Thursday, May 18, 2006

My Surg CAT..


Here i am, writin this post, when i know all too well that i should be hitting the books like no one's business. I have this surg(that's surgery BTW..) exam next week and i just can't seem to get myself to read!! It's totally frustrating! And when i say exam i mean the full maneno's. A long-case, where we get to take history from a patient, take a full physical exam, and come up with a management plan for the same. And that's the day after we do our essay paper. Five essay questions and 3 hrs to knock ourselves out answering them.

Anyhow, looks like i really should be reading... ama? Things could go awry come Wednesday. I'll definitely tell how the clinical went.

I almost forgot. Jana, while i was 'not in the mood for reading' - again - i went to shoot a TV ad! Yep! One of those. It should be hitting Kenyan tv in a month or so. I'll keep this wire live, 4 sure.

Baadayez,
The WebDoc.

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Revenge by any other name..

More than one year ago, i designed this website for a local band musician right here in Nairobi. I never actually got to meet him, in fact, the plan was that i'd probably never need to. What happened was this.


I had this 'friend' in college who's doin dental surg. and we are both into comps and stuff. So one day he approaches me and tells me about an entertainment portal that some band musician that he knew wanted designed. He had all my attention at this point. We talked about it at length (at least i thot' we did) and it was agreed that i would do the job for a paltry 10k, but i would then get 10k every month for updating the site. Now that sounded almost like a small salary to me! And i was in, hook, line and sinker.


A few weeks later, after being called, hustled and rushed, the site was finally done. Looked good, better than work i had b4, and i couldn't wait for the cash to start flowing in. I had been given 4k before starting with promises of more to come.

Days turned into weeks, weeks into months. The remainin 6k for the site was not 'currently' available, and the site owner had decided to go slow on the project and so there would be no further updating for a long while to come. The whole story was soundin all so Kenyan! You work, someone sits on your dues and the effort you put in doesn't seem to be appreciated that much. And as fate would have it, the months turned into years; almost 2 years to be precise. I had only 4,000 shillings to show for my efforts. My college-mate contact told me that the idea had been abandoned and i had to wait to get the remaining 6,000 shillings.

I figured, this was just one of those bad things that happen to u as you live and learn, in this classroom that is life. I just forgot about it. So, u can only imagine my surprise when one cold sunday afternoon i pass by Kenya cinema and spot a huge, triumphant banner announcing the greatest 'Entertainment portal in East africa'!! Yes, the very site that i had worked my ass off dzn'ing. A visit to the site and an email exchange later, i was in touch with the elusive local band musician whom i'd only heard about.

According to him, he'd never heard about some 3rd party that had dzn'd the site and only knew of my cunning college-mate as the "greatly skilled" webdesigner that had come up with his website. Back in college a heated exchange was 2 follow, during which, my hitherto trusted contact was slingin mud in the direction of the said local artist.

"He knew about u designing the site! He gave someone else the job of updating it! Do you think i would lie to you?? How long have i known you??"

The spirited defense was soundin very convincing. Someone was screwing me proper. The site was littered with ads, and @ the rates he was renting this virtual real estate, i'd say i was being screwed over. My efforts at recovering some money from the whole deal started floundering. Non-replied text messages, "u will get your money.." reponses, and for sure i was fed up.

That was when i remembered that i had been given the password to the site's FTP logon just after i finished the site design! That was just 2 days ago now. I thought of just deleting everything, maybe leaving a horrible message on the home page...

Now it was my turn to have them by the balls! i won't even tell them what i just did. I'll just wait for 'em to come crawling back, when advertisers on the site realise that it is no longer running!

As i write this post, they haven't yet, but it'll be soon!

www.showbizeastafrica.com

The initial site: http://www.showbizeastafrica.com/index_old.php

Aah, the wrath of God. It spares none.

Any tips from you guyz out there? Maybe i should never pick their calls and texts like they did mine? The look on their faces will be priceless. Just priceless.

The WebDoc.