This is how it went down:
We were on a date night & I had planned to have us go to go to a movie after dinner at a cinema called, The Bioscope, in Johannesburg. Once we were seated and the lights went off, a few movie trailers played, during which time, some very close family & friends snuck into the back 2 rows of the cinema. After the trailer, this video was played. When it was done, the lights came on, I went down on one knee & I asked her to spend forever with me. She said yes!

Here’s the desktop version of the video:

Here’s the mobile version of the video to use for iPads and mobile phones:

Proposal Video – Love is… from Dee Chetty on Vimeo.

This video is the product of some very hard work by 2 guys, Thiru N from Shruti Pictures and Mike Jaspan from The Film Guys. I can’t thank you guys enough for the countless hours spent traveling to each shoot & between cities, filming and the editing that went into this video. You guys have done an amazing job and it’s been an absolute pleasure working with you guys.

Richard, thank you for your patience, help sourcing the main stone and through the entire design & build process of the ring. It’s been months of work too on this & I’m really happy with the end result.

To all our family and friends that gave up their time & put aside their camera shyness to be part of this. We are blessed to have such supportive people in our lives and I’m truly appreciative of you being part of this and helping me with this project. I don’t say this often enough, “I love you guys!”

To my best friend…
Nothing excites me more than the idea of spending the rest of my life with you!  You are my happiness!

In 2010, again I made the final list of Best Science & Technology blogs, but only managed to snatch runner up. This year too, I have been voted as one of the Top 3 and have been invited to the awards ceremony in Cape Town next month.

I’ve often said, that I see my blog as my playground on the web where I learn about how the web works and I use it purely to experiment with things like SEO best practise and stuffs. For the last year, I’ve spent a lot of my time fine tuning. Fine tuning old articles, my blog design and SEO implementation among other things.

The rewards have finally paid off, with a consistent flow of organic traffic from search engines, my blog posts being indexed and ranked by Google within minutes of me posting new articles and an awesome rating by webgrader of 98%. )

While these feat was a slow and diligent one, I have to give thanks where it is due and for that, I am grateful these two guys who have helped me tremendously through the years.

Chris M: Thank you for inspiring me to start this blog. Without you as a mentor through the years, I doubt I would have had the patience to sustain this. (@ChrisM)

Jack Wheeler: Thank you for the design help & your consistent push for CSS awesomeness. Due to your niggliness & eye for detail, I now have a blog logo that I’m proud of. (@JDCWheeler)

I’m also VERY grateful for everyone who has voted for me in the SA Blog Awards and for those who have believed that my blog was good enough to even compete. Thank you!

The TRON Evolution PS3 game.

The Bro Code – The Playbook, inspired by Barney from How I Met Your Mother.

Apple Magic Trackpad.

What did you get?

I had no idea who sings it and had to pose the question to Twitter and @Blindcripple came to the rescue. Check out a cool video and the lyrics of “We No Speak Americano” below:

Video: We No Speak Americano by Yolanda Be Cool feat DCUP

Lyrics: We No Speak Americano by Yolanda Be Cool feat DCUP

Comme te po`
Comme te po`

Comme te po` capì chi te vò bene
Si tu le parle ‘mmiezzo Americano?
Quando se fa lammor sotto `a luna
Come te vene `capa e di: “ I love you !? “

fa fa l’americano !
fa fa l’americano !
fa fa l’americano !
fa l’americano !
fa fa l’americano !
fa fa l’americano !

…whïsky soda e rock’en’roll (x3)…

Video of the lyrics:

At the beginning of the year, I had the kahunas to post an article highlighting some of my new years resolutions for 2009 and I think that given that it’s December, it is worth a look back to see how well I have done.

So here is my list with a small catch up on each item:

I resolute to:

• Listen without saying anything for 20 minutes a day (Apparently, I have too little patience for stupid people and I need to listen more!) I have become better at this. I must admit that I am a lot more patient now and I do listen more, though I have not been doing it daily. So I have certainly failed at this resolution!
  
• Feed a poor child at least twice a month This resolution started off well and for the first few months, I did manage to feed poor kids fairly often, sometimes more than twice a month. I guess that I have no excuse as to why I have let this one slip on the regularity even though I do make an effort every now and again. Another failed resolution!
  
• Help educate a poor child I missed my opportunity this year to do this, but I have since arranged with a school principal to instate a scholarship next year in honor of my kid brother. Failed resolution!
  
• Study something that aids my career This year I did fairly well in this department. Early in 2009 I completed a Project Management course and I also managed to fit in an MDP from University of Stellenbosch Business School and I graduate next week!
  
• Study something that adds value to my life without affecting my career Wow, I guess that I royally sucked in this department. I very recently started Thai Chi and it has certainly added value to my life, but 1 month’s worth of classes is no major achievement.
• Find a friend that I have forgotten about and catch up This I did do. A friend that I was very close to in high school and I spent some time together catching up and it was great. I really missed the guy and it was really cool to see him again after a 9 year gap.
  
• Stop judging the artsy fartsy type, some people are just weird Still working on this one. I have become more tolerant to people now than ever before, but the arty fartsy type still kinda freak me out. Especially if they wear green denim jeans!
  
• Fix this thing called “my health” Wow, this was a screw up. I bought a bicycle and hardly used it. Signed up for the gym and went a few times just to rid myself of the guilt. Took up Thai Chi recently and I must admit that I am bored already. I have tried eating better though.
  
• Spend more time outside Nope. Failed!
  

