Keep it real

If you look back one day will you say you should have, could have, would have? Or will you be able to say - I did. I made the hard decisions. I took the chances. I cried myself to sleep. But the tears eventually faded. The sun shone once more. Perhaps not as bright as before. But I took charge. I took time. I did it all for me. Because the only wasted life is the one spent living for reasons other than being you. So be. Live. Feel. Keep it real.

No compass in tech media

After having worked in the media industry in one way or another for close to 20 years I can't help but wonder if the time of "traditional" media really is coming to an end. Yes this is not a topic that hasn't been explored before, in fact its been bandied about since the late 90s and the sinister launch of web sites as news portals. My point is a lot more hinged on what the media seems to be consuming as news, and this is with particular reference to technology media in South Africa, although if you feel the shoe fits please feel free to share. So what makes a good news story? Well I would swear it was actually nothing. Because unless it was blinks, burps or is linked to social media it is seldom picked up these days. It just makes me wonder if the media actually follow up on leads, read what is sent to them, or simply just don't understand what is being said to them. Now before you blast me please understand I am speaking specifically from a "technology media" point of view. The tech media just seem to have slipped into inertia, and now to them only consumer tech matters (read he with the biggest gadgets), the cloud bores them and heaven forbid you pitch enterprise tech to them - they simply don't get it. So what does this really mean? It means we are going to have to become more creative in firstly how we package news, and as consumers of news we are going to have to take what we see with a pinch of salt. Why? Because literally all "tech" news, unless its in a newspaper or bar maybe one local portal, has had to pay to be placed. Its a sad and very worrying state of affairs and I can't help but wonder if we are just going to have to go back to the good old days of direct touch, direct contact with customers and self-publishing. The other option is you can keep consuming the dog food that is being fed to you - even though you may be a cat.

Three steps forward ... Or lets call it 19kgs down

So the last time I blogged I promised to keep you up to date with the progress of my weight loss. Well I was pretty rubbish at keeping that promise so I am just going to tell you its been pretty good and its still going. Since the end of September, so lets say officially from the start of October, I have lost 19.4 kgs... Has it been easy? Hell no. Is it rewarding? Hell yes. Will I keep going? Damn straight I will. While I still have a whopping 16kg's to lose at least I have tipped the scale in my favour. The original task of 35kgs seemed like a mammoth unsurmountable one. The 16kgs of today feel like a much easier figure to swallow. Or to not swallow as it were. Being on diet and all - swallowing bad! Some key learnings to date? Diet is not just about food and quantities and exercise. It is very very much about nutrition. Garbage in, garbage sits. Eating a crackerbread and some cucumber is not a meal. And while you think robbing yourself of calories is going to shift weight, the reality is, it isn't. You need to feed a diet with nutrition. I am by no means an expert but with the help of an expert who is helping open my eyes to all of this I am over 19 kgs lighter and a whopping 73cms slimmer. Dum dum dummmmm....