...time to make a stand.

The BBC has recently caused a great deal of hurt to the gay community by supporting the use of the word 'gay' to mean 'lame' or 'rubbish'. The BBC considers that because the word is used 'on the street' in this way, then its use is justified as they are merely reflecting the language used by their viewers and listeners. I consider this an outrage.

I would expect to hear uncomfortable language in a drama or documentary that was attempting to accurately portray life in Britain. As an adult I want the BBC to tell me the truth and not 'sugar-coat' life or culture that I am not familiar with. However, the original complaint was made to the BBC over the use of the word in a wholly inappropriate context and I am dismayed that the BBC considers it appropriate.

www.rainbownetwork.co.uk is currently publicising a petition to pressurise the BBC to change its guidelines on the use of this word. I would urge anyone who agrees that the guidelines should be tightened to sign this petition.

To access the petition directly go here...

...absence makes the heart grow fonder (or is it stronger?)

If anyone has read this blog from day one then they'll know I predicted it would last about five minutes...and my prediction was pretty accurate! I am from the 3min generation after all! That said I do kinda believe in this whole blog thing. It's quite therapeutic really, given that I suffer from 'pent-up opinions' - There's a need there for me to express them, but as i'm not an 'in-your-face' kind of bloke, this way is ideal!

So what have I been up to and what's on my mind? We'll in brief, I've been away on training courses and had a nice holiday in the best place in the world - Ibiza - which is always entertaining! I did almost miss the flight home and decided in the taxi that if I were to miss it, it would be fate and I would stay...I got there with five mins to spare...

I don't want to lose Richard, Pete or Spiral from Big Brother tonight so please do not vote for Susie and Imogen!!!!! Poor Spiral, he was so upset to be nominated - I want to adopt him ;-)

Oo! The mobile phone saga has developed! - I've taken on a new contract with O2 and received a Samsung E900 phone. I have agonised for months over what phone to get. Basically there is not one out of the dozens available that ticks all my boxes!!! crazy! The Samsung on balance ticked the most but is still a disappointment. I once had a Motorola and I could set a different Text Message tone for each of my contacts. I then 'Upgraded' to a Nokia and found to my dismay that I could only set one message tone! This could still be anything though, including downloads. I now have this Samsung and again to my dismay have discovered that you can only have one message tone again, and it has to be one of the 10 naff tones installed on the phone!!! You can't even download your own!!!!!! For heavens sake! Every 'upgrade' I have is worse than the one before - what are the phone manufacturers playing at? If it wasn't for my desire to have an integrated 2 megapixel camera with flash (rather than carry one around in addition to carrying my phone) i'd go back to my old Motorola tomorrow!