Blog Archive
14 December 2007 - Thomson Directories are SPAMMERS
I hate Spam. No, I absolutely LOATHE Spam, Unsolicited
Commercial Email, Customer Newsletters or any other automated
email that ends up in my mailbox. I am pleased to say that my
Spam is almost nil because it all gets binned before it ever
gets to me. However, on the 7th November 2007 I received a telephone
call from Thomson
Local to check that my business entry was correct. They
also asked for an email address. Initially I refused and explained
that we did not publish email addresses which was to protect
our systems from unwanted email but the caller was persistent
and expained that the email address given would be purely used
by them to email me so that I could update my Thomson entry
online. I gave them an email address. I heard no more until
06 December when I received a message from Zenith Insurance
telling me "You've only got until 31.12.07 to benefit
from 15% off our Shop Insurance". A few days later
another similar email arrived from BT (see below). Thomson Directories
were now selling the email address I had given to them. When
I complained to them today, they admitted everything and said
that they will "suppress" the email address and that
the Spam should stop in a short while. They are even proud of
it! How
To Generate Spam And Annoy People
04 December 2007 - BT - The war is over
BT (British Telecom) have finally agreed to refund all the charges
on my telephone account which they insisted I took when I recently
moved home. My provider was TalkTalk
at my old address, but BT
had informed me that if I wanted a telephone line at my new
address it must be with BT. I needed BT to activate the line
so reluctantly accepted a line rental package (even though I
had insisted that I did not want one) knowing that I could cancel
it anyway. The following few days I spent several hours trying
to get through to BT on the phone only to be spoken to by a
recorded message telling me how busy they were and that they
were sorry for my wait. When I my line was transferred back
to TalkTalk, the bill from BT had amounted to around £257
for the 3 week period I was with them. Much of that was cancellation
charges. Yep, cancellation charges for something I did not want
in the first place. What made this battle particularly difficult
was that it is near impossible to speak to anyone at BT, when
you do get through, they have to transfer you to somone else
(with another 20-40 minute wait) and correspondence sent to
than takes several weeks to get a response. And get this! If
you want to complain through their website you MUST use a BTopenworld/BTinternet
email address. Anyway, they have finally agreed to refund everything,
which goes to show if you are prepared to fight it out they
may eventually give in.
21 November 2007 - Changing room prudery
Most council run swimming pools have a sex segregation policy
for children over the age of 8 years in changing areas. It means
that a child over that age cannot be accompanied and supervised
by a parent of the opposite sex, but instead must use the appropriate
changing room for their gender. Such a daft policy is born from
the discomfort that some people have over being seen naked,
or semi-naked, by a child of the opposite sex. While this may
be a genuine psychological discomfort in some people, the danger
to the child is far greater. There is the physical safety of
the child, if the child is left unsupervised whilst in a strange
building with an open body of water inside. There is the heath
and hygiene issue as the child is expected to use a public lavatory
facilities, and perform full body and hair washing completely
unsupervised. And there is the risk from sexual predators and
bullies. Some places have family changing facilities for mixed
sex groups, which is all well and good, but for those who can’t
bear the thought of being seen by a child of the opposite sex,
most pools run “Adult only” sessions anyway. If the local authorities
were to relax their rules that only serve to protect prudery
in some older people, it might help to protect from tragic incidents
such as this from occuring. Seven year old Luke Hutton drowned
because he was unsupervised in such a situation. My condolences
go to all concerned.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/7021688.stm.
20 September 2007 - We move home
It's been a while I know... On the 15th August we moved house.
Not only that, we moved from a 5 bedroom house to a 3 bedroom
house. Consequently it was all a bit of a drama squeezing a
liftimes worth of junk in. We had many trips to the dump, about
15 in total with the MPV pretty full on each occasion. The chainsaw
met with the sofa and the sledgehammer met with various bookcases.
All the boxes are unpacked now apart from a few boxes of books,
some skydiving magazines and a boxload of H&E
mags. If anyone wants them just ask - I have no room left for
them.
13 July 2007 UK2.net gets hijacked again
Like I do most mornings, I get up and check my email. Yesterday
my server was rejecting one of my domain email addresses. I
check the associated website which returns to me a "Page
Not Found". I check the uk2.net
home page and I find that the site has been hijacked (again)
and is displaying a black screen and some Arabic writing with
the words "Ops!" "Owned By" and "HACKED".
