Here be the new standings as of about 9 p.m. CDT. Enjoy, RT and spread the news. I'm also taking donations. OK, that last part you can ignore haha.

tattooedmomof3, 396
CaptainRand0m (jnhelman) 385
Megebee, 359
kblocksom, 314 
TheKillerQueen, 291  
ejaygee, 278
------------------------- (the cutoff line, dun dun dunnnnnn)
ACDClvr, 270
Julziasitey (LegacyofJulzi), 257
ffades731, 246   
armonde, 230
shortbusradio, 201 - earned my special 50 percent increase of the night (67) for answering how many days it was until Christmas
molliemoon, 183
DCsPeoplesChamp, 179 
aleagueofherown, 177
guyincognito, 155
bostonrandy, 149   
Britt91811 (britt_9), 147
SportsLunatic, 142
Trytweetingthis, 140  - earned my special 75 percent increase of the night (60) for answering a simple question of what the date was and what number of the year was this day
midnightonmars, 130
JnaeRaeshele, 130
Dizzblnd, 123
chrisnickinson, 123 
rab1973, 118
QuirkyFuzzball, 117

The Time Machine Points blog has its first "professional" contributing writer in @midnightonmars, who also happens to be a coworker in our quest to bring joy to the world through prose, or something like that.

Well, technically he's the second since I also can call myself that (it's on my business card). This is not to say any of my other guest bloggers aren't important, cause they are more than worthy and everyone has made this a great evolution on this blog.

And heck, Tony will be the first to tell you even he shouldn't take himself too seriously! That, my friend, is a joke. Thanks for the contribution.

Thanks for the submission. I have one more to post. I invite many more. Just let me know.

And here we go ......

Strangers When We Meet
by Tony Simmons

I was a young boy at the time, relatively speaking. Ten or 12. She was a lady of Paris, and I was in love, of course. She thought me a cute child. Precocious. She kissed my cheek when I brought her a flower at the café. We sat and watched the workmen in the distance lifting a girder to add to the tower, the monstrosity that was dwarfing all of Paris. The eyesore, they called it. The scar. 

She asked me where were my parents, and I proudly told her I was on my own. She did not believe me, but she pretended to be impressed. Then her gentleman caller arrived, and her attention wandered. 

He was taller than I, and darker of hair, and older and stronger. I hated him immediately, and told him so. 

“I felt the same, when I was your age,” he said. “You’ll feel differently when you’re my age. I guarantee it.” 

Now I am an old man, and I sit in the café and watch the young women meet the young men. I watch the boys bringing flowers to the pretty ladies. I see the child being left to consider the construction of the black monstrosity over the city of lights. It is 1888 all over again, or rather, still. 

I take a lemonade over to the table where the boy sits alone. His first crush has just left with a young man. He sulks and does not touch the drink. 

“I remember a day when I was a boy and a young man took away my first love,” I say to him. 

He glances at me only a moment, then crosses his arms and glares at the tower. 

“You look like my father,” he says, and I nod. “Only older,” he adds. “Are you a traveler?” 

“Of course I am. Aren’t you?” 

He thinks about that. I remember thinking about that when I was his age. I recall other things, as well, from when I was a younger man. I recall, for instance, the taste of the young lady’s lips, the touch of her skin, the scent of her hair, the way her chin wrinkled when she laughed, the way she moved with me in the night. And other things. I have a very good memory. 

“When you are older,” I say to him, “you will return to this place and romance a young lady. Be kind to the child who sits with her. Recall how he felt on that day.” 

The boy nods and a slow smile dawns on his face. He takes the lemonade and sips. 

“I know you, don’t I?” he says. 

“Not as well as you will when you’re my age,” I answer.

~end~

Here we go with another guest blogger. Thanks to those who have helped and to the other two in the pipeline, Yours will be posted soon. If you want to read the two others check out the March archives.

Here's the latest guest blogger, @Julziasitey ...

Hello to everyone that is reading this. Let me introduce myself: My name is Juli. I am 33 years old and I’ve lived my entire life in Connecticut. I am not even sure what else I should tell you but maybe as I explain where I want to go with the Time Machine I will be able to explain it to you so that you can understand.

I’ve thought in great detail about many times that I have regretted things that have happened or things that I never did and should have but none of those is greater than what I actually would do. So with all those other regrets aside I’d go back and do my four years of high school all over again. None of my regrets are as big as this to me.

See I have two younger sisters and my sister, who was the second born was always the favorite and even to this day she still is. Before she was born I was the only grand child on my father’s side of the family and when she came along a lot of things changed for me. As we grew up and the favoring of her became more and more obvious and it was never compliments that I received but more of things like ‘Why can’t you be as smart as your sister?’, ‘You can do better than C’s in school. If your sister can do it you can.” Well, I didn’t look at it that way at all. I really thought there was something wrong with me like as if I had some kind of learning disorder but in the end it was just me being totally lazy.

Here be the new standings as of about 2:30 p.m. CDT.

tattooedmomof3, 376 - cleaned up on #TMPTuesday with 120 points
CaptainRand0m (jnhelman) 370
Megebee, 339
ejaygee, 278
kblocksom, 274 - earned 25 points for writing a guest post
ACDClvr, 270
------------------------- (the cutoff line, dun dun dunnnnnn)
TheKillerQueen, 233 
Julziasitey (LegacyofJulzi), 217 - earned 25 points for writing guest post
ffades731, 201  
armonde, 200 
molliemoon, 183
aleagueofherown, 177
guyincognito, 155
SportsLunatic, 142
Britt91811 (britt_9), 137
shortbusradio, 134
midnightonmars, 130 - earned 25 points for writing guest post

Here be the new standings as of about 3 p.m. CDT.

CaptainRand0m (jnhelman) 367 
Megebee, 328
ACDClvr, 260
ejaygee, 244
tattooedmomof3, 226 
TheKillerQueen, 208
------------------------- (the cutoff line, dun dun dunnnnnn)
Julziasitey (LegacyofJulzi), 192 
ffades731, 186 
molliemoon, 183
armonde, 175
kblocksom, 169 
aleagueofherown, 162

Here are the results for the latest TM Points Roulette:

@RaySunShines - big winner of 45
@molliemoon - 15
@mdjfsu - 5 plus half his age of 30 (15) for 20 total
@Fieryarts - 30
@Julziasitey -25
@TheKillerQueen 15


Thanks to all for playing.