The off-topic topic

Shen · Post by **Shen** » 26 Jun 2006, 20:39

yup, i didnt know whether i should lhave laughed at it, or be completley stunned at their choices. and i agree changing the little black gril to a white one is the most racist thing about it.

i still go back and read the old enid blyton books sometimes, the faraway tree and such, its fun to read over even as your older hehe.

and yeah it says in the paper that they changed these words like "i say" and "biscuit" to appeal to the american market.

but then i wonder why bother, kids dont read anymore. hell half of them cant read, by changing a few words and stuff isnt going to make them want to read anymore than they do now. i'd love to give my nephews the books i read at their age, the narnia series, enid blyton, roal dahl etc. but they cant read words bigger than 6 letters. i find it incredibly sad that kids are shunning reading for video games and alcohol.

but this PC business has gone really weird lol

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 26 Jun 2006, 22:32

I read Enid Blyton when I was a kid. Loved The Secret Seven. PC bastards can't leave anything alone.

"and biscuits have been changed to cookies..."

No one in the UK calls biscuits cookies so it can only be for America.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 27 Jun 2006, 09:57

I loved the Faraway Tree/Secret 7 books, though even as a kid I wondered why the police in the village/town didnt do all that stuff themselves

Famous Five was good also, read loads of them. I also remember less well known ones like "Bimbo and Topsy" about a dog and cat.
I also loved Dahl, probably appreciated him more as I was a bit older, much darker and funnier

I dont know if I still have the old books somewhere - maybe I do.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 27 Jun 2006, 12:52

Not the first time Enid Blyton works have fallen under the PC knife. Remember the Gollywogs from Noddy?

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 27 Jun 2006, 12:59

Yeah, when I was growing up I expected all black people to look and dress like gollywogs... how disappointed was I??

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 27 Jun 2006, 13:14

Markgway wrote:Yeah, when I was growing up I expected all black people to look and dress like gollywogs... how disappointed was I??

On the opposite end of the spectrum American media told us that all rich black people are crazy. Rich black people have yet to prove that generalisation wrong though.

On a related note:- George from Famous Five was such a massive dyke.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 27 Jun 2006, 14:01

Didn't she fit a stereotype of the time though, ie a girl can't act like a girl but has to be a tomboy with short hair/boy's clothes etc?

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 27 Jun 2006, 15:57

Actually, black stereotypes are worse now than they were 30 years ago. Look at the hip-hop genre, which routinely portrays women as bitches and hos; men as blink-wearing, drug-dealing, ass-cappers. Martin Luther King would be rolling in his grave.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 27 Jun 2006, 16:55

But thats' just the rap/hip-hop thats' played on MTV, not all rap is like that. I agree that is a bad image to project though.

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 27 Jun 2006, 18:58

It's a bad image, but to them it's about showing others about coming from nowhere and getting everything. One day they're young guys in the projects who are poor and without good education, and suddenly they use their talents and gain money and success etc.

Besides, most of that glamourised rap-image, comes from Scarface. Many of those rappers see Tony Montana as someone who went from the gutters to the very top, and they like to emulate that image in their clips...

Personally I'm not fond of it either, and I'm just not interested about guys rapping about bitches and ho's and all that shit. I like the more reality-based rap, which are about real-life, feelings and politics etc.

Nas is a good example of someone who has done both. And when he went through that bitches period, I didnt really like it as I felt it was a big step down from his usual work.

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 27 Jun 2006, 22:37

Yi-Long wrote:It's a bad image, but to them it's about showing others about coming from nowhere and getting everything. One day they're young guys in the projects who are poor and without good education, and suddenly they use their talents and gain money and success etc.

Depends on how you term success. I think it's a reprehensible image that has served to ruin the minds of an entire generation who now think drugs and violence are an answer. It's bastardised everything the civil rights movement stood for.

Besides, most of that glamourised rap-image, comes from Scarface. Many of those rappers see Tony Montana as someone who went from the gutters to the very top, and they like to emulate that image in their clips...

Isn't that worrying? I saw Scarface when I was a kid - more than once. Never saw Montana as a role model, but a ruthless, incestuous, cokehead.

Personally I'm not fond of it either, and I'm just not interested about guys rapping about bitches and ho's and all that shit. I like the more reality-based rap, which are about real-life, feelings and politics etc.

Fair enough, but which sells records to kids?

the68monkey · Post by **the68monkey** » 28 Jun 2006, 05:35

thelostdragon wrote:There should be a book profiler as I can't think of the books I have read, lol.

Crap! I had to look forever to find where you'd made this comment, LD!

So, now that I've found it . . . .

Whaddaya know! http://www.librarything.com/

:read2:

the68monkey · Post by **the68monkey** » 28 Jun 2006, 05:39

And for your amusement, here's a link to a site that gives you a wonderful perspective on how incredibly tiny and insignifcant we are in relation to the rest of the universe.

The Size of Our World

I really like how the heavenly bodies are just laid out on a table, like increasingly larger courses in a never-ending meal.

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 28 Jun 2006, 10:31

Wow! Looks cool, Bobbi. Both, the planet thing and the BookProfiler.

Unfortunately, LibraryThing is not for free.

EDIT: Hmmm... looks like it is free to store 200 books in your account. But where do I sign up?

EDIT (again): OK, found out how I sign up, lol.

saltysam · Post by **saltysam** » 04 Jul 2006, 12:50

blimey moldiver has posted over at dvdforums

blast from the past

Shen · Post by **Shen** » 05 Jul 2006, 00:07

ok, need you guys opinions, i did a quick sketch of my nephew (took about an hour) and although it looks ok nowhere near perfect but ok..., need yur opinion on what could be done more to make it look better...i know the top of the head needs more shadow and also the mouth, but hey yeah just need your opinions on it...

original image...

ok looking at it, the drawing really sucks lol

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 05 Jul 2006, 00:25

The drawing looks better.

On a more constructive note you might fatten out his face a bit.

Shen · Post by **Shen** » 05 Jul 2006, 00:30

yeah i narrowed it because it was too fat

now its too skinny hehe

i've drawn twice in the last year, trying to get the thing back for it, but not succeeding greatly lol

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 05 Jul 2006, 00:35

Also widen the mouth and make the eyes less oriental-like. Before looking at the photo I thought the kid was Chinese. lol

The drawing makes the boy look older than he is in the photo, not sure how to reduce that?

Shen · Post by **Shen** » 05 Jul 2006, 00:37

the photo is darker on here than on the original, the eyes on my nephew are very rounded, almost oriental like, fattening his face will make him look younger too it think, sicne he's just 5 he's still got the chubby cheeks thing going on hehe

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 05 Jul 2006, 11:07

No offense, but the boy looks like an aging grandma on your drawing.

I like your style, though.

Off to the cinema now. Gonna watch Takeshis'.
Maybe it'll make more sense on the big screen.

Shen · Post by **Shen** » 05 Jul 2006, 12:35

lol tom, thanks, you have a good point, anyway i woke up this morning looked at it, hated it, so gave it to the trashcan to eat...

i'll start again later

Kurgan · Post by **Kurgan** » 05 Jul 2006, 13:29

I thought you were gonna use it for exchange purposes with your parents?

Shen · Post by **Shen** » 05 Jul 2006, 14:07

nah its not worth the LotR discs i want

, i'll just bribe them some other way

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 05 Jul 2006, 14:24

Shen wrote:nah its not worth the LotR discs i want , i'll just bribe them some other way

Tell them you're bored because you've got no nice DVDs to watch, and you're going outside to hang out with those guys on the streetcorner to see if they know of anything to do for fun...