Gar1eth

@ericwinters, I'm concerned about your headaches too. When I started out in 'bifocals' about 14 years ago, I started with progressives. I may have had a headache for a day or so, but that's normal whenever I get new glasses. On my last pair when I put them on, initially everything was fuzzy. I could see better far away with the reading part rather than with the distance part. The lady at the vision store said I just needed to get used to the new glasses. But I knew something was wrong. I ended up having my eyes rechecked at a new optometrists. For some reason, the prescription I had just obtained was wrong. I didn't need as high a correction. I don't know if my eyes had been acting funny the day I saw the original optometrist or whether they somehow wrote down the wrong prescription. But after I replaced those glasses, except for the first day with headache, everything was fine. Is it possible that your headaches are due to a wrong prescription? On the other hand, progressives even if you became adjusted to them might not be the answer to your problems. When I bought my first pair of progressives, the optician told me I would still want to take them off to read. And that's been the case. I read fairly close up-probably closer than most people. I don't know if I've always done it-or if I trained myself to do it before I had the progressives (i probably needed them two years or so before I actually got them. Prior to that I had my single vision prescription for my nearsightedness. And I had to take off my glasses to read as they weren't helping.) I also usually take them off for computer work and bring the screen and keyboard very close to me. Shaving and trimming my beard are also problems. #1. It's hard to shave with glasses on. #2. I have to keep angling my head in different ways to get to the part of the glasses I need to see for trimming different parts of my beard. Sometimes I think what I need is a handheld magnifying mirror. So I can see what I'm doing better as I'm trimming. Gman

It really sounds to me like what you need is a professional-and I don't mean escort professional-sexual surrogate. But I don't know if there are any gay ones. And I think the legality of sexual surrogates in most states is problematic. Gman

You just reminded me. Alfred's Deli off of Bissonet and Post Oak closed years ago. Gman

I went to a conference years ago in Toronto. It was 1999. We were carrying posters in those round poster holders. I remember Canadian Customs looking at them very carefully. I'm wondering if they were looking for drugs. Bottom line: I'd exercise caution, keeping nothing on my devices that would come close to be considered incriminating evidence. You've just described me to a T although I have no plans to go to Thailand. Were these flights originating from somewhere in Canada to Bangkok? Gman

Hard to believe he's been advertising since 2014 without any reviews. Gman

Oh another restaurant -it's a chain-but a more expensive one-Houston's. I love the Hawaiian. It's a rib eye-marinated in pineapple-soy-ginger marinade. It's delicious. (And according to their website $40). Their house salad years ago had a hard-boiled egg in it along with bacon bits (don't tell my rabbi). It was delicious with their thousand island dressing. As to places I'm sorry you will miss (as they are now only memories). 1. Fred's Italian Corner-a great little strip mall Italian place. I loved their meatball sandwiches. 2. The Strawberry Patch. Pappas Steakhouse took it over. It had a mean chicken teriyaki. And they would bring by a bread basket with these delicious yeast rolls and blueberry muffins. 3. UNO's pizzeria at one time had a lot of restaurants outside of Chicago. I don't know what they did for most of them to fail as I always found their pizzas excellent in Houston, Dallas, Madison, and Cincinnati. 4. Two Pesos. It was a drive thru Tex-Mex place open 24 hours with small indoor seating and expansive patio seating. The buildings were stucco coated and painted a bright blue. They had apparently stolen the idea from a still extant restaurant chain called Taco Cabana. The original buildings looked almost exactly the same. But Taco Cabana's were painted bright pink. They also had almost three same menu. Taco Cabana sued Two Pesos-and won. Who knew that blatantly copying a restaurant but changing the building color would cause you to lose a court case? Two Peso's after that had to put up a sign saying we copied Taco Cabana and lost. They also had to pay a big fine. Taco Cabana ended up buying them out and either converted them to Taco Cabanas or closed them. Since then the Taco Cabana chain has changed hands many, many times. I don't think most of them are even open 24 hours anymore. But they were great for late/night early morning fajitas after leaving the bars at 2 AM. 5. The Ocean Club. It wasn't really a restaurant. It was a dance club/bar. I thought it was cool. I couldn't dance but I was skinny enough back in 1985 and 1986 that I could actually wear white jeans without looking stupid. So on Tuesdays it had a $5 all you could eat buffet/happy hour. I don't remember what they served. But my college friends and I thought it was delicious. 6. Dirty's-It was a chicken fried steak place. They probably had a few other things on the menu. But I mainly had the chicken fried steak. They were HUGE!! I'd order their salad too. It was a basic green salad. They mainly had ranch dressing and possibly oil and vinegar. It was a no frills place. But I loved it. I could probably think of some more if I gave it some thought. But it's late. Gman

