Just because it's awesome

Yesterday morning I found this story online and got so wrapped up in it that I couldn't let go until I'd finished the whole thing. Then I had to scramble to make it to work on time and didn't get done anything I'd planned to do before I headed out.

It's a Neil Gaiman story, so right away you know it's going to be incredible. Then there's the twisty, coiling plot - practically none of which I'm going to share with you ahead of time. Go into it cold, just like I did, and you'll be so amazed and satisfied and shuddery by the end.

Just give yourself a good half hour to read it properly. You don't want to rush. And you might want to go right back to the beginning and reread once you've finished. Yeah, it's that kind of story. ;-) Oh, you can appreciate it perfectly well if you just take it as a supernatural adventure. But this story has layers, and darkly glimmering treasures beneath those layers. The more you dig, the more you find. As a matter of fact, dig deep enough and you'll discover a horror story lurking underneath the adventure tale.

I got the picture above from the Wikipedia page on the Isle of Skye, which is where a good chunk of the story is set. And that's all I'm going to say about the plot. But I'd love to hear what you have to say about it, if you read it!

Please, somebody tell me what the hell this is

You know how one link leads to another on the internet? Well, today I somehow went from watching tornado videos on YouTube (This one's incredible, if you're into that sort of thing) to browsing erotic art from Pompeii on Wikipedia...which is how I came across the image at left. According to the article, this is a fresco from a brothel, depicting a prostitute in the cowgirl position with her john. But what's driving me absolutely fucking insane is wondering what that black thing on her left knee is. It looks to me like a legless ferret, but unless the ancient Romans were even kinkier than I thought, I'm probably off base.

I just hope someone out there does know what this thing is, because otherwise, the question is going to haunt me until the day I die.

These are a few of my favorite things: Sexycute Nina Kate

Behold the wonder that is Nina Kate, alt model and latex designer extraordinaire. I actually found her designs on the Jane Doe Latex site before I discovered the woman herself - this despite the fact that she models her own stuff quite a bit. And boy, I bet it's nice when you can design this kind of awesomeness just for your own curves!

Anyway, the pic at left is by Steve Neaves for Bizarre magazine. Nina has done several spreads for Bizarre, and you can even watch videos for them. The one below is my favorite, but if you like what you see here, you can get to the rest of the videos easily enough by visiting Nina's profile page on Model Mayhem.



And now for some more pictures. Nina's wearing her own Jane Doe brand in most of them, but that's an Antiseptic Fashion design in the third pic just below by David Alexandre. The other two pics on this row are by Allan Amato.

Now here she is (along with Ceri) in a pic by Vestige Photography and another pic from Bizarre magazine.

Lastly, a couple more shots for Bizarre and one from Doralba Picerno.

Nina Kate has one page on Model Mayhem for her modeling and another one for her latex designing, but don't overlook her official Jane Doe Latex site or her MySpace page. Both have lots of material that you won't find anywhere else.

These are a few of my favorite things: Seduced and Engulfed

The "My Favorite Things" sets I talked about in this post have continued to multiply. Now it looks like I'll have three or four different depersonalization posts alone. The theme of this one is people (not just women - looks can be deceiving!) who've been overwhelmed and/or seduced to the point where they've become something less than human. But since you know me, you can be sure there will be plenty of other "less than human" posts down the road. ;-)

Above is one of a set of pictures that's been floating around the fetish web for years, even though the site on which it originated no longer exists. I have no idea who the model is. In fact, I have no idea who many of these models are, which should probably come as no surprise, given the topic. Several of them appear to have been weaponized as well as depersonalized, but then again, that should probably come as no surprise, either. This whole set is pretty much a Tabico story in the making, isn't it?

Anyway, next up are Marie-Kalista, photographed by Phoebuz; an unknown model photographed by Ehren Howland; and (in one of my all-time favorite pics) an unknown model Kandy Kane (Thanks, Sly Speaker!) photographed by Gil Perron.

Then we have anonymous models shot by Marcus Gloger, Grenze, and Gwen Media.

And lastly, we have a photo by Rhae Mare, a shot of Rubberdoll Emma Lee, and a shot of Vanessa Murphy by Sean Hartgrove.

Tune in next time for more seduction, engulfing, encasing, brainwashing, and whatever the hell else my kinky little mind can come up with.

Oh, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?

Looks like I won't have time to put together a "favorite things" post before I go offline for a few days, but at least I can leave you with this lovely image of Meluxine, shot by Mastertouch.

