Posts made by bostonpolar

Yes, I like the series as well.  I think that doing magic depends on specific hand movements works very well visually.  And the gay relationship in it was well-done, though dark.

I am also waiting for the 2nd season.  I am glad there is a 2nd season.

Have you read the books?  "The Magicians" and "The Magician King"?

Also, the main character played by Jason Ralph is also in the gay-related movie "Those People" (2015) which is on this site for download somewhere.

. . .

@DemhaFeta:

was awful, liked the dudes tho

I wonder if you might not have understood it.

The problem with really good science fiction that, in general, it is not written or produced for the general public.

For example, if you go back and watch some of the best of the original STAR TREK episodes, you find that many were written by science fiction author and that they were, well, thoughtful.

On the other hand, the current STAR TREK movies have been greatly dumbed-down over the decades, something that started during ST:TNG and continued (with a few exceptions) during the various TREK series.  The reason, of course, this was dumb-downed – and producer J.J. Abrams even stated publicly he was doing that -- was to make in reach a "bigger audience" i.e. make more money.

"Sense 8" is a real science fiction series and one that deals with the "soft sciences" -- psychology, sociology, and such.  There is even a philosophy to it -- something that has been removed from the current TREK movies.

Likely, right now, the best "hard sciences" science fiction on television is "The Expanse" based on -- and sticking fairly close to -- a series of hard SF novels of that name.

"Sense 8" is not for everyone -- because it was purposely NOT made for the general public.

. . .

. . .

First, Star Trek is 25 years too fucking late.

http://www.salon.com/2001/06/30/gay_trek/

Second, Takei was against it and doesn't like the fact it was done:

http://io9.gizmodo.com/george-takei-tried-to-convince-the-team-behind-star-tre-1783306619

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/george-takei-reacts-gay-sulu-909154

**Third, if you want to see what Star Trek could have done, download this:

https://www.gaytorrent.ru/details.php?id=5dc730c6579ecfd1d96850dafdada77c900db212e55f5b98

. . .**

Well, hi.

A Chaturbate cammer – italianboy4you -- is looking for an Ohmibod-type of anal vibrator for his cam show.  That is, one that is a sound-activated vibrator that can be set to respond to the unique sounds made by Chaturbate tipping.

Also, it needs to be shaped so that it is something that will stay IN him without his having to constantly hold it.  (He needs to be able to type.)

I've done a lot of internet searches, but it difficult to find things because the search terms become tricky and the results not what I was trying to find.

ItalianBoy (IB) is a 39-year old straight man who is a very hairy body-wise, a beard, very-long dark hair, and the brownish-skin of someone of Italian-decent (he is not actually Italian); he's toned, but not muscled.  He has been a model.  He has a great voice to listen to, talk about a lot of very personal topics, and spends most of his cam chatting with his fans – while he is almost always naked -- then he does jerking off.  He is bi-curious, but in kind of a odd way.  He has an interest in being fucked by a (black) guy -- because he had anal sex with women and seen how much they enjoy it (what he says).  So he wants a sound-activated anal vibrator for his cam show for tips -- and also to sort of break-him-in for being fucked.

He HAS promised on cam to his fans that he WILL get fucked by a guy before his next birthday, which is at the start of December this year.  (Though that might not be on cam.   :cry2:)

It is kind of strange but somehow I have ended up as his "production assistant".  Though it makes a certain sense given I know more about "gay" than he does.

So if any of your guys can recommend such a vibrator, please post the name of it in this topic and a link to it if you have one.

Thanks much!

. . .

That was one of the very first thing I saw.  I think Owen Jones was right to walk off and I, for one, am proud of him for doing so.

And then I started to see this same claim. that hatred of LGBT had "nothing" to do with the Orlando slaughter, and I am still utterly appalled by it and I still find it difficult to believe how anyone could think that.  They truly must be delusional due to their own homophobia.

This has both outraged and depressed me for days now. 
. . .

A vast majority of people understand that the murders in Orlando were both a terrorist attack AND a hate crime.

BUT…

One of the most shockingly disgusting things I have been seeing in the last few days are attempts by a number of ultraconservative to DENY that hatred of gay people had anything to do with the attack.  These monsters are trying over and over again to dismiss this assault on gay people -- the murders of 49 people and the wounding of 53 -- as having NOTHING to do with homophobia.

I have read messages by a fundamentalist Christian pastor do this repeatedly.