I haven't lived in Houston since 1993. A lot of places I used to go to have closed-imagine that. But look up --- 1. Goode Company Restaurants. They have Tex-Mex, BBQ, and seafood (NOTE: I'm not a seafood eater. So I can't comment on that type of restaurant.) Look for the locations on Kirby. There are several. 2. Most anything by the Pappas Family should probably be good (@bashful recommended Pappasito's. But there are other restaurants from the Pappas family too-their steakhouse is expensive, but supposed to be very good.) 3. A famed Tex-Mex Restaurant in Houston is Ninfa's. The original is on Navigation. It's downtown. Not a good place probably at night. But a great place for lunch. 4. Becks Prime is a hamburger place. It was very good back in the day. I believe the original location was on Kirby. It originally was basically a walk-up with patio seating. I think you they've enlarged it, and enclosed it. 5. Look up one of the locations of Star Pizza. I went to the original on 2111 Norfolk St. 6. There was a Thai restaurant I enjoyed called Morningside Thai. 7. If you like Vietnamese or Chinese food, there's a place called Kim Son. I'm looking at the locations. I'm looking for the original. Unfortunately I've probably been back to Houston less than 10 times since I left in 2003 And the last time was in 2009. So even though I lived there from 1985 to 1989-had a 6 month break in Cincinnati- and moved back to Houston from 1990 to 1993, the memories are dim. I'm pretty sure the original and the one I ate at was the one on Jefferson. But looking at the pictures online, my vague memories tell me they've either torn down the original building or greatly expanded it. I looked up a few other places that I remembered on Yelp. Several had closed?. And the others were only voted 3 stars. So I won't suggest them. Of the places that I remember, these are probably the best. Bon Appetit!! Gman

Transient Ischemia Attack? Gman

I'd hire him in a heartbeat!! Gman

There was a Polish dance duo called Duo Destiny. They won Poland's Got Talent. The male, if you'll pardon the expression "member" ?of the duo was incredibly handsome. Unfortunately he's straight. Gman

There was a documentary back in 2000 (gosh I can't believe it was from that long ago) called 101 Rentboys. I was thinking I saw it on HBO. But the Wikipedia article says it was shown on Skinamax-errrr I mean Cinemax. Long time members from here may even remember some of these escorts-either met them or at the very least remember their ads. My vague memory from when I saw it was that I was familiar with a few of the escorts from their ads although I don't think I ever met any of them. While Van has no current ads that I am aware of, I am almost 100 positive that one of the featured escorts on this program was Van. Look at Escort 90 on this picture. (Also as an aside-I contacted Van once years ago. I can't remember if it was by email or phone. I'm not sure if I had actually hired at the time. My vague memory is that I was too vanilla for his interests. Here's the URL for the Wikipedia article on the documentary. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/101_Rent_Boys Gman

Did you mean an 'active' profile, as obviously you've posted a link to a profile? Gman

He quit responding to me when I told him I was middle-aged and fat. While if he had told me I wasn't his type it would have been disappointing, but I probably would have felt better in the long run than I did wondering why he suddenly stopped responding. While the heart (or in this case about 2 to 3 feet down from it) wants what it wants, are you really that hot and bothered to meet someone who treats potential clients like that? Unless you are in good shape-and I realize you may be-or crave the possibility of rejection, can you not find someone else who's more client friendly? Oh and for the record, I can easily understand an old fat guy like me not being an escort's choice. But I'm wondering if Jai Wu might do better if he indicated that in some fashion in his ad. Gman

Really?-when I've looked at various Far East Asian countries, I thought I had seen the opposite. Gman

Just to let you know In case you are interested in him--I had messaged Jaiwu in years past about a possible meeting. When he found out I was a middle-aged, out of shape (internet code for fat) while guy, he quit responding. Gman

Just to let you know In case you are interested in him--I had messaged Jaiwu in years past about a possible meeting. When he found out I was a middle-aged, out of shape (internet code for fat) while guy, he quit responding. Gman

There are always the occasional exception. Gman

About 10 years ago, I was taking the excursion ship from Seattle to Victoria, BC for either a one night or two night stay. I was traveling with an escort from SF. Canadian Customs 'interrogated' both of us separately when we arrived on Vancouver Island. . They asked me why I was coming to Victoria along with other questions that felt routine. But I could never figure out if they were questioning everyone on the excursion or if they picked the two of us out specifically. Then the last time I went to Canada was probably 6 or 7 years ago. I was going to Toronto from New York to take the Via Rail Canadian Train to Vancouver, BC. I was again traveling with an escort (Bryan Sobe from NYC and Miami in case anyone remembers him) on the plane from NYC. I don't know if they were screening a lot back 7 or 10 years ago because I surely had evidence that I had hired and had numbers for escorts in my iPhone both times. And obviously the escort did too. But on both trips no one asked to look at my phone. I doubt I'll ever get back to Canada considering my financial situation. But if I, or anyone else does, what would be the way for all of us to protect ourselves? Should we leave our regular phones at home, and take a cheap burner phone that has no info on it. Maybe take info we need in case we want to hire in a notebook or something else paper-based? Gman

He changed his name. And the URL changed. https://rent.men/DFWTROFF Gman

I never met the man. I don't know anything about him. I was morbid enough to want to see his ad. But I thought the ad should be removed because while the chance is probably small, I would have hated for a family member to run across it (assuming they haven't already). Also just as with Facebook, I find it disturbing to see the pages of people who have died. I guess in the case of Facebook; you could consider these pages memorials. But they still give me weird vibes when I see them. Gman

Rentmen took the profile down. Gman

Any VPL showing? ? Gman

It's always had a fee option. I just used the free proxy (for free), and it worked as it usually does. Gman

How awful. I'm going to let RM know, so they can take down the ad. Gman