Charlie Chaplin - The Greatest Speech Ever Made

Charlie Chaplin, the man famous for comical silent movies, made the most inspiring speech I will ever hear in my life. Watch the Youtube video, the person who posted it cleverly put relevant videos and pictures in the background.

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups Cupcakes

I was inspired by something I saw on Pinterest and I was feeling a bit adventurous today so I went on a hunt for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and made cupcakes out of them.

What did I use:

- Cake mix

- Eggs

- Butter

- Milk

- Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

- Reese's Peanut Butter Chips

- Icing sugar

- Cocoa powder

- Peanut butter

Quick breakdown of what I did:

- I used cake mix instead of making the cupcake mixture from scratch. This Reese's Peanut Butter cupcake adventure was a procrastination cooking session and it meant I didn't have enough time to make a cupcake mixture from scratch as I usually do; I was supposed to be studying. Even so, I used milk and butter in place of the water and oil that the cake mix instructions requested.

- With the mix ready I spooned a tablespoon into each cupcake holder and then added the quarters of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups as well as the Reese's Peanut Butter Chips.

- I covered the Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Reese's Peanut Butter Chips with another spoonful of cake mix.

- They went into the oven and I made two icings, a chocolate one and a peanut butter one and layered them in the piping bag.

- After they were done cooling I did simple icing. 

- I think I might try this with Lindt Lindor truffles next.

Soundtracks to Your Life - Getting Over Someone

One of my friends is doing an article about songs you should bang to. Regularly check http://d-is-for-danger.blogspot.com/ for the list, I'll let you know when he does eventually finish that nasty mess. I do hope that Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites by Skrillex makes it onto that list.

I call this list of songs that tackle different stages of a break-up the product of uncanny timing, what with the bang chart inspiration and going through my own sort of break-up. I also went to try and find out what the break-up stages were and then I added in my own bits. Hey! You might need this list soon cause break-up season appears in June/July then again in September. I did focus on a lot of mainstream music so you should know most of the songs.

Realisation

This only applies if you're the one who's leaving. In this stage you've had enough and have thought about it for a while, it's not a spontaneous decision. The decision process probably looks like this, click here.While you were thinking you were probably listening to certain types of songs. I have found that British artists rock at realisation. Adele*, of course, belts out a few because she had a difficult relationship with her boyfriend who in the end broke her heart and made her gloriously rich. My favourite song is Melt My Heart To Stone by Adele even though Turning Tables and Tired come in a close second and third. Melt My Heart to Stone doesn't make sense in terms of present day furnace calculations but the the song makes sense. Kate Nash puts out Foundations about crap times she's obviously had and Coldplay takes a piece of the cake with X&Y. Erykah Badu is the only artist that doesn't fit in the Brit category, listen to Call Tyrone for a good laugh at an angry black woman. 

"Each and every time I turn around to leave I feel my heart begin to burst and bleed"

Sadness

Person: When I'm sad I try to sing along to songs. Then I shut up and realise that there are worse things than my sucky life.
Adele: I don't get it.

So you've broken up with your significant other and you're crushed. It doesn't matter whether you were the dumper or the dumped one. You can still be a sad, lonely loser. You'll go through turbulent emotions, being normal is your high of the day and your lows are depressed lows. Never fear, things might not be okay now, but things will get better. In the meanwhile I suggest you listen to Maroon 5. They have a range of beautiful songs dedicated to heartbreak. Most of them are found in their It Won't Be Soon Before Long album; I didn't really like Hands All Over because it sounded a little too country to me. However, my favourite track is Just a Feeling from Hands All Over. Weird how these things happen. Better That We Break, also by Maroon 5, is second and it's from It Won't Be Soon Before Long. It's Over by the Cheetah Girls, don't laugh at the artist, is also good. No one can doubt the power of ballads so All by Myself by Shirley Bassy and Tears Dry on their Own by Amy Winehouse are perfect fits.

