Shadow Footprints

Changing Site

I'm now ready to relaunch my blog, Shadow Footprints, removing my dependancy on blogger.com and their changes outside my control. Please update your links.

- shadowfoot,

Gay Bombs

Al Qaeda plans to drop gay bombs : Men within 30 miles of the blast will instantly turn queer!

Children will sob: "Why is Daddy moving the furniture and who is Judy Garland?"

Via PlasticBag.org.

- shadowfoot,

The Paper Napkin service

The Paper Napkin email rejection service is a very useful service. Please feel free to email me at shadowfoot@papernapkin.net.

Via Darren Barefoot, where I get many interesting links.

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Free-to-air TV listings

I was at the site of TVNZ and found a link to full listings, showing the schedule of all the free-to-air channels.

If only the feed was available as raw data for creating a local, free-to-use, Tivo-like machine.

- shadowfoot,

Panic defense

Hans, of It's good to be a guy writes about the verdict on Aging Queen murdered manslaughtered by Rentboy.

DPF wrote about this a few days ago, saying I don't think being hit by another man on meets legal standards for loss of control. I also have to say that if one is not gay, then choosing to be a male prostitute is a highly unusual occupation to choose.

Update: More about this from Alison Laurie in The New Zealand Herald today. (Via Just Left.)

- shadowfoot,

An Enjoyable Night Home Alone

Tonight has been an enjoyable night of television, a rare occurance. Dinner wasn't anything special but desert was divine, Mövenpick Gingerbread ice cream in a 200ml pack, so eating the whole thing isn't something to feel guilty about.

First was a rerun of The Simpsons, a not-so-great episode I'd seen before, but hey, it's The Simpsons.

Then the catch-up of The Amazing Race. Mirna and Charla are each an amazing piece of work, as highlighted in the interviews.

An offended Mirna commented, "I feel like I'm in junior high having bullies try to put me down. They disgust me." Colin later noted, "Our backpacks were in the trunk, and we hadn't paid the taxi driver yet. They had very little chance of driving away with this taxi."

Next there was the second episode of Living the Dream, a local production spoofing reality TV where only one of the nine contestants is not an actor.

What would you do if your entire world turned out to be fake? If a group of writers, producers and actors spent six months creating TV's most elaborate experiment - all around you? If they plotted your every move, recorded it 24 hours a day and put it on national television & well that's exactly what happened to Sam Chambers in Living the Dream.

Personally I don't think Billy the gay guy was that convincing, but Sam's background was not one to pick up on that.

Sex in the City is always good, not that I watched it in the earlier sessions.

"It's like she's had two caesarians and a lobotomy." -Carrie

It concluded with a rerun of Will and Grace.

Honey, I already told you. I'm gonna get some Botox, and then I'm-- [GASPS] Why, Wilma! Does my little 'mo wanna get a little bo?

All in all a pleasant evening, but if I had a boyfriend the Race and SitC would have be recorded and the rest missed. (If I couldn't convince him to watch Race.)

- shadowfoot,

Quote - Love and marriage

Where there's marriage without love, there will be love without marriage.
-- Benjamin Franklin

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Amazing Race catchup episode

Any Kiwi fans of The Amazing Race? You need to know this from TVNZ

On the next episode, screening at the special time of 7.30pm on Tuesday August 17:
This bonus episode of The Amazing Race will bring New Zealand viewers up-to-date with screenings in the US. The teams are in Luxor Egypt, dating couple Colin & Christie have a seven-hour lead, and everyone is racing towards an archaeological dig...

This means we'll be able to check websites after Saturday's episode without getting spoilers if we do so before it shows in the US on Tuesdays. (5pm Wednesday afternoon is I calculated corrected.)

I didn't hear any voice over at the end of Saturday's episode warning of this.

As a side note, a link to the promo of Six Feet Under is available on the website but no indication as to when it will be shown. (I've promised to record episodes for someone who's off on holiday soon.)

- shadowfoot,

Quote - History

History is merely a list of surprises. It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again.
-- Kurt Vonnegut

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Warning ahead

Mike at seriocomic found a very funny billboard on his trip to Auckland on Saturday.

There are some great billboards for Tui. You can even make your own. I wish I could find a site with all/most of the slogans used for all these adverts.

- shadowfoot,

Current Events - Olympics

To add to the current interest in the Athens Olympics, check out Hot Olympians with something new to look at each day of the games.

Via Towelroad.

- shadowfoot,

Tripping about

The weather is lousy today and I am too. I'm sick of taking pain-killers and antiinflammatories.

I'm using one crutch to get around on, my left knee is aching; I must have been standing too much in the last couple of days, without using a crutch, and now it's payback time.

I skipped playing Dungeons and Dragons today, something I do most Sundays. I just wouldn't be able to concentrate the way I feel. It's a shame as I really like the current environment.

I needed to get something for lunch, and knowing the nearby mall would be packed I decided to go further afield. The branch of Baker's Delight in Mt Albert is no more. Traffic was terrible, on a Sunday and my knee didn't appreciate me having a manual car. I decided the Eden Quarter branch of Pandoro Panetteria would serve, and if there was a problem then a Baker's Delight was nearby. One of the other customers, after making sure her husband was seated, kept moving right in front of me, pressing herself against the counter, impeding my view of what to buy. If I wasn't needing the crutch for standing I'd have let it move forward a bit and have her trip.

- shadowfoot,

Quote - Alone in the Kitchen

Remember, you are alone in the kitchen and nobody can see you.
-- Julia Child

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Finished

I started reading the fifth Harry Potter book, The Order of the Phoenix on Thursday. Last night I turned my light out at 3:30am. Today I finished it. Good thing I haven't been able to do much else. I hope there won't be too long a wait for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

I waited long enough to get this book in paperback. (Thanks David.) With the others in my collection all being paperbacks I didn't want to have a hardcover version taking up too much room; the paperback is thick enough.

The edition I have, printed in Australia, is the British edition. I prefer this as there can be more subtles with an untranslated version. I know the first book had differences with words substituted, including the title. A British/American text conversion is available for the first book but doesn't mention the pun lost by translating spellotape into scotch tape.

I heard that Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere suffered from this.

- shadowfoot,

Quote - What God wants

I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.
-- Susan B. Anthony

- shadowfoot,