A gift for the wife

23 04 2008

I don’t usually post this kind of stuff but since I am still pissing in my pants laughing I figure it may be nice to share it. I got this in email today but I have a sneaky feeling it’s been around a while. I’ve been under a rock remember. Anyway, here it is:

A guy who purchased his lovely wife a “Pocket Taser Stun Gun” for their anniversary submitted this:

Last weekend I saw something at Larry’s Pistol & Pawn Shop that sparked my interest. The occasion was our 15th anniversary and I was looking for a little something extra for my wife Julie. What I came across was a 100,000-volt, pocket/purse-sized taser. The effects of  the taser were supposed to be short lived, with no long-term adverse affect on your assailant, allowing her adequate time to retreat to safety….?? WAY TOO COOL!

Long story short, I bought the device and brought it home. I loaded two AAA batteries in the darn thing and pushed the button. Nothing! I was disappointed. I learned, however, that if I pushed the button AND pressed it against a metal surface at the same time; I’d get the blue arc of electricity darting back and forth between the prongs. AWESOME!!! Unfortunately, I have yet to explain to Julie what that burn spot is on the face of her microwave. Okay, so I was home alone with this new toy, thinking to myself that it couldn’t be all that bad with only two triple-A batteries, right?

There I sat in my recliner, my cat Gracie looking on intently (trusting little soul) while I was reading the directions and thinking that I really needed to try this thing out on a flesh & blood moving target. I must admit I thought about zapping Gracie (for a fraction of a second) and thought better of it. She is such a sweet cat. But, if I was going to give this thing to my wife to protect herself against a mugger, I did want some assurance that it would work as advertised. Am I wrong? So, there I sat in a pair of shorts and a tank top with my reading glasses perched delicately on the bridge of my nose, directions in one hand, and taser in another.

The directions said that a one-second burst would shock and disorient your assailant; a two-second burst was supposed to cause muscle spasms and a major loss of bodily control; a three-second burst would purportedly make your assailant flop on the ground like a fish out of water. Any burst longer than three seconds would be wasting the batteries. All the while I’m looking at this little device measuring about 5′ long, less than 3/4 inch in circumference; pretty cute really and (loaded with two itsy, bitsy triple-A batteries) thinking to myself, ‘no possible way!’

What happened next is almost beyond description, but I’ll do my best…? I’m sitting there alone, Gracie looking on with her head cocked to one side as to say, ‘don’t do it dipshit,’ reasoning that a one second burst from such a tiny little ole thing couldn’t hurt all that  bad. I decided to give myself a one second burst just for heck of it. I touched the prongs to my naked thigh, pushed the button, and . . . HOLY MOTHER OF GOD . . . WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION . . . WHAT THE HELL!!!

I’m pretty sure Jessie Ventura ran in through the side door, picked me up in the recliner, then body slammed us both on the carpet, over and over and over Again. I vaguely recall waking up on my side in the fetal position, with tears in my eyes, body soaking wet, both nipples on fire, testicles nowhere to be found, with my left arm tucked under my body in the oddest position, and tingling in my legs?

The cat was making meowing sounds I had never heard before, clinging to a picture frame hanging above the fireplace, obviously in an attempt to avoid getting slammed by my body flopping all over the living room. Note: If you ever feel compelled to ‘mug’ yourself with a taser, one note of caution: there is no such thing as a one second burst when you zap yourself! You will not let go of that thing until it is dislodged from your hand by a violent thrashing about on the floor. A three second burst would be considered conservative?

*S-O-B, THAT HURT LIKE HE**!!!

A minute or so later (I can’t be sure, as time was a relative thing at that point), I collected my wits (what little I had left), sat up and surveyed the landscape. My bent reading glasses were on the mantel of the fireplace. The recliner was upside down and about 8 feet or so from where it originally was. My triceps, right thigh and both nipples were still twitching. My face felt like it had been shot up with Novocain, and my bottom lip weighed 88 lbs. I had no control over the drooling.

Apparently I shit myself, but was too numb to know for sure and my  sense of smell was gone. I saw a faint smoke cloud above my head which I believe was coming from my hair. I’m still looking for my nuts and I’m offering a significant reward for their safe return!!

P. S. My wife loved the gift, and now regularly threatens me with it!

‘If you think Education is difficult, try being stupid.’





