Custom 404 error messages in IIS

To set up a custom 404 error message on Windows in IIS, there are the following things to keep in mind when using PHP files:

1. The custom 404 file cannot be a server-side executable script like PHP or ASP, it has to be a flat HTML file (.htm or .html extension is fine).

2. The .PHP extension handling has to have the checkbox "verify that the file exists" checked in order to see the custom 404 error page if a .php extension is used in the URL.

3. Restarting the website after setting these changes might help.

Busy time before going on vaction to Namibia

This week in particular is rather busy because of everything that I have to get done before going on vacation to Namibia to visit family. Last night was a case of working late and then when I finally had time for myself, it was close to midnight. After midnight, I got a work related SMS and finally went to bed at 3AM because of that.

Metrorail Cape Town ticket checks

This morning I went through three different ticket checks at different train stations. The stations included Vasco, Esplanade and Woodstock. At Observatory when I got off, there was no ticket check.

Sleeping in a foam latex mask

Last night I decided to put on several of my foam latex masks to see which one is the easiest to wear when it comes to breathing and eyesight when lying down. I tried several different ones and the one of a slightly eldery man ended up being good for breathing, good eyesight and a snug fit. At the time I was quite tired and ended up falling asleep. During the night I woke up once while sweating a bit and realised I was still wearing the mask, then I decided to leave it on since it wasn't too hot and quite comfortable. This morning I finally took it off before leaving for work. It always amazes me again how different I look with those faces on. Those masks can be a lot of fun to wear, especially with the appropriate clothing.

Car handbrake snapped cable locked the rear wheel

On Saturday morning, I was supposed to drive to the office for server installation.

The morning I got into my car in my garage and found that the handbrake handle was down which I normally leave pulled up whenever I park the car.

It turned out that I could not pull the handle much up and trying to reverse the car out did not work either. After further investigation, it turned out that the left hanbrake cable had snapped and the mechanism at the left rear wheel broke. Somehow the result of this locked the wheel. On the upside, nobody will steal the car except by towing it. The trouble is to get a mechanic to come.

The car is a Mazda 323 hatchback from 1998

Halloween costume party turned into birthday party

One of my clients invited me to a superhero themed Halloween costume party. Recently I got a phone call that too many people are coming and several cannot attend anymore including myself due to parking and space problems for that apartment building.

Today I was told about a superhero themed birthday near my home that I could possibly attend. Hopefully that will actually happen. The person who said I could come mentioned that it would be funny if I show up in a female costume. Based on what is left of all the people renting from me, I might end up having to do that.

Metrorail annoyances

The last couple of days have not been a great experiences for Metrorail customers in the Cape Town area.

There have been several cancellation announcement in the morning while people need to get to work as well as announcements of delays. Often the delays are caused due to signal power failure. After all of these years of that, I would expect engineering to come up with a way to make these more robust that a slight drizzle doesn't kill the entire system.

Yesterday morning was another great example where trains were just standing on the tracks two sides of a station. I know that they were not waiting for a line change due to construction work going on. Yesterday evening was a case of an announcement of a delay of 8 minutes and about 13 minutes later when the next train was scheduled to show up, there was an announcement of a delay of 12 minutes. This morning was at least nothing happening for 20 minutes.

Work getting busy

Both of my jobs are getting busier this time of the day. What doesn't help is that clients are sometimes asking some really stupid questions and then repeat them three times in a row. Sometimes I feel like I have to do all of the thinking for them.

BKE Costume Rental blog created

I have finally created a blog for my costume renting company called BKE Costume Rental (both the blog and the company have the same name). This was long overdue to split that into its own section.

Costume modelling

Lately I ended up modelling several male and female costumes for my website to be able to show what to expect. For some of them I really need some smaller person to model them because I barely fit in.

New mask promotion on costume renting website

Finally I have started promoting foam latex masks on my costume renting website. When somebody searches for something and gets no results, then the following image with some text appears:

The photo took a few minutes to make which included putting on the mask and holding up another while setting up the tripod.
The main purpose of this is to see how many people are actually interested.

