snowgoose

I am a proud mother to two gorgeous children. Well, I think they are gorgeous; most people either stare in fascination or grimace in disgust. My kids are the best kind: They make no noise, they live very clean and they don’t demand too much attention.

The Big (and by big I mean fat) sister: Ozzy the Bearded dragon.

We got Ozzy in May last year; she is an Australian Inland Bearded Dragon. She’s named after Ozzy Osbourne because she “bites the heads off crickets”. I think it is quite clear at this point that we thought she was a boy. She stayed Ozzy because by the time we were able to sex her, the name “Sharon” just did not fit. (Thank goodness we didn’t call her Fred or George).

As you can see, she’s pretty darn fat. Morbidly obese might be more apt. Before you call child welfare to report abuse, let me explain that we do not over feed her and make a big effort to ensure she gets a balanced, low fat diet. She’s just not big on moving around and I am yet to find a lizard gym.

She’s very friendly, loves humans and has never bitten anything that didn’t have six legs.
She might lick you but that’s as dangerous as she gets.

The moody teenage brother: Mojo the veiled chameleon

Most people are scared of Ozzy but they should really be scared of Mojo. He hates humans; in fact he hates anything that isn’t food. If he were human, he’d live in his Black Sabbath and Korn poster clad bedroom darkly contemplating the demise off all “lame” adults.
If you are stupid enough to put your hand in his cage, you will be treated to him inflating himself like a balloon, hissing and trying his damndest to bite your probing fingers off.

All this means very little because like all moody teenagers, he is pretty harmless and his bark is far worse than his bite (in fact, he hasn’t actually bitten us, it’s all a show).

Mojo is so named because of his amazing skill of disappearing when in his cage (although chameleons do not change colour to blend into their background, that’s a myth) causing us to exclaim “I’ve lost my Mojo!” That and he is funny looking so he deserves a funny name.

He is a 9 month old Veiled chameleon, originally from Yemen. They are very fussy and hard to keep happy, but its so rewarding when you get it right (plus watching him catch his food with that super tongue is better than any TV show).

So now you have met my pets. They are the start of what will hopefully become an impressive lizard collection. I’d like to get a Tokay Gecko, a Ridge Tailed Monitor, a Sandfish Skink, a Panther Chameleon, a Spectacled Caiman (need a BIG garden for that one) and a whole lot more. But I have to earn a whole lot of money first as lizards are expensive pets.

I know you think I am weird. I don’t care. If I want to cuddle, I have my cats – If I want to be constantly surprised, fascinated and educated – I’ve got my kids; Ozzy and Mojo.

I am of the firm belief that everyone should start their career off working for a big company.
The benefits are just too amazing not to. Especially if said company is a bank.

Let’s use myself and my boyfriend, Shaun Custers as examples: I work for Standard Bank, he works for a small IT company. He earns more than I do, has shorter working hours and travels less every day but I still have the better deal. In the 2 short years I have been there, I have gone on over 6 training courses on things like web development, Usability, Web Project management, Marketing and the latest one, Leadership, all free. I have also gone to numerous conferences, also free. The interest rates on my house, car etc are all discounted. On the other hand, Shaun hasn’t been on one training course that he hasn’t had to pay for in full. And his company isn’t able to offer him interest rate discounts, a retirement fund, a free counselling service, free Will drafting, a free library, a subsidised canteen, etc (I could add quite a few more things that I am lucky enough to get.)

Now you see why I say all young people should at least start their careers at a corporate. Imagine you are a 21 year old, straight out of varsity, and you are able to get this phenomenal head start. You would be way ahead of your peers in a few years and if you don’t like the enterprise culture, then you can move to a smaller company or even start your own.
People like Tyler Reed are the exception to the rule, most young people need to claw their way up the ladder and spend their first few years in the working world slogging away for peanuts. Corporates don’t pay peanuts, and the training and bursaries they offer are enough to make it well worth ‘being a number’ for as long as you need to.
Think about it.

Sage: [seyj] (noun) 
1. A profoundly wise person; a person famed for wisdom.
2. Someone venerated for the possession of wisdom, judgment, and experience.

Zealot: [zehl-uht] (noun)
1. One who is zealous, especially excessively so.
2. A fanatically committed person.

