Hectism

This week has gone like a blur.

I've been absolutely flat out at work the last couple of days. Been pumping out reports constantly for one of the biggest funds managers in this country. My second finger actually hurts from all the mouse clicking I've done! RSI I tell ya!



Had my first project debrief - went really well. It happens after every major project, you have a feedback session. And I was told I being transitioned onto this client and it will be my client !!!!!Woohoo.....my first client!

Also, been sitting at a client site with another team member for two days with a bunch of random contractors from other accounting/consulting firms. I'm not doing the most exciting thing, but I'm learning to work independently, in a team and dealing with the client directly.

Yesterday was fully hectic. Had so many things to do, and was getting mentally challenged with what I thought was a simple question for a investment bank. It involved a mixture of international tax laws, understanding consolidation accounting (a very yucky uni subject), accounting standards. A huge headache.


The GZA - Genius

My highlight of the week? Waking up on two consecutive mornings at 5am in the morning.....as if! No, I woke up at 5.30am because there was a breakfast on at 7.30am and I had the chance to hear a CEO speak. It was optional to go the breakfast, but I really wanted to hear a CEO speak - it's not everyday that you get to hear one.

When i think of CEO's, i think of very big companies. This was different - Dr Robert Dane was CEO of Solar Wind, a small start up company. The business focuses on making boats that utilise solar energy and wind power.

What differentiates his idea is that his solar panels can move. Normally you think of solar panels as flat - attached to the roof of a house or car. His idea was to make them move up and down, twist sideways, to obtain the maximum sun light possible. See the pic below - basically they can move like wings on a butterfly. It's a mad, breakthrough idea based on how insects adjust their wings to gain the maximum sunlight for energy. The boats also have traditional backup fuel generators.

His vision is to create " green ferries for blue highways". I love it, because they are energy efficient vechicles and can be used in 3rd world countries where they don't have access to good road infrastructure and the cost of fuel seems to be rising constantly.

Robert is someone that didn't give up on his dream. He was a medical doctor and loved sailing. He started his company 6 years ago and still hasn't made a profit yet. But it's very promising. The Americans and German venture capitalists have started investing in the company to the tune of $40mills. Bob Hawke (former PM) is the Chairman of the company. He's won tenders to build 10,000 boats that don't require human crews for the US government to man their coast line to stop drug smugglers, etc...Military companies have also been knocking on his door to build solar sea planes.

He talked about a lot of things, the conception to product design, getting funding, the setbacks he had to deal with, and realising the reality of his dream. There were many times that he could have given up, but he stayed focused. How many of us would still have the persistence to run a company that hasn't turned a profit in 6 years?

Breakthrough

What was really interesting was when another presenter got up and spoke about new ideas. The best breakthrough ideas come at intersections - when someone has deep technical expertise in one area and are self taught in a totally different area. In this case, a doctor had a passion for sailing - and looked at it from a different perspective - why don't we use solar panels that move like insect wings? When you look at some of the greatest inventors or even business people, its the intersection between their original training and entering into a new field that creates explosions of ideas. It's then that people start challening the status quo and question why can't we do it this way?

It the same reason that nearly all the greatest mathematical ideas come from people under the age of 30. The untrained mind can be a powerful thing because you have no idea of history, of the past and its failures. See "A beautiful Mind" for more detail.

I'll going to go a lil corporate on your ass so pay attention. Why is my company or other companies working so hard to come up with new ideas. Why invest so much money in R&D? Because it is new ideas that generate growth. If you can come up with something that your competitiors don't, you have what's called a competitive advantage - leading to getting into the market first, or being able to differentiate from your customers, building up a reputation as being innovative, making more sales, generating more profits.

That's why there's such a huge race to take a product or idea to the market first. American start up tech companies focus 90% of their time on marketing their idea and then going back to their tech guys and saying "we need to make this!". Wheras Aussie companies spend 90% of the time making the thing.

Companies grow through several ways. One is organically - hiring more people, generating more sales from existing customers, or through new ideas. The second method is by acquistions - by combining or in very sexy IB talk "mergers and acquisitions", "takeovers", etc. The third method is by financial injection - by listing on the stock exchange, issuing more shares to obtain more capital, getting loans to play with the money. One of the best ways to grow and increase your earnings, is through new ideas.

Because that is a growth advantage that cannot be taken away. It is lasting, well until your competitors catchup, but by then it could be too late. You may have already dominated the market, and or even moved on.

That why the saying goes "your only as good as your last idea".

Thanks for reading my very long post.

I'm out like Urugay from the world cup (oohhh did I just say that?!),

DJ Ho.

So proud to be an Aussie!

The picture says it all. We are on our way to the World Cup in Germany!!!! We did it tough - beating U-R-Gay (sorry Urugay - can't spell, who cares) on penalties. So nerve wracking. We were up 1-0 but because they beat us last time 1-0, the game went into 30mins over time. No one scored so it was decided on penalty shootout. Mark Schwarzer take a bow.

The first penalty taken by U-R-Gay was stopped by Schwarz. You could tell the shooter was going to stuff it up because he paused twice on his run up and changed his mind where he was going to kick it. The pressure was too much for him. But then Mark Viduka almost stuffed it as well. I was thinking he's taking it, it's in the bag for sure. He took a lil slow run up and MISSED the goal completely!!!!!!!

BTW i agree with TOny Vidmar's comments - the other side needs to get some humble pie, especially Recoba (leading striker for U-R-Gay) who said that we didn't consider us a chance and they had a divine right to be there. Well, in the nicest possible way screw you. Recoba's actually a very good player, so I dont understand why they took him off in the last 15 minutes. THey needed him badly, well because he's a great attacking player.

Now that we are in the world cup after 32 years, what are we actually going to do? I think we'll make some noise but honestly we are very slim chance of going all the way - at least we'll be in the FIFA World Cup computer game!

The Sport of Kings (well after basketball!).

Peace.

p.s. Did you know that Ashby (US), Tim (Canada, UK), Nam (Japan), Jaarden (Europe) are going overseas for a very loooong time? But Chris Lau (HK) is coming back for a week?!

The Asian Takeover

A very interesting article which either will represent you (asians) or affect you in some way. Whether you like it or not, its happening. Bright, young, hardworking Asians are coming out of uni and taking a lot of the good professional jobs out there. It won't be white collar anymore - it's yellow collar -DJ Ho

The changing face of our professional elite

By Michael Duffy
November 12, 2005
Page 1 of 2

THE big change no one talks about is the growing success of people from Asian backgrounds in the professions. If present rates continue, they could form a majority of Australian professionals within a generation or two. Such an outcome would be unusual: perhaps the first time in history a nation's elite has invited another group to come in and replace it.

Asians are the first significant group of immigrants to this country to come from, or at least aspire urgently to enter, the middle class. They are far more successful in education than other Australians. For instance, in the 2004 HSC, about 350 of the top 1000 students had Asian
surnames. As people of Asian background comprise about 7 per cent of the population, this means they did five times better as a group than other Australians. This success has been going on for more than a decade: in 1993, for example, the figure was 330.

I don't have figures for all pupils (there are almost no publicly available figures on any aspect of this subject) but there's a lot of anecdotal evidence to suggest this level of achievement is reflected in all HSC results and continues into university courses. An article in
People and Place by Siew-ean Khoo and Bob Birrell looked at how many males aged 25 to 34 in 1996 had tertiary qualifications. For those with parents born in Australia it was 17.7 per cent, for China 48.8 per cent, and for India 31.3 per cent.

At university, many courses have well over 7 per cent Asian students. For example, one informed academic told me four years ago that about 50 per cent of entry level dentistry students and a quarter of medical students were from Asian backgrounds. The general pattern is that the numbers are highest in numerate subjects such as IT and accounting, and lower in courses such as law. Whatever the figures might be at the moment, they will increase, as more than 50 per cent of immigrants have come from Asia for many years now.

Many university students are full-fee foreign students, of whom there are more than 200,000. Between 30 and 40 per cent get visas on graduation. The Government has hardly increased the number of domestic university places since 1996, so these graduates are literally taking jobs that would once have gone to Australian citizens.

In 1998 foreign full-fee students comprised 34 per cent of all degree completions in IT and 32 per cent in the business/administration/economics field. Last year, 5267 visas were granted to foreign IT graduates at a time when 30 per cent of domestic graduates were having trouble finding work. Madness.

