It's not so much the sharing as it is the oversharing

Privacy seems to be at the top of everyone's minds right now. If you haven't been paying attention, Facebook is taking a lot of heat for its relatively lax approach towards their users' privacy. Sure, I've used Facebook for a few years myself and for about two years to promote a couple arms of the company I work for but I've always been careful what sort of information I put online for all to see. And the "for all to see" thing may be totally incorrect because I have my Facebook account (my personal one) locked down like a chastity belt just because I don't want everyone to know everything about me.

It's not that I have a ton to be ashamed of but I post photos of my daughter there and while I can't speak for her, I am fairly certain that at some point she'll want to have control of her own life and what aspects of it are made public.

That's what I don't quite get about today's generation of teens. They are the first to come of age in an era where everything can be shared online instantly. The key word there is "can" - nobody has ever said "share it all" because there is plenty that others don't need (or want) to know or flat out shouldn't know.

For instance, I'm not going to tell you what kind of underwear I'm sporting but I'll gladly tell you that I'm wearing a nearly two year old pair of Converse One Star sneakers that are dangerously close to disintegrating while I wear them. It's all about selective sharing.

But back to Facebook... I'd love nothing more than to see a company who has done nothing more than give people a place to play pointless games and share way too much meet its demise. They have been loose with the privacy of users and that needs to change. However, Facebook's owner has found a lucrative way to profit from giving people something they obviously love and collecting information they are very willing to freely give up so Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is simply profiting by being a middle man. After all, the internet is all about information and people expect websites to be free. Maybe we've become too lax in how we control our personal information and maybe a few years from now things will be vastly different and people will be far more reluctant to share every tiny detail of their lives. Maybe people will find something more productive to do with their times rather than asking everyone they know to help them with their barn raising.

Maybe if Facebook had never existed we wouldn't have experienced a huge financial meltdown in the past few years. Maybe people, instead, would have been reading the very mortgage contracts that sent them to bankruptcy. But what's done is done so let people continue oversharing but also let them realize that those photos from last night when they were naked and smoking ditch weeb from a bong might hamper their job prospects down the road.

But not all sharing is bad because without people sharing their awesome photos of Minnesota, MinnPics wouldn't exist.

Contemplating pubic baldness

From a curious mind come bizarre questions. Most of my questions relate to pubic hair and baldness. It was only a matter of time until the two topics collided.

I'm no scientist but if general baldness can happen (of the cranium) who's to say that pubic baldness couldn't happen? Sure, some view pubic hair as nothing more than another hassle to maintain what with the constant trimming, washing, combing, perming and braiding so these people would likely view pubic balding as more of a blessing than a curse.

However, I see pubic balding among the general population as a potential profit center. Think of the millions of dollars made by the makers of Rogaine. The men buying these cans of foam are desperate to hold on to and re-grow their hair. It makes sense that vanity, as fair as hair goes, would continue to one's nether regions and extend below the belt. Pubic hair, in spite of the general view that presentation of it and the pubic region is best left behind closed doors, is nothing to be ashamed of.

Maybe we're to the point in our evolution that pubic baldness isn't actually baldness, it could just be the natural course of things to come. Maybe three generations from now all those places doing full Brazilian waxing will be out of business because nobody has any nether-regional hair left to be excruciatingly ripped out. It would really be a blessing for all of those strippers giving table dances at King of Diamonds in Inver Grove Heights but what aabout all of those unemployed waxing technicians? What about my grandiose plans for Pubic Rogaine?

What about visiting MinnPics to make yourself clean after reading an entire post about pubic hair?

A boy, his balls and the pursuit of an apple

Sadly I don't remember what it's like to know what runs through the mind of a three year-old. But judging from the actions of nephew yesterday, shame or fear is something he does not know of.

It started just before noon when he asked to go out to the back yard to play. His mom obliged but forgot to ask her recently potty-trained son if he had to "go pee". (Apparently kids of that age need constant reminders about their need to pee) This proved to be her first mistake.

Apparently just minutes after he had entered the back yard, he opened the flood gates and pissed his pants. Embarrassing for someone my age but, again, par for the course with a three year-old boy.

Obviously piss-soaked pants are never fun to deal with so he took them off. While he was at it he also removed his underwear. This is where the no-shame factor enters the story. Now the three year-old boy was literally half naked and apparently running around the back yard which is encompassed by a chain link fence.

That is when he got hungry.

