Modern Family

Modern Family has been the latest series that I have watched and I must say that I really enjoy it and recommend it. It is a comedy about a family that always try to bring some meaning to the episode.

All the characters are great and I think we can all see a bit of our families in the different characters. We see things that we do in our lives and it makes us think a little, laugh a lot and remember fun times and similar situations in our own realities.

I definitely recommend it! It is already on its third season so you will be able to see quite a few episodes without having to wait for more!

Of all the forms of courage, the ability to laugh is the most liberating

Laughter as we know best is part of a fun time but I also think it is liberating. When you are laughing for fun you relax, you become happy.

But besides fun moments, it is also important to laugh during the difficult ones. Having the courage to laugh about something that has been an issue is just as liberating. It makes the weight of the issue just drop from your shoulders. Sometimes it can become a crazy hysterical nervous laugh but it gives you the relaxing feeling too. It doesn’t mean that you don’t care about the issue anymore, you might even care a lot, but by laughing you take the stress off your shoulders and are left with only the issue to sort it out.

So I guess you should be brave and laugh away.

The statute of limitations has expired on most of our childhood trauma

Independent of what happens during our childhood we always have the power to control our future. We can have dreams and work towards them with all our energy and make the rest of our lives an incredible turn around.

I must say that I was very lucky as a child to have good, caring parents and family, have the opportunity to go to school and have no traumatic experiences. However I believe that a person that came from a traumatic childhood also has a shot at making it in life, some of them have even more will to do so and achieve more great things in their lives than some that had all the support systems in place. Of course the opposite also happens, but the possibility is still there.

I guess those with the will to change and make their lives better will not only improve their lives, but break a vicious cycle that would go on from generation to generation.

Christmas

Christmas is coming soon and with it comes the feeling of family and once again I will be away from my family at Christmas and definitely missing them a lot. There is no other holiday or any other date that (I believe) one can miss the loved ones more. The time of cooking together, secret Santa (and secret enemy too!), the time of looking back at Christmas’s that have passed and stories of when we were little, all the fun we have and love we feel on this holiday.

In Brazil we celebrate Christmas in the evening of the 24^th and on the actual Christmas day we do what South Africans do on Boxing Day, enjoy the presents, eat from the tons of food cooked the day before and enjoy the company of our family. The 26^th is just a normal working day.

No kid goes to bed on the 24^th before Santa come by with the presents. I guess that lots of the mid-nights when we were little happened around 10pm. Now at Christmas we talk about how our parents tricked us for all those years and how the family grew as the years went along.

Almost there

I must say that it has been very difficult to concentrate lately, particularly when I think of how much longer we have to go until we finish the year! Over the last few weeks I’ve found myself feeling very anxious and finding it hard to concentrate. One and a half weeks to go until we are on holiday! Can you believe it? A time that, not long ago, seemed so far away and couldn’t come soon enough is now around the corner.

I can almost feel the sense of accomplishment, not only for finishing this year, but also to graduate and being the first member of my immediate family to do so. But I can also feel the anxiety of waiting for the results and the certainty of the job being done. There is also a feeling of “now what”?! For me, and most of the part-time students, it is a prize to have our time back with our families and for the full time students the pressure of entering into the job market.

Even though the degree is finished, I am sure that we will all always be learning and that I will definitely start on some courses that have been on my wish list for a while, but it will definitely not be the same as these last few years have been.

Only bad things happen quickly.

I guess that this statement is true, but sometimes it is only true because we don’t pay attention to the signs of bad things that are coming. This may happen because we are focusing on the good things and waiting for the good things to happen (and quickly) so that when something bad happens it seems to be sudden.

For some reason everybody wants to know about tragedies (one can easily notice this by looking at the kind of news we have in the media every day), but when it comes to things that affect us on a personal level we ignore the bad signs and possibilities (thinking “it won’t happen to me”) and focus on the positive. I guess that it is instinctive so that one doesn’t get depressed just by thinking about what can go wrong, but at the same time it is important to keep things real. Between being positive or negative, be realistic!

Time to work out

Summer is around the corner and we all want to get into shape at the last minute, just like last year. My goal is to take part on the Two Oceans half marathon at the end of summer, but before I do that I have some other milestones to reach along the way. 

