The art of misinterpretation...

Now a days with so many short cuts for words like TGIF, WTF, etc etc it’s not surprising that there might be some misinterpretation along the way. If you like me when I read to quickly I sometimes swop the letters and then I have no idea what is trying to be said. 

I must share my story with you. So for weeks and years I have always referred to Wednesdays as “Hump Day” because it half way through the week, and it’s all done hill from there...

My brother and his girlfriend were visiting the other day, and I was talking about “Hump Day”. So Shanna asks me what do I mean about “Hump Day”? so I was I explained about how it is half way through the week and all downhill from there... this is when I noticed she started to blush..

So me being me, I enquired why the blush? She thought that “Hump Day” meant I was “getting lucky”! Can you believe it! Like I would even advertise that! I’m not that forward, at least I hope not!

And apparently she wasn’t the only one who thought that’s what it meant when I put that as my status on facebook!

So now I pose a question, how many people actually know what you are trying o say when you post a status on facebook / twitter / Blackberry... what do they think you are saying as opposed to what you really are saying?

I thought to myself, should I stop posting certain statuses’, then I came to my senses and realized it’s not me who might have a dirty mind, it’s everyone else.

I now find this quite amusing and look forward to seeing who is bold enough to ask me what I mean when I post a status. Let’s see who has the guts!

Do not stop speaking your mind, just because some people don’t understand you! Remember you were born to stand out! 


Editors note: This is a guest post by Blackjack and not always the opinion or view of the blog or its owners and related parties. As a result no action can be taken against such parties

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Winning

My wife and I recently attended a sports day of friends child. I have never attended one of these sports days before and it was actually quite good fun and really nice to see the little people running and having fun doing it. while we were there, Bob (the oldest child) who was supporting his brother, said to his mom, "It is not about winning, but about participating that counts".

This struck me as very odd because it is against everything that today's society throws at us. It was amazing to hear and even more amazing to see that he actually believed it. I brushed it off as absolute rubbish but I started to thinking about it. At what point does that belief turn into winning is everything? At what point does that line become second place is first loser?

Today we are seeing professional sports starts getting banned for the use of  banned substance use. Today we see professional cyclists in every country tested both in and out of competition and banned for the use of EPO and other muscle enhancing agents. South African rugby players have been suspected of using banned substances too, although all charges were dropped. Local provincial players have been banned for steroid use. the worst of all this is that recently school boys were found to be using banned substances to enhance their performance on the rugby pitch. 

In this case, it takes less than 10 years to go from "its all about participation" to illegal performance enhancing drug use. Who turns the sentence around? who changes the persons mind? Parents? teachers? Coaches? Television? I do not know.

The full circle turns though and grabs again. Only the top few percent ever get to compete at the professional level. In fact, at any competitive level at all! To the 35 000 cyclists that pack Cape Town streets for the Cape Argus Cycle Tour, less than about 200 riders go for the top honours. That is less than 0.5%. The rest? they do it for participation! The 18 000 comrades runners, only about 50 can win it. You do the math!

In the end, the wisdom of a seven year old boy wins. "Mom, it is not about winning. It is all about the participation".

For the privacy of the family and friends, the names in this blog post have been changed.

Are Vampires Sucking the Time out of Your Day?

Let me take a guess. You are involved in social media, right? So, here is the guess. You have a smart phone, yes? You are on facebook, twitter, flickr, you tube, four square, yes? Or at least one of the above, yes? You stay in touch via email, BBM (Blackberry users) or text (sms) messages on that smart phone, yes? These social networking services give you a warm fuzzy feeling about your world and you feel in contact with them at your finger tips. Brilliant! I agree. So, why the title Time Vampires?

Communicating today is easier than ever before. Above I mentioned just 8 of the many, many ways we can communicate today. I only mentioned a few the English speaking networks I know of. There are many more in more other languages and countries out there. The draw back to the communication devices available today is that they can lead to being Time Vampires.

