Joachim Witt. If it’s the only new artist to ever get introduced into your limited repertoire… Ever. Please, just listen to him. I can’t directly link to the man’s music, nor do want to “induce you” to download  it. But buying just him, is a mission impossible.

But worth it.

I have a taste for German Neue Deutsche Harte,  Bauhaus, and   Architecture… And Joachim Witt is simply where it all started, musically, and genre-wise.  I  will not comment about the german girls playin guitar, since there is no need. It “augments”.

On top of the usual video artistry (did Anton Corbijn direct this video?) ,  Joachim Witt is a master of song, reinvention across decades, a depiction of reality, and a whimsical reflection upon the 80’s, life and 42.

Amongst my genre-favortite bands such as Rammstein, Kraftwerk, and Oomph, and Wolfsheim you will find that Joachim Witt has been the “grandfather”. The literal inventor of NDH. You may want to listen to the REALLY 80’s versions of the songs, and reflect where German NDH has come from and where it’s gone.

Joachim Witt tracks to search for:

1. Batallion D’amour
2. Goldener Reiter
3.  Weh-Oh-Weh.

I used to directly link  to  my “https://rodent.za.net/me/” which had some samples and a wiki-like description of my “Musical Education”  pages before, but all it got me was take-down notices. Funny that I can link to the youtube video’s without problems…

I’m sure that 90% of the bands  I used to “educate” people  with  would have actually appreciated the attention.

Oh well. Welcome to new-age media. Where the artist wins… Or NOT.

If, like me, you were brought up in Pretoria, South Africa then you most likely encountered loads of camping trips endowed upon you by your parents in the misguided belief that it would be “fun for everyone”. Aside from the fact that camping is of course, cheap. For me, at the time it felt that all we were doing is visiting boring after boring, dusty after dusty venue with nothing to do but read.

If, like me, you were also forcefully endowed into the abysmal system of slavery that was called ‘conscription’ in the South African National Defence Force, you probably encountered other kinds of “camping” trips that made the experience from childhood seem like a walk in the park.

All of this, instilled in me a complete sense of dread and adversity whenever camping was involved. Over the last years of my adulthood, I’ve simply shunned all forms of camping as “sub-human”.

So, here I am 20 years later, having actually enjoyed a camping trip. Vincenzia’s requirement for her 32nd birthday was a simple one, yet for me (initially) nearly unachievable due to my preconceptions.

She wanted an “adventure”. With Ruben now at the age of seven, and really having developed into a true rascal, my years of shying away from camping was bound for an overhaul. Besides, I’d actually bought a tent about a year ago so with the idea that Ruben could have some fun with it.

So, Ruben and I google’d mom’s secret adventure, and landed onto the website of Hartebeespoort Oord, camping and otherwise average-looking resort.

Aside from the fact that there was a (apparently unsuccesful) Christian Rock concert scheduled for the entire weekend (have you _ever_ heard of something as oxymoronical as Christian Death Metal?) the weekend was a blast. Ruben used his scooter in the pretty impressive skate park, we played mini-golf, swam for hours in the heated pool, and just generally relaxed.

I stuck to a few basic rules though:

1. Go prepared. In fact, go overprepared.
2. Go somewhere where there is LOTS of green grass.
3. Go somewhere where there is LOADS of things to do for a 7 year old kid.
4. Limit the damage by going somewhere close, and only going for one night (grin).

In all, it’s turned out  to be a complete blast (again, aside from the Christian Death metal).

I guess sometimes  you have to “get out of it”  a little bit in order to appreciate things back at home, and to see what the rest of the world is doing.  It also takes you out of your comfort zone, away from the drudgery, and just this  simple act, of 36 hours  has taken nearly a million miles off my stress-ridden shoulders. Vincenzia was entirely delighted with the birthday “present” and has already started planning another million trips I’m sure…

I might try this again, in a few months time. Time to start un-turtling… (Thanks Joe). If only there was a site somwhere on the interweb’s where people could rate their experience truthfully. Hmmm. Maybe I shoudld consider registering the24trip.co.za …  😉

So I just spent the better part of a Sunday afternoon with a couple that Vincenzia knows through her pottery connections and socially.

They made a date with us for an evening during the week (which I cancelled due to flu) and they then rescheduled for Sunday afternoon tea, i.e. Today. We were quite excited, finding people that we have some reasonable connection with is not a simple task.

She (of the couple) mentioned when scheduling the meet, that that they wanted to talk to us about a “business opportunity” which we (quite gratifyingly) put off until AFTER we had had our quiche, and coffee on a lazy Sunday afternoon. I’d been highly suspect of the whole event beforehand because of the “secrecy” and lack of “wanting to talk about it, until we see you”.

