Previous Posts

Subscribe

Basic feed (just the blog)

The Uberfeed (blog, pics & links)

Via e-mail:

Thumbnail Thumbnail Thumbnail Thumbnail Thumbnail My latest pictures on Flickr

Becky's T-Blog

Monday, May 29, 2006

The Great Tranny Drought of '06

From our trans-environmental reporter.

At first I thought it was just me, but trannies up and down the country have been reporting the same thing: we're in the middle of the greatest Tranny Drought of recent memory. Trannies just aren't dressing, and even when they do they're finding the experience unrewarding and vaguely unsettling.

The signs are there for everyone to see. Tranny clubs that were overflowing this time last year, today appear more like deserts. And tranny blog feeds have, in some cases, reduced to a trickle.

Tranny levels in some parts of the country have got so low that the authorities have been forced to take drastic steps. I spoke to Jocasta Kittenstrangler, chairtranny of Thames Valley Associated Transpersons (TVAT) about their plans to overcome the drought.

"At first glance our measures might seem counter-intuitive," she told me. "We actually aim to reduce the levels of femininity in an area."

"And why's that?" I asked, putting my hand to my chin in a sincerely inquisitive manner.

"The idea is to 'dam' the remaining tranny levels in that area and force them to the surface. We find that when trannies are forced into not dressing, tranny levels eventually rise to well above their usual levels. The first step is a hose ban."

"A hose ban?" I asked with a raised eyebrow, during the filming of my cutaway shots about half an hour after she'd left.

"Yes," she said. "We ban the sale of all types of hose. Stockings, tights, hold-ups, etc. It's suprising how much trannies miss this luxury. Particularly the gardener trannies, who like to wear fishnets under their corduroys while they're pottering around the allotment on a Saturday."

"I see, and what if that's not enough?" I countered probingly.

"In extreme cases we might introduce communal pipe-stands," she answered. "But that really would be a last resort. We've not done that since 1976."

1976. So long ago that most trannies would have been too young to really appreciate it at the time. So I spoke to Martine Tulip, a "golden girl" tranny who remembers the Summer of '76 all too well. We met up in the pub she now owns in the East End of London.

"Oh yes, I remember the pipe-stands," she said, laughing into her pint. "They put one down our street. We didn't 'arf laugh."

"What was it, exactly?"

"A stand for pipes. You know. Like what you smoke. The man from the council comes and puts it up and loads it with pipes and tobacco and says 'This ere's for you trannies what ain't dressing'."

"And did it help?"

"Not arf, I took one puff and caught a glace of meself in a mirror. I looked such a geezer I immediately ran and put on the wife's wedding dress. The 'ole street were out in the street partying in frocks. It was just like the Blitz! The repartee was luvverly."

So, perhaps hose bans and pipe-stands are a possible solution to counter this current drought, but the question still remains: what's causing the problem in the first place? Back to Jocasta.

"It's to do with global warming," she said.

"I'm not an expert in tranny climatology," I replied humbly. "But surely that would increase Tranny levels?"

"Not necessarily, it's all to do with the Gurl stream, a cultural current that flows from America. The UK is right in the middle of it, and it keeps tranny levels in the UK artificially high. There are signs that some parts of the Gurl stream have already shut down."

"That's just bollocks, isn't it?"

"Er... yes. I just wanted to use the Gurl/Gulf pun."

So there you have it. Tranny levels at nearly an all time low, so much so that next month Manchester (traditionally a net exporter) is being forced to pipe in trannies from elsewhere. And no-one really knows why.

Although I think maybe it's just something in the water.

Labels:

Blogger hannaviolane  perhaps trannies just have not been paying their TV licences ? that or they have all commited hari kiri after one more rendition of 'its raining men' at transmission?? 
Anonymous Valerie  Global crisis indeed. Net effect working both ways? If you, Miss Everson, Miss K and Miss Baarova (well..) all stopped, I don't know if I'd post anymore. And don't you all dare to skip Sparkle, I have tickets and I'm building a respectable nervous breakdown.. 
Blogger Rachel  Remember it well, the drought of '76. My wife to be and I were back-packing along Offa's Dyke, and the salmon dying at redbrook, a few miles up the river made national news. Mind you, don't recall the pipes being brought round. May be you don't get many trannies in those Welsh rural parts. 
Anonymous fairly cyclic  You are absolutely brilliant. 
Blogger Kat  And yet, in the southern hemisphere, there appears to be the opposite, or El Nina effect.

Emerging from the barren, sun baked season of summer, there appears to be a veritable swell of Trannies about to crash upon the shore. Or The Imperial Hotel, this coming Saturday. If you will.

Scientists appear to be zero'ing in on a new phenomenon (and I'm not talking about Ronaldo). SAD trannies. No, not miserablists in the closet. Seasonally affected and dawdling Trannies. You heard it here first. 
Blogger Michelle Faith  from over here on the west coast of canada , I am also noting a drought, hell some gurls have been awol for over 8 months, what the hell? The world is definitely missing it's fab factor 
Blogger Brian  back-packing along Offa's Dyke

Is that a euphemism? 
Anonymous Dana X  The drought's hit Chicago for some reason too. This calls for a global summit, with trannies, epidemiologists, climate experts, and bottomless margaritas all around! 
Anonymous Rachel  No, Offa's Dyke is for real Brian. Used to be the border between England and Wales. 
Blogger Jane  New evidence just in suggests that there is a link with the massive drop in levels of available "delusion" due to the large numbers of England fans who think that their team can win the World Cup. 
Anonymous Stephanie Delacey  I knew I'd never get the hang of this trannying lark. Just my luck: as I'm finally on the verge of coming out everyone else is going back in! It could be that, as Jane suggests, my levels of delusion are still unfeasibly high since I am the prophet of doom who doesn't think England will get beyond the quarter-finals. 
Blogger Miss K  > everyone else is going back in

Well it *has* been rather cold and damp down here in London 
Blogger April Angell  Well then...Beckenham seems to have a well defined microclimate - book your holiday now! 
Anonymous Alli' Cat'  "Spark at optimum level and holding."
Nice one Becky! 
Blogger Jessica  The clouds are getting darker, thunder rumbles in the distance, my ears have popped and I've got a headache. A storm is coming. 
Blogger Dee  fabulous humor! :) 

Post a CommentPermalink     Subscribe to comments: this post | all posts

Saturday, May 27, 2006

This is the road to Hull


Well, we're actually in a village near Beverley, having eschewed the delights of Hull. The Humber Bridge made the trip a lot shorter (or less wet, depending how you look at it).

Gotta go... Dr. Who just starting and Maureen Lipman's a baddie! :-O

Labels:

Blogger Becky  F*ck Maureen Lipman!

I. Need. Rose's. Outfit...

[Homer Simpson drool.] 
Blogger Michelle Faith  That is an excellent pic 
Blogger JenniferLL  drool. I want Rose's shoes 

Post a CommentPermalink     Subscribe to comments: this post | all posts

Friday, May 26, 2006

Through the looking-glass

There's more to mirrors than meets the eye.

When we talk about the great inventions of civilizations, the wheel and the printing press tend to get pretty high billing. The idea to silver glass so that it gives a perfect reflection seems to get forgotten. But in my mind it's just as important.

