JamesSavik

Myr- I would add more option to the blog question: I'm going to create one but I just haven't gotten around to it yet. -JS

Nick- Judging from your posts, you're pretty smart for 14. It souldn't take you too long to beat down the homework beast. When I was your age, I hated this time of year because I had a summer hangover. I'd get used to all that time and freedom and there were much more interesting things to do than school. It wears off after a while but it's a real pain for a few weeks. Just think happy thoughts of long weekends, thanksgiving and Christmas Break. Oh- and try and fit in some fun along the way. All my best, JS

Thanks for all your hard work Myr. Everything looks great!

I have no idea. It may very be a variety of the same species.

because they won't let me grow pot

I wonder...

Daisies. Someone else is fishing today. Rose Don Juan

Here's a few more: This is a Crinium which is also called a Confederate Lily. Sorry folks, this one only grows in the South. I think the humidity trade off is worth it though. Coneflowers, daylilies and yarrow. Cattails at one of my favorite fishing holes.

It is supposed to be anonymous so I'm not supposed to say. I will tell you that I've been clean and sober for a little over a year.

Here are a few images from this summer in Mississippi. This is a hibiscus bush. This is a Louisiana Iris. English Dogwood (white) with two kinds of Azalea in the background. Monarch butterfly enjoying a butterfly bush. This is the church where I attend a 12-step program. They liked the picture so much, they put it on their homepage. And what would summer be without fishing?

This is Boo displaying his usual attitude.

Happy birthday Conner. Next time I use the name Conner in one of my stories, I promise he'll be a hero, not a villian.

Happy Birthday Mr. Zot- and many more. Of course I call you Mr. Zot because I can't grammatically construct respectfully calling anyone "the".

Couldn't figure out how to show you a picture of Boo the cat. He's a large, fat yellow tabby that acts more like a fuzzy pig than a cat. Boo is one of the guys. He is crude, rude and socially unaccpetable. He has enough gas to be a fire hazard and will go right up into the middle of a room full of humans and lick his goods. He suppliments his eight meals a day with anything stupid or slow enough to become a snack. God knows what he eats- his breath is bad enough to drop a rhino. Boo gets his name for his fuzzy tail since it always looks like he has it puffed.

GoBears: How do you catch a unique rabbit? Bait the trap with a unique carrot.

Comicality wrote an essay on the subject for the Gay Authors Newsletter: >>>"Ohhh Nooo!!!! Not The Deadly Writer's Block!" I am suffering from it myself. If you guys figure it out, let me know!

About a week ago the Dude of the Awesomedude site suffered a serious database crash. Unfortunately, all the ISP horses and all the ISP's men couldn't put the databases back together again. After a change of ISp and some serious wizardry, great wailing and gnashing of teeth, the Awesomedude forums have been restored to their former majesty. Those forums are a great resource for writers and editors. If you aren't familiar with the Dude's place, you should check it out.

Hey James, I'm sorry to hear you quit the project. I thought you did a marvelous job setting it up. Bubba <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I thought hard about it but I didn't. It wouldn't be right to start something and then leave the poor hardy souls who signed up to to suffer through it. I was referring to the person that quit- hence the italics. Collaborations are difficult because, to borrow a phrase from Trent Lott, getting authors to work together is like herding cats. They all have their own mind and will and some refuse to compromise.

That would be Jim Morrison of the Doors. OK, I know you kids never heard of him so here's a link> the Doors Here are some of Elliot Landy's famous pics of the Lizard King

A note of caution about collaborations: Some authors think that if you write about a subject, you are somehow advocating it. This makes it very difficult to come up with a villian. For example: we needed a motive that would arouse a great deal of ire in a character's older brother. A lot of things were discussed. Drugs? No, nobody wants to sully their rep by writing about drugs. Date rape? You're evil for suggesting such a thing, I quit the project- after stringing you on for six weeks while promising you a chapter. Make sure that you've got authors on board that can deal with adult matters in adult ways. Fiction is exactly what it says it is: fiction. Addressing a subject is very different from advocating it. Does Agatha Christy advocate murder by writing about it? JEEZ!

I'm a boxer guy and I like colors. My favorite ones are a firey red.

Just a guess- Is it We Don't Need No Education by Pink Floyd for the Wall (album and movie). BTW- I heard the boys choir that did the chorus is sueing Pink Floyd for royalties last fall. They are no longer cute, adoring fanboys and are now piggish money grubbing adults.

Happy Birthday Redlightfeeling. Best wishes for a great year!

Here in Mississippi it's hot and noisy. Power and communications are spotty, I only just got power back yesterday. We don't know how many people are missing. There were huge evacuations in the days before the storm and it's a very confusing situation. Worse still, people evacuated to places like Wiggins, Sliddell and Hattiesburg which have traditionally been safe havens only to find those communities also smashed by the storm. The sounds of chain saws are everywhere from dusk to dawn. In many places the debris are so deep that you've got to dig to find where the roads are. So many huge trees are down, ancient, proud trees that have weathered so many storms- have simply been uprooted and splintered. Even the stately oaks at the Grove in Oxford weren't spaired. It stinks here. The smell of death and decay is everywhere, greatly accelerated by the heat and humidity of late summer. It's coming from decomposing foods and dead animals- to things buried in the debris that we don't even want to know about. In New Orleans there is chaos. Roving street gangs have armed themselves and are looting the stricken city taking what they want and exchanging gunfire with the remnants of the city police and rescue and even the national guard. In a grim, almost medieval fashion, rescue personnel are leaving bodies in houses in New Orleans and marking the houses with black paint. There is great fear that there may be outbreaks of disease caused by the conditions there. Here in Mississippi, there are thousands of volunteers. Literally coming out of the woodwork. Neighbors are combining their tools and equipment to clear debris from homes and roadways. Emergency management people in Mississippi have enormous manpower but we are very, very short on fuel. It's here. We just don't have electricity to pump it. That situation is changing day to day but the clock is running. There are people and places that we just can't get to yet and it's very frustrating. Mississippi is usually such a quiet, sedate place. I will never, ever say I wish that something interesting would happen here. We've had a belly-full of this kind of excitement. We're all hot, grubby and very tired. I'd gladly pay $50 for a hot shower.

Holy Crap! Holy Crap on a Crap Cracker! If you are EVER 1000 miles from a cat 5 storm, RUN LIKE HELL. It's awful. This storm was so powerful, it CHANGED the MAP. It wasn't hard to clean up here. I had the downed trees in a neat pile by noon the next day but I only just got power back. Since we've been blacked out, we haven't seen the news or understood how big this is.