Hardwon Samadhi

Going On - Gnarls Barkley

2008-07-10T08:50:00.001+02:00

I love this song and video

Goodbye KFC

2008-07-03T11:02:00.002+02:00

Watch more videos at KentuckyFriedCruelty.com.

I cant believe this. Well actually I can. KFC has always been a guilty pleasure of mine but not anymore. I simply cannot condone a company that does this kind of thing. It has no respect for its produce which to me means it has no respect for its customers.

Please somebody tell me Nandos dnt work this way.

Mandela Speaks

2008-07-01T22:33:00.001+02:00

What is going wrong?

2008-06-28T14:20:00.005+02:00

Something is going seriously wrong. Why the ANCYL needs a leader like Malema I cannot understand. I know that there are still dedicated, intelligent comrades in the ANCYL who if given the chance can be great leaders like Vuyiswa Tulelo, so how did we end up with Malema and what exactly can Malema do for the youth of this country? What went wrong?

My faith in the ANC is really being tested.

Malema see's a hopeless situation in the country. This is the only explanation for his tone and demeanor. He is set to "kill" and he is set to for yet another "revolution". Unless I have been fast asleep for the last 14 years the revolution has taken place and we won. What we need know is concentration and effort to ensure the revolution is not unravel through loss of focus and mediocrity.

What we need know is for an ANCYL president who can mobilise our youth to build the country, to study hard, to work hard to get thier asses into gear so that the country is bettered.

So, let’s see, who are those who are to be killed?
Xolela Mangcu

I CANNOT say I know how to kill. I have thus been racking my brain lately trying to imagine what lurks in the mind of would-be killers Julius Malema, leader of the African National Congress Youth League, and Zwelinzima Vavi, secretarygeneral of the Congress of South African Trade Unions.

I presume the first order of business would be identifying who is to be killed. We can of course speculate on the targets. It’s really easy, actually. We can do a sectoral analysis of who the enemies of the revolution might be — the same as the enemies of Jacob Zuma. Given that this is grave business I would not dare to mention names but the targets are all those who have been deemed to be persecuting Zuma. I think it is also fair to speculate that a couple of judges, including judges of the Constitutional Court, would be strong candidates. Then I am sure there are those members of the media who have been writing all those nasty op-ed pieces and columns about Zuma.

Folks, you better start going through your writings to see whether this is not the time to issue apologia. As for me, I’m not sure. Sometimes I’ve defended the man and sometimes I’ve excoriated him. But for those in the business of killing there is no time for “on the one hand he was with us; on the other hand he was against us”.

Then there are all those women who marched against Zuma during the rape trial. They know who you are, and they will be coming for you in the dark of night. I am sure the list of possible victims is inexhaustible.

Let us then move on to consider the method of death. Will Vavi, Malema and their gang of warriors shoot the enemies in the head even as they plead for their lives? Or will they dismember them in full view of the world to teach others a lesson? Will they set them ablaze in the manner of Ernesto Nhamuave?

And will they laugh around the burning bodies while singing revolutionary songs? Or will they simply do what many leaders did during the 1980s, which was simply to issue orders to the foot soldiers. In those days the leaders could still go around sipping champagne at society gatherings, knowing full well that the killing machines were in full swing in the townships.

Like Liberia’s Charles Taylor, the leaders can now still go about their business knowing full well of the death and destruction. Occasionally the cellphone will ring and they will politely ask to be excused from the dinner table so they can get progress reports from the killing fields.

But then again I do not know what it must be like to snuff out someone’s life, whether in defence of the revolution or of a friend or a comrade, or for any reason for that matter. I suspect I was never much of a revolutionary in that sense.

To be sure, oppression has forced groups of people to take up arms because they had no choice. But there is something fundamentally sick about a so-called democratic society in which so-called leaders speak so casually and brazenly about the ready availability of death as a method of settling political and legal disputes.

