Farewell to IOL

Today was my farewell lunch at IOL. My final working day was last Thursday, but that didn’t feel like the end. I was in a meeting till after 5, and by the time I emerged most people had already left, then I stayed on till about 10pm when the place was almost deserted (in fact… Continue reading Farewell to IOL

Untitled

One of the many pleasures of living in Cape Town is the abundance of walks. I’ve lived here all my life, and would like to think I’ve explored all of the possible walks in the vicinity, but I know that’s not nearly the case, and I always enjoy new discoveries. Today I explored a new… Continue reading Untitled

My first familiar?

Had an interesting encounter with a red-winged starling today. While on the back deck, doing some tai chi, a starling whizzed past my hair, and landed about a metre from me, watching me. I tried to continue but the cat went for it. After tai chi’ing the cat off the deck, the bird was still… Continue reading My first familiar?

The startup guy

I found a post on Jeremy Zawodny’s blog the other day particularly interesting. Jeremy hardly ever writes about MySQL these days, much like me, but I still tend to read him out of habit. Perhaps, like the Sims, it’s because the mundane (such as fixing a leak) can still be amazingly interesting. An applicant for… Continue reading The startup guy

Wedding bells

No, not mine 🙂 I attended a friend’s wedding on Saturday. I’ve known the friend since school (which I left not long enough ago to purge the accursed experience from my memory, in 1988), but we have quite different (putting it mildly) religious viewpoints. The wedding was fun, as far as wedding’s go, what with… Continue reading Wedding bells

The Perfect Storm

Cape Town has been bone dry recently. I have about as waterwise a garden as you can get, the back garden being a fynbos-covered hill. However, with last year’s dry winter, and the hot summer, even established plants have been dying (if I could find the cable for my digital camera I’d show you lots… Continue reading The Perfect Storm

Dmoz and Chefmoz

I’ve volunteered (and been accepted) to become an editor on dmoz, the open directory used by many search engines. I already see my free time disappearing , what with Wikipedia and now Dmoz. For now I’ll be editing the section on South African news and media. Dmoz also has a sister site called Chefmoz, a… Continue reading Dmoz and Chefmoz

Suckered again

My cellphone was stolen again. It’s certainly ironic two days after a post entitled Happiness is a new cellphone. It was a classic diversion. I was sitting in Crush, a sandwich bar type restaurant in Cape Town, grabbing a quick lunch. 4 or 5 men walked inside. I didn’t really pay much attention until 3… Continue reading Suckered again

Excuses

I’m very good at excuses. I remember, in school (and that was a while back) making the excuse that I would wait until I got a computer until I wrote my novel. Then it was till I finished studying (IT). Then until I finished travelling. Then I decided to study English and Philosophy and learn… Continue reading Excuses

Passion

No, I’m not talking about Passion of the Christ, nor the kind of passion that attracts those Google referrers making hardcore porn one of my most popular referring search terms. I’m talking about passion for what you do. On Saturday I had a wonderful session with Jason Hobbs, brainstorming a new project we’re working on… Continue reading Passion