The AH Coffee Shop and Reading Room 09

[NotWise]

I couldn't write that many of them. I don't want to kink shame, but I couldn't do it. The comments complain about wanting more sex. Any more sex and I would have been having to take a shower after every paragraph. That story is absolutely the one and only. It is easy views though. I'm not sure I spent four hours on it, including editing. Certainly the easiest story I've ever written.

Can't say as I blame you. I started out here thinking that I wouldn't post to T/I, but I was seduced by the readership. Now my stories there are mostly story, usually without a big emphasis on the incest.

My longest actually contains quite a bit of sex, but it's really about Southwest folklore and the stories that the siblings tell each other from ancestral memories they share. The stories jump back in time from their parents (who were assassinated in El Salvador's Civil War), their grandparents, their paternal great grandmother, who survived the US-sponsored genocide of the Pipil people, then back to about 1800 in what became El Salvador (that was the hardest story to write that I've ever written), to Renaissance Spain (that was fun), and to Almanzor's wars on Christians in Castille and Leon (that also produced my historical fantasy One Night in Gormaz in SF/F).

It was a long, hard haul that took years to write.

 

[TheRedLantern]

Put it this way, I had those earrings. And most girls at my school had that hair and makeup when going out. And computers looked like that and make those noises.

There was the exciting cheerful 80s like that, or Take On Me, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, etc, and then there was the grittier 80s - Smalltown Boy, for example.

I'm really happy to know that the 80s that I imagine from TV, movies, and music existed.

I was aware of the grittier 80s music. Hip hop and rap are the first 80s music I heard (so I knew MC Hammer), followed by 80s punk like Suicidal Tendencies, Dead Kennedies, and the Ramones. I'd heard the synthier pop but never really decided to just find some 80s pop playlists and listen to each song one-by-one until last year.

The pop music was really, really fun in the 80s. To me, the best of the 80s pop gives me the same feeling as watching a puppy who is REALLY excited to run around. It's tough to listen to some of it and not feel uplifted and energetic.

 

[Candy_Kane54]

It's a really cool but beautiful sunrise this morning. The cold front dropped the temperatures but we didn't get any precipitation from it. However, tomorrow's going to be a rain out and Wednesday isn't looking too good either. I spent the 80s as an officer in the Air Force so didn't get to experience most of it. I did enjoy the music and lived the 80s vicariously through 'Miami Vice'.

I've got a fresh pot of coffee brewing and the teapot is hot. There are donuts of all types on the counter to nosh on. I noticed that there are fewer plot bunnies so the talk about recipes did its work.

I'll be over in the corner working on my story. It's going slowly, but I should have something ready by the end of the month.

 

[iwatchus]

It's cold and snowy here. My wife and I were supposed to go to a concert yesterday by a quartet including her clarinet teacher) but it got cancelled for weather. Windchill of 16 out there right now. Air temperature might get above freezing today, but not by much if it does. This is going to be a long winter the way it is starting. I prefer the mild winters we have usually had the last decade.

Trying to work with a relatively new writer on salvaging a story. There are definitely good parts of it, but it needs some reworking. We'll get there, hopefully without too many tears. And hopefully they become a better writer for the process.

Maybe I can start writing my own stuff more than dribs and drabs then. (Not the fault of the other writer --- Im stalled and this is something to keep me sane while my muse takes a vacation.)

 

[NotWise]

Cool morning and sunny, mild days are supposed to hold on here for a couple more days.

The Broncos game yesterday frayed my nerves.

 

[iwatchus]

The Broncos game yesterday frayed my nerves.

I'm glad not to be a Broncos fan. This season is great in one sense, but it has to feel like the end is near every week. And I'm not a fan of Tebow Nix. He at least looked like an NFL quarterback for an entire game yesterday.

 

[NotWise]

Voting on my Summer Lovin' story has been odd. That contest is still linked on the Categories page, so it's still getting votes.

It might be my only case where I have a sufficient number of votes recorded and can say the story's votes aren't geometrically distributed. That's the distribution you often see in product reviews. The highest score is most common, and the count curves down toward 1, In this case 98% of the votes are 4* or 5*, it's never received a 2* vote, its only 1* votes were swept, and a relatively high proportion of the votes are 4* votes.

I might be able to attribute some of the oddity to it being a contest story (many readers) in an unpopular category (not many readers with a taste for the content), and a fairly well-written story (so contest readers don't want to vote low even if they don't like the content).

Then this morning the score ticked up by 0.01 with no change in the votes. My monitoring program explained that as a 5* vote added and a 3* vote swept. I've seen similar changes before and sometimes I wonder if this is just some kind of backend database cleanup rather than new votes. It could also be explained if a signed-in reader voted 3* once then voted 5* a second time.

 

[iwatchus]

I’ve been seeing scattered individual vote sweeps like that for about a week. I was guessing that Manu is testing a new sweep mechanism or process after the fiasco of the hallow pseudo sweep

 

[MrPixel]

My wife and I were supposed to go to a concert yesterday by a quartet including her clarinet teacher) but it got cancelled for weather.

You were so looking forward to the mosh pit, I'll bet.

 

[iwatchus]

It was a guitar, a flute, a cello and the clarinet. But my knee will keep me out of the mosh pit when it’s rescheduled next month

 

[NotWise]

I’ve been seeing scattered individual vote sweeps like that for about a week. I was guessing that Manu is testing a new sweep mechanism or process after the fiasco of the hallow pseudo sweep

What happened in that sweep?