Given my long standing poor relationship with "The UK's
Biggest Host", I could only laugh my socks off (if I were
wearing any). I promptly shifted the affected website to another
server. Within an hour the web site was up and running and email
was working as normal. UK2 took the whole day to sort their
mess. More reasons not to use UK2.net Domain
Hosting
01 July 2007 - Famous on YouTube (well kind of)
Last week I was having a look at YouTube for tandem
skydive videos. When I saw this one I thought "hey, that
filming is mine". Sure enough, this video was taken by
me earlier this year. Fame at last - at least from behind the
camera! To click the image to activate it and then hit the play
button in the bottom left corner. Or go to YouTube with these
links: Video1
| Video2
15 June 2007 - There’s a glimmer of hope at BN
When it comes to campaigning, BN has traditionally done nothing
but stay quiet. Many BN members have given up on the National
Organisation for Naturists simply because they do so little.
BN have been shy, reserved and even too intimidated to be open
about what their members do. This has been demonstrated by their
craving for secrecy. Consequently, naturists are viewed by some
of the public as a tiny minority of oddballs who pursue a life
of immorality. But nothing could be further from the truth.
The fact is, that naturism is widely accepted as a way of living,
supported by government and religious leaders, practiced by
teachers, police officers, doctors and health workers. Those
who think that naturism is illegal, immoral, disgusting (or
whatever) are the minority and it is those who associate naturism
with child abuse, sex clubs, and alfresco encounters of an erotic
nature who are the problem and are exactly the type of people
which society needs protecting from. This year Malcolm Boura
of BN has put together a range of Briefing Notes regarding the
public, prejudice and attitudes which are well worth reading.
They are educational (he’s an ex-teacher) but most importantly
their content suggests that there is at last a glimmer of hope
that BN is at last waking up to the fact that naturism should
not be considered a dark secret. BN
Briefing Notes
08 June 2007 - Police back down over naked
bike riders
 When
it comes to nakedness and the police, it is not often that the
police back down to give way to civil rights and liberty, but
that is what seems to have happened with this coming Saturday's
World
Naked Bike Ride in Brighton. It is reported that the Chief
Supt. Paul Pearce of Sussex Police had previously warned the
cyclists: "It is very likely we will receive numerous complaints
from people feeling harassed, alarmed or distressed at the sight
of naked adults in public." (Mr Pearce's Crystal Ball must gave
given him a great insight as to how the public will feel) and
therefore the police were trying to prevent the ride from going
ahead. After discussions between the police and the WNBR organisers
the event is now going ahead. The bottom line is now whether
the public are "harassed, alarmed or distressed".
Going by the public's usual response to nudity in public it
is very unlikely that anyone would admit to being "harassed,
alarmed or distressed" (let alone complain about it), so
we can safely assume that no-one will be. It seems to me that
it is a case of the Chief Super predicting the public's response
to nakedness with negativity and attempting to take on some
kind of bizarre position of "loco parentis" for the
public at large. See wiki.worldnakedbikeride.org/wiki/Brighton
for details.
06 June 2007 - Naked in Thanet
 Photographer
Peter Checksfield has been causing a bit of a stir this week
with his Naked
in Thanet Project. Apparently, some of the locals have become
a bit upset that he has been using a disused cemetery as his
studio and are claiming that it is disrespectful and in bad
taste. One local prude says "there is no morality anymore
- People who do this emanate from the gutter". At worse,
Peter's photography might be classed as "very mildly erotic".
However, any observer would need a rather rampant imagination
to see anything sexual in his images. I suspect that the real
reason that this has kicked up a stir is that Peter has committed
that great crime against humanity. No, not genocide, it's that
unwritten law: Breaking Social Convention. It is simply
wrong to be naked in certain places, there is neither rhyme
nor reason for this, but it is simply not the done thing and
people will try to find all manner of reasons why, without any
real justification. Perhaps they ought to be thankful that Peter
is not using Margate High Street...
04 June 2007 - British Naturism and BNChange
Yet again BN is faced with some internal opposition. This year's
gang of four opposers running for election are aptly called
BNChange.
