View

I'm one of the few office occupants who has a desk right by the window - and I'm the type who regularly stares out of it, waiting for inspiration to strike.

In summer, the sun hits my desk at the perfect angle when I arrive. In winter, rain streams by over the roof, leaving my window clear.

Today there are waterfalls everywhere on the mountain. A good bit of hard rain has every gorge streaming - though a cellphone camera certainly doesn't do it justice. At times the mountains disappear under cloud cover, gone behind sheets of rain - only to re-appear between showers. There was snow on them last winter. A rainbow in spring.

I think I'd go mad without a view...

But Where?

It's an endless round of bad news these days, everwhere you look. Tito's putting up rates again, the fuel prices are rocketing, the food prices are hot on their heels. Xenophobia. Economy. Incompetence and lack of service from banks, big business, even the small shop down the road. 12 years of education gets you a worthless certificate that isn't recognized outside the borders - and sometimes not within them either.

In short, it's doom and gloom in South Africa. One can't help thinking of getting out.

But where to?

The most obvious answers are "Australia" or "New Zealand" - but these have their own problems, and investigation has proved they're not a good idea. There's the UK run - but that's also not adviseable for a variety of reasons. Back to Zimbabwe? Umm... no. USA? Won't even let you visit, never mind stay. Canada? Nope. Rest of Africa? Not.

So where?

The lands of milk and honey are long gone it seems. Every country has its problems - more so if you're a foreigner trying to scratch out a living there. There's no magic answer to the "where now" question.

Or is there? If you know of such a wondrous land, by all means leave a note in the comments...!

Idiots

Favourite Man and I had a rare kid-free few hours as my son went to visit relatives in Cape Town overnight this weekend. We picked him up late Sunday afternoon in gathering fog, then headed home on the N2 highway.

The N2 is a rather notorious road. It's bordered by informal settlements and open veld. There have been incidents of hijacking, stone-throwing and other crimes that have led the police to establish a permanent base right next to the road and patrol it constantly. I avoid that road as much as possible - especially at night.

But with sunset at 5:50 or so these days, it's a bit hard not to travel at night if you're heading to Cape Town late afternoon, with a couple of stops on the way...!

Thus it was that we hit the road back after dark. Part of the packed Sunday evening traffic.

And within a few kms found that a car had rolled on the incoming side, backing up movement for a long way. There were police cars, tow trucks, fire engines etc all over the place, and every second car in our lane pulled over to the side of the road to gawk. Complete and utter traffic mess.

Favourite Man was just telling one of our passengers about another accident we'd seen when the cars in front of us started to scatter. Would you know it, some idiot was driving down the WRONG side of the two-lane highway, headed right toward us in the dark! We managed to avoid that one, but as soon as possible got off the N2 and into a side road.

Between the dark, the fog, the insanity on the road - we were very, VERY glad to get home last night.

You can drive as carefully as you want to - but you simply can't control what other drivers do. No wonder I'm becoming a homebody.

Best and Worst

The xenophobic violence continues in and around Cape Town and further afield. And it's bringing out both the best and the worst in people.

I was listening to a local talk radio station on the way in to work. One SMS said "send these foreigners home - we don't need them here". But an email from 14-year-old Clare said "how can I help?". And then there's 7-year-old Sarah.

Last winter Sarah phoned in offering her allowance to buy blankets for people who were freezing. She phoned in again this morning, saying she was angry because people had to run away, and can she please give more blankets? Of course she can!

She's mobilizing others to help her make a difference.

Perhaps sharing our country's resources and already-strained government help is not everyone's idea of a good thing. Perhaps there's truth to the fact that South Africa has become the flee-to country when things in your own land turn too bad to stay. But there's a reason SA has become this - and until now it's lain in the attitude of the people, a willingness to embrace or at the very least tolerate those seeking refuge, allowing them to make a life here and contribute to both society and the economy.

It's such a complicated situation though. 20,000 displaced in Cape Town means that this city has been groaning under the weight of supporting that number - and more. Many are leaving, preferring to deal with civil war at home than their neighbours turning on them here. In that sense, "they've" won - the "they" that want them out. But is it really going to help the locals when they're gone? Is the government going to get off it's butt and do more for them? I doubt it. The Cape Town mayor says central government has been simply unreachable, other than the Safety & Security minister who has done all he can to open up military bases for refuge. The government simply doesn't care - or chooses to ignore these petty struggles of the common man.

