Posts by Josh Addison
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Also, last year I was reading about a military recreation weekend somewhere in the south of England, where the recreationists dressed as WW2 era German forces outnumbered the Allied or British forces by at least a factor of two*. Beggers belief really.
Probably because the Nazis had cooler uniforms.
A few years ago, the company I was working for had a German exchange student as an intern for a while. He was a happy-go-lucky kind of guy, but he turned very serious when I showed him photos of some friends at a costume party, including one guy who'd come as an evil clown, complete with swastika makeup over his eyes. I tried to explain that, from this distance (temporal and spatial), swastikas (and Nazism in general) are just a shorthand for "bad".
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Last time I felt compelled to assure people I wasn't a zombie, the response I got was "sure, that's just what a zombie would want us to think..."
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I was merely pointing out that there are actually sensible reasons for not repealing section 59 in its entirety. Otherwise some day to day parenting routines would be criminal. So removing the "performing the normal daily tasks that are incidental to good care and parenting" provision may not be so wise.
On the other hand, there has never been an equivalent to S59 for adults, meaning that it is and has always been a criminal offence to push an adult out of the path of a bus or to slap them on the back if they're choking (or just to congratulate them), and yet people aren't being arrested and charged with assault left, right and centre due to such "day-to-day" actions.
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And a philosophy degree doesn't make you unemployable. After about five years in the workforce, who cares what your degree was? And for those first five years, having an odd degree can help you get interviews. Or at least, that was my experience.
Mine too - in an interview for my first job, the manager interviewing me basically said "an MA, eh? That means you can write and you can stick with something - just what we're looking for." I've found the practical skills you get from a Philosophy degree (e.g. critical analysis, organising information, rendering complex ideas explainable) to be very useful in my professional life.
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I remember reading an article a while ago about the so-called "helicopter Moms" at American universities - the mothers who are constantly hovering around their children, even while the kids are living on campus. While I never encountered their like while at uni myself, I'm sure they exist here.
I sort of fit the "Philosphy as gateway drug" scenario myself, but it was entirely self-inflicted: I was always best at Classics and English at high school, but figured an Arts degree was too impractical. One and a half years of a BE later (having taken Philosophy and Anthro papers as my electvies), I found myself hating what I was doing, so thought "fuck it" and changed to a BA in Philosphy. My parents were fine with it, and it got me a job in Tech Writing (eventually), so I can't complain.
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I'd strongly recommend laying hands on Kirby Dick's This Film Is Not Yet Rated and marvel at what a thoroughly creepy body the MPAA really is.
Seconded - it's deeply fascinating and deeply worrying at the same time, especially the problems the MPAA seems to have with women actually being seen to enjoy sex...
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Now that I'm at home and able to look up the link: the self-promoting reference to French vanilla I would have made earlier.
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In terms of educational experiences, Warren Ellis' blog (NSFW, depending on what's taken his interest that day) has taught me many things, mostly involving the merits of clicking a link titled "Conan, What is Best in Life?" <\injoke>
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I'd just like for there to be a word for 'not kinky' that isn't 'normal'.
Yeah, I'd like that too - I was conscious of posting an objection without actually offering an alternative, which pisses me off when other people do it...
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French vanilla, on the other hand...
[tries to work that into the metaphor]
[head explodes]