Erotic Thoughts

Anticipation: There's no feeling quite like it.

The hidden recesses of our minds: What secrets lie therein?

What is the RL mind behind the curtain?

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." -Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

You, me, symbolism.

If I was a butterfly...

I want to paint an erotic work of art, and I want to use your body as my canvas.

Love is in the air.

2019-10-30

Some Funny Images (NSFW)

Wow. Is that a Volkswagen convertible?

Do I need a new attachment?

This isn't how I remember the library. Time to renew my card.

I never could understand math. And women. Yes, I never could understand math and women.

I'm guessing this is a joke about boning. See? I do have a sense of humerus.
*facepalm* I can't believe I just said that.

Sometimes, a guy has to know when to keep his mouth shut.

I failed.

A new interpretation of "The Creation of Adam" by Michelangelo

Have yourself a nice day. Keep smiling.

2019-10-28

Malware: How to Practice Safe Computing

Old joke: I practice safe computing. When I play Second Life, I always wear a condom.

Some in Second Life refuse to click on any links in IM chat. They have good reason. Who wants to get their computer infected? While it’s important to install and maintain a good antivirus program, a prudent approach to unknown URLs is to just not click. It’s not worth the risk.

But is there anything we ourselves can do?

Reputation is a good start. Well-known legitimate websites can give us a warm fuzzy that we’re not going to unleash the hounds of hell. Legitimate also includes pornography. Porn sites have long been known as a harbour for the malicious, baddies taking advantage of our insatiable curiosity and all-round horniness when we throw caution to the wind and blindly click on the promisingly scandalous. Bingo! You now have to pay a ransom to get your files back!

However, the top porn sites, such as xHamster and Pornhub are running for-profit businesses based on advertising. They would be shooting themselves in the foot big time if they allowed malware into their presentations. These days, it would seem you have to dig way down into out of the way niche porn sites to find malware embedded in the site itself.

Malvertising
I use the McAfee antivirus system but have in the past used Sophos and Norton. These systems can filter web pages, examining individual elements, namely advertising embedded on the page.

Legitimate sites like CNN, The Washington Post, etc., can get advertising from 3rd party providers. If you see a box in a corner of the page, or a pop-up, it may contain an advertisement. That ad didn’t come from the site, it came from a service which provides ads to the site. The advertiser may embed malicious code in the ad, give it the 3rd party provider, and Bingo! You have a legitimate site serving up malware to your computer.

Lesson to be learned: In this day and age, getting malware is no longer just connected to surfing dubious sites like porn. It could be any site, even sites you trust.

Can we trust anybody?
Let’s not forget that “virus” as in computer virus is named after the human virus. It has the same characteristics. I drop in for a family dinner, holiday or birthday, and somebody coughs or sneezes. A few days later, I know I’ve got something. Cough, wheeze.

It’s important, first and foremost, to have an antivirus system. I have McAfee because it was bundled with a new Dell laptop, I purchased last year. Reviewing PC Mag’s top-ten systems, I know that McAfee is good. It certainly isn’t a mistake, and we can argue over the details.

One of its features is to compare any link to its own list of questionable URLs. If I click or if a web page automatically sends me somewhere, McAfee will stop the process and give me a warning, asking me if I want to proceed. I avoid any chance of malware by just not continuing.

What can I do?
Before visiting any website, it is possible to pass the URL through an online checking system to find out if there’s any risk.

Google Transparency Report
https://transparencyreport.google.com/safe-browsing/search
Google’s Safe Browsing technology examines billions of URLs per day looking for unsafe websites. Every day, we discover thousands of new unsafe sites, many of which are legitimate websites that have been compromised. When we detect unsafe sites, we show warnings on Google Search and in web browsers. You can search to see whether a website is currently dangerous to visit.

Type in a URL and see what’s reported. The site info gives you the latest status about “unsafe content” and tells you when Google last checked the site.

Virus Total
https://www.virustotal.com/gui/home/url
Analyze suspicious files and URLs to detect types of malware, automatically share them with the security community

Once again, type in a URL and check the report.

FYI: I’m sure you recognise Google but not VirusTotal. According to Wikipedia, the company was purchased by Google in 2012.

How to get URLs before clicking
All browsers have this functionality: Right click on a link, and you get a pop-up menu. In Firefox, choose “Copy Link Location”, in Chrome, choose “Copy link address”, and in Edge, choose “Copy link”. Instead of clicking on the URL, you have copied the URL to the clipboard. You can paste it into the above two URL check systems.

