Categories
Life

Looking for a photog?

If you live in Cape Town, and you need memorable photos… i mean, really memorable photos: the kind that every time you look at them you go “oooohhh”, “aaaahhh”, “wooooow”. And you can’t stop grinning and you actually get *emotional* (in a warm fuzzy kind of way) just pouring over the memories ‘cos they’re captured so incredibly … wonderfully: Sarah Wood. Look no further.

Categories
Life perspective

Your Word

In days of yonder (although, probably more of a romantic legend) “your word” used to mean quite a bit. No legal fluff or long-winded contracts- it was your word that counted most. Today, that still is true, but we also have legal contracts because, i guess, in days of yonder, much like today, people renege on their word for various reasons. And that is a complex issue on its own, but reasonably i see it as primarily coming down to not taking your own word seriously enough. The opposite of that is interesting…

And by word i do mean commitments and promises, both explicit and implicit. Explicit as in “I promise i’ll get that done by tomorrow” and implicit as in “Sure, i can do that by end of day”.

So the opposite is that you take your own word so seriously, you check yourself at every turn and make no commitments or promises, either explicitly or implicitly. Your speech changes to “I might have that done by the end day, but no guarantee”. It is a lot better in terms of expectation management, being realistic and does give yourself room to breathe a little; even under-promise somewhat. As a default, neither are great.

On the one side you get to disappoint a lot of people through broken commitments, and on the other side, you get to disappoint yourself because you never get to challenge yourself. It’s one of those situations where neither end of the spectrum really works, and the middle ground is pretty soft. The best is to fold the spectrum back on itself.

Take your word seriously AND make big (not brash) commitments (and then pull it off). Of course, the wisdom and grace to get that perfect won’t come without a bruised ego, but, like i read once, it’s hard(er) to stumble when you’re on your knees. Don’t be scared to commit and give yourself a challenge and then take your commitment seriously enough to see it through.

The ultimate is like saying “I do”. It’s not “I might” or “I could” or “I probably should”. Commit, lock and load and make it work. The fruit is way more than you could ever positively dream of.

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Life perspective

Underneath The Radar

No, this is not an attempt at trying to revive an 80’s hit. It’s just my status quo. Watching people, watching me sort of thing. And there’s plenty going on right now. (But it’s still a pretty funky song in it’s own way)

In SA, we have an absolute mess of a political cam-pain *sic*; too boring and complicated to ever make it onto an episode of any soapie worth its suds. Politicians just blabber ****; the clamorous dings of empty gongs polluting the space inside my head and on the local internet. And i checked, our news is so boring, and so over-hyped, it doesn’t even make a small headline on bbc, sky or cnn. Let alone the Afghan Times. Apparently, the new Beatles album is more newsworthy than a southern african political party leader getting off the hook for corruption charges- despite threats to bring ’em all down and not because he’s not guilty. And there are very big differences between “not guilty” and “innocent”. Ah well. Karma’s a bitch, right?

(And i don’t think it’s worth even touching on “the economic situation”- oh my goodness! If there ever was a phrase in danger of losing it’s vitality, meaning, pillow and marshmallow- that one deserves a righteous nomination. *Everyone* is suddenly an economist with an opinion- double you tea eff?)

On the other side of life though, tech is kinda stale. Some tech- not my tech 😉 Domains are dying (which is a funny read, btw). There’s Windows 7: the yawn version, is coming up. And more politics around that. Apparently it’s a bit of a boo-haa that you cannot upgrade from XP to 7. Shame.

But from all that fuss, i’ve learned one very important lesson: the media trashes your mind (not actively but by consequence) and robs you of your vibe- so be careful of what you fill yourself up with. They have no market in talking about the really cool things that are happening. And there’s also too much of that happening all over the world right now… but that too, it seems, remains underneath the radar.

Categories
Life

Mommeedaddee

For those of you who have (had) a 2yr-old, you will understand the following paragraph just perfectly:

Mommeedaddeemommeedaddeemommeedaddee*. I keem peas. Mommeedaddeemommeedaddeemommeedaddee. Maw Juice peas. Mommeedaddeemommeedaddeemommeedaddee. Maw peas. Mommeedaddeemommeedaddeemommeedaddee. Look. Mommeedaddeemommeedaddeemommeedaddee. Juice peas. Mommeedaddeemommeedaddeemommeedaddee. Up. Mommeedaddeemommeedaddeemommeedaddee. Baba. Mommeedaddeemommeedaddeemommeedaddee. Maw?

