The Woodshed

How did it get so late so soon? It's night before it's afternoon. December is here before it's June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon? Dr. Seuss

My son, Dune, turns 7 years old today. It's hard to believe. Seven years ago, on this day, he entered our lives and for what it's worth ... i don't think he wanted to. It was a whole day affair. And true to character, Dune insists on making the rest of the world see things well ... different. I believe he is responsible for introducing Mandy and myself to the notion of Indigo and Rainbow children. I also believe that he brought the Angels into our lives. I believe that although as parents we have a lot to teach Dune he has been teaching us all along. And I'm very blessed that he chose me to be his dad. Happy Birthday Dune. Send love to your heart ... because you have certainly filled ours. Dad. XXX

The Space Patrolers are attending an open day at Wireframe today. My good friend Paul Tooze promises to educate, entertain and enlighten. Paul and I have been in the industry for over 13 years and he remains one of the most gifted individuals I have ever met. I'm really looking forward to it.

My son, Jagger turns 5 today. This is a big deal. The big F-I-V-E ... er. Well. Five. It's wonderful to watch the the behaviour of a 4 year old the days before he turns 5. He seems to bewitch himself. An inward ritual starts taking place and he rises above the self doubt. He no longer accepts the teasing and usual playground banter that might dent the ego. He chooses to look at the situation through another lens. The lens of someone older than he already is. The lens of someone who is now 5. And not 4. It's a powerful thing - as far as I can see. Because each time he mentioned the fact that is was his birthday in '3 more sleeps' a bright smile lit up his face and nothing else could possibly bring him down. To the extent that the rest of the world around him decided to join him. Jagger turned 5 before his birthday. The day began with the tradition Bryce ritual. Chocolate cake for breakfast for the sugar rush. This time it was a home-made Dinosaur cake. The best there is

It's now official. When the family first felt the desire to return to Cape Town we didn't know where to start. What about jobs? Houses? Schools? The logistics of a relocation seemed overwhelming. So we didn't bother with the detail. Instead I kept seeing my car with CA plates. And did little else. The pic above serves as my final validation in the power of visualization. Aaait!

It's my son's birthday today. Tyler turns 10. Those of you whom read this blog from time to time will recall that one of the Bryce traditions is to indulge in chocolate cake for breakfast on one's birthday. Today was no exception. This morning at 6am we were frosting the cake and added the 10 candles. The family sang and we each had a piece. Emma, who is now 12, swears that being 10 was the best year ever ... she's managed to give Tyler that little bit to look forward to. Perhaps this has been his best present so far. A whole year of being the best ever. Can you imagine that? Maybe you and I should take a leaf from Emma's tea and do the same. Make your current year the best one ever ... the only person who decides whether that will be the case or not is you.

it's here .

Guess what I'm doing whilst on the train these days? Here's the Big Idea. 'Stories from The Train' are a series of children's tales that introduces us to the spiritual laws that govern our lives – but told in a way that makes them easy to understand for children between the ages of 4 and 10. The first in the compilation; "Alex and the Talking Ants", introduces young folk to the power of intention and visualization. Meet Alex, a 6 year old who is anticipating his 7th birthday. Alex has informed everybody that he would like a Spaceship. Not the kind that comes with 2 AA batteries mind you ... but the real deal. He wants to visit the stars. And he has promised his younger brother to take him the moment the big day arrives. But Alex is in for a big surprise when he sees a bright light outside his window in the early morning of his birthday ... I was first introduced to the spiritual laws almost 3 years ago when my wife, Mandy, attended a Deepak Chopra confere

Recently I've had the opportunity to commute to and from the Space Patrol Car HQ in Greenpoint, CT by train. The journey snakes along the Southern Line and for a short distance hugs the coast of False Bay. For the past few mornings I've witnessed the most magnificent sun rises over the water and rock formations. The decision to commute on the line is a no brainer when you look at it: [1] Productivity I have 2 more hours in the day where I can draw, write, create, listen to Podcasts, plan, internalise, structure and organize. You will find me deep in my Moleskine. [2] Travel Expenses A quick calculation shows that I am saving over 600% on costs. A monthly ticket costs me R190. Whereas I was spending approximately R1 200 on unleaded petrol. [3] Carbon Footprint Speaking of unleaded - I am also reducing my Carbon Footprint by catching the train. One less car on the M3. [4] Excercise The distance form the station to Greenpoint is about a brisk 15 - 20min walk each way. So I do get

I'm not a huge fan of simply posting articles or links that I have found elsewhere with no insight, recommendations or personal comment. But this one has surely got to be the exception. Thanks to Uno via Twitter we may have the mother load of what's been missing! A full history of the mercurial internet meme. Do you remember "all your base are belong to us!"? This site visually charts over a hundred memes into a timeline, list, flipbook or map. It is a collaborative effort run through Dipity . Enjoy. I know I will.

The day the digital drought broke. Thanks to Net#work BBDO and digital design agency Gloo, we have another Loerie Grand Prix awarded to digital to celebrate as an industry. Loerie's 2008 was the bomb. Nothing was spared. The service, the entertainment, the freekin' sound system! and even the pop-up loo's had dedicated cleaners after every visit. From cheerleaders, to Reddy D, to pole dancers, to a massive Philharmonic Orchastra, to Madamé Zingara diva's ... I even met The Parlotone's and Sonia Herald (but not at the same time mind you ... ). The audio visual work was outstanding, and could have been entered on it's own merits. From a digital perspective, I thought the number of entries was well up from last year - a good sign. The process was relatively uncomplicated and each jury member judged remotely - making it possible to judge the entries and keep your day routine (more or less - you find yourself viewing work in the wee hours for a couple of days). IMHO

After spending a grueling 3 weeks judging over 220 digital entries I'm finally sitting at the Cape Town International Airport enroute to the sleepy town of Margate. This year there was some outstanding work, although I could count them on one hand. There's still much room for improvement overall. Bit more on that later. I believe we have secured a few VIP tickets for the Loeries this year and I'm looking forward to the treatment, which I believe is outstanding. Tonights spotlight falls on the print and design industries. It should be a good show. Tomorrow evening is dedicated to television, radio and the digital industry - which is my area of interest. Hope I've packed enough outfits. If all go's well I will be posting my views on the whole process, from the judging through to the event itself and a comment or two on the lucky ones who did the shake and take.

