I went to a club with a mate and walked into an old high school friend whom happens to be the bouncer of the club. After the usual chit-chat I question him about what he has been up to last few years. He had a much larger build since high school, typical mean bouncer...but only in appearance. He started chatting to my how he has been doing a number of martial arts all they way thru to cage fighting.
I did not remember him as the fighting type when we were in school. He did went on to explain why he did all that training without me even asking. He told me that he felt its his duty (and pleasure) to fight those who pick on the weak and timid. The reason he developed this aggressive attitude is because road he walked during high school. Unfortunately this road included being bullied often and at one time being beaten up to such an extent that he has a permanent dislocated jaw.
He still harbor ill feelings for certain individuals, which he will probably try to beat up when confronted. All this desire for revenge, is it just? I kinda felt sad, that it seems he main focus for the last 9 years has been to take revenge on what happened to him.
I hope that his ways and opinion of life changes, to focus more on his own happiness rather the suffering of others...no matter how much they might deserve it.
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( 2.9 / 72 )South Africa is considered a financial risk country and rightly so, every newspaper edition has at least some article about money stolen or lost through crime, fraud and/or corruption. That’s just how things are around here. Point is South Africans are fanatics in terms of keeping and protecting their interests. This also ties into the drive and desire for South African businesses to prosper financially.... but at what cost.
During the last 3 months three of my friends (whom also happens to be all females) experienced the same situation but under different circumstances at their previous employers. Friend A worked as `n Consultant/Architect for a .Net development shop which offers a specialized financial package. Her job basically includes everything from on-site installation, configuration, testing and feedback to developers. Basically the one that takes all the flak to say the least. She started 2008 running full speed. Since the New Year she has been working every weekend for the first 2 months already. It reached a stage where she experienced heart palpitations. Upon requesting a few days leave, how boss apparently flipped, and only gave her ONE day off. Now it goes without saying that my friend has been working all that extra time with zero remuneration. Her boss even went so far to instruct her employees that its expected from them to put extra hours in every Thursday evening... without pay. Its unethical and illegal, yet these kinds of employers get away with it everywhere. I am pleased to say that my friend has quit and is joining Oracle with nice big pay rise.
Friend B worked as a manager at a beauty spa. Everything was going on as usual when she was informed she is now on suspended leave and have to stay home until further notice. My friend was very distorted by this, not knowing what was going on. She was later informed that a disciplinary hearing is going to be held, and was handed a bunch disciplinary warnings. These 'warnings' indicated that something was not right, as they seemed very fabricated and referred to random and unusual events which dated more than a year ago. Luckily my friend called in the assistance of a labor lawyer, whom described everything as nothing but a big joke! The hearing was held, illegally, and now the company is requested to settle the matter with 12 months pay to my friend or the case will be taken to court. The irony of this is that it was discovered that the company could not simply afford her as an employee, so instead of offering a severance package and retrenching her, they simply tried to fire her!
Read More...
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( 3 / 73 )I recently read in the news that the Dakar Rally has been canceled due to terrorist threats. This for some reason is annoying me extremely! I have been become more and more a fan of the Dakar Rally, especially watching Charley Boorman's 'Race to Dakar' DVD a short while ago. It's already been decided, I WILL take part in the Dakar at some point of my life. Hopefully the authorities will be able to remove the terrorist threat so that the true greatest race can continue its tradition.
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( 2.9 / 93 )Last Friday I traded my old vehicle in for a Corsa Utility Bakkie. So far I am enjoying my new car very much. Oddly I have found the smaller cabin space very comfortable, everything so easily within reach. Now since I am driving a bakkie, I have the capability to load my bike and take it where ever I want. Now my master plan is complete, as my intention was always to load my bike and take it with me when I leave for the Eastern Cape and Port Elizabeth on holiday.
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( 2.9 / 78 )So I received a message from a person in the United States with the same surname. She asked if I am not by any chance some long lost cousin. Unfortunately I am not, but the thought got me thinking. My surname is a very unique one, and I have not met another person yet with the same surname outside of my known family. So a search on my surname returned a surprising number of people.
Right, now to test if Facebook really connects people. I created a group specific for people sharing my surname. Now Facebook only allows you to send invites to people on your friends list, or external email addresses. So what about people who do have Facebook accounts, but are not on my friends list? I simple started sending private messages as invites to the search result, inviting people to join. As the 5th messages was fired off i got this pop up, telling me my account has been disabled because my actions has been sighted as spamming.
Now what was I suppose to do, since Facebook does not provide the functionality for mass invites of Facebook members. After several emails complaining about the ridiculous actions taken against me, the admins opened my account again. I have also not been able to find anywhere on the site the rules for sighting spammers, and how many "invites" am I allowed to fire off a day.
