First time with a pro...

cuddle party facilitator. What were you thinking? ;)
Yesterday I attended a cuddle party thrown by someone else and it was a great experience. While we have a cuddle group of our own on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=13170529966) it was still interesting to attend a party thrown by a professional facilitator.
Got to meet some great new people, not sure if I would ever see them again or if they might join our group, but overall it was a very positive, rewarding experience. It give me a couple of possible ideas for our group's cuddle party, but to be honest, the members seem to be happy with the way things are being run currently, so I am rather undecided between maintaining the status quo and doing a little something to liven things up.
Nonetheless, there can't be enough cuddling as far as I am concerned, so hope the word about cuddle parties spreads and of course, the more the merrier.

Socially disconnected

Well, sometimes you need a big money sponsored poll to prove your point, but if you wait long enough, it comes your way.
For sometime now I have been making it a policy to be more live and in-person with those I interact with online. I spent years in online only friendships, typed and read the most intimate of thoughts, concerns, personal matters, etc. Yes, I must admit it did serve to solidify a theory I had developed from years of travelling around North America and parts of Europe; people are people. So, with that confirmed, I decided that I had needs that were of a tactile nature, I can't just :) all the time, there is an actual smile attached. I have nothing against the machines, the technology is not to blame, it's the use of that instrument, and that is completely up to us.
We are hardwired in certain ways, and there is no getting around the needs that are created to meet that biological imperative. We need human contact. We have a large organ that we so often neglect in the most basic of ways. Yes, skin is an organ, and it needs stimulation, and no need to snicker like lil' girls here.
I can show you published study after study done on the benefits of cuddling permature newborn babies. How it helps them grow and in some cases perhaps even survive. Yes, the machines do their part, they feed, they provide medicines, etc, but human contact has its own medicinal value.
I am simply proposing we don't lose are humanity to the Matrix, we can unplug at will and I simply have chosen to be more selective about how I plug in.