Last week, Chris from Australia @Taliesyne, joined me for my A Frikkin Hashtag Twitterer game with the Jerry Maguire inspired tagline, #YouHadMeAt:
At one point Chris’ house was being flooded by a violent storm raging outside and he comes on and is apologising for not being on the game and i’m like, “ARE YOU KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW, GO SAVE YOUR HOUSE!” He did and returned to the game later when i couldn’t be around and it was a great Tag Team affair. Continue reading
Two weeks ago @KeshaTedder [aka Binks] and i challenged Hashtag gamers to come up with their best suggestions for the Tag #AndThenTheWorldEnded and there were some great suggestions worth checking out.
Last week it was @TheatreAfrica co-hosting with me as we looked at #MyLastBucketListItemIs which saw 306 people come up with 1289 tweets with an audience of 727, 406 people… We were quite guy heavy as a stat of 78.1% of those playing tells you. Hopefully we will do better this week. Best way to play is to download the @HashtagRoundup app and play from there. Continue reading
Last week was the second official week of the South African presence on the International Trending Hashtagging game app under the hashtag @AFrikkinHashtag [Say it out loud].
Despite it happening right in the middle of all the #FeesMustFall action, we still somehow managed to briefly trend in South Africa for the first time while also trending solidly at number 4 in the States. Continue reading
So it’s official. South Africa has joined the International Community of Hashtagging games with the first official tag game which took place yesterday which was #ArtAMovieOrTv. Every Wednesday at 12 lunchtime our time on @HashtagRoundup – Come and Play.
And it was a LOT of fun. Thank you to everyone who pitched up and got stuck in. Continue reading
One thing tbV and i have in common is we both love people-watching. [Who doesn’t!]
Sitting in a coffee shop or a bench at a popular tourist attraction or in a restaurant and just watching the people around us. Trying to imagine stories, attitudes, experiences, fun things about the person from the little bit that we see.
But there is something even better.
Later this morning my friend Nicky Lloyd and i will be heading out once again to the train station to buy a return ticket to town. We will then nervously stalk an individual who is sitting by themselves and once we build up the courage, will ask if we can sit with them and chat to them a little bit about the state of South Africa and particularly their hopes and fears and present experiences.
Last week we were chatting about it at a little sandwich restaurant during our half-time break and i casually mentioned the phrase “sitting with people” and Nicky later honed in on that and we realised it was a really strong statement. So that is what i am going to be calling the blog segment of this project.
SITTING WITH PEOPLE
You see, i am a bloggerist and my friend Nicky is a photographer and this whole adventure was her idea. She has a presentation due at the end of the year and she decided she would like to interview [and hopefully capture the pictures of] a variety of people travelling on the train to provide a glimpse of the differences in background, story and attitude of a slice of South Africa as it heads to and from work and more.
# What is the thing you like most about South Africa?
# What is one thing you wish you could change?
# Do you think South Africa is in a better off or worse off state than it was in 1994/5 years ago?
# What do you think needs to happen for change to come that affects more of the majority of people in SA?
# Do you believe there is hope for South Africa?
# What is something you do that you think makes life here better for someone else?
Those are the base questions we have, but, depending on the conversation they change and adapt as we see fit. At the end of the conversation, if it feels appropriate, Nicky will explain the photographic element of the project and ask permission for a photograph. About 2 in 5 people say yes.
We have only been out three times, but it has been an incredible experience so far. The initial connection moment is always nervous and weird and a little awkward [cos who talks to people on trains] but every single time we have started talking it has been such eye-opening and inspiring stuff. The conversations are all completely different and mindsets and stereotypes are being thrown out the window, person by person.
