The Pecman

Yeah, I agree 100% with you here. I think the idea is charming, but the reality is that anybody on chemo is very sick and barely has the energy to get out of bed, let alone have sex. And the other very real issue is that any (*ahem*) emissions from somebody undergoing cancer treatment are dangerous and are to be avoided. I wouldn't want to get near somebody who had cancer, at least in a sexual way. It'd be bad for both of us. A hug and a kiss are no problem. But I think the sentiment and the intent of the story is admirable, and at least it tried to be positive and uplifting. I think it might've been more interesting if the straight kid actually did wind up having feelings for the gay cancer kid, maybe even realize that he's not quite 100% straight but more like only 80% straight. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

I think descriptive and action words can be like spices in a meal: too little, and the food tastes bland. Too much, and it blows your head off because it's excessive. You need to be find a balance where it's just right, and that's a struggle that a lot of writers go through. To me, I think it's always a good thing to err on the side of "less is more." It's far easier to get carried away and go overboard.

"Gay-at-home" is a funny line.

You could reach out and touch... somebody's hand... make this world a better place... if you can.

It's bad in areas that haven't had snow in 50 years. If 2" of snow hit Los Angeles, half the state would break off and sink into the Pacific, causing a world-wide 50 trillion dollar depression that would last for 200 years. BTW, I lived in Tampa, Florida for 22 years, and the last winter I was there (January 1977), they had a mild snow and we got about an inch on the ground. I saved a snowball for weeks and was able to hit a friend of mine in the back of the head with it, which was fantastic. Stuff like this is fun when you've never seen it before in your life.

I agree, but I'm concerned about whose arm is being touched. Why not say: He reached out his hand to touch Joe's arm, then withdrew it; there was no need now. I'd lose the comma. (And I know you threw that semicolon in just for spite!) Otherwise, I almost wonder if the guy is touching his own arm. The alternative would be to just say "touch him" and not specify the body part: He reached out his hand to touch Joe, then withdrew it; there was no need now. BTW, I just used a semicolon in my current story and thought, oh, Cole will make me rue the day...

Exactly. At some point you gotta shrug and say, "eh, they're entitled to their opinion" and just move on. One opinion shouldn't be enough to cause a writer pain and suffering. What is rough is when somebody you respect points out some gigantic flaw in your work, and you slap your own forehead and say, "man! How could I not see that?" But as far as I'm concerned, the person who gives you comments like that is doing you a favor, especially if it's a flaw you just couldn't see.

That's unfortunate, DB, because I bet your comments were very instructive and probably could've improved the story quite a bit. I know I have the reputation for being a little critical around here (who, me?), but when I send a fellow writer an email, I try to say whatever I have to say as tactfully as possible. I also try to get to the point quickly and suggest a fix, and also stress that it's strictly my opinion. One thing about the web: you put your story up there, it's going to invite criticism from all kinds of people. Maybe they're right, maybe they're idiots, maybe there's a glimmer of truth they have to say. But I also think writers have to develop a bit of a thick skin to the point where you can take criticism and say, "hey, I see what you mean, but I did that in the story because of X, Y & Z." Or you could honestly say, "wow, I didn't see that -- maybe I can address this issue in a subsequent chapter." Ultimately, it's just one opinion -- which all of us have, just like orifices. The Dude remembers this incident: about ten years ago, he and I (separately) encountered a guy who had written a story about some high school guys in an un-named town in California. I got about halfway through it, enjoyed what I saw, but encountered some weird story and dialogue issues that bothered me. The characters mentioned "Father Christmas" (which nobody says in America), some of the dialogue was a little clumsy, and I thought the details of the town were vague and didn't fit any Southern California city I knew. I wrote the author with what I thought was great praise, told him how much I had enjoyed the story, but noted that because he was in England -- which I guessed from his email address -- I felt that some of the American dialogue was a little weird, like the Father Christmas reference, and also that he should just identify the town or at least say it's 50 miles from LA or something, just to give us a general sense of location. Man, he came back at me in a frenzy, frothing at the mouth, asking why would I ever dare to suggest he'd gotten this stuff wrong. He insisted that some Americans did say "Father Christmas," that the dialogue was spot-on perfect, and for me to essentially shove my head up my ass. I was taken aback, wrote him an apologetic email telling him that 97% of the story was terrific and these few little drawbacks didn't bother me very much. He again flew off the handle, and a year or two later, took the stories down off the net and disappeared. I can only assume that 1) he didn't take criticism well, and 2) I wasn't the only one to make comments like this.

We'll get you an umbrella for some shade. (De Lotto done rolled over -- now up to $170M.)

That's back out at the infinity pool, near the beach.

I'm a big meat fan here. But I've cut my red meat intake down to no more than three times a week. Fish, chicken, and turkey the other four days.

Same here. I don't like GMail for a lot of reasons, but their spam filtering is actually very good. I checked my POP account through my domain name, and I routinely get about 50,000 spams a month that the host routinely filters out. I also have about 100 custom filters that I set up over the years, and that nails the remaining ones that slip through and throws them in the junk box. I still manually sift through it just in case, but it's extremely rare anything important winds up in there.

Watch out for free software. Sometimes, the price for this stuff is much too high.

No, no -- the normal rocking chair seats with cupholders are less than $800 each: 20 seats would be $16K, which is trivial. Of course, the Imax Home Theater pictured above is $1,000,000+, with about $200K just going for the projector and $200K going for the room itself, and the rest for decor, screen, wiring, acoustics, and so on.

Welease Wodger! Welease Wodawick!

You haven't seen my assistants. The American Powerball just rolled over to $171M, so Des, if I win, I'll be sure to throw in a $100,000 home theater for you as well.

I looked at Incredimail, and it wasn't incredible enough for me. I have about 11 email accounts, and most of them converge on my real identity (and my own domain). I have sub accounts on Yahoo and Hotmail as needed for business and personal use, with ways to relay messages so that if I can't get to my POP account, I can just get on the web and send people a reply with a different "reply to" address.

Oh, pianist! Sorry, I thought you said something else.

Ah, just read the new chapters and enjoyed them very much. Particularly the sex. BTW: this is a rare case where the author changed from third-person to first person, and it worked very well (for the flashback in chapter 4). I have no problem with that. Terrific read.

The interface on Google Mail drives me nuts. Hate it. I had to use it for a year when I worked for a corporation that used it for company-wide emails, and it was just awful. It has to be bad when it can even exceed Microsoft Hotmail (now Microsoft Live) for sheer stupidity and ugliness. Yahoo Mail I can barely stand, though they've "improved" it to the point where it's almost 50% as bad as Google Mail. They all suck, plus they're sluggish and slow.

You can hang out at the theater; I'm hanging out with my personal assistants by the pool.

Here's a look at some of the home theaters designed by Theo Kalomirakis:

Great spot. I wish Apple would release all of their classic commercials on Blu-ray and for download!

I said that about Justin Bieber, and look what happened:

After I win the $150M lotto on Saturday, I plan to install this in the Malibu beach house with the infinity pool: That's what I call a home theater.