Seven new realistic foam latex masks ordered

Last night I finally ordered seven mostly realistic looking foam latex masks from Greyland Film in Europe. One of them is a replacement for another one that got torn, the other six are new faces to use for costumes or just simply for some parties. I am very much looking forward to trying them all on.

Barney themed children's birthday

There are several here that are having a Barney themed birthday for their 1, 2 and 3 year old children and are desperate to get a Barney costume for the event so that Barney can make an appearance. There are some remotely similar looking suits available, but they are rare and difficult to get. Somebody asked me to wear one of those at the end of October. It will be really hot in that suit around that time of the year here in the southern hemisphere.

My late father's 60th birthday

Yesterday (5 October 2009) was supposed to be my father's 60th birthday. He died in 2008 after three years of chronic kidney failure. His ex-fiancé and myself went to one of the restaurants that he enjoyed going to just for remembering him with things that he loved to do. It would have been great if he was along.

Website W3C compliancy and SEO

In the past couple of days, I have tried to fix various small W3C compliancy issues on my costume renting website. This also included more unique H1 tags for SEO purposes. The W3C related work is still ongoing, but should not take too much longer. SEO work is more tedious due to checking all pages for unique titles and content. The photo section is also going to take some work as well as the search results.

All of this effort is in the long run for proepr rendering by various web browsers and devices as well as for the search engines which are essentially also browsers. It is quite important to have the HTML standards compliant for various reasons.

Foam latex Halloween masks

Halloween is coming soon and I want to go to a Halloween party this year. Preferably I want to go to a proepr costume party and take my girlfriend along. She doesn't like costumes too much due to feeling awkward which I understand because that usually happens to me if I put on a costume to go to those rare costume parties that I go to once or twice a year.

What I would like to do is to be dressed up to look completely different like I did last year where more or less nobody realised that I was actually wearing a realistic looking female mask to make my costume look proper because I was dressed as a french maid.

The plan is to maybe be dressed with my girlfriend as two ugly looking witches which are twins, but I am not sure if my girlfriend would want to attempt that. Alternatively, I can always try anything else or take someone else along.

This is where the dilemma comes in: Which masks to get? I cannot afford too many and shipping takes time to get them here from Europe.

Costume renting website updates

My costume renting website was in urgent need of an update. Last night I finally rewired the menu system a bit as well as split the contact details section into three pages. There was a problem with the menu in Internet Explorer and using lower screen resolutions cut off some text.

The website is also in the process of getting new sections and a shift from ADODB to PDO. Part of the update was the preparation ofr this.

Expensive electricity

The electricity price increase of close to 35% by Eskom about two or three months ago is really becoming noticed by many people. In my case it seems a lot worse than I had expected. There is a chance that I have an electrical leak, but I am not sure. If I have one, then at least some electricity savings can be made.

Ideas needed for costume shop promotion

The weekend of 4 and 5 October 2009, I am going to be promoting my costume renting business at a sale in Campsbay. I still need to design and print something for that, but have no idea what, other than business cards.

Part of the promotion is to be there in costume and possibly switch between several throughout the hours being there. Ideas for that are some of my superhero costumes, maybe Darth Vader (which will get hot), possibly a purple dinosaur and maybe my new lion costume.

If possible, I am also looking for someone else to stand there with me but to also be in costume. I will pay for these services if someone volunteers.

Ideas and volunteers are welcome.

Halloween requests

Finally some Halloween requests are showing up. I was expecting them a little bit sooner. There are still some masks and costumes that I want to get as well and hopefully find out about some Halloween party that I can go to.

Hiding products in plain sight

It seems that having products listed on a website without a photo is like hiding a product in plain sight. Nobody wants to touch it even when the description says exactly what it is. Very interesting lesson to be learned here in regards to marketing. This is what I currently have on my costume renting website.

