Thursday, 15 July 2010

fear of loss

Last night my car got stolen... along with my wallet (in my car)... along with my diary containing my internet banking username etc. I got an sms saying that the account that I have been using to save up for my MBA had been cleaned out. It all happened so fast.

You know sometimes how when you wake from a dream and within an instant you go from wild panic to uncontainable relief? I’m sure you’ve had it - you flip over on to your back, take stock of where you are, look through your phone messages just to make sure that the bank didn’t sms you after all. And breathe out.

Relief. I was dreaming. I have lost nothing.

But I realised something rather significant: I own things that are important to me. And in fearing to lose them, I have lost something already.

Sunday, 11 July 2010

life, art and music

we think it is the other way around, but life imitates art and music. not vice versa.

wasting time

So... i am in Cape Town at the moment - and last night, having nothing to do, i decided to go to the casino for a bit and try my luck. Walking around the casino floor I became aware of something interesting. The R2 machines are the least busy - no one is queueing up for them. Too expensive. The R1 machines are slightly more busy. The 50c machines are rather busy... but the real crowds are found at the 2c and 5c machines.

And that’s when I realised something tragic: people know they are going to lose money. And they would prefer to lose as slowly as possible. Paying a few cents each time to watch the numbers turn.

I started to consider that bigger than the problem of greed, is the problem of boredom.

People are killing time not realising that time is killing them.

Tuesday, 06 July 2010

Sunday, 04 July 2010

technology

Quick story. Quick conclusion.

8 months ago I won a nokia n97 worth R8500. Nice prize - i thought. It couldn’t sync with my mac so for 8 months I have saved contacts on (one at a time) everytime someone contacted me and I didn’t know who they were. And when I needed to contact someone (who had not already contacted me) then I had to manually go and find their number on my computer.

I know.

This morning I woke up and decided enough was enough. I was going to fix this inconvenience once and for all. With a face like a flint :) i made my way to Mugg and Bean and started a very long Sunday morning.... Many thanks to the dedicated online bloggers on the 6 different discussion forums, who collectively solved my problems.

  1. Use Mac to download Nokia firmware upgrade for phone. The old firmware had a bug that made it incompatible with iSync. (what is firmware, and what is a bug actually?)
  2. Transfer file to my work windows machine cos mac doesn’t speak .exe. (and that is not ek se´)
  3. Connect windows machine to the internet to download latest nokia firmware upgrade. It failed TWICE at 84%. Never in my life has 84% been a failure.
  4. Reset iSync history
  5. Repair Bluetooth devices
  6. Back up contacts onto the microSD card and IMMEDIATELY restore them (even though there were no contacts on the phone by this stage), causing the phone to auto-reboot. (this was the elusive step)
  7. Sync with success.
If someone had given me a list like the above i would have been done in an hour. Four hours later (after piecing all the fragments of techno-crap together, piece by piece) I sit with a satisfied and smug smile on this face of mine. Victory. Success.

If just one person can stumble on this list and find it helpful I will be consoled with a very deep and meaningful feeling of satisfaction. But what are the chances of that happening. If it helps you, please call me - at least I know who you are when my phone rings.

Technology. Making life so much easier.

Sunday, 27 June 2010

fiction

i’m back to that world
the world where it can be possible

where the dream is fun
and the pictures have colour

where i want what money cant buy
and when i’m full without food

where satisfaction is receivable
and made
all together
in a way that i don’t understand
or need to

Friday, 16 April 2010

talking

being able to talk to someone when you have nothing to say is like thirstily drinking from the cup of endless