It’s not a frequent topic of discussion, but doctors die, too. And they don’t die like the rest of us. What’s unusual about them is not how much treatment they get compared to most Americans, but how little. For all the time they spend fending off the deaths of others, they tend to be fairly serene when faced with death themselves. They know exactly what is going to happen, they know the choices, and they generally have access to any sort of medical care they could want. But they go gently.

After reading this article by Ken Murray, it definitely made me think about the “what ifs” when my time comes to make those decisions. Great read.

The resort has a number of wooden cabins, apartments and backpackers lodge to cater for pretty much any size family or group. There were 10 of us and rented one of the largest cabins for 5 nights.

There is also a restuarant and cafe / pub that comes to life after the sun goes down.

They have 1 beginner training slope for ski’ers, an intermediate slope for beginner snowboarders and then their main 1km slope. They also create snow most nights, so during the winter months, even when it hasn’t been snowing, you can almost be assured of being able to snowboard and ski.

It took me about 2 days to learn to snowboard whereby I’m now totally comfortable going down the big slope and had the confidence to try new things. After the first days lessons I was so bleak. I couldnt seem to get anything right, my body was aching and I was so upset that I had spent all this money to get to Afriski and that I’d be there for a couple more days and couldn’t stand up on the snowboard! A good nights sleep and me dreaming about snowboarding seemed to fix that. It’s amazing what the sub-conscious can do.

I highly recommend anyone that is planning an overseas snowboarding holiday to hit Afriski first to get your snow legs and then head off to Austria, Switzerland and the likes.

People like new things. Buying new things, starting new hobbies, making new friends and also starting new years. I love starting a new year for 2 reasons. One, I get to look back at the previous year and I’m always taken back at how much I’ve seemed to achieve in 12 months. Every year since I’ve left school has topped the previous year and without fail, there have always major changes or events that I look back on and are very grateful for. The second reason is I get to set myself a few goals and things I would like to accomplish for a new year. Here is a list of my goals for 2011.

#1: Grow Whitespace. Whitespace is a (web/mobile/application) design focused company I started with 2 awesome chaps Adrian and Paul. It really is just a coming together of 3 freelancers under 1 banner, but it is also so much more. I want to grow (and properly launch) Whitespace in the first quarter of 2011 and make 100% sure that Whitespace is a sustainable business for years to come.

#2: Travel. I’ve been fortunate enough to travel overseas on holiday over the past few years. This year is definitely going to be no exception with hopefully a few countries in Europe getting to feel the click of my camera and an end of year trip to the United States being planned.

#3: Become fitter and healthier. Who doesn’t usher in a new year without mentioning the words diet and gym in their new years resolutions? I started running, playing 5-a-side soccer and gyming at least twice a week in 2010. So fitness wise, I’m pretty much on track already, although I would love to try mountain biking and more importantly enjoy a healthier form of eating. I love food, but when it comes to getting in shape, what you eat is 70% of the effort with exercise a paltry 30%.

#4: Read more books. I do enjoy reading, but don’t read enough. Being a geek, I believe getting an Amazon Kindle will get me reading more just as much as getting the Nike+ kit got me running!

#5: Blog more often. This is something I say every year, and I’ll never give up until I’ve managed to blog once a week for a whole year! I also want to do some work on my other blogs and get them up and running again. This blog also needs a bit of a makeover, so #5.1 is redesign my blog.

Who knows how 2011 will turn out for me, but I’m sure its going to top 2010!

One of the first questions I get about my iPad is, “So what do you do with your iPad Jason?” That’s a very good question. It’s definitely not something that is crucial to my daily working environment, but it certainly can add to it. So far though, the most use I get out of it is when I’m chilling at home and I want to browse the web, do research on things to do in Cape Town or overseas places to visit in the near future. The other thing I do enjoy about the iPad is catching up on the news and on all my blogs I’m subscribed to using RSS. Twitter on the iPad is also really great.

I have a camera connector for the iPad which I use to download pics i’ve taken and show others by flicking through them on the iPad. It’s definitely one of my favourite features!

I’m still trying to find some of the apps that will make the iPad even more useful. Below are some of my favorites I’ve found:

Reeder – I find I don’t have the time to read all my RSS feeds in Google Reader as I have to be in front of my laptop to do that and there are more important things to do like email and work! So Reeder is brilliant as it syncs with Google Reader and when I’m chilling with the iPad, I can read all the blogs I’m subscribed to at a leisurely pace.

Penultimate – This app is great to jot down ideas, basic wireframes and anything quick and nasty drawings. It’s not an app that I think everyone would use, but as a web designer, it’s great for quickly explaining ideas or wireframes to my team.

PS Express is a simple photo editor by Adobe. I haven’t used it much, but it’s great for editing some of the pics I’ve imported onto the iPad and then sending them via email to friends or downloading to my Mac.

Lastly, the apps that come pre-installed on an iPad I’m actually using the most! Notes, Google Maps and Safari are by far the most used apps on my iPad. Some other apps everyone should download are Flipboard (News, blogs, Facebook and Twitter in newspaper format) and Epicurious (Recipes and a cookbook). Both free and both show off what the iPad is really capable off.

In summary, I’m still trying to find some apps that will enhance the experience and make the iPad more useful to me.

Yeah, it is a big iPhone, but with apps designed specifically for the device, it can be so much more.

P.S. The WordPress app on the iPad is total rubbish, even after the “big update”. No text editing (bold, italics, headings, links etc), poor media and image management in that I can’t add any pics to this post and finally it’s still has bugs that crashes the app. There is definitely scope for someone to develop a decent blog editor app for the iPad and iPhone and make some decent money! (I had to put the finishing touches to this post using my Mac. Not ideal.)

