dude

Your wish is but my command, Effendi....

Despite words of encouragement to the contrary... response to AwesomeDude Radio (by, for and about the folks at AwesomeDude.com) has been underwhelming and I am pulling the plug. Thanks to the few people who did listen... albeit briefly. I have not given up broadcasting entirely, I've been doing it since a few weeks after my voice changed. If AwesomeDude Radio reappears in sone future incarnation I'll let you know should you wish to give a listen. Thanks to those who contributed time, effort, recordings and music. dude

Posted: December 12, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern There's a slow poison out there that's severely damaging our children and threatening to tear apart our culture. The ironic part is, it's a "health food," one of our most popular. Now, I'm a health-food guy, a fanatic who seldom allows anything into his kitchen unless it's organic. I state my bias here just so you'll know I'm not anti-health food. The dangerous food I'm speaking of is soy. Soybean products are feminizing, and they're all over the place. You can hardly escape them anymore. I have nothing against an occasional soy snack. Soy is nutritious and contains lots of good things. Unfortunately, when you eat or drink a lot of soy stuff, you're also getting substantial quantities of estrogens. Estrogens are female hormones. If you're a woman, you're flooding your system with a substance it can't handle in surplus. If you're a man, you're suppressing your masculinity and stimulating your "female side," physically and mentally. In fetal development, the default is being female. All humans (even in old age) tend toward femininity. The main thing that keeps men from diverging into the female pattern is testosterone, and testosterone is suppressed by an excess of estrogen. If you're a grownup, you're already developed, and you're able to fight off some of the damaging effects of soy. Babies aren't so fortunate. Research is now showing that when you feed your baby soy formula, you're giving him or her the equivalent of five birth control pills a day. A baby's endocrine system just can't cope with that kind of massive assault, so some damage is inevitable. At the extreme, the damage can be fatal. Soy is feminizing, and commonly leads to a decrease in the size of the penis, sexual confusion and homosexuality. That's why most of the medical (not socio-spiritual) blame for today's rise in homosexuality must fall upon the rise in soy formula and other soy products. (Most babies are bottle-fed during some part of their infancy, and one- fourth of them are getting soy milk!) Homosexuals often argue that their homosexuality is inborn because "I can't remember a time when I wasn't homosexual." No, homosexuality is always deviant. But now many of them can truthfully say that they can't remember a time when excess estrogen wasn't influencing them. Doctors used to hope soy would reduce hot flashes, prevent cancer and heart disease, and save millions in the Third World from starvation. That was before they knew much about long-term soy use. Now we know it's a classic example of a cure that's worse than the disease. For example, if your baby gets colic from cow's milk, do you switch him to soy milk? Don't even think about it. His phytoestrogen level will jump to 20 times normal. If he is a she, brace yourself for watching her reach menarche as young as seven, robbing her of years of childhood. If he is a boy, it's far worse: He may not reach puberty till much later than normal. Research in 2000 showed that a soy-based diet at any age can lead to a weak thyroid, which commonly produces heart problems and excess fat. Could this explain the dramatic increase in obesity today? Recent research on rats shows testicular atrophy, infertility and uterus hypertrophy (enlargement). This helps explain the infertility epidemic and the sudden growth in fertility clinics. But alas, by the time a soy-damaged infant has grown to adulthood and wants to marry, it's too late to get fixed by a fertility clinic. Worse, there's now scientific evidence that estrogen ingredients in soy products may be boosting the rapidly rising incidence of leukemia in children. In the latest year we have numbers for, new cases in the U.S. jumped 27 percent. In one year! There's also a serious connection between soy and cancer in adults ? especially breast cancer. That's why the governments of Israel, the UK, France and New Zealand are already cracking down hard on soy. In sad contrast, 60 percent of the refined foods in U.S. supermarkets now contain soy. Worse, soy use may double in the next few years because (last I heard) the out-of-touch medicrats in the FDA hierarchy are considering allowing manufacturers of cereal, energy bars, fake milk, fake yogurt, etc., to claim that "soy prevents cancer." It doesn't. P.S.: Soy sauce is fine. Unlike soy milk, it's perfectly safe because it's fermented, which changes its molecular structure. Miso, natto and tempeh are also OK, but avoid tofu.

I use Registry Mechanic by PC Tools who also make Spyware Doctor. Just be sure to enable the rollback in case a cleanup does some damage... you CAN go home again!

