Nic’s blog
I write about building businesses, failing and building a life, not a legacy.
Are Ugly Girls All Talk?
Disclaimer: the following post is of a very shallow nature. I am not being mean with the title of this post but it this is something that I have noticed more and more often. I am sitting at Nino's in Rivonia and listening (eaves dropping) to a girl at the table next to me blabber on about all the love interests that she has on the table. Are these men blind? Dumb? Deaf or all of the above? This girl is irritating, presumptuous and self-centered.Very often I go out and talk to girl that are merely acquaintances who do not shut up about all of their love interests and escapades. Are they for real? Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that I am the be all and end all of judging what is hot and what is not, I am sure that to many ladies I am ass ugly but hey, that's everyone's personal choice.I am more interested in the concept of being brashly arrogant about what you have, don't have and think you have. I am not saying that one should not be confident, but why is it that in my experience it is always the ugly people (not just girls) in general who are talking about all the incredible things they have to offer and are being offered?Worst of all the ugly girl sitting next to me is sitting with a very good looking lady who has not been able to get a single word out of her mouth. Shame.Am I missing something or should you not just keep some details to yourself?
FALL OUT BOY IN SA
Yes, it's true, fall out boy is coming to SA!! Get to computicket now to book your tickets if you can get through!!The concert will take place at the Sun Dome in Jo'burg on the 20th of July. I CANNOT WAIT!!
Hoffmeyer Almost Backs Anti Religion Rock Concert
Hoffmeyer said, and I quote: he could "almost associate" with rock musicians wanting to hold a concert to warn people of the dangers of religion, according to a story at News24.That is an extremely brave statement from a man who's main audience are surely christians second to none. Steve really is loving the controversy these days!I have got to agree with this kind of concert and I am sure that Kevin will back me up here, if christians are allowed to hold concerts in the name of their cause and are allowed to have christmas concerts then why shouldn't there be a concert warning people against the effects of religion too? Don't get me wrong, I am not mudslinging the christians here, the concert will apparently speak of the dangers of all religions and religion in general.The only issue I have with the concert is that they are planning to have it on 7/7/7 (July 7th 2007). Now I am not bleak because this should be some sort of holy godly number with all the sevens or something like that, I am bleak because that is the day that Live Earth is coming to Jo'burg. That concert will rock.Back to the dangers of religion. There are so many opportunities for christians to help themselves look good (ok maybe not good, maybe just better) in the media but they don't. This guy didn't: "I believe the movement is demonic and inspired by Satan, but that Christians don't have to feel threatened, because God is stronger than Satan," Said Dr Isak Burger, president of the Apostolic Faith Mission. Do me a favour you moron. You think that because anyone is going against your prayer day that they must be demonic and satanistic. That is ignorance of the highest order you tosser.Is it not more ridiculous to actually believe that a day in a year (7/7/7) is going to convey your prayers to god more effectively than on any other day? if 'the big guy/girl' hasn't answered your prayers yet then 7/7/7 is not going to change that I'm afraid.The only praying that I will be doing on that day is that they turn up the volume at the Live Earth Rockathon baby!!
Amatomu Graphs All Over The Place
Can someone explain to me how this happens:
The blue graph (unique's) is where it should be as far as I can see, while the red graph (page views) has dropped to an absolute zero. Both graph indicators are showing the same date (24th) yet the readings are completely off. Is this possibly some sort of time transition between today and tomorrow?I think I am just missing something here, someone please help me with possible explanations.
