Auctioning my arse off ... Aka 'Tsunami fundraising'

[Matt_Vancouver]

Well the auction is officially closed... sorry I couldn't be here to chat with everyone at midnight on the 15th, but I was otherwise occupied... (tied to a ceiling fan by my ankles)... still a bit dizzy.

I'm very proud to say that, along with having the hunky and generous, Juan on the auction block, an amazing $3750 US was raised.... congratulations

But, please, if you didn't manage to be one of the two winning bidders, consider donating what you can to help the people who's lives were affected by this disaster. Every little bit helps... Instead of buying that latte at starbucks... you could donate the $5 .. c'mon, you can do without one cup of coffee... even I can manage that, and many of you know what I'm like without my coffee in the morning.

Ok,I"m taking off my begging hat...

 

The winning bid for an overnight with Matt... (the original, the one and only).. was placed by a long time contributor to this site.. Chuck50... with his hugely generous bid of $2050

 

And the prize of an overnight with Juan... the Venezualan sexpot... the top bid was $1700, placed by PacNW.

 

I would once again like to thank everyone who participated, even the ubiquitous thread hijackers... without you it would feel like thanksgiving without the drunk obnoxious uncle. Uneventful, and boring.

 

Matt(you missed me... c'mon... admit it)

[DesertFox]

Congrats to Chuck!!! I snoozed and I lost by $50.00. . I'm sure you'll have a great time with Matt. I've been with him a few times and enjoyed his company immensely everytime. You may end up doing more than an overnight while you're in Vancouver. Give him a hug for me and enjoy!!!

 

Also congrats to PacNW for your winning bid on Juan.

[bigguyinpasadena]

Congrats to Matt and Juan for the great contributions to this site,you guys are 2 of the best fellas on this board.

And a big shout out to those who participated,your generousity is matched only by your lustful natures!And I mean that in the best of ways!

[Guest Tampa Yankee]

Let me add my applause to Matt and Juan, Chuck50 and PacNW, to all of those who particpated in the auction, and to Hoo Boy for sustaining a venue where things like this can happen.

[FourAces]

It's nice to see the unselfish side of escorts. Bravo Matt and Cheers Juan.

 

RT

[Guest Tampa Yankee]

In the Spirit of the Occasion.

 

May I offer the suggested edit...

 

>It's nice to see the unselfish charitable side of escorts. Bravo Matt

>and Cheers Juan.

>

>RT

[FourAces]

RE: In the Spirit of the Occasion.

 

>May I offer the suggested edit...

>

>>It's nice to see the unselfish

>charitable side of escorts. Bravo Matt

>>and Cheers Juan.

>>

>>RT

>

>

>

Thanks TY a much better choice of words.

 

 

RT

[bigguyinpasadena]

RE: In the Spirit of the Occasion.

 

HEY TY-how did you do that-"cross"out the word?

[+ deej]

RE: In the Spirit of the Occasion.

 

Click "reply with quote" and you'll see. ;-)

 

It's a standard HTML tag, <strike>. Just make sure you remember to close it or the rest of your post will be in strikeout too. :+

 

You can also use <s> </s>, which wreaks havoc with people accustomed to older text-based message boards. <s> was a commonly used emoticon for "smile". People often put <s> after a sentence, meaning to smile, and the HTML interpreter renders the rest of their message, and sometimes all followups, in strikeout.

[bigguyinpasadena]

RE: In the Spirit of the Occasion.

 

hmmmmm,nope did not work-above my head(not hard to do

 

 

;-)

[+ deej]

RE: In the Spirit of the Occasion.

 

Substitute square brackets for angle brackets, like all other HTML tags on this board.

[bigguyinpasadena]

RE: In the Spirit of the Occasion.

 

x(

[Guest Mikel]

Nice job...Matt and Juan. Very generous Chuck... hats off to you. As I viewed the "Concert of Hope" last evening, Jay Leno was auctioning off a Red Cross coffee mug, signed by all the stars who were answering the phones including Brad and Leonardo, for $2000. So, I thought to myself...a night with Juan or Matt is the equivalent of a collectable item like the mug. Wow!

 

And thanks to this site and Deej for bringing it all together!

