Make a Difference.

This just goes to show how a small favour can go such a long way and make a meaningful difference in peoples lives. If you're like me and spend large parts of your day procrastinating and wondering what we are doing on this rock flying through space, think of this: If you cant make someone feel special there is no place for you here. Acknowledging someone buy paying them a small compliment or even a smile could be the difference between a good and bad day for them. 


I revert to the often repeated story of the little girl on the beach full of starfish. The spring tide had brought thousands of starfish to the shore and left them stranded in the sun. She began picking them up one by one and throwing them back into the ocean. A grumpy old man walking the opposite direction asked her "There are thousands of them, what difference is it going to make?" The girl reached down a returned one starfish more to the ocean. "Well it made a big difference to that one..."






Look at their faces. Did the Braille Burgers make a difference?

Bodily Functions

I want to take advantage of the fully functioning body I am fortunate reside in. I want to run as fast as I can with the wind at my back. I want to do all the things I am capable of and more. Running is not difficult; it must be over a mountain. Swimming isn’t tough either; unless it’s through waves in the sea. A walk in the outdoors shouldn’t be a stroll with a picnic; it should be a five day endurance event interspersed with cave dwelling and cliff diving.


Most of us live with the safe boundaries that we create ourselves. Life within this space is peaceful and benign, void of any danger or adventure. This is non-sense. We should be out there experiencing life to the full potential, falling down and getting up again. Imagine we could capture that early teenage spirit (assuming you are not a teenager) where there was more focus on the rewards of an action rather than the consequences. That spirit where failure was unknown and confidence was King. It is that very thought process that allows teenagers to be adaptable to their circumstances. Tear down those boundaries and see just how capable you are.


Nowadays many of us are too concerned about our appearance. We voluntarily sit for hours in front of a keyboard crafting our digital selves and selecting a profile picture that portrays us in the best possible light. We post a picture of ourselves at the club as a heads up to everyone that we’re hip. We list Fight Club and Trainspotting as our favourite movies as a reminder of how edgy and cool we are. We are so busy talking about ourselves that we can’t relate to other things or people anymore. More importantly, we are losing touch with ourselves.


To combat this, we simply need to get outside and try new things. I believe that there is no greater way to learn about yourself than to be alone and doing something you have never done before. The more extreme, the more you learn.


Life begins at the end of your comfort zone. Where is yours?




http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/10/teenage-brains/dobbs-text
http://memeburn.com/2011/11/how-not-to-lose-yourself-when-the-internet-is-down/




This is the opposite of how I feel, but it's funny nonetheless.


Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

On music...

The year is 2050 and a homeless man comes skipping past you whistling an unfathomable tune, and your first reaction is “Wow, is that guy on music or something?” In this future world, music has been heaped into the same grubby pile as drugs and prostitution. Maybe this future is not too far away.

After all, a drug could be described as substance that, when consumed by a person, alters their state of mind as a result of the effect of that substance on the brain or nervous system. This is, to a certain degree, exactly the effect that music has on the average individual. And when someone is addicted to a substance they have a compulsive need to continue using it, regardless of the negative consequences of doing so. Again, the ambiguity of the above statement is very evident. Sure, music is not strictly ‘addictive’, but it can certainly evoke psychological dependence.

I do it before a fight… to get me pumped up. 

Ricky, (32) Amateur Kickboxer 

Drugs also cop the blame for many violent crimes. The flow-chart would go something like: substance abuse, addiction followed by subsequent crimes to fulfil that addiction. Similarly, heavy metal bands are deemed responsible for violent acts such as school shootings. For example, if one remembers the infamous Columbine High School killings in the April of 1999, you will see that the press places much blame on the heavy metal music the two antagonists listened to. The press even went as far as naming the bands they allegedly enjoyed, as if they were directly responsible for the shootings.

Keeping with the heavy metal theme, this genre even affects the pattern of a spider spinning a web. Yes, you read that correctly. Fricken spider webs. In fact, scientific studies revealed that spiders spinning webs while under the influence of the hallucinogenic drug, LSD, actually spin similar webs to those listening to heavy metal music. Yet one of these is an illegal substance and the other is defined as a past-time. Of course, a spider cannot tell the difference, but that is not the point. Why is everyone choosing to play dumb, as if music has no effect? Is someone pulling the wool over our eyes?

