Public Group
active 1 week, 1 day ago ago
Administrators
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Doug Lance
joined 8 months ago
Coffee Shop
Grab a cup of coffee and hang out for a bit.
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Ryan Dorrill posted an update in the group Coffee Shop 1 week, 1 day ago
News… I got into University of Hawaii’s grad program for Physics and I’m moving there in August! Hope I still have time for eFiction, though. It’s been a blast working with everyone here and reading so many interesting stories. Some of them are really going to stick with me. Thanks everyone!
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Ryan Dorrill posted an update in the group Coffee Shop 1 week, 3 days ago
Well, the cold days of Winter are past us and Summer is on the way. Does this mean you guys are going to be switching to ice coffee and frappucinos? I’ve been making iced tea and sticking it in the fridge. Cheap and delicious!
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Ryan Dorrill
Not sure why I always feel the need to discuss coffee here…
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Preston McConkieMust be the subliminal suggestion working on you.
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Lisa VandiverNo, I like my coffee hot with cream and sugar. But, I’ll be drinking lots of juice and water to keep up with the heat.
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Doug Lance
WaterJoe is my summer caffeinated beverage of choice.
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Randy Attwood posted an update in the group Coffee Shop 2 weeks, 1 day ago
First web based live radio interview today. What a hoot: http://blogtalk.vo.llnwd.net/o23/show/3/191/show_3191593.mp3
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Preston McConkie
Good interview, Randy. Makes me interested to read more of your stuff.
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Randy Attwood posted an update in the group Coffee Shop 2 weeks, 3 days ago
Well this is cool: I’ll be interviewed live on a web radio station 10 a.m. PDT Wednesay about Crazy About You.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/kindle-books–money/2012/05/02/kindle-books-money-writer-wednesdays
And I am nervous as hell!
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Preston McConkie
I signed up for a show reminder through the link. I guess you have to listen at the time of the broadcast? I look forward to it.
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Preston McConkie posted an update in the group Coffee Shop 2 weeks, 6 days ago
Yesterday I picked up two most excellent Facebook friends who contributed to the May issue of the magazine. These men are creative geniuses whom I feel most fortunate to have met in here and to extend my acquaintanceship with by seeing their social posts. This is a great place to meet great minds, is it not?
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Marie GlendenningThis is one of the greatest strengths of digital communities on the Internet: people of like minds and interests can interact regardless of location. Another and perhaps the most important strength is its organized and searchable access to the accumulated knowledge of man.
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Preston McConkie
I agree most muchly, Marie. It used to be that I said I would happily live in a past era — if it had Penicillin. Now I cannot live without the Internet and the mobile phone and the tablet ebook reader. Without these things I would be desolate. We may all have to adjust to being without these things again, after the zombie apocalypse, but I…[Read more]
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Jeffery M. AndersonI often wold still rather live in a past era, more like the 1990s. I reluctantly and resentfully coexist with most modern technology. Internet communities are one area that I really appreciate and enjoy the benefits of technology, however.
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Preston McConkie
There were a lot of things I liked about my precious 1980s. But I would prefer to spend each Saturday being hanged by the b***s, rather than give up my iPhone and Facebook and Wikipedia and Google, my .mp3 audiobooks, my Kindle with its massive collections of the great 19th-century writers and the classical philosophers and historians, etc. My…[Read more]
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Damien Kelly…why Saturday? Of all days to spend suspended by the appendages—Saturday? I wanna be junk-hung on a Monday, maybe a Wednesday. You are a weird man, McConkie. Saturday, jeez!
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Preston McConkie
You make a good point, Damien. If it comes down to it, I will probably trade modern technology for being hanged by the junknuggets on a Monday or a Wednesday.
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Damien Kelly
Okay, that makes so much more sense now.
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Colin DOWLINGDoes technology really enrich one all that much? I’d hate to seem pedantic but information whether it is knowledge or not has its greatest power when actually applied to something out there in the real world; that is it enough to drown oneself in intellectual hero worship without realizing that their inspiration most likely came from something…[Read more]
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Preston McConkie
I agree with you, Colin. I’m not merely a bookworm, though. I’ve only spent about six years making my living as a news writer; the rest of the time I’ve been a soldier, a truck driver, a slayer of cockroaches, etc. I’m also a father. I value knowledge both for its own sake and because it always proves of practical use sooner or later. What I…[Read more]
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Preston McConkie posted an update in the group Coffee Shop 3 weeks, 5 days ago
To rejuvenate my soul after screening 16 stories, I went to the garden for to plant summer squash. In order to reach the earth I did get down upon my hands and knees, and, being fat, soon saw that, if seeds were to be thrust into the soil that new life might spring up therefrom, it must needs be that the world behold my ass crack. Children beheld…[Read more]
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Sharon E Mamolo posted an update in the group Coffee Shop 3 weeks, 6 days ago
If you guys need a pick me up before chaining yourself’s to your computers to write, you really need to read this post. It’s ingenious. I’m still giggling sporadically. http://alturl.com/3x29c
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Preston McConkie
Good. Yes, it is good.
