Posted in full because you should read it in full!

Okay, a break from Olympics for a moment, and my serious stuff will be living on Feministe for the next few days…so yeah, back to all that inappropriate sex talk and vulgar language.

I was thinking about Kim’s punk post, and conversation about that and all, well yeah, it’s late and the mind is wandering, wrt to punk rock sex and sexism and all that odd shit. I mean, the title of that post? I line I’ve heard, a line I’ve used, even a line I’ve seen on a t-shirt. Generally in punk/goth/industrial clubs. And well, me…I kinda appreciate blunt and straightforward. I mean, I’d much rather have a dude say flat out, “I’m only interested in fucking you” than pretend like he was interested in other things, when, in truth, he was only interested in fucking. I try to extend the same courtesy, that whole brutally honest “I don’t actually like you, but I certainly wouldn’t mind having your cock in me” thing. I never understood the logic behind pretending you were interested in anything else when you damn well know you’re gonna slink out before they are awake the next morning and never call again…if you wait that long…

Same goes for pretending you are still interested in too much of anything once you no longer are. Honesty, even the brutal kind, makes all this shit much easier…

Which probably explains a lot of disdain I have for some of the types of punk/goth whatever dudes we’ve had conversation on today…because I sure as hell have met a lot of them who run lines on girls in order to get in their panties. Eh, this is not limited to these sorts of dudes, a lot of guys do it…often using the “oh, sure, we can be in a relationship” ploy, but I’ve observed, over the years, some of the games the punk and goth dudes play.

One is running with the whole angsted out deep soul thing. Generally seen more out of the goth types. If I’ve heard a gal tell me about her new boyfriend “Orpheus”, who is just the most intelligent and artistic deep, deep soul she’s ever met (sigh!) and describe in near breathless detail his angelic, frail body and tortured soul once…I’ve heard it a hundred and fifty times. Yet, however, once Orpheus sticks his cock in her, well…she’s just not “dark” or “deep” enough, or her affection for “Friends” just could not be tolerated, or she was interfering with his artistic vision (hey, beers with the garage band count!)…besides, wasn’t her sister a cheerleader? And Orpheus was off, to the next thin, pretty goth chick rumored to suck a mean dick. The other one I saw a lot (more with the punk scene) was the "I dig tough chicks!" thing…guys who liked the challenge of getting a girl who was just as loud, as likely to throw a punch, down a fifth of vodka, or take a key to a cop car as he was. A gal who would go in the pit. A Hardcore Chick! There was always bonus points for this if she was hot, too. And the guys would play on this, what, with how radical and woo, anarchy and cool she was…like one of the guys, but yeah, a girl! And he respected

And I remember thinking…what the fuck are you people thinking? Especially when everyone around in the scene had seen the scene play out with the same male leads over and over…

Now, this is not to say I did not see similar ruthless manipulative behavior out of some of the women, because I did…but in those cases, it was her rep and social standing that ended up, generally, trashed in the end. Even so, though, I did see girls string dudes along and fuck them to get shit out of them, everything from concert tickets and rides and other material things, to, oh, getting them to kick the shit out of people who had offended her.

Once again there, what the fuck are you thinking?

And (snickers at Trinity), I sure as hell wondered about the people decked out in all the bondage gear who thought it was cool because the Lords of Acid or whomever was wearing it. Fuck…nothing sucks as much as walking up to someone in a posture collar only to find it out they had it on because Marilyn Manson wore one. False fucking advertising!

And sure enough, it was the same ritual played out with the jock set, or whatever other set, it just had different costumes, theme music, and tools of manipulation. Makes me kinda glad I wasn’t into fucking back then….

But what scares the shit out of me, some (ok, many) years later, is I can roll on into a club with the same theme, and see the same shit still playing itself out…sometimes even with the same fucking players! Sweet Krishna (TM Rosa), you’d think that more people, women and men, by this age would have learned to say, “Nice boots…wanna fuck?” Or be receptive to such an offer if that was, indeed, all they wanted. It saves so much time, effort and bullshit. I mean, I know I’m a shitty case study here, but I’d much rather have some guy who merely wants to have sex say as much than try and run a game on me…and I’ve read “the game”, heh, so I am educated! And yes, sure, I Blame My Uncivilized Self, but I honestly just don’t understand why A) it is so difficult to say “Can we just fuck” and B) why people, if that’s all they are truly interested in, think it’s such a bad thing…

Guilt over sex is stupid, unless you’ve done something underhanded that you should feel guilty about, you know?

