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.

I don’t know much about the internet phone usage but I did hear that South Africa has a service similar to 3G of AT&T.

Also smart phones are cheaper in Africa! Or so I’ve heard!

I am always confused when someone say mobile instead of cell phone. Read this interesting article about how phones end up in Africa.

... In any cluster of mobile phone shops you find someone who offers repair services. … People then come asking if other things can be fixed, and over time there’s an increased awareness of how to fix different models.”

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.”

Which is even more funnier than the idiot on the video. I really hope you guys don’t see me or parts of my opinions that I have shared through the past few years remotely similar to this guy.

Let me know

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.

The same point the tricksters suggested that I maybe the con man who was playing games. I felt guilty, awkward and then said things I will regret for a long time to come.

Like the girl from 10th grade in high school who recommended I touch her big boobs, nonchalantly suggesting that I leave my girl friend for her and not remembering the encounter behind the stairway of English class after I broke up with my real girlfriend. I will remember.

The mark was set up! You think you can spot a con artist because he/she someone you instinctively “don’t trust.” But the term con artist is short for confidence artist — they gain your confidence just long enough to get their hands on your trust.

Then boom, you are burned; played, chumped!

And that is what happened to me, it only took a week to get set up! Although this kind of things are very common in our society and is seen as no big deal, get over it, it happens; its hard to swallow for me and it has only happened 3 times. Two of them I shared, maybe I will share the other one day.

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.

Qlick Qlick Qlick & Qalculate!

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.

Things are always hectic though and we have officially entered the post millennia world much like the world cup with an app to make things simpler.

I found ArifQuas, an iPhone application for ESFNA and the events surrounding it. I found it on Facebook and I contacted the developers to see how we can make use of it. I had been reading the reviews of the new iPhone two weeks ago as the new 4g is coming in the month. And I read that 51million iPhone have been sold and it’s not slowing; its growing and its time for us, African to enter the world of reaching our niche market through an app.

With that bernos™ has sponsored this ArifQuas application not only because we believe this is going to help our presence at soccer tourney but also because niche technology targeting previously not represented people must be supported.

We were decades behind the rest of the world for years with no real standard Unicode for Amharic. The smart developers and font designers were all independently working and the industry didn’t mature till the last couple of years.

It’s time we the people steer development of things we need by supporting or discouraging actions that help or hurt our society. Business in not everything, sometimes quality beats quantity and ArifQuas by ArifSoft a fantastic application.

Don’t take my word for it, download it on your iPhones app store and then find bernos™.

It always makes me wonder why some women have their choices of guys while others don’t, regardless of their physical appearance. I know women who could pass for models that have problems getting and keeping a significant other, while an average Jane will have a man of her choice at her beck and call to do with as she pleases.

Although there are number of variables at play here but underneath the surface it’s really simple. While being physically above average is a vital factor, it’s not so important enough to change the statistical advantage of the right personality.

Well, first I thought I would for a  female perspective? Their lack of a concrete answers surprised me. It’s like the online dating advice columns; the top 10 mistakes women make if you Google it  the answers are completely different.

I personally don’t think its fair that the “good” have harder time than the “not so good” but c’est la vie!

Women that are approachable get the most approaches, com’ons and dates. I am not saying be a slut, men like a challenge and respect women that respect themselves thus if this ‘approachable woman’ is going to be in his life for the long haul then she has to “not too easy.”

That basically the beginning part, keeping a guy is a little more complex but talking is hard for most men, if they do talk its likely just to be talk. I think a girl who is living her life and not obsessing about the future tends to keep a guy around long enough for him to be interested in thinking about the long-term part.

Last but not least and I think the most important part; some just make better choices at the beginning. Alpha males are more options and tend to play the hand they are dealt thus its better to be give the regular Joe (a nice guy) a chance.

Disclaimer: this has nothing to do with me. Just my advice to women with questions. I am of the opinion that 80% of males are way to nice.

