Happy Yule tidings!
Merry Christmas everyone, hope the day’s a good one filled with loads of Christmas cheer, great food (usually prepared by parents) and good company.
Keep it safe 
The sound of your life going by
Music has been around us for as long as we can remember. It was there to console us when we were rejected by that guy / girl we were trying to get with. It was there during the happy times, and the downright shit times.
Right now, Paolo, across my desk from me at work is swearing at his monitor, (more likely his dodgy code) while listening to Tiesto. Me, I’m listening to the sound of the aircon, it’s a constant sound that’s keeping me grounded in my thoughts, but that’s besides the point. Music has been pretty much a constant in most of our lives, made possible by the fact that your hearing is pretty much intact and lobes on the side of your head do a good job of propping up a set of headphones. The music we consumed in our childhood is the music that shapes us. We’ll always refer to “our” music as “classics”. Strange? Ask one of your parents which music they listened to while growing up…
If your life had a soundtrack consisting, say 14 tracks, songs important to you for whatever reason… what would those tracks be? Can you list them? Why not hit us up in the comments!
Here are my 14 tracks, in no particular order:
- Starship – We built this city
- Billy Joel – We didn’t start the fire
- Luther Vandross and Janet Jackson – The best things in life are free
- Simon Harris – Louder than a shotgun
- Neil Sedaka – Oh Carol
- Skeelo – I Wish
- House of Gypsies (aka Todd Terry) – Samba
- Basement Jaxx – Where’s your head at
- Jungle Brothers – I’ll house you
- Skunk Anasie – Secretly (Armand Van Helden’s remix)
- David Bowie – China girl
- DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince – Summertime
- LL Cool J – Momma said knock you out
- Mel and Kim – Respectable
* Streaming audio clips by cduniverse.com.
IP over power
Looks like next year’s going to be an interesting one, as far as the telecommunications industry in this country is concerned. Below follows an excerpt from a press release by GTS, I thought was worth sharing:
As Goal Technology Solutions (GTS) is gearing up to take on South African telecommunications and broadcasting in 2007, consumers can expect a strong competitor to fixed-line operators and MultiChoice as well as a few brand new extras.
GTS uses PLC (power-line communication) to bring a triple play offering of broadband internet access, voice telephony and television programming directly into the home via an established electrical connection. “In essence this means that you can get all your telecommunications and broadcast packages from a single service provider that enters your home through a single plug point,” explains CEO Adrian Maguire.
Basically, GTS are going to provide broadband communication and pay-per-view television channels via a regular outlet in your home. They claim that their offering will run at up to 90Mb/s which is 22 times faster than Telkom’s broadband offering.
They hope to have their broadcast license well before the middle of next year and CEO, Adrian Maguire added, “Our business model has been developed to ensure job creation and sustainable skills transfer and above all, to provide all South Africans with a multifarious communications offering that they can afford.” Which sounds like a good plan to me. Hell, anything that’s better and cheaper than Telkom’s current offering will be welcomed with open arms.
Their ADSL ISP service pricing is pretty good too. More reading at goal.co.za
What do you think? Hit us up in the comments!
Personal history
Most of our personal history is inherited from our folks at some point, though mostly over dinners or lunches and other family gatherings. Some of the time it’s embarrassing, like when your folks bring out the pics of you with an afro as a kid or the buckteeth you rocked in Sub. A (Grade 1). Apart from these, there are other events in your life that can only be related to you by your parents, things you don’t know or were too young to remember.
At the office party the other day, a colleague mentioned that he was born on a farm in the Eastern Cape. He mentioned the name of the farm and it’s approximate location, relevant to other common landmarks and towns. Even though I don’t remember what they were right now, I do recall thinking about this and how it applied to me. What was my personal history?
Well, I was born in Medi-Park hospital (now, Medi-Clinic, located in the CBD), in Cape Town on a Tuesday at just after 6am in the morning on the 26th day of July in 1977. My parents were living in a suburb on the Cape Flats called Surrey Estate which is a small neighbourhood just outside Athlone along Klipfontein road…
Do you know where you were born? I’d like to know… Why not post it in the comments? Or send me an email.