EAT THIS MySpace!

So, Addy is getting a little technical. Notice the music on my blog. Too cool (you might have to press play, but that's cool too cos then it's your choice to hear it or not). Some songs are a bit weird, so tell me if you come across one and I'll try to remove it. The radio will eat up your bandwidth if you're in South Africa, so don't expect your other sites to load too quickly while you're listening to my selection.

So, to all you MySpace users, Blogger still has it. And I don't have all that annoying advertising and bad kitsch floating crap.

Good news: I'm ready for PCR. I know that makes no sense to anyone reading this but it's a big thing for me... it means I don't have to spend another couple of weeks in the lab extracting DNA.

Bye for now. The weekend beckons.

Are You Taking Me On?

I wouldn't suggest it. If you want, I can post daily. I know you have time to read it all.

...and for those of you who might have found your way here through 'other means', well done. This is my real blog. The one that doesn't have hundreds of people reading it each day. Has anyone heard that Bootleg slash rewording slash parody (I think parody is the right word) of Boulevard of Broken Dreams. It's about blogging. "I blog alone, I blog alone"

OK you lucky sods. Here are the words. If you're really lucky and if you ask me nicely, I'll find the mp3 and let you know where it is or email it to you.

"I spill my guts online
At live dot home dot blog my name dot com
No one hits my site But it's home to me and I blog alone

I dish out brilliant quotes
On the blogger board of broken links
Guess who leaves me notes?
Yes, I'm the only one and I blog alone
I blog alone I blog alone
I blog alone I blog a-

I work all Day to make the Web admire me
It's not my Job; if my boss knew, she'd fire me
That's fine; the New York Times would beg to hire me
Till then I BLOG ALONE

Bla-ah, bla-ah, bla-ah, blah-og Bla-ah, bla-ah, blah-og

I mock celebrities, Politics and sports and TV shows
Then I Google me
And hope it links to where I blog alone

I can't sleep at night
Even on vacation far from home I pull up my site
To know I'm still online and I blog alone
I blog alone I blog alone
I blog alone I blog a-

My only Friends are avatars and smileys
I humbly Post my views then praise them highly
Some day I'll Sell my soul like Bill O'Reilly
Till then I BLOG ALONE

Bla-ah, bla-ah, bla-ah, blah-og Bla-ah, bla-ah
I blog alone I blog alone

I unmask media lies
On the blogger board of broken links
Guess who leaves replies?
Yes, I'm the only one and I blog alone
Hey, look, they Praised me in the News on Sunday
My site got Thirteen million hits in one day
Okay, I Lied, but that could happen some day
Till then I BLOG ALONE"

I BLOG ALONE
Parody of Green Day's "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"
Lyrics by M. Spaff Sumsion

So I didn't get thirteen million hits, but a couple of thousand isn't bad.

Back to the news of the day, if you take me on sister, I'll mock politics and unmask media lies till I'm ble in the face. Save us both the hassle and accept it when we're not up to blogging. This whole competition thing is not my style.

Cool, now I've written a load of rubbish, I've quoted a song and I've done two postings on The Unbroken Barometer (link for my Google ratings, although if you search "Unbroken Barometer" I'm already #1!). I'M WEENING I'M WEENING.

ZZzzzzzzzzzz

Unbroken Barometer Button

I'm still here

As you may have noticed, my other blog has kept me quite busy, but there are one or two things to say.

Hello.

I would have preferred Nadal to have won. He was too nervous in the first set.

Zidane was apparently provoked, but I don't think so. I told Jitz on Saturday night that Zidane looked like a gangster. I also said at the BEGINNING of the World Cup that Italy were going all the way. Looks like I was right on both accounts.

I need some breakfast now, so I'll say goodbye, but first I want to post a comment here that I found on the Unbroken Barometer. I know it's a cheap move: stealing comments from my other blog, but it is one of my favourites, and it's not appropriate to put on the other blog. It's nice to occassionally find one cool comment amidst all of the "I can't wait until you or a close family member gets attacked. THEN you'll see" What's that all about?

Anyway, here is the comment:

Juice said...
Adam, It is because people like you still dare to dream that I have hope in our future. Thanks for this website and your sentiment!! J
2:06 PM, July 07, 2006 {The Unbroken Barometer}

Cool. I do have supporters!

