Christmas 2014 - the round robin!

Dear Everyone,

As usual, I’m beset with great excuses why my Christmas cards are all going to be late, and this year’s excuses are no better than last year’s! Forgive me.

Anyway, it’s been a great year, especially for travel. At Easter, my mum, Lizzy and I followed Lottie on her Farnham Youth Choir tour to Ireland, which was great fun. It was only 4 days in Ireland, so mum decided we’d go and visit relatives in North Wales for a couple of days, to bulk out the holiday, and check out some graveyards. Well, SHE checked out graveyards, but Lizzy and I decided we could do without. I quite liked Ireland, although the Southern part isn’t very picturesque - I suppose I was expecting the same kind of scenery as in the “Visit Ireland” adverts! It was a great trip, and the choir was fabulous. They always are.

Sadly, however, that was to be Lottie’s last hurrah with the choir, as she decided, at the end of her school term that she was done with FYC. She’d struggled with the commitment during the year, while trying to get work done for her GCSEs. Since she’s now in two choirs at Farnborough 6th Form College, it’s not as if she’s missing out on choir fun. I know she misses the choir, but I don’t think she believes she’s made the wrong decision. A trip to Guildford Cathedral last Tuesday for their carol service convinced me. Anyway, she’s having such fun at school, meeting new people, making friends, partying, she wouldn’t have time to get to Frensham Heights for the weekly practice. And there’s a selfish part of me that’s kinda glad, because you know exactly who’d be busting a gut to get her there every week, don’t you!!

Her grades for GCSEs were great - I was happy, anyway. I can’t remember what they were, but I know there was an A for English Lit, and one for French, and probably one for Music. She’s doing all those plus psychology at 6th form for A levels. She’s also enjoying NOT talking to any of her peers from Hawley Place, if she doesn’t want to! She’s finding the increase, from 36 to 1500, students in her year to be beneficial.

Lizzy has buckled down a bit to actually work on her GCSEs for this year, having stubbornly decided she was as dumb as a box of rocks last year, and given up on work. And this is despite having moved in with Andrew nearly 2 years ago. I ended up having to be quite firm with some of the teachers, who will accost me in the carpark at school, and tell me how Lizzy’s not doing her work. I try to be politely firm, and point them in the direction of Andrew, but this doesn’t always work particularly well. Of course this is THE YEAR - I’m just hoping that she can get decent enough grades to get offered a place at Farnborough 6th Form, because I think she’ll find SO much to interest her there. It can be somewhat restricted in a school when you have quite such small year groups. Half the options I had at school are completely unavailable to Lizzy, and she’s far from a conventionally bright person. I’m not saying she isn’t bright, because actually, she is, but she doesn’t fit into boxes well. So a curriculum forcing her to take a handful of subjects she hates is just going to piss her off. I remember that for MY O levels, I simply chose those subjects I actually enjoyed, with little thought to whether they’d take me towards a career in the end. Despite the fact that Lizzy’s year is a dizzying 45 students large (percentage wise, that’s a massive increase over Lottie’s year), the choices have been limited or non-existent. So you can see why I’m rather looking forward to her being in 6th form. Hawley Place are doing their best, and the smaller class-sizes are great.

I did say travel had been a big part of the year, didn’t I? Of course there was the usual trip to France for Le Camping - not a lot new there, although it was a somewhat smaller group than usual this year - Jo, myself, Lottie and Lizzy. VERY relaxing. Good weather, great food (despite the fun day Jo managed to burn the potatoes!), and superb company. But THEN, at the end of summer, Ian, Lottie and I followed Lizzy on her school trip to the WWI battlefields. That was a great few days. We stayed in Lille, which is a lovely city, and took day trips out to see various battle sites. I loved the Canadian war memorial up on the hill at Vimy Ridge - really spectacular. We went into the trenches and tunnels. We visited Tyne Cot, which was just heartbreaking. In fact, all the graveyards were beautiful and sad. It really was an interesting trip. We also managed to bump into Lizzy and her group under the Menin Gate, where we’d listened to the Last Post and had a tear or two.

Because I get 2 weeks in Autumn half term, Ian and I went to Bruges with a couple of friends of ours, Jonathan and Nicole, and had a great time exploring the city. It’s really quite small, so one can easily explore it in a couple of days. We DID go to see the Basilica of the Holy Blood, and paid to look at the holy blood - can I just say EEEWWW!! But we drank loads of beer (trust me, Belgium isn’t known for its wine, and with good reason), ate much food, and did the canal trip. Climbed up the Belfry - sent a fat Englishman (in the sad absence of a fat American) up there, too! Oh, and may I say that Belgium chocolate is rather overrated? No? Tough! It is. But that was a great trip. My first time on Eurostar, too!

