colinian

Cole, Please do not use white text. Your post appears totally missing as in blank, not there, void, empty, etc. for those who use the default theme instead of the Carbon theme with the black background. Colin

LOL! Colin

Doing Something ~ Chapter 18 of a Novel by Cole Parker. A sixteen year old boy faces major life changes, ones he hates, and there isn’t anything he can do about them but make the best of it. High School Hero ~ Chapter 8 of a New Novel by Cole Parker. High school is part wonderful, part wrenching for most everyone. Along the way, for the lucky ones, personal growth occurs. London Bridge is Down ~ A Flash Fiction Story by William King. A dramatic world event plays out in the early hours of one cold grey morning in London. Jason’s Notebook ~ A Short Story by Cole Parker. How does a high school freshman who feels insignificant and invisible respond to life in his new school? Featured stories are from our archive and we think you'll enjoy reading them again — or for the first time. Diminutive ~ A Short Story by Grant Bentley. Size doesn’t matter, and just to prove it, this is Donovan’s story. Click here to read the hundreds of serial novels, short stories, flash fiction, and poems on the Codey's World site.

Support base (a.k.a. corporate donations to politicians). Colin

There is another problem: there are no centralized statistics about how many assault rifles there are in the United States. Banning new sales is a start, but it doesn't solve anything until we can restrict ownership and eliminate the sale of bullets for those types of guns to the public. Colin

The school resource officer, Scot Peterson, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School was dismissed (he "resigned") because when he heard the shooting he never entered the building. For god's sake, he heard an assault weapon almost constantly firing — an experienced shooter could fire as many as 45 rounds in one minute. He had a pistol. WTF was he supposed to do? Run into a three-story building and run up and down the stairs, not knowing exactly where the shooter was, who he was or what he looked like, and end up being the eighteenth casualty at MSD High? What were his chances of shooting the shooter? And don't say he was better trained! The shooter, Nikolas Cruz, owned multiple rifles and assault weapons and automatic pistols, at least ten in all, and regularly practiced using them. He had multiple high-capacity rounds for his AR-15 as he rampaged through the three floors of Building 12. I'm pissed that Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel is dumping on Scot Peterson. He's being used as a sacrificial lamb. It lets the Sheriff divert attention from the failures of his department to respond to multiple warnings they received about Nikolas Cruz. So, now the Sheriff has said that when students return to the school, there will be officers who are armed – with semi-automatic weapons. So when the students return to school it's going to look like an armed camp. Great. And what's he going to do for the 34 other high schools in his jurisdiction? What about the 41 middle schools in his jurisdiction? The 137 elementary schools in his jurisdiction? Who's going to pay for this? It's sure not in the Sheriff's budget. Federal funds for school security have been cut drastically by Trump, so no help from that avenue. So what's the solution? Make assault weapons illegal. That's a start. At least it'll let the school resource officers be more evenly armed as the shooters in the future. Colin

I liked it. I like it when there's a unexpected hero who saves the day, or a boy. Especially a boy. Colin

Yeah, yeah, as usual, blame the messenger! Colin

When I was in the 10th grade (in 2004) I took Contemporary Issues and Public Policy as my elective Social Studies class. We discussed the Columbine shooting that happened on April 20, 1999. George W. Bush was president. The subject of having a staff of guards with guns at every high school had been suggested and rejected as too expensive. Then the idea of arming teachers was suggested and rejected by everyone in my class and the teacher as ridiculous. In my opinion it still is. Colin

I loved the book. I hope they've done a good job on the texting and emailing between Simon and Blue. And it upset me that the trailer has a huge Spoiler telling us that Simon knows Blue goes to his high school. It takes Simon time to figure that out in the book. That makes me worry that the film isn't going to follow the story in the book. The book puts us in Simon's head. How well the movie handles that is critical. Call me a pessimist. Colin

