The world is turning belligerent.

Someone messaged me with this link and asked me for my stand.  I read the article twice and I couldn't understand what was so transphobic about it. The #WarOnWomen hashtag is what offended transsexuals because a war on women includes a war on transsexuals? I had no idea. And what do they mean by seahorses and hotdogs? I didn't want to appear ignorant and so I googled and googled until I found the answer.

But what stand do I have? None. Most people I know are not spoiling for a fight and we don't even bother that there's a fight out there in some parts of the world and JK Rowling is in the thick of it. One doesn't have to take a stand on something all the time. It's like my fundamentalist brother asking me a series of theological questions, at the end of which he told his wife in exasperation, 'My brother is not a premillennialist!' His wife looked a little troubled and asked him, 'Am I?'  

Many years ago, a friend and I were taking a shower after a swim in the sea when two transsexuals walked into the male bathroom. We quickly put on our clothes and left the bathroom. We were both worried that we might have inadvertently gone into the women's bathroom since both the men's and women's bathrooms were deserted at the time. 

What stand do I have on whether transsexuals should be allowed to use the women's bathroom? None, actually. It's very hard to take a stand on so many things in the world. If men and women are uneasy about having transsexuals in their bathrooms, where should they go? This is one of the many issues that I have no answer for and it's silly to take a stand when I haven't examined the arguments carefully.

Is it necessary for me to take a stand?  Of course not. My opinion doesn't matter. I don't know a single transsexual personally and I can't ask her which bathroom she prefers to use. Sometimes, it's better not to take a stand on things we know little about. We don't know the feelings of transsexuals, the struggles they go through since early childhood, their worries and the cruel humiliation they are subjected to by inconsiderate people so it's best not to make a pronouncement that can only hurt them more.  But there are many people who love to fight and they will take a stand on just about anything they can think of. I'd rather stay out of a battle and as I told my brother after he was disappointed that I was not a premillennialist, I'm neither a premillennialist nor an amillennialist nor a postmillennialist nor any -ist. I'm not interested in drawing battle lines. Let the whole world fight while I'll just have a good time.

Now I can only look at last year's photos.

This year has been a bad year for travel. All my flights were cancelled and as the year draws to a close, I can only look at my old photos. Here's one that was taken only a year ago and boy, it does evoke all the memories of real freedom before the world sank into this pandemic. I'm hoping the vaccine will end this nightmare and we'll be back to the good old days in 2021.

Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet?

Rudyard Kipling's The Ballad of East and West has probably been read and loved by every schoolboy in East and West but it's probably no longer true. With globalisation and the internet, the inscrutable Oriental is no longer all that inscrutable. But there is one huge difference still - in the East, we love taking selfies but in the West, people seem to think it's narcissistic. For most of us in the East, we think of photos that do not have ourselves in them as cold and impersonal. We also tend to raise an arm in greeting or make the 'peace' sign when we post a pic of ourselves as a mark of courtesy to people who look at the photo. Again, I have noticed that some people in the West think it's odd. 

This difference in culture on photo-taking is not completely unknown in the West. The caricature of a tourist from the Far East usually shows him taking a photo with every step he takes. But knowledge is one thing, acceptance is something else. It's even less accepted in naturist circles. First, there are extremely few Asian naturists and even fewer East Asian ones. Next, the few Asian naturists are usually reluctant to post pics of themselves when they are nude because Asian naturists tend to be closet nudists. But if I post 10 photos of myself clothed online on social media and zero photos of myself nude, what does that say of my sincerity when I go round telling the world that nudity is natural and perfectly acceptable?

And what if people say I'm narcissistic? I'll just quote Kipling:

Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet, 

Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment Seat

Oh, and here is a pic of me sprinkling BTI pellets in my garden. This is what keeps my garden relatively mosquito-free.

 

I don't need anything else.

This is so true. It's actually raining but it doesn't show in the pic.

Photos suitable for the portrayal of naturism

I have said before that the world is inundated with pornographic pics so much so that most people associate nudity with porn. But the more we naturists post decent photos, the more we normalise nude pics in the minds of the public. One grouse I have against many naturist sites is they tend to show photos of people taken from behind. There is an effort put in to hide the genitals. I have argued before that such pics will only tell the world that we too view the genitals as indecent and inappropriate which is why naturist websites only show pics taken from behind.

That of course is harmful to the naturist cause. We can't tell the world that the genitals are not indecent and yet we take pains to hide the genitals on naturist websites. We cannot be hypocritical to the outside world. They'll be the first to spot our hypocrisy. So I always make it a point not to hide the genitals in my photos or the face. I pose for photos when nude the same way I pose for pics when I am clothed. I don't cross my legs when a photo is taken of me clothed and so I don't cross my legs when I am photographed naked. Nudity must be perfectly natural and decent. 

