Religion Is The Real Abuser

It has only just occurred to me.

The biggest risk to the development isn't the LGBT community but religion!

Parents have the right to remove their child from any lesson that involves the teachings of another religion. Surely, this doesn't give the child the ability or access to learn abut other faiths and determine if the religion of their “choice” is the one they wish to follow.

It also leaves them ignorant and less knowledgable about other faith groups.

Schools are currently supposed to teach relationship and sex education that is relevant to all pupils. In my experience they only taught about “straight” relationships and all the stuff that comes with it. Given the cries of parents when a teen girl wants to keep a unplanned pregnancy is “you're a child you don't know what you want”. Isn't it more logical if both straight and LGBT relationships and so on are taught at school by default. If they are too young to keep a child how can they be sure they are heterosexual? Like it or not the school bully could be the biggest “Homo' in the school but has to hide it because he doesn't want bullied himself because others are ignorant.

Unplanned pregnancies obviously aren't a concern for a same-sex couple. But STDs are so why leave the LGBT kids with no relevant education as such. Obviously, the same rules apply “if you ain’t playing with it and someone else is put something on it” goes for Gay and Bi folk but for lesbians/Gay Females this is a little less easy to understand in the same context. Not only this but I'm sure we've all said, “why are we learning about geometry, when will I ever need it' this goes for a child that believes and may well be gay at the time of his/her education. Then when the time comes to use that “geometry” you're stuck because you've not bothered to remember it.

Sheltering children in my mind is abuse in it's own right. Obviously unless we're talking about harm then that's vital – but we're not we're talking about opening a young mind to the world in a controlled environment. Where questions can be asked safely and they don't need to go and find things out in a dodgy world called cyber-space. Admittedly the thought of asking questions about “gay things' maybe daunting but if, people know that it's not wrong to question things that fear may be lifted.

For a strong society we need to be open to all things. I've been exposed to lots of different countries, types of people and religions. I for one am very grateful for it. My dad has a saying that I believe to be very true: “If it doesn't upset the horses, nobody gets hurt and they consent – it's up to them what they do”.

Keep Your Hotmail Inbox In-shape.

If you're a Hotmail® user the chances are you get a fair bit of “junk' mail – of-course there's all those notifications from the Social Networking sites that we are all on.

To keep your 'inbox' clear as possible follow these easy steps:

1. Login to your Hotmail account.

2. Click on options which is just under the drop down menu with your name on it.
3. Click “More Options” at the very bottom of the options drop down.
4. Under the heading Customising Hotmail Click on “Rules for sorting new messages”.
5. Click on the New button to start the Rule maker, as I call it.

Here you can setup just about any Rule you can think of.. You can even set it up to delete messages that are advertising those special pills for men with erectile disfunction before they hit your mail box.

I have it setup to do just that. I've also got rules setup to put all my Twitter notifications in one folder and all my eBay messages/notifications etc in another folder.

If you know the exact e-mail address you want to block, from the More Options page you can select Safe and Blocked list. It's simple just put the address in and WAMB they're blocked.

I hope this helps at least one person.

Wedding Planning - Part III

So, after asking most of the people on the guest list – it's now shrunk to a point where there'd be no point in having a reception.

My parents are moving out of the Uk to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. My Grand-parents wont be coming because of their homophobia. Leaving me with my sister who `I've never really liked. A family friend who hopefully will make it but that's questionable and my aunt on my mum's side who technically isn't my aunt as she was married to my uncle but now divorced. The bonus is, she'll definitely come.

On my other half's side; there's her mum's sister and her other half. Her mother's aunt and her best friend – this is if she's still alive then neither of them will come. Then from her dad's side there's his parents and brother brother. Of course both her parents will be there and her sister who neither of us really like either.

So, from the twenty-five guests we originally had planned we've now got, the unlucky 13 bumped up to 15 including us.

Now we're just wondering if we should drop the idea of all the excitement, bells and whistles. Rather, just wear nice black heels, black jeans and pink t-shirt with plain white hooded zippers – possibly with white bandanas.

Since my parents will be out of the country, I'm going to try and arrange a live feed through Skype so they can watch live(ish).

Then, maybe a quiet drink in the pub across and up the road a little bit then onto Sam's granny's but that's not been confirmed yet.

