Random Thought Of The Day #443

Day 443

I wish I had more to say today. I'm kinda shocked that I don't. Considering I had like a full week of letting shit accumulate in my brain that I'd eventually have to get out.

Instead, I'm sitting here thinking "you know, if this thing didn't suck as much as it has recently, this thing would actually be worth reading again. Maybe I should kick up another shitstorm about anything just to make shit interesting again. I haven't done that in about 5 months.". But the problem is, I can't even think of anything I'd want to yell about or any idiots that would be fun to take shots at right now.

THAT is how uninspired I am.

Instead, I'm left with posting stupid pictures, commenting on the stupid playground politics and retarded attempts at community engineering of a local scene that I'm not even involved with anymore and throwing in some Deadpool to get a laugh out of it.

But I'm not blaming anyone for it. I just can't seem to get my brain to engage and get creative again. Or even funny.

And it seems as though I'm not the only one. Fetlife has been mostly dead. I haven't read a decent discussion in months that wasn't pretentious as fuck or so stupid that even I couldn't get a laugh out of it. I haven't even read any news stories or articles or anything that wasn't just the same recycled crap as everything else.

I mean, this is the fucking internet. We should be able to at least find something worth checking out.

Wow... an Ayn Rand phrase just popped into my head that seems to be rather fitting. The moratorium on brains. That's what I keep getting the vibe of everywhere I look.

Is the stage just too big for everyone? I mean, I know we're in a super-connected world. Did everyone else just realize it and get stage fright? Or am I just not looking in the right places anymore?

It's probably the second one.

And I'm probably just blabbering like an idiot. Like usual.

Oh, fuck it. I'm apparently just writing to see what comes out on the screen right now. This was completely pointless.

Off to go do science.

Random Thought Of The Day #442

Day 442

You know... I was starting to write something about what a "community leader" is, what their function is and what power they actually have, but honestly? I'm too still-not-awake and far too brainfucked this morning to actually put together much of a cohesive thought.



This is what Authority looks like. See? They wear costumes.



I'll just throw out the bullet points here without really explaining it. I think that the term "community leader" is nebulous and that they really don't have any actual power.

I think a more apt term would be a "volunteer community facilitator". They don't lead shit. They facilitate a location for meet-ups. They are "known" persons. But any "authority" that they are granted in decision making for the groups that they represent is completely at the immediate consent of those within the group. The minute that anything is done that the group members disagree with in great enough numbers, there ends their authority. Because nobody is required to patronize any particular group.



When you don't have authority
you're kinda not a leader.

 And anyone is free to create their own groups if they so choose for any reason. Maybe it's as a special interest group, maybe it's because the time or location of the existing group meet-ups don't work for them, or maybe it's because they disagree with the direction of the existing groups. And at least a handful of people will support or patronize it.

Whatever.

In the end, what is presently called a community leader is a misnomer.

If you can be a "community leader" because people know who you are, your voice or opinions carry some degree of weight or you organize a group, that would make me a "community leader" as well. And I sure as shit ain't one. I'm an asshole with a keyboard, a big mouth and too much free time to write things at 7 or 8am during the week. And even when I was attending events within the larger established community and not just organizing random @ElitistFucks meet-ups, I wasn't one either. I was just outspoken. There's a difference.

I don't really have any funny caption for this.

These volunteer community facilitators do serve a function. They take on a responsibility that others don't have the time, money or energy to do and for that, they should be thanked. But thanks does not equate to authority. It doesn't equate to power. It is simply appreciation for their effort and their attempts. They are not elected officials. In many cases, they're hand-picked successors to previous group-runners. Or they're simply people with their own agendas that they want to promote through their own notoriety.

None of which entitles them to any more than our thanks, even when we disagree with them. It does not grant them any power. Simply an appreciation from others.

That's pretty much all I gotta say about that.

This is a pretty disjointed post, but fuck you... I'm still barely awake. And my brain has yet to engage today. 6 hours of sleep in 2 nights will do that, I guess. Sadly, I could only find some moderately amusing pictures for any of this stuff today.

But here's some deadpool instead, even though it's entirely irrelevant.

PIMP

Random Thought Of The Day #441

Day 441

Finally... The Dok... has come BACK... To... Fetlife.

Sorry about that... channeled my inner Rock there for a moment.

Alright... now, onto the fun stuff. Namely... things I have to say.

I was gonna write some long rant about the whole TNG thing again, but I just can't really bring myself to care enough to devote the time to even writing more than this:

Who cares if there's a new TNG that's affiliated with the new BRIDGE group? Does it really matter? And why does it need to be "created" by anyone in any position of paper-authority within the community? Why not just watch things happen when there's a necessity for them? Why does it need to be "created" at all?

Sorry kids... but it just smacks of too much community engineering to me.

If a bunch of 18-25 or 18-30 or 18-35 year olds want to get together from time to time as their own SIG, who the fuck has the authority to say "well, it needs to be an approved group by the community leaders" or some crap along those lines.

Nobody owns the name TNG (the claim of some dude in Illinois or Indiana or something and maybe Gene Roddenbery notwithstanding) so when a TNG ceases to exist, they also give up the right to the name. And nobody has to go ask anyone else permission to use it. Be TNG... Be Whippersnappers (I don't know if there actually is a national organization that needs to be chaptered for this one) or be the fucking Romper Room for all I care... do your own thing and stop letting people in positions of paper-authority tell you what you can and can't do.

