Babies

How babies are made (vid)

stop the presses!!

new state the obvious article announces that women blog. sometimes, they do it DAILY.

funny things i've heard 2

from a recruitment consultant to my overqualified accounts degree holding friend:

'have you been exposed to profit and loss accounts and balance sheets?'

funny things i've heard

from a PCSO:

'it's getting too PC around here'

rihanna knows best

Snowmantle's sis put this link on the book today:

http://entertainment.uk.msn.com/celebrity/news/Article.aspx?cp-documentid=8366516

"The Umbrella singer - who now has a jet-black crop - told the Guardian her record label, Def Jam, wanted her to have long blonde hair, but she refused to obey them.

Rihanna apparently said: "I felt like the whole world had long, curly, flowy blonde hair. Ciara, Beyonce, Mariah, Christina Milian. Everybody wanted to be like everybody else. So I cut my hair and they made me put my long hair back in as extensions."

Rihanna looks perfect just as she is, i don't get why everyone has to look or aim to look like a white, blonde blow up doll. That is not the best way to look, it is just *a* way to look and it annoys me that her record label would want her to conform to the industry standard. I might add to this later, but i just wanted to say, go ri-ri!!

here she is looking damned pretty as usual:

food question

what do u do if you have got a fish and 3 veggie sausages in the oven, and on the hob u have boiled celery, sweet potato and orange pepper?

answers to follow

taking teh bizkit (urgh, not limp bizkit they are banned from this blog and my life for being so painfully... painful)

the oreo: not that great!

I personally have had a sort of obsession with oreos since watching 'the parent trap' in which Lindsay Lohan plays *both* twins, and i am impressed by this feat of acting by a child! anyway, when the twins are being punished for fighting each other by being put in the naughty hut at summer camp (another thing americans can please keep for the sake of the children!!) LiLo says to her sister LiLo that she really likes oreos, and that she likes them with peanut butter, which other people find gross.

Now i LOVED peanut butter as a kid (who am i kidding, until i was 20 and i'm still a bit partial to it now!) and i really wanted to try these biscuits that went SO WELL with peanut butter. y'know what? they aren't even that great!!! :-O

so america, you can keep ur oreos if u like, they don't go well with peanut butter (tho jam does i'll give you that), and i don't know if you (y'all?) knew this, but when it comes to biscuits (NOT COOKIES!!) which involves some creamy stuff in the middle, we've had that going on for EVER here, in the form of the true british classics, the custard cream:
the chocolate bourbon cream:

and the legendary jammy dodger:

FYI, this is a cookie, a cookie is a *type* of biscuit (ur doin it rong!)

*disclaimer - the british probably stole these biscuits back when they were making life shite for a 3rd of the world, but they are actually ours not and i think these bics have as good a chance as anything of being something that started out here!

music post

so i've already burdened a few of you with this track/vid

whatevs

http://www.myspace.com/fiveoclockheroes

the vid's on here :-)

My Celebrity BMI is...

Oprah!

Sweet! Oprah is hot! V hard to find full length pics of her tho.. but whatever, Oprah is totally awesome, if only I had her talents and sense!

hai! i am teh celebrity BMI thingy!!

emo march / the black parade?

ok so i found this on perezz hilton, i can't help it, that site is like looking at something you *know is wrong* but you kinda need to look.

*shrugs*

"On May 31st, fans of super Emo group My Chemical Romance are planning to march across London to protest what they consider to be the unfair depiction of the band in the British media.

The march will start at Hyde Park's West Pond and end outside the offices of The Daily Mail, who organizers call the 'worst' offender in the media.

The newspaper recently anointed My Chemical Romance a 'suicide cult' band in its reports covering the suicide of a 13-year old British girl named Hannah Bond.

Three hundred fans are reportedly confirmed to march."

Go emos!! Nice to know that the kids stand up for themselves!

Leicester

an images post

life is pain cakes

i never managed to post these before!

abort

so MPs are having a free vote on abortion this evening.

lets get a few stats in.

unless something changes in our biology:

520 of the total 645 MPs in the house of commons, will never become pregnant.

What is the average age of an MP?
Following the general election of 2005, the average age of an MP was 50.6

so, also, considering this:

"The menopause is the name given to the end of menstruation (periods). It is also sometimes referred to as 'the change of life'. In the UK, the average age for a woman to reach the menopause is 52."

it might be a safe bet to suggest that it is unlikely any MP is going to fall pregnant anytime soon, or ever. (edit: i have been reminded, quite rightly, that these older lady MPs may have had abortions in the past)

also, with an annual salary of £61,820 (as of 1 November 2007), the financial hardship of child bearing may be more difficult to comprehend. financial independence is a luxurious position from which to make moral decisions on behalf of others.

I sincerely hope that i am being judgmental here, and that these factors which might give MPs a safe distance from the realities of this issue (which are not the same for every person) do not prevent MPs voting in line with what their constituents deserve.

Luckily, at time of writing, nearly 400 MPs have voted against lowering the abortion limit to 12 weeks. frighteningly, 71 had voted for it.

