(the J is for)

Version 5 Point J

2006-10-09T21:17:00.000+02:00

As some of you may know, Google launched Blogger Beta not too long ago. I have since decided to start blogging there. The ability to tag posts made the decision easy. So there'll be no more posts here for awhile. Time to update your bookmarks.

J Blogging in Beta

Rape

2006-10-08T17:27:00.000+02:00

Sometimes an idea or topic gets stuck in my head and keeps popping into my consciousness. Generally they're happy, inane or despicably geeky. However, on occassion, they can be quite dark and I spend a few days with my personal Aunt Irma.

Well, from my profile, you can see that I'm based in Stellenbosch, ZA, as a pseudo-lecturer/full-time student. Recently I've heard of several horrible rapes around here. For some reason, this is the crime I most detest. When I heard one story in particular, I felt a strange urge or need to go out and help the victim. I just wanted to make everything alright for her. Make it better. But I can't.

Now it'd be easy for us to call out for justice; life imprisonment, castration or excution. Yet, (this may come as a surprise) I'm not actually one for capital punishment. In my early years, while viewing a cartoon (I think it was Prince Valiant) Merlin pointed out that it is far better to let a 1000 guilty men go than to punish an innocent - especially when it came to execution. This kinda stuck with me. The oddest things shape you, don't they?

More than meets the eye

2006-10-05T20:38:00.000+02:00

Note it down now: July 4th 2007.

7.4.7.

Transformers the Movie

Wireless Access

2006-10-04T23:57:00.000+02:00

I finally got an Internet connection at my flat. Now, finally, I do not have to brave the outside, with its pollen death rays and the horrible gaze of the day star. Hopefully this will be good for my productivity. Must not buy Guild Wars... must not... MMORPGs bad!

Gone in a puff of smoke

2006-09-25T20:42:00.000+02:00

I haven't blogged much lately. Not too sure why. There's been a lot of stuff that cried out to be blogged, but as they're old news now, most of it won't be blogged. Yet, there are two topics which I thought should still be mentioned:

The new za smoking laws. Great. A step in the right direction. For too long has the beautiful outside been the domain of the uncaring smokers.
An article I read in a Gauteng newspaper: Police to start taking a crime prevention role. What? To start? Only now? How are they gonna deal with all the smokers? I haven't heard of many people being successfully caught and punished for driving while using a cellular phone. Yet another reason to become a vigilante.

Talk Like a Pirate

2006-09-19T14:40:00.000+02:00

Imagine

2006-09-06T13:54:00.000+02:00

Subject: BENEDICT ANDERSEN PUBLIC LECTURE

The Centre for the Book, in partnership with the Public Intellectual Life Project at Wits University and the Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape, presents

a Public Lecture by Benedict Andersen.

Benedict Andersen is Professor Emeritus of International Studies at Cornell University. He is best known for his book "Imagined Communities," in which he systematically describes, using an historical materialist or Marxist approach, the major factors contributing to the emergence of nationalism in the world during the past three centuries. Benedict Andersen's visit to South Africa is hosted by the Public Intellectual Life Project at Wits University www.public-conversations.org.za

Tuesday 19 September 2006

19h15

Main Hall

Centre for the Book

62 Queen Victoria Street

Cape Town

www.centreforthebook.org.za

The Centre for the Book is a specialist unit of the National Library

RSVP:

Mark Espin

Centre for the Book

021 423 2669 tel

021 424 1484 fax

mark.espin@nlsa.ac.za

***********

I did project last year which examined the imagined communities which evolved around the use of social software. My study looked at Wikipedia, the Blogosphere and Folksonomies. Of course, much of my work was based on Benedict Anderson's 'Imagined Communities'. This could be a cool lecture to attend.

Frightened French Muslims, Drunk Heathen Christians and Strawberry Pavlova

2006-08-31T13:37:00.000+02:00

If all academic international symposiums are like this, then I don't think that being an academic wouldn't be a bad career decision.

Strike Action

2006-08-28T14:05:00.000+02:00

Those of you in South Africa have probably heard about the recent strike action taking place in the Shoprite empire. I find it very sad that strikes are the only way in which the working class wield political power (or at least, that's how they/many see it, I think). However I find it sadder that the channels which should be there to handle worker complaints/suggestions/ideas etc. do not work. Strikes are dehibilitating. They do untold damage to economies. They should be illegal and strikers should be retrenched. But, until workers can have their problems addressed in a civilized and satisfactory (for all parties involved) fashion, I suppose that we'll have to stick with strikes.

World Domination Reviewed

2006-08-17T14:39:00.000+02:00

You are running the world for a day, what are the first 5 things you do and why? Legalize all narcotics. Ban the use of all narcotics in public (or being under the influence in public). Ban all religions. Institute a universal language (and maybe ban all others). Institute a universal currency. And number 6: Institute an elite corps of morality police ^_^.

I took part in a blogosphere meme a few months ago. It was a basic exercise in getting to know a bit more about other bloggers through a series of Q&A posts. The above was one of the questions I answered. As some of you may have noticed from my postings, I tend to think about what it would take to make the world better. And so, recently, I have decided to revise my answer.

Kill a lot of people. Millions! Even billions! It won't be random genocide, but I have yet to decide on exactly whom to eliminate and why. Probably smokers. Perhaps the incurable?
Legalize all narcotics.
Ban the use of all narcotics in public (or being under the influence in public).
Institute universals (e.g. currency, language) and ban all others.
Ban all religions. Even the church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
Hatch a scheme to insure that I maintain rulership until the proper mechanisms can be devised to locate potential better rulers.

Totoro!!!

2006-08-17T09:49:00.000+02:00

10 out of 10 for this movie. Rarely can I say that. If you can get hold of it, it's definitely worth watching.

Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting

2006-08-16T11:39:00.000+02:00

Did you know that professional boxers can hit as hard a sledgehammer? Or that Muay Thai can deliver a knee with as much force as a car crash? Follow the links to news and the home page of an upcoming National Geographic documentary about martial arts.

I wonder if I can already order the DVD box set.

Job, anyone?

2006-08-10T11:37:00.000+02:00

.NET DEVELOPER

Permanent position in Cape Town at a leading Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, specialising in Information Management and the development of Business Intelligence solutions.

Key Responsibilities include:

· Development of C# / VB .Net applications on Microsoft SQL Server databases

· Support and maintain existing .Net applications

· Document technical specifications based on agreed user requirements

· Full interaction in the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

Requirements:

2 years VB / C# .Net active work experience
1 – 2 years Microsoft SQL Server experience
Appropriate Degree or Diploma in either Computer Science / Information Systems / Engineering or equivalent

Having experience with any of the following will prove to be advantageous:

ASP .Net
Web Services

JavaScript
XML

Personal attributes:

Goal orientated and self-motivated
Strong team orientation and sound interpersonal skills
Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines
Good time management, problem solving and analytical skills

Salary: Negotiable based on experience

Area/Location: Cape Town

Job Type: Permanent

A great growth opportunity for the right candidate. To progress this opportunity, email surquhart@infocy.co.za a brief two page curriculum vitae with covering letter supporting your application by the 25 August 2006.

When applying, please ensure you have the minimum requirements. Applicants must have a valid South African work permit or be a permanent resident. If you are not in the mentioned location, please note your relocation plans in your application and correspondence.

Bad Gamer/Good Gamer

2006-08-10T10:42:00.000+02:00

What makes the perfect opponent? Must she be friendly and courteous? Must she be gracious in both defeat and victory? Or is that just a nice extra? Must she be a good challenge? Must you work hard and think hard to best her? Or should she be easy to defeat? Must she know when to concede defeat? Or should she rather be able to drag out a losing battle of attrition?

If forced, I can probably come up with several more qualifying questions, but for me, the only one that matters is:

Will I play against this person again, with neither complaint nor reluctance? Yes? Then right now you are my perfect opponent.

My heart is..............misconcieved with access

2006-08-08T11:15:00.000+02:00

there is undeniable wacky

Big Eyes Sad Face

2006-08-03T12:43:00.000+02:00

The Guardians of Order, creators of the anime-based RPG, Big Eyes Small Mouth, are no more. You can go read more at their website and you can still download their complete core rules for free (unlike some other RP companies out there). The Tristat dX system is great and if you haven't tried it yet, now's the time.

Spyware is everybody's problem

2006-08-02T15:19:00.000+02:00

Finding good and free anti-spyware software can be pretty tricky. How many of you have downloaded the anti-spyware software, installed it and then run the scan and then when you try to remove the spyware, the software doesn't do it until you pay for it? Currently, I'm using Spybot Search & Destroy as my protection of choice. Best of all, it's free.

01000111 01100101 01100101 01101011

2006-08-01T10:56:00.000+02:00

01011001 01100101 01110011 00101100 00100000 01001001 00100000 01100001 01101101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011 01111001 00101110 00100000 01000010 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110010 01111001 00100000 01000001 01110011 01100011 01101001 01101001 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100110 01110101 01101110 00100001

i bleed quick

2006-07-31T21:58:00.000+02:00

I registered myself as a potential bone marrow donor. When I handed in my completed 'I've never tested positive' form, the helpful tannie directed me to the "vampires over there", I thought, "Cool, vampires".

I made my girlfriend cry.

2006-07-30T18:33:00.000+02:00

losing dice: pain and suffering

I am a big meanie.

WebCT Vista 4

2006-07-28T10:18:00.000+02:00

Stellenbosch University employs the e-learning product WebCT Vista 4 and, as part of the teaching staff, I attended a training/orientation course about Vista 4. And I am disappointed in the software. Don't get me wrong; there are some brilliant things about Vista, but there are just too many negatives for me, personally, in my opinion and other disclaimers. I'm not too sure if the problem lies in Vista, itself, or in the limitations forced down upon us from the IT above, but here are my thoughts on Vista at SU.

