Yes, it is that time again: and though we're sure most of you don't really need a special month to teach you about your special place, why not take some time to celebrate the greatest love of all? (And if you happen to let your celebration continue beyond the month of May, well, we're pretty sure that's okay too.)

Learning to Love Yourself More: Sure, most of us learn the techniques of self pleasure through trial and error—but reading up on technique might give you some ideas for how to switch things up, or even help you find your new favorite thing. Em and Lo's "Sex: How to Do Everything""Joy of Sex" both have sections on masturbation; Jamye Waxman's "Getting Off" is, quite literally, a guide to masturbation for women (it even says so in the title!). And if you'd prefer to spare some trees, Let's Masturbate and About.com offer all sorts of good info online.

The Girl (Or Boy) With The Most Toys: You may not need a toy to get off, but this is a masturbation celebration, so why not go the extra mile and give your parts the very best? Our favorite toys include the SaSi, the Babeland Nubby G, the GiGi, the Curve, and the Tristan plug—but any toy that makes you feel tingly is a good pick as far as we're concerned.

Little Help? True, you can hardly click a hyperlink without running into some free porn; but to truly make the most of the month, choose quality over quantity. Some of our top picks for DVDs include "Bad Girls," "Champion," and "The New Romantix." (Though if you're feeling strapped for cash in these recessiony times, our Flesh Flicks are always here for you.)

Come Together: If celebrating by yourself doesn't feel special enough, why not join in with a group? Masturbate-A-Thons are scheduled this month in Portland and San Francisco (where Crush Object April Flores will be co-hosting). Can't get to either of these celebrations? Get a few friends together and host your own!

And remember: there's no wrong way to celebrate National Masturbation Month... as long as you're masturbating.

· Thumbnail star: Yurizan Beltran (incrediblecontent.com)

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National Gifts From the Garden Month

· How To: Make Your Own Veggie Vibrator
· Vagetarian Porn
· Fruity Girls

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Older Americans Month

· Monsters Ball: Here Comes "MILFZILLA"!

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Correct Posture Month

· Ariel X Loves Her Job (And So Do We)

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Good Car Keeping Month

· Flesh Flicks: Fucking Car Talk

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National Electrical Safety Month

· Fleshbot's Extensive Vibrator Coverage
· All About Electrostim

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Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

· Being (In Love With) Mika Tan (Among Others)

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Jewish American Heritage Month

· Our Commandress-In-Chief Joanna Angel

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National Community Action Month

· There Will Be Orgies (But No Cake): Rocco Siffredi's "Eskade: The Submission"

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National Get Prepared to Buy a Home Month

· Jeanna Fine and Peter North in "The House on Chasey Lane"(Megarotic)

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Also, it's National Photo Month, which is pretty much our whole basis for our existence. Without photos, there's no porn and without porn, well ... let's not think about that.

· "It's May, which is pretty much National Everything Month" (tigardtimes.com)

Previously: Happy Masturbation Month! (Yes, You Now Have An Official Excuse)

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"Sticky: The Movie" trailer:

"Sticky: The Movie" teaser:

· "Sticky: The Movie" (stickythemovie.com)

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Fleshbot: So what's a Twittergasm?
Carol Queen: A Twittergasm is a post to your Twitter profile indicating that you just had a real orgasm. You can use the codes ICSW (I came, so what?) and JOSW (jacking off, so what? related term to indicate you are jacking off), and we'll track, count and include your Twitgasms — though you can also add and create your own LOLTwitgasms if it gets you hot. By typing the character string: ICSW to your Twitter profile, you say with pride: I Came! Prudes of the world will be forced to realize once and for all, that no one really cares what adults do with themselves, and everyone does it. It's a way of coming out of the closet as someone who masturbates by posting to your twitter profile whenever you come. A secret handshake of sorts, only others who follow the Twittergasm profile, or who have read about the campaign will know, so your prudish friends will be left alone until they, too are enlightened.

We will be using the popular service Tweetscan to track Twittergasms in May and we will publish the results on the Masturbate-a-thon.com site and related blogs and social network sites. Twitterers can participate in national masturbation month in several ways.

(1) Become a follower of one of these profiles:
http://www.twitter.com/jackingoff (the profile off the masturbate-a-thon.com)
http://www.twitter.com/thebiggesto (a profile that tracks the orgasms of twitterers)

(2) Use this code on your twitter profile to indicate whenever you have an orgasm:
ICSW or JOSW when you jack off. (Hint: multiple orgasms can be indicated by using a colon and a number to indicate how many: ICSW:3) No faking!

(3) Ask your friends and Twitter followers to pledge to donate a certain amount to the Center for Sex and Culture for every orgasm you have in May. Visit www.masturbate-a-thon.com/twitter.php to register your twitter profile for participation in National Masturbation Month (May 2008) and send emails to your friends to ask them to make a pledge on your behalf. Send a link to that same page where they can sign up to donate as much as they chose for each time you come. Donors do not have to be on Twitter to participate.