Trying to think of what else to mention. I’m going to have to go there, sorry. Look, this is the year I had my first breast scan, which went well, I thought, but I got called back in for more tests, where they showed me some interesting dots on the picture, and said they’d decided to biopsy them. So they did - much stabby! And when I went back for the results, they said that on a scale from 1 (you don’t have cancer - yay) to 5 (oh dear!), I’m at an interesting 3. Not good enough to be considered benign, not nasty enough to be considered VERY concerning, still enough to want to look a bit closer. So fairly soon in the new year I’m going in to Frimley Park, where they’ll do a lumpectomy, although in the absence of an actual lump, it’ll be closer to an areaectomy! Turns out there’s no such word. Clutching at silver lining straws, I figure if it’s something, well interesting wigs after chemo, and if it’s nothing, great, AND they’ll be keeping a very much closer eye on me than they would normally! Sorry to slip the potentially crappy into the letter.

By the way, my mum’s well. The family are well. And I’ve lost a ferret somewhere in the house. Better find her while I print this off...

Well crafted movies

Last night I went to see Fury.

Starring Brad Pitt and a really rather good cast (Jason Isaacs with a New York accent, Shia LaBoeuf as good as I've seen him), it was an excellent movie. Well crafted, well designed, well made. But I simply didn't like it.

I wonder if other people are like me - if I'm reading a book, it really helps if I can like the main character, or even a close-to-main character. If I don't like someone who goes through the book with me, I find myself losing interest in reading the story. In fact, unable to find anything redeeming in any of the characters of A Picture of Dorian Grey, I gave up, discouraged by the nastiness of people. Well, the people in the book, anyway.

But let's get back to the movie. As I said, it was well made, but since I'd found it difficult to feel any sympathy for the crew of the Fury (it's a tank), I was unable to care about their fate. I felt more sympathy for the people with whom they interacted in their spree across WWII-torn Germany. The thing is, I'm pretty sure the film accurately depicted how WWII worked out for many of the people involved. 

It was brutal - war IS brutal. There's no two ways about it - it's a kill or be killed situation. And so spree is completely the wrong word to use about their journey. Spree seems to indicate that some joy, or even (I'm sorry) glee has been obtained during the expedition, where it's clear that these men are simply doing what they feel to be their duty. Their duty with no mercy. 

By the time we join the crew, the concept of mercy is completely alien to them, which is probably why I couldn't actually like any of them. And yet, as the movie progressed, I found myself feeling a very small amount of sympathy for these men. Their loss of humanity was part of them, their total commitment to their team the only fellow feelings they allowed themselves. Their mantra was almost "the only good German is a dead German".

Visually, Fury is a delight. Each shot is well set up - it's not sloppy. The colours are desaturated, war grey. The final shot, as the camera pulls up above the tank, brings realisation of exactly how the last battle went. It was a truly stunning parting image!

While I may not have liked this film, like the Tate Modern, I did NOT leave the theatre unmoved. No candy-floss movie this one, to disappear from my mind as I left the cinema, leaving thoughts only of food and Facebook. Oh no, this movie will stick with me.

Ice Buckets

When I first saw the Ice Bucket Challenges going up on Facebook and (to a lesser extent) Reddit, I was perplexed and confused. What was this ghastly looking fad? Thankfully technology allows me to avoid looking like a total noob every time something new comes along, and it wasn't long before perpleximent turned to understanding. Which rapidly turned to fear, in case someone decided to nominate me. So far so good.

Turns out ALS stands for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. More commonly known in the UK as Motor Neurone Disease.

I forbore to comment on other people's challenges, for that aforementioned fear, but applauded, quietly, anyone with the cojones to actually DO the thing. And that lack of desire to comment lasted until today.

Today on Facebook, within the space of a few posts, a couple of my "liked" pages, Zath and The Telegraph, have both posted articles on Why The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge Is Bad For You. I was ready to scoff, thinking they must be going down the Korean Fan Death road - "You'll catch your death if you pour that bucket of iced water over your head." You know what I mean. But actually, it's more insidious than that.