And that's all I gotta say about that. And far more than I intended to initially.

For @Graydancer - see? friends are more than just enemies
I haven't yet found a solution for. They're also good
pack-mules.

I'd like to extend a speical thank you to @LordAlexanderRose, @TwistedView, @BrighidsCross, @Sadistic_Switch, @Farm_Boy13 and @Sybele for all their help with getting shit moved for Artemis_Fallen, Diotima & I. I know I'm probably forgetting someone (or 3) here for their help, but still... thanks to all of you.

Also, I'd like to welcome Diotima to Pittsburgh. She's the new roomie. Say hi to her. She's pretty fucking cool. She's a southerner, but we don't hold that against her. Though it will be really funny to see her in a coat come winter time that is of the approximate size of the Michelin Man.

We still have roughly 4000 boxes left to unpack, but it's coming along. We'll be announcing the housewarming party... um... eventually? And I'll be sending out the invites for the rescheduled Kegs & Eggs party soon as well. Patience, children... patience. It'll be worth it. 

But as a break from moving, I did get to see Captain America on Monday night. I loved it. It felt like a comic book in the same way that the Ang Lee "HULK" movie tried and failed miserably to do. And with a pretty cool story. It had just enough patriotism without crossing the line into nationalism or jingoism. Though with how much it borrowed from The Ultimates, it really could have used this line:

Fuck France. Cheese eating surrender monkeys.

OK, I think I rambled here enough for this morning. Here's some Deadpool.



Punching Hitler in the face makes you totally awesome forever. Even when you have wings on your head
and little red booties.



Random Thought Of The Day #440

Day 440

Son of a bitch... I already mostly wrote this once on my phone and then apparently forgot to save the draft. Fuck me sideways.

Well, the first version of this was funnier. I already forgot some of the jokes.

I don't have a useful picture for
group names. But this is probably more
funny than they would have been

I'm on vacation this week... so if you do get something to read, feel lucky.

I'm kind of amused at the discussion of new munch organization again. Didn't I already cover this? Oh yeah... I already covered this. Weeks ago.

As for group names... I'm voting for Kink 'N'@. A nice pittsburgh name in the tradiation of Pants 'N'At. Or maybe Super Awesome Mega Party!! as well. Just for the sake of being weird.

Or we can go with something more simple... like CitiGroup.  Oh wait... that one's already taken. Well, ButtMunch is also an acceptable alternative, @Danowar.

I'm not gonna rehash this too much from what I've said on the subject before. But I'll be honest. TNG is a SIG. That's all. And I'd even asjust the age restriction a little to make it more useful. Make it 18-35 AND new to the community. Then simply define what you consider "new" and then people graduate out. That's it.

Any other need for a TNG is kinda splitting hairs. And now that I think about it, I think we've been doing a LOT of hair splitting in order to justify groups that fill the void of social interaction from lacking a dungeon for the past year and change. But that's just me. I see far too much redundency that seems to only exist because people feel compelled to make something else new. But that's another thing I've already covered.

I already know how to shamlessly
self-promote. Beacuse I'm just that
damn good.

Seeing the "I already covered this" trend here? *shameless self promotion* "Read it here before it turns into a community thread a month from now!" *end shameless self promotion*

But back on this name topic... Define 'NEW" as a time frame. 6 months? A year? Whatever. Then have it run by someone that's recently "graduated" out of the group that still knows some of the people there and can relate to being totally new to the community. Figure out a "term" for them to act in that group-runner capacity and have them be there to play liason between TNG and parent group, help newbies feel comfortable and represent the newbs to the community at large when necessary.

But hey... whatever they name it and whatever new structure is put in place... at least it won't be as improperly named as TNG is right now.



This is kinda how I feel about the community
structure and what's done with it at this point.



I'm totally gonna start making people do something stupid to join @ElitistFucks after they're invited now. Like "jump up and down on 1 leg while singing "I'm a little teapot" in your best marilyn monroe impersonation voice" from now on. And then they have to learn the gang sign as well. Cause we already have one, bitches!

And for the record, until like 3 months ago... I STILL was getting the BurgherMunch and Burgh Munch names confused. And when I don't think about either group for another 2 months, I'll forget which one is which again. I'll know where they are and who runs each of them, but I'll still forget which one is named which.

Now that that horse is slowly turning to fucking glue... and since you might not get any more this week... Here's some Deadpool too.




I do think in little yellow boxes. I can see them.
But you can't.



Random Thought Of The Day #439

Day 439

Since I wrote a motherfucking novel yesterday, I'm gonna keep this short and sweet today.

I hate you all.

Except that guy... that guy is pretty awesome. And that girl is pretty cool too.

And anyone that's going to help me move next week. I like you too.

Oh, and here's something funny that is totally fitting for me:

Random Thought Of The Day #438

Day 438

First of all... the Kegs & Eggs party is cancelled. I know you were all looking forward to it but something came up and it's just not gonna be able to happen. We're gonna reschedule it for a few weeks from now but I'll send out new invites when we do. Yeah, I know... it sucks. Nobody has done a morning party in forever and just the novelty is awesome. But yeah... sorry kids. We're gonna have to cancel it for the time being.

Now that that's out of the way... on to something that's been on my mind for the past few days since I first got the e-mail about Netflix changing their price structure rather seriously.