Time vampires are items in your life that suck time and concentration from your life and what you are supposed to be doing. I will explain with a simple example. One the smart phone you have an email with a facebook as well as a twitter account linked up to it. Let say you have about 150 facebook friends and 50 twitter followers that regularly update their profile. That’s 200 potential interruptions to your working day. Forget after hours! Let’s assume you get updates sent to your email. You are working and an email comes through to you phone. Bang! There goes your concentration. You click on the email to see the update and it’s not interesting so you close the window. It took 2 minutes. You are annoyed with me because what is 2 minutes out of a minute day! Do the math on up to 200 updates a day. That's if they are boring!

Another example is this: one of your friends on Flickr posts really nice photos and you have look - that's never going to be less than 5 minutes!

You must get the point!

Avoid time vampires in the following ways:

1. Different horses for different courses. Use different social media for what they are good at:

Facebook – Connecting with old friends and telling family and friends in other cities and or countries.

Twitter – Up to the minutes updates from everyone from everywhere about everything.

Flickr – Upload and view photos.

2. Social media is not a popularity contest.

Unless you are a big business or media darling or massive sports spar – the more does not mean better!

3. Use social media sites to add value to your life.

If using social media does not add value to your life – you are doing it wrong! This is true. Last year I deactivated my Facebook account and all except 2 people did not notice. This means that it was not adding value to my life. I now am back on Facebook and have cut my friends list substantially, in order to add value to my “social media” life.

Try these tips and feel free to add your own ways of avoiding “Time Vampires”

Get High - It is Good For You

I recently started gyming again, but seriously gyming, and it has proven to be the best decision I've made in a long time!


I know we all complain that there's not enough time, and it's hard to stay motivated etc., but trust me, it really is worth it. There have been many benefits, amongst them improved fitness and health, but most importantly improved self-confidence and happiness.


It's a scientific fact that exercise releases feel-good endorphins and I've found this to be true. You know you're doing something to improve yourself and nothing beats that feeling you get after a good, hard workout. It also has spin-offs in the work place. You carry yourself better and trust in yourself and your work., and people can see the difference.


Here are my personal tips for how to gym and how to keep motivated:


1. Find a gym buddy who you have to meet at the gym. This way you'll let someone else down if you don't go.


2. Find an exercise routine which interests you. You don't have to do the standard exercises. Mix it up.


3. Change your routine regularly. This will keep your body confused and will ensure you see results faster.


4. Set targets for yourself, but make them realistic. There's no point in setting an unrealistic goal as this will just cause you to become demotivated. Targets can include:


- Losing weight,


- Going down a size (muscle weighs more than fat, so don't be upset if you don't lose weight),


- Finishing your gym session quicker (this will help you to tone),


- Upping your weights (more for guys than girls)


A combination of the above will see you getting the best results.


5. You are what you eat! I had a good laugh to myself at some of the party girls I worked with. They always complained about their weight and how much they were gyming but they just weren't getting the results.


I don't think they got the fact that excessive alcohol consumption, along with a poor diet, will do that to you. One drink takes about a week of gym to work off, so you do the math.


Good advice I received, and which I'm now trying with positive results, is not to have any carbs after lunch. This sounds hard, but essentially all you have to do is cut out rice and potatoes with your supper.


6. The most important piece of advice has been saved for last. When you train, train hard! There's no point going to the gym for a chat session. You're there to work, so do your best.


I hope this helps you in some way.


Editors note: This is a guest post by Stephen Smith and not always the opinion or view of the blog or its owners and related parties. As a result no action can be taken against such parties
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Can Chiropractic Bring Down Your Blood Pressure

Did you know that chiropractic manipulation can lower blood pressure?

Spinal manipulations to the upper neck and upper thoracic spine can lower blood pressure.

When Being Selfish Is Not Selfish

Selfish (adjective)

1. Devoted to or caring only for oneself; concerned primarily with one's own interests, benefits, welfare, etc., regardless of others.

2. Characterized by or manifesting concern or care only for oneself: selfish motives.

That is the definition of the word selfish according to dictionary.com but I believe that doing something for yourself is not selfish. 

