Day 39 - The Keyboard

 

 Lockdown Day 39 - The Cononavirus is affecting us in many ways, with some turning to crime. The police in all of their stupidity have banished the local community policing forums on patrolling their neighbourhoods, the reason is most likely that they don't want to be caught doing their illegal activities. Sorry that is just me being sarcastic, as crime has started to climb now that no one is patrolling our streets at night.

Anyways just before midnight our dog River Song starts barking towards the veld, something was sure on the move, then again in the early hours. Finally the police sector car arrives to investigate and it looks like they disturbed some criminals jumping the fence into the veld as the abandoned some of their spoils such as this keyboard. 

Don't get me wrong crime has not been a problem here but with the layered security being relaxed things are well you could say going down the drain.

Day 37 - Cat and Mouse

 

Lockdown Day 37 - It is Saturday and not much happening. Okay I finally got round to mowing the lawn. I know, I know, I know I should have gotten to this ages ago but somehow I was hoping to get a goat or two to start making some cheese and goats need grass to eat hence the not mowing the grass. Yip who is going to believe that. Well not Paddy, he has being my constant companion when I am trying to do some work. Here is Paddy playing cat and mouse on my desk.

Not Looking Good

 

Monday and the end of the month. Uhmmm my life is not looking so good, but oh well lets put my glasses back on . Ahhh that's better. All I can do is put all my worries at the foot of the cross because there is nothing that I can do to make it better. As I rub my eyes, trying to clear the fogginess, I remember that I must not worry about things which are out of my hands. Just put 1 foot in front of the next, 1 step at a time.

Setting Up

It is about time to make a move on with my life. Normally I come home tired after work, start supper, put my feet up and wind down. Now I need to pull finger as my life is passing on by. So I need some quiet and peace while trying to build up an online presence, hence I set up my office in Matthew's room while he is away at university.

She's Broken

I had commandeered these earphones from Matthew because he was not using them, and I needed something to keep my mind sane in our small cozy office. Matthew said that the earphones hurt his ears with extended use and the mic was not working. 

Not long after using these earphones, the one ear peace stopped working. It was then that I discovered why the mic and mow the ear piece was not working, she is broken! And yes it is not comfortable with extended use.

Rolling Blackouts

We recently moved to new offices in Sandton, only to find out that they have no backup generators in case of rolling blackouts or as we politically call them loadshedding as to excuse the pun, my light of how serious it actually is.

South Africa needs about 46GW of power but are only producing about 28GW. With the recent cyclone hitting Mozambique last week, the powerlines carrying 700MW to South Africa were taken down by the storm. This 0.7GW does not count for our base power but needed now when we are at an all time low.

So here I sit, the battery of my laptop is finished and all I can do is put my head on my desk and start wondering how Eskom got us into. Here is another conspiracy theory for my readers to consider. What about the Russians? Yip you read that correctly. We are coming up to our elections and the Russians have been known to meddle in the digital space leading up to elections such as the USA elections a few years back that helped Trump get into power. And then there is money. Zuma signed a deal between Russia and South Africa to build nuclear power stations, but that was put on hold due to Zuma being kicked out. But a deal was a deal and surely the Russians won't give up without a fight.

And now the rolling blackouts, uhmmm makes you think.

Disconnect

It is getting quite stressful for me as I am some major issue that needs to be resolved but the boss is back at work and here I am, disconnected. Okay for the record I am working, just that my mind is elsewhere. God has come through in a big way twice before, yet why do I find myself here fretting.  

Applix

And finally the ecommerce website, Appix that I built from scratch is up and running. Wow over 400 professional broadcast equipment to manually upload and categorise all over. Now the client can do the rest. Just some fine tuning before handover and a training manual to create. I am officially tired. 

Ethereum Exchange

It is the last day of my 49 years and tomorrow I turn another year older. I may be half a century; I am never too old to learn, as Gary gives me a crash course on the Ethereum Exchange. From Bitcoin to Potcoin, my head is spinning with the smoke of buy and selling of Ethereums.

Oh so Pretty

I feel pretty, oh so pretty. How in the world can I work in these conditions? I am sure these cats are conspiring for my attention. Don’t let me cough up a hairball but I have to do my work, Minky. Breathe in, Jerome, breathe out. Now stroke the pretty, oh so pretty kitty cat. Ahhh there you go, soon the cats will take over the world.

How can I Work?