Recent report for CPA Australia said that in 2003-04, 47 per cent of all commencing students in accountancy came from overseas, mainly Asia. It also noted the estimate of IDP Australia (the universities-owned firm that sells Australian education abroad) that by 2025 there will be
almost as many overseas students studying at Australian universities as there are local students today.

Does it matter if, say by 2030, people of Asian background make up 10 per cent of the general population but several times that of those in elite jobs? Opinions would vary if people were asked, but they're not. The nation is making this big change without any public discussion.

What is certain, though, is that many young Australians have been excluded from university over the past decade, due to the failure to increase domestic university places in line with the growing population.

Perhaps the reason there has been no public discussion of these changes (apart from fear of being called racist) is that those who contribute most to public debate have not yet been seriously affected by them.

There are, after all, far less than 7 per cent Asian faces in Parliament, the media, and the humanities and social science faculties of our universities. And those of us in these circles who are parents are (relatively) smart and wealthy enough to help our kids get into university, with a bit of luck.

It is interesting that the Prime Minister, once a critic of the rate of Asian immigration, is now presiding over what amounts to the demographic reconstruction of this country's elite, at the expense of the children of those once known as Howard's battlers. Strange behaviour from a self-declared conservative.
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Guys & gals, i'm interested in your comments - post'em!

I can't sleep baby - blogging!

It's 4am in the morning and I've pretty tired but still up and about on the internet, reading other people's blogs, watching video's on uselessjunk, and of course watching highlights on NBA TV.

I make it a habit to voyeur into other people's lives by reading their blogs. I don't know what it is that makes it interesting to me - perhaps its being able to read their raw emotions, unedited opinons, being able to relate to what they do.

I once describe the blogging experience to someone at work and compared it to the Great Wall of China. Having a blog is like having your own little poster on the Great Wall. People are free to stop and read or just ignore it. Maybe that's why I like blogging - the freedom to write whatever I want to the world and the liberty to read whatever I want.

After you read blogs for a while, you'll start to notice this kind of sub culture of writers (bloggers) - people that leave comments or links to other blogs. I go through a kinda routine making sure I read my favourite blogs.

My favourtie ones are: (in no particular order)

- Humanity Critic: Winner of 4 Black Weblog awards. The funniest blog I've come across as well as the most insightful one. Respect.

- Obi: I came across this one whilst searching for a hiphop blog. Love it because he keeps it real - sharing thoughts from London. Plus music downloads are awesome.

- Ivan: I've never come across a blog so full of anger, intensity and criticism. He'll pick a topic that pisses him off and just destroy it.

- Bosco: The metro who writes poems and about music. It was I that mentioned to Bosco to start blogging again!

- Emily: Poledancing, pilates, food loving chic. I like reading this one because she has a simple writing style & enjoys life. Met her b4 @ Bethany formal (loooong time ago).

- Tash: Ivan mark 2. This girl just keeps it raw, and when frustrated you'll feel it.

- Hoi: Loved reading your blog but hasn't been the same as you've been busy. Your blog was the inspiration to start my own. Wished you'd write longer, engaging pieces.

And there you have it folks. The blogs on my must read list. As I said b4, feel free to peek a look into their lives, leave a comment or just walk past.

That's the beauty of blogging. Enjoy.

DJ HO.

p.s. Links of the week - Top 10 NBA plays. Skinner's block on Marion in preseason - NASTY! Vince Carter over Zo - Nastier! And for those soccer fans out there - amazing skills here.

Top 5 Mc's Dead or Alive

Wow, saw this on Obi's website, and this is really cool. Jin Tha Emcee has produced this song with a video clip called Top 5 Mc's Dead or Alive. You HAVE to watch it here.

The idea is that he takes the question to the streets and gets people to write their top 5 Mc's on a ballot card and totals them. In the end, he writes his top 5, but he doesn't show you?! Lyrically the song is awesome, and its so witty - cop this sample:

10th grade I became a hiphop addict ass backwards copped/
It Was Written and then Illmatic/
some say Ready To Die was Biggie’s best/
but then again theres always Life After Death/
way before Dame and Jay changed views and split/
on the real 22 2’s was my shit/
just when you thought PAC only brought drama/
he had joints like Keep Ya Head Up and Dear Mama/
Pun did it his way just like Carlito/ ...........
Puffy is good but Wu Tang is for the children/
Scarface ya mind playin tricks just illusions/
Pharoah Monch out to Organize the confusion/
tryin to figure out this fly chick I discovered/
at the same time Common said He Used to Love Her.........

You can find the rest of it here.

So who's your top 5 Mc's dead or alive?



Here's mine:
5. Guru
4. Jay-Z
3. Tupac
2. Rakim
1. Biggie

If I could put 6, I'd put in Nas or Big Pun or KRS-1 or Common .......the list goes on. IT'S TOUGH!!!!!!! It's hard trying to decide who's in your top 5, dead or alive.

patiently waiting

Have you ever waited on something that's really important but it can't happen fast enough?

Is out of my hands and all I can do is wait.

Should get back to my assignment - a 3000 word assignment on "income recognition for emerging profit accounting" - sounds interesting doesn't it?
it's due in 8 days and i haven't even started. It's quite hard having to study and work at the same time. Come home at 8pm or so, and just don't have the ability to switch on and do study, but you force yourself cause its the only way.

Patiently waiting 50 cent style.

How boring would work be without email forwards? I love'em because they bring a little humour into my day. This is quite an ingenious forward sent to me......check it! Read the names of the links carefully - double meanings!

Choosing the right domain name

It's not always easy choosing the right domain name but you can't do much worse than these people.

Firstly there is "Who Represents?" - a database for agencies to the rich and famous: http://www.whorepresents.com

Second is the Experts Exchange, a knowledge base where programmers can exchange advice and views: http://www.expertsexchange.com

Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island: http://www.penisland.net

Need a therapist? Try: http://www.therapistfinder.com (Jerm I think your listed on this page!)

Finally we have the Mole Station Native Nursery, based in New SouthWales: http://www.molestationnursery.com

Sip fine wines.....

Does anyone out there know anything about wines? Besides the fact that they are made out of grapes?

I can honestly tell you that I know jack all about wines. I have decided that I will no longer be socially ignorant to fine wines. Essentially, I'm gong to learn the lingo, the different varieties, what wines go with what kinds of food, the best regions for each type of wine and so on. My motivation for doing so? 1/2 work, 1/2 social I guess. I go to work functions and friday night drinks, and I feel quite inadequate drinking wine at dinner - my pallete isn't quite used to it yet. When the wine list comes around at dinner, I'm like "what is this?".

So I've been reading up on wines, googling phrases like "drinking wine", "how to drink wine", etc. Coming from a conservative, middle class, Asian family, I haven't been exposed to this kind of drinking culture at all. You could say that we are only used to ordering "green tea/bo-lei" /water / Coke at restaurants.

Aside from that, I've purchased the ultimate book: "The Idiots Guide to Wine". It's quite user friendly, in simple terms, and covers all the basics. Much like how Ivan bought some books on mens fashion so he could make sure he looked good and dressed right for work, I'm doing the same with wine.

Very soon, I'll be able to tell you the difference between a Merlot, and a Shiraz (a much spicier and fruitier wine), distinguish between a wine from Coonawarra to one made in the Hunter Valley. Drop' some science on what a Cab Sav is, telling y'all how storing the wine in a oak barrel makes the taste different to a steel barrel, and learning how to drink wine properly.

But ultimately, the best learning experience is actually from drinking the product. Not getting trashed but learning the differnet tastes on your pallete and experimenting on what wines go with what foods, and finding out what my wine "profile" is.

As Kanye said "It's the last call for alcohol/why don't you raise your glass with me". I think socially and if you plan on moving in important business circles, its vital that you understand and appreciate fine wines. I want to be able to have a deep conversation with someone about wines - other than Zhang spewing up Shiraz on his white pants @ Bamboo.

Peace Out,

DJ Ho.

Ball above all?

What would you do if your employer forced you to take a DNA test?

I look at the Eddy Curry situation and I think its a very difficult situation for both parties. For those not in the know, Eddy Curry is a basketball player for the Chicago Bulls. He missed the tail end of last season because of an irregular heartbeat. This was also the final year of his contract.

