#17: The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.

[rcknrllmom]

I feel like crap, but this is getting my attention in spite of the mind-numbing meds. Some hot screencaps from Walmart Soundcheck were posted at OFC today, and this one kills me. I wish it would kill my cold.

HOLY CRAP...that is ONE HOT pic.............

I am now rendered speechless!

[muskifest]

The best thing about that first WalMart pic that keepingfaith posted (hope your cold goes away fast :F_05BL17blowkiss: )---besides the killer eyefuck, of course :happy-male-133: , is the fact that his freckles are visible---even through the obvious makeup...I just want to spend a lazy afternoon finding every freakin' freckle!

I have no idea what groovy tools the new board has...all those boxes of lines and arrows and checks in the upper right above this reply box are sorta skeerin' me....Hey, I like the

"Insert Special Item" command....

Wonder when I'd ever have a need to use THAT one...

[luckiest1]

YAY! The quote thing works for me now.

So I'm home from my test at the hospital - everything came back clear, and I get the rest of day off work anyways. Hee, I should do this more often.

Wouldn't cross my mind to attend a reunion because for the life of me I know I would neither recognize anyone nor remember any of their names...it is so awkward when someone comes up to me and squeals, "KAndre! OMG! How have you been? It's been years" and wants to kiss on me and stuff and I'm wondering, "Who the fuck are you?" and my sister has to tell me that I dated him my senior year. And he proposed. And I dumped him. People, I am really bad at faces.

Hee, you sound like me. I swear, I must have some sort of disability because I can.not. recognize faces. So if I have met you before, and see you again, please don't hold it against me if I don't remember.

I attended my high school reunion, but it was only a couple of years after I graduated, so nothing much had changed. However, I attended the 50th anniversary of my elementary school last summer, and that was interesting. I went with a friend that I have had since kindergarten. She called me up out of the blue and said that she'd go if I went with her. I hadn't seen her in a few years. Thank goodness she came because she told me who people were. I wouldn't have recognized anyone to save my life. I didn't really meet anyone at the reunion who had changed enough to shock me. I found it most interesting to talk to the teachers. None of them seemed to remember either one of us.....not even the 6th grade teacher who (in our minds) we had given a run for his money. To the point where he called our parents in and told them that we were bad influences on each other, and we were too immature to skip into grade 8, even though our marks were top of the class. After that, our parents tried to keep us apart, which of course never worked. The sad part is, after the reunion, I went out for dinner with my friend and realized that we really had nothing left in common. It was kind of uncomfortable when she started trying to psycoanalyze me over the Clay "obsession". I haven't talked to her since.

I really hope Clay went to his reunion, and it would be cool if he blogged about it. I don't have any reason not to believe what was posted on CH, and it's harmless anyways, but I always take these things with a grain of salt.

luckiest - I never met anyone from my skating board except for one lady, and guess where I met her? Nope, not a skating event but at a ClayAiken concert!!

It's amazing to me just how many people from my skating fandom made the leap to the Clay fandom. I have "run into" a number of them on the boards. It's cool.

Ah yes, Wal Mart night. I know a bunch of people had a bad evening....but I sure didn't. I was the only one in the TV section. Bookwhore, I too had a cart with me -- like I was really going to buy something. Heh. But it was so nice to see Clay all over the TVs!

*sniff* I drove to Port Huron, MI in the hopes of seeing it, but for some reason that store never showed it. Oh well, we made the most of the trip, bought some fan packs at Future Shop and then went to Denny's!

Morning Ya'll

Welcome! So glad to see you posting on main.

Edited September 25, 2007 by luckiest1

[atinal]

keepingfaith, thanks for posting the pics from the Wal-Mart sound check. Because you did, I had to go the site and watch thoses videos again. Don't ask why, we probably have better quality ones from fans, but I enjoyed doing it anyway. I'm glad I did, because we don't have any other videos of Everything I Do, so I really enjoyed watching that.

[Kareneh]

I feel like crap, but this is getting my attention in spite of the mind-numbing meds. Some hot screencaps from Walmart Soundcheck were posted at OFC today, and this one kills me. I wish it would kill my cold.

HOLY CRAP...that is ONE HOT pic.............

I am now rendered speechless!

Yes, yes indeed.....I like it very very much.

