This is Pierre, one of the project managers contracted to Great Basin Gold, the mine whose account I'm working on for Blue Moon Communications. That's my mining helmet illuminating his face.
We walked 1.4 kilometres down a 9 degree decline, straight into the bowels of the earth. That put us at around 300 metres below the surface when we stopped walking and turned around to go back to the surface.
It's a pretty good workout, that walk. My calves are definitely going to be shrieking tomorrow morning. Luckily, Rachel, the safety officer who took us down, had organised a vehicle to pick us up to drive us out.
The mine is not yet in production. It's still in the construction phase, which means that they're getting to the ore body. They're much more than halfway to their goal, and the particular mining technique they're using is revolutionary for South African mines in many ways.
- Camera phone upload powered by ShoZu
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Down in the Bowels of the Earth
Monday, March 24, 2008
My Letter to the 2008 World of Work Participants
Okay... Firstly... I'm really excited at the prospect of chatting to the new group of World of Work participants! It's going to be awesome to chat!Secondly... I'm going to be delivering two different components of stuff... a creativity workshop, and a blogging workshop. Everything we're going to be doing is interrelated. Not just my two components, but with other aspects of the World of Work too.
So...
I'm going to need people to do a fair amount of preparation for my stuff. The preparation is easy. And I'm going to give EXPLICIT instructions.
I'm putting that in capital letters because it's been my experience with previous participants, and with other people out in the real world that the understanding and following of instructions is one of the most vital skills in making it in the job world. And it's been THE most disappointing area of skill-deficiency that I've come across in this programme.
I'm going to make a bold statement. And I'd like EVERYBODY in this programme to prove me right. Treat this as a personal challenge...
'I am able to slow myself down. I am able to read a written instruction calmly. I am able to understand what is in the instruction. I am able to follow the instruction. I am able to make a judgement call about what outcome is expected from the instruction. I am able to get help from my fellow World of Work participants if I find myself stuck. I CAN FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS.'
Right. Here are my instructions, with my desired (and required) outcome.
1. Go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/blogthinking/ and hit the 'join this group' button. This takes you to a Yahoo sign-in page. IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A YAHOO IDENTITY, FOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS AND GET ONE. YOU ARE REQUIRED TO HAVE ONE FOR THE PURPOSES OF THIS EXERCISE. It's free. Follow the instructions. Follow the instructions. If you CAN'T follow these instructions, get help. If you can't get help, do not proceed. Go away. I'm not kidding. The mailing list is NOT something that requires rocket science or brain surgery. Nor is it difficult. And yet it has historically caused the biggest trouble with WoW participants. Break this cycle by proving that you are able to follow written instructions. THIS IS AN IMPERATIVE FOR YOUR SUCCESS IN LIFE. I kid you not.
2. Are you subscribed to the blogthinking yahoogroups mailing list? If you couldn't get it right, please consult with your peers. And WORK IT OUT. I will be uber ratty if there is ANYONE in my room when I give my seminar who HASN'T cracked this. And I'm not a ratty fellow. Ask previous participants and Lesley and Jean.
3. Go to http://www.google.com/reader/, and sign up. Start following some blogs and RSS feeds on there. A place to start would be with my shared feeds... http://www.google.com/reader/shared/11762733934829099100. Find feeds you like. Then subscribe to them.
4. By the time you set foot in my seminar room, you must have AT LEAST 40 blogs that you are following in Google Reader. (There are 19 participants in this year's WoW, so 18 of the blogs you'll be following will belong to your peers. The other 22 will be up to you.
5. In Google Reader, create a shared items feed of your own. And use the 'share' button on Google Reader to publish items of interest to your shared items folder. If you don't understand what I'm talking about, just do it. And ask your buddies for help.
6. On entering my seminar, you must have shared AT LEAST 20 items in your shared items feed in Google Reader.
7. Go to http://twitter.com/royblumenthal. Read my tweets. Try to understand what I'm doing. Look at some of the people I'm following. See what they're doing. Attempt to get a sense of what the different Twitter strategies are.
8. Open your own Twitter account, using your REAL name (or part of it) as your username. Keep it short -- 'royblumenthal' is almost too long.