Do not miss the big things!

On Saturday morning I did something I have not done in a long, long time. I got up and met a bunch of people at the local casino parking lot to go cycling. No gambling was done, even though the casino was open. The parking lot is used as a meeting point for East Coast Cycling Club (www.eccc.co.za). Cyclists are given free parking which is safe and secure - a very useful advantage. The bunch cycle from the casino up the coast, to a freeway off ramp to the little town of Umdloti and back. It is about 46 km.

The Good Looking Guy That I Met in the Ladies!

I am not one of those dedicated clubbers who are there when the doors open and leave again when the doors close. That is not for me! Realistically, who really can do that unless you wasted or high or

Keep on Running

We have all heard the phrase used when watching a long distance sporting event, "He caught his second wind". How do you manage to get to the stage of getting your "second

What’s the difference...?

Often I get asked what’s the difference between Chiropractic and other professions that deal with the skeletal system.

Well I am hoping this article will clear up some confusion and in no means take it that I am putting down any other profession just merely aiding in understanding. The aim here is to add to your knowledge and educate you

But there's so much loving, too

"There's lots of fighting in this world but there's so much loving, too"
Ready by Third Day

Those are such inspiring words to me. They are very ture in todays society where violence, war and just fighting in general are seen daily in every city, in every country around the world. In the past 10 days, we have seen the greater London area (and further out) being destroyed by riots and locally to myself in South Africa, the municipal strike has resulted in sewerage being thrown at municipal building  further up country. No country, race or creed is exempt from this sort of violent occurence.

Yes, we have to accept that fighting is every where. No, we do not have to focus on the fighting because if you look around in the very same cities, there is a huge amount of love too. Take London after the riots for example, The cleanup of the rioting chaos created a massive movement of locals chipping in and helping out. That is awesome to see happen. Everyone focuses on the riots themselves but I think that the silver lining of the clean up should be focussed on as much too.

When I say 'love', I mean the little gestures  that make a difference to someone. I am not talking about massive public gestures and giving millions of Rands or Pounds (or whatever currency) to charity at some big press launch. I am meaning the person holding the door for you, the guy who lets you cycle past before pulling into the traffic, the person ahead of you who let you take the last item you wnated etc. There are 100's of these actions going on daily and we often take them for granted because we have negativity tinting our eyes.

It is the little things that enlighten our days with a beautiful moment of love from a complete stranger who wants nothing in return and tells us there are still great people in the world.

Try and see the love in the world but better yet BE the love in the world.



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Silver linings

Have you had a long day, a long week or even of long year? Are you unsatisfied at work or in your job? Are you stuck where you are? Do you have health problems? Are your children hassling you? Are they causing trouble at school again?

Most people would answer yes to one, if not more, of the above questions. All of us have

The feeling that comes from above

The Sciatic nerve comprises of the nerves called L4- S3, these nerves pass through the buttock, back of the thigh and calf as well as the foot.

Irritation to this nerve can cause shooting pain, numbness, tingling, pins and needles sensation or burning pain in the buttocks and

Laugh Out Loud

I do not normally put posts like this on this blog, but this came through on email and although I cannot claim its truth, it made me smile and I had to stop myself laughing out loud! IF you cannot laugh out loud - read it and then re read it later when you can - you will feel better either way! I did!


I went to Builders Warehouse recently while not being altogether sure that course of action was a wise one. You see, the previous evening I had prepared and consumed a massive quantity of my patented 'you're definitely going to shit yourself' road-kill curry. Tasty stuff, although hot to the point of being painful, which comes with a written guarantee from me that if you eat it, the next day both of your butt cheeks WILL fall off..


Here's the thing. I had awakened that morning, and even after two cups of coffee (and all of you know what I mean) nothing happened. No 'Watson's Movement’. Despite the curry swimming its way through my intestinal tract, I was unable to create the usual morning symphony referred to by my dear wife as 'thunder and lightning'.


