Gnaw Bone, Indiana Superthread

[Axver]

We got abstinence education at my crazy religious high school on the Gold Coast.

Telling that story in Melbourne is one of my late-night "share awful tales from your teens" calling cards. People have bought me free beers because of it. So, uh, thanks abstinence ed?

 

[coolian2]

It's because conservatives have this bizarre idea that if they pretend sex doesn't exist, their kids won't have it. They don't want sex education in school. They don't want their kids to have access to condoms or birth control. Teenagers are afraid to go to the doctor and get birth control because they don't want their parents finding out (via an insurance statement or such). So they have sex, unprotected because they don't know any better, and then end up pregnant.

When I was in school, they still taught abstinence-only sex education. Information on safe sex was not given, we were simply told not to do it. In life science when we had to break out in groups and do presentations on organ systems, the group that had the reproductive system were only allowed to describe the functions of the male and female systems, but were not allowed to talk about pregnancy or reproduction at all.

Teen pregnancy rates have actually gone down since they started actually teaching kids about safe sex. There is a clear correlation.

I was about to say Jesus fucking Christ but I realise the irony of the statement

 

[Axver]

Also, I'm still waiting for a friend to get married who's close enough to me (both in friendship and geography) that I actually have to go to a wedding. I know plenty of people who live together - and obviously I did for five years - and a few even have kids but I'm still yet to attend a wedding, excluding anything I may have attended as a child too young to remember. Certain old religious traditions have very much fallen by the wayside here.

 

[coolian2]

We got real sex ed at my high school. Nobody really took it seriously but I guess the low numbers of teenage pregnancies meant it worked.

 

[coolian2]

Also, I'm still waiting for a friend to get married who's close enough to me (both in friendship and geography) that I actually have to go to a wedding. I know plenty of people who live together - and obviously I did for five years - and a few even have kids but I'm still yet to attend a wedding, excluding anything I may have attended as a child too young to remember. Certain old religious traditions have very much fallen by the wayside here.

I have attended one wedding, and it was for a guy and his longterm partner who had been together for ages and already had a child.

I have been to a rather alarming number of funerals however.

 

[Axver]

Just the one funeral for me, fortunately.

Apparently the people I know don't have many major life events.

 

[coolian2]

Just the one funeral for me, fortunately.

Apparently the people I know don't have many major life events.

Probably for the best on the funeral front or you'll find you know less people..

 

[coolian2]

Incidentally the wedding I went to was not close to traditional. Not in a church, just a bunch of mates saying good things about each other and then taking care of the legal paperwork.

It was inside a butterfly garden. Which, to be fair, would have been lovely had Auckland not chosen the day to break a lengthy drought.

The funnier part was during the reception Auckland hosted an earthquake. We were teasing them about waiting for locusts.

 

[DreamOutLoud13]

My ex and I were together for four years, and though we talked about marriage, we never really got engaged. Current boyfriend and I have been together three years. We talk about marriage all the time, and have even discusses specific aspects (picked rings, type of ceremony), but we're not in any big hurry. His mom nags him much more about marriage than I do.

For me, finding the perfect tree to get married under is more important than hurrying up and doing it. I haven't found the tree yet. Also I only want a handful of people at my wedding. The last wedding I went to was so fancy and expensive. There was a large wedding party with like four flower girls, and the whole thing turned me off. I'd rather have a small intimate (cheap!) ceremony, and spend more money on the honeymoon.

 

[Axver]

Seriously, I've never understood people who pour money into a ridiculous expensive wedding. It's one of the big reasons I've never done it; I'd rather spend that money on travel, gigs, beer, and all the things I actually enjoy rather than an overblown ceremony many people would only attend on sufferance. Suffice it to say that were I to meet somebody to whom marriage matters, I would make sure the ceremony is modest and small. But that is extremely unlikely in the near future. For one thing, with the move to Wollongong later this year I'm not rushing into anything that involves serious commitment!

 

[coolian2]

I'm extremely glad my ex and I discussed the future possibility of getting married but weren't in a rush to do it.

That was before I was reminded of what a Samoan wedding is like. Holy hell please no. I'm not sure I have the patience to be a guest at one, let alone a participant.

Current girlfriend and I discussed it (more it came up as how we'd handle the relationship overall) and the overriding theme we have is "let's not make a fuss".

 

[Axver]

I am so fucking glad I do not belong to a culture where a wedding lasting two days is considered short.

The only reason a wedding should have a second day allocated is to provide everybody with a day off on which to nurse their hangover.