Happy Birthday Madiba. We are deeply blessed to have had you hold our hand and guide us all to freedom with your immeasurable love and compassion for humanity. You remain an icon for all leaders around the world. And you're ours. The Woodshed wishes you a very happy 90th birthday ...

When oh when will the iPhone be 'officially' available and supported in SA? That's the question that's being discussed at the local water-cooler these days. Of course everybody is keeping a keen eye on Apple's up coming Worldwide Developers Conference on June 9 for the official release dates. My first Mac product, a Mac SE, landed on my desk in 1990. Well, truth be told, it landed on my creative directors desk - a fiery italian by the name of Luca Menato. But I used it on the weekends and decided we were best friends. So i consider myself somewhat as an Apple product connoisseur ... hell you would too if you managed to put an entire women's magazine together using the Mac SE with 4mb memory and 40mb hard drive. And the software? PageMaker 1.0 and MacPaint. If Apple is expecting to sell 10 million iPhones this year then please reserve one for me. And please be kind enough to tell me when I can buy one, fully supported, from my local store. If Apple wont spill the

Police on horseback. A tradition which is still maintained in the city of Cape Town. Every other morning I'm greeted by this troupe of four horsemen trotting through the streets nearby the Space Patrol Car offices. Of course there's something special about hearing the klip klopping of the hooves, something that stirs the senses. Another reason why I love this city.

Last week Wednesday I sat on the patio sipping some crisp Stonehaven Savignon Blanc whilst online. The journey eventually lead me to LinkedIn and I realised that my profile still sat at a disturbing 85% ... which it had done for almost 2 years. Further investigation indicated that I needed a 'Recommendation' to order to increase this rating to 90%. I decided to open a second bottle and ask all my connections to recommend me in an effort to complete the process ... (note to self ... quite clever trick ...) I'm happy to report that this worked a treat! After only 3 recommendations my profile now stands at a healthy 100%. Thanks to thescott, Claudio and Guy my profile on LinkedIn now sits at a very healthy 100%. I can move onto my next challenge: joining more tweeters ...

Whilst trawling through some backup Dvds I stumbled across the old tinderbox home page designs I worked on. You gotto love the old Netscape browser. Boy those were the days. tinderbox homepage 1996 tinderbox homepage 1997 tinderbox homepage 1998

My mate sent this über-cool short video clip of us shopping for T-Shirts during one lunchtime. Many years ago. Before the dot-bomb. Before Web 2.0. Hell even before Web 1.0 was mentioned. Or the word 'blog'. It was a terribly exciting time and in many ways I believe that the team we put together has been one of the best teams I've had the privilege of working with. Thanks to Gareth for the clip. Shot on Super8. Yeah it's cool .... it's freeken awesome!

today is my birthday. as our annual ritual dictates, we all had our sugar-rush at 6:30am with a thick slice of the most decadent chocolate cake from Milissa's this morning. i think my sons even managed to sneak in seconds. at least they have the entire day to expend their energy level after that. i guess i have a lot to be deeply grateful for. and although i didn't hold any high expectations this year for presents, messages and cards (omg do you think the passing years are starting to mellow me out like a barrel of old no. 7?) i must say that mandy and the kids still surprised me with 2 months guitar lessons and a boogie board. gifts that portray the cape town lifestyle i suppose. so it's a day in the office and an evening on the beach with family and friends. it's great to be alive.

As a child we would all make-believe we were prince’s and princesses. Cops and robbers. Cowboys and Indians. In the late 60s and 70s we chose to be astronauts. We grew up surrounded by movies, comics and stories brimming with science-fiction themes. In those early days of space travel and the Apollo program, toy-shops were full of robots and rockets. Science was the stuff that dreams are made of. Whenever we got a toy we would play with it all day long. If it broke, we would keep it in our collection and use it in our imaginative play as battle-damaged. We would inspect it closely and we tried to figure out how it worked. All too often taking a robot apart and attempting to put it back together. There were always pieces left over. But that didn’t matter. Twenty five years on, as an adult, I can still recall the excitement, smell, texture and magic of discovering a new item. But that recollection is something much stronger than mere nostalgia for the toys that had once fired my childish

After writing my version of the Jo'burg chronicle's - a chapter lasting almost six years - I have returned to the Mother City. [ ... meaningful pause] I think the only way to truly appreciate where you are is to have some frame of reference - many many years ago my art lecturer (George - a short and bearded man that always seemed to wear a pair of blue garage overalls) at Rhodes University sat us down and shared this with us: To taste life one needs to develop tastes that are on both sides of the spectrum. Truly decadent and downright awful. The decadence would not be understood if decadence was all you ever had. Granted - I'm still in the honeymoon phase of breathing in this city, and by NO MEANS do I want to create the impression that good 'ole energetic Jozi is 'downright awful' on the contrary BladeRunner City was fantastic - but man the air certainly seems sweeter when you're driving 10m from the Ocean. It's as simple as that for me. Stay tuned for