Gee Whillickers

Wonderful stuff. I'm really enjoying these links.

I think the narrator in my latest story wants to sign up.

Thanks everybody. I wanted to try something a bit different from my usual First Person or Third Person Omniscient and figured 2nd person, with a non-human character, would fit the bill. It gave me a chance to have some fun with the idea of Worf's own needs as well as the people around him. We say and do things when alone with our dogs, cats, and other pets that we'd never say or do with other people, often even those close to us, so that's another aspect I thought I could explore a bit.

Thanksgiving? You're a bit late. That was a month and half ago.... Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving to all my American neighbours and friends!

Sigh. I remember hair....

I try to avoid too much slang in my stories. Partly because I'm aware that I probably wouldn't be able to make it sound genuine and partly because it really does vary a LOT with geographical area, and I don't really want to pigeon hole my stories too much. However, certain slang words become ubiquitous enough that I'm pretty comfortable having my characters use them, including the never-out-of-style "cool" and more casual slang. The more "out there" the slang, the quicker it seems to go out of style and the smaller the geographical area it seems to be popular. As long as the dialogue fits the age, I think that's more important than trying real hard to squeeze in a lot of slang words.

Well, with Puerto Rico voting to apply for statehood, and Washington state voting yes for gay marriage and legalization of marijuana, there must be a Puerto Rican gay stoner living in Washington who is also an Awesomedude forum reader out there who is having the absolute best day of his life. I really want to hear from him.

Yeah, the lockout is driving a lot of people crazy. Some good news this weekend though, at least they're meeting. Maybe an end in sight. Besides, the NHL isn't the only hockey around, not even close. CHL Junior is great hockey, as is University and Junior-A, as well as AHL. Not only that, there's hundreds of community games going on on any given evening or weekend. Take a look at the puck. I'm pretty sure they were using one of those soft sponge floor hockey pucks like they use in elementary school gym classes.

A cliffhanger?!? Cole!? A cliffhanger?!? Great story. Everything a good Halloween story should be, and more. Wonderful!

Not just any grease, you need thermal grease or a thermal pad. Cole's right, it should be provided. If your CPU fan is stopping completely, even for a second or two, before running again, that's a real problem. You could fry your CPU in seconds.

Stop the presses! Forget all this talk about Romney vs Obama, Westboro Baptist's bigotry, bullying in high school, and teen sex. Let's talk about something important! http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/bre89g1a3-us-barley-genome/ I rest my case.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I've been told by an American friend that someone who obtains the rank of Eagle Scout in the boy scouts is entitled to an automatic stripe, and accompanying pay raise, upon successful completion of basic training in the military (don't know which branch). If this is true, and especially given the now sanctioned membership of gays in the military, then how is this legal? For the military to recognize this in such a way, it would seem it gives the boy scouts some legal responsibility to adhere to government rules and regulations, specifically, non-discrimination. So, how can they get away with this?

Well spoken little guy, that's for sure.

Thanks Chris, and James, I will definitely watch this.

It's so nice to see this story appear here on AD. Such a wonderful tale. Time to read it again I think.

I do have a pretty good idea about what happened, and what happens next. But, as always, it's the details that need a great deal of fleshing out. Thanks for all your comments.

Nice try, Colin. They use it, perhaps, but they certainly don't control it.

Not really sure, but this is a possible beginning to a story idea I've been playing with for a while now. Just thought I'd throw it out there, just 'cause. ----------------------- Luke Samuels had never seen his dad cry before. The man's tears reflected the dark orange and yellow flashes coming through the glass. Luke watched his dad, but Dr. Bryce Samuels was watching the sun die. The flashing grew more rapid, and then stopped. A faint reddish-orange glow was all that remained in the sky, and it too was fading fast. The stars appeared. The wind, furious at the betrayal, unleashed its rage upon the rocky landscape. The few trees between the glass and the shore lost their leaves immediately, then gave up in resignation. They seemed to shrink into themselves in fear, then lift their limbs and allow the wind to catch them. They sailed away, no more rooted to the ground than an old newspaper in a summer storm. The ocean beyond, a half mile distant, fought the wind, then turned traitor and joined it. Giant waves, twenty feet, thirty, more, stretched their arms, gathered power from the murderous wind, and slammed ashore. The rocks they carried, dislodged from the seafloor, pulverized the shoreline. What little soil on the rocky ground between the window and the shore didn't stand a chance. Nothing but bare bedrock remained, no more than five minutes after the source of all earth's power shut itself off. The thick glass and steel only allowed the faintest sounds to find their way inside. The sounds were of death. Of anger and fury. Of the end of everything. Dr. Samuels couldn't look at his son. Luke knew he couldn't bear to show his face, to let Luke see the hopelessness, the confusion that was there. Instead, he turned away from the window, away from the darkness. There wasn't anything to say. Nothing that wouldn't be a transparent lie. Instead, he simply whispered, “I'm sorry, son.” And he strode away, leaving Luke staring wide-eyed at the future tearing itself apart in front of him.

Well, it is. But when you say "balance" are you talking about the climate or are you talking about the actual weight distribution of the ice/water to other places on the globe? If the latter, then the tiny percentage of mass as compared to the earth's mass is not significant enough to make a change. Also, the Arctic ice-cap is already in/part of the ocean, so melting doesn't have nearly the same effect as ice on land melting and going back into the ocean. That's why the Greenand ice-sheet's ongoing disappearance is such a concern. If the former, well, we're seeing the effects of that now.

What little is left of the Arctic ice cap says hi.

Excellent story. Reading this was truly inspiring.

Soon you'll all see the light and abandon your corporate computer overlords and start running Linux.

I write using Libreoffice these days. I like Scrivener but their Linux support is poor, so until that's remedied I use Libreoffice. The grammar checker is so-so. Mostly I ignore it, other than to scoff at what it's telling me, but I have to admit it has found a few significant things for me from time to time. For non-electronic help, I have my abridged OED by my desk, a thesaurus, and a copy of "The Canadian Writer's Handbook" that I've had since college.