u remind me

you know, it struck me yesterday how often we leave reminders of oursleves in each others lives. and how often we keep reminders of others in ours. i'm talking about the little things. stupid-sounding movie ticket stubs, notes, a piece of paper with a scribbles from that lecture where you sat next to someone you know, or memories of moments that others may think are quite ridiculous and meaningless. thing is, you have all these bits and pieces and whenever you clean up your room and try sort out your life, you find some of these and for some or other reason, you don't want to through these thoughts away (quite literally?). i think that this whole idea kinda fits nicely with something i posted a number of days ago, where I questioned the whole notion of whether we sometimes actually know some people we interact with and encounter day after day. so at the end of the day, you have people who you don't really know, and then have others that for some or other (sometimes silly?) reason, you don't want to forget about. these links are at times not clear in our minds (or maybe we don't want the reasons to be clear), but, we cherish the thoughts and scraps, nonetheless.

what made my day today: no class. maybe if you count that 10 minute 'planning' session we had...

* now listening to: 5fm: d12 - how come

3 is more than 2

its long weekend. yay. and thabo will be in kimberley.
i've also decided to update the links (on the right ->)
oh, nando's got back to me - the store manager from sandton spent about 2 minutes solid apologising to me on the phone last week. and i scored 2 free burger meals :)

what made my day today: i have no work to do. nothing. zip. niks.

* now listening to: pierre's set 10 - small town underground.

the new ringo

a wonderful leader was in sa just last week. some call him abdul kalam. yip, the president of that great nation state india was here.
the reason he intrigues me so much is because he looks like the fifth beatle... i kid you not:

how cool is his hair?
think he wakes up every morning and even realises that his hair is so damn cool? big ups to abdul. and to think we could've had ghandi's (boring) daughter instead of this dude...

weekend was a goodie. lots of doing nothing. which rocks. and if you watch one wacked comedy for the rest of the year, get how high. method man. redman. lots of weed. and i'll say no more.

what made my day today: its summer. and i walked to campus. (yes - i left my car alone at home).

* now listening to: fresh cuts. some nice oldies. tracklisting at sheerdance.co.za's back catalogue

y'all don't know anybody

i had one of those moments of deep thought this morning. do you ever stop and think about all those people you 'know', but you really no shit about. people who you see and chat to every now and then (or even every day) but you don't even know their surname, where they're from - you know, their story. you know nothing. do you even know these people?
case in point: your domestic worker. fine- her name is sally/milly/thando (insert name here). but do you know her at all?
what about people who you're in lectures with, people who you work with? every single day of your life.
maybe we should move beyond our stupid little comfort zones (that ridiculous 1m X 1m cube) and actually make an effort to get to know a little bit more about people around us who we think we 'know'. think about how many (few?) people would visit you if you were really sick in hospital. its not a pleasant thought by any means, but it kinda puts things into perspective - doesn't it?

what made my day today: liquorice allsorts. its the small things :)

*now listening to: big up harambe-be-be...

dre 2004

today has been one of those days... life (read:work) got a bit hectic this morning and i took time out after lunch. i do that way too seldom - you know: have 'me' time. now, before you go on accusing me of being another oprah convert.. i don't mean angel network-type 'me' time. its more like time-out for yourself - to calm down and sort shit out. do it. take the time.
random thought: think i'm gonna dye my hair black again tomorrow. that's a good idea :)
ever played fantasy sports? like fantasy cricket? got a team in fantasy premier league (uk) that's kicking ass. well, kinda. they're making a huge comeback and the best footballer in the world (van nistelrooij is back!).
now i read this today and its beyond cool:
--snip--
burt bacharach is working on a new album with hip-hop producer dr dre in an unlikely collaboration.dre, best known for his own gangsta rap and for producing eminem’s records, has supplied the beats for three tracks on bacharach’s next album, reports mtv. bacharach, the 76-year-old king of easy listening, said: “it’s a challenging, freeing feeling to take an existing format - like these rigid, four-bar loops - and to see what you can write on top of it.“it’s hard and challenging too, because it does have some restrictions.”bacharach, who launched his songwriting career more than 50 years ago, is best known for writing hits for the likes of dionne warwick, dusty springfield, the carpenters and neil diamond.his new project, due out next year, came about when his uk label approached him about doing a “cutting-edge record.”“i had got together with dre about a year and a half ago and talked about doing something for the album that we never did,” bacharach said.“then he gave me the loops, and when i decided to do this album for sony england, it seemed a natural fit.”bacharach is not making a hip-hop album, however. he described the new music as tapping into his jazz and classical roots.
--snip--

what made my day today: designing the front page of a chinese tabloid newspaper (complete with mandarin font and pics of chinese film stars/politicians). i don't know what it says. i don't even know what its meant to say - but damn, it looks good (humility aside).

