Gay Daddy & Bear Blog: Age Appropriate

Hey guys, we recently made a couple of changes to the logged in home page. We made these changes as a direct response to members who asked us for a LARGER thumbnail option for browsing profiles. We couldn't fit larger thumbnails into the who's online frame so we decided to make better use of the logged-in home page. We also wanted to give members a local view of members online in their area to help increase opportunities to connect to other local men. You can still filter the results in the upper right hand corner, but the default is always local. Since these changes, members are reporting getting more messages and views so we're very happy with the results. If you still want to use the other Who's Online view, just navigate off the logged-in home page and you will be set.

We also added a new section called Events on the logged-in home page to keep you all up-to-date with local events that may be going on in your area. We are in NYC and our events module shows the Black Party this weekend. We are all going and hope to see a lot of Daddyhunt members there!

Beneath events is a section for updates from us and new additions to the blog. On the blog we are going to start posting more updates and do a better job of keeping all our members and supporters up-to-date on the things we are working on so there will be fewer "surprises" in the future. We promise to stop changing things without explaining why we are changing them.

The new format for "Who Viewed Me" and "Take Action" allows you to hover...

We are going to have some fun with Twitter and Facebook and we want to invite all our Daddies and Hunters to join us.

You'll get the latest DH news, early notices on contests, idle (but sexy) chit-chat and loads of love from your buddies at Daddyhunt.

See you online!

I don’t know about you but I’ve always had a love/hate thing for Valentine’s Day. In Manhattan I witnessed guys swaggering down 23rd Street headed to their Sweetie Pie with over-priced long stemmed roses and I wanted to yell, “Hey, over here!” That was my dark period. Things have gotten better.

Some people can’t deal with all the Valentine fuss. One man from Phoenix told me he hides in his house and watches reruns of Golden Girls and mutters his own romance-adverse version of “humbug.”

I’m a born romantic—I turn girlie on VD.I love the cliché red roses, over-sized corny cards, upscale chocolate and dinner out—and lots of hugs and kisses.

I’m a little like Kent who tells me about Greg and himself. “It was Valentine’s Day and I got nothing from Greg. We went out together for dinner but for Greg Valentine’s Day meant little-if he remembered it. He’s the sweetest of the sweetest but I think he’s got the straight gene when it comes to romance. So the next day I told Greg, ‘Honey I want a big fat Valentine’s card from you next year with a big “I love you” written down.’ Greg was like,’Duh, I didn’t know—so sorry honey.’ I didn’t have to wait! The following week—every day--, to my delight, I got a different Valentine card in the mail from Greg with a big I LOVE YOU! He came through. I realized then and there that people can’t read our minds—we have to tell them what we want and need.”

The economy is grim and a lot of folks are out work so I think we should have a National Valentine’s Day Weekend (February 12-14)—to get our mind...

I've been a professional male model for over a decade, and although I'm still waiting on that Time's Square 2xist billboard, I have made a decent career as the "guy next door." I was recently interviewed for a magazine about cutting-edge training techniques, and the journalist remarked, "The modeling and fitness industries say you're marketable because you're neither the "juiced-up" bodybuilder, nor the sinewy eighteen year old. You look like a farmer's son with a body hewn from hard, functional labor; an all-American boy next door.

Though I take issue with being called a boy, I appreciate the observation, and find it wonderfully ironic that during an interview about cutting-edge workout routines, I would be called-out for my physique, which is purely the result of centuries-old exercise fundamentals.

It's not coincidence that gladiators, sailors, blue-collars and cowboys hold a special place in the gay fantasy canon. The idea that "natural," functionally derived bodies hold a certain kind of beauty is nothing new. Walt Whitman notes this in his poem, "I Sing the Body Electric:"

The swimmer naked in the swimming-bath, seen as he swims through
the transparent green-shine, or lies with his face up and rolls
silently to and from the heave of the water,
The bending forward and backward of rowers in row-boats, the
horse-man in his saddle,
The group of laborers seated at noon-time with their open
dinner-...