Our leaders have over the years shown us how to be immune to death. People have been dying every day in our communities — from the scourge of HIV/AIDS to the brutality of Zimbabwe to the criminality and the celebration of burning bodies. So when we begin to die at the hands of the revolutionaries there will be nothing extraordinary about it. And it will be just another day on the job for the revolutionaries. If they play golf, which I suspect they do, it will be par for the course.

But you know what? There is a part of me that says the sooner they bring the death the better. Maybe that will be our baptism as yet another African country that could not resist the postcolonial propensity for violence. A baptism by fire for sure, but a baptism nonetheless.

But the question will always linger: how did a once proud freedom movement become a party of death?

Beyond Milk Cartons: Keeping kids safe in a digital world

2008-06-24T21:42:00.002+02:00

If you are a parent who allow their kids onto the Net, this is a must see video. Even if you don't have kids this is a must see video.

A Google Policy Talk exploring the mission and challenges of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Karmic Consequence

2008-06-23T15:32:00.000+02:00

The concept of Karmic Consequence has been playing on my mind a lot recently. There is nothing revelatory in the concept of Karmic Consequence, what's interesting me is the idea of pursuing positive Karmic Consequence. Should one bother about this? Should this be a naturally occurring event that requires no premeditation?

We all try on some level to do good and put out good into the universe. But should we be trying to do this intentionally? Should we be analysing (or over analysing, which ever the case may be) this? If you wish to perform an act of generosity should you consider the impact and extend of that act or will simply performing the act result in the same degree of Karmic consequence?

In a way it's almost trivial to consider Karmic consequence if all actions of a similar kind have the same weighting in consequence. But looking at the concept in another way - assuming the weighting is different - you can see how profound the results could be.

Does keeping ones mind on the Karmic consequence distract one from living in the present?

So many questions, so much to think about.

Love Love Love

2008-06-09T14:02:00.000+02:00

My new favourite song is the Lenny Kravitz tune Love Love Love. I find myself in the lyrics and the groove of this song, and its a good feeling.

Don't need no television
Don't need no movie stars
Don't need custom private planes
Don't need no politicians
Don't need no stocks and bonds
Don't need no cars or boats or trains
Don't need no diamond jewellery
Don't need no rare cigars
Don't need no magnums of champagne
Don't need no penthouse mansion
Don't need no Paris fashion
Don't need no shiny golden chain

There ain't nothing you can give me I'm already there
I got love
I got love love
I got love love love

Don't need no plastic surgery
Don't need no country clubs
Don't need no butlers, cooks or maids
Don't need no marijuana
Don't need no ecstasy
Don't need no blow or sleeping aids
Don't need no personal trainer
Don't need no fortune teller
Don't need no job that gets me paid
Don't need no more religion
Don't need no air condition
Don't need no one to get me laid

There ain't nothing you can give me I'm already there
I got love
I got love love
I got love love love

Your ways are never ever static
You're always keeping it erratic
I want you to know I'm emphatic
About your love that's enigmatic
You, me and God makes three
My eyes are open I see
Oh baby don't you understand

Don't need no private island
Don't need no chandelier
Don't need no million dollar view
Don't need no helicopter
Don't need no magazine
Don't need nobody else but you

There ain't nothing you can give me I'm already there
I got love
I got love love
I got love love love

You're all I need
Oh yeah

There ain't nothing you can give me I'm already there
I got love
I got love love
I got love love love

Damn Butterflies

2008-06-06T10:31:00.000+02:00

Sometimes doing the right thing means doing nothing at all. Sometimes doing something is the wrong thing.

I've been contemplating this.

I've been contemplating the conditions under which intervention would be acceptable. Is intervention ever acceptable? I've never been one to stick my nose into other peoples business unless it directly impacted on me.

Intervening takes a lot of work. But then I consider this: if we are all interconnected then surely not intervening in someone elses predicament (I'm not thinking of anyone in particular) will have a negative impact on you? I am chasing Lorez's butterflies very hard on this one.

