'SM Oops'

We're all human beings, and we make mistakes. Who hasn't sent an SMS to the wrong person before? You click 'send' and on noticing your error, franticly hammer away at the 'cancel' button. Your phone might say, 'message not sent' - but it's gone, baby! Normally it's just a laugh, but when it involves matters of the heart it can get a little bit blunt. Here's the common scenario:

Boy wants to get in with Girl A. He writes a message to Girl B about Girl A, but because A is on his mind he subconciously sends it to her. Results can be disastrous (or beneficial). I've personally committed it with Natalie Two and the Red Herring. It's the ultimate Freudian slip, and I call it the 'SM Oops'.

Of course if you are a cheating lying bastard, then the truth outs quicker. None bigger or more famous, than old fatboy himself - Shane Warne - the man who put SMS dating on the map. After numerous 'kiss and tell' scandals involving local girls and actual text messages being reprinted in such worthy dailies as The Sun and The Mirror, his wife gave him a final chance. He's still playing in Southhampton, and the wife is with the kids in Sydney:

SYDNEY (Reuters) - The wife of former Australian cricket champion Shane Warne says their marriage reconciliation is over after he mistakenly sent her an incriminating text message.

Simone Callahan, who reunited last December with the spin bowler known also for his womanizing, told a woman's magazine she caught Warne cheating on her while he was in London.

As Callahan got the couple's three children ready for school in Melbourne, a text dropped into the inbox of her mobile phone, she told New Idea magazine.

"Hey beautiful, I'm just talking to my kids, the back door's open," the message from Warne said.

"You loser, you sent the message to the wrong person," Callahan sent back.

The looong week-end ahead

well, lets hope we all do our bit of braaing.

we'll be in the deep south, here to be exact
The Great Backgarden Ramble

Secret RWC diary

this is shamelessly stolen from Dan's World at iafrica, lets just say it's been a rough week. This is too good not to share, and not everyone follows hyperlinks.

 

Wednesday 12 September:

Schalk's got a four game ban! Unbelievable. He was sitting at breakfast looking wretched, solitary tear running down his cheek, and no one really knew what to do. Bismark eventually just went up and gave him a hug, and Schalk burst into tears; can't remember a worse morning in a Springbok camp. But these things work out, and there's hope for Schalk. Practice this morning was interrupted by a helicopter landing on the training field, which turned out to be Johann Rupert's. He's determined to get Schalk off at his appeal tomorrow, and has brought out quite a team: also on board were Johnny Cochrane, George Bizos, Corbin Bernsen from LA Law, and the guy who got Jacob Zuma off. Maybe there's hope for Schalk yet…

Thursday 12 September:

Down to two games! Not perfect, but Schalk's a lot happier, and so is Jake (although Bob looked strangely subdued when the news came through). He'll miss the England game tomorrow, but we'll have him back for the quarters. And we've got loads of support, with Springbok supporters all over Paris, which is great. The Minister of Sport also sent through an email to John, urging us to make the most of the 20 overs, and congratulating us on the win over the West Indies. Oh well, I suppose it's the thought that counts.

Friday 12 September:

36-0! What a game! We were pretty confident, but to win by 36 points, and keep them from scoring — unbelievable. We were all floating in the change room afterwards. Frans had swapped jerseys with one of the England guys, and snuck off from our debrief; ten minutes later, there was a shriek as he dashed back into the change room, pursued by half the England team. Turned out he'd crossed out the '2' on their jersey (part of their O2 sponsorship), and changed it to '36', before solemnly presenting it to Martin Corry. Furious Englishmen, and Jake and John had to apologise; even they had to admit afterwards it was bloody funny.

Saturday 12 September:

Day off today, and most of us went to the cinema. Gurthro and Bakkies went off to see a French film in black and white about a manic depressive painter dealing with existential angst in the immediate aftermath of post-war Europe, a searing portrait of human frailty set against a bleak landscape of monochromatic hopelessness; the rest of us went to see Rush Hour 3. Butch reckons Jackie Chan should have got at least three Oscars so far, and it's hard to disagree. Even if Bakkies and Gurthro think we're all philistines.

Sunday 12 September:

Had a quiet training session this morning (after watching Sky News over breakfast, and listening to the England reaction to the game — brilliant!); all of us were still on quite a high after Friday. Well, all of us except Jake — Wynand kept him up snoring most of last night, so the coach was a bit grumpy. Jake gets to choose his own room-mate, though, so he's only got himself to blame. Went to watch Bryan this afternoon doing a promo for one of the World Cup sponsors, doing a 100 metre race against a Formula 1 car. Was pretty cool, and surprisingly close — for the first 60 metres, the car just about kept up. Bet it can't sidestep though.