The bonus is though. My dad will probably fly us both out to Dubai or somewhere in the UEA for our honeymoon and meet up with us since we'll not have saw each other in ages.

Every plan we make can be perfect – all it takes is one small thing to change it all. Never the less, we will still be getting a Civil Partnership and making our relationship a legally binding one. We will then get properly married once it becomes legal in Scotland on our anniversary.

We'll still be filming the day regardless, just incase the Skype link is lost or whatever. Plus I'm sure they'll be people that wish to watch from far and wide :).

Wedding Planning - Part II

Okay, maybe my last post was a little neive.

Yes indeed, it is ver easy to plan a basic, simple and cost effective wedding. However, with a year and a month to go, I feel a bad dose of “Wedding Necrotizing Fasciitis”. Which is a new condition coined by me – here and now. It's a bacterium that infects a female in the planning stages of her wedding. It starts to eat her up from the inside until it leaves her with no brain; feeling deranged and schizophrenic until the wedding is done and dusted.

I've scraped the plain theme to the wedding. I've replaced it for a modern medieval-esk theme. Or at very least in the clothing department.

The modern twist will be. Rather than televising it live on every channel world wide, We're going to film it and after editing will put it on the might power that is YouTube. I'm planning on an ITV 2 documentary style but with all things it may or may not turn out quite as I wish.

With regards to flowers, I'm looking at a small tight poesy of crimson and white flowers, variety as of yet unknown.

Colour scheme as you may guess from the flowers is, crimson and white.

As I think I said last time, I'm the one organising it all so the Crimson and white hasn't been a joint choice but a purely unilateral one on the premises – what I like Sam will like too. Plus, as a Wiccan crimson (red) can be associated with power, love and strength all of which are vital for a relationship as serious and dedicated as a marriage need to survive.White is a colour associated with purity, clarity and freshness, as I'm sure it's easy for a marriage to become, well – full of detritus from external influences thus become cluttered and unclean and very unclear.

For the invitations however, I've decided upon the rainbow flag as a main theme not only because it's a 'Lesbian” wedding but because there's many strands of life and in actual fact the rainbow flag wasn't exclusively designed for the LGBT community. I'm using it to resemble Iris, Greek Goddess of the Rainbow and messenger to the Gods, linking the sky, sea and earth along with all that lies in-between (earth, air, fire, water and spirit) the five sacred elements of the craft.

As for the reception, This will stay a simple and basic sit down meal with a few family and friends. If anyone is interested there maybe a few drinks afterwards and a few little speeches somewhere in the middle of the meal. Weather these should be filmed I'm not yet sure, let me know your opinions.

As for wedding gifts, since we've been living in love by the point of our marriage for five years, I need to find a way of suggesting a monetary gift wouldn't be lazy or crude but much more easy and useful for us.

Since the Wedding is in November I need to find both a suitable location and time for the photographer to take the wedding photos. I've got many ideas but all seem to be hampered by modernness – I.e, development not suited to the landscape.

So, the registry office has been properly booked and reserved with the rest of the cost to be paid of when the paperwork is put in which is a little silly. I don't understand why they can't just take it prior to 'lodging the paperwork”.

I've started whittering away so, I shall wrap this up and go find some IV antibiotics to try and cure the WNF before it takes over. Enjoy.

Wedding Planning

On TV these days you can find so many shows about wedding planning or who's wedding is the best.

The truth is wedding planning isn't hard and everyone's wedding is the best because it's their wedding.

The most important thing, that to me seems to be forgotten about when planning a wedding is: true and deep love for one another.

For example, on a British TV show called “Don't Tell The Bride” - I've heard it said several times, “he better not/do … or I'm not marrying him”. This would suggest to me the bride clearly isn't mature enough or love enough or trust enough to be married anyway.

I also don't understand why people have big fancy weddings, spending thousands if not tens of thousands on one day. I understand that they'd like it to be rememberable and perfect – these perfections are based on other people's weddings or tradition. The most perfect day for me will be when I'm stood in front of the Registrar with my Fiancée beside me. While our families and friends witness us declare our true love for one another and make our relationship a legally binding contract thus making it a serious and legally recognised relationship. This is not to say a relationship that hasn't been legalised isn't serious.

Some may go as far as saying a marriage is only true if it is held in a religious place. I personally believe that the Gods and Goddesses/”God” or whoever you believe in, wouldn't of guided you that way if it wasn't supposed to be special.