Bye then.

The Unbroken Barometer

If you're looking for my new blog, the Unbroken Barometer, click here. I don't have much time to explain it to my loyal readers on this blog, because I have 400 comments on the other page to deal with.

Hope you're all having a good day.

What do you think of the new 2010 logo? And sis, I've got my comments now, innit?

Cheers

More about Me

Hello. Today, I'm giving everyone a sneak peak into my life. Below are places I've lived and studied, so far. More to come probably. All courtesy of Google Earth.

Sherwood in Durban. My first house, although not mine LEGALLY.

Harrington Thorn Pre-Primary and Sherwood Primary.

Cowies Hill, Durbs

Westville Senior Primary (and Westville Girls' High - I didn't go there)

Westville Boys' High, sans the new MPC.

University of the Free State, and JBM Hertzog. My first res, although that didn't last very long.

Jim Fouche Road, where I lived AFTER res. (The house in the middle of the pic with the reddish roof. The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire... burn mother ...... burn.) Universitas, Bloemfontein.

The University of Cape Town Rondebosch, Cape Town

My UCT res, University House. Original name, don't you know. Long white roofs. View towards the Atlantic (Table Bay). Mowbray, Kaapstad.



Current accommodation, next to UCT Medical School on the slopes of Devils peak in the vicinity of hospital bend. Observatory, Cape Town.

Okay, bye.

Poetry in motion...

When your science teacher smashed a frozen rose with a hammer, did you warm the petals to bring them back to life?

I found this question on Sarah's profile. I found it interesting that she said she couldn't be poetic with material such as this and so she gave up. ASK FOR A NEW QUESTION THEN!

Here's my take.

No, I didn't. It's likely that the plant had no chance of survival anyway. Cryogenics is a new field and in high school, being that I wasn't privately educated with unlimited funds, I did not have the required equipment. I might attempt it now, but that's only because I'm on holiday for 6 weeks.

Next question please...

The next question supplied was "Why am I being boring". It's convenient how questions just pop up out of the blue yonder. However, the correct question is not 'why' but 'who'. Figure that one out and I'll give you a lolly pop.

Back in time...

As you may now notice, I have found a slot in Bloggers' busy schedule to upload some of the photos I have been wanting to upload for WEEKS now. Today, we take a trip back in time.

Welcome.

A few weeks ago, I was going on about people striking whenever it suited them and I was quite irritated. I found these pictures, with regard to the Jammie Shuttle strike at the University of Cape Town. I'm all for a progressive democracy, but I couldn't understand why the SRC put forward the motion that the students should support the drivers' quest for more money. I had two objections. Firstly, the drivers work FOR the students, and secondly, it was an inconvenience to us. Why should I support something that inconveniences me? I did some research and discovered what the SRCs of previous years have got up to at UCT. Here are some photos.

Here are some photos of students at UCT in the 1970s protesting the right to education for all.

Jammie Hall

Jammie Plaza (Steps)

The roof of Arts Block

1980s protests

On the bank by the sports centre facing the M3 freeway, being teargassed.

An SRC mass action meeting in Jameson Hall. How things have changed.

And for perspective, I've included the group shot of today's SRC. 2006

Some other images I wanted to upload are my advertising campaign for TeleFm. Here goes...

Nope, maybe next time. Blogger is back to its nonsense again. How wonderful, although I didn't do so badly today, did I?

Bye.

Marketing genius

I have a lot of time on my hands. This six week holiday is looking good in terms of me becoming a marketer. I've had two ideas.

Firstly, my Vodacom advert. Vodacom are marketing themselves as the greatest supporter of South African supporters. Picture this.

A car driving down a road in the early evening. Kaizer Chiefs have just won their game. There is a minibus taxi with people hanging out the window, blowing their Vuvuzelas waving their Kaizer Chiefs flags. The car drives up alongside the taxi and whips out a Kaizer Chiefs flag and Vuvuzela. The people celebrate together. The car turns a corner and comes across the losing teams supporters, Bloemfontein Celtic. They're still upbeat, cos we're South African. Nothing keeps us down. The people in the car grab their Celtics flag and Vuvuzela and party alongside the losers. The car drives on past different Vodacom supported sports teams at different levels of happiness, jubilation and sadness, from winning or losing or maybe because their team didn't even play. The people in the car frantically move through different flags, giant sunglasess and sporting paraphernalia. Eventually, the car approaches a red light. It is late in the evening and the occupants are visibly exhausted. As they take a short break, the camera pans down to the side of the car where the viewer sees why these strange people are supporting every team. It's because they're supporting the supporters. The car is branded. "Vodacom. The greatest supporter of South African supporters"

My second idea was something particularly brilliant. Don't you hate it when you phone up a big company and have to sit and listen to Bright Eyes or Chariots of Fire until they answer? My answer to this problem is Telefm. (Because it's like telephone). I should have called it Telephm, but I didn't.

