Former Member

I love Tom Waits. I know some can't take his voice, but his lyrics are straight up poetry. This song is powerful!

Believe me...I know.

This song is called "time", but I think the refrain Meine Seele möchte segeln gehen = my soul want to sail captures more of the context.

I’m sorry, that’s just not possible these days.

"When faced with senseless drama, spiteful criticisms, and misguided opinions, walking away is the best way to stand up for yourself. To respond with anger is an endorsement of their attitude." — Dodinsky

I wouldn’t call Alice Cooper ‘that ugly mess’ – I mean he’s not my type, but he’s not that bad! ;-)

So when will you be photoshopping Alice Cooper makeup onto your picture? Or will you take an new photo? ;-)

Well, it’s a good thing Jayden was in the hospital so long. It would have been much worse for him if he had been home when his cousins were apprehended. And it was good for Jayden to have gotten the reaction from Troy that he did! ;-)

I am not a fan of Alek.

That’s an extreme measure just to avoid having to fix your mascara! ;-)

No, no, no! Not gonna happen! I’m not a writer! ;-) Besides, my little snippets don’t add up to a whole lot. And probably the things everyone else would find most interesting would be the most difficult to think about. I can’t even write about those things in a journal for my therapists.

They are so wonderful, tim. You gave birth to pure beauty. Love A.

I’m regretting it enough for both me and Liam.

Just...wow!

Why don’t authors write ‘The End’ when a story is complete? I know it’s listed elsewhere, but those locations don’t include the final chapter! Noah needs to learn to delegate. He’ll work himself to death if he tries to run even this microscopic, village-sized Kingdom on his own. And he can at least trust Phoenix… ;-)

Too bad more parents can’t have that sort of honest conversation about sex. My father was very clinical and never mentioned the emotional aspects (because we do not talk about our emotions in my family – they are all suppressed, except anger has a way of escaping suppression!). The cultural imperative overrode the potential religious morality lesson. It was incredibly uncomfortable and we avoided talking about it ever again! ;-)

Whoops! I was a little off on my history & geography. Transylvania was part of Hungary several times in history, but is now part of Romania. Many of us in the US do not realize that the first five letters in Romania are a big clue as to the origin of their language – it was originally founded by the Romans and Romanian is a Romance language just like Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese (and thus an Indo-European language). But the Romanians, Hungarians (not an Indo-European language), and Albanians (an Indo-European language) are surrounded by Slavic language speakers and they have all influenced each others languages. I’m still loving the interactions between Mark & Stan. They’re like extremely intelligent versions of Stan & Ollie! Sort of bickering, but clearly love each other dearly. They might be my favorite characters in this series – and not just because of Stan’s red hair! ;-)

If Jake is smart enough to notice that Andrew is naive and sheltered, it should cause him to be cautious of moving too fast and scaring off someone who he’s interested in. I think their reticence is natural, normal, and prudent of both of them. Much, much better than just hopping into bed right after meeting – something that often happens IRL as well as much too often in GA stories… ;-)

Andrew might be a ‘lovesick puppy,’ but it doesn’t seem like it’s unrequited. Jake seems just as interested as Andrew is. There are too many signs for Jake to just be a friendly guy. ;-) We don’t know anything about Andrew’s new housemates, but they seem to be making a good start on being friends. Both Matt and Jake seem capable of protecting a somewhat naïve and sheltered Andrew. It seems like he’ll need lots of assistance. :-)

I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me... All I ask is that you respect me as a human being. ~ Jackie Robinson

And one of my favorite Michael Haydn compositions... the use of the soli instruments, and the strings in the background is one of the most original ideas even used in sacred music, and the effect is truly spiritual. "Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us."

For a more serious morning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wl4Ix-H1BYc

Yay! Going to Transylvania! It’ll be another challenge for Buddy’s translation program! Hungarian is distantly related to Finnish, but they’re not Indo-European languages! ;-) I wonder if China has vampire legends too… ;-)

I wish I knew how to weave the words to express how this poem touched me, but I'm too rough around the edges to fully explain myself. All I can say is..self examination is essential to growth.

Ryder is so conditioned to have everything fail that he has no idea how to deal with ‘Mr Perfect’. Teddy seems genuinely to care about Ryder, but he might be over his head this time. They still appear to be out of sync, but Teddy wants to try to make a stronger connection. Ryder does connect with adults better than with his peers. ;-)