Before the next season started, both sides wanted to negotiate a new contract. The Bulls had 7 different doctors check him out, but the results were inconclusive. But they still wanted to resign him on one condition. The Bulls (the employer) wanted Eddy (the employee) to take a DNA test.

To show and prove if there was a continuing condition and if it was life threatening. If the test was positive and showed no future ailments, he would recieve a $10million per season contract. If he failed.....

.......the Bulls would give him $500K installments for the next 10 years. That's not the worst part though. Its the fact that he would never play again as no team would have signed him. It would be too big of a risk to sign a player with a life threatening injury. The DNA test would also bring up other possible conditions he might have.

For the Bulls - it was pure "business never personal"decision. The organisation didn't roll the dice without knowing the risks. As a Bulls fan, I think John Paxson made the right decision not to resign him. By offering him the guaranteed payments, they showed they wanted to protect Eddy's future too.

For Eddy - it was a pure "ball above all" decision. He didn't want to know the hand that God had dealt him. As a lawyer, I believe he had every right to refuse the test. As a human being though, I think he made the wrong decision for himself to refuse the test. For him, it was to play basketball or nothing. To give up the only thing that had given him relevance, that had brought him fame and fortune, that had taken him from the 'hood to the NBA.

At the last minute, the New York Knicks came in and offered him a contract for $60m, guaranteed.The Knicks have traded for him and have encouraged him to take the test, and will honour their contract even if the test is negative.

But does all that matter? If you have a life threatening condition, you need to get it checked out. For some people, like Eddy, they don't want to know the truth. They don't want to know what is wrong with them. The cost of knowing might be too great.

Or is it? An athlete reaches the peak of their profession by the physical gifts that God has blessed them with. It is in their bodies and in their mind, that they feel invincible. As Scoop Jackson says, he feels like he has no choice but to keep playing. Remember that Eddy's only 22 years old.

Let's hope that Eddy learns the most important lesson in his life.

That "Ball is not above all".

AND1 MIXTAPE COMING TO A TOWN NEAR YOU!!!

Streetball finest's are coming to a town near you. No, not Ashby, Hoi, Tim and the rest of the Flavos team. Rather the And1 mixtape squad. With new members:
1. Spyda: check out pic below - incredible hops.
2. Baby Shack: powerfully built 6'2 guard, plays like a center. Very ferocious.
3. Pat the Rock: awesome passer.
4. The Spinmaster: whirling, like a hurricane.

Joining the veterans are The Professor, AO, Main Event, Escalade, 50, and Black Widow, and Go Get It.

I want to buy tickets this weekend, so if you wanna come, act like Gwen Stefani and 'Holla back girl'!

Check out this pic of Spyda:

Crouching Tiger Hidden Ho

I will show you many styles

(In Anglosized Asian voice)

"Shaolin shadowboxing, and the Wu-Tang sword style/
If what you say is true, the Shaolin and the Wu-Tang could be dangerous/
Do you think your Wu-Tang sword can defeat me?"

The intro to "Bring da Ruckus" by Wu Tang.

The reason I'm feeling this? Coz last night I went to a Jeet Kune Do lesson @ Hurstville Aquatic Centre. I coulda spent my friday night out on the town, drinking beers with colleagues, having dinner with my girl, playing basketball.

But instead I swapped it for learning how to throw a right jab-left cross combination, stick fighting and to how to "protect ya neck" (Inspectah Dek style) from getting sliced by a knife attack.


"No fixed position"

To clarify, there seems to be a bit of confusion between Jeet Kune Do (JKD) and Tae Kwan Do with a similar sounding name. Essentially JKD, is a martial arts system invented by Bruce Lee. Its name means "way of the intercepting fist". Its basis is in Wing Chun Kung Fu buts its a style without style. Its more a concept of fighting. Bruce Lee took a lifetime to perfect this art and wanted to create the ultimate fighting system by mixing and borrowing moves from other fighting styles.

He didn't care about tradition and stripped away hundreds of years of traditional techniques that were too slow in real life street combat. He used punches from boxing after watching Ali, Filiopino Kali knife and stick fighting, jujitsu grappling moves, and anything else he considered effective.

It's a fluid style that doesn't have traditional blocking defense moves. Its always about attack and counterattack. Never keep defending because eventually you'll get hit. Hence the quote "way of the intercepting fist". Its about checking the offender's move and straight away moving into an attacking mode.

JKD stresses four ranges of combat: kicking and punching range from afar, grappling (wrestling) range and finally trapping range from extremely close range. If kicking and punching are long distance weapons i.e. missiles, then trapping are your nuclear weapons.



Bruce Lee focused on moving into your opponent into the trapping range coz this is where you can cause the most damage, as fast as possible, to finish off the fight and walk away. At the trapping range, the smaller man can neutralize the size disadvantage which he doesn't have fighting from further away. Utilising devasting elbows, headbutts, neck grabs, attacks to the vital organs, its simply awesome.

Here comes the Wu-Tang Show Guns

Back to the lesson! It was really fun and an eye opener. We learnt how to defend ourselves from a knife attack by blocking, grabbing the area below the thumb to open up and control the knife hand, taking the knife away and stabbing them back in the arm. The instructor was really good and stressed that you always look to run away, if you can't run, seek to grab anything lying around or if there's nothing available you need to counterattack with your forearms.

The best part?

When he went through the legalities of the knife defense moves: "Self defence. Self defence. Self Defence." (pauses after controlling the weapon) "manslaughter. manslaughter. manslaughter". (when stabbing the person back in the arm). And then I said? "Murda, Murda, Murda".

I'm hoping to start up Martial Arts again cause I love JKD. Hopefully one day I can say: "I will show you many styles, wu tang is forever".

Monty Python Style

Yes Bosco, this post is long but I don't care. On another note in case you missed this pic in Thursday's MX newspaper, check out this mighty clash, python style v alligator bite:

How High?

"10 9 8 7 6 5 4/
3 2 Murder 1 lyric at your door/
Tical bring it to that ass-raw/
Breakin all the rules like glass-jaws/
Nigga, you got to get mine to get-yours"

How High - Methodman and Redman

What do you get when you put some of hip hop's biggest names together? I don't mean big as in Nelly/Ja Rule/50cent. I'm talking real artists. Not that "good music/soul music" that Bosco talks about either. I mean straight hip hop gangsta rap. I'm talking about The Ticallion Stallion. Brick City's Funk Doctor. The Godfather of Noize. Premo. JS-1. For those not down with real hip hop I mean Methodman,Redman, Rahzel, DJ Premier and DJ JS-1.

Last Saturday nite at the Hordern Pavillion was crazy. I was hoping that the $90 I paid for the Buggn tour would go longer than the estimated 80 mins advertised. If you've got such a stellar lineup surely we could squeeze some more tracks out them. I was not disappointed, as the artists played a combined 3 hour set. Meth/Red were still on the stage when I walked out.

Premo came on first and straight killed it. Dropping classics like KRS 1's "You Must Learn", Group Home, Onyx's "Slam", NWA, his own Gangstarr tracks as well as educating the crowd with that he called "the real sh*t" - tracks from the 80's. Gotta show some love for the East Coast beats that he dropped. I think Premo could have played anything and I would have still loved it. He's not really a performance DJ - as in he doesn't do tricks, he just drops mad beats and scratches them up occassionally.

Next up was Philly native, Rahzel (aka The Godfather of Noize). He was cool and did some impressive beatboxing. My fav that he did was "All I know". I love the way he does his own rapping, scratch effects, with his own voice. He actually battled DJ JS-1. JS would drop a beat from a famous track, and Rahzel would replicate it as best he could. It was awesome when he did the Kanye "Jesus Walks" melody. And you know he couldn't walk off without doing "If your mother only knew". The crowd went nuts when he did the bassline, the melody and the chorus, with his voice at the same time. Simutaneously fool. I have to admit though, some of his sound effects started to sound very repetitive, particulary the sratching sounds. Though nothing beats the female "please enter your password".

The main act of the night was the infamous duo, M.E.T.H and Red. They came at us all night with so much energy and flowed so well together. Started off by dropping tracks they did together from the Blackout LP and their other joint venture album. However my highlights are when they did their own songs - like Redman's "Time for some Akson" or when Methodman did the main bars for "M.E.T.H.O.D Man.". And of course they did "How High". Twice in fact - the normal version and the Toni Braxton remix. You know the crowd went beserk like when Bannister transforms into Hulk.