9. On Twitter, follow EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOUR PEERS IN THE WoW PROGRAMME, and me. This is not negotiable. Use the blogthinking list to communicate with each other if needs be. Work it out. Coordinate. YOU WILL BE CHUCKED OUT OF MY ROOM IF YOU DON'T CRACK THIS.
10. Go to http://facebook.com, and sign up for an account if you haven't already got one. Add everyone in the World of Work programme as your friend. My profile is there on http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=575285308. Add me. Make sure you send me a message telling me who you are and why you're adding me. Make that a habit with EVERY person you add.
11. In Facebook, install the Twitter Sync application -- http://apps.facebook.com/twittersync/?ref=ts. Put all your details in there. Use the 'prepend verb': "Twittering:" (without the quotes). This little piece of wizardry allows your Twitter messages to be transplanted into Facebook as status updates.
12. In Facebook, install the Feedheads application -- http://apps.facebook.com/feedheads/?ref=ts. Set it up so that your Google Reader feed is funneled right into your Facebook profile. Then, whenever you share any item in Google Reader, that will be zapped into Facebook, for your friends to see.
13. Go to http://blogspot.com. Or any of the other free blogging tools online. I advocate blogspot simply because I'm familiar with it. Create a blog. IN YOUR OWN NAME. If you already have a blog IN YOUR OWN NAME, great. That's the one you'll use. If you don't, make one now. Be sure to ALLOW anonymous commenting. Add every single member of the WoW group to your links list on your blog. It's INSANELY easy. It's all pushbutton stuff. Don't ask me for help. FOLLOW THE EASY, FOOLPROOF INSTRUCTIONS, and you'll crack it. If you CAN'T crack it, seriously question your abilities, and think of getting a soft job like television-viewing. And leave this programme. Anyone who can't get this right really does NOT deserve to call themselves a post-graduate student.
14. If English is not your first language, or if English is not a comfortable second language, BLOG IN YOUR MOTHER TONGUE. This is NOT negotiable. I repeat. THIS IS NOT NEGOTIABLE!!! Write in your OWN language. And for every post you create in your own language, supply an English translation in Italics. I absolutely insist on this. And you'll understand why when we talk face-to-face. I'm one seriously cunning marketing person, and you can choose to differ with me on this point ONLY AFTER YOU'VE DONE WHAT I'VE ASKED. If you don't understand what I'm asking because you're not a strong English-language communicator, then you HAVE TO consult with a friend who CAN clarify what I'm asking. I'll kick your skanky ass right out of my seminar room if you DON'T comply with this. I'm not kidding.
15. By the time you set foot in the seminar room for my session, I want you to have written AT LEAST 20 posts on your blog.
16. In addition, I want to see a bullet point summary of your skills in the 'about me' section of your blog. When I read that section, I want to know what types of things you're interested in as a person. I want to know what your business interests are. I want to know your passions. I want to know that you are able to think. This is not an easy task I'm assigning you. But it's a necessary one. When someone reads your 'about me' section, they need to feel as if they understand you. And you only have about 800 words to do it in. Don't worry if it's rubbish. Feel free to be light and fluffy. Feel free to make mistakes. The beauty about blogging is that EVERYTHING can be changed in the blink of an eye. One thing I must emphasise... if you DO NOT HAVE your 800 word biography on your blog by the time of my seminar, please don't come to the seminar.
17. Are you completely daunted by what I've asked you to do? If so, welcome to the World of Work. This list of 17 points is EASILY accomplishable in less than 2 hours. EASILY. And I must assure you that this list is REALLLLLLLLLLLLLY explicit in comparison to some of the crap you'll see out in the real world. In the business I'm in, this is the kind of thing that would be set up before the first tea break of the day. It DOES get easier. But only if you follow instructions.
18. Oh. Another instruction. Print out two posts from your own blog and bring those to the seminar room with you. We're going to work with them on the day. So make sure you've got yours with you. We're going to be playing around with swapping posts with our peers to help each other improve. You'll be denying someone the opportunity to grow if you don't do this.
