dude

Hi Gang, A project that has been simmering on the back burner is having the flame turned up in the next few days. On September 30th we're launching AwesomeDude Radio for our AwesomeDude Community. This is to be an evolving project with participation by AwesomeDude authors, editors and editors. Initially, we'll be offering 24/7 music programming and then add news, current affairs and other programming produced by our own folks or by outside sources. We've arranged for music licensing ?one of the biggest hurdles- for serious webcasters through a Joint Public Licensing agreement with ASCAP and BMI through SWCAST. Some of the things we'll be doing is interviews with our various authors hosted here at AwesomeDude ? poetry read by our own poets ? short stories by our own authors. In addition to ?I won't say how many years- commercial broadcasting experience, I am proud to have been one of the pioneers in webcasting for the LGBT community with the GAYBC radio network, as its News Director and actually moved back to the States for it's brief lifetime. Many of the staff regrouped under the heading of Sirius Satellite Radio's OutQ 106 LGBT channel, where I am now morning news anchor ?yeah even from Borneo. About AwesomeDude Radio, technically, we'll be dual streaming with 22 mp3PRO Shoutcast streams at 56K which are playable if you have Winamp, Real Media, QuickTime or iPod players installed on your computer. For those with only Windows Media... there are 20 streams in that format. Music selection is basically 60's, 70's & 80's plus more modern LGBT music. Some of our authors will be sending along some original music as well. Contributions of music in mp3 format are welcome... as we are licensed to broadcast most selections. You might ask ... 'Hey, why bother?' Well I've been in Broadcasting all my life and it is something I can't change anymore than the color of my eyes or my sexual orientation. I guess radio folk have the dream to someday own their own station... and I guess this is my shot at it. It's like the writing itch many of our authors have... you gotta scratch it. I expect to be spending a lot of time with AwesomeDude Radio and I hope you'll enjoy it as much as you do the AwesomeDude websites and the AD Forums. Now on to the stories at hand: Seraph by Camy ? Chapter Two has been posted early in the week by Camy as he makes the plunge in to writing a serialized novel. An excellent effort so far! Opportunity Cost by Ryan Miller Chapter 9 ? This chapter ?a long time coming- takes a dramatic turn. Don't say I didn't warn you! The Garden by Nevius ? Chapter 21 ? Nevius keeps the high level of story interest again this week... something not easy to do. Heart of The Tree by Graeme ? Chapter 10 ? This chapter begins Part Two of the story 'Where Is The Heart?' On the horizon ? we have a couple of serial stories by members of our AD Forums we'll be introducing very soon. Watch for them! A reminder... we are asking for Halloween short stories for publication at the end of October. Ghosts, goblins, witches, trolls ?well maybe NOT trolls- are all welcome. Don't forget to check out Gabe's Poetry Picks and Dude's Story Picks for fairly recent stuff you might have missed or might just want to read again. Also... if you have some time.. try scrolling down our Authors List on the left margin of the AwesomeDude Home Page, you might find something you'd like read listed there. That's about it. We're running the final tests on AwesomeDude Radio this week and will hook it all up on Saturday, September 30... after which we'll ask you to 'stay tuned.' Have a great week of reading... as always.

Graeme.... Thanks so much for sharing that clip with us. It brought tears of joy to my eyes... partly because I could never imagine to see that on TV in my homeland... and reminds me why I am an American EXPATRIATE .... although not an EX-PATRIOT.

Hi CJ. This is as good a place as anyway... but your comments point out the fact that we could -indeed- do with a Newbie's Intro Forum... Welcome to you... you are definitely in the right place. We welcome new writers of all age and we hope the resources and the friendly community of writers, editors and readers who have assembled at AwesomeDude will help you in further developing your writing skills. So come on in, CJ.... make yourself comfortable. I'm sure you'll have no trouble making friends here.

Jason... I'd jump if I were you! vwl is indeed an excellent editor...

Gasp... gasp You're giving this broadcast journalist anxiety attacks!

