Posts Tagged ‘General’

Posted on November 13, 2007 - by Justin Hartman

Sometimes I Hate South Africa

Last Friday morning Rian Kerkhof (53) died in hospital after being robbed earlier that Thursday evening. Rian was a good family friend and news of his murder only made its way to our household early yesterday evening.

Rian was shot in the right side of his body and was then tied to his daughter while the four scum rummaged through his fridge, ate some dinner, cleaned his cottage out and left him there to die. His daughter Helene was visiting him from Thailand and was beaten and taunted all the while watching her father slip away.

“I looked forward to returning to South Africa, but I cannot live in a place where such pigs are terrorising the community. Nobody is safe. It’s not enough to rob. They want to kill.” — Helene Kerkhof (21)

Rian used to own a Sneakers store in Cape Town before he lost his business and it was during this time that he gave me my very first pair of Nike shoes at age 13 and I will always remember him for this – he was my hero.

After he lost his business Rian struggled through the years and I really felt for the man as no human being should ever go through the hardships he went through. The fact that he was so brutally murdered just sickens me to the stomach and this whole incident just makes me furious.

I can’t help but feel absolutely powerless when I witness the events that take place in South Africa. I love my country, have contributed on occasion to SA Rocks to prove my cause and have even tried to make a small difference with my localised web applications yet at moments like these I just want to run far far away.

When is this lack of respect for life ever going to change? We’re a savage nation that cares nothing for the value of life and I’m struggling to come to terms with these brutal murders that take place every day in this country.

I am often fearful for the safety of my family but when it hits home like this I am completely hopeless.

My deepest condolences go out to Rian’s wife and four children – words can not describe the sadness I feel for them right now…

 

Posted on November 5, 2007 - by Justin Hartman

Time to rethink what I’m doing here

Friday evening was a particularly difficult evening for my marriage and I’ve been rethinking my existence ever since. Not to bore you with semantics but the overall gist is that because of my professional existence both at The Times and with my other various projects I am having no time to dedicate to my relationship with her.

I knew this was an issue and I could feel the impact it has had on her but I was going along with the idea that all this work was going to amount to something at some point and secure our future. While there has been good progress I have to ask at what price does this all come?

Certain other people will agree that Venture Capital in SA sucks and as a result every bright hair-brained scheme I’ve had has been implemented on zero budget with very little resources.

While I have had an awesome experience in the process and learnt a lot about my capabilities there is only so long one can go on for before nothing needs to amount to something and I guess this is where I am.

The time I’ve lost with my family can never be recovered and I simply can’t hold on to the idea that at some point something will work – what if it doesn’t?

I’ve done some soul searching and come to the conclusion that if it doesn’t make me money it isn’t worth my time and I will now focus solely on my job position at The Times and continue with Afrigator for a limited time to see if our new business model can actually work.

 

Posted on October 24, 2007 - by Justin Hartman

Making a grown man cry

This morning Luke had his operation and thank God, all went well. I was dead scared about this operation but thanks to some great comments in my earlier post I lost a lot of the pre-op concerns and in truth I was completely fine up until Luke got his anesthetic.

His courage right throughout amazed me and he took to the dreaded mask without a fight or a complaint and I was seriously expecting worse. At the point of losing consciousness Luke started to freak out a little and I was forced to pin him down until he was out and that was my turning point in the whole experience.

Guilt, helplessness and fear all overcame me and I just wanted to get him out of there – I cried instead.

What I’ve learned through this experience:

1. Kids are tougher than we give them credit for.
2. Trust the experts, they know how.
3. Emotionally I was ready – practically I simply wasn’t.
4. Time in the recovery room is longer than the operation itself.
5. Don’t plan to be at a 9:30am meeting when the op is scheduled for 8:00am.
6. Take the day off work. I didn’t.
7. Make sure there’s lots of yogurt, custard and juice – with straws.
8. Always have a comfort present for afterwards. We had to get one.
9. This is certainly not something I’m going to do again in a hurry.
10. It doesn’t take much to make me cry…

Luke and Mom are at home recovering and when I left for work he seemed almost back to his normal self.

 

Posted on October 22, 2007 - by Justin Hartman

Anaesthesia for my 4 year-old son?

