JamesSavik

Frankly there are a number of gay celebs that are complete and utter doush-bags and I wish they would crawl back into the closet. George Michael and Boy George: are you a-holes listening??? If you are going to come out, please don't make an effort to personally reinforce all of the worst stereotypes about gay people. Martin- I agree with you about coming out/not coming out and gay celebs. If a person who is widely regarded as a jackass comes out, it does nothing to help our cause. Hermann Goring was a freaky, nazi cum pig who had other nazi bigwigs shot so he would have first dibs on the best Aryan meat. That DOES NOT mean we want Hermann Goring as a gay icon.

Wouldn't have been caught dead at a breeders mating ritual. Ugh-- gag me with a forklift. Our high school consisted of the rich insiders and everybody else. Needless to say everyone else was welcome to come as long as they would sit down, behave and STFU. Otherwise the staff and the in-crowd parents would give you a lot of flak. Never ones to miss a chance to party, we had a massive party deep in the woods and far from anybody's complaints. One of our friends parents had land out in the country. We went out and cleaned up our party spot: a nice sandbar by the Bayou Pierre about 30 minutes nort of Port Gibson. We had enough booze, beer and bongs to float a battleship. The party started with a BBQ Friday evening and most of us got home Sunday afternoon. If you didn't get laid on that trip, you might as well shave your friggin' head and become a monk. BTW- we had more people than the real prom which was a snoozer. As I understand it, the River party alternative to the prom is a tradition that continues at that school to this day. It's more fun and less stress and nobody gets killed or busted.

I am delighted for California. May you live long and prosper- together.

It's unnatural for humans not to eat meat. Humans are natural omnivores and a balanced diet is essential to our well being. People who do not eat meat, especially during early developmental processes, brains do not develop as fast as a child who eats a normal diet. In fact there are studies that suggest that the effects of FAS (Fetal Alcohol Syndrome) and a vegetarian diet are just about the same on children. Traditionally a vegetarian diet has been used by tyrants to control populations. A prolonged lack of protein causes people to be compliant and easy to manage. This is also a tool of brainwashing and was used extensively on American POWs during the Korean War.

He put it on his roof as he was loading up to go to work, forgot about it and crunch. When people go beserk and try to kill their computer, they usually go after the monitor. Not sure why. The monitor is merely the messenger.

In a thread I started a few weeks ago called the Edge of the genre?, I asked the question: has gay fiction gone stale? I asked this question to get people thinking- especially myself. Of late I've not produced much. A lot of it has to do with confidence. When I used to write, I didn't think about it. Then I studied the craft of writing: characterization, setting, yadda, yadda and of course, writing yadda. Then I began thinking about it too much. End result: paralysis by analysis. I did get what I was looking for from the subject: First- that there is nothing at all dead about a genre- especially one that is growing as fast as gay fiction. Second, some valuable insights. During our discussions a few weeks ago, something Billy said has kept coming back to me. I don't write gay fiction. I am a gay writer that writes fiction. My stories may or may not have gay characters, protagonists or relationships. I'm not trying to write good gay fiction. I'm trying to write good fiction. Period. And here we are. I've been working on a sci-fi story for some time- written, re-written and re-rewritten chapters only to think.. this just isn't fresh enough... looks like author A's work, this reminds me of author B's classic. In this last part Billy has given me an powerful idea that transforming the story that I have into something much more powerful and dynamic. [sceerchhh... sorry changing gears.] One of my favorite historians is a gentleman named Samuel Eliot Morrison who wrote, among other things, An Operational history of the US Navy in WWII, Admiral of the Ocean Sea and The Two Ocean War. As a reservist and a renowned historian at the time of WWII, he was given the official job of documenting the war, the battles and the campaigns that the US Navy participated in. This became a masterwork of history and the series War at Sea came from the effort. This is the direction that I'm going to take on my Hammerhead project. Rather than one continuous story, there will be hundreds of smaller coordinated ones. Will it work? I don't know but it is an exciting experiment and the results look promising so far. I do need a little help though. As a writer, I can do the job but I'm not an artist I'm not and some graphics are needed: maps, pictures of ships and so on. If anyone would be interested in helping out on this side of the project let me know either here or by PM.