Last week, prominent P2P network eDonkey announced it was settling a copyright-infringement lawsuit brought by the Recording Industry Association of America for $300 million and closing up shop forever. Users who clicked a button to update their eDonkey2000 software reported the "update" initiated an uninstallation of the product. Visitors to the eDonkey Web site are now greeted by an intentionally blunt message advising surfers they are not anonymous online (and playfully proving it by displaying visitor IP addresses). Only a month ago, we learned that former top file-sharing program Kazaa settled with the RIAA for $115 million, and that current top P2P application LimeWire was being sued for an estimated $476 million. The LimeWire case is expected to go to court next month. The demise of the original Napster file-sharing program marked an immediate rise in decentralized peer-to-peer networks. Now it seems that U.S. copyright law and other influences are causing file sharers to drift toward the non-node-connected BitTorrent protocol, which allows users to download one file from multiple sources simultaneously. The legality of various BitTorrent software and "tracker" sites is still undecided, but a recent partnership between Warner Bros. and BitTorrent indicates the technology is integrating with mainstream Hollywood. It appears as if the one-two punch of suing individual file-sharers and the companies that develop peer-to-peer technology may have ended the long reign of conventional P2P networks. What do you think? Peter Butler Senior Editor, CNET Download.com

I remember reading for the first time the macabre The Midnight Chime in which TR had me reading much more rhymed text than I am used to. It reminded me so much of Edgar Allen Poe's poems... which I loved as a kid. I have to admit the 'short story in rhyme' is becoming one of my favorites... expecially the way TR writes. I hope everybody gets a chance to read On the Lonely Ocean and if you like that... go check out his 'not so traditional' poetry page at his site Down The Rabbithole!

Well... it's pretty obvious the lad is adept at lip-sync. But the overall effect is pretty funny. Apparently he has a number of videos out there... and he seems to be a master of gestures and facial expressions ... especially of the 'man you love to hate' a.k.a. Resident, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC 20500.

Hi Gang ? Still working to improve the appearance and navigability of AwesomeDude... First of all the colors between AwesomeDude the site and AwesomeDude the forums have been reconciled ... and to make it official our site title/masthead has been done up using our original Halloween orange logo in flash technology along with a scrolling list of our AD authors. Many thanks to Camy for his efforts on this. It's just about the level of 'pizazz' with which I feel comfortable. Looking around at sites of comparable traffic, I am quite pleased with how easy it is to get around AwesomeDude... our general appearance and the welcome absence of advertising. I realize we could double our traffic by having 'gay' in our site name or by trading ad space on the site with Google ? the ubiquitous search engine... but, hey... that's not what it's all about. The story's the thing... and the authors.... and yeah, the readers. Back in April ? we lost a talented member of our AwesomeDude Forums, and indeed our writing community, a young man of 22 who wrote under the name of Green. He died following an automobile accident. He was the fellow who wrote A Hero in The Hallways and other neat stories. At the time... I remember hearing he was in hospital and not expected to live and even though I was awash in my own personal grief at the time... took the time to say a prayer for this young man. Green maintained his own mini-site over on the free Geocities service. I went there last night and had a look... and it brought tears to my eyes all over again. Green and I corresponded soon after he had started A Hero in The Hallways and I asked him to post on AwesomeDude back in 2004. He agreed conditionally, saying it wasn't yet good enough for AwesomeDude ? but said he was going to have it edited and that I should look at it again. We sort of fell out of touch although he often visited and sometimes posted in the AD Forums. Now to why I'm telling you all this.... I have downloaded Green's entire site and want to kind of memorialize his writing with it's own mini-site here at AwesomeDude. My quandary is I want to make his writing available to many who may never find it over at Geocities but I don't want to give the appearance of exploiting him. On the contrary... the idea is to pay tribute to him... albeit too late for him to appreciate. So I'll leave it up to you, dear readers for your opinion. If you'd like to take a look at this visually pleasing little site you can preview it at http://green.awesomedude.com. If you think the whole idea is tacky, just let me know. If that is the consensus.. I'll drop the idea. If not I'd like to put it up permanently. I just believe that Green wrote some nice stories and that they should be as widely read as possible. Some stuff for you to read this week: Phil's Story ? Stars and Dreams by Ryan Keith ? Ryan has come up with a side story based on Phil ... one of Kayden & Zac's classmates. It stands alone as a short story... but it is really much better within the context of Kayden and Zac, Ryan's long-running serial novel. Be sure to read Aaron's and Ryan's notes on this one. The Scrolls of Icaria by Jamie ? Book 2 Chapter 13 ? Some surprises as we find out more and more about a newly introduced character... and how Charlie helps Jamie plug the holes in his memory. Free Fall by Codey ? Chapter 4 ? Brian and Tim reunited in urban Chicago... where Tim now has 'homeys' instead of friends. The Garden by Nevius ? Chapter 20 ? Things may be looking up for lonely Pete. Someday Out of The Blue by LittleBuddha ? Chapter 24 ? Connor gets an earful at Toby & Cody's door! A reminder of Dude's Story Picks for September ? Leaves and Lunatics by EleCivil and Josh's Sunrise by TR. That's about it. Be sure to check out the AwesomeDude Community Blogs and avail yourselves of our Live Chat as well. Sometimes when I see one of our members is ON I'll shoot him a quick PM and ask him to meet me in the chatroom. Nothing could easier. Have a great week of reading and see you next week.