Sure, that's a really fantastic idea! Give them a Glock. 9mm is great!! Then the teacher, one of four or five in each school who is going to have all of that wonderful special training out the school district's massive budget because school security money has been stripped out of the Trump budget but hey, school districts are rich, and the teachers aren't going to be upset that learning to shoot and be ready to shoot and all that will be without any additional compensation because they are going to want to volunteer to protect the kids, and the teacher is going to hear the AR-15 being fired nearby or maybe not so nearby but the teacher was taught how to put on his bullet-proof vest and unlock the Glock from the locked steel cabinet where it's stored to keep a deranged kid from getting his (or her) hands on it, then load his Glock and fill his pockets with bullets and run to where it sounds like the shooter is located and when he sees the shooter point his Glock at the shooter, the one who has the AR-15 or AK-47 or whatever similar automatic combat weapon, and kill him with one shot or two or three — bang, bang, bang — while dodging the bullets coming out of the automatic AR-15 or whatever, bangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbang in the same amount of time as the teacher's Glock is going bang bang bang. The teacher shouldn't worry about how much larger and how much faster the bullets are from an AK-47 or AR15 compared to the Glock. What a great idea! The fact that 76% of all school teachers are women shouldn't make us worried. Sign 'em up! It's such a great idea!!! We should all tweet Trump and tell him what a f***ing fantasy of an idea that is going to be. Wow! Just WOW!! Let's all get our local teachers to sign up now. Right? Colin

Sorry for missing a week — I had to travel to Florida to help with a family emergency Doing Something ~ Chapters 16 and 17 of a Novel by Cole Parker. A sixteen year old boy faces major life changes, ones he hates, and there isn’t anything he can do about them but make the best of it. High School Hero ~ Chapters 6 and 7 of a Novel by Cole Parker. High school is part wonderful, part wrenching for most everyone. Along the way, for the lucky ones, personal growth occurs. Valentine's Day Stories Searching for Him ~ A Short Valentine's Day Story by Grant Bentley. When you’re searching for that special him and your ‘gaydar’ doesn’t work worth sh** — well, you just never know. A Valentine for Ryan ~ A Short Valentine's Day Story by Cole Parker. A young boy works on a homemade valentine card until it’s absolutely perfect. Brandon ~ A Short Valentine's Day Story by Colin Kelly. People say life is short. Sometimes maybe too short. Valentine’s Day is a time to remember and keep in touch. This story is loosely based on actual events. Featured stories are from our archive and we think you'll enjoy reading them again — or for the first time. The Friendship Ring ~ A Short Valentine’s Day Story by Ronyx. A different twist on a love story for Valentine’s Day. Click here to read the hundreds of serial novels, short stories, flash fiction, and poems on the Codey's World site.

There are quite a few posters here who much prefer the white-on-black Carbon-4 theme appearance of the forum. When I'm using the Carbon-4 theme it seems that there are other problems besides the symbols: When posting, it seems slower to respond. There are more cases of the forum software locking up. There are cases where a new post "disappears" and causes the poster to re-enter it, only to discover, later, that the original was posted meaning there are now two posts. Of course, there are problems with the Default theme, too. There is one that irritates me: If you cut something from one place in a post to another, then a black bar appears near the bottom of the post that reads: Pasted as rich text Paste as plain text instead with, at the right end of the bar, an X in a circle which, when you point at it, shows a notation that reads Keep formatting – but pointing at or clicking the X doesn't do anything. The X seems to work when using the Carbon-4 theme. Colin

Okay, I'll expand a bit. In the bar at the top of a post you're writing there are a lot of symbols that make no sense in relation to what will happen when you click them. Position the cursor and/or highlight the text where you want to have your link; then click the symbol that looks like X3 and when it's clicked will take you to a dialog box that lets you paste or enter the link and when you click the "Insert into post" button it will position it in your post. You can select text in your post, or enter whatever text you want like "click here to be amazed" in the dialog box, or you can leave it blank and the link will also be used as the text. No trying to grab something that pops up for a second or two. The dialog box remains open until you click the "Insert into post" button. If after opening the dialog box you decide you don't want to proceed, either click the X in the top right corner of the dialog box, or press the ESC key. I have no idea why, in this version of the IPS fourm software, that these symbols don't mean what they imply. It's left as an exercise for the students of this course to explore, on their own, these bizarre symbols and the action that results from clicking on each of them. Colin