Thankfully the hard drive was undamaged- it's kept in a little armored pocket on the back of the laptop. Dell replaced everything else for $550 which was like buying a new one sans a hard drive. Elementry math shows us that a Chevy Taiho goes over a Dell laptop once without much left over. Customer was sadder but wiser and working again by Friday w/o losing any data. Sometimes I'm so good I scare myself.

For what its worth: depression is almost universally understated- espically in men. Men are conditioned to be stoic, play their cards close to the vest and handle their own problems. Many times a man will sail right through a diagnostic interview and you'll never know what is going on inside his head. Gay men, espically those who are closeted are likely to be even more difficult to read/diagnose because they spend tremendous energy staying on their guard. People think that depression is a pretty easy concept to grasp but depression is deeper seated and more complex condition than is generally understood or acknowleged. It comes in all shapes, sizes and colors and what makes it even more complicated is that they often overlap. One of the best definitions that I've heard for depression is anger and frustration turned inward. More often than not when you've got a depressed person, if you can get past the psycological defenses, they are mad as hell about something. Sad part is it might take three years of therepy to get there.

Sadly it's more widespread than you think. How many of you have found yourself, on your worse day alive, laying in a hospital bed with friends and relatives asking how are you feeling? WTF do they want to hear? Much better after I got the feeding tube out, thank you. You're broken down on the side of the road, hood open, head to ass under the hood. Geniuses pull up and have the never to ask: having trouble with your car? WTF do they want to hear? No. It's just a lot cheaper than a sauna. Thankfully I am not so afflicted. A couple of weeks ago I got a call to help with a broken laptop. I arrived in my customers office to see a very nice Dell laptop with a big-assed tire track down the middle of the case. Told the customer- I'm pretty sure this voids the warrenty...

Patrick! I find it amazing that you are 19. Seems just the other day you were high school. It has been fun watching you grow up before our very eyes. Just don't you dare grow any less sweet. James

It is sad but inevitable that many young people get terribly confused by our societies many mixed messages about violence. Watching television for any length of time, you are likely to see dozens or maybe even hundreds of cowboys/indians/drug dealers/thugs/terrorist acquire toe-tags. Watch the news and they are in fact doing it for real. It looks so easy to use a gun. Sadly it takes a little living to discover that there are very few people who are worth the price of a bullet. Many are fit for killin' but none are worth the price in personal destruction. With age, and more than a little meaness, I can reasonably say that it is much more satisfying to make your enemies miserable for a long time.

After seeing Menudo in speedo no less... muy beuno

I want to add a quick note: There IS a difference between sci-fi and fantasy. Science Fiction could also be called "what if" fiction. What if we had lightspeed spacecraft and could explore this part of the galaxy? What if genetic engineering technology becomes widely available in the near future? Science Fiction starts with a known baseline: what we know, science, tech and adds a new element like lightspeed starships or designer babies. Fantasy completely ignores any rules except for it's own. If you want dragons as pets and moat monsters, there is indeed some fantasy out there you'll find to your liking. That isn't to say that a fantasy world/universe has no rules- those rules are specific to that world and care must be taken by the writer for it to make sense and be consistent. Magic and magical items are common in fantasy. The tricky part for a writer is to make magic make sense without giving too much away. The writer has to figure out how magic works and where does the damned bunny come from before the mage pulls him out of his hat. What are its limits? What happens when it backfires?

Just take the twenty on the night stand for cab fare. If ya see me later at the club, just pretend you didn't.

