list: daily sources of sh!ts and giggles

i thought i'd share 10 of my favorite sites (that aren't on my blogroll) for sh!ts and giggles:

- Overheard in New York, for a different kind of eavesdropping.
- The daily Squee, for that warm and fuzzy feeling.
- Failblog, for proof that some people do make worse decisions than I do.
- Engrish, because I'm surrounded by it.
- It Made My Day, for little moments of WIN.
- Awkward Family Photos, for some oddities.
- The Impossible Cool, for iconic style inspiration.
- The Sartorialist, for today's style inspiration.
- Tuneage, for some new music to chew on.
- DeviantART, to see what some awesome creatives are up to.

and there you have it.

spam on my blog?

yup - madness of madness: shock! shock! horror! horror!

my blog has been spammed. somehow, somewhere, a terribly clever new bot (deceptecon?) managed to hijack my blog-by-email settings. 2 posts were made without my knowledge - the last one being: "start earning 15 minutes from now", which automatically loaded another site.

these posts have been deleted and I have disabled blog-by-email.

if you have a blogger or blogspot blog - i suggest you double check your security settings.

sh!t happens.

to moblog or not

those of you who've been reading me for a while, have undoubtedly noticed a change in my routine. and I don't mean the move to Kaohsiung in itself, although it did influence this routine greatly. no, I'm talking about my blogging routine.

I used to (attempt to) have a weekly structure - but more importantly, I blogged at home, from my laptop. I think my posts had a more distinct flavor back then.
since then, I've taken to posting on the subway via my iPod.

here's the rub: convenient as it is, I'm wondering if this form of mobile blogging is working for you, my friends and readers.

please comment: which posts are more enjoyable?

always,
W

toying with templates

just in case you drop in to see... erm... who knows what: DON'T PANIC!

i really am experimenting this time - it's a phase... it'll pass.

pretty soon, my blog will have a brand new face (that works).

TAGG: one word

i'm busy catching up on my cyberverse, in between fine tuning the new apartment and adjusting to new routines and hours. it's slow going (for some reason there's so much laundry!!) but i'm finally managing to get up to speed. two major events happened in my blog-bar while i was away:

first and by far the most exciting and important of the two, CV and FJ got engaged (i think it's a good word)!!! yay!!! love, joy and major happiness to you!!! i'm so happy and excited i could pop!

the second is this TAGG. thanks FJ - i needed the kick in the rear to get going again :0)

Her'es how it works:
Copy and change the answers to suit you and pass it on. It's really hard to only use one word answers. Be sure to tag the person you received it from and of course at least four others who haven't been tagged yet (to the best of your knowledge)

1. Where is your cell phone?
notepad

2. Your significant other?
colleagues

3. Your hair?
awol

4. Your mother?
amazing

5. Your father?
hero

6. Your favorite?
kiss

7. Your dream last night?
foggy

8. Your favorite drink?
oolong

9. Your dream/goal?
marriage

10. What room are you in?
spare

11. Your hobby?
design

12. Your fear?
loneliness

13. Where do you want to be in 6 years?
summer

14. Where were you last night?
cinema

15. Something that you are not?
straight

16. Muffins?
nope

17. Wish list item?
torso

18. Where you grew up?
when?

19. Last thing you did?
budget

20. What are you wearing?
pajamas

21. Your TV?
nowhere

22. Your pets?
parents'

23. Friends?
adored

24. Your life?
wonderful

25. Your mood?
lazy

26. Missing some one?
sister

27. Car?
scooter

28. Something you're not wearing?
watch

29. Your favorite store?
Kinokuniya

30. Your favorite color?
yellow

33. When is the last time you laughed?
today

34. Last time you cried?
january

35. One place that I go to over and over?
donggang

36. One person who texts me regularly?
Peter

38. My favorite place to eat?
market!

39. My favorite food?
chicken

40. What did you do today?
domestics

and on to the bunch of happy campers that i'm tagging:
rod - great things are happening on your side too, i see ;0)
steve - this TAGG is perfect for you right now
immi - one-word answers are tough for folks like us!
geoff - it's been far too long

TAGG: 6th file of a 6th folder

Hey! It's the fourth day of Chinese New Year and things are going swell. I returned from my blitzkrieg visit to Taipei (the girls' pics should be up on Facebook soon - I left my camera at home this time) last night and am enjoying a slow day of domesticity.

