Just a little update to tell you about the exciting things happening in my life at the moment (so you can safely skip it if you want to)…
I’ve been working on contract as a Technical Consultant for PwC’s Global Controlled Vocabularies Service for the last six months or so, and at the end of this month, my contract expires. My time there has been one of the best things that could have happened to me, for a number of reasons. For one, working with people from across the globe has taught me that meeting new people, and interacting with them, isn’t as difficult as I once thought. I’ve realized that there are people out there less technically inclined than I am, and those that are doing things way above my level of comprehension…and I’ve had the honour of learning to communicate with many people on both sides of this spectrum, and being a bridge between them (to the best of my abilities). In this short time, I’ve been exposed to many things I’ve only read about in prescribed books. I’ve learned a new programming language. I’ve rediscovered a passion for user experience. I got to do a lot of the things I am actually quite good at. I was blessed enough to work with wonderful people I actually get along with. Not a single regret.
Despite all of this, getting up at five each morning, the 45 minute (or two hour, depending on my luck for the day) commute, and the being dog-tired when I got home each day was (is) taking its toll on me. The salary (which was very respectable for someone just out of university), after the fuel costs and the short service intervals (I do about 100kms each day), allowed me to just get by. The fact that I worked on contract with no benefits at all wasn’t really a problem for me, but it wasn’t as good as a permanent appointment. Small things, but trust me, they tend to get to you.
Then, for some or other reason, I decided to start using Twitter again. On the very first day of being back on Twitter, I saw Afrigator was looking for a PHP developer. I started chatting with Justin, and we ended up ingesting caffeine (along with Stii). Unfortunately, the timing wasn’t quite right, and things didn’t work out. A shame really, because it would have been stellar to work with these guys. It was not all in vain, though, because it set off a long chain of very fortunate events. I ended up putting my CV out there, applying for a few jobs, and getting to know a recruiter or two. Nothing worked out. After a few rejection e-mails, I was despondent. Looking back, I don’t really know why, as PwC made me a very decent offer, so I was assured of a job, even if I didn’t find anything else. As a last resort, I tweeted. I didn’t expect anything to come from it, but hey, it couldn’t hurt to try.
What happened next still has me shaking my head in disbelief. Someone happened to sign up for Twitter a few days before that tweet. They happened to do a search for “Stellenbosch”, just for interest’s sake. They happened to see my tweet. They happened to be looking for a web developer. So, after an e-mail or two, a very pleasant interview, and an excruciating wait…I have a new job, starting next month. Right here in Stellenbosch, doing what I love doing. Talk about being fortunate, and blessed.
So, yeah. I’m counting down the days…and I can’t wait to start at GivenGain (do check out the website, the new version just went live, and boy…is it impressive).










Internet Explorer has done it again. After modifying quite a complex script (it constructs a multi-level tree from a taxonomy and asynchronously loads this into the DOM Tree as an unordered list) to actually be able to collapse and expand (quite tricky as the DOM Tree changes continuously as new terms in the tree are loaded), it was working as intended in every browser except IE (from 6 up to 8, in fact).



