Power to the Paintbrush

I don't wear a lot of make up. Never have. Then this morning I started thinking about it and decided to go nuts (meaning putting on what most girls put on every day). This included;

• Moisturizer (creamy stuff to stop your skin going greasy and/or dry)
• Foundation (like paint, the colour is usually some shade of brown)
• Powder (is just what it says, usually brownish)
• Eyeliner (pencil, usually black, to draw lines around the eyes)
• Eyebrow... liner? (pencil to draw on your eyebrows)
• Mascara (waterproof) (liquidy stuff to put on eyelashes with a brush)
• Eye shadow (powder paint in all colours, goes on the eyelids)
• Lipstick (sticky thing you put on the lips)
• Lip gloss (even more sticky, goes on top or instead of lipstick)
  

To start on top... the moisturizer isn't something I consider make up but I needed it to mix with the foundation, otherwise it would have been too strong. I bought this foundation thing, the only one I have, and ever have had, two and a half years ago and I've tried it out three or four times. It's sticky, greasy and would just take too long to get it right. I was kinda surprised it hadn't turned green yet...

The powder was fine, didn't really need it with all that stuff on my face already. Didn't wear rouge as that would just be way too much. Eyeliner... the black thing always looks weird, it's like a thin line and it shouldn't be like that. Mascara... I need a new one... The waterproof one I have (a must around here) has always been horrible so I've only used it a few times.

Today I realized why – the thing down in the.. bottle? (make up expressions - not my strong side) that is supposed to stop too much mascara coming out just wasn't there in that one. So whatever was there would attach itself to the brush and my eyelashes would glue themselves together and I couldn't really open my eyes anymore... Eye shadow.. now that was fun. I decided on brown to go with the whole foundation mess. It just looked too much but when I took it off it wasn't too bad.

It might not sound like it but the result when I was done wasn't too bad. It looked, to me at least, perfectly wearable.

Now, as if this wasn't enough, and I'm sure you've found this exceptionally interesting already, I'll list some of my own pros and cons wearing make up;


Cons:

• I don't like putting lots of goo on my face
• Takes a lot of time
• If you eat something your lip gloss disappears
• If you drink something there's lip gloss all over your glass
• When it rains it moves around (and by 'rains' I mean 'pours' cuz there's no such thing as 'a little rain' around here)
• When it's hot it moves around (hot as in warm summer day)
• If I put on / take out / move my contacts cuz they itch it might get messy
• If I rub my eyes, which I do, especially when I'm tired, mascara goes all over the place
• There's something about eye makeup that makes me incredibly tired no matter how late I slept that morning – so much for “Look fresh all day!”
• If you blow your nose you've got foundation on the paper and a white spot around your nose
• If you've got long hair it sticks to your lips
  

Pros:

• It looks nice.
• It feels great to clean your face in the evening!
  

You know... I think I'm gonna go back to doing it my way. Maybe the “tired, eyes closing and cotton in my head in the evening” only happens to me (could I found something I'm allergic to?). I don't wear make up every day but I'm not saying I never wear any. But going 'all the way' like I tried today is simply not for me.

If you love it and can't imagine letting go of your concealer or foundation or whatever magic potion it is you have then good for you! I just don't know how you do it.

Now I'm gonna go wash my face off after I've taken out the toothpicks I've used to keep my eyelids open.


Maybe she's born with it.
Believe me – she's not.

The Monogamous Kinky Lovers' Test

Wild Thing

34 Reserved, 88 Kinky

Sex is more than just physical. It is one of the ways to build an emotional bond between two people. Sex gives adults the opportunity to act like children again. You know how to enjoy kinky sex. You may have problems finding a lover equally adventurous that isn't a slut or a womanizer. But with time and affection the nicest lady and most refined gentleman can become as wild in bed as you are. Communication is the key.

I find this puzzling... I'd say most of the questions in this test were rather innocent and I don't really think anyone would say "No way!" to any of them. It asks if you'll masturbate in front of a partner, if you'll do 69 and whether you'd play with handcuffs and all of a sudden you're kinky...

Oh well... the 'you may have problems finding a lover' is true though. Not that I'm looking. Just waiting. I wonder if I'll find someone who's up for it. Or down...


Also from OkCupid!

Bite my somethingorother...

****ing unbelievable. This is fantastic.

A newletter landed in my inbox with links to five tests. I took the one that would tell me what major I should choose, seeing as I can't ever figure out if I'm doing the right thing.

This is what I got:

Psychology

You scored 16 mental chops, 8 work ethic, 15 bullshitability, and 8 practicality!

You don't mind pulling things out of your ass, but you don't want to think and you don't want to work too hard. You also apparently don't want a job. Psychology is perfect for you!

