Monday 31 March 2008

I WON I WON I WON!!!!

I won a competition! A Penguin Books competition. Through the Mail and Guardian. 36 of Penguin's best selling books in recent years. Fiction, non-fiction, travel, ideas, viewpoints... Even a Noam Chomsky rant. And some book called The Secret History or something - every woman I know says its the best thing they ever read. SWEET!

Da booty:


So now the dilemma: keep them or donate them to a school? Sometimes I wish I lived in a rich country. Maybe I can sell them. Or make them birthday and Christmas gifts for the next 5 years. Lol :P

We love Parys


The town, and now the woman. Or alien retard. Or whatever it is.

From The Sun: "Paris was asked on Saturday what she thought of South Africa, as she arrived in Johannesburg on tour with her guitarist fella BENJI MADDEN’s band GOOD CHARLOTTE.

And she replied with this thoughtful little gem: “I love Africa in general — South Africa and West Africa, they are both great countries."

Gosh.


Sunday 30 March 2008

Brig's virgin post

HOORAAAY!I have finally made it! I feel like a real woman!

The Doctor has just given me a blogging lesson - so you will hear more from me -

But not today!

Cheers

Brig

Feliciano!


I first heard this track on the Rae and Christian 'Another late night' mix. It seemed out of place amid all the mid tempo dance music, but obviously stood out as an awesome track. Jose Gonzalez is such a biter its not even funny. I mean Latin American dude doing acoustic guitar cover versions? Please.
Anyway, this track gives me goosebumps every time i hear it, which the original doesn't. Not that Brian Wilson isn't a genius, mind you, but this version is better. 
I haven't touched the de-clicker at all with this, it sounds better with all the hum and pops in my opinion.


Friday 28 March 2008

I took the money and ran...


... so from 1 July I work for the Man.


That rhymes. I'll be posting sensitive information from active investigations on this here blog, you just watch me do it.

Rad logo eh? Government is so, I dunno, RAD.

More of the important world news...

'Mate, a wombat raped me'

Wellington - A New Zealand man has been sentenced to community service after telling police he had been raped by a wombat and the experience had caused him to start speaking "Australian".

Arthur Cradock, a 48-year-old orchard worker from Motueka on South Island, rang police on February 11 to say he was being raped by the slow moving Australian marsupial at his home, The Nelson Mail reported.

He rang back soon afterwards to say he was withdrawing his complaint against the wombat, a court was told on Wednesday.

"Apart from speaking Australian now, I'm pretty all right you know," he told police in the second call.

Cradock pleaded guilty to using a phone for a fictitious purpose and was sentenced to 75 hours community work.

Prosecutors said alcohol played a large part in Cradock's life, although his defence lawyer said he was not drunk on the afternoon of the phone calls.

Wednesday 26 March 2008

Alec Erwin is a moron


Alec Erwin's fall from grace continues unabated. He was, during the second half of the 1990s, one of the world's most respected trade and industry ministers. He fought the good fight in the WTO, he oversaw the DTI's restructuring (ok that was a mess), and created the Competition Commission, amongst other good things.

As minister of public enterprises, the only commendable thing he's done has been to place Maria Ramos in charge of Transnet's overhaul. The list of unadulterated screwups is now really long. From mysterious loose bolts in Koeberg (just before a local election in the Western Cape), to protecting SAA CEO Khaya Nqula without question (and taking SAA further back into the state and repeatedly giving it lots of taxpayer money), to Eskom. Take your pick(s). And the Erwinisms! He'd give Dubbya a run for his money in the race to be most incoherent.

The latest is peachy. Eskom, after getting a 15% or so price increase out of the regulator late last year (they wanted about 19%), has just applied for another price increase. Unadjusted their new request is a moerse SIXTY percent. Apparently late last year they couldn't foresee that in order to respond to the power crisis, running costs might have to rise along with the capex. MORONS.

Anyway, so the Business Day today says: "Economists have also warned of the harmful effect of such a sharp tariff spike on the inflation rate. But Erwin said it was better to begin the increases at once than hit consumers with one heavy blow later... 'We are proposing that it will be better for everybody to take those costs now rather than wait until 2009 and probably have a 100% increase.'"

