Kirkby Lonsdale

Going away for the weekend with 'THE FAMILY'. Good lord it's going to be an experience. They expect me to be doing lots of 'walking' and stuff. I want to recover from my night out last night, not meander around with sheep on the hills of England. This place is insane.
It's going to be full of lots of family too - not just an immediate family thing but also cousins and all that accompanies that. Of course it'll be fun! Of course! Needles in my eyes!
bye
I'm going here:link

Diana - leave her alone!

Who really cares anymore. We're only reading this stuff for the gossip, and we know that most of the time the gossip is heavily distorted and misleading. Diana can't defend herself, so writing another book about her just appears to be laying her open for public degradation. Do we really need or even have the right to know about how many men she had on the go - supposedly nine. She referred to them as though they were in some sort of race. Or so Paul Burrell, the author of the new book on her, says. He was her personal butler, and so knew rather more than most about her private life and her personal secrets.

I feel as though I'm selling porn to some old pervert when I'm handing a customer a copy of this book. I don't mind selling Beckham's autobiography or some other celebrity even a biography of the queen or some other royal. It's the fact that this is so revealing in an apparently underhand and stab-in-the-back way. She was nothing but trusting, and this man is breaking her trust to the world; for money. So I feel squirmish.

exhausted

i'm so pissed.
i was up at 12 last night
and 2:30
and 3
and 4:15
and then stayed awake until 4:30 when i 'needed' to be up
I was at work at 6. And didn't get let into the building until 6:15. So:
a) - I won't be paid those 15 minutes which annoys me
b) it's freezing at 6 AM now - try it. Walk outside at 6. Good god.
bed. Bed, it beckons.
Bye

Help me out?

Alaina, will you take over the 10k race that I'm doing in Brighton on the 16th of November for me>? I want to go and see Jamelia perform at Nightingales on Saturday night. This is so unfair. She'll be AMAZING I'm sure, and I have to go running. Urgghhhh. And since I'm running I have to train too - it's cold and cold and cold. Plus, I have to run FAST. Darn.
Everyone else will go and tell me it was great. At least it'll be great. But it will be great without me...

Hands up

Who likes being up at 4:30 tomorrow morning for work! Yah!
God.

The stink of drugs

I'm a clean-living kind of guy. I'm so clean I've never smoked a cigarette. I've never done anything, I've never done anything - other than the obvious alcohol. The problem is that now I've been hanging around with people who do/have, I smell shit all over the place. I'll be walking down the street and I'll think - hey, there's some cannabis walking by... I mean, my friends aren't doing any hard drugs, but it's still an odd feeling. What's kind of nice though is that the fact that they're doing drugs doesn't attract ME to doing them any more. I have just as good a time when we're out as they do. Perhaps this is because of the fact that I haven't accommodated to the sensations of the drugs and so don't need that extra hit to have a good time. Lucky me!

Among the crowd, people keep making this mistake

<rant>
Everyone keeps on talking about 'gay marriage' and how the government should or shouldn't legislate. What's going wrong here; the state can't do anything about it other than make the legal status change. Marriage is something according to church laws and if they don't want me there, I'm not really that bothered. I have no real opinion on gay marriage itself, the idea that governments should 'ban' it seems hasty to me though. Bravo (see above) links to O. Ricardo Pimentel of the Arizona Republic who says:

Though a state appellate court, in a ruling against a Phoenix gay couple who wanted to wed, said, "the choice to marry a same-sex partner has not taken sufficient root to receive constitutional protection as a fundamental right."

I'm certain that, courts too, will realize in time that there is no more fundamental right than being free to choose our own spouses, or whether we can have one at all. And all their present-day arguments will sound as silly as those that upheld all those other items we now find abhorrent..

I get what he's saying there, and also find the arguement a rather educated way of saying "This is too difficult at the moment, people I like don't like it, so I'm not going to make a fuss. Let's try later when everyone's calmed down."
Why wait? It means there's no confrontation with GOP, but is that really a good thing? Let them legislate against the idea, and then in five/ten years time the Democrats can return and say

'hey look how the rest of the world has moved on and accepted the idea of gay marriage. Why is this so difficult for the US, the so called tolerant nation. The Republicans did this, created this disharmony. We can come in and change things, reverse the economics hoisted on the US which emphasise gluttony and consumption, emphasise education and diversity rather than religion and arms. The GOP got it wrong, but there is another way.'

I never understand how the US is so divisive and yet stresses all around the wish to be together. The Pledge of Allegiance:
I pledge allegiance to the Flag
of the United States of America,
and to the Republic for which it stands:
one Nation under God, indivisible,
With Liberty and Justice for all.

Of course there are problems with the religion aspect 'under god', and the real meaning/intentions of the word liberty' could be seen as meaning something other than what I'd read into it. I don't know. I finish with Pimentel again:

But the question isn't really whether we're ready. It's whether there is any compelling reason other than outdated historical and religious biases for denying gays this right.

There isn't.

</rant>

Toning vs. muscle mass

You lift weights to gain muscle mass. It's a low impact, high tension activity. The way to promote muscle tone is to do low-medium impact activities that or low tension - ie low strain over a long time. Normally I run, but recently; I dance. Apart from the bruises I find the next day from where I've thrown my arms out and whacked something, it's a lot more fun. Running=constant pain whilst lucid. Dancing=stupid inane movement whilst intoxicated.

