Service Delivery or Emotional Baggage

Today I'm commenting on a M&G article that you can read here

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-05-22-zille-takes-issue-with-anc-land-transfer-in-w-cape

And another here

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-05-23-anc-zilles-land-conspiracy-just-more-hot-air

Some of the land transferred and ear marked for development is in affluent areas and has an extremely high value (particularly the land in Constantia).

It boggles my mind why such land would be used for low cost housing. The biggest issue in providing low cost housing is budget, why not sell the expensive land to property developers and use the proceeds to build even more houses in less affluent areas.

This would also have the effect of increased stimulation of the building industry. Instead of having "x" low cost homes built in the affluent area they could build "x" with the original funds and "y" low cost homes with the proceeds from the sale, as well as the property developments in the affluent areas paid for by investors (call them "z"). "x" + "y" + "z" = more jobs in the building industry then "x" alone. Not to mention that "z" are larger and would result in more jobs than the low cost homes.

So, in conclusion selling the expensive land and building more houses on cheaper land results in more houses and more jobs, two problems being addressed.

The only reason I can think for not doing this is the emotional argument of "why do only rich people get to live in Constantia?". Obviously that's worth more votes to the politicians than more houses and more jobs!

Oh My Fuck

This is unbelievable, actually it's not really.

The following are extracts from two IOL articles:

In dramatic action on Wednesday, more than 400 protesting metro cops blocked the M2 highway that rings the city, bringing thousands of peak-hour motorists to a standstill

Shooting erupted when SA police in riot gear arrived with metro police (JMPD) using live ammunition and police firing rubber bullets.

On Wednesday, motorists watched in amazement as, around them on the M2 motorway, police took on police, trapping civilians in the crossfire.

The gunfight came after hundreds of protesting metro police blocked both lanes of the M2 highway going east and west.

But it all turned ominous when the SAPS arrived. They brandished shotguns and wore body armour. Some were clearly game for a scrap.

They were taken aback when they noticed the metro cops were armed and loaded.

"We've also got guns," was the chant, which didn't sound good.

Just after 6pm, SAPS officers clad in riot geared moved in and tried to get the JMPD officers to disperse. They refused and forced the two dozen or so police officers to move back.

Minutes later, a Nyala rolled towards the chanting protesters. A policeman popped his head out of the vehicle and threw a stun grenade. Police then opened fired, using rubber bullets.

Scores of metro cops drew their service weapons and shot back while they fled. As stunned motorists hit the ground, some rolling under their stranded vehicles, the shooting continued, with SA police driving back JMPD officers.

On Wednesday night SA Municipal Workers' Union organiser Vincent Vena, speaking from metro headquarters in Loveday Street, said there would be no metro police on duty on Thursday.

"Obviously it (the stayaway) will hit the public hard, which is not our aim," Vena said. "Nobody will die on the roads if the traffic officers are not there."

Asked what effect this would have on crime fighting, he said: "Whether we are on the streets or not, it won't deter criminals from their wrongdoings."

You can read the full articles here and here


All I have to say is WTF? Protect and Serve?

What was, is, and might have been

A few days short of a year ago I was getting ready to play in Africa's biggest poker tournament, I was going to be there because of a mistake.

You see I'd been told that there were plenty of people interested in going through to the AAPT that would gladly jump at the chance to win a seat for a considerably smaller sum than the actual buy-in (in poker we call this a satellite). Now because seating for this event was strictly limited and in very high demand I ponied up the R20k upfront about three months before the time.

Then when I tried organising the event no one was interested. It totally sucked, here I was with 20k that I'd invested looking to turn a small profit and it looked like I was going to be out of pocket. To add to my misery demand for the seats was at an all time low with the organisers still sitting on more than a few and no waiting list to gobble up my unwanted ticket.

20K was a lot of cash for me back then and it still is now. For nine rather interesting and highly unusual months over the past year 20k didn't mean very much to me, but that's a story for another post.