The DJ can play spoofs of different songs. Change some words, and make the songs rip off the fact that you are waiting for hours on the phone. People with a sense of humour will appreciate it. There is no advertising on the station. That's just stupid. Money comes from the companies that outsource their waiting time to Telefm. Good idea, hey. If spoofs aren't working, the DJ can switch to songs like Atomic Kitten's Tide is High. "I'm not the kind of girl who gives up just like that".

I've emailed my first idea to Vodacom. It's their baby now. I'm keeping the second for myself. I designed a few other logos for Telefm but I prefer the one above. I'm having more photo trouble at the moment so I'll post the others later.

Cheerio. Let me know how good I am.

Six weeks...

I am on holiday for 6 weeks now. What to do, what to do...?

Option 1: Watch TV

Option 2: Start a mass action strike to increase my holiday wages and use unsuspecting shop windows to get my point across.

Option 3: Sleep

Option 4: Hijack an aeroplane from Cape Town to Johannesburg

Option 1 and 3 are rather boring, so no. Option 2 requires too much work and I don't have enough support to declare a mass action. Option 4: some idiot stole my idea.

Yes, you heard me right. There was an attempted hijacking on SAA flight 322 on Saturday morning. Another UCT student (from Zimbabwe - dangerous people those apparently) decided that he'd rather head to Mozambique (who can blame him) than Zim. So what do you do? You take a needle that you've stolen from UCT med school, seeing as the third years are all learning how to take blood, and you 'scratch' the hir hostesses face with it. "Let me into the cockpit" you yell.

'Oh, okay sonny. No problem, chicken or beef?'

However, to show the Americans how it is done, three South Africans in business class, who had grown tired of reading about Mugabe and his gang, worked their own magic. Even before the needle emerged, they were thinking 'how can we take this Zimbo down?'. In fact, as the plane was boarding, the off duty pilot saw the Zimbo and thought: 'If only I was flying'.

Long story short. Minds were racing - Are we going to be flown into the Union Buildings? - No, too far, he would have only hijacked us later - That big tower in Hillbrow? - Too narrow, we'd probably miss, the pilot's not that good - The twin towers? - Idiot, they've already had that episode - Nelson Mandela Rylaan, Bloemfontein? - GOD NO! NOT THERE. GET HIM!!!

Two South African businessmen and an off duty pilot 'rushed' the man, subdued him (by pounding his head) and tied him back in his seat. The pilot pulled a U'y{?} and landed back in Cape Town. The story goes that the hijacker asked for some water, but, as is common on SAA flights, he was refused.

Because the entire sequence of events can be confusing to understand, I've included a photograph of the plane below, taken mid-action.

You can just make out the hijacker in the fifth window from the left. Notice the shocked expression on the pilots face and also, look at the kid with the big ears near the rear. It makes me laugh.

You may also notice that I am now able to upload photos. I'll try to upload some to my previous posting about the strikes etc.

Goodbye for now, see you soon.

Still 'harping' on

‘Words’ was the wrong song. Damn. It actually says that words FADE and that meaning can only be found in your heart. How peculiarly corny. Typical SA love song. No. Typical love song, internationally. Anyway this whole thing kind of screws up my entire argument in the previous posting. Now I have to find another song.

What I have found is another passage about music in the book I’m reading at the moment, and this time I’ve kept track of it so I can quote it directly. After this, I’ll get off this point and find something interesting to talk about, although nothing much else is happening in my life at the moment.

Well, the book is by Ian McEwan and is called Saturday. It’s quite good, but I’ll give you a full synopsis when I’m finished.