In case you didn't know... Netflix is changing their price structure rather seriously. Presently, you can get your basic "1 dvd at a time (but unlimited rentals per month) & unlimited streaming" package for like $9 a month. That's cool. That's a great fucking deal. Yeah, the streaming content is a little lacking. There's a LOT of full seasons of TV shows on there, but movie content is rather mediocre. You get a lot of direct-to-dvd stoner comedies, low-budget horror movies, a bunch of 90's and early 00's movies, mediocre documentaries and the occasional big-budget blockbuster type movie thru their agreement with Starz.

Their streaming is actually worth it just for the TV show content, to be honest. But that's really the only portion that has much selection for recent quality content.

And if you want something recent on dvd, you still get 1-at-a-time that is only delayed by a month from in-store release. So if you're even moderately diligent about watching the dvds (which I'm totally NOT), you can get 2 or 3 a week if you time it correctly on when you return them. That alone pays for the $9 a month vs Redbox, on-demand thru your cable provider or (if you can still find a brick & mortar) Blockbuster.

After the price structure change however, it'll be $8/month for unlimited streaming and another $8/month for the 1-dvd-at-a-time package. This is still not a bad deal. $16/month for unlimited streaming of (mostly tv show) content and maybe 4-10 dvds per month. That's not a bad deal. You're still saving a good chunk of cash over hitting Redbox or Blockbuster. And you're saving a boatload over the OnDemand thru cable.

So while it's still a good deal, it's not amazing anymore. Especially when you consider that the tv shows you get are, at best, last season (when the present season has already started on live tv) if not 2 seasons ago.

But that's not really the issue that I've been pondering. No, the bigger issue is the tv networks, cable providers and movie studios reaction to streaming content.

In the early 00's, dvd "collecting" became the thing to do. It was cheaper than vhs had ever been during it's reign as the dominant format. It was smaller & took up less physical space for storage. It was better quality. It was more durable. And because the economy was doing well, people realized "hey, I can have my content when I want it in better than broadcast tv quality and all I  have to do is pop the disc into the player? game on!" and as a result, the boom of dvd sales was on. And the studios made a fucking killing. They still had their previous revenue streams. The content licensing to HBO/Showtime/Cinemax/Etc. , the content licensing later to the cable networks like Fox and Turner, the rental licensing to places like Blockbuster and your smaller stores. But now they also had the dvd sales to the consumer that they didn't have in nearly the same quantity when vhs was the dominant format.

And additionally, they had a more secure format (for a while) from bootlegging. Anyone else remember daisychaining vcr's together to copy your movies from the store when you rented them? And at like $3-4 a pop for a blank vhs tape, that was kinda fucking pricy still. Between the rental fee and the blank tape, you were looking at 1/3 of the price of the real one. Those were the days.

But regardless... the studios made a fucking killing.

When tv shows started getting put onto dvd as well, that was a whole other revenue stream that the studios  & now the networks. TV shows that had long ago been pulled off the air and maybe a decade or 2 later showed up on cable channels like TVLand for a tiny licensing fee now had totally new life. Hell, it even breathed life back into previously cancelled shows. Family Guy and Futurama both got renewed years after their previous cancellation just because of dvd sales (though the syndication ratings of the shows didn't hurt either) that never would have existed with the vhs format.

So long story short here... the studios and networks were making money hand over fist with the dvd collecting boom of the early-to-mid 00's.

And like any company, anything that threatens to bring this years revenue streams down below that of the previous year, regardless of if the previous year was a fluke or if they  were artificially inflated revenues due to a boom/bust cycle, these companies will try to kill it.

The demand for OnDemand content was growing.



A table, some t-shirts & mail bins is all the overhead
netflix has.

 So comes along something like Netflix (and to an extent, Redbox). You now have a company paying a similar license fee to Blockbuster, but without the overhead of operating a brick & mortar storefront. They don't have to worry about paying people to be Customer Service Reps to spend 20 minutes with a customer to help them find a movie they want. They don't have to pay an electric bill for their sign. They don't have to pay retail location lease prices. They don't have even 1/2 of the operating costs as a place like Blockbuster. They have a bunch of people in a warehouse sending out dvds at the 45 cent postage cost. So they can undercut the christ out of those brick & mortar stores.

And the customers love it even more because they don't even have to leave the house to get the movie they want, drive to the store only to find out the movie they really wanted is sold out, spend a half hour finding an alternative, wait in the lines at the store for checkout and then drive home.

And in the case of RedBox, the kiosks had virtually zero maintenance except to load new movies into the machine once a week. And the operating cost of it was a couple bucks paid to the stores where they were located. Most of the time, they were in grocery stores or WalMart, so you're not even making a trip to a dedicated movie place to get a movie. You just get one on your way out of the store. Convenience.

OnDemand content demand raises more as a result.

Sure, they had the option of PayPerView at home, but at like $15 a pop for something that might not start for another 3 hours and you still had to call your cable company to get it, only the most lazy people with more money than brains took that route. So I'm ignoring it.

So what did the studios & Blockbuster do about the rise of Netflix? They made RedBox and Netflix wait a month for new releases. But most people said "eh, whatever. I can wait." and still took the Netflix/RedBox route.

Then Hulu showed up. And for tv show content, that was a godsend. The past months worth of a tv show, online, so you can watch at your leisure? With minimal commercials? Yeah, you were watching tv on your computer, but it was only a minor inconvenience. It was still a total win. Yeah, their movie selection was absolutely attrocious, but that's what your $8 to Netflix was for.

