http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/3347532/Leopard-savaging-a-crocodile-caught-on-camera.html
How crazy is that, first time caught on camera. had to post it on FB and Twitter.
_-----This past weekend
Hung out with Tommy (Orlando, Fl and UK) and Joe (east coast US) a bit..cool folks.
Masroefa's bday party
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck, forgot to call the Goob on her 18th bday, but called her at 1am her time the same night..hope thats ok?????
Went to a braai at this bbq shop called Mzuli's in the Guguletu township...best food I have had since I have been here. Also, meandered around with the locals to the shabean (informal bar/liquor house) and I think I maid out with Lauren (mendoza), ha!
Monday, July 27, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Grahamstown Memories
I went to Grahamstown last weekend for the Arts Festival which you would have loved. i knew some Rastas (no joke, these guys dont drink, eat meat, and got all sorts of slang and ways to do things) from Cape Town that came down to sell at the festival. The distance from Grahamstown to Cape Town is like the distance from SF to SD. We met up there and were tokin and talkin shit. The last two nights we made a open fire right outside Rhodes University where they had their vendor stand and the last night I BBQ'd some lemon chix and asparagus. They were giving me hella shit bc they said asparagus was a white folks food and had never had it in there life. Funny thing is they ate that shit up as soon as they tried it. Chef boyarD..you know it..
Also, did wiskey tasking with Lauren which was fun...
Also, did wiskey tasking with Lauren which was fun...
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Very Inspired By Obama Speech in Ghana
Very sad to find out from that Aunt Janette has passed from a heart atttack.
-The funeral will be held in Berkely and I will write a small peice for the ceremony.
-Man, its tough to see the coolest family members go, it is important for us to carry on the legacy.
Very Inspired by obama speech...
"One area that holds out both undeniable peril and extraordinary promise is Energy. Africa gives off less greenhouse gas than any other part of the world, but is most threatened by climate change. A warming planet will spread disease, shrink water resources, and deplete crops, creating conditions that produce more famine, more conflict. All of us, particularly the developed world have a responsibility to slow these treks, threw mitigation and by changing the way that we use energy. But we can also work with Africans to turn this crisis into opportunity. Together, we can partner on behalf of our planet and prosperity and help countries increase access to power while developing, leapfrogging the dirtier phase of development. Think about it, across Africa there is bountiful wind and solar power, geothermal energy and biofuel...African's natural gifts can generate its own power while exporting clean energy abroad...its about opportunity that must exist for Africans in the 21st century..." (Obama speech in Ghana_July 11, 2009) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkNpUEWIhd4
-The funeral will be held in Berkely and I will write a small peice for the ceremony.
-Man, its tough to see the coolest family members go, it is important for us to carry on the legacy.
Very Inspired by obama speech...
"One area that holds out both undeniable peril and extraordinary promise is Energy. Africa gives off less greenhouse gas than any other part of the world, but is most threatened by climate change. A warming planet will spread disease, shrink water resources, and deplete crops, creating conditions that produce more famine, more conflict. All of us, particularly the developed world have a responsibility to slow these treks, threw mitigation and by changing the way that we use energy. But we can also work with Africans to turn this crisis into opportunity. Together, we can partner on behalf of our planet and prosperity and help countries increase access to power while developing, leapfrogging the dirtier phase of development. Think about it, across Africa there is bountiful wind and solar power, geothermal energy and biofuel...African's natural gifts can generate its own power while exporting clean energy abroad...its about opportunity that must exist for Africans in the 21st century..." (Obama speech in Ghana_July 11, 2009) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkNpUEWIhd4
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
BBall at Cape Tech
Got a few solid games of 3 on 3 yesterday at Cape Pennisula University of Technology gym yesterday. Got pretty jacked up though as well. First, I slammed my head into the basket post and got a huge welt on my head. Then after I recovered and started playing again, I went up for a block and fell about 3 feet on my butt, which still hurts today. There is some big shot coach there named Kita.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
On the mind
Drakenstein Multi-media project a great succcess..
http://drakensteinannenberg.wordpress.com/
Just a snap shot of my group.