There's something inherently magical about mirrors, I'm fascinated by them, and not just for vanity reasons. When I was a small child, probably like many other kids, I used to wonder if maybe the boy in the mirror was just as real as I was. Maybe I was just a reflection of him.

My gran had a wardrobe with two glass doors that hinged in the middle. I used to enjoy angling them close together and peering into the gap. A thousand eyes peered back, fading into bottle-green oblivion.

Also, I remember shining a torch through a mirror, and watching the beam hit the ceiling beyond the mirror as if it were just a pane of glass between two rooms. At the same time, the mirror-boy was shining his torch beam through on to my ceiling.

Of course it wasn't really like that. I fully understand how the beam was being reflected creating the optical illusion, but it felt that way.

Mirrors have always appeared in fairytales and folklore. Vampires are revealed by their lack of reflection. Snow White was betrayed to the Queen by her tell-tale mirror. And, or course, breaking a mirror is seven years back luck.

Arthur C. Clarke says that any sufficiently advanced techology is indisguishable from magic. A mirror, as a piece of techology, is simple enough that we all know, on a rational level, how it works. But on a evolutionary timescale mirrors haven't been around that long, and our monkey brains haven't evolved to treat mirrors as mundane elements of our environment. In short, we each have to learn that mirrors aren't magic.

The ability that mirrors have to "trick" our minds is being put to good use. Many amputees suffer what's called "phantom pain" in limbs that are no longer there. In some cases it seems that this is caused by the portion of the brain that "knows" where your limbs are positioned being at odds with what the eyes can see.

Researchers have found that by using a mirror-box that reflects the amputee's remaining limb into the place where the missing limb should be, it "fools" the brain into thinking the limb is still there, and the pain is reduced. It's even been found to work with other kinds of pain too.

Finally, the best kind of mirror magic is tranny-related. I still can't quite put into words the feeling I get when, after finishing getting made-up and dressed, I look in the mirror for the first time.

I look in, Becky looks out. The boy looks in, the girl looks out. Reality flip-flops rapidly between two states, then something clicks. Becky looks in and I look out. She's me and I'm her.

It really is magic.
Blogger jessica_sweet_tv_mx  Yep, Always thought as kids, that other side of mirror was another world like the one here but leftsided.

I always remember how fun was to go into the funny mirrors stands, and look you taller, fatter, big headed. 
Anonymous cyclic  I still want to know how Gillian gets along without one... 
Blogger Billy  What a fascinating post!

Obviously the Snow White one is the best mirror, don't think I'd want a talking mirror. I would be too worried about what it was going to say! 
Blogger VB-W  Really the greatest invention ever was venetian blinds. Without them it's curtains for all of us. 
Blogger suzihotgirl  The last few lines of you post are beautiful!
I can't imagine logging on and not checking up on your blogg.
Thank you Becky. x 
Blogger Tomcat  Nice blog ! 
Blogger hannaviolane  wonderful reading becky! i used to-as a child like you- wonder if i could step into the 'mirror' world reflecting back at me and tried to peer round the edges to see 'inside' that world to see how far it extended.

its interesting to note i think how the reflected image-even of familiar rooms/settings etc-always seem to look so much nicer than the real world we are standing in at that point!
everything juxtaposed and so many opposites it becomes heady.
no wonder at school i was always in trouble for daydreaming instead of paying attention in history...the russian revolution was nowhere near is fascinating!

hanna x 

Post a CommentPermalink     Subscribe to comments: this post | all posts

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

The lateral force is strong in this one

I knew that my MacBook Pro had a motion sensor in it, but I had no idea just how well it had been engineered. It actually knows the angle it's being held at in space, in two axes!

How do I know this? Cos MacSaber tells me so. Which is why I've been waving my laptop around like a loon. And not because it makes fantastic lightsaber noises when I do it. :-S

Laptop fight anyone? :-)
Blogger Connie Cox  ha ha I read about this on a DVD forum and I knew you would be doing it lol 
Blogger Siobhan Curran  There's also some stuff here (The PowerBook Sudden Motion Sensor, kernelthread.com) you might like to try. I'm not sure if he's updated them to work with the MacBooks though. 
Anonymous Becky T  Motion sensors? In a Powerb...I mean MacBook? How cool is that? And here's me with a creaky old PB3400 with a pink screen... 
Anonymous Rachel  "with a pink screen..."

Did it have to be pink? Silly question! 
Anonymous Sylvia  Ohhh a pink screen. Well I can see the new past time of notebook wars comming. 
Anonymous Becky T  It went pink when the LCD's circuits stopped sending the green signal! It's quite a nice shade of pink, mind you. :) 
Anonymous Kate Weston  The Force working its magic upon you it is! Everyone knows good Jedi's have pink or other pale coloured Macs, while the evil ones (I mention no names) have dark or deep shaded ones. This is the origin of the expression "Have you got a light Mac?" 
Blogger Gillian  Sit vis vobiscum
May the force be with you. 
Blogger Siobhan Curran  Just found this one: Virtual desktop switching by smacking the side of your MacBook

:-D 

Post a CommentPermalink     Subscribe to comments: this post | all posts

Sunday, May 21, 2006

Now a major motion picture

Langdon held the print in his hand and ran his eye along the frame.

"Look here, there's a word," he said, holding the frame closer to the light so Sophie could see.

Sophie squinted. "B. E. I. O." she said. "Beio? What does that mean?"

"Beio is a place in Cameroon... maybe the next clue is there. The B is written in lower case. Perhaps that's significant."

"Wait," Sophie said, grabbing the frame from Langdon. "They taught us this at Cryptography school."

Langdon watched open-mouthed as she turned the entire print upside down.

"Look at the word now," Sophie said, smiling.

"Oh, it's not a word at all!" Langdon laughed. "It's a number! 0. 1. 3. 9. 0139."

"One hundred and thirty nine," Sophie said. "Does that mean anything to you?"

"Hmmm... there was an Aztec sect that believed there were 139 deadly sins. They were big of sin, the Aztecs. And of course, Jesus lived at 0139c Tabgha Mews, Nazareth. The Grannenites of Hove believe that God created the universe in 139 days because he was using PRINCE2 methodology..."

"Hmmm, nothing that can help us now," Sophie said. She cast a critical eye over the print.

"Maybe the clue is in the picture itself."

Langdon looked over her shoulder.

"That's the picture? I thought it was just the backing paper."

Sophie scowled. "No!" she said. "It's modern art. I quite like it. It's synaesthetic."

"Bless you," Langdon said, absent-mindedly handing Sophie a tissue. "So you think the clue is in the stripes?"

"Maybe," Sophie said. "If only we had one of those laser things like they have in Tescos."

"Maybe we could ask the artist?" Langdon suggested.

"It's a bit late for that," Sophie said, biting her lip.

"You mean... Dead?"

Sophie pointed over to a figure lying face down in a pool of light further down the gallery. It was wearing a full-length ballgown and clutching a bottle of red wine in an outstretched hand. Langdon had assumed it was another "installation."

"She found out they had a free bar," Sophie said. "We'll get nowt out of her until tomorrow lunchtime."


