Rutabaga

Here" http://www.awesomedude.com/andrew-todd/three-hearts/index.htm I am so happy to see this story appear here. I remember reading it elsewhere a year or two ago and look forward to re-reading it. Brice, Cody, and Justin are great "hearts." R

Several things are striking about this. 1. This is not a government program but a privately funded charity. 2. The driving force behind it is a church. 3. Apparently, until recently, it would have been illegal for someone to take in a homeless, thrown-out-of-the-house gay kid for overnight shelter. Meanwhile, according to news reports, the incidence of homeless youth in Utah has been skyrocketing in recent years. Maybe the Mormon church should step up and take some responsibility for the situation it has created. R

Between sharks, storms, and drug dealers, seems like an idyllic life there at Sebastian Inlet! Glad Neil seems to have found a buddy. R

And Amy gets Silas to smile. And even talk. Seems like there's hope, as difficult as both tasks were. R

How cool that Mrs. Harrington agrees with Tony. Maybe his parents will stop being so self-absorbed. R

I didn't see the story there -- I found it with Google. Maybe a narrower format for the story page would make sense. R

Try http://www.awesomedude.com/graeme/leopard/index.htm R

There is malware that puts an invisible frame around legitimate websites in order to serve bad stuff to unwitting visitors. I would advise some combination of (a) removing and reinstalling the web browser software program, in order to eliminate any hitchhiking add-ons, and (b) scanning with Malwarebytes and Hitman Pro to see what can be found. It's also not a bad idea to open the control panel, select Programs and Features, click on the header to show the programs in order of installation, and look at the most recent ones to see if they are ones you believe are legitimate, or whether there is something there that doesn't belong. Use Google to check on anything you can't properly identify. R

It's interesting that Evan Young is headed for Rutgers in the fall -- the locale of the suicide by gay freshman Tyler Clementi back in September, 2010. I have the impression that gay students at Rutgers are in much better circumstances now than they were back in 2010. R

This just gets better and better. http://www.coloradoindependent.com/153706/polis-fire-lawyer-for-maoist-style-thought-reform-camp-jab R

It's also no surprise to learn that the school's legal counselor, a solo practitioner named Barry Arrington, is a right-wing Christian fundamentalist whose online bio lists him, among other things, as "past president of the Rocky Mountain Family Council and the Colorado Coalition for Children and Families." I'm surprised he didn't find a way to get the school to yank Evan Young's diploma. Every letter Arrington writes digs the hole deeper. R

This article displays the letter from a U.S. congressman to the school, and the defensive press release that the school issued immediately after the incident. http://www.westword.com/news/banning-of-evan-youngs-coming-out-speech-spurs-investigation-at-school-6771641 R

Other coverage: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jun/3/colorado-school-probing-barring-gay-valedictorian-/ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/03/colorado-valedictorian-comes-out-_n_7502478.html And in the latest news: The school is hiring an outside law firm to investigate the matter, in the face of justified concerns that its initially proposed internal investigation would be a whitewash. The external investigation might be, also, but there is a chance that it will actually approach the matter honestly and candidly. http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/school-asks-review-ban-gay-student-speech-31528260 R

Follow the money. Look at which politically connected contractors get the business to build all the sports facilities and handle all the accommodations. R

The intrigue level just builds and builds. R

Hurrah for Stacey. She's as much a philosopher as Brady. R

I'm titling this post "The Chav Prince" in recognition of that story's inclusion as a Dude's Pick from the Past, but I would really like to talk about this entire series. As unlikely as it seems that anyone reading this will not have been familiar with Michael Arram's extraordinarily engaging Peacher/Rothenia series, I thought I should make brief note of it here just in case. My biggest warning, and one to be taken with dead seriousness, is to make sure you have A LOT of time available once you get started. I strongly recommend reading the stories in sequence. Go to the author page here: http://www.awesomedude.com/mike_arram/and commence with the Peacher Series. In correspondence with Michael Arram I learned that there are two earlier stories, "Toward the Decent Inn" and "Terry and the Peachers," hosted at CRVboy. I hope they will make their way here in due course. The most extraordinary aspect of this was experiencing Michael's incredible rewrite of the final story of this series, "The Fall," as it unfolded here at Awesome Dude. He told me in correspondence that he had been unsatisfied with the original ending, and wanted to try to improve it. To call this revised version an improvement is a gross understatement; it is a mind-blowing expansion and completion of the tale that has enough content for two or three novels. Anyway, as I say, if there happens to be anyone who has not experienced this series, put it on your list. R

The four-character minimum, I find, is imposed by the default search function of the mySQL database. See http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/fulltext-fine-tuning.html. This can be changed by modifying the configuration file for the mySQL installation, re-starting the database, and reindexing the content. However, apparently the superior answer is to switch to Sphinx as the search engine, something that requires a fair amount of sophistication and root access to the server. Thus I presume that we're stuck with the four-character minimum. R

From my research it appears that the flood control setting (in seconds) is here: ACP > Member Groups > Manage User Groups The number entered represents seconds. If it's blank or 0 is entered, flood control is disabled. I would ask again whether there has been an actual problem with overzealous searching, and why flood control is activated at all. At a minimum it would be nice to reduce it to something like 2 or 3 seconds. R

1. Turn down the severity of "flood control." 8 or 10 seconds between searches is too long. If a search doesn't work, let people make a new search right away. A setting of 3 or 4 seconds would surely be sufficient for whatever the perceived problem is. 2. Allow three-letter words to be part of the search (and, I presume, part of the indexing). I recently ran a search for the story title 'The Way You Say My Name' and discovered that the only thing searched on was the word "name." 3. Clean up the behavior when a search string is entered with quotation marks (i.e., looking for a literal match). At present the results are unpredictable. Don't know whether any of these things are possible but I thought it would be worth mentioning. R

I wonder when the subject of Demons of the Crossroads will come up between Silas and Tara, and Tara will learn of Silas's past connection? Maybe after she hears an interesting new song on the radio and mentions it? R

Every year, somebody puts out a series of nominations for Darwin Awards, highlighting the dumbass activities of people who are (in many cases litereally) too stupid to live. Clearly Pete in this story is a strong contender for the next round of Darwin Awards. R

More things than I ever knew about or even thought about concerning surfing. Lightning would be a major issue in Florida, I would think. Carlos is proving to be the most intriguing character of all, primarily because our perception of him is by way of Lucas. R

That's why I always liked backpacking in the Sierras -- much less rain (although sometimes snow). R

Wonder if they'll start some kind of tradition at this school. Interesting to see what happens next year. R