These bastards are trying to write gay people out of this horrific slaughter to protect their own homophobia.

It is one of the most foul things I have seen happen in a long, long time.  Not only was the attack itself so emotional wrenching, but now these far-right assholes are trying to deny those now-dead people their right to be Who They Were: LGBT.  They are trying to get others to DENY the fact that these gay people in Orlando were MURDERED because they were gay.  It is one of the most vicious, heartless, and cruelest things I have seen those on the far-right political ever do.

It's a form of revisionist history in the same way that there are monsters who DENY the Holocaust happened.

It borders on unbelievability for me that there are people who are SO HATEFUL that they would do this.  I have encounter and know well how deep HATRED of gay people can me, but this is, for me, truly a new LOW for these far-right-wingers.

. . .

. . .
If anyone remembers Usenet, I still read and post to one newsgroup there.

One of the other posters in a ultraconservative Lutheran pastor in Starkville, Mississippi.

The hatred for LGBT and other minorities (including a closeted racism) that this BIGOT posts day after day  – and often a number of posts every date -- is just disgusting.

The man is a self-center, selfish egotist, lacking any empathy towards others.  And he is a Christian pastor -- in name, but not in heart.

It is a sad, sad thing for Christianity that this man is in a position of leading a church and its congregation.

Among other examples of his willful-ignorance and -stupidity, he is a science-illiterate who denies both Evolution and Climate Change.  He literally believes in the Biblical Flood.

When there was the debate in the United States a year or so ago about the Confederate flag -- after the murders of church-goers -- he, of course, defended and supported that blatantly racist symbol.

He is completely obvious to his own great failings as a decent human being -- and often psychological projects his failings on to those who both disagree with him and prove him wrong.  He has done this with me many times.

It is a good sign to see that there are others than myself, both knowledgeable and intelligent, who constantly challenge his prejudices and ignorance.  Of course, he lacks any self-objectivity to understand the facts and Reality itself.

He is irrational in almost every discussion, repeated making the same logical fallacies over and over again in posts based on his irrational beliefs.

He refuse to learn new evidence and new knowledge and is one of the most utterly closed-minded individuals I have ever encounter in the many decades of my life.

He also has his supporters -- who, if you read their posts, are openly and viciously racist, anti-LGBT, and just vile in their hatred and any sense of compassion.

This Mississippi pastor is one of the very worst examples of a decent human being I have witnessed in my life.

Jesus weeps.
. . .

About 10-20 year I was involved in a projected that, as an aside, brought me international attention.  My name was (just within the US) in publications like "The Advocate" and the tabloid newspaper "The Star" – and more.

"The Advocate" wanted my photo for their article, but I backed-out.  It wasn't being shy or worries about my privacy.  (I have found numerous times in my Life, how very far out of the closet you can people, and STILL people you know never know it.)  I mean my name was literally all over the place.  I am still mentioned in a number of non-fiction books and articles that are online.

The simple thing is, I am a bear.  The problem is for, of all the various "types" of gay men there are, I find bears to be the most unattractive.  Because of this, I have never felt myself attractive.

I am also older now, in my early 60s, and very much a polar bear.  And I continue to have the same problem I have had almost all of my life.  Of all the other type of gay men I am interesting it is very, very rare (maybe once a decade, if that) anyone of them finds me attractive -- let alone sex.

I think I might kill the next guy who says to me "I think of you as one of my best friends, BUT...."

And of course, generally the guys who DO find me attractive are -- bears.

Needless to say, my sex life has been dismal -- and far worse for me -- I have never found a man who would even CONSIDER an LTR with me.  Which, given my personality, is something I have long, long wanted in my life since I was in my very late teens.

I basically have not has sex with another guy in about, I don't know 30(?) years now.  And believe me, I have tried in ways or through accident in ways most men would never consider, let alone do -- like have 30 minutes of international fame.  (Actually it went on for a decade and still pops up now and then -- but, nothing with regards to my meeting even a possible partner.)

I have been involved in the gay civil rights move in the US since the mid-1970s so it was only a few years after the Stonewall Riots.  It is NOT like I did not put myself "out there" for decades after.  But the many different types of me I found attractive were never really interested in me -- other than "best friend".

The last 10 years in my Life has not gone well.  I put too much of myself into try to help a guy get his life together, a roommate (nothing else) I had for 20 years.  He did finally get his Life together.  In the process, however, I let him destroy my Life.

