Gentleman...

"A gentleman is, after all, still a man no matter how gentle he is."

I am not quite sure where this quote originates from. I found it here.

Women and Men -- What Women Really Want...

I could not resist posting this little tid bit of information on a little piece of research that suggests that men and women are not all that different after all when it comes to choosing a partner.

D & M Research have done some research (kind of seems appropriate considering their name) by surveying 2800 women and have found that the majority of women look for looks and sex appeal when looking at a man.

I am not sure that a sample of 2800 will convince the vast majority of people out there that women really do look at men as sex objects and as man bags (accessories). But, at least, it will give us men something to chat about over coffee down at the pub!

So, women of the world, your secret is out. There are much more base and primal instincts at play than you have been caring to admit, huh?

The survey results actually revealed most of what was expected, namely women will say things like honesty, trustworthiness, love, respect and humour are important. But, when it gets down to the nitty gritty, what really matters is a hot bod that you will feel comfortable with taking to bed, and a little masculinity thrown in as icing on the cake.

Johnny Depp, George Clooney, Hugh Jackman, and Rob Baiton rated well as the type of men that women were looking for. However, Kyle Sandilands, Shane Warne and Tiger Woods rated pretty poorly with respect to what women were looking for in a man.

So, there you go!

But, as a final point (and tongue in cheek for all you literal types out there), how do the ugly blokes get laid again? Is it lots of beer and spirits?

The mind boggles at the human condition.

Ho hum...

"I'm Going to Control Your Life!"

Ain't that the truth?

Women's Soccer...

Vinnie Jones would be proud!

Whoever would want to argue that women do not get into it on the soccer pitch really need to watch this clip of Elizabeth Lambert. Lambert plays college soccer for New Mexico. This particular game was against Brigham Young University.

Pranks -- A Pain in the Arse?

The mere reporting of stories such as this one are likely to lead to a number of copycats. However, it might also lead to people give the toilet seat the once over before sitting down and getting down to business.

A story out of Cairns, Queensland, has a man glued to the seat of a public toilet in a shopping centre. Unfortunately, the man went to the male bathroom in the shopping centre only to find himself glued to the seat. An embarrassing prank for sure, inconvenient as well, and painful too.

When he was finally able to attract attention, an ambulance was called. The ambulance arrived and managed to get the man off the toilet but with the toilet seat still glued to his behind. The toilet seat was finally removed once the man arrived at Cairns base Hospital.

The hospital is reporting the man sustained minor injuries. Police are continuing their investigation.

This post probably lends itself to a picture but I have not yet found one that suits the subject matter.

Some More Did You Know...

Always looking to entertain...enjoy!

1. Mickey Mouse has four fingers on each hand;

2. The average person spends two weeks of their life waiting for traffic lights to change;

3. 120 drops of water fill a teaspoon;

4. The Inca Indians of Panama tie a string of chillies behind their boat to repel sharks;

5. Emus and kangaroos cannot walk backwards;

6. On average, women dream more than men;

7. The size of your foot is approximately the size of your forearm;

8. The word "lethologica" describes the state of not being able to remember the word that you want;

9. Boanthropy is a disease in which a person thinks they are an ox;

10. Leonardo da Vinci invented scissors;

11. Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times; and,

12. 35% of people who use personal ads for dating are already married.

A Bus Story

Acknowledgments first. Thanks to the Treespotter for the photo and pointing me in the direction of this fine piece of journalism.

Having lived in Jakarta for a long time there is nothing that surprises me, or if it does it is not for long. Hence, the above headline does not surprise me and it is about par for the course for "Lampu Merah" which is all about sensationalism in order to keep up circulation numbers.

The headline in essence says, "Boy sees girl in tank top, masturbates, ejaculates in direction of girl, girl screams." Well, there are a couple of extra words in there but they do not change the basic context of what I have translated here.

I guess this headline tells us two things; there are crazy people all over the world who do the weirdest (and perhaps most disgusting things) and that the Indonesian press is far freer than many people have believed it to be.

I gotta say that over the course of 15 years in Indonesia, and particularly Jakarta, I have seen some pretty strange things happen on buses but this indeed takes the cake. It certainly takes the phrase "a happy ending" to an all new level.