2 many dj's

Run out and buy it. Order it online. Steal it from your local record shop.
However you get the music, find a copy of 2 many dj's "as heard on radio soulwax pt. 2". Can you guess - my cd's arrived.
Jam it to these tracks. Having been out on saturday night my body is still in boogie mode. I can't help but squiggle to these tracks.
What makes the CD even better is the website built to accompany it:
www.2manydjs.org

They provide little comments on each of the 45 tracks included in the mix. Here's one:

carlos morgan
"shake your body"
2 many dj's: "this is an old record we found at a flea-market and it's another jackson-song, a reggae version of the jacksons 5 classic. despite not being able to locate the performer we included it, so this way we beat the system three times"
2 many clearances: "we tracked down one carlos morgan in montreal, canada, which seemed right 'cause the album had a montreal address on it that turned out non-existent. but the guy - who is a now a r&b-star singed to a major company - disassociated himself from the track so we were unable to clear the rights of this one"

They say the hardest thing about making the album was getting clearance for the songs they used so as not to get sued following release. One of the complications is the the artist themselves often isn't the final owner of copyright. Sometimes it's really hard to find out who IS the owner:

"no one nowhere could say who owned the copyrights and when we finally found out, the guy in question had never heard of this 'bobby O. megamix" even ben liebrand, who actually produced the megamix, asked to let him know who owned the rights to the song"

billing

One of my friends rings up a monthly phone bill of around £200. Now we're paid the most SHIT wage in the world where I work in order to subdue the proletariat...
anyway, he can't afford to come out clubbing with rest of the world as he's only got like £10 a week to live on. Dumbass. Would help if he turned off his damn phone every so often.
This reminded me of him, also the fact that we're all going out tonight. He's staying at home:
link

Banging!

This song rocks! It's My Life by No Doubt. It's being released from a collection of songs that the band are releasing as a sort of greatest hits without the title 'Greatest Hits'. They're calling it 'The Singles 1992-2003'. I can't wait. For some reason I've never actually bought one of their albums, though I LOVE their sound. Someone gave me Rock Steady, a superb collection, but I'm really looking forward to this. If you haven't had the chance to hear It's My Life, track it down NOW!
The song is a cover of a song called, appropriately, 'It's My Life' by Talk Talk. The UK band had a hit with it in 1984 and No Doubt clearly love it. I love their version, having never heard the original. I can't be blamed all that much as I wasn't ALIVE at the time of original release.
The single is out November 25th. It is floating around p2p networks though. Grab it!

the picture is from the shoot for the video, directed by David LaChapelle.
link

Bush plans to outlaw partial birth abotions

For what is a deeply traumatic experience for those going through it, women now have Bush calling their actions "abhorrent". Why the senate believes it should outlaw this I don't understand. Why should they have the right to stop someone giving birth. There is the arguement about so called murder of the foetus, but I don't believe the Goverment should step in to this.

"The Senate voted 64-34 Tuesday to ban a type of abortion, generally carried out in the second or third trimester, in which a fetus is partially delivered before being killed. The House approved the legislation this month, and Bush has urged Congress to get it to his desk."
This is very important legislation that will end an abhorrent practice and continue to build a culture of life in America,"

Bush said in a statement.

"I look forward to signing it into law."

The partial birth is so psychologically painful, that this method of abortion is very rare anyway; it's only undertaken in the most extreme situations. To take this right away from those who are desperate is an embarrassing and shameful action. Do we have to entrust all our actions to the safeguarding and approval of the Government.
link

Meanwhile, a Dutch ship is still trying to offer abortions to women in International waters in countries where access is restricted. link

Gallery of packaging for The Pill.

Zany gallery from PBS showing the packing cases for The Pill...

"The Pill far surpassed other contraceptive methods, except abstinence, in effectiveness. All a woman had to do was remember to take it every day. Pill packages quickly evolved to remind women to take their daily doses."

link

Dude - he's still being listened to

Salon.com have a excerpt from Michael Moore's new book "Dude, Where's My Country?" for us all to peruse:

What is the worst lie a president can tell?

"I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky."

Or ...

"He has weapons of mass destruction -- the world's deadliest weapons -- which pose a direct threat to the United States, our citizens and our friends and allies."

One of those lies got a president impeached. The other lie not only got the liar who told it the war he wanted, but also resulted in huge business deals for his friends and virtually assures him a landslide victory in the next election.

i can't decide whether to still dislike the smell of Moore for his idiotic solutions to problems. In the last book, his solution to the Northern Ireland peace process was to make all the people convert to Catholicism. I quote:

Convert the Protestants of Northern Ireland to Catholicism.
That's right. No more bickering and battling over religion when everyone belongs to the same religion!

ummmmm.? He's interesting because he raises the game and gets people talking. Even if some of his ideas are a bit far-fetched, the fact that over a million people have read them makes them more interesting to read just for the fact that OTHER people find him interesting. He's exciting and controvertial and I can't decide whether to love him or hate him, but I'll read him all the same.

Anyway, it's selling well:
NY Times Bestseller List

link

It's a war out there, and i've just woken up in the middle

YB and VB are fighting. Kiss and make up boys.

Vividblurry
youngbradford dot com

Lying Liars changes mind of conservative columnist

Al Franken of "Rush Limbaugh is a big fat idiot" fame has a new book, "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right". Becky Miller who writes for the Oregonian as an editorialist has read it and she's had a change of heart:

I read the book in one sitting. It is an amazing book, and -- if you're a decent, honest, hard-working, patriotic, true-blue conservative who listens to Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly and watches Fox News -- an earth-shattering book.

