Flying Shortbread

Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (Tanya Pretorius) — Tue, 15 May 2012 11:46:00 +0000

Marketing is a three-syllable word that seems so simple, yet encompasses so much. Marketing is a multi-faceted approach to promoting a product or service. Both traditional and unconventional marketing methods have a place in the small business world. Marketing helps small businesses focus on building their brand and identity.

There are few limitations to marketing options, and the opportunities listed here are just a few that will generally result in a decent ROI (Return On Investment) for most small businesses. That said, do not be afraid to be creative -- no one knows or understands a small business like its owner, so think outside of the box and don't be afraid to experiment.

Identity Continuity

Create continuity between an online website, logos, letterheads, business cards, and packaging. Create an identity that will make your business stand out from the competition, and leave a good initial impression on potential customers. A professional image associated with your company or product will remind customers of their past brand experiences, and will reinforce your product line.

Trade Publications

Niche publications are journals or magazines that focus on a specific market. If your product or service is appropriate for a specific market, then advertising in their trade publications will allow you to immediately drill down and target that very specific audience.

Promotional Items

Branded giveaways have long been used by marketers to attract potential customers. Products that have a long shelf life will help keep your business in the forefront of a customer's mind. Weeks, months, and even years after a product is purchased or service is performed, promotional items will remind the customer of your brand.

Reviews

Solicit product reviews from reputable industry sources, magazine reviewers, bloggers, or industry journalists. Product reviews lend credibility to a product or company.

Keyword Advertising

In order to help your website's search engine ranking, use keyword advertising. Focused and targeted keyword advertising will drive web traffic that has a genuine interest in your product or service.

Niche Directories

Use online niche directories to promote products or services. Visitors who frequent topical directories have a strong interest and are more likely to purchase.

Viral Marking

Once known as "word of mouth" marketing, viral marketing has taken on a life of its own. Encourage product buzz, as well as customers referring customers.

Opt-In Email Marketing

Use email as a marketing tool to notify your existing customers about specials, new products or services, or product releases and updates. While some say email marketing is dead, others say that measured results of email marketing tell a very different story. Opt-in, targeted email marketing works, and produces results when done correctly.

Partnerships / Strategic Relationships

We see large companies leveraging their assets every day, and small online businesses should too! Whether it be as a partner, an affiliate, or a strategic relationship, all of these relationships can benefit small businesses. Businesses can use strategic relationships to penetrate niche markets. Affiliates can expand their reach and tap into the customer bases of similar products. Partners can provide additional value to existing products or services. Determine what types of relationships could be beneficial to your small business.

Online Classifieds

Craigslist is likely the best known online classified system. Classified systems increase visibility and are often overlooked by small businesses. Consider posting classifieds that relate to product or services, and monitor the results.

Sponsorship / Contests

Contests not only encourage customers to have fun, but also generate publicity and draw attention to your company and brand. Sponsor industry events, run contests, or donate prizes to industry contests in order to increase visibility and generate goodwill.

Newsletters

Communication is critical to all businesses, and small businesses are no exception. Be sure to establish a communication channel with customers and potential customers. Newsletters are a very popular communication channel for software developers.

RSS

RSS is growing in popularity. It is an alternative communication channel that has the benefit of reaching a larger audience through syndication. Supplement and enhance email and newsletter campaigns by providing an RSS channel for their content.

Forums / Newsgroups

Participation in newsgroups and forums will result in building credibility. Business relationships will often result from online dialogue in industry forums and newsgroups. Actively participate and always behave in a professional manner.

Forum / Email Signatures

All forum posts and emails you send should contain a "signature" that advertises your business name, tag line, and URL.

Blogs

Blogging and posting comments on blogs can result in an increase in web links and traffic. Socialization and engaging others with well thought out comments can establish a business reputation and generate product interest.

Videos

YouTube is a boon to business. If you are creative, consider compiling an educational or humorous video. YouTube is a huge distribution channel and can generate product or industry interest.

Press Releases

The avenue to inexpensive press! Write a press release to promote new products or services and reap the benefits with media attention.

Article Syndication

Writing articles can help lend credibility to your product line and improve your business reputation.

Local Newspapers

Contact local newspapers and pitch a unique story to them. Publicity is free and can generate discussions and interest.

Consider exploring alternative channels for advertising and marketing. Keep in mind that advertising need not be costly; creative marketers can often find inexpensive avenues that will result in a great return.

Source: http://www.collegecentral.com/Article.cfm?CatID=iss&ArticleID=3545

NetProphet 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Tanya Pretorius) — Wed, 09 May 2012 09:42:00 +0000

Took place in Cape Town, I listened online - which another listener called listening in morse code because it was so choppy. And it must have been from their side because a 10 MBps guy in England experienced the same thing. And I followed the #NetProphet hashtag on twitter. It was fabulous. I was almost there. Here are my jumble of notes

SPEAKERS

#NetProphet ~ #RichardHardiman
Richard Hardiman: Internet Radio in South Africa. Why it shouldn’t work
• a differentiation happens online
• consultants from overseas tell you how to do it
• focus on client, not the end user, the client is the advertiser
• Tim Bishop: Too many (Digital) Entrepreneurs= fragmentation of best brains into 1000s of small entities. We must #ENTREPRELABORATE
• working for yourself you mind the hours and small salaries less because you are passionate
• when you set out to do something different, people question it.
• Average time spent listening to 'normal' radio is 23 minutes but internet radio is getting 2 hours 28 minutes on average
• Cellphones will have uncapped, blackberry free, iphone pays
• When you think of something new, and everyone is against it.
• listening is device driven
• you won't look back if you start your own business
QUESTIONS
• regulation - ICASA doesn't govern them because it's infrastructure not used. no licensing requirement except samro. Low startup cost for Internet radio
• 70% listen at work on wifi - normal radio is before and after work
• Revolutionary markets unite upstarts.

#NetProphet ~ #EricEdelstein
3 x 3 Minute Power Slot featuring Eric Edelstein, Rory Berry and Elodie Kleynhaus
• getting people to crowdsource
• pivot - throw out your software and start from scratch, took it onto Facebook.
• SAfricans don't like to fail
• fail fast and make it better the next time round

#NetProphet ~ #RoryBerry
• importance of Child's eyes
• children see the magic behind the ordinary object
• passions are fun
#NetProphet ~ #RoryBerry. Like children see the magic behind the ordinary object, play and evolve.

