kundaistreet

Little Known African Fruit

noreply@blogger.com (diddy47) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 03:26:00 +0000

Vangueria infausta (or African Medlar) is a species of plant in the Rubiaceae family. This shrub or small tree occurs in abundance in woodlands, scrub, valleys, stony kopjies, or sandy dunes throughout much of South Africa. The African Medlar is a traditional food plant in Africa, but this little-known fruit has the potential to improve nutrition, boost food security, foster rural development and support sustainable landscape

This fruit/berry is called Noem-noem,(the smaller variety) fruit grows on large roundish evergreen bushes, flowers are white and starshaped,The fruit are protected by fierce thorns, fruit are bright red when ripe and grows in clusters of 2 or 3, this specific fruit was aprox 1.5cm in length, one eats the whole fruit it consists of a milky sweet flesh, pleasant to the taste with a little bitter undertone(no pip). Very pleasant to eat.

Family: Malvaceae, Thespesia garckeana
(Nyanja); mutohwe (Shona); mtobo

Indigenous to Eastern and Southern Africa.
Common in dry forest ,woodlands, wooded grasslands
Found from sea level to 2000 m altitude with annual rainfall of 250-1250 mm.

As a typical pioneer species, it is highly light-demanding.
It is drought resistant and tolerates light frost.

The fruits have a very high energy content, about 8.1 kJ/g. They are consumed fresh or dried and stored and used in porridge as a relish. The fruits are often marketed locally. The wood is easily worked but generally only suitable for small building needs such as house frames, poles and oxen yokes. It is highly valued for smaller items such as spoons, carvings, combs and tool handles. The wood is also used for firewood and charcoal. The inner bark is used to produce good quality rope fibre.

A small to medium sized evergreen tree, growing up to 20m and as thick as 45 cm. The fruit is an almost spherical woody capsule, 2.5 to 4 cm in diameter, with dense short hairs. It is divided into five sections and when mature it is yellowish to brownish-green in colour. It opens slowly. The fleshy and sticky pulp inside contains five seeds, one in each chamber.

Munyii, also known as the Bird Plum Tree, Berchemia Discolor. The tree is widespread and scattered in open woodlands or at lower altitudes, along river valleys, and in sandy soil in woodlands . It also grows on termite mounds. Sandy clay loams. It is often found on clays, and stream valley and riverine soils.

Fruit ripening occurs between January and March, towards the end of the long rains. The fruits can be eaten fresh and the pulp can be used for a drink. Both are quite nutritious as the fruit is very high in ascorbic acid and sugar.

The yellow-brown wood is one of the hardest in East and Central Africa. It makes excellent furniture, pestles, ladders, poles and is used in general construction.The roots produce a black colour, the wood brown, and the bark red.

The tree has also been featured on Zimbabwean Stamps

Export Android Created Playlists To PC

noreply@blogger.com (diddy47) — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 00:38:00 +0000

From time to time I come across little things that are quite frankly annoying given the awesomeness of android. The lack of a Phone to PC export function for playlists is surprising and annoying

Scoured the web but could not find a solution until I came across Meridian Player. It does not have this function but it has something called PlayQ. Which allows the user to make playlists real quick hence the name. I also found you can enter whole playlist into this function. I also learned that the player kept each playQ plalist in a folder as a standalone file not database (which I suspect the stock player does)

In Meridian Player

Long press on the playlists you want to export to PC, a pop up menu appears
Select export to playQ
choose the appropriate name
choose audio type
Export as many playlists as you like using procedure above above

Now connect you phone via USB and choose Hard Drive Connection

Navigate to folder PlayQueues.
Inside will be all your playlist!

You may have noticed they are in .mpq format not .m3u, don't worry.

Its not complicated as its just a text file, here comes the tedious bit

Open the file with notepad++ (notpad opens too but is a real mess)

you will find a playlist like listing but with some tags e.g.
NB: yours will be different depending on the directory in which your music is stored

LocalAudio<>file:///mnt/sdcard/MP3/Alice Deejay/Alice Deejay - Alice

Assuming that you phone music library matches your PC all you have to do is replace the front portion of the above url with the computer url

Important: First delete the first line with a single digit in it

C:\Users\Administrator\Music/Alice Deejay/Alice Deejay - Alice

To change the whole playlist use the replace function. Now you will notice the URL is encoded, to uncode or decode it use a tool like on is website
http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/dencoder/

Copy the whole playlist and past inside the box then select decode. Magic!
Copy the decoded list and paste back in file and save
Change the file extension from mpq to m3u
load into you PC music player
Music!

This is quite a simple process, I am no programmer but I reckon it would not be such a hurdle to come up with a script/ batch file tool that can do all these steps automatically.

Get Old Google Images Back

noreply@blogger.com (diddy47) — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 23:54:00 +0000

Imagine my shock when i turned on my laptop to do a an image search this morning. At first i thought that my add-ons where acting up again so i went tinkering but I soon found out that the new layout was a "feature" from silicon valley.

To say it straightforward the new google images is atrocious. Horrific to the point of physical pain on the eyes. The frustration from time wasted clicking through silly java pop is beyond words.

I have devised a way to bring back google images back to what it was, as much as possible. But be warned it requires some sacrifice.

So far all the 'fixes' i found on the web only fix the search result page but when you click the link the stupid java is still there.

First get your google image search results page to look like the old one

Some use this url trick or the cumbersome google work around which both have the disadvantage of working only once
Some use the grease monkey script
Me, i used the drastic no script for google.com, google.co.uk to get my search result page looking familiar again(painful, i know)

after this it looks nice and all but when you click the link...the pop up is gone too but there is still the grey box and the truncated page!

NB:If you used the greasemoneky script, to get rid of the pop up picture right click adblock plus and select element to hide. Click mouse over image

images.google.com##DIV#il_fic

Now in this part you need firefox adds adblock plus and element hiding helper

right click and select element to hide. Click mouse over greyed area

google.co.uk##A#il_fb

(or google.com) click add filter rule. The grey box is gone now (or google.com)
But the page is still just an image and truncated to see the actual web page containing the image

right click and select element to hide. Click mouse over static page

google.co.uk##DIV#il_fic

(or google.com) click add filter rule. The page is now scrollable like it should be

Now you google images works almost like before.

Korean Translatation and Romanisation

noreply@blogger.com (diddy47) — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 11:01:00 +0000

This Script is the the sole property of Midori and their
subsidiaries by association. No Copyright infringment is implied by its
representation on this page. Any uncredited reproduction of this code
in whole or in part is strictly forbidden and will be met with strong
legal and civil action. Midori (c) 2008-12

Romanisation:

annyeong haseyo!

Thank you for using our Midori Service. We hope you found it useful

Creating Destiny Ep20 Subtitles

noreply@blogger.com (diddy47) — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 01:55:00 +0000

Decided to make subtitles for Creating Destiny episode 20 (Creating.Destiny.E20.091219.HDTV.XViD-HAN).

WithS2 is the primary on this project but I couldn't wait over the xmas break for my dose of kdrama. So I mad these subtitles...

This is my first so bear in mind...

