Joe Long

The girl I troll on Twitter recently posted "Marry me, fuck me, kill me?" I was so tempted to say "YES!" but I was afraid she might block me.

and you remember there were whispers here in the peanut gallery about which team Sam was really playing for. Does Belle know as much about Joe as we do? How would Amanda handle finding her boyfriend making out with Joe?

But like Kayla said, Tara is always going to be around to remind her of it. It won't be "out of sight, out of mind." Kayla will bury it, but if there are times of stress in the relationship (will Rhona flirt?) the uncertainty may yank the sight of Jack and Tara back into Kayla's mind, and she will hit Jack over the head with it. I see a lingering insecurity on Kayla. Then I just read BMS-12 where Carson proudly proclaims he'd fuck about any girl just for the fun of it.

I don't think the Jack/Kayla/Tara discomfort will be the major concern, at leats not fro the foreseeable future. Kayla could still have flash backs. But yeah, something will pounce on them. Jeff's probably been doing Internet searches to see what schools put on Suessical and find out where Kayla lives.

Looks like there's one next to Wegman's, but I had to Google it as I've never been in there, just driving down the highway on my way to work. The theaters and the grocery are the only ones visible at 55 mph. I thought I was going to bed early, but now I just put 2+ hours into chapter 12 of Being More Social. Good read.

ah, more reading

I didn't get the "tear drops in the rain" reference, but it reminded me of one of my favorite songs, When I Remember by Blindside Pitiful Painting and Fell in Love With the Game are other great songs But nobody moves me like you do When i remember A cloud moves in, rain falls, thunder strikes And sunshine breaks through the clouds I can cry out of sorrow and joy Every drop of rain turns into a crystal in the sun So wash my eyes, my clothes, my skin, my bones, my soul My feet, my love I'm not forgotten I'm in your thoughts cause i feel sunshine in the rain

Finished ch 34 - good job! Finished on an up note, the arc may be over (for now). I think Joe was trolling me on mentioning so many store names, but one caught my eye. I checked Google maps, and yes, there is one right where I would have guessed, in the same area as Chipotle, Five Guys, Gamestop and previously mentioned grocery stores. So has Jack ever been to Sheetz yet? It's right acrossed the road!

I'm home alone for a couple days as my wife went to her sister's, I really have to get some coding done for my consulting side job, and Joe drops another chapter...

I started reading the Blue Site probably in May or June. I thought it was a little later when She is the One and also Being More Social showed up. Maybe it was August when I registered at the site and soon after started by own story (One Thousand Apologies). I know it was Oct/Nov when things started going to shit, with everyone getting downvoted, threats to Joe, then stories getting pulled.

I thought it was first published in August. Didn't seem like a year already. I don't really care who gets married to each other, I can be tolerant. What I am afraid of is that it will continue down the path of trying to eliminate any dissent, such as requiring churches to perform same sex marriages or face loss of tax exempt status or even criminal penalties. If all the 50 state governments will marry now marry a couple, then those couples should get a government wedding. Please don't bully the churches.

Bashful Scribe ‏@Bashful_Scribe 20 minutes ago If you think a giant-ass headache is enough to stop me from finishing Chapter 12 tonight, you've got another thing coming.

been making a living, I'll get to it a little later. the response deserves more time to reflect

speaking of relationships, one young lady I follow on Twitter just posted this followed by #YoureAllowedToHaveFriendsOfTheOppositeSexWithoutItBeingRomantic

I have "Reinventing Your Exit" and Writing on the Walls" on my iPod, but not in my big playlist. I listen to metalcore, but I prefer the more melodic versions. My favorite band is Demon Hunter, with songs like "Fire to my Soul", Follow the Wolves", "My Destiny", "God Forsaken" and "What I'm Not". My favorite album is "The Tryptich" which gets pretty heavy, but I also really like their new one, "Extremist" which is somewhat more melodic. Thank you. I'm still hoping wisdom comes with age.

The worst thing that can happen is our fantasy image of what might have been is smashed. In our imaginations we conjure a scenario where life is great - always happy, beautiful girl, the sex is fantastic. It's so much better than now, we want it so bad. Then comes the moment of truth - will it come true or be broken into pieces? Some truths - 1 the future is never as idealistic as we make it out to be. 2 sometimes, many times, it was her and not you. So why does Tara always go out with jerks? Look for someone you can have fun with, share the things you like, and is kind in return. There may be more beautiful girls on the outside, but it's there on the inside.

I woke up this morning to "Calm the Storm" playing in my head. One of my all time favorites, it's on a short list of songs I've considered quoting lyrics of for my story, although the songs are more contemporary. Here's where to listen to that one and two more that help capture the feeling of frustration and hope Dear Angel, April Sixth (2005) City of Anger, Mad at the World (1990) Calm the Storm, Spoken (2013)

Of course Joe WENT to the musical, he can't sing! (IIRC you saw Seussical with a male friend). Did you ever act in any? I think it's good to try to believe "worst thing that can happen" but actually feeling like that is something else. I agree on the casual approach, even like the food court and walking around the mall - something that gives you time to hang out and talk, to get to know each other better.

Yes! As long as you're not an ass, what can she say bad about you? Just move on. My son doesn't have any problem getting a girl, but takes break ups way too hard. Gotta let it slide off.