#NetProphet ~ #ElodieKleynhaus

#NetProphet ~ #RobGilmour
Silicon Cape Pitch London Announcement – Rob Gilmour

#NetProphet ~ #WalterPike
• marketing in the social era
• difference? They're doing the same thing and moving it to the digital. It's not the same.
• don't talk at people, reach is an old media redundant concept
• we should be spreading ideas, so they have to be good so people will spread them
• transportable ideas - tools to share, connections, networks, what roles does each element of the network play.

#NetProphet ~ #WesleyLynch
• developer
• investors are not the them to our us
• learn to sell, packaging is incorrectly packaged - investors know you can't package for your clients if you can't package for them
• investors are more optimistic about SA than we are, they are moving here, we must not risk not having a share of our own opportunity.

#NetProphet ~ #DonPackett
• we're living narcissism, and becoming antisocial in our social media environments
• Is your content adding more value to your life, or the life of others? If it's the former, don't press send!

#NetProphet ~ #RichMulholland
Do I need a topic?!
• Small efforts aimed at awareness are not enough, it's a start and creates a groundswell. That's the start of a platform for action.
• twibbons are for twankers
• Tuesday - avatars black to stand up for media freedom
• too easy to jump causes.
• Jumping causes is too easy these days, pick something and stick to it. Don't be an #avatard
• activism as marketing
• Rich Mulholland shouting out for #Activism instead of #Avatards and #Slacktivism.
• badassesesagainstavataractivism - baaaa.org
• #baaaa - Calls people to shoutout his hashtag... and then calls them sheep.
#NetProphet ~ #RichMulholland calls people to shoutout #baaaa hashtag... and then calls them sheep. #badassesesagainstavataractivism

#NetProphet ~ #QuestionGuy is a surprise development for organizers; is brought onto stage to answer questions. He's a good sport!
• What questions do you have for #questionguy, except 'What's your name?" -
• How do you feel about Julius Malema - encapsulates a cliché: "this is a shooting star"
• Who's going to be our next president? Not Zuma
• How does a netprophet celebrity feel about being one - surprised. How do you come up with the questions? - playfullness, reacts to what he feels hasn't been covered by the speaker
• What do you do? IT, development, consulting, volunteers on a website

#NetProphet ~ #YusufRanderaRees: Entrepreneurship, South Africa Style!
• Yusuf Randera Rees is talking about the Awethu Project and how to make Gugulethu the next Silicon Valley
• If you never let people compete you can't write off their talent
• social entrepreneurship SA style and what we can achieve if we invest in our own people.
• World Class inspiration is, new S'African style. Give all a chance.
• http://awethuproject.co.za/ enables entrepreneurs who have no previous access to opportunities, has received funding to develop 1000 Entrepreneurs in the next 20 months.

#NetProphet ~ #ChrisRolfe: Rewarding the right behaviour in a mobile world
• tweetpause when you say something fab
• incentivising the behaviour of students is the domain of the parents
• want customers to spend that money on your product... consistently
• Types of reward: Financial, Product, Utility, Recognition, fun, entertainment, clubs
• TOOLS to change behaviour - incentives, vouchers, airtime (NB), ebucks, electricity
• Dan Pink - human behaviour, writer for Al Gore
• MIT - gave students tasks, incentivised performance with three levels of rewards
• rewards cost money
• need to know when to reward, when to shift the customer's behaviour
• customer aquisition cost
• paper can't be distributed, cash customers, can't track, not sustainable, 1% conversion
• reach of mobile fab
• you can engage with a customer without knowing who they are
• remobilise excess inventory
• how to make customers into evangelists, how to keep them
• Groupon is a method to watch
QUESTIONS
• rise of the sovereign consumer, consumers will reward the brands not brands rewarding consumers
• know how customers want to be rewarded
• SA mobile market is the medium, have coupons in an ewallet, email on the phone
• http://t.co/L1wopGhz

#NetProphet ~ #RobynScott: Learnings from an African Native
• 20 chickens for a saddle (book), Co-Founder of OneLeap
• power of asymmetric connections
• Have to take yourself out your comfort zone
• value the connection - People have fears of having the door slammed in their face by high value connections.
• repersonlising online contact
• return on investment (ROI) - lunches and coffees are not expensive and increases the value because you are valuable
• The Internet has created a paradox where old boys networks have become new boy networks leaving ideas overlooked
• Oneleap - when you pay to send a connection, part of your payment goes to a charity.
• Paying for sending a message, makes you think about what you send
• Innovation is now outside in. Companies can't recreate that.
• Asserts that you should get ahead not based on who you know, but on merit
• who influenced your career and how did you meet them? Value your connections
QUESTIONS
• Scott a social entrepreneur
• Social Networking makes it easy to connect with similar people. But asymmetrical connections hold more potential.
• OneLeap allows outsiders in
• Limited for-profit, better resources to grow
• Go to investors who are users, who want to use your product
• Be bold, talk to people who may brush you away. The more no's you get the more likely a yes. Gamify your failures in the social networking game
• tell stories
• "people reacting with controversy to your business model is not necessarily a bad thing"

#NetProphet ~ #RichardMulholland: The power of the 3 Minute Message
• Always good value for time, @RichMulholland, especially when he's limited to 3 minutes. "The burden of brevity..."
• Packaging a message into a shorter period takes more work than talking for longer
• challenges every speaker to say their say and get off
• Say it well and get off the stage!

