My Shovel List - Updated

Four years ago I wrote my shovel list.  You know the one, the list that has all things and people that you want to hit in the face with a shovel.

I was rereading my list and it made me laugh.  I got to thinking about some entries that would no longer make it on the list, and many more that would.  So here you go, my updated list.

The Too Happy/Nice People That Clearly Must Be Psychopaths

Bonnie Langford 

Anthea Turner

Morning people

Politics (including those hate groups who try to be political- Limited As I Could Be Here All Night

Donald Trump (obviously)

Nigel Farage (can I hit him twice?)

The EDL

The BNP

UKIP

Britain First 

The Tories

David Cameron

Boris fucking Johnson

Michael Gove 

Jeremy Hunt

I had better stop here....

The Pop Stars List

Coldplay

Justin Bieber

Robin Thicke

Mariah Carey

Robbie Williams (I used to love you Robbie, but now you need a shovel)

The People I Don't Have An Explanation For, They Just NEED A Shovel To The Face List

Sebastian Vettel

Gwyneth Paltrow

Clowns (these need multiple shovels)

The people who make the tampon ads

Pass me the shovel!!!

The "Women Are Evil As They Won't Date Me, Let's Threaten Them Instead" List

Where do I start?

MRAs

MGTOWs

Redpillers

A Voice for Men

Return of the Kings

Roosh V

So there is my list, who is on yours?

Snow is Falling

Cold weather isn't all bad.  Cozying up in front of the fire, warm soft clothes, comfortable layers.  Cold weather isn't all bad, if I could stay inside the house that is.  Outside brings snow, ice, freezing cold standing at the bus stop, falling frequently on my ass and feeling generally petrified.

I know why I'm scared of snow.    I'm aware in the telling of the story that it is amusing, but it wasn't funny at the time and is the only explanation I have for the fear I feel now.   You are allowed to laugh at it though ;) 

When I was around 6 I walking with my mum along a street covered with snow, snow like it used to, very very deep.  We had both been visiting my grandma and we were on my street making our way back to our house when I disappeared.

Did I disapparate like in the Harry Potter books?  No, I fell down a manhole.  Yes, ok, haha.  This was in the 1980's, before the "Health & Safety" culture got going.  Some workmen had obviously been doing something with the manhole and had it left it uncovered for whatever reason.  With the heavy snow you couldn't see any difference and no signs had been erected.   So little Vicky disappeared, luckily managing to grab hold of the pavement so I could drag myself back up.

Telling the story always gets a laugh, but the truth of it is that since then I have always been frightened of snow, with ice being added to the fear over the years on the grounds that I am the human Bambi on ice, clumsy and unable to keep my balance.

One of my (many I admit) pet peeves are people that wish for the snow.  Why???? You get maybe one day, at best, where throwing snowballs for an hour is fun, the rest of the time you are miserable, wet, cold, slipping and in my case, falling over, a lot.

When people talk about what they would do if they won the lottery, the same thing is always at the top of my list, move to a country where it DOESN'T BLOODY SNOW!

Tell me, please, how is this fun???

A Rant about the “Public”

One person is smart, people are stupid

If I had written this post a few years ago, I would be blaming the media right now for the views and reactions of the public these days.  But the fact is, the only people we have to blame are ourselves.

I first started to notice the real effect that the media had on the public when Madeleine McCann went missing.  The way her parents were treated in the media was horrific, especially bearing in mind what they were already going through.  But then I stopped to think.

The general public seem to thrive on controversy and “the next thing to rant about”.  The tabloids are obviously selling and writing about what the public want to read about, otherwise they would go out of business, with no papers sold.  So the question is, is it their fault, or our own?

With the whole phone hacking thing, although it was horrible that victims and their families had been hacked, the fact is that it has been going on for years.  People, mainly celebrities, have complained about being hacked for years, but because the public wanted to hear the stories, they didn’t care that how that information was obtained.

I have to wonder then, who really can judge the rights and wrongs of the media.  People in their millions bought and lapped up all the stories of kidnap, murder and sensational stories and in turn, the media are put under increasing pressure to produce those stories. 

Don’t get me wrong, phone hacking is wrong, but the question I have is how much is pressure to produce a factor, bearing in mind the obvious public wanting of these stories.  Shouldn’t we be accountable too?

This post started from watching the XFactor (British) this weekend.  A judge telling a 17 year old girl that she is a bully in front of millions, surely that is bullying in itself?  Because of his comments, the papers pick up on it, no doubt now she will be investigated by the tabloids, every person she has ever known asked for bullying stories, and the public will lap it up.

I was watching the results show and watched in horror when one of the final two was loudly booed.  What right do we have to do that to someone?  They still have feelings, yet it is practically turned into a blood sport without care of who is hurt.

Is that what the general public really have turned into?  A baying crowd, wanting blood and controversy no matter what the price? 