Or perhaps, as has been hinted, there's a more sinister agenda at work that the government has bought into...

Whatever the background causes are, this one's bringing out strong emotions and reactions. Whether it's the best or the worst.

Close to Home

It's one thing seeing xenophobia play itself out on the news each night. It's another to stare it in the face.

Last night the attacks started in Cape Town. Reports were flooding in to the radio station of people running for their lives on the highways, of relief organizations and police kicking into gear as their "what if" plan had to be acted upon. By the time I left for home, the township 1km away from where I live was being targeted.

ONE kilometer away. I could hear the sirens as I arrived home. I could see those who had fled setting up shelter for the night in the bushes near the busiest intersections in the hope that there they'd find safety. The Zimbabweans usually thronging around stopped cars, hawking everything from beaded ornaments to cellphone chargers are noticeably absent. Town was packed with cars and trucks carting every stick of a household's furniture and all its residents - getting out, going anywhere - just not home.

Favourite Man and I did a shop run this evening and our car guard - a refugee from Brazzaville - told of beatings, killings, violence just down the road. He and his friends are sheltering in town.

I've looked the targets of xenophobia in the face tonight. It's no longer stories on the news. It's here, right on my doorstep.

Skin

I left work later than usual yesterday, and still had to do a few things on the way home. By the time I reached my last turn before home, traffic had come to a stand-still. There was a huge accident up ahead!

Where the road from my complex joins the main road through to the next settlement, it's become a dangerous corner. Folk speed down that main road, while others are trying to cross over it - and every so often there's a smash. Yesterday's called out 3 ambulances, 4 police cars, a rescue truck, a fire engine with the jaws of life, and the usual complement of tow-trucks to deal with a head-on collision and (I think) 3 car's occupants. This morning all that remains is a few glass shards on the road.

Us humans, enclosed in our speeding hunks of metal, are fragile indeed.

Dominating the news is the xenophobic attacks happening across South Africa. (Champs has a superb post today) The situation in Zimbabwe is increasingly horrific.

We're fragile. Our microns-thick skin can be burst by sharp objects - whether in a car crash or from a chunk of concrete hurled by an angry mob. Our blood pours too easily. We're mere membranes, held together by grace and miracles - too easily broken, burnt, damaged, killed.

As unique as we are - as incredibly beautiful in our many varieties - we're fragile. We have to look out for each other, before we're spilt on unforgiving earth. Whether it's cutting back on our speed and recklessness, or letting go of anger and prejudice.

How to do the latter... I honestly don't know.

Help I've Been Rebranded!

I've been working in this office for just over a year now. Yet I've worked for 3 different companies, all while sitting on the same chair!

It's a matter of mergers and acquisitions, and all sorts of funny big company things that mean our company name has now changed for the third time.

Being in the documentation business, that gives me a whole lot more work. New logos, new colour schemes, new font guidelines, new screenshots... the whole nine yards. When I run out of things to write, there's ALWAYS some rebranding to attack.

We recently acquired our third name. I'm still trying to get the documentation to conform - but happened to glance around behind me and noticed the glass doors have been re-stickered over lunchtime... The outside of the building was done a week or two back, the parking bays just days ago.

Let's hope we can stick with this one for a while now. Please? :-)

Storm

If I have bags under my eyes this morning, I'm blaming the weather. There's been a threatening cold front hanging around for days - yesterday it hit. While at work, there were sudden strong winds carrying heavy rain, accompanied by thunder and lightening.

It had calmed a bit by evening - but in the middle of the night the wind came up, and came up with a vengance. The bedroom faces north - and the north wind is the one that brings the storms in, rattling the window frames and conjuring up half-formed dreams of the roof taking flight! Last year a storm opened the heavy gate at the front of the yard and took it right out of its moorings - this year we've secured it properly.

Last night it was very bad. That wind howled and screamed and moved the glass in its frame, making for a restless night. If this were the weekend I'd be diarising an afternoon nap to make up for it.

