In life, tech on
29 October 2009 tagged Facebook with 2 comments
There was a great post on the Adbusters blog earlier this month by someone who reflectively quit using Facebook:
For the vast majority of people experiencing the fragmented, fast-paced modern world of 2008, a Sunday pause at the end of a hectic week may cause them to become all too aware of the lack of content in their lives. So we update our online profiles and tell ourselves that we are reaching out.
…the time we waste on Facebook only makes our search for comfort and community more elusive. Online networking sites are marketed as facilitators of community-orientation but when I think about the millions of people – myself included – who spend large portions of their waking lives feeding off an exchange of thousands of computerized, fragmented images, it doesn’t add up to community-engagement…
Read the full article here
In Family, Sweden, Uncategorized on
27 May 2009 tagged marriage, Sweden with 3 comments
This post mainly relates to a UK citizen marrying a Swedish citizen, though could be useful to people from other EU countries…
Sofia and I are getting married in just under two months. The wedding will be in Småland, Sweden and we’re really excited about our friends and family who are coming! As we’ve been preparing I’ve been able to learn a bit more about the legal side of marriage over here. I’m a UK citizen (and resident) and Sofia is a Swedish citizen (and resident). Here’s the process we have gone through so far…
- Certificate of No Impediment: I visited a registry office in the UK and notified them of my intention to marry Sofia. I had to show them various forms of identification and provide them with her details, as well as the details of where we will be getting married. These are placed on a notice board for 6 weeks to give members of the general public an opportunity to notify them if I have been married before. Once the 6 weeks are up, the Certificate of No Impediment is issued. According to Swedish law, the certificate is valid for 3 months from the date of issue.
- Marriage Licence: Next we visited Skatteverket (the Swedish Tax Office), filled in forms and provided them with our IDs (Passport for me, ID card for Sofia) and the Certificate of No Impediment. They took photocopies of our IDs and the Certificate and will mail us the Licence within 2 weeks. This license will be valid for 4 months, so it was important that we visited Skatteverket at the right time: too early and we would have a license that expired before our wedding, too late and our Certificate of No Impediment would expire.
- The Wedding: This can be officiated either by a state official (at a District Court, or City Hall), or a Vicar (in this case it’s the person, not the venue, that counts).
Here are a few resources you might find useful if you’re going through this process:
(photo: Sharaff)
In design, justice, links, makethingsfair, portfolio, tech, web on
4 May 2009 with no comments
The past few weeks I’ve been at work on a couple of different projects, two of which I’m excited to tell you about:
Make Things Fair
For a while I’ve dreamed of setting up a site that will act as a source for information on Human Trafficking and Fair Trade, telling stories as well as offering ways to take action. A few months ago, after a little brainstorming with some friends (thanks Mark), I purchased the makethingsfair.com domain name. I hope that it will become a valuable resource and a place for sharing ideas and activities.
If you care about these issues, please show your support by:
- Subscribing to receive email updates (click here)
- Following @makethingsfair on Twitter
- Contributing stories by email (stories [at] makethingsfair [dot] com)
Click here to visit Make Things Fair
Looks Can Kill
The website of my web design and development company, Looks Can Kill, hasn’t changed much since I first started the company back in 2005. I wanted to freshen it up, and to integrate it with Wordpress, in the hope of expanding my portfolio offering, and having a place to file web related blog posts.
Click here to visit Looks Can Kill