IM Chat
From time to time, I include links to various things: articles, pictures, and video. Some people who don’t know me refuse to click. I usually preface the sending of any link with this:

FYI: I check all links for malware. I don’t want to infect my own computer.

But I understand their hesitancy. The world can be a dangerous place, and we must be cautious.

However, I also know that I have more familiarity with links and can better judge their legitimacy. I recognise Flickr and YouTube, two sites that crop up frequently in SL profiles, and open them without fear of infection. But if I ran into something I don’t recognise, I can use the above two check systems to get an idea of how safe a URL is.

Good luck. Safe computing. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go out to my local pharmacy. I thought to log into Second Life this evening, and I’ve just discovered I’ve run out of condoms.

This won't work but it is funny.

References

Wikipedia: Malvertising
Malvertising (a portmanteau of "malicious advertising") is the use of online advertising to spread malware. It typically involves injecting malicious or malware-laden advertisements into legitimate online advertising networks and webpages. Online advertisements provide a solid platform for spreading malware because significant effort is put into them in order to attract users and sell or advertise the product. Because advertising content can be inserted into high-profile and reputable websites, malvertising provides malefactors an opportunity to push their attacks to web users who might not otherwise see the ads, due to firewalls, more safety precautions, or the like. Malvertising is "attractive to attackers because they 'can be easily spread across a large number of legitimate websites without directly compromising those websites'."

Malvertising is a fairly new concept for spreading malware and is even harder to combat because it can work its way into a webpage and spread through a system unknowingly: "The interesting thing about infections delivered through malvertising is that it does not require any user action (like clicking) to compromise the system and it does not exploit any vulnerabilities on the website or the server it is hosted from... infections delivered through malvertising silently travel through Web page advertisements." It is able to expose millions of users to malware, even the most cautious, and is growing rapidly: "In 2012, it was estimated nearly 10 billion ad impressions were compromised by malvertising." Attackers have a very wide reach and are able to deliver these attacks easily through advertisement networks. Companies and websites have had difficulty diminishing the number of malvertising attacks, which "suggests that this attack vector isn’t likely to disappear soon."

Wikipedia: VirusTotal
VirusTotal is a website created by the Spanish security company Hispasec Sistemas. Launched in June 2004, it was acquired by Google Inc. in September 2012. The company’s ownership switched in January 2018 to Chronicle, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc.

VirusTotal aggregates many antivirus products and online scan engines to check for viruses that the user’s own antivirus may have missed, or to verify against any false positives. Files up to 550 MB can be uploaded to the website, or sent via email (max. 32MB). Anti-virus software vendors can receive copies of files that were flagged by other scans but passed by their own engine, to help improve their software and, by extension, VirusTotal’s own capability. Users can also scan suspect URLs and search through the VirusTotal dataset. VirusTotal for dynamic analysis of malware uses Cuckoo sandbox. VirusTotal was selected by PC World as one of the best 100 products of 2007.

PC Mag - Oct 22/2019
The Best Antivirus Protection for 2019
Which antivirus should you choose? You have a wealth of options. Kaspersky Anti-Virus and Bitdefender Antivirus Plus routinely take perfect or near-perfect scores from the independent antivirus testing labs. A single subscription for McAfee AntiVirus Plus lets you install protection on all of your Windows, Android, Mac OS, and iOS devices. And its unusual behavior-based detection technology means Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus is the tiniest antivirus around. We've named these four Editors' Choice for commercial antivirus, but they're not the only products worth consideration. Read the reviews of our top-rated products, and then make your own decision.

2019-10-24

Erotic Love

"Erotic love is one of the highest forms of contemplation."
Kenneth Rexroth (1905–1982), American poet, translator and critical essayist

True or false?
"Many women have a deep inner longing to be dominated by a man who’s absolutely obsessed with them." -Unknown

"I long to surrender to my desire for you."
Kneeling Man Embracing a Standing Woman by Gustav Vigeland (1869-1943), Norwegian sculptor

Who we are as men and women: What's the science behind our motivations?

Psychology Today - Aug 22/2013
"What Do Women Really Want?" by Noam Shpancer Ph.D.
"Marta Meana, a researcher at the University of Nevada, has argued provocatively that the organizing principle of female sexuality is the desire to be desired."
...
"Female desire, according to Meana, is activated when a woman feels overwhelmingly desired, not rationally considered. Female erotic literature, including all those shades of gray, is built on this fantasy. Sexual desire in this view does not work according to our expectations and social values. Desire seeks the path of desire, not the path of righteousness. It thrives not on social order but on its negation. This is one reason all religions and societies try to control, contain, limit and re-direct it."
...
"Despite what is commonly believed, then, Meana argues that female sexuality is more self-centered than male’s. Mick Jagger’s lamentations aside, male fantasies focus on giving satisfaction, not on receiving it. Men see themselves in their fantasies bringing the woman to orgasm, not themselves. Women see the man, set aflame by uncontrollable lust for them, bringing them to ecstasy. Men want to excite women. Women want men to excite them. Being desired is the real female orgasm, Meena says."

