Just when you thought you’d heard the last of name changes in our beautiful country, they’ve decided they’re not quite done yet, with Hans Strijdom and Hendrik Verwoerd Drives up next for a revamp.

My only gripe, and there really is just one, (well, apart from the fact that they’re trying to delete history and it’s costing a fortune.

“The new names would be more representative of the current times.”

Um, old roads, old times, new roads, new times? I thought we were a growing nation.)

Anyway, my one and only gripe: The article says that residents and business owners have been surveyed about the changes, but I haven’t even heard of the name changes, never mind being surveyed about it. Working and living in the area, I might have overheard a little something, don’t you think?

Has anyone in the area even seen a survey? I’d love to know.

Ladies and gents, get ready to see Malibongwe Drive and Nkululeko Drive signs soon.

Thanks to Andre for the link.

The government and I are trying for number two (here’s number one). It’s been a while, so we’re going the IVF route – I’ve become surprisingly proficient at wanking into plastic cups – it’s a trajectory/timing issue, a bit like xbox, but with your willy. Top tip: do it at home and deliver, cum-and-go, if you will.

Anyway, I saw this sign the other day, it made me laugh.

With any luck I will. In about 45mins actually.

Fingers crossed…!

Seems we’re a bit of a public service blog of late, that makes us feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Here’s the deal. A year or so ago, our Don found a laundry detergent he quite fancied, he thought he’d like to give them a bit of a punt, so he dedicated a post to them aptly titled Free Advertising.

Google liked this post quite a bit.

Now, because of a bit of comment spam, the google listing gives the impression that we’ll help promote people’s companies and products, and yes, we will. Here’s a few of the (90+) requests we’ve had…

WTF?

Oh well, we’re nice guys, come sell your shit in our wee shopping mall anytime…!

I repeat don’t buy a house when the current owner is selling because of money problems.

You could be in line for endless shit, and when you want to do things you’re restricted, because if you do, his problems might all too soon become your own.

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Just a warning. Grr.

Look at that bumper, not so much as a scratch on it…!

Picture the scene…

Northumberland road, the traffic light is out (not flashing, just out).

I stopped.

He didn’t.

*weep*

Did I mention that I had my mags replaced (pot hole damage) on Thursday?

Seems they do in fact make ‘em like they used to (his #€¡@? car).

The tow-truck guy, coincidentally the same guy that helped the last time this happened (admittedly, a pretty shitty hobby this, I think I’ll start collecting stamps) said that I wont be getting much change from R100k.

And no, the guy ain’t insured.

Of course…!

Too much respect to the Madam and Eve crew.

Thanks to Wolfie for the heads up…!

A while back I wrote a post titled Blacks Only, it addressed the issue of the counter-racism that’s prevalint in our society today.

The post sparked off a debate that was often a mud-slinging match. Every now and then I get another comment that adds to it. Some are rational, but some, like the one I just received from Tokoloshi80 highlight a far bigger problem that exists for us if we want to move on as a nation.

The only way? Bullshit.

Yeah, we were shits, big shits.
Yeah, you had it rough, very rough (or at least your parents did – there’s a difference).

But that’s history bro, and I don’t just mean that in the sense of “put it behind you”, I mean that history is full of stories of injustice, you’re not really a unique group there. The happy endings however are created by the people who stopped using the past as an excuse and started worrying about the future. If revenge and theft is the “only way” you can see things working, then you are part of the reason that racism exists (and thus part of the problem, not the solution).

Travel a little, the world uses SA as a case study in diversity. We’re the fucking success story. Stop being so impatient, true change only happens one retirement party at a time. So yeah, there are still some really idiotic old-school types (on both sides). That’s fine though, they’re a dying breed. What is a sin is for the youth of today to want to poison another generation, the wheel will just keep turning and the hate will continue.

We need one generation to think about the next, there’s no instant gratification for us anyway you look at it, but a bit of patience and an attitude adjustment on both sides will make this a wicked-cool place for our kids to thrive.

A short-sighted approach will only create a long term fuck up…!

Presley Chweneyagae of Tsotsi fame was arrested last night for having an allegedly fraudulent driver’s license.

“It must be a joke. I know for a fact that Presley never drives. We always arrange a car for him or his friends collect him. He’s never had a driver’s licence and I don’t think he’s even applied for a learner’s licence.”
- Moonyeenn Lee: Agent for Tsotsi

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Hehe. Little tsotsi.

We just went to watch Blood Diamond with Rooibos tonight. Shit, what a rad film. I had heard mixed comments on Leo’s accent but I think it was spot on. Sure there was the odd word here and there with an incorrect inflection, but for the most part old he sounded as bad as the rest of us do daily, I’m just not sure that we say “a’raaht” quite as much as the script-writers think we do, but hey, everyone’s a critic, eh? Oh, and I have a favour to ask on behalf of all the people in the cinema with you. So the guys speaks with our accent, get over it, the excited giggles in the movie every time he uttered a bru, lekker, or china really grated my cheese.

The film itself, addressing the issue of conflict diamonds, is awesome if not disturbing. Featuring South African mercenaries and a fictitious diamond company called Van de Kaap, it made me wake up and look at my wife’s engagement ring in a whole new light.

I’d say it’s a must see…!

My wife mailed me this letter. Not sure of its validity, however I gotta say that I get the feeling (for what it’s worth) that it’s legit.

The reason I believe it is that I got treated in a similar fashion while taking a girl out on a date to Spur when I was 16, we’d ordered full meals, but the waiter figured I was too young to tip so when I complained my steak was underdone (it really was) he told me I’d need to eat it because the griller was busy.

