Tomorrow is Blog Action Day – the initiative to help rid the world of poverty. I am following Jacob Cass’ lead (he of Just Creative Design fame) in “doing my bit by leaving it up to you guys to decide how much I will donate.”
I will donate 10cents for every comment posted in the next 24 hours – starting from the time of this post. Leave a comment saying “I’m helping to rid the world of poverty”.
do you know your responsibilities as well as you know your rights?
http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1823335&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights from Seth Brau on Vimeo.
i took the cue from warrior scout over at kickin tina:
this is a meme that’s been around, but i thought some pictures might be good today. everyone is tagged if they choose to be..
how old on your next birthday?
31
Where would you like to travel?
i’d like to go back to Spain – this time doing it like Polly Evans in “It’s not about the tapas”
What is your favorite place?
Transkaroo restaurant in Great Brak River: great food, good friends and memories
What is your favorite food?
chicken
What is your favorite pet?
Poepies, my jack russel
What is your favorite color combination?
red and black, at the moment
What is your favorite piece of clothing?
denims
What is your favorite song?
Gabriella’s Song (Sa som I Himmelen O.S.T.)
What is your favorite tv show?
Queer as Folk
What is the name of your significant other?
Peter
Name the town in which you live.
Donggang
What is your screen name?
absolutwillie
What is the first job you had?
land surveyor’s assistant
What is your dream job?
creative director
What is your greatest fear?
being alone
Name one thing you want to do before you die.
see the feature film based on my life
What is the first thing you would do if you win $1,000,000.00?
settle some debts
so here’s the deal: in an attempt to get a better blog-rhythm going, i’m trying to set up a kind of “daily schedule”. sticking to it isn’t all that easy – but i plan on improving ;0)
one of my intended weekly installments is “photo blogging”.
so here goes:
——————–
this weekend (before the ninny typhoon), me and Ben – my American colleague – went to LiouCiou (LiuCiu) Island with 6 Taiwanese friends. the fun never stopped ;0)
Enjoy!
me, Mathilda, Ben and Stacey (Heather took the picture) having breakfast at a Mei&Mei in DongGang.
Stacey, Ben, Heather and myself waiting for the ferry (notice the absence of people around us… i think our brand of humor might have scared our fellow passengers a bit ;0)
Jackson… *sigh*
me and Heather playing it up for the camera!
Emma just looks so cool in this shot! (yes, i’m chuffed with my work)
Simon (Mathilda’s bo) and Jackson – two very cool dudes!!
random DILF
we laughed more than we talked :0)
me and Heather playing it up again (see what i meant with “brand of humor”?)
my finest hour – before boarding the ferry back home.
This round of TAGG is kind of topical today – as I’m off to a masked affair in Taipei in two weeks (thanks Jayx!)
So … you’re about to embark on a road trip to a theme party. You’re only allowed 5 CD’s, 3 essential items and are prompted to take along one outrageous/stupid item of clothing that you have to wear at the theme party to make you stand out (you must currently be in possession of this item of clothing).
Do this and then TAG 5 people:
My CD collection:
1. Rammstein – Reise, Reise (duh)
2. Ghislain Poirier – Breakupdown
3. OST – Pricilla, Queen of the Desert – Various (you seriously expected me NOT to take this?)
4. Koos Kombuis – Bloedrivier
5. Popaganda – The Speed Of Sound (they cover “boom boom boom, let’s go back to my room… o.m.g.)Essential items:
1. Cellphone
2. Vanity case
3. Laptop (Taipei has free WiFi!)Finally, the item of clothing:
There’s this “sex on a hanger” red Jeun Paul Gualtier jacket that’s killing my budget facility…
1. cb – ‘cuase I just need to know man!
2. geoff – I’ve been way to quiet on your blog
3. rod – you intrigue me ;0)
4. bev – you actually do stuff like this
5. erm… that Chinese girl… erm…
After a seriously rushed day – I was blessed with the following comment (via Plaxo) on my “How I did yesterday” post:
Today I want to give you a reminder of what I tried to teach you for almost three decades: Do not be too hard on yourself!!!
Nobody is perfect, but more important, no mortal soul is so important that his/her choices or decisions will rock the world off its tracks (except some African leaders like Mugabe).
