JamesSavik

If various issues are handled well, they can be instructional. For instance, on the subject of drugs/addiction, I've heard alot of misunderstanings, projections and oft-repeated lies. Addicts don't start out as addicts. The substances that they use influence their behavior in ways both subtle and gross. It takes years of addiction to get to the point to where they don't care about anything but drugs. Addicts progress (or fall apart) at different rates depending on what they are using and their peers. Example: Speed Freaks aren't your typical junkie. Most of them take speed to perform in school, sports or their job. A typical speed freak might be a high acheiver that started taking speed for exams and decided that he didn't want to give up that edge. He might be a trucker who wants to put another thousand miles behind him. Example: another atypical type addict is the seeker. This is a person who is highly artistic or spiritual and finds that hallucagenic drugs like LSD or mushrooms open up a whole new world to them that they can tap for creativity or inspiration. [Andy Warhol?] (Other junkies call this place cartoon land. ) The problem is one of authenticity. To write about addicts and addiction, you've got to know what you are talking about. There's much more too it than party, party, party. There's the waking up after being high for days at a time. There's trying to sleep and you just can't because you are still too high. There's waking up feeling suicidal because what you took depleted the dopamine in your brain. Research can fill in the gaps but be careful who you take to heart. There are people who are as every bit fanatically anti-drug as there are people who are addicted. Years and years of gov't sponsered propaganda has confused a mental health issue with one of willful criminality.

I think that "new" characters in a story have to "fit" or they may seem contrived. By "fitting" into the story, this is very, very subjective. Friends or X'es popping up out of nowhere have to be handled with care. There has to be enough common ground for them to be friends and lovers but the old maxim opposites attract also applies. The back-story and the relationship has to make sense. eg. David is a neat freak but his friend Frank is a slob. They were room mates for a while but couldn't stand living together. Now they are close friends who share a fanatical devotion to the Chicago Bears and the scene on the South side. Here we have opposites (neat freak/slob) with common ground (da Bears and da South Side). [not that i've ever been to Chicago] eg. Cam and Jerry are X'es. They met at college where they both majored in biology with an eye toward med school later on. Problem is that Cam is out and Jerry ain't. Jerry can't come out- his Mormon family would freak out. They'll turn a blind eye as long as the party line is that Cam and Jerry are best friends. Cam feels alienated and came out in the first place because he was tired of lying. In this example we see how the couple came together and the issue that broke them up. People aren't aliens. They may behave strangely but there is usually some method to everyones madness. Even the acts of crazy people make sense to themselves and might make sense to you too if you heard the same voices and saw the same hallucinations. It is up to the author to give the reader as little or as much information to figure that out. Some characters may exist on the periphery of the story at at some point play a more important role. eg. Frank and Mikie are on the same soccer team as Jack, John, Tommy and Kevin. Any one of the four could become more important at some point later in the story. Frank and Mikie are best friends and know all of the others. At some point in the story Kevin gets hit by a car and becomes a more important role in the story as his friends support his recovery. In my own long story Broken, the character Brian isn't known at the beginning of the story but he is introduced, and becomes more and more important as the story progresses. He may have been a "new" character but his position was established and we got to know him through activities, actions and dialogue. My 2 cents on the subject which may be worth about face value. :wacko:

What if he says I love you... I'm shocked I wonder about this persons taste I wonder what the hidden agenda is I think I'm about to be scammed I say, "look, is that Elvis at the KFC?" *Runs away like hellfire is on his heels*

I love animals... with A-1 sauce. Granted: some people are cruel to animals raised for food like cows and chickens. Some people are cruel to dogs and cats. There is a humane way to raise, care for and dare I say slaughter food animals and if the farmers can't be bothered or are sick-o enough to get off on the pain inflicted, they need to be out of the business and on a shrinks sofa. People who would do that to animals, their next stop is people.

I usually pore honey all over them and stake them out for the fire ants.

sir

I hate texting with a phone. It's very difficult to say anything.

These meds can be a problem, even in trace amounts, because medications are engineered to bind themselves to receptor sites on human cells or microorganisms. At the micro level only a single molecule is necessary to establish a chemical binding on a receptor site. This binding always results in something unwanted or unnecessary to happen. In most cases this results in cell death. An antibiotics action on microorganism in the wild is even worse. In the same way that we can be vacinated against some diseases by a very low dose or exposure to disease organisms, some bacteria become immune to entire classes of antibiotics. They pass this immunity own to their progeny. If this bacteria is pathogenic, the human victim and his doctors are in for a big surprise when they try standard antibiotic therepies for illnesses and infections like strep throat that have responded to penecillian series antibiotics for generations.

What was left out of this article: The reason that antibiotics in the environment is a big problem is that it causes drug resistence in some strains of bacteria- typically the ones that can become a problem like strep or staph. Hormones in food and the water supply can cause petty adolescence in children- the onset of adolescence years in advance of its natural onset. One of the most common ways for disposing of drugs is to flush them down the toilet: please don't. Chemicals like antibiotics are nearly impossible to completely filter out of water short of making it into a vapor and then recondensing it. Another way is through waste from people who are taking them. Anti-biotics are not only found in drugs but household cleaning supplies. While these are different from perscription drugs, they serve the same purpose. Whether we believe in evolution or not, it chugs along quite oblivious to anyones opinions. In the realm of microorganisms, generations occur in a matter of hours and evolution/mutation works much faster than any other sphere of biology. Please dispose of anti-biotics with care. Treat it like a hazardous chemical.