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M.T.LMAO, that was hilarious!
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Kali Amanda BrowneThat was great! I loved please for to make with the grammars and such. That made me cackle.
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Preston McConkie
Excellent. Enjoyed.
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NorvLOL, loved it! I have to share it in some way… without watching the comments. I think.
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Norv posted an update in the group Coffee Shop 3 weeks, 6 days ago
eFiction has passed another threshold to popularity! I just received the first spam message.
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Kevin FraleighBut it was all about the love. She just wanted love. And, perhaps, a dictionary.
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Randy Attwood
What? You mean she really didn’t read my profile and fall instantly in love with me?
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Sharon E Mamolo
LOL, she doesn’t discriminate gentleman
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James DarrowHere I thought I had found true love! [/sarcasm]. Does the fact that I received two of them make me special?
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Sharon E Mamolo
Only two?
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Preston McConkie
Darn it, I thought she really wanted me for my money and good looks.
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Kali Amanda Browne
Oh dear lord! I should have come to the comments first… I forwarded mine to poor Doug. (I wasn’t going to deal with it at all.) At least you have to give credit that there REALLY is no prejudice as to gender, race or religion then. Maybe we should all give love a chance
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Phyllis (Maggie) Duncan posted an update in the group Coffee Shop 1 month ago
Okay, eFiction-ers, help me pick out a cover for my upcoming eBook: http://unspywriter.wordpress.com/2012/04/14/choose-the-cover-of-my-new-ebook/
You could win a signed post-card contained a 100-word story by me. A big draw, I know.
Thanks!
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M.T.
I’d choose the skulls photo.
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Phyllis (Maggie) Duncan
The skulls won, hands down, but I couldn’t establish who held the rights to the photo so I could get permission to use it. It appeared to be public domain, but I couldn’t nail that down to my satisfaction, so I opted for something else. But the skulls rocked that cover.
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Tyler D. Findlay posted a new pictureJust dropping by the coffee shop. Certified caffeine junkie here. photo-1
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Ryan Dorrill
I’m more of a tea man, myself.
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Sharon E Mamolo
Is that a freaking Dirty Bird on your mug? Ya know, a bird can’t fly with a broken wing.
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Norv
Cool mug!
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Jonathan Hansen posted an update in the group Coffee Shop 1 month ago
Hey folks. I have a blog: http://jon-this-is-mine.blogspot.com/ It’s mostly about stuff I like and some about my writing progress and other general stuff. I just put up a post about the new trailer for the film Looper. If you like sci-fi, swing by and take a look at it. I’m really excited for it.
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Preston McConkie
I’m always happy to see another SF writer in here.
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Jonathan Hansen
I try to cross the genres. Sci-fi, fantasy, horror, noir, superhero, etc. Is your story sci-fi? Can’t wait to check it out.
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Lisa Vandiver
Good luck with it.
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Preston McConkie posted an update in the group Coffee Shop 1 month ago
I’m writing an article on spec for the underground tabloid market and hope to work in my favorite gratuitous line about ”my sidekick, Lester, the unhygienic teabagging gorilla.”
- 1 person likes this.
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Phillip McCollumNice! Teabagging gorillas are bad enough, but an unhygienic one… well, that’s just all sorts of bad.
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Preston McConkie
My most repeated Facebook comment is usually along the lines of ”The next time I see the phrase ’No bull’ in a headline involving a bovine, I’m gonna send my sidekick, Lester, the unhygienic teabagging gorilla, to squat on the responsible copy editor’s face.”
Thank heaven for Wikipedia, where I can put my compulsive copy-editing to work.
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Kali Amanda Browne
Oh jeez! HOW did I miss this? Damned speed reading tendencies… I am totally going to steal that line and use it in conversation. Perhaps I’ll wait for my next disastrous job interview, I figure when you have nothing else to lose, a teabagging gorilla might just be the highlight of the day!
