Guess Who's Back

Hey y'all.
I know it's been more than a year but guess who's back in the work-place? Yep! You got that right... Yours Truly.
It has not been easy; scouring newspapers for jobs, writing applications, mailing them, waiting - oh the horrid waiting - for feedback from potential employers. I hated the waiting more than anything. Is it so hard to just email me and tell me that I didn't get through? The generic "You have not made it through if we do not contact you within 3 weeks" is much better, but not by much. The interviews where you convene at the interview hall - yes HALL; that the interviews are being run in halls should tell you something about one's prospects - and you find over a thousand people competing for 2 positions must surely discourage even the most optimistic of us.
Anyway, I stuck to my guns and kept at it and now here I am, gainfully employed.
Yay, to waking up at 5:30 again. Yay, to setting 3 alarms and placing them in different corners of the room again. Yay, to coming home and drifting to sleep in the middle of supper again. Yay!

The Job Hunt!

They said the credit crunch in the US wouldn't reach us here in Africa, how wrong they were. They said the effects of the crunch wouldn't be as strongly felt here, how mistaken they were. They said nothing was going to happen to our jobs, how misinformed they were.

I had a great job doing what I loved, with a bunch of people with whom I got along wondrously. The only drawback in all this was that the company was young and foreign so when the crunch hit, we were in the center of the maelstrom. I have often wondered at what might have been, but I know better now not to go down that road of despair because coming back from it is an almost superhuman task.

When you get to a certain age all over the world (though in all honesty the actual age varies depending on the part of the world you inhabit) you inherit responsibilities. Meeting these responsibilities, however, is a gargantuan task if one has no gainful employment as I have come to painfully discover. But I digress...

One of the hardest things in the job seeker environment is being told that you are, and I quote "Over-qualified". I understand that to mean I am so qualified to do the job, that I might do it better than it deserves. Come on employers, seriously! Give me a chance and if I shine too much, you can ask me to tone it down. How is that?
If you think I'll want more money, you are wrong. The first thing a Ugandan job seeker will say when asked what he'd like to be paid is, "...what my peers in this position earn..." Never "...what my academic peers earn..." Give us a chance. No give ME a chance.

Anyway, enough ranting and raving, time to polish my CV and hit the streets yet some more. If you know any employer looking for an IT person, or an Administrator, or whatever needs doing, call me up.

They said we'd get back on our feet fast; Oh, how they lied!

What is love?

Hello all.
I know, I know... I've been way too quiet for way too long and for that I apologize.
What does it mean to be in love? I mean REALLY in love... I'm worrying that maybe I lack a specific gene that is present in virtually every other human on the planet.

I see a girl I like, get to know her let her get to know me and with time - or maybe in time - these feelings develop [so the story goes supposedly]. This probably happens to everyone else but me. Why?

I meet the girl, and go through all the steps but the last one. If she's away from me for a minute I don't feel the world crushing me down... When I see her, all is not right with the world - though to be fair it really is a messed up world and looking at someone isn't going to do much for improving it.

Truth be told I like the company of a beautiful, intelligent, articulate woman as much as the next guy but my sense of fullness doesn't come to a grinding halt when she's goes away. At least I don't think it does.

Am I a beast, do I lack something, should I care?

But before you berate me, or I myself, what is this thing called love?
Is it a chemical reaction of dopamine and phenyl ethylamine, Oxytocin and Vasopressin?
Is it a state of mind? A conscious choice to be with whomever we choose to be with?
I am a creationist so any assumption that chemicals are responsible for the way I feel and live is unconscionable and discarded as folly.

So I am left with the choice that maybe I haven't yet 'chosen' whom to commit to but that defeats the whole issue of love's randomness. For that reason, I will continue to exist, continue to search for that pot of gold under that rainbow and hope against all hope that I do find that person and do feel those emotions because truth be told I feel I am missing something big.

I leave you with these words of wisdom:
Gigi(He's Just Not That Into You)
I may dissect each little thing and put myself out there so much but at least that means that I still care. Oh! You've think you won because women are expendable to you. You may not get hurt or make an ass of yourself that way but you don't fall in love that way either. You have not won. You're alone. I may do a lot of stupid shit but I'm still a lot closer to love than you are.

A Fulfilled Day!

I don't know who said about work, "You know how successful your day has been if at the end of it you are dog-tired with a smile on your face, and a deadline met."
To say I am paraphrasing is to say the sun is a dim speck in our sky.

But I digress; what a day I've had...
So many bugs to iron out, un'spec'ed issues to which I had to generate solutions, a time schedule to meet and a girlfriend to IM and explain why I was unavailable for Valentine's Day - I was at a wedding, but unless you are ready to commit, do not take your girlfriend to these especially if you haven't even exchanged keys yet - but at the end of the day - fulfillment.

