I've recently uploaded a million pictures of Ocean Village to our Flickr account

the rest

And I'm quite pleased with some of them.
They need a bit more unsharp masking'...
Its a wonderful place, Flickr, but there are some accounts there that I'm not entirely comfortable with the morality of.

Like this...

which confuses me

I can see the attraction it, but I'd question the purpose.
Maybe there is no purpose and its just nothing at all. Its a bloody cheek and the guy has got a nerve, and probably deserves a quick slap.
Lighten up, it's just a laugh.

But is it though?
And anyway, what business is it of mine?

There is a rant here.
It goes like this. It's not entirely connected, but part of the same puzzle.

A man in Canada I believe was recently arrested and charged with something to do with persuading a number of English schoolgirls to expose themselves on their webcams.
No my girls have a webcam, and I know for a fact that B at least and her mates do this kind of thing with each other ALL the time. As far as I understand it, there is almost a language of flashing, mooning, showing underwear etc to your mates and peers to communicate all kinds of messages these days. Its bloody crazy, but there it is.
Surely we must expect people to take advantage of the opportunities presented to them by using technology in such an irrespossible way?
Its the "world wide web" girls - where do you think the pictures go.
I don't really think we can blame anyone for 'watching' like this when as a society in general we do nothing to educate against such and obvious problem.
Is it actually illegal to ask someone to get to get her boobs out?
Yes, if she's underage.
Even if the same girls (or the same peer group) put pix like this up in their myspace profiles all the time??
There's perhaps an argument that they should be able to do this without fear of repercussions, like walking thru a city park at midnight (un)dressed how you like, which is kind of valid.
But you can't, and you don't, for obvious reasons.

Is this the same thread of logic that means we have notices up in toilets about washing our hands, and in carparks about not leaving laptops on back seats of cars?
No-one does common sense these days

Trouble is of course that some (and only some, I know) girls will too readily agree to this, for a giggle and some attention, even if its only from a total stranger on another planet. We're not addressing why they would want to, what makes them want to put themselves into this quite obviously predatory situations?

Why, for instance, does the BBC in kids TV programmes like, I dunno, "Stars in their Eyes" or Saturday am's "The Pod" encouage young people to go out and make video diaries which they broadcast on air?
We read of how "unstable" men are caught in possession of videos or downloaded pictures of girls which they have all to easily been able to find and potentially stalk. We condemn this.
And then, at peak time on television, we show a video diary of an attractive 15 yr old dressing up to sing, at the pub with her schoolmates, in the classroom, walking down the road wearing a teeshirt that says "Look at my tits" across the front. £1.99 from Primark.
OK, if you want. Thanks for the invitation.

Hello??

I wouldn't like to say where the issue lies here, but I know I'm uncomfortable with it.

Perhaps I've gone 'off topic', but I'm concerned about the double standards and hypocrisy of it all.

Wednesday already. My attentiveness to this blog has slipped again with everything else whirling around in head at the moment.
Another routine appointment with the midwife today to be told that everything is still very good. We know this, but its good to hear. nice to have Liz back on our case actually, and I hope that she is on duty when the time comes. I think she did come round to help with Stan's waterbirth, but I know she missed LC and was a little disppointed. She's old, you see, and I think as a midwife that's a good thing. There wasn't a queue for her time in the surgery today so she gave Trx a half hour session of reflexology for free, and that has continued to lift her mood.
The best antidote of course was a visit from her brother yesterday, which can always be gauranteed to put a smile on her face and a spring back in her step.
I learned quickly a long time ago the lesson that his wife K is having to experience now - nothing and no-one can successfully come between twins.
They always go off together alone when they meet up and let everyone else deal with things whil;e they chat, play fight, have piggy backs, get drunk or whatever they feel like doing.
It's really weird at first,a nd I remember struggling with it.
So yesterday, while I was at work and unfortunately couldn't get home to see them, K spent several hours in the park with the kids, or playing with them and their jigsaws (this weeks latest obsession) while Trx and D caught up.
She has definitely been in a better mood since, and today for the first time in about two weeks I don't feel that I am The-Most-Annoying-Idiot-on-the-Planet . I'm sure its not that bad, and we have been here before.
Just about everything seems to be in limbo land, on hold until a baby, which is NOT yet engaged after all, decides to grace us with her(?) presence.

Second time in a week I sent Jo home early today to deal with her 'issues at home'. Not entirely sure what's going on, but she's been far from herself this week.
It coincides with D being on holiday for ten days, but I know that has nothing to do with it. She's not been working as hard as usual I noticed, and makes a lot more phone calls than she used to.
Has a couple of days leave now for a long weekend, but is not going away as was the original plan. Just hope it clears up, or that at least I can find a way to talk with her about stuff on Monday.
Haven't spent a lot of time doing the personal side of our relationship really and I'm not quite sure how to approach it.

It is good having things on hold though, and adding to the general rise in spirits is three consecutive Going-To-Bed-At -The-Same-Time nights, which are hard to come by but always a relief. Except that we talk too much and don't end up sleeping for hours, making Tx later to bed than she would normally be going alone!!

So fo rthe next two days I am in the office on my own, trying to get as much work finished off as possible before Leave. There's far too much to do and every day is exhausting. Always exciting though, and I feel great about having such a flexible and inspiring job.
But then as I tried to explain in the pub last week, in the words of the song :
Life's what you make it
There is ALWAYS a choice.
People say things like "you're lucky" and "it's alright for you".
How come I'm lucky?
Why is it alright for me?
Cos I can do the school run and then go off to work?
Cos I can leave work early to take them swimming?
Because I have a job I enjoy and a wife and kids I love being with?

I can't see how that's 'lucky' exactly.

Watch the road ahead. Plan for things.
Do the groundwork and set things up for yourself so there are opportunities like this that you can take.
"But you don't seem to mind not having any money?"

No, I don't mind that at all.
How do we judge one another's richness?

But then, talking of money. Notification today of another late payment on one of the cards and a direct debit that can't be paid becasue of 'insufficent funds'.
There's irony there.
And I had to get the plastic out in tesco's at the weekend.
That's the first time this year and a bit disappointing.

No, donkey, we are not there yet…