I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference

…Robert Frost

I suppose at least once in our lives, if introspective.. then more than once, we look back upon our lives and wonder about the road traveled and perhaps more so, the road not traveled. When the road diverges for us, often, we are not even aware of making a choice or a conscious decision, yet with the clarity of hindsight we can clearly see the divergence and the consequent decisions,choices and implications of your choices and decisions.
Today, sitting in a coffee shop with a friend, discussing his brother, who is in the process of a divorce and having to make some tough choices when perhaps not in the best emotional state to do so. The brother had reached a point where he was ready to throw in the towel on a successful career and expressed the desire to move down to the Garden Route. Suddenly it brought back my decision, taken some 11 years ago, to do the same and the turmoil, emotionally and financially, that followed.
Becoming a corporate refugee is not an easy thing. Turning your back on emotional and financial stability, often against the advice of family and friends, is not an easy step to make. It was in my case not financially defensible, I had share options which amounted to a small fortune, what seemed to be a fairly secure career path, a good circle of friends, a rather generous remuneration package and yet… and yet..
I can’t recall the straw that broke the camel’s back. Was it one argument to many with the managing director? One traffic jam to long? Perhaps the niggling feeling that my love interest at the time was not quite there for me? I just recall that I woke up one morning determined to find a fork in the road which would offer me a new road, new opportunities and new challenges. It was an expensive decision, I lost my share options, eventually my car and financially and emotionally I teetered on the edge for a few years.
With the benefit of hindsight it is now easy to see that the decision turned out to be the right one for me… not easy but right. However I have seen so many people trying to make a new life for themselves in the Garden Route and seeing it all turn sour for them often with ruinous consequences financially.
But for me
I took the road less traveled by

It is that time of year again. Our annual ritual for the 1st of December…putting up the Christmas tree. This has become a bit of fun involving copious amounts of champagne and a good natured argument as to what colour the tree should be this year. 
We throw a camping mattress out in front of the tree, throw out all the lights and baubles onto it, the dogs clamber on, the champagne is popped and so the ritual begins.
Last night, the arduous task completed (sarcasm) , we lay on the mattress chatting and reminiscing, as one is wont to do, then Sherpa became the topic.
Sherpa arrived at our farm a few years ago and from where, no-one knows. I was on my way to work when a dog surprised me at the garage. I should say shocked rather than surprised because the dog was in a terrible state. Fly bitten ears and hardly any fur from mange. The dog was so emaciated it could barely walk and this was exacerbated by what was obviously the start of hip dysplasia. I could see that he was once a fine specimen of white Alsatian but this dog was now a day away from death.
I would feed it and he would eat and drift away. I would find him a few kilometers away bring him back, no mean feat in itself as he was very wary of humans and would not let me touch him at all. Eventually I convinced the SPCA to keep him, nurse him back to health and I would adopt him. They were not to keen as in their opinion the dog was to far gone. 
So my relationship with Sherpa began. We would visit everyday, weekends we would fetch him for walks and slowly a relationship built. I still have the scars on my thumb from the first time I tried to give him a treat of sausage. Starving dogs don’t put much emphasis on table manners. It was almost two months before he was considered well enough to come home with us and he was by no means a well dog yet. Still scrawny and bald in patches but he was walking relatively well and his tail would wag every time he saw Alta or myself. In the mean time, there was another consequence to our daily visits to the SPCA. on our second or third visit we passed the cage of another mistreated animal that had been confiscated from her owner. A very very skinny Doberman X took one look at my wife and decided there and then it she had found her new owner. She would throw her whole body sideways at the gate of the cage, tail wagging furiously and eventually we were bringing treats for two dogs. I was adamant that we were there for Sherpa but a month after we adopted Sherpa we went back for Shakira (yiip those hips don’t lie).
Sherpa was already an old dog and he had had a hard life….it took him quite a while to trust us but he did. He was not with us long….a few months later we arrived home to find him on the lawn. He had passed away in his sleep. I buried him in the Pine Forest behind the house and I hope that he found the peace in those lasts months that he had been denied in his hard knock life. 
He joined us for only one Christmas tree ritual….and I dearly wish he could have joined us for more. Sleep well my friend.

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The Second Garden Route Geek Dinner took place last night at Dutton’s Cove. Dutton’s cove is the ideal place sip a brew or two while watching the sun sinking over Herold’s Bay. So it was a bit disappointing that the event started to late to take advantage of the spectacular view. The free flowing wine courtesy of Stormhoek Wines, who in true Stormhoek tradition continue to be an integral part of the geek dinners and the sparkling conversation more than made up for the darkness outside. We were fortunate enough to have Graham Knox from Stormhoek who shared how his company achieved marketing success via the medium of blogs. Their success completely flies in the face of conventional marketing wisdom and gives us all cause to pause and consider our current marketing strategies.

