If this is your first visit at iScatterlings, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Champers in the Raw
I recently carried out an email interview with Champers who runs a blogsite called ChampagneHeathen. She is renowned as a ‘funloving dronk n dance on tables’ person and graciously found time to respond to my questions.
Question #1
During your last two senior years at high/grammar school, were you already aspiring to go into the career you have now carved out for yourself? If yes – why? If no – why not?
I guess this assumes I have carved a career out for myself!
I knew I wanted a career out of the norm. So in that sense, yes I did aspire to where I am now. I think I was aspiring towards photo journalism for National Geographic. At this stage I was tearing into books by the top SA & National Geographic photo journalists. I also wanted to be involved in what I would later learn is termed “Humanitarian” work. I called it “saving the world, and changing the wrongs”.
Soon however, I realised how much photography equipment costs, and that my brother kept sneaking my mom’s old camera gear out from under me. So I decided to look to print journalism & the benefits of a Bic pen & ‘borrowed’ computer room paper. Then I matriculated. And the idea of being a rich slacker trophy wife suddenly appealed to me and took on a whole new meaning of “glam”. I am still looking for that perfect sugar daddy.
Question #2
What did you begin to study at college and end up receiving a degree in? Explain why if it differed. Explain the rationale behind your final selection.
I started varsity studying BA Information Science, simply because I wanted any old undergrad course to begin with, and to then go onto post-grad journalism. But taking Political Science as my optional subject changed everything.
I also realised quickly that my course was not teaching me hacking skills, but rather how to catalogue a library. So I ditched it at the end of my 1st year to do BA International Relations, with politics as a major, and picked up English and then International Law LLB (Ooooooo!) as random extra subjects. In effect it meant I had ended up adding an extra year onto my undergrad course so I had plenty of spare ‘study’ time available for other pursuits, and one can only drink so much screw-top Tassies.
Question #3
What music genre do you like listening to most? Who or which band influenced your early musical preferences?
Music has never been of much concern to me. I try to listen to as many genres as possible. Each one suits different times and moods. Louis Armstrong can irritate me to an extreme while I am in the office, but it works in the background in the evening with wine. Or some teenage punk band can be fun to bounce to in the car.
My eldest brother’s music (U2, Beatles, Depeche Mode, The Doors) was probably my early preference as I had no clue. So I trusted his taste.
Question #4
Given a choice of vacation, where would you go to experience an ideal holiday? And what is the best bit about a vacation for you, the travel to or the arrival? Why?
Paris. I love the city and France and their culture beyond repair. Until I can work out a way to live there, I will have to stick to holidays. I miss their baguettes, and croissants, and the gorgeous coffees, and walking down their streets even in mid winter, and just feeling like I fit in.
I have visited Paris four times now. My best times have been when I stayed in my friend’s apartment where you could see three quarters of the city, and staying in a cheap hotel in the Latin Quarter, I recommend that hotel only if you can speak French, and can handle one communal shower & one toilet per floor!
It is one of the great dilemmas in my life – loving a decadent city like Paris, where you are able to forget the rest of the world and indulge in all that is good in life, versus the African reality I know and also love. I have yet to work out whether these two worlds can realistically and healthily merge.
Jaaa, the seven hour flight to Paris is nothing to write home about. Neither is the arrival at Charles De Gaulle aeroport, or figuring out how to catch the train into the city with no euro currency.
Question #5
What legacy would you like to be remembered for?
Helping Africa to become a world power.
Question #6
If you were not doing what you do now as a job, what might you have done?
I’d be in the wine industry. I love wine, and even though I have no sense of smell, and my taste sucks wine fascinates me. In my opinion, wine is an artform. Plus the farms rock, and sitting for hours drinking away lazy lunch/ evening hours in those settings would not be a bad way to spend one’s days.
Question #7
Has blogging had a big impact on your personal life and career? ie Has blogging placed extra demands on your time? When are you most creative? Morning or evening? Do you only blog at certain times of the day or night?
