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		<h1><a href="http://justinhartman.com"><img src="http://justinhartman.com/wp-content/themes/papercut/images/justinhartman-final.png" alt="Justin Hartman" /></a></h1>
		
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																						<h2 class="pink archive">Posts Tagged &#8216;Personal&#8217;</h2>
									
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								<h5 class="uppercase light">Posted on December 21, 2010 - by <a href="http://justinhartman.com/author/admin/" title="Posts by Justin Hartman" rel="author">Justin Hartman</a></h5>
		
								<h2><a href="http://justinhartman.com/2010/12/21/my-tattoo-what-where-and-why-i-did-it/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to My Tattoo, what, where and why I did it">My Tattoo, what, where and why I did it</a></h2>
            					
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                						<a title="Permanent Link to My Tattoo, what, where and why I did it" href="http://justinhartman.com/2010/12/21/my-tattoo-what-where-and-why-i-did-it/"><img src="http://justinhartman.com/wp-content/themes/papercut/thumb.php?src=http://justinhartman.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/photo-1.jpg&amp;h=75&amp;w=100&amp;zc=1&amp;q=95" alt="My Tattoo, what, where and why I did it" class="thumb-preview" /></a>          	
                
            													
		
								<div class="wwsgd" style="display:none;"><p style='border:thin dotted black; padding:3mm;'>Hey, it looks like you're new here to my blog! You may want to consider subscribing to my <a href='http://feeds.feedburner.com/JustinHartman'>RSS feed</a> and you'll automatically get notified when I post a new blog entry. If web feeds aren't your thing then why not join my email list by <a href="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/emailverifySubmit?feedId=750476&amp;loc=en_US">clicking here</a>. Thanks for stopping by.</p></div><p>When I was 16 my father gave me a framed copy of the <a href="http://www.kipling.org.uk/poems_if.htm" target="_blank">Rudyard Kipling poem titled <em>&#8220;IF&#8221;</em></a> which hung on my wall for the entire duration of my high-school career. This poem was very special to him and when I was 21 he read me the poem in his speech at my 21st birthday celebrations. The day before <a href="http://justinhartman.com/2010/05/19/in-loving-memory-rodney-john-hartman-25021949-19052010/">he died</a> I wrote him a letter in which I quoted the poem in reference to him &#8220;finally being a Man&#8221; and I also had the privilege of reading my final letter to my father at his funeral. This poem is one that has a very deep and special meaning to me. Forever.</p>
<p>Couple this special meaning with the fact that I really do want to be a Man of the stature and integrity that Kipling refers to and because I saw my father living out most of these principals in every day life it has only motivated me more to attempt to be this Man. </p>
<p>So, after much planning and preperation, I broke my tattoo virginity on Sunday and had the final sentence in the Kipling poem, <em>&#8220;You&#8217;ll be a man, my son.&#8221;</em>, tattooed around my wrist. I also had a few ink splotches added because my father, in his writing, would often refer to himself (and that of the journalists from his era) as an ink-stained reporter.</p>
<p>I never want to forget my father and the splotches will always ensure that this never happens and the poem around my wrist is now a constant reminder to me of how I must strive to be the Man I am supposed to be. It took my father neigh on 60 years to get it right but get it right he did. If this is the only thing I am successful at in my life please God let this be it.</p>

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								<h5 class="uppercase light">Posted on September 21, 2010 - by <a href="http://justinhartman.com/author/admin/" title="Posts by Justin Hartman" rel="author">Justin Hartman</a></h5>
		
								<h2><a href="http://justinhartman.com/2010/09/21/my-sabbatical/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to My Sabbatical">My Sabbatical</a></h2>
            					
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                						<a title="Permanent Link to My Sabbatical" href="http://justinhartman.com/2010/09/21/my-sabbatical/"><img src="http://justinhartman.com/wp-content/themes/papercut/thumb.php?src=http://justinhartman.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/images.jpeg&amp;h=75&amp;w=100&amp;zc=1&amp;q=95" alt="My Sabbatical" class="thumb-preview" /></a>          	
                
            													
		
