Nick Deverill

And that speaks volumes about the commentators and their wish to have something to complain about. Unless, that is, you classify a kiss on the lips as sex.

I'd not say 'laboured', emphasised perhaps but I do have an advantage in understanding as I'm totally deaf*. What is nice is that this story makes it clear that Auslan is a language in its own right with its own grammer, as is American Sign Language (ASL) and British Sign Language (BSL). One of the nicest Deaf and Hearing stories I've read really. *I was born hearing, moderately musical even for the first 40 years of life, but I'm now deafened due to a nerve condition.

Now that caused a tea-keyboard interface problem.

The kid in the first video was brilliant. Pleased as punch to get on the court, then he goes to 'game face' as he plays and finally we see incredulity as he wins the volley. A good lesson in body language as we see a lot of genuine changes in quite a short period.

Love is a four letter word

Our universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding In all of the directions it can whiz As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know Twelve million miles a minute and that's the fastest speed there is So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure How amazingly unlikely is your birth And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere out in space, 'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth! Written as a comedy song (The Galaxy Song, Monty Python, the last bit) but as many things comic, alarmingly near the truth.

Whoops yes, Gimp is a art package, takes forever to load but can be useful whereas Gom is the video player that was packaged with horrid infecting stuff. I'll get my coat...

I was a fan of Gimp player as it is nice and simple, and does all one needs of a video player. But the last update I had included a truly horrible piece of Adware - reset one's home page and did several other nasties. Not a simple job removing it either, and I only found the last traces quite recently. Net result, I'll never download their player again.

I too have signed.

I'm another one who hadn't read the earlier short. And actually, I think it is better that way as "Mikes Story" is more complete and compelling.

Question, does the bacon sold in American feature added water? In the UK most bacon sold has additional water added, which is a complete pain in the neck as it comes out when you fry it and thus means a pan that is no good for cooking eggs or the rest of your breakfast. You can get decent bacon in the UK from butchers and some supermarkets, but supermarkets generally charge a high price for this so called 'premium' product. I dare say there are some decent restaurants in the USA but the view in the UK of American cooking is rather sullied by TV programmes such as "Man versus Food" and news stories such as this:

The laptop is now running this format after a program I basically like foisted some very hard to get rid of malware on me. The big PC is also running the free version of Avast, but that machine also runs Yet Another Cleaner, and Trusteer Rapport.

DVD is released today (9th February) in Region 2, Europe, but Region 1, USA has to wait till 17th March My copy is now ordered, but will be a few more days as I'm too tight to pay extra for delivery. Quite common for folk in Europe to have a DVD player that is all regions as mine is, but I believe somewhat rare in the USA.

At the end of the day, we all have our own styles and if everyone wrote exactly to the same rules, life would be awfully boring. I certainly could not do it for everybody, but some authors have such a distinctive style, I probably could identify their work after two sentences.

That's a bit difficult as all my published writings have the word 'that' stripped out and going back, I can't see where they might have been. So, I'll have to use something of mine not yet published/finished that I can spot the issue in. “Quiet!” The teacher faced the class of unruly eleven year olds, and when they were still, in a softer voice “thank-you”. “My name is Mr Jones and I’m both your form and mathematics teacher”. He then looked at one boy who was looking uncomprehendingly at him and signed, My name is Mr Jones and I’m both your form and mathematics teacher. The boy smiled and the rest of the class were completely perplexed. “Ok class, explanation. I speak English, French, and sign in British Sign Language too. You may have noticed your class-mate, Alex Fletcher is deaf. He is supposed to have a support worker, Mrs Carstairs to translate for him. She rang the office this morning that she and has urgent family business to attend to, so you’ll have to put up with this and this morning’s Maths lesson being signed by me. Any complaints and I’ll carry on the lesson in French”. At this he smiled letting them know that although it was a threat, it was not a terribly serious one. A quick flurry of signing followed to let Alex know what he’d just said. The first instance I've added and one does need to adjust things as without 'that she', it needs 'and'. However, the second case is ideal as taking this from an early draft, the work 'that' is not only present, it can be omitted. Arguably one needs to add an extra comma so that one gets bracketing commas but I'm not going to worry at this stage. If I ever finish the story, you'll find why Mr Jones is one of the very few hearing people proficient in BSL... PS I'm well aware I started this post with the naughty word, the devil sat on my shoulder dared me to.

