Whats the worst steak you've ever had? Well, McGinty's sandton... the steak was horrible, the service worse.... the beer was good. Next time, just drink beer.

Johann + Sybrand: This is the telescope I'm getting - SkyQuest XT8. Its +- R3500, which is reasonable. I've been warned that it might not fit in my car.

Well... its been a busy 2 weeks. I've had very little sleep over the past 3 weeks and well... I'm tired. It may be the sushi I just had for lunch. The smacks of wasabi didnt manage to wake me up (its a shame how weak they're making wasabi these days).

In the last 3 weeks i've been quad biking, done a bit of paintball, watched some amazing cricket (I lost 10 cases of beer when RSA beat AUS @ 434 runs), went to watch Metallica at the Coca Cola Colab, went to a lion farm to check out a few cats, played in an MTG tourneyment, started playing GO again, pretty much been having a good time outside work. I've posted a few photos in my photo album (on the right) and I've got more to post.

The Colab was good, Metallica were great and the chap selling air guitars on the side of centurion cricket stadium - you're a life saver. (Managed to get him to run to the bottle store and buy about 6 bottles of vodka and 6 2L cokes.) Unplanned but typical - dave and I ended up bumping into Mike, Stu and Miles. This, chantelle and craig managed to get us to skip the entire queue (about a kilometer long). More photos on the way.



On a more computer related topic:
I also been thinking and i think i've come up with a "killer" app. Will have to see.

I've recently been annoyed at why people deviate from best practices. Why reinvent the wheel? For this reason I now understand the real meaning of history. Those who dont understand the history are doomed to repeat it. Learn from your forefathers.


Back to food:

You really have to try sushi with the hottest wasabi possible.

Its been a while since I last posted. Christmas and New Years Day has come and gone. So has the feeling of being exhausted (company year end). Since then, a few things have happened...

My sister's birthday on the 9th of Jan.
Finally recovered from the year end on the 25th of Jan.
A1GP on the 29th of Jan.
Lion park this last weekend.

It is done. I have a new car - 2005 A3 2.0 fsi. The Smurf lasted well and has some good memories but alas, trustworthy brakes, a handbrake that works, 110 kilowatt of power and a CD player is something that is worth it. The last straw was the Smurf getting stolen. I would possibly still be driving it as i was not in a hurry to change my car (I'm not worried about safety/status/ego). Cost was possibly the biggest issue. I do not mind spending money aslong as I'm getting good value for what I spend and there are no problems with what I buy. I'm quite comfortable with an old Uno Fiat and I could have waited. After my car was stolen it pressed me to find what was good value and what I'm comfortable with. I spent a good 6 months looking and its a good car and I'm happy.

I test drove an A3, A4, two different 318ti, a Yaris, a Getz, and an old automatic nissan. The A3 (my car) was the best of the lot and it has a good interior and the previous owner was kept good care of it. The automatic is was great. I would have to get an automatic at some point in the far future.

On a side note, went out during lunch to drop off a DVD at a video store. I had this TP option enabled on my radio and it switched to a radio report and returned to play my CD once the radio report had finished. Nice.

I'm listening to Coldplay X&Y and Madonna Confessions. Both are great CDs. The confessions CD is possibly one of the best dance CDs. My impression of Hung Up is that its a great hit but thats where it ends. The other songs on that CD have alot more depth (for dance songs) and the compilation will last longer than that particular song. X&Y is a great compilation and its going to be on my favorites for along time.

I went to watch DooM the movie on the weekend. Lotsa memories came flooding back. In particular, they missed a huge part of the movie.

(a) No monsters - sure they had these imp like things with eyes. They missed the cacodemons, lost souls, hell knights and most importantly - the cyberdemon and spiderdemon. The cyberdemon is by far the most fear inspiring thing i've ever experienced in my not so long 26year life.

(b) They missed the whole 'from hell'. I guess they were afraid of the religious activists. In the end they settled for the whole genetic experiment gone bad plot. Lame.

I do not think that the movie did the game justice. It could have been alot more frightening.

Its almost the new year and its that time to start contemplating resolutions. Things done, things not done, good and bad. Time well spent and time lost.