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Stasey Norstrom posted an update in the group Coffee Shop 1 month ago
Found a new blog post from David Gaugran and decided to reblog it to my site. Take a look:
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Randy Attwood posted an update in the group Coffee Shop 1 month, 1 week ago
Authors: list some of your favorite lines from you own works:
Crazy About You
Dad had worked on his teeth and found him to be perfectly normal. “Now that he’s killed his family.”Others found here: http://www.randyattwood.blogspot.com/
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Preston McConkie
”And so Jamet tightened his vent and pushed with his bowels, and let a mighty fart that was admirable for its length and loudness.” https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OD6-SlPare1ZQjhOistyC2wBC5Ax7pLrpsf8hEbXsqM/edit
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Stasey Norstrom
”Alice was tired of being dead.” – Wonderland
”The hands belong to wild eyes and a crank-shaft voice, hoarse from screaming truths at him all day long.” – The Dreaming
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Joseph E. Lerner”I awoke to the sound of a rat scrabbling at the wall inches from my head. It was a whirl of motion, thrusting its small body like a boxer, a flurry of paws and teeth, each swipe contributing to a small cloud of dust.”—Red Lotus
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Charity Parkerson”No one ever thinks about the flame. It always ends up alone and surrounded by a bunch of dead moths.”– Wicked Sinners
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Lisa Vandiver
The sun? It’s so bright. I haven’t seen the sun in two hundred years, it’s so bright. it’s so beautiful. I’ve missed the sun.
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Preston McConkie posted an update in the group Coffee Shop 1 month, 1 week ago
Friends, Romans, writers, countrymen and women. Hey, eFiction Mag doesn’t have an article in Wikipedia. It needs one. Doug, I’ve written Wiki articles before and edited a bunch of others to death. There’s a rule against original research, so I couldn’t get away with just writing the story from what I hear in the forums. But If you could steer…[Read more]
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Marie Glendenning
Preston, we in The Crew group have begun an eFiction Wikipedia page at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efiction_magazine
Please, please help us make it good enough so that the Wikipedia editors don’t delete it.
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Preston McConkie
Well, blow me down. Google failed me and my offline Wikipedia, which I consult via my iPhone, did not have the article because I haven’t updated for a coupla months.
I shall try to add to the article as much as possible. I could still use to be steered to published items that can verify information and provide footnotes.
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Preston McConkie
OK, I read the article and noticed that its notability was challenged. This is, of course, the work of a zealous mental retard, which is not atypical for Wikipedia trolls who hang out in the New Articles page and challenge every new article that comes along. If such challenges go without response, they usually prevail. So I entered my response on…[Read more]
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Preston McConkie
OK, I’ve added another paragraph to the ”Contents” category of the page, and revised a lot of lines and added a number of hyperlinks. The bigger we can make the story, the better, because retarded Wiki trolls love to just delete short articles for lack of notability, even though most articles necessarily start as stubs.
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Randy Attwood posted an update in the group Coffee Shop 1 month, 1 week ago
Just received a really, really gratifying review for ”Crazy About You,” from a former mental hospital patient: http://www.randyattwood.blogspot.com/
Would love to sell more books, but this is what it’s all about.
A reminder: I donate $1 of each sale of this book to the local folks to make the suicide hotline work in these parts.- 3 people like this.
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Preston McConkie posted an update in the group Coffee Shop 1 month, 1 week ago
I’m writing fiction again, and participating with this group, because I had to quit my job driving tanker truck in the North Dakota oil fields last year when my right eye was paralyzed by a brain tumor. In January the tumor got hacked out of my head and my eye recovered. As of this week it’s going to crap again and I wake up seeing double. The…[Read more]
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Jay DebruyneEvery cloud Preston, every cloud!
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Preston McConkie
Yeah, that is the silver lining. If I’m FORCED out of trucking, no one can call me an irresponsible dreamer for turning my hand to writing, particularly if I go back to news reporting. When you actually make your living as a writer of some kind, people are more tolerant. A former brother-in-law of mine had a window-washing business and quit it to…[Read more]
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Marie Glendenning
Genus is seeing the extraordinary when others see the ordinary. Perhaps you will now see and write double the extraordinary!
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Preston McConkie
Marie, that’s a kind and encouraging thought. Thank you.
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M.T.
You seem to be a very positive individual, and I think your life experiences will only make you an even better writer.
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Preston McConkie
M.T., that’s also encouraging. I haven’t thought of myself as being positive. But I suppose I only would think so if I were making an effort to be positive; in fact, I have always wanted to be a writer, and in my youth I wrote fiction constantly. I am a lucky guy that Doug created this forum and that all of you are involved, because it gives me…[Read more]
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Stasey Norstrom posted an update in the group Coffee Shop 1 month, 1 week ago
In which I clearly shouldn’t think so much:
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Norman Walker posted an update in the group Coffee Shop 1 month, 2 weeks ago
Can anyone explain what the points are for…, please tell the new boy:)
- 1 person likes this.
