Yay the site is back again! I read a few posts and then when I came back I got an error and can't remember everything I read.

I did see about Nick being accused of losing too much weight and being on Ozempic.  If he is, it's up to him and not fans, that's what I don't understand.  But he looks more like someone who has lost weight through hard work.  He's done it before.

I think there was something about where I went in Spain.  I went to Malaga in southern Spain.  It's a really nice place with a beautiful old town.  We also went to the beach but I sheltered under a palm tree while my husband swam in the sea.  I'm not a very good swimmer and so won't go out of my depth in water.

I've had a bit of a stressful week since getting back.  We had meetings in work about redundancies and then found out yesterday who was going.  Luckily it's not me, but I feel sorry for the people who are going to be out of a job next month.  I've worked at the company for over 20 years but doesn't mean anything when it comes to cutting costs at work.

Sorry I'll try and re-read back what I missed but hope everyone is doing OK

Nick doesn't seem to have normal temperature sensitivity LOL.  I don't know if it's from growing up in Florida or three decades of performing in too many layers of clothing.  Or maybe he's secretly part reptile.

Midwesterns absolutely love their ranch!  Mayonnaise, not so much, at least not for this Midwesterner.  As a kid, the mere sight of mayo made me gag.  As an adult, I can tolerate a small amount of it on some sandwiches or burgers to keep them from being dry, but it's still low on my favorite condiment list.  I really only buy it for recipes and making RANCH!  Because ranch made from a Hidden Valley packet with mayo and fresh milk or buttermilk is way better than ranch from a bottle.

I've obviously never been to Buffalo.  I'd never heard of beef weck or sponge candy, so I googled them both.  Beef weck sounds similar to a French dip but with horseradish.  I don't like horseradish, so I'd probably pass on that.  I do like toffee, so I would try sponge candy.

As for the sports thing, people here greet each other with "Go (team)" if one of them is wearing that team's apparel.  But where I live, it's split between Bears and Packers fans during football season and Cubs and Cardinals fans during baseball season, so you can't assume who anyone roots for.  Even Chicago people are split between the Cubs and the White Sox.

When I think of the Midwest, I always associate you guys with cheese for some reason. lol Butter and cheese.

My sister got so offended when I told her how you guys also greet each other with Go! *insert random team here* lol

Sponge candy has a very odd consistency. It kind of feels like a heath bar when you bite into it, but then it kind of melts in your mouth. I'm not a fan. The other weird food thing which I forgot to mention is something they call Bison dip. It's just French onion dip. It tastes exactly like any kind of French onion dip you've ever had, but if you call it French onion dip, they get mad. It's labeled Bison dip.

I am not a horseradish fan either. Nothing spicy for me. I do enjoy Mayo though. It's my condiment of choice over everything else. I even used to dip my fries in it when I was in college.

What I'm taking from all of this is that we need less hours dedicated to working and more hours dedicated to living. Then we could write and not feel like we're neglecting anything, lol.

I second this, even though I no longer work. lol and even though I do not work, I STILL feel guilty or feel like I'm neglecting something when I'm on the computer. That feeling never goes away, I guess. 

I’ve used discord in the past a little bit; but I watched my brother use it more when he borrowed my Mac for school. I’m not a fan because of how it stores messages on the Mac version of the client it used up so much of my hard drive space (I assume the windows version might do something similar… just something to think about.)

I second the Nick and Kieran buddy fic Mare… I have no idea at all what the plot would be; but it would be an instant read from me 

That's good to know about discourse. Maria, Mersey and I use WhatsApp, but like google, it's just a chat, we leave it constantly going and go in and out whenever we want to say something. The only bad thing about that, is only those of us on here would be able to access it. I looked at pro-boards and it seems like it might be the best bet. I'm going to make one today, just to see how simple/complex it is and if it works, maybe we could switch to that. That might also get more people to come on board who for whatever reason no longer come here. We shall see.

As far as Nick and Kieran, I don't see it happening. lol maybe Nick and Roman, but I would definitely feel weird making a real person fic with Kieran because he would detest it! I think Nick and the guys are aware of fanfic and probably think it's overall weird, but okay with it. Kieran would most definitely not be. And with knowing that, I don't think I could write about him. Even though I really want to. Maybe someday. Who knows? If I ever get my BSB mojo going again. Like I said, I need them to all work together.

