The Murphys are back

Well, actually they aren’t. They’re going far away. But there is an account of their journey now.

Do you remember Henry Murphy, the Air Traffic Controller and his family?

Ballata

Henry and his family find themselves on a small spaceship that is taking them away from Earth. After a stop and another start, the trip goes past Saturn, into deep space. The Murphy family does their best to fit in with the others. Suzy enjoys piloting, Mark learns a thing about farming and matters of the heart, and Hannah discovers her scientist side. Henry gets a job that resembles his old, traffic controller job a little. It’s just on a bit grander scale. After an interesting journey they arrive at Ballata, the home planet of Derlan, Heron and Rajin, and all their other friends. Once there, however, odd things happen.

If you enjoyed the adventures of the Murphys in book 1, Pioneer, I hope your joy will continue in this sequel, “Ballata: Murphys in Space – II”.

At the moment of posting, the book is available at  Amazon and its other local e-stores, Barnes&Noble, Apple iTunes, Kobo, Scribd, and Vivlio.

The paperback is still in the works. I’ll announce that as soon as it’s done.

Wishing you the best of the best,

Paul Z. Walker.

Cloth Vader. The dark side of clothing

You probably know this gentleman. Darth Vader. Seeing his clothing, I doubt that he was aware of the idea that being naked can be a relief.

However… his mental attitude was mostly a bad one during the series.

In an older blog post I already talked about the way that the fashion industry is a big bad player in the pollution ‘industry’.

The whole affair is taking a step in an even worse direction: climate change and the heating up of areas. The whole pollution part must have an effect on the climate, with all the mess that’s put into the ground and the water. But the all-hallowed clothes have an effect on air conditioner sales as well. I am convinced of that. And air conditioners have a few bad sides:

  • They consume energy which has to be created, which in turn will add to the heat that is already in the atmosphere. (Hello America and Canada, heat domes?)
  • Air conditioners produce a lot of heat as well, which is conveniently blown into the atmosphere. (Heat dome revisited.)

I really wonder how much difference there would be if more people were to strip off their Cloth Vader and thus reduce part of the need for air conditioning. Yes, part of it, because I’m not stupid. Temperatures that go up to 45 and 50 degrees Celsius (113 – 125 F) or more aren’t for humans, no matter how nude they are.

Naked people nude beach

Sherwood forest in the news.

Maybe you caught it too, the hoolabaloo around Sherwood Forest in Nottingham, UK. Maybe you aren’t interested in the antics of Robin Hood. This is not about Robin hood.

This is what it’s about:

Nudists spotted in Sherwood Forest

It was in the Nottingham Post last Friday. A bunch of non-nudists had complained about seeing nude people in the forest.

All the upheaval boiled down to nothing, which is good, although the textile community is still up in arms about it, probably.

Nude in a forest

In England, nudity is legal as long as the nude person(s) are not making a nuisance of themselves. See the official UK Crown Prosecution Service site.

The funny thing about this, when you look closely enough, is that the good and dressed people of Nottingham are screaming that this is illegal.

If they knew the law, or at least make the effort of looking it up, they would see that they’re wrong.

(But who would want to look for their own wrong, right?)

British Naturism

Image
Donna Price on talkRadio

Donna Price, British Naturism’s coordinator for Women in Naturism, had a video talk with a talkRadio host about the stir this all caused. At the moment of writing, there is a link to the talk here. Click at own risk, it might have been removed.

As so often, the biggest issue was that ‘people don’t want to see this’.

I think they should learn that the world isn’t just about what they want, but that there are other people with other views and ideas. If they don’t want to see this, they should look elsewhere. I have never been to Sherwood Forest, but if Robin Hood could stay hidden from the soldiers so long, it must be big enough for every kind of person.

Nudists were not and are not ‘ruining’ the forest, as the banner on the image states. That’s just in people’s one-track minds.

Unfortunately. Because there are so many of them.

Everyone has a body

“Everyone has a body. I have yet to meet someone who doesn’t have one.”

NFN logo

I heard this in a podcast from the Dutch naturist federation NFN.

It was a fascinating listen (link to podcast, make sure you understand Dutch) and when the above sentence came by, I laughed out loud. That made several people turn their heads, as I was out on a walk while listening.

The lady that was interviewed, Roos Schlikker , was very funny in her expressions.

The talk covered many different topics, ranging from being naked at home, visiting nude beaches and resorts, and going to nude saunas (there are saunas with specific ‘bathing suit only’ days here in the Netherlands).

Advertising was also a topic they talked about. They mentioned an advertising campaign from a soap and shower-gel company that had a television ad with a naked woman in it, and no one batted an eye:

Yes, this was on television!
Here is a similar clip, in French

A TV ad like this is absolutely impossible these days. I think this is a sad thing.

Because everyone has a body. It will not “live up to the expectations” that the beauty industry imposes on us (as I have talked about many times before e.g. [1] [2] [3]).

Something Roos Schlikker said in the podcast was that she had no qualms about walking around nude in her house. “If the neighbours see me, so what? They will look once and that’s it.”

And I agree with that. If people see me naked, I don’t care. So many already did, and many more will follow. If they don’t want to see me, they should look at something (or someone) else.

Another thing happened on twitter “just now” (as I compose this tweet).

Someone shared a tweet stating he would post more ‘shirtless selfies’. Someone responded with the words: “Just go ahead. I won’t. I don’t have the body for that.”

I had to jump onto that and sent him: “As long as you have a body, you can do it. All you need is no shirt.”

Because everyone has a body.