To be aboveboard, I must tell you that Franken and I are friends. Well, OK, the truth is I made a wisecrack to him at a book signing, and he looked at me. (Read the book -- the part about Ann Coulter -- and you'll get it.)

link via BoingBoing via Making Light

Talk to Me!

I love this idea! Sit around in random spots within the city and just talk to people. Or be talked at by people, but that can be interesting too! These guys sound amazing, though the whole concept makes me feel exhausted. What do they do when they want to go out, have a shower and feel clean or just take a break? Thanks Spriteboy
link

His page, btw, has the most hilarious post ever. Read it

"So, on my way to work the other yesterday, I was heading around the corner on 58th street and bumped into this guy standing out front of Duane Reade. It actually seemed like he'd walked into me, but I was in a good mood cuz I'd just TALKED TO THEM, so I stopped to make sure he was ok. He bent down and picked something off the ground, something glass, and looked me square in the eye:

"Man, you just broke my glasses."

the last line is what's classic. Love the ending; won't spoil it here!

To Kill A Mockingbird

I am a news junky. This results in my having read very few of what are generally regarded as 'the classics'. So last night when the opportunity presented itself to me, I jumped at the chance to have a taster of 'To Kill A Mockingbird' by Harper Lee. My sister read it a few months ago and of course loved it, so having a few hours to kill babysitting, I sat down with it. The language isn't convoluted or pretentious and there is a directness about the viewpoint. In short, I'm loving it.
I'm a really slow reader oddly enough, so it'll take me while to finish it, plus the fact that most night's I'll be too wound up or tired to have a quiet read. I'll get back to you when I'm further in than page 70, but so far it's two thumbs.

"When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow. When it healed, and Jem's fears of never being able to play football were assuaged, he was seldom self-conscious about his injury. His left arm was somewhat shorter than his right; when he stood or walked, the back of his hand was at right angles to his body, his thumb parallel to his thigh. He couldn't have cared less, so long as he could pass and punt.

When enough years had gone by to enable us to look back on them, we sometimes discussed the events leading to his accident. I maintain that the Ewells started it all, but Jem, who was four years my senior, said it started long before that. He said it began the summer Dill came to us, when Dill first gave us the idea of making Boo Radley come out.

I said if he wanted to take a broad view of the thing, it really began with Andrew Jackson. If General Jackson hadn't run the Creeks up the creek, Simon Finch would never have paddled up the Alabama, and where would we be if he hadn't? We were far too old to settle an argument with a fist-fight, so we consulted Atticus. Our father said we were both right."

link - ReadingGroupGuides.com:

WORLD'S LARGEST NEWSPAPER ADS PUBLISHED

HONG KONG (AdAge.com) -- "The Financial Times has created the world's largest newspaper -- complete with paid ads -- by wrapping Two International Finance Center, Hong Kong's newest and tallest skyscraper, and the location of the newspaper's new Asian headquarters. "
"The wrap highlights a TV, print, online and oudoor marketing push to promote the the business publication's new Asian edition that carries the tagline "Independent. Inspired. Indispensable." Ads are also running in Singapore, Japan and South Korea. "
link

The advantage of Babysitting

Is that you can spend the cash you earn in frivolous and pretentious ways. You don't feel the 'hit' of losing the money as much as when it comes from your bank account since it doesn't appear on a statement and is merely floating capital.

I like this guy

artisforlosers

Spending money

on Amazon.co.uk
I AM A MUSIC FREAK. I buy loads of music but still haven't heard of half the stuff that most people seem to expect me to know. I'm like 'who?'. This must happen almost every day. I don't mind it that much - it's like a little education, but it's still odd.
I just got:

* "Since I Left You"
Avalanches;

* "As Heard on Radio Soulwax Vol.2 [Belgian Import]">
Various Artists, 2 Many DJs;

* "Lost Horizons"
Lemon Jelly;

Tate bringing new art to London

If only I lived in London.

"The subject of the weather has long shaped the content of everyday conversation. The eighteenth-century writer Samuel Johnson famously remarked ‘It is commonly observed, that when two Englishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather; they are in haste to tell each other, what each must already know, that it is hot or cold, bright or cloudy, windy or calm.’ "

It's an interesting exploration. Tate Modern has been prominently displaying works of conceptual art for some time now and this follows on in that tradition. The piece is playing on the apparent British 'obsession' with the weather and confronts those entering the gallery space - a huge hall that used to be home to a power station - with a new environment not unlike the setting of the sun. The artist Olafur Eliasson, from Denmark said,
"And the other thing I like [about weather] is the idea of it being unpredictable. It gives off a specific sense of time. You never have the same cloud again."
That's an interesting part of the exhibition I think as it forces a certain time on the viewer. You can't have a sense of it being noon, or cloudy in there, it has to be sundown or sunrise. It's an extremes situation forced onto the viewer, which doesn't make it any less interesting. In the same way people stepping off a long haul flight can be disorientated by the time zone, this will place a false atmosphere around the consumer.

link

Judge in the States give ruling in rap

A judge in the states gave her ruling regarding a case brought by a former schoolmate of Eminem that accused the rapper of defamation within the lyrics of his song 'Brain Damage'. The lyrics in the song mentioned included the lines:

"I was harassed daily by this fat kid named DeAngelo Bailey. An eighth-grader who acted obnoxious, 'cause his father boxes. So every day he'd shove me into the lockers."