Both these pages are suggesting that I, the potential donator, should consider spending my, as they call them, Charity Dollars more wisely. Why would I donate to a cause which takes out, I found out, only about 600 people a year in Canada (that was from the Zath article), when 72000 die from Cancer in the same time frame. They even have a checklist on the page to show me that my Charity Dollars would do far more good in support of Cancer research.

The Telegraph article, on the other hand, tells me that my support of this charity is taking support from OTHER charities I'd otherwise be supporting (the expression used was "cannibalising". It also questions what's wrong with quietly supporting your own charities. I'm not sure that these two points aren't somewhat diametrically opposed - but I'll allow it for the moment.

Both of these articles are labouring under a misapprehension.

Zath assumes I want to be logical about where I donate my money, when my actual charitable donations are, in fact, far from logical. Let's list the charities I support, and you can see why. I support the Parkinson's Disease Association - because my dad had PD, and I'd like to see more done about that. I support the RNIB (that's the blind people) - because I'm heading that way myself. I suppose this could be considered a somewhat selfish reason. But I support neither of these on a regular basis. And based on the Zath checklist, neither of these passes the "should I stick my hand in my pocket for this charity" test.

The Telegraph assumes I'll be making a fixed donation each month/year, and that any attempt to support the ALS Association or MND Association will mean less going to my other (or more "worthy") charities. Nothing could be further from the truth. Again, as a NOT regular donor, I'm much more of a "catch me in a good mood and I'll sling you a fiver" giver, anything I give to charity is a bonus anyway. And for the very reason stated in the Zath article, I doubt either of my preferred charities would be considered "worthy".

While I won't be doing the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge (because ice water, duh!), I WILL be supporting any and all of my friends who choose to do it. Partly because it's always good to raise awareness of areas of research (pink ribbons for breast cancer, anyone?), but mostly because of my friend Claire Brown, who was diagnosed earlier this year with MND.

Windows 9 - Just one thing...

Reading my PC Pro this morning, I was exhorted to write to the magazine and suggest things which Microsoft MUST get right when they move to the inevitable next OS, Windows 9 (or whatever it is they decide to call it). 

As I browsed, I was trying to think about things in Windows 8 I truly can't work with (someone having already addressed the idiocy of sideways scrolling on a machine with no touch-screen), and I came across mention of full-screen apps. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not completely against full-screen apps. Far from it! Let's face it, on the preciously tiny (HA!) screen of the Samsung S3 (all 4.8" of it), a full-screen app is, I'd say, a must. While I DO have the option to have multi-windows open, this isn't an option I've ever even attempted to use. But let's start getting to bigger devices.

My 7" tablet? I'm not THAT bothered by full-screen apps. It still seems logical to fill that small space with the whole of an app. At this size I'm still struggling with the relative sizes of some web sites.

My 10" tablet? At this screen size, I'm actually happy with most of the web sites I visit, and don't feel that the full-screen apps provided for Android are onerous. I'm still happy. There are a couple of apps which seem specifically designed for phones, and appear a little silly on such a HUGE screen, but by and large, I'm happy.

My 17" laptop? At this point it's moronic to have full-screen apps. I can think of a whole lot better use for the screen than filling it with ONE single thing.

My glorious, technicolor, 24" desktop monitor? Absolutely NOT. I run with NOTHING maximised at this size. Nothing at all. Oh yes, sorry - if I'm watching something on Netflix, LoveFilm or YouTube, then I'll maximise it. But none of the programs/games/other web sites fill my entire screen. I don't even like to run with Minecraft maximised.

Can you imagine all that real-estate for just one program? I love to have my windows overlapping, so I can see what's going on in various places - after all, I've got 24 glorious inches! And Oh! That's it, "I love to have my WINDOWS overlapping..." The clue's in the name. Windows.

So, to sum it up, Windows is going to have to be WINDOWS for me. And yeah, I DO like the Aero interface...

Merry Christmas Everyone!

As usual I've waited until my birthday is over before starting The Christmas Missive™. I live in the honest hope that I’ll actually finish it before it’s time to start sending cards out. Let’s face it, the alternative is that I don’t finish it, and the cards don’t get sent, either. Which makes me look churlish! I am SO sorry for my lack of preparation, because last year there weren't many cards.

Life, when working in a school, gets manic. This is not, on the whole, a problem, except that I allow myself to be sucked into the frenzy at the end of term, knowing that in a few weeks I’ll be able to relax for a week or so before Christmas. You know as well as I do, that this is a false sense of security! There’s no way I'm going to get my cards out by Christmas unless I aim to do it in early December. To a very small degree, I sympathise with those shops throwing Christmas at us in September. VERY small!

