There’s a Blogspot site called Bonfire of the Brands.
Update: this post has been deleted. That sucks. Sorry guys.
Sex Change Hospital on More 4. It’s quite sad that some individuals feel so ill-at-ease with their own bodies, they cannot identify with the gender they were born with, and they end up spending so much money and suffer so much discomfort and pain to try and feel normal.
I wonder if my mother worried about whether I suffered from gender dysphoria when I was younger, I always wanted to be a boy back then (I think I felt that I couldn’t do as much as a girl). I am comfortable in my own skin, though, and have been for a number of years, so the status quo has been preserved.
The commute to my new job is slightly longer than my old job. But I get to craft on the bus instead of being stuck behind the steering wheel, in traffic. I’ve been attempting to crochet a pair of armwarmers for the last week, and have had to pull it all out and start over three times (so far). I’m on attempt #4, and am crossing my fingers (it’s pretty hard to crochet with crossed fingers) that it’ll work this time.
Shauna called me yesterday, because I called her and it rang out on Monday. It’s so nice to have an online / offline friend in the same country. I am such a dork.
As for the job, I’m enjoying it so far. It’s only been a few days, and my director isn’t even in town, but she’s given me lots to think about and brainstorm over. The staff in my department all seem really nice (not to say the staff at any of my previously-held positions weren’t nice), and the office is so full of lovely books I’m giddy with delight at being so close to so many wonderful words and stories.
I’m trying to stop snacking every minute of the work day, though. The goal is to cut it down to every other minute of the day, a 50% reduction. It means I don’t need to carry so much food into the office. Today I have cashew nuts, a small pork pie, a nectarine, drinking yoghurt (already gone), and pot noodle. Heh.
CTRL-F5 or whatever you use on a Mac to see the new banner, it’s based on something I made recently.
Freakzoids. The Polish childrens’ rights watchdog wants to investigate the annoying Teletubbies, in case they promote homosexuality. I think they should be more afraid of them promoting gibberish.
I have no idea why I find this fridge illustration so funny.
- had dessert at The Newhouse
- watched Have I Got News For You
- took the bus to Glasgow to visit our favourite pound shop for the final time
- got some salt and chilli pepper chips for dinner
- watched NCIS, then CSI: NY, then CSI
- made my supposedly-disgusting soft-boiled eggs for breakfast / brunch
- finished sewing a little bag
- continued crocheting a scarf
- watched CSI
It appears that any sympathy the older folks in our small town had for the McCanns has completely evaporated. At first it was, Oh, how sad, tragic, I’m crying, etc. etc. Now that they’ve been on the teevee daily, vowing to do whatever it takes (stay in Portugal, travel Europe) to find her, it’s They are paying for their callous neglect in leaving their kids alone.
When I was in Australia, I was taught about what is known as the Tall Poppy syndrome. With all the media coverage, the McCanns have been perceived as getting too big for their britches, and so deserve no pity for what has happened to their family.
There isn’t enough information at the moment for casual observers with an obsession with criminal profiling (like myself) to make any useful speculation (if any speculation is useful)*, but compared to earlier cases I’ve read about where the victim’s family has taken a very proactive role, the McCanns have received a lot more financial support and are more able to travel widely. Not knowing much about them, it’s hard to say if their behaviour is a reasonable reaction to a traumatic event (given that being able to stay on in a resort in Portugal or travel in Europe using donated money isn’t a bad way to holiday — sounds terrible of me to even think that, I know, but I can’t be alone in having been struck by that evil thought).
The WORST worst case scenario is that they are responsible for her disappearance, and they are milking the public outpouring of support to for personal benefit (eg. future selling of story to the tabloids). The BEST being that she has been kidnapped — although if there hasn’t even been a smidgen of kidnapper’s demand after so long, it’s unlikely that she will be returned for any reason.
Worst case scenarios tend to be really shitty like that.
* I do believe that the authorities need to withhold some information in order to successfully investigate a case, and sometimes they need to take on a more proactive approach to get help from the community (or get the perpetrator to make a mistake).
I can’t be arsed to register at The Guardian’s site in order to comment, but I did want to chime in with praise for the first episode of Paul Merton in China. Having just spent three years there, I laughed a lot during the hour.
I think my favourite part was the commune visit, the only place in Communist China to experience a utopian Communist way of life. Contrast that with the tacky opulence of the fake French chateau — built by a Party member — and the contradictions in China’s self image are clear.
Totally looking forward to the next three episodes.
Holy crap. Line Rider as drawn in Super Mario Bros. Bloody hell, some people have WAY too much time on their hands.
Via BoingBoing.
Cool optical illusion with some lines and half-eaten pies: The illusory contoured tilting Pyramid.
Via Mixing Memory.
OMFG WTF and so on. How cool are these Woodfold Bookcase Doors?
If private educational institutions choose to give fee exemptions to asylum seekers’ children, that’s their prerogative. It would, in my opinion, be wrong to compel the Executive to waive all university fees because they’re asylum seekers and bright enough.
It just doesn’t seem right to set a group apart by preferential treatment — by singling them out for special treatment, they are even more distinctly different (the same goes for any type of affirmative action). I don’t have a solution, aside from organising student loans for these students who, if they achieve their potential, should enter the labour market and earn enough to repay the loans.
(I don’t think a lot of Scottish students truly appreciate the opportunity to go to university because it’s free. Too many think it’s their ‘right’.)
My favourite Volvic ad thus far. Mainly due to the way Tyrannosaurus Alan says, “So suave!” I’ve been giggling and repeating it ad nauseum all weekend.