But the networks & cable providers started seeing their live tv ratings drop. And when they drop, so do the ad rates that they can charge. So very quickly, the format for Hulu changed. More commercials were added. Longer commercials were added. Shows that had previously been on Hulu the next day started showing up 8 days later. Big budget shows stopped being made available. Where you had previously had a month or more worth of content available on Hulu, now it was only 2 weeks, and eventually, only 1 week.

The purpose of this was 2-fold. First, to force people back into watching live tv or using their dvr. Because then their ratings went back up and thus their ad rates could stay the same or go up. But secondly, beacuse the cable companies began noticing something... people were cutting the cord.

And the reason for cutting the cord was also 2-fold. First, because between Netflix (or to a lesser extent redbox), Hulu and some of the other smaller options, people were realizing that Lifetime, HGTV, MTV or the other cable channels just didn't offer enough can't-miss content that they could live without it. And the major networks were all available over-the-air. With either a standard antenae or an HDantenae. Unless you watched a lot of cable sports, you could generally live without it. And secondly, while content was getting cheaper and more OnDemand everywhere else, cable bills were steadily creaping higher and higher. Especially after the elimination of Extended Basic (ie. about 70 channel) packages. What used to be a $60/month cable bill is now over $100 because of this.

Instead of adapting, the cable companies pressured the networks into abandoning Hulu and moving their OnDemand streaming content back to the cable companies. This became most obvious when Comcast bought NBC from GE. Immediately, NBC removed virtually ALL of their streaming content from Hulu.

After deciding that the free (with some and then more and then a lot of commercials) wasn't a viable option, the Hulu Plus subscription was offered. It's basically old-Hulu but you have to pay for it. And you still get commercials during your shows & movies. And even that was acceptable for consumers. But the quantity of content has still steadily decreased.

All the while, the dvd collecting fad was dropping off. The economy took a nosedive. Now dvd wasn't a good enough format. BluRay came out. Then 3D BluRay. This all required more and more new hardware. Your old tv can't even handle BluRay. Now you have no choice but to switch to that HDTV for your living room just to watch a BluRay movie. And if you want 3D BluRay, you need an even higher quality tv. And the cost of the physical media was going up with each additional new technology.

VHS had a nearly 20 year life span. From the early 80's until as most recently as the mid 00's, you had stuff being still produced on VHS. DVD became affordable for the masses around 2000. Less than 10 years later, BluRay has all but replaced it. Less than 5 years later, 3D BluRay has replaced that.

The frequency of format changes has made adoption of these new technologies unaffordable. Updating your media library to meet these new formats is unaffordable. Instead, streaming content has become what the consumer wants instead. Let the content providers handle the hardware upgrades. Then stream it to you in the best quality format that your existing hardware can handle. If you have a 3D capable tv? Great... stream it in 3D quality. But if you only have a standard definition tv, then watching dvd quality is good enough too. All that is different is the density and compression of the data when it's shot from the provider to you thru the intarwubz. And it requires a single hardware upgrade for the providers instead of a hardware upgrade for every consumer of the content.

But see... this cuts into the inflated revenue of the studios, networks and cable providers. It cuts into their ad revenue. It cuts into their home media sales. It cuts into their bottom line. And they're going to do everything that they can to kill it, while ignoring the demands of the consumer. Because at the end of the day, the consumer still wants entertainment and if the only way they'll be given it is with an old buisness model of "watch this show at this time on this day or don't watch it without paying for a cable box with a dvr or paying for our OnDemand service", then they don't care. Because they think people will do it.

And honestly? Most people will. They'll bitch about it. But they won't do anything.

In January, Netflix content license with the studios expires and it's expected that the studios will either refuse to renew it, renew it at such a high cost that it would force a price hike of so much that it makes a service like Netflix cost prohibitive or refuse to license any content that any consumer actually wants to watch. Stuff like 70's and 80's flop movies that no one but the biggest cinematic masochist has any interest in seeing. The studios are too closely tied to the demands of the cable providers and they view Netflix as a threat to their bottom line.

I will tell you though, that this is going to end up backfiring on the networks, cable providers and studios. The less streaming content, the less people are going to be using a paying service to get it. They're going to go back to pirating.

3 years ago, I was ALWAYS downloading rips of tv shows the day after they came out because I hate being tied to a tv schedule. But with Hulu, I stopped. I'd deal with the handful of commercials, beacuse I could watch the whole previous month worth of episodes in 1 shot. But after the quantity of content went down and the quality of the remaining content went down as the networks abandoned it, I've either dropped shows entirely or slowly moved back into bootlegging.

People don't like physical media. Except maybe books (I still prefer to hold a book and physically flip pages over even an e-reader). But for their a/v entertainment like movies and music and tv shows, they want it on demand and they want it to not take up physical space. Streaming accomplishes that the best. But if that's not going to be what the companies are willing to go to, they're going to get bit in the ass with it. Pirating or bootleged streams are what people are going to go back to.

When I can download the dvd rip or BluRay rip of a movie that takes up 700 mb or 1.4 gb on my 1Tb harddrive, throw it into my media library, wirelessly stream it to my xbox and watch it on my tv, why do I need to pay for a dvd? But if for $8 or even $20/month, I can get unlimited dvds, 1 at a time, and streaming of the content that I want directly to my xbox or laptop or phone or tablet. And if for another $15 or $20/month, I can get unlimited streaming of the tv shows I want to watch with minimal commercials and not have to pay a cable company to get it? I'll pay those couple bucks.