So what to do? Well I thought I could sell the seat if I offered it at a heavy discount. I contacted a few people in the poker community but either they were waiting to see if they would win an online Sat or they were waiting to see how low my price would eventually drop.

However, during that period I played some spectacular poker and cashed in every single live tournament I played. I was on fire and hitting it like a mofo. I made enough cash to cover the cost of the seat and, in moment of ecstatic hubris, decided that I was well capable of playing with the big boys. I took the plunge and set in motion event that would change my life.

The full extent of said change is still to be determined, but I live in hope.

<><><><><><><><><><><><>

Why am I reminiscing about this now? Well I about to play live poker again, something which hasn't happened in more than three months. It's a ten player R150 buy-in single table tournament, far cry from the 120 players with more than R4m in prizes. Baby steps.

Well Done Ryan

I loved "Jaggered Little Pill" when it was first realeased. Alanis rocked, hard. Here was a chick with great talent who took shit from nobody. The tone of the album was angsty and very, very angry. Alanis became a sensation and an instant star.

Then it all went to shit, big time.

Obviously fame brought cash, friends and love to Alanis because all the rest of her music has been crap about going to fucking India and loving your brother. Watery whimisical shit. I commented to people all the time that what she really needed was a good disapointment and some real anger to reproduce her earlier greatness. Well thanks to Ryan Reynolds this is now a possibility.

Not only is Ryan a great comedic actor but apparently he is responsible for putting pain and suffering back into Alanis' life. Thanks Dude!

I don't know if it's going to be enough to pull Alanis out of the pit of soppy goo her music has becom, it might be too little to late. But I'm willing to give it a go,

Mother's Day

Mother's Day is this Sunday and it's going to be pretty hard to beat last year's gift, a large black dustbin for my mom's kitchen.

So I've decided not to give a gift this year and rather cook a three course meal for my family. This is the menu that I have planned.

Starter

Welsh Rarebit on Home Made Bread

Main Course

Toad in the Hole

Pea Fritters

Butternut Batons

Desert

Queen of Puddings

As you will no doubt notice I've gone with a traditional British theme. While I've done variations on all of the above I've never actually cooked any of it before, with the exception of the batons. I'm really looking forward the Queen of Puddings. It's a crème-moulée based base with a fruit compote layer topped is soft meringue, mmm yummy!
Wish me luck.

Entertainment Non-Existant

If you're like me then you've been waiting for shows like Prison Break, Lost or Heroes to continue after the impact of the WGA strike. And you're also quite upset about the cancellation of a couple of shows because of it.

Well when those episodes do finally become available you'd probably better savour them. Currently the Screen Actors Guild is in negotiations with major studios, and they've just been broken-off.

So who know what the next batch of mind numbing reality tv is going to be.

The Internet's Funniest Streamed Movies

Last night I watched one of the poorest shows ever screened on South African television, and I'm including Madam and Eve and Vetkoekpaleis in that list.

The show in question was "Clipz" screened at prime time on M-Net last night. It consists of short clips downloaded from the internet and presented by a host in much the same way as "America's Funniest Hove Videos". Except that instead of Bob Saget, who could sometimes pull off an amusing one-liner, you get a local comedian blandly telling you what's up next, and instead of a live studio audience (in an actual studio) you get a blue-screen virtual studio with crappy graphics.

Advertised as this weeks funniest clips from cyberspace, I'd seen at least a quarter of the clips before and some of them as long as five years ago. And funniest? Admittedly at least half the clips were really amusing and I understand that not everyone has the same sense of humour, but I defy anybody to pronounce that a montage of giggling babies is the height of human hilarity! Seriously, wtf?

The quality of the clips was understandably crap, there was even a warning from the host to this effect. There was also at least five minutes of shameless plugging for M-Net's own "web portal" where you can get short films and funny bloopers from local shows. They showed half of a ultra-short film and one of the aforementioned bloopers. The blooper was of some actor unable to deliver his lines due to fits of suppressed giggles, if that was an example of the funniest blooper on the site I'm glad I took no notice of the URL.