This week I registered for a 10km walk that is taking place on the 30th of October and a 20km walk that is taking place on the 13th of November. Looking back at my last experiences, these two walks will be challenges in themselves. The last 10km walk I took part in (about a month ago) left my body aching for a week! I definitely need to get fit. The last 20km walk I participated in was when I used to walk 10km easily and after the 20km walk I couldn't walk for a few days! 

I guess that I had better start my training this week because now I can't "run" away from it, the dates are set! 

Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid

Who else could I possibly be talking about in this post this week but Steve Jobs. What an example of being bold and going for it, attracting great people to help him start the technological revolution that it has been. 

I guess that when somebody like him, full of ideas and with a strong belief in them, comes along they are so fascinating that it is impossible not to be interested in them. Somebody that thinks outside the box and shows the world that it is possible. 

On the Internet today you see people talking about the three great apples: Adam’s, Newton’s and Steve’s. Steve is definitely getting into the school “ebooks”.

Don’t be afraid to follow your instincts, go for it but always stay hungry for more.

Handwriting

Back in the days of my school years, I used to write so much more that at the beginning of each semester it would be hard to adapt to all the writing. These days we take it for granted that we will have printouts, copies and pdf files given to us so that we can just make some extra notes on it as we go along.

I must say that my handwriting is getting quite scary! I’m not sure how I can still understand it!

I guess this is the future.  Maybe by the time my children are at school they will be typing instead of writing down from a early age and nobody will have calluses on their fingers from writing the whole day. Maybe it will be one of those things that we will say "When I was your age..." and it will be a distant world for them. 

The last lecture

Thinking of the last lecture I cannot help but think nostalgically about all the people I met and all that I have learnt in the last four years as well as how it all added to me as a person and professional.

It might be the last lecture at tech, but it certainly will not be the last one in our lives. Our next lectures might not be tested in assignments but they will definitely be tested one way or another. If not it means that we are not pushing ourselves to be the best we can be.

I guess that if from this point onwards we don't push ourselves to do the best we can we are not doing justice to not only our efforts over the last few years but also to the work of some great lecturers we have had along the way.

Two Oceans half marathon

The first thing that I have in mind to accomplish next year is the Two Oceans half marathon. I wanted to do the half marathon this year but I was not able to register for it as the limit on the number of people allowed to register had already been reached. I must say that I was actually glad I didn’t make it because by the marathon date I has so much to do that I probably wouldn’t have been fit to run but next year I will be there although definitely not in the lead (LOL). I may even be the last one to arrive at the finish line, but I will complete it!

Talking to people that have participated in the marathon before or that run regularly I am already becoming aware that you can’t just start to training and there you go. There is so much more to it such as the shoes you wear and the exercises you must do in order to have your whole body ready and not just your legs and feet. Apparently I should have started running already! Well, it will have to wait until November, but I’ll get there!!

 

Watch this space

For the whole year I have been writing this blog as a part of my university syllabus.  I try not to talk too much about class even though it has been a big part of the last four years of my life.  Between university, work and Little Brazil I have very little free time to do anything else. There are very few weeks of blogging (as a university assignment) left, however it doesn't mean that my blogging will stop.

Planning has always been one of my strong points and I must say that some planning for next year has already commenced. Next year I’ll be working towards ticking off items from my bucket list (and probably adding more too!), I will keep on researching about the industry and I have some more interesting events happening so if you keep watching this space you will be able to join me on this venture.

WTF Conference

I couldn’t let this week pass by without talking about the WTF Conference. I must say that I was impressed with the whole event. It was very well organised with very interesting people talking mostly about the same topic (social media) but without repeating what another had said.

There was not one speaker that didn’t bring something new to the table. I must say that even though this conference is aimed at the Public Relations students, the industry must definitely start looking at it as a must. 

I can’t speak for everyone, but I left the conference with a lot of great thoughts that are still very present and I am working on them in my mind with a feeling of wanting more just like after a great concert.

My favourite Cat in the hat (Monteiro Lobato) book is The Jabuticabas, because…

I must say that I don’t recall reading any Cat in the Hat books when I was a child, but I definitely remember reading Monteiro Lobato. He was probably as popular in Brazil as Dr Seuss is in the English speaking countries. He died in 1948 but his stories are still told to this day, both as books and as TV series. Most of his stories were about a ranch where Mrs Benta and her grandchildren, aunt Nastácia, a very funny and full of attitude doll called Emilia and others lived.