Hi Gang Hope all folks Stateside had a great Thanksgiving Day holiday. At least the results of the November elections give Americans something to truly be thankful for... for the first time in six years! We had lots of new stuff for you to read during this past holiday week and more this coming one. We welcome Captain Rick to the fold as a new author at AwesomeDude. Let's get right to the rundown. Sky's The Limit by Captain Rick ? Chapters 1 and 2 of a new story from this talented newcomer to AwesomeDude. This has all the signs of being a romantic favorite... check it out. The Sacred Band of Thebes by TR is another neat story told in rhyme and is based on Plutarch and other ancient sources. "It is the only time in history that homosexual soldiers have been deliberately assembled, let alone paired and allowed to fight alongside their lovers." Introducing new technology with an ancient tale we offer this story in audio form as well... read by TR. Just click the button and enjoy! A Fondness for Pickles by TR is an elegant short story that is so, so believable. Like all stories TR writes... this one is unique. It is told almost entirely in dialogue. Laika by EleCivil ? Chapter 12 is here! The long awaited chapter has arrived and features some real delving into the personalities of the characters... you can't help lovin' EC's characters! The Scrolls of Icaria by Jamie ? Interlude the Fifth ? Gold - Like clockwork here is the fourth of the Interludes plus a peek at an intricately drawn map of the Icarian World done by none other than our own Nevius. The .jpg representation here doesn't do justice to it. At some time in the future I think it should be made available to download in PDF or some other form for print out and framing. We'll be starting an Archive section soon ?featuring lots of extras for for TSOI fans, but we'll leave it to Jamie tell you about what is to come in the Forums. The Garden by Nevius ? Chapter 30 and Epilogue ? Well all good things have to come to an end and this outstanding story is doing just this. I want to thank Nevius for posting it here and hope he will have another story for us in the near future. And Dream My Dreams Of You by Jay B - Chapter 5 - This is penultimate chapter of this story with the final chapter to come next weekend. If you haven't started on this story yet, now would be a good time to start... it gets great reviews in the AD Forums... and I'd like to add mine as well. Mystery and Mayhem at St. Marks by Joel ? Chapters 6 and 7 have been posted. The main character faces an audition of his abilities as an organist as he sets his sites on Cambridge. Saga of the Elizabethton Tarheels by Sequoyah ? Chapter Four has been posted... Unlike previous Sequoyah tales which featured the mountains and small times of North Carolina ? this one is set on the Carolina coast. I mentioned it earlier but we are adding audio playback ability embedded into selected story pages here at AwesomeDude so you can hear poems and stories read by the actual poets and authors. The inaugural one is in The Sacred Band of Thebes by TR... just go to the page and click the button and listen to the playback. In the next week we'll be updating stories and poems we have audio for most are by TR. We'll be coordinating with Gabe on this so those of you who'd like to read your poems for us... please contact our poetry editor. A few changes at AwesomeDude Radio. For the time being... we're dropping the hourly newscasts which take up way too much of my time (time=$) for the relatively few listeners we are currently supporting. Building radio listenership is like building readership and it took us nearly three years to build up to the nearly 40-thousand unique readers we get every month at AwesomeDude.com. TR will continue to do Entertainment Update features and they will be interspersed throughout the week as well as the weekend.. but won't be at the top of every hour. Our basic raison d'?‧tre for AwesomeDude Radio is to provide you music to listen and write to and of to support our community at AwesomeDude.com while having some fun. Thanks to all who have provided their favorite tracks for inclusion in our playlists! If you have broadcasting or speech/drama experience or just a desire to help out... contact me at dude@awesomedude.com or TR at story-editor@awesomedue.com. We pay broadcasters at the same rate we pay our authors... which means we all do it for the fun and satisfaction it brings. Some new stuff at our AwesomeDude Family of Sites: Codey's World ? www.codeysworld.com Lifebonded ~ Chapter 4 by Lukas 'n Taylor Ashke Check out CW's spiffy new logo too! Down the Rabbit Hole ? a.k.a. www.tragicrabbit.org Short stories Where No Shadow Falls, A Fondness for Pickles & The Sacred Band of Thebes and poems Sequoya's Place ? www.sequoyahsplace.com ? Latest chapters of Saga of the Elizabethton Tarheels have been posted. That's about it for this week. Have a great week of reading!

Hi Gang Lots of new stories and chapters for you this week. Joel has posted Chapters 4 and 5 of his new novel set at Britain's Cambridge University entitled Mystery and Mayhem at St. Marks. Not to be outdone, Sequoyah has posted chapters 2 and 3 of his new serialized novel Saga of the Elizabethton Tarheels... set on the east coast of North Carolina. Josh has wrapped up his new short novel Masquerade with Chapter 4 and 5.. the latter of which is an Epilogue. This is a new kind of story for Josh and he has definitely accomplished his goal of "getting out of his box." And escaping his life of chaos... Jason R has posted a new short story called A Moment of Clarity. A new drawn from life entry... Coming Out by Gabriel Duncan is a gripping but compelling true story of AwesomeDude Poetry Editor's Gabe's own coming out in Jr. High School. This is a recent story folks as Gabe only recently turned 20. Graeme's Heart of the Tree ? Chapter 14 has been posted about a great bunch of small-town Australian kids trying to help a gay friend find both himself and happiness. The Garden by Nevius has been updated with Chapter 29... with the story now totally centered in New Orleans. New author Jay B has sent us Chapter 4 of And Dream My Dreams of You, his debut novel, with two more chapters to come. Last but not least, Camy brings us Chapter 4 of his novel Seraph. And... after reading all these stories... you still have time during the American holiday week to read more... Dude's Picks for November are The Angel by Josiah Jacobus-Parker and All We, Like Sheep a Fable by Codey. Speaking of Codey... over at Codey's World Chapter 4 of Rick Spencer's story The Chronicles of Kadin has been posted... a story getting lots of favorable comments in both the Codey's World and AwseomeDude Forums. And Codey is now accepting submissions for his Holiday Story Collection 2006... check it all at www.codeysworld.com And don't forget to let your favorite authors know how much you appreciate them. Write them today or make your comments in the AwesomeDude Forums Readers Rule section. For those of you celebrating the holiday in the United States this week... Happy Thanksgiving!

Ah...that would be Shirley Phelps Roper... Fred's daughter. I think I have a pic of her... yeah here it is: She's the lovely, petite thing holding the "Thank God for AIDS' sign ... that's her daddy Fred in the white cowboy hat and red/blue jacket. Snapped with my own little Olympus across the street from our GAYBC Studios when they came to protest our pioneer gay Internet radio station. Of course about 2,000 local gays and lesbians marched from Downtown Seattle and between (says proudly) -my big sis- Col. Grethe Cammermeyer's speech and the singing and cheering of the crowd... the little group from Topeka's Westboro Baptist Church was scarcely heard.