I read top ten lists all the time mostly about technology; or sometime designs or photography. I have read many random facts of African countries although it seems like most of the ones white people write are generic.

Like (in my California blond voice) ‘Africa has 54 countries. I thought it was a country in itself. ‘ Yes and Africans are 1/6 of the world population and we have over two thousand languages and dialects which comprise 25% of the world languages.

So yes, this list I compiled over 3 ½ weeks. My list is the most interesting and most unknown. Some wow factors, I will now stop tooting my horn and let you be the judge in no particular order:

1. Arabic in different dialect is the most spoken language in African with over 175 million speakers (estimated). Not only is it the most used language but it influenced many other language in Africa.
2. Sudan has twice as many Pyramids than Egypt. source
3. There are more physical variations than on any other continent among the native populations of Africa. source
4. At one time, prior to colonization (scramble of Africa) Africa had more than 10,000 different states. There are only 54 countries now. source
5. 93 % of Equatorial Guinea’s labor force is comprised of Men. I could not find the average proportion of male to female work force in Africa but the number is estimated to be around 75%.
6. Shells were once used as currency in Africa as recently as in the 19th Century. source
7. Cricket is the second most popular sport in Africa. The west influenced Africa too.
8. Africa is the only continent to have a large percentage of its population transported for slave labor. Estimate that approximately 8–12 million slaves were transferred from between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries. The number might seem minute but Africa population before the 19th century was never over 120 million. 8% to 10% of African was slaves at one time. source
9. The Nile is the longest river in the world. Most people thing it’s the Amazon.
10. The largest Desert in the world, the Sahara is growing by about ½ a mile a month. Looking for confirmation for this one.

Can’t imagine being  estranged from their own parents for 27 years, but Sandra Laing, a “black” South African woman experienced that during the apartheid era. Born to White parents, she was born with “African features” which caused much controversy & eventually forced her to claim the race that the South African government classified her as – Colored.

A while back someone wrote about the  effects of skin color on bernos, and I wrote about beauty. When I think about skin colors, I think of house Negros from the field Negros. House Negros intermingled with the white bosses and even had children with them and through generations they became lighter than their brothers and sisters in the field.

Regardless though, the blood of a black person automatically classifies one as black. Refer to Obama for this one. He is Black; no one even talks about him being half white, not predominately anyways.

This is one of those stories, a true one at that, we can learn from and understand why, even as Africans, it’s engrained within us to view lighter skinned people as superior that those of that are darker.

Well, I wanted to say something about this for a while now, I sense I might have hinted the way I feel about the topic here and there but I wanted to tell guys what I see. But as easily as I express myself I didn’t know how to flow the words to say this without sounding like victim myself.

I for one, am prone not to be a victim per say, not because I am smarter than most but because I lack the patience of the norm.

Based on real experiences with ‘lets call them acquaintances’’ but in reality they are less than that, they are people I have seen or had very few conversations with.

There is Carrie, who is a friend, a platonic one at that. She asked me to hang out with her and her friends who I will call Deidra.  Deidra gets dropped off by Jimmy in a nice BMW in front of the ‘outside table of the restaurant,’ I was sitting with Carrie.

I have known both these girls casually for a while and I could talk to them freely. I mentioned the car, and she became defensive and said

he’s not my Boy Friend!”

So we discussed it the rest of the evening. Jimmy started hanging out with Deidra casually. Then it became more consistent, she knew he was interested in her but he didn’t make a move. She was not feeling the same way, but she enjoyed his attention and company as friends.

He didn’t make it clear he wanted more than friendship thus she continued to see him. When he finally had the courage to make his motives clear, she told him honestly that she was not interested in more than friendship at this time.

Thus it was left at that but they continued to hang out, since she was single. I told her it’s wrong for her to mislead him to which she reiterated her honesty.  It was left at that.