Now you too can join the adventure!
Buy an original print of "0139" and help crack

THE CURRAN CODE

(And help make a bit of money for Sparkle too.)
Anonymous Susan Callan  Can't bid. Laughing too much. 
Blogger Joanna  Lol.....nice one. 
Blogger Clarissa  Brilliant, simply brilliant. All I have to do now is somehow stop laughing. 
Anonymous Stephanie Rowe  briliant!
a figure slumped face down in a pool of light wearing a ballgown and cluching a bottle of red wine. I wonder who that could be? lol. 
Anonymous Kate Weston  Very funny. Spark glowing brightly. 

Post a CommentPermalink     Subscribe to comments: this post | all posts

Saturday, May 20, 2006

Lawks it's Lordi!

I can see this running and running. Christmas number one? :-)
Blogger Becky  My favorite line:

"On the Day of Rockening."

ROCK! :-) 
Blogger Joanna  I loved it! Great to see it win... was cool to see someone try and subvert the whole Eurovision thing :-) 
Anonymous Sophie Green  I was out tonight but I recorded it (hey like I'm really THAT cool), I'm watching it back now (I'm on entry #24 Armenia, absolute nonsense) and I WAS avoiding the result!!

So thanks for that ;-) I kinda figured Finland had it in the bag as soon as I saw them.

GWARRRRR!! 
Blogger Siobhan Curran  I was rather taken by the thought of the forthcoming Arockalypse myself :-D 
Blogger Billy  I predict everyone will do death metal next year. Which should be interesting. 
Blogger Sandie Dee  ooooh an arockalypse! goody goody! (rushes off to check thigh boots and leather mini still fit...) 
Blogger Joanna  DJ this morning described them as "Like a Bat out of Helsinki"

Which made me chuckle... 

Post a CommentPermalink     Subscribe to comments: this post | all posts

Douze points

Do you guys across the pond ever wonder what stops us little Euro-peen countries a a-fussin' and a-feudin' all the time these days?

It's a little thing called the Eurovision Song Contest. Once a year we all get together for a big sing-a-long and relentlessly take the piss out of each other. It's fabulously camp, wonderfully crass and highly enjoyable with a few glasses of vino collapso.

Current favorites at the half way stage with the EnVérite jury is the German entry. Country and Western stylee! Big pink frocks! :D
Blogger Becky  Russia: Albino piano-creatures! :-O 
Blogger Becky  Lithuania: positive thinking! :-) 
Blogger Jane  Well at least they can sing in tune.

Argh the British entry - awful, creepy and embarrassing. 
Anonymous Valerie  Oh! Schoolgirl fantasies! 
Blogger Jane  Actually I really liked the British entry and I am wrong and I smell. 
Blogger Becky  That'll teach you not to log out when you log on on my machine, Jane. :-D

Evil Becky xxx 
Blogger Jane  The "Late" Evil Becky I hasten to add! Grrrrrr 
Blogger Becky  Heehee. :-)

Agreed Valerie, must dig out my schoolgirl uniform. :-) 
Blogger Billy  The Germans are very good at doing country. I wonder why this is. 
Anonymous Valerie  Ha! There are at least 4 people in Europe watching the show! (or did you just make an intelligent guess?) 
Blogger Becky  Isn't it great!

Who do Finland normally vote for, Val? 
Anonymous Valerie  Doesn't everybody vote for neighbours? Sweden seems to be this time more hate than love, so it goes to Russia.. You know, we have never won the contest.. 
Blogger Becky  I think that's going to change this year. :-) 
Anonymous Valerie  I'm going to pee in my knickers (if you allow the expression) 
Blogger Becky  Have 12 points from the UK. :D 
Blogger Billy  Looks like the Finns are going to get it... 
Blogger Jane  Congratulations to Finland!!!!

So Valerie you'll be buying all the drinks at Sparkle eh??? Mine's a pint of Creme de Menthe 
Blogger Becky  Yep, they got it!

Congrats Valerie! Are we all invited to the Eurovision party at your place next year? :-D 
Anonymous Valerie  Yes you have everything. Champagne for everybody at Sparkle (at my place, just name the brand). Eurovision participation next year. Weekend with Santa in Ice Hotel in Lappland. Endless supply of Finlandia vodka, in Ice Bar, with James Bond. We have never won the contest. Period. When Lordi was selected as our representative it was a national fight it's a shame for the nation. And now what? They ******* win! Thank you Europe! (Maybe everybody is just tired of the stereotype songs...)... Oh! 
Anonymous Valerie  More vino! 
Blogger Becky  Someone get that girl another drink! 
Anonymous Valerie  What a kind soul.. I will remember Creme de Menthe. Any other wishes? It's self service here, I'm afraid. 
Blogger Zoe Bergstroem  Only Place 14 for our german Band damned! I think it's a great song 

Post a CommentPermalink     Subscribe to comments: this post | all posts

Pre-Eurovision Fun

Fathers for Justice just invaded the National Lottery stage!

I love it when stuff like that happens. The Voice of the Balls had to keep talking for ages while they cleared the whole thing up. :-)

See you on the other side of Eurovision!
Anonymous Valerie  Will you vote for Lordi? Will you? ;-) 
Blogger Becky  They've got Satan on their side, Val. They don't need my vote! ;-) 
Anonymous Valerie  That's totally populistic view on the issue. It's a representation of our national opinion on the contest ;-) 
Blogger Becky  They were wonderful Valerie. I really appreciate your makeup skills now, I never had idea the skin problems you guys suffer. ;-) 
Blogger Jane  Thought they were Brill! right now it's a toss up between them and the Germans for best entry. I think the Ukrainians are going for the Turkish vote. 
Anonymous Valerie  Yea yea, just wait for Sparkle to hear the accent and the morning after skin problems.. Thanks for the appreciation. Now you understand it's not so easy on the polar latitudes. 
Anonymous Martin  cripes that woman cyberman is scary! 

Post a CommentPermalink     Subscribe to comments: this post | all posts

Missing my spark

The observant amongst you may have noticed that I've not blogged much of late.

It's a little strange, I've wanted to write stuff, but when it's come to the crunch I've not been able to think of anything to write about. I could say that it's because nothing exciting has been happening in my life, which would be true, but I've not let that stop me before.

It's more to do with change of mood, and a change in the way my brain's been working.

Normally my mind seems to fill with ideas slowly, like gas filling a badly-ventilated apartment. These ideas float around for a bit, and then something will spark in my mind, and there'll be a huge explosion of creativity, normally in the form of a blog entry.

The ideas are coming, the room is full, the budgie is lying dead in its cage, but no spark. It's most upsetting.

I'm actually quite proud of my mind. I like the way it surprises me. I like the way bits of it seem to go away for days to work on something, and then come back sheepishly and say "we made this". It's like having my own internal R&D department.

I also like the way I can see patterns in things, and find the truth in things by the way they relate to other things. I like having a certain amount of wit to put these things into words.

All this sounds very conceited.

I remember once, a long time ago before I left home, I was having a conversation with my Dad, and he said something very clever and funny. I've completely forgotten what we were talking about, or what it was that my Dad said that was so amazingly witty, we just laughed and I went back to watching telly.

About ten minutes later I looked over to my Dad, who was staring into the middle distance with a big smile on his face.

"What are you thinking about?" I said.

"I was just thinking about how clever I am," he said wistfully, and laughed.

It was such an incredibly immodest thing to say that I laughed too. I laughed because I knew exactly what he meant, that great feeling you get when you know what you've just done or said is clever, and you replay it over in your mind just to savour it's greatness.

