Who's late night shopping?

Hello

I'm having one of those days where all the little things that go wrong appear like a huge mountain in front of me. Not being able to see the top, it seems almost impossible to think I have to climb it. 

On days like this I often revert to a need to buy something bad for me that I can't afford. Junk food, dvd's, maybe some beers. Which is how I ended up in the supermarket. 

Supermarkets are weird places, there probably the only time to see a complete cross section of society. There one of the places we so commonly find ourselves in, surounded by people but ultimately alone, annonymous. I swear in supermarkets these days you could drop dead and no one would notice. Especially the staff. I'm sure zombie films are made by people who used to work in a supermarket. 

But there's something quite reasuring about late not shopping when you're not feeling to good. You can be around others that are in exactly the same mood. First stop in the store is the DVD's. The isle's odly now been moved to the back of the store, so you have to walk past the stationary, home and garden products of all description and all manor of things on your way. The DVD aisle is always quite busy. Late nights especially, always middle aged guys with vacant looks. They don't pick up any of the DVD's, they never seem to buy them either. But they are always there. Occasionally moving along the aisle a bit when they think it starts to look a bit odd that they aren't moving along. Shoulder's slumped forward as if they have just lost all hope.

I managed to get 'Burn after reading' I've been waiting for it to come out on DVD for ages and I'm confident it will put a good dent in my mood and I move on round the store. 

I've forgotten what else I wanted, so wander aimlessly, passing aisle after aisle. Past the special Mothers Day section where I suddenly realise most people in the store are foraging for anything Mothers Day related. (Luckily this I sorted mine pressie ages ago.) Half of them carrying a bunch of flowers (which are starting to look like they've had their best days already). The other areas of the store are quite quiet. The odd couple, odd odd couples as well. They too have a vacant look in their eyes when they're looking at the shelves which the quickly hide when they start to talk to their partner "Shall we get 2 of these, or do you think one is enough?" or "Oh, this one's got mushrooms!" There's only so much fake excitement you can put into your voice when you're trying to sell the line "Oh, this one's got mushrooms!". Instead of solving their problem it is like a big sign appears over their head saying "Ahh, you're annoying me. Where did we go wrong?"

I get some milk and beer and head for frozen foods. Today's a day where Ben and Jerry's is certainly called for. Preferably Cookie Dough, half way through contemplating how big a tub I need I turn the corner to find a young girl staring at the Ben and Jerry's, her boyfriend spooning her from behind. He's trying to sound really interested in the conversation she's having about the merits of the differant types of Ben and Jerry's. Nibbling the back of her neck. Damn.... I really need Ben and Jerry's... I'll need to go a circuit of the shop and come back. 

Past the crisps aisle and the beer again, this time busy with a group of kids trying to work out which one of them looked the oldest, so they could by beer. Another suggesting that they try and get away with 'self scan'. I carry on, past the cleaning products and it suddenly jumps into my head. I need sink unblocker. Not really the reason I went to the store, but as I'm thier. Why not. 

Right, they must have finished in the ice-cream aisle by now, so I head back. They haven't. But they have moved on from the Ben and Jerry's section so I swoop the last big tub of Cookie Dough and make for the check outs. 

I just get beaten to a really good check out because one of the zombie's has managed to get thier trolley to block half the aisle and their ass to fill the rest. A brilliant skill which happens so often in the supermarket you'd think they were training people to do it. But, I'm getting distracted, where was I.

I make it to a check out which is facing the self scan. The spooning couple from earlier walking rather quickly past with a 2Litre tub of strawberry icecream, a big tub of Ben and Jerry's, huge bag of chocolate and crisps. They can't possibly be planning on eating all of that, so I'm guessing he couldn't wait any longer to get home and just grabbed anything in sight. 

I get served and asked for ID for the beer, which considering I'm 27 and you can drink here at 18 is a bit harsh. Normally this would be quite a complement, but the check out guy make it clear that he thought I was definitly over 25, but the computer randomly selected me for a check. (Yeah.. thanks for that. Like I wasn't feeling down enough before.) 

I pick up my bags and catch out of the corner of my eye the kids from the beer aisle just leaving the store with big grins on their faces...I'm guessing they weren't randomly selected for an ID check. 

With a flash back to the days when I used to attempt things like that... seeming soo long ago now. I leave the store feeling not only down but old as well. 

Oh well. Now I'm going to watch the film and devour my ice-cream. Hopefully that'll put me in a better mood. 

