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Just wanted to share this with you: www.bloglovin.com is a great tool in order to follow the various blogs that inspire you and make you smile everyday. It works kind of like Netvibes for those of you who use it, but I tried out Netvibes and it just didn’t do it for me, I didn’t like the layout and found it kind of confusing. Bloglovin is great to just get a thread of all the recent posts from your favorite blogs and look at them when you can, without having to go back a million pages if you miss out a few days, it’s all right there, a click away.

That was my epic participation for the day, I’m back to European material law for the evening… Take care everyone!

So I know that you’ve heard about this if you don’t like in a hole or haven’t recently been abducted by aliens or anything, but I wanted to add my own 2 cents to the whole controversy emanating from the Church according to whom condoms do not protect you from AIDS.

Now, according to the Bishop of Orléans here in France,

“It is written on cigarette packets: danger. It should be written on condom packets: incomplete reliability. You know it very well, all the scientists know it: the size of the AIDS virus is infinitely smaller than that of a spermatozoa. Proof is given that the condom is not a 100% guarantee against AIDS.” (In Le Point 27.03.2009

I’m sorry but… What??? The very definition of a virus is that it basically replicates by hooking onto the hosts cells. Away from those cells, the virus cannot survive or replicate, meaning that it cannot be transmitted either, according to all logic… Am I right? I am asking this honestly, it’s not as if I’ve studied medicine or anything, but I do remember the basics from high school and Google gives you a pretty good understanding of certain things but I am in no way a specialist and will gladly take any correction from someone out there.

Anyway, back to the subject at hand: the Church (which is a known anti-contraceptive entity, may I remind you….) is now preaching that condoms are useless against the virus that has killed more than 30 million people in Africa alone (according to the WHO statistics, don’t worry, I’m not pulling these out of my pretty little ass). How is it that scientists, since the discovery of AIDS in the mid-80s, have always said that ONLY condoms will protect you if you are having sex with an HIV infected person (scientists who have spent their lives researching that, may I add), and that the Church is now going against his, potentially putting millions of believers in harm’s way by dangerous misinformation? I mean, the Church isn’t epecially known for its AIDS researchers is it? Or its knowledge on sex and sexually transmitted diseases, right? Or on the question of child upbringing… THEY ARE ALL SUPPOSED TO HAVE TAKEN CELIBACY VOWS, DAMMIT! Admittedly, seeing all the controversies about priests and child abuse you may say they have some knowledge about that, but I’d hate to generalize and say that all priests are shameless child abusers as I am sure that most of them, as much as I may not like the Church, are not. So concercing AIDS and condom use, why is the Church telling millions of faithful people that what they thought was protecting them (and WAS, indeed, doing just that) actually wasn’t, and that it’s better to have unprotected sex? This is leading to millions of potential unwanted children, first of all (but that ain’t new, I remember the Church in Ireland telling a 12 year old girl who had been raped that it would pay the girl something like 40,000 francs at the time and financially help in the upbringing if she would just keep the child, which she did seeing as she and her parents were ultra religious. This happeed when I was about 8 myself. Recently there was another similar case with a 9 year old pregnant with twins in Portugl or somewhere I belive, but anyway.). And secondly, it may lead to millions more people getting all sorts of nasty STDs and, worst of all, AIDS. Now why would the Church want that? If you think that the combination of the two could give unwanted babies born with AIDS, as is unfortuntely the case in Africa oftentimes, well that just makes me want to cry for the fat of humanity and all the belivers.

Seriously though. And then people ask me why I don’t believe in God and the Church and His Holy Love or whatnot. THIS is EXACTLY why. Between the Pope and politicians, they have killed millions of people who just sought hope and deliverance. Now I’m cool with people believing in God or a higher entity or whatever they may want to call it, but there are 2 things I will not tolerate: people tryingto force me to believe in their God, and huge influences like the Church using their power to give a wrong message, thus endagering millions who don’t know any better.

This may all sound very biased to you, and I’m not saying it’s not. But you have no idea how many people have tried the first, telling me I’ll go to Hell for not believing and that they’d be sad to see me go, using emotional blackmail to get me to say “Alright, yes, I believe in God”. I never did, and I never will cave in to such practices.

So yeah, whatever the message, and whomever it may come from, just apply a simple rule: think it out for yourself. Get informed. Don’t just blindly believe anything because of who says it, especially not if it’s someone who has importance in one domain but is making declarations in another. Would you believe a musician telling you how to grow our plants, or an IT geek on how to cook Boeuf Stroganoff? I wouldn’t (unless they showed me they were also good it that domain, but yeah, I demand proof).

