Brian Coltrane

Well said MaryAnne. I'm curious though, what's your take on the whole issue of RR quality? Much as we like giving people a place to learn and grow - this ain't a preschool. At what point do we draw the line and say, "shape up, or move on?"

Oh, baloney. I saw your other post, you worded that better than I could have. Khee!

I gave a longer reply to this topic elsewhere, but I'll chime in on this thread too. I think one-liners that make sense and move the story forward, are ok once in awhile. But if it's just idle prattling going nowhere, then why bother? At that point it's more like graffiti, posting for the sake of leaving your mark.

Awright, one of my longtime, loyal informers said there was a dispute in the RR's again. I'm one of those people who work 40 hours a week - more than - and when I did participate in the RR's, I made sure the posts acknowledged what went on before, and moved the story forward. (MaryAnne and I have been gunslinging on RR's before HazzardNet.) I left the RR's years ago, mainly due to lack of time, but I did have a hand in crafting them. Sometimes the stories petered out on their own. Other times, good stories were ruined, or derailed, by posts that made no friggin' sense. We did our best to skip around bad posts and carry on, but eventually you get discouraged. Especially if people seem to ignore your post on purpose and just post garbage that doesn't connect to anything. At the same time, HazzardNet tries to allow everybody to participate. If somebody's writing skills are a bit weak, we'd rather let them have a place to at least TRY writing. We've watched some people improve their skills by leaps and bounds here. We're proud of that, and we're hesitant to get so restrictive that somebody doesn't get a chance to grow. However, nobody learns by reading crap or writing crap. Plus, I don't want to see people driven away from the RR's because they're frustrated and pissed off by posts that wreck an otherwise good story. Are the offenders "wrecking" stories or are they playing tennis by themselves in their own stories? I agree that some standards should be maintained, but I'm also big into the whole First Amendment thang.

Those are worthy resolutions, Garrett. Setting resoultions never really worked for me until I started making them public. That way I can't deny them later. Hopefully this helps you stay on track too. It's interesting to see what people's goals are. I know MaryAnne's resolutions include cutting down on her cussing, and being less orney. Tall order there! Let's all wish her luck.

My New Year's sal-u-tation is a little late, but I just woke up. Anybody got New Years's Resolutions? I'll share mine first, what the heck... 1) Be more available to my friends; not let my day gig overwhelm my life. 2) Completely restore my 1967 Chevy Impala. 3) Save up a chunk of money. How this is gonna work with #2 in front of it, I dunno! 4) Restore myself. 5) Write a screenplay and sell it. Ya know, a few years ago I posted some New Year's resolutions on HazzardNet, which included fixing up my Impala and buying a house. It took a year or so than planned at the time, but I managed to buy a house. I started repairs on the Impala. Not everything on that resolution list got handled, but enough did that I wanted post 'em on HazzardNet again. May 2010 bring good things to ya'll!

MaryAnne, obviously.

Yeah, but you've got some real competition these days. Seems like more folks are misbehavin' lately. Undoubtedly, there's a bad influence in our midst.

You've been on the naughty list for as long as I can remember. Nasty the Reindeer won't forget you at Christmas!

Christmas party, eh? Ya know, you shouldn't post this kinda thang in public right where everybody can see it, because just about anybody could show up. Like Nasty the Reindeer. Now then...who's all on mah naughty list? KHEEHAAAA!

MaryAnne, that was a fun and clever birthday salute. Thank ya! You always find a creative way to mark the occassion. I enjoy looking back at this thread every year, too. Kinda neat that it keeps resurfacing. Mufn, you don't have to send me anything. But I can't wait to see what it is. Heh! I'm spoiled rotten. Man, I have it good. Thank ya'll ! Brian

I doubt Tom has any serious allergies, or he wouldn't have survived his youth on a dairy farm. I suspect his "accent" is more the Wisconsin use of vowels, which tend to have a lot of "a" and "ah" sounds elongated. Like, the word "hospital" sounds like "hah-spital." His home state of Wisconsin would be pronounced "Wis-kahnsin." But yeah, he's lived in NY and on the eastern side of the country long enough that his accent is a real mix these days. Doesn't seem to affect his singing though. Tom will be performing in Miwaukee tomorrow night, btw.

You lookin' to cash 'em in? Alex, it sounds like we could have a customer for ya!

Right. Just like your nickname, "Tinkerbell."

MaryAnne was doing some housecleaning and some old, dormant stuff was purged. I'm not absolutely saying that's what happened to it, but I'll ask her. How long has it been since ya'll last looked at it?

You want a medal? I might find a cereal prize we can award to ya. I've given some thought to your knickname, too. How about "Cowchip?"

Not a problem. It's only fighting if you can defend yourself.

Waaah! You want a new nickname? Haven't I given you plenty to pick from over the years?

That's an interesting take on RR vs. RP. Frankly it's different than how I was familiar with it, but then again it's been a long time since I participated. I would think RR's with everybody playing everybody, could end up chaotic. I suppose it depends on the caliber of writers you're working with. The fun of RR's and RP's is the free-for-all nature, of course. I think if people understand the format and expectations from the outset, things can go smoothly. Whatever gets the creative energy going, I say go for it.

Just let me know when you want to take this outside.

Lotsa good discussion going on in this thread, and I want to weigh in on this particular question real quick. I have no problem with having some RR's that are original (from the show only) characters. I call that "orthodox" Dukes fic and I used to be pretty decent at it myself. There's just one big problem with it in an RR setting... Namely, not everybody can be Bo or Luke. And then you get people who always try to lay claim to one or the other for every story. "I always play Bo, I always play Luke" ... there's not a whole lot of opportunity for other people after awhile. At least when created, "new" characters are in the mix, there's more room on the stage for more players. There were times that MaryAnne and I would be running amok in character, there'd be four or five other "new" characters in there, and then the whole spectrum of orthodox Dukes characters besides. It's simply more inclusive and more balanced than just going, "Okay, we need Bo, Luke, Jesse, Cooter, Rosco, Boss, Enos, Daisy...anyone want Miz Tizdale or Lulu? Okay we're all set." But there's nothing wrong with the orthodox format, and if that's how some folks prefer to roll, I got no problem with it. Like anything else, so long as authors respect each other's work, and try to ADD something constructive to a story when participating, then it doesn't matter what you're wearing, so to speak.

I still haven't finished my "official" review of the book, though I finished reading it some time ago. Been pulled in a lot of directions lately and I apologize for the delay. What I'll say in the meantime though, is the book is good. It's interesting reading, and it has some stories in there that I've been fortunate enough to hear in person, along with others that are fresh and entertaining. Most of all, the book is a good example of personal decisions and where they can take you. Jimmie decided to join the military at a young age; decided to get into acting; decided to move to L.A.; decided to work with this or that, ect ect ect. He's had his share of scrapes and conflicts and disappointments and victories. There was a surprising amount of emotion near the end of the book, which I'm not going to expand on here, for anyone who hasn't read it yet. I will cover more in my future review, though. Good comments by everybody... I think we'll let Jimmie see our feedback when we get a couple more people weighing in.

A clear mind is easy with an empty head.

All you need for a clear conscience is a bad memory.

I've no idea. I've been gone weeks at a time, for months at a stretch. I just jumped on this thread and started some jokes to be a smarty-pants because it said "say no to one-liners." One-liners are a popular form of casual humor. Just like my job description. I don't think we've made any horrible statements. Bad jokes, yes, statements, no.