I’ve used discord in the past a little bit; but I watched my brother use it  more when he borrowed my Mac for school. I’m not a fan because of how it stores messages on the Mac version of the client it used up so much of my hard drive space (I assume the windows version might do something similar… just something to think about.)
 
Nick posted today about special vinyl versions of the six comic book songs for love life tragedy… so I have more hope at manifesting a physical cd release 

I second the Nick and Kieran buddy fic Mare… I have no idea at all what the plot would be; but it would be an instant read from me 

Oh, that's not good that Discord takes up hard drive space.  I didn't realize that.  My desktop doesn't have a lot of space left to begin with, so I don't think I would like that.  Thanks for letting us know!

I thought the same thing when I saw Nick's post, not long after we were discussing a physical release.  I still need to watch all those videos... bad fan LOL. 

I'm the same with Discord - never used to myself, only seen people talk about it.  I never used circles on Twitter either.  Google Chat is similar to instant messenger, so it would be more of a private group conversation than a public forum.  Or we could just start a new message board.  I used ProBoards for my site's forum, and even though it's old school, it still works fine.

I’ve used discord in the past a little bit; but I watched my brother use it  more when he borrowed my Mac for school. I’m not a fan because of how it stores messages on the Mac version of the client it used up so much of my hard drive space (I assume the windows version might do something similar… just something to think about.)
 
Nick posted today about special vinyl versions of the six comic book songs for love life tragedy… so I have more hope at manifesting a physical cd release 

I second the Nick and Kieran buddy fic Mare… I have no idea at all what the plot would be; but it would be an instant read from me 

Nick and Kieran buddy dramedy? I can't picture the two of them being friends. They are so different. lol

That's exactly what could make for a good story! LOL

Looking into another way to keep the MB going is a good idea. I've been thinking about that a lot lately. I know nothing about discord, I've seen people mention it, but no clue. They used to have circles on twitter which probably would have been a good thing, but that's gone now. If google chat is half as confusing as google meet, I'm not sure if that would be a good option. I'll have to do some research.

I'm the same with Discord - never used to myself, only seen people talk about it.  I never used circles on Twitter either.  Google Chat is similar to instant messenger, so it would be more of a private group conversation than a public forum.  Or we could just start a new message board.  I used ProBoards for my site's forum, and even though it's old school, it still works fine.

I also only drink coffee cold. I'll make a pot of it; let it sit out all day and then put it in the fridge and not drink it until the next day. I'm weird, I know this.

I love iced coffee!  I drink hot coffee at home most of the year, but in the summer, I prefer it cold.  I usually order cold coffee drinks over hot when I'm out and about, too, unless it's the dead of winter and I'm going to drink it outside.

Nick keeps wearing pants in Vegas summer. lol

I was updating hubs on this conversation, and he said it was the hill I should die on. And we discussed how the ranch with wings phenomenon is probably due to Buffalo Wild Wings and the Midwest. I'm pretty sure Midwesterners love their ranch and mayonnaise. lol Also Mustard is the superior condiment. A hot dog is basically an American sausage, and what do Germans put with sausage? Mustard. Chicagoans got that correct also. I don't dislike ketchup with like... fries, tater tots, potatoes? But there's other condiments that go better with everything else. I also don't really like hot dogs, but that has nothing to do with ketchup. Tomato juice is my most disliked tomato-derivative.

I'm judging no one for disliking chicken wings or bleu cheese, because I get so much hate for disliking hot dogs, but I will still defend bleu cheese, lol. Beef on Wek is okay? I think it depends on what type of horseradish you use? It's better than a garbage plate, though. I've never had sponge candy (I googled it, lol), but I'm a little hesitant to eat spongey-texture inside chocolate; I'm not a huge toffee person. The greetings by football team is so true though. I first started noticing it with hubs and his hometown college team, but the more I get used to it, the more prevalent I notice it everywhere. It feels really welcoming, I really like it. But, I've only really seen it if at least one of the people involved is wearing gear. It would be a little odd going to like the grocery store or wherever and having someone say "Go Bills" if I left and was just wearing a regular coat or something.