#NetProphet ~ #ArthurGoldstuck's tweetnote address - a presentation in 10 tweets - all 10, the full address @ http://www.gadget.co.za/pebble.asp?relid=4610
During the Net Prophet conference in Cape Town today, ARTHUR GOLDSTUCK delivered a tweetnote address - a presentation in 10 tweets - revealing the headline findings of the Internet Access in South Africa 2012 study.
• For details of the tie-in of this tweetnote presentation with the Net Prophet conference, see: http://bit.ly/IEUn4b
• #Net2012 Tweetnote presentation of Internet Access in SA 2012 headline findings starts 10.35am during #NetProphet
• The following is a tweetnote presentation – 10 tweets on the same topic – on the Internet Access in SA 2012 study. #Net2012 #NetProphet
• 1. #Net2012 unveils headline findings of Internet Access in SA 2012 study. World Wide Worx report due June. #NetProphet
• 2. #Net2012 uses multiple methodologies: primary research, interviews with providers, market intelligence. #NetProphet
• 3. #Net2012 first headline finding: there were 8.5-million Internet users in South Africa at the end of 2012. #NetProphet
• 4. #Net2012 found 2011 growth in SA user base was 25%, following 28% in 2010. Internet has awoken in SA. #NetProphet
• 5. #Net2012: 6,02-million access on computer, laptop, tablet. 90% of these also on cell. 2.48m only on cell. #NetProphet
• 6. #Net2012: Total of 7,9 million South Africans access the Internet on their cell phones. #NetProphet
• 7. #Net2012: Number of 3G users in South Africa: 5,5m. Smartphone base end of 2011: 8.5m. Forecast 2012: 11m. #NetProphet
• 8. #Net2012: Undersea cable capacity to SA at end of 2011: 2,69Gbps. End 2012: 11,9Gbps. End 2013: 24,6Gbps. #NetProphet
• 9. #Net2012 ADSL lines in use in South Africa: 820 000. 2011 growth: 13% . Limited by Telkom as sole supplier. #NetProphet
• 10. #Net 2012: Internet growth in 2012: expect 20%, taking user base past 10m mark and 20% penetration. #NetProphet

#NetProphet ~ #DanBowyer: 604k ought to be enough
• You need 5 things in business - idea, cash, skills/people with skills, timing and luck
• South Africa has a great opportunity
• puts pics on a timeline that ticks over to remind him to talk about stuff.
• passion - be passionate about the stuff around the thing you sell, not the thing you sell.
• Define your unique ability and just do that
• technologies of the future - global and South African - stupid economy based on the growth of resources - change. People with money must be bad in SA - change. Governments whose only real mandate is to be re-elected - change. Online video - change and have more of that. Out mouse, in voice - change. Ubiquitous wifi. Cloud. Mindcontrol data as I need it. Babelfish. Self-healing hard and software. Virtual hologram instead of meeting. Nanotechnology. Robots. Teletransporter. Cleantech.
• South Africa - context - education is the medium where change will happen. Energy - wind solar tidal - renewable. Manufacturing - don't send resources out, make stuff here. Education - systems and processes we develop we can shift to other countries. Technological - great people resources
• cheaper better different
QUESTIONS

#NetProphet ~ #SylviaGruber
Sylvia Gruber: Seven Start-up sins
• introduction, name and company
• introduction to overview of lecture
• rubybox - monthly beauty box subscription.
1. Saving on the wrong things. Include your time cost as money-saving area. Don't cut costs on the core of your business.
2: Changing too much at once, don't underestimate your competitors
3. Hiding and keeping things from customers. Come to terms with it and face head on.
4: Panicking
5. Don't undervalue the power of your brand. People are loyal and will defend you.
6. Don't think your product is a static entity, listen to your consumer
7: Getting side-tracked
8. Bonus sin: don't try to be too perfect, you can always keep doing it better. Compare yourself to water, not Pepsi.
QUESTIONS
• invest in your team, operational people must be really well trained and they will grow
• managers should spend 50% of their time training their people.
• you'll get stuck when perfecting, rather spend time on operational matters
• you don't need a lot of money to cut through the advertising noise in SouthAfrica
• don't spend time looking for money, spend money on proving your model
• Launch with one business entity that doesn't cost too much, prove that model then expand

#NetProphet ~ #ChristoDavel. Play must be cultivated in our culture, it's how we develop and think.
#NetProphet ~ #ChristoDavel
Christo Davel: Obsession isn’t always a bad thing
• does a stunt about how people will pay more than R200 for a R200 note, says that's what we do routinely
• all about people and culture
• How do you create an unbelievable customer experience?
• Christo Davel talks about the idealist's view of the internet - Cluetrain Manifesto
• creating enchantment in life
• 20twenty staff had carte blanche on how to keep customer happy
• all the established banks opened online banks and 20twenty died in 6 months
• Wired warriors empowered to do anything to make a customer happy! WOW, what a lesson for all call centres out there!
• curatorship
• customers started talking to each other and supporting each other. Some 20twenty customers wanted to deposit their money while other banks were being emptied.
• 'People don't celebrate faliure enough. In innovation, there will be failure'.
• Thomas Edison had more that 2,000 international patents including for the tattoo machine
• ideas are not the killer app - hard work, sweat is
• opposite of courage is compromise
• play must be cultivated in our culture, it's how we think and develop
• "We would rather fail in pursuit of magnificence than succeed in pursuit of mediocrity"
• Lots of ideas on internet. Being able to execute that idea and blow away user is what counts
QUESTIONS
• curatorship? advice? - not liquidation, something like under administration
• staff - be selective about your partners, it's life and business, work on the relationship
• banks with FNB
• think about why people do things, not how
• risk - there will be reasonable bugs when you launch so can't not charge across the board, but don't charge the individual customer if something went wrong specifically for them

#NetProphet ~ RT @ricegirl2. Gender sub-narrative here pissing me off. Someone called herself 'just a girl' to explain why she didn't know something. Gawd.