Blogging has definitely affected my life. It has made me write regularly again, and so I am proudly watching as I hone my skill. Writing was something I had been trying to do for years, but previously never had the motivation to pursue.
It also has given the ranting, fighting idealist in me the perfect “soap box” from which to voice my thoughts and opinions. I think many a friend I regularly dine with is very happy, because now they don’t have to endure these rants over their fillet or chicken medallions.
In general I will write a post up in the morning before 10am. I usually have an idea bouncing about my head the night before or on the way to work. I can be very creative at night, before passing out in my bed! It’s just that the keys can be difficult to focus on through “2-bottles-of-wine” eyes.
I have a job that allows me to get distracted relatively easily, so I enjoy keeping up with the comment banter, and this has placed demands on my time. Also, having established myself in the blogosphere, it becomes necessary to regularly read and comment on the growing number of friends’ blogs .– It is not easy & can be very time consuming ESPECIALLY with slow internet connectivity, which is a regular feature in my life.
Question #8
What are your 3 all-time favourite PC or electronic games and why?
If those free internet & PC games are allowed under this title. I used to also LOVE Teken III, and KO’ing guys with that chick’s high heels, but I believe that is a PSI game, not a PC game. Is there a difference??? Am I even using the right acronyms??
Question #9
Given that blogging has entered our personal lives and mainstream business, do you find that blogosphere’s ‘elite’ or Blogebrities is dominated by the tekkie/ marketing/advertising/branding clique despite being the minority user group? If yes, is it healthy for blogging’s future? Also, do you subscribe to Web 2.0 or is it a myth?
There are so many marketing blogs trying to figure out all the inner workings of our minds. I think more marketers should rather have gone into psychology. There will soon be more of a demand for people to fix you after all of this media brainwashing, rather than more people doing the brainwashing.
I steer clear of those blogs now. But when I first started, they definitely seemed like the place to be. I guess they just “market” themselves better. Ultimately though, this medium allows you to seek out and gather together the blogs of interest to yourself.
I do not have the first clue what Web 2.0 is. Well, no, that’s a lie, I have seen the word used a few times in the blog context. THAT is all I know.
Question #10
What would you describe as being your ideal night out?
One that is unexpected. That ends at sunrise and involved a thousand contexts of diverse type, a thousand people plus, a thousand laughs, smiles, flirts, crazy dance moves and where I am still sober enough to remember it all & able to recall it the next day with mates over a very hungover late late breakfast somewhere.
Question #11
What was your most interesting encounter in your life to date ?
The children I interacted with regularly in Orange Farm (a township south of Johannesburg). They are bundles of happy, polite, darling, motivational joy. I miss them.
Question #12
What something are you very good at?
I can down a beer faster than most people, male or female. This is my friends’ party trick. I think it is unclassy and I hate to publicise it (Rob, you bring out the truth in me!), but I still impress myself at this most random talent.
My friends, however, often set me up against their mates without me realising it. Hmmm. Actually. I think we should start hustling this skill.
Question #13
What age do you think is best to be?
As a 19 year old blonde chick. THAT was fun. I was in 1st/ 2nd year varsity so I did not have a care in the world. I thought I looked hot. Women wanted to be me, men definitely tried to be with me. And I happily took complete advantage of the situation!!
Honestly – I think you have to find pleasure in every age and stage. Not that you have to have a laugh and thrill a minute,but simply to just roll with the challenges and the opportunities that each stage brings.
Question #14
Are you a political animal? Do you participate? If not - why? If yes – why?
Yes, but more in the sense of international & global politics. I keep losing interest in local politics that is rampant with in-fighting. I vote. I try to keep as up-to-date on the issues I find relevant. I use my blog to test my theories, ideas & responses to the political scene. If my government does not start taking more responsibility, then I will start becoming more active. I think. I hope.