"This is more than goodbye, when I look into your eyes you're not even there"

Angry
You eventually get tired of feeling sad and start to realise that you're better off without that person. People get angry because they forget to forgive. I don't recommend listening to anyone of these songs when you are angry. They are just angry songs. Internet Friends by Knife Party is a really cool song with an epic beat about some angry British Girl who wants to kill you because you blocked her on Facebook. Breaking Dishes by Rihanna is about roasting marshmellows on your car's burning tyres and bleaching your clothes. Both are really angry dance songs. For the purpose of quietly meditating and plotting a psychopathic attack then I suggest you listen to Dickhead by Kate Nash and I Learned From the Best by Whitney Houston. If your planned attack on the person fails then you can listen to Why Won't You Die by System of a Down.

"You blocked me on Facebook and now you're going to die"

Acceptance
You eventually get over minor plots of revenge, being angry at the person and at yourself. You realise it is just wasting your time and it's better to forgive and move on. You might even apologise to the person for your behaviour during the relationship because you'll be able to think in an unbiased manner. If you feel like saying, "You're a sorry excuse for a ..." then you're probably still angry and you've got a while to go. Songs that remind you that you've broken up with someone but don't make you sad or angry anymore are Somebody That I Used To Know by Gotye Feat. Kimbra and Sober by Kelly Clarkson. Instead of being angry, you can remember the good and the bad times for what they were and move on.

"Now you're just somebody that I used to know"

Then you'll meet somebody else, sometimes even if you were married, and repeat the cycle. 

Good luck!

*The people who hate on Adele and complain about her music have not only managed to deafen themselves to one our generation's most astounding singers but have also failed to comprehend the depth of her song-writing ability. When you're alone and lost, listen to Adele because she'll help you realise that you're not alone. She manages to reach down into your soul and pluck your heart strings.

Awkward Crying Moments

I was listening to the Grant and Anele Show a while back and they were talking about songs that managed to make people cry. There were not referring to typical tear-inducing songs. In fact, one lady phoned to say:

• She had lost her job
• She was quite saddened by her jobless state
• She turned on the radio and heard, "I Need a Dollar by" Aloe Blacc
• She cried

I found this extremely funny and spent a good while laughing about it in my car and then carried on laughing when I got home. It was a bit mean but I laughed because I understood. I've also had one of those moments when you cry about something that shouldn't make you cry. So I started asking around to find out if this has happened to anyone else. I went beyond music to include anything. I'll start with my experience first then list the other ones.

Lilo and Stitch 2: Stitch has a Glitch 
I realise it is an animation that is supposed to be cute and stupid. I watched this about five years ago while eating dinner with my family. At the time I was going through a rough friendship patch. In this movie Stitch (the blue thing) starts malfunctioning as there is something wrong in his alien bio-robot body. When he malfunctions he breaks things, hurts people and can't control himself.

Photo available here

It reaches the point when Stitch scratches Lilo at her hawaiian dance recital then he proceeds to wreck her special day. Then Lilo leaves because she's had enough.

"Hay...You still mad?"
Photo available here

That scene was what set me off. I actually cried into my dinner, much to the shock of my family. They didn't know what to do. I laugh now but it was bad.

Photo available here

I calmed down for a bit, that level consisted of heavy breathing and wiping my eyes, then Stitch died! And I was off crying again. I left the room after that. Well you know it is a kid's movie so of course they brought a machine to fix him in time and he lived.

Chocolate Mousse
Ashleigh: " I cried once when I came home to find the family all had chocolate mousse for dessert and didn't leave any for me. It was a tough day."

Honey and 21st Speeches
Lisa: "I always cry during 21st speeches. And I always cry at the end dance sequence of Honey."

Photo available here

Snails
Margaret: "Snails. Every time. I've convinced myself that they will and can attack me!"

