Here’s a little visual celebration of redundancy in action:

I'd prefer to prepay afterwards, by Andrew Sardone

Redundant Touch by JulianBleecker

Stating the Obvious by Hryck

Redundancy by mlcastle

Images via Flickr: Andrew Sardone, JulianBleecker, Hryck, mlcastle

Related resources

• Writing tips and blogging job opportunities (invisiblogger.com)
• Redundancy Explains Junk DNA, Redundancy Explains Junk DNA (sandwalk.blogspot.com)
• Tighten up your writing by removing redundant/unnecessary words (cybertext.wordpress.com)

Not Doing: Denim Boilersuits

I last wore one of these in 1987; you can’t make me go back there. I was only 10, I didn’t know what I was doing. I thought [wished] it made me look cool like Ripley in Alien, but I was a kid digging holes in the woods, and a jumpsuit wasn’t going to turn me into a hardcore grown-up heroine. Baggy but not comfortable, inconvenient to change or adjust layers, and there’s no way in hell I’d pay Wrangler or anyone else £135 for making me look like an extra from an archetypal sci-fi engineering room.

Not Doing: 7/8ths Length Jeans

Listen, my legs are long. If I wore jeans that stopped above my ankle bone, I’d have inches of exposed ankle getting hypothermia. Also, it’d look like I’d stolen them from a 12 year old. As it is, I usually wear boots that reach at least mid-calf, so the whole thing would be pointless because nobody would see my on-trend leg length anyway.

Not Doing: Feather Mini Skirts

Because my arse was not built to be a pom-pom. And because if I was going to wear a feather skirt, I’d want bloody great melodramatic peacock feathers rather than that fluffy fringy stuff.

On the upside, leopard print is cool still/again. Boy boots and brogues with big brothel-creeping workwear soles are a thing. And there are ads in there for new extra-big bottles of Aussie Miracle Moist, which is one of the few conditioners my hair will cooperate with.

Image credit: Steven Depolo

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• Style Tip: Wear Rolled Up Denim and Ankle Boots Like Rachel Bilson (ldvfashionfix.com)
• Mischa Barton in Leopard Jeans (denimblog.com)

***** 4nim4l *****

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Send me the URL to your image, or email me the file as an attachment if you must.  I’m on Facebook and Twitter and my email is mi@machiavelliid.com. Give me whatever info you like about you or your image.  That’s it.

[No guarantees that I'll ever publish it, or that I'll repeat what you say about it word-for-word.  But if I like your image or your thinking, it's in.]

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About 20 hours later, I saw the news that Mike Crawley has been named as the new leader of the Liberal Party of Canada….

What this essentially means is that a whole lot of people were doing a quick spot of internet research on Mike Crawley, maybe looking for a picture of him to include with their blog post or news story, when they crashed into a couple of my photos along the way and got, um, distracted. “Important stuff, politics… oh look, boobies!” and so on.

So, if you’re here looking for Mike Crawley, Canadian politician, you just missed him.

If you want Mike Crawley AKA Photofrenetic, erotic nude and artistic nude photographer, then check out the gallery or visit his website.

That is all.

Pervs.

Related articles

• WTF Happened There? (machiavelliid.com)
• Liberals end 2012 convention with internal changes, new president, resolution … – Toronto Star (thestar.com)

Look:

As it turns out, I had a lot of hits from people searching for Mike Crawley. Which isn’t surprising, because he’s an expert and because he does nudie photos.

There were a couple of hours there when it was all just busy, busy, busy – for this place, at least. I’m used to pootling along at no more than a hundred or so views a day most of the time, so this was pretty fucking unusual.

So who were those passing pervs? Will they be back? Did they find what they were looking for? What does it all mean?

If you’ve already bought guns for your avatar, you should still have those, but it looks like you won’t be getting any more. What a load of bollocks!

I am an adult Xbox 360 gamer and I don’t see the point of this ban. They put age limits on these gun games so why don’t they have the age limit thing on the avatar items if it’s that much of a problem? That way the people who don’t want their children playing around with TOY guns will be able to stop their kids’ avatars holding pictures of guns too. Lol.

I have six children and think it’s fair enough people don’t want their kids thinking its OK to play with real guns. Some parents think it’s bad to play with toy guns too. It’s not real when you play these GAMES. I mean come off it what’s next, are they going to ban kids from playing with toy guns and water pistols at all hmmm?