Half a year or so later, I ran into Carrie, Deidra and Jimmy among others at a gathering of sorts. I was introduced to Jimmy, and we all hanged out. It was not clear if at first that Deidra had a change of heart and gave him a chance but as the night went on things became clearer. Jimmy is still looking for more while Deidra is looking elsewhere.

I wanted to slap him, scream or something! Dude WTF are you doing? Get a back bone, run, say something just don’t sit here and watch her flirt with anyone but yourself. It was unbearable to watch.

I didn’t say anything; it was neither my place nor my business.

A few months pass and my friendship with Carrie although not strong, persevered. I heard about Deidra and her new real boy friend, one she could publicly acknowledge.

I once was asked to help both of them out because they encountered an emergency while driving to the airport near my place. I arrived to find Carrie and Deidra outside Deidra’s car with luggage rushing to catch their flight. Jimmy and his bimmer arrived shortly thereafter. It had already been decided; I would drive them to the airport while Jimmy would figure out a way to get her car towed to her apartment or a mechanic.

While we were driving I asked why Jimmy was called instead of the boyfriend, I couldn’t help but not say anything in this situation. Deidra said that the BF said he couldn’t.

I thought if it was me, and realized that it would never happen to me. It had happened to me once when I was younger and naïve but it was much shorter period of time, like 2 weeks! My experiences has thought me if a female is interested she is interested otherwise there is nothing you or anyone can do to make her change her mind.

It’s rare that waiting for a female to make up her mind or change her mind becomes really worth it, I thought at least in this case patience is not a virtue.

I guess I have to say it more plainly, although jimmy was and remains to be an idiot, the girl is a bitch that she is intentionally misleading him to keep her options open.

The names and plot of this story although not a fictious have been changed to protect the identity of the characters or should I say victims.

Airing your dirty laundry; behind closed doors; biting your tongue; left in the dark; covering your tracks; keeping it under the hat; under wraps; on the DL (down-low); mum is the word; off the record.

These are English idioms off the top of my head with a little bit of help via Google; basically verbalizing the act of ‘keeping it a secret.’ Not in the slightest is using phrases like these a major vocabulary(ic) accomplishment, in fact these are common phrases used by, I dare say, by common people.

The English language remains diverse with its idiosyncrasies; in timing, accent, idioms, and regular expressions among much other dissimilarities. Nevertheless the topic is not the language itself, rather the meaning of the phrases.

Secrets are part of life, and they play an important role in keeping social in all aspects of our lives including governance, business and personal lives. I once read that without secrecy animals can’t hide their offspring’s from harms way thereby ensuring the survival of their species.

A good male friend or so I thought, recently told me about a recent incident excluding some details. Who was present? He replied with ‘my girl friend.’ What, you mean to tell me that we have talked nearly every-day over last few months and you didn’t tell me about your GF.

Apparently, it was never brought up; I shared although he never asked about my personal life. We have discussed wide varieties of themes including matter of the heart, but I did ask if he has a GF, why should I, he is a dude. If it was significant in his life and as we are friends he would mention it; perhaps I expected that it would be mentioned.

Just one example but it’s a repeating theme; I have had a woman say to me that she is also seeing someone else months after entanglement. I was told not to assume!

Women have told me significant details about their personal life after it was significantly omitted; including the fact one was married. Married..! are you efen kidding me? No, I thought you knew, she exclaimed.

At least now I could check off the “carrying on in an affair” off my bucket list, though being single instance ‘Karma is a bitch!,’ I heard.

Undoubtedly the Ethiopian community is another animal in itself; our culture is dead set on keeping everything a secret; details of our lives must be kept closely guarded. Two lives, one that is actual and another that is perceived reality.

My significant secret is the fact I was adopted but no one not even my best friend, my girl friend or my cousin knows about it. Only my mother and my cousin’s father and my grand parents know about it. Although I suspect cousins father told his wife and his wife told her best friend and now a few random people know and it’s not publicly acknowledged.

I found out about it only 10 years ago because of health reasons. I now live my life going out of my way to hide the fact I was adopted.  It will continue to haunt my life forever.