*now listening to: some bad 'dance' music on 5 - with "DJ ZJ". groan.

mushrooming reality

i found myself awake at 4 this morning in front of the tv. now its amazing what good shit is on that late (early?) at night. its hong kong's election, apparently. and china have tried as much as they can to make the citizens (hong kongese?) vote for them, and not the pro-democrats. this is deemed newsworthy according to those in control at the sabc. but that aside, soemthing else interesting that happened in that part of the world: a massive mushroom-cloud explosion was 'noticed' in north korea. amid hysteria on britain and the us's part that the north koreans were testing nuclear bombs again, their 'vice-foreign minister for europe' (who even has such a thing?) said that the blast was part of the deconstruction of a mountain for some hydroelectric scheme.
today must be a day for weird news, cause pamela anderson is now on billboards across the states saying 'boycott kfc'. she's really into this whole cause and has written letters to people that kfc sponsor to urge them to pressure kfc into killing their chickens in a way where the chickens don't feel any pain. never really understood any of this humane killing thing- killing is killing... in'it?


what made my day today: just read this about our president. and then maybe you'll be as impressed as i am :)

* now listening to: fresh house flava 6

pecking order

s'pose i should post this here - i did promise to last week. last i heard, i'd been lucky enough to have received unique interaction number 76165. wow. i'm impressed... not.

--snip--

Hi Lana,
I find it quite interesting that after submitting all of the information (on 12 August 2004) you've requested to your website, wait - your "Nando's Lifestyle website", I have been asked to send thisinformation to Customer Care again. I guess I've resigned myself to the fact that your "Lifestyle website" database is broken and/or does notreally exist. Perhaps the information got lost somewhere between Nando's and DigitalMall?
And so, for the second time, here goes:
The store I visited: Sandton City
Approximate date and time of visit: 6 August 2004, 13:40
A brief description of my Nando's experience: The store was busy and the take-away area was crowded, so I expected a slightly longer wait for my order evenbefore I placed it. I'm sure you'll appreciate that even with this expectation, I still ordered from Nando's and not one of the tens of other fast food outlets in Sandton City (which were, incidentally, handling the rush a lot better).I eventually managed to order after waiting in a queue for a few minutes and ordered a burger (extra hot), regular spicy rice and 500ml coke. Note the rice. The assistant who helped me said that she would bill me for a burger combo meal instead, 'as chips costed the same as the rice' and this would save me a few rands. She also said that she would alert kitchen staff to this change, and they would swop the chips with rice. I didn't question this idea at all, I mean, she did work at Nando's and had helped hundreds/thousands of people before me. I then waited for my meal and everyone who had placed orders at the same time as me started receiving their food. More people came to order food and they too started receiving their orders. I presumed that the rice or extra hot burger were the reason for the slightly longer wait (which at this stage was still fairly reasonable). It was only when another employee (who had noticed me waiting for a while) actually asked me for my order number, that my waiting made sense. Somehow my order had gotten lost in their system and they then 'rushed' to assemble it. I had now been waiting for close on 30 minutes. I received my newly assembled order which consisted of the burger, coke and chips. Note the chips. Note the absense of rice. I questioned the lady who gave me my order (who was not the same person who took my order)and she said that my slip indicated a combo meal and that is what I was served. At this stage, when I was genuinely too irritated to argue - I turned around and left. To make this whole experience worse, my burger was not anywhere near hot - let alone extra hot. And my chips were cold. This entire experience has left me in two minds as towhether I should actually ever eat at Nando's again. Is rice too much of a tall order?
While I appreciate the fact that you thank me 'in advance for this valued feedback', I do hope that the correct caution is excercised this time to ensure that feedback such as this does, not once again, get lost/deleted as I know that I will not have the patience to type this out/resend this again.
Regards

--snip--

go shawty

what made my day today: kimi's birthday.

* now listening to: an airconditioner droning away. exciting? yeah.

