Not today

... ok, who knows what the song is?





or click thru

come on Maiden, drop by South East Asia!!

A Dedication To My Wife

To whom I owe the leaping delight
That quickens my senses in our walkingtime
And the rhythm that governs the repose of our sleepingtime,
The breathing in unison.

Of lovers whose bodies smell of each other
Who think the same thoughts without need of speech
And babble the same speech without need of meaning.

No peevish winter wind shall chill
No sullen tropic sun shall wither
The roses in the rose-garden which is ours and ours only

But this dedication is for others to read:
These are my private words addressed to you in public.

T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)

It's not been easy - no, that's wrong - it's been downright tough. And I've definitely not said this clearly, or often, enough - I Love You Dearly.

And there are oh so many times that I fail to show it - when I get lost in the necessary pursuit of mere work. So many times when I fail to express it and so many other times when I even fail to imply such.

I know I've seemed crass, sometimes, in my treatment of you and your needs. And yet here you still are - perservering - and I think you understand what we are going through.

I could not thank you enough for your patience and love, and I promise to do better.

Happy birthday my love — with hope for many more futures with you.

Inter cathedra et pulpitus reae culpae est ;)

OK, how harmful can a program called "Fish Tycoon" be? Sounds pretty harmless, and technically it is... you are the owner of an aquarium and you make money by selling fishes and aquariums. The more fish you sell, the more money you earn.

So we thought nothing of it when Yasmin (4+ on the date of this posting) found this attractive game on the Shockwave website, and started playing it online (she knows not to use the downloaded version as it expires after 60 minutes)

The yesterday afternoon I went to check up on what she was doing she announced proudly "Daddy, I know how to play this game!"

Me: How?
Yasmin: You have to make the fish pregnant and get more fish and sell them  for more money
Me: What?!!! How do you do that?
Yasmin: Yes, you drag the male fish over to the female fish, then they kiss and the female fish gets pregnant.
Me: I see! (oh, my!)

Oh, no its already begun.

Just kidding, one of the highlights of my mornings is when Yasmin goes "Daddy, can I have pancakes today?"
 
so here we go




She has to help me make them - amazing she remembers all the ingredients. The other day she convinced mummy to buy premixed Buttermilk pancakes and threw a fit when we didn't mix in eggs and milk. I showed her the box and she read "Just Add Water"  Well... we won't buy that next time.

Yasmin usually has 8 mini (I make them small for her) cut into 3 pieces each, and she'll choose the topping - usually maple syrup with whipped cream and sometimes chocolate sprinkles.

Let me say first off I have nothing against cows. Love 'em, especially bar-b-cued ribs ;)  I don't mind them alive either they are generally benign creatures and go about their business without bothering anyone. And those warm brown eyes can melt anyone's heart (so long as they aren't working in the abbattoir)

The other day I was just around Borders - and being close to the end of the year they had a calendar stall outside of the shop in the main lobby of Wheelock. Most of the calendars on display are beautiful - especially the dragons. Scenery, sunsets are OK. The Dilbert calendar is great.

But the Cow Calendars have me completely stumped.

I mean, who is the target market here?

Farmers? so they can hang one in the barn where Betsy sleeps? (yeah, like they'd bother)

Housewives? so they can hang one in the kitchen to gaze fondly at when they slice up.. er, Betsy.

Maybe steakhouses. "Your T-Bone was in THIS cow!"
 
Oh, maybe you can hang one in the living room so that when your friends come to dinner they'll know who they are carving up.

Seriously folks... Cats and Dogs are pretty cute, horses can be elegant and beautiful, but I'd prefer not to have that cow looking over my shoulder when I'm digging into a steak. Especially when some months feature nude udders.

I'd really really love to see the sales figures of the calendars... and I'm really curious. If you do buy one, let me know where you hang it? Oh.. you gave it as a Christmas present! For  heaven's sake what were you thinking? Probably not, is what I think.

I admit these days (since WMP11 lays them out quite nicely) I've been obsessed with getting the correct album covers for the stuff in my WM library - hopefully I will get to buy a Squeezebox or something similar to pipe them out to the main system but for now its serving me well as the office music source.

Anyway.. its a hoot to see this video made by UglyPictures



See how many you recognize or have?

Back in 1996, there were very few internet cafés in the world. One of the first few well known ones - Cyberia - opened in London in 1994, but it would be a few years before everyone would become used to the internet. One of the owners of Cyberia, Nigel Foster, told me this story:

"I invited one of my ex-colleagues at IBM to have coffee and look at the WWW. By way of a demonstration I pulled up a weather map from Australia and showed it to him. He refused to believe it was an actually on a computer in Australia, and suspected instead, that we had a file server in the back office serving up the maps."

Nigel later sold his shares in Cyberia and started Global Café, and this was where I came into orbit. I had joined a company in KL which had acquired the franchise for Global Café in Kuala Lumpur, and went to Genève — ostensibly to observe the operations, but ended up helping them set it up.

Genève is a brilliant place for Global Café to start - it's the birthplace of the WWW, and hugely international community surfing right on the edge of the technology. Being Genève, the clientèle wasn't just anyone either. One day the Peruvian UN Ambassador walked in and was hooked for the whole day.

Plus they had the International university there, so all the café assistants (not only to serve coffee, but more importantly help people start surfing) were students at the U. There were girls from Sweden, Mexico, US, England, Spain, Venezuela — so that anyone who walked in could easily be speaking their mother tongue.

Back in KL, (and to our story…) I started interviewing candidates for the positions available in our setup. This particular interviewee is a diploma holder in computer science with experience in F&B (specified in the advertisements, and the CV fit)

Me: OK, what are you doing now?
Interviewee: I'm studying in a Computer Science degree program at ITM. The course is better than any local university computer science course.
(Me, thinking) really.. I graduated in Computer Science from a local university
Me: Has this course started, and can you take on the job, if you are offered?
Interviewee: Yes it started 3 weeks ago, and it will be half days so I can spend afternoons at the café
Me: What were you doing after graduation and before this course?
Interviewee: I worked in a hotel
Me: In what capacity?
Interviewee: Programmer
Me: Doing what, exactly?
Interviewee: Writing programs
DOH!
Me: (exasperated) Yes of course, but what systems - front office, back office, F&B, reservations?
Interviewee: Uh, I can't remember
what? this was just 3 weeks ago!
Me: What language were you using?
Interviewee: English!