Randomn3ss

Today is Blog Action Day! A day where fourteen thousand blogs will discuss one issue by trying to make an impact on 15 million readers. The topic? Environmentalism.

I feel that a lot of people don’t know what “going green” means. According to Wikipedia it means

…a concern for the preservation, restoration, or improvement of the natural enviroment, such as the conservation of natural resources, prevention of pollution, and certain land use actions.

The concern I feel most people have is where to begin. There are plenty of simple tips to get yourself started. Every little bit counts whether its taking less time in the shower or changing your light bulbs. A few examples can be found right here on Randomn3ss, “Going More Green“, by Lauren. Or rent the infamous movie by Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth.

However, I digress. My topic is about sex. Now I can imagine the puzzled looks on everyone’s faces. Yes, I wondered myself how anyone can green up their sex life. Well, it can be done. Let’s explore it further.

I got these tips from Treehugger, a website that has a plethora of environmental topics.

1. Sex Toys - Most sex toys contain chemicals called phthalates, a threatening chemical that’s been banned in children’s toys since 2004. It is especially said to be dangerous in sex toys because of the warm and moist places they are deposited in. So, instead of purchasing a unsafe toy it’s suggested to buy a more natural companion. Trying out a toy made of glass, metal, silicone, hard plastics, or elastomers is a safe bet. Instead of wasting batteries look for a rechargeable toy. Fun Factory is a neat place where you’ll find Lily, Lelo & Acuvibe.
2. Lubricant - Looking at the labels helps choosing a more natural lubricant. Avoid using any petroleum (save the fossil fuels), artificial scents, flavors and colors. A good choice is Babeland’s water based lubricant.
3. Condoms - The phrase, “reduce, reuse and recycle” is an angelic symphony to any environmentalists ears. However, this does not apply to condoms. We all know that a baby free environment means using a safe and reliable form of protection. Nothing beats the good ol’ latex condom. However, they are still determining whether or not a latex condom is biodegradable. For a biodegradable option lambskin is an option to protect against conception not STDs. For vegetarians (like me) and vegans a good source is Glyde condoms. Any condom that is polyurethane is not biodegradable so try and stay away from them. Another excellent tip is not to dispose condoms down the toilet, it will clog the pipes, treatment plants and rivers.
4. Green Date - Homosexual, bisexual, heterosexual and asexual are terms we’ve heard of to describe one’s orientation or style. What about ecosexual? They exist and in large numbers. If you’re looking for a companion that doesn’t chomp on animals, recycles and uses organic toothpaste you can find a match on Green Singles, Green Passions and Human 2 Human.
5. Dress Eco Sexy - Looking and feeling sexy can make for some naughty antics. Why not save the environment while you’re at it? There are products for men and women. Peau Ethique has some cute and comfortable undergarments along with Bueno Style, Butta and Green Knickers. My ultimate favorite is Enamore which has gorgeous, sexy clothes and lingerie.

My heart goes out to this guy, he had a good idea, bad intent, executed every so wrongly. Down in Tennessee, where things are supposed to be a bit slower, more hometown and just nicer, a man still couldn’t pass up the temptation of free money.

The United Press International published

Damon Armagost, of Smryna, pleaded guilty Friday to printing $1,400 in counterfeit bills from the image of $100 bill he downloaded on his computer

What’s worse, he had what was one of the best places to pass fakes at,

spent $600 in counterfeit money in April on strippers who became suspicious and called police, who recognized the counterfeit bills as all having the same number as fake money passed elsewhere in the country

Now a few things bother me about this. No one takes $100’s to a strip club, not unless you are in a major city and you are seriously ballin’. A few twenties will get you a nice stack of ones at the door for the ladies and you should be good for a night of fun. Maybe you give a $5 or 10 out now and again, perhaps even a $20 tip for a lap dance, but who really gives strippers $100 bills? Additionally, who knew strippers were so up on counterfeit numbers being circulated around in the country? That just takes the cake for me. I’m more willing to believe that the paper felt weird, it wasn’t cut squarely on the corners, almost anything other than the fact that they were aware of the serial numbers being used on other bills in the country.