That story might not throw any light on why my spark has deserted me, but it might go some way to explain why I blog stuff in the first place.

It's pure vanity, dear Reader. Sometimes you get to see the fruits of my impressive wit, sometimes you have to put up with me staring into the middle distance and thinking just how jolly clever I am.

But I'd rather have my spark back.
Blogger Freiya  When i feel like this i always think of that episode of Lovejoy ( you know, Ian McShane as a roguish yet charming antique dealer ) where he loses his spark and realises that he shouldn't take it for granted, and then sleeps with someone ( possibly, my mind is a little foggy on the details ) and then gets it back, my point being that i suppose sometimes you have a spark, sometimes you just have embers, but give the embers something to catch on and they soon turn to sparks again. 

Post a CommentPermalink     Subscribe to comments: this post | all posts

Monday, May 15, 2006

Question...

Just how scary is this?

Especially (shudder) this. :-/

For some reason they remind me of Doctor Who baddies. I can see an army of them descending on the Doctor and Rose. Led by... er... Cassandra probably.

P.S. On the Who front I know what that one piece of the TARDIS that wasn't broken in the crash was for.

Think about it: they crash randomly through dimensions and end up in a London where the first thing they see is a poster for Rose's dad, who just happens to be intimately tied up with Cybus industries; and where Mickey's double just happens to be the leader of the rebels.

That glowy bit that was still working must have been the improbability drive, Douglas Adams probably left it there when he was helping write the show! Still, incredible coincidences are par for the course with Doctor Who, and I loved this episode anyway. :-)

Spoiler for next week: Mickey is turned into a cyberman, (but it's okay because Ricky becomes his "replacement" in the series). However, Mickey's conversion to metal monster goes a bit wrong and he ends up as a kind of bumbling wisecracking robot with strange powers who unaccountably says "boogie boogie!" a lot. The Doctor takes pity on him and drops him off to be cared for by a typical Eighties family, where he is renamed "Metal Mickey", in a bizarre retro-spinoff twist.

Some of the above spoiler may not be true.
Anonymous Tiffany  Haha. Improbability Drive. Now, I can't watch Doctor Who, as I'm over here and not there (:P), but be sure to blog it if a whale and a bowl of petunias shows up... 
Blogger Siobhan Curran  For a second, I thought you were just polt-speculating. But when I saw where you were going with it, I cracked up :-D 
Blogger Freiya  those mask/body things are pretty scary, they just make me think of Silence of the Lambs though!
I'm not having much luck with Dr.who at the moment, i missed the week before's episode and this week the video recorder didn't record the last 5 minutes! aarrghh! the crys of frustration where heard for miles around when that happened! 
Anonymous Kate Weston  I hear Transformation have expressed an interest in those body suits for their summer catalogue. I'm sorry that was just a cheap shot. 
Blogger Clarissa  If they get sold by Tatt 4 Trannies then cheap is the last thing they will be. ;) 
Blogger Debbie Huggins  Freiya, the first thing i thought was Slience of the Lambs too. I'm to freaked out about that suit. Another thought the Edgar suit from Men in Black. 
Blogger Joanna  Scary stuff...

the one at the top of this page seems to be a dead ringer for Eddie Izzard..... 
Anonymous Isobel  I'm sure there's an innocent and perfectly plausible explaination (probably involving a shelved pilot for Ant & Dec's post-watershed TV show), but how did you know of these monstrosities, Becky? 
Blogger Connie Cox  Hmm I didn't realise it was a suit and thought I had seen her in Napoleans before.
And I think what was still powered in the Tardis had been left behind by K9 a few episodes ago...damn dog poo! 
Blogger Becky  Isobel: From where I find a lot of scary things, it was posted to The Angels. :-) 
Anonymous Alli' Cat'  "How scary..."
Our transatlantic cousins have a saying for this kind of thing, "Jeez, that's some weird shit you got going on there!". Then again, who am I to judge? After all, "People who live in glass houses..." 
Blogger Lizz  Why on God's Green Earth would anyone want a body suit like that?!? Eww! 
Anonymous Kate Weston  I hope they don't kill off Micky and replace him with Ricky (not sure where the line of reality is drawn in your spoiler) - for one thing its SO Star Trek (both Miles O'Brien and Harry Kim were not the originals but alternative world replacements) but also I thought Micky's back story is getting interesting as he starts to examine who he is and where he fits in. If they kill him off now it will be a bit blah! 
Anonymous Mrs Y  Public Announcement

Dr. Who is on at a different time (again) tomorrow - 6.35pm 
Blogger Becky  Thanks for that, Mrs Y. :-) 

Post a CommentPermalink     Subscribe to comments: this post | all posts

Friday, May 12, 2006

I hate being ill

I took a day off to today to go up to Liverpool to see Jessica for the weekend. It was going to be great.

But instead I got laid low by some kind of bug on Wednesday and I'm still feeling the after-effects now. So, no weekend in Liverpool, and a waste of a day off spent in bed!

Ho hum, at least Jane's here to look after me!
Anonymous Lexie  Aww poor you and the weather so nice 2. well take 2 asprin and call me in the morning hee hee. 
Blogger Brian  You sit down; I'll put the kettle on, 'k? 
Blogger Debbie Huggins  You just get better and that's a order.
Curl up with a nice cup of tea. 
Blogger Jessica  sophies loving it, she's got loads of food and booze! and liverpool won the FA cup :) Cum on the reds! I think you gave me your virus, i've felt like crap all day!

Hope you're feeling better xxx 
Blogger Michelle Faith  I hope you feel better soon. I just got over a virus so I can relate.....don't try to blame me either, I'm 10,000 miles away 
Blogger Sandie Dee  Hope you are feeling better now hun, I'm off work with a bug but your blog/site always makes me feel cheerier :-)
Have a cyber hug and a nice cuppa ;-) 

Post a CommentPermalink     Subscribe to comments: this post | all posts

Monday, May 08, 2006

Every Tranny's Free

(to wear foundation)

Ladies and trannies of class of '06... wear foundation.

If I could offer you one useful tranny tip, using a good foundation would be it.

The shadow-covering and complexion-enhancing benefits of a decent foundation have been proven, whereas the rest of my advice is based on the experiences of a tranny who hasn't really managed to get it right herself yet.

I will dispense this advice now.

If you want to go out dressed, do it now. It's never too late to come out of the closet, but the later you leave it, the more missed opportunities there will be to regret in hindsight. Trust me, in 20 years time you'll look back and be glad you had a chance to be the person you wanted to be.

You are not just a guy in a dress.

Don't worry about "passing" as a girl. Well, worry about it, but don't worry so much that it stops you ever getting out of the door. Know that being a tranny isn't about passing, it's about feeling good and knowing you look the best you can.

Do one thing each day that makes you feel girly.
Smile.
Don't waste time on people who mock you, and don't mock others for being different than you are.
Pluck.
Don't be jealous of other trannies that look better than you do. There'll always be girls who are thinner, or have more feminine features, or have better clothes. Equally, there'll always be some trannies who are less fortunate than you are. That's just the luck of the draw.

Take compliments at face value, give compliments honestly.