Hi Gang... Wow... this past 48 hours has been a real nightmare with massive software problems if not preventing, then severely delaying getting all the new stuff up for you this weekend. I think everything is up... but my sincerest apologies to those authors and readers who were inconvenienced this weekend by all the errors of commission and/or omission. All in all ?story wise- it was a great week.... so let's get to it! Mystery and Mayhem at St. Mark's by Joel ? Chapters 1 to 3 have been posted... and it is an immense pleasure to welcome this talented and prolific author back to the pages of AwesomeDude. This is a new serialized story of which the first three chapters have been published. Joel will be publishing one a week ? like clockwork... so don't wait til the end to start reading. Set at Cambridge University's St. Mark's College you're going to enjoy this erotic and romantic story. Saga of the Elizabethton Tarheels by Sequoyah ? Chapter One marks the return of Sequoyah to the pages of AwesomeDude.com. Set in tradition-bound bound North Carolina... the story of young men in love in the best tradition of A Special Place, Mountain Magic and MOONWATCHING. It has been a long wait for you Sequoyah fans and you're reading it here first. Masquerade by Josh ? Chapter 3 has been posted. Another great ? but short novel by talented author Josh will be just five chapters. We put it up with the Halloween stories to get it launched... but this more than a holiday-themed story. I'm sure you'll enjoy this one. Please Come With Me by Douglas ? a short story that knocked my socks off. It is very powerfully written and the premise is really scary. But of course ? ultimately with all stories at AwesomeDude... it is about love. What a way to make a debut at AwesomeDude. Welcome ? Douglas! Confidant by Ryan Miller ? was posted as a short story last week by Ryan Miller and has been drawing quite a bit of good response in the AD Forums... as it is told in the forum of dialogue. Give it a spin... you'll be glad you did. On the Lonely Ocean by TR has been up for some weeks now... that love story of two boys.. one a mermaid the other a conventional human... who fall in love after a shipwreck. Why am I mentioning it again? Well because TR has done this story ?written in rhyme- as an audio file in his own voice. I listened again today and enjoyed it a lot. As a 26-minute Windows Media file.. it takes a few minutes to download, even at broad-band speeds.... but when you close your eyes and listen.. it is well worth the effort. The audio link is on the new Selected Sound Files (right column) of the AwesomeDude Home Page and will be also on the Sound Files general page within the week. The Scrolls of Icaria by Jamie ? Interlude the Fifth ? Silver has been posted. In two weeks... it will be Gold along with a special bonus... a beautifully done map of Icaria! Coming up on November 25th! The Garden by Nevius is getting near it's conclusion. Chapter 28 was posted this weekend with just a few to go. This has been a consistently good story from Chapter... so our thanks to Nevius for his talent and his efforts. Free Fall by Codey ? Chapter 8 has been posted. Despite his being under the weather and doing it behind his doctor's back... Codey has come through again this time. Check it out. So Called Chaos by Jason R is now up to Chapter 3 ? This new author is showing lots of promise and I'm sure he'd welcome your feedback in the Readers Rule AD Forum or an email. And Dream My Dreams Of You by Jay B is also up to Chapter 3 with a total of six chapters. Please check out this story and give your comments back to Jay as well... it's a great first effort. Our recap of all the Halloween 2006 stories is listed. Codey's contribution is coming soon... and will be posted as soon as it is ready. You know... all the Halloween stories are exceptional and it will definitely be an annual event at AwesomeDude. Dude's Picks of the best from the past... this month it's Josiah Jacobus-Parker's The Angel as novel and as short story All We, As Sheep... a Fable by Codey. A few words about AwesomeDude Radio... thanks to your efforts, contributing music, ideas and your voices... we are well underway. We still need help with Station ID's and Promo's and gathering appropriate Public Service Announcements. Stop by the AwesomeDude Radio Forums and volunteer! Your big chance to be a radio personality! Remember ADR is not a commercial radio station.. it is for the enjoyment of AwesomeDude's extended family around the world. Many thanks to all those who have contributed their voices... especially TR who does our great Entertainment Updates for weekends... In fact he has contributed so much to our 'on the air' sound that some call us... 'All Rabbit All The Time' ... but seriously TR has stepped up and helped out when it was neeeded and we have nothing but appreciation for him.. and he does a great job as well! Come join us and help out. Before we run.. a word about Codey's World, our little brother site... New at Codeysworld.com in addition to Codey's Prose and Poetry is Lifebonded ? Chapter 3 by Lukas 'n Taylor Ashke Poems by Lukas 'n Taylor are also there as well as by our own Blue ... hmmm he's been holding out on us. Well... due to the many distractions of the weekend... I am not sure I have covered everything I should have.... my apologies if I have committed any more of those 'sins of omission.' There's a lot of stuff to read ... just remember to keep AwesomeDude Radio playing in the background when you do so. Newscasts of the LGBT Community at the top of the hour Weekdays with dude and Entertainment Updates every Weekend top of the hour with TR. Have a great week of reading.

Thanks Trab... that was enlightening... wish I had a way to watch out here in the jungles of Borneo!

