Begins of the geek - Mysteries 1

When I was 7 I think, Startrek the next generation had just started in the UK. At that time I used to laugh at my Dad for watching Star Trek. My Dad in response one day made me sit down and watch the premiere episode - encounter at Farpoint station and whoah and behold 2 hours later I was also hooked. So beganth an interest in science fiction.

Being a girl, certainly in my area, growning up who liked science fiction - I was minority. I suffered alot of teasing, bullying through my school years. The ironic thing is in all those years I felt rather alone, had we of had the Internet like today I would been able to see how much I wasn't a minority as there are so many other people out there that love it too.

I remember another memory with my dad when I was very young. I got for christmas that year a Patrick Moore book - A childs introduction to astronomy. Anybody reading this not British, Patrick Moore is a famous astronomer in the UK - google him. He's cool, he was also games master. It doesn't get much cooler than that!

Looking back perhaps my Dad was trying to steer me towards being a scientist. There have been many strange christmas pressies over the years - infact the huge algebra one I got when I was about 12 sticks out the most . . . . .  Alas that never happened. Its probably a good thing as if I did have the brain power and incanation to write a whole load of math on boards and stuff then I would no doubt have turned out like Lesley Winkle on the big bang theory.

Dad took me outside one night, back in the days you could see all the stars clearly and pointed out and explained the stars and planets and constellations to me. I remember looking up and upon clarifying with Dad that if Earth - our planet revolved around a star and there were millions of stars out there, then probably somebody was standing on another planet orbiting a star staring at ours in their night sky. My Dad said to me, we couldn't prove it yet but he thought so too. So beganth a solid belief that we were not alone in the universe. How could we be if all those other stars and planets existed?

I got into the X-files when I was 11 and my world of the paranormal and interest in it just grew in leaps and bounds. I also saw 2 UFO's, one in the night and one in the day. Interestingly enough I saw both of these with my brothers friend. We still talk about it to this day. I remember running to find a camera for the one in broad daylight, sadly and as always seems to be the tale -  it had disappeared in some clouds when I got back downstairs. So beganth my obsession with having a camera with me at all times. I won't miss it next time.

Why am I telling you this? Well in my attempts to write what I know and am interested in, I'm pretty sure I'm going to talk about some of this type of stuff.  And I'm very logical - not Spock emotionless logical but to the point where I like to understand things from beginning to end. So these are my beginnings.

In completely different news I totally geeked out last night upon discovering a hilariously funny movie - Fan boys.

Gypsies 2 and Turning Japanese - Justin Lee Collins

So last night I viewed the second part of Big fat Gypsy Weddings. I really is an eye opener. Last night a non gypsy married a gypsy and the dress. OMG it was like nothing I have ever seen before. It weighed about 14 stone and had moving butterflies and lights in it powered by hidden battery packs.

Check it out. Amazing or what? I don't know how she managed to walk in it let alone dance. Now I know I'm a day behind the news - I always am late. But this has caused a little controversy in the news. The shocking thing is what hit the news was a 6 year old having a spray tan. Is this too young? In my head what should have hit the news was the councils agressive behaviour to the people protesting against them evicting people. The programme showed scenes of old ladies being forcably removed and diggers destroying the Gypsies homes. It was shocking.

Also on the box was Justin Lee Collins new series "Turning Japanese". First of all may I just congratulate Channel 5 on making a TV show encompassing two of my favourite things. I love Japan. Theres something about Japan thats so intriguing and I have an affinity to it. Once at a mind, body and spirit fair I was told that in a previous life I was oriental, so perhaps thats it if you inclined to believe in that sort of thing. I don't know. All I know is Japan is a place I have to visit one day. And JLC - the dude who brought back the A-Team, reunited starwars. Respect. But I will still say I'm waiting for you to reunite Buck Rogers!

Last night we were treated to JLC visiting Ice cream city. Now I know about Ice cream city from talking with my friend Ken who lives in Japan. This place has ice cream with the most unusual stuff in - wasabi, crab, octopus . . . . JLC was fearless, eating snake and a whole heap of bizarre things. Next he looked into a phenomena in Japan where men are wearing female underwear. I don't get this and was as confused as him when they told him it made them less stressful. We did however get to chuckle at JLC in a rather fetching pink and black bra.