Again, I hate to admit this since it was such a mad concert, but towards the end of their set, I didn't recognise a lot of their songs and did get boring and repetitive. The best part of the night was when it seemed like the show was about to finish and they were giving shoutouts. I thought, aiight cool I've got my money's worth, I'm gonna jet.

But as they were playing music in the background and packing up their gear and randomly saying words, Methodman starts doing some freestyling. In fact, they decided since it was the last show they would do it for a bit longer. Meth pulled Rahzel who was on the stage in the background, into the front and told him to do his thing. So Rahzel drops the beat of "Wu Tang Clan ain't nothing to f with" with Meth pulling some the illest freestyles I've heard. I've always been skeptical of impromptu freestyles, since they don't really sound, well, impromptu. I'm not sure if that one was, but it was all gravy baby.

One thing I want to mention, is that I felt a bit uncomfortable with all the references to weed. If you don't know these artists that well, 50% of their content is about weed. Personally, I don't think I'll ever touch the stuff. Not that there's anything wrong with it, its just a personal choice not to get high. (Although I did smoke this massive apple tabacco pipe the other day - but I digress cos that's different).

I mean they kept telling the crowd "to roll that sh*t, light that sh*t, smoke that sh*t" and there were peeps everywhere smoking it. A lot of hip hop concerts I go to its like that but this one seemed even more than usual. The artists themselves were getting blunted on the stage with massive joints.

Funny moment of the night: They did a song with the line "If you see a bag of dope, what do you do? Pick it up/Pick it up/Pick it up". And you know what happened? Someone actually chucked a baggy with some sticky icky onto the stage and Street Life (a support rapper) actually picked it up. Hilarous.

Overall? I give the concert a 9.3 out of 10. Very entertaining, definently got my money's worth. All the artists lived up to their reps. For anyone that read's Humanity Critic's latest blog comments, there will be no post adjustment like Biggie's Ready to Die LP.

Peace Out,

DJ HO

1.

p.s. Did y'all know that AND1 mixtape tour is coming to Sydney on December 3rd? If you wanna go, holla back playa.

p.p.s. Best ad ever? Gotta be the brand Jordan ad with the Common sonudtrack. It combines my fav song "BE" with Jordan. Ain't nothing sweeter. Click here .

Just relax.......

This is the first night in a long time that I can sit back and relax. It feels so goooooood. I've forgotten what it's like to have time to myself. On Monday, I completed phase 1 of becoming Tax Master Ho, doing my first post grad exam. The exam brought back a lot of memories and emotional states. Cramming the two days before, panicking, stressing out, worrying about the ticking of the clock, spending too much time on one question, thinking "have I even answered the question?". Let's just say, I don't miss that part of uni.

And yesterday was bad. Went into work thinking I'm gonna take it easy, then all this work starts coming in. Ended up eating dinner at work, leaving at 7pm and taking work home. It was 9pm before I sat down at my desk at home and I thought 'stuff this!'. Instead, got up at 6am and got to work at 8am, and made sure I left early and grabbed my Bugg'n Tour Concert ticket. In case you don't know its Methodman, Redman, Premier, Rahzel on the one bill.....mad!!!!!!

In sa curities

You know what else? I was walking home tonite to get some exercise and thought twice about it. The reason being was that slighty more than a year ago, I was jumped/mugged/robbed/rolled on the way home. I can't walk home at night now without turning around at least 50 times to see if anyone is behind me. There's more caution as to what streets I walk now. I avoid the path that I had taken for the last 15 years of my life. It's dark, isolated, and basically the perfect place to get robbed at night.

That's one of biggest insecurities at the moment. It's like I don't feel comfortable walking in my own suburb after dark anymore. There's always that thought that I might get robbed, that the streets are watching. That someone could be following me like those two guys were that fateful night. I'm jump at every shadow, I question the footsteps behind me, I mean I even ran home in my suit once! I don't like that feeling of being afraid, not being in control.

Second biggest insecurity? I just don't like the way that I look right now. Acne has cursed me from my high school days and still bothers me and I'm friggin 23! I hate having pimples, it just kills my confidence ya know? It's like something that won't go away. I look at all the beautiful people with their perfect skin, damn even the average person my age doesn't even have it anymore. I'm going to get a second medical opinon cause the last doctor i went to gave me some 6 month antibiotic medication, but that's just too full on - it's not that bad (i hope!).


Above the Law

Yei - I completed my practical legal experience today. The short of it? I've passed all components to be a lawyer. Academic and work experience - all on lockdown baby. Submitted my papers, so hopefully I'll be admitted in December. The bad part? I can't say this line anymore:

"Nah i ain't pass the bar but i know a little bit/Enough that you won't illegally search my shit"

Gonna miss that line from Jay-Z's 99 Problems. Cause I would have passed the bar yo! Well, at least the Aussie equivalent. Big ups to my man, the crazy serb Alex for offering to move my admission. For you non-legal peeps, you need a lawyer (i.e. someone that has been admitted) to vouch for you. Kinda like when you join the mafia, you need someone to show that your down for whatever, that your cool. It's the same when you become a lawyer and I'm glad that he could do it. December 2nd - mark that in your diary - the day DJ Ho finally becomes Solicitor Ho. There'll definently be an after party - delayed cause my final exam is on the 5th.

1 luv to all my fans (Sheena - are you still barred?!)

Much love to all the Katrina displaced peoples. Gotta give props to the NBA playas for donating time for the charity game and for giving so much. And Marbury/Duhon for their donations. Remove Bush out of power! You right Kanye, cause he hates black people.

Link of the week - Obi's new hip hop complilation. Noice!

Peace Out,

DJ Ho.

Last week, I went to see a doctor, and as a routine checkup, he got me on the scales. Apparently, I'm 82 Kilos! Woah that's huge. Suddenly, I feel fat even though a few weeks ago I thought I was quite healthy. It's all perception, however, I think this weight has been gained through a number of factors:

1. Sitting down a lot at work, in front of a computer all day

2. Not getting much exercise - I don't even play for my basketball team anymore. They're really missing my 4 points per game average.

3. Eating a lot of food, but then again, my eating habits haven't really changed. Though, if I work late, I usually end up eating one of the following: Macca's/Hungry Jacks/Chips and Coke

4. Drinking a lot more alcohol than in the past.

So, i've been thinking about keeping up a more healthy lifestyle. And one of the things that I intend (stress the word intend) is to do more sport. I've always loved martial arts so I've been surfing the net and come across some viable options:

*Kickboxing classes at UTS Gym for $5 a session after work

*UTS Kickboxing club at Wollomolloo @ $10 a pop after work

*Kickboxing Works @ town hall runs classes at lunchtimes for 40mins and after work @ $20 a lesson, or $132 for 10 week pass

*Taekwondo @ UTS, $65 a semester

*Or my favourite, Wing Chun @ Combat Centre at Surry Hills.

I always wanted to learn some Bruce Lee styles and did briefly @ GBMA, but never had the discipline nor motivation to do it. I miss the comraderie and simply learning how to kick ass. The three hit combinations, kicks to thechest, the "snap", the Kali stick action, Wing Chun dummy exercises, and getting beaten up by Sifu Geoff with his ridiculously huge red gloves.

After my exam is over, I'm gonna definently look into enrolling in some classes cause I'm just not a gym type person. For me, I've got to be doing something that I find fun, whether it'd be pretending I'm Vince Carter bouncing a ball or Daniel San pulling off some crazy kick.

Peace Out,

DJ HO.

p.s. Found an imposter on Google Blog Search - a "DJ Ho (train)". Y'all know there's only one true DJ Ho.

Making someone's day

I've always tried to be a people focused person. I think its important to celebrate milestones or occassions although I hvaen't really shown an attitude to care. Lately, I've probably been a bit slack in doing things for the people that I care about (didn't really celebrate Dawen's birthday, didn't buy anything for Father's day, mother's day, the list goes on). Being busy isn't really a good enough excuse. If you do care, you will do something. Although if you tell people they'll understand.