Think for yourself. Be independent. Protect yourselves.

Well, this is what a homesick New Yorker does with them…

http://niemann.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/02/i-lego-ny/

The rest of his art blog is pretty interesting, too. Check it out!

Photo from http://www.moderngirlstyle.com

I give in. I’ll admit it: I miss the Latin passion and heat that you get by having an affair/relationship/whatever it is you have with L guys. That feeling like you just want to jump each others bones, but are refraining because you are in a public place/in the presence of kids/just not in the right place to do that kind of thing. That electricity that courses through you and between you as you exchange long languid glances that say it all, that “I want to undress you and have passionate sex with you right here, right now” look that makes the other person smirk and hide their face, for fear that someone looking may understand what salacious thoughts you have in mind.

I miss it all!!!!

I remember once walking into a guy’s apartment one evening, we were just going to chill out that evening, and he pecked me on the cheek, moved away slightly, looked at me, and came back for a full mouthed movie-like kiss. I swear I nearly swooned, as much as I hate how girly that sounds. From then on, you can guess what happened, as I missed the last bus back home around 1am and ended up sleeping over. It was also the night he chose to tell me he had a girlfriend but really liked me and didn’t know what to do, but that’s besides the point.

The point is, I miss the heat and passion! I want them back, dammit!

The other point is, I’ve never felt that with any non latin guys. Alright, once, but I was head-over-heels in love and we all know how that affects our libido et al, so it doesn’t count. Besides, it was something like 4 or 5 years back. It’s been mainly Italians and Latin Americans, with a high preponderence of Italians but, seeing as I was in Italy, that’s kinda normal, dontchathink?

Is it just me, or is this something that other people out there have witnessed? Am I just hanging with the wrong French guys for example? The mystery remains…

Attention people! Were you aware that a new sport was invasing the cities? It’s like we all have our very own paparazzi!
http://zoomdoggle.com/2009/02/new-sport-alert-running-from-cameras/

Another interesting fact: did you know that the Soviet Army had the basics of breakdancing down to an art? Watch this and you’ll see what I’m talking about!

Oh and, I WANT this computer!

Finally, check out what you do with your time on the computer with this neat gadget:
http://lifehacker.com/5154090/manictime-tracks-your-work-day

This post isn’t going to be anything transcendental, but I’ve come across a few links that aused or astonished me and just wanted to share, so here goes.

An amazing bar in a Baobab tree in Limpopo, South Africa:
http://www.amazingposts.com/2009/01/bar-inside-tree-in-africa.html

Inspirational messages:
http://hagebutten.livejournal.com/248176.html#cutid1

Also, if you haven’t already, check out The IT Crowd, it’s a hilarious English series about IT geeks in a company, and some of it just feels too real, like some of my friends were cast to write the series or something… ^^

Check out this blog post:

http://gemssty.com/2008/11/22/age-10-to-60-through-make-up-photography/

It shows how one woman can be made to look everywhere from 10 to 60 years old, thanks only to makeup and lighting, with no Photoshopping whatsoever. I find it really interesting to see what talented people can do in camera, although I do consider Photoshopping as an art in and of itself.

I’m not against “green”, don’t worry. It was just voted one of the words that should be removed from the 2009 vocabulary for having mentioned too often (and senselessly) in 2008. More seriously though, take a look at these transparent objects, and dare to tellme you don’t love at least ONE of them?

http://www.toxel.com/tech/2009/01/12/transparent-gadgets-and-creative-designs/

Transparent bath from toxel.com

My favorite are the camera, toaster, canoe and bath. Were I to choose just one, it would be the bath! I absolutely LOVE this one, wee!!

1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before? Failed an exam. Wait, was I supposed to say something positive? Uhm… Actually partied like a proper student I guess. And I also travelled to places I hadn’t been to before. Score!

2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I don’t make any, I let things change along the way. But I have some for this year, resolutions and goals. I’ve made 2 separate lists for those things. Goals are things that you really want to do, within a certain period of time (in my case, graduating and enrolling for my 4th year by March 25th). Resolutions are just general guide lines or things you’d like to do but without any particular frame (working in Spain to learn Spanish, this summer).

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Nope.

4. Did anyone close to you die? A friend’s dad whom I really appreciated died.

5. What countries did you visit? Wales (not a country technically but still), Portugal, Austria, the Czech Republic and Germany.

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008? A “proper” relationship with a guy who respects me without idolizing me or mistreating me (it’s always either the one or the other, I want some grey area!!).

