Thursday, May 10, 2007
Spoon/Fork bending...
You have to check this out...
Two days ago, we had a meeting with the guys from MXIT - they have built a messaging platform for mobile phones. Anyway, thats not what this post is about. You're not going to believe it, and I kick myself everytime I think about it as I was in another meeting at the time, but one of the MXIT guys has the ability to bend spoons/forks with his mind (that's what he says anyway). I've seen it on magic shows before, and in The Matrix, but have been quite sceptical...until now.
Even though I wasn't actually in the room at the time, one of the guys managed to get it all on his mobile phone, and has uploaded it to YouTube. Incredible...
And now for the bad news...
So I undertook the project365 thing in October last year. The point of the project - to post a Photo Of The Day (POTD) every day for a year.
Well, the bad news is that I have decided to narrow it down from P365, to P182. A six month project. Which ran from November 2006 until April 2007.
There were pictures of sunsets, pictures of holidays, pictures of friends and family. There were others of trees and plants and wooden puzzles, and even some on meals and breakfasts that were cooked by K and I.
But alas, the project has reached the point where it is becoming a daily burden on me. It has lost its appeal and excitement. It has become more a case of 'what can i find to snap today', than a case of 'cool, i'll put that on the blog'.
It was a big undertaking - a bold challenge that I rose to at first, but then came to ask myself 'what have i done?'.
Its not all doom and gloom however. The 6 months of pics will remain on this blog for K and I to look back upon. Lots of visual memories that will always be here. Besides which, there will be other pics that go up from time to time. They will still be posted under the POTD tag - but it will also give me more time to blog about other issues - rather than spending half an hour downloading, resizing and uploading pictures, I can tell you more about more. If anything, the quality of posts should actually improve.
So thank you for logging on each day and checking out the daily picture. It has been good to take a look at my Google Analytics map, and see little dots sprawled across the globe - from Perth, Manning, Adelaide and Melbourne, to Parow, Jhb, Midrand, Parkmore and Pretoria to Oslo, Bucharest, Milton Keynes, Brentford, Salt Lake and Statten Island.
BTW, the final POTD's have been uploaded. See below - 28-30 April.
Well, the bad news is that I have decided to narrow it down from P365, to P182. A six month project. Which ran from November 2006 until April 2007.
There were pictures of sunsets, pictures of holidays, pictures of friends and family. There were others of trees and plants and wooden puzzles, and even some on meals and breakfasts that were cooked by K and I.
But alas, the project has reached the point where it is becoming a daily burden on me. It has lost its appeal and excitement. It has become more a case of 'what can i find to snap today', than a case of 'cool, i'll put that on the blog'.
It was a big undertaking - a bold challenge that I rose to at first, but then came to ask myself 'what have i done?'.
Its not all doom and gloom however. The 6 months of pics will remain on this blog for K and I to look back upon. Lots of visual memories that will always be here. Besides which, there will be other pics that go up from time to time. They will still be posted under the POTD tag - but it will also give me more time to blog about other issues - rather than spending half an hour downloading, resizing and uploading pictures, I can tell you more about more. If anything, the quality of posts should actually improve.
So thank you for logging on each day and checking out the daily picture. It has been good to take a look at my Google Analytics map, and see little dots sprawled across the globe - from Perth, Manning, Adelaide and Melbourne, to Parow, Jhb, Midrand, Parkmore and Pretoria to Oslo, Bucharest, Milton Keynes, Brentford, Salt Lake and Statten Island.
BTW, the final POTD's have been uploaded. See below - 28-30 April.
If you haven't yet discovered Facebook, then you'd better, quick! Its another social networking utility that allows you to quickly discover and connect with friends from all over the world, and its currently sweeping through friends and acquaintances around me. Here's a little scenario:
Wednesday: I send Phil an invite to LinkedIn (a networking utility for establishing and maintaining business connections and relationships). Phil in turn sends me an invite to Facebook. I sign up on Facebook and discover that K's sister, who lives in Perth, has also recently signed up. So i add her as a friend.
Thursday: I'm going through the functionality of the site, and stumble across a "find friends" tool. Quickly type in my school, and find that Richard has also signed up to Facebook within the last day or so. I add him as a friend. I then go through the list of companies that I have worked at, and find Dave has a profile. I add him as a friend. Bear in mind now, that these are all people that I see fairly regularly, and besides Dave, nobody has mentioned that they have recently signed up to Facebook.
Friday: I am asked by Francois to be his "friend" on facebook. I do some more searches, and come across Matthew, a guy that I did my honours with and haven't seen for 8 years. He also happens to be friends with Dave's friend Andrew. I know Andrew well, so add him as a friend. Matthew sees this through facebook and adds me as a friend. Marc, another guy from my honours course adds me, and I send Ronald an invite. Suddenly, within the space of 3 days, I have connected with people that I know, from the UK to Australia.
So the point of the post of course, is to a). make you aware of this online wave of social networking utilities that is sweeping across the globe, and b). to encourage you to get your own Facebook profile, and connect.