I would have liked to,
* gone back to durban more often
* done more rock climbing

I did,
* change jobs
* study and pass a few unisa courses + certifications
* spend too much money over the course of the year

I will,
* do more rock climbing
* pick up fencing again or possibly squash (but one of them)
* overcome my slight fear of horses (not sure if you could call it fear - its more like an inability to ride)
* finish my architect exams
* finish my mcsd (possibly just the 300-70 exam)
* start a cfa (possibly not)
* change my car (i'm currently looking at this)
* go overseas for a few weeks and spend time with my sisters and a friend or two.
* chat to Jutta and find out more about how she's doing.
* play more go

Bad things,
* Forgetting my sisters birthday
* not going to Durban enough

Good things,
* Robbie Williams Golden Circle
* Cooking for Friends
* Finally getting 'a feast for crows'
* (I'm leaving a few off of this list, tho maybe they should be on the
bad things list)

Plans for the next year,
* White water rafting
* Overseas for a short while
* Lots more cooking

Anyway. Good times.

There aint no place like home. The air in durban definately gives you more energy and your best friends even more. Funnily enough, I spent most of the weekend sleeping. I nearly missed a braai.

I stayed in my mothers new house. Its quite well designed. There is so much space available and so much thought has been put into the layout and placing of rooms and areas. Alot still needs to be unpacked but that just takes time. Boxes.

On saturday night and sunday morning Brad, Justin, Mike and I ended up playing Tichu till silly hours of the morning (8am). This has almost become a ritual when I go to Durban. The first set was decisivly won by Justin and I over 1h30m. The second set was a bitter battle to the end, won by Brad and Mike. Regrettably we couldnt find the original cards and had to remark the deuces as the One, Dog, Phoenix and Dragon.

A good weekend I'm definately relaxed/destressed after that weekend tho I wish I could go down more often and I forgot to copy a DVD of photos.

Well. Cooked for 16 people last night and thats the most i've cooked for. (I think it was 17 - i might be out by 1). Got asked to cook for them the night before as i've got two friends going overseas (Dave is off to Aspen and Dave is off to Brazil).

It went quite well, a tasty 3 course meal (lots of flavour) was accompanied by Dom Pedros and a few cheeky tequilas (thats dave's doing). The theme was that everyone had to dress in all white clothing (which a few people adhered to... not everyone has white trousers). I'll definately cook for dinner parties more often - its lots of fun.

Well. Once again, I know what its like to have a stake driven through your heart. You see it in vampire movies but this is no movie. Even worse is when you're to blame. Gotta kick yourself.

On a completely different topic - I forgot my sisters birthday. Argh! So I'm having a bad couple of months. She's back from holiday sometime today so tomorrow I'll have to make some long distance gift buying, etc. I do think its too late tho - few things are worse than having your close family forget your birthday. Especially if you're also going through tired times. Argh!

I was going to buy a car (i dont trust my current car) but I'm going to hang back and find a bit of direction first. There are more important things.

Two great friends of mine had their birthday in the last 2 weeks. I'm the guy with the horizontal stripe on his shirt. To my left is Wayne, it was his birthday last week wednesday. To my right is Brad. His birthday this last saturday. I sadly missed their birthday dinner. (being in jhb).

Well... ended up buying another 6 tickets for RW. I only managed to get field standing. It sold out at 5 and I know that there are friends who are going to want tickets. I've already given 2 away (for the price i bought them).

I went to Mexicasa on friday. Its a great mexican resturant in village walk in sandton. Lots of tequilla was flowing (too much actually) and even a tabasco shooter.

Otherwise, at work on a sunday night pondering over a messaging system. Happiness.

I've just finished reading the Assassins Trilogy by Robbin Hob. Along with this I've been listening to Coldplay X&Y, James Blunt, and Now 41 (assorted pop artists).

Its easy reading and quite personal as it closely follows a single character, FizChivalry, the bastard son of a prince who abdicates and gets killed. A whole lot of intrigue by his "uncle" leads to various political issues in which he gets thrust into as a catalyst for others. Fortunately, there are bigger issues (it all makes sense in the end). Hobb takes us on a tour of the entire fantasy genre without overdoing any one particular aspect. I particularly enjoyed how the "magic" aspect was integrated into the story without overpowering the story.

There is a good love story or two that run through the three books and this seemed to coincide well with the James Blunt and Coldplay CDs I recently bought. I do feel that this got dragged out in quite a bit more detail in book 2 than was necessary but there is alot of significance to it when it comes to closing the trilogy.

