Yesterday’s AA
Yes, we are developing our new site and I have been working on it on and off for about 3 months. It’s one of those things I have started working on a few times but somehow things fall apart as with any large web development project with a very small budget and time (mostly the bernos team’s). The new bernos™ site is near a real e-commerce application on par with the large retailers and not just an open source content management system that is hastily installed.
Yesterday, as I was working on the product page and with all the things that we are going to leverage with the launch of the new site, including new bernos™ tees, bernos™ kids and as well as the many features of our application, I was thinking we should definitely educate people on the quality of the American Apparel tees. I was thinking maybe some kind of logo badge….proudly printed on American Apparel t-shirts.
Everything about American Apparel has inspired me in many ways. The way they market their products unapologetically or their political stances on immigration like in the Legalize LA campaign (wiki), as well as their socially conscious position on manufacturing. They have the highest earning workers in the apparel industry, all the while the competition way is paying 50 cents an hour they were paying 24 times that at 12$ an hour. Read more
Flashing Lights
I’m standing at the bar sipping my drink and chatting up with a couple of people. My peripheral vision is disturbed and my curiosity takes over as I turn my head to focus on the disturbance.
Flashing light!
My first thought is ‘what da #$@$!’. As I realize what just had happened, my confusion changes to irritation and then anger.
I threw my drink down my throat and started to follow. He moves elegantly and professionally through the crowd. He is completely inconspicuous and acts like part of the façade, the reprinted art hanging on the wall, the cheesy wall paper… He is part of the ambiance and this is the reason of his success- un-noticeable but effective, in his natural realm and hard at work. A fregging predator!
He pauses to shoot once more. I reach him as he aims. I wait until he has made the shot.
Flashing light!
I gently grab his elbows. Firmly! He turns smiling and expecting a familiar face. His smile is still, although he realizes that the face is unfamiliar. He is a professional. Read more
unfathomable
Location: In front of 4 kilo AAU, café X, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Time: 9:30 PM
It was a random Thursday night. Gorgeous Addis Ababa evening weather. I can still feel the fresh breath of air on my face, my arms. I was a freshman at the University and I could not get enough of the newly acquired freedom. And I abused it profusely. I do not know how I made it through the first semester. I went out in that semester more than I can ever account for in the coming 10 years of my life.
This particular evening, my friends were supposed to pick me up at 9: 30, we were going out to one of the clubs, after having some macchiato at one of the café on bole road. We were supposed to go to 6 kilo campus to spend the night afterwards as the security was more lenient and we could use one of the windows to get into the dorm. We have done it plenty of times.
But this time around, my friends were late….I looked at my watch impatiently, and I said to Girma, “Beka ayemetum malete newe” (I guess they are not coming). Even though the club scene was not new to me I was disappointed. Girma is one of the guys that I have known since day one of my campus life. He hangs out at the café in front of 4 kilo every single evening. Read more
Metaged vs. Metadeg
Browsing through Ethiopian pictures on Flickr, I came across the one above. I glanced at the comments section and there was a guy complaining that the ad was senseless, among other things. So I took a second look and it really was terrible, terrible sentence.
For starters, why is the word tigist in quotes? Do they mean patience or not? If the quotes have to be on anything at all, it should be on “second” … since technically that’s not an Amharic word. But what else should they use if they mean 1/60th of a minute? LOL. Well, I believe the Amharic word for second is sEkond. Ok, ok … maybe i’m nitpicking here!
The worst offender is really the last word : ‘lemetadeg‘. Correct me if I’m wrong but for one thing, it’s not a word. At least not in Amharic. If they’re trying to say ‘to prevent the loss of life and property…’, the word they’re looking for is a variation of maged. For this case, they should say lemaged.
“ye ‘second’ tgist hiywotna nibreting ketrafic adega lemaged”
Many people mess up ‘maged‘ and say, ‘metaged‘, which is really nonsense. But the ad didn’t even use lemetaged. They flipped some consonants (or entire feedeloch in Amharic) and ended up with lemetadeg. At best, the made up word at the end of the ad is a screwed up version of lemadeg.
In other words, with faulty grammar, the ad kinda says,
‘A second’s patience, to grow the loss of life and property …’
No f*%king kidding, Shell! A bit Hama Tuma-esque.
This is from 2006. In 2010, it would of course be more appropriate for BP to sponsor this ad instead.
