Nic’s blog
I write about building businesses, failing and building a life, not a legacy.
Rock out minus the politics
North Korea (NK) is allowing Western Musicians in to their country to play a concert for peace. The concert is being organised by a pro-NK group and will be help next year as long as the lyrical content from the bands is not "sexy or violent". (Hmmm, well that rules out ALMOST EVERY BAND IN THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!).A little quote from the Voice of Korea website talking about the concert:
"any band will be considered even though you are from USA."
Now I am as anti-American as the next blogger out there, but seriously, "even if you are from USA"? Are these morons nuts? Some of the best bands in the world are from the USA (I hate to admit that but it's true).Lets see, U2 (political) - out, FooFighters (aggressive) - out, Greenday (political/aggressive) - out, Coldplay (political) - out, Robbie Williams (Drug abusive) - out, Travis (political) - out, The Strokes/The Vines/The Hives/Arctic Monkeys/White Stripes/REM/Elton John/Rolling Stones/Paul McCartney/Aerosmith/Goo Goo Dolls/Pink/P.Diddy/Jay-Z/Ludacris/Beyonce/Eminem/any other rapper/any punk rock band (all political or aggressive or biased or violent).This list could go on forever. There are very few bands who have no political agenda in their music whatsoever. These days music is love and music is war.So to sum up, playing at this concert I can see Pussy Cat Dolls (if they remained 98% clothed), Ronin Keating (if he isn't too violent about love), Westlife (Because Ronin owns them) and maybe, just maybe someone like Kylie Minogue - maybe.
Ellen Update
As you can see in my post "The power of Degeneres" the picture of the boxer shorts has been removed. This is not me and my bad skills but a removal from the actual Ellen clothing site. Apparently my post has made some waves, not the 6000 sales of the cheap version of the boxers (HA! As if Shutterview could make such a large impact, lets only hope one day soon).
Gotta Love Wi-Fi
I have ADSL at home, that's pretty normal round the world and so is Wireless access in your house. But not in South Africa. Today I purchased a wireless router and installed it, myself (very proud). It works like a charm. For the first time this entire year I am sitting outside having a smoke while I blog. I haven't done this since I was at University, ah the little things. What a pleasure.
Nikon D40 DSLR - The People's Choice.
PaulStamatiou.com just reported on Nikons release of the D40. I am somewhat of a photography enthusiast and my biggest problem at the moment is the cost of DSLR cameras. Here in S.A. the pricing starts close to R8000 (roughly $1000). These things aren't cheap. Nothing is cheap in S.A. anymore?This little beauty seems to be taking those theories down. It peaks at just over R4500 and is a 6.1-effective mega pixel digital SLR. It is being heralded as the smallest and most affordable DSLR to date.
Same Sex Marriage Legalised
I think that South Africa is making great steps forward by legalising same sex marriages. We are the first country on our continent to do so. Brilliant. I personally believe in "To each his/her own" and if that happens to be a his or her of the same sex then so be it.What irritates me about this whole situation is the manner in which the religious groups have protested the decision. I am once again stating that to each his/her own is the way forward, so let the fanatics moan and bitch about the laws being passed. However I get extremely touchy when I read an article about this issue on the MG site that religious activists have branded the law "un-African".How on Earth is same sex marriage un-African? Who decides what is African (not starting that debate unless anyone is interested)? This is the kicker question right here: When did religious views become African views? Western ideas of religion have never been apart of the African culture. It is only in the recent history of the continent that Western ideals began infiltrating the African continent. It hacks me off to no end that religious freaks, fanatics or idiots are able to brand an apparent 'anti-christian' law as un-African.I will say this again: when did Western religion become dominant in Africa as an ideal? What makes these people think that they have the right to brand anything, anything at all as un-African? If that is what being African means you can keep it and I will continue to be me as an individual living in Africa.
