Selfish and sorry for it

We are all at the heart of ourselves selfish – not necessarily in the mean selfish way, but In other ways that we are not always aware of, many of our actions have selfish roots, in pain physically and emotionally (especially emotionally) we always feel our pain is worse than any one else’s pain, their pain isn’t as bad as ours and they can’t truly understand how it feels – well on that one we’re right, no-one truly knows exactly what you’re going through, but then also grant them the thought that neither do you know what it’s like living in their skin.\

We also tend to think we are more right than the other person, that if we could just swing the round to our point of view that they would understand and praise us for how right we were… and generally around emotional points you can never truly convince someone of their failings in thought or convince them of your superior thinking – in fact you’re likely to spark an even fiercer battle.

There are many more examples of our selfishness (thinking of yourself above others), it’s in our nature, we’ve learnt in this world (through the many ages that man has been on our planet) that in order to survive we need to put our own priorities first, also we have found that working together can make things easier and more bearable. So maybe we need to keep this in mind when dealing with one another, that although we feel the worst done by, so does everyone else and we need their companionship and assistance to make these burdens lighter… I know I can be completely selfish much of the time, and need to remember my pains aren’t the only ones.

Road Trips are Fun.

We (Caro & I) went down to near port Alfred in the Eastern Cape recently for Caro’s cousins 21st. The party was good, and the location was amazing – right on one of South Africa’s most amazing wildest coastlines, with large dunes and a very cold sea (Caro’s got more photo’s of those so I’ll have to get them from her before posting them up here).

What I really enjoyed though was the journey, I know being stuck in a car for over 10 hours can be a bit much, but road trips like that have there own appeal. We did the journey in Caro’s Uncles Kombi and with her Sister Mother and younger Cousin there was plenty of space, so when I wasn’t taking my driving duties from Caro’s mom or sister, we were using one another as pillows as we napped, or enjoying the Beautiful scenery of the Eastern Cape. Or talking reading and entertaining one another.

Road trips are fun.

Jason Rocking Idols

This is a very good friend of mine Jason, absolutely rocking out the current version of Idols South Africa – I openly an honestly say with a wide smile on my face to whoever I can, I’m privledged that he’s a friend of mine, and he’s Jammed with us and the band on occasion, in fact he was going to be playing at Splashy fen with his brother and my brother and myself if he hadn’t done so well at Idols.

Anyway if you’re in South Africa (or even if you’re not you can) I’m giving this man props and asking you to vote for him. Either sms JASON to 34685 or phone 0862277710.

Click on the title above for a link to his blog.

Latest Illustrations

Wow – it’s been a long time, I keep telling myself I’m going to start blogging more consistently, but I never do, I think it’s because I never feel I have much worthwhile contributing, and then when I do think of something I never get around to posting it and then when I do it’s old news *sigh*.

Anyway Thought I’d share some illustrations I’ve been doing recently with you – I love the fact that life is a constant learning curve, just when you think things are starting to get mundane and you’re not learning anything new. You go and discover something cool, or a new way to do something – like my recent dusk/evening Cartoon’s playing with gradients and Shades an d shadows, there’s so much more to explore here, unfortunately I had Deadlines on these so couldn’t spend to long on Details. Let me know what you think, hope you like.

I've Included the same picture Below with some slight Variances - in the first the girls working on a Laptop, in the second she's looking in a games box, while her partner is in the tent his shadow being lit from inside.

Christmas Bear

With the publication out and me not being so busy I end up doing a whole lot of smaller projects or tasks for the company, Like this Christmas polar bear Cartoon I did which I’ve added to our letter head for all correspondence going out around Christmas. Getting to do little things like this lightens up my day.

I'm still here

It has been an extremely long while since I’ve posted anything on my blog and there are many reasons why though none of them on their own a huge factor. Up until recently I’ve been really busy with work, getting out our annual publication, this one has been a lot of work, mainly because we’ve changed the name and a few other things on it, but overall I’m really happy with the final printed product. As a designer you always get a great feeling of accomplishment when you hold something you designed and created as a finished piece.

So what else has been up?? Just the usual run of life and the ebb and flow, with a couple happenstances – my lovely lady is away in Madagascar with a research group doing research on the white collard brown lemur, she’s there for just over 3 months, though she’s already worked a month and a half of that, so I’ve been missing her loads.
Then my very good friend and drummer for our band recently immigrated to Majorca, which has also been a shift in life, while myself and my brother are going to continue on with the band he’s been busy with studies so we haven’t really worked on much recently.

So I’ve been caught up in life and my thoughts and reflections, much is changing in the world at the moment, a global recession that has seemed to have stabilized but which has thrown many people into a state of chaos, I’m sure it’s not over yet but emotions seemed to have calmed people have seemed to accept it and readied themselves to weather the storm. My message to anyone out there who is feeling the pressure and the stress of the current world situation, is to look within and take stock of where and who you are you may not be able to afford many of the items you’d like to or believe you need, but if it were all to collapse inside of you there is a strength to survive and make it through. Don’t let the stress of financial wealth get you down, look to the wealth of love you have with your friends and loved ones and realize that is far more valuable than financial wealth could ever be.

Parrots, Sunsets & Sunrises

I spent the weekend with my lovely woman up in the Ilangeni forest counting Cape Parrots with her varsity group – which was just one of many groups spread throughout the areas these parrots inhabit on the two day national birding weekend.

We journeyed up in a well traveled Bakkie with my lady driving, and met up with another of the groups that was doing a count in the area. After finding out where and what was expected of us first timers, we split our group into smaller groups and were allocated strategically placed points above the indigenous forest to watch for our feather friends.

The weather was cold but the scenery was beautiful, and though our group didn’t see any of the parrots on the first day, we could still appreciate our surroundings as the sun dipped below the mountains bathing us in its golden glow.

Back at camp there was talk over who had seen what as we munched happily on our much needed supper – most groups had spotted at least one parrot, so we weren’t feeling so good about not spotting any. It was off to bed early and up earlier, we were up in the darkness at four in the morning so we could get to our posts before the sun rose, as the Parrots are most active in the morning and the afternoon.

Tired cold bodies climbed into the bakkie and we headed up the rocky drive to our vantage point, then making the last hundred meters on foot our over the rough terrain by torchlight. Our fearless team leader (my lady) decided we should change our position as where we were originally positioned didn’t offer us a good view over the forest below. We settled ourselves in against the cold wind (great excuse for me to cuddle closer) and awaited the dawn and the Parrots. I think the parrots decided to cuddle up as well because at about 7:30am they hadn’t made an appearance, getting restless I convinced our fearless leader to join me on a walk into the forest, hoping maybe we’d be able to spot some parrots close up… …we didn’t we did come across a pair of Knysna Louries though, very beautiful brightly coloured birds, and they were perched not three meters away from us.

After our excursion we regioned our fellow group, to continue our vigil, not long after we had our first spotting, and postioned in a better spot to view the group, we watched the parrots until about midmorning, before we headed back to camp to make breakfast up camp and return home.
Tired but happy I climbed into my warm bed on Sunday night ready to dream of Parrots, susets and sunrises, in the company of someone you love.

http://www.ukzn.ac.za/Biology/CapeParrot242.aspx