In her dismissal of the case brought in Mount Clemens, Michigan, Judge Deborah Servitto concluded:

"Mr. Bailey complains that his rap is trash,

so he's seeking compensation in the form of cash.

Bailey thinks he's entitled to some monetary gain,

because Eminem used his name in vain.

The lyrics are stories no one would take as fact,

they're an exaggeration of a childish act.

It is therefore this court's ultimate position,

that Eminem is entitled to summary disposition."

link

I know it's stupid, but it's also fun:

flooble said that I am Gay (And I'm damn proud of it.)

Take the flooble Gay Quiz

Alaina's in the news

Bumbling around the net a few moments ago, I decided to google (don't sue me, I used it as a verb!) one of my best friend's name. Bang it in the toolbar and up comes a press article. My god, she's the best:

""People don't realize the meaning behind the term," says Alaina, one the GSA students working on the campaign. "If someone's thinking about coming out in school and they hear one of their friends saying 'that's so gay,' it puts up a red flag.""

That's so superb. The article resides here and was written by one of the teachers at her then School. I'm so proud of her - plus, I didn't even know about this. The 'that's so Gay' issue has traveled across the world; perhaps it's been spread by television, perhaps just by word of mouth. Whatever the vector it does cause offense. I've had this too - a lot of kids who are really very young - of about eight years old- know the 'that's gay' terminology. It's not offensive to me as such but the fact that it's thought to NOT cause offense is in itself, offensive. The term is so broadly used as a descriptor and as an offhand aside that it becomes commonly part of the language, whilst in fact it is really a derogatory term.

Can you tell he's my inspiration?

Loving this complete piss-take: Link to Vividblurry

"Eat your heart out, Bravo and Bradford!

Oh, man! What a weekend. I need to tell you all about it because, you know, all the cool kids have time to write a tediously detailed review of their Saturday night, chock full of pointless links and conspicuously forced photographs (just in case you don't believe I did all these fabulous things!). My goddess, I'm not even sure where to begin..."

Now if only Bradford would respond in some way that'd be superb, but of course this kind of thing is far too 'petty' for him I'm sure. I love the both of them, to be honest, but you've got to hand the crown to Toby.
Try again Bradford

Eton shirts

Another self ironing piece of clothing - for the price these had BETTER work. I still want some though! etonshirts

On a similar note - why do people like this even try - they're never going to be as good as Gawker.
Whilst the magazine as a whole might be going completely insane, this is still an amazing photo, and they've got the photo on THEIR server, so I've got to give them some credit. link
Look at it!

Sending out an alert

I texted 'tham' all last night with the warning that Saturday night - NEXT saturday night - WILL be a time to be out. It's going to be something again despite the (damn it) fact that half of them won't have two pennies to rub together; we get paid three days after - on the 28th.
I can still boogie though. Shush now, it's quiet time, I'm getting ready to go shopping, and I'm not paying!

This week sucks

I've had the most nothingness of a week. It has lacked in all definition and substance, hence the lack of posting; there has been nothing for me to say, comment on, or remark about. Sorry A!

Get on some illegal P2P network and find Britney's new song. When it's released go and buy it from the iTunes store or something to cover your ass. It's fun. It would also be very easy to dance to in an inconsistent and yet effusive way.

ME AGAINST THE MUSIC
It's got madonna being sultry, spitting out lyrics, and a superb beat. The song isn't overly drawn out, but seems to have an 'appropriate' edge and variety to it. There is the constant risk in pop music of falling into the trap of repeating lyrics too much, thankfully this doesn't happen here. After two and a half minutes, the song splits into a madonna-rap celebration. Love it.
This is something I always wonder about - whether the 'artist' themselves comes up with these beats or if it's the producers. I heard an interview with JUSTIN a while ago that consisted of him largely saying how Pharrell would 'lay down the beat' and in one session JT would come up with the lyrics and tune. OF course there's still a lot of skill involved doing that, and I'm not presuming either of those actions are easy, I just like to establish who is doing what.
Head over to britneyspears.com and listen to the mix of 'Boys' in the music listening thing top right. That's a funky mix. Nothin on 'Me against the music' yet, but hey.. The listening 'station' that the record company provides there really emphasises how Britney has come from a very pop based platfrom and is attempting to shift into a more raw rocky market. Odd that the website still emphasises the former self - are they not paying attention to the web as a vector for sales and more importantly, buzz.

Seattle Weekly: How Green Is Our City?

Interesting article on how green (literally ie plants) Seattle is.

Old growth was still being cut in Seattle (Carkeek Park) as late as the 1940s, partly due to World War II timber shortages. Despite aggressive neighborhood planting, trees and urban wildlife habitat are still being lost to development. A consequence of density and infill is that we've been building in greenbelts and vacant lots, and the size of yards is shrinking. It would be convenient to blame chain saw-crazy judges for our vanishing trees, but development is the main culprit

