Monday potpourri

I hate summer. Yes, I know I say that every year. Why should 2013 be an exception?

Temps were in the triple digits this weekend, and I hibernated in John's house, which was blessedly cool. But sooner or later, I knew I had to come home. I knew it wouldn't be super comfortable in here, but I didn't expect it to feel like a furnace blast when I walked in. Apparently, we'd had a power outage for a while, and it must have short-circuited the A/C, which was now blowing coolish/warmish air. And it was a little over 80 degrees in the apartment.

Nothing I could do about it, except put on every fan I owned, keep the lights off, and walk around naked, spritzing myself with a water sprayer. No, I don't have any pictures. Sorry.

This morning, it's a chilly 76 degrees in my apartment. The vents seem to be spewing marginally cooler air, but maybe it's wishful thinking. Such is summer in a building with antiquated A/C. 

Steve can't come over to play. He has business issues to handle, and I told him it's OK, since it would be miserable trying to play in here today anyway. At least I have two large work projects to keep myself busy. But I will miss him. Still, the idea of any sort of physical exertion in here is most unpleasant.

In other news: I haven't noticed that any blogs have disappeared. You know what I think? I believe Blogger deliberately made that form letter vague, to scare the hell out of all of us, make us wonder, chase some of us off. They probably want to get rid of us anyway, even though they say it's OK for us to be here (as long as we're not making any money). For now, I have my blog backed up in an XML file and I opened a WordPress account and imported my posts/comments there, but that's just for safekeeping. I think at this point, transferring from Blogger to WordPress is a lateral move that really isn't necessary. If I do have to transfer, I will get my own domain, so I don't have to worry about this BS anymore. 

And speaking of moves, Dana Kane wasted no time in ensuring her blog is safe; she has moved to her own domain: Ms. Dana Kane. Be sure to update your blog roll and go welcome her to her new place.

Other news II: There is a tempestuous thread ongoing at FetLife; it started out as one subject, but then morphed into an argument about whether or not "professional" spankers are more expert at spanking than your average everyday spanker. There has been much drama and snarking -- and believe it or not, I dropped out of it a couple of days ago. Maybe I just don't have the energy; it's too hot. Maybe I'm sick of these arguments that never get resolved. But it does seem that there's been an excessive amount of arguing/debating/flaming on Fet lately. Maybe I'll blog about some of the heated topics, if I can muster the creativity in my fried brain.

I did respond to one guy's writing though -- a treatise on, I quote: The Shit Thing About Being a Dom. He then delves into a long list of laments about all the stuff Doms have to put up with. I still can't figure out whether it's partially tongue-in-cheek or what, but it sounds awfully whiny to me. I didn't address the entire litany, just one point, this:

Doms are the most mocked thing on Fetlife.

• Everyone on Fetlife likes to make fun of something. But you need to be careful who you throw rocks at, because you don't want to be seen as a bully or intolerant. So the easiest thing to do, is throw rocks at someone who supposedly should be strong enough by nature to absorb the blows. Therefore Doms are the brunt of satire, sarcasm, and plain old mocking by the truck load. Doms are picked on for not being Dominant enough, or too domly dominant, or worse still; the dreaded Uber Dom. And if a Dom doesn't like it then the assumption is that he obviously isn't a real Dominant.

To which I responded:

"This piece is interesting and thought-provoking. I don't have the time or energy (it's a bazillion degrees here) to comment thoroughly, nor can I read all the other comments now. However, one sentence jumped out at me and I must take exception.

Therefore Doms are the brunt of satire, sarcasm, and plain old mocking by the truck load.

No. Not good Doms/tops. Not the thoughtful, kind, compassionate and loving ones. Not the ones who treat each bottom/sub as an individual, with individual limits, needs and desires. Not the ones who earn respect rather than demanding it.

Replace "Doms" with "arrogant people" and yes, I agree. Because I adore tops. I know many who have given me much joy and fulfillment. But yeah, if "the dreaded Uber Dom" gets in my face, you bet I'm going to have a faceful of snark ready for him.

[Another one of his points was that Doms are expected to be mind readers, so I added this:]

One more thing: I totally agree that Doms are often expected to be mind readers and psychics, which is completely unfair and unreasonable. Subs/bottoms need to communicate their needs and hard limits, what they like, what they'll do and not do, etc. If something goes wrong, they need to have a two-way discussion and openly talk about what went wrong.

However... sometimes, when we bottoms do this, we are told by the dreaded you-know-whats that we're topping from the bottom. (sigh)"

I didn't receive any feedback to this, but I didn't expect to. The traffic was so high on this writing, no one was replying to anyone; they were just writing opinions. (Mostly odes of praise.) At this moment, the writing has 353 comments and 1,593 Loves. Go figure.

Perhaps I should write a rebuttal treatise called "The BS Bottoms Have to Put Up With." I'll put that on the list.

Meanwhile, I'm heading for the gym to cool off.