It was not too long ago when smoking was considered trendy, stylish and was largely unregulated by governments. Influential tobacco companies campaigned hard to make sure their product was on the end of everyone’s lips. Iconic actors like Marlon Brando and James Dean puffed away vigorously, securing countless new customers in doing so. In fact, the tobacco companies exercised so much power over the masses that in 2002, the United States government filed a case against a leading tobacco company accusing them of, amongst other things, “a criminal conspiracy that sought to cover up the dangers of smoking; misleading the public on the dangers of second-hand smoke; covering up the addictiveness of nicotine; deceptively marketing “light” cigarettes as less harmful than regular cigarettes; deliberately targeting young people to recruit new smokers; and deliberately refraining from producing safer, less addictive cigarettes...” The success of the cigarette lasted for decades then it finally dawned on health departments the world over that sucking smoke into your lungs was a health risk, which created the stigma smoking now has and contributed to its demise in popular culture.

It just makes me feel so good,

I wish I could do it all the time. 

Xavier, (22) IT Developer

Could this be compared to the music companies of today and how they influence us? According to ifpi.com, the big four music labels (Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and EMI) account for 70% of music sales worldwide and 85% of music sales in the U.S. Yup, that’s four companies controlling 70% of what we listen to. Despite the rather clean cut image mainstream music has today, let us not forget the explosive start that the rock ‘n roll genre had. Within months of its birth, the genre was deemed too aggressive and supposedly incited rebellion and angst amongst its listeners. There was a concern whether it was ‘safe’ or not to listen to rock ‘n roll. Decades later, the genre is still surviving, if not thriving with the help of the new MTV generation. The original furore and ruckus it caused has subsided and music has retained its safe unassuming image without too many negative connotations.

Yet another correlation between drugs and music comes to light in the Opium Wars of the 1800’s between the Chinese Qing dynasty and trading companies of Britain and America. Simply put, these companies, under instruction from their governments, were illegally exporting (read: smuggling) large amounts of opium to China in hope of disrupting their nation. Needles to say, a population under the influence of drugs is difficult to control. In addition, the British and American government, through their control of the opium supply, were exercising a measure of power over China’s inhabitants and therefore her government.   

 

It helps me stop thinking about all the shit in my life... it helps me escape.

Amanda, (35) Unemployed

This can be compared to the current void between the Islamic world and the Western world. In an attempt to preserve their culture, many Islamic countries resist Western music as well as the culture and values (or lack thereof) that are associated with it. Here, we could view the West as the ‘opium exporter’ and the Middle-East as the unwilling recipient of a western musical smorgasbord complete with cultural references and mini-skirts. Additionally, with music being available so freely nowadays, the Middle-Eastern governments are fairly powerless to stop the influx. There is evidence of this cultural hegemony across the globe as western music infiltrates virtually everyone consuming mass-media.

So, it would seem that music shares many characteristics of substance abuse. Why is this? Why does something so powerfully mind-altering not have any negative undertones attached to it? Why is it not even partially regulated like so many other mind-altering things in modern society? Time can only answer such questions.

http://www.trinity.edu/jdunn/spiderdrugs.htm

http://jrscience.wcp.muohio.edu/nsfall01/FinalArticles/JamminSpiderWebs.html

Thanks to Christopher de Beer for the idea =)

Yes rugga fans, its that time again...

Many Super Rugby seasons ago, it was suggested to me that I join Supersport’s then Super 14 Fantasy League. I signed up rather hesitantly as it seemed the league would require one to spend a large amount of time on the internet which I wasn’t to keen about. That said, after week one where I scored a whole bunch of points and was ranked in the top 50 out of 9000 or so other fantasy leaguers, I’ve never looked back. Since then, the online Fantasy League has become somewhat of a business, featuring many major sporting competitions. The Tri-Nations, the Tour de France, our local PSL soccer, Formula 1, the Ryder Cup, and the Euro soccer tournament all generate a subsequent online league. In the USA, the leading National Football League players even have full length television commercials promoting the public to pick them for their fantasy team. This hasn’t really caught on with the other leagues yet, but the day I see Bakkies Botha or Kimi Raikonnen on television with a cheesy grin trying, in English, to convince fans to select them is the day I quit.

