Entries from July 2007 ↓

My sidebar is a disaster I know. I’ve been trying to fix is half heartedly and kinda given up. Tomorrow I need to clean it up though – the new RSS button is quite nice, hey? I got it from Stii, but still need to get rid of the white bits. That was an experiment, and I only now realized, when I got home, that I left the original photoshop file at work. Pfff.

I’m going to get rid of all the community buttons – they irritate me. Any suggestions?

You know I am always going on about backups. I cannot stress this enough. It is important to make backups. Even if its of things you think you will never use again.
I got myself a 250GB external hard drive a while ago, which works like a charm (If I remember to backup obviously).

But for those of you who do not have something like this, its now easier than ever. For $9.95 per month for 5GB you use IBackup’s Online Storage.
You can sign up for the free trial on their website just to make sure that it is what you want. Pretty cool, huh?

I‘m not a gamer. You might know this already, but I’m not one for all these high quality pc or play station games. I’ve tried a couple, but they just can’t get me hooked?

What I do like, is Mario Bros. Its amazing how those old games still have their addicting effect on me. Tetris – plain old MS-DOS tetris. I love that game. And I can still spend hours planning a house for the SIMS.

Playing with the characters isn’t always so much fun, but designing the house is sooo cool. I downloaded a Mario & Luigi game, just not sure which version it is. If you want it, its free at Acid-Play.

I think I’m gonna get my old games out this weekend and PLAY.

The eNaTiS (Electronic National Traffic Information System) is a system of the Departmentof Transport, provided for and partially funded by the nine provinces, which individually owns the data of their respective users.

For the readers who are not from South Africa, this system is relatively new, and the security of it is DEFINITELY not up to scratch. Please note that to most South Africans this is a huge frustration as it affects all traffic offices around the country. The website on the other hand is a bit of a joke…

Do yourself a favor and click on the “How Do I” link…

The new page title is: !- Hacked By Tao -!, and the page only has this in it:

Its even in the news…

Its cold, cloudy, and WINTER. Since last night I’ve been missing England a lot. I was there for almost a year during 2003. If I had a choice I’d go back now. Not just on a 2 year visa though – It’d have to be permanent. Its very disruptive to pack up and go there, only to come back again, and then try to find your feet.

What I liked about it so much? Everything. If I had a decent job this time round I’d definitely enjoy it more too, but the job wasn’t bad. I worked in a factory, and the money was OK. The hours sucked. 6am – 12pm, sometimes till 4pm – and over weekends 4am – 2pm.

Now I have a comfortable 8:30am – 5pm office job. Nice and cozy, plus I don’t work with people so much. However, in a factory you don’t always realize how clever people are. It doesn’t take much brains to chop cucumbers, as opposed to my current job, where everyone is expected to think for him / herself. Not that they do, which makes it so frustrating at times.

I was talking to someone the other day about simple jobs. If the money is good, why not? People who do simple jobs, like chop cucumbers, don’t have stress. They wake up each morning knowing what is expected of them. As long as they wash their hands and don’t eat the veggies, they should keep management happy. If they work over time, its optional, and they get paid well for it. It really is a simple life.

You might say that these people don’t have dreams and ambitions, which might very well be true, but for myself, I have more than enough dreams and ambitions that are not work related. If I had more time to follow those dreams, I would definitely do so.

The older people who I worked with in the factory were really nice people. They were warm and friendly, and most of all content. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that a simple job will give make you content. But I am saying that an important position at a big company with millions of rands will not make you content. It is what is inside of you that counts. And with a simple job one has more time and energy to spend on the important things.

I believe it is important to set goals for yourself in different areas of your life: not only work. Personal goals might score a bit higher with me even. These are the goals which we set voluntary – things that are close to our hearts. Usually the sort of things that ‘really matter’.

I installed an ‘e-mail’ plugin on my blog just now. Its suppose to put a little envelope icon next to my comments link for each post, but it doesn’t!