Sleeping in a Zentai suit

Recently I tried to sleep during the night in a Zentai suit. The suit covers the entire body. I tucked the mask in at the front of the suit. Sleeping in the suit was quite nice and the temperature was right, especially since winter is quite cold. In the morning my hands were a really small amount numb due to the pressure from the gloves throughout the night. The pressure was nowhere near enough to cut off circulation.

New dinosaur suit

Yesterday I finally received a new dinosaur suit from a local manufacturer. The suit itself is a mission to get into, but it looks really good when finally in it. No way to tell it a man or woman is inside due to the foam inside that gives the shape. As expected, it does get hot.

The annual crazy "40 days" season

As every year, the matriculants have their annual "40 days" event. Just like last year, a lot of them are coming for costumes, which keeps me rather busy.

Laserquest and bowling

Yesterday evening my work had a laserquest and bowling event after work. Several could not be bothered to show up or had other engagements. At least two of us were quite sick. The event had to be booked in advance, so we could not shift it.

Laserquest was nice, I had a gun failure for a while. My aim was terrible. In the bowling I actually had one strike.

Both were in the same premises downstairs at Stadium on Main in Claremont. Between laserquest and bowling we had beers as well.

Costume choice dilemma for Matieka 2009

As every year I have the usual problem of what costume to wear for the costume party of the annual german carnival (Matieka) in Stellenbosch. Since I got hold of several Zentai suits recently, I am tempted to try those, but I might end up feeling quite exposed since that is so skintight and several people might have some rather mocking comments about that. Another idea is to try a pirate costume or some padded superhero suit which can get quite hot. Idea number next would be try try a bunny or a female character since the nun idea last year worked well. Trying a Power Ranger Zentai suit is also an option, but that limits eyesight a bit.

My biggest problem is that I can never decide on these matters which is quite annoying.

Matieka 2009 in Stellenbosch

For those who are looking for the Matieka 2009 programme which is taking place in Stellenbosch, there is a Facebook group for Matieka. The programme listed there today is as follows (mixed German with English):

Daten:
31.07.09, 20h11 - Büttenabend/Prinzenball
01.08.09, 12h11 - Frühshoppen/ Beerfest
01.08.09, 20h11 -Maskenball/Fancy Dress Ball
02.08.09, 12h11 - Kehraus/ Beerfest

Karten sind ab den 20 Juli bei Hairlines zu kaufen.
Maskenballkarten gibt es nur im Vorverkauf bei Hairlines.
Tickets for Sale @ Hairlines.
Fancy Dress Ball only available in Pre-Ticket sales.

The problems with free World of WarCraft (WoW) servers

It is very amazing to find all those mushroom free World of WarCraft (WoW) simulated servers that have popped up all over the place in the last few years. Many are advertising with "stability" and "lagg free" and "PvE" in some of these voting websites. The real picture however, is totally different.

What is really happening is the following:

- Not being able to connect a lot of the time.

- Waiting for 20 minutes for the character screen or getting into the game after picking a character.

- Lagg related wrong monster position every time where a monster is showing in the wrong location which makes attacking and defending not fun at all. What you see is what you do not get. Wysiwydong. That last bit of that word namely "Dong" is the only thought about these issues.

- Most quests do not work. I understand that none of the server scripting is in place when importing the raw data and that is exactly why not everyone should have a mushroom server, rather combine skills and solve the issues.

- Stability does not exist. Good example: The Scapegaming server (formerly WoWScape) tends to go into a loop and stall and reboot once or more per day. I tried that one for a short while and gave up.

- Rollbacks kill your progress. Also with the Scapegaming server again as an example (there are others): I made a bit of progress, logged on about a week or two later and my character was missing some random gear, some of the inventory was gone and two levels were gone as well. This was not a rollback to a previous state, but rather a partial data change.

- Addons do not work. To be able to upgrade the simulated server does require some reverse engineering which does take time, which I can understand. Add here the fact that there are so many rubbish addons and many frameworks that cannot work together. Some published addons are made for certain game versions and there are no ways to really check this properly. Certain addons always get updated for the latest game client, but this means they break because the simulated server requires a slightly older version.