Monday 12 September:

Bit of a blow ahead of Tonga — Johann and Albert were doing pilates, and Johann managed to tear his calf muscle. Always thought those pilates balls were bad news. And finally found out why Eddie's been in such low spirits — apparently every single one of the Wallaby players has removed him as a friend on Facebook. That's really harsh — I mean, even Jake has Luke Watson as a friend (admittedly on limited profile). We all promised to make Eddie a friend as soon as possible, and he cheered up quite a bit. For an Australian, he's not too bad really.

Tuesday 12 September:

Jake confirmed the team today — Bob's captain for Tonga, although John will be on the bench just in case, as will Bryan and Monty. We all remember the Connacht game only too well, so this is a big one, especially after Tonga beat Samoa. They're pretty big guys, and also do one of those cute war dances, but we should be ready. Then Schalk's back, and away we go — I don't want to get overconfident, but so far, so good…

The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire

9…8….7…..six seconds to ignition. Okay this is old hat now, so if you haven’t heard that Eendrag res in Stellenbosch burnt down in early August, then send some co-ordinates and we’ll come rescue you from whatever jungle you are apparently trapped.



The story does go deeper, and I delved in a little when I was invited to a facebook group, ‘We mourn for Eendrag’. Of course I joined with the explicit intention of posting numerous victory messages and other slander until I realized that these chops were still a little shellshocked and heavily moderating the abuse.

Who’s Eendrag? They are well known as the resident nerds on campus…the boys who hire Van Wilder to organize parties so they can possibly pull chicks. Yes, they might have the highest DPA on campus but it’s not like anyone is seriously there to study. It’s a well known fact that there is indeed a tunnel from Eendrag to the bib, so they can get extra hours of studying in, without everyone laughing uncontrollably at their pocket protectors on the walk down. Of course they have a long standing rivalry with next-door Helshoogte. Unfortunately Helshoogte is the tallest building in the town at 9 stories, and regularly pelts their geeky neighbours with eggs, flour bombs and other objects from the eetsaal.



It’s not surprising that a res got burned due to a 6am braai on a Thursday morning. It’s a traditional end to the ‘klein saterdag’/ Wed night pissup, that has been regularly practiced by all who have spent some time at that special spot in the boland. The funny thing is that it’s these nerds, clearly on their first outing west of the bib to that no-mans land called Bird Street, who couldn’t contain their braai and with a quick ‘poof’ sent their home up in a puff of smoke.

Once the haze cleared, the stories came flooding in. They were lucky that the firestation is a five iron up the road and only lost the roof and top floor (of three). Unfortunately two guys ended up jumping out of windows, sustaining serious injury. There’s a rumour that one girl had her car damaged by the falling roof after to her parking there for some nappage – it’s more likely the Simonsberg lot was full and that’s closest spot she could find. All the boys had to evacuate and are now living elsewhere, and reconstruction won’t be finished till next year. Luckily the eetsaal was fine, and most of them do live in the bib anyway. The tunnel did experience some mild structural damage but the recently installed ventilation meant no smoke made it to the bib. Fingers immediately pointed at faulty wiring, but the obvious braaiers were quickly located. Pretty soon a ‘9/11’type catchword was found relating to the date, and Eendrag987 stuck.

You can type that in on YouTube to get a whole host of vids, just like this one.


1 times lurker with his first lay of the year
We’d be happy with them flattening the whole damn thing and replacing it with a new home for Hombre. Throw in a sauna, bowling alley and a lapa and we’ll come back to take our place as the real deal in the dorp. After our sisters in Sonop tried burning our own building down last year, it’s time that real men returned to show these pyromaniacs how to handle a braai.


Delving further into the subject we went to the official Eendrag site. Lo and behold we see that they are actually doing drugs now too (look top right). Must be some Cape Flats boys moving in and peddling Tik to these chess captains to help them get through exams - oh wait it’s “Tik in Eendrag”, in Afrikaans- totally different meaning. Surprise surprise, these lurkers are now doing their research whilst they eat in the canteen…..losers, all of them (most of them, a few decent blokes do unfortunately get lumped in with these dorks).