Next they moved on to sex dolls and dating school. From what I can gather, from Mai his translater the population of Japan is dropping heavily and its all to do with the guys not being confident to approach women and theres some weird attitudes to sex. JLC visited a factory making the sex dolls and interviewed a man who had over 100 of these things and had to rent an appartment just to house them. Weird, weird , weird. I can't fathom why he would prefer a doll when you can get the real thing but hey ho its his life.

Finally JLC spent an evening working as a host. In Japan they have host bars in which women can come in and pay for a bloke to act like her boyfriend for an evening. She pays for all the drinks and they in turn shower her in compliments and conversation etc etc. Again not sure why they feel the need to do that. I guess thats one of the beauties about Japan, all the weird stuff they do that we don't understand.

Anyway I can't blog about turning japanese without the song . . . . . . .. .. . . . Instead of the vapors I picked Kirstin Dunst for a dash of that girl power! Enjoy!



By the way if theres anyone Japanese reading this that can shed any light on this stuff please comment!

Did you know a throat can bleed?

Well I sure as hell didn't. Pretty crappy day. Got up, felt like crap again. Two weeks now. Then I coughed and hacked up a load of blood. Nice. Went to work, decided I really ought to go to the doctor, told one of the nursey people about it, then one of them put the fear of god in me and said I should get it checked in A&E as worst case senario it could be pnemonia. So I went to A&E, got told my blood pressure was high, had a chest x-ray, spent 2 hours or so waiting around. Had an incredibly nice radiographer but thats digressing . . . . . . . . Then I get told my throats bleeding and has a severe viral infection and Im run down so should take a couple of days off. Am now on some heavy duty anti-biotics every 6 hours. Fun times!

Fat girl slim 1

So those of you know whole me, well you know Im larger than I should be. Those who you who are strangers just dropping in, take my word for it - I'm bigger than I should be. Now Im not going to sit here typing excuses into this. The truth is I got this way because I eat too much and do too little. As such one of the things I am determined to tackle this year is my weight and my fitness. My new motto is eat less, move more.

I joined a gym. I have just got in from session 5. It should be session 6 but I was ill last week and probably would have passed out if I had tryed to go on a treadmill or something. Im still not 100% but I need to get my body into a routine. Anyway I am really knackered. It takes 12 weeks I believe to make something a habit I believe. So I have erm 9 more weeks to go and hopefully my body is going to be craving going.

I wish it would because at the moment its a battle to get myself to go. I get so self conscious in that place. First of all theres the "mirror universe" fitness instructor. I call him that as he is miserable, shoots me evil looks as if to say "your a joke love" (okay they are probably in my head . . . . .) and he has this thing on his chin. I mean I don't get facial hair at the best of times. A beard - I know where I am. Some mustashes I can cope with. Gootees and all the other weird type facial things and Im lost. His is just like a tuff in the middle of his chin. And it just looks evil. Like Spock in the mirror universe. Hence the naming. And hes a perve. I was on the bike nearest the "fitness instructors" station today and him and this other chap were rating the girls coming in.

Once you have managed to get your ass inside, then you have to deal with all the stick thin people around you and the fact that for some reason they place mirrors around. I mean who wants to go red and sweaty and have to look at yourself in a mirror.

Add on top that and the girls reading this will be able to empathise. Sports bra's. They are a challenge in themselves. I mean just getting in a sports bra and you have done half a workout. Don't get me wrong, I would't be without one. Hell I don't want my chest knocking me out and the size of it thats a distinct possibility.

So I thought I would keep trying to update the whole lose weight/health kick part of this year in a nice little series of fat girl slim . . . . see what I did there . . . . LOL Yeah Im a geek. Anyway 5 sessions in, treadmill still killing me but I have lost 3 lbs to date.

I have hung up a green dress that I want to get back into by my bed for inspiration.

Can't read my . . . . can't read my Pokerface . . . . .

Had a lovely evening last night with my brother and some friends. Played for chips, a little Texas Hold em. Didn't win but I think I held my own okay. Recon my pokerface needs a little more work though.

