Cuddling on the
Wild Side

A prime example of a guy with Chicken Leg Syndrome

Yes, you’ve all seen it at the gym, the guys that wear long pants at the gym and are always doing chest and arm workouts. They usually suffer from a case of Chicken Leg Syndrome (CLS). It’s a horrible disease where the patient never works out their lower body and instead mistakenly vainly focuses only on their upper body.

There is a quick visual method that can be used for detecting those suffering from CLS. Take a look at the person’s biceps and calf muscles; in most people that suffer from CLS, you will notice that their bicep is larger than their calf muscle. You will see this in the example to the right. There are a few cases where this is an acceptable trait, but those are mostly the exception.

If you, yourself, suffers from CLS, the best cure is to begin including leg workouts in your routine. This may include 1 or more days in your workout cycle. This means doing actual lifts with your legs, not just cardio. Send me an email, or leave a comment and I can recommend some lifts to you.

If you know someone suffering from CLS, please advise them the benefits of working out their lower body. Here are just a few examples:

• Massive increases in your body’s natural testosterone and growth hormone production because your legs are your largest muscle group. This will in turn help the rest of your body grow, including your precious upper body. (source)
• Your legs can easily become your strongest muscle and you’ll attract a lot of attention from hotties when you have your legs press machine maxed out.
• You’ll look good when you’re wearing a swimsuit or naked because you’ll be proportionate. No one wants a top-heavy fuck.

I beg of you, please heed this warning if you suffer from CLS and get some help. It could be a workout partner that has big legs, a different workout routine, or just getting your ass in gear. If you know someone that suffers from CLS, it is your duty to inform them of the benefits of working out their legs to help them as a member of the gym community. Please do your part to stop the disease of CLS from spreading!

I’m trying to build up my blog list, especially if there are any kink-related blogs. Post me a comment with a link to your blog and any blogs you think I should check out.

Thanks!
The Cuddler

I know, I’ve been bad. I meant to post this a couple weeks ago when it happened, but I didn’t. Just slightly over 2 weeks ago, I went to a Naked Yoga class with one of my friends. He’d been doing it for about a year now. It’s an all male class, mostly gay that lasts for about an hour.

I have no problem with my body or being naked around other people, so the idea of being naked didn’t really make me nervous. What I was worried about was actually doing the yoga. I had never done it before and didn’t know much about it other than that there were different types of it. I had no clue what type we were going to do.

I arrived and waited for my friend. We walked into the yoga building together. He paid for me and registered for the class. Then he gave me a tour of the building, which didn’t take long because you could see everything from one spot. Along the wall outside the room was everyone’s shoes, but I didn’t really think anything of this until I walked into the room and didn’t see a pair in sight. Oops.

They had some extra mats for people like me who hadn’t invested in a mat yet. My friend and I laid out our mats next to each other, then proceeded to join everyone else in the room in nakedness. You’re probably want to know, were they old and creepy, or really hot? No. They were all in the average range - some on the hotter side; some on the not hotter side. Both young and old too.

People kept arriving and getting naked. As more people arrived, we had to keep moving our mats closer and closer together to accommodate everyone and eventually rearranged the mats entirely. When class started there was an uncomfortable 20 or so people in the small incense-filled room.

Class began with a quick name and statement from everyone as to why we were there. I just wanted to try something new. The focus for this session was the sexual chakra. We began and went through different movements - seated, standing, one leg with two hands and other contortions. Some I was able to do pretty well, and others not so well. I’m blaming my massive muscularity. With a room full of men, we all tried to do our best to show how manly and over-confident we were. About half way through, I was dripping in sweat like a fire hydrant. It wasn’t because the room was very hot, just because of everything I was doing. Eventually I cooled down only to lay in a pool of my own sweat.

With the room being so packed, I bumped into my neighbors a couple times. At one point we did a partner exercise. Luckily I was paired with my friend. At this point I wasn’t prepared to have a stranger touch my naked body.

Once everything was done, they passed around some good, yet healthy cookies, carrots and some chai tea. Everyone stuck around and chatted a bit. Overall, it was a good experience and something I’d do again. Many parts reminded me of things we’d done during my college Aikido martial arts classes.

Did I feel like a piece of meat? Not really. There were times where I felt like guys were looking at me, but not as bad as a gay bar or nude beach. I’d recommend you try it.

Some pics from the Folsom Street Fair. Click on them for a larger view.

