Monday, March 31, 2003
There seems to be an ammount of debate in blogdom about whether to blog on the war or not.I guess I'm not entirely comfortable blogging about it since it's started, partly because anything I say here won't be news anyway, but also because my opinions now the fighting has started are getting rather more extreme than even I expected.
I'm frustrated by the media coverage with reporters and news readers making dumb and unfounded statements and asking the most stupid questions. I'm aggravated by the obvious lies being told by the Iraqi authorities, and I'm amazed at the naivety of anyone who can't see that the Iraqis absolutely WILL slaughter their own civillians just so they can say we did it.
There's a very ugly logic to much that's happening over there.
Sure there's no uprising in the towns and cities... it'd be like having a conservative government (they suck, for those who aren't sure) in London and having the French invade us to depose that govt. Would I rise up against the conservatives? Hell no! I'd go kick French butt.
Sure the Iraqis are using civillians as human shields, not to mention every other cowardly and underhanded tactic possible. So what's surprising about that? If you're a 7 stone weakling and some 6 foot musclebound asshole picks a fight with you, you kick him in the nuts. It ain't honourable, but it's about the only chance you have to even the odds.
Blah blah blah... I could go on, but I think you get the picture. War's ugly and we aren't gonna walk away from this smelling of roses. The Iraqis won't thank us for this even when Saddam is removed, and the whole of the middle east will hate us. Chances are there'll be civil war there when we finally pull out, but fuck it... if you're gonna do a thing there's no sense in being half hearted about it. Saddam's an evil bastard who's only concern is keeping power at any expense. He needs taking out, and if doing that's gonna be ugly, so be it.
I guess what bothers me about this war more than anything isn't the senseless loss of life... (disgusting example of how self obsessed I am) it's that it's made me look at myself in a different way... how I view the inhabitants of another culture. I look at the behaviour of the Iraqis themselves and the arguments and attitude of all the other arab nations, and all I find myself thinking is "uncivilised, stupid, fucking savages."
I remember being in my teens, being a peace loving, tollerant kid who honestly believed you could solve any problem by simply talking it through logically. I was idealistic, and couldn't understand how anyone could hate anyone else just because they viewed the world differently.
I liked that person.
He's long gone, and that's sad.
Bomb the shit out of the fuckers.
*Shudder*
R.I.P civilised world, civilised people, civilised me.
Steve 11:11 AM [+] (0) comments
Sunday, March 30, 2003
Blimey.It's been a very busy few days. Spring cleaning has turned into a full redecorating.
Work on the bedroom is complete, and tomorrow I finish sorting out the living-room before painting it.
Truth is, I've had very little to do with the painting... Brigitte's been taking care of that, as she's a very strange person and actually enjoys it.
Anyways, this room looks abnormally habitable, which makes a refreshing change from my usual level of squalor.
Steve 9:52 PM [+] (0) comments
Thursday, March 27, 2003
Yikes.There's a wasps nest up in the loft.
It's not very big, thankfully... about the size of a tennis ball, and doesn't appear to be inhabited. It was a couple of years ago when I saw wasps going in and out of my loft, and as I understand it, the little bastards only stay in the nest for the winter.
Even so, I'm gonna be very careful and keep an eye on it while I'm working up there. Any nasty bug activity and I'll get the exterminators in.
Steve 3:50 PM [+] (0) comments
Phew!
I'm a busy chappy today. Spring cleaning. I must be ill or something.
It's rather amazing how much crap can accumulate in a flat as small as this over a period of time. It's probably gonna take a couple of days to get the place as I want it, and then I'll need help at the weekend, 'cause there's masses of stuff that's gonna get moved up into the loft.
Steve 1:53 PM [+] (0) comments
Wednesday, March 26, 2003
HeheheAbout 30 mins ago BBC News 24 was reporting that they believed the Ministry of Information building in Baghdad may have been bombed. I knew this wasn't true as I was watching streaming video from the roof of that very building at that moment.
