do need to do a lot of talking. That’s one of my issues too. I’ve had a couple relationships end because we weren’t communicating… ;-)

Even when I don’t like the direction a story takes, I’m likely to continue to read it just in case the author discovers enlightenment*! But my Comments will focus on things beyond the plot points I disagree with. Things like Autocorrect… ;-) *There’s still time for @LitLover to have Liam wake up from his long nightmare since the System won’t let her change the status from In Progress!

Okay, so it wasn’t just me missing it on the New Stories page then… Why? Does it look like I’m upset? I think if it bothered me, I’d be more likely to go silent… ;-)

I don’t know how I missed this*. I prefer EMTs over fire fighters – they tend to be more lean than beefy. Maybe Dean can meet an EMT… ;-) I’m trying to be really good and not harass @Timothy M. and yet he still thinks I’m going to bother him. Geeze, you just chase someone with a pitchfork and torch a couple times and that’s all they remember about you! It’s not like I keep running back into the Closet about my reading Timmy’s stories or anything… ;-) *I blame the Notification system that still has some weird glitches.

So much nicer than the badgering that appears at the top of most pages these days regardless of whether I’ve been Commenting regularly or not. I know exactly what Geoff was feeling like. I have pretty much the same doubts and insecurities myself. My therapists have not cured my of my doubts. ;-)

I live in the San Francisco East Bay area. It’s very expensive to live here because so many others want to be here and move from all over the country and the world. But there are amenities that are impossible or very difficult to replicate. Frameline film festival (the world’s oldest and largest LGBTQ film festival) is how I celebrate Gay Pride. The weather here is nicer than just about anywhere else, it rarely gets too hot and never gets too cold with no hurricanes, tornadoes, or blizzards. I’d only choose to move to another nearby city. But if I were forced to leave the Bay Area, Seattle or Vancouver, BC are the two places that come to mind first. Australia would also be a possibility since I know a couple guys there. You’d think I’d want to move to Scandinavia, Germany, the UK, or the Netherlands (or the upper Midwest where most of their descendants immigrated to) since those are the kinds of guys I’m most attracted to, but those locations are also way too cold for me! A Joel, Tor, or Peter would have to move the Pacific Coast for me! ;-)

It’s a whole church full of sanctimonious hypocrites! They’re all worried that Billy or someone like him will start exposing all their secrets and sinful behaviors! Paula’s worried that George will find out about her alleged affair with the minister, but he probably already knows. ;-) Billy shouldn’t have said what he did, especially in front of the group that was gathered, but it was much too tempting. It’s also possible for the Lock-Down Unit to be referring to Joey. But literally locking down Joey’s ‘unit’ is probably unlikely. As much as he deserves it, it would probably be considered child abuse to put Joey’s penis in a chastity cage! ;-)

Yes, but it’s so unfortunate that Alek has to sacrifice himself to save the world. In the first paragraph. Such a noble end to a conflicted character… ;-)

You are the perfect candidate for one of the DNA testing services to discover where your ancestors came from. Apparently, you get a chart with percentages of various ethno-regional groups. Ancestry has had at least one sale (a few months ago) for I think about $50-60. I don’t know just how specific they get (ie Manx), but it probably depends on the specific groups and how much DNA data they have on the area (plus how much those groups moved around and how insular or shunned they were compared with their neighbors).

Right here, right now, because there's no other place for the likes of me. Being one of the last of the original owners of these lands... I'm fit for nothing else but here. F*ck trianon and all standing behind it.

Mythbusters had an episode where they tested the bull-in-a-china shop saying. The bulls were amazingly nimble and avoided knocking into any of the shelves in the pretend china shop that they had set up. The Mythbusters guys were surprised too. Like @Wesley8890, I'm eagerly waiting for the sequel where Alek gets bitten by a Sparkly Vampire™ and has to fight off Neon Werewolves™ (they can’t ambush you in the dark, so they hide in Canada Tire) and Polite Canadian Zombies™ (‘Please excuse my appearance, eh?’, ‘I’m sorry for frightening you’, and ‘Would you care to join me at Timmy’s for a coffee?’). There is a midair collision of the entire fleets of Nyce and Petrov airlines – fortunately all two planes are empty and the flight crews are able to parachute out safely. Their CEOs are offered jobs in the FAA and NTSB.

