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Wednesday, February 11th, 2009
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11:24 am - Birthday at 27
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So today it will be 27 years since I came into this world naked and screaming at all the large ugly brutes in the white masks in the hospital. Not much to say, eh? But there is another milestone related to this particular birthday.
It was ten years ago that I was watching the show "Road Rovers", pretty much hooking me as a fan and putting me on a path to eventually wind up here as an artist and writer and meeting so many great people. So, yay! ^^
Also, it was on my birthday in 1990 that Nelson Mandela walked out of prison a free man. So, yay again! ^^
current mood:  jubilant
current music: Kim Wilde - Kids In America
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| Thursday, December 25th, 2008
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11:04 pm - Festive Well Wishes!
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Holy fishsticks, it's been ages since I last made a post on this thing. At least I got a good reason for it. ^^
So here's to a Merry Christmas and a Festive, Blessed and Prosperous for all! Enjoy it to the max! *hugs and candycanes for all*
Okay, back to bed.... zzzzzzz
current mood: jubilant
current music: Monrose - Hot Summer (Radio Edit)
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| Tuesday, June 24th, 2008
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11:36 am - Subject? There's no subject here
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It was quite a busy weekend last week and by busy I mean that a lot of things happened that kind of drove up the excitement level. The big three:
1. Car crash on Thursday night - Yeah, once again some poor sap goes and smashes his car up on our street turn. This time two (slightly drunk) kids drove into a lamp post after one fell asleep. Fortunately neither of them were injured, but the car was totalled and our street went dark becuase the lamp post was uprooted. Whoa...
2. Hail storm on Friday - Hard to believe it, but we had a hail storm right in the middle of winter here in the Free State. The hail the size of pigeon eggs dropped down and turned our entire street into Switzerland. It was that much hail: it looked like a snow storm had hit us. And once again our veranda roof was leaking like the Titanic while my mom lamented the loss of several flowers that got whacked by the hail.
3. New PC on Saturday - W00T! I got a brand new PC up and running thanks to my good friend Leon (thanks, Leon!). A dual core PC with a GE9600 card, 2GB RAM, 160GB HD. It was hard work to get the thing working, but after doing the work and finally setting up all my programs, I played Oblivion (a real resource pig on my old PC) and I was like... OMG I L33T!!! Yup, a darn good investment. And now I also have a power supply that DOESN'T sit on the CPU like the old PC.
Now excuse me, I got to check out Far Cry on this rig...
current mood: cheerful
current music: Breath of Fire III - Pure Again
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| Monday, June 2nd, 2008
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10:24 am - Xenophobia
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Boy, the last month or so has been a nasty one for South Africa. The xenophobic violence that occured in parts of the country went from a single, isolated incident to a national emergency in record time. The images that appeared in newspapers, on the news and the Internet was like the 1980s and early 1990s all over again. Things have been calm recently, but it was not good for the image of a country planning to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Some people have asked me if I was all right, but luckily (?) almost all the violence occured in townships and the poorer parts of the big cities and not in the middle-class suburbs, and there wasn't reports of xenophobia here in Bloemfontein.
Still, it was kind of scary seeing people running around looting foreign-owned shops, setting fire to shacks and even necklacing foreigners (for those who don't know, necklacing was a tactic used by township residents during the apartheid era to punish informants. It involved putting a car tire filled with petrol around a person's neck and setting it on fire. Not a pretty sight). And as usual, the government of Thabo Mbeki was caught off guard by a crisis that everyone saw coming from kilometres away. I'm starting to think I may vote for Jacob Zuma (or even George W. Bush if he was South African), if only to get rid of Mbeki and his idiot of a government.
Okay, enough politics already...
current mood: working
current music: Bassnectar - Carried Away
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| Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
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12:01 pm - Load-shedding blues
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Okay, we've been lucky not to get our power cut for about a few weeks. But this sudden cold weather that appeared out of nowhere is causing electricity consumption to go up 12% and now we're at risk of being left in the dark. I shudder to think what's going to happen when winter comes round.
