(some) black people are superbad!!

I'm black, so I can get away with making statements like that!

Why is it so hard for blacks to do things the way they should.

When you see an 8 or 10 year-old girl walking out of a 13LS rated movie with a big WTF look on her face, you know shit is fucked up.

Here's a quick synopsis taken from sterkinekor.com

From director Greg Mottola and producer Judd Apatow (Knocked Up, The 40-Year-Old Virgin), comes this hilarious coming-of-age tale about two socially inept teenage boys about to graduate from high school.

Evan (Cera) is sweet, smart, and generally terrified. Seth (Hill) is foul-mouthed, volatile, and all-consumed with the opposite sex. This is the story of their misguided attempts to approach the objects of their affections in one panic-driven night; that awful, humiliating night you cherish for the rest of your life. When one of the pair's high school crushes invites them to a graduation party, they are ecstatic, that is until her motive for inviting them becomes clear – they are responsible with supplying the party with alcohol. A botched attempt at using a fake ID to procure the booze leads to a string of jaw-droppingly funny misunderstandings including liquor store heists, crackhead sing-alongs and beer mixed with detergent.

I'm not being racist or anything, but if other non-black people have the decency to hire a babysitter for the night, why can't we do the same. I don't care if you were the designated babysitter for the said child. If you can't postpone your movie date to some other time (when you're not gonna have to be responsible for an underage child) Then it's pretty obvious you have your priorities all twisted.

Imagine being an 8-10 year-old watching a movie; for a full 1hr 50mins and that's all about the words "dick/cock", "pussy", "sex", "fuck" from beginning to end!

What's going through your mind the whole time??

I saw on one of South Africa's biggest sunday papers, The Sunday Times, that there's a rise in child rapes in our country. i.e. children raping children. (The Article)

from the article:

De Wet’s latest research on sexual harassment at schools, which involved more than 470 children, concluded:
53.89% of children said they had been victimised by girls through unwanted kissing;
43.44% said girls grabbed them, touched them and pinched them in a sexual way while only 7.78% said boys did the same;
12.22% said girls and 6.67% said boys wanted to have unwanted sex with them; and
3.33% of respondents said they had been raped by peers in the past 12 months — and 66.67% of these rapes were committed by girls.

I don't blame them, with irrisponsible adults exposing them to such things? I seriously don't blame them.

I may not have a child, and prolly have no idea how hard it is to maintain a normal life while raising a good child, but I definately don't think taking your child (even if it's not yours) to a movie like that is definately not a good idea.

Why don't you rather watch a child-friendly movie instead? Why do you feel compelled to watch something that's gonna be (IMO!) unconfortable for the child?? Why not just wait for the DVD and watch it at your own discretion? Why?

If that's not bad parenting I don't know what is.

Not only is it up to the parent to use their brains, it's also up to management (and those usher people) at the cinema not to allow people who are legally under age to watch certain movies.

So what, if a few irresponsible adults walk away angry and Ster Kinekor doesn't get that lousy R10 or so, so what!???

Is that the price we're willing to pay for the innocence of our children???

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Somethin's comin'...

So over the weekend, a friend of mine came over to my place, we chilled for a while (3-4 hours to be exact).

And while we were still chillin, we got to talk about what each of us were doing asside from making other people money. She told me she had bought a company from someone else, and had sold the offices where it used to be, to run it from home coz she doesn't stay far from the office building.

So now...

...the comapny is a company dealing with wedding & event invitations and stuff. Basically they design and deal with everything that relates to events and invitations and so on...

So I also told her about my brand. And offered to design a website for her.

So yeah...

I'll be designing one of my best works yet.

It's gonna feature all the CSS & JavaScript tricks I have up my sleeve. I have to outdo my last work one way or another, and this is it.

I started off with a simple HTML+CSS site...
then came my second simple HTML+CSS site with an abundance of DIV tags...
my third site also uses simple HTML+CSS with DIV and absolutely no other language.

So my next site...

...is going to be something else.
100% alive.
with dynamic menus, and a customised gallery viewer.
to create a unique customer experience...

watch this space... actually no.

Don't watch this space...

I'll post the link for the space to be watched soon...

So you can watch that space instead...

mkay?

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Why oh why...???

