Alex's Journal

Man who kills sex worker released from jail after one day

First off: how does ANYONE equate fourteen ACTUAL months of jail time to THIRTY? Can this judge not add?

Second off, no, I'm sorry, if you actually think you're acting in self-defense and kill someone, you don't DUMP THEIR BODY AT THE SIDE OF THE ROAD. You call the fucking police.

Third, INCOHERENT. RAGE.

Fourth, I call bullshit on the idea that she was a sex worker had nothing to do with this ruling. Oh, he was such a nice guy, worked with kids, had a good job...

...didn't call the cops when some woman he'd never met allegedly attacked him in his home...

And he just "pushed" her and she stopped breathing?

(As a note - if they CAN test to whether the cocaine had something to do with her death, WHY NOT DO IT?)

RIGHT.

BS BS BS BS BS.

Terry Pratchett Diagnosed With Rare, Early-Onset Alzheimer's Disease

I take it back about life looking up. Fucking hell! *smashes things*

Thankfully it's been caught VERY early, so it's not like (as he says) he's dead yet, but... Alzheimer's is a fucking terrible way to live, especially in the later stages. And especially for it to happen to Pratchett is... miserable.

I didn't think conversations like that actually happened.

Back story: the guy that refills/replaces (?) our fire extinguishers came to the office to do, well, just that. Darrell and Claudio are not in the office, so he gets talking to me. He's a very friendly guy, forties, speaks quickly (almost too quickly to keep up with).

So he asked if I was working here part-time or full-time, what school I was going to, and so on. So I told him about going to Humber, and he starts into this diatribe about university professors being wankers and stuff like that. Whatever, some of 'em are (I heard the same story from him as I did from my parents about York and UofT professors, so I can only assume it is true...). He's kind of rambling, but he's so enamoured with his own voice that I can literally just smile and nod.

Then he starts going on about television and how he hates watching "CBS, ABC, all those channels, because of their left wing socialist bias."

I just looked at him.

Oh no, but it continued. He loves Bill O'Reilly, FOX News. "Everyone says they're so right-wing, but really, they're kind of right of centre. And Bill O'Reilly, well, he's all over the place."

I smiled and nodded, not sure if the correct response was "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA you're joking, right?", "I voted NDP", or "Wow, suddenly I've realized what Tucker Carlson looks like without his bowtie."

He continues going on about the left-wing socialist media - no, seriously, he couldn't refer to the media without using these words - and then subtly shifts his focus to celebrities that attempt to do humane things. "What's Bono really doing? Trying to get on magazine covers, I think. He's just a celebrity." Apparently sending money to Africa doesn't work, because a 20/20 reporter wrote that it doesn't. "Angelina Jolie might really care about kids in Africa, but Brad Pitt? I doubt it." My mind envisions Christy and Amber, now named Team Short, Brunette, And Kicking His Ass, well, kicking his ass.

I slowly move forward, and he backs out the door, finally leaving with some cheerful words goodbye.

I am so very amused.

Left-wing socialist media.

Right, and Bill O'Reilly's right-of-centre.

This man has obviously never heard of Michael Corin.

Glenn Feron's Art of Retouching

He has forty some-odd pictures of models, with the retouched versions - and then, if you roll over, the untouched versions.

Some of them, it's a very dramatic difference, but all of them have the same features - colors brightened, shadows lessened. There's also no small amount of changing breast, stomach, and butt sizes. (In one really dramatic case, I think Halle Berry is wearing a strapless dress in the mouseover, which is replaced by boobs.)

The weirdest to see, I think, is the facial change - getting rid of shadows and smoothing out skin almost necessitates that cheekbones disappear. Seeing the difference really highlights how unnatural these touched up photographs are. The other big one is the eyes - how they're made to seem wider, how colors change.

Funny enough, for two of my favorites, I prefer the untouched versions.