- PvP only servers marked as "Normal" or "PvE". Not all players want to play PvP (Player versus Player), some just want to enjoy the game and the rather flimsy storyline which needs to be guessed. Getting ambushed by a higher level character while trying to do a quest is not fun. It might be fun for the attacker who knows victory is more guaranteed than the sun coming up the next day. Not all players are professional all day and night hardcore players who just play one game for years.

- Everyone just wants the top end gear and not really work for it. Again this is for those lazy players who are already enjoyed much increased XP (experience) rate. They do not want to level up and do all the quests, they want instant best gear and highest level. There is no satisfaction in playing a game this way.

In the end it comes down to: If you do not want to have too many additional annoyances and actually have some fun, play on the real server.

German Karnival MatieKA coming again

The annual German Karneval in Stellenbosch called MatieKA is happening as most of the time at the beginning of August. The main event is this year on 1 August, it is always on a Saturday.

As always, the main event is a costume party. Some people don't bother to dress up. There is always a theme for the entire event. To fit in with the theme, I was a nun last year with a mask with the appropriate padding to have a different realistic looking face to fit the costume. I quite enjoyed looking like a female character for a change which also got quite a bit attention. I might do that again just for the fun of it. This year I am considering pirate costumes or possibly Power Rangers.

Harddrive partition suddenly gone, doing recovery

I tried some odd software to see it it has the option to resize a partition. At this point in time I was just looking, not doing anything. This software decided to go and kill my partition, or at least make it not usable by the operating system, and it installed itself as bootloader. To make matters worse, its partitioning part just brings up a grey screen and a lot of drive activity with no indicator about what is going on. This tool is called VCOM Partition Commander version 8. Some people tell me it works fine when you boot it off a CD (provided we are talking about the same tool here). At this point in time, I do not want to take more risks of losing more data.

Last night I started the data recovery process using R-STUDIO network edition. It scanned the files all fine for recovery purposes, but unfortunately cannot recover the structure and proper filenames.

Many requests for a Barney costume

Latey I have been getting a lot of requests for an adult Barney costume for children's birthdays. Usually these are two to three year olds. Most people are happy if they can find something that sort of looks like Barney, at least what the colour concerns. Unfortunately there is a legal issue with that character and there is no way to get an official character performer for half an hour to maybe up to two hours. This is a pity, because the character is very popular amongst kids.

Children's birthday party in dinosaur costume

This last Saturday I was asked to be in a dinosaur costume at a children's birthday party. The first half an hour went fine, kids were bugging me the whole time. The second half an hour became quite hot and I had sweat dripping off my nose inside the suit. When I finally got out I was wet all over.

Being a dinosaur at a children event

This coming Saturday I was asked to be in a dinosaur costume for a childrens birthday party. Unfortunately I am not that great with children, but I will see what I can do to entertain them. The suit that I own is going to get hot. A few days ago, I tried on the suit because I haven't worn it for a long time, just to discover some annoyances that are currently being fixed. The feet would have shown as well which is not nice.

The original design of that suit had seperate feet which are just resting on the wearer's feet. The result is that they get partially underneath the actual foot or get kicked off completely. The head also had two collapsing sections which reduce vision considerably and the head was not staying properly in position anymore.

Walking from Kensington to Monte Vista in the rain

Two days ago, I had the fun and joy of falling asleep on the train and getting off two stations too early. The station that I got off at was called Kentemade which is in the Kensington suburb. The station looks nearly identical to the Monte Vista station that I normally get off at. The train stopped there and I woke up, both sides looked more or less correct based on what I could see. This was the last train for the evening. By the time I realised the station was wrong, the train was moving again.

After that story, I neded up walking toward Voortrekker road to head in the direction of Monte Vista, but I had to pass Facreton first and then through Vasco suburbs. Kensington itself can be a maze, especially at night. After many wrong turns, I finally got to Voortrekker road, then the rain started.

