All posts in My Life

So I finally managed to organise a holiday, after the weeks of hard work and dedication, I find myself sitting out on the deck listening to the waves and watching the beautiful sunset. Fe and I arrived here late last night after running around getting things together. The evening consisted of a lot me red wine and some wonderful meat, which I braai’d.. No jokes, I seriously did, and it it delicious! Today’s been great, managed to sleep in a little and then take a drive around the coast, popping into the bottle store for a few things and some ice-cream, Yay! This evening we are going to go out for dinner at the local steak house, which actually looks fantastic, I can’t wait!

It’s weekends like this that make life so worth while! Apart from this, armed with a fancy mobile, i’ve fortunately been able to check my websites and even managed to update one, so I’m almost completely away from work, but not entirely ;) Monday is a public holiday in the UK, which means that I don’t have work, so there’s a good chance I’ll be out here until Monday evening, which would be absolutely fab!

Right, I must be off to sort out a couple me things before dinner, I hope that everyone is having a great weekend!

Ok, so I’m back finally, no idea what the problem was! Well, it was one of three things: Quota exceeded, Unpaid Account or Abuse, and I can tell you that I had not exceeded my quota nor was my account unpaid for, so I guess that leaves abuse, now if they don’t have a problem with the joke below, then I can honestly say that there was nothing abbusive on my website – strange!

Thanks Don from Pescii Solutions for your fantastic help with regards to this matter!

The last couple of days have been choas, it is arriving at the end of the month, and deadlines have arrived. All my invoices have been sent out, and most of my clients have paid immediately, which has made things a great deal easier – thank-you! I have the next 20 hours to sort out anything outstanding, so it looks like it’s going to be a very late night, and a difficult morning tomorrow! I look forward to leaving work tomorrow afternoon at five!

Tuesday evening I headed through to meet some partners at The Cape Grace, to have coffee and to brain storm the movement of our project. We ended up in the Library, with service second to nothing! Some great ideas were thrown about, and we seem to have a game plan, however there are a few loose ends still, which will hopefully be cleared up over the next week or so. Once these matters are dealt with, I will showcase it on this site.

Last night was awesome, Fe and I decided that red wine, a dvd and some munchies were required, and this is exactly what we did, and it was oh so fantastic to relax for a couple hours! We took out The Devil Wears Prada, but unfortunately the dvd would not work, so we ended up watching a strange movie called Half Light, well I think that’s what the name was. I managed to get home around twelve, send a few emails and get into bed by 1ish, which didn’t really help, as this morning was an absolute struggle to get out of bed!

Tomorrow I’m off to Ysterfontein, Dani’s family has allowed me to use the house for the weekend free of charge, so I’m looking really really forward to this. It’s the August Summer Bank Holiday on Monday in the UK, which means I have a long weekend, my first day off in two months – woohoo! I will write more about the Ysterfontein mission once I am back and can tell you all about it!

Ok, well that’s what’s been going on recently, well a short and sweet version, but a good one non the less! I hope everyone else is looking as forward to the weekend as I am, it’s going to be bliss!

Hey all,

I recently entered the Perfect City Challenge competition, and am asking for you to please vote for me if you enjoyed my essay. Every vote counts, and I would appreciate it!

Please click here to vote :)

Good Day everyone,

Yesterday was a fairly eventful day, which began with me literally rolling out of bed, and searching for all the motivation in the world to get up and head through to work. Work was good, unfortunately Ruark was not in the office, so it was rather quiet and lonely, but the hours flew by and at lunch time I took Chris for a drink at Primi which was the perfect break! The rest of the afternoon raced by, and before I knew it, I was stuck in 5 o clock traffic, which basically only allowed me to get home by 17h45, which was annoying. The minute I walked in the door, I was at my computer working on a clients website, as I am trying to wrap up current websites so I can take on a few new jobs. I managed to finish things up just in time to head off to the Spur.

The Spur was wicked, Ian, Kirsty, Areejh and Zee came through, which was perfect for a relaxing evening and some catching up with what everyone did over the weekend, and what everyone plans to do this week. Deciding to go to the Spur every Monday was a good choice, I have had such a great time having my weekly pepper burger, fries and onions rings, I can’t wait until next Monday to be honest! The night went on a bit later than usual, as we just had a great deal to chat about – all in all – another successful Spur Monday night!

I thought it was hard to get out of bed yesterday morning, but this morning it was a complete uphill battle! I don’t think I’ve ever struggled as much as I did today, I even had my mobile in my hand to call in and say I was taking the day off, but fortunately I managed to get out of bed, grab a smoke, and pump myself up with coffee. Ruark had coffee sitting on my desk by the time I arrived, so now I’m several mugs down, and buzzing somewhat. It’s 11h17 and I’m dying for lunch break – haha – I need to find a new way to motivate myself, cos at the moment, I’m feeling myself getting rather bored due to the lack of human interaction, perhaps (and hopefully) things change as the weeks go by!