Get file Creating.Destiny.E20.091219.HDTV.XViD-HAN-[Melo].srt

Enjoy

Painter In The Wind

noreply@blogger.com (diddy47) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:13:00 +0000

Just finished watching the much acclaimed South Korean Drama Painter In The Wind. I must say I was impressed the setting and the storyline.

Though It was not anything to rival the flagship of the k-wave, Jewel In The Palace, it stood up meritorously. Of particular fascination were the entwined romantic relationships that had me plumping for the young characters

I didn’t care much for Kim Hong Do (KHD)…smothering and overbearing, in my opinion he really did not have that much space in (Shin Yoon Bok) SYB’s heart….at-least compared to GH the gaesang. KHD was in a way trampling on his dead friend for even contemplating feelings for SYB who was notoriously younger than himself, also the way he insisted on sticking with SYB after the king had sent her away out of the city was rather tasteless and clingy to the point of nausea. The appropriate thing would have been to ask the king to send a bodyguard with SYB until she was safely out of the city but he kept on waffling about ‘us’ as if she had formally entertained his advances.

Others might say SYB reciprocated these feelings….really? and to the same extent? for her it might simply have been gratitude for him being the first real person to appreciate her as a woman…she might feel obliged to him in some way but not to the extent of marrying him because in her heart there is only one….GH

even the supposed reciprocation,which i strongly contend was borne of extenuating circumstances. SYB could be argued to have been in a vulnerable pyschological state after learning the full details of her parents death and KHD ‘hero’ efforts might have contributed to saviour dependency…the grounds of any such claims can be refuted on these grounds as a passing effect as vindicated by eventual departure. KHD asked SYB to go to his(her?) home and promise not to think of leaving, she just looked down…no answer.

(Jeong Hyang) JH and SYB shared something that transcends normal corporal relationships. It would be an ill-favour to simply classify their relationship as gay. KHD should have got the hint after learning what SYB had requested the merchant do if he wins…that was a clear enough message…SYB cares more for J that anyone on the planet

One thing, however, is suggested by how they leave.

GH is seen getting on a boat and sailing across…SYB is also later seen taking asimilar if not exact same route after leaving her memento to KHD.

Although her face looks sad…perhaps longing for KHD appreciation but it is clear what she was doing…going where her heart told her…

There is no hint i gather that KYD ever finds SYB…in-fact all the evidence from the epilogue and prologue and other final scenes suggest that he never did…

The story he is telling is all in past tense and represents a lonely ,morose haggard man.

As for the casting of the young couple...accolades and overtures! The photogenic and captivating Moon Chae Won gave a compelling performance as the resigned and trapped flower who could only experience the love of her life , beautifully and tragically, if only for but a moment.

The excellent Moon Geun Young was the centre of the show as SYB, although critics had earlier been less than approving they found her performance convincing enough...she did quite a plausible job of boy impersonations and the scenes with JH blew hecklers away and even landed the pair a Best Couple Award which I believe is a first for a same sex couple.

Bravo I say...

Permanently Disable Youtube Annotations

noreply@blogger.com (diddy47) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 08:25:00 +0000

I'm not particularly a fan of youtube but youtube has its uses

Recenlty they have introduced annotations to vidoes which \I find to be distracting and annoying more than 'helpful'. They are like spam or pop up ad or something develish like that

Here is how to get rid of them.

first you need to be browsing using firefox with the adblock plus extension installed
open youtube and visit any video page that you know has annotations
right click the adblock plus icon
click 'open blockable items' on the context menu
type in 'module' in the search bar window that open at bottom of browser tab and press enter
right click the result* that comes up and select 'block this items'
close the 'open blockable item window' and reload page
* result should look something like this :
http://s.ytimg.com/yt/swf/iv_module-vfl68978.swf

no more annotations ...!

from now on all youtube videos in your browser have no annotations!

X Files I Want To Believe

noreply@blogger.com (diddy47) — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 21:55:00 +0000

I am a devout x-phile. I watched it from the first day when a coy Dana introduces herself to the cynical Fox Mulder right up to the very end with Cigarette Smoking Man in the cave. The suspense, the longing the angst. The good seasons and the few half-baked ones. Oh hell guts and blood I stuck to it because I loved Mulder & Scully, all they represented, that much.

The first movie Fight The Future was every x-philes wet dream. They could not make it long enough. The series episodes that proceeded it were all an excellent follow up. This movie was focused on the conspiracy arc of the franchise but Carter wanted a stand alone story on the second movie.

I have always been weary and cautious about pulling a phoenix move. Cases of Michael Jordan and most film sequels do everything to deep set my deposition. So when the new movie was announced I had reservations but then I thought of Gillian and David's strong on-screen chemistry...how could you go wrong with that.

Turns out very. Not with them, they were excellent but they alone could not deliver a film. This film was frustrating beyond all belief. Turns out the film wasn't an x-file in any way, certainly not by the general accepted definition last time I checked. It was just a run-off-the-mill crime drama with some Frankenstein meats Hostel villains. This 'stand alone story' is uninspired, it only serves to drag Fox Mulder and Dana Scully through lengthy talks that leave an x-phile non the wiser at the end compared to the beginning.

There were no 'revelations' or 'anwsers' as the promotional gags went and now that I have watched it I fail to see what they were so hush hush about the script...it was absolute trying on the nerves.

Even the most devout X-philes fan had their faith tested by this addition to the franchise, which despite big drum rolls had no cannon roar but just the fuse going poof. This particular case, its an insult to the work of Mulder and Scully to call this an x-file, could have been on CSI with Grissom and his motley bunch at it.

What this sodding wet movie has managed to achieve is threaten to tarnish the show's well-deserved positive reputation with a routine and nearly suspense-free thriller plot that feels like it should have been scrapped like a manuscript. This could destroy all chances of making an x-files movie franchise. Talk about undoing the work of 9 years in just over 90 minutes!

But you know. I will pretend that this movie was never made just like some dreadful season 8&9 episodes, for the sake of my love affair with the show. You know like you would forgive your spouse if the cheated on you...you'd try to forget or pretend it didn't happen to preserve your relationship with them. that is what I will do.

Here is hoping the planned conspiracy arc movie floats the deck...for the sake of this x-phile's love affair.

PS: What is with the long hair on Scully. Hair lower than her neck...doesn't work...yeah that's right. Didn't work in season 9 ...doesn't work now...won't work any time in the future. Do we need a bell for this ...really?

Download Any Flash Video with Firefox

noreply@blogger.com (diddy47) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 13:44:00 +0000

Firefox is a great web browser as it allows high levels of customisation in aesthetics and functionality. Especially functionality. You don't have to be content with factory defaults or company cheddar.

If you love anime like I do or just into collecting videos and music you know what I am talking about. You wouldn't be able to do half the things you don in Firefox in any other browser.

I have no qualms with the video download add-ons available for Firefox BUT they seem to have shortcomings. Their are usually for a specific website like youtube and some sites are to much for them to handle and some don't even recognise a video on a page and some are just memory hoggers. That is unnecessary baggage given Firefox is fighting to loose weight in that department.

Instead of having an extra add on for video grabbing let AdBlock Plus do it for you!

ABP can grab any video for you.