Wonderful! Why don't I just try psychology? Again?!

I did a one year course of psychology last year. I didn't get to start a bachelor degree since I wasn't in the top 4% of my class. A wasted year? Perhaps.

I do, however, resent the fact that this test says I don't want to think. Now THAT is bull shit (which I also seem to have enough of). And why should psychologists not want a job? Only a few of them go all Freud when they're done.

I did NOT like this test.


This one from OKCupid!

The Casanova Gang

Four men from Tromsø, aged 26 to 31 made a bet. They would try and see who of them were able to sleep with the most women in 2005.

One of them, a 28 year old, explains it this way: - We were sitting discussing how cheap the girls in Tromsø really are, and how easy it is to get laid in this city, if you just try. We were at a late party after the New Year celebration last year and that's when one of us suggested this competition.

-------------------------------------------------------

Radio Tromsø was allowed to send an interview with the 28 year old but afterwards he backed out. They've published some of it on their web pages.

RT: - How many girls have you had sex with so far?

28: - I'm not saying, but I think we passed 50 each as early as May and June.

RT: - How do you know your friends won't cheat?

28: - We actually discussed that and decided we trust each other and respect each other enough to be honest when we do the final count on New Years eve this year.

RT: - There are rumours about this on the town. Has it become harder to pick up women?

28: - One of us must have said something to someone. I have no idea who. But it doesn't really matter, the women I try to get with don't seem at all suspicious. It's pretty easy to get some in this town.

RT: - But the cat is out of the bag now. This interview can ruin a bit for you.

28: - You might be right about that. But I don't really care about that either. As I said, it's easy to pick someone up. I know if I'm getting any within 20 minutes.

RT: - You say it's so easy. How do you do it?

28: - Personally, I've put up personal ads everywhere on the net and I also use SMS chat. I get quite a few there. Then I'm on the town stone cold sober 3-4 times a week and it's kinda there I score the most.

RT: - And what about the girls? Do you ever think about telling them they're just a number?

28: - No are you crazy? And anyway, I just go after women who aren't very attractive. Those who are really chubby are the easiest to get to bed. They've got the lowest self esteem and are the most desperate. Actually, they should just be happy a cool guy such as myself would be bothered to sleep with them.

RT: - How often do you have sex?

28: - Some times it's really slow, but I actually managed to get five from Thrusday to Sunday sometime in June.

RT: - And STIs?

28: - Heh heh, we've talked about that too. Someone actually suggested that those who get mouldy balls are discqualified from the bet. But I guess it's up to the individual to protect himself.

RT: - And what about you?

28: - It's like 50-50 if I use a condom or not. Depends if I've remembered it or if she has in her purse or in a drawer or something.

RT: - Has anyone ever 'taken a hit'?

28: - Not that I know of. I haven't got any.

RT: - Don't you have a trace of bad conscience?

28: - For what? It's adult girls I sleep with. It's their choice and I've never forced anyone to do anything.

RadioTromsø.no

Now I guess you're expecting me to want to get those guy's heads (or other body parts) on a platter to show to the world what we'll do with guys behaving like this.

I'm not even gonna go there.

I actually don't have too much of a problem with it... Just a few things.

• I would never, under any circumstance, want to be with a guy like that. Not as in a 'relationship' (I'd run away if I ever found out) and not as in a night. I'm not a number. And quite frankly I don't think he'd be able to put up with me for hours on end just to get laid.

• They shouldn't lie. They shouldn't pretend there's 'something there' when the girl is a number.. Whether they do or not is something they'll never tell and the girls don't have a say.

• "Those who are really chubby are the easiest to get to bed. They've got the lowest self esteem and are the most desperate." I get that they do it just for the numbers, but what do they think it does to someone with 'the lowest self esteem' when someone seems to like them, then run away as soon as they've seen them naked and have done their business?

The media here has talked about this a little, it's been said that most guys do this in some form and to some extent. But this is extreme and the guys have been labelled as deviants, as having intimacy issues and as being in need of professional help.

I'm not qualified to say anything about that. And I'm not sure why everybody's going nuts over it. Many guys do this. They just don't call it a bet. That, however, doesn't mean I think it's... a nice thing to do. It's not exactly how I think sex should be.

As always, I'm torn between the 'do it and have fun' and the 'do it if you care about someone'. I usually say I agree with the first; leaning towards the second would label me as a prude. Which I don't believe I am but I'm still not able to raise myself above getting annoyed when someone calls me old fashioned.