My problems with Vista:

Unsupported in Firefox. It's IE time, folks. Yay!
Poorly integrated with browser. It's great that you can't use the browser navigation with Vista, because nobody ever uses the 'back' function of thier browser anyway.
Pop-ups! Vista uses roughly about an infinitely large number of pop-ups. Thus, when using Vista, pop-up blockers must be turned off, then turned on again when surfing the rest of the web, then turned back on when using Vista again. Not cool.

What I think is missing from Vista:

No plugins or third party extensions. This is why I love open source - you can create your own functionality or, for about 99% of the time, somebody else has created or is busy creating the functionality you need. Vista, where are my wikis, my blogs?
An undo button. Wikis have allowed user tracking and reverting to previous versions for years. Sometimes deleting and redoing is not good enough, Vista.

For those of you looking for an e-learning platform, here are some open source alternatives. I like Plone the best (which is more of a pure CMS until customized), as I have the most experience with it, but I have heard good things about the others. If you look at thier features lists, you might see some stuff you'd like missing, but remember that these are open source products and you can create your own products, or somebody in the greater community has already created what you need. There are, of course, problems with open source, namely steep learning curves and a lot less support that expensive licenses bring, but it's at least worth checking out.

Oh, and if you visit the Vista homepage, you'll be greeted by this:

An Error Has Occured

There is a problem accessing the page: software_vista

Reason: Page does not exist.

WebCT.com home

Poker and Magic; It's Early

2006-07-27T06:11:00.000+02:00

I play Magic. And now it seems that I play poker too. It's not uncommon for pro Magic players to take a crack at the pro poker tournaments and pull in some cash. It's not uncommon for Magic to be likened to a poker/chess hybrid. So I guess it's not strange that I win at both of them.

I played Texas Hold'em last night. I had never played poker at this level, even though it was just amongst friends. Most of us were newbies and the rest were merely half a foot less newbie. Thus, I thought to myself: My years of playing Magic will see me to ultimate victory.

I'm a very restrained Magic player, if you could call it that. I play for the long game, slowly gaining control over the game, picking away at my opponent, slowly, until they surrender dishonourably or die a death of 23 stings. You could say that I'm sort of a defensive/reactive player. Now that I've had some time to think about it, I have realised that I play poker in a completely opposite manner: aggressively. I don't think that it was a conscious decision to play poker like I did. I just find it, right now, a little bit strange that I played such 'similar' games in such different ways.

so it was suggested and so it came to be

2006-07-25T15:59:00.000+02:00

Losing Dice

the dark tendrils of t3h g33k

2006-07-25T14:46:00.000+02:00

I was thinking... what if I started a blog/wiki to document some of my role playing experiences. Why? I've often jacked story ideas, villains, treasures and inspiration from others who have shared their experiences. So why not do the same? I'll get around to it soonish.

Copernic Desktop Search 2 Pre-Release

2006-07-24T11:57:00.000+02:00

For those of you who don't know, desktop search software indexes and searches your own hard drive and documents, just as internet search engines search the web. It's very useful for finding old documents, sifting through emails and images etc very quickly.

In a bid to not have everything on my machine be Google, I have been using Copernic Desktop Search for awhile now and have become as much of a fan as one can become of a piece of software. That's why I don't know how I missed it, but Copernic has launched a pre-release of their Desktop Search 2. I've been using it for two days now and I'm very impressed. I recommend you check it out here.

Some more on net neutrality

2006-07-23T16:59:00.000+02:00

Stellenbosch University: Do some good

2006-07-23T16:55:00.000+02:00

Campus Peer Education Training

Have you heard friends and fellow students talking about HIV and gender issues on campus without having their facts straight? Here is the ideal opportunity for you to become part of a fun training programme enabling you to communicate the true facts and become involved in the community. The 2006/2007 Stellenbosch University HIV & GENDER PEER EDUCATION TRAINING will start again in August and can accommodate 60 students.

WHEN?

11-13 August 2006 and 25-27 August 2006

HOW TO APPLY:

Secure your place by sending an application committing you to attend the full training programme. To qualify for selection students must attend BOTH training workshops in full. We can only accommodate 60 candidates for the initial training, so act fast to secure your place.

You will find application forms on our website www.sun.ac.za/fact. These application forms can be completed online or you can hand in your printed application at our offices in the Industrial Psychology Building upper level, room 3004.

CLOSING DATE FOR APPLICATIONS:

4 August 2006, 12:00

All peer educators that complete the 12 month programme will receive a letter of recognition and an outline of acquired skills for your Curriculum Vitae.

All training and related material will be provide free of charge provided that you make a full commitment to the programme.

For more information contact: Jaco G. Brink

Phone number: 021 808 3136

E-mail: peered@sun.ac.za

Something for aspiring writers

2006-07-20T17:29:00.000+02:00

Blurb.com : Free Book Publishing Software : Design & Publish Personalized Books

I just found this site. Haven't looked through it fully yet, but seems promising.

10 things I hate about people

2006-07-20T16:44:00.000+02:00

I'm currently reading a lot about the oppression of humans by other humans from an educational context and I should be beyond petty hate. But sometimes, just sometimes, there are things which try even the most enlightened.

My pet peeve: Bad checkers at supermarket tills. Oh, I do dislike bad service in general, but I especially hate it when it comes from a supermarket till jockey. I used to work as a cashier. I underwent the training and thus, I have high expectations. I might not have been the friendliest of cashiers at all times, but I did my best never to break the sacred rules of the cashier, which include:

Greet the customer (in her language, if possible - as I am of Chinese descent, I sometimes got a tip for speaking Afrikaans).
Focus entirely on your customer (i.e. don't gossip to your packer or fellow cashier).
Scan each item individually.
Do not be a dumb ass.
Don't accept tips. Truth! People tip cashiers, and then we laugh at the fools in the stock room and the silly bakers.

Today, I had a bad cashier experience.

d10: half the variables, twice the fun

2006-07-19T17:40:00.000+02:00

I've recently been playing in or story telling some World of Darkness games. The WoD system makes exclusive use of the 10-sided die (though you often need to pool everybody's d10s together). And from what I've experienced up until now, I can tell that I prefer this system to Wizards of the Coast's d20 system. Don't get me wrong, both systems are brilliant, but they just cater to different things. d20 focuses more on combat, maths and the size of your can o' whoop ass. d10, on the other hand, seems to focus more on the non-combat elements of the game. True, you can have a combat heavy game or intense roleplaying session in either system (it depends on the group of players), but WoD just seems to be better suited for RP and d20 for combat.

I'm long past the stage of my gaming life in which I focus predominantly on maximising combat efficiency and making more well-rounded characters. So, for now, the stories of WoD are more than suitable for my gaming fix.

yummy food

2006-07-12T15:17:00.000+02:00

Apples and Bananas: yummy food

This is why I am hungry now.

Kiddie Movie Formula

2006-07-10T14:13:00.000+02:00

Not-so-good guy is forced to live/work with good guys.
Not-so-good guy realises that this friends and family thing is a good thing.
Not-so-good guy ends up betraying good guys and going back to his old ways.
Good guys don't give up on not-so-good guy and help him overcome the trials and ordeals of his past.
Not-so-good guy becomes good guy and lives happily ever after with the other good guys.

But I am le tired

2006-07-10T14:09:00.000+02:00

All your internet are belong to us

2006-07-05T14:08:00.000+02:00

We have the moral right.
We have the nukes.

All your internet are belong to us.

We are America.

What's the deal with Colin?

2006-07-04T16:12:00.000+02:00

Open Access Piracy Problem

2006-06-30T16:01:00.000+02:00

It's no secret that I am a gamer. I'd rank role playing games as my number 1 favouritist genre and then strategy as a close 2nd. I've been playing RP games for years, focusing mainly on the d20 and Tristat systems. Both these systems are great and offer something different to the RP experience (i.e. d20 is class based and Tristat not). Best of all, both of these systems offer there core rules for free! Wow! Free! Great! I love free stuff. (Links @ my del.icio.us)

Now, I've played Vampire before. I thought that the system was fun and very good at conveying horror. Since I wanna run Cthulu-based horror games, I thought that I'd try and track down the core rules. Wizards of the Coast, the biggest players in RP and owners of d20, offer their core rules for free in rtf format. It's not pretty, but it's all you need. Try before you buy the expensive books. In fact, WotC offer a certain percentage of all their books for free. Whitewolf (creators of Vampire (and the World of Darkness)) do not. Well, I would have left things at that, but as fate would have it, I would soon discover that for about 3 weeks last year, Whitewolf was giving their core rulebook away as a free pdf download. Wow! Great! If I was looking for it last year. If you want to download it now, it's gonna cost you $9.99. Wow! That sucks.

Now I'm pretty good at 'finding' things on the net and it didn't take long to find somebody sharing their copy of White Wolf's core book - for free. Would it be morally wrong of me to download it?

think beyond what we know

2006-06-28T15:55:00.000+02:00

I believe that I hate how humans, how I, move within our 3 dimensions.

We've been following paths our whole lives. Down this road and that street. Our means of mobility is so invasive. Our city infrastructures, our settlement patterns, our lives, our everything is dictated by how we move. How much time and space is being dedicated to mobility and thus wasted? We need to learn how to move differently. I'm not talking about teleportation and event horizons in every American's home. What we need is something more radical, so different, so beyond anything we can even imagine imagining. Wouldn't that be cool? And I bet that the trees would be happier too.