Friends, Tomorrow night, those who sent 2,800 of our soldiers to their deaths -- all because of a lie the president concocted -- will find out if America chooses to reward them -- or remove them. As good as things look for the Democrats, do not pop the corks and start the partying yet. Do not believe for a second that the Republicans plan on losing. They will fight like dogs for the next 24 hours -- relentless, unforgiving, nonstop action to squeeze every last conservative voter out of the house on election day. While the rest of us go about our day today, tens of thousands of Republican volunteers are knocking on doors, making phone calls, and lining up rides to the polls. They're not sleeping, they're not eating, they're not even watching Fox News. A day without Fox News? That's right, that's how insanely dedicated they are. But the reason they have to work so hard is that, before they can get the vote out, they first have to completely turn around the massive public opinion against them. Almost 60% disapprove of Bush. Over 60% are opposed to the war. Those are landslide numbers. And the American people are not going to turn pro-war or into Bush-lovers by tomorrow morning. So it should be easy for us, right? Yup. Just like it was when we won the popular vote in 2000 and when we were ahead in the exit polls all day long in 2004. You know the deal -- the other side takes no prisoners. And just when it seems like things are going our way, the Republicans suddenly, mysteriously win the election. Well, it's not really that mysterious. They're out there busting their asses this very minute, right down the street from you. What are YOU doing? You're on a computer reading my cranky letter! Stop reading this! We have only a few hours left to wrestle control of the Congress away from these "representatives" who, if returned, will continue shipping our young men and women over there to die. Here's what I'm imploring you to do right now: 1. Go through your address book on your cell phone and computer and call/e-mail everyone you know. Tell them how much it would mean to you if they vote on Tuesday. If they don't know where to vote, help them find their polling place. 2. Contact MoveOn.org ASAP. They will connect you to the folks who need you to make calls. 3. Contact your local Democratic Party headquarters. There are close races in nearly every state. They'll put you to work -- on the ground or on the phones. Or go to the local HQ for the Dem candidate running for the House of Representatives or the U.S. Senate and say, "Put me to work!" OK, turn off the computer -- and I will, too. There's serious work to do. The good news? There's more of us than there are of them. Let's prove that, once and for all. Is there anything more important that you have to do today? Nothing less than the rest of the world is depending on us. Yours, Michael Moore www.michaelmoore.com mmflint@aol.com

Hi Gang... Busy week here. The dust is finally settling following Halloween week: I'm gonna re-cap a bit from last week to make sure all our Halloween stories get their due. Trick by Trab ? First effort a by long-time AD Forums member Brandon/Things That Go Bump by Codey ? This one is due mid week A Really Strange Scottish Experience by Rick ? Had me going there. Halloween Dance by Nevius ? You'll love this one ? Anonymity? Trick or Treat by Graeme ? Spooky ... an excellent story Goblins At The Door by Jack Scribe ? Jack shines with this one Where No Shadows Fall by Tragic Rabbit ? shocking but well done The Point by WBMS ? In his usual fine form ? no more hiatus please Beethee Comes To Town by Camy ? A new short story Masquerade by Josh Ch 2 - Moving over to the Newest Serial Novels Confidant by Ryan Miller ? Another new short story Heart of The Tree by Graeme ? P2 Chapter 13 ? the search goes on The Garden by Nevius ? Chapter 27 ? life goes on And Dream My Dreams Of You by Jay B. Ch2 ? by our new author Good news... Codey is back from terrorizing doctors, nurses and orderlies and is finishing up his Halloween story. Chapter 8 of Free Fall will arrive on schedule next weekend, right on Schedule. Nevius is working on a new novel and short story... we are looking forward to both! Joel's new novel Mystery and Mayhem at St. Mark's will start serialization at AwesomeDude next weekend and we'll have at least one new teen author on board by then, too. Sequoyah's new story is awaiting work by his editor and will hopefully start serialization here very soon. And our talented author/musician Camy is working on a mega novel as we speak.. er write. We have such talented and productive folks at AwesomeDude and I've let TR off the hook about finishing Drama Club in October as he has been instrumental in getting lots of other authors into publication this past month... while still researching, writing and editing his own Halloween story... although I doubt he'll be writing about the departed for a while... Now let's talk about radio for a moment. We started newscasts (News Minute) segments late last month. They run on week days at the top of the hour. As of this weekend... our Entertainment Update segments by TR replace News Minute on Saturdays and Sundays. We try to keep all breaks in music programming to a minute or two at the most... after all AD Radio is for folks reading and writing. Audio Quality: We sound pretty good at our 32K streaming on Windows Media and Real Audio/iTunes/Quicktime... but we sound even BETTER in the new 48K AAC Plus format. You can find these links on the AwesomeDude Radio page. There are two... Winamp will play CD Quality (AAC+) perfectly just as it comes (free) downloaded from their website. For those who want to use Windows Media... there is a quick and easy plug-in available to make your Windows Media play in CD Quality as well. There is a link to get the VLC player on the AD Radio page as well for Mac users. We hope you will all make the move to CD Quality although we will keep the old links for those of you who are still on dial-up Internet connections. Also, programmers in South Korea are working on a custom tuner for AwesomeDude Radio which will work on the Windows Media engine... more on that very soon! Notes from www.CodeysWorld.com Check out: Lifebonded by Lukas 'n Taylor Ashke Chapter 2 is up. The Chronicles of Kadia by Rick as well as all of Codey's Prose & Poetry! Good to have Codey back at home again and we want to say Happy Birthday to The Mail Crew's youngest member, Rain ... who turned sweet sixteen on Friday! That's it for this week... have a great week of reading and listening.