What a hoot!

Geography Club, a 2003 gay teen novel by Brent Hartinger, has come in at number two on this year's Banned Books Book Sense Top Ten Picks (http://news.bookweb.org/booksense/4639), an annual list of "favorite" banned books voted on by members of the American Booksellers Association. The release of the list precedes Banned Books Week, starting Sunday, September 24th, a national celebration of "the freedom to read" and an effort to call attention to efforts at censorship and intellectual suppression. "Geography Club came in just after To Kill a Mockingbird, but above Harry Potter," Hartinger said. "How ridiculous is that?" "In all seriousness," the author continued, "my book has been challenged frequently all over the country, and is occasionally banned outright. I'm thrilled, honored, and humbled to be named to this list of great books." Other books on the list include The Giver by Lois Lowry, Forever by Judy Blume, and We by Yevgeny Zamyatin. Geography Club is the only gay-themed work. "People don't like to think that censorship is happening right now in America because the very act of censorship is so un-American," Hartinger said. "But it is happening, and gay books are very frequently the ones being challenged." Banned Books Week is sponsored by the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, an advocacy group founded in 1982 by the 1200+ bookstore members of the American Booksellers Assocation. Hartinger's latest novel is Grand & Humble, a teen thriller. A sequel to Geography Club called The Order of the Poison Oak is now out in paperback.

Some months back... when it was rumored that the Drake opening page had been infected by a virus.. and that he was unavailable to do anything about it because of work-related and move-related circumstances... I went and downloaded the entire website. With the idea of trying to de-virus it and hold on to it. Due to my own circumstances... I never got around to it. I told Dewey and he seemed interested.. and despite the virus warning I transferred it to him... A couple of weeks ago, alerted that the domain had not been renewed, I put in a request for it... hoping to hold it for Drake or even host it for him... if neither at least to hold it so that some porn operator didn't scoop it up and desecrate the Drake Tales name. Within a day... somebody, I don't know who, had the same idea but renewed it in Drake's name... so I assumed it to be Dewey... as they were friends and possibly back in communications. So I'm only out the $18 I paid godaddy to monitor and pounce on the account... and hopefully the site will be returning soon. For the record... I am still willing to host the site for Drake -free of charge- at a moment's notice as due to some recent shuffles of the AD domains/hosting I have some spare capacity. Bottom line... I sure would like to see this fine site come back intact... and to have Drake back in the saddle turning out thoughtful and well written stories.

