MarcForrest.com

Category: South African Culture

  • Let’s get this party started – Bafana vs. Mexico

    They opening game of the world cup takes place tomorrow afternoon. I simply can’t wait. For me, this is one of THE biggest moments in our countries history, and I am overwhelmed by what is going down in our country at the moment. To be honest, I won’t be surprised if a little tear is shed tomorrow :)

    So, The first game tomorrow is out beloved boys in yellow,Bafana Bafana. They take on the Mexicans, at 16:30, and the game promises to be a cracker. With 90,000 fans behind them in the stadium and another 40 million behind them out in the streets, I am pretty confident that we have this one in the bag. It is going to be very tight I reckon, but I honestly think that the Mexicans will be pretty overwhelmed by the occasion and the noise from our national instrument, the Vuvzela.

    Greatodds.com, by far the best online sports betting site in South Africa, has some fantastic odds for tomorrows games.

    In the first game of the day,  South Africa has odds of 7/4 if they win. What this means is, if you put down R100, you could possibly get back R275. Bargain. Mexico is at 6/4, so you would get back R250 if they win. If it is a draw and you put down R100 you could get back R315 at 43/20. I would def put my cash on Bafana for this one.

    The 2nd game of the eve is France vs Uraguay. Uruguay are the underdogs for this game with 15/5 odds. R100 will get you R340 if they win. France being the favorites will net you R215 for 100 bux at 23/20. A draw will score you R310 if you part with R100 at 21/10.

    To check out all the other games betting odds for the games going forward, check out GreatOdds.com. I will be putting a few of my pennies down on our boys. I will also try and do a couple more of these posts during the big celebration that is going to be the World Cup.

    VIVA BAFANA BAFANA !!!!!

  • Super 14 Final in GigaPixel Pano


    The boys from Virtual Africa have done it once again. They have captured the Super 14 Final, that was held this past weekend between the Bulls & the Stormers, in a high resolution GigaPixel Pano.

    This means that you can browse around the whole stadium in 360 degrees, and because the quality of the images is so high, you can zoom in on the crowd, and literally see the person face.

    Here, try it…(and be prepared to waste your whole day zooming in and out :) )
    Be sure to click on the Full screen button in the top right, it makes the whole thing so much better. Well done to Tinus and the boys for this amazing pic. I can’t wait to see them (hopefully) capture some of the World Cup games in the coming weeks.

  • Getting Creative

    Another guest post and fantastic look at the IT life by Shawn Muller

    Us computer guys are a funny lot.  By and large we’re pretty clever – love a debate and are quite logical. And boy do we love making stupid inside jokes which no one really gets. But, we don’t like to be cast into one generic type.  Hee Hee…  There are nerds, geeks, übernerds and nerdswithtoolbelts (seriously – I know networking is important, but a crimping tool just aint a nailgun).  Who are we kidding here… we are a bunch of nerds.  Never to be mistaken for being cool.  And no, what the tweeps say about you doesn’t count.  I mean, we are never really considered cool by non IT people.  Think back… Anyone remember being in the cool crowd at school?  If you were, remember thinking…  I know this is supposed to be cool, but it’s just so stupid!  Yip – you’re geek.  And no, even Steve Jobs is not actually cool.  At least get your turtleneck in a different colour, Steve!

    And the work we do is,  lets face it, nerdy stuff.  Most of us do get challenged in our jobs.  But by and large, it’s pretty mundane.  Yes, there are exceptions but when you’ve designed the solution the rest is just typing.  Yes, yes, yes…  I know it’s not just typing… Yes, I know you can track my IP… But you know what I mean. How do you get your creative juices to flow? For a long time, we were confined to our little desk (or desks if you’re an übernerd and needed 3 19inch CRT monitors.  Remember those?  Man oh man… They took up so much space and pushed you so far back from your desk – your arms hung in mid air. They spawned a whole generation of carpeltunnelspecialists) I think the word I’m looking for is…

    Anyway.  These days there are a few creative outlets for us.  Blogging is huge.  We can just write – be ourselves or our alter egos. That’s what’s so great about the internet – There’s bound to be someone out there who understands what we are thinking and they’ll find our blog.  Not always true…  Have a look at blog stats and see that really…  Six billion people in the world and only 1 unique IP. Yip. Yours. Mine has three…  My PC, my iPhone over wifi and my iPhone over 3g…  Seriously. That’s why I’m writing on marcforrest.com… his website is huge and I know at least 1 other person will read this.  Thanks Marc!  WordPress is a good app to get you on your blogging way.

    Personally, I cook.  I don’t mean “make supper”.  I mean cook.  Jamie Oliver / Gordon Ramsay / Nigella style.  And I don’t mean naked or swearing – although it happens.  By the way, those three should really get together. Can you say NakedDirtyTalkingFingerLickingOliveOilUthing reality TV show?  In my case, I have a look at what’s in the kitchen and start cooking, using at least 4 bowls, 3 pots, a roasting dish, 10 spices and 15 spoons. Getting flavours to blend and enhance, to become a perfect combination of texture and taste.  It doesn’t always work (mostly, or never and no one says anything) but when I’m busy… I feel inspired.  Inspired to make the ordinary pizza taste gourmet.  One app I really like is the one from Jamie Oliver.  It’s good in that you don’t have to download got onto the internet every time and the video demos are very good. The $20 seems steep, but it is a cookbook and I quite like it.