Is this what it has come down to? I mean I totally understand that with the costs of bandwidth in this country most people don't have access to these clips but this is just the height of laziness in television production. This is the kind of programming I expect from e-tv, in fact if this were an e-tv production I'd think it was a great idea for the free-to-air broadcaster. But getting it from M-Net is actually insulting. People from around the country are paying a substantial sum in subscription fees and M-Net is offering this in return?

In general I do enjoy the service provided by my multichoice subscription, otherwise I'd just cancel it, but until there is some serious competition this is unfortunately the kind of bullshit I'm just going to have to put up with.

Divine Right to Rule

Well it seems that Jacob Zuma, as president of the ANC, belives in that organisation's Divine Right to rule South Africa.

Speaking in Khayelitsha on Sunday Zuma was quoted as saying:

"Even God expects us to rule this country because we are the only organisation which was blessed by pastors when it was formed. It is even blessed in Heaven. That is why we will rule until Jesus comes back. We should not allow anyone to govern our city (Cape Town) when we are ruling the country,"

Wow, if that doesn't scream megalomania I don't know what does.

It makes me wonder what is really going on here, is JZ simply trying to recruit support from the masses by outright lying or does he actually believe this shit.

What is really scary is that apparently the general population belives it. Good luck to us all!

Now for a display of how politics really should work read this article.

Man, I love stupid criminals

There's a story on IOL today that I found funny but really sad.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=qw11598609609
65B265

(I'm not sure the link will work because I'm sending this in via email)

Four armed men attempted to hi-jack someone on Sunday, but the dude got
out of his car, pushed them away and stole their getaway vehicle and
drove it to the nearest police station. One of the hijackers then went
into the police station to report his car stolen when a woman who was
there to report that she had been raped recognised him as her assailant.
That's karma!

But what's actually really sad is that a hardened criminal feels
comfortable enough to walk into a police station to report a failed
crime. It's also really sad that so many woman are raped in South
Africa every day that this unlikely coincidence was likely simply a
statistical probability. Man, the more I think about it the more this
country sucks. You hear stupid criminal stories all the time, but
mostly they deal with petty thefts and other misdemeanors, but here in
South Africa we apparently do everything better.

Oh, btw, they caught all the hijackers. Sterling police work there. As
long as all criminals walk into the cop shop while their accusers are
standing right there the crime problem could be over in a couple of
months.

In other news

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=139&art_id=vn2006100213
4257666C429293

(again, not sure if you'll get the link)

The "Homeless World Cup" was held at Grand Parade here in Cape Town over
the course of last week. The irony was that homeless people in the city
couldn't afford the tickets to enter the grandstand. However, that
didn't stop them from thronging to the city centre to generally hang
around and make a nuisance of themselves. Over the last week I've seen
some truly amazing specimens of crazy and drunk, sometimes both at the
same time.

I have absolutely no problem with homeless people. I can understand
that they've found themselves in an incredibly bad situation with very
few options. In a lot of cases disability or mental illness plays a big
part those situations and limits the options even more, but there are
always options.

There's one guy who stands at the robots going out of pinelands in the
mornings collecting rubbish from people's cars for their spare change.
When I first saw this idea about 3 years ago I thought it was absolutely
brilliant, inspired in fact, and used the service as often as possible.
Since then every beggar at a robot has a bag, as if to say "I'm not
lazy, I'm here working". This guy in Pinelands is different, he really
takes his "job" seriously and acts in a professional manner. He's even
started an added value service telling me about the road worthiness of
my car, "that tire's a little flat sir" or "your back indicator isn't
working". I really hope he does well. I'm stoked every time I see him
just because he's trying to do something.