I emailed them with the url of the video stream, and what do you know, 5 mins later they were showing that exact same video stream on the show. Coincidence? Maybe, but it made me chuckle.
Labels: war
Steve 3:39 AM [+] (0) comments
Tuesday, March 25, 2003
I've avoided talking about the war since it actually started since there's nothing I could say that hasn't already been said a billion times on tv.The net being a wonderful thing though, I've been watching various different news stations from across the globe, mostly just to see how the coverage differs.
I don't understand a single word that's said on Al Jazeera, but I did see the rather nasty video footage of dead US solders that they aren't showing on western tv. Bloody savages.
If you're curious to see how things are being reported on British tv, check out BBC News 24 on either Media Player or Real Player.
Labels: war
Steve 9:32 AM [+] (0) comments
*Sigh*
For reasons that are completely beyond me, I'm unable to alter my template.
I go into the template editing screen, edit the code, save it, hit publish, and... nothing. It doesn't change. The most I get is a little [more info] link that points to the blogger trouble-shooting page, but that's it.
I've checked all of my html, as this was suggested as a problem on the help pages, but since most of it was done in dreamwaver, there shouldn't be any errors.
Bummer.
Labels: blogging
Steve 6:13 AM [+] (0) comments
Monday, March 24, 2003
Very much as I expected, my manager wouldn't let things lie, much less admit she was wrong.She wasn't there today, but had instructed the supervisor to discipline me, firstly for talking back, and secondly for failing to achieve the (revised) target.
Hah!
I explained to the supervisor exactly what had taken place on friday, and she understood my position entirely, but still had to follow her instructions. Needless to say, I informed her that I would not accept any form of reprimand, especially as the manager didn't have the guts to do it herself. I then told her I'd stay to the end of my shift, purely so she wouldn't be left short-staffed, but that I would not be returning.
On talking to her just as I was leaving, the supervisor told me she didn't blame me for leaving at all. Dozens have already quit for exactly the same reason, and that she was looking for a new job herself. She also told me the only reason nothing is done about our manager is because her daughter is a senior manager. Don't you just love nepotism?
Seems I was right about the place from the start. Totally Mickey Mouse.
Steve 11:46 AM [+] (0) comments
Friday, March 21, 2003
Did I say unprofessional when I mentioned my boss the other day?I should have said totally bloody stupid.
She set us a task today, and then just to make a straightforward job more difficult, she makes it a contest to see who can complete an equal share of the task in the fastest time. So there you have a group of people working against each other instead of with each other, and in such a way that completey dissrupts the normal working routine. That's bad management if ever I saw it. Anyway, she gave us a time limit of 4 hours, which myself and the guy I work with achieved easily, only to be told afterwards that we'd missed the 'real' target time by some margin.
Needless to say, I was not happy about this, and when I queried it with her, she said we'd missed the target and that was that. I asked "what about the 4 hours YOU set us?" She waffled on for a moment, at which point I expressed my displeasure in no uncertain terms saying that I was perfectly happy to work to a target, but for her to move the goalposts afterwards was unacceptable. She walked away.
This probably isn't going to be the last such episode, and it's only a matter of time before I leave. It's a real shame, because I enjoy the job, and like all the other people I work with... I just can't stand to be messed about by an incompetent manager on an ego trip.
Steve 11:42 AM [+] (0) comments
Wednesday, March 19, 2003
Not to be too blunt about it, my brother is a fucking idiot.He just phoned me, at midnight mind you, drunk as a skunk, starts waffling on about my dad and his wife, neither of whom I like as he well knows, and then tells me I need to lighten up or he's going to hang up the phone.
Needless to say, my respone was along the lines of "Okay, now you lsiten to me. Don't you EVER phone me at this hour again, don't you EVER phone me when you're drunk again, and don't you EVER tell me what I should or should not think or say with regard to our dad and his dumb bitch of a wife!!!" after which, I hung up.
Fucking twat!
