"Feminazis" Shrink Penises

(Via Media Matters)

The American talk show radio host and political commentator Rush Limbaugh presents a theory on why the average penis size is presumably ten percent smaller than it was in 1950. (Results according to some unnamed "Italian scientists".)

According to the talk show host the researchers blame air pollution for this phenomenon, but he has his own theory. Limbaugh believes the shrinking has to be blamed on "feminazis" and "chikifikation".

It´s always hilarious when guys discuss their favorite subject, the sizes of their dongs, but blaming the possible shrinkage on female emancipation and equality between the sexes is downright ludicrously and riotously comical. I laughed so hard my side hurts.

Do Avatars Die?

"Den döende dandyn" (The Dying Dandy) (1918), by Nils von Dardel

I seem to recall my buddy sirhc DeSantis-McMillan once posing the question, on his blog or somewhere else, "What do we mean when we say that an avatar dies?" At the time I did not know what to respond to his question, but now perhaps I have an inkling.

My own gut response would be to say that avatars cannot die because they themselves have not had life. The life they seem to have comes from their handlers, i.e. the persons behind the avatars.

However, handlers can stop logging into SecondLife for various reasons except their dying. They could simply lose interest or they could even choose to delete their account altogether. In those cases I don´t believe we would use "died" to describe what occurred to the avatar, but rather "they left" or just "they don´t log in anymore".

In my experience, we use the expression that "an avatar has died" only in those circumstances when we know - or believe - that the handler has in fact passed away. So in that sence I would say that avatars can - and do - die.

Now tell me what you think and what your experience is of the vernacular among residents of SecondLife in these matters?

Slanted Journalism

The latest issue of Newsweek has - rightfully - drawn a lot of criticism for the magazine´s cover and article on "Muslim Rage".

The U.S. magazines grossly exaggerated and dishonest reporting on the reactions in the Muslim world on the the discovery of an inane and provocative Islamophobic film on YouTube must be one of the worst examples in history of bad journalism. The magazine blows up the reactions of a small minority of crazy extremists and tries to imply that there is a widespread fury among the Muslims.

Some people should lose their job for this bummer, if they haven´t already, and hopefully that includes the editor-in-chief.

The website Gawker.com has made a satirical compilation of thirteen photographs showing us the true pictures of the Muslim Rage, see Gawker: 13 Powerful Images of Muslim Rage. (Tipped by Avaaz.org.)

Angry Egyptians gather to vent their Muslim rage

Iranian couple preparing to rage

The reaction to the cover and the article in the Muslim community has also resulted in a a flood of hilarious tweets.

Preparations for Wintering

Well, today is the autumn equinox in the northern hemisphere. All species of animals are starting to prepare for the onslaught of winter, and the Bock-monster also.

The Bock-monster was the nickname lovingly given to the Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm and prince of Cascade Falls, by the amazing Ms. Elfay Pinkdot, who once had the renowned "Coffee and Pajamas Jazz Show" at Circe´s Sunset Jazz Club. This was a regular hangout for the laird during Saturdays or Sundays for several years, at first usually with his Ars but later on his own. Well, not alone actually because he had many dear friends there.

The animals have three options to choose among. The first is whether to stay or to migrate to warmer climes. if they decide to overwinter they must decide whether to hibernate or to face the winter awake.

The last three days the laird sees to have slipped into a state of semi-hibernation, as soon as he comes home from work he throws himself in bed and pulls the duvet up over his head, taking care to see to it that his feet do not stick out. He then sleeps until midnight and then wakes up to drink a little water, brush his teeth and read mail for about an hour or two before going back to bed to sleep until it´s time to get up for work.

A part of the hibernating process is also to fatten up before falling asleep, for this reason the laird has in those three days consumed one (1) kilogram of Bassett´s Winegums on his own. He cannot stand the sight of them anymore.

This is a rather boring existence and he misses his friends in both lives, but he is following his doctors advice, "If you need to sleep, sleep!".

Anyway I do get reports of whats happening in SecondLife. Yesterday I was informed among other things that the studly Mr. Ziggy Starsmith had been spotted at Genni´s Bar in Second Norway enjoying the music of my Sergeant at Arms, the British-Canadian cat sirhc DeSantis McMillan.

With Room for A Man

While I am in still my ranting mood (please excuse the previous much too long post) let me move on to another of my pet peeves, men´s underwear.

I hate all underwear except the classic boxers and preferably a size too large. Briefs, g-strings and all the other variations in-between make me squirm with anguish. I want lots of room down there, nothing snug or tight fitting.