In 2009 I will greatly reduce the intake of: (not GIVE UP, just reduce!)

• Softdrinks (That whole theory that Coke adds life, is balls!) I drink less coke, but more Just Juice Cranberry Strawberry! Failed.
  
• Chocolate bars (Happens rarely anyway, so less is bonus!) Yup, this is a pass. I very rarely eat chocolate of late and actively avoid it!
  
• White bread (Wheat and Grain is the way!) Failed!
  
• Fries (Nando’s wedges is better anyway!) Yup, I do actively eat less fries now than before. Not saying that i have STOPPED eating fries, I have just started eating less! fairly often I opt for the salad option. True Story!
  
• Chilli (I’m Indian, so just know that this isn’t as easy it may sound!) Yup! I’m very into Wellington’s Sweet Thai Chilli Sauce now!
  
• Energy drinks (Those things are designed for athletes and not for people who have parts that wobble when they laugh!) I have stopped drinking Energade as a juice, though I have been very bad with Redbull and Play. This though, only when I have had to work all through the night and needed the extra psychological kick in the nuts by cracking open a can. I’m pretty convinced that it’s all in the head though…

In 2009 I will greatly increase the intake of:

• Tea Definitely yes! I’ve become a darn tea addict!
  
• Cucumber (lol) What was I think when I put this down?
  
• Peaches Nope. Fail!
  
• Fresh Grapes Nope. Fail!
  
• Whole grain bread
• Water Definitely yes, but only relative to the amount of water that I drink while in SA. While I was living in India I consumed an insane amount of water and I don’t think that I can repeat it here.
  
• Veggies Nope, I still hate veggies!

So that’s me… I have quite a few that I could have done better and a few that I have failed on. I do still have 1 full month to attempt fixing it though, so now that I have been reminded of my 2009 resolutions, I am going to try to be diligent for at least this last month of 2009!

How have you done on a 1 to 1 resolution comparison for 2009?

Sporting multi-finger gestures, the mouse is a dream to use and certainly the perfect partner for my MacBook Pro which has taken multi-finger gestures to an entirely new paradigm.

Available locally for about R850, have a look at some of the pics that I took of it. Simply stunning!

Its the end of March, which puts us squarely at the end of the first 1/4 of 2009 and I think that its a good idea to see how well am doing against my resolutions. Doing this has also allowed me to refocus on them and those items that are still outstanding will now be highlighted again.

I resolute to:

• Listen without saying anything for 20 minutes a day (Apparently, I have too little patience for stupid people and I need to listen more!) I’ve failed at this totally. It is something that I need to work on!
  
• Feed a poor child at least twice a month. I have been keeping to this resolution and will continue to do so.
  
• Help educate a poor child. I missed the cut off date to set up a scholarship, but I will make sure that I do this in time next year.
  
• Study something that aids my career. I am currently enrolled at Stellenbosch University for an MDP.
  
• Study something that adds value to my life without affecting my career. I have slacked off a bit, but I am learning Mandarin.
  
• Find a friend that I have forgotten about and catch up. Still need to do this.
  
• Stop judging the artsy fartsy type, some people are just weird. Eeerrrh… do I HAVE to do this?
  
• Fix this thing called “my health”. I’ve bought a bicycle. That’s it! :s
  
• Spend more time outside. I have tried, I swear!
  

In 2009 I will greatly reduce the intake of: (not GIVE UP, just reduce!)

• Softdrinks (That whole theory that Coke adds life, is balls!) I now drink massive amounts of water. Soft drink intake has been reduced greatly. I don’t see any results… but I guess its the right thing to do.
  
• Chocolate bars (Happens rarely anyway, so less is bonus!) Done!
  
• White bread (Wheat and Grain is the way!) Not Done!
  
• Fries (Nando’s wedges is better anyway!) Done!
  
• Chilli (I’m Indian, so just know that this isn’t as easy it may sound!) Almost Done!
  
• Energy drinks (Those things are designed for athletes and not for people who have parts that wobble when they laugh!) Done!
  

In 2009 I will greatly increase the intake of:

• Tea I have become a bloody tea ADDICT!
  
• Cucumber (lol) Not Done!
  
• Peaches Not Done!
  
• Fresh Grapes Not Done!
  
• Whole grain bread Not Done!
• Water Done!
  
• Veggies Done!
  

My blog and I have been through a lot this last year and seen its ups and downs, but one thing remained constant, my determination to get to the SA Blog Awards and win!

Thanks to so many of my loyal supporters, I have been nominated in TWO categories in the 2009 SA Blog Awards: Best New Blog and Best Science & Technology Blog. I am eternally grateful for so many who have thought that I deserve to compete on this level and I am VERY proud of my blog.

The final round of the competition is a numbers game and the most votes comes out the victor and again I will not be able to win this without the support of my ardents readers and supporters.

Please vote for me in both these categories by following these steps:

1. Visit the SA Blog Awards Site
2. Select DChetty.co.za under the Best New Blog and the Best Science & Technology sections
3. Enter you email address and submit
4. Confirm your nomination by clicking on the link in your email account.

Its that simple!

Some of my other work in the last year has seen me feature on the Mail & Gaurdian owned blog called Techleader with my article titled, ” The Future of the Web is Contextual!”
and my recent article on MoralFibre where I reviewed a coffee shop.

My absence from my blog does not necessarily mean that I have been without opinion or without an online social presence. My twitter stream has grown a fair amount and I have become quite an addict. Check out my Twitter account and follow me by clicking on the birdie below!

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