Quote Of The Day

"Victory goes to the player who makes the next-to-last mistake - Chessmaster Savielly Grigorievitch Tartakower (1887-1956)"

Monday, August 31, 2009

Slingbacks...


On Saturday night we went to Slingbacks at The Rose on the Albert Embankment. The gorgeous Darren was DJing. We danced and danced. Well, apart from when the Elvis impersonator was on (no really). More snaps here.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Disinterested vs Uninterested...

Someone at work just told me that they were disintersted in attending a meeting. I think that they actually meant that they were uninterested in going to it.

I think we've perhaps finally lost the battle on this one; 'disinterested' (impartial, doesn't take sides) has finally beaten the more lowly and now less used 'uninterested' (shows no interest) in common usage. Shame. I guess people would rather 'dis' than 'un'.

Arsenal 3-1 Celtic (agg 5-1)...

It was a thrilling game last night; a penalty that never was, Celtic in the most bizarre bumblebee strip and outstanding play throughout by the Gunners. So we're through. Phew!

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Lego Video Games...

This is simply genius. Frogger, Space Invaders, Pac Man, Breakout, Tron and Asteroids faithfully recreated in stop motion Lego.


And here's Super Lego Mario

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Captain Pugwash, Master Bates, Seamen Stains et al...

There is a persistent urban legend, repeated by the now-defunct UK newspaper the Sunday Correspondent, which ascribes sexually suggestive names – such as Master Bates, Seaman Staines, and Roger the Cabin Boy – to Captain Pugwash's characters, and indicating that the captain's name was a slang Australian term for oral sex. John Ryan, Pugwash's creator, successfully sued both the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian newspapers in 1991 for printing this legend as fact. In a stage show in Frome on 5 June 2009, Richard Digance claimed to have originated this urban legend in a 1970's sketch. A 25-year injunction preventing Digance making any further references to Captain Pugwash expired at the end of 2008 and the material is now part of his act.

The characters were actually Captain Pugwash, his crew; Master Mate, Barnabas, Willy, Tom the Cabin Boy and the Captain's mortal enemy Cut Throat Jake.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Doctor Who: Dreamland...

A new Doctor Who animated series called Dreamland is starting this Autumn. It will star David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor and air in seven parts (six minutes each) starting in Autumn 2009 on BBC One's Red Button service and the official Doctor Who website. It will later be broadcast in its entirety on BBC Two and BBC HD.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Arsenal 4-1 Portsmouth...

It was our first home game of the season and Paul and I were in seventh heaven. We'd moved into the Red Action area in Block 6 and were singing, dancing and jumping up and down for the whole ninety minutes. Great after noon and great result.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Shake Your Tail Feather...

Last night Stu and I went down to the Ritzy in Brixton to listen and watch Darren spin some tunes for Shake Your Tail Feather. Great fun.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

World Pride 2012...

2012 is going to be a busy year in London. First we got the Olympics, then there's the Queen's Diamond Jubilee to celebrate. And now London has won the right to host World Pride in 2012 too. Heavens.

Here's the winning video bid (which brought a tear to my eye).

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Facebook for iPhone 3.0...

Coming very soon. So what's new in this update?
1. The "new" News Feed
2. Like
3. Events (including the ability to RSVP)
4. Notes
5. Pages
6. Create new photo albums
7. Upload photos to any album
8. Zoom into photos
9. Easier photo tagging
10. Profile Pictures albums
11. A new home screen for easy access to all your stuff, search, and notifications
12. Add your favorite profiles and pages to the home screen
13. Better Notifications (they link to the comments so you can reply)
14. Quickly call or text people right from the Friends page
15. Messages you are typing will be restored if you quit or are interrupted by a phone call

Helpdesk...

Monday, August 17, 2009

Gays Up The Arse...

Last week Paul had a letter published in the Metro about homophobia (or lack of it) at football grounds. I have to say, I agree with last week's issue. We never experience any anti-gay feeling when we go up the Arse of a Saturday afternoon.

Jim and Phill's Big Day...

We were privileged to be invited to help celebrate part of Jim and Phill's big day. More snaps here.