Hi Gang... Well... a lot of sleepless nights this past week... as we migrated ?once again- our complete family of websites to new and larger capacity and hopefully faster servers. Unfortunately there was a period of about a day and a half when AD Forums weren't available due to coordination problems in three different time zones... in three different regions of the world, in fact. But we made it in time for the weekend... and so did CodeysWorld.com now operating side-by-side with AwesomeDude and it's other sister sites. Thanks to Blue ... as ever for his efforts and sleepless nights as well. We have opened the Community Blogs at AD Forums for forum members you are welcome to join us. We have eight at present... about half authors and half er.. miscellaneous members, including myself. The AD Live Chat is available as well and could become a great meeting place for readers and authors and for round table discussions on various topics as well. We expect to see greater use of the chat rooms once the weather cools a bit in North America. Again, like the Blogs .. Live Chat is for AD Forums registered members. Lets move on to stories now... Two new ones... On the Lonely Ocean by TR which he describes aptly as a 'story in verse.' It is a romantic tale and grabbed me right away. It has already picked lots of notice last time I checked the Readers Rule Forum... so your comments are welcome as well. Seraph by Camy is our newest serial novel and Chapter 1 has been posted. Camy has been quite active since joining us here at AwesomeDude and is a welcome and talented addition to the family. Heart of The Tree by Graeme - Chapter 9 ends Part One of the story... last chapter was a wild one... hope you had your seatbelts fastened for that one. Chapter 9 now sets up Part Two as we now know who is the Heart. The Garden by Nevius - Chapter 19 has been posted. This story continues to build as all too familiar themes are addressed in Nevius's own personal style. This story is a good read and the latest chapter is no exception. Many of our authors -apparently caught up in the last days of summer- have been AWOL but we expect writing to pick up in September. Now... I was just thinking, as Halloween is the official 'Big Gay Holiday' how about we put out a call for poems and short stories with a Halloween theme? Think about it... you have about six weeks to come up with something. Send em along to our story-editor or poetry-editor as appropriate. With new story chapters down to just two this week... it is a good time to peruse our new, extended author's list on the left side of the AwesomeDude Home Page and see what our authors have to offer. I'm sure there's lots of good stuff you haven't read yet. If you are interested in a bit lighter fare.. don't need lots of erotic scenes in the stories you read.. go down and click on AwesomeDude-Lite ... you'll get a 'new' view of what AwesomeDude has to offer. All email accounts seem to have survived the move to our new servers and a reminder of how to reach us. Site Admin Dude dude@awesomedude.com Story Editor TR story-editor@awesomedude.com Poetry Editor Gabe poetry-editor@awesomedude.com. Don't forget to go over and see what Codey has cooked up with the connivance of Blue at Codey's World. New -from this week- Guest Authors! That's it for this week... as always have a great week of reading. ________ Edited by Blue to fix the link. -- Happy clicky thing!

More interesting is when you look up the root word for fundamental or fundamentalist: fundament  /fuhn-duh-muhnt/ ?noun 1. the buttocks. 2. the anus. 3. a base or basic principle; underlying part; foundation.

Sorry for the disappearance... it happened when we moved to the new server and the blogs weren't functioning. So I hid them from all but from admins. Blogs should be visible now. Everyone can read or comment in a blog currently... but you have to be a member to have your own blog.

The guy on the end in the red kimono kept saying he had a date after the show... and trying to get out of it.. very funny. And it DOES help if you know Japanese. I had to do three tongue twisters before I got the job as a DJ at the Korean radio stations... er a few years ago. Although not many American applying for jobs DJing in Korean.. Thanks for this one, Paul