There's this other homeless dude that I see quite a lot around work.
He's always around, sometimes sitting in the sun, sometime sheltering
from the rain and sometimes digging in the trash for food, but he's
always smiling and never asks anybody for anything. That's a big deal
to me. He probably sleeps at a shelter and spends his day's doing what
little he can to make his life bearable, he seems to be making the best
of his situation. Sure he's not actively trying to improve himself but
he isn't asking for a handout either, he's found a zen state that works
for him, and I totally respect that. I've got this agreement with
myself that whenever I win big at poker I give some money to somebody
less fortunate, I figure that I've gotten lucky and somebody else
deserves to share in my luck. This guy is my dude of choice, it may
take a couple of until I see him again, but when I do I give him some
cash. The first time he was a bit apprehensive and when I told him to
get some food he asked if he could buy some clothes instead. The
important thing here is that even though I've given him substantial
amounts of cash, substantial to him anyway, on a number of occasions,
he's never every even approached me, not even for a cigarette.

Another homeless person I should mention is John "The Bergie". I first
met John outside Tokai library when I was still in varsity. He was
selling a "newspaper", hand written and photocopied, outlining his views
of current events that were important in his life. He had such an
awesome sales pitch that I just had to buy one. I've since seen him all
over Cape Town with his duffle bag and "newspaper" in hand. He landed a
Job with FHM magazine as a product reviewer in a column called "Ask a
Bergie". Last time I saw him he was proudly telling me how he gets keep
all the stuff he reviews. I also bought a copy of his "newspaper", a
bumper 16 pages with covers hand coloured in crayon. His email address
and website were listed under editor.

I suppose my message is "Don't be a victim". These three guys are
making the best of their bad situation, not simply relying on others for
a hand out, and getting really upset and aggressive when you refuse to
give them something for doing absolutely nothing.

Speaking of aggressive beggars. Last week while I was having a smoke
break outside I was handed a flyer about the new nuisance laws that the
city is trying to pass. It showed photographs of the various offences
and listed the applicable fines. Examples are: Hanging clothing to dry
on a public fence - R40; Touching other peoples property without
permission - R400; Roadside vehicle repair (other than emergency repair
- R400; Selling goods in public without a license - R100; the list goes
on. I was really impressed that the city was making people aware of the
new law, until I actually read the flyer. It as in fact from a bunch of
bleeding heart organisations that felt that the rules were unjust and
infringed on the rights of the poor. These guys seem to think that it's
fine for folks to hang washing on fences and touch your property without
permission. They were actually wanting people to contact their
councilor and get them to scrap the bill. What fucktards. Yes people
have rights, and those rights are the ones being protected by the law.
I don't want people touching my shit because they just want to, I don't
want some dude fixing cars on the side of the road and taking business
away from my dad who is a legitimate tax payer and I especially don't
want beggars harassing my wife and becoming violent because she refuses
to give them money for doing nothing. Pass the god damned law already!

On the lighter side

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=29&art_id=qw1159797781160B214&se
t_id=1

(again don't know about link)

A woman's silicone implants saved her life when they acted as airbags in
a car accident. Funny stuff huh?

Am I blogging again? Maybe.

Domo Arigato Mr Roboto

Cool, A <a href="http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id=qw1154668321444B215&newslett=1&em=34538a6a20060804ah">life sized Gundam</a>.  Hmmm, 1.5m tall?  Only in Japan.

Excuse me, WTF!

Dr Motsoko Pheko, head of the Pan Africanist Congress has demanded that white South Africans apologise for supporting apartheid and colonialism.  Seriously, I kid you not.

 

That's right according to Dr Pheko the blame for the current state of the nation falls entirely at the feet of each and every while South African.  I'm not even going to get into the whole debate about current troubles all being blamed on a set of laws that were effectively repealed 16 years ago.  I mean the wikipedia article on apartheid even lists it as the major causes of the HIV epidemic in SA.

