Apr 4, 2012
Like an Umbrella commented on Savage Love Episode 285.
Anyone who doesn't love Lucy can save it. I wish she was my tour wife.
Dec 21, 2010
Like an Umbrella commented on Please Calm Down.
I'm a regular at the Sydney one. Weird that the prices in America are almost twice as high. It's $8 AUD for 12 here.
Mar 22, 2010
Like an Umbrella commented on "I have received your permission slip featuring what I can only assume is a levitating rabbit about to drop an egg on Jesus.".
My parents have done very similar things to "Christian Volunteers" when I was in Primary School. Quite often atheists intentionally send their kids to public schools in Australia, even when they can afford more expensive prep schools, so the presence of these Volunteers is pretty unwelcome. At least at my school, the Xtian volunteer was a cruel zealot who encouraged the kids who went on church excursions to ostracize those whose parents bowed them out. They used to do very similar things (already ticked permission slips) in the hope of exposing kids who otherwise wouldn't go to church events to god stuff. The one year my parents slipped up and didn't get me out of seeing the passion play, I loudly questioned it to my friends afterwards, and got spanked for it (this was in the mid 90s, so hitting a kid was out-there crazy). My mum had to be physically restrained from setting fire to our Xtian Volunteer's house that year. So if they're anything like the ones I dealt with, I don't think this guys behavior is douchey so much as reasonable given the circumstances.
Feb 2, 2010
Like an Umbrella commented on SL Letter of the Day: Getting Past The Shenanigans.
I'm not sure people get this whole "openly crushing on" thing. There are degrees of openness in a crush. For example, there are plenty of girls who are very vocal about the guys they fancy to their gal pals, but secret agents when they are around the object of their affection. I know this because all-too-recently I was a slightly socially awkward teenager who wasn't particularly good at expressing her feelings. If this is the situation, then HAD has a right to be pissed. This is the person - or one of the people - she was sharing all her giddy, crushed-out fantasies of this boy with, and in all their discussions of him (I don't doubt there were many), it seems that the friend didn't once mention her own feelings or her interactions with this boy, a move that is at best duplicitous. If HAD is a teenager, you can bet that every interaction with this boy was dissected with far more care and attention than a biology class frog, and yet the friend remained silent.
There are also privacy issues at stake here. If the boy wasn't aware of how HAD felt, there's an excellent chance he is now, and is laughing about it with her friend, at least that's what HAD (as a paranoid teenage girl) will be thinking.
So here's the thing, if HAD is a grown-up, then Dan's advice is spot on. But if HAD is a teenager, then her friend is a bitch. Being a teenage girl is a horrific, emotionally fraught experience that many don't survive. Sometimes your girlfriends (who understand because they too are going through the shitstorm) are the only thing standing between you, the bathtub and a deconstructed lady-razor. Plus, in your teens any relationship you have with a guy has a pretty much guaranteed expiration date. These two things mean that in the teenage years, the girl code has to be illogically, unreasonably tight because teenage girls are crazy with chemicals and the pressures of a highly sexist yet sexualised society, which makes them illogical and unreasonable.
In your twenties, seeing your friend hook-up with a guy you've had the hots for sort of sucks, but ultimately proves to be a funny, vicarious living experience, but the same thing happening at 14, or even 17, is end-of-the-world devastating.
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There are also privacy issues at stake here. If the boy wasn't aware of how HAD felt, there's an excellent chance he is now, and is laughing about it with her friend, at least that's what HAD (as a paranoid teenage girl) will be thinking.
So here's the thing, if HAD is a grown-up, then Dan's advice is spot on. But if HAD is a teenager, then her friend is a bitch. Being a teenage girl is a horrific, emotionally fraught experience that many don't survive. Sometimes your girlfriends (who understand because they too are going through the shitstorm) are the only thing standing between you, the bathtub and a deconstructed lady-razor. Plus, in your teens any relationship you have with a guy has a pretty much guaranteed expiration date. These two things mean that in the teenage years, the girl code has to be illogically, unreasonably tight because teenage girls are crazy with chemicals and the pressures of a highly sexist yet sexualised society, which makes them illogical and unreasonable.
In your twenties, seeing your friend hook-up with a guy you've had the hots for sort of sucks, but ultimately proves to be a funny, vicarious living experience, but the same thing happening at 14, or even 17, is end-of-the-world devastating.
Dec 27, 2009
Like an Umbrella commented on Model Fight.
It's worth pointing out that the photo selection in the V shoot is very skewed towards Crystal standing out. Jacquelyn Jablonski can work it just as hard as Crystal is, it's just the editors picked shots where she is less expressive.