Titillating Tuesday - Need A Ride

22 04 2008

One thing I have not had to worry about for a very long time now is transport. I realized the other day that when I move back to SA I will have no way of getting around. I need a car. Everywhere else I have been I have had transport taken care of for me. London on the tube, trains and busses, USA in cabs, on all international projects in company vehicles with company drivers. When on holiday I have just hired a car.

Gawd, now I have to fend for myself. I need to buy a car, drive myself, pay taxes, get insurance, buy fuel, pay for parking, take it to the mechanics, wash it myself. Ahhh Noooooooo! I have to rejoin reality!

Hey. Is there anyone out there that can give me a heads up on how and where and what I can buy where I wont get ripped off for something half decent? If you do, please drop me an email with some info.

Hoox needs wheels!

(Click for more - NSFW)

Read the rest of this entry »





Passport Pucker

21 04 2008

Every now and then I get these nervous pangs over the whereabouts of my passport. I had to submit it last week in order to get it stamped for a work permit. I know, I am leaving, but I promised the company 45 days and my visa is only valid for 30, so I need the work permit for the additional 15 days. Crazy.

I don’t like being without my passport at the best of times. I REALLY don’t like being without my passport when hanging around in an unstable 3rd world country without any knowledge of when or how I’m getting it back. At least I have a stamped certified original copy of my British passport and a squeaky clean South African passport I can use in the unlikely event of evacuation. That sounds drastic I’m sure but I live by my all important travel rule, “Always have your Passport, Ticket and Wallet with you at all times”. Everything else you can leave behind, get the hell out of Dodge in 60 seconds, and replace your belongings later when you are home and safe!

Nothing I can do though but sit and wait and hope this bum puckering sensation goes away soon.





Movie Bollocks

20 04 2008

If you watch enough movies you will start to see patterns forming. Most are simply well placed branding that corporations spend millions on. When there is a computer, it is usually an Apple Mac. When there is a soft drink it’s usually a Pepsi. Beer is usually Bud or Coors Light.

There are also some patterns that show up for no apparent reason. The one that pisses me off the most is really completely ridiculous. Have you noticed that when people travel, they do so with empty suitcases. What the hell is that all about? What’s worse is that they then act as if they are rammed loaded and so incredibly heavy. Surely a movie budget could afford a few bricks (23kgs worth for economy class and 32kgs for business class) to add to realism.

Maybe this is just a personal gripe from having to hump so much junk around the world so many times.





More-Skee-Toes

19 04 2008

Oh my word. I feel like a biological pin cushion. I was attacked, invaded, mutilated and violated by a swarm of mosquitoes last night. I swear if I was a few KGs lighter the mother suckers would have carried me away.

mosquito

When I got up, the greedy lazy bastards were just hanging out on the wall and too fat and heavy, being full of my blood, to fly away. I must have killed 40 while going through the regular morning routine of S, S & S. I even stood on a few. They enjoyed me that much that they couldn’t even get airborne!

After coming into the office and bitching enough, it seems them in charge will now do something about it such as nets or repellant. Do I have to think of everything around here?

I couldn’t find anyone to pick on yesterday so I am going to have to look harder today. I guess I have just become too much of a nice guy. I have no more fight left in me.





Time Flies

18 04 2008

My goodness my Guinness. It’s Friday already.

It was this time last week that I was chasing my tail trying to get sorted to get back to Angola. Now I’m here and its only a handful of weeks left before my grand finale. I still get that kewl little butterfly feeling when I say that. Wow. 2 years of unemployment ahead of me. Homeless AND jobless. I true hobo! That’s a bit nerve wracking.

So, all you wonderful people in Johannesburg, South Africa… Where are all the kewl student bars with happy hour? I need a schedule that I can trip from one happy hour to the next. If there isn’t one then I have found my calling in life. Creating one!

Anyway, it’s weekend for all of you in the free world so go and chill and have too many beers so that you feel sorry for yourselves in the morning and lie in late.

I am going to go and find someone I can pick on now.





iPhone Not Remembering Passwords

18 04 2008

Another techie note and only because I am so super impressed with these guys out there that take up their precious time to create fixes for some pretty crazy flaws that Apple have left in their famous product, the iPhone.

If you have found it frustrating as hell when using Safari to browse the net on your iPhone and you continuously have to keep entering your username and password (logon credentials) to every website you have an account on (Gmail is probably the most commonly reported one), then you need to go and kiss these people THANK YOU! They found it and FIXED IT!

 AppleTimesDaily

Here are there instructions taken from their page:
http://www.appledailytimes.com/2008/03/16/114-cookie-fix-available-in-installer/

Remember our post on how to fix the problem with websites asking for you to log in again and again and again?

