Save Early, Save Often!

A few days ago, my hard drive crashed.

For several terrifying hours, I thought every piece of art I was working on recently was lost (even the work-in-progress renders I do frequently, as they were on the same drive).

Fortunately, after spending the last couple of days on it, I recovered everything, but it was a very scary feeling, believe me!

What made it worse is that I really felt like I'd been "caught with my pants down" (and not in a good way!), since I didn't have a recent backup of my Poser models and work. If I hadn't been able to recover my drive... well, it would have meant not just a significant loss of work, but having to reinstall Poser and around 70gb of models scattered over dozens of DVDs (which would take weeks, easily).

See, I backup most stuff (such as this blog) regularly, but Poser files are very big (external HDD backup size, not DVD size), and take a significant time to backup... and combine this with my unfortunate tendency to "do it later", and it turned out the last time I did a full backup was January 2011!

As a kid, I loved the video games made by Sierra, such as Space Quest and Leisure Suit Larry (the latter occasionally providing some of my first exposure to femdom, outside of my own imagination).

Back then, video games were generally less forgiving on players (no regenerating health here!), so the company had a mantra in their manuals that players learned to adopt: "save early, save often".

I don't know about other gamers who grew up with those games from that era, but those experiences left a lasting impression on me. While other kids at school lost their essays when the computer lab had a power cut or their dad accidentally knocked the plug out at home, I always saved my work frequently. That continued into adult life, where many folks still consider me somewhat paranoid about saving frequently and keeping multiple copies of important files.

Still, despite all that, I nearly messed up big time. Getting caught out by this recent hard drive crash reminded me of just how important backups really are, especially when it comes to irreplaceable creative work of your own.

So shame (and spanks) on me, for so foolishly forgetting the Sacred Sierra Mantra:

An early "game girl" fantasy of mine: Thunderbird, a tough, aggressive and sexy
character from Leisure Suit Larry 6... who is later revealed to be a dominatrix!

Don't forget, fellow bloggers, artists and writers!

Still, thankfully everything turned out okay, and my only "punishment" was the loss of a few days restoring my computer system and files... and yes, making a new backup, too!

Art: Persuaded To Please

"Persuaded To Please"

"No" isn't a word tolerated by the lady in this artwork!

As a result of several interesting comments on this blog, about whether a young man has the right to say "Not tonight, I've got a headache" with his wife, girlfriend or surrogate guardian, comes this piece.

It's hopefully clear what's happening here: she's explaining calmly and nicely to him that she would very much appreciate him performing oral sex on her tonight.

Of course, she's really angry... but then, this is her second (at least) such request... her first was refused, and she was forced to use her hairbrush to 'persuade' him to rethink his answer... as seen by the state of his blotchy red buttocks!

Looking at it now, it almost feels like a honeymoon or planned 'romantic evening' setting. The original idea was that this was a hotel/motel room somewhere, though... and either a date or a 'night away from home' for a couple.

Perhaps it's the first time she's instructed him to pleasure her orally... perhaps something her girlfriends (or one of those mischievous magazine articles like "Making Him Make You Happy in Bed") suggested she get him to do?

Perhaps they're not a proper couple as-yet, but new lovers early in their relationship (he does strike me as a lot less 'sexually experienced' than her... who seems a bit of a cougar, too)... perhaps even on their first big "sleepover" date? Heck, maybe this is his first time with a woman ever?!

Or perhaps they're married (or at least in a long-term relationship) and this is a "regular showdown" they have about bedroom needs (something she likes and he hates); a common point of disagreement between them that many nights ends up having to be settled by her hairbrush in this manner?

Whatever their relationship, she's certainly shown him that "no" isn't an acceptable response when ordered to pleasure her (with his mouth, or in any other way for that matter!). Refusal on his part clearly equals a blistering hairbrush spanking to remind him who's boss, and then being dragged roughly by the hair and his face shoved between her thighs to do what he should have done without argument in the first place!