Why? Because I love a good fight of minds and wit. Because I am fascinated by power plays at all levels. And if I want broader change, I have to know full well what and with whom I am fighting. And also to know what tools are at my disposal as well as which are available to my political opponent(s)’.
Question #15
Do you think Africa can be saved by pop and rock concert takings?
No. Instead I think that these publicity stunts wear away at a very serious and complex issue. People soon will become tired of hearing “Help Africa! Help Africa!”. They will stop listening. Or they might fool /quell themselves into thinking, “Well I bought an expensive concert ticket, and I spent a whole afternoon listening to great rock music while thinking about the issues, so I must, therefore have made a difference.”
It is so much more complex than throwing money at Africa.
Plus, there is already a great deal of money in the Aid and Humanitarian world. It is arguably being misused on the salaries of people like me!.
The infrastructures and aid systems needs to be adapted to become more responsive, effective, and cost-efficient. We must ‘Make the Money Work’! When it is proving to do so, then raise more funding. Except this means human power, dedicated hours, creative thinking, power relenting, utilising skills – not just buying a ticket or a pair of jeans.
And people don’t like that.
Question #16
What is your philosophy of life?
“Cause every little things gonna be alright. So don’t you worry about a thing….”
Whenever life is kak, I put that Bob Marley song on, and things might not be better, but that song makes me smile & bounce & remember that I’ll head up soon enough, and be flying high
Question #17
What something can’t you do well at all?
Play sports that involve ball skills. Only my puppies will still play soccer with me, and that’s just because they don’t know what they’re missing out on.
I also find it damn near impossible to write in small writing. Which is maybe why I love the computer so much. Finally more than 20 words can fit onto a page AND be legible!
Question #18
Do you have a gadget that can’t ever do without or be parted from?
Is a coffee machine considered a gadget?!
All my gadgets that I think I rely on (like my phone, my computer, my car, my camera) have taken a break from me for a few days or months, and I actually realised I enjoy the freedom of not relying on them. Although, as soon as I am back in my normal world, I am back to having them all very close at hand. And while I am gradually becoming attached to my iPod, I have yet to struggle to be parted with it.
This Saturday 3rd March 2007 I will be at One Life Live at Olympia, London.
This is what it is all about:
What do you want to do with your One Life? One Life Live (2-4 March, Olympia) brings together all the options in one place - giving you both the inspiration to make a change, along with very real solutions to ensure you can achieve your dream.
Click here for detailed information about the event, including more than 200 free seminars, demonstrations and advice clinics.
Opening Times:
Friday 2 March 1pm - 7pm
Saturday 3 March 10am - 6pm
Sunday 4 March 10am - 5pm
Now far be it for me to say that everything you need to kickstart your entrepreneurial dream or the launch of your start-up will be at One Life Live, but I can bet that if you copmbine One Life Live with all the very informative details and resources that Pamela Slim provides at her site Escape from Cubicle Nation and here at her consulting site called Ganas, you cannot go wrong. You will arm yourself with the best of all things you need to help you to take the leap to freedom as your own boss.
I am a huge fan of the TV show Boston Legal. To me the onscreen partnership between William Shatner (formerly known as Capt. James T Kirk of the spaceship USS Enterprise in Star Trek) and James Spader is something legends are created from. The chemistry between the two along with a superb script makes for a fantastic show and a pairing of actors who feed off each other. I believe ad-libs between the two while sharing a scene, are not uncommon.
[I am reminded of the live performances with Michael Palin and John Cleese of Monty Python fame, who set out to 'corpse' each other. Cleese won most times but in so doing the live action between the two sparked and lifted the performances and the audience's enjoyment too.]
Boston Legal’s underlying theme showcases an ageing lawyer (Denny Crane played by William Shatner), who is is in the early stages of that dreadful illness Alzheimers. The tragedy of Denny Crane is revealed through humour. Alzheimers is a serious illness and David E Kelly, the show’s creator, treats the seriousness with appropriate delicacy and dignity.