More Cthulu

2006-06-28T15:40:00.000+02:00

So I play Dungeons and Dragons (among other role playing games). I enjoy GMing (Game Master = Grand Pooba). I was recently running a Planescapish-hopping-around-the-multiverse campaign. I thought it was pretty cool game, as I got to use a lot of my old material from years back (cos the multiverse is infinite and quantum says I can rehash old plot hooks) and thus play the nostalgia card on the people I've been gaming with for these many years. I believed that my players enjoyed playing (I hope). Then it happened: a fight over Zombies! So the party broke up. Normally, that shouldn't be much of a biggie, but I had already planned the next two sessions based on the idea that the party wouldn't change. I just didn't feel like replanning and reworking the sessions and so I just put off running the next session, for near a month now. Very sad. I hate it when real-world outside crap meddles in my make-believe worlds. Bah.

Anyway, I've recently started reading some and playing some more Lovecraftian-styled stuff. And now I feel like running some Call of Cthulu. I'm so glad that I kept my abnormal psychology books.

Everybody needs some Cthulu

2006-06-26T16:25:00.000+02:00

Cluedo? Snakes and Ladders? Monopoly?

Boring.

Play a real board game. Kill zombies. Infiltrate evil cults. Get eaten by a great old one. Go insane.

Try Arkham Horror and Betrayal at House on the Hill. These games are perfect for Western Cape evening power cuts.

Free vs Fee

2006-06-22T15:04:00.000+02:00

Are you familiar with the terms 'open source' and 'open access'? Most academics and/or techies and/or geeks should have at least heard of these terms or made use of open source software (Example: Firefox) or open access works (Example: Wikipedia). In case you haven't noticed, there's currently a big drive towards open source and access. Herein lies one of the problems I have with Stellenbosch University. The university must be spending tonnes of cash annually on subscription and licensing fees, yet there are often better and free alternatives available. Why spend more when you don't need to?

Escape from Port Elizabeth

2006-06-19T14:52:00.000+02:00

Back, but not with much to say.

Autoreply: Out of Office

2006-06-06T14:25:00.000+02:00

Hairy Palms

2006-06-06T14:03:00.000+02:00

Lexi and I were watching some 80's music videos (because the 80's had cool music and synthesizers and piano-key ties) when a Whitney (bleh - not my type of cool 80's music) song came on. Whitney was standing on a small stage, with a mic, on a stand, in front of her. Her hand movements along the mic and its stand, the camera angle of the shots of her mouth near enveloping the mic were rather suggestive, but more trashy than sexy. Then, in a bout of feminism, Lexi proclaimed that the mic was a phallic symbol. Correct! It was. But then, I thought, surely it was not purposely designed to look like a penis. Ergonomics probably came first. Then what about the pen, the vibrating toothbrush (it exists), the hammer and any tool with a handle? Ergonomic design or Illuminati paternal oppression via subconscious reinforcement of phallic domination? It seemed that our species was designed to handle phallic symbols.

Pedagogy of the Stupid

2006-06-06T13:30:00.000+02:00

It's no longer about educating the uneducated. It's no longer about teaching the illiterate to read. It's no longer about empowering the powerless. It's no longer about freeing the oppressed. It's no longer about freeing the oppressors.

It's about freeing uncommon sense. No longer can it be called common as too many of us lack it. How can we get uncommon sense across to the stupid? You, my neighbour, are stupid.

It's just a game

2006-06-05T15:26:00.000+02:00

So leave mom out of it.

Classic Gamer Boy: X-Com

2006-06-03T16:11:00.000+02:00

The X-Com series of games are among my favourite games of all time, especially the first in the series, the 1994 classic UFO Defense. I'm sure there are many geeks out there that can still remember how cool this game was while they were still in their pre-chrysalis geekling phase of maturation. Those geeks would probably be happy to know that there's an open source project aiming to breathe new life into the X-Com styled games. The project, entitled UFO Alien Invasion, makes use of a modified Quake 2 engine and already looks great (despite only being in the beta stage of development).

Thanks to Reenen for the info. Can't wait to dish out some more turn-based alien death.

50 and a random statistical anomaly

2006-06-02T14:13:00.000+02:00

0.0486

the J grants you an audience

2006-05-31T13:49:00.000+02:00

5 questions answered:

Ninja or Pirate and why? This would have been easy to answer once... long ago. It will have to be ninjas, because they're just cooler. Stealth, precision and strategy beats brutishness.

You are running the world for a day, what are the first 5 things you do and why? Legalize all narcotics. Ban the use of all narcotics in public (or being under the influence in public). Ban all religions. Institute a universal language (and maybe ban all others). Institute a universal currency. And number 6: Institute an elite corps of morality police ^_^.

Describe one of the most beautiful things you have ever...

seen: If I said my girlfriend, it would make her blush and the brute male side of my brain throw up, but I'm going to say it anyway. My girlfriend. Awwwwww. Now I have to go rough up ej to feel manly again.

done: Achieve independence from parental units. This might seem rather un-beautiful, but for me this one was a rather a big thing.

and felt: This one's a bit of a reversal. I think one of the most beautiful things I've felt is what I have stopped feeling: anger. Not quite forgiveness yet, but I'm sorta on my way to that.

The Donald is Wrong

2006-05-31T13:14:00.000+02:00

Personally, I do not like the Apprentice. Why? Because it is wrong.

I'm sure most anybody who has delved into a bit of knowledge management would have heard about barriers, obstructions, impediments and hindrances to successful X, Y or Z in a business environment. One of the biggest super-barriers, in my opinion, is fear. Trump's show portrays a very scary corporate America. You are horribly punished for messing up. Learning from errors? Pfft. Get somebody better. Quick! Shift the blame! Move the buck along! Hurry, before the Donald catches you! Your team is the soft cover between you and Mr Trump. Who needs good allies? You just need good shields.

J is for good, faithful film reproductions of childhood memories

2006-05-28T16:39:00.000+02:00

I watched X-Men 3: The Last Stand. Pre-booked tickets for the opening and everything. Geek I am. I really loved the X-Men universe, characters and storylines as a young geekling and I found the first 2 movies really cool.

X-Men 3: The Verdict: Bleh! Sad face. :-(

If they divorced the X-Men universe from the script and placed the film in a new universe, replacing mutants with sorcerors or alien hybrids etc., I think that the movie would have made for a good stand alone action movie. X-Men 3 is still a good popcorn action movie, but it does no justice to the actual X-Men storyline or characters. This movie had so much potential - I guess I had overly high expectations.

Lesson about movie watching re-learnt: If you don't expect much, you won't be disappointed. Should've remembered this from the Matrix fiasco.

I succumbed to chain mail

2006-05-24T14:40:00.000+02:00

1. What time is it? 14:38

2. What is your Full name: Jerall Toi

3 What are you most afraid of? In no particular order: Losing an eye, prostate cancer and becoming my father.

4. What is the most recent movie that you've seen in a theatre? X-Men 3 tomorrow! I still have to get my costume ready!

5. Have you ever seen a ghost? No.

6. Where were you born? Port Elizabeth, ZA

7. Favorite New food? Some sort of sweet Thai chili sauce. Forgot its name.

8. Ever been to Alaska: Not yet.

9. Ever been rolling: If I knew what was exactly meant by rolling, I'd probably still have to say no.

10. Loved someone so much it made you cry? Yes

11. Been in a car accident: Took out a mirror once. It involved me, a car and a low fence.

12. Croutons or bacon bits: Bacon bits

13. Favorite day of the week: Ones that begin an 11.

14. Favorite Restaurant : Can't really say. I'd be better able to talk about the ones most hated.

15. Favorite Flower: I think that if blue roses exist, they'd be really cool.

16. Favorite sport to watch: Cricket, Pro-Wrestling (for the story)

17. Favorite Drink: Flavoured water - apple and mint or strawberry

18. Favorite ice cream? Vanilla

19. Disney or Warner Brothers: Disney

20. How many times you failed your driver's test? Never

21. Favorite fast food restaurant: Mochachos

22. Before this one, from who did you get your last email: My blog's comment notification.

23. What do you do most often when you are bored: Surf the net, play games (rp, board, card, ps, pc and/or mind), read books, visit pet stores and yawn at the puppies so that they yawn back.

24. Bedtime? Anytime between 2300 and 0200.

25. Who will respond to this e-mail the quickest: This probably does not apply.

26. Who is the person you sent this to that is least likely to respond? This is also probably not applicable.

27. Who is the person that you are most curious to see their responses?: Nietzche

28. Favorite TV - best programme?: I don't have time for TV, not when I have to win the Iron Fist Tournament and destroy the cursed Soul Edge. Does Namco count?

30. Ford or Chevy: Ford. I like the KA!

31. What are you listening to right now: Teenage angst rock from 2001.

32. What are your favorite colours? Blue and black.

34. How many pets do you have? 0

35. Which came first the chicken or the egg? Quantum says both.

36. What would you like to accomplish before you die? World renown, travel through space, learn more languages, get fit, finish ADOM.

37. How many people are you sending this e-mail to? My blog's audience.

One week after the Green Line

2006-05-24T14:01:00.000+02:00

I can hardly believe that a week has passed already. Where'd the time go? I'll have to try and write this post in bullet time to make up for lost time, unfortunately, it takes me about 20 minutes to dilate my personal time frame and then I only get 10 seconds of extra time. It's not quite that efficient yet; the input:output ratio is still far from satisfactory. Practice makes perfect. Here we go...

Firstly: apologies, this story wasn't exciting enough to take a week to divulge, but I don't like writing long posts. I think overly long posts are scary and wasteful and time consuming. So I split up the story, but took too long to blog it fully. So, if things are a bit anti-climatic, stale or boring; I apologize.

Second:Lexi wrote her own account of the story.

