stuffAround

Eugene and I visited Hilton Baptist yesterday morning and saw some friends. Adrian Murray (what a boytjie!), Goose, Sam Walker (Kerry-Lynn's older sister - Heath knows her but was the first time I met her) and Craig and Cindy de Waal. Kerry was in Durbs for a wedding. Cindy invited us for tea after the service and she had baked a cake in no time (!)...legend chat. She says she'll offer a job to Sean T "tomorrow" if he decided to come back to Natal...

Technorati Tags: baptist, hilton

After getting through 1373 pages of Harry Potter since Wednesday last week it's back to reality, albeit one with a bit more magic than usual. Read both "The Order of the Pheonix" and "The half-blood Prince" - although I'd read the former before, when reading the intro to the latter it was referring to some things which had happened already - and I couldn't remember them. So I just decided to read "Pheonix" again...and enjoyed it a lot more than first time round.

Otherwise things here are good. Eugene spent the weekend and we cooked some *wicked* meals. Stir-fry on Friday night and sweet chili chicken with basmarti rice and mixed vegetables on Saturday. I discovered artichokes in the fridge and tried cooking them up. What a mess! According to the instructions you're supposed to boil them with some lemon juice to stop them going brown), peel off the outside leaves until you're left with mostly white single leaves. The problem is, I don't know what to do from there; I don't know what I'm looking for (chop up the leaves? or the base?) Suggestions?!

Technorati Tags: midlands, harry potter, natal

Lot's of great (!) advice (!) here from the Worm who fronts The Finkelsteins. Here's an extract:

Now that you’ve reinstated your position as the vulnerable, tortured artist, suggested that the band has a go at a cover song. Playing a cover is a good way to measure everyone’s musical competence, as well as pretending you’re in another band. Try covering Mean Mr Mustard’s ‘Buttercup’, or The Parlotones’ ‘Here Comes A Man’ to get you started. You could even have a good laugh by changing the words to “Here comes a clam/ Holds out his pram/ He’s looking strangely at me”. Heheh. Gets me every time.

You now officially have one song. Yes, it’s a cover. Of a cover. But it’s something!! Play it over and over, until you never ever want to hear it again. A good way to ease yourself into an original composition is to initiate a jam session, where the guitarist and bassist play the same chords over and over to a drumbeat, and you say, “Yeah, I’m totally feeling this.” Or, “Try to juxtapose the fourth quadrant with something a little more melodious.” When they tell you that they have no idea what you’re talking about, call them ‘obniferous’, and tell them that they’re just your backing band anyway. This should set the tone nicely for the terrible relationships that we spoke about earlier, which will make your band even bigger than you thought possible.

You can read the full article (?) at http://www.powerzone.co.za/scripts/power.dll?subrt=pzfndnews&news=85442

Technorati Tags: South Africa, music, finkelsteins

Internet access isn't so great but this area is stunning. "Soul-restoring" as Barent - the owner of Kilgobbin's Cottage says. I'll be farm sitting from today, but I arrived on Saturday to get acquainted with things.

Technorati Tags: midlands, natal

3 days. 300 kms. Through the Drakensberg on a mountain bike - and through many world heritage sites. They say, "The intention is to make finishing all stages of the race achievable by a reasonably fit and determined  average cyclist, whilst at the same time providing a stern test for the serious racing cyclists. At the end of the day, we would like all participants to have enjoyed their ride." It runs from Friday 31st March to Sunday 2nd April 2006.

Technorati Tags: bike, dragon, drakensberg, race

St Peter decides to take the day off to go fishing, so Jesus offers to keep an eye on the Pearly Gates. He is not sure what to do, so Peter tells him to find out a bit about people as they arrive in Heaven, and this will help him decide if he can let them in.

After a while, Jesus sees a little old man with white hair approaching who looks very, very familiar. He asks the old man to tell him about himself. The old man says, "I had a very sad life. I was a carpenter and had a son who I lost at a relatively young age, and although he was not my natural child, I loved him dearly."

Jesus welled up with emotion. He threw his arms around the old man and cried, "Daddy!"

The old man replied, "Pinocchio?"

[Ship of Fools]

Technorati Tags: christian, church, joke

Jakob Nielson writes about the "Top 10 design mistakes of blogs."

10. Having a Domain Name Owned by a Weblog Service
Having a weblog address ending in blogspot.com, typepad.com, etc. will soon be the equivalent of having an @aol.com email address or a Geocities website: the mark of a naïve beginner who shouldn't be taken too seriously.

