TL;dr Unless you've been living under a rock you'll know that Sony have pulled the film The Interview due to terror threats that may or may not have come from North Korea.
In my opinion, while I obviously don't think that it is deserving of terror threats, I kind of have to wonder why Sony didn't see this coming when they agreed to make the film in the first place.
Can you imagine the uproar if someone in North Korea made a film about assassinating a leader of the western world?
And the longer this goes on the more angry I am becoming that so many people are so pissed off about having their movie taken away, people who have stood by and said nothing while the people of North Korea have way more than a movie taken away from them by their corrupt leadership.
This is a corset, it will make you look fabulous but it will not make you lose weight.
So there has been a lot of chatter about "the corset diet" all over social media in the past few days, and it turns out it came from this facepalm of a site.
There was also an article in the Daily Mail but I'm not going to send them more page views, I already send them enough via the Venus Angelic post I made in response to their article about Lolita fashion and living dolls last year.
So let us see what the claims are shall we?
"The Corset Diet has been acknowleged by Doctors and Dietitians as
Healthy and effective!!!"
Really? Because I don't believe that for a second, and it's pretty funny that the names of these doctors and dietitians are never given anywhere (not even a mention of Nick Riviera!), if a doctor recommended something I'd come up with I'd be plastering their name over ever page of my website, and then people who thought this seems far fetched could Google my patron's name and that would show them! Bloody disbelievers!
On a more personal note, who past the age of fifteen uses multiple exclamation points? You're trying to tell me you're a legitimate diet and all the exclamation points are just making me read your front page in Billy Mays's voice (not that I'm saying anything that the late, great seller of Oxyclean ever sold was illegitimate, purely that... BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE!!!)
"Our Corsets have a large amount of adjustment so there is no need to buy more than 1! "
Which is kind of odd because on your testimonials page "Claire" or "Christine" (or maybe someone else entirely it's not all that clear) says that by day seven she needs a smaller one. Also please hire a proofreader before sending your business site live because that sudden "1" all up in there is making a nerve twitch in my forehead.
"They DO NOT restrict oxygen and our not undersized! The Corsets are designed to be as comfortable as possible and allow movement and air"
"Our not undersized!"
"Our not"
*screams internally*
The bottom of the page is where I start to wonder if this is the real life or if one of the Elder Gods just showed up and this is all just the result of me loosing all of my SAN points.
"***Please be aware there are a number of online companies that are selling corsets that have not been designed for the purpose of weight loss, therefore they are cheaper and made in the Far-east. Where The Corset Diet waist training corsets are made to order in the UK and designed for the purpose. Some of these companies are selling normal corsets that will not provide weight loss. To report these companies please emailinfo@thecorsetdiet.com ***"
None of these corsets have been designed for weight loss, saying they have doesn't suddenly make it true, I have actually reached the point where I'm convinced that if I keep looking I'll see something along the lines of "this corset will make you morph into a stick insect FACT!!!" And no before you go ahead and add that in, adding fact to the end of a sentence doesn't make it so either. These are not waist training corsets either (in fact I'd actually argue that these aren't even corsets to begin with but that's another rant entirely) and the absolute corker?
(FYI if you're interested they're all there, I just had to stop looking because seeing a reversible thing with a FUCKING ZIP labelled as a "waist training corset" put me dangerously close to rage quitting the internet).
So since I discovered that you're a Corsets UK reseller I feel the need to point out YET AGAIN that just because it has "UK" in the name doesn't actually mean they're made here, and I can prove it too!
"There are 150 people working in our corset factory in India. This modern building is 15,000 square feet was built less than 10 years ago by a Japanese manufacturing company in a new business park. Heat is the largest problem in India so we have invested heavily in 10 brand new air conditioning units for the facility. " - taken from Corset UK's about page
Part of me is actually tempted to try the email address and see what happens.
And now we move to the "testimonials" page, where we are faced with a holiday candid of a woman slouching in baggy clothing followed by the same woman in a studio, standing up straight in more flattering clothing and under lighting that doesn't make her look like she just escaped the chocolate factory.
Why is it that in these kinds of before and after pictures they always, without fail get a better hair cut in the after pic? Where is the "This corset will make you shed the pounds AND cut your hair FACT!!!!"
And as for the third picture, I can't deny that she has a great figure, but that bustier didn't give it to her.
The testimonial diary is utterly bat-shit and keeps flipping between saying the corset is comfortable and calling it a cage. I also find myself wondering if she keeps her daughter in her handbag. Ladies and gentlemen, while it is nice to have someone else lace me up if there's someone around I am totally capable of lacing my own corset, thank you very much.
