Archangel

@Alabastrine, do you have some cocks?

It’s still a solid model for a market under healthy circumstances.

I’d be curious to hear your concrete, fail-safe measures. Why don’t you start a thread in The Lounge? I’m sure people would chime in.

So…I just reread this disaster 😂 I was halfway through a bottle of Johnnie Walker. A bit clearer now, and boy…that’s a doozy! 🤣

I concur with all this except “pretending to be busy makes them more desirable.” As soon as a guy tells me he’s busy, I lose a lot of interest. I don’t care that you’re busy; I’m busy too. It’s called work. Remember that saying? If you want something to get done, ask a busy person to do? Somehow busy projects figure out how to get shit accomplished but people who talk about being busy are unreliable.

Hmmm 🤔 🧐 @CorporateShark has six posts and they’re all in defense or support of BigBoyLA, or they’re condemning critical reviews; and one really seems to know a lot of details (disparagingly presented to boot) about a reviewer. Could it be that BigBoyLA is @CorporateShark?

Might I qualify that just a tad? The quality supply.

They sure do! I’m still waiting to learn from any of them how they keep so busy all the time but never seem to have enough to make ends meet…

Oh, I still tell stories! And retell. And retell. 😂 I’m told so often I have already told this story!

@Alabastrineasked me about my girls. I have four Rhode Island Reds. I started raising chickens when I was in elementary school but had to take a break due to work relocation etc. Last year it became clear I will be where I am for some time, so I started up again. I love taking care of them. And nothing beats your own eggs. Anyone else have chickens? I’ll be trying my hand at ducks this year. That will be a new experience.

Panem et…fornicationem? 🤔

I think this may also be a factor for the higher rates out of step with inflation. To a certain degree, finding someone compatible is a cost, and when you do, you pay a bit of a premium until potentially there’s an agreement. But even then, nothing is certain.

Still waiting for that bounce! While I don’t buy eggs since I have my own girls out back who make me breakfast every morning, I sure wish the value of a chicken egg had come down and not the value of my nest egg!

I knew it was just a matter of time before this platitudinal excuse reared its head.

I don’t think it is. It’s the outlier. But if guys are willing to pay it, it will pull the average along out of step with inflation. The only way it will self-correct is if clients refuse to pay overinflated rates. Sadly, by the time that most guys are booking for hourly hookups, they’re not thinking with their neurological head. And further sadly, these overinflated hourly rates have a cascading effect for extended appointments like I make in advance when I’m not booking by a libido-induced impulse. So my multiple-day arrangements are also overpriced because guys are willing to pay way too much for a 1-hr session.

I want to believe you but sadly I don’t. I think there are a lot of guys who don’t understand basic economics. Nor do they care that they’re exploiting people – even if it is a “luxury good.” Call me cynical, but my take on most providers is that clients are a source of income first, people second. It’s a microsized iteration of the capitalization of labor by CEOs who make thousands of times the income of their employees. “Business.”

Until I absolutely have to, I refuse to pay “platinum” rates. I don’t feel anyone's time is “worth” that. And by that time, today’s platinum rates will be average rates.

I felt that way after a few years of Philly Outfest. It seems like an opportunity not to celebrate being who you are but a competition for who can be the most outlandishly sartorially provocative in public and/or overtly exhibitionist. That goes for women as well as men – and everything in between. Are you really wanting me to believe that going shirtless with electrical tape “pasties” really is who you are? 🤨 They say power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. We might say similar things about money. Money corrupts and unlimited money corrupts unlimitedly. God, I sound like a ln old fart! 😂

I am constantly astounded how so many of these guys have such financial issues. Either they’re lying about being so god-awful busy with appointments (which bring them income) or they’re lying about being in dire financial straits (assuming they don’t have enough appointments to keep them busy). Which is it? Out the ying-yang busy with work or no two pennies to rub together?

Stick to regulars who have a built-up rapport and relationship. Further, I don’t hire for hourly meetups. A) Not my thing and B) waaaaay overinflated for what it is.

There’s been some ado about some corporate sponsors backing out on various pride events this year, largely assumed to be reactionary to the ... crackdown on DEI programs. While I don’t like that crackdown and I don’t want to make this a discussion about partisan politics, I will say that I think it might be good for Pride if big corporate money isn’t involved. I just think consumerism fueled the toxic side of gay culture. It also pushed an image (or at least supported it) that glorified the glamour boys in an almost high-school-popularity-contest* sort of way. I never felt an affinity with Pride to begin with, but the image that has of late been pushed to the forefront of the public eye (even of the less stereotypical gay culture elements) has seemed alienating to me. I don’t mourn its financial troubles. *https://youtu.be/jrxI_euTX4A?si=e-pioBHoXjomFOIc

I figured. That is a tremendous movie though!

I should say: I’m in a human services line of work. It’s the nature of the work to give, give, give, and receive little in return. There is much truth to the notion that human services are in high demand but rarely valued at their true worth. We knew it going in and nodded excitedly to do this work – but the reality isn’t always as glamorous as the dream!

All the time

…I often use this image to tell my friends how I often feel, particularly from people I work with, but also “friends” and family, at times, even I feel like a dictionary. On the shelf, always ready to be used, easily accessible in those times, used when needed, happy that it’s there, and then put back on the shelf to be forgotten about until the next time it’s useful.