Charlie

When I started hiring I was in my 30s and reasonably attractive (I got plenty of sex for free), so I didn't think about whether the provider would be turned on or off by my appearance. However, by the time I reached my 60s, I began to wonder if the pleasure really was mutual or the provider was only going though with the act for the money, and it bothered me enough to eventually stop hiring. It sounds like you are really self-conscious (and uncomfortable) about your own appearance, so as others here have said, it is important that you find a provider that is not going to react in a way that will ruin the experience for you by confirming your fear of rejection. And as several others here have said, the best way to insure that doesn't happen is to be completely upfront about whatever it is in your appearance you think someone would likely be turned off by, so the provider is prepared for it: weight, scars, other kinds of disfigurements, even handicaps. And as has been said here often, cleanliness is the most important issue for many providers. (BTW: don't forget to brush your teeth and use mouthwash.) What you don't want to do is apologize for something after you meet him. If you have prepared him, and he has accepted the appointment, then relax and enjoy yourself. Note: I don't think that sending him a photo is a good idea. He is the one auditioning for a role, not you.

Having to decide whether to buy a gas engine or an electric engine car.

Wow! That didn't hit me until my 80s.

Every time I try to make the leap, I fall off a cliff. I have just finished a frustrating attempt for the past half hour to open a social invitation that was emailed to me, but I cannot figure out how to open it. For better or worse, I am a product of a pen and paper world, and will probably always remain so.

I was going through my old address book the other day, and I realized that more than half of the names and phone numbers had been crossed out because the individuals had moved or were deceased. I decided I need to buy a new address book and transfer just the current info. (I wouldn't keep that kind of info on a tech device for fear that it would be hacked, or lost when something went wrong with the device.)

The longest World Series ever in terms of number of innings played.

Two cute critters.

Just a notice that the "map me" function points to a default location in downtown Palm Springs, so he could actually be located anywhere in the Coachella Valley.

I will come, as long as I can bring my dog. (he loves parties!)

They are probably the only WS winning team that he would not invite to visit the White House, and I'll bet they would turn down the invitation if he did.

Cam Norrie. (Who has a white lock of hair on his forehead)

I went to bed after 13 innings.

This heading stopped me short, because my father's first name was "Christian," but no one ever called him that. Everyone called him "King" (his middle name was "Kingsley.")

Like most males, I have my own preferences in physical surface features of a sex partner, which I won't elaborate on here. For me, however, the most important aspect in a provider (beside a reasonable fee agreed upon in advance), is that I have to feel that he is actually interested in having sex with me, not just with anyone who opens a wallet. I let the sex acts develop as spontaneously as I would with an unpaid partner (I don't have a pre-set scenario), but if I don't get the sense that he is enjoying whatever it is that we do, I probably won't enjoy it either. I stopped hiring when I could no longer convince myself that this gorgeous hunk was truly turned on by sex with this old man.

I am old enough to have lived through the early AIDS crisis and watched friends die before the disease even had a name. I was active in a gay rights organization in the 1980s, and took over running the AIDS Information Hotline in a major city when the woman who started it couldn't handle it any longer because she found it too upsetting. After the "crisis" was over, I had friends who had survived but were still dealing with the illness; my best friend since high school died in 1996, and the cause of death was listed as cancer, but those who knew him well were aware that he had been diagnosed with AIDS in the 1980s, and when asked, his sister, a medical technician, still says, "He died of AIDS." A close friend's lover died of AIDS in 1987, and for the rest of his long life he was always questioning whenever he developed physical problems: "Is it really from AIDS that's dormant in me?" And, of course, for many of us there is always "survivor's guilt"--"I was as sexually slutty as he was; why didn't I get it?" AIDS has turned into another preventable or controllable disease, but one that unfortunately is still associated in everyone's mind with gay sex, so unlike most diseases, in the minds of many people it still carries overtones of punishment for something one shouldn't have done. I am glad that the focus nowadays is shifting more towards controlling the disease than blaming those who have contracted it.

I scored only 55 out of 90, which makes me wonder exactly how they define "kinky." I expected to be asked more specific questions (like, "Are you turned on by a hairy ass?")

I had the problem this morning, and all it said was there was a "technical error" each time I tried to log on. Lucky just texted me that it had been fixed, and I logged on normally just now.

One of my neighbors goes wild with Halloween decorations for her yard, starting in early October and adding something else every day. Now she has a severed head on the ground that starts talking when you approach it--it freaks out my dog.

If this is true, then shouldn't you also wash your asshole every day as well?

The last time I slept on the Queen Mary it was docked in Long Beach, CA. Oh, sorry, that was the old Queen Mary.

Well, he is a RETRIEVER, after all. (All the items seem to have been things that have been touched by his owners, and he may be able to smell their scent on the items, even if we couldn't.)

Do they live in a state that permits inter-species marriage?

I have known closeted gay men who married women, but the marriage usually ended after the man came out--e.g., my brother-in-law's step children are his husband's children by his former wife (and they are all open about the relationships). I also know men who married women before they came to terms with their own sexuality. But I have never known an openly gay man who married a straight woman, or an openly gay woman who married a straight man.

The photos I take with my iPhone also show up on my iPad, and vice versa, so they must be cached on a cloud somewhere.

If you "had been looking at Rentboy and Hooboy's sites for years," what motivated you to finally take the plunge?