In Season 3 it seems the opening sequences are getting special attention. Like William Shatner using a kazoo to blurt out the show’s theme music is especially funny. Other intros are given the humour treatment too like, “Cue music!”.
The fad caught on and has been taken up by fans of the show. Below is one of the newer scenes developed by a fan where the James Bond opening sequence is set to the Boston Legal theme music. Enjoy!
Later in Series 3, Boston Legal features Michael J Fox who had a hit TV series with Spin City, until he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. He quit the show in order to focus his energies on fighting the illness, bringing more awareness to the disease and setting up and funding his foundation for Parkinson’s research. Boston Legal is an appropriate vehicle to showcase Parkinson’s.
The excellent Stormhoek campaign conceived by Hugh Macleod has released a term into the world that has now taken on a new significance to us all. It should do and Hugh explains it best here and here.
But before you go wild and start throwing your empty Stormhoek wine bottle corks at me, I have to tell you that you are reading the words of the ultimate ’social object’ - me. Yes, je suis est la grande ‘object sociale’. Why and how can I so modestly claim this? Well you better read on to find out hadn’t you.
Years ago when I was a lot younger I was threatened with excommunication by my father if I did not agree with his most excellent idea to date for me to join the church choir and learn to screech/sing. But far from being miffed and moaning about my soon to be restricted lifestyle, it dawned on me that I had in fact just been handed an opportunity called freedom with a capital F and it was to be grabbed with both hands lest the chance that dad’s foolishness would never occur again.
So like all clever young kids, especially me, I rebelled most appropriately and sufficiently enough to cause dad to go get his slipper. Yeah, I knew even then that there was no gain without some pain. But there was no pain. Just the confrontation I was manipulating to make dad feel his threat of discomfort (he aways pulled the downswing anyway!), had sunk in, and that his spoiled good for nothing obstrepulous son would, after sulking, threats to run away, skin the family cat, stomp on the budgie and pouting so hard it hurt, go to church and learn to sing hymns. Properrrly. Choir practice occured at night.
Understand that here I was, a tender and sensitive responsible young soul, being forced by my father to go out on a schoolnight to have fun with a group of classmates interrupted only for a while by some singing practice. Oh gee shucks you should have seen the Oscar-winning performance every Thursday evening as I tried so hard to summon up the enthusiasm to go out to sing for my supper and dad’s everlasting happiness that he got one up on me! Hee hee!
It was the best of times for me. After practice we got on our bikes and sauntered back home or rushed off to go visit a friend and cause a bit of harmless schoolboy havoc. The warm evenings riding my bike toward the deep red sunsets are forever etched into my memory. It was during this time that I first tasted wine. Communion wine. Padre left a cupboard door open. Shucks. We all had to have a sip of the sweet red wine.
So when I read the technobilge below, I always immediately think of my days as a choirboy.
Remember this from April 2006? What does this mean?:
Deep, opulent orange hue. A nose of caramel, pastry, spiced oranges and apples. There is certainly some botrytis here, both colour and nose confirming this. The palate has quite a savoury structure to it, with firm acidity cutting through the mouthfeel. But there is plenty of flavour too, of burnt toast, stewed apples, caramel and honey. Takes on a greater sweet intensity with time in the glass, and has a good length. More reminiscent of Tokaji than anything else. Just scrapes very good
Ling Valentine, a successful online entrepreneur, trumped the BBC TV show called Dragons Den and the TV show’s Venture Capital expert line-up of five multi-millionaires.
On the popular TV show each week, a batch of wannabe entrepreneurs pitch the Den in order to secure funding for as little equity release as possible. The show’s 5 multi-millionaires have eached stumped up GBP 150k of their own mpney to invest in budding entrepreneurs. After the pitch by the entrepreneurs, the Dragons then raise questions and more often than not, shoot you, your drive, innovation, dreams and hopes away in a blaze of patronising, condescending and tactless verbal putdowns.
