JamesSavik

While I agree, my senior english teacher would have beaten you to death with a ruler. When I say not every conversation is Shakespeare, I mean it is not in the queen's english, in iambic pentameter or considered to be a masterpiece by many.

I turned 18 about the same time I first heard of GRID and gay cancer. As a person who was interested in and studying the sciences, I followed the story very carefully. I knew that by the way people were f-ing around, if it was a contagious virus, we were in big trouble. The scientests didn't know what it was. We heard all sorts of stories like it was caused by poppers, the interaction of syphylus and herpes, drugs or even just the plain old wrath of God and the end of the world was at hand. It looked like a virus but it took them years to isolate it. Here in Mississippi many gay people more or less ignored it until it was too late. It was a long way to San Fransisco to New York. I believed that if we didn't change the way things were we were in for a lot of trouble. In fact, when I asked my long term boyfriend to be monomogous, it broke us up. When I told people I only do safe sex they looked at me like I was crazy. Then it hit like an atomic bomb in the late eighties. You would quit seeing someone around and then they would pop up in the obituary page in a month or two. Was it that many? Gay people usually hit the border running when they turn 18 in Mississippi. The community that stays behind generally knows a good many others. Maybe its because I knew so many it seems like it was so damn many. Every year it got a little worse. The worst year: 1996. People that had been hanging on on the old drugs were running out of time. The drug cocktails were still in trials. I lost my best friend, love of my life and several other friends. It was a real shitty year. Thinking about it- late at night when I'm wondering how I won the lottery and am still alive, was what I wrote the following. ___________________________________________ 1996 I have seen the fire Destroying everything in it path In its blazing wrath I have seen the fire Bringing terror as its might As it consumes the night I have seen the fire Slaying friends and lovers Strangers and brothers I have seen the fire. Out of control consumning souls Hell on earth a mass funeral pyre I have been burned by the fire With scars that don't show The loss it still burns and stings Friends and lovers I can not replace I am haunted by their familiar faces ashes and memories that I hold dear Are all thats left of those times and places I have seen the fire and the funeral pyre When I saw the lights go out on my generation And horror and confusion gripped the nation Consumed in a viral conflagration I look to my right and look to my left at the lonely, empty spaces I walk where we walked and talk where we talked in the lonely empty places and wonder to my self why am I still here the smoke it still stings my eyes Someone must be left to remember The year that innocence died.