There's options out there with a mixture of moderately cheap devices and services that I'm considering if Netflix ends up as nothing more than a big cesspool of crap that nobody wants to watch and Hulu ends up void of anything but cheaply produced reality tv that would still allow me to cut the cord. But I want to wait it out a little longer and see how bad it's going to get.

But with Apple TV and the iTunes store, the NHL Center Ice package for Pens games, possibly the NFL Sunday Ticket package (the nhl package is not yet available streaming on apple tv, but the nfl one is), netflix, a hulu plus membership and an HDantennae for local network shows, cutting the cord is getting more and more appealing.

But next thing you know, the cable/internet providers are going to start charging for tiered data packages or capping you so you can only stream so much and makes even that option prohibitive. Oh wait... they're already proposing doing just that....

Fuck you, media.

Random Thought Of The Day #437

Day 437

So who is helping me move this Sunday or any time next week (except Tuesday)? I had a bunch of people say that they were willing, but I need to get an idea of who is actually available and willing.

I'm not doing any more of the "exporation of my kinks" RTOTDs on my work computer. That's probably not the best idea. So I'll do another one later from my phone.

I feel like an adult every time I have to sign a contract.
*I am not an adult*

But so far today, I'm busy putting together the balance of the contracts that I need for the new house. Roommate agreements, lease agreements, and all that fun stuff. It's really fucking tedious. And just trying to find the right document templates for this is way too fucking complicated.

See? Here's where I'm smarter than anyone who has anything to do with a dungeon in pittsburgh for a long time... I know my roommates... I trust them... They know me... they trust me... we're still operating with legal documents to protect ourselves. No random rent increases. Due dates for rent. Agreements on how bills and all that will be handled. In-writing consequences for violating any of the terms of the agreement. All that fun stuff... so take a hint... contracts are useful. They're cumbersome, complicated and seem like common sense stuff but they're also necessary.

Now that I've insulted a bunch of people... on to something else.



Yeah, I dropped to the level of posting LOLcatz. I suck.



I really should add "being an asshole" to my fetish list. Cause I totally got that shit down.

Fucking christ, these contracts makes me want to punch kittens.

Oh fuck it... I give up trying to write anything here today.

Here's some more Deadpool vs. Captain America:


Be like Deadpool



Random Thought Of The Day #436

Day 436

So... the Kegs & Eggs party that @Unwonted & I are putting together is gonna get changed from 8am to 10am on Saturday. Just wanted to put that out there before I got onto the rest of the thought today...

Yesterday I thought about going thru my list of kinks an starting to explain them and what I dig about them... I'll give you a bunch of the simple ones today. Things that require only short explainations. Tomorrow, you'll get a good one with some deep exploration.



Yeah, it's for YouTube but fuck it... it's just as funny

 1. 500 internal server error drinking game - this one is pretty much self-explanatory. Whenever fetlife's server goes crazy and you keep getting the 500 internal server error message... you drink. It's a fun game.

2. adults that act like adults - this one is also pretty simple. Yet still very important. This is mainly in regards to bottoms, but Tops can also be guilty of this one. Being a bottom is not an excuse for acting like a child. It's not an excuse to throw temper tantrums or do any of those other things that adults should have grown out of doing when you stopped being a teenager. Things like having common courtesy and understanding that behaviors have a time and place where they're appropriate. Just generally acting like a well-adjusted person who is able to take care of themselves. Most D-types are looking for an s-type. Not to become someone's babysitter. And yes, Tops occasionally are guilty of this as well, but I've found that it's more of a trait of bottoms. The Tops that are guilty of this are normally the kind that don't really want an s-type so much as a maid and cook.



Imagine it. Let it infect your brain.

 3. anal sporking - yeah... this one is a joke. Long-time readers should remember this one as a joke originating out of an RTOTD from a while back. But it's still a funny mental image.

4. backscatter x-ray porn - another joke stemming from an RTOTD. The new-ish security scanner things at the airports that see thru your clothes but not thru your body. They don't look exactly like you're naked but they don't look like a hospital x-ray either. There's gotta be some way to make porn with that. And I'd love to see it.

5. bacon - because everyone loves fucking bacon. Though with the recent bacon "fad" that's been going on everywhere, I'm thinking about removing this one. Because everyone loves bacon. And if you don't love bacon... you're just un-American. Dirty commie pinko.

And finally, I'll give you one that requires some actual explanation today...



Do you have any idea how hard it is to
find a picture of a girl begging in Google
Images with a strict SafeSearch control
setting? Really fucking hard!

 6. begging - There's something wildly hot about a bottom begging. For my explanation, I'm might use gender-specific pronouns because...  well... fuck it. I'm a straight D-type male. So I only care about girls begging.

But with begging, there's something wildly hot about it. It's an affirmation of control. But that's just the surface of it.

Underneath that, there's a number of the psychological points that it hits that are an even bigger turn-on. Begging not only affirms your control, but it also affirms their submission to that control. There's an admission aspect to it. And it also has an implied degradation aspect to it and, if one wishes, it can directly lead into an explicit degradation aspect.