The story about the adoption a complete fiction I only made it up to emphasize the type of secrets that is kept in our society.

These are the kind of secrets that are kept hushed up; for no apparent reason! Females are worse than the males although understandably because of the magnified constraints and pressure our culture puts on them much like of the third world.

I am not saying go out of your way to make everything public. No just don’t go out of your way to hide significant details of your life from significant people in your life.  That will be a big step forward!

Now that we finally know which countries are going to the world cup in South Africa this summer, wiki published a map and it’s really intriguing.

Looking at the map, the green for qualified; {see Large version here}nearly all of Asia except the two Koreas and Japan; as a matter of fact, even though this will be the first African World cup out of 53 countries less than 3% will qualify in the world tournament.

Nearly all of South American and most of Western Europe seems almost always guaranteed. It’s not just me saying, it but FIFA ranking system is terribly flawed.

Its seems so complicated that I think most of the soccer players do not understand how it works. You can read more about the process and the recent update here.

Now if in two years if a new team becomes fantastic but the team has never participated with another team that is deemed to have a strong competitive state then it’s weighed against them. Kind of like boxing, if you don’t get a match from the champion how are you suppose to show the world that you can possibly beat him.

I will be rooting for the below teams to win the whole enchila this year.

• Cameroon
• Côte d’Ivoire
• Ghana
• Nigeria
• South Africa

What I call reading today is not what reading is really is? I continue to buy books but just use them for reference or skim through it as fast as I can while I am simultaneously listening to music.

I can’t really remember reading a full book with no distractions. The default reading for me is skimming through the chapters.

Behaviorist, usability testers, market researchers and psychologists among others study human characteristics. My latest read was about the default makeup of a human personalities as well as day-to-day tendencies.

The study was that “the default” influences your daily lives more than what you think. For example, if you set up through your checking account to automatically deduct 200$ a month to your savings; then it takes no additional action for you to save 200$ a month – hence it’s the default.

Market researchers are so well aware of this that they make you decisions’ that better suit them.

Based on an example I once heard on NPR, regarding the cost of healthcare; doctors are more likely to order more tests on a individuals if the form they fill out for is prefilled based on symptoms. i.e. if the default form preselected check boxes by the hospitals computers, doctors spend more money on tests; compare that if the form is blank and the doctor has to write down the tests based on the patients symptoms.

The default is your brains way making some choices for you. They call it Default network

A few years ago, a client asked me to increase the number of people opting in for the monthly e-mails to customers by redesigning the e-newsletter. I redesigned it email layout without changing the content but after months of trail and error, we realized that people are 3-4 times more likely to opt in to receive emails if the checkbox signifying interest was by default checked.

The point is that the default matters! Now you don’t have to read the book

Ethiopia from olivia wyatt on Vimeo.

Filmmaker Olivia Wyatt went to Ethiopia to document the music of 13 different tribes for her a film on tribal Music on Ethiopia.

Along with the film, she took some Polaroid’s of her experiences with the locals. The shots somehow found my inbox via two sources. See more on pages 46-54!

I thought they were very worthy of note, and well fairly re-emphasizes my claim about photography that the camera doesn’t matter.

More searching online, I found the below quote story,

One night I took a mini-bus 12 hours north of Addis to witness a Zar spirit possession on a hyena-invested mountain. We left at 3 a.m. from Addis Ababa. On my bus there was a Muslim woman, a catholic priest, a six-year-old boy, and other adults. I fell asleep, but awoke at 4:30 am to p

olice men with guns at my window. Directly behind them, a mini-bus was completely turned over and the police were angry that we were traveling illegally at night, so they took us all to a tiny jail in the mountains and we were told we had to stay there until sunrise.

Everyone was staring at me; they would look in my direction and whisper and laugh, or some just stared, even the police. I decided to just go and talk to the police. I asked them questions about their life and told them what New York might be like at 4 a.m. and the next thing I know, they let us go. The entire bus was chanting “forenji, forenji, forenji!” [foreigner]. Source!