Why is it that when you meet a girl, she's all cute and shyish, and giggly and stuff, then next time you see her she's either... a breathing zombie or an ADHD freakazoid!?!?

This time I was dealing with the latter...

I just don't understand this.

Ok, so you meet someone, you like how they iz. You like the way they basically are.

And for some unknown reason, I seem to bring out these freaks in these girls. Then they on some...

oh, I feel so free when I'm with you. Like I can just be myself...

I say... BOOLSHYT!!!!!

Why didn't you be "yourself" when I first met you??? Now I'm gonna have to come up with some seriously crazy stories to get rid of you!! Shit.

you bring out the liar in me...

I think I'm gonna start another blog called "I'm not that into you! (ways to tell if teh PaperCut is not that into you..."

ok, back on topic...

I met this other chick on Monday, we got talking about food & cooking and stuff, so she goes, "you should come by my place sometime so I can cook for you" I'm like HELL YEAH!!

So we set a date for Thursday (yesterday). I get to her place, turns out they don't allow guys into the building. She suggests we eat outside. I'm thinking FUCK NO!! There's no way in hell I'm eating outside, in the dark, like I'm some homeless charity case WTF!!!!?!?!

So I had to think fast... so I suggest we go to my place instead. She get's the food so we can bounce!

While I'm waiting for her outside IN THE DARK. Her cousin comes running towards, me calling my name... I'm like who the fuck are you supposed to be!?!?! And she comes and sits next to me and starts talking about how she's heard so much about me and shit.

So I'm thinking... oooooookay... you're freaking me out here...

So the chick comes back and I ask her about the crazy cousin, and she says to me, she only told her she was going to be with me today (the Thursday), and that she had told her who I am. I'm thinking, "you don't even know WHO I AM, what the fuck can you tell her?"

So we head to my place... on the way, she blabbin about how "forward" her cousin is. How fucked up the system at YWCA is. How tired she is from doing aerobics at the gym... yadda yadda yadda...

So basically in those few minutes (maximum 5) I had gained knowledge of the following information:

• That there are 62 girls in that building
• Two floors
• +- 5 baths & 5 showers on each floor
• that if they find a guy in your room you're kicked out within 24hrs
• that her bursary is paying for her to stay there, therefore she doesn't have a choice
• i also know that her sister used to stay her before her and recommended it...

All the while I'm thinking... oookay... that's great. During this monologue, I'm showing less and less interest hoping she would read between the lines and have a nice cup of STFU! But noooooooo.... she sees it as a sign to tell me more and more and more...

So we get to my place and now the focus changes... everything's about me now...

• What I do?
• What I "majored" in?
• Where home is?
• What type of music I like?
• Do I go to church?
• What I drink?
• If I have "a whole lot of friends"
• If I've ever "chopped" off my hair? (I losely translated that into proper English, and came to a conclusion that she meant if I've ever "cut" my hair.)

I try to keep my answers as short as possible so she can learn from my example, that not everything has to be a novel.

But this approach didn't work out very well. As you can imagine, I'm bored out of my skull...

I eat the dry food as quickly as I can. So she'd have nothing else to keep her at my place.

I keep looking at my phone hoping somebody calls me so I can at least escape even if it's only for those few minutes. But nothing. In fact, I think my phone was more silent yesterday than all the previous days... I was even hoping one of my neighbours would come borrow a cup of sugar or something... but nothin still.

I checked the time and it was now 20:56. I look at the watch, look at her, and she promptly announces... there's a 10 o'clock curfew!

OMFG you gotta be kidding me!!! I'm stuck with this blabber-mouth for the next hour??? nooooooo!!!!!!!

She's all grinning about it coz that means we still have some time to hang...

Clearly misinterpretting the blood coming out of my ears...

Plus she's too damn loud. I'm pretty sure my neighbours and everyone passing outside my flat knew I was with a girl and heard every last word she said.

back to the eating...

After finishing her chow, she starts telling me about...

• ...how her dad likes complaining about how sweet her food is.
• ...how "black" her dad is. Meaning he's very African in his thinking and everything.
• ...how she sometimes doesn't feel like adding salt to her food.
• ...how her five sibblings are all female and that she's the second-last born.
• ...how much she likes soccer. And how she doesn't like to be disturbed if a Sundowns game is on.
• ...how drunk she was after drinking Savanna Dry... [she even quoted the Savanna ad... "it's dry but you can drink it"] and also how she had no choice coz she prefers Jameson and Red Square, but had to compromise coz they we both not available.
• ...how she only drinks on weekends.
• ...how she ended up getting locked outside YWCA coz she only arrived there after 10.
• ...the different security doors at YWCA to make sure no one can come in un-invited...

