Well not much news to tell you.
We've had a couple of leaks in the office. The surprising thing about them is that I'm on the 5th out of 6 floor. The main woolies lab was above us and they are moving all the equipment over the road. This process has lead to 3 major water leaks because they couldn't (or more probabvly didn't) cut the water supply to the lab before screwing arround with the pipes and crap. A pipe burst on the 6th floor results in a constant torrent of skanky water on the 5th, as the water filters between floors. It gives me a better view of what life is like on Mort or in Hive Primus. The first two leaks were in open areas where a strategically placed bin or multiples therof will solve the problem. The last leak was directly in the middle of the boss' desk, luckelly it started before he got in and had his laptop in place.
In other news my buddy and ex-partner-in-conculting is comming back to SA for a few weeks after a long stint in London. I'm quite looking forward to seeing him, the amount of mischief we got into, fugedabowdid.
d@vid's party was great, I stayed mostly sober and was still able to function the next day. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to say the same thing after mike's bash as I may need copious quantities of alcohol befor I actually embarras myself singing. Speacking of this, Mike if you are reading this, or anybody who talks to Mike, what is the song list, I need all the practice I can get.
The new thing:
I'm wanting to try a new thing with my blog because I feel it's stagnating and probably quite borring. I'm going to answer questions from my readers. It's kinda like the straight dope, but without the research and reliability. So if you have any questions you'd like answered just leave them in the comments section and I'll do my best to at least be witty, althoug I can't promise anything. And before you ask: no I'm not related to either of the captains of the star ship enterprise, no matter how strong the resemblance in features or name.
so that's it for now. Be sure to leave some questions for me to ponder.
schpat
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
stuff and random stuff
So, I've just finished a meeting with a development team about something that would probably bore you to death, and as I'm leaving the project manager calls me and says "I'd just like to have a private word".
Of course this phrase strikes fear into me and instantly makes nervous, as it would with any other normal person. However, she just wanted to praise my work and tell me how nicely I'm interacting and how good my output is. Wow, that was nice. It made me feel really good. I think it's the first time that anyone has actually puilled my aside to specifically praise me, even though I clearly deserve it. Now I know that this raises outher issues: what did she think of my work previously and was she being honest or just trying to play some kind of management mind games to make me feel good? Basically I'm not going to think about that too much, I feel good about it and that's the way it's going to stay.
Tonight I'm going to finally fix my door (the sticking has been getting worse, I almost can't close the door now). And put a new lock on the security door, the second time in like three months, and they're expensive too.
Sushi last night was so good. The service at Benkei sucked total arseburger, but eventually I was able to "eat all I could". The other place in town is just as good and the all you can eat special is cheaper.
That's the end of my news, but here is some random stuff that I found today while waiting for queries to run:
<><><>
Fuck, Sweedes are weiord
Bestiality is not illegal in Sweden. A ban on the practice was lifted in 1944, along with a ban on homosexuality.
However, a person can be found guilty of cruelty to animals if prosecutors can prove that the animal suffered physical or psychological injury.
<><><>
London: A number of wealthy clients of the smart London restaurant Zafferano clubbed together to buy one of the most expensive truffles in the world for about R300 000, but it ended up going rotten in a refrigerator. The 850gm delicacy from Tuscany was put on display at the restaurant but then the chef went on holiday after locking the truffle in the fridge and taking the keys with him. When he returned after four days, he found it had rotted, forcing the owner to throw the whole thing out.
<><><>
Guwahati, India: An army officer, Colonel H S Kohli, was dismissed and a colleague suspended after a court martial found they splashed tomato ketchup on civilians to make them look like dead separatist rebels in a bid for a gallantry medal.
<><><>
Palembang, Indonesia: A landmark bridge is in danger of collapsing because too many men are urinating on it. Surveyors have found that the Ampera bridge has started to lean at an angle and rocks slightly when traffic is heavy. Council spokesman Azmi Lakoni said: "One of its main support piers has been weakened by urine."
<><><>
London: British television watchdogs ruled that a pig that was sexually pleasured on camera did not feel degraded by the experience. In an episode of a reality TV show, the audience was treated to the sight of Rebecca Loos, the self-proclaimed ex-lover of England football captain David Beckham, stimulating the boar for 10 minutes to produce a flask of semen.
