Cuzosu

"The Hand That Feeds" NIN

"Trigger Happy" Weird Al "Those Little Things That Piss Me Off" Rodney Carrington "Rise" Origa "Some People Piss Me Off" Matt Kennon (I think I spelled that right...could be wrong, though.)

"CHANCE" UVERworld "You Can't Hide Redneck" Tracy Lawrence "Unconditional" Clay Davidson And "Duck and Run" is the CD: The Better Life, as is "Kryptonite" - it's one of the ones I have, and I enjoy it. It's kind of dark - the second track is "Loser" - but it's very good music.

2) Kevin and Rob (M/M): Franken-style With deep indigo eyes Kevin was known to be the best Frankenstein in the land. However the one thing that made his heart flutter with desire to reanimate dead bodies was Rob. How could he not crave that electrified hunk of Rob's hot reanimated corpse? As he entered the desolate room he spied the golden haired Rob in the corner. "There you are!" Kevin pointed at him, "I have been wanting to replace your limbs all day long! Are you ready to sacrifice your extremities to me?" With a half arrogant smirk, Rob nodded, "Do you think you can make me run from your scalpel?" Kevin began to feel his mind rising to the occasion, "Yeah I bet I can make you!" he accepted the challenge. Both men closed the gap between them and Rob instantly reached out and laid down on Bob's operating table. "What did you think of that, you big doctor?" Rob asked with his own anticipation growing. "Oh, monster!" Kevin moaned in unprofessional glee and now his white-clad body began to grab Rob with surgical intent! Both men's hands began to move as their eyes met in a passionate look. With frenzied speed Kevin began to undo Rob's stitches and freed his arms and legs. Rob shivered in want and anticipation of the surgery he knew Kevin would give him. "Yeah, I want it painful and long!" Rob breathed in deeply. Kevin now cut into Rob's body and began to carefully ply his scalpel against Rob's flesh. Both men began to breathe in a deep passion as they laid eyes on one another. Rob felt Kevin's scalpel filling up his tight muscles and he groaned in passion as he felt his own limbs getting ready to sever from him. Reaching around he began to stroke Kevin's face with his eyes as both men began to hit reattachment. Afterwards Rob looked at Kevin with a look of detachment and said, "You can make me trade limbs any day!" The end!

"Then What" Clay Walker "Duck and Run" 3 Doors Down

"The World Needs a Drink" Terri Clark

"When I'm Gone" 3 Doors Down

"I don't know if this cnounts...." (Because I type too fast....) "Let's see how this goes fist...." "Time for my daily does of born!" (Not mine, thankfully. I don't mix up my 'b's and 'p's. I'm not that dyslexic. And I get irritable when I catch myself misspelling 'dose' and 'does'....)

"Pain" Three Days Grace

Hahaha, I do that too, but I do also type fast, so I have times I'll have half a sentence written before I change my mind and backspace to rewrite something else instead. It can be bad. Amusing, but bad. To make things worse, I've occasionally caught myself thinking out a scene a paragraph or five ahead, then found I'd written the name of one character...who wasn't due to be named for at least another paragraph or two. This instead of putting the correct name, of course. It's...frustrating. Makes me want to kick myself. Though it's better than some of the slips of the tongue my family and I have had. One of my twin brothers took the milk out and was shaking it one time, and I acerbically told him, "Quit shaking that; some of us don't like bubbers in our milk." ...the twins looked askance at me for a second before cracking up over my misspoken bubbles. Um, oops? Oh, and one typo I've had - trying to write more on Heartache, as a matter of fact - is typing "het" instead of "heart"...and it's a yaoi story!

I sometimes have trouble deciding whether to write "confused" or "puzzled"...and when my mind combines the two and I mistype at the same time, it comes out: "confuxzled." ...Yeah, let's just say it can be embarrassing. I confuxzle myself when I do that.

