mike carey

Never forget that just because you cannot afford it or are unwilling to pay it doesn't mean someone else won't.
There is indeed a hammer for every nail.
The public pearl-clutching over rates, by some, is amusing.  

When you are typing your search terms in the search box, there is a drop-down menu at the right for what parts of the site to search. When I searched for 'giantboy' from this thread I initially left it on the default of 'This Topic' but they came up when I widened it to 'This Forum'.
https://www.companyofmen.org/search/?q=giantboy&quick=1&type=forums_topic&nodes=82

When you are typing your search terms in the search box, there is a drop-down menu at the right for what parts of the site to search. When I searched for 'giantboy' from this thread I initially left it on the default of 'This Topic' but they came up when I widened it to 'This Forum'.
https://www.companyofmen.org/search/?q=giantboy&quick=1&type=forums_topic&nodes=82

When you are typing your search terms in the search box, there is a drop-down menu at the right for what parts of the site to search. When I searched for 'giantboy' from this thread I initially left it on the default of 'This Topic' but they came up when I widened it to 'This Forum'.
https://www.companyofmen.org/search/?q=giantboy&quick=1&type=forums_topic&nodes=82

several positive comments on my fresh guacamole........so there's that

Moderator's Warning: Stay on topic (Does Jett Wayne escort?) and stop making insulting posts. 

1) I don’t know yet. It’s been a tough seven months since the move from Dallas to San Diego. It takes a long time to become well established and stable in a different city and my overhead is quite high. I must be stable before I can hit the road for long stretches again. Maybe shorter trips at first in the Southwest region, then branch out.
My goal is to do more traveling this spring/summer/fall, to include Texas. I gotta get through paying for the upcoming CoM annual PS trip in April. We’ll see, maybe after that. I invited a fellow masseur to stay with me.
I have won over many regulars in SD, and still continue grow a lot. All signs are positive, and I cover my basic expenses, however I’m not yet reaching the necessary milestones I’ve set for myself - hoping this next six months I will break through. A good many of my massage regulars were seeing other guys who weren’t doing a good job and now their clients see me instead. My escort clients are becoming faithful regulars. Since the average client for any of my services hires me about once a month, I need a LOT of regulars to keep me going and in a stable position. Working on it, expecting to get there within the coming months.
2) I implemented a modest rate increase after my move. So far, so good. My prices are competitive with my local market. Can’t speak to Texas or elsewhere. I focus on offering a good value, to attract repeat business. I want clients to feel like they got more value for the same $ they would spend on someone else. Some of those dabbling in the biz might be trying to see what they can can get (even if it means fewer appointments) and aren’t thinking long term about developing repeat business. Different approaches at play here.
3) Thank you. As a provider and a client myself, I appreciate and expect transparency.

There is nothing to say. I live in Manhattan where there are some truly beautiful supermarkets with lovely graphics, a couple of extra staff people on the floor, great prepared food, and enticing graphics throughout that are very successful businesses. These stores sometimes charge SUBSTANTIALLY more for food staples than simpler stores nearby.
I know my personal budget -- and I know where I buy what I need. No need to engage the business manager in the store that charges more with discussions about pricing policy. If a store's pricing is not profitable, a store will change it or go out of business. There is nothing to say.

Yes, the government pension (funded from the current government budget not prior individual contributions, and open to everyone but means tested on a sliding scale based on other income and on assets), is poverty level. I don't qualify for that. Mine is one funded by my lifetime pre-tax contributions, and employer contributions over my career. It started out as a military retirement scheme but was rolled into a fund that complied with the mandatory national superannuation scheme when it was implemented in the 90s.

I feel better off now in terms of available cash flow but that's entirely because I had not started to collect my pension at the start of the pandemic and was spending accrued savings. Since my pension was a lump sum in the pension fund (and would yield an incrementally higher fortnightly payment the longer I delayed starting to draw it down) my then-and-now comparison is an illusion. I have other tax-exposed investments and a tax-protected pension fund that I know are there but don't factor in to my day-to-day financial situation. In the last four years I haven't been spending all my pension income, and six months ago paid cash for a new[er] car, and have been travelling, including hotel rates I would have blanched at in the past (I'm looking at you, InnDulge) and paying to sit closer to the front of the aeroplane.
Like @Luv2play my pension is CPI indexed, biannually in my case, and my house has increased in value but I'm not planning to sell it so its value is, for now, immaterial. So whether it's real, an illusion or just that I have settled into a new pattern, I feel better off now than I did in 2020.