An animal charity condemned the scenes as "sordid", but the broadcasting standards body said the procedure was perfectly
normal on a farm.
<><><>
Shenyang, China: A safari park decided to celebrate the New Year and the start of the Year of the Monkey by dyeing its primates bright red and yellow. But the
monkeys refused to co-operate. "We had to anaesthetise them first," a park spokesperson said.
<><><>
A female panda named Hua Mei is pregnant after watching hours of videos showing other pandas mating. This is the latest use of so-called "panda porn" by authorities in China. So Hua Mei, aged four, was sent to the Wolong Panda Protection Centre in south-western China for several months of sex education lessons, which included watching hours of panda pornography.
<><><>
Oh and by the way womens' brains switch off durring orgasim.
"Patrick Stuart"
Of course this phrase strikes fear into me and instantly makes nervous, as it would with any other normal person. However, she just wanted to praise my work and tell me how nicely I'm interacting and how good my output is. Wow, that was nice. It made me feel really good. I think it's the first time that anyone has actually puilled my aside to specifically praise me, even though I clearly deserve it. Now I know that this raises outher issues: what did she think of my work previously and was she being honest or just trying to play some kind of management mind games to make me feel good? Basically I'm not going to think about that too much, I feel good about it and that's the way it's going to stay.
Tonight I'm going to finally fix my door (the sticking has been getting worse, I almost can't close the door now). And put a new lock on the security door, the second time in like three months, and they're expensive too.
Sushi last night was so good. The service at Benkei sucked total arseburger, but eventually I was able to "eat all I could". The other place in town is just as good and the all you can eat special is cheaper.
That's the end of my news, but here is some random stuff that I found today while waiting for queries to run:
<><><>
Fuck, Sweedes are weiord
Bestiality is not illegal in Sweden. A ban on the practice was lifted in 1944, along with a ban on homosexuality.
However, a person can be found guilty of cruelty to animals if prosecutors can prove that the animal suffered physical or psychological injury.
<><><>
London: A number of wealthy clients of the smart London restaurant Zafferano clubbed together to buy one of the most expensive truffles in the world for about R300 000, but it ended up going rotten in a refrigerator. The 850gm delicacy from Tuscany was put on display at the restaurant but then the chef went on holiday after locking the truffle in the fridge and taking the keys with him. When he returned after four days, he found it had rotted, forcing the owner to throw the whole thing out.
<><><>
Guwahati, India: An army officer, Colonel H S Kohli, was dismissed and a colleague suspended after a court martial found they splashed tomato ketchup on civilians to make them look like dead separatist rebels in a bid for a gallantry medal.
<><><>
Palembang, Indonesia: A landmark bridge is in danger of collapsing because too many men are urinating on it. Surveyors have found that the Ampera bridge has started to lean at an angle and rocks slightly when traffic is heavy. Council spokesman Azmi Lakoni said: "One of its main support piers has been weakened by urine."
<><><>
London: British television watchdogs ruled that a pig that was sexually pleasured on camera did not feel degraded by the experience. In an episode of a reality TV show, the audience was treated to the sight of Rebecca Loos, the self-proclaimed ex-lover of England football captain David Beckham, stimulating the boar for 10 minutes to produce a flask of semen.
An animal charity condemned the scenes as "sordid", but the broadcasting standards body said the procedure was perfectly
normal on a farm.
<><><>
Shenyang, China: A safari park decided to celebrate the New Year and the start of the Year of the Monkey by dyeing its primates bright red and yellow. But the
monkeys refused to co-operate. "We had to anaesthetise them first," a park spokesperson said.
<><><>
A female panda named Hua Mei is pregnant after watching hours of videos showing other pandas mating. This is the latest use of so-called "panda porn" by authorities in China. So Hua Mei, aged four, was sent to the Wolong Panda Protection Centre in south-western China for several months of sex education lessons, which included watching hours of panda pornography.
<><><>
Oh and by the way womens' brains switch off durring orgasim.