Letting somebody else own your name means that they own your destiny on the Internet. They can degrade the service quality as much as they want. They can increase the price as much as they want. They can add atop your content as many pop-ups, blinking banners, or other user-repelling advertising techniques as they want. They can promote your competitor's offers on your pages. Yes, you can walk, but at the cost of your loyal readers, links you've attracted from other sites, and your search engine ranking.

The longer you stay at someone else's domain name, the higher the cost of going independent. Yes, it's tempting to start a new weblog on one of the services that offer free accounts. It's easy, it's quick, and it's obviously cheap. But it only costs $8 per year to get your personal domain name and own your own future. As soon as you realize you're serious about blogging, move it away from a domain name that's controlled by somebody else. The longer you delay, the more pain you'll feel when you finally make the move.

So the question is - do I move?

Bonnie has finally viewed the message I left her on her video camera. She also posted a pic online - you can only really see the funny face I'm making in the bigger version. Luckily I won her "most creative video" award! Thanks Bonnie!

[Written by the comedian Emo Philips. Taken from Ship of Fools.]

I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump. I ran over and said: "Stop. Don't do it."

"Why shouldn't I?" he asked.

"Well, there's so much to live for!"

"Like what?"

"Are you religious?"

He said, "Yes."

I said, "Me too. Are you Christian or Buddhist?"

"Christian."

"Me too. Are you Catholic or Protestant?"

"Protestant."

"Me too. Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?"

"Baptist."

"Wow. Me too. Are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord?"

"Baptist Church of God."

"Me too. Are you original Baptist Church of God, or are you Reformed Baptist Church of God?"

"Reformed Baptist Church of God."

"Me too. Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915?"

He said: "Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915."

I said: "Die, heretic scum," and pushed him off.

Technorati Tags: christian, church, joke

Simon Marcus has been asking me to send him funky sites. He needs them for varsity or something. These are the ones I sent him:

The Onion
Larknews
International Speak-like-a-Pirate Day

I'm heading off to Kilgobbins Farm on Saturday to farm-sit for 2 weeks while the owners are away at the whale trail. Proof that God likes me! They have some horses which I need to look after; other than that I'll take my work with me (in the form of my lovely - yet increasingly slow - iBook), a guitar, snare and hi-hats and a trout rod. Thanks to Eugene for the contact - I owe you, batti boy! Next door is the Cow and Chicken - where TomorrowToday.biz do all of their horse whispering stuff thanks to the brilliant Carlene Bronner.

Technorati Tags: midlands, South Africa

I've never really watched LOST before. Just a few minutes after coming home from church on Sunday night. But last night I watched the final episode of season 1. And it was good. So good, I wanted to find out what happened in all of the episodes before then. Which I found on wikipedia - and you can read them too. Season Two (so far) is here.

Technorati Tags: lost, tv

My social life has been very low recently. In fact, an ECG was called in by the fun police to see if indeed there was any life, or if rumours of it's continuance had been greatly exaggerated. They had to turn the sensitivity right up, but a pulse eventually *was* detected. Luckily, yesterday was different.

Bonnie is going back to the States fairly soon, so before North Carolina welcomed her back into the land of media which is at least as biased as ours, she threw a farewell party. Unfortunately (for her) she set up a diary room where anyone could go and video a goodbye message from themselves. I'd like to nominate myself for most creative farewell. I hope she puts at least that section of the video online at her blog. Mwahahaaa!

Then to Soi's in Melville, where Kath celebrated her 26th bday. Imagine - people younger than her have kids now. Scary. Anyhow, cool place, fun evening. Especially when much screaming was heard when the power went out (thanks, Eskom!). Why do girls scream when the lights go out?! Nonetheless, we still ordered some cool stuff and much fun was had by all. I got to dust of my prostitute story and my Chinese massage story and fill Claire in on the gory details.

Next on the social list was Simon Marcus's birthday party - in his back garden. And what a cool venue! Great to see Dory (aka Maryke) and Louise again. I also managed to persuade a very tired (hence malleable) Arlyn to help me bite Maryke's ankles. Mwahahaaa! Managed to put my foot in it by commenting one of the guys singing tonight was a bit flat. Unfortunately, he was in the room at the time. By himself. *sigh* I think someone is trying to teach me humility. Or at least to shut up.