								<p><img src="http://justinhartman.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/images.jpeg" alt="" title="Sabbatical" width="259" height="194" class="alignright size-full wp-image-953" />On Thursday myself and <a href="http://gregorrohrig.com">Gregor Rohrig</a> are off on a two-week trip to the United States. We&#8217;ll be in New York to attend the <a href="http://www.web2expo.com/webexny2010/">Web 2.0 conference</a> and then we&#8217;re headed off to San Francisco to meet some interesting industry folks, including the <a href="http://www.yola.com">Yola</a> team.</p>
<p>Initially I just wanted to go to attend the conference but as time draws nearer I realise that my trip to the US is going to be a much needed sabbatical from the events of 2010. Over the last few months it has become clear to me that the <a href="http://justinhartman.com/2010/05/19/in-loving-memory-rodney-john-hartman-25021949-19052010/">loss of my father</a> has had a much bigger impact on my life than I realised. I&#8217;ve also had a number of personal issues which have really played a major part in defining where I am at today.</p>
<p>The result of all of this is that not only has my personal life been affected but so has my business life. I have an inbox that looks like a sick spam joke and my communication of late has been appalling. This has not been how I wanted to deal with the world but life sometimes has other ideas for us.</p>
<p>Right now I&#8217;m focusing my effort on getting myself back on track. I have been spreading myself way to thin over all the business ventures I&#8217;m involved in and I need to focus on my personal well being in order to fix the mess both personally and professionally.</p>
<p>Life is not easy and being an entrepreneur even less. I&#8217;ve learned some very difficult lessons of late but lessons they have been and I hope to rectify the wrong-doing over time.</p>
<p>So, for the next two weeks I won&#8217;t really be bothering too much about work. I need this time to reflect and enjoy my time in the US and I know that <a href="http://stii.co.za">Stii</a> will sort out all the Afrigator issues in my absence. </p>
<p>I look forward to returning and feeling like I can take on the world again. Right now that isn&#8217;t so true for me.</p>
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								<h5 class="uppercase light">Posted on May 19, 2010 - by <a href="http://justinhartman.com/author/admin/" title="Posts by Justin Hartman" rel="author">Justin Hartman</a></h5>
		
								<h2><a href="http://justinhartman.com/2010/05/19/in-loving-memory-rodney-john-hartman-25021949-19052010/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to In Loving Memory &#8211; Rodney John Hartman 25/02/1949 &#8211; 18/05/2010">In Loving Memory &#8211; Rodney John Hartman 25/02/1949 &#8211; 18/05/2010</a></h2>
            					
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                						<a title="Permanent Link to In Loving Memory &#8211; Rodney John Hartman 25/02/1949 &#8211; 18/05/2010" href="http://justinhartman.com/2010/05/19/in-loving-memory-rodney-john-hartman-25021949-19052010/"><img src="http://justinhartman.com/wp-content/themes/papercut/thumb.php?src=http://justinhartman.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/2453473207_f875e719b3_b.jpg&amp;h=75&amp;w=100&amp;zc=1&amp;q=95" alt="In Loving Memory &#8211; Rodney John Hartman 25/02/1949 &#8211; 18/05/2010" class="thumb-preview" /></a>          	
                
            													
		