And now one of my job's recording PC's has been restarting on its own, causing me to lose broadcasts that were supposed to be recorded. I did a check up, and I can hear an odd noise coming from each PC's power supply. I'm no tech expert, but I know that busted fan = overheating = restarting. And since these things have been running almost non-stop since 2003... guess I might have to tell the folks in Pretoria we need new power supplies.
current mood: complacent
current music: MissFlag - Still Alive (Portal)
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| Wednesday, March 26th, 2008
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3:31 pm - Nature Is Hardcore
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On Friday night I heard thunder coming, so I went and turned off and unplugged all my PCs and the ADSL modem. Less than 15 minutes later, while I was in the bathroom in pitch darkness, a bolt of lightning came out of the blue and struck the telephone pole that stood at the corner of our backyard. I saw it through the window, and the noise it made wasn't the crack of thunder, but rather like a gun being fired off very loudly. And the rest of the night until around 4AM was a constant barrage of lighting and rain. But the damage was done: our telephone lines were dead.
Only yesterday did the fellow from Telkom come and fix the problem, and that's when we discovered the full extent of the damage: the lighting has fried not only the box at the top of the telephone pole but also the ENTIRE cable that ran from the pole to our house. He had to replace the entire line with a new cable. And finally our phones were back online.
But not before my ADSL modem's power supply also decided to pack up on Sunday. 9_9
If lighting could speak, it would say only one thing...
"OWNAGE!"
current mood: busy
current music: Weird Al Yankovic - Trash Day
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| Tuesday, March 4th, 2008
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9:20 pm - Four months on
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The past Sunday we went to my sister's church so we could attend the baptism of Edané (got her name right now). Decked out in a small white dress that my sister apparently wore when she was young, Edané stayed with my mom in the Mother Room in the church until the baptism. And when that happened, Edané was a quiet little girl all the way. I've seen quite a few baptisms in my life to know that babies tended to begin crying as soon as the water was splashed on their heads. Speaking of heads, she (like me) didn't approve of the ribbon that was tied around her head. Heh.
Next the day I got to hold her for the first time after a brief lesson from sis and Mom, and from these past two days' events I learnt one important lesson in life:
Babies are heavy.
current mood:  hungry
current music: Portal - Still Alive
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| Tuesday, February 19th, 2008
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8:56 pm - A photo of me
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| Saturday, February 16th, 2008
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5:47 am - Got a camera!
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Thanks to the money I recieved from my family on my birthday, and the funds I got from babysitting house, I was able to buy myself a nice digital camera yesterday! Time to take some nice photos! ^_^
current mood: happy
current music: Fat Boy Slim - Right Here, Right Now
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| Monday, February 11th, 2008
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10:15 pm - I'm turning 26 today! How time flies...
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Wow, and it felt like only yesterday I was turning 25, and now I'm at 26. A friend of mine was right: time does go faster as you grow older. :P
current mood: Older
current music: Sacred Spirit - Yeha Noha
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| Thursday, January 17th, 2008
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7:14 pm - Load Shedding Lameness
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What a way to start the year. Eskom, our national electricity supplier has begun implementing load shedding, where they cut power to towns and cities to meet demand. We've been experiencing blackouts of 2 to 2 1/2 hours each day this week, and it's disrupting my work because I loose out on a lot of news items and my employers up in Centurion's servers are regularly off due to power cuts.
The reason for all of this is because South Africa, despite having had impressive economic growth, has not built a single new power plant in 20 YEARS. Eskom was warned 9 nine years ago that they would need more power plants, and what did they do? They said "Thanks" and that's it. Present period: we got enough electricity to meet demand, but there isn't much of a suplus. This means if a power plant breaks down or maintenance needs to be done, there is envitably a shortfall. And now everyone is pointing fingers at Eskom, which is actually state-owned.
So let's please give a stinky foot to Eskom, the Lord of the Darkness.