Friday, August 14, 2009

The NHS...

I had a dilemma over the NHS recently.

We get private health cover at work and I had to see a specialist (for something fairly trivial I might add). The dilemma? Should I go NHS or should I go private for my treatment?

In the end I went NHS but was conscious I might be using up some of its valuable resources unnecessarily when the private healthcare was already paid for. Granted I'd probably have seen the same specialist in either option!

Did I do the right thing?

Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy...



This genius series, which consists of comic cartoon shorts unrelated to each other, is added to every month or so on YouTube at SethComedy. There have been twenty-three so far and will be fifty altogether. The series is similar to the "cutaway gags" of MacFarlane's TV series Family Guy. Since the twelfth episode, profanity has been uncensored. The first season will be released on DVD in the UK on September 21 2009. Right before my birthday (hint, hint).

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

1980s Sax Solos Rated...

Careless Whisper? Baker Street? Will You? True? What's you favourite 1980s sax solo? This guy has rated them all.

"I realized about 5 years ago that at some point in the 1980s, lots of the popular music started incorporating saxophone solos into their songs. Some of them are fine, but most of them are ridiculous to have in the songs. Below, I have attempted to separate the quality and appropriateness of the solos from what I think of the song as a whole..." Hear the solos and see the reviews here.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Matt's 40th...

On Saturday I had the pleasure of attending Matt's rooftop 40th. It was a brilliant afternoon; buckets of Pimms, cakes, great crowd, sweet family, sexy men, Punch & Jude (sic) and a live Kate Bush show. More snaps here.

Thursday, August 06, 2009

Gay Blood...

Why can't gay men donate blood in the UK when they are able to donate organs? Here's the reasoning.

Comments:

Anonymous said...
Ok, so let me get this right... apparently it's about discriminating against the sexual act, even if it was oral sex and it happened once, not against the population group. Yet there is no exclusion recommended for women who have ever had sex with a man who has ever had sex with man. If it’s only based on sexual activity, this population group of women must carry the same risks as the excluded group.

It isn’t about individuals and their sexual activity because this exclusion is recommended on the basis of epidemiological research at a population level, therefore it does discriminate against individuals (even if the intention behind it is worthy). It doesn't consider variation within the population group some of who will be zero-risk takers and others extreme-risk takers with the majority somewhere between.

But that’s a more complicated message to convey and the Blood Transfusion Service only has a limited resource to do it, but the BTS should at least be honest. Say that this will discriminate and scapegoat individuals but we believe it’s in the common good to do so. The gay community should be able to cope with that, what is difficult to cope with is avoiding the issues and dressing them up in anti-discrimination terminology.


overyourhead said...
You make some good points. Something I'd not really thought about before.


Gert said...
Ultimately, it's about responsible self-exclusion/inclusion, isn't it?

For example, I recall one occasion when I was asked whether I had ever been to New York, which at the time was a ground for exclusion. I had recently returned from a visit, with my mother, staying with my aunt, and I led a more chaste life in that three weeks than at any other time in my entire post-pubescent existence. I made the decision, knowing that HIV etc are not air-borne, that that exclusion actually didn't apply to me.

I know from conversations with female friends and other observations that many 'respectable' straight women have multiple instances of unsafe sex in less-than-permanent relationships, yet very few 'respectable' women have HIV tests, except after sexual assault or work-based contact (eg health staff), so, to my mind, there is an evidential flaw in the assumptions about prevalence. I suppose a lot of women get picked up in antenatal settings, but I think the majority of women blood donors have probably not been to antenatal ever, or recently.

I use 'respectable' as clumsy shorthand for women - such as myself and most friends - who don't (knowingly) fall into the stated high-risk categories.

Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Brighton Pride (the next day)...

We had a lovely day on Sunday. The weather was fantastic so we pootled about on the seafront and at the various street parties. Here are some of the snaps I took on the day.

Monday, August 03, 2009

Brighton Pride...

We had a lovely day on Saturday. Sure, the weather was pretty lousy towards the end of the afternoon when the heavens opened but that just meant we had the opportunity to huddle with some cute men in tents. Here are some of the snaps I took on the day.