For the next two weeks, I have to admit, I was quite the diligent student. After a couple of initial failures, near misses and close calls, I managed to make each session last the prescribed twenty minutes, and in some cases longer. I wanted to see how long I could last before I either ejaculated or went numb. I felt good about my progress; I felt like I had achieved a certain level of control. A feeling that lasted until my next appointment.I arrived early and anxious. I sat in the waiting r... Read Full Story

I was twenty-two years old and still a virgin. I had no girlfriend, no prospects, and no clue. Oh, I could make a great introduction – catch a girl’s initial interest, get her laughing and such, but after a few minutes, it inevitably would all go wrong. I’d lose them, talking myself into some corner or worse yet, scare them away with my needy, frenetic energy. It eventually became clear to me that I stank of desperation. I thought that if I could just get laid, it would take the edge off. But... Read Full Story

Back in Dharamsala, at the Tibetan Medicine Clinic, I sat in a large, bare room along with two dozen sick Indians and exiled Tibetans, lined up on long wooden benches. I felt deathly ill, yet I was still compelled to try an exotic cure. After a reasonable wait, for India, I saw who I assumed to be the doctor. I saw no reason to ask for his credentials, I wouldn’t have been able to read them if he had them. Like the wizened Chinese healer before him, he examined my tongue, my eyes, and my puls... Read Full Story

My incursions into the world of holistic health maintenance were not restricted to merely visiting apothecaries and clinics. While living in Malaysia, I got heavily into Tai Chi and, to my surprise, became a vegetarian. Living meatlessly came relatively easy. In fact it was basically forced upon me, being that I was staying at the Penang temple/headquarters of The International Society for Krishna Consciousness. No, I hadn’t gone that far. I was there strictly for the free room and board, and... Read Full Story

I don’t know what I was thinking. I wasn’t thinking. I was hiking in the foothills of the Himalaya and I passed a stream. I knew I shouldn’t. I was usually very careful about this sort of thing, but it looked so cool and clear and clean and I was thirsty. This flowing stream that trickled off the glistening snowcaps of a holy and legendary mountain range, how could it possibly be unclean?Two days later, I was curled up and moaning on the bathroom floor of my hotel in Dharamsala. My bowel move... Read Full Story

Evan was interested. He surprised himself even more than he surprised me. I may have been jumping for joy, I don’t remember. All I know is that he told me to calm down, that nothing was settled yet. He had to run the idea past the club’s owners. Ordinarily, he had the authority to hire anyone as he saw fit, but for something like this, he wasn’t willing to make that decision on his own. And since no description of my act could truly do it justice, he said I’d probably have to do another audit... Read Full Story

“You can begin whenever you’re ready,” Evan said.“What, no music?” I asked.“Hey, I’m giving you a break as it is.” It was a difficult to just begin a striptease, especially with no musical intro. Evan suggested imagining the club as it was at night, full of giggling Japanese women, housewives mostly, looking for a little excitement. (Has anyone ever actually used this kind of advice? Aside from sexual fantasies, I could never sustain a visualization for more than thirty seconds. Well, a sexua... Read Full Story

Help Wanted: Foreign Men Needed for Strip ClubMy English teaching plan was not working out. The days were long since past when some guy without a degree could waltz right into Tokyo and land a high-paying gig just by being a native speaker. I landed a few private lessons here and there, but they weren’t nearly enough to afford four dollar bowls of noodle soup and seventeen dollar movie tickets. And with the US dollar dropping every day against the yen, I was losing money just getting out of ... Read Full Story

What with Jim here and all, the Jungle Adventure Tour Company really didn’t need me anymore. I started thinking maybe it was time to move on. As impossible as it seemed, I had grown tired of the jungle. It wasn’t much of an adventure anymore. I jumped off enough waterfalls, hiked enough trails, and been charged by enough elephants. It had become a job. We’d drive past the bush, we’d hear the crunching and stop, elephants would come out, we’d watch them, always stay too long, the elephants wou... Read Full Story

Tom thought it would be a good idea that Jim and I do a tour together, that I might teach him the subtleties of the trail. I let him take the lead on the day hike, hanging back to observe, and, if necessary, lend a hand. But it wasn’t necessary. In fact, he barely had to pay attention to the trail. He walked it backwards like a campus tour guide, regaling prospective freshman with facts about the school, “… and we have over 3000 species of plants, 320 species of birds, and 67 species of anima... Read Full Story