Gotta love it! 😀

* Mommeedaddeemommeedaddeemommeedaddee is the common name bestowed upon both the parents by their 2-yr old and references whomever the toddler so choose at the time it is spoken.

Categories
Life

Pizza And Maths

Most of the time, when i talk about maths to anyone, i hear the same chat:
Maths is hard
You either get it or you don’t
Maths is not for everyone
Rather you than me
Oooo. Maths. Eish.

And so on… Well, maybe true but maybe not true at all. Regardless of how you feel about it, there are times when it’s very practical, almost *fun*, to know just a little about it. And you don’t need first year university maths to work some things out.

Butlers Pizza (arguably the best pizza in Cape Town) have a deal where you can buy 2 large pizzas or get a 3 for the price of 2- for roughly the same price if you get 3 mediums. Which is more pizza? Which is better value for money? And more serious questions like: how much cold pizza will i have left over for lunch/breakfast tomorrow?

A medium is 26cm, a large, 32cm in diameter. Assuming the bases and toppings are all mostly equal, you can simplify your calculations to work on the surface area of pizza presented. And given pizzas are more or less round, you use the formula for the area of a circle (π r2). Once you’ve established the area for a medium, multiply the result by 3 to get a combined pizza surface area. For the larges, repeat the exercise and multiply by 2.

You can judge at this stage which deal is going to give you more pizza. But what about best value? Well, take the total amount of pizza and divide it by the cost. Your answer is pizza/rand. So go for the deal that has the highest number. So the “Big Deal” will cost you 98.95, the 3 pizzas will cost you 2×49.95 (assuming simplest case) . You should know pretty soon which you want: more pizza or best value for money?

Of course, it gets so-called “complicated” when you start adding extra toppings and wheat-free bases. But all those “complications” are just little additions to the same steps. It’s actually not complicated at all- it’s methodical. And all the information is there, you just need a simple calculator.

Of course, some might say: why bother? Indeed. Why bother at all? Well, why not? It’ll take you less than 5 minutes to arrive at an answer which maximises your utility- which is economic speak for: get the best bang for buck. And especially when it’s close to the end of the month. But there’s also a deeper truth which you start to uncover… just how “special” is a special really? And even more grave, what’s breakfast going to be like?

Categories
Life

All In One Month

What a month! 3 exams, a couple of teeth and a brand new baby boy. If you got kids, you’ll understand, right?

So if you ever end up having to plan something like this (not that you can always consciously time it so well) then i have a a tip for you…

Make sure you got a loving, enduring and patient wife backing you up and supporting you all the way. It makes it seem so easy. Thanks, Lolly! You simply rock! Your honorary degree is almost there 😉

Seriously. Jack was due just after the first exam, Macro Economics. So we figured it’d be alright ‘cos we’d have two weeks before starting to prep for the next two to settle in. Then Jack decided… “Neh. Too warm and cosy in here, thanks. Think i’ll stay a little while longer.”

8 days later (over due), little Jack says: “Hello, world!” That was one week before my last two exams: Financial Modeling and my major: Applied Mathematics. Oops = MC^2?

Needless to say, we -and i do mean “we”- decided to forge on and today, on my last exam, as soon as the invigilator said: “Pens down. Your time is up.” a chorus of angels hauled out the trumpets and started singing “Hallelujah!”. Shew!

Until next year…

Categories
Life

Put It In the Bond?

If you’re servicing a mortgage at the moment, and you happen to come into some money, the “best” advice you’re probably going to get is: “put it in your bond”. Not bad advice, i guess, but i’m not so sure it’s the “best”.

**DISCLAIMER: I’m NOT a financial advisor; am not pretending to be one; and certainly not qualified to be one. But i can kinda do the numbers, so this looking at it purely from a mathematical perspective.

When it’s not really the “best” advice is when you are servicing other debt, at higher interest rates. Then the numbers say: kill that debt first, and _then_ look at the mortgage. So if you’re servicing a credit card, overdraft or vehicle finance (which can typically be higher than prime) and your mortgage is sub-prime, service the higher first.