#NetProphet ~ #AdrianBush
Bursary Shout Out – Adrian Bush
R43000 for ipad3 and mealie cover - it think it's resistance to the apple advertising opp

#NetProphet ~ #MotheoMoleko. Keep iterating
#NetProphet ~ #JeremyLoops & #MotheoMoleko
Jeremy Loops and Motheo Moleko: The metaphors of music in a digital age
• Keep iterating
• "The arts and sciences cannot live in vacuums. They need to interact"
• leave traces of your personality on everything you touch.
• don't afskeep small audiences

#NetProphet ~ #PermjotValia
Permjot Valia: One year in Cape Town: Still in love?
• one of top mentors in Europe
• learn to say thank you in many languages
• Midlife crisis - buy a mac, keynote presentations maker
• mentoring is something done for free
• consulting, coaching is charged
• trade mentoring for favors
• entrepreneur landscape negatives - think more global, think further than Africa; not enough capital and competition; need more diversity; learn how to pitch and simplify
• says Jenny McKinnel really wants to help the ecosystem
• Try to be effective not famous.
• Seek external validation, just because your friends think your business idea is good, doesn't mean it is
• Crowdfunding is good for creative stuff, but sophisticated funding with discipline, structure, strategy and support needed for startups.
• let the people who are good get on with it
• "The fact that you're African is irrelevant - what matters is, do u have a solution that meets global needs?"
• Entrepreneurship is the best defense of democracy

FAB EVENT AT EVENT
I sent to Jenny McKinnel:
@JennyatCITI ~ Nice shoutout from #PermjotValia at #NetProphet. Kudos.
and
Greater Good SA retweeted:
GreaterGood SA (@GreaterGoodSA) retweeted one of your Tweets!
- #NetProphet ~ #SylviaGruber. Managers should spend 50% of their time training their people.

GENERAL NOTES
• Snapplify made the app
• digital brochure
• presentations are calls to action
• #NetProphet being spammed, use tweetfilter for Chrome
• complimentary wifi
• introduce yourself when making a comment or question
• UStream Producer (Free) - stream audio, video
• http://oneleap.to - Robyn Scott
• Did Gates Really Say 640K is Enough For Anyone?
• What are Wired warriors?
• Play more Institute of Play: http://www.instituteofplay.com/
• 22Seven - https://www.22seven.com/
• looking at ad campaigns for 20twenty and 22seven
• http://memeburn.com/2012/05/how-to-reward-the-right-behaviour-in-a-mobile-world-net-prophet/
• http://memeburn.com/2012/05/could-paid-connections-be-the-future-of-social-networking-netprophet/
• http://socialmediatoday.com/daniel-levine/501345/what-twitters-new-discover-tab-means-future-social-media
• http://www.peeringdb.com/view.php?asn=15169

TED Sherry Turkle: Connected, but alone?

noreply@blogger.com (Tanya Pretorius) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 17:58:00 +0000

Have each other at a distance we can control - The Goldilocks Effect
We only pay attention to what we want to in a presentation, and never get to hear what we don't want to hear, this is a problem
Conversations problem - we can't control what we want to say, we edit ourselves, we are just right, not too much, not too little
Cleaning up relationships with technology
Good for connection but not for really understanding each other
Facebook makes up for feeling like no one is listening to me
We're developing social robots for the elderly (robodog)
We're lonely, but we are afraid of intimacy
I share therefor I am
Not suggesting to turn away from the devices, just make room for other stuff

TED Shlomo Benartzi: Saving for tomorrow, tomorrow

noreply@blogger.com (Tanya Pretorius) — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 11:57:00 +0000

everytime you earn more, save more.
monthly saving is difficult, present bias (immediate gratification) makes you think of how you have to give up something now
we think about saving in the present, but spend in the long run. We diet today, eat tomorrow
speaks of checking the box during an organ donor situation in licence aquisition. Germany shortage - you have to check the box to say yes. Austria you have to check the box to say No... they have organs for Africa. In terms of saving... create a situation where people have to opt out. Opting out takes effort.
if you say, Yes, I want to save, that's half of the effort. Next automate the process.
if you defer saving to when you get a raise, then it's a small percentage of that extra
making the decisions around saving are complex, too many points to consider
1 in 10 Americans save enough
Singaporeans spend average $4000 per year on lotto. Americans $1000.

TED: Seth Godin on standing out

noreply@blogger.com (Tanya Pretorius) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 16:40:00 +0000

product knowledge diffusion... it must be remarkable, on the social networking
sell to people who are listening, and hope that they care enough to tell their friends
being good is boring, be remarkable

TED Seth Godin: This is broken

noreply@blogger.com (Tanya Pretorius) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 16:39:00 +0000

why do you make a gate that can close on child and crush the child
then there's a sticker maker who has to make a sticker to say, This could crush your child, and he makes the sticker because he doesn't have the authority to go down the corridor and say Fix this gate - this breeds "not my job" thinking
sometimes you have to break it for other people to see that it wasn't broken

TED Sasha Dichter: The Generosity Experiment

noreply@blogger.com (Tanya Pretorius) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 14:02:00 +0000

say yes to everyone who wants something from you
he wanted to have to stop saying no
he started to feel that he was generous, he started to see the change he wanted in the world

Lead from behind

noreply@blogger.com (Tanya Pretorius) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 08:13:00 +0000

http://dovbaron.podomatic.com/

AMY SHOWALTER
• yaktivist vs activist
• ego vs getting something done
• action shock vs action achievement
• street cred
• play by the rules
• they could have taken the easy way, but didn't
• underdog
• unconventional in how you do it, but still moral
• eyes up in a top dog world
• pious and self aggradising
• passionista - good in two circumstances - one: show passion of the top dog's interests and two: make top dog feel like a hero - calm face to face discussion first and don't start to look like a radical - make sure your passion is networkable - not just you
• making a presentation: start with what's in it for them
• time and personal contact with people you are persuading it
• how you put your personal brand across, your reputation
• changing minds through proximity
• building your pack
• takes the pack to make it happen
• team - cohesive team leader, convert communicator, connected pack members
need advocates who are connected
• engage humor, think friendly and funny
• universal law - be nice, be meek, be kind

DANIEL PINK
• show vulnerability
• make rules as a team
• let them do it their way

GURUS
Jonathan Jay - Sack Your Boss
Daniel Lavanga - The Law of Sevens
Mark McKergow
Peter Thompson
Richard Koch
David Thomas
Nicky Pattinson
Paul McGee - Shut Up, Move On
Pete Godfrey
Mike Dooley - Notes From The Universe
Stuart Goldsmith

TED Sheena Iyengar: How to make choosing easier

noreply@blogger.com (Tanya Pretorius) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 08:15:00 +0000

cut - less units to choose from
concretise - make it real
categories - more categories, fewer choices
condition - let me practice complexity

The philosophy of ambiguity, the idiosyncrasies of English

noreply@blogger.com (Tanya Pretorius) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 06:02:00 +0000