The fringe fanatics who hide in caves because The World is ending are right. The World is ending, and the whole of civilisation will be wiped out. But what they seem to have wrong is when this will happen. They are so concerned with what the future holds that they forget to live in the present. People often wonder how supposedly ordinary human beings are still caught up in this fanaticism when the date they predicted for Armageddon passes. The reason is they still believe; they just adjust their calculations.

The US, Europe and Asia are ahead of South Africa on the web & social media curve and with over 3 million Americans on Twitter alone, it is easy to see where we, as a country, are headed. It is already happening; large corporates are starting to take the medium seriously, even hiring the most respected web 2.0 gurus to lead them into this digital revolution.

But does this make us, as South Africa’s early adopters, sages or zealots?To you it might be clear – of course we are sages! We know exactly what is going to happen here because it has happened elsewhere. But, the future the religious zealots have mapped out is also right, it is their actions that make them seem weird to ’normal people’.

We often preach only to the converted few. In the last 3 days, I have heard 3 different media being given as the sole reason for Barack Obama’s historic victory; Direct Marketing, Mobile Marketing and Social Media. His victory was because of none of these things. He reached out to his country and spoke to them in a way they could understand, it was not about the media he chose to do so.

Please do not judge me before the end of this post – I am not saying we are lunatics. What I am doing is cautioning us (me included) not to get too evangelistic about our specialities, when our country has only a 10% web penetration, and only a fraction of those people actively engage and understand social media. Most of my friends think Facebook is the beginning and end of Social Media, and dismiss me as a total geek for Tweeting my every move. I am a geek and I am proud of it, because I, like you, see that the web is rapidly changing. But should I just dismiss my friends as ‘tech-Neanderthals’ who need to wake up and smell the 21st century? Or should I actively try and get them involved, to spread the knowledge and grow the medium myself, instead of waiting for it to happen?

If we just wait for the rest of the country (and continent) to catch up with us, while we evolve with the established nations, how can we expect them to? We write lists of what companies are starting to do right in this space and lament on how far behind everyone really is – but do we actively teach them? I am not talking about mapping out corporate strategy. The only people who will engage with you in your brilliant social media initiative are the people already on social media. Maybe each of us should bring a ‘non-geek’ friend to 27dinners, or introduce them to Twitter/Blogs/RSS and teach them what the medium can do for them. This might flop – but if it works we will have doubled our community. And the viral nature of social networking will then hopefully accelerate the change.

Disclaimer: I do not mean to offend, please do not take it that way. I respect the early adopters enormously and hope to make a future in this industry. I do hope this sparks some interesting discussion though.

Wow, finally… my first post. This is quite a momentous occasion for me, I’m a little nervous about what people will think of my blog and if they’ll even read it. You wouldn’t think I’d be nervous considering I blat out my every move on Twitter & Facebook, so much so that there is no need to ask me “So, how have you been?”. Anyone following me will already know… in great, and often unecessary, detail.

But I digress (I will do that a lot, so get used to it), back to why I am nervous about this post: You see, I have some amazing friends/mentors in this industry (Rozz, Mike Stopforth & Mel Attree to name a few) who have been encouranging me to start this for quite a while. And I haven’t yet because I want to do this right. I think it will be a personal blog, since I will not even try to enter the leagues of the web 2.0/social media bloggers I admire yet (Specifically; the aforementioned friends plus Eve Dmochowska, Gino Cosme, Dave Duarte, Jon Bishop, Tyler Reed, Nic Haralambous, etc) – I still have A LOT to learn. But I’m not exactly sure what to write about yet.

This brings me to the real real reason I am nervous (see – I told you I would digress!): In the true spirit of social media, I am going to ask you to tell me what you would read. Do you think I should write about my weird and crazy life? Should it only be about what I am learning in this exciting industry? Or should I do a little of both? I wont ask you to be nice – only be nice if you think I deserve it.

In the meantime, get to know me – if you don’t already. I’ve put together a not-so-short summary of who I am and where you can find me on the About and Contact pages. If you want to find out for yourself if I really exist an am not just a badly constructed bot, catch me at the next Jozi 27dinner!

Laterz,

Heidi