Night! 

What impact will the internet have on the world?

Hi

I had some spam.. hmm.. useful industry news letter. Through today. I was bored so I read it and unlike most of the c$%p I get through this, was one got my brain going. What happens next with the Internet?

"With talk even of Web 3.0 on the horizon, once enterprises and individuals have become more comfortable with the current Web 2.0 media, there's a raft of possibilities where digital content and communities are melding in a way unthinkable before broadband, before mobile and before content. Perhaps in years to come, historians will look back at this first decade of the new millennium and amongst other historical events, take note of the immense cultural changes engendered by mass access to content, and will see it as the first post-modern digital revolution which saw the death of distance and the birth of the real knowledge economy." - Paul Quigley - Enterprise Content Management 365

One culture - Internet culture

For decades the popularity of Western and particularly American culture has had an impact on societies around the world. But it's always been as something separate, different 'cool'. With the widespread use of the Internet then that boundary that kept the different cultures apart. We truly are moving beyond boarders. This past year has exposed the real extent of globalisation. The American elections swept the whole world up, with people having a view on the candidates regardless of what country they were from. This is the first election where the real cultural phenomenon that's been taking place within America was actually experienced in all countries. The first election that felt like a global election. Like it was an election of a world president. The political language in America is understood by many outside it's boarders through TV, music and the Internet. 

Equally evident is the economic crisis as a global phenomenon. The normal checks and balances aren't in place because all the banks had the same view around the world. It wasn't one group did one thing and the others did something else. Everyone acted together. The big safeguard that there used to be was cultural differance. The attitude towards lax regulation was common all over the place and the massive media switch from hope to fear. Fear of a global depression and anger at the banks is truly global. These events have really acted as a catalyst for people to realise just how closely so many countries and cultures are growing together. All the inter linkages. All the shared hopes, dreams and fears. Main society opened it's eyes and didn't see their world ending at a boarder but was universal. 

What does this change? Where does the technology go? 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5370688.stm

It's interesting to see the view points of others, the great fears the experts have. Knowledge is power and the Internet is the greatest source of knowledge yet. So I can see the logic behind their 'end of the world' predictions.  

In some senses we are setting a cultural reset button, the structures and concepts of a 'social contract' don't seem to apply to the Internet yet. There aren't be cultural boundaries online that we're built, rely on and often take for granted off-line. But unlike the dooms day predictions I don't think that this won't happen. We have the templates of social structure, democracy, anti competition regulation, law and fair justice. We will be forced to have to apply these on a global level. Better cooperation between police forces, better cooperation on regulation and political movements that spread beyond a single country. The closer we move towards a single culture the risk of war becomes greatly reduced. However the risk of terrorism becomes amplified. There will always be a minority in a culture that opposes authority. But over time we will overcome this as we have overcome civil war and violent protests in our own national cultures. 

How long these changes will take? No one knows.  Will we take a big step backwards if we are slow to build our social boundaries into a global online culture? What's really up to us. Will it be an easy transition? No, and it won't be a straight line from here to global peace and a true global culture. 

We've been lucky in the past, we've had the right leaders at the right times following civil wars that have driven us to a more socially just society. I hope we can make this relatively bloodlessly. We already have good templates we can use. 

I think that the Internet is much more likely to change how we do things, rather than what we do. After all, we are still human. The Internet won't change that. 

What do you think? 

What if you started a religion now?

Hello

I've bizarely been thinking about what if religion started nowadays what it would look like. 

1. It would start online with an interactive website and a youtube channel. 

2. You'd have to subscribe to their newsletter and instead of getting their holy book all at once it would be slowly fed out. 

3. You only get to confess things and ask advice on a 30 day trial period, after that you have to start paying.

4. You get to build your own profile on their website and rate how religious you think the other members are. The person getting the lowest score is kicked out.

5. A few months after the site's been running a group of members decide that the religion has things wrong with it and start a rival website based on the same principles. 

6. The bulletin board is filled with messages condeming other websites for not abiding by the tips from this weeks newsletter. 

7. Once the site's been running for a year one of the members launches a campaign to remove the founders and take over. This is very sucessful and the members start a relentles campaign against the members that origionally broke away from the site. 

8. The mangers of the site decide to build the largest and most advanced servers they can, to honor the religion and expand it's appeal to new joiners. They start a 'donate now' campaign and remind the members to contribute constantly.

