geektine

attn: single & frustrated female friends of mine
(i know you’re reading this :-)

A geek for a boyfriend isn’t a bad idea

"There’s a whole bunch of really nice guys out there you may not have even considered yet. Men of substance, intelligence and stability – geeks! (…)
And they’re useful. They can fix things. In this techie world, it’s great to have a boyfriend who can make just about anything electrical behave itself. And geeks always call you when they say they will – now isn’t that something!"
(source: Lifestyle Magazine, Sunday Nation)

BUT DO I SAY?!?! emoticon

P.S.: "Watch for guys wearing T-shirts with software logos."

simumania

Back in those days when I had a job with this french oil company, I sat in an office with 3 other slaves and our main job was to co-ordinate the price market at their local petrol stations here in Germany. That was at the end of the last century, right after my apprenticeship.
Since all gas prices are indicated on a stand outside next to the street, price marketing is a sensitive business and our telephones rang all day long, from 7a.m. just until 8p.m. and sometimes even earlier and also later than that. Alas, also during the weekends.
Imagine being woken up by a mobile phone as early as 6 a.m. just to hear the voice of an angry petrol station owner who tells you that the competition on the other side of the street in this and that city has gone down with his pricing and asks you for a permission to reduce his price by 1 cent as well… How am I supposed to know if he is telling me the truth, let alone the fact that it takes some time to even understand his strange dialect of what’s supposed to be Gaammaaaan with which he prattles into the phone? I think you get the point…

So, the job being somewhat 24/7/365-exploitive and on the other hand turning me into a bag of nerves, I am still reminded of this job whenever a telephone rings. Well, I am over it by now, but there are some SIEMENS mobile phone ringtones that I just can’t stand and which remind me of this well-paid job (the incentive, most definitely, they really paid good money – but what’s all the pesa for a 25year old slave back then when you just can’t buy time/freedom/uhuru/leisure time to relax?).

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"how I always answer my phone" (toothpastefordinner.com)

Mobile phones have this wonderful advantage of containing something known as "on/off"-button. Since I chose to become a student again, and since I am NOT doing business again where the refusal to pick up a phone equals lost business, I nowadays sometimes choose to switch off my phone or just let it ring. Why? BECAUSE I CAN! THAT’S WHY!
And yes, there’s no Caller Identity Display (CID/CLIP) on my fixed line phone so it’s always like playing the lottery whenever I pick up the phone. It could be my relas with an important message, friends, job-offers, enemies (?), dumb companies trying to sell me some bogus deals or maybe even the lottery, telling me I’ve won (well, they have my e-mail so wtf… ;-). That is, according to Murphy’s Law, most of my friends try to reach me whenever I am busy³, trying to concentrate on work/ on something really important. That just isn’t fair!

There’s this article I read about Esther Dyson some years ago in which she is quoted as having said something like: "I know (that) I’ve completly recovered from working on monday mornings when I realise that I forgot the PINumber on my mobile phone."
Fortunately, it’s not yet that serious.

tagged by irena…

Eehh…I’ve been tagged by Irena, so here ya’ go:

1. Favourite Kenyan Food

– Mandaazi with Cardamon
– Githeri

2. Favourite Kenyan Drink

– Stoney / Tangawizi (Kenyan?)
– Tusker (of course)

3. Favourite Kenyan TV Programme

Those charming ladies over at KBC are just perfect :-)

4. Top 3 Kenyan Hangouts

Any kantini with reasonable prices, nyama choma, cold beer and good music.  Think global, drink local. And when I say ANY, i mean ANY! The whole range…though….I think I feel more comfortable with those joints that are somewhere deep down in a kijiji. I hate those spoiled places in Westlands & downtown where you only find Children of the BlueBandGeneration showing off…

5. Top Holiday Kenyan Destination

– Takawiri Island
– alone/with friends on Safari somewhere
– Coast: Tiwi Beach

6. 3 Kenyan phrases you use a lot (ati, nini, nani and bilaz DO NOT count)!
– aterere…
– eeehh…
– ama?…

7. Three things about Kenya/Kenyans that make you go ‘hmmm’

– many ppl are waiting for something to happen, ignoring the fact that they themselves have to start first.
– the "learn & repeat" educational system that offers no chances for creative students (remember this guy from Western Kenya who wanted to build his own "aeroplani"? Crazy dude, but brilliant thinking. I like that).
– class thinking: "I am a driver, I do not work in the kitchen or the garden." Irene says that’s the Colonial heritage….

8. Three things non-Kenyans say about Kenya/Kenyans that make you go ‘hmmm’

– why are there so many ppl on the streets?
– why do Kenyan men hold hands when they like each other? are they gay or somethin’?
– what’s that small footpath next to any street? don’t they have sidewalks?

