Lost for something to spew onto these virtual pages, a friend suggested I blog about “being a young married man”. Since this didn’t strike me as a completely silly thing to do, here it is.

I consider myself one of a dying breed – as a young person (read less than 30), I’ve never shied away from commitment. While many of my peers were sowing their oats and trying like buggery to avoid the matrimonial noose, I ran headlong into it. The fear of being chained down like a tethered animal has never gripped me and although I married young, I feel I married well.

And I’m pretty glad that I did really. I can’t recall a single thing I’ve done that’s had as much impact on my life as getting hitched. Perhaps it’s the lady I’ve got but I haven’t regretted a single day since.

I may be married but dammit, that doesn’t mean I can’t still have fun.

Marriage doesn’t lock you down and force you to behave like someone you’re not – if anything it gives you a lifelong buddy you can take with you wherever you go. Someone to start a family with, someone who understands you and sympathizes even if you’re talking complete twaddle.

So if you’re one of the young oats sowers, enjoy your day in the sun. I’ll sit here and enjoy my day in the arms of my wife and look forward to the next 80 odd years of my life.

Tags: marriage, girls, young

U.N. Inspectors begin Syria mission

This is beginning to sound awfully familiar.

I suppose only time will tell if we are to have a second Iraq on our hands. I sincerely hope not – once is enough in a lifetime I feel.

Of course, it is possible that the UN inspectors will find evidence of atomic activities – but will the US abide by their decision if nothing is found?

Tags: Syria, UN, Nuclear, Atomic, familiar

Check out Gizmodo’s article on a prison in Brazil – da Silva’s cell was raided and found to contain:

• A plasma TV
• A fridge
• Gym Equipment
• Two Pistols
• $173 000 in cash

I suspect my house will never contain even close to that. Further… how the hell did people not notice?
Posh Prison: If This is What Prison in Brazil is Like, Arrest Me Now

Tags: prison, brazil

TechCrunch has released news that Facebook Is No Longer The Second Largest Social Network, meaning that they’ve finally surpassed that lumbering behemoth we know and… know as MySpace. Perhaps it’ll finally be time for Facebook to lance the festering wound that is the MySpace network and rid the world of evil forever.

Hang on though, we don’t exactly know that Facebook is a force for good do we?

I know at least a few people will be taking this news about as well as the growth of a malignant tumor. I’ve always believed that Facebook is there for the greater good and I certainly believe it’s worlds better than MySpace but I’m basing that purely on my experience of both technologies. I have no real idea what FaceBook will do now that they’re at the top.

Will they continue their seemingly benign reign over the social masses or will their growth turn cancerous?

Tags: facebook, social, myspace

Mary Battiata has voiced something that I’ve been getting glimpses on all over the internet lately: The various implications of an Obama victory in 2009 and what it could mean.

In her post, The Next Big Bling, Mary talks not about the possibility of healing race relations, stricter gun control or the other political ramifications of an Obama White House but rather the very real possibility that he may have a fairly drastic impact on the clothes sense of the nation.

We’ve all seen the kids and probably remarked on their peculiar fashion sense – pants hanging like the mouth of a tired dog, chests unfettered by fabric (no shirt) and almost invariably the comments aren’t exactly anything positive. Most often we’ll link the images of the Young Undressed with hooliganism, petty crime and the general decay of the social fabric.

The hope that Mary voices is that the always immaculate Obama will spur the youth on to dress smartly, fly right and generally just straighten up some. It’s a nice notion but I can’t help feeling it may be naive.

Mary draws a comparison with the Beatles phenomenon in the 60s when thousands of teenagers saw new role-models with new dress sense burst onto the scene and effectively bring an end to trends simply by being who they were. I’ll grant you the Beatles had a fairly large impact on fashion for quite some time but I just can’t get my head around Obama having the same effect.

The Beatles were influential primarily because they were “rebels” against the establishment, while Sen. Obama is almost the quintessential authority figure. Sure, there probably a lot of African Americans who look up to him for “living the dream” and possibly becoming the very first black President of the US but fashion wise I suspect he leaves them somewhat dry.

By and large, the youth is as disillusioned with the status quo and the establishment that they’re far more likely to mimic the fashion sense of Snoop Dogg, Kanye West or Tupac (should he ever reincarnate) than they are to dress like a man who is mostly about Economics, Politics and Civil Rights.

That we, generally speaking, wore equally odd clothing in our youth doesn’t seem to enter into it. Having never been a fashion of victim or in the least concerned about it, my clothes have only really influenced me in small ways. That’s a discussion for another post though.

The summary? Will the youth of America take up the Obama mantle and dress like him? Not unless he starts rapping about “bitches”, “rims” and “that cracker McCain”.

Tags: Obama, bling, politics, government, clothes, fashion, rappers

Genteel xenophobia | 6000 miles from civilisation…

Oh the hell with this! People in South Africa need to stop being so full of shit. So called “Genteel Xenophobia” is just as bad. It’s incredible to think that an organization touting itself as the bringer of the good news, saver of the people and all-around swell folks would do something like this.

I suppose this is the almost inevitable follow-up from the people who are furious that foreigners get to live near their neighbourhoods.

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Radio 702 reported that residents at Midrand, where the government was setting up a shelter for displaced residents, hurled insults at a senior official who came to address them.

The residents were concerned about crime and the value of their homes if the temporary shelter was set up.

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South Africans don’t seem to comprehend the situation. People have been burned alive, turned out of their homes and sent fleeing back to homelands that are no longer safe. Their only refuge is a camp of tents with portable toilets and some other basic amenities.

Are we so desensitized to the things happening in our country that we truly only think about something as petty as the property price when considering the living conditions of refugees?

The UN has called this a humanitarian crisis. Do these people really think for a second that there’s a single Zimbabwean or Mozambiquan that wants to be living in these camps?

It would be truly interesting to see the pleas coming from these same people if South Africans were the target for Xenophobic attacks in other countries.

Tags: xenophobia, violence, Midrand