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Fleshmap: Studies of Desire

By matt | August 27, 2008

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A few times in the last week, I’ve run across Fleshmap on the blogs I read.

Fleshmap is the website for a project that crosses art with a human sexuality science project… Unless you believe that all art exists to get the artist laid, in which case Fleshmap is just art.

The interesting-yet-duh-we-knew-that part of it is their map of the human body that shows where people enjoy touching or being touched.

So…yeah.

No surprises there, if you pay attention, you know?

They describe their method for determining the hot-spots on the body. It involves a survey (which you can take) where participants are shown a location on the body and then rate the pleasure in being touched or in touching that location.

As I’m on a roll this week with posts about MMORPG swingers, holding a successful meeting using the open fly facilitation methodology and hard liquor drinks, let me continue this trend by suggesting it might be easier to perform this test in a more direct way.

If not easier, perhaps more enjoyable?

I mean…I’m just sayin’…it’s all in the name of science!

Volunteers should reply with a photo and their test results to my “m4wwwwwwwwwww” ad on craigslist’s “casual encounters” list.

Topics: sexuality and gender | 3 Comments »

Campari and Negroni

By matt | August 26, 2008

Campari for Negroni

My summer drink of 2008 has been the Negroni.

It’s a simple little thing made from equal parts Campari, gin and vermouth. If, like me, you tend to mix them shot-to-shot-to-shot, it’s a great way to get all your drinking done at once.

One thing to know: don’t skimp on the vermouth. If you short the vermouth, you lose some complexity to the drink. The gin winds up “watering down” the Campari. The vermouth brings the tastes back into alignment.

My habit is to make a Negroni and sip it, keeping a glass of water on the side. I think this is similar to the spirit of the Americano but I don’t keep soda water around, so it’s a sidecar of H2O instead.

Warning!
There are three complications to this drink that you may or may not suffer.

First, (too many) bars serve this garnished with a maraschino cherry. It should be garnished with something from the citrus family. I like it with a bit of orange as that’s a good tart-sweet counter to the bitter taste that this drink carries. The cherry is too sappy-sweet for the mix.

Second, everything used to create it is alcohol. It’s not the most potent from the bar, but it’s going to pack a punch. Don’t be caught off-guard by it’s relatively benign taste. When served over ice, it’s even easier to drink fast…too fast. Careful!

Third, most of my female drinking buddies prefer dark beer over other beverages. When out, they usually get served my drink (garnished with a cherry…jerks!) and I get their beer. I’d say it’s a minor mistake, but dude, that little drink has a bigger punch than the beer. If somebody’s going to handle it, it’s going to be the big guy at the table…

Hands. Off. My. Drink.

Topics: food | 3 Comments »

Day-Glo Orange Means CRAZY!

By matt | August 25, 2008

Funny Story…
One day at work, I was leading a working meeting. It was productive with lots of good discussion and time spent at the whiteboard writing down process maps and other corporate stuff. I had called the meeting, so I stayed at the whiteboard to record what people were saying, asked leading questions and tried to be a good meeting facilitator — keeping the meeting focused without being directive.

$You\'re not so smart, buddy...$ Everybody was in a really good mood. The meeting came up with a bunch of good ideas. I was feeling pretty smug because there had originally been some resistance to the meeting. It was a “process mapping” meeting, so I don’t blame them.

When we were done, I took my notes to my desk to type up to send out. I sat down and noticed that my fly was down. All the way to the bottom of the zipper. The fly was D-O-W-N.

But that’s not all!

There is a brand of underwear that puts two conservative, normal pairs on the outside of the package and something completely outrageous between the normal pairs. Because of the way the goods are packed (heh!), you can’t see between the conservative pairs. It could be bright colors, crazy patterns, bright colored crazy patterns or worse. But hey, when you find a brand that accommodates whatcha got, you stick with that brand…crazy colors and all.

On that fateful day, I was sporting a pair that was bright orange stripes on a baby blue background. The orange was like the color of a push-up ice cream treat. Day-Glo. The blue was the sky on a perfectly clear day at noon.

There is no way that it could have been missed, given the charcoal gray pants I was wearing. Every once and awhile, there must have been a little flash of neon orange and bright blue. I hope is was infrequent.

Danger! the orange must have said. This man is crazy. Do what he tells you.

Even now, all I can say is “Thank god the fly buttoned shut.”

Topics: economics & business | 5 Comments »

Casual Encounters on craigslist

By matt | August 24, 2008

If you are at work, you probably shouldn’t click on any of the links, today. Nor should you, mom, if you are reading.

A friend pointed me to an ad on the “Casual Encounters: mw4mw” section of craigslist. Specifically, they say:

We’d like to make some local friends that plan massively multiplayer online roleplaying games. We’re specifically looking for Everquest II, Vanguard, and Pirates of the Burning Sea players.

We’d like to make some friends to group with and to occasionally socialize.

To parse things for those those unfamiliar with craigslist, these poor people placed an ad looking for people to play games in the place where ads are from couples (the first ‘mw’) seeking (’4′) other couples (’mw) for casual (’sex’) encounters.

* I wonder if they read any of the other posts in this category before submitting. If so, then…wow.

* I wonder how many “entertaining” photographs they are getting in response to their ad.

* I wonder how many “casual encounters” they are offered that resemble stuff from Second Life Safari.

Topics: bad ideas | 3 Comments »

I don’t.

By matt | August 21, 2008

Topics: government | No Comments »

Jay Smooth on “No Homo”

By matt | August 18, 2008

I found this video by Jay Smooth linked over at postbourgie. I like both sites and this is a good video…

Topics: music | No Comments »

AAPL & PGR

By matt | August 18, 2008

More than two years ago, I wrote a post comparing these two companies.

The situation today, August 2008:

	Price	Market Cap	Net Income (last quarter)	Total Revenue (last quarter)
Apple (AAPL)	175.85	155,770	1,072	7,464
Progressive Insurance (PGR)	18.37	12,524	215	3,536

(All information in this table taken from closing numbers on 15-Aug-08. All dollar values in the table in millions.)

…and in May 2006:

	Price	Market Cap	Net Income (prior year)	Total Revenues (prior year)
Apple (AAPL)	71.90	52,097	1,335	13,931
Progressive Insurance (PGR)	107.69	20,376	1,394	14,303

Topics: economics & business | 5 Comments »

“I’m tired”

By matt | August 14, 2008

…yeah, I don’t care.

Well, I do. But we’re all tired. So what’s new? That’s what I’m asking.

Once, when people asked me how I was doing, “I’m tired” was usually my response. I’d often get the same response in return. I wasn’t saying it to garner sympathy. It was a factual response. When I felt good or happy or energized, I’d say that. But usually, I’m tired.

We’re all tired, aren’t we? We don’t get enough sleep, we run from place to place trying to keep up with work, groceries, bills, whatever…we all need a nap, right about now.

There isn’t really a time when we’re not tired.

And maybe you aren’t even just tired because of lack of sleep. Maybe you are tired of politics? Tired of your job or your manager? Tired of gas prices? Tired of the morning commute? Tired of being tired?

…yeah, keep it to yourself. I’m tired too and if I wasn’t, I wouldn’t be grumbling like this.

How about this: Tell me what’s new…what’s happening…what’s different.

Tired? That’s just assumed.

(This grumpy entry brought to you by the word “reorg” in which your hero gets a new job, new staff, and new challenges…but is working through all the start-up stuff that reorgs naturally require. It will get better…just not this week.)