Indeed Forenji! The only thing is that she thinks Forenji means foreigner, it does and it doesn’t the origin is actually not foreigner but French and its used to describe white people not all foreigners. I think!

But what a story , and what great photos!

That is what they call it, the republican pundits that is.  Currently I am in my office working but with my headphones on. I am quietly listing to the Obama’s bipartisan health care summit.

I and those around me, those of us that sacrificed money as well as time to get Obama elected are finally in consensus that this push for Health Care has been lame for lack a better word.

And now I am listening to preach to congress, and he is convincing, in fact he is very convincing. He has the right path for America, at least the start of it, by progressive standards; even though the bill is missing what is considered major, public option.

Then, one of the most powerful republicans, Minority House Leader John Boehner slapped Obama’s efforts down by saying:

Let’s scrap this Bill!

Basically, repeating what his has been saying for almost a year now. Obama just let is slide, saying that he viewed it significantly different.

They kept repeating it, rephrased in many different ways; and he only disagrees with it.

At some point he has to get mad, and angry, not calm like this. Moreover, I heard a friend say this, ‘maybe Hilary had a point when she said Obama was soft.’

Daym, is what I was thinking when I saw the above chart, the growth rate of twitter is unheard of in the world of web. Twitter is now processing 50 million Tweets a day, which comes to about 1.5 billion Tweets a month.

By Comparison, Facebook which has more users and the number two website in the world grew so much slower.

I went back to read an article I wrote about a year ago. I was such a pessimist, how many friendships and relationships were broken up by it, but in reality how has it helped all of us keep in touch with friends, family and help up network a bit more, both professionally and personally.

I am going to look at twitter more positively because it suits me, or at-least my view of how everyone should be. Opinions, in 40 letters or less.

This way it helps us Africans who are so frightened of expressing our feelings publicly. Twitter will be therapy for African.

I know it sounds ridiculous but think about it, practice makes perfect!

Bernos though is not doing so well on Twitter, compared to Facebook, we have 250 followers to 5000 Fans.

I was discussing with Beshou, who is much less adverse to the social media technologies, and I asked her how to improve and she gave me some marketing methodologies. Well, and the method although might work were not organic, meaning people that are not inclined to follow us because they want to know about us does not necessarily help us.

Its like mass email that is unsolicited. Those that do not opt in to receive it just ignore it, so its pointless. And so when you market, leads are not generated by quantity rather by the quality. ie extreme niche targeting!

Oluchi Onweagba, that is her name — she is no Alek Wek, I have always love Alek because of her skin color, but there is a whole girlish look to her. I know most of you guys will disagree, but we all can agree that she changed the way being black is looked at, at least commercially more so than the top black models of the 90′s.

I first saw Oluchi’s picture on a Gianfranco Ferré ad on some magazine, years ago and I looked her up because I was fascinated by her looks.

I have always been interested in the color of skin, at least for people African decent. I know for some we are all black, & yes I agree but there are a lot of different types of black people.

For most westerners, Kojo Nnamdi from Guyana is the same as Yaphet Kotto, who is from Cameroon. And yes at some point in history we were the same but we are not anymore; there are a lot of diverse types of black people with distinctive cultures and unique histories.

As a consequence our looks differ, and each culture appreciates beauty in divergent customs. But bias play a role in how  mainstream society views beauty and the proof is in the pudding. According to what I read at some point on Forbes; Liya Kebede is the only black model with earnings in the top 15, the rest are all white.

CBS, or Tyra approved for the use of the Americas Next Top Model brand for West Africa; I think somewhere West Africas Next top model is on air, featuring women from 16 countries in West Africa.

My point is to bust the idea that lighter skin is not necessarily better than darker skin.

Something that is fully developed; at least that is the definition according to Merriam & Webster.