Now I am trapped in the middle of nowhere, with no car, no way to really get anywhere -- and THANK YOU, GEORGE W. BUSH AND YOUR WORLDWIDE BIG DEPRESSION! -- went from middle-class to dirty poor.  No one around here share any of my interests or hobbies.  I have been here for over 2 years and made only 1 friend -- who I next-to-never-see because generally he is anti-social.

I have tried 5-6 gay dating websites for decades (and yes, I have facial photos of me at those sites because I realized it was necessary if I was to have any chance) without any really luck.  In all that time, I might have meet 3 other guys -- which went nowhere.

The point of all this is, there can be many different reasons why someone does want to put up a photo other than being shy or being out.  I'm so far out I can be googled under my real name and hits will turn up which include my being gay.

The guys who have posted here I think are attractive.  I think they like consider themselves to me attractive,  I don't.

. . .

And, NO, I have no idea why they are all thinking of a swimming pool.  It was nothing I did.

**Through various mods I now have 10 gay guys (the game's normal limit is eight) –  9 YA (20s) or A (30-50)s and 1 teen), 1 dog, and 1 unicorn (all gay) living in a HUGE mansion on a 64x64 lot (the largest you can have) and all of them -- more or less -- married to each other.  (I'm not sure what I am going to do about the teens relationships yet, though I have another mod that allows teens and adults to woohoo.

That mod is called the "Woohooer" and it allows you to sent all sorts of conditions (or not) of woohooing, including at what percentage of Like they have for each other before they have sex.  I sent it too low (92%) at first and the results was that everyone in the household was constantly having sex with one another -- I never had time for them to do anything else.  (The dog and the unicorn at least were not having sex, but I was worried.)

I have 4 werewolves (including then teen), 1 ghost, and 1 witch.  The rest are humans.  I did have a fairy, but he constantly turned on the stereo and dance; he would do nothing else. (I wonder if that was a subtle comment by the game-makers).  So I had him move how and he is now happily couple with just one of the townies.

I did later find a mod the stops such music/dancing all the time which I did install -- as well as one that stops the characters from constantly playing video games!  (HEY, SIMS!  I don't want you living my life.)

The teen was going to high school, but there was only 1 other student in it (ex-bf), because I managed to end up having my sims live in the University town (which is suppose to be a "vacation" location) so there weren't any children (let alone a school for them).  So I recently created 10 teenage sims, all human except for 1 werewolf (with German Shepherd), 1 merman, and twin ghosts (with ghost cat) so they would also go to school with him.

The merman teen I moved in with my merman couple and made him their son.  I moved the twin ghosts and ghost cat in with a human Darrell Dixon (from "The Walking Dead") and made them father/sons (and cat),  (All are gay.)  Also moved the regular humans, including STRAIGHT boy and girl teens into other homes as well.)  Gong to move the Teen Werewolf (cue movie music) and his dog into a home with a mean-spirited werewolf father, Biggs Badd [Wolf].  ha, ha

I did want to make this teen have a career as a prostitute (mods again), but it didn't seem to work.   I am hoping now with other students I can made him the "school bike" – a term I had to look-up and found out it is basically "the boy/girl everyone in the school rides".  This teen is based on a very young man I knew for several years who was thrown out of his home when he was 15 by his father and became a street prostitute to survive, later coming under the control of 2 pimps.  He's now 21.  The last I heard from him was 2-3 years ago now when he moved in (because he was literally starving) with a much older true, vile sadist who affectively brainwashed him (made him cut off contact with anyone he knew (including me) and keeps him house-confined.  This monster has also seriously physically harmed him, including damaging his rectum and badly breaking his ribs -- and then prevented him for getting medical care.  So this sim is an attempt to given "him" a happier ending.

(In RL, I never had closure in my relationship (deep friendship, no sex) with this young man and it still seriously depresses, frustrates, and angers me me I think of him.  So attempted emotional-therapy for myself by The Sims.)

I also earlier had made up a Frat House of eight, all of them sims based on real-life actors, including Ian Somerhalder, Channing Tatum, Jason Momoa, Alexander Skarsgaard, and Jake Gyllenhaal.  Rather queerly, all of them are gay as well.  I have let them go off on their own (let a mod version of the game's Story Progression, i.e. gives all the NPC sims a Life), but do want to check in on them and make sure none of them have gotten pregnant yet.  (Males can get pregnant in The Sims 3).