Tristan- This is a real tricky fine line. There are a lot of men who really enjoy having sex with other men but they do not consider themselves gay. They marry, have kids and all the hetero trimmings but they have a hobby: they like to have sex with other men. To get to this place some real twisted psycological stuff is going on. Typically they are acting out of religious, strong family pressure/expectations or fear of social consequences. With some fraction of these people they can love the sex and hate themselves at the same time. Having gay sex and accepting your sexuality are two competely different things. The guy that only has or wants gay sex when he is drunk is a classic case. By being drunk he rationalizes that since he was drunk and out of control, he isn't REALLY gay. I know it sounds stupid and shallow but the head games that closet cases play with themselves are like this.

The NFL Network is airing a special about Brett Farve's career called Farve 5-ever

Religion, Does it matter? I don't care as you don't try it on me.

The sad part is that I was actually doing it before I knew what it was. I had no sex education and had only heard the word homosexual on the radio.

Never make the go/no go decision when you are drunk. It can only end badly.

I noticed this too. This is often because a person hasn't come to terms with their sexuality. It is very common for a person with this problem to hustle or sell sex. They rationalize that since someone is paying for it, they aren't really gay. I know- it sounds stupid and crazy but those are the kind of tricks the closeted mind plays upon itself. One might argue that some of the worst enemies ever to square off against gay rights were screwed up closet queens that hang out in mens rooms and pass homophobic legislation.

Another couple thought... on a more serious note One of the many problems that victims of childhood sexual abuse suffer from in adolescence and/or young adulthood is a tendency toward "hyper-sexuality" or even full fledged sexual addiction. It is almost always rooted in sexual abuse. People like this tend to think that relationships/friendships always have a sexual component and if you aren't interested in sex, you aren't interested in them. This causes a great deal of confusion and angst on the part of the abuse victim and his friends and relations suffer for it. When you said "rent" on first read, I didn't understand the implications but it fits the profile to a tee. Rent/hustling is very common especially in the young adult Gay/bi community- more common than we would like to admit. Usually when we think of someone who is "on the rent" or hustling, we tend to think of homeless youth or addicts who are doing it for survival. More and more, it is being done for convenience or expedience. Whether it be a "special friendship" with someone who is older for their help with jobs, a place to live or money, whatever you call it to justify or rationalize it, it is still trading sex for money. I won't judge a person who is doing it. I did it myself to support an addiction when I was younger. The problem is that each and every time you lose a little bit of your soul and there is a point where you can quit but you'll never be the same. Again, this is very bad for relationships because who wants a used up hustler? If you don't tell the truth there is a power secret out there somewhere that can really kick your ass. All I can say is this is a game that you don't want to play. Psycho Johns, Pimps, sexually transmitted diseases, cops, dirty cops, bashers, rapists: it is a seriously bad scene. You will never get enough money to cover what your dignity was worth.

It depends... Sometimes only a coke will do and other times it is Mountain Dew or nothing.

Better to retire on top than to to be wheeled off the field with a career ending injury like so many pro athletes. Brett Farve is a Mississippian and we are very proud of him. We look forward to having him home.

Tristain- Sounds to me like you've got a leg hound. From the Urban Dictionary: Leg Hound: 1. a male dog the humps your leg 2. a young man with a powerful sex drive that will f**k anybody, anything, anywhere, anytime. 1. What could be more awkward than meeting your girlfriends parents with their damned leg hound humping and nutting on your shin You will need to keep one of the following items within reach: Garden Hose Mace Taser stick cattle prod If he can't get any from you, he will eventually move on to someone who will give it up.

Tea. Can't stand the smell of coffee...

Has anyone seen Wild Tigers I have Known I've heard that it was good but that's all.

I agree Razor. I used to love Metallica (and still do) but since they became the poster children for the RIAA I wouldn't piss on them if they were on fire. There are too many mediocre artists crying crocidile tears over piracy who are clearly trying to position themselves for some sort of settlement. Have you seen the numbers that they claim to have lost due to piracy? I have to call bullshitte on that. Those estimates are clearly based on drugs and/or wishful thinking and have nothing to do with their business model.

Sumbloke- all my best on your birthday!

Here are my guidelines- 1) for music, I only download music that I own, what I own in another format or is out of print. 2) for video I download whatever has been on the air (broadcast TV). 3) for ebooks, I download whatever I can get my hands on. 4) I don't download software or games

other, other & other I'm afraid of the plague. Not the old plague but the new one that we're contributing to by throwing anti-biotics around like candy and deforesting parts of the planet that are best left alone. We are forcing pathogens to become drug resistent while exposing new pathogens all the time. It's only a matter of time before this lethal combination rolls snake eyes and we're all royally f-ed. Whether you believe in it or not, evolution is happening all the time and at the level of microorganisms generations occur hourly. I expect the resulting plagues to kill at least 2/3rd of the worlds population and the remaing 1/3 will be endangered by the population crash and afterkill-- additional causalties caused by collapse of services. Typically starvation and death caused by minor diseases for which there is no care available. The survivors will be faced with additional outbreaks for some time. For some time after the worst of the plagues the number one killer will be suicide. The population will continue to decline. Humans will reach a critical point: that point is the number of people left that will be able to sustain advanced society. This crash could take us all the way back to tribal units or even extinction. ________________________________________________________________________________ ________ Now that you've had a peek inside my head you'll understand why they keep upping my medication.