HotWhiteThirties

I think you shut him down too soon, honestly, but I get it that you weren’t feeling it anymore. Bottoming - for most - requires desire and he did sorta screw that up. (I grant you his response does come off odd and jerkish.) Text can be a real bitch sometimes. I had a provider who is a member of this forum and who many folks like - totally go nuts on me and cancel last minute after I asked his opinion on a few things (in an effort to respect him). He totally misinterpreted. He was not nearly as gracious as this guy was and wouldn’t accept any explanation. In this instance, this guy is extraordinarily gracious when weighed against my experiences that have any resemblance. In fact, I’d like to meet him. He made an error and owns it, that’s more than many can claim to do.

I love the Olympics. Both Winter and Summer. For many reasons, I am sad that they have been disrupted and potentially won’t occur. One, of course, is that many have trained through their adolescence, uprooted and tailored their lives around this goal - it’s bound to be devastating for them. In many cases, they may only have one shot in a lifetime to participate, and will age out before the next Olympic Games occur.

The bullies that I had to deal with went into law enforcement - one as a prison guard and the other as head of security at a local university. Interesting choice of careers.

As I have now come to believe, hurt people hurt.

I’ve developed the belief that often people, and in some cases occupations, are “two sides of the same coin.” Related to that, though he wasn’t a “bully” perse, is my brother’s best friend. He had such bravado as a kid and a thrill and thirst for an adrenaline rush, that we both said he would ultimately be either a cop or a criminal. He entered the military and ultimately became a cop, but the point is that cops and criminals are often cut from similar cloths, but for better or worse, choose opposing pathways.

They are my favorite and the preferred and most enjoyable meeting in my book!

This year, more than ever, escorts have given me some grief or guilt about booking appointments that interfere with their personal plans. For example, I have an appointment scheduled tonight, and the guy commented "I was supposed to go with my friends to Rehoboth this weekend" but we are meeting any way.

 

Is this just me or is it happening to other guys?

When people respond this way, they are usually trying to indirectly send a hint that an alternative time would be better and hope you might respond with, “If you’ve got plans tonight, tomorrow night is good as well.” Or something similar. Who doesn’t want to have their cake and eat it too? In this instance, going out with friends AND a paid meeting. Rather than say it directly, he threw a hint out there. Like any good business person, he prioritized the meeting with a client, I assume.

Could there be manipulation through guilt? Probably, but he’s probably learned that it’s safer to approach it the way he did than to say, “I’m unavailable...or can we do it another time?” Both equate to him telling you no and greater risk of losing the booking all together. At the end of the day, he wants the business and the friends will wait. Anyone who’s paid for their time is met with similar dilemmas regardless of the profession.

Delta, Delta, Delta, can I help ya, help ya, help ya?

Several canceled flights in all of this on Delta. I waited to within 3 weeks of departure on each to cancel. I called in and requested the call back option. Always received a call back. Always was allowed to cancel. Always was refunded the fare. One attempt they tried to offer a credit, and I said I would prefer a refund and they obliged.

Delta has done other exceptional customer service things over the years to win my loyalty. Most recent was insuring I and a few other passengers didn’t miss a connecting flight in SLC by exiting us from the plane straight into two awaiting Porsche Cayennes on the tarmac to ferry us directly to our connecting flight that was waiting on us. Ultimately, arrived on time to final destination.

They’re a behemoth of an airline, but they manage to do it better by far than other domestic carriers. I hope they can manage to weather this most recent storm without losing that aspect of their service.

I found it a year or two ago and loved it. They’ve (powers that be) acted like another series would follow....but like most things (especially now), who knows if or when that will ever happen?

If Charles had become King when he was still married to Diana, I think Diana would be Queen, period, not Queen consort. Ancient rules about gender precedence - a woman who succeeds to the throne can't make her husband the King, but when a man succeeds to the throne, his wife is Queen. A King can make a Queen, but a Queen can't make a King.

 

I could be wrong, I'm no expert on royal succession :-D

This is my understanding as well. Like you, I wouldn’t consider myself an expert either, but what little research I have done, affirms this statement.

Some of those 'original' (charter? ) Sean Cody guys are still my favorites. The three-way with Zach, Dylan, and oh-I-forget-his-name, once Dylan started bottoming.

 

There was a early scene with Sean blowing three or four guys, and in the commentary, Sean mentioned how surprised he was that Zach joined in,

Zach leaned down & started blowing one of the guys while Sean was working on another guy.

I remember that! That’s when I first started exploring and “learning” things about M/M play - was watching them! Hard to believe how long ago that was! Those were some good scenes before things got so “slick and glossy” and “corporate” at SC.

