JamesSavik

I don't like to deal with guys that identify themselves as str8 but enjoy fooling around. They don't know who they are. You see this quite a lot in teens where it is expected. If they are 30 and still experimenting, then they'll probably never get the formula right.

Over night. Or months. Or maybe even years. It all depends on... I don't know. Inspiration? Self-criticism? Feedback- the idea that people like what you are doing- can motivate you but that alone will not sustain your efforts. If what you are writing is too close to home, you can become uncomfortable with a subject. Having others read it is like going to the mall dressed only in your boxers. That'll slow you down.

I spent the last couple of weeks commuting back and forth to Gulfport. I was doing a job overseeing the installation of a business network. Actually- the business was rebuilt after a certain be-yach of a hurricane blew most of it to Wiggins. It took almost a year to get a construction company that wasn't booked up. They must be well practiced as they went from concrete slab to interior finishing in Three weeks. It's like watching mushrooms pop up after the rain. I see some definite advantages to Katrina. Everything that was destroyed- save the historic buildings- are being built back brand new. Businesses are getting a modern makeover. Homeowners that weren't screwed over by the wind vs rain loophole are getting brand new houses. Unemployment is unheard of. If you can walk and use a push-broom, someone will hire you. Construction is going on everywhere and the watch-word seems to be bigger and better. I got a chance to catch up with some of my relatives on the coast and all of them have hair-raising stories. Heath is a 22 year old who used to live in Moss Point. They went to a relatives house that was in the hills 15 miles behind Pascagoula, MS. Even at that distance, they had major problems. The storm damaged the roof and knocked down so many trees, it was a week until they could drive to the main road. They weren't allowed back to Moss Point for almost a month and then all that was left was a concrete slab. Their family lived in a FEMA trailer from October of last year until June when they finished rebuilding. Heath has become a champion roofer and can get as much work as he can do. Even a year after the storm, the tell-tale "Blue Tarps" still cover many roofs. If a house didn't get flooded, the winds from Katrina ripped shingles off a roof like a fisherman scales a fish. After the storm, FEMA gave out blue tarps to cover roofs until they could be repaired. My cousin Rick has a house outside Pascagoula. He built it himself- he is a contractor. He built it 10 feet off the ground with I-beams and concrete blocks. As the area he was in didn't get flooded during Camile, a cat 4 hurricane in 1969 that previously served as a benchmark, he was confident that his house would be fine. What he wasn't counting on was a 35 foot storm surge that despite his elevation and stilts put 3 feet of water on his first floor. His family moved everything upstairs to ride out the storm. To their horror, they looked out and saw their neighbors house coming apart and the neighbors holding onto floating debris. He took the poll that he used to dip leaves out of his pool, went out onto the top of his garage and dipped his neighbor and her two kids out of the flood waters. Before the storm was over, seven more people from the neighborhood were saved. Unfortunately, several of his neighbors are still missing. Rick's house, built tough, survived the storm easily. It just got a bit wet. His basement workshop was wreaked and he needed new wiring and carpet. He has been working steadily ever since rebuilding homes wreaked by the storm. On the anniversary of the Katrina, he bought a show truck to replace the one that the storm had ruined. The Mississippi Gulf Coast is down but it's not out. Reconstruction is going on at a furious rate. I am confident that it anything, it will be bigger and better than ever before. Wait a year or so and y'all come see us. JS PS- I hear that Joey's on the Beach, the gay mecca in Biloxi, is going to be rebuilt and should be open by next summer.

OOPS! I have unwittingly bought into a stereotype- specifically str8 guys can't dance/gay guys can. I can't dance unless I'm on fire or bees are chasing me in which case I can be very light on my feet. I should know better. JS

I haven't experienced sexual prejudice and unfortunately, I know some people have. It would please me if you never experienced it but I doubt that will be the case. Sexual prejudice will be different in the US and Australia so I doubt that I can help you much. I wrote some notes about anti-gay bias and its origins that might help. There appear to be several distinct "flavors" of anti-gay bias which tend to overlap in many cases. I have observed that often when a person exhibits extreme bias, some underlying pathology may be involved. When one of these lines of reasoning is shown to be false, another one of the reasons will be brought forward. I will try to list the typical reasons for bias and the pathologies because it is important for us to look at the reasons why people hate us. 1. Typical Bias a. the Ick factor- the idea of two people of the same sex having sex is gross to some people. b. religious objections- the Judeo-Christian tradition and the Islamic faith have strong taboos against gay sex. In some cultures this has been taken so far as to criminalize gay sexual acts. c. It's not natural- this school of thought seems to think that same-sex attraction does not occur in nature despite all evidence to the contrary. They do not seem to have the same objections to organ transplants or in-vitro fertilization. d. Gays are all Predators- despite all evidence to the contrary. e. plain old garden variety bigotry- these guys hate anything different be it race, religion or sexual preference. f. Erroneous Misconceptions- these people have heard something or have some belief about gay people and their behavior. 2. Atypical/Pathological Bias a. ego defining bigotry- in this type of bias, the bigot believes that he is superior because of a defining characteristic like his race, gender or sexuality. Typically, this person doesn't have a lot going for them so their ego depends on a characteristic like race or orientation for their self-esteem. b. Homophobia- this is a person that has some same-sex attraction but turns their self-loathing outward against others. Gay people constitute a serious threat to their identity c. Post-Victimization Projection- this person has been sexually abused or sexually assaulted and turns his anger toward all gay people as potential sexual abusers or assaulter's. d. Religious Fanaticism- this person has an underlying psychosis and believes that their actions are guided or directed by god. This is sometimes what is going on with many ritualistic serial killers. The difficult part of this analysis is that the reasons for bias usually overlap and sometimes cover an underlying pathology. There is no single reason for anti-gay bias and it's layers and psychological complexity make it a difficult issue to pin down. As a writer, I do a good bit of research to develop my characters. This is a result of the information that I've gathered.