I did something today - it wasn't major or anything but it showed that I did care. This girl at work told me that she got engaged whilst on holiday last week. I was like stunned, my jaw dropped and then I noticed the ring. Naturally, everyone was happy for her. But I wanted to do something, so I organised a lunch at a nearby restaurant to celebrate. Like I said, it wasn't major but it meant a lot to that girl because it showed that I and her colleagues cared about her as a person. And its these little things that brighten up our lives.

Cause sometimes we forget that we are working with people, with personal lives. When you work so closely with people everyday, it's like their your fam, you know? We gotta look out for one another and to cherish these things in our lives. Maybe its me getting all soppy but I guess I want to help build a team atmosphere at my work and also because she is a really cool person who's helped me a lot through some trying times.

Motown Philly Flava In Your Ear

I'm supposed to be studying for an exam, but really I've been taking it easy. I'm just not motivated at the moment to do anything so I figured I'd write about the concert I went to.

Last Friday's, I had a great time at the Boyz 2 Men concert. When they sang their classic songs, it was like 'wow'. However, I did feel slightly ripped having paid $85 for a 80 minute concert. Just a tad too short. Cause they had two shows on the one night, they had to usher us out early so the next crowd could move in. Although, I feel better than the people that paid $150 for the front row tickets. I guess my highlights would have been when they sang "On Bended Knee", "Mama", and "End of the Road".

Shaun and Wanya (spelling?) have voices from heaven. I don't think I have heard any better male singers perform. When Shaun start cooing and wailing at the start of 'On Bended Knee' I was amazed at his voice and pitch control.

Overall, I give the concert a 7.5 out of 10. Pricey, but I would have regretted it if I didn't go.

Basketball frustration post: It's not fair that a mad player like Michael Finley goes to the Spurs. The good teams just keep getting better (Detroit, Miami, Indiana) and the crappy teams simply become crappier. Credit to the Spurs for signing Van Exel and Finley - good salary cap management, excellent draft choices, and Tim Duncan.

But what about everyone else?

The Bulls have resigned Chris Duhon and have made an offer to Darius Songalia (break out the champagne!). Why are we offering $64 mil to Tyson Chandler? The only free agents we are negotiating with are the ones that no one else is negotiating with!!!! (Eddy Curry, Tyson).

Finley ain't the same player that he used to be - the Mavs wore him out by playing him like 40mins a game. He used to sooooo nasty and cram on everybody. When I did a google image search, it was just poster dunk after poster dunk.

Here's to another friggin Spurs championship ( I can just hear Tim and Nate celebrating in the background).

This week in pictures

The Chinese have a saying - a picture is a 1000 words. Here is this weeks major news items according to DJ Ho.

Son, we're arresting you for that bad haircut: Protestors at the Forbes CEO conference.

Show me the money! BHP announces largest profit announcement in Australian history.

Bye Bye Johnny and that comment.

How far do you think we can stretch him?: A young man protests against the evacation of the Gaza Strip in Israel.


Couldn't we have taken the ferry? Waterworld @ N'awlins

I go to the barber with 25 thou, you drop 25 hundred, I'm like yeah nigga wow: Kanye still can't afford a decent haircut despite dropping another LP.

Deez nuts! Andy Flintoff might think he's on top, but we know he ain't got balls.

Follow the leader

Is one born a leader or made a leader?

It is a question that haunts us to this very day. We have those army ads that say otherwise but in my humble opinion, its a combination of both. I think some people are natural born leaders and some become leaders as result of the environment that they grow up in.

Why all this talk about leadership? Well I just came back from a function where retired head of Australian army, Peter Cosgrove AC MC gave a talk about leadership. Sidenote: apparently, MC does not stand for master of ceremonies.

Anyways, what he was saying was that leaders share certain character traits. Their confident, have high energy levels and are emotional. And I agree with the first two this but not the part about being emotional. Some leaders are highly emotional but there are those that are cool and calculated. I think it is their ability to evoke emotion in others that sets them apart from normal people. To make others feel some kind of emotion, whether it be pride or anger, etc.

It's funny, but you can tell when someone's a leader. To me, sometimes its quite obvious. It is the people that can command respect amongst their peers. That can really influence people with their words and action. That can inspire and hold together a group of people when hell breaks loose.

I see it in the guy that plays for my basketball team. When he's on the floor, everything is cool. He's a calming influence. When he's off and I'm handling the ball, everything goes nuts. This could be a reflection of my point guard skills. More likely this guy not only is a good baller but has the ability to control the tempo of the game and is able to direct traffic. Everyone feels a lot more comfortable when he's on the floor, when he's telling peeps what to do, etc.. I see the same thing when Hoi's playing ball on Thursday. I see it in the way he influences, motivates and commands respect in the timeouts.

What really separates a leader from everyone else is their confidence. It's as simple as that. I really believe that you can't be leader without it. When I look at at the major leaders in the world, whether it be corporate, sporting, armed services, political, and criminal spheres that's what it boils down. That's what they all share in common. Sure sometimes, they may lack self confidence, but they don't show it. Because as soon as you do, you crack and everyone does as well.

So the question remains, are people born leaders or can they be made to be leaders? No matter now many leadership or management classes you take, books you read or instructions you get, it doesn't transform you into a leader. Rather it refines or improves your leadership ability. Traits like confidence and motivation - are you born with these? Arguably you gain them through life experiences, the people that you interact with, and the way that you react to these. So born aren't born with these abilities, but they are gained. Educated by the twists and turns of life and the people that they meet on these travels.

As Rakim says, " You better take a deep breath and keep followin, The leader."

Show and prove,

DJ Ho.

Man I promise, she's so self conscious
She has no idea what she's doing in college
That major that she majored in don't make no money
But she won't drop out, her parents will look at her funny
Now, tell me that ain't insecurrre
The concept of school seems so securrre
Sophmore three yearrrs aint picked a careerrr

Kanye on "All falls down"

I'm supposed to have this "talk" with my lil brother today. He's doing the HSC in about 6 weeks, but he doesn't seem to be doing much study. He's smart, and very savvy, but he doesn't seem to hit the books like it matters. I mean when you go to a breakdance tournament and then stay over at a friend's party over the weekend , not much study is going to get done. It's very unfortunate that our education system and our society place so much emphasis on these final high school exams.

My mum has tried to get through to him to "put his down and bum up" for the next two months but critizing him doesn't seem to work. So she's counting on me to have a kinda of a big brother talk to him. I think my angle is to try and motivate him, rather than critize him.

He's going through everything that I went through in terms of worrying about the HSC, trying to figure out what uni course to take and so on. It's a really difficult time for any young person. if I look back, I didn't really have anyone to turn to except my friends (who were in a similar position) and my parents. I wished I had an older brother or a friend that was older than me to let me know it would turn out alright.

I told him, whatever course you pick, don't do law - cause we can't have 3 lawyers in the family. I steered him away from software engineering (industry downturn), enouraged him to do just do whatever he wants, though I did mention enginnerring, business/commerce, industrial design, liberal studies. I think i even said do a Music Production course (but that was more for me!).

Knoweldge is power,

DJ Ho.

We run this town

I'm in a very fortunate position at my workplace. Where I work, hundreds of fresh new uni students come in as graduates each year. I sit on the Graduate Committee and represent their views and concerns. Essentially I'm representin' - telling peeps this is what WE feel, this is what WE want (in a nice way of course), these are OUR expectations.

In many ways, the expectations and the concerns of graduates at my workplace aren't that much different to other students or graduates at other workplaces.

At the end of the day, as a uni graduate we simply want to be employed in a meaningful job. Where we are challenged, our skills utilised to the fullest extent, where we are given opportunities to grow and learn. Where the three, four, five+ that we invested into our study aren't wasted doing menial tasks.

To me, being challenged is a key factor to graduate job satisfaction and retention. You have to keep these hungry and motivated youngsters constantly engaged and challenged. If companies fail to do so, they ultimately lose their talented staff. What's the motivation to even be remotely interested in a job or to even stay if your stuck filing and photocopying all day?

When a lot of these big companies hire graduates, they wow them with glossy brochures and slick marketing and even slicker HR talk. They create certain expectations and beliefs. And then once you start working, you see that a lot of its just simply smoke and mirrors. It's time that a lot of this changed. We need REAL talk. You don't satisfy the consumer by playing up the ads. You gotta back it up with the product. As a graduate, you've also got to see through a lot this stuff as well.