That is until Ling Valentine appeared last week to pitch for GBP 50k to fund marketing for her already booming online business called Ling’s Cars. Ling pitched, defended her numbers, hooked, and then in a triumphant climax to her part in the show, refused to accept the funding offers from two of the Dragons. See it in full here
Why?
The publicity Ling generated has been worth tenfold the money she might have walked away with. To say that she played the show well is putting it mildly. She used the Dragons to perfection. Congratulations go to Ling for oneupping the Dragons. She did tell them that she eats dragons for breakfast.
Heres a video of Steve Clayton from Microsoft UK answering questions about the Blue Monster. Enjoy it and listen to what he says about Microsoft. They are not only about software. Microsoft do get involved in other social projects too.
At Highclere Castle In aid of the UK Countryside Alliance
The Countryside Rocks Concert 2007 Features*
Bryan Ferry • Steve Winwood
Kenney Jones and the Jones Gang • Mike d’Abo
Special guests include:
Eric Clapton • Jon Anderson • Gary Brooker
Highclere Castle, Newbury, Berkshire - Saturday 19th May 2007
Tickets: £75 per person • Under 19: £50 per person • £5 ticket discount for Countryside Alliance members**
Numbers strictly limited • Gates open 4pm • Order a picnic or bring your own
NOTE:
I went last year and already have the tickets for this one in May. It is a picnic in the grounds of a legendary castle and the crowd is limited. It is an intimate event featuring the best that UK has given to world of rock music.
Champagne, wine & Pimms bars • BBQ, deli & coffees. Suid Afrikaners: Bring the Potjie, Stormhoek and Biltong
VIP tickets available
Dinner and drinks in our VIP tent • VIP tickets £175 per person • To buy VIP tickets, please call 0871 919 8321
*Artists subject to change • **subject to validation of your membership number
This incredible machine was built as a collaborative effort between the Robert M. Trammell Music Conservatory and the Sharon Wick School ofEngineering at the University of Iowa. Amazingly, 97% of the machines components came from John Deere Industries and Irrigation Equipment of Bancroft Iowa, yes farm equipment!
It took the team a combined 13,029 hours of set-up, alignment, calibration, and tuning before filming this video but as you can see it was well worth the effort.
It is now on display in the Matthew Gerhard Alumni Hall at the University and is already slated to be donated to the Smithsonian.
Click HERE to hear the Fatastic Music Machine. It is in Windows, (.wav file) Media format
I met up with Hugh on Friday at Newbury Tesco. More about this in detail later.
Hugh, Cath and Colin were busy with the Stormhoek Big Love Rose’ roadshow. I went to support Stormhoek by buying three bottles of Big Love Rose’ and also with the intention to get Hugh’s autograph. I got more than I bargained for. In my opinion, anyone who engages Hugh on a professional basis or as a bloke in the pub, gets more than what one initially expects from him. He engages you and gives more value than you expect.
This in itself is outrageous. Who does this in these days of economies of scale where in the main, you only get exactly 200grams if that is what you order? Hugh Macleod gives you more for your value. And it’s fresh too!
Anyway I asked Hugh to sign my piece of paper with the iScatterlings logo on it and got this back:
This is not 200grams worth. It is so much more. So I suggest that before tomorrow unfolds, you go today to your nearest Tesco and buy some Stormhoek Big Love Rose’ to give to your loved one with the dozen red roses. Go. Shoo. You don’t have much time left. Git! Shoo,go, go, go….!
“Success doesn’t come to you…you go to it.”
– Marva N. Collins, (1936)
Marva N. Collins, (born August 31, 1936) is an educator who in 1975 started Westside Preparatory School in Garfield Park, an impoverished neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois.
“Change The World Or Go Home” is Microsoft’s new mantra for the future?
Well they have changed the world through Windows on the majority of the world’s PCs. So what next? Do nothing or do something?
According to James O’Neill Microsoft need to “find ways to change the world again? If we’re not prepared to do that what are we doing here? So ‘Change The World or Go Home’ is part mission statement, part call to arms.”