Crazy Wisdom

2008-06-01T22:54:00.001+02:00

Some delicious food for thought (taken from the Buddha Warrior).

People aren’t random enough. They should say more funny things and do more funny stuff. A few nights ago my housemate said to me, ‘I want to go out’ so I said, ‘let’s go clubbing downtown this Friday.’ And then he shook his head and said, ‘I want to do something wild; something stupid. I want to do something I’ll regret later.’ So I laughed and asked why. He said ‘because I feel like I haven’t done enough crazy things as a young person.’

So I suggested we go and steal a roadworks sign. It was mostly a joke. But I think this is the result of people who don’t engage in crazy wisdom. They see so much potential for humour, parody, and satire in their daily lives but they don’t act on it; worse still, they don’t parody themselves, which is the conceptual starting point for crazy wisdom. It is the best way to entertain kids and also means you don’t need to watch your own back as often. I don’t censor myself because there’s a difference between verbal censorship and manners. As long you follow guidelines (in the Buddhist tradition, it must not be gossip, nor can it be directed in a way that is unbeneficial, and it is unacceptable to say something for its own sake), you will generally be able to treat others with the according decorum.

A lot of adults get caught up in ‘manners’ and end up with no humour. It’s a lousy attitude. We should risk more, to risk laughter. This is a separate endeavour from politeness. Politeness is often equated with ‘distance’. That’s only for people you don’t know. But crazy wisdom brings laughter no matter who experiences it.

I’m not a Catholic, but Pope Benedict XVI put it best: ‘Humour is… an essential element in the mirth of Creation.’ So damn true. In particular, it is the light-hearted occasions that really allow writers, philosophers, poets and artists to get back on track when they need to do serious work. Crazy wisdom also acts as a ‘gauge’ for you to tell how grounded you are in the problems of everyday life, and best of all, you can’t be accused of insulting others, because this humour is as random as greeting someone with ‘Yahoo!’

Triple Whammy May

2008-05-29T21:35:00.003+02:00

The past two weeks and bit have hit me hard.

First the violent craziness that unearthed itself in Gauteng put me into a little bit of a funk - from listening to the talk shows i think it put most people in Gauteng into a funk.

The realisation that the people who were not most "directly" (i use this word loosley) linked to the craziness - an old immigrant couple, people living in the suburbs, a mother of two young girls who has her business in the effected area and the owner of day care centre in a suburb - were the only ones I could see who really gave a damn and wanted to help out in some way was very disheartening.

Then I ended up contracting the flu. I hate the flu, its such a nuisance. Then on top of that I had to have the flu when our weather decided to turn nasty, cold and wet. I like the sun; grey skies for too long gets to me. The flu and the bad weather put me even deeper into a funk.

To top it all of, yesterday we had to fly down to Durban to see Michelle's father. He was attacked earlier in the morning by two Zulu youth. They wanted to rob him as he walked to the bus station. He managed to fight the much younger men off but was stabbed in the shoulder in the process of kicking their asses.

Also I have not been able to take a decent run in all this time.

All of these things combined has made this May one of the shittiest months I can remember.

Immortality is Ours

2008-05-29T21:34:00.001+02:00

I spent a fair amount of each day on the internet. A lot of my communication (personal and professional) takes places across the internet. I've pretty much placed most of my life online.

At first this migration started out as a neat way to experiment with all these cool new technologies and concepts. Then it became a cool way to communicate and share ideas with some really interesting people. Now I'm seeing that my life online is becoming a great way to (unintentionally) immortalise myself. That sound egotistical but it's true.

I'm able to view how I felt and what I was thinking from a few years back by using a couple of simple search tools. This electronic immortality is amazing and a little terrifying. On my blog alone I have little spats with people; do I really want this to be available in 50 years time? The benefits for someone like my daughter is that in 50 years time she can pull up a perspective on her old man and when I am no longer here she can still retain some clear sense of who I was - which I guess would give her a greater sense of who she is.