Ethan Demas is a 15 year old 9th grader who lives in Paarl. He is interested in information technology and takes special focus to social media sites such as Facebook and Mix-it. He exhibits a keen understanding of new media and does a fantastic job at incorporating his learning in this multi-media project. In one occasion, he downloaded music and various images using his cellular devise and assisted in implementing this media into the audio slide show. Ethan’s father Jerome is a local high school teacher and it is clear that education appreciation is a family trait.
Cavendy Festus is a 17 year high school student who lives in the Paarl area. When you first meet her you easily recognize her spirited sense of style and fashion. Although timid at first, Cavendy developed an aptitude for interview reporting. She has an assertive pleasant demeanor which makes her approach to the public ideal. Cavendy enjoys spending time with friends and watching movies. She has much potential and through this project she has gained an interest in journalism.
Nathan Baxter is a “go-getter” in many respects from work projects to general relationship building. He is a 15 year old 9th grade student who also has a distinct love for sports. His favorites include rugby and basketball. His father is a professional in the local Paarl wine industry. It is obvious that Nathan aspires to his father’s work and especially enjoys attending parties and contemporary music. He is also a great fan of stand-up comedy and loves American comics such as Chris Rock.
Daniel Atwater is a 25 year old graduate student in the Communication Management program at the University of Southern California and also holds an undergraduate degree from California State University, Los Angeles in Communication with a minor in Pan African Studies. For the last four years he has worked in public and private real estate asset management. Daniel is a believer in community development and looks forward to facilitating partnerships for sustainable international business in his career. His interests include international politics, sports, education, cooking, and social gatherings.
http://drakensteinannenberg.wordpress.com/
Just a snap shot of my group.
Ethan Demas is a 15 year old 9th grader who lives in Paarl. He is interested in information technology and takes special focus to social media sites such as Facebook and Mix-it. He exhibits a keen understanding of new media and does a fantastic job at incorporating his learning in this multi-media project. In one occasion, he downloaded music and various images using his cellular devise and assisted in implementing this media into the audio slide show. Ethan’s father Jerome is a local high school teacher and it is clear that education appreciation is a family trait.
Cavendy Festus is a 17 year high school student who lives in the Paarl area. When you first meet her you easily recognize her spirited sense of style and fashion. Although timid at first, Cavendy developed an aptitude for interview reporting. She has an assertive pleasant demeanor which makes her approach to the public ideal. Cavendy enjoys spending time with friends and watching movies. She has much potential and through this project she has gained an interest in journalism.
Nathan Baxter is a “go-getter” in many respects from work projects to general relationship building. He is a 15 year old 9th grade student who also has a distinct love for sports. His favorites include rugby and basketball. His father is a professional in the local Paarl wine industry. It is obvious that Nathan aspires to his father’s work and especially enjoys attending parties and contemporary music. He is also a great fan of stand-up comedy and loves American comics such as Chris Rock.
Daniel Atwater is a 25 year old graduate student in the Communication Management program at the University of Southern California and also holds an undergraduate degree from California State University, Los Angeles in Communication with a minor in Pan African Studies. For the last four years he has worked in public and private real estate asset management. Daniel is a believer in community development and looks forward to facilitating partnerships for sustainable international business in his career. His interests include international politics, sports, education, cooking, and social gatherings.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Scattered thing...still very memorable.
Detained---so I was grabbed by the boys after a crazy incident where my card didnt work and I was short paying the taxi who was being a complete jerk, called the police on me who preceded to throw me in the back of the cop truck thing, then took me to the police station and open the doors just to say "get lost!" -man, how crazy was that! I dont know how Andre and I made it too that Mimecast meeting the next morning.
4th of July Planning---wired a 500W halogen light today in the office in preparation which was fun, damn, my shopping list aint nutn nice
Masroefa--my fellow light brite and companion here
Nate and Marg..(somthing) - brother and sis Portugese duo, been cool playing pool and hanging out with them.
Community Project was awesome in Paarl this past weekend, great working with Nathan, Ethan, and Cavendy...crazy nite at the local bar as usual
4th of July Planning---wired a 500W halogen light today in the office in preparation which was fun, damn, my shopping list aint nutn nice
Masroefa--my fellow light brite and companion here
Nate and Marg..(somthing) - brother and sis Portugese duo, been cool playing pool and hanging out with them.
