Where is everyone?

[Hayley]

Hi all (or Hi few if this post is to be believed!)

Like Sweetnpied I've just got back from travelling around (for work not fun) so haven't been here much myself.

I agree that there are a lot of ways to entertain yourself these days I don't Twitter or do Facebook (though Bill does the latter) but I do go to Fetlife and Youtube so I am well aware there is a lot of competition for your attention. But rather than see them as competition we are delighted that sploshing is getting out there as much as it does.

However, with sploshing turning up in so many arenas I think it is up to forums like this to provide a central point for information about them all. So why not...

1) Post a link to any interesting discussions you see on more general forums like Fetlife and IC and see if they kick off here as well.
2) Post more links to the messy scenes on Youtube (I know you do this already but there are some classic films out there). No, I don't mean commercial messy stuff (like ours or other WAM organisations), but scenes from films and TV shows. Perhaps we could build up a library of links.
3) Encourage any messy friends you meet on Facebook/Twitter etc to also come here - or tell us about your experiences chatting on these sites, and interesting people you have 'met'.
4) Report any great outfits/substances/locations for sploshing you have found on more conventional sites.
5) Give me some new ideas to try. I'm not saying I'll have time but who knows..

In short, if it's sploshy (and not just a plug for a commercial company) - share it here!

Hayley x

PS I have to admit that the cold weather has also hindered my messy activity. By the time I've got warm I haven't felt like getting messy...but spring must come soooooon!

[sweetnpied]

Must admit I'd love to go to Vegas. Not a gambler but I love tacky shows! Anywhere with Donny & Marie is fine by me!

We saw Penn & Teller and they were GREAT. Plus you can meet them afterwards and get your picture taken with them and get autographs. I didn't do that. Just took pics from afar. And if you're wondering, Teller DOES talk. He greeted all the people meeting him after the show. Doesn't talk a lot, but he has a voice.

For you guys, go on the weekend. There were young women EVERYWHERE walking the street in VERY skimpy dresses. They couldn't have ALL been hookers. Seeing all the youngsters parading around like that I decided to keep my skimpy outfits limited to just our room for hubby. There are also quite a few free shows if you just walk aroung. The Pussycat girls in Caesars' and some sort of male & female dance show at the Rio. I don't know about any of you, but the tackiness of the place made me the horniest I've been in QUITE awhile!

[BillShipton]

Would love to see Penn & Teller. Love their act.

[Richard]

How about this one Hayley? I thought it was quite amusing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWARQ1eJEWI&feature=fvw

[sweetnpied]

Would love to see Penn & Teller. Love their act.

They were AWESOME, Bill. They even show you how they do some of their tricks. At least they let you think they do. Although one was pretty easy to figure out and it was still a lot of fun. The only downside was that it was freaking cold the whole week there. There were days I would have been warmer if I stayed home!

[Mike Nomic]

Here in the UK we're in the depths of a recession (don't let anybody kid you otherwise - so GDP grew by 0.1%, later revised to 0.3%, in the last quarter of '09 - whoopee, boom times - with inflation at somewhere around 3%, overall spending fell. We've not got the Xmas splurge, the car scrappage scheme designed to provide an incentive to buy a new (undoubtedly imported) car has ended, VAT has gone back up to 17.5%, January's export figures were sh*t, so the GDP figures for the first quarter of '10 will be rubbish, folks are looking in awe at their credit card statements thinking WTF/OMG/HOW BLOODY MUCH), the weather has been awful (for roughly the duration of the Winter Olympics we had more snow here than in Vancouver or Whistler, and temperatures that hovered around those of the Antarctic), and everybody is huddled up spending as little as possible.

So producers are not splashing out on new shoots, preferring to raid their vaults/archives to release downloads of older re-edited/re-rendered/ no longer available material. I'm NOT criticising them for that, it's the facts of economic life; you can't realistically spend money that you haven't got and isn't coming in. Similarly, new amateur material is thin on the ground, 'cos they can't afford the custard or whatever. So there is little in the way of fresh visual input to attract members to the forums here or elsewhere - this lack of new posts leads to lack of visits, fewer posts, fewer visits, fewer posts, etc and it becomes a general downward spiral.

Set aside your depression and inertia (I've been meaning to post on this thread for weeks - but acute
can't-be-arsed-itis had me firmly in its grip) and post something .. anything to reinvigorate us until the weather warms up and the custard starts to flow more freely.