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( 3 / 80 )I have finally fulfilled one of my promises by flying down Cape Town to visit a good friend. Since he moved down I told him I will come visit someday. So we organized and I joined them on a camping trip to Lamberts Bay to celebrate his cousin's birthday.
We camped for two days, and it was loads of fun. Me and my mate Gregg started drinking straight after he picked me up at the airport. When everyone arrived at his house we still did not packed the car. We left at around 3pm for Lamberts Bay which is a 2.30 hours drive up the west coast from Cape Town. Got there round about 8pm after nightfall. It was very difficulty to scope the place out in the dark, so I had no idea where I was.
;)
Next morning things became more clear. My friend, his wife and myself took a walk on the beach and a bit through town. This is when I got to make out what was going on around me. The town seemed a bit deserted, lots of house locked up. I realized they are all vacation houses, only occupied over the holiday seasons. The small harbor was also very quiet, with only a few small boats anchored inside.
That night two more friends joined us and we all had a big bash. Cooked up an great "Beef and Beer" potjie and yes some of us drinked even more beer. Overall the weekend was one for the books and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Looking forward to hook-up with my mates when going to Port Elizabeth for the December holidays.
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( 3.1 / 69 )Here is a picture used to rule the English player out before grounding the ball, people are going to talk about it for some time to come...
;)
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( 3 / 67 )This week i finished my year exams. Went pretty well, except for one exam I blundered. I paced myself for a 3 hour exam, but it was actually a 2 hour exam. Hence I did not finished through my own stupidity. Oh well want can I say. Luckily if I fail the module I can at least retake it.
But yet again there came up 2 issues with how the university format their questions in the exams. Apart from writing full program source code, the rest are multiple choice question. Yet there is a particular why that they post a question. No more choice the right or wrong one, now is goes like "choose the MOST right answer, choose the MOST incorrect answer". They seem to purposefully go out of their way to confuse students and to test them on choosing their correct answer, irrespective of the other options which sometimes are also perfectly valid answers.
EXAMPLE:
Example what an accelerator key is...
A) Accelerator key is for example when a user press CTRL-SHIFT-F7 to perform an action.
B) Accelerator key (also known as a chord) is when a user press several keys similtaniously to perform a specific action.
C) ...some other stupid option....
Now in my mind A and B is exactly the same thing, but its obvious that they will be expecting option B. Why beat around the bush, you get right and you get wrong. But it seems that every IT related handbook explains the exact same concept in their own word, but you are forced to answer in their own words.
The birth of politics, my yes is more correct than your yes.
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Well it had to happen sometime i guess. Most guys think that i am fortunate to live within 2km of a Teazers club. Teazers as most South Africans know is probably the top strip club franchise around. Anyways a group of my friends thought we have nothing to loose, and i had a crappy week so i thought what the hell.
It was pretty hilarious i must admit, i basically got a bit drunk while watching rugby replays on TV. My one male and female friend kept exchanging glances to all the strippers dancing around us (and at each other). The remaining friend went absolutely ga-ga of the all fresh eastern European imports. He had 3 lap dances, one of which offered a two for one special. He is totally amazed how woman with such beauty and "friendliness" would take up stripping as a profession vs. becoming his girlfriend so that he can take her home and strip her anyways. It does make for an interesting debate about career ethics, but thats a story for another day.
Anyways probably the admirable (or some would think stupid) thing i did was to offer to cover the bill and they can pay me back since no one had a wallet or cash on them. They will pay me back, except for one but i already expected that. Well to close the post this event is just another t-shirt on a continuous growing pile. Never had interest, seen one woman naked you seen them all. Even the one stripper asked if i was gay since i did not "look" at her like a starved dog looking at a meatloaf. I don't get turned on by a beautiful woman...but what i can actually do with her, thats a different story.
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( 2.9 / 72 )This picture was taken by my best mate's brother, Hendri Coetzer, whom is the head trainer at The Photographer School. Amazing picture taken on one of their recent trips to the Kalahari. And believe me when i say these fellows don't do photoshop.
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( 3 / 47 )Talk about the wheel turning!
World Clock
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( 2.9 / 47 )Well i have made it. First 31 days of contracting, and seems to be going well (touch wood). And irony is that my boss approached me about signing up for a permanent position. I am not sure about it this though, i went through some effort to change my life for the contracting world. Then on the other hand i really like this place and people, so what to do. Will take take the weekend to make up my mind.
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( 2.7 / 82 )What a week... felt good actually doing something worthwhile with my time. I started my new position last Monday. Basically hit the ground running, but i am used to that. What i find highly ironic, is that the architecture that i have to re-engineer was done by certain company whom i have worked with at a previous project. So yet again, i am fixing stuff. The difference time around is that my new company is actually willing to listen to me...
