So, I should sit back and relax and just smile at the young, dumb, full of cum bigmouth youth, running on the field making a big noise. Chances are I did exactly the same a little while back. 

Damn. Takes away some of the fun though, sometime it’s fun getting on the soap box and letting the mere mortals know how things actually are

On the 11th of May 2010 a currently advantaged citizen decided to push me of the road in peak traffic and then drove off, leaving me with my side mirror dangling. I’ll cut the long story short by saying I reported the matter at the police (after first having to convince the currently advantaged station commander that it is indeed criminal to crash into someone on purpose and then drive off). I provided them with a detailed statement (which was trashed and substituted with a generic description of a collision), photographic evidence as well as the place where they could find the culprit – he was working on a construction site nearby.

This morning I got a call that they will be dropping the case, as the registration number does not exist in the NATIS system. Yes, it took them 2 and a half months to figure that out. Yes, the guy is no longer on the site where he continued to work for at least 3 weeks after the incident, and they failed to pay him a visit.

My real anger lies in this:
Did they merely take a bribe and told me they can’t find the guy? How would I know? With frequent headlines of cops being arrested for anything from housebreaking to rape and selling weapons (including assault rifles) from police stations, this is really not a far fetched thought.

In my hart I know I should let it go, but on the other hand I’m tempted to go to another police station and see if they can find the registration (I’ve seen it done first hand, it takes seconds) – but what then if they do find it and I’ve proven my point? Waste days and weeks fighting a corrupt system that goes right to the top?

Rather not. Fuck it.

For posterity:

yes, she does actually skydive

Friday night was a tough one for me. I got all emotional, puked for no apparent reason and then it was all over - no more sad, no more feeling all alone. Unplanned, unusual, but effective. Afterwards I went out for a drink and had a good time. Got back and slept until I could not sleep anymore, something I don’t usually allow myself.

But the psyche was still gone. Then I saw the latest article by Leon du Toit, re-read some older posts by Arjan an Mike, checked out the wingsuit clip and viola! All psyched up and good to go

The posts are generally climbing related, but they also regularly touch on the art of living. Well worth a read, I particularly like the bits on training here and here, very inspirational.

“The potential has to be realised. For those who are willing to let go of conditioned thinking, for those who are willing to redefine what they understand….”

Sooooooo, what does this all mean? I’m totally recommitted to my new years resolutions. I had a lady friend talk me into skydiving somewhere in October, and after a reply from the local instructors I’m beginning to look forward to it. I thought I’d go warm up my mind at Orlando Towers on 15th May, who’s coming along?

And then I want to get out of this place. First up is the Western Cape, Montagu. Then go climbing in Spain, France or Vietnam. Get on that plane and see something totally different.

My goal is to train for something really big like Yosemite – are you game for that Fridge? We start out with some classics in SA and then set course for Camp 4.

“Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don’t know how to replenish it’s source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings.”

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”

“Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death.”

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”

“People living deeply have no fear of death.”

“Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country.”

Anais Nin

(Jethro Tull)

….and man invented email and powerpoint slides. He invented adress books and made it possible to send emails to everyone at once. He thought up soppy stories of religion which he spread mercilessly and without thought,
and saw that it was not enough.

He added thinly veiled threats of impending misfortune, or sly insinuations of not caring for family and friends to ensure recipients did not “break the chain” and faithfully assisted in spreading these messages.

But man was not satisfied. In a desperate cry of insecurity, he added a rule: “Though shall send this message to all your family and friends. Though shall also send it to me, and I shall feel vindicated”

I’ll add religious mails to my list of things I hate about the email I get. I think I’ll make this post my standard reply to any further religious mails. A little random something’n'something to think about before hitting “Send” next time round.

Accept for a strange one about kittens, I’m still not getting mail like Seth‘s getting - must be doing something wrong <sigh>

This past Thursday night I spent at Tings & Times in Hatfield, my second visit there. The invite I got clearly stated that the bands playing are Gently Scar’d and Walt, in that order, starting at 8PM. Looking forward to returning there and the prospect of their simply delicious food, I made plans to get myself out there.

The food and service was as good if not better than I remember (the “Once bitten” pita is divine!!), but that’s where my compliments end.

Instead of Gently Scar’d, Walt was first up and started some time after 9PM – an hour later than advertised. By the time Gently Scar’d started playing, it was well past 10, and I left having heard only about 3 of their songs – which was great by the way – I listened to their samples online and the live show was exactly what I had in mind.

