Well, I had a couple of nice moments over the last couple of days. First, My mom and I were talking about an aunt who wants to change her name, and mom groused about it feeling like she was talking about a stranger. I said that it was about respecting her choice, just like calling me "Dorothy" is. She said, "But Dorothy suits you."

I thought that was kinda cool.

Then, at work last night, a co-worker and I were discussing the difference between "tolerance" and "acceptance", when I said most people at work probably just tolerate me. She said, "I accept you." I said, "Can you see me as a woman, full stop?" "Yes", she said, "That's how I see you."

One of these days, I'm going to stop being surprirsed when stuff like this happens, but for now, I just want to relish in it.

Had a peek over at BC, and everything I've posted since Oct. of last year is missing. Considering I blog at least once a day, and have made a LOT of stories since then, thats a lot of content currently invisible. I'm assuming this is just part of the reconstruction, and it will all come back.....

It's got lots of new facets and it's faster, fastest, fasterest!

- Joyce

Through the efforts, mostly of Piper, Stardust is back. :)

Sapphire and I helped but everyone should give Piper a nice round of applause.

Hugs,

Erin

Bob Arnold, the founder of Stardust R Us, died earlier this month and his websites were just brought back up early on Saturday morning, July 16. A rescue effort is under way to be sure that these sites continue to be available for readers and contributors to continue Bob's interest in providing a place for quality TG fiction. Bob's family is behind this effort and we will be moving Stardust to new servers, probably within a month.

About three months ago, Bob passed the administration of Stardust to me, Joyce Melton (aka Erin Halfelven), in part because his failing health was sapping his energy and he had numerous other projects to take up his time. Stardust's editorial policies will continue the same because Bob asked me to keep them up.

Bob's kindness, wisdom, gentleness, wit and skill will be missed but I hope that everyone that comes to Stardust will continue to enjoy his vision of a safe and friendly website.

I've decided to bring back the Other Worlds web site. It can now be found at otherworlds.stardustr.us with all of the old content intact.

Bob Arnold

I've spent a few hours this afternoon doing some major updates to the software that runs the web site. I think that I've got everything running as it was before but if you happen to notice something that doesn't seem to be working as it was before please let me know in a private message to "Bob Arnold".

Bob

Yes, the rooms are open again. I had to order a new power supply for the server that hosts the rooms. It arrived today and was installed in the server a litle while ago. Sorry about the delay. I'm working now on a backup set of rooms should this ever happen again.

Bob Arnold

I have no idea what they did or could have done to your service, but Stardust seems to load a bit quicker now. It has always been one of the slowest to open on this antique, but it did seem to move around a bit faster today.

Well, it looks like we're set for a repeat of yesterday's thunderstorms here in upstate NY. There's little chance of a tornado again but the probability for hail and hugh winds are very good today. Once again, if the power does go out as it did gor a while late last night, I'll try to have things except for the BCTS/Stardust chat rooms back online as quickly as possible after the power is restored.

The chat rooms should be available again some time during the day on Saturday.

Bob Arnold

Hello everyone,

UPDATE - 11:50 PM 5/26/2011 - Around 9:20 PM EST a tree branch failed in the high wind and took out the power line. It came back on a litle after 11:15 PM. Ithink that most things are back now however the CHAT ROOMS ARE STILL OFF-LINE and will be until Friday morning some time after 10 AM if the weather co-operates so I can diagnose problems with the machine.

HI everyone,

I just got a notice from my Internet connection provider that the T1 line may be down on May 27th between midnight and 6 AM to allow for some work on the router that powers my T1 line. The outage should be a short one and I'll let everyone know if that day and time changes.

Bob Arnold
 

I am so enamored of the Bob/Julie O universe. The stories are so enjoyable and a pleasant distraction from the burdens of the day. The creation of an entire complex interweaving of mythologies, cultures and persistent, likable characters is so refreshing.

---- I removed some entries here that are just too painful for me to maintain. Another place, another time, my "muse" may give me an outlet to write some of my own stories as a tribute to her ------ (TAH)

Within the stories there are people who faced the same adversities that many of us have gone through and they in turn, become role models for more characters. There is a parallel in my life as I consider that I was "saved" from the inevitability of self-destructive behavior before I transitioned by someone who was a real world hero.

i was wondering if anyone could help me frame a story i have the idea in my head but i can seem to write it out, i don't know if it a aconfidence or intelligence problem on my part. well thank in advance for any help bu ti understand if you all don't feel upto trying, anyways great stories from everyone and thanks for making them avaible it makes it easier  when i can atleast imagine getting the change even though i know realistically it wuill probably never hapen.

February is Short Story Month here at BigCloset and Stardust when we challenge everyone who cares to try to write and post a short story. This year the theme is going to be "Second Chances" which could also be phrased as "Starting Over" or even "New Beginnings". You get the idea. In keeping with the theme, we're going to allow short story month to last TWO months on TWO sites! So from now until the end of February, get your short stories posted at BigCloset and Stardust.

Stardust is now running on the BigCloset server and will continue there indefinitely under my administration. Bob Arnold will still be available to help me out on technical issues. There will probably be changes in how things are run here but not immediately and not quickly.

I haven't said or done much other than basic stuff here and at home for at least the past two weeks. I got hit pretty badly by a nasty cold that is only now clearing up. It's hard to do things with your head feeling like it's full of the stuff that they use to fill stuffed toys and that stuff happend to be completely soaked with something that strongly resembles molasses in wintertime.

