1st Project

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1st Project logoAfter watching their show on MNet a month or so ago, there was no way I was going to pass up the opportunity to watch them live when and if they did eventually come to Cape Town.

So when I got wind of them having a party to release their DVD – Play to Break It – at Opium, I had to see if they were as good as they were on MNet, and boy was I impressed.

From the flyer I received, the show was supposedly to start at 9:15 sharp, and after waiting around for more than 50 minutes, the sound of drumsticks on glass bottles started to echo out of the Opium dance floor…

I was standing about 10 metres from the stage and the drumming energy they produce is truly awesome. There is no way you can just stand there without your body feeling the beat of the drums you getting totally engrossed in the show. From a chicks perspective, I’m guessing there is nothing better than 4 shirtless guys playing some really awesome music.

They played 2 sets on Friday evening. The first set was what is expected of them, pure drumming. The 2nd set however was totally different. DJ Badboy Brett from Joburg had come down with them and was keeping the croud happy with some mellow house before and in between the sets. But for the 2nd set he joined in and while mixing his tunes, 1st Project drummed along. There wasn’t much of the synchronized drumming that had made up the 1st set, but with the DJ playing along, the music was absolutely amazing. It is something completely unexpected and the mix between house beats and drums playing, it had everyone dancing.

I picked up the DVD for R100 that evening, and it really is worth it. Just don’t waste your time playing the DVD without some sort of decent sound system. :-) (Go grab yourself a copy at either Look and Listen, Musica or directly from 1st Project. Watch the DVD teaser here.)

Where was the crowd?

From watching the DVD, I am completely disappointed in the attendance of the Cape Town public at their DVD release. These guys might be South African’s, but they truly are international artists, having toured and played in front of thousands of people all over the world. So you would expect Cape Town to be packed into Opium, but that was quite the contrary. Also, Smirnoff sponsored the evening, so free vodka was the order of the evening, so for drinking sakes, you really didn’t have an excuse not to be there.

We topped the evening off with a boerie roll from the Portuguese guy outside Opium and a turn at Ku de Ta for a close to the evening. (I now have seen what people refer to as the “cult of shitty dancers” that seem to appear in Ku de Ta at the most inopportune moments. Freaky.)

Rocking.

Who goes there?

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I got a slight wakeup call yesterday when a really good friend of mine told me he needs some reading material – wheres the updates on this blog!

SA Blog awards

SA blog awards 2007So lets start with the 2007 SA blog awards. This being the 3rd year, I’m lank chuffed that someone, namely Cherryflava and Rafiq have taken the bull by the horns and given the awards the makeover it deserved. There are always folks that think they can do better, and gave the logo some stick (read the comments), so Quirk stepped in and are running the unofficial SA Blog Awards logo design competition.

Just one question Rafiq, is the blog awards really “hosted” by idrive? I’m all for supporting your efforts at building the site and kudos for that, but the blog awards being hosted by a driving instructor site? That doesn’t make sense? (Driven by idrive! lol)

My blog readers

Since Google has begun reporting the number of RSS readers, my Feedburner numbers have almost doubled! Ok, I admit that 40 readers ain’t a big deal, but when it almost doubled overnight, something has to be bonkers, or that Google Reader has now become the most popular RSS reader.

For those of you that haven’t subscribed – grab my RSS feed here.

Holiday this year

I’m planning a holiday later this year to Kenya, so if any of you have been there and have some recommendations on what not to miss, please let me know. I’ve been surfing the web to find as much as I can, but I’d love some personal recommendations.

Windows Vista

After my rant on Vista a couple of months ago, I thought I would give it another chance. I now have changed my view on the OS. It really is a productivity enhancer. There are a couple of things you have to get used to, as well as understanding how to setup certain aspects of Vista like your network settings and file sharing, but once you start using some of the new features like the built in search box in every window and the live taskbar previews, it really is a huge improvement on XP. Sure some folks won’t agree, but over time, software developers will start building apps that make use of the all the features in Vista, which will really enhance the way we use Windows.

So Craig if you reading this, drop me a line, and maybe I can help you out with some of your Vista problems. ;-)

A week in the life of Jason

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What a week it has been. 2 cars and 1 mountain later, things could’ve been much much worse. First lets start with the positives.