								<p><img src="http://justinhartman.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/2453473207_f875e719b3_b.jpg" alt="" title="Rodney Hartman" width="600" height="414" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-934" /></p>
<p>At exactly 00:00 today my father passed away after a long battle with Cancer. Back in 1995 my father was diagnosed with <a href="http://www.leukemia-lymphoma.org/all_page?item_id=7059">Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL)</a> and at the time I was only 15 years old. I remember thinking that my dad was going to die but the beauty, I was told, was that we&#8217;d have between 15-20 years before that would happen due to the stage they caught the disease at.</p>
<p>Through out the last 15 years my dad has lived a pretty normal life. He never complained once about his illness, he never lost his hair from chemotherapy and he basically never missed a day of work either. For the last 15 years it was as if CLL never existed.</p>
<p>This all changed at the turn of the new year.</p>
<p>Back in August 2009 my dad started to develop a swollen head which made him look like the elephant man and this happend a number of times since then. He became chronically fatigued, his immune system was weak and he started to lose a lot of weight in the process.</p>
<p>At the end of January this year they finally diagnosed my dad with a secondary cancer in the form of tumours that had become widespread and consumed most of his body. At the time they felt treatment was still possible because the tumours hadn&#8217;t appeared to spread into any vital organs.</p>
<p>From January until today the cancer spread and grew at such a rapid pace that it was simply eating my dad&#8217;s body up. Three weeks ago they discovered three massive tumours on his brain and the prognosis wasn&#8217;t looking good for him. A series of radiation treatment ensued and this ended just before mother&#8217;s day where my family and I flew up to Johannesburg to have lunch with him.</p>
<p>When we left I knew that this moment was probably the last time I&#8217;d ever see him alive again and it made me sick. Sick, quite simply because there was so much I still wanted to tell my dad before he died and I knew that I probably wasn&#8217;t going to get a chance to do so. I felt unresolved.</p>
<p>On Sunday morning my mother phoned me to say that my dad&#8217;s really slipping away very quickly and that I mustn&#8217;t be shocked if she calls me to say he&#8217;s gone. I knew the time had come so on the early hours of Monday morning I wrote my father a letter. This was something I had thought about doing for a number of months but now the timing seemed right. I emailed the letter to her and asked her to please read it to him &#8211; it was my way of saying goodbye.</p>
<p>Late Monday afternoon my mom called me again, in tears, telling me that he has asked her and my 10 year-old sister for permission to die. He told them that physically and mentally he simply hasn&#8217;t got the strength to continue and they gave him their blessing.</p>
<p>I asked my mom if she received my letter and alas she hadn&#8217;t. I asked only one thing and that was to please read him the letter before he goes. Later that night I sat going through emails from my father and thinking of him as already dead and I had to stop myself because he wasn&#8217;t &#8211; yet. So, on Monday night I booked a 1-way ticket to Johannesburg so that I could hopefully spend the last moments of his life with him.</p>
<p>I arrived yesterday at 12:00 in Johannesburg and went pretty much direct to the hospital. I was very relieved to hear that my dad had read my letter to him and I was already feeling more peaceful knowing that he at least knew how I felt.</p>
<p>When I saw him though I simply wasn&#8217;t prepared. He could barely talk, couldn&#8217;t hear anymore and was passing in and out of consciousness the whole time. He knew I was there and was very happy and surprised to see me but I knew the man was on deaths door.</p>
<p>My visit with him however was extremely special for me. I held his hand, which is something I haven&#8217;t done since I was a kid, I told him I loved him and he even asked me for a kiss when I left. I connected with my dad on a very different level and I felt like I had now finally said goodbye and I was ready for him to die.</p>
<p>We were told by Ali Bacher and the hospital that my dad wouldn&#8217;t make it through the night and at 00:07 we got the phone call that he had died. My first reaction was that I needed to go and see him and I convinced my reluctant mom to come with me.</p>
<p>Seeing my dad&#8217;s lifeless body was something that I wasn&#8217;t really prepared for. He had aged by about 20 years due to the lack of oxygen and blood supply, his skin colour had turned yellow/white, his body was warm but getting cold quickly and his facial features had already sunken in. He was not the dad that I had seen some 10 hours earlier.</p>
<p>The hardest part about seeing him was that he wasn&#8217;t moving. In theory we all understand that a dead person doesn&#8217;t move, breath, talk, etc. but I was fully expecting him to open his eyes and say something to us. This never happened and it was a harsh reminder of what had just happened.</p>
<p>I spoke freely to my dad like I&#8217;ve never done before, I touched him and held his hand and rubbed his leg and generally just looked at him in awe as a man who I regard as my hero.</p>
<p>I nearly didn&#8217;t book my plane ticket to Johannesburg on Monday night because I realised I was petrified of having to deal with his death but I am so grateful that I put my fears aside, got on a plane, and shared these immensely important final moments of his life.</p>
<p>To be honest his death has not sunken in yet but I can tell you I feel at peace with it. I did everything I needed to do with him and I&#8217;m so greatful that I don&#8217;t have any regrets around his death.</p>
<p>Today I remember my father as loving, dedicated and humble person who endured many hardships in his life to make our lives a little easier. The world has lost a great human being and I look forward to honouring him at his funeral.</p>
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								<h5 class="uppercase light">Posted on September 30, 2009 - by <a href="http://justinhartman.com/author/admin/" title="Posts by Justin Hartman" rel="author">Justin Hartman</a></h5>
		
								<h2><a href="http://justinhartman.com/2009/09/30/england-thanks-for-ruining-cricket-for-my-son/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to England, thanks for ruining cricket for my son">England, thanks for ruining cricket for my son</a></h2>
            					
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                						<a title="Permanent Link to England, thanks for ruining cricket for my son" href="http://justinhartman.com/2009/09/30/england-thanks-for-ruining-cricket-for-my-son/"><img src="http://justinhartman.com/wp-content/themes/papercut/thumb.php?src=http://justinhartman.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/108819.2.jpg&amp;h=75&amp;w=100&amp;zc=1&amp;q=95" alt="England, thanks for ruining cricket for my son" class="thumb-preview" /></a>          	
                
            													
		