The fact that he's now sobbing heavily - face awash with tears - while he orally pleasures her can only add to her satisfaction, and to his realization that he refusal was "wrong". Despite her sexy attire (or lack of it) she also appears to have rendered him quite 'limp' now, too!

Still, I wouldn't be surprised if a second dose of that awful brush was promised if he fails to perform to her expected satisfaction!

What do others think? Just what is their relationship and the nature of this 'encounter'? Was she right to spank him for refusing to go down on her? Will he learn his lesson about saying "no" to her needs? Is he skilled enough (and attentive enough) to do a good job for her... or does he have another hairbrushing in his immediate future?

Oh, and again... before commenting, please keep in mind that this is fantasy only! I do not condone real-life sexual abuse or coercion... even towards men who should probably show a bit more consideration towards their partner's sexual needs instead of their own!

Because REAL domination isn't fun (addendum)

UNEXPECTED ADDENDUM:

Even without new draconian laws mentioned last post, the US government shut down the massive file sharing site Megaupload yesterday as part of "an investigation into copyright infringement".

BBC News story
Ars Technica story
Wikipedia article on MU

No warning to innocent users with files stored there; paid members of the site can't access or even delete their stored private files. I would honestly be very surprised if the FBI didn't have 'warrants' to look through people's private accounts in this case, too.

This just goes to show that accusations of something someone doesn't like (in this case music companies worried people were storing copyrighted material on Megaupload and sharing the links) can get other innocent peoples' rights stomped all over without recourse (i.e. those of all the millions of Megaupload users who used the service for legit reasons, such as off-site hard drive backup of personal data).

It also shows that 'private' file storage online using these services is neither safe nor assured. Some folks wonder why I'm not a fan at all of the whole "cloud based" (online) software and storage concept that so many seem to tout as "the future"... this is why!

I'm not talking about whether the founders of Megaupload willingly allowed copyrighted content to be shared using their service. I'm talking about the fact that this takedown affects the innocent as much as the alleged-guilty. Imagine if this was Picasa or Google Docs being taken down without warning? That would be the end of all Blogger blogs. YouTube? Scary stuff indeed. Plus, isn't it a bit suspicious that of all the file-sharing services out there, the one hit this hard is the one that previously angered the RIAA over an unrelated matter?

Aren't we supposed to be more fearful and distrustful of criminal piracy and hacker groups than our own authorities and corporations?

CLOSING COMMENTS:

I know these last two posts have been somewhat 'off-topic', but this is such an important issue for everyone online, particularly those of us in a potentially-targetable, oft-misunderstood and occasionally demonized 'minority' (non-vanilla) group like being a 'spanko'.

It's too important to risk being in the dark on these sorts of issues, and if my silly little spanking art blog can bring them to the attention of just one reader who was previously unaware of what was going on, it's worth it. This hits home personally for me, because a big part of why I quit Yahoo was that it only took one complaint from someone and my whole account could be shut down... it happened to me at least twice, and both times as a result of content not even posted by me!

Finally, as my own contribution to the fight against censorship and information suppression (and due to several requests and emails), today I restored my controversial Halloween post to its pre-self-censored version. Enjoy in all it's non-'politically correct' glory!

We now resume our regular spanking-themed posts!

Because REAL domination isn't fun...

Imagine if your favourite websites were no longer available to you.

Imagine if any website your government - or corporate or political lobbyists - didn't like or considered "offensive" (say, an adult spanking fetish blog like this one) could be shut down and/or permanently blocked from view without notification or appeal.

Whether you're in the USA or elsewhere, it could happen.

Learn more about why Banjo's BBS - along with so many other websites across the internet - voluntarily went dark for a day, January 18th - January 19th 2012:
http://sopastrike.com/strike/
http://fightforthefuture.org/
https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/

Don't think folks in Australia are safe, either:
http://nocleanfeed.com/
http://www.overclockers.com.au/wiki/Australian_Internet_Filtering

What about your country?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_by_country
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship

Don't take a free internet for granted. Don't remain silent. Make your voice heard now... while you still have one.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everyone!