make that super size

went to watch super size me last night. not a bad movie. but not a good one by any stretch of the imagination. thing is, my expectations were kinda inflated by websites and news articles i've read over the past few weeks. i don't actually know why spurlock made this into a full length movie. maybe he knew he'd make more cash that way. it didn't really deserve those extra 39 minutes. an hour would've been fine. watching it was the highlight of my day though. weird day.
does bad customer service piss you off? what about stupid people? now think about the two together.
while in joburg last month i had the shittest service ever at nandos in sandton city. i'm talking absolute shittest. so, being the good little consumer i am, i chortle off to nandos.co.za and fill in one of those automated forms. and the form asks for every single detail. when. where. time. what i ordered. i fill all of this in and get this lovely response:
// hi, thanks for not being chicken to tell us how it is - your feedback is greatly appreciated. our nando's team will respond to you as soon as possible. //
now, after three weeks of waiting i send a reply asking if they'll ever get back to me...
and then, i get this:
--snip--
good day,
thank you for taking the time and submitting your feedback through the nando's lifestylewebsite.
nando's strives to deliver and maintain the high standards set for its stores and would appreciate you providing me with the following information.
information required by customer care:
1. your contact telephone numbers
2. the store you visited
3. approximate date and time of visit to one of our stores
4. a brief description of your nando's experience at one of our stores
when convenient please would you provide me with the above mentioned details as this ensures your experience be noted and addressed with senior store management. senior store management will contact you to discuss and address your experience.
we look forward to your response and would like to thank you for your valued feedback.
thanking you in advance,
lana magerman
nando's customer relations manager
"we're at your peck and call"
--snip--
do they have idiots running the backend of their website?
yes.
will i ever eat at nandos again?
i'm going to mail them on monday and then wait and see. i'll post that mail here ;)

what made my day today: rhodes i.t. support and their sheer brilliance. no, i'm not being facetious. oh, and gillman's vinyl frontier this morning. damn - i'm back into this house music thing in a big way.

* now listening to: sander kleinenberg's essential mix.

i drove all night

driving at night on a highway must be one of the most enjoyable experiences one could have. well, in my life anyway. i don't quite know what it is - the vastness of it all? the fact that you are absorbed in concentration and have time to actually think?
nataniel evening of fine cuisine was awesome. except for the venue - tsitsikamma conference centre at the (tacky/kitch/cheap) boardwalk. what is it about all sun international casinos? they all manage to look the same with different 'themes'.
the night was sponsored by winston. who even remembers those cigarettes? but they've relaunched and everything: very snazzy. am i allowed to mention their name? manto might get cross if she finds out :) but this is hosted overseas, isn't it? speaking of manto, nataniel had me cracking up when he said that we can't smoke inside the venue cause of a bylaw that was passed by port elizabeth's pissed off mayor (his wife left him recently).
joe's coming to mzansi. which is good news, at least i think so. everyone i tell is like 'whatever'. has joe become uncool? seeing as he's now like a c-grade celeb, he's even performing in pe. i mean, who does that - besides dj sammy and right said fred. oh, and chris de burgh (back in 95 or something).
still on the politics tip: can you possibly say anything dumber: cheney "if you vote for kerry, the terrorists will attack the us again".

what made my day today: a little clip (one of those e-mail fwds) with george w and tony (i'll do anything for love) blair singing 'my endless love'...

* now listening to: dj waxxy plays the phattest jams... yfm again. damn this is tight.

twenty million loud

just found a site that mtv launched for november's us election (why can't i stop thinking about politics?). nice way of trying getting youth motivated and interesting in actually voting (don't know if this'll work in good old apathetic america, though). they've got a featue interview with john kerry (and mccain - but i don't really care about him...). nice one. they go on to say that while kerry has now sat for two interviews with mtv, george w has yet to agree to a single appearance. they've been pursuing an interview with him all year and to date, the bush campaign has told them that it hasn't been able to schedule an appearance on mtv. ass.
back in mzansi, the sabc (who are not my favourite people right now as they've been screwing me around for the past 2 weeks) just culled half of safm's programmes. the da responded on sunday, but turned it into an allegation of anc interference in safm's affairs.
going through to pe later this evening for a night of contemporary cuisine with nataniel. one of those king size british american tabacco events. free food. free wine. free smokes. life can't get better :)

what made my day today: deep dish's flashdance. awesome track.

* now listening to: dj mbuso - mbuso's revenge on harambe on yfm streaming audio

baldwin doesn't know my name

i find it quite interesting that our president takes time out weekly to write a letter to the nation. well, its not really to the nation per se, rather to the couple of thousand people who subscribe to the nifty e-mail service the anc provide. his past month worth of writings have been quite different to what i read when i started subscribing to anc today. there've been two letters from the youth league president, and a bunch of stuff about august being women's month. this past friday's letter was really interesting. it was more an essay, really and was all about james baldwin who published a book of essays called 'nobody knows my name'. mbeki asks some significant questions about what defines our heritage and our culture, where we come from - that sort of stuff. coincidentally, i read a column by anton harber recently who also chatted about mbeki's letter.

today i also discovered some music i haven't listened to forever... bruce springsteen and the lighthouse family. some good chilled stuff.

what made my day today: the fact that griquas beat the sharks 33-24 on saturday

* now listening to: the calling - one by one.