Need for Speed Undercover
Sumesha: "When I finished Need for Speed Undercover I cried because it was so hard and also because I had no other game to play."

This game induces tears
Photo available here

MTV
Anonymous: "I was watching those two guys on MTV's ad breaks, the South African guys who do short skits, and they pranked Arno Carstens. I cried (after laughing)."

Photo available here

I guess we all have our days. You can share additional stories in the comments if you want to. Otherwise hope this made you laugh!

The Process of Leaving Someone

The process of leaving someone that makes you unhappy:

- Anger (head knowledge - decide that you will move on, little issues bother you and there is no common ground)

- Sadness (head knowledge becomes heart knowledge - realise what leaving means and think about the good days)

- Acceptance (two options - stay and repeat the cycle or realise that you might not be okay now but you will be one day and leave)

Things that help:

- Good advice, not just friends listening to you in the anger phase

- Expressing it (see below, currently in stage 2&3)

- Music

SOPA? PIPA? SOAP? A PIP? (Understand What They Are About)

So you might have noticed that the Wikipedia page looks weird.

It's to do with SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act, and PIPA, Protect IP Act. They were drafted to give the US government the authority to do crazy things to websites that allowed copyrighted things to be shown and/or posted. It's all about protecting the entertainment industry. For example things Mediafire, Youtube and even Twitter would be under fire because they have users posting copyrighted things. The US government would be able to block their pages, get US companies to stop advertising off their websites and fine search engines for linking users to websites with copyrighted material within the US. Both acts will probably get abused by the US government.
The world is going on about it and you wonder why you should care.

Think of what it means for us, especially in South Africa.

Our government already has permission to censor certain information from us within the media forum (Black Tuesday). They catch wind of these two acts and they start censoring the internet in South Africa too. What if we couldn't organise protests for change like in Egypt because they simply have the means to shut down Facebook and Twitter? So much for social media and freedom.

Watch this video to fully comprehend how bad SOPA and PIPA are.


PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.
Tell Congress not to censor the internet NOW! - http://www.fightforthefuture.org/pipa

PROTECT-IP is a bill that has been introduced in the Senate and the House and is moving quickly through Congress. It gives the government and corporations the ability to censor the net, in the name of protecting "creativity". The law would let the government or corporations censor entire sites-- they just have to convince a judge that the site is "dedicated to copyright infringement."

The government has already wrongly shut down sites without any recourse to the site owner. Under this bill, sharing a video with anything copyrighted in it, or what sites like Youtube and Twitter do, would be considered illegal behavior according to this bill.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, this bill would cost us $47 million tax dollars a year — that's for a fix that won't work, disrupts the internet, stifles innovation, shuts out diverse voices, and censors the internet. This bill is bad for creativity and does not protect your rights.

Leave The Weave!

I had my hair cut short in what I thought was a moment of madness during the November exams last year. My hair is a natural afro now. I've actually begun to realise that I have been crazy all these years because of the things I used to do to my hair. I'm not alone, there are millions of women all over the world that have some how lost sight of what is good for themselves and for their hair. You see them in class, church, walking down the road and on TV. This madness grabs all races by the ponytail. I'm going to focus on Black hair and recent hair history, because that's what I know best but I will mention crazy things Asian and White girls do to their hair.

Madness probably began with the hot comb, somewhere in the 60s. Hot combs, back then, were metal combs heated on the stove or in a fire. That implies that you would have burnt badly when you used one.

That's okay, right?

As long as you have manageable hair? (Haha, WTF!).

Hot combs stayed for quite a while before the 80s came around. Relaxers became popular around this time. Some crazy hair stylist decided it was a good thing to throw a really strong base into Black hair to straighten it. These relaxers were so corrosive that many had chemical burns for weeks. They were also expensive.

The price did not deter many of the girls back then they simply made do with oven cleaner.

