Ive been battling with designers block alot lately. a few small things have been helping like going back and looking at the stuff which made me want to design in the first place, which is very japanese inspired stuff that The Designers Republic used to do in the 90s.
However I found this neato little picture and guide off stumble upon thats kindof cleared my head a bit.
My friend Jess du Toit(right) with her sister Louise de Waal(left).
As I've said before, my lagging in blogging is due to a lot of very sore stuff happening in the last few months.
Louise is the sister of one of my good friends Jessica, and in turn, the sister in law of one of my best friends Dave Skinz. Its hard to say was, because its hard to believe that she isn't with us anymore.
On a seemingly ordinary Wednesday morning I get a message from my mother asking if Dave has a sister. I replied no? He's an only child, how come? To which she replied that Dave had just posted on facebook of a girl called Louise who was kidnapped from her high school an hour earlier.
Suddenly alarm bells went off. Because I knew exactly who she was talking about! I visit Dave and Jess often, being some of my closest friends, and I don't have many.
Dave and Jess live together with their daughter Vida. Louise is Jess's sister who used to stay with them on weekends and school holidays. So I ran into her more than often, and we used to sit in the lounge and watch tv. I even remember the couch she used to sit on, the single seater on the right hand side of the lounge, I usually sit on the 3 seater on the left. She was the most amazing 16 year old girl you would have ever met in your life. Shy, innocent, lovely, beautiful, smart, extremely well mannered & polite. She mentioned that she wanted to get into modelling so Jess and I were still chatting about doing pictures with her to help her career. She had very unique features, one green eye and one blue eye.
When news hit that she had been kidnapped it was almost too unreal to be true. I immediately phones Jess to find out if it was true to which she confirmed it was indeed true. In the back of my head I was praying that it was a prank and she had just bunked school, and Id get a message later to say that shes ok, its a hoax, but more news started coming through from witnesses, police reports news reports, police identikits... more reality started to come through and more panic set in. This was out of a movie, I couldn't believe that someone I spoke to last week was kidnapped. News on facebook spread like wildfire, media was ablaze with reports. A post I put out on facebook around 11 received more than 458 shares in 1 hour. SURELY with all this news out so quickly, they would find her safe and unharmed within minutes!
But time dragged on, and on, and on, and by 6pm the same day news was released that her body was found burned on a property in the Magaliesburg and she was gone. It felt like someone had punched me in the heart with the flat end of a huge wooden log, the type the FBI use to smash doors down during house raids...It felt like a nightmare. You never quite know what to say to someone to express the biggest remorse of such a huge loss.
I've been down that road with my brother 10 years ago...its the worst loss one can experience. But it was different, my brother didn't suffer like this, my brother had an accident, its was over quickly. He didnt have time to think about was going on. Louise was taken, put through an ordeal, and one man is going to pay for that.
When I went through this with my brother, friends of mine who had brothers didn't know what to say to me. And I didn't understand why they found it hard to find words except, Im sorry. I now know what they struggled with.
Jess has been very strong and amazing through what she's going through. Had help from amazing people that have come to her family home to talk to them and help them through this ordeal. We have monsters in this world, but we also have angels, and angels come out of nowhere and help those who genuinely need it. The public have also been incredible with huge amounts of support.
THere are more gory details Jess has shared with me, that I don't want to disclose, but it completely astounds me that people can actually think like that, and act out on it. And cause one individual such undeserved pain and a family years on pain and tears to come.
Dave has been a pillar of strength for the family and Jess throughout the whole experience. I honestly salute him for being so strong for everyone as well. WIth all the admin and being the press spokesman for the family and what he's has to see, and do, and hear, and say. All while also having lost someone close to him.
She was such a smart and dedicated girl as well, as her high school principal pointed out, having already been selected as a prefect for next year and had two academic gold medals due to her as well. She walked to school to show her dedication to learn. And it was on the way to school that it happened.
She was a sister, a daughter, an aunt, a friend, a girlfriend and so much more. And her 17th birthday would have been that Sunday. Gone but never ever forgotten.
I wish you could have met her, you could just tell that she was one of the special ones.
Im including her memorial video that Dave had put together to give you an idea of who she was and how she was.
And here are some news clips from the memorial and from the trial.
P.S. I dont want to talk more about the monster who did this, and left text about him out as he does not deserve any more publicity than he has already gotten, he doesnt deserve to be remembered. But lets hope the justice system doesnt let us down, and the 10 other girls and the one who also lost her life will always be remembered. But this post is about Louise and her memory and not of him. My heart also goes out to the other victims and their families.
By far the sorest ting Ive ever blogged about. Ive been through a heartbreaking couple of weeks, the other stuff will follow, but by far the sorest thing thats happened to me was saying goodbye to a very special friend of mine for the last few years Hilton, my pet rat. And its taken me awhile to blog about this as it still hurts a little, but here are a few insights...