Community Project was awesome in Paarl this past weekend, great working with Nathan, Ethan, and Cavendy...crazy nite at the local bar as usual
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Last night I found out Gaucka will be shipped to Ethiopia
The article I read today about Ethiopia...
Ethiopia looks to revive past railway glories
By Elizabeth Blunt BBC News, Ethiopia
A major project is under way to restore Ethiopia's 100-year-old imperial railway, and there are even plans to build a new national network.
The French built it for the Emperor Menelik in the early 1900s, and French influences are everywhere, from the glazed canopies of the Addis Ababa railway station to the startling sight of the Ethiopian station staff in Dire Dawa talking to each other in French as they dispatch a night goods train down the line to Djibouti.
Like so many rail systems, the Ethiopia-Djibouti railway was neglected for years in favour of road transport, but the loss of its main ports when Eritrea gained independence left Ethiopia totally dependent on Djibouti for an outlet to the sea.
This passenger may face a long wait for the next train
The country needed the railway more than ever, but the line was in no fit state for intensive use.
The system is narrow, one metre gauge, with steep gradients on the long haul up from sea level to the Ethiopian highlands.
Some stretches of track are more than a century old; crumbling embankments and decaying bridges limit the weight and speed of the trains.
Recently it has been averaging one derailment a week, and attracting so little traffic that for a time staff frequently went unpaid.
But now, with European Union support, a major restoration project is under way.
Spectacular scenery
Almost a third of the track is being re-laid, using heavier weight rails - 40kg per metre instead of the 20kg rails still in use on some stretches of the line.
The section from Addis Ababa to Dire Dawa has been closed while the work is going on.
The railway to nowhere?
A spectacular stretch of line, near the town of Metahara, where the track runs on a narrow causeway across a volcanic lake, has already been completed.
Workers are strengthening bridges, consolidating embankments, and casting 25,000 concrete sleepers to replace the lightweight metal sleepers which were there before.
Meanwhile, a little desultory traffic still runs on the lower stretch of the line from Dire Dawa to Djibouti - a trainload of fruit and vegetables once a week for sale in Djibouti, coffee for export, trainloads of live camels destined for the meat markets of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf.
Coming the other way are all the construction materials needed for the project itself.
When the work is finished, in perhaps 18 months time, the system will still be narrow gauge, but much safer and more robust, able to take heavier trains at faster speeds.
'Pro-poor'
The railway's general manager, To'om Terie, who now sits in his comfortable office in Addis Ababa above a silent, deserted station, says he expects a volume of something like 10 trains a day and a comfortable operating profit.
Mr To'om, who has worked for the railway for more than 30 years, is happy about the prospects for his own railway, but excited too that national policy now officially embraces rail transport.
The government is starting to plan a completely new rail system, with a further 5,000 km (3,100 miles) of lines.
It is early days yet, and Ethiopia is still looking for partners to build such a network.
But the man in charge of the project, Getachew Betru, confirmed that this would be a standard gauge railway, electrified to take advantage of the abundant, cheap electricity expected to be produced by ambitious new hydro-electric schemes soon to come into operation.
It would be primarily designed to carry freight, and although the proposed routes are still confidential, it might - for instance - serve the coffee-producing areas of western Ethiopia, the light industries of the north, the commercial food producing areas south of Addis Ababa, and the fertile, but as yet undeveloped farmlands near the Sudan border.
The French influence is still strong
Mr Getachew talks with enthusiasm about rail transport as the engine of development, and of his conviction that railways are inherently more "pro-poor" than any other transport system - of much more use to Ethiopia's rural dwellers than an expensive network of tarmac road, driven on mostly by tourists and aid workers.
At the moment the new network is still a dream, but given Ethiopia's dramatically-rugged terrain, if it does get built, then it will surely be one of the outstanding railway engineering feats of the 21st Century.
------------------------------------------
I completed a draft of the survey on www.surveymonkey.com to use to do my Sentient PR market research project this July.
