Recently, Willow Dancer posted a blog reminding us all of the fourth anniversary of the disappearance of Elsbeth, a much loved author on this site. Like many, I followed her work religiously - especially her stories The Lost Queen and Frejya’s Daughters.
Four years ago this week was her last posting. During the height of Covid, while many of us were stuck at home living vicariously through her wonderful writing, she was still hard at work. Until she wasn’t.
I am so sick of the stupidity being spouted by Donald Trump and his cult of morons - it just gets worse and worse.
Their latest claim is that the Transgender community purposely scheduled Transgender Day of Visibility on the same day as Easter in order to mock Christians. That is total bullshit, and what’s more it is intended solely to stir up hate against the LGBT community.
If you have ever searched for a job or done any hiring, Indeed is a well known and often used company that helps connect employers and job seekers. But apparently it is also a good place to work as well.
My day started out very well. The weather was gorgeous - sunny and warm, with just a light breeze blowing; much nicer than February should be in upstate NY. I actually had a reasonably decent night’s sleep the night before, which has not been a given for me since I was a teen and especially moreso over the past few decades.
I recently responded to a comment by another member here. The original comment was posted regarding Amazon making a change which resulted in the comment’s author losing purchased reading material on kindle. However, my comment was regarding another comment made in response to that comment.
Is anyone else having problems with Patreon? I have been trying to update my credit card info for two days as my bank issued me a new card due to a fraudulent charge on my card.
When I attempt to change the card, it will not allow me to. It will not even allow me to add a card. For two days it has been saying “Unable to add card at this time. Please try again later.”
In just a few days, it is going to try to charge my old card and it will not go through. Yet it will not allow me to update or add a new card.
Yesterday I read a story posted here by Emma Anne Tate, For Us, the Living. Like all of her work, as well as the work of many others on this site, it had me crying. But more importantly, it had me reflecting on my life, my family, and the lives of others.
“If I have all the eloquence of men or of angels, but speak without love, I am simply a gong booming or a cymbal clashing. If I have the gift of prophecy, understanding all the mysteries there are, and knowing everything, and if I have faith in all its fullness, to move mountains, but without love, then I am nothing at all. If I give away all that I possess, piece by piece, and if I even let them take my body to burn it, but I am without love, it will do me no good whatever.
I was sitting on the couch in my living room this evening, just catching up on my e-Mail from the last several days, while my wife watched TV. We had been watching the news, and when it went off the show ET came on. It was a special broadcast about Celine Dion, so she left it there even though she usually doesn’t watch that show.
My wife and I had a nice dinner out this evening - December 25th is my youngest son’s fiancés birthday, so we all got together and surprised her with a dinner for her birthday at a nice local brew pub, Hank Hudson’s. We finally got to meet her parents (a very, very nice couple), and had a truly wonderful time. After, the two of us stopped and got a coffee, and then took a nice ride to look at all of the Christmas decorations - an annual tradition for us.
Without meaning to brag, the people at our house did a really spectacular job, lol.
Someone thinks I should try writing a story, and thank you JoanneBarbarella, I am flattered. I know this is in conjunction with the recent blog about trying to get new authors involved here, and I truly am stunned that anyone would approach me.
Maybe it’s just my perception, but it appears to me that recently there have been more stories on this site which seem to revolve around forced fem, rape, and other objectionable topics and actions.
I have been trying to get into the Whateley Academy site, or the Crystal Hall site, to read a few of the stories I haven’t read in years.
Unfortunately, I am unable to get in. I can’t remember my old account, so I tried to create a new one - but it keeps telling me my account has either been locked or has not yet been verified.
When I try to recover my user name or password, I get a message that I will get an e-mail with a code - but I never get the e-mail.
So here I sit, less than three weeks away from a trip to Orlando, FL for a ten day vacation, and suddenly I have to worry about some asshole objecting to my using the Lady’s bathroom.
Because it’s “safer” to force me to use a bathroom because I am “a person belonging, at birth, to the biological sex which has the specific reproductive role of producing sperm.”
Who cares if I am a woman. Who cares if I can no longer use a urinal. Who cares if I am liable to be beaten to death in the Men’s room.
Yeah, thinking this may be my last trip to the so-called Sunshine State.
I was wondering what to read this afternoon when one of my sons happened to show me a miniature figure he had just finished painting. He purchased a new game just after Christmas, and he has been painting the figurines that make up the playing pieces. He is very good; a skill which I am proud to say he inherited from me.
I spent many an hour working with him and one of his brothers painting Warhammer 40K figurines and vehicles, and showing him the modeling skills I developed through my childhood and later in engineering classes.