Labels: annoyed
Steve 12:17 AM [+] (0) comments
Tuesday, March 18, 2003
Oh lookie. We're going to war? Gosh! No-one saw that one coming eh?I had to chuckle while watching the news just now. A reporter was talking about a group of anti-war protesters in London, and propped up against a fence behind her was a big colourful banner with the single word "PEACE" printed on it... except that... wait, it didn't say PEACE at all. Now either this person was an illiterate moron with even worse spelling than mine, or they were protesting at the PACE of something or other. Maybe they were at the wrong protest, and objected to the speed, or lack of, with regard to traffic in London.
Labels: war
Steve 8:53 PM [+] (0) comments
Monday, March 17, 2003
OMG!!!You've seen those Billy Bass singing fish? Hate them?
You NEED to check THIS out. Be warned, it contains some VERY bad language, but it's just too funny to ignore.
Steve 1:07 PM [+] (0) comments
Sunday, March 16, 2003
After a couple of days tweaking, Radio Benway is going from strength to strength. It's now a fairly eclectic mix of alternative, goth, rock, trance, retro and some stuff that defies classification. Call it whatever you like, but it certainly isn't mainstream.I have to say, Launch by yahoo is one of, if not THE best internet service I've come across, and certainly the best music service. Setting up your own free radio station there is so easy, and the selection of available music is enormous.
Brigitte took one look while I was tinkering with my station, and promptly went and set up one of her own.
If you use a popup killer, you'll need to turn it off to listen to these stations, as the console appears in a popup window.
Labels: launchcast
Steve 2:36 PM [+] (0) comments
Saturday, March 15, 2003
Testing Benway RadioSome time back I had a radio station on one of my websites. This was used a great service that allowed me to pick the play list and how often various tracks got played, but sadly the service closed down.
Well, I've just found something similar provided by yahoo. I'm not sure how well, if at all, this will work, but here's a link so you can give it a try.
Click Here
Testing it, things seem to be working quite well, so I'm going to spend quite a bit of time fine tuning it, so the station conforms to my taste in music. Have a listen if you're curious :-)
Labels: launchcast
Steve 12:14 AM [+] (0) comments
Friday, March 14, 2003
Not the most enjoyable working day of my life.The management are rather cracking down on the attainment of certain targets, and even though I've only been there for 4 days, I got the lecture along with 2 others. I was however able to sit there rather smug in the knowledge that I'd attained my target for the day.
What I didn't like though was then being thrown head first into a situation of which I have no experience, no training, and hadn't been provided with a fraction of the information necesary to do the job effectively. To me, that's bad management, and I don't appreciate being put in that position.
I'm rather coming to the conclusion that the whole operation is a bit Mickey Mouse, and if it continues like that, I won't stay there long. It's not like I need my hand held the whole time I'm there, but I would like to have certain tasks explained to me, at least once.
The word that comes to mind is unprofessional.
Steve 12:16 PM [+] (0) comments
Thursday, March 13, 2003
I've been watching BBC News 24 for the past couple of days and find myself rather disturbed by the attitudes of certain American polititians and 'political experts' when interviewed in that channel's 'Hard Talk' show.When asked questions regarding the legality of an attack against Iraq without a UN mandate, the resposnse of one interviewee was "We're so powerful, with such a large military force, legality is basically irrelevant."
This seems to be a recurring theme just lately. America is so powerful, the rules don't apply. Another example is the American withdrawl of support for the new International Court that's been set up to try those guilty of crimes against humanity, war crimes etc. America is doing deals behind the scenes with individual countries in an attempt to make americans exempt from tiral in this court.
What kind of message is this supposed to send? "Sure, you can try foreign war criminals, but if american soldiers commit attrocities, you can't touch them, because the rules don't apply to us."