Graham and Chris Rawlinson also from Stormhoek road tripped from Cape Town and we say a big thank to you both. At this rate Chris is going to have a better attendance at the Garden Route Geek Dinners than most of our local geeks. Come on guys we can’t let the Cape Town contingent upstage us like this. At this point I must also give a big thank you to the staff from Dutton’s Cove who not only accommodated last minute change of dates but provided an excellent setting which combined with the good food and great venue really made the evening a success. To Stii, Charl and Bev who organised the event, well done guys and gal.

To view all the images click here

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Resizing a photograph, registering online, RSS feeds, all words that made my client’s eyes roll and switch to another channel. If I only got paid a rand every time I heard the words “that’s to complicated for me” I would now be reasonably wealthy instead of reasonably broke.

www.go2sa.co.za

Whilst doing the market research for our tourism marketing platform, go2sa, Stii and I quickly realised that the assumption of basic internet skill was optimistic to say the least. The average accommodation provider was over 55 and could use a computer for basic functions like email and use their booking software.

Our choices were fairly straightforward, overcome the skills divide or bin 18 months of work. Overcoming the skills divide by means of education would prove time consuming, expensive and the sales call/success ratio would look grim. Consider, we are dealing with a client base that mostly, has never heard of You Tube, My Space, Flikr and the most frequently asked question is “what exactly, is a blog?”

Stii’s solution, as noted in his blog, was absolutely brilliant. Rather than solve the skills problem, solve the skill requirement. The Go Active Mesh Software enabled us to bring a Web 2.0 product to a Web1.0 generation. The software is really easy to use and allowed for seamless integration between the client PC and the web portal. Problem Solved ! Subsequently, due to demand we modified the app for other uses and it is has become our client’s add on of choice, when discussing options for their web site.

This caused me to consider the growing divide between those who do and those who don’t. The popularity of sites like My Space proves that, for the younger generation and a smaller group of older web literates, the web is an exciting and happening place . But what if your target market is not that web literate? Does it not make sense to bring the product to the people, rather than waiting for the people to become web literate enough for the product?

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Geisha survived jumping from a vehicle at 120kmph. Not only survived but miraculously walked away from the incident minus a tooth or two, a wound to the hindquarter and a wound to the front leg.

Travelling to Bloem Yesterday for the Easter weekend (who goes to Bloem for Easter?) with all three dogs ensconced on the back of our Bakkie. We left the side windows of the canopy partially open for some air as it was a fairly hot day. About 40 kilometres from Aberdeen Geisha my 10 month old german shepherd puppy decides it is time to take a walk outside. The first I notice in the side rear view mirror is a white object bouncing about 8 feet of the road. Next thing I realise that object is my DOG !!

We rushed her to the nearest Vet which was at Graaf Rienet. Amazingly she suffered no broken bones, The vet just shook his head in amazement, stapled her two wounds and by evening she was running around playing with the other dogs.

Truly one Lucky Dog.

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Case 1 (source sbsun.com)

Videoblogger Josh Wolf’s was imprisoned for contempt of court, he has been behind bars since September for his refusal to testify about a July 2005 San Francisco street protest during which a police officer was injured and a police car damaged.

To his supporters, Wolf is a journalist who has been imprisoned longer than any other journalist in U.S. history for refusing to divulge unpublished information. He achieved that distinction as of Feb. 6.

Case 2 (Source News 24)

Vilnius - An internet blogger in new EU member state Lithuania vowed on Tuesday to fight a parliamentary decision refusing him accreditation on the grounds that he was not a legitimate journalist. Parliament rejected his application for accreditation, saying he and other bloggers do not meet the legal definition of a journalist.

“The Media Law describes a journalist as a person who collects, disseminates and provides information to the media, based on a contract with the media, or who is a member of a journalists’ union,” parliament’s education, science and culture committee said.

Would a Blogger qualify for media accreditation in South Africa ? It would be interesting to know if anyone has tried and what the response was.

Media constantly evolves. So too should the definition of what a journalist is. I wonder if the first TV crews had to fight for accreditation ? Now I am not advocating that every blogger should be given media accreditation. I am not even certain that I would even give media accreditation to a rag like “Die Son” for example even though they are technically a newspaper. But I am certain that I would give every “Best Technical Blog” finalist, media accreditation for an IT trade show for example.