[Juan Vancouver]

Hello, guys!

 

Man, I am so touched by the outcome of this auction. All the generous bids, the great attitude and of course, the winning donations are just overwhelming.

 

I want to thank each one of you who was part of this, but especially, I want to thank Matt for having come up with this amazing idea and allowing me to be a part of it. Thank you man. You are an amazing guy and I can say with a lot of pride, a great Canadian. (I am not Canadian by passport yet, but I am a deep admirer of this country and its people).

 

I asked PacNW to forward a copy of his donation to you, since you are the organizer of this event. He already emailed me with some of the details about the funner part of this auction. }( Yummie!

 

A big hug to you all, and let's keep up the good work!

 

Thanks Matt.

[Doug69]

>Man, I am so touched by the outcome of this auction. All the

>generous bids, the great attitude and of course, the winning

>donations are just overwhelming.

 

Hey Juan - Pardon me for interrupting this endless orgy of self-congratulations, but I really have to ask if you are the same Juan Vancouver who wrote the following VERY SENSIBLE post last week, in which you replied to (and criticized) Bilbo's suggestion that he would pick a day in the future and donate his escort earnings on the selected day to the tsunami victims. Here's what last week's Juan Vancouver wrote:

 

__________________________________

 

Bilbo,

 

I have to confess that I am a little mystified about this whole thing...

 

Personally, as soon as I knew about that horrible tragedy, I went to my files, made my personal balances, and donated as much money as I could, as soon as it was possible after the events.

Don't they need the money... NOW?

 

Having lived in two places of terrible earthquakes in my life, I know, by first-hand experience that the best help is not the biggest, but the fastest.

 

In the other hand, I guess american culture is a bit different than the culture I was raised in, but there are two things that surprise me a bit: The first of them is to see how people (here and in real life) are "shaming" each other into giving... And the second thing that is very different, is how some people make a public demonstration out of this "giving". I guess it can also become a nice deductable advertising...

 

_____________________________________________

 

How come you were criticizing Bilbo last week for planning some sort of future charitable giving rather than giving IMMEDIATELY - only to this week take part in some auction where everyone sits around for a week having a grand ol' fun time giggling together and complimenting each other's generosity for their planned FUTURE contribution -- while the tsunami victims suffer as each auction day goes by? Why didn't you tell all the "auction" participants merrily bidding on your asshole what you told Bilbo last week: that they should skip the fun little online rituals and donate NOW?

 

AND - how come, last week, you correctly and cogently pointed out how odd and contradictory it is to make such a public, self-serving display of one's allegedly charitable activities, only to turn around this week and be a central participant in a thread where each person, including you, paraded themselves around showing everyone how good and caring they were?

 

The opinions you expressed in response to Bilbo's post last week were perfectly accurate and clear. It seems that you abandoned them when doing so allowed you to be the center of attention and, more so, when expressing those views would have subjected you to the sort of vicious bile that was group-heaped on VaHawk for expressing exactly the same things as you did last week.

 

You were competely right to point out how hypocritical and artificial and self-serving these public tsunami charitable events are. How sad to watch you abandon those views as soon as you realized that you could reap some benefits by contradicting them.

 

It's nice to see an escort who can formulate cogent opinions and be willing to express them here. Try to hold onto them a little bit longer next time, rather than ditching them the minute they may subject you to some opposition.

[Juan Vancouver]

Long response (Read at your own risk)

 

Hey Doug,

 

Above all, thanks a lot for paying attention, man. I feel really flattered, and of course up to a certain point I can see what you are talking about.

However, as you can read in my second post in the thread that Bilbo began, I came back the next day to apologize for what I know perfectly well was one of those immigrant "My culture is better than yours" attacks.

Judged by the standards of "low-profile-discreet-modest-latin-culture" and other more conservative cultures, American culture does seem prone to make grand stands and use charity as a medium for self-promotion. American culture also, uses peer pressure to make sure that all its members cooperate in this joined effort to give and help those in need. This culture uses competition and pushing each other's limits to raise more, and help better. Some of these things feel great to me, some others don't.