The line about Victorian maids made me cringe so much that I was convinced I could hear a rumbling noise that am pretty sure was the sound of Victorian maids rolling in their graves. There is nothing Victorian about the tat on this website.
So in closing, don't bother with the corset diet, I'd call it snake oil but it's not even that. If for some bizarre reason you like metal boned tubes, order them from Corsets UK, it's much cheaper but above all?
A few days ago I stumbled across the AFI/Despair Faction forums in a random google search, I can't remember what I was searching for now, I just remember it turned up and was a massive nostalgia bomb for me.
Seven years ago, I got my very first email address that I could control myself (I'd had one before that to send emails to my cousin, but my parents monitored it and I wasn't allowed to join any forums or anything because my parents were convinced that the internet was made up of me and like 30 paedophiles or something*), and the first thing I did after adding all the people I'd just met on a youth exchange with Connexions Cheshire and Warrington to MSN was to sign up to that forum (I'd owned Sing The Sorrow for a few months, and I'd seen the videos for Girls Not Grey and The Leaving Song Pt2 on MTV2 a lot the previous year, and Girls Not Grey particularly - which is kind of odd I guess because lyrically it isn't very "hey sad girl in her mid-teens we understand you" like some of the stuff I was listening to at the time - helped me through what I consider my lowest point of my teens).
WHAT FOLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWS!
For four years I considered that forum my internet home, I thought of a lot of the regular posters as real friends (and in many cases still do, I still have some of them on Facebook), and when one of my DF friends died I cried and mourned just as I would have done if an offline friend died (it brought a tear to my eye when I saw her name in my friend list the other day when I re-found the forum, she was a very kind and considerate person, and though I never knew her in "real life" I miss her like hell.), we were to coin a lyric "One dark flame".
That picture is from totally the wrong era of AFI. Davey had long Gothboi hair when they recorded this *grumble*
It all came crashing to an end in 2009 when the rules were changed on the forums, and most of the forums were set to paying fan club members only, my goodbye message in the thread of rage was:
"It's up to you what you do with your board and I don't intend to offend anybody but I just have this message:
I loved this board, I loved 10th Circle and I always intended to get DF memberbership..."
I never did get that membership because I was mad over the way fans were treated, and well, Crashlove wasn't really all that good in my opinion, and I stopped visiting the forums, it seemed pointless given that I wasn't allowed to say anything any more, and so my account lay dormant for three years.
Until a few days ago when I re-found it and discovered that most of the forums (including the 10th Circle!), had re-allowed non payers to post again!
Unfortunately the entire board had become spam city or something (AFI Everything currently has two whole pages of adverts for UGG boots :/ ), but I had a nose around, and decided to look back at my posting history!
Whereupon I discovered that I was a complete tool in 2009.
I found this:
Even without context this looks bad :/
For context I was telling someone to grow a sense of humour because they didn't find
"Jade - "Will you have sex with me? No? Ok then, rape it is!"
Funny.
I was telling someone they should find rape jokes funny.
In 2009.
That's not all that long ago.
I am so ashamed that I said that, and I cringed and considered deleting the post, even though it was 2009, and MechaSean wouldn't see it, and will probably never know that my opinions have done a massive 180 on rape jokes (and abortion, I found a bunch of anti-abortion posts I made in 2007-8 there too), but then I realised something.
I had these extreme "troll" views not that long ago, and I changed. I became a better person.
And you know what?
That gives me hope, that some day all of the other people who think rape jokes are perfectly acceptable, and that it's fine to punish people with other people's lives will grow the hell up and realise what they said too.
It doesn't make it right, or even better that I said those things, and goodness knows I am so sorry that I did, but it does give me hope.
I spotted this on Friday when I was picking up my wristband in The Spa. Am I the only one who finds this a bit pretentious?
Whatever happened to just saying no if someone asks for a photo?
I realise there are some utter arses around, but the majority of the photographers are nice, hard working people, who just want some snaps of interestingly dressed folk.
Stop and think about this for a moment, do you really think that a piece of cardboard is going to make any difference to those few that just won't take no for an answer?
As for photographers being detrimental?
Personally I find all the rumours about cancelled events far more harmful to people's Whitby experience than a few photographers.
This pissed me off. I usually love Betty Dodson and Carlin Ross, but this pissed me off.
Neither of them claim to be experts BUT a lot of people look to them for advice because they talk about things that nobody else will, such as in this case birth control.
I cannot describe how disappointed I was to find them telling people myths and scare stories that were designed to scare people with vaginas (I say people with vaginas because we aren't all women) out of using birth control.
First and foremost, which or even if you use birth control is YOUR personal decision to make, you need to find out the facts and then decide what is best for your situation because what suits one person doesn't suit another.