7. What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? I seem to only recall negative actual “dates”, but general good things happened, especially with the GM, so I’ll choose to think of those rather than the dates.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? I’m starting to feel like crap: this is where I should be able to say “graduated from college” and yet I can’t say that ’till March 2009 at this point… I guess I worked through some of my personal issues this year, and partied differently and had loads of fun in doing so. I also have gotten more self-confident, especially when it comes to men.

9. What was your biggest failure? Not graduating. Men. Failing some exams (which I ultimately passed, but until then it was something I was proud of, never having failed an exam in college…). This category could go on for a bit so I’ll stop.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Does heartbreak count?

11. What was the best thing you bought? A subscription to capoeira classes!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Tin, he hugged me without asking anything before I was ready to speak, and always makes me feel welcome when I go back. Luigi, for the nicest things he did.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Most of the men I’ve dated this year: Max for forgetting me, Anto for disappearing, Dani for hooking up with Aurélie, Alberto for fucking Alice, Luigi for just… Being himself. At times.

14. Where did most of your money go? Parties. Capoeira. Computers. Travels.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Going to the south of Italy. That was then the ultimate deception. Otherwise I got reeaaaally excited over my new Reflex camera, the new love of my life!

16. What song will always remind you of 2008? “Put your hands up for Detroit, I love this city!” (And any others of the GM7 music mix!)

17. Compared to this time last year, are you

i. happier or sadder? sadder (that’s sad -_-)

ii. thinner or fatter? thinner (yay!)

iii. richer or poorer? I’m a student, so the same.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Studying (which I should be doing right now, arg!).

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Guys. Then again, I learned things from every guy I dated (and was ultimately disappointed by).

20. How will you be spending Christmas? Spent it in Turin with the Italian family and for once it was actually quite nice, I finally know them all.

22. Did you fall in love in 2008? I’m starting to believe so.

23. How many one-night stands? Some.

24. What was your favorite TV program? There were quite a few. Desperate Housewives, Heroes (though it’s over the top now), Dexter (oh yeah!).

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? Not really. I try not to hate, it’s better to be indifferent.

26. What was the best book you read? I unfortunatey haven’t had much time for personal reading, but I generally read a lot and don’t always remember what was best.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery? Elettroviolenza!!!

28. What did you want and get? Men? :p

29. What did you want and not get? Love, my degree.

30. What were your favorite films of this year? Persepolis and others, can’t think of them now.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 21 and I just did a quiet shindig at home with family and family friends.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurablty more satisfying? A proper relationship, feeling good about uni.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008? The same as usual: wearing what’s comfortable and makes me feel good about myself. With an added touch of skirts for once.

34. What kept you sane? Tin, music, series, reading.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Meh?

36. What political issue stirred you the most? The new SA election and Mugabe being a selfish dictator.

37. Who did you miss? Shani.

38. Who was the best new person you met? There were quite a few. Lu, Dani, Nil (I knew her before but rediscovered her this year)…

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008. Think before you act, but don’t forget to act!

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year: We, are, your friends!

I want to see your answers in the comments! Come on!

Image from http://creativebits.org

Does anyone else think the “poll” button on the WP bar looks like a condom? Or is it just my f***ed up mind playing dirty tricks on me?

Enough I say! Enough comparing inanimate objects to sexually related ones.

Unfortunately this update is pretty meagre: SciPol has been taking up less of my time than I thought, and my procrastination skills are working overtime when concerned with thesis writing. In other, much happier news, Angelo is coming to visit next weekend, so I’m hoping for a nice few days of cinema going, sight-seeing and good eating. Hopefully it won’t rain all the time like when Gag came before the holidays… Cross your fingers!

I’ve been looking to go to Paris on the weekend of the 12th, but the return tickets are too bloody expensive: 60€! That’s a 90€ return ticket for a 1100km journey, whereas the journey home is more like 1700km and is only costing me around 60€. I’m thinking of looking on carpooling sites, but at the moment no one seems to be going when I am. Rats. If only the SciPol madmen that they call teachers would do as they’re supposed to and keep that last week for any classes that were missed in the year, rather than use it like any other normal week, I wouldn’t actually have to skip classes to not ruin my bank account in going to Paris… Ah! The life of a poor-wannabe-traveller-student. Yay.

To compensate for my own lack of a social life I’ve been reading a lot of blogs lately and have found some interesting stuff like

http://thinksimplenow.com/happiness/15-simple-ways-to-overcome-anger/

http://suicidegirls.com/news/culture/23113/

http://suicidegirls.com/news/culture/23066/

The last two are articles written by the same person and I found them on http://galadarling.com , another great blog which I like to follow. Lame, I know. Sue me. Or give me a social life, whichever is closest at hand.