1. Navigate to desired video web page.

2. Right-Click the ABP icon and select Open Blockable Items.

3. In the search-bar type in flv
[for youtube videos type in get]

4. The list will shrink to just one URL. That is the URL of the video! Right-Click that URL and select Open In New Tab

In a few seconds a Firefox download pop-up will appear. Save the video file to wherever you like.

NB: Make Sure that before saving the video has a flv extension e.g. rrrrrrr.flv

This should work on any site. No extra add on needed

ADP two in one...

Of Ultrafeminism & Cynicism

noreply@blogger.com (diddy47) — Mon, 26 May 2008 20:39:00 +0000

If you are a guy these are woeful times. The feminist bandwagon is steam rolling on into the 21st century. There is now new legislation that states that men/fathers are NOT needed in the upbringing of a child.

People actually met in the House of Commons to decide this! Unbelievable what people are occupying their minds with these days. This is a sign that the world needs another Hitler, its been 50 years already. Supporters of this new bill said

"...the law is not an attack on fathers.."

Whatever sweetheart. Yeah I bet the first things the western settlers said to the Red Indians seeped with such sincerity. That is what the first pirate said to the merchant captain...

"we are just tying our rope to your ship to stop us floating away".

We all know how that turned out.

How do such things get voted in. Who provides the evidence or even conducts these studies about father or father figures not being necessary in a child's life. This bunch of red faced dames really have a bone to chew with men huh. We can;'t manhandle them so lets castrate them in the eyes of the law. Is this what is happening?

I heard of this women's group went to court about the name of manholes. They said the name for the hole way sexists so it should be changes to work/service access way/hatch. How trivial can you get ladies. Its a hole in the ground. anyway I don't see a line of women falling over each other to get jobs in those kind of places so what is bothering them.

If you think that is ludicrous then you haven't heard of the women trying to change the spelling of women to womyn. Yeah you read right. If they can be vented up about trivial names and spelling then they will be whole panzer divisions to oust fathers from parenthood.

Well I think they get most of the kindling for their fire from this politically correct movement that has gone into overdrive.

Too much of anything ain't good for ya.

Now is that an understatement.

Cynicism , I find is the only true state of mind that has constant rewards. If any ideology should be elevated to the status of a religion then it is cynicism. But I being a cynic know that it will never happen. That is the beauty of it! Cynicism and pessimism kind of flow with each other. Because If a cynic is right then generally bad things happens or get worse.

When I heard there was going to be a debate about whether to allow human-animal embryo hybrids, I laughed at myself. I was in the car drinking some juice and I nearly spilt it all over my jeans. That debate will be the greatest farce in modern legislation I thought to myself. Being a cynic I reasoned that all the interested commercial parties had already secured votes in this 'debate' (by whatever means, doesn't matter really, all that matters is the result.)Sure enough the debates came out as YES.

To bad you greenies and activists, why don't you spend your streetcorner cup collections on sending food to Somalia, we have a multi-billion dollar high tech medical lab to build now.

The greenies and the activists don't even have the money to appeal or sponsor a representative to lobby for their case. Unlike the industrialist who can burn billions

"Now we don't want o see you protesting on our building sites. Our 1000 dollar/hour lawyers will sue your pants off. Besides intimidation, harassment and threat of or actual damage now fall under the Terror Act so better watch it Robin Hood.

In as far as this merry-go-round goes...I think in the long run that corporations will have more say in what happens or doesn't happen, more than the government. Now with all these new patents coming up. Patents owning human genes. patents owning seeds, patenting of ownership of rain/lakes! At this point nothing can surprise me any more. The corporation has the advantage of having the same rights as a human so can own property , sue or be sued but unlike real humans cannot be held fully accountable for its actions, in other words you can't send a corporation to jail.

What is next, buying off chunks of the Amazon Forest, If I am not mistaken they are already busy on that one.

One cynic once said

The advantage of being a cynic is constantly being proven right and the occasional instances of being pleasantly surprised

Everyone is equal?

noreply@blogger.com (diddy47) — Sun, 11 May 2008 21:38:00 +0000

Everyone is equal...

Yeah, everyone is equal, some more than others.

21st century thinking goes with the façade that everyone is equal in the eyes of the law and therefore will be treated in the same manner. Really now.

A bomb blasts off nearby, you and your friend Amil are late for work and are running for the bus, the police are out there like its world war two...how do you think is going to go. I bet you'd be watching the game at home tonight but your friend will have to do a little more convincing...maybe even after a round trip to some 'unknown' destination.

This thing called democracy that the western world is peddling at missile point sounds like a nice thing but when it gets down to the practical details it tends to cut a lot of corners, sometimes avoiding the whole track altogether depending on your status.

Take the not so distant Paris Hilton thing...thing don't know what else to call it because no such high levels of BS has been put on prime time news. She got let out of prison early because she was claustrophobic! If ever there was a true mockery of the whole judicial system, this is a shining candidate.

Pete Dougherty was released from prison early because there was overcrowding. What?! It seems like something a comedian would come up with but judges and lawyers in frocks and suits came up with this. So they had no space to keep Pete, a drug multiple offender for possession and use but they had enough space for some poor guy who killed a cat? The prosecution could be seeking 6 months prison tern for the cat killer. Shining beacon of civil rights right there.

Does anyone not see the double handedness in this. If you are a nobody the law will crush down on you like the wrath of the Old Testament God, but if you are of high status and can push the numbers you not only piss and crap on the law but also get paid to tell the story to the media.

America has its biggest one. The OJ Simpson trial. I bet you if OJ was janitor at some public school his ass would be serving double life or be on death row right now. His celebrity and $$$$$$$$ carried the day for him. I believe the race card was not the deciding factor in the trial it was these two.

Lately the Prince has been flying round England with his new toy... flying to parties and picking up his girlfriend(s) and what not...an army Chinook, yes a great big helicopter, you couldn't hide it even in the Amazon jungle. I wouldn't suggest any army man, or lady, try this because they would be court-martialled before they could land that flying tank on the next airfield. But no, William can do that because he is the prince? He not only admits to doing it but further insults the public by defending it as if its 'ok'...No wonder they killed the royal family in Russia, if he wanted to gain flying hours then he should do it like everyone else does it in the army. It's not like is is actually going to go to war, supply trips hundreds of miles behind the front line is as close to action as he will see. Not only is he wasting tax payers money guzzling down Chinook fuel on his chick-mobile/chopper rounds but aren't these very same Chinooks badly needed some place else...I don't know...like Iraq maybe!

Then there is ol' pal Rooney. He avoided getting a 30 pound ticket. Geez man...Rooney the miser. Rich people should actually get a double ticket. The man earns thousands per week even if he does not play, just by sitting on the bench he gets paid, why is he complaining about a 30 pound ticket which he had clearly broken the law. Now had that been some average Joe that guy would be signing an extra cheque at the end of the month, almost guaranteed. Maybe the officer was star struck?

That is another problem that exacerbates the situation, the public and officials being star-struck by people of status that they give them preferential treatment. Ok, people may awe at them but also go as far as diverting the course of justice too?

I recently read of a man getting a criminal record for leaving his been open a few inches too wide. Yes you read right, I wonder how things would have gone had bin belonged to Buckingham Palace. Hmmm...