I know that I'm sounding a little merciless here. And there's a good chance you'll be pre-judging me as a pompous a**hole who thinks too highly of his own little seminar. Truth is, I AM being merciless. Cos there's not a lot of room for incompetence in the stuff I'm talking about above. There's plenty of room for error. Please be aware that error is not a crime. But incompetence is kinda gunna bring the work executioner out. As for my being pompous and all that... ah well... sometimes it's the hazard one faces for putting his or her truth out on the table as strongly as I'm known to do.
I'm very much looking forward to meeting you. And I really want us to get off to a seamless start. In the world of business, there are certain things an employer takes for granted. And there are certain leniencies. The stuff in my list above is EASILY accomplishable by any 13-year-old who has had exposure to computers. I'm not joking. And I'm not being pompous. Use this list as a gauge. If you can do it easily, you're ready for the World of Work, and things are going to go smoothly for you. If you struggle with this list, you're really going to need to upskill urgently. Cos the TYPE of things I'm asking you to do are the things businesses take for granted.
Seeya soon!
Blue skies
love
Roy
PS: Would members of the Blogthinking list receiving this please verify, deny, debate my assertions? That would be great. Also, if I've left anything out, could you set me straight? Thanks!
eBucks -- Portraits of Some Members of the Management Team
In March this year I was privileged to do an afternoon visual facilitation with the management topdogs at eBucks.com, one of South Africa's top loyalty and rewards programmes.
I made portraits of all of the people who delivered mini-papers, and this is the result.
I'm not at liberty to share any of the other pictures, as everything falls under a strict non-disclosure agreement, drafted by Reuben, the tall guy, third from left.
All of the paintings were made live, on my Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc, running ArtRage 2.5. I then spent some time finessing the pics in ArtRage, then transplanted them to Photoshop CS2 to make this composite portrait. My visual facilitation one-sheet can be found at http://snipurl.com/visualfacilitation. Call me on +27 74 104 6386 to book my services.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Anthony Minghella has died
Oh no! Anthony Minghella was a really good guy.
Heard him chat about filmmaking once when he was in South Africa.
I made this pic of the dude on my palmtop computer at the time. April 29, 2005, according to the date stamp.
There are no details known at the moment, but I wish him well wherever he finds himself.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Riaad Moosa
Yup. This dude's one seriously funny bloke. He was the entertainment at the Mugg & Bean National Conference gala dinner at the Lord Charles Hotel in Somerset West. And he was brilliant.
The speech bubble quote is a throwaway punchline for one of his gags where he pokes fun at himself for being a Muslim. (Maybe he's poking fun at non-Muslims who see any Muslim as a threat? But you knew that, right?)
I was realllllly reallllllllllllllllllly reluctant to paint him while he was doing his gig. I felt that I might be taking the spotlight off him.
The laughs were flowing thick and fast, so I tried a few exploratory strokes.
Bear in mind that the screen was off to his right, and was a HUGE screen. A good 5 metres by 4 metres. And the nose alone on this picture was bigger than his entire body on stage.
So when I started drawing, and the laughs didn't dry up, I figured it would be safe to draw him, and that I wouldn't be hurting his set.
Riaad... I sincerely hope that I didn't dilute anything for you on the night.
He asked me from the stage if I could email the pic to him. So I kinda took that as an affirmative.
Book Riaad on riaadmoosa@gmail.com or +27 84 575 1538. His website is at: http://www.riaadmoosa.co.za/riaadweb.html
This funny painting of the funny dude, Riaad Moosa, was made on my Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc, using ArtRage 2.5. Funnily enough.
Mario -- multi-instrumentalist -- final night 4
Mario was the musician on duty for the final night of the Mugg & Bean conference in Somerset West.
He uses a rich, sweet backing track, which allows him to showcase his virtuosity on flute, clarinet, and saxophone. He's very lovely to listen to. And a passionate musician.
As soon as I can get his email address, I'll pop it on here so you can get hold of him to play at your function.
I've painted the hall a lot smaller than it really was. It was gigantic.
