Flashback 130 - Please call me

I remember receiving various of those "Please call me. Thank you." SMS or being "flashed" the last time I was back home. It appears that there are even certain "Rules of Beeping".

But beeping is not only about money. Donner's 'Rules of Beeping' suggests a social protocol for the practice.

"The richer guy pays," he writes. It is acceptable to beep someone if you are short of cash and they are flush with credit. Never beep someone poorer than you.

Never beep someone you are tapping for a favor. You don't want to risk annoying the person you are trying to win over. Never flash your girlfriend, unless you want to look cheap.

Here is a Reuters article on the topic

The "Rules of Beeping" (PDF) from Jonathan Donner

Here is the study "Africa Calling" (PDF)

A Spiegel Online article on the same topic (in German)

Bean harvest in Loitokitok - The Videos

It's been a while since I did this original post on the bean harvest in my hometown of Loitokitok. Thanks to a comment left on that post recently, I remembered that I never got to posting videos of the harvesting. Well, better late than never...

(Sorry about the quality, the videos were taken with a digital camera)

What's happening over there?

Taken from here

G.O.A.T. - Athletes

G.O.A.T. usually stands for Greatest of All Time. Since I haven't been around forever, on my blog G.O.A.T. is an acronym for Greatest of Adrian's Time. With my first installation of what I plan to be a series of G.O.A.T. posts on various topics (tv series, songs, etc), I'm going to try and list my favourite athletes. Please feel free to disagree with me and make your own list in the comments section.

Apologies to the likes of Muhammad Ali, Maradona, Pele, et al for not making this list simply cause they excelled way before the time I was able to seriously follow sports. No offence as well to athletes from cricket, figure skating, rugby, etc since I don't follow those sports.

10. Martina Hingis
I believe that she could have ended up being the best female tennis player ever if it wasn't for the problems with her feet. From a tactical point of view and being able to read the court, she's miles ahead of her peers. She surely would have more supporters if she didn't have attitude issues. Let's see how her 2nd career goes.

9. Ronaldo
I remember regularly watching him win CNN's play of the day with brilliant solo efforts during his days with Barcelona. That was before his move to Inter and the many injuries that followed, culminating in the whole saga before the World Cup final in 1998. Despite gaining a few kilos while playing for Real Madrid, he still was able to blow by defenders with his first step. Hope he can stay injury-free with Milan.

8. Kobe Bryant
Hate him or love him, he is most definately the most talented player in the NBA right now and a real competitor. Unfortunately for him, he came after Jordan and will never have the impact MJ had worldwide - both as an athlete and as a role model. The fighting with Shaq and that trip to Colorado didn't help his case either.

7. Valentino Rossi
The guy is almost bigger than his sport. Though he didn't win the championship in 2006, he still is the king of motorcycle racing. His fast times on four wheels and permanent flirting with F1 illustrate just how much of a racer he is.

6. Zinedine Zidane
Without doubt the soccer player I most enjoyed watching (Ronaldinho is too inconsistent in my opinion). Watching him go by defenders with that trick of his (turning round with ball under one foot) was just pure magic. I guess it would have been too perfect an ending for him to go out with another World Cup win. Count me among those who fully understand his headbutt against Materazzi.

5. Michael Schumacher
Though he wasn't the cleanest of drivers, there's no denying that he dominated F1, albeit in a period with too much technical assistance and less risks than in the past. The fact that he took the most legendary of cars to such a high level of perfection is credit to his work ethic.

4. Lance Armstrong
There's one hot summer I closely followed the Tour de France, and I must say, these cyclists suffer. Though I'm convinced there's no way the doping allegations are completely false, I appreciate his talent and mental strength (considering his medical history).

3. Tiger Woods
It's just impossible to ignore someone who so regularly dominates other golfers and the courses they play on. What I find most impressive about golf, is the precision and mental toughness it requires. And Tiger just seems to have been born to do one thing - play golf like it's never been played before.

2. Roger Federer
Federer is probably the athlete who I'm going to end up watching most in my lifetime. How good is he? So good that I regularly feel let down when he misses a shot. It's been said time and time before, but it's just amazing to watch how calm he (nowadays) is on the court and how humble he is as a person.

1. Michael Jordan
With MJ, it's about more than who he was as an athlete. His six titles with the Bulls and his individual accolades speak volumes. The way he was able to adapt his game after his first retirement and dominate with a totally different style of play is just simply amazing. Add to that his cultural impact with the bald head, baggy shorts, Air Jordan shoes and his economic impact on sports marketing, and you have the G.O.A.T.

Shutdown Day

This Saturday 24 March 2007 is Shutdown Day, an international global experiment to see how many people can do without their computer for 24 hours. Don't ask me how they're going to see how effective this experiment is and how they can compare it to other Saturdays. What happens if I click that I'm going to participate and then don't?