Happy birthday Si! Happy Birthday, Kath! Farewell, Bonnie! (and no silly songs about oceans either, ok?)

a) Thanks, but I don't want to sleep with you.
b) Nope, no more booze for me.
c) Sorry, but you're not really my type.
d) No kebab for me, thank you.
e) Good evening officer, isn't it lovely out tonight?
f) I'm not interested in fighting you.
g) Oh, I just couldn't - no one wants to hear me sing.
h) Thank you, but I won't make any attempt to dance, I have no co-ordination. I'd hate to look like a fool.
i) Where is the nearest toilet? I refuse to vomit in the street.
j) I must be going home now as I have work in the morning

Technorati Tags: joke

You can too!

Technorati Tags: wallace and gromit

Got this on email today.

Technorati Tags: joke

Go on...be brave! Andrew...this is for you!

Just got transferred with work into our new home in Durban!! Now this is
A city that knows how to live!!   Beautiful sunny days and warm balmy
evenings. What a place! I watched the sunset from a deck chair on the
verandah. It was beautiful. I've finally found my home. I love it here.

September 13th:
Really heating up. Got to 35 c today. Not a problem.
Live in an air-conditioned home, drive an air-conditioned car.
What a pleasure to see the sun everyday like this.
I'm turning into a sun worshiper.

September 30th:
Had the backyard landscaped with tropical plants today. Lots of palms
and rocks.
What a breeze to maintain. No more mowing lawn for me.
Another scorcher today, but I love it here.

October 10th:
The temperature hasn't been below 30 c all week.
How do people get used to this kind of heat?
At least today it's kind of windy though.
But getting used to the heat is taking longer that I expected.

October 15th:
Fell asleep by the pool. Got 3rd degree burns over 60% of my body.
Missed 3 days of work. What a dumb thing to do.
I learned my lesson though....  Got to respect the ol' sun in a climate
like this.

October 20th:
I missed Kitty (our cat) sneaking into the car when I left this morning.
By the time I got to the hot car for lunch, Kitty had died and swollen
Up to the size of a shopping bag and stank up the R15,000 leather
upholstery.
I told the kids that she ran away.  The car now smells like Wiskettes
And cat sh*t.
I learned my lesson though. No more pets in this heat.

October 25th:
The wind sucks! It feels like a giant bloody blow dryer!! And it's hot
as hell.
The home air-conditioner is on the blink and the AC repairman charged
R200 just to drive over and tell me he needed to order parts.

October 30th:
Been sleeping outside by the pool for 3 nights now.
Bloody R1,450,000 house and we can't even go inside.
Why did I ever come here?

November 4th:
It's 35 degrees C. Finally got the ol' air-conditioner fixed today.
It cost R500 and gets the temperature down to 25, but this bloody
Humidity makes the house feel like it's about 30. Stupid repairman.  I
hate this stupid place.

November 8th:
If another wise ars*e cracks, "Hot enough for you today?" I'm going to
strangle him.
Bloody heat! By the time I get to work the car's radiator is boiling
over, my clothes are soaking wet and I smell like baked cat!!

November 9th:
Tried to run some messages after work. Wore shorts and sat on the black
leather seats in the ol' car. I thought my ars*e was on fire. I lost 2
layers of flesh and all the hair on the back of my legs and my ars*e.
Now my car smells like burnt hair, fried ars*e and baked cat.

November 10th:
The weather report might as well be a bloody recording. Hot and sunny,
Hot and sunny, Hot and sunny. It's been too hot to do anything for 2
Damn months and the weatherman says it might really warm up next week.
Doesn't it ever rain in this damn place? Water rationing will be next,
So my R20,000 worth of palms just might dry up and blow into the bloody
pool.
Even the palms can't live in this heat.

November 14th:
Welcome to HELL!!! The temperature got to 38 c today. Now the
air-conditioner's gone in my car. The repairman came to fix it and said,
"Hot enough for you today?" My wife had to spend the R2,500 house
Payment to bail my ars*e out of jail for assaulting the repairman.
Bloody Durban. What kind of a sick demented idiot would want to live
here?

December 1st:
WHAT????? This is the first day of Summer????
You've got to be kidding me!
--

[Thanks to Andrew VDW for the email]

Technorati Tags: joke, Durban, Englishman

I'm a big fan of Wallace and Gromit. I have one of their t-shirts. I've got all of the 4 episodes on tape. And I know there's a new Wallace and Gromit movie coming up: The curse of the Were-Rabbit. I'm not sure what die-hard fans are supposed to wear, but if there's a premier I'm going. Compleat with my "Cup of tea?" t-shirt!