This was painted in ArtRage 2.5 on my Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc while Mario played.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Andy Beal's 'Marketing Pilgrim' -- a groovy read, and a chance to win goodies like the iPod Touch
marketing whizz, running the site, Marketing Pilgrim.
He runs contests every now and again. This one --
http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2008/02/new-contest-win-an-ipod-touch.html
-- gives people the chance to win an iPod Touch.
He's a cunning fellow. And practices what he preaches. He's generating
tons of link love to his blog by encouraging people entering his
contest to spread the word.
If I win just by entering, I get an 8gig machine. If I tweet the link
on Twitter, I get the 16gig machine. And if I tweet AND blog the link,
I get the big daddy... The 32gig iPod Touch.
This is great for Andy, cos it gets a specific link out to a lot of
sources. So when Google and Yahoo and Technorati crawl the web, they
find that Andy Beal is one majorly serious player. So his search
ranking skyrockets.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
The Al Qaeda Junior forces -- yet another masterstroke
This post is my response to John's piece on Commentary South Africa, 'Al Qaeda Junior'. In his piece, he expresses strong outrage at video footage showing children being trained for guerrilla warfare.Nah. John's got the wrong end of the stick on this one.
The reason the 'war on terror' is unwinnable by the 'west' is thanks to reactive analyses like his.
What's happening is a paradigm shift of the most extreme kind. The September 11 Twin Towers demolition represents a change in the world order.
The message was quite simple: 'You are no longer safe. Anywhere.'
The recent use of mentally challenged women to detonate suicide bombs is nothing short of a stroke of genius. Because it adds another layer of pain to the message: 'You are no longer safe. From anyone.'
The 'discovery', 'release', and/or 'shooting' of a video showing a training camp in which children are being taught to be suicide bombers/guerrilla 'soldiers', whatever, is possibly one of the key masterstrokes of the propaganda war being fought by the Muslim extremists. (It appears the video was shot by western forces. Which makes it an even bigger mastercoup by the extremists. They couldn't have gotten better publicity if they'd simply leaked it.)
John's reaction plays completely into their hands. He's responding exactly the way their propaganda experts planned.
They wanted outrage. Whinings about human rights, the rights of children. Cries of anguish.
They wanted all westerners to think, 'How low will these bastards go? NOTHING is sacred to them!!!'
And yeah... they've definitely got us thinking that. (Soon they'll be training sweet little dogs to be suicide bombers. Mark my words. And THEN we'll see anguish!)
And all they've got to do to make this world unbearable for westerners is to publicize just ONE suicide bombing by a child.
Cos that'll lock it into our minds forever.
And the message will be: 'You are not safe from anyone, anywhere, ever again.'
Sadly, this war is inexplicable to us westerners.
I don't know about you, but I cannot fathom what 'they' want from 'us'.
In most wars, someone wants something from someone else. There's a goal. Once the goal is met, the war is over.
In this 'war', nobody has said what the goal is. Nobody has explicitly stated: 'This war will be over when x, y, and z have been achieved.'
Which is why it's a paradigm shift and a change in the world order. Cos as westerners, we don't have access to the correct way of thinking about this.
In addition, I'm not sure how many people are actually saying, 'What do you guys actually want?' Maybe if we ask, they'll tell us. And then we'll know how to end the war.
So... uh... I'll ask. Guys... what do you want? How do we make this all stop? Please respond in the comments section. Thanks.
The illustration started out as a sketch in ink in my Moleskine notebook. Then I pulled it into Photoshop via my HP scanner and coloured it to within an inch of its life. All on my Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc, of course. No pork was consumed during the making of this image.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Nescafe Rosebank -- here's to the current franchisees losing their license
Nino's is out, since last time we were there, they sold us a stale
piece of week-old sponge cake, claiming it was their chocolate mousse
cake.
So we're sitting across the way, at Nescafe.
Nice view. Loads of hairstyles courtesy of the Misogynist Hairdressers Guild.
The waiter isn't wearing a name badge. Bad sign. He takes our order.
'Siyacela eTwo glasses of water, and a lemon and condensed milk
smoothie, please.'
Jennifer goes for the penne Napolitano. I order a Smoked Chicken and Avo salad.
