The Ramblings of Octavo

Names, places and just about everything in this post has been changed to protect the guilty.

A friend of mine (let’s call him Rob), who is a fairly new recruit at a large accounting firm, recently relayed to me this juicy gossip. Apparently Rob’s company is holding a Christmas dinner in the near future with plenty of alcohol. Of course the company is providing transport to and from the venue for it’s employee’s as any responsible employer should. Then just the other day, the CEO called the staff together and insisted that anyone drinking *must* make use of company transport. Rob, who had been planning to drive himself, felt slightly inconvenienced, but at the same time touched that the company should be so concerned for him and his fellow employees. It was only this morning that our dear friend Rob learned that last year after the annual Christmas party, an employee was arrested for drunken driving and spent a night in jail. Hence the serious approach to things this year and the insistence on using company transport.

I have a few points in relaying this story. Firstly, I think it’s great that Rob’s company is providing transport to and from a function where they know alcohol will be served and consumed. Personally, I think the company should be applauded and this should be something that is done everywhere in SA, considering our road accident rates. On the other hand, isn’t it just typical that action always comes only after the tragedy? To parallel a recent news story — Everyone was quite happy with the sharks and how they are handled in False bay until recently when a women was killed. Now everyone is up in arms with talk of shark nets and hunts for the rogue shark etc. etc.

Just human nature I guess?

Cheers

This weekend a very mixed bag, but all in all pretty wootus. Friday evening, Ibis and I were both stuck for ideas on what to do. Neither of us wanted to stay in, but we couldn’t think of anything we really wanted to do. Eventually I struck on the idea of ice-creams at Tygervalley (a local shopping mall).

We ended up at the Nescafe coffee bar, attracted to the swanky looking cakes like moths to a candle flame. After going through the menu, we noticed that they served cocktails too. I decided to have a Long Island Iced Tea and Ibis went for a Pina Colada (our usuals in other words). In addition, I ordered an Orange sorbet and Ibis got herself some weird, nutty, ice-cream concoction. Eventually the cocktails arrived. The long wait had already irritated me and on seeing the Long Island, I wasn’t hopeful. I took a sip and almost choked. Ibis had a very similar experience. Whoever mixed the drinks was either a rank amateur or was of the attitude that a cocktail should taste as strongly of pure alcohol as possible. Any hint of subtlety or blending of tastes should be drowned in tequila. Another long wait and our desserts arrived. A rather mediocre effort to say the least, although I may have been more effuse in my praise had we not had such terrible service and shocking drinks.

I debated calling the manager over and making a scene, but eventually decided against it. I couldn’t even muster enough indignation to scorn their attempts at service. Besides I wanted to put the whole incident behind me and get back to having a nice night out with Ibis. Luckily things got better after that. We spent a pleasant half-hour browsing through the book shop and then moved on to the arcade to play a few games. After I whipped Ibis 4-0 on the motorbikes and Sega Rally we took in the late show and watched the new Bridget Jones flick.

Saturday morning we were up early to get back to Tygervalley so that Ibis could do all her Christmas shopping here before going home next week. What a nightmare. I really should have realised it, but for some reason my logic circuits weren’t working that morning. The last weekend of the month (i.e. just after pay-day), one month before Christmas. Luckily my eagle eyes, lightning reflexes and 1337 parallel parking skillz scored us a parking spot in fairly short order. We wondered around and ended up buying an LG Fuzzy Logic washing machine (YAY) for our new love nest. Of course, we needed to load it into the car before continuing our shopping, so I had to give up my parking spot. Once the machine was in the car, we needed to find a new parking spot. Heh. Literally 20 minutes later, we managed to find one about as far away from the entrance as is physically possible while still being on the mall property.

We then continued our shopping… I was slowly being sapped of all energy and strength by the thronging masses while Ibis seemed to be feeding off of it, growing stronger and more bouncy by the second. An eternity later we managed to escape the hell of Tygervalley with all of Ibis’s shopping done. I will say that I scored pretty big out of the whole deal though — Ibis bought me a woot pair of sunglasses, which I’ve been meaning to get myself for a while now. My last pair suffered an unknown fate, but they served me faithfully for about 5 years so I’m not complaining. She also bought me a nice photo frame, which is sitting on my desk next to me right now with a pic of a happy looking Ibis in it
Saturday night we were both a bit bushed from all the shopping and so we stayed in and watched the TV movie. Sunday morning found us both on the way to Tygervalley again. Looking back on it now, I cannot fathom what possessed me to willingly submit myself to a second day of purgatory. I think the rest of Cape Town felt the same way though, because Tygervalley wasn’t actually that bad. Sunday we had decided that I would get all my shopping out the way. An hour or two into the spree, I was ready to call it quits and get the remaining two or three pressies later in the month, but Ibis stood firm and demanded that we get the whole thing over and done with. Which we did… eventually.

So that was pretty much the weekend. Lots of shopping. On the plus side, I can now sit back and relax and let Christmas just happen. My birthday is coming up, we’ve got the house thing sorted and I’ve done all my shopping (except for Ibis herself, but I’m waiting for her to leave for home before I buy her stuff, cuz I know she’ll try and figure out what I got her otherwise!).

Anyways, that’s it for now — keep your reader tuned, there’s more to come and yes I know, I STILL haven’t written anything about HL2, but I will… really…

Cheers

It’s FRIDAY!!!