Again I used a mod to make my University town ("Simsville") about 90% homosexual and 10% heterosexual.  I do have to do some editing, however, because I ended-up making The Grim Reaper gay. (gulp)

I still have NOT really taken any of my main Sims (The Wu Family) to the other game worlds (such as Asia, Egypt, France, Paradise  Island (not the Wonder Woman one sadly), as well as "Into the Future".  I've become hung up of all the relationships between these various sims.

I am hoping Really Soon Now I can end up moving out of this shitty town I was forced to move to over 2 years ago now -- I fucking HATE living here as there is NOTHING here for me -- so I might have -- perhaps a Life of my own again.

But I'll never have a Life like the Lives my sims have.    

Lucky Sims!!!**

P.S. Yes, I am well aware this is all somewhat pathetic.
. . .

I wish I knew you.

. . .

Antstorm,

Given your profession, you may have already read it, but the book "On the Nature of Prejudice" by Gordon Allport is an excellent book that covers the full range of the subject in a very insight full way.

Typically, the more a group is accepted by the larger majority, the more prejudices of its own develop within it.

Within most communities, however, there are often sub-communities one does fit into.  This might be a possible choice for your client.  Not everyone is accepted by everyone.

There are many things that can lead one to not fitting into a community.  Obvious bigotry is one of them, but there are others.  I have always felt the outsider because there is much about me that just never really "fits in" with other groups.  Even a group which I organized – one grew nationwide -- I found with time I did not fit into.

I found over time I did not fit into the gay male community, because sex-without-strings is boring to me.  Literally, I would rather read a book.  (I have, more than once.)  But that, I found, resulted in my being an outsider in the gay male community.

For some, you are left out, because you do not fit in or you do not follow.

The desire to find others we share commonality with also has the effect of excluding others.  Sometimes I think it is better if we find ourselves not a community -- but friends.  Again, however, if you are an outsider, that can also be difficult.

I don't have an answer.  I don't think there is an answer now.  Perhaps as Humanity evolves, our nature as a social animal will also evolves, hopefully in a way that becomes more inclusive.

For now, perhaps the best we can do is be aware there is a problem.

. . .

I am most certainly one.

I played Sims 1 a great deal, but skips Sims 2 because of things happening in my life.

I decided to start again just over a month ago, and look at Sims 4, but there was so little extra content in the way of expansions and mods.

So I decided to go with Sims 3, which in addition to the base game had 19+ official expansions for it and lots of mods (i.e. modifications – player-created content) to go along with it.

Using the mods I have a polyandrous of 3 men, 1 adult (a painter-writer Asian) and 2 young adults (a dark-haired hairy jock with blue eyes and an redheaded, Irish-American, IT werewolf.)  The polyandrous relationship was very tricky to do -- I had to search for over a week all over the place for instructions on how to do one (finding many who had tried and failed).  I finally found a way to do it and now they are husband and husband and husband and have been for several game weeks now.

I used various mods so they have everything for armpit hair to morphing cocks (of various sizes, of course) and pubic hair.  I haven't found a way (yet!_ to be able to all make Woohoo together, so I will often have the Asian woohoo the jock; the jock will then woohoo the werewolf (in human AND sometimes werewolf form (talk about a beast!), and then the Asian will woohoo the werewolf guy (again, as human mostly and sometimes werewolf.)  The Asian is a top, the jock versatile, and the redhead an omega, a bottom in both human and werewolf form.

(I haven't got to the mods for gay sex animation yet, but those should be coming to my game in a few weeks.  ;D  I have already downloaded the mods for them but wanted to get their relationships together ongoing and fairly stable.)

Oddly enough, ALL three of these started as NPCs who became playable ones along the way.  I have made some edits to them along the way -- sometimes just for game practical reasons (have one who likes to clean-up and take care of plants for example, but generally I have tried to keep their traits and how they appear close to what they originally looked-like.  (With cheats -- you can edit both player characters and non-player characters after they have been created.

Towards the beginning I had the Asian guy go to Sim University, living in a frat house where he meet both his future partners.  He hit it up with the jock and started romancing him.  The werewolf NPC at that time had as one of his traits Evil, for which he got annoying with the Evil laugh.  The Asian almost had the jock ready to be proposed to (he was an NPC then) before the term ended, but, damn it, got sent back home without him.  So once home the Asian called long-distance and invited the jock over for a few weeks (during which they became roommates) and after a but more effort, finally had the Asian propose to the jock who, of course, accepted.