Hi Gang Here we are at Labor Day weekend in the United States. Lots of news for you this week ? first let's start with AD Forums, where you are reading this now. We recently rolled out the new software used to power the AD Forums and it worked pretty well. Unfortunately we chose a skin or template for the Forums which looked nice but really messed up the functions of our Forums software. So we have gone to a theme called Midnight Orange which Blue and I found very good looking and easy to work with. Suddenly everything in the AD Forums is working right including our Blogs and Live Chat. Both are ?as of this weekend- available for our registered AD Forums members. Another good reason to register. Now on to story sites: First of all we want to congratulate Codey and his designer/tech/editor Blue on the launch of www.codeysworld.com. If you haven't been there yet go take a look. It has prose and poetry by our own Codey plus a little help from his friends. It also has it's own forums. We highly recommend this site for teens. And speaking of teens? we have also this weekend launched www.AwesomeDude-Lite.com which is a downsized version of AwesomeDude and with an author/story base, in the words of our friends at The Mail Crew 'more teen-appropriate' in the type of stories you'll find there. Oh, all the stories on AD-Lite can be found at the main AwesomeDude site as well but some of our younger readers find problems with software their parents or ISP's have installed to block graphic erotic content. AwesomeDude-Lite is for these folks as well as for the older readers who can live without stories heavy on erotic content. We ?by the way- are not going to change the character of the main AwesomeDude site in any way. We are just offering an alternative portal to the site through AD-Lite. Poetry Corner and AD Forums are linked right to the front page, by the way. And you can see we've redone the AwesomeDude Home Page. Gone are those Java applet buttons that caused some folks grief in getting them open and which popup blockers took glee in blocking. We've listed more than three dozen authors ? most of whom are active right on the front page. Take some time and explore their stories. Click on your author or choice and from his author's page read something about him or follow the links to his storys. Savvy readers will realize we have some heavy hitters here at AwesomeDude some old timers and others quite new but showing immense talent. Some of these folks are also blogging at the AD Forums and more plan to in coming weeks. Enough housekeeping stuff now let's move on to the stories. Free Fall by Codey Chapter 3 has been posted and is available now, front, top and center on the AwesomeDude Home Page. The Scrolls of Icaria by Jamie p Book 2 ? Chapter 12 The Garden by Nevius ? Chapter 18 It Stays In Vegas by Jack Scribe Chapter 12 Final Someday Out of the Blue by LittleBuddha Chapter 23 Links to these stories are on the Home Page. TSOI's B2-Chapter 12 is a key one and is quite long. Sit down with a cool drink and enjoy. Nevius has come through with Chapter 18 of a story with compelling characters and solid plot line. Jack? thanks so much for sharing It Stays In Vegas with us. It concludes this week with Chapter 12. Little Buddha is back this week after a week's break. Announcing the Dude's Picks for September. Leaves and Lunatics by EleCivil is our pick novel while Josh's Sunrise by TR is our pick short story.. one that is taken from life. Gabriel Duncan has been real good about updating the Poetry Corner.. so DO check that out. He is in a good mood with a number of new poets surfacing with their poems. We have updated author's pages for dcorvus and for TR in the past week and ?again- of course check out Codey's World at www.codeysworld.com and out Lite site at www.awesomedude-lite.com. Phew.. I think that's about it. A lot of effort went into the rollouts over the past couple of weeks. Many thanks to Blue who played a large part in it all. So until next time? have a great week of reading. T

I just read those things myself - what a hoot!. It sounds like it was written by Jerry Falwell, except for the obvious omission of the terms 'personal savior!' I'll be re-doing them reducing them to a sentence or two - probably appealing to common sense. When the software comes out of the box... it always has the most restrictive stuff in thre so you can go in and edit out what you don't want. With the stress of getting the new board going - and learning the new software - plus dealing with a green-gray skin that was actually thwarting the proper operation of the new system - launching a new home page - launching a new somewhat g-rated portal for our site - I have had a busy week. Getting down to edit the sign-up info for blogs kinda slipped off my table. I'll address it and the board's general posting guidelines as well in the next 24 hours. Don't let it stop you from blogging - which we opened up to regular members on September 1st - if you have something you want to say! All the folks in the 'lower 48 provinces' are celebrating Labor Day weekend. Clazy AmeliKans don't know Labor Day is May 1st everywhere else in the world!"

