Good morning all. Thank for the coffee Ape.

Talia didn't sleep well, so we are staying close to home (we would have stayed close to home regardless but now we have an excuse). I'll write and take care of my True Love. I think the Mets are scheduled to begin losing around 5.

I REALLY wanna go see Candyman this weekend. I love every piece of movie DNA in it, from Barker and the original story to the excellent first movie and Peele being involved in this iteration. The trope of repeating some name into a mirror scares the F out of me. I won't do it. I wouldn't let my kids do it (they did anyway, I've since learned).

I wrote one of my best stories ever about it.

Anyway.  Enjoy the day everyone. Coffee and ten thousand sugar cookies please. 

I gotta start trying that like button.

The Forums are MUCH easier to use (especially the New Posts link)! Since that and reading stories are all I do, I'm happy.

Good morning all.

Guess who lost again last night?

I now know more about magpies than...well, people who who a lot about magpies. And, actual magpies. I'm still scared I'll finish this story only to find the main myth in it (throwing bleach on a crow) is totally stolen. I'm sure I stole it, I just can't find the source. My writer friends say f*ck it, make it your own story. I am hesitant.

Crows and magpies HATE each other: https://www.birdforum.net/threads/why-do-crows-hate-magpies.143191/

I'm very behind on stories - I apologize. Reading a lot of stories of other sites, and for critique groups. But I'll get to them. Maybe this weekend.

Okay, time to start up the day. I'd love a coffee. And a...oh my God, look at all these cookies! Three umbrella cookies too.

Quote by AnnaMayZing

Quote by CuriousAnnie

 

Anna, I totally support Violet in this, as it is the right thing to do. My gender and sexuality, I hope, don't affect how you see me as a writer. And we have in these changes accentuated rather than de-emphasised gender. I republished Oxford Street here, it was a cri de coeur for the 'mode' or the most common not to be our frame of reference. Let that flow though to how we present ourselves to the next generation of writers. 

Annie, quite honestly, I don't care about your sexuality. It doesn't matter here. You are a person, a writer, a reader. If you want to wear your sexuality on your sleeve, fine, but here, it means nothing.

I think Violet and Annie's concerns are reasonable, and have been expressed politely and eloquently. I think the developers have been taking it seriously too, and I expect their concerns to be addressed eventually. I'm disappointed you chose to be dismissive about their very legitimate concerns, and hope the site as a whole is more inclusive and welcoming.

Quote by Mendalla

Well, good morning all. Back from a morning ride on the ole bicycle. Starting to think about writing a story about cycling. Maybe a 'kids with bikes" story, as some call media like Stranger Things and the eighties movies that inspired it.

COOKIES!!!  

Quote by Ping

Quote by verbal

Hey everyone.

It's No Talia Wednesday. Gonna teach the cats how to whistle.

Also, lunch with a daughter.

My story about the girl in the dog park sucks. Wah. Not gonna even bother to edit it.  I finished it. Sometimes you've gotta know when to throw em back in the pond. I'll try a story about magpies today.

Coffee and seven iced oatmeal raisin cookies (thanks Sara!) please.

Magpies?

I just bought a slingshot and hard foam balls to chase them away from the lawn furniture. They’ve been pulling out the stuffing in our older chairs.

Maybe a story about how they collected and saved everything people have thrown at them, for the day they exact revenge, and kill that person under the weight or suffocation of those items. Good premise. And, we’ll, there it is.

Killer Recycling Magpies - When going green turned everything mean.

Lots going on in PingVille.  Won’t bore y’all with the details except that I did have a basil carcinoma removed. Scalpel to the face. Stitches under the eye. I’ll now have a scarrr. I can officially do pirate jokes with the look of authenticity. Hopefully, the dermatologist got all the cancer. TBD.

Another week and the kids are back in school. Same COVID protocols as before. Excellent compromise for keeping our youngest citizens in a classroom. Our educational system have done a fantastic job keeping everyone safe. But we now enter the era of vaccers vs non-vaccers. It’s already getting divisive and ugly.

Good day for a ride. Sunny. Temperate. No wind. A good chili dog should cure that.

Later…

Glad to hear you are doing alright. If you ever come Then-Came-Bronson-ing down to these parts we’ll go to a biker bar, you can flash the scar and scare the bikers.

Wrote a long magpie-related monologue today. No idea what to do with it. Sigh.