Remember the name of every tranny that you meet. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.
Exfoliate.
Don't feel guilty that you don't want to be the same kind of tranny as your peers. If you want to go around looking like an Vegas showgirl then do so. There isn't a right way to be a tranny. Once you choose to ignore the taboo that "boys don't wear girls clothes", every other rule becomes pretty much optional.

Buy good quality makeup.

Maybe you'll transition, maybe you won't, maybe you'll give it all up, maybe you won't, maybe you'll marry someone who hates you dressing, maybe you'll be the bride at your own wedding. Whatever happens, don't be too upset that other people are "better off" than you. Every tranny wants to have something that some other tranny is taking for granted. Trust me, that other tranny wants things they can't have too. The phrase "the grass is always greener" almost perfectly describes the tranny condition.

Talk things through with your partner. Even when it hurts. Even when you don't really know how you feel. Even when you think they finally understand and accept it all... they don't. Talk and keep talking.

Accept the fact that most of the stuff you buy you'll never wear.

Always dress to your age. Or younger than your age. Or older than your age.

Don't follow tips in beauty magazines, most of them are written for real girls and don't work for guys. For example... usually less is NOT more.

When it comes to telling other people, choose wisely. Never tell someone just because it's fun to surprise people. But equally, never avoid telling a friend because you're afraid how they'll react. They'll be cool with it, that's why they're a friend.

Accept that even your closest tranny friends are on different journeys from you. Work hard to stay friends even though they might be dressing more, or dressing less, or transitioning, or starting a family. Deep down, you'll share a bond that formed at that brief moment where you were both in the same head-space at the same time; and that never goes away.

Be a French maid, but don't equate femininity with servitude. Go blonde, but don't associate blonde with dumb.
Tuck, or at least try to hide it well.
Accept certain inevitabilities. People will stare, some will be even be rude. Just remember it's some people's fate in life to be assholes, and it's your fate in life to reveal who they are.

Don't shop at Transformation.

Don't take risks just for the thrill of it. Don't walk the streets at night on your own. Don't meet up with people without telling a friend where you are.

Be careful when taking advice from other trannies. They're all doing it for their own reasons, they all have their own agendas, and what worked for them might not work for you. Trannies like to flock together for moral support and guidance, but no one tranny in the world has all the answers. They just like to think that they do.

But trust me on the foundation.

Becky EnVérité

(with apologies to Mary Schmich)

Labels:

Blogger Jane  I am in awe, this is beautiful. 
Blogger Pandora Caitiff  Somebody was watching Channel Four on Sunday night eh? 
Blogger Brian  And be kind to your knees, right? 
Blogger hannaviolane  this is very beautiful becky and id guess all who read. trannie or not will agree

p.s and you are so right about the foundation!!! take heed girls! and even more right about flippin transformation!:) 
Blogger Freiya  Funny, Clever, Beautiful and True, i'd quote my favourite bit but i'd only have to quote the whole fantastic lot! 
Anonymous Tiffany  Haha. Playing Baz Luhrmann?

I'll see your Baz, and raise you a Chris Rock. 
Blogger Karol Cross  Becky this is fabulous.

"it's some people's fate in life to be assholes, and it's your fate in life to reveal who they are"

Simply brilliant. 
Anonymous Graeme  great article but, do you have any recommendations on the foundation front? 
Anonymous Tiffany  Oh, and very poignant, as I'm leaving school today. :\

I'm not a tranny (as we...well, at least you and I know), but you brought the sunscreen song to mind.

And besides, there's lessons there for everyone, I think.

In any version of the song we choose. :) 
Blogger Gillian  OI!!!!

Everyones Free to Wear Sundresses 
Blogger Becky  Ooops, sorry Gillian. :-)

I swear I'd never seen that.

Great minds think alike hon. ;-) 
Anonymous Anonymous  I am a tranny to and im deeply touched by your posts and would love to walk out in public but alass im to scared 
Anonymous Lisa  This really is wonderful - well done you.

I agree completely, with one tiny exception ... cheap No.17 foundation does the job every time :) 
Anonymous Sylvia  One word, Wow. Yes we all should be proud of who we are and enjoy life. And, yes sundresses, yay!! 
Blogger Misty  Talk things through with your partner. . . . Even when you think they finally understand and accept it all... they don't. Talk and keep talking.
Story of my life at the moment.

BTW, This is one of the best blog entries I've ever seen. 
Anonymous vikki  WOW - amazing, funny, inspirational etc. - keep this up and your blog will be up there with 'random acts of reality' for truly inspirational reading 
Blogger Connie Cox  I will try and take the advice and be less jealous of girls like Gillian.

Brilliant blog post! 
Anonymous -D  Yeah, this was exactly what I needed to hear.
Thanks. 
Anonymous Anonymous  as someone who can say that she did "get into it" and dress well, in the late 80s, i can only say that becky knows what it is of which she speaks... 
Anonymous Anonymous  what do you think of the phrase, 'validate the girl'?

did you?

would you now? 
Blogger Bharathy  "Validate the Girl"
Yes it is openning up a new wonderful way of womanhood in every man. It is a Mantra for every TV. Nice Said... 

Post a CommentPermalink     Subscribe to comments: this post | all posts

Sunday, May 07, 2006

Betsuki

I'm getting the same brain-ache I got when I discovered that Japanese ebonics book, all thanks to Jessica.

Today she noticed this blog entry (translated version) linking to her site.

As I'm not able to read Japanese, the original version is impossible to decipher. The Google-translated version is only slightly less opaque. It appears to be a blog about the "equipment" that trannies use to achieve their look.

In the latest entry, the author has even had a go with this old reprobate (translated), apparently excited about the change from Graham to Siobhan!

And yep, after a bit of searching I tracked down little old me (translated), from last December. The author seems to have been reminded of theatrical grease-paint.

Hmmm. Anyone care to give me a proper translation? Please? :-)
Anonymous Tiffany  I never thought I'd see the day when I said this, but one of the Livejournal communities I'm in has linked to the conversational ebonics entry here.


No one's made any tranny cracks yet, and because of that, I think the human race is slowly improving.

Because you don't know these people.
Most of them are crazy.

Just giving you a heads-up. ;P Though I'm sure with the tracking stuff that you'd've figured it out. 
Blogger Becky  Thanks Tiff, I've lost count of the places that link to that blog item, but it's a fairly long list, and that's just blogs! It's by far the most popular page on my blog.

And you're right, very few people pick up on the fact it's in a tranny blog. 
Anonymous Tiffany  I was amused. *scroll scroll scroll*Beckysweb*scroll scroll*

"WAIT A SECOND, don't normally see her on Livejournal..."

And then I giggled to myself and proceeded to tell you about.

Now, seeing as it's 4 a.m., I'm going to bed. o.o; 
Blogger Becky  It's always weird when you run into an e-aquaintance in a completely unrelated location! 
Anonymous shiobankaran  I'm sorry, but WTF? None of the beuty equipment item of me is mine 
Blogger Karol Cross  So I guess we are big in Japan? 
Anonymous Natalie  Oh! Don't you know? We're all LEGENDS in Japan! 
Anonymous Sophie  ...and all that's supposed to explain why White Town weren't in the top 50?

Carl Douglas, what was THAT all about? ;) 
Blogger Karol Cross  Just tried translating my entry...

"Karol of the trance gender"

I quite like that! 