I just read an article on Fox News - and yes, I know, it’s Fox. Don’t kill me for reading Fox, but the only way to be truly informed is to read multiple news from multiple sites and from multiple perspectives. Yes, I am a Republican - but I am also not a Trumper (God, how I hate that man and his ilk!), and do not vote the party line. I am a fiscal conservative, and became a Republican because I believed in small government and what the REAL Republican Party stood for decades ago. So please don’t get on me for reading something that Fox posted as I also read MSNBC, CNN, the BBC, etc.
I have much to be thankful for this year - I have survived yet another year, it appears that my immunotherapy has been successful in that I have been cancer free for over a year and a half, the reaction which I had to the immunotherapy seems to have settled down and I am no longer in constant pain from my joints, my mobility has returned to very nearly 100% of what it was previously, and I am still surrounded by my family.
I was looking through my bookmarks this evening, deciding on a story to read, when I started thinking about the authors that I have become acquainted with here and those that I am missing.
Has anyone heard from Elsbeth? She is one of my favorite authors, but she disappeared suddenly around the beginning of Covid.
Bailey Summers posts sporadically and is another of my favorite authors. I hope to see more from Bailey soon as I basically owe my life to Bailey. We’re it not for Bailey, I would probably have eaten the muzzle of my .45 nine or ten years ago.
Just a quick note which is only of significance to trivia buffs and possibly readers of various stories on BCTS, I have seen Swamp Pop Soda mentioned in several stories. The authors have referred to it as being from Louisiana and hard to find.
Over the time I have been on this site I have seen many an author, reader, or simply a poor tortured soul who has expressed themselves either through their writing, or through a posted blog. I myself have found it useful at times to post something, using the site to express my frustrations with some aspect of my life or society in general - or crying out over some emotional issue which is tearing me apart.
As I was reading a story today - one I recently stumbled upon - I noticed an error which seems to be very common and always annoys me. Apparently many authors miss this one, or perhaps I should say many editors miss it.
Some time back, I posted about having a mole removed from my back and finding out it was melanoma. So, after seeing an oncological surgeon, she sent me for a PET scan. My PET scan came back negative, which was of course great news - but there was of course the fact that my mole still tested out as stage four melanoma. After the PET scan, this was reclassed to stage three based on the results of the scan.
“It’s true that love can be hard on a person—the act of loving someone the way they need to be loved instead of how you want to love them, I mean. It takes a lot of effort to make someone else’s desires and troubles your own. You have to want it more than anything. And you have to want it whether they notice or not. Because that’s the nature of the thing: to care so much that it doesn’t matter if they ever reciprocate. If you really feel that way, you can’t hurt them. You just can’t. And when they hurt you, you forget it right away.”
The past several weeks have been......... well, let’s say interesting. You remember the old Chinese curse about living in interesting times? Yeah......... interesting.
A few years ago I noticed a mole on the back of my left shoulder, just above the scapula. It was unfortunately in a location that was visible in certain styles of clothing (annoyingly and unflatteringly so), and over time it became large enough that it occasionally caught on my bra strap or rubbed on my clothing uncomfortably.
You ever have one of those days? One of those days where you can feel things slipping through the fingers of your mind? Where you can feel the wheels just spinning apart? Yeah........
“I’m afraid, Dave. Dave, my mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it. My mind is going. There is no question about it. I can feel it.” Kubrick’s HAL said it for me....... yep Dave, I can feel it and I’m afraid.
Between working remotely (the recent snow storm to hit the east coast resulted in our offices being closed for the past two days) and clearing snow, I starting thinking about the friends and acquaintances I haven’t or heard from in the past year. We are coming up on 12 months since the pandemic hit the shutdown phase, and we began to lose track of a lot of people.
This was really pointed out to me as I was looking for a story to read this evening. While going through my bookmarks, I noticed several stories by Elsbeth.
As I lay here trying to sleep, I started thinking about my life - as I am often prone to do. In light of the fact that technically it is Thanksgiving, being nearly 1:30 AM, I started looking at the things that I have to be thankful for.
First, my family is healthy and safe - which in this time and place is something not to be taken lightly. Given that my spouse, two of my sons, and myself all suffered through Covid-19 in late March and early April, and that we are all doing fine now, I am very thankful for the fact that everyone is healthy.
Checks can be made out & sent to:
Joyce Melton
1001 Third St.
Space 80
Calimesa, CA 92320
USA
Note: $6000 is the operating, maintenance and upgrade budget. Amounts received in excess of the $6000 will be applied to long term debt accrued over the last 19 years.