The 3D soccer experience at Nu Metro is a complete letdown and here is why

Firstly we arrived 10 minutes early for the game and after waiting in line for 15 minutes for their 1 cashier to help everyone, we eventually got into the cinema 5 minutes after the game had started. Strike 1.

Secondly, I’m paying R100 a ticket to watch the game. I would expect at that price the 3D glasses to be free but you have to buy them for R5. They have these signs up that says you saving the planet by bringing your own but I don’t buy that.

I think tickets should be R100 and if you bring your own 3D glasses you should get R10 – R15 discount. Also, perfectly timed, they only started implementing this rule from the 18th of June – the day they started showing the games in 3D. Strike 2.

Lastly and probably the most important part of the entire 3D experience – there is no commentary! You won’t believe the difference commentary makes to sport. No matter how entertaining a game is, without commentary you lose at least 40% of the fun. My wife loves soccer as much as I do, but she actually left at half time to rather go shop than watch the rest of the Netherlands vs Japan game. Strike 3.

So if you planning on going to watch a game in 3D at Nu Metro, rather find one of the Sony 3D exhibition stands during the World Cup and catch a few minutes of that experience. Don’t waste R100 to watch a game without commentary and where you walk out feeling ripped off.

I’ll tell you what I’d do. I’d take 6 months (ok, maybe 3 months) off and travel the world to experience as much as I possibly can in that time. I’d then come back to exactly where I live and carry on as if I haven’t been away for 1 day. Obviously the money left over will help whatever ideas I want to pursue, but the point of my post is I wouldn’t drastically change where I am and what I’m currently doing. I’m having that much fun.

You?

The most difficult part of it all is our ideas aren’t usually something small that you could complete in an hour or two. They usually involve days of work. They also probably involve other people to help turn those ideas into reality. At this point, I’ve often found the mountain almost to high to even attempt to climb, which I guess has been my biggest downfall. This time, I’m trying something new. Using timelines. (I hate using the word deadline, because I’ve missed countless deadlines in my working life and not once have I or someone else died from it. I can’t say much for doctors that have deadlines though!)

Vintage calendar found on Flickr

I’ll let you in on something, I’ve taken an idea, shared it with 2 other guys and we all keen to work on it. It’s not the next greatest web 2.0 web app, nor is it something to do with <insert latest and greatest technology / keyword here>. Its something that if the 3 of us pull off, it will help us realise some of goals we all have in common. It will rock, that I can promise.

Back to the timelines thing. The only way we going to get this idea off the ground is if we break down the process to building it and stick those little milestones to a timeline. I’ve stuck the idea into Basecamp and added dates to all the milestones. By the end of today, for example, we all needed to penned our ideas for a name for this project into Basecamp. By Friday, we need to have whittled those ideas down to 3 names and then the domain hunting begins.

So as you can see, setting attainable targets with dates to your idea / project helps you get things done and also gives you the feeling of accomplishment as you tick those milestones off. Its the small victories along the way that are going to keep us motivated.

To summarise if you have managed to read this far: Break down your idea into attainable milestones and attach dates to them. That will give your idea the small pushes it needs every few days to keep the momentum going and ultimately, see those ideas made into reality!

I’ve come up with a number of ideas over the past few years that as of right now, I’ve either forgotten, or found the idea to be completely absurd and stupid. The good ideas (well to me anyway) get overwritten in my mind by the next good idea I think up. There is a constant flow of ideas, just not many make it out of my head onto paper and ultimately into reality. That’s what I’m wanting to change as of today. I bought myself a set of Field Notes that I’ll be using for writing those ideas, thoughts and dreams into.

Ideas on a piece of paper aren’t very useful unless you do something about them. Either share them with others, toss them away or, my favourite, put them into action. So I’ll make sure I leave a little space at the bottom of each page for some form of an action plan. And actions, they do speak louder than words. Excuse the clique.

I for one enjoy change. I might not be the one to initiate it all the time, but I do always try to find the positive in situations that have changed. For one, Karina and I are busy planning to move to Cape Town for a year. To us, that’s massive change. Change in scenery, change in lifestyle, change in our social life, change in our work schedule and change just for the sake of trying something new! It’s scary yet exciting all at once.

So, if you feeling a little down or uninspired, try changing something in your life. Even the most basic of changes could brighten things up. Try joining the gym, moving your furniture around, change your working hours (if possible), organise more braai’s and dinners with your friends or buy some new clothes. Its the little things in life that sometimes bring us the most joy.

I spotted an old man fishing with a handmade wooden rod and some fishing line. As we passed him, he looked up, gave us a big smile and carried on watching the river. Usually one would not bat an eye lid at this seemingly ordinary moment, but I had a long think about our friendly exchange. Here was a man, probably around 70 years old that owns little more than a tiny wooden house on a river in Bangkok. He probably lives off less money in a year than I make in 2 weeks. The amazing thing to me is he looked completely and utterly content with his life and is happy to sit and fish for hours on end and smile at the passing tourists.

You see, his definition and my definition of success and happiness are completely different. I now look at some of the people that I previously looked up to and wished I could of be in their position in terms of wealth and success and realise their goals, ambitions, success and happiness are a lot from mine. Some more than others, but the small lesson I’ve learnt is don’t focus about what others have, how happy they appear to be, or how successful they are. Learn from them, sure, but create your own path to success and happiness.

If you keep focusing and measuring yourself based on others, you’ll never reach your own goals and ultimately, success and happiness.