JamesSavik

There are several things that kindle my interest in a story. First, the author [based on my experiences with his work]. If one of a number of authors submits a story, I'll make a point to read it. If he's on my short list, I'll drop what I'm doing and read it. :king: Second, word of mouth or what others are saying about a story. Third, if I don't know the author or I haven't heard of the story, a catchy title will sometimes do the trick. Fourth, I prefur some genres to others. I WILL read a sci-fi story and will turn my nose up at a Western. I WILL read a mystery and pass on horror. On the other hand, there are several things that make me lose interest in a story. First, if the story is a spooge covered sex-fest, I'll probably move on... unless its a really, really good spooge covered sex-fest and those are few and far between. Second, if the story is cliche... Third, if the story is a mess with lots of spelling and gramatical errors, it'll wear me out and I'll give up. Fourth, if the story sucks, and lots of them do for tons of reasons, you can't expect people to read it. NOTE: Hey Comsie: maybe what makes a story suck? would be a good weekly topic.

The Four Cats of the Apocalypse are on the lose! Catastrophe Cataclysm Catty-whumpus Catatonic Unlike the four horsemen, these guys might pass you by for some milk, tuna, yarn or a nice spot to nap.

Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

1. go to Australia, via England 2. stay there [Australia that is] 3. buy a phat telescope 4. watch the show in the southern skies.

This is just like the sodomy laws in the states... as is the reasoning behind keeping them. Singapore is a favorite port of call for sailors all over the world because of their brothels [for a few dollars more, you can get anything you want including the donkey] and their markets where you can buy Chinese made counterfeit Western designer goods at a fraction of the cost of the real thing. What a bastion of morals!

You are correct: the president gets too much credit when things go well and too much blame when something screws up. Katrina was a mess because the locals screwed to pooch and didn't evac fast enough. Bush this and Bush that didn't leave those people in New Orleans. Mayor Nagen did. As far as congress goes, everyone there is trying to bring home as much pork as possible. It's like a take-out barbecue joint and the public gets to pick up the check.

She just gives me a headache.

I suggest movie theme nights- Sci-fi night, mystery night, horror night and action-adventure night. It depends on how many times you get together- maybe once a month. How many movies you want to watch, when do you start. If you start early, you can go LATE and watch up to 4 movies. Start around 9 and watch two. Ask everyone to bring something: 2 liter soft drinks, tequila, chips, dips. Maybe club funds can buy a pizza. Often you'll find that you have a couple of guys who can cook whose honor will be personally offended unless they cook something awesome. Now- for movie choices, you want something good that maybe not everyone has seen. If you've got an independent movie store, they often have big collections with older movies. Don't be afraid of older movies- there is a lot of good stuff that 20-somethings haven't seen. Now for movie choices there are two ways to go: cult classics or do some research and find some good stuff. I suggest staying away from movies with numbers. Scream, Halloween, Nighmare on Elm Street... unless you do them all and there are too many of them. Sci-Fi- there are tons of choices: the Riddick Trilogy might be a perfect fit. Vin Diesel's Pitch Black, the Chronicles of Riddick and a third animated film are quite good. The Star Wars old or new trilogy might also be just right. Mystery- Discover Hitchcock! Watch Noth by Northwest and the Birds! w00t! Horror- Look up an old film named Lifeforce- one of the spookiest movies ever. Moontrap- B movie but gross, scary and funny. Action-Adventure- Arnold anyone? How bout Steven Seagall? The Mummy?

They're not. Big Daddy Phelps is originally from Meridian Mississippi. He left in the 50s because he was too liberal for local tastes.

When Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, there were a number of voices who asked why do we rebuild the South East every 30 years when we know that hurricanes and tornadoes will come along and wipe it out again. The answer is that no part of the US, or the world for that matter, is immune from natural disaster. In fact California may be higher risk than anywhere else considering the threats from earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides, drought, flood, fire and riots. We are all better off when we take care of each other.

I actually tried to write my story and discovered that it takes a lot more effort, emotional energy and skill than you might think. I got clean & sober in late 2004 and as part of my recovery, I wrote Broken in '05-06 which covers my life between rug-rat and spring-break of 7th grade. The problems of writing something so personal are self evident. It has made me very self conscious in the past. My next two chapters are ready-- my problem is that it is way too embarrassing to post. Rather like going to work in my most ragged boxer shorts. It was the 70s. The whole decade was a party. I just worry that people won't see me quite the same afterwards. Or- maybe I'm concerned about how I'll see myself. In anyevent, it can get pretty compcated writing about yourself.

A butt-nuget was arrested early Friday morning and charged with 20+ counts of shooting into occupied dwellings and scores of counts of malicious property damage. His driver turned him in after he was arrested for possession of crack. Go figure. Whatever happened to criminal masterminds or accomplices that would rather fry than give you up??? The police have to be embarrassed- arresting these guys isn't even good sport. They are more pathetic than dangerous.

Jan- Employers, public and private, are desperate to get out from under the costs of large benefits packages. Early out packages are their way of reducing their contingent costs by reducing the number of years and amount that you've paid into the system. This is not an isolated trend for civil service employees. It's happening all over- or at least in states that can afford to offer it. I believe that you can expect to see more early-out offers with better and better terms as you close in on 30 years. In most retirement systems, there is a magic number (like 25 or 30). At that time the emplyer has to fully fund the retirement account. If employers can get an employee to early-out years before the magic number is reached, they can save 10s of thousands of dollars. With 10s of thousands of civil servents, that adds up to real money. Whatever you decide, you are in cat-bird seat. If you go early, you are still young enough to have another career. If you stay, your account will grow and your retirement income will be bigger. Win-win situations are so rare in life- and couldn't happen to a nicer guy. Congrats Jan- good luck with whatever direction you decide to go. James

Eggie is one of the Masters in our midst. His stories are classics of the genre that we've come to love. My payment was enjoying the stories and spreading the love.

