Jul 24, 2008 | Rants
I *am* going to run over a car guard.
Dude,
Thanks EVER so much for guarding my car while I dash into the shop. Really, I appreciate it.
Here’s your ronds.
NOW BUGGER OFF!!
If you insist on standing behind me while I’m reversing out of my parking bay, forcing me to go at snail’s pace, I’m just gonna HAVE to put foot and take you out!
Honestly. I can drive you know … *sigh* [note]
So, please, please, pleeeeease just let me get in my car and get the hell out of there WITHOUT you standing in my way, controlling my pace and attempting to direct me out of the bay.
Thanks, but NO thanks.
Seriously. You’ve done your bit as a CAR GUARD, I’ve reciprocated, now leave me alone!!
Grrrrrrr
[note] Erm, I just don’t reverse parallel park *sheepish grin*
Jun 30, 2008 | Gadgets 'n Stuff, Rants
I had a good grumble on Saturday about Vodacom’s unannounced implementation of an “improved mobile internet experience” (yeah, right!) and it seems like there’s a general uproar about the whole cockup.
It Online reports:
The South African chapter of the Internet Society (ISOC-ZA) has reacted to Vodacom’s launch of a moble Internet service last week with a strongly-worded statement of condemnation, claiming the new services could actually degrade the Internet experience currently enjoyed by mobile users.
“Vodacom claimed to revolutionise Internet on the cellphone,” reads the ISOC-ZA statement. “They claimed that millions of Vodacom customers now (effectively) have the same experience of the Internet on their cellphones as they do on a PC.
“In reality Vodacom have broken the Internet for these millions of customers. This came without any warning and ISOC-ZA is united against this sort of behaviour.”
According to ISCO-ZA, a number of applications that include instant messaging, banking, specialised mobile applications such as email, Youtube, Twitter, Fring and at least a dozen others, are no longer working since the advent of Vodacom’s service.
“In technical terms, Vodacom installed a proxy service that was not sufficiently tested,” says the statement.
“The technology that Vodacom is using is not standards compliant and, considering Vodacom’s position as a dominant ISP, it should behave in a more responsible fashion.
“Furthermore, some of our members have claimed that Vodacom block many applications that it feels may threaten its business. While we have no direct evidence of this, we appeal to Vodacom to disclose what it blocks and intercepts on its networks.”
The statement goes on to advise users how to bypass the new Vodacom changes.
So how can you bypass the proxy service?
It’s pretty easy, just follow this process:
- Tools
- Settings
- Connection
- Access points
- Vodacom
- Options
- Advanced Settings
- Remove the Proxy server address
Thanks to Flint.za and fring for posting this fix. I’ve tried it on my N95 and it works.
Jun 28, 2008 | Rants
I don’t know what’s going on, but since Thursday 26 June, some applications on my phone don’t work anymore and my mobiwebs browsing experience has been completely screwed up!
And this has nothing to do with the N95 firmware upgrade I did on Wednesday because after that I tested all the bookmarks on my phone, tried out a few of my applications and everything was fine. But I noticed on Thursday night that things are definitely NOT fine anymore.
Vodacom seems to have hijacked my phone!!
They have plonked 2 horrible red and black bars at the top and bottom of each screen with the live! Logo, a search link and links to the top and bottom of the screen. How utterly invasive! The screen is bloody small enough thank you! And now I have to pay MORE for access because you’re adding to the page overheads?
AND the website screen layouts are now a total train wreck. They used to look 100% fine and now they are broken, with layouts that make no sense, odd buttons all over the place and much of the previously functionality of sites just no longer exists!
WTF??? How can they do this?!
I am extremely annoyed, to say the VERY least. I paid a lot of money for my phone and I use it a lot when I’m not actually in front of my computer. Now the browser is completely messed up, some applications no longer work and I may as well not even bother, it’s that painful to use. I think this is highly unethical and some heads need to do some serious rolling here.
Bear in mind too, those of you who are planning to get an iPhone … guess which network operator is supporting them??
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UPDATE 29/06/2008 – please see “Work around for Vodacom’s mess“.
Jun 22, 2008 | Rants, Shopping
NOTE TO SELF:
Never, ever, and I mean this … NEVER, no not EVER … never go to Cavendish Square on the same day that a rugby test is being played at Newlands.
Ever.
There will be ZERO parking and it WILL take you about half an hour to find somewhere to stop and leave your car. (If you want to experience that kind of pain and time wastage again, simply get in your motor vehicle, drive around the block about 50 times whilst simultaneously reaching up to grab large chunks of your hair and pulling sharply.)
Then, to avoid further frustration, make sure that when you buy any items from Look & Listen that qualify for a discount, you do NOT go to the till manned by the turnip who has more bling than brains. No Sweets, stay away from he who insists that the total he gave you AFTER the discount was applied is correct, even though it’s HIGHER than the total he gave you BEFORE said discount was applied. That will save you at least 35 minutes and you won’t have to get the manager to come and sort the mess out for you.
Also, if you happen to walk in while they are playing Usher’s new “Here I Stand” album over their audio system … turn around and RUN!!!
Oh yes, and be sure never to buy any item that has the security tag INSIDE the sealed packaging – how intelligent and thoughtful of the manufacturers to do this … not. That way, the damn bleeper thing won’t scream at you while you’re walking out the shop and the security guard WILL NOT suddenly haul out a great big pair of scissors and start trying to cut open the packages of those little ear thumps you want to give to a few folk as gifts. You should know better, really.
And please, don’t ever wear a poloneck jersey again! It’s really not a good idea to be dressed for the cold Cape weather when every second shop you walk into seems to have their thermostat set to the highest available temperature so you can actually feel yourself melting after only 2 minutes in their stuffy little hot boxes. If you want to wear a jersey, make sure that you’ve got something on underneath that is not too skimpy or revealing so that you can at least peel off a layer or two when you enter those saunas.