I enjoyed the "encyclopedia" extracts that were at the start of each of the chapters that give you background to the world as the story progresses. At points I was reading chapters to get to the next extract.

As a whole, the trilogy is quite good and I recommend it to fantasy readers and those who enjoy fantasy once in a while. The trilogy is definately larger than the sum of its books. Book 3 brings alot of closure to some very large open ended questions from book 1.

F1 Madness

Tomorrow from 12h00 to 13h00 there will be a few F1 cars racing around Sandton (which is closed off for a few hours). Fortunately my offices are "on the track" so they'll be going past my window.

Robbie Williams

I just bought 4 tickets for robbie williams @ loftus. Sometime in April.

In the last week I've had 2 of the best burgers. (1) A normal beef cheese bacon and pineapple (i think) burger from Chuckleberrys, and (2) a single mild chicken burger, no mayo, with extra cottage cheese from Steam.

I tried a Quarter Pounder Delux with an extra "100% beef" patty. It makes a good burger and almost as good as a king steer. The only reason that the king steer doesnt come out on top is that i think its too juicy and its classified as fast food. The other two burgers are slightly more wholesome.

The extra cottage cheese makes a huge difference. A burger is all about the flavour. If there is too much bun or if its too dry, or the sauce is too synthetic such that you cannot taste the burger, then its not worth eating. You mightaswell have bread or a bottle of sauce.

There is this little german burger maker in the far corner of the Rosebank Flea Market that also makes good burgers. Its a great burger but it seems to be missing something. They put mayo on the burger to transport the taste but you end up tasting mayo instead of the combined burger flavour. It is definately a high quality burger.

An interesting burger possibility is to have a burger that changes its taste as you eat it. You could possibly have a beef pattie made up of two different mixtures and then somehow get them to bind together. Not sure how strong a bind you could make.

Kuro5hin - The French Scape Goat

I feel quite strongly about this. Unnecessary and orchestrated. A true friend will take advice and criticism from a friend, without retalliation. Providing friends with gifts doesnt mean that they must agree with your viewpoint.

This is where the misguided few with influence do the most damage to society in the long run. To follow a pattern, family feuds in italy last/lasted ages. I imagine that sentiment built up in the last few years last just as long.

Sad.

Just had my hair coloured silver for CANSA. I'll see if i can get a photo posted. I'm going to start using Flickr to post photos.

Robbie Williams is coming to RSA in April 2006. Good times. Tickets go on sale on the 16th of November.

Well... I think the storm lastnight has blown my telephone AGAIN. This is getting ridiculous. I need a phone with an optical link so it doesnt get continually damaged.

Well... i'm waiting for some database analysis to finish running (+- 6 hours). I mightaswell add another thought about the cellphones.

There should be an option that will put automatically put cellphone into silent during a meeting (as scheduled by calendar integration). That way, you dont get notification that you've got a meeting in 15 minutes during your previous meeting and disrupt a meeting of about 10 to 12 people. If anything, there should be a configurable chime so that you could set it to some slight beep + buzzer.

---

I've realised that i've been working quite late for the last 4 to 5 weeks. Its a good excuse to make the weekend worthwhile but you get quite exhausted. In think 2 weekends ago was the first time slept for 12 hours (on a friday night). It has to happen.

It even looks as though i wont be taking much leave during december (alot of others in the team are taking leave and they'll need someone to do standby over xmas). I'll see what happens. I've been too busy to even think about leave and will feel bad turning down the trip to CT with friends.

Time to see how empty JHB gets around XMAS and NY - its been 2 years so far. Fortunately, I'm saving up my leave and will spend alot of it overseas.

Well... its Wine X tonight. Tomorrow will be interesting.

Tomorrow night is SFSA.

I have to recall an "ugly" aspect of the W800i. I said that "You can only take video clips of +- 20 seconds in length.".

I found the configuration option that disabled this. It was labelled as "Record video for MMS". Disabling this enables videos of proper size and any length (up to a maximum of the memory stick).

---

On a technical note, I've been posting technical articles to the Portland Pattern Repository - TimTwelves as opposed to on my blog. I like the idea of JRoller but maintaining two blogs would be a nightmare as i'm not inclined to write more than a few paragraphs once a month.