Gee thanks Mr Minister. But isn't 60% one bladdy heavy blow now? Where was this wisdom eight years ago? Dooooos!!!!

Tuesday 25 March 2008

Some shit that has been rocking my world lately. YEAH!

WOOHOO! I'm in a good mood for no reason, which is the best kind of good mood because you don't over analyse it and get ourself down again. AWESOME! OK, here are some things that in some way or another have attributed to my good mood.
  • Excercise - i hate to admit it, but its good for you, and makes you feel good too. I have been unfit for too long, but i am on the (long, circular) road (around Sydney park) to recovery.
  • This documentary about 'competitive gaming' is awesome. No Al, not the kind of competitive gaming we saw on Thai TV with thousands of sad Koreans boys playing virtual tennis against each other in a huge orgy of nerdus. This movie is kind of about losers, but its a 'nice guys finish first' story, and its so well put together and heartwarming that i kind of wish i hadn't bought a pirate copy in Malaysia and had actually supported the filmmakers. Anyway, see it.
  • Dolph Lundgren - I was reading this blog, and there was a post about Dolph Lundgren the other day. I was thinking that it was kind of tongue in cheek (its not). Anyway I learned all of this amazing stuff about the man. Did you know that Dolph Lundgren is a Chemical Engineer who studied at Swedens best engineering research university, then did a masters in Chemeng at the University of Sydney? Ja, serious, and he got a Fulbright scholarship to do (I assume PhD) studies at MIT. FIRRIZZLE! And loads of chicks want to do the humpty dance with him. The similarities between the two of us are uncanny, and plus i do an awesome Dolph Lundgren/He-Man impression. He took the sentence 'I do not want these innocent people to die' and transformed it into a single word that sounds something like 'idunottawannatheseinnocenpeopledoodie'. There you have it: Dolph Lundgren : engineer, actor, heart throb, orator.
  • Records - I don't really want to bang this drum again, but seriously, where is the fun in paying to download music from iTunes? I don't get it? You get no awesome gatefold cover, you get no liner notes to read about the artist/album/label, you get so sense of satisfaction at having searched through lots of kak you don't want to find something that you do. Basically if downloading music from iTunes were a smell it would be like smelling the recentl flaming armpit of a guy who works in a sewage plant and is allergic to deodorant after a hard days work cleaning pooh. Vinyl is like the smell of fresh citrus blossoms as you take a sip of freshly brewed coffee to wash down a fragrant rasher of crispy bacon (or makin, in my case). Don't be a sucker, get a record player.
  • Swimming with whale sharks in Mozambique - be assaulted by the awesomeness of these shots i took about 3 years ago. Man that thing was BIG!
Ciao for now. Baai!

Monday 24 March 2008

this is brilliant

MyPepsiFest

So Ken and me, we went to MyCokeFest 2008, keenly aware of the risks we were gleefully rushing towards:

1. It was in Alberton. Ya Alberton. DEEP south.
2. By 4pm, our time of departure from the leafy suburbs, we had already received reports that the bar wait was over 1hr.This turned out to be inaccurate. It was over 1.5hrs.
3. Many of the bands on the lineup were superkak (and still are superkak), meaning that every edenvale doos and his three-toed cousin was going to be in attendance (Korn! Fuck yeah! 30 seconds to Mars? Did you say Mars?! OMG Jared Leto is SOOOO hot!!!!).
4. Everything we were told about the organisation last year was pretty derogatory - and nothing, it seems, had changed between last year and last Friday's 'event'.

But we went anyway. Because that's what we do in Jozi. We keep standards low low low, expect very little, and get excited about it all. And fuckit, I wanted to see Chris Cornell play live. Like 13 or 14 years in the making. And he was beautiful. Jesus-like.

Muse were also excellent. Tightest live show I've seen. Kaiser Chiefs were also pretty slick, and just played and played and played. We bounced around.