So I think it’s a good thing to be able to develop and leave this electronic footprint behind. Of course it can be manipulated by those who were really intent on malice. But I will place my trust in the universe and in the odds that I am not so important to the world that I will become a target.

Fowl Foul and Unpleasant Owner

2008-05-23T22:37:00.001+02:00

We opted to order take out from the new Indian restaurant on Queen str in Kensington Guju Cuisine. When we arrived at the restaurant we were attended to by Lina (co-owner) she was excellent. We ordered 2 chicken dishes & a veg dish. When we got home my wife discovered that her chicken dish was off. She called the place & spoke with Lina. She offered to replace the entire meal and was outraged and apologetic. My wife initially accepted the replacement but then declined the offer as it was getting too late for us, but we were impressed by Linas response to our dissatisfaction. However at about 9pm the same evening my wife got a call from the other owner of the restaurant Julian who insisted on coming to our home to pick up the problematic meal. We reluctantly agreed since Julian was pushing his case that the dish could not be off. He arrived at our home and then began to loudly argue with my wife in our drive way. His tone and manner changed when I arrived in the drive way. You don’t insist on coming to a customer's home and yell at them not to tell other people about the experience & you certainly don't imply that the customer is lying to you and that you will be testing the dish.

The men are going to War!

2008-05-22T14:56:00.003+02:00

"The men are going to War!" These were the terrifying words that came through my cell phone. I had called one of my employees to find out how she was doing; she was trapped in her home at the Ramaphosa Informal Settlement on the East Rand of Gauteng. All around her the world has gone mad. She had been trapped in her own home for the last five days.

She was witness to a South African national being beaten nearly to death because he felt the need to go to work to earn his living. She was witness to enraged unemployed men seeking vengeance on those they blamed (foreigners) for their poor existence. She was witness to the poor killing the poor. She was witness to a police force that needed thousands of rounds of ammunition, one strong leader (who was suspended prior to this outbreak of xenophobic attacks) and 5 days to calm one enflamed settlement.

Everything she witnessed she relayed back to me, I was her connection to the outside world. I was the only contact point that could tell her that help was coming (I prayed it was) and that she needed to keep her head down.

I have been amazed by how stunned and lead footed the government has been by this madness. I am stunned mainly because many in government have dealt with similar levels of violence through the 70's, 80's and the early parts of the 90's. It occurs to me that the man who was ousted in Polokwane (Mbeki) is truly at a loss. It took the president 4 days to act un-presidential and to announce that his plan of action was to establish a panel to investigate the violence. He was "interested" in finding the roots of the violence.

I have this image in my head of Mbeki playing on a fiddle and another image of his ministers playing see no evil, hear no evil.

The madness of the past couple of days was ignited in Alexandra to the North of Johannesburg but Alexandra was not the first sign of the hatred that has been brewing towards foreigners (especially poor foreigners) the Alexandra madness follows similar attacks on Somalis, Zimbabweans and Pakistanis in the Eastern Cape, in the Western Cape and recently in Atteridgeville to the West of Pretoria. All of these attacks have stretched over several months. How did our intelligence community not pick up that something was wrong? Maybe they were too busy bugging politicians and gunning for Zuma?

Everyone knew this would happen. Everyone knows of the hatred aimed at the "Amakwerekwere". Mbeki cannot be surprised by all of this, surely he with all his native intelligence could not be this out of touch with reality?! What am I saying; of course he is out of touch with reality that’s how he got ambushed in Polokwane.

This week someone told me they could understand why poor South Africans were resorting to such barbaric behaviour. He tried to explain that hunger makes a man do horrible things. I can't bring myself to understand how a hungry, unhoused and unemployed person could bring themselves to set another human being alight and then delight in the murder they had just caused. I can't bring myself to understand how the hungry, unhoused and unemployed mobs could murder men and women simply to steal their meagre possessions. I can't understand how so much evil can be unleashed and not be checked by the good - maybe there is just too few good people left?

