Thoughts about: ‘Observation’

So this one day I was staring into nowhere and did not realise it until I was asked what I was staring at. I then thought ‘what was I staring at?’, but i was actually in deep thought. I tend to look at something, someone or people doing something and then I wonder. I know they say it’s rude to stare but I like to observe and then think.

Since that day I have, for some or other reason, been doing that all the time. I named it ‘observing my surroundings’. I would ‘observe my surrounding’ and see, e.g. a man painting a wall yellow, and immediately my mind becomes flooded with thoughts and while this happens I stare unintentionally.

With that example, thoughts like:

·         Why is he painting the wall? (Could it be renovation, or simply a seasonal change?)

·         What made the person in charge choose yellow? (Was there no better choice, or was there a sale on yellow paint?)

·         Why is a women not painting the wall? (Are there no women painters out there, or are they maybe painting the inside of the building?)

I have silly thoughts like that, but then again I love to wonder. Observing things and people makes me wonder and think. I sometimes think of how things are made and who came up with it, if people are happy and even what they studied. Observation has become an everyday thing. I’d do it in class during a lecture, observing fellow students, what they do, how they react to what the lecturer may be saying.

How hard is it to follow instructions?

Following instructions should not be hard at all. I think some of us make things seem harder than they actually are. Some people find that following instructions can be extremely hard or they don’t follow instructions at all.

 Instructions can become complicated, however, here are 10 reasons why they may be complicated:

1.       They don’t make any sense

2.      They are in another language

3.      They are in the wrong order

4.      They are illustrations but are the opposite of what you should be doing

5.      You, yourself cannot read

6.      You do not understand them

7.      The person giving them does not make sense

8.      You did not listen to the person giving them

9.      You think you know better

10.   Your not afraid to die

Whatever your reason may be our lives become easier if we listen carefully, understand fully and give better instructions.

Andy Warhol said, “In the future everybody will be world famous for fifteen minutes.” You can’t choose the 15minutes but why would you be world famous?

I believe that this is where being online comes in, whether it be Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or even just you attending a party once upon a time. I do not however think that everybody will be world famous for 15minutes, simply because there are still a large number of people who unaccounted for. Also if we were to be famous in the future we would probably not all have exactly 15minutes of fame.

With the world growing at such a rapid rate I do to some extent think that we may be famous, not by name, but for anything less than 15minutes. And I’m not talking about the people who are already famous, just us normal folk. Also some of us don’t really want to be famous, we just chill in the background and keep a low profile.

I may have had my ‘less than 15minutes’ moment already, but it was not what I wanted to be famous for. And like the blog topic says, ‘you can’t choose it’ I’d say that time did not happen. I can’t choose the 15 minutes but i would be world famous for inventing machinery that generates electricity, without fossil fuels, at a cheaper rate for everyone. Bold but watch this space.

A day in my life: Sunday (26 June 2011)

This was a day before Dawn and I had to return to Cape Town sadly. Our day started off like usual, breakfast with my family and soon after we changed as we took the kids (my siblings) out for the day. We had decided to go dune climbing and sand boarding. We packed lots of snacks and were on our way to Walvis Bay where the highest dune, Dune 7, in Namibia can be found.

We got there pretty late, just before 1, the sand was boiling hot but made a mission to climb to the top. On our way up it became unbearable and went back down running for water. As we wanted to leave we discovered that the bakkie had a flat wheel and we had never changed a wheel ourselves. It took us less than half an hour to change it, all it took was ‘girl power’, soon enough we were on the road again.

We then got to our next stop, sand boarding. We had bought 4 boards, floor polish and a cloth to polish the board. We each had a board to carry up the dune, polished the boards and I was the first one down. We all had a few go’s but stopped as climbing the dunes was tiring. We got home just after 4pm, when my dad told me we’d all be going out for dinner at 6pm. We went to a Chinese restaurant and by 10pm we were all full and just wanted to sleep so we went home.