In a general nutshell, the Super Rugby Fantasy League requires you, the ‘manager’, to pick 15 players that you reckon are going to score tries and/or be in a winning team.  If your selected player scores a try, he gets points; if he’s in the winning team he gets points; if he gets a yellow, he gets deducted points and so on. The aim is to build your points up week by week over the duration of the competition.

Apart from being a manager in the obligatory global league, one can set up their own league and invite their friends/enemies/bosses/nerds in the IT department to challenge them. This is by far the best feature of the fantasy league, as the message board allows all the managers in the created league to chat with one another. In doing so, a quite internet oasis full of man talk (translation: outlandish claims), numbers, comical pictures, strategies and rugby speak is created. It’s a safe haven devoid of real life hassles and stresses. Despite all this, the competitiveness gene that is present in most if not all males comes out kicking and screaming, demanding to be heard even if it is merely through a barrage of conveniently arranged pixels on the monitor. Never has masculinity been portrayed so vividly in words. As a result, this little corner of the internet becomes something you might keep from your wife or girlfriend, like a dirty little secret.

Being involved in a fantasy league also transforms the way you watch rugby. Instead of just cheering the side you want to win, you shout like crazy for individuals. Even if your selected prop gets the ball 60 metres out and he already has a tackler hanging on his jersey, for a split second you just believe he will go the distance. And the same applies to all your other selected players whenever they touch the ball. Another great aspect is that ‘dead rubber’ games are no more, as every team with one of your fantasy XV in them becomes a team you support as if your life depended in it. Then once you have looked at your fellow manager’s teams for the weekend, you find yourself swearing and cursing at their fantasy XV members, willing them to drop the ball, get yellow carded, sprain both their ankles simultaneously and/or get broken in two pieces like that poor guy in Spanish club rugby.

Yes, one could argue that joining an online fantasy league is a geek’s way of ‘playing’ rugby, a kind of desk-chair-double-click rugby. But the reality is that fantasy leagues get more people interested in the chosen sport, people that before only had a limited interest. Surely involvement at any level is better for sport than no involvement at all. At the end of the day, as long as the winner is sport, it can only be a positive thing. For sure, the traffic through the sports web pages as managers everywhere research their players doesn’t hurt the profits of certain media companies, but one can’t be too cynical. Fantasy Lague is just too much fun to think about its downside.

Americaland

We flew from Dubai on the massive A380 Airbus, which is an impressive plane. JFK is a really big airport. After the plane landed, it taxied for about 4 kms to the parking. My aunt fetched us and we got stuck in rush hour traffic on the way to Scarsdale. The tight lanes and the big cars are quite terrifying at high speeds. My aunt’s neighbourhood is very pretty with lots of little windy roads and picturesque properties with fenceless borders and inter-leading lawns. None of the tress have any leaves, which is understandable because it’s minus 3 degrees. And that’s Celsius because it’s what the rest of the modern world uses. Also, this is how you spell colour.    

It’s a short walk to the train station the salt scattered pavements and the train goes all the way into Grand Central Station, well, they all seem to. The main concourse within the terminal is a sight to behold. The high astronomically decorated ceiling and the masses of ornate marble makes one think they have gone back in time. One could picture hundreds of men on dark coats and bowler hats scurrying around. Then something happened that brought me right back to the present. A man with a small speaker system began to belt out a catchy tune and one person began to dance, then another, and another, until there were about 30 people all dancing in time. A flash mob.

The main concourse at Grand Central Terminal

New York is an extremely busy place. There are super wide pavements to accommodate the masses of hustle and bustle. It soon becomes obvious why this city is referred to as a melting pot of cultures. You can hear several different languages just by walking a few blocks.

Just off 5th Avenue, the Empire State Building looms large on the city skyline. Despite its size, I find the most impressive thing about it is its age. It was finished in 1931, and yet it still remains one of the world’s tallest buildings. On the way up the Empire, through the long queue’s,  you can see indications of its age such as the old mailing chutes that run almost the length of the building and the airship terminal on the 102^nd floor. The view from the top is impressive, spanning over and beyond the 5 boroughs of New York City.

