MikeyGMin

I can't stand Lowes' "The moment you realize..." ad campaign, and the latest one really drives me up the wall. A woman is seen (talking to Alexa?) ordering the lights on, and her playlist to be played, then orders her washing machine to turn on before realizing it doesn't do that. So she buys a new washer & dryer.

 

My reaction is always "The moment you realize... you need intensive therapy... to figure out why you're so lazy you'd spend over $1000 for smart appliances instead of just turning them on manually."

 

I've also found that just about every time a company updates its website or technology, the 'improvement' is annoying, not necessary, and endlessly frustrating.

You'd be surprised how useful and fun these appliances can be. Most of the lights in my house are wifi-enabled and I use Alexa to control them. You can create "scenes" to do all kinds of things. With one command I can set the lights throughout the house for the way I like them when I am away at night. Another one I find very useful if I hear a strange noise at night. With one command I can turn on a light in almost every room in my house at the same time. Probably enough to scare off any intruder if there was one and certainly makes me feel more secure investigating.

I also have a wifi-enabled coffee maker. Of course you can just get up and push the button, but I find it the height of luxury to lay in bed on a Sunday morning and trigger the coffee maker so that it's ready when I get up a few minutes later. It's also set up to automatically start when I use Alexa as an alarm clock. The alarm goes off, the coffee maker starts, and my lights slowly come up to full intensity. None of these things are necessary, but you can say that about virtually any luxury item.

This line... scares me a bit. My car has an alarm if I leave it and the lights are still on

The part that should scare you is that a 91 year old man was still driving at all!

My car beeps at you several times if the fob gets too far from the car. If you can't hear that the car is running and you can't hear the warning beeps, then you probably can't hear a siren coming up on you either.

No one will ever know until they hit that moment, but yes I do believe it. I base that on the death of my partner. I regretted then, and still do, the years I spent away from him in the military. It jump-started my career, but I would rather have had the extra time with him.

It's not that severe. I've merely downgraded him from obsession to fantasy. For those who choose to partake of tattooing, their bodies, their rules.

We've established that that is NOT Nick Jonas in post number 12. I don't even think it's a Photoshop. I don't think it's him at all.

This is him just yesterday.

http://www.justjared.com/2018/04/17/nick-jonas-shows-off-buff-biceps-at-the-gym/

Heard third-hand that he is out of the business. The first- or second-hand may offer more shortly!!

When I met him he was very enthusiastic about his escort work but his passion was art. I hope that he has found a way to pursue the latter and did not have an experience that soured him on the former.

I guess part of my issue with Jonas is how much of it is Jonas teasing gay men for money, vs Jonas’s manager/agent/record label teasing gay men for money. At least with gay4pay, the transaction is more clear.

No one ever knows what's really going on in anyone's head, but I sure don't get that feeling from Nick Jonas. Like he is in any way disdainful out of the attraction by gay men. All I see is an extremely hot and talented young man who seems very comfortable in his skin and his sexiness. Even though he's the youngest, he was the driving force behind the success of the Jonas Brothers. And have you seen his sex scene in 'Kingdom?' Damn! If that's gay -baiting I want a whole lot more of it! :D

So I started Crossfit at 50

Nice summary on the positive aspects of CrossFit. It's never going to work for me because it is too structured. I'm fortunate that I have a job where I can slip out for a couple hours mid-morning and get in a workout, but I have to be flexible, so having to be at a specific place at a specific time is never going to work for me. I also enjoy the solitary aspect of working out, but if camaraderie is a motivator for someone, I don't think anyone does it better than CrossFit.

no one talks about venereal warts or hep c

Or gonorrhea or syphilis or Giardia or crabs or a host of other STIs. Having sex with another gay man (who is unlikely to be pure and virginal) is a risk-reward calculation. However, the calculation has changed significantly over the last few years for a LOT of people. For others it has not and that is fine. Why do something that is over you're comfortable risk level if it's going to take the enjoyment out of the whole thing? At the same time, the finger-wagging at those who HAVE changed is worthless noise.

Raise your hand if you’re tired of my client/business preferences being the hot topic of conversation!

Hand raised. But I do like it when you're drawn into a conversation -- just so I can look at your avatar.

The reddit thread is pretty comprehensive. I have found that filing after clipping -- especially the edges -- is very important. Clipping can leave a sharness to the nail and filing insures that all edges have been dulled and there are no tiny hangnails. I test against my skin and make sure that I have to angle my fingers before I can feel my nails at all.

Kind of pissed off that I, and my fellow bbkers, did all the ground work, and now everyone is benefiting from our bbking work,

Lol. The change of attitude has NOTHING to do with you "pioneers" and EVERYTHING to do with the development of PrEP. I'm glad you survived and hope you didn't infect too many people along the way.

I suspect a lot of escorts avoid bottoming for clients, and people with partners avoid bottoming with hookups because it's the single riskiest activity for HIV

There is also that pesky practical issue of being cleaned out and ready to go. Douching is not particularly good for you. Certainly not douching one or more times per day. For the client, it's no big deal. It's a special occasion. But it can be a lot of work for an escort to bottom regularly, and God forbid there be the least little mess, he would get shredded for being unprofessional!

As for the cause of the OPs rant... anyone who would say he is not "top enough" for me because he has bottomed at one time or another, is an asshole. And not the good kind.

I can't personally vouch for Crossfit, but would recommend any HIIT

The fittest person I know -- with a perfect athletic body to confirm it -- starts out almost every day with a HIIT workout generated by an app and swears by them. He does that to fire up the metabolism and remain lean and flexible. (He also works out again in the evening for muscle development, but that’s more dedication than the average person can muster.)

Have you been through similar, or dropped out of the gym habit for a long period?

