check it out…Rick Astley brought out his first single since his last songs 17 years ago. i only noticed this now on reddit and seems like someone created an awesome “poster” to promote the song across the interwebs. how awesome is that.

not a bad song, nothing like his rickrollin’ “never gonna give you up” hit but pretty neat to see him make a song decades later.

i found this on the internet and i am trying to hunt down the photographer who took this so i can give him recognition for it. it is simply mindblowing!

let me first start off by saying i am not bitter or anything regarding me not getting into the last round. i don’t care.

what i am going to rant about is the fact that some of the nominations in the next round should not even be there and i will tell you why.

this morning i got an email to say the nominations are up and we should go and vote. i go through the list and being a good person i go to each nomination’s blog to check it out and see why they have been chosen.

anyhoo, i checked out some of these and started ranting on twitter about some of them.

how can http://wikus.co.za/ be a nomination for “new best blog” it’s been dead for almost 2 years and last post was 2009 #justsaying – about 5 hours ago via TweetDeck

dieantwoord.com is NOT a blog. #justsaying – about 3 hours ago via TweetDeck

baydu.co.za is being nominated for best entertainment blog but firefox is blocking it due to “distribute harmful software” #fail – about 2 hours ago via TweetDeck

someone on twitter pointed out

This has been nominated for an award and doesn’t seem to exist: http://parklife.za.net/

a few other people shared their disgust about the whole thing. there are others that have ranted and raved about it on their blogs too.

*UPDATE*
Chris has been so kind so give us an update and said that they have fixed www.parklife.za.net link, notified baydu.co.za of his little malware attack on the site and they have removed dieantwoord from the category. Thanks again Chris for the update.

does sablogawards not go through the nominations and check the sites and that they are valid? do they not check to see if they fit into the right categories? do they not notice the duplication of blogs?

it just looks sloppy, unprofessional and very embarrassing.

go check out the nominations and tell me i am wrong. oh and as i type this, their site just cannot handle the amount of traffic it is experiencing. surely you should have seen this coming?

if you are going to vote (whenever they decide to bring the site back up again), please vote for the following because they deserve it.

The Exclus1ve Best Entertainment Blog:
bangersandnash.com

The Best Post on a South African Blog:
6000.co.za/dear-uruguay

The Best New Blog:
capetowngirl.co.za

The Best Science and Technology Blog:
igeek.co.za

The Evox Advanced Nutrition Best Sports Blog:
SAcricketblog.com

The Best Indigenous Language Blog:
watkykjy.co.za

The Most Controversial Blog:
exmi.co.za

The Best Personal Blog:
beingbrazenbooks.blogspot.com

The Ogilvy Twitter Microblogger of the Year:
twitter.com/robynhobson

The Ogilvy Best Media and Marketing Blog
integralwebsolutions.co.za/blog.aspx

The Best Company Blog:
rlabs.org

they deserve it. just do it and you might just make the SA Blog Awards seem ok this year.

just reading over this i noticed i came across nicer than i thought (no swear words what so ever, so does this classify as a rant?). if i had written this earlier this morning it would have been a full scale assault.

we all know how shit real life can be at times and we find ourselves looking for things or ways to escape it. by escaping it i mean being dragged into that awesome book you are reading, playing that computer game or spending your time on the waves. you just want to get away from all the issue of the world and sink away into your own reality or into someone else’s world where you do not have to worry about that deadline next week or that damn bond you have to pay at the end of the month.

being pulled into things like this makes us happy and not give a rats ass about the real world. it’s needed. we need to escape reality and not have to stress, worry or get angry at things. my wife loves to get lost into books or into her tv shows and she could sit for hours on end doing it. i on the other hand could sit for hours on end playing computer games. everyone has their own “fix”.

i played world of warcraft for a few years and quit last year. yes, people say that it is addictive. i admit it is, BUT for me, it was my escape from reality. what i am trying to say is, when you find that something that takes you away from reality and makes you not worry about real life things, it will make you want to go there more often, which might lead to this addictiveness. what other people may see as addictive, to you it will seem like an escape and that is where some people don’t see eye to eye because they don’t understand why. why is he always working on his car? why is she always reading that book? it’s because they love doing it and makes them escape reality. one just needs to understand their thinking AND one needs to communicate with the other people and come to some sort of common ground.

on there other hand it does have its negatives. if you have a family, girlfriend or friends, you tend to neglect them and not spend as much time with them because you would rather be in your own world. it’s like a mother who has 3 nagging kids ringing in her ears and all you want to do is escape into that book and not give two hoots about it. you have to admit, you would rather have peace and quiet than 3 kids making your life difficult and that is what makes us long for that escapism.

finding that balance is hard. i have trouble with finding that balance and am still working on it.

what is your fix, how do you deal with it and how does it affect your relationship with your friends or family?

Group A looks to be a little tough one for Tottenham who are in the group with reining champions Inter Milan and also with one of the dutch giants FC Twente.

Group B sees Lyon and Benfica looking to fight it out for top spot.

Group C looks like Manchester United and Valencia (who remember are now without stars like David Villa and David Silva who both moved to Barcalona and Manchester City respectively) should be able to oust Rangers and the unknown Bursaspor.

Group D seems to be muchly favourable for Barcalona. No real stiff competition for them so it would be interesting to see what the other three teams in that group can come up with.

Group E sees Roma and Bayern face each other and these two should see themselves through.

Group F could be a bit tricky for Chelsea with trips to Marseille and Spartak.

Group G is the group of death. Real Madrid, AC Milan, Ajax and Auxerre. WHAT A GROUP!

Group H sees Arsenal with a pretty easy group too it seems with uknowns in there which should not trouble them too much.

The winners for the various positions for the past year were also announced and here they are:

Goalkeeper of the year went to Julio Cesar (Inter) who fought off Hugo Lloris (Lyon) and Victor Valdes (Barcelona).

Defender of the year went to  Maicon (Inter Milan) who had Lucio (Inter Milan)  and Gerard Pique (Barcelona) to content with.

Midfielder of the year went to Wesley Sneijder (Inter Milan) who came up against Xavi (Barcelona) and  Arjen Robben (Bayern Munich).

Foward of the year went to Diego Milito (Inter) who outted Lionel Messi (Barcelona), and Wayne Rooney (Man Utd).

Club player of the year went to Diego Milito (Inter).

So that left Inter Milan with all the player awards. Guess it was because they won Uefa Champions League, The League and their domestic cup!

google has just launched thier call phones from gmail service. you can call any phone from gmail or gtalk when you install the plugin.
the only thing is, it is free in the USA and Canada but in South Africa it will cost you $0.05 to landlines and $0.17 to cellphones. this is USD (dollars) per minute billing.

check out http://www.google.com/chat/voice/ for much more info on it.

i just wonder with skype being around how it will compete. but to be honest, i hate skype, but who knows.

*Past group-stage appearances not including 2010/11
**UEFA Champions League unless stated
***Includes pre-1992 European Champion Clubs’ Cup
UEL=UEFA Europa League
3qr=third qualifying round
qf=quarter-finals

I AM THANKFUL:
FOR THE WIFE WHO SAYS IT’S HOT DOGS TONIGHT,
BECAUSE SHE IS HOME WITH ME, AND NOT OUT WITH SOMEONE ELSE.

FOR THE ALARM THAT GOES OFF IN THE EARLY MORNING HOURS
BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM ALIVE.