The world is trying to tell me to de-lurk!
Author:   Anonymous Coward
Date:   1999/01/04
Forum:   soc.subculture.bondage-bdsm


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So I spend the weekend in various self-bondage exercises, reading this
newsgroup in chains, waiting for that damn icecube to melt, wondering
whether I would ever have the nerve to post.

I've had bondage fantasies for many years, but kept them to myself.
Over the last year, I've arranged a scene or three at a couple of the
more tolerant of our local strip-clubs, which proved to be a great deal
of fun, if rather expensive.

Back in late October, I began reading this group.  Early November, I
became aware of a local organization for the Leather, B&D, D/S, S&M,
and other kinky acronyms, and was determined to attend their next munch.
Their munches, though, are scheduled for the last Wednesday of the
month, and the last weekends of November and December had me tied up in
non-BDSM terms.

So I've lurked, and browsed, and tried to work up the nerve.

After spending most of Friday and Saturday in various games (and
discovering once again that this sort of thing is a lot more fun with
a partner), I spent this morning shovelling the drive, doing the dishes
and laundry, and doing the usual bachelor post-weekend ritual of picking
up empty pop-cans and throwing away old pizza boxes.

Then I headed down to the mall.  I've been pondering how I might build
a certain electronic circuit.  Said circuit would wait a bit, close a
relay, wait a bit longer, open the relay, and repeat.  I was looking
for something for which I could set the "ON" time to between 5 and 120
seconds, and the "OFF" time to between 30 and 300 seconds.  The relay
of this circuit could act to turn some other electrical deviced on and
off according to the set cycle.

I wanted to build something small, so I could fit perhaps a half-a-dozen
separate circuits in a case along with eight AA batteries, and another,
simpler master control circuit, that would close a relay when a button
was pressed, and hold the relay closed for some length of time.
The result could be a single sealed box, that would power a number
of small electrical devices, turning them on and off according to
separate pre-set cycles, all of which would be initiated by a single
"ON" button, and which would stay on, for some pre-set length of time.
(Note that there would _not_ be an "OFF" button.)

Now exactly what use I might find for such a device is a bit off subject,
but I'm sure you can envision an application or three, if you exercise
your imagination a bit.

Now I'm a software type, not a wirehead, and my EE skills were never good
enough for it to be fair to call them "rusty" today.  But I decided to
brush them off, such as they were, and take a stab at building the thing.

So I browsed the web looking for a starting point, found a likely looking
circuit, and headed down to Radio Shack to pick up a breadboard, a relay,
a 555 chip, sundry capacitors and resistors, etc.  On walking out of the
store, I decided a late lunch was in order.  (I hadn't eaten much, earlier
in the weekend.)  Now I'm one of those sorts who bores easily, and as
usual, I stopped in a bookstore to pick up something to read while I ate.

As I'm dealing with the cashier, having just handed over my discount card,
I hear behind me, "Oh, Look!  It's got some bondage in it!"

I turn, and there are three young women behind me in line, giggling
over the copy of somebody-or-other's latest how-to sex book that one
of the young women had picked up from the counter display.  I turned,
and saw all three blush, as they realized that I had overheard.  As I
remember, I remarked, "well, you've got to keep the world interesting,"
and they blushed darker.

Now if this was a Penthouse letters story, you'd read about how I'd
continued the conversation, and how I'd convinced the three of them that
B&D was much more fun to experiment with than to giggle over, and how
I'd taken the three of them to a hotel room somwhere, and well, you know.

But it isn't.  I turned back to the clerk, finished my transaction, smiled
and nodded to the still-giggling girls, and headed up to the food court.

I'd thought it an odd coincidence, that having spent the entire weekend
in (unfortunately solo) bondage play, and while carrying the parts for
a bondage device of my own design, I should run into three sweet young
things giggling over a bondage reference in a main-stream sex guide,
but I was astounded when the first person I saw as I entered the food
court would be a 12-year-old boy, putting on his new handcuffs.  Now,
there is a oddity novelty shop, right at the edge of the foodcourt, of
the sort that sells tshirts, halloween costumes, rubber noses, assorted
party favors, and, of course, handcuffs.

It's not unusual, in my mind, for a 12-year-old-boy to want to buy a pair
of handcuffs.  I remember I had, when I was around that age (my mother
didn't forbid it, exactly, but somehow things worked out that way.)
In any case, I could envision him buying the handcuffs, and then sitting
in the foodcourt, playing with them while he waited for whoever it was
he was with to get over whatever it was they were doing.

But the coincidences were getting too strong for me.  Instead of reading
the book I had bought, as I ate, I mused over things, and decided to
come out, in this newsgroup, at least.  And here I am.

p.s.  I bought a pair of hancuffs on the way out.  I'm wearing them now.
Please blame them for any mispellings or typographical errors.

p.p.s.  The first prototype circuit is working, turning a flashlight
bulb on and off behind me.  It won't do as it stands right now, the
driving capacitor is a 4700MFD, nearly the size of a C-cell, which is
far too large, and the trimpots are poorly scaled, making it difficult
to adjust the timings.  But it is a promising start.