9. The campaign hasn't brought enough money in, so the site starts merchandising the brand.

10. The campaign still doesn't get enough money in so they start organising FlashMobs to protest against individuals and companies that don't agree with thier principles. Clearly they are out to get them. 

Anyone got any other comparisons? 

What is the value of Christianity?

Hello

Well, the blogs for some big questions so this is a big question. I'm not religious, I consider myself agnostic (I have a personal level of faith and beliefs but they don't fit any known religion). So in this century called the post religion century, what is the value of Christianity. 

Historical Merits of Christianity. 

The Bible - Fact or Fiction?

I'm just watching a documentary on the TV about the truth behind religion. I'm shocked to learn that Jesus wasn't born in Bethlehem. According to the documentary Jesus was of Nazareth. In Jewish faith a great leader would come from Bethlehem. So the writers of the bible used creative licence to add in the idea that Mary would trek across the country to Bethlehem for a census to the Roman Empire. The problem is the Roman Empire didn't stretch that far. 

So, regardless of your personal beliefs, let's just explore the possibility that the Bible is less a historical fact, but more of a wikapedia. A document that is revised and altered to better suit the reader (and the writer). There are many and many examples of this happening it would take months to go through them all. Some of the most recent changes are documented here http://www.av1611.org/biblecom.html But the Bible has been altered right from the start. 

So, why was the Bible written? Jesus didn't write it. He didn't ask for it to be written, otherwise it wouldn't have taken 150 years to get around to it. I mean who procrastinates THAT much especially when the son of God asks you to do things. 

So, what was the basis of the Bible? Why was it created? Who was it for?

Oddly, I've just realised, I've never wondered WHY the Bible was created. I just accepted that of course it would be. Just like, if you go on Big Brother, of course you're going to release a Christmas song, exercise video and a biography, all within a few months. But why create it is key to understanding the document. It gives it context. Let's not forget, Jesus wasn't part of a reality TV show. No one knew who he was, so why would anyone want to read a book about him? Who bought it? Well, books back then had to be handwritten, they were very expensive and only the very rich could afford it. 

This website (although bias,) has some interesting perspectives on the issue.

http://www.thirdmill.org/answers/answer.asp/file/99932.qna/category/th/page/questions/site/iiim

It's important to remember that context is very important. The Bible was written in a time before the Internet (yes, such a time existed). Before the telephone, radio, television, train, newspaper and even the printed book. Villages did barter and currency was around, but very very little literature existed. Most village communities were probably getting pretty bored before then. There's only so many stories that can be told in a community. A book was a great opening into something wider, it was the source of knowledge and entertainment. A book like the Bible had to BE the whole of the Internet in one for people to invest soo much money in it. It had to teach people, it had to have history, drama, morals, fantasy, intrigue, news, politics, public opinion and much much more. I'm finding it difficult to find something in modern society I can relate it too, everything nowadays is so.. instant. Closest I can get is when the Wii first came out. If you had it then you had status (or you'd slept outside the shop). Friends, family and in some cases neighbours would come round to wonder at it. Or when the new Harry Potter books come out and there's a competition as to who's got to what page so far. 

There's much debate around the changes that happened to Christianity, the move away from Judaism which was boosted by the Roman attack on Jerusalem and shaped, largely by St. Paul. The message changed to suit the politics and power of the day as it has done ever since. 

Why is it SO popular?

We'd like to think that psychology and sociology have only been invented recently. Granted the terms and the depth of understanding has advanced significantly. But that's not to say that people haven't had an understanding of what motivates people, how people act both individually and as a group. Psychological issues didn't start because Freud invented them, he observed people. Propaganda wasn't invented by the Victorians, that's been going on since the dawn of man and understanding what makes a viable society is what has allowed our species to grow and thrive. 

There are a great deal of universal truths that shine out from the Bible. Have you ever read a book, seen a comedian, heard a great speech and thought, "Wow, I do that too." or "I agree they make a lot of sense, but I thought I was the only one that thought that way." The Bible helped people feel connected, allowed them to explore view points that they hadn't before. The Bible (like most religious text) provided the information people needed to succeed. Through greater education, moral guidance societies with a strong religious grounding have grown and thrived. 

The text at the time represented the latest thinking, ethics and ethos of the advanced Roman Empire.