stock the fridge and book the telly

The Bold and the Beautiful, Isidingo and Sewende Laan have all been cancelled till further notice/20 October (which ever comes first). Of course the idiot box will be screening sport constantly as our boys in green take their seemingly realistic chances of victory to the rugby pitches of France and the local cricket pitches. Not surprisingly the ‘Group of Death’ brought us the first upset in RWC 2007, and it’s gonna be a real bunfight for the two places between ‘in BOD we trust’ Ireland, perennial dark horses Argentina and le Hosts. The result could well suit the Bok’s and put locals France in the other half of the knockout draw. It could quite likely come down to points difference, so expect some cricket scores in their matches between Nam and Georgia (who almost beat the boks in 2003). You definitely can’t write off France just yet, and with Sebastian ‘the Beast’ Chabal finally confirming Darwin’s theories on the missing link they have plenty of firepower to go all the way at home.
The rest of the pools are pretty predictable and it’s likely that we’ll see Sa, Aus and NZ with Eng, Wales and Scotland in the semis.. The ‘talians may well just disagree and sneak past the Scots, but that’s about it. The good news is that it’s all happening during happy hour so expect some pub outings with full fare in the next month. Who’d want to be a bowler for the next fortnight? Anything under 6 an over is considered good in the Pro20/T20 slogfest. It’s gonna be very interesting to see how the teams approach it, as it’s a very untested form in the international arena. It’s so unpredictable that 120 can be defended and yet 200 easily passed. Who’d pick a winner? It’s always hard to think the aussies won’t end on top, but it’s the best chance anyone will have to put one over them. SA have a good chance as we actually have had two seasons of domestic T20, and I’ll stick my neck out with Aus, Eng and SL joining them in the final four. From then on its rock paper scissors. Just incase no-one knew that we have a new selection committee, they made sure by picking some controversial spots. Andrew Hall, well we’ll miss him for sure, but it could be the stage for Vernon ‘The Philanderer’ Philander to announce himself as the new Shaun Pollock. The one guarantee is that its good to watch, and a spectacle we can’t miss. Check out this little gem of a clip from the local series. (yay, blogger bring in video embed app.)

a night at the Opera

In part two of the how 'handy is my phone?' series we sing a cheerful, little tune.
I was first put onto this baby in a bar about a year back. It was in some happening spot in town where the guys where flashing cash and the girls were all in another leaugue. The one dude in our group was transfixed with his phone, eventually I went to see who the hell he was continuously smsing.

He wasn't texting at all, but was getting live updates of the world cup soccer from some news site. Pretty soon there were two of us staring at the screen, and from that moment on, I was an Opera Mini convert.


It's a simple, yet brilliant concept. You download their Java application onto your handset.
When you run Mini, you tell it what website address you want to view. The central Opera server then fetches the site, condenses it down to fit onto your phone and sends it to you. They throw out useless stuff like adverts, big images and even some frames and you only get the info.There's even a handy tracker on the bottom screen to show how much data is being loaded (with R2/Mb its 1 cent for every 5kb used).

Of course it's not as handy as using a browser on your pc, but there are many positives.
You can take the web with you anywhere your phone will go.
It's cheap, at R2/Mb it might not sound good, but there is no minimum usage or connection fees.
Everything is compressed, making it quick(ish) and(once again)....cheap.

Somethings won't work, like flash based animations, but I have even succeeded with things like viewing photos from speeding fines.

I've been using the original version 3.1, and have tried the Beta of version 4. It's a little bit confusing and switches zooms the whole time, so the tried and tested gets used more.
How do you get it?
Well firstly you need your GPRS(or other data capability) to be active. This you can find out from your network's website. If you can send and receive MMS then its working.
Point your phone's browser to:www.operamini.com and download the application.
It runs you through a setup process and then bob's your uncle.

my phone's anorexic

It’s four months old, and somehow still turning heads. I put my ring ring R70 a month phone on the table and people go apesh1t about how small it is. Yes, the Samsung X820 is, at 6.9mm, still the slimmest phone on the market. It’s an engineering feat that they managed to squeeze so many functions into such a tiny package. I got the D500 when it looked like a happening phone, and now Samsung handsets are firmly in the market. We’re going to take a little look at how my phone (‘rocksta42’ for those BT users) makes life easier.



We’re gonna start with the bad news. Shortcuts were necessary and unfortunately they did skimp here and there.
Battery life: not great, it’s plugged in every second night. It’s the trade off for a tiny package, if you’re a high volume voice user, don’t even think of getting one.
Flash: none..well that sucks, I used my last one as a torch all the time.
Ringer/Vibrate: this is a sore point from the D500, they don’t allow the phone to ring and vibrate concurrently. Might be something to do with current limitations, but it’s a crap issue, as you want to feel it when it’s in your pocket and hear it when its on the table.
Sound: The microphone is not that good, and speech quality is compromised.
Tones: it’s a huge mission to change alarm tones and the generics all suck, the best being the MTN one that comes supplied. New ones have been uploaded so that’s okay now.



I’m glad the bad news is done, because that could have got dragged out. Luckily this list is longer.
Tiny: Sometimes I look for the phone and its actually lost in my pocket, really low volume but no compromises with screen or keys.
Cheap: R69 pm all inclusive on MTN’s MyCall 100, the best package out there, 15 minutes during peak time are well worth it.
Rough ‘n tuff: Despite initial worries it would bend like a credit card, it’s actually quite hardy.
Hardware: Despite the package size it’s still got vibrate, 2Mpixel camera, MP3 player, Bluetooth, EDGE
Extras: The OS is really good, and there are plenty of handy peripherals with it. Calenders, Timers, converters, Picsel data viewer, on board image editor, JAVA amongst others
Connectivity, Bluetooth and EDGE (fast enough for my uses)
PC link: The Samsung PC studio that comes with the phone is a top package, and there’s a handy USB cable supplied.

Later on we'll look into clever ways the web has found its way into your phone