lookin

Sounds like our Hi is in heat again. Time perhaps for an avatar change?

Well, I take it back. Just finished a post with everything looking just the way I wanted in 'Preview', made one small edit to the text, and all the formatting blew up. Centering no longer available, except for one line, and extra carriage returns inserted between all lines of text. If I tried to remove them manually, I lost font color in most lines. Tried fixing that, and lost centering entirely. And, as the 'Array' name is still with us in the 'New Content' view, it seems the recent bout with malware has left behind some fairly intractable collateral damage. I'll check back in a week or so and see if the programmers have managed to bandage the software's 'skin'. Without doing anything rash of course.

Make that 101 insults. I started watching the video, when a banner ad popped up inviting me to make a donation to Public Advocate so they could fight the powerful Homosexual Lobby. The organization has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and is headed up by a guy whom the Washington Post called 'a leader in the nation's anti-gay rights movement'. I don't know how ads get served up to individual viewers, though it's my understanding that they are targeted to specific audiences rather than just showing up randomly. I expect they would know I had clicked through to the video from a site named BoyToy, though why they thought that might make me a likely contributor to their organization eludes me at the moment.

Or is it?

To continue my admittedly imperfect analogy from earlier, if a runaway slave had returned and, instead of being beaten within an inch of his life, he was merely returned to the fields with a slap on the wrist, do you think he should have thanked his lucky stars and continued working till the day he died? This is not a straightforward case of right against wrong and Swartz did have mental health issues to contend with, and the federal prosecutor was no doubt a good son and took in many rescue animals, but the fact remains that fighting an unjust law is often no longer a case of standing in front of a judge and making a truthful and effective argument. As a result of Swartz's tragic action, this law and, hopefully, others like it may now get the public scrutiny it should have had before it was put on the books. Or it may not. The media and the public may decide the story has no legs, and continue to allow knowledge that should be in the public domain to remain locked behind firewalls, available only to folks with the cash to get at it. This is not the first time someone has sacrificed his or her life for a principle, or because of plain old exhaustion and, sadly, I expect it won't be the last.

I might have had stoner sex with a weatherman's son but my memories are cloudy.

I guess those runaway slaves should have stayed and faced the music too. Perhaps you have the resources to take on the Feds over a wrongheaded law, but most of us don't. Swartz was on his way either to jail or to financial catastrophe and very likely both. For the U. S. Attorney and the federal prosecutor, it was just another day at the office. A fair fight is one thing, but this was something else again.

Thanks. I do that over at Daddy's but here I try to read everything. I like to read all your posts, which can show up almost anywhere, and Lucky, when he's in town, is all over like a rash. And now that there are sixteen forums (!), peckering through them piecemeal for new posts would leave me clicking like a cheap pair of dentures. So the 'New Content' button seems to be my only option for now. I knew we were separated at birth! What made you change, if you don't mind my asking? When I was a kid, I always read from my least favorite to my most favorite. Sometimes a strip would head downhill, so it would get read earlier. It would take a long time until it got dropped from the list altogether. But I always ended with Peanuts in the Inquirer and Li'l Abner in the Bulletin. Also, just noticed that the formatting tools seem to be working again! One glitch down and one to go!

Thanks! I just did it.

And he, in turn, is pointing the finger back to the U. S. Attorney's office in Boston. May be he sees himself as the hired gun, with the U. S. Attorney setting policy. Though I expect it's the back room money-boys who are really setting policy. Reached at home, the prosecutor, Stephen Heymann, referred all questions to the spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Boston, Christina Dilorio-Sterling. She did not immediately respond to an email and phone message seeking comment. . . . As of Wednesday, the government took the position that any guilty plea by Swartz must include guilty pleas for all 13 charges and the possibility of jail time, Peters said. Otherwise the government would take the case to trial and seek a sentence of at least seven years. . . . JSTOR, one alleged victim, agreed with Peters that those terms were excessive, Peters said. JSTOR came over to Swartz's side after "he gave the stuff back to JSTOR, paid them to compensate for any inconveniences and apologized," Peters said. . . . For Swartz's family, the matter was clearer-cut, said Peters, his lawyer. "Our consistent response was, this case should be resolved in a way that doesn't destroy Aaron's life and takes into account who he really is, and what he was doing."

You wouldn't know it from the blatant highjacking, but I've been thinking a lot about the original question. When I first met my partner, he was just moving to the big city and I already had a good job. Even though I was already paying the rent and could handle food and entertainment for two, it was important to me that he find a job and help share expenses. Like the OP, I wanted a relationship where both of us contributed financially. In retrospect, I wish I had been less hidebound. We drifted apart after a few years and then got back together at a time when he wasn't able to work a regular forty-hour week. By then, I was earning more than I needed and had a much broader view of the different kinds of relationships that were possible. I was happy to cover things financially, as that was easy for me. And, for a period of time when it wasn't, he dipped into his savings to help with expenses. And he did a great job of making sure we were both having fun. Recently, I stayed with a couple of friends who have been together for a long time. One of the guys takes care of most of the expenses, while the other guy has created a beautiful home and makes sure there's a gourmet meal on the table every evening. Though I think it's possible to have an unhealthy relationship where one person is a giver and the other is a taker, I've come to the conclusion that there are a lot of healthy relationships where both partners give what they are best at and that financial contribution is only one small part of what makes a good partnership. It may be good to be wary until trust builds up in a relationship but, once that happens, I think that caring for one another, however that is shown, is by far the most important thing.