My favourite book is called The Jabuticabas. It is about a Jabuticaba tree which is a very Brazilian fruit tree that grows fruit on its branches. This book was my favourite because it was my first Monteiro Lobato book and after watching the stories on the tv I had my own book. Another special thing about this book was that I could relate a bit to the character because my grandmother has Jabuticaba trees in her garden and my siblings and I were able to act out some of the story.

Why I have conversations?

I have conversations to exchange. To learn and to teach. To broaden my world.

 

It is important to have conversations that connect us to other people, by what you know as well as what you don’t know. To converse is a need that every human being has.  What you make of those conversations is what shapes us. If I had just listened to every conversation without learning anything from them I would know nothing. The more conversations you have more you have to talk about and conversing with somebody else opens opportunities to know even more.

Weather

It is such a lovely time of the year! Don’t you just feel like being outside as much as you can? Especially here in Cape Town, it feels like everybody is waking up after a period of hibernation.

 

This is one of the things that are very different here compared to Brazil (at least from Rio).  Spring here can be colder than what winter is there. During winter in Rio it gets to about 15 degrees in the morning (although by the afternoon there is no need to even use a jacket), but the summer compensates by being extremely hot. You are actually glad when you need to go to a shopping centre just because of the air conditioning but it is not as if it will be cold in there, just bearable. I’m from Rio and every time I am there in summer it is just too much. So if you ever go to Brazil in summer, be sure that you take at least 4 showers a day! 

September 11

I guess that it wouldn't be possible to not remember that yesterday it was the 10th anniversary of the attack on the Twin Towers in the United States. I suppose that anybody will remember what they were doing on that day. Even though you were far away the whole world seemed to stop to see history happening. I guess that the most shocking of all was the fact that the whole world could instantly see it happen as it happened. I can clearly remember getting home from school and finding my mom in front of the TV, staring at it without blinking. I asked her what had happened and when she told me I was also stuck there in front of the TV. At that stage only the first tower had been hit and we stayed there watching the whole of the rest of it. It was like a movie and during that time, once the attacks were finished, a feeling of concern start to appear. Concern about what was happening, why it was happening and would it become World War III.

I guess I’m not the only person who can remember that day even though I was far away from it. So where were you then?

My bucket list, 100 things to do before I die

I have already done lots of things, some were on my list and some have sneaked onto it as I went along but I still have lots to do…

What I have already done:

1. Learn how to ride a bike
2. Live by myself
3. Go overseas
4. Be a part of Rock in Rio
5. Spend New Year’s Eve in Copacabana
6. Enjoy a summer in Milan
7. Eat an real italian gelato
8. Oktoberfest in Münichen
9. Visit a concentration camp
10. Be on the cover of a magazine
11. Go to the top of the Eiffel Tower
12. Visit Notre Dame
13. Visit Le Louvre
14. Take a picture at the Mona Lisa
15. Go to Juliet’s House in Verona
16. Build a snowman
17. Walk up Lions Head
18. Walk up Table Mountain
19. Find love
20. Ride a horse
21. Go to a waterfall
22. Go ice skating
23. Ride an elephant
24. Be in total darkness with no noise in the middle of the woods
25. Go to the Cango Caves
26. Spent a day at Tsitsikamma
27. Learn (I mean try to learn…) how to surf
28. Travel along the Garden Route
29. Get my drivers license
30. Go up the Sugar Loaf Mountain
31. Do volunteer work
32. Cook a turkey for Christmas
33. Be a part of a World Cup
34. Go to a Roxette concert
35. Watch the Cirque du Solei
36. Get my National Diploma

Still to do (not in any specific order):