Begging is a wonderful stepping stone in play. One party wanting something very badly, while the other controls whether that person gets the object of their desire. Be it a physical object, an orgasm, even just a permission to do something else or release from a punishment.

Regardless of what it is, it's a stepping stone that can be used by the D-type to do a number of things. It can be used for bargaining. It can be used to modify behavior. It can be used to gain access into deeper desires of the other person. Or it could simply be used to get an explicit acceptance of their submission.

They're giving you something to use against them so that they can get what they want too. They know that they're submitting to whatever my sadistic mind can come up with because of how much they want something  And that is wildly hot.

So what is it about begging that you like?

Random Thought Of The Day #435 - Not Mad Libs Edition

Day 435

Yeah. I know... I promised you all this on Saturday but... well... I just couldn't engage my brain enough to come up with anything. And try as I might today, I just couldn't come up with anything that would be good Mad Libs material...

I wish I could find better inspiration. For the past week or so, I just can't seem to find it. Nothing is speaking to me. Nothing is really pissing me off or making me laugh enough to get a good RTOTD out of it. Maybe it's because I'm not involving myself in the community stuff anymor and therefore am a little disconnected, maybe it's because I've been so focused on this whole house things that I can't really think about much else, but maybe it's just that nothing cool or funny or irritating is actually happening anymore.

And I'm not sure what is worse. Boredom or disconnection.



What are YOU connected to?



Boredom is easy to correct. But disconnection isn't. Especially when I don't really have anything I feel compelled to be connected to right now.

I mean, I was never terribly connected in the first place. People always assumed I was (people assume that about me in a lot of aspects of my life), but most of the time, I just find shit out 3rd hand weeks after things happened or announcements were made. Granted, that's probably because if it didn't affect me, I generally ignore it... but still.. I was, at the very least, interested in things going on. Now? Not really at all.

Have I outgrown the kink community? To an extent, I believe that yes, I have. I don't mean that in the "I'm better than everyone else" kinda way (though I clearly am)... I just mean in the "I just don't care what happens to it" way. Sort of like that town you used to live in and enjoyed but moved out of a while back and now it's going downhill and the crime rate is slowly going up. You think "that's sad" but beyond that? You really don't care. You've moved on. That's kind of how I'm at with the community. The community, as it stands today, is far from irreplaceable. There will ALWAYS be something out there for kinky bastards to be a part of.  



I might not be involved in anything, but I still have my
Rope Pride

That's not a shot at thost that like it... that's just the point that I'm at with it. It's something I needed for a while... then enjoyed for a while longer... and then kinda slowly lost interest in, saw the ugly side of, where it looked like things were going and said "yeah, my lack of interest and what I'm seeing going on... I'm kinda out of this" and never really looked back.

And I'm still not looking back. I occasionally talk about the community or kink, but I also occasionally talk about a lot of shit that I have absolutely no vested interest in.

I have to thank the community for one thing, however. And that's introducing me to a lot of my closest friends. I know there was a thread a while back about meeting people in the community. And as I said there, I've met a good number of people that I consider close friends, I've met neighbors that I never would have otherwise known. I've met room mates I've met a few partners. And last but not least, learned a lot that I never would have learned without getting the fuck out of my house and getting involved. But it was a stepping stone for me. Nothing more.

But I did that on my own. The only thing the community was useful for with that was providing an opportunity. Remember that. That's all it is. It's a venue. And while venues are important, they're replaceable.

But what is the next step beyond that? I write, occasionally about kink. Sometimes, rarely, I play. I teach myself a lot of the next-step type things in play that I grabbed some basic knowledge on while I was involved. I organize a small exclusive group (only because I created the @ElitistFucks twitter page), but that's mainly oriented around drinking. But beyond that however... I'm still trying to figure out what the next step is. 

I think I'm just gonna keep doing what I'm doing and I'm sure I'll figure it out...

Maybe I could figure it out a little easier if I took the time to dedicate this thing here a little more towards kink. I mean kink philosophy, what I'm teaching myself and picking up from others and maybe even take a day every week to explore a fetish and what I find appealing about it.

But in the meantime... I'll keep making your day better with some Deadpool and ranting about nothing.

You already got your ranting about nothing. So here's your Deadpool...

Deadpool gets confused sometimes.

RTOTD #434.1

Day 434.1

So I know I've talked rather extensively about buying a house recently. And I know most of you are sitting there thinking (or screaming at the computer monitor. I prefer to imagine you all doing that) "we know you're buying a house, asshole! Now shut the fuck up about it!" but I'm still gonna talk more about it today.

For all the things that I fucking HATE about moving, there's one thing that I do genuinely enjoy. And that's the "cleaning out stuff" aspect of it.

You know what I'm talking about. You're about to move and you look around at all your stuff and start thinking "I don't wanna move all this shit". So, while you're in the packing process, you start going thru all of it and realizing "I haven't used this in 12 years. why the fuck do I keep moving it with me every time I move again?". Especially when you're still in your 20's or early 30's and you move every few years or even every year.

So instead of taking another box or 3 worth of crap like old yearbooks from highschool that have been in boxes since 1998 or that little dog with the bobblehead that your grandma gave you that she won in a bingo game,  you decide it's time to start cleaning crap out. No more lugging around boxes of stuff that will just stay boxed up until you move again.

That's what I'm doing right now.