    And yes, for the manne, you can do it too.  You can be inspired at the braai.  Google how to cook the perfect steak for a start.  If all else fails – if you are not the braaing type – if you bring meat to a bring and braai and don’t really care what happens to it – if you always scout for a dutchman (meant in the nicest possible way… I’m talking about the salt of the earth, knows how to make fire and braai -dutchmen. Insert derogatory statement about Luke Watson here) to make sure the meat will get done, don’t worry – use the flashlight app to help out. Although, it is really lame and might earn you a snotklap.

    Another popular creative outlet is the DSLR.  Or really fancy camera for the 2megapixelphonecamerausers out there.  Pano is a really good app. As is Best Camera. However, DSLR cameras are really amazing.  They have the potential to turn every tourist into a professional, to turn every weekend away with friends into one giant orgy of picture taking.  For the artist out there… this is great.  But as a techie…  is it really about the art – I use the word in its broadest term.  Taking 1000 photos and getting lucky once is not exactly art if you ask me.  Or is it about the numbers?  You know, the resolution, the macro feature or the shutter speed.  Have we gotten so bored with having to say how small our phones are we needed something to get bigger? Really.  For the techies… is it about the pictures? The memories?  Or is it about the camera?  Do you use your camera as a creative outlet, or just to feed your AudreyII?

  • Slaapstad

    Here is another post from one of the new contributors to the site, Mr. Shawn Muller. Shawn is proudly South African dad of 2 and never takes himself too seriously. Read Shawns take on the mother city of Slaapstad and how they preparing themselves for the World Cup in a couple of days time

    Look, I love Cape Town.  It’s my second favourite city in the world.  Not that I’ve lived much elsewhere, but ja – just roll with it.  I even voted for it 387 times when we went monopoly crazy and fell crucially short – losing to that metropolitan marvel that is Istanbul.  Never been there either… but from where I’m sitting… meh.

    But something is rotten in the state of Denmark. Okay, maybe not rotten… maybe just asleep. You know, taking one of those afterSundaylunchnaps on a sunny spot in the house. Ahhhh, but look it’s Tuesday, the guests have gone and Cape Town is still taking slumbered walks to the fridge to get a spoonful of something tasty.

    I must admit I’ve been hearing the faint snore in the background for some time but came face to face with it a few months ago when I finally got gatvol of the old carpet (there were doggie stains on top of wine stains on top of kiddywipedhandsoncarpet stains on top of maidsgoodbyepresent stains – another post) and decided to replace it.  Let the hunt for laminate flooring begin.  I scouted around and finally found the one we liked most.  But heck, it’s way over budget.  So I scrounge around… Get a few more quotes and all of it is expensive. Eventually, I track down a company in Joburg that stocks the floor, hoping to find some other leads in Cape Town.  But no, not enough for that Joburg folk – “Why don’t you buy from us and we’ll ship it down – it’ll be cheaper and faster.  Let us send you a quote”  Within minutes I had a quote.  Yikes these okes are jacked.  I bought the floor from them and when I wanted to know approximate delivery time (again… time… not date) I popped of an email and wait for it… they called me back… and the couriers called.  I was impressed. Not only was it cheaper and faster to order from Joburg, the service throughout was superb.

    Even now, with SA getting into that FIFA vibe, mirror sox are all the rage.  But not in Cape Town.  Ja, you see the odd sock here and there but I never saw any at the robots.  I suppose the cellphone chargers and bulls shirts (yes – in Cape Town) and Portugal flags was all they can hold. So, I gummed a tree and sent off a few emails. I even requested via @bobskinstad to find out where in Cape Town I could find some. The first concrete lead came via email from Joburg. Again, none of the R85 rip-off quotes I got on via twitter, R 35 plus posting.  And it’ll take a few days. Then, I heard the silence, the snoring stopped, something stirred, Cape Town was waking up.  National Flag got back to me and they had the socks at R 45!  Yay!  But alas… They’ll only get stock next Friday.  Turns out what I mistook for Cape Town jumping out of bed was just the city turning over to find out if Beckham has been spotted at the waterfront yet.

    Is doing business in Cape Town really that difficult? Is the service that bad? We’ve all heard people fly to Joburg, buy a car and drive it down. Has anyone else had such an experience?  Is Cape Town really Slaapstad?

  • Win a weekend away at the new Southern Sun Montecasino

    The guys from Southern Sun have an awesome competition on at the moment where you can win o a weekend stay at Southern Sun Montecasino for 2 adults  sharing, bed and breakfast and dinner to the value of R200 each.

    Here is the details. Feel free to enter if you have a blog :)

    Southern Sun announced last week the opening of their latest hotel on 24th April, the Southern Sun Montecasino.

    What’s really cool is that they’ve opened up a competition to bloggers!

    Blog about the Southern Sun Montecasino opening

    1. In the blog post mention that this competition is open to all bloggers

    2. Answer the 6 easy questions

    3. Send the blog post link to [email protected] to tally all entries

    ·         Questions are as follows:

    1.       What is the opening rate special?
    2.       Where has the latest Southern Sun opened? (they opened on 24th April)
    3.       Who is the General Manager of the hotel?
    4.       How many rooms are there in the new hotel?
    5.       When is their room service available? [How many hours a day?]
    6.       Which item would you most like to order off the Punchinello’s menu?

    *Hint: visit the website and download the fact sheet for more info.

    On Friday 14th May, one blogger will be chosen to win a weekend stay at Southern Sun Montecasino for 2 adults sharing, bed and breakfast and dinner to the value of R200 each.

    Terms & Conditions:
    Subject to availability, not applicable during 2010 World Cup
    Children under 18 sharing parents’ room stay and eat breakfast free
    Valid for 6 months from date of issue
    Winners need to make their own travel arrangements to the hotel.