"Head Like A Hole" Nine Inch Nails

Yeah, I sometimes try for those cliffhanger endings to a chapter, but mostly I try not to because I run into cliffies so often as a reader - and they annoy me to no end when I've hit so many in a row. I did what I had to do, and like I said, if she's infertile...I don't particularly care. She hasn't given me reason to, in fact she's done the opposite. But it's nice that you understand - certainly I've run into people who didn't, or thought I was a horrible person for not caring when she's "family." Yeah, sorry, I don't consider any of the steps on my dad's side to be family, since they either don't care about me or bad-talk me behind my back, or (in the case of my dad's wife) can't be bothered to be mature enough to even act civil. (Saw them at my sister's wedding; my dad was polite but his wife did the whole nose in the air thing and ignored us entirely. I was trying to introduce my bf to them, too. Not like it's a loss; my bf's impression of my dad's wife was, "OMG! Barbie!" as in - he's explained it this way himself - she's all facades and false faces. Only cares about appearances.) Mm, as long as I still had reviewers, I'd keep going. And some stories I'd continue even without any reviews at all. (Heartache, for example, because that one's near and dear to my heart, and I adore it just as much as my readers do.) I've had similar events happen - a friend of mine, and someone I beta for, she had a reviewer give this long rant about how they were going to leave because she turned the story from a yaoi pairing to a threesome - and it'll be a foursome eventually. The reviewer claimed there hadn't been warnings, but another friend and I are big fans of the story in question, so we both immediately got in touch with her and said, "This is bull; you had warnings in your A/Ns throughout, the summary changed to take into account the other person in the threesome, etc. The reviewer was rude, their logic was flawed, and if they don't want to read it, they can just leave. No need to leave a flame that makes them sound stupid." And then we waxed poetic (or at least heaped praises on her) about the story. I like to try different pairings - certainly I'm having a blast with them in my drabble collection! - but the thing is...the rare pairings that work well? They're way rare. I have problems finding almost any pairing that isn't Grimm/Ichi or Renji and Byakuya (in Bleach, at least). And I'm sorry - I just haven't been in the mood to even try Renji and Byakuya for a long while, so it's nothing against you. I'm just too jaded. Though you're not the only one who's a fan of the underdog. I follow some stories - and/or authors - that need tips or...well, I follow one story where I'm pretty much the only one who reviews, and the author is actually an artist and not much for spelling, grammar, etc., so there are errors galore there, but her plot is so good I can't stay away. Not that I want to. Besides, she's a neat person and deserves to have a follower who actually reviews. And since I love the story in question, why shouldn't it be me? If I find something outstanding about a story - plot, characters, whatever - I try to review and let them know. Menopause...my mom had that leaking problem, too, for a while. I think about two months? And then she hit the full-blown bleeding every other week, and then when that finished (way, way later), she had spotting randomly, but it finally finished up. Was a miserable time, though.

Current CAPTCHA words: his Rlfamo ...am I the only one struck by the similarity to: "his roflmao fit" or some such?

I try not to watch the news anyway, for exactly that reason. I don't even look for worlds that are realistic, just emotions that are realistic. It turns me off a story when the emotional reactions don't fit the scene. Guess I maybe spent too much time in my dad's college psychology and sociology classes when I was tiny, have a little too much of the analytical counselor mind set.