How can I work with Paddington all over my desk? First he his playing on a pile of papers, next he is peeping from behind my monitors. Now he is on my keyboard and I just can’t wor;l[23 pok3whnui2 3uj92j23r iejhqwe rhiad WSQWEfvgdsdrvd sdrfwv EF

Gert vs Cat

One of our cats, Shammy, loves to spray on electronic things such as the TV, the rooters, computer and hard drives. Yes it is a big problem and a solution that works still needs to be invented. It must be something about the electronic and plastic smell that compels him to spray.

Anyways, it was back to Gert with my portable hard drive to try safe it from an untimely death. The problem is that this drive is encrypted and the circuit board with the encryption key also got the attention of the cat. So here is Gert using some Linux software to force the encryption to a standard readable format without losing the information.

Day of the Empires

Yes, okay I know it is an old game but it is one of the games that Matthew loves coming back to after Xbox and many other games, Age of Empires is still there for a repeat war.

Today was as usual a relaxing day, Matthew and I went to watch the new Independent Day Resurgence movie while Lynda spent quality time with her granddaughter.

Jealously caught the Cat

I'm working now Minks! This is why working at home is just about impossible with a cat like Minky around. I mean she sits and thinks, well the thinking part is okay but not the sits part as she sits on everything, the keyboard when you are typing, in front of the screen when you trying to what you doing, and Minks even tries to sit in your arms as if she is jealous of the attention that I’m giving the computer.

The Heat is On

Oh well with temperatures just reaching 40 degrees Celsius and the air-con on the blink the heat is on. My colleagues next door don’t want to share their air-con and compromise. They are enjoying my suffering so much so that I came up with a plan to help karma along but then the Holy Spirit reminded me of one of my ideals that I set for this year, “Love the Haters” because hating the haters won’t solve anything, it will just appease you for a little while before you realise that you have gone no-where but backwards. So just smile as I sip another mouthful of water and give them something to worry about.

Last year my ideal was “Judge Not, Compassion and Understanding Changes” which still is for this year but I added the Love one with it. I must say it wasn’t easy to “Judge Not” when I was going through a tough year and it looks like 2016 might be just as tough.

Tomorrow the heat is even hotter with it predicted to go over 40 degrees Celsius, so God help us all as I smile and take another sip of water.

Black and White

Black and White, not the two ladies but the earphones they are wearing. Here are Ilana and Sandra, our Conceptual Designer and Graphic Designer hard at work that was until I disturbed them with my camera.

It was close to the end of another day and they still had their noses to the grindstone with music pumping from their beat boxes through their black and white earphones and into their heads. Now I am wondering if it is rock, classic, rap, metal, pop, blues, or better still punk.

SimCity

Weekend is here after a short week. This weekend didn't come sooner as I need time to recover from my recent holiday. I have come to the conclusion that our cities have too much air, noise and light pollution.

Here is Matthew making the most of his weekend by diving into a game of SimCity with pizza and coke.

Left 4 Dead 2

Tomorrow is Matthew’s 14th birthday so he and 3 friends had a LAN Party at Zaps in Brightwater Commons. Rudolf, Justin, Nathan and Matthew played the survivors, Nick, Rochelle, Coach and Ellis in the zombie apocalypse game Left 4 Dead 2 or simply known as L4D2. They took on inflected mudmen of the Deep South and came out the other side wielding chainsaws, axes, pipe bombs and all other types of weapons.

The kids had an awesome time while I put my feet up relaxing just out of earshot. This is what parties are all about, kids having fun with minimal input from me other than handing over my bank card.

Samsung

Starting early this morning and just ploughing through the work didn’t leave me much time to think about taking photos for my blog. Just before I had to leave this evening, my blog popped into my head. Looking quickly around for something to photograph, the thin red line around my new 23 inch Samsung LED monitor that I got just over a week ago caught my eye. Expecting the light to move like KITT the high tech crime fighting car used in Knight Rider or one of the Terminator cyborgs with its faint red glow but it only the Samsung monitor.

After another busy day at work behind the computer screens and the week is already half way through. Warning tomorrow Zombies are preparing to walk the streets. Are you prepared to fight for your survival?

Samsung LED Monitor

An early Christmas pressie arrived at my desk this morning. A 23 inch LED monitor to replace my 19 inch monitor. Well all of us got pressies here at work today from laptops to monitors as we become a full Samsung branded company. The Samsung LED Monitors were the new series 3 Model 370 with full HD capabilities not that I will be watching movies with it but with two monitors; development work and reporting becomes more efficient.