Nick doesn't seem to have normal temperature sensitivity LOL.  I don't know if it's from growing up in Florida or three decades of performing in too many layers of clothing.  Or maybe he's secretly part reptile.

Midwesterns absolutely love their ranch!  Mayonnaise, not so much, at least not for this Midwesterner.  As a kid, the mere sight of mayo made me gag.  As an adult, I can tolerate a small amount of it on some sandwiches or burgers to keep them from being dry, but it's still low on my favorite condiment list.  I really only buy it for recipes and making RANCH!  Because ranch made from a Hidden Valley packet with mayo and fresh milk or buttermilk is way better than ranch from a bottle.

I've obviously never been to Buffalo.  I'd never heard of beef weck or sponge candy, so I googled them both.  Beef weck sounds similar to a French dip but with horseradish.  I don't like horseradish, so I'd probably pass on that.  I do like toffee, so I would try sponge candy. 

As for the sports thing, people here greet each other with "Go (team)" if one of them is wearing that team's apparel.  But where I live, it's split between Bears and Packers fans during football season and Cubs and Cardinals fans during baseball season, so you can't assume who anyone roots for.  Even Chicago people are split between the Cubs and the White Sox.

I'm of the opinion that the deleted scene still counts in your word count. You wrote it in service of the story and I often find that I have to write something down or several versions of something to find the one that works best, so if you don't commit to writing it, you'll never know if it was or wasn't the right choice. Some food for thought. And I certainly don't delete anything from my words written when I'm editing, I just have less new words to add on editing days.

I counted it as writing on the day(s) I wrote it, not knowing I was going to scrap it, but I wouldn't have wanted to keep it as part of my total word count after deleting it and rewriting it.  It would have been fine if I'd rewritten the whole scene in one day, but it took me a few days to get my word count back up to where it was before.  I get your logic, though, and agree that it was a good exercise to write it the way it originally went and then edit it.  I'm actually proud of myself because the original version of the scene was more dramatic than the version I ended up with, and I rarely edit to make things LESS dramatic.   I'm glad I can tell when things are getting over the top and out of character because that was something I used to struggle with.

What I'm taking from all of this is that we need less hours dedicated to working and more hours dedicated to living. Then we could write and not feel like we're neglecting anything, lol.

Absolutely!  I would love to see this country's work culture continue to evolve to prioritize a better work/life balance and more personal/leisure time.  I feel like things have been a little better since Covid, with more people working from home and some places going to a four-day work/school week.  I would happily work longer days to be able to do a four-day week, but that's not something any of the school districts in my area have adopted yet.  My own work/life balance has been much better since we went back to in-person learning after Covid.  I turned my work email and Remind notifications off on my phone and forced myself to stop checking it from home so I wouldn't be tempted to reply to parents in the evening.  I try not to stay at school much later than my contracted time, and I rarely take work home anymore.  My to-do list is never done, but it was never done in the days when I would stay late either.  That's just the reality of teaching.

Part of me wishes he felt like he had more time to devote to downtime for his own sake, but then I think, well, he knows what he needs best. I think he has a healthier balance these days.

I think Nick is a "workaholic" in the best of ways.  Music may be his job, but he obviously enjoys making it and performing, or he wouldn't choose to "work" on solo stuff when he doesn't have to.  I'm sure he wants to make as much money as he can to support his family, but mostly I think he uses it as a creative outlet to express his emotions and distract himself from the negative things going on in his life.  He's had a lot of ups and downs, especially in the last few years, between losing his siblings and the ongoing legal drama.  It would be easy for him to slip back into his old bad habits as a coping mechanism, but I'm glad he's using music and exercise instead of drugs and alcohol.  Music is to him what writing is to us.  I absolutely use writing to avoid/escape my real life problems, too.  My characters are almost always dealing with something worse than me, which is both cathartic and therapeutic.

Glad you didn't have to retype it. I saw it was down and hit the back button so fast, so that I could save the work of art that was my rap. lmao

Poor forum. We've broken it. I always copy my posts before I hit "post" just in case!

I absolutely saved my last post when it didn't load right away.  Thankfully, it did end up posting, but I had it backed up just in case it didn't.  I am also getting in the habit of copying my posts before I hit the button, just in case.