And yes, there is pressure on dudes to get laid and pressure on women not to get laid…but is it any worse than the stupid games both sides play when it comes, not to relationships, but to merely getting laid if they are of a mind to do so?

???Blink Blink???

In the long run, if one is safe and all, does it really matter so much? I mean, if you actually find someone who loves you…well, if they are going to dump you for having had too many partners or having been just out to have fun for a period of time or whatever…is that really someone who loves you?

There’s nothing wrong with sex…so why do so many people wrap it up in so much bullshit, so many games, and so many lies?

Frankly, as a general rule, I’m pretty glad my moral standing is on all fours…and I don’t feel the need to engage in the bullshit simply because I want to fuck.

Nice boots, by the way.

Oh hell yes.

They're still pulling that bullshit, statistical mumbo-jumbo "Australians are the fattest EVA!!" out in newspaper articles:

http://www.theage.com.au/national/obesity-to-be-treated-like-smoking-to-beat-cancer-20080817-3wxr.html

Newsflash, dickwads:

The study that produced the "9 million overweight, 26% obese" crap is the scientific equivalent of used toilet paper. Seriously!!

The author of the 'study' (this is the "Fat bomb" study from a couple of months ago), whose funding as a heart disease researcher depends on convincing the Federal Government** that there is about to be an imminent obesity-related explosion in heart disease, conducted his study by:

- setting up information booths in shopping centres during school hours, when the majority of the patrons were middle aged women and elderly people;
- measuring the BMI and heart pressure of those people who choose to come into the stall;
- applying the resulting data to the entire Australian population with no adjustments for age, race or other factors such as the fact that most people who go to a "check your blood pressure" stand in a shopping centre will predominantly be the people who are told that their blood pressure will be a problem, aka fat people.

I will take a rusty, dirt-encrusted blunt knife to the next asshat who decided to publish an article based on this bullshit unless they too are pointing out why it's a crock of shit.

And as for the actual article? Also bullshit - Junkfood Science has already busted the fat = cancerous myth. Why has the level of cancer increased as the rate of obesity has increased? Maybe because our lifespans are now at a point where it isn't unreasonable to expect to live into your 80s and beyond, where there is both a higher rate of cancers and it is normal to put on weight as your metabolism declines. Maybe because the beginning of the thin = beautiful trend that has made fat-bashing such a great hobby for the perfect people coincided (coincidentally) with the introduction of more food additives, chemicals etc into our foods and environments.

* Oh for fuck's sake
** Apparently critical thinking or reading anything that isn't summarised into a half-page press release isn't a prerequisite for leading the country. I'd hoped for better...
link

Good sister bad sister
Better burn that dress sister
Scar tissue blood blister
Suck upon the dregs sister whoa
I try but I can't and I want to so bad and

Good sister bad sister
Your different from the rest sister
Choke strangle rip twist her
Sell me down the river sister whoa
I try but I can't and I want to so bad and
I try and i try and i try and

C'mere and sit down just for a sec please just when your done
You choking on big black bloody mouthfulls of it
Pet me and I am your dog descent
Your choking on your candy flesh
I'll be the biggest scar in your back
Run down it jagged and make it back
I'll be the biggest dick that you ever had
Hey want it back you want it back you want it

Good sister bad sister
Better tell me what you want sister
Never wash your back sister
Even you cannot resist her whoa
I try but I can't and I want to so bad and
I try and I try

She comes to crucify all this earlies
And sugar comes from her other race
I'll be the biggest scar
Run down and jagged and make it a bly
I'll be the biggest star in your sky
You want it back you want it back you want it back
She is incredulous
Choking on her candy flesh
I'll be the biggest scar in your back
Run down and jagged and make it back
I'll be the biggest dick that you ever had
You want it back you want it back you want it back

Development Goals and Basic Accounts

Last week we updated our development goals for 2008. Generally we noted a number of cool enhancements and investments to LiveJournal that we are working on, including improved search, usability, and site development.

We also wanted to let you know how we hope to accomplish all these things, and how we plan on paying for them. In order to accomplish our stated goals for this year and beyond, we need to increase the revenue gained from both groups of LiveJournal accounts: paid subscription accounts and ad-supported accounts.

As of August 28th, all users will be able to choose to downgrade their account to Basic through their Manage Account page. Additionally, we will start showing advertising to visitors who are not logged in to LiveJournal when they are looking at Basic Account journals and communities.

Basic Account users themselves will not see ads on any Basic journal or community while they are logged in to their account. If you want more information about this, take a look at our new post on lj_2008 where we outline our reasoning.

