Our Inconsequence

i haven’t traveled a lot my lame 30 years of life. But i
have always been intrigued by the different cultures’ and people of this world. i think there is a lot to learn from diversity. Lessons of both good and evil. i
think that in the whole, diversity is a necessary evil in our lessons here in
life. Differing thoughts and opinions are core to learning, and discovery of
the truth. But at the same time, different thoughts and opinions bring
contention, death and destruction.

Today, i went for a drive. Not to anywhere i haven’t seen
before. But i did have more time to really take it in. It’s not something that i’m going to get into right now. But sufficeth to say that it was both an
enlightening and very sobering experience.

For a long time i have thought that many, maybe not the
majority, but a lot of North Americans are extremely ignorant to the rest of
the world. You really have to go out of your way to get a realistic
understanding of other people, cultures, views, and politics. We see things in
the news and it’s all on TV, far away from the comforts of our living room
couches. All of the negative horrific things we see and hear on the nightly news
are just that. ‘Things we only see and hear.’ Ours is a rather detached society
that is far more comfortable sitting at home and changing the channel when we
see some news that we decide we don’t want to hear. We’ll switch back to our so
called ‘reality shows’ to get away from the real reality. And that’s ok. ‘cause
if you dwell on the negatives the whole time, it’ll drag you down to no ends.
But at the same time, i think choosing to be ignorant about the people and
situations around the world can be just as dangerous. Of course, ignorance is
something of a luxury that we have in the States.

What’s up with the immigration bill that ppl are freaking out about back home right now anyway? How has the US become so xenophobic? i’ve come to know a few of the waiters that work at the restaurants
near my hotel while I’m here. Most of them are black and they’re very very nice
people. In talking with them, they’ve told me how many people here are still
very racist. They’ve told me how frustrating it can be. Apartheid wasn’t that
long ago. But it still baffles me how ignorant people can be on account of skin
color and culture. And i know that the core reasoning behind the bill is the same kind of thing. i'd like to get into a logical debate with anyone who is against immigration. (jobs/economy has nothing to do with it whatsoever) It really brings on a deep sense of pity for those that are
so shallow to judge on such a silly thing. i stand guilty of that on a level or
two (not racism! Just being shallow sometimes). Although, i'd like to think
that I’m guilty of more of the opposite of that. i tend to judge what i perceive
as shallow. Prolly a lot more than i should.

But hey! life would be boring if people were always level-headed.

Last Weekend Catch up

So, it’s about time i caught up on last weekend. John
Groome, a friend of mine here that i’m working with, invited me out to spend
the afternoon with him and his family. As you can see, it was quite the day! He
and his friend Ray, took me up flying around the city. i’d never been in a
small, non-commercial plane before and it was a RIOT! Absolutely beautiful!
Although, i’m quite peeved at myself that i didn’t bring a spare battery for
the camera. i could have got some sweet pictures out of it! But i made up for
it using the phone to film a little and take some more pics. (i'll add a video page in the next day or two)

After lunch John took me out to his place about an hour away
from the city. In Benoni. (and we drove by the the old boarding school of Charlize
Theron, on the way there).. There we played with
the horses for a bit and went on a ride in his Mercedes SSK.
lots ‘o fun indeed. i think i should get double RL xp for this one.

Check out the photo section for pics. Or try the neato Slide Show.

SA Holiday! (Human Rights Day) mixed with some politics

Bush needs to quit being so PC and just tell things how they are. At least Blair is trying.

It is a clash of idealism. .. why isn't the media stressing that along with the silly bombings and death and destruction? It's not exactly a black and white situation, but it aint all that grey either. ...

 " 'We' is not the West. 'We' are as much Muslim as Christian
or Jew or Hindu. 'We' are those who believe in religious
tolerance, openness to others, to democracy, liberty and human
rights..."- Tony Blair
 
It's Human Rights Day today here in South Africa.. Thanks Prime Minster, rather fitting msg methinks.

03/22 UPDATE: i guess i may have spoken too soon. The Pres can handle himself decently sometimes with the press.

Wooties, has been a bit slow to load lately. i think
i have it fixed. I'll be adding some kewl pics from my weekend
adventures soon to the photos section. So give me a day or two.

Beannachtai na feile Padraig!

And with that said, may the Luck of the Irish spread to all of those 3.5 wootious readers of wooties!  I got all dressed up for the occasion.. ...

sweet pose, i know. i'm one secksie beast!!

It's been a long two weeks, the work is never ending, with one issue getting resolved, i'll uncover 2-3 more unresolved ones.  lots of fun. .... And it looks like my trip is going to be extended. So i'll most likely be flying back on April Fools day.. that's rather fitting i guess. Not quite sure why though.

Anyway, Beannachtai na feile Padraig to you all! be green today!

Missed oportunities

We're all gonna die!!!

dang. ... where's my Tamiflu?

i knew i should have invested in Tamiflu the second i got wind of all this birdflu shizle... oh wait! i forget.. i don't make enough to save/invest a fracking thing!

unlike other ppl. ...

heh. oh well. better than being unemployed i guess.

Wooties Video?

if you dont mind watching something that'll give you motion sickness, and that you can't understand anything that i say (and is overall, generally, really, really lame)... check out the videos.. It's pretty horrid quality. My cellphone doesn't take the best video in the world.. but i had to do something while i was driving around this weekend.

[video]
Here is another one of completly random ryan driving around...

and i told myself that i wouldnt get too emotional on my website. ... but ya know, it can get really lonely when you're on the other side of the world, away from everything you love... i've dedicated this video to the one i miss most. ..  [U]

port security & racism. The human race is doomed!!!!