I know why the hungry, unhoused and unemployed feel aggrieved. How would you feel if you were competing for limited resources with a competitor who was in most cases better educated than you are (Zimbabwe was noted for his high literacy rates) and competing for the same jobs as you but was willing to work for less than what you were willing to work for? I can understand why you would be angry. I can't understand how that anger drives you to dehumanise yourself by committing the most foulest of crimes in the most evil of manners.

I am not oblivious to the suffering the poor experience. The past few years I've mainly focused my mind and energy on the issue of basic service delivery to the millions of indigent we have in this country. Despite the successes the government wants to boast about the reality is that these millions of indigents have seen a minimal improvement in the quality of their lives.

What use is having access to clean drinking water if you can't get a job to feed yourself and your family? What use is a short term contract on an Expanded Public Works project when it barely pays you enough to survive and is short term work? Yet the spin doctors in government would want us to believe that because they have spent billions they have got back a greater degree of value as could be measured in the improvement in the quality of life of the poor.

Critics of the government and the ANC have come out screaming that these attacks are a direct result of poor ANC policy. I disagree with this type of critic. I disagree because it is naive and clearly devoid of any real understanding of how government operates.

In my opinion the ANC has many good policies as well as many stupid policies such as the unofficial policy of quiet diplomacy which has protected the likes of Mugabe and the Burmese Junta, the flawed ANC idea of a Media Tribunal and Labour policies that have not found the balance between the protection of labourers rights and the requirements to grow an economy.

Where the ANC has failed been is at policy implementation. They are not oblivious to the reality either. Home Affairs does not function properly because its systems and procedures are a mess, Local Government is a mess because its accountability structures are easily hijacked - mainly by ANC officials, Officials willing refuse to apply their minds to thinking long term of critical issues such as infrastructure - almost 5 years ago I knew about the failing road infrastructure issue and how much it was going to cost because I happened to be sitting in on a infrastructure task team meeting, 5 years ago, I don’t want to talk about electricity.

The ANC has failed its own policies. The build houses not communities, the provide free services but have not seriously though through the issue of exit strategies from state subsidies into formal employment that will provide a good quality of life. The ANC government for some mysterious reason has become check sheet driven; they have become obsessed with scorecards and the appearance of things. Maybe under the new leadership this will all change - I hope so. Mbeki's ANC - which frankly is not my ANC - has spent more time and energy carefully developing their spin doctoring and denial-ist routine than anything else - HIV, Zimbabwe, Arms Deal, Selebi. It's pathetic.

The poor are taking out the frustrations at remaining in the poverty trap on foreigners because they are a convenient scape goat. In other words they are angry that the ANC has not been able to implement its policies fast enough. Honestly I would not be surprised to find that the mysterious third force is in fact ANC councillors who were put under the hammer by their communities. I have seen first hand how councillors are willing to twist perception and the rules to get themselves out of jam quickly i.e. rather have the angry mob murder the foreigners than me.

This is not to say that Xenophobia is not a real issue. If there was a hierarchy of causes I would say that Xenophobia would have to equal frustrations on lack of service delivery at the top of that hierarchy. Our obsession with hating foreigners is almost a national past time. Being Indian I know that within the broader Indian community there is a high degree of racist/xenophobic attitudes towards other Indians, it’s the same in the black communities. Sarah Britten explains it best:

To call a non-Shangaan a Shangaan is considered a grave insult, because Shangaans are viewed as country bumpkins, if not actually subhuman. A substandard type of wors in the townships is known as Shangaan wors. Pedi people have bad body odour. Xhosas are ambitious, cunning and tend to look out for each other, hence the Xhosa Nostra theory, also known as the iLuminati. Zulus are dumb but strong and brave — most security guards are Zulu — and rely too much on Indians. Sothos are lazy; probe far enough into the family history of most criminals and you’ll find a Sotho. And you won’t get far in Durban if you’re a Pondo.

