Clumsy

I've been awfully clumsy today, and I'm feeling rather worse for wear because of it.

For starters, I stood up directly into a low door frame. Owies. I had a headache and felt really nauseous and tired after that, and I have a stupid head-bump, but I had to work through my concussion, because no one saw me hit my head, so no sympathy for Sophie.

Then I slipped on the wet floor at work and hit my head on the bar, scraped my foot and somehow got some sort of black stuff all up my leg. Somehow again no one noticed this at the time, so I got no sympathy either, but it really fucking hurt. I'm just hoping I don't have a big bruise on my face tomorrow. If I do, I'll just tell everyone George is beating me up. The brute!

Non-Existent

"Death is not an event in life: we do not live to experience death. If we take eternity to mean not infinite temporal duration but timelessness, then eternal life belongs to those who live in the present." -- Ludwig Wittgenstein*

If you think about it, death doesn’t actually exist as far as we are concerned. Either you’re alive or you’re not. If you’re not alive you don’t have anything to worry about because you’re not exactly going to get any deader. It doesn’t make sense to be afraid of death, just in the same way that it doesn’t make sense to dislike the taste of water: it’s just nothingness.

I don’t think I understand the fear of death. Dying, however, is a whole different coffin of fish. I should imagine I’d be pretty petrified if I was about to be run over by a bus, particularly if I didn't have clean underwear on (not that this happens, but you never know, people would check! I would!).

I’m not saying I'm not fussed about dying, in fact one a scale of one to inconvenient it would be pretty arseing inconvenient. I’m just saying that being dead isn’t something that worries me. The process of going from alive to dead is something which worries me, particularly if this process is painful, but I probably worry about it as frequently as I worry about, say, global warming. However, these are both things which when it comes to it, I'm sure my grandchildren will worry about far more than me.

Unless they're druggies.


*There was actually a better quote but I couldn't remember who said it. I'll have to ask Fergus when he gets back.

Ni Hao

Je devine que tu peut n'comprends cette pas. Quelle dommage. Il m'effraie que il y a quatre-vingts-dix pourcent de la population mondiale qui je ne peut pas communique avec couramment. Fondamentalement, mes postes en français sont inutiles. Je pense que je devrais parle merde pour voir si des personnes préavis. Si je pourrais parle le chinoise, peut-etre plus de personnes pourrair comprends-moi. C'est seul quatre-vingts pourcent de la population mondiale... ni hao!

Benders

I came across this article, albeit a while ago, but I found it very interesting.

It's about a Swedish couple who decided not to tell anyone about the gender of their child. They never use personal pronouns when referring to him or her.

I like the idea of not forcing a gender onto a child, however, it's going to be pretty easy to tell what gender the child is when she/he reaches puberty, and, in believing it so, the parents have made Pop's gender a serious issue.

In reality, being male or female is neither an advantage nor a hinderance if it is not treated as one. I definately support not forcing gender stereotypes, such as wearing neutral clothes and having neutral toys until the child can make their own decisions, but after a while I'm pretty sure they will want to associate themselves with a particular gender.

Another argument against this idea is the horrific example near the end of the article:

"Both Nordenström and Pinker refer to a controversial case from 1967 when a .circumcision left one of two twin brothers without a penis* Dr. John Money, who asserted that gender was learned rather than innate, convinced the parents to raise 'David' as 'Brenda' and the child had cosmetic genitalia reconstruction surgery. She was raised as a female, with girls’ clothes, games and codes of behaviour. The parents never told Brenda the secret until she was a teenager and rebelled against femininity. She then started receiving testosterone injections and underwent another genetic reconstruction process to become David again. David Reimer denounced the experiment as a crushing failure before committing suicide at the age of 38."

Gender is not the problem. Gender stereotypes are the problem, and it's entirely possible to prevent these stereotypes without screwing up your kids.

*I'm guessing no one said "when".

I Should Really...

Do You Know...

YouTube 3D

YouTube is apparently now in 3D. Clicky here. It's a bit trippy. I tried to watch it cross-eyed, but it just gave me a headache. I like.

Forty-Five Thoughts

I recently came across a piece of writing which reminds me of Baz Luhrmann's Sunscreen song. I like it, it makes sense to me, and so I've highlighted the pieces which I find the most relevant.

Here is a section from Francesca Lia Block's 'forty-five thoughts for my daughter and my virtual daughters':

"i always believed if i had blond hair, pixie face
big breasts
everything would be all right
not realizing that culturally idolized beauty
is not only foolproof
but potentially dangerous

if you believe in your own unconventional beauty
when you are young
you will accomplish twice as much and suffer half so

turn off lightbulbs and light a candle

walk don’t drive

plant a tree

wear sunscreen

dancing is an antidepressant

kindness is the new status symbol

every day please try to eat something green
and something orange
that grow out of the ground

tell me how mad you are
that your father and i parted
i will always listen
though i can’t ever take away the pain

expectations are for what you yourself create

they rarely work when applied to others

turn off the television

tv is a depressant

yoga is an antidepressant

don’t feel guilty about wanting pretty things

they would not be so alluring
if you weren’t supposed to want them
just don’t value them over compassion

use your words even when you are a grown-up
and people no longer think it is entirely acceptable
when you say, that hurt my feelings

if you can digest chocolate eat it sometimes

same goes for ice cream
(i don’t really need to tell you those things do i?)