 

My culture, (perhaps also your up-bringing as well as Vahawk's), may see with uncomfortable eyes this phenomenon. However, as I clearly wrote in that apology, I have chosen to live here, and function here, and use the tools that this culture offers me to grow.

 

I have to choose which aspects of this culture I want to adopt and feel healthy for me. Others, (for example the manipulation of people's fear of "terrorists" to control them, the absolute disregard for natural resource sustainability, and so on), I will never be able accept as healthy nor reasonable.

 

I was clear in that post, and I have no problem repeating it now - I donated as soon as I knew about the tsunami. I know that the best help is the fastest. However, as many have brought to our consideration, the real challenge that the whole area is going to face is the gradual return to normality; the re-awakening of the economy. For that, our sustained help in the future will be invaluable.

 

By apologizing and joining this auction, I only intend to do what I have been doing in past years: adapt to the new culture that has taken me as a member, and choose which one of this culture's values I am ready to accept, and which ones I will never be able to use as mine. So, I still cringe inside by the "shaming" of each other to be "good and pious". I still have to breath and relax and remember that this is all meant to help, but I am perfectly willing to do it, because that's what I have as a tool to help NOW.

 

Lastly, you mention that by apparently contradicting myself in such a way, I offered myself as the target of the wrathful bile of people like Vahawk and so on...

I am here to share my opinion freely and honestly, NOT to look good and make friends, as my honest posts can show. I am here to respectfully listen to what other people have to say; I am not afraid of people disagreeing with me. I THRIVE because there is always another point of view that will help me keep things in perspective.

One of the traits of my culture that I am not ready to give up is the ability to recognize when I am using a limiting belief, and be ready to change, enrich or simplify my point of view. I DO NOT MIND TO SAY THAT I WAS WRONG. (If I think I was).

(Don't you think that it is horribly sad that the Catholic Church apologized to Galileo only ten years ago? It accepted that the earth is round just TEN YEARS AGO!!)

 

Thanks for your intelligent post. It certainly made me think. And by doing so, I just feel more calm and reassured that I made the right choice by joining the auction.

 

Isn't it fun to be able to disagree without being excommunicated or even killed?

 

I LOVE IT! :+

[Boston Guy]

RE: Long response (Read at your own risk)

 

Nice reply.

 

:-)

 

BG

[+ Lucky]

RE: Long response (Read at your own risk)

 

What would the world be like if we couldn't change our mind from time to time?

[HooBoy]

Thank you Matt & Juan for keeping this fund raising effort upfront in Hooville.

 

I hope that everyone who placed a bid in your auction will follow through with a generous contribution to whichever organization they feel will get the funds to the people who need it.

 

khorb koon khrab!

 

HooBoy

[noviceny]

>One of the traits of my culture that I am not ready to give up is the ability to recognize when I am using a limiting belief, and be ready to change, enrich or simplify my point of view. I DO NOT MIND TO SAY THAT I WAS WRONG. (If I think I was).<

 

Damn Juan, thats real cool that your parents raised you like that.

 

BTW, have you ever dated a Latina ? I would dare say that they do not follow that point of view :-) :-) Viva la raza!

 

 

 

>Don't you think that it is horribly sad that the Catholic Church apologized to Galileo only ten years ago? It accepted that the earth is round just TEN YEARS AGO!! <

 

Hell no...the Church should have never apologized !!! Galileo was a pain in the ass and was lucky he only got excommunicated. I always thought they should have killed him !!!! All of his bullshit about science and the sun...what nonsense

:-)

[PacNW]

Now that we're back to rampant self-congratulations ......

 

I've said it before here and in emails to Matt and Juan, and now I'll have the chance to say it to Juan in person: Thanks! It was fun, and it remains a winning situation for all concerned. I certainly enjoyed it, even the chance for flights of rhetorical indignation.

 

Maybe, just maybe, you might get an acknowledgment that the objective "what" you have done is a good thing. Obviously, the subjective disagreements on "how" you did it are never going to be settled. Even if that's not forthcoming, you both seem secure enough in yourselves to weather the criticism.

 

And hopefully not taking away too much from my sincere expressions of opinions throughout this whole process, I'm giving my last words on it to the horny little gremlin jumping around in the back of my head:

 

YIPPEE! I won! }(