Well, here goes. Finally at two minutes to midnight... I think I found the right forumla for AwesomeDude Forums a.k.a. AD Forums and the blogs and the chatroom. It is still 12 hours before the promised stroke of midnight EDT ushering in September 1st. That will give me a few waking hours to finish up the last of the changes to the AD Home Page and the new AD-Lite pages. Labor Day... hmmm if I were living in the States, I'd be celebrating this weekend with everybody else I guess, my feet up and resting... but in The Third World... May 1st is Labor Day. I have just decided bed time is not a good time to start blogging... So I'll pick this up in the morning my time... oh... in case you didn't know... I am writing this from the North West corner of The Island of Borneo. Now is that third world or isn't it?

Different colors of the rainbow Both sides of the gays rights debate faced off near the Meade hotel Sunday where a rainbow flag has caused a stir By Tim Vandenack The Hutchinson News MEADE - This quiet town turned into an unlikely flashpoint in the gay rights movement Sunday, with picketers from the anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church facing off against a contingent of rainbow-flag wearing gay rights activists and their backers. The events - which stem from the controversy caused by a local hotel operator's decision to fly a rainbow flag outside his business - unfolded without incident. But they made for an atypical display in this small farming community of 1,600, best known as the hideout back in the late 1880s for the notorious Dalton brothers gang of bank robbers. "It's not your everyday occurrence," said Cliff Alley, a local who watched the protesting unfold amid a contingent of Kansas State Troopers called in to help maintain order. He termed the hoopla "kind of ridiculous," but withheld further judgment. "Everybody's got their own opinion," Alley said. "It's sure not up to me to tell anybody how to live." On the front lines, meanwhile, the two sides weren't shy about voicing their thoughts. Nearly 30 picketers from the Topeka-based Westboro church, which says the United States is unraveling because of acceptance of homosexuality, stood on the south side of U.S. 54 at Fowler Street in Meade's city center. The gay rights supporters, about 50 of them from all over Kansas, faced their critics from the north side of the highway. "God loves fags, God loves all," the gay rights supporters chanted. "Today God has cursed this nation," answered Shirley Phelps Roper, daughter of the Rev. Fred Phelps, the Westboro leader. The Westboro church, which earlier Sunday had picketed five Meade churches, zeroed in on Meade because of the controversy swirling around the rainbow flag flying outside the Lakeway Hotel here. Proprietors J.R. and Robin Knight received a rainbow flag early last month from their 12-year-old son and they put it up on a pole that fronts the business to remember the boy, now living in California. However, some didn't like such a symbol in their midst - the rainbow banner represents gay pride, among other things - and two local boys clandestinely cut that original down, later confessing to the deed. Then, someone tossed a brick with the word "fag" scrawled on it through a plate glass window at the hotel, adding to the controversy. Despite such reaction, Jonathan Phelps, another Westboro member who picketed outside St. John's Lutheran Church here, said Meade, including its churches, is just like any other small town in terms of tolerating homosexuality. But with the flag flap, he said, the city becomes "a forum" to tout the Westboro message, delivered mainly of late by church members at funerals of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq. Meade is "a typical American farming community, (it) hates God, (it) hates his word," Jonathan Phelps said. As he spoke, he flipped through the brightly colored, strongly worded signs denouncing homosexuality that are a Westboro trademark - "AIDs is God's curse," read one - and stood on a U.S. flag. Churchgoers declined comment as they made their way into Sunday services, but other locals said they weren't happy to see the Westboro contingent, or the gay rights activists, for that matter. "I just want to put a stop to it because Meade is a nice, quiet town," said Matt Hensley, a 10th-grader who held a sign reading "Go home" opposite the contingent of Westboro and gay rights protestors. The gay rights activists and their supporters, meanwhile, remained insistent that the controversy boils down to their right to live free from discrimination. The regular monthly meeting at the Lakeway of the Kansas Equality Coalition, a gay rights group, was the ostensible reason for the activists' presence, though some protestors said they wanted to face off against the Westboro group. "We're basically trying to stand up for the right to coexist with others without having a brick thrown through the window," said Dennis Russell, a Wichita State University student sporting a rainbow flag over his shoulders and a rainbow wig on his head. Sherry Coles of Coldwater, a coalition member whose son died of AIDs, called the Westboro showing "a good opportunity to let people see hate masquerading as religion." She said the Topeka church represents "pure evil" and, in touting the rights of gay people, said "all men are created equal," alluding back to the U.S. Declaration of Independence. For its part, the Lakeway, adjacent to the protest site, took on a bustling, festive air. Tunes like Macho Man by the Village People and Ballroom Blitz from the Rocky Horror Picture Show movie soundtrack blared from the hotel as the activity unfolded. http://www.hutchnews.com/news/regional/sto...lag082806.shtml