When I pick fruits at the neighborhood grocery, I look for the once that are not fully developed but close to it because I want to take a bite when it’s ripe. The danger is that it could get too ripe to be edible.

I have often wondered what the age of a fully ripe human is; I am thinking that it applies to everything. Obviously the perfectly ripe age for humans is longer that for dogs and shorter than for turtles.

Lets assume 25 to 40 is the prime age for humans…

More and more there is prevalence in society at least for females that older is better physically & mentally than the previous decades. Words like Cougar and MILF are thrown around and I find myself finding the women in the TV shows like Desperate Housewives & Cougars sexier than Hugh Heffner’s 8 wives or so in the Girls Next Door.

I read recently that MILF porn is gaining more popularity that it’s considered a fetish no more; its mainstream. Don’t judge me, I read it on GQ magazine.

I tend to agree, in my personal experience too. Although my experience with 35 plus women is very limited, I have wanted one for a while now. No doubt a divorced single mom is much more interesting, than a 21 year old college girl; as a matter of fact 35 year old’s are better in every area, yes including physically.

They just look more sexual, more female and comfortable. I know that a blanket statement like these are not always true and you guys hate generalizations, but at least to me these virtues apply to society somewhat, where I am around.

Obviously, there are negative things as well.  I was watching Superbowl commercial in which, they basically insulted girlfriends and wives everywhere.

I am not an idiot, I know I have to compromise when I finally start living together with a significant other. But I just can’t imagine it being this terrible for every man. And so I am wondering at what age are they the most demanding?

Just yesterday I was having a conversation about how words matter.  Essentially the females in via my social networks said that:

actions speak louder than words”

I have written a little bit about using words to expressing ourselves about this time last year. And essentially most people disagreed with me.

One of you even quoted the bible to dispute my claim. Apparently ‘a man of understanding holds his tongue.’ Good thing I believe that the bible was written by men, the hypocrisy.

This week a friend of my noticed that I used the word ‘essentially’ to the exhaustion point. Wow, he was right but this is not the first time this happened. Every other month someone is complaining about a certain word that I am using for no apparent reason. My little brother said something to me once… only people with lack of vocabulary use the word ‘like’ for everything.

Like like … you know… those California blonds. It’s like duh I don’t have words in my head so I will put the word ‘like’ everywhere; except mine are usually words that with end with ‘ly.’

I always loved ‘apparently,’ that’s one word I can’t live without. Apparently, it fits everywhere like effectively.  As a designer, when I have to judge designs ‘That logo is effectively designed’ sounds so much more sophisticated than ‘l like that one.’

That is what clients say to me once I submit some options.

Someone somewhere said that good writing is dead, but good writing didn’t die with JD Salinger, its everywhere with the Facebook status and the Tweets.

I just recently twitted about Zewdy who has thousands of followers on twitter & friends Facebook; just an example of a success based upon networking via web platforms.

Although most of the people that do this kind of branding are artists, like our own rawbubble, doing his writing, videos and other forms of art; there has been more and more people blogging and promoting their talents

The only problem I see with this is that there are a bunch of new people starting up a new brand every week, even in my own network and literally nothing is sustained; people come and go, and the market is diluted.

In 2004 when I started blogging, there were a handful of blogs in my network & community but now there are 100s of them. Don’t get it wrong I’m glad people are finally expressing their views and opinions; showing their personality through dozens of pictures in their Facebook profiles etc.

Right now things are so easy to start marketing and people start in one afternoon, never to follow through.

I think the only solution is to put resources together to make a bigger product. Work together; if you are thinking of starting a blog or a business venture I think people should partner up share their resources to make promote the brand together.

Not only will to help improve consistency but it will give the product a bigger platform and more resources, be it time or money.

Sharing is not selfish; not having full creative freedom is not necessarily a bad thing. It just sustains you!

I have a lot of temptations. Everyday, I am tempted not to get out of my bed; I want to sleep in. Maybe take a pill that will just knock me out and sleep all day, possibly another day.