The neighbors have an apple tree which hangs conveniently over the fence and they're cool with sharing their apples. Not happy with one that had fallen on the ground, my three year-old nephew decided that he would instead scale the fence and pick his very own apple to eat - he knows what he wants and likes.

This is when the no-fear part of the story comes in.

Once the half-naked boy reached the top of the fence, he sat straddling it and found himself to be rather stuck. Around this time, or shortly after, his mom realized that her son had been gone for a while longer than usual. She decided to investigate and entered the back yard.

She immediately saw her naked little boy stuck atop the chain link fence with his twig and berries mildly stuck in the fence. Fearing for his sexual future and general health, his mom ran toward the fence and carefully removed her naked son.

The saddest part of the story is that, despite all his trying, he never got himself a fresh apple from that tree.

Full nudity hasn't been featured on MinnPics - yet - but feel free to check if it made the cut today.

Skinny-dipping record set right here in Minnesota

Skinny-dipping record set right here in Minnesota

I wouldn't say that I have a fascination with nudist camps but maybe it could be described as a curiosity. That's why this story about the world record for skinny-dipping, set with help from a camp in East Bethel, Minnesota, caught my eye. No, it wasn't the small and non-descript photo showing 222 naked midwesterners bobbing in a pool but the accompanying story that piqued my interest.

I've always been curious about nudists - I remember my mom mentiong at least once the phrase "nudist colony" (I figured it to be a bunch of naked Amish folks). It's not that I'd like to peek through the bushes and watch naked folks (women) stroll around all day because the fact is that most of the people who live the nudist lifestyle would be best seen clothed. I'm more curious about the day to day happenings at a nudist camp.

Think about the cooking siutation at Avatan Nudist Camp. Would just an apron afford enough protection as you stand in front of the stove with hot grease popping out of a frying pan? I'm thinking that in the groinal region, a grease spatter would truly hurt. So, unlike the CityPages writer who shelved his stupid questions about nudism, I put my stupid questions right out there for all the world to see (much like my naked strolls out to the mailbox).

Where do nudist camp-goers keep their keys? What about that special time of the month for the ladies? How is that handled at Avatan or other nudist camps? I understand the politeness of carrying a towel at all times to sit on but, and here comes my trappings as a mildly prudish Minnesotan, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. For instance, does anyone really want to see a naked person straining to open a over-tightened jar of pickles? I didn't think so. Do you really want to see one of your fellow nude campers do a deep bend at the waist to pick up a dropped item? That could be a hairy situation.

But hey, the nudists who hang out (literally) at the East Bethel camp are doing what they enjoy - they just happen to be naked so kudos to them for being comfortable enough with themselves to stroll around naked with 200 of their closest naked friends. I actually envy them because I'm the guy who's been shamed into putting his shirt back on.

Nudity hasn't been featured on MinnPics but that doesn't mean you shouldn't check out the killer photos featured every damn day!

An important announcement

From here on, Fridays will be known as Pants-Free Fridays. Yep, it's pretty much self-explanatory and if you need an explanation you'll probably never enjoy Pants-Free Friday. This was inspired by seeing this link mentioned in a tweet this morning about a clothing optional farm in Wisconsin. Be careful when bailing hay, it's scratchy enough on the arms, imagine it on the... crotchal region. Ouch.

One more thing: the long weekend is officially a Socks-Free Weekend. Yep, my socks come off the minute I leave work Thursday and I vow to not put socks back on my feet until Monday morning. What are some of your long weekend plans?

Mine involve both of the above mentioned items as well as snapping a few photos for MinnPics.

The world's best Father's Day gift

Well, my first Father's Day has come and gone and my only observation is this: where in the hell are the all-you-can-eat Father's Day buffets? Mom gets this treatment so why not dad?

And no matter what you may be thinking, I didn't get a weekend at a nude resort. Or did I? What did you all do to celebrate this Hallmark holiday? Me? I spent the day cutting an immense pile of lumber.

Be sure to keep up on all things Minnesota with MinnPics. The first birthday week is only two weeks away... can you feel the excitement in the air? Maybe it's just humidity.

Are you naked or nekkid?

Quote of the day from @TeddRoman

If you're NAKED it means you have no clothes on. If you're NEKKID it means you
have no clothes on and you're stirrin' up trouble!

Thoughts?

And being you're obviously in a clickin' mood, check out the phabulous photos at MinnPics.