JM The Happy Horse

With great power comes great responsibility.

It's World Youth Day - a Catholic youth festival - in Sydney this week. Something like half a million people have flown in to hang with the pope, enjoy acoustic-guitar-accompanied anachronistic godpop singalongs and spread the Catholic message of love, tolerance and celibacy.

Well, probably. I'm not Catholic and I don't know much about the religion. But it's undeniably nifty that so many people are gathering in one place for the express purpose of being nice to each other.

There are some 1 billion Catholics around the world, about half of which live in Latin America and Africa. These are also parts of the world where AIDS is a huge problem. Southern Africa is particularly affected (filched from wikipedia):



AIDS is entirely responsible for the drop in life expectancy shown here. About 97% of AIDS cases are caused by unprotected sex.

Cardinals in Uganda and Kenya - amongst others - have told their flocks that condoms transmit AIDS. (Cardinals are one step down from the pope - there are 19 African cardinals, 187 worldwide.)

The Catholic Church fails the Spiderman test. They have great power over many people and they are failing to protect these people. If they simply admitted that condoms protect against AIDS, they could save the lives of tens of thousands of people.

There are some signs that the current pope, Benedict XVI, is less recalcitrant to the facts. I'd like to think that the majority of Catholics are caring and responsible people, who would like to undo the Catholic Church's grievous harm.

Pre-emptive apologies to furs who don't care about sport, and Americans.

The Sheffield Shield is back.

After 107 seasons of the Sheffield Shield, it was renamed the "Pura Milk Cup" and "Pura Cup", depending on the whims of marketing types, for the last ten years under a sponsorship agreement.

Thanks to the new sponsors, Sanitarium Weet-Bix, the Sheffield Shield moniker is being restored. Hopefully permanently.

Sanitarium are obviously hoping that the good will engendered by this move will help sales of Weet-Bix. (It doesn't hurt that Brett Lee will be all over the news tonight making the announcement.) Even so, it's nice to see some advertising dollars spent in a positive fashion.

Sanitarium, by the way, are a non-profit organisation owned by the Seventh Day Adventist church. They only produce foods that meet their goal of good health through good nutrition - while competing with massive multinationals like Kellogg's and Kraft. They are proof that religion can sometimes be a force for good.

Full disclosure: Sanitarium advocate vegetarianism. They make the best soy milk going around, So Good, and a bunch of nifty meat-replacements. I could also eat a tub of Sanitarium peanut butter in one sitting.

Which is your favourite moving truck?


(courtesy of foxen_alopex)

or


(courtesy of bastett)

It's not an easy decision.

Cower in terror, all who stand before me.

Horses are the deadliest of them all.

Sometimes the minimum overnight temperature in Perth exceeds 25 °C.

Right now it is 2 °C. We left a window open overnight which means that, right now, horses have 2 °C ears.

Can we have summer back now?

The life expectancy of your average Australian is now 81.4 years, the second-highest in the world, behind Japan. People who are younger than the average age (34) can expect to live a little longer.

Accidents (motor vehicles, poisoning and violence) and suicide are far and away the main causes of death in people under 45, making up 6% of total deaths (link to Australia Bureau of Statistics pdf). If you avoid these, your average life expectancy increases to about 85.

Want more? Here are four healthy things you can easily do:

- Don't smoke cigarettes.
- Do 30 minutes of simple exercise a day. (Walking counts.)
- Have one or two alcoholic drinks a day. (Some alcohol is good for you but if you drink too much you can get fat, get cancer and do risky things, like drink-drive.)
- Eat five servings of fruit and/or vegetables a day.

Someone who does all four of these things will live about 14 years longer than someone who does none of them. Most people do 2 or 3.

If you manage all four of these entirely reasonable things, and avoid accidental death, your average life expectancy will be somewhere around 90. (If you're not already here, you should probably also move to Australia.)

Now who's up for a furmeet in 2080?

Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee for the upcoming American presidential elections.

All the British and Australian press I read - on the left and right - spins the Obama nomination as some sort of foofaraw over race. Conversely, Americans seem bemused by the foreign suggestion of racism.

The Americans are confused because Obama's blackness is irrelevant to the elections. The British and Australian press has it wrong.

When somebody is in the public eye in a country like Australia, race quickly becomes irrelevant. For all the offensive stereotypes of Australian Aboriginals - criminals, unclean, drunk, etc - Cathy Freeman or Ernie Dingo have never suffered from these horrid, reductive labels.

Imagine an Australian Aboriginal prime ministerial candidate. His race, like Freeman's or Dingo's, would be a positive footnote to his accomplishments. People would focus on the usual stuff, from policy to character.

There is a much stronger argument that Hillary Clinton has suffered for being female. In Australia and similar countries - like the US and the UK - women in powerful positions tend to be stereotyped as untrustworthy, cold-hearted bitchy careerists (like Clinton, Julia Gillard, Bronwyn Bishop).