There was a time in 2008 where I was so busy that I opted to schedule the sleeping in. Sunday morning was saved for TV, and an egg bacon and provolone cheese sandwich made by yours truly. I would finish my freshly brewed jug of coffee and lay down on the sofa, Hoping I would fall asleep, and most of the time I don’t; but it was my time; phone was off and no one is around.

Sunday mornings were my favorites, but not anymore. I have been getting tempted to do something crazy like go out of town on the weekends. Enticement like going out to party in another town or meet up with friends or meet up women who have managed to excite me for a little while before the flame runs out; overwhelm my life. Not that I am complaining, the temptations break the consistency and predictability of life.

They are an escape for the endless number of demands that life brings with it. Excitements’ aside sometimes I just want to turn off my phone and stare at the roof keeping my brain empty.  Someone once told me the demands of life are ‘mind over matter; if you don’t mind it doesn’t matter.’

Those I know, and are friends with seem like they have their shit together. They have the consistencies of existence set on replay and have somehow occupied the rest of their free time with hobbies. Hobbies are I suppose outlets from consistencies, but the way I see it, a lot of people seem to use it as a replacements for serious problems in the real part of life.

The idea seems like I am not content with my career, but at least I have my weekend hobby;’ I will keep painting one canvas every weekend and hope my issues with my family will go away.

I was once reading a forum in which one of the members was asking how he wanted to get away with a small legal problem he had. A slew of people told him some options and one guy said, you can keep postponing the issues and most likely get away with out dealing with it. But it will always be in your mind. Just go take care of it and your mind will be free.

It was one of those big aha moments; some things will always stay in the back of your mind till you deal with it. I believed it and it’s not easy to go deal with your issues but after about 4 years after reading that, I think I have completely changed. Problems, I take care of it so I don’t always have to think about it.

I know a few people that just keep their whole life scheduled to do stuff;  Random things 5 weeks in advance, just so that they don’t feel lonely; or so that they don’t deal with the major issues in their life.

I am glad I have my hobbies which make me happier than a pig in shit. But a hobby is an extra curricula activity. You have to make some changes in your life, and not hide behind stuff, to do.

That just seems like you are postponing the inevitable.

Merry Christmas ladies and gentlemen, Obama has delivered a big present for all poor Americans.

Health care for all! Well not really; but it’s a start and the bill that just passed the senate will likely become law sometime in the next 3 months.

I first mentioned my unhappiness with Obama when he backpedaled on the Gates situation early in Aug 2009.

And I got a lot of pushback from all of you. Since Aug, 4 months he has sent 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, finish the war that was important according to what I heard him say live on the day before election. And then soon the health care bill will become a bill.

I am assuming that all you liberal immigrants who pushed back at me when I asked for real change; a black male president that is willing to change how black males are treated by the legal system, are happy.

Now, when can I get my present of real change?

All good things come to he who waits”

When ever my little brother sees or hears something about how someone does something really stupid and gets caught in the web, he always says ‘what an idiot!’

Who in their right mind would accept passively wait for something to happen and call it a virtue. Call it lack of patience or being short of faith in people; I know what my personality encompasses.

I have disappeared for a while. I have been distracted with nothing at all.

I have been having fun; this past year has been a good year for me. Things seem to have stabilized at least psychologically. Even though the uncontrolled and unfortunate events continue to happen on a weekly basis; I am just better at dealing with the little problems that continue to happen in my life.

I know I have been absent from bernos. This is the longest I have been away from bernos in almost 4 years. I did it intentionally; I wanted to test the impact of the bernos traffic to the articles; second I wanted to test the relationship of the blog to the bernos customers; third I was distracted by a woman; fourth I have been busy working.

My lack of patience protects me from situations I shouldn’t be in. This whole situation of how much shit to put up with before you say,

Na ah hell nah!”

Everyone should not have to wait ‘wasting time!’ Things don’t change over time; people don’t change unless they care enough to try. You have to be proactive in making a change in your life yourself.