NOTE: THIS WILL NOT WORK IF YOU HAVE NOT GOT BSD SUBSYSTEM INSTALLED. BSD SUBSYSTEM SHOULD BE THE FIRST APP YOU INSTALL AS MANY THINGS DEPEND ON IT.

Well now that fix is packaged up into a nice installer.app package! Just add our repo: http://appledailytimes.com/installer and you will be logging into sites in no time! )

The reason that this happened in the first place is stupid apple forgot to make the Cookies folder run as Mobile :P. Instead, it runs as root. Meaning Safari, which runs as Mobile, can not write to that root-privileged folder, as it does not have permissions to. There are literally thousands of poeple experience this problem who are legitimate AT&T, un-jailbroken users. So this has nothing to do with jailbreaking.

But anyway, now that we can fix it, why should we complain? )





Back to school

17 04 2008

That was easy. I made a few calls and it’s almost set. I am awaiting a small prospectus in email and I will be good to go. I will elaborate:

I am saying goodbye to the lucrative industry of Information Technology and getting my head stuck up in the clouds by joining the not so lucrative industry of Commercial Piloting. In order to do that I have to go back to school. It’s study time again for Hoox. I have a few months of “ground school” to take care of and since my club where I attained my PPL (Algoa Flying Club) is fully booked until next year, I am having to go elsewhere to do my training. This is not a bad thing all together because it gives me time and experience in another location. NICE!

I am not needing to spend a lot of time calling around for schools or places open with availability since the place I was recommended to call by Algoa has space and the timing is almost PERFECT. They have openings in July and September. Hopefully, if all things work out according to plan, pretty soon I will be joining the Central Flying Academy in Midrand, Johannesburg.

Only pilots or enthusiasts will know what I mean when I say: They also have C172’s that I am type rated on which I can hire to fly and gain valuable “hot and high” experience. For those non-pilots or non-enthusiasts: It’s all good!

Yes I may be jumping the gun a little since they haven’t even sent me the details yet but I am super excited and had to tell the world. Things can change.

Achtung Baby, Hoox is back in town. Soon!





I see you and I raise you 5

16 04 2008

I wont be able to expand on what I am about to say but I think that you will get the gist of it all:

I highly recommend handing in your resignation in a way of securing the raise that you have been asking for over the past 4 years. It seems life is game of Poker but be careful, you have to mean what you say and if you don’t have a backup plan it could very rapidly turn into a deadly game of Russian Roulette with an unfortunate outcome.

Right now it’s Poker for me and I hold all the cards. I have even snuck a joker or two up my sleeve just to spice it up a wee bit.

(That’s not a sleeve!)
 Poker 01

(That’s more like it!)
 Poker 02





Looks like a room, only smaller

15 04 2008

If I look back through my project experience history and pay special attention to the living quarters, I notice a very special trend starting…

1. Vodafone, UK

A suite in the Hilton Hotel in Newbury, UK

2. Miskar, Tunisia

A large room with ensuite in a 2 bedroom house with lounge, dining room and kitchen

3. Baghdad/Daura/Basrah, Iraq

Decent sized single unit living trailers fully fitted with fridge, A/C, double bed and ensuite

4. Reps, Albania

Smaller, much cheaper, single unit apartment style units fitted with fridge, A/c, single bed and ensuite

5. Soyo, Angola

I never thought I would be expected to live in a place that made Albania look like luxury condo accommodation. You will see in the photos something that looks like a room, only smaller. Yes these 2 photos are of the same room from opposite sides. Yes that’s the same single bed in both photos. Yes that’s shared toilet/shower. What’s next? A tent outside? Remind me again why I am leaving? I swear moments like these are great. It removes all notions of tears when I think about my leaving date which is now encroaching nicely.

Volker A

Volker B

I’m only kidding. I really am actually not upset about it. Disappointed is probably the best way of describing it. The way things are going here though it really doesn’t surprise me. It should have been expected.

I am instead grateful for the fact that I have a roof over my head when I lie down at night to sleep. The fact that it’s clean is a bonus and pretty easy to keep clean since there isn’t much space to mess up. The fact that I don’t have to go outside into the bushes to relieve myself is a luxury in these parts. And the best of all, the fact that I don’t have to walk miles for water and instead have hot and cold running for a clean shower and basin facilities merely meters from me should be the deal closure. That and the fact that I don’t have to clean it and my laundry gets done for me.

Screw it, I’m staying!