Summer is quickly drawing to a close and it’s becoming more and more noticeable. As my alarm sounds its warning at 6.30am each weekday morning I notice that the sun is peeking its’ head up above the horizon more and more each day. The nights aren’t as long as they use to be, and while the heat is persistent it is now more of a darkened heat at night, rather than the drawn out days we spent at the beach.

As February nears the middle Autumn is quickly coming and while most of the trees around Adelaide are evergreen, the last of the blossoms can now be found scattered on the ground surrounding trees along the sidewalk.

I truly am a fan of summer: the hot days, the warm nights, the beach and the boys. Sunburn, sunscreen, ice cream, tans, bodies, sweat and sand. I love it all. But I will also be happy to see Winter come by. Being able to rug up, curled up in bed watching a movie and keeping each other warm… there is no experience like that.

More than too often people ask the easy question of ‘what’s wrong?’. It seems that using this negative-feedback system has became
Commonplace and, often, works. I wonder if there is another way that works while shedding some positive light on the situation?

Next time youn find yourself in a situation asking what is wrong, reword it to ask the opposite: what is not wrong? What is working, what is good about the situation and what aspects are worth keeping?

It may not directly tackle the underlying issue of what caused it to be wrong in the first place, but you may find yourself facing a whole new perspective.

Today I woke up with energy.

The above seems like a small, trivial thing. To me though it is a wonderful thing. Over the last couple of weeks I have very much seen my energy levels become depleted. I am exercising less, eating less, sleeping more and feeling more and more tired. I have been falling asleep at my desk at work, on trains and trams, it’s just been a very tiring week.

I’m not sure what exactly is the cause of my feeling this way, in honesty it just seems to be a negative cycle. I eat less because I’m tired, but I’m tired because I haven’t eaten much.

I got to a point yesterday were I had had enough. I just wanted it to finish! I looked into a few things and was recommended B12 vitamins by a few people so I scoffed a whole heap of these vitamins, I also tried to eat a reasonably balanced meal throughout the day. When I got home at ~5pm I crashed on my bed and slept for about 3 hours. Waking up just after 9, I went back to bed just before midnight, sleeping right through until 7.30am. Near 11 hours sleep later I woke up feeling absolutely refreshed.

Was it the food? The B12? The sleep? My guess is the latter but either way. Yay!

Biphobia is a term that not many people have heard, nor do they know what it means. Very much like the only-too-often screamed ‘homophobia’, it is merely the ideas and actions that are anti-bisexual. Surprisingly stats collected through surveys such as Writing Themselves In Again show that biphobia is more predominant and common than even homophobia- and even exists within the GLBT* community.

It would seem that even those who have fought long and hard for the rights of same-sex attracted people still often overlook the fact that bisexuality is a valid and real part of life. Granted, for many people being ‘bi’ is merely a stepping stone while they begin their coming out process. It would appear that friends and family often warm up to the idea that one is bi a lot more  easier than just plain gay. In addition, the feaux-bi phase of many girls at school who claim bisexuality just to impress their male counterparts often tarnishes the outlook of bisexuality many people have.

One theory that I have often heard is that bi people are merely trying to play both sides of the field. This generalisation that bisexual people are all promiscuous and after sex primarily is hard to fight against, as often those that are truly bisexual select to live a heterosexual life either wholly or for the purpose of relationships.

There should be no question though, some people can and are attracted to both males and females and while they may eventually choose one life partner who is not both- this does not remove the ‘attraction’ aspect of a life, merely adds a monogamous one.

Do a quick ‘biphobia’ Google search and you’ll find for yourself that while you may not have heard much about it, biphobia is one of the most present forms of discrimination in all forms of community.

*GLBTTQQIFSP and other

Question:

Pirates, Ninjas, robots, dinosaurs and a giant squid are all in a war against each other. Who do you think would win?

Answer:

Oh, well I’m sorry to say but the Ninjas are gonna kick ass.

Pirates are all like drunk and using old school cutlasses but the Ninjas have their cool swords and throwing star things and whatever. They win.

The robots… pft. Easy.

Dinosairs have no chance. Even the Pirates could beat them.

The giant squid? Well, it’d be tough. But the Ninja would use his mind powers to control it. Simple.

Question:

you have some great advice on relationships here man, so why are you single then?

Answer:

Well first of all, thanks. It’s good to know that some people like the advice that I give. I just hope that it helps those that do read it.

Most of the advice I give is a solid mixture of both my own personal experiences combined with an objective perspective of the situation- often something which is hard to obtain but greatly needed.
As to why I’m still single? Well, if I knew the reasons behind it I supose I could work on that and wouldn’t be so single

I suppose I’m happy being single and that I’m happy to do as I do until I find a person who I’m comfortable with. These days I’m more happy to ’see’ a person until I feel completely comfortable making it official rather than jump into being ‘boyfriends’, which was a trend I suppose most younger people get into.

Maybe I should be asking this question of the readers I have, why they think I’m still single? Im’ sure I’ll get enough hate-replies but maybe it could help

One topic that a person cannot go through their life avoiding is religion. From the moment we are born we have religious decisions thrown upon us, and from there onwards we’re on our own.

Some parents decide to baptise their children, while other do not. Some circumcise their children for religious reasons, some do not. Some are taken to church weekly, some are kept home and some are told that god does not exist. It seems that it does not matter what we may believe ourselves as a child but rather what those around us believe.