I got the impression after reading the poem that Mother's meant Mother's lot or Mother's life... and to me that possesive form made perfect sense....

Being Gay in High School David Johnson, Reporter Posted Sunday, August 27, 2006 When I went to West Lauderdale Attendance Center, a county school in Collinsville, MS, my being gay wasn?t accepted by most of the students. While walking from class to class, it wasn?t uncommon for me to here the sneer in a person?s voice when they said ?fag? as I passed by. As I said early, this was a county school, so it was expected. I wasn?t bothered by this since I?ve never been on to give a damn what people think about me. My experience so far in this world has taught me to concentrate on reaching your own goals, and crush the bastards like these who try to step in your way. When I came to the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science (?MSMS?), that changed. If someone asked me if I was gay, I of course told them I was. The usual response: ?OK.? Being gay wasn?t uncommon at this school. During the meetings of the GSA club (which I am president of this year, woot!), we often wondered what we could do since the gay population didn?t really have any opposition. I finally felt like I was at a place where I fit in. This year, however, there are quite a few homophobes in the new junior class. This greatly disappoints me, since this is supposed to be a school for open-minded individuals. I sometimes wonder if perhaps our admissions committee is just letting in anyone now. One of the juniors (not a homophobe) told me that some of the other juniors were actually afraid of me because they thought I would hit on them or something. After this bit of info was given to me, I immediately sent out an email to my fellow classmates: ?*Le sigh* OK, so from stuff I've heard recently, apparently some of the junior guys are "afraid" of me because they think I'm going to hit on them or something. First of all, I hate gay guys who hit on straight guys. Second of all, your thinking that I'm going to hit on you is rather arrogant, don't you think? Most of you aren't that attractive anyway.? I hate it when straight guys use the ?gay guys hit on straight guys? excuse to immediately hate gay guys. From the email, you can tell that I can?t stand gay guys who hit on straight guys. Of course, I hit on straight guys, but only when they?re my friend and I?m just joking around with them. I don?t even mind complimenting a good looking guy on his appearance if I know that he?s secure enough not to care that a comment like that is coming from another guy. However, I?m certainly not going to chase after a straight man. Hell, I won?t even chase after a gay man because I?m not that desperate. Of course, this is only the beginning of the year, and MSMS accepts students from all over the state. I?m hoping that these initial homophobic feelings can just be attributed to how things were done at their previous schools and that they will eventually disperse. After all, I?m the president of the GSA, and I?ll be more than happy to pry their minds open with a (metaphorical) crow bar if I have to! The next installment of this three part series, Being Gay in College, will be published next Monday, September 4, 2006. http://www.queerplanet.us/moxie/columnists...82806-002.shtml

