resolutions and all that crap

so i found my list of resolutions from last year this morning. not so much found, cause i knew where it was, maybe dug up is the word… thinking back, a fair amount of thought went into this last year. i hate the word resolution, but having gone through this process once (and only once in my life), it actually kinda works. mainly cause there’s something written down somewhere that forces you to follow through…

most of these are done/being done and those that aren’t will probably get carried through to 2008...

1. get fit
done. but having done my hamstrings some slight injury this past weekend, i guess one can always be a bit fitter

2. buy a car
done. on january 17th, in fact. but i might (already) upgrade, depends on the finances though. but, i might yet get that scrambler i want…

3. get a bike
uhhh, not done. come to think of it, a bike would’ve been very handy this morning when i took my car in to get fixed… i should look into that.

4. play golf
uhhh, also not done. but we moved a bit further away from the driving range (that was literally about 400m from our old house). end of jan means time to buy our drivers though…

5. smoke on weekends/when out only
done. and then some. haven’t smoked in a year. well make that 364 days. a full year on jan 2nd. been tempted twice this year though…

6. jog
done. in fact more than done. made friends with richard branson’s house of pain… fun times…

7. make shirts
uhhh, not done. which is a problem… must make shirts, too many good ideas to go to waste on a pc somewhere…

8. launch a site or two
technically done. tycoon launched in july plus i had a bit of fun with thenewnewmedia.com (felt like the right time to blog about what i blogged about there)… tycoon will hopefully get the attention it deserves in 2008, still not sure what i want to do with thenewnewmedia.com… i didn’t complete what i wanted to though… got a plan coming together with a mate for early 2008

9. go to the berg
uhhh, not so much. got to go to india though. and hopefully will visit sun city soon enough. mozambique is a plan for easter… and south korea is definitely on for end april… berg might fit in this winter, not too sure about fest…

10. pay off *that* loan
technically done, but practically not so much. i guess we’ll see…


i also managed to do lots of stuff that wasn’t on this list, stuff which (now when I think back about it) was unexpected and cool :)

as for 2008… i’ve decided i’m not going to post the list, that’ll make following through too easy… that said, maybe the focus this year will be less on buying stuff… things…

BOb_school is...

I’ve been thinking a lot about how mediated our state of mind and emotions have become with Facebook now pretty much at the centre of how we communicate with friends. (The scary thing is that Microsoft Word capitalised Facebook for me when I typed that.) The Facebook status update (which has finally lost the “is”) has become almost utterly pervasive.

What intrigues me though is how it’s become some sort of narcissistic, post-modern reflection of how we are feeling. Take a step back and think for a second. Before Facebook, would we have constantly written/spoken about ourselves in the third person? Am I the only one perturbed by this?

But it feels good, doesn’t it. To be able to broadcast to your friends (i.e. pretty much the world) exactly what you want them to know (or not know).

And just in case you’re wondering…

Hilton is over it, determined to stare down his old nemesis despondency ...
and he knows he’ll find a solution to this all...

Gary Kirsten is NOT yet another loss to South African cricket

On the news last night, we were ‘treated’ to a bizarre comparison of Bob Woolmer, Kevin Pietersen and Allan Donald. And yes, Gary Kirsten is off to coach India (after an official BCCI announcement, of course).

On and on the reporter went…

“Another loss to SA cricket.”
“Yet another loss.”
“Our finest leaving for foreign shores.”

Give me a break.

Firstly, who cares about Kevin Pietersen?!
Allan Donald is no longer bowling coach for England (he turned the job down).
Bob Woolmer was a different class altogether.

Gary Kirsten is not currently coaching. Well, he coaches at his academy – but that’s hardly a top level position.

He has been a batting consultant to the SA team at some point, and most recently has helped the Warriors as a batting coach.

Talk about now hitting the big time.

Who cares that he’s leaving? Good on him. Good on SA cricket for producing (nurturing?) such talent.

There’s only place for one national coach in SA, why should all our talent sit around and wait for that position to be vacant?


I needed to get that off my chest.

My top 20 movies

Its taken a while, but its settled (after a long Sunday night). The top 20, in order...

The Boondock Saints
Good Will Hunting
Pulp Fiction
Fight Club
Boiler Room
The Departed
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Romeo + Juliet
Seven

Sin City
Requiem for a Dream
Finding Forrester
Payback
Once Upon a Time in Mexico
Independence Day
Snatch
Ronin
Anchorman
Casino Royale

Making someone happy

So I had my first encounter with Eskom’s load-shedding last night. We decided that finding food was necessary and wandered around northern Joburg (mostly in darkness) until we found the beacon of light that is Monte Casino.

Spur it was, and quite an inspired choice too. We had the best service ever from a dude called David (from one of these franchise type restaurants ie. not a five star two waiters per person scenario). And I decided to be unselfish (for a change) and reward the good service with a huge tip. A 60% tip or thereabouts on a pretty decent bill.