That was EXACTLY my problem, especially at that age. However, with each girl that I did have some sort of relationship with the easier it became, a step at a time, until I was married. Later on the easiest place to run into attractive young ladies was at the checkout register. Even into my 30's it was still hard to even strike up a conversation with a good looking cashier. Now I chat with most of them. Especially now that I'm going back to do some big edits on my story, I'm using the character of Hannah, my girlfriend, to be the one who engages and challenges me on these issues. I haven't told my wife that I'm writing, but I have discussed things like my relationship with my father, and even now, 35 years later, I'm understanding more of what it was all about. He wasn't necessarily wrong, but his people skills sucked. I didn't have a girlfriend at that age (19-20) and I didn't have anyone to talk to about how I felt, but in the story Hannah serves both purposes, even if [spoiler ALERT] it ends in a spectacular crash and burn. But even out of those ashes, I survived, matured, and found the woman I married. Not the standard "lives happily ever after' format.

I was not intending to compare our miseries. I felt I needed to share, to offer encouragement, to show that it's something that many of us suffer through but to have faith and persevere. I still have anxieties, but it's not nearly what I used to endure. My weak spot is sex, something I didn't experience back then and unfortunately not now. I've never touched anyone else since I've been married, and only once tried to. But I do have wandering eyes and fantasies. I love my wife but sometimes she's mean, and there have been times I've needed affirmation, that I am someone others want to be friends with. Ten years ago everyone I knew was either at work, church or family. I really didn't get out much. In the years since I've been in the public eye with my hobby (which is turning into a consulting business) and that's given me a chance to interact with many new people and for me to have faith in my ability do develop friendly as well as professional relationships with men and women. I went from catfishing on MySpace to openly having female friends and followers on Twitter, who enjoy me for being me.

I'm 55 with children and grandchildren, make a good amount of money, enjoy my work, am well respected...so life is good - and it totally sucked when I was your age. Please don't give up hope - take a long term look on life. I've been married for 30 years, and there have been some downs, but I treat them as bumps in the road. I wrote my story based on events in my life, but the story comes out much better than real life. I got the girl, at least for awhile. I've already written the last scene, where I say goodbye to that girl and take my place beside the woman I would marry, and realize "I am blessed." I graduated high school without having ever kissed a girl. Unlike the story, I graduated college while still a virgin. My father constantly berated me for not being good enough. My parents divorced and I was torn trying to keep both of them happy with me. When I was 23 and not yet out of college my father threatened to throw me out unless I got a job. Crushed, I went to the house of my girlfriend of three months (the longest lasting of my life) for her to tell me she didn't want to see me anymore. But I survived. I got a job flipping burgers, even if I had to ride my bicycle through the snow after wrecking my car. Four months later, after trying to date someone new, I went back to the first girl, took her out for Valentine's Day, and a year and a half later married her. (That was the only girl I ever dumped. She worked in the same restaurant, and just despised that I came in to the place with someone else, especially when that someone else had a ring and then was pregnant.) I suffered so much pain, but I endured. I have to say how I met my wife. Absolutely true. I can't put in my story because so many people know. One day I went to my car. After not having even turned on the CB radio for over a year, a voice said, "Turn on the radio and see who's on." I knew it was not my voice that resides in my head. I looked around, saw nothing, but said out loud, "OK". I was fascinated by the woman's voice I heard on the radio, and kept trying to break in to get her handle. Eventually she gave her location and I drove over to see the car, driven by her friend, pass by. I told them on the radio that I was following, but after a few red lights lost them until she said, "We're down here, where are you?" In two weeks it will be thirty-three years since that day. I thank God for leading me to her, and for her leading me to God.

That's the definition of fan fiction. Joe created the characters and the over-arching story line, but from that you created a new scene that was true to the original and was very well written. I don't see it much differently than being in a writing class and being given a premise of, "New girl moves to town and falls in love with the boy next door. A few months later he inadvertently reads a series of texts from her old boyfriend, and discovers she wasn't the virgin that she claimed to be." From there - go, write! Much of what we write comes from what we've known in our lives. My story is heavily based on my own experiences at ages 19 and 20. Joe's about 25 now, a couple of you are still 19 and 20, while I'm 55 and another here is in his 50's. I think by sharing the life experiences that situations in the story remind us of would help any author see viewpoints he might not have thought of on his own. Other than these recent suggestions, in the past I hadn't made or requested specific things to appear in a story, instead analyzing the characters and were they are, what challenges and decisions face them. In SITO I've seen things in the story that appear to me to be sprouts from seeds left by me and others in the comments, and I've written private reviews for a couple other popular stories which helped those authors see their own characters. So I hope that's what Joe is getting from our comments!

I believe Kayla will fight for Jack, be very possessive, but that will also cause her to suspect everything. I wrote a scene that I sent to Joe, of Rhona asking Jack for advice, not actively trying to tease or seduce him, but being provocative. I don't want to go into details because I don't want to claim credit if he uses something from it, but if I'm satisfied he isn't going to I can post it here.

If SITO was a TV show (HBO? MTV?) we'd be the writers having brainstorming sessions in the writing room (makes me think of The Dick Van Dyke Show) and then Joe comes down from the producer's office to check in on our progress, then is off the write the screenplay from our notes.