COVER -> MY GLASS HOUSE
First off, my e-mails have convinced me that LOTS of people are getting rich on the Internet because of amazing new marketing schemes that allow them to achieve financial independence, work from home, and make thousands of dollars a week. From what I read --- almost every day --- these people have learned the secret of having people send them thousands of dollars in the mail each week.
And I could be one of them, if I only figured out where to start. Yeah, this is Rod being befuddled again. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE PLANS sounds so simple, easy and amazing --- if I have the serious resolve to become affluent --- that I don't know which one I should choose. Obviously my plan, of just trying to earn an honest living, is totally wrong-headed. I need to get onto the Gravy Train of smart marketing.
Second example: The Chicago Sun Times did a piece recently, featured on our "RDR" page, about a Black man who not only grew up in Nazi Germany, but managed to survive his youth there --- and to come over here to the United States, live to a ripe old age and write about it. This is not an Internet hoax (like my jocular comments above) it's absolutely true and an "Oh wow!" item if I have ever seen one.
It seems the primary reason he survived is that there were so few Blacks in Nazi Germany that they were made low priority "Undesirables" slated for later extermination...
This latter true example is proof positive that you can still learn something new every day.
Meanwhile, Back at The Ranch
I did manage to see an optometrist this week. She confirmed my own findings: I spend so much time on the Internet that I've adapted to it. It is actually easier for me to read material on-line than in meatspace. My eyes have lost the ability to deal with a three dimensional world. Here in 2D and low dpi (dots per inch), I function just fine and for hours on end. That means I need bifocals to function properly in the 3D world most of you live in.Like many people, when I read that Wilt Chamberlain claimed to have slept with *hundreds* of women during his professional basketball career, I was stunned. In my view, that was an open admission to a lack of staying power. As is well-documented here, I slept with scores of women during those years that I was rutting. One of my opening lines, unlike Wilt, was "Do you have a couple of hours to kill?" In my view, sex was a sacramental ritual.
This approach gained me the reputation of being "over-sexed" (a buzzword of the late '70s and mid-80s) and even allowed some people to use the hurtful word "libertine."
Even worse, from my perspective, was how there was an obvious double-standard --- even in those obviously promiscuous and AIDS-free times --- about who you chose to sleep with. Based on what you know about me during that twenty year stretch, you know that I chose to sleep with women both older and younger than myself.
The rub, from my point of view, was that sleeping with an older woman (12 years was the highest stretch at that end) gained you admiration from your peers while sleeping with a younger woman (15 years, during my late 30s was the lower range) got catcalls of "cradle robber."
I didn't get it! Nobody called Frank Sinatra a cradle robber when he was with Mia Farrow.
I can admit that my ethics were less than admirable. I did not discriminate then as I probably would now.
Yes, I slept with married women, women involved in other relationships, lesbians, and committed *lots* of one-night stands. But I don't think I was much more indiscriminate than most people at the time. Indiscriminate sex did not mean potential death then.
AND BEAR THIS IN MIND: I was both a late-bloomer and a less than average-looking guy. My good fortune was based more on the times themselves than any special attributes I personally posessed. I'm sure John Travolta and Robert Redford would both make me look like a piker. (We won't go to Wilt Chamberlain again because I consider his own account demonstrates his lack of appreciation of the act itself.)
So why celibacy? some have asked me privately.
There are complex and involving reasons for my latest choice, not least of which is the deadly nature of casual sex now as opposed to during my rutting period. The world changed and I had to change with it, if only for health reasons.
There is also the fact, among the many, of age. When you reach my age, most people who would have been potential targets are esconced in marriages. My scrubles have changed over the years and I'm no longer interested in playing the role of "backdoor man."
Finally --- as perhaps tellingly --- now that my hormones are not raging out of control, I desire more than just a decent body, willingness and a pulse. These three are required, certainly, but I expect a potential partner to bring something more to the table intellectually. I now also need a challenge. That might be what being a jaded dog is all about.
I no longer have the desire to simply play the game. Cutting an obviously vulnerable gazelle out from the herd holds no fascination for me, though I'm quite willing to instruct young lions in the process.
What I am seeking now is a lioness.
THINGS THAT BOTHER ME THIS WEEK
1. The nagging question of what I am doing remaining here in Baltimore.2. The Next Phase of this magazine.
3. Forms, for work, for agencies. Forms! They are driving me nuts.
Thanks for coming back this week.
"Work like you don't need the money,
"Love like you've never been hurt,
"Dance like no one is watching..."
Rod
ROD AMIS has published this magazine since 1990. It first appeared as a hardcopy 'Zine. In March, 1996, he launched it here on the Web. Rod was a Contributing Editor at Suite101.com, where he wrote the " 'Net Publishing" feature. His work has been featured in the San Francisco Bay Guardian Online, NRV8, and at WebLab's Reality Check site. Rod was also a contributing writer on technology for Faulkner Information Services.
Rod was a columnist for the Andover News Network, where he wrote over two hundred articles on web design and development issues. He is also principal writer and Editor for IT Manager's Journal, where he reviews technology issues weekly. He became the Managing Editor for Electronic Mail/Newsletter Publications at Andover.net at the end of February, 2000.
Our Editor does listen!