Wow! *pretends to act surprised* Congratulations to Dame Helen Mirren on her Best Actress Oscar! I haven’t seen the movie myself but Dame Helen is like a national treasure in the UK and she is a superb actress. And, way to go Happy Feet!

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I’ve just installed a plugin that will restrict access to certain posts on this blog and if you want to read them, you will need to register here. I’ve done this because I’m not very comfortable talking about my family out in the open and feel somewhat restricted. I don’t want to start posting privately again in LJ or Vox because I like the fact that I can post from here and update both blogs at the same time if I want, plus I don’t get much of a response from either of those places these days. I want yours-truly.net to be my main blog and want to feel comfortable sharing more family-oriented stuff.

So, I hope you will register and fingers crossed it actually works!

There’s a huge debate raging in the UK just now about how little girls are being made to grow up too fast and are being sexualised at too young an age. A recent report from an American psychologist claims that inappropriate clothing, advertisements and toys are robbing little girls of their childhood and damaging their development. The Bratz range of dolls were heavily criticised for their sexy clothes and image which is nothing new since they have provoked controversy since their release. Many parents feel the dolls are dressed like prostitutes with their short skirts and fishnet stockings, yet they are still one of the UK’s biggest selling range of toys.

I have a seven year old niece and I will admit that I have bought her Bratz dolls in the past because she likes them and I’ve had no real concerns about their image. I don’t particulary like them myself but that is more down to personal taste because I used to collect porcelain dolls and see nothing attractive about dolls with puffed lips and removeable feet.

However, I do agree that a lot of the high street stores are stocking clothes that are totally unsuitable for pre-teens and younger, and many of those same stores have been forced to withdraw certain lines after complaints from parents. Just to clear things up - we are talking about thongs for five year olds and t-shirts with slogans that scream sex. Now, my niece loves clothes and anything pink attracts her like a magnet but at the end of the day, she is still a little girl and she doesn’t need to be dressing up like an eighteen year old on the pull. There’s nothing wrong with pretty clothes and Lucy does wear little tops with thin straps in the summer but the difference is they are not made to be risque. And a seven year old shouldn’t have to be worrying about how big her bum looks in the latest short skirt that barely covers it and I certainly don’t want some paedophile worrying about it either.

Let little girls be little girls while they can because the harsh realities of adulthood will come soon enough.

I have to admit I got quite excited when I heard my cable provider had been sold to Virgin and would now be called Virgin Media. After a region by region rollout, everything would be all shiny and new with more content to choose from and faster software. In other words, Virgin were promising to create a revolutionary new service which would knock the socks off any competition and they seemed to be backing up that promise by securing deals to offer major US series for download or instant viewing through their TV on Demand service.

However, it now looks like negotiations between Virgin Media and Sky (satellite TV and only real competition) have fallen apart and Virgin customers are going to lose some Sky channels. Now, I’m not that bothered about most Sky channels but I most definitely don’t want to lose Sky One because it is currently the only channel broadcasting Battlestar Galactica. If no deal is struck by next Wed, the episode on Tues will by the last one I see and it’s only been back for a few weeks! It’s one of the rare shows that I actually make a point of watching and I love it so much, I actually have to record my beloved CSI as the times clash!

I am so pissed about this and it seems like it’s always the customers who lose out it in then end while these big companies sort out who gets to play with whose toys. Yay, great way to discourage illegal downloads, mates.

It seems that Fate has it in for my family these days and a family holiday can’t be enjoyed without something bad happening. My cousin and her family are in Florida right now on their holiday of a lifetime but have just had word that an uncle has died. The uncle in question is from my aunt’s side of the family and isn’t related to me but I know they are all going to be terribly upset.

The poor man’s daughter is gravely ill with MS and has been in hospital for months - at some point last year they thought they were going to lose her. Now, her father has died - probably from the stress. Now, I’m freaking that something bad is going to happen when I’m in Florida in April.