My own analysis is that the causes of these attacks have been:

Xenophobic attitudes
High levels of frustration linked to government slow and broken service delivery
Opportunistic violence and criminality - this week we had to intervene as a small mob was beating up school children that they thought looked foreign!
Political instigation - In Alexandra the IFP and SANCO were the ones to instigate.

The mayhem seems to have calmed down a bit. We wait to see how things develop. The haltered and resentment has once again been bottled up - it was probably strong amounts of the bottled stuff that let it out in the first place. But it has not gone away, it won't go aware, it can't go away until we have dealt properly with the issues that underlie what has lead to these attacks

The severe violent nature of these attacks (and general criminality in South Africa) is in my opinion a left over from the violence and mayhem that plagued the country during the 70's, 80's and 90's. The vast majority of those who either witnesses or participated in gruesome acts like necklacings are still trapped in the poverty in our townships. No one has been able to reach out and heal them; can you imagine the degrees of post traumatic stress disorder? There are thousands if not millions of people for whom extreme violence is part and parcel of who they are because they lived through the blood crazy quiet civil war that we had in this country leading up to our liberation (Greg Marinovich and Joao Silva book - The Bang-Bang Club: Snapshots from a Hidden War will give you great insight).

South Africa needs to find new ways to deal with this angry, violent, sleeping beast. Unfortunately we have no more Mandela's or Hani's who will step into the chaos (looks like the closest we have is Robert McBride).

I have been both moved and disappointed by the reaction of people to this crisis. Some people have been amazing; organising food, shelter and other necessities that the refugees needed. Others have been pathetic, someone actually told me that they only support those who support themselves and that they only give money to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

It's sad to consider Edmund Burke's words "All it takes for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing."

There is no Crisis in South Africa

2008-04-18T08:42:00.003+02:00

They tell us crime happens everywhere. Of course it fucking does. But in South Africa crime is like something out of those over budgeted Hollywood shoot em ups. There is a shit load of shooting and then someone dies.

Its 8:43am at about 8:00am my amigo Roy Blumenthal took some video of the after math of a shoot out that took place right outside his home. Just another day in this crazy place. To paraphrase Typuac "To live and die in SA".

15 minutes in Rosebank

2008-04-15T13:14:00.003+02:00

I don’t know how long it's been since I've last been in Rosebank. It feels like years. I still don’t like the place. The fact that I can access the internet via the Ninos (Coffee Shop) wifi gateway or the by piggy backing off the wifi gateways of the other stores around the place seems to typify Rosebank for me. It doesn't server any purpose, it should not be here, it does not work, and I'm taking my frustration out on the waiter by not tipping him well. Fuck it.

It's not only the lack of internet access in the horribly dyslexic Rosebank that has me on edge today. Of late I seem to be running head first into deliberate ineptitude. The country it would seem is full of it; ineptness. Some one like us to believe that this ineptness is a new phenomenon in the country, it is a black thing. It is not. Ineptness is neither a new thing nor a black thing. I'm finding that the old guard are the most inept, they pose the greatest threat to the country because they know what to do but will choose to not o because their inaction either fattens their wallets or gives them pleasure in some perverse deconstructive way.

I'd like to deconstruct Rosebank in some perverse way. I don’t like to be in Rosebank. I'm here to pick up cup cakes for my daughters birthday party tomorrow. My wife went through a lot of trouble to find these cup cakes (they are supposed to be wondrous) so I don’t mind putting up with a few hours in Rosebank. This place is a façade build on top of bad plastic surgery.

There is no crisis in Zimbabwe says Thabo. Thabo is fucking nuts. Thank God the ANC has swung the other way. But are the populists (who openly contradict Thabo) only playing to the crowds? That's what populists do, don’t they? I'll wait and see. I have a time line.