If they have a well made waistband that doesn´t roll-up on itself or goes limp after using them a few times they are perfect! It is amazing how many try to sell you substandard underwear with waistbands that roll-up on themselves the second time you wear them or have waistbands that go totally limp after one wash. Good quality boxers last a long time and through many washes with the waist band intact.

A Strange Day

Photo GETTY

As I woke up this morning I had the feeling this was going to be an awful day, but in hindsight it turned out not so bad. That should teach me!

So even if I overslept a little, I got to my work place in time for my meeting with one of my staff members. We were going to discuss a few problems in his performance lately. As he sometimes has a tendency to shut off all lines of communication when he feels pressured and just respond with "yes", "no" or "I don´t know", much like a teenager in a bad mood ,even though he is thirty-one years old I had been making plans on how to handle this.

Amazingly enough we had an open and honest exchange of views and after that could reach an agreement on how to move ahead.

After that I had to rush to my doctors appointment and got there just in time. Usually they let me right in but this time no one came for me so after fifteen minutes in the waiting room I mad inquiries. As it turned out my doctor had moved to new offices and had forgotten to inform me about me. When I made a telephone call to his offices the nurse was very sorry about the oversight and gave me a new appointment in the afternoon and the new address.

The meeting with my sweet Hungarian doctor was swift and good. Have I told you earlier that he is one of those very rare kinds of doctors that actually listens to what the patients are saying?

Well I told him about my strange mood swings and that I felt that my mood curve had a declining trend. I also told him about my occasional problems falling asleep. He increased my dosage of Cipralex and allowed me the flexibility to choose what dose to take between 10-20 mg depending on how I feel. I was also prescribed a non-addictive sleeping medicine I could use on those occasions.

I had some difficulties getting my prescription filled for the sleeping drug. Sweden used to have a well-functioning chain of state-owned pharmacies up until a few years ago. The conservative government in their infinite wisdom decided to carry out a pharmacy reform in which "pharmacies would be improved and made more efficient by increasing competition". As a result of this reform anyone with certain qualifications can start a pharmacy and some of the earlier pharmacies have been privatized.

The big benefit of the reform is that you today can buy the most common nonprescription drugs at gas-stations and supermarkets but for the rest it has resulted in a big mess where the pharmacies now only carry a few of the medicines and look more like cosmetics stores than pharmacies.

Earlier every pharmacy could tell you where you could go to get your prescription filled if they did not have the medicine themselves. Now you have to drive around yourself to at least three different of the new chains and check if they have it. Usually the new private chains don´t have many medicines, I am suspecting they only sell the thousand most common prescription drugs, while they leave the rest to the old state-owned pharmacies.

Finally after asking at six different pharmacies in two towns I could get my prescription filled, by the state-owned chain of course.

Avatars Creating Art from Art

"I love to leave the interpretation of my music up to the listener. It's fun to see what they'll say it is."
Erykah Badu

The artist, SaveMe Oh

I don´t know how the artist SaveMe Oh feels about the quote above, neither do I care, because to me experiencing art has to be what it does to me, emotionally or intellectually whether that is what the artist intended or not. What the artist intended is not really - or not always - of any interest to me, more important is how the art affects me or if it leaves me indifferent.

So yesterday I ventured out from Southern Charm to experience the adventure that is SaveMe and the art she had created for me. Let me start off by telling you all that no anchovy, olives or even Dry Martini´s were served. 

My dearest sister Millimina was there which made me very happy, because I have not seen her in a long time. Even if we were both busy running around in SaveMe´s installations and did not speak as much as we usually do it was a great comfort to have her there.

Now, without further ado, here is my interpretation. I am going to show you parts of the exhibition yesterday. I have chosen to give you a series of pictures I took in random order. In the captions to each picture I have written a few words, thoughts or statements. By stepping into the installations we became part of it and changed it, for ourselves and for the onlookers.

For more pictures - and a different experience - please visit my buddy Apmel Goosson´s blog post Min avatar heter Apmel; Oh: Confusion is the healthy soil on which creativity grows

Afterthought. Rereading what I have written I am stuck by the gloominess, but I actually had a great time and lots of fun yesterday!

"I want a divorce!"

The mother in-law arrives

Alone in a room full of people

"How did we get here?"

Poison or despair?

The harbinger of death

"I have nothing to say"

"It is time to leave"

Booze helps - sometimes

Blue 

Out on the town

Alone, at last

"My life could be better"
Photo by Millimina Salamander

"What a wonderful day, I am happy but tired"

At dawn after a sleepless night

"I will always love her" he thinks to himself