Faceblast-from-the-past

I freely admit to having a Facebook account. When people probe, ask me directly or search for my name.

Thing is, Facebook is awful.
I has no point.
It's full of ick little widgets that I don't know how to work.

I am one of those people who escaped her past. I wasn't that it was terrible, but there are a few things I would rather forget. And a few people I thought I had.

This will sounds awful, and maybe it is, but I don't want them to find me. Logging on I view my friend requests with trepidation. Sure, it's nice to find people want to be your online buddy, but what to do if you don't really feel the need to be theirs?

I hate snubbing. I don't want to ignore people. That's mean and I wouldn't like it to be done to me. But I don't really want to chit chat about long past events with people I have nothing in common with anymore and probably never did.

Maybe I'll change to a fake name, can you do that?

Do you dare me?

Ok, potential hilarity / self destruction.
They're casting for the new series of Britain's next top model at the mo'. Prime opportunity to uncover the bitchyness, soul sucking, shallow, stereotypes I envisage will be part of the selection process, for Subtext.

So, who dares me to apply? (here's the form, complete with dodgy questions)
Beware, a swimsuit shot is required.

It is quite likely I am too old and too 'interesting looking' (that's just a nice way of saying ugly isn't it - I bet that's what they put on the rejection letters) to get through the first selection.

I would recount the horrors online for you all.

Maybe I'll just complete a piss take form for a laugh.

Meeting the standard

If tackling gendered violence (eg domestic violence against women) was treated with the same seriousness as racist violence or homophobic violence this story and many like it would not pass by as sideline news. Proper training would be given to police officers. We would have effective legislation.

The police receive one domestic violence call every minute in the UK, despite less than half of all incidents of domestic violence being reported to the police. Women’s
Aid

46% of all female homicide victims (compared with 5% of male homicide victims), were killed by current or former partners in 2001/02. Women’s Aid

On average, two women a week are killed by a current or former male partner. Home Office

Summarising the confusing

Ah, I am trying to write the news section of the magazine. I have been for about 2 weeks already (I hunt for and save relevant news stories for months prior to writing).

I find it one of the hardest things to do - finding relevant news and news that's not been widely reported and re write it in a super short tit bit style.

It's no wonder no one else has volunteered to do the job :o)

Chemical concoction

Or, to be more accurate, hormonal concoction.

Yesterday I went to the ‘contraception and sexual health clinic’. They’ve renamed it. It used to be the Family Planning clinic, but I guess that’s not entirely accurate, because a lot of us women go there to prevent families from happening.

Whoever thought up it’s current name has no sympathy for those of us who only ever remember to make appointments during work hours, from our desks.

So I was off to the ‘Thursday night’ clinic. My colleagues do not need to know about by sexual health. I guess somehow I think you do though…

Anywho.
I’ve been getting the most persistent and recurring headaches for about a year. Recently they’ve intensified to daily. It is misery.

When asked if my ‘medical history’ had changed I dutifully told my nurse/health person yes it had and I was going to see a neurologist about my headaches.

Turns out, it could be the pill. Everything is the fucking pill. Depression, mood swings, no libido; all the pill’s fault.

(I have decided the pill is an evil stealth device. On the surface it ‘liberates’ women, removing the threat of pregnancy from their sexual relationships. Underneath this attractive pretence it’s side effects include keeping women in their place, keeping the down, and keeping them out of the bedroom – the reason they’re on the pill in the first place.)

So, I have changed pill again. I’m progesterone only now don’t y’know.
And guess what? So far it feels fucking great.

I have had hardly any headache today. I feel full of wild energy, which is something I have hella missed since swapping pills last time (pill before last gave me mad mood swings, I missed the manic bit) and I am totally hot with two t’s.

It’s Friday. I am oestrogen lite. Let’s party.

Something to do with your old lightbulbs

when you replace them all with energy saving ones.

The site's in foreign (I don't recognise the language since I only speak English, pigeon French and the language of love - haha!) but the pics are pretty sweet.

I am one of the pro-choice majority

Excellent article on late term abortion in the Guardian today.
Extract below made me well up.

If a woman is more than 13 weeks pregnant, labour has to be induced, and
normally takes less than six hours. Carrie's labour was much longer because the
baby was breech. Afterwards, she says, "We stayed with her for a few hours and
the midwife left a camera and dressed her in a premature nappy and cardigan and
filled in the card you get given with other births." When Carrie felt ready to
go to the ward, "The midwife said she would stay with [the baby] for the rest of
her shift; she acted as if she was an important baby, which she was to me."
...
Late-term abortion remains rare - 89% of all abortions in the UK are carried out at 12 weeks or below; only 1.5% take place after 20 weeks. The process can be physically and emotionally traumatic, and is never undertaken lightly. Those of us who have had late abortions have felt the force of moral outrage - we know that people who have never been in a situation like ours can be all too easily persuaded that the law should change. This is why it is important that our stories are heard.