Yes. I was knocked off track for many years for basically the same reasons you mention. A few thoughts:

Habits take time to form. You will probably need to experiment to find what works for you, but you will need sheer willpower to keep experimenting until you find the right time of day, the right motivator, etc., and then let that become habit.

I don't think your reluctance to use the gym at work is unusual. Even if there were no changing of clothing required, I have no desire to workout with my coworkers. I'm not that social and don't want to see and chat with people I work with all day. I want to listen to music and surreptitiously check out hot guys.

For years I was a "first thing in the morning" guy. If I didn't get up, grab a cup of coffee and get out the door, it just wasn't going to happen. The excuses build up as the work day wore me down. I have several friends who enjoy going to the gym in the evening and couldn't imagine getting out of bed early to go work out. You'll need to figure out what works best for you.

Make sure the gym you choose is conveniently located to either your work or home depending upon when you think you'll be going. Convenience is paramount for most people. It can be the coolest gym in world with the hottest guys around, but if it takes you 30 extra minutes to get there, you are setting yourself up for excuses and failure.

Find tricks that can become patterns that get you out the door. This may seem trivial to most people, but something that works really well for me, is simply getting into my gym clothes. If I get into those clothes...I always go. So on the days where I am wavering all I really need to do is find the willpower to change into those gym clothes. It's a small thing but it really works for me.

Finally. Unless you are extremely athletic, you can't exercise yourself out of a poor diet. I have found that going to the gym is very motivating in keeping my diet healthy, but it's the diet doing all the real work, not the exercise. After a good morning of cardio, I am less inclined to ruin it by eating garbage, but it's very easy to eat away the benefits. I do the calorie math all the time with my food choices. How many minutes of rowing is it going to take me to burn away that donut? It works wonders for me.

Good luck. Getting started is the hardest part!

I can't tell the difference between Persians and Arabs.

LOL. I recommend that you never say this to a Persian.

I’m curious what you think is so different about gay men that would make you so confident. I realise that the “market norms” are different now, but these things do change over time, and losing all of our internet ad venues is certainly a game-changing event in the industry... Is there something about gay men’s psychology or spending habits that you think differ drastically from straight men’s?

I think there's a fundamental difference in the dynamics of male/male and male/female relationships and attitudes about casual (compensated or not) sex.

Times are changing -- slowly -- but this is still a very patriarchal society and female "virtue" has a value to straight men that does not have a corollary in the gay male world. There is also a sizable difference in the stigma placed on female sex workers that requires additional compensation.

Finally, and probably most importantly, is that gay men can more easily access alternate hookups. They may not be the insanely hot young men we have hired, but there are plenty of acceptable peers if you just lower your expectations. It has always been easier for gay men to get sex. I know that things are loosening up in the straight world, but I don't think they are anywhere close to the traditional and current state of our hook ups. Gay men know this, so the cost/benefit is unlikely to ever be the same. At least not in my lifetime.

not relatable to most men who hire men.

The fly in the ointment from the very beginning. The OP seems to be involved with, and influenced by, female providers. (Based on previous posts and a statement about $500 per hour for a low-end escort. Maybe a female one, but we all know better when it comes to males.) I have no idea where this is going to go, but I'm fairly confident that gay men will never adopt the hetrosexual male client model.

Clients who are shy to “ask” will get over it....or go without

Exactly! We could debate and argue about it endlessly when there was an option. Now it's pretty much a moot point. Guys are going to have to put on their big-boy pants or stay at home and play with their little boys.

I got heavily edited today as well to the point it looked like a hookup request from a lonely farmhand who is freshly out of the closet

Me too. Maybe it was "Austin" day.

Apparently they object to "BFE." The only change they made to my profile was changing "looking for a good BFE" to "looking for a good experience."

They really did butcher your ad though. Fortunately, your reputation speaks for itself and ain't nobody going to confuse you with a rube. I pity the poor guys just trying to establish their reputation.

I am not using VPN and I can see the narrative.

No VPN. Odd.

Yes, that must be it.

That's not it. I'm a member and I'm logged in. I still see his stats but whatever text he had in his ad has been replaced with "profile has expired." Strange.

No, no. Not what I meant. They will certainly go after gay sites just as much. Probably much more. They are supposed to be not going after hookup sites like Grindr or Tinder where its just sex, not for money.

 

But its hard to distinguish with blocking filters and some escorts slip onto both.

 

Both Rentboy and RentMen were just escorts/prostitution. RentMen is toast. It'll be blocked early.

Ahhh... that makes sense. Grindr already does its best to police such activities. It would be a real reach for the ISPs to block them and the backlash would be much more significant.

I know the big emphasis is on male/female hookups, especially if any sites have links to underage sexual encounters, but upon what do you base the statement that “prosecutors are not supposed to be going after gay hook-up sites”?

I've been wondering the same thing. I don't think the sky is falling, but I think it's foolhardy to think that gay sites are somehow going to be exempted from whatever crackdowns are going to take place. There's a big difference between being "singled out" and "swept up." We were swept up with both Craigslist and Backpage. I don't see why the same won't happen in this situation.

Both.

The one at night is long and leisurely and very relaxing. I love the feeling of getting into bed perfectly clean. That's also when I wash my hair and shave my neck. I do find it helps me sleep better.

The morning is really just a rinse to wake up and get rid of the Bed Head.

There is a third shower if I'm hooking up or going out for the evening.

its not perfect...i found an organic whey protein powder that delivers 24g of protein in 110 calories instead of the normal fortress and muscle milk brand with 150. i mix it with sugar free instant pudding and the almond milk. Its for those days that if u eat one more chicken breast you would blow ur brains out

Interesting. I've never tried adding instant pudding. I assume it's for extra flavor and thickness. How much do you add to a typical shaker bottle?