“… and walks into the middle of the dark auditorium, towards the great engine of sound. He let’s it engulf him. There are these rare moments when musicians together touch something sweeter than they’ve ever found before in rehearsals or performance, beyond the merely collaborative or technically proficient, when their expression becomes as easy and graceful as friendship or love. This is when they give us a glimpse of what we might be, of our best selves, and of an impossible world in which you give everything you have to others, but lose nothing of yourself. Out in the real world there exist detailed plans, visionary projects for peaceable realms, all conflicts resolved, happiness for everyone, for ever – mirages for which people are prepared to die and kill. …But only in music, and only on rare occasions, does the curtain actually lift on the stream of community, and it’s tantalizingly conjured, before fading away with the last notes.”

As of yesterday, I've started a new book. The Motorcycle Diaries by Ernesto Guevara. I'm sure there'll be some quotable quotes in that one too. Unfortunately, this can't be a really long blog cause I have some emailing to do and also I want to have another stab at those pictures.

Word of the day is back!

suc·cinct (sk-sngkt) adj. suc·cinct·er, suc·cinct·est

succinctly
adv : with concise and precise brevity; to the point; "Please state your case as succinctly as possible"; "he wrote compactly but clearly" [syn: compactly]
Source: WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University

And that's how I'll end this post.

Goodbye.

Da doo ron ron ron

I think I may officially now be giving up on trying to upload photographs to Blogger. It's just not happening for me. Onto today though:

Could someone please try to organise the Reggae remix of Celine Dion se Titanic choon for me? Cool: my new word.

I realise that cool is in fact an old word. A VERY old word, but I caught myself using it and decided that it was pretty cool to start using it again. I even used it as a ‘thank you’ with the Woolworths cashier. How very wrong. She was from Overport, Durban. (She saw my Westville Boys’ High ‘My School Card’) Isn’t it strange how almost all Woolies cashiers are from Overport. The Durban and the Cape Town ones.

I have to congratulate and say how proud I am of my sister. Firstly, she managed to navigate, not only to Barcelona, but also through a one hour time zone, without hitches. (Apart from her waking up at 5 in the morning when she returned to London).

I also have to say conga-rats to Sissie for her blog. Much better job than me of late. Yes, she has no job (no mean to offend) and I’ve been writing exams, but I still feel as though I have neglected my blog audience of two, sometimes three people. I’ve also found some inspiration on Sarah’s blog, and I’m not talking about those two huge knockers which you managed to covertly photograph in Spain. (You can thank me for your extra site hits at a later stage). Sister introduced not word of the day, but song of the day. Splendid! “What? I introduced who?”

From now on, wherever possible, I will publish my favourite or the most pertinent and significant lyrics relating to my subject topic. This may be difficult seeing as I searched Google for ‘big boob lyrics’ and got… you know. Big boobs with songs written ON them. I read a book recently by John o’Farrell called ‘The best a man can get’.

The main character, Michael, is annoyed with his wife because she is so eloquent. She wins every argument because she is quick with her words and because he doesn’t understand them. He writes music for TV commercials. He says something quite striking which I tend to agree with. (I can’t find the direct quote, but it goes a little something like this:). ‘I wish I could just pick up my guitar and start singing to her. Songs encapsulate human emotion beyond words. I could sing anything and make her believe me. A song can change a mood, and therefore change a life.’ Alright so that’s not exactly it, but you get the gist. (Yes I did learn for my exams.)

My plan is to use South African songs only, but that probably won’t be possible.

Jason Mraz – The Remedy

Well, if you’ve gots the poison, I’ve gots the remedy.
The remedy, it’s the experience, this is a dangerous liason
I says: The comedy is that it’s serious
This is a strange and whole new play on words
I said the tragedy is how you’re gonna spend
The rest of your nights with the light on
So shine the light on all of your friends
When it all amounts to nothing in the end
I won’t worry my life away…

Any suggestions for significance in there? I don’t understand it personally. Maybe it wasn’t such a good song to start with.

Talking exams, I am now officially finished my 5th semester of my first undergraduate degree. One more to go so wish me luck. (Apart from the exam I am writing in just over an hour- wish me luck for that too!)

The word of the day, by the way, is COOL.

And now that I’ve said “Words” I’ve found the song I was looking for.
This is today’s snippet, which conveys the reason for having a song for the day. It’s poetry.

