A talent spotted whilst exploring another talented designer’s Deviant Art page, Jacques Kleynhans’ illustration of his friend Maaike, caught our eye!

See more of Jacques’ work at http://noelkudo.deviantart.com

Lately my group of friends and I have done a number of things I can take no credit for. It is not that I did not participate with full enthusiasm, but I cannot claim the ideas were mine. Phew, now that that is out of the way and I don’t have to worry about copyright claims I can get on with the real story. First we did a 10 km walk at 7 am on Saturday morning across town to a forest. We got rained on, tore our clothing and on reaching our goal, happily took refuge in the restaurant where hot chocolate became the ultimate paradise. No regrets there. Another venture was to have breakfast on the local traffic circle. However, we do not believe in doing things to half measure and so we awoke at 7 am, and trekked a Weber and all our goodies the kilometer to our new destination. Once there, we set up a picnic, waved at all the passers-by, and cooked ourselves bacon and eggs on the braai. This was lovely, but what has stuck in my mind was the sight of our two guy friends when we met them in the road. They had been ordered to “suit up”, and they did not fail to rise to the occasion. Looking dashing in actual suits, I found myself envying how a guy can simply put on a suit and look smart. While it has to be a nice suit, and preferably cut well, I felt the green monster rise up as I considered how much time girls spend staring at their closets, slamming the doors, emptying the contents and still not having anything to wear. On expressing this view to one of them, I was impressively corrected. “No!” He’d kill for the choice we have, we can wear skirts, dresses and pants. I thought all the boys I knew who liked to dress in female clothing were related to me. My cousin, for one, tried on my favourite dress before I did. Then, that evening, my brother and his friends were preparing a show for us and I called him to tell him I would be willing to help them dress. He entered the room in his –female- best friend’s purple skirt, and on hearing my news, he ran out jubilantly shouting it to his friends. I laughed. Apparently the way to a man’s heart is to offer to dress him in your skirts. This all made me think back. My ex-boyfriend used to delight in wearing our mutual friend’s cut-off hot-pink hoodies. See the pattern? And yet, as it turns out, the desire for the choice and style we girls have access to is not exclusive to the main men in my life. These guys, who I have only recently spent any real time with, want the same thing. And I don’t blame them. In essence, us women were freed from not being allowed to wear trousers, why shouldn’t they be freed from not being allowed to wear skirts? Especially when some of them have the legs to pull it off.

Wow! What a beautiful gadget from Samsung.The Samsung Star has almost all the cool new features on most gadgets on the shelves. No one expected it to has a GPS navigation system, a powerful operating system,or complex muti-tasking capabilities,which is good,because it does not have any of them.It also lacks an LED Flash light,which is becoming more essential and standard.Pictures taken in the dark belong in the dark.As for the price tag,brace yourself…R2,400 minimum,that is before the sales guy/gal tells you what the little asterisk on the price is for.Nevertheless,that is all the negative opinions one can find on this beauty.It has a huge 3-inch(around 7cm) full touch WQVGA(whatever that means) screen.Well,with good lighting,you can take 3 megapixel photos from it’s smile-recognition camera.With tons more awesome features it will keep you smiling and recognise that smile.While at it,you can experience the awesomeness of photoblogging which it allows.Not cool enough to compare to the Aplle iPhone? It’s definitely worth the price.So if you thinking of bragging about the missing LED flash,think about the compensation provided by the huge screen and JAVA application engine…

Mobile novels (or M-novels) are big in Japan, “six out of the top 10 fiction best sellers in 2008 were m-novels that had later been printed in book form.”

An M-novel called Kontax, released by The Shuttleworth Foundation, looks to be an exciting first for South Africa, is set to create an a stir, involving the youth and hopefully creating an interest in reading, all via cellpohones.

The Shuttleworth Foundation knew that it was “worth exploring [cellphones] potential for publishing and authoring.” They believe that “cellphones may represent a way to alleviate the chronic shortage of books in SA as they provide a viable content distribution solution.”

M4lit (Mobiles for literacy) is all about getting kids to read and it is “making world history as the first of its kind to be offered in both English and isiXhosa (to increase accessibility to a broad range of South African teenagers).” It also looks to find out what learners think about m-novels, and whether the mobile medium as a literacy tool interests them.

They have  chosen to utilise Mxit (a popular instant messaging service-which has roughly 14 million subscribers) as a platform from which to send the m-novel out from.

The m-novel, Kontax written by Sam Wilson follows the adventures of a group of teenage graffiti writers.

The story line is as follows:

“Kontax are the hottest graffiti crew in the city. These four friends come from all over town, and they each have their own unique talent. Sbu has the vision, K8 (pronounced “Kate”) has the training, Songezwa has the technique, and Airtime has the creativity (and the big mouth). The Kontax hang out together making graffiti. They’ll paint wherever they can, and wherever they can’t. They’re the Kontax, and it’s their voice.

One night Sbu hits it off with a girl at a party, but she suddenly disappears, leaving him with her cellphone and her first name. Who is she? Where did she go? And why doesn’t anyone on her cellphone contact list know her? Sensing she is in danger, the Kontax crew uses every idea they can think of, and all their skills and connections, to track the missing girl. As they do, the Kontax discover that this mysterious girl is in more trouble than she could have possibly imagined. Tracking the girl down leads Sbu and his friends into a world of action, mystery, and increasing danger…

Readers will be invited to interact with Kontax as it unfolds on their cellphones: by voting on and discussing the progressing plot, as well as leaving comments. To make it more appealing there will be airtime prizes available for winning submissions and comments.

Every day another chapter in the mystery plot is told, with 21 chapters unfolding over 21 days.

M4lit has huge potential and looks to change South African youths’ attitude to reading and writing, as well as it leading the way for interactive more m-novels in South Africa.

27-year old illustrator/animator, Noper, hails from Bucharest, Romania and describes his style of drawing as “teethy”. It’s twistedly teethy. Have a look at some of his work in the gallery below.

Hit the jump for Noper’s animation reel.

And see more weirdness at Noper’s website.

[via WE-Are-AWESOME]