Blog Post With Over 900 Comments
Holy baloney, 900 comment is insane. I think one time a while back I got about 50 comments and I was so happy I almost shat myself.The Dilbert blog (if you don't read it, you should) posted yesterday asking its users to answer a question about restaurant marketing and event hosting.On reading the post I was astonished at how flattering the author was (however sarcastically) to his readers call them "The Great Blog Brain". In return for his flattery he got 900+ answers to his posed questions. Don't ask me what they all said, there were 900 of them remember.This does make me ask a some questions and question some answers about blogging and the approach some, if not most bloggers take with their blogs. Does it not make more sense to ask rather than dictate? Don't get me wrong bloggers with authority and a genuine knack for writing then by all means go all Fidel up in your blog. If you have no skills, no talent, no authority and nothing else going for you, then maybe you should be asking a few more questions of your readers.Is that not what social media is meant to be? Google has all the answers apparently, but that is not true. It can't tell you what love is meant to feel like, it can't tell you how sore a broken arm is, but I bet you that a few readers could give you brilliant answers to both of those questions.I think an experiment might be in order. I think that I might try this tactic and see what comes of it. Let's ask some questions.
Afrigator Brings The GATORLOVE
Afrigator have just, as I type, implemented a new feature in to their "stats" type section. Gatorlove, as this feature has so affectionately has been named, shows you who is linking to your posts and how many blogrolls your blog/site features on.Lets have a look:
In the above image you can see the pinky/red heart showing you where your Gatorlove appears. Then next that you can see love from: blog posts and blogs. As Justin explained to me, Gatorlove from blog posts shows how many links your blog has received in actual blog posts, while Gatorlove from blogs shows you how many blogrolls your blog appears in.I think that this is a step in the right direction for Afrigator if they are going to compete effectively with the major blog aggregators (which they are fast proving that they can and will do). I am really enjoying their other features so far, the statistics graphs are interesting to look at and are more accurate to the data that I receive from my blog statistics than I have been receiving from others such as Amatomu (which I am not sure is a good thing or a bad thing yet, I mean is Ama right, is Google Analytics right, is Afri right? Who can tell?).But wait, that's not all, if you happen to click on the link "Blog Posts (#)" or "Blogs (#)" you will be taken to the actual data associated with the numbers. The link will point out exactly who is linking to what from where. Fantastic. These features have appeared on Amatomu already but I personally like to have a comparison. One set of data is never sufficient to make an adequate conclusion. Thus I am super chuffed with the new feature!Nonetheless, The Afriguys are working themselves silly to get the site to an optimum for users to truly gain the most from the services offered. I am not sure if any of these guys are still going to be married in the near future. Hmmm...I wonder If I'm ever going to get married?
Is Technorati A Load Of Shit?
I must be honest here, I was not much of a ranking person but recently I have been blogging about the topic alot. Technorati is only one of the many targets I have on my hitlist. Technorati was a tool that I had only heard about it in the major geek circles up until recently.One of two things has happened; 1.I have joined these geek circles (happily) and 2.Technorati went mainstream to a degree.I am banking somewhat on option 2 here. Now that Technorati is more mainstream than it used to be there are more blogs on the site, a lot of blogs. That means that you can try your damndest to work your way up the rankings on their site but to no avail. I think that there is some sort of common misconception from bloggers like myself: The higher you rank the more hits you get. That might be true to some extent but it just isn't true in all situations.Looking at Amatomu's ranking of blogs in the News and Politics section and focusing on the top 12 one can see that Technorati ranking is not directly proportional to reads in any way shape or form:
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Lets go with the left table above and work our way down:By Reads in News and Politics (Amatomu):#1 - East Coast Radio Blog: Does not feature in top 20 by Technorati Ranking#2 - My Africa: #15 by Technorati Ranking#3 - Wired Gecko: #4 by Technorati Ranking#4 - Black Looks: #1 by Technorati Ranking#5 - It's almost supernatural: #7 by Technorati Ranking#6 - commentary: #8 by Technorati Ranking#7 - the SA Navy etc...: Not in top 30 by Technorati Ranking#8 - SA Rocks: #2 by Technorati Ranking#9 - SomeAmongUs: #9 by Technorati Ranking#10 - The Antidote: #16 by Technorati Ranking#11 - Urban Sprout: #18 by Technorati Ranking#12 - Constitutionally speaking: #13 by Technorati RankingThe East Coast Radio and My Africa blogs are two perfect examples of what I am talking about. They are at numbers 1 and 2 respectively but do not feature predominantly in the Technorati rankings of Amatomu.Can someone explain this to me? Why do people place so much emphasis on rankings on blog sites like Technorati if they have no real impact? Am I missing something? Am I meant to be waiting to break the threshold somewhere that will all of a sudden open the floodgates to millions of pageviews? Is that threshold 20 000 on Technorati? Is it 10 000 or maybe the top 1000? I just don't know.Now it seems as though Technorati has completely removed the ranking system on their site and have listed blogs according to "Authority". This blogs authority is 65, SA Rocks is 122... how are you looking? Someone please tell me where my authority of 65 puts me? Top 50 000, 60 000?? I am so lost without the ranking!Then there is always the thought that when you get to number 1000 on the Technorati ranking system that you are not the only blog at number 1000, there are a gagillion other blogs who have
Nelson Mandela, 46664, Chumpstyle and Technorati
Can you get a better title for a post than that???Have a look:
In this image we have the Chumps Technorati ranking reflecting Nelson Mandela's Robben Island Number, 46664. Wowza that is cool. I think that the South African gods are telling the chumps something, when you know what it is, let me know!!
