Finally,  I have some time on my hands were I can sit down and write for a change. So I have my Hazel Dickens collection playing in the background,  lights turned down low and a clear mind to share some thoughts. It’s funny actually,  on my Facebook page a friend had posted this awesome picture of a child looking scornful with the caption  “The face of haters when they see something you wrote in their feed”. Hopefully that doesn’t happen here,  but I know that I am taking a chance being that most people come here for the pictures that I share.

The first thing that you might observe is that there are pages missing from the menu bar above. They are not actually missing,  what I have done is I have merged some of them to already existing drop down menus to create some menu space. I’m okay with two menu bar lines but I don’t want to go any further than that. What exactly I am going to replace them with I am not actually sure just yet. There are some thoughts that I have for special pages,  one of which you will read about in the paragraph below.

In a few weeks time I am going to go to a spanking party and a thought crossed my mind. One thing that has constantly come up is the popularity of my old spanking zone podcasts,  where I sit down and interview people in the spanking community. As there will be a number of known spankos at the party I might actually purchase a digital voice recorder and see if I can’t get a few 15 minute interviews. If you click the link above you will find a number of my old podcasts,  though most of them are my past Christmas radio programs that I did. There will also be some dead links which I have never gotten around to cleaning up. If I get some time on Sunday I am going to extract the audio from one of the interviews I conducted with Dana Specht. These are all done exclusively for her website,  but as some of them are up to 7 years old I doubt if she will mind if I share the audio from some of the older ones.

Now when I started writing I had no idea which direction I was going to go in,  I was thinking more vanilla but you know darn well that I can’t go long without spanking coming into it. Either way the post title will be a good place holder. It is actually my favorite way of writing,  just sitting down without a plan and seeing where it takes me.

One thing that I was thinking about on the way home tonight was my favorite spanking pictures. Now this type of thing could have me writing for hours as there are so many that I like. In fact this might take up one of the menu places above where I will write posts describing why I like certain pictures and perhaps including half a dozen pics at a time. I like to think that I am a connoisseur of spanking pictures and I could easily see myself writing a few paragraphs on around a hundred different pics or so.

With that thought in mind I am sure that everyone has a favorite picture,  or at the very least a favorite type of setting/ambiance/clothing/scenario etc that makes certain pictures more special to them. Now I’m never asked this,  but when I pose the question to myself,  the one picture that I think is the best discovery that I have made,  it probably surprises people. The one picture that I found that fits this bill is the college art project that recreates one of the most famous spanking pictures that exists,  which is the one for the Chase and Sanborn Coffee Ad. The picture is from 1954 and while it isn’t the best picture ever made,  the scene itself has been recreated untold times in pictures. So to find the copy that I did on Ebay was such a rarity that I was almost sick when I forgot to bid on it. Below you will see the original and the second pic is the college recreation from 1954.

From a position of personal taste I will rarely,  in fact if I ever have,  post a picture that shows genitalia. That isn’t a knock on anyone as most websites and blogs features this,  it is just something that is not appealing to me. My focus tends to lean towards pictures that might be found in mainstream magazines etc,  or pictures that leave you with an impression that you can create your own story to. I’m a very visual creature and I almost think I am weird in what it is exactly that pushes my buttons when it comes to spanking pictures. There is not one thing in particular,  in can be a variety of different things. Here are two examples of what I am talking about.

This picture here is on my phone,  and it is my happy picture,  it never ceases to put a smile on my face. Should I ever get stressed then I just open the phone and look at the picture. Now why do I like it so much? It is very simple,  a thought once come to my mind at what I was seeing and it has stuck with me ever since. The person doing the spanking I believe is Aunt Vicki from Texas and it is the slight smile on her face that does it for me. It is a smile that says to me  “Oh,  so you think you are too old for a spanking do you”?  It is a thought that has stuck with me and I just love the picture.

Another picture that I love that I have never posted before is from Shadowlane. The picture features Virginia Lewis receiving what clearly looks like a rather painful lesson. It is one of those  “A picture is worth a thousand words”  type of pictures where I would love to hear a story about it. More than anything,  I would love to hear VIRGINIA’S version of events that led to this conclusion. It is a very hot pic,  as are the few others from this small set.