I will write more on this another day, but the beeb comentator suggested that MPs are leaning towards the more liberal ideas. am i now so liberal that i see what others describe as 'liberal' as 'the very baseline of reasonable' ??

bikini bum

so recently i got a new bikini, it's a gorgeous sky blue colour, really lovely and i can't say much more than that really! it fits perfectly and is very cool looking. i wish for an excuse to wear it, like nice weather (ahem!!! mother nature!!) days off (ahem!! employers!!) - and no the bank holiday is not a blessing for me, as i am one of those people that works pretty much any hour other people are not working, for better or worse, the beach, again.. day off + weather!! and a spa trip (ahem, miss snowmantle!!)

anyway, what i wanted to share with you this evening was a piece of writing i found over on shapely prose. i probably spelled that wrong but ur probably all used to that by now if you read this.

it's a parody of something you might have read recently if you ever go near *generic beauty magazine* you know the whole 'get that bikini body in 10 days/this new starvation method/a million squats/major surgery! you too can look like our cover model even if you do not otherwise look anything like her!!!

anyway, this post is a mind workout. seems a bit long winded to me but then i remembered the years i spent trying to convince lifeguards that my t shirt was indeed swimwear, and my board shorts were also necessary, and without them, i was not going to leave the changing room.

these days, i tend to let the flab run free and untamed lol, because it's mine and i don't want to waste another day worrying about stupid little things, when i could be worrying about stuff that actually matters, like what colour to paint my nails... erm.

but enough babble, here it is:

http://kateharding.net/2008/05/20/guest-post-28-days-to-a-bikini-mind/#more-1428

round 2

round

wiki:

• The shape of a circle or sphere
• Rounding (sediment), the smoothness of a sediment particle
• Roundedness, the roundedness of the lips in the pronunciation of a phoneme
• Rounding, the truncation of a number to reduce the number of significant figures it contains
• Round number, a number that ends with one or more zeroes
• Round of drinks, a traditional method of paying in a drinking establishment
• Cartridge (firearms), a single unit of ammunition
• Round (Theosophy), a planetary cycle of reincarnation in Theosophy

sorry, we can't help you, or your daughter.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=566044&in_page_id=1879

Story is sad but hilarious, teenage rebellion, young love, exploitation, overbearing mothers, DEATH BY CANNABIS, TEEN PREGNANCY...

"It was then that we started hearing all sorts of rumours about Jack, that he'd given her cannabis. I was distraught, half expecting a call saying Victoria had been found dead."

Oh and the cracking line about her mum discovering a packet of contraceptive pills and assumed that this meant her daughter was sexually active.

The story is kinda saddening, half to me because the hate mail thinks it's fine to invade this girls privacy for a story. To publish details about her sex life/lack of. My sister passed tis story on to me, she has known this girl at school since the age of 5. Apparently the girl now thinks she is a celebrity, and holds her hand out and says 'NO COMMENT' to people. I despair, and sulk.

morgans spiced and ginger beer

my latest trick... i love

Bovine

Mooooo

saladness

I have been munching a lot of salady bits lately, and i gotta share this salad topping. It's not rocket science and i'm sure someone out there has done this before but meh...

Bit of Balsamic Vinegar
Spash of soy sauce
and a bit of tescos 'wok oil'

Is vair naice!!

"Antigonish" (1899)

As I was going up the stair
I saw a man who wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today
I wish, I wish, he’d stay away.

internets addict?

http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/2008/03/blogging-disease.html

Dr. Jerald J. Block, M.D., said that excessive internet and computer usage should be labeled a mental disease, as it has all of the components of a compulsive-impulsive disorder:

1) excessive use, often associated with a loss of sense of time or a neglect of basic drives,

2) withdrawal, including feelings of anger, tension, and/or depression when the computer is inaccessible,

3) tolerance, including the need for better computer equipment, more software, or more hours of use, and

4) negative repercussions, including arguments, lying, poor achievement, social isolation, and fatigue

international no diet day

I Pledge —

· That I will not diet for one day, on May 6, International No Diet Day.

· Instead of trying to change my body to fit someone else's standards, I will accept myself just as I am.

· I will feed myself if I'm hungry.

· I will feel no shame or guilt about my size or about eating.

· I will think about whether dieting has improved my health and well-being or not.

· And I will try to do at least one thing I have been putting off "until I lose weight."

http://www.largesse.net/INDD/

love

to find out what happens to the rhino, click here

blogging against disablism day

http://blobolobolob.blogspot.com/2006/05/blogging-against-disablism-day.html

May 1st 2008

There is a full list of blogs at the link above and i will try and write something later myself, but for now i will add a few choice quotes from other peoples blogs today.

from 'my amusement park'

A few weeks ago the driver of the X28 bus refused to let me board, because I could not safely board backwards on the lift. Although New York City Transit policy says we can board either forward or backward, this bus driver wouldn't allow me to board forwards.