Yes finally once I'm on the forum is live and not error-ing out on me... i knew the site was on its last breaths from bots and tech advancements but I never expected this.

Loving the idea of a Hollow musical not so much the rap though... (I'm just not a rap gal... I like the beats but most of the lyrics annoy me. Eminem's stuff is about all I can stand.)

I love all of Nick's solo albums for different reason's. I just hope that we get love life tragedy on a physical disc; but I guess I could always diy one if I had too.

The forum has been doing this off and on for several years now.  It's been especially bad the last few days, but maybe I've just noticed it more because it's been more active, so I'm checking it daily.  Because it's connected to the same domain as the main site, it seems to be related to the issues the main site has been having.

I would love a physical copy of Love Life Tragedy, too!  BSB are the only ones I still buy CDs for, even though I don't have many ways left to play them.  I miss having a CD player in my car!  I still have a stereo at home that's probably around 20 years old and still going strong, but that's about it.  Maybe, with all the 90s nostalgia, CDs will come back the way vinyl has.  I've noticed more and more people talking about ditching streaming in favor of DVD/Blu-Ray because of the increasing prices and ads, so it seems physical media is making a comeback.  Makes me glad I've never gotten rid of my CD and DVD collection.  Hell, I still have one of those giant CD binders full of all the mix CDs I burned back in the early 2000s LOL.

I completely forgot to mention your house-sitting adventure, Julie. Sorry about that! That's what happens when you do not go back and quote things. You would think I would learn my lesson, but nope. I think it's great that you're having a little staycation. Those are sometimes even better than the hassle of going away.

Also, thank you both for your help with the stupid Google thing. Those directions are the same ones I found when I did my search and I'm kind of glad to know you couldn't find it either. Those directions are probably old. I did tell my sister that most likely her board president had paid for the google office where I know for a fact it's not on my computer. It's not a work thing for her. It's something separate so chances are that's why we couldn't access it. I am so glad I don't have to deal with that nonsense anymore. The technology stuff was my least favorite thing I had to do when it came to teaching. I always had to have the kids help me! Dee, I copy and pasted what you said so this way, we have it if another meltdown occurs if she does decide to purchase it.

Nick and Kieran buddy dramedy? I can't picture the two of them being friends. They are so different. lol

Looking into another way to keep the MB going is a good idea. I've been thinking about that a lot lately. I know nothing about discord, I've seen people mention it, but no clue. They used to have circles on twitter which probably would have been a good thing, but that's gone now. If google chat is half as confusing as google meet, I'm not sure if that would be a good option. I'll have to do some research.

Dee, I am not that big of a fan of hot dogs either. on the very rare occasion I eat them, they have to be turkey dogs, and I like the mustard/ketchup combo. I am very used to being shamed for my lack of normal food choices. I HATE steak and the only kind of burger I will tolerate is if it is very very well done. Like bursting into flames well done. Crunchy well done. I prefer my chicken and pretty much all of my food that way. I also only drink coffee cold. I'll make a pot of it; let it sit out all day and then put it in the fridge and not drink it until the next day. I'm weird, I know this.

And Buffalo people do say Go Bills! Even if you aren't wearing anything Buffalo Bills related. You'll be at a restaurant and if you make eye contact with someone they will say "Go Bills!" lmao I belong up here with all these weirdos, I guess.

I'm with you on the whole Evita thing. I can see both sides of the argument. You pay all this money to see it but the most popular song is sung out of the theater. The best solution would be to sing it outside then go inside and reprise it. It is one of those songs you could easily add a repeat to the first verse and chorus. It's still in previews so maybe it'll be something they work out before it's official opening.

Yes finally once I'm on the forum is live and not error-ing out on me... i knew the site was on its last breaths from bots and tech advancements but I never expected this.

Loving the idea of a Hollow musical not so much the rap though... (I'm just not a rap gal... I like the beats but most of the lyrics annoy me. Eminem's stuff is about all I can stand.)

I love all of Nick's solo albums for different reason's. I just hope that we get love life tragedy on a physical disc; but I guess I could always diy one if I had too.