Well, I’m in a particularly good mood this morning. Ibis and I signed the lease last night, so we’ve now officially got a place for next year. Now all we need are all the usual household goodies — good thing we’re moving in just after Christmas Talking of Christmas, we’re hoping to do some shopping this weekend in an attempt to avoid the usual crowds and get the pain over early.

As some of you might know, I have a slight issue with 8-legged critters. Now I park my car next to a hedge at our house and summer is in full swing over here. And so it happened that Ibis and I were in the car last night on our way to pick up a DVD, when I looked out the driver side window next to me. It was at that point that I went white and had trouble keeping my attention on the road. There was a rather large lizard-eating spider, on the window right next to my face… luckily the bastard was on the outside, but at first glance I wasn’t sure, which is what had almost given me a heart attack. Ibis was the model of calm, insisting that the spider was harmless outside the car. Still, I wasn’t comfortable with the damn thing on the window right next to me. The bastard crawled down the window as I sped up (in a pathetic attempt to brush him off by sheer wind pressure) and disappeared from view. When I got out at the video store, he was nowhere in sight, but I’m convinced the little shit has crawled into the nice warm engine somewhere and is hatching mutant spiders all bent on destroying me!!!

Seriously though, there is nothing quite as frightening for me than a large spider near me. They completely freak me out. Call me a sissy if you want, I don’t care - I can’t handle the bastards and I admitted that to myself years ago. Now that summer is here and it’s their breeding season, I’ll probably be seeing quite a few (I saw about 8 of them last year - 2 in my room) so if I happen to have my phone on hand, I’ll attempt to get a picture of one of them for you… or at least get someone else to take the picture. I’m not at all sure I’d be able to bring myself close enough to take a decent pic.

Anyway, that’s it for now — That review of HL2 is still in the works, I just haven’t had the time yet - so stay tuned!!
Cheers

Before you get to read this long overdue post, please note that from now, all links in my posts will automatically open in a new window. If you think that sux, then leave a comment.

Wow - I’ve been meaning to write this post since Monday, but I’ve been very busy with work lately… so anyways on with the news!!!

First up, as you may have read in Ibis’s blog, we have (finally) managed to find a place to stay! w00t!! It’s a fairly large two bedroomed flat in Newlands with plenty of security and very central. It’s truly perfect and we’re both very excited! The big move will be happening early Jan or late Dec! The lease agreement should be in my sticky paws later today and Ibis and I will go over it make sure it all looks kosher.

Then a little update is in order about my recent rant over government ineptitude.

First check out this image. That shows us two things.

1) The government does in fact post people reminders to renew their licences (YAY).
2) The government is inept (Not so YAY).

I was going to post a second photo showing that the expiry date printed on the notice was almost a full month after the posted date, but it came out too blurry. My point is that there are only two possible ways you could view this

1) There is a Machiavellian plot by the government to squeeze an extra R40 out of drivers for temporary licences.
2) Some intern or minimum wage civil servant messed up, causing possibly hundreds or thousands of licence renewal notices to go out too late.

Either way it’s not really acceptable is it? I (and probably others as well) had to cough up an extra R40 for temporary licences that could have been avoided, had we received our renewal notices in a timely fashion. Ok, enough of that rant - CASE CLOSED.

Ok, I’ve still got plenty of news — for one, my thoughts on HL2 after I got to play it this weekend - so watch out for that soon!

Cheers
Oct, the rambler!

Before I get to my ranting, a quick note: Ibis and I found a truly w00t sounding flat last night. We’re going to check it out tomorrow afternoon!! Ibis and I have been living together now for about 3 weeks and so far everything has run pretty much like clockwork. YAY!! And now, on with the bitching
A friend of mine (Zodan) recently purchased Half-Life 2. Personally I was disgusted that he didn’t decide to pirate it like everyone else, but then I guess that’s what age does to a person (if you can’t read my sarcasm in there, then you need a humour transplant).

Now for a R300 game that’s been majorly hyped, I would typically expect a pretty box and a nice manual with pictures etc. I would expect to be able to install the game easily and start playing immediately. This unfortunately was NOT Zodan’s experience.

Pretty box? Check. Pretty manual? Forget it. Sure there’s an ONLINE version and a slip of paper in the box with the default controls and installation instructions, but that’s it. Clean, easy installation? Forget it.

First it required online authentication. Ok, so that’s no biggie - good anti-piracy method. Zodan hauls out his trusty 56k, waxes it up nice and good and connects to the website… oops. First you require a STEAM account. Ok, that shouldn’t take long? huh - try a 5Mb download FIRST to update the STEAM software. OK, sure so now he’s wasted 30 minutes downloading a 5Mb update through a tiny 56k pipe and he’s got a STEAM account. Right, now can we play please? NOPE. Now, you need another 25Mb update for the actual game. 25Mb. Through a 56k modem.

Sure, in the states and Europe, broadband penetration is pretty good, but out here, ADSL is still way too expensive for the average Joe. Surely Valve or Sierra or whoever could have made the process a little simpler? I suppose you can’t escape the need for critical updates, but a 25mb update a few days after worldwide release?

Anyway I’ve bitched enough - I just want to sum up my feelings:
For a R300 game I would have expected a clean, easy install that allowed me to play the game within minutes of unwrapping the cellophane… On the other hand Zodan maintains that the graphics really are something special to witness and it runs pretty well on a FX5200 256Mb card, so kudos to Valve for not forcing hardware upgrades as well.

Cheers!