How can this world be full of such ignorance? It’s fracking  maddening! Ok, so. ... We are at war
right? A war against terrorists who the great majority of them stream from extremist
Muslim sectors of the world. Who, interesting enough, are centrally located in
the Middle East? Ok. … They fight against
those that are deemed ‘Infidels’ and ‘Zionists’. So we try and defend what we
view as an illegitimate and unjust attack on people just because they have
differing beliefs and opinions than the idiots trying to kill everyone because
their views are different. That’s the war on terror in a wootious nutshell if
you ask me. And that view is backable by some pretty simple, yet solid logic. …
i’ve stated before in previous posts that the terroristsare just too ignorant
and lame to express their views in any other way than violence.

So why the fetch are we digressing back to the paranoia and
ignorance of decades passed?? A company partially owned by the UAE bought out a
private UK company that
managed some large US
ports and was planning on managing the ports pretty much in the same manner as
before the buyout. The UAE just so happens to be a country in the Middle East,
(one that has billions and billions of invested relations with the US).. but
that doesn’t matter, what it really matters is that all companies from that region
are out to kill us too! OH NOES!!!!!!
They’re Arab and from the Middle East!! They
must be terrorists! How could this happen? There must be some shady business
going on! They are going to bring cargo ships full of nukes to kill us all! We
are just too fracking prejudice to believe that anything that comes from the Middle East has legitimate friendly business interests!
The only interest of anything Arab is Jihad and destruction!!!

It’s like we’ve stepped back in time. WWII, we rounded up
every Japanese and Asian CITIZEN, and put them in concentration camps. Because
somehow, just because they have similar physical traits, and come from the same general
region, that means that they all think the exact same as the ones that are at
war with us. i admit, it’s not a small percentage that share the same ignorant
views that the terrorists killing innocents do. But, just how far can we pass judgment?

Our politicians are weak, scared, and just plain retarded. i
have yet to read any logical debate on this issue at all (there just may be
some logic to not having the UAE manage the reports, but i haven’t seen it yet). From what i see, it’s all paranoid
reactions from shallow, shallow, sad, people. I’m all about debate, but logical
debate. Why hasn’t anyone in DC that is against this deal (pretty much
everyone) come out with a legitimate, debatable reason for thinking that a
company based out of Dubai is any more of a security risk than some
gangster/greedy union management driven company? And it being partially state
owned makes it MORE secure, and that’s a fairly simple issue to debate. Simple
economics proves my point there.

Sad. The degradation of civilized human society at it’s
finest. “Some people that look like you and come from where you come from want
to harm me. Therefore, you must think the same thing. Because I’m too inept to
think that the human race is more dynamic than my pompous, narrow, shallow
views.” Anything or anyone that isn’t ‘American’
is inferior. ß
seriously, i think there are a lot of ppl that think that in the states.

Maybe we should just start teaching this type of ignorance 
in schools so that ppl like me would just shut up and accept the lameness of
humanity.

(remember, there just may be legitimate arguments against
the dubai company
taking over the ports.. but  until it’s
put on the table, this is my view)

wooties!

ok. so, i'm a bit lame. wooties has been down for the last couple days because my internet changed IP's on me. .. anyway, we're back in business now! i've decided to use my cellphone to make some video blogs, so stay tuned for some, .. well, some interesting posts in the near future.

more proof of the tech industry being completely lame and out of touch with it’s own market.

Okay, so i've been completly on edge waiting to see what microsoft was going to announce as it's Origami Project, now after getting more word and info about it... i'm rather peturbed. i was expecting something revolutionary, some true leap in tech.  not some lame DRM device!.. if the rumors are true, it's a pretty negative turn for the tech industry as a whole i think. ... Sad. i guess i'll just find  some lame non-ipod media device to quench the space inbetween my laptop, MCE machine and my mp3 player. .. lame, lame, lame! it's been years and years since any new or innovative device has been out in this category! And nobody better comment that the iPod was an innovation. it's just an mp3 player for heck sakes!!! They've been around forever, so you added some capacity and some poserific adverts... big whoopie!!. i'll say it again, iHate iPods.

/sigh. ...

Okay, back to work, and reality. hey, just a couple more days and it's the weekend eh?! i'm planning a second trip to the Apartheid Museum for another lesson of the hatred humanity tends to display. so i'm sure i'll have some wootious insight on that for the weekend. btw, we should all take a good long look into what that part of world history really means. Anyway, i'll save up my drama on that issue for the proper post.

Day 2 on the Job.

Power was out most of Monday afternoon, so I figure I’ll scribble up an update.
Although the plane ride is simply horrid, (19+ hours from Atlanta) I escaped rather well. I doped up on
sleeping meds early so that I could try and skip the whole jet lag thing while
on the plane. Looks like it worked pretty well. I’m staying at a small in just
down the street from Swissgarde, the company I’m here working with. I got a sweet
rental car that I’ll be cruising around with and so far, so good. Since this is
my 3^rd time here, I’m pretty comfortable with my surroundings.
There’s a lot of work to be done here that’s for sure.

 anyway, here's a pic of my sweet car on my way back to the hotel tonight.

It seems that power outages happen quite frequently in some countries on this continent, NOT here in South Africa very much at all. In fact, i think i get more power outages at my Condo then they do here . In one
location where we have our software setup in Uganda, there is only power every
other day! i'm off to bed.

EDIT: So, i'm an idiot. Some of my friends here pointed out that my comment about the power kind of propigated the fact that a lot of ppl in the states have some really skewed ideas about South Africa. That everyone lives in mud and straw huts and lions roam around in the streets eating ppl. (i almost almost got eaten by one last night!)