Words - Niemand

But the words don’t always come out right
I let them go and they take flight
Words don’t always mean the most
Yes, sometimes words just don’t get close

Words don’t mean the things I do
Don’t wait for words to get you through
Cause words will fade like falling stars
But you’ll find me in the meaning in my heart

Cause words are sounds that can’t even start
To sing the melody in my heart

And the title of today’s posting? You should know. Da doo ron ron by The Crystals!

I tried to add another picture again. ARGH!!!

Today we learn how to say goodbye in isiXhosa.
Sala kakuhle

Wathint'aBafazi...

...waThint'iMbokodo. You strike a woman... you strike a rock. Striking is a popular thing these days. (How's that for an inappropriate link - no I'm not anti SA anti women's rights et cetera). I thought it was a minor thing that people do. You know... get off work for a few days, get paid more. But I have to stop and think when it affects me.

Firstly, the security guard strike. I was in Pick 'n Pay the other day and I admit, I am a generally suspicious person when out in Cape Town with the rest of the 'public'. Anyway. This dodgy looking person was following me with his hand in his jacket pocket. I even checked. I walked around the entire shop once. I was being followed. Mmm, I thought. Let's make my way to a security guard or something. Next thing I know. Dodginess following me whips a radio out of his pocket and tells 'control' something of importance. Didn't I feel like a noonoo. But it's funny that the security guards all look like criminals when they aren't dressed in their uniforms. I've formulated a(n... tricky one this) hypothesis. They are all criminals! Look at what they've been doing when they're out of work. They should all be fired and deported. How can you trust a security guard who thinks it's OK to throw someone off a train just because he doesn't support your cause to be paid more.

Becoming less political, slightly, I've always thought I should comment on the state of student governance at UCT. As you can see, a couple of people stopped reading my blog right there. That's right. The SRC is boring, and don't make a difference in anyone's life. Half way through the year and we're onto our third president. Here is the reason we're soon to a fourth.

Our SRC wants to be like SRC's of the past. They want to support something meaningful. They want to make a difference. They want to make a noise. The only problem is that the majority of the SRC don't understand much (in terms of anything) and they don't understand that they're working against themselves.

Example one: the challenging of the Vice-Chancellor because he said that work lost due to power failures will be made up by Easter Vac. The SRC held a mass meeting (I hear upwards of 10 people attended) to boycott lectures (?) and let the administration of this University know that we are not 'academic machines'. 'We will not work during Easter Vac'. Two points. We are academic machines. That's why we are here, and if the SRC had any academia associated with them (let's say brain matter), they would realise that 'by the Easter Vac' does not mean 'during the Easter Vac'.

Example two (my favourite): The Jammie Shuttle Drivers embarked upon a strike. The SRC asked: "Should we as a student movement towards furthering democracy show solidarity with the Jammie Driver Union". No you dimwits. We shouldn't. We are their employers. Let's see. WE pay THEM. THEY work for US. THEY go on strike (SRC figuratively trips up). WE support them. The SRC, who are constantly complaining about exorbitant fees now want us to give just that little more to the moron driving the bus because: he did the democratic thing and went on strike. I've found some before and after photos of the UCT SRC.

That's all for today. Hopefully I'll see you around sooner, rather than later. One exam down (it was a shocker), three to go.

OK, so I've spent half an hour trying to upload photos. I'll try again tomorrow, or maybe Monday. Or sometime. But the pics are really good. I promise.

boleto a Barcelona

I did some thinking and decided to research a little into where my sister was going on holiday. I found some pictures. Weird looking buildings mostly. Could be fun, I suppose.
Let's rather do this in Spanish.

Hice alguno que pensaba y decidía investigar un poco sobre donde mi hermana iba el día de fiesta. Encontré algunos cuadros. Edificios que miran extraños sobre todo. Podía ser la diversión, yo supone.
Algo hagamos esto en inglés.

I did some that thought and decided to investigate a little on where my sister went the holiday. I found some pictures. Buildings that strangers watch mainly. He could be the diversion, I supposes.

Excellent translation courtesy of Babelfish. http://babelfish.altavista.com
And if you didn't click, I translated from English to Spanish and back to English.

Capetonians?

I would have thought Cape Townians (you just don't pronounce the W).