As you can see... by the end of the night (21:54) I knew absolutely everything about this girl. E V E R Y F U C K I N G T H I N G!!!

Obviously there would be no need for me to see her again. I know everything already. There's absolutely nothing more she can tell me that I don't know already. Unless she left something out... which I doubt.

Just when I'm about to head back to my place after walking her to her place, she goes... "what time are you knocking off work tomorrow?"

Again... I had to think fast... I told her... "aaahhhh, I think I'm gonna be working overtime or something, I'll call you though and let you know if anything changes, okay? *fake smile*"

She smiles back and says... "Hopefully I'll get to see you and we can chill for longer than we did today."

I'm like... "yeah"

while at the back of my mind I'm thinking... "yeah right, there's no way in hell I'm ever spending time with your verbal diarrhea (sp?)! Don't be surprised if I never call or see you again. EVER!"

*~end~*

PS: For the good of mankind... I'm gonna start a series of posts with the theme "I'm really not that into you!"

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teh BrainStorm is out there...

I haven't been posting for a whole month now, and with very good reason.

This is the reason why...
HTTP://WWW.BRAINSTORMDESIGNS.CO.ZA

I've been crazy busy, working on my website and three others.

Yes that's right... I've finally decided to venture into the big scary world of web design that actually goes beyond the few people I know on a personal level.

Although this is not my first attempt at web design. I've designed and launched quite a few sites in the past year. Here's a quick list:

• http://freewebs.com/papercut96
• http://freewebs.com/1papercut

... great!! Just as I decide to list all my previous sites, my brain decides to forget the URLs...

Anywayz, that's not the point. The point is. I have a website and it's one of my best work so far. As far as I'm concerned.

Lemme break it down for ya'll (by the way, how do you spell ya'll?? is it y'all or ya'll??)

nevermind...

First of all, lemme introduce you to the idea around BrainStorm Designs.

The idea of having a design "company" (actually it's not really a company, it's more a personal brand. So from now on I'll refer to it as "the brand" or "brand" mkay??)

Lemme start over...

The idea of having a design brand came to me while I was doing my 2nd year in Web & Application Development. The initial idea was to have a company that would specialise in everything that is I.T. related. Then it grew into an internet cafè.

Then finally...

The idea evolved into a brand that would basically encompass the 'design' spectrum as a whole. Everything from designing Web sites, to posters, to clothing, to stickers to corporate branding to stationery to... blegh.. basically everything that can be considered a 'design'.

I had this big idea skecthed out on a couple sheets of printing paper. As a matter of fact, at the beginning, I used to jump out of bed in the middle of the night, grab my pages and start scribbling whatever idea I had for the 'brand'. That's how I came up with the name 'BrainStorm'. I thought It clearly described how the brand came about to becoming a reality it is today. So anyway...

The name "BrainStorm" felt a bit incomplete, so I was thinking of prefixes to add onto it. It was first "BrainStorm IT Solutions" then I found out there was already a company registered under that name. So I decided to go with "BrainStorm Incorporated". Only to find out that using the word "Incorporated" in South Africa has a certain significance to it and it's not just a word you can use all willy-nilly. So I decided to basically decided to go with "BrainStorm Designs" simply because it's easy to remember and from the onset you already know what it's about. It's a design company [brand].

So after doing all that research into the company name. It was now time for the "Designs" part of the "BrainStorm". I had to come up with an identity for my site. Something that makes you wanna click on the next link. Something that catches your attention at first glance. Something that made you wanna browse deeper than just the first 2 pages.

So I decided I'm gonna design a splash graphic for the default page. I designed the logo in Photoshop first. To get the layers, colours & blurs right before animating it. 7 layers, I exported it over to ImageReady for the animation process. 74 frames later. This is what I came up with... the image that's used on the entry page to my site!!

Now cam the next step. The layout. The structure. The skeleton of the site. Where what would be and how it would look.

