Saturday, September 26, 2009
SAEON?
I recently read an article in our local weekend news paper (Weekend Argus, 26/09/09, p13) on the South African Environmental Observation Network or SAEON. Two BIG takeaways:1. SAEON recently established a citzen science initiative where the layman will have an opportunity to report on anectdotal evidence of climate change. No details were given on how this intitiave would be co-ordinated. Also no mention was made of whether the Internet would be used. I think there's a great opportunity to use existing social media platforms such as Twitter and Flickr to record the obversations. Twitter has a publically available web API through which climate change twitter updates can be extracted for further analysis.
2. SAEON previously launched their "Birds Eye View" initiative through which the laymen can provide updates on bird sightings, e.g. looking out for the first arrivals of easily identified migratory birds species in our geographuical areas. The following is an extract from the newspaper article as mentioned above:
"Once we've pooled all this information from all over the country into a database, it will be really valuable. We can start building a puzzle of how plants and animals are responding in different areas over time to climate change. Already, across the northern hemisphere, deciduous trees are getting leaves, flowers are blooming and migratory birds are arriving anywhere from one to two weeks earlier than they did 30 years ago. In essence, spring has sprung - but it's all happening too soon ... As the timing of important events shift, we anticipate problems for the completion of life cycles in certain organisms."
Not sure about you but this sounds like the kind of thing that Twitter was born to do. I will keep you posted.
UP 3D
Our eldest son and I went to the cinema today to watch the movie UP in 3D. I must say, 3D technology has come a long way, gone are the days of the white plastic glasses with the red and blue lenses. The cinema we attended used REALD 3D technology (printed on the side of the black-framed glasses with grey lenses). If my previous "white plastic" 3D experience was rated a 3/10 then this was more like a 7/10, great but with room for more improvement.To me, the movie had a sad undertone to it for most of the way. It was also very inspiring and funny and made me reflect on the nature of my relationship with my wife and two boys. It's REALLY made me APPRECIATE them so much MORE. I truly am blessed. UP is great for the young and old. It comes highly recommended, an 8/10.
Check out the UP movie trailer on You Tube.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Fairwell at News Cafe in Blouberg
A friend of ours had her fairwell at the News Cafe (#NewsCafe) in #Blouberg earlier this evening. There was about 14 of us sitting upstairs alongside a window overlooking the bay, a truly amazing view. The service was good. The food was good (tapas-style). Our waiter, Lemmy, was at our beck and call. He even ventured off into the evening to buy a friend (one of the 14) a pack of cigarettes from the store down the road. The evening was less about the food and drinks and more about the conversation. Nevertheless, the drinks flowed and the food came in waves.The News Cafe uses wireless ATM / Credit Card machines, a very important security consideration, i.e. as a client I would prefer that my card is swiped in plain view by my waiter using a wireless machine at my table. Why? because this way I reduce the likelihood of fraud or some other form of identity theft.
Roots of Integrity, keeping my promises
Earlier this evening we informed our 4 year-old son that we were about to visit a friend for her fairwell, she will be relocating to #Johannesburg next Wed. My wife and I were planning to take our son to the cinema tomorrow for a movie, popcorn and a soda.We wanted to keep it a secret and thus surprise him tomorrow by fetching him early from school. He threw a tantrum when we informed him that we were about to go out for the evening and that his nanny would be taking care of him for the evening. In response to his tantrum my wife told him about our plans for tomorrow. I know my son, he'll keep us to it and will be SUPA grumpy until we deliver on our promise to him. If I was anything like him at his age then I understand my dad's actions as described in the next paragraph. I don't agree with it but I can certainly understand it.The "I promise to make this right by doing something else in return" experience with our son reminded me of an experience that remains etched in my memory to this day. I can't recall how old I was but I do remember being old enough to open a car door on my own. I remember my dad saying to me that he was going to buy us a TV and that we were going to purchase the TV the next day. The next day arrived and I must've nagged so much that he eventually said to me to wait in the car because we were going as promised. I remember running to the car, getting in and waiting. He didn't come to the car that day. Eventually my mom fetched me. It's amazing how this single experience made integrity so important to me today. Tomorrow's my turn with my son, deja vu :-)
Remember that children learn through our example (as adults and care givers). They learn very quickly. Each time I break a promise I teach my son that it's okay to break promises, to not keep your word, to lie.
Today at the Spa
My wifey and I spent the day at the Sanctuary Spa at the Twelve Apostles hotel in Cape Town (the pic insert to your left). I've had my fair share of spas in the past, some great and others not so good. Today was one of my best experiences. They're not the cheapest but our money was well spent. Our package included a Swedish massage, lunch, a pedi and an hour long facial. We also had access to (and thoroughly exploited) the spa's facilities which included a sauna, hot and cold pools, floatation tank, chill room and fruit buffet. It was a treat. Also, it was clean. A sign of a good experience is that it feels like it happened too quickly, this was how it felt with each of the treatments. No, I'm not getting paid to write this. I do, however, feel that credit should be given where it's due. Good customer service is rare.My masseuse asked me what the occassion was, why we decided to spoil ourselves? I explained that today was an opportunity for my wife and I to reconnect. We live very busy lives and spend most of our awake time working, whether to see to our kids or whether at work. The morale of the story? Make time to reconnect with your spouse. Remember, if you "lucky", the kids will move out after 20 years or so leaving you with your spouse in possibly a large empty house. Imagine how strained your relationship could be after 20 years of "no speaking or listening to each other". This is the reality of many today. Make every moment count!