Knowing that a time of reckoning HAD to come, yet not sure of just when, I bravely set off for Builders Warehouse, my quest being paint and supplies to refinish the deck.  Upon entering the store at first all seemed normal. I selected a cart and began pushing it about dropping items in for purchase.. It wasn't until I was at the opposite end of the store from the toilets that the pain hit me.


Oh, don't look at me like you don't know what I'm talking about. I'm referring to that 'Uh, Oh, Shit, gotta go' pain that always seems to hit us at the wrong time. The thing is, this pain was different. The curry from the night before was staging a revolt.  In a mad rush for freedom it bullied its way through the small intestines, forcing its way into the large intestines, and before I could take one step in the direction of the toilets which would bring sweet relief, it happened. The curry fired a warning shot.


There I stood, alone in the paint and stain section, suddenly enveloped in a toxic cloud the likes of which has never before been recorded. I was afraid to move for fear that more of this vile odour might escape me.  Slowly, oh so slowly, the pressure seemed to leave the lower part of my body, and I began to move up the aisle and out of it, just as a green shirted clerk turned the corner and asked if I needed any help.


  I don't know what made me do it, but I stopped to see what his reaction would be to the toxic non-visible fog that refused to dissipate.. Have you ever been torn in two different directions emotionally? Here's what I mean, and I'm sure some of you at least will be able to relate.  I could've warned that poor clerk, but didn't. I simply watched as he walked into an invisible, and apparently indestructible, wall of odour so terrible that all he could do before gathering his senses and running, was to stand there blinking and waving his arms about his head as though trying to ward off angry bees. This, of course, made me feel terrible, but then made me laugh. ........BIG mistake!!!!!


Here's the thing. When you laugh, it's hard to keep things 'clamped down', if you know what I mean. With each new guffaw an explosive issue burst forth from my nether region. Some were so loud and echoing that I was later told a few folks in other aisles had ducked, fearing that someone was robbing the store and firing off a shotgun.  Suddenly things were no longer funny.. 'It' was coming, and I raced off through the store towards the toilet, laying down a cloud the whole way, praying that I'd make it before the grand explosion took place.
  Luck was on my side. Just in the nick of time I got to the john, began the inevitable 'Oh my God', floating above the toilet seat because my ass is burning SO BAD, purging. One poor fellow walked in while I was in the middle of what is the true meaning of 'Shock and Awe'.. He made a gagging sound, and disgustedly said, 'Son-of-a-bitch!, did it smell that bad when you ate it?', then quickly left.


  Once finished and I left the restroom, reacquired my partially filled cart intending to carry on with my shopping when a store employee approached me and said, 'Sir, you might want to step outside for a few minutes. It appears some prankster set off a stink bomb in the store. The manager is going to run the vent fans on high for a minute or two which ought to take care of the problem.'


  My smirking of course set me off again, causing residual gases to escape me. The employee took one sniff, jumped back pulling his shirt up to cover his nose and, pointing at me in an accusing manner shouted, 'IT'S YOU!', then ran off returning moments later with the manager. I was unceremoniously escorted from the premises and asked none too kindly not to return.


  Home again without my supplies, I realized that there was nothing to eat but leftover curry, so I consumed two more bowls. The next day I went to shop at Pick n Pay. I can't say any more about that because we are in court over the whole matter. Bastards claim they're going to have to repaint the store.


The above post is a repeat of an email sent to the editor of the blog and cannot be traced to any person and or store mentioned it.

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The Pleasure of Attending.

For the privacy of the family and friends, the names in this blog post have been changed.


Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending a funeral. You might say "pleasure? What are you smoking?" It was a happy / sad funeral. It was sad because the family had lost a mother, wife and friend. That is always obvious at funerals. It is a tough time for the  community that knew  Lucy. The happy part of the funeral was this. I did not know Lucy. I only knew her son, George. I went to support him in this tough time. Having said this, I walked away from the church knowing Lucy. She sounds like a great, strong and loving women. 


