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.