 

Well Dr Pheko I've got news for you.  I will not apologise for something that was effectively over by the time I was 12.  I am sorry, ie I feel saddened, that thousands of native South Africans suffered terribly under a minority regime, but I will not apologise, and in so doing accept blame, for something I was not even vaguely a part of.  Oh, "Sins of the Father"? Fuck that Shit.

 

Seriously get you shit into gear and actually do something about the problems facing South Africa.  Stop ensuring support for yourself by barraging your supporters with smoke and mirrors intended to distract them from the real issues at hand.  Get down to it and set an example for other political parties in South Africa by attacking unemployment, lack of education, AIDS, corruption and crime.  But I realise that you'd prefer your supporters to remain mindless zombies that are easily bent to your will.  You and your ilk represent all that is fundamentally wrong with politics.

 

I understand that this is exactly the kind of response that you are hoping for, you'll be able to misrepresent it perfectly to show how unrepentant white South Africans are and how important it is that people follow you blindly in order to rid this country of them.   Go ahead, I don't care

 

schpat out

Who said this:

"Nxamalala  has already spoken, saying words of wisdom, telling the initiates they have graduated from boyhood to manhood and they would be expected to behave like men. They are expected to act responsibly as leaders of tomorrow."

 

It was Mini Gabavana of the Dosini clan at a celebration to mark the initiation ceremony of the king-designate of the AmaMpondomise tribe.  Who was he quoting?  Of course it was that paragon of virtue Jacob Zuma, "Nxamalala" is his traditional name.  

 

What is old JZ on?  He's just finished a rape trial where it was found that at the very least he had sex with an HIV positive woman under dubious circumstances, never mind his more than casual attitude to dealing with the worst pandemic in human history.  At the end of the month he'll be standing trail for corruption with regards to a multibillion dollar arms deal, and he's still campaigning!  Is he crazy, does he think the South African voting public are idiots that will ignore this kind of conduct?  The unfortunate answers to these two questions are "Yes", and "Yes".  The really concerning issue however is that he's probably right!

 

In a country internationally touted as a paragon of modern democracy it is in our leaders' interests to maintain a level of ignorance amongst the voting public.  Dissembling, obfuscation and misdirection are the tools that keep them in power.  This is by no means unique to South Africa, governments the world over have employed similar tactics to ensure blind fervor from their supporters, however elsewhere it doesn't always work.

 

In South Africa the public at large is told what to think.  You might think I'm being a little melodramatic or making bold, unsupported statements, but here's a quote from another article to back me up.  Sasco president Mandla Seopela said the students would stand by the ANC national general council's resolution that "he must be supported on the corruption issue".  In this case "he" is JZ. 

 

Now Thabo Mbeki is making statements that the arms deal was all conducted above the board with absolutely no government wrongdoing.  This claim seems to exonerate JZ and it would be interesting to see what would happen should he be found guilty later this year.  In all likelihood Thabo's proclaiments are simply a way to placate JZ and his followers leaving him outs no matter what the outcome of the trial.  Sneaky huh?  Well it's politics.

 

Recently JZ has lodged a civil case against the media for character assassination.  I think political cartoonist Zapiro summed it up perfectly when asked how he felt that JZ was suing him for damaging his reputation.  "What reputation?" he asked.

 

schpat out

Why haven't I been blogging?

Well not much has been happening, but that's never stopped me before. 

 

Work has basically blocked all access to message boards and forums (this includes blogs) and also blocked the emails of my rss feeds.  Being isolated from the blogosphere has kinda made me lose interest in the whole thing, but that's not the only reason I haven't been cranking out my usual monster posts.  The other factor is that I was very disappointed with the response to my blog contests.  Altogether only five people entered (when you count both contests) and I only received a total of ten votes, these were hardly encouraging results.  This left me disappointed and a little depressed that my effort to provide amusement and entertain was mostly ignored.  It was The Schpat Dope all over again, and it reminded me of another project that, while very close to my heart, was generally underappreciated by the intended audience.  I speak of course about SchpatCON. 