In between bundles of laundry (I'm doing the bedding and will be trampling pillows in the tub shortly), I saw that I was tagged by Rambler over at "In the now." I love taggs...

Okay, it works like this:
1. navigate to where you keep your pictures, select the 6th folder, and the 6th picture in that folder.
2. Then post it on your blog with an explanation of the story behind the picture
3. tag 6 other people to do the same, and make sure you let them know about it.

And here's my contribution:
*lol* It's a picture of me and my Rabbit class, playing in the public park opposite the kindergarten. Doris (the real grown-up in our group and my partner in caring for these kids) can be seen coming around on the left hand side. It was a lovely, sunny day and the kids had behaved very well in class all day. As a reward, playtime was an adventure of slides and jungle-gyms outside the school property.

(Photo taken by Iris, a third member of staff who volunteered to help us keep an eye on the Rabbits.)

Hehe - what can I say other than: I love these kids!

Right, so on to tagging 6 of you:

• Rod
• Geoff
• Immi
• Mom
• Bev
• Jono
  

the blessings keep rolling in!

hold on to your hats! i'm flyin' high on some good vibrations today :0)

first i hear that i'm one of my student's idol - and then i get a marie antoinette: a real person- a real award!


thank you so much to Rod (kickin tina) for this surprise :0)
what do you do when your hero hands you an award like this?

smile and spread the love, baby.

here are the rules for the award:

1. please put the logo on your blog
2. place a link to the person from whom you received the award (kickin tina)
3. nominate at least 7 or more blogs
4. put the links of those blogs on your blog
5. leave a message on their blogs to tell them.


i browse, read, enjoy and devour quite a number of blogs on a daily basis. choosing the top 7 isn't easy and some of my choices are 100% biased - but i'd like to tip my hat to the following stars in my blogosphere:

1) Life and Times of a Gay Man in Idaho
2) Feisty Female
3) Bipolar to Bipolar
4) Jockohomo Datapanik
5) PinkSheep's spot
6) The Mangina Monologues
7) Defying Despondency

(also - if you haven't already - do yourself a favor and check out kickin tina)

extended opportunity: leave your comments now

the past almost-24 hours has seen 2 comments on my previous post.

2 comments @ 10c a pop = 20c donation thus far? come now - that's less than the bank charges involved in making the donation...

i've decided to extend the comment-period with another 24 hours.

for every comment received on my Blog Action Day post - i will donate 10c to one of their listed causes.

you've got 24 hours - make it count.

i'm donating 10cents a pop

Tomorrow is Blog Action Day - the initiative to help rid the world of poverty. I am following Jacob Cass' lead (he of Just Creative Design fame) in "doing my bit by leaving it up to you guys to decide how much I will donate."

I will donate 10cents for every comment posted in the next 24 hours - starting from the time of this post. Leave a comment saying “I’m helping to rid the world of poverty”.

the universal decleration of human rights

do you know your responsibilities as well as you know your rights?


The Universal Declaration of Human Rights from Seth Brau on Vimeo.

google meme

i took the cue from warrior scout over at kickin tina:

this is a meme that's been around, but i thought some pictures might be good today. everyone is tagged if they choose to be..

how old on your next birthday?
31

Where would you like to travel?
i'd like to go back to Spain - this time doing it like Polly Evans in "It's not about the tapas"

What is your favorite place?
Transkaroo restaurant in Great Brak River: great food, good friends and memories

What is your favorite food?
chicken

What is your favorite pet?
Poepies, my jack russel

What is your favorite color combination?
red and black, at the moment

What is your favorite piece of clothing?
denims

What is your favorite song?
Gabriella's Song (Sa som I Himmelen O.S.T.)

