Okay, now for something a little lighter after the evil purity balls: Putting your own photos in other people's photos.
For those of you who don't know, that's Jack, Andy's dog. Done using Photofunia.com, which was found via angry chicken.
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Posts from July 2008
22 July 2008
21 July 2008
Purity balls
So, i think Purity Balls, dances for fathers and daughters who have pledged the daughter's virginity until marriage, are pretty creepy, but not everyone agrees with that. Unsurprisingly, the women over at Feministing.com think they're creepy, too, and Jessica Valenti's response to Time Magazine's recent article about them was thought-provoking.
Valenti takes issue with the fact that people defend these balls and pledges as a way of fathers involving themselves in their daughters' lives and setting a high standard of behavior:
Are families who don't expect their daughters to promise their virginity to their dads promoting sex for 12 year-olds? Can't dads be engaged in the lives of their daughters without worrying about the state of their hymen? And is telling women that their moral compass lays in between their legs really setting the bar high?
Read more: Time Magazine hearts Purity Balls - Feministing
By the way, i would like to say that when searching for an image to go with the idea of 'purity' i came across this.
18 July 2008
Watching for whales
Yesterday Debbie and i went on a five-hour whale watching tour around the Inner Hebrides. We took the train from Glasgow to Oban on Wednesday afternoon, stayed overnight in a B&B and then made our way twelve miles south to Balvicar on the Isle of Seil for half past nine on Thursday morning. You can click on the map at left for a better idea of where we went.
Oban is a touristy little seaside town with excellent fish & chips and numerous B&Bs. Debbie found us a great place to stay: Raniven Guest House. The woman who runs the place is exceptionally helpful, and our full English breakfast was delicious; i would definitely recommend it. I took a few pictures of Oban and its harbo(u)r, and you can see them on Flickr.
The whale watching tour was run by a company called Sealife Adventures. The skipper of the boat, David, was very enthusiastic, and his assistant Monica spent a lot of time telling us not only about the wildlife in the area but also the geological history of the Inner Hebrides. There were only twelve passengers on the trip including Debbie and myself, so we had plenty of room to move around the boat. Our fellow whale watchers were a teenage boy doing a project for school and a French family (parents, one set of grandparents, two daughters, and three nephews). The nephews only spoke French, and the grandparents spoke some English. The parents and their daughters, however, spoke English fluently, because they live in Manchester. It turned out that the father is a chief executive of some kind for the northern European division of Adidas. Their next holiday will be in Beijing for the Games.
We ended up being disappointed by the whales; they all kept well out of sight, but we were treated to some porpoise that came quite close to the boat. We also saw seals and loads of birds. We went through the famous Corryvreckan Whirlpool area, and even though the whirlpool wasn't fully formed the seas were very rough. No one got seasick though. It was a really fun trip even without the whales, and as Debbie said, we can be reasonably sure that we were near whales; we just didn't see them.
One thing we hadn't taken into account on this trip was that we would be covered with a thin film of salt by the time we set foot back on land. The first order of business was to get somewhere that we could wash our hands and comb our very windswept and salty hair. Debbie and i hitched a ride back to Oban with the teenager and his grandfather, a funny old man who told us all kinds of history of the area. Once we got back to town, we headed for the Oban Chocolate Company, which we had spotted on Wednesday evening. There we washed our hands and settled in for some excellent hot chocolate and apple shortcake. Thus provisioned we took a walk through Oban, stopped at the sweet shop so i could buy some rock (i also got giant Parma Violets and Scottish Tablet), and gorged ourselves on chips (Debbie had fish while i just had chips & gravy - yummy), before getting on the train back to Glasgow. A very satisfying trip indeed.
13 July 2008
How much?
I noticed this set of contextual Google ads while i was reading a story about Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers breaking up with his girlfriend:
P.S. In case you're wondering, Evil Beet Gossip is my guilty pleasure.
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