Thanks to Mother, I've been pointed in the direction of a cool website for all of you people (and a lot of my friends) who simply can't speak English proper. I'm going to try and make life simple for everyone by putting a search box on my page. It will fit in nicely with the whole 'word of the day' thing. I hope it works. It'll make me look so professional. I just don't know where I'll put it.

Mmm. Let's talk about publishing music on blogs. It's illegal. Sooory for you! If it wasn't, I would have a song of the day. This isn't really going anywhere because I'm trying to decide where to put my groovy new search box.

Bye then.

5 down, 1 to go...

ALMOST

That's it. One semester left until I get a degree (hopefully). All that stands between me and the holidays are four 2 hour exams (=8 hours) and one practical write-up and hand-in. Woo hoo.

Now, answering the question about the 11W light bulbs that Eskom supply. Yes (or no, I don't remember the question). The 11W energy saving light bulbs are dimmer than the 60W normal ones, but don't let that fool you. The light is such that it is like living in icy Narnia. Everything reflects a pale blueish white, hence the need for sunglasses indoors.

On the subject of electricity, lets talk Durban - Cape Town debates. This hot topic often comes up. Cape Townians claim to have the mountain and the sea. I even heard one NANA (got it right this time) on 5fm saying that people from Cape Town are more 'chillaxed' because they don't need to worry about crime and that they can just go to the beach to cool down after a hot day. He also said that these are the reasons for Cape Town producing better music. No guesses as to what he does.

So, the point of having your own blog? To comment. Cool Atlantic, dude. Firstly, after living in Cape Town for one and a half years, the people here are not chillaxed. They are pompous and uptight most of the time. They don't know how to build roads or freeways (how many freeways have intersections with robots?) and they get all tense when they have to sit in traffic. If I drive too slowly, they hoot at me, if I drive too fast (which I never do), they hoot at me. Catch 22, I think it's called. It's called that because you can't drive at a normal speed here, can you. There aren't enough roads! Secondly, where was I mugged? Don't have to worry about crime, my big stinky toe. Thirdly, going to the beach and cooling down after a hot day? Days are rarely hot here and cool down should be redefined as: "I got up to my knees this time!!!" The reply from the people safely 50m from the sea water. "No! Don't do it! You have every reason to live!" No, the water does not cool you down, it preserves you for resuscitation at a later stage when medicine can cure alles. And wrt music, Durban produced Tree63. They have some questionable content but imagine what rubbish they would spew out if they had come from 'the mountain'. God knows.

To end the Cape Town debate, I found an interesting blog. http://www.therising.com/ It is a Durban band who toured to Cape Town for a couple of days, I think. The debate came up. Which city is better. I chose these two quotes:

1st (from a Durbanite): When capetown actually decides to have a hill, it just seems that it tries a little too hard. Aidan March 7th, 2006

2nd (from a Cape Townian): The lights work better in Durban. Matt March 7th, 2006

Obviously Matt has actually left Cape Town in his lifetime and knows what he is talking about.

I don't exactly know why I decided to spark this exciting debate today, but I've written a lot and it's time to go. Applications et cetera await.

Today's greeting will be presented in Italian

Ciao

Shillyshally

This is my Poppy, advertising Debonairs. Good girl.

Mornin' all. It's my usual period 4 posting, and boy do I have news. Firstly, we finally have ADSL in the flat. Plenty of shillyshallying is now going to occur! I don't have my computer connected yet. It's all a bit too complicated and expensive cos everything is wireless but I'll eventually make a plan. I'd really rather get a video webcam thingymajig. They're cool for Skyp[e?]ing.

Secondary news topic. Jateel has a blog. These things spread like diseases. I caught mine from Sarah, she caught it from Bevan he caught his from...? I'm sure we could trace it if we tried. Problem is this disease has hit me bad.

Not as bad as Eskom though. I had a go at Cape Town Metro the other day. Well, it's Eskom's fault too. They do supply electricty (sometimes) to CPT. For all you Cape Townians, here is the emergency plan, useless cos if the electricity does go off, who's going to be surfing the web?

http://www.giscoews.com/loadshed/
This link is for GREEN level only! Orange, red and brown levels will stuff up the whole system.
This is all the information I have. And the phone numbers for when the electricity just somer goes out. City of Cape Town Call Centre: 0860 125 001/2/3/4/5/6/7/8. Good luck getting through. (*Hint*: most people start with 7, so go for 1 or 3.)