I believe that blogging is performing a very important role in the new media today. Free of the hierarchy of traditional media and not bound by their rules and constraints, bloggers can be damned scary because they are not, nor can they be controlled.

Is this precisely the problem ?

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Ah yes, there was most certainly plenty of high class hoeker served.
Graham Knox from Stormhoek promised us

“An event where we hope to not only knock your socks off, but your trousers too.”

Alas, Tresblue’s trousers remained firmly on.

The evening kicked off with a tour of the vineyards with the light fading fast. Graham shared their philosophy and techniques with us. I regret that the tour of the estate could not have started a little earlier as I would have been able to share the beauty of this little sheltered valley with you.

Boldly strolling out into the night I was distracted trying to capture an image of Poppy the horse who cleverly lured me into the darkness by moving deeper into the night just as I was about to capture the image. When I looked again, I was all alone in the dark. I tried to keep a brave face I really did, but after stumbling about clueless I was forced to do the one thing every man’s pride fears above all else:

“Scream like a baby ”

Yes, I yelled and hollered and screamed until fortunately my pitiful cries were heard and I could follow the direction of the voices to region the group.

We were all then treated to a taste of Stromhoek’s champagne (excellent, I only regret that this is not yet commercially available.when it is, BUY IT !!) Graham spread the love by giving us all limited edition specially bottled for the event bottle. Chris receiving bottle number one (grrrr) Nah, he deserved it. Some lively conversation accompanied excellent food. Yet again I found myself shooting the breeze till two thirty in the morning and an excellent hangover the morning after. It was awesome meeting the UK crowd ,Alaister and Catherine. Big Thanks to Graham for the evening, T shirts, limited edition Bubbly and and excellent evening. Despite the fact that the trousers remained on.

More photos here

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Yes Stormhoek is going to exact revenge on the blogging community by throwing, the unsuspecting and unappreciative bloggers, lured out to Wellington, onto a fire and slowly grill them till crisp.

No, not really

Instead they are inviting 25 bloggers to come and experience the Stormhoek Vinyards and the 160 year old farm house.In their own words
“An event where we hope to not only knock your socks off, but your trousers too.”
They are in fact keeping a promise they made at the 27 dinner held recently in Cape Town. I must admit, I for one was quick to ensure my name was down. Fortunately I was able to combine the trip to Cape Town with other urgent business, nudge nudge ;) For not only do I have a severe fondness for the Knoxville assasins blend (a Stormhoek must try) but I really enjoy the company of Chris and Graham and look forward to meeting Cath and Alistair.
Find more in on the wiki

I hope they are stocked up, cause this could be good !

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The Geek Dinner post yesterday was a little rushed due to prior client commitments. I hardly had time to download the photos and publish them before I had to rush off leaving so much unsaid.

The Geek Dinner was fabulous. I am not one for tedious speeches and drawn out affairs. The informal friendly atmosphere of the Geek Dinner and the really interesting people that attended made it a great event from my perspective. I really can’t wait to attend the 27 Dinner to be held shortly in Cape Town. For all those who did not attend I can only say

YOU MISSED OUT !!

I have posted additional pics of the event on my Opera community page

The venue really suited to the event and I just want to thank Leon and co and Kwa Langa Lodge for hosting a superb event. Several of the attending members liked the venue so much they refused to go to bed and apparently (so my sources say) had to be forcibly evacuated from the bar at 4 am.

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The inaugural Stormhoek Garden Route Geek Dinner started with our Cape Town contingent arriving a little flustered and late but all was soon forgiven when Chris from Stormhoek unpacked copious quantities of rather fine Stormhoek wines for the evenings enjoyment. Proceedings soon got underway and I will let the images tell a little of the story.

First up was Dave Duarte

Stii gave our new product Bizzhub a few plugs followed by a quick discourse on Muti.

Chris talked about Stormhoek and how they have connected with Geeks everywhere through blogging and Geek Dinners.

Charl introduced the new Garden Route Open source User group and also reopened the debate on Semantic Web and had to suffer a lot of heckling from the group.

Rafiq managed to persuade me that blogging has a future in SA. If I can only get half the free stuff he does I will be a happy man.

And lastly Max hushed the rowdy crowd with her passion as a Hunter of Genius

I am afraid that the rest of the evening coasted by in a very comfortable blur for me. However I can recommend the very fine Knoxville Assasin wine from Stormhoek. Fine fine stuff indeed.

I want to thank everybody who made the effort to attend, especially the contingent from Cape Town

Chris, Max, Dave, Miguel and Rafiq awesome guys and I can’t wait till twixt we meet again.

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