Philosophy time....ish!

So if a Rastafarian spends 10% of his monthly income on weed, is he tithing?

Microsoft certified se gat.

I've just finished a series of Microsoft exams, the story behind which is an entry in itself, but first things first.
When I first entered the IT industry as an intern, I knew a thing or 2 about computers already, having been a gamer since the days when we'd hack our final fantasy savegame with pctools to get more gold.
I was expected, as an intern, to complete my A+ and N+ before I could hope to earn a real salary at the company.
It was then that I was introduced to test engines.
They're a great idea, in principle.
Like communism, or donut holes.
I soon learned, though, that passing an IT exam relies more on who's taken it before you than how well you understand the work.
I started studying properly, watching videos and reading .pdf's.
But when I came across test engines, my whole study method changed.
IT exams are, by and large, multiple choice exams taken on a pc.
Which lets them give instant results due to the removal of the human presence in marking.
And to ready oneself for this new test taking technology (yay! Alliteration), test engines, a simulation of what the real test will be like, are made available.
Now these are supposed to contain questions that test your mastery of the material preceding.
But, in IT, there's always a hacker lurking.
And if you know where to go, you can find these test engines with actual exam questions (and answers)
So rather than study the work and familiarise with the test engine, rather get the real test and study that. Just make sure that these isn’t a newer version, and pow!, pass.
So even though I have, technically, an exchange server 2010 qualification, I can tell you that I've never logged onto a 2010 exchange server.

So before you pay BCC or CTI tens of thousands of rands to get your qualifications, realise that they are only worth the experience attached to them. I am a MSITP, but have never been tested on my ability to format a hard drive. Which is quite a basic skill.
I've also never been tested on my ability to google, which, believe me, is the most important thing you can ever know how to do in IT.

P.S. Liverpool 3 - Man U 1

Just a quick note about Facebook.

Hi Again
I use to use Facebook a lot.
Tons.
If there was a new game (hehe) or app, I was using it.
Then the novelty wore off, and I had better things to do with my time.
I'll use it to check who is trying to get hold of me, make an event or check out some pictures, but generally I'll only log on 2 or 3 times a month lately, sometimes even less.
My fiancée hates this, she sits on her phone browsing status updates and liking things, then complaining because I haven’t replied to her cute wall post from a week ago.
I removed all Facebook notifications to email, and had my usage managed to what I want out of it.
Then I log into my Gmail, and noticed that Mr Zuckerburg has had a stroke.
Or something similar.
I found out that other people can add me to groups.
Not invite, fucking add.
Now suddenly, I get told that I am now a member of this random "Come check out this random inside joke that you had to be at this bar on this day to actually understand" group, and then 50 other updates telling me that Jeff Fucktard thinks it's funny in blue and Jenny Ballsack totally LOLZ when she….FUCK OFF!
So now there a new step in my Facebook routine.
It's now… reply to pokes, delete 90% or new messages, read the other 10%, dismiss all "Come mix a new drink in COCKTAIL WARS" requests, write something cute on my fiancée's wall, and now I have to also leave groups I didn’t even join.
Where is the "don’t let other people assume I'm interested in their group and add me without asking first" button?
I watch the "Social Network" movie, and I was told that the original idea around Facebook was exclusivity. You have to accept friend requests. You can make your profile private. Other stuff like that too.
Now I have to leave groups I didn’t join, I have friends messaging me to come to this gig that they helped organise the paper plates for, 50000 Farmville "give me a bunny" requests.
I think Facebook has lost the plot.
And I think I'm going to have to start de-friending people who join me to groups, or message or wallpost me about marketing crap.
I'm just glad I barely use the thing, cos then I'd probably get really annoyed.

So where is the followthrough

In any sport where you swing a stick to hit a ball, the concept of follow-through is key.
Don’t stop hitting the ball when you hit it, keep hitting until the ball is well clear of you.
But I noticed the other day how little 'follow-through' governments have.
I stay in Bedfordview. Residents on Kloof road complained to the council that traffic was speeding too much, and requested a solution.
The council took action, and soon speed bumps and traffic circles (AKA Sandton speedbumps) appeared on the road.
Which worked. Usually the "rebels" that cause speeding issues have low slung road cars that kak over speedbumps.

Great, the democratic process in action.
A while later, at a town council meeting, residents were informed that after months of fighting red tape and other issues, the speed limit on Kloof road had been reduced to 40kph.
Residents were not impressed. The councillor was surprised that hardly anyone present approved.
Why, well, I reckon it's because "phase 1"of the cure worked.
But as far as the council was concerned, after Phase 1: Speedbumps, came Phase 2: Speed limiting.
They didn’t stop to check on the effectiveness of their initial solution.
No follow-through.

I watch and love Top Gear, and (forgive my chronology, I watch it on my PC, not on TV) and they recently (?) had an interesting piece of information.
A number of stretches of road were flagged as high accident zones.
Insane numbers of traffic cameras were installed and maintained at cost to the taxpayer. A year later, the accident figures on those bits of road were still the highest in the country.
You could even argue that the cameras were 100% ineffective.
Now in a private company, a revelation like that would lead to, maybe, a dismantling of the program.
Paying for a useless system is a drain on company resources, rather put those funds into researching an effective solution to the issue.
But not in government.
They have no follow-through.
They're not spending their own money, and maintaining those cameras creates jobs, which is a good thing for a government to do.
The original point of the exercise gets lost in the exercise.
It won't be canned because it failed to achieve its purpose, because its purpose becomes itself.
And, as evidenced in Egypt with Mubarak, once you have a self-purposed system in place, it will fight not to be questioned and examined, since it has lost its original purpose and would fold under scrutiny.
So sadly I bring you a clear problem but no idea of a solution. I kinda wonder if the entire government has become self-purposed?