I met my deadlines - don't tell the boss just yet - and she accepted my explanation, at least I hope she did.

So what to do with myself now. Hmn, I wonder...

See, that's why the better adage to live by is:
Hard work has a future payoff. Laziness pays off now!

New Year's Resolution.

I know this has come two months late but the reason for it is simply that I was never as motivated as I was by this kid:

That was a huge jolt of reality for me, I don't think I should refer to myself as a programmer. This is a NINE year old kid doing this and what can I say for myself.
Now to that resolution: To learn at least one new programming language and use it(them) to write a real world application that can help someone out there simplify his/her life.

I have made a multitude of New Year's Resolutions, but never followed through on a single one but this one I'm committed to - I think. We'll see. Get back to me on 1st January 2010 and we talk.

2010 - World Cup year, African Edition. I can barely wait for it, I can only hope it's at least half as good as the 2006 edition for preparation and the Euro 2008 for entertainment value on the pitch - fingers crossed an African team makes the Final itself (I'm not sure we can win it yet) - here's to hoping. Ciao all for now.

King of Kings - 2

Did you know there are over 32 ways to write Colonel Gaddafi's full name? Here's a few:


(1) Muammar Qaddafi
(2) Mo'ammar Gadhafi
(3) Muammar Kaddafi
(4) Muammar Qadhafi
(5) Moammar El Kadhafi
(6) Muammar Gadafi
(7) Mu'ammar al-Qadafi
(8) Moamer El Kazzafi
(9) Moamar al-Gaddafi
(10) Mu'ammar Al Qathafi
(11) Muammar Al Qathafi
(12) Mo'ammar el-Gadhafi
(13) Moamar El Kadhafi
(14) Muammar al-Qadhafi
(15) Mu'ammar al-Qadhdhafi
(16) Mu'ammar Qadafi
(17) Moamar Gaddafi
(18) Mu'ammar Qadhdhafi
(19) Muammar Khaddafi
(20) Muammar al-Khaddafi
(21) Mu'amar al-Kadafi
(22) Muammar Ghaddafy
(23) Muammar Ghadafi
(24) Muammar Ghaddafi
(25) Muamar Kaddafi
(26) Muammar Quathafi
(27) Muammar Gheddafi
(28) Muamar Al-Kaddafi
(29) Moammar Khadafy
(30) Moammar Qudhafi
(31) Mu'ammar al-Qaddafi
(32) Mulazim Awwal Mu'ammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Qadhafi

P.S. His preference actually is "Moammar El-Gadhafi".

Some of the spellings of just his first name include - but are not restricted to:

Gaddafi
Gadaffi
Qaddafi
Khadafi
Gadhafi
Kadhafi
Kadafi
Qadhafi
Kaddafi
Gadafi
Ghaddafi
Khaddafi
Khadafy
Khadaffi
Ghadafi
Qadaffi
Ghadaffi
Gadafy
Kadaffi
Qadafi
Khadaffy
Gaddhafi
Gaddaffi
Khaddafy
Gaddafy
Ghadhafi
Gadhaffi
Qaddaffi
Qaddhafi
Khadhafi
Kadafy
Gadaffy
Kaddhafi
Kaddaffi
Kadhaffi
Kadaffy
Ghaddaffi
Khaddaffi
Qaddafy
Kaddafy
Ghadafy
Ghaddafy
Qhadafi
Qadhaffi
Qadafy
Qadaffy
Kadhafy
Khaddhafi
Ghadaffy
Qhaddafi
Qhadaffi
Khaddaffy
Gadhafy
Kadhaffy
Gaddhaffi
Gaddaffy
Qhadafy
Qadhafy
Ghaddhafi
Kaddaffy
Qhaddafy
Kaddhaffi
Khadhaffi
Ghadhaffi
Qhaddaffi
Gadhaffy
Kaddhafy
Ghaddaffy
Qaddhaffi
Qhadaffy
Ghaddhaffi
Qhadhafi
Gaddhafy
Qaddhafy
Qadhaffy
Kaddhaffy
Ghadhafy
Qaddaffy
78 and that's not all of them.

King of Kings!

