iPhone 3G apps store on iTunes

I've been an Apple supporter since the first iPods were released. I
have a 1gig nano a 4gig nano a 20gig classic an 80gig classic and now
the new iPhone 3G, I think this list qualifies my first statement.
Now, where the problem comes in is, I live in South Africa and this
means that I registered my iTunes account under my country that I live
in (which is the correct thing to do, or so I'm told). Now for those
of you that don't know, when you have a South African iTunes account
you aren't able to puchase ANYTHING via the account. I thought this
was kinda pointless but I have registered all my iPods like this like
the good boy that I am.

When it was announced that Apple was releasing the new iPhone 3G in SA
I foolishly thought that things would change for the better. They did
change, I can now download iPhone apps from the iTunes store ... great
you might think, but wait, there's a catch. I'm only able to download
certain apps, not everything that's available to the rest of the world
and wait, there's more, I'm still not allowed to download any music or
anything else from iTunes.

What is up with that?!? Most of my friends have iPods of some sort,
the Apple stores are always short of or sold out of stock, so it's not
like nobody's buying anything from Apple here in South Africa. When is
Apple going to come to the party and treat us as equals to the rest of
the world, we are an emerging market were people are techno crazy.
Every second person has a cell phone (these days even the hobo's do
too) it's a fashion statement and a "life support" system for almost
every kid here from about 10yrs old and up. Does Apple think that we
still have lion's and elephants running around in the untarred streets
here in SA, because I've got a news flash for them, it's nothing like
that at all.

So I ask you Mr Jobs and your team of exec's please come to the party
and consider us too...

Red Devil

Readers and Ideas

They say that most rich people also have a good personal library of books. I don't know if a person with a good library is also automatically rich. I do think that if you are widely read, you are rich. Not necessarily in material wealth but in ideas.
I recently purchased a book called "Thinkertoys" on the internet. No, not an e-book but a genuine paper book. Its all about methods of generating ideas. How to be creative. It explains how the two sides of your brain works. It also explains how your brain looks at concepts. The assumptions it makes. How you can "fool" your brain by breaking large concepts into smaller ones and then discovering new ideas. It also has a process of taking the various properties of an item, say a scissors. It can cut paper, hair, food, grass, etc. Now change that to negatives. A scissors that can't cut hair, paper or food. This may help you to find other uses for a scissors concept e.g a tongs for lifting food, a hair lifter for a hairdresser to cut or style hair a paper folder. You get the idea. You start thinking out of that cube thing.
Maybe you have read other interesting books lately that can broaden our vision.

"Man bashing" !?!?!?

While sitting in a coffee shop this morning, waiting for my wife, I couldn't help but overhear two ladies chatting. The older lady voiced her opinion repeatedly about her circle of "girlfriends" that she often hangs out with. She kept mentioning that whenever they get together over a few drinks, the evening would start out very pleasantly, but sure as the day is long, the topic of conversation would go from pleasant banter to blatant "man bashing". Her friends constantly complain and degrade their husbands and men in general. My question is, do all women do this and are men really that bad? I wonder if these women that enjoy this type of pass time, actually go home and tell their husbands the way they feel? I would like to believe that I'm intelligent and open minded enough for my wife to feel comfortable enough to tell me if there's something that I'm doing that's upsetting her, without me getting upset or starting a "fight" about the issue. Isn't that what marriage is all about, keeping your partner happy? I would also try to, as tactfully as possible, tell my wife if there's something that she's doing that's getting on my nerves.... I need to be true to myself to be able to be happy and to, in turn, keep our marriage good and strong and I wouldn't be able to do that if I was walking around with some "stupid" little issue pricking me in the back of my mind. I think it all comes down to simple communication between partners and of course caring enough about your partners' needs to try and change or at least compromise on certain issues. ..... But that's just my opinion (I hope to God that my wife doesn't "man bash")

Parenting

Hi all, I'd like to throw a topic out there to everyone that's ever been involved or has or has had kid's. My 2 year old finally threw her dummy in the bin yesterday, needles to say, Lynne spent the better part of last night running up and down to the kitchen to refill her bottle (which I think, she's now substituted for the dummy). Do any of you have any advice on how best to deal with a situation like this??? specially because I think it might be my turn tonight to run to the kitchen ;-( ..... . I hate to see my both my "babies" suffering like this and I can only imagine that it must be like giving up smoking "cold turkey".

Idea's for supper

Just wondering if anyone out there's got any tasty, simple to make and yet inexpensive idea's for meals..... not that I'm complaining about my wife's cooking or anything. I just think that it'd be nice to try some new dishes that are recommended by real people (not the type that make a meal that costs you R100 per plate to make and you have to go and shop at some out of this world shop to get one of the ingredients, situated totally of one's normal shopping route and then the plate has a piece of meat the size of a R5,00 coin, ten pea's, four carrots and a celery stick). I mean real food for real people, by real people.... I do have to mention, at the risk of being beaten to a pulp by the other ladies who I've eaten from (you all know who you are), my wife makes the best lasagne EVER!!!! This is obviously my favourite dish, followed closely by my mother's stir fry (which she makes differently every time I ask her to make the dish for me - but I love it non the less)...... so anyway, back to the topic at hand.

.... nice meal idea's, that's easy for working parents to make and have done by a reasonable time to be able to feed the kid's before they have to go to bed (and not have to pack their supper in for lunch at school the NEXT day).

It would obviously be appreciated, I'm sure, if, when explaining you favourite dish to our friends, that you include a few basic guide lines and maybe a shopping list too, so that we can also give your "mouth watering" cuisine a whirl sometime.

Hello to all

Hi, I've made this blog for everyone that's interested in anything and everything. I hope that we will be able to share our thoughts, opinions and advise on many different and diverse topics. Please fell free to comment or share on anything that has been posted, BUT remember, we are all friends here, so all I ask is that we all respect each others views and not let anything that's been said lead to anything distasteful. Further more, have fun, and speak your mind about anything.....