I don't usually care about getting trolled in these cases. The poster may be fucking with us but the question and concerns are legit. If anything, there are dozens of lurkers on here who read this post and are in the exact same situation and the advice we all have posted help someone else. That's why I love these forums. 

This is where the clash of cultures occurs. In most cultures, artistic artifacts are treasured and preserved. In this seemingly isolated example the people creating the art conceived of it decomposing into nothing. Sort of like Banksy in slow motion. 

I feel better off now in terms of available cash flow but that's entirely because I had not started to collect my pension at the start of the pandemic and was spending accrued savings. Since my pension was a lump sum in the pension fund (and would yield an incrementally higher fortnightly payment the longer I delayed starting to draw it down) my then-and-now comparison is an illusion. I have other tax-exposed investments and a tax-protected pension fund that I know are there but don't factor in to my day-to-day financial situation. In the last four years I haven't been spending all my pension income, and six months ago paid cash for a new[er] car, and have been travelling, including hotel rates I would have blanched at in the past (I'm looking at you, InnDulge) and paying to sit closer to the front of the aeroplane.
Like @Luv2play my pension is CPI indexed, biannually in my case, and my house has increased in value but I'm not planning to sell it so its value is, for now, immaterial. So whether it's real, an illusion or just that I have settled into a new pattern, I feel better off now than I did in 2020.

I’m also better off financially. My income properties have all doubled in value since 2015. My tenants maintained their payments through the pandemic and I’ve been able to get steady increases as leases renew. My portfolio is well invested and diverse and I have other real estate development investments. Great health and friends. I’m thankful for my good fortune.

Yes, the government pension (funded from the current government budget not prior individual contributions, and open to everyone but means tested on a sliding scale based on other income and on assets), is poverty level. I don't qualify for that. Mine is one funded by my lifetime pre-tax contributions, and employer contributions over my career. It started out as a military retirement scheme but was rolled into a fund that complied with the mandatory national superannuation scheme when it was implemented in the 90s.

I feel better off now in terms of available cash flow but that's entirely because I had not started to collect my pension at the start of the pandemic and was spending accrued savings. Since my pension was a lump sum in the pension fund (and would yield an incrementally higher fortnightly payment the longer I delayed starting to draw it down) my then-and-now comparison is an illusion. I have other tax-exposed investments and a tax-protected pension fund that I know are there but don't factor in to my day-to-day financial situation. In the last four years I haven't been spending all my pension income, and six months ago paid cash for a new[er] car, and have been travelling, including hotel rates I would have blanched at in the past (I'm looking at you, InnDulge) and paying to sit closer to the front of the aeroplane.
Like @Luv2play my pension is CPI indexed, biannually in my case, and my house has increased in value but I'm not planning to sell it so its value is, for now, immaterial. So whether it's real, an illusion or just that I have settled into a new pattern, I feel better off now than I did in 2020.

I'm really beginning to like anchovy on my pizza

I blacked out midway through the op. 
Does anyone have a Cliff's Notes version available?
But seriously... This is the emailed information you send to the escort. Keep being specific and see what/who you end up with.
Trial & error means you're going to have to learn to take the good with the bad. 
And stop focusing on trying to prove your sexual partner is on PrEP. You're a big boy: It's on YOU to take care of you.
 
Best of luck 👍
 

seven-hour pre-game show on CBS

I cannot agree more. When it comes to relationships, I have what I call "a resume". Before my husband of 22 years, I had several other relationships. All of them started what people seem to think it's the "right way", that is, meeting in a place/setting that doesn't involve cruising or sex, date and get to know a little bit before decide to have sex. Not rushing things, getting to know a little more about their world, family, friends, etc. All of that I did. Not a one of those relationships went anywhere. In fact, some of them were quite toxic and dysfunctional.
I cannot agree more. With my now husband, I knew what his ass tastes like before learning his name. We fucked the hell of each other in a place that definitely deserves the title of "dirty place" because is was seedy and filthy. We paired up fucking every other guy who came to that filthy place, and took turns in some impromptu gangbang. We exchanged numbers, and I forgot about it, as I was living in NJ, and that encounter was in Philly. About a month later I decided to take another trip there and called him, and we agreed to meet at a cafe. That was our first date, and I had no idea that it was (I was more interested in tallking about what groups sex setting we were going to partake that day). The rest is... not exactly history, actually. We decided to date, but then I lost my job in NJ, then my car, then my apartment, and in the meantime I decided to apply for a job in Philly and got it, so within a month of "dating" I was already living with him, which is supposed to be another big "no no" in the gay dating advise world. We never had a honeymoon period because immediately serious problems started happening on both our individual lives. He lost his job, I lost my mom, he got really sick, then I got really sick, then his new job had different schedule and we never saw each other, we went from dating to family crisis. And there were times that love was not the reason why we stayed together. Need and staying together being the least bad option was what kept us together at times. And here we are, 22 years later and cannot live without each other.
So yes, life is never an either/or thing. Possibilites always exist in unlikely places and settings.