If your status is high enough and you have enough people ogling at you, you can get away with pretty much anything from drive and drunk to murder and chances are you can get paid for it too.

World justice, the UN, don't get me started. This picture is really what I think and we all know which countries are the top pier with veto powers despite all fairytale appearances. And when it comes to biting they have as much gnashing force as ol' Tom from down the road, arthritis and hip replacement.[picture credit nytimes.com]

This proves true on national scale too. For example the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Program. I think this picture says it all in the best way.

One only has to consider the circumstances in which Israel came to exist and become a military power to reckon with, which under normal circumstances would have had a snow balls chance in hell, and you'll know why the big five turned a blind eye to this but are all guns out on the merry bunch.
[picture credit anvari.org]

People rave on about the holocaust, which indeed was a great tragedy but I get kind of irritated when the media plays on it as if Jews are the greatest sufferers on the planet, no they are not. They had the British and US make the a nice country out of thin air, they have nukes plus the might of the us army as an ally. Besides, the way they treat Palestinians no longer qualifies them for that wounded child attention. it just goes to show any powerful bastard is exactly that...a bastard.

power corrupts...absolute power corrupts absolutely

The people who really have had it bad are the American Indians. Those guys are nearly extinct as a people and as a culture. Not only was their land completely invaded and overrun ...the invaders went on to make movies about the Indians being bloodthirsty barbarians ...when in fact those alleged acts of violence was homeland defense, something Israel publicly claims daily after attacking Palestinians.Those cowboy and Indian movies are actually genocide being portrayed to paying viewers.

The few Indians left, considering they were approximately half a million strong before the invasion are now on reserves and and fewer still dotted all over. It's like the next door guy moving into your living room and putting a stool in a corner

This is your stool Pocahontas, this is your corner and your corner alone, there is no carpet or great view there...but that is all yours. Now if you'll move out of the way I'll have to move in my bucker lounger

To top it off Indian lingo has been relegated to naming war ships like the Apache, Chinook and others which by my reckoning an Indian has never flown or atleast patroned. I wonder if some kids asks the teacher during PE class

This Cowboy and Indians is so fun. The Indians were really cool...what happened to them?

Oh we wiped them off the map, they were kinda living on the land that we wanted.

I'd like someone to say that. see how that goes. This reminds me of a quote from literary Sherlock Holmes, the master of deductive observation, which I modified...

The law is what we live with, justice is merely a guest.

Why XP can beat Vista Anyday

noreply@blogger.com (diddy47) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 17:40:00 +0000

I have no love for Vista. The sight of Aero makes me sick, and the sight of that turning wheel almost drives me to near computicide.

Aero drains too much resources for what it is worth...which is just eye candy. No one in their right mind would sacrifice power for eye candy. The economic (or rather the sensible) user wants all the memory and graphics resources dedicated to actual work not making the desktop look pretty.

Vista assumes everyone has a souped up computer which frankly just like Santa Claus is just not true. The irony is that most of the machines being shipped with vista are not configured to vista...they just barely manage to keep the guzzler going. Whilst on the other hand Xp is just the right candidate...low power demand and is the 'green-car' of OS's...it performs well on low RAM even better so on souped up machines

Besides it has been demonstrated again and again that Vista becomes sluggish on the average computer. Microsoft was asked about this...they said Vista was designed for machines of 2GB memory and up. In other words

"Poor people we hate you..."

So the average machine has already been written off by Microsoft...so logically one would think they would encourage us serfs to stick to XP, no they are killing XP in a few months....so much for support.

The most compelling reason to hate vista is that it is half-baked. It does not come with all the necessary drivers for printers, audio and video drivers. It is just too much hassle to get hardware to work on vista that works effortlessly on XP. Microsoft's response....

"You just get vista...vista is the future...we'll fix things as we go along...look we have a service pack less than a year after release..confirming vista WAS half baked...now get in line."

Vista completely ruined the folder heirachy system that all XP users had gotten so familiar with. The Purpose of an upgrade is to make the user experience easier and better...not harder and inconsistent...Microsoft seems to miss that tit bit of information. I believe what makes a winning OS is consistency...users should be able to do the same operation the same way regardless of what version of the OS they are using...they should NOT need a new manual because they got an upgrade

With XP you don't have to break a sweat to hunt a file or folder down. When a problem occurred you can actually declare war on the XP system. The folder hierarchy in vista makes that almost impossible and the 'Vista's permission feature' almost guarantees that.

in Vista the folders are all over the place. have new names...virtually unidentifiable...roaming, appdata, history and the sea of dead links do not make anything easier. What is the purpose of the dead links by the way. It completely eludes me.

What was so wrong about XP's files heirachy? If XP was working so well,which I and +70% windows users assert, why did they not just improve XP and not chuck it out of the window like a puppy with rabies only to grapple with something untested and frankly not so user friendly

The UIA and search indexing is one of the most annoying features on vista. Who ever designed that...you weren't doing any user any favours buddie...it is like being stopped by the police every 100 feet on the highway. Almost every folder operation requires permission or some kind of verification...its not helpful...its annoying. Who told Microsoft users want that anyway?

For an OS that users buy it sure does little to listen to the users or consider what the user wants...fast and hassle free computing . I realised you need permission to delete certain files. Hell, I paid for the computer...I should have access to ALL my files from the get go. I shouldn't even loose a minute tweaking anything. This should be a given as long as you are the administrator and not a standard user.

What is with the new sidebar...horrendous. The folder display makes me ill. XP had the sidebar display just perfect. It had the things you actually needed on it...and the switch from folder to features is completely gone in Vista.

Vista is far from turning my fancy...its not ready...it is too heavy on the system with very little to show in as far as improved performance...and considering the time spent trying to solve its myriad of glitches and problems it certainly has not made a positive user experience and certainly decreased actual work efficiency

Talk about counter productivity.

EboNeo 2.0 and Simplicty

noreply@blogger.com (diddy47) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 05:43:00 +0000

EboNeo 2.0

This is the new EboNeo 2.0 template with a horizontal navigation bar.

This is a move up from EboNeo , NeoColours and most definitely Samurai in as far as better management of screen real estate

If you are a person with a lot of labels and prefer having a linklist on the horizontal bar instead then this is the version you want.

follow similar installation instructions as explained here

Simplicity

This is the clean cut Simplicity Template, plus generous amounts of open space

If you prefer a navigation link list on the horizontal bar instead of the labellist then just switch them in the page elements view and save...and you are done!

[there might be need to manually remove the title of the labellist or linklist once in the navigation bar for a more streamlined appearance]

....
(both these templates are Neo Type Templates....they have a post fetching function in javascript meaning you do not have to load each post on a different complete, only the selected post is reloaded on the same page... This saves on browsing time and is much more cool I think...)

Horizontal Label Bar Solved!

noreply@blogger.com (diddy47) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 13:25:00 +0000

I have been working on a horizontal label bar for sometime now

I always hit a snag when it came to the display properties but that is now all sorted

To have a similar kind of label bar or navigation bar as the one above first you must modify the header-wrapper id so that it looks like below.