The fact is, the public have turned into sheep.  Following whatever is popular opinion at the moment, always looking for the next thing to get on their soap box about.   This is why I usually don’t watch the reality shows, and why I don’t read the tabloids.

The public need to vote with their feet, if you want news and stories of something more than celebrities, controversy and ripping people to pieces, don’t buy the paper. 

They write what sells, so in the end, the contents of the tabloids is our fault, not theirs.

Storm in a F Cup

So.  Large breasts.  Some men love them, some women want them, but to have them, I guarantee is a different thing.

I started to get breasts at the age of ten.  At that time it was a thrill.  Everyone wanted some too, it was the topic of endless discussion, made me feel special in a way, especially because before I wasn’t one of the “popular” kids.  Trouble is, they kept growing.

These days I am a FF cup.  Nearly every woman I encounter who brings them up, including friends, always have the same comments.  “I’ll swop you” “You are so lucky!” “I’d like to have them, just for one day”

Don’t misunderstand me, in some respects, I do like them.  But more often that not, they are a hindrance that I could do without.

If you have larger breasts, you have to have a confidence about you.  I don’t particularly, but I can fake it well.  They come up regularly in conversations, so much so that it gets extremely irritating.  They grew, they are there, they are really so not interesting to have conversations about them.

You get used to people talking to your breasts inside of looking at your eyes.  Clothes are a problem too.  You have to wear a v neck or a round neck in order to make sure they don’t look bigger, but with the majority of clothes, I end up showing more cleavage than I actually want to which attracts more attention than I want.

The thing however that irritates me more than anything is the touching thing.  When you have large breasts, they somehow appear to be public property.  The amount of times I have been out, in a bar or a club and a man has had a comment about the size, and then copped a feel.  Every single one (after a slap or a few heated words) seem to think that they have done nothing wrong.

The other view people tend to have of you is, although to be fair this only comes from the sleazy type of man, that you are automatically easy because of your big breasts.  I’m not by the way.

They say you have to own what you have and make the best of it.  So that’s what I do.  Just wanted to give the perspective of a girl with a lot up top.

Baby, Baby, Baby Noooo!

Question.  What is it about people when they have a baby.  The most normal person in the world suddenly turns into this baby obsessed, all they can talk about person.  Like they have just given birth to Christ or something.

 

Don’t get me wrong, I have lots of friends who didn’t turn into crazy people when they had a baby.  To be fair, they were crazy anyway, being my friends, but in a good way.

 

When a friend tells me they are pregnant, after the mandatory congratulations etc (am not a baby person myself, never want one but am not evil, I can be nice and say congrats) what I don’t tell them is that they are put on probation for social networking.

 

For the purpose of the blog, I will use Facebook as the social network of choice.

 

Things that are Allowed

• Telling people you are pregnant – it’s interesting, people will want to know and congratulate you.
• Scan photo – not something I am interested in at all, but ok, some may like it.
• Occasional pregnancy updates.  Please note this does not include tales of throwing up, heartburn or      anything gross.
• The first baby picture. 
• Afterwards, occasional, and by that I mean one every month, pictures of baby.

Things That Fuck Me Right Off

• Creating a Facebook page for the baby, including when it is still inside you.  It is wrong, it is stupid and if it sends me a friend request…. DENIED!!!
• Constant updates regarding how you are doing, particularly relating to morning sickness, sex life (yes I have seen pregnancy sex life updates) etc.  I DO NOT WANT TO KNOW.
• Once the baby is born, photos every other day.  Yes your baby is cute (hopefully).  No I don’t want to see it every day.  It’s a baby, WE HAVE ALL SEEN ONE BEFORE!
• Daily update reports.  Baby has smiled, giggled, had a baby massage etc.....

By the way, what the fuck is baby massage??  People have been having babies for thousands of years.  I have yet to meet a baby that said “Hey, you know what I would like?  A nice massage!”. 

 

I am probably coming across as the anti-christ of babies, which I am not.  I’m happy if you have had a baby,  I respect your choice to have one and appreciate how much you will love it.

 

The thing is, I don’t love it, I don’t want to see it every day and I couldn’t give a rats ass what it does until:

 

a)  It starts speaking and;
b) Actually, that's about it.

Bad Bieber

I keep hearing news reports, well I says news, more like gossip sites headlines that Justin Bieber has recently tweeted, saying he has “bought” a tiger.

According to the reports I have read, he was visiting a zoo in Sao Paulo, Brazil when he tweeted a picture of a white Bengal tiger, saying “Look what I bought”. Hmmmm.  He is, apparently, and I say apparently because I have no interest in him whatsoever, quite fond of pranks so the news may or may not be true.

He was however the cause of my blog today.  Mainly because, me being me, I saw the headlines and said to myself, apart from the fact that surely his advisors, parents etc would have advised him against it, how could he possibly have a “pet” tiger in the US?  Turns out, unbelievably, you can.