As it stands we can't have a religious ceremony even if we wanted but that's a different post. So, we've selected our Registry Office and date which was easy. We've also selected our reception venue and our guests. We're keeping it small to just close family and friends so our trouble was deciding who we weren't inviting – not that we know many people or have many friends – but it only took us a day or so. It then only took the next day to book both things.

The clothing for the “big day” was a little more complicated, would it be traditional dresses or trouser suits or maybe something else? We've now opted for a maxi skirt suit as it's going to be in late November so warmth is key. The colour was also decided upon, cream/ivory. I wanted pink but then I realised this would be pretty unoriginal considering it's a “Gay Wedding” and blue which Sam wanted was also unoriginal for a “Lesbian Wedding'.

However, we're going for pink and white flowers and rainbow bits and pieces for the reception along with the twin brides on top of the cake.

There's not much more than that to arrange vehicles is easy PINK LIMO if we have enough if not then it's fine we'll walk or get a taxi. As for wedding favors we're going to have little goodie bags like at a child’s party.

Easy as pie. We've come to a rough price of around £1,200 all included.

As for the honeymoon this isn't vital and will probably just be done at a later time.

Just watch my other half contradict everything I've just said in the comments section lol.  

My Greatest Day!¡!

Today has been such an amazing day.

I woke-up this morning feeling like death warmed up. I was supposed to have an important appointment but with the way I was feeling there was no way, on this earth, I could of survived the three hour round trip. So after cancelling this I flopped my sorry butt back into bed and got a nice loving cuddle from my, wife-to-be.

After talking to my mum to let her know I'd not be dropping into see her this afternoon – she told me about a furniture store down town that we might like to go and check out.

So, I'm brushing my hair and make-up, feeling a bit better after having my lunch. Then the phone rings. Normally when I'm busy getting ready I get my other half to say I'm on the toilet or something take a message and call them back once I'm done. However, she realised the person was an important official. Thankfully she realised that normal procedure wasn't to be observed. All I can say is it was the right choice. The person had the best newsI've had in a very long time. So, that was the first great point of my day.

Once, I'd finished getting sorted and bouncing around the room with happiness – we headed down town.

Walking up the street we couldn't see the store my mum had been talking about so we did another walk by with still no luck. We decided then to go into “Dreams” mainly because they had a sale on. We saw the furniture straight away that we wanted. I worked out the cost of it all in my head – let the sales man do his “stuff” - then wamb before he knew what was going on, I had him talking money. I told him our budget and he tried to do my budge plus another £10. Sensing the guy was eager for a sale. I asked if the offer would be open in a couple of days, knowing he'd either offer me what I wanted or decline the sale (unlikely). So, we ran to the bank to get the cash out and returned to the show room.

We walked out the door with Free delivery (£25 normally) + Assembly (£95 normally), two bedside tables, a double wardrobe, a chest of 5+2 Draws and a 4Draw chest with £23 off. It might not sound much but a saving of £143 when all the products are all on sale is a pretty good deal. In total we spent £550 on a load of stuff that if not on sale plus our reductions would have been around a thousand pound so...Happy days.

The savings made now means we can pay off the Registry office for our Civil Partnership in just a few weeks time.

Today has become one of the best days of my short life.

Apologies, for this post not being as “interesting” as my usual posts, I just felt the need to share my great day with you all in the blogisphere

U.F.O

Unidentified Flying Object (U.F.O), really?

If a military force wants to find out about a place they drop in a recon unit/team/cell whatever you want to call it. They get dropped off far from the “target” area then have to move more often than not covertly into the area and when there operate in the same covert way. They don't fly in front of aircraft or let themselves be seen. No big flashing lights or odd looking shapes. They do their research so they know what looks normal before going in.

If a life form from another planet is able to develop a craft to fly from their planet that is undetectable on R.A.D.A.R, why would they ft big flashing lights to them or lights that don't resemble anything on our planet or give off a sound that we'd recognise? A life form with such great intelligence would surely fit their craft with some sort of noise let/speaker to simulate aircraft noise. They must know we can see their lights due to watching us from a distance that we react to light.