Let's try and forget that Patrick is about 40 .

Hey. You can be hot and forty or almost forty....even if only in your own mind!!! ???

I’m gonna think the best of ole Patrick. He was definitely a favorite. Along with the original Zach. ?

By the way, about 1/4 of the people with coronavirus do have some diarrhea. It is not a major symptoms but it is definitely a higher than expected association

First time I’ve heard that.

In the first couple of days of Australia's Great Toilet Paper Crisis I heard a psychologist explain that in a crisis, people want to feel in control and they latch onto anything where they can be 'in control'. What that 'thing' is can be completely random, and in this case, was it ever!

Most plausible explanation so far. Like a “security blanket.”

My thoughts were-and I could be totally wrong-was that #1 people were afraid of being quarantined and not able to get it, or #2 if society totally collapsed hemorrhoids from rough paper would be the last straw that broke the camel's back so to speak.

 

Gman

I can think of a dozen other things before toilet tissue that I would have not wanted to be without. TP would be one of them, but keep am sufficiently supplied on most days for a couple weeks into the future. I think it’s the power of suggestion...there was a news report that TP wiped out somewhere, I assume, and it was off to the races. Wonder if I could convince everyone that it’s toothpicks that everyone is after instead??? ??

Like, who decided it was “the toilet paper” that we were to lose our shit over? (Pun intended.) Of all the freaking things!!! Since this pandemic doesn’t even result in GI issues, does that mean that future pandemics which would, would actually result in a run on upper respiratory meds like nasal spray and Nyquil instead?

With respect.....might you be overthinking this just a bit?

No. I wish I were. Folks who don’t deal with similar communication expectations attached to work might think so, or who don’t suffer professionally with complaints of non-responsiveness from those they serve. It’s hard to explain or comprehend if it’s not something that’s crucial to the way you work. Anyhow, my main point is honestly that we put a man on the moon 50 years ago, and that there is a seemingly simple technological solution to the issue, and yet it doesn’t exist. That’s really the main point. Shouldn’t even be a discussion item, given the environment in which we communicate. I promise I’m not losing sleep over it. I just continue looking for work arounds. The topic of the OP and this thread just made me think of the need for a better solution. That’s all. ?

On iMessage if the recipients phone isn’t turned on and I send a text, it shows green and doesn’t say delivered. Using an iPhone makes it clear they haven’t received the text.

Yeah. That’s better than nothing, but unfortunately not everyone is on iMessage, so like the other solutions I’ve investigated it works for some situations (and also requires the sender to pay attention). It also prevents a courtesy reply similar to an out of office to suggest when a response might be expected in the future.

I wouldn't say that. I wouldn't find this particular feature that useful because in my circle of contacts, nobody expects an instant response to a text; if we want to communicate now we call. But I can think of a handful of things that are obvious features that nobody's implemented:

• on the phone, send all calls not from your contacts to voice mail. I know that's available on my iPhone but it's buried so deep in the menus that I always have trouble finding it.
  
• on my work Outlook Calendar, a one-step notification that I'll be out of the office, that marks MY time as away/busy but doesn't mark the recipient's time as busy. I have to do TWO notifications for the same time, one for me that's "Busy/Away", the one for my co-workers that shows time as free.
  

Right. In some professions - sales in particular - there is, for better or worseno perceived “down time,” by the potential customers. The out of office in Gmail and outlook works for email communication, and for co-workers, but isn’t effective to the thousands of other contacts which originate elsewhere.

What about instead of turning your phone off, you silence it completely to all notices and turn of the vibration? You should be able to leave it on without anyone knowing and those auto-messages should work. May not at times unconnected to any service. Worth a shot.

Sure. That’s a good solution so long as you have service and actually want the phone on. I’m not interested in service on airplanes and cruises. I want it off - and in many cases - service isn’t available. It’s those instances that a feature just like one like the auto-reply in my email, or the voicemail that I can customize for calls, would be applicable for texts. I’ve done this as much as possible, but there are sometimes when it being completely off is the only way I can actually disconnect from the device. Or at least it’s the best way for me. People understand that if you tell them in the message, but if they don’t receive responses within a few hours they get annoyed. Like @Unicorn details regarding his expectations:

I usually answer my texts unless I'm (1) driving, (2) at the gym, (3) sleeping, (4) having a meal with others, or (5) at the theater or movies. If I'm at work, I respond after I finish with my patient or after the meeting if I'm in a meeting. How long do you take to respond at work? The benefit of texting is that it's unobtrusive and quick. Doesn't have to be instantaneous, but I do wonder why some people won't respond to texts for hours during the day. How long do you take to respond to texts while at work?