Christianity - Aiding human evolution

Religions have been a glue that has brought people together. The Church introduced schools, hospitals, counselling and therapy and held out above all else the concept of sacrifice for society, for the greater good. The Church was for a long time quite left wing in it's thinking. Society held up Christianity as the right way to behave. It has been important for the good of society to entrench certain values more than others. That life is precious, so try not to kill too many people. That you shouldn't go around shagging everything in sight because society can't care for all the children, and once you've picked one person to shag, stay with them and raise the children. It helped pull ourselves away from our natural instinct, urges and caveman like attitudes to something more. To an appreciation of the greater society. 

Sacrifices had to be made

In order for Christianity sustain itself for so long, it needed the backing of the state, Kings, Lords, Barons all had to 'get it' and like it. They were the ones with the power and influence to keep the religion going. The context of the Bible's teachings adapted and manipulated by whoever was in charge at the time. Subjugation of women and fear towards other religions acted to support those in charge and defend the faith.  I'm sure these were seen at the time as necessary for the greater good.

 

Conclusion

So I think that the Bible and the religion based on it is really driven by this social and cultural need for guidance, structure and co-operation. Society needs role models in order to work out what they should do. A template of how you should act. If you base behaviour purely on the people you know, society would be extremely fractured. In a time where few people ever travelled to the next town. How do you create a coherent country. How do you create loyalty and get people to abide by the law? You need something that unites everyone. Something that everyone believes in. 

Religion has been essential in order to get us where we are today. It's been our training wheels as our society has evolved. We owe a lot to religion. But that doesn't mean that we can't evolve beyond it. We have reached a point in society that we are able to revise and refine our faith. Whilst the key values in Christianity are universal, they are in all religions and they will live beyond Christianity as they do for many people, including myself, in today's society. 

We are at a point now where the essence, the core right and wrong. that has inspired so many to be good people, has lived on. The sacrifices that were made to accommodate the times they were written are no longer needed. I appreciate that not many people agree on what aspects of the teachings fall under the necessary and the not necessary parts of the Bible, that debate will go on for a long time. But I think we are moving towards making better decisions about what we need and what we don't. We are able to build a better template for a society that doesn't have the constraints that most religions had in the past. We're still seeking enlightenment and social acceptance, they are key to our human psychology.

So, the value of Christianity? It has been huge. It should be respected as a very good idea. But it can't be seen as perfect. It can't prevent new and better ideas. It may be the foundation to our society, but now we want to build the walls, the roof. We want to use what we know now to create the social template that, I beleive, those who started religion truly wanted to, but couldn't achieve in their day.  

Are you religious or not? What do you think? I'm more than happy to receive other view points on this, for or against. 

What are the little horns in a giraffe are called and what is/was their function?

Congratulations Lauren! 

Thank you for your question! I've put my thinking cap on and also done some reasearch. But first my theory.

My Theory - Medieval Jousting.

There are many discussions online about the evolution of the giraffe. God, Intelligent design or Evolution. I'm pleased to say I've solved it! Back in medievil times people were bored. REALLY bored. They couldn't create blogs, watch tv or text their friends. So when they weren't at war with their neighbours they practiced their jousting skills. But some of the knights couldn't find anyone to play with, that's when they decided to genetically modiftied a deer so that they could play joust. The experiments we're perfect as the technology hadn't been perfected, which resulted in the change of fur colour, but low and behold a perfect jousting partner was born. The first giraffe was called Jeff and was a great sucess. Soon everyone wanted one. The giraffe had many advantages to a real jouster. The ability to extend it's neck and see exactly where to hit it's opponent came in very useful. Over time the best giraffes had the longest necks so that could knock the knight of thier horse before they were struck by the big stick. 

So, why are they all in africa? Well.. Jeff's great great great grandson, Dave, was the giraffe to the King of France. Unfortuantely Dave was very good and the King kept loosing, He lost so often people started making fun of how small and ineffective his stick was. One day the King was so annoyed be banished all the giraffe to a far far away place. Now known as Africa. Without a jousting partner, the King started wars with people.

The real answer

The name

The horn like pertrusions from a giraffes head are called ossicones. It is so named because they are made up of ossified cartilage. (What the ducks that?) Well.. Ossified cartilage is  hardened or calcification soft tissue to form a bonelike material. Words begining with os-, oss-, ost-, oste- os are all latin for bone. So, geniuses that they were they're actually BoneCones. (Not sure whether this is where the term 'boner' came from, but I'd like to think it might be) 

Ossicones are differant to horns purely because they remain covered in skin where as horns aren't.

Where'd they come from? 