Link

Early Starts

Over the last three weeks I've been getting in to work at 7 AM. This means that I've been waking at 5:30. I don't think I've ever consistently woken before 8AM before in my life. It's quite a shock to the system, and also it's provided some interesting insights into early morning life:
I get up in total darkness, save my room which is a ball of light in the early morning gloom. I get downstairs, tip-toeing down the stairs trying not to wake anyone else on the way down. Then I eat whilst the flourescent lights of my kitchen attract numerous wasps that batter against the window throughout my early morning routine of pop music and shivers; despite my turning on the heating and wearing several layers, the cold still bites.
I have to go to sleep really early. Last night I was asleep by seven. Woke again at midnight to eat dinner, then slept from one until five thirty. It's an odd routine that the morning forces on you, and takes time to adjust. In the first week or so everyone gets colds and feels groggy by four in the afternoon; partly due to tiredness and partly due to hunger - we eat around eleven.
You can be as loud as you want, as long as you're insulated from the rest of the world by a bubble - ie a heavy door. The insulation of a heavy door makes one very appreciative of good craftsmanship and quality. This is a pet hate of mine - hollow doors. Hollow doors are useless; they don't shut conclusively, let lots of sound through, can be broken by pushing too hard, and look more puny and weak than well constructed doors.
Buses in the early morning are full of cleaners and security guards. Those paid a proper wage either drive or get a bus which arrives just before half past eight. The suits are no less friendly than the cleaners - everyone is in their own world in the morning - there is never any conversation. This is not the London tube.
Enjoy your early morning.
It's almost 10, I'm off to bed.

Sun to pay for lying about Kidman

I'm so pleased - The Sun - the UK's dirtiest of dirty rag tabloids has been ordered to pay Nicole Kidman a 'substantial' amount of money for implying that she'd "had an adulterous affair with Jude Law, who was at the time married with young children". Then of course they called her a liar after she denied the rumours. The Sun seems to get away with so much; it's nice to hear of them having to be humble every so often. I'm a real Guardian reader - hence the source of the link - and so am often appalled by the reporting in the Sun. Colleagues at my work buy it and so I can peruse the national gossip each day, which is kind of fun. At the same time though I feel as though I'm intruding on someone else's life. I don't NEED to know this stuff, to see pictures of 'celebs' with their underwear or pimples showing. I like the illusion. Whether Nicole is a lovely person or not, to just make stories up really isn't defensible. Link

It's official - I SUCK at Rugby

But I enjoy making a fool out of myself too, so all's well with the world.
Also, I get almost proud of myself for going since I feel like I'm being strong in doing something where I get almost humiliated. I mean, sometimes I do some great passes, but then others I'm throwing a ball and it's just AWFUL. I've never been a rugby person so don't know the best way to hold the ball, to throw the ball, what to do, how to run behind the person who's got the ball at the moment. I don't know the most helpful position to be in - to be the person who's running five FEET behind or to be the person who's five YARDS behind. It makes a difference.
Anyway, it makes me feel like a jock too which is always fun. And of course - the LEGS on those boys are just amazing. A sight to behold.

I Thought We Had Already Decided AIDS was Caused by Reagan Speeches and Lack of Funding

Man found guilty of deliberately infecting others with HIV

"LONDON (Reuters) - A man has been found guilty of infecting two women with HIV, the first time anyone in England and Wales has been convicted of knowingly passing on the virus.

One of the victims said her life had been devastated by Dica's actions. "This has been a tragic part of my life," she said in a statement read out by police on her behalf.

"Not only did I find out that I had contracted HIV but I also discovered that the person who gave it to me, whom I trusted and loved, had been infected for five years."

The woman, who has children, said she was glad Dica had been stopped from infecting anyone else and hoped she would be able to get on with her life.

"Sadly this is not over for me. My sentence has just begun."

Link

This reminds me of the Queer As Folk US episode that deals with deliberately contracting the virus. I'd heard about this about 3 years before on an episode of ER where a guy and his boyfriend come into the hospital 'worried' about the risk of HIV only to reveal themselves as disappointed when the infected man's partner ISN'T in turn infected. I learn so much from TV and the media; it shows how valuable sources like this are, and how they so desperately need to be honest and open. In the QAF show there was an infection party - giving 'the gift' to men who aren't yet infected. I think the aim was in part to be closer to their partners who ARE infected, and perhaps partly for the thrill? These guys are called 'bug chasers'. Also of course was the documentary that I never managed to see called 'The Gift' which talked about this precise thing.
It makes me cringe, just the idea. I hate the idea, really hate it. I can imagine wanting to be helpful and with someone through their struggle, but to knowingly and deliberately basically kill yourself is just abhorrent. I find the idea hard to even conceive, to even formulate the IDEA in my head.
So in a way I suppose I link the two, the idea that this guy mentioned above infected women deliberately to the idea that these guys are actually looking to contract the bug. I don't know why as one is malicious and the other is almost in sympathy to be something of love. Despite this they still both appear completely awful to me.

Laugh out loud funny viral

It's kind of dumb, but at the same time, completely hilarious. This viral/ad comes via Adrants who forward on stuff like this all the time. Perfect if you're in a silly mood, or just need a boost of consumer culture. Adrants manages to also make me think that all the time we're just being manipulated by advertising - we find all these ads interesting and mildly amusing, but in the end they're just there to flog some old product.
You flick through Time magazine or ANY other big US publication and you find so many hundreds of ads for airline tickets and cars and computers and clothes. When they're funny to the extent that I want to forward them to a friend, I kind of get the feeling that I'm being used; I feel like my humour is being hijacked and taken advantage of. Of course some ads are 'nice' and I don't mind their ads, but then much of that is, I think, due to brand image. I'd happily pass on an ad from Volkswagen or Apple, but not DaimerBenz or Dell. Is it because of the politics of the companies or because of their highly crafty image manipulation and branding (often through ads)?
Link

PIG OUT

Just ate 5 pieces, count 'em, of DATE AND WALNUT cake. Beautiful
watch that chin become two!

