Attie Heunis's Journey

This is actually someat that I’ve thought about long and hard myself. I want this blog to be brutally honest and visible to the world. But I don’t want potential employers/clients to find it in case they might not agree with my views. My solution was to use my nickname for this blog and then I created another “working friendly” blog using my real name. I suppose only time will tell if this strategy works, but sofar Google is behaving in the way that I want.

This “private life – working life” issue has been in the spotlight recently with the spate of high-profile dismissals because employers didn’t like what employees had on their blogs. Google, Delta Airlines among others have dooced employees.

The term “doocing” was coined to describe being fired for one’s website content after a US web designer was fired for her site in 2002.

Thanks to the BBC for this.

Now the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has issued some guidelines for safe blogging to help bloggers stay out of trouble. The essence is to stay anonymous, but there is more to it than that, so I do reccomend reading the whole page.

See also the BBC’s article on Work bloggers offered guidelines.

Check ‘n bietjie hierdie great Suid-Afrikaanse post. O hel, nou verlang ek huistoe!

Ek moet ‘n bietjie kwoteer (met toestemming):

“Vroteier”, Telegram, hand tennis, Foefie slides & climbing trees. Running till you were out of breath. Laughing so hard that your stomach hurt. Jumping on the bed. Pillow fights. Spinning around, getting dizzy and falling down. Paper water bombs and mud clots were the ultimate weapon. Going everywhere on your BMX , without ever needing helmets or pads.

en

“A race issue” meant arguing about who ran the fastest.

Die post ‘n toekenning by die SA Blog Awards gekry.

I have just finished watching “Supernanny”. This reality TV show has a nanny helping parents deal with their naughty children. And these children are very very naughty. They throw tantrums, swear, spit & physically attack their parents. The nanny then has all sorts of tips and tricks to help the parents “discipline” the kids.

Now as I remember, I wouldn’t ever EVER dare do anything of those things when I was a child. Had I done it, my dad would literally have given me a hiding that would’ve stopped me using my behind for about a week. I’m not exaggerating either.

I now think that my dad was slightly too hard on me, but I don’t see the harm in smacking a child under these circumstances. It teaches “absolute discipline”. I think this is needed. To illustrate: if a child doesn’t listen and runs into a busy road they will get killed. There is no discussing why you can’t walk into the road – it will be too late.

I suppose I’m from a more hostile environment (South Africa), but as a child growing up there were numerous instances where this kind of absolute discipline really saved my bacon.

I also believe that the tendency in the UK to pussy foot around discipline has a lot to do with the current abhorrent yob culture that is taking over the UK. My final thought: if parents don’t discipline their kids it is just going to get worse and worse.

I must admit I never thought there’d be a day when I supported someone as red as Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London. But I do on several issues. It seems that he really is a keen environmentalist and that already wins a lot of points from me. But I also love the way in which he does not back down from the powerful Jewish lobby.

Good on ya Kenny!