In fact both Brit bands were about the show, and did damn good jobs. The American bands, except for Mr. Cornell's, did not. 30 Seconds from MyAnus (Jared Leto's nonsense) is about the worst band on the planet, and Mr Leto kept calling us all motherfuckers. Lank times. Over and over. Then he dedicated a song to freedom. I nearly wet myself laughing. Apparently Mr Leto insists that he takes his music career very seriously, and has been at since 1996. The acting thing is the side-show, allowing him to pursue his real passion - terrible music from the angry, unsuccessful half of 1995. We all pity the man. His band is so bad.

Average Charlotte came in a close second (if they'd left Parys Heeltin behind MAYBE I'd have been more sympathetic. Then again maybe not.). And I've been told Korn were actually pretty good, but I didn't wait around. Apparently, it also took an hour between Muse and Korn, the 'headline', and most people had left by the time they came on. Serves them right for being so angry all the time without any clear need or justification.

Let's see. Power went out a few times, but not Eskom's fault. Always good for a laugh. Ken's potato and spinach in breadcrumb bites from Woollies were not allowed in. No food inside. 'Ken, just give it to the guards'
'But it's Woolworths!'
'Ya whatever man we can get some more tomorrow'
'But it's fucking WOOLWORTHS food!'
'Ok cool let's chow it here outside the gate'
Eat eat.
'Dude I can't eat anymore potato balls'
'Me neither. Dammit. Ok fine we'll leave the rest with the guards'.
'Cool. So we can go in now? Excellent.'

The 'golden circle' was MASSIVE. A R400 ticket bought you a great view of the big screen, mounted on the back of the production tower, about 50m from the stage. A R600 ticket got into the ginormous circle, but apparently not too many wanted to pay that much. So we all squished up against a fence, yearning to fill the 30m of open ground in front of us, wishing we could see the real people on stage.

A swampy marsh sort of thing emerged for about 100m in every direction from the porter potties. I lost my shoe in a particularly boggy puddle, but found it again, after submerging my shoeless foot. Yes, it was covered in whatever created the bogginess for most of Muse. Rock on. The shoe and sock are on the balcony now. I don't know what to do with them.

The bar, however, has to take the cake. The past two years have produced the same complaint - takes waaaaay too long to get drinks. My god. Over an hour and half?! You stand and stand and stand, shuffle, stand stand stand. You can see the kool okes pulling on the taps up front, pouing pouring pouring. Except no wait, is that fucker texting someone? Using his CELLPHONE? Instead of POURING BEER? JESUS CHRIST! And when you finally get to the front you are told four's the limit by the grumpy lady who has by now realised that 12hrs of shuffling beer between pourer and 'customer' is not worth the free ticket to the 'event' (which you can't see from the bar anyway? Moron).

So you buy four plastic cups of beer. Castle. Eish. And wrestle your way out. You then realise you can't really walk around, much less jump around, with four full beers. You can't even drink one of them when holding the other three (well you can, but it's uncomfortable, and you definitely can't smoke). So you put two down, open your gullet and down the other two, and totter off into the crowd with the remaining two. Repeat every 3hrs or so. Ken got hammered. Blotto.

So why did I go? Did I enjoy myself? Fo sho laaitie. Chris Cornell (and Muse) made it ALL worthwhile. He played THREE tracks off Badmotorfinger, a few from Superunkown (including Black Hole Sun and Superunkown), a couple Audioslave tracks, and I think one of his solo songs. I squealed like a girl. Been listening to Superunknown all weekend since.


easter shmeaster



So it's a very long weekend here down under. I'm semi bored. I've got stuff to do, just don't feel like doing it.
Twin Peaks has come onto my radar. What a crazy trip of a show?! May become one of my favorite tv experiences soon.

Thought Id give you a heightened Melbourne sunset moment. Soon I shall be out of Melbourne. Up and out faraway. I'm thinking Prague.. London.. Croatia.. oh yes people. I'll be going up north on other people's money to explore all things theatrical.
And I'm excited.

More news soon.
signing out..

Thursday 20 March 2008

dANIEL wANG iS cOOL, aND i aM bORED aT wORK, dESPITE dEADLINES


Tadaa. My first divshare experience, direct to your blog. It's off a poppin' disco mix I filched from somewhere a couple months ago. Would give you that link too if I could find it.