Monday, September 21, 2009
Joy is...
watching my boys play nicely with each other and with their cousins. Amazing to witness the familial bonds spark and grow, enlightening. My lesson: their is value in maintaining the connection with my family, I may not always understand the dynamics though, who does anyway? Someone once told me that the only normal people are usually the people you don't know ;-) So there you have it and there it is.
Weekend Roadtrip
Returned earlier this afternoon from a weekend roadtrip along the southcoast of South Africa from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth and back. The countryside was nothing less than breathtaking, mostly a lush green with many hues of green and brown in between. Lots of roadworks, no doubt in preparation for the coming 2010 Football worldcup. We had a big family reunion, one evening of reconnecting with cousins, siblings, uncles, aunts, mom, dad, and friends of old. The experience, inspirational and rejuvinating. It was a great weekend and it's fantastic to be home again, my sanctuary.We stopped about 3 times in each direction, each time giving the kids an opportunity to "stretch" their legs (and exhaust themselves). My brother and his family accompanied us on our way back. It was lovely having them along while driving in our two-car convoy. Sometimes he kept the pace and sometimes I did. This helped with staying awake for the roughly 8 hour trip (each direction).
It was amazing to see our children playing with their cousings, wanting to be with their cousins 24x7. I remember having tons of fun with my cousins while growing up. We got up to mischief, as most kids would to. Today I have two sons and I can only imagine what they are getting up to that I'll never know about. Karma is a beach :-)
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Keeping breakfast interesting...
5 things that's worked and continue to work with our two boys (2 yrs and 4 yrs old):
- Introduce breakfast cereal bars (change brands/flavours often because it gets boring very quickly). Alternate with your usual cereal varieties, make it a treat.
- Blend up a milkshake out of the cereal (if possible) and use big straws to make it even more interesting.
- Make fun shapes whenever possible, especially when there's toast, egg or whatever, e.g. you could make a smiley face. Thats right, play a bit with your food :-). Our eldest enjoys this the most given his gravitation to fantasy play.
- Serve cereal without milk some days, makes for a crunchy breakfast.
- Experiment. Surf the web for other great ideas, there's millions of them going around.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Joy is...
understands what I'm asking of him,
e.g. please throw it in the bin?
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Keeping an Eye on My Patch of Earth
I live with my family on the edge of Rietvlei, a wetlands area in Cape Town, South Africa. Rietvlei is also a bird sanctuary and is home to an amazing variety of birds, some (flamingos) who visit for a few months at a time during their breeding season. I've lived on Rietvlei for eight years now. In a way, I'm it's part-time custodian, like every other land owner along Rietvlei. The same applies to your part of the world. This is our legacy.
My plan with this section of the blog is to keep a layman's account of the impact of global warming on Rietvlei and it's surrounds. In the last 5 years there's been noticable changes in our area in terms of climate and bird-life. If you have a blog that keeps track of climate change on your patch of earth then please share your website/blog details with me.
On a more brighter side, my wife took the above picture earlier today. It shows an orange bishop (bottom) and what looks like a yellowish-green weaver on our birdfeeder in the yard?
Saturday, September 5, 2009
The Future is Here, Great Intro to SocialMedia Trends and Tips
Men buy & Women Shop
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
The Slips in My Pockets
During the course of my work day I may or may not pay for parking as part of a client visit. I may or may not have a breakfast, lunch or dinner meeting with a client or I mighht meet a colleague for a meeting while out of the office, i.e. I collect slips/receipts during the day.
I used to loose my receipts. I did not have a consistent storage place for them, i.e. some of it was in various places in my car, some in my laptop bag, some in a jacket pocket, others on my desk, in the drawer, on a shelf in my bedroom, in my wallet and so on and son. At some point I stopped using my wallet because storing slips in my wallet lead to a swollen, uncomfortable and eventually deformed wallet that was in desperate need of replacement. So, I started keeping my slips in my work pants pockets. Each morning I transfer the slips from my previous day's pants to today's pants. I only keep slips that I use as part of my monthly work expense claim. The rest I throw awat. I also keep a monthly expense-claim envelope in the top draw of my cradenza. The idea is that I transfer my "pocket" slips to the envelope whenever I remember to do so (when I can no longer easlily find things in my pockets!). Then empty the envelope once per month as part of my monthly expense claim process. The system is not full-proof but it works (mostly)!
What does your pockets look like? Have you found a fullproof system that works for you? If so, then please share your wisdom with me?
PS: I now own a slim wallet that only takes plastic. Where did I leave my small change again??
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
A child's trust
From the day your child is born you, as the parent, very quickly become a beacon of safety to him. He trusts you completely. You are the centre of the universe to him or, in my case, my wife is nr 1 and I'm nr 4 in the "pecking" order. So, not dead-centre, but close enough. He depends on you. It is this trust that we (as parents) either strengthen or weaken over time, depending on the degree to which we invest in them. By investing in them I mean spending quality time with them, "being present" time.
The last thing my son did tonight before drifting off to sleep was slip his two Bakugan Battle Brawlers into my right-hand. That was him trusting me. He trusted me to put his brawlers up high where his younger brother could not get hold of it and then destroy it, these were and still are (at the time of writing) his most prized possessions. I hope we'll still share such a relationship of trust when he is my age one day.
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