The previous storm took out a few branches and damaged bits of Cape Town. I think it took everything loose - this one only grabbed leaves that I can see. It rained, it blew, but there's no real damage.

Favourite Man pointed out this morning that it's a month to the winter solstice (down south) - a month before it starts getting lighter in the mornings and heads toward summer!

Unfortunately the winter storms are only just beginning....

Office cost-cutting

I'm feeling opinionated today. Have another work-related post! :-)
----------------------

Seth Godin is a wise, wise man. He has a perspective on what makes marketing and consumers tick that constantly amazes me. I'm regularly blown away by stuff he comes up with - and things he makes me think about. Even if he hasn't actually written them.

Take yesterday's post, for example. It's all about the new standards for meetings, in this day and age of expensive travel and cheap telecommunications.

Of course, that got me thinking telecommuting again. Well... in a roundabout way.

Seth mentions this:

If you're a knowledge worker, your boss shouldn't make you come to the (expensive) office every day unless there's something there that makes it worth your trip. She needs to provide you with resources or interactions or energy you can't find at home or at Starbucks. And if she does invite you in, don't bother showing up if you're just going to sit quietly.

I've worked in three companies that had lots of people and lots of cubes, and I spent the entire day walking around. I figured that was my job. The days where I sat down and did what looked like work were my least effective days. It's hard for me to see why you'd bother having someone come all the way to an office just to sit in a cube and type.

Now sitting in a cube and typing is basically what my entire day consists of! :-)

And that doesn't actually require my presence at an office, nor an hour's commute both ways. At least not every day. And it's not just me. Every day there are a large number of folk who can (and do in fact) work from home - getting things done a lot easier and quicker than they would at the office, without having to fire up the vehicle.

I work for a high-tech company that does awesome stuff with technology - and yet there seems to be a block when it comes to implementing the same for the workers at floor level. Yes, I can understand security issues (there was an incident last year that wasn't pretty), but I can't help wondering how those balance out cost and productivity.

Let's say half the folk at the office could get in the same amount of work (or more) by working off-site*. That cuts down on required floor space by half - and cuts down on rent, electricity use, office equipment and use of the coffee machine (which I'm convinced uses more electricity than all the servers here thanks to being constantly in demand!). Make a few desks available to share for those who have to come in now and then, and you're sorted. Based on Seth's post - get them into the office when you have something important for them to do, and make sure they know why they're there. Use your face time with your workers in the best possible way, a way that will aid both you and them - no mindless ramblings, just stick to the point.

(*Note: Telecommuting takes careful planning and setting up to work. It's not for everyone - and it definitely requires discipline!)

Now... start paying per job instead of per clocked hour and see how productivity hits the roof! I have a friend who builds pools. Once he stopped paying by the hour he literally couldn't keep up with how quickly his workers powered through their contracts.

Take all that nifty technology and automate as many functions as you can. Give your workers online access to as much self-managed info as possible, then cut your HR team accordingly. Take out extra paper use by emailing all the stuff you normally print out and give to them. Encourage e-documentation, e-faxing, e-everything.

All that equipment you're currently providing? Set up each new employee with a once-off equipment allowance to buy their own computer and other stuff needed. It's theirs - theirs to insure, to fix, to replace, to keep if they leave your employ. Not yours. Runs on their electricity too, as they're working off-site.

See how nice and cost-saving this whole thing can be? Unfortunately I may be the only one who thinks this way.. :-)

Hence the lack of option to telecommute for my job, and why you'll find me battling the dark winter mornings every day. But hey, that's life.

NSFW

The Not Safe For Work concept has me a little baffled, after thinking about it in-depth on one of my mind-wandering sessions recently.

What makes something NSFW?

Well, the generally-accepted norm is things like porn or nudity or visual content that may offend random passers-by. Many workplaces actively block this, so there's no chance of accessing it by mistake. I have this image of a large red flashing light and siren that goes off in the server room every time someone hits a dodgy site, calling in the equivalent of the IT SWAT team! :-)

But if NSFW is defined as Not Safe For Work - what about other stuff?

Let's say you have to sneak around to look at a YouTube vid, or check your Facebook profile - or even blog. They may not be blocked by the server, but you're not encouraged to visit those sites - you're made to feel guilty for doing so. Which then makes them Not Safe For Work, right?