Politics Closed Session of the Alliance Senate Armed Services Committee Galactic Alliance Parliament 0830 April 5, 2681 The thirty-two Senators of the Alliance Senate Armed Services Committee gathered in the chamber. Some looked bored, a few looked anxious but most were blank and unreadable. As soon as all the Senators were seated the chairman, Senator Franco Ortega of the New Columbia colony, pounded his gavel and called the meeting to order. "On this date, April 5, 2681 at 0830 Galactic Standard Time I call this Emergency Meeting of the Allianace Armed Forces Committee to order. Gentlemen, this is a closed meeting. We will be discussing matters of the highest level of classification. I remind you that the Official Secrets Act applies and parlimentry privilage does not. Any leaks will be rigorously investigated by Internal Affairs. Everything discussed here is to be consider code-word classified and may not be discussed with anyone without the proper credentials." "I ask the members to recognize the attendence of Director Markus Jarroe of Alliance Intelligence, the Honerable Olga Sjursen of the Executive Committee and Commander Kyle Dylan of Naval Intelligence. Admiral Chris Jamison will appear via sub space link from Ironman Station. I thank them and you for appearing for this meeting on such short notice." A video screen was lowered against the wall behind the speakers podium with the image of Admiral Jamison. "This meeting was called at the request of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Alliance Intelligence Agency and the Executive Directorate. At this point I will turn things over to Director Markus Jarroe." Jarroe raised his right hand and was sworn in by the Sargent at Arms, "Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth to this committee?" Jarroe answered, "I do." The Sargent at Arms said, "Please state your name and position for the record and proceed." "I am Director Markus Jarroe of Alliance Intelligence Agency. I am here to give you background and reveal several of the Alliances closest held secrets." "I have no doubt that you've all heard of ancient artifact discovered on the Cygnus Arm called Ironman. I'm about to tell you what we know that we have not released to the public. "In 2602 on a scouting mission in the galactic halo we encountered an intelligent alien race that we have designated the Andromedans." Almost instantly there was an outburst from the members and the Chairman pounded his gavel and called the meeting to order. "We were able to communicate with the Andromedans and found them to be friendly and very much like ourselves. They told us that they were the remnants of a civilization that once ruled the Andromeda galaxy pretty much like we control the Milky Way. While exploring their galaxy, they found an artifact described almost exactly the same as Ironman. They studied it and watched it just like we have with Ironman but for hundreds of years it was inert. One day it gathered fuel from a gas giant which it was orbiting and began transmitting a subspace beacon signal." "It continued to do so for almost a year and a half. Then it powered up again when the moons were in a rare alignment the artifact opened a gigantic wormhole. Several hours later an invasion fleet invaders poured through wormhole and destroyed everything in their path. The remnants of the Andromeda civilization moved to a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way where they have been in hiding ever since." "The Andromedans asked us to keep their existence a secret which is why we have not made the first contact public." "So, we are confronted with two inescapable facts. First: we know that there are other intelligent, space going races in the universe and one of them is extremely hostile. Second, we may be faced with the immenent prospect of invasion and the clock is ticking." This time there was no outburst. Politicians, people whose profession was to talk, didn't know what to say. Chairman Ortega said, "Thank you for your testimony Director Jarroe. The Chair recognizes Admiral Christopher Jamison of the Combined Fleet of the Galactic Alliance. Can you hear me OK Admiral Jamison?" Admiral Jamison answered, "Yes sir Senator Ortega." "Consider yourself sworn. You may proceed." "I am Admiral Jamison and I've been assigned to the Ironman project for the last four years. When I first heard the truth of it, it scared the hell out of me but the Fleet has been preparing for this quietly for decades. We have significant forces in system and heavy reinforcements within a few days jump. I would like to tell you that we could stop the enemy cold but we just don't know." "Realistically what we expect to happen is that our forces at the jump gate will be overwhelmed. That is where war plan Siberia comes into play." "We may be faced with a situation where we will have to trade space for time. We have created a series of strong points at strategic positions around the Ironman system. To slow the enemy down while the Alliance can mobilize for war." "Do we have any questions?" Hands went up around the table. Ortega said, "The chair recognizes Senator Halbert of Pacifica." "The Senator said, "I address my question to Admiral Jamison. My homeworld Pacifica is less than fifty light years away from the Ironhand system and we have over a billion people. Should we be thinking about evacuation?" Jamison replied, "That's a political question that I just can't answer. That's why we're talking to you today." Hands raised again. Ortaga said, "The chair recognizes Senator Keller of New Caldonia." Senator Keller said, "I want to address my question to Director Jarroe. How real is this threat. We're talking about a race that is eons old. Maybe they died out. Maybe they've settled in Andromeda." Director Jarroe replied, "We have high confidence that the threat is very real. We have found other artifacts within the galaxy that we know were left by the race we call the Galaxians. According to the Andromedans, they move around the local group of galaxies and destroy civilizations that could challenge them and take what they want. They had scouts in our own galaxy as late as a few hundred years ago. In fact we are sure that they abducted humans from Earth." Ortega said, "The chair recognizes Senator Renault of Rigel." Renault said, "I want to address my question to Admiral Jamison. What can we do to help." Admiral Jamison said, "Thanks for the question. It's the most impotrtant one that we can ask at this point." "We need to go to full mobilization. We need ships, fighters and ordinance. We need speed the development of new weapons and a new generation of ships. We need trained crews, officers and pilots. We need funding and a lot of it. We need to prepare. Not just the fleet but our people too. We may be in for a long, ugly war with an enemy that is thousands of years ahead of us in technology. We need everything and we've only got a year and a half to get ready."

Ironman Stirs In 2660 Dr. Dylan Yarlburo published a 15,000 page volume with the ponderous title Ironman: A Survey of 100 Years of Study. It was met in the academic world with deafening silence. Ironman had become junk science. Its study had occupied many careers and had banished many promising scientests to obscurity. Ironman simply defied the best minds in in the Galactic Aliiance. Even after 100 years of constant surveillance with the best technology the dark hulk was as big a mystery as ever. The consensus of scientific opinion was that Ironman was a very powerful alien device constructed for an unknown purpose. An artifact of an ancient race whose purpose and motives humanity could only guess about. By 2677 the Alliance senate questioned the need to continue funding ongoing scientific and military surveillance of the object. The military was able to stave off cuts because of their considerable investment in support installations in the system. The study of Ironman had become the academic graveyard. Only underacheiving grad students or scientests trying to resurrect flagging careers could be recruiting to man the research station that monitered the hulk. On April 3, 2681 a graduate student named Carl Grant was dozing while sitting at the main console of the research station located on the moon simply known as 11-C. The instruments came to life starting him. Ironman's power generation went up 11,000%. On the surface of Ironman a huge ice flat vaporized in an instant and a tight blue beam reached out to the gas giant below. Over the next few hours Grant watched as Ironman greedily devoured several hundred billion liters of liquid hydrogen from the gas giant below. Three hours and twenty-two minutes later, the beam ceased almost as suddenly as it began. A thick cloud of foggy gas covered Ironman making it look even more mysterious than ever. Nervous calls went out. The fleet base went on alert and all available ships slipped their moorings and took up position several million kilometers from Ironman. Someone on Admiral Jamison's staff orddered a news blackout after the research station had already begun transmitting data to the various institutes in the Alliance that still had research interests in Ironman. Despite the communications blackout, the news of Ironman's awakening spread like wildfire. The military's blackout fueled rampant speculation by conspiracy theorists across the Alliance. Rumors began to spread about military leaves being cancled and ships unexpectedly moving out. Galactic News reported that the Alliance Fleet had been mobilized for wargames. After Ironman fed on the gas giant, it began to do things that no one had seen it do over the century that it had been under close observation. Whole regions of ice vaporized. New features began to appear on its surface. Rows of blue, green, red and white lights appeared. After spiking during those first four hours, the objects power output came down but stabilized at a much higher level than had ever been observed. Ironman began to emit a powerful regular pulse in the subspace communications bands. Special teams of first-contact specialists tried desperatly to communicate with Ironman. They sent prime numbers. They sent mathematical symbols. They sent everything they could think of. Ironman may have been talking but he wasn't talking to anyone human. Alliance Fleet Intelligence identified the signal. It was a beacon.

