MsGuy

Top models prep for their Halloween party grand entrance. (Body guard at far right.)

No problem, guys, I just 'liked' my last post myself (on your behalf). And it was a very well received 'like', if I do say so myself. Damn, it's nice to be loved!

Well, goodness, AS, it wasn't so bad as all that! Just a little dusty and a bit dim. And an extra blanket wouldn't have killed you, would it, you cheap bastard!

Pay it no mind, Sucky, I'm just trying out chain of thought posting. Think of it as the product of the bastard child of RA1 and Hito, adopted and reared in an attic by AdamSmith. But now you can ever so casually drop it into the conversation and astound your friends! You'll thank me later.

Lookin, I don't want to put you to any trouble but, if you still have the contact information for the sales rep in the center, PM me. Kind of cute, sorta reminds me of a young Peyton Manning.

Humph... I sitting on my hands until the twinks arrive.

Not my particular cup of tea, Sucky. But I do recall reading somewhere that, in olden times, there was a village in Egypt where fathers made a practice of loaning out their sons to each. And of course there's classical Greece where men would come courting to a family's house looking for a lad that had caught their eye. Supposedly they were to bring a nice gift to demonstrate their intentions were honorable. One on the more interesting aspects of Xenephon's history The Persian Expedition is the way he casually talks about ephebes and their lovers among the soldiers, not as anything of special note or remarkable in any way but simply because a particular romance occasionally became relevant to his overall account. Near as I can tell, he makes no distinction between M/F & M/M hookups, just discusses them all equally mater of factly as they happen to play a part in the story. Xenephon was a Athenian aristocrat writing for a general Greek audience. The difference in attitude from our culture is not so much about sex itself (I suspect armies are armies and soldiers slogging around in hostile territory behave pretty much the same any time, anywhere) as it is the absence of any sense that gay relationships are essentially different in kind. He jokes about gay goings on sometimes but in exactly the same tone that he jokes about the antics that straight couples got up to.

That portable oxygen machine would work just as well for you, AS. Just saying.

LOL, OK maybe 'a reason' would be more accurate.

AS, wake up boy, you're smarter than that! The key to this is to do it on other peoples money. That's what Indiegogo is for, you ninny! I read a news story just last week about this whack job that crowd sourced cash deep into 7 figures to develop a combo boom box, beer dispenser and food cooler for camping trips. And the only thing he promised his investors was to send them one of the first few thousand production coolers after he figured out how to do it. THE SEC HAS SPECIFICALLY EXCLUDED CROWD SOURCED FUND RAISING FROM ITS REGULATIONS; ITS 'BLUE SKY' HOG HEAVEN! TO INFINITY AND BEYOND, BABY! I mean SERIOUSLY, we could both buy penthouse condos in Thailand and retire for life, just on the development money. Hell, we could probably even steal lure away Oz's two BFs and swap them off with each other for variety.

I've read that one of the biggest adjustments downsized executives have to make when they open their own business is the lack of flunkies ready to do the actual work. When the dishwasher is a no show, you just got to pull on those rubber gloves and get to scrubbing.

I know, AS, I know! It's just a matter of putting together off the shelf technology. Tweek it a bit, open up Amazon and Pay Pal accounts and we're off to the races (not to mention Saint Petersburg, Sao Paulo and Bankok). We gotta get on this horse and ride it 'till it drops! ==== OZ, I love you buddy but you steal this and I'll buy me one of those portable oxygen machines and hunt you down. Swear to God, I'll do it. Consider yourself warned!

AS, trust you to be the first to alert us to the possibilities presented here. Top this off with a cluster of micro-actuators to complement the sensors, a plug in for a PC, some creative programming modeled on a few of our best beloved escorts and the sky's the limit. How about we check out crowd funding sites like Indiegogo and Kickstarter and see what we can get going. I can foresee big bucks here, buddy, so let's not sleep on this. Some Silicon Valley nerd and his greed head venture capital backers might get the jump on us! Seriously, dude, we'll both be biting our pillows if we miss out on the next big thing!

AdamSmith, it's not that people really want the roof to fall in on their heads, but they're generally not much inclined to tolerate the the least bit of inconvenience1 or discomfort while some smart ass stranger beavers away shoring up the supports. 1 inconvenience (def.): trouble or difficulty caused to one's personal requirements or comfort. "the inconvenience of having to change trains" synonyms: trouble, bother, problems, disruption, difficulty, disturbance;

A worthwhile caution, ihpguy.

Great timing, tomcal. I have no doubt that that extra $350 US will bring smiles to a lot of faces in Brazil.

AS, I take it the guy on the right is a visiting consultant, right?

Planetime, you've become quite the travel writer. I find myself looking forward to your posts here. Thanks for the good work. And whenever you find you have a bit of downtime during your gallivanting around the globe, remember us homebodies and fire off a report from the front lines.

RA1's posts usually make sense. Sometimes though, it helps if you look at them sideways and squint real hard.

Planetime, there's something of an international flap going on right now about huge numbers of Muslim refugees/economic migrants from northeastern Burma & Bangladesh heading toward Australia. Some are using Thailand as a transit route to Indonesia. The government in Bangkok is coming under pressure to stop 'overlooking' human trafficking. I understand the authorities have sacked a number of low level to mid-level police and army commanders for negligence/complicity and is making a show of clamping down. Possibly the out of the ordinary police attention to the goings on in the bars is a by product of police commanders doing what they can to demonstrate they're getting on message and won't embarrass higher ups. In any case, I hope things settle down soon enough for you to enjoy the remainder of your stay.

Mvan1, do you think that the drop off in Brazilian passengers might account at least in part for the bargain rate travel specials airlines have been offering on America/Brazil routes? (as discussed in another thread)

If the drug induced oral sex encounters are included in the rent, I'd say this sounds like a real find, AS.

Charlie, most of the problems you describe come from trying to address the water shortage through allocation rationing rather than price rationing. The water board does not exist, nor will one ever exist, that can efficiently allocate water between restaurants, front lawns, olive orchards, alfalfa farms, golf courses and bathrooms. For 'efficiently' above, please read 'with the least possible pain and damage'. Exacerbating the problem is that Cali, and the rest of the desert West, has stalwartly refused to (gradually) introduce price rationing for decades, all the while committing tens of billions of dollars to development predicated on plentiful, cheap water. A few years back I read up on this problem just out of curiosity. Any number of studies have shown that there is plenty of water out west if only it were efficiently employed on sane uses. Enormous amounts of water is used in agriculture on low value added, water hungry crops using obsolete irrigation methods. Hugh amounts are wasted for absurd urban purposes. Value priced water will cure both those sets of problems. You can have cheap water or you can have plentiful water (for any useful purpose) but you can not have both cheap & plentiful water. Each year that you guys refuse to acknowledge this truth only makes the situation worse. Or, I guess you could choose to have some folks in Sacramento try to figure out how to allocate water between hotels in Palm Springs and avocados in Central Valley. Good luck with that.

Remember when the boys hold their prices level, they're actually taking a reduction in terms of purchasing power. If you like a guy, treat him to supper afterwards. Good way to practice your Portuguese.