Category: Uncategorized

A guy in Iraq is recording a song, and someone fires through his window. He finds it funny, everyone else is depressed: http://nabilsblog.blogspot.com.
Make sure to follow the link to the recording itself.

Having spend a lazy sunday looking up swingers websites and posting indecent proposals, it was refreshing to find the page www.weneither.com, a simple dating/community site that only allows you to list stuff that you don’t like (thus the name). Not very big, and almost exclusively US-folk, but the idea is fun and the interface is nice enough to permit occasional browsing.

I’m quite hooked on podcasts, possibly to an unhealthy degree. At the moment I’ve almost completely stopped reading books in favour of movies and audiobooks/podcasts.

I don’t know if it’s something worthwhile, but in case you’d like to follow suit and listen to something interesting, the list below might be for you.

* Escapepod is a weekly science-fiction podcast. 20-50 minutes of good short stories. Well worth your time.

* Pseudopod is an offshoot of Escapepod, focusing on horror. Not really frightening most of the time, but good enough to listen to.

* Scott Sigler is a loudmouthed American that prides himself on doing gory thriller- & scifi-stories. He’s been podcasting his books for some time, and is putting in enormous amounts of work to promote himself. He has a rabid following that is spreading word about him, and even though his stories often are predictable in that thrillerly-kinda-way he’s a good reader and his books Infection and to a lesser degree The Rookie are good enough. It’s really rather addicting.

* How to disappear completely is a now finished novel by Myke Bartlett that is reminiscent of Neil Gainmans’ Neverwhere and Haruki Murakamis Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. At times the characters blend together, but over-all the reading and the story is both fun and gripping.

* How to succeed in Evil. Exceptionally fun, and brilliantly read by the author Patrick E. McLean. It’s not updated all that often lately, but Patrick has promised that he’ll be more frequent in the future. Either way, if you go through the archives of the show you might fall in love with the characters as much as I did.

A good place to get an overview of available audiobook podcasts is www.podiobooks.com. Just like when destop publishing became accessible and everyone thought that setting fonts in bold-italic-shadow-underscore made them look professional, there’s a lot of crap being podcasted. Either the production is poor, the reading laboured or the material sucks donkey-balls, but if you have some patience and give stuff a listen you’re bound to find something good.

The human race is quite messed up in the head.

From the wikipedia article on eating ortolean birds:
You catch the ortolan with a net spread up in the forest canopy. Take it alive. Take it home. Poke out its eyes and put it in a small cage. Force-feed it oats and millet and figs until it has swollen to four times its normal size. Drown it in brandy. Roast it whole, in an oven at high heat, for six to eight minutes. Bring it to the table. Place a cloth—a napkin will do—over your head to hide your cruelty from the sight of God. Put the whole bird into your mouth, with only the beak protruding from your lips. Bite. Put the beak on your plate and begin chewing, gently. You will taste three things: First, the sweetness of the flesh and fat. This is God. Then, the bitterness of the guts will begin to overwhelm you. This is the suffering of Jesus. Finally, as your teeth break the small, delicate bones and they begin to lacerate your gums, you will taste the salt of your own blood, mingling with the richness of the fat and the bitterness of the organs. This is the Holy Spirit, the mystery of the Trinity—three united as one. It is cruel. And beautiful.

Link to article.

well, people are hurting all over. very gripping article from a photographer who can’t get enough of iraq.

link here: www.vqronline.org

if i’m only tested enough times, i will at some point arrive at the answer to the age old question: who am i and what am i doing here. if only kirkegaard had access to the internet and under-grad studends conducting their research online, he might have been a slightly more jolly fellow.

this test took me a half hour or some such. if you want to know how i rank on some sort of ‘sexual amplitude’, here you go. then go and do the test yourself.

Test Scores
The following are the results from the tests that were just completed.

SES/SIS
You scored 45 on the Sexual Excitation Scale (SES).
The SES is a measure of one’s tendency to become easily sexually aroused. Scores range from a minimum of 20 to a maximum of 80. Higher scores indicate an increased proneness to become easily sexually excited. Results from past research put the general male population SES average between 57.2 and 58.0. The current average for this study is 57.9. Higher scores have been shown to be related to increased responsiveness to sexual stimuli, higher frequency of masturbation and greater number of sexual partners.

You scored 27 on the Sexual Inhibition – 1 Scale (SIS1).
The SIS1 is a measure of one’s tendency to be sexually inhibited due to fear of performance failure (i.e. inability to maintain an erection). Scores range from a minimum of 14 and a maximum of 56. Higher scores indicate an increased proneness to be fearful of losing one’s erection. On average, men in the general population score between 27.0 and 28.9 on the SIS1. The current average for this study is 28.5.

You scored 32 on the Sexual Inhibition – 2 Scale (SIS2).
The SIS2 is measure of one’s tendency to be sexually inhibited due to fear of possible negative outcomes from a sexual interaction (e.g. unwanted pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, etc.). Scores range from a minimum of 11 and a maximum of 44. Higher scores indicate an increased proneness to lose sexual arousal due to threat of negative consequences. Average SIS2 scores for men in the general population range from 26.8 to 28.3. The current average for this study is 26.1. Men who score high on the SIS2 are more likely to avoid risky sexual behaviours (e.g. unprotected sex, greater number of partners, etc.)

