obsession

Would you be shocked if I told you I have an addictive personality? No. Didn't think so. I can get obsessed with nearly anything.

As my flatmates are no doubt painfully aware, this includes music. If I find a song I like, I can, and will, listen to it many many times in a row. I believe in being upfront about these things; I have a totally bizarre, and mostly atrocious, taste in music. Last week I listened to a remix of Cazal's Somebody Somewhere ten million times in succession; the week before, it was Hadouken! Declaration of War. I like bad electro, very much. (See also: long-term love-affair with Basement Jaxx).

I also adore Britney. Sorry. I had a couple of days last week where all I listened to was Nelly's Ride With Me. As I documented at the time, Bon Iver's Skinny Love got me through many dark dissertation hours. Pop, crap R'n'B, and average acoustic emotional wittering. I should be mortified if you saw the i-pod play count for My Chemical Romance's The Sharpest Lives or Blink-182's A New Hope.

I wouldn't be, though, because I own something even worse. I have a piece of music so terrible, and so utterly ridiculous, that it beats Ms Spears without batting an eyelid.
If I tell you mine, you must tell me yours...
my worst musical obsession ever, and one that I still keep on my i-pod:

the theme song for the anime cartoon Sailormoon, in English.

doris and the wank puppets

"Can you undo a bra with one hand?" I sway a little on my stool and reach out to JW, steadying myself on his shoulder.
"I have done." he says, with hesitance. I laugh.
"That" I pour more dark wheat beer into my wine glass "means no."
I drink. "It's a life skill."

Miss McG makes noises of agreement from the sofa.
I turn to the other boys.

M tells a story about removing a bra from a lady named Doris, a patient at the hospital he volunteers in. Doris is incontinent. Doris, incontinence, bra removal and M all unfortunately coincided. M wins the multi-tasking bra removal award, which consists of us all making retching noises.

"How did we get from sex to shit?" I am still drinking. I have also figured out how to use my new phone while slipping into drunkenness. This is bad for the person receiving my enthusiastic text messages.

As I hunch over my electronic downfall, Miss McG drags the conversation back towards fucking. "...had a wank puppet."
It is enough to snap me away from the messages. "What?"
"A friend of mine had a wank puppet. It was a character from that Sooty show - the little grey one. Sweep?"
"Yeah. It was called Sweep... but oh my... a wank puppet?"

The boys decline to comment further.

Eurovision parties seem to bring people closer together, certainly.

shoddy journalism: John Prescott

Is this headline the Times' words, or Prescott's? I think the Times'. Hence the outrage that follows.

What an appalling way to characterise an eating disorder. I'm not particularly bothered by the inference that men aren't supposed to have bulimia. Of course that is a fairly crap and crass thing to believe, but at least that fuck-up is immediately noticeable.

Look at the title again. The juxtaposition of 'big man' and 'girl's illness' - how utterly, utterly atrocious. The obvious point is that they've used the dominant 'man' for the male, and the submissive 'girl's' to refer to the female. If you have this disease, you are automatically demoted to the apparently weaker sex. Why are they allowed to do this?

The underlying implied message that this 'girl's illness' (and I'm not sure about that apostrophe, actually, Times) is acceptable in young women. The article, read in conjunction with the headline, makes bulimia sounds like viable relief for stressed-out females, even adding Princess Diana to the mix as a role model in the pursuit of thinness.

Kudos to John Prescott for speaking out. I don't necessarily agree with the way he presents his experience - masculinising it with vodka, for example - but everyone works through it in a different way. I could say a lot more. I'm totally overreacting.

Fuck the Times for that headline.

two favourite chat up lines

Both rather politically incorrect.

#1: "Nice shoes. Wanna fuck?"

#2: "Wanna play the Rape Game?"
"No!"
"That's the spirit!"

I am a sucker for bad taste. Also, I am sick of Feminism. Dissertation-itis has set in.