Working out everymorning and seeing progress
Looking for drive..reached 100 pages of the Rich Dad...Poor Dad book this morning
Still attempting to build a website...Im totally doing it wrong.
Planned a 4th of July Braai (BBQ). Should be goo.
Ethiopia looks to revive past railway glories
By Elizabeth Blunt BBC News, Ethiopia
A major project is under way to restore Ethiopia's 100-year-old imperial railway, and there are even plans to build a new national network.
The French built it for the Emperor Menelik in the early 1900s, and French influences are everywhere, from the glazed canopies of the Addis Ababa railway station to the startling sight of the Ethiopian station staff in Dire Dawa talking to each other in French as they dispatch a night goods train down the line to Djibouti.
Like so many rail systems, the Ethiopia-Djibouti railway was neglected for years in favour of road transport, but the loss of its main ports when Eritrea gained independence left Ethiopia totally dependent on Djibouti for an outlet to the sea.
This passenger may face a long wait for the next train
The country needed the railway more than ever, but the line was in no fit state for intensive use.
The system is narrow, one metre gauge, with steep gradients on the long haul up from sea level to the Ethiopian highlands.
Some stretches of track are more than a century old; crumbling embankments and decaying bridges limit the weight and speed of the trains.
Recently it has been averaging one derailment a week, and attracting so little traffic that for a time staff frequently went unpaid.
But now, with European Union support, a major restoration project is under way.
Spectacular scenery
Almost a third of the track is being re-laid, using heavier weight rails - 40kg per metre instead of the 20kg rails still in use on some stretches of the line.
The section from Addis Ababa to Dire Dawa has been closed while the work is going on.
The railway to nowhere?
A spectacular stretch of line, near the town of Metahara, where the track runs on a narrow causeway across a volcanic lake, has already been completed.
Workers are strengthening bridges, consolidating embankments, and casting 25,000 concrete sleepers to replace the lightweight metal sleepers which were there before.
Meanwhile, a little desultory traffic still runs on the lower stretch of the line from Dire Dawa to Djibouti - a trainload of fruit and vegetables once a week for sale in Djibouti, coffee for export, trainloads of live camels destined for the meat markets of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf.
Coming the other way are all the construction materials needed for the project itself.
When the work is finished, in perhaps 18 months time, the system will still be narrow gauge, but much safer and more robust, able to take heavier trains at faster speeds.
'Pro-poor'
The railway's general manager, To'om Terie, who now sits in his comfortable office in Addis Ababa above a silent, deserted station, says he expects a volume of something like 10 trains a day and a comfortable operating profit.
Mr To'om, who has worked for the railway for more than 30 years, is happy about the prospects for his own railway, but excited too that national policy now officially embraces rail transport.
The government is starting to plan a completely new rail system, with a further 5,000 km (3,100 miles) of lines.
It is early days yet, and Ethiopia is still looking for partners to build such a network.
But the man in charge of the project, Getachew Betru, confirmed that this would be a standard gauge railway, electrified to take advantage of the abundant, cheap electricity expected to be produced by ambitious new hydro-electric schemes soon to come into operation.
It would be primarily designed to carry freight, and although the proposed routes are still confidential, it might - for instance - serve the coffee-producing areas of western Ethiopia, the light industries of the north, the commercial food producing areas south of Addis Ababa, and the fertile, but as yet undeveloped farmlands near the Sudan border.
The French influence is still strong
Mr Getachew talks with enthusiasm about rail transport as the engine of development, and of his conviction that railways are inherently more "pro-poor" than any other transport system - of much more use to Ethiopia's rural dwellers than an expensive network of tarmac road, driven on mostly by tourists and aid workers.
At the moment the new network is still a dream, but given Ethiopia's dramatically-rugged terrain, if it does get built, then it will surely be one of the outstanding railway engineering feats of the 21st Century.
------------------------------------------
I completed a draft of the survey on www.surveymonkey.com to use to do my Sentient PR market research project this July.
Working out everymorning and seeing progress
Looking for drive..reached 100 pages of the Rich Dad...Poor Dad book this morning
Still attempting to build a website...Im totally doing it wrong.
Planned a 4th of July Braai (BBQ). Should be goo.
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