I start working at 7am in the mornings, and very seldom put myself through a late night during the week – grinding through work the next day is usually not worth it. I understand that the students probably don’t mind. I also get having a lesser known band playing the same night as a well known band in order to get them some more exposure, but then it should be advertised correctly. I don’t want to be forced to sit through a relatively shitty band before getting to hear the band I paid for. I don’t want to be made to wait an hour later than advertised. Surely having the lesser known band play afterwards actually has more merit – the place will be as full as it’ll get for the night and with the alcohol having flowed the band might get a better review than when playing to a sober half-full student crowd?

Tings is not unique in this approach – I’ve encountered this late-start-band-switch scenario at Cafe Barcelona and a few others.

This all gets me back to the almost extinct phenomenon (at least in my experience here in Pretoria, South Africa) of something working well as it’s supposed to first time around and the frustration of knowing it used to be like that, back in the day.

Service levels going backwards – sure you get the uber politically correct, perfect telephone etiquette  greeting when some call centre calls you or heaven forbid you need to call them, but that’s it. Experiencing stupidity that so thick you can reach out and touch it is almost inevitable. God help you if you need to dial 10111, and the corporates are really not much better - politer yes, better no.

Getting something, anything fixed became a game of spare-part roulette - the “repairman” simply picks the easiest replaceable part and replacing it at the customer’s expense with an attitude of “Let’s see if that works”. No more troubleshooting. Consumerist handyman-ship (that might be a new word?!). Replace all parts until the customer is too broke to continue, so frustrated he rather buys a new product, or in the odd case gets lucky soon enough that everyone “wins”. Well, sort of.

I can just mention Telkom, and everyone will have a story of inefficient service, products and the frutration of not having an alternative. Strictlty speaking we now have an alternative, but it’s not a very good one, and it seems to be the case in many commercial sectors in our country. The supplier, ( in the start of this article the supplier being Tings’ - my supplier of entertainment for the evening ) knows well enough that your choices are limited enough that regardless of how shitty they treat you while taking your money, chances are you’ll be back anyway. Perhaps it’s as simple as just not giving a shit - I guess anything’s possible.

Perhaps I’ve grown old and square, but I don’t think so.
Actually no, that’s impossible, it can’t be, it’s them, they’re out to get me!

That’s it, I’m done. I’m of my soap box - no solutions offered, not today at least. The rant has had it’s run. I suspect time and the law of averages will sort it all out, failing which we’ll have to pin our hopes on 2012. At least with this post I’ve successfully fended of death-by-deskjob-boredom for another day.

Live long and prosper…..

Let’s get the obvious ones out of the way first – I delete these as a matter of principal, regardless of content or quality. It’s a public service thing, one day when the mail server achieves self awareness, we don’t want it’s young little mind corrupted with this garbage. Garbage in, garbage out as they like to teach first day programming students.

1. The Incentive
Despite how ridiculous it is, many, many people still forward emails with some sort of “incentive” at the end – send this to x number of people and your wish will be granted or you will have bad luck of some horrific proportion. Karma works both ways buddy, and if you keep on spreading this crap, you might just be reincarnated as a nice soft roll of double ply.

2. The reward
Yes, there are still people who think Bill Gates or some corporation will give them money for forwarding emails. Strangely, most of these people are quite intelligent, and will openly laugh at similarly ridiculous statements such as “beetroot and garlic cures AIDS”.

As for the rest - I try to avoid reading mails likely to contain any of the following phrase before driving.

3: “Spread the joy”
“It doesn’t matter how many people you send this to, just remember if it made you laugh, your friends will laugh too.” …just as long as I do send it along?! A pathetisised version of “The incentive” if you ask me. (Yes, pathetisised is a real word. The makers of Scrabble will pay you $10 for each time you use it during the game. Just mail a pic of the game board here to request a refund of your matric certficate)

4: Rythm blues
 ”Without missing a beat”. Typically found in those “cute” jokes with clever kids in Sunday school. The joke just looses the funny right there, right after the un-skipped beat. Recipe jokes at it’s worst.

5: The STATEMENTS:
“I LIKE THE NEXT ONE IN PARTICULAR” or just before the punchline – “WAIT FOR IT” or “You’re going to love this!”. Some sickos even use combinations like “wait for it – you’re gonna love this!!!!”. Suffice it to say the cringe factor outweighs any humor the message may have contained.

6: The localisation effort.
This is where the same old joke which was probably quite good at some stage get refactored into a local is lekker version. The  ugly obnoxious woman entering the supermarket with her twins is now Afrikaans with a Capie accent. Lets just say that a lot gets lost in translation and just about the only flavour left is the Lexinton hanging from the corner of her mouth.

Jealousy makes you nasty
One day when I’m all grown up, I’d like to get proper mail like Seth <sigh>

<double sigh>