Central Park is yet another beautiful area. It is the oldest and largest landscaped area in the US. There were plenty of people running and some cyclists that looked as if they were doing the Tour de Central. We walked the length of the park, all the way to snazzy 5^th Avenue. Come Christmas time, all the expensive shops along this road are fantastically decorated. My favourite was the Hollister store, where the entrance consists of 50 or so big screens that combine to broadcast the break at a popular surf spot in California over 3500km away. I watched in amazement as the 10 ft high surfer caught a barrel. Awesome.

The Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum provides an impressive but slightly dated look into America’s military muscle. The USS Intrepid, a World War Two aircraft carrier, is the centre of the attractions. Docked just next to it in the bay, is a Cold War submarine named the USS Growler. Additionally, there are many machines on display in the hanger of the carrier, as well as on her deck. The sexiest of which is the A-12 Blackbird. This model on display, while practically identical, preceded the famous SR-71 Blackbird. But in its own way, the A-12 is a little more hardcore than the SR-71. Firstly, it could climb higher and fly faster than the record setting SR-71. Secondly, only top gun CIA test pilots have ever flown in them, whereas the SR-71 has had senators as passengers. They were also kept a secret for a longer period of time, and ‘no-one knows anything’ about the two crashes that took place during test flights. Nevertheless, they are both incredible machines and a tribute to man’s creative potential.

The deck of the USS Intrepid

I was looking forward to seeing the Pentagon. It’s an iconic American building and the scene of countless action films. But alas, photography prohibited. Added to that, any tours have to be confirmed 2 weeks in advance online. So, err, we walked around and past many men in uniform along the way. There were also these devices that could only be described as a metal octopus on a skewer. Apparently, it measures the acoustics of the shot and somehow, through flippen sheer electrical engineering brilliance, calculates where the shot came from. An anti-sniper machine. And I’m not sure how long afterwards the special forces get to that location, but I’m sure its seconds. 

From the immense pile of concrete that is the Pentagon, it is one short subway stop away from the famous Arlington cemetery where over 320 000 servicemen and women have been laid to rest.  All the short white gravestones have been placed in a grid pattern so that no matter which angle one looks at them, they are always in line. Despite all the dead people, it really is a beautiful place with hills, dales and great pieces of architecture. One such piece is the over 200 year old Arlington House perched on the highest point of the area. Its massive marble pillars on its porch are quite a sight.

Arlington Cemetary

It seems Washington DC is all about policemen, squirrels, museums, low flying helicopters and Corvette ZR-1’s. (The only supercar I saw in DC was the ZR-1, and I saw three different one’s in two days. This fact is only made more weird by me only seeing one supercar in 8 days of walking around New York. It was an Aston Martin DBS, and it had the most beautiful soundtrack.)  Nevertheless, the absolute best place to visit, excuse my masculine bias, is the National Air and Space Museum. From the moment you walk through the doors and see some nuclear rockets, a jet that went over 6200kph and a couple Apollo lunar modules, a NASA engineered solid substance that is 99% air and piece of the moon that’s over 4 billion years old. That you can touch. I touched the moon. Rad. And that’s just the entrance hall. There is a model of practically everything that flies or, on occasion, didn’t fly too well. The U2 bomber exhibition is also really great as it includes many stories of early espionage during the Cold War.

New Years Eve was spent in a place halfway between Trenton (where according to an enormous neon sign: ‘Trenton makes, the world takes’) and Princeton. Well to be fair, this place has a name, Lawrenceville: Where nature smiles at you for 22 square miles. That is what the welcoming signpost said. The people we stayed were really nice; they even bought us Christmas presents. I got a Princeton hoodie. We visited the Princeton Campus the next day, me donning my new hoodie and trying to impersonate a Social Science undergrad, and it’s a very pretty place with a lot of history.

Princeton University

On the way back to New York from Lawrenceville, we stopped at Philadelphia. This is where, in terms of US history, many important events happened. It gave birth to the American Revolution, was home to Benjamin Franklin and served as the US capital while Washington DC was under construction. It is also home to an iconic symbol of American independence, the Liberty Bell. After spending the day learning all there is to know about American history, I was feeling unhealthily patriotic to this country that has such poor foreign policy.