I was curious.  So I Googled his name and "Boeing" and came up with this post from Jan. 29 in which he lays out his concerns about Boeing.  As you say, all his investment advice sounds spot on.
Buy defense stocks
GOL, one of Brazil's largest airlines, did just go bankrupt.  They were actually doing okay in terms of operating costs, given the global recovery.  But their problem was all the debt they got loaded up with during the pandemic.  Boeing is somewhat in the same ballpark, according to FT.   Fitz-Gerald sounds right in saying the pain probably is not over.
One thing I did learn is that when I read the word "bankruptcy" in print, I should believe it.  Some Brazilian financial newspaper leaked that GOL was considering filing for bankruptcy, which led to an immediate huge intraday drop.  The company issued a statement saying they were in negotiations, blah blah blah, and nothing would happen in January.  So the stock recovered to pretty much where it had been.  During that brief recovery, I sold half my shares at a small profit.   I figured I had a few weeks to sell the rest for a little more, if the recovery continued.  Then they unexpectedly filed for bankruptcy on Jan. 25.  They essentially admitted they lied about their timeline once the news leaked that bankruptcy was in fact imminent, to stay ahead of the curve.  I'm kicking myself for not selling everything.  But when I net out what I made in short term gains over several years riding that wave, I came out with only a small loss.
I like what Fitz-Gerald says about defense stocks.  I bought RTX late last year and am up about 12 % as of today. Every once in a while going back half a century Raytheon's value drops 30 to 50 %.  In this recent case, like Boeing, mostly due to their own errors.  And it is always a good time to buy, because they always recover.  Unlike GOL, which was a failed exercise in market timing, that is one I bought for the reason Fitz-Gerald said.  It is a long cycle investment with a decent dividend.
Where he sounds particularly spot on is that all tech is not the same.  And, mostly, the bigger the better:  like AAPL and MSFT, which he mentions.  It seems like this market is all tech, all the time.  I got a big cash windfall when I sold a rental home last August.  The shares of AAPL I bought then are up about 5 %.  Not bad.  The shares in FNGU and SOXL, which are 3x bullish ETFs, are both up about 75 %.  It's all the big tech names, AAPL, MSFT, NVDA.  What could possibly go wrong?
If you bought Boeing when the S & P 500 peaked in 2000, you would have done just as well as buying it or the S & P.  Both are up a little more than 3x their 2000 high.  RTX is more like 5x its 2000 value.  Microsoft, one of the big winners of the 2000 tech bubble, is now worth 7x its 2000 value.  Apple comes in at about 140x its 2000 value.  Again, it seems like all tech, all the time.
That said, at some point the tech trip is going to get very bumpy.  And when it goes bad it will feel like being on one of those Boeings when the doors blow out mid-flight.  Happily, it's easier to parachute out of tech stocks than it is a Boeing jet.  Meanwhile, enjoy the blue skies!
 

I agree, but doubt that it is in any danger of bankruptcy. If it were a stand-alone commercial aviation company I would be less confident but with its substantial military division far less so. Still, it's a big source of US exports and a big employer and both of those are intrinsically valuable to the economy, both of the whole country and the regions where it and its suppliers have their plants. Recent events have illustrated that maximising profits can be at the expense of long term value and Boeing management would do well to take that lesson on board. If they can. Building mutually beneficial relationships with suppliers (if it persists in out-soucing parts of its manufacturing process to unfortunately named companies like Spirit), its work force and its local communities and to governments rather than rent-seeking for short-term profit might be a useful business model, even if it has a utility rate of return.
I read a critique of management practices in a different context that said company management is prone to manage in their own best interests rather than the best interests of shareholders or any other stakeholders. I wonder if that is a factor in Boeing.

Welcome to the forum! People here have a variety of opinions and yes, some if them might be disrespectful, but most will not. Take what you read with a grain of salt, but most of it will be well-meaning and supportive.

Science puns make me numb.
 
But math puns make me number.

Indeed not, but as the thread was started with the express purpose of discussing this particular alleged murder, talking about the general level of safety for short-term casual visitors to Rio de Janeiro would be off topic. (Except perhaps to comment on whether the death was relevant to the broader safety issue.)