9. Three things about Kenya/Kenyans which non-Kenyans ought to know

– Kenya is a beautiful country with very intelligent, capable, interested and friendly people.
– Kenya is more than what tourists get to see like the National Parks, the Coast, etc. It’s the whole picture with all those happy people that might suffer from something but still have the inner happiness  to enjoy life the way it comes.
– the history of the country / area did not start with colonial rule…

10. Complete this sentence: I am Kenyan because……

…because it is part of my world – Kiku’s realm. :-)

And finally – list 3 members (of the Kenyan Blog Ring) you would like to see complete this quiz

Mzeecedric
Mwendemoja
WhiteAfrican

(since Lady Mbuzimoja doesn’t have her own blog as of yet, I am expecting her answer in the comments section OR alternatively  as a  private email….honey, now you’re in for it :-)

If You See Kaye…

My roommate and I took these interesting weather conditions with their -11.4°C (+11.5°F) temperature & icy wind as a perfect incentive to eventually clean the unconspicuous cultural heart of this shared flat:

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Mr. Refrigerator a.k.a. kichaga bia

While outsourcing the contents of this beloved and very important beer container to the already frozen balcony, the low temperature had its share on my beer and stole the bottle with malt beer:

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Oettinger Malz Bier – EUR 0.39 / 0.5l (that’s what I call cheap!)

And then, right after that above mentioned box got its required TLC and everything else back in place, Bwana exceedingly smart JKE had this brilliant idea of opening up another deep frozen bottle of beer right in front of this computer…..with the consequence that the whole damn ******************!!!! content literally ejaculated on my pc screen, the keyboard, mouse and the rest of the table.

Good smell, though.

Wort Frage zum Sonntag

WER schaut sich eigentlich am Sonntag morgen um 10.30 im Fernsehen SKI-LANGLAUF an?

hä???

Ich kenne nur einen Menschen, der genügend Interesse für eine derartige Sportberichterstattung hat – und der sitzt zur Zeit in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Ich bin die Nr.1

Bitte hinten anstellen, “ich bin die Nr. 1”.

Sagt zumindest Westfalia, der Werkzeugversandhandel, und schickt mir das folgende Bild als Aufkleber..

…fürs Auto, den Campingwagen aber auch Türen, Kühlschränke, Fliesen…

..zusammen mit einer Westfalia®-Nr.1-Kunden-Karte, die mich ein wenig an die ADAC Clubmitgliedskarten erinnert:

Nr1card.jpg
Wie cheffig. Schade nur, dass ich gar kein passendes Portemonaie besitze, in dem die Kartenvielfalt der Kundenbindungsprogramme so richtig zur Geltung kommt. Ebenso frage ich mich natürlich auch, was ich mit diesem Aufkleber machen soll: a) aufs Auto kleben?, b) bei Ebay versteigern oder c) in meine sinnlose-Aufkleber-Sammlung stecken und auf bessere Zeiten hoffen?

Aber mal ernsthaft, letztens gab es bei Westfalia diese Kunststoff-Werkzeugkoffer in verschiedenen Größen. Für 9,99 EUR nen 3-teiliges Set! Ebenso das 100tlg. Antirutsch Allzweck / Spez(z)ial Bitset für schlappe 7,49 EUR. Wer kann da schon nein sagen, eh?

@Mzeecedric: hast Du nen Plan, wieso mir WP 2.0 plötzlich Thumbnails für die Bilder erstellt?

associations

Small things that add up to the big picture: just the other day I found a very nice mashup version of Elvis  & The Wailers (!) performing "Crying in the Chapel" via Andreas wonderful blog (Germany’s most active blogger?), so I took that opportunity to change the mp3 ringtone on my mobile phone from "I Get Along" by The Libertines into "Crying In The Chapel" by Elvis Presley.
Yes, ringtones ARE important. Another favoured ringtone is Franco Luambo Makiadi‘s "Attention Na Sida". Some years ago, when Nokia mobiles could only be programmed with monotone ringtones, I succesfully managed to transcript/transfer Franco’s tune onto my mobile. Nowadays, all it takes is a decent (and free!) Audio editor like Audacity, cut the desired 10 to 40 seconds sequence, save it as mp3 and transfer it onto a mobile phone.
And there’s this link to Graham Chapman’s memorial service in 1989 (via SpreeblickCodingmonkeys) –  Graham played Brian in The Life of Brian. Yes, IMDB, the Internet Movie Data Base has it all. Right there, I found a pic of Elvis and realized that Graham and Elvis share the same Bday – January 8th. So, what’s the connection between both of them despite their bday? They are dead but continue to live in our memories and maybe also inspired some of us in one way or another.
And isn’t that what living is all about?

Kudos to Andreas for directing me to The Hype Machine! :-)