*Steals ALL the cookies in a fit of misplaced rage over my own crappy writing*

So, I'm crowdsourcing here: I'm SURE I read a novel once about a maid (I think) who threw bleach at a crow and turned it into a magpie, or something like that. I'm thinking Toni Morrison, or maybe Bastard Out of Carolina, but I can find no mention on the internet. Anyone else heard of this? I'm about to steal it if I can make sure it's not plagiarism.  

Hey everyone.

It's No Talia Wednesday. Gonna teach the cats how to whistle.

Also, lunch with a daughter.

My story about the girl in the dog park sucks. Wah. Not gonna even bother to edit it.  I finished it. Sometimes you've gotta know when to throw em back in the pond. I'll try a story about magpies today.

Coffee and seven iced oatmeal raisin cookies (thanks Sara!) please.

Quote by verbal

I came up with a drinking game for non-drinkers.

Watch Personal Shopper. Do a shot every time Kristen Stewart makes a facial expression.

Two hours later, you'll still be sober.

  

I came up with a drinking game for non-drinkers.

Watch Personal Shopper. Do a shot every time Kristen Stewart makes a facial expression.

Two hours later, you'll still be sober.

I’m a good Dad. 

Awaiting Sara's iced oatmeal cookies.

Not feeling it this morning. Still trying to wake up. Coffee, come to me!

We have two really good friends who I think may be getting a divorce. Really bummed. Their kids have just hit adulthood, which is a slightly good thing, I guess. But you can just feel the thunder rumbling on the horizon, like a bad movie.

At least the Mets didn't lose (they didn't play).

Time to write.

Quote by DenimAngel

Hi peeps 

A beautiful day here .got some cleaning done now time to chill for a bit.

*Peeks in the cookie jars* we are in good shape.*giving the adorable critters fresh water and treats* 

Hoping to get some writing done but drawing a complete blank . I got a idea and then it ran away from me . Other than that not a lot going on . Hoping to get something on paper. 

Fresh cookies tomorrow. Any requests? 

Hugs  

Stay safe

Iced oatmeal cookies please!!!

Thanks for the set-up. Mr. Ape.

Low 90s, partly cloudy all week here.  I don't mind, I kinda like the heat. I take a walk every day around 4, when writing is done and the temp has dipped back below 90 (though just barely).

How did the Mets fall 7 games back? At least Baez is back, and led us to a win last night. Too little too late.

Short story critique group tonight. Check your ego at the door. I'm just critiquing, nothing of mine on the chopping block. 

And, that's about it. A boring day in my cats-and-Talia-filled paradise. 

Coffee and exactly fifteen snickerdoodles please. 

Cheese tortellini and a salad. It was yum.

From Daniel Woodrell's Tomato Red: "You're no angel, you know how this stuff comes to happen: Friday is payday and it’s been a gray day sogged by a slow ugly rain and you seek company in your gloom, and since you’re fresh to West Table, Mo., and a new hand at the dog-food factory, your choices for company are narrow but you find some finally in a trailer court on East Main, and the coed circle of bums gathered there spot you a beer, then a jug of tequila starts to rotate and the rain keeps comin’ down with a miserable bluesy beat and there’s two girls millin’ about that probably can be had but they seem to like certain things and crank is one of those certain things, and a fistful of party straws tumble from a woven handbag somebody brung, the crank gets cut into lines, and the next time you notice the time it’s three or four Sunday mornin’ and you ain’t slept since Thursday night and one of the girl voices, the one you want most and ain’t had yet though her teeth are the size of shoe-peg corn and look like maybe they’d taste sort of sour, suggests something to do, ’cause with crank you want something, anything, to do, and this cajoling voice suggests we all rob this certain house on this certain street in that rich area where folks can afford to wallow in their vices and likely have a bunch of recreational dope stashed around the mansion and goin’ to waste since an article in The Scroll said the rich people whisked off to France or some such on a noteworthy vacation.

That’s how it happens.

Can’t none of this be new to you."

Good morning everyone. No one has made coffee yet, so I will bring some in a vacuum flask, since I don’t know how to w the coffee maker. At least Sara’s cookies are here. 

I am submitting the opening of a novel (actually a modified version of the 2 Chew stories on this lovely site) to my critique group tonight. Nervous. They are nice but TOUGH (and usually correct) and I am a little worried. I have to learn to play with the big kids. So, today I am editing all day. 

Mets lost AGAIN. I think their season is officially over. At least Sara’s Braves woke up.

Found a great podcast about old school country music: Cocaine and Rhinestones.

Enjoy your day everyone. Coffee and a pencil shaped cookie please!

