Gee Whillickers

Oh my. Now wouldn't that be something.

I loved this story. A metaphor within a metaphor. As a standalone story it was wonderfully touching and heartwarming and the message behind the story carries a statement more important than any I can think of. Bravo Cole. Well done.

According to an article on aidsmap, a man has been cured of HIV after receiving a stem cell transplant from an HIV resistant donor. How many countries still have political resistance to stem cell research? The full article is here on the aidsmap website. Let's hope this isn't a one-off freaky thing. The future is looking up.

Well, like my author coach always said, "Go hard or go home." Or was that my junior high gym teacher? I'm so confused...

I liked the story. I wonder exactly where this sauna was for the other two people to be giving the thumbs up to what was going on. Nicely done. As to the other comments, sex in a sauna? Hmm, I never really got a sexual vibe from saunas, despite all the naked flesh about. Just doesn't seem conducive to it. Too hot! I can believe some people might like it though.

Oh yeah. This is so very much true. One of the best forms of editing that's available is time, then re-reading with fresh eyes. Good advice Dabeagle. Keep writing Spaz-tic! Looking forward to more.

Careful with the overly narrative physical descriptions of characters early in the story. Some writers seem to be able to get away with this, but it's really hard to do well without pulling the reader right out of the story. It's often better to have the description come out through other means, such as another character noticing something, or commenting on it. Sometimes a physical description isn't necessary at all, though it can help a lot in some stories.

Hi Spaz-tic. Welcome to the forums. This is a great start to a story and I agree, I'd like to see more. Give us another chapter or more of the first one please! As for comments and nitpicking, well, I think Bruin pretty much covered everything that I noticed as well. Most of what he mentioned is true here in Canada as well as in the UK, and I'm close enough to the US and have been there enough to know that it's true there as well. One thing that I see a bit differently than Bruin, the waitress's comment "So how you liking the special?" Actually, I know a lot of people, at least around here, that would say it exactly like that, so didn't have any problem with it. With speech, you can get away with a bit more than when writing narrative, though punctuation and spelling errors will still kill you. But, when I say that you can get away with more, that's with some large caveats. If it's too over the top, too colloquial, or, really, too anything, it doesn't work and pulls a reader out of the story. Bruin's right though, we all have tons of those kinds of errors in our writing, especially before the tenth or twelve round of editing. Ok, hopefully not that many usually, but believe me, sometimes a scene will take a lot more until it seems right. And no matter how many rounds of editing, a few errors seem to squeak by, utterly unnoticed by yourself and your editors until about four seconds after it appears published somewhere, then when you look at it they will all glare out at you like the festering maggoty wounds that they are. Sorry, a bit of personal venting there. Whew. Keep up the writing. I would love to see more, and I love that you sound so enthusiastic about it.

Seven of Nine? I really don't look much like a borg though. And my, uh, protrusions are in different places.

Thanks for the accolades folks. I've had a few guesses that have some elements of what's going on, yup. But nobody has actually totally nailed it yet. Now, if you all compared notes... Hopefully I'll still have few surprises in store though. Just wait until characters from all of the other AD stories start appearing in the next chapter! Hmm, maybe not, probably some kind of copyright thingy if I did that. Oh well. Think of the fun I could have though...

Powerful story. I just now finished reading it and came here to say this. Excellent characterization, especially the way Jake's thinking process and feelings about everything is portrayed. I recommend this story. And concur with DaBeagle's comments at the end of the last chapter.

I think you've started a new genre. Political Flash Fiction. I liked the story. I liked the metaphor about how neither hand will help you but the left will do less against you. I watch American politics with a certain morbid fascination and dread. I'm not sure if the feeling is the same in Australia as it is in Canada, but with us right up against them, and so heavily influenced by them, it's kind of like watching a freeway accident unfold ahead of you and wondering, as you slam on the brakes, if you'll be able to stop before you hit it yourself. You can't help but feel bad for all of the innocent people caught up in it, you feel shame for the idiots that caused it, and you hope to hell you won't find yourself in the middle of it yourself.

This is so true. We're still struggling with throwing off the tribal mentality. It worked well for us, probably for tens of thousands of years, to think of anybody not in our immediate group of twenty or thirty people as dangerous, different, and feared. Many of us, maybe most, have grown beyond this mentality. But, sadly, many haven't. What's worse, they not only don't want to, they don't see the problem with their thinking, and have elaborate rationalizations for why it is the "correct" way to think. Usually based on vast and ridiculous generalizations of how a group is dangerous by using an individual as an example. Until and unless we are able to eradicate or seriously limit this kind of tribal thinking, we as a society and a species probably aren't going to get much further ahead socially and morally than we are now.

He hedged. Throughout his apology he was unable to clearly articulate exactly why he was apologizing unless prompted by Anderson Cooper. Rather than talk about why what he said was wrong, he talked about "poor choice of words." This implies that he still supports the thoughts behind those words. I have no doubt he understands what a storm he's created, but I'm not sure he really understands why other people would create such a storm about his statements. The strongest statements in the apology were about the language he used, but the weakest statements came when pressed about his feelings on gays. Note the hesitation when asked if he still thinks he wishes gays would all contract AIDS and die. I suppose the end result is positive for the kids in his school district though.

A sad sick pathetic man.