I admit that it's...I suppose I'd say easier to accept...when the characters accept the risk of violence and bloodshed, but.... I have never been able to run from the dark side of life, the bad things that happen. My family tends to teach the kids how to avoid having bad things happen to them, which means they get lectures and examples of what could happen if they're not careful. We're quite paranoid in our own way. (I have to add "in our own way" because I was allowed to wander strange neighborhoods and the woods without adults as long as I had my dog with me. Said dog having already saved the life of my grandpa, the adults trusted him with good reason.) So I don't have problems reading those dark stories you're talking about. And also no little bit because I know just what the darker sides of my own family (and myself, in particular) are capable of doing when pushed in certain ways. (Dark as in, my mom swears up and down that she's been raped twice, one time by my dad. Not a prospect I like, but I can see how, given the way he was even clear up into my teens and somewhat still today, he very possibly could have. I'll never know for sure, but he could have. Having to admit that hurt, that my dad was capable of that...but I know that between his anger and alcohol, he's very well could have.... And I used to have a lot of really dark thoughts about my mom, too, and I know she exaggerates things and has manic depression that influences her outlook on everything - but at the same time, however bad she is at showing it, she wants the best for her kids even if she can't stand them personally. She's a much better mother now than she was when I was little, probably because she was nowhere near ready, and now I'm actually close to her for all that sometimes we don't talk for months.) Frankly, given how bad my family can be, I sometimes read dark stories just because I need a break from reality that will help me ease out of that dark, angry frame of mind. And when I'm in such a frame of mind and write instead...there tends to be a lot of violence and really dark humor. Probably this shows the influence of CSI and other crime scene dramas, westerns, cop shows, X Files, etc. that my mom used to watch - and which all four of her children have watched because she does. Our mom claims we're just sick and twisted when we slide into our darker moods, but we know she takes the majority of the blame. We didn't raise ourselves, after all! *halo* Well, yes. Thus my own relationship. Though my bf wants to bring out my nympho side, and I keep telling him he's going to regret it.... He doesn't believe me. Ha. I know how I used to be.... We're going to have problems if he succeeds.... Anyway, the trust and the intimacy are really neat, yes - but we can't all write about the same thing and besides, I like stories that at least somewhat resemble real life (usually in the emotional aspects), and that means I look for stories with the good and the bad...the oddities that don't seem to go well together but actually mesh brilliantly. (Every time I find such a fic, I come to the realization that I'm doing a happy little wanna-be dance in my seat. This disturbs me, because I can't dance.) My personal preference is more of a blend, dark and light, good and bad, positive and negative. I like the contrast; it feels more in depth, more...three dimensional, I suppose?

Really? I always think "newbie" and go with that, because I can't bring myself to type just "newb." Though gamer slang spells it n00b most of the time. (My brothers play X-Box, while my bf plays WoW. So I've picked up that much.)

Whenever you can. I'm looking forward to it, but, like I said, quality over quantity, so take as much time as you need. Also: having read some of your Lucius/Sirius works (one, at least, so far), I will add that I'm quite fond of that pairing as well, so if you want to take it in that direction instead of Sirius being with James or Remus, that's fine too. Might make for a more twisted story, yes? But if you've already got things settled in your mind, that can wait for another time; I'm sure I can think up another dastardly plot for them.

Think I saw that one in a story, too. And.... "It was the begging of the end." Or the "benning" of the end, once, too. (For the latter, I was tempted to send a text to one of my friends named Ben - whom I would have teased at the same time for writing his name as "Bem" and so been all the more amused. Our German teacher handed that particular test back to him and said, "And there isn't a Bem in this class, but you're here, so it must be yours." He turned so red....) Also: "You're a knewb, aren't you?"