Quote by Mendalla

The opening paragraph of H. G. Well's The War of the Worlds. Sets the stage for what is to come beautifully. Richard Burton did a wonderful reading of it to open the concept album based on the novel by British producer Jeff Wayne.

"No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter. It is possible that the infusoria under the microscope do the same. No one gave a thought to the older worlds of space as sources of human danger, or thought of them only to dismiss the idea of life upon them as impossible or improbable. It is curious to recall some of the mental habits of those departed days. At most terrestrial men fancied there might be other men upon Mars, perhaps inferior to themselves and ready to welcome a missionary enterprise. Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us. And early in the twentieth century came the great disillusionment."

The magnificent opening of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House:

“No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.”

Quote by Mendalla

For verbal (and his Dad)

Quote by Mendalla

Quote by Mendalla

But these are on comp entries from, in some cases, years ago. I thought on the old site the edit restrictions lifted once the comp was over. After all, if you're not a podium finisher, it becomes just another story. I think I know a way to check.

Yep, checked the other site that uses this software and old (and even current) comp entries are editable. I think we just relied on the mods to catch people trying to edit submitted comp entries. I rarely edit old stories here so not an issue for me, but I do think only current comp entries should have editing disabled. No one is going to care if you edit a story that came ninth in a comp from five years ago. Still, hardly an urgent problem.

Anyway, I have yet to use the new editor, so I will reserve judgement.     

Quote by Verity

All I want to know is, will I ever get my comments back. They really do mean so much to me. Thank you

I like the changes for the most part, though I'm not really looking around that much. I think most of the changes impact a smaller site like SS in a good way. I agree with the One True Ping that larger sites, such as the vermillion-adjacent one, are gonna freak the f out. Eventually the dust will clear, but I'm thinking many will have to be brought kicking and screaming to the new format. Life is change. Change is life.

My favorite country songwriter (other than Merle and Willie) died today. Tom T Hall. wrote story songs, and was an astonishingly good storyteller. My Dad loved him too and passed that love to me. I learned yesterday not to post videos with text, since the text disappears, but PLEASE give The Year Clayton Delaney Died a listen today if you find the chance. If I ever write anything half as good as that song I'll die a happy man. 

Hey - a thought! With the new site, can we get a liquor licence for the place? At least one that allows for beer and wine? Or even (gasp!) a cannabis consumption licence (a real thing, they have them here, legal and everything)?

For now, a coffee. And a cookie!     

So, no text with videos?

Ooh, ooh, I just got my first email (thanks Ping)! I really like the display of the email and previous emails.

Quote by Mendalla

Quote by verbal

Verity, you wrote a play!?  Too cool. That's truly pushing the creative envelope both here and at the other sites. Hundreds of thousands of stories, and has anyone written a play before now? Super impressive. My apologies if I'm missing someone's writing.  

I have thought about writing a play before but I am really not familiar enough with the stage to do it. Haven't read much modern drama either. I think the most recent play I have read was Miller's Death of a Salesman. I was thinking at one point I might hunt up an amateur theatre company to join both to try my hand at acting and so I could get a feel for it, but that's another thing that the pandemic has sidelined.

EDIT: Hey, Larry wrote one!

Dang. I hate 2 Factor Auth, though I understand the need. I hope that if we are NOT mods/admins, we don't have to use it. 

Good morning everyone, and welcome to the first full day of the new SS! It looks pretty cool, and the shakedown is slowly showing us the capabilities and limitations of the new site. I can get to new stories and new posts, which is all I ever did before. Set up a sig line. I haven't started playing around with comments and votes, but I will soon.

Verity, you wrote a play!?  Too cool. That's truly pushing the creative envelope both here and at the other sites. Hundreds of thousands of stories, and has anyone written a play before now? Super impressive. My apologies if I'm missing someone's writing.  

No Talia Friday. I haven't seen the cats yet today. I think they are hiding from me. Rehearsals for our feline+human production of Damn Yankees did not go well. Frikkin divas. In the middle of You Gotta Have Heart, Wallace hocked up a hairball.

Coffee and a dolphin shaped cookie please.

So far, the most useful things I've found to quickly get around are the two buttons in the upper right. Stories for latest stories, and forum>new posts to see what's recently been posted (I really like that feature!). Still looking around. I like it!  

Hey, the new site is too cool! I feel so fancy!

Still finding my way around. Wait! Here is the coffee, and here are Sara’s cookie jars. Yum. I need nothing else.

Mets finally won a game, though it took them several extra innings. And now we have to play the frikkin Dodgers. Sigh.

Busy day today, so I will get to it.

A coffee and a cookie would be swell.