“ye ‘second’ tgist hiywotna nibretin ke ma’idin mawCHa adega lemetadeg”
I also just realized that I really don’t know how to say ‘mining’or ‘drilling’ in Amharic. Mts.
mobile we come
Report shows that Africa has 12% of the new cell phone subscribers in the world, tallying 20 million more cell phone users in first Quarter of 2010.
What’s actually more fascinating to me is that they’re saying that the continent now has close to 50% penetration; meaning that there’s a lot of growth left to be had as equates to the rest of the planet. Read more
Similarities?
This guys if weird, I mean really weird and whenI saw this video I couldn’t stop laughing. I could see how this could happen.
Regardless though, I was surprised this morning when I got an email this morning claiming that “… this sums of most of your articles on Bernos.” Read more
Wrong Price
I recently went into Sachs Fifth Avenue after work because I needed these very specific shoes, and lo and behold, I found a pair that was reasonably priced. In Sachs Fifth Ave, I generally expect everything to be $500+, and my pair was, after a ‘sale’, around $100. So I bought it.
Keza, tedesasetkuna … I went purse shopping. I saw this beautiful purse for $300,. At first I passed it because … seriously, I wasn’t about to spend that much on a purse. Keza I happened to pass by that area again and I thought, ‘What the hell! I work hard. I can afford it. Why not?’ So picked it up, walked over to the counter and surrendered my to-be purse and card.
As the woman was processing the payment I kept thinking to myself, ‘ok , min aynet qebeT honeshal. balegae lij. Spending 300 bucks is ok, even for enjoyment, but 300 bucks for a purse? One that’ll be used 3 times a year? balegae, molqaqa, balegae, molqaqa …‘ iyalku irasen siqoTa, the lady leaned over the counter and whispered, ‘your card has been declined’. Read more
bamboozled!
I got burnt, played, bamboozled, punked, schooled fucked over, taken or whatever else slang terms are used when someone is fooled. My sister recently told me that she hates it when someone tells her that they are a good judge of character.
The phrase is, ‘I know people;’ knowing people as in figuring out someone’s moral character or integrity at first sight. Apparently everyone thinks that they are a good judge of character when no one really is, was what she was referencing.
I am of the opinion that she is right, not everyone is good at figuring people out right at first sight. I prefer to judge based on historical evidence, hence I ask questions, lots of them. I try not to use volunteered answers to against them but it helps me categorize people in groups.
Yes, I know I am not perfect; in fact I am far from it. My faults are more than a page, but for all that I lack, I make it up with loyalty and honesty. And regardless of someone’s faults, if I feel like someone is loyal and honest with me, I will accept them as a trusted acquaintance and or sometimes although rare, as my friend.
I am always surprised by how patient men are with women. The players don’t care so they just ignore women who are reaching out for attention by playing games. The others just wait and wait and then eventually forget without making a big deal out of a big issue.
People do whatever they want and say sorry or just ignore that fact they did so without consideration of someone else’s position.
I am proud to say, I am the opposite of most males. I am not like those players who just don’t care, because I do. I am not like those guys who are so patient, women could walk all over them and they just sit there and wait like a mat; I have no patience whatsoever.
My lack of patience has protected me and I respect it for that. It also limits my experiences with people in general, but nobody is perfect and it’s a balance I am happy to live with.
I got played this past week, someone set me up and kept setting me up for a week, like a con artist sets up the mark by gaining their confidence. The fact is I suspected the person for a trickster and had a change of heart at some point. Read more
Woooorld Cup Qualificator
We are here at work (dotmike from BlenCorp) but we are not working. One of my African buddies has created an a little gadget antenna that lets him watch the game on a small laptop hidden away in the corner of the cubical.
We have also been arguing who will make it and out of the first round and who won’t. Technically, after 2 games everyone in every round still has a chance to make it to the second round.
Although the calculation becomes a little complicated after the second game especially if there are a lot of ties and the goal differentials change in the last game. Thus, we created a web application that will calculate the odds of passing the first round. We started as 4 and by 6 we are done and it’s live here. Read more
ohh soccertime
I haven’t been able to concentrate enough to think straight the last week let alone work. I have been watching the first world cup in Africa. Tshabalala & Drogba are my two favorite players this cup.
I have never been able to understand true fans of soccer that root for teams other than their own. For me since my country is not in I have since 1986 my first cup to watch had continental pride.
I have been lucky enough to attend eight ESFNA Tournaments here in North America and every year I am excited about the games, the gathering, the soccer games and most of all the parties.
This year is especially exciting for me because bernos™ has become a veteran at ESFNA with a booth; looking forward to seeing familiar faces as well as new ones. Read more