The military investigations are often based on civilian sightings. Why, there for when military aircraft or vessels and weaponry not attempt to take them out of the sky? Yes, a weapon to use costs money but then their would be definitive proof there is at very least one extra life form in the universe other than those that are on earth.

I do believe there is more than likely other life forms out there – but I don't believe they would be so lazy with their covertness.

My Key To A Happy Life

There's two types of people in the world. Those that are truly happy most of the time and those that are seeking happiness most of the time.

In the perfect world we would all have everything we want, fact. This isn't a perfect world, fact.

So, what you need to do to make yourself happy most of the time.

1. Divide
2. Analyse
3. Re-analyse
4. Act

Find a quiet/silent room where you wont be disturbed or at least where you can concentrate mostly.

Divide:

Split your life into as many sections as possible. For example: work/home or financial commitments; tasks to be done at home; tasks to be done at work- then categories all 'things' into the right 'box'. Once this is done, you'll have two pieces of important information. The first is, what is the biggest problem for you. This will be probably the one that is either first on the list or that is the longest as it's the one at the forefront of your mind. Secondly, you'll see the real extent of your affairs.

Analyse:

Look at each section in turn task/commitment by turn, ask yourself; “Is there a real need for this/Is this the cheapest it could be/Would I miss this/them?”

Put a tick by all the ones you say yes to, as well as a cross beside the ones you say no to. (you can use any symbol you choose.)

Once you have done this copy out the Yes items and the no items onto two separate leafs of paper.

Re-analyse:

Go to the Yes sheet first. Slowly and carefully read exactly what you have written, if possible out loud, this will help you focus on the exact thing you should be thinking of. Then ask the same question; “will I miss this/them/Is this the cheapest/Do I need to do this really?”. If, the answer is yes once again – ask yourself “have I checked it's the cheapest/Could I do without this/them/Is this really the best way of doing this/Could I sort the problem out a different way?” Basically, criticise and interrogate your answers and opinions. This will then give you the true answer which may be different from the original answer.

Once this is done, mark the item to show yes or no.

Move on to the No sheet and carry out the same thing on this one.

Once both sheets are ticked crossed marked however you've chosen, Collate the two sets of answers again on individual bits of paper. These are now your Action lists.

Action:

Weather it be looking for a lower cost internet provider or finishing a friendship that's a drain it will be on your Action Plan. From your Yes action plan these are things you will keep the same. The action is consistency. With your No Action Plan the action is to finish the friendship, get the satellite TV cut off or loose weight whatever you don't feel is right in your life. Conquer the problem head on. If you are wanting to be more financially flexible but still spend all your money all the time on everything it can't last without debt and stress. You need to look for ways of making savings. If you want less stress and hassle in your life you need to identify it and as far as possible get rid of the cause. Things will feel empty or less cluttered at first and you may feel instantly better or even a little sadness if it's ending a friendship or getting rid of satellite TV if it has your favourite show on it but, This will give you time to find other shows or friends or both.

It is important to do this at least three or four times a year. Don't rush it though! As they say sleep on it. It has been proven that if you go to bed with something on your mind you'll likely have a dream about it and this may help you come to a decision on the matter.

I can't guarantee it will work for everyone all the time or even one person once. I know it is however, what I do and it works for me.

If you look at my profile you will see the quote that basically says, “Aim to do much better than you know you ever can, but set your landing zone somewhere near the middle of where you are and the unrealistic and you'll probably land somewhere comfortable. I use this in every day life, some people may say it makes me less likely to achieve my full potentual but I say it allows me to achieve what I truly can and wish to. In life, there are many factors to consider. The foremost must be yourself in everyone. Your kids are starving so you bust a gut on an empty stomach to provide food but you get so stressed and tired you can't work or you let it all pile up and end your life, you're no use to anyone then – they can't use your bodies natural nutrients for nourishing the land crops grow upon your just left in a hole. Life isn't easy but that is why you need to make it as easy as possible by minimising your external pressures/influences to a level that are manageable and realistic.

Make All Your iDevices Share 1 Calendar

Do you have multiple Apple devices and want them to all share the same calendar data?

Here is how to make it happen.

Firstly you'll need a Google Calendar these are free.

Once you have this you're laughing.

