lookin

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.

Personally, I never thought I had the tits for tats.

Now there's a contest! OZ, are you listening?

Perhaps you could give your friend Yoni a good look at the ol' aurora borealis.

It's been OK for me for almost a week. I also peeked in on my iPhone a few days back, with the 'full' version, and had no problems.

Personally, I don't mind folks airing their grievances or anything else they choose to air. Sometimes it does a body good to purge the evil vapors. But I'm never sure where the line is between venting and kvetching. A day or two, and a thread or two, seems about right to me. Less than that, and the noxious gases may continue to build and cause distress. And more than that may give this site a reputation as The Village of the Banned and make it less desirable for new members. I recall a site called EscortSpeak which was an offshoot of another site and seemed to owe its very existence to disgruntled posters from the other site. Soon enough, anyone who wanted to let bygones be bygones and move on to more positive topics was marginalized. It became a very negative place and eventually ceased to exist. I have no doubt that OZ and TY are able to see any such trends developing here and take whatever precautions are necessary to protect their 'brand'. But one of the things I enjoy so much about this site is that the members are usually able to moderate themselves, and free up TY and OZ for more worthwhile pursuits. Like Lucky, I hope that it will soon be time to move on to more creative threads and leave the past in the rear view mirror.

As far as I can tell, the spell check function is built into your browser (or some other applications, like word processors) and not into the site itself. I'm using Safari 5.1.7 on a Mac, and it has a spell check function built in. That said, it's necessary to turn it on, which is an option under the 'Edit' menu. Also, Mac OS X has system-wide spell checking. Wonder what would happin if I negglekted to turn it on?

If your point is that there are 'bad actors' in the world whose international communications can be shown to bear watching, I'm your biggest supporter. However, if your point is that the U. S. government can unilaterally decide to dismantle the protections of the two-hundred-and-thirty-year old Fourth Amendment because it has 'trained' and 'authorized' some of its employees to disregard it, I have to wonder if you may have skimmed too quickly through a chapter or two in the history books. When you let a government bureaucrat, no matter how 'pure' his or her intentions, hive off the judicial branch and decide over lunch who should lose their all of their Constitutional protections, you've lost not only freedom for one or two citizens but for all of us. Please pardon me if I don't go along.

What drone policy? ACLU takes CIA to court as agency denies existence of drone programme

Believe me, I have the patience of Job and I'm not getting sore or anything. I just figured this would be a convenient thread to list anything I notice that's possibly related to the recent manifestation of malware. It seems the centering button is grayed out on the Format palette. Nor will the HTML code for centering work. I think this corrected itself briefly over the past few days, as I was able to center a photo or two. So it seems intermittent. I guess as the programmers thrash the code over the next few weeks, such aberrations may come and go. I know I will. (Just discovered that the centering function availability may be limited by image type. It seems to be there for .jpg images, but not for .gif images. I think it used to be available for both.) The 'Array' poster is still with us in the View New Content screen. A poster's avatar will show up if s/he has one, but all posters now have the name 'Array'. An array of what is not made clear. When browsing posts in the Forums, user names show up correctly. It's just the New Content view that seems to be affected. This has made me wonder if I am the only one who uses the 'View New Content' button. I discovered it only recently and it's the quickest way for me to read the Board and make sure I'm not missing anything. Do others use it as well? Or plod through each Forum? Or perhaps read selected Forums? Or maybe just wait to read about it in the funny papers?

Perhaps your Hidden Immunity Idol kicked in.

Is that AdamSmith out there? .. Out where? On that boat? . .. . That's not a boat. It's a whale. . . . . . . That is him! Sitting right behind the blowhole. . . . . . . . . Who's that pink chappie next to him? . . . . .. . . . . The one waving 'Hi'? . . . . . .. . . . . . Oh my, that is so cute!!

There's nothing new about a mindset that lets the government into all the nooks and crannies of your personal life. It's been done to death.

Suckrates, nice of you to cover Lucky's back. It shows class.