And that pretty much made David’s day. We had left but turned around to see him high-fiving the other waiters, smiling broadly. Was I hoping for some twisted sense of self-gratification? I don’t know? Did I do it to make myself feel good? Not when I first decided it… but then it became kind of a bonus…

Oh yes, bob_school is back… long story, but I kinda need somewhere to write crap like this.

Pack up the caravan kids, we're moving...

BOb_school is dead. Kinda.
Long live www.thenewnewmedia.com

:)

What was the Sunday Times thinking?

That grand old dame of Sunday newspapers which desperately wants to be a tabloid - the Sunday Times - has had (another) nip and tuck this week.

We now have the “luxury” of a stand-alone sports section. What they forgot to mention was that it’d be a tabloid and as tight as a stingy uncle.

Previously, sport was “appended” to the back of the ‘Insight & Opinion’ section, a phenomenon that seems to be unique to South African newspapers. Most papers in the US and the UK have stand-alone sports sections.

The promotions started a month ago, with adverts trumpeting that “finally” sport was going to get the attention it deserved – in its own section.

It would be worth comparing sport (and soccer) before the change before one realizes what has been lost (or gained?).

On October 8, ‘Sport Sunday’ (which is (was?) a very catchy name), ran from page 23 to 32. Now that’s not to say there was 10 pages of sports content. With two full page adverts and tons of other advertising, content took up about five and a half to six (broadsheet) pages worth (12 tabloid).

Soccer Life (which was previously found in the middle of the ‘Metro’ section, ran to 12 pages. Advertising support for this supplement, which its sales execs will have you believe has the “most reach” out of any section in the paper, has hardly been noticeable, save for men’s enlargement-type and cellphone ringtone ads. I have always felt that there has been a bit too much space for the section, with lengthly double-page features and huge (A4 size) pictures commonplace. Remove the poster front page from the equation, the one-or-two ads as well as the two full-page Sunday Times promotional adverts and you’re left with eight pages of content (including that enormous photo).

Now we have the bizarrely named ‘Soccer Life & Sport’ which, as Matthew Buckland writes, is disjointed. He suggests that because soccer is a type of sport, we should have something along the lines of ‘Sport & Soccer Life’. Typographically, the word ‘SPORT’ in all-caps seems to have been added to fill space on the poster cover.

The back is also a poster-type page, and the regular ads which were found in Soccer Life have found new homes throughout the new tabloid. Soccer, soccer and more soccer takes the focus until page 13 of the 24-pager. In the editor’s note in this week’s debut edition, one finds this gem: “We hope you aren’t confused by the amalgamation … it … offers you more sport … with the accent on local and overseas soccer.”

Almost as an afterthought, he writes: “But there a healthy rugby presence … and there’s some good cricket, too”. For “healthy”, substitute “three pages”. Ditto for “some good cricket”.

So we have 12 pages of soccer, a quarter of that of rugby and another quarter of cricket. One page of tennis, one of tv highlights and two pages of squashed-up results and statistics complete the “package”.

Don’t get me wrong – I am an avid soccer fan… What confuses me is the fact that with so many Sunday titles and Monday papers cemented in the soccer-crazed market (think City Press, Sunday Sun, Sunday World, Monday’s Daily Sun, Sowetan), just what is the Sunday Times doing?

Still no full-page ads to be seen though, which may be a blessing in disguise – lest that precious rugby/cricket content be cut down even further. At least the transition seems to have been done almost page for page (based on the 12-page Soccer Life, and 12 tabloid-pages worth of normal sport).

The paper has also reduced its advertising space – hardly a clever move. There’s no more space for lucrative 15cm strips spanning the length of the broadsheet backpage – a spot Nashua Mobile had pretty much staked out. The 10cm strip on the back of the tabloid hardly has the same effect (or revenue!).

They took a really nice, fresh, magazine-inspired design which used to have a home in the old ‘Soccer Life’ and forced it together with the Sunday Times main body style sheet.

One’s not too sure what the “Times” is trying to achieve with its “Soccer Life” brand. Its magazine title, which started off the obsession, is hardly a sales blockbuster.

There also seems to be a desperation for feedback (any feedback) from readers. At every turn, one is confronted by (what some sub-editor thought are witty) blurbs, asking, no, pleading you to (please!) e-mail the Sunday Times.

My hunch, and at this stage its simply a hunch, is that many more sections within the Times will become tabloid in the months or years to come. The main paper won’t change from broadsheet though, or there’d be nothing to wrap all the advertising supplements in – a la Saturday Star. Careers could very well soon become tabloid, as could the opinion (or what it calls “News & Opinion’) section. The off-on ‘News & Review’ (what’s the difference?!) may downsize as there’s no real reason for it to be broadsheet.

It’s worth noting that out of all the supplements the Sunday Times has launched over the past few years (Food & travel, New York Times, It’s my business), none have been broadsheet.

Coincidence?