The waiter comes back to the table and says, 'No avo.' He's not making
eye contact. He's not even all that interested in taking my order.
I ask him if I can substitute feta cheese. He nods. Leaves.
Comes back with two differently shaped and sized glasses of water.
Thirty seconds later, brings the smoothie.
I taste it. And almost spew chilled milky froth all over Jennifer. It
tastes rotten. Not merely off. Actively rotten. Disgustingly rotten.
'Jesus!' I say, trying to wipe my tongue off with a paper napkin.
Jennifer takes a test sip.
'Oh man,' she says, 'this is rotten! This milk is far gone!'
Luckily, I've got some mints in my pocket courtesy of Graham at Blue
Moon. Ten of them kill the taste for both of us.
As it happens, I've just had a warm chat with Graham. He runs a
fantastically successful stall at the Rosebank Flea Market, selling
imported British food. Which is why Jen and I are here in the first
place. We came to visit him and Claire, to show a bit of support.
I call the waiter. 'Brother, I think this milk is very badly off, and
I'm changing my order. Please take this back, and may I have a strong
Milo instead?'
'Okay,' he says, 'Milo.' And takes the offending specimen away.
A minute or so later, he comes back. With my ex-smoothie in his hand.
Plonks it down on my table. 'The manager says there's nothing wrong
with it. It's the way it is. Sweet and sour.'
'No, I changed my order, because this is off. I want a Milo, and I'm
not accepting this.'
'Then speak to the manager.'
'I don't need to speak to the manager. This is off.'
'There's the manager.'
So the 'manager' approaches the table. He's short. Intense black hair
tightly cropped. The first words out of his trap are, 'There ees
nothing wrong with that! Is sweet an sour.'
Bulgarian? Ukrainian?
He's got the fattest scowl on his lips. Very much a 'Punch Me Now' kinda look.
I say, 'I changed my order. This tastes off. And I'd like a Milo
instead please.'
Jennifer adds, 'We even had to eat peppermints to get the taste out of
our mouths.'
'That's how it tastes,' he says, scowling harder.
The drink sits in no man's land between us.
Nobody approaches it.
I say, 'You don't want to change my order, I'm walking. Come Jennifer.'
And I pick up our stuff, and I'm getting up, and leaving, and I hear
Napoleon-junior muttering under his breath.
'Fine. Leave.'
We're halfway to the Spur in The Zone when it dawns on me.
'They didn't taste that smoothie, did they?' I say.
Jennifer says, 'It was the same glass. If they tasted it, they sipped
from your glass.'
'And if they didn't, then how the hell do they know whether it's rotten or not?'
'Exactly.'
Friday, February 01, 2008
Misogynist Hairdressers Guild Badge -- Sticker Prank
This has been a prank idea for a very long time...
To make a sticker to place surreptitiously on the doors of hairdressers who butcher women's hair.
I mean, seriously... there MUST be a secret guild of hairdressers dedicated to giving women reallllllllllllly bad hair advice and hair treatments and hairdos.
Think of 'older' women with blue rinses. You think they'd do that to themselves without being nudged by their hair salon??? Come on! Nobody wants to look like a poodle!
If you like this little piece of artwork, please feel free to make printouts on your colour laser printer (an inkjet will run in the rain). Cut them out. Place them in NEARLY hidden positions on the front doors of salons who perpetrate atrocities on women's hair.
The badges shouldn't be too big. I'd estimate that they should be no bigger than the palm of your hand.
This serves two purposes.
1. Any bigger, and the badges will be discovered too quickly to do any good.
2. You can easily approach a door IN BROAD DAYLIGHT with one of them concealed in your hand. Rest against the door briefly. Catch your breath. Move on. And the perpetrator is marked!
There's a version in B&W too.
I made this pic in two packages: CorelDraw 10.0 for the typography and design; Photoshop CS2 for the image manipulation and colouring.As source material, I did a Google image search for 'bad hair'. And found some glorious horrors. I've manipulated this one beyond recognition. All, as usual, on my Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc.stickerprank, sticker, prank, royblumenthal, blumenthal