 

You see I've always been an organiser.  From as far back as I can remember I've been a person that gets things going.  People want a party? Sure, I'll sort it out.  Varsity is boring! Lets watch videos, I'll get the TV.  Varsity is still boring!  Let's get totally shit-faced and have ice fights and puke and pass out on the couch, I'll get the hooch.  Ok, that one seemed like a good idea at the time.  It could very well just be an intense need to be the centre of attention stemming from a poor self image and the fact that I wasn't breast fed as a baby, but I doubt it.  You see I like to make people happy, and I like to do cool shit.  That's the major reason I came up with the idea of SchpatCON in the first place.  It was a cool way for gamers who were no longer at varsity, and involved with CLAWs, to stay active in the scene and also to give the CLAW committee a chance to take part in an event without having to organise it themselves.

 

SchpatCON was first held at Tokai Library, a venue with a bunch of fond memories of the war gaming club I had a major hand in organising, and other things too.  I put hours into the event writing modules and organising prizes, of course I had some help with module writing.  The turn out was twelve people, the organisers had put in twice as many man hours as all the participants put together.  I was disappointed to say the least, but I decided to run another one in 2001.  That time we had a few more people, but nobody was very enthusiastic.  In fact everybody had left before it was even time to hand out the prizes.  To this day I still have R200 in Outer Limits gift vouchers floating around to remind me of my failure.  That's how I've been feeling lately, and probably the reason that there's been no news about SchpatCON this year.

 

Then last night a conversation about old times and past experiences reminded me just how much fun things used to be, and you know what, things in general weren't very different back then... but my attitude was.  I've realised that SchpatCON is not a failure.  By 2002 I was working with a team of people that are were so good that their enthusiasm energised me and made the whole thing worthwhile.  Together we've gone on to organise three of the best gaming events that I've ever attended, and I've had so many good times.  The general epiphany was that I just need to get off my arse and get on with things.  So I've started blogging again and "SchpatCON VII: Deadly Sins" is in the works.  I'll give out some more information about it at a later stage but for now just keep September 22-25 free in your diaries.

 

I'll be blogging again, but it probably won't take the same form as as before.

 

WBT

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 6165065

They wanted this in the sidebar, but it was just too dang wide. I'm looking forward to it.

schpat out

Ask a ninja

I was up late last night finishing off the latest installment in A Song of Ice and Fire by Geroge RR Martin, this after the poker. The poker was great, I made good decisions but went out when my opponent hit an three outer on the river, bummer but these things happen.

I'm not going to blog much today, I'm pretty tired, but for the benefit of your amusement I present: A Ninja!



For more of these great little shorts check out AskANinja.com.

schpat out

Where's the Ninja

It's Wednesday, where's the Ninja? Rest assured he's here, you just cant see him! I have it on good authority that he'll make an appearance tomorrow. But beware, this ninja's main purpose in life is killing, just because you can't see him doesn't mean he can't see you.

In the meantime, wish me luck for the poker tournament tonight, it's going to be tough and see that I didn't get very much sleep last night it might be even tougher.

schpat out

Return of the A game

This is a poker post, if you have no interest check back tomorrow when I might introduce you to a funny ninja.

Last night after catching up with LOST I fired up the poker machine for a game or two, you know, for practice. I stuck to the $3 + .40 single table SnG's and my B game put up a helluva fight in A's absence. In the first game a bubbled (that's finished one off the money) when I made a move with KJc and was taken out by A4o. In the next game I finished in 6th when JTh ran into A7, my J paired on the flop but my opponent stuck around (against the odd mind you) to suck out with a runner runner gut shot, but that's poker. I decided that if I lost another one I'd have had more than enough practice at losing, so one last game it was.

