Do you have a socks drawer?
This guy does. And you can see the drawer and his socks and more or less everything else in his house.

There isn't much in my house that isn't also in everyone else's house, and precious little that's not visible to the casual visitor, but almost everyone I've spoken to sees this project as either an incredible intrusion, or as an invitation to be robbed.

Whereas, these other people bought a house, got told by the previous renter that she was leaving a whole load of stuff behind (and I MEAN a whole load), and they're documenting the truly fascinating hoard houseful gallimaufry stuff.

:o(
Those of you who know me will know that for the past couple of months I've been having a pre-relationship, happy taking-it-slowly period with a lovely guy called Josh. Last night we went to a pub for a drink and he was quite quiet, and then told me... well, he's called it off.

:o(

He was lovely, he is lovely, but he called it off. I'm shellshocked. Depressed again. I'll have him as a friend which will be difficult and great, but for the past weeks I've been telling myself that I'm not really deeply into him, but that I wanted to be, with time. I was more deeply into him than I thought... no surprise there. I'm human. But we went back to his place for coffee and TV and... after a while I had to leave, thought I'd cry, haven't yet.

3 years of being single, because I'm picky and they're posers, and then I meet someone who I think is special and who thinks I'm special, who wants something. And I'm not blaming him. He told me, he was honest, he wasn't even slightly nasty. But it just stops. Again. 3 years.

It just stops. :o(

Childrens' books
Is it just me, or are the books I learned to read with really Freudian? "Play with us." "Things we like." "Look at this."

Foul. FOUL!

Sondre Lerche
Sondre Lerche is... what? 21? Yes, 21. Maybe Norwegian but we're not sure because he sings in uninflected English. And he's brilliant.

"I'd proved I could write tidy, well-crafted pop songs. I wanted to challenge myself more and to write songs that were less predictable in structure and more relaxed. I think the songs are intrinsically richer and more diverse. But I tried to give them space to breathe. I wanted to let the air fill the songs. So I made it a bit more minimalist."

But not minimal. Oh no. He's sort of like some Beatles stuff, except not. I don't know what the name for this music is. But I think I want the album. s.

Another one...
It's not much, but it's the latest rough copy of a little poem which might get bigger. Comments, anyone? [Adobe PDF]

Strap On
The subject-matter is entirely prosaic to me, but the fact the guy's straight and a drily comedic writer makes it hilarious. :o)

Taking a foreign object in your ass is like shitting in rewind. Having a good poo can be really satisfying, but the other direction is fucking terrifying, at least at first. There's a definite fear of making a mess you'll never be able to forget.

One man's experience with a dildo. Moulded from his own dick.

You know when...
...one link isn't enough to blog with, and then you find a few more that make it worthwhile? :o)

delve - a mag filled with crazy sexy disturbing cool graphics. Sewers have balls, too. The Plain English Campaign doesn't like 'basically' or 'at the end of the day' among others. News that 24 will soon be a comic (!!yay!!) over at Bookslut. World of Awesomeness. The arse end of Gotham.

Violation of sepulchre
That's what two teenagers in Edinburgh, Scotland are charged with. They allegedly broke into a 1600s mausoleum and played with a corpse.

When the police arrived at Greyfriars graveyard, they found four coffins, one of which had been smashed, and the head of the corpse removed. A 14-year-old girl told the court that Sonny Devlin said "they had taken a head from someone that was dead at the graveyard". At Greyfriars, he pulled out a head from behind a gravestone and at one point, was "chucking it around" with another youth or youths. Another witness, a 15-year-old girl, said Sonny Devlin and his co-accused had been "mucking about" with the head "... making it talk to him". [BBC]

The charge hasn't been brought before the courts since 1899.

Christopher Gane, professor in Scots law at Aberdeen University, said: "It is fascinating that this charge has been indicted in the High Court. "The last case recorded in our law reports was in 1899 when a gentleman called William Coutts had six charges of violation of sepulchre laid against him. He was the superintendent of Nellfield Cemetery, a private graveyard on the Great Western Road in Aberdeen, and the background to the case was that he was accused of digging up coffins and reselling the lairs for other burials." Prof Gane added: "The law of theft does not apply to a human body that has been interred, as in the eyes of the law a body that has been buried for some time does not count as ?property? for the purpose of stealing." [The Scotsman]

US: An Oregon County bans all marriage
Because it was due to start issuing marriage licenses of gay couples, and amid a deluge of American lawsuits arguing for and against gay marriage, Benton County has stopped issuing marriage licenses until the State decides on what is legal and what isn't.

This is really interesting, because since straights don't get to marry either until resolution, it could mean any one of the following:

1. The State does not want to suspend gay marriages while allowing straight licenses to be issued and therefore be discriminatory in law;
2. The State does not want to be *seen* to be discriminatory, and while actually wishing to ban gay marriage only, it bans straight marriages for a time so that when gay marriage licenses are withdrawn completely, it can point to fairness of process;
3. The State ultimately intends to uphold gay marriage licenses and is currently withdrawing all leave to marry so that it can make a decision without gangs of screaming poofs outside - action which would only in the end be seized on by the anti-gay lobby as evidence of coercion.

So it's a very clever move. But as well as that, for the first time ever in such a legal minefield, a State has effectively said "Since we need to decide whether gays can marry at the moment, you straight people can't get married either until this is solved, and if you don't like that, go somewhere else with your rings". Window-dressing, or a real step forward?

