Ben Powell

@alia Which Tom Sawyer musical are you talking about?  There are a couple of different ones.  The one I recommended to @seekjustice was the Disney 1973 one, but I doubt that’s the one you were listening to. 😉  So, which was it?

@seekjustice Apparently not. 😛  But I’m here now.  I was at a baseball game.  We lost. 🙁

Have you ever seen a baseball game?  I know you do cricket instead in Australia.  I read a fictional book about an American guy who went to Australia and was friends with some cricket players, but he kept making them embarrassed by yelling “home run!” when…[Read more]

@seekjustice @jenwriter17 @ariel-ashira @alia @skredder Is anyone around?  I’ve got probably about an hour or so to work right now.

@daughteroftheking What happens next?  Chaos!  That’s why Star Trek has the Prime Directive, right? 😛  But that’s an interesting concept.

It reminds me a little of TNG’s The Inner Light, though it’s actually very different.  Just they both have a dying alien race that wants to be remembered.  Have you seen that episode?

@seekjustice Haha, you probably did, but that poor guy from Canada had such a hard time I wasn’t sure if it was possible for people who hadn’t seen it to understand.

I found two YouTube videos which include variations on the American man…[Read more]

Hey people!  I’m finally here! 😀

@alia Haha, yeah, I guess that’s reasonable.  If Americans are the only ones who do it, someone who’s grown up in Asia wouldn’t be used to it even if you are technically American. 😉

@seekjustice Hahaha!!  I wonder if you even did it right? 😛  You had to just guess from my description, but I don’t know how goo…[Read more]

@jenwriter17 Yup.  Apparently it’s only an American thing.  No, I don’t think it’s weird, it was @seekjustice who originally said she thought it sounded weird.  But I guess it would be hard to picture if you’ve never seen it.  I know that it’s actually hard for people from other countries to get because we had a family from Canada stay with us a l…[Read more]

@waterlily yeah. What he said.

@seekjustice Oh yeah, I was thinking about young people a bit older, I guess.  Kids up until they’re about sixteen or seventeen don’t shake hands with each other, though always with older people.  (The older initiates, though, unless there’s a precocious youngster. 😉 )  When they get to their late teens they start shaking hands with each ot…[Read more]

@ariel-ashira Thank you! 😀  I was so sure, but then, trying as one American to state a fact about our huge country was kind of intimidating and I wanted to make certain. 😛  @seekjustice needs to come to America to see just how normal and not-awkward the handshake hug really is. 😉

@seekjustice Oh my goodness!  The awkward head nodding thing with male friends! 😛  Sometimes the guy is confident and just goes out to shake your hand, but if he’s not sure if you want to and you’re too shy to initiate the handshake, it’s kind of awkward.  Especially if you just hugged his sister or something… 😉

Um…hmm…of course! 😀  Wha…[Read more]

@seekjustice It’s about the least awkward greeting I can imagine, for men.  They won’t go in for a hug usually, but a handshake is never awkward.  Then they can show they’re a bit more friendly by adding a half hug on to the end of it.

Women do it sometimes, but it’s mostly a guy thing.  And a guy greeting a woman will usually either shake her ha…[Read more]

@jenwriter17 No, I do not. 🙂  How does that work?

(I do know what Goodreads is, of course!  I use it all the time to look up books.  I’m just not sure what an author account would do or how you would set it up.)

@ariel-ashira I’ll be praying!

@seekjustice Most Americans only know the first verse of the National Anthem, but it’s a very long verse.  The second verse talks about God, so Christians sing it in church or when we get together for hymn sings, but regular people don’t know it.  Have you ever heard the American National Anthem?  It’s famous for being an extremely complicated so…[Read more]

@jenwriter17 It was wonderful!  As I was telling SeekJustice, we had the guy who played Mr. Pulitzer as our waiter, and my dad joked about not tipping him if he had realized he was the bad guy beforehand. 😛

@seekjustice Oh, okay.  I know it’s an Asian thing, and I’ve heard that it’s European too, but what you’re describing in Australia seems p…[Read more]

@valtmy And now it’s the dead of night for me… 😛

Thanks!  I did enjoy Newsies very much!

Yes, that makes sense.  Actually the paramedics scene was very easy for me, but it’s the longer bridge sections that are harder.  I’m pretty much having the problem you just described: I have to have some things happen between the important scenes, wi…[Read more]

@seekjustice Yes, I was considering asking you about that.  I’ve heard they don’t tip in Europe, but I wasn’t sure about Australia.

In America waiters are paid very little, and nearly their entire wages consist of what tips the patrons are generous enough to leave.  I believe a 15-20% tip is considered reasonable most places, and a lot of times t…[Read more]

@seekjustice 😛 It was really funny, because they give out the tip trays before the show starts, and you don’t know who is playing what, since they’re all in their waiter uniforms.  So my dad left him a big tip because he was a good waiter, and then he got it during intermission, and came back to thank my dad.  My dad teased him that he didn’t k…[Read more]

@seekjustice And it was good, yes. 😀

It was amazing!  Really fun.  Great actors/singers/dancers.  My favorites were Crutchie, Jack, and Mr. Pulitzer, in that order.  (I have to include Mr. Pulitzer especially because he was our waiter.  It was a dinner theater, remember?  But he was great in his part as well.)