I think for most graduates, pay ( that is ka-ching $$$$) is only an incidental factor. A lot of times when you first start working, you can't dictate to the market what you should pay. Most people are happy to accept simply being P.A.I.D. When faced with potential job choices, most people will take the job that best advances their career, that interests them and will challenge them. Money can only do so much. Sure making BIG Pimpin' dollars is good, but its not decisive. Its only one of a number of factors for most people.

I believe that most graduates employed now are ticking timebombs set to go off in two to three years. We live in a day and age of increasing employment mobility. Bright, young motivated people with a couple years of experience have the world at their feet. Things ain't like they used to be - there's no such thing as loyalty any more. More than ever, graduates are finding it easier to change between jobs. Between industries. Between countries. It's not that graduates are dissatisfied after two or four years. Its simply we live in era of constant change and we roll with it.

Where companies can't tell young people what to do any more because the power has shifted. The top tier and middle tier uni graduates now have greater choice who they can work for. But I also believe that companies aren't making a greater effort to hold onto their top flight graduates. Sure, you could argue that talented future leaders will always seek new opportunties. But at least give them some incentive to stay.

It is the big ass corporates that are at the greatest risk but also have the best tools needed to fight back if they want to keep us. A lot of international companies offer secondments - that is opportunties to work overseas or to work for clients after you've served a decent amount of time for usually 3 to 4 years. But this is too late. As most people decide to leave before then, this is useless. You've got to keep challenging them, constantly. Let them work overseas for you after 2 years, give them stock options or some kind of cash incentives that can't be touched for a couple of years, or let them work in a different department to increase their broader experience levels.

We are the future. It is time that corporate boards and senior management opened up and gave us an opportunity to speak. How can they expect to groom their next apprentices if they try to tell us what we want. Because we run this town.

Peace out,

DJ HO.

I'm gonna go corporate on your azz......

Do companies have some kind of moral or social obligation to be doing more for society? Can they do more?

You can argue companies are out to make profit. That worrying about environmental concerns, poverty, civil warfare, famine and starvation is beyond their reach.

George Soros, the self made billionare investor often said that he had to wear two hats - that when he had his corporate hat on, his sole focus was profits. His philanthropic contributions came when he donned the private citizen cap. He was like the two can't be meshed like Kobe and Shaq. I see it differently though. Companies cannot stand by and ignore what is going on in society.

At a mininum level, Corporates need to be concerned about the triple E's (the so called triple bottom line). Economics, Environmental and Ethics. But more could be done. Government instutions at the State, Federal and International level just don't have the ability or the resources to deal with these issues. Underfunding, lack of skills and manpower, and vision's shorter than a Paris Hilton skirt.

Companies need to tell shareholders that corporates cannot stand by and watch the problems plaguing society solve themselves. That we must act NOW. That we must do radical things like:

1. Implore that companies take ownership of projects of say a community project in third world country;

2. Contribute to the medical supplies of AIDS infested Africa;

3. Allow their staff paid time off to work overseas in educational programs

4. Have CEO's of top companies sacrifice a portion of their equity to donate to chartiable causes and list in that in their financial report.

Their needs to be a reallocation of resources and a change in the way we do things. Companies, CEO's that run them and the shareholders that have ownership interest cannot idly accept that their existence is only to make a profit. That they are more than an economic entity. Rather, that they are also social entities and have an obligation to make a meaningful contribution to mankind.

It's kinda random what I wrote above, but hopefully you get what I am talking about.

Peace Out,

DJ Ho.

"Throw your hands in the air like you just don't care/Let hear you scream "Oh Yeah"

The crowd goes wild, as DJ Ho spins another head banger. Cuttin' and mixin', he blends two tracks that mathematically should not go together. Juggling the beats, he switches it up. Dropping the pitch cue and then bumping up the rotation speed he creates a totally new song.

Heads are mesmerised as he scratches the verse on the vinyl, looping it over and over again. In the background, the faint beat of another track populates the air. The crossfader has moved to the middle and he unleashes the beat from the next track. Hitting the bass beat again and again, the crowd nods in sync.

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And then suddenly I wake up and realise that I'm not in front of a crowd but rather hunched over some Stanton turntables in my cousin's room.

It was cool, learning the craft of djiing, experimenting with different songs, mucking around with the pitch cues. Timing my scratches on the bass beat, trying to repeat certain phrases which I thought sounded nice. I generally had no idea what I was doing but was definently having fun. I did a couple of the behind the back scratches and then some really fast pauses, crossing my hands.

It was awesome. Djiing is quite an expensive hobby. Both turntables set my cousin back about
$750 each, plus a mixer would have been several hundred. He must have invested several grand in the records as well.

Seriously, if i could have one dream job in the world it would be to be a DJ. I probably could not be bothered putting the time into learning and finetuning the art.

but finally last night, DJ Ho got down on the decks.

Peace out,

DJ Ho.

Round 2: Fight!

Don't really feel like posting up anything long today since I've just been at work all day on a SATURDAY. I've been thinking about this for a while, but what are the top 10 video games of all time? This list isn't definitive, it's just the games that I love to play growing up.

1. Street Fighter 2: Whether it was TURBO, CE, 3, and any other version, the original was the real deal. Ahhh many wasted hours of my youth playing as Ryu or Ken and perfecting the art of the 3 hit combo. I still remember the combinations - the sweet science of the jumping heavy kick, then big sweep, or the jumping heavy punch, ducking medium punch, followed by an "R U Ken?" uppercut.

2. NBA Jam: Classic. Loved the cartoonish NBA characters and the wild dunks. What was better than dunking the ring continously until the glass shattered Shaq Attaq style? And the hot hand - "he's heating up". I still remember eagerly scanning the stats after each quarter to see if I'd reach the elusive triple double.

3. NBA Live 2005: What can I say - the realism, the 3D rendering was just amazing and best of all the ability to play as your favourite players. i could play this game all day and do those fantasy drafts again. and again until I created the perfect team.

4. Daytona: How good was this game back in the day? I haven't still conquered manual but I loved challenging a buddy to a few laps of the beginner circuit - or even better - linking up 8 cars for a race.

5. Time Crisis 2: I still play this game to this day. When I see it, it's like its calling me. I'll do anything to find a dollar and start blasting those ninja fools away. Embarrasing fact - on the selection screen where you shoot to indicate if you wanna go solo or with a teammate, I actually shot a whole round and missed, and was forced to reload.

6. Tetris: If you think SF2 or NBA jam was old skool, this is ancient. Lining up those blocks, rotatin', this game was straight gangsta on the green and black screen gameboy.

8. Mortal Kombat: The first video game to take realism to the next level with blood. How awesome were the fatalities. Simply mindblowing concept - have real fighters, digitised and then go up a notch with Mortal Kombat 2. The characters were just phenemonal - SubZero, Scorpion ("Get Over here"), and the morphin' Shang Tsung.

9. Space Invaders: Taking it back to the 80's. We used to have an Atari (I bet you new school cats diggin your Xboxes, Playstation portables have no idea) with 32 colours and it was gangsta. The only game that was worth playing was Space Invaders and it rocked. Dodgin, and weavin, this original shoot em up paved the way for the rest of the games that we know it.

10. Super Mario World: It took me about 2 years to conquer this game but it was well worth it. I wasn't feeling the old school NES editions, but when it was brought to Super Nintendo, I was all over it. The brothers Luigi and Mario stepped their game up and kept me awake on many school nights.

Honourable Mentions: Donkey Kong Land/Original, Dune 2, Zelda (ohh I love this game), The Secret of Mana. I don't mess with these new games like Counterstrike, Diablo, etc...... but back in the day, the top 10 games were the shiznit.

Peace.

DJ Ho.

It's a hard knock life...

I had a really long day today. I'm talking investment banking hours long. Too much work, not enough play. Finished working today at 10pm, then hopped down to Bridge Bar at Circuluar Quay and then onward ho to Mars Lounge. And then back to work again tomorrow morning to do some study and finish off some work.

Is this worth it in the end? I think so. At the moment, you've just got to do everything to impress. When you first start out, you have no foundation to build upon. Just gotta put your head down, bum up, go hardcore at work and make the right contacts. To be successful I think you've got to be able to work hard, act smart, show that your more capable than the next person and get along very well with people. I think that social skills are highly underrated. You could be some absolute technical gun but in my business what differentiates the good advisers is the ability to communicate that knoweldge in a way that's easily understood to the client.