Since there was no letter last year, there are two years worth of information on which to catch up. Fret not, dear reader - I'm not going to make you sit through two years of camping in France!

However, the MOST important thing to have happened in the last couple of years is that I turned 50! Yes, I know! I hardly look a day over 49! How does Sian keep her girlishly good looks? It’s got to be confessed that hair dye plays a large part in that. Since it was a large and important birthday this year, I decided to host a sophisticated Soirée for all my highest-brow friends. Oh yes! Disco time for all! Turns out I never really left the 70s, and my love of disco is as strong now as it was during those formative years. Oh I may sneer at the chap who comes to support my PCs occasionally, rapidly catching up with me in age, and DJ-ing at clubs (to which I have an open invite) every weekend, but deep in my heart of hearts, I still believe I can dance all night! Thankfully this belief was not tested, because having decided to host the party in my school’s drama studio, we had to finish up at 11pm. My wonderful sister-in-law, Vesna, helped me plan out the food (and cook it), which was great, and I hired a proper disco DJ. Apart from the fact that he seemed to harbour the erroneous belief that disco stopped in the mid-80s, he was brilliant, and the music was fabulous! I do believe that a good time was had by all!

I expect you've already worked out that Lottie is currently in the middle of her GCSEs (which I persist in calling O-levels, to her annoyance), and has applied for a couple of colleges for next year. I think she hopes to be accepted into Farnborough 6th-Form college. Interestingly enough, she’d like to study Philosophy while there, along with Music. She’s alarmingly musical, you know. She’s been part of Farnham Youth Choir for 2½ years now. Every year the choir goes on a trip to somewhere, and the year she joined (these are school years, you understand), they went to Cincinnati for the World Choir Games competition. Apparently there isn't an overall winner in these games, but they won a gold and a silver (will clarify with Lottie, and hopefully update the letter for accuracy), visited New York, sang at Ground Zero and generally had a good time. The trip for last year (which took place at Easter 2013) was to Montreux, where they have a Choral Festival every year - turns out Montreux, apart from having a really rather good statue of Freddie Mercury (and being one of the most expensive places I've stayed), has music festivals ALL the time. It’s something of a cultural centre. THIS year’s trip will be Ireland (begorrah!), and in the wake of a successful Road-Trip to Montreux last year with my mum, we've decided that a visit to Dublin and Belfast will be a hugely entertaining activity for the upcoming Easter!

Lizzy’s just started her 2-year GCSE stint - let’s not dwell on that, shall we? She moved in with her dad last May, and, should she be asked, will tell you that I kicked her out. I suppose, technically, this is true, but there ARE extenuating circumstances! She’d been talking, oh, for simply months, about moving in with him, and I’d been making all the most encouraging noises about how NOW would be a good time to move over there. But the weeks turned into months, and suddenly her room at her dad’s place had been ready for 6 months, and she still hadn’t moved in. The actual catalyst for the move was somewhat unfortunate - just before half term last May, I received an email from a teacher telling me that this was the third time that term Lizzy had failed to bring ingredients for Home Economics. Which was, in fact, the first time I’d heard about ingredients at all. So I asked Andrew to take on, sooner rather than later, the task of assisting Lizzy with her homework and school organisation, by dint of having her live with him. Oh how she LOVES to throw that at my face when discussions bring it up! She is, thankfully, quite happy living there, and since I pick her up for school and bring her home every day, I get to see her all the time. I barely get a chance to miss her.

Just after this unfortunate event, we all went to Germany (taking a whole, hard-won day off school for the pleasure), to watch a couple of our friends redo their wedding vows! It was LOVELY! I expect I’ve mentioned the Germans, who we met at the beach some years ago? It’s such a surprise when you meet people with whom you get on SO well, and then the friendship continues. Ian and I were seated WITH the happy couple, at the “top” table (it was much more casually arranged than that, though), and I was quite touched! We actually had a great weekend, and the rain, threatening to ruin the day on Saturday, held off until Sunday. So that was nice! And supremely English to talk about it!