37. Get my Btech Degree
38. Learn how to sing so I can go to a karaoke evening and not feel embarrassed
39. Dye my hair a different colour
40. Catch up on my “movies to see” list
41. Shave my head bald
42. Get a dog (my first one)
43. Learn how to tap dance
44. Go to Mozambique
45. Be a part of a World Cup in Brazil
46. Change somebody’s life (for the better)
47. Spend a summer in Durban
48. Travel the old fashioned way, by boat (but not too far though)
49. Visit Berlin
50. Go camping
51. Learn to play a musical instrument
52. Spend 2 weeks or more in New York
53. Visit the Taj Mahal
54. Visit Rome and of course the Colosseum
55. Have a ferret
56. Do the 20-day camping trip around Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe
57. Walk on a piece of The Great Wall of China
58. Get a tattoo
59. Go to Machu Picchu
60. Learn some form of martial art
61. Overcome my fear of heights
62. Visit the Pyramids of Giza
63. Ride in a hot air balloon
64. Safari in the Kruger
65. Meet Ellen DeGeneres
66. Ride a camel
67. Scuba dive in Fernando de Noronha
68. Visit Thailand
69. Dance some kind of dance…properly
70. Visit the Amazon rainforest
71. Be part of the Rio Carnaval
72. Go fishing
73. Have my own garden
74. Backpack in Europe for a few months
75. Ride a gondola in Venice
76. Learn more about photography
77. Learn some basic Xhosa
78. Learn to speak Spanish
79. Go to Rocking the Daisies
80. Visit the Klein Plasie open air museum
81. Visit Dubai
82. Be a maid of honour for somebody I really care about
83. Complete the Two Oceans Half Marathon
84. Do some sort of art course so that I have an excuse to go to an art supply shop and buy things
85. Take part in a flash mob
86. Watch a show on Broadway (the real Broadway)
87. Hold a butterfly
88. Canoe on a river
89. Take a flying lesson
90. Decorate my own house
91. Experience a white Christmas
92. Visit my uncle in Australia
93. Hug a koala
94. Get married
95. See the Northern lights
96. Learn a fourth language, not sure which one yet
97. Have a holiday in Bora Bora
98. Have children
99. And grandchildren
100. Always add to my bucket list

Technology in school history books

When Steve Jobs resigned last week I saw a slide show about his career and I was thinking “he is probably going to make to history books”. During my time at school history books were made of people in politics, revolutions, wars and ancient tribes. And the revolutionaries that made us change the way to see things (e.g. scientists) you learnt about in the science classes.

I then start to wonder were the technology revolutionaries fit in.  Maybe a new subject will emerge, “the history of technology”, if not as a subject on its own then at least a module in history or computer classes. Because even though people like Steven Jobs and Bill Gates didn’t fight physically they definitely revolutionised the way we live today.

My big fat BIG dream.

My big fat dream is made of lots of little dreams and until it happens it belongs just to me; when it comes true it will be part of the world. I believe that everyone must fight for their dreams, especially the big fat one. But we must also protect them, not only from other people, but from ourselves so we don’t make excuses to not fight for them. 

Once our big fat dream comes true another dream will become the big fat dream because the day we stop dreaming we stop living, so never stop dreaming.

My Igloo home

Recently I moved into a new flat in the Wynberg area; I have never lived in a place as cold as this flat is. Some days I can hardly sit at the desk to do assignments because it feels like my fingers will freeze and break. I have been using more than one pair of socks and the hot water bottle has been a good friend. Winter jackets and gloves are being used inside the house often. Inside the flat it is actually colder than outside!

 

Today I found out the reason for all that cold. Apparently there is a river running underneath the building! Now it actually makes a lot of sense since there is a little river/pond garden like area in the middle of the building. I just always thought that it was part of the landscaping, not an actual river.

 

Well, I guess we learn something new every day, now “check if there is a river running underneath the building” has made it to my list of “house search criteria”.

Conventional is a good fallback position isn’t it?

Well, I guess it depends on what you wish to achieve. If it is the ordinary, then “yes, it is”, but if you want to have excellence then if you go conventional you are going the wrong way.

In order to be great sacrifices need to be made one way or another. People who achieve great things have less or no “what ifs” in their lives because they tried the utmost to take the opportunity when it was presented to them in their lives.

However, they don’t just sit and wait for the opportunity to fall into their laps.  They will go after them by getting ready for when the opportunity comes, preparing themselves in every possible way they can. At the end of the day “success is when preparation and opportunity meet”.

You cannot chase two rabbits at the same time

Sometimes we want everything but trying to run after everything can sometimes get you nothing because you won’t be able to run fast enough in all directions, just like chasing two rabbits at the same time.

For that reason it is important to know what your priorities are. Know what you want most and be capable of letting go of something else that you want in order to get to the one that is most important.

We must always strive to work for everything we want, but knowing what you want the most and having a back-up plan in case you can’t have it all will allow you to at least have something rather than nothing; hopefully this something will be the thing you want most.