Probably the most alarming thing I heard was last night. A congressman who claimed that while Al Qaeda was a terrorist organisation that needed to be dealt with, the IRA was a legitimate military organisation because they only attacked military targets (god only knows where he gets his information from) and had a genuine political grievance against the British Government. When this rule was applied to the Pailestinians having a genuine grievance against the Israelis occupying their teritory, he completely pooh poohed the idea.
The double standards in the attitudes being displayed rather make me sick, and the consistant disregard for the rules, or international law on the grounds that they don't apply to America... it's alarming to say the least. How far can you push such attitudes before all manner of illegal activities are conducted in the name of 'democracy and freedom'? Freedom for who? America?
I know this sounds like a simple case of american bashing, but it's not really as simple as that. I have many american friends... probably more than english friends, but on a national level, I'm deeply disturbed by the political stance of that 'great' nation... the arrogance that comes with military and economic might, and the fundamentalism that's increasingly seeping into political policy. There seems to be a growing belief that any non-democratic nation is a legitimate target of military, political or economic aggression. The support of Israel is largely down to them being a democratic state, regardless of the fact that they conduct all manner of unsavoury activities, flouting international law left and right. Do you suppose they'd recieve anything like the support they enjoy if they weren't a democracy?
Condesning all of that down to the simplest terms, how far can you push it before 'the promotion of freedom and democracy' becomes the oppression of anyone who disagrees with America?
Labels: war
Steve 12:22 PM [+] (0) comments
Tuesday, March 11, 2003
There's not much to be said about today really.I got up, went to work (easy day again), came home, went to sleep... got up and behaved in a typically lazy manner, doing pretty much bugger all. Just how I like it :-)
I found myself rather amused when a person came into the chatroom and asked me a load of technical questions about the room and cams, 'cause he wants to build something along similar lines. It's kinda cheeky really, but I figured since I'm not worried about competition, and this other cam chat site would be in a private members area, what the heck... I showed him/her how it all works.
Truth is, the cam chat area of my site is very basic and low-tech... certainly not rocket science.
Steve 6:19 PM [+] (0) comments
Monday, March 10, 2003
First day in the new job was a doddle. It's a complete no brainer, and so easy it's funny. I think I can quite happily go in, do my (pleasantly short) shift, and come home again without giving it a second thought. Perfect.After work, I took myself down to the doctors to get this dodgy vein in my leg, and the cough that's been bugging me for the past couple of months checked out.
The vein is 'probably' nothing to worry about, and the doctor agreed with me when I said I thought it was most likely down to being sat on my arse all day every day on the net, and that now I'm working and more active, it should be okay. Still, he did say I should keep an eye on it, and go back to see him if it gives me any more trouble.
As for the cough... he couldn't hear anything abnormal in my chest, but considering I smoke, and have been coughing for quite a while, he's sending me for a chest x-ray just to be on the safe side. Truth is, he figures if there's anything at all wrong, it may be mild asthma.
Too many cigs is my theory, but whatever, I'll go get the x-ray done this week just for my own peace of mind.
Labels: work
Steve 2:58 PM [+] (0) comments
Sunday, March 09, 2003
What a busy weekend.Saturday was mostly taken up buying a whole new wardrobe. This new job requires smart casual attire, and while my typical dress style is certainly casual, you could never call it smart. So, 7 new tops, including polo shirts, long sleeve t-shirts, and sweat-shirts, 2 pairs of trousers, a jacket and a pair of shoes, all in colours and styles that I would never previously have considered... I think I'm all set. Expensive? Hmmm... £135. That's more money on clothes in one day than I've spent in the past year, but still a lot less than I was expecting. There may be photos forthcoming if I can get round to it.
Sunday morning... Grand Prix. Woohoo!
As has been pointed out in yesterdays comments, my semi-prediction was entirely wrong, and the Ferraris didn't wander off into the distance. I have to say, though I do love Ferrari road cars, I'm thrilled that they didn't dominate the race, 'cause last years races got so dull, I stopped watching. This race was a whole different kettle of fish, and very exciting. Lets hope they're all like that.