A day in my life: Saturday (25 June 2011)

During my Tech holiday in Namibia with Dawn, we would have breakfast every morning with my parents, on that Saturday we did not make it. We were still suffering from the heavy night we had the night before and which was supposed to continue the next day. Although we skipped breakfast we woke up surprising early, showered, did our hair and then made our way to town.



My fam

Every year in Swakopmund, on the morning of the last day of the German Carnival they have a Parade through the town with different kinds of floats. Each float is decorated by different companies according to a theme which was ‘Schön war die Zeit’ (in English it more or less means nice were those times). The floats were not as interesting this time around.



Jagermeister Float



We went into town for a few items, went back to the hotel, played PS2 games, we had lunch and then decided to have a nap. Around 4pm we decided to go out and join other friends celebrating the end of the carnival called ‘Kehraus’. As we got to where it was held we again show all the people (young and old) from the night before but only way drunker than the night before.

It was unbelievable. After 2 six packs of Hunters Dry, Dawn, Gaby and I decided to leave. We walked to the nearest pizza restaurant to have food. By the time we were done with dinner it was freezing outside. We went to Gruniz again, this time not to drink but to just play abit of pool. Due to us being out the night before, we decided to have an early night and went home.

A skill set called leadership

Leadership is a skill set that we all know is great to have and is usually a skill that only a few can carry out successfully. Leadership has a lot of characteristics but being a leader, being able to guide and motivate people in the workplace is what makes a leader great.

I’d say everyone to certain extent has a skill set called leadership, almost like everyone is able to run, some just better than the others. The things we experience individually and our personality are what makes your skill set called leadership different from the next one. If your mom may have had leadership skills, your leadership skills may be stronger than your friends (silly example). Then we get the people that are awesome and have that set skills since they were born, and unfortunately there will be a hand full that will never have that skill.

A day in my life: Friday (24 June 2011)

On that Friday I was still in Namibia with Dawn for the Tech holidays. We woke up at 8, had a shower and joined my parents for breakfast in our hotel. We had an omelette with mushrooms, tomatoes, cheese, bacon, a slice of toast and coffee. It was about quarter to 10 when we excused ourselves and went to see the lady in charge of the Laundry of the hotel.

Dawn in her costume

We went to see her about our costumes for the Maskenball (german for Masked Ball), which is part of the German Carnival that happens every year. We had decided to go as Ghosts, so we asked for old hotel duvet covers (because they were white) and cut holes into to it to be able to see and drink through it. We then went back up to our room to cut the duvet cover shorter, makes holes for our arms and eyes.

The event started around 19:30 but we go there around 21:00. Upon our arrival everyone was already partying up a storm, and the bar was packed with thirsty dancers. Everyone dressed up in very interesting characters, from a terrorist to a school girl, from Micheal Jackson to the Mad Hatter. Once the Maskenball started dying down we left for the club, Gruniz, where we ended up at until 2am the next morning.

Melanie dressed as a school girl

Both Dawn and I swayed home side-by-side with our costume in our hands. It was Dawns first visit to Namibia, Swakopmund, and after the eventful night I’m sure that will not be her last. When we got home, we washed our faces, looked at the photo’s we took, laughed and eventually fall asleep.

“Rock journalism is people who can’t write interviewing people who can’t talk for people who can’t read” (Frank Zappa)

‘Rock journalism is people who can’t write, interviewing people who can’t talk for people who can’t read’, is a very confusing statement. I had to break it down/read it slowly in order to understand what was being said. My first conclusion was ‘the blind leading the blind’ but these are completely different, so I had to do some research.

The blind leading the blind
http://gallery.photo.net/photo/4509206-md.jpg

Firstly I did not know who Frank Zappa is. Frank was a singer-song writer, record producer, musician and a composer from America. I was told that he may have been high most of the time, which would explain the complicated yet brainy he thought of.

The quote: I’m not sure if he was talking about rock journalism in a musical genre way or the ‘rocking’ movement to start off with. People who can’t write are interviewing (because they can’t write) people who can’t talk (this does not make sense unless they can write at least) for people who can’t read (I’m thinking they can’t read that’s why they musicians, not talking about all of them). Man, now I’m even more confused about this quote :/ .

This is all however my own interpretation.