Wednesday: I send Phil an invite to LinkedIn (a networking utility for establishing and maintaining business connections and relationships). Phil in turn sends me an invite to Facebook. I sign up on Facebook and discover that K's sister, who lives in Perth, has also recently signed up. So i add her as a friend.
Thursday: I'm going through the functionality of the site, and stumble across a "find friends" tool. Quickly type in my school, and find that Richard has also signed up to Facebook within the last day or so. I add him as a friend. I then go through the list of companies that I have worked at, and find Dave has a profile. I add him as a friend. Bear in mind now, that these are all people that I see fairly regularly, and besides Dave, nobody has mentioned that they have recently signed up to Facebook.
Friday: I am asked by Francois to be his "friend" on facebook. I do some more searches, and come across Matthew, a guy that I did my honours with and haven't seen for 8 years. He also happens to be friends with Dave's friend Andrew. I know Andrew well, so add him as a friend. Matthew sees this through facebook and adds me as a friend. Marc, another guy from my honours course adds me, and I send Ronald an invite. Suddenly, within the space of 3 days, I have connected with people that I know, from the UK to Australia.
So the point of the post of course, is to a). make you aware of this online wave of social networking utilities that is sweeping across the globe, and b). to encourage you to get your own Facebook profile, and connect.
Flights cancelled
OK, so after the previous post, and the nerves around flying, K has managed to cancel her trip to Nigeria and Ghana. Its not like she was going to add direct value to the trip anyway, so we decided that it would be pointless for her to go. Besides, its not the safest place in the world at the moment, with the kidnap-for-ransom incidents that are going down. So yes, a bit of relief.
Having said that, as everyone knows, its still statistically safer to fly to work than to drive to work.
Having said that, as everyone knows, its still statistically safer to fly to work than to drive to work.
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Rugga, plane disasters and cycle challenges
Well, its been a weekend with a bit of a difference. Friday night was spent at the Sound Stage in Midrand, with K's work colleagues. We went and watched a show called Girl Talk 007. The show was good I thought - we've seen it before, so it was probably a little better for those that were seeing it for the first time.
Then we got news on Saturday morning that a plane had gone down in Cameroon - and K mentioned to me that one of the guys in her team was flying back from Cameroon on Saturday morning. Anyway, by lunchtime on Saturday it was confirmed that 2 people from her company (including the guy in her team) and one or two other clients were actually on the fated plane.
The worrying thing for us, besides the fact that her team has lost a very competent manager, is that she flies up to Ghana and Nigeria in a couple of weeks time. There have also been reports of British contract workers who have been kidnapped and held for ransom in one of the towns just outside their IBOM project. Its standard procedure to send employees up with armed guards, but still, its a worry for us at the moment.
Saturday evening was spent with a couple of mates, watching Super14 history being made, as both the Sharks and Bulls secured home semi-finals - the Bulls were set an almost impossible task at the beginning of the match - beat the Reds by more than 72 points and they would have a home semi-final. Well, not only did they achieve the 72 points, they went on to score 13 tries for a total of 92 points, compared with the 3 points that the Reds managed.
Today was a pretty relaxed day. Went for a cycle around the area - managed to rack up another 20km - not huge. Have also set my eyes on a goal for next year - riding the Sani2C mountain bike race next year. Its a 3 day, 250km odd race from the Sani Pass in the Drakensberg to Scottburgh Beach on the Kwazulu Natal south coast. Hasn't been finalised yet, but I will definitely be talking to a few people about it in the next few weeks, and getting a riding team together.
Then we got news on Saturday morning that a plane had gone down in Cameroon - and K mentioned to me that one of the guys in her team was flying back from Cameroon on Saturday morning. Anyway, by lunchtime on Saturday it was confirmed that 2 people from her company (including the guy in her team) and one or two other clients were actually on the fated plane.
The worrying thing for us, besides the fact that her team has lost a very competent manager, is that she flies up to Ghana and Nigeria in a couple of weeks time. There have also been reports of British contract workers who have been kidnapped and held for ransom in one of the towns just outside their IBOM project. Its standard procedure to send employees up with armed guards, but still, its a worry for us at the moment.
Saturday evening was spent with a couple of mates, watching Super14 history being made, as both the Sharks and Bulls secured home semi-finals - the Bulls were set an almost impossible task at the beginning of the match - beat the Reds by more than 72 points and they would have a home semi-final. Well, not only did they achieve the 72 points, they went on to score 13 tries for a total of 92 points, compared with the 3 points that the Reds managed.
Today was a pretty relaxed day. Went for a cycle around the area - managed to rack up another 20km - not huge. Have also set my eyes on a goal for next year - riding the Sani2C mountain bike race next year. Its a 3 day, 250km odd race from the Sani Pass in the Drakensberg to Scottburgh Beach on the Kwazulu Natal south coast. Hasn't been finalised yet, but I will definitely be talking to a few people about it in the next few weeks, and getting a riding team together.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