Not every conversation is Shakespeare- especially when the parties are two nervous adolescents with a lot of hormones and questions on their minds. Does he like me? Does he like me like that? Will he out me? Will he destroy my social life and make everyone hate me? Will we make love or will he punch me?[/i] Hell they are lucky they don't scream and run away to hide in the woods. They aren't going to be perfect with their grammar or diction. They'll use the wrong words. They'll laugh inappropriately. They won't know what to say. They'll say and do things that are just plain dumb. They will be awkward. They'll make mistakes. They'll put their foot, boot and all up to the knee, in their mouth. They will crash and burn tragically. Or not. That is the beauty of the game because we all play it, know the stakes and on some level- we have too.

I was just thinking- the last two generations: 60-79, 80-2000 were the first two generations with extremely high divorce rates. At least half of all people now come from a divorced family. This has GOT to be a big influence on how realtionships function- or dysfunction. If you learn growing up that relationships are temporary and that people are disposable, the answer to this riddle is obvious.

I think that many relationships fail because of unrealistic expectations. Women are taught that Prince Charming or Mr. Right is out there waiting for them. Str8 men are looking for a hard drinking oversexed supermodel with no self respect. Gay men are looking for Peter Perfect. Anything less, they are just passing the time with and will discard when Mr/Miss. Right comes along.

who?

Who?

because people are, as a whole, worthless and weak. Not to mention spoiled and self-absorbed. Oh and don't forget: out for #1 not caring who else gets hurt as long as they get what they want.

Ironman In 2531 the galactic survey cruiser Cabot entered CYG 035-4122 on a routine mapping mission. There was absolutely nothing out of the ordinary about the system. CYG 035-4122 was ordinary in all respects with a dwarf star and an average planetary system. It was merely one of thousands charted during the First Galactic Survey. What the Cabot found there would have profound implications for humanity. The Cabot entered the system and began a routine scan of the single class K4 dwarf star, 6 terresterial planets, 5 gas giants and discovered a mysterious energy reading from one of the six moons around the last gas giant. After charting the system, the Cabot approached the "moon" to get more detailed scans. Even from millions of kilometers away, it was obviously very different from the typical icy, rocky moons usually found around gas giant planets. On their approach the science officer first noticed the eccentricity of the orbits of the planets six major moons. He ran some calculations on the mechanics of the moons orbits. The sixty kilometer moon was massive and extremely dense effecting not only the orbits of the moons but the planets orbit around its sun. The Cabot took up a high orbit of the mysterious moon. On the outside it was covered with several meters of hydrogen-methane ices. Just under its icy crust, it was a solid, metallic perfect sphere. It could not be a natural object. The Cabot stayed on station studying the object for a week. Her crew could find no access or portal into what could only be described as a massive structure. The sphere gave up none of its secrets. Frustrated by what the crew knew must be a great oppertunity for discovery, they left a long term monitering satellite and continued their survey. Two standard Later later the sceince ships Niels Bohr arrived at CYG 035-4122 and began a long term study of the object. Eventually a research station was established on one of the other moons of the gas giant. Papers were written, theories were forwarded but the sphere yielded none of its secrets with the exception of one: from its particle emission profile, it could only have a point singularity power source at its core. The object was a gigantic sleeping titan with a beating heart of raw, unlimited power. The object made some people very nervous. In all of the millions of charted star systems in man-kinds ever growing databases, nothing had ever been found even remotely like it. Scientests, the military and corperations throughout the galaxy desired its secrets but no one could could unlock the enigma that the military codenamed Ironman. By 2540 CYG 035-4122 was home to three research stations and was the Galactic Alliance's largest fleet anchorage for 400 light years in any direction. Study of the IronMan became an industry of its own. After years of fruitless study, Ironman became something of a scientific white elephant. Its study was put on the backburner and all but one of the research stations closed. There was talk of closing IronMan Anchorage but there were those in the Admiralty who made keeping their presence in the system a priority. Rumors and legends swirled around Ironman. For decades it was a favorite of tabloids and conspiracy theorists. Every decade or so interest in Ironman was revived in popular culture. It was the topic of numerous holo-books and movies and finally a footnote in the history of the fast growing Alliance that was quickly populating the galaxy.