In some good news, I'm finally done looking after the house accross the street and I've gotten a good pay for it too. Now I'll be aiming to buy myself a digital camera when my birthday comes round in February. ^_^
current mood:  annoyed
current music: Deus Ex - UNATCO
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| Monday, December 24th, 2007
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6:04 pm - Last Word for 2007
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A Merry and Blessed Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New 2008 to all my friends! ^^
*paws out hugs and candy canes*
current mood: cheerful
current music: Susumu Hirasawa - Yume no Shima Shinen Kouen
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| Sunday, December 16th, 2007
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7:30 am - Yay!
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Grabbed it off Dylie, and I got a blue one like I wanted. ^^ Funny, it's very true.
| You Should Have a Blue Christmas Tree | 
For you, the holidays represent a time of calm, understanding, and peace.
You avoid family fights, and you don't get too stressed out - even when things are crazy!
You like to make Christmas about making everyone's life a little bit better.
You don't get caught up in greed or commercialism. You're too sincere for that.
Your blue tree would look great with: Lots of silver tinsel
You should spend Christmas Eve watching: It's a Wonderful Life
What you should bake for Santa: Chocolate chip cookies |
current mood: touched
current music: Portal - Still Alive
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| Monday, December 3rd, 2007
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10:17 pm - Flying sucks
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All right, not the actual flying part. Being in an aircraft flying kilometres above the earth and looking through the window down at the countryside is really a wonderful experience, even if much of my flight from Bloemfontein to Johannesburg and back was obscured by clouds.
It's what happens before the flight that sucks. Let me explain.
Last week Tuesday my bosses called me and said they wanted to fly me to their offices to get training on a new system we will soon be using. They booked me on an 8AM flight on Thursday and on a 15:10PM flight back on the same day. So I got ready for my first-ever flight on an aircraft. I arrived at the airport an hour and a half before takeover as according to my ticket (and this little detail would cause me massive grief later on). I went through security and sat to wait for the my flight... then the announcer came up and told us the flight was delayed by 45 minutes. Swell. Called me bosses and let them know, then sat and played with my fingers before it was time to fly, an hour after I was supposed to.
After the flight, I was taken to the offices to get training, which was an hour's drive from OR Thambo International. Got the training, met my bosses and colleagues face-to-face and such. Then it was time to go, but my colleagues wanted to show me the new offices they were moving to. I told them about the hour and a half that I had to show up before flying time, but they told me the internet (whcih I'm assuming is the SAA website) said 30 minutes is fine. So I was taken on a quick tour, then the drive to the airport. We arrived there and we went to the check ins. After being sent to the wrong queue, I got to the checkin counter 25 minutes before the flight...
"Sorry. Check in closes half an hour before the flight. You're late and you miss your flight."
Whee. I miss my flight, and so do twenty other people as well.
As a result, my colleagues tried to argue with airport management while making a scene, while I just stood there feeling embarressed at their rather childish behaviour (airports do funny things to people, apparently: I saw many other passengers making similar gestures and drama scenes that would make a soap opera writer envious). Finally, we managed to book me another flight, at a penalty for the "upgrade". R580? Hell, you could buy a new ticket with that. So I was booked on the 16:25PM. Then they told me it was delayed by 3 hours. Oh joy.
So my colleagues left me there to wait at the airport since they really had to get back to work. I was left to idle at the terminal, sitting on the observation deck watching the planes take off and land. All the while the flight board showed my flight was delayed. About 20 minutes before takeoff it was still showing delayed in red and I was getting worried. So I went to the check-in. They said it was still delayed, but that I could go to the gate and wait there. So I did. Waited at the gate with nothing going on at the counter and the flight board still showing my flight is delayed. So I asked the fellow at the counter what was going on.
The bus left for the plane barely 2 minutes after I got on. I had almost missed that flight as well.