Technorati Tags: movies, wallace and gromit

I felt the need to set up a new blog - this time around computer technical stuff - everything from command line unix to open source to the web. I'll also be blogging about my current work projects. If you have any technical interest whatsoever, you might enjoy it. Hooray. Check out http://www.burningdog.co.za/blog/

Technorati Tags: internet, blog

I do some work with Michael occasionally - which means I see him on average twice a year. Otherwise it's just email stuff. So I was rather amused to find out (via Graeme) that Michael is mentioned in the Tonight's "Stars get Duku Duku-ed" article:

Amid all the shenanigans which the evening will undoubtedly produce, and in keeping with the light-hearted theme, we at Tonight thought it appropriate to add our own 2c's worth and highlight some quite baffling nominations by taking the duku duku out of a few celebs.


Most Elegant Male – Michael Mol: Elegant pearly whites and dimples. Yes. Elegant all-round do-gooder. Yes. Elegant dull personality. Yes.

Turns out he won the award too...hee hee! Well done, Mike!

Royal Natal Park - here I come! Will be leaving with the guys from church for the weekend...should be fun, except for this cold front. Rumour has it there's snow forecast this weekend. Great. WeatherSA tells me 30% chance of rain today and 40% tomorrow. Maximum temperature 16 degrees. Great.

Then go to the Sloganizer and enter your name. Check out what happens with my name!

Source.

A stranger from the land of Woot came to Master Foo as he was eating the morning meal with his students.

“I hear y00 are very l33t,” he said. “Pl33z teach m3 all y00 know.”

Master Foo's students looked at each other, confused by the stranger's barbarous language. Master Foo just smiled and replied: “You wish to learn the Way of Unix?”

“I want to b3 a wizard hax0r,” the stranger replied, “and 0wn ever3one's b0xen.”

“I do not teach that Way,” replied Master Foo.

The stranger grew agitated. “D00d, y00 r nothing but a p0ser,” he said. “If y00 n00 anything, y00 wud t33ch m3.”

“There is a path,” said Master Foo, “that might bring you to wisdom.” The master scribbled an IP address on a piece of paper. “Cracking this box should pose you little difficulty, as its guardians are incompetent. Return and tell me what you find.”

The stranger bowed and left. Master Foo finished his meal.

Days passed, then months. The stranger was forgotten.

Years later, the stranger from the land of Woot returned.

“Damn you!” he said, “I cracked that box, and it was easy like you said. But I got busted by the FBI and thrown in jail.”

“Good,” said Master Foo. “You are ready for the next lesson.” He scribbled an IP address on another piece of paper and handed it to the stranger.

“Are you crazy?” the stranger yelled. “After what I've been through, I'm never going to break into a computer again!”

Master Foo smiled. “Here,” he said, “is the beginning of wisdom.”

On hearing this, the stranger was enlightened.

To follow the path:
look to the master,
follow the master,
walk with the master,
see through the master,
become the master.

Duh, but I already knew that. Who else, when sitting at their local library using their computer, suddenly realises that you're logged in with administrator privileges and can see all the books Andrew and Kathy have read in the last year?! That's me...

My "Web Security" textbook in varsity had a section which said that the Meyers-Brigg personality type of "INTJ" is the most common hacker type (that's me).

Then I find this article online and it details what interests you should probably have if you want to be a hacker. See if it describes me:

• Learn to write your native language well (Check). Though it's a common stereotype that programmers can't write, a surprising number of hackers (including all the most accomplished ones I know of) are very able writers.
• Read science fiction (Check). Go to science fiction conventions (a good way to meet hackers and proto-hackers).
• Train in a martial-arts form (Check). The kind of mental discipline required for martial arts seems to be similar in important ways to what hackers do. The most popular forms among hackers are definitely Asian empty-hand arts such as Tae Kwon Do, various forms of Karate, Wing Chun (Check), Aikido, or Ju Jitsu. Western fencing and Asian sword arts also have visible followings. In places where it's legal, pistol shooting has been rising in popularity since the late 1990s. The most hackerly martial arts are those which emphasize mental discipline, relaxed awareness, and control, rather than raw strength, athleticism, or physical toughness (Check).
• Study an actual meditation discipline (Check) The perennial favorite among hackers is Zen (importantly, it is possible to benefit from Zen without acquiring a religion or discarding one you already have). Other styles may work as well, but be careful to choose one that doesn't require you to believe crazy things.
• Develop an analytical ear for music (Check). Learn to appreciate peculiar kinds of music. Learn to play some musical instrument well, or how to sing.
• Develop your appreciation of puns and wordplay (Check).