								<p><img src="http://justinhartman.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/108819.2.jpg" alt="" title="" width="310" height="232" class="alignright size-full wp-image-854" />First let me state that Luke, my 5 year-old, is a cricket fanatic. If we&#8217;re not watching cricket he&#8217;s bowling balls down the passage or setting his imaginary field and he&#8217;s driving me nuts with wanting me to purchase every piece of cricket equipment that has ever been made. It&#8217;s turning into a costly passion.</p>
<p>Over the last two days I&#8217;ve witnessed two jaw dropping incidents in the ICC Champions Trophy, both of which involved England, and these have had a serious impact on Luke. The first and most controversial was an incident involving Graham Smith and Andrew Strauss during the SA vs. England game on Monday evening.</p>
<p>Smith was on 124 runs with South Africa needing another 69 from 36 balls to stay in the ICC Champions Trophy and requested for a runner yet Strauss declined it. After the match Strauss explained that <em>&#8220;He asked for a runner and the umpires took the view that cramp is a symptom of fatigue. Being tired does not qualify batsmen for a runner under the laws of the game&#8221;</em>.</p>
<p>It is my belief that this decision by Strauss was a defining moment in the match and was a major contributing factor to our loss. After Strauss turned him down you could see Smith&#8217;s whole demeanor change. Couple that with the fact that he could barely walk and Smith was now forced to look for boundaries to try and steer our team to victory which ultimately lead to the fall of his wicket at 141.</p>
<p>If you asked me Strauss knew that Smith could win the game for South Africa and he wanted him off the field as his bowlers were pretty much ineffective against him. I believe that Strauss broke the rules of the <em>gentleman&#8217;s game</em> in a display of the worst sportsmanship I&#8217;ve ever seen in cricket in recent times.</p>
<p>The impact this had on Luke astounded me. He was in Graham Smith mode at the time, with pads on and bat in hand, trying to win the game and when he saw how upset Smith was he went from excitement to total disappointment. He got furiously angry with England and accused them on cheating and not being fair and this frustration ultimately brought him to tears. It took a long time to console him and explain to him that sometimes things happen in sport that prevent you from winning but he struggled to comprehend it all.</p>
<p>This was the first time that he&#8217;s ever understood and been exposed to injustice in sport and he didn&#8217;t like it one bit. When he went to bed he told us he&#8217;s never playing cricket again &#8211; a truly shattering moment for a child who just wants to be the next AB De Villiers. As parents this was a difficult moment for us and I&#8217;m not convinced we handled it as well as we could have. Be that as it may, Luke agreed to take up cricket again the next morning.</p>
<p>The second incident I witnessed was during the England vs. New Zealand match yesterday evening. Paul Collingwood, who had been declared run out after wandering out of his crease, went up to New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori and had a mini-conference with him. Soon after they shook hands and Vettori decided not to uphold the appeal and Collingwood was allowed to continue his innings.</p>
<p>To be honest I&#8217;m shocked that England expect every other team to honour the Spirit of Cricket ethos while they only really do so when the pressure is not on them.</p>
<p>It is true that Andrew Strauss had made a similar decision in England&#8217;s opening match against Sri Lanka by recalling Angelo Mathews however there wasn&#8217;t the same sense of pressure or intensity during that match. The truth is, when England are on the ropes they are simply bad sports. </p>
<p>If you don&#8217;t believe me then lets look at last year when Collingwood was captaining England when New Zealand&#8217;s Grant Elliott had been run out after a mid-pitch collision with Ryan Sidebottom. The umpires were obliged to rule him out, but Collingwood&#8217;s refusal to withdraw the appeal had infuriated Vettori and invited widespread criticism from the media.</p>
<p>Vettori&#8217;s decision yesterday was more significant as there was no case of obstruction in this instance, and Collingwood had no one to blame but himself for venturing out his crease. In addition, it was a do-or-die match for New Zealand yet despite this Vettori still showed outstanding sportsmanship at the time.</p>
<p>You make your own decisions around this but I for one am disgusted by England&#8217;s tactics and the fact that the ICC continue to back this team and the decisions taken by them on the field. What example are we setting to the youth who idolize these players and the game?</p>
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								<h5 class="uppercase light">Posted on September 30, 2009 - by <a href="http://justinhartman.com/author/admin/" title="Posts by Justin Hartman" rel="author">Justin Hartman</a></h5>
		
								<h2><a href="http://justinhartman.com/2009/09/30/why-are-clocks-so-prominent-in-my-life-right-now/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Why are Clocks so prominent in my life right now?">Why are Clocks so prominent in my life right now?</a></h2>
            					
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                						<a title="Permanent Link to Why are Clocks so prominent in my life right now?" href="http://justinhartman.com/2009/09/30/why-are-clocks-so-prominent-in-my-life-right-now/"><img src="http://justinhartman.com/wp-content/themes/papercut/thumb.php?src=http://justinhartman.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/1701081_KidAlarmClocks_06SW.jpeg&amp;h=75&amp;w=100&amp;zc=1&amp;q=95" alt="Why are Clocks so prominent in my life right now?" class="thumb-preview" /></a>          	
                
            													
		