Much walking later with the rain coming and going, I finally reached Vasco, then heavy rain hit. Fortunately that was the last on the route. Since I was running about 40% of the route, the entire trip took 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Port Forwarding for Lan Bridger

Recently I have had the fun of trying to set up port forwarding on my router. There is a lot of documentation on the internet, but most of the time the issue of the IP address just happens to be skipped. Routers seem to need that IP address otherwise they would not know where to do the routing to.

To set up Port Forwarding, you actually need to set up a Virtual Server on the router. Then all that is required is the IP address (usually the IP address of your own PC or server that hosts a specific service), the port range (Lan Bridger uses port 40001) and the protocol which is All,TCP or UDP. What helps a huge amount is the tool for checking if your settings are correct which can be foudn on the Port Forwarding website

Witches and Wizards costume party at DecoDance Underground

This coming Saturday is a costume party at DecoDance Underground in Woodstock, Cape Town. I am planning to go there and a colleague of mine will most likely be there as well. The last time I went to something like this was a Halloween party.

Cape Town Book Fair 2009

As every year, the annual Cape Town Book Fair is happening again for four days at the Cape town International Convention Centre (CTICC). The programme of the event can be found at www.capetownbookfair.com.

As usual I will be making a Spider-Man appearance on Sunday at 12 at the Readers Den stand.

Why many relationships fail so easily

Months ago I had a girlfriend. She was more a friend than a girlfriend and there was not really a relationship to speak of. When I had time, I came for a visit and that was about it. Then severals months ago (last year sometime) she decided suddenly to terminate the friendship. I wiped all the contact details that I had after that since terminate means final. At that point in time I could not make any sense about the "reasoning" why that got terminated and left it at that.

Today I get a message saying that I should come for dinner even though I am now on her already quite big ex-friends list. She talks about me having been a good friend. Recently I met another woman and several weeks ago we went once for coffee and once to watch a movie together. Today the girlfriend from so long ago who terminated the friendship now suddenly says I cheated on her. How this is possible I have no idea since there have been at least four months between her and the person that I have recently met.

The above situation is exactly why I do not really want people around me who backstab me with accusations and expect me to mindread and always say the correct thing. I have had a total of two grilfriends in my life and at this rate that is two too many.

Zentai suit washing issues

The ten Zentai suits that I bought recently on eBay were a bit of a problem to get through customs which turned out to be rather expensive. There was a lot of additional colour that came off one of the suits when I washed it. I haven't tried washing the others for this reason.

Free Comic Book Day 2009 Results

The recent Free Comic Book Day 2009 (FCBD) at the Readers Den in Claremont (Western Cape, South Africa), was even more fun than the last couple of years. As always, the shop owners asked me to be there in a Spider-Man suit.

This year the layout was different and had a circular shape for all of the discounted comics and action figures. The goods were also more accessible this year because of the spread. The advantage of the layout was also that the people near the exit could be controlled and the queues ended up being shorter because of quicker service.

Two people were supposed to be with me in costume. They came the evening before to fit the costumes but did not bother to show up in the morning. One of the staff members for the day also did not bother to appear.

The free comics this year were more interesting and higher quality than the previous years. The discounted comics that I bought were quite a lot in the end. I was helping out with doing the prize draw, but I could not enter for that and because I was busy, I traditionally only start buying comics after the second and last prize draw.

Expensive Zentai suits

A while ago, I ordered ten Zentai suits (limited by the eBay seller to ten). This ended up costing me about 5000ZAR (South African Rand). When the package finally got here, I had to go to Capemail to collect it, but I was told to bring proof of payment papers. I got there with my papers and was told that it is still being assessed at the airport and I would have to get a freight clearing agent to fetch the package for me. After getting hold of a freight clearing agent, I ended up paying a bit more than 4000ZAR (South African Rand). Now I am waiting for notification to collect the package at Capemail.

Survived Easter weekend

I haven't written anything for a while. My main work is hectic, my home business had its usual Easter weekend chaos because many people were fighting about my bunny suits for two weeks before Easter already. One lady even tried to take chances with trying to get a suit which was booked by someone else. The message that others have booked it for seveal days does not mean that she can get it for two hours during that time period, just simply did not seem to be accepted.