Before you assume this is me spouting about the real King of Kings (I am a card carrying Bible thumper), it's not.
This is about Africa's chase for unification.
An idea is in place to pursue a United States of Africa á lá USA, but here's the thing; Africans have long had this failure to relinquish power and also to demand - for lack of a more appropriate word - respect.
So in comes Colonel Muammer Gaddafi, President of Libya. True he was the first to openly float the idea of uniting Africa after the failure of OAU and as such he believes he should be top dog. Anywho, at the latest summit to deliberate this move he referred to the african leaders as kings of their respective countries (read kingdoms) and suggested that when Africa is united, he - of course - should be referred to as 'King of kings'.
As is to be expected, prior to his declaration the leaders were nodding in agreement until his bombshell. You could have heard a pin drop. But like the so called silence before the storm, it didn't last everyone was up in arms. Suddenly it had become such a bad idea and all were opposing it. Not directly of course, that's not the African way to oppose someone with power; they just began dilly-dallying around the issue. Wasting time.
When he realised his fight would have to be fought another day he sashayed out of the summit - fez cap, dress and all.
African leaders are odd like that, they go for summits to deliberate unifying Africa but pussy-foot around the situation in Darfur and the tragicomedy that is Zimbabwe. Did you know that somewhere in the world right now there is a nation with a 1,000,000,000 currency note, a nation where everyone is a billionaire but all are poor, a nation where it costs 50,000,000,000 cannot buy you a loaf of bread or a bus ticket - Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you (drumroll) ZIMBABWE. So when do we actually debate deposing the summamabeech (RIP Bernie Mac).
Maybe tomorrow.
Ciao all.
As always, Me.

Code Is God's Payback To Man For Evolutionism!

Tom Cargill said something akin to,
"The first 90 percent of the code accounts for the first 10 percent of the development time…The remaining 10 percent of the code accounts for the other 90 percent of the development time."

To describe how true this statement I can only try to draw you an image which may shed more light or cast you even further into the dark. Any programmer will tell you that the initial process of writing code, any code, involves putting ideas generated before-hand into an understandable language computers can understand and interprete. Now after this is done - and it may take a long or short time depending on many things; proficiency of the software developer, language used to develop or even complexity level of the project - comes the deployment.

If the people meant to use the system are dunces - as the majority of mankind can be relied upon to be - then implementation can, as always, be expected to be a minefield of horrors which have no carpet big enough to sweep under. This brings us to the small matter of system and user support, I mean where do people really come from, really. I'm sure you've all heard the one about the user who calls the service desk for help fixing his 'spoilt' computer that won't come on not realising that power has been cut off. These people - clients - are the bane of society but I must contend that even worse than these are the people in management who keep coming down here to insist on changes to the system - features.

Who gives a flying tosser how the system looks? Is it easy to understand? Does it work? Then it doesn't have to look pretty. That's just my two pennies' worth.

This is why I feel when man began to assume he evolved from apes - why did we stop evolving - God decided to see what it's like to truly make something evolve. Ergo the whole confusion any and all programmers face.

Anywho, the one thing I love about my job is the fact that I am putting in my share to lift Africa - to start with - out of poverty by 2015.

Ciao, till later.

What a Day!

Hey world. How are you really? I'd like to know. Many times - as a guy - we feel this is the corniest thing anyone can tell us; like mum asking you how your day was when you walk in from Grade school where the fat bully just took your lunch pack and left you to deliberate a knuckle sandwich. We guys feel this is a lousy way to get a load off. But as a programmer I've got to tell you, many times you feel you need to share some of the burden with someone, especially someone who understands the whole situation at the software development workplace.
The specs change everytime they send them,
The deadline moves closer without warning,
They ask for the wierdest implementations simply because VisualBasic can do 'anything'.
AAAHHH!
(feel free to download the picture below to see what I'm talking about-and they say it's our fault)
I just want to scream.















Anyway, I just feel good telling you all this coz I know you understand. Till next time, Ciao.
Always, Me.

MYC4

Hello out there. The majority of the citizens of the world are living under the global poverty line and there is a view that one person can't make a difference all by them selves; I declare that a fallacy, a lie propagated by those that would have you leave your brother drown in the quagmire of poverty when you - you alone - have the power to help him drag himself out of the bog.

UN has a goal(The Millenium Development Goal) to help end poverty in the world by 2015. MyC4 is a company dedicated to that end. We have chosen to attack the problem from the continent worst affected by this plague - Africa.

Wars, disease, famine and all sorts of pestilences have combined to cause this beautiful continent to suffer and yet in terms of resources: Natural and Mental it is very rich. All we need is your investment; yes - INVESTMENT. Not your charity. We understand your need to also make ends meet so we tell you now "Invest in an African idea".

You choose what opportunity to invest in and what rate of interest you want and finance a project. You get to make money and in so doing also help an entrepreneur to care for his family too.

Thanks for taking the time to chat with me.
Ciao.

Come see us at MyC4 today.