You know I can’t let a Christmas Message go by without mentioning the camping, don’t you? It’s rather sad that I missed last year, because that was the year my mate Jo came on holiday with us. Due to some rather sad circumstances, and a necessary cancellation from some other friends, Jo and her children (not Ed, he doesn't like camping) came with us on our Grand Tour of France. And it was brilliant. We drove down, via the Massif Central, stopping to camp near the Puy de Dome, to the Pyrenees, and finally up to the usual Atlantic coast site at which we normally stay. We had a glorious few days in the Massif, camping in an old Fort, now taken over by some Dutch people. That sounds as if they invaded directly after we’d been there - this is not, in fact, the case. They've owned the Fort for many years. The weather was gorgeous, the mosquitoes were biting, and the wine flowed. Then we drove to the Pyrenees - annoyingly enough the weather was completely pants - especially the night we had a massive thunderstorm ravage the valley! So it was with some relief we left the mountains - on the loveliest day we’d had there, showing my friends a mere glimpse of how fabulous the mountains can be. And onwards to the beach, which was quite as satisfying as expected. Lovely hot weather, smashing waves (sometimes literally, too!), and REALLY good food. I rather like going with other, proper grown ups, because we didn't end up just having the same old dish every night - there was actual variety.

That was SO good, we did the same again this year! Only we didn't stop at the Massif camp site (which was REALLY expensive, not to mention full of Dutch people), but stopped in Carcassonne for a night, and visited the city in the morning. This time the weather in the mountains was spectacular, and the trips I’d bigged up last year were able to come to fruition - thankfully everyone really enjoyed the Donjon des Aigles - especially Jo, Henry and Ellie, who ended up with parrots on them during the display. We also popped over into Spain for a picnic - a great chance to see the wonderful mountain scenery again - I've sort of missed that, you know. Sadly, the weather by the time we got to the beach was not brilliant, and we only managed two days of real sun. We did have a lovely boat trip across to Arcachon, which was a really good day - it’s a nice shopping town. We also had a crappy day looking for a launderette - how do we always end up looking for a launderette on the wettest days of the holidays? HOW?

Work and personal development continue apace - I keep saying it’s time I got a proper job, but there are a couple of things keeping me at the school. 1) I really like it. I mean REALLY! I've got unprecedented opportunities to learn new stuff, and all I have to do is put it with some facepalm moments from my users! Seriously, who wouldn't? And 2)... nope, it’s all there in number 1.

I started learning Spanish so that I could, perhaps, support Lizzy in her homework. Due to the school being very small, the children can’t just pick and choose their subjects in quite the way I was able, back in the day - so she’s ended up with two languages, and is loathing it! I've also started to refresh my knowledge of programming, but I find myself with kid-in-the-sweet-shop-itis, as I try to take on everything available. Never before has it struck me quite so strongly, that I will never, can never, know it all. You’d think that’d keep me from being so smug, wouldn't you?!

Early-Closing Wednesdays

Prompted by the incursion of my daughter in my bedroom on Sunday morning, asking to go to Specsavers in order to get her glasses fixed, I started to ponder on the current generation of youth, and their knowledge of Business Hours.

Who can forget the days, back in the 70s, when, if you wanted to change your library book, you had to visit the library on a Saturday morning. Sure, the library was open during the week, but we'd all be at school, and while there probably was time to go straight after school, we never seemed to go - which left only the scant 3 hours between 0900 and 1200 on a Saturday morning. In addition to which, the library also subscribed to Early-Closing Wednesday.

I have to assume that Early-Closing Wednesday was a direct result of some businesses being open on Saturday morning. Because we work for 5 days, and rest for 2, and in those days many more businesses were run by individuals rather than the corporations currently doing the job. If a person owned their business, they'd work there, and maybe employ some help. But the model, then, was that the owner worked when the shop/business was open. And so the shops would be open for some form of 5/2 split. Maybe the shop would be open all day on Saturday (I don't remember many shops which closed at lunchtime), and then have a whole day during the week when they'd be unavailable.

And what, I hear you cry, became of the business should the owner wish to take holiday? Quite. The business would have a polite notice affixed to the door, detailing the intended holiday dates, and that the business would be closed for that period. Apologies.

But we have a generation of kids who know nothing of this. Why can't she take her glasses to Specsavers on a Sunday morning? The supermarkets are available on Sunday, as are many clothes shops. But a lot of "real" businesses, such as banks and strangely, libraries, still adhere, as best they can, to that old model from my own youth. Thus, while it's possible to do a small amount of high-street banking on a Saturday morning, most "proper" banks are unable to deal with anything more than a few deposits or withdrawals. You certainly can't set up a new bank account. It's no wonder that having bank accounts with building societies became so popular.