As for everyone crying photoshop, you do *not* want to see what unretouched hi-res shots look like. While photoshop is often used to liquefy girls to be thinner, or change the shape of lips and noses, its main purpose is actually just to cover up the horror that hi-tech cameras and printers reveal. Skin imperfections and flyaway hairs are more obvious and distracting in stills than they would be if you were staring at the models right in the face in real life, and I say this as someone who is on a photoshoot at least once a fortnight. Photoshop is 100% needed so that magazines aren't full of errant hairfluff, distracting up-nose boogers and drunk party bruises.
When they say size 12, I'm pretty sure they mean UK and Australian size 12, which is about a US six. A sample size model is generally around a UK 6-8 so a + sizer is 2-3 sizes bigger than that, makes sense.
Also, I may get shot down for this but I have to agree with @37. Crystal's exact proportions may not be achievable for every woman, but her size certainly should be.
The styling in this shoot is totally hot (although bobby socks on a size 12 under 5'10 isn't the best idea), to those crying ugly, I say, you're boring.
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As for everyone crying photoshop, you do *not* want to see what unretouched hi-res shots look like. While photoshop is often used to liquefy girls to be thinner, or change the shape of lips and noses, its main purpose is actually just to cover up the horror that hi-tech cameras and printers reveal. Skin imperfections and flyaway hairs are more obvious and distracting in stills than they would be if you were staring at the models right in the face in real life, and I say this as someone who is on a photoshoot at least once a fortnight. Photoshop is 100% needed so that magazines aren't full of errant hairfluff, distracting up-nose boogers and drunk party bruises.
When they say size 12, I'm pretty sure they mean UK and Australian size 12, which is about a US six. A sample size model is generally around a UK 6-8 so a + sizer is 2-3 sizes bigger than that, makes sense.
Also, I may get shot down for this but I have to agree with @37. Crystal's exact proportions may not be achievable for every woman, but her size certainly should be.
The styling in this shoot is totally hot (although bobby socks on a size 12 under 5'10 isn't the best idea), to those crying ugly, I say, you're boring.
Nov 8, 2009
Like an Umbrella commented on Health Care Passes the House.
@40 Here's one more, that counts for abortions outside instances of rape and incest which, should really be enough reasons in and of itself.
It's cheaper to pay for an abortion than it is to perform live-saving surgery on a woman who got a dangerous, back-yard abortion because she couldn't afford to pay out of pocket for one. It's also cheaper to pay for an abortion than it is to lose a young woman's life, a young woman who will grow up, grow old and be paying taxes every year she does so.
Restricting access to abortions, or making them more expensive doesn't stop women from having them, it just puts women in danger. Sure, in a perfect world we wouldn't have any abortions, but the world isn't perfect.
It's cheaper to pay for an abortion than it is to perform live-saving surgery on a woman who got a dangerous, back-yard abortion because she couldn't afford to pay out of pocket for one. It's also cheaper to pay for an abortion than it is to lose a young woman's life, a young woman who will grow up, grow old and be paying taxes every year she does so.
Restricting access to abortions, or making them more expensive doesn't stop women from having them, it just puts women in danger. Sure, in a perfect world we wouldn't have any abortions, but the world isn't perfect.
Oct 25, 2009
Like an Umbrella commented on Zombie Walks: Fun And Games Until....
Why hasn't anyone else picked up on Dan's waaaaaay too soon joke?? "I don't want to get shot, so I'll just go to the gym instead" the gym, In Portland, to not get shot. I'll admit I laughed, but I live on the other side of the world. Pretty sure the families of those dead women don't think you can call that yet.
Oct 17, 2009
Like an Umbrella commented on Savage Love Letter of the Day.
Thanks @kim in portland and @julie russell, I hope so too!!
Oct 16, 2009
Like an Umbrella commented on Savage Love Letter of the Day.
Actually, having sex in a way that doesn't make you feel totally degraded and awful really isn't that easy. I'm a very young woman and smoking hot and I haven't had emotionally satisfying sex outside of a relationship since I was in my mid-teens. This is essentially because at 21 I'm really not interested in hooking up with men more than ten years my senior, and the only men who seem to ever approach me tend to be at least 35+. While I'm extremely confident in every other situation, I'm only capable of approaching people I'm interested in sexually when I'm so drunk that sex isn't even an option. I'm also a massive, massive fruit fly which means when I'm out I'm usually with a bunch of super cute boys (all of whom also like boys), and I think a lot of straight guys tend to be put off by that.
