Once Inspired

Archive for August, 2009

Washington DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approx 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.

4 minutes later: The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the till and, without stopping, continued to walk.

6 minutes: A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

Here’s a little something for those of you who believe that you never have opportunities come your way.

A young man was getting ready to graduate college. For many months he had admired a beautiful sports car in a dealer’s showroom, and knowing his father could well afford it, he told him that was all he wanted.

As Graduation Day approached, the young man awaited signs that his father had purchased the car. Finally, on the morning of his graduation his father called him into his private study. His father told him how proud he was to have such a fine son, and told him how much he loved him. He handed his son a beautiful wrapped gift box. Curious, but somewhat disappointed the young man opened the box and found a lovely, leather-bound Bible. Angrily, he raised his voice at his father and said, “With all your money you give me a Bible?” and stormed out of the house, leaving the holy book.

ONCE inspired experienced some technical issues yesterday. A new theme has been applied and will take time to put back together. You can still read but it just won’t look quite so pretty. Should be good to go by the weekend.

Muhl out

Sorry about the lack of blog activity yesterday. Time caught up with me… and overtook me.

Here are some questions you need to ask yourself. The reason why I have put them in question format is stimulate your mind. Very seldom can there be passion without stimulation. (Now now… settle mense)

I understand that following things step by step is not easy or fun at the best of times. Use this more as a guide line and a reference. You’re an individual. Different things work differently for you. Adapt this. Make it your own.

There are certain stories in our lives that just seem to make us realize a few things. Enjoy this humbling story..

A young and very successful executive named Josh was traveling down a Chicago neighborhood street. He was going a bit too fast in his sleek, black, 12 cylinder Jaguar XKE, which was only two months old.

He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something. As his car passed, no child darted out, but a brick sailed out and – WHUMP! – it smashed Into the Jag’s shiny black side door! SCREECH..!!!!

Happy Friday… with love

Braai
What is a braai? It is the first thing you will be
invited to when you visit South Africa. A braai is a
backyard barbecue and it will take place whatever
the weather. So you will have to go even if it’s
raining like mad. At a braai you will be introduced
to a substance known as mieliepap.

Ag
This is one of the most useful South African words.
Pronounced like the “ach” in the German “achtung”,
it can be used to start a reply when you are asked a
tricky question, as in: “Ag, I don’t know.” Or a
sense of resignation: “Ag OK, I’ll have some more
mieliepap then.” It can stand alone too as a signal
of irritation.

I wrote this sometime ago, as you can tell by the date mentioned in the main body. I just had to share it with you. I look at these pictures time and time again. A Westcoast Sunset as you have never seen it. Please understand that this was an emotional moment for me.

That evening the precipitation was setting up for a sunset of epic beauty. “Mother Nature, you have outdone yourself.” I thought to myself. Epic beauty is a description which fell well short of what unfolded Saturday, 23 May.

Lauren and I headed down to Blouberg and thankfully remembered the camera. Although pictures simply don’t portray the raw emotions drawn out by such an occasion, they are amazing. For me this is the essence of natural beauty at its best. (Insert all beauty clichés here).

Ballet – a formalized type of performance dance, which originated in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century French courts, and which was further developed in England, Italy, and Russia as a concert dance form.

I am in awe of ballet dancers. The level of commitment and dedication it takes to get to the top, the amount of pain and torture on the body is not often associated with the sport (yes – sport) of ballet. Many people might disagree with me when I refer to ballet as a sport by them saying that ballet dancers strive to becoming artists whereas sportmen and women don’t. To them ballet is an art form. Which it is. However, is art not a form of self-expression? And wouldn’t you say that sportmen and women are expressing themselves in their specific sporting discipline? For me the answer to all of those questions is yes.  Let’s not call ballet and sport art. It is a form of art as not all art is sport. Savvy? I like it.

G’day and welcome to my first post regarding what I do for a living. I am in marketing and this is my latest press release written by me.

In an IT industry where service levels seem to be dwindling consumers are continually frustrated by endless similarities between IT companies delivering almost identical products and services. Consumers do not want “much of a muchness, six of one half a dozen of the other” shopping experiences. These days the only things that separate IT companies are service levels and turnaround time. Why then have the majority of IT companies adopted such a seemingly blasé attitude when it comes to service levels? In less than comfortable times one would think that all companies, including IT companies, would seek to provide exceptional service in order to maintain their loyal customer base and uphold, or ideally improve their current reputation.

All you sercrataries and ladies who can make it…

Ah sounds like a jol for you girls. Enjoy