What is your favorite tv show?
Queer as Folk

What is the name of your significant other?
Peter

Name the town in which you live.
Donggang

What is your screen name?
absolutwillie

What is the first job you had?
land surveyor's assistant

What is your dream job?
creative director

What is your greatest fear?
being alone

Name one thing you want to do before you die.
see the feature film based on my life

What is the first thing you would do if you win $1,000,000.00?
settle some debts

Photoblog: LiouCiou Island

so here's the deal: in an attempt to get a better blog-rhythm going, i'm trying to set up a kind of "daily schedule". sticking to it isn't all that easy - but i plan on improving ;0)

one of my intended weekly installments is "photo blogging".
so here goes:

--------------------

this weekend (before the ninny typhoon), me and Ben - my American colleague - went to LiouCiou (LiuCiu) Island with 6 Taiwanese friends. the fun never stopped ;0)

Enjoy!

me, Mathilda, Ben and Stacey (Heather took the picture) having breakfast at a Mei&Mei in DongGang.
Stacey, Ben, Heather and myself waiting for the ferry (notice the absence of people around us... i think our brand of humor might have scared our fellow passengers a bit ;0)
Jackson... *sigh*
me and Heather playing it up for the camera!
Emma just looks so cool in this shot! (yes, i'm chuffed with my work)


Simon (Mathilda's bo) and Jackson - two very cool dudes!!

random DILF

we laughed more than we talked :0)
me and Heather playing it up again (see what i meant with "brand of humor"?)
my finest hour - before boarding the ferry back home.

TAGG: Road trippin'

This round of TAGG is kind of topical today - as I'm off to a masked affair in Taipei in two weeks (thanks Jayx!)

So … you’re about to embark on a road trip to a theme party. You’re only allowed 5 CD’s, 3 essential items and are prompted to take along one outrageous/stupid item of clothing that you have to wear at the theme party to make you stand out (you must currently be in possession of this item of clothing).

Do this and then TAG 5 people:
My CD collection:
1. Rammstein - Reise, Reise (duh)
2. Ghislain Poirier - Breakupdown
3. OST - Pricilla, Queen of the Desert - Various (you seriously expected me NOT to take this?)
4. Koos Kombuis - Bloedrivier
5. Popaganda - The Speed Of Sound (they cover "boom boom boom, let's go back to my room... o.m.g.)

Essential items:
1. Cellphone
2. Vanity case
3. Laptop (Taipei has free WiFi!)

Finally, the item of clothing:
There's this "sex on a hanger" red Jeun Paul Gualtier jacket that's killing my budget facility...

TAGG! you're it!

1. cb - 'cuase I just need to know man!
2. geoff - I've been way to quiet on your blog
3. rod - you intrigue me ;0)
4. bev - you actually do stuff like this
5. erm... that Chinese girl... erm...

Mom makes my day!

After a seriously rushed day - I was blessed with the following comment (via Plaxo) on my "How I did yesterday" post:

Today I want to give you a reminder of what I tried to teach you for almost three decades: Do not be too hard on yourself!!!

Nobody is perfect, but more important, no mortal soul is so important that his/her choices or decisions will rock the world off its tracks (except some African leaders like Mugabe).

Take your own advice, and let go and let God. Even if you sometimes take the wrong decision, there is mostly something good to be learnt or experienced as a result. You may not become a millionaire in a week, or be the next big inventor, or the greatest leader ever, but you are unique and special to those lucky enough to know you.

Some of us cannot imagine a day without your caring , joking, honesty and sometimes scalding sense of humor.

Keep it up, and keep going.

Yesterday is gone - nothing can be undone or changed about it; Tomorrow is still a dream - the best you can do is plan for it, but TODAY is your day - your chance to do something special, to laugh out loud, to be someone's friend, to live according to your principles and faith.

GO FOR IT!!

Love
Guess who.

(My Mom's the greatest!!)

pretenders

1. Willie Knoetze

   Your comment is awaiting moderation.

   Shame on you.