Patience is not a virtue; it’s just a waste of time. Sure there are those instances when you wait and get a good surprise ending but they are rare, & sure it’s ok to be disappointment.

But the point is to limit the risk and increase the rewards. This applies to everything.

This is my end of year advice to all bernosians everywhere.

I will do yet another post regarding resolutions before the end of the year.

The annual ritual continues here at bernos! We are doing the same great deal we have done for the past three Christmas.’

Free Shipping on all bernos T-shirts between now and Dec 31st. December 18th will be the last day we can guarantee that an order received will reach our U.S. and Canada customers before Christmas.

And and…Don’t forget some of our big sale items like the bernos Argyle Rasta for only 14.95$.

As usual, we thank you for shopping with us and please continue to Tell a Friend about us…

Happy Holidays from the crew here at bernos.

The key principle of morality is that doing something for yourself is bad or at least not worth anything morally speaking, while doing something for others is noble and praiseworthy.

People are called “selfish” when an observer perceives that the person could have taken one of numerous courses of action which might benefit other people more so than to take actions which benefited themselves.

Years ago, I found myself browsing the shelf of a bookstore; I was in the philosophy section, and stumbled upon some literature on Moral Theory.

Moral Theorists will go so far as to say that favoring one’s children over other people’s children is reprehensibly selfish. That is one side of the argument but the question is… is it such a bad thing? Is it the smart thing?

I am speaking about the act of being selfish. Are the selfish ones on a lesser moral ground?

I like to think that I am the snob around town who stands on the higher moral ground and performs selfless acts for those around me. On the contrary, I know that I am not even close to Mother Teresa, and I never expect anyone to be.

As I have mentioned in the past I believe a person character becomes formulated the environment.

I know that there are those of us that run around doing things for others people and that are selfless.

Only referring to those requests that we all do not have to say yes to; in the process of saying yes to all these things you forget your own well being. Instead, you go for the short term gain to make other people happy.

I used to not focus on myself and it tended to make me under-perform, be overworked, exhausted and most importantly stressed out in all other aspects of my life.

On the other hand, and the point I wanted to make, without you bernos readers jumping on my thoughts is that most people are way too selfish.

I am an excellent judge of character, very observant and aware of personal traits of those around me. And I have been lucky enough that I surround my self with decent people.

My problem is and has always been with those of you that are inconsiderate of others. Selfish is OK, but at others people expense is by no means close to being acceptable.

There is an acquaintance of mine, who is married now with few kids but used to ask me to be his wing man whenever he wanted to go out. Once he got married and moved to the suburbs he stopped calling, and I understood. But whenever he is in town on business or pleasure he would call and ask for us to hang out. I am like dude, you haven’t called nine months but when it’s convenient for you, you call me.

No thanks, I am busy!”

In the same manner I have noticed as friendship of convenience, there are relationships of convenience. It’s kind of like the “I’m confused” response from a females and the “I don’t want a real relationship, just booty call,” from the males.

These types of people are selfish at the expense of others & thus should be avoided at all cost. It’s easy; just avoid them when you start seeing the signs.

My point, selfishness I can live with; selfishness at the expense of other people, especially me, I run like the wind.

I started writing an article this morning about email etiquette; you see I have a few friends I email constantly. Then I realized that I have already scripted my feelings.

This one girl, who is a platonic friend and have been exchanging emails with me for about 4 years now, recently changed her style. Those long emails she used to send have been getting shorter and shorter by the week. By summer time, it got short that my emails to her were getting in her ‘no reply necessary’ folder.

Here is a rule of thumb for those of you that are no email savvy. If there is no CC, it’s a direct email and it needs a reply; if there is no need to reply to it by an answer, you need to send confirmation that you received and read the email.

A simple one to two words is fine. Ok, Got it, Thanks, Fine and Cool are perfect. If you are really swamped for time then skip the word and write the letter ‘K.’

That’s it! reply confirmation is always necessary!