Word is bond.

DJ H to the Izzo.

Igniting the debate: Size isn't everything!!!

Tall men get short shrift as husbands

By Fiona MacRae
August 17, 2005

TALL, dark and handsome is the classic description of the perfect man.But when it comes to perfect husbands, shorter men stand head and shoulders above the rest, a study has found.

Women regard taller men as excellent for a fling but see short men as better companions to settle down with.

This could explain why Nicole Kidman married Tom Cruise, who at 170.2cm is 10cm shorter than her. But she only ever dated the 190cm Steve Bing. Or why Penny Lancaster, a rangy 180cm plus, chose the shorter Rod Stewart as her husband-to-be.

So did his 183cm ex-wife, Rachel Hunter, although she only had a fling with 185cm Robbie Williams.

Researchers believe women looking for the thrill of an affair or hoping to become pregnant tend to find taller men more desirable. Their height is a sign of their masculinity and their ability to father healthy children.

"Taller men have higher social status, earn more and are at lower risk from illness," said anthropologist Dr Boguslaw Pawlowski of the University of Wroclaw in Poland.

"They also have better reproductive success."

However, the benefits quickly wear off, along with the initial attraction.
Evolutionary psychologist Nick Neave said: "You don't want to be surrounded by these guys all the time.

"The guys who are real leaders of the pack tend to not be very nice people. You don't want them around kids, they can be violent and leave you for someone else," Dr Neave said.

"If they are very handsome and very desirable there will be lots of other women competing for their attention.

"For a short-term relationship, you want somebody you are sexually attracted to, they don't have to be the best to get on with."

The scientists also looked at how women's fertility affected their choice of mate. They found that at the time of the month when women are most fertile, they were more attracted to taller men.

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So Tim and Ashby, you still got game cause "Women regard you as better for a fling" and have "better reproductive success" hahaha. But what about for the generic short Asian male? Well I don't know how true this study is, since I know a lot of tall males in relationships with shorties (no pun intended).

Oh how the mighty have fallen

Ouch. My left knee is killing me. The impact of pavement to knee joint for 14km has left me in a bit of pain. I'm finding it hard to walk up and down stairs atm, in fact I think I twisted my muscles. My mum who's a qualified nurse with 20 years experience, ignored my cries of pain and basically laughed it off (thanks mum!).

When I actually rolled up my trouser leg, I could see her eyes widen at the swollen knee cap and then she began this tirade of why I shouldn't have run the City 2 Surf. Bascially I shot back: "I told you I was in pain, why didn't you come have a look at it?". After work, I'll go to physio but hopefully it ain't nothing too bad.

I probably aggravated it before and after the race. Commonsense suggests that you don't do the following:

1. Run for 35 mins the day before the race. For the first time ever.
2. Don't get a free massage from a hot female therapist when its on offer after the race.
3. Despite feeling a lot of pain the next day, bend down and help a colleague fix up the shelving cabinent underneath their desk.
4. Run to get the elevator before it closes
5. Walk 15 mins to go to some crappy sale after work, at a place with steep steps.

Last night, I think I was getting a bit dramatic and thinking about basketball players that get serious knee injuries. Due to the state that I am in, I obviously can't play basketball this week. I've lost my explosiveness and my first step ( I can hear you say what explosiveness/first step have you got?).


The race itself


It was very chilly when I got to the City at 8am. Luckily I had on my sweats on which I stripped off before the race started. We gathered in College St for the back of the pack. All I could see ahead of me was a sea of people that stretched as far as the eye could see. I proud to say I completed the race. All 14km baby! I probably ran about 2/3, and walked about 1/3. It was way too hard to be running whilst in the "Back of the Pack". Half the time your just dodging people and saying "excuse me" as you squeeze through the gaps.

I would have run it better had I been with other people that were also running. I was compeitive until I reached the first drink station and I gasped at the dude handing out the drinks - how far til the finish line? Only hear the guy laughing, we're only at the start of the race son, only 10km to go.! At that point I knew I was screwed! PLus the effect of running the day before, was getting to my aching legs. So I decided to keep pushing along and walked up Heartbreak Hill. It was killer - a hill 2 km high.

I gotta admit though, I did stop and chat to people along the way. Then I heard a voice cry out "Ho!" and turned sideways to see Rahul and Ed running. So we jogged the rest of the way, with Ed dropping off in the last 3km but me and Rahul kept the pace up.

I felt like the Incredible Hulk, gaining strength with each additional step. The adrenalin was pumping and I felt my legs muscles twitching like hell. But I ignored the signs of the body breaking down and broke through that pain threshold, pushing myself. The sign for 2km came up and I gave R the sign "2". We pushed ourselves even harder, with me leading the way. I just kept saying to myself that I wouldn't stop running til I reached the very end.

And the finish line couldn't come soon enough. When Bondi Beach came up - it was an awesome sight - except the finish line was still a fair way away! By that time, Rahul had dropped off in the last 500m, but like the energizer bunny, I kept going. In what seemed like an eternity, I reached the time gates and felt estatic. I HAD FINALLY DONE IT - 14KM in less than 2 hours! It's a fantastic personal achievement and I'll be back again next year, in the HSBC start trying
to beat my time.

Peace out,

DJ HO.

Runnin' Runnin': City 2 Surf

Heart Pounding.

Heavy breathing.

Ipod blaring Pharrell's voice in my head.

The little voice keeps saying: I can do this, I can do this.
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Went for a light run today as my warmup for City 2 Surf. It should be interesting since I haven't done much training at all. I can see myself collapsing about midway, or dying after running up HeartBreak Hill.

Today was quite good. Woke up at 7.30am, tried to simulate the conditions by going for a run at 8am in only my t-shirt and shorts. I ran for about 20 minutes, came back to the house, had a breather and a cool drink and hit the pavement again. All up I ran about 35 mins on smooth jogging pace. I was conscious about not overexerting myself before race day but I felt good afterwards and could have done more.

My plan is to run in 20 minute blocks and stop for a breather. We'll see how that goes, but ultimately I'd like to aim for 100 - 120 minutes, being my first time and all. I'm at the back of the pack so I'll prolly be dodging prams and gorilla suits at the start, then the rest of the crowd.

Fitness is something that I desperately need to work on post City 2 Surf. There's not much of a chance to get out these days, but I'm thinking maybe during my lunch breaks at work, I'll go for a jog to Opera House or do some laps of Hyde Park. And mix it up with basketball at lunch, and if I feel like it some volleyball or netball.

Mixing hip hop into the workplace

Workplace cultures are dynamic because it is representative of the behaviours of the employees that work there, the policies and procedures, the influence of senior management and so on. If one of the factors of workplace culture is the behaviour of their employees, can an employee influence it if he or she is down with hip hop? Because hip hop is a lifestyle - you live it and breathe it. So much that it's been exhibited in my working environment by your truly.

Case in point:

1. I've been bopping my head to the Roots CD which is constantly playing on my computer, so much so that everytime this chick walks past my desk she mockingly imitates me.

2. Emails being sent around are usually ended with "Peace out", "1" or more commonly "word is born".

3. I'm supposed to host this work lunch, and in a conversation with a co-worker who is the co-host and she was saying "maybe we shouldn't be ending our speeches with 'Fo Shizzle', 'Yo Mama', '1', etc....

4. Walking to work the other day, I heard them blaring TQ's 'Westside' from a bar. So when the line "To my peoples if you with me - where you at/Throw your dubs in the air - and wave 'em like you just don't care", what did yours truly do? I threw up a dub as I walked past. There were a few strange onlookers, but I don't care - wesside fo life!

5. Teaching this chick at work all the gangsta hand signs from the simple Westside 'W', Eastcoast 'E', the crown for the Latin Kings, and the Crips 'C'. Don't they say that 80% of communication is visual?

6. Rocking up to work on mufti day looking like some character from OZ. Decked out in my baggy grey jeans, Yellow Timbo's, black leather jacket, and shirt emblazoned with 'semi automatic'.

7. Most people have a copy of some publication that their reading on their desk, eg. like Financial Review, BRW, Cosmo, 9 to 5. I've got a copy of the Source with Ja Rule on the cover. Represent y'all!