<div id='header-wrapper'>
<b:section class='header' id='header' maxwidgets='1' showaddelement='no'>
<b:widget id='Header1' locked='true' title='YOUR BLOG TITLE(Header)' type='Header'/>
</b:section>
<div id='header-right'>
<b:section class='header' id='header-right' showaddelement='yes'>
</b:section>
</div>
</div>

After this then find the header-wrapper code and header code and replace them (red) with the ones below and add the new header-right code as shown below(black)

#header-wrapper {
width: 950px;
border: 1px solid #000000;
margin:0 auto 10px;
border:1px solid $bordercolor;
clear: both;
word-wrap: break-word;
overflow: hidden;
}

#header {
width: 180px;
float: left;
margin: 5px;
border: 1px solid #;
color:$pagetitlecolor;
padding: 5px 5px 5px;
}

#header-right {
width: 700px;
float: right
margin: 5px;
border: 1px solid $bordercolor;
text-align: center;
color:$pagetitlecolor;
}

#header-right ul {
background-position: center;
background: black url(http://kundaistreet.googlepages.com/iddle.gif) center center repeat-x;
padding:7px;
}
#header-right ul li {
display: inline;
padding:2px;
}
#header-right a {
color: #e6e6e6 !important;
}
#header-right a:hover {
color: #FFFFFF !important;
background: transparent url(http://kundaistreet.googlepages.com/active.gif) center center repeat-x;outline:none;
padding:7px;
}

Save the template after inserting the second block of code (!important) and navigate to page elements. Move the labellist widget or your linklist widget to the header bar and save.

Your chosen widget list will now show inline as a horizontal bar

New Template: Samurai

noreply@blogger.com (diddy47) — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 12:39:00 +0000

This is the new template Samurai, a very daring but assertive design.

It has live colours compared with it's predecessor EboNeo.

Besides kundaistreet Samurai is shown on all its glory here

If you want to apply Samurai to your blog get it here end save to your computer.

UNO: BEFORE STARTING ANYTHING BACK-UP YOUR CURRENT TEMPLATE

1. If you wish to save some of your own widgets read at the bottom of the post to see how to include them with Samurai. Otherwise continue with step 2

2.Upload Samurai and save it to your blog.

3. You should not get any Widgets are about to be deleted message.

4. If you do go and make sure you copy all the widgets shown in the message and paste them in Samurai again as shown below (otherwise they will be deleted).

5. Upload Samurai again and save . The template should save without any error or message pop ups. Check the new look!

NB: If you have your own widget you wish to use within Samurai, then open Samurai in notepad (or similar text editor) and find this section and insert the widgets you want to preserve. they will be uploaded together with it. make sure you copy the unexpanded widgets correctly otherwise they will be permanently lost.


<div id='newsidebar-wrapper'>
<b:section class='sidebar' id='newsidebar' preferred='yes'>
<b:widget id='Posts' locked='false' title='Posts' type='HTML'>
<b:includable id='main'>
<div id='LabelDisplay'>
<div id='LabelTitle'>
</div>
<div class='widget-content' id='LabelPosts'>
<script language='javascript'>fetchLatestPosts('<data:blog.homepageUrl/
>', '');</script>
</div>
</div>
</b:includable>
</b:widget>
YOUR WIDGETS HERE...
</b:section>
</div>

(The asynchronous loading of posts and LabelDisplay will not occur if your blog is set to private)

NB: You might want to put your posts in categories like I did instead of each post having unique labels. if you insist on unique labels then you might want to consider a label cloud. Here are the simple instruction on how to do it. Promise, this will look better than a long list of labels.

Adding Fourth Column in EboNeo Template

noreply@blogger.com (diddy47) — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 22:55:00 +0000

Hi, i just wonder whether you can help me modify your script so i can have a 4 columns neo instead of 3 columns ?? I'm still trying to modify the script but still not working.

Thanks

I figured responding to this via comments was going to be too long so i decided to make it a post.

First of all you need to define the properties of the new column:

First give the new column a unique name here I have called it xtrasidebar

#xtrasidebar-wrapper {
width: 100px;
float: right;
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */
margin-right: 10px;
}

Next you have to decide how wide (width) it should be, always note, with regards to width:

outer-wrapper
= main-wrapper + sidebar-wrapper + newsidebar-wrapper + extrasidebar-wrapper

So what ever you decide this equation should balance. Most likely the space for the new column will come of the main column space as it has the larger real estate

Place the above code just below :

#newsidebar-wrapper {
width: 220px;
float: right;
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */
margin-right: 10px;
}

After this you need to set up the template id for the extra/ new/ fourth column

insert this code. This code will contain the widgets for the new column. It is initially blank. You can cut and paste widgets from other columns and insert them blank space or you can move them more easily via page element function.

<div id='xtrasidebar-wrapper'>
<b:section class='sidebar' id='xtrasidebar' preferred='yes'>

</b:section>
</div>

Change the names appropriately and then save the template.

Go to your page element and you will find a new column as you defined.

Download Youtube & Veoh Videos Directly

noreply@blogger.com (diddy47) — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 09:27:00 +0000

Here I am going to outline how to download veoh.com videos

Veoh Videos (<30mins)

Navigateto the desired veoh video page

Right-click on the AdBlock-Plus icon and select

Open blockable item

Then type in the following

content.

The text that comes up is the URL of the veoh video.

You can either copy the URL, place it in your flv player and watch the stream.....or

You can place the URL in the address bar + enter and download the videos onto your computer

If the video is more than 30 mins long. Veoh.com will only show a preview of the video
so following the steps above will only land you a 5 minute clip of the video or movie you wanted...read further notes at end of article

Youtube Videos

Navigate to desired video page

Right click the ad-block plus icon and select....

Open blockable item

Then type in the following text

get

The text that comes up is the URL of the youtube video

Copy the URL and place it in your flv player to stream ......or

place in the address bar + enter to download the video file onto your computer.

Make sure to add in filename.flv as you save the file. (adding this extension is essential for your flv player to recognise and play the files)

No hassle, no dodgy downloader software or website that give you lossy files. Yo will no longer need to have that youtube downloader extension on Firefox.

Notes: Veoh Videos (>29.59mins)

I have managed to work out how to get the full video URL off of veoh without using veoh just using firefox.

Here is how I did it

Type in the following after right clicking the ad-block icon and selecting "open blockable items...

execute.

copy the first line of text that appears and place in the address bar then press enter.

This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. The document tree is shown below.
The above text should appear

Go to the line that says for example

video videoId="1497807" permalinkId="v14978074wEfGZEM" length="45 min 10 sec" tags="the host 2x02 x files" isExternalMedia="false" isDotComPlayable="true" isTvPlayable="true" extension=".avi" fileHash="bcc7c6cb2a737ea9e139b0ea61fa630c71e1ff91" previewHash="82bbdbb8b8eebdc2778486988d3330b611aa0634" previewHashLow="82bbdbb8b8eebdc2778486988d3330b611aa0634" numDownloads="0" portable="false" ipodLink="" fullPreviewHashPath="http://content.veoh.com/flash/p/1497807/82bbdbb8b8eebdc2778486988d3330b611aa0634.flv?ct=2a3d23e9190f59d4abd8973ded06067c8410ede57ac06a15" fullPreviewHashLowPath="http://content.veoh.com/flash/p/1497807/82bbdbb8b8eebdc2778486988d3330b611aa0634.flv?ct=2a3d23e9190f59d4abd8973ded06067c8410ede57ac06a15"

By substituting the green text with the italicized red text I was able to the URL of the full length video.
i.e
substituting the previewHash with the fileHash

http://content.veoh.com/flash/p/1497807/bcc7c6cb2a737ea9e139b0ea61fa630c71e1ff91.flv?ct=2a3d23e9190f59d4abd8973ded06067c8410ede57ac06a15

Unfortunately i found out the hard way that veoh does not allow directory browsing of their site. So access to this file or ant other >29.59mins videos is restricted,

I got a 403 return. That is veoh.com for you right there.