Time to go get dressed and grab a coffee at the drive thru.....I swear the little gal that hands me my coffee every single morning is Kim Caldwell's sister. She looks and sounds just like her! The first day she slid open that window to take my order I did a double take, and then she spoke. So far I haven't had the guts to ask her if she is, but one of these days I'm going to have to.

A Little Venting Time.....cue the violins, please.

I think I'm getting mentally discombobulated over this move and the school work thing etc....etc....etc. I have so much work to do for my classes this week and what did I do yesterday? I spent all five hours of the afternoon researching ex-pat tax info, dog shipping stuff, and how we're going to manage to get new Canadian passports in a two week window in December (I know stupid thought). Neither one of us is expiring that soon but to get a long term visa we have to have passports valid for 6 months longer than th3e term of the visa. John can't send his off to the place we are supposed to send them now because he leaves the US every couple of weeks for work. If I send mine off I might not get it back in time to go back to Canada for Christmas. So, we are stuck. Our only option is to apply for renewal in person in Halifax and wait up there. I have heard that the turn around times that way are much better than mailing to Gatineau, PQ. Some people are apparently sitting down here in the US waiting 3 months, then finding out that their photos were rejected. Once we get the new passports we have to send them off to the Embassy to get our visas.....Can't book anything until we get that all set up. BUT BUT BUT.....this was my BIG BONEHEAD moment yesterday.....

I started to compose an email to an international tax accountant in Baku and about half way through, I thought.....maybe this might be better coming from John. So, I deleted what I wrote and started to write John an email with the guys info and suggesting that HE should be the one doing this.....and a few other things. I told him all the info I had found about shipping the dog. I told him some other stuff. Last night jut before bed I asked John about the email I had sent him, to which he replied he hadn't gotten one.....and then it hit me. I probably hadn't changed the addressee box on the email I wrote. I had probably sent it to the guy in Baku. I thought I was going to die right there on the bed (and not in a good way). And, yes, that's exactly what I did. I am now absolved of all future responsibilities re: international taxation. I tossed that responsibility at John so fast his personal exemptions spun.

I can't believe I did that. I can't believe I got Row A for Williamsport this morning. They're on the far right but hey.....I saw a staircase there in the pictures. If anyone is in need of tickets I have a good pair in Row F on the left side that are for sale. Send me a PM if you're interested.

I haven't been close enough to my hometown when any reunions took place, so I've missed all of mine. I did get to my elementary school's anniversary, though and that was fun. The best part besides seeing a few people I hadn't seen in years was the slide and video presentation that they had done. I also saw a photo of my grade nine graduating class taken in front of the church. I had never seen it, and that was awesome. It also reminds me I meant to write for help in tracking it down. I have nothing else to do these days.

I love the look on Angela's face.

And this one......"You Lost 600 Nickels?!!"

Edited September 25, 2007 by Karen Eh?

[Carolina Clay]

Good Afternoon, FCA! :F_05BL17blowkiss:

Lilyshines -- glad to have you here!

I admit I still have a one-track mind, but I did read through the high school reunions, various awards (LOL!), etc. Love the awesome pictures, too!

KarenEH? -- so glad you have front row seats at Williamsport! Looking forward to your wonderful photos!

Luckiest, that's great your test was clear. Enjoy the rest of your day off!

Keepingfatih, hope you are feeling better.

My one track is currently in West Texas, and I tied the new grandson in with several photo tips for my daughter Jen from Sally. At the same time, Sally is an excellent photo editor, as you can see in the difference in these two clickables:

Clickables -- Second photo edited by Sally

There are more in my blog at the OFC and at Carolina On My Mind -- including a Clay connection. Lawd Jesus, this baby has the Aiken's feet!

to andyclayaikenraleighbaby919_30!

Have a great day, FCA!

Caro

Edited September 25, 2007 by Carolina Clay

[keepingfaith]

I'm feeling an itty-bit better today -- well enough to be at work, but not well to have the zeal to actually get anything done --- so I'm going to try to finalize my recommendations for ~ Bills Bills Bills ~ 1999 ~ and ~ Sexy Tractor ~ today. I'm down to the ten finalists for each one and realized this morning that every one is from an outdoor venue. To me there were only a couple of indoor venues where the audio quality could compare to some of the outdoor ones. Anyway, I hope to have the finalists ready to upload by tonight.

I'm in the camp that thinks indications would be that Clay did attend his high school reunion for these reasons:

1. It's been 10 years since his graduation.

2. Most reunions are held in September/October these days.

3. He's the kind of guy who wouldn't miss his reunion, and not just because he's famous, but because he's the sentimental type.