The Honest Post
The honest postThis is going to be the most honest thing that I have written in years. I am going to make this simple, and let it be known that life happens to people while they’re living.I am scared that the love that I have will leave me. I am scared that I will die. I am not scared of death. I am scared of what I will never experience because of death. I don’t think I will live to old age, I don’t think that I will die young. I know that there are some things that I will never get the chance to do, never get to feel, live or experience and that scares me. I am scared of failure. I think that everyone is. I am scared of success. I think everyone is.I am in love, but scared to love. I am in lust but scared to touch. I am a success but scared to be successful and living while scared to feel. I am brave but a coward and weak while trying to be strong. I am none of the things that I say I am and everything at the same time.I’m not sure why I am writing all of this but to be honest I think that we all feel like we are alone, but we are not. I know that I am loved and in love, I know that I have friends and I make sure that my friends know they have me. I am trying to get better at telling the people I love that I do love them and telling the people I hate that I don’t.
Saddam Escapes!
I know, I know, it will never happen, but man would it be funny to see George Bush's face addressing the nation telling them that Saddam had made it out?!A little bit of humour to keep us all moving.
Fresh Faced Comic - Bush Bashing
I just couldn't help myself. This guy has Bush pegged. "Gobble Gobble" Bushy Baby.Update: I managed to locate this comedians name: Frank Caliendo.
Haloscan Installed
I have now installed Haloscan on to the system. You will notice that the comments have moved from the end of the post to just below the heading of each post. The old blogger comments are not gone, simply visit the particular posts page to view all old comments. If there are any major flaws please email me!Thanks for the support.
TechAttack #4 - Haloscan
Haloscan is a comment moderation tool that replaces bloggers comments. I am trying to make use of this due to my recent discovery of coComment (see TechAttacks 3 & 3 update). coComment allows you to follow comments you have made on any blog,account, website or anything. Now to make use of coComment through my own blog I need to get rid of Bloggers comment system and install Haloscan. This all seems very complicated, but trust me, if I can do it, anyone can.The pro's of having Haloscan is that you can customize the look of your comment box and it has a directly built in extension for users who wish to make use of coComment (perfect for me). It also allows you to track comment numbers, people, stats etc. Blogger does not do this.The only downfall I can see so far is that I don't think that I can keep any of the old blogger comments without personally copying and pasting them in to the Haloscan comment block one by one... that's a lot of work for one person. So I am in the process of debating the whole value of using Haloscan if it means losing all the brilliance of my readers. We shall see.Keep a close look and see how it all works out. Let me know what you all think.
The power of Degeneres
I was watching The Tonight Show With Jay Leno last night (I love Jay, think that he is one of the funniest and funniest looking men alive) and Ellen Degeneres was on. Her and Jay have studios literally right next door to one another (notice how I'm on a first name basis with both stars, that's just how I roll I guess).So Ellen was relaying this story which was obviously planned cause they had the prop right there for the story. The prop was a pair of Ellen boxer-shorts.The boxer-shorts -seen above- are priced on the Ellen shopping site at $24.95. Ellen's story went something like this:Ellen: You know Jay (American twang in toe) I got an email askin' me to drop the price of these little babies for a day.Jay: (Big jaw in toe) *chuckles to himself*Ellen: So, Jay I did it. I announced on my show that for one day the shorts were going to sell at $10.Jay: Well you know Ellen, that sounds really nice of you... what's the problem with all this?Ellen: (Shyly giggling to herself) Well Jay, normally the boxers cost us about $13.Jay: OK so you made a bit of a mistake on that one right?Ellen: Well yea, normally we sell about 10 to 15 pairs a day. On that day, we sold over 6000. I lost about $25,000 in one day. (Not sure about Ellen's maths on that one so don't question me)Now my big issue with this whole story is that yes, it is funny that Ellen lost $25,000 and it is funny that the sales can jump by about 400% from a simple word spoken by Ellen but how is it possible that this is the type of funny story that the rich and famous tell. As far as I can imagine this is a mild kind of story along the monetary genre.Seriously $25,000 is a boat load of cash that Ellen just smiled and kissed g'bye. Wow, what a thrill it must be to know that you can walk away from that much money with a smile and a funny story.Now just imagine what would happen if Ellen told the American people to get rid of Bush or vote against the grain. Imagine if you will, if Harpo -sorry- Oprah and Ellen and Jay and Bono and Robbie Williams and Madge and Mr's Penn, Pitt and Vaughn(hahaha) and Miss's Aniston, Jolie (hahaha) and Tyra all got together and propagated a particular party, product, ideal, moral, ethic or line of thought. The whole of the American population would follow and the rest of the world would probably join in too. Think about it. The power of the media, the power of celebrity.