I decided to go with something I hadn't seen before. Even if you have seen it somewhere before. That doesn't mean I've seen it. So. I didn't go browsing on other peoples' site for layouts. I didn't download any templates. I didn't download any Joomla thingies...
I basically sat down and sketched out the layout I had in my head onto paper. (I'm not too sure if I I still have that page. I'll flickr it soon as I find it).

From the start I wanted to create a web experience that's familiar yet different. A simple user-friendly web site. A site where you know where you are and what you're there to do. Even if it's just to browse. I wanted it to be a well structured browsing experience for the visitor.
So... a while later I had the structure I wanted. Everything on the site was to be centered. The links at the top and some quick links on the left to allow for quick browsing through the site. So you can basically navigate through the whole site withough having to move around a lot looking for the next page. The nav section asks a simple question... "Where to now?" all you have to do is, respond by clicking on either "next", "back", "up" or "home". It's that simple.

Next came the content. The meat to the skeleton. The food to the empty plate... [okay, I'm gonna stop now :) this is getting out of hand.]

In keeping with the 'Simplicity' theme. I decided not to clutter the website with useless text and stuff that the visitor cares very little about. I wanted the site to exhibit my design skills not the grammar. (Not saying there's anything wrong with the grammar or anything... :p]

The background image determined the aesthetic feel of the site. I had to keep with the (Maroon + Black + White) colours used on the splash graphic.

The reason I chose those colours is simple. Because I love maroon. No motivation behind Black really. And white because 95.6% of websites that are out there... have a black background. And the fact that I don't really trust a black background. I don't feel safe around a site with black background. There could be something installing in the background and I wont even know it.
So I wanted my site to be in a colour that didn't hide anything. Not even the site's impefections. White puts everything out in the open for all to see. so yeah... that's why I chose those colours...

ok, back to the design...

I first copied the "b+wings" from the splash graphic onto a page with a maroon+white gradient. Then placed the word 'BrainStorm' vertically on the left hand side of the image. And 'Designs' and the horizontal bottom of the image. After that was done, I figured it was still a little too quiet. So I went crazy with this ivy looking thing and placed it all over the image changing the opacity, the layer positioning, the colour maroon+white depth. And FINALLY, 17 layers later. I ended up with the current backgound image on http://www.brainstormdesigns.co.za/

So I decided to have 5 main pages (excluding the entry page, coz you only see it once).

The 5 main pages are:

• Home
• About Us (I think I need to change that to just 'About' or 'About Me'. Coz there iz no Us, just me. It's MY site after all.... mhhhmm we'll see...)
• Portfolio
• Clients
• Contact

The Home page would basically be for letting the visitor know where they are and what's happening. All the latest design projects would be place on this page. At the mo, there's the two sites I'm working on.

The About Us page is to let the user know who the hell 'Us' is. While in reality there is no 'Us'. (yeah, that's right. fool them into thinking there's a whole team working on the designs, while it's really a one man show)

Then come the fun... the Portfolio page. Under this page, there're three other pages. Basically dividing the porfolio into chewable chunks. lol. i.e. the Logos, Graphic Designs and the Web designs pages.

In the Logos page, just a few of the logo designs I've designed. (somehow that doesn't sound like proper English. The Queen wouldn't be impressed.)

And then comes my second most favourite page on the whole site (that's after the entry page). The Graphic designs page... This is where the magic happens. This is the one page I had the most difficulty 'feeding' info. I had to decide on which designs to put up here, and which not. I've decided to take it slow, and just tweak a few from the ones I have and then upload them little by little, as time goes on. So watch this page. :)

The last page in the portfolio section is the Web Designs page. It contains mini-screenshots of websites I've worked on. BrainStorm included.

The Clients page. This section also has sub-links to each of the people I've designed stuff for. Each containing a short client description, and the design brief, the concept, the tools used and the final product. Which is either a screenie, or the actual logo or whatever.

The last page is the Contact page, this is where my contact details can be found. And that's basically it.

Site overview...

I think I've successfully completed my mission. I've designed a simple website. Using a simple dash of CSS, a pinch of JavaScript, a cup of creativity, a healthy helping of imagination and a handful of pespiration.

Each page on the website contains an inspirational quote at the top. Which is related to the content that is on that particular page. It's just something I wanted to add to make the visit more pleasurable and inspirational at the same time. I've never seen that before. Until I put it on my site.

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