Hi Gang.... Happy Halloween! As promised... the 2006 Halloween Story Festival is now under way and we have had a pretty good turn out. Most of the promised stories are up with the exception of Codey's and he has a note from his doctor... and WBMS promised to present tardy slips from his parents so we hope to have everything up by October 31st. I'm delighted to say that Josh is back with us... and his contribution is actually Chapter 1 of his new four part story Masquerade. A big surprise ?I'm sure you'll agree- is our friend Trab whom you all know from the AD Forums and who has brought forth his first story... Trick... and a very credible first effort at that! I like to think the music at AwesomeDude Radio is getting the creative juices flowing in many of you. Codey's story Brandon / Things That Go Bump... we expect soon. Rick has come through from Merry England with A Really Strange Scottish Experience. Not to be left out Nevius brings us Halloween Dance. Graeme's Trick or Treat is a welcome addition from Down Unda as is Goblins At The Door by venerable scribe... er Jack Scribe in the lovely California desert. And last but not least is Tragic Rabbit's Where No Shadows Fall. Those are our official eight stories created for the 2006 Halloween Holiday... but don't forget to check out one of my favorite and perhaps shortest of all stories from yesteryear... Gabriel Duncan's Cowboy... And a lot of TR's stories are of the macabre, so if you're sitting alone on a spooky night... click on his reading of The Midnight Chime under Selected Sound Files on the AwesomeDude Home Page Free Fall by Codey - Chapter 7 has been posted with more of the trials and tribulations of our gay young hero. Check it out! The Scrolls of Icaria by Jamie is always riveting reading and he comes through this week with Interlude the Fifth - Bronze The Garden by Nevius Chapter 26 has been posted... two for one this week from this talented author. Ah ... life is good! I'm gonna shut up now... as you have a lot of reading on your plates this week. Have a good one and I'll see you same time... same station (AD Radio, of course) next week. [/size]

Hi Gang.... A short N & V this week... I'm on a dial-up modem at the moment and AwesomeDude Radio has been streaming that way for the last day and a half as all Telekom Malaysia employees have taken off the holidays marking the end of Ramadan. The blackout of DSL and high end Internet services ?such as mine- is being ignored and will possibly be addressed on Monday morning. I should consider myself lucky to be online at all I suppose. Counting down the days till the end of March when I can depart the third world forever. A few words on AD Radio... coasting a bit on the air... tweaking the music list.. picking up lots of new listeners.. our current production staff is busy getting audio stuff ready for our listeners. Jamie's entertaining God Loves Us has been getting lots of smiles and favorable comments. He and TR and Graeme, Blue and Gabe have already done promo's and Graeme even convinced his wife who appears in his family snippets series... to do a promo for us in a real Australian accent. If you haven't heard AwesomeDude Radio yet give us a listen and hear voices of the above authors along with station ID. Station ID's by Camy, Rick, EleCivil, James Savik and WBMS add to the fun feeling of AD Radio. And we currently have five songs done by Camy in the music play lists. They are not only good... they are very good. More to come this coming week. Come on in... the listening is fine. Speaking of voices, our Sound Files page is up and available. We've linked Gabriel Duncan reading his poem Point Blank Think Tanks and TR his short story in verse, The Midnight Chime directly to the AwesomeDude Home Page. Give them a listen. We'll be adding Graeme's A Letter To My Son and Another Letter To My Son to the Audio Files page this coming week with links on the Home Page as well to Graeme's own reading of these really humorous pieces. Let's take a look at our Serial Story Chapter Updates. Heart of The Tree by Graeme is now well into Part 2 or 'Where is The Heart? Chapter 12 has been posted. You can't help loving the characters in this story as you get to know them. Excellent characters have become an integral part of Graeme's successful writing formula... keep it up Graeme. The Garden by Nevius ? Chapter 25 has been posted... another story with some very likable characters with a lot of real life ups and downs making the story quite believable. Opportunity Cost by Ryan Miller ? Chapter 11 has been posted. Ryan really seems to be on a roll with the chapters flowing regularly now... and you certainly won't fall asleep reading this one! We've revamped the presentation of this story and it's predecessor Bonding Energy. And be sure to check out Ryan's new Author's Page, complete with Bio. There you go. Remember to write your favorite authors and tell them how great they really are. It won't help them pay the rent... but will certainly help them feel their stories are worth writing. Have a great week of reading!

Des... Assuming you have some skills in web design or have somebody to help you... just apply for a domain of your choice -if untaken- and then get the simplest and cheapest hosting package. We use www.godaddy.com. While the yahoos and others offer an easier way to get started, they seem kind of impersonal and you'll have a blast learning how to do it all yourself. If you have microsoft word, you can get started pretty easily.