They probably also used the timer.
Photo available here

Times changed, relaxers became better and then braiding came into fashion at the end of the 80s. Around this time in the iconic hairstyle was the Boom Shaka braids. They took forever to braid. If you were at the mercy of someone who liked to pull while they braided you were often left crying silently because you had to stay and endure the pain for this hairstyle.

Boom Shaka braids!
Photo available here

Towards the end of the 90s weaves became popular. I believe this was the pinnacle of hair madness. There is a generation of women who have lost their hairlines. Their hair is so finished that they're ashamed to remove their weaves and leave their hair as is. In fact, many women remove their weaves and put a new one in on the same day. It's a cruel cycle because the weaves and the braiding cause the hair loss.

That's Naomi Campbell and that's not hot, at all.
Photo available here

I believe Black women have always wanted to have the illusion of longer hair. This mindset was present in the hot comb era. You came blame the media for making us think specific things are beautiful but in the end you have to look at yourself and see what you've done. Hair madness has also allowed us to become the butt of many jokes (sigh... Chris Rock). So one of my wise friends proposed this: "Leave the Weave!" We have a collective agreement to keep our hair natural and rid the world of nasty hair. You should join us too. Natural hair is really easy to maintain and you'll never have to experience Black Girl Hair Problems (below).

Black women aren't the only ones who do crazy things to their hair. Some of the crazy things White and South-East Asian girls do to their hair:

1. It's so permanently dyed that it's dead (not that hair is alive but their hair is especially dead).

Lady Gaga has admitted that she's going chemically bald because her hair is falling out because she dyes it so much
Photo available here

2. They relax their hair too. I really don't understand this one because it is mostly straight.

You look like a nice lady but WTF are you doing?
Photo available here

3. My favourite, the tacky hair extensions. A white girl's weave. Does the same thing to your hair, removes it, and normally looks incredibly cheap.

So classy that she got a few As in trash
Photo available here

So can I get a collective, "Leave the weave!"? I mean it in the sense that if you're ashamed to show your real hair and you're damaging it then you should leave the weave, the peroxide, the braids, relaxer cremes and give your hair a break. This is more than hair it's about being happy with your beautiful self and loving what you've got.

A Student's Guide to Dealing with University, Engineering and Engineering Students

Grade 12 Results were released yesterday and today so you should know if you got into university by now. If you didn't make the cut Gareth Cliff did suggest you pick up the following careers:

• Mud-pie maker (He did go onto explain that the market was very saturated with toddlers competing with you so it might not work out)
• Clock reader (Read the time to me because sometimes looking at my watch is just too much effort)
• Personal car guard (If I go to a shopping centre and the other car guards are hassling me, I could just open the boot of my car and say, "No, no, I have a car guard.")

You do realise I am joking and there is a ton of stuff you can still do with yourself. Being great doesn't mean you are defined by a university degree. If you have made it into university then you need a strong drink, this guide and anti-depressants for later on during the year. There's two sections to this guide, the general ones and the Engineering side.

General rules

1) If you teach someone else how to do it you will fail

One day you decide to learn your work for the practical or test and do well. Then a friend asks for help. You say, "Sure" and take time out of your day to explain to them.
You write the test.
You feel great.
They write.
They feel shit.
You feel sorry for them but you did try help them.
You get the tests back and…

I don't know why it happens. It just does.

2) If you're walking in with a low mark, it takes super human brain powers to pass

At the end of every year everyone says that next year they'll start earlier with the workload and do it continiously. That means pre-reading what you're going to do in class, making notes that day and re-reading all your work at the end of each week. If you, yes you, can make a habit of that you will be in Golden Key or even on the Dean's List with minimal effort. Few have succeeded in making a habit of this. Things that will put you off are your social life, laziness and supposedly having no time. When you do not keep up you start failing a few class tests, maybe a semester test too and you get into the exams with a mark between 50% and 40%. Do you know how hard you have to work to pass?! Be a man! Do the right thing! Do your work continuously!