Here are the lyrics to Calon Lân in both Welsh and English. Colin

I don't use the M-dash as often as some others who write stories here. When I do, I almost always use the "loose" version — as shown here instead of the tight version—because of the way it looks. The loose M-dash is discussed in comments in the article, as well as loose … and …attached and tight….ellipses, the meaning of which now includes use as a short pause, especially in dialogue, and not that something is missing. Isn't the English language fun? And always remember, it's a living language as this article demonstrates. Colin

Peter, there are ways to get around that. You have to display the link in your browser's address bar and copy it from there. I just did it as a test and that worked for me. Also, clicking on "Dinner for One" in your post takes you to the story on AD. Colin

Doing Something ~ Chapter 15 of a Novel by Cole Parker. A sixteen year old boy faces major life changes, ones he hates, and there isn’t anything he can do about them but make the best of it. High School Hero ~ Chapter 5 of a Novel by Cole Parker. High school is part wonderful, part wrenching for most everyone. Along the way, for the lucky ones, personal growth occurs. Featured stories are from our archive and we think you'll enjoy reading them again — or for the first time. A Story for Mikie ~ A Short Story by Viv. A little effort makes some things melt away like snow. Click here to read the hundreds of serial novels, short stories, flash fiction, and poems on the Codey's World site.

Doing Something ~ Chapter 14 of a Novel by Cole Parker. A sixteen year old boy faces major life changes, ones he hates, and there isn’t anything he can do about them but make the best of it. High School Hero ~ Chapter 4 of a New Novel by Cole Parker. High school is part wonderful, part wrenching for most everyone. Along the way, for the lucky ones, personal growth occurs. Featured stories are from our archive and we think you'll enjoy reading them again — or for the first time. Life of Troy ~ A Short Story by Brian Stoll. This was the first chapter of a novel by Brian Stoll that he wasn't able to complete, and that we repurposed as a coming of age short story. Click here to read the hundreds of serial novels, short stories, flash fiction, and poems on the Codey's World site.

Sounds interesting. I'll look for it. Colin

Doing Something ~ Chapter 13 of a Novel by Cole Parker. A sixteen year old boy faces major life changes, ones he hates, and there isn’t anything he can do about them but make the best of it. High School Hero ~ Chapter 3 of a New Novel by Cole Parker. High school is part wonderful, part wrenching for most everyone. Along the way, for the lucky ones, personal growth occurs. Featured stories are from our archive and we think you'll enjoy reading them again — or for the first time. Time Stood Still ~ A Flash Fiction Story by Trab. A short, sharp tale on the state of bee-ing. Click here to read the hundreds of serial novels, short stories, flash fiction, and poems on the Codey's World site.

Ursula K. Le Guin died at the age of 88 on Monday January 22, 2018 at her home in Portland, Oregon. She was a famous science fiction and fantasy author, famed for her novel The Left Hand of Darkness. There's a detailed article here. Colin

Peter, I agree with your comment about James Baldwin and your conclusion that it's what Outside In is about. The essential dialogue is that between Richard and his mother and between Richard and Joseph Freeman. Bi Janus has put us in Richard's head and we're reading what he's thinking and seeing how it's shaping his life. This is a powerful story that I'll reread and remember. Bravo, Bi Janus! Colin

There's a very interesting and fun to read article on the Washington Post — a link is here so you can read it. It has some statistics that fly in the face of what we learned in elementary school. Colin

And a worthwhile and amusing story it is! Thanks, Paul. And thanks to Corey (wherever he is) for coming up with the list. Colin