Except with buying the house, my dad told me "good, now you can get the rest of your crap out of my basement & garage". So I'm not really going thru much in the line of boxes from my place and instead, I'm going thru all my old stuff in my parents' house.



These fucking long boxes probably weigh 50 lbs each
when filled with comics. Fuck carrying all that.

 So far, I've come up with like 700 pounds of stuff to either throw away, sell or donate (and I'm only about half way done)

For instance, about 1500 comic books in 6 long boxes. I had 30 long boxes (about 7000)l, but I'm not moving 30 long boxes of comics. So I went thru them and pulled out all the crap I'll never read again or is just taking up space and managed to fill up 6 of the long boxes with shit that I bought over the years that I hated or it sucked. I'm totally gonna sell them. Looks like they're going on Craigslist.

An electric/acoustic guitar. Apparently a very nice one from what google told me. I don't even play the fucking guitar. I'm tone deaf. I don't even remember where... oh... wait... nevermind. Yeah, I remember now. An ex got it for me cause she thought, since I was a musician, I should have a guitar. So... anyone wanna buy a guitar? Where do you even sell one anymore? Craigslist again, I guess.

Boxes (and boxes and boxes) of old college books. Christ, I have a shitload of old college books. I changed majors a lot. They're probably fucking worthless at this point. They're like 10 years old and colleges update far too often for them to be worth anything.

Like 400 cd's. I converted everything to digital like 12 years ago. Between iTunes, torrents and the stuff I already ripped into mp3, what the fuck do I ever need a CD for? CDWarehouse, here I come!



To this day, I still love the look & sound of vinyl.
(especially if it's a hot girl wearing it)

 I also did manage to find a bunch of old vinyl that is totally coming with me. Like original pressings of a shitload of classic rock albums. Now, I just need to get a new turntable. I still love vinyl. Though I think I'll have to do something with disposing of the 8-Track player & tapes that went with it. Although, a totally vintage stereo set-up would be kinda tits.

This doesn't even include my drum kit (which is totally coming) and all my old toys from when I was a kid.

Juse the massive amount of old paperwork, college notebooks and junk electronics is enough to fill probably another 3 or 4 garbage bags. I'm gonna have so much trash.


You mean a 50's Housewife does NOT
come with the house? I'm calling bullshit
cause I totally need one of these.





As for the stuff at my place now, I've learned to live light with all the moving around I was doing. It was down to books, furniture, dvds, a few personal items and clothing/linens. So I don't have to do too much "going thru stuff" there. Which is nice.

 But the downside of all this is that with moving into a place I'm not planning on moving out of anytime within the next, oh... 15 or 20 years at least? ... I'm going to start accumulating crap again. The way I did when I was younger and never moving around.

I'm gonna have to start doing spring-cleaning now, aren't I?

(coming later today... Mad Libs edition for RTOTD #434.2)

Random Thought Of The Day #434

Day 434

Our technology is going to kill us all.



Everything connects

 I love technology. I love how personal we've made our tech. But in some ways, I think we take our desire to be plugged into things, to expand our senses through technology way too far. And into the areas of violating the personal space of others.

We're constantly plugged in. We can have video conversations with someone on the other side of the country while standing on the subway. We get push notifications of every change in anyones status that we want to our iPhones or blackberries. You're never unplugged at this point. In 12 seconds, we can see something, take a photo, upload it to any social media network and flickr or make homemade HD-quality porn and have it online in as long as it takes for your data connection to upload it. We can see someone, think they're cute, introduce ourselves, have an hour long conversation and set up a first date without having to have ever been even in the same zip code as them.



These glasses can read micro-expressions such as
annoyance, interest, anger or dishonesty & then
communicate that information to the wearer.

It doesn't matter what we want to do... our technology has become personal enough that we can do it. There are actually working prototypes of the Cell Phone Tooth implant.
From glasses that can read micro-expressions and communicate their meanings to the wearer (so THAT'S why Fox cancelled Lie To Me?) to firms dedicated entirely to social networking investigations hired by businesses to investigate potential or existing employees. We're crossing the line. And once you cross that line by an inch, someone else IS going to cross it by a mile. And it doesn't matter what degree it's been crossed to. Crossing it is crossing it. By an inch or a mile. It's been crossed.

Yeah, claim that "slippery slope" is bad logic, but guess fucking what? It happens almost every time. Slippery slopes fucking happen. Period. So whether you like it or not, the fact that it happens makes it good logic.

We said "ok" when the government wanted to increase security at airports and now we have 2 hour secuirity lines, little kids and your 97 year old grandma getting "enhanced screening" pat-downs, backscatter x-ray scanners that can see under your clothes but not all the way thru your body and all number of other privacy violations because someone made the argument that they were "common sense" security precautions. As I said... slippery slope. And that's only one of a thousand possible examples that affect us all.

I know the arguments... we put too much of our social lives on the fucking internet. And that's a damn good point. We do. We make too much of our private lives public just by posting it online. But the thing is... many people also have an expectation of a degree of privacy in our social media. A mistaken expectation, but still... And our web presences are expanding, not decreasing. As I said just the other day... it's a viral world and we've all now been given the opportunity to create and spread our own virus across the planet through the intarwubz. Everyone is realizing this. And everyone is taking their opportunity to do so.

There's also a sexist element to this. It's going to have a disproportionately adverse impact on women.