2019-10-22

I Never Touch You

I never touch you. But from afar, across time and space, I touch your imagination.

In Second Life, we sit at a computer and run a piece of software. While we communicate with people and interact with them, we never physically touch. Any use of the word touch is figurative, not literal.

And yet...

Dr. Marty Klein (b 1950) is an American sex therapist, educator and public policy analyst. He publishes a monthly magazine called Sexual Intelligence and in issue #137, July 2011 he tells the story of Sam who starts dating a year after his wife left him. (Sexual Intelligence - Issue #137 -- July, 2011)

Sam's having difficulty in bed with a new partner. The real problem? He doesn't know how to talk to his partner. Dr. Klein makes this startling statement: "Talking about sex is much more intimate than doing it."

It’s an interesting perspective on this most personal of acts between human beings. In SL, because we never touch, we are forced to communicate. Should we do this more often in RL? Could more communication in RL enhance our relationships? Naughty emails, suggestive phone calls, sexting. What would Esther Perel say about keeping things hot? (see my blog: Mindf*cking)

Talking about sex is much more intimate than doing it. Wow. Powerful stuff. I've always heard that the body's biggest sex organ is our brain. Are we all missing out on something? Is there more to this thing called sex than just an erection? Is there more to this thing called sex than just sex? This reminds me of an odd question about the brain and sexual arousal. This is applicable to all readers in whatever your partnered circumstances may be, but the wording, if you'll excuse me, is as if I'm asking this of a woman:

Can you give a man a hard-on without touching him?

Obviously, we're back talking not about a man's genitals but about his biggest sexual organ his brain. If that's stimulated, will everything fall into place? And if you think you could successfully answer the above question, I would add a second question:

Could you make a man cum without touching him?

I’ve sometimes wondered about this scenario in RL:

I set up two chairs, back to back. The two of us sit down. We can’t see one another. We can’t touch. We can talk and listen, but there is no physical connection. Question: Can we make love? Can we run gamut: tempt, tease, arouse, excite, and climax? Can we not just communicate but connect? Connect on a most intimate level? We never touch each other, but can we touch each other's imagination?

Now, you may be reading this thinking of Monty Python wink, wink, nudge, nudge. However, this is precisely what therapists have sometimes recommended to couples who are forced to be separated by lengths of time, a worker or a soldier stationed overseas, for instance. Letters, emails, pictures, phone sex, Skype, etc., communication with a naughty slant to keep the love alive, so to speak. The goal is to keep the sense of intimacy between two people.

I want to clarify something, since the questions I wrote above were as a man addressing a woman. It's a two-way street. It's very much a man's responsibility to connect with the woman. It's the responsibility of all of us in any circumstances to connect with our partner. Coming back to SL, can I connect with my partner? Can I make them cum without touching them?

2019-10-21

Second Life: Ha, ha, ha!

Published on Apr 20, 2007 by bourgery
YouTube: Second Life (1:00)
Note: This video seems to have been created by DraftFCB (now just FCB), apparently one of the largest advertising agencies in the world.


Ha, ha, ha! An oldie but goodie. This hilarious 2007 one minute video recreates various aspects of Second Life in Real Life, and in doing so, points out the weird and humorous of the virtual world we've all come to love and hate.

Wikipedia: Second Life
Second Life is an online virtual world, developed and owned by the San Francisco-based firm Linden Lab and launched on June 23, 2003. By 2013, Second Life had approximately one million regular users; at the end of 2017 active user count totals "between 800,000 and 900,000". In many ways, Second Life is similar to massively multiplayer online role-playing games; however, Linden Lab is emphatic that their creation is not a game: "There is no manufactured conflict, no set objective".

Curious about more up-to-date numbers, I found this.

Quora: Dawn Townsend, Fortnite Player Since July 2017 (2017-present) - July 29, 2019
“By 2013, Second Life had approximately one million regular users; at the end of 2017 active user count totals "between 800,000 and 900,000"

This is according to Wikipedia, so looking at that decay of approx 150,000 over 3 years, one can hazard a guess that Second Life probably has an active user base of somewhere in the region of between 650,000 and 750,000.