In the first hand I was dealt KK in the 6 seat. I bet 4xBB and got one caller. Exactly what I'd hoped for. The flop was KQQ rainbow, a fucking awesome flop giving me a full house. The only hand I was worried about was QQ for four of a kind, but as two time world champion Doyle Brunson says, you can't worry about four of a kind. I wanted to show weakness so I lead in with a small bet hoping to be raised by AK. AQ, KJ, QJ or even KQ or AA all of which were possible holdings by my opponent, hell it's internet poker he could have been holding K3o and would still have called. He did in fact call, not what I wanted, but ok. The turn was an 8 and I lead out again with a half-pot bet, he called, the pot's now up to about T$800 and the river is an J. sweet mother of Jesus I think, if he just paired his J I'm gonna score big, there's almost no chance he'd have played AA like that. He's called all the way so far so I pump on another half-pot bet of T$400 for value, he calls. What do you think he showed? That's right QQ. I paid him almost two thirds of my chips just to see four of a kind, thanks Doyle. Honestly I wouldn't have done anything different, The chances that he had that hand were so small the odds I was getting on my bets were great, incidentally he played the last street badly, with the nuts he should have bet out at me, I probably would have called and he could have won a lot more money. Doyle also says that big pairs are dangerous hands, either you win big, or you lose big. Thanks for stating the obvious.... never worry about four of a kind... grumble.

So I'm down to like T$600, out of T$1500, and looking like a complete schmuck, what am I to do now? In burst those mercenaries A game in tow with a sack on his head. The wasted no time tying him to a chair and beating him with rubber hoses until he saw the error of his ways and agreed to start playing again. Hell I even think the mercenaries got in on the action a little bit showing some real aggression. Within the space of ten hands I was chip leader, I rode that all the way to the end of the game, $15 cash, woo-hoo.

That game was over pretty quickly and I decided I needed more practice winning so I signed up for another. A game was really excited to rediscover how much fun winning was again. I had to make a few tough calls, like calling a all-in pre-flop with KQc, but ended up winning that one too. Total of $30 won for the night and a 120% ROI for the night.

I now have enough frequent player points for a cap.

I hope A game sticks around for tomorrow night, I could certainly use it. I want to get some more practice in this evening but I've got to get a good nights rest before the big game.

Tomorrow: a ninja.

schpat out

Dance Dance Revolution

I had a great Weekend. Saturday was spent with family, some German cousins are out in South Africa and we had a get together to say hi. It was a lot of fun to see people that I only vaguely remember form my childhood, they're good people. There was also awesome food. On Sunday I took Elisabeth out to the market at Green Point Stadium to buy african curios for her brother in Alice Springs Australia, I wonder if he likes egg on his pizza. We had breakfast at the News Cafe and then a really late lunch at the Tibetan Tea House in Simonstown. I had a sweet potato and pea curry with much ginger and it totally rocked. We also watched more LOST.

On the poker front, I took my solid B game to the tables last night to feed off the chum left after the weekly $1M on PokerStars. Lots of people pay $220 for the chance to win the $1M but most of them are really sucky players that drop out in the first hour, the ones that drop out in the first few minutes are the worst. These are they guys that are sitting around still wanting to gamble that I like to tackle in the micro stakes SnG's. I say me B game because my A game seems to be on holiday on some tropical paradise and not responding to the urgent voicemails I've left it. Still I played 4 games last night and cashed in 3 of them, two thirds and a second, for a total profit of $7.40 or a 54% ROI. Not too bad. I'm thinking of hiring a bunch of mercenaries to find my A game and bring it back kicking a screaming before my minitournament on Wednesday night.

There is so much fucked up shit in the news at the moment that I'm not even going to mention it here. If you're interested go check it out a IOL.

During my internet foray over the weekend I did come across this very funny video. It's only for people with large pipes, but extremely funny. Who say's white men can't dance?




Also, Fisherman's Friends are awesome, thanks to the guys at role-playing for suggesting them. I loves me the strong mints.

schpat out

Crazy SA

So you need more reasons to mistrust the police? Well here are two very good examples.