								<p><img src="http://justinhartman.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/1701081_KidAlarmClocks_06SW-150x150.jpg" alt="Kids Clocks" title="Kids Clocks" width="150" height="150" class="alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-845" />I&#8217;m struggling to find the meaning behind this but for some reason <strong>children&#8217;s clocks</strong> are featuring very prominently in my life right now.</p>
<p>Two days ago Colette and I went to see a psychologist about our eldest son Luke. There&#8217;s nothing wrong with him but we were asked by the pre-school to put him through a series of tests to see if he is ready for big school (i.e. Grade 1) next year. The meeting was essentially a report-back on her findings.</p>
<p>While the results of the tests were very interesting (more about this in a later post) the strangest thing emerged. One of the questions asked to him was if he had three wishes what would he wish for. His first answer was&#8230; a clock. Colette and I were both taken aback as was the psychologist. None of us could figure out why a five year old would wish for a clock.</p>
<p>During the session we also realised that we don&#8217;t have a single clock in our house. Not only that but neither of us own watches either so there is nothing apart from computers and mobile phones indicating the time. Maybe this is the only meaning around this but then some more random events happened.</p>
<p>Last night I received a phone call from my late best friend&#8217;s mother. We haven&#8217;t spoken in over two years and I think it&#8217;s mostly due to the fact that the context of our relationship was connected through my friend and with him not being there it was difficult to maintain the relationship when we both reminded each other of him. So, needless to say it was a pleasant and unexpected surprise to hear her voice again.</p>
<p>I suspected that the call was in relation to the sixth anniversary of his death (September 15th) but this wasn&#8217;t the case at all. She contacted me to tell me that she&#8217;d started making, wait for it&#8230;, children&#8217;s clocks in her spare time and wanted to know if I can help her market the kids clocks online.</p>
<p>Soon after the phone call I put Luke to bed. Every night Colette reads him a story before bedtime but last night I decided that I should do story-time instead. As is customary Luke choses a book and tonight was a rather large Dr. Seuss collection of five stories.</p>
<p>Luke opened up the book and said to me that he wants to show me his best part. He continued to page through to a particular page in the book and said <em>look Dad, this is it</em>. I took the book from him and asked him why this page was his best and he said, <em>because the long hand is hanging off looking all squiggly</em> and he was referring to the rather comical looking clock on the page.</p>
<p>Maybe I&#8217;m being nuts but these three, seemingly random events around clocks, kids clocks in particular have me wondering if there&#8217;s not something there. I don&#8217;t believe in co-incidence, I believe in things happening for a reason and everything has meaning but I can&#8217;t find anything online that can help me understand this better.</p>
<p>Hopefully you have more insight into the random events of the last two days.</p>
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								<h5 class="uppercase light">Posted on May 12, 2009 - by <a href="http://justinhartman.com/author/admin/" title="Posts by Justin Hartman" rel="author">Justin Hartman</a></h5>
		
								<h2><a href="http://justinhartman.com/2009/05/12/getting-rejected-its-never-fun/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Getting rejected, it&#8217;s never fun">Getting rejected, it&#8217;s never fun</a></h2>
            					
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                						<a title="Permanent Link to Getting rejected, it&#8217;s never fun" href="http://justinhartman.com/2009/05/12/getting-rejected-its-never-fun/"><img src="http://justinhartman.com/wp-content/themes/papercut/thumb.php?src=http://justinhartman.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/2539483_1e8eb90797.jpg&amp;h=75&amp;w=100&amp;zc=1&amp;q=95" alt="Getting rejected, it&#8217;s never fun" class="thumb-preview" /></a>          	
                
            													
		