The main reason that Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live.
I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, 'where's the self- help section?' she said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose.
What if there were no hypothetical questions?
If a deaf person signs swear words, does his mother wash his hands with soap?
If someone with multiple personalities threatens to kill himself, is it considered a hostage situation?
Is there another word for synonym?
Where do forest rangers go to 'get away from it all?'
What do you do when you see an endangered animal eating an endangered plant?
If a parsley farmer is sued, can they garnish his wages?
Why do they lock gas station bathrooms are they afraid someone will clean them?
If a turtle doesn't have a shell, is he homeless or naked?
Can vegetarians eat animal crackers?
If the police arrest a mime, do they tell him he has the right to remain silent?
Why do they put Braille on the drive-through bank machines?
How do they get deer to cross the road only at those yellow road signs?
What was the best thing before sliced bread?
One nice thing about egotists: they don't talk about other people.
Do infants enjoy infancy as much as adults enjoy adultery?
How is it possible to have a civil war?
If you try to fail, and succeed, which have you done?
Whose cruel idea was it for the word 'lisp' to have 's' in it?
Why are haemorrhoids called 'haemorrhoids' instead of 'assteroids'?
Why is it called tourist season if we can't shoot at them?
Why is there an expiration date on sour cream?
If you spin an oriental person in a circle three times, do they become disoriented?
Can an atheist get insurance against acts of god?

The Big Picture: Why Can't a Woman ... Be a Man?

noreply@blogger.com (Tanya Pretorius) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 08:35:00 +0000

With all of its bustling and agenda setting, the new Democratic majority ought to think about passing an Affirmative Action Resolution for Women in Movies. Madame Speaker, women are more than half the population of this great country, yet onscreen they're an endangered species--the ivory-billed woodpeckers of cinema.

Visit your multiplex, and try, just try, to find a movie where women are as plentiful and powerful as men. 300, the Spartan workout video, has one important female role, of King Leonidas' wife (Lena Headey); that leaves 299 for the guys. In Shooter, the hero-on-the-run gets brief assistance from a young widow (Kate Mara) before returning to his mission of evaporating a million bad guys. Girlish Jon Heder, one of the two skaters in the Will Ferrell hit Blades of Glory, does have a love interest (Jenna Fischer), but Ferrell doesn't--unless it's Heder. Indeed, the one big new movie fully populated with strong women is the "double feature" Grindhouse, from those epicures of raw meat, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez.

Only the AARP set may recall that movie women used to be on an equal footing with men. Female characters were at the center of some of the top-grossing films in history, from Gone With the Wind to The Sound of Music and Titanic (sort of). Now they mostly ornament the margins. If they're lucky.
One reason for the vanishing movie female is that the genres in which women used to be equal or dominant--the romantic melodrama and comedy--fell out of favor when the core audience changed from families to teen boys. The guy-kids prefer starker fare: action movies (one man against the system), science fantasy (techies save the solar system) and horror films (where young women are the naked and the dead, usually in that order). What didn't change was Hollywood's view of the sexes: that men are defined by their exploits, women by their emotions. In a movie era that found sentimentality risible, thus unprofitable, the ladies were excluded.

Even in comedy, where women were mandatory for smart repartee and the fade-out kiss, guys have elbowed them out of the equation. Forget Tracy and Hepburn. Today the standard pairing is some combination of Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Ferrell and one or more Wilsons. Wedding Crashers, Talladega Nights and Blades of Glory are basically male love stories: boy bonds with boy, boy breaks up with boy, boy and boy make up. The female interest is strictly nominal.

Old Hollywood had men-only genres too, especially the western. Cowboy films allowed for a token lady part, to give the hero someone to fight over; but she would never do the fighting, instead cowering, paralyzed with dread, during the final showdown. It wasn't until the exploitation movies of the '60s and '70s--the ones paid lavish tribute in Grindhouse--that the gals in guy-genre films finally had something to do: take charge, kick ass and kill people. The films weren't exactly feminist, since the actresses usually had to take off their blouses before they could flex their muscles. But they gave women a snarly, ballsy attitude, and the chance to be as quick on the draw as John Wayne.
In Planet Terror, Rodriguez's half of Grindhouse, a go-go dancer (Rose McGowan) loses a leg when zombies chew it off--wait, it gets weirder--and instead of a prosthetic limb has her stump fitted with a machine gun, which she uses to mow down acres of the undead. Death Proof, Tarantino's contribution, presents two trios of high-adrenaline chicks menaced by a psycho stunt driver. The women in both entries love guns and cars and don't mind using them for righteous vengeance and reckless thrills.

For these directors, female empowerment means armament; they liberate their movie women by turning them into men. They will show their actresses killing villains but never making love. (When two lovers start a sex scene in Planet Terror, the screen flames out and a sign, MISSING REEL, appears.) So the young males in the audience get not a window into the complex and mysterious nature of women but a mirror of their own urges: to talk tough and blow stuff up.

Speaker Pelosi, is this the legacy you want to leave your grandchildren?

By: Richard Corliss

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1607257,00.html

Racial slurs or racial markers

noreply@blogger.com (Tanya Pretorius) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 08:30:00 +0000

Racism and Comedians: I agree with Silverman, there's never a reason to use a slur; and saying a word like 'woman', kinda cuts you off from men, e.g. The women took issue with the men's lascivious ass-slapping. What if it's a question, e.g. Hey, you're a woman, do you wanna make a case against those men for lascivious ass-slapping? Can racial and gender references be interchanged... I dare not give an example. *terrified* :) Great article.

"The license to borrow terms other people have taken back can worry even edgy comics. A few months ago, I interviewed (Sarah) Silverman, who argued that her material was not racist but about racism (and I agree). But she added something that surprised me, coming from her: "I'm not saying 'I can say nigger because I'm liberal.' There is a certain aspect of that that I'm starting to get grossed out by. 'Oh, we're not racist. We can say it.'"

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1609807-1,00.html

Township seminar at UP

noreply@blogger.com (Tanya Pretorius) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 06:30:00 +0000

Click here to listen to the podcast

Half of the speaking team.

Mark Gevisser;

Sakhela Buhlungu;

Angus Gibson;

Mpumelelo Paul Grootboom;

Anton Harber;

Tsepo wa Marnatu;

Chris van Wyk.