Take your own advice, and let go and let God. Even if you sometimes take the wrong decision, there is mostly something good to be learnt or experienced as a result. You may not become a millionaire in a week, or be the next big inventor, or the greatest leader ever, but you are unique and special to those lucky enough to know you.
Some of us cannot imagine a day without your caring , joking, honesty and sometimes scalding sense of humor.
Keep it up, and keep going.
Yesterday is gone – nothing can be undone or changed about it; Tomorrow is still a dream – the best you can do is plan for it, but TODAY is your day – your chance to do something special, to laugh out loud, to be someone’s friend, to live according to your principles and faith.
GO FOR IT!!
Love
Guess who.
Shame on you.
I am in shock. Forgive me for not saying more… but I just read this on stii‘s blog:
Stormhoek gets NO love from Origin Wines
Apart from getting a really raw deal from Stormhoek’s UK partners, Orbital, they are faced with even more obstacles. Since Orbital has gone under, it was sold to/taken over by Origin Wines. Their previous website (now, unfortunately also owned by Origin) are now used to spread a bunch of lies:
When we started Stormhoek back in 2003, we sat in our office in London and thought, “Why can’t we make great 5 pound South African Sauvignon Blanc? Why not beat the New Zealanders at their own game? Better, Cheaper and Faster!”
…
Ultimately we went ahead, brought some tech, contracted out our production, designed a label, marketed and launched Stormhoek. People loved the wine!
…
There are some very successful brands in ZA that some nothing more than a label, with everything else being outsourced, but we felt that we needed a place to call home. So, we bought an interest in a little vineyard called Siyabonga, near Wellington. After years of effort, Siyabonga had not been able to sell its wine very successfully, and with Stormhoek’s growing business, it was a perfect place to buy what we could call a home. So it was a good fit for both parties.
Read more here! (For the TRUE Stormhoek story, read here)
Luckily one person did notice that and left a comment, which would be interesting to see how long the comment remains there:
What has happened? I think I cannot say it better than Rob Stokes from Quirk:
The assets of the sunken Orbital were recently bought by Origin, and of course with this purchase came all of Stormhoek’s brand equity in what I would guess to be their biggest market.
In essence what they are now doing is cutting Graham and the team at Stormhoek SA (the people who really care about the brand) out of the UK profit loop. Sure their business will (hopefully!) go to another South African farm, but I’ll bet my favourite Google hat that vast majority of the profits will stay in the UK. As a proud South African, that doesn’t sit well with me.
From what I understand is that Stormhoek will continue to make the good stuff here (a.k.a. the real Stormhoek) and export to basically everywhere, accept the UK. In the UK, Origin is going to continue to bottle and sell Stormhoek, but not with real Stormhoek, which means nothing! I think this Jason guy misses the point about Stormhoek. See, Stormhoek is not just a good brand. The real Stormhoek is a massive success story. It is also a fantastic story! You can put the best bloody Bordeaux wine in a Stormhoek bottle, it is not Stormhoek, as the story is lost. However, all of this will be another great chapter with excellent lessons to be learned in the real Stormhoek’s story! As Rob said in a comment over at Quirk:
My point is that I don’t think the two can be fairly separated. The wine is the brand and vice versa.
Another blind turn of events is that this Jason guy told the real Stormhoek guys that they have to seize the use of all those brilliant little cartoons we grew used to by Hugh MacLeod. That is very sad. From the nasty article on the old Stormhoek blog, it seems like they will also retain the services of Hugh, so it seems that is also lost to the real Stormhoek. 
Very sad… BUT, is there maybe an opportunity lurking for some aspiring blogger in SA to take over that role?! 
Would be kinda tough to beat the brilliant Hugh at his own game though!
There is an upside to all this, of course! Stormhoek will now be more available right here in SA! Since they will not be shipping to the UK anymore, they will distribute much more right here. (At least, thats what I hope!) That sure is good news for all real Stormhoek fans!
So if you feel you’d like to help even more, the best you can do is to talk about all of this on your blogs. The truth will prevail!
Blogged with Flock
1 Year after his conviction – for which the sentence was 1 year’s imprisonment – Kareem has been proved innocent. Makes you wonder…
Blogged with Flock
Oh happy day!!
From: yizmo, 1 year ago
Presentation of Robert and Maryam Scoble about how to blog well. The Blog Business Summit 2006 is a conference and seminar series focused on business blogging.
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