Watch this video and see if you can do so without tears by the end of it. The video is an emotional speech by Fort Worth city councilman, in council chambers, about some of the difficulties he had when he was 13, questioning, and being bullied. It's people like this that can make a difference. Gee

Excellent story. It really hits home with all of the reports of sucides since the school year started. The lack of editing wasn't too distracting, and the message is one that needs to get out, again and again and again. Those small minded idiots that are trying to get anti-bullying programs stopped because they supposedly encourage "gay behaviour" and "rejection of Christ" need to be stopped. This is a fight that must be won. Lives depend on it.

LOL, I think I fell into a musical or something. Nice find Cole. Gee

There are times, believe me, when I would wish this story to be more than fiction. Or I would hope that the geese would find minimum wage laboring jobs and frickin' STAY south of the border. Goose crap on the bike paths, taking over some of my favorite parks, fouling (get it?) the water, and chasing people rather aggressively when they come too near their offspring. It gets old. Still, I'd miss 'em, I guess. Watching, and listening, to a flock of geese just after sunset on a warm fall evening, high enough that the sun still washes over them as they wing their way south, while sitting on a lawn chair sipping a cold one. There's something very soul soothing about that. Ok, America. I guess we'd hafta fight back. Sigh. Lemme finish this beer first. C'mon fellow Canucks. Who's with me? Let's burn down the White House for the second time! Gee Edit: Why do I have the sudden paranoid feeling I've just been put on about a dozen terrorist watch lists?

Brian couldn't do it anymore. He was tired of living a lie. He was tired of feeling like a fraud. He was tired of hating himself. He looked down at his right hand. At his dad's .45. At the box of open ammunition beside it. They wouldn't miss him, his parents. They didn't even know him. It would be easier this way, without him burdening them, disappointing them. Again and again disappointing them. Disappointing himself. Brian closed his eyes, gathering courage. Yes, it was better this way. The end of pain. The end of suffering. The end of false hope. The end. So why was it so hard? It shouldn't be so hard, if this was the solution. It had seemed so simple, so easy. Earlier. Nobody would care. Nobody would grieve. Nobody would even notice. Except one. Maybe. He would be so confused. So, so confused. He would have no idea why, because Brian knew he could never, ever tell him. Not here. Not now. Not ever. Danny. His best friend. His only friend. His worst enemy. The only one keeping him alive. The reason he couldn't be anymore. No. He couldn't do that to him. He could never know. But he couldn't do that to him. That's why it was hard. So he would wait. It wouldn't take long. It never did. Danny would figure out that he wasn't worth his time, his attention, his effort. Then he, too, would be gone. It wouldn't take long. It never did. Brian re-locked his dad's gun cabinet and walked downstairs. Into the silent kitchen of the cold and empty house. The kitchen door flung open. A figure walked in. Shoulders slumped. Like someone about to deliver their own eulogy. "Danny?" Were those tears? Or just the rain? "Brian. We need to talk. I have something to tell you."

I very much doubt this is the case, as if it were you would've mentioned it, but just in case, under Linux the directory is ~/.mozilla and includes all of your bookmarks, extensions, history, cookies, etc, so it's trivial to just copy it over for an indentical firefox from the old machine.

Is this what it feels like to be past the peak and watching the world slowly begin to slide into another dark ages? Education, fundamentalism, pseudo-science, propoganda, and now this? So much for the gains of the past few decades. I hope I'm wrong.

This would be great. Having a paper book version of a story I'm reading, taking it with me, lending it out so people can see what the heck I'm talking about if it gets referenced in conversation... Yes please. Gee

Remember when CD's made vinyl records obsolete? Funny thing though. Vinyl is making quite the comeback. More are being produced again, and people are buying turntables again. Why? The experience. Vinyl offers something that CD's don't. For me, though I read a lot of stuff online, real paper books offer me something I just can't get with reading online. E-readers have a long, long way to go before they offer the kind of flexibility and portability of a book. Would you bring you e-reader into the tub to read? Nope, you might drop it and ruin it. A book, well, could happen, but whatever, just buy another copy. Maybe the same thing is going to happen with books as it did with vinyl records. A quick fade and a slow but study resurgence, peaking at something less than the original.

I actually ran across this article myself a while back. What's really funny is that two days later I ran across This article. Just more proof that with relatively new technologies like the internet, and even some not so new ones, the jury will be out for a while. Of course, chances are, like so many things, that both viewpoints will end up being true. We gain some things, and lose others. A somewhat unrelated example: How many of you have ever learned Morse Code? It used to be taught in boy scouts, in every military academy, aircraft school, merchant marines, etc. In many cases when the requirements were dropped it was with considerable angst and controversy. Nowadays, cursive writing is going through the same evolution. Before the protests come sailing in, I know that's not exactly what the article was getting at. However the point remains. Maybe the end result will be more advantageous than not. I'm also skeptical of the way the author generalized. People will continue to fall somewhere on the Bell Curve in terms of attention span, ability to avoid distraction, etc. If the peak of the curve moves a few points to the left or right, well, what of it? There will still be people on both sides. As to the other comments about reading ahead, etc. A long time ago I taught myself speed reading after reading a book on it. Yes, it works. Reading ahead is one of the fundamental strategies. I found I could do it, and it was awfully fast, but I didn't do it for long. It's just no fun. I went back to reading the way I've always done soon after. A much more satisfying experience.