And now, we continue our story:

Things went bad when he got on. The rain was pouring in through the windows to our left. At first, I thought it was cool that he had his scarf pulled up over his nose. I too was playing ninja as recently as January. He sat down, facing us, 3 throws ahead of us. The carriage's doors were also between us, marking a slick and slippery no-man's land. The first thing he did was to pull down his scarf and ask for 2ZAR, because the trains were dangerous and he wanted to get off so that he could take a taxi. I said no. He continued to ask for several minutes and included some choice words and the infamous English longbowman salute. My girlfriend had the window seat and didn't have my added height to see over the seats before us, and so didn't see the 2 rand man. It's the first time I could remember actually wanting to tell her to keep quiet. I knew this guy was trouble and I needed to think, not be distracted. I never ever wanted to be the type of man who'd ever demand that another shut up. I still feel a little bad about thinking it.

I'm a strategist by nature. The bulk of my hobbies all allow for tactical and strategic thought. My opponent looked like somebody used to fighting, but lacked the refined training of a formal martial art. This could make him less dangerous, but only to a true master. To an out-of-shape, out-of-practice individual, like myself, his unpredictability made him far more dangerous. I couldn't help but notice what an ineffectual weapon my umbrella was. It wasn't heavy enough or sharp enough to stop a charging foe. My only advantage lay in the terrain. He had to cross a wet and slippery patch, passing the train's doors, with no easy handholds to aid balance. On the other hand, I had firm handrails to hold on to aid in maintaining balance while kicking, giving me a reach and terrain advantage. He was obviously trying to intimidate us, with murder threats and songs of murder. In the end, the train ride ended with nothing more than a tension filled staring match. He didn't make a move against us.

That's it. The end.

Great Adventure on the Green Line: Prequel

2006-05-21T15:28:00.000+02:00

My stories are never as exciting as I make them sound, with them oft being anti-climatic. Sometimes a boring life is better though. However, the attempted mugging story has always been one of the few exceptions:

I was out for an evening stroll, with my girlfriend at my side, along the starlit, oak lined streets of Stellenbosch. I can't quite remember if it was a big party night or not, but there's always a surplus of the drunk, the poor and the drunk poor on the streets. We were trying to avoid the club crowds and the biggest concentrations of the inebriated stupid, but, at the same time, did not wander down any desolate alleyway or too far away from busy areas and cop/security guard patrol routes. We were about 4oom away from the infamous Springbok, with a quaint townhouse complex on our right and the weird domain of the slumbering bergie sub-culture was to our left. It was then that I spotted two guys heading towards us. Both white, the taller one had a lean build and short dark hair, and the shorter had a stockier pitt bull build and his blonde hair was shaved short. I have pretty good vision, and so saw them from quite a distance away. The manner in which they were walking towards us screamed trouble, but showing no fear, I kept walking forward. I don't know when my girlfriend saw them, as I don't think she had got her glasses at that stage yet, but I do remember when the two soon-to-be muggers split up, the blonde moving to our right and the skinny one to our left. This was no kind and polite gesture to make way for the loving couple, but an obvious manoeuvre to outflank us. I immediately halted, getting half in front of my girlfriend. I remember hoping they would just pass us and we could all laugh about it.

Now, I have seen cop shows, watched the Practice, viewed safety tips demonstrations and TV info-fillers and so forth, and know that the common belief is that you should just surrender your belongings to your attacker as 'they're just scared as you are' and they don't 'actually want to hurt you'. Surrender and you'll escape with your life; this is what most believe. I don't believe that. That burglar/mugger/rapist/serial killer/car-jacker may have been planning on harming you or your loved ones from the start. Who can say that they would really leave you alone? I will not take that risk. I am not going to die without a fight. I'm sure it would be easier for the cops to track down somebody with a broken nose, missing ear and crushed pinky-toe. I'm a dirty fighter; eye-gouging, ear-biting, shin-kicking, head-butting and stabbing with a toothbrush shank are not beneath me. I will not go down easy. If only more people fought back; I'm sure vigilantism can be more of a crime deterrent than our legal system at times. It worked for Batman.

And so, the skinny one was to our left; my girlfriend was on that side, and the Thing was to our right, my side. The blonde brute charged at us, shouting a garbled threat which included the words: "Gee" en "Fokk'n" en "Wallet". With my left arm around my girlfriend, I defensively raised my right arm, elbow thrust outwards and caught our attacker in the chest. I didn't feel a heavy impact. I remember thinking, knowing, that such a blow would not be enough to stop a man with his build, but then the strangest thing happened. The brute backed off, hands raised as if in surrender, and the two of them ran off, leaving us quite rattled, but safe.

Great Adventure on the Green Line

2006-05-18T16:13:00.000+02:00

No, this isn't some One Piece fan fiction; this story is based on fact. Before we get into things, you'll need some information before we can get into the story:

1. I have no departmental duties on Wednesdays; no classes etc. I normally use my Wednesdays for my own research or for the running of errands. So, yesterday, I was free to go an adventure.

2. There has been some recent trouble on the Western Cape train lines, including petrol bombings and striking security guards. Very exciting.

My girlfriend needed to get to Cape Town yesterday for an interview for a bursary. Neither of us have our own car and so we ended up having to take the train. I've taken the train several times before, despite rumours and warnings from the upper middle class, whom have, naturally, never taken the train themselves, about the dangers involved. Pfft. It's only as dangerous as you allow it to be.

We left Stellenbosch during the train line's 'quiet times'. Most of the journey was pleasant... until he got in. Now he was one of those ugly people - rude, crude and aggressive. Surprising as it may sound, I used to be a fighter, before I got lazy and gained the freshman 14. Maybe I'm a little crazy, but I sometimes get a little spider sense warning, when troubles about. It's a kind of built-in early warning system developed from martial arts training and cynism. The strongest memory I have of this danger sense involved an attempted mugging several years ago. When I retell that story in its entirety, it sounds quite funny and a little unbelievable, but I can still remember how it felt having the adrenaline running through my veins and not having a sensei, sifu or ref to call off the fight if it went bad. In the end, the muggers went running off, though in hind-sight they may just have been drunk students playing a nasty practical joke, but the encounter still left me a little tense for quite awhile. It was probably one of the scariest moments of my life, because (warning: rom-com moment) it wasn't just my life on the line, but that of my girlfriend's too.

I'll continue with the story later.

The 4 Legs of the Table

2006-05-16T14:27:00.000+02:00

Years and years ago, before I needed to shave, circa 2000 AD, I worked at a Pick 'n Pay supermarket as a cashier and sometimes trolley jockey. The lessons I learnt from my stint at Pick 'n Pay, to some extent, guided my decisions in choosing my direction of study. That experience taught me much, especially about customer sovreignity and business values. That's why I really get riled up when I get bad service. The customer is always number 1 and if the customer is not happy then businesses fail. That's a very crude way of saying things. Mr Raymond Ackerman says it far better.

Today I had the pleasure of attending one of his lectures. And now I can say that I have shook the hand of one of the greatest businessmen alive. I'm not one for hero-worship or fanboydom, but Raymond Ackerman is one of the people of whom I hold in the highest regard and I am proud to have worked for him.

Astute Realisation

2006-05-15T17:27:00.000+02:00

There can be no free will if there is fate.
Karma is fate.

Therefore:

Karma cannot exist if there is free will.
Free will cannot exist if there is karma.
We cannot tell which of the above is true.

Therefore:

Revenge is always better.

Humans are weak and expendable

2006-05-15T16:22:00.000+02:00

Today I want to talk about a weakness. I want to talk about one that many humans share. It is one which I particularly dislike with much fervor and convoluted sentence structure. I want to talk about smoking.

I dislike smoking. I don't necessarily and automatically dislike any particular smoker, but I won't take the time/effort to approach a smoker at a party or any other public gathering. In fact, I would either distance myself from the smoker, or where/when appropriate (like at a gas station), get the smoker to stop smoking. I would probably not be on such friendly terms with the smokers in the group of people whom I tolerate and which I also count above acquaintance level if I had known that they smoked before getting to know them.

One such person told me that this prejudice towards smoking was causing me to miss out on a lot of interesting people, conversations and ideas. This is probably true, for the most part, but at the same time I believe that smoking shows to the world that the smoker is inherently weak. I'm not talking about lung capacity or any of the other health hazards involved with smoking, but rather the psychological/emotional weakness of the smoker.

The question is not 'why do you smoke?' or 'why don't you stop smoking?', but rather: Why did you start smoking? The first smoke represents surrender, giving up, weakness. Was it peer pressure? Ineffectual rebellion against Mom? Dad? School? Society? We all know the health risks involved with smoking, but ignoring them does not represent strength. It represents stupidity.

So what about all those interesting smokers; people with whom I'll never have a conversation? I don't care about them. I don't need to meet zillions of interesting people to make my life fulfilling. There are plenty of non-smokers out there to more than fill my social needs.

If you're happy and you're know it

2006-05-12T10:35:00.000+02:00

I heard something interesting yesterday whilst stalking around. Some of the herd were talking about depression. I found this particular comment worthy of being blogged about:

"You're not cool if you're happy".

Take ej's blog as an example. I quote: "This makes me less interesting".

Frankly, I believe that when people stop whining about how sad they are, they are actually more fun to talk with/to and are way more interesting. ej's blog is a far more pleasant read these days, in my opinion.

Obligatory Jacob Zuma Posting

2006-05-09T14:53:00.000+02:00

Well, I watched the sentencing (on and off and bits thereof). While channel hopping, I came across the Liberty Life Learning Channel. I've always been a big fan of William Smith's work (he taught me about concentrations for my matric physical science exams) and so decided to watch for a few minutes. It wasn't William, because they were doing English and they were doing a bit on grammar and language. Interestingly enough, an example of a newspaper editorial was used in which the editor referred to a heap of letters he received about a particular story which the paper had recently ran. The gist of the story revolved around the sentencing of a convicted murderer (or some other sort of very violent crime). His sentence was very light; a proverbial slap on the wrist. Naturally, all of the letter writers were outraged. None of their letters were published, because, even with heavy editing, they remained extremely defamatory. The editor went on to explain that defaming somebody could get you (and the paper) into serious trouble. Feel free to express your views and opinions, but don't rely on personal attacks to support them. An accused murderer isn't a murderer until convicted. An acquited rape suspect is not a rapist...