Daniel Wang - Pistol Oderso


HAPPY EASTER. Greg and Tals, you string him up tomorrow, he dies Sunday, and comes back to life sometime thereafter. I forget when. I also don't know where the rabbit link comes from.

Tuesday 18 March 2008




So on ram's last weekend we went for photo opps everywhere. this was a fab sunset overlooking the bay whilst we began the heatwave of 40 degrees that has lasted this past week.
crazy *&$^ melbourne weather..


baaaaaaiiii

Sunday 16 March 2008

Rock out!


Ok, so this isn't a record i've had for ages (in fact i only got it yesterday, along with some other rippers at my new favourite record store). The Cult rock, well, at least the used to. This is the 12" long version of She Sells Sanctuary. The record crackles a bit, but it's a nice loud pressing. Good for :
  • Rocking out in the shower
  • Long road trips (to Mozambique?)
  • Video montages of training athletes


Saturday 15 March 2008

waiting....


i hate being in limbo. it sucks..
waiting to find out about europe.. and residencies.. and funding.. and and and...

but here's a piccie of some yummy desert i had the other night at a very fabulous restaurant in the city, seamstress. fried banana spring rolls in a vinegar caramel sauce with goats milk sorbet. wow.

Some indisputable good news...

THE STORMERS WON! Fuck you Sydney Morning Herald!


Wednesday 12 March 2008

Well we might have over-reacted..!?

Anyone who was in Jozi in January would have had at best a moment of wondering how the hell this country is gonna survive due to the blackouts, and at worst would have actually submitted your british visa applications.

Well it seems all the predictions of resulting economic colapse may have been bit hasty. Manufacturing data for January came out today and shows that - while the sector is struggling - it is not on the brink of collapse. Year on year production increased by 1.4% in January. This compared to an 0.3% increase in the year to December 2007.

About time for some good news.

Should I join the Competition Commission?; and Liverpool and Ajax Cape Town are Glorious

So I've been offered a position at the Competition Commission, the government agency that sticks it to the Corporate Man (like Tiger Brands, SAA, Mittal, and others). It's somewhere between investigator and policy researcher. I guess I'd be an analyst, and they say I'll be working on the banking enquiry. Are you tired of stupid bank charges? Well so am I!

Pros: Better pay, interesting work, obvious international applicability, some travel, good potential for make-me-rich consulting one day, and sticking it to the Corporate Man.

Cons: Pretoria commute every day (+- 100km driving, or 2 to 2.5 hours in total), it's government, no more squash or anything else fun (like French class) after hours in Jozi, scrapping half-baked plans to get overseas for some international experience or a PhD (again).

I gotta decide by the end of the week, sort of. Should I stay or should I go?

Meanwhile, in Milan last night struggling Livers stuck it to Inter in glorious fashion. Our European form continues to amaze, given how kak we are in the EPL. We went through to the quarter-finals of the Champions League by winning 3-0 on aggregate. We won 1-0, in Italy, against the runaway leaders of Serie-A. Rock on! This is also the first time any country in Europe has had four clubs in the q-finals of the Champions League. The fact that that country is Engulund is truly remarkable indeed.


Also, in case you didn't know, Ajax Cape Town is leading the South Africa PSL. This is equally glorious and amazing, because we usually suck. The Stormers, on the other hand, usually and still do suck.

The Doctor.

Tuesday 11 March 2008

Koala Lumpur

I’m about to ship out of Kuala Lumpur, but like most of this weekend, I’m sitting in a plush, air-conditioned lounge wondering where exactly all the excitement is. Downtown KL is really just a maze of expensive hotels and shopping malls, not the messy warren of alleyways that Bangkok is (which is kind of what i was expecting from KL). Of course, every city has hotels and shopping malls, but that seems to be all most people actually see of KL. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure its a great city (certainly a lot of the food is great), I just struggled to find the pulse. Anyway, in the spirit of Alex’s post about her trip to Rome, let me take you meal by meal through my few days here…