I know, the forum has been down a lot lately.  That always seems to happen when it's finally somewhat active again.  AC (both the site and the forum) has lasted a lot longer than I thought it would, but at some point, it's going to go down and not come back.  We have a plan for the main site with the move to AO3, but maybe we need to start thinking of a backup plan for a discussion forum, too.  A new message board, a Discord server, a subreddit, a Google chat, something.  Any thoughts?

I thought the same thing. If this is an ongoing problem like it seems, is there some other option? Not sure what the most similar and long-term solution is. Something to look into collectively, but I have no good ideas at the moment.

The Pitt already has almost 3000 fics on AO3, which is up from the last time I looked at it.  I could definitely see doing a Pitt crossover someday when I'm in the mood for some serious medical drama.  I'll have to think of a different idea from a bus/van crash, though, so it doesn't feel the same as my ER story.

I will apologize in advance for asking for ranch in Buffalo LOL.  I can't help it; I was born and raised in the Midwest, and we love our ranch here!  I guess that's the equivalent of putting ketchup on hot dogs in Chicago.

Hey, I can't really judge about the whole chicken wing thing because I actually HATE chicken wings. I hate them with a passion. I also hate blue cheese so if I had to eat them, it would be with ranch, holding my nose and grimacing. In fact, when it comes to Buffalo I unilaterally fail by every account because not only do I hate chicken wings, but I also don't enjoy beef on Wek, sponge candy and hate hate hate hate hate football. I'm as anti-Buffalo as they come. My sister is always like no matter what when someone says Go Bills to you you say it back. Because honestly that's the way people greet each other here. I wish I was kidding. I'm not.

Nick keeps wearing pants in Vegas summer. lol

I was updating hubs on this conversation, and he said it was the hill I should die on. And we discussed how the ranch with wings phenomenon is probably due to Buffalo Wild Wings and the Midwest. I'm pretty sure Midwesterners love their ranch and mayonnaise. lol Also Mustard is the superior condiment. A hot dog is basically an American sausage, and what do Germans put with sausage? Mustard. Chicagoans got that correct also. I don't dislike ketchup with like... fries, tater tots, potatoes? But there's other condiments that go better with everything else. I also don't really like hot dogs, but that has nothing to do with ketchup. Tomato juice is my most disliked tomato-derivative.

I'm judging no one for disliking chicken wings or bleu cheese, because I get so much hate for disliking hot dogs, but I will still defend bleu cheese, lol. Beef on Wek is okay? I think it depends on what type of horseradish you use? It's better than a garbage plate, though. I've never had sponge candy (I googled it, lol), but I'm a little hesitant to eat spongey-texture inside chocolate; I'm not a huge toffee person. The greetings by football team is so true though. I first started noticing it with hubs and his hometown college team, but the more I get used to it, the more prevalent I notice it everywhere. It feels really welcoming, I really like it. But, I've only really seen it if at least one of the people involved is wearing gear. It would be a little odd going to like the grocery store or wherever and having someone say "Go Bills" if I left and was just wearing a regular coat or something.

Hopefully you get Book of Mormon someday!  I originally saw it in Chicago, but it's come to my part of the state at least three times in the last ten years or so and always does well here.  I just heard that Merrily We Roll Along was filmed; I'm looking forward to watching that.  I've never seen that musical, but Daniel Radcliffe and Jonathan Groff is a good combination.  I love that they're making more stage productions available to watch on a screen.  Like you said, it makes it more accessible for people who can't get to a show.  People who watch it that way and love it will still go see it live if they get the opportunity.  That's how I fell in love with Hamilton, and I did go see it live in St. Louis the first chance I got after watching it multiple times on Disney+.

I have heard about Guttenburg the musical but didn't know anything about it. I'd also love to see The Producers. Dee, I forgot which town you mentioned for The Book of Mormon, but it's not really that close to me. Buffalo has it's own mini theater district so I would imagine some of them would come all the way up here. And yes, the other town you mentioned is in the Catskills as is Sleepy Hollow. I do live by Jamestown, which is where the Carters lived.