...but he may be a corrupt acquited rape suspect.

Master J v5

2006-05-08T16:58:00.000+02:00

I've recently got some work done on my thesis. Researching and reading plays as big a part as writing does! Thanks to Lexi for all the ideas. The following is a brief email I sent to my supervisor about my topic:

Well, it’s been a month+, and it’s only proper that I let you know what I’ve been doing.If you remember, I had to try and place my research within a particular context. Initially, I was torn between a more business-orientated context and an educational context. I was a bit concerned about following the educational route for fear of sounding like a high school teacher, but went ahead and did some research in that direction.

Reflective learning and technology - I’ve found mention of the potential of social software here and a few case studies.
Zones of Proximal Development (groups being able to do more than the individual).

I think that I can work at defining SS within the framework of teaching theory (including defining the role of the individual user, the group and the facilitator).
Thoughts?

Bad Service Makes Hulk Angry

2006-05-04T11:16:00.000+02:00

Sunday; myself and this person and this person and this person went out for lunch to Col'Cacchio's Pizzeria in Stellenbosch. A rather pricey joint for the average student, but I have a job these days and with it - buying power! I had only heard good things about the place and with so many apostrophes in its name, how could it be bad?

The good: I found the food good. Not many places can cater for my obscure tastes: a brinjals, peppers, onions and spinach pizza (a close second to the roast-lamb-sunday-lunch pizza I once had). Yummy!

The bad: The service. We were lucky enough to have The Incredibly Bad Waiterperson Boy!!! as our waitron. There were no smiles from him, no introduction and no name. He callously tossed down menus before us without a word. He did not know the menu and could not answer our queries, nor did he go and find out what he didn't know for us. He never checked on us. We had to call him via the other waitrons. He also added fictious orders to our bill. Bad waiter. If I knew his name I would besmirch it, but, alas, he never gave it to us. I was horrified when the rest of my dining party decided to leave him a tip (although it was small). He deserved nothing.

The ugly: The other clientele - one of the ugliest displays of old money, bad parenting and spoilts brats. I hope the babies dragging their pacifiers through the dirt, before eyes of their parents, develop a nasty case of round worm. Yum yum.

Final Rating: I'm not going there again. No matter how good the food, it can never make up for one bad waiter.

Dead Week

2006-05-04T11:13:00.000+02:00

No, I'm not dead. I was just sick recently. Bleh. One day I shall transcend my mortal shell and become a being of pure intellect (within a giant super robot of destruction). Until then I have to deal with a snotty nose.

Short Personality Disorder Test Results

2006-04-29T14:04:00.000+02:00

Disorder	Rating
Paranoid Disorder:	Low
Schizoid Disorder:	Moderate
Schizotypal Disorder:	Low
Antisocial Disorder:	Moderate
Borderline Disorder:	Low
Histrionic Disorder:	Moderate
Narcissistic Disorder:	High
Avoidant Disorder:	Low
Dependent Disorder:	Low
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder:	Low
-- Personality Disorder Test - Take It! -- -- Personality Disorders --

Test discovered here via here (The link above is the actual test link; I'm just giving credit where credit is due).

I always knew that I was better than everybody else.

Why I should take over the world; Why I shouldn't take over the world

2006-04-24T17:05:00.000+02:00

I've recently been thinking about taking over the world.

Yes, laugh. We'll see who's gonna be laughing soon. They called me a fool, but I'll show them! I'll show them all!!!

I'm not going to talk about the exact methodology (I don't want to give away my secret tech). I want to focus on the changes I would make in the world. After some thinking, I realised that, unfortunately, to make the world a good and safe place to live for all the good people of the world would require that I remove certain human rights and probably kill millions upon millions of people. 0th law paradox. The needs of the many vs the needs of the individual.

I'd like to put the needs of the many before the needs of any one individual. Currently, most of the world's democracies put the needs of the individual before the needs of the many. For example, in South Africa, an individual has a right to dignity. That's why ZA doesn't execute criminals anymore, because that is not a dignified way to die. Stepping on philosophical toes here. Right, let's assume that the death penalty is a very efficient deterrent to criminals. I'm not going to do that crime, because I'll get hung, drawn, quartered and be fed to deathrow inmates. So, in this HYPOTHETICAL world in which the death penalty would be a really good deterrent in most cases, would the killing of a few very bad apples be a bad thing? Their deaths would serve as an example, a reminder, a reinforcer. Less people would commit crimes warranting a death sentence, correct? Remember, this is a hypothetical world (I'm not backing this up academically) and this example might not be pertinent in reality, but should suffice as an example.

So why can't we as humans create a society in which we live for humanity and not for the human? Well, history, and science fiction/fantasy movies and novels have 'proven' that the leaders of such a world become blind to the real needs of the people (some even become corrupted) and humanity stagnates and dies off.

That got me thinking. What type of leader would I make in such a world. I would like to think that I can prevent my rule from degenerating into an Aristotlean tyranny, but then, I thought to myself, if I can maintain myself as a pillar of virtue and goodness, what would happen after my term, when I need to appoint a successor? Could I really find a successor worthy of following in my footsteps? What if I chose a poor successor who later became corrupt? Could I do that to humanity? No. Then I'd need to live on as ruler (remember, that under my rule, we'd be living in a technological wonderland), but the longer I rule, the harder it would become to maintain my goodness. Could I do it indefinitely? I don't know. So, if I managed to take over the world, it would probably be a lot better for a little while and then probably get a lot worse later on. Therefore, right now, taking over the world isn't quite yet worth my time.

Who is ~Johan Victor?

2006-04-20T10:43:00.000+02:00

I've been a member of LinkedIn for quite awhile now. It's always been interesting to see how my network grows. Recently, however, I've been noticing a particular LinkedIn user, ~Johan Victor, popping up all over my network. Who was this mysterious person with a ~ in his name? Why a ~?

Well, it wasn't long before I got an invitation from the ~ himself, asking me to join his network. He's a fellow Matie (i.e. studying at the University of Stellenbosch and just wants to help all other LinkedIn Maties by having them join his supah network. So I read his profile. Interesting read. Looks like he just wants to be the most connected South African ever. Well, what good would that do? I declined his invitation, because I want to know my connections so that I can comfortably recommend them to others. I couldn't bring myself to accept a complete stranger's invitation. Perhaps if one of my trusted connections sanctioned an introduction, then I may have accepted. What is the point of having a large network if you don't actually know anybody in it?

Don't trust strangers, children.

Judgemental?

2006-04-19T14:55:00.000+02:00

If one were to browse through my blogroll, you'd probably come across a lot of depressed individuals. I've had plenty of heated debates (arguments) about depression, weakness, disease, locus of control and the such recently. My whole social circle seems to be depressed except for myself and a scant few others. In one of the above-mentioned arguments, I was accused of being judgemental. Well, I always knew that I am, but being told explicitly made me think about it a bit.

Now I don't judge people based on the blasé gauntlet of steroetypes (sexuality, race, gender, fashion sense etc.), my prejudices are far more cultured, in my opinion: smokers, drunkards (you don't have to be an alcoholic to be a stupid idiot on a Saturday night), the overly overtly religious hypocrits, bad parents with badly behaved children under the age of 10 (especially the ones that run head first into my knees in shopping malls) and many more. Through continued discussion (arguing) I realised that I am prejudiced against people who make their problems my problems.

I am smoking. You eat secondary smoke.
I am drunk. I crash my car into your mailbox.
I am a sinner. I will redeem myself by berating your lifestyle choices.
I need to give up my kids to a social worker. You need to wash creme soda out of your shirt.
I am depressed. Pity me. You have to feel depressed too, otherwise you are uncaring and vicious.

OK, OK, maybe a bit overboard there. Apologies. Am I wrong about my prejudices? Is it wrong to not allow another idiot's vice/problem to become my vice/problem?

Go smoke outside - down wind!
Hand over your keys!
Glass houses, stone caster.
08000 55 555 - Childline. Call it.
Stop whining!

So this post might make me out to sound like somebody who shouldn't have as many do-gooder extras on my CV as I do. Well, most of the charitable work I do is there to inform and enable people to do what they need to do, but they must still be the ones to actually do it. No free handouts. God helps those who help themselves. I'm no Christian, but I will help those who are willing to help themselves. Those who don't help themselves will be exterminated by my morality police when I reshape the world in my image. GO QUANTUM!

MAPing J

2006-04-18T12:35:00.000+02:00

I belong to a program known as MAP (Men As Partners). The purpose of the MAP program is to challenge the attitudes and behaviors held by men that compromise their own health and safety as well as the health and safety of women and children; and to encourage men to become actively involved in responding to gender based violence and the HIV/AIDS epidemic. To achieve its goals, the MAP program was launched in eight of South Africa’s 9 provinces, ensuring a presence in almost every region of the country including urban, semi-urban, and rural communities (Source). To read more about MAP, just follow the link.

I am one of the MAP peer educators on Stellenbosch campus and it is up to us to think of and run interventions here on campus. I'm in a rather unique situation, being both student and teacher at the same time, so I have the potential to reach very different people with my interventions.

In August, I'll be teaching every 1st year in the BA faculty about Internet Search Skills. This could be a brilliant platform an intervention. There are some problems however. I help out giving a two-day workshop on the subject of internet search skills and I only have 50 minutes in which to teach the first years. That's a big limitation and I still have to get the MAP intervention across along with the actual work they need to do. I was aiming to teach them about using the advanced functions and syntax of search engines and introduce them to metasearch engines. Thus I could use what I search for as the intervention. Unfortunately, there's not enough time to allow them to absorb the necessary information and content of the search results. Does anybody have any ideas on how to not let this opportunity slip by? How can I make sure that it'll work?