Day off

Therefore the order of the day is as follows:
wake up late (9 ish)
eat brunch
sit around
talk on phone
sit around
shower at 4 ish
cook meal
sleep when tired.
bliss

Flaggin today?

I got in last night/ this morning at 4:15 or so after taking a taxi home from the club Nice change as it was SHIT cold last night and I don't wear that much whilst out - if you know what I mean.
Talking to Alaina today and getting feedback of astonishement (perhaps too strong a word) concerning the use of these boys i had a look here just to get some more background. I don't know that much about Poppers other than they're not the BEST thing for you, and that they're kind of unregulated, and that they're not sold out in the open all that much (nudge nudge wink wink). So that's not all that much really. Drugs - not my strong point of knowledge, but that's (I suppose) because I don't do them. Damn me

Is it Apple's time?

An article in BusinessWeek from the 24th September discusses how it is now perhaps time for the isolation of Apple in the technology universe to come to an end. The so called 'monoculture' of everything Microsoft is helping to spread viruses and security threats. Perhaps having two different, and competing platforms for the consumer and corporate (as opposed to for the server which would be Windows and Unix) - would help us all stay a little more secure than at present. It also mentions the firing of an @stake researcher that I talked about a few days later - on the 29th September.

"The opportunity lies in the corporations that long ago stopped paying attention to Macs. Right now, three key trends are leading IT guys to take a second look at Apple. The first is the lure of the cheap and dirty Unix workstation. The second is the rise of laptops. The third, and most potent, is the growing frustration with the Microsoft monoculture and all too common worm attacks that gum up corporate networks. All three factors have long lurked in the background, but now they can't be avoided."
link

Prance it

Was out last night in Nightingales, another of this town's ever more notorious gay clubs. In a surprise to myself I enjoyed it immensely. I had prepped myself for the idea that the whole night would be a bit of a let down – it’s got more sitting around space than DV8 and so could be really dreary if you’ve got to sit next to a load of tedious guys all night, but thankfully this didn’t happen. I manage to get there and join the rest of the fags about 40 minutes late. I’m jogging up to the doors of this club – SUPER early – this is just getting to 10 o’clock, and find that I’m put JUST past the free entry line by the bouncer. She (!) is this huge black lady who looks like she could knock me out with her pinkie and wears a massive black coat a la the Matrix, or some other such deeply thoughtful movie. However, much to my surprise she lets me (standing there on my own) and the three lesbian ladies just in front of me into the free line, making me literally the last person to get in free! Yah to that one baby. She simply said, “Get in that front line if you like, go in the free line, but don’t let anyone catch you.” Direct and to the point I thought, but then I couldn’t decide whether that would be something that the club did almost every night to get some goodwill from those people JUST cut off from the free line. Either way, I got in for £1. So it was ALMOST free, I don’t know what the pound was about – some sort of token gesture. There wasn’t much point in it though I thought since they RAKE it in on the bar charges. Smirnoff Black = £3! That’s a five dollar bill to all you US readers.
Cheap eh! Not.
Get to find the rest of them and they’re sticking out like sore thumbs being:
a) – hugely TALL compared to me and almost everyone else.
b) – gawping at everyone around them as though they can’t take in what’s going on – FGS they’ve been to this place like 30 times at least and _I’m_ the one who looks like I know what’s going on! Anyway, we get together, move upstairs and get things rolling.
Now this is the funny thing about bars that I’ve never really understood. Half the time they have really exclusive style seating areas with beautiful (wipe clean) leather sofas to sink into. Then, as last night there’s styling that appears to have been a run-on from the 70’s or 80’s. What’s this about – they’ve got armchairs in there that look like they should be in some sort of retirement home, not a ‘hip’ gay club. What is this place all about? THEN, after sitting, pretending to be able to hear what boring Steven is talking about re interest rates, and then laughing and being bitchy with Phil, we have the shock of our evening. There has to be one – and this was certainly it. Drag queens. Now before you all start hitting out on me for not being ‘diverse’ in opinions, it’s not the fact that they were drag queens that was astonishing or anything, but their AGE. We’re sitting there and these two guys (ladies?) who must be at least 65 years old totter over to our bench thing and perch on it, their nylon dresses stretching with the folds of fat that insulate the body. You had to be there to experience it – what was best was when they started playing the piano! What a scream.
So Phil and I are gossiping about the wedgies we’d give to the boy sitting about five feet from us whose thong is riding up his ass, and then out float the most dated 50’s classic dinner hall melodies. The contrast in styles was amazing. The staff must have turned off Madonna’s ‘Holiday’ thirty seconds before this piano rendition began.
So eventually we head downstairs for a bit of dancing to the pop/’latino’/cheese music that’s going on down there. That was ok, obvious and not particularly inspirational, but ok.
What was fun was the techno room. You get up the three flights of stairs - quite a workout after a few pints, and get to the hard techno room. Having been ‘exposed’ to Radio1 and its Friday/Saturday night output for so many years, this wasn’t any big shock. However, watching Mark and especially Richie trying to cope (or not trying as the case may be) was hilarious. They were like a pair of rabbits caught in the headlights of a car, not knowing where to run to get away from the ominously approaching collision. They bailed. This is the kind of thing that I accept at the time and attempt to think past, but annoys me in the following days.
Just coming out onto the scene in the last few weeks has meant that I’ve had to dance to the most obscene crap, not knowing what it is, and getting laughed at for this. You don’t know the crap music that some freak DJ is playing and you kind of go with it to just experience what’s going on. I’ll get some 80’s music on that I’ve never heard in my life, sounds shit, yet EVERYONE else seems to know the words – they’re screaming them at the top of their lungs whilst prancing around to some queeny moves. What’s odd is how most of the young boys – the guys my age seem to know them all too, they know the music that was released before they were born. This isn’t particularly famous music. Of course there’s some music that everyone knows, and just comes up in popular culture, however this isn’t that. I’m not some sort of hermit who hasn’t been exposed to a radio in the last 15 years, it’s just bad music.
So we’re up in the dance room, and I have to say, I am THE SHIT at dance music. I was up there, on the podium, with a girl high on Poppers (like half the people in the room) and grinding it away. That was just superb. So I managed to get Phil to stay up there with me for a while. What’s great about some people in clubs is that they’ll dance with you just for the company of dancing, rather than because it’s their favourite music or they’re superb dancers. I’m going around the dancefloors and most of the guys aren’t amazing dancers, they’re no stars. However, what is the attractive thing, the thing that draws ME anyway to a person, is the energy. If someone is being energetic in their dance then they draw you to them – whether physically or just your eyes.