I've commented elsewhere that the technology is primitive, the graphics are clunky, and the lag is horrible, and yet, we all keep coming back. It ain't The Matrix, but it seems that it's the best we've got right now.

2019-10-20

Mindf*cking

I seize you by the hair.

Warm breath. Sensual lips. Moist tongue. Can I seize you by the imagination?

This woman, a sex therapist, has an interesting concept: "mindfucking".

"The Sex Before the Sex" by Kim Anami
"I like to be penetrated long before any physical contact takes place. In fact, I need to be. Witty banter, teasing, verbal double entendres—all foreplay for me. The people I am attracted to have a keen grasp on language, ideas and poetry. Little that they say is strictly linear or without a hint of play or sexuality."
...
"For me, that battle starts early. It could go on for days. Weeks. It doesn’t need to stop. Each throw down we have, each time we cannot resist physical touch any longer, wipes the slate clean and gives us the chance to start anew. Who will bring the other person to wetness or hardness first? Who will be so overcome with desire that they tackle the other person when they get in the door?"

Ms. Anami was writing about RL, but her idea is applicable to all worlds. Can we get into each other's head? Good sex is good sex. But great sex can be almost spiritual.


This idea is echoed by others.

Wikipedia: Esther Perel
Esther Perel (born 1958) is a Belgian psychotherapist who has explored the tension between the need for security (love, belonging and closeness) and the need for freedom (erotic desire, adventure and distance) in human relationships.

Perel promoted the concept of Erotic Intelligence in her book Mating in Captivity: Unlocking Erotic Intelligence (2006), which has been translated into 24 languages. After publishing the book, she became an international advisor on sex and relationships. She gave a TED talk in February 2013 entitled The secret to desire in a long-term relationship (YouTube 19:10), and another in March 2015 entitled Rethinking infidelity ... a talk for anyone who has ever loved (YouTube 21:30).

Perel is the host of the podcast Where Should We Begin?, which is based inside her therapist's office as she sees anonymous couples in search of insight into topics such as infidelity, sexlessness and grief.

In 2016, Perel was named to Oprah Winfrey's Supersoul 100 list of visionaries and influential leaders.

“Erotic couples understand that foreplay is not something you do 5 minutes before sex begins –

foreplay pretty much starts at the end of the previous orgasm.” – Esther Perel

I contend that in SL (and in RL), while there may be a sexual aspect to our interactions, what we're all really looking for is a connection, an erotic connection. I've said that anybody can click on a pose ball but not everyone can make it count. And if it doesn't count, what's the point?

May you find a connection, erotic, passionate, and fulfilling.
In other words, may you have it all.
All the best to you in your worlds (plural: SL & RL). :-)

2019-10-19

Axel and Romina: Bachata Zouk

Published on Jan 2, 2013 by Axel y Maria Bachata Sensual
YouTube: Axel and Romina l Climax - Usher l BachataZouk Sexy dance 2017 (3:57)

Sexy, indeed. Sensual also comes to mind. Ballroom dancing is an interesting synergy: the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Two people together working as a coordinated unit to produce an eye-catching spectacle of unified movement.

It would seem that bachata is a slower version of the salsa, originating from the Dominican Republic.

Zouk also refers to a dance, originally from the Caribbean but then expropriated and modified in South America.

I found scant information about the above dancers, but did manage to work out this. Axel Antezana is a dancer from Buenos Aires, Argentina. He's posted a number of YouTube videos, mainly with his regular partner Maria, but with others as well. Romina Hidalgo is also from Buenos Aires, Argentina, and seems to be very involved in the local dance scene as both a performer and an instructor.

Instagram: Axel Antezana

Instagram: Romina Hidalgo

YouTube channel: Axel y Maria Bachata Sensual

Facebook: Axel y Maria Bachata

Wikipedia: Bachata (dance)
Bachata is a style of social dance from the Dominican Republic which is now danced all over the world. It is connected with bachata music.

Often referred to in the West as "authentic / Dominican" bachata, the original social dance was created in the Dominican Republic during the 1960s and was danced only in closed position, like the bolero, often in close embrace. Bachata basic steps are performed by moving within a small square (side, side, forward and then tap with your toes, then side, side, back and tap). This step was inspired by the bolero basic step, but evolved over time to include a tap and syncopations (steps in between the beats), helping dancers express the more dynamic music being commonly played. The hand placement can vary according to the position of the dances, which can range from very close to open to completely open.

Wikipedia: Bachata (music)
Bachata is a genre of Latin American music that originated in the Dominican Republic in the first half of the 20th century with Indigenous, African and European musical elements.

