Big and bigger

I just love overkill...
How about a lens weighing in at 250 kilos!
Don't try to use it hand-held.

Internet trick of the week

Here is something that I, in all modesty, discovered myself. (Not to say others may not know about it.)

Say somebody sends you an article in email, and you want to find out who wrote it or published it.
What you do is you select a few significant words and paste them into Google with quotation marks around, and you get this.

Jeffery naturism

Vicky Jeffery art.
And Laurie Jeffery family page. Naturism.
Both pages are beautiful.

Registering on sites

I am looking for an alternative groceries delivery here in Lancashire, because Sainsburys (which I'm otherwise really happy with) does not have crisp bread or any good muesli. So I am looking at their competitors like Tesco and Asda...
But they require me to register my name, address, phone number, and e-mail address before I can enter the online store and see if they have what I need!
How stupid is that? Imagine you want to enter a "real" store, and you are asked to fill out a form with personal information before you're allowed to enter. They'd lose half their potential customers that way.
And for no good purpose. If people like the store, service, and merchandise, they will buy and come back. If they don't, they won't. Pestering them for contact information in order to spam them later without permission will only irritate them.

"Blow in her face..."

"... she will follow you anywhere."
Vintage ads.

More on virginity

Susie Bright on fear-created 30-year-old virgins.

Me, I was a virgin until about 24, and that was definitely not by choice, but more like near-pathological shyness.

(Hehe, just today I was asked to reveal more of the "real me". I don't know if this fits the ticket.) (I don't have a clue what the "real me" is.)

Rondam Ramblings: Top ten geek business myths

Rondam Ramblings: Top ten geek business myths

Perceptions and the Positive

Laurie/Signalroom wrote:
"It's amazing how one can turn things around and take charge of one's reality by a simple perceptual shift. I.e. perceiving no more attack, only fear or a veiled appeal for love inThose who appear to be attacking us. These people are either in pain, or afraid, and even deeper, asking only for what we all want, love.
"Amazing to see this in the midst of one's own or another's harsh judgement. I'm practicing it at work a lot lately with people whom I judge, (okay, I mean, people acting like unkind ass-holes) and have had incredible turn-arounds, really amazing shifts.
"I see my first goal as changing my own perception of the negative person, not trying to change his or her behavior. I have been seeing such FAST turn-arounds happen, it's amazing. More and more I see it, we create our reality."

I had a friend who had a colleague with whom he had lots of problems. He then made a long list of all her bad sides and good sides, intending to give it to her. Then at the last minute he decided to only present her with the good sides list.
He raved to me about how this changed her. Even her voice changed, he said.

I think this is very important lesson. It is not an easy lesson though. We really feel justified in our dislikes, don't we?
But changing our perceptions and focusing on the positive can change everything. I am only half way, after a decade or two, but already my life is unrecognizable, way better in almost all ways.

The hundred and three-year old virgin

I once worked in a nursing home. One of the ladies had the hots for me something bad. One day in the common room, she put her hand on my thigh and said "nice jeans". Then she slid it higher, and said "nice crotch".
A nearby nurse sighed and said: "Karen, how old is it you are again?"
"Forty-two?"
"You're a hundred and two."
"I'm a HUNDRED AND TWO years old?!"

And she was. She died next year, a hundred and three, apparently still a virgin.
Story was she had been scared off men by her mother, and in her old age she had had woefully regretted it.

I guess the moral is, listen to your parents, but don't take everything as gospel.

Maybe I should have helped her fulfil her wish, but I was fearful the the management would see it as taking advantage...

Featured comment by Laurie:
I work part-time in a gym, and work out there. I don't want to keep harping about my hair, but a few days ago an elderly patron in his 70's started chatting with me while I was working out. He squinted his eyes and looked at me and said, "I really like your hair." The thought flashed instantaneously through my mind, "dirty old man." Then, just as quickly, I thought of the Domai philosophy. I also saw how I also love my hair. I smiled at the man, a real genuine turn it all on joyful smile, and we both parted happy.

Later I had a fantastic conversation with this man. He spends his whole week doing nice things for other people, like picking up day-old bread at the supermarket at 6 in the morning, and delivering it to families, and singing in a group with other old men in local nursing homes. He also spends his time commenting on women's beautiful hair. All's right with the world.
laurie

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

I've just tried to watch Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.
Holy cow, what a bad movie.
You'd think when somebody adapted thirties pulp fiction and movies, they would take the best aspects of them... well not this producer. Just for example he adopted the absolutely dreadful movie music they always used in those days without changing a note.
Basically he managed to make a movie involving Gwyneth Paltrow and Giovanni Ribisi (both excellent actors) and giant robots (which should be right up my alley), and make it boring! I woulda thunk it impossible.

This movie is the pinnacle of badness, it takes the bad side of bad and makes it look good by comparison. It's the flea on the cockroach on the king of badness. If Bad was light, this would be a supernova. It's so bad it dreams of aspiring to suck.
... OK, maybe not that bad, but lord it's not good.

(I better fess up, the above paragraph was a joke stolen from the old comic strip Bloom County. The penguin Opus as a movie reviewer.) (Rewritten though, since I only clearly remembered the punch line.)

Articles on Money

Thanks to Ronald for pointing to a very interesting collection of articles on money. More specifically articles about the rarely acknowledged fundamental flaws in this world's money concepts. Lord knows much of it is news to me, and I've studied rather more than most people.

Susie sez it

Susie Bright on the relevance of scandals.