I usually respond within a few moments, unless like you, I am with someone or driving (I try dictation when possible there using Bluetooth), etc. My profession require it for the most part by virtue of expectations created within my industry. Obviously that’s not always possible. Most days I may be fielding over a thousand text messages. Not including other messaging services, emails, etc. Simply can’t afford to shut it off very often, but when I do, I’d like for those who continue to send the messages to be directed to a colleague or provide a time when they can try back and receive a response. I do leave those instructions in voicemail when I’m planning to be out on the chance that if their text is unanswered and they happen to call, that they find out that way.

Still not a perfect solution. These responses are good suggestions. They also underscore a need that is not currently met, even with all our technologies.

Similar topic, but I’d MUCH rather a standard and reliable auto reply for text messages for when I’m unavailable to respond - especially when the phone is off completely - during vacation, air travel, extended meetings, etc. There is no such reliable mechanism that I have found that would provide the same feature that voicemail does....if you don’t answer or the phone is off, it always goes to voicemail.

In my experience and work, people expect near instantaneous responses to texts - more so than they do missed calls and voicemails; and they get agitated or draw the wrong conclusions sometimes when their text message does not receive what they have determined is a timely reply. That’s not always possible, obviously. It would seem service providers would have provided this remedy long before now.

I have a Verizon account and they have a useless app that is supposed to provide this feature. It only works when the phone is on and even then it only successfully sends the auto reply about 5% of the time. Useless. Similarly, on iPhone, there is a feature for auto-response while driving. Again, the phone has to be on for it to function. The time when I need it most is when I don’t have my phone on. ??‍♂️

I’ve asked technology geeks if they know of such a feature that’s reliable and they all think it “must” be out there somewhere cause it seems so obviously needed, and they’ve all returned with, “I’m sorry. Apparently there is no solution to what you’re asking.”

So, I can only conclude that I must be the only one to desire such a feature?

For Y2K, I filled the bathtub with water.

Funny how I remember doing this as a kid every time any bad weather made its way to our area - especially hurricanes. I don’t do it anymore. Not sure why I stopped? I think because we never really needed it except one time. You always want to be able to flush the toilet!!!! ?

Please include citations of the sources you are using. Where did you find the 6%? According to the CDC in 2016/17 season an estimates 29 million people contractes the flu but only an estimated 38,000 died so a death rate of 0.2%. (I rounded up) https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/index.html

 

An estimated 1% of those that contract Coronavirus will die. https://www.bbc.com/news/health-51674743

 

So my math tells me Corona is more serious than seasonal flu. ?

 

Regardless of political affiliation (something that I couldn't care less about), the estimated numbers are what they are.

The report of over 6% was on a radio news update this morning on my drive to work that was presented to be for the current flu season. I am at work and will have to look later.

And for the record and to provide context since you’ll find that your quotation and my edited comments are not the same. I actually went back and removed my comment within a few moments of posting it because I don’t really seek arguments on this forum. Others may, but I thought better of it and changed it. It appears you made the quotation just prior to that removal. As you say illness is serious and after second thought wanted to step away from the temptation to politicize it.

A very loyal Trump supporter obviously.

You’re not going to goad me into an argument by trying to make this political. You only prove that it has been politicized with your comment.

LDS?

Latter Day Saints is the only entity that I know of commonly abbreviated “LDS,” but I’m not sure if that’s correct. ??‍♂️Could be some medical society, etc. Funny how we choose to use abbreviations without considering the reader/listener. I’m guilty of doing it frequently - especially when talking about terms within my profession.

As for prepping for any pandemic - these are good suggestions. If they are inspired because anyone thinks we are actually in the midst of a major life-threatening pandemic I haven’t seen enough evidence when using simple math and mortality rates to suggest there is any cause for panic.

I would say no. Not long enough at all for my tastes. 90 minutes for a massage only maybe? 3 hours or more for anything else; prefer longer if it’s possible. Everyone has a different preference, so to each his own.

I’m a little jealous. ??

For the self critical lot, myself included, I think sometimes it’s hard to identify those attributes...perhaps we don’t see them. I think our view of ourself is quite distorted. When you know there’s always someone smarter, bigger, stronger, sexier, more attractive, wittier, etc. it can feel awkward to make such a declaration. I do admire those with such confidence. I will say this, though, and this isn’t necessarily a physical attribute, but I have often felt assured that in any room of 4 or more people, I’m relatively certain I’m not the dumbest person present. ???

With that said, since this is in the escort forum, I would not expect such inhibitions from professionals. (Just kidding!) I appreciate so many of the physical attributes of those I’ve observed. ???

Don’t get your hopes up.

 

grin

Surprisingly true!!!