NothingToDread.com

I've done a lot of things earn a buck. I won't bore you with my full resume, but lately I've been reminded of the time I worked as a $5/hour shopping mall rent a cop. It was a simple job. Most of our day was spent baby sitting the mall rats and directing shoppers to their destinations. I did learn one thing wearing that tin star. Shopping malls are typically classified as Private Property that is open to public access. I could run anybody I chose off that property. People had a lot of trouble grasping that concept. You open up a place to public access, and they somehow get the silly idea that they have a right to be there.

Privileges vs. rights... I'm always amazed by how much trouble people have grasping these very simple concepts. You have a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. You don't have a right to access private property even if all your friends are there. If you are a citizen and over 18, you may still enjoy a right to vote unless you have forfeited that right by way of felonious act. You may have a whole boatload of rights, but the last time I checked no place in the constitution of these United States, or any other nation that I can bring to mind, has anybody ever been guaranteed a right to free hosting.

My first blog was one of those political/current event type rant sheets where I just went off about anything that caught my attention. Other than my opinions, which many of my fellow bloggers disagreed with, the blog was safe for all ages. I was aware of blogger and other "free" hosting options, but instead I chose pay in the neighborhood of $100/year for hosting. Not a whole lot, but I don't use a lot of bandwidth, and the plan was actually overkill for my needs. I also chose a similar plan for nothingtodread.com Again, I probably could have opted for a free service, but instead I paid. Why? because I wanted the flexibility to what I pleased with my site. Granted, I also planned to do more than host a blog at the time, but I got lazy. The point is, I wasn't willing to place my self at the mercy of a third party. If my site went down, I wanted to have the right afforded to every paying customer to complain about the service.

People are complaining that Google is censoring nudist content by placing a warning page between their nudist Blogger sites and the world. Personally, I'm having more than a little trouble sympathizing. That "flag button" has been at the top of your blogs for years. Are you honestly that shocked that somebody pulled the trigger, or are you shocked by the fact that Google is out there covering their ass by tossing up a warning? We're in the mall with our genitalia hanging out for all the world to see, and Mrs. Uptightcitizensbrigade walks in on little Johnny jerking off to a nudist photo of the day. What the hell did we think was going to happen? Is there anything wrong with the content of the blogs in question? No! My site is ten times more objectionable than Diary of a Nudist. Does that mean that little Miss. Moral Majority isn't going to complain? NO!

Look, I'm an asshole. I make no apologies for that fact, but the way I see it the whining and the moaning about the appearance of the warning pages on Blogger sites is just another symptom of the crazy sense of entitlement that takes hold in any special interest group. We go from discussing simple non sexual nudity in a welcoming environment, and everything seems rational. We support public breastfeeding, fine. Somehow we eventually break from reality, and it all becomes all so very political. Suddenly we have a RIGHT to offend the public. We have a RIGHT to be nude in the town square. We have a RIGHT to FORCE our neighbors to confront our nude bodies and their irrational attachment to textile products. Gradually we begin to believe that we have a RIGHT to free and unconditional hosting, bandwidth, advertising, and the ability to promote our business without cost or interference. Then we're a little surprised when the public views us as crackpots.

Again, maybe I'm an asshole, but Google by way of Blogger is offering a service to the public, but it is still private property. About the closest thing you have to a right is the right to comply with their terms of service if you want to continue to take advantage of the privilege afforded to you by way of that service. Instead of crying about a business decision that they made in their interest, just say thanks for the free ride, and move on as some of you already plan to do. This isn't a vast conspiracy. It is just common sense.

I'm not going to make a lot of friends with this post. That's a shame, because I generally admire the bloggers who I believe will be the most offended by this post. The people who have been the most hurt by the placement of warning pages leading to their Blogger sites, also produce blogs that are far beyond the reach of what I do here. That said, I have been more than a little put off by the general "political" turn that nudist discussion has taken over the past several months. Maybe it's always been that way. I'm just more aware of it now. As far as the nudist content here at nothingtodread.com. I've been pretty much done with it for quite some time now. I'll continue to post the occasional trip report, but unless I'm writing about what I did sans clothing and where, I really don't see what more there is to say that hasn't already been said.

As if to prove that you can find anything you're looking for on the internet, some poor schmuck, who I'm sure meant to type colony, recently arrived at nothingtodread.com after submitting the following search term to Google:Pictures of nudist colon. I bet he wasn't expecting images from this nudist's recent colonoscopy.

I also had to laugh at the searcher who specified "Nudity in progress". How many times do you think that searcher was burned by the unfulfilled promise of nudity before he or she decided to stop taking chances?

After reading several stories that referred to virtual nudism and sex in Second Life, I decided to create an account and have a look for myself. That was several month's ago. Just in case you don't know, that's also an eternity in blog years. Sorry, I don't know how to do the math myself. It has something to do with quantum mechanics and the attention span of the North American winged keyboard. I've been away for a very long time.

I planned to log in, look around, and right about how silly the whole thing was. Men plan; God laughs. Who said that? I suppose that I could Google the answer. May be I will. I probably won't. After a brief flirtation with boredom, I slipped into what could have become a dangerous addiction. I was rescued by my old friend ADD (I don't have the attention span to maintain a long term addiction), but not before I spent hundreds of dollars and more hours than I care to count chatting, dancing, swimming, fighting, and shopping in and around the Linden Universe.

Look... There's no point to going into a lot of detail now, but I did let a lot of personal and business obligations slip. I only broke the chain a month ago because I had no choice other than to prepare for a state exam pursuant to obtaining a license necessary for my new career and business. I studied, passed, and I've been addiction free ever since.

Oh yea... I think the blog may be back.

The Secret Life of Elle is one of those blogs that I don't read on a daily basis, but I do drop in on a fairly regular basis. Elle describes The Secret Life of Elle as a glimpse into her life and into her mind. Pictures that Elle says reflect the random disarray of her life accompany most posts at the site. While not pornographic in any sense of the word, Elle is nude or partially nude in almost all the photos.

...this blog gives me confidence. It allows me to explore my sexuality, It lets me recreate myself on a daily basis. It's a constant, always waiting to hear my thoughts, and dreams, and rants, and anything at all. Its one space where I can truly be me. And in a world were I feel lost and insecure and so incredibly scared about my future and where things are going. It gives me comfort.

The Secret Life of Elle
The Big Picture
March 21, 2007

Unfortunately Elle is having second thoughts about how the confidence and self discovery she gains from her harmless foray into cyberspace can ultimately have repercussions on her future.

Anyways, what if at some point in my life they are brought into the harsh light of day. Am I willing to stand under that scrutiny? Honestly, I'd rather not. Things have an ugly way of being taken out of context, and that thought scares me. I don't want these pictures to kill my future. [It's] probably nothing, there will probably never be a point where any of this comes to bear.

The Secret Life of Elle
The Big Picture
March 21, 2007

I'd like to think that Elle is overreacting. There's nothing wrong with anything she posts at The Secret Life of Elle. Sadly that has no bearing on the attitudes of those who have nothing better to do with their lives than scandalize the freedom of youth, and would enjoy nothing more than to make her life hell. I can't say that she's wrong for having concerns, but it would be nice if a few of you stopped by The Secret Life of Elle and showed her some support.

(Please note: I had a typo in most of the links to The Secret Life of Elle. I apologize to anyone who tried to access those links and ended up at an error page. The links to The Secret Life of Elle have been corrected - DreadFree)