								<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/unclebumpy/2539483/" target="_blank" title="Sorrow and Rejection by unclebumpy"><img src="http://justinhartman.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/2539483_1e8eb90797.jpg" alt="Sorrow and Rejection by unclebumpy" title="Sorrow and Rejection by unclebumpy" /></a></p>
<p>While this blog has been a lot about my good news lately, today it&#8217;s a lot about my bad. If you&#8217;ve been reading my blog then you&#8217;d know I was chosen as a nominee in the <a href="http://justinhartman.com/2009/04/16/ive-been-nominated-for-the-2009-mens-health-best-man-awards/">Men&#8217;s Health Best Man Awards 2009</a> and last week I received an update to inform me that I was not chosen as one of the three finalists. Congratulations though to <a href="http://www.vinnylingham.com/">Vinny Lingham</a> who did make it as a finalist in another category and I wish him all the best because he deserves it!</p>
<p>To be honest I&#8217;m not disappointed about not being a finalist because if you look at who else was nominated in my category then you&#8217;ll understand why I was flattered to even be considered in the first place. I was expecting a rejection email and as such the nomination is going to make a great addition to my CV.</p>
<p>The second rejection I received last night and this one has been bitterly disappointing. About two months back I applied for a <a href="http://www.ted.com/index.php/fellows">TED Fellowship</a> and despite being extremely confident that I&#8217;d crack it I didn&#8217;t quite make the grade. Herewith an excerpt from said rejection email.</p>
<blockquote><p>The response to the new Fellows program has been exceptional &#8211; far greater than we could have imagined &#8211; and winnowing down the application pool was a formidable task. Unfortunately, due the to extraordinary qualifications of all of our applicants, we are unable to offer you a Fellowship for TEDGlobal 2009. </p></blockquote>
<p>If any of you have ever applied to be a TED Fellow you&#8217;ll know just how strenuous the application process is. To apply you need to complete an application by answering various questions that try to gain insight into how you tick as a human being and then you have to get references to fill in referee forms on your behalf. It&#8217;s kind of like writing your year-end exam only <em>much</em> tougher!</p>
<p>It took me over two weeks to complete my answers to the questions and in it I told TED stuff that only my family know. I really shared every inner-most secret in the hope that doing so would get me a seat at the conference.</p>
<p>The anticipation in waiting for an answer was the real killer though. I didn&#8217;t want to entertain any negative thinking so I convinced myself that my ticket was booked and I was headed for Oxford. I realised that the risk of doing so was utter, gut-wrenching disappointment but I wasn&#8217;t going to allow myself to ruin the small chance that I had.</p>
<p>Unfortunately my gamble didn&#8217;t pay off and I honestly feel like a teenager who&#8217;s girlfriend has just dumped him for a smarter, better looking guy. It has long been a dream to attend a TED conference but I guess my time will have to wait&#8230;</p>
<p>For now I&#8217;ll continue to watch from the sidelines and I thought this latest video from <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/538">Seth Godin titled Why tribes, not money or factories, will change the world</a> would be an apt way to end this post. Enjoy the brilliant talk from Seth as he shares ideas on how tribes give ordinary people the power to lead and make big change.</p>
<p><object width="446" height="326"><param name="movie" value="http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><param name="bgColor" value="#ffffff"></param><param name="flashvars" value="vu=http://video.ted.com/talks/embed/SethGodin_2009-embed_high.flv&#038;su=http://images.ted.com/images/ted/tedindex/embed-posters/SethGodin-2009.embed_thumbnail.jpg&#038;vw=432&#038;vh=240&#038;ap=0&#038;ti=538" /><embed src="http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf" pluginspace="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" bgColor="#ffffff" width="446" height="326" allowFullScreen="true" flashvars="vu=http://video.ted.com/talks/embed/SethGodin_2009-embed_high.flv&#038;su=http://images.ted.com/images/ted/tedindex/embed-posters/SethGodin-2009.embed_thumbnail.jpg&#038;vw=432&#038;vh=240&#038;ap=0&#038;ti=538"></embed></object></p>
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								<h5 class="uppercase light">Posted on April 16, 2009 - by <a href="http://justinhartman.com/author/admin/" title="Posts by Justin Hartman" rel="author">Justin Hartman</a></h5>
		
								<h2><a href="http://justinhartman.com/2009/04/16/ive-been-nominated-for-the-2009-mens-health-best-man-awards/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to I&#8217;ve been nominated for the 2009 Men&#8217;s Health Best Man Awards">I&#8217;ve been nominated for the 2009 Men&#8217;s Health Best Man Awards</a></h2>
            					
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                						<a title="Permanent Link to I&#8217;ve been nominated for the 2009 Men&#8217;s Health Best Man Awards" href="http://justinhartman.com/2009/04/16/ive-been-nominated-for-the-2009-mens-health-best-man-awards/"><img src="http://justinhartman.com/wp-content/themes/papercut/thumb.php?src=http://justinhartman.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/mens-health.jpg&amp;h=75&amp;w=100&amp;zc=1&amp;q=95" alt="I&#8217;ve been nominated for the 2009 Men&#8217;s Health Best Man Awards" class="thumb-preview" /></a>          	
                
            													
		
								<p><img align="right" src="http://justinhartman.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/mens-health.jpg" alt="2009 Men's Health Best Man Award" />Yesterday I received a notification that I&#8217;ve been nominated for the <em>2009 Men&#8217;s Health Best Man Awards</em>. To be honest I&#8217;m blown away but before I get into that here&#8217;s what the awards are all about.</p>
<blockquote><p>Every year a few men stand out from the crowd. They inspire us, challenge us and lead us to greater heights of personal and professional achievement. Men’s Health magazine believes that these men deserve to be recognised and so the Best Man Awards was born.</p>
<p>As the first campaign of its kind in South Africa; Men’s Health Best Man aims to reward our country’s top achievers for the ground-breaking work they have accomplished. We’ve highlighted six categories – sports, media, business, arts and culture, public service and science and technology – and after an exhaustive process by our expert panel selected the finalists who represent the Best Man. These men were profiled in the May issue of Men’s Health from which the final three in each category are then selected. The Best Man winner in each category will then be announced at the final Best Man Awards dinner.</p></blockquote>
<p>This year I&#8217;ve been chosen as one of eight nominees in the Media category and very shortly they&#8217;ll be narrowing this list down to three finalists. The other nominees in the Media category that I&#8217;m competing with are:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.zapiro.com">Jonathan &#8216;Zapiro&#8217; Shapiro</a> (do I even need to tell you who Zapiro is?)</li>
<li><a href="http://multimedia.thetimes.co.za/audio/2008/10/paul-holden-the-arms-deal-in-your-pocket/">Paul Holden</a> (author of The Arms Deal in Your Pocket)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.speakersofnote.co.za/speakers.php?action=view&#038;spid=289">Solly Philander</a> (multi-award winning performer)</li>
<li><a href="http://velocityfilms.com/thabo-marera/">Thabo Marera</a> (award winning commercial director)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.sabenvironment.co.za/index.php?page=past_winners">Danie van der Walt</a> (award winning journalist and executive producer of the environmental programme 50/50)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.sagoodnews.co.za/south_africa_in_the_world/sa_cameraman_wins_top_award_.html">Garwin McLuckie</a> (award winning SA cameraman)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.matthewbuckland.com">Matthew Buckland</a> (GM, Social Media 24.com)</li>
</ul>
<p>This is an impressive list of contenders and I really am extremely grateful to the powers that be for nominating me and even considering me amongst these top professionals. It really is a nice feeling being nominated for such a prestigious award and although I&#8217;m thankful I have to warn <em>Men&#8217;s Health</em> that I&#8217;m not taking my shirt off for the cover photo shoot when I win! <img src='http://justinhartman.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
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								<h5 class="uppercase light">Posted on April 15, 2009 - by <a href="http://justinhartman.com/author/admin/" title="Posts by Justin Hartman" rel="author">Justin Hartman</a></h5>
		