These sexist stereotypes are becoming less important as more women rise to powerful positions. But women are still far more under-represented than racial minorities.

If you're in Perth and a bit of a media junkie (like me), some good news: www.watoday.com.au.

WaToday is a new Perth-centric online newspaper run by Fairfax, who own the Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne's Age. It's nice to have an alternative to the petty, small-town West Australian and News Corp's right-wing mouthpiece The Australian.

Not that the West and the Oz don't have their good points (respectively, independence and intelligence), just that they are both too conflicted to present balanced news and opinion.

I picked up Ross River Virus in my early 20s. It's a mosquito borne virus that knocks you out for a few weeks and can have long-term chronic effects.

I suffer from the most common of the long-term chronic effects - I get minor illnesses very easily. It's common enough that a few people know me as "Ross", my nickname in certain circles of friends.

So I have cold. It's my first in a few months, which is the longest period of health I've had for ages. They say that the effects of RRV wear off after a decade or so, so fingers crossed.

I'm, no pun intended, sick and tired of being ill. My coping strategy - honey & lemon tea, and Bastett. He doesn't know it yet, but he's going to buy me Boomblox (a Wii puzzle game) and hire out a few old Columbo DVDs later today. Then I will curl up in front of the TV with Mr Roo, Mr Ram and Mr Horse. And be sick for a day or three.

Visitors not recommended (although Bastett might be understandably keen to get out of the house).

wolphin has given me the greatest gift that a man can give to another man.

bastett and I have a monogamous relationship.

It seems we're in the minority. I'd guess that most gay relationships, and certainly most furry relationships, are open.

It must be difficult to retain trust and emotional closeness in a relationship where one or both partners sleep around. Let me give you an example of I gay couple I met (not a furry couple) that highlights the problems I see in an open relationship.

These two guys live together and have been a couple for years. Their relationship is open, in that they are both free to sleep with anyone they choose.

They prefer to go out on their own and they bitch about the other - about taste in men, being overweight, nagging, that sort of thing. I have no doubt that they don't have much of a sex life (with each other).

I asked one of them whether they deliberately chose an open relationship - apparently they never talked about it. A few weeks into the relationship one of them got drunk and had sex with a mutual friend. He felt guilty for a while, didn't say anything, but got over it and the situation progressed from there. Voilà, open relationship.

These two guys stay together because, in my opinion, they're scared about coming home to an empty bed. They're only together because they'd feel lonely if they were single; there is no trust or emotional closeness in their relationship.

At Elliott's Spring Gathering, I had a chat with the rather talented porn artist Meesh (see his FurAffinity or a YouTube video of him sketching).

Seeing as the ESG entry fee comes with a voucher to use in the artists' room, I thought I'd get Meesh to sketch a horse for me. Thinking that I'd get something G-rated and a bit different, I showed him this photo for reference:



I deliberately didn't give him any more guidance, and asked him to be creative.

I ended up with this (featuring anonymous modelling work from bastett):

( NSFW )

It's lovely and all, but not exactly what I was expecting.

I'm sure there are people out there who are more interested in owning such a ... piece... than I. So I'm giving it away.

Usual rules apply:
- First horse to reply wins. Failing that, first hoofer. Failing that, first fur.
- I will post to anywhere in the world.
- ebonypony, broc, dongstyle_ltd and shorebuck, as previous Horse Giveaway winners, are disqualified.

It's Sunday evening.

I managed to make a few friends on Friday including jynxed89 and his bf, SD. The two of them ended up staying in the spare bed in my room.

Saturday was a great fun and very long day. I spent a fair whack of time playing around in the arcade room and proved once and for all that I do not have a future career as a drummer in a rock band. I bothered a few of the artists and had a couple of things sketched up for various people. I got Meesh to sketch my character - I showed him a photo of me in the JM suit and left it up to him... the end result is incredibly pornographic.

It's awesome but I have no idea what I'm going to do with it. Maybe another Horse Giveaway?

Saturday night there was a live zydeco band from Louisiana. I, uh, may have danced. Lots. Don't hold your breath on that happening again in the near future. Apparently there are photos out there somewhere.

After a couple of beers to wind down from getting all hot and sweaty, about 15 of us descended on a Waffle House - which I can only describe as a kind of chain-24hr-diner - for a 1am dinner. I had a hash brown (a plate full of fried grated potato), grits (polenta maybe?) and grilled tomato (half a tomato, completely raw). Wacky.

Actually, vegetables in America are really, really flavourful. Must be the soil.

Today I watched Ratatouille, visited "downtown Disney" for foxen_alopex and generally socialised until the whole thing ended at 2pm. So it's over, and now I feel horribly down.

I'm here in Orlando USA at Elliott's Spring Gathering.