Gevisser:

Place to talk across boundaries. In and outside of university. Across that boundary.

All male panel. Ironically women are vulnerable (corrective rape) in township. Apologizes that women will remain vulnerable.

Will each speak for 10 mins on their work and how it changes how we think of township. Then the resident scholar will comment on what they said and ask questions that bring it together.

Harber:

Jokes about the diff between Wits and UP.

Doesn't describe Diepsloot as a township. Reasons why he'd wanted to write about Diepsloot. 1994 arose. Product of transitional period. Townships are enforced segregation. Calls it a settlement. Core area is called the reception area (received for allocation). People are stuck there. Diepsloot is JHBs reception area.

Legal and technical sense. Diepsloot had a delay because PTA and JHB argued about who should provide the services. So Diepsloot is an aspirant township. Only one section is informal so it's not an informal settlement. It's structure and organized. The state has to assert it's authority.

'Service delivery' is so passive. They are not active participants. 'consultation 'participative development'. Local business people got the tenders - 'corruption'? RDP one size fits all. Complex reality, pride of origin and a desire to leave - residents are ambivalent.

Mamatu:

What did 'township' never mean? The positive and romantic, ubuntu. The township is a place people go back to for funerals and for the vibe. It's a ship that never went to town. The place remains the same.

Not Soweto. It's changing. So forget Soweto. It's good to be born in the township, but don't die there. It's not fit for humans. People there lack agency, no advancement, victims, valueless, no future. Art shows those things. Contrasted to suburbia. Why would you want to show that there are good things about a township. It's unconscionable.

You'd dress up to come to town. You have to raise yourself to go to the city - a better place. The city keeps marginalizing you. You work hard to be a part of it, but the city doesn't want you.

'As long as' is a Bantu expression, make do for the time being, at leastness. At least you have a school. The least of being. Toilet is outside. Public, exposed. Spectacle.

We have at leastness leaders. Some leaders had less. The leader has a higher bar he has to attain. He's not good enough for the big world. We see the leader from this bifocal way.

Townships are an insult to people's humanity. Why are they still there. The formula is flawed.

Grootboom:

Tries to look for redeeming aspects of township. Wanted to show gritty, but came up redeeming. Beautiful confusion. The beautiful mess.

He hated the township. Grew up in Soweto. Lived near the hostels. Faction fights between parties. Spent little time in schools because of disruptions. Necklacing. Stayaways. Felt there was no hope. School was a way to get out. As a writer he was more objective and nostalgia takes over. Grandparents missed townships. Long after apartheid they are still there. Still growing. Homelands are hated. Townships should be hated.

There are people living there, it's not that they are destitute. There are all sorts of classes. The community functions.

The desire is to represent where you come from. Make the people rounded, make the audience shocked that those people are the same as people from the city.

Gibson:

From Durban. Overlooked the sea. Culture was over the sea. The local view repelled. Radio depressed. The timbre of white radio. First political memory - mother say Verwoerd has been stabbed to death. Didn't know who Verwoerd was. Family disconnected from South Africa. Goals didn't involve local. Didn't see or register images of townships.

Blacks wore American stuff with their own style. This interested him. The minedump he once climbed showed him Soweto for the first time. The scale of that image that something that big could be hidden for so long was shocking. Afraid to go there.

Those were the streets that hooked and kept him here. Absence of image of township and black life. Designed as spaces that one doesn't linger in. Migrant labour that goes home. White people needed permits to go into township. Footage of townships was shot over police shoulders. Wanted to make verité films and needed a collaborator an insider. A poet and intellectual and his pal, the thug rub shoulders together.

Found archival images that we are familiar with but that couldn't be seen in the 70s. Few images of blacks and they were victims. He made documentaries in a vacuum. People could only speak about their own experience. Absence of the naturalist image. Yizo Yizo wanted the people to be what they really were.

Van Wyk:

White people have a preconceptions of what happens in the township. Horrified at being introduced by a whitey as choosing between gangster and writer. Not true. People knew the gangsters on the township, but not the names of the writers.

His township book - it's skinner. Should he use their real names. Not realising that it would sell 20 000 copies. Worried about it but the editor didn't think it was necessary. He had to move.

The people love that he wrote about their story. That they are interconnected.

Now lives in a sterile white suburb. You don't have to end up in the township. But has visited the township. People think that his accent will change.

Buhlungu:

Will respond to the presentations. Sociology professor focuses on activism. Labour. Politics.

Township is familiar. People have something to say. It symbolizes many things. Resistance, suffering, battles, wars, apartheid, shameful. They have produced leaders and rapists. Two contrasting views - jewels or hellholes. There's a website. South African townships are true jewels of the country. Heritage. Art. Sports. Culture revival.

Skosana carried a cross and did a hunger strike because the hellhole of crime still exists. It's a burden to be black today.

Issues: the good and the bad live side by side, difficult to untangle. Are the townships fir whites, colored and blacks the same? Place where people can practice their culture. Standards are relaxed, the bar is lowered. If a crook offers you goods you buy them. Celebrate and tolerate mediocrity. Materialism is good that's how you measure people. How you got them doesn't matter. I only steal from white people. State has promoted and encouraged entitlement. Service delivery is the worst thing in post 1994. The grant. What's next. Individuals never have to take over.

What he feels we should talk about. Can you talk about townships without talking about rural areas and white suburbs. Mobility means move away. Townships are diverse. There's apartheid in the townships. What are the differences between the kinds. Hierarchy. Has that been demolished. The protests don't happen in the townships. Townships move. White suburbs become townships because the whites move out when the townships arrive. Apartheid was about space and ascribing that space with power or powerlessness. That hasn't ended. It's going to stay with us. The politicians abandoned the townships first. The majority is represented by people who don't live with them.

Questions

Alumni culture, money should be reinvested into home. Mamatu: We must start over. Get rid if the townships. Raze it accountability of the rich, are they looting the poor. Gibson: working on a science fiction, envisioning an idealistic view of what can happen. Buhlungu: black diamonds (people who make it in the white suburbs) won't be attacked. Politicians are attacked, it will accelerate.