Fleshbot: Can't we just fake it ten times in a row so we can hang out with all the cool kids?
Carol Queen: No, never! There are three very good reasons why you should never, ever fake a Twittergasm:

(1) Because faking orgasm — and Twitgasm — robs you of pleasure. It's a sign that pleasure-seeking (masturbation or other kinds of sex) is winding down, and orgasm isn't happening, you're not going for it, and you're not really telling anybody else you're not going for it. Not only that, you're not even admitting any of this; you're sending a false signal of "I'm done"-ness, when you could just as easily be authentic and say, "You know what? I'm done, let's go do something else."

(But some of you might protest that it's not romantic or sexy to just say you're quitting before the true Tweet of satisfaction. Maybe, but see Reason #2, and actually, authentic sexuality IS sexy. Plus, faking teaches other people to pleasure you the wrong way. If you're doing it while masturbating, you're teaching *yourself* to do it the wrong way: to give up before you're discovered real satisfaction. That's just not a good message to send. Instead, decide to use the energy you expend with a bit hot fake come to get a little more into your body, learn a little more about sex and arousal, fantasize about the things you *really* want to, and resolve to respect pleasure more.)

(2) It's not nice to fool people, but it adds to everyone's misinformation and fucked-upped-ness about sex and pleasure when we fool people re: orgasm. Because that affects other people's sexuality as well as out own — it means that partners are misled as to our sources of optimum pleasure (how self-defeating can you get?), it robs others of the intimacy-building experience of going REAL orgasm-hunting with us, and it misleads other people about what's real about sex.

(3) Twitter is a social networking endeavor, and like society itself, these only really function well when citizens are above-board, real, and express their real needs and experiences. Otherwise the whole entity will be flooded with fakeness, and people's initial desire — to be connected — is sullied. Besides, it wastes airspace that can better be used to send around genuine sentiments... and Twittergasms.

· Masturbate-A-Thon: Wankblog (masturbate-a-thon.com/wankblog)
· Twitter: jackingoff (Masturbate-A-Thon profile, Twitter.com)
· Twitter: thebiggesto (Twittergasm tracker, Twitter.com)
· Masturbate-A-Thon: Facebook (facebook.com)

See also:
· Masturbate-A-Thon (official site, masturbate-a-thon.com)
· Center for Sex and Culture (sexandculture.org)
· Carol Queen (carolqueen.com)

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1. Sex

2. Masturbation

3. Sex

4. Masturbation

5. Sex

6. Sex

7. Masturbation

8. Sex

9. Masturbation

10. Masturbation

(Oh, and in case you were wishing this contest had a little more peen ... stay tuned for the Masturbation or Sex: Gay Edition, coming soon!)

Below are ten photos of different models' faces. Some of these women are masturbating, and some of them are having sex. Can you tell the difference? Get all of them right and you'll be entered in a random drawing to win a (brand new, we promise) Delight vibrator, guaranteed to make your National Masturbation Month a lot more fun.

How To Enter: Make a list from 1 to 10 and tell us your best guesses in a comment to this post. (Don't have a Fleshbot/Gawker Media commenter account? Get one—it's easy.) Next week, we'll choose a winner based on whoever has the most number of correct guesses—or will randomly choose from entries in the case of a tie. We'll let you know via your commenter profile page what you'll need to do to claim your prize.

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10.

· Images via Ask Jolene

The fine print: You must be over 18 to enter the contest, and you may submit only one entry per commenter account. Standard contest rules apply.

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Technique: You may have been masturbating for a few months or a few decades; you may be experimenting and figuring out what you like, or you may be set in your ways. Whatever your experience, you can always benefit from a little technique advice. Whatever you situation, About.com has some excellent information on masturbation technique, both for the ladies and the mens. Even if you're a masturbation pro, switch things up and try something new. You may just find your new favorite thing.

Toys: If you need an extra hand (or buzz) to get to where you want to be, our Marital Aid Test Kitchen Archive has plenty of toys to strike your fancy ... or other parts. We especially recommend the Curve, the Babeland Nubby G, and the Gigi for the ladies, but to each her own. And as for the guys ... well, surely you have something lying around the house that you can use?

Supplementary Material: Sure, the internet is full of free porn, but for a month celebrating masturbation you might want to support your favorite online smut merchant and actually pay for it. (Hey, they don't call it an economic stimulus tax rebate check for nothing. ) Or you could always just find your wank fodder for free. As long as you're getting off somehow, we're sure the masturbation authorities won't mind.

Coming Together: And speaking of masturbation authorities, you migght want to consider joining one of this month's Masturbate-A-Thons in Portland or San Francisco; the San Francisco Masturbate-A-Thon even gives you the option to play along at home in case you can't be there in person.

See also:
· Jackinworld: The Ultimate Male Masturbation Resource (jackinworld.com)
· Clitical: Female Masturbation And Sexuality Information Site (clitical.com)
· Let's Masturbate (hints and tips for everyone @ letsmasturbate.com)
· Beautiful Agony (our all-time favorite masturbation site @ beautifulagony.com)

From the archives:
· WASD Porn: Let Your Fingers Do The Fapping

· Steampunk Masturbation: Jerkin' It Very Old School

· "Exploring The 'O'" With Jamye Waxman

· Meet Ariel Adore (And Her Ten Inch Dildo)

· Wal-Mart Masturbator Cleans Up In Aisle 8

· The Rubbot: Hands Free Masturbation Is (Almost) Here