My daughter turns a whole 1 year old tomorrow. 12 months have flow by. Life is too short. Next year this time she will be 2. Time flies. Life is too short. My very subjective reflection of Ariya's first year on earth is that she has lived it as a very content child. She fears little, dislikes only a few and embraces almost everything and everyone. She is brave and excited and looks at the world in wonder. On Sunday she had her faced covered in cake, damn I wish I had remembered to bring along my camera. What will the next year bring? Time flies. Life is too short.

What is happiness? Should we want to be happy? The Buddha was wise. Just be. That’s what I want to do, to just be. It's very difficult. Most days I think I have it, some days I don’t.

My 15 minutes are up, got to go get my cup cakes.

I won't be buying my X5 after all. I've been dithering a great deal about this purchase. When I dither about something it usually means I'm not happy. I can't seem to reconcile myself with buying this car. I'm just not 100% happy about it. I have reservations. Maybe I'm too much a sedan kind of guy. Maybe I should buy a cheaper four wheel drive vehicle and keep my sedan. I love sedans (especially the German ones) they are sleek and elegant and powerful and look cool. The X5 does not look cool. Maybe I'll wait for the X6. But I don’t think that will make me happy either. I am not attached to this car. My car is not me it won't make me happy.

Who wants to be happy? That’s an absurd thing to want to be.

Nudjit.com

2008-04-10T19:00:00.002+02:00

A great gadget review site, newly setup, is nudjit. I've found their reviews trustworthy and insightful. The guys that do the interviewing really love gadgets and are techies (for the most part) so know how to use the gadgets.

Give these guys your support and help grow a this gem of site.

Are you your image?

2008-04-09T12:31:00.004+02:00

Susan Piver asks us to ask the question "Do you know the difference between your image and yourself?". This is such a monumental question.

In a world where the personal brand seems to becoming the desired state are we fooling ourselves into believing that we are what we project to the world? From day one (almost) we start building the image that we want to project to the world - children have their image worked on by their parents and on it goes.

Are you really your BMW? Are you really your clothing? Are you really your Zenith watch? Of course you are none of these things.

In this world we work very hard at developing images of ourselves that will be acceptable to others, we work very hard to create an image that will allow us to sell ourselves. We need to sell ourselves because we need to survive. It's terribly unfair and terribly forced upon us by the media systems we have become so addicted to.

If you did not have the stuff you have, if people did not see you the way you have crafted your image would this disappointed your greatly? This really is a fundamental question. Are you your image? Can you exist without your image?

Don’t you feel like destroying something beautiful? By beautiful I am referring to that image you have carefully crafted. Your image really does disconnect you from the world it sets you apart, it makes you unique. Are you unique? Of course you are, everybody is unique but your image does not make you unique, your image is a façade. Facades are fake, there to hide the real.

What is it that the fictional Tyler Durden said "Listen up, maggots. You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as everything else", for harsh, but very true.

You are not your image, so what are you?

Why I love being my own boss

2008-03-20T13:42:00.002+02:00

I'm my own boss. Its hard being your own boss but the rewards a great. Here is my 10 ten reasons for why I love being my own boss:

I get to see my daughter grow up right in front of me - i don't miss out on anything
I get more time for myself and my family
I work as hard as I want (which is i figure is harder than i would if i worked for someone else)
I can do what I want
I get to learn everyday
I'm always challenged and love finding solutions to problems
There is more time to take care of myself
I can be as creative as I want, nobody else stifles me
I deserve what I get at the end of the day
I have no excuses

This quarter almost gone

2008-03-19T14:22:00.002+02:00

I dont like private number calls. Why does someone need to shield their number? (or not configure their phone network to broadcast their number?). I dont like private number calls because they usually spoil my mood. It ends up being the bank or somebody elese trying to sell me something i dont need. So they spoil my mood and waste my time. I've started reading the fine print on forms now - dont send my your marketing bullshit.