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Preston McConkie
I would like to know this, too. I see I can give them to people, but I don’t know when I should do this or what it’s expected to be in appreciation of. I suspect it has something to do with voting for stories we think ought to be published in the mag?
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Stasey Norstrom
Doug’s original intent was for nothing more than for fun and it’s still that way. We’ve talked about doing something with them, but it’s never made its way up the importance ladder. I’ve given away points before as kudos to comments or personal literary achievements. Have fun with them. I do.
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Doug Lance
I like your idea Preston. We could have a sort of underground “blackmarket” where stories/poetry are bought and sold using points as currency. The bestselling stories would make it into the issue. It would open up the review process without allowing everyone to read everything we receive(thus nullifying the impact of our release). Plus, it would…[Read more]
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Norman Walker
maybe you could have a special StoryPoint issue , where we get to vote for the years best stories say 6 to 10 of them and have a reader’s best story of the year?
just a thought. blu-
Doug Lance
@Norman That would be cool. I’d like to start doing awards. I feel like the community is almost big enough to make them really matter.
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Norman Walker
I was tempted to ask for a poetry slot too., but I resisted the temptation lol
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Doug Lance
A poetry award would most definitely be on the ticket.
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Norman Walker
Then I had better learn how to write a good poem:)
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Norman Walker
Actually., Doug.., You could maybe come up with a title for a poem., and see what we budding poet’s could make of it.
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Preston McConkie
Well, Doug, I didn’t know I’d come up with an idea, I was just speculating about what already existed. This is an example of collective intelligence at work, I guess. I’m not responsible for creating the idea, but someone (Doug) is in a position to recognize it and put it to use.
Are most of the magazine’s readers also its participants? If…[Read more]
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Doug Lance
Yeah, that’s how we do things here. We discuss everything and I’m fully open to adopting the ideas of the members. In fact, we wouldn’t have gotten anywhere without harnessing the spare brain power of the group.
The Kindle publishing is what has enabled me to work full-time on the magazine, which has in turn spurred massive growth. We’ve…[Read more]
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M.T. posted an update in the group Coffee Shop 1 month, 2 weeks ago
Just need to vent a little. Have rented a room out in my home for the past year, and finally gave this individual 60 days notice this weekend. Because of her lack of family support and no car, I offered to pay for a local moving company on June 1st, dropped her rent for May so she’d have money for a deposit, and offered to drive her around to…[Read more]
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Sharon E Mamolo
Honesty is not always the right option.
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Lisa Vandiver
Hmmm, renting a room out was nice of you, but not always a wise choice. But, very nice of you to give her a place to stay. Hang in there, and the two months will be over before you know it.
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Jay Debruyne
I say, good for you being honest. Everybody lies. There is no getting out of it. It depends on the content and the motive that defines the liar. I hope it all works out dude. Jay
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Jeffery M. Anderson
I can relate. I have a soft inside and I’ve been taken more than once because I felt sorry for someone. It stings. I agree it’s a good thing you told her what you knew.
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Kali Amanda Browne
Whatever the circumstances, I think you have done more than is required to make this an easier transition for this person, which makes you a good friend to have. I hope this person realizes that. Don’t worry, from so close two months looks like a tiny eternity, but if you step back a little perspective makes it a snap. You’ll survive this, hon!
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Preston McConkie
In my experience it usually goes poorly once you start doing more than one or two favors for a single person; I’m not sure just why, either because it trains people to take advantage of you, or because people who can’t take advantage of one or two favors and make that work for them are in a place of dependency and unable to make things work with…[Read more]
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BuckI’m so sorry to learn that I’m not the only one who has experienced such trouble. The last time I rented out a room was over 12 years ago (because it was THE LAST time). The fellow who moved in stopped paying rent, and after two months I discovered that he was making and selling crystal meth in the room… needless to say we got into a very big…[Read more]
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Norv
Ah well. It will pass sooner than you may think, I’m sure. You’re too nice, heh.
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I hope this isn’t the end, Ryan. Please don’t make us miss you.
Congratulations! UH is a great school and there’s no place better than Hawaii.
Ryan, which campus/island will you study Physics at/on? And which field in Physics are you going to study?
I’m going to be on Oahu at UH Manoa and probably studying particle physics.
Congrats! That will be an amazing time.
Ah, the island with the capital. Particle physics is at the heart of physics and is very competitive. Sounds fantastic!
It’s fantastic to have a physicist who writes. Science Fiction needs actual scientists. It has enough folks like Orson Scott Card, who know nothing about anything and are really fantasy writers.
Best wishes. I can’t imagine how much hard work is in store for you. I’m also jealous that you have the skills the understand the world at levels I never will, at least at the physical level.