Whoever controls the media controls the mind
Fresh Faced Comic - Denzel Gets Done
I tried my hardest to find this comedians name but came up empty. If you watch this for anything, watch it for the Denzel Washington impersonation.
White Taxi
I was in town this weekend and when I say town I don't mean Sandton City. I was in Johannesburg central, Hillbrow area. Now there are certain people who claim that this areas is the deadliest of the dead, the roughest of the rough and the maddest of the mad. I disagree but before I start to wander off topic I shall end that discussion now. Town is OK. I like Town. I think that Town is the place to be, it's a hub, it's cool, it's kitch, it's got history, pizazz, spunk (a bit of gunk) and there are a lot of big business head offices based there so I think it gets the nod.Anyways, I was driving home from Town when I looked out of my window to the right and saw the most unbelievable thing that I have ever seen as a white Sandton boy. I saw a white male taxi driver. Now all you foreigners to South Africa wont really grasp the significance of this. However, this was a significant moment for me, for you and for the greater South African cause. Black men drive Taxis, they don't drive the kind of taxi that you see in London or New York, they drive old VW minibuses and jam them with 5 to 10 more people than are legally allowed in a vehicle of that size, but they drive taxis, not skinny white, confused white males with fear and their eyes and oh, did I mention white? I think that the reason black men mostly drive these taxis is that mostly black people make use of the service, so it's a logical market to capture. (It's not a race thing so don't even think about throwing that crap my way).I was simply astounded to witness a white person driving a black taxi and understanding all the hand signals that indicate which car is turning what direction heading for a specific area on a predestined route. It's incredible and something that I thought was simply out of reach for any white South African to ever understand and control was being mastered by a whitey and accepted by the black passengers. Simply amazing.I wish that I had time to whip out my phone and snap a few photos but Town is a busy place with busy roads and angry people so I put my phone away and drove off marvelling in my luck.*Aside: Is it not absolutely astounding to anyone who has ever witnessed interaction between taxi driver and potential passenger that either of them know which way they are going? At one point passenger 'A' is walking South while the taxi is driving North, the fingers go up, glances are exchanged, fingers are crossed, a deal is made and all of a sudden passenger 'A' is in the taxi driving North, which is the opposite direction to that which passenger 'A' was just walking initially. It amazes me and boggles my tiny brain.
Fresh Faced Comic - Crazy Comedian
This is the newest of the new threads that Shutterview will feature. The Fresh Faced Comic is my attempt to uncover new and interesting comedians that make me laugh. I will be making use of You Tube's video sharing amongst other sources to uncover and expose comedians that I have never heard of or want to see more of. So if there are any suggestions email me or comment on this thread!Crazy ComedianThis dude is absolutely nuts. I couldn't help but absolutely piss myself laughing at how insane his routine is. Have a look and prepare to be amazed.
6 Day Spam
Spam is an issue, we all know it is. I decided to let the spam in my Gmail account accumulate over the past 5 days. I have reached a total of 176 spam mails not including today. That is pretty insane if you ask me. Now look, don't get me wrong, I have stumbled across a few - one or two at most - porn sites in my time, but nowhere near enough to justify recieving this many spam mails targeted at gay lovers, child molestors and freaks on leashes. Seriously, why can't I ever recieve worth while spam mail. The occasional winning lottery ticket online, the occasional nude picture of Heidi Klum or Natalie Imbruglia, the sports results from this weekend, none of that stuff is ever spammed my way.But I digress, my point is that I have recieved 35.2 spam emails per day for the last 5 days. I don't recieve that much mail on a normal day from people I know or with issues that concern me. Below is a screenshot of the awesome porn spam I recieve in my account:
Neighbour Horror Trilogy
My weekend neighbour trilogy is complete. Like every good horror story mine came in three parts: The grinding and drilling, the humming wall and now the hammer - the worst of all three-.9am, that is the time that this horror story occured. It came suddenly with a couple of hard and well targeted smashes to my area of our shared wall and it ended just as quickly. Like the bludgeoning of a victim in a movie my pain was realised quickly, experienced like a bad headache and then went away just as fast. Fortunately my story does not end in death for anyone... yet.I am now awake and the hammering has stopped. As in a good horror, there is one person left standing at the end with their entire life destroyed and no reason to really move on, so I am left awake with silence and unable to fall asleep.
