This is sort of a farewell to Xanga.  Certainly Xanga as we know it but also Xanga as it was.  It was encouragement and positive feedback from many Xangans that led me to begin to publish my stories for a price.  I’m not making a living out of my stories but it’s nice to be able to get paid something for doing work you love. 

My only regret is that I haven’t blogged much about my personal life or views and I think this has led to a strange circumstance.  I have read many of your blogs and fell that I have become close to many of the other Xangans here but I haven’t always felt the same relationship in return.  There’s a chance that this comes from my insecurity but it is probably more likely a result of my maintaining my erotica persona.

I want to take a moment to say thanks to a bunch of people many of which are no longer on Xanga.  I miss many of these people and I’m glad to see other Xanga connections developing on Facebook and in posts like this. 

In no particular order and forgive me for skipping many people.  Airwynn (Tiffany) was so helpful when I first started.  She helped me navigate the idiosyncrasies of Xanga at the time (2007) and was very accepting.  ItsWhatEyeKnow, Elle, Jaime Beck, Sean-HiLaw, DivaJyoti all wrote posts I found facinating. I fell in love with Marica, Days Likethis, la_femme_inconnue, Paige (although we could never discuss politics), ShimmerBodyCream, OLWD, and Lady Kelacy. 

There were people who came and left but made an impression: dyonesianeyes, nprwrites, DistantShipSmoke, Giant Unicorn, Janeatthelibrary, jacksoncroons, msmae21, ccarothers, sassy_soul_sistah, venice, Just_me, KyohakuMegami, spshellady, and the beautiful Serena Dante.  My favorite Muslims: Saadia, Dr Zsa and the irrepressible fabulousclown.  The people I wished I got to know better: Jenny, Amy, BoulderChristina, thegunslingergirl, suggestivetongue, nyfemme, veronicagrey, saintvi, Sean, and promisesunshine.  The people who entertained me in a special way: anthonyc, carolinamuscle, godfatherofgreenbay, amateurprose, CEC32, and yes, Dan the theologian.  People I wish I knew in real life: Adamswomanback, kells, Erika Steele, Carlos (soltero_alma), and others mentioned elsewhere.

I enjoyed watching Summer and Jim fall in love in spite of the drama that seemed to surround them.  I have become cybernetically involved with the lives of wyckdstorm, myhomeiswriting, bricker59, Takingoverme, JmeLove_x, and Foodhog.  Lastly thanks to those struggling hard to keep the community alive: the Xanga team, roadlesstaken, edlives, and myxldove.

Again I apologize to those I left out.  There are others here who have made a difference for me and whose support is appreciated.

It started with a kneading.

Then a caress.  From hands that

Sensually sense.  Flesh that

Needed the touch, trembled.

It brought back memories of

What was left behind.  For

Good reasons.  Logical reasons

That made no sense right now.

Only her senses made sense.  Lingering

Lips closed in where words became lost.

Stop.  A voice from deep within yelled.

But never breached her outside aura.

The touching continued unabated. 

She returned with gripping.  Nails

Scratching, hair pulling tension.

Twisting her.  Moving her.

The to and fro of he and she

Like crashing waves in a shallow cove.

Swirling together until they locked

In mindless, thoughtless, senseful instinct. 

I’ve been blogging on Xanga since 2007.  Before that I blogged at another community called Gather.  I enjoy writing within a community and I find the idea of blogging in general cyberspace with WordPress or Blogger to be a fairly lonely experience.  It seems to take forever to build a following and you don’t know where to begin following people.  Yet Gather has done poorly and so too has Xanga.  Few people are still around from when I started.  

I’ve been pondering a lot lately – what is it that is so enjoyable about a community such as Xanga and why doesn’t that appeal appear to be more universal.  What do you think?

I was tagged by @lightnindan.  Here are 16 things about me:

1. I didn’t get my driver’s license until I was 26.  On the day I got my license, I bought my first car – a brand new Dodge.  City boy.

2. I’ve never owned a used car.  I only buy new ones and then drive them into the ground.  My current car I’ve had for 11 years and it has 125,000 miles on it.

