Archive for the ‘Unconventionalism’ Category

Spring day just around the corner and it seems that love is in the air as a few of my mates recently got engaged.

We (the unconventional folks at Versus) was wondering what is the lamest and unconventional ways to get engaged.

Here is a list of the 7 lamest ways to propose marriage.

Can you add a few?

The list:

7. In a Twitter message:  “Dearest Guinevere, U R the luv of my life. Please make me the happiest man in the world and marry me. Text me your answer”

6. On an answering machine:

“Hi babe. I can see you’re not there. Like I was just wondering, sort of, if you fancied getting hitched like on Monday. That is if you haven’t got anything better to do that morning?”

5. On the phone.

“Hi, is this the Lorento’s?”

“Yeh well this is Mike. Could I speak to Mary-Anne please?”

“Oh she’s in the shower”

“Would I like to leave a message? Ehh O.K.”

“If it’s not too much trouble could you ask her if she would like to marry me?”

4. At the deportation office, even though there are plenty of witnesses there to chose from.

3. In your apartment while going over your bills.

“Priscella, I’ve just been going over the numbers and it would seem that if we got married we could save $1500 a month on our taxes. What do you say?”

2. “Wow I didn’t see that van coming. Are you O.K. ’cause I have  something I want to ask you?”

And the #1 worst way to propose

1. In a McDonald’s with an edible ring hidden inside a double whopper. The guy who actually did this deserved to be turned down.

Source: taitegallery.net

Hey, Hey,  Hey its Friday and surfed the net for something else and came across a few Gary Larson cartoons.

I showed it to some of the other unconventional folks (my wacky colleagues) and they loved it.

These unusual and funny cartoons has been around for many a year and this week’s Versus unconventional person/ artist of the week goes to Gary Larson the legend

Here are a few of his cartoons

Trying to kill time at work I spotted this funny prank.

Pat you are mean but original so you take the Versus unconventional deed of the week.

Sometimes the simplicity of life’s little things is what make us the  happiest. This is one of the thoughts of 1000 Awesome Things blogger , whose feel-good blog has become a resounding success.

1000 Awesome Things is a blog, updated daily, that enumerates the little things in life that make us happy. It’s a reminder that even the smallest of feats, like “#936 Perfect parallel-parking on the first try” or “#572 Learning a new keyboard shortcut” are a reason to smile.

The site was launched in June 2008 and has been counting down from 1,000 ever since. Now at post number 449, the site is so popular that creator Neil Pasricha even released “The Book of Awesome Things” in April. When asked what will occur when he reaches number 1, Pasricha said, “Something very awesome will happen.”

Well done to Neil Pasrisha , whose unconventional way of looking at little things is an inspiration and has given the folks at Versus a daily dose of smiles.

Cheers to Neil. He is my unconventional guy of the week.

Can you add a little thing in daily life that makes your day?

To view more visit: 1000awesomethings.com

The World Cup is over and now it back to the real world. In the World Cup spirit, many people bought a vuvuzela and little did they know that there is a few alternative and unconventional uses for this South African ‘horn’.

The unconventional folks of Versus Wines thought these are pretty useful post World Cup vuvuzela uses:

1. Use it to blow some life into a slow-burning braai fire
2. Use it as a cheap hearing aid if the batteries on the old one go flat
3. Use it as a poop scoop
4. Use as a self-defence weapon
5. Use it as a toilet plunger
6. Use it to wake up teenagers in the morning
7. Record the sound and use it as your cellphone ringtone
8. Fill with cement and use as a dumb bell
9. Use it if your car hooter has packed up
10. Use to borrow some petrol from your neighbour

Source: yworld.co.za

I saw this video clip on 2oceanssvibe.com. It looks pretty real but I don’t recognise which stadium it is. Is that Cape Town? Were you there? Does anyone know anything about this?

Real or not this clip gets the nod for Versus’ unconventional moment of the week

Soccer World Cup fever has hit the country and I realised that the game of soccer has many rigid and formal structures, stereotypes and strategies. But this guy is really taking refereeing to new, unconventional level.

To my amazement and amusement a friend asked me if you get some points in soccer when the ball is kicked over the goal post. I realised that although Fifa et al. did everything to organise the World Cup they have not educated the sport illiterates about the game.

First you must remember that although you are clueless about soccer you can still enjoy the soccer party / braai / whatever with some Versus.

Here are quick guidelines for those who will score 0% for a soccer theory test. 

