It’s once again time for my latest Photojojo post. For those of you who haven’t been following my blog for a long time, Photojojo is a digital time capsule service. Every two weeks they send me an email that has my most interesting photos posted to flickr from one year ago.

In this installment: the first time we ever took Scarlett to the beach. Heh, I’d completely forgotten about that car-walker.

When I became sexually active (which I’ll loosely define as when I started trying to kiss and touch girls), here’s what I’d been told:

• School: there are tons of diseases you can get so don’t have sex
• Parents: If you have sex, make sure you use a condom to protect from aforementioned diseases as well as unwanted pregnancy. Because if you get the girl pregnant you’re dropping out of school to take care of that baby
• Church: The only proper sex is between husband and wife. Also, masturbation is a sin.

Of those, the only practical advice came from my parents. (The school helped, but I’ll elaborate on where they could have done more momentarily) In the end, I did not have intercourse until I married my wife so I guess all the authority figures in my life “won”. To be clear, my position is that the optimal sex is that between a married couple (whether you be straight or gay) or at least a deeply committed couple. Why? Because whether or not you have a religion that tells you to wait or even have a religion at all, I think sex is a special act between two people. I think sex requires trust because you’re making yourself ultimately vulnerable - you have no clothes to hide behind. Your body and your performance will be judged. And I think that the best sex is sex in which each partner is focused on the needs of the other, not their own. This is more likely to happen in a relationship than a casual hookup. And perhaps the biologists will just tell me that it’s oxytocin or some equivalent brain/body chemical, but post-sex I usually feel extremely close to my wife as though something has occurred on the metaphysical level.

[caption id=“attachment_7194” align=“alignleft” width=“455”] MRI of Clitoris converted to 3D model[/caption] First of all, it’s a complete accident of timing that this post appears next to tomorrow’s post. I wrote tomorrow’s post about a month before I wrote this one.

With that out of the way, let’s talk about one of the most interesting things I recently learned about the fairer sex and, well, sex. What you see in the image on this post is a 3D rendering of an MRI of the clitoris. The first most interesting thing about this image is that the clitoris wasn’t fully mapped until 2005! (WHAT?!?) Between the insane numbers of sexual dissatisfaction reported by women, the constant bafflement among men about how to best make sure their partners can also climax, and the awesome fact that is is the ONLY organ in the human body that exists purely for pleasure I am baffled that no one studied it this thoroughly until 2005. You’d think that, at the very least, there would be a potential goldmine for companies to help alleviate all that sexual dissatisfaction. The second most interesting thing about this image is the shape. Those of us men who’s actually taken the time to learn about women so that sex can be about both of us, not just the man, know about the nub we can see on the pelvic area. But pretty much no one knew about the wishbone shape of the internal aspects of the clitoral tissue. It’s almost like discovering that the clitoris is an iceberg and we can only see the 10% that floats above the surface of the water.

I’ve blogged in a similar vein before, but it’s really neat to come across AV Club’s Memory Wipe. Someone (or a group of writers) who seems to be about the same age as me, give or take a few years, is taking a look back at the pop culture of our youth to see if it holds up as an adult. Check it out - you’ll get lost in the writing and nostalgia.

Near the end of August Scarlett started waking up saying “Mommy” or “Daddy” instead of crying (although sometimes in addition to some light crying). Pretty neat and I think it signifies a further understanding that we’re around when she wakes up - she just needs to summon us. I better enjoy it - in about 6 months she’ll be able to come to our room when she is in her toddler bed.

[Very upper manager] will have a boner and give us money

-Co-worker at a meeting to create a PowerPoint to get our project funded

[caption id=“attachment_7211” align=“aligncenter” width=“493”] Civilization 5 - against Dave - people from ancient ruins join the Chinese Empire - 3220 BC[/caption]

One of the ancient ruins explored by our soldiers had a group of uncivilized survivors. Seeing the awesome nature of our forces convinced them it would be in their best interest to join the Chinese Empire. Their extra labor was quite welcome.

Read this article about Questlove being stopped repeatedly despite being, well, Questlove!. A few choice quotes:

Questlove said his most recent stop was conducted at the base of the Williamsburg Bridge a few weeks ago following an appearance at the hip venue Brooklyn Bowl. Officers pulled over his driver, shined flashlights into the car and asked him why he was sitting in the back “like a don,” Questlove said. After showing the officers a copy of his new memoir, Mo’ Meta Blues, Questlove said he was let go.

Here’s a photo of Stan Lee, the man most responsible for modern comics.

[caption id=“attachment_7154” align=“aligncenter” width=“449”] Baltimore Comic-Con - Stan Lee[/caption]

See more photos from last year’s Baltimore Comic-Con here. Sadly I won’t be able to attend this year due to a family commitment.

Boing Boing linked to an article about three women who worked in pin-up ar t. (While most of the images are tame enough to view at work, there are at least three drawings of fully nude women in the article, so it’s up to you) I was fascinated by this because it seems odd that women would want to contribute to the sexualization of women - at least under the narrative I grew up with. Interestingly enough, one of the artists is best known for the Coppertone Baby (which always reminds me of Miami Billboards)