OK, so yolasites is pissing me off even more...

In 1911, a law is passed in South Africa, the first of its kind worldwide.
This law was passed to control and oppress the culture and freedom of mine workers.
This law was the first of many that ended up being called Apartheid.

2011, 17 years after the new, free and fair regime took power, this law still stands.
One might think that there would be a reason for the continued legality of this law. But despite numerous studies, local and worldwide, indicating this law is illegal, it persists.

That law makes cannabis illegal in South Africa.

So, politically, there is no reason for the law.

Did you know you can overdose on alcohol…you probably did.
Tobacco…. Yep, you can OD on cigarettes.
Cannabis – You cannot OD on cannabis.
So, purely for that reason, with the legality of tobacco and alcohol, there is no valid reason, medically, why it should be illegal.

Economically..now we’re getting closer to the cause.
Weed is, well, a weed. It can grow anywhere just about. It can grow in your back garden. So if it becomes legal, it will need to be taxed. But how the fuck do you tax a weed. I don’t know, and until someone figures that out, the law will never make it legal.

That’s where decriminalisation comes in.
You may have heard that if you scrape the white kak from the insides of banana skins, bake it according to a recipe, you can get high.
So why aren’t bananas illegal or subject to ‘sin tax’ like smokes and booze.
Because the law doesn’t care about bananas in that way.
And decriminalisation will put cannabis it that boat too.
Or something like that.

So why the sudden history lesson?
Well I heard on the radio that a report has come back from Advocate Myeni about South Africas war on drugs.
It has almost no online prescence or reporting, all I could find was
this
on SAFM’s website, saying :
10:05 Decriminalise Cannabis in South Africa, says Advocate Myeni
The legality of cannabis has been the subject of debate and controversy for quite some time now in South Africa. Rastafarians are normally the ones who regularly push for the decriminalisation of dagga. Today we hear from Advocate Myeni who also thinks it should be decriminalised.

I hope that this report is not ignored like many before it.
But I guess you have to follow the money, and from that perspective, it doesn’t look good.

Fuck you blogger, you suck giant hairy monkey balls

Fuck this shit.
If i type live, it loses my posts.
Now it wont let me fucking paste from word.

I'll have one more post here, the address of where I'm moving this blog.

Keep Left, Pass Right

Hi. ‘sup!

So I was driving home today and saw something in my rearview that I have seen countless times before, and it struck me that I was looking at a dangerous driver.

Let me explain.

I have a style of driving which some of my friends think is quite reckless and others think is quite granny-like. So through the law of averages I think I must be a fairly, well, average driver. And I prefer not to speed, mostly ‘cos I can’t afford fines.
But I do have my preferences in driving.

I believe that the fast lane is for people travelling at the speed limit or higher (this obviously doesn’t apply in heavy traffic ) I hate it when I’m driving down a quiet stretch of highway at 120 and there’s some cowshit asshole sitting at 95 with no one in the lane to his/her left.
If I’m not in a hurry, I’ll sometimes overtake ( or is it undertake, if I have to pass on the left?) and then, sitting right in front of them, drop to 70, until I see someone else coming up behind, and I’ll take it back up to 120. This usually makes the cowshit asshole move over a lane, its definitely more effective than sitting behind them flashing your lights.

Another thing that gets to me is when I’m driving in the middle lane cos its travelling at 120 and there are enough speed freaks swinging by at 140-160 in the fast lane to stay in the middle lane.
Then I come up behind a car that’s doing 110, or 115.

Just enough to slow me down and piss me off, but that’s not the worst bit.
So I wait, often patiently, for a gap in the fast lane.
It comes, I pull out, and as I pull alongside him he suddenly realizes that he’s not doing 120, and speeds up.
By then, I have an Audi up my ass, and I look like the douchebag travelling at middle lane speeds in the fast lane. I either have to speed, to pull ahead, or drop back behind, which usually leads to the douchebag dropping back to 110 again.

FUUUUUUUUUUUC CCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!

So back to today.

I’m coming from Buccleuch to Marlboro, usually quite a fast stretch of highway.
I’m in the fast lane, as usual, doing 120, as usual.
I pull up behind a 4x4 urban pavement hopper, doing the 110 thing. So I undertake, and proceed.
Next thing I’m on a downhill, and this cowshit douchebag is suddenly up my ass doing 130 or something.

I decide fuck him, I;m not pulling over, and as we hit the next uphill stretch he starts fading again.

Then it struck me.

The ban on cellphones in cars, and associated laws/traffic suggestions, are in an attempt to keep the drivers attention where it should be. ON DRIVING!
But the guy behind me today is paying so little attention to his driving, that the slope of the road, and not his accelerator/speedo, is dictating his speed.

I wonder if you could track drivers like that, and cross reference it with, say, rear end collisions, if there would be a correlation?

Oh, yes, happy birthday to me!