Post a CommentPermalink     Subscribe to comments: this post | all posts

Saturday, May 06, 2006

Dream punning

I have a stange and possibly unique trait, I often wake up with a pun in my head. It's quite odd, at the moment of gaining conciousness, where the dreams scatter to the corners of my mind like soot sprites, one phrase will remain blinking in the sunlight.

This morning it was... wait for it... Margate SG1.

I then spent the few minutes of waking slumber trying to thing of other possible shit UK versions of US shows. I was going to do a top ten or something for the blog. Unfortunately the only other one I could think of was My Name is the Earl of Wessex before the creative muse deserted me.

Can anyone else think of any? :-)
Blogger Ian Betteridge  Kim just collapsed in laughter when I read her that one. 
Blogger Joanna  Malcolm in the Middlesex

CSI: Kings Lynn 
Anonymous Tiffany  The other day when I was watching "House, M.D.", I thought about how awesome it would be to have the last name House. And then I was like, "No, Condo!
"...Condo-leeza Rice!"

And then an idea for something like "House vs. Condo" popped in my head and I still don't know where that's going. I might do something with it.

But I'm still squeeing over your mention of susuwatari to care! Those things are so gosh-damned cute! 
Blogger Becky  Susuwatari are way cute, but I'd rather have a Totoro. ^_^ 
Blogger Jane  I quite fancy having one of the cat buses, would be cheaper than the real one for getting to work though I imagine it would probably go through more than one tin of felix as day 
Blogger Michelle Faith  Just a little add on..Stargate and Stargate Atlantis are Canadian shows shot only 1 mile from my house, at least that is where the main sound stages are. 
Blogger Becky  Cool Michelle, do you live near that forest with a lake that every single bloody planet with a stargate appears to look like? ;-) 
Blogger Gillian  Found

Driving Over Miss Daisy

The Amateurs

Ray Mears Extreme Restaurants

The muse has left me. 
Blogger Becky  Found - why is this "UK"?

Driving Over Miss Daisy - taken from "Stay Tuned!"

The Amateurs - The Professionals was British, not US.

Ray Mears Extreme Restaurants - Same as above

0/4 See me!

;-) 
Blogger Brian  Silence of the Lambeths
Northampton Exposure
Cashby de la zouche in the Attic
The Glossopranos
The Weston-super-Mare Wing


I'll stop now 
Blogger Pandora Caitiff  You can laugh, but I've actually seen the "Crime Scene Investigation: Norfolk" van drivng around Great Yarmouth! 
Blogger Brian  Let's try that again


Airwolverhampton
B.J. and the Bury
Redcar 54, Where Are You?
Big Brotherham
Falkirk Crest
The Flying Nuneaton
Cockfoster's Home For Imaginary Friends
The Fresh Prince Of Bel-ayr
Knightsbridge Rider
Littlehampton House on the Prairie 
Blogger Joanna  S*M*A*S*H

The Dukes of Horsham

Little House on the Fens

Caravan Galactica 
Blogger hannaviolane  or Us versions of Brit soaps ans series'

constitution street

westsiders

emadale (ranch) YEE Ha!

brooklynnside

or even brook-kingslynnside!

the Cheque ( US version of the Bill)

Holly pines

Little Texas...sorry thats totally silly now, texans would never allow that! 
Anonymous Tiffany  Oh, come on.



...we spell check with a "ck."

:P 
Blogger Becky  What did I tell you girls?! ;-) 
Blogger hannaviolane  not that kind of cheque tiffany! 
Blogger Becky  Actually Hanna, the Americans do spell cheque as check. :-) 
Blogger hannaviolane  yes i know that becky hon:) wanted to put the emphasis on the word play between brit terms and US! im going to sulk now:( 
Anonymous Helen  Sorry, I just keep thinking of Hayes five-oh. 
Blogger Gillian  Errr, oops, didn't read the rules there did I?

errrrrrr
The Streets of San Dringham

nope I'm rubbish at this. 
Blogger sim  a) The Dukes of Windsor.

b) Different Stokes.

c) Starbeck : the regeneration. (ok its only a little place in Yorkshire, but it counts ?)

Ok I give up. 
Blogger Mr  Morden Kombat 

Post a CommentPermalink     Subscribe to comments: this post | all posts

Thursday, May 04, 2006

One bad Apple

What is it with me and customer care lines!?

Recently I noticed a fault with my MacBook. While running on battery and when the remaining charge got to about 30%, it would suddenly switch off, without going to sleep or even a "battery low" message. It was as if it were a desktop unit and someone had just unceremoniously pulled the plug.

A bit of hunting around the forums confirmed that this was a "known fault" with some of the early batch of rechargable batteries that came with the new MacBook Pros. So I rang the AppleCare people to get it fixed under warranty.

The support line was excellent, minimal menu-navigation required and I got through to a human almost straight away. I talked through my problem with her and she agreed it was a faulty battery, and arranged to send out a replacement.

She then asked for my credit card details, explaining that they wouldn't be used unless I failed to return the faulty battery, in which case I'd be charged for the price of the battery. This was fair enough, I could imagine people who knew about the fault wangling free batteries out of Apple otherwise.

My credit card details were handed over. While she was arranging the courier details she asked if I wanted to extend my warranty for another 3 years (for a cool £270), explaining all the benefits that that would allow. I said that as great as it sounded, I just couldn't afford it.

Less than a day later the new battery was delivered. I swapped it out, charged it and allowed it to discharge fully with no problems. Great! So far, so Apple-are-the-best-company-ever.

Imagine my surprise (you have to say that bit in a Lynne Faulds Wood stylee to get the full on "this is where things started to go horribly wrong" effect) when I get an email from AppleCare stating:
"Thank you for purchasing the AppleCare Protection Plan. This certificate confirms that you agreed to AppleCare Protection Plan terms and conditions and the Apple product(s) entitled for coverage. "

And going on to say that my coverage expired in 2009. A swift call to AppleCare confirmed it. I had "purchased" 3 years of cover on my credit card.

"So you didn't give out your credit card details when you called?" the man asked. I explained that I had given out my details but that was under the understanding that they were only being used as insurance in case I didn't return the faulty part.

The man said that this was true, but that the system for purchasing extended warranties was completely separate from the system for booking replacement parts and there was "no way he could see" that my credit card details from one location could have ended up in the other.

The concept of copy and paste, or maybe even writing them down on a piece of paper, was obviously beyond the bounds of reason. From his tone of voice it was clear that I was either a) a confused person who didn't realise that they'd given out their credit card details twice or b) trying to weasel out of a contract after changing my mind.

It took a bit of explaining in a manner of "patient but with a simmering undercurrent of bloody furious" (I'm beginning to find that this works best) for him to go away and sort out the problem, and after about 30 minutes of phone call I really shouldn't have had to make, I'm being reimbursed.

As with all these things though, I'd like to know what really happened at their end. Was it a computer "glitch"?

Did the woman hear "yes" when I clearly said "no"? In which case I would have expected her to go into a bit more detail of what I'd be getting for my money!

Or maybe there's some kind of commission thing involved for each warranty sold, and she was sneakily trying to up her quota for the month! I guess I'll never know.

By the way, on the subject of customer services, I got an email out of the blue from Sky's customer services department the other day. They'd found my rant on their Sky card replacement cock-ups and wanted to know more so they could investigate what had gone wrong. The power of blogging!