Right back atcha, Hi. The last time I saw so many softballs was when Coach moved me into Girl's P. E.

Why not start with an ad on Rentboy and take it from there?

Oh come now!

Not only that but the last time I ordered the Peking Duck they screwed up the bill.

Noo, noo, noo, noo, noo, noo, noo! Apparently they have a bunch of these Russian kids doing daredevil stunts. I don't think there's enough testosterone in the world to get me up on one of those things. (The crane thing, not the Russian kid's thing. )

I tried to 'like' this twice and ended up 'unliking' it. Too bad. I hope you didn't try using those teeth on Billy!

Totally agree, flipao. And I love, love love your avatar!

Ignore it! Not the site, but the pop-up. It started happening after the malware infestation and, in every case I've tried so far, has not prevented me from posting an image. (Including the one below.) Welcome back!

I'm with you on that! But while I'm fer what's behind the curtain, you seem to be agin' it. There were a few times in college when I found myself with a righteous hangover on a Sunday morning. The one fix I could count on was an hour in the university steam room. Not sure why, but there was often a cutie or two likewise enjoying the vapors at that early hour and I was usually able to make some new friends quite readily. If it weren't for the rigors of Freshman Calculus limiting me to one such adventure a week, I have little doubt I'd be an alcoholic today. Also guilty of a contrarian view with regard to San Francisco bathrooms. One man's 'dirty' is another man's festive. I shudder to think what you would have made of the local lav's back in the seventies when anyone who was anyone could be found hovering over the urinal cakes. Now that you've got me waxing nostalgic, can't help but recall a visit to Berlin back in the sixties when, after two years' of near-celibacy, I found myself introduced to the social life clustering around the pissoirs of that fair city. Had a lot of catching up to do, and fortunately was able to bring myself current in just a few days' time. Imagine my surprise and pleasure to see an identical pissoir in Munich some forty years later. It was not open for business and, in fact, had a heavy chain ringed around it as if it were a monument. Given its location just off the Müllerstraße, one of Munich's preeminent gay districts, I believe that's exactly what it was. For those unfamiliar with gay history, such public gathering places for males with their dicks out were often the most likely places to connect with others with similar proclivities. Amazing how times have changed and how yesterday's pleasure palaces are tomorrow's museum pieces. I know just how they feel.

I don't think it's the topics themselves that cause tsuris, but rather the way topics are discussed. For me, it's all about how we relate to one another as a social group. For example, here are five possible ways of disagreeing with someone: 1. I think you may have overlooked something. 2. Do you really believe this??? 3. You've got to be kidding me! 4. That's the DUMBEST thing I've ever heard from someone who's SUPPOSED to be an adult!! 5. In my opinion, it's not the topic itself that causes threads to do downhill. Nor is it the fact that different posters have different opinions; as you and others have said, disagreement can be a very healthy thing. Rather, it's that some posters seem to enjoy throwing insults at other posters. If you're surrounded by a bunch of other insulting posters, such aggressive negativity can be just what the doctor ordered. But if you're in a group where some folks are put off by this kind of antisocial behavior, you may end up driving away half your audience and discouraging anyone new from joining the club. And even that's OK when it's your site and you get to decide who stays and who goes. But TY and OZ have always made it clear that they'd like more participation, rather than less, and they've put their money where their mouth is. As their guest, I figure it's my responsibility to figure out how to be welcome in their house. I personally think they do a great job of making others feel welcome and setting an example of how they would like their guests to be treated. Topics that would get locked down elsewhere, or end up with posters being kicked out, usually survive here and can often be quite fun. So I figure why not learn to appreciate a good thing when it comes my way?

OK, you win. All I was trying to do was find an efficient way to see some new posts without having to hunt and peck through all the forums. I thought the 'View New Content' button was going to be my salvation, but it seems the programmers are hellbent on naming everyone 'Array' in that particular view and can't be convinced to do otherwise. So now they've decided the fix is to create eight Sections with nineteen Forums where I can meander around endlessly looking for something to read. And Heaven knows where I'd end up if I wanted to find something about a Latin American film star who's traveling to Europe to get into porn. I guess it would depend on how old he is and whether he needs any advice. I'm as big an advocate as you'll find for organization and getting things into the right boxes, but I think I'm going to have to sit this one out, at least until there's a flowchart.

So glad to see all of you down here, one small step above the Sandbox. For anyone who gives a shit, I still can't get the formatting codes to work right. It's been weeks since I've been able to center a picture, and don't think it isn't cramping my style. And it seems that all posters are still named 'Array' in the 'View New Content' format. Avatars show up for the posters who have one, but no poster names, other than 'Array'. And that leads me back to an earlier question about how you good folks read the Forums: Especially now that there are so many posts, I can either flush them to the top by viewing new content, or I can skim through forum-by-forum and thread-by-thread hoping not to miss any of the gems. Does anyone else use the 'View New Content' button? If not, how do you make sure you see all the good stuff without spending several hours a day? And for those who do spend several hours a day reading all the posts, do you find you have to give up any other important daily activities in order to find the time?

Yes, and Bela Lugosi was the death star.