The NYC subway is a vast and confusing creature. There are many different colour lines intersecting and changing direction. But we got to experience one of the best things about it: the subway musicians. Two Rasta looking guys boarded the train with a guitar, bongo drums and a chair. They introduced themselves and asked everyone for a little soul. One of them sat down and started belting on the drums just as the other began twanging his guitar and they did a fantastic rendition of Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds (every little thing is gonna be alright). People were cheering and singing along. Afterwards, they took off their hats and only asked for ‘a smile, a peace sign or some change’ which was really great.

It was now time for our Florida leg of the journey. Four action packed days in Orlando including Universal Studios, Disneyland and Cape Canaveral. Driving from the airport, it becomes fairly obvious what one of the main attractions of the Sunshine State is: hotels. Hundreds of them. Big ones too. On that subject our hotel, the Peabody, was really great and has a tv in the mirror in the bathroom. In the fricken mirror!

The first day was consumed in its entirety by Universal Studios. Now I must explain that I developed a somewhat indifferent attitude toward theme parks because of the complicated system of purchasing a ticket and the cost attached to it. Nevertheless, I was pretty much blown away by their two theme parks. They really are great fun, even for the older people. One of the many highlights was the crazy-ass colourful world of Dr Seuss. Everything from the never-ending loopy music to the random green eggs and ham quotes in big neon signs.

Harry Potter’s Hogsmead themed town complete with the giant Hogwarts replica was also quite fun, despite my hate for boy magicians. We even had some butter beer, which is apparently something they drink in the film, and it was scarily delicious. The comic section with all the superhero’s was also excellent, though the only two eye saw was Spiderman (which was add because I saw him in Times Square a week ago, so he must have been on the same flight as us) and Captain America. I got a great picture with him and I mentioned that he’d actually been killed off in the Marvel Comic series (he was shot in the neck outside a court house, pretty ignominious) to which he replied, ‘Well, I’m back!’

There were two great roller-coasters at the parks, the most intense of which was named the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit. Here, you got to choose a soundtrack to head-bop to while experiencing your intense g-force ride. I found Limp Bizkit’s Rollin’ and attempted to head bang my way around. The Simpsons themed ride was also great. You sat on one of those moving cars in front of the most enormous concave screen on which was projected the crazy Krusty roller coaster ride that defied the laws of physics, but I guess that’s the point.

That night was taken up by attending the stupendous Blue Man Group. Three blue men in black suites, lots of bright paint, cereal, toilet paper and drumming. They are quite hard to put pin down, but I reckon you would have to describe them as performance art, but really on the edge of that definition. At any rate, it was huge fun and I give them and their creator massive kudos. 

The following day was spent at the vast Kennedy Space Centre near Cape Canaveral. We visited the observation deck where you can see the two main launch pads and the massive track that the crawler (the giant vehicle which carries the shuttle) drives along. The massive Saturn V rocket is kept lying on its side and separated into its stages in a big warehouse. Interesting as the rocket was, it was kind of sad to see one of the most powerful machines mankind has ever put together like that. The shuttle launch simulator was a great experience too, as was the Rocket Garden where all the rockets through the ages stand proudly in the sun.

The massive Vehical Assembly Building. Volume wise, the Empire State building can fit in here nearly four times.

On our way to another Disney park the next day, I was fortunate enough to go for a ride in a real 600hp Nascar. The Richard Petty Driving Experience was at a small three-cornered track just outside the park. It was a brilliant though short drive that took us up to 230kph down the main straight. But the impressive part was the speed in the corners, and the car had no body roll either. I didn’t catch the driver’s name, but I’m sure it must have been Billy Bob. After everything he said, he would add an “ohhh yyyeeeah” at the end with his Southern drawl of an accent.

Magic Kingdom is the part of Disney where all the original Walt Disney characters are seen. It also has the impressive Cinderella Castle as its focal point. The atmosphere and the sights are great, but there aren’t really any thrill rides for older people. We got to see the parade, where all the prominent Disney characters sing and dance their way through the streets.

In sum, it was an amazing trip and I was fortunate enough to have many once in a lifetime experiences along the way.