Thinking about this whole #IAmStellenbosch debacle where the focus has once again been put on individuals and a collective cry of LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! i would recommend this process to South Africans in general. Let in not be about you for a moment. Stop. Take time to listen to someone else’s story who is different from you. And just listen for the story’s sake. Not for how it connect with or informs your story and not so you can find a fun fact or an interesting tie in to insert into their story. But just create spaces where you can really hear someone else’s story, their background, their history, their present day experiences. And as you walk away, sit with that. Let that person’s fears and delights sit in your mind and your heart. Let you be about them for a few minutes, or the rest of the day.
i am going to be sharing some of the stories of the people we got to meet and interact with over the next couple of weeks – this will just be a glimpse through the window into someone’s life and hopefully inspiration for you to create the same opportunities – it doesn’t have to be on a train. Making some time to connect with a stranger and ask them if they mind having a conversation with you and sharing some of their story. That might be what changes this country.
Let’s Sit With People together…
A bunch of us went to watch Jurassic World last night and it was a lot of fun. i am a HUGE Chris Pratt fan [before it was cool to be] and he totally brought it. Indiana Pratt Jones? Bring it on!
But on the way home it was brought to my attention that there have been rumours on the internet that his character Owen is a grown-up version of the young boy from the original Jurassic Park movie.
So first thing i did when i got home was to jump on the Google-machine and do some research. Cos at first i thought, ‘No way, it isn’t possible.’ But when you put the two pictures next to each other, of the young boy from the original movie and Chris Pratt’s character Owen from World… well, see for yourself…
Wait, the cute little lovable dinosaur grew up to become Chris Pratt’s character Owen, who is cute AND lovable?
Wow, it may not be conclusive, but it is uncanny. Is it possible the director of Jurassic World, Colin Trevorrow threw in that little teaser as a puzzle for die hard fans of the original movie. Layers upon layers.
What do you think? Is Owen the little guy from the first movie all grown up?
How did you find the movie with the biggest ever opening in the world to date?
And how does a T-Rex cut wood? That’s right. With a dino-saw.
You saw it here first folks…
I was always taught to show love to animals, dogs, cats, cows, pigs, horses, etc. But never was I really challenged to think about the meat that was lying in front of me to eat. Meat was different than those cute animals we would see in someone’s yard or pasture. Or at least I thought.
I made the decision to switch to being a vegetarian 12 years ago. Being born and raised in Texas it was a shocker to my parents and everyone else. They thought I had gone crazy, which was probably true. After being posed with the question “how can we love animals but eat them too?” by the punk rock community, I made the decision.
Fast forward a few years, I began to take the Christian faith more seriously. And when it came to what I ate it made more sense to not only be a vegetarian but to remain a vegetarian because I was a Christian.
Lots of people are not all that familiar with how factory farms operate. Not only the miserable conditions for chickens, cows and pigs, but the enormous toll it takes on the environment and the human body. There are up to 400 types of gasses released in the air, water near factories contaminated with antibiotics from animal waste, amongst other issues. Odors from gasses released by factories are known to cause respiratory problems, nausea, and allergies in residents nearby. These are just a few of the issues with factory farms. Please, research more of the issues.
There was a time when I first made the change that I was arrogant about it, tried to make people feel bad for eating meat (I am really sorry to those people!). Now when I am presented with the question of why I am a vegetarian I bring up the issues above but they are usually ignored with jokes, or just plain shot down by the comment “but God gave us animals to eat”. After so many years of living this way, it is just exhausting when people try to debate me or convert me. I have come to the point to where I don’t want to bring it up because I want to avoid the criticism that comes along with most conversations.
In Genesis 1:26 (NRSV) God is quoted saying, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth”. God has given humanity the responsibility to rule the world with compassion, and we are accountable with how we treat God’s creation.
So I believe it is our duty as Christians to learn where our food comes from and be guided in the prayer Jesus taught us “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven”, to decide whether a diet containing animals, a diet that is supported by cruelty not compassion, is in line with making way for the Kingdom of God to enter the world.
[For more stories shared by people about their vegetarian choices, click here]
Irresistibly Fish 