Phaedrus

First up: welcome to CERB, and thanks for posting! There seems to be this widespread myth about losing your virginity; most people, at some stage, seem to believe that it'll happen with the love of your life, and it'll be a beautiful experience with choirs of angels and all that kind of thing. I believe this almost never happens, outside of Victorian-era romantic novels :) You mention that you've been trying your luck on the bar scene, with little luck. I feel your pain; I'm crap at that, too. But think about this for a moment: what happens if you succeed? Yes, you'll get laid... but from the sound of it it'll be with the first person you can (who you may or may not turn out to actually like). And you may end up having a thoroughly awkward experience with a lot of drunken fumbling, and then more awkwardness when you have to decide whether you need to call her... I'm sure there's a few folks whose first time was followed by hangovers and regret. I suspect this is worth avoiding. Next: it sounds from your post like this is becoming an issue for you; something that you worry about, a worm that eats away inside when you're lying awake at 4am. These things aren't fun. Continued failure on the bar scene will make it worse (and as you get more desperate, so your chances of success decline). You've identified a way to break that vicious circle. It would do you no harm to do so; perpetually damaging your self-esteem does nobody any good, least of all you. On telling your friends: sure, there's no need. You're doing this for *you*, not them. But you may find in the future that you needn't take it to your grave; one day, it'll probably make a good story. Also, if you did pick up someone in a bar, your friends may mock you for that, too, depending on what they thought of her. Friends can be bastards, sometimes. On the financial side of things: I presume you've had a look at the ads the ladies post, so you know roughly what it'll cost you. Now, how much have you spent in bars and on taxis in your thus-far fruitless quest? More than that, I'd guess? The point is that paying up front could well be cheaper in the long run. It sounds like you've begun to ask yourself these questions already; trust me, your suspicions are correct. Also, escorts are better for your liver. Something that you may not have considered: reading all the books in the world is all very well, but having someone there who really knows what she's doing and is well versed on the practicalities of the insertion of tab A into slot B will be a Good Thing. It'll save a lot of messing about, for one thing :) Also, tell her what you're doing and where you're at, and what you want; I'm sure the ladies here are used to dealing with nervous first timers (we were all nervous first timers once, and to be honest the butterflies never go away). So, to conclude: go for it! I honestly don't think you'll have cause to regret doing so; probably far fewer regrets than many people have over how they had their first time. You'll be going into it on your own terms, sober, with your eyes open; that means your experience is likely to be waaay better than many peoples' will be. You'll actually remember it, for one; not everyone can say that. Now, you're faced with a much more difficult decision... out of all the lovely ladies here, which one do you go and see? But that's a whole other thread... :)

Atlanta... that puts me in mind of another band from the same neck of the woods. They're from Athens, GA - but that's close enough for me :) REM - It's The End Of The World As We Know It

Gentlemen, please form an orderly queue. Behind me.

I always thought the right thing to do was to throw it at the wall - if it sticks, it's done. Or is that spaghetti? I forget... On the serious note that the OP intended... yes, condoms are the second-worst thing you can flush away. Q-tips beat them for completely fouling everything up, apparently. Send both down if you want to ensure a comfortable and early retirement for your local plumber.

Congratulations to LeeRichards on his recent apotheosis! Thoroughly well deserved, my friend... long may you keep us entertained. YEEEEAAAAH, BABY!!!!!

Freedom is important. The fact that a minority of people abuse their freedom doesn't make it any less important, and does not make freedom inherently bad. The fact that thieves exist does not mean that each and every one of us should be assumed to be a thief. True, but SOPA/PIPA won't help this. Quite the opposite, in fact; they'll make it far worse, as they allow for sites to be shut down purely on the basis of an accusation, with no judicial oversight. Think about the implications of that for a moment. It means that a smart thief in the future won't just steal your pics; she'll steal your pics and then immediately launch a complaint under SOPA/PIPA, which will get YOUR website shut down. There's no obstacle to this; bypassing the courts means that no proof of infringement is required. And there won't be anything you can do about it. The rights and wrongs of the situation don't matter; the first person to assert ownership of the copyright has a huge built-in advantage. Don't be lulled into thinking this couldn't happen. Since the judiciary is bypassed, there's no need for any proof beyond what someone who probably just wants a quiet life is prepared to ask for and verify. Sure, you could probably go through the courts and get things sorted out eventually, but it'd take years and a lot of money. Is that really what you want? There are already laws that prevent this. The problem is for folks like the RIAA and MPAA that they're *laws*, and to get them enforced you have to do tedious things like going through a judicial process and proving guilt in a system that presumes innocence... and that kind of thing *really* cuts into the profit margins. Make no mistake, this is not about intellectual property; this is about money, and an attempt by a dying industry to avert their own destruction. It won't work. Again, remember: 6-year old Suki isn't going to be able to shut down Beyonce, but another SP could shut you down. That doesn't apply to everyone. Some are fiercely protective of their works; some are very happy to allow them to be distributed as widely as possible. The fact that you may be in the first camp doesn't mean everyone else is. There's a good chance that you're reading this using software that was written and released by someone who was more concerned about the greater good of the world than hanging on to the code they'd written. I'd be very surprised if CERB wasn't running on servers running such code. I'd recommend not going after Wikipedia - they actually put quite a lot of effort to ensure that everything published on their website is done under the standard Creative Commons license and that no copyright laws are broken by them. There would be better targets for your ire. To answer your question: there are already laws, and a process for enforcing them. It has worked and has been continuously improved for hundreds of years. It's not so broken that it suddenly needs to be bypassed entirely. Two final ironies. First, the sanctions against websites proposed by SOPA/PIPA would be trivial to bypass, so the proposed laws wouldn't even work as they're allegedly intended to; this is the problem with having legislation written by a bunch of old men who utterly fail to understand what the Internet is and how it works. Secondly, I'm quite surprised to see a SP supporting the arbitrary policing of the Internet by US-based organizations. Would you care to speculate where that goes when the religious right want to shut down everything they don't like? Trust me, they'd *love* to shut you down. Completely. Forever. Never mind that you may not live or work in the US; your very existence is intolerable to them. And finally... here's the real problem with SOPA, admirably explained by Hitler :)

I dunno, RubJunky... last time I tried to introduce myself by sniffing someone's ass, it didn't go over too well... And now:

Xavier Rudd - Journey Song

Welcome, Playpal! Nice handle, btw :) Well, I'm afraid the first thing I thought of when I saw the title was this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBecM3CQVD8

Yep, recos are always good. Only one caveat: if it's been a while since you last saw the lady in question, it might be worth making sure she's still active...

Enough with the spiders! U2 - The Fly

Horrible to hear this sort of thing. Hope everyone who works there is OK and they get things turned around reasonably soon.

And there's nothing wrong with that - I'd assume that any SP who publishes her number here is OK with it being called (although that's one reason why it's a bad idea for us guys to post them, as ladies sometimes change their mind about this). The only thing I'd say is that it's worth checking that the number you're about to call is published in a recent post... if you've dug up something old, other methods of contact may be preferable.

Awesomeness of the day: free-diving with Great Whites

Quite a few of the ladies at Paradise/Angels Touch have their fans here. Same for CMJ. +1 on Erin, Megan and Jessica. And Melia hasn't been mentioned yet, and should be.