Everybody Loves Ray…

For those of you who follow me on Twitter and are my Facebook friends, you will know by now that I’ve been an active follower of The LoneRaynger.  He is the most talented beat-boxer acoustic singer I’ve ever come across, but he also happens to be South African, and he also happens to be a friend of mine from work.

At the moment Ray is in Canada on a six week adventure, gigging through the country, meeting artists and musicians and tourists and locals and having a jol.  Most importantly, he’s broadcasting his entire tour!  It’s a bit of an experiment of aqua’s, to see if we can tell this story in a transmedia way (that basically means telling little bits of the story across many online platforms) and I’d really like to involve my readers.

Click here, just listen to this song. If it doesn’t move you in any way, you cannot actually call yourself a human.  That’s Ray.  His voice?  It’s amazing.  Also, you hear the drums and the bass and all those beats?  They’re coming out of his mouth, all at the same time that he’s singing.  Yes folks, he makes all of those sounds himself.  Pretty fucking incredible!

So, how can you get involved?  Easily.

Join his page on Facebook.

Follow him on Twitter.

Read his blog.

Watch him on YouTube.

Listen to him on SoundCloud.

Look at him on Flickr.

And above all else, interact with him.  This journey is shaped by his followers.  If you think Ray needs to include in his next video the crew standing on their heads, it might just happen!  Get involved.  Get talking.  Get your friends opinions.  Get them to join his journey too.

For me and for Ray, this really would mean so much.

For the fellow bloggers out there, would you consider loading up the following badges?

Let me know if you’re keen.  I’ll mail you the code and even tell you how to get them on your blog.

Spread the word people, Ray will be the next Justin Bieber, only hotter, older and a better person. And like, a beat-boxing singer, not a hippity hop tween with a sucky voice.

The Nerdies Winners, announced!

1. A limited edition Moral Fibre T-shirt full of goodness, flair & attitude.
2. One .co.za domain plus THREE MONTHS free hosting from The Creative Foundation.
3. A luxury Body Thrills hamper homemade especially by ExMi for each individual.
4. Free Dinner at Capello Sandton from Garsen Subramoney to the value of R300.
5. An anonymous prize:A bottle of Rupert & Rothchild Red vino for the dude and a Charlotte Rhys hamper for the girl.
6. And then, excitingly:  one final mystery prize from Simon B. To be sent to the winners and they can tell you what they got.  Sneaky, sneaky huh?

Those are the prizes that will be sent through to the two winners.  Lucky fuckers.The bidding wars proceeds will be sent to the NPO Charity mentioned previously, we’re still tallying up the total amount raised.  Any donations are welcome at any time.  I will obtain the banking details and blog them asap, okay?Before I announce the winners, I would like to thank the following people:

• Garsen Subramoney, Vincent & Talita, Fring SA, The Creative Foundation, ExMi and The Anonymouse who all donated prizes unexpectedly and so generously.
• SimonB, Miss_P & Snowgoose, Byron & ExMi amongst others for making such an effort and being such a source of entertainment in this pageant.
• Don for being so godamned cute and funny as hell, especially in his under rods & for suggesting a ball gown and swimwear.
• Mike Stopforth for playing along and letting us girls rip him to shreds with challenges and endless flirtation.  You’re still my no.1 blog crush of the moment, boyo. 
• Steve for being the male judge who judged the females.  Thanks Stevo, I totally agree with your decision. 

I honestly didn’t think my decision would be very hard but I was wrong.  The thing is, I had to keep reminding myself that this was just a tongue in cheek pageant and that the fate of the blogosphere didn’t actually rely upon our decisions as to who would be crowned The Sexiest Nerdy 2009.  But still, I have this annoying voice at the back of my head whispering “but if you choose him, the geeks will think [this] and if you don’t choose him, everyone will assume [that]“.  And so I took my emotions and reservations out of it, looked at the characters at hand and knew I needed further enforcement.  A chat with my trusty friend Cath, who knows me and my thought process better than most ever will.  This is what she had to say:The one I’d select is nice, approachable, always ready to help and support, and never shoves his shit down other peoples throats.  Also, he’s not afraid to be himself online and does not do a “persona”.  I’d imagine him to also be huggable and clever.Immediately I knew.  Not because the rest of the contestants don’t fit that bill, but because one of them sprung to those specs more so than others.  And so I congratulate Andre Van Rooyen, for being South Africa’s Sexiest Nerdy for 2009.  Well done, and more importantly, thank you.  For sharing yourself and the treasures that pop out of your personality with all of us online.  We’re lucky to be able to interract with & have you with us. Also, your eyes fortell something that most girls wish to be told.Then, luckily for the girls, I was fortunate enough to secure Steve as our male judge.  He was given total power over choice I think he did a sterling job.  Here are his words:I always knew the decision would be tough as hell but I have to go for Suetjie. The Cow_Grrl is geeky and pretty at the sametime. I think if we have this again next year, Heidi [Snowgoose] will take it. I’d love to declare a draw between the two of them but Suetjie got more votes so rightfully I choose her.  Via email, twitter, sms and blog comments, she’s been a pillar of strength to many and coped with all her own issues as well. Thats hectic inner strength and resolve. Reasons:
1) well she *IS* the cow_grrrl
2) has some of South Africa’s finest working for her.
3) She is an avid blogger and keeps us all updated on everything all the time.
4) She had an incredibly tough year and still supported a lot of us.
5) She’s HAWT, I would never have guessed that she was a mom of two teenagers!Thank you to everyone involved.  You’ve surpassed my expectations of participation and coolness.  We’ll definitely have a go at this again next year, me thinks.  I’ll be contacting the winners shortly regarding prizes, and I’ll keep you all informed of the bidding finalizations and when/how/why the donations and proceeds go to the charity.And that about sums it up.  If I had an MC closing this deal, I’m sure he’d end with a joke or something.  So here’s my favourite joke of the moment:What’s pink and fluffy?Pink fluff.What’s blue and fluffy?Blue fluff holding its breath.What’s green and fluffy?1972′s world Hide and Seek champion.Ba-da-ba-da-BOOM-DASH-DING!