I'm not an expert either so I'd always recommend you go talk things over with your doctor (or nurse depending on who deals with reproductive health in your country), but I know enough from the time I spent volunteering for my local sexual health services (I used to mystery shop family planning clinics to make sure they were doing their jobs properly, it was actually really fun :) ) that IUDs don't cause spontainious misscarriges.
As far as I'm aware (as in there might have been some newer developments since I stopped volunteering), contraception comes in the following types:
Male and female condoms
"The pill"
The implant (Implanon)
Injections
Contraceptive patches
Diaphragms and caps
IUD
IUS
"The ring"
The safest form of contraception and the only one that is 100% likely to work is just not to have sex at all, and that works for some people, but for some of us it just isn't that practical, and unfortunately sometimes it can also be taken out of our hands.
Probably the most common for of contraception is the male version of the condom. In the UK you can get these free from your Family Planning Clinic, GUM clinic and sometimes from your GP, if you're under 25 your GP will pretty much THROW THEM AT YOU whenever you go in for a check up (seriously I went in with earache once and left with a purple baggie of condoms and a chlamydia test), your local area may also do a similar scheme to the "C-Card" scheme that runs in mine, where if you apply for a card you can get free condoms in various places (sometimes including Student Unions and Libraries), which is handy if you're caught short and happen to be passing a Library at the time.
Female condoms (sometimes referred to as Femidoms), are not so widely available. Personally I'm not fond of them because I think they look and feel like a plastic shopping bag, but as I said this is my personal feeling and obviously they work fine for some people, so if you've not tried them, give them a go and see what you think.
I put the pill in quotes because there isn't just one pill, there are several different versions, with different combinations of hormones in, so if you find one isn't working out for you (for example you lost your libido, you've suddenly turned into the mood swingyest person on earth or you just keep forgetting to start taking your pills again after the week you stop), ask your doctor to switch you to a different one.
Initially I used a pill as my form of birth control (I actually used it before that to help regulate my very heavy periods that would often happen out of the blue), the first one I tried made me angry and weepy all the time, the second one I kept forgetting to take after the week off and the third one was the best of the three, didn't alter my moods plus it had three weeks of real pills then one week of placebos to help me remember to take them.
There is no proven link between the pill and cancer.
Implants (Implanon), are plastic tubes that go under the skin of the arm.
I'm not really sure how they work, but they last around three years, and this is why I eventually decided while I was a student that this would be the best option for me. When I became a student I had so much stress in my life and remembering to take my pills at the right time combined with having sex with a guy for the first time was just added stress, so I decided that something that could take part of that worry away for three years was just what I needed at the time.
My mother uses the injections, personally I can't see myself ever using this one because I have a fear of needles, but depending on which injection you get it can last 8-12 weeks.
Diaphragms and caps seem stupidly complicated to me and again I can't see myself ever using them, but if you think they're right for you talk it over with your doctor.
Diaphragms and caps are made of latex or silicone and cover your cervix to prevent sperm getting past, to actually be effective you have to use them with a spermicide which can heighten your risk of UTIs, unless you use them in conjunction with condoms they cannot be used to prevent STDs. You have to leave a diaphragm or cap in for at least six hours after having sex but unless you take them out after a certain amount of time ( I'm not sure how much time, ask a dr) there is a risk of toxic shock syndrome.
Because they don't protect against STDs and you have to leave them in for six hour they are NOT recommended if you're having group sex.
Diaphragms and caps are 92-96% effective and in the UK they aren't really "pushed" as much as other birth control because they are less effective than other kind of birth control (I assume this is why Planned Parenthood aren't "pushing" them either), and so are of little interest to most people unless they dislike other forms of birth control or can't use other forms of birth control (a lot of the pills and things aren't recommended for people with heart condiditions or depression)
IUDs DO NOT CAUSE RANDOM MISSCARIGE.
An IUD causes the lining of the uterus to change so that a fertilised egg can't attach (this is similar to how the morning after pill works).
For some people the copper in the IUD can cause them to have heavier periods, this is not a miscarige.
If you are using an IUD and suspect you might be pregnant you need to URGENTLY see a Dr as there's a higher risk of ectopic pregnancy. Pregnancies occurring whilst using an IUD are pretty rare though.
IUSs are similar to IUDs but contain hormonal birth control rather than copper.
I'm very much considering this next as it can also last 5 years.
This also alters the lining of the uterus to stop eggs attaching, but in some women it can also stop them releasing eggs in the first place. This is a little to extreme for some people, but for me I like the idea.
As for the other things in the video.The withdrawl method? Seriously? People still do that?