Slain gay man's mom works to get out the vote By SUSAN PAYNTER P-I COLUMNIST The current campaign game already was skidding in the usual mud when the Foley scandal poured on an extra layer of slime and let homophobes slide into home. Suddenly such prejudiced pundits as Patrick Buchanan and outright homophobes such as Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council have the leeway to fill the airwaves with fetid "statistics" such as the "fact" that this was all predictable since homosexual men are 10, 20, heck, let's make it 40 percent more likely than straights to molest children. And not even hard questioners like "Hardball's" Chris Matthews are saying "Whoa!" and pointing out that those hoary old pseudoscientific whoppers, first spread by crackpot anti-gay psychologist Dr. Paul Cameron, were debunked back when Buchanan still had a full head of hair. Fortunately, at the same time that this hot air was rising faster than popcorn flatulence, Judy Shepard -- mom of the murdered Matthew -- was preparing to launch a quieter offensive aimed at getting out the gay and lesbian vote. It has been eight years since, in a sickening hate crime, 21-year-old Matthew Shepard was beaten, tied to a Wyoming fence and left to die (which he soon did) for the "crime" of being gay. AP FILE Matthew Shepard In honor of his life and his youthful zeal for the privilege of voting, the Matthew Shepard Foundation kicked off its own campaign Oct 12, on the day that he died. Ads are appearing this month in more than 30 gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender publications across the country with a graphic campaign button featuring Shepard's face and the words "Vote for Me." "In a sense, he's saying, 'I can no longer vote so please do this for me,' " Susan Shepard told me late last week. It's ironic that, at the very time that gays are again being bashed for political purposes, Matthew Shepard's passion for political change is calling on gays to cast their ballots. "When they found his wallet, after the attack, they found his voting registration inside," his mom said. "As soon as he was old enough to vote, one of the first things he did when he moved to a new place was register." Even in elementary school, young Shepard volunteered to work for local candidates, stuffing envelopes and ringing doorbells. "One day when he was about 9, I remember he was getting his hair cut on Election Day and (was) telling all the beauticians who they should vote for and why," Judy Shepard said. "They couldn't believe that the little guy actually knew what he was talking about." She thinks her son would be "appalled at the apathy" toward voting within the gay and lesbian community. Exit polling and other research show, she says, that only a shred of those old enough actually vote or get involved in campaigns. "Maybe they feel their vote doesn't count or that the people they do vote for don't accomplish much," she said. GETTY IMAGES Judy Shepard She wishes that more people realized that, if they voted, they could affect the issues most important to their lives, such as employment and housing and marriage discrimination and the passage of federal hate-crimes legislation. In a sense, the Foley scandal and the rancid dialogue that it seems to have unleashed actually may backfire, prodding people into action. "If there is one, little, itty-bitty upside, (to the resurgence of anti-gay rhetoric) it's that it could actually bring more gays to the polls," she said. Maybe, tired of being tarred, gays and lesbians will be stirred to stand up and speak out against all the bogus conspiracy theories about "gay cabals" and "gay mafia cover-ups" of Foley's behavior that are currently circling the blogosphere. The more times a lie is told, the more it's believed. So it's time, Shepard believes, to counterattack with the truth, "to put to rest the idea of gay men as pedophiles. It distracts from the real story -- that Mark Foley was a predator first and foremost and that being gay had nothing to do with that." There are signs that something already is happening. In some sifting data recently released by the American Community Survey, part of the U.S. Census Bureau, The Williams Institute for Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy concluded that "the turbulent political landscape for gay people might also be a large factor in pulling couples out of the closet." The survey shows a 30 percent increase in the number of people willing to identify themselves as same-sex couples in the U.S. over the past five years. And the largest increases were in places -- including Washington -- where gays experienced defeats in the battle for an equal right to marry. Judy Shepard "just knew" that her son was gay from the time that he was 8 years old, even though it took Matthew 10 more years to tell her. "He once asked me if I thought gay couples would ever be allowed to marry," Shepard recalled. "I said, 'Maybe in your lifetime, not mine.' But it turned out to be the other way around." TO LEARN MORE Read about the Matthew Shepard Foundation's "Get Out the Vote" campaign at www.MatthewShepard.org/Vote.

Hi Gang... Another busy week at AwesomeDude. The Radio project is going along well... more voices of our authors and other AwesomeDude staff appearing on air including a great spot by Jamie called God Loves Us. And a fourth song by our author/musician/web guru Camy entitled 'Style' has appeared in the play lists. Speaking of play lists.. we have a new feature on the AD Radio page, a constantly updating play list showing the current artist and song plus the song coming up next... as well as the previous six music selections. Amazing what you can do with software! Music is constantly being tweaked to make it a great station to have on in the background as you read or write. If you are interested in learning more.. check in at the AwesomeDude Radio forums. A one minute version of News & Views has also made it's debut this (Sunday) morning and will run throughout the week ? to be updated again next Sunday morning. Lots of Halloween stories have been promised by some of our best known authors so watch for them weekend after next. It will be a real festival of special holiday stories. Our story and poetry editors have been the first to post their writings in audio form on the Audio Page. A few more folks ?newly equipped with recording software and microphones- are preparing to join them in posting selected stories or poems in audio as well as providing material for radio. This week's new stories and chapters: And Dream My Dreams of You by Jay B. ? Chapter 1 has been posted... welcome to new author Jay! So Called Chaos by Jason R ? Chapter 2 has been added. Jason has been lucky to snag talented author/editor vwl to edit for him. Enjoy this tale. The Scrolls of Icaria by Jamie ? Interlude the Fifth ? Iron is up. Book 2 Part One has wrapped up and this Interlude is quite entertaining! Talk about odd couples... you are going to enjoy this one. Opportunity Cost by Ryan Miller Chapter 10 has been posted. Chapter 9 generated so much controversy... it should be really interesting to see how Ryan brings the situation under control! Free Fall by Codey - Chapter 6 has been posted at AwesomeDude and at Codey's World. This is an entertaining tale of parental rejection and friends' acceptance of our hero's being gay. A great story by Codey. The Garden by Nevius Chapter 24 has been posted... an entertaining story with great characters. If you have been following this story from the beginning, you really want things to go well for Pete.. and it finally looks like things are happening! Each of these stories are the 'babies' of their authors. It takes a lot to write well and be entertaining. I hope you'll always remember that and let your favorite authors know you appreciate their efforts. That's it for this week. Have a great week of reading!

Moved this one and fixed the access parameter for Web Wiz Forum!

Hey guys... let's keep it light here. I am sure neither of you meant to offend the other. The friendly and humorous banter is part and parcel of the AD Forums. For the record, we all have our afflictions. I have to be careful not to reply to somebody who might have rubbed me the wrong way when my blood sugar is low. It has proved disastrous in the past.