Hi guys & dolls- I've been seeing the trailers for a new series this fall on CBS called Jericho. It starts Wednesday night at 8E/9C. I was wondering: is anybody interested in it? Have you heard anything about it. Jericho on CBS Clips I used to like disaster/post-apocalyptic genera. As a writer, I had to wonder how you can get more than a few hours of drama out of a nuclear war. Another thing that makes me wonder is that Hollywood has NEVER done sci-fi/speculative fiction very well. When they run short of ideas, they fall back on the cute kid/smart dog/dumb robot plot devices and then it all goes to crap. I'll be interested to see how the plot holds up.

Hummas...ick! Dirt is better. Mississippi dirt that is. Vance- has your cat been modeling for Purina cat chow? His twin is on the bag of cat food I picked up for my "outside cats".

Yew Rawk! (pardon my southern )

Dancer No str8 boy could move like that.

I'm glad that you brought this up Dio. In my story that is something that I've got to deal with and I'm having a heck of a time making it work to my satisfaction. The story Broken (at AwesomeDude and Deweywriter) is based on true events and people that I knew. I find as I write it, I have unresolved issues about it. The more I work at it, the more I remember and it starts an old cycle of what-ifs and blaming myself. In the old days, my Scottish friend Johnny Walker and I would just get hammered. Sober it's a little harder to turn off.

LB- Thanks for a great story! I enjoyed it immensely! Now... might we talk you into a Cody/Toby sequel? Pretty-pleeeeze? Best wishes, JS

Welcome Steve! I'll have to have a look at A Shot of Bourbon. (although I'm a dried out Scotch man myself) :chris:

Good to hear from you SB! You are making a lot of sense, just pick and choose the "old" peeps you listen too very carefully. You can be of any age and still be full of...unpleasentness. JS

Sorry I haven't been around much lately. I've been working on the coast but I'll be done by the weekend. Anywho- this little link fell into my inbox. I shan't tell you what it is because I didn't have any warning either. Seriously- if you are driving, pull over. Vid Link OK they are like peanuts- you can't post just one. Here is a bad-assed PSA: Cats really like to party

Considering my former roommate, I never needed to buy Residential Evil. He was a horror story in his own right. I had an Evil Resident. After he left, I had to clean up with holy water and clorox. I never knew that an exorcism could be so expensive.

Hi Justyn! It's good to have you blogging with us. JS

Back in the eighties if you had anything to do with computer programming, Borland's Turbo Pascal and Turbo C were all the rage. Borland created Intergrated Development Environments (IDEs) that allowed programmers to write, edit, compile and debug code all in one program. Since then, IDEs have become something of an industry standard like JavaBeans and Eclipse. Well, Borland is back! You can download for free Turbo Explorer compilers for C++, C# and Delphi. Free is always the right price. C stuff is all over the web so I won't belabor that point. Delphi is an object-oriented version of Pascal with extensions for the windows environment. You can find these compilers at the Turbo Explorer Homepage. If you are intrested in Delphi, check out Marco Cantu's homepage. He has free code and ebooks available for download. Two of these are of special interest are: Essential Pascal and Essential Delphi. These can be found at Cantu's free Pascal and Delphi ebooks.

The colors of Little Girl's kittens remind me of Siamese markings. Beware of Siamese cats. They are powerful personalities and will soon be running any household they enter. They are loud, opinionated, bossy and quite clever. They will have you trained in no time!

I'm happy for you LB! I know that looking for a job is nerve racking and when you get one, it relieves a lot of stress. I look forward to the last chapter of SOOTB with mixed emotions. I look forward to reading it but I dread it being over. What's are the chances of a sequel staring Toby and Cody!?

Yeah- the image at the top comes from an old French movie. Since it was an ESA probe, I thought that it was somewhat appropriate.

NOTE TO SELF: I need a new Polo shirt NOTE TO KEVIN: Yes, it was a perfect day.

Would you rather have a good story or one that was hurried and uninspired? I have an unfinished story myself and I'm working on it. I just want to get it right. JS

Spacecraft strikes Moon with intense flash September 3, 2006 Hazel Muir for NewScientist.com Source Link The SMART-1 lunar probe crashed into the Moon right on cue on Sunday morning. Mission controllers at the European Space Agency lost contact with the probe at 0542 GMT, indicating that it had struck close to the planned landing site on the lunar

Birdie- I just saw the drawing. Writing, art: it makes me wonder what other talents you have. Can you cook too?