								<h2><a href="http://justinhartman.com/2009/04/15/one-year-old-today/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to One year old today">One year old today</a></h2>
            					
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                						<a title="Permanent Link to One year old today" href="http://justinhartman.com/2009/04/15/one-year-old-today/"><img src="http://justinhartman.com/wp-content/themes/papercut/thumb.php?src=http://justinhartman.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/ben-1-year-old.jpg&amp;h=75&amp;w=100&amp;zc=1&amp;q=95" alt="One year old today" class="thumb-preview" /></a>          	
                
            													
		
								<p><img src="http://justinhartman.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/ben-1-year-old.jpg" alt="Ben Turns One Today" /></p>
<p>At 17:15 on 15 April 2008 <a href="http://justinhartman.com/2008/04/16/the-newest-addition-to-our-family/">Ben Hartman was born</a>.  It&#8217;s impossible to quantify how much Ben has changed our lives over the last 12 months and it always amazes me how quickly time flies.</p>
<p>Ben is our second born son and I really love to see how different each of our children are. Luke is cautious and shy by nature while Ben is a maniac who shows no fear. He&#8217;s already given me tons of <em>new</em> grey hair and I&#8217;m positive there&#8217;s going to be a lot more in the years to come.</p>
<p>While Ben can&#8217;t really understand the significance of today, Luke is completely excited that his little brother is one year old. Yesterday he said he was going to invite everyone we knew to Ben&#8217;s birthday party but as we&#8217;re recent Capetonian immigrants we don&#8217;t really have anyone to invite <img src='http://justinhartman.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p>We don&#8217;t want to damper Luke&#8217;s excitement so we&#8217;re off to buy Ben a really cool present this afternoon and then we&#8217;re hitting the spur for a birthday dinner.</p>
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								<h5 class="uppercase light">Posted on January 19, 2009 - by <a href="http://justinhartman.com/author/admin/" title="Posts by Justin Hartman" rel="author">Justin Hartman</a></h5>
		
								<h2><a href="http://justinhartman.com/2009/01/19/my-first-tilt-shift-photo/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to My first Tilt-Shift photo">My first Tilt-Shift photo</a></h2>
            					
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                						<a title="Permanent Link to My first Tilt-Shift photo" href="http://justinhartman.com/2009/01/19/my-first-tilt-shift-photo/"><img src="http://justinhartman.com/wp-content/themes/papercut/thumb.php?src=http://justinhartman.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/sightseeing-cape-town-600.jpg&amp;h=75&amp;w=100&amp;zc=1&amp;q=95" alt="My first Tilt-Shift photo" class="thumb-preview" /></a>          	
                
            													
		