Sunday afternoon started out with a trip to visit Brigitte's parents on their narrow-boat, but when we arrived at the arranged place at the arranged time, they weren't there. One phone-call later, finding that they weren'y going to arrive for another couple of hours, we pootled off down the road to this fancy country shopping village thingie. It's like a small group of shops selling country crafts, arts, and garden related goods, aimed very much at the horsie set. Very up-market.
First things first of course, it was around 2pm, and time for breakfast *chuckles*. We went into this little cafe/resteraunt, where we had 2 coffees, Brigitte had some coffee/almod cake, and I had a chilli. Yummy... except the chilli was £6. Fair enough, if it had been the huge plate full I'd been expecting, but good lord... it was maybe enough to feed a baby mouse with stunted growth. Now I don't know what kind of prices horsie/country folk consider acceptable, but if they think £6 for a tiny plate of chilli that tastes no better than the frozen £1 chilli I buy in town is reasonable, they're completely demented.
So, extorsionate late breakfast consumed, and expensive country shops browsed, we went and met up with Brigittes parents. This involved a very enjoyable ride in the narrowboat, which for myself, someone with no boating experience at all, was very educational. Provided it was possible to hook up some kind of half decent net connection, I could quite see myself living on a narrow-boat one day, as having spent a little time on theirs, I can really see the appeal.
What had been a very active and enjoyable weekend was rather marred on the way home. We were sat at the exit of a petrol station, waiting to pull onto a very busy road. All of a sudden, Brigitte calls out "Oh no... it's not going to... look... that cat's not going to make it."
This black and white cat that looked very much like my own had made a dash to cross the road, running into very heavy oncoming traffic. Now I've seen plenty of dead cats by the side of the road in my time, including more than one of my own, but this was the first time I'd ever see it actually happen. The poor thing ran top speed, head first into the side of a car that was easily doing 50mph. It didn't stand a chance. I was horrified to see it tumbling head over heals down and across the road, coming to a halt in a crumpled bundle of twitching limbs. I was torn, wanting to go over to see if there was anything to be done for the stricken creature, but it was laying in a very dangerous spot, especially as it was dark, and not easily reachable from our location... and we didn't know the location of any vets in the area anyway. In the end, we thought better of risking life and limb to get across the road to it, and drove away with very heavy hearts.
Steve 11:24 PM [+] (0) comments
Saturday, March 08, 2003
F1 Grand Prix qualifying just finished.I rather like this new '1 flying lap' format, but at the end of the day, all the usual suspects are pretty much where you'd expect to see them on the grid tomorrow.
I'll have my eye on the BAR and Toyotas come the race, but it'll be a big surprise if the Ferraris don't finish first and second.
*Yawn*
Labels: F1
Steve 3:53 AM [+] (0) comments
Ever seen the Final Fantasy movie?
I don't get it... the movie press, and most sci-fi magazines I've read pretty much slate the film.
So it bombed at the cinemas. Big deal, and indeed, not at all surprising. This isn't some braindead good vs evil space romp that a retarded baboon could understand. It takes a brain to understand the plot, but it's a very good plot. The movie press should know better than to stoop to lowest common denominator values when reviewing a movie. Just because it's not easy doesn't make it bad... quite the oposite in many cases. I mean, who could call Akira easily comprehensible?
So anyway... I've been watching it again this evening, and marvelling at the utterly amazing visuals. Breathtaking. If you like sci-fi, have a brain, and haven't seen this film already, trust me, you should.
Labels: movies
Steve 12:53 AM [+] (0) comments
Friday, March 07, 2003
It's occurred to me that some people (assuming anyone's even remotely interested) may not be entirely clear on my stance regarding the upcoming war.I've spoken out against Bush and Blair, stating that they have shown no real evidence to justify going to war, and consistantly ignored world and public opinion.
On the other hand, I can quite happily sit here and say the U.N. security council is an innefective if not completely worthless organisation that does little but provide a platform for pointless blathering and posturing.