Random Fact:

Q. What is happening in the body that it craves rest after lunch?

A. First, the 24-hour cycle of the body, or its circadian rhythm, is naturally in a resting phase at this time. In the afternoon, it happens to converge with another physiological cycle—known as homeostatic—that measures the amount of time spent awake and that is also pushing for a rest.
Add the effects of food, which can also induce drowsiness, and an overpowering desire to sleep may result. more..

I came across this time management assessment, and thought some of you might be interested in giving it a go. Another random thing I came across was how to create a 12 sided calender, and this is actually very cool, and is worth the look – I can see myself giving it a bash this evening, once I am home and free, which remind me, I have a meeting at Radissons Hotel at 19h00, phew, I almost forgot!

Right, I must get back to work. I hope everyone has a great day, and to those of you who had car problems this morning – hope the rest of the day has treated you better!

P.s.  This weeks special at eSquared is AMA–ZING, buy a LONG SLEEVE eSquared Tshirt @ eSquared for R250 and get ONE FREE.

So I finally got off my butt, found some free time, and played around with the Facebook Development Platform. To my surprise, my platform is extremely easy to build onto, and within 45mins of reading, I wrote my first little application.

Now the application doesn’t really do too much, but I have my reasons for this application.

• I chose something a lot of people would be interested in.
• I chose something that would not take me long to code.
• I want to study the traffic the application receives.

These were a couple reasons for the development. The minute I have more information and some statistics, I will attempt to write something far more complex, and hopefully a great deal more useful!

You may click here to take a look at the application on the Facebook website. The best way to use this application, is by moving it to your sidebar, rather than running it down your main feed area.

Wow, I cannot believe I’ve been up for over an hour already after a wreckless night like last night! I got to Nats party by 20h30, and was introduced to a great bunch of people, and seated with a delicious glass of red. Star Dust was good last night, the performances were good fun, and the place was vibing, which is exactly what I needed. We were at Star Dust until just after 12ish, and then decided to head through to Tiger for a couple drinks and a dance. As per usual, I bumped into tons of people at Tiger – Justin, Andrew, Barry, and a bunch of others, which was great, cos these days I don’t have time to run around and see everything. Tiger was alright, it’s not really my place of choice, but it was local, and where everyone could get to easily. We had a good dance, and a couple drinks, and ended up staying there for a couple hours. Later in the evening, Nats and I headed down to Lizzards to meet my sister and her boyfriend, and once again bumped into a group of different familiar faces. We were in and out of Lizzards in under an hour as far as I can remember, and I managed to get home by 5 this morning. My damn alarm went at 9, as I had to go fetch my Dad from the airport, he had just flown in from England, so ye, I feel rather krap right now!

On the up side, today is going to be relaxing, I managed to get all my freelance work up to date, and sent out invoices, and did my accounting, so basically all my admin work is complete – yay. I’m not certain as to what I’m going to do, but I think it’s going to revolve around sitting on my butt or lying on my bed and watching lots of series, well at least I hope that’s what is going to happen, perhaps I should turn my mobile off!

Friday feels like yesterday, I cannot believe that tomorrow I will be back in the office, working the work as per usual – these days I long for the weekend, and it arrives and passes before I can do anything! I guess the countdown will begin again tomorrow then. Fe and I plan to rent a cosy cottage up the coast for this coming weekend or the next, just to get away from the city and the choas, I cannot wait..

If anyone knows a decent place, which is over priced, please feel free to leave a comment or drop me a message, as thus far I cannot find somewhere decent yet. I don’t want to drive for hours, so preferably somewhere close, well about an hours drive or so, and please.. I don’t want to spend an absolute fortune. Friday to Sunday is the time we want to go for. I would appreciate any advice from anyone!

Right, Sunday relaxation needs to begin now! I hope everyone has had a good weekend, enjoy the last of it!

I have to admit, I am over the moon about today being a Saturday! It feels like the last week has completely warn me out from all angels, and being able to sleep in this morning was a gift from above! Lounging around and doing nothing is not something, which I enjoy that much, and I actually find myself creating work for myself when I feel as though nothing is happening, but today I have not done this. I actually watched TV today, which must be the first time in a couple months – I saw Beauty and the Geek on the TV upstairs, and decided to give it a watch, as I have seen it before, good laugh!

Tonight is Nats farewell, she is returning to Notre Dame to complete her last stretch of studies, and her friend Emma took the time to organise something for her. We are all meeting at Star Dust just after 8, I’m not sure if we are eating or not, but I do know that there will be many drinks floating around, I look forward to meeting some new people, and hopefully getting involved in an intellectual conversation.

I have been spending a good amount of time on christophermills.co.za, trying to write good content, fill my portfolio, and get the word out and about. I have three or four new projects, which will be added to the portfolio hopefully over the next week or two, I look forward to the fresh new additions! I am in a position where I would love to take on a little more web work, so if you know of anyone looking for a website, please don’t be shy to mention my site to them :)

Something else, that I am really happy about, is the fact that Facebook have finally taken a stand against something to do with this excessive use of applications. I am sure you have all logged in and seen a ton of application invites on the right column of your screen, well this will no longer be the case. Facebook have certain rules pertaining to application submissions, and many people have been breaking them. When you add an application to your profile, it often sends an invite out to all of your friends – this is not allowed, and Facebook have now taken a stand against this – finally! read more..