It's All Over
Today was/is the day of my exam, the only outstanding half credit that I need to gain my degree in Journalism. It went ok I think. Albeit I am currently blogging when my exam is actually just about to finish, but I've never been one to hang around an exam when I was done. So here I am.I do have a bit of strange story to tell. I am happily going through my multiple choice questions when I notice an error on one of the questions, number 26 to be precise. I cant figure out where the answers are. The answers provided are marked from (a) - (e). The answers on the mark sheet are printed as 1-5. I am now stumped, confuzzled, bemused and in awe of this error or my stupidity. So I call over the invidulator who looks at the question and provides me with the answer to my problems:Nic: *whisper* Um, excuse me but these answers dont corrolate with the mark sheet.Inv: Excuse me, whats the problem?Nic: I said, these answers, there's something wrong with them.Inv: Oh don't worry, just look at the Afrikaans section for help.Nic: -stunned-Inv: -walks off-Um, ok, now I have a few fundimental problems with the help that I recieved. Firstly, why on Earth do they still print these things in Afrikaans at all? Secondly, I don't speak Afrikaans well enough to be able to read and decipher the answers on a damned University queston paper.So here we go again:Nic: -hand raised- Um, excuse me...Inv: -irritated- Yes, Sir, what is the problem now?Nic: I don't speak Afrikaans.Inv: Oh, um, well...Nic: Just tell me if the English answers are numbered EXACTLY as the Afrikaans ones are and I'll be fine.Inv: Yes, they are. -walks away-Now I can see her leave my table, walk to her colleague and glance over at me and skinner (gossip for my international readers). SCREW YOU LADY. I live in the 21st fucking century where Afrikaans is a dead, gone, dying, almost erie language to hear spoken (unless of course you study at University of Johannesburg or Stellenbosch). So take your little smirk and stick it where the papers can't be marked.Horrid little Afrikaans woman.
UPDATE: TechAttack #3 - coComment
coComment is fantastic. If you read TechAttack3 you will get the gist of the story surrounding coComment. Now I've had a bit of time making use of this initiative and I am extremely impressed.coComment takes a bit of getting used to and understanding but let's be honest, if I can do it, anyone can. It's a hop, skip and a jump away from registering to getting in the full swing of the process involved in tracking your comments.I not only spend alot of time reading blogs that I like and commenting on them, but following up on those comments and conversations. It is extremely time consuming to try and cover them all in one fell swoop and remember where I've been, who said what and when. So now I simply have coComment do it for me. The program can be downloaded (If you are using Flock or FireFox) and simply attaches itself to your blogger/wordpress comment box and asks if you would like to track the conversation. This is where it gets a little bit slow, once you tick the box and say you do want to track the conversation, you need to enter the blog title, url, post and post link then write your post and sign in as per usual. The comment is then sent straight to your coComment inbox where you can thereafter view and track comments on the conversation.It's simple, it's easy and that's the way I like these sort of applications to be. Easy enough for me to use and explain in 2 days and one post. Done and dusted.
Pronto Condoms
Before it's over, it's on...now that's fast.What an unbelievably freakin' brilliant product/concept. A Pronto Condom is an easy on condom. I think this is one of the best sexual inventions that has come out since sex itself (nothing beats sex).This little condom makes life easy on everyone. You get it up, you get things moving, you get ready then...no, wait, you need to rip the packet open, figure out which way is up and manage the slippery side of life. Then it's finally on and things aren't 'happening' if you catch my drift. So this little packet o' joy makes using a condom easy.Then there is the added joy of logic: If the condom is easy to use, more people will use them. Simple. And what an amazing ad campaign the above movie is!Check out the Pronto Condom website now, order online or buy them at any major Pharmacy nation wide (Excl Clicks).
Traffic Fines Online
The government has done it. They have taken the massive (long overdue) step in to the future - or present - and provided Jo'burg locals with the ability to check for outstanding traffic fines online.Go to the City Of Johannesburg website right now and you will be able to see if you are about to be arrested for overdue fines.Simply register with your ID number, email, a couple of other little details and then - magic - you can make use of the online traffic fine service. Other services available include water and lights invoices, online valuation forms, free interactive map and entering your meter readings.It's simple, fast and accesible so do it today.