This is what you need to know in order not to look completely clueless during the following four weeks:

• Soccer is played by two teams with eleven players each (that includes the goalkeeper).
• Most soccer balls are made from synthetic leather. Many of them are black and white, but they can also be decorated in the colours of the different teams.
• Soccer players wear special shoes that give them a grip on wet grass. Soccer jerseys, shorts and socks distinguish the two teams from each other.
• Soccer is a winter sport.
• The aim of the game is to get the ball into the goal defended by the other team.
• The game lasts 90 minutes – 45 minutes a side with a short break in between.
• Any part of the body may be used, except the hands and arms.
• The goalkeeper is the only player on the field who may use his arms and hands to try and stop the opposing team from scoring a goal.
• A goal, which is scored if the ball goes over the line of the opposing team’s goal posts, a goal is scored. It is worth one point.
• Soccer is not a contact sport and no direct physical contact, such as shoving or grabbing, is allowed between the players.
• A soccer pitch, or field, is marked off with boundary lines, and can vary in size. It is usually rectangular in shape with the length more or less double the width.
• If the ball goes across the line on the side of the field, it is thrown in with an overhead throw. If it goes out at the end of the field, the goalkeeper kicks it back in.
• The section in front of the goal is large rectangle called the goal area. If a player breaks the rules in this area, a penalty kick is awarded to the other team. Only the goalkeeper can defend the goalposts during a penalty kick.
• So-called fouls include kicking the ball when it is in the air, tripping or touching other players, or using the hands and arms. The penalty for this is free kick for the opposing team.
• A yellow card is issued for serious fouls, such as fighting, disrespecting officials or their decisions, or flagrantly disobeying the rules more than once. The referee holds up the yellow card for everyone to see.
• Avoid conversations about offsides rules. These are complicated and the subject of endless discussions during and after the games, especially if fans do not agree with the referee’s decisions.
• Two officials watch from the sidelines and will raise a flag if someone has gone offsides.
• If an offence is repeated, a red card is issued.
• If a red card is issued, it means the player has to leave the field and is not replaced by another player, leaving his team one short. This does not lead to popularity.
• The referee keeps track of injury time when play is stopped because a player needs medical attention. This is added on at the end.
• If the game ends in a tie, the issue of who wins the game is resolved with a penalty shootout. This is a series of five penalty kicks per side. The team who gets the highest number of goals wins the game.

Source: health24.com

I have a really bad case of Football Fever… I’m so excited about Bafana Bafana.

What can you do to contain your Football fever? Play Foosball.

This is a great game and is played all around the world. I did some research (OK, I just went to Wikipedia) and I found that this game was in invented in 1922 in the UK by a huge Tottenham supporter and it has grown immensely. Today there are number of shots and even an International Table Football governing body.

Here is a list of some of the Foosball shots:

“Pull Kick” – Pulling the rod to direct the ball to another man for a shot
“Push Kick” – Pushing the rod to direct the ball to another man for a shot
“Bank Shot” – Intentionally aiming at a side wall to ‘bank’ the ball towards the net
“Snake Shot” – When the ball is in front pin position, rotating the rod <360 degrees to hit the ball forwards
“Pull Shot” – Pulling the rod to direct the ball towards you before shooting with the same man
“Push Shot” – Pushing the rod to direct the ball away from you before shooting with the same man
“Pin Shot” – Pinning the ball under the foot of the man and then moving to either side bringing the foot of the man behind with the same man and striking the ball forward

Read more…

Versus Wine invites you 

Come join us for a glass of wine and foosball at our stand at The Wine Show Joburg (4-6 June).

Some wine snobs have made wine tasting much more complicated that needs to be. Wine is there to be enjoyed and tasting wine is not a daunting task.

Cathy Mason indicated the bare necessities about the glugging, gulping, spitting, swallowing and all you need to know to taste wines.

If you have never tasted wine before – then you’re in for a treat. There is nothing scary about winetasting – if you’ve got a tongue, you can do it! Remember – your palate is unique to you so whatever you taste is right and happily, the more you taste wine, the better you get at it. Here is a step by step guide to tasting wine.

1.    Look
Pick up the glass and tilt it in front of something white so you can see the colour properly. Does it have anything floating in it? Is it clear and bright? What sort of colour is it – dark, light, intense, pale – and is there a difference between the middle of the wine and the edge where it touches the glass?
Can you describe the colour – pale green – light lemon – straw – golden – deep yellowy brown might be words for white wines. Young, unwooded whites tend to be paler than older, oakier wines. Reds may range from – bright purple – clear ruby – dark maroon – semi black – brickish red – vaguely brown. Young reds tend to be brighter in colour which fades to a bricky, almost orange colour with age.
You are trying to assess the age, the condition and, possibly even, the variety of the wine in the glass.