I got him the day I made this video, he was going to become snake food so I took him for R7, not knowing how much he was going to mean to me in the years to come...the one girl said, :call it paris hilton" and I said no, its a boy, but I like Hilton :)
I live alone so hes been the only company Ive had when Im home and we spent alot of time together. He used to sleep in my bed, even when I wasnt home, and pretty much made it HIS bed and destroyed and nested with everything on it. Ive had to throw away countless duvet covers, a duvet, sheets, pillow cases, cellphone charging cables, a pair of Sennheiser earphones, etc. But thats love. He was my everything. As little as he was and as big as I am we were connected.
In the last few months a growth developed on the side of his body and got so big it had to be removed. The vets had to book him in immediately for an operation that would cost around R2000(see 'love' above). They did say to me that is was risky as he is very little and that its not a small procedure, so when I had to say bye to him, I needed to know that. Many tears obviously.
The operation was carried out at 6pm, but in the op he lost alot of blood, hes very little, and the vets fought for him for over three hours, when they eventually had to phone me at 1:45am the next morning to say that hes not pulling through, he wants to go, can they let him.
A rats life span is said to be around 3-4 years and hes already hit 3, he was getting more grey than he already was, he was old, he was tired now having to fight for his life, he wanted to go, so I said yes. It not easy having to make that call, and you only know how hard it is they day you have to do it. They phoned me 20 minutes later to say that they let him go very peacefully.
The vets were brilliant though, and when I went to see them the next morning they were full of mourning and compassion. They get it, they get that animals no matter how big or small, are special and important, and that even a rat can be loved. They saw it and they understood it. They were more understanding than most of some of my friends were. Which doesnt say much for some of my friends, but I loved Hilton more than most of them.
But Im glad I gave him the best life he could have had. And Ill always miss him. We'll meet again soon :)
My friend Cobro has grown tired of modern dance music, he says t=hes so over the crap on radio like LMFAO and David Guetta. So he made a mix of his old 90s house music yesterday and asked me to talk about it. So Im talking about it.
Cobro cant design, but he tried...I was too busy to help him, but he did try, and took a photo of himself with his old Nokia. The tracklist is stuff like Modjo, Alan Braxe and Fred Falke, Ruffneck feat. Yavahn, Delacys Hidaway, Peter Heller, Untidy Dubs, Dyewitness, Chicane, Geri Halliwell, 187 lockdown, sex o sonique, underworld and, I dont know why hes done this, but hes got a britney remix on there too, anyways. He also says the mix is terrible, but it is what it is....at 130 bmp...
but not without the help of alot of friends, see credits. Jack Parow is a total CHAMP!
Executive Producer : Lisa Davis Director : Paul Clark Producer : Natasha Clark Host : Andrew Mons Guest : Jack Parow Director of Photography : Diego Oliver Set Design and Makeup : Cara Falken Writers: Dave Skinz, Paul Clark & Andrew Mons Editing : Solid Black Theme Music : Paul Clark Location : Silverstar Casino South Africa
Chuck Palahniuk is one of the worlds most brilliant disturbing writers. If you think you havent heard of him yet, think again cus youve seen his movies.
Hes the brilliant mind behind the Fight Club book, of which David Fitcher made the movie with those two guys...
Then went on to have CHoke adapted for screen which starred Sam Rockwell....
So you know by now that youre not dealing with a lightweight here, but just to make it more interesting... While working on his book, Haunted, he published a short story called "Guts" which was part of Haunted... From Wiki.... ---------------- The book is best known for the short story "Guts", which had been published previous to the book in the March 2004 issue of Playboy magazine as well as on Palahniuk's website (Palahniuk offered to let them publish another story along with it, but the publishers found the second work too disturbing). It is a tale of violent accidents involving masturbation where the reader is told "to hold his breath" in the very first line. While on his 2003 tour to promote his novel Diary, Palahniuk read "Guts" to his audiences. It was reported that over 35 people fainted while listening to the readings. On his tour to promote Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories in the summer of 2004, he read the story to audiences again, bringing the total amount of fainters up to 53, and later up to 60, while on tour to promote the softcover edition of Diary. The last fainting occurred on May 28, 2007, in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, where five people fainted, one of which occurred when a man was trying to leave the auditorium, which resulting in him falling and hitting his head on the door. Palahniuk is apparently not bothered by these incidents, which have not stopped fans from reading "Guts" or his other works. A New York City public school 11th grade teacher was suspended for letting his English class read "Guts" ---------------
So you know this is going to be an entertaining read. Most people that know me know that I HATE reading! I have the mind capacity of a small furry animal... I cheated my way through school book reports like I was being paid to....
However Id love to give it another go.... Chuck's publishers sent me a free copy of his new offering Damned Because, Im a fan of Chuck, and I blog :)
More Wiki -------------- Damned is a 2011 novel by Chuck Palahniuk, which is scheduled to be published on October 18, 2011[1][2][3]. The plot concerns Madison Spencer, a thirteen year old girl who finds herself in Hell, unsure of why she has been sent there for all eternity, but tries to make the best of it. --------------
Soooooo not a bedtime story :) Nice to get it a few weeks before the rest of the world does :) And the new work arrived in the mail this morning... Excited! Will talk about it soon!