So they then went back to University together -- and the werewolf guy turned out to be a friend of the jock, so he kept coming over and I thought, well, why not try for a threesome relationship.  I edited out the werewolf's Evil trait and made him Good, which sure helped his personality a lot.  Anyway, both the Asian and the jock started hitting on the Irish werewolf guy and had him fall in love with both of them -- then it was home again for all three (same house).

So they went back together to the University again and something happened and they got STUCK there.  You are only suppose to be able to spend 2 Sim-weeks at the University, but somehow their stay went beyond it.  So they settled in there for now.  I have been expanding the town with more college-like places (tattoo parlor and dance club).  Meanwhile, at the house they were staying at, a unicorn showed up in the backyard!

I looked online and read online players spend a lot of time trying to find a unicorn to see if they can befriend it so they can lead it home -- and here these 3 guys had one just show up it their yard!  (I think it was the Power of Gay Love Times Three that drew the unicorn to them.  ) Anyway the unicorn started being really hard to upkeep, so I edited up editing him (it was a male unicorn that came, of course) as well.  His personality is more mellow and I also edited his appearance so he is white bordering on silver (he was white-ish to begin with) and his brownish horn is now 2 shades of purple.  (Hey, he HAS to be a gay unicorn to show up at this married-threesome house.)

So, given all the expansions available, there are other towns (one a supernatural one) and a big city they can visit.  They can also go to China, Egypt, and France.  There are various islands as well, PLUS user-created worlds (one a post-apocalypse ) and the actual game offers trips into various futures.  Plus they still need to get another college degree each.  I don't think they want children (gay men can now get pregnant in the Sims) -- the unicorn is needy enough!  Though the redheaded werewolf DOES want to get a dog for a pet (someone he can relate to); I am thinking German Shepherd.

Yes, I have no Life.  Things have gone very bad in my Life over the last 15+ years; I am in my early 60s; I was forced to move to basically a shit town with NO gay life of any kind (after I have lived in a Liberal Big City for over 25 years), let alone anyone I have much in common with as perhaps a friend (in the over 2 years I have been here, after a lot of effort, I made only one friend -- who is anti-antisocial (just great!).  I was never able to find a partner (I have been looking since by late teens) and given my age and my location now, that very deep hope of mine has become truly hopeless.  But I have always been creative and smart and when I am not reading (a LOT), I have taken to playing Sims 3 to given myself of relationships I really do NEED since I am a very people-oriented person.

(I was in Second Life for 2 years, but I encountered there the same problem I have had in Real Life -- that being, I have as a person very little in common with most gay men and most certainly the gay community as a whole.  I have sought out those who I do have more in common with -- in the science fiction community -- and then in the gay science fiction community which I had a large part in helping to create -- but, even there, I learned I really didn't fit in all that well.)  sigh

So I play the Sims as a way of having what I could never find in my Life -- and right now, seem VERY unlikely to in my years left.

Oh, yeah, I also write short stories and such and have had a few things published.  So this long post in nothing untypical of me.

Anyhow, yeah, I play the Sims.   

. . .

Thanks for the information about posting images.  I don't have a site for my photos; I thought about but just never have.  So guess I will just keep doing them this way. 

I don't know how to post here so only the photo appears.

@groovedware:

I got very excited when I heard the Wachowskis were doing TV and toss in Freema Agyeman I thought it would be a done deal.  I hate to have report it is boring me.  I've watched the first 3 episodes and have fallen asleep during each one.  To the point where I think I have to go back and watch again to be able to follow the story and doubt I will.

I got very excited when I learned that J. Michael Straczynski was very much involved of this.  He is the creator and was very often the writer of the award-winning science fiction series BABYLON 5.  He is also a novelist and a non-fiction author.  He has been nominated for an Academy Award.

Let me also add here briefly that I am the founder of the oldest-existing GLBT science fiction groups in the world, now nearing 30 years old.

SENSE8 is solid science fiction.  It is something that is complex, involved, thoughtful.  It is going to be dealing with a lot of political, social, psychological, and philosophical issues as it tells its story about this 8 characters becoming one.

SENSE8 is about the sense of wonder.

This is a story about the formation of a group mind.  This is NOT a hive mind like that of STAR TREK's the Borg.  It is a mind where each person individually become part a greater whole.  The best science fiction novel version of this is the classic MORE THAN HUMAN by Theodore Sturgeon.

The story can be confusing because it does have 8 major characters, each one important so it is telling their stories – as they become one.  So this will change as the story develops.

