Bramley Famli

My friend Dunc sent this to me. A wonderful set of solutions for around the house. Enjoy them, write them down, start using them today….

1. IF YOU’RE CHOKING ON AN ICE CUBE, SIMPLY POUR A CUP OF BOILING WATER DOWN YOUR THROAT. PRESTO! THE BLOCKAGE WILL INSTANTLY REMOVE ITSELF.
2. AVOID CUTTING YOURSELF WHEN SLICING VEGETABLES BY GETTING SOMEONE ELSE TO HOLD THE VEGETABLES WHILE YOU CHOP.
3. AVOID ARGUMENTS WITH THE FEMALES ABOUT LIFTING THE TOILET SEAT – USE THE SINK.
4. FOR HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE SUFFERERS ~ SIMPLY CUT YOURSELF AND BLEED FOR A FEW MINUTES, THUS REDUCING THE PRESSURE ON YOUR VEINS. REMEMBER TO USE A TIMER.
5. A MOUSE TRAP PLACED ON TOP OF YOUR ALARM CLOCK WILL PREVENT YOU FROM ROLLING OVER AND GOING BACK TO SLEEP AFTER YOU HIT THE SNOOZE BUTTON.
6. IF YOU HAVE A BAD COUGH, TAKE A LARGE DOSE OF LAXATIVES. THEN YOU’LL BE AFRAID TO COUGH.
7. YOU ONLY NEED TWO TOOLS IN LIFE –  Q20 AND DUCT TAPE. IF IT DOESN’T MOVE AND SHOULD, USE THE Q20. IF IT SHOULDN’T MOVE AND DOES, USE THE DUCT TAPE.
8. REMEMBER – EVERYONE SEEMS NORMAL UNTIL YOU GET TO KNOW THEM.
9. IF YOU CAN’T FIX IT WITH A HAMMER, YOU’VE GOT AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM.

My mate Gregg Sneddon is one of those passionate people when it comes to money. Your money. And not getting his hands on it. He’s more about you keeping your hands on it. He’s a great writer as well, and I love reading his stuff. He’s edgy, counter-cultural and probably gets up the nose of many of his peers in the financial services game.

He used to send out newsletter many times a year, and has transfered accross to a blog based info distribution system.

Check out his latest entry on Unit Trust RA’s v Life Insurance RA’s.

Found this article the other day from the New York Times, via Twitter (me thinks). Wasn’t sure what to expect, but it turned out to be an interesting piece on the aparent strength of marriage in modern times. Anecdotaly I’ve assumed that state of marriage is not healthy. Perhaps I am wrong?

Despite strong social riptides working against it — the liberalization of divorce laws, the vanishing stigma of divorce, the continual online temptations of social sites like MySpace or Facebook — the marriage bond is far stronger in 21st-century America than many may assume.

There’s a lot of hype around Twitter. I hear it all the time. And there seem to be two distinct camps. Those rabidly for and those against. The against camp speak of just another fad. I say that they’re possibly correct in their thinking. To be honest though, that’s not the question. The real question is for however long Twitter is with us, will it change something about how we look at the world and each other, and therefore how we connect and interact?

Steven Johnson writes a great piece on Time (online) that gives a small insight into some of how Twitter added a new dimension to at least one conference. I like how it was used, and how it brought in a new channel for communication to add to the dialogue in the room.

The social warmth of all those stray details shouldn’t be taken lightly.

I’m really interested more in the social changes than the platforms themselves. Personally I think whether Twitter stays or goes, it will change our lives in some way going forward.

I Am Parent and Fathers In Africa are present at the Baba Indaba in Pretoria this weekend (starting today). And if you’ve been following our posts this week, then you know I Am Parent is Leish’s new business. She’s creating opportunities for parents to learn more about who they are, in order to become better parents to their children.

A friend of ours, Kevin Rutter, who runs www.fathers.co.za (Fathers In Africa) has a stand at the show and Leish has put together some brochures to create awareness around I Am Parent. It’s been a very exciting week, working with both of them to assist where I can to help get it all together.

If you’d like to see Leish’s new brochure, you can download it here.

Many of you will know that Leish has been working on putting a course together that looks at ‘The Enneagram and Parenting’. She’s been collecting resources, building exercises, studying and designing for quite some time now. This past weekend she put a website together (www.iamparent.co.za) that marks another step toward it seeing the light of day.

If you’re interested in getting to know yourself in order to be a better parent, then you should swoop on over there and take a look. And even if you’re not, it’s a kick ass web site that’s worth checking out.

I got sent a great link to an article by Malcolm Gladwell (one of my heroes) by my friend Aiden Choles (The Narrative Lab)

It’s definitely worth a read if you have some time.

Go here to read the article.

I was quoted in an article in the Careers section of The Times today.

Barrie Bramley, chief information officer at TomorrowToday.biz, says today’s challenging business environment demands that the roles traditionally assumed by managers and leaders should be combined and the same tasks should be executed by the same people.

Up early, no sleeps to go, and this is what we look like on the day of holiday. Pretty darn scary if you ask me.

OK so Carli didn’t really know what was going on. Clearly this amused Jordi.

We’ll keep dese photis rolling as we go. Fairly sure the mom of this family is going to be snapping away laak crazi!

For a bigger version of the photo, click here

I use Mindjet’s MindManager, and have been for a long time now. It’s a Mind Mapping programme, that works beautifully. So when I moved over to Mac, it was one of those programmes that came along with a big sigh. Mindjet does have a Mac version, but my worry was that they were going to use the opportunity to sting me for another license.

Not so. I let them know I had made the move, sent them my original docs and they changed the license over, and sent a link for the Mac version.

Great service. Fantastic surprise. Very grateful.