The best bit was when they said they couldn't find any "Becky EnVérité" on their records. :-D
Blogger Selina  It's not a guarenteed method, but if you ask for the name of the operator you speak to whenever you are dealing with money over the phone, you always have a "person who you can blame" during your complaint. It tends to add credence to your argument. 
Blogger Jane  Is the laptop working better now? Very naughty on the behalf of the call centre too.

Those extended warranties are a pile of poo. 
Blogger Jessica  Looks like Apple are going a bit pear shaped. 
Blogger Becky  Groan. :-) Not Apple as a whole, unlike Sky I only had to ring twice, and it appears to have been just one person who spoilt my experience.

But as I alluded to in the title, one bad apple can spoil the whole barrel! I could have used some other pithy puns, but I de-cidered to go for the core issue. ;-) 
Blogger Jane  Becky - STOP IT now! it must be the lemsip, it's effecting your brain. 
Blogger Stegbeetle  Customer care lines = oxymoron.
Usually when you ring them you're greeted with a recorded message saying "This call may be recorded for training purposes". I find it concentrates the mind of whoever comes on the line after that if you tell them casually that you're recording the call too! At the least it means they don't make false promises to you and at best you might get passed further up the chain of command to someone who knows what they're on about.
It's ashame Apple gave you the pip but at least you can stalk away! 
Blogger Gillian  Well I'm glad your phone call with Apple wasn't fruitless.

Don't you tape your calls with these people? How naive 
Blogger hannaviolane  sorry bex, what did you expect hon? its an apple product, which makes it the BMW of the computing world...over priced and over rated by a long way ( hence when seeking an MP3 i bought the excellent sony av3000 and not the un-impressive over rated ipod) 
Blogger Becky  Ah I should make it clear that this was a rant about a particular cock-up by Apple's customer care, not about Apple. And certainly not about their hardware. I love my MacBook like a small, flat shiny son! :-)

And I'd disagree with you about iPods too. :-P 
Blogger hannaviolane  ok fair enough re the book, however i did plenty of homework on mp3's and the ipods screen is irritating, the hard drive easily damaged and the battery life somewhat over optomistic! once exhausted you then have to post back to apple for an expensive replacement ...not so with the sony and the sound is the best i have yet heard! 
Anonymous Tiffany  ...but sound only has to do with your headphones, really. I ♥ my little iPod. *huggle* 
Blogger hannaviolane  actually no mini in ear phones are all much the same...the sound is to do with the players ability to uncompress as well as it compresses...and the sony is (according to what hi-fi magazine the best there is) 
Anonymous Tiffany  Really? I guess I'm a bit biased, but get a little converter and then plug in giant headphones. Those used to be all my dad would let me buy because they're a lot better than stupid earbuds.

But I'm thinking that hearing the difference in uncompressed sounds could only be noticed by dogs, as I've pretty much been around expensive sound equipment my entire life and quite frankly cannot tell the difference between that and my iPod...other than the earbuds, of course. 
Blogger Becky  Okay ladies... take it elsewhere! ;-) 
Blogger Gillian  ooo it's just sour grapes now, that was shaping up to be a peach of an argument and now it's been canned. 
Anonymous Tiffany  Eh, I wasn't going to take it any further. Because, quite frankly, that's all I've got. 
Blogger hannaviolane  guess thats told us then Tiffany! shall we both slope away with our trannie tails between our legs?:) 

Post a CommentPermalink     Subscribe to comments: this post | all posts

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

The Blaine game

"He's like a god in a mortal body," added Hector Rodriguez. "I think he's just showing everyone there's nothing that man cannot do. He can do everything and anything."

Who's Hector talking about? Some explorer of great renown? A peace-making politician maybe? Some inventor of a life-saving product?

No, he's talking about David Blaine, who's stunning achievements include Staying in a Box for a Long Time, Staying in a Lump of Ice for a Long Time, and now: Staying Underwater for a Long Time.

The English have a long tradition of lauding magicians until one day we realise what arses they are, and turn against them overnight. You have to be an arse to become a magician. It takes a special kind of sociopath to sit up all night learning how to do stuff and then not tell anyone how you did it, with a smug grin on your face.

One by one, magicians have fallen foul of the British publics annoyance at not being told how it's done. Paul Daniels fell out of favour quicker than his original hair fell out of him. David Blaine went a similar way very quickly when Londoners were not impressed by his box-staying abilities. It wasn't even a proper trick, for heaven's sake!

Derren Brown must know he's on borrowed time. I think he'll squeeze one more series out of his "I'm much cleverer than you" mentalist act before people start saying "Yes, but you're a bit of an arse really, aren't you?" You mark my words.

I actually have a personal tranny-related story about David Blaine.

A few years ago I was just getting over a nasty relationship and just starting to find my feet as a tranny. I decided, last minute, to book a hotel in London and visit Trans-Mission all on my lonesome. The hotel I managed to get in to was the Tower Thistle, which sits directly on the Thames by Tower Bridge.

When I arrived at my room I was suprised to find that I'd managed to wangle one with excellent views of the river, and Tower Bridge itself. And there, on the other side of the river, framed neatly by one of the arches in the bridge, was David Blaine in his glass cage.

This was causing chaos on the bridge itself. People were slowing down to rubber-neck at the Twat-in-a-Box, and traffic was backed up way past the approach roads to the bridge. Little did I realise how it was going to affect my evening.

I got dressed and ready to go out, and went down to the main entrance of the hotel to wait for a cab. After about twenty minutes it became clear that none were coming. The traffic was so busy on the bridge approach road (which was also the access road for the hotel) that no cabs were bothering to come down.

So I decided to walk to a better vantage point for cab-hailing. This meant walking all the way along the bridge approach road. Which by now was basically a parking lot.

I pretty much became the second attraction for rubber-neckers on the bridge that night. The cat-calls rang in my ears all the way up to the main road junction, where I managed to hail a cab.

The cab driver actually said he'd not realised until I spoke that I was a bloke. Which did my confidence the world of good.

In fact, just the experience of walking along the bridge did wonders for my confidence too. It showed me that usually the worst that can happen for a tranny in a crowd is a few cat-calls and horn-beeps.

So, David Blaine helped me become the tranny I am today. I'm starting to believe Hector after all. Is there nothing that man can't do?

Labels:

Anonymous Fairly-Odd  I love David Blaine. He almost makes me believe that magic is real. When he's not sitting in a plexiglass box, or encased in ice, he does some wonderful sleight of hand. I love watching him interact with a small group on the street. And yes, I do believe that he can levitate...

He can, can't he? :-/ 
Blogger Debbie Huggins  As a street magician, David Blaine is incredible. He is very entertaining, but these stunts are kind of extreme.
I enjoyed watching the tv show of David Blaine Street Magic. I think he can levitate, but would need to see it to totally believe it.
You know how people can be with the power of suggestion. 
Blogger Ian Betteridge  If you think Hector is nuts, then you need to read some of the comments on my post about Blaine, at http://technovia.typepad.com/technovia/2003/09/on_david_blaine.html.