Anyway, thought I should mention it just in case any of you out there are feeling like not touching your computer this Saturday. I won't be touching mine. But not because of this experiment. I'll be up in the mountains with the boys freezing my black behind...

Honda F1 - Good PR?

The Honda Racing F1 Team announced that they'll be driving without a sponsor in 2007. The car will instead "simply feature a huge image of earth". The aim of the myearthdream.com initiative is "to help raise awareness of the environmental issues facing the planet". I'm sure Wangari Maathai and Al Gore will now start watching F1.

Honda have once again managed to make some noise. Most people's first reaction will probably be something like; "WTF?! F1 and climate change?!". I can't remember the details and the source, but I read somewhere that F1 is actually quite "environment-friendly".

EDIT: Here's a link to the article about how 22 grown men driving around in circles can be "friendly" to the environment. It appears that "Grand Prix racing has been carbon neutral since 1997".

And for Honda this is pretty good PR. It's not like they really need the money from the sponsors. The positive impact this project has on their image and reputation is worth much much more. Their sales in "clean" vehicles probably won't suffer either.

Remember that cool Honda ad?

Maasai hands-free kit

Funny pic I received this morning. Being a proud Maasai, I had to share. Hmmm, maybe I should have my ears done...

Words I'd rather not hear...

The following is a list of phrases or words I'd rather not hear. Some of them aren't always negative, but most of the times I hear the following, I'd rather not have.

- Authorities in Lampedusa fear...
- HIV/AIDS
- I'm sorry to inform you...
- It's about your...
- Is there somewhere we can talk in private?
- It's a little bit more complicated than we expected
- There's nothing more we can do
- We tried our best but unfortunately...
- Latest reports coming from Darfur / Somalia / Iraq / ...
- Threatened + Al Qaeda / Ahmadinejad / Kim Jong-il
- We have no choice but to...
- Ultimatum + George W. Bush / Kim Jong-il / Ahmadinejad
- Poverty / hunger / child mortality / malaria / rape / ...
- There's been an accident
- The police aren't sure, but it looks like...
- Al Jazeera has new video material
- It's not looking good, not good at all...

The list doesn't stop here, feel free to add your own words in the comment section. I also hope that none of you has to hear any of the above anytime soon.

Missing Out

One of the worst things about being far from home is the number of family events one misses. My mom just came back from home; she had gone for my uncle's (her brother) wedding. Till about two weeks before the wedding, I was also considering going. But then I came to the conclusion that it wasn't very wise for me to do so - mainly cause I had spent two months at home in December and January.

(Sometimes I wish I could stop thinking rationally and just do what my heart tells me to do...)

Of course I continue to have my doubts whether I made the right decision. And when I saw the pictures from the wedding, I was almost sure that I had made the wrong decision. I know the wedding is over now and there's nothing I can do about it. But that's easier said than done.

Weddings, new-borns, birthday partys, regular family reunions or visits and even funerals are all things I've missed out on for the past 15 years. Add to that the "normal life" back home and of course the possibility that some of our loved ones won't be there the next time we visit, and you're missing out on quite a lot...

The worst part of it all for me is not being able to be with my grandparents. As I've mentioned a few times before, I'm a shagz guy. I spend about 80% of my time back home at our shagz (Loitokitok). This is probably because as a small child, I spent a lot of time with my grandparents. I was like the last-born in my mom's family. Till today, I call my grandparents Mama and Baba.

Sometimes I wonder whether missing out on all these things is worth it all. And even if we one day go back home, some people may no longer be there and we definitely won't be able to re-live all the moments we've missed with our loved ones.

Finally a Winner!

What a great race the Hungarian GP was!

I wish it would rain in every race. And not ati full strong rain where the drivers stick with wet tyres the whole race. I want races where the weather changes and teams are forced to take risks. Schumi for example gambled and stuck with the intermediates. If he had changed to dry tyres, he probably would have finished 4th and avoided looking like a bad sport fighting off de la Rosa by taking shortcuts. And of course he wouldn't have touched Heidfeld, which cost him the race. I know, hindsight is always 20/20, but still...

On a personal level, it was a great race cause my guys from Honda finally got their win. And of course it was Jenson Button's first win!! After coming so close so often, it's great to finally see him on top. Last season was one to forget. 2004 was great, but the constant 2nd and 3rd places became frustrating with time, especially losing to Trulli in Monaco by a few secs. And who could forget the whole contract issue...

So now, let's hope for many more Honda and Jenson wins. And the championship is still wide open, which should be quite interesting for the final five races of the season. Hope it stays open till the final race in Brazil with Schumi beating out Alonso fairly. And then retiring - leaving the young guns to fight the next few years.