Top FF Extensions & WebApps

noreply@blogger.com (diddy47) — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 04:06:00 +0000

Fiddesian Top FF extensions.

1. Adblock Plus

Pros:
Anyone who has used this will never be able to browse without it. It blocks out so much crap that is thrown at you on the internet. It filter the bulk of internet adverts

Cons:
Can block useful items on specific sites like Veoh.com and distort their functions

2. Adblock Plus: Element Hiding Helper

Pros:
Hides unwanted page elements from view. It can also reclaim page real estate by removing unsed frames. Just highlight and click away

Cons:
Hair trigger selection, might remove unintended frames or content, but this is reversible

3. Scrapbook
Pros:

Utterly indispensable to te real web-surfer. It can collect individual webpages or whole websites to be available for surfing OFFLINE!...on the train, on the bus...or 200miles in the jungle!
Allows trimming down of intended content, so can edit the saved pages to your hearts content and even add images, comments and sticky notes

Cons:
Downloading whole websites takes some time. Downloading java scripts is not recommended and bigger websites require bigger storage space.

4. NoScript

Pros:
Blocks out uninvited scripts. Gives you the power to activate only the scripts you want to. Stops animated sites from auto-starting or executing unwanted tasks

Cons:
It takes times time to build a white-list but it is worth the effort (as oppossed to building a black-list)

5. OnlineBookmark Manager

Pros:
Allows you to backup you precious bookmarks. Enables you to auto-synchronize bookmarks between different computers.

Cons:
All exported(PC to internet) bookmarks MUST have text tags , not just icons, otherwise they will not be imported (internet to PC) with the others.

6. Tiny Menu

Pros:
Allows you to increase real estate on your FF. Increase the vieawabe page size. This extensions makes it possible to remove one of the top toolbars

Cons:
Unknown impact on RAM with regards to effect vs benefit

7. Copy Plain Text

Pros:
Allows you to copy content from web pages without any formatting. Anyone into research will know how useful this is. It saves the hustle of having to format the content to fit with your work

Cons:
Unknown impact on RAM with regards to effect vs benefit

8. All-In-One-Sidebar

Pros:
Puts a lot of functions within easy reach. It is essentially a vertical toolbar. Since most web pages have a fixed page width this extensions rarely intrudes on real estate. It is highly customizable

Cons:
Possibility of real estate intrusion.

9. Distrust

Pros:
For those who are not keen of handing over their PC to friends. With this extension anything your friends do will be removed when you turn distrust off. It would be as iff they never touched your PC, no browser history, download history, all downloaded files are automatically removed.

Cons:
Text (only the actual word present at that moment not the history) in the search bar is not removed

10. Research Word

Pros:
Allows you to add custom searches to the context menu for selected words. This is a gem to an research minded person. You can add custom searches from images to medical journals, gossip blogs to the stock exchange. Some useful searches are already loaded for you!

Cons:
Requires a bit of knowhow, to write the URL codes to get highly specific searches done automatically

SHOULD NOT BE EXTENSION BUT BE BUILT INTO FF

Dictionary

Pros:
If you are serious, at all, about what you write on the internet then this is a no brainer

Cons:
I dare you to find any

FEBE or Password Exporter

Pros:
FEBE can back up your FF profile, or part of it, according to what you prefer. The profile can be restored at anytime. This also allows you to export your profile onto different machines

Password Exporter does what exactly it says it does, it can also encrypt the file with the passwords

Cons:
FEBE profile restoration is a bit tricky

Other cool software found here

WebApps

Web Applications are web programs or real programs designed to be used on the web site using a browser. Example of web application would be e-commerce web site, web banking, stock exchange on the web, web games and many others. ...It is also a computer software application that is coded in a browser-supported language (such as HTML, ASP, PHP, Perl, etc.) and reliant on a common web browser to render the application executable
{ref1, ref2}

Humyo Online Storage is a nifty way to free up your harddrive or extend your collection. This web applications acts as your online hardrive storing files from word documents to divx movies.

There is no upload size limit
Upload anything
You can view you media files online...pictures movies and music.
Over 20GB of free storage
Easy file transfer
Fast download and upload
Allows file fetching from other online sources, all ou need is a URL code.

Another recent webapp offering similar but less developed features is jooce. It offers the promise of an online desktop plus instant messaging capabilities

Installing Flash and Divx-Web Player on Ltd Admin Permissions

noreply@blogger.com (diddy47) — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 16:57:00 +0000

The USB craze is rife in the student community. USB drives now can have environments for their portable software. Students are be able to use this software on any computer with the same setting as their PC/Laptop.

However University computers are a stumbling block. The do not allow you to install anything. So you cannot watch flash videos in the portable Firefox. The admin just wont let you instal the player for the browser when you try the regular 'install missing plugin'.

Here is a work around the system to enable you to install the flash player on a restricted permissions computer.

-Download Player Plugin XPI archive file.

-Extract and Copy the files flashplayer.xpt and NPSWF32.dll

***FirefoxPortable\Data\plugins [the key word here is the plugin folder]

-Restart Firefox, Flash Player now works

courtesy of fabio's blog

The same thing with Divx

You must get these files from an existing Divx installation**

Here is how to apply Divx-web player to Portable Firefox:

Download Divx Plugin Archive file

or

- Copy these files

npdivx32.dl.........npdivx32.tlb........npdivx32.xpt from

C:\Program Files\DivX\DivX Web Player

to

\FirefoxPortable\Data\plugins

-Restart Firefox

-Divx web player should now be available and functional for portable firefox.

The method for the divx is most likey to work if you have divx codec on the computer in question. I have not been able to test on vacant computers.

If that is the case then you may want to try Portable Divx Player (PDP). Using VLC Player to stream divx videos works just fine.

But unlike the VLC Player:

PDP allows seeking

PDP downloads the video as well!

PDP allows video streaming while downloading!

[download PDP here]

Hope that helps...

The Dash

noreply@blogger.com (diddy47) — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 15:05:00 +0000

You waited for him
You stood by the window
Waiting for his shadow to appear
You have seen him once
A fleeting moment
A daze
Imagination?

Fear, you have it in your hear
But for this pain and despair
All is lost
You will gladly meet him
Go where he takes you

Your soul shakes to its core
Flash and rush you are
Dashing where angels fear to tread
Reaching for his hand
Trusting the saga will end

So rush to the river
By and by the bridge
And stand in the middle
You will wait no more
There he will stand
Gladly embrace his hand

Are you the weak
Are you the strong
The brave or the foolish
Man of reason or grin fallacy?