Wandering around the Folsom Street Fair hanging with my friends

2 fun and interesting guys from Vancouver

A great guy I met. He's in the Bearhunter X 2009 calendar.

Met him at the Big Muscle party from LA.

Two of my SF buds with some of their friends.

A random guy I saw while dancing. I loved what he was wearing.

Just wanted to apologize for not having posted anything recently. Life’s been busy with my new boyfriend. My goal is to get a couple of posts up this week including some pics from Folsom, my experience doing an all-male nude yoga, and something other kinky posts.

Outside my hotel on Market St. Looks like I'm in the right area.

What do you do when there are thousands of hot leather boys in one city? Well, if you’re me, you try to meet as many as you can. Now you’re probably thinking I slept with many of them, and that would have been an accurate assumption a couple months ago, but now I have a monogamous boyfriend. And there were many hot and fun guys there, but I was indeed good. It doesn’t mean I didn’t have a great time, I did. I met up with many of my real friends, cyber friends (including Moby, Adam and Frank - my other friends don’t have blogs), and made some new friends too. I did some tourist things, quite a bit of shopping including stops at Mr S Leather and Chaps, made it to the gym and some parties.

Let me just say I love public transportation in SF. It makes of super easy to get around. I stayed at Hotel Whitcomb on Market and 8th with a train stop right outside the front door. Made it easy to hop on the Muni and go to the Castro or just walk down to the Folsom Street area.

Out at Folsom with one of my friends from Dallas

The whole weekend was fantastic. The main things I went to was the Big Muscle party, the Folsom Street Fair and the Real Bad party. It was a toss up between the Fair and the Big Muscle party as to which was the best. There were tons of hot guys at the Big Muscle party and it was really easy to talk and meet guys there, just wish the space was a little bigger. The Fair was awesome because I ran into many friends and got to see many different fetishes. I still didn’t see much sex this year. The Real Bad party is really just a circuit party in every sense from what I’ve seen. I haven’t been to one of the big ones, but this seemed close. I don’t think I’d go to Real Bad again unless it was with friends. Too much dancing and no real ability to talk to people.

I’ll return to Folsom sometime in the next couple years, but I’ll use the money to go somewhere else next year.

Yup, I’m leaving for Folsom in just a little over 12 hrs, and while I know what goes on there, I’m not really sure what’s going to happen this year. While there, I don’t plan to be in a position to need a Safe Word, but some boys may.

For those that don’t know, a Safe Word is a word/phrase that is used to stop a scene/session. There are some variations on it including words that partners will use to notify each other that they are getting near a threshold, and words to notify that things are good to start. They are very useful for situations, especially when you’re learning your partner’s real limits. One thing is I always let me sub choose their Safe Word because it NEEDS to be something they can easily remember in the passion. It’s then my responsibility to remember it, but it’ll also stand out when they scream it.

Safe words are very useful in sessions, I just wish they could be used in life. There are many times where I’d just want to be able to stop everything, get out of the scene and go back to the way things are. Granted, pushing your limits is what makes you grow, but there are some times when you can’t mentally, physically and/or emotionally push those limits. Quite often talking and expressing yourself is the best way to work through these situations, but some times you just can’t handle it.

It’s just a little over a week until Folsom this year and I’m planning on being there, although I haven’t made any plans yet (later today hopefully). Here’s a little blurb from their website that explain what Folsom is for anyone that may not know:

In 2008 the world’s largest leather event, the Folsom Street Fair^tm, will celebrate its 25th anniversary on Sunday, September 28, 2008 from 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM.

The Folsom Street Fair is a true San Francisco original. With over 400,000 people in attendance covering 13 city blocks, the Fair is the largest leather/fetish event in the world and the third largest, single-day outdoor event in California. Folsom Street Events is thrilled to celebrate the historic 25th Folsom Street Fair with style and a week’s worth of truly outstanding events and programs over the course of San Francisco Leather Week.

Last year in 2007 was my first time attending and it was my first big leather event and 2nd big gay event outside of Minnesota. Folsom 2007 met many of my expectations, but many fell very far short. My first impression of the gay mecca was not the transcendant and surreal experience I expected. Instead it was fast-paced and self-centered. I had talked with a couple guys online before going that happened to be on my connecting flight to SF. These guys ended up becoming my roommates here in Texas, and that was a very good thing. The 3 of us attended the Big Muscle Meet and Greet. It was awesome seeing so many big hot muscle guys there.

One of the hotties at Folsom 2007. If you look closely, he shaved in some abs.