Keep with me here... there's a lot more that could fall into the category of NSFW. Perhaps it's your sideline after-hours that you're checking in on, or your rest-of-my-life GMail (instead of Official Work Mail Only). Maybe it's a document you're reading that doesn't relate directly to your job description. Anything that may have you furtively checking over your shoulder before opening, because you may be caught! Heck - go ahead and extend it to phonecalls received from your insurer or bank, to personal calls and conversations, to just about anything involved in being a living human being that you need to minimize or end quickly when the boss walks by.

See where I'm going with this one? There's a lot more to NSFW than just NSFW!

But here's the flipside of my thought process. Should there be a NSFW at all? Doesn't that fly in the face of freedom expression that most countries so love to uphold? Or in freedom of information flow? Freedom to choose how you want to live or what you see and experience? Freedom to work as you see fit?

Trouble is, NSFW is implemented - and implemented so thoroughly that it's accepted as the norm. We're cookie-cutter workers in the machine of big business, not daring step outside the boundaries and just Be - without even realizing it. Losing our productivity because we have to sneak to get things done - and sneaking takes time.

Don't believe me? Try it at home and see whether you feel as guilty as you would at work doing whatever it is that's NSFW in your office.

See? Big difference. Now tell me why you'd want to spend your entire life like that.

(yes, this was blogged sneakily over a good few hours)

Photoblog: Office Sunrise

Cellphone camera doesn't do it justice...

Extreme Surfing

You've got to be kidding me!

Pause

Sitting in a lengthy (and poorly-ventilated) staff meeting earlier today, I found my mind wandering, as my mind often does.

I started thinking about steps on the life journey, about goals and dreams and things I'm working toward, and where most of my energy, time and focus is being put.

And something struck me quite forcibly.

The tasks I'm not putting energy into or giving less than my best, I've been seeing as mere stepping stones. A pause on the road, a rock to leap onto and off again in the middle of the river before my path continues. I'm not spending time or energy on them simply because they're not a permanent place to be. Mentally I've already moved on.

It's that deep-seated, quietly buried perception that has determined a lot of what I've done in the last few years. Or rather, how I've done it.

This one's going to need more mental exploration... bring on the next staff meeting! :-)

Photoblog: Vista

Facebook Wishlist

I've been at the Facebook thing for a while now... And I'm starting to develop a wishlist of features.

I'd really like an app that allows you to stalk old boyfriends, way-back-when crushes, sworn enemies and those chicks you simply didn't get along with - you know, "watch" them without having to add them as friends. Something that perhaps comes with a geo-locater and an alert button so you can see what they're up to and escape if they get too close. As long as it's not used on me.

I'd like a mind reader too - "find everyone I've forgotten about" - perhaps something that can dig into my buried memories to remember the name of my best friend in grade 5 and seek her out. And then sift through the results to find the exact person I was after. Or perhaps go by location - in case there's someone living close by I didn't know was in the area but would have loved to connect with.

I think perhaps I've become too used to the functionality of the Web At Large - able to Google up images and information in seconds, collect all my documents/emails/data in one place, integrate nifty little things like Foxmarks to access whatever, whenever - or simply subscribe to a blog (hey - there's my stalker app! it's RSS-based!). When perfectly funtional features like Facebook turn up, I somehow expect miracles.

But hey, it's not too bad as is. Especially now that I know how to block those annoying Hotties ;-)

The case of the disappearing dogs

The weirdest thing happened this morning.

I left for work at my usual hour, and about an hour and a half later, Favourite Man ducked out of the house to go get electricity at a nearby shop. When he came back my dogs were sitting at the front gate of the complex.

Now this is where it gets weird.

The dogs live in a high-walled yard at the back of the house. There is no way for them to get out. The only way would be through the back door, through the house, through the front door and out the closed gate - which one of them can't fit through. Only then would they end up inside the complex, waiting for the electric gate to open and show them freedom.

So they either got out over the neighbour's wall, or through the house. There's no other way for them to get to where they were.

Trouble is, we can't figure out how it happened.