2.    Smell
With the base of the glass on the table, swirl the wine round and round (if you feel confident, you can do this in mid-air but the table is easier). Try and use a glass which is wider at the bowl than the rim as it is practically impossible to spill wine out of these sorts of glasses so you can do it with a bit of dash and verve! You are doing this in order to mix oxygen into the wine which releases the aromas.
When you have swirled, stick your nose in the glass and take a good sniff. Does it smell clean and fresh? If it smells of damp mushrooms and wet cardboard, it may be corked. What sort of fruit can you smell? Swirl and sniff again. Is there anything else that isn’t fruity – tobacco, smoke, butterscotch, leather, honey, incense, flowers?
Try and remember those aromas as you taste for the first time.

3.    Taste
Now tilt your glass and take a decent mouthful. Move it round your mouth so it touches every part of it – different parts of your mouth and tongue detect different flavours so make sure you cover all your bases. If you feel really confident, you can suck in a little extra air through your lips to continue aerating the wine – don’t dribble though, that is really uncool! Swallow your wine and then think what it tasted like.
Does it taste clean and correct – if not, then could it be corked (mushrooms and cardboard again) or oxidised (smells and tastes like sherry or vinegar)? Is it dry, crisp, fresh and acidic or smooth, soft, rounded and fat? If it is a red wine, does it have high tannins – the same extracts as in a strong cup of tea which make your mouth dry up after you’ve swallowed the wine.
What fruit does it taste of – same as you smelt or different? What else does it taste of – other flavours? After you’ve swallowed it, do those taste linger in your mouth for some time or do they disappear completely – this is called the length of a wine or the finish.

Most importantly – did you enjoy that? Does it make you want to have more? Try another mouthful to see if you get anything different and to see if you’ve changed you mind at all. Jot down a few notes, have a disagreement with your neighbour as to your differing opinions and move on the next wine.

Uncomplicated and unconventional wine brand  , Versus,  believes that wine must be enjoyed and our back label also indicate that we’re really not into the pretentious wine snob stuff.

Source:www.food24.com

Google’s animated Pacman doodle game has cost the UK economy at least five million hours of work time and more than a $120 million financially.

 A playable version of the classic video game was created and put on Google to celebrate its 30 years on the 21st of May.

The game has proven to be so popular with Google users that the company has now made it permanently available on its own page at Google.com/pacman.

Rescue Time, a tool that enables businesses to measure how time and attention is being spent, estimated that Google had around 505 million unique users on the day the Pacman Google Doodle went live, and that the game consumed 4,819,352 hours of employee time, costing the economy an estimated $120,483,800.

But the numbers were not too high, as it seems most people did not know that the logo was playable.

To play the game, users must click on the Insert Coin button, which replaces the I’m Feeling Lucky button Google users are more familiar with.

The Pacman game was Google’s first interactive doodle logo.

This unusual move by Google did you go unnoticed by the unconventional brand Versus. We thought it was great idea and congratulations to Google for this out-of-the-box thinking.

Source: tvnz.co.nz

Leon Schuster has always found unconventional ways to make South Africans laugh or to get behind our teams.

Unconventional South African wine brand Versus supports Leon’s efforts and we are totally behind Bafana Bafana.

 Here is Leon Schuster’s new Bafana Bafana Song

Here are three unconventional tricks you can perform at a party or during a dinner. Common household materiel needed. Hit pause when Solution title appear to try the tricks for yourself.

3 Easy Party Tricks – Funny blooper videos are here

After you have used the wine glass for the first trick you can fill the glass with  Versus and reward yourself for an excellent party trick .

Can you add any unconventional party tricks?

This guy is certainly unconventional – he’s the world’s fastest beatboxer! Versus, the wine brand which also challenges convention, supports this outrageous talent.

This clip is the most watched clip on YouTube with more than 141 000 000 (141 million) views.

This means that 2.3% of earth has watched this video or in other terms 1 in 40 people across the world have watched it.

Some dance styles are just outrageously stupid but some people are still doing these moves on dance floors.

Moves like The Sprinkler, Window Cleaner, The Mummy and of course The Chicken are still among us.

The guys at Malun TV’s School of Cool show the Top 10 disastrous dance moves.

Can you add more despicable dance moves?

Although unconventional brand Versus, supports unusual thinking (acts) , we cannot help but agree that some of these dance moves should be banned.

Student research projects topics can sometimes be a nightmare as you don’t have any idea of what to research. Here are some unconventional student research projects to get your creative mind going.