4. He keeps up with old teachers -- the choir teacher in JNT05 -- the social studies teacher he took to Afghanistan -- and the 5th grade teacher he took to the taping of "Fifth Grader"

5. Especially since he was on student council, yearbook, and those activities, I think he'd be the first one there whether as Clayton the Special Ed teacher, or Clay the national celebrity/singing sensation.

6. But since he is Clay the national celebrity/singing sensation ... if they had it, I do not doubt for a second that he was there.

I didn't go to my last reunion for the same reasons the Playbiller mentioned -- when they sent around the notice of all the people they couldn't locate, they were my best friends or the people I was most interested to see again. But there was one quite interesting story that I've never shared regarding our last reunion and here it is:

There was an internet group of about 200 that was formed from the known email addresses of the grads in preparation for the reunion. There were 978 graduates in my class. People were hooking up online and getting connections to long-lost friends and just giving status reports on their lives in general, in advance of the actual reunion. There was the usual "has anyone seen Cindy T, or whatever happened to Mike G," and there were a few "who was the guy that ran from one end of the senior class group picture to the other end and appears twice in the picture?" And the answer was, of course, Eugene! So at that point the collective conversation turned to Eugene, who was an unforgettable character, even in a class of nearly 1,000. After a lot of back and forth about Eugene and remembering some of his antics, there came a very sobering post from a guy named Brian, who I didn't know, and who had completely different remembrances of Eugene. Brian was very bitter. He remembered that Eugene had everyone fooled at school and at his church -- the teachers saw him as the class clown, the popular guys thought he was crazy and cool, and the good-looking girls thought he was funny and cute. But Brian said he knew a completely different Eugene, a Eugene that was a hateful bully preying on the little guys, a sociopath who threatened and beat up the nerdy, uncool kids, causing them to live in fear and their lives to be holy hell. He said that the scars left by Eugene had caused him years of counseling and that he still wasn't free of the pain. He spoke with obvious disdain for the girls who gathered around Eugene to hear his latest jokes or watch his pranks, and angrily said he hoped one of these popular, pretty girls ended up married to Eugene because no doubt he turned out to be a alcoholic wife-beater and they would get what they deserved for being taken in by this consummate phony. I'm tellin you, Brian had real issues. The diatribe against Eugene went on for two pages with this poor soul pouring out his heart to his fellow classmates about the torture he and fellow nerds had sufferered throughout middle school and high school from Eugene. Well, the response from this was immediate and overwhelming. People urged Brian to seek further help because too much time had passed for him to remain so emotionally wounded from the torture inflicted by Eugene during those teenage years. In fact, a few of my fellow grads with training in social work and counseling, and a couple of doctors, all offered to help Brian if he would contact them privately.

Then, in the midst of this meltdown, one small voice posted one simple sentence that read ... "I remember Eugene as being a little guy." Then the remembrances shifted to things like, "Yeah, Eugene was a little guy, short and thin and no way he could have beat up anyone, even a nerd!" After a lot of this, somebody said, "Hey, I just checked the yearbook and we didn't have anybody by the name of Brian H in our graduating class. Did any of you know this guy?" Someone asked, has anyone seen Eugene since graduation? Then several remembered that Eugene had turned up at the 10 year reunion in a limo with two 20 year old hot thangs on each arm, wearing white tie, tails and twirling a cane.

Guess who Brian turned out to be?

[Couch Tomato]

oh bwah... Eugene needs an ass whippin. Glad you're feeling semi better!!

Karen EH! wow, you really have a lot to figure out in front of you. I hope everything goes smoothly.

[sylvie]

Jumping in finally. Congrats Karen Eh? on your Row A tickets, sorry about your other troubles. I have to confess I haven't read all through this thread so I'm a little confused about the places you're going, though I did read something about Kazakhstan. Thanks for the pretty pics too.

I feel like crap, but this is getting my attention in spite of the mind-numbing meds. Some hot screencaps from Walmart Soundcheck were posted at OFC today, and this one kills me. I wish it would kill my cold.

HOLY CRAP...that is ONE HOT pic.............

I am now rendered speechless!

Those Walmart screencaps are gorgeous, thanks keepingfaith! Glad you're feeling better now.

