If you find this funny, poor you because then you are more than likely experiencing it or you have already. I found it funny

Interesting read and I think it sums up nicely what I would like (and expect) from a company I work for. I mean I give it my all, why can’t they?

It is quiet long but basically he is describing the workings in a successfull company. So I have to ask the question, Do companies like this exist in South Africa? Let me know, please.

Joel writing about DAL’s.

I think SABC has us trained. By us I mean you and me. Have you noticed that you cannot sit for a long time doing something without going to the toilet or standing up? Well I blame SABC. They break to adverts so often that it becomes habit and no matter where you are or what you doing, every 15 minutes you will feel the awkward, uncomfortable feeling. Well that is SABC reminding you who is boss!

Anyway my point is the following, you sit there the advert comes up, having gone to the toilet 15 minutes ago during the previous break, you opt to stand up this time still glued to the TV. On the fourth break you think to yourself, bugger this advert is irritating and boring. Not only that but they have showed it every break for the past hour. Then you think but what the hell are they actually advertising. Then the scary realization comes that you have seen it thrice in the past 45 minutes and have not once taken note of what they are advertising. The only two important things to note here is one, you have not taken note the first 3 times and two, what were you doing? Did your subconscious take over or maybe fall asleep? Where the hell did that time go? And finally you realize you just missed it again and at the same time why you missed it: You just aren’t interested.

Funny thing is although you were not interested and missed the adverts, the next time you want to purchase something subconsciously those images of that irritating “eagle swooping down over the lake grabbing the fish” return. With that in mind I think we can all agree that we all live far below our true potential.

So have you ever thought about traveling? And if you have traveled, did you make the most of it? Taking this a step further, have you ever thought about living abroad? I am sure at some stage you have. 

Once again let’s look at it in a real life situation. You sit with your buddies having a drink or maybe a braai. You indicate that you are interested in going aboard – I mean at the time you don’t really know why, you are just running it by them to see what they think. So you go with a reason of there aren’t really that many opportunities locally. The response is negative! Now I am one of those people that pay attention to others and I am also interested in what they have to say, although sometimes I think too much. Anyway to sum up you hear things like: “What are you doing to do when you get back?”; “You will have to start off from the beginning when you get back”.

Now I don’t know about you but is that really a good enough reason. I read a book a while ago and something that really stuck with me is the idea of “Learning, earning, yearning”. This author (I can’t remember his name, and google doesn’t help) subscribes to the idea that your life consists of 3 main stages namely: learning (school and tertiary education), earning (working) and lastly yearning (I will get to this later). He also states that the idea of life is to minimizing the yearning in the yearning stage. Meaning you shouldn’t regret things like decisions or actions. Basically you shouldn’t yearn for anything or at least keep that down to the absolute minimum. Now with this in mind how many people have you heard yearning? How many people have you heard say that they should have traveled the world. I mean unbeknownst to them they still can it is just not that easy.

So really what I am trying to say is that I don’t really want to be one of those people that yearn for something. I want to be wise, experience other cultures and see things that I read about. Is that not a good reason to go a board? Is “What are you doing to do when you get back?” really a good enough reason not to go? I think sometimes people think too much about the consequences. What do you think?

If you have never listened to this band – do yourself a favour. Now I know a lot of people say it is not my type of music but how do you define what is your type of anything. Take art for instance, you don’t need anyone to tell you if a piece of art is good or not. You know if it is good, but people feel that they are not “qualified” enough or inexperienced to make a decision. But once again I say you are. Art is not good because it was painted 5 decades ago or because of the artist’s lifestyle or his reputation. Also you don’t need to understand art, I would go as far to say that contrary to  popular belief there is no meaning behind a piece of art. A piece of art is good because of the way it makes you feel. If it sparks any feeling in you, it is good. Hence good art is emotive! Granting the feel is good to you. The artist is not trying to tell you something, s/he is trying to make you feel something. Now take this a step further and imagine the feeling or state of mind of the artist at the time.

Now when you listen to NIN (I recommend The Fragile – CD2), keep the above in mind and take note of how you feel and what they felt like at that time. Don’t worry about the words, feel the music, try listen to each “noise”, try and take them in separately and reconstruct it in your mind.

Apply this to anything and everything.

So I went to this barcamp thing (sounds very negative doesn’t it?) but I thought it was great, interesting, inspiring, I mean I can go on but I am sure you get the point (here are a couple write ups – dewet, dewet2, max). What really struck me about the whole event was the amount of focused (some call it passionate) people there. It got me thinking, why am I not as focused? Why don’t I use my free time to investigate something, research and develop myself? Or do I and I don’t realize it?

Let us tackle it from another perspective, a practical perspective. When you go for an interview and the interviewer asks you, “Where do you see yourself in 5/10 years?” – long pause, think about it – “ hmmmm, well that is a tough one …. Hmmmm … “. Now I know a couple people that could give a clear cut answer (rafiq, elevator speech). Well no matter what I do, I always give them a different answer. What does that mean? I can only come up with two explanations (feel free to help me out here) – either I don’t like what I do or I don’t like where I am doing it. I have sat up many a night till 3 am coding, however not for the company I work for presently, but I would given the chance. OK, maybe I don’t take charge … direct my thoughts for me please! I mean how could a person direct their attention as people do, what if you don’t experience something? What if you miss something? Maybe I was not meant to be really excellent at one thing – rather fairly good at a lot of things. I suppose only time will tell.

Back to barcamp, maxine – you are the bomb! rafiq – envy your enthusiasm! conrad – fascinated by your conversation! And the rest – thanks for your re/action to the situation.

This blog is basically about things I note – that stand out to me. They might stand out because they seem stupid, unusual, funny or “sumfink or nuffink” (Vicky Pollard, got to love her). One thing I have always been fascinated about is the reaction of people to a situation, also how these re/actions compare from person to person. This is why I think I am over observant when it comes to people and the things they do. I never studied any psychology, nor read any books on the subject – so don’t expect anything!

So what is this blog about – lets just say everything and nothing.