Downloading photos of money from the internet? Guess it doesn’t grow on trees but it sure does get around the ‘net.

As any blogger knows, keywords are everything. Popular search terms will increase the chances of a blog garnering attention. But what about Websites that don’t just use keywords, but domain names to increase Web traffic?

A pathetic attempt at attaining Web traffic at the very expense of the thing they wish to eliminate from American culture is NoPornNorthhampton. According to this site:

NoPornNorthampton aims to increase awareness about the impact of porn on people and communities. We support the reasonable regulation of sexually oriented businesses in Northampton, Massachusetts. We call on landlords to exercise sound judgment about whom they rent to.

First of all, never end a sentence with a preposition. Secondly, did they really need to have the word “porn” in the URL? By using the terms “no” and “porn,” they could achieve a Google hit for someone searching for something totally juxtaposed to their goal: “Porn, no lesbians;” “Porn, no animals;” or even worse “Porn, no Peter North.”

There is no reason the site couldn’t have a name like “NorthhamptonforDecency.” Now I’m certainly not against the site using search terms to help increase traffic, but if their goal is to eliminate porn then the name of their site is inexcusable.

My next step in thinking about the erotic nature of money was to explore different types of human dynamics and apply how we relate to sex and money in generally the same way. The first of these dynamics, and the second article in this series on Money, Sex and Chocolate is regarding Dominance and Submission.

Power is a very primitive human desire and there isn’t anyone I’ve observed that believes he is more powerful than the man (or woman) who possesses an obscene amount of money. Power is what makes people like Hitler think, “Perhaps I’ll take over the world today.” George W. Bush may claim God told him to become President but anyone who can balance a check book would be able to see how he (and Dick Cheney) have benefited from their occupation of the White House. Why is this? What do we get from feeling powerful? We must gain some sort of animalistic gratification, after all dominance and submission are elemental to human interaction. We are constantly forming varying types of social hierarchies in everyday interactions. The philosopher Hegel in his Master/Slave dialectic,

Thinks the master / slave relation is primitive: it’s a defective form of self-consciousness whose logic is self-defeating, so that it renders itself logically obsolete and is superseded by the superior form of self-consciousness that is economic cooperation.

Economic cooperation, ah hah! Ok so there is something gained by either side of this dynamic. Either by dominating over someone else or being dominated by someone else, the participatory parties are gratified, resulting in a balanced existential interaction. A good example of this natural tendency manifesting itself sexually is Sadism and Masochism,

Often interrelated (one person obtaining sadistic pleasure by inflicting pain or suffering on another person who thereby obtains masochistic pleasure), are collectively known as S&M or sadomasochism.

A similar situation arises around interactions with money. Many people feel a sense of sexual empowerment deriving from their financial gains. In fact, many high-net worth women profess to having better and more exotic sex lives. This happens because, as I mentioned in Part 1, money is an enabler in enhancing sexual experience.

The other facet of this power/sex/money ménage et trios is that of submission. Take “groupies” for example, and I’m not limiting the word “groupie” to women who sleep with rock stars. I’m talking about women who are sexually attracted to men simply for their money and therefore, power. Such a woman is satisfied to be dominated by a powerful man with the financial means to enable her security. Perhaps this is not the healthiest of interactions but it happens and is functional at best.

So it is by evoking feelings of power, exerting dominance or being submissive to that power, that we derive a good deal of our sexual pleasure from money. This is not the only emotive property of money as you will see but, in my opinion, is the most obvious and most intense.

“We live by the Golden Rule. Those who have the gold make the rules.” ~Buzzie Bavasi

Related articles:

Money, Sex and Chocolate Pt. 1

Today’s earlier article about the decline in porn spam doesn’t seem to be affecting our horney young folk much, as magazines are now showing up at even the most prestigious of colleges, such as Harvard. What is even more amazing is that these colleges are helping to fund some of these student published magazines, like Boston U’s Boink.

When you think of a college-operated sex magazine, what do you think would be in it? Pages and pages of porn, right? Maybe a feminist poem depicting the life and times of a vagina? The newest vibrators on the market? The answers to the above questions are a resounding yes, yes and yes.