Just to go back over the last several pages, me and FromClaygary have quite a lot in common I think, Anne Murray, (I have The Very Best of Anne Murray - very old now. "Our song" was Danny's Song.... "even though we ain't got money, I'm so in love with ya honey".... loved that one), also babies - oh and Carolina Clay too (lovely baby pics by the way). Our second grandchild arrived just over a week ago.

Gracie Eleanor

Also, I love knitting, stitching and all kinds of crafts, rug-hooking etc. Right now I'm really into knitting again though, and have just finished off a sweater for Kav from some yarn I bought in New Hampshire.

Re school reunions, we don't tend to go in for them much over here in England. I think people are really glad to escape from school and don't want to go back!! I hope that Clay enjoyed his one though.

I'm not sure I understand much of how to use this board yet - me and "instructions" don't go together, but thanks to the Admins for all the hard work.

Waves to lilyshines and laughn! :F_05BL17blowkiss:

[ldyjocelyn]

Today's new feature for the board: when you receive a PM, you'll now get a pop-up window with the message and the ability to link quickly to your inbox and that message. (You do have to have your pop-up blocker set to allow pop-ups for the site, though...)

Very cool, eh?

sylvie, what a cute baby!

keepingfaith -- that Eugene. Funny story in hindsight, but it probably was a bit discombubulating at the time...

*waves at laughn*

Uh....HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOO new banner.............Wowza.............

[cindilu2]

Mmmm. Sweaty Clay!

Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiice.

Woohoo, top o' the page!

Question - everybody keeps mentioning green, but the pages are still variations on blue for me, with green/light green borders. I'm using IPB 2.2.0. Is that right?

Edited September 25, 2007 by cindilu2

[Ansamcw]

I come bearing gifts!!!!

Our beautiful new banner is courtesy of laughn...she submitted two...one mellow Clay and one action packed Clay...Couchie chose action packed. We will have the mellow Clay next week.

WHEW...y'all happy that I am done playing around with the colors???? For now that is.... :lilredani:

Well it will be easier to make changes now...because this morning...I found the handy dandy guide to the board CSS..something that woudl;ve been helpful last night ad 2:30 am when I acidentally changed something...and I didn;t know what??? Hee

for those that missed it...lets say the board looked like something from emerald city...

SO I will still be tinkering around trying out colors specially for the other less obvious parts of the board.

I did not read the board at all yesterday...but thanks for all the shout outs and for your patience.

wow this board has some fancy new features...I'm just discovering them all....

Sylvee sweet baby!!! welcome to main and welcome to all the newbies and delurkers.

[lilyshine]

Hi Sylvie, beautiful grandbaby! Congrats.

Thanks to ldyj, I'm back to being lilyshine. Just a dumb confusion of screen names, login names, display names and what the kid down the block calls me.

School reunions? I avoid them like the plague. I much perfer the person I am now to the person I was then, don't want to be reminded.

:Tour4: I got my tickets to Williamsport!, not Row A like some people, but not bad for me who has the worst ticket-luck in the world. :nature-smiley-014:

[Mandler]

Sylvie! *waves*

I have a new idea for Clay to use when his next album is released. This afternoon, I came out of class and had a missed call from an unfamiliar number on my phone. When I checked my voicemail, it was the guys from Rascal Flatts chattin' and laughin' and reminding me to buy their album today. Very exciting! I can only imagine how much more exciting it would be to have a call/message from Clay. Hee.

Big props and thanks to those who have been working with the guts of the site and tweaking all the little things. I'm sure it's a big job as well as a maddening one at times. :F_05BL17blowkiss:

[Guest Toots]

You are all talking about attending small high schools, but I attended a high school with only 35 students, 6 in my graduating class. The smallest graduating class was 1! Went from 1st to 12th with five of the same people. 2 are dead, the nerdy weird guy turned out to be a genius and the rest of us, who knows we just turned out. The high school doesn't have reunions more than about every 15 years and it includes all students and teachers who ever crossed the doors of that school which I've heard is about to be closed. All together the population at a reunion is probably 50 people, maybe! Like KAndre, I don't attend the reunions because for the life of me I can't remember more than 2 of them and can't say I'd remember their face or name much less their story. The last reunion took place last year and those who finally found me called to tell me how much they had missed me, etc, etc. I had no clue who they were! I'm sure they thought I had alzheimers! Hummmmm

I had a great time in high school, was a cheerleader all 4 years, involved in tennis and basketball, good grades & no bad memories. I do have this non-sentimental, never look back attitude, so maybe that's the reason.