I landed Wednesday night and was taken to my rather fancy hotel by a typical KL ‘Budget Teksi’. These are usually Protons with no seat padding and only three functional gears, but they are ridiculously cheap (120 Ront for an hour long ride from the airport to the inner city). A Proton, for those that don’t know, is the Malaysian national car. That is to say they are subsidised by the government, and the taxes on all non-Protons are ridiculously high. Like the product of most subsidised industries, the Proton is a total lemon. I would describe it as a cross between a Mitsubishi and an immobile mound of turd, but you’d have to ride on the unpadded, unbelted seat of one to fully understand. Anyway, I get to my hotel late, and sleep.
The next day we had meetings in the Petronas towers with some oil and gas people who ‘kindly’ offer us lunch out of a plastic box after the meeting. I’m pissed because every meal is valuable, and I don’t want to waste my time with kak food. Anyway, our agent C.K. (a bit of a Malaysian gourmand) promises to take us out for a ripper meal for dinner. He doesn’t disappoint and takes us to this crazy roadside diner in the suburbs where we have fish head curry, mutton curry, and prawn curry with the biggest fresh water prawns I have ever seen, even in pictures. We have some 'local tea' (five roses with condensed milk) for desert.



The next day, more meetings in the twin towers and more shitty whiteman food, but at night, my colleague Colin and I head downstairs for the hotels buffet, which, while a bit low on spicy malaysian food had enough sashimi and oysters to keep me happy. Then we went to the Sky Bar which is right next to the Petronas towers, at about the level of the bridge that connects the two towers. It's basically the pool area of a hotel that they turn into a swish bar at night, and its pretty rad. Especially when the company is paying! We drank many cocktails, most of the ones on the menu, and did i mention that the company was paying?


Next day, I i head out to Chinatown, which actually kind of sucks. It's like the Kho-San road of KL (lots of hawkers selling Man Utd t-shirts). Anyway, when i ran into the Malaysian equivalent of Tony and Guy i was kicking myself for paying so much at Toni and Guy in Sydney before i left. Dang it!


I head off to the Chow Kit market where you can apparently find anything you could ever dream of eating, including monkey brains. I didn't find monkey brains, but i did find an election poster for the deliciously named Mr Tititwangsa (the Malaysian national election was this weekend).


Anyway, for lunch i went to have an assam laksa at a place recommended by C.K. and it was rippah! It totally ponged of fish and shrimp paste, so its not for everyone, but it was awesome (mint in a fish soup? its weird, but it works). Some stir fried turnip with shrimps, and some chili sauce with belacan (shrimp paste) to make the meal complete.


Then, to take my mind off my bloated gut, i head off to buy some pirated DVD's. What else do you do in this city? On my way home I was getting assaulted by loads of pimps offering me their 'business card' which i thought was pretty brazen to do out in the open, and really fucking annoying. Anyway, i'm getting tired of not taking their cards, and being followed down the street, and the heat is really starting to get to me, so i pop into a 7-11 and pick up just what my worn out little Jewish soul needed some Kickapoo Joy Juice! Thanks gott!



For dinner on Saturday i checked out some Malaysian food blogs and found that there was an awesome chinese restaurant near my hotel, so i set out to find it. I dont find it, and turn down an offer to dine with my country legend Kenny Rogers (wtf??). So i check out this food hall that one of the blogs said was also good. Sucks to be eating at a food hall, so to make myself feel better i order two mains. Char kway teow (fried noodles with shrimp, chicken and sprouts and stuff) which sucked, and an oyster omelet which was challenging from a mouth-sliminess point of view, but tasted awesome.



Sunday i'm up early to check out the National Mosque before any Muslims arrive and find that I'm a circumcised whitey (seriously, i signed in as Gregory Smith). Then I ran over to the Museum of Muslim Arts which was pretty cool actually, not least because all of the people were so damn friendly. Then off to check out the KL train station which is supposed to be the most well known building in KL, but the train company headquarters across the road were way cooler, so i took a picture of that instead.



For lunch i headed back to the Central Market for a better char kway teow, and then headed over to what the Rough Guide describes as 'the best south indian curry in KL' at Lakshmi Villas, and goddamn it! the rough guide was spot on again. Three curries and an assortment of sambals and deep fried goodies, all served with some rice, dahl, no cutlery, and a banana leaf for the equivalent of like 15 ront (including a fresh coconut to wash it down). It sucks to have the locals staring at you eating with your fingers and laughing, but one of the guys that worked there felt sorry for me (must have been all the curry running down my chin) and gave me some seconds. Rad!