I didn't open the back door this morning. Favourite Man didn't either. I don't know if they were in the back yard when I left for work, as it was too dark to tell. No-one came in through the house and let them out, that we know of - the back door was still locked when Favourite Man checked and anyone coming through the front would be both seen and heard - there's nothing missing in the house either. There are no boot marks on the walls of our yard or the neighbours, and the security guard across the road saw nothing. If a stranger had lifted them over the wall, they would have bit him. We would have heard barking if someone had even tried. They can't jump the walls - they're too high. They can't dig under them - it's all bricked up.

So how did they get out?

And even more frighteningly - why?

There's one explanation I can think of. If you want to rob a house, you first disable the alarm. Take the dogs out the back yard and you have easy access to that part of the house, provided the back door is left unlocked (there are no windows near ground level except for the barred kitchen one) and you can escape security guard notice.

But again... how?! If someone grabbed them they'd have resisted. Favourite Man got chewed up putting them back - and they know him!

Needless to say, we're on high alert now. We're keeping an eye on the yard to see if anything else weird happens. And making sure the house is locked up tight at all times.

Sexpo and beyond

WARNING: The opinions expressed below may differ dramatically from yours - but hey, it's my blog and I ain't your cookie-cutter anything... Leave a comment expressing yours!

The Cape Town Sexpo is in full swing ('scuse the rather obvious pun) at the moment, and has attracted its usual complement of protests. Mostly, of course, by the Christianly-religious folk. (I have yet to see a Buddhist protesting outside something like this!)

Trouble is, the naysayers have zoomed in on what they perceive, and nothing more.

Take a look at the Sexpo website - this is the HEALTH, SEXUALITY and LIFESTYLE expo - not just a "den of debauchery". In their words:

The SEXPO – Health, Sexuality and Lifestyle Expo is about sexuality and so much more! It’s a lifestyle expo encompassing all areas of adult leisure; it’s an information expo, heightening awareness about everyday health issues but most of all it’s about having a good time!

SEXPO presents a diverse range of exhibitors, stage performers and workshop professionals providing a powerful and comprehensive platform for information, service offering and trade.

So it's pretty much wholistic - but yes, it's not for everyone - and it is for grownups.

Truth is, if it weren't for financial & time constraints, Favourite Man and I would be there this weekend. I think it's cool that there's something like this going on in Cape Town - and indeed around the world. I'd love to try my hand (or legs) at the pole-dancing workshop (damn, that's good exercise! and targets exactly the bits I have trouble with), or get information on some of the stuff that's being exhibited. I'd love to get the chance to meet a few new folk and learn about things that may not yet have crossed my radar. I'd love to experience the kind of environment where you don't have to hide who you are - where no-one does, and where it's OK to be different, even more OK to have fun and a good laugh doing it. I don't condemn anyone for how they feel, how they choose to live, or not conforming to greater society's norms. Which apparently has surprised a few of my gay and lesbian friends who thought I'd be judgemental when they came out.

But not everyone thinks the way I do.

First to jump on the protest bandwagon are those who apparently never have sex because it's dirty and a sin. They've labelled the Sexpo as evil, adulterous, perverted. Perhaps to their way of living & thinking it is. But there are others who don't feel this way at all. Those who end up labelled by the righteous simply because they're a lot more comfortable with their sexual side and believe in "live and let live", who live openly and honestly enough not to hide their desires and interests. (I've known some who feel extremely repressed and bitter because they have to live double lives or be condemned in the worst possible way)

Then there are those who believe they can make a difference by being involved. They may not agree with everything that's going on, but they're doing good in the midst of it. I have a lot of respect for this chap, who goes transformational in spite of what the stiff-upper-lips of his denomination (and beyond) have to say about it. He's in there getting his hands dirty, and has probably made more of a positive impact than all the placard-carrying characters accosting Sexpo-visitors outside.

My take on this is simple. Each to his own journey - and don't try force people into your version of what that should look like. Nor condemn those who choose a different way to what you have. By all means share what you believe and think, but don't get pissed off if you can't convince others that your road is the only proper one. Respect their right to choose their path and walk it.

Perhaps I'm too open-minded? Too willing to accept people as fellow humans instead of examining their "faults" to fix? There are those who say an overly-open mind allows all the wrong stuff in - but I firmly believe in exploration, in finding what's right for you.