It's like the US terrorism levels isn't it?

In other, related, news: Eskom is also the reason for my ethereal glow. We had a very kind lady drop in on us yesterday afternoon. She carried with her two big plastic woven bags and another big box. The light darkened and the red glow appeared. With a dusty sparkle {wink} her Eskom ID badge reflected the abyss we were sinking into. Then the words came, like an oyster to your dinner table. "Give me all your Lightbulbs! Har Har Har".

OK, so she gave us new energy efficient ones and asked us if we had a geyser before buggering off to make another R1 for every 60watter she captures, but it was quite creepy. How often have you changed all the lightbulbs in your house in one sitting? Although technically it wasn't a sitting; more of a clambering on dodgy chairs. Nevertheless, I walked outside this morning into the soft morning glow of the orange sun and was amazed. It's like living in a hospital with these 11W energy savers (although the 'bright' side is that we don't need to turn our geyser off at 18h00 if we have them).

This is me showcasing the glasses you need to wear as protection from Eskom's new light bulbs.

More shocking news: Some guy got killed at Intervarsity, but I don't have the details on that yet. Another fell out the back of a bus on the way to Stellenbosch while urinating out a window and leaning on the emergency exit, but he should be fine after some reconstructive surgery.

I've got a lot of writing in this post, so I'll stop blabbing now, and let you read. Although if you've got here, you're already finished. Almost.

Cheerio, now you're done.

Just quickly

This is just a quick post to let everyone in on my final Chuck Norris moment. Because this particular qupte takes the cake, I've decided that I will no longer listen to any other Chuck Norris jokes.

Jesus owns and wears a bracelet that reads: WWCND

So shoot me.

I have a sore leg

Yes, believe it. That's my news for the day. Other than that, I'm off to read some psychology.

Lectures end this week at UCT. Last lecture is Wednesday, by the sound of it. My first exam is 1 June 2006. Lucky me, hey? And... power shedding is meant to be starting again tonight. For those of you who don't know, Cape Town doesn't have enough electricity for all the people, so we have to share it. Officially, each area has about two hours without electricity per day, but in my experience, it's normally about 4 to 5 hours.

Anyway, Observatory & UCT are meant to go off in early evening. Can't wait. Canned food here I come. And I found another funny picture...

It's meant to say "This City Works for You", but they can't even get that right.

Ciao.

Ben Lee, Butlers, and Possessiveness

"Who's Ben Lee? Who's Ben Lee? Is he a cricket player or something? No, that's Brett Lee. Explain..." Before I do, let me just tell you that this is going to be one cracker of a posting. Got you reading a bit more carefully now, didn't I?

This is Ben Lee with some people who look weird and who make Ben Lee (centre) look a little scared. Probably his parents.
www.guerilla-films.com

Ben Lee is an Australian fellow, much like Brett Lee. Weird really. For those current South Africans among you, you'll recognise his voice (or his music) from the Nedbank adverts. Oh yes, he's a singer. One of these Indie Aussies. He's won a bunch of awards and his CD is quite groovy. It's very mellow and quite repetitive, but interesting. One lucky winner who comments will walk off with a free sample of his music... the voice-breaker 'Just Do It' or maybe it's called 'Whatever It Is'. Whatever it is called (I'm good, hey), it is good. Listen to it. Just Do It. (Again, I'm on a roll!) Buy the CD from Musica, and ask for a student discount. They're quite stingy about giving them out, but look harassed and it should go well. Best of luck. And the CD looks like this. It doesn't say Ben Lee. Stupid move that.


Talking about luck, I have a news snippet. This is an example of BAD luck. My flatmate is a vegetarian. We ordered pizza from Butler's Pizza, Cape Town's #1! Anyway, turns out his vegetarian with extra spinach got some bonus bacon thrown in. Lucky sod. Halfway through the pizza, however, upon discovery of the rogue piggy, flatmate was not as happy as I would have been. I mean, extra bacon usually costs R8. That's just less than one pound. Not one pound of bacon, no no no. One GBpound, but I can't find the *pound* sign.

www.butlers.co.za

Now, possessiveness. Not just a word with many S's.

possessiveness
n : excessive desire to possess or dominate
Source: WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University

What happens when you fall for someone, but you have an 'ex' that is possessive? You scrape your knee. Never a nice thing. Blood all over the place and inevitably there's only one person who can stop the bleeding. You. That's my advice for the day. Explanation to follow. (I should write for a newspaper). Sort out the problem by eating two amethysts and standing on your head for 6 hours a day. Example:

Girl in black falls for guy with water. She scrapes her knee. It's a tragedy. www.dcroadrunners.org

That's all for today. And I'm sorry to disappoint, but I'm only kidding about the free sample. That's illegal down South. Sorry. Really. It is illegal.