Good Night and Good Luck is on Youtube now, I wanted to see it when it was on CNN but it was showing the day I got back from NYC, and I missed it. I might watch it later. Just another random Broadway mention, just cause. lol

I think the accessibility is nice! It's not any different than the PBS sweeps ones they did when we were growing up -- didn't make me want to see them in person any less. After you mentioned it, Mare, I saw some articles about the Evita balcony performances (mostly due to the heatwave) and I have mixed feelings. I think if I paid for the show, I would want to see it on the stage and not via streaming, but I like the idea of bringing it to the people (a big part of the story/real life person). It's complicated. I'm sure the actress wouldn't want to do it twice, so I wonder if there was something they could do with the understudy, either on the balcony or on the stage. Or they made the intermission longer so that anyone who paid for the show could also go out and watch it. Logistics, am I right? 

Oh, don't worry, I googled Elmira when I was trying to figure out where in the state it was as well as it's driving distance from the various metro areas in Upstate/Western NY, mostly because they listed themselves as close to several of them that are very spread out and Toronto and I was skeptical that any of it was true, lol. It wasn't quite like saying somewhere like Pittsburgh is right by Buffalo, but it's only a hair better.

I'm dog/house-sitting for a week starting today, so I'm treating it as a staycation and using it as an excuse to hopefully get a lot of writing done while I'm away from my Sims and housework LOL.  It's a cool, rainy day today, and I'm sitting outside on her covered back porch, listening to the rain and the wind chimes while I write.  I absolutely love this kind of weather!

Yeah, I started breaking it up by year and setting annual word count goals on NaNoWriMo instead of monthly.  Each year's document is shorter than the previous year, but I've kept up my daily writing streak for about 3.5 years now.  A spreadsheet sounds like a good way to keep track of your word count.  I haven't been keeping track since NaNoWriMo went down, which is actually kind of nice.  I deleted half a scene that wasn't working the other day with no guilt or pressure to write enough to make up for it so that my word count wouldn't go backwards.  I would have had a harder time doing that when I was entering my word count each day.

Wow, 4500 in a week is great!  Big chunks of uninterrupted time and little stress definitely makes it easier.  I do most of my writing on the weekend during the school year, but even then, writing for long periods of time means ignoring other obligations, like errands and housework and a social life, and I always end up feeling guilty for whatever I'm neglecting or overwhelmed by everything I still have to do before the work week begins again.  Much less guilt in the summer.  This time of year makes the worst parts of teaching worth it.

I get the computer thing too.  I didn't write a lot of fanfic during the first couple months of Covid, when I was working from home, for the same reason.  I had so much more time, but I couldn't focus on fanfic while I was technically on the clock and responsible for keeping up with Google Classroom, and once I was done with that for the day, I just wanted to get off the computer and do something else.  I still don't write after work very often because I'm brain dead, but at least I don't have to spend entire work days staring at a screen anymore.  I'm sure having kids makes it even harder to find the time and energy to write.

I just finished my last real chapter of my story today. Now all I have to do is write the epilogue and I'll be all done. Feels good. I'm glad you have your writing mojo back, Dee. And now you have the whole summer to write at your own pace, Julie.

Yaaaaaas, staycation! I'm sure dog/house sitting is pretty relaxing as far as taking care of things goes. I could go for some rain. It's finally under 100 here, but not by much!

And a toot for you, Mare! Great work finishing your last chapter!

I think our brains are pretty anti-screens, overall, and the more we deal with them, the more they want to do something else. I'm curious if TV does the same thing or what it is about computers specifically. I'd love for my brain to be like "don't look at that phone," but you can't even really keep up with the news without a screen these days.

I'm of the opinion that the deleted scene still counts in your word count. You wrote it in service of the story and I often find that I have to write something down or several versions of something to find the one that works best, so if you don't commit to writing it, you'll never know if it was or wasn't the right choice. Some food for thought. And I certainly don't delete anything from my words written when I'm editing, I just have less new words to add on editing days.

What I'm taking from all of this is that we need less hours dedicated to working and more hours dedicated to living. Then we could write and not feel like we're neglecting anything, lol.

I honestly didn't love All American overall the first time I heard it, but it quickly grew on me.  It's a really fun album!  And I love the song All American, even if it is about butts LOL.  I love all of Nick's solo albums; they're all a perfect reflection of the stage of life he was in when he released them.  We have really benefited from him being such a workaholic and using music as an outlet for all his personal stuff.