   Mar 10th, 2008

1. Stormhoek e il nuovo utilizzo dei social media at Vino24 Blog - Mar 10th, 2008

Reply to “STORMHOEK IS MOVING HOUSE”

Stormhoek gets NO love from Origin Wines

I am in shock. Forgive me for not saying more... but I just read this on stii's blog:

Stormhoek gets NO love from Origin Wines

Apart from getting a really raw deal from Stormhoek’s UK partners, Orbital, they are faced with even more obstacles. Since Orbital has gone under, it was sold to/taken over by Origin Wines. Their previous website (now, unfortunately also owned by Origin) are now used to spread a bunch of lies:

When we started Stormhoek back in 2003, we sat in our office in London and thought, “Why can’t we make great 5 pound South African Sauvignon Blanc? Why not beat the New Zealanders at their own game? Better, Cheaper and Faster!”
…
Ultimately we went ahead, brought some tech, contracted out our production, designed a label, marketed and launched Stormhoek. People loved the wine!
…
There are some very successful brands in ZA that some nothing more than a label, with everything else being outsourced, but we felt that we needed a place to call home. So, we bought an interest in a little vineyard called Siyabonga, near Wellington. After years of effort, Siyabonga had not been able to sell its wine very successfully, and with Stormhoek’s growing business, it was a perfect place to buy what we could call a home. So it was a good fit for both parties.

Read more here! (For the TRUE Stormhoek story, read here)

Luckily one person did notice that and left a comment, which would be interesting to see how long the comment remains there:

What has happened? I think I cannot say it better than Rob Stokes from Quirk:

The assets of the sunken Orbital were recently bought by Origin, and of course with this purchase came all of Stormhoek’s brand equity in what I would guess to be their biggest market.

In essence what they are now doing is cutting Graham and the team at Stormhoek SA (the people who really care about the brand) out of the UK profit loop. Sure their business will (hopefully!) go to another South African farm, but I’ll bet my favourite Google hat that vast majority of the profits will stay in the UK. As a proud South African, that doesn’t sit well with me.

Read more here!

From what I understand is that Stormhoek will continue to make the good stuff here (a.k.a. the real Stormhoek) and export to basically everywhere, accept the UK. In the UK, Origin is going to continue to bottle and sell Stormhoek, but not with real Stormhoek, which means nothing! I think this Jason guy misses the point about Stormhoek. See, Stormhoek is not just a good brand. The real Stormhoek is a massive success story. It is also a fantastic story! You can put the best bloody Bordeaux wine in a Stormhoek bottle, it is not Stormhoek, as the story is lost. However, all of this will be another great chapter with excellent lessons to be learned in the real Stormhoek’s story! As Rob said in a comment over at Quirk:

My point is that I don’t think the two can be fairly separated. The wine is the brand and vice versa.

Another blind turn of events is that this Jason guy told the real Stormhoek guys that they have to seize the use of all those brilliant little cartoons we grew used to by Hugh MacLeod. That is very sad. From the nasty article on the old Stormhoek blog, it seems like they will also retain the services of Hugh, so it seems that is also lost to the real Stormhoek. Very sad… BUT, is there maybe an opportunity lurking for some aspiring blogger in SA to take over that role?! Would be kinda tough to beat the brilliant Hugh at his own game though!

There is an upside to all this, of course! Stormhoek will now be more available right here in SA! Since they will not be shipping to the UK anymore, they will distribute much more right here. (At least, thats what I hope!) That sure is good news for all real Stormhoek fans!

So if you feel you’d like to help even more, the best you can do is to talk about all of this on your blogs. The truth will prevail!

Blogged with Flock

Kareem proved innocent

1 Year after his conviction - for which the sentence was 1 year's imprisonment - Kareem has been proved innocent. Makes you wonder...

Kareem proved innocent

Blogged with Flock

Hugh does it best

It's no secret that i am a devoted fan (deciple?) of gapingvoid.
Imagine my excitement when I stumbled onto this presentation - using his cartoons!

Oh happy day!!

10 Ways to a Killer Blog

From: yizmo, 1 year ago

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Presentation of Robert and Maryam Scoble about how to blog well. The Blog Business Summit 2006 is a conference and seminar series focused on business blogging.


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