Hi Gang?. Well here we are? fast approaching the end of Summer? or Winter if you are ?down unda? where some of our authors and readers are. Labor Day weekend is coming up for those in the USA and with it some changes around AwesomeDude. On September 1st we?ll be making some changes to our AwesomeDude Home Page (aren?t we always?) addressing some problems readers have cited? with popup menus. Codey, with the help of our intrepid Blue, will also be launching his own new website ? a member of the growing AwesomeDude family of sites. We?ll also be launching a sister site to AD which will cater to folks who are interested only in G-rated stories. We have successfully implemented our new AD Forums which you probably know if you are here now. We have also begun AwesomeDude Community Blogs with a couple of our authors. WBMS was the first to initiate his hosted blog Wibby?s Blog From Hell, while James Savik has linked his blog The Beast?s Lair from GA. Now that a couple of our authors have gotten the ball rolling, we will open up blogging to registered members of AD Forums on September 1st, as well. And as if that wasn?t a lot of news? we have also opened the AwesomeDude Community Chat Room? which is very simple to use and very quick and quite spiffy. Like the blogs? live chat is open to registered members of AwesomeDude Forums. Blue, when he isn?t toiling on Codey?s new website? has agreed to be our AD Forums Technical Administrator. This means he?ll be working on making the forums a bit easier to deal with? fonts and buttons and things? stuff he does so well. Our thanks to him. Featured this week? our Codey has come up with another fable? the second in a series. Check out The Nature of Bear? A Fable by Codey. This week?s updates: The Garden by Nevius ? Chapter 17 has been posted. Heart of The Tree by Graeme ? Chapter 8 (a pivotal one) is up. It Stays in Vegas by Jack Scribe ? Part 11 is now available. A few of our weekly posters are AWOL during the peak of US vacation season. Next week expect Chapter Three of Free Fall by Codey and an important new chapter of The Scrolls of Icaria by Jamie. Go check out the AwesomeDude Community Blogs and Live Chat? available to all registered members. Authors can start their blogs now? and other members from Sept 1st. Chat is open now! That?s it for this week. Look for the new sites and new home page to be up this time next week. In the meantime, have a great week of reading.

Esteemed Pecman... Please log in to the forum next time. Your old userid/password will work. Thanks the dude

Gay book pulled off reading list Bennett J. Loudon Staff writer (August 24, 2006) ? WEBSTER ? Webster Central School District officials have removed a gay-themed book from a summer reading list for high school students after receiving complaints from parents. The book, Rainbow Boys, by Alex Sanchez, which was released in 2001, is about gay teen life. It won the International Reading Association's 2003 Young Adults' Choice award, and the American Library Association selected it as a Best Book for Young Adults. Sanchez was the star of the Greater Rochester Teen Book Festival at Fairport High School in April, which was attended by about 500 youths. The book has faced similar challenges at municipal and school libraries across the United States. "Parents know that it's our job to look out for their children and I think parents trust the Webster school district that we would always have their children's interests first in mind," said Ellen Agostinelli, Webster's assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. Agostinelli said she got some telephone calls from parents complaining about the book but would not say how many. She said district officials are just starting a review of the reading list of about 200 books and she decided to pull the book until the entire list could be reviewed. The timeframe for that review and the criteria that will be used have not been determined, she said. "I read it and I have some questions about it, as well," Agostinelli said. The gay theme is not one of her concerns, but Agostinelli declined to say what is. "I'm not going to get into this," she said. This is the second year students in middle and high school have been required to read two books from the list during the summer and submit reports when they return to school. The book list was created by school librarians and English teachers. Agostinelli said it has not been decided if any public meetings will be scheduled for discussions of the topic. Rainbow Boys was not removed from the district's libraries. But Ove Overmyer, a library assistant at the Rochester Public Library, is concerned that purging a book from a reading list is a precursor to having it taken from the shelves. "It starts with book challenges and then they'll ask to have the book removed. We've seen this process before all over the country, especially when it deals with gay-oriented literature. It's censorship plain and simple, and there's no place for it in the school district or in the public library system," Overmyer said. Kris Hinesley, executive director of the Gay Alliance of the Genesee Valley, said "It's important for youth to have this story available to them whether or not they choose to read it." Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender teens are at a much higher risk of committing suicide, she said. "A prevention strategy is to give them positive messages, which you can find in this book," she said. BLOUDON@DemocratandChronicle.com