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Americans Read Fewer Books
DesScorp writes "The National Endowment for the Arts has released a study that shows a decline in the reading of fiction, poetry, and short stories. The study began in 1982, but shows a particularly steep decline from 1992-2002, the first decade of the Age of the Internet. They never seem to draw the conclusion that the Net may have accelerated our turn from this kind of reading, but the timing seems suspicious to me. I know I don't read for pleasure as much as I did years ago because of the time spent on the Net (and in technical books). NPR has a good audio link here for you non-readers; the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has a nice article as well." You could also - assuming you read - see the study itself.
Now is your chance to really know me. I'm going to let you in on my personal life, and the secret of how Timothy, Rob, Jeff, and I all "came" together.
I remember that autumn day so well. It was in our dorm room at Hope College, in Holland, Michigan. Timothy stood there by the bathroom sink, totally naked and shaving his face. He didn't recoil when I went into the bathroom which we also shared with Rob and Jeff--the guys next door.
Timothy and I had been roommates for almost three months now and gotten used to seeing each other strip down, dress, and even "hard".
"Hey, Michael" he said.
I had gotten the chance to look Timothy over a few times. But for some reason that evening I just stood there looking at his scraggly unkempt hair, his bare back, his flabby back muscles flowing down into the lumpy mounds of cellulite which composed his saggy buttocks and thick thighs.
Despite his flab, the sexy swastika tattoo on Timothy's right butt cheek gave him an air of hunky manliness.
"Oh I'm sorry, Timothy" I said without him saying anything despite the fact I had been standing there looking at him.
"I was just ..." he turned and smiled through the shaving cream. "it's OK ... I look at you too, Michael" he said.
I didn't know what to say then. I just moved next to him at the sink and stripped off my shirt to wash.
"Got a hot night tonight, Michael?" he asked.
"Naw just thought I'd go for a swim and pizza later. How 'bout you, Timothy?"
"You keep swimming, Michael, and that hot ass of yours will be the talk of the dorm" he said as he patted my butt. He left his hand there and stroked one ass-cheek a bit.
"You keep doing that and you won't be going anywhere, Timothy" I said half joking. My cock had already began to turn my boxer shorts into a small tent.
He didn't move his hand at all. In fact his fingers moved under the boxers and he stroked bare skin.
Timothy said, "Shit, Michael, I'm getting you hard".
"Yea you get it too hard and you'll have to find a way to get it down again" I said spreading the shaving cream on my face.
His fingers moved between my ass-cheeks and stroked. It felt good ... and then he suddenly stopped.
"Can't now ... maybe when I get back. Will you still
be up then, Mikey?"
His hand had moved to my tented crotch and he gently felt my boner when he asked.
"Not if you keep doing that, Timothy"
We joked around like that often of course. But that evening his attention was more then the usual goosing or ass grabbing.
I swam hard laps so my effort and the water would make my cock shrink. But my head was full of the memories of his petting as well as his naked body.
I knew that after my pizza and maybe a beer, I'd be in my bed jacking off as many times as I could before he got back to the room.
I was mid-way through my second go round when the door opened. He looked at me and smiled.
"I hoped you'd be waiting, Michael" he said as he stripped off his shirt and jeans. We didn't speak. Timothy moved to my bed and pulled my covers off.
Timothy pushed my hands over my head and to the bed pipe. I held them as he lifted my legs and curled my body over so his fingers, lips and tongue could take total control of my body.
I closed my eyes and swooned as the sensations I had only fantasized about made me shiver and shake. Timothy's fingers stroked the lips of my ass then moved inside to find my prostate and stroked that bringing me to the point of orgasm. The sperm splattered on my face, chest, and stomach.
But he wasn't through and his cock moved into my ass before it could recover and close tight after the orgasm. It hurt and made me beg him to stop. "Shut up Mic
DUH
There has been a marked decline in the quality of available gay erotica. All we get is halfassed lemons like this.
was in the tea I decentralized Usenet posts. for all practical And suggesting (7000+1400+700)*4 3as after a long
Another all-too-common mistakes
s/mistakes/mistake/. Typos like mine do happen - I won't deny that. The fact remains though, that, the kinds of mistakes I describe are far too common to be easily dismissed as simple typos.
Lost: Sig, white with black letters. No collar. Reward if found!
s/mistakes/mistake/. Typos like mine do happen - I won't deny that. The fact remains though, that, the kinds of mistakes I describe are far too common to be easily dismissed as simple typos.
Hahaha elitist! =) Somehow "alot" is a crime against humanity when someone like myself commits it, yet yourself using the wrong plurality is but a slip of the finger? I am aware that "a lot" is spelled with a space, but that damn spacebar is just so slippery.
It's okay to be elitist, I am too. I find it pretty funny when people complain about CD's and such being $17. I only buy underground albums that generally go for around $7, usually on vinyl too.
Shouldn't You expect more from your DJ?
I'm all for taking time to get it right, but the guy looks like he might have a heart attack any day: http://www.georgerrmartin.com/images/gm-cub.jpg
I just don't want GRRM to die before the damn story is completed.
Somehow "alot" is a crime against humanity when someone like myself commits it
There's no need to get defensive about it and stoop to name-calling. I specifically acknowledged that yours could just as easily have been a typo. Still, like I said in my followup, it belongs to a class of mistakes that occur far too commonly to easily dismiss them all as typos. One can only stretch cooincidence so far before it breaks.
Typos happen to me, you, and everyone else. But look around, at the posts here and many other places. Typos are random, but the same mistakes are being made, over and over again. That's not random - that indicates a trend.
Lost: Sig, white with black letters. No collar. Reward if found!
SLDT02004070900001
Universal joke ID cataloging system info...
Currently assigned joke IDs are as follows:
SLDT02004070900001 - "no yuo"
If you wish to tell this joke in the future, you can simple refer to it by these serial numbers and we'll all know what joke you're referring to.
The number system can be broken down like this:
AAAABBBBBCCDDEEEEE
Where AAAA is four character string assigned by me to uniquely identify a joke's source. For example, in this case, "no yuo" was first cataloged into this joke library when it was spotted on slashdot, so its catalog entry begins with SLDT If you'd like to apply for a unique identifier string for your web site, please contact me.
BBBBB is a 5 digit value which specifies the year that the joke was originally cataloged. This joke cataloging system is designed to be y10k compatible.
CC is the 2 digit value which specifies the month that the joke was originally cataloged.
DD is the 2 digit value which specifies the day that the joke was originally cataloged.
EEEEE is the 5 digit value which assigned sequentially per day. So the first funny thing that's said on any given day will be assigned 00001. etc. You may ask why this is only 5 digits. Well, its my theory that human civilization can only produce a certain amount of original comedy per day. I haven't established a precise upper bounds to this value, but all simulations appear to indicate that this value is well below 99999, so 5 digits should suffice.
that's one way to miss out on being won of the first on yOUR block to take advantage of the creators' newclear power initiative, & wwwildly popular planet/population rescue programs, for which the kode is available for free everywhere.
consult with/trust in yOUR creators.... providing all the information/resources we need since/until forever. see you there?