You want a horror movie!? Try Steel Magnolias or Driving Miz Daisy. Now there's some freakin' horror for you. The bitching seems to go on forever. I would rather have a go at Saw than watch either one of those critically acclaimed puke-fests.

Sci-fi is one of the healthiest genres going. When you go to a big bookstore, you'll find it standing as equals with mysteries, romance and so on. Hollywood has caught on too. Sci-fi is an established money maker and we're seeing 2 or more big budget sci fi movies almost every cycle. The well isn't going dry anytime soon. There are tons of classic sci-fi material just waiting to be discovered. There is also a lot of junk too but it doesn't stand the test of time. Good science fiction raises questions: how will x technology impact society? How will society cope with x disaster? These are darned good question to be asking because the boys in the lab are creating science fact as fast as the writiers can imagine it. All of us regardless of age have seen science fiction become science fact: space station Freedom, Dolly the cloned sheep, Copy-Cat the cloned kitty, the Hubbel space telescope, Voyager 1 & 2 grand tour of the solar system, the internet spanning the globe, PCs that double & triple their power every couple of years, the lunar landings and the list goes on. Soon we will all have to address the impact of inventions that are crouching at the edge of imagination. What sorts of perils, problems or benefits might wide-spread Cloning? What happens when that technology is applied to humans? What if clones of living humans are created just so their organs can be harvested? Nanotechnology is another double-edged technology with great promise with equally great peril. Some years ago there was a long running experiment called the human genome project that sequenced and mapped all human genes. What if researchers learn how to tell if a person is vulnerable to heart disease, cancer or stroke? What if employers use this test to cut their cost on new hires? (ala Gattica) There is one thing that sets sci-fi apart from any other genre: it is an infinite canvas. There are no limitations.

I noticed that the critics love it so it's probably going to suck rocks. I could be wrong but these are the same guys that gave a thumbs down to all three of the original Star Wars movies and a thumbs up to Jar-Jar and the Attack of the Clowns trilogy.

33 ain't over the hill... hell, it's hardly even on an incline. Happy B-day pal. May it be your best year yet.

No fair! No fair! We're trying to compair apples & oranges. My Only Escape is a socially important work that is clearly in a class by itself. Billy Chase is a fun read.

Some of our readers think that they might like a rainbow fantasy land with cute little bunnies and nekked angels, all bright world where everything is perfect, there is no conflict and people always do the right thing. It would be boring as hell and no one would read it. Without dramatic elements, most specifically conflict, everything would be like an endless Russian novel: a study in paranoia and depression. The source of conflict rarely comes from debates over Sunday school lessons- and even so humans have still managed to have a 100 Years War and a dozen Crusades all over religion. The most basic of conflicts are between good and evil and its many manifestations. Framed in that way, the source of conflict almost always comes from "the dark side" of human nature or experience. Offensive content is usually offensive to overly sheltered little b*tches who need to grow up and realize that a) it's fiction and there is a world past their own limited world view. If they wet their pants because somebody smokes a joint in your story, don't have a cow. If it wasn't that, they would find something else to wet their pants about.

I am the Walrus, koo-koo ka chu

I drive a Tacoma and have no complaints.

I guess I feel about the same way about PDAs that I feel about nudity: if its a cute young couple I'll be like awe, aren't they cute. If they are like all fat and wallowing on the beach, I'll douse them with seawater and try to roll them back out to sea.

REJECT. If a person has rights, why does he have to move where those rights are sanctioned? Maybe you live in Fairyland but some of us don't and we pay a price for being gay in blood, sweat and tears. Sorry- gays aren't a recgonized minority. You can be fired with no recourse in most states. Housing can be a problem. Don't assume that these problems don't exist simply because they are outside of your limited experience. I've been out, not by choice, since I was 13 in a rural Mississippi town. Social outcast my ass. They tried to kill me. Don't judge me until you've walked a mile in my shoes. BTW- never speak to me again. You don't know me at all and from your bullshit I don't want to know you. Hairspray my ass.