You can’t keep me away from MyPoP

By Louis the Scooterer

You can’t keep me away from MyPoP, coz I wont allow a beautiful place..on the beach, to just go away..even if some smokers spoils it.

Only in reality I havent been able to go for a couple of weeks as I had a tiny fall-off from my scooter and have been stuck indoors for quite a few days..the scooter is unscratched ..but I grazed my knee which is real painful, and I guess I will need to do little walking until that smaller than 2inch diameter scrape heals somewhat. I even cancelled my free birthday breakfast at MyPoP..will have to wait another year.

There are times when smokers are minimal and the wind in my favour as was the other day..a beaut of a day the beginning of summer type day..lots of people on the beach.. which is always kept clean and lots of people in the open air restaurant.. already quite a few bikini clad bodies looking for the sun..

and the service from pretty waitresses remains good so I was able to sit n stare at the Med Sea.. and think back a bit… about earlier days as well.. when I was a young fellow in Johannesburg..

A specific series of thoughts came into my mind about some of the buildings in the “downtown Jhb” where I had visited many entertainment venues as well as having done glass replacements and fitted mirrors in many of the buildings..and some of these places had discos and lounges and had parties every night for unattached people looking for company..and some of these places also in popular Hillbrow and Berea adjoining downtown Jhb on north side… were magic..great views from some of the balconies..

you saw down the main street at the traffic and everyone coming or going was in my vision… many great hours and many great meals and coffee and cake as well..Benny often played the piano in lounge of popular Cafe Zurich.

The spotlessly clean General Hospital was a few corners away in most beautifully kept gardens.

Recently I was sent pictures of what some of these building look like now..depressing the way things turned out and so many buildings turned into squatter camps ??

so I wont dwell on that, while surely is lovely to watch the waves and the sea in front of me.

I remembered having owned beautiful cars and some were convertibles,< flavia1xxjpg >< paris4667jpg > and in mid 1950’s and 1960’s I could park my convertible anyplace, as well as my scooter and I knew it would not be interfered with…even parked my convertible one evening outside the City Hall in Johannesburg, and went to watch a concert..and the traffic officer in charge said he would keep an eye on it.. turned out to be Gerhardt who was in the citizen-force with me (several years earlier)..and I never recognised him with his new full thick mustache and his smart uniform.

Unfortunately that easy going lifestyle changed over the years and currently I wouldn’t attempt to own any smart looking car..even the drab looking cars have a short life in Johburg.. as for the radio thieves..they are everywhere. Always plenty to write about those “olden days”..

The bus to town was one corner up from where I lived..and the tram to town was 2 corners down the road. After starting to work at an early age..”taken from school” by an uncle who gave me a good job in a timber yard / hardware store business, and after a short while I bought a bicycle and cycled to work..didnt matter if it was raining..my best route was on flat roads and was a pleasant 20 minute ride.
Never was a great deal of traffic and every ride was okay..until the day a guy in his Jeep station wagon, rode into me from the back..virtually destroying the bike..lucky I was not really hurt..he apologised and loaded the bike into his jeep and took it to the local bicycle shop close to where I worked, and he told the man to repair it..and he promptly vanished..

At the end of the second day the bike guy called me and said the frame is too badly damaged and not worth repairing and I should get a new bicycle ..but the guy with the jeep refused to pay…anything.

SO, a few days later, my father..a not big guy, and one of his poker playing friends ..a not small guy..paid the Jeep guy a quick visit.. and the jeep guy paid the full amount for the new bike which even had a few gears..but I knew that my “cycling to work” days were almost over..so back to the tram to go to work and back to the bus to come home…

until the day I walked past the used car dealer that recently opened a few blocks “up the road” and saw that re-built 2 seater car on an MG chassis, which after a short while became mine…and funny enough even a whole bunch of new girls became my passenger..suddenly I was a lot more popular than before ??..and memories came flooding back.. and all the waitresses of today, are exactly like the girls of those way back times…

so right now i sit and patiently wait for the scrape to heal.. so I can get-going again.

please email me louisdrinkingt@013.net

Cleaning and taking care of your Diamond

By Ghostevyta Kamu

Caring for a diamond takes more than occasional cleanings. Diamonds are forever, but they can be damaged if you are not careful. By learning how to properly care for your diamond, you will ensure that your diamond is indeed forever.

First, you should take your diamond jewelry to a jeweler once a year. Have him check the mountings and prongs that hold your diamond in place. Have him make any needed repairs. This will prevent your diamond from falling out of its setting and becoming lost.

Diamond jewelry that is not being worn, or diamonds that are loose should be stored in a fabric lined jewel case, or in a jewelry box where it can be kept separate from other jewelry. Each piece should have its own compartment. This will keep diamonds from becoming scratched, and it will also keep your diamond from scratching other jewelry as well.

Remove your diamond jewelry when doing physical work. Diamonds can be chipped and scratched easily. Also avoid allowing your diamond to come into contact with bleach or other household cleansers this can damage or change the color of the settings and mountings, and it may even irreversibly change the color of the diamond!

Through our day to day, movements our diamonds get smudged and soiled. Even when we are not wearing them, they collect dust. Lotions, soaps, our natural skin oils, can cause film and grime on diamonds and inhibit their brilliance.

Want to keep that Brilliance and Shine? Diamonds require cleaning so that maximum amounts of light can refract fiery brilliance. Remember that all it takes is a few minutes and a little care to keep that diamond as fiery as the day you first saw it.