I’m kinda doing this post to see if it only works on new posts, and if it doesn’t, can anyone help? There is an e-mail address in the readme file, so I will e-mail that eventually if I can’t figure it out.

Other than that things have been a bit hectic at work. Sorry for neglecting you this week. I try to catch up in the evenings.

For those of you who like to check your blog statistics – apply for a reinvigorate account!! I applied, and though its still in beta its awesome! You have to wait a bit for your account but its well worth it!! For screen shots visit The Unknown Soldier.

Other than work I’ve been messing on Photoshop – always remember to make backups of your .psd images – you might just want to edit one of the someday, and if you lose you harddrive, you will be very thankful for backups. I can kick myself for not making backups, because I can’t edit a certain image really – and I don’t have time to make a new one. Listen to the little voice in your head saying: “MAKE BACKUPS”… ALWAYS.

For now I’m going to get ready for bed. I got new facial cleansing lotion & what not – even eye cream *blush*… Things like this are necessary when you go over 24 :/
Its really nice products though – so if any of you girls are looking for something high quality – try Annique – its really great!!

By the way, the image doesn’t have any relation to this post – in case you were puzzled. I couldn’t find a nice fitting one, and thought this one was kinda cool

I thought I’d entertain you with this since I don’t have much time to post. We’re in our pre-release cycle at work which means I’m working like a mad person. Hope to post some TEXT soon

This is a warning to the people who don’t live in South Africa, but plan to travel here at some point or another. Please note, if you’re from a country where you can rely on public transport, this post is especially for you. You need to note that public transport is not safe – and shouldn’t be attempted unless you’re really brave. Rather consider renting a car from Avis, or any of those agents…

Whilst being in England I realized for the first time that there are people who don’t have a driver’s license. Adults who have never driven a car!! How strange? This is not a weird thing apparently – people don’t need to drive there – they just hop on a bus or a train, or phone a taxi.

In South Africa its a bit different. Yes there are buses . And yes, there are taxi’s. But you need to note that when you use either of these it might be the last thing you ever do.

These are not taxi’s like you know them in the UK or the US. They’re minibus taxi’s, which (as far as I know) are allowed to have only 16 passengers (but are often overloaded). The taxi drivers have long since been notorious in South Africa. Not all of them, but a lot drive like the devil himself. I have been fortunate enough not to have had to use a minibus taxi, but I have friends who don’t have any other means of transport BUT taxi’s. These friends, and millions of other people are dependent on these maniac drivers. Its their only means of getting to work, the shops, and wherever else they have to travel.

Quoting Thomas Thale: “MINIBUS taxis are by far the cheapest and most popular form of public transport in South Africa, used mainly by the urban and rural poor. But if you are a visitor to Johannesburg, using a taxi can prove bewildering and even frightening.”

Buses are all the same. In the past month I have seen two bus accidents on my route to work, and three taxi accidents in Pretoria. Just to give you an idea, I live about 7km from work. All these accidents were due to speeding & reckless driving (I.e. running a red traffic light). Obviously depending on which bus driver you land up with, but most of the ones I come across drive like they stole the bus.
Firstly they endanger the passengers – people who have no other means of transport – if they don’t take the bus / taxi they don’t get to work. Secondly normal road users are subject to share the road with these people. It really angers me.

Car accidents in South Africa are as common as snow in Russia. We listen to the list of junctions and roads to avoid every morning and ever afternoon on our way to work and home. Everyone knows someone who’s been in an accident – if they weren’t in one themself. Its strange how we just put up with it really?? Its strange how people get arrested for not paying parking tickets, but bus drivers and taxi driver get to endanger thousands of people’s lives each day – without any panelization. I have never seen the Metro police give a ticket to a taxi or a bus driver. Maybe I’m just never in the right place, but its unheard of. These people have schedule, and whatever we do, we dare not interfere with the schedule. It might just cause that they get one bus load less of passengers.

So instead the public sit in their cars, irritated, but too scared to do anything. The Metro police don’t intervene because … I don’t know why?…