 

[bono_man2002]

Having been there and done sort of a big wedding thing, Would I/we ever do it again? Never.

2011 was a fucked up year (my wife's mother died, and her grandfather the day after the wedding) and I think we all just needed a big celebration

Having been to a friends wedding in 2015 where they just went down to the courts with their family and then had a reception....would totally be up for doing something like that. But the whole big shaboom? Never again.

 

[DreamOutLoud13]

My brother just got tickets (seats) for us (him, myself and my boyfriend) for the second Chicago show. IT'S HAPPENING

 

[DreamOutLoud13]

 

[coolian2]

I am so fucking glad I do not belong to a culture where a wedding lasting two days is considered short.

The only reason a wedding should have a second day allocated is to provide everybody with a day off on which to nurse their hangover.

I wouldn't forgive anyone who invited me to a wedding where an overnight stay wasn't optional.

I'd do it, because I like being a tourist, but one of those days better be bloody optional. Dressing up twice is bollocks.

 

[coolian2]

My brother just got tickets (seats) for us (him, myself and my boyfriend) for the second Chicago show. IT'S HAPPENING

Jealous! Probably my favourite city they've got a show in too!

 

[coolian2]

Having been there and done sort of a big wedding thing, Would I/we ever do it again? Never.

2011 was a fucked up year (my wife's mother died, and her grandfather the day after the wedding) and I think we all just needed a big celebration

Having been to a friends wedding in 2015 where they just went down to the courts with their family and then had a reception....would totally be up for doing something like that. But the whole big shaboom? Never again.

I do understand the general idea is to not do it twice.

 

[DreamOutLoud13]

Jealous! Probably my favourite city they've got a show in too!

It's the nearest to me, and we'll still have to travel hours to get there. We'll do touristy things too. I personally want to get out onto the observation deck of the Willis tower. Nothing like standing on a glass balcony 1350 feet up in the air.

 

[coolian2]

It beats the glass panels in the Sky Tower here.

(Btw why did we call it the Sky Tower? Dreadful name. If a tower isn't in the sky, you've not got a tower. You've got a well)

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

this all reminds me that i still need tickets for...dallas? houston? i forget which one i'm wanting to go to. but yeah. there's still tickets available but no ga tickets, so i'm holding out hope that they'll release more.

 

[DreamOutLoud13]

How am I meant to study now? I'm supposed to be studying stupid cell structures and I have biology at 8 freaking AM. I just want to climb the walls now, I'm so excited.

 

[Axver]

My brother just got tickets (seats) for us (him, myself and my boyfriend) for the second Chicago show. IT'S HAPPENING

Great stuff.

I'm sorted for London 2 and Berlin, but still need to arrange a trade for London 1.

 

[Axver]

It beats the glass panels in the Sky Tower here.

(Btw why did we call it the Sky Tower? Dreadful name. If a tower isn't in the sky, you've not got a tower. You've got a well)

It's Auckland. You do unimaginative names well. Like the Harbour Bridge.

 

[coolian2]

It's Auckland. You do unimaginative names well. Like the Harbour Bridge.

Less said about the Southern Line and the Eastern Line effectively going to the same places.....

 

[Axver]

Oh that's hilarious. "Yes, let's name our railway lines entirely in relation to where they sit relative to the CBD and a few expensive suburbs, rather than where they actually go."

 

[coolian2]

Christ only knows what they'll come up with after the city rail link is built. I've heard some brilliant suggestions - the cross town line from Henderson to Manukau that will skip the city entirely and go from Grafton to Newmarket is a good one.

Yeah you're going across town but one would assume that trip would include....town.

 

[bono_man2002]

I do understand the general idea is to not do it twice.

Yeah I know, but statistics will tell you otherwise.

 

[coolian2]

Oh that's hilarious. "Yes, let's name our railway lines entirely in relation to where they sit relative to the CBD and a few expensive suburbs, rather than where they actually go."

Oh and don't start me on the number of poor people who thought Westfield meant Manukau or Sylvia Park.

 

[Axver]

Christ only knows what they'll come up with after the city rail link is built. I've heard some brilliant suggestions - the cross town line from Henderson to Manukau that will skip the city entirely and go from Grafton to Newmarket is a good one.

Yeah you're going across town but one would assume that trip would include....town.

Let's really confuse people by calling one line the North Shore Line, and come up with a tenuous explanation for how it's got nothing to do with that other North Shore everybody's known by that name for decades upon decades and how could you be so stupid to confuse them.