if u write like this i probably dont like u.

Why don't people value proper grammar and spelling anymore?

Nothing bothers me more than a text that is missing apostrophes, contains copious spelling errors and lacks capitalisation at the start of each sentence. We all make mistakes, but some people send texts that are barely written in English. It's like a competition to see who can make themselves look like the biggest retard.

Here's a recent text message I received from an ex work colleague:

'wot u doin babe'

Is it hard to spell 'what' correctly?
Is it hard to capitalise the first letter in the sentence?
Is it hard to write the word 'you' instead of the letter 'u'?
Is it hard to add a 'g' on the end of 'doin', or at least put an apostrophe in place of the missing 'g'?
Is it hard to put a question mark on the end of the sentence?

And don't fucking call me babe, I hate it.

People can't help but get a bad impression of someone who appears almost illiterate. If you went to school, why not show it?

Whale or Mermaid?

Every now and again a picture of a naked, overweight plus-sized model appears on my Facebook newsfeed, accompanied by a story about how wonderful it is to be a whale rather than a mermaid.

Here’s the full story, in case you haven’t seen it: 

A while back, at the entrance of a gym, there was a picture of a very thin and beautiful woman. The caption was "This summer, do you want to be a mermaid or a whale?"

The story goes, a woman (of clothing size unknown) answered the following way:
 
"Dear people, whales are always surrounded by friends (dolphins, seals, curious humans), they are sexually active and raise their children with great tenderness.

They entertain like crazy with dolphins and eat lots of prawns. They swim all day and travel to fantastic places like Patagonia, the Barents Sea or the coral reefs of Polynesia. They sing incredibly well and sometimes even are on CD's. They are impressive and dearly loved animals, which everyone defend and admires. 

Mermaids do not exist.

But if they existed, they would line up to see a psychologist because of a problem of split personality: woman or fish? They would have no sex life and could not bear children.

Yes, they would be lovely, but lonely and sad. And, who wants a girl that smells like fish by his side?

Without a doubt, I'd rather be a whale.At a time when the media tells us that only thin is beautiful, I prefer to eat ice cream with my kids, to have dinner with my husband, to eat and drink and have fun with my friends. 

We women, we gain weight because we accumulate so much wisdom and knowledge that there isn't enough space in our heads, and it spreads all over our bodies. We are not fat, we are greatly cultivated.

Every time I see my curves in the mirror, I tell myself: "How amazing am I?! "


Assuming the story is true, perhaps the gym was wrong to use the ‘whale vs. mermaid’ analogy. In doing that they were solely focusing on physical attributes rather than health. Regardless of the gym’s intention, the person who wrote this response is clearly delusional.

It’s a simple yet often ignored fact that being overweight isn’t healthy. The risk of many health problems increases dramatically with weight increases. The correlation isn't a coincidence, it's a proven fact. If you are overweight, you have a higher risk of:

·         type 2 diabetes

·         coronary heart disease

·         stroke

·         metabolic syndrome

·         certain types of cancer

·         sleep apnea

·         osteoarthritis

·         gallbladder disease

·         fatty liver disease

·         pregnancy complications

The common response to this information is for people to point out that ‘skinny people can be unhealthy too!’ Well that’s a given, but a much higher proportion of Australian’s are overweight rather than underweight, so it's not really an issue. According to the Australian bureau of statistics, in 2008 a massive 62% of people were overweight or obese, while only 2% were underweight. 2% is hardly an epidemic.

Even if we ignore the health issues and focus solely on appearance, who in all honesty would prefer to be fat rather than fit? No-one. We can pretend as much as we like that we are comfortable with our bodies when we are overweight, but in reality it’s just a lie that people tell themselves to avoid making changes.

The first paragraph talks about whales always being surrounded by friends and being sexually active. Everyone I know who puts on a bit more weight than what they feel comfortable with (including myself) avoids social situations like the plague. For starters, you can’t find anything flattering to wear. Secondly, even if you do find something to wear, you feel too gross to enjoy yourself. And sex? Pfft. Forget it.

I am particularly amused by the paragraph which states ‘I’d prefer to eat ice-cream with my kids, have dinner with my husband, to eat and drink and have fun with my friends’. To me it implies that she’s a better parent, wife and friend for pigging out with her family. I must be a shit parent...I don’t even like ice-cream.

I was also interested to learn that fat people actually just have a whole lot of accumulated knowledge; too much to store in their heads. Skinny people must be heaps dumb.

This story sends the wrong message. While it’s great to have confidence, being overweight is really something we should all try and avoid. Not just for the physical reasons (which we all know are real), but mainly so that we enjoy a good quality of life and stay alive as long as possible.