Ozzard

I believe the London Evening Standard article on the subject is at http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23366491-details/Helmet-wearing+cyclists+more+likely+to+be+knocked+down/article.do

I used not to wear a helmet, but went over a car bonnet some years ago. Snapped the bike frame, landed with my head 6" from the kerb and my legs under the car engine, and the driver was so shocked he rabbit-hopped the car forward. At that point I decided that looking like a mushroom was a reasonable exchange for keeping my brains inside their preferred container. As I have a helmet *and* a long ponytail, I guess I come out neutral :-).

The problem, as I see it, arises when two people of the same sex publicly express intimacy in a way that is normally reserved for a romantic or sexual setting. I think that most heterosexuals would find such an act offensive.

Out of curiosity, a quick check: If I re-worded that in a sexuality-neutral way as:

"The problem, as I see it, arises when two people publicly express intimacy in a way that is normally reserved for a romantic or sexual setting. I think that most people would find such an act offensive."

... would you support that statement more than, as much as, or less than your original statement?

Not criticising, just curious.

"sure, but, uh, just let me change."

I *think* if I'd already had the ice broken I wouldn't have bothered changing. However, it's not happened to me (yet) :-). It probably will at some point.

*blink* Does it matter what sexual preference someone has? It's odd - I get that reaction whenever someone asks around this area. For me, it's simply a non-question - like hair / eye / skin colour, sex or gender. I know blondes, folks with mouse-brown hair, those with blue and brown eyes, those with various shades of pink, yellow and brown in their skin, men, women, straights, gays, bis, asexuals, dressers, non-dressers, cross-dressers, transsexuals... and it's great to see the variety.

ROFL?

Roll(s) On Floor Laughing. Also 'rotfl' (rolls on the floor laughing) and 'rotflmao' (rolls on the floor laughing my ass off). From way back in the bulletin board and USENET days.

Is this normal ?

Yup. 5" is *high*. Yes, there are people on this board wearing 6" heels regularly. They (/we) didn't jump straight up there.

I believe there are two sets of theory: conspiracy theory and cock-up theory. The first says that most Bad Things in the world happen deliberately; the second says that most Bad Things in the world happen by accident. Given humanity, the second one seems more likely to me. As for all the talk of New World Orders... I'd argue that there would never only be *one* all-powerful secret society. There would be many; they would be fighting each other; and the power of each would be reduced as a result. Interested parties may wish to play a couple of games of Steve Jackson Games' "Illuminati" to see what this kind of world might look like. Personally I've always liked the idea of the Church of the Subgenius controlling the Mafia, who control the Congressional Wives, who control the Boy Sprouts and the Orbital Mind Control Lasers... but maybe that's just me.

Besides, you ought to see what THEY're doing.

Exactly. If you think someone is "normal", you merely don't know them well enough. I don't think I've ever met a person where at least one of their features wasn't 3 standard deviations from the population mean :-)

Not a whole lot of things truly happen 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!

Ah. Now I don't mind this one - but I work in the computer business, where many applications genuinely *do* (OK, should) run continuously from the moment they go live to the day they are retired.

Anything with excess words. This is usually a North American problem, but British English is starting to silt up. "At this moment in time" is a pet peeve, as "now" or "just now" are equivalent.

As for us girls on the site, the problem is we don’t really share the same issues as the boys

Indeed. It's been interesting to watch women's fashion change over the last five years or so in the UK. Styles that were previously classed as "fetish" - metal heels, some platforms, ultra-pointed toes, very high (but not yet ultra) heels - are now mainstream, at least in the cities. This has gone hand in hand with a more general move towards previously "fetish" clothing, which (sadly ) now appears to be running its course.

This board, along with any other special-interest board, documents the interesting and hence somewhat out-of-the-ordinary. When everybody's doing it, I suspect there's little reason to post :-).

Welcome, even if I didn't know you the first time. Depression can do odd things to people - I've had my share of episodes, and have lost friends, jobs and perhaps failed to gain a fortune through it (the latter is unknowable). Congratulations on getting through it and out the other side, hopefully with more knowledge of how it works and an eye for the starting symptoms if it starts to bite you again!

First two questions out of my wifes (gf at the time) mouth when I told her about wanting to wear heels were:

1) Are you sure your not gay/bi?

2) Do you want to become a woman?

(Chuckle). In our case, #2 came out first, #1 wasn't raised.

Being based in Manchester, I have the Canal Street area (colloquially the 'gay village', but actually an oasis for the unconventional of all persuasions, plus loads of folks along for the pleasure of a safe night out). Straight, gay, lesbian, bi, no idea... casual, smart, drag, cross-dressed, men in skirts, men in heels, women in suits... who cares? You'll get the odd disparaging comment, but more compliments. Long may it last, and may the tolerance spread to other parts of Manchester and to other cities.

Me? I'm human. I regard that as positive :-).