Ok I need help. A few weeks back we took Luke, my son, to the dentist. Apparently he suffers from the Hartman “weak-teeth” curse and now he needs some work done to some of his molar teeth.

The problem is this work can’t be done in the chair and the dentist has advised that we do this under general anaesthetic. We could barely get him to sit in the chair for the preliminary consultation to the Dentist so in my mind this does seem like the only way to resolve this issue.

That said I am crapping myself. This is the first time that I as a parent am faced with a really difficult decision and I’m lost for the right answer. On the one hand I know if we don’t resolve this now he’ll end up with teeth problems for the rest of his life but on the other hand I’m so worried that something goes wrong and I jeopardize his life as a direct result of this anaesthetic.

Luke is scheduled for this operation on Wednesday morning and I’m really getting the pre-op jitters.

Does anyone have any advice for me?

 

Posted on September 15, 2007 - by Justin Hartman

September 15 remains a sad day for me

I’ve been debating whether or not to blog about this issue as it’s a very sensitive topic for me yet despite my reluctance I’ve decided it’s important to write about this day and remember.

Four years today, almost to the hour, my best friend passed away. It is a moment in my life that I can honestly never forget and I have no doubt it will haunt me till the day I die. The difference today is that instead of raw emotion, that has normally been present in reliving this day, I find myself remembering him for what he was and what we had. I still feel saddened by his untimely death but today I thank God for the experiences we shared together.

Together we owned a business, we moved out of home, we became DJ’s and we went through some rough emotional times. My friendship with him was one that I will most likely never experience again and in the four years since his death I still don’t have a relationship that can come close to comparing.

The difficulty in all of this for me is the loneliness. I have a wonderful family, caring friends and a support structure that I care deeply about but ultimately I still feel very lost without him. I suppose that time will heal this.

A few days before his death we found ourselves driving around through the Johannesburg CBD doing a delivery for a client and he played me the song Don’t Give Up by Peter Gabriel. We had often listened to music together as we had very similar interests but this was one of those moments that I knew I’d remember for a long time.

Without realising it this one would be our last moment together and I’d like to share it with you.

[audio:dont_give_up.mp3]

 

Posted on July 5, 2007 - by Justin Hartman

My new position at The Times

After a couple months negotiation and some pretty hairy decision making processes I’ve finally signed and sealed a new contract to begin working at The Times.

On 1 August I’ll take up the position of Assistant New Media Strategist and I’m very excited about this career opportunity. I’ll be working directly with Colin Daniels (who becomes my boss) and Editor Ray Hartley and I’ll also work very closely with Carly Ritz and Gregor Rohrig which excites me immensely.

Oh, and I simply can not forget about David Bullard either. After calling him a wanker I’m now going to be working with the enemy which should provide some interesting encounters of the narcissistic kind.

Leaving Twac was not an easy decision to make however I do feel there is a lot of opportunity for me at The Times. The most important aspect for me in deciding to leave, apart from money of course, was the excitement around being innovative on a fairly large scale level which is something I’ve wanted for some time now.

I really believe The Times has the right people on board to make it a success and I’m simply honoured to now be a part of it.

 

Posted on February 15, 2007 - by Justin Hartman

How I spent my Valentines Day

As is the trend lately my current news seems to be stale news by the time I get around to blogging about it but nonetheless it’s one post I still feel relevant and somewhat important to me.

Yesterday my wife Colette and I decided to take my 3 year old son to his first live sporting event, and share a moment together on Valentines Day, at the South Africa v Pakistan one day International cricket match. Neither of us were sure just how long Luke would last but he loves to watch cricket when it’s on the television so we figured what the hell.

We got there just after 5pm which co-incidentally was also dinner time all thanks to a shoddy performance by Pakistan who only managed to put together a measly 153 runs. The atmosphere was very intense and exciting when South Africa came out to bat but you could just see that Luke was completely overwhelmed.

While the noise was a little scary at first Luke certainly warmed up to the event and soon really started to get into the game which was great. The amazing part for me was that we stayed for the entire South African innings with little complaint from the little guy.

That all said I have to admit that this was all marred by the fact that I just realised that cricket is really not a place for children anymore. Most of the people in the stadium were pissed beyond belief and I can not tell you how many fights nearly broke out in the area that we were sitting in.