I do find it strange when businesses cling, resolutely, to old business models, despite an ever (and increasingly swiftly) changing demand from customers. Look at the Post Office - it was a few years INTO the current century before they started to accept plastic for payments. I cannot forget the embarrassment, standing at the window and being told that no, my £141 payment had to be cash or cheque, because they STILL didn't accept debit cards - and this was less than 13 years ago. I'm not sure they're up to credit cards yet, but the acceptance of any kind of plastic is a boon!

I don't really want to get started on the whole Music and Movie industry, and their heel-dragging reluctance to offer what the customers actually want - in a way, I sort of understand this, because they're SO damn big, and were able to get away with a LOT of crap for a very long time. I do, however, find it odd that a business as large as Specsavers (the Tesco of the glasses world, if you will) offers no Sunday opening at all.

Since I was a young adult, it's become the norm that ladies, whether married or not, would work. And thus our current work time model started - with the increase in both partners having to work, there were less stay-at-home mums to do the shopping at "normal" times during the week. Late-Night Thursday proved such a success with some businesses that this was extended to the rest of the week. In fact, Late-Night Thursday is probably one of the last days on which one actually wishes to shop, a point proved by the sparsity of shoppers on Thursday evenings in 2013. And while internet shopping may have a bit to do with this, the popularity of Saturday and Sunday daytime shopping, even now, might belie this assertion.

I've got to say that I'm sure the invention of Champagne Thursday was the MAIN reason that Late-Night Thursday has become so unpopular!

I realise I've not really arrived at a particular point - we all know that businesses are struggling against the ease of internet shopping - but I've forgotten how much things with which I grew up are NOT ingrained in my own children. Thus the insistence that they had to remind me about setting up their bank accounts DIRECTLY after school so we could make it to the ONLY bank who seems to do accounts with cards for teenagers, at a time when said bank was actually available to create the accounts. And my daughter's inevitable disappointment this past Sunday as I tried to explain that many businesses don't open on a Sunday!

What happened, America?

That's today's question. And America, I hope you're paying attention, because I'm going to need answers.

Today I watched a film on Netflix, called Just One of The Guys. I'm not proud of this, you understand, because, oh my LIFE, it was a ghastly film. A cast of unknowns who remained unknown because not one of them could convincingly act their way out of a wet paper bag. Genuinely, I don't think I've seen such wooden acting since Thunderbirds.

But there was something about it. As you can see from the IMDB link, this was a 1985 film, and it's classified as a 15. And, more importantly, it's got boobies. Not "more importantly" because I particularly like boobies (although...), but more importantly because the film had a fair amount of nudity, and the world didn't actually implode because of it. Tellingly, however, there wasn't much in the way of violence, apart from the usual High School crap - it seems high schools in America are unable to function without having at least one muscle-bound jock stomping round the school, bullying the nerds and, apparently, getting the prettiest girl. I do wonder just how clichéd this old chestnut actually is, but that's beside the point right now.

The point is that, and I really can't emphasise this sufficiently - THERE WERE BOOBIES!!

So, America, back to my question - what the hell happened between 1985 and 2013 (probably earlier, remembering that whole "nipplegate" thing) to make you all so damn prudish?

I'm not saying, for one pico-second, that every film in existence should have boobies, but I question your easy acceptance of anything remotely (and often graphically) violent, and your (sometimes violent) rejection of anything vaguely naked. My brother has often said that he'd rather his children be exposed to sex than violence, because, at some point in their lives, he hopes, they'll actually get to experience sex - at NO point in their lives does he want them to experience violence. And I feel exactly the same way.

I'll write another post about my feelings towards the "porn filters" being set up by various ISPs, but I'll summarise by saying I'm not completely against them. I just wonder whether they're going to filter the all-too-prevalent, all-too-graphic violence too. Just sayin'.

And when, America, did you slip into the aforementioned, easy acceptance of all things violent? SO damn often we have "moms" banging on the "won't someone think of the CHILDREN" drum, because, Oh My God - a kid could see a NIPPLE!

America - answer me this. How, exactly, is the sight of a nipple, or even a whole bosom, going to harm a child? Do these same "moms" (and I'm sorry for the quotes, but I spell it mum) feel the need to "protect" their children from any of the violence to which they're exposed?

I'm sorry, America, I got carried away with questions, but I'm really quite curious now.

Oh, and I'm sorry/delighted to say that the film's only available on Netflix until tomorrow!