Townships are racialised by the speakers, but everyone lives in a version of the townships. What about what the role of the township is today. The past of the township is different from the present. Soweto is a farce, it always matters where you come from. Structural elements make it hard to succeed. Oprahvisation of the township. We don't show them as they are. We mutter about potholes, the labs in the township schools are derelict.

Diepsloot's trouble were political, not that they were attacking their neighboring white suburb, Dainfern.

Poem: Pretty by Katie Makkai

noreply@blogger.com (Tanya Pretorius) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 07:08:00 +0000

See the poem performed on YouTube

When I was just a little girl, I asked my mother
“What will I be? Will I be pretty?”
Will I be pretty? Will I be pretty?
What comes next?
Oh right,
will I be rich which is almost pretty
depending on where you shop.
And the pretty question infects from conception
passing blood and breath into cells.
The word hangs from our mothers’ hearts
in a shrill of fluorescent floodlight of worry.

“Will I be wanted? Worthy? Pretty?”
But puberty left me this funhouse mirror dryad:
teeth set at science fiction angles,
crooked nose,
face donkey-long
and pox-marked where the hormones went finger-painting
my poor mother.

“How could this happen? You’ll have porcelain skin as soon as we can see a dermatologist.”
“You sucked your thumb. That’s why your teeth look like that!”
“You were hit in the face with a Frisbee when you were six, otherwise your nose would have been just fine!”

Don’t worry; we will get it all fixed she would say,
grasping my face, twisting it this way and that
as if it were a cabbage she might buy.

But, this is not about her.
Not her fault she, too, was raised to believe
the greatest asset she could bestow upon her awkward little girl was a marketable facade.

By sixteen I was pickled by ointments, medications, peroxides.
Teeth corralled into steel prongs, laying in a hospital bed.
Face packed with gauze, cushioning the brand new nose the surgeon had carved.
Belly gorged on two pints of my own blood I had swallowed under anesthesia,
and every convulsive twist, of my gut, like my body screaming at me from the inside out
“What did you let them do to you?”
All the while, this never ending chorus droning on and on
like the IV needle dripping liquid beauty into my blood.

“Will I be pretty?” Will I be pretty like my mother,
unwrapping the gift wrap to reveal the bouquet of daughter her $10,000 bought her?
Pretty? Pretty.

And now I have not seen my own face in ten years.
I have not seen my own face in ten years,
but this is not about me!
This is about the self-mutilating circus we have painted ourselves clowns in.
About women who will prowl thirty stores in six malls to find the right cocktail dress,
but who haven’t a clue where to find fulfillment or how to wear joy,
wandering through life shackled to a shopping bag, beneath those two pretty syllables.

About men wallowing on barstools, drearily practicing attraction
And everyone who will drift home tonight
crestfallen because not enough strangers found you suitably faceable.

This, this is about my own some-day daughter.
When you approach me, already stung-stained with insecurity,
begging, “Mom, will I be pretty? Will I be pretty?”
I will wipe that question from your mouth like cheap lipstick and answer no.
The word pretty is unworthy of everything you will be, and no child of mine will be contained in five letters. You will be pretty intelligent, pretty creative, pretty amazing, but you will never be merely “pretty”.

Masculinity and feminity

noreply@blogger.com (Tanya Pretorius) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 07:30:00 +0000

what it mean to be a 'real' man/woman and the responsibilities that come with these roles

• in my culture, we define manhood as a stage where a man is grown up when he reaches 21 years and initiated or go to mountain, and he can get married but still under guidance & care of parents
• womanhood is a stage where a girl reaches 15 years and started to see her period and graduated in an initiation school and she will be called "Khoba" which means a virgin girl ready for the world

Real Man is someone who is the King, the head, the president and the leader in his family. As the head is expected to have the following:
• He must have the plan for the family (Clear Vision) for his wife and children. He must know how to provide for the family and have policies that he use to lead the family.
• He must have the eyes to see the needs of his family.

Real Woman is a helpmate who must provide support for her husband to be able to fulfill the role of being a leader int he family. She must believe in the leadership of the husband and be influenced by it. As the deputy president, she is expected to have the following:
• She must submissive to her husband
• she must respect the husband, she must understand that respect is not a token of being a slave but a commanded quality which works for the good of the mankind.
• She must always appreciate her husband
• She must meet the sexual needs of her husband
• She must act like a heart in the body
• She must act like a neck that support the head
• She must act like the arms in the body

Source: Facebook (sic-ced), originally from a powerpoint presentation

Religions

noreply@blogger.com (Tanya Pretorius) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 13:55:00 +0000

Religion is always worth it. I have nothing against any religion. I love religions.

I don't believe in hell. But I also don't believe in so many other things, this is just one of the things. I know that whether I believe in it or not doesn't make it existent or not. I know that I have to understand what it means for those that believe in it. Just like I have to understand all the things that people believe in, or at least allow for it. I don't challenge it, I think.

The fact that I don't believe will always be taken as a judgment, just like differing opinions always imply judgment of some kind. The only way people can communicate, is by suspending their taking of a difference of opinion personally, and by finding a workaround.

fetsiboomsticks

On white silence.

noreply@blogger.com (Tanya Pretorius) — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 05:58:00 +0000

Samantha Vice also advocates for white people at least a partial silence and a political humility which would prevent white people from engaging in the politics of the day. White people have power. When they speak, they speak with the authority and arrogance that inevitably flows from their whiteness. Hence, says Vice, it is morally risky to speak publicly in our society if one is a white person. I have three responses to that: First, do we not have the duty to take this risk? Is it not a bit precious — showing perhaps inadvertently too much concern for ones own ethical purity and ones status as a not so bad person — by not wanting to take risks and not wanting to make mistakes? Is this not a move to avoid exposing oneself to ridicule, hatred, criticism, accusations of racism and arrogance, of sexism and homophobia, which might well be levelled against some of us by others who, surely, we must be careful not wish to construct as utterly powerless victims of whiteness and of what white people do and say? Surely, despite the structural inequalities and the effects of past and ongoing racism and racial discrimination in our country, it would be highly problematic to hold that white people should be silent because this will be somehow respectful of black people and the powerlessness they experience in the face of white privilege? I do not experience black South Africans as powerless or being in need of my silence and I worry that believing that would be fundamentally patronising and disempowering towards black South Africans. If I make a mistake, if I talk and my words are seeped in whiteness or the arrogance that is associated with white structural privilege, I know that I will be told so in no uncertain terms by others — and rightly so. And is this not a better way to work on the self? By engaging with the world, with fellow South Africans, by doing so in a manner that is fully aware of ones privilege, by taking the risks, by getting it wrong and reflecting on why one got it wrong and trying again and by demonstrating in word and deed that one is not the font of all wisdom? Is this not how we even begin to embark on a journey of becoming full and equal citizens in this country? Will the silence, then, not be a whitely silence? Silence can appear like a cop out, like and avoidance of the burden of having to take decisions and taking risks, and for taking responsibility for one’s whiteness and for inevitably getting it wrong and taking responsibility for the effects of structural privilege and for doing something about it? Source: Pierre de Vos. http://constitutionallyspeaking.co.za/revisiting-whiteness/. (This is the part that got me thinking, the other bits not so much.)