3) Don't get on the bunking train
Don't bunk that lecture. Don't even think about it. Bunking that first lecture is like putting one foot on a slow moving train as it's leaving the platform. The next week when you have that lecture again you will feel no compulsion to go, so that's two feet on the train as it's moving slowly. Then you start bunking all the lectures for that class and the train has sped up. The point is because you're on the bunking train and are having awesome train parties you start to bunk important lectures too, ones that you have to go to. Then you start considering ways to bunk practicals and skip tutorials. While you're having such a good time no one ever bothers to let you know that the train is set to crash land in Fail City.

This train will make your life extremely difficult!
Courtesy of hisks

This especially applies to engineering because lecturers are cruel and can cover up to three chapters in a textbook in one lecture. Then when you're anxiously sweating because you didn't listen to 3) you'll skip out section 5 or 6 because there is no time to understand it and guess what? Murphy's Law, Section 5 AND 6 appear in the test.

4) Pick your social life, not based on your friends but based on how you like to party.
No one actually ever considers doing this but it makes for far more enjoyable times. If you're into binge drinking of the sort then go for the engineering students (they party like Kappa Tau in Greek).

Courtesy of greektv.wikia.com

Medical students moderate between partying hard and chilling, they do tend to have fun parties. BComm students tend to stick to the clubs and have dinners (blah blah blah). BA students have the best social lives, they do everything. There's a place for you anywhere, you just need to make the right sort of friends.

5) Residence students are the best (In South Africa: residence = dorm)
I love res kids, everyone should have res friends. Not only do they know how to party but they're good for a few things:

• They have the res network. The res network is an open file sharing system for everyone within the residence. This is important academically because you can get past papers which are a blessing to learn with. This is also important for entertainment reasons because you have access to torrent downloads of programs, music, videos and series.
• Res events. If you don't have a res friend you won't know about the SICKEST parties. You haven't partied unless you've gone to pre-spring break parties, Zeff Troue (when residences marry each other for a year) and Pot en Pons (R20 for all you can drink punch).

Engineering rules

1) Don't fail your core modules
If you're in engineering then check out which modules you require for the next year and don't fail them. Do everything in your power to pass them because you will be held back a year if you don't pass them. Fail the other ones if you will, because you can repeat them with minor worries. For mechanical and civil engineering first year students that means not failing Calculus and Mechanics (Do not fail those two!). I don't know, nor care about the other engineering courses.

2) Ladies! Watch out for the engineering boys!
My engineering guy friends are going to hate me for this. I really do love you all, I do, it's just that I've picked out a few trends that put you into groups. Some are the exception! Others fit nicely into the boxes and some switch between the boxes. My guess is that if you're trying to date a nice hot guy go to the medical students.

The last thing you will do is read this thing again at the end of the year and realise you should have listened in the beginning. Rather don't do that and make a choice to try and use some of the advice here. 

Road Rage - Nick Khoo

I thought this was hilarious! It might actually make your day. I never thought I would be capable of road rage but one of my friends estimated I'd last a year and he was right. I'm of the firm belief that old people and Audi drivers should be removed off the roads.

Nick Khoo, the person that made this video, is from Australia and he's a full-time mograph and video designer filmmaker. According to his profile he can also tell the difference between butter and "I can't believe it's not butter."

Courtesy of the waycookiecrumbles.blogspot.com

Nick seems like a sweet guy. He said the following: "Anyways, I am humbled (humble bragging!) that anyone found this funny or at least shared in my sense of humour. And to everyone to enjoyed the vid, thanks for sharing the laughs with me."
He did the entire video using the Adobe After Effects Shapes tool and Duik so he could do the inverse kinematics in After Effects. If you want to read more about the process I suggest you check out his blog, http://www.nickkhoo.com, and the article he wrote on it.

So watch the video and laugh.
It's funny.

Road Rage from Nick Khoo on Vimeo.