Surviving PR Btech

I may still have a few months to go until I have completed my Btech but I believe I can already give some tips for surviving Btech to the 2012 class, especially the crazy part-time people who are doing all the subjects in one year like I am. So here goes:

1. Get a BlackBerry. You will definitely need it and it will save you a lot of airtime and Internet costs.

2. Ask questions (and take notes while doing so) until you are sure of what you are meant to do or otherwise you may confuse yourself.

3. Plan and organise. Very, very important! Assignments cannot be done the night before.

4. Have a calendar. Do not only mark it with the due dates of assignments, but also the nights you are planning to work on them.

5. Have an assignment folder. Have a dedicated folder with the assignment briefs in order of due date. For those with no brief, a page with the title will do.

6. Colour code. I am a visual person so colour coding is very effective. Each subject has a colour assigned and I use this colour on the calendar, for emails, in the assignment folder, etc.

7. Have paper. Lots of it! You will probably print more than you printed throughout the whole of the National Diploma (this also means that you must be prepared to read a lot!).

8. Exercise at least once a week so you can stretch your body. Even if it means waking up early on a Saturday morning. It will do you more good than sleeping late.

9. Get a massage. Get one at least once a term. Carrying all that paper around doesn’t help your shoulder muscles.

10. Think outside the box. You are a Btech student now. Be creative but always with reference.

11. Social life. Forget it! You do not have one. The closest you will get to a social life is when you are meeting your fellow students for group assignments. But always remember that when November comes it will be worth it!

Changing schedules

After almost four years studying part-time I will be moving to full-time classes in two weeks time (29^th August) for the final nine weeks of University.

 

It feels weird to think of being in class during the day to tell you the truth. I have been used to working during the day and then going to class in the evenings and now I’ll be doing it the other way around. I actually think that I’m more awake during the evenings than in the mornings. lol. I guess I will get used to it, plus there is a bonus of sleeping late on a Friday J

 

I will definitely miss my part-time peeps but I guess it will be nice to meet new people and in a certain way visit what it would have been like to have gone to University straight from High school.

“Nothing is more dangerous than an idea, when you only have one idea” (Alain)

What this statement means is that when a person has only one idea this person is at risk of just seeing things in that one way, becoming obsessed with that one idea and not seeing a world of opportunities that are available.

 

It is great to have a focus or a goal in life, but having only one can be dangerous. Not only because of the risk of obsession but also because if that one idea does not become a reality, one may end up with nothing at all.

 

We need to have a career goal, a personal goal, a community goal and for each goal more than one idea on how to achieve it. We also need to be flexible with our goals and ideas so we don’t get stuck at a dead-end trying to make an idea that will never be successful happen.

 

I think that the more ideas you have the more you get it.  It is almost like pedalling a bike, when going from a standstill (no ideas), then the first pedalling (first idea), the, as you gain speed it becomes more difficult to stop than to keep on going.

 

We all ride our bicycles at our own speed, the important thing is to keep on riding and gaining speed.

Communication in the information age

I was thinking the other day how funny it is that we are in the information age and each day there are more ways to communicate and less attention is being given to what is actually being communicated. It is almost as if everybody reads the headlines but nobody reads the articles.

 

Miscommunication is so common and it made me think about being in the information age. It is indeed a time in which information is everywhere but not necessarily a time in which people are well informed.

 

People don’t have the time to read and observe all that is been said all around them and they end up losing even more time by trying to figure out what is going on while hearing bits and pieces rather than if they had just read or paid attention to it properly in the first place.

 

Have you figured out the second head fake?

  “It's not about how to achieve your dreams. It's about how to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself. The dreams will come to you.” Randy Pausch

 

I am a huge believer in the above statement. I think that the energy you put out into the world will always come back to you, maybe not through the same channels or straight away, but it will.

 

But it is not only for this reason that it is important to live life in a positive manner. It is also important to have dreams. Dreams can come true if we really want them to. As Pausch said in his last lecture, the walls (obstacles) are there just to keep those who don’t want things badly enough from getting to them. If it is your dream you will want it badly enough.

 

So dream away and go chasing after them. Live fully and live well to bring good karma into your life.  What goes around comes around.

Something to think about

"What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal.” Albert Pine.

Albert Pine is so right on his statement. It is actually funny, isn’t it?  Particularly if you think that nowadays people seem to care more about what they do for themselves than what they do for others. Taking Pine’s quote into consideration one could say that people nowadays want to be forgotten.