Read James’s very interesting blog and opinions about it here
Steve Clayton at Microsoft has a very interesting blog. Yesterday Steve posted 3 quick download links for Microsoft’s new Toolbars for Word, Excel and PowerPoint. But as if that was not fun eough for you, he also linked to a Product personality test.
The Test will help you derive what MS product you relate most to. I was Outlook 2007. You might be PowerPoint. Go try it and feed back what product you relate to.
Click here to read Steve’s post and to go have some fun with Microsft’s Product Personality Test.
I was at Limone (a ski resort) in the Italian Alps. Walking throught the town I came around a corner and saw this shop called OK Market.
It was just too close and coincidental to South Africa’s OK Bazaars, a chain which is almost a copy of the Woolworth’s concept in Europe and USA. In S Africa however, Woolworths is funded and operated as Marks and Spancers. Woolworths market only M&S product ranges under the St Michael brand and are reknowned for quality foodstuffs, have similar shop layouts and instore signage and advertising. Standards are as good as UK’s M&S.
I like the conflict of the heart in the O (denoting healthy products kind to the heart) versus what I can only presume are very sugary Xmas cakes in the window.
When asked whether he set goals or not, a multi-millionaire ” super salesman said that he did and in fact always had, but not in the way that most people do.
Traditional goal setting encourages us to ‘think big’ and ‘reach for the stars’, but also to ‘be S.M.A.R.T.’ and keep our target constant while we ‘do whatever it takes’ to achieve it. My client didn’t do any of that. He would sit down once or twice a year over a good meal and a nice glass of wine and ask himself “What would be fun and exciting to make my life about over the next year?”
He would then take as long as he wanted to write out his ideas until he had a list that totally inspired him. As the year unfolded, he would check in with his ‘goals’ every now and then and adjust them up or down depending on how things were going in his life.
When he saw how horrified I looked (didn’t anyone ever tell him you’re not allowed to change your goals once you’ve written them down?), he told me something I have never forgotten:
‘The only real purpose of a goal is to inspire you to fall more deeply in love with your life.’
This week’s experiment will give you a simple way to play with raising and lowering your goals to keep you having fun, taking action and learning heaps every step of the way towards achieving them.
Today’s Experiment
1. Take a look at your list of goals for 2007. (If you don’t have a list of goals for 2007 and want one, I recommend Jinny Ditzler’s wonderful book ‘Your Best Year Yet’.
2. For each goal that can be quantified, come up with two numbers - the minimum that would feel like success, and the outrageously cool ‘oh my gosh there is a god and he obviously loves me!’ number.
Examples:
Income goals:
Minimum $55,000
Outrageous $250,000!
Weight Loss goals:
Minimum - Lose 15 lbs.
Outrageous - Lose 60 lbs. and fit into my old wedding dress!
Productivity goals:
Minimum - Write for 1/2 an hour a day
Outrageous - Write for 3 hours a day!
Sales goals:
Minimum - Contact 5 new prospects a day
Outrageous - Contact 25 new prospects a day!
What you now have is a ‘goal range’ - your goal range is to earn between $55,000 -$250,000 or to lose 15 - 60 lbs.
3. Choose a target to aim for within your goal range for now. The key to effective targeting is to choose a specific target that inspires you to take action. That number may change from month to month or even from week to week, but it’s important for your mind to feel inspired and your brain to have something specific to aim for.
Examples:
Initial Income Target - $75,000
Initial Weight Loss Target - 30 lbs.
Initial Productivity Target - Write for an hour a day
Initial Sales Target - Contact 5 prospects a day
4. Periodically review your goal range and targets to see how well you are doing and if you are still inspired and taking action to get what you want. If not, adjust the target until your heart starts beating a little bit quicker and the goose bumps appear on your arm.
Go and get many more Inspirational Tips for a Better Life by clicking on the little picture below!