They appear to want to change BN from a commercial organisation
(which organises fun days out for naturists to popular attractions
such as Alton
Towers and the Eden
Project) to one which campaings to defend and promote naturism,
thus protecting the rights of naturists and strenthening the
national body and the lifestyle. Rather ironically, BN themselves
are currently advertising in H&E
magazine stating that "British Naturism IS CHANGING".
Are they welcoming the new gang of four before their time? or
do they finally realise that they really do need to make big
changes in order to survive? Who knows? Personally I am just
pleased that after years of BN doing nothing, they are finally
doing something.
01 June 2007 - Signs, Sunshine and Fraisthorpe Beach
 Fraisthorpe
Beach in South Yorkshire has been in the news again. The
East Riding of Yorkshire Council have deemed it necessary
to erect signs which read: "NOTICE THIS BEACH IS NOT
A DESIGNATED NATURIST BEACH. ANY PERSON COMMITING AN ACT OF
INDECENCY WILL BE LIABLE TO PROSECUTION". Firstly,
why the hell are the council picking on naturism? The beach
is not a designated bird-watching beach, jet-ski beach or any
other designated beach either? Secondly the wording of the signs
seem to associate naturism with “acts of indecency”, Perhaps
Cllr. Jane Evison, who has stated publicly that “naturists are
not welcome at Fraisthorpe" does indeed associate nakedness
with indecency, but could you imagine the outcry if the signs
read “This is not a designated gay and lesbian beach” or “This
is not a designated Church of England beach” or even “this is
not a designated Conservative Party Supporters beach” – “Anyone
committing acts of indecency will be prosecuted”? Let alone
state publicly that these groups are not welcome! While naturism
is lawful at Fraisthorpe (and any other beach in the UK), the
council appear to be wilfully discouraging naturism while ignoring
the problem of flash-ers and dog-gers which is what has led
to complaints. British
Naturism are holding a beach fun day at Fraisthorpe on 01
July 2007, all naturists are welcome. Fraisthorpe United
Naturists FUN
are the local action group.
31 May 2007 - Signs, signs, what do they say?
 I
notice on the TV that the government are currently advertising
that from 01 July 2007, smoking in enclosed public places will
become illegal. Most seem to support the ban, some are against
it and others don’t really have a view either way, but why on
earth are the government spending money telling us about the
impending ban when just about everyone in the country who might
be affected by it, already knows about it? OK, so there might
be a few people out there who perhaps think that it’s all a
big wind-up and need educating, but the biggest farce has to
be that “smokefree” premises are now legally obliged to display
no-smoking signs to tell the public not to do something which
is prohibited by law anyway. That being the case, why don’t
we have signs everywhere stating other things which we are prohibited
by law from doing, such as no fighting, no illegal drug use,
no sex in public? In contrast, when a similar ban was introduced
in Spain some time ago, all the no smoking signs (that were
previously ignored by many smokers) seemed to disappear. Quite
obviously there was no need for the signs, because the activity
had now become illegal. In years to come, when smoking has become
something which is no longer practiced, will the law to display
the signs be repealed? I don't oppose the ban, just the ridiculous
signs that go with it. http://www.opsi.gov.uk/SI/si2007/20070923.htm
30 May 2007 - The Sauna
 I
have always enjoyed taking a sauna so when we moved to our new
home some 6 years ago I decided then that I would install a
sauna cabin. Well, it took six whole years for my small dream
to become a reality but my big BIG regret was the I did not
do it earlier. It is absolutely fantastic. Every evening the
wife and I spend an hour or so chillin', chatting and generally
catching up on the days events. It gives us some quality time
together (away from the kids: they do not like it much) as well
as a chance to relax and sweat (apparently it is supposed to
be good for you!). And yes we do use it naked (duh!) although
we have had friends and family use it but have kept their clothes
on (WTF???). I can't get my head around that one but I guess
that body shame runs deep with some folk. Wasauna
is available on eBay for around £800
29 May 2007
I have decided to make this site into my personal weblog. I
don't know what I am going to put on it, probably just a load
of personal stuff (which suggests that I maybe have just a bit
too much time on my hands). I have today had a quick jiggle
with the site to lay it out a bit better and created a Blog
archive - of course there is nothing in it yet.
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