Goldin And Bloom Murderers Sentenced
Last year Brett Goldin and Richard Bloom were murdered in cold blood. The murderers have just been handed a 28 year sentence each. It may have taken over a year but the sentence has finally been handed down.I am not sure what sort of a sentence that is, personally I think that if you are found guilty of murder then the deed has been done and the sentence should reflect that. What is 28 years? Why not just make it a life sentence? If these guys are guilty, they are guilty and they should be in prison forever.Nonetheless, the culprits have been found, charged and convicted. They are now behind bars where they belong. And good riddance too.
Skype Helps Transcend Age and Geographical Barriers
My Grandmother, yes my grandmother, uses Skype. Can you believe it? She is somewhere in her 60s and is incredible. Firstly she taught herself how to use a computer. Click mouse, drag cursor, open document, use Explorer, get email address, send email. Brilliant.She then decided to get a laptop. Perfect, that can be done, spend the money, get a laptop. But low and behold it did not become a doorstop, no, it was used to make contact (can you believe this?) with people across the world. Me, my uncles, aunts, cousins, mother and more, it is just incredible. I am still blown away that at her age she has taken the time and made the effort to learn not only what the internet is, but how to Skype people.This Skype usage came to a head the other day when my gran Skyped me and told me that she had set up a conference call with a cousin (or is it uncle) that I had never met who lived in Holland. Seriously? Are you kidding me? My grandmother is sitting in London organising a conference call with her grandson in South Africa and nephew (or is it cousin?) in Holland. Incredible.Jimmy was great and the line was perfectly clear between the three countries. I am still blown away every day at the uses of the internet. I know, I sound ridiculous but I think that we take it for granted. My grandmother has never physically seen her youngest grandson, Alex, who is two. But she has seen him via Skype video. That is phenomenal.
MTV Adverts Banned By US Government
The following three adverts were apparently banned by the US government after a single screening. I am not sure how true this is but these ads are brilliant and effective nonetheless:
Text next to the towers: “2.863 people diedâ€Text next to the guy: “40 milllion of HIV infected in the world.â€â€œThe world united against terrorism. It should also be united against AIDSâ€.
Next to the towers: “2.863 people diedâ€Next to the kid:: “824 million people starving in the worldâ€.“The world united against terrorism. It should also be united against HUNGER.â€
Next to the towers: “2.863 people diedâ€Next to the old man: “630 million of homeless people in the worldâ€.“The world united against terrorism. It should also be united against POVERTYâ€.
Find Your Passion Project
Trust me on this one, if you find a project that you are passionate about it will put many things in to perspective. I luckily found this in SA Rocks and haven't looked back. It has focused me, concentrated my efforts and made me much more productive with all my projects.Make sure that you are passionate about at least one of your projects. There might be money involved, there might not be, this is immaterial. What matters is that you love every second of this project, it will make your online time much more worth while.