Thanks! I needed the luck! I managed, barely, by catching minor naps on the drive. Though I don't sleep when my bf's grandpa drives; he gets road rage rather frequently, and I don't like sudden changes of direction when I'm sleeping. As to my aunt, well, she's so happy, doing very well. The whole family has been all for my aunt and uncle adopting, anyway, and then it finally went through and they hadn't told us until the day of that there was a possible adoption (they didn't want to hear people pitying them or saying sorry if it didn't go through), so we were quite surprised to get a picture message the morning of! And way early, our time. But it sure woke me up. I've done that before. It's annoying to lose messages like that. I like to leave comprehensive reviews on what I feel the writer did a really good job on and what could use improvement, constructive criticism, and - if I was really into the story - sometimes I'll rave about whatever had me spazzing out enthusiastically. I'd read and review for you, Raymy, but I just...I have a hard time even making myself read Renji and Byakuya - so it's nothing against you! In my opinion, Renji and Byakuya is nearly as over-done as Grimmjow and Ichigo, and I have to be in a really easy-going, open-minded mood to even click into one of those pairings. (Unless it's something I've already read and know I enjoyed, of course, in which case I like to revisit stories periodically if they're really well done.) Unfortunately, I haven't been in one of those moods for several months now, so I've been avoiding the pairings I feel are done too often. Or are too obvious - I've been put off most new Kyoraku/Ukitake stories lately, too, and that's one that's mostly left alone. Makes me sad. Although *back on topic* I will also note that botticelliangel made a very good point when she said that there's a big difference between "I'm really looking forward to your next update!" and "You better hurry up if you want to keep your readers." I have friends and readers who pester me periodically, saying things like, "Do you have any more done yet?" "Should I threaten your muse into obedience again?" and "D@#! it, I want more!!" and that works just fine for me. (Sometimes my muses need threatened or bribed into cooperating.) But threatening the author by essentially saying you're going to leave? Okay, bye. Hope you trip on your way out the door. *smiles sweetly, waves, pushes door into rude person* ...yeah, that's about what I want to do. Honestly, I have a few fics that I follow that take, on average, a year, year and a half between updates. But these are long, in depth chapters with excellent details and personalities that stir emotions, plus, I figure life gets in the way sometimes. So I tend to just say, "Just wondering what's up with (such and such story), since it's been a while since the last update. Hope it's coming along; I'm still looking forward to the next chapter. If I'm bothering you, I'm sorry, that's not my intention. (New paragraph.) Anyway, how's life? Anything new or bothering you?" Usually gets pretty good responses. Ehh...my mom's menopause was bad.... It's seriously a wonder my brothers survived it. (Brats. Teenage brats. And the youngest brother, who's 9 years younger than the twins.) She bled about once every two weeks; really screwed my PMS up. My body synchronized with hers. Horrible. And no, I think we don't ever fully outgrow the emotional tizzies. We just learn how to minimize them and how to use understanding to avoid having them at least sometimes. *laughs* I often find myself at the end of a chapter, trying to click the next chapter link and not finding it, and then grumbling to myself, "D@#!, that's the end until it gets updated!" At which point I try to leave a nice review, full of praise and maybe pointers...and a puppyish "Please, more! Soon! Please!" Mm, my aunt's infertility was caused by really bad cramps when she was younger, and one of my step sisters seemed to be having the same symptoms my aunt had described, so I mentioned something about it to my dad (as in, she should go see a doctor before she winds up infertile), and if they didn't get that taken care of, well, not to be inconsiderate but it's not my problem. I said what needed to be said to someone who cared, someone who was in a parental position, and considering the step sister was bad-mouthing me behind my back in school to our class/yearmates, I consider whatever consequences there may be as her own problem. It's not that I think that she deserves to be infertile - hell, I made sure she at least had a chance of remaining fertile! - but...the whole reason she trash talked me behind my back is because I don't get along with her mother. *rolls eyes* And I don't think I should have to play nice with a woman 36 years older than I am who acts less mature than I do. To me. About me. Because she's jealous and/or just plain doesn't like me. Sorry, step sis, the time I tried to play nice is over; if she pushes me now, she's fair game. (Actually I've seen her since I first made this decision, but I'd told my grandma AND my dad what I'd decided, and the hag managed to hold her tongue and just stay quiet. I think she's scared to find out just how far I'd take retribution.)