Note for next year: Kids are less scared by a white bunny that looks friendly, than by a dark bunny that looks friendly.

As every year, I also spent some time in Kuilsrivier for the annual Easter weekend shootout.

Several new Zentai suits

A few days ago, I did a long time major decision to order several Zentai suits. These included a few suits that look like some superheroes and several similar to Power Rangers. There is always a demand for P parties, some people did mention Power Rangers. I ordered several costumes in different sizes.

The supplier that I picked in the end based on client feedback on eBay was Lily_tw which still had the online shop running, unlike many that only stay a short time and can hardly communicate. So far I must say, that my experience with this supplier has been a bit better than the previous two and the communication was a lot better and quicker.

Too much overtime

The last couple of days have been too busy and far too much overtime. Last Sunday I was working nearly twelve hours and normally I do not work on weekends. This was causing problems with my home business. Last night there were website issues and several of us worked from around 10PM until 3AM with being at the office at 6AM to start testing before the major traffic during the day.

One year anniversary of my father's death

One year ago today, my fatehr died after suffering for three years of chronic kidney failure. I miss him quite a lot. Unbelievable how quick one year went. It seems like yesterday when I got the phone call at 1:15AM to come to the hospital. The evening before he was in the final stage of kidney failure.

Applications getting stuck during installation

There have been several applications which I have tried to install where the installer just got stuck. This includes Windows Live Messenger which dies when using the defaults (installs more or less everything additional). Adobe Flash CS3 installer also froze my PC a few times and the application dies on startup. Dreamweaver doesn't close down properly, it always remains running as a process. Unless that process is killed, it will not become visible again. Windows also gets stuck during shutdown for some odd reason after already closing all running applications before doing the shutdown.

Small birthday gathering at Paulaner Bräuhas

On Saturday several friends of mine and myself gathered at the Paulaner Bräuhaus (Paulaner Brewery) at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town near the Clocktower in the harbour. The event was a small celebration of my 32nd birthday. The food was expensive, so we skipped that because we could not get a food platter for multiple people.

The beers were good as usual. This time, I tried the special for this time of the year which is called Winterbock. The beer has more alcoholic content than other beers and ended up being rather potent but nice because it is so smooth.

Website success story

On Tuesday this week I expected a few people to arrive at 8PM to try on costumes. It turned out to be a group of eleven people from a school in the town of Paarl. They had to drive 45 minutes to get to me and 45 minutes to get back with a speed limit of 120km/h.

The fact that they came and managed to fit on everything that they had on their list was due to the booking system on my website. A few costumes had to be swapped for others due to sizes of the person who were supposed to wear them. My website bascially gave me an advantage over my competitors because it allowed me to widen my potential clients to other cities in a normally very region specific market.

New superhero costumes ordered

Several new superhero costumes have been ordered yesterday for my costume renting business. Most of these costumes are due to popular demand like Hulk and different Supergirl sizes. Some women require large sizes and I normally never have those, especially for superheroes the same issue is with some smaller sizes. Captain America is also on the list, hopefully it will not be stolen a third time.

Guild Wars guild event into Fissure of Woe (FoW)

Yesterday evening two of us in the Guild Wars guild "The Monstrous Fangs [fang]" attempted to start a small run in Fissure of Woe (FoW). An hour later as per normal [fang] time, we had an entire guild team.

Halfway through the eleven quests, our tank (Warrior) had to leave. The next closest thing we had to a tank was a Paragon which uses a spear and shield. I was using my assassin as always.

In the end we completed everything without too many hassles.

Hectic work and overtime

The last couple of days have been hectic with working overtime. Weekdays I got home around 10PM (3 to 4 hours later than usual). Yesterday (Sunday), I was at the office as well for nearly a full day.

Initial D strikes again

Last night I made the mistake of starting to watch the anime series called "Initial D" again. Every time I start that series, then everything else is more or less on hold.