Firstly there's this story about a school girl that was forced to participate in group sex by two policemen while they recorded it on a cell phone. Later they distributed the footage via the internet and now are being charged with child pornography. They're freaky looking too, you can check out their pictures at the link above.

Secondly, remember how the cops caught the perpetrators of a major cash heist at JHB International about a month ago? Well in a robbery much like the "Lufthansa Job" portrayed in the movie "Goodfellas" some criminal scum robbed an aircraft full of foreign currency. Unfortunately they weren't as cleaver as Henry Hill and Jimmy Burke and got themselves caught. Brilliant work from the police department, what am I complaining about? Well their evidence safe was raided on Wednesday night and a very large chunk of the cash was stolen. Go guys!

Seriously I totally mistrust cops. The vast mast majority in this country are ill educated folks desperate for a job who will do anything, including putting their life on the line for very little remuneration. The salaries that South Africa offers our law enforcement officers is laughable, no wonder we can't attract superior level individuals into the job, and no wonder so many of our policemen become corrupt. If I was ever detained by the police I would make very sure someone I trusted knew exactly where I was. Although I could probably bribe my way out with a can of beans and a loaf of bread, and they could possibly be convinced to through in a stolen gun to sweeten the deal.

In other news:

Telkom is resistant to ICASA's demand that they get rid of monthly connection charges for ADSL lines. Telkom has threatened to simply raise other prices to make up for the shortfall. Note that that would only be a shortfall in revenue, it is estimated that of the R 477 charged for a 512K line the cost is only R39. Also remember that this "connection" fee is above your normal telephone line rental. Well I suppose that's what a monopoly can do for you.

Roy Bennet, a white Zimbabwean opposition member accused of trying to overthrow the Mugabe government, has been denied asylum in South Africa. The department of home affairs has not released reasons for denying him asylum but has pointed out that he is free to appeal. It's plainly obvious to anyone following the situation that should he be sent back to Zim he would undoubtedly suffer torture and even the death penalty. The only reason I can think of why asylum would not be granted is because the government wants to stay best buddies with good ol' Bob. Human rights aren't that important.

Ok folks enjoy your weekends and have fun, don't get caught by the cops!

schpat out

Not a rant

Man I was going to rant about the Da Vinci Code and how so many people are cashing in on the CONTROVERSY!!11!!. I mean people writing books to confirm or debunk the book are just the beginning. The strangest cash in I've noticed is the J&B ad, that's right somehow J&B have linked the "mythical number phi" (maybe they mean number with mythical myths and stuff) witch is one of the things mentioned in Brows best selling work of FICTION!!!1!! But I'm not going to rant, everyone's doing it and I don't feel like conforming today, so just the minirant you got above then..

Here's something interesting stuff for you folks out in blog land.

A bunch of people in Port Shepstone, on the South African east coast, have spotted a UFO flying into the sea. Nobody has actually said "alien craft" yet but you know it's coming. Divers called off the search for wreckage because of rough seas, or because they are afraid we'll discover too much. ArchAngel is this true?

During my net trawling I found this site with an interesting way for you to market your company. With charity, models and nudity how the heck could it go wrong?

Here's an idea for a shirt that tucks itself in. What happens when it becomes uncomfortably tight? huh?

An interesting story of "boer maak 'n plan", that's 'farmer makes a plan' for non-south africans, this farmer dude created a warless network in a valley unserviced by any telecom company to provide his friends with internet access. Unfortunately in South Africa this is totally illegal. Wanker govt.

If you didn't thing your school outings were very exciting check out this one, where the entire class got sent to jail.

The security guards are still on strike and now the Labour Minister, Membathisi Mdladlana, has been asked to intervene. In a complete mutilation of the english language and of logic the minister said: "People are constantly calling on the minister to intervene in criminal activities. What do they mean when they say intervene? The only problem we have is the flexibility of the law," I'm not sure what he mean or if he even means anything. Wanker.


That's enough for today

schpat out