One such incident involved a very large white man and an even larger Pakistani man. The Pakistani was standing in front of the large white male, who was directly in front of us, and it turned very ugly indeed. It ended with the white guy pushing the Pakistani and him leaving cursing spitting and screaming. Quite disgusting in truth.

As adults, or even teenagers, we can somehow comprehend what is happening when these things break out but for a three year old it is simply scary. I watched this incident through the eyes of my child and I’m ashamed that I subjected him to this. It just seems to me that people in South Africa simply don’t care about the sport and more about getting pissed and causing chaos in a stadium. It happens in all sporting matches in our stadiums and it simply isn’t good enough.

What is really ironic is that I spent quite a bit of time in London last year watching some very big football games and despite English fans having such a bad reputation for hooliganism I’d now sooner take my child to a football game in London than a sporting event in South Africa.

 

Posted on February 6, 2007 - by Justin Hartman

Of 9/11 and being pessimistic

So the new job is going great (thanks Carls for asking) but I’ve had little time to blog recently. I really wanted to share my experience I had on Sunday but I’m only finding the time to do so today… rather late than never.

Sunday morning 8:55am I found myself eagerly awaiting the implosion of four buildings in the heart of the JHB City. Yes I made a conscious decision to go and see my very first implosion and what excitement it was. The streets were packed and alive with activity as we all awaited the final countdown.

I have to admit I was expecting a louder bang when the explosion went off but nonetheless seeing these buildings come down in less than 12 seconds was well worth the lack of sleep. Within 30 seconds we found ourselves covered in dust from head to toe as a thick grey cloud of dust and debris came hurdling towards us.

A sudden chill of fear and remembrance consumed me at this point as all I could think of when this grey cloud consumed me was the tragedy that was 9/11. I’m often very blasé about the whole 9/11 incident but this was, if only a small version, a practical and very real example of what those poor New Yorkers must have gone through on that tragic day.

Sunday evening I watched the news and the television shots of the implosion and subsequent cloud cover do it no justice and I’m pleased that I got up early to bear witness to this event. While it’s not the same as driving an Aston Martin DB9 for the day (yes that’s you Mike) it does mean that I have one less thing to do in my life.

Now onto being pessimistic… I love this part of my persona and it is no surprise that when I stumbled onto the NO DATA website I immediately fell in love with it.

NO DATA is a questionnaire of sorts and has previously been used as an ‘art’ exhibit in the Watershed Media Centre, Bristol, and as part of an earlier incarnation of www.radiohead.com (one of my favourite bands of all time).

It’s long but takes you on an interesting journey and I highly recommend spending some time to discover the myriad that is our pathetic existence. What are you waiting for? Go there now!

 

Posted on January 26, 2007 - by Justin Hartman

Ja! Productions decided to hire me

A special thanks must go out to Mike Stopforth and Dave Duarte for helping me to find a new job. Mike and Dave introduced me to Johan Reyneke of Ja! Productions and after a lengthy process I received an offer of employment from Johan this morning.

I’m very excited about this position as I believe I will really be able to shine in my new job opportunity. Johan and his team now know the best and worst of me and I really believe this has set up a great foundation for us to work well together. As I mentioned to them yesterday I honestly feel like they really get who I am and it’s for this reason that I really wanted this job.

So, what will I do? Well I’m going to be managing some very exciting web-based projects and I will have the freedom to do what I know how to do best. I will also be working with Mike and Dave on various items which is very exciting for me as I have come to respect these two gentlemen very much.

All in all it’s been a good day and I’m looking forward to February 1st.

 

Posted on January 9, 2007 - by Justin Hartman

Words that end in gry

Yesterday I received a riddle sent to me via email without a solution and while I had seen this riddle before I had completely forgotten the solution to the problem. After a little research I managed to find the answer and I have to admit I found the whole thing very intriguing indeed. So below is the riddle and what follows is the solution to the problem. Give it a bash and see what you can come up with before reading the solution.

There are three words in the English language that end in "gry". ONE is angry and the other is hungry. EveryONE knows what the third ONE means and what it stands for. EveryONE uses them everyday, and if you listened very carefully, I've given you the third word. What is it? _______gry?

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