Check!

Q: I'm having problems with my Windows software. Will you help me?
A: Yes. Go to a DOS prompt and type "format c:". Any problems you are experiencing will cease within a few minutes.

I filled up my car before the rise in petrol prices to over R6 a litre. It cost R273. BEFORE the rise. This bites. I want a smart car. Or teleportation. Or a subway system in Joburg. Went to fill up at the Shell on Beyers Naude on the way home from Andrew's...and they'd run out of petrol...never had that happen before...

"There are reporters and men with cameras, soldiers and police, doctors and nurses. Men in suits move through, pitching religion while hundreds more live theirs quietly."
A first-hand account from the Astrodome during the chaos that was Hurricane Katrina.

From: lowercasepeople

Interview with Brendan Jack from Crazy Monkey podcasted straight from Mweb, or use the rss feed.

Million robot march attended by exactly 1,000,000 robots!
Lunar olympic officials continue search for missing pole vaulter!
Democratic Middle Eastern Union votes to invade US! (MECCA - The 14 democratic member nations of the Middle Eastern Unions unanimously voted to declare war on the U.S. Monday, calling the North American country a "dangerous rouge state that must be contained.")

These are just some of the headlines on The Onion's preview of what the front page of their news site might contain in the year 2056. Haha. Here are some more headlines:

Leather-clad nomads seize power in Australia.
Remainder of Ross Ice Shelf now in Smithsonian Freezer.
Surgery required for new sexual position. (I don't even want to know)
62 dead in latest school lasering.
Your browser does not support ambient alpha-wave memestreams. Concentrate here to upgrade.
Semi-PEOPLE Magazine announces 50 most eligible mutant bachelors.

The Onion is that satirical website that first "broke" the news that J.K. Rowling is a Satanist and wrote Harry Potter to convert the world's children to evil. It continues to satirise our world - for those of us who take ourselves too seriously (ps - good luck converting those who KNOW that Potter is EVIL. My suggestion? Ask them if they've ever heard of The Chronicles of Narnia. The one with spells, witches, death, resurrection, good and evil, talking animals and plenty of magic (sound familiar?). If so, remind them that it was written by one of the greatest Christian theologians and writers of the 20th century...and let me know what their reaction is...)

Haha.

Damn, I'd love to do this. Sean was talking about doing this next year, in reverse, so check out the site of those with the sore bums and lots of stories.

Eish - the world just gets smaller and smaller. Got emails yesterday from Lyndi in England (who's LOVING it and very excited to be there - hooray!) and Heather B, who's in Bangkok with Alison. She's enjoying typing out cleverly-worded emails which are designed to maximise jealousy in the recipients. Goal achieved.

Since I wanted to do something small this birthday, I wanted to do Thai food. Heath suggested Kai Thai - and what a brilliant suggestion! We went to the one in Olivedale (the restaurant in Linden wasn't open all of today - anyone know why?) and had a fantastic mail. Prawns, Tom Yam Goong soup (made it at Angela Day once - I could eat that every day for the rest of my life), fried rice...mmmmm...I would highly recommend Kai Thai to anyone at any point. Happy bday to me! Thanks to everyone who phoned/sms'd today: Jo, Mike, Andrew Mort, Andrew VD W, Sarah A and Sarah T, Bonnie (on the way back from Swaziland), Mandy, Lyndi (from England), Heath Coppin and others :)

Walking through Cresta this afternoon on my way to buying the new Switchfoot, Karma, The Parlotones and Louise Carver cd's when Sean calls me and says, "Nice backpack." Him and Mel were having coffee and took me downstairs for cinnamon hazelnut hot chocolate (velly velly guut). His Mom and sister made it into "Essentials" magazine this month, writing about climbing Kilimanjaro last year. His t-shirt is rather amusing, since his surname is "Tucker." Get it?!

Happy birthday to me! Hooray (and all that). I'm celebrating this year by ignoring my birthday. Presents are welcome, of course. On the cd list are The Parlotones, Karma (one killer song on that cd) and Louis Carver (her song "Empty Fantasy" is at the top of my fav songs list currently). I'm not going to do anything social, except do a family dinner at Kai Thai.