You can find more of Meluxine on Model Mayhem here and Deviant Art here, and you can find more of Mastertouch on Model Mayhem here and Deviant Art here.

Have fun while I'm gone!

This is me

No, not literally me; but I bet that title got your attention! Sorry. You should know by now how much of a tease I am. ;-P

The first picture at left is another piece of digitized-photo-art by Vizerskaya, whom I showcased a few posts ago. The second picture is model Tara Chin, photographed by Mallory Morrison. Both images are pretty accurate representations of how I feel when I'm falling into hypnosis. It's like sinking deeper and deeper under the ocean, only you don't have to worry about holding your breath or being crushed by the weight of the water. It's just so quiet...and peaceful...and wonderfully, wonderfully dark. I don't know how better to convey the sensation than with these two pictures.


There might or might not be a weekend post; I'll be offline for a few days beginning Saturday, and I don't know yet if I'll have time to put together another "My Favorite Things" entry before then. Stay tuned...or not.

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things: Redheads

Really, I just do not understand the problem that some people have with redheads. I think they're sexy as hell - and that includes red carpet as well as red curtains.

Yes, this is another of those themed posts I promised you a couple of weeks ago. You'll see plenty of familiar faces here - and by that I mean faces familiar to my blog readers and faces that are familiar, period. But I've tried to gather some pictures of them that you might not have seen before, and I've mixed things up with a few unknowns models, as well as a few pinkhairs.

Above is my favorite pic of Miss Conduct, shot by Stephen McClure.

Below, from left to right, are Scar13 by Adam Robertson, Eden Marie Muse by Allan Amato and Angela Ryan by Underhill.

Next up are Ulorin Vex by Damian McGillicuddy, JessiKa Violet (Yes, that's how she writes it) by V. Lions, and Bellefast by Michael Helms (with Pixie in the background).

Now here are Ivory Flame by Jaycee Photos and Skin by Matt Christie.

And here are three unknown, pink-haired cuties photographed by (left to right) Jeffery Scott, Bilbytron (for Meschantes Coutures), and Steve Prue.

And of course, I'm well aware that everyone's heads would explode if I didn't include a picture of Bianca Beauchamp. So take a deep breath and relax: here she is, in one of my favorite sets from my brief subscription to the Latex Lair. I'll bet those boots alone took half an hour to put on, eh? But they're so worth it!

Shameless self promotion

I'm sure Neil Gaiman could find a way to say something like this without sounding so blatantly self-promoting, but I'm no Neil Gaiman, so I'll just get right down to it.

I'm competing in The Spiral Awards this year, in a couple of different categories; so if you liked My Very Own Serial Number and/or Spy vs. Guy, I hope you'll consider voting for them. Or even if you don't vote for them, I hope you'll at least read and enjoy them. I didn't write them in hopes of winning anything; I just wrote them for fun. Of course, winning is nice, too.... ;-P

BTW, just in case anyone's wondering, I haven't competed in the Spiral Awards in previous years because I was under the mistaken impression that it involved submitting your stories to a special panel to be voted on, and I wasn't about to submit to a random panel of people. ;-) But now that I know it's just a matter of agreeing to let the forums vote on your stuff, I said okay.

Sometimes you just have to fall back on cliches

Like, "Could this possibly be any more awesome?"

or

"Alan Fucking Moore has written a Cthulhu graphic novel!!!1!1!"

Read this

"The authors found that children raised by lesbian mothers — whether the mother was partnered or single — scored very similarly to children raised by heterosexual parents on measures of development and social behavior. These findings were expected, the authors said; however, they were surprised to discover that children in lesbian homes scored higher than kids in straight families on some psychological measures of self-esteem and confidence, did better academically and were less likely to have behavioral problems, such as rule-breaking and aggression."

From Time Magazine's Study: Children of Lesbians May Do Better Than Their Peers

I wonder if anyone's done a study of children raised by gay men. It seems like the next logical step, doesn't it?

Good news! The tutorial's back!

And right back where it started, here on this blog. Just look to your right. :-)

I haven't figured out how to retain all the functionality that the tutorial had on the other site, but maybe that will come later down the line. To be honest, moving the text - and especially moving and revising the code - took a lot longer than I thought it would; and I just don't feel like messing with it any further today.

Anyway, it's back, and maybe it'll get more traffic here than on another server.

Not-completely-out-of-context follies

Back in April, I wrote a post about taking song lyrics out of context and finding elements of mind control in them. Well, today, I'm doing it with a book, but this quote really is about MC...more or less.