You can use a small soft brush such as an eyebrow or lip stick brush and soap and water to clean your jewelry. Simply make a bowl of warm sudsy water with a mild detergent and place your pieces in the mixture. Then brush the diamonds with the soft bristles of the brush while they are in the suds. You will need to make certain that you rinse them clear of the suds after cleaning them. You can use a small kitchen strainer such as a tea strainer to contain them while rinsing under warm water. Use a lint free cloth, or a jewelry polish cloth to pat them dry.

If your diamonds are in need of a stronger cleansing, you may want to soak them for 30 minutes in a solution of half and half water and ammonia. Once they have soaked for 30 minutes, remove them and gently brush the mountings with a small brush. Then replace the pieces to the solution and swish them around in the mixture before removing them to rinse and pat dry.

If you find your self too busy to be mixing soaps and ammonias, many department stores sell liquid jewelry cleaners. Most are kits, with everything you need included. You need to read the labels to determine the one that is right for your diamonds and other jewelry. Read the complete directions and follow all the precautions.

And if you find yourself more the high-tech type”, even in your diamond cleaning routine, there are multiple ultrasonic cleansers on the market. These machines use high-frequency to create a cleaning motion. All machines are not the same, so please read the instructions before using.

Only you can choose the cleaning method right for you. But, it is essential to keep your jewelry clean to keep it brilliant and sparkling. Between cleaning, try not to touch your clean diamonds with your fingers or handle your jewelry by its edges. This will help maintain its shine and brilliance for longer periods.

More Information : http://diamonds-jewelry.net, http://discounts-stores.net, http://kampanye-damai-pemilu-indonesia-2009.com

Ghostevyta Kamu writes from Medan, Indonesia.

Time for a computing rant

By Jeffrey the Barak

I should begin by stating that today is April 8th, 2009. This is important whenever writing about technology, or as in this case, ranting about technology, because by the time you read this, things may well have changed.

I am not a computer journalist, I don’t take advertising revenue from Microsoft or Apple or Norton, and I am no programmer. But I do use computers and I know what I like and do not like.

So this rant is partly an observation, partly a wish list, and partly about 1973 Buick Electra converted to run on battery power. (More on that later).

Ranting about computers, the big kind.

I wrestled with Windows from early 3.0 until late in the XP era, before I became so busy with actual work that I decided it was high time to stop messing around with dialog boxes and virus scans and abandon Microsoft so I could get some bloody work done.

My solution was to switch to Mac. Now I’m not one of these guys who says Apples are perfect and all other fruits are rubbish, because that is an exaggeration, but I will say that I no longer work for the computer. The computer now works for me.

I remain open-minded about where computing may go in the future, but as people who have downgraded to “netbooks” will tell you, there is a future in online application use and assuming being connected continues to become more ubiquitous, that may be our direction.

Ranting about computers, the small kind.

I got into palm-top or handheld computing in the 1990s with a Palm III and dabbled in Windows tablets and then gave it all up when my eyesight deteriorated, only to jump back in when my wife bought me the first iPhone.

I still find Internet use to be a pain in the eye on the iPhone, but I think that on one’s palm is the best place to work in many situations.

But I always wanted to fill the gap between a notebook / laptop computer and a handheld device such as a smart phone. My first attempt at doing so was to buy an Acer tablet computer, but I found the operating system, the hardware and the screen to be very close to completely unusable. It was slow enough to make you scream, awkward to use, and hard to see in almost any light, but only for an hour then the batteries ran down.

I held out hope for Palm’s “Folio Mobile Companion” invention in 2007 only to see them backtrack and cancel the release. And rumors continue to abound about Apple’s plans for something bigger than an iPhone and smaller than a Macbook, with an alternative operating system.

And this is the key, and why the tablet failed for me, something roughly the same size and weight might succeed if it does not try to be a computer. That is: no Windows, no OS X, no full blown Linux, but something more like the iPhone operating system. We have to recognize that a small whatever-you-call-it is not a computer. This is why tablets were awful and also why these new “netbooks” don’t really work well with the Windows OS installed. They come with XP because it’s only about $25 now, but it’s not right for a little ten inch thing.

People who run simple Linux shells to get them online to do stuff get much more satisfaction from their netbooks, without the squinting. It was the same when Palm had two versions of the Trio smart phone, one with Windows Mobile, the big seller, and one with the last version of the Palm OS. The Windows one was terrible because you really need a big screen to work well in Windows. The Palm OS one was less terrible. The little tiny keyboard was never as efficient as Graffiti, if you took the time to learn Graffiti.

The iPhone reminded me that even someone with bad eyes and big fingers can still work in the hand if the OS and also the input method are clever enough, (they are). And as long as there’s an Internet connection, then there is room for a lightweight device that is larger than a pocketable mobile telephone.

Another thing netbooks have done is throw the escalation of processing power and application complication into reverse. This has coincided with the end of the megapixel arms race in digital cameras, and the end of the economic boom, that never should have been a boom in the first place, due to it’s source in hype and debt.

If applications can be usable over the wi-fi, then they will be better if they are less complicated, not more so, so this new small way of thinking can potentially move Microsoft’s fortunes into the hands of Google, Yahoo! etc. Anyone who develops good web-based applications.

Revolutions still to come in display and input technology will add strength to this movement. The tortoise may beat the hare in computing.

So about that electric Buick Electra, oh sorry, I’m out of time.