3. I’ve traveled around the world pretty extensively, racking up 1 million miles on American Airlines alone.  (I have a special frequent flyer card which has absolutely no more privileges left.)

4. I’m a liberal but think government is too fat and inefficient.  I’d like to see the middle men cut but not the services to the needy.

5. I believe there are way too many laws and I don’t think it would hurt society if all the lawyers died tomorrow.  Why does it take 55 pieces of paper to close on the sale of a house?

6. There is something elegant about the 10 commandments even though I only practice 8 of them.

7. Writing erotica started as a hobby and still comes second to my consulting practice but I hope to find the time to write more.

8. My current wife and I have both lived through terrible divorces but we have a wonderful family now.  Our kids are good friends and we are the favored parent over our exes.  The good guys finally won.

9. Most of my early erotic stories were based on experience.  (I had a good time between marriages.)  Now they come mostly from my fantasies. 

10. I had my wallet stolen 10 years ago and my credit cards used and 2 years ago someone hacked my bank account.  I am totally aggravated by the lack of effort that the financial institutions and law enforcement puts into stopping this sort of crime.  They’d rather just charge 18+ percent (which is exorbitant) rates to cover their losses.

11. I grew up in a rough section of the city which gave me a certain confidence of my ability to handle lots of situations.  I started working seriously at about 13.  I managed a restaurant in Boston’s “Combat Zone” when I was 19 having had 4 years of experience in other restaurants.

12. I never got an undergraduate degree but was accepted to graduate school and completed an MBA.

13. My first wife and/or the MA court system completely raped me of my assets after I had made a killing (close to a million dollars) in a highly successful start up.  She wound up the five bedroom house, $50,000 in stock and I got the tax payments.  Although I never made another killing, I’ve done OK, but it took me about 6 years to get out of debt after the divorce.

14. I’m about to become a grandfather in November.

15. Except for an 8 month stint when I lived in Sweden, I have always lived in Massachusetts.

16. As I get older, I have less enjoyment out of snow and I’ve come to hate ice, but I still prefer cold weather to very hot weather.  With all the weather disasters New England keeps looking better and better. 

I’m supposed to tag 10 people but rather than do that, if you are one of the first 10 people to read and or comment on this, consider yourself tagged.

Caption, quotes, or comments?

Comment or caption?

(I stole this from another Xangan but don’t remember who!)

This is the argument by some who oppose same sex marriages.  Logically then all marriages should be dissolved when the partners become too old to bear children and proof of fertility should be a prerequisite to marriage.  I guess these are the same people who believe that anal sex is a sin and fellatio and cunnilingus should be prosecuted as abhorrent behavior.  I imagine these are pretty unhappy people who are afraid of their own desires. 

I actually have some homophobia.  It’s just not in my DNA to consider sex with another man.  It has no appeal to me.  But get over it!  Not everyone is built the same.  What you find exciting might not be the same as it is for me but why should I care and get my panties in a bunch over it.  Live and let live.  That’s the basis of freedom.  It’s supposed to be for all.

Comments or Captions

For some inexplicable reason FC’s site has been rated X.  This can only be changed by an average dropping her to something more reasonable.  Could you please go to her site @fabolousclown and rate her site an A.

Thanks to everyone’s help, her rating has been reduced to a C which means most people (over 18 I think) can see it.  She could still use some more A ratings which will make it more difficult for an individual or small group to move it back up.  To give her site an A rating go to her site and pull down the tab at the top called ratings.

If you want to see Ex rated sites/posts you may need to change your settings.  (Under Safe Browse you’ll see what your settings allow you to see.  Unchecked posts are blocked for you and the default is B, I think).

Thank you everyone for your help.

I am participating in the Creative Pay It Forward 2013 campaign. The first 5 people to comment on this status will receive something from me at some point this year.  It might be a free story or a card or a donation to a charity or something else that you request.  All I ask in return is that you also Pay It Forward by posting a similar status/web blog offering to do something great for 5 of your friends.