I suppose it has it's uses if you're not planning on having a baby but if one came along by accident then you'd be ok with it because otherwise you're pretty certain to have it fail on you because even if your guy has the best come control in the world, that isn't going to stop the fact that sometimes fertile sperm are in precum.
Excuse me while I head desk.
Yaz has been around in the UK for a good few years now (I have a Yaz purse from when I used to volenteer so at least five years), and I've not heard anything about it killing people, sure there's a risk of allergy with every type of pill but I doubt it's randomly killing Canadians.
Also it doesn't cut most people's period down, it works like all of the other pills.
So I hope this helps somewhat and like I said if you're considering your birth control options visit a health proffesional for up to date advice.
I was browising BBC news earlier when I came across this article.
In short the mayor of Castellammare di Stabia want's mini skirts and low rise jeans banned in his village.
Apparently he is of the opinion that this will "restore urban decorum and facilitate better civil co-existence" and combat sexual harassment.
Forgive my bluntness, I hate looking at random people's arses to, but fining people 500 euros for wearing mini skirts and low rise jeans is not going to stop sexual harassment.
You want to stop Sexual Harassment?
Stop victim blaming, stop fining the people getting harassed and start fining the bastards doing the harassing.
I should be able to walk down a street naked if I wanted (don't worry, I won't, but technically in the UK this is perfectly legal so long as it doesn't cause anybody distress), and not have to worry about harassment.
The people being harassed are not the problem, the problem is people who need to learn to control themselves, and if they can't?
Well then in my opinion they shouldn't be let out in public.
It doesn't matter what you wear, if someone is going to be a creeper, they're going to be a creeper regardless.
I have been harassed by people in my school uniform (my school's uniform was the most un-sexy thing ever, black trousers and a bottle green jumper), in baggy jeans, tight jeans, short medium and long skirts, one time I will never forget was when I was 15 and had the worst flu ever, was wrapped in a giant duffle coat, wool hat and thick jeans, I looked like a multi-coloured marshmallow man, and yet some berk still told his friend I looked "do-able" as they walked past me.
Eww.
The following year I went to college dressed as Death from the Sandman, and the builders who were renovating the house up the road made lewd comments about my lipstick.
When I was 16 I had lot of problems with my self esteem and that hurt me for weeks, it made me feel like I was the one to blame for what they'd said to me.
I wasn't, and neither is anybody who wears a mini skirt or low rise jeans and gets hassled for it.
***
Day 6: Your hair back combed
Day 7: Your hair in two English Plaits
Day 8: Your hair in wartime pincurls with a headscarf
Heh forgive me for the last one, but in order to get the curls to set properly I find doing them first thing in the morning is best :)
***
You can now become a fan of Queens of the Wild Frontier on Facebook!
Now I haven't always been this way, I used to be part of their street team, but then they did something that weirded me out.
They did a deal with KFC (who for years they'd slagged off), to give people money off their new "Vegan" chicken option.
Only it turned out that everything was being cooked in the same oil and what they had to say was:
“We understand that many people find the idea of consuming even trace amounts of animal products to be gross, but our primary focus is on preventing harm to animals. Eating something that has been cooked in the same oil in which chicken flesh has also been cooked doesn’t cause any harm to animals—and deciding not to get that sandwich won’t prevent the chicken from being ordered, cooked, and eaten anyway.”
Dude what? Have you no idea what a Vegan is? Wasn't it PETA put out all those "Vegetarians don't eat fish" flyers?
Well I got news for you, Vegans don't eat chicken fat...
And that last bit? Yes well on the same not if you don't eat that chicken someone else will so you might as well not go vegan or vegetarian...
*facepalm*
So after reading that I attempted to unsubscribe from PETA. It took me six months to convince them to stop emailing and writing to me.
After I finally got rid of them I started to notice other little hypocrites, here and there, some not so little and then all the stupid stunts they pull (how exactly is beating up seals in World of Warcraft worse than cooking things in chicken oil? Sea Kittens? Speaking out against Cooking Mama???).
I started to have moral objections to the way they go about things, I am all for educating people where their food is from, and nothing annoys me more than people who eat meat but say they wouldn't have the heart to watch an animal die, but I disagree with how aggressive and "YOU MUST BE A VEGETARIAN OR YOU ARE A TERRIBLE PERSON!" PETA are about it.
You know what's great about being human? We can choose what we eat.
Sometimes when I see aggressive PETA ads, you know what?
I wonder what bacon tastes like, I get tempted to try steak (I was raised as a Vegetarian so I've never eaten either of these things).
two thirds of all the animals that go into PETA custody get euthanized. Yet they still picket animal shelters that do the same thing.