But more personally, i recently faced the opportunity of trading in my vehicle for a newer one (which would have been nice) and i was figuring out what to do with the trade-in amount and work out where it would best pay dividends. On an aside, i’m of the opinion that buying a vehicle is NOT a financially smart move at all- no matter how you try slice the numbers. You will always lose (and i’m not referring to collectors’ classics). So look after your car- treat it nice, drive nice, service it regularly so you can leave it in your will. After all, it’s __just__ a car, right 😉

So down to the maths… Note: the numbers have been changed slightly to protect the prudent.
New car: R150k at 15.5% APR over 60 months.
Existing debt: R640k mortgage (±30 months into the schedule) at 14% APR over 20 years.
Trade in on car: R50k. What to do with the R50k? A) Plough it into the bond. B) Use 100% of it as a down payment on new car. A or B, what do you do? The “best” advice i received was plough into the bond and save thousands in interest on the bond! Uhuh. That’s half the truth.

As a down payment on the new car, I reduce the repayments from R3.6K to R2.4K, and end up saving, in effect, R44k in interest over the term. Not bad, not great.
In the bond, i reduce the interest _over the same term_ by R33K. Worse. But not a surprise. And that’s the important part here: the same term. 60 months. You see, over the remainder term of the mortgage, that advance payment will save you A LOT! But now you’re comparing a value of money of two different terms: 60 months versus N years on the mortgage, so don’t be too surprised if you draw bogus conclusions. Afterall, once you’ve finished paying off the car, you’re R3.6k deeper in the pocket which you can then plough into the mortgage anyway.

So, on face value, it’s more favourable, over the same term, to service the vehicle as quick as possible and then see to the lower interest obligations. But there are better options… which is the other half of the truth: discipline.

Add in some fiscal discipline into the mix, and suddenly your options are wild. For example…

Put down the down payment on the car, saving an extra R1.2k in repayments each month on the car, but then put the saving into the mortgage over the same term. Suddenly you start to save R64K in interest. Mmmm… Or…

And then there’s this. Which really was the best option (Thanks, A)…

Take your old car for a shmancy valet at about R200, pretend it’s new and “pay for it” anyway at R3.6k per month. Now you’re saving close to double your previous best!

The bottom line is; if you’re in the market for a car and can afford X, but you’re servicing other debt, service that debt first- forget about the car*. Unless it’s an absolutely necessity (and looking better than the Jones’ is not a necessity- i checked) you probably don’t need it.

*Forgetting about the car, probably anywhere in the world, is really hard to do though. In South Africa, households spend a disproportionate amount of their disposable income on vehicle financing, which says a lot about how we feel about our cars. Somehow, cars have so (too) much appeal. So much so that having 4 reliable wheels is just never enough. There’s always going to be something really “cool” about a car that makes you just wanna have it. And the price tag is just irritating. Can you say X-Trail… or Fortuner? 🙂

Categories
Life

It’s Officially Cold

Say no more… Cape Town is the officially the new South Pole. Ohmygollygoodnessgraciousnessme!
-6?!

And yes, i am aware that it gets colder than this in other parts of the world… but trust. For us beach addicts here, where the sun fun never sets… the 3 months of winter we have to endure, every year, this IS cold. Brrrrrr….

Categories
Life

Lords of the Acronymn (or LOTA)

While i was having my foot scratched and scraped clean by the on-duty doctor at the hospital, a colleague of his walks by and a quick “hallway discussion” ensues. What i overheard could have easily been mistaken for a geek conversation. More TLAs, FLAs and AIGs bubbled along than i could follow.

We geeks have nothing on doctors and surgeons. We’re just poser wannabes 😉

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Life

BSc. Year One

Study unit

Description

Mark

Result

  APM113U APPLIED LINEAR ALGEBRA 91 Passed
  MAT103N LINEAR ALGEBRA 75 Passed
  MAT110M PRECALCULUS MATHEMATICS 68 Passed
  MAT111N PRECALCULUS MATHEMATICS B 70 Passed
  MAT112P CALCULUS A 59 Passed
  MAT113Q CALCULUS B 58 Passed
  STS1055 BASIC STATISTICS 56 Passed