mike carey

Juan, thanks for continuing to post despite some negativity. I can see why some clients might think escorts like more info rather than less so they can filter potential clients that they don't find attractive or that don't fit their hirer characteristics, but I doubt many would do so. And when an escort says he doesn't do that I believe him, unless I have firm evidence to the contrary. The examples you cite about how client information enables you to determine whether you are a match, and if so how it enables you to tailor the meeting make perfect sense to me. The fact that you are prepared to tell a potential client that you don't think you're a match, or that part of his expectations for the meeting are unrealistic is a sign to me that you take your job seriously. On confidence, I don't go into any meeting with an air of self-confidence, or that I know exactly what I want and will make it happen. I do go in comfortable in my own skin, having a good idea of what I want and being confident that if I am paying my partner he will be able to encourage me, and that despite any hesitation on my part that I will have a good time!

Welcome to the forum, BigRic, there are some seriously nice people here, some not so nice, but you'll work that out!

9 can come and visit me any time he likes!

I have seen a few ads that say the escort charges $xxx and although a tip is nice, the base charge is a lot of money so they don't expect a tip.

Quite so. Here, the ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) which produces the consumer price index (CPI ) figures weights the figures according to how often you make whatever purchase they are looking at. They also produce two figure, an underlying rate that deletes volatile items like fresh fruit and vegetables and fuel, and a headline rate that includes them. It also produces an inflation rate that looks at the sort of things that seniors buy. Government pensions here are actually indexed to 25% of average male earnings, not CPI.

You move along on the list of titles when you have posted the requisite number of entries in threads:

OMG, 31!

Oh my! The last three pics!

Uber starts in Canberra today (30 Oct). 280 drivers have been through the compulsory govenment police, health and safety checks. No-one knows how many will be on the road today, of course.

I like your new avatar as well, Brian, but you knew I thought is was good!

Allez les Blue Jays!

Sorry, those beards don't do it for me!

Oh he was quite the hottie at the time! You have to admire a couple who have been married for 68 years.

Wonderful images!

I'm glad you didn't say that we are all rooting for you, as that would have given a most unfortunate impression to your Australian audience!

Ouch, sorry to to hear that Woolfer! Hope it all clears up, hopfully before then!

Less funny than a sad characterisation of 'oh, so I've accidentally outed myself'.

JD is such a sweetie, Marylander! I've also chatted with Killian outside the public view over the last couple of days, and although he does not fit into this thread, he is indeed a nice guy.

Brian, you're a lovely guy, I hope we can meet when I'm in the US.

Diver, I'm sure I could manage some sort of ice cream event with Brian!

Uber is about to start operating in Canberra at the end of October, and unlike NSW where Uber drivers are having their vehicle registrations cancelled, the Australian Capital Territory government has announced regulations under which Uber will be allowed to operate. Uber drivers will have to undertake police and health checks and vehicles will have to be inspected. At the same time the ACT Government has announced reductions in the annual fees for taxi plates (from $20k to $5k over the next two years). One critical restriction will be that Uber is banned from using surge pricing during emergencies. During the terrorist siege in Sydney in December last year Uber's automatic surge pricing kicked in when, in fear that there were bombs elsewhere in the CBD, people were trying to get the hell out of there. Uber had significant damage control to do that day, and as I recall they made the rides free. Uber trips will have to be booked via the app (taxis can park in taxi ranks and can be hailed on the street) and cannot be paid in cash. Regular taxis will also be allowed to use the Uber app to book rides. Suddenly, now that Uber will be legal in the ACT, the insurance industry has come out and said they will launch insurance products for Uber drivers!

Sync, that doesn't mean it can't be an enjoyable movie if you suspend belief and just watch it for what it is. I really didn't read the reviews with that in mind, everyone seems to have focussed on historical accuracy rather than whether it was a good story.

Having read a number of reviews but not seen the film, an observation. Mr Emmerich seems to have made a fundamental error in making an historical movie, and that is you can't change the basic story of what happened. The way he characterised the white boy from Kansas or Indiana (depending which review at the top or the thread you believe, and that is an indictment of one of the reviewers, but that's a separate discussion) does just that, it didn't happen that way and there are plenty of people still around who know that it didn't happen. There are two ways you can inject fiction into an historical film that will work. One is what Peter Weir did in The Year of Living Dangerously where a fictional story was wrapped around a depiction of the Soeharto coup in 1965. The other is the way Costa-Gavras made Z and State of Siege that respectively told the stories of the colonels' coup in Greece in 1967 and the kidnapping of a US Embassy officer by the Tupamaros in Uruguay in the 1970s. He didn't misprepresent what happened, rather he told a story that fitted into a realistic protrayal of what had happened. Emmerich could have set his story against the background of what really happened but instead chose to change the history. I wish he hadn't.

Following up from Frequent Flier's comments, some observations based on my reading about and using Sydney taxis, which seem to have some similarities with NYC (although certainly not on scale), and no, I haven't used Uber either. 1. I agree that Uber would not be well served publicising net earnings. 2. Once the reality of what net earnings are sets in, the take-up of Uber by drivers is likely to level out and won't put all the regular taxis out of business. 3. Taxis have the 'hail from the kerb' market to themelves in inner Sydney, and I doubt that Uber has the potential to take much if any of that. I suspect NYC is the same. Maybe not in some other cities. 4. Potentially, Uber's surge pricing will act as a safety valve in busy times, drawing in extra drivers. The tendency for taxis not to turn up in busy times (they get a better fare etc) is a source of profound passenger annoyance. Extra Uber drivers in such times could paradoxically reduce this taxi PR fail. 5. Sydney has a 3 o'clock driver change over (am and pm). No amount of complaints has convinced them to change that (hey passengers, you have no choice, suck it up). See #4, plus, 'Hey we do have a choice, fuck off', may just kick in. 6. While yes, it's unfair to owners of NYC medallions and Sydney taxi licence plates, my sympathy is limited. Most drivers here aren't owners and often get a raw deal from owners. Based on #2 and #3, Uber is not likely to devalue the owners' investments but only to reduce the rate at which it appreciates. Even if it goes down some, welcome to the free market. 7. Yes, Uber needs to be suitably regulated, but that doesn't mean that the existing taxi regulations are the right ones for either taxis or Uber. Instead of asking governments to save them by regulation, taxis should look at why people use Uber (and it ain't just price) and work out what they can do to compete. 8. I follow a cabbie in Guelph ON on twitter. He's a vegan and straight but pretty hot anyway. He tweets what he really thinks about Uber, but also on things his taxi company is doing to make riding easier, like rolling out an app. 9. Taxi companies, it's not all about Uber, it's about you too!

From some of the recent comments it appears to me that one of the factors in whether Uber will succeed is the state of the existing taxi industry. If there is an undersupply or if the industry is dysfunctional, Uber will do well. If the existing industry is efficient, Uber's success will not be assured. Cafés in Australia offer a parallel. Starbucks swept the world opening coffee shops everywhere, and in most places they succeeded. In Australia we had cafés everywhere—I heard it said that every corner shop had an espresso machine and knew how to use it—and we still have them. Starbucks came in and tried to take up its market niche but failed dismally, we liked our cafés and continued to use them, and Starbucks' hundred some stores became fewer than 10. Incidentally, McDoanlds managed to build on our café culture and developed their McCafé concept here. The lesson for Uber is clear: unless they meet a demand that isn't already being met they will not do well.