Granted, college is the time in your life when you are not only supposed to but also damn near expected to experiment and find yourself, both in education and in life. The Daily 49er article also asks

But are these magazines merely another way for oversexed college kids to exploit themselves or are they actual art forms, exemplifying freedom of expression and sexual liberty?

As a photographer, I’m going to say that it can be used for artistic expression. As someone who writes, both on here and several other sites daily, I’d like to think that the ability to write and have others read can be extremely expressive and helpful.

What surprises me more then anything is that they are actually talking about magazines. Today everything seems to be web driven, faster, quicker, more of it, it’s the way of the web. Even with on demand content, people still seem to want and have a need for magazines.

Source: Daily 49er

While pop culture seems to be in a huge upstream as of late with headlines of Britney this and Anna Nicole that, rap music and porn seem to be loosing their footholds in the mainstream culture.

Rap sales DROPPED 21 PERCENT in 2006 compared to the previous year, and for the first time in years not a single rap album made it into the top 10 sellers of the year for 2006.

In a culture that has almost come to expect foul language in just about every aspect of life, it seems that consumers are just plain old tired of hearing the same obscenities in rap music over and over again.

Likewise, the billion-dollar industry of pornography seems to be somewhat tapering off as well.

Symantec reports that adult spam SANK TO 4 PERCENT of all spam, the lowest percentage in years and down from 22 percent last year.

The information from the poll indicates that the spammers are not sending out as much junk porn email because not as many people are signing up for the sites. Personal finance, health and living the American dream are more important than wasting hours a day looking at porn online.

Source: The Raw Feed

Power couples such as Donald and Melania Trump, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, what makes them successful? More importantly, what makes them possible? Money. They all know it; they’re just okay with the idea. There is an erotic essence to money that has evolved, perhaps, a bit out of control. Money has been responsible for a large quantity of creativity, ingenuity and achievement through our sociological evolution. In fact we have allowed money to become such an integral part of our lives that we now experience the same emotive properties from money that we receive from sex and chocolate. How has it come to be that such value, far beyond that of dollars and cents has come to be placed on little pieces of paper? Freud’s pleasure principle explains that,

We have to sublimate most of our desires for sexual pleasure, and turn that sexual energy into something else–into writing a paper, for example, or into playing sports. Without the sublimation of our sexual desires into more productive realms, there would be no civilization.

That would help explain why in this MSN article,

Grove and Prince surveyed people with an average net worth of $89 million, and who make more than $9 million per year. They found that money is an enabler in a number of ways to enhance sexual experiences. More money equals better sex.

Erotic is defined as “Tending to arouse sexual desire or dominated by sexual love or desire.” Now consider the erotic nature of money. A man, who would ordinarily be considered unattractive, is suddenly capable of having any woman he wants because he has money. This would not be possible if we did not attach such values to money as powerful, secure, competent, accomplished, cultured, glamorous, sexy. It has been nurtured into us through society that money is attractive, to the benefit of society. I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “money makes the world go round.” Well so does sex and in American culture they’ve teamed up. How else would you explain Brittany Spears?

This is the first of four articles exploring the erotic nature of money. Check back for discussions on Dominance & Submission, Reward & Sacrifice and Fulfillment & Emptiness. Pay attention to how your money makes you feel, kind of scary when you remind yourself its just paper.

Women prefer men who have something tender about them - especially the legal kind. ~Kay Ingram

The pornography industry has helped the main stream movie industry more then anyone gives it credit for. They have helped push forward with the VHS and now DVD releases to stores and were some of the first to get into the rental game. The industry was also at the forefront of video on demand over the Internet. Now with HD-DVD becoming more and more a part of daily life for those who watch TV and movies, the porn might be too real.

Porn star Stormy Daniels says:

The biggest problem is razor burn.

HD-DVD and now Blu-ray show the real flaws in most people, including skin, razor burn and other minor issues that may be taking away from the fantasy that is so much of the industry. With over 3 billion dollars in DVD sales last year, the pornography industry will most definitely be looking to solve this issue one way or another