The family

Giraffes have evolved from the same family as cattle and deer. Yes, goats, cows, deer, antelopes and giraffes are all related. (Thank god they stopped having family reunions a long time ago). There are many less well known branches of the family called Sivatherium and climacoceratids

largely less well known because they are long extinct. The giraffes closest living relatives are called Okapi (and just like the other Osbourne kids, they're really regretting not going on a reality TV show for fame and fortune and now languish in obscurity) The many genetic off spring largely changed shape and form through many variation because of the environments they were in. Variations of these species have been found in Europe, Africa, Middle East and Asia. All evolving differantly.

The horns

It is believed, (although no pay-per-view cable footage of this remains) that the ossicones were used for fighting. The ossicones were much bigger back in the day and like Deer they would have reasonably friendly fights with each other to establish who was in charge. (The two bucks circle each other, bend back their legs, lower their heads, and charge.) The male in charge after these fights got the pick of the mates. Giraffes still compete within their groups, but instead of using their ossicones they wrap their long necks around each other. 

Evolution at work

The male with the best mates produced more off spring. So you'd think that evolution would provide them with bigger better stronger ossicones/horns? Well.. no. You see sources of food were rare. Those with a longer neck were able to aquire more food and become stronger. So although they might have had smaller ossicones/horns, they were stronger. This ment that they won the fights and produced more off spring. Suddenly long necks were in and big ossicones/horns were out! They became the human dating equivelent of a tiny penis and no girl was interested. (Ossicones/horns - don't know when they started growing skin over them. They started as horns and then became ossicones.. at some point.)

Why have them now? 

Well.. I've searched the net and there are a few theories. But the most likey answer is they just got left over. Eventually they were small enough not to be 'ugly' and having them stopped being a mating factor so the genetics were never fully cleaned of them. Just like the appendix in humans. No one would stop going out with you because of the size of your appendics, so it's stayed, dispite being pointless. 

Personally though I think they've become the giraffe equivelent to a hard hat. If you've ever gone apple picking you'll know that it's useful to have something to stop branches wacking you in the head. Unfortunately there isn't any scientific evidence to support this but I'm yet to hear of a giraffes going "Ahh. my head! Bloody trees! Why can't we get some grass and eat like a cow? That's it I'm moving back to France!"

Want to know more?

http://www.wordinfo.info/words/index/info/view_unit/1519 - Other latin boner words

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Giraffe - General giraffe info

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_the_horns_of_a_giraffe 

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Okapi - The Okapi

I also learnt that ossification means a rigid, unimaginative convention. So feel free to impress people with things like "this convention on the colour of milk is suffering from ossification"

Lauren. I hope this answers your question. That's killed some time and hopefully sorted your homework ;-) Thanks for leaving a comment and I hope you'll be back to visit the blog again. 

Anyone got anymore questions?

What is the answer? - Special Offer

Hello

Well.. a week and a half into the blog and I'm pleased to say I have 2 visitors... yes.. 2. Out of the estimated 1 billion online users. I'm just hoping that that 2 wasn't actually just one person visiting twice. Although it would be good to have a repeat visitor! 

So I've decided I need to give some incentives... as well as do some marketing. 

SPECIAL OFFER!!!!

Yes, be the first to comment on ANY of the posts and you get to ask a question. Any question you like. I'll go away, think about it, research it and post what I've thought up. Try not to waste the offer on something rubbish like "Why don't you go and shove your head up your ass?" Clearly given the muscular flexibility of the male body it's impossible. However it is interesting to note that you can actually stick someone else's head up your ass. Ass muscles are extremely flexible. .... i've heard! ;-)

Don't worry if you aren't the first person, come up with an interesting enough quesiton and I'll probaby research that too out of pure curiosity and boredom! 

How many types of friend do you have?

Hello

I think social networking was invented by someone like me. Who likes the idea of having lots of friends, but tihnks it could be more 'efficient'. Sorry, that does make me sound cold. But I'm really not. I'm someone who strongly believes in best friends.  I have a small network of very close friends. But then a have a big network of not so close friends. 

Maintaining 'not so close' friendships is difficult and time consuming. Very inefficient. After all there's a reason you like and want to be friends with them, but there's also a reason they aren't 'best friends'. This can be for any number of reasons, let me know if any of these ring a bell with your friend network?

Work friends - It's good to have someone you can confide in about work things, someone who you know has your back. But work life doesn't nesessarily translate well into your private life. There are typically thing you don't want getting out at work! (Especailly if your friend is your boss!)