"Patrick Stuart"
Monday, June 20, 2005
Breaking News
Most of you who read this blog know me personally, and you know that I organise a Gaming tournament called SchpatCON every year. You will alos no doubt know that I have decided not to have a really big tournament this year, and only to have big ones every second year. Well there will be more changes on the way, at present I am not at liberty to discuss them, but they will be interesting. Watch this space for details.
Oh, and I haven't done very much since my last post. Except that my door is sticking worse than ever and I had to cut my securtity gate off with a hacksaw because the fucking lock got stuck!
schpat
Oh, and I haven't done very much since my last post. Except that my door is sticking worse than ever and I had to cut my securtity gate off with a hacksaw because the fucking lock got stuck!
schpat
Monday, June 06, 2005
A Very Full Weekend
As the title (and length) of this post suggests I was very busy this weekend.
It started on friday night with ben's birthday party. A small get together at Anton's place that was supposed to be a surprise, and was even though I almost ruined it. It was great to see a bunch of people that I haven’t seen in a while. We played a rousing game of trivial pursuit and despite a well maintained early lead by my team (we were playing in teams of 4) Nick Wonfor's knowledge of inane trivia proved to out surpass both Michelle's and my own. By god he knew that the Viscount was the plane replaced by the Boeing in South African skies. They also got two questions about Errol Flyn. The other people on our team did however fulfil very important niche roles with Anton knowing how many guns there were at some or other place during some or other battle, that's the kinda stuff I just can't remember.
That party ended very late and my arriving home at 2:25 am was punctuated by a series of rather large crashes as I tried to slam my front door closed. It has begun to stick. Needless to say my neighbours and Elisabeth were considerably less than impressed with this situation.
I got up at 8:00 and stared doing a few things, had breakfast and watched some telly with Elisabeth, Then I went to Chelle's place to split the Doomtown pot. We had Geoff, Tim, Jason, Alastair, Alex, Chelle and me there and the pot was decisively split. Everyone got some nice cards, and Chelle and I got some of our cash back, Tim still owes me some. I decided to keep some of my cards unopened so that I had something to do on a rainy day. I had also brought around a bag of steak and some rolls but Chelle and Alex had eaten so we decided to eat them for supper before we went out to the one ring for Alex's birthday thing.
I left and went to see my dad so that i could borrow some power tools with which to fix my front door and not have to wake my entire complex when I got back from TOR later. When I got home I made lunch and got to fixing the door. The first thing I did was actually look to see where the problem was. It appeared that when I changed the lock on my door (when I lost my keys) I had misaligned the lock and the striker plate and that was causing the door to jam. So I got out the only power tool that I personally own (an electric screwdriver) and removed the lock, hey presto to door was closing just fine! I didn't even need those tools I'd borrowed from my dad. So I realigned the lock and the striker plate and settled in for a relaxing afternoon reading.
As I was leaving for Chelle's place for supper I realised that the door was jamming again, fuck! It was too late to try fixing it so I warned Elisabeth and went out. Supper was a bit disappointing, but not because of Chelle's cooking, but rather because my meat was slightly dissatisfactory. Alex and I finally played soccer on the PS2 and Each won a match, the final game was a draw. Alex did keep fouling Beckam, but who can blame him. I think the game is fun as a two player thing, at least it is different to tekken, and our skills are evenly matched.
Then we left for TOR goodness and pool. The tip of my brother's CUE (i'm tempted to spell it que again because of the way people were going on about it, read my very first post is it bothers you) had the most worn tip I have ever seen, but I doubt if it affected my game at all. I played rather well all things considered, even having one run where I sunk 5 balls, two of them simultaneously. I also made the conscious decision not to get too drunk, this means I was only mildly drunk and I can still remember most of what happened. We talked about setting a date for SchpatCON, no conclusion was reached but I'm favouring the first weekend of study week. It was great seeing a bunch of people that I had not seen in a long time, and talking a lot of shit. It was one of the highlights of my year.
After a final two doubles games with Garrick against waynne and Alastair which ended in a win each way and me refusing more alcohol we all left for Chelle's place and coffee. I was giving Alex and Chelle a lift home and we stopped for milk, and got some pies too. We got back and were surprised to find that the rest of the people had not yet arrived. We ate our pies and watched the final battle scene of SWIV:ANH and decided that it was a good thing that the others hadn't pitched because it was 3:30am and it was time to sleep, or in my case wake the neighbours.