In my opinion, I think this country is moving forward

I mean, look at what we’ve come from:

Nqakula, Charles - The original Defence Minister dude

And now we have this shexy looking fine specimen in his replacement:

Mthethwa, Emmanuel - The reinforcement dude.

All in all, a vast improvement if you ask me.

Politics for Poephols.

So, for those of you not in South Africa or living with your head pretty much rammed right up your bottom, I’m here to tell you that I have no president. It’s true. The South African president, Mr. Thabo Mbeki, has been bullied into resigning, evidently. It all smells a bit fishy to me, but what annoys me even more is that I don’t understand the how, when or why. And so I had a bit of a chat to a very political friend of mine in the whole “South African politics” industry in order to;

a) understand a bit more of what all these news articles are going on about, and
b) get somebody else’s opinion to write up this post so that you can also understand
c) create this article to teach those out there, like me, to broaden their horizons and take an interest in our country’s happenings.

Anyway, I spoke to my clever friend in, what he hates calling; “politics” and asked him a few questions I had on my mind:

Please could you simplify wtf is going on with this whole presidential story for me. Why do we have a vice president if she isn’t being used to step up to Mbeki’s now empty position?
She is ceremonial

Which means….?
That she is there is to look pretty

Are you fucking serious? How is this allowed?
It’s normal around the world, actually.

Why? Surely they should be functional in emergency at least?
Because the president is not part of parliament. Of course, they COULD ask her to be president. That’s like saying the president of the ANC should be the president of SA. And lest you have forgotten, Zuma is the president of the ANC.

So who’s going to be our president now?
Well, still Mbeki until they replace him, which will happen within a few days. My guess is that it will be the deputy of the ANC, Mothantle (or however you spell it).

Its only official til he resigns in parliament, right?
Yes.

Why did they ask him to step down, because of Zuma’s shit in court?
God only knows. But it seems that it is because of Zuma’s court thing. Combined with him being a lame duck. And doing little for SA, in terms of Zuma-type policies.

Why did Mbeki listen? Was he compelled to resign?
Well, in my opinion, by resigning, he’s admitting guilt in the conspiracy against Zuma. But he also was probably forced. The facade is that he “is loyal to the ANC and its decisions”

So, ultimately, he could have chosen to stay in, but thought it would be more dignified?
Not really… the constitution doesn’t allow for the president to be a dictator, so if the cabinet overwhelmingly tells him to step down, he can’t really fight it.

How does this compare to Mugabe refusing to step down… isn’t this the same thing Zim cabinets called for?
Well, Mugabe is a dictator, Mbeki isn’t. Mugabe calls the shots, Mbeki can’t.

Can’t or wont?
Mbeki can’t challenge it. But he must go, I feel it’s a good thing. Though I do think Mbeki is a target and is being treated unfairly.

So, there you have it. One man’s opinion puts my political world into perspective, even if I don’t totally agree with all of his theories.

This is so weird for me. Usually I am as interested in politics as a stapler is, but I’m almost excited about this whole thing. It’s like my very same friend from above says, “it’s all about how it affects you. If the government had to pass a law that regulates how many shoes you’re allowed to buy, then you’d see every kugal in Sandton suddenly interested in ‘politics’. Life can’t go on if “politics” had to be removed. It is directly part of life, and it directly affects us. To be interested in it is as important as knowing what food you enjoy.”

History is in the making here, okes. Mugabe over there in Zim is big connections with this Mbeki fellow. They say that somehow they are related, which means that it must run in the family having people ask you to resign from the most important job in each respective company. Sucks to be their grannies, yo. I mean seriously, how’s that for some family Christmas lunch table talk.

Granny: “So Bob, how things going in the office, still getting rotten eggs via post?”
Bob: “yes, but not as many as Thabo gets death threats for touring the world so much”.

Alls I’m saying is that what with all of Thabo’s travel experience, he could possibly approach Mango Airlines and ask for a job.

All the cabinet ministers in Thabo’s boat will probably follow suit, too, in exploring employment, as Zuma is pretty much prepping for presidency I think – and he doesn’t like the Thabo supporters one bit.

Oh, oh, oh! I know – Manto Msimang Tshabalabalabalalalala could start a Fruit & Veg Garden Growing University in the name of support and research for the HIV/Aids cure factor. I’m just saying…

I’m baaaaaaaaaaack!!!!!!!!!!!

Well almost, anyway.  Richard will be fixing my laptop so that it runs windows instead of this stupid linux shit that is installed now.

Flight was horrific, oh my god! Cape Town already has my heart.

Update on the way.  How are YOU though?

Dear Eskom

I hope you are happy you fuckin assholes, I have just lost six months worth of work because you decide you need to do some “power line” in the middle of fucking nowhere to give electricity to a bunch of people who probably prefer using gas stoves anyway.

Also, since the ENTIRE MALL is in complete fucking darkness, I cannot see other than using my cell phone light, which will not last long, as the battery is dead and I won’t be able to recharge it, innit?

Oh, and since the weather is so devestatingly disgusting, my hair looks like complete shit which is also your fault as I cannot use a hair dryer.

In closing, I would like to say a big Fuck You to all of everyone of you, including the Eskom contractor with the sexy legs who I will no longer perv at.

Bunch of pricks.