Public holidays ARE bad for us

2006-04-18T10:56:00.000+02:00

Remember my comments on Easter? Follow this link to an article (16th of April) in the Sunday Independent. It offers an economists view of the actual cost of public holidays in ZA and a more plausible solution to my totalitarian take-over of the country's religious structure.

Evangelion - Just like Easter

2006-04-14T16:27:00.000+02:00

Now in healthy obento form.

My First Blog War

2006-04-14T16:10:00.000+02:00

Now I am truly part of the blogosphere. Manic or not, here I am.

The battle field on which many a semicolon lost its life.

I have only ten minutes to write about why Easter is waste of time

2006-04-10T15:20:00.000+02:00

Most of the conflict around this world are religious in nature.

In South Africa Good Friday is a public holiday, as is the Monday following. For the country with the most progressive constitution, we sure go through a lot of effort to make the Christians especially happy (barring Ascension Day, of course). Why am I ranting on about this? Well, on Saturday, I had the distinct pleasure of spending time with an individual whom just happened to be the most insensitive person in the world (when it comes to matters of race, nationality and ethnicity), but, at the same time, tries to overcompensate for this minor personality flaw and ends up insulting every non-white, non-heterosexual person "without meaning to". Grrrr. "Oh, you look Asianish, you must obviously know my good friend X".

Gee, aren't you cool, you know of a person of different race (than yours) and you're now talking to somebody whose racial characteristics are quite similar and thus they must know each other and you can make a new friend and show off how cool you are, because you're obviously a forward-thinking and very progressive individual.

Yes, and I believe that my foot is a good acquaintance of your ass too. Funny that.

Here my ten minutes have expired.

2 hours and 20 minutes later; the post continues:

So what is Easter about and what does it have to do with the above? Well, how many South Africans take their time off to truly reflect on the meaning of Easter? A spear in the gut and a spongeful of vinegar in the mouth? Death and rebirth? Forgiveness? Sacrifice? Chocolate? Commercialism and secularisation of a religious day? A time for sloth and relaxation? Ostracism of the non-Christian community?

It is my belief that no country, government or legislature should make any religiously significant date a national public holiday, unless, of course, they make every religiously significant date for every religion a public holiday. Naturally, making every such date a national public holiday would just cause untold havoc. That'll never happen. If we try to cater for everybody, we'll end up not catering for anybody. Alternatively, we could enforce a state religion and burn all the non-believing heretics. At least that type of non-sensical, emotionally-inspired persecution doesn't try to hide itself.

Race and religion are touchy subjects in South Africa, where they should all rather just be non-subjects. We shouldn't care about the colour of your skin or whom/what you worship. Yet we still put Christianity on its mighty pedastal of commercialism and put little friendly sidenotes here and there for those suspicious-looking Muslim/Islamic folk at the bottom of our supermarket specials boards.

It would be nice if we could all just simply ban all religions from the world. Unfortunately, that won't happen any time soon.

So why is Easter a waste of time? Firstly, we have too many public holidays in ZA anyway. It's going to be a real struggle for many to finish what needs to be finished. Do you realise that April is shorter than February (18 vs 20 work days)? Secondly, we kindly highlight that if you're not a Christian, then you're really not a South African.

Goebbels would be proud

2006-04-08T11:27:00.000+02:00

Fun reads for the discerning comrade:

Friends of Jacob Zuma

AWB - Thanks ej.

The Ancient Enemy

2006-04-07T11:08:00.000+02:00

Image Source: Helkom.

Still in Johannesburg and still helping out at the KLA course and guess what happened this morning - Telkom closed four of the venues lines. Thanks Telkom! This happened to us last year at another venue. Thankfully, the IT guys here at Bytes Technology Group are really good at what they do and got us on their secondary corporate line, so that I can now blog about how much Telkom sucks and continue helping with the course, of course.

Computer Literacy

2006-04-06T18:12:00.000+02:00

As I have mentioned previously, I help out giving a course on Internet search techinques and tools. One thing that we have recently noticed, while giving the course, is that those whom are not very computer literate do not benefit much from the course. KLA's owner, Ben, suggested that we place a test-your-computer-literacy level test on their website - a few yes/no questions - and if an individual didn't rate so highly, then make a recommendation that you attend some sort of computer literacy course (obviously held by KLA). Putting sending chain-emails, double-clicking and playing WebSudoku aside, I think that I have identified 3 more important factors (or skills - I need a better word here) that really would make an individual computer literate:

Comfort - A user must feel at ease while using a computer. Nerves don't help here.
Sight - A user must be able to see the whole screen, i.e. see changes on the screen as they occur - a tab loading in firefox, a virus warning, a new email, the edit options bar in firefox.
RTFS - Read The Screen. The answer is, more often than not, right in front of you. Just Read The Screen.

How does one teach this though? These are skills which I just developed subconsciously (tacitly). How do you make a long-time technophobe feel comfortable? How do you teach an old dog a new trick?

Public Enemy Number 1

2006-04-05T18:34:00.000+02:00

Jacob Zuma; he may not be corrupt and he may not be a rapist, but that's not for me to decide. That's for the court to decide. I do, however, know this: Jacob Zuma had unprotected sex with an HIV-positive woman, because he knew that the risks were minimal. This is sadly true. I recently completed my training as a MAP peer educator and so I may know a little bit more about HIV/AIDS than the average South African. For a patriachal bastard, the chance of contracting HIV through insertive vaginal sex is less than 0.05% per exposure, while for women it is at 0.1% per exposure (source: Health24 (I'll dig up a more official source when I get back home to my notes)).

The above statistics are very dangerous knowledge. Think about it. If more people knew the actual statistics, why would they have to use a condom every time they had sex? Jacob Zuma's actions and statement are slap in the face of the various condomize campaigns, especially as he used to work on an HIV/AIDS task force. Let me use an analogy: The chance of winning the South African lottery is statistically miniscule, yet people still try, because they believe they can win. If you believe in having sex without a condom, because the risk is minimal, but you believe that you can win the lotto even though the odds are even worse... do you see where I'm going with this?

Now Jacob Zuma is making the above statistics well known. Not good. He may not be corrupt and he me not be a rapist, but as a role model to many, he may be committing genocide through his actions and through what he is saying.

J at Work

2006-04-04T14:36:00.000+02:00

If anybody has browsed through my links, you may have noticed my link to my Linkedin profile. Linked in is a very powerful networking tool and it's definitely worth checking out. Anyway, under my profile, you'll see that I work part-time for Knowledge Leadership Associates assisting in giving an internet search techniques and tools short course. Tomorrow I leave for Johannesburg (bleh - I admit to being a backward quasi-Capetonian) to help with one of the courses. Then it struck me - why not use my blog as platform to show off my subject expertise. So, as my buddy, Minnaar, uses his blog to show off his mad-geek-tech skills, I'll be frequently posting handy tips and tricks for surfing the net.

Tip 1: Use Firefox. There's a link in my sidebar, but Google doesn't want me to tell you to click on that one, because I'll get money that way. This one here is safe.

Chuck Norris is even Deaderer

2006-04-03T14:05:00.000+02:00

While the Chuck Norris meme continues its viral growth throughout society, I present the following:

Source: Chain E-mail. Grammar/Spelling not corrected.

Steve Hofmeyer once sakkied with 10 boere Poppies at once

Steve Hofmeyer braai's with his fingers......

Steve Hofmeyer doesn't support the Bulls, the Bulls support Steve Hofmeyer

Steve Hofmeyer doesn't have a good voice, the microphone is scared of the Hofmeyer and makes his voice perfect

When Steve Hofmeyer stares at raw meat and it turns to biltong

Bless Bridges didn't die in a car crash Steve Hofmeyer beat him to death with a red rose

Morkels gives Steve Hofmeyer any guarantee he wants...

Steve Hofmeyer repossesses Bob Mugabe's Farms...

Not even Chuck Norris gets as many fathers day cards as Steve Hofmeyer

Steve Hofmeyer sent Mandela to jail, he also freed him

The "National Party" is actually a term to describe Steve Hofmeyer's birthday celebrations...

Steve Hofmeyer cannot count…....he doesn't need to.......

Klipdrift is actually Steve Hofmeyer’s urine…….hence one gets pissed upon consuming it

Steve Hofmeyer once looked at a loaf of bread, the pissed itself in terror and turned into a Koeksister........

Osama Binladen and Steve Hofmeyer have the same amount of letters in both their names......coincidence.....I think not….

Steve Hofmeyer is the only man alive to turn down Patricia Lewis

Steve Hofmeyer can get through on MTN...

Steve Hofmeyer actually kick the drop goal in the 1995 world cup, he is the player hiding behind the goal post not Chester Williams

When Steve Hofmeyer goes to Pick ‘n Pay he just picks…….

The official Steve site.

Work is bad for you. Read more webcomics.

2006-04-02T16:50:00.000+02:00

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

Honesty

2006-04-02T16:12:00.000+02:00

The guy sitting next to me in the computer lab has just left to walk off somewhere again. He left his iPod, flash disk and laptop. The lab is pretty empty. I could just take his stuff (including his abnormal psychology text book). What's to stop me? The security cameras? Pfft.

Well, I'm not going to take it. Nor shall I berate him about his lack of responsibility. So is life.

Master J v4

2006-03-30T15:38:00.000+02:00

Where does the time go? I now know why a thesis can take several years to complete. Everything else gets in the way and everything else needs to get done yesterday. The thesis only needs to get done later. My teaching load is going up next term (which is in just over two weeks), but, hopefully, I'll be able to cut out a lot of the other things that have been keeping me busy lately.

