It’s amazing what you can find on the internet: apparently there are a couple of guys who spend all their time picking up things and sticking them in a blender. ‘Will it blend?’ they ask each other gleefully, as they feed ipods, ipads, glass containers and car tyres into their industrial-strength machine. Apparently it’s a marketing thing, which makes it much less interesting – but still it’s kinda fun:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Blendtec
Speaking of marketing, for some reason Badedas came up this morning. Those of you of a certain age and gender will remember the slogan, ‘Things happen after a Badedas bath’, over a film of a woman emerging from a fragrant blue bath and walking towards a smouldering dark man who has just appeared on the horizon. I tried it myself, over and over, but nothing happened to me after a Badedas bath except that I got wet and fragrant. As well as slightly blue. So I was forced to conclude that the advertising premise was false. Then again, as Mark pointed out, we did meet and get together at some point after I’d had that Badedas bath – so maybe it’s just a little slow to work.
Mm…
Ended up doing some poetry at the Phoenix last night. There was a film showing about a group of young poets who go to America for a poetry slam (this is like a competition only noisier) and before it about half a dozen local poets including moi (oh, bugger it’s done that rampant italics thing again) performed some of our poetry. It was good although the audience were not warmed up and seemed unsure whether it was OK to laugh at any point. This was a shame as some of the poems were quite funny. Steve was there though sadly did not perform his McDonald’s poem. I did my improved version of ‘The Lady of Shallott’, called ‘The Lady in the Van.’That’s just another cross we have to wear
An item on the news this morning about Christians wearing crosses at work: now, I’m not really sure what I think about this. On the one hand if Muslim women are allowed to wear headscarves (which they usually are, though not the full hijab) then why should Christians not be allowed to wear crosses? On the other hand, maybe it depends where you are and what your motivation is. Is it to witness to others? If so, can this perhaps be better done through our actions rather than symbols? If you are a professional Christian, that’s different – my dad always wore his dog-collar (except on days off) because in those days people got embarrassed if they’d said something risque and then found out afterwards that he was a vicar. But this may not apply nowadays. Then again, there may be health and safety problems with wearing a cross on a chain; although, as Mark says, perhaps you’d be miraculously protected from the consequences of them.
LOL
What is more significant is the issue of counsellors and whether they should be allowed to refuse certain services to gays and lesbians. They had a guy on the radio who sounded quite reasonable; said that he would counsel gay couples but stop short of giving them advice on sexual technique. On the other hand, what would we think if such a person refused services to, say, a mixed-race couple because they ‘didn’t believe in it’?
What do you think?
Religion and society – will it blend?
Just to help you make up your mind, here’s a video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQf5jL3a4iU
Daniel’s first full day at college today. Hopefully he will find his way around without too much trouble.
Kirk out
Sarada Gray 