So, am I a hawk or a dove?
Hehehe. I'm neither.
I guess looking at it honestly, I'm rather an amoral, if not immoral person. I can quite openly accept that the cases put forward by Bush and Blair are tenuous at best, and in truth offer little in the way of hard evidence to justify a war. However, I'm also fully aware of the fact that they're going to go to war whatever happens. So here's my position. Cut the bullshit, quit blathering and get on with it. Stop trying to pull the wool over our eyes in the vain hope that we're gonna buy your story and believe such an attack is justified. It isn't, but since it's gonna happen anyway, shut up and do it.
I'm tired of being so blatantly lied to by our polititians, but I'm also tired of listening to lame dumbass french and german twitterings. What's the point of waiting for several months to prove the inspectors won't be able to do their job? Stalling the inevitable just to say "we gave peace a chance" is entirely pointless and pathetic when it obviously doesn't have a chance, so either join in or at least shut up. Actually, no... just shut up.
No, I don't advocate war as an acceptable solution to anything, but acceptable is a fairly redundant word when applied to human nature in situations such as this. It's going to happen, so lets cut all the pretentions regarding 'acceptable' behaviour and actions and just get it over with.
Labels: war
Steve 8:43 PM [+] (0) comments
The tv's back.
*Breathes a sigh of relief*
Typically, the first thing I found myself watching was the news, more specifically, the U.N. Security Council meeting, following the Blix report.
Arguments regarding who's right and who's wrong aside, one thing rather struck me about this meeting, and all the others previous to it, and it's something that kinda leads me to question the effectivenes of such meetings in general.
These people don't actually talk to each other. The delegates aren't in a position to respond to what they've heard from other delegates speaking previous to them in that meeting... they simply read pre-written speaches, with no room for actually assesing what's been said already. One nation might provide key new imformation that should logically alter the view of other nations and/or their representatives, but as things work there, opposing points of view still get aired which completely ignore the facts just stated. Perhaps all perspectives are re-evaluated later by the various nations, but it seems that assesing the attitudes and opinions of each nation is problematic when working in such an unresponsive manner.
It's frustrating to watch.
All of these people are in the same room, they can all hear each other, but they are not actually communicating in realtime. They may not actually be ignoring each other, but no genuine assesment of information appears to happen.
Much as I may dislike Bush's attitude towards the U.N., I rather can see his opinion that the U.N. may become irrelevant.
Labels: war
Steve 5:26 PM [+] (0) comments
Thursday, March 06, 2003
The power's back, but now cable tv's down. What in god's name's going on aorund here? I know the housing association is having some maintenance done on the estate, but honestly, they should at least warn us before cutting off vital services, and yes, tv is vital I tell you... VITAL!Steve 7:16 PM [+] (0) comments
Oops. This isn't clever.
The electricity's just gone dead on my whole estate.
I thought maybe I just needed to stick another card into the meter, or at worst that a curcuit breaker had popped for some reason, but on poking my head outside the front door, my next door neighbour was doing exactly the same as me... looking at his electricity meter.
I bet it's those damned workmen just round the corner... probably cut through a mains cable by accident.
So I'm sat here now writing this on the laptop's battery power, wondering how long before it dies. Good job it works like a UPS unit, no interruption at all.
*Twiddles fingers waiting for the power to come back on.
Steve 1:52 PM [+] (0) comments
Wednesday, March 05, 2003
Woo!I just had a phonecall. I got the job.
It seems while one of the references I was given by a previous employer was excellent (and I know exactly who that was), the other was not so good. Nasty, devious, backstabbing assholes. Should I ever need references again, I won't be putting their name down.
Needless to say, I was given the benefit of the doubt on the strength of my good reference and positive attitude in the interview, and have been given a 3 month probationary contract, which is pretty much standard these days.
Am I thrilled? No, not really. The wages aren't great, and there are aspects of the job that I'm not keen on, but the hours are very flexible and it opens up a number of doors for me, so it's certainly not a bad thing.
