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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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

It seems like Samsung has developed a pretty reliable Solid State Drive for use in Laptops and so forth. It’s possible this is a nice big step towards getting rid of those stupid platters and arms.

Wouldn’t it be great to never again hear that fateful *tik*tik*tik*tik* sound coming from your beloved PC?

As with everything else though, this is a moderate approach new technology. Samsung are hoping that as many as 35% of notebooks will be using the new tech by 2012.

Quite a few years left for us then and I’m sure an even longer wait for this to be widely accepted.

Tags: samsung, tech, drives, SSD

The lack of gasps around the room show that I’m not exactly shocking anyone with this news. Still, I think it’s important to know that we should never have reached a stage where we no longer care about the horrendous things that are happening around us. Before anyone lumps me with the “South Africa is going to hell” crowd, that’s not what I’m saying. It’s undeniable that terrible things are happening but that doesn’t mean that South Africa is a terrible place.

Sitting with some friends last night, I realized that I feel worse about the way stock animals are treated than I do about some of the things I hear about happening to people. It’s not good but it’s true. Hearing stories from a farmer friend about how chickens, pigs and cows are bred and slaughtered was almost enough to push me to vegetarianism but listening to Tsepiso Makwetla speak about the latest headlines rocking SA leaves me cold.

Today’s news headlines include:

“I saw pangas in the window”

“42 dead in Xenophobic violence”

“Man kills cop’s husband”

Now, these are deliberately all the bad headlines that I could find but the fact that I can scan over them without being particularly upset by them worries me. It means I’ve become more desensitised than I would like. And for me, desensitised means dehumanised.