Then maybe we are 'cheap' as the guy says. 'Cheap' or 'Prude' are the options availible to us. The women he sleeps with are with one guy and are cheap, he sleeps with a couple hundred and... guys just can't be cheap, can they? I've wondered about that for years and I'm not getting any smarter. Then again, neither are the guys.

Could that be why many girls agree to sleep with someone like that? Sure they could want to, of course they might like the way the guy looks and simply want to have a quickie. Maybe he's pushing for it, maybe she's the one who's doing that. Do all girls follow their instincts or are most of us easy to persuade? Does 'yes' sometimes mean 'I don't know'? Does 'ok' mean 'no'?


"Sleep with me and you're cheap. Don't, and you're a prude."

I think most girls have experienced a guy's defensive spikes when she turns him down. They sting.

A World of Evil

Articles...

At the abstract level it seems reasonable, if currently unfashionable, to posit the existence of universal features of humanness and thus of culture. This in turn opens up the possibility, at least as far as logic is concerned, of universal principles of justice, equity, or reciprocity as constituents of all cultures. There is, after all, no logical incompatibility between a pragmatic cultural relativism, understood as a method of understanding how the specific content of social practices or cultural forms has been conditioned by their relations to their cultural, social, and historical context, and universal or transcultural principles considered as constituents of the human capacity for culture.


What does this even mean?!?

It's from an article for the anthropology part of my global development course. How am I supposed to learn it if I can't even get a little bit of meaning out of it?

Neurotic or Psychotic?

Tight genes!

You scored 25 neuroses and 2 psychoses!

You are ideal for repopulating the species after everyone else has overdosed on prozac or blown up the public buildings. You are low on both scales and probably safe from an imminent mental illness. On the downside, your tax dollars and insurance premiums are supporting the rest of us. Cheers!


Anybody wanna help?

Want to see how you score?

Rant of the week

Sorry bout the lack of posts recently. The net here is getting so slow after the antennae-vs.-new-system fiasco, Blogger hasn't been able to open this thing up for a week. I'm also in the middle of my exams - one down, two to go. Only one month till Christmas and today is the Buy Nothing Day. Guess I'll have to get the Christmas calendar some other time...


To get to the subject...

Since I put my email address up on my profile I've been gettting lots of spam. Fortunately, Gmail puts it all in the junk folder so I've never really minded. The spam used to be exclusivly ads for Microsoft or Windows and I've been getting it for months. Common examples might be..


OEM SoftwareTop of the Line XP Software at Guaranteed L0W PRICES
Windows XP Pro $49.95, Office 2003 at 69.95 Adobe
Win XP Special Deals today 0nly
Windows software for 80% 0ff
Windows XP
Photoshop, Windows, Office


So imagine my surprise when I opened the junk box a few days ago. It had been filling up quicker than usual and curious to see what was going on, I looked and I found:


Other guys are improving themselves..are you?
Limited time special for leading enlargement product!
Hey bro, found this site
Don't be left behing- the enlargement revolution!
Don't be the "little guy" in the club
Don't be inadequate anymore!
Take advantage of special discounts now guys!


These started arriving on November 18th. Apparently I've become male again but what do you expect... Then a few days later I got some explaining the 'enlargement process' a little more carefully.


Wow check out this huge enlargement patch sale!
Massive PE patch sale
Last offer- Discount special for PE patch almost over!


-- PE? Patches? Apparently now you can buy patches, put them on your skin, and your penis will grow. How great is that?!? Just listen to this...

A top team of British scientists and medical doctors have worked to develop the state-of-the-art Pen1s Enlargment Patch delivery system which automatically increases pen1s size up to 3-4 full inches. The patches are the easiest and most effective way to increase your size. You won't have to take pills, get under the knife to perform expensive and very painful surgery, use any pumps or other devices. No one will ever find out that you are using our product. Just apply one patch on your body and wear it for 3 days and you will start noticing dramatic results.

-- This must really work because...

Millions of men are taking advantage of this revolutionary new product - Don't be left behind!

I checked out the other emails and found that, no matter the title in the subject field, it was patches they were trying to sell.

I'm also wondering if there's a new virus coming this way - 109 junk emails with a 75kb attachment have landed in my hotmail inbox the past 5 days. I usually get one or two a day so this seems a bit extreme... Of course it could just be that someone got pissed at me and gave my address out to anyone and everyone. It's happened before.

But what I find strange about these emails is the 'From' field. Usually there's some name or numbers, something that doesn't make sense, as in the patches emails. But these are different.

yahoo.com
yahoo.se
gmail.com
hotmail.com
hotmil.com
msn.com
netscape.net
t-online.no

e-trust.be
nero.com
volvo.com
fbi.gov
cia.gov

And many, many others. Subjects are usually something to do with 'password', 'registration', 'hi, I've a new email address' or 'Paris Hilton & Nicole Richie'.