Now I need to go buy some new clothes, as what I usually wear is wholely unsuitable, and then I start on monday morning. Should be interesting.
Labels: work
Steve 5:24 PM [+] (0) comments
Job interview this afternoon. Should be...er... fun? Nah. Interesting? Probably not. Predictable? More than likely.
What was amusing though was the way I found out about the interview.
I applied for this job maybe 3 months ago, heard nothing from the company, and then forgot all about it. So, yesterday morning at about 9am, I was just in the process of waking up, still pretty comatose really, when the phone rings. "Hello. Could I speak to Mr Benway please?" (No, that's not my real name. You'll have to work a bit if you wanna find out what it really is). In my pre-coffee confused state, this sounded like Brigitte, and I thought she was just having a laugh. "Hehehe... yeah, right." I replied.
"Is this Mr Benway? This is so-and so, from such and such company phoning regarding a job vacancy."
Oops. Talk about feeling like a right arse.
The moral of this story is, don't phone me in the morning unless you know I've had at least 5 cups of coffee, otherwise I'll talk complete jibberish, not even knowing what planet I'm on. Or... maybe it's that I shouldn't answer the phone till I've had the afforementioned coffees. Or... oh what the heck... there is no moral to this story, I just talk bollox when I'm not properly awake. Kinda like right now.
Who am I again?
Labels: interviews, work
Steve 9:05 AM [+] (0) comments
Monday, March 03, 2003
It's no secret that from time to time I frequent certain 'adult' webcam sites, as much out of curiosity as anything. It's the motivation and mindset of the people displaying themselves that interests me, and while some are completely beyond my comprehension, I do feel I've kind of got a grip of one little sector.Some of these sites aren't supposed to contain adult material, yet I'm sure if you've ever visited such places, or even been for a wander round various rooms on yahoo messenger, you'll have seen them... middle aged guys sitting there talking to no-one in particular, with their tackle out, often spanking the monkey. I don't understand this behaviour at all, not even remotely. Now I'm a pretty red blooded guy, very healthy sex drive and all that, but I can't comprehend the urge to slap the salami in front of countless strangers. To me, there are no excuses... that kind of behaviour is just warped.
Then there are the sites that feature communal chat rooms with 'adult' cams. Typically, there are the monkey spankers, but there are women doing it too, and more than that, you often see couples having full sex, right in front of their webcam. I guess I can get my head around this a bit more, with there being group chat... it's a thrill, and ammounts to something of a cyber gang-bang. Doing it while chatting with and watching/being watched by loads of people certainly isn't my scene, but I can understand it, even if it does seem strange.
The sector that most interests me though are the young (and sometimes not so young) girls who do it for money. You may know the kind of place... they sit around in their underwear in a chatroom, with all these guys drooling at them and predictably requesting the girls get naked and perform various acts on themselves, upon which the girls tell them to buy a show and they'll do pretty much whatever's asked of them.
Why are these places more interesting? The motivation is no mystery, it's all about money.
To be honest, there are a couple of things that interest me in these places, one that I don't get, and one that's just something of a consistant observation I've made over time.
The first is that some of these girls are absolutely stunning. I don't mean just pretty, not bad, or someone you wouldn't kick out of bed in the morning. I mean utterly breathtaking. Why do they need to do this for a living? For sure, some are romanian, where the economy is in a terrible state, and the chances of finding a job that'd pay anything near what these girls earn are about zero, but not all of them. Many are american, where the oportunities for women with those kind of looks should be pretty limitless. I guess I know the answer with one of them... she's an actress, or a wannabe actress, so she's able to bring in big money on the cam at night, while attending auditions and whatever in the day. That's one out of how many? Beats me.
So anyway, the observation I've made while frequenting these places.