NOT to flame. It's annoying and it attracts big knuckle dragging rednecks that I have to beat to death if we are to escape and survive.

Check him out at Comedy Central His Creed-o-cide skit is the funniest damned thing since the Crusades

One of the hardest distinctions to make and lessons to learn is when a f*ck is just a f*ck. I know that its difficult but with some guys, that's as deep as it gets. A lot of guys are simply NOT emotionally connected and are not very successful in relationships with women or men. Whether they are emotionally callous that way or all about the orgasms they can and do cause a lot of emotional angst. You just have to deal with them (or not) where they are and not expect a giant emotional revelation from a horn-doggie. So- have a smoke, store it away as a warm fuzzy memory and thank god it wasn't a drunk college chick who will decide six weeks/months from now that you raped her.

git a rope If there any way to get shot by a Texan it is to steal his horse, mess with their girl/guy or kill their dog.

Jackson Rathborne has "Frodo" eyes. I'll grant that he's a cute pup but he's much to young for me.

EWWWW! How sordid!

Does that mean we start calling her CATTY-WOMAN *runs away to hide*

Farve's Retirement A drunken haiku with vicodin How long have I been playing? I guess its time to call it a career... <goes fishing, hunts and is bored to death> I feel like I've got a few more years in me... <Romanticizes days gone by, calls his agent> The Jets! They suck. I can be a savior! Where do I sign? [season starts, Farve is brilliant! [season progresses, old body feels the pain [season midpoint, Farve spends all his off hours in whirlpool, has a pez despenser full of vicodin that he chews before swallowing [slump begins, Farve is slower, his passing losses its zip he takes a beating [season ends, Jets miss playoffs, Farve needs a walker and depends This sucks. I retire and I mean it this time. Signs Big TV deal with FOX and lives happily ever after... except when there's frost. Then he needs a walker and depends.

If a blabbermouth like Madden can be an NFL announcer, sees like Farve who actually played the game in recent decades would fit in nicely as a color guy.

Sober by Tool Theres a shadow just behind me. shrouding every step I take. Making every promise empty. pointing every finger at me. Waiting like a stalking butler, who upon the finger rests. Murder now the path of must we, just because the son has come. Jesus, wont you f**king whistle. something but the past and done. Why cant we not be sober? I just want to start this over. Why cant we drink forever? I just want to start this over. I am just a worthless liar. I am just an imbecile. I will only complicate you. trust in me and fall as well. I will find a center in you. I will chew it up and leave. I will work to elevate you, just enough to bring you down. Mother mary, wont you whisper. something but the past is done. Why cant we not be sober? I just want to start this over. Why cant we sleep forever? I just want to start this over. I am just a worthless liar. I am just an imbecile. I will only complicate you. trust in me and fall as well. I will find a center in you. I will chew it up and leave. Trust me. trust me. trust me. trust me. trust me. Why cant we not be sober. I just want to start things over. Why cant we sleep forever. I just want to start this over. I want what I want... I want what I want... I want what I want... I want what I want...

Correction: this is the first lesbian superhero. Northstar, a member of Alpha Flight- a Canadian team of mutants in the X-men universe, was the first gay supehero.

Brett's a sure bet for the hall of fame the first year the he's eligible. He's proven how good he is. Why hell- he even gave the Jets a winning record. I just hope that he retires while he can enjoy his retirement... and solid food.

Objectivist: you didnt spell check your title........ I understand the title. Dom's speaking Southern. Where he picked that up, we can only Guess. HUI is pronounced: Hoo Whee! It often comes before Hey y'all watch this and the unfortunate death of a redneck doing something really stupid.

*Hugs Dom* Sometimes we've just got to figure these things out for ourselves in our own time. If you were not "cheating with the computer", you would be cheating with work or the grocery store or the cable guy when your partner has that sort if insecurity. You don't need that kind of greif and "fixing it" is higher maintenance than a house with a cracked foundation.