Indian Flash Fiction Contest

In other news, we are excited to tell you we've launched "Quick Tales" LiveJournal's first initiative for users in India, in celebration of India Independence day, August 15th. "Quick Tales" is a flash fiction writing contest in which we're partnering with Caferati.com, one of India's largest online literary communites. The contest's winners will receive some great prizes and it is open to anyone with a mailing address in India. We hope that users with an interest in Indian writing or just India will watch LiveJournal's india_writing community. That's where the finalists and winners will be announced, so keep an eye on it towards the end of September! If you're in India then enter the contest - if your story is slick and quick (under 500 words) then you could be the lucky winner!

Meanwhile, back at LiveJournal Inc.

We have updated and redesigned our corporate site. The goal of the redesign was twofold: first, to update the look and feel (Dystopia users will appreciate it!); second, we want to provide a destination for prospective employees, partners, and members of the press where they can access important information about the company. Kudos to our design team.

In March this year, we removed the option for new users to create new Basic Accounts. Basic Account users today represent the significant majority of our users, and we recognize their value to the LiveJournal community. Unfortunately, at this point we can no longer afford the expense of investing in our services (given the size to which we have grown and the new product features and enhancements we want to deliver as we outlined in our Update to Development Priorities) while at the same time supporting Basic Accounts as they were.

In the recent entry to the lj_2008 community we outlined several advertising options we were considering in order to bring the Basic Account option back for all users. As a reminder, these were the three proposals:



We received some great comments on our proposals as well as feedback and suggestions on different ways we could continue the level of investments we were making in LiveJournal, its users and communities. To that end, in order to accomplish our stated goals, we are going to implement the following for all current and new Basic Accounts:

• We will not be reinstating the option to register a new Basic Account, but we will instead offer the ability to downgrade to a Basic Account, via the Manage Account page, as of August 28, 2008. This will also apply to communities.

• Based on your feedback and after consultations with the Advisory Board, we decided to implement advertising Proposal 1, which means that advertising will be displayed to visitors who are not logged in to LiveJournal at the time when they are looking at Basic Account journals and communities. Users who are logged in to their account will not be shown advertising on any Basic journals or communities.

• In addition, because of your feedback and concerns about the advertising shown on LiveJournal, we’re working to devise an improved ad feedback mechanism.

• For the month of September, we will offer a 20% off sale on Paid accounts. Details of the sale will be posted on our next news update, August 28th.
  

• As some of you suggested, we have decided to hold a Permanent Account sale in November.

• As some of you further suggested, we will offer a la carte purchases of userpics in November. We know this is of great interest to many of you, and we’ll come back to you in October with additional details.
  

We'll continue to explore different (and we hope) creative methods of generating additional income going forward. As always, we want to hear back from you with your ideas, comments, and suggestions.

Finally, we wanted to try to clear up a recurrent misunderstanding regarding what the difference will be between a Basic Account and a Plus Account after these changes are implemented.

• Plus accounts will always display ads to all viewers except logged-in Paid and Permanent account holders. This means you will see ads on your own Plus journal anytime you view it, in addition to seeing ads on any other Plus journal you view. In exchange for the display of ads, Plus accounts have access to more features and services than Basic accounts.


• With a Basic Account, on the other hand, you will not see ads on any Basic journal or community you view (including your own) while you are logged in. However, as before, Basic accounts have less functionality as well as fewer features than a Plus account.

We plan to continue working with you and incorporating your feedback as much as possible to help LiveJournal continue being the dynamic and fun place we all enjoy. Like you, we want LiveJournal to be around for a long time, and we need your help to make that hope a reality.

I'm still jet-lagged. Arriving back in my usually untidy and needing-a-clean flat was not a terrific boost. Feeling rather tired, I succumbed to distraction.
I feel there are lots of possibilities around. Things can be moved and changed.

I feel much energised from my trip to Europe. I hope I can sustain the energy and enthusiasm and sense of possibilities.

Two pics from UK:
Princess Diana's grave on the island lake at Althorp, near my brother's house. The exhibition of Diana memorabilia is very well done. There was an exhibit of lots of her outfits, each designed for her attendance at a particular function, with notes about the designer and photos of her at the functions. I'm not normally into fashion and style but I really enjoyed that part of the exhibition. I actually found myself getting a big lump in my throat.


Longboats on the Grand Union canal, near Northampton

olympicgames08
The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games Community.

babyidols
A photo contest community for babies aged 0-3 years, in the format of American Idol.

muslimgirls
Where Muslim girls from all walks of life can share articles and discuss issues regarding Islam today.