More stories later
p

i'm exhausted

i feel like my stomach is about to collapse. I've just been on a 'training' run - 6 miles, so i'm TIRED. And tomorrow my skin will look shit. Thanks world, here's to the benefits of doing exercise. Raise your glass to what?

Why The Digital Revolution Is Only Just Beginning

link A transcript of the the address given by the BBC's head of new media, giving a vision of what television could look like in the next five years.

Criticism of US based mocking of the French

The eXile, a moscow based newspaper is carrying a piece by Gary Brecher where he analyses and critcises much of the 'Frog bashing' that's been carried out by US 'patriots'. This kind of stuff has been led by the President of course in the petty and demeaning name changes of French Fries to 'Freedom Fries'. I would think that the point Bush and the senate were trying to get across was somewhat lost in the stupidity of their methods. Brecher discusses the way that much of the criticism is one sided and ill informed, how it would make more sense for the US people to hate the British for our battles in the War of Independence. He talks about the honour and courage of the French and how in fact they're far more brave and experienced than we give them credit. Plus, it's a great history lesson. It's an interesting piece:

WW I was the worst war in history to be a soldier in. WW II was worse if you were a civilian, but the trenches of WW I were five years of Hell like General Sherman never dreamed of. At the end of it a big chunk of northern France looked like the surface of the moon, only bloodier, nothing but craters and rats and entrails.

Verdun. Just that name was enough to make Frenchmen and Germans, the few who survived it, wake up yelling for years afterward. The French lost 1.5 million men out of a total population of 40 million fighting the Germans from 1914-1918. A lot of those guys died charging German machine-gun nests with bayonets. I’d really like to see one of you office smartasses joke about “surrender monkeys” with a French soldier, 1914 vintage. You’d piss your dockers.

Shit, we strut around like we’re so tough and we can’t even handle a few uppity Iraqi villages. These guys faced the Germans head on for five years, and we call them cowards? And at the end, it was the Germans, not the French, who said “calf rope.”
link
via idleworm

Flash game from the creators of the Gulf War 2 game

You're the Pope and you get to go bowling. The pins - NUNS! Well, it gives him something to do with his day!
link

out and open

saw two very cute boys in the store today - holding hands and wandering around together. I really liked seeing that because it gives a sense of normalcy regarding the fact that their sexuality doesn't cause a problem. They were like any other couple. There are so many girl-boy couples who walk around hand in hand kissing that it was a refreshing change to see something different. Plus, they weren't doing anything odd, out of the ordinary, attention-seeking which made me love them even more - they were there and together and that was that. I wanted to go up to them and say how much I agreed with the fact that they were together and not afraid and a beautiful couple, but didn't. That would have seemed odd. Whereas thinking about it this much and writing about it doesn't?

Hairline art!

Again from rod mclaren - "A drawing made during a quiet moment of AIGA's Understanding the Future of Mobile Devices event, Design Council, 6 August 2003, documenting some of the hairlines of attendees. "

The Tube - plus walking jumps

OR as they're otherwise known, walklines.
Rodcorp has modified the traditional London Tube Map to include some links between stations that are relatively close together physically. The Tube map is famous for getting across a huge amount of information in a tiny space, allowing us to see the connections between stations clearly and concisely. However the tube map also hugely distorts the physical relationships of stations meaning that you might cross from one line to the other and ride several stops in another direction only to find that you're a few hundred metres from your first departure station. Stations can be close without you knowing it from the map. To remedy this Rod McLaren has altered the tube map slightly to include "walklines" - links between stations located less than 500metres away from one another. Cool idea.
link
via BoingBoing

Funky 404 error message

Look to the French Ministry of Culture to find the most psychedelic Paul-Smith style, groovy disco 404 error message for a website. As BoingBoing says: "funkadelic"
link
via BoingBoing

I'm so blind

"Controlled explosion in Birmingham

A controlled explosion was carried out on a suspect package in Birmingham city centre.
Police were called to Corporation Street just after 1400 BST on Tuesday after a passer-by found a carrier bag containing what police described as "a box with wires on prominent display".
The area around it was sealed off for a number of hours, but the cordon was lifted by 1900 BST on Tuesday.
Chief Inspector Steve Glover, from West Midlands Police, said they were glad to have been alerted to the package. "

from BBC News

I walked past this. I walked past, roughly 100m from the scene and didn't notice a thing. 1400 hours - I walked past at 1530 and there was no indication to me! Am I just completely blind or is something severely odd going on? Exciting that something actually happened for once in Birmingham, the most ignored area for terrorists. I suppose until recently they'd have considered the place simply too ugly to bomb. How many terrorists do you hear about from northern Siberia? Too cold, too grey. Birmingham is like lukewarm tea, like mushy old and tired cereal. Birmingham is like reheated coffee, under-done toast, 21 degrees C, pine wood furniture.
Everything about it is unremarkable and lacks distinction. What a shame to be living in such an environment. One has to make it ones own I suppose. Kind of easy to get pissed off with though!