Actually by the time I got home I didn't care how much noise I made, I was tired and I needed sleep. I crashed into bed at 4:05am.
Most of my sunday was spent sleeping, I woke up at 12:00 and made breakfast: scrambled egg, avo and smoked salmon. Then I decided to fix the door. Guess what, it wasn't jamming. Weird huh? Sometimes it does sometimes it doesn't, if it is the lock jamming it would happen all the time, and if the door was swollen due to the weather it surly wouldn't expand and contract that quickly. I need to study this phenomena in more detail, and make notes.
As about 15:30 when I had almost drifted off to sleep again I got a call from my colleague asking how my work had gone that morning. PANIC!!! I forgot about having to come into work! I rushed in and did my stuff before the batch run kicked off. It all seems fine this morning.
Then I got ready made tv dinners from woolies and settled down to a relaxing evening watching robots, but I fell asleep halfway through.
later
schpat
It started on friday night with ben's birthday party. A small get together at Anton's place that was supposed to be a surprise, and was even though I almost ruined it. It was great to see a bunch of people that I haven’t seen in a while. We played a rousing game of trivial pursuit and despite a well maintained early lead by my team (we were playing in teams of 4) Nick Wonfor's knowledge of inane trivia proved to out surpass both Michelle's and my own. By god he knew that the Viscount was the plane replaced by the Boeing in South African skies. They also got two questions about Errol Flyn. The other people on our team did however fulfil very important niche roles with Anton knowing how many guns there were at some or other place during some or other battle, that's the kinda stuff I just can't remember.
That party ended very late and my arriving home at 2:25 am was punctuated by a series of rather large crashes as I tried to slam my front door closed. It has begun to stick. Needless to say my neighbours and Elisabeth were considerably less than impressed with this situation.
I got up at 8:00 and stared doing a few things, had breakfast and watched some telly with Elisabeth, Then I went to Chelle's place to split the Doomtown pot. We had Geoff, Tim, Jason, Alastair, Alex, Chelle and me there and the pot was decisively split. Everyone got some nice cards, and Chelle and I got some of our cash back, Tim still owes me some. I decided to keep some of my cards unopened so that I had something to do on a rainy day. I had also brought around a bag of steak and some rolls but Chelle and Alex had eaten so we decided to eat them for supper before we went out to the one ring for Alex's birthday thing.
I left and went to see my dad so that i could borrow some power tools with which to fix my front door and not have to wake my entire complex when I got back from TOR later. When I got home I made lunch and got to fixing the door. The first thing I did was actually look to see where the problem was. It appeared that when I changed the lock on my door (when I lost my keys) I had misaligned the lock and the striker plate and that was causing the door to jam. So I got out the only power tool that I personally own (an electric screwdriver) and removed the lock, hey presto to door was closing just fine! I didn't even need those tools I'd borrowed from my dad. So I realigned the lock and the striker plate and settled in for a relaxing afternoon reading.
As I was leaving for Chelle's place for supper I realised that the door was jamming again, fuck! It was too late to try fixing it so I warned Elisabeth and went out. Supper was a bit disappointing, but not because of Chelle's cooking, but rather because my meat was slightly dissatisfactory. Alex and I finally played soccer on the PS2 and Each won a match, the final game was a draw. Alex did keep fouling Beckam, but who can blame him. I think the game is fun as a two player thing, at least it is different to tekken, and our skills are evenly matched.
Then we left for TOR goodness and pool. The tip of my brother's CUE (i'm tempted to spell it que again because of the way people were going on about it, read my very first post is it bothers you) had the most worn tip I have ever seen, but I doubt if it affected my game at all. I played rather well all things considered, even having one run where I sunk 5 balls, two of them simultaneously. I also made the conscious decision not to get too drunk, this means I was only mildly drunk and I can still remember most of what happened. We talked about setting a date for SchpatCON, no conclusion was reached but I'm favouring the first weekend of study week. It was great seeing a bunch of people that I had not seen in a long time, and talking a lot of shit. It was one of the highlights of my year.