I was up at 3am this morning to catch my flight after a week working in Houston. It's now about 10pm and I'm having a coffee before I head down to the truly awesome convention/gathering floor.

ralmiska and double0ford arrived earlier today, looking impossibly jetlagged. I'm not expecting them to be joining the Friday night festivities. More fool them, because aside from the band and the bar, there's an arcade room with a whole bunch of favourites including SMB1, Rock Band, Smash Brothers Brawl, and a couple of old arcade machines. There's also a theatre and artist's room which will come into play over the weekend.

There are no auctions, no shows, no panels - nothing except for a great environment to meet new furs and have fun.

Earlier today we had the Wet n' Wild water park booked out completely for the 100 or so early arrivals. Despite my natural disinclination towards entertainment as "family friendly" as water slides, it was so, so, so much fun.

I'm tired. I hope this coffee kicks in soon - it's going to be a late night.

I'm typing this in the anonymous metropolis of LA airport, waiting for the plane that will take me to Houston for a week of work stuff. This is the first time I've been in the US. An airport is hardly the best way to judge a country, but I'm bored and it's all I've got to work on so far. So here we go:

Good Bits
- Contrary to popular belief, customs and security and whatnot was quick, reasonable, and well-staffed with polite people. Although I did have to sign a form promising that I would not "engage in moral turpitude". (A promise I will break bastett joins me here in a week or so. Bwahaha.)
- The airport is very clean, without being pretty... if you know what I mean.

Not So Good Bits
- I have seen three framed photos of Dick Cheney. Weird.
- All the airport cleaning staff are Mexican. But I guess Perth has a lot of African cleaners... for a similar reason.

After the work stuff during the week, I'm off to Elliot's Spring Gathering, which promises to be about 10 different kinds of awesome. There are four Elliot's events a year - they are apparently medium sized and have a really good reputation with the furs I've spoken to. Best of all, registration is just $10 for the whole thing.

And, rumour has it I might not be the only Australian-speaker at Elliot's Spring Gathering. Woo.

bastett and I just spent an incredibly relaxing an enjoyable couple of days in Albany. But my word it was cold.

Last week I got into a bet with a friend in England - we've a bottle of gin on who can lose 5kg the fastest. This guy is as overweight as I am (that is, not overweight at all) but we somehow have convinced ourselves that this is a good idea, or fun, or something.

I reckon it's going to take me about 2 months without taking a lifestyle hit. So prepare yourselves for a skinny horse in coming weeks.

Here's my diet plan:
- weekends: whatever I do normally, maybe ease up on the beer and pizza
- weekday breakfast: oats
- weekday lunch: something very light, like a salad or a vegetable soup
- weekday dinner: something mostly made of beans

That's about 50 bean-filled dinners. So far it's been refried bean quesadillas (recipe partly yoinked from ralmiska), cajun red beans and rice, tuscan bean soup and lentil pie. Just 46 more to come.

And no, Bastett isn't happy.

Work is sending me to the US for a few days next month. Obviously, my first thought was to see if I had a weekend free, and if there's anything furry going on. And there is:

I'm off to Elliott's Spring Gathering, a medium-sized con in Orlando on the weekend of 9-11 May. Hurrah.

I've since been in touch with some of the organisers, who have bent over backwards to make sure I know what's going on and generally making me feel welcome. Also, foxen_alopex has put me in contact with one of his friends who lives in the area. And I received a message on my LJ from mach - who I've never spoken to before - offering to introduce me to some of the locals when I'm there.

So now I'm really really looking forward to meeting a whole bunch of new furs.

This kind of behaviour is pretty common amongst furs and I guess it's pretty easy to take it for granted. But the mutual trust and willingness to socialise with new people is really rare out there in the real world. I think it's great.

I was the guest speaker at a sportsman's dinner last night. Perversely, I really enjoy public speaking.

I talked for about half an hour about game theory and cricket - it was good fun and went really well. One of the audience did call me a crackpot though.

And for those who asked: no, I decided not to mime the entire talk in horse costume.

Vegetarian cheetahs in Perth: 3
Non-vegetarian cheetahs in Perth: 1

I was out at a non-furry shindig last night, which has left me nursing a bit of a hangover today.

On reflection, last night was pretty strange.

Firstly, I made someone cry completely accidentally. I had a long and enjoyable conversation with a girl at the party... 30 minutes later she's bawling up a storm and suggesting that I leave the premises. Weird. Nobody seems to blame me today though - maybe it's a regular occurrence.

Anyway, on my way home I ran into two incredibly drunk and happy Malaysian guys, both (conveniently) called Fong. They were utterly lost and bewildered by how empty Perth is on a Saturday night.

I walked them to their hotel (they were waaaay off) and made retarded drunken conversation on the way. When we arrived at their destination they awarded me a t-shirt, still in it's plastic shrink-wrap. So now I have the world's strangest t-shirt.

I'm quite proud of it.

Anyway, I guess the point of all this is to reinforce a comment I made in an LJ post a few weeks' back: that - for me - the downside to drinking (i.e. hangover) is generally outweighed by the positive stuff (i.e. the randomness).