8. A lot of people swap CD's at work to listen to.

Colleague: "what are you listening to?.
Me: "Can I interest you in Common? Kanye West? Jay-Z ? The Roots? Maybe Raekwon's 'Only Built for Cuban Linx Niggaz'? The Wu Tang Clan?".
Colleague: "Maybe I'll pass."

9. And of course when I'm going home, I do the whole gangsta fist bump. What did you expect?

Very subtley, I am introducing the key elements of hip hop into my workplace. From showing DVD's of my brother breakdancing (breaking), hosting a work function (MC'in), telling everyone my nickname and the fact that I love going to DJ tournaments (DJ'in) and of course explaining to people the art of urban expression - (graffiti). I know that people like KRS-1 have said that there are additional elements of hip hop but look we have to start somewhere, and I'm doing my best. It ain't easy to change a workplace culture or being a hip hop workplace pioneer :P

Peace out.

DJ HO.

Knowing the world in which we live

The Norwegian diplomat Charung Gollar was asked to present
The UN with a graphic showing the main problems in the world in 2004.
He presented a set of 8 pictures entitled "The power of stars" and was applauded for the simplicity of his idea.
In spite of having no pretension at all, his work was presented to participate to the Nobel Price of Politic Marketing.
Attached are the 8 pictures presented. Click on each of the pictures to view them properly - you really need to read the captions which are too small unless you click on the pic. Trust me its worth it.

Columbia

EUROPE

BURKINA FASO

SOMALIA

USA

ANGOLA

CHINA

It's so important to know the world in which we live. A lot of times we just focus on who we are, what our problems are, and not the world around us. Many of us are bright talented young people with so much drive and ambition. We should be channeling that into worthy causes. We can make a difference in this world but it all starts with us first becoming aware of the problems plaguing our society.

Peace.

DJ HO.

Da Pratt

Normally I don't put pictures of old white men (i prefer athletic black men :P) on my blog but gotta give props to Da Pratt aka Richard Pratt, CEO of VISY Industries. I just come home from a Meet The CEO function at UNSW where they kinda interviewed him in front of a large audience. This dude is king of the papers, or more correctly the cardboard kingpin. The owner of the largest privately held packaging, paper and recyling biz.

What was really cool about this dude, was that even though a large part of the success of his empire is due to him and he's worth billions, he was so humble and down to earth. He kept saying his success was due to the best machines that he bought, the opportunites that he gave people, the talent around him. Rarely did he say it was "me, me, me".

I walked away feeling inspired and motivated. Not to be like him but took away his reasons for his success. He kept it simple. It's about persistence and determination. Talent can only get you so far, but it was sticking to what he knew best and persisting. And taking risks.

It's very hard these days for us uni folks to actually be like that though. We get trained to analyse. Critique. Break a problem down. At the end of this higher learning process, we become conservative and unwilling to take risks. What's really lacking for most of us is the creativity and the risk taking - the hallmarks of entrepreneurs.

Also, I got to show him some love for his priorities. It was family first and then business second. Everything else comes after that (although he did fail to mention a few marital indiscretions...). No matter how successful you are, you've got to keep it in perspective - because in this trife life, all the money in the world can't buy you love.

And the look on his face when the interviewer asked him about the recent price fixing scandals? Priceless. He had this smirk on his face and I knew what was up and so did half the audience.

I really dig his approach to people - he looks after them like they're his la familia. If they're sick, he'll take care of them til the day they die. If they've got money problems, he'll loan em money. It might not be the most commerical thing to do but his from the old skool era - when we used to care about the people that worked for you.

This man is different to most kingpins. He actually does care about society - he has views about population growth, contributed $3million to water desalination, and preaches corporate social responsibility. I'm down with that - a man that gives back to society - not because it makes him look good, but he genuinely cares about the world around him.

PEACE.

Like a candle in the wind

Sometimes it takes a tragic event for you to realise how lucky you really are.

That we should give thanks and praise for every moment that we walk on this earth.

That we should live every day as our last. Nothing should be taken for granted.

We always hear these words of wisdom but usually we ignore them.

We think we're too young, that we've still got a whole life ahead of us.

Something bad did happen. And its kinda made me take stock of where I am in life, what I am here for.

Sadly, someone that I knew passed away last week.

It was hard on most people because it was so sudden. And the man wasn't that old. A sudden heart attack. And just like that, he was taken from the world.

When I found out, I was in a state of shock. For a few minutes I just couldn't think properly.

All I know is I owe this man.

And now he's gone.

There are times when I'm so driven. That I want to achieve so much. There are some days where I just work crazy hours. And then I think, what am I doing this for? Do I really want to create this work stress for myself?

Life is short. And what's really sad is that its taken an event like this to make me realise this. Better late than never I guess.

Peace.

Rest In Peace - No ID.

Love is...

How beautiful love can be
On the streets love is hard to see
It's a place I got to be
Loving you is loving me
How beautiful love can be
On the streets love is hard to see
Gotta reach that frequency
Loving you is loving me

- Common on "Love is....."

Over the past couple of months, I keep bumping into an old friend, Richard from back in the Primary School era. Way back in the day. We started reminincing about what people were up to now and just straight catching up. Richard is one of the dudes that if you saw him you think he was some hard ass mutha. Dressed in his beanie and hoodie every morning, with the "I don't give a ...." tude., he's a guy that most people from school just simply avoid. And it doesn't help that he just ignores everyone.

Anyways, the point of this is that we started talking about girlfriends and he was saying that "I'm too hard to have a girlfriend." I tried to explain to him what love is but its kinda difficult when -

a) your on a crowded peak hour train

b) a person refuses to listen

And no, I didn't use the "loving you is loving me" line from Common!. So until I bump into him again and explain it, here is my explanation of love from a boyfriend/girlfriend perspective. Having been in a relationship for nearly 4.5 years, I think I have some idea or at least should.

Love is waking up in the morning knowing that there is someone else out there that loves you.

Love is arguing with someone until your blue in the face, conceding but still believing that your right.

Love is knowing everything about that other person, including their deepest and darkest secrets, their fears and what upsets them the most.

Its about doing things for someone, without any rational reason and giving up something that you treasure for that other person.

Its deciding to miss that interview because your sick and needed to be taken home. And then somehow manging to turn up slightly late.

It's about driving 1 hour to some remote location to take you home.

Love is having someone that is like your best friend, someone that you want to be around 24/7.

It's having someone that buys you random presents when you prolly don't deserve it having missed their own birthday.

It's about being able to simply be yourself around that person.

There is no real definition about love is. I've tried to describe it but it's very hard in words. Even harder if your a man that chooses to be "hard" like Richard. Sometimes you just need to open up or that right person might come along and make you realise how beautiful love can be.

As men we were taught to hold it in
That's why we don't know how 'til we're older men
If love is a place I'ma go again
At least now, now I know to go within
At time it can take ya for a spin
Heartbreak hotel then you're home again

it's heating up

Just caught wind of this deal: Antonie Walker, James Posey, and Jason Williams to the Heat. And all Miami gave up as Eddie Jones? They made off like thieves! I'm not sure how the team will mesh together seeing that Walk is a bit of a hog and likes chucking up 3's but in terms of talent, that's an awesome trade.

James Posey should be good, bringing his defensive ability. But its a really weird combination that the Heat will have. They could have too many people that want the ball and I'm not sure if 'Toine will be happy being the third cog in the wheel.

It the R to the, double O to the T S

I've actually got a lot of things to do at the moment, but right now I feel compelled to write this. Those big clients can wait whilst I profess my appreciation for The Roots concert that I went to last Saturday.

The Roots crew are just so talented. Musically they are just off the hook - mixing live instruments (electric guitars, drums, keyboard), Black Thought's vocals as well as some awesome female RNB licks. I've seen them before at the Hordern Pavillion, but this was much better in a more intimate atmosphere at the Enmore theatre.

What I like to do at the concerts is at one point in the night to just close my eyes, zone out and simply listen to the music. Only the last couple of times that I've done that I've managed to inhale some second hand weed lingering in the air!!! I told a friend to do the same thing and she also commented on the sticky green wafting at the metro. And what was also cool was when the Roots switched it up and played some ODB tribute tracks like Shimmy Shimmy Ya and some classic Nas Illmatic.

In short, the concert was the shiznit.

BTW how did everyone else find the Roots crew?