Obviously, these girls are all doing what they do to make money, but some are vastly more successful than others, and the secret of their success doesn't appear to have anything to do with how pretty they are. Strangely enough, it appears that success in these places comes down to respect... the respect shown by the girls towards the guys frequenting their rooms. That sounds kind of odd when 90% of the guys are just demanding they get naked and stick whatever up wherever, and showing no respect to the girls whatsoever, but it's true.
Here's what I mean.
You can go into many of those rooms, and the girl is sat there in her underwear, looking bored shitless (which is understandable) and pretty much ignoring all the guys there. They don't speak beyond "Hi" and "No... buy a show!". Sure, many of the guys are low-lifes with no manners, but to show such a total lack of regard for the amusement and entertainment of the punters, to basicly show that they're considered nothing but a meal ticket, it's bad business, and those girls, however pretty they may be, don't get much in the way of trade.
On the other hand, you can go into some rooms, and the girls are sat chatting away with the guys, lots of banter, and genuinely get to know the people who visit their rooms. They may indeed be bored senseless, and consider most of the guys as sad and pathetic, but the difference is they don't show it... giving every impression of having fun and enjoying what they do. Maybe they're faking every aspect of the show they put on, but at the end of the day, they make an effort, and it pays off... they make a LOT of money.
Now I'm really not concerned with the moral aspects of what these girls do. Who's to say if it's right or wrong? I honestly don't care. What I will say though is I have a lot of respect for a woman who can go naked on cam for all the world to see, do god knows whatever to herself, make a lot of money while doing it, and still behave like a civilised human being when so many of the people around them are acting like a bunch of fucking animals.
Oh... and for the record, no, I've never paid to watch. That probably doesn't make me a favoured visitor in those rooms, but I do make them laugh with certain obscure observations, and that can't be a bad thing when you're bored out of your head.
Labels: webcams
Steve 5:57 PM [+] (0) comments
Sunday, March 02, 2003
There's a down side to being a super fit always healthy person. On the rare occasions that I'm not fit and healty, I not only get a major case of the whines, but there's also the tendancy for me to panic and make a complete twat of myself.So there we were yesterday, in Brigitte's car on the way to Aylesbury for a shopping trip, when my already somewhat congested lungs (from a lingering minor chest infection that's been hanging around for a couple of months) decided they were gonna have a barny at me for all the cigs I'd smoked the night before. All of a sudden I couldn't breathe. "Wheeze wheeze" I went. This, coupled with a periodic chest pain I suffer due to misaligned shoulders from bad posture, and an oddly inflamed vein in my leg, all at the same time, led to the most scary ideas going through my head.
"Oh shit, I've got a deep vein thrombosis, a blood clot's gone to my lungs, blocking the blood flow to my heart, and now I'm gonna die!!"
Obviously I didn't die, but it freaked me out so I was all in a sweat, which rather worried Brigitte too. So she's sat there looking concerned and asking if I'm okay, and the best I could say was "I don't know." Anyway, the panic subsided when I realised I wasn't gonna keel over straight away, and we carried on to Aylesbury.
We didn't stay that long though, 'cause even though I obviously wasn't gonna fall down dead, I really did feel lousy, just kinda following Brigitte like some lost puppy. On getting home, we just slumped down in a chair, downloading music on kazaa lite while I quietly whimpered. I'm such a wuss.
So... I need to quit the cigs bigtime if they're gonna make me feel like that, and in truth, should probably see the doctor about this vein thing too.
Anyway, I need to say a belated happy birthday to arry, as in all my whining and feeling lousy, I entirely failed in my duties as a friend, and didn't go wish her a happy birthday yesterday.
Labels: medical, quitting smoking
Steve 1:04 PM [+] (0) comments
Saturday, March 01, 2003
Curious.Daypop Top Word Burst gives a listing of the top 20 most used words in weblogs and the news over the past couple of days. Interesting if you want to know what the latest buzz online is. At least... that's what they say. Looking at it, it seems rather questionable, the words listed being... well... not very interesting in the main, but maybe that's just my perception. I like the idea though.
Steve 1:32 PM [+] (0) comments
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