Not for Virgins

The Virgin Diaries

Kimberley A. Johnson (Author), Ann Werner (Contributor)
Nonfiction 228 pages
CreateSpace. 2010

Suppose you had never visited a place but wanted to go there? You’d probably look at a map before you set out on your journey. You might also try to learn about the landmarks you’ll see on the way. This book is like a map, except that it shows you a variety of routes and landmarks.

If you wonder what it’s like to lose your virginity, such a map can be useful. However, this map shows many routes and some won’t look anything like the route you end up taking. And just as you may recognize some of the landmarks, others may be completely unfamiliar.

People’s sexual education varies. Some people get good information. Some get misinformation. Others get too little information, and some people get way more than they wanted. The survey of experiences supplied in “The Virgin Diaries” is intended for people contemplating a first sexual experience and wanting to know what to expect. For some of the survey respondents, the experience was planned, while for others, it was spontaneous. Some had no regrets, while others wished they’d waited for the right partner.

The first time experiences described in this book are provided as-is and without moral judgments. Although the stories are intended for open-minded people, readers should be aware that some touch on the unusual, if not taboo.

While many of the stories express innocence, some involve alcohol or drugs, and others express callousness and sexual predation. One man’s first sexual experience was with his girlfriend’s mother, and in another story, the girl’s father urged the couple on while he captured the act on video. Suspending moral judgment can be a good thing, but filming one’s daughter having sex crosses the line into sexual abuse. Such stories do not belong in a book that’s intended to be instructive. I cannot recommend this title to the sexually innocent.

Search Engine Optimization — It can work

I got a call from Google today. I made the first page of search results for my keyword phrase. What happened? I was creating tags for my graphics handbook for small organizations and I hit upon a three word phrase that worked. Which one? You’ll have to find out for yourself by looking at my Amazon listing. The downside? Google doesn’t have any statistics on my phrase. Oh, well.

Wikileaks. Truth versus trust

I tried to access Wikileaks but wasn’t able to. So, I Googled it. I soon learned that according to Peter Svensson’s AP article, Wikileaks claims to be inaccessible due to massive denial of service attacks. I also learned that the website was a dot.org instead of a dot.com. Armed with this knowledge, I had no trouble accessing its website. However, I can’t access all of it, or its more recent pages.

Perhaps Wikileaks is under cyberattack, or perhaps there’s another reason why it can’t be accessed. You can’t believe everything you read on the internet, hence the name of this blog.

Espionage writer, Eric Ambler, discusses what might happen if an obscure, right-wing, weekly newsletter were to begin publishing classified information. In his novel, “The Intercom Conspiracy,” Ambler treats the topic humorously. He could not have envisioned that something like this could happen in real-life, or the extent to which classified information would be leaked.

Some the diplomatic cables that Wikileaks shared with the world contain a good bit of humor, but not for those world leaders who are butts of the jokes. As Ronald Neumann said on NPR this morning, if a man tells his wife something unflattering about her mother, and she passes it on, than he will be very uncomfortable the next time he faces his mother-in-law.

Truth is a good thing, but trust is even better. How will America fare in a world that perceives its diplomats can’t be trusted?