Unconventional brand Versus salutes these students for there out-of-the-box and unconventional thinking.

1. Crickets Playing Pac Man

Grad student Wim van Eck turned to crickets to add a bit more unpredictability to a game of Pac-Man, casting them in the role of the lowly ghosts against a human-controlled Pac. There’s few details about how the system actually works, but it seems that the crickets actually proved to be more worthy adversaries than your typical AI-controlled enemy: at one point, a particularly clever “ghost” decided to shed its skin, probably knowing full well that it would become invisible to the game’s color-based detection system. Watch the video . . .

2. Flash Game – Flow

The addictive little flash game was posted on the USC website as part of his graduate thesis in the Interactive Media division. Within two weeks, it had over 100,000 hits – with no intentional promotion. In the game: as you grow, you can eat bigger and bigger things and survive at deeper and deeper depths. This eventually became a PS3 game. Play this addictive game online.

3. Rubik’s Cube Solving Robot

University of Michigan students Doug Li, Jeff Loevell, and Mike Zajac created a “Rubik’s Cube Solver” robot for their final project — it can solve a Rubik’s Cube in 54 seconds or less. Watch the robot conquer the cube.

4. Prototype Hand Gesture Based iPod Remote Control

Zhuan, Derrick, and Colin of Purdue University created “Handy”, a prototype hand gesture based remote control. The setup consists of a Handy box, an iPod Nano, and a BOSE Sound Dock. Watch the video to see it work.

5. Star Trek Replicators and Diatom Nanotechnology

This paper helps demonstrate that silica can be replaced atom for atom without change of shape – a step towards the Star Trek replicator. Learn more about this Trekker project.

6. Using the Force: How Star Wars Can Help You Teach Recursion

The Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges published this research article on how Star Wars can help students learn about recursion. Check out the paper’s abstract.

Any other student projects that should get mentioned here?

Read more on studenthacks.org

Everyone wants to have a party that rocks or at least remembered. So do you want your birthday bash to be really memorable? Give it an it unconventional theme.

Never have a bland get-together again with these delightful party themes.

Arch Nemesis Party- Dress up as your arch nemesis and parody what they say and do all night. Steal their clothes if you have to. Just make sure they’re not there. Maybe if you spend time in your worst enemies shoes, you’ll understand them a little better… or just hate them more. Also, if you are lacking an arch nemesis, feel free to make one up.

Your Mom’s Pajamas Party- Raid your mom’s pajama drawer. Add alcohol and music. Shake well, and end up with an amazing evening of maternal proportions. Note: this is not an excuse to show up to a party naked.

Truman Show Party- Choose a friend, and let the fact that everyone at the party is spying on them become entirely conspicuous. Plant fake secret cameras. Have everyone at the party be quiet as soon as they walk by, giving that “i know you were just talking about me” feeling. Be completely artificial. Bust out into random advertisements.

Flop Party- Come dressed as a character from any memorable movie flop. Ideas include Catwoman, Hudson Hawk, a young Hannibal Lecter, or Ben Affleck… as himself.

Monocle Party- Wear a monocle. And a vest. Speak in a British accent; say things like “poppycock” and “hip hip hooray”. Be sure to serve brandy…. the English have very refined palates.

Worst Fears Party- Face your fears by dressing up as them. Come as a spider, or a masked, threatening man with a weapon, or the girl from ‘The Exorcist’ in my case. If you’re afraid of heights, come on stilts. If you’re afraid of change, come to the party dressed in a way you never would and don’t talk to anyone you’re already friends with. If you’re afraid of death, come covered in fake blood and funeral clothes. If you’re afraid of loneliness, come to the party and leave immediately (get it?).

Amish Party- Wear a bonnet, or suspenders, and generally unflattering clothes made popular by the Amish. Make sure there’s no electricity at the party… in fact, the party should optimally take place in a corn field. Roll up in your Conestoga wagon with some barrels of ale and you’ll be sure to bag some wholesome wenches.

Read more:

Unconventional wine brand, Versus, will make your party even more memorable. So, let the good times roll.

Flight was a great addition to the way people moved around the world. However, suddenly we needed somewhere to land the darn aeroplanes. As planes became bigger and air travel grew commercially, airports needed a lot more space, and that wasn’t always possible. Sometimes cities were so high that the logistics of taking off and landing became trickier. Sometimes the conditions facilitated a need to do things differently.

Well, some airports managed to adapt to what was required, and here are five of them:

Unconventional is our nature and we at Versus salute these the out-of-the-box and unusual thoughts that went into designing these unconventional airports.