 

[MrPixel]

It was a guitar, a flute, a cello and the clarinet. But my knee will keep me out of the mosh pit when it’s rescheduled next month

Even worse than I imagined. Rebellious, counter-culture Goth rowdies.

 

[iwatchus]

What happened in that sweep?

There was only one pass, a few hours before the prizes were decided. It missed lots of votes, far fewer swept than previous sweeps. And bombers hit heavily in that few hours between the sweep and the judging

 

[theWollstonecraftWoman]

I don't know how I'm to survive the rest of this season if the cardiac Broncos keep just squeaking by.

 

[NotWise]

There was only one pass, a few hours before the prizes were decided. It missed lots of votes, far fewer swept than previous sweeps. And bombers hit heavily in that few hours between the sweep and the judging

Thanks. I heard something, but I wasn't following the discussion.

I've become a sweeps doubter. I think they're probably necessary, but they cut too deeply and produce results that aren't sustained after the sweep. Winners can be created by the sweeps despite the readers' opinions.

Writers are paranoid about voters. They see trolls and conspirators around every tree and think every down-vote is a 1* fraud when few of them actually know what the votes are.

Right now, the AH has some complainers, and I'm annoyed by some of what I read.

 

[NotWise]

I don't know how I'm to survive the rest of this season if the cardiac Broncos keep just squeaking by.

I know the feeling.

 

[iwatchus]

Thanks. I heard something, but I wasn't following the discussion.

I've become a sweeps doubter. I think they're probably necessary, but they cut too deeply and produce results that aren't sustained after the sweep. Winners can be created by the sweeps despite the readers' opinions.

Writers are paranoid about voters. They see trolls and conspirators around every tree and think every down-vote is a 1* fraud when few of them actually know what the votes are.

Right now, the AH has some complainers, and I'm annoyed by some of what I read.

There are definitely complainers, but the level of 1-bombing that happens is problematic. I don't get why people do it, but it definitely happens. I have had stories where the second most common vote was 1's. I'm less certain that it is other authors, but the ones on contests seem most likely that. As are the predictable 1's when you cross the 100-vote total and make the leaderboard. I do accept that a story rated over 4.9 through a hundred votes suddenly deserves four or five consecutive 1's In at least one case, delivered faster than someone could comfortably read the story.

 

[NotWise]

I don't know how I'm to survive the rest of this season if the cardiac Broncos keep just squeaking by.

I wore a Broncos windbreaker out to run errands this morning, and the woman running the checkout at a pet store told me "Great game yesterday."

My answer was, "Yeah, but if they keep doing it that way, I'm gonna die."

 

[MillieDynamite]

Mary was texting me from the game. She was so happy, so sad, so worried, so pissed (when KC went up), so pleased when they squashed Patrick on 3rd down, and elated when they kicked the field goal at the end. I was worn out, reading all the damn text when I was watching the game on the boobytube.

I wore a Broncos windbreaker out to run errands this morning, and the woman running the checkout at a pet store told me "Great game yesterday."

My answer was, "Yeah, but if they keep doing it that way, I'm gonna die."

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

I'm really happy to know that the 80s that I imagine from TV, movies, and music existed.

I was aware of the grittier 80s music. Hip hop and rap are the first 80s music I heard (so I knew MC Hammer), followed by 80s punk like Suicidal Tendencies, Dead Kennedies, and the Ramones. I'd heard the synthier pop but never really decided to just find some 80s pop playlists and listen to each song one-by-one until last year.

The pop music was really, really fun in the 80s. To me, the best of the 80s pop gives me the same feeling as watching a puppy who is REALLY excited to run around. It's tough to listen to some of it and not feel uplifted and energetic.

The Ramones?

Like Riff Randall for SURE!!!!

"Ramones fanatic and delinquent Riff Randell battles it out with the strict new principal of Vince Lombardi High School, Miss Togar, with help from the Ramones."

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079813/

 

[TheRedLantern]

As are the predictable 1's when you cross the 100-vote total and make the leaderboard.

What does this mean? I just crossed 100 votes recently for the first time.

 

[TheRedLantern]

The Ramones?

Like Riff Randall for SURE!!!!

"Ramones fanatic and delinquent Riff Randell battles it out with the strict new principal of Vince Lombardi High School, Miss Togar, with help from the Ramones."

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079813/

Oh. My. God. I had no idea there was a movie that had the Ramones in it!

Drops everything and rushes off to find this

 

[MillieDynamite]

I've noticed Ray Ramano's voice as a dog in one commercial and a bear in another. Is that what happens to stand-up comics after their TV star fades? They are sent to commercial hell.

 

[iwatchus]

What does this mean? I just crossed 100 votes recently for the first time.

I suspect when the sweep comes you may end up high enough on the all time list to be bombed off it. Especially if you win a prize, which you are definitely in contention for

 

[TheRedLantern]

I've noticed Ray Ramano's voice as a dog in one commercial and a bear in another. Is that what happens to stand-up comics after their TV star fades? They are sent to commercial hell.

I would buy a product endorsed by a fuzzy animal with Ray Ramano's voice, so in this case I think this point goes to the marketing team