Which, speaking of which, I'm surprised by the media/fan reaction to him losing weight.  He has obviously been working hard to get back into shape for the residency, and he looks great!  It's interesting to see how that is being twisted into "He looks unhealthy" or "He must be on Ozempic" this time around, whereas when he lost all that weight in 2008-2009, he was praised for embracing a healthy lifestyle.  He can't win!  And anyone who actually keeps up with the Boys can see that Nick looks completely normal; he just knows the right angles and/or filters to make his face look even thinner in his selfies LOL.

I can totally see Nick putting a really bad rap in the middle of a movie, whichever one it would be. I say for The Hollow, instead of Nick playing both twins, we might as well have Kieran play the other identical twin. I mean why not? Sure, one is 6'2 and blonde and the other is barely 5'5 and brunette. It would still work in Nick bad movie land. I was just thinking about this yesterday "Ah yes, they could be brothers!" but then it hit me that Kieran could play Nick's younger brother because he's three years younger than Nick! Like OMG I am lusting after someone younger than Nick.  It's all good. After you hit 40 age doesn't matter anymore, right?

It grows on you, lol. And yes, I love that each of his albums really represents where he was at the time. Part of me wishes he felt like he had more time to devote to downtime for his own sake, but then I think, well, he knows what he needs best. I think he has a healthier balance these days.

Yeah, genetics work that way, they could definitely be brothers! And I think age is just a number over 18.  It really depends on the people involved.

My sister has been having multiple mental breakdowns because of stupid google. She's on a board and she's the secretary so she's supposed to take notes, and the president told her to use the Gemini function but when she goes on to the teams or whatever the hell it's called, she can't find it. I looked and I didn't see it anywhere either. It's supposed to be there, but it's not. Anyone know what the heck to do? If so, can you explain it to me like I'm in kindergarten? So, I can explain it to her like she's in preschool.

Kieran and Jazz's anniversary is today. They've been married for 12 years. Sorry, bad mental health day so holding on to my little gremlin tightly today. Wonder why my mental health is bad? I wonder what could possibly be happening.  I hate Trump!

Okay, I think I'm going to take myself and my book and go read outside. I bought a little step, and it's helped tremendously with my back door situation, now instead of one big step to get inside its two really little ones. Much easier. I wish I could do that with the side door entrance and the three steps I need to take there. One dilemma at a time.

We all gotta take care of our mental health. I think reading a book is a good way to do so and glad you were able to problem solve a workable solution too!

As for Gemini, most importantly, she needs to be sure that she's trying to access all of this through an account that's on Google Workspace and not a personal account. If she's using her work email to do everything I list below, then she should be fine.

Does she need to update her Google Meet extension/app? Or the Gemini extension/app. If she needs to update either of those, they're in the "Play Store" (the sideways triangle icon), which you get by clicking the nine dot Google suite drop down menu that's on the right hand side of the browser in any g-suite application (Gmail, Drive, Meet, etcetera). She can figure out what apps she has by clicking on her profile (the circle with her photo or initials in the upper right-hand corner), then clicking "Manage Apps and Device." This is also how she should be able to get to the settings for any other App she's using, like Google Meet (see below).

My quick Google search says that she likely needs to 1. Make sure the setting for Gemini is on in her Google Meet settings, then 2. Make sure it's all updated on the app store (see above), and 3. that she might also need a different add-on/app called "AI Meetings and Messaging."

If none of those work, she should contact Google Workspace support for help.

Hope that all helps and is explained easily enough for the low-tech users!

Every time I come here, the forum isn't working so when I saw it was finally back up, I quick jumped on the computer. It's going down more and more often now. I'm not liking that. 

Amazing! LMAO

The forum literally went down yesterday as I was trying to post my last post - like, I clicked post, and it tried to load forever and then finally put up an error message.  I didn't think it went through.  I was glad to get on today and see that, not only is the forum back, but my post did post!

Glad you didn't have to retype it. I saw it was down and hit the back button so fast, so that I could save the work of art that was my rap. lmao

Poor forum. We've broken it. I always copy my posts before I hit "post" just in case!