1) Gibraltar Airport

2) The Ice Runway – Antarctica

3) Kansai International Airport (Osaka, Japan)

4) Qamdo Bangda Airport (Tibet)

5) Princess Juliana International Airport, Saint Maarten

Read more on gotravel24.com

The other day I lost a bet with a friend. He said a guy married his pillow and I didn’t believe him. Well here is the proof of this outrageously weird event (and now I owe my friend a bottle of unconventional Versus).

True love can take many forms. In this case, it has taken the form of a Korean man falling in love with, and eventually marrying, a large pillow with a picture of a woman on it.

This guy gave new meaning to pillow talk and will he ever have a pillow fight with his wife?

Lee Jin-gyu fell for his ‘dakimakura’ – a kind of large, huggable pillow from Japan, often with a picture of a popular anime character printed on the side.

In Lee’s case, his beloved pillow has an image of Fate Testarossa, from the ‘magical girl’ anime series Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha.

Now the 28-year-old otaku (a Japanese term that roughly translates to somewhere between ‘obsessive’ and ‘nerd’) has wed the pillow in a special ceremony, after fitting it out with a wedding dress for the service in front of a local priest. Their nuptials were eagerly chronicled by the local media.

‘He is completely obsessed with this pillow and takes it everywhere,’ said one friend.

‘They go out to the park or the funfair where it will go on all the rides with him. Then when he goes out to eat he takes it with him and it gets its own seat and its own meal,’ they added.

The pillow marriage is not the first similarly-themed unusual marriage in recent times – it comes after a Japanese otaku married his virtual girlfriend Nene Anegasaki, a character who only exists in the Nintendo DS game Love Plus, last November.

Read more on www.metro.co.uk

An extreme tattoo can be totally hardcore . Unless you spell it “exreme.” Then it’s just hilarious.

We’ve compiled some of the funniest tattoo misspellings we could find. Either these folks had no access to spell check or are simply oblivious to the mistake. Regardless, they cracked us up.

For more misspelled tattoos visit: huffingtonpost.com

Versus Brand News

Unconventional wine brand Versus, recently co-sponsored the Southern Ink Xposure  (aka Cape Town Tattoo Convention). Versus Wines, which aligns itself with unusual, fun and interesting events promoted their range of wines at this event.

Want to learn a new, unconventional party trick?

Here is a card trick that will impress your friends.

I don’t know how it works,  but it works.

Try it.

Movie posters are sometimes misleading and if they told the truth the posters could look a lot different.

Here are a few unconventional (but true) movie posters by the unconventional wine brand Versus.

Pretty women

There will be blood

Titanic

Independence Day

Angles and Demons

More Posters

When Google began taking pictures of the entire planet, they must have known that they would snap a few oddities. Try as we might, we can’t stop laughing at a few of them.

Simon Williamson wrote that there’s also some real beauty to be found, some amazement and a whole lot of random. Come and take an odd international tour with us.

If you’re keen, well, here are some of the notable ones:

What is going on here is quite unfathomable. But seemingly, something fishy I’d guess. I have never seen a fish in someone’s roof before, but Google did.

You may think you can sneak in when no one is home, but beware the Google Street Cars bearing cameras. The whole world might be watching. Fail.

This mountain range in Canada looks uncannily like a human face.

We seem to have 9 UFOs that Google Street View managed to find. Erm… were they driving around Area 51?

This was a major hit on Valentine’s Day, surprisingly enough. The island, called Galesnjak, is off the Croatian coast.

To see more odd pictures visit gotravel24.com

Acknowledgment: All the  photos are  from Google Street View.

This year’s Southern Ink Xposure (affectionately termed “SIX”) looks set for a repeat performance, only on a bigger and better scale.
The 2010 Convention has almost doubled its roster of top international artists attending, once again including some of the biggest stars of international tattooing, such as Paul Booth, Bob Tyrrell, Hailin Fu (China), Nick Chaboya, Shane Munce, and Glen Paradis. And that’s not counting the local legends such as Manuela Gray, Rev. Simon White, Tyler Murphy, Milo “Mr. Lucky: Marcer and others.

Supported by Harley-Davidson, the second annual Southern Ink Xposure will be held from January 22nd to the 24th, 2010 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) and will again comprise a series of art exhibitions, live collaborative art events, top-notch live music and of course the convention itself-all of which aim to celebrate and showcase global tattoo culture and lifestyle within a uniquely and beautifully South African context.

Unconventional wine brand Versus, will be a product sponsor at this event. Versus Wines, which aligns itself with unusual, fun and interesting events will be promoting their range of wines at the event.

Source: capetownunderground.co.za