Firstly for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch:

1. Select - Settings → Mail, Contacts, Calendars
2. Select – Add Account → Other → CalDAV
3. Enter the “Server” google.com - “Username” Your Google Account Username – Password” Your Google Account Password - “Description” What you want your calendar to be known as.
4. Tap the next button to verify your settings. (I'd suggest having a Wi-Fi connection at this point or at-least a 3G)
5. Open you Calendar app to start the sync with Google Calendar automatically
6. If you have several iDevices repeat this on all of the devices you want to share the same calendar.

Now for the iCal part of things.

1. Open iCal
2. Select iCal from the menu bar → Preferences
3. Select the Account tab
4. Click the “+” on the bottom left to add a new account.
5. Change “Automatic” to “CalDAV”
6. Put in the same details as on the IOS device(s) for Username, Password and Server.
7. Click Create and then change the refresh period from “Every 15 minutes” to “Every minute”.

Close down the window that's that part done.

Next we have to Subscribe to the Google Calendar you want to use.

1. Go to the Google Calendar you wish to use and choose account settings.
2. From the many options you want “Private Address” and click on the iCal button.
3. Copy the URL that appears in the pop-up window that has opened.
4. Back in iCal select Calendar from the menu bar → Subscribe → Paste the URL into the box.
5. Make sure all boxes are checked and change the refresh period to the lowest option “Every 5 Minutes”

Now for syncing everything into one big perfect fluffy ball.

1. Open iTunes
2. Select iTunes → Preferences → Device tab
3. Check the Prevent iPod/iPad/iPhone from Automatically syncing box.
4. Plug in all you iDevices individually and select the Info tab
5. Check the Sync iCal box → Selected Calenders → Choose the Google Calendar that doesn't have your username in it.
6. Click on Apply iTunes will start to sync.

To make sure everything is working right. Using your iDevice make up a test event. In iCal press Command+R to force a refresh the event should appear here also look on your other sharing devices and ensure the test event has showed it's self on them also. Delete the event and refresh all you devices just as a final check that all is working well.

That's you sorted.

On Google Calendar you can set events to repeat in the same way as you can on your IDevices.

Equal Marriage (The Right to Discriminate)

Both religious sorts and homophobes are curently arguing they should have the right to descriminate against gay marriage ceremonies. Or more correctly carrying them out. This is not to say all homophobes are religious or all religious folks are homophobes cause they're not.

I personally belive the right to descriminate is a great idea. (head down watch out for all the flying rounds.) Would you want somebody officiating your marriage/civil partnership if they didn't wish you the best? I personally wouldn't. It would bring negativity and discomfort to all.

Not only that but I'd rather not have a narrow minded dark ager officiating my ceremony against their free will. Likewise I'd not want a gay person to officiate if I was one of these narrow minded dark agers. It would be wholely inapppropriate.

However, I don't condone homophobia in anyway, I really would be stupid if I did as a gay female :). As it however, seems the majority of people in the UK today support equal marriage rights it would make those that are against them stand out. With all things once people find out something about a person/establishment that goes against their own beliefs they will not use the service. So for example, if a registrar refusses to carry out same-gender marriages or civil partnerships -the number of overall ceremonies will fall. As most registrars ar e under local authority governance, their services may no longer be required and it will be off to the job center for them. If however, we are talking of religious folks that object to carrying out such ceremonies, and we apply the same way of thinking than people will obstain from attending. This will cause one of two things to happen. The level of attendance will fall to a level that's not financialy sustainable and the persons higher up in the religious order will as serious questions about viability and posible closure – or - word will spread between other like minded people while those that are for equal marriage go to a place of worship that shares their thoughts, causing a internal segregation between the groups of the same denomination from which either a new branch of that denomination will be formed or a shift between different denomination. This can be seen currently between the anglican church and that of te cathlic church over the female bishop topic amongst others.

Of course, it would be nieve to think such massive changes would be in the short term. For this to happen would tke many years if not decades or maybe even centuaries.

With all things there's evolution so it would be very nieve to think it will only ever be “straight” people that can get “married”. There will be the right-wing hard-core for as long as we have closed minds and religions based upon rules and laws from times when it was perfectly normal to to kill people for believing different to the teachings of your own religion. If we all step back from religion and look at each other in our own light, the true good and bad people will be seen. For equality to flurrish – we need to nurture it not stick it on a big stage and shock and scare people with it or it will get hurt. Softly and slowly is the way we need to go if we really want to see change.