After a final two doubles games with Garrick against waynne and Alastair which ended in a win each way and me refusing more alcohol we all left for Chelle's place and coffee. I was giving Alex and Chelle a lift home and we stopped for milk, and got some pies too. We got back and were surprised to find that the rest of the people had not yet arrived. We ate our pies and watched the final battle scene of SWIV:ANH and decided that it was a good thing that the others hadn't pitched because it was 3:30am and it was time to sleep, or in my case wake the neighbours.
Actually by the time I got home I didn't care how much noise I made, I was tired and I needed sleep. I crashed into bed at 4:05am.
Most of my sunday was spent sleeping, I woke up at 12:00 and made breakfast: scrambled egg, avo and smoked salmon. Then I decided to fix the door. Guess what, it wasn't jamming. Weird huh? Sometimes it does sometimes it doesn't, if it is the lock jamming it would happen all the time, and if the door was swollen due to the weather it surly wouldn't expand and contract that quickly. I need to study this phenomena in more detail, and make notes.
As about 15:30 when I had almost drifted off to sleep again I got a call from my colleague asking how my work had gone that morning. PANIC!!! I forgot about having to come into work! I rushed in and did my stuff before the batch run kicked off. It all seems fine this morning.
Then I got ready made tv dinners from woolies and settled down to a relaxing evening watching robots, but I fell asleep halfway through.
later
schpat
Thursday, June 02, 2005
more general stuff
It's been a while since my last blog entry and I thought you lot deserved something. For future reference I will be updating this blog when I do interesting things and I have free time at work.
So what's happened this week?
Not much realy, but this weekend I'm going to two more birthday parties (woot). The first one is ben smith, an old friend and clawmember. It should be fun just general rlaxation and shit talking. The second is alex, also much fun with the pool at the one ring. My brother has lent me his pool que so beware!!!
I'm, also excited that out DnD game is starting again this week and I've prepared some liquid fortification in celebration.
Financially I'm a bit stuffed this month, I've been paying the bond on our old flat and I still don't have a tenant for it yet. Most of this is my fault, but it's starting to catch up with me.
Anyway this is the interesting part of my post:
Last night I watched "CUBE". No, not the autobiographical short film about the life and times of Ice-Cube, but rather the survival-sci-fi-thriller. The basic premise is that 6 strangers wake up in a cell with no idea how they got there (sound's like a few modules I've played) and have to work together to escape a futuristic rats maze of cells and traps. This canadian flick must have been really cheap to make, there are no recognisable actors, I'm sure the whole movie was filmed in one room with different coloured lights, and there are very few effects (those that there are are poorly done). But this does not make it a bad movie, infact it was really good to watch. The characters developed very nicely and had a good party cohesion vs conflict ratio. I enjoyed it and would urge you to see it if it comes on etv again. And it probably will.
Until next time
-schpat
ps: I've noticed that not blogspot members were unable to post comments, so I fixed it.
So what's happened this week?
Not much realy, but this weekend I'm going to two more birthday parties (woot). The first one is ben smith, an old friend and clawmember. It should be fun just general rlaxation and shit talking. The second is alex, also much fun with the pool at the one ring. My brother has lent me his pool que so beware!!!
I'm, also excited that out DnD game is starting again this week and I've prepared some liquid fortification in celebration.
Financially I'm a bit stuffed this month, I've been paying the bond on our old flat and I still don't have a tenant for it yet. Most of this is my fault, but it's starting to catch up with me.
Anyway this is the interesting part of my post:
Last night I watched "CUBE". No, not the autobiographical short film about the life and times of Ice-Cube, but rather the survival-sci-fi-thriller. The basic premise is that 6 strangers wake up in a cell with no idea how they got there (sound's like a few modules I've played) and have to work together to escape a futuristic rats maze of cells and traps. This canadian flick must have been really cheap to make, there are no recognisable actors, I'm sure the whole movie was filmed in one room with different coloured lights, and there are very few effects (those that there are are poorly done). But this does not make it a bad movie, infact it was really good to watch. The characters developed very nicely and had a good party cohesion vs conflict ratio. I enjoyed it and would urge you to see it if it comes on etv again. And it probably will.
Until next time
-schpat
ps: I've noticed that not blogspot members were unable to post comments, so I fixed it.
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