Legal Aid crisis?
Or just unrealistic expectations from law graduates? UK Citizens' Advice Bureaux are in a panic because they can't find enough trainee solicitors to provide legal aid to poorer citizens. This is becase only a small percentage of trainee solicitors are considering a career in the field. These young solicitors are 'deterred by student debt and poor pay'.

25,000 pounds a year is poor pay?! Listen, boys and girls. When I started off as a journalist in London, I had student debt and bank debt and was paid 12,500 gross. *That* was poor pay. Especially for London. But here in Northern Ireland, that salary would be quite alright for even a junior civil servant.

Law graduates have been told by their schoolteachers and professors that they 'should' get a salary of around 40,000 quid. And the survey the linked article cites shows that they've been told this so much, they believe that they'll get it with nothing more than a mortarboard.

Perhaps they should take a look at reality which dictates that you start your career on lower pay than you'll get when you've been working for a while. I certainly don't think that 25,000 is bad pay, even in London, and when you know you'll be getting anything upwards of 40-45,000 when you hit a large commercial firm... they should really stop groaning. Especially when legal representation for those who are *really* poor is at stake.

Trippy
Unorthodox use of a Moleskine notebook!

Unreasonable girl....
...or unreasonable debt? A female student auctioned her virginity online to cut down on uni debt. She had traumatising sex (not least because it was with a man and she's lesbian) and was given just over 8,000 quid.

Stupid girl? Outrageous debt levels? Attention-seeking? Life of debt-ridden misery avoided? Justly desperate? What do you think?

Think of...
...van Gogh. And what do you think of? Sunflowers, I bet. Or a wood-and-wicker chair you're never quite sure if you've really seen, or just seen a photo of. That'll be because it's famous. To paraphrase the poetic Donald Rumsfeld, I know I don't know whether or not I've seen the chair painting for real. I know it. I just don't know it... I don't know.

;o)

Anyway. This painting, by van Gogh, you know you don't know, and therefore in future you'll know that you don't know it. OK, OK, I'll stop now. [grin] It's a rare example of Japonaiserie - artist working in particular style apes another style. It's really amazing. Layered. Like looking through a lace curtain into fog, or through drifting smoke. I found it on the marvellous Van Gogh Gallery which on first look seems immersive and comprehensive.

There's also a Bosch Universe website. Surreal and disturbing work - and that's just the website. Why the hell does a site about such an interesting and compelling painter have to play uselessly with scripting and layout which doesn't work in the majority of browsers? A really shitty design which stopped me from seeing any actual works unless I used IE. Let all your visitors see the content. Please. Stupid people.

However - [Pete rubs hands] - there is visible and ever-so-nearly *graspable* treasure aplenty at the Art Institute of Chicago. Browse through the collections online, and read the helpful and unpatronising notes on each exhibit. (This one made me shiver. Really.)

The Smithsonian Institution is a place I know very little about. When I think of it, I think of a massive collection of riches exhibited in grand old buildings. But I knew nothing much about it until now [quote from the site]:

In 1826, James Smithson, a British scientist, drew up his last will and testament, naming his nephew as beneficiary. Smithson stipulated that, should the nephew die without heirs (as he would in 1835), the estate should go 'to the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.'

Looking at the Library of Congress' Built in America database (database? hah! - unimaginably rich and exhaustive descriptions, histories and photos, more like!) for the original buildings, it certainly seems important and historical enough. But modern? Yeah, modern and accessible too. Surf the site. 'Tis good. :o) [I neglected to mention here on first posting that the Enola Gay is exhibited by the Smithsonian and very little mention isi made of its war role. Shame.]

MOMA's website has gems like this Seurat, and, because I need more coffee, here are the rest: A List Apart, Newtopia, an article about why Microsoft are lying liars, and how trainee vets practise putting their arms up a cow's anus.

St Patrick's Day
Not that I care a great deal; born in Wales, St Patrick was kidnapped by Irish raiders when he was 16 which is far more interesting than any celebrations - if true.

Iin America, where today has always been an excuse for big celebrations, the Chicago River, which is spanned by 45 movable bridges, is dyed green every year in honour.

(AP Photo - Brian Kersey)

Oh, my... goodness
Right. If any of you have anything against this picture, I didn't make it. Via empty-handed.com, via two-twenty, via The Minor Fall, The Major Lift. (Also today - the Gay Porn Blog which is NSFW - Ban gay books!)

Grand Central Station
Bet you didn't know about the little things, because the article was published 2 days before 9/11 and would therefore have been overlooked or forgotten. And I bet you didn't know that the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel has its own Grand Central 'Presidential' Platform.

State Secrets
UK-based Military and Intelligence sites.

And some of the people who use them.

Spying on the UN. Tsk tsk.

Going for your job interview at the NSA. (PDF - 137kb)

Chris Rock?
Does anyone know who Chris Rock is? I don't, but apparently the man's famous and knows loads of other famous people. This girl was given his old mobile number on a new phone, and got lots of phonecalls from famous people as a result. It's funny. :o)

Now, who the fck is Chris Rock??

Oh, I found out. He's a comedian turned actor who's had awards and emmys and everything. Uninteresting, but still funny. After all, it's not about Chris Rock, but the people who call 'him'. Heheh. :o)

Their only accomplishment

The Exorcist
In 30 seconds.

With bunnies.