Due to the lack of fresh questions from you, dear readers, I’ve decided to take on a challenge that my roommate is about to face: In November, her current boyfriend will be heading off to the vast and desolate wasteland of Oklahoma, where he will begin over three years of Air Force training. She’s worried they won’t be able to keep up the thrills, with plane tickets being a considerable chunk of pocket change, and both of them busy with their separate lives. So here it is, the age old question.

How do I keep my long-distance love hot?

Making an LDR work isn’t just about hour-long phone conversations expressing your undying love to each other, or sending gushy e-cards with pop-up hearts. He might still be calling you his “smoochie-kins” over the phone while he’s banging the sexy little blonde Okie next door. How many times have you heard a guy, or girl, complain that they have “needs,” needs that can’t be satisfied in an LDR. Let’s face it, who doesn’t? To keep a long-distance love alive, you sometimes frankly need that intimacy that comes from having sex with your significant other. Thankfully, with the latest technology, it’s a lot easier to spice things up even when your thousands of miles away.

So, how do you keep up the sexual thrills when you’re on opposite sides of the country? It’s important to keep things fresh, playful and creative. But remember: just because we have access to all these handy new technologies doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to save your long-distance love. In other words, it’s not just the number of minutes logged on Skype, BBM, or AIM, it’s what you say and do that makes all the difference. Things can go downhill fast if all you do is recap your day for an hour, then spend the second hour talking about how much you miss each other. It’s perfectly fine to catch up in that way too, but don’t be afraid to get that all important element of intimacy in between. Here’s a few ways to get creative:

• If you choose the Skype sex route, instead of leaving the camera stationary, tilt it up and down your body so he or she can still experience your body while also adding an incentive to hop on that plane or jump in the car to come see you.

• Synch up your porn – find some videos, online or rented, that both you and your partner enjoy, and watch them at the same time while on your cells. Sound weird? Plenty of couples do this, and if you’re lost as to what to rent, check out our Hump Day archives for some good suggestions.

• If you have an iPhone, the voice control makes calling your partner hands-free, which makes it much easier to masturbate with your hands or other toys while talking to your partner.

• The webcam is an invaluable tool for your LDR and offers another innovative use: truth or dare. Whoever turns down the dare sheds a piece of clothing. 

• Next time you visit his or her place, leave photos of yourself in sexy lingerie, minus a piece of clothing, or in nothing at all, hidden around his or her apartment. Your significant other will be finding photos of you for weeks after you’ve left – a sweet reminder of your visit.

The list goes on, and there are more technologies being introduced to spice things up even further. They’ve just introduced internet sex toys that can be shared with your partner over the computer. Specifically for the ladies, for example, the diltron, (ridiculous name aside), is a dildo that plugs into your USB port, and which moves and vibrates according to Internet signals. Your partner, on his end, can use the interactive fleshlight. When he puts his penis in the tube, the diltron moves in sync as if you’re having real sex with your partner. You can watch the whole thing over webcam.

There’s even a new iPhone app to keep yourself stimulated when apart from your partner. The app turns your iPhone into a vibrator. The vibrations are a bit weaker, so you could even use it discreetly, though you will most likely want to sanitize your phone after this experience.

With all these new, creative technologies, the possibilities for keeping your LDR fresh are endless. You can easily save your relationship from falling into a rut by interjecting your conversations about work that day with a little Skype sex or for the adventurous, synchronized porn. So, Hump Day readers, keep away from that e-card and invest in a diltron instead. You’ll get a lot more physical stimulation, and your love might be able to withstand the miles separating you.

Want more helpful tips and tricks to keep your LDR from getting too mundane or just have some burning sex questions? E-mail us at [email protected] or Allie at [email protected].