Right, I need to get a few emails done, and fix a script, so I will be off. I hope everyone is having a good weekend so far!

Grabbed this of Justins Blog:

This is the view from my office, inside the building – pretty ey? :)

The Web AddiCT(s); have given me a chance to be creative, by putting out a small competition with regards to a Perfect City Challenge. I took some time to write this creative post, I hope it is enjoyed :)

I wake from a deep sleep, as I hear the noise of sirens outside my apartment. With a big stretch and some hidden motivation, I manage to drag myself out of my cacoon and move towards my windows with curiosity. Upon opening my windows, and gazing down below, I notice flickering lights, people moving around frantically and I could feel an air of worry floating up towards me. It is often that I wake to alarms and sirens, followed by panic below, and I sometimes wonder to myself what it would be like to live in a city without these continual interruptions and build up of subconscious stress as I watch my city become something far from perfect.

Rushing away from the window, which has become scary to look out of, I immediately venture towards the kitchen to brew some coffee, turning on my laptop on the way. The smell of coffee makes my fingers itch to get ‘blogging’ about what I just saw below my apartment. Moments later, still in a slight daze, I perch myself at my desk and begin to write. After writing about a page or so, I notice that my Internet connection has dropped, and upon reconnecting, I realize that the problem was not to do with my computer, but perhaps the service provider – I sit back in my chair, taking a long draw on my cigarette and think to myself how perfect it would be to have completely stable Internet connections. I was planning on doing all my shopping online, to avoid the chaos in the streets, but this was no longer a possibility.

Exiting my apartment, I reach for the paper outside my door, and spend a few moments flicking through the pages, realizing that the only news in the paper is negative news – what a hideous way to begin a day, I thought to myself. Several neighbors were exiting the building at the same time as me, and I could just feel the tension in the air, as everyone was realizing that the day had finally begin, and it was time to face the madness ahead. My first stop was for groceries, and the immediate thought, which popped into my mind, was that of having to stand in a queue, something I had not experienced in some time, thanks to my new found permanent Internet connection, which ironically was not working. To my luck, grocery shopping was far from painful, and a rather quick process, which freed up time for me to do a couple other things I had planned for the day.

Walking along the street consisted of a number of beggars asking for spare change, cigarette butts under my shoes and a lot of noise as people raced past in their cars. I was compelled to hurry along, as that seemed to be the general motion of everyone else, and arrived at my colleague’s apartment a few minutes later. After another mug of tasty coffee, and the initial greetings, Chris and I began to speak about what it would be like to live in a perfect city, a calm city, a slow paced city, a city with reliable technology, and above all, a city which radiated love and not chaos.

If you enjoyed my story, please vote for it by clicking here!

Is Yuwie better than Facebook?

Ariving at work and realising that it’s the middle of the week already is a somewhat comforting feeling. It seems as though the more days I spend in this job, the faster the days go by, and before you know it, the weekend is already round the corner – wicked.

Monday night was the usual Spur night, which had a little twist. Zee and Areejh requested that we change venues to the Claremont Spur, as they wanted Halaal food, which wasn’t a problem at all, until we arrived there and they realised that alcohol was not on the menu, and then without even a discussion, Zee and Areejh said that we HAD to go to the Newlands one, as they wanted a beer – lol, the irony was just classic! Spur was great, good bunch of us attended, and it seems as though this regular meeting on Monday evenings is starting to work out!

Work has been interesting, I spent a good couple days searching for a solution to convert .jpg files into .bmp formatted files with php, and trust me, this was not an easy task at all! I finally found a solution after being told by most people not to bother, and I was bouncing off the walls with excitement. The code was submitted, and the following morning I received an email stating that .bmp conversion was not required for the system – I almost blew my lid!!! Oh well, I learnt a great deal to do with image conversion, so I’m not complaining.

Tuesday flew by, that’s why I cannot believe that today is Wednesday already, I arrived at work dead on time and before I knew it, it was already fast home time. Last night I didn’t do much at all, I went to say good bye to Rachel, who was returning to Scotland last night, and after that I spent my evening finishing off some other freelance deadlines, which are almost complete now!

Right, so there you have it, I trust that everyone is well, and looking forward to the weekend!

Latest News: Traffic chaos as cops protest:

Johannesburg – Members of Cape Town’s metro police on Wednesday blockaded the N2 highway near Mowbray, causing chaos to rush-hour traffic, the SABC reported.

About 50 police cars, travelling in convoy towards town, were used to slow traffic to a crawl.

Members of the SAPS tried to stop metro police from entering town.

Metro police members said they were protesting over what they called the downgrading of their posts when the department was restructured.

They were also unhappy over their new salary scales.