This morning Favourite Man and I were watching a local programme called Free Spirit over breakfast. It covers a lot of stuff some people would call weird, and others would immediately switch off because "I'm not letting the devil into my house!". There's a strong undercurrent of mysticism, an exploration of things like Reiki and energy fields, alternative therapies (ever heard of Apitherapy? Curing stuff through the use of bee stings? Fascinating!), concious caring for the earth and off-the-mainstream spirituality. Things that many are exploring in this day and age of the death of organized religion, which I've dipped briefly into in the past on this blog.

Today's episode had an insert on energy lines for home and personal health. Although I only caught part of it, a lot of it made sense - scientific and practical sense. Some was a bit way-out, but I'm willing to ponder it to decide whether I agree or not.

Same thing I do with the sort of stuff going on at the Sexpo. Not all of it's my cup of tea, but I'm quite happy to be open-minded and learn about it.

And there is the crux of the matter, both with the Sexpo and matters far beyond, which if I were to write about you'd be scrolling through for hours. Many folk are simply not willing to even entertain a thought that there could be value in something like this - that they could be enriched in some way by either attending the event or simply treating those who do with respect. Initiating abuse and condemnation does nothing for interpersonal relationships, transformational missiology or even simply getting along with your neighbour (remember "love your neighbour as yourself"?).

Same thing goes for matters religious and spiritual. Too many people miss out on a fantastic experience by dismissing things that are different to the norm outright. They condemn the bloke down the road because he chooses to believe in using a pendulum or has an altar.

So me - I'm all for the Sexpo, and happy to support organizers, attenders and explorers. I'm for alternative theologies too, examining every side avenue of every aspect of life, and finding the path that's right for you. I'm for the discussion, the listening to what people have to say, even if you don't agree - and for taking away from that what works for you.

And those protestors outside the Sexpo? I don't condemn their opinions - yet I do think their actions say a lot more about their spiritual insecurity than its strength.

But like I said, that's my opinion.

Creative vs Technical

My day job is Technical Writer. My job-for-pleasure is more Creative Writer. And although you may think that writing is writing, there's a definite pull to opposite polarities on those two.

The Technical stuff is very analytical, very plod-along-in-this-direction-and-conform-to-these-guidelines. It involves Facts and Figures and Geek-Speak, all of which need to be translated into something that both your average user and your educated installer understands. There's no room for error, and sometimes even correcting a developer's grammar gets them hot under the collar for "changing everything!"... (Getting the info out of them in the first place is best not discussed at all) There's a very fine line to walk between being too technical and being too easy-to-understand.

The Creative side, well - anything goes really. Although things like writing for a Landy mag require a certain theme or focus, the rest can flow the way I want it to, at the pace I desire, and Me can come out.

Sometimes I think the Creative is constantly battling the Technical. Other times they seem to balance and compliment each other. But being both Creative and Technical can lead to challenges.

For one thing I work in a very Technical environment, dominated by men. Now men work in a linear manner - they go from one side to another in a straight line, keeping focus on one thing until it's done. Women don't. We multitask, we jump from item to item - which is why you'll find me compiling a help file on one screen, with another open to my work email, then Firefox on Blogger, 3 websites and Google, with IE on our company website via my second screen - all at the same time. I'll be typing this between tasks, feeding the creative while the technical ticks over toward its deadlines.

Which, of course, drives some folk nuts. :-) Especially male folk who are working linearly while I jump from one thing to the next and get them all done at the same time.

But here's the deal: if I only focus on the technical, I won't actually be able to write anything. Feeding the creative while still doing the technical benefits both. Creative stuff helps my brain understand what needs to go into the technical, and technical stuff helps me focus on the creative bits. Getting the creative goodies out has the technical percolating slowly in the back of the mind, and I tend to come up with much better solutions for what needs writing later.

It's a tough balance, but it seems to work. Even though sometimes the technical seems sawdust-dry in comparison to the creative.

Seasonal

I miss my garden. I miss watching the seasons change through leaves that appear and disappear. I miss waiting for the first arums to bloom, the first spider lilies, the first roses. I miss digging in the earth for stress relief or pure pleasure, miss picking veggies & herbs fresh from the garden for supper. I miss my white mulberry tree and the white-eyes, starlings and cape canaries that dropped by for fruit.