One of the reviews here commented that there was nothing science fictional happening.  On the contrary, this is great science fiction.  SF does not need futuristic props or special effects or CGI to make it science fiction. One of the best episodes in the newer version of  the "Twilight Zone" which came out 20 years ago was based on the concept of "What if people KNEW reincarnation was real and could remember there past lives?"  The result was a nightmare society.  Straczynski was involved in the production of that series as well.

SENSE8 can be fairly easy to understand when you watch it if you remember this:  There are 8 characters who, as the series progresses, literally become part of each others lives.  What you are watching at the start is the start of this.  They start hearing and seeing what the others do.  As this bonding grows, they start to see each other, what each other is doing and experience this together.  AND they start to be able to become each other, to be each other wherever they are.

I'll be blunt and say this:  SENSE8 is not for everyone.  It is for people who can understand and enjoy well-written and deeply thoughtful psychological drama.  It is complex as it is telling 8 different stories that will become one story.  It is not shallow TV.  It isn't "reality" TV.  It is not for people who give up when a series or a show is difficult for them to understand.  It is for people who want to push ahead, to challenge themselves to learn and to understand and grow to be better themselves.  SENSE8 is everything that is NOT what STAR TREK has become.

SENSE8 is classic Science Fiction television that will become a classic.

. . .

A few more Kindle screensavers:

There are a number of webpages for 'Naked Men Reading' photos.

I collect a number of these images and then make them into screensavers for my Kindle ereader.

I do make many other screensavers of many different things for my Kindle, mostly science fiction, fantasy, and horror (particularly with regards to H.P. Lovecraft).  I have over 600 right now.  ;D

I  :love: books.

For me, it really does not matter if it is hardcover or paperback (and don't forget that inbetween format, the trade paperback).

For much of my life I worked in library and so had access to many hardcover books to read.  During this time I would buy for myself to read a great many paperbacks (often some of the hardcover books I read when they became available).  Rarely I would buy a hardcover book, if it was something special I wanted.

But things changed for the worst in my life and suddenly my access to almost any books became limited because I could not afford them.  It also affected the access I had to the books I owned which I had bought over the years – around 6,000, almost all paperbacks.  They had to go into storage and I can no longer get to them.  I have going to have to give them up, give them away -- or :blownose: throw them away.  Whatever, it will be a terrible thing in my Life since many of them have been part of my life for many decades now.  I will be losing a part of my soul in a way when this happens – and it will need to happen soon.

I had to switch to ebooks because of costs and space limitations.  Now it is very rare I buy a physical book at all -- almost every book I get now is in ebook form.

Another thing with books has always been that some are only available as hardcover books, some only as paperback, and some only as ebooks.  I have some first editions, signed, of both hardcover and paperback books.  (I am working at a way to have ebooks signed.  :cheesy2: )

The central things for me is -- the book.  When I read a book, I am "in" that book.  When that is happening, it does NOT matter to me what form the book is, only the words.  I don't think about what form it is.

@costing:

10% is quite low…

Actually, as someone mentioned above, the present-day estimates are around 2% are gay.  This would be my the Kinsey Rating a 6, completely homosexual – or to be more exact within the United States:

"Based on the 2013 NHIS data [collected in 2013 from 34,557 adults aged 18 and over], 96.6% of adults identified as straight, 1.6% identified as gay or lesbian, and 0.7% identified as bisexual. The remaining 1.1% of adults identified as “something else” [0.2%,] stated “I don’t know the answer” [0.4%] or refused to provide an answer [0.6%]."

There is, however, something that isn't often mentioned with bisexuals and that is which way they "lean".  Most seem to have a preference of men or women.

This is important depending what type of relationship you do want with a bisexual.  Those bis who lean toward woman can enjoy physical sex with a man, but as far as intimate emotional relationships (love), those are solely with women.  The reverse is true with bis who lean toward men, with them being able to enjoy physical sex with both men and women, but there intimate emotional relationships are with men.

There to seem to be some bis who are right down the middle and can form both physical and intimate personal relationships with men and women, but they seem really rare.

I've read a lot about this (I read a lot about everything for many decades) and am constantly asking people questions about themselves to learn more.

Of course, this IS in the United States.  It might be the same or more or less in other parts of the world, but if you accept the idea that being gay is likely or mostly genetic, it is likely the percentages would be very similar elsewhere on our planet.

It sure does make it difficult to find a date way, way too often.    :cry2: