Yes, well, erm, I've notched up another milestone on my journey through life. In years gone by, I'd be exactly half way through my allotted three score and ten, but with the way both longetivity and statutory minimum retirement ages keep rising, I might still be as fit as a fiddle and in work by then. I can but hope :)

So... thirty five years I've been on this planet (well, I will have been as of about 5:45pm tonight, as mum will frequently remind me at this time of year!) - here's to many more.

Cheers! :)

You might want to move your keyboard out of the way so you can bang your head against your desk in desperation at this...

It's about what you'd expect from many African politicians - effectively putting the onus of the blame for the spread of HIV onto women (presumably under the impression that it's completely impossible for their menfolk to control their philandering ways).

The synopsis of what this latest politican to make a completely bonkers statement on the issue can be neatly summed up in this tweet:

You may remember several weeks ago, one of Bailey Summers' original songs from Jem got a very positive reception. At the time, only the lyrics existed.

When I read it, I started to get the inklings of a tune, and with Bailey's permission, have attempted writing some music for it (my first attempt at composing since GCSE Music in 1993-95!). Bailey approves, so now the next stage is to publish it here, in the hope we've got some arrangers / musicians / singers who can take Bailey's words and my melody / chords, and work some magic with them.

Something completely irrelevant but as it's from the lighter side of the news, fun nonetheless...

Just in case those of you in the US thought your politicians had cornered the market in spouting nonsense in their campaigning against gay marriage, one of ours has apparently decided that it opens the door to bigamy and child marriage...

Ho hum.

The story's featured in the Huffington Post.

Discovered while leafing through a copy of Web User, a free website which analyses a chunk of text (ideally 200+ words) and reports back on various technical aspects of your writing:

A recently arrested chap in Thailand gives a whole new meaning to the term "Panty thief". How about a collection of 10,000 pairs of women's underwear?!
He's been convicted of breaking and entering but not theft, as (perhaps unsurprisingly) nobody's reported their undies disappearing...

http://www.weirdasianews.com/2012/02/14/thai-man-10000-pairs...

As an antidote to all the soppy romantic songs that will be filling the airwaves today, here's a few for the benefit of the happy singletons among us:

Females (pretty unambiguous!)

Males (yes, it's as cheesy as heck, but there aren't many from a male POV!)

In general (miles better than the original soundtrack!)

Breaking News on Google+ originally shared this post:

Washington becomes 7th US state to allow same-sex marriage, as Gov. Gregoire signs bill into law Olympia, Wash., USA

+KIRO 7 Eyewitness News reports that Gov. Chris Gregoire has signed Washington State's gay marriage bill into law. The measure takes effect June 7.

Back in the early days of The DarkRealms Universe (when we'd only been introduced to a couple of vampires), I sensed that it had the potential to expand and introduce us to Lots of Characters. So, rather than attempting to write a story (which knowing my writing speed you'd probably see sometime never!), I decided to create a Wiki to hold information on the people, places and events connected with Ravencrest.

So here it is: The DarkRealms Universe Wiki.

Never mind the fact I can't keep the existing EAFOAB episode summary spreadsheet up to date, I've had another crazy idea.

Convert it all to wiki format.

As ever with Lulu, any excuse to put on an offer... :)

This time, there'll be a different offer each day for the next eight days (it's day four today, they didn't send an email for the previous days). As this set of offers started on 14th, which was also when the previous offer ended, it's likely there'll be a new year sale when this one ends...

http://www.lulu.com/holiday_coupons

If you've followed my occasional ramblings over the past couple of years, you may remember I once embarked on the foolish quest to compose a spreadsheet containing summaries of all the "Bike" episodes, together with some other relevant background information.

PS and I worked together to get the first 1,000 done, then I largely took over until the 1280s whereby my life got busier and I fell behind.

Posted on Facebook by someone from one of my other networks...

Dear Santa, This year can I please have a big fat bank account and a slim body? Please don't mix 'em up, like you did last year!!!! Thanks, __________         P.S. I have tried really hard to be good this year.         P.P.S. The incident with the greasy pig wasn't proved.

YouTube themselves are helping this interesting dance sequence (titled Miracle on 42nd Street) go viral, and it is getting a lot of attention.

I wonder if any of the males on "Strictly Come Dancing" or "Dancing with the Stars" would be brave enough to follow in the footsteps of Zac Hammer here... :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZqz94ODz18

Apparently allowing women to drive would increase prostitution, pornography, homosexuality and divorce.

Yes, we're talking Saudi Arabia, and one particularly loopy academic (Kamal Subhi) who's submitted that description as part of a report to the country's legislative assembly, the Shura, in an attempt to get it to drop plans to reconsider the ban on women drivers.

You can read more about this rather strange report over at BBC News. Further evidence it's a mad world out there.

This has to be one of the most bizarre cases I've ever read. Boyfriend didn't want children so used condoms. Girlfriend did so saved the sperm they contained, cryogenically preserved them, then at a later date defrosted the little wrigglers and had twins via IVF. Unsurprisingly, when the ex-boyfriend found out, he wasn't exactly pleased...

Ex-girlfriend hid sperm and used for in-vitro pregnancy: suit

Oh, and look at the page filename for the tabloid version of the headline...

This popped up in my Twitter feed today: Juliet Jacques in the New Statesman examines My Transsexual Summer, while also taking an opportunity to comment on media coverage in general of those on the transgender spectrum. The article also links to several other reviews of the series so far.

New Statesman - My Transsexual Summer: The trouble with television

Those of you who've been here a few years may remember a devilishly difficult Christmas tune acronym quiz I've run over the past few years.

As it's still November, I thought I'd share with you the answer sheet - so allowing you plenty of opportunities to download it, abridge it and save a copy with the answers removed to try out on your friends / family / neighbours / colleagues etc.

Seen on Richard Wiseman's blog. If you have had a sense of humour bypass or hate carefully arranged images with a passion, don't read any further.

For those of you remaining, this might tickle the cyclists among you. The photographer was presumably commissioned to produce a photograph featuring a (fully clothed!) couple posing in front of a bicycle.

Then the photographer got inspired - while the models were probably completely unaware of the rather 'interesting' framing...

http://richardwiseman.wordpress.com/2011/11/08/a-tad-rude/

Lulu seem to like having regular offers - they've just launched another one for UK readers, which is valid until 11:59pm Friday.

20% off site-wide, up to a maximum discount of £100.

The code is: EARLYSHOPPERUK305

So if you've been procrastinating over the possibility of buying one of Maddy's books... :)

I'm currently writing a story consisting of a mash-up of several fairy tales, with the obligatory TG twist. Courtesy of death threats made shortly after birth, the protagonist (currently about 6 years old) is prohibited from leaving the (small) castle where (s)he lives. However, at some point before the teenage years start, she will need to leave the castle so various assassination attempts (all of which will, of course, be unsuccessful) can take place.

Here's an alternative bit of waffle about the GabyCon - this time from my perspective :)

Having attended my first GabyCon last year and enjoyed it so much, I readily signed up to this year's. Despite not having ridden (rode?) a bicycle for the best part of 16 years (since going to uni), I was brave / foolish enough to volunteer to take part in this year's bicycle ride. But more on that later.

Imagine you're visiting a coastal town on holiday. This town has a working harbour, so you decide to have a walk along the quay. Now, what would you expect to find on the quayside? Fish, perhaps? This tourist apparently didn't think so...

On the one hand, it's a 16 GB USB flash drive.

On the other, it can also be used in a completely different 'port'.

I'm not entirely sure who'd want to pay $140 for this, and would you really want to use it for one purpose after using it for the other purpose?

Needless to say, there's plenty of joking in the "Best Rated" comments.

Read more to find out what I'm wittering on about: Here's the article (in the Daily Wail, of all places!)

A couple of interesting videos that YouTube decided to recommend to me.

First up, a witty animation (in the style of BUPA adverts) looking at gender stereotypes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIwWS2atEmc

I would advise you stay away from the comments though - there's some troll feeding going on (one commenter equating feminism and lesbianism with satanism. Oh dear...)

Second up, "What's wrong with Gender Roles?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swcXk-uqqLk

Oh, and Lizzie appears to have attracted a much nicer bunch of commentators :)

Spotted in a comment by edinjapan to Chicago Water Torture 2 - a story about a group of cosplayers who portray gender-reversed Justice League members.

"One night, we were all hanging out and I said how funny it would be if we had a whole Justice League with swapped sexes."
(one member of the group: Tallest Silver)

Doesn't time fly? I apparently first signed up to BCTS on 24th July 2009.

Looking back through "Track", my first 66 comments (including several on the first day!) were all in response to a single story (albeit different chapters!).

1 year 48 weeks ago I posted my first blog entries and found some other stories to comment on.
1 year 33 weeks ago saw me inflicting you with my Christmas Tunes Acronym Quiz (did I ever give out the answers link?)
1 year 26 weeks ago saw my first two stories arrive.

(Yup - it really seems to be the season for birthdays and anniversaries!)

I have it on good authority that the person responsible for these characters (and many more)...

...has a birthday today.

And not just any birthday... it's one of the milestone ones. (No, this person has definitely not arrived at their End Of File!)