Hell SA

I really thought I would not touch this, I surely did try to not follow the court case, unfortunately I live with people who do, Its on my tablet, Twitter, Facebook, the radio, almost impossible to ignore, so let me share my views.... Firstly I really think Oscar might suffer from suaver memory loss, he should have that checked out, memory is perfectly fine, Until Mr Nel pulls apart his words, then boom memory dump... which leads me to Oscars hearing.... He many need hearing aids or learn lip readying this way we could possibly get him to answer that actual question, In stead of giving the prosecution more rope to hang him with, Actually have they tested whether Oscar should be riding the short bus with a crash helmet?, he really struggles understanding the questions.

Now apart from this, I have noticed he likes to give long winded, windy road type answers and takes no real responsibility but he is "sorry" I say it like that because it really looks to me, and to many of us, as total bull, he is acting to a degree, Im not saying he isn't sorry, what I am saying he's not sorry for the true events that transpired, he is "sorry" for shooting her in his version of the story, But I don't think that what really happened, okay it seems perfectly clear to all of us that his story has more holes than his bathroom door, I only hope he comes out with the real story and then apologies for that then we can begin to believe or try to see if he is truly sorry.

I really think what happened is he lost his temper, plain and simple, he herd, thought, inferred she was cheating or wants to leave him, he got angry she ran and hide because he lost it and in a moment of blind rage just shot, I would find this more believable, I find this more believable because I myself did / some times still do have a temper, and yes I have gotten pretty angry especially on the road and our good friends " the Taxis" I really have felt like just smacking the guys who have dinged and dented my car because they aren't paying attention, and I have had to pull over just to calm down, So I get that, look he should have not let his temper gotten the better of him, that was wrong, but I think many of us would be able to have some understanding of how anger can affect us. Instead her family and I guess the rest of the world has to sit through all this song and dance, listening to Oscar hang himself, and we may never hear the truth, which only makes Reeva Steenkamp's story sadder (If that is possible ) I really do hope that Oscar one day finally recalls the real story and just let the family know, we don't need to know, but if I was a father I would want to know who my daughters killer is and what really  happened, Yes I would be angry, yes I would be heart broken, and I would never let her go or forget her, but without knowing I don't know if I could let it ever rest, well that's just my view.

Photo from:http://www.cartoonmovement.com/cartoon/9090

The Gerrie Nel Song (Follow EastCoastRadio on SoundCloud.)

So it’s been about 2 weeks that I had taken the plunge and bought myself a nice big screen TV, the decision has been a long time coming and a patient wait, a wait to see exactly what I should invest in.

I’ve had plenty of experience with TV screen I use to do promotions for Sony, a company I love and put my trust in, they’ve always been reliable and they really focus on what’s important…. The picture, the sound, yip Sony does it right, which jaws my problem when deciding on buying a screen, I knew the ins and outs of the brand and it’s competitors, and I knew what to look for, which made it ever more difficult to buy a screen, but in the end I decided on the what I needed, and after careful consideration weighing out the different types, LCD (including the LED panel light ones) Plasma and OLed , I found that Plasma was my answer, as I really wasn’t going to watch all that much TV, I needed something with a fast refresh rate for both action filled movies and 3D, and descent colour and contrast , and about a 46-50 inch screen and well this combo either calls for a R23 000 - 30 000 Led screen or a R8 500 Plasma, and so the plasma won , Oled just isn’t an option right now, I’d prefer to wait it out and see how the technology evolves and prices begin to become more affordable, and see if there are any bugs that need to be ironed out.

Back to the point at hand, the new plasma screen, it’s awesome, colour and contrast is really good once calibrated I’d give it about and 8.5~9 , and for a high entry level it is performing very well, active 3D shutter system is decent (if you have the money to go the LCD / LED route, go Sony their active 3D shutter system is 100 times better).

My only real thoughts are with regards to the Smart TV aspect, it’s a fun idea, I can connect wirelessly or directly via Ethernet and then I can use apps like twitter , Facebook, YouTube , it’s awesome…. Well apart from the fact that wifi in the room it’s in isn’t ideal, so it drops signal, so streaming movies from Plex… Well that often gets dropped, so lets run a nice long Ethernet cable, on the wifi I had to put in the handy 12 character password not ideal when using arrow keys to operate the onscreen keyboard, so plugging in an actual cable attached to the wifi router should be simple as password is already in, well unfortunately not! Yip that’s right I needed to put in the whole password in again, oh and if you decided to quickly switch back to wifi…. Get ready to put in the password all over again! So the TV isn’t that smart, and as for the apps yea I used them once or twice, but to be honest, when I sit down to watch a good movie with lights off and my popcorn at the ready, twitter is the last thing on my mind.

With all my expertise and the knowledge gained from the countless hours I put into my studies, my marketing brain can at times go into overdrive as I analyze everything around me, this morning again my marketing brain kicked in and was busy pulling apart the latest flood of media information, it was about the Oscar Pistorius  case being televised for the country.

Now I remember last year valentines when the news had broken out about the shooting, I also remember how within a week most people had made up their minds, and already past their judgement, and latter the talks of Pay TV dedicating a whole channel 24/7 coverage of the trail, and this morning as I turned to on the TV to enjoy my morning cup of coffee, I herd the media buzz trying to get across to me, TV, Radio, twitter, Facebook, the internet in general, all so alive with activity surrounding this case, this seems to be a big moment for South Africa, and I could see how they begin to build the hype around the prosecution and the defense, whose names I am not bothered about remembering right now because, as I began to listen to some of the interviews as I flashed through the different news stations I began to think about what is really going on here?, and at the end of the day how much of this is money, often much of what we are seeing is because someone can make money out of this case.

I find myself not really caring about this live coverage, I certainly don't want to sit in that courtroom, nor would I be interested in discussing the case around the water cooler, what I keep thinking about is the families and close friends involved, how comfortable are they about having this case plastered on TV screens, Bill boards, T-shirts, stickers, Radio, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube etc?. A lot of South Africans have already passed their judgement about this case, and are so involved with everything around this case but is it really any of our business? , or is it just business? For the families involved it's about the truth, and justice, and I feel for them, nothing will ever truly be the same no matter the outcome of the final verdict, and I just wonder how the  media, as good as their intentions may be, might just be making things worse, pouring gasoline into an already raging fire.

I am curious to see how the hype will affect the public, who will stand together, how much of us will be glued to our screens a waiting the verdict, and how the public will react, as for me, I will merely be a casual observer of the people, and when in the end a verdict has been reached I will accept that as the final word, I don't have all the information or the answers, only what the media has given, and it isn't me who will have to pass judgement, all I can do is pray for the families to have their closure, for justice to be served, and for a fair trial.

It is a sad time for South Africa with the news of Madiba's passing, 

He has been an inspiration for many of us, and brought a nation together, so it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to this very special person my prayers go out to the family he has left behind. 

He has been an inspiration to me as a South African, I was one of the first children to share a classroom with other children of other races and to be honest at that age I do not think any of us really even realized that we were what many adults would have deemed as "Different", we were just children, but as I got older I realized that we as maturing adults were at a disadvantage, we have no reason to hate each other and feel wronged by one another, but we keep being reminded by the older generations that we have a 'reason', I can not speak for everyone in my generation but for me personally, I love everyone the same, no matter your religion, race, abilities/disabilities, and i would like to think that is what Madiba would have wanted for us to live in peace and harmony with one another in this wonderful country I call home.