Big fat gypsy weddings

Being a sociologist I just knew I was going to love this new series. It delves into the culture of travellers and was rather fascinating. What I learnt last night:

1. For women its all about the wedding. They get married anywhere round 16. From childhood they look forward to their wedding.
2. Men are men. They work, they provide, they fight, they are men. Women do the housework, look after the children. Gender norms are the traditional ones.
3. Travellers love big dresses and will travel many miles and spend lots of money to have custom made ones for their wedding. The one I saw last night weighed 5 stone.
4. Traveller women have some serious strength to be able to walk in those dresses. Power to them.
5. There are strict cultural norms such as they cannot drink until married, a young girl must have a chaperone or be in a group if they are around a young man at all time except it seems weddings.
6. There is a thing called grabbing, where boys can grab the girl and ask for a kiss. If the female accepts and it normal for them to play about unaccepting to see how interested the boy is and keep him trying, then this signifys the first step of courtship. Last night we witnessed one girl be grabbed, so I am presuming next week theres more information on the next steps of the courtship process. Looking forward to that.
   
7. Travellers can live in houses, not just caravans.
8. Travellers are very house proud
9. Travellers tend to have big families

Half ton teen - Billy Robbins

I have been told before that Houston is one of the fattest cities in the world. Even with that knowledge I was not prepared for what I saw in this 3 part documentary that I have watched over the last few weeks. It followed 3 super obese people. Teenager Billy Robbins took centre stage in all three and a younger teen John Wayne appeared to a lesser extent. In part 3 were introduced to another young man. Sadly he died.

Billys story was upsetting and heartbreaking. He was 18 at the beginnning and 800 pounds. Barely mobile, his mother waited on him hand and foot while he played computer games and watched TV. Now I know I can on occassion lose quite a few hours if Im in final fantasy mode but I have never got to the extent where I can do it every day. I find that after so long you start seeing the game in flashes, even in your sleep. To me its disorientating. To Billy it seemed it was a way of life.

It became clear, half way in that the Mother Barbara was suffering from some tramatic event causing her to act the way she had. Her first son, sadly passed a year old. She had never really got over that. When Billy came along, it seems she wanted to ensure she would never lose another child. So she cared and cared and cared for him. She gave him everything he wanted. The mum needed to be needed. Billy as a result grew up as an 12 or 13 year old in an 18 year olds body. Billy didn't seem to have any friends bar his mum. Im not sure what his schooling was like. Effectively he was in a prison, a prison brought about by misplaced love from the mum. He also lived in the shadow of his dead brother.

The documentary followed the family going through a 3 stage plan to get Billys weight down and let him have a normal life. In the first couple of documentaries he whined and as soon as he got home returned to his own ways. Barbara it seemed despite letting him have the surgery, still wanted to keep him dependent. The first thing she did when he got home the first time was make him a hotdog. I screamed at the tv.

The hospital offered counselling and towards the end of documentary 2 she was I am happy to say starting to understand and tackle things. She started shouting at him to move, not waiting on him as much and probably the most pro-active she was training to be a bus driver. A job to give her another purpose. Fantastic. Also it forced Billy to fend for himself more as she wasn't there 24/7.

In documentary 3 she was alot better even coming up with ways to motivate her son to move, taking him to his grandparents farm. Billy tryed new activities and gradually they got his weight down to the amount needed for the last part of the treatment - the gastirc bypass. At the end of part 3, Billy himself had come on in leaps and bounds. He was no longer this whinning teen. He even narrated and showed himself to be level headed and with an understanding of his addiction and a williness to tackle it. I sincerely hope he carrys one with all the hard work and has his chance to do everything he dreams - go to college, have a family, all the normal mundane stuff we take for granted.

John Wayne sadly didn't fair as well. He also had gastric bypass sugrery. He lost so many pounds intially then his family got him a huge cake for his birthday. By his bed were jars of sweets. Temptation everywhere. It was unsurprising that the young man turned back to his old eating habits. At the end he showed an attitude to not care any more. Missing checkups with the hospital, saying things like the doctor can kiss my "£$£$$. I hope he wises up and I don't end up watching another documentary a year or so down the line where hes lying in the same bed as the poor kid that died.