I guess that nobody really wants to be forgotten or remembered for negative reasons. We all want to be remembered for our good qualities.  In order for this to happen we need to touch other people lives in a positive way.

There is another quote, this time by John Bunyan that says, “You have not lived until you have done something for someone who can never repay you”.  I guess when you do something for somebody who can never repay you, you will become immortal for that person or that community.

How hard is it to follow instructions?

I guess it is all dependent on the introduction to the task, the sender and the receiver of the instruction as it is in any kind of communication. I must say that sometimes it can be frustrating giving an instruction in detail and not getting the results that you so obviously should get.

I guess that when instructions are not followed the fault lies on both sides, more on one side than the other but always both sides. In order to have instructions followed effectively the sender must consider their audience, speak in clear language, try to make the instruction as comprehensible as possible, ask the receiver if he understood the instruction and also try to put it into context.

There are things to be considered by the receiver such as asking questions until you understand the instruction completely, do not try to do it if you think it is “something like that” and to make sure you know what you are doing.

Something that I have learnt and found to be very efficient and effective in one-on-one communication is to ask the receiver to repeat the instruction back to me. It seems to make the instruction stick in the mind of the receiver.

If the above doesn’t work, it could be an attitude problem; the receiver understands but just does not want to do it and this can be for various reasons that are very complex.

Lectures

The other day I was thinking that sometimes we feel as though some topics repeat themselves while you are at university and how sometimes one can think that certain things are just too obvious.

The truth is that it is not always only about the subject, it is also about what ideas the lecturer triggers in you. Sometimes you can be there just listening to something that you heard the year before but that one person makes you see it all in a totally different light.

I must say (and some of my friends can confirm) that sometimes a lecturer can make my imagination and creativity go wild.  I start to have all sort of ideas of what to do that I can’t do right away because I don’t have the time for it all.  If I can’t accomplish that idea straight away it will for sure go onto my to-do list.

So I say thanks to most of my lecturers, not necessarily only for what they taught me throughout the last few years but certainly also for stimulating my creativity.

Andy Warhol said, “In the future everybody will be world famous for fifteen minutes.” You can’t choose the 15 minutes but why would you be world famous?

I guess I would like to be famous for doing something that would improve the lives of other people. I would like to have lived according to John Bunyon’s quote "You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you." and be famous for it because of encouraging others to do the same.

I haven’t gotten there yet, but I could say that I have experienced being kind of “famous” because of the Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial I participated in. People actually recognised me on the street especially when I was wearing green.

It was very weird, people stare at you or talk to you as if they know you, and it was only a 30 second commercial. Can you imagine what real famous people go through every day?

Here is the video of my 30 seconds of fame :P

Pictures bring good memories

Last week I created groups on facebook for my different school classes. One of the schools I left in 1995 and since then I had contact with very few people. Since the group was created we have had some pictures of “back in the day” posted there. It is so funny how looking at those pictures and people made me feel like I was a child again and made me want to see some more pictures.

It is funny how pictures can brings back good memories. So I sat there and laughed about things I had forgotten and really enjoyed it. This technology is great to have allowed us to take tonnes of pictures but I must say, I miss flipping through the pages of a photo album. But nowadays it is just too hard to choose which pictures will make it to the album and which will be left out of it.

A skill set called leadership

Leadership for me is a skill that a person is born with. I guess that people can learn the things that are necessary to become a good leader, but a great and remarkable leader is born with it. I think that leadership has a lot to do with personality, to have the skill of talking and transmitting your message as well as to be able to understand others.

Being able to understand where the people that you are leading are coming from is a big part of being a great leader. Most people in top management positions can’t understand why their workforce behaves the way they do and this weakens their leadership.

Being able to explain things in a way that the workforce understands is also very important. A leader needs to be able to make their decision logical for those who follow. If you can explain “why”, your followers will work forward with you.

I think that some people are born with the skill of listening, understanding and being understood. There is a lot that can be learnt to develop this skill but the really good ones are born with the gift.

Who moved my cheese

I read this book for the first time last week and I would say that people should read it regularly. The book is about change and how we respond to change that wasn’t a choice of ours.

Things are always changing, even gradually, and we need to be able to accept it and change with it. There is no use complaining about something when you know that complaining won’t change anything.