Another issue is that many boys I know don't seem to be capable of behaving respectfully, especially in a one-nighter situation. The last boy I hooked up with left his keys at my house, and then treated me like I was a drug dealer in his effort to get them back.
Seriously boys, I am so easy it's painful, all you need to do is not be old enough to be my dad, be in reasonable shape and pleasantly presented, and then speak to me like I'm a person and I'm yours. And yet this combination of things HAS NEVER HAPPENED TO ME. I go to rock shows, club nights and parties constantly and no-one age appropriate has ever approached me like I am a human being.
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Another issue is that many boys I know don't seem to be capable of behaving respectfully, especially in a one-nighter situation. The last boy I hooked up with left his keys at my house, and then treated me like I was a drug dealer in his effort to get them back.
Seriously boys, I am so easy it's painful, all you need to do is not be old enough to be my dad, be in reasonable shape and pleasantly presented, and then speak to me like I'm a person and I'm yours. And yet this combination of things HAS NEVER HAPPENED TO ME. I go to rock shows, club nights and parties constantly and no-one age appropriate has ever approached me like I am a human being.
Oct 11, 2009
Like an Umbrella commented on Australians: Post-Race Miracle Humans or Racist Idiots?.
@423, What you are saying in response to Fnarf is very true, while perhaps Australians *should* know about blackface given how pervasive American culture is in this country, huge swathes don't. A quick poll of my friends proved that about half of them only learned about blackface from the Hey Hey It's Saturday incident.
It is also worth noting that, despite what some of the comments here might suggest, most liberal, city dwelling Australians are aware that our country has a huge problem with racism, particularly in regard to Australian Aborigines, and more recently Indian and Lebanese immigrants. A quick look at Facebook, or a couple of conversations on a University campus will reveal that many, many Australians are deeply disturbed by the racists undercurrents in our culture, and are fighting to do something about it. On an interesting cultural side note, there were several people of Vietnamese heritage rioting on the same side as the dead-shit racist fuckwits during the Cronulla riots, and some of the most awful things I've heard about Indigenous people have come from the mouths of non-white Australians, so our problem with racism is by no means limited to white people.
It is also worth noting that Australia has a similar rural/urban divide to America, I can't help but feel that a lot of sloggers are judging an entire country by its very worst elements. No one thinks Americans are only as good as their "OBAMA IS A HITLER MUSLIN" shouting minority, Australians should be extended the same courtesy.
Finally, those suggesting that Australians should elect an Indigenous PM clearly have no idea of the racial composition of our country. Thanks to a couple of hundred years of genocide Indigenous Australians only make up about 1% of the Australian population, a much closer equivalent would be Americans electing a Native American PM, a closer equivalent given population composition, would be Australia electing a PM of Vietnamese or Cantonese background, something that, with the right candidate, could easily happen tomorrow.
Yes Hey Hey is a national humiliation, yes some of the responses after are similarly embarrassing, but you don't need to rub salt into the already stinging wounds of lefty Australians by declaring that we're all racially insensitive or outright prejudiced, because it simply isn't true.
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It is also worth noting that, despite what some of the comments here might suggest, most liberal, city dwelling Australians are aware that our country has a huge problem with racism, particularly in regard to Australian Aborigines, and more recently Indian and Lebanese immigrants. A quick look at Facebook, or a couple of conversations on a University campus will reveal that many, many Australians are deeply disturbed by the racists undercurrents in our culture, and are fighting to do something about it. On an interesting cultural side note, there were several people of Vietnamese heritage rioting on the same side as the dead-shit racist fuckwits during the Cronulla riots, and some of the most awful things I've heard about Indigenous people have come from the mouths of non-white Australians, so our problem with racism is by no means limited to white people.
It is also worth noting that Australia has a similar rural/urban divide to America, I can't help but feel that a lot of sloggers are judging an entire country by its very worst elements. No one thinks Americans are only as good as their "OBAMA IS A HITLER MUSLIN" shouting minority, Australians should be extended the same courtesy.
Finally, those suggesting that Australians should elect an Indigenous PM clearly have no idea of the racial composition of our country. Thanks to a couple of hundred years of genocide Indigenous Australians only make up about 1% of the Australian population, a much closer equivalent would be Americans electing a Native American PM, a closer equivalent given population composition, would be Australia electing a PM of Vietnamese or Cantonese background, something that, with the right candidate, could easily happen tomorrow.
Yes Hey Hey is a national humiliation, yes some of the responses after are similarly embarrassing, but you don't need to rub salt into the already stinging wounds of lefty Australians by declaring that we're all racially insensitive or outright prejudiced, because it simply isn't true.
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