We also went to the Magnitude party on Saturday night. It’s a bunch of muscle and other leather boys gathered all together. Which sounds cool, until you realize that they are all tweaked out and it was 500 billion degrees in the place. Dungeon Beds provided about 5 beds that anyone could use for a variety of things from fucking to fisting to sucking. I may have even participated and let a guy suck my cock. The fisting and fucking was very hot to watch. I don’t plan to go back to Magnitude anytime soon.

Sunday was the actual Street Fair which was pretty good, but didn’t quite live up to my expectations. Of course you had the naked people, and some jacking off, but I didn’t see any sex happening. There were also many more straight people there than I expected.

Even though last year wasn’t quite what I expected, it was also my introduction to the global leather community. I’m going back this year with different expectations and different plans. I’m planning to be there Friday Sept 26th and will be leave Tuesday Sept 30th. I’m hoping to make a lot of friends, buy some toys, and come back with some stories. Let me know if you’re going to be in the area.

If you read my review of Leather Post, you’ll notice it wasn’t the nicest review in the world. I’ve had a couple emails with them back and forth, and this is the latest they sent to me:

Hi Chris,

I’m the owner of Leatherpost.  The final part of your order is set to ship on Wednesday when the double hinged handcuffs come in.   We had a glitch in our system and they didn’t get put on an early PO.  As luck would have it your expectation of a problem manifested.

You are quite a talented fellow.  I’ve been trolling the net looking at your various websites.  Are you a freelance flash guy?  I’m looking for someone to do some banner ads for us.  Have you done any 3D fetish graphics?  Are you “milkdog” on xtube?  Woof.

In your email you seemed to want something additional from us?  Is there something I can do to make you a happy customer at this point?  We’ve given you free shipping, a discount, and shipped you two partial orders at our expense.  We are known for our stellar customer service and I feel we’ve had pretty amazing communication with you up to this point.  Are you going to Folsom Street Fair?

I hope you don’t feel it is necessary to harm our business by posting negative things about us on your blog.  If there is something I can do to make you a happy customer.  Please just ask.  

 

Warm regards,
Everett
Leatherpost CEO

Trying to figure out how to respond. Let me know if you have any suggestions.

Check out Part 1 of the kinky shopping series. I’m reviewing places that I’ve shopped. Part 3 to infinity will be coming as I buy more stuff online.

Leatherpost
I recently placed an order with Leatherpost, but I was a little hesitant to do so because one of my friends placed an order with them last year. It took them over a month to complete the order, and if memory serves correct, they sent a wrong item too.

I placed my order on August 18th for 9 items and am currently experiencing similar issues. The reason I ordered from them was because they had a product I really wanted and were the cheapest by $6. A couple days after I placed my order, I received an email saying that some items were on back-order. I told them about the bad experience my friend had had and asked them to send the items they had. Leatherpost assured me I would not be having the same issues and they would send the items asap. On their website, they did state that one item would take some extra time because it would have to be shipped from London, and I had no problem with that, but didn’t think it would affect my whole order. I received Round 1 fairly quickly. It was then over 3 weeks since I placed the order, that I received round 2 of items. I checked my original order and noticed that I have 2 items still pending. I sent them another email expressing my concern and dissatisfaction so far.

Update Leatherpost has responded, and it looks like the final round of my order should be shipping soon.

While they do have a good selection of products and low prices, just be warned that the products may not get there in a timely manner. I would look for products elsewhere first if possible. They will respond to any emails pretty quickly letting you know what the problem is though.

Mr S Leather
One of the most well known names in fetish stores is Mr S Leather and there is a very good reason for that. They are one of the longest running stores, many of their products are custom made or are the exclusive dealers. They offer products for all levels of fetish-players ranging from inexpensive items for the beginner to high end products for the experienced. They also have a very good customer service department. I visited their store in San Fransisco during Folsom 2007 and it was an impressive selection. They even do custom harness building on-site. The only issue I have with them is that the price is higher than average, but it is well worth it for the piece of mind in knowing you’ll get your order in a timely manner and the products will be high quality. Their site can be a little difficult to navigate when they divide different product sections by brand name, but their search works great.

I’ve also been looking at 665, but have not yet bought anything from them yet. I do like their site design and the products they carry. Another site is Nasty Pig. I have bought some of their awesome products, but not from their site yet. I’ll be doing some product reviews over time.

Let me know what you think of differnt online kink stores.