Personally I was not christened or baptised.  I grew up in a household where I was considered a little strange for not swearing, smoking or drinking as I grew up. The A grades that I received on my school work was a little out-of-the-ordinary and my stance towards God and religion was somewhat… unliked. Growing up I honestly don’t think that the words ‘god’, ‘jesus’ or ‘christ’ were muttered in a sentence unless accompanied by ‘fuck’, ‘hell’ or ‘burn in’.

I’ve written briefly about my religious stance before, which isn’t easy to put in a nutshell. I’m not for or against God per se. Not really. What I am for or against is religion. What I mean by this is the devout following and faith in the God and the rules dictated by the religious scripture- that being bible, Koran or whatever book it may have been labelled. For arguments sake, they all are the same.

I’ve been shown no proof that God exists, merely some compelling stories and somewhat-convincing fanatics. On the flipside, the non-believers have also been very convincing and very rightly pointed out the flaws, mostly of which consist in the fact that religion somewhat goes against a lot of proven facts. How much evidence does one need to sway me one way or another? Well, that isn’t the point of this article.

Recently I watched the 7pm Project and I saw a great segment which featured Father Bob Maguire. To be honest, I’m a great fan of this man. He has done a lot of hard work in the community and he himself has been stuck on an anti-church pedestal for his approach at Catholicism. The segment, which you may have seen, was about how we can get more youths into the churches. You know what: What a great question!

I would seriously love to experience what church is like. I’ve only ever been in a church twice- the first being for a christening of a family friends child, and the other while I was dancing [back in the days of my traditional-greek-dancing]. Since then, I’ve never been. And yes, to put it plainly: I’ve never been to a service.

Many people my age are quick to jump on the idea that church is boring and that the services are enough to put you to sleep. The weird thing here, contradictory as it is, those of my friends who regularly attend church often say the opposite of their churches. So what brings about this contradiction?

My first assumption would be preconceptions. Entering into a church I suppose I would think that I was about to be getting a lecture from some old guy standing out the front. In such a modern time though, I find it hard to believe that all churches are like this. Does Australia [pray, Adelaide] have any of those ‘modern’ churches where people are involved and the youth have fun?

To answer this question I suppose that I should just ask myself. What better place to start? Why does Brodhe not go to church?

Here’s a few reasons:

• Too early on a Sunday morning
• I don’t like to be told off for the things that others perceive as wrong
• My friends do not go
• I do not follow the bible

So is there a place for us Generation Y young adults where we can freely talk about our own religious views without the worry of being told off. I’m yet to be answered the questions of ‘Why would God care?’ I mean, if I said the word ‘fuck’, without it meaning to be an insult, why would god care? Sure, if I said it with the intent to belittle someone or to make them feel uneasy then I can understand. But any words can do that, and we can say them freely!

Also, when I drink I do not act aggressively nor do  I perform illegal deeds. I do what is deemed socially right [on the normal occasion] and keep myself in line. Why would god say I cannot get drunk?

If there was a church which promoted that people merely get along and do what is morally and socially right for each other, and stopped worrying about condemning us to hell and telling us that we are all sinners- well, that’s a church that I would go to.

While I know that it wouldn’t happen, I’d love to see the idea of a congregational venue- perhaps a ‘church’, however it would be open up to ALL religions. It would be a place of meeting and conversation. Peer review about each others beliefs. It would be a meeting of sorts, where people spent the first half hour or so saying thanks to their own religious idols, then spent the following few hours in discussion about different topics. Political, environmental, moral and ethical topics would be discussed and religion would be kept civil and polite. There would be no judgement of ones sins, but merely the reminder of what is morally right on the path to the afterlife.

I would call this setting Urban Belief. It is those that live in a modern society, have belief of God or gods, but simply do not feel that following a set religious scripture is the correct way to live their life. I suppose that’s me in a nutshell: an Urban Believer.

I would personally love to hear the ideas that Father Bob Maguire has to get the youth back into the church. While the church may condemn my lifestyle “choices”, I still see a heck of a lot of good being done by the church. I still strongly believe in the family unit and doing what is morally right, I just believe that the archaic way that they enforce their rule is wrong.

I would really love to hear everyone’s thoughts on this, so if you are in Australia or Adelaide or just have some general views on this, I’d love to know!

Living in a small city like Adelaide often throws up the drawback that it seems no one else is interesting in the same things that you are. Luckily for people thouhg, the internet is there to connect those of similar and same interests. Recently a new website established by a local Adelaide innovator, ‘Paul’, has been doing just that.

Grassing About is a new website venture with the sole aim to provide glorious insigth into the often hard to find restaurants which cater for vegetarian and vegan needs. From local pubs who offer more than just a stock-standard salad through to take away fast food-court style places, this website seems to be covering all bases.

A great one-stop-shop if you’re looking to head out for a quick bite but unsure of somewhere new to go.

The website is still new and still has a couple of kinks that I found, but the content is solid, informative and well written. The website describes itself as:

Essentially Grassing About is a restaurant review site. It’s not limited to restaurants, though. I’ll also be reviewing cafes, delis, takeaway stores, product lines. Anything that’s reviewable really. All the reviewing will be done from my perspective as a lacto-ova vego. But I will be accommodating the vegans too – bless your cotton socks. I also hope to have some other people share their views – hopefully that will create a bit of diversity and save you from getting bored of me. In addition to reviews, I’ll also be writing some opinion pieces / news pieces, etc. There will be a bit of everything. I hope that’s OK?

Check out the website here
Follow their tweets here
Sub to their RSS here

If you’re in Adelaide then this is a great way to follow a truly local innovator.