Long Distance Friends - Oh, gone are the days you could phone them up at 5 and be in be pub at 6 for a night on the town. These are friends that through pure circumstances no longer live near you and you start to fall behind on their every day activities. You can't be there when they're low and they can't be there for you when you are. Although neither party typically wants it to happen, the friendship inevitibly drifts.

Friends that fell in love - In my experience this is the most painful type of friendship. Someone who you're really close to, get on well with and increasingly seems to spend time with suddenly announces they are in love with you. Telling a friend that you don't feel that way is very hard. It's also hard to know that if such a thing were to happen to that firend you'd normally be the person they talk to, but now your the problem not the solution. The awkwardness of this situaiton makes it almost inevitable that the friendship won't last. 

Friends that just aren't that into you - You think they live such facinating lives, they always know what to do. You look up to them as a role model of how you should be. But they keep cancelling on you and you found out they went out with loads of people and didn't invite you. Yes, you're friend just isn't that into you. As happens in relationships, this can happen in friendships too. It's a shame, but it's inevitable. These are typically the friends you aren't too close to but for years to come you'll wonder 'what did I do wrong?' 'did I drive them away?' 'maybe I should have texted/called them more?"

Desperate Friends 

 This is my second most annoying type of friend. The type of person that's happy to buy you things, drinks, tickets etc. They phone you on a regular basis and are always making plans for you to go out. (I know I havent gotten to the annoying bit yet.. bare with me). - I've had to split this up into subcatagories

It's all about THEM friends - These are the types of people who, when you do spend time with them spend ALL of it talking about themselves. Typical conversations that are repeated over and over and over until you want to tear out your eyes and ears. If you've ever thought "FFS Just break up with them, they're bad news! They were bad news when you first got together 2 years ago, they're still bad news now. AHHHH!!! Why ask for advice if you aren't going to listen to it!!!" I have the utmost sympathy for anyone with a friend like this. In other respects they may be great, but when you start having dark thoughts about hurting them if they bring it up again, it's probably a good idea that you don't spend too much time with them.

"I just want to spend time with you" friend - The type of firend that doesn't really have anything to SAY about themselves and starts pointless conversations all the time. If they've asked you the same question 3 times in a single conversation and won't get off the phone even when the conversation died 20 minutes ago. These are desperate friends. I feel sorry for this type of friend because they clearly need something, but won't really talk about it. Push too hard to try and find out the reason and you get the "I just want to spend time with you, what's wrong with that?" This type of friend typically doesn't want to go out much or do anything exciting together, they just want to 'hang out' all the time and talk about... nothing. It's very difficult to breathe live into these friendships so again you start to distance yourself. (Yes, drifting from this type is very hard, it's more a crowbar you need to get them off! Unfortunately you usually loose them as a friend in the process)

Friends from the past - You were once, bet buds and they always knew what you were thinking. But both you and your friend have grown up a bit. Interests have changed, you've both moved on with your lives. But when you do get together you can't think of any reason why you don't spend more time with each other. But then you don't see each other for 6 months or so, cos of work or family, or relationships. These are the 'lost friends'. I miss these friends the most. It seems that fate has pulled you in two very differant directions and the gap seems to keep getting bigger every time you see them. 

Ex boy/girl friends - "Promise me, we'll always be friends" or "Can't we just be friends" are two of the biggest 'miss sell' of any friendships. You like to think you won't loose that person just because you aren't dating. After all they still mean a lot to you. But it's never the same after the break up. All the fun memories, the occasional surpressed sexual tension, the hole you feel in the pit of your stomach when they start dating someone else. Even with the best of intentions friendships with ex's rarely work out. And they NEVER work out if you try and be friends straight after the break up. You need a good couple of years apart if this type of friendship is going to stand any chance at all. 

The 'Not really friends' friends - We've all got loads of these. People who hang out in the same group as your friends. Someone who you always say hi to and small talk them. But really you know very little about them and for some reason you just haven't 'clicked' but they're friends with your friends, so they become friends by default. This is an odd friend group, you go to their birthday because all you other friends are going, but you just have no idea what to get them as a pressie because you don't really know them. This is a difficult dilema as if getting vouchers might as well be the same thing as wearing a t-shirt saying "Don't know who the f&^k you are, but I heard there's free beer?"

Aww.. this post has really brought back a lot of memories, good and bad. That's all the types I can think if at the moment. Will update if I can think of more. Add a comment if you can think of any more?