Fiddes von Lochinvar

Tis Better

noreply@blogger.com (diddy47) — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 14:57:00 +0000

Why are you like so
Sat like Patience on a monument, smiling at grief
Tell me the truth
Hash, hash
Fly once more
Like you did before
Stand Unruffled
For 'tis better
To have loved and lost
Than not to have loved at all

Fiddes von Lochinvar

Be Sad In Years To Come

noreply@blogger.com (diddy47) — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 14:45:00 +0000

Be sad in years to come
While you wait
Not with a face of satire
But wallowing in melancholy
With a fierce thought of me

Fools, fools, fools they are
What they feel is fear
For to truly hate
First you must know how to love
Farewell my beloved

Fiddes von Lochinvar

Farewell...Fiddesian

noreply@blogger.com (diddy47) — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 13:02:00 +0000

To err is human
Anger is a human emotion
The desire to control all
Tis but human nature
But to hate, no, no , no
It is an indulgence
That feeds upon the very very human essence
Tis the stirrer who gets worn down by the stirred
But that is the double tragedy
For man does relish in it

.....

The law is what we live with
Justice....is merely a guest

....

It is arrogance , is it not
Indeed it is the climax of it
To languish in the assumption
rather the belief man is the highest intelligence
Woe unto man, the day of reckoning is fast pressing
Ha!, If indeed man is
Woe unto him more!
A great tragedy
To himself and the universe

.....
Hundred words to build friendship
Thousand words to build love
Half score to destroy it all
The parody of human interaction

....

Cloudy night
Hack
Piercing through the gap
Like an all seeing eye
Tis the moon
Oh what you must have seen
If only you could tell tales
Paradoxical tales they would be
Of why man should be destroyed
And of why man should be saved

....

It is amazing is it not
What the ego does to flourish
Even more so beholding
What it can do to protect itself

...

The mere odds, the odds
It is beyond comprehensions
Coincidence bordering upon the impossible
I dare say highly improbable...
To declare the singularity of world events
And the superficiality of the driving agents

The Death of Ngozi II

noreply@blogger.com (diddy47) — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 23:29:00 +0000

Ngozi slid down the hill. The leaves rustled as he made his way down. As he got neared the bottom he could see it clearly

Christmas Pass

He crept up to the edge of the undergrowth and knelt down. He waited.

He did not have to wait long. The drone of heavy engines slowly got louder and louder. The first tuck appeared. Its headlights shone brilliantly in the October dusk. The truck slowed down as it neared the fork in the road. Ngozi burst out of the undergrowth.

He ran toward s the truck. The driver turned and saw him he pushed the panic button and the cover on the back of the truck flew off. Ngozi stepped on the front mudguard with his left foot , then on the bonnet with his right-- with a heavy step-catapulting himself over the truck. The driver fumbled to get his pistol out as the dark figure disappeared over the windscreen.

Ngozi spun out the device towards the back of the truck. The device landed in the middle of the board amoung the soldiers feet. As he completed the spin Ngozi let go of a flasher in mid air. The soldiers were already poising their guns when the flash of light blinded then. It was a brilliant light. Almost simultaneously the device turned its head and clicked twice then it blew up the truck in a huge yellow fireball.

The other two trucks had skid to a halt...one of the two hummers made a sharp u-turn and sped down the side road. The other hammer was trapped and had no room to manuevre. Men in suits jumped out and started firing in Ngozi's direction.

Ngozi ran like the wing and dropped two flashers behind and in front of him. The men in suits were blinded.

"I can't see him. I can't see him."

"Agent Ryan, Stay calm. Wait for it, wait for it"

Agent Ryan closed his eyes and opened them again. He vision was coming back. He saw a figure move past the bonnet

"On the bonnet. He's on the bonnet!" One of the other agents screamed out. A volley of bullets perforated the hood. Agent Ryan turned his head slightly only to see a blade coming down on the agent being him. Blood spurt onto his face as the agent collapsed to the ground like a heavy sack.

Agent Hunt moved round the truck firing continuously from his 9mm Berretta. Ngozi grabbed Agent Ryan and pushed him in front of the charging Agent Hunt. One of the bullets hit Agent Ryan in the chest and he fell to the side. Agent Hunt glanced momentarily as his comrade fell.

That was all it took. He then felt that metallic bite. He dropped his Berretta and grasped his throat. He fumbled to reach reach for it but the convulsions got more and more uncontrollable with blood gushing out of his open throat.

The man in the back seat had climbing out when Ngozi slashed him on the back. The man fell to his knees. Ngozi reached inside the open door and grabbed the woman by the hair and pulled her out.

The little girl did not cry. She did not scream. She simply followed her mothers handhold out of the car. She had never seen anything like what she saw before her.

It had cold completely black eyes. The teeth were blood red. Its face was expressionless as if it had been carved out of stone. With its burly hand it help a sword with an otherworldly flare as its figure was cast in a dancing silhouette by the burning wreckage.

Just then the other soldiers from the second truck stopped firing. The VIPs were now hostages.

The woman tried to break free but Ngozi grabbed her by the neck and pressed her against the car. Ngozi leaned towards her face and stared into her eyes.

"Don't yo dare hurt her you shinigami!" The man shouted, Ngozi looked at the man witha sideways glance.

One hundred metres across the soldiers waited in silence.

"What is your order captain?"

The captain paused thoughtfully. " What is the situation?"

"The escort has been attacked by a shinigami sir."

"There is no such thing Lieutenant!"

"I saw it sir"

"Me too, sir"

The captain paused again. "How much ammo do we have left"

"All the men either have just one clip left or are on their last clip sir."

"If it's alive it can be killed, right?"

The men fell silent

"It can be killed" a voice uttered from the back
"I was there at Chimo, we found its blood in the forest the next day. We definitely bled it. If it can bleed ...it can die."

The captain pointed out to the undergrowth,

"One tow and three go round the..."

The sound of his voice was muted by a sonic boom. A wave rippled through the men. A small streak of blood ran down the captains ears.

He could see the lieutenant scream out . His mouth looked like he was saying
'Cover.' The captain watched as a privates head got crushed against the side of the truck. he felt himself being violently pushed out. A rush of heat, burning hot air ripped through the air. He landed on the soft muddy earth. He could not hear anything. Neither could he feel his left arm. He did not want to look. He batted his eyelids and slowly got up. The other soldiers were rushing the hammer their faces screaming murder.

The captain gazed forward at the hammer and he saw it. The Shinigami. It threw the little girl in the air she let out a howling scream and in one quick motion the shinigami swung his katana and her body fell in two halves into the muddy puddle.

Ngozi stepped over the strangled woman's body. He pressed the trigger and a series of devices blew up in front of the charging men, impeding their advance in a cloud of debri and smoke.

The Captain sank to his knees as he watched the debri fly up, arms and torsos flying in all directions. Two flashes of light blinded the while area. The advancing soldiers could not see anyone after the daze had gone. They swept the undergrowth. Nothing.

Ngozi stopped stopped running. Emile's face appeared in his mind. From across his shoulder blazing orange flames and smoke could be seem over the tree tops. He looked down at his hands. then the hilt of his katana.