I'm still working on the plone project with the Freiburg student. Most of the course is a collection of static HTML pages, downloadable documentation and good ol' fashioned discussion boards. Sounds rather bland, doesn't it? Well, we are going to try using wikis when it comes to dealing with assignments. Each module of the course will have a wiki wherein each course delegate (student?) can create their own page to do their assignment(s), have others comment on and add on to each other member's work. We want the students to learn as much from each other as they do from the course facilitators. The course will, naturally, also host several face-to-face sessions. Blended e-learning! w00t!

Unfortunately, my partner on this course is not too proficient with HTML, nor plone, so I'm doing a bit more than I thought I would. I have to go through tomorrow afternoon and help out some more. I hope that I can sort everything out with her tomorrow so that I can have some time off before I go to Johannesburg to earn money next week. Money! w00t!

UNASA

2006-03-29T13:19:00.000+02:00

I'm a member of the executive committee of the Stellenbosch Chapter of UNASA (the United Nations Association of South Africa). We busy ourselves in trying to help achieve the Millenium Development Goals on a local level. That's a really big simplification of what UNASA stands for. For more info on the UNASA and all UNAs, visit the world federation of UNAs. Recently we held a vastly successful awareness campaign, entitled BYBAC - Burst Your Bubble Campaign. We filled balloons with various statistics and went around campus asking people to pop the balloons (burst their bubble). The statistics really broke open some comfort zones. I'll see if I can get hold of all the other stats and post them later.

One of our upcoming projects involves us 'adopting' three children taken off the streets. A local family has taken in the children and we aim to hold collections for this family, whom are themselves not well off. It may not sound like much, but I think that we could really make a change in 3 individuals' lives. If you're in the Stellenbosch area, I urge you to help in any of our projects (I'll keep you posted) and if your not from around here, take a look on the net and see if you can find your local UNA and get out there and do some good. Just in reading this blog, with your good internet connection and fancy computer makes you a privileged individual.

Meem and my Girlfriend

2006-03-27T20:03:00.000+02:00

After surfing around for about an hour now, I have realised that, even though I've read about blogs, known about blogs and even read some blogs over the years, there are some aspects of blogs you cannot know about without blogging. Since I am a new blogger, I haven't much experience and only recently have I stumbled upon the meme (pronounced 'meem') phenomenon. According to Wikipedia, a meme "refers to any unit of cultural information, such as a cultural practice or idea or concept, which one mind transmits (verbally or by repeated action) to another mind. Examples might include thoughts, ideas, theories, practices, habits, songs, dances and moods in addition to concepts such as race". So, unless horribly mistaken, I believe memes, in a blogging sense, refers to the spreading of such units of cultural information through blog posts about other blog posts on other blogs. I couldn't find a specific definition for the blog-meme phenomenon, but I believe anything can be considered a meme. One example I found was a quiz as to what type of girl you are or what type of girl she is. My girlfriend was shoulder surfing at the time, so we ended up each doing the quiz. Our results were the same (phew). Do you think this quiz could count as a meme?

She is Progressive Girl

Click on the picture below to read more:

Take the 'What Kind of Girl Is She?' quiz at CookingToHookup.com

Miscommunication Theory

2006-03-25T15:14:00.000+02:00

We all know what email is. I could probably even argue that it is one of the first forms of social software, but that's not what I want to talk about now. I wish to argue that email, though often a useful tool, can these days cause quite a hassle when written incorrectly This post isn't going to be very academic, if at all. It's actually just going to be a personal rant about something that happened to me recently.

Everybody uses email today, just as everybody used letters a long, long time ago. Well, at least the literate did. It hasn't been that long since I was in high school, and I remember, quite clearly, that I learnt the CORRECT way in which to write a letter. Address in the top right corner, Dear X, Intro, Body, Conclusion,

Sincerely
Me.

Remember that? Why did we learn to write letters correctly and why do we not learn how to write emails correctly or even other forms of electronic communications (though I won't go into those in too much detail right now)?

I get a lot of daily incoming emails. Newsletters, professional and personal communications etc. I'm also quite a busy individual and I try to save time wherever I can save time. Recently, my time-saving mechanisms got me into a bit of trouble and the blame is still being shifted around. Personally, I believe that the blame is to be shared by both me, the receiver, and the sender. I belong to a particular national group and communication takes through a Yahoo! group and email between individual members or to the group as a whole. I set up my Yahoo account to forward each individual posting to my inbox. Not everything posted at the group refers directly to me, for example, one message may refer only to those members staying within Gauteng. I determine the relevance of a particular message according to the subject of the message and the first 3 to 4 sentences/lines of the message. If I can see no relevance to me within the subject or first few lines, I stop reading that post. Now this is where the problem comes in. One of the heads of the group often sends out very, very long messages. Yet, on many occassions, I could see no direct relevance to me, either in the subject or first few lines of the message. Plus, I hardly ever work directly with the heads of the group, as most of the local activity is handled by another member. However, as it turned out, the head in question would often send multiple messages within one post and one that was important to me was buried deeply within the post after stuff that was not relevant to me. My fault for missing the message? Maybe. Maybe not. The subject didn't give a clue. The first few lines didn't give a clue.

I, therefore, suggest that somebody start teaching people how to write proper emails (and, of course, other similar electronic communication methods). Ensure that the subject is relevant to the message. Ensure that the audience knows what the message contains, or to whom it is directed, within the first few lines. Use a list. Use bullets. Just make it clear.

Scuff Marks v2 - Pimp my Laptop

2006-03-23T11:35:00.000+02:00

Further searching into the field of repairing or covering up scuff marks, I delved deeper into the unknown world of stickers. There I found the following links:

I did not previously know that the world of vinyl could be so beautiful. Unfortunately, with import and shipping costs, it would cost much ZARs. So, I'm going to look around town, surf some .co.za sites and see what I can find on the local market. I'll see if I can dig up a digicam and maybe photograph the progress, blog it and then sell it to the SABC (South African Broadcasting Co., not the Chinese) and create a hit reality show for the new rich and elite - or at least get on The Apprentice ZA.

Scuff Marks

2006-03-22T16:27:00.000+02:00

Today is a sad day. I spotted scuff marks on my laptop cover. I don't know when it happened or where they came from. I've just spent a few moments* browsing the net and discovered the rumours of the art of laptop chassis modding, colouring in scuff marks using sharpies (which is a brand of pen) and that maybe the "stuff girls put on their nails" could work. I'll see if I can dig up some of this girly stuff and test a small bit of it. I hope it works. In any event, I found a new cool brand of pens to use. I hope I can purchase some locally or the import tax is going to kill me. Then I can fix the scuff marks on my shoes too.

Anybody got any handy hints for dealing with scuff marks? Would be appreciated. Otherwise I'm going to phone up my mom and ask her to post up my old Smurfy sticker collection. That should work.

*Alright, more than a few moments. It's not fair that I can dilate my personal time, but the net doesn't speed up to meet my personal time frame.

Momentous First Post

2006-03-21T17:36:00.000+02:00

So, you've probably noticed that I have changed templates for my blog. Why the big shift? If you were to browse through to my 2nd post at this blog, you would notice that I was uncertain about using blogger as my free blogging tool of choice. I've been surfing the net for other alternatives and found a few very promising ones. All with different functionalities. Wordpress, for example, contains a useful tagging tool, allowing one to tag your posts (just as you can tag websites at del.icio.us). I was very impressed with the tagging functionality. Plus, Wordpress can import your other blogs into itself (comments and all). It's all very easy. I tried finding a similar tagging tool for Blogger, but the best I could come up with was a bit of javascript, which kinda linked a .blogspot to a list of a user's del.icio.us tags. Tagging my .blogspot posts in del.icio.us seemed like too much effort. If anybody knows of a tool for blogger that can match Wordpress's tagging functionality, please, let me know.

Why then? Why did I change the template here? Well, I was all ready to make the big leap to Wordpress. I was even going to make a MOMENTOUS FIRST POST there (with the big voice), but then I discovered that Wordpress, unlike Blogger, does not allow you to edit your template and dig into the html. That's not such a big deal for me. The most I would do, anyway, would be to change a few colours and maybe add a picture somewhere. I was quite prepared to live with a generic template. I had my Wordpress account import all of my .blogspot blog into it and was about to start writing my MOMENTOUS FIRST POST of COMPLETE MAGNIFICENCE when I noticed one, small thing... Wordpress's WYSIWG post creator/editor does not have an 'align justify' text option! Being too lazy to have to edit the html of every post I would ever make, I returned here, changed the template, smiled at the sight of my Google ads and proceeded to redeem myself by writing, nay, crafting a new, faster, stronger, better first post for the J is for.

J

PS Wordpress is still a great tool. Check it out. I'm backing up this blog there. Because I am paranoid. I might be tempted to move over if they get to adding justify to their editor...unless, of course, Blogger gets some built-in tagging functionality...or I start paying for my blogging.

PPS The first rule of Google Ads is that you don't talk about Google Ads. I hope they don't take my Google Ads away.

PPPS Happy Human Rights Day ZA!

Master J v3

2006-03-19T14:38:00.000+02:00

Tomorrow, instead of taking the day off and having a 4 day weekend, I will be helping a Freiburg forestry student design an e-learning course. We'll be using plone as the platform. Then it struck me; why don't we incorporate a blog and/or wiki (i.e. bliki) into the course. The Freiburg student doesn't have much technical experience and maybe a blog or wiki will give her the functionality she needs, but make it simple enough for her to use. This is when I identified another potential context in which I can conduct my research: Education. Still need think about it for awhile and do some additional reading, but I think I may have found my research context.