Also make sure you turn your cellphone off so that you don’t continuously get harassed by phone calls and text messages from various people, some of whom keep pestering you to “come back with McDonalds”.
Lastly, if you get home ridiculously stressed and exhausted after what was supposed to be a just couple of enjoyable hours to yourself and you realize that you forgot to pick up dog food, DO NOT back out of the driveway straight away and head to the nearest shop, which just happens to be Woolies. No, no, NO! Forget about the idea of dashing in and out as quickly as possible because you sooooo need to get home and take a chill pill. Why? Well, that cashier with the vacant stare who can’t stop chatting to the chic at the next till could accidentally mistake you for Someone Who Has All The Freaking Time In The World and decide to operate at the pace of a bloody stoned tortoise again!
Hrmph.
“Retail therapy”? I don’t think so …
Anyway, at the end of that extremely traumatic expedition yesterday, here’s what I eventually landed up with:
- 1 x Xbox 360 game – GTA4. I was going to get Alone in the Dark, but I was a nervous wreck just looking at the cover image, so I opted for something a little less scary.
- 5 x CD’s – Hullabaloo (Muse), Narrow Stairs (Death Cab for Cutie), Flavors of Entanglement (Alanis Morisette), Rarities, B-Sides, and Other Stuff (Sarah McLachlan) and Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace (The Offspring).
- 2 x DVD’s – Jeff Foxworthy and Lenny Henry stand up comedy.
- Seasons 2 and 3 of Scrubs – I missed this series on tv, but decided to get Season 1 on a whim a while back and totally loved it … just have to see some more =)
- A couple of sets of ear thumps with packaging still intact, but only after yours truly nearly slapped 1 x female security guard brandishing enormous pair of scissors.
- 1 x set of unmentionables, thanks to the La Senza voucher I got for my birthday back at the beginning of April but haven’t had the opportunity to use until now.
- New bathroom scale from Clicks – my old one gave up the ghost a few weeks ago.
- A few personal bits and bobs – no, you don’t wanna know, really.
- Dog food.
Sheesh, nearly 3 hours of hell, just for that!
And then today I had to do The Dreaded Weekly Grocery Shop so I am now offically all shopped out. Completely. Over. Shopping. I seriously don’t get why some people love it so much?!
May 22, 2008 | Mumblings, Rants
Grrrrr … Is it just me or does anyone else notice that there seem to be more and more idiots on the roads these days? I don’t normally suffer from road rage (mostly because I work from home and don’t have to be in my car all that much), but the increasing number of fast-asleep morons that seem to driving around is starting to get to me.
So here’s a piece of my mind …
- Just because you drive a big, expensive car doesn’t mean you have the right to forego using your indicator
- Oh, and if you actually do decide to indicate, it doesn’t mean you can just change lanes without looking
- Put your makeup on at home sweetie
- Cutting me off, driving at 20kms an hour and then slowly pulling to the side of the road without indicating is just not a good way to win me over
- Why do you have to turn in front of me when there is absolutely NOTHING behind me? Couldn’t you wait 3 more seconds so I don’t have to slam on anchors?
- If you want to catch up on the news, turn on the radio or something – don’t read your newspaper on your freaking steering wheel
- A Stop sign means just that – STOP. Duh
- Is it REALLY necessary to give me the finger when I remind you that you are driving the wrong way down a one-way street and are about to collide head on with me?
- Seeing nearly half your car jutting over the white line is a tad annoying – pick a lane buddy!
- If you plan to turn right at an intersection and you need to stop at a red robot, PLEASE indicate your intention to do so BEFORE the robot changes and you actually pull away
- You may be out for a Sunday drive (every day of the week), but some of us really do have places to be, TODAY – try to keep up with the traffic … please?
- What do you mean your phone doesn’t have hands-free? Try turning it off or just not answering it – thought about that?
- I loathe bringing this up BUT … perhaps you just actually shouldn’t be driving at your age?
- Driving up my arse when there’s nowhere for me to go just encourages me to play the amusing game of Just How Slowly Can I Drive before You Realize That You Are Being a Complete Prat?
There … I feel better now!
May 21, 2008 | Kids, Out and About, Rants
Fick. Fack. Feck. Need to have a little vent …. My ex has done it again – messed things up for me, and the boys.
You see, I don’t get to go out very often. In fact, if I go out once a month, it’s a lot. If I go out twice a month, my social life is overdrive! When I actually do have plans to go out and do something other than gym or grocery shopping, it’s a big deal for me. And the boys only get to be with their dad every alternate weekend and perhaps one night during the week, if he’s not working.
This weekend, I’ve hit the jackpot – TWO invitations for dinner! I’ve been psyching myself up for over a week already, trying to generate some adrenaline to combat my fatigue and pain so that when the weekend rolls around, I’m mentally prepared to have a good time.
So there I am, all geared up and excited to go out and relax, knowing that the boys are going to be with their dad and I’m going to have a bit of a break. (I love my kids to death, but I do need some time out occasionally, you know what I mean?) I emailed him to find out what time he’s going to fetch the kids on Friday, because sometimes he gets here really late. And he replies to say: “Sorry, I’m away on business this weekend, and I’m away the whole of next week too.” AAARRRGHH!! Thanks for letting me know, thanks for letting us all down … AGAIN!
He keeps doing this to us – messing us around, inconveniencing me and sending out a clear message to the boys that his work is more important than them! I know he’s a big shot at his work, I know he works hard and he’s all very important and all that, but really, this is just not on anymore …