Village People... isn't that the lost Cantebury Tale? I'm kidding of course. They were classified as disco and I was classified as death before disco. Some relationships just aren't meant to be. They did have some monster hits- Macho Man, In the Navy, YMCA... they showed up here in Jackson for a Halloween show ~ ten years ago.

About 1am last Friday I took a break from the sci-fi channel to amble off to the kitchen for a sandwich. Shortly after arriving there I hear a series of loud POPs like a 9mm and I hit the deck. I thought I heard impacts hitting the house. After the last of 8 shots, a car or truck punched it and left the area. I looked for some time and found no evidence of gunfire... until this morning. I found 3 X .380 bullet holes- two in the facia and one in a large window in the front of the house. Inside I followed a trail of destruction as the .380 entered the living room, passed through the drapes, hit an antique piece of furniture and came to rest on the carpet. I hate living in the damned hood. This wasn't for us. More than likely the geniuses that did it were after someone else and got the wrong house. My Dad took it in stride: he said that it was the first time since Korea anybody had shot at him and it made him feel young again. I have to wonder what it is about and are we going to see more lead.

Now that's an insult to our Aussie pal. Sure Leo is blond but he has class which gives him little in common with enema.

Have fun Myr and enjoy the sunny south. Maybe you'll find a hunky man with a tan at the Mouse House to ride the Pirates of the Carribean with. Good luck, James

Politicians like Ahmadinejad take a stance like this for one or more of several reasons: 1. To appease fundamentalist factions and keep the mullahs happy (that is southern baptist bigwigs in if you live in Texas) 2. Populist politicians say whatever is popular or what they think the voter wants to hear 3. He himself is a fundamentalist and honestly believes it as a matter of faith. 4. He is profoundly ignorant of the subject of sex in general and homosexuality in particular because he grew up under the Ayatollah's rule and the Revolutionary Guard's brand of Sharia. In any case, I doubt Teheran Pride is going to have much of a turn out until the Islamo-fascists quit hanging 14 year olds for masterbating together and chopping off things best left alone.

Real wrestlers are divided into weight classes so huge hulking steroid freaks like Hulk Hogan are figments of televisions imagination. Some of the smaller guys between 100-120 pounds are some of the toughest SOBs you'll ever tangle with. Scrappy doesn't quite cover it. When I think of Luke, my imagination sees someone who looks similar to our Leo. I meant Leo no disrespect- in fact I hoped that it was a compliment. I would have probably liked Leo anyway since he's from Oz cuz I've never met an Aussie I didn't like.

*Rubs tear from eye* *Hugs Nick a big, Beast hug careful not to break any ribs* *Looks around GA at all the neat people- epically the bright, idealistic kids and says a little prayer- I want it to be better for them.

This Type II (core collapse) supernova was captured by cameras of ROTSE-III and followed up with the Keck. Pictured is a before and after image of the general area from file images. Lately there have been several very bright supernova, in contrast with what we usually see out of objects with similar spectral characteristics. Clearly it is a type II event- confirmed by spectra. Why have the type II SN we've been seeing lately been so bright? Could it be because they occure in a low extinction wavepath proximate to our position? Galaxies in particular and the universe in general are rather dusty places. As a wave packet of happy little photons at specific wavelengths zips along at relativietic speeds, its very easy for some of those photons to be lost in galactic or intergalactic gas and dust- the higher the frequence, the greater the loss. This loss is called extinction which works by a process called absorption which can be observed spectroscopically. As light passes through gas and dust clouds, it leave absortpion lines on the spectra. The more material that the light passes through, the more absortion occures until the signal is gone. Absorption isn't such a bad thing. Our oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere absorbs everything on the high side of UV, x-rays and gamma rays and protects us all from ionizing radiation. Yeah atmosphere! Absorption is as much a tool as it is a nuisance. It allows us to see if gas or dust clouds lie between us and a star and the absortption line spectra gives us clues as to the composition, temperature and even chemistry of those clouds. This SN occured at what's called a "HIGH-Z" or high redshift, specifically z = 0.2832 putting it in the neighborhood of 5 billion light years away. Quimby, et al: SN 2005AP: A MOST BRILLIANT EXPLOSION

Everybody is a little crazy. It's all a matter of degrees. One of the most prominent things about mental illness is IGNORANCE. I wouldn't get all funky because someone was talking out of their azz. Crazy has good and bad connotations. I like him/her because he/she is crazy. usually means someone is not boring and doesn't sit there like a lump. The "bad connotations" of crazy usually have to do with the ignorance about mental illness. The fact is that the vast majority of mental illness- even profound ones like psycosis and schitzo affective disorders can be managed with medication. As long as your neighbor's black lab isn't telling you to kill prostitutes OR you don't think you are a dog and bark at people and occassionally hump a primo leg, I wouldn't worry about it.

Dom- May love, success and happiness faithfully follow your path wherever you go. Hopefully, that path will bring you back our way soon! James

I think that old man Phelps has actually been dead for years. He is just so full s*** & vinegar that no one has noticed yet. So yeah- Taze the old b@stard. Maybe he will come out as a rotting corpse.