I know it's a bit late (what does it say that Aunty Andrea made her New Year's post two days early, and I'm a week late?) but I wanted to take the time to wish everyone all the best for 2012, and thank you all for being there with me for my blog's launch in 2011.

Thanks so much for making my "un-retirement" last year so warm, and such fun. I'm looking forward to a year of exciting new ideas, art, stories and friendships in 2012.

On a personal note, I'm back home again and have got a busy week ahead, but I'm hoping that once that's over I'll have a more free time to devote to this blog at last. I've got so many ideas for this site, just seldom enough free hours in the day, it seems. Then again, I guess that's why guys like me sometimes need a firm female helping hand to manage their time more effectively?

Thanks again to all of you who've been commenting, emailing, and generally being so wonderfully supportive; I really appreciate it! To anyone reading this who's just discovered my blog for the first time, I hope you have fun here! Feel free to post comments and suggestions, or email me any time. This site exists to share and have fun!

Here's to a spanking good 2012, folks! Cheers!

Art: Double C.U.I.

"Double C.U.I."

What better way for two wild party gals to celebrate the New Year than with a private party for three? B.Y.O.C. = bring your own cane!

The idea behind it was two tipsy ladies having a night of fun with their canes - and a hapless young man - in their apartment/hotel room; C.U.I = "Caning Under the Influence"! Perhaps not the safest or smartest idea (lots of potential for poorly-aimed strokes, reduced judgement of his limits, etc.) but unfortunately I don't think these two ladies have "safe, sane and consensual" foremost in their minds with a few drinks down and their private party in full swing... and he doesn't seem to be in a position to protest!

I wanted to make the spankers here just a little 'trashy', with their outfits, make-up and body language, while the spankee has definitely been thoroughly thrashed into submission! Vanilla porn seems to love 'Girls Gone Wild' type scenarios, and while I've personally never found the whole 'drunk girls' idea appealing, I wanted to sort of create a 'femdom version' of that concept here. Spanking genres (particularly F/m) also often deal with the whole 'spanked for getting drunk' scenario... I wanted to reverse that and have the spankers as the ones being 'bad'!

Although these two ladies here are clearly enjoying themselves, something about their expressions tells me they're definitely 'mean drunks'!

While I didn't really considered the trio's relationship to each other when making this piece (aside from the two ladies probably being friends), looking at it again now I find myself wondering mostly about who the guy is.

My favourite idea, I think, is that he's just some poor young 'wannabee stud' they picked up in a bar that night and lured back to their room with the promise of a 'threesome'! Or perhaps he's the boyfriend of one of them (caught cheating with the other lady, so both are getting some 'payback'?). Or maybe he's the shared boy-toy of both of them; best friends who believe in sharing everything, even boyfriends?

Whoever he is, for some reason I suspect he hasn't been allowed much to drink himself, compared to them... not even to dull the pain! A sober caning has a much better (and more amusing) effect, right?

Depending on their relationship to each other - and the ladies' moods! - I'm not sure how this party is going to finally end. Will he be on his knees all night? Will he finally be allowed into their bed, and if so will he be 'rewarded' for enduring their thrashing, or ordered only to please them... with no satisfaction for him? Alternatively, will be simply be left to sleep on the couch, nursing his welted, throbbing buttocks, while the two ladies retire to bed themselves? What do others think?

Whatever happens, I think it will be a night that none of them will soon forget (if they can remember it in the morning, of course!).

A final thought: good thing they're high up in that building, as they don't seem to have bothered pulling the curtains on the busy neon city beyond!

Oh, and it's a bit hard to read the labels in the finished picture... but the ladies are drinking 'Thrash Beer'. This (fictional) brand's slogan? "Serious Bite"