I do still have a few pots of things I brought with me when I moved. They're clustered around the bird bath, which I have yet to see a single bird take advantage of in this building and brick encrusted complex - it used to be feather-full to the brim each morning and evening. The spider lilies usually bloom by now, as do the arums - but not in their pots this year. Perhaps the location's wrong, or they haven't had enough water. It's simply not the same.

I miss the quiet sunsets, the damping down of the day to the sound of guinea-fowl (and nothing else). I miss my view and the outdoor space - although it wasn't entirely private it provided green and shade and place for visiting kids to run.

I miss watching the seasons at plant level, and dirt level, at horizon level. Now the only indication of autumn is the pile of shed leaves swirling on my bricked up drive...

Fight

There are days where I'm really REALLY tired of fighting my way through each day. Where every step I take forward seems to be a slip backwards, and throwing myself completely into things yields absolutely no noticeable results. I end up exhausted, discouraged and beaten down.

Yesterday was one of them. A low point on the ups and downs road.

Today is a different story. I've found a new pattern emerging when I start to hit those lows. Or perhaps it's just a purposeful shift in perspective and priority.

When those lows drop by I let them run their course. But then I use them to my advantage to claw my way back up again. They've become challenges - as scary as they may be at the time - to go harder, faster, better and further.

Today I've come out fighting. I've got some huge battles before me, ones that I'd love to avoid - but refuse to. I'm using these challenges simply to give me the strength I need to face them head-on and come out tops. On a coffee-and-Coke fueled energy high (until I sugar-crash) I'm tackling one thing at a time, sorting it out and ticking it off. Then moving right on to get creative and find new, better ways to deal with stuff.

Of course, it would have been a lot easier if I'd remembered to bring my lunch to fuel this frenzy.. :-) Thank goodness for the half-packet of raisins in my desk drawer.

Customer Service

I've griped about bad customer service way too many times. Today I'm applauding. It's not often you come across people who are completely on the ball, so I'd like to hand over a few virtual service awards.

First up is Stephen from Anno. Anno has not only registered domains for Virgin Earth, Cape Connect (with the background DNS-association thing for the associated Cape Connect Classifieds system) and Aventure Power Catamaran quickly and easily, but if you send through a support request, it's responded to with the speed of light. Yesterday Favourite Man spent a long time migrating things from one server to another, which required a change in DNS values across the board. An email to Stephen and within minutes that was sorted. All that was left was for the DNS to populate propogate (oops), and it went through without a hitch. The man rocks.

Next is Lionel from Frontosa. Virgin Earth registered as a reseller with Frontosa at the beginning of the year, and - unlike other companies - Lionel as sales contact has bent over backward to help out with any and all queries. Our first purchase & delivery was a bit of a disaster - I gave his driver the wrong gate code to get into our security complex, and the poor guy ended up surrounded by security who wanted to do things to him! But Lionel didn't hold that against us. If I query a product or a price, he's on the ball and gets back to me quickly, efficiently, with the correct info - or if he can't help, he'll say so. There are others who take months to answer a simple question - but not Lionel. If he ever gets tired of my uninformed questions, he doesn't show it - and as a result Frontosa is a top company in my opinion. They'll get any business I can throw their way.

A slightly stranger award goes to LandyParts4Africa, which not everyone would hand over given the circumstances of this one, but read on to find out why I am. After a bit of shopping around for brake discs, they came up with a good price. They're on the other side of the country but were willing to courier the things to me, still coming in cheaper than the competition. Between two long weekends, the package arrived. Unfortunatley only half of it arrived.... one staff member had, in his enthusiasm to process the order, forgotten that brake discs come in pairs! A quick call to the guys at LandyParts4Africa revealed he was indeed on holiday - but between the lady who answered the phone and the guy who checked the stock, they did some serious scrambling and managed to get the second part to the couriers - at their expense. Which is why they get a customer service award. Yes, they made a mistake, but they admitted it and bent over backwards to fix it. Have an award!

