Okay, okay. Sorry for the silence folks. And thanks to that one blogger that always drives me nuts with his posts for emailing and checking in on me. I had originally just wanted to wait a few days after Explorer Jack wrote up our meeting before I posted my own and then shit came down at work and I just didn't feel like being on the computer in my off hours.
But then I got a notice in my inbox from Google regarding nude pictures and videos on my blog. It's a part of their new content policy and they probably just sent the notice out to all bloggers that cited adult-oriented content because really.., I have maybe four nude pics on my site and 133 posts. I'm small fries when it comes to pixels in the form of penis. And I think technically, if I just get rid of the photos, then they won't turn my blog private but it all kinda called into question this sense of community. And it kinda aligns with public attitudes when I grew up as a kid. I could read Jackie Collins all I want (and in fact, I did as a youngster and was perplexed when there wasn't an entry for cum in the dictionary even though the word was splattered - ahem - all over a published novel) but I couldn't pick up a video behind the adult curtain when I was 12.
But back to my meeting with Explorer Jack...
We've been trying to meet for a couple years now since he comes to California over the holidays to visit family. And I was always prepping myself to meet an older frat-guy type. I mean, there's a bit of obscene frivolity when it comes to sex combined with certain words and phrases (e.g. "dude" and "amigo") that I kinda associate with the lexicon of a cocky frat-boy type. It reminds me of my partner's friend that would start bing drinking with us at the bar and talk about how he loved "chocolate thunder" (i.e. black women with big thighs that would clamp around his ears in a thunderous way) and he was a big alum from the cult that is USC. But he (Explorer Jack, that is) was really just an average joe and as we started talking about our past and what's been going on in our worlds and it just became more and more apparent that I came from experiences that were starkly different but with rivers of commonality that weaved us together in binds of empathy. It's a type of open friendship that comes so easily as kids with tenuous relations that suddenly solidify quickly. Kids make good friends like that all the time. Adults... not so much.
And that's where I suddenly felt compelled to post. So Google might mark my blog private. I'm not scrambling for popularity but as much as I'd like to kid myself that I'm writing for myself, that's not completely accurate either. The comments that I get from each post are little gifts, whether the reaction is positive or negative and always welcome because either way, it still builds this sense of camaraderie in unexpected ways. And it's that interaction that's compelling, from both new and long-time followers... and that discovery of new blogs out there that both align with your experiences and those that offer you something completely different than what you can imagine... And interacting with them... That is what's neat about the whole thing. That's awesome. That's rad. And that's what we call community.
So, I'm thinking about switching over to tumblr (which I'm sure you figured out after you got Culture Club out of your head from the title). I debated this for awhile, 'cause tumblr often seems like a cold pic-swapping site. But then there are guys like Ric D, Sperm Pig, AltAdam and Drew that are quite successful in weaving both the pictorial with text and reblogs to give people a sense of who they are. And I'm thinking about doing the same. Posting stories and then also little other things that catch my interest... 'cause I'm really not just a fuck machine or just a guy woefully inadequate at fidelity.
Though if Explorer Jack and I ever meet again, I'm totally going to try to rob him of his cherry.
