Deadlines…

When I looked up the meaning of this word I obtained the following definition. A deadline is time limit as for a payment of a debt or completion of a task or an assignment. It clearly seems that the 2nd year Public Relations students at CPUT don’t know what it means. For some reason they seem to think that a deadline is guide line to when a task should roughly be completed then they submit a few hours later or even a day later.

They do not submit their work on the stipulated date because that is something they simply can’t do. I do believe that I have been supportive, delegated tasks and gave back feed back timelessly to them but I haven't necessary received the same response from my students. Sometimes I felt like I was being a b**ch, having to chase after them most of the time in order to receive work for them.

What I don’t understand is that this is a group effort, we will all be graded on this project yet to be it seems like the 2nd years think they are doing me a favour. If we were in a work environment; I would have fired them by now or at least given them a written warning.
You can only bear with people to a certain point, there is a point when you have to say enough is enough.

Signing out> Sbosh

If I was given a retake in any part of my life, which part would it be?

This is a tough question as we all do have a part of our lives we would want to retake. Maybe it was the happiest moment of our lives that we would want to relive again and experience the joy we felt on that day. Or it could have been the saddest day of our lives that if we went back in time we would prevent it from happening.

They say that everything happens for a reason and that we learn from our mistakes, well we should be learning from our mistakes; though I know some people who don’t. I do believe that I wouldn’t take away the rain (hard times) in my life as they made me the person I am today. We have to accept the way things turn out in life and just look ahead and focus on making our futures the best they can be.

No one said that life is an easy journey; I have grown to learn that it is full of ups and downs; you never know what to expect. One just has to dust themselves up when they fall and try again.
Make the best out of your life by living a purpose driven life.

Signing out> Sbosh

Rock journalism is people who can’t write interviewing people who can’t talk for people who can’t read.

I disagree with Frank Zappa’s comment , in order to be a rock journalist, one has to understand rock music. A rock journalist would have to listen, interpret and evaluate rock music in order to be able to criticize or praise it publicly and have supporting facts that will evoke a reaction from people.

It was harsh for Frank Zappa to assume that rock journalism is done by people who can’t write; yes he might have come across rock journalists who have written reviews that he didn’t agree with but that doesn’t mean that he should write-off all rock journalists.

Sometimes it is just fair to accept other people’s opinions and not just make slashing statements without backing them up. If a group of people in this case journalist where writing reviews or articles that Frank was not happy about that is just tough. He should have least gone after one rock journalist and not rock journalism as a profession.

Rock journalism is what it is despite what he says.

Signing out> Sbosh

Loosing someone…

Loosing someone and crying for them means that they were a very important part of your life. They made a difference in your life and you may only relies this once you no longer have them in your life.

That hole or gap you feel in side yourself takes a while to close up or does it ever close up completely? I find it weird all of a sudden not seeing someone you were used to seeing every day. When my grandmother passed away earlier on in the year I told myself that I would pretend as if she was on holiday somewhere having the time of her life, but this didn’t provide much comfort as I knew that I wouldn’t see her anytime soon; it was just something that kept me going for a while. Knowing that she is no longer in pain but resting from the journey called life brings me some sense of peace and reassurance.

Not a day goes by without me thinking about her, wondering what she would be saying about various things happening in my life. Oh how I miss her smile, hearing her soft voice, her jokes, her sharp comments and calling her name. Her time on earth was a heavenly gift and I am great full for having my grandmother in my life.

May she rest in peace.

Signing out> Sbosh

Andy Warhol said. “In the future everybody will be world famous for fifteen minutes.” You can’t choose the 15 minutes but why would you be famous?

I would have to be famous for making a difference to humanity. It would have to be something I would be remembered for many years. I wouldn’t want fame from appearing on a reality show such as Idols or Survivor that is such a cliché. Maybe I would be famous for discovering a cure for cancer or HIV, just imagine how many lives would be safed. Then again if I were to discover a cure for cancer or HIV I might be famous for more than 15 minutes as it would be a huge breakthrough in medicine and science.