So anyway, i was pretty worn out by then so i headed back to the hotel for a nap, and headed out later for some more laksas and shopping, but this post is getting too long...

Who is next in the great eat off?

Mbeki is a doos

According to Business Day today Thabo Mbeki is in Mauritius, just three weeks after Zuma was there trying to get the Mauritan courts to squash some evidence relevant to his corruption case. It's Mauritius's 40th Independence Day, but Mbeki is the only head of state there. Whatever evidence the Mauritian judiciary has will apparently be made available to the NPA; Zuma's application was given the boot. That would suggest that Mbeki is just there to have a chat and a pina colada or two, but he's meeting the president, prime minister, and chief justice. And besides, Mbeki is a workaholic - he always designates people to attend this sort of thing, if it really is only about an independence celebration.


The whole basis of Zuma's case is that there is a political conspiracy against him, led by Mbeki, and co-opting state institutions like the NPA. The whole arms deal saga stinks more than a load-shedded waste water treatment plant. There is no doubt in anyone's mind that most if not all of the cabinet knew what was going on and either turned a blind eye or got actively involved. Mbeki was head of the procurement committee ffs. There is also little doubt that Zuma was the fall-guy. So he's probably guilty, but he's probably also right about a conspiracy. Exactly how that amounts to a defence is that Koos advocate's job to figure out, but he's pretty darn smart.

The NPA bungling and generally weird behaviour in the Zuma case, the rape stuff (which the cynic in me can't help thinking was a set up), Mbeki's continued denial that ANYONE else was involved - effectively arguing that a guy with a standard 5 bantustan education and who learned to read on Robben Island managed to orchestrate a complex web of corrupt deals that none of his peers knew anything about; and of course dismissing out of hand all of Andrew Feinstein's evidence - all adds up to a lot of kak in my view.

Mbeki going to Mauritius 3 weeks after Zoooms was there just fuels the fire, deepens divisions, encourages faction fighting, screws the country further. What a doos.

Scroll down...

for the coolest thing on the internet, ever... http://www.summit.co.za/video/face2face/20080305

KL blog post coming soon, i'm just struggling with the kakkest web browser in the world (Safari).

Sunday 9 March 2008

Not just deep fried Mars Bars....

So in the spirit of procrastinating, to give our blog a bit more life and a break from Philly's political rantings and his love affair with Barrack Obama, here is another food post which I need to sneak in before the great Malaysian trip over shadows it. Yes, there is more to food in Edinburgh than deep fried Mars Bars. Last Thursday I was invited to a cooking class at Martin Wishard's (Michelin Star Chef) new cookery school in Leith where we made the most fabulous food - Jerusalem Artichoke Soup with Panchetta and Chestnut Puree, followed by Steamed Sea Bass with Tomato Vinaigrette and Juilien Vegetables, and then a Rhubarb and Creme raise Parfait with Strawberry Coolie. Amazing....









And then last Friday we went to dinner at my crazy American friend Sarah's house were we made Mexican food - G-free enchiladas and Blue Corn Tamales, stuffed with Black Beans and Pork which are then steamed in Corn Husks. Frighteningly good! Right back to my essay on Reform and Deregulation of the Korean Economy...... But this time next week I will be in the sun.

Saturday 8 March 2008

For anyone that has not yet heard Broken Social Scene Presents Kevin Drew.....

Thursday 6 March 2008

And now for the important world news...

Cemetery full, mayor tells locals not to die

BORDEAUX, France (Reuters) - The mayor of a village in southwest France has threatened residents with severe punishment if they die, because there is no room left in the overcrowded cemetery to bury them.

In an ordinance posted in the council offices, Mayor Gerard Lalanne told the 260 residents of the village of Sarpourenx that "all persons not having a plot in the cemetery and wishing to be buried in Sarpourenx are forbidden from dying in the parish."

It added: "Offenders will be severely punished."

The mayor said he was forced to take drastic action after an administrative court in the nearby town of Pau ruled in January that the acquisition of adjoining private land to extend the cemetery would not be justified.