Evolution vs. Creation

I do not know where this came from or who owns the original version, but it put a smile on my dial and I figured it might put a smile on your dial as well!

A little girl asked her mother:
'How did the human race appear?'

The mother answered, 'God made Adam and Eve;
they had children; and so was all mankind made.'

Two days later the girl asked her father the same question.

The father answered,
'Many years ago there were monkeys from
which the human race evolved.'

The confused girl returned to her mother and said,
'Mum, how is it possible that you told me the
human race was created by God,
and Dad said they developed from monkeys?'

The mother answered,
'Well, Dear, it is very simple.
I told you about my side of the family,
and your father told you about his.'

Cultural Issues...

This is a post for my better half. I have been encouraging her to start her own blog and write about whatever takes her fancy. Resistance is not always futile and to date there is no blog for the reason that, "I don't write well enough!" This of course is entirely and definitely not true! I think that the better half's English is better than mine (that is another post though)!

Back to the topic. Most of my loyal readers will know that the wife is pregnant, going on 7 months now, and very excited at the prospect of becoming a mother in the near future. This excitement is the theme of the rest of this post.

It seems that most questions and statements that the wife is on the receiving end of sound similar to the following:

"Bob must be really pleased and excited that you are pregnant", or

"The parents-in-law must be really excited at having a grandchild".

Now for my mind these seem to be fairly innocuous questions or statements. However, I guess if one reads between the lines then one might see some connotation that is likely to annoy and anger the recipient. These are questions and statements that I have heard often in my travels and in many ways have probably become immune to them as being, in a cultural sense, the way things are.

This is sort of like; how old are you? are you married? why / why not? how many kids do you have? why don't you have any kids? what religion are you? The questions are generally posed out of genuine interest but are not necessarily common to other cultures.

My better half is Indonesian so it was interesting to hear that this is something that grates for her.

The question that my better half has is why is the question never, "you must be really excited on the pregnancy?" Why is it that the underlying premise is that a woman's worth is in some way linked to her ability to reproduce for her husband's and her husband's family's benefit?

So, these are my questions.

Can a woman have a child just because she wants to and not to please her husband, partner, and the family?

Is a woman's worth dependent on her ability to breed? What about women who make a conscious decision not to have children?

There are probably other questions to be posed. I will wait on responses and see what transpires. I might pose additional questions based on those responses (if any one reads this piece and makes a comment).

I might add that I am excited at the pending fatherhood, I am excited at my wife being excited about her pending motherhood, and I would still love her pregnant or not!

Dr. Laura Berman -- The Art of Intimacy

This is something that I stumbled across when I opened Yahoo and I am a sucker for lists! You can find Dr. Berman's blurb and mugshot here. The particular article that I stumbled across was provocatively titled "3 Signs That Your Man Is Cheating".

So, I figured this post would make a good community service announcement for my female readership (I am guessing maybe 3 or 4 of you). This is kind of like my pro bono contribution.

Here goes:

"1. Revived Interest in Appearance: If your partner suddenly undergoes a makeover of sorts, in which he spends much more time on his appearance, it could mean that he is trying to impress someone new. If he all of the sudden ditches his old khakis and sweats for something more stylish, it might be because he is trying to look his best for a new woman.

2. Missing in Action: If there are large periods in which your partner is absent and unaccounted for, it could be because there are mischievous motives behind his AWOL behavior. Whether it is a run to the corner store that takes over an hour, or whether he is constantly "working late," a missing husband could mean something sinister.

3. Mysterious Texts or Phone Calls: If you notice mysterious texts or phone calls on your phone bill, or if your husband tries to hide the phone bill or his cell phone from you, it might mean that there is a new love interest in the rafters. Additionally, if he spends more time on the computer, or tries to hide the screen he was looking at when you walk in the room, this is a good indicator that he might be philandering via the worldwide web."

I do not know that this is anything more than a mere warning sign, if that. Let's face it sometimes things are never as they seem to be. I have always figured that one of the pillars of my marriage was truth. I figure if you want to know, then you ask, you get the answer, and then you move on. No point in dwelling on it and letting the petty jealousies fester into full blown conflict, the war to end all wars!