KarenEh, I'm sorry for your discombobulation! Baku or Bust!

Ansa, our skins are beautiful but maybe just a bit more yellow tone than the skin we just shed. Thank you again for making this a pretty place to reside.

Now, about all of the special little buttons, toggle etc. I'm going to spend some time figuring it all out.

The Acronym thingy rocks!

[Ansamcw]

Hee...toots.. that is the problem with having different monitors specially since I am using a laptop...the tone is not quite the same if I look at it at different angles. I do think the images are a tad more yellow than I would like...I might play with it a bit...

[Guest Toots]

Hee...toots.. that is the problem with having different monitors specially since I am using a laptop...the tone is not quite the same if I look at it at different angles. I do think the images are a tad more yellow than I would like...I might play with it a bit...

Thank you ansa. I have a flat screen monitor and colors are very vibrant so that probably is the reason for the tad more yellow. Seems we were all hooked on the color before the change. You did a great job selecting those colors.

[Bookwhore]

The color's different? Wel you couldn't tell it by me. Unless they're side-by-side I'd never notice.

I meant to say earlier how much I love the banner. Action-packed Clay. Yum!

Faith, I wondering if Eugene had the nerve to actually show up at the reunion after pulling that stunt? I imagine some people might have been tempted to stuff him in a locker.

[beenthinking]

:00003653: to....andyclayaikenraleighbaby919_30... enjoy your special day.

[woo lovereyes]

that man is absolutely stunning!

He's such a chameleon, it's almost like he is a different person in these two drop dead gorgeous pics

[Guest Toots]

ansa, unless my eyes are playing tricks on me some of the yellow is gone!

[wandacleo]

I grew up in a small town in northern Idaho, and I went to my 10 and 25 year reunions--and hoping to go to the next as well. It was really ineresting. The "cheer leader" set pretty much stayed in town, didn't go to college, married the guys on the football team and looked about the same at 10 years. I swear, they even wore the same hairdos. By the 25th reunion, some of them had switched husbands. The people who came back changed and impressive--as in looking good and/or prosperous were the quiet ones. One kid who grew up on a farm and said about 6 words in high school came back looking about the same--still wearing overalls--with a young, very attractive wife. I was a little surprised until I discovered that he had made millions of dollars doing something with computers. Those with masters degrees and Ph.Ds were pretty much not in the fast crowd. They were the nerds, male and female. Just goes to show you how little importance there is to the pecking order of high school.

Bet on the nerds everytime.

[Guest Toots]

wandcleo, I was a cheerleader all through high school. I wasn't popular because of my looks, because they were nothing to speak of, but because I always tried to be nice to people. Maybe because our town and school were so small we didn't have a "cheerleader set". I graduated from my little HS, left my little town, went off to college, married someone I worked with, became sucessful but not rich and never went back home.

One of the guys I went to school with was an overweight geek with frizzy hair, got A's and played several instruments very well. Saw him many years later and he had become an attorney fixed his frizzy hair, lost weight and looked like a million. He was still smart tho!

Life is good!

[keepingfaith]

Faith, I wondering if Eugene had the nerve to actually show up at the reunion after pulling that stunt? I imagine some people might have been tempted to stuff him in a locker.

Eugene did not attend the reunion -- but even after all that time, and in absentia, he managed to uphold his reputation. I don't think people were upset with him as much as they were kicking their own butts for letting Eugene get the best of them one more time -- because it was classic Eugene!

Okay, you Admins are certainly brave to put things like Insert Special Item and Quick Access on a Clay Aiken board where Muskifest plays. This should be lots of fun.

[liney23]

Am I seeing things or is the inside of the post spaces bluish and everything else is our beloved green? Patience!!! Ansa thanks for all your work on this. The new features are neat, Couchie! :F_05BL17blowkiss:

I have never been to one of my HS renunions. I was miserable in HS and had no close friends... just got thru each day/year. Never had a boyfriend. Wasn't mistreated in school, just no one knew I was alive. Just ugh!

I blossomed in college but never graduated (got married), so no reunions for me. My daughters go to every one of theirs, tho.

They did put out a reunion book a few years ago and it was fun to see that one of the most popular and biggest jocks was now an overweight, balding car salesman.

Man, Clay looks awesome in those Wal-Mart clips. Some cute new emoticons, by the way!!!