								<p>My good pal <a href="http://www.gregorrohrig.com">Gregor</a> has been posting a series of Fake Tilt-Shift photographs and I&#8217;ve been dying to try it out myself. Wikipedia describes <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilt-shift_miniature_faking">Tilt-Shift faking</a> as:</p>
<blockquote><p>Tilt-shift miniature faking is a process in which a photograph of a life-size location or object is manipulated so that it looks like a photograph of a miniature scale model. By distorting the focus of the photo, the artist simulates the shallow depth of field normally encountered with macro lenses making the scene seem much smaller than it actually is.</p></blockquote>
<p>I recently acquired a new <a href="http://www.canon-europe.com/For_Home/Product_Finder/Cameras/EF_Lenses/Image_Stabilization_Lenses/EF-S_55-250mm_f_4-5_6_IS/index.asp">Canon 55mm-250mm IS lens</a> for my 400D and with new lens in hand I was able to take some cool shots from our balcony at work.</p>
<p>I took a number of different shots and then tried to follow <a href="http://www.tiltshiftphotography.net/photoshop-tutorial.php">this online tilt-shift tutorial</a> to create my first masterpiece but the results were not fantastic. I was not happy with the output as it didn&#8217;t seem to create the miniature effect I was hoping for. </p>
<p>So, I created my own selection band by manually selecting the road, carefully following the natural curve and shadows, as well as other elements like the flags and robots to give it more precision. It literally took me hours to do but I am more than happy with the output.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/justinhartman/3207357421/sizes/l/"><img src="http://justinhartman.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/sightseeing-cape-town-600.jpg" alt="Cape Town Tilt Shift" /></a></p>
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								<h5 class="uppercase light">Posted on November 7, 2008 - by <a href="http://justinhartman.com/author/admin/" title="Posts by Justin Hartman" rel="author">Justin Hartman</a></h5>
		
								<h2><a href="http://justinhartman.com/2008/11/07/thoughts-on-my-first-month-in-cape-town/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Thoughts on my first month in Cape Town">Thoughts on my first month in Cape Town</a></h2>
            					
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                						<a title="Permanent Link to Thoughts on my first month in Cape Town" href="http://justinhartman.com/2008/11/07/thoughts-on-my-first-month-in-cape-town/"><img src="http://justinhartman.com/wp-content/themes/papercut/thumb.php?src=http://justinhartman.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/2956110702_0fa0d13278.jpg&amp;h=75&amp;w=100&amp;zc=1&amp;q=95" alt="Thoughts on my first month in Cape Town" class="thumb-preview" /></a>          	
                
            													
		
								<p><img src="http://justinhartman.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/2956110702_0fa0d13278.jpg" alt="" /></p>
<p>To be honest I have to say that I can&#8217;t believe it&#8217;s only been a month since we <a href="http://justinhartman.com/2008/10/16/moving-to-the-mother-city/">moved to Cape Town</a>. So much has happened this past month that I feel like an old pro navigating my way through the Mother City and living the <em>relaxed life</em>.</p>
<p>Well, not sure if that&#8217;s all entirely true but we are all settling in very nicely which is hugely positive for me. I certainly feel like we&#8217;ve made the right decision coming here.</p>
<p>On the work front I&#8217;m amazed at how much we&#8217;ve managed to achieve in the last 30 days. For the first time ever <a href="http://stii.co.za">Stii</a> and I have been in the same place for longer than a couple drinks and having <a href="http://lesterhein.blogspot.com/">Lester</a> on board has been a blessing in disguise.</p>
<p>Lester has managed to turn the <a href="http://blog.afrigator.com">Afrigator Blog</a> into an entertaining read and people are actually enjoying it. His skills from a marketing and product perspective has been invaluable and he&#8217;s really helping to humanise <a href="http://afrigator.com">Afrigator</a> in a way that I don&#8217;t think we were able to do.</p>
<p>In total, Lester and I have done 24 meetings this past month, Stii lectured at <a href="http://gsbexecedblog.uct.ac.za/nomadicmarketing/">Nomadic Marketing</a> and I did a brief session at the <a href="http://gsbexecedblog.uct.ac.za/">Graduate School of Business</a> and we&#8217;ve meet some great people along the way. As a result we&#8217;ve established some really exciting partnerships and some of these are going to filter through in the next month.</p>
<p>Stii has been working very aggressively on rewriting Afrigator once again. We got to a point with Afrigator where we realised that a lot of what we plan to do in the coming months were not possible on our current framework so Stii&#8217;s been living off coffee and beer ever since. We joke and say that Stii does the only real work in this company and in truth, without him I don&#8217;t think we&#8217;d be as good as we are!</p>
<p>This month has been fantastic but the real reward has been seeing how a focused approach has really helped Afrigator gain some traction and growth. To give you an idea we increased our unique user base by 83% and our traffic to the site increased by 181% from September. We had a record breaking month which should make our shareholders happy.</p>
<p>I do realise that every month is probably not going to be as good as this past one but I feel extremely positive about our business and the direction it is going. While most of you can&#8217;t yet see the fruits of our labour it will become visible very soon.</p>
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	<li class="widget"><h2>About me</h2>			<div class="textwidget"><img src="http://justinhartman.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/profile-pic.jpg" alt="Justin Hartman" align="right">I am a seasoned entrepreneur and currently the CEO of <a href="http://afrigator.biz">Afrigator</a>, a startup which I co-founded in April 2007 and later sold a stake to MIH Internet Africa. This blog is mostly about my life, experience running a startup and thoughts on technology that I encounter along the way... <a href="/profile/">read more</a>.</div>
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