Whenever you see that you are complaining about things I would recommend that you take some time and read this book, maybe what you are in need of is just some new cheese.

“Rock journalism is people who can’t write interviewing people who can’t talk for people who can’t read” Frank Zappa

I guess that when Zappa said that it was a critique of how people don’t look outside the box and the miss communication because of it. The information that the interviewee gives won’t find the reader as the meaning is distorted on the way.

The people that can’t talk, the artists, can express themselves but not necessarily in ways that other will understand. The way their minds assimilate things and how they express it verbally in a conversation can differ.

Then the people that can’t write understand it their own way, and need to write for people that can’t read. People who can’t read means that people will interpret the written article differently from what the people who can’t write wrote.

There will be 3 versions of the same conversation, almost like a broken telephone. Therefore Rock journalism is people who can’t write interviewing people who can’t talk for people who can’t read.

Customer service

A few weeks ago I got the “Club” magazine from Edgars. I don’t have an Edgars account and to tell you the truth I hardly ever go there but I saw a nice pair of boots in the magazine and decided to go there and check them out.

Because I’m very forgetful I decided to take the magazine with me so that I could find the right pair of boots quickly. When I finally found the boots I tried them on and I liked them but when I looked at the price there was a R100 difference between what they were labelled as and what they were advertised as in the magazine. I thought that perhaps the new price just hadn’t been placed on the box yet so I decided to verify once I was at the cashier.

When I got to the cashier the person attending me was more interested in talking to the client at the cashier next to her than being of service. When she finished I asked her to check the price of the boots on the system and she told me the price is on the box. I then told her that the price in the magazine was different, hence my query, but she just looked at me with a “so what” attitude and showed me the price that was on the box. Since I had the magazine with me I showed it to her and she insisted that the price on the box (R100 more than the price advertised in the magazine) was the price I must pay, so I told her to call the manager. The manager asked the problem was and I explained the situation. He reacted by doing exactly the same thing as the cashier, he showed me the price on the box. I showed him the magazine but he hardly looked at it and said that it is obviously a different pair of boots. I then pointed out details of the boots that showed that the boots are the same. Then he turned around and said that he was going to do me this “favour” by charging the price that the boots were advertised at. Well that made me totally upset and I told him that he wasn’t doing me any favour since as a customer I have the right to receive the goods at the price at which they are advertised.

I left the place with my boots, paying the advertised price, and with the certainty that there is a reason why I am not an Edgars customer.

List your top 200 achievements

I guess we all have more than 200 achievements to talk about, however I want to list the main ones, the other 142 I’ll leave for the other ¾ of my life :)
 

1.                   Winning my first race (in my mom’s belly)

2.                   Surviving 9 months inside my mom’s belly

3.                   Going through the stress that was birth

4.                   Taking my first breath

5.                   Drinking

6.                   Eating

7.                   Rolling

8.                   Crawling

9.                   Making funny noises

10.                Walking

11.                Speaking

12.                Running

13.                Going to school

14.                Making friends

15.                Actually speaking

16.                Participating in the school play

17.                Learning to choose

18.                Reading and writing

19.                Sleeping away from my house for the first time

20.                Learning to swim

21.                Riding in a lift by myself

22.                Riding a bike

23.                Going to the bakery by myself

24.                Rollerblading

25.                Surviving having my finger broken during a soccer match

26.                Making my first business work by selling drawings and beaded things at school

27.                Travelling by aeroplane

28.                Going through a modelling competition

29.                Accepting my curly hair after years of straight hair

30.                Living in Sao Paulo without my parents for a month

31.                Learning English

32.                Travelling

33.                Living in different countries

34.                Working all over the world

35.                Learning about other cultures

36.                Falling in love

37.                Learning some more English

38.                Travelling by myself

39.                Learning even more English

40.                Getting to the top of Lions Head

41.                Getting to the top of Table Mountain after a 3 hour hike

42.                Bartending

43.                Falling in love again

44.                Getting a waitressing job

45.                Becoming totally independent

46.                Finishing my English course

47.                Finishing the Big Walk 20km

48.                Passing my Public Relations short course

49.                Getting my drivers license

50.                Getting my first “career” job

51.                Organising my first event

52.                Having my own event business

53.                Organising my first big event

54.                Learning even more English

55.                Expanding my business

56.                Completing an events course

57.                Public Relations National Diploma (soon to be BTech)

58.                New job