Yet again, I can’t imagine everyone in the world being world famous as individuals. All six billion of us humans on the planet? Though we as South Africans have been world famous for the past months because of hosting the world cup. The entire world was watching us in order to see if we could pull of a world class event and to their surprise we did. I guess I will just have to wait and anticipate my 15 minutes of fame.

Signing out> Sbosh

Life as a student...

Being a student is something that is not easy. I hate the fact that for every little thing that needs money I have to ask my parents for cash as I am currently studying full time and I don’t have a part time job. Therefore I have to bear hearing my parents say that “at least you will be working next year, and we will only have your little brother to worry about.”

Being a student means completing assignments and having deadlines to meet each week. It also means that I have to do work during the weekend. Sometimes I can’t even meet up with my friends during the weekend because of deadlines I have to meet, which they sometimes find hard to understand as they are currently working.

There are benefits of being a student though, one is that we can sleep in until much later compared to people who work as we usually have classes that start later in the day. We usually get home before people who work, we don’t have to be at tech for example from 09:00- 17:00. I would like to think that our hours are very flexible.

We also usually get student discounts for tickets to some events and for some items. I can’t forget the holidays we have has students, for instance the last holiday was eight weeks long, and when will I ever experience that again?

I might miss being a student though next year when I become an employee, but the best part of it all will be having a salary at the end of the month to spend as I please.

Signing out>Sbosh

A brief look into “township life.”

One thing that worries me about young people that live in Guguletu is the lack of interest to study and further their skills. Some young people in Guguletu want to make money easily and resort to illegal methods in doing this. Instead of empowering themselves through studying they resort to crime.

You find groups of young men in townships such as Guguletu and Langa who are called OoCharlie. Now what these groups of young men do to make a living is to duplicate credit cards; this is fraud. They have a machine called grab, which is able to duplicate a person’s credit card number. They then make a copy of these cards and then go to shops and use these cards to buy all sorts of items ranging from clothing, food, airtime to house appliances. They then sell these items in oreder to obtain cash.

What they also do is linger around ATM’S, they place a grab machine which will somehow jam your card and they will approach you and tell you that your card has been swallowed by the ATM machine, you will walk away from the ATM and they will be able to take out your card and use it to draw your money.

These young men certainly know what they are doing as they are able to make a living out of it. They drive the latest cars and some have moved out of their family homes and rent out flats in the suburbs. They dress snazzy, displaying expensive brands and have girls going 'crazy' about them. Money that is easily earned is easily spent, these young men spend their money on alcohol, girls, having fun and spoiling people. They don’t seem to think about their future.

These guys are well know and they have become the “celebrities” of Guguletu. Many people know how they make a living but there is nothing they can do to put an end to their behaviour. What worries me is the fact that some young boys look up to them and aspire to be like them one day, therefore this vicious cycle will continue for years to come.

Signing out> Sbosh

A skill set called Leadership.

Some people say that great leaders are born to be leaders and that a person cannot be taught to be a great leader. On the contrary I believe that great leaders learn to be good leaders; it is in fact a skill that one can acquire over time. Great leaders become good at leading people as they spend time with the people they lead, learning about them, speaking to them about their concerns and being the face behind their voices.

Good leaders are usually charismatic people that are able to use words well to communicate with their followers; they usually have the ability to allure followers as well as build strong relationships with them.

Not everyone has the ability to be a leader, some people are simply meant to be followers. A leader needs to take initiative and be able to take carefully calculated risks and some people do not have the ability to do this; so they role is rather to be followers.

Over the years we have had some great leaders. People I would say were great leaders were people such as Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, and Mother Teresa; these people were able to show initiative and set a good example to other people. Many aspire to be the kind of leaders they were.

Signing out > Sbosh