The first three months of the year are almost over. Wow, that was quick, too quick in fact. I'm up to my grey hairs working on a tought project. Its tought not because its technically challenging, its tough because logisitcally and functionally things within my client do not run smoothly. I cant say more than that without getting into trouble.

I am confused by how calm the country has become after the electricity mess in January. The mess is back in full effect and load shedding has become something to look forward to again. Fuck you Eskom and everyone who should have done thier jobs.

No one at Eskom has been fired and all we get is the bullshit that "we are in this together". Really are we all in this together? The millions who still do not have access to the first world benefits that are available in South Africa clearly are not in this together with us, for them its just another day in Mzanzi. For those of us who have benefited from South Africa's first world benefits we are shitting ourselves. How do you run a business, open up new business, keep people employed without electricity?

Somebody ought to take Eskom and government to court because they are violating our basic human rights.

The appeal of elsewhere is so strong.

On the plus side work is tough but going very well. Ariya is blosoming into a little lady. She is not one who will take shit lying down - thats a good quality for her to have even at this early stage. Michelle is finally getting the hell out of Pretoria / Tshwane (some body make your mind up) to work in Joburg - 10 mins from the house. How she does that drive to Pretoria / Tshwane everyday and still finds the time to look after a family is amazing. I do the trip to Pretoria/Tshwane occassionaly and get home wrecked.

I've finally started making full use of wifi in and around Joburg. I've been using GPRS off my phone to check mail, twitter, sync calendar and check my news feeds, but only in the past month have i started using the wifi capabilities through my notebook. - i need a new notebook - in fact i'm sitting at my favourite little coffee shop and typing up this post. Too bad the pricing is shite, as is most pricing in this country, but at least the service works. What this now means is that whenever the government and its ESKOM fail me i am able to travel out and plug into the cloud where i store my documents, email etc. Thank you Google.

This post is really sounding off about how annoyed i am about the second rate everything we seem to have in South Africa. My Ice Teas just arrived frozen, not cold, frozen. I'm not being unpatriotic. I’m MAD as HELL and I’m NOT going to take it anymore!

Speaking of frozen, my credit card was frozen by the bank. Some scumbag made a copy of my card and went crazy loco buying all kinds of nonsense. Fortunately ABSA's fraud division has smart systems in place that picked up the weird purchasing trend and stopped the card. Screw you bad guys. No free car for you.

Got to get something done for client...love you wifi.

31 and counting

2008-03-09T12:22:00.004+02:00

Yesterday I turned 31. I've started looking forward to my birthdays, this is largely due to my wife who always treats me to some fun outing. Yesterday we spent the whole day at a spa.

Spa's a great. I got the stresses all worked out of me.

My birthdays have become a great way to take a break almost 1/4 of the way through the year. This year i really needed that break.

As i'm getting older I'm becoming less and less attached to things, and less and less wanting of things. I really wanted to buy a new car this year as a reward for working hard. But I've lost the interest. I'm focusing more on the things that bring me a greater quality of life.

Life is simply too short to wait to he last moments to try and enjoy it.

Bernie Mac - My sisters Kids

2008-02-22T12:50:00.001+02:00

Every once in awhile I feel the pull to watch this skit. For me its one of the funniest I've ever seen.

My daughter is in for a hard time

2008-02-21T15:52:00.000+02:00

She better not pull anything with me.

I am Somebody

2008-02-15T17:28:00.000+02:00

Something to remember

I'm in a foul mood

2008-02-15T17:21:00.003+02:00

All because of some fat, pathetic women whose husband ran away as fast his legs could carry him and who is about to lose her job.

I've become to lenient in my vetting of people.

For some Balance: No You Can't

2008-02-15T06:43:00.002+02:00

Its not right to wax lyrically about Obama. Here's some propaganda in favour of John McCain.

Wait there is more.

I love the smell of Napalm in the morning.