Table Mountain

Top of Table MountainYou take things for granted when you live close to them, and Table Mountain is one of them. I’ve lived in the Helderberg area most of my life, and going up Table Mountain has always been one of those “I’ll do it one day”, but you never actually do, do you? So Sunday my girlfriend and I took a trip up the World famous mountain. It really is awesome from up top there. I don’t think I heard one South African voice while up the mountain, but if for every 7 tourists I saw and heard, 1 job is created, I didn’t mind that much that these foreigners were walking on “our” mountain. :-)

I took some photo’s which you can view over at my Flickr account.

Now for the 2 cars.

Firstly, my girlfriend’s Toyota Conquest decided it was time to break its timing belt. This in turn bent the pistons in the engine. R7000 later it was repaired, but what’s worse is that for the next 1000km, we cannot drive the car more than 70km/h. So that means I’m driving the car to work in Somerset West, and my girlfriend is driving my car to Canal Walk.

Secondly, on Tuesday, while on her way home on the N1, she drove my car into the back of a bakkie in rush-hour traffic. :-(. So my car is now sitting at the panel beaters in Montague Gardens going through the motions of quote, claim, assessor, repair, wait, wait and wait. Luckily there is no engine damage, just bumper, bonnet and radiator damage. But my Corsa GSi – which has aircon that I wish I had driving in Cape Town’s heatwave at the moment, is one sick puppy.

One thing I am thankful for is that these experiences could of been much worse. I really have an awesome insurance broker who has helped me get everything sorted. So if you looking for a broker that comes with a really good reference, I’d highly recommend Pieter.

The thing is, it’s not about the money that I’m worried about, it’s the schlep. Having to organise the towing, quotes, repairs, phone calls etc, is so time consuming, not to mention stressful. The old saying of “throw money at it to get it to go away” doesn’t hold true. And don’t get me started on those tow truck vultures. They don’t get their nickname for nothing you know.

No free Dell laptop for me

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I just received an email regarding my order I placed for a Dell Inspiron 9400. Due to a glitch in their website, the laptop’s were priced at R0! All I had to pay was R570 for shipping. But as mostly everyone suspected, Dell probably wouldn’t pull through and send the laptops out of pure embarrassment. All they did send was this lousy letter of apology.

Dell Inspiron 640m and 9400

Dear Jason,

I am writing to you to inform you that as a result of a technical error we have inadvertently advertised the Dell Inspiron 640m and 9400 on our web store at R0. This is incorrect. The goods should have been priced at R6,990 and R10,990 respectively. As a result we are unable to fulfill your recent order for these goods. We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused. If you have already paid for any associated goods, software or delivery charges forming part of your order for the Dell Inspiron 640m and/or 9400 please furnish us with your banking details and you will be reimbursed within the next few days.

We are in the process of correcting these technical issues. We hope to have this store up and running by early next week.

Please do not hesitate to contact me or your account manager if you have any questions.

Yours sincerely

Gavin Slevin
Brand Manager – Mobile Products

Heres a screenshot of my original order.
Dell Order

Im sure Mike Stopforth and the likes are going to have harsher words to say than me about Dell, and their non-delivery, especially after he promised he’d donate all 6 laptops he ordered to Baragwanath. :-)

I’d compare this experience to playing the Lotto. I had a ticket to a free laptop, but didn’t strike it lucky. :-(

Apple’s free publicity

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iPhoneIf you have not heard about the latest release from Apple, the iPhone, you’d better crawl out from under your rock. This thing is a beauty. Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone at MacWorld – the yearly “check out our new toys” Apple conference.

Apple fan boys around the world are hailing the iPhone as the solution to the worlds problems. Hell it can even cure aids, some have said. Whether it can or cannot do these aforementioned things, one thing stands out. Free Publicity. Microsoft tried to buy that with their Acer Ferrari laptop “giveaway-to-bloggers”, but it backfired because of the way they handled the situation. (requesting reviews, disclosing that they received the laptops, play poker etc.)

Me, a fanboy?

I got my very first Apple product for Christmas – an iPod nano. Apple build some seriously sweet hardware, not to mention iTunes, which is by far the best Mp3 organiser on the planet. So, am I a fanboy? Well not quite. Maybe if I was given an Apple macbook to test, I’m might fall in love like the rest. What I do really love, is the way that thousands of bloggers – some of whom I read daily, will not touch any Computer related thing, unless its made by Apple.

Back to the free publicity thing

The world might not be littered with Apple macs and macbooks like PC’s are, but every single person that owns or uses Apple products, loves the company. You cannot say that for many (if any?) computer related companies out there. Whatever Apple has done, and I think Steve Jobs has a huge part to play in their success, know how to hype and then deliver on those products.

So I’ll leave you with the free publicity I read this morning in my RSS reader. Enjoy.

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