Seriously. I'm not making a joke or taking a shot at the feminazis with this one. These services screen for sexually explicit photos of you online as well in your web presence. There's a disproportionately larger number women that are going to be impacted by this than men.

From jaded former lovers spiting their ex by posting that picture he convinced her to let him take of her sucking his dick to the sexting boob shot she sent to his cell phone to tease him before their date that night. Most of these don't show the man's face. And unless there's now penis recognition software out there that I'm not aware of, the cock-pic he has on FetLife or Craigslist isn't gonna be recognized. But facial regonition software that DOES exist can still tell you are you even when your mouth is full of dick.

But I can only hope that this ends in firms like this and companies that would hire firms like this realizing a law of diminishing returns. With the incresing web presence that many of us have these days, the normal, typical youthful experimentation that WILL get posted on Facebook or wherever and all of the other follies of youth and early adulthood, hopefully this is just end up as another experiment in going around the normal interviewing process for work that will exclude so many potential employees that companies eventually abandon it because they can't find enough "suitable" candidates.

Because at the end of the day, our social media is about just that. Our socializing. Our social lives. And have little or nothing to do with our ability to do a job. Or our character. Some people might play just as hard off the clock as they work while on it.

And if this becomes the new order of the day... well, all I can say is this is just another example of how fucked we are allowing ourselves to become.

Random Thought Of The Day #433

Day 433

It's another list type of day...

1. It sucks that Woodstocks is cancelled. I know how much work everyone (especially M-E-S-B and joyous) put into it. And whatever the legal reason was that came up that forced them to cancel it, I guarantee it was one that there was virtually no way around. It still sucks though.

But I have to say... it almost seems like yet another kick in the ass to the local community in the past few years. Almost like it's a 1-thing-after-another deal there. Every time things start going along moderately smoothly, something comes along to fuck it all up.



My life will feel like a real-life remake
of this fucking movie. Back when
Tom Hanks was still funny. Plus,
that chick was a lot better on Cheers.
And Artemis_Fallen doesn't really look
anything like Shelly Long.

2. Ever have one of those moments of clarity when you're like "Fuck... am I really doing this? holy shit... I'm actually doing this." and the gravity of the whole situation hits you all at once?

Yeah, I'm totally having one of those moments about buying a house.

I'm totally not enough of an adult for this.

3. I thought my desire to play was low before... anymore, it's absolutely non-existant. Outside of like 3 sessions with a friend that moved away a few months back, I have played twice since COPE 2009. And what's worse... I don't think I really care.

It's not like I'm becoming less kinky. I just really don't seem to have the urge anymore at all.

I don't even have the motivation to seek out new play partners or anything. And this might be tied into my "I'm single and I really could give a shit about finding any sort of partner" phase I've been in for the past year.

It's like I've somehow become more and more cynical about dating, relationships, play and pretty much everything else related to that kinda thing, if that makes any sense, or is even possible.



Beat motherfuckers!

 Maybe I'm just preoccupied with the whole 'I'm buying a house" thing and feel like I have more important things to think about than dating. I'm not sure. Maybe I'm just starting to realize how slim the dating pool is becoming the older I get. Or maybe I've just become a bitter, cynical, surly old man at 30 (I'm totally thinking this actually might be more of the case) but I just don't care.

Well, that might not be entirely true. I care a little bit. But I just don't seem to even have the energy to bring myself to care enough that it bothers me. It's more of that little nagging thing that pops up in my head from time to time of "hey, it would be kinda cool to not be single for a little while" which is then immediately followed by the thought that "that requires going out there and trying to meet new people and I hate new people and then it requires weeding thru the ever-growing list of girls with serious baggage, kids or a whole host of other dealbreakers for someone that actually is close to what I'm looking for and that's just way too much fucking work so I think I'm just gonna go play with my dog, have a beer and then play some xbox" (yes, I think in ungodly long run-on sentences) and say 'fuck it.

I don't know... maybe it's just as simple as I'm in my comfort zone being single right now. I'm good with being single. And being in that comfort zone, by definition, is something I don't feel like leaving. Or maybe it's just a case of not meeting anyone in forever and a day that makes me want to get out of that comfort zone.

I mean, I'm not one of those people that dates people just so they're not single. I only date or play with someone I connect with. Someone I really dig on one level or another. And I have to have an attraction. So the pickings are slimmer and slimmer each year. Unless I went the Creepy Old Dom route and tried to grab up any of the new 19-22-year-old subbie girls that showed up in the scene. But that's not really my style.

FetLife Cydia app for iPhone pleasssseeeee??

Once again, not exactly new territory to explore here... just something that's been on my mind the last day or 3.

4. Oh... new iPhone jailbreak is out. I might do that later. Need to back up my phone first though. I just wish FetLife released a Cydia app since Apple is so fucking anal about content restrictions. Enough iPhone users jailbreak that even if we had to pay $1.99 or something for the app, we'd do it just so we can have a damn app. Fucking apple.

5. This thing sucks today. Like really sucks. I have absolutely no inspiration.  I hate days like that. Where I sit here and just kinda have writers block.

Well, not so much writers block as just nothing that really speaks to me enough that I can expound upon a basic concept and turn it into an actual thought.

Nope, instead I try to hide the fact that I can't really make some basic concept into a full thought behind lists of little crap with some bad one-liners thrown in and pictures..

And on that note... here's some more Deadpool:




Deadpool would have been AWESOME in Avatar. He knows how to kill blue freaks.