One of my favorite beers has always been the Mexican beer, 'Dos Equis'. In English that generally means two X's - in fact the label on a 'Dos Equis' bottle usually has two X's on it.
When I first started writing adult stories, (~2003), my stories were considerably more explicit than they are today. If they had been made into movies they likely would have been considered triple X, (three X), or in Spanish, 'Tres Equis'.
Not being Hispanic, or even a Spanish speaker for that matter, I adopted as my pen name, 'Trace Ekies', which in English has a pronunciation similar to that of the Spanish 'Tres Equis'. Although my stories today could probably be made into R rated movies, I still use some minor variation of 'Trace Ekies' as my name for all 'adult' type activity.
With the recent popularity of the 'Dos Equis' man, I began using un-copyrighted lookalike images of his and usually close my communications with 'Stay horny my friend(s)'.
My preference is definitely for erotica whether written or in film.
Do away with numeric voting.
If you like it, click on a 'like' button. If you don't - do nothing.
Vote count becomes 'like' count. I think most of us go by that anyway.
Right now if a story has fifty '5' votes and one '4' vote, it is ranked below a story that has twelve '5' votes. If I want to move my 'twelve fives' up, all I have to do is vote a '4' on the stories above me. Even if it had a hundred fives, it is now below me. And who's to say it's not a legitimate vote. I don't think there is any story on here that is so perfect that a '4' vote could not be justified.
I belong to an organization that eats out about once a month. Restaurants around here like to tack on an automatic 20% when the group is six or more, which we always are. Our members don't like the idea that the tip amount is determined for them so when we make the reservation, we ask the restaurant to agree to our method of handling the tip, and so far none has refused us. We are always "Dutch Treat", so each member gets his own bill. He can then tip whatever he feels the meal and service are worth. Our agreement with the restaurant is that if the servers feel, (and we don't require this to be proven), that they have received less than 20% in the agregate, that the club will make up the difference. Our club has never had to pay anything additional.
Personally, I consider 20% to be the target for meal tipping. I will likely tip a greater percentage if it is for an exceptionally cheap meal. However I will also tip a lesser percentage if the total bill is unusually large, like when it includes expensive wines and/or expensive after dinner drinks, but still never less than 15%. Even if the service and/or food are terrible, I'm not going to undertip - I just won't come back again.
A bar tab is a different matter. In this case, 20% is the bare minimum, and that would be for a very large bar bill and only average or below average service. On small bar bills, (very cheap drinks and/or very few of them), it could go as high as 100%, or even more if the service has been exceptional. It depends an awful lot on the bartender. If the bartender is making an effort to provide generous drinks in a friendly atmosphere, the amount is going to go up dramatically. If on the other hand, the bartender is somewhat on the surly side, and/or seems be stingy with the drinks, it'll be closer to the minimum, but in that case I'm not likely to be staying very long anyway.
I live in a resort area where nearly all of my friends make their living in the hospitality industry, and most of it from tips. Tipping is often a subject of discussion between myself and my friends, and I have learned that my practices, although sounding somewhat on the cheap side, are actually more generous than what they see from the average tourist.
Arnold Schwarzenegger
David Caruso
Jim Carey
Billy Crystal
Whoopi Goldberg
Woody Allen
I guess I should have answered my own questions before asking others.
First - Until reading the above, I didn't know you couldn't vote your own story on Lush. (I have never tried.)
Second - Should we vote on our own stories? I think it depends on the general practice. In government elections, (at least in the U.S.), candidates almost always vote for themselves. However, in one organization I belong to, although it would be permissable, candidates for office generally abstain when the vote is taken. I think voting on your own stories is a case of "when in Rome..." If everyone else is doing it, then why cheat yourself.
Third - Have I ever voted on my own stories? On Lush - no, never even tried, or I would have known the answer to the first question. But on other story sites, where it is not only possible, but normal to do so - of course, I'd be a fool not to.
I'd like some guidance about voting on one's own stories.
First - Is it even possible to do it on Lush?
Second - How do you feel about it, should we or shouldn't we?
Third - Do you yourself, vote on your own stories?
She has a great many and wonderfully diverse interests.
Never miind, I found what I was looking for.
I got a reply.
It looks like something happened in the transfer of the story from my system to yours. It seems that a bunch of spaces have been introduced within the words themselves. I'm not sure how this happened - it's not that way in the saved original I have on my system. I suspect that it may be related to the software I use for story development, (Libre Writer). Anyway, I'm going to get it fixed and resubmit.
Thanks again for your help.
might help when it comes to finding what you're looking for.