At the end of the day the avatars are only pictures and it’s safe to say kids have seen pictures of guns before, all over the place. And if they can still see guns on some Xbox Live avatars, given that guns already bought won’t be taken away, then what’s the point?

Army ads show men with guns all the time and show them as heroes – kids see that on TV all the time completely independent of anything Microsoft might do. I personally support the military because they’re sacrificing a lot to protect us, but if seeing pictures of people with guns is so bloody bad for kids, then surely everyone should stop advertising that way? Don’t be daft.

I’ve got a poster on our wall at home of Call of Duty characters holding guns and I don’t believe it does any psychological harm to my kids to see that piece of artwork. BIG DIFFERENCE between real life and games, BIG DIFFERENCE between interactive games and pictures.

***** 4nim4l *****

Image credit

Related articles

• OXM story: Report: Gun sales to be illegal for Xbox Avatars starting New Year’s Day.
• Marvel Releases Superhero Items To Xbox Live Avatar Marketplace (splashpage.mtv.com)
• Xbox Live Avatar Marketplaces gets tattoos (vg247.com)

I also like the fact that their offer of a puppy goes some way to ameliorate the threat to give children strong caffeine beverages. And look, if you don’t want the kids to drink espresso then don’t leave them unattended, right?

You can see more of Karen’s photos on Flickr.

Want to Win Image of the Week?

Send me the URL to your image, or email me the file as an attachment if you prefer.  I’m on Facebook and Twitter and my email is mi@machiavelliid.com. Give me whatever info you like about you or your image.  That’s it.

[No guarantees that I'll ever publish it, or that I'll repeat what you say about it word-for-word.  But if I like your image or your thinking, it's in.]

You give them your info via their website & tell them which of their snacks you like the sound of; they pack a selection in a recycled cardboard box and post it to you.

My first graze box

All the snacks in your box are listed on a little leaflet with ingredients (fairtrade, organic & so on), some nutritional health info, calorie counts (often lower than a slice of buttered toast), etc. It’s ace.

Get a Free Graze Box

I got a voucher code for a free Graze box [thanks, Ocado], and then I got a free trial link from the Graze people to share with my friends, so you can get a free box too.

Click here to order your free Graze box, and type this free trial code in if you’re asked for one: XF1RCB8

Oh, and don’t get confused if the Graze website calls me Sophie – that’s my real name.

If you like your free box & want another one, they may well still be offering the 2nd box half price, too. Get in!

The answer, fact fiends, is this:

Most male reindeer tend to lose their antlers by early December, so there’s a good chance that the majority of Santa’s reindeer are female.

We should probably have guessed this from their ability to take Christmas multi-tasking to an entirely new quantum level in delivering all those presents in one night. I am knackered and going to collapse on the sofa with the cheese board very soon. How do they do it?

Merry winter stuff, everyone.

Image credit

You can add pretty much anything you like to it; this recipe is reasonably healthy, though if you’re an adult trying to lose body fat then you might want to use lower fat milk and go easy on the sweet bits. Sorry, did I just type that? Call an exorcist; I may not have much time.

To serve 1 hungry toddler, we used:

• About 40 g of porridge oats
• About 125 ml of full fat milk
• About 20 or 30 g of gingerbread (we used Organix mini gingerbread men)
• A small handful of raisins or sultanas
• About a teaspoon of apple with the peel left on, chopped into fairly small bits
• About half a teaspoon of orange or lemon peel, grated
• A pinch of ground cinnamon

What to do:

1. Put the oats and fruit stuff and cinnamon into a microwaveable bowl [Note: if you don't like microwaves, put it in a pan instead] and stir it all together a bit.
2. Set 2 or 3 gingerbread men/pieces aside, and break the rest up into toddler-bite-sized chunks. Throw the chunks into the bowl and stir them in.
3. Add the milk and give it another quick stir.
4. Microwave it for a minute on full power; stir it, then nuke it again for another 30-60 seconds. [If you're using a pan, bring it to the boil and keep stirring for 2-3 minutes.] Watch it in case it overboils, but don’t panic – it will bubble a lot, but it thickens up as it boils and is unlikely to spill over unless your bowl is really full.
5. Take it out of the microwave [or off the stove] and stir it for a good minute while it cools.
6. Stick the spare gingerbread men/pieces in the top for decoration.
7. Check the temperature’s OK, then eat it.