Of course, I’ know how these things go. After quiche and tea, we sat on the porch to listen to “the thing”.

Started off talking about “passive income”. It took ALL my might not to roll my eyes and freak out.

Eventually once we got to the point of “being part of a big company that distributes products and makes lots of money”.  I asked… “So, is it Amway?”

It was indeed…

So that was the end of a nice afternoon, with a couple (in the IT industry _nogal_). I politely indicated that they should stop talking and, very surprised, asked: “Why? What’s bad about Amway?”

If I had the time, or the inclination, I would have gone down the rabbit hole, but in the interests of my ulcer, irritable bowel, and general stressed-out-ness I just indicated that I have not, could not, ever be a “merchant” of wares.

The rest of the afternoon carried on under strained conversation and I quite honestly could not wait to show them the door.

How to screw up what could have been a nice friendship? Try to sell Amway. And that’s why it works. Because 90% of people feel so uncomfortable being accosted that they agree to “sign up”, or buy “stuff” simply to make everyone and their verbalised dreams happy.

What a crock of …

Die Amway…  Die… Die American sales dream. Die… This is Africa.

I’m impressed. Rossi a colleague of mine,  has managed to “brick” his recently acquired e-cigarette. There was this “magic blue smoke smell” in the office, and we were all skulking around trying to figure out where the smell came from until we saw him grinning at his table.

Apparently the bricking had to do with the multimeter he held in his hands and “measuring something” and “getting the vapourizer a bit wet”.

Hehe. I’m kinda impressed tho. Everyone knows any new electronic device needs to be “hacked” and prodded a bit.

Not so much for their software, but SO much for their hardware.

I am the unfortunate owner of an XBOX360. I bought the thing as an import from Japan, before they were even available in South Africa, because Microsoft, in their *wisdom* decided that it’s ok to let South Africa only get Xboxes EIGHTEEN months later. I only bought it because I couldnt get an ORIGINAL Xbox anywhere in South Africa (and all those were “grey imports” too).

So, I had the thing sitting, not doing much for pretty much a year. I couldn’t play any of the old XBOX games, because Microsoft hadn’t release the “backward compatibility” stuff yet..

Eventually, when it became “launched” in South Africa, the games were ludicrously expensive. And — I had to bribe someone in the UK to pay for an XBOX Live voucher, just so I could use the online features of the damn thing.  Even now. Nearly four years after the XBOX launch, NOT A SINGLE PERSON IN SOUTH AFRICA CAN USE THE ONLINE FEATURES. You simply can’t pay for Xbox live access. I mean, you can’t even choose “South Africa” as the region on this piece of Microsoft fail.

Barring that, my few months of use with the infernal device didn’t last long. I started getting the infamous “RED RING OF DEATH” crap. Of course, since my Xbox was a Japan import, and older than a year, I could not get it fixed.

I’ve spent nearly 18 months with heatguns, towels, heatsink clamp replacements, and extra heatsinks on the memory chips etc,  etc. Each attempt resulting in about three more weeks of use out of the infernal device.

Reality: The thing is a piece of crap. I will never buy a piece of Microsoft, or any other mainstream (that’s you Sony) piece of hardware ever again, until it’s hit release 900 and ninety nine.

I replaced my xbox with an AMD64 Debian Lenny machine, running XBMC, and honestly — my son, and even the missus  loves it more than the XBOX. No frigging red rings of death for one…

I love the repplacement PC/XBMC  too. If some piece of it breaks, I know how to fix it. XBMC play’s .iso’s, .img’s and even .rar’ed movies, without any intervention. PC hardware in general, is also MUCH more reliable.

XBMC  wins on all the usability frontends , way more than an XBOX. It’s sad, that in the end, the most function for my XBOX was as a media player. XBMC changed all that. Yes, fine. I can’t play “Altered Beast” on the new Media PC (yet).  At  least when I tell XBMC to play a damn movie, it does so. Reliably.

Consoles have a LONG way to go, before beating general utility computers. And general utility computers simply need a replacement for XBOX Live, Apple AppStore and then we’ll see the end of proprietary bull. All that general utility computers need is a nice casing, and an HDMI or RCA output. That’s not so difficult.

I will personally pay the guys that commercialise XBMC double the  amount of money for a perpertual XBMC license, than I paid for my XBOX.  Because it works. I can tinker with it. I can fix it. All that XBMC needs now, is a good game distribution model behind it, and some web2.0 scalability and it will be good-bye Tivo-ism.

Oh, and controllers. Uhm wait. There’s many of those already. At like, HALF the price of an XBOX wireless controller.