Action Figure Therapy - so wrong, yet so right

This has nothin' to do with nothin', but it's hilarious. And so, so wrong. The language is more prickly than the skin on a cactus, so fish out the headphones if you're at work.

News of the World scandal updates

Following the meltdown? Here's a listing of new developments, updated very frequently by The Telegraph.

News of the World, it sucks to be you

I've been intently interested in the revelations about the inner workings of the News of the World (which thankfully put out it's last-ever copy yesterday). We always knew it was a smarmy operation that favored crappy standards, gossip as news, and carelessly destroying lives. We just didn't know how far it went until all this phone-hacking stuff came out in ever-growing detail.

Even though I used to work in newspaper (or maybe because of that), I have trouble mustering up too much pity for the now-jobless NOTW staff because they say they were not involved in the phone hacking, which supposedly all took place under the previous regime. Even if that's true, they did know they were working for the NOTW, which is smarm-central -- not exactly a bastion of high ethical standards. You lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas, y'all. I understand you gotta make a buck (or a quid as the case may be), but you can't expect everyone to be sympathetic of how you do so.

Let me pull back a bit on that -- I do understand what it's like to really need a job and to work for a newspaper that doesn't seem to care much about people, be they employees or readers. But most of the time that information comes as a surprise, something you don't fully know about until you work for the place in question. And even then, the standards aren't literally criminally low. But NOTW (and in fact many British tabloids) made no secret of having lower standards than a one-eyed drunk at closing time in a backwoods juke joint. So I'm not completely unfeeling toward the staff, but I'm not particularly upset on their behalf, either.

The staff were at least right in being angry Rebekah Brooks didn't go down with the ship -- but she will before long I imagine. I'm just waiting for that shoe to drop.

Memo to headbutting divas - take it down a notch, mkay?

Summer is here, and the darling young ladies of Reading are donning their scantiest duds (much to the delight of the young lads, and the old ones too, for that matter), topping off with a cool pair of shades and taking to the streets of Reading. Some of them bring along a nice cold lager. And intent to bash. At 3:20 in the afternoon. On a Tuesday. (Disclaimer: This in no way indicates that all women in Reading stalk the afternoon streets carrying a brew and violent tendencies -- those are just the ones who stick out, like the girl at your prom who mistakenly thought a yellow-feathered gown looked more glamorous than Big-Birdy.)

It seems a 19-year-old girl said hello with a hug to a man accompanied by three other women (at least two of whom were already getting a buzz or better with drinks in hand). And the women were all "Oi, piss off!" (or something to that effect, I'm sure). And the 19-year-old was all "F YOU!" (again, I don't have the official transcript) and gave 'em the finger.

So, taking the next logical action, one of the women punched Huggy-Huggerson in the face, while the other gave her an old school headbutt. Ah, summertime!

Here comes the rain again...

Yes, yes, I've heard if from a few people, "You knew you'd have to get wet at Water Fest, yuck yuck!" C'mon y'all, this is ain't Waterworld, it ain't the Log Ride at Six Flags. It's looking at things along the water, whilst staying out of it yourself. Cold (as I usually am in England) and wet just isn't the most fun I can have with my clothes on. And I was feeling a little puny. So I'm a wimp, deal with it, you big bad toughie-wuffies, you.

Anyhoo, here are some pics of a drenched Reading Water Fest (which apparently dried up and became party central as soon as I hit the road).








That last pic was just an attempt to capture the rain, though I inadvertently showed how much rubbish gets in the canal. I took a photo last week of a scenic little spot with a Dell monitor floating along with the ducks (I'll post that at some point). WTF? There's surely an interesting story behind that ...

A dismal Water Fest

Last Saturday was the annual Water Fest, something I look forward to every year. Unfortunately, it started pouring rain while we were out. We went home, and of course it soon looked to have cleared up, so I started to go back out after a couple of hours. Looked out the window just before I left, and BAM! it had started raining again. I gave up for good and all, only to see it stayed clear the rest of the day. Major disappointment, really.

I'll upload some wet, rainy pics of my Water Fest experience later. They pretty much depict what the "summer" has been like so far -- wet, chilly, and icky. Here's an official video from the event, it looks like lots of fun was to be had if you managed to be there when the heavens weren't crashing down bucket loads of rain.

Boobs aren't impolite?

I've noticed a couple of ladies' clothing stores casually use the word "boobs" here, which to my ears sounds like a slightly impolite slang term but must not be seen as such. U.S. stores would say "bust" or "chest" instead, I think. (It's like when people say they need "the toilet" here when they want a restroom. That's too graphic for me; I don't need to know what you're doing there -- maybe you're washing your hands or combing your hair -- let's keep a little mystery alive, shall we?)

Below is a pic of Pepperberry, and you'll note at the bottom of the window is the motto: "clothes designed with your boobs in mind." A similar theme can be found at its parent store, lingerie retailer Bravissimo, which liberally sprinkles the word "boobs" around its site and used to have a slogan about being for "big-boobed women."


It's just one of those little differences in perception, kind of like how some Americans use British terms such as "bloody" when they don't want to curse, not realizing that *is* a curseword. It just depends which side of the pond you're on when you say it, lol.