To a large extent, I have achieved this in all my blogs and public photos whether here or on Twitter.  I never hide my face or my genitals. But sometimes, there is a problem. 

Years ago, on a naturist website, I had someone objecting to a photo of mine on the ground that there was an erection. I was quite offended because I am totally opposed to photos of erection in a naturist website. I always take great care to ensure that the photos I post do not contain even the mildest hint of such a thing. Over the years I realised that different people have different ideas of what constitutes an erection. In my experience, the people who object to some of my photos are usually very elderly men. I cannot help but wonder if these people might have somewhat forgotten what an erection really is. I used to think everyone knew that you couldn't have an erection with the penis pointing downwards; it's an impossibility. But the people who object to some photos maintain that a penis that is pointing downwards can still be in the erect state. I'm sure a urologist can certify that I am right here and they are absolutely wrong but in a naturist website if someone insists that something is an erection, it's always better not to post it even if you are sure he's wrong.

But such objections have a huge impact on how I post my photos. Since then, I am careful to pick only photos that even people with erectile dysfunction will approve of. Photos taken in a cold environment helps. But it's not always that I can be in a state approved by everyone.

I talk about this now because I was just about to post on Twitter a photo in which I was carrying a quintessentially Austrian drink but I felt that pic could give room to some objection from some elderly men. I usually take a lot of photos and it's easy to pick a photo in which the penis is at its smallest but I had only one pic in which the drink can be clearly seen. So, I have to rule that pic out as 'inappropriate' even though it would be ridiculous to even suggest that there was any erection. 

There should be a clear definition for this. The majority of people in our naturist community are very old men. Some of them have very unrealistic ideas of what constitutes an erection. A woman can post any pic she wants because her pics are always acceptable. But it's very difficult for a man. Everyone knows that the penis changes shape and size all the time even when there is no hint of an erection. It cannot be that a naturist should only choose a photo in which it is at the smallest size. That's ridiculous and it doesn't happen like that all the time. We who believe in the decency of nudity should not raise objections unnecessarily just because some of us have long forgotten what an erection really is. 

NOTE: I received a message from someone who is a urologist. He writes that what I have said is true. It is very unlikely for a healthy man to have an erection when his penis is pointing downwards. So, if you are one of those who are very quick to spot an erection where none exists, please bear this fact in mind. I have so many perfectly decent photos with beautiful scenery that I can't post for fear that one of these captious people might object when even the Ayatollah himself will probably declare to be perfectly wholesome. 

Huge Change in Google Photos

 This is an announcement from Google yesterday: 

From 1 June 2021, high quality and express quality content will count towards your Google Account storage. Once you reach your storage limit, you can either subscribe to Google One (where available) for additional storage or delete content in order to continue with the free storage option in Photos.

Important: If you have a Pixel 5 or an earlier device, you’ll continue to receive free unlimited storage for photos and videos backed up from your Pixel devices. 

This will affect me very badly. I may have to get a Pixel 5. In the meantime, I will use imgur for all my blog photos. Imgur is very reliable and they have no limits for photo uploads.

Here's an example of a pic that I uploaded on imgur and linked to this blog. I'm holding a creeper that grew all the way to the 3rd storey of my house as it crept all round a pipe. The creepers in my garden are quite a pest and it took me a long time to remove this creeper this afternoon. The stem and roots are very long. 

I'm trying to wean myself off Google Photos. I haven't decided yet whether to get myself a Pixel 5 before 1st June 2021. I have been doing a lot of gardening and weeding - I'll post more when I have the time. Imgur will be my image host for this blog.

NOTE: Just in case I sound disapproving of Google, I need to make it clear that I think Google's stand is justifiable. It's very decent of Google to decide that photos uploaded before 1 June 2021 will be unaffected. This is a much nobler approach to take than what Flickr did to its users - it deleted all photos in excess of an arbitrary cut-off number that it unilaterally set. Google still allows free uploads from its Pixel phones and why not? Google has given enough freebies to its competitors and cannot be expected to give more. I may get a Pixel because I'm definitely very dependent on Google. I just hope Pixel has a good camera that has all the necessary features for selfie addicts. My experience so far has been that non-Asian phones tend to lack that special extra that selfie addicts need. Maybe there aren't so many selfie addicts outside Asia but if I am going to switch to a Pixel, I need a good selfie-friendly phone. 

All Saints' Day

 That's a dragon fruit and Vietnamese drip coffee.