More exciting Red Alert 3 tips and tricks

During the last few weeks a friend of mine and myself have discovered various new techniques of counters in Red Alert 3 (RA3).

Playing as any side (Soviet/Allies/Empire):

1. Build walls around your generators and resource places.

2. Spread your base to prevent massive damage when something big hits.

3. Always have air defense.

4. Set defense turrets to aggressive, this makes them attack enemy buildings.


Playing as Allies:

1. Countering a Soviet Bullfrog: Use a Shrink Ray from the Cryocopter at a safe distance (it has a wider range than the freeze ray) and then freeze the Bullfrog. A shrunken Bullfrog is useless with anti-air.

2. When someone is about to blast your base with a superweapon: Check the target marker, use Chronic Fissure to temporarily remove your own buildings and units, which should be back after the blast and hopefully be gone before it starts.

3. Use a Chronosphere to teleport an enemy bomb in your base out where it can blow up safely. The bigger the bomb, the more time you have.

4. A bomb can be put on ice with a Cryocopter. If my information is correct, this will disable the bomb skill for the player who planted the bomb.

5. MCVs can be repaired for free in vehicle mode by factories, engineer in a defense turret and an engineer in an IFV.


Playing as the Empire Of The Rising Sun:

1. Multiple of your own Shinobis with Tankbusters and some anti-air unit in an enemy base is bad news for the enemy. The Shinobi can shut down the power generator and take out bears, dogs and other ground troops, while the Tankbusters take out vehicles and buildings. Having Yuriko along with Emperor's Rage does wonders to the landscape.

2. Use Nano swarm to protect your own base during an attack.

3. Use Nano Swarm in the enemy base when you plant the five Tankbusters to give them time to take out a building. This protects them from bears and dogs.

4. Use Nano Swarm in the enemy base to protect your own units when you blast a Decimator Core attack in the enemy base.

5. Use a Burst Drone to slow down the pesky bombers of the Allies to give your anti-air plenty of time to shoot them down.


Playing as the Soviets:

1. If the enemy base is raised and there is no ground defense near an edge, try to shoot at least five bears into the base to clear out dogs/bears and then send in ground troops. Computer enemies are quick to respond during the landing procedure, so aim them well.

2. Use the Twinblade to transport various vehicles. This includes Sputnik, Hammer Tank, Apocalypse Tank and the V4 Rocket Launcher.

3. Use Iron Curtain if you want to deploy yoru MCV in the enemy base. Apply the Iron curtain as late as possible to buy time to deply defense turrets. Do note that you have to set defense turrets to aggressive to attack buildings.

4. Iron curtain can also be used against those bombs that someone plants in your base. The area of effect is limited but it will protect what you target.

The tenants are owing me money

Today I found out that my tenants are owing me quite a bit of money for rent which they were supposed to pay into a account while my father's will and testament is being finalised. Now that that is completed, they will get new bank account details. The next shock will be if they have paid the municipality.

Windows/Live/MSN Messenger issues

I have tried various versions rebrandings and incarnations over the years (since 1998) and always found mostly severe login problems as well as installation issues. To top it all off, logging into Hotmail/Windows Live Mail also had and still has issues.

The latest Live Messenger has got major login problems after upgrading to the latest version. To make things even more exciting, the apparent solution is to clear out its cache in two locations which did not help me at all. An uninstall is not possible either because it is not listed in Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel.

Weird nightmare with zombies

Early this morning sometime between 4AM and 5AM (I woke up at those times), I had a weird nightmare about zombies.

The dream started with me getting a ride by car from one town to another. While driving, another car came closer and a shootout started, the driver was a zombie partially hanging out of the window to shoot. The car came up next to the car I was in and shots were passed back and forth, then it fell back.

Suddenly the car slowed down because there was a big group of people walking slowly all over the road and next to it like cattle. All of them were zombies as well. After that the car picked up speed again.