do your homework because it is part of the game but

don’t spend too much time worrying about grades

fall in love with someone kind who loves your body
and your mind

if you have a dream that won’t let you go, that
tickles your solar plexus, heed it

turn dark feelings into paintings or poetry
or dancing

music is a kind of food

if you are sad talk to a happy woman who loves you
it will always help

move your body when you are sad or angry

avoid the following:
genetically modified ingredients
parabens
sodium lauryl sulfate
mercury in certain fish
neurotic thoughts about food
(is that a contradiction?)

love your curls though they tangle
your pale skin though it can burn in the sun
your nose though it is broader than some
your sturdy legs and feet

forget barbie she does not possess imagination"

That bit about homework reminds me of my mum, she was always saying that she knew it was stupid but it was 'part of the game' so it had to be done. Wise words from wise birds.

Overheard #18

Drunk Bloke to Girl: You're lucky though, because you're so pretty no one cares about your shit personality.

Top 10 Beatles Songs

Goes without explanation really, my top ten favourite Beatles songs, in the usual Nick Hornby style. This list was probably one of the most difficult I've done, and probably the one that's most subject to change.

1. Eight Days A Week



"Ooh I need your love babe, guess you know it's true. Hope you need my love babe, just like I need you."

2. All You Need Is Love



"There's nothing you can know that isn't known. Nothing you can see that isn't shown. Nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be. It's easy.
All you need is love."


3. Lovely Rita



"Lovely Rita, meter maid, nothing can come between us. When it gets dark I tow your heart away."

4. Lady Madonna



"Lady Madonna, lying on the bed, listen to the music playing in your head."


5. Eleanor Rigby



"All the lonely people, where do they all come from? All the lonely people, where do they all belong?"


6. Come Together



"He bag production he got walrus gumboot, he got Ono sideboard, he one spinal cracker, he got feet down below his knee. Hold you in his arms, yeah you can feel his disease"


7. Penny Lane



"He likes to keep his fire-engine clean. It's a clean machine."


8. The Ballad Of John And Yoko



"The newspapers said, she's gone to his head, they look just like two gurus in drag. Christ, you know it ain't easy."


9. Paperback Writer



"Dear Sir or Madam, will you read my book? It took me years to write, will you take a look?"


10. A Day In The Life



"I read the news today oh, boy. Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire. And though the holes were rather small, they had to count them all. Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall."

Honourable mentions go to: Back in the USSR, Octopus' Garden, Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, Get Back, Can't Buy Me Love and I Wanna Hold Your Hand.

Thrilled

J'adore cette PostSecret, parce que surtout j'espere que tout les gens pouvaient pense de cette façon.

Alright

I saw this bit of graffiti in a pub the other day. I felt it was worth taking a photo of, because even though it has obviously been scrawled by a drunken chav, I admire the simplicity and sense of hope. For reals, I promise.

Love & Grammar

“The people in my classes, including me, did not need to be controlled, managed, nor even taught. What we needed was to be encouraged, accepted and loved just for who we were. We needed not to be governed by a set of rules that would tell us what we needed to learn and what we needed to express, but to be given time in a supportive space to explore who we were and what we wanted, with the assistance of others who had our best interests at heart. I believe that is true not only for my students, but for all of us, humans and nonhumans alike. All we want, whether we are honeybees, salmon, trash-collecting ants, ponderosa pines, coyotes, human beings, or stars, is to love and be loved, to be accepted, cherished and celebrated simply for being who we are.” --Derrick Jensen

...and also taught grammar.

Crowley

Aleister Crowley's wikipedia page reads:

Aleister Crowley, born Edward Alexander Crowley (pronounced /ˈkroʊli/), (October 12, 1875 – December 1, 1947), was an English occultist, writer, mountaineer, poet, possible spy and yogi.[1] He gained much notoriety during his lifetime, and was dubbed "The Wickedest Man In the World" and often attacked by the media[3]

Crowley was also a chess player, painter, astrologer, hedonist, bisexual, drug experimenter, and social critic.

I think they mean 'Wickedest' as in 'Coolest'.

500 Days of Ikea

I'm still waiting for the royalty cheque, but that's ok, anything for a trip to Ikea.

Prolif-eek!

I've begun re-reading a book I borrowed from Cissy M called 'Writing A Novel'. It's inspiring, however, if there's one thing that I am not as a writer, it's prolific. I would even go as far to say that I am one of the least prolific writers in the universe of people who consider themselves to be writers, prolific or otherwise.

What is the opposite of prolific? Ceci est moi, sans aucun doute. I have no ideas that I deem good enough or interesting enough to devote my time or energy towards, and as a result, I remain most unfortunately unprolific. Quelle d'homage...?

This is, of course, unless you count blogging as writing - which I don't. I count blogging as too informal to be of any real importance. I also believe that I find writing too enjoyable to consider it as an occupation. Quelle d'une foutu masochiste. Nous verrons.

Return Of The Internet

Yes! I am back with a vengeance! A vengeance for Sky who didn't connect our Internet nearly as quickly as they should have, and also for George who didn't tell them to!

Having moved on the 1st of July, we now have a beautiful new house which is as of today is equip with the Internet, and all the joys and addictions contained therein.

I will be blogging more than I did last week, that's for sure. Hold onto your knickers, girls.