Hi Gang, Another busy week at AwesomeDude with the first week of life of AwesomeDude Radio as we pick up listeners and tweak the programming and tech details. New author voices on the air... and even three selected cuts from Camy's latest album. Check in at the new AwesomeDude Radio Forum for details and give us your feedback. We've added a new Audio Page to the site. On it you'll be able to click on poems and short stories by our poets and authors and hear them read in their own voices! And check back often as we expect to be updating it every week or so. The link is at the top of the home page. New stuff: So Called Chaos by JasonR ? Installment One ? we introduced this story last weekend but Murphy struck right away as Jason realized he had sent us a draft that had not been edited and was indeed incomplete. As Jason, Story Editor TR, Editor vwl and I wipe egg from our faces we take a deep breath and post it again... they way it should be. Give it another go, please. Seraph by Camy ? Chapter 3 has been posted by our multi-talented young writer. This is his solo flight in the novel category so be sure to give him your feed back on this. I like it! Laika by EleCivil Chapter 11 ? after a long interval our hero Bran is back with this chapter focusing a lot on and revealing more the personality of the 'Son of a Preacherman.' Some really excellent writing here... EC's prose and sense of humor always generates lots of comments in the Laika thread in Readers Rule ? this chapter is no exception. Heart of The Tree by Graeme ? Part Two ? Chapter 11 ? This is an engrossing chapter with the introduction of three ? count 'em- new gay characters. I think you're going to like them all. An excellent chapter as Graeme introduces new characters and reveals important information about the regulars. The Garden by Nevius ? Chapter 23 has been posted. This meticulously crafted story is fast becoming one of my favorites. Again I'm a sucker for good characters and this story has them. Try it. Someday Out Of The Blue by Little Buddha ? Chapter 26 ? This is the final chapter of this entertaining story. We want to thank Little Buddha for sharing it with us and hopes he brings us another story in the near future. Zac and Kaden by Ryan Keith ? Chapter 1 ? not this is not a type by a dylexic dude. The story of the Canadian high school couple Kayden and Zac moves now into it's fourth phase. Kayden ? Kayden II ? Kaden and Zac ? and now Zac and Kaden. The same cast of characters but a very entertaining story. And the beat goes on.... This month's Dude's Picks are a little late... but here they are: Pick Novel: Ryan Keith's One Life Pick Short Story: The Cool Green Sea by James Savik We are still accepting short stories for Halloween. These stories will be posted the weekend of October 28-29 so you have a couple of weeks to get them to us... I'm setting October 25th ? as the deadline but we can be a bit flexible. If you are having trouble finishing by the 25th... drop us an email. Stories should go to Story Editor TR story-editor@awesomedude.com. We want to remind you to take the trip down the road to Codey's new site www.codeysworld.com. He's got a growing community of friends there in his forums and contributions by budding new authors. It's well worth the time... And rumor has it that our intrepid Blue is working on a novella! We'll be looking forward to that eagerly. Blue is the guy responsible for getting our ADR links up and running at the top of the AD Forums Index Page. Many thanks for that! A final comment on AwesomeDude Radio. It has been gratifying to see the cooperation of our staff of editors and authors and forum members in getting ADR launched. It is turning to out to be a lot of work for me... but seems to be a lot of fun for everybody. And we have something no other gay literary site has... our OWN community radio station. We hope you'll listen often and give us your feedback and suggestions. Of course we always ask you to write your favorite authors to tell them how much appreciate their efforts... don't forget to do that. Til next week, then... have a great week of reading and listening!

Duh... I am amazed this subject has come up. The whole raison d'etre of AwesomeDude is to provide a place where newer writers can mix with more experienced ones and share knowledge about the art and science of writing fiction. Feedback from their peers is what inspired many authors to settle here at AwesomeDude. The serial story is the staple of the nearly 40-thousand unique visitors we get here every month. We are ALWAYS looking for new and talented authors to do both short stories and serial novels. Admittedly, when we take on a new author and his serial story we like to see several chapters done in advance... if he doesn't have a track record of finishing stories. But we do make exceptions. As the official point of view... to achieve the goals of this site... we encourage serial stories... and when they are really good but sometimes weeks, even months go by between chapters... well we can understand, expecially in the case of students. But it is the newer -and in many cases younger writers- who benefit from feedback as they try to 'hit their stride.' As for our readers... it's up to them. Trab won't usually read a story until it's finished... but he makes exceptions. Josiah, if you know what's going into the story and where it is going and with your track record of completing your previous serial novel, I have every confidence inviting you to begin posting your new story. Part of the motivation of many of our writers in sitting down and using that idle time to work on another chapter is the fact that they have fans who are just as happy as the author to see a new chapter posted.

Officer Mark wins Mr Gay UK titleBy Rebecca Wright PC Mark CarterA PC who cried himself to sleep at night because of his fear of coming out, was today celebrating being named Britain's sexiest gay man. PC Mark Carter, 23, scooped the title of Mr Gay UK supported by up to 50 colleagues from West Yorkshire Police at the event at Blackpool's Flamingo Club. As one of 25 regional finalists, he stripped down to swimwear to reveal his body to celebrity judges including Big Brother's Lea, Su Pollard, Rowetta and Anita Dobson. PC Carter said: "I am absolutely 100 per cent over the moon. Two years ago I used to cry myself to sleep at night, I was so daunted by the prospect of coming out, but when I did, it was the best thing ever. I was so happy I could finally be myself. continued... "I came from a very straight background and upbringing. I played football, I was a sports captain, I had girlfriends. I thought telling people I was gay would mean no-one would want to know me, but at the Mr Gay UK final I had more people together, supporting me, in one place, than I've ever had in my life." PC Carter, who lives in Bradford and works on patrol in Huddersfield, went into the contest hoping to change perception of gay men He said: "I am happy that people will be able to see that there are police officers who are gay and we are not necessarily the usual people that they see on TV programmes like Big Brother. "It will be good for other young gay men to see someone like me who has been successful in a professional job like policing." His bosses gave him their approval after he told them he had reached the final by winning a heat in Birmingham. He admitted he was unsure how they would take the news but was relieved when they gave him the official go-ahead. Attitudes had changed over the years, he said, and there was now more support for gay officers in the force. West Yorkshire colleague PC Maureen Hales, one of the party who went to Blackpool in matching t-shirts bearing his photograph, said: "Mark is great, I knew he'd win, he's so down to earth. He's lovely." PC Carter, who has been an officer for 18 months, won ?5,000 in prizes and will embark on a year of personal appearances and photoshoots. According to the organisers Mr Gay UK was chosen via text votes and on-the-night voting, on the basis of looks, personality and "x-factor". Competition organiser Terry George, says: "Mark is a great example of a young gay man achieving his goals in life. If anyone assumed it was just bimbos that entered competitions like this, Mark's proving them wrong." e-mail: rebecca.wright@bradford.newsquest.co.uk