In the next section of the dream I was lying at home in bed and waking up from the outside door of the kitchen opening. From my bed I can see that door which is between 5 and ten meters away. Through the door came a zombie because I forgot to lock the door before I fell asleep. In my dream I woke up trying to grab anything to use as a club that I could get hold of while still lying quietly on my bed. At that stage, I finally woke up and it was as dark as in the dream.

Guild Wars: Canthan new year menu

In the online MMORPG game Guild Wars, the guild that I am in [fang] is trying to get all of the ingredients for the menu of the five chefs. Some items are easy to get hold of, others are just not coming because the creatures that drop them are stingy. The guild has got several of each, the goal is ten of each which should hopefully soon be reached.

Getting more Zentai suits

The time has finally come to get more Zentai suits over eBay as I did last time. The choice came down to three vendors where I now have to check specifically which one has what I am looking for. This time I also need to get Zentai sutis in different sizes, especially of those for females. If I get lucky, I can also get replacements for a black Spiderman mask and gloves that went missing, as well as black eye masks for my Incredibles costumes which also went missing. My local suppliers are causing too many delays or just ignore requests.

Red Alert 3 Battle nearly lost

Last night I was busy on a 6 player map in Red Alert 3 with 3 teams of 2 players each. All others were computer players and I was sitting in a nasty location. The team I was using was Empire of the Rising Sun which does not have any anti-air troops, but several anti-air vehicles. A lot of their defenses and vehicles have toggle modes depending on what is needed. Power generators is a weak spot. It helps to build walls around the ore refinaries to prevent group forces from causing any real damage. The V4 of the soviets shoots over those.

In the battle last night my resources got cut off. Fortunately, I had one depleted ore harvesting spot left and a good base defense with garrisoned buildings from the beginning of the game when all players were still present. The medium computer player on my side was a good help. Yuriko was of good use to take out two enemy bases. Since there is a limitation to the number of replays that Red Alert 3 can store, I did not store the replay for later viewing.

Event: Barn Dance of the Domestic Animal Rights Group (DARG)

The Domestic Animal Rights Group (DARG) in Cape Town is holding a Barn Dance on 24 January 2009. It is a fund-raising event since the organisation is an NGO which cannot afford advertising and has to take care of over 200 animals.

Entrance fee is 80 Rand per person, there will be various events and entertainment available.

About DARG:

DARG is a non-profit organisation that rescues abandoned and abused animals,
and
promotes the humane treatment of all animals. We have served the Cape Town
community since 1995 providing a vital service to animals and people alike,
through sheltering, sterilizing and re-homing animals, and also assisting pet
owners from not only Imizamo Yetho and the Hout Bay communities, but also the
greater part of Cape Town.

DARG is also a pro-life organisation, which means we do not euthanize animals
unless strongly advised to do so by a Vet. Because of this we have animals
that remain at our shelter for a very long time and it is our aim to provide
them with a safe, loving environment and the necessary medical care while
waiting for new, loving owners to come in and adopt them. We presently have 93
dogs and 147 cats and kittens in our care.

Should you require any further information, kindly contact Heather at DARG on (021)
790-2050 or 0383 or on 0823912776.

India costumes

This last weekend I got confirmation about the start of getting some indian costumes for a Western theme made. I also found a huge toy shop in Voortrekker road in Parow which has got some very nice indian wigs that I can use. I bought one to see what they are like. Since the costumes will most likely be male and female, I will have to get a second wig. The wig also includes a red headband and a red feather.

Costume rental website navigation update

Last night I updated the costumes section main navigation of my costume renting website. The change was long overdue because the top of the page was too crowded. The navigation is currently floating on the left, but that is not fully ideal.

Getting costumes back after vacation

My vacation was from 21 December 2008 until 3 January 2009. Several people rented costumes from me before I left to go to Namibia. Some are also still on vacation and some simply have forgotten to return my costumes due to the long time period.

Back from vacation to Namibia

On Saturday, 3 January 2009, I arrived back home from vacation to Namibia to visit family. The trip was good. I saw some giraffes at Gocheganas near Windhoek.