The Shaved Soapbox

Wordless Wednesday – Sunlight Effects

Baldy — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 08:52:49 +0000

Wordless Wednesday – How comfy is this

Baldy — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 08:30:25 +0000

Captain in the Cauldron – My review

Baldy — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 19:43:32 +0000

John Smit's autobiography is an awesome read. I managed to finish it in a few days, purely because I couldn't put it down, unlike a few other books I've read recently.

The book gives a lot of insight into what happens behind the scenes in the Springbok camp, especially around the preparation for the 2007 World Cup campaign.

A number of rumours incorrectly spread by the media were also dispelled in the book, and I have even more respect for our current Springbok captain after reading his book.

I've been following Smit's career since he burst onto the international scene, and have realised long ago that most of his work is done behind the scenes, out of the public eye, even on the field . This book was a confirmation of that realisation.

I can really recommend the book, well worth the buy. I hope I get the rest of the chapters for free when they are written

Wordless Wednesday – Living on the edge

Baldy — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 07:23:32 +0000

Wordless Wednesday – Bushveld Sunset

Baldy — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 13:43:32 +0000

Wordless Wednesday – Flames

Baldy — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 08:39:29 +0000

Use a bit of common sense in traffic

Baldy — Thu, 27 May 2010 07:30:57 +0000

One of the things that annoy me the most is someone that does not use his/her nut while driving in traffic.

You are not special, and you don't have special privileges based on the price of your car, the size of your car or the colour of your skin (this is not a racist statement, just an observation).

If everyone used a little bit of common sense, we would actually get out of the traffic a lot sooner.

If you think you're special and you race down the wrong lane to try and push into a line at the front, you're holding up everyone that actually had the patience and common sense to be in the correct lane for where they want to go early enough.

When two rows of traffic merge for whatever reason, this should work like a zipper. If you don't know how that works, look down at your clothing and figure it out. Take note that no matter how fast you operate said zipper, it always works. Same for traffic merging, if everyone takes their alternate place in the line, you could potentially do this at a steady speed without everyone having to slow down. But notice what happens when you decide you're special, and you don't leave a gap for the next person to integrate with the lane in front of you. You hold up both lines, because the person that needed to come in had to slow down, and the person behind you had to slow down to now let two cars in.

When you get to a traffic light, and the line of cars is backed up to the line across the intersection, don't race across and park IN the intersection, in-case you miss the light. Now you are holding up the line of traffic going across your route. Your impatience is selfish. Rather wait for the road to clear enough so you can fit your car in the line while not standing in the intersection, even if that means to wait for another change of lights.

There is no racing line on public roads. That's right you heard me, stick to the middle of the lane you're in, if you move towards the side, or heaven forbid, cross the line slightly, you're only endangering your fellow road users.

Wordless Wednesday – Zebra

Baldy — Wed, 26 May 2010 10:30:09 +0000

Selfish strikers

Baldy — Tue, 25 May 2010 04:36:33 +0000

Have the people currently striking at Transnet thought of the impact of their strike on the rest of South Africa. My dad is of the opinion that there could be up to one person losing their job in another industry for every person that is striking at Transnet.

How does he get to this?

Lets look at the fruit exporting business. They are currently in peak season for a number of different fruit, and cannot ship any of their product out of the country. That means that the industry as a whole will not make their profits, and may make a loss if they have to dump all of their produce on local markets. Who suffers? The farmers, and the workers that they now cannot afford to pay anymore. Their estimate is that they will lose R1billion equalling 30,000 jobs.

Economists say that the economy will probably lose R15billion therefore some 450,000 possible jobs will be lost, taking the scenario of the fruit producers. Take 10% of that and it amounts to some 45,000 additional jobs that may be lost. If this is not theft legalised what is it then?

The Coal industry, probably the largest Transnet customer. Their system is normally running at capacity, which means that for the 2 weeks lost so far, they've lost 2 weeks in production, because they cannot cath up on lost shipping, there is no more capacity available. Who suffers? The coal miners, the workers.

So please, fire your greedy union leaders and accept the 11% offer, it is more than what most of us got.

Why do I say the union leaders are greedy? Remember that the union takes a percentage cut of your salary, 4% over 100,000 workers is a lot of money. If they get you 15%, a figure which is probably their upper target, I'll put money on them getting paid "super" performance bonuses, out of the extra money that you're now contributing to the union's coffers.

Update: According to Business Report, government wants to declare the fruit farming issue a disaster. I've included some figures above, all in italics.

I can recommend a brilliant photographer

Baldy — Thu, 20 May 2010 15:24:30 +0000

We do quite a few photo shoots as a family, and we've worked with a number of photographers in the past. And almost every time we walked away with the thought "Won't use that one again". This was never because of the quality of the photography, but more a clash of personalities and work ethics.

When doing these shoots we expect the photographer to give some guidance, but also be adaptable. We've worked with a few who gave no guidance whatsoever, and some who were completely inflexible. Both a no-no in my book.

On Sunday we did a shoot with Jeanette Verster, and I can honestly say we've found a photgrapher that fits in perfectly with what we've been looking for. Someone that provides some guidance, but remains flexible and improvises to use the changing environment to her advantage.

The shots came out awesome, here are some of them.