In general terms, the word 'that' is perhaps the most overused in the English language. Saying 'that' can make it look like you are preaching and cuts the friendliness coeficient (made up term) quite a lot. So, at the editing stage, do a search for 'that', and if you can cut the word out without altering the meaning, do it. The result is much nicer. I was taught this for letter writing, but it does have exactly the same effect in stories or magazine articles.

Don't watch Netflix and hate commercials. But there is a dead easy way of viewing commercial tv, record the programme and skip the adverts.

Had to clear my cache in Firefox before the page would appear correctly. I am however a bit confused as although it was using an old image (Christmas graphic) surely unless the request was there, it wouldn't have?

I too looked at Wikipedia, but it cannot be regarded as a trusted source due to the way it is compiled. If "Ich hatt' einen Kameraden" was tainted by its Nazi use, that is a shame really as there is no politics in the words, just regret at a fallen comrade. But if you've not started reading the story, do so as if the other chapters are half as good as this one, you're still in for a treat.

WOW! It's a while since I read anything quite so gripping and involved. As a general rule I don't like stories that jump about in timescale, but this one makes it seem natural. Not saying it's wrong, but is the song "Ich hatt' einen Kameraden" really banned in Gernamy? It dates from 1825 as a song, and earlier as a poem. I can't see anything in the words that would be offensive. Now the Horst Wessel song, I didn't even bother to look up, as it's perhaps the song most closely associated with the Nazis, ever. But whatever, read the story here: http://awesomedude.com/solsticeman/i%27ll-see-you-down-there/index.htm

And me... A good story as it's unusual and well told. One of the few stories I guessed the basic premise with about three sentences and the rest of the plot shortly after. But it was so well told that fact didn't detract from the story and I carried on reading.

I 'used' Windows 8 for a few days, but only so I could update to the just released 8.1. With that, all of the sticky/smeary screen options turned off, and Classic Shell installed, just about acceptable. It doesn't always do the right thing on updates, and I've had to remove a Sony utility but that might be Sonys fault, not Microsofts. I probably will update to Windows 10 as the laptop does not have much software installed and the biggy, I have the disc anyway. Windows 8 though was horrid - and in 3 or 4 days, I had to clean the laptop screen off of fingermarks twice.

A shameful period in history. In addition to Jews and Homosexuals, the Romany people and other groups were also victimised. While most folk know of the Jewish holocaust, the other victimised groups get little recognition. The continued imprisonment of Homosexuals after the camps is another story, While it's naughty blowing ones own trumpet elsewhere, my first completed story lightly covers this issue (I won't give a link but you don't need to look very hard to find it). But, Mike, if you want to publish themed stories on that date, I'd be happy to let you have it. Added, I know the first post (which I should have read more carefully) covers the issues in paragraph one, it does however sum things up.

Which sounded so familiar to me, I had to Google it. Pretty well the catchphrase uttered on many occasions by Francis Urquhart in the BBC series 'House of Cards' and the two follow ups. I was sure something similar had been in the BBC series 'Yes Minister' but it doesn't seem to be. There was an American version of 'House of Cards' but if like other shows Americanised, probably not as good - I've no idea if the catchphrase survived.

Have any idea how many words in English are not pronounced how they are spelt? It's that kind of logic that caused the ITA (Initial Teaching Alphabet) to be foisted on kids. See the Wikipedia article for details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial_Teaching_Alphabet I'll raise you cholmondeley... (pronounced chumley)