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Showing posts from 2015

Jacob Zuma and the Finance Minister

Working in a bank has it's ups and downs.  You get used to that. Then you work in a bank in South Africa and you realize that the downs can bee a 18% free fall on the value of your bank. We have been working diligently to grow our bank and by some amazing grace from God we have managed to get some pretty amazing things done.  Then the populist president, inserted by the revolutionist party goes and does the unthinkable. He replaces the minister of finance, at a whim. Yes, he explained it. But only after he got his ass held over the fire and them some lame excuse of deploying Mr Nene in another position. Which Mr President, doesn't explain the nobody, without a track record you shoved into his position. The ANC must recall Mr Zuma, like they demonstrated they  can and will do with Mr Mbeki and replace him. Why wait. To see if he can destroy the country further? Yes, JZ. Your King is not impressed with your actions.  Business Day Live - Stuart Theobald   Busine

Road under construction - Detour Ahead

Don't you just hate these signs. Detours. Whether they are in the road on the way to work, or home, or on your way to your holiday destination. Even in everyday life these detours happen. I'm sitting at the moment, under the apricot tree in the back yard. It's summer and there is a nice cool breeze blowing. Why am I outside? Simple. A teenager has taken over the space where I normally write. I've just started to get this free loader called procrastination under control, when my brother dropped his two kids off to visit the grand parents. Ah, well. My newest detour. At least the change of scenery doesn't seem to have affected the writer in me. Been scribbling in my notebook, mostly venting about work. I've also picked up another of my purchases from Writer's Digest. A book by Elizabeth Sims called "You've got a book in you" Now, for most people the title would not stand out. But for us writers, this is like a flame to a moth. It drew me in. Ca

Making my way to Schenectady

It has been a while since I actively wrote. We'll that is a lie. I've started a novell and a TV Drama. Both are stuck at a spot where I need to discipline myself into researching it, working my way around a block, or simply just making time to write. Tonight I grabbed some of the books I purchased from Writer's Digest. The one 'Where do you get your ideas?' by Fred White and 'The Writer's Idea Book' by Jack Heffron. Granted both have been lying on a shelf with the rest of the purchase, which I am ashamed to say are market books for 2013! Yeah. Procrastination I am your master, or are you mine. I did a quick scan down the table of contents on both. Selected the Chapter 11 from the 'The Writers Idea Book' - Creating a short story from a news paper report. I read the first bit, got to the check list then skimmed along. I postponed that writing to tomorrow ... well the proper reading of that chapter and applying it. So why am I writing this? Jack

New car in my life.

It's with a lot of sadness this week that I parted with my Mercedes Benz CLK63 AMG. We had a blast the past eighteen months, but time had come for me to say good bye to it and take the reigns of, what to my mind is a 'sensible' car. Ugh. Sensible. Makes me feel suddenly very old. If it wasn't for the fact that my other car is in dire need of surgery, for which I am still waiting on quotes for - mostly just dotting i's and crossing t's - in replacing the gearbox, I would be driving it. As it stands I took delivery on Monday of my new BMW 320d. Mineral white with black leather interior. With the minimum additions from the optional extras list, I thought that adjusting to it would represent a hardship. Driving away from the showroom on Monday, the first angst beset me in adjusting to the cars totally different power and response curves, and a very new and unsettling auto stop start function. None of my other cars had this `feature`. Yes, I'm quoting that, since

Working with a new blogging editor

This is the new blogsy software. Really intuitive, and as the adverts said, something apple would have come up with. So far the work has been straight forward. Setup four blogs in less than two minutes, hooked in picassa as my media location for one. Still need to see how this works for Facebook, bit that too will come with time.  

Mercedes Benz AMG GT

Does AMG need a GT?  Look at this rear end and tell met they don't? It reminds of the French Va-Va-Voom, only this booty can shake it all on it's own. Fall in love with the Mercedes Benz AMG GT here Visit Car And Driver for a review of the 2016 AMG GT - Mercedes Benz's new Porsche 911 killer... Mercedes Benz AMG GT Web Special

C63 AMG dressed in white...

Here we have the innocent look. Stark white. Clean lines. Quiet. Until you press the start button. Then your world gets notified that thunder comes in small packages. This one may only have a four liter V8 engine but the twin turbo charges makes it feel like you have a tiger by the tail. It literally wants to whip around and tear your face off. It's quick. Responsive. Nimble. It makes your blood race. Your ears sing. And you haven't even got it in gear yet.  Slowly you ease her out of the show room and into the lot. From the corner of your eye you see the salesman in the passenger seat reach up... there's no panic handle that will keep him from squirming soon. My inner minion is going bee-boo-bee-boo...BANANA! Why can't I test drive it in something other than urban bumper to bumper traffic. How to get this beauty to the freeway... if ever your think you have control over your inner psychopath, then never slip behind the wheel of one of these. You quickly f

SLS AMG dressed in matt black...

It takes class and elegance to pull off so many stunning color combinations. Mercedes simply rocks the world with their AMG range...

Now here's a Mommy Wagon...

Here's a SICK Mercedes Benz C63 AMG Edition 507 Wagon! I can't get enough of the 6.2 L V8 Engine which produces 507 Horsepower and 631 N-m of Torque! My own car is a CLK63 AMG and I won't change it for anything...  A little mindless self indulgence.

The browser extensions - 1Password for Windows - version 4

The browser extensions - 1Password for Windows - version 4 : ever find that you just can't keep track of all the user id's, passwords, password rules for the sites you visit. Now there is a browser extension that I found easy to use and works on my Windows machines, as well as the MAC. Check out 1Password from Agile Bits... maybe it can make life a little easier for you too. 'via Blog this'

Need to read - 'The Sellout', Paul Beatty's Biting Satire

Review: ‘The Sellout,’ Paul Beatty’s Biting Satire on Race in America - NYTimes.com   Just finished reading the review from the New York Times books on Mr Beatty's new novel, and I must say, I NEED to read this...  Just searched Amazon and there's no Kindle version of this book. Bummer! Not that it is not worthwhile getting the hardcover, it's just that now I need to go and find a local book store to buy it from. Face the over inflated, over taxed pricing on that book. Since Americans brought 'democracy' to South Africa, the right of the masses to bleat and loaf about is far more important that delivering value and productivity to the community/economy.  So, simply ordering the book from Amazon and having it delivered to my door via out postal service, is no longer an option, since their right to strike outweighs my right to expect the service that they exist to provide. I'm now only getting my mail from last year, from the last time they went on strike.  Can

BBC News - 5G researchers manage record connection speed

Unprecedented, but then again, reality. I live in South Africa, where you pay for everything and double up to triple, when you work for your own money, so they can give away the same service to those that don't work for anything and just sit around and demand. They will never realize the world doesn't owe them anything. They need to get off their asses and work for it. BBC News - 5G researchers manage record connection speed : 'via Blog this'

Load Shedding and Banking IT

It is such time again. Checking the load shedding schedules. Rechecking and hoping the power utility keeps to the scheduled times. Working around their schedule while you have to provide 24x7 support for a 24x7x365 operation becomes a challenge at best. No longer can you dial in at any time since, unless you've spent a small fortune on generation capacity, you won't have any ADSL access to your place of employment during load shedding, which means quick fixes become snarling endurance races back into the office. 26 Feb 2015 Since writing this, we had experienced another Stage 2 load shedding event, that had the computer room in the dark. Explanation: yet undetermined.