If only I could find other Vivienne Westwood pics.

Westwood has been blurring gender boundaries for many years - and is annoyingly about the only designer to do so consistently.

I cannot recall having ever heard of her.

You'll note most of the response came from the Brits... she was in the Spice Girls (a UK-based girl band c. 10 years ago) and married a very high profile UK soccer player. Don't recall the band had much success in America, and soccer isn't big over there.

How you choose to behave and the decisions you take are clearly up to you - I hope you'd be willing to grant the rest of us the same privileges. I'd be interested in your reasons behind why you assert that something "WILL NEVER take off" - the bald assertion is likely to get many backs up. I agree that more could be done about the general care and feeding of the board, but that's always a problem if the board owner can't take care of it. There are ways of doctoring a phpBB board to cut automated spam considerably, and they appear not to have been applied here; there are no ways of preventing humans registering for accounts and then spamming the board, in the same way that there are no ways of preventing trolls coming on. This board has some of the most willing and active moderation I've seen in terms of cleaning up the spam that gets through - but it'd be good to modify the code to dissuade the simpler spam bots. I'd be willing to put in some effort in that respect, but it would require a high level of access to the board and I suspect I'm too much of a newcomer to be considered trustworthy. As a side note, does anyone have any figures for the traffic this board generates? I may have a cheap (free) hosting solution...

6' (182cm). I'm cautious with door frames when in my 6" (15cm) heels, as the door frames around here are *mostly* 6'6" (198cm). No problems in anything shorter. Wouldn't mind being a few inches shorter for wearing heels without drawing undue attention outside, but being "the crane" has its uses, especially when setting up speakers on PA rigs.

(Chuckle). I suspect folks are waiting for other pics. Speaking entirely personally, those are perfectly reasonable, but both a little low for me.

Why we ever let the women talk us out of them, I have no idea.

[...]

I don't know why we let the women talk us out of hosiery, either.

Seconded. I'm just starting to realise, after years of wearing skirts around the house, that I'm no longer comfortable with my self-image in trousers. "I" wear skirts. I'm not transgender - definitely think of myself as male - but my self-image definitely involves items of clothing that are off-limits for males in most Westernised societies. It's really quite an uncomfortable feeling...

Which one? :-) Car: Aerosmith, Wolfstone, All Blacked Up. Portable that goes on gigs with me: Wolfstone, Capercaillie, Sharon Shannon. Work: All MP3s (and all encoded from my own CD collection before you ask). Living room: Micro Machines (we use the PS2 as the CD player) Computer: Empire Earth. Wife's computer: Empire Earth the expansion. Household server: Password recovery boot disk (long and embarrassing story). Laptop: Empty, recently Pink Floyd. Her laptop: Empty. Bedside clock/radio/CD: Empty, recently Wolfstone and Pink Floyd. Pile of half a dozen old CD and DVD units in one of the boxes labelled "computer bits": hopefully all empty, but there's always one...

the dog has just eaten a pair

Well, I guess it beats eating the homework. Although depending on "chewed" versus "swallowed", you may not be so happy in a couple of days time.

Hi from a fellow North-Westerner.

Well, it *is* a kilt. Of sorts.... My own "public" outings tend to be late in the day. We live midway between two pubs, both with late opening hours, so I'm more cautious than I would be on, say, a housing estate. Typically I'll head out in a black T-shirt, an ankle-length A-line skirt and heels that aren't *too* noisy - which rather lets out the several pairs of metal-tipped stilettoes :-(. Thus far I've had some chuckles amongst themselves from a mixed group going past, otherwise nothing.

Just another new user dropping by... I had the advantage of telling my current (second) wife that I wear heels as soon as it seemed likely we'd get back* together. She went away for a couple of days, thought about it and decided she was OK with the idea. She's stayed of that point of view since, with two provisos: - She married a man, and wishes me to be obviously a man for her for a part of the time. The times are negotiable between us, and as we have very open communication between us it's generally not an issue. - She is very protective and will rip the guts out of anyone who causes me trouble. As she doesn't really want to serve the resulting jail sentence, she'd rather I didn't go out in heels. This doesn't stop me completely, but I do tend to go out when there are fewer people around and typically avoid metal tipped stilettos :-). Overall, the lack of any negative response from this is slowly causing her to become more relaxed. As others have pointed out, the relationship between spouses is (and has to be) one of give and take. It's sometimes easier if the relationship starts with all the knowledge out in the open - both parties have less invested in it, and it's often easier to shift one's mindset when there's little commitment. I'd recommend to anyone who's just starting a relationship to tell the other person - heck, I even put it in my information when I was using dating sites, it cuts out the folks who are going to have a problem really well! Anyway, just some musings from a generally-content heel wearer. * Long story - I met my current wife in 1990, we split up, I met and married someone else, that relationship separated, then I re-met my current wife in 2002. It was at the time of that re-meeting that I told her.