There's nothing strange with this. We all get this stuff. But such an incredible amount, all starting last Monday. Then I got one from both the FBI and the CIA telling me I visit illegal websites. Needless to say, both emails remain unopened. I don't even remember signing up for anything or giving my address to anyone for a while.

Anybody else getting this?

The Lobedu rain queen

As a great magical practitioner, the queen was set apart from ordinary people, first by her sex - a woman instead of a man in an authoritative position. She was incestuosly conceived and did not die, but commited ritual suicide after the fourth initiation school of her reign. She controlled awful magic in which skin and body-dirt of departed rulers were ingredients.

Incestuously conceived. Ritual suicide. Skin and body-dirt of departed rulers.
Another job I won't be applying for...

At a more practical level, the queen was connected through marriage to all the important political officers in the tribe. As 'cattle beget children', woman-to-woman marriage is possible in Africa. 'Every Lobedu induna [headman] sends a daughter to be mothanoni [wife] of the queen as do any of the nobility who wish to be on a good foothing with her.' The queen only keeps a proportion of the many wives she recieves: others are given by her to important subjects.

Whoa wait... I can marry a woman? Or I could if I were a member of the Lobedu tribe in Southern Africa some time between 1800 and 1894. That's what Basil Sansom writes in his article Traditional Rulers and their Realms.

I'm reading for the exam on Monday in my anthropology course on Southern Africa. How am I supposed to concentrate on anything when I have shocking new information like this sneaking up on me? Then again... I wish more of the information was a little more interesting. At least then I'd have a chance of getting through, let alone remembering, half of it.

Racism with or without Religion

Curious as I am, I asked an Egyptian on Skype today whether he is a sunni or shia Muslim. I wondered which group most Egyptians belong to.

I didn't get an answer to that. I got this question;

"Do you like Muslims? Or no?"

I explained that there are Muslims who are nice and Muslims who are not nice. Just as there are Christians who are nice and Christians who are not nice. The questions continued with whether all Norwegians are good and I was told "never".

Now this is a nice guy. We don't understand each other half of the time but he says he's trying. It wasn't a "you all hate Muslims and think we're all evil" kind of reply, it was just a simple question he asked me. But it did make me think a little.

Has the Muslim become the new Black Man? Is asking questions about Islam the same as asking about the colour of your skin? Has racism evolved into religionism?

You can't talk about race, or colour or culture as I might do as I don't consider race a useful term, without being perceived as a racist. I never thought of it as a bad thing to think about somebody's skin colour, simply because that's what it is - the colour of your skin. You can be black or brown or yellow, a delicious chocolate bronze, or pinkish white like me in winter. But then there's "black/brown - different culture / Africa /African-American". If your skin has a different colour, does that mean you are different from me?

I'm all for stopping racism in any way possible. I find the whole idea of racism in itself as ridiculous as Hitler's ideas were. But that doesn't make the problem less real. I've just started to question how careful we really need to be, if I treat a black person different because they're black (I don't know what the politically correct term is these days so I'll just use black), and act real respectful because they might have a different culture even if they grew up next door from me, wouldn't that be racism in a way? Acting in a way that is based on your colour or race?


The reason I'm even digging out the topic is that it's the same with Islam these days. When race became a no-no, did we need another way to separate 'them' from 'us' and religion just seemed the obvious choice?

If you as much as mention it the other person gets defensive. I guess as a Muslim today you hear so much bad you get used to defending yourself and your religion. Explaining that you're not bad just because some psychos go around blowing themselves up. That must get quite annoying after a while. But does that mean we need to tip toe around Muslims and Islam as we might do around race related issues? Of course nobody would do that today when it's all out there and in our face every day. What about in 40 year? Will religion be something we keep quiet about so we won't offend anyone?

When did religion stop being something you're proud of and turn into something you have to defend? Is it like this with all religions these days? There are so many of us who don't have a religion. We start thinking and realize we have too few answers to make up our minds. But many have found their answers. Or never asked the questions. And they have their religion. I've defended my own views countless times, be it in discussions with Christians or Muslims.

A while ago I had a discussion with a guy who didn't believe in religion. But he believed in God and was almost - but not quite - a Christian. He said he was open minded and thought everyone should believe in what they wanted. After half an hour it became painfully clear he wasn't too serious about that. His last line before we ended the conversation stands out in my mind as how most people think these days: Islam isn't the only problem, of course not, it's some people who make it bad. They believe in God too, they are allowed to do that, to believe in what they want. They are people people like we are.

But then again...

"At least I don't commit suicide and kill people.
I'm not a Muslim."