Puerile but amusing

This even works with UK postcodes. Hurrah!

I have no words for this

It's rare that I am taken aback by how offensive something is, or surprised at the level of misogyny that gets accepted and mainstreamed, but this has done it.

The Japanese computer game 'Rapelay' is a rape simulation game. After Ellen describes it thus:

 

The objective of the game is to stalk a mother and her two children, described as “virgin schoolgirls,” and rape them repeatedly in every orifice until you “break” them and they become your willing sex slaves. You can also recruit other men to gang rape them. The only way to lose this game is if you impregnate one of your victims and you don’t force her to get an abortion. Also, one of the victims may randomly stab you, but only if you randomly put her in the cowgirl sex position. Otherwise, it’s just continued sexual assault with no repercussions. The most disturbing theme in this game is the idea that if you break down a woman repeatedly, she will grow to like being raped, i.e. women secretly want to be taken against their will. After portraying the women being raped in excruciating detail, including "tears that glisten and move in the little girl's eyes," the game tells us that, after all of this suffering, women eventually enjoy it.

You'd think this would make me absolutely livid, but it makes me want to cry instead. Sometimes I think this is a fight we've already lost.

Long Live The Queen

One of Claire's friends pointed me towards this, and she's right - it's perfect. Enjoy.

Claire

This week I will be attending the funeral of a friend of mine, who died at the age of 31, on Thursday evening. On Friday afternoon, I found out that she had been diagnosed with bowel cancer three weeks ago and died the previous evening.

I went to school with Claire, and she was the nicest person there. She was friends with everyone, no matter what their clique or cool-factor. She was funny, self-deprecating, sweet, super-intelligent and lovely. We were good friends - and I always wished that she wasn't quite SO popular so that I could have more time with her to myself. Funny - I don't think she'd remember it this way at all, though if she could see the number of people from school who will be at the funeral, perhaps she might.

We were both accepted to Cambridge, and I was so excited that we were going to the same place for university. Then when she got her exam results and found that she'd missed one of her 3 A's by a whisker, they wouldn't take her. So she ended up in London instead, and, as is the way of these things, we started to lose touch, especially as she was a med student and so busy and tired all the time.

Recently though, thanks to Facebook, I felt connected to her again. It is so weird to see that she was doing stuff on Facebook even a few days ago, and now she is gone. Both her partner and her friend have kindly shared pictures of her on FB, and it's so good to see how happy she looks in them. 

I still can't quite believe it. I always thought that when she had more time, we'd rekindle our friendship properly. I can't quite comprehend what it means to just *stop* in the middle of everything. I can't believe I've lost her, and yet I know my loss is minimal compared to the devastation her partner and family are going through right now.

There's a part of me that still expects the world to be just, or fair, or to somehow make sense, but on Thursday, that part got a lot smaller.

So please let this be a reminder not to let important people slip away, or to think that there will always be another day to call or email. And next time you have a drink, raise your glass and toast Claire Epstein - a truly beautiful person who will be very greatly missed indeed.

Just a minute

Went to the recording of  radio 4's 'Just a minute' this evening with Stan, his flatmate (who works for the BBC) and her partner. An excellent way to spend the evening. Aside from the weird Nicholas Parsons, we were also treated to Paul Merton, Clement Freud, Sheila Hancock and David Mitchell. They record two episodes at once, so I think 'our' shows go out on something like the 23 Feb and 6 March. Or dates like that. Good times. Afterwards we went to a Turkish restaurant, where I had a duck tagine and an Irish coffee. Hopefully my body will forget it just had caffeine..

Films

So far this year, I have seen:

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

The Women

The Duchess

Rachel Getting Married

Doubt

Milk

Gran Torino

The Wrestler

Revolutionary Road

He's Just Not That Into You

The Reader

Been putting off 'Benjamin Button' due to the constant comparisons with 'Forrest Gump' (my least favourite movie of all time), but am trying to do a pretty clean Oscars sweep, so should go. Anyone seen it and liked it? Also, will drag myself to Vicky Cristina Barcelona... although I have Woody Allen issues.

I loved 'Revolutionary Road'. There is a breakfast scene in it that is scarier than any scene from a horror movie. I thought Kate Winslet was amazing. I hope she wins the Oscar in recognition of both performances (though I also loved Anne Hathaway's 'Rachel').

Oscar thoughts?

How to mess with your cat's brain (if it has one)

Step 1. Build a snow-cat on your windowsill

Step 2. Enjoy

people and a cat in the snow in chiswick

more snow in chiswick

snow in chiswick