In a world where three of the nine subspecies of tiger are now extinct, with the remaining six on the danger list thanks to hunt, deforestation, poaching and trophy hunting, how can you possibly justify keeping a tiger for a pet?

The Association of Zoos and Aquariums have estimated that there are up to 12,000 tigers being held in the US.  Considering that the wild population is considered somewhere between 3,500 and 5,000, this figure is astounding.

There are only (please correct me if I am wrong here) 19 states in the US that ban the private ownership of a tiger.  How in this day and age is that possible?
 
Just think about it, where you would prefer a tiger to be?  Here:


That’s where they should be.  Where they were born to be.  I can’t imagine the privilege of seeing a wild tiger, in it’s own habitat, living and doing exactly what it was meant to. 

Or, would you prefer to see it hanging on your wall or as a rug on the floor?  Being shot for pleasure?  Being killed and cut up to be used for Chinese medicines which have been proved not to work?

I know what I would prefer.

If you are interested in conservation and the preservation of the wild animals of this planet,  link on this link: Four Paws

And So It Begins

X-Factor is back on our screens.  It is a guilty pleasure of mine.  I'm not one to watch soaps or even many TV programmes.  Am more of a movie person.  But X-Factor I quite like.

I like watching the different acts, figuring out who I like and who and I don't.  Watching them progress, or crumble, during the weeks.  What I don't do, and for the life of me I can't understand why others do, is invest my emotions into it.

At the end of the day it is just a reality show, with people you don't know, and won't care about three months after the show is over.

What I hate is not the X-Factor itself, but how people get so invested into it.  It's a competition, some will lose, one will win.  It's that simple.  There will always be the people in there put in for entertainment only, this year it's Johnny Robinson and would also have been Goldie, if she hadn't figured out that she was a fun factor only.

Every single year people get irate about the fun factor people staying in and others who can sing getting voted out.  But in the end, the best people are usually in the final, so who bloody cares?  People get so mad about people getting voted off, with cries of "I'm never watching again, it's a farce!"  But of course, they do still watch.

Get a life, realise it is only a reality programme, and enjoy it for what it is.  Rant (mini) over.

To Degree or not to Degree

To have a degree is a good thing.  I will say that at the start because I am not suggesting that having a degree does not help your career, it educates you in the field you wish and indeed can be a necessity when you come to pursue that career.

If you want to be a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher, whatever, a degree is a necessary in the path you have chosen to take.

What I don’t like is the mentality that some people have, to those of us that don’t have a degree.  That we are automatically considered stupid, or not as good as the people who have one.  I am not sweeping tar brush over all people with degrees, but there is a percentage of people that do think that way.  I come across them regularly.

I chose not to go to university.  I got decent grades at school and after leaving, the pull of a wage was too much for me and I got a job instead.  I became an office junior, the lowliest office position as has to be said.

I know myself well enough and the choice I made for myself then, I don’t regret now.  I have never aspired to be a doctor, teacher etc and I have always valued being happy in my personal life over any career aspirations. 

I worked my way up through the ranks over the years and now I work for a partner in a large well respected firm.  I am happy in what I do and am happy that I got there on my own.  I’m not in a job with a massive wage, my career doesn’t contribute to society like a doctor or a teacher, but it's what I want and enjoy.

I’ve had people say to me “Ah but if you have gone to university, you would have a degree and think where you could have been now” or on a more condescending note “Oh you’re more little intelligent than I gave you credit for, having no degree and that”.

From someone who is actively using their degree in a career that they have worked towards, I can take that to a certain extent.  What really gets on my wick however are the people that went to university, got a degree, good one or bad one, and then don’t use it.

I have met people, and know people who went to university, got a degree and now work in a job, unrelated to the degree in any way, shape or form.  Most of the time this is in a job which is lower down the payscale and position of my own. 

Now of course in this day and age, any job you have is better than having none.  If that is the job you can get, then all well and good.  But don’t then turn around to me, who has a better job than you and look down your nose at me because you have a degree and I don’t.

First, a Little Rant

I do have a blog post I want to put on here tonight but first, a little rant.

Sometimes I feel that being on Twitter is setting yourself up to be discriminated against.  We, as a Twitter collective are all lumped together, by people who have never been on Twitter and therefore don't know what it's about, as being people who do nothing but tweet what they had for breakfast, who follow millions of celebrities and are generally brainless.

I have had this argument with various people, all of which have never been on Twitter.

I have come up with this "conversation" as an alternative example which either proves my point, baffles or alternatively I am told I am a little bit mad.  The last one is probable.

Person One: I don't like apples.
Person Two: Have you ever had one?
Person One: No, they taste of sardines.
Person Two: What are you talking about?  They are juicy and delicious!
Person One: Well that's not what everyone else says so I am not trying one.

Twitter by the way, does not taste like sardines.