Sleep helps, too. I've got to pack before I can sleep, though. Then a 4-5 hour drive, and a bit of a visit. And then another approximately five hour drive, and then sleep, and then a day visiting my bf's mom and uncle before we come on another long drive back home. Oh joy.... I should've slept when I had the chance. Caffeine is going to be a very close friend tomorrow. Wait, no, sorry - today. Craaaap.... And, meh, we all have bad days - and it sounded like you were being hassled at work about not being pregnant or having kids, on top of living with your uncle and cousin, which means you were stressed anyway. Whereas I'm just that nasty when people are rude to me. It must be a family trait; all the rest of them have it, too. My aunt can't have kids either, so I can understand the stress of that issue. They've been trying to adopt for years; finally went through this year! The whole family's been thrilled for them; she sends pictures all the time. Adorable little girl. What I will say about the adoption process (for unborn babies, if that's what you want), though, is this: if you're not registered, try to get it done as soon as possible. My aunt and uncle were on the list for a long time where they live (Alaska), and they only finally adopted this year, and I'm in my twenties. I've known she couldn't have kids for as long as I can remember, and they wanted kids. (Was rather fun for all of their nieces and nephews, though; we got spoiled and treated like we were their kids, too.) The wait times probably differ for different areas, so you may want to check and see, too, but I just wanted to mention that, since it's information my aunt could have used. My step dad thinks he can't legally kick my twin brothers out until they turn 21. Not so in the US. Legally speaking, it's possible to kick a kid out even before they turn 18, as long as they've been emancipated. The twins are 19, will be 20 in a few months, and I seriously wonder if he's trying to save them from falling flat on their faces. Because I know they're going to, both of them, at least once. They don't know how to look after themselves - like my bf's sisters when they moved out, they can pretty much cook microwave food and that's it. They don't know how to cook much else without having to carefully follow directions. My mom does pretty much all the laundry, though the older twin washes his work clothes now, but the younger twin has no job and probably doesn't remember how to work a washer, or how to make sure his clothes don't wrinkle in the dryer. He starts a load maybe once every three years, if that. They don't keep up on dishes, they're disrespectful...they don't have the problems you've described your cousin as having, but certainly they'll have a hell of a time making it on their own. (Somewhat similar to your cousin, from what it sounded like to me. My younger twin brother is a layabout and a mooch. Not a good combination.)

...In the first place, the reviewer was a moron. Being that rude to an author is dumb, regardless of whether or not the person is published, and I admit I'd probably have the same resentful "Yeah, f#%! you too!" reaction you did. Unfortunately people are stupid. (As a general rule; I personally meet a lot of neat people online, probably because of the sites I frequent, but in person I usually detest most of the people I meet.) That's a sucky work situation. I'd be miserable, too. Geez, I don't know that I'd even call that person a friend.... That's a horrible thing to say. Not to mention, if he's not your kid, why should you have to be the mother-figure? Her presuming that is bull, and frankly I think you have every right to be concerned about the teen's behavior. He probably needs to see a counselor - a good one. Those, unfortunately, are rare, and usually expensive. But it really does sound like he needs to see an abuse counselor. And probably you need to set firm rules - although since he's not your kid, I don't know how you're going to enforce them. Not unless your uncle is willing to hold to them as well. As to your uncle complaining that you haven't made him get a job - my only solution to that is...you could tell your uncle that unless he wants you to be the one making all the decisions about his son until he turns 18, it's his problem. (*wince* Sorry if that's not helpful. I'm not the best at compromise; too much of a hard-liner, and often brutally honest.) And again, the reviewer...I'd have responded pretty much the same way. I don't tolerate unnecessary crap well. Especially from people who should know better. So I hope this rant got it off your chest, helped your temper calm enough for you to focus on writing - even if it was some other story. (Hey, it's what I would've done! )

Hell if I remember where I saw it, now, but there was an otherwise wonderful action scene...and then: "he dogged just in time".... Considering he was supposed to be dodging a projectile weapon - a bullet or a knife or something of that sort - I got the giggles. Maybe I've spent too much time with hounds, but the mental image of this character dogging this projectile, and taking into consideration how fast it had to have been moving.... Insta-teleport! Suddenly right behind the projectile, tracking it by scent! (Said ftw and broke down laughing. I honestly could not focus enough to read again for at least five full minutes.)

Glad we could help. Not sure there's points left to cover about spanking; at least I can't think of any at the moment. *shrug* The main thing is to limit the use and the number of spankings per misbehavior, so that it doesn't turn into abuse. Honestly I find myself feeling old when I think about how kids these days are raised, too. People get all offended when I say a swat would do their kids a world of good, and one of my aunts has a pair of spoiled brats because she won't spank and won't let anyone else spank her kids, and I can only wonder how they think these kids are going to turn out. Especially with this trend towards rude behaviors nowadays. Probably part of why I - and you - feel old when talking about the kids these days is because I/we hold true to an older method of raising children, one that we know works, and we see what happens when it's not followed and should be. (Not that all kids need the physical discipline, but certainly a lot of them need at least a swat now and then.)