Watch out for lithium battery fires! ;-) Shopping at the MallWart is unpatriotic and supports an economy-destroying corporation.

Sedgeway must be a cheap knock-off of the Segway! ;-) While disturbing and frustrating, Troy’s attitude and depression is very understandable. Once again, Officer Wallace cluelessly bumbles along initiating yet another crisis – although this one’s not life threatening! Partly because no one has thought about it, partly because they don’t think it’s important, and partly because they were afraid of how he’d react, no one mentioned Jayden’s connection to Troy’s attackers before. Naturally, Wallace informs him in nearly the worst possible way making Troy legitimately feel betrayed by everyone! Jayden should sue Wallace for his life-threatening actions! Will Wallace Out Jayden in school as Gay next? The guy doesn’t seem to have a reason for causing distress for Jayden, he just seems incredibly incompetent at his job!

@Timothy M. still hasn’t Commented!

Victorian Britain gave us white meat vs dark meat so they wouldn’t have to say breast or thigh!

Finally caught up! ;-) I think I’d be suspicious of a couple who showed up who was reputed to be extremely wealthy and from out of the country. Even though Gabe is Canadian, he no longer lives there. They’re both unknown outsiders in any case… Speaking of Gabe, did he remember to get his bag out of the plane? It seems like he could give the Nikolovs checkups while he’s there. And couldn’t they hook them up with an apparently non-Dea-Con foundation to assist with upgrading the Nikolov’s home (possibly assisting the whole community as well)? They wouldn’t want to look like they’re ‘buying’ Dane.

What did people do before cell phones and texting? You couldn’t be contacted 24/7! Of course in the days before answering machines, you actually had to catch someone at home to leave a message! And yet we all somehow managed! ;-)

The world has turned upside down. There’s now an ultra-premium SUV market. In the past, if a wealthy person wanted a truck (because that’s what SUVs really are), they bought a Land Rover or Range Rover. Then there was the anomalous Lamborghini LM002. And the Mercedes G-Wagen. More recently, the Porsche Cayenne/VW Toureg proved that the very rich were no more logical than the mere rich. BMW, Audi, Lexus, Infiniti, Jaguar, Lincoln, and Cadillac all compete in the lower end of the premium market. Rolls-Royce and Lamborghini have or will introduce their competitors too. I’m surprised that Cadillac, Lincoln, or Chrysler/Jeep don’t make a truck-based limousine similar in concept to the Cadillac Presidential Limousines. That would solve Ford/Lincoln’s luxury rear-wheel-drive sedan deficiency (the only rear-drive Ford car is the Mustang since the Australian Ford Falcon ended production in 2016). They could be modified for use as hearses too. But they’d be too big, heavy, and expensive to be used as taxis or police cars. And the market’s not big or profitable enough for Toyota and Nissan.

I’ve seen quite a few up-kilt photos, including many where the guys intentionally spread their legs for the camera while seated. ;-)

It’s so funny he wanted to go back to his job with Mr Chen. I’m kind of surprised his brain didn’t go back further to work with the Foroughis. Hadn’t the Chens both been retired years ago? ;-) Oh, and I kept thinking ‘Jordan Applebaum’ seemed like a vaguely familiar name, but somehow off just a bit. Then it hit me. There’s a sports guy for one of the local TV stations named Jason Appelbaum – I hate sports, so I don’t pay a lot of attention to those guys, but I’ve emailed this guy before about things that his former boss would say on-air (back when he was a producer) and he was very nice in his responses.

Don’t they have a standard 32hr/4day work week in France?