plasticbag.org

Blasphemy. It’s a funny matter. I’m an atheist. Have been since I was about thirteen. It was brought into major definition for me when my brother was born. I adore my brother – I always have – so don’t think I treated his appearance into the world as a clear sign of the non-existence of god. Because that just wouldn’t be true.

What really made me think about it was when he was Christened. I had never been Christened – my parents just hadn’t thought about it. It seemed to them like a strange thing to do, particularly as my mother was (at best) agnostic. But when my brother was Christened, there was a lot of pressure in my family for me to become the indentured bitch of the almighty alongside him. I was really quite resistant and I couldn’t figure out why. I sat down and I thought about my thoughts on god carefully and reasonably, and came to the conclusion that I didn’t believe in god at all. Not even a little bit.

I had to be Christened in the end. And a strange affair it was indeed. I’ve never been really very comfortable with it, and slightly resent being forced to do it, although I don’t blame my parents at all.

All of this, by the way, is by way of an extended excuse to link to Jesus Dress Up! – which is clearly blasphemous and entertaining and a bit dodgy.

Could everyone who knows me who reads this damn pile of crap click here and send me a quick e-mail. Doesn’t matter what relationship you might have with me, whether it be work, friendship, if I’ve met you once in a pub or if we did something that my mother wouldn’t approve of. I’m just bizarrely interested. People who don’t play will be hunted down and shot.

This is about 40% bollocks [Personality Test]:

“Like just 4% of the population you are an ARTIST (DIAF)–creative, adventurous, and deep. Although you are an introvert, your dominant ideas lead you to assert yourself often–especially through your work. You actively put your creativity to constructive use, and because you are ruled by your heart you are less likely to be inhibited by logic. “

Joanna Lumley – goddess of the New Avengers, star of innumerable sub-par movies and chain-smoking high-class drunk skank of Absolutely Fabulous used to be heavily involved in a site called clickmango.com – a kind of semi-alternative health and beauty site. Unfortunately, earlier this year, said site closed its doors, proving the long-suspected fact that celebrity endorsement does not guarantee the success of any e-commerce venture.

But at least she kept her sense of humour. In a statement posted at the site’s “We’re closed” page, Joanna presents the eager public with what must be one of the most bizarre and humourous PR statements ever. Next to a picture in which Joanna is vigourously rubbing herself with a large fruit, she declares:

“Heigh ho! It happens all the time in the theatre world. The dressing room, now filled with first night cards, pictures of the family and your familiar costumes, is soon bare, awaiting its new occupant – the playbills outside are torn down, scenery stored, programmes pulped and the theatre goes dark. But what fun! And what a fantastic time we had!”
[Joanna Lumley says farewell from Clickmango.com]

Another really brief snippet from BBC News: “Web is ‘not quite as dull’ as the Dome“:

“The majority of those surveyed, 62%, thought that the phrase dot.com was wearing thin and even more, 66%, did not want to hear any more stories about 20-something millionaires who have made their money with the web.

But the boredom was not due to lack of interest. Over 77% of those questioned said they could not live without it.

“For many people the internet has become indispensable, it’s as much a part of everyday life as the telephone, television and video,” said an MSN spokeswoman, “It’s no wonder people are bored with hype around the internet – you wouldn’t want to talk about your vacuum cleaner in the pub.” “

The BBC reports today that there are reports from the United States that scientists have started to clone endangered species. Weirdly, the animal they decided to experiment with was an Asian guar, which they have named (rather entertainingly) as “Noah”. All this is well and good (although I must confess slightly bizarre), but their next project has thrown up some interesting (and amusing) problems. I quote directly from the article: [Endangered species cloned]

“The paper says the same team, from biotechnology company Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) in Massachusetts, is already considering cloning giant pandas.

The closest related species to giant pandas are rabbits and racoons but neither are ideal as potential surrogate mothers because of their size. “

Mark’s done a redesign, which is nice (very nice in fact), although it includes a picture of him that makes him look about as camp as a pink feather boa. Which is amusing. Make your mind up for yourself, over at riothero.

Good god, that hag has gone and done it again! This time she’s mentioned in an article on the Guardian’s website: [“It’s as easy as falling off a weblog”] and in a one-and-a-half page spread in the Online supplement – complete with screenshot. Lots of people are mentioned. I’ll get it scanned in and up on the site as soon as I can.

Lunchtime quiz at work: “Are you a Fab Four fanatic?” produced these results:

• David: 2 (out of 15)
• Kit: 4
• Rebecca: 4
• Matt: 4
• Dean: 5
• Sue: 6
• Tom: 7
• Fran: 8
• Ros: 9

Only one result left to come…

The redesign at Netscape.com – designed to make the site look much like the soon-to-be-finally-released new browser – is, I fear, quite bad.

You can see that they sat down initially and thought, “Let’s make this simple, elegant and powerful”, and then somewhere along the way the simplicity was drowned in poorly laid out information, while the elegance started to look less like graphic-design restraint, and more … well, dull. I’ve only heard, so I couldn’t say for certain – but it looks like pretty much the same process has taken place in the development of the browser.