For some reason, if you do a Google search on "david blaine email" you come up with my post as the top one, which means that I've had all sorts of people who want to get in touch with the boxmeister asking about it. The best one is probably the one claiming that "I truly believe he is the christ"! 
Anonymous Zelda Rose  David Blaine is more of a stuntman now-there's very little illusion to what he does. As for magicians, I'd rather watch Penn and Teller-who know it's all a show and are such prats that you can't help but love it. 
Blogger Joanna  On the subject of his levitation, dont read this if you want to believe he can actually float..... 
Blogger Jane  I love the phrase "mentalist act" but I've always interpretated it as someone going a bit Travis Bickle at his most manic. 
Blogger Gillian  You forgot 'Standing on a pole for a long time' I think he uses more camera tricks than he should. One of his famous tricks where he gets someone to write down the name of a loved one then burns it then uses the ashes to spell the name has a whole off-camera section before it where he gets them to write the name and palms the paper before camera starts rolling. Like:
'And you've written down your dearly departed dogs name?'
'Yes'
'In capitals'
'No'
[pretends to tear up original paper while palming it] 'It has to be in capitals do it again while I turn my back' (and read the original bit of paper).

Some of his shocked crowd scenes at the levitation are just complete fakeroos. 
Blogger Connie Cox  Now if he had a lot of piranha in his little bowl of water I would be impressed! 
Blogger sim  Connie, make that a bowl of boiling acid, & too would be impressed. 
Anonymous Fairly-Odd  Does the acid really need to be boiling? :P 
Anonymous Clair  On the Now Show this week, they said that he appears to be working his way through the elements...he's done air, doing water...hopefully, hopefully his next stunt will be fire ;) 
Blogger Becky  Clair: you don't know how tempted I was to pass that off as my own joke when I blogged this. :-)

Ms. Odd: Anyone could do ordinary acid, I really think Blaine would need to do boiling. ;-) 
Blogger Misty  I think his next stunt should be something really difficult for him. Perhaps to survive as long as possible without the oxygen of publicity. 
Anonymous Kate Weston  Apparently someone is sueing Blaine and David Copperfield too.
The grounds for the suit are that the magician's tricks are so mystifying they must be using god like powers. The person is thus sueing them as he claims to be the almighty and they didn't get his permission. This is taking place in the USA (if you hadn't guessed) 
Anonymous Genette  I work in St Katharine's Dock and can see that hotel from where I'm sitting. I remember the David Blaine thing and how they kept increasing the security and moving people further away to stop them throwing things at him or winding him up. My favourite was the guy who tried to tempt him with a burger suspended from a remote control helicopter.
By the way, the hotel is no longer the Tower Thistle but a Guoman Hotel, if you need to book it again.

Genette 

Post a CommentPermalink     Subscribe to comments: this post | all posts

Monday, May 01, 2006

My Long Weekend

Some highlights...

On Friday Jane and I went to Cambridge to do a bit of shopping. Whilst browsing the sale racks in Debenam's, a smoothly-spoken announcement came over the tannoy:

"Ladies and gentlemen. Today we are giving away a free paring knife in the store. If you'd like a free paring knife, please come to the covered display in the cook shop on the first floor."


I asked Jane, "Do you want a paring knife?"

"No."

We continued to browse.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the free paring knives will be given away in just one minute. If you'd like a free paring knife, please come to the covered display in the cook shop on the first floor."

"I want a paring knife. I'm going."

"Fair enough. I'm staying here."

To be honest I think she was glad to get rid of me. I was starting to do my impression of a small bored child in a shop. If you want to visualise it, imagine an grown man acting like a small bored child in a shop.

A small expectant crowd of unemployables and pensioners were gathering around the table. After a few moments a man appeared and started talking about wonderous things.

Then some magic happened.

When my head cleared I appeared to be the proud owner of a set 3 of the World's
Sharpest Knives Ever. Trust me, these bad boys are sharp. He cut through a hammer with one! Well, not right through, but he made a nasty dent in it. If I ever need to score a mark in a hammer whilst carving tomatoes, I now have just the tool to do so. I also have 3 of the World's Smallest Juicers (they're also the World's Shittest Juicers but they choose not to promote this fact, and I'm not complaining - they were free), and of course, my free paring knife.

We then bombed up to Nottinghamshire to spend a highly enjoyable evening catching up with my friends Julie and Rich. Jane had a bad cold, but liberal amounts of medicinal alcohol kept her going.

Next morning I was introduced to the "Would You Rather?" game by R&J's young daughter. Basically it's a test of nerve and scruples. You're offered two choices and you must pick one. For example: "Would you rather... kiss 10 boys or kiss 10 dirty pig snouts?"

Spirits boosted by their hospitality we headed off to Sophie's Barbecue. It being her birthday some present-giving was involved. She's now also the owner of a World's Shapest Knife (yes, I am that generous).

She got some other cool presents too, Rich gave her a framed version of this:

Sophie/Gothic Dorothy

Which you might recognise from a previous soirée at Sophie's, where she came dressed like this:

Not in Kansas

Sunday was mainly tidying up, slobbing around and watching The Mighty Boosh on DVD.

Monday was mainly travelling home, and me getting Jane's cold. Which of course has mutated into Man Flu. Blegh.

Labels:

Blogger Gillian  You gave her a knife you got for free?!?! not even all the knives you got for free, just one of them. I hereby make you an honorary scot. So funny. 
Anonymous Fairly-Odd  Now I know you could've gotten a picture of that hammer slicing bit. :) 
Anonymous Anonymous  Did you know that the Scots are 56% more generous than Engls? True apparently, so Gillian has welcomed you to becoming a more generous person than an English man. 
Blogger Becky  She got another present too! A solar-powered wobbly head thing! :-) 
Blogger sim  I really do like the drawing though , lucky girl. 
Blogger Freiya  that is a very fabulous drawing indeed :)
and lucky you with the free knives thing, the last free thing i got was a packet of m&m's, which was ok but not quite in the same league as juicers and knives.
Funnily enough i met Julian Barratt ( the moustached one from the mighty boosh ) at Brighton Station the other day! he was very lovely and very very nice :) 
Blogger Becky  I should explain that I did, actually, pay for the knives. Well, one of them. It was a "great deal" where you got 6 knives for the price of 1. But no-one in their right mind would pay that price for 1 knife anyway. :-) 

Post a CommentPermalink     Subscribe to comments: this post | all posts

iwantoneofthese.com


Futurama is one of my favourite shows, and the episode featuring The Gender Bender is great.

All I need is for someone to buy this for me, because I is poor.

(Photo courtesty of Jane, who wouldn't buy it for me. Because she is mean).

Blogger Jane  Humph. :P 
Blogger Ian Betteridge  Now that's just mean. Jane, be nice to the nice lady! :) 
Blogger Becky  You're just getting me more into trouble, Ian. ;-) 
Anonymous Victoria Fox  How about this then ;-)

http://www.mini-itx.com/projects/bender/ 
Anonymous Tiffany  I looooves me some Futurama too! :D 
Blogger Connie Cox  I have got to get me one of those. Futurama was/is so cool. Should have cencelled the damn Simpsons and let Futurama continue

"Bender! A robot sex change is a complex and dangerous procedure. Replacing your testosteroil with fembot lubricants can cause wild mood swings. And the effects may be irreversible. Well, let's get started." 

Post a CommentPermalink     Subscribe to comments: this post | all posts