When I insisted, he called a supervisor, and we waited.

The other passengers got off to get on another bus.

As they came out, they formed a line. Their eyes were full of hate. Many cursed me: "You selfish b----!"

I was crying.

They blamed me for the driver's refusal to let me on. I was making them late to work.

and then from 'a tedious delusion'

"With a city of such friendly, accommodating folks, you would wonder why the topic of ableism would even matter to me. Why would I have something to say about phobia and prejudice against the disabled, discrimination based on disability, and oppressive climates in which the disabled feel unwelcome or unwanted?

Few things really strike me. One, I don't ask for helpful help and I don't need it. But when I do ask and need help, I don't get it. Help comes on able-bodied terms, not mine. I'm reminded of a South Park episode in which a disabled teacher in an electric body-chair runs out of battery power in the middle of the street. Incapable of communicating, those around her ignorantly ask if she needs assistance, getting angry when she doesn't (hi, she can't) respond. When I deny someone's ignorance masked as chivalry, they get upset. They run away."

lilwanutbrain writes about how she feels when people introduce their children saying 'he/she's ADD' and so forth:

When did it become acceptable to introduce our children by their physical and/or mental capabilities? When did it become the norm to define our children by a condition? I can't think of any moment in a polite and civilized society where we would treat another adult this way.

"Hi, I'd like you to meet my friend Betty. She's a toe fungus!" Blech.

Our youngest son has a lot of wonderful and unique qualities. He has sparkly blue eyes, an extremely literal and quirky sense of humor, and has an extensive memory for even the smallest of details. He likes mashed potatoes. He doesn't like bare feet, even his own. He also has autism. It doesn't define him as a person. It's not who he IS. It's something he HAS.

there were also comments about unemployment:

After leaving school I attended university and landed a Joint Honours degree, yet somehow I've been out of steady work for nearly 8 years. I'm only called for interview if I don't let on that I have a profound hearing loss. It's funny how quick they call me - suddenly I sound employable!

On one occasion they lacked caution and told me I couldn't have the job (working with computer files) because I was unable to answer the phone - even though this wasn't mentioned in the advertisement. I thought it was only about data input and filing, which would have been fine for me, if rather dull.


There's some really good stuff to read out there today, so go have a look and learn something - it's really made me think, and feel bad about every time i have been around a disabled person and felt uncomfortable, and not known what to do (if anything) i think reading and finding out how not to alienate and offend huge sections of society really helps. Although the uncomfortable feelings are... uncomfortable... but they are worth having if you seriously don't want to go around being offensive. just to be aware and to think not everyone has it so easy but still has to get on with life and has the right to be treated just as well if not better than everyone else, understood and respected, not pitied and treated like children. /long scentence

tempura batter

is so naice. i made some today 4 lunch, was surprisingly easy, tho i did manage to stress immensly about it!

I used the recipe on the beeb website, next time i think i shoud make it with beer, that wud be immense!!

Batter recipe:
30z plain flour,
1 tsp cornflour,
1/2 teaspoon salt
200ml really cold water (icy)

dip the veggies in anddeep fry em for a couple of mins and w00p!! there it is!!

also, cuz the veg may end up ready before other stuff, i just popped it on the grill pan to drip, but stuck it in the oven to crisp and keep warm for a few mins. bouns. am so full and nice now :-)

books shcmooks

I found this essay online:

http://www.nerve.com/personalessays/shukert/theanorexicscookbook/index.asp?page=1

and liked the writer so much that her book is on it's way to me via amazon, and should reach me in... 3 weeks lol but yeh whatever.

The book i ordered is called "Have You No Shame?: And Other Regrettable Stories"

and it looks like one giant mess of a book, with some grim stories and a kinda funny edge. i need something funny about now, there's too much to worry about in the world!!

who says romance is dead part 2

HORNSEA, England, April 30 (UPI) -- A 94-year-old woman has become Britain's oldest bride at a ceremony in Hornsea, England.

Bess Atkins, 94, wed Winston Barraclough, 86, at St. Nicholas Church, the same location as her first wedding in 1939, The Daily Mail reported Wednesday.

Atkins said Barraclough proposed in January on New Year's Day.

"I thought it was some medical problem and feared the worst," she said. "He said: 'Will you be my wife please. I would love to marry you.' I was totally shocked but I said yes, that would be lovely."

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Quirks/2008/04/30/britains_oldest_bride_weds/8106/

who says romance is dead?

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/04/30/naked.prom.ap/index.html?eref=rss_us

"ANN ARBOR, Michigan (AP) -- Thirteen members of a high school lacrosse team have been disciplined for dropping their pants to send a prom invitation from one player to a girl.

The lacrosse players at Huron High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan displayed the question, "Will You Go To The Prom With Me? Yes or No?" on their bottoms, which they bared during a junior varsity game last Thursday.

Officials suspended 13 players for an undetermined number of games and ordered them to perform 20 hours of community service. They also were suspended from school for one day.

The girl accepted the prom invitation."

Yay!!!