George stood up and gave an amazing show of strength and courage. Talking about your late mom is never easy and he did amazingly well. He flew out from the USA about a month ago alone and has dealt with this alone in terms of without his own family. His friends and family here stood up and were there for him. Hats off to them too!


I walked away from the church uplifted. It's not often that happens after a funeral service. It happened and I am glad myself and my wife made the effort to go. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family during this time.

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Turn It Off!

There are people who own and use the following: One (or two) cell phone(s), a tablet (or the like), a laptop (or net book or the like) and a desktop PC. Add to this a land line telephone. They use all these gadgets to stay in touch with their world at all times! Does one really need

Why the long face?

In life, we all have our ups and our downs, but it's how we react and respond that sets us apart. Often when replaying an incident in my head I'm surprised at how negative I was. It's a mind-set and you can and need to change it!

What is your greatness?

"The problem with being the unsung hero is you will never get the credit you deserve"


We went to the movies on Friday night. It was the first time in a while. We watched the Harry Potter Part 7 Part 2. Having watched all the Harry Potter movies, it was pretty clear to everybody that Harry was destined to be great from the start. The whole series centered around this fact. The series was very well written in terms of the books and the movies, in my opinion, let the books down a bit. That is my opinion though.


Anyway, whilst I was watching the great series come to a close, I could not help thinking that we are all "destined" for greatness. It may not be well documented like some people. It may come in the simplest of forms. Some everyday examples that have struck are the following:
1. Mothers. My wife and I are expecting  our first little person towards the end of the year and I stand in awe of all mothers whilst they are pregnant. The chaos that the female body goes through whilst making that little person is absolutely crazy!


2. "behind the scenes" people. These are the people who are not noticed for the effort they put in and never ask for any credit either. Everybody knows someone like this. Teachers who teach the "star pupil", The tea lady who makes that cuppa every day, The coach of the next great super sports star, the list goes on. Let them know today that they are appreciated!


Whatever you do for a living, wherever you go today, do not do it for the credit or the lime light. Rather do because you know that is what makes you great. You may or may not get the credit you deserve but you are still great!

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40 Minutes and 54 Seconds

40 minutes and 54 seconds it took me to get the problem sorted out! I want you to imagine spending that long with your ear to the phone to a support center! I know that you have

What’s your trigger?

When a chiropractor refers to a trigger point, what are they talking about?

A trigger point is what most people would refer to as a knot in their muscle or back.

Health Day Summary

Week after week we get a good dose of our in-house Chiropractor through her "Health Day" blog posts. Here is a summary of the most recent ones:

Is It All a Popularity Contest?

I am relatively new to Twitter and Facebook and have not got many followers and friends. I got to a maximum of just over 100 followers on twitter and was following about 180 people. I did not manage to keep up with the people I was following. The people I

Cool, Calm and Collected

Men are always going on about how macho they are and that nothing will happen to them and that they will never admit defeat! Well have I got a story for you proving them wrong!

So my dad is a very hands on type of man and enjoys making whatever he can himself. So after getting back from a hunting trip, he decided he was going to make some dry wors. He normally always makes biltong.

While he was in the garage making the dry wors, I was upstairs in the kitchen starting to make supper. I heard him come into the house, when he made his way into the kitchen he had both his hands behind his back. 


He looked at me and said “there has been a small accident” 


I was like “ok”. 


He  said “don’t panic” (right so now I’m thinking don’t panic, don’t panic – btw this never works when you tell yourself not to do something). 


I said “ok, what’s wrong”.

My dad brought his hands around from behind his back, around his right hand was a hankie that was now covered in blood (ok so I’m thinking not too bad maybe just a deep cut – I didn’t realise how wrong I was going to be). My dad slowly removes the hankie to reveal part of his middle finger  missing (yes I mean missing as in the top of it was gone!) now I must credit myself in not fainting at the sight of the finger – luckily I have never really been a softie when it comes to blood (boy oh boy I was glad about that!) First thing that popped into my mind was where is the other part? Which I enquired about only to be told it was still in the machine. (apparently the mincing of the meat was taking too long so my dad used a wooden spoon to feed the meat into the mincer – which worked fine for a while. Now don’t ask me why he did what he did but the meat was getting clogged in the machine so he put his fingers in there to push the meat down. (and guess what happened – the machine literally ripped the top of his finger off). His finger almost looked like a miniature shark had attacked it, like shredded skin, I could actually see part of the bone! (again super glad I’m not squeamish – and to think of I never even heard him scram in pain – hello I would have!)