Which brings me to the next award. Globe Flight Couriers. They have an easy to manage tracking system on their site, from which I was able to tell when the first package would arrive - and where it was currently. I phoned their Cape Town office to get a time to expect the driver, they said "late afternoon" - which, going on past experience with others meant "probably next week after we're done with all our holidays" - but the guy turned up half an hour later, way earlier than they'd said. With the second package, instead of delivering it on the next working day (which was Saturday thanks to public holidays), they turned up at my front door on Thursday. Yes, the public holiday Thursday. Sommer first thing in the morning too. Globe Flight is on the top of my list should I need something sent somewhere.

Those are today's awards. They're very well deserved.

If you're dealing with customers today, if you're answering a phone, sending off an email or simply producing results for a boss as part of your job, give this some thought - are you providing top notch customer service? Will the people you come into contact with today go "WOW" after you've done your thing, and come back for more? Or are you going to fall into the "avoid like the plague" category come end of day?

Me, I'd rather be awesome.

Need a Contractor?

Yeah I know... bad taste and all that. But small things, small minds, inappropriately amused.

Down but not out

Spotted at the office entrance.

Cold Storage

Big in the news at the moment is the Austrian idiot who imprisoned his daughter for 24 years - and who I hope dies a slow and painful death...

At the same time there are reports of babies being found in freezers in Germany - and they've been there for many years. It's an ongoing problem in that part of the world, according to the rest of the article

On a lesser, but perhaps no less horrific, scale is the guy who froze 300 cats.

I don't know what it is with folk who commit these kind of disturbing crimes, then stow the evidence close at hand. The baby article above mentions that for some reason mothers who kill their infants tend to keep them nearby, even though they may be ashamed of what they've done. Time and time again the damning finger is found pointed right in the suspect's face - and not hidden miles away. Perhaps there's some deep psychological need to remind themselves of what they've done? To check that it's actually true? To keep an eye on the evidence instead of taking the risk of it being out there for others to find and breadcrumb back to you?

I don't know. I'm no expert on matters of the criminal mind (no matter how many evil plans I come up with). Who knows how these people's heads work.

Personally, I'd rather get rid of any evidence as far away as I can than keep it in cold storage...

Photoblog: Reflect and Shimmer

Click to see it up close!

Office-bound

The thing about leaving just before 7 in a fast truck is that you not only get to work really really early, but you also get to see the sunrise. Twice. First the high-level one, then the lower-cloud one - both brilliant.

And then of course you land running after a week off with an inbox full of stuff to go through, the aircon demon back at his workstation and turning down the heat, and thoughts of the next long weekend being 40 days away...

Today there's a lot to deal with and a lot to face. I really don't want to, but I know I have no choice. It's a case of chaining myself to the desk and working through one thing at a time.

First though - coffee. Or I'll start biting people's heads off shortly.

Photoblog: Mist

Bottom up

For some reason I've been thinking about meetings. Now, being a public holiday - and with me on a whole week's leave - you'd think I'd put all thoughts of work out of my head completely! Unfortunately not. Scrolling through my Google Reader items, I've come across quite a few things written by those who are NOT on holiday, and thus my brain's turned to the office environment.

I honestly don't get the corporate culture. I don't get the concepts of "I'm important because my job says I am", or the artificial value placed on one person over another simply because they're further up some invisible ladder - or happen to have a say in how much cash goes into your bank each month. I don't get the kowtowing or the sheep-like conforming - in other words I'm probably just as effective at being part of a large corporation as I was at being a secretary. Basically, I sucked.

Which is why this thought about meetings is probably not going to fly.

The other day I was in one where a colleague (just a little further up the food chain from myself) was in charge. He'd called a gathering to do something really important - but there were a few top management bodies included. Minutes into the meeting, one of said bodies hijacked the entire agenda and went off on his own mission for the rest of the allotted time. In fact, he went way overtime and us minions were too polite to get up and go! Even though deadlines loomed like spectres, keeping many at the grindstone when they should have been home with family.

Same thing with my immediate boss. She ended up in a Friday meeting once before lunchtime that was taken over by the big boss and ended way past 6! Everything else she had planned for that day was simply required to be cancelled, leaving a huge load on her shoulders for the week ahead.

So here's my thought.

Do any of use lower-echelon corporate types actually have the balls to stand up to the more appointedly-important types and say "Oi, this meeting has been called for a purpose - I will not allow you to distract everyone from the task at hand - we're here to achieve xyz by the end of the hour!"?

Nope, didn't think so.