Well here I am, blogging from the Digital Life stand. Hour one of my exploration is complete. I have a paper bag full of fliers and assorted swag, like a webcam I got for filling in a Symantec survey.

And... a cell phone sock. Why phones need socks, I do not know. Perhaps they will get cold this winter?

The highlight of my day so far was undoubtedly seeing (and getting a photo with) The Man, The Legend, THE Vernon Koekemoer.

I'm missing the first workshop, but will definitely meander over later to check it out. I think there's a workshop on digital photography, which should be worth checking out.

All in all, the expo is going well. the random people milling around has definitely increased from 10:00 when I arrived.

So... see you all here later today?

I have always thought golf is a rich, middle aged white man's game. It's the way it's always been portrayed.

But a trip to Vodacom's World of Golf changed my mind. There are very few places where I have seen such diversity. There were men, there were women, there were young, there were old. There were white people, black people, Indian people and Asian people.

I expected a bunch of stuffy farts knocking a few balls around, which has been my knowledge of golf. But no.

There were three groups that stood out to me the most - a group of four teenagers, dressed like teenagers and chatting in German to each other, being passionate about practice. "How nice," I thought.

Then later on, a pair of Chinese girls arrived, diminutive and serious. "How interesting," I thought.

My favourite person there, was an elderly lady. She looked full of the joys of life, whacking those golf balls. "You go, lady!" I thought.

Now, I'm not saying most places lack diversity, but short of places like shops or restaurants, most places seem to have a certain demographic that tends to gravitate there more than others.

So from my impression, it seems golf is everybody's game...

This is a bit of an old story, but I'd like to share it anyway... The day I met Franka Potente's brother.

For those of you that don't know, Franka Potente is the ever-on-the-move heroine in Run, Lola, Run and the female lead in The Bourne Identity. She's also done movies like Blow. For the interested... just look at her IMDb page.

Anyhoo, when I was in my first year of university I had a part time job at a dvd shop, in Melville. Since it's the hub of the Joburg entertainment (and pretentiousness) scene, I was used to a lot of visitors to our country taking a walk through dvdgurus.

I wasn't working alone that night... A colleague of mine was signing up a German guy with his international driver's licence and I heard him say "Potente? Is that a common German surname?" The gentleman replied "Not really". My colleague then said how he had only heard of Franka Potente, he hadn't heard of other instances of the name. The stranger replied "She is my sister."

I was a little dumbstruck. But just a little.

We had no reason to doubt he was telling the truth because another colleague, who met him through other means and people, had the same story. Also, he didn't have the signs of someone who was just out to impress, he was a rather humble guy with a great sense of humour.

He became a regular customer for the short while he was in our country, and always provided interesting conversation.

Why was he in SA? The rumour was, he was studying or had studied forensics or something similar and needed to get some practice. He googled "violence" and came up with South Africa. I don't know if this is just an anecdote or if it's true, but yet another colleague once said he was freaked out when the two dvds this guy returned were stuck together with a few drops of blood...

So... that's my brush with fame. Well, fame by association, really.

Hearing about the young Chinese singer [] who got rejected because of her looks really pissed me off. She may have accepted it very stoically because of her culture, but I doubt her self-esteem is going to recover any time soon.

Hiya there.

Whoa, I've really been missing most of the MyDL action these days. But, I thought I'd play a little catch up and tell you what's been happening in my life.

Well, for one, I'm getting married in... 61 days. And, um, I have no dress. But it's all good. The wedding is super chilled, so if I don't have a dress made in the mean time, I'll just go buy a cute summer dress somewhere. The key to my wedding is COMFORT.

And for another... I bought a flat. Well, not by myself. My fiancé and I bought a flat. It's great to be a partial, almost home owner. And I got to drill holes in the wall for some DIY... heh heh heh...

Those were (are) the major happenings in my life, and since that formality is done away with, hopefully soon I'll be back on track with my movie reviews and compelling opinions :-P

I consider myself a feminist.

Not a radical, all-men-are-assholes kind of feminist. I do not hate men. In fact, other than the media, I've been wondering where all these complaints of misogyny have been coming from, since I have never experienced it first hand.

I've always been treated well by men, I haven't been spoken to in a patronising way since I was a small child and I've never been unfairly discriminated against because I'm a woman.

But this weekend, I had a brush with something that got me very worked up. Some of you may not consider it a big deal, but to me it was pretty significant.

I was looking for a book called Female Chauvinist Pigs, by Ariel Levy. An obviously feminist title.

I walked into a CD/book/DVD shop and asked for it at the counter. The girl at the computer, in her utter emos-can't-care-less teenager attitude, she explained they don't have it. Fine, I can handle that. So my fiancé and I browse for some DVDs.

After selecting some DVDs, I put them on the counter. I take MY wallet out of MY handbag and pay with MY credit card.

She asks my fiancé, to my right, to put in his PIN.

HIS PIN?!

I take the machine and enter my PIN. I give it back to her. The slip prints out.

So, now, on a slip that very clearly says "miss" under the sign here line, she hand it to him and says "please sign".

I take the slip, I sign it.

At least she learned by then it was my stuff, and gave me the final slip.

I wonder, is it because I'm a woman, did she assume I was not the one in control of the transaction?

Or is it because I asked for a feminist book? And, of course, feminists must be punished for their wicked, wicked ways.

I've been watching a lot of dvds of late (and one at the theatres!) so I figured I'll enlighten you to some quick opinions of what I've seen.

3:10 to Yuma:  It's nice to see a modern Western done so well. The movie was excellently cast, well planned and executed wonderfully. I am not a fan of Westerns. I'm not a fan of any typical "guy movies" but I really enjoyed this one. The movie was really tense because you can't help but like Russel Crowe's character, the "noble outlaw" Ben Wade, and you can't help but want things to go well for Christian Bale's character, the good-guy-dealt-a-bad-hand Dan Evans but all the while you want justice and Evans to keep his integrity.

Be Kind, Rewind: Heart warming and cute while still retaining Michel Gondry's wackiness. Jack Black and Mos Def are a great team and some of their antics had me laughing more than I usually laugh in movies. And, the sweet, feel-good ending had me crying too.

Hitman: A misogynistic testosterone fest.

Into The Wild: Deep, but so so sad. This movie was one of the most unexpectedly good I've seen in a long time. Fully deserving its spot on the IMDb top 250. This one had my fiancé crying, which he hasn't done since Cimema Paradiso. Be warned. Beautiful but heart wrenching, made more so by the fact that it's based on a true story.

The Darwin Awards: Very strange and off beat. Too many clichés, but the cast was far too good for me to believe that it wasn't all just a big joke by Hollywood.

A        -        Age: 21

There are some issues I am a little unclear on with regards to what goes on MyDL.

I assume things like hate speech, pornography and advertising-without-paying are cardinal sins, but about swearing?

What constitutes a swear word? Is it just the big bad one (F)? Or a few lesser ones as well?

What about biological terms? I know the word sex is permissible, but not the official term for the male member. Is slang for it allowed? Are we allowed to use certain words in one context but not the others? (eg, praise God vs oh my god) Okay, that was a silly example, but all I could think of on the spot.

We're not allowed to insult each other, but are we allowed to discuss the insulting (insultation?) of a third party?

I sometimes worry I am overstepping my bounds, and I often replace some harsh words with darn and heck and goodness.

So my question is...

How far can MyDL be pushed?

<Basically, what I'm saying is, Charmed, is it possible to outline a code of conduct or something...? >

No, it's not taxis.