Hearts and Hooves Day III: Beating a Dead Pony

[shadowinthelight]

I guess this is an annual thing?

What is there to say? It's been a roller coaster ride on a full stomach. I can unfortunately say the girlfriend slot in my life inventory remains unfilled. I actually haven't gone this whole time without, umm, companionship (let's call her A) but there is no commitment there. While it hasn't been bad it has not been the kind of relationship I want. She also has firm plans in motion to move halfway across the country soon so any hope for a more desirable outcome has been squashed flatter than week old road kill. It is quite unsettling to know when your time with someone has an expiration date.

I really want to be with someone I can have a future with, get married, start a family, ect but I don't know how to get there. Spending time with A's son (who will be turning two this 14th) seems like the closest I'll ever get and even that is going away soon. I'm still working the same awkward hours with sometimes only one day a week off. Prospects for meeting someone in there are virtually nil. I can't meet someone at church on Sundays (my one guaranteed day off) since me and organized religion aren't on the best of terms. I would be totally willing to go on a blind date but that sort of requires having a good enough friend out in the real world to set one up.

Ughhh, I could go on but the clock says I should have been in bed a few hours ago and I guess I gotta save some whiny ramblings for next year. I'll just stop by Walmart on the way home after work tonight and buy enough Valentine's chocolates to send myself into a diabetic coma.

#stillfailingatlove

[MerchManDan]

Protip: Save money on VD candy by waiting until the 15th to buy it. Also, turn them upside down and they look like spades instead of hearts.

As it happens, I've recently reactivated my profile on Plenty Of Fish. Gotten a couple of nibbles, but nothing serious yet.

[jwhouk]

24 years ago, I got tired of being alone on V-Day. So, I answered a personal ad from the local weekly ad section of the paper. We went out the following week.

She's still my Valentine all these years later.

[scantrontb]

meh.. i could care less one way or the other, I'm single and NOT looking... i only go to the stores the day AFTER... for the discounted Chocolates on sale!

[AnotherFairportfan]

The Florida Legislature Accidentally Legalized Sexting Among Teens

The Florida legislature is commonly considered to be one of the stupidest law-making bodies in the United States, and for good reason. Who can forget the time the state’s fine representatives inadvertently banned all computers and smartphones? Or the time the legislature unintentionally outlawed sex? Now, however, the Sunshine State’s legislators may have outdone themselves: In an effort to outlaw sexting between teenagers, Florida accidentally legalized it.

Here’s the sorry story of the state’s latest legal mishap: In 2011, the legislature passed a “sexting” statute barring minors from sending images of nudity (their own or somebody else’s) to other minors. The first offense would qualify as only a civil infraction; minors who violated the law would merely have to perform court-ordered community service or pay a $60 fine. The second and third offenses, however, would qualify as misdemeanors, while the fourth offense would qualify as a felony.

Under this law, Florida prosecutors thought they had a slam-dunk case when they brought charges against a minor who texted a picture of her own vagina to a classmate because she was “bored.” But the state quickly ran into a problem: Florida law doesn’t give any court jurisdiction of civil infractions by juveniles—as opposed to criminal infractions—and the sexting statute doesn’t grant any court this kind of jurisdiction. Accordingly, no court in the state currently has legal authority to hear a case involving minors sexting. The prosecutors attempting to prosecute the sexting teen got their case thrown out of court, a decision an appeals court later affirmed.

The upshot of this misadventure in statute-drafting is that Florida’s sexting law is completely unenforceable. Thanks to the statute’s layered structure, the more serious penalties for sexting can only come after a minor has been convicted of his first offense. But because that first offense is a civil infraction—and because no court can hear civil cases involving minors—it is legally impossible for any minor to be charged with that first offense. As a result, there simply cannot be a second, third, or fourth offense. Sexting between teens—even sexting images of a minor’s nude body—is now functionally legal in Florida.

Of course, the legislature can easily remedy this strange situation with a quick tweak to the statute, which, presumably, it will do very soon. In the meantime, Florida has inadvertently thrust its population—and, especially, its minors—into an unregulated Wild West of juvenile sexting. Quite frankly, it is unclear to me (and many legal commentators) why minors should be penalized at all for sending nude pictures to their peers, presuming they have permission and the communication is consensual. If Florida legislators were really smart, they might consider scrapping their sexting statute altogether. But then again, this is Florida we’re talking about. If its legislators can’t be bothered to pass enforceable laws, they probably aren’t concerned with passing reasonable ones, either.

[Atomic]

I'm a little sex pot
watch me pout.
This is my [censored]
this is my snout.
When I get all worked up
watch me pose
In macro-focus and
not much clothes!

[shadowinthelight]

As it happens, I've recently reactivated my profile on Plenty Of Fish. Gotten a couple of nibbles, but nothing serious yet.

I've thought about PoF but there are so many bad reviews (censorship, harassment, profiles deleted for no reason, ect) I don't trust it. Every dating site now is also overloaded with fake accounts to sucker guys into paying for services that get few if any results. It was so much better in the early days when everything on the internet was still free, the financial incentive for such massive fraud wasn't there yet. I was with someone from 2000-2005 that I met on Yahoo! personals but that service got eaten up by Match.com years ago.

The Florida Legislature Accidentally Legalized Sexting Among Teens

I still think the dumbest thing is in states (like here in TX) where the age of consent is <18, having sex is legal but looking at pictures of it is illegal.

[MerchManDan]

The Florida legislature is commonly considered to be one of the stupidest law-making bodies in the United States...

And I had thought Carl Hiaasen was just exaggerating for good storytelling.

I've thought about PoF but there are so many bad reviews (censorship, harassment, profiles deleted for no reason, ect) I don't trust it.

Yeah, I noticed that it's changed a LOT since the last time I had actually used it - about 9 years ago. The Forums were pretty great, but they're all gone now.

[shadowinthelight]

I have always carefully kept my online life segregated from the offline "real" life. If anyone ever wants to get to know me beyond webcomic forum land, whether for romantical or platonical reasons, just PM me. My world does suffer from a dearth of friends as well.

[Alkarii]

Not to steal your thunder, but yesterday was my ninth consecutive V-day without a girlfriend. Haven't been in a relationship since the end of '06, and sometimes it sucks, but I can look at it this way: I don't spend any money. What's weird is right about the time I decide to actually start looking, I get some kind of reminder that maybe it isn't so bad after all. Like this "comedy" special I watched last night. Whitney Cummings or something like that. She can eff herself with a cactus.

[shadowinthelight]