Reading Anathem made me want to go back and reread Snow Crash, so that's what I'm doing now (You might remember that I reviewed Snow Crash once, long ago; it's a cyberpunk classic). And today I came across the following delectable scene, which takes place at cyberspace hangout for hackers and various other types of elite. Hiro Protagonist is, yes, our protagonist; and Da5id is his hugely successful buddy. Think Bill Gates with more street cred. Previously, they'd both been offered a chance to try "Snow Crash," which they know nothing about but assume is some kind of virus. Hiro passed, but Da5id is curious - and confident enough in his antivirus protection to give it a go:

For a second, nothing happens. "I'm waiting," Da5id says.
An avatar materialize on the table in front of Da5id, starting out ghostly and transparent, gradually becoming solid and three-dimensional. It's a really trite effect; Hiro and Da5id are already laughing.
The avatar is a stark naked Brandy. It doesn't even look like the standard Brandy; this looks like one of the cheap Taiwanese Brandy knockoffs. Clearly, it's just a daemon. She is holding a pair of tubes in her hands, about the size of paper-towel rolls.
Da5id is leaning back in his chair, enjoying this. There is something hilariously tawdry about the entire scene.
The Brandy leans forward, becking Da5id toward her. Da5id leans into her face, grinning broadly. She puts her crude, ruby-red lips up by his ear and mumbles something that Hiro can't hear.
When she leans back away from Da5id, his face has changed. He looks dazed and expressionless. Maybe Da5id really looks that way; maybe Snow Crash has messed up his avatar somehow so that it's no longer tracking Da5id's true facial expressions. But he's staring straight ahead, eyes frozen in their sockets.
The Brandy holds the pair of tubes up in front of Da5id's immobilized face and spreads them apart. It's actually a scroll. She's unrolling it right in front of Da5id's face, spreading it apart like a flat two-dimensional screen in front of his eyes. Da5id's face has taken on a bluish tinge as it reflects light coming out of the scroll.
Hiro walks around the table to look. He gets a brief glimpse of the scroll before the Brandy snaps it shut again. It is a living wall of light, like a flexible, flat-screened television set, and it's not showing anything at all. Just static. White noise. Snow.
Then she's gone, leaving no trace behind. Desultory, sarcastic applause sounds from a few tables in the Hacker Quadrant.
Da5id's back to normal, wearing a grin that's part snide and part embarrassed.

Of course, Da5id's really not back to normal, not at all. And thus is our story set in motion. But you know me; I prefer to tease rather than to spoil. ;-)

And now I'm off to see if I can sort out that problem with my Virtual Hypnotist tutorial. At this point, I'm thinking the easiest solution will be just to reload it on some other venue. Fortunately, Blogger has a new feature that lets you create web pages to attach to your blog. I haven't investigated yet, but it looks promising.

To be continued.

Problems with the Virtual Hypnotist Files and tutorial

Thanks to Max for letting me know about problems accessing my Virtual Hypnotist Files and VH Tutorial sites. This looks like a problem that will take awhile to fix, so it will have to wait until the weekend, when I have more time.

In the meantime, if you have any questions about VH, or even if you want me to copy and paste something from the tutorial, just e-mail me.

Sorry. :-(

These are a few of my favorite things: fetish black

This entry ended up being rather different than I intended. See, my recent bluehairs post had given me the idea to do several more posts with hair color themes, and I already had ideas for red/pink and white/blonde (to go with the blue, you see). Well, that naturally made me think that I should do a post about black-haired models, too. But then I started poking around Model Mayhem and my own photo collection, and I ran across so many wonderful pictures of models posing in black that I decided to expand the topic a bit. Then I came across photos I wanted to use where the model's hair wasn't black but her clothing was, and then I came up with a whole subset of depersonalization pictures that really warranted their own separate entry. So in the end I decided I'd limit this post to non-depersonalizing fetish black - and you see how many pictures I still came up with! But don't worry; you can look forward to future posts on all those other topics I mentioned.

Above is a photo of Morgana by Chris Reeve Below, left to right, are Meluxine in a photo by Mastertouch, Dessa Fell by Jerry Bennett, and Darenzia by Nadya Lev.

Next up are Apnea in a photo by Cynthia Davila, Mosh by Sideshowsito, and Jade Vixen by Martin Perreault.

Lastly, here's Kumi Monster by B.D. Miller; Ulorin Vex by Allan Amato; and Marga wearing Bibian Blue and photographed by Phantom Orchid.

Tune in next time for, ah, who the hell knows what else will have occurred to me by then?