I've got a list of things that need to be tended to so here's the order I'll be taking things in:

1) Catch up on paying my bills. Nothing is late yet and won't be if I get it caught up in the next day or so.

2) Editing for Julie O. I've got two of her stories in the queue and I really don't want to get her or her readers mad at me for taking so long to get them out.

My mother-in-law passed away a week ago today. Nanay's funeral was last Saturday. I wrote about all of this in Big Closet blog posts here and here.

I'm beginning to write again. My goal is to get Duty Honor Country Family Chapter 25 published by month's end. I do have  4,141 words written(Almost 200 additional words since I wrote one of my BC blog posts). I'm 1/4th to 3/10ths of the way there. Please be patient. More of Hiromi, Chuck, Gabrielle, and plenty of Yakuza mayhem are coming my reader's way.

I've been sick with a cold since last Sunday. It started off with a sore throat and went downhill from there. I think I'm on the up side of whatever got me though. Only problem is that the coughing won't let me type properly. I was going to write a bit and do some editing along with some site work this week and haven't been able to do any of it. Even typing this is taking three times longer that it normally would. Guess I'll head back to the couch and take a little nap. Where is a nice warn kitty when you need one to have purring on your chest as you sleep?

Bob
 

As some of you might know from watching the news, a large area of the Northeast got drenched by heavy rain yesterday. My area in upstate NY was hit with 4 to 5 inches of rain that caused some flooding and a few power glitches too with the rain hitting the leaves and causing branches to break on power lines. Fortunately the power stayed on and the servers stayed up although there were a couple of momentary hits that caused no damage.

Although the rain has now stopped, parts of the area are still under flood warnings and watches since all that water has to go somewhere. I'll be making a trip out for groceries and to see if there's stil any flooding in my area. I hope to be able to do some site work when I get back this afternoon and post a new Julie O story here with a link to it from BCTS,

Bob Arnold

This is in reply to several comments on the 24th Chapter of my Duty Honor Country Family story. I originally wrote this on September 4th at Big Closet.

*****

There are just too much going on at my home right now. As I previously blogged, my mother-in-law's thyroid cancer has recurred. It has metastasized to her spine and Nanay underwent 10 radiation treatments. Doctors talked about surgery, but she is 75 years old and no family member thought Nanay would do well with that form of medical treatment.

Nanay went back in the hospital yesterday because she was having trouble swallowing and was becoming dehydrated. It was also discovered her blood pressure was very low. The swallowing issue may have been caused by the radiation treatments burning Nanay's esophagus. Tests are being done to determine this.

It was one of a few things lost in the upgrade to a newer version of the content manager software. I do have the chapters stored off-line and at some point I might restore them to the site but for right now other things are a bit more important to me.

Bob Arnold

Seems as though another of the network switches that keep the servers conected to the Internet has died. I first noticed a problem with one of my lerrer used servers a few days ago and thought at first that the server itself had failed. Then, just a few hours ago, I noticed the exact sme problem with another server that hapened to share the same 4 port ethernet switch. Since BOTH servers had different hardware internally and different operating systems I took a look at the switch and found out that it was mangling longer data packets.

I tried the cable direct from the upstream switch in one of the servers and it came back alive again. When I replaced the bad switch with another everything started working again. I'll have to get a new replacement switch in a few days so can get my shelf spare back again.

Bob Arnold
 

Today ws a trip to the opening day of the 2010 NY State Fair and I had a great time. The fair wasn't as crowded with "trash" exhibits (Gunsu knives, SHAMwows and the like) as it was in the past few years. I have to wonder if this was intentional on the part of the Fair or it is/was a result of the poor economy this year. There was a lot more space in all of the buildings and the crowds weren't as tightly packed although I was one of the first people in the particular gate that I used.

Guess I'll have to wait to hear what the attendance figures are before I make up my mind about the crowding problem that has been a problem in the buildings in past years.

Bob
 

Since it's coming up the end of August its NY State Fair time again. I've got my usual all-access tickets again and intend, health permitting, to spend a bit of time on the fairgrounds enjoying things. It all depends on how well my knees are behaving.

I'm going to take along a camera (a Canon SX110) so I should have some great pictures and maybe some video available. I might pick a few of the best and create a page for anyone interested to view them.

Bob Arnold

You'll notice a new item in the navigation menu on the right hand side of the screen. Frequently Asked Questions will provide some answers to questons have has about the site and how it works. Please check there FIRST before asking me a question since the answer may already be available. It your question isn't there just send me a private message (to Bob Arnold of course!) and I'll try to answer it.

Bob

While it still feels like I'm leaving something unfinished I'm going to turn Stardust back on for all users. I've managed to upgrade the software to the latest released version and I think I've got most of the features the previous incarnation of Stardust had restored.

NOTE: a new html editor is being used since the one used by the old software does NOT work with the newer software. Users used to the old version may find this one a bit easier to use. If not, you can always turn it off in the "my account" link and go back to a plain text entry box.

Please let me know in a comment to this posting or in a private message if you find something that doesn't seem to work right or if a previous feature is misssing or doesn't work.

Bob Arnold

A power glitch a few hours ago took down a couple of servers here including the one that runs the BTCS/Stardust chat rooms. Everything is now running again.

I've got to budget for a few new battery backup units. Looks like the batteries in the old ones are finally gone.

Bob