Lalanne, who celebrated his 70th birthday on Wednesday and is standing for election to a seventh term in this month's local elections, said he was sorry that there had not been a positive outcome to the dilemma.

"It may be a laughing matter for some, but not for me," he said.

Wednesday 5 March 2008

Dammit

Rictus looks set to win Texas too... she's ahead with 97% of the votes counted. Check the state of the race, cool interactive map and all, here.

BUT, because of the way Texas determines which delegates go to which candidate, it may not help Rictus substantially close the delegate count lead Obama currently has. It also means final results will only be out on Wednesday (US time). The NY Times has however already declared Rictus as the winner...

Losing Ohio and Texas in the primaries has never been a good thing for a candidate's chances in presidential elections. The encouraging thing is that Rictus's campaign now seems almost exclusively geared towards reacting to Obama's. That's total loser behaviour, sore loser behaviour at that. Let's hope Americans can see that.


The Doctor.

Rictus wins Ohio and Rhode Island

So Hillary is firmly back in contention. Stupid Ohio-ans.

But Barack is ahead in major urban areas in Texas!!! He has to win it.

Tuesday 4 March 2008

Lol

"In every moment of repose came that scary rictus smile, to emphasise the lack of authenticity and remind one irresistibly of Jack Nicholson in The Shining." The Financial Times, 4 March 2008.



Come ON Barack!

Sunday 2 March 2008

Facekaka


I'm not going to 'do a Phil' and paste a whole article, including adverts, but do yourselves a favour and read this piece on Facebook. It could do with some paragraphs and better editing, but the facts are all there... DON'T BE A SUCKER!

Zeitgeist and MBA

helloooo!!!
It has been ages since i posted and my excuse is rather boring, didn't really feel I had anything to say. So, MBA has officially started and feels like i've been going for months, even though its only been a couple of weeks. It is exactly as everyone says, lots and lots of work :) soo much reading to do every day, although it is made easier when you can phone up one of the authors in your reader for the inside fast track, yes, Dr Phil is writing articles that are to be read by the MBA class of 80 or so ernest individuals! We have some influencial and smart friends it would seem (not that we were unaware of this previously). Still not really sure I understood all the fine detail phil, but next time you are down I am hoping for a brief summation :)

Imagine a class of 80 A types and me sitting there thinking "am I one of these people?", the irony of me being considered a hippy in the class is too hysterical for Gary to contemplate :) We're both waiting for the day he shows up on campus :D But there are some very interesting people, like Frans in my group. Lovely, classic sweet afrikaans boy from durbanville... until you ask him about his work experience and find out that he has been working on oil rigs in Siberia for the last 3 years! Lots of international students which is great and even a fellow glasto 07 reveller :) Will keep you posted on the characters. Took my group (6 total stangers who are still trying to find the common thread) up liions head last week as a bonding moment, not sure it was as successful as I had hoped, but nice to do the sunset/moonrise thing again.

Anyway, the other thing I wanted to ask my collection of bright, independant-thinking friends was if anyone else has seen Zeitgeist (http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/? Really would like to talk more about it. There is a lot proposed that is not news to us (9/11 conspiracies etc) but one thing that stood out is the notion that the law that says you have to pay income tax in the US doesn't actually exist as the ammendment to the constitution was never ratified or formalised legally. I am trying to find out more information on this and thought perhpas the lawyers knew something? Also the film emphasised that the federal reserve bank is a private entity and has nothing really to do with the US government, loaning money to US banks at interest and ensuring that there is a continual debt... Phil? Any ideas? How does this fit in with all the World Bank and IMF dealings around the world and the current IMF plan to sell of 8% of its gold to finance its operations? Lots of questions in my head and no way of making sense of them at this point. Need to do some more research clearly, but it has defineitely got me thinking more about things people have been chatting about more and more recently. The sources listed by the film are varied.

OK, gotta go back to my "self analysis" assignment for a course that is all about looking inward to become a better communicator, learner and leader. Very interesting even if it is taught by a self important prick. Going to be sending out evaluations soon as I have to get friends and family to supply "feedback" (drum roll please). Ok, hope you are all well!! Missing friends and become far too familiar with my flat. lots of love!! kx