Part of the reason that I thought this morning that this would be a vanilla post tonight was during the journey into work today. Normally I have my coffee and I read the paper,  but today I pretty much spent the entire journey looking at the Manhattan skyline. I’m fortunate that I take an elevated train to work so every day I get to see New York and it reminds me how great my life is. I’m serious as well,  I find the skyline to be very humbling and I am appreciative for what I have. It was just a mellow ride all around,  thinking of family and where I am.

My family outside of my immediate family is not really close. It is kind of sad really that I don’t even know if all of my Father’s siblings have left us. My dad died in 1999 and I’m pretty sure that his brother and sisters have also passed away. My cousins on my dad’s side I literally could not tell you of,  I know there are some but I would have only met them when I was very young. Cousins on my mom’s side is also the same,  I had very little contact with them when I was young. Some of mom’s siblings are still alive. Two of her brothers died a long time ago and I was able to go to both funerals,  and of course mom died a few months ago. She does still have three sisters and two brothers living though. The reason that I mention that is because I’m not close to them so when it comes to family it is pretty much my brother and myself and that is it. Some of my older readers will know that I also lost a brother in 2009.

If you have lost people in your life then I think that you understand where I am coming from,  it makes you more appreciative for what you do have. There are a lot of good people in my life so I am really blessed by that,  and I don’t really have any regrets,  but I do wish that some friendships had stood the test of time. People drift apart though so that happens to everyone,  I’m sure that I am not alone in that. Some of my strongest friendships have developed during my time of need,  which of course are the times listed above with the family deaths. I’m generally a very strong character emotionally which is a trait that I am thankful for. There is this understanding in my mind that I can only control what I do and how I feel,  I cannot control that in anyone else. It isn’t something that I try to do,  if a person makes a decision then I’m okay with that,  it’s their decision,  not mine.

Now I have to take time out and tell you a story. As I have been writing this I have moved on from Hazel Dickens to Sarah McLachlan in my Amazon cloud player.

In 1997 I went on a camping trip with a close friend and two sisters who were friends of my friend. That year the sisters had lost their brother quite tragically. We were around the camp fire and there was a radio playing over by the tents. I was snuggled up with my lady friend and the sisters were opposite. The song  “Angel”  by Sarah McLachlan came on the radio and the sister closest laid back into her sister’s lap and started singing while her sister played with her hair. Man I remember it like it was yesterday. At that point I hadn’t lost any close family members,  but even then I got their bond in a nanosecond,  it was so beautiful to watch. A bit of a buzzkill I have to admit,  but it is something that I will always have as a memory.

That’s kind of what death does to you really,  you never forget who has your back during those times. That is why my brother and I are so close,  we have been through quite a bit so far. I know that we are not alone in that,  many of you have as well,  that is why I think that you will understand what I have written. It also puts your own mortality on the table and totally reminds me of that line in  ‘The Shawshank Redemption’,  “Get busy living,  or get busy dying” 🙂

I’ve certainly mellowed over the past year. A big part of that which I can’t deny was taking an extended break from the scene. It had got to the point where that strength of mine had become a weakness. That internal barometer that I have started to malfunction. It is my  “Take no shit”  barometer.

That will be the one area that I will try to improve upon this year,  I’m going to force myself to be more social. I’m still going to take my  “Me”  time,  but there has to be a balance. I also have to do some extra work in terms of playing. I think that if you recognize your weaknesses it helps you improve as a person. A definite weakness of mine is my far too laid back,  almost antagonistic approach to playing. What is my problem you may ask? I’ve got to be honest,  I just don’t give a fuck,  lol.

Seriously though,  I’ve never chased or played games or pined to play with anyone. There is this emotional barrier that I have that I have spoken of many times before,  if someone is not interested in playing with me then my interest in playing with them also hits zero. The emotional attachment is the strongest link for me,  it has to be there even in the smallest form of friendliness. Now I don’t mean that in a nasty way and I hope that it doesn’t come across that way,  it’s just that I am so secure with what I have and what I have experienced so far.

There is no denying,  I have received a hundred times more than I ever could have imagined in my WILDEST dreams,  it has been a beautiful journey. I want for nothing in the scene. Actually I will rephrase that,  I do want what I currently have because I love it.

Anyway,  I threw some vanilla sprinkles in at the end there to go with the earlier spanking stuff. I’m not even going to proof read it because I was just rambling. Maybe I will post it,  check all those emails people are sending me and then come back to it.

Ciao for now.