Hi Gang... It has been a busy week at AwesomeDude with the launch of AwesomeDude Radio on September 30th. Thanks to everybody who provided Station ID's and Promos. So far we've got 'em from (alphabetically) Blue ? EleCivil - Gabriel Duncan ? Graeme ? Rick ? Tragic Rabbit and Write By Myself. And we have promises from twice again that number of AwesomeDude celebrities. We're still ironing out a few technical details with our streaming providers and other admin details. We have been careful to go about this very carefully with regard to music licensing and technical standards. Concurrent with opening AwesomeDude Radio.. we also opened a companion forum of the same name. But why do all this? Well, heck, we have a community of talented folks who have assembled at AwesomeDude and ?to me- it seems a way to further bring us all together. Since my skills are not in creative writing ? although an avid reader- I think I can contribute to the cause of good writing by running this site and fostering good writing and editing. AwesomeDude Radio is just a fun thing we can all participate in and something that might attract even more folks to our site. More details as we go along... and keep an eye on the Radio Forums for regular updates. Now on to stories... A big welcome to our latest novelist-in-the making... as we proudly add: So Called Chaos by Jason R. ? Installment 1 has been posted. Jason came to us an accomplished poet who is making the leap into writing prose. Welcome, Jason... we wish you the best with the story. The Scrolls of Icaria by Jamie ? Chapter 14 wraps up Part 1 of Book Two. It is a short chapter and a cliffhanger is the extreme. Since it involves a character dear to my heart... We'll just have to endure the wait and enjoy the Interludes that are to follow. Someday Out Of The Blue by Little Buddha is back with its penultimate Chapter 25. This story has been getting a growing following and we hope LB is planning more stories for us. Next week we'll be posting the final chapter. Free Fall by Codey ? Chapter 5 has been posted. If you like this story and Codey's Fables and poems... drop by his cool site which is complete with forums and friends... a nice place to hang out. Check out www.CodeysWorld.com ? one boy's dream. The Garden by Nevius ? Chapter 22 is now up. Pete and Tom .... hmm why does this remind me somehow of Torch Song Trilogy? I can see Anne Bancroft playing Pete's mom. I like the characters in this story if not always what happens to them. If you haven't started reading The Garden.. now is a good time. Nevius is a regular poster and you can be sure to see this story completed. A couple of notes... a birthday and an anniversary. Aaron of The Mail Crew turns 18 this coming week. He's the brave young lad who ? when bullied at school- stood up on the school bus and said sure he's gay and what of it, silencing his detractors. Sequoyah used this incident as the basis for an important sequence in his novel Mountain Magic. He's also been the main editor for authors Graeme and Ryan Keith. Well our little boy is growing up... Aaron and the best of luck at college. The anniversary? Well this month marks two years of The Scrolls Of Icaria being posted here at AwesomeDude.com and also the great team of author Jamie and editor AJ. It has been a great run so far and is far from over! All the servers and software are in place for our AwesomeDude PodCasts which will be starting this month as soon as we can gather the audio and other files and get them uploaded. More as we get closer to launch. We'll be accepting short stories all this month for Halloween. Send them along to Story Editor TR at story-editor@awesomedude.com. Your feedback and suggestions for AwesomeDude is welcome as is comments on your favorite stories and their authors. Have a great week of reading and listening.

Alas, Jack... Over the past couple of years Story Editor TR and I have tried many times to get in touch with Savoir Faire - he stuff is SO well written and original. He has written a number of things but seems to be inactive unless he's writing under another name. If anyone has a working email address for him, please email me.

You might be interested in what the Roman Catholics are saying about Kids for Kids TV show's Two Fathers performance by Terence. http://romancatholicblog.typepad.com/roman...ren_voor_k.html

By JOHN COLES September 25, 2006 GAY schoolboy David Birch joined his town?s carnival with pride ? as its alternative QUEEN. David, 15, wore a flowing lilac dress, tiara and white high heels as he was driven along in the parade through quiet Axbridge, Somerset in an open-top yellow sports car. He said: ?Some people said they were going to throw eggs at me but thankfully it never happened.? David stunned the carnival committee by auditioning to be their Blackberry queen in drag. The committee, afraid of not appearing politically correct, picked him ? but chose a female queen as well. David, who carries a handbag and wears make-up, said: ?I?m pleased I managed to carry it off and hopefully I didn?t offend anyone.? But one gran branded the decision to select him ?ridiculous?. She said: ?How can you have a boy as carnival queen? It has to be a girl. It?s stupid.? http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006440394,00.html