That was half my life ago, and I still haven’t forgotten the experience…!

If you live in Jozi and weren’t blessed with a power out today, expect it some time soon. But not just here, it’s all over SA.

Fani Zulu – Eskom spokesperson: “The situation is critical. We expect about two hours of shortages a day. We will tap reserve resources. Hopefully we will resolve the problem early next week,” he said. “We will pull out all stops to make sure that electricity is distributed evenly and there will be no need for lower supplies in some areas.”

Everyone knows that South Africa has the highest percentage of AIDS infected people. I’ve never bothered to check if those results were actually true, but now there’s proof that we have the most AIDS orphans.

Pretty shit I think.

Our strange friend Roy has recently expanded his portfolio of weird things into the new and exciting world of button design! Perfect for those of you who hate pins enough to wear them. He’s releasing a whole bunch of new ones soon, too, and I’m looking forward to the new ones that really help me define who I am, as a person.

Go check ‘em out before he SMS spams you, too.

Herschelle Gibbs has been banned for the next two test matches because he called a group of Pakistani supporters, who were verbally abusing teammate Paul Harris while fielding on the boundary, “a bunch of bloody animals”.

What?

What bugs the crap out of me, is that they’re crying ‘racism’ to the high heavens. Racism? Animals? C’mon, there are plenty worse racially abusive things to say than ‘animals’. If they’re behaving as such, why not treat them as such. After all, the unruly crowd was herded out of the stadium.

Update:
Gibbs’ full blurt was: “F***ing bunch of f***ing animals. F***ing go back to the zoo, it’s not f***ing Pakistan this.”

Not likely. So what’s it all about?

The coolest tagline by any company by far!

Spotted by Mel in Magaliesberg.

In response to Aquila’s post. Spotted this one in Olivedale on Saturday.

…if I deleted the last 6 comments by one commentator, AWB.

Why?

* They add no value.
* They’re racist for racist’s sake.
* Because I can.

I’d love to receive a justified comment from him, but I can just imagine what I’d receive.

Update:
As I’d assumed. Here’s a mail from me to him, and back again and again. (Read top to bottom)

On 1/11/07, Don <don@joblog.co.za> wrote:

On 11 Jan 2007, at 6:05 PM, Was EVS wrote:

On 1/12/07, Don <don@joblog.co.za> wrote:

Ciao.

I’m still waiting for a response.

*very long-winded rant warning*

What the fuck was that? You two should know better.

Okay, so Amplitude is a new-marketing podcast hosted by two respected bloggers, Mike Stopforth, and Dave Duarte. I dig talking marketing (although I’m not a fan of therm new-marketing, it’s silly, it says nothing, and dates fast), as a person I like and respect Mike loads, and I’m a podcast fan. This was one for me. Or at least, it should have been. Here’s my problems:
1: The audio – Shocking! Dave’s sound was not just bad, it was unacceptable. That recorded in my garage sound was cute and authentic a few years back, now it’s just irritating. Sure it’s their first episode, they’ll live and learn, but here’s the thing – It’s not live radio, time is technically on their side, what they should have done, is scrapped it and tried again the next day. I’m not suggesting it needed to be perfect, but hey, if these guys think it’s acceptable to release technically shit stuff like this, it really doesn’t say much for the web 2.0 fraternity as a whole, and definitely wont get the respect of the old school marketers we’d all like to convert. At least they get the basics right (if nothing else).

2: The wanky banter – I love conversational podcasts. My big 3 favs, a foot in the crease, diggnation, and engadget get this perfect, but this was just silly. The, “Really Dave?s” and “Ha ha that was funny Mike!s” (how do you write that?) sounded extremely contrived/forced.

3: The lack of content – So this was the pilot episode, yet it had no clear agenda whatsoever, just two mates shooting the shit, with very little to do with new-marketing at all. My suggestion would be a well thought out agenda, with key discussion points and prepared show notes (not scripts). Sure, podcasts are free, but this is a busy market place, and as a listener I’m paying in time, an expensive commodity. Have the courtesy to make it worth my while.

4: The rant – Near the end of the show there’s a rant about Standard Bank’s new pay-off line. Fine, I’m not a fan either, but the arguments were silly and not well thought out, in some cases the logic was just plain wrong. Also, as they didn’t have all the facts re the Bank’s strategy (admittedly the bank’s fault) I think the basis of the entire argument was flawed. And lads, every marketer in the world has heard of word-of-mouth, new marketing it aint.

5: The email addy: Okay so I’m being very (very) petty here but I hate the fact that podcasters all seem to use gmail domains for mail when they own the top-level domain anyway. These guys have podcastname@gmail.com, instead of comments@podcastname.co.za – so cliched, and pointless. You’re marketers, not followers.

They close the episode suggesting that they may use episode 2 to tell guys hwo to podcast. Irrespective of my rants above, c’mon lads, we’ve heard that stuff a million times and can find it anywhere with a basic google search. What you promised was a new-marketing podcast, rather give us that, eh?

In TV, a pilot is used to sell producers (and the public) on the product. If it was not for my deep respect for these guys based on this pilot I’d never listen again. Shit, I only hope international people haven’t listened, I’d hate them to think that this is the best SA has to offer.

Anyway, episode 2 is out now, these are clever guys, with any luck they’ve picked up on most of this stuff themselves and I’ll probably be eating humble pie after I listen tomorrow.

Here’s hoping…!

(Btw. Guys, that was my fav logo)