To-Do Lists

noreply@blogger.com (Tanya Pretorius) — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 10:40:00 +0000

The normal list-making that I do goes like this.

TASKS IN INBOX
• think of something
• get out iPhone and send myself an email
• first word of subject - Task.
e.g. Task. Get tickets at Computicket for Pandora

OPTIONAL
I filter my emails that 'Task' gets a favorite star and a Tag (label) called Task. I can then easily see what the tasks are. I can also search for Task and it will show me all my emails that begin with the word Task, and I sort that list by date. As soon as I have done the Task, I simply take off the favorite star and Archive and it archives to the folder Task. Then I can even look and see what I have already done. That feels good!

CRITICAL AMOUNTS OF TASKS
This way I can see how many Tasks I have on hand. I can see that there are 29 Tasks in my inbox - 30 is my limit. When I hit 30, I take two hours each day and kill them. Thwack!

LONG-TERM TASKS TREATED SEPARATELY
Then there are the long-term tasks, e.g. LT Task. Website idea for jobless people. "LT" stands for long-term.

PRIORITISING AND DECIDING WHAT'S IMPORTANT
When they are all lying there staring at me, and they reach 29 tasks, somehow knowing that I have to make time for a thing on that list, makes me evaluate its necessity. I found that seeing what remains on my list in pressured situations tells me a lot about myself. Fascinating!

TODOIST
This was a site I used to do:
http://todoist.com/

But I prefer that I can see my to-do list in my email box, where I check my emails. It serves as a reminder.

TED: Tom Chatfield: ways games reward the brain

noreply@blogger.com (Tanya Pretorius) — Tue, 31 May 2011 19:00:00 +0000

experience bars measuring progress - instead of small reward increments
give lots of task - keep the tasks small and measurable, break things down into many tasks
reward effort - don't punish failure
feedback - must link consequences to action, feel a lesson, model lessons
uncertainty - neurological goldmine, the reward that they weren't sure they were going to get, there was an unlikelihood, the real turnon is doing stuff with other people, collaboration

TED: Sam Harris: Science can answer moral questions

noreply@blogger.com (Tanya Pretorius) — Mon, 23 May 2011 08:00:00 +0000

If you get the answer wrong in science it hurts lots of people, and possibly kills them. You pay a fine, you go to jail. How come we think all cultures are right, even when they result in demeaning things all the way up to torture and murder. Harris mentioned the burqa.

TED: Carne Ross: An independent diplomat

noreply@blogger.com (Tanya Pretorius) — Sun, 22 May 2011 11:58:00 +0000

State governments are no longer the places where things happen, they are lumbering. We must make it happen. Make meetings between warring members.

TED: Nalini Nadkarni: Life science in prison

noreply@blogger.com (Tanya Pretorius) — Sun, 22 May 2011 10:41:00 +0000

She gave trees canvases and let them paint. Found that trees have signatures like a Monet or a Renoir. She did calculations and found that the way they painted had cycles.
How can this be applied to a seemingly static institution like a prison.
They gave lectures about science in prisons
The prisoners chose the lectures over TV
That is movement
They had a project about frogs and wetlands
The prisoners chose to the project over TV
Solitary confinement prisoners were given images of nature in their exercise yards
If prisoners can change, we can too

TED: Elif Shafak: The politics of fiction

noreply@blogger.com (Tanya Pretorius) — Sun, 22 May 2011 10:37:00 +0000

fetsiboomsticks: Cultural ghettos are places where we congregate with people just like us. Where we otherise others by affirming ourselves and by actively ennumerating what differences the differences of others.
frustration is very stimulating. Learning a language, being frustrated that you can't express in fine detail keeps you trying.
a reader wants to see the manifestation of the identity of the author in the story
fetsiboomsticks: you are not a creator, an actor takes roles that he 'agrees' with, that he is prepared to endorse, that's what we think.
multicultural writers are expected to write their culture, English writers are allowed to be more imaginative
she was prosecuted for words she had written and she objects because it is fiction writers are entitled to their opinions, but it is not politics its fiction, separate things
fiction is a connector, politics is a divider
Muslims read books by Palistinians and vice versa, they connect. Politicians stop you from listening
She likes not knowing what she will write about next or what characters will do in the next ten pages
Perhaps we should not teach students to write what they know, instead write what we can feel outside of their cultural ghetto

TED: Jessa Gamble: Our natural sleep cycle

noreply@blogger.com (Tanya Pretorius) — Wed, 18 May 2011 14:59:00 +0000

People who experience true wakefulness in an experiment:

went to bed at 20h00
woke at 24h00
had quiet peacefulness until 02h00
slept until 05h30

TED: Sheryl Sandberg: Why we have too few women leaders

noreply@blogger.com (Tanya Pretorius) — Wed, 18 May 2011 14:29:00 +0000

Women systematically underestimate their own ability
Women don't negotiate for themselves in the workforce
7% of women negotiate their first salary, 57% of men do
Women attribute their success to external factors, men attribute it to themselves
No one gets to the promotion without believing they deserve it
Success and likability are negatively correlated for women and positively correlated for men
Solutions: Get women to sit at the table (make sure that you notice that men are reaching, but women are also there), Make your partner your partner (men do less housework/childwork), Don't leave before you leave (open yourself to men working in the home, women stop putting their hands up in their careers because they want to have children)