Now what i have seen so many a times, is that developers and architects design and implement solutions that are seriously over complicated. Its like everyone has the impression that going for gold translates into implementing a mammoth of a system, irrelevant from what the client actually needs. For instance, why would someone develop a middle layer, which consist of 2 consecutive web-services calls before reaching the backend... all in the same vertical stack and is never intended to be consumed by any other system. This has such a huge amount of overhead over a simple web application that needs to make simple backend call, where a simple EJB or DAO approach would have been so much simpler.
Its like the quest of grandeur totally overshadows reason and common sense. It usually goes like “yes but then we can does this, and this and this....”. Now i will usually expect this from a typical client and rightly so, but coming from an architect bothers me a bit, especially when i know they have no solid experience with the proposed technologies. Likewise i would love to keep trying something new with the latest technologies, but not at the price of designing a solution that i am not at least 90% sure i actually can deliver.
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( 2.9 / 55 )Well its done, i have submitted my resignation to my current employer yesterday, and signed the new contract short while ago. I will be starting at my new company as contractor on the 25 June. Really looking forward to this, because it will allow me to do so much more with my career and personal life.
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( 2.8 / 112 )Well I have been very frustrated the last two years in terms of my career, probably because i was not going anywhere. I can't remember when last i was given a task that was actually of some sort of challenge. And I do mean technically, not solving problems due to incompetence. The last few months I did follow up on opportunities for a new job. There were a couple of good one's, but they all fell through the mat.
Now the wait seems to be over, I have been successful for a contracting position at a major insurance company as a Portal/Web Services specialist. Since I have been a permanent employee all my life, this would be my first step into the world of contracting. Luckily I do know a lot of contractors, most of whom have been trying for the last few years to get me into it. Since I basically have no more patients for the false promises that I got the last few years, it is time to start working for myself and get a move on in my career.
All that is left is to put this in black and white this monday.
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( 3 / 60 )So recently i bought my self a nice Polar Heart Monitor F4 watch with chest strap. I have been training for a while now with my flatmate Damian, and i guess i wanted something to help me train rather than spending half my time figuring out the computers on the machines.
;)
I have not been disappointed since. It does what it suppose to do, nothing more and less. One thing i have to mention, the two-button interface to access all the functionality has a very good design concept in my personal opinion.
I have currently set my target heart rate zone to 70%-80% of my max heart rate, which translates to 137-156 bpm. Well so far so good, I have worked my way up to a level where i can endure a total workout time of 55min, with at least 35min in the target heart zone. Typical routine would consist of 10min cycling, super-circuit routine, stomach exercises, 10 min treadmill. I am currently pondering of ways to mix up my usual routines to spend more time on the treadmill and increase my time in the target zone.
But one thing is for sure, I have not felt this fit for years. And results is also starting to show. i suspect i might even weight below 90kg, the lowest for the last 6 years. For most of this i must thank Damian, who showed me another side of physical training. I know my why around when it comes at weight and strength training, but it has lost it appeal for me.
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( 2.9 / 50 )No I have not had a recent bad experience on some dating site. It’s only the dynamics of modern society that I find interesting. People using modern technology, for one of man’s most irrational desire…. true love. Or is it?
Although I can say I am not on any these sites or clubs, I have met a few people who has been and still are. I find it quite interesting their experiences, unfortunately I can’t say any of them have had a “successful” one. Some are very embarrassed at the fact that they have a “dating profile” online. Then others are more liberal and think there is nothing wrong with it, but still I believe both are after the same thing. “No issues, nice personality, can make me smile, blah blah blah, the usual”. Is this truly what everyone wants; is it true that everyone seems to want the same thing? Like they say there are many ways to skin a cat. It just seems to me people only express themselves on what they want in one way though. On the contrary I have met more people who are not sure what they want out of a relationship, or can’t understand why they keep getting into relationship that does not work out.
Well guys seem to hugely abuse this online dating thing. The girls I have met that does online dating, just keep complaining how guys lie on their apparent profiles, even the pictures are fake. And this of course does not help much the honest people who are online to actually meet someone worth dating.
Yet again the promise of technology is foiled by the ignorance of common people.
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( 3 / 78 )I like this pic a lot!
;)
Pretty much the feeling that was going around at Loftus Versveld this last Saturday. I believe the Blue Bulls should thank their stars for getting that last try in for the win. Overall the game play was not very impressive, and a lot of criticism coming from the crowds.
I must give it to the Australian and New Zealand players, they earn their salaries. Its like the South African's play with a mindset of being at the field position that want to be at, not where they should be to support the team. Classic highschool mentally, standing somewhere waiting for the ball to come to you so that you of all people can score that try.
Hopefully soon we South Africans will get our heads out and start thinking where we should be on the field.
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