I was like “ok first things first, we need to do is stop the bleeding” so off we went down to the garage and the first thing that came to mind was a cable tie (don’t even ask how I thought of that in a time like this) so we got a cable tie and put it around the finger just below the area where the finger had become detached, tightened it as tight as was bearable. I looked inside the mincer grabbed the other part of the finger and wrapped it in a clean hankie and my dad put in his pocket to take to the doctor. (now I must say the texture of the top of the finger was the strangest sensation ever it was so loose and floppy obviously because there was no other tissue or muscle etc...

I thought we should go straight to the hospital but my dad insisted on going to the GP first. So before we left I told my gran we were just going to get something from the shop (so as not to alarm her – she is a hypochondriac - you can only imagine!). Now you would think a man who is injured and perhaps less able to drive properly would let the female drive? Wrong! My dad drove with an impaired finger to the doctor – now we didn’t have an appointment and we all know what doctors rooms are like and it was late afternoon / evening. I went to the receptionist and explained we needed to see the doctor immediately, pleasant as she was she explained I had to wait. That is when I pulled out the big guns and showed her my dad’s finger. We shown to and examining room immediately.

We  waited only a few minutes – I think she interrupted him and told him about us because he came in quite quickly and anxiously. He couldn’t believe what he saw and was pretty impressed with my quick thinking of putting a cable tie on it to stop the bleeding (maybe I should have been a doctor?). He had a good look and prodded around the area of the finger and my dad didn’t even flinch. It must have hurt like a hole in the head – I would have screamed and punched him out by now. He also enquired as to where the other part was, we explained wrapped in a hankie in the pocket. (I couldn’t decide if he thought we were joking or being serious). Eventually he said to us that we would have to go to the hospital to have it sorted out. Oh great! Did I mention it was a public holiday the next day?

So we were off again on route to the hospital. While in casualty, I’m trying to fill the forms in as quickly as possible so that they can see to my dad. Only to be told that they couldn’t operate that night due to some reason. I thought to myself you have got to be kidding me. Could it get any worse? So they injected painkillers into the area and bandaged the finger up. My dad had to come back the next morning as early as 7am and would then get admitted into the day ward have the amputation (he decided he didn’t want the tip out back on) and would be discharged in the afternoon.

So now on the way home, I see like 10 missed calls from my brother. We phoned him on the way home. Yes my dad is still driving – men will never admit defeat! My brother wants to know what is taking so long, so I don’t exactly want to tell him over the phone. I just said we are nearly home will explain when we get there. We get home explain the whole long story to both my brother and my gran, they couldn’t believe it!

The next morning which was the public holiday in South Africa (16 June - Youth Day) my dad got his boss to fetch him and take him to the hospital to get the amputation done. I started to get the feeling my dad doesn’t trust my driving! I haven’t had an accident yet!

He came home in the afternoon, finger looking like it was in plaster of paris the bandage was so thick! He had to keep it covered for a week!

Now for those who are faint hearted don’t read any further....

My dad kept the tip of the finger, he has it in a small little bottle in mentholated spirits on a shelf in the garage as a reminder of what happened!

Editors note: This is a guest post by Blackjack and not always the opinion or view of the blog or its owners and related parties. As a result no action can be taken against such parties

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Slowing Down: The Painless Alternative

I lay there in pain and suddenly it dawned on me that I had just been injured because I was trying to do another task! I realized that I could fit in a little task before we had people coming round for lunch. The task involved vacuum packing clothes in special bags we have. I actually like doing this task, as I enjoy watching the clothes shrink in size by sucking all