He stood there for a while. The mission was accomplished. He was a shinigami, the voice of reason told him to keep on walking. Yet his heart felt heavier with each step. He knew the consequences of listening to his heart. Suddenly he turned back.

Ngozi burst out of the undergrowth behind the larger truck. He dropped a flasher as he ran across to the back. There he flung open the lock and swung the wide. The young boys rushed out of the truck.
Some did not even see but those who saw fell back and cowered crawling back with their hands at what stood before them. Ngozi's eyes roved the group until he spotted Estan.

He grabbed him by the arm and pushed him towards the undergrowth. The boy looked back at the thing before him

"Ngozi?" he said searchingly.

Ngozi pulled out a flasher and dropped it in front of the boys. Before it hit the ground he could see some of the boys already falling to the ground under rapid fire. The bright light flashed when it dies the boys where gone besides the fallen ones who lay scattered on the road

"Captain ...we are out of ammo"

"The captain can't respond sir"

"Use your bayonets"

The soldiers charged Ngozi with thier bayonets thrust forward. Ngozi turned and swung hs katana whilst running sideways. When he had levelled with the man at the end of the line he swungit up and cut him down. He brought the katana crushing down from the air onto the second man in line.

With that the charging line broke up and the men were cut down within moments. A second charge proceeded. Ngozi dug in his foot to swing. A volley of bullets ripped through his thigh. Ngozi's eyes widened.

he dropped a flasher. When he appeared next he was standing right infront of the lieutenant. Ngozi drew the katana from the scabbard he held close to his chest with his left hand. The blade reached the edge of the lieutenants neck.

His eyes bulges and he dropped the smoking revolver as he could see the shining blade and dark black eyes piercing at him from the passing shinigami. Suddenly he could see things upside down, it felt like everything around was falling. He felt the splatter and as his hair got wet. He could hear the stomping as men rushed nearby. He could see his brave and gallant soldiers charging the shinigami. He could see his body a few feet away. He could see the tiny rings as the light shower hit the puddles. He could see a grey haze. He could see nothing.

Ngozi tried to move but he could not. His thigh was useless now. He cut down tow soldiers in front of him. Then he felt it. It was cold. Then many more. The cold ran through his whole body then it was warm. His back felt warm.

Seven soldiers stood with their bayonet's a crimson shade.

Ngozi slumped forward and he fell to the ground face first with his hands lagging behind, head slightly raised. He hit the leaf covered ground with a soft muffled thud. his face was looking sideways. In his eyes he could see Emile smiling...the image grew distant and more distant until it faded away.

"Don't go near it, it might not be dead."
"Who is in charge, the captain is knocked out senseless, the Lieutenant is dead"
"Let's move out, we can't risk being found here"
...

Svaan flung his katana sideways. blood dripped from every door of the hammer. Blood was everywhere around the hammer. He looked up and saw the orange flames from further up the valley. He started walking away when he suddenly jolted up and looked at the moon.

Ho looked back up the hill and saw two more bright flashes

"My Mastaa-a!"

Svaan took of like a creature of prey. Jumping over gutters, over fallen trees and through low lying branches. He ran as fast as his legs could carry him. he reached the hilltop and the brightness of the blaze shone on his contorted face.

His eyes roved and he sniffed the air like a madman. Then he saw the clearing. he felt a weakness creep to his knees as he reluctantly walked towards the figure on the leaves. He rushed and embraced Ngozi in his arms. Ngozi's lifeless body felt incredibly light in his arms.
"How could this be, my master"
Svaan makes a guttural near bestial scream that echoes in the night shrouded valley

The Death of Ngozi

noreply@blogger.com (diddy47) — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 22:17:00 +0000

Ngozi walked in a silent stride under the October night. Flaring flames in the distances cast eeire shadows on his solid face.

He turned into a compound and proceeded to walk up to the front door. Just then the door swung open and a girl rushed out with thrusting a heavy bag onto her small shoulder.

She froze as she saw the man in front of her, the surprise turned into disenchantment as she realised it was Ngozi. They stood looking at each other for a moment that could have been forever. The silence was only broken by rustling behind the door

"Come Mama, we have to hurry, or they will leave without us."

"Emile." Ngozi uttered fruitlessly.

The girl pulled up her mama's shawl over her head and guided her past the Ngozi. She walked a few paces then stopped.

"They took Estan."

Emile proceeded to walk on but she struggled under the weight of the bag. Ngozi walked up and caught it. She hesitated to let it go for a moment the finally relinquished it.

They turned into the streets that was alive with people jostling around trying to get onto the huge trucks.

Ngozi helped Emile's mother onto one of the trucks. She held his hand as he raised her up. When she was seated on the side bench she examined his hand, she saw the and pulled him towards her

"Son, I have heard of those like you. I know what you are. Please go and save my dear Estan"

"Mama" Emile adjourned with some alarm. She looked searchingly at Ngozi with eyes that hoped but already knew what to expect.

Ngozi squeezed the old woman's hand and then let go.

"You said they would never come here. Where will we go?" Emile asked as Ngozi turned.

"The drivers have been instructed to go to the west border, if they can't make it they will go into the mountains. It's safer for you there."

"It's all so easy huh. I will never know what it's like to be strong."

"Oh my Estan, please save my Estan. They came and took him. Three army trucks came and rounded up all the young boys including my Estan."

A chorus of women started pleading for Ngozi to save their son's.

"We have to get you someplace safer first." he replied

Ngozi made to help Emile onto the truck but she withdrew her hand and climbed up her self

"If Michel were here, he would have helped them." She said then looked staright ahead away from his face.

The truck thrust into life and the engine rumpled like an old saw mill as it slowly started rolling away.

Ngozi looked up. Emile still looked straight sideways from his gaze. She did not look back.

Emile sat there being rocked to and fro as the truck moved away. She could barely resist looking back with her sad glassy eyes. Look back at the man who was the world to her. Love and anger in an fierce tug of war. Angry that he did nothing but Love. Yes love, the fear that this could be the last time. Love prevailed.

The truck meandered. Her head slowly turned to catch a blurry glimpse of Ngozi as the tears welled up in her eyes streamed down her cheeks.

Ngozi stood there. His mind raced to make sense of what had happened. This town was remote. What was the army doing here so near the neutral border. Why take all those conscripts.

He walked along the street passing the corpses of men who had been shot. He started walking down a dirt road towards a raging flame near the undergrowth. As he neared he saw three burning cars.

There was nothing odd about that except that these were pretty damn expensive cars. A Mercedes, Lexus and Pajero. Realisation dawned on Ngozi. He turned sharply round and looked on the muddy road.

Big tire trucks. Army tire trucks. Leading to and from the burning cars were army boots. Amoung them were civilian shoes. Womens shoes, little girl's shoes.

Ngozi rushed to check the cars again. The plates had been removed, on all of them He roshed round to the least burnt up car, the Pajero. On part of the blown out windscreen was a partial licence sticker.

A smile slowly creased on his face. It read

'Ministry of Inter....' That is all he needed.

Ngozi pulled out a cellphone

"There was a high level rendezvous pick up here."

A low, resonating accentric voice on the other end replied

"Suka, give me an order my mastaa."

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