The first recorded compositions of Bachata were done by José Manuel Calderón from the Dominican Republic. Bachata originates from Bolero and Son (and later, from the mid 1980s, Merengue). The original term used to name the genre was amargue ("bitterness", "bitter music", or "blues music"), until the rather ambiguous (and mood-neutral) term bachata became popular. The form of dance, bachata, also developed with the music.

Wikipedia: Brazilian Zouk
Brazilian Zouk is a partner dance which began in Brazil during the early 90s. Brazilian Zouk evolved from the partner dance known as the Lambada. As the Lambada music genre went out of fashion, Lambada dancers turned to Caribbean Zouk (from the francophone, Caribbean Islands) as their music of choice. It was this transition that birthed the dance known as Brazilian Zouk. The term "Brazilian Zouk" was adopted in order to distinguish the dance style from the musical genre "Caribbean Zouk". Nowadays the term "Zouk" is commonly used to refer to the "Brazilain Zouk" dance style. The most characteristic feature of Brazilian Zouk is the follower's upper body movements which are led out of axis by intricate leading and following techniques. Other features include body isolations, tilted turns and more recently counter-balance techniques. Brazilian Zouk is a dance with well defined basic steps and rhythmic patterns. The representation of these steps and rhythmic patterns varies depending on the substyle of Zouk. The overall plasticity of the movements and the range of musical genres it is danced to, make Brazilian Zouk a partner dance that caters to creativity and improvisation. Over time, Zouk dancers have experimented and incorporated other styles of music into Zouk, such as R'n'B, Pop, Hip Hop and Contemporary (amongst others).


Published on Aug 1, 2016 by Axel y Maria Bachata Sensual
YouTube: Grupo extra - Besos a Escondidas | Bachatazouk AXEL & MARIA (4:04)

2019-10-16

A Kiss Is Just A Kiss

Published on Apr 3, 2010 by fiegepilz
YouTube: Casablanca - As Time Goes By - Original Song by Sam (Dooley Wilson) (3:03)

You must remember this
A kiss is just a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh.
The fundamental things apply
As time goes by.

And when two lovers woo
They still say, "I love you."
On that you can rely
No matter what the future brings
As time goes by.

Moonlight and love songs
Never out of date.
Hearts full of passion
Jealousy and hate.
Woman needs man
And man must have his mate
That no one can deny.

It's still the same old story
A fight for love and glory
A case of do or die.
The world will always welcome lovers
As time goes by.

Oh yes, the world will always welcome lovers
As time goes by.

“Kiss me, and you will see how important I am.” ―Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

“One day you will kiss a man you can't breathe without, and find that breath is of little consequence.” ―Karen Marie Moning, Bloodfever

“The mouth is made for communication, and nothing is more articulate than a kiss.” ―Jarod Kintz, It Occurred to Me

“I'm oxygen and he's dying to breathe.” ―Tahereh Mafi, Shatter Me

“Make me immortal with a kiss.” ―Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus and Other Plays, Parts 1-2

“I didn't want to kiss you goodbye — that was the trouble — I wanted to kiss you good night — and there's a lot of difference.” ―Ernest Hemingway

“Well, it's either kiss me or kill me, that's how I see it.” ―Tom Waits

“A kiss may ruin a human life” ―Oscar Wilde

“breathtaking:, adj. Those mornings when we kiss and surrender for an hour before we say a single word.” ―David Levithan, The Lover's Dictionary

“I'm going to kiss you now, and I don't know if I'll ever stop.” ―Jamie McGuire, Providence

“This is the part where I kiss you.” ―Cynthia Hand, Hallowed

“Teasing's part of the fun that comes before kissing” ―Lois Lowry, Messenger

“Now a soft kiss - Aye, by that kiss, I vow an endless bliss.” ―John Keats

“You should be kissed and by someone who knows how.” ―Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind

“The first kiss can be as terrifying as the last.” ―Daina Chaviano, The Island of Eternal Love

“Can I try something?" I said. "If you don't like it, I'll stop.” ―Aimee Carter, The Goddess Test

References

Wikipedia: As Time Goes By (song)
"As Time Goes By" is a song written by Herman Hupfeld in 1931. It became most famous in 1942 when it was sung by the character Sam (Dooley Wilson) in the movie Casablanca. The song was voted No. 2 on the AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs special, commemorating the best songs in film. It has been used as a fanfare for Warner Bros. Pictures since 1999 and was the title and theme song of the 1990s British comedy series As Time Goes By.

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." -Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

By any other name...

2014-08-20