Seriously, next time I'm taking a bus.
current mood: productive
current music: BO Matrix - The Woman In The Red Dress
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| Sunday, November 25th, 2007
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12:18 pm - Not looking good
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My sister's two pomeranians are getting old, and nowhere is this more evident than with the brown-furred Tinkie. My parents just visited my sister and brother-in-law, and they saw that Tinkie is looking pretty bad. He can't eat, is very thin and his teeth are going very bad. As a result, he can no longer swallow the pills needed for the water on his lungs and his weakened heart. Ryan is giving him antibiotics, but it's only a matter of time before they have to decide whether to put him to sleep...
... the thought of that is making me feel very ill...
current mood: depressed
current music: John Carpenter - Assault On Precint 13 (1978)
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| Monday, November 19th, 2007
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9:18 pm - Classified Garden Gnomes
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A short time ago my dad brought a 3GB thumbnail drive back from the car dealership he was working at. Seems it was lying there when someone took it for a test drive and then forgot it. So he brought to me after no one came to claim it. It had been lying here for a month or two now, so I decided to go and have a look at its contents, perhaps hoping to find the owner's contact numbers. So I plugged it in and had a look.
Contents indeed. Not only was there no contact numbers, but there were files that mentioned stuff like "tank divisions" and "ration supplies" amongst the expected Games folders and personal letters. I opened the files, and there was: RESTRICTED. This thumbdrive belonged to someone who was in the army, and I'm guessing he was brass too!
Now I'm sitting with this thumbdrive, wondering whether I should just wipe the whole thing clean and claim it for myself. After all, these small keyholder drives are not cheap.
In other news, I'm still enjoying Voyage Century Online and the Half-Life Orange Box. Right now its Episode 2 as I try and go for the Little Rocket Man achievement. For those of you who don't know, this involves me lugging around a little garden gnome with a bright red, pointy hat from the start of the game all the way to a rocket near the end of the game and putting him inside prior to launching it into space. A pretty challenging one, especially when you finally get the car. The darn gnome refuses to stay in the vehicle, devenstrating himself whenever you turn slightly or even go over 5 kph, forcing you to go and pick up the little (censored). And don't even get me started when you have to do these exact same things only with an attack chopper shooting at you. >
current mood:  contemplative
current music: 'Weird Al' Yankovic - Trash Day
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| Monday, October 29th, 2007
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9:02 pm - It's a girl! And I'm an uncle!
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My sister went for a ceasarian operation today, and little Edanei was born at 3:25PM. We went to the hospital and met the happy family there. The little girl was so cute! And of course soon she will be talking and calling me uncle...
I'm definitely not a kid anymore, heh. ^^; Anyway, who wants a bubblegum cigar?
current mood: jubilant
current music: Monty Python - Always Look on the Bright Side of Life
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| Saturday, October 20th, 2007
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10:54 pm - Go Bokke!!!
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| Monday, August 27th, 2007
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9:34 pm - Nostalgia
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I recently got a bit of nostalgia for my early days of gaming, so I went, searched the web and finally downloaded F-19 Stealth Fighter and its updated version F-117 Stealth Fighter. Then I booted them up using DosBox.
To give some background: back in the 1980s my dad bought a computer for my sister to use. I can't remember what its specs were, but I do remember the screen was Hercules Monochrome (which meant in came in two colours - black and various shades of yellow). Anyway, I didn't play much on it even though there were games on it. Mostly I was building model airplanes and boats on the desk with it. Then one day came a new game from my late brother-in-law: F-19. I played it for a while and soon I was hooked. My first case of acute gaming ever.
Playing it today, I can fondly remember how much I enjoyed playing the game for hours as well as, in retrospect, how much I was screwing up. Right now I'm still messing around in training mode until I can land properly. Still, it's a good trip down memory lane. ^^
current mood: content
current music: Jeremy Soule - 13 swimming
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| Monday, August 20th, 2007
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3:54 pm - Hello, high speed!
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Finally, after much struggling and hair pulling, I'm surfing the web on ADSL. Goodbye, 56k dial-up. You server me well. Now... WOOT! ^^
Except for the 3GIG monthly cap. Thanks, Telkom, for hindering South Africa into the future. >
current mood:  crazy
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