Rebecca's in tomorrow

We always have a good talk when she's working. Damn Universities for stopping people gossiping with me 24/7. Jobs in bookstores should be provided so that people can talk and have conversations that carry on throughout the day despite the annoying interruptions of customers. Egh. Customers. Serving people really makes one realise how rude and inconsiderate the general public is by on large. People will come up to me and ask a question - ask me to help them. Once I've given them the snippet of information they're after they'll just literally turn their back and walk away. I stand agast in mid-sentance astonished by the fact that people will treat you like dirt, as though you are some sort of machine merely there to serve them. It makes me think that the stereotypical image of a grouchy shopkeeper telling 'young people' off for their bad manners isn't such as bad thing. Mostly though it's the older people - those around 40 who have gone past the poor service level jobs and feel they're above the 'rest' of us and so have a right to be aloof.
It rather riles me. Somehow, did anyone pick up on this.

Love toby's post today

http://www.vividblurry.com/mt-archives/000210.html

Government to Study Effectiveness Of Do-Not-Call Registry

Will conduct phone survey at dinner time.
the ironic times

We all fagged it out on Thursday

Trying desperately not to fall over one another - didn't work. But at least I got to see some of the rest of the bastards attempt to dance to music they hadn't heard before - Jamelia's 'Superstar' - like I've been having to do with their shit 80's music. Loved that. David brought along some friends of his from who knows where (dodgy venues I'm sure). We had Geordie Paul, Phil and Steve. Paul's a dick as he always buys pints then spills them down my legs on the dance floor, Steve was a wuss and wouldnt' dance all night. The only time he would was when I literally dragged him onto the floor and held his arms for him doing the moves. I felt bad for him in that this was how I behaved for the first 30 minutes of being in a gay club for the first time. No confidence, not knowing where to look, how to dance etc. However when you know the music, and get into it you're fine. He was like this all evening. Get over it!
Phil was a blast though - tall and with a big belly he just seemed like a big teddy bear. The fun thing was that he was a really enthusiastic dancer - making a complete fool of himself on the dancefloor, yet having a great time. Even better was the fact that I wasn't he least bit attracted to him so could rub up against him to my heart's content and not feel like a dirty whore.
Not so easy with Richie like that though - we didn't do so much grinding - it just feels like a risk. You decide.
See ya HUNNIES.

good news - it's story time

In a few minutes, after you've all settled down we can have a short story session. This afternoon we'll be covering the tale of Patrick the fag and why poppers are bad. Main characters are Patrick, Richie, David and Phil. Patrick and Richie were being good, not taking them. David and Phil were 'rebels' and went for the bottle. Coming up - fried eggs and the balcony somersault.

oh i'm all hot and sweaty

and it's not from what you think

Paper iPod

Are you too cheap to buy an iPod? Want some disposable entertainment? Don't like the weight of metal in your pocket? Get a new PAPER iPod. They're all the rage in the publishing business at the moment- HP are loving them. Check them out - you print out your own picture of the ipod, and presto - new fun!
100k jpg link

Amazon gifts

Are the best to send - especially when the other person isn't expecting something. I've got a friend who sends me things out of the blue from Amazon and it's the nicest thing in the world. Thanks C. As a result I sent one today - my first. I feel happy - I love giving things away. I'm always having to tell this person how to dress, what to wear etc, and so I sent her a copy of 'what not to wear - 2' as something to use when I'm not around. Love that.
enjoy.
p

David Spiegel of Stanford University has suggested that an out of line circadian rhythm can be linked to a risk of cancer:

Spiegel suggested two possible ways in which the circadian rhythm may influence cancer progression. The first involves a hormone called melatonin, which the brain churns out during sleep. Melatonin belongs to a class of compounds called anti-oxidants that mop up damaging free-radical compounds. With a disrupted circadian rhythm, the body produces less melatonin and the cell's DNA may be more prone to cancer-causing mutations.

Melatonin also slows the ovaries' production of estrogen. For many ovarian and breast tumors, estrogen spurs the cancerous cells to continue dividing. Shift workers who work through the night and produce less melatonin may therefore produce more cancer-activating estrogen, the researchers said.

The second link lies with a hormone called cortisol, which normally reaches peak levels at dawn then declines throughout the day. Cortisol is one of many hormones that help regulate immune system activity, including the activity of a group of immune cells called natural-killer cells that help the body battle cancer.


So flying internationally knocks out your circadian rhythm significantly too. Sleep better and your immune system and endocrine systems are healthier. As they say - tiredness can kill. This tallies with the study from a while back about cancer risks for nurses working night shifts (ie messed up circadian rhythms):
British Medical Journal
Science Daily
allnurses.com