The Bristol Splunch is coming up soon - thread to follow shortly, and i'd be happy to see as many of you there as possible.

Mike.

[andy250]

Here in the UK we're in the depths of a recession (don't let anybody kid you otherwise - so GDP grew by 0.1%, later revised to 0.3%, in the last quarter of '09 - whoopee, boom times - with inflation at somewhere around 3%, overall spending fell. We've not got the Xmas splurge, the car scrappage scheme designed to provide an incentive to buy a new (undoubtedly imported) car has ended, VAT has gone back up to 17.5%, January's export figures were sh*t, so the GDP figures for the first quarter of '10 will be rubbish, folks are looking in awe at their credit card statements thinking WTF/OMG/HOW BLOODY MUCH), the weather has been awful (for roughly the duration of the Winter Olympics we had more snow here than in Vancouver or Whistler, and temperatures that hovered around those of the Antarctic), and everybody is huddled up spending as little as possible.

So producers are not splashing out on new shoots, preferring to raid their vaults/archives to release downloads of older re-edited/re-rendered/ no longer available material. I'm NOT criticising them for that, it's the facts of economic life; you can't realistically spend money that you haven't got and isn't coming in. Similarly, new amateur material is thin on the ground, 'cos they can't afford the custard or whatever. So there is little in the way of fresh visual input to attract members to the forums here or elsewhere - this lack of new posts leads to lack of visits, fewer posts, fewer visits, fewer posts, etc and it becomes a general downward spiral.

Set aside your depression and inertia (I've been meaning to post on this thread for weeks - but acute
can't-be-arsed-itis had me firmly in its grip) and post something .. anything to reinvigorate us until the weather warms up and the custard starts to flow more freely.

The Bristol Splunch is coming up soon - thread to follow shortly, and i'd be happy to see as many of you there as possible.

Mike.

And now for the weather!!

[andy250]

Though despite my weather comments, I would say Mike is not far off right. It is very quiet at the moment. We are not pulling the same kind of people as last year. I notice several websites doing super silly deals at $2.50 etc, for new material. If they carry on they wont be here!!! One has already gone.... Basically I would say its quiet cos we're all skint.......

regards

Andy and the team (who all get paid in 1p's!!!!)

[Mike Nomic]

Andy and the team (who all get paid in 1p's!!!!)

But at least you get paid. I was made redundant last November; jobs round here are as scarce as rocking horse droppings; some agency sites show the number of applications they've had for the few available jobs, and some of those are into three figures; despite my huge breadth and depth of experience, I'm sure they look at my CV and think 'He's over 50 - next please' - don't tell me ageism isn't alive and kicking.

I'm determined to host the Bristol Spluch (and the little mud shoot the following day) - it'll be the highlight of my year to date: but the marathon Bank Holiday weekend mudshoots are out of the question at about £2000-2500 a pop.

Mike.

[Lizzie_Claymore]

And now for the weather!!

ROFL. That topped it off perfectly!

but the marathon Bank Holiday weekend mudshoots are out of the question at about £2000-2500 a pop.

Flippin' 'eck!! I'm not surprised!

Sorry to hear about the job, Mike. "There's a lot of it about", as you suggest. My problem is almost the opposite in that, as more people have been 'let go' through 'natural wastage' (a euphemism if ever there was one), those of us who are lucky enough to still be in a job (at the moment, anyway!) are being run off our feet trying to cover. I've been absolutely hammered with it all in the last few months so I've been having to work stupid hours again (no such thing as overtime payment in my sort of job - you just have to 'do it') so I've hardly had a chance to even come on here. We've been told we have to cut by nearly £20m over the next 3 years but our budget is something like £70m as it is so that's a hell of a lot each year to go! The top brass are deciding where to wield the axe as we speak. It's all a bit grim.

Nevertheless, I do think the cold weather we've been suffering until very recently has had a hell of a dampening effect too and that might start to improve shortly. The couple of months after Xmas spending are usually low for most people and especially so this year. I suspect that once the election is out of the way and we have a better definition of the unpalatable medicine that we're all going to have to take, we'll gradually start to adapt to our new circumstances and things will probably start to pick up a bit. It's going to be tough, whatever happens, however.