The Unknown PDI

2006-03-18T19:10:00.000+02:00

It feels kinda weird to write for an international audience, when I doubt I even have much of an audience yet. My girlfriend will probably tell me to look beyond my audience awareness. Anyway, for those who don't know, a PDI is a Previously Disadvantaged Individual. According to South African law, they are supposed to be granted certain "benefits" when it comes to finding a job, applying for a bursary etc. This doesn't fully explain the situation, but it gives you the general idea in a very, very broad sense.

I am a South African born Chinese (SABC), as were my parents. They (my parents) had to deal with apartheid as did any non-white individual. Yes, they were classified as non-white and were not allowed to vote until 1994. Shock and Surprise! "I thought you counted as white," says the white man, says the black man. Now there are many others, better qualified than I, out there to tell you about the SABC's woes. I'm still a victim of racist verbal abuse on the streets. I haven't seen a white guy bad mouth a black guy on the streets (or vice verca) of the democratic Republic of South Africa, but I get "ching-chong" and "discount, discount" quite regularly. I attribute such racial intolerance too poor education, bad upbringing, lower SES or general good-natured stupidity and usually ignore it. However, I have come across two South African bastions of great intellectualism and academic might, which through exclusion, have made me felt the all-too-familiar sting of racism. Both the NRF and University of Stellenbosch require, upon registration, that you inform that as to which racial group you belong to - for government or statistical reasons. I, personally, think this practice is unnecessary. I believe that the colour of your skin shouldn't matter in a true rainbow nation. Anyway, I go to register and my options for racial group are (insert drumroll):

Black
White
Coloured
Indian

Ouch. Where did the 'Asian' option go? Though I didn't particularly enjoy being lumped together with Koreans, Vietnamese and Indians, at least they made a veiled attempt at incorporating little ol' me. They didn't even have the courtesy of creating an option 5 entitled 'other' or 'none of the above'. The university had me registered as Indian. I complained. They changed it to White. Wow. Thanks guys. I feel so much better now. The NRF wouldn't give me a bursary, because I wasn't a PDI. I dug up the necessary paperwork - PDI's (basically) include:

All women
All non-white men

The NRF then said I wasn't black and so I couldn't get the bursary.

Quothe a friend of mine: "We discriminate against everything in this country, except for ability".

When good people do nothing...

2006-03-17T09:59:00.000+02:00

...are they stupid too?

Yesterday, I attended the opening function of one of the university's student societies. It were not fun. Bad grammar intended.

I use to be part of the executive committee of above-mentioned society. I was their treasurer for over a year. Towards the end of last year, a new exec comm was elected. I stayed on as treasurer and two or three others shifted to new positions and the rest were all new (including the chair). The first thing which this new committee had to do was organize the prize-giving of a competition we ran and our year-end closing function. Due to time constraints, it was decided to hold them together as one event. Most of the work, however, got shouldered by the older members of the exec comm, myself included. I made one appeal to the rest to pitch in and pull their weight. They did not. I handed in my resignation. Went to the event I helped organise and then left the organization. There was too much conflict between myself and another member and I did not wish to work under an incompetent liar* of a chair.

OK, so that was the background history. I still have ties to that society (my girlfriend is the vice-chair and one of the longer serving members of the exec comm). Last night, they held their opening function. I attended the event (dressed as a gate crasher). Whilst there, I noticed the following:

The greater part of the exec committee really, really, really disliked the chair and complained about her poor leadership.
The primary goal of the opening function (as decided by the chair and her supporters) was for the guests to get as smashed, pissed and drunk as possible without having any of their livers rupture.

Right, sounds like a fun place for the average 18-19 year old student? Well, here's what I have to say about the event:

It took place in a historic building (antique furniture included) which promptly got trashed.
Getting pissed does somewhat not correlate with the nature of the society (from my obviously prudish point of view).
No provision was made for safe and reliable transport for the drunk students. The university's security services can make provision for this.

Generally, I view drinking for the sake of getting drunk as one of the stupidest things anybody could possible do. Right after smoking. Now, let me get to the point of this posting.

Why do people put up with others who are bad for them? I'm not talking about high school kids falling in with a bad crowd, but rather about people who have to put up with a bad project team member, a bad political leader, abusive partner. I know there has been a lot of study into several types of bad relationships and learned helplessness etc. But I am focusing on that type of relationship where each member is empowered to do something. Quit complaining! Do something! Have the troublesome individual removed - I believe a vote of no confidence still works. Or remove yourself from the troublesome individual(s) - sometimes there are just too many stupid people for the one sane and intelligent homo sapien to deal with.

J

*This I shall not get into. Hell, I might have already crossed the line. Hope not. Don't like being sued.

Master J v2

2006-03-16T16:18:00.000+02:00

So my meeting went well. My supervisor brought up several valid points upon which I now have to ponder. One problem with studying social software lies in the fact that it is such a broad topic and takes place in a variety of contexts. So, right now, I've got to decide in which context I want to study social software. Off the top of my head, I can think of the following:

Political

campaigning
commentary
enacting democracy (can the blogosphere get Bush impeached?)

Personal

promotion
journal

Business/Corporate

marketing
internal
communities of practice

Community Development
MMORPGs

And I'm sure there's more - a bit of research should dig up some more. Then I just have to decide. Well, what makes a good masters aside, we talked about what would make a good topic for a doctorate (sorta). Hmmm, Doctor J.

Master J

2006-03-16T11:23:00.000+02:00

In approximately 3 hours and 39 minutes...no, 38 minutes, I'll be going to a meeting with my supervisor for my master's thesis. We're going to work on refining my research question, as, though accepted, my proposal was a bit over-ambitious. I'm aiming to base my study on understanding and better defining social software.

What is social software? Many of us make frequent, sometimes daily, use of it, but know nothing more of it beyond its usefulness and/or coolness. In fact individual instances of social software are oft very different from one another (compare del.icio.us to wikipedia) and others very similar and some even being hybridised together (43 things uses both blogging and tagging). An exact definition of the subject does not yet exist. I want to see what I can add to the understanding of the phenomenon. All very interesting. More later, after my meeting.

Chuck Norris is dead

2006-03-14T09:09:00.000+02:00

Two months ago... the Chuck Norris jokes were funny. I stumbled across them one day while browsing randomly through del.icio.us. Using my gifted brain for evil, I immediately memorized a few and threw them out into everyday conversation. It was funny then. It is not funny anymore. Why not? Sadly, I have to admit that I am somewhat of an elitist. When things become too popular, too readily available, they lose their 'specialness' for me. Yeah, I'm a snob. However, for the next two months, we can all enjoy the following:

Riaan Cruywagen never has his back to you, in fact Riaan has no back.
Riaan Cruywagen is fluent in twenty seven of the eleven official languages.
Riaan Cruywagen knows the news before it happens.
Riaan Cruywagen knew you would say that.
Riaan Cruywagen is cryogenically frozen every night for EXACTLY eight hours. His brain impulses are monitored during this and used as templates for deciphering elaborate ancient manuscripts.
Riaan Cruywagen had a telekinetic showdown with Johan Stemmet. After draining all of Stemmet's powers and rendering him severely retarded, he created Noot vir Noot and made Stemmet the host.
Some people believe Riaan Cruywagen wears a toupee - he has, in fact, one perfect hair. The one that covers his entire head - giving it that, 'not quite real' look.
If Riaan Cruywagen does not read it out on the 8 o'clock news, it never happened.
One night during an ad break on the 8 o'clock news, Riaan Cruywagen mentioned to the makeup lady that he was 'tired of this apartheid nonsense'.
Nelson Mandela was released from prison the next day.
Riaan Cruywagen wasn't born, he thought himself into existence.
Riaan Cruywagen never blinks; if he does the entire world would just not happen for that split second.
When Sir Edmund Hillary reached the summit of Mount Everest, he was welcomed by Riaan Cruywagen, who briefly interviewed him, before wiring the information through to the SAUK.
The SAUK is actually a front for a secret society of Swiss Bankers who manipulate the world's economy, and is chaired by non other than his most Worshipful Master, Riaan Cruywagen.
In binary code the word "Riaan Cruywagen" looks like the shroud of Turin.
Riaan Cruywagen will never die. His soul gets transferred to another identical body via various arcane rituals and current nano-technology thrice fortnightly.
Bruce Willis' character in Die Hard is based on the unpublished autobiography written by Riaan Cruywagen at the age of 15.
Riaan Cruywagen does not believe in Chuck Norris.
Riaan Cruywagen's first job was tutoring Pythagoras.
After reading the news Riaan Cruywagen built the pyramids. It took precisely 1 minutes to draw up the plans and then a further six minutes to think them into existence.

the cricket, yesterday, za vs aus

2006-03-13T15:07:00.000+02:00

Wow.

The Blogging Dead

2006-03-11T16:12:00.000+02:00

I haven't been a very good blogger. It has been more than a month since my last (and only) post. At least I've bypassed the one-post-wonder blog stage. I started this blog primarily to live the blogging experience and to demo blogging for an internet skills training course I help out with. I just haven't blogged anything. I don't know why I haven't. I have several topics I want to talk about. I just don't seem to work up the energy to actually do it. Well, that's about to change, I hope.

One of my initial problems with using blogger is the .blogspot in the URL. It doesn't seem professional. I would never trust a geocites website as a trusted source of information, so why would I trust a .blogspot? Why would I even use one? And then, by chance, I discovered another, extremely popular, blog here at blogger: http://postsecret.blogspot.com. Though not anything remotely related to anything I would expect a blog of mine to be, it inspired me to give blogger another try. So, let's see where it goes from here.

Erm

2006-01-31T16:29:00.000+02:00

This post marks the momentous first post of this blog. It's nothing special yet. At least I was able to figure out how to add my del.icio.us tags. They probably say a lot about me. That's it for now.