SDI-2
You scored 26 on the Dyadic Subscale of the Sexual Desire Inventory – 2 (SDI-2).
You scored 12 on the Solitary Subscale of the Sexual Desire Inventory – 2 (SDI-2).
The Sexual Desire Inventory-2 is a measure of one’s interest in sexual activity (i.e. sexual desire). The Dyadic Subscale score captures desire for partner related activity and the Solitary Subscale captures desire for solo sexual activity (i.e. masturbation). Scores range from 0 to 62 for the Dyadic Subscale (DS) and from 0 to 25 on the Solitary Subscale (SS). There is no previous population data available for this measure. However, the current averages for women in this study are: DS – 37; SS – 9. The current averages for men in this study are: DS – 44; SS – 14.

TSO
Your average weekly Total Sexual Outlet is 3.
Your lifetime maximum Total Sexual Outlet is 9.
In the original Kinsey sex studies, Total Sexual Outlet (or amount of orgasms per week) was considered a good indicator of sexual drive. Kinsey reported that the average weekly TSO for unmarried women was 0.5, for married women was 2.2 and for men was 2.5. He suggested that a cutoff of a weekly TSO of 7 was evidence of a high sexual drive, with only 3% of men reporting a TSO of 8 or more. However, Kinsey’s data was collected in the 1940s and since then researchers have suggested that the results Kinsey reported far underestimate current patterns of TSOs. Additionally, researchers have concluded that TSO is not a good measure of sexual drive as there are far too many other factors that lead to high or low TSOs. The TSO was included in this study to provide data that may refute Kinsey’s claims. The current mean average weekly TSOs for men and women in this study are 5.6 and 5.2, respectively. The current mean average maximum weekly TSOs for men and women in this study are 10.9 and 7.3, respectively.

SCS
You scored 1.7 on the Sexual Compulsivity Scale (SCS).
The Sexual Compulsivity Scale is a measure of sexual preoccupation and difficulty managing sexual thoughts and behaviours. The scale is scored by summing all of your responses and dividing by 10 (the number of items). Scores range from 1 to 4 with greater numbers indicating increased sexual compulsivity. The average score on SCS for college males is 1.64 and for college females is 1.33. The current averages for males and females in this study are 1.52 and 1.27, respectively. Higher scores are related to increased sexual risk taking (i.e. unprotected sex with multiple partners) while lower scores are related to safer sexual practices.

DSFI
The Derogatis Sexual Functioning Inventory has various subscales:

You scored 23 on the Sexual Information Subscale.
This scale is a measure of your sexual knowledge. The minimum score is 0 and the maximum score is 26. The average scores for men and women in the original study were 21.2 and 21.3, respectively. The current average scores for men and women in this study are 20.5 and 21.8, respectively.

You scored 23 on the Sexual Experiences Subscale.
This scale measures the amount of different types of sexual experiences you have had. Scores range from 0 to 24 different types of sexual experiences. The average amounts for the men and women in the original study were 20.8 and 20.1, respectively. The current average amounts for men and women in this study are 20.4 and 20.2, respectively.

You scored 46 on the Sexual Attitudes Subscale.
This scale measures how liberal/conservative your sexual attitudes are. Score range from -60 to +60 with higher scores indicating a more liberal attitude. The average scores in the original study for men and women were +27.2 and +20.6, respectively. The current average scores for men and women in this study are +23.97 and +24.88, respectively.

You scored 11 on the Body Image Subscale.
This scale measures your satisfaction with your body. Scores range from 0 to 60 with higher numbers indicating less satisfaction. The average scores for men and women in the original study were 11.7 and 14.7, respectively. The current average scores for men and women in this study are 18.9 and 21.1, respectively.

You scored 5 on the Sexual Satisfaction Subscale.
This scale measures your satisfaction with your current sex life. Scores range from 0 to 10 with higher scores indicating greater satisfaction. The average scores for men and women in the original study were 7.8 and 8.9, respectively. The current average scores for men and women in this study are 7.6 and 7.4, respectively.

Please keep in mind that average scores from past research reported here are not necessarily current or representative of the entire population. Averages depend on the eras in which the research was conducted, the group of people tested and their demographic characteristics. As such, the results reported are not definitive. Our study will provide us with data about sexual desire, behaviours, attitudes and thoughts in the years 2006 and 2007.

If you scored higher or lower than the reported averages, your scores do not mean that you are dysfunctional. However, if you are concerned about some issues related to your sexuality and would like to speak to someone about them, please contact:

BC Centre for Sexual Medicine
Vancouver Coastal Health – VGH Site
Suite 500 – 575 West 8th Avenue
Echelon Building
Vancouver, BC, V5Z 1C6
Phone: (604) 875-8282
Fax: (604) 875-8249
Reception Hours:
8:00 am – 4:00 pm Monday to Friday