GroEL / GroES... a macromoecular machine

Sounds fascinating, don't you think? Well, its a small aspect of what I'm meant to know for my test today. I actually know the GroEL folding cycle. Too cool, if you know what I'm talking about. If you don't, I'll just move on.

I've been looking for past exam papers, but there aren't any. I've just found some more notes though. How very interesting. I'll keep you updated.

Agh. Turns out it wasn't so exciting.

I'm off to read some more notes now. I'll speak tomorrow, when my biochem test and psychology assignment are out of the way.

Arrivederci

Thundered?

Should I comment, should I?

Nah, I'm thundered!

Ahem...

South Africa gets a lot of bad press. Most of it is stupid. This moron tried to compare two completely different aspects of SA Criminal Law.

"The law of South Africa:

"Two recent court cases, have earned the attention of newspaper readers in South Africa. One person was fined R1 000 for not having a TV license. Another was released on bail for R500 after being arrested for murder. The moral of this South African story: If you do not have a TV license and the inspector comes round, kill him.You'll save R500! It's the Right Thing To Do..."

Ha Ha Ha, I always say. Whilst most people will understand the humour in this little joke, the problem arises when expats and other negative morons get their hands on it and take it seriously. The figures may well be true. There's just one gaping hole in the joke. The person noot paying their TV license is not going to jail for a number of years, like the murderer. It's fine to have freedom of speech, and its fine to make yourself look like a moron but don't try and be all 'expat hip' and insult the legal system of a country with the most progressive constitution in the world.

And one more thing. The idiot that kills the TV inspector is going to get charged R1500. You really think, that the TV people will let one death get in their way?

Random Question

I've updated my random question. The new one truly is random.

Here is the previous one.

Q:
You've successfully slain the dragon! How will you toast your marshmallows?

A:
Burn the outside layer to a crisp. Granted that crisp is highly carcinogenicbut I've been breathing in dragon smoke and need a break.

Whoah-oh-k

So, I have a confession to make. I have no idea what my word of the day for yesterday was. No, I do know, now that I've looked it up, but I forgot it straight after I copied and pasted. Apologies. It won't happen again.

Today is the Careers Development programme Careers Fair. It looks like fun. I might even go. I was handed a printout on campus explaining the do's and don'ts of approaching recruiters. It has a handy little section titled "How to introduce yourself". It goes a little something like this.

"Start by introducing yourself: 'My name is {smiley face}. I'm a {hourglass} year student in the faculty of {flag} majoring in {pen}."
If any of these university students payed attention in primary school, they will know exactly how to read the wingding story. (You know, replace the picture of the bee with the word BE). Now, working on the assumption that these UCT students are the cream of the crop and that we all know how to decode these little pictures, I wonder how many recruiters are sitting around wondering why there are so many people on this campus called smiley face.

In the process of researching this topic, I googled smiley face. I found one of those scary sites. You know the kind. It's the "gasp, oh my goodness" kind of sites. How are they allowed to put these things up here. Take a look, and make sure you're seated: http://www.wghs.co.za/about.asp

Hows that for a smiley face? Hectic, bru.

Here's another smiley face, picture taken last year. This is how I look on the Cape Town VWS incident command board. Those fires therefore have a good idea as to what's heading their way if they get out of control.

Bye

(And if anyone has any weaknesses for my sister to borrow, or if they can tell her what her weaknesses are, she'd greatly appreciate them. She thinks she's perfect, you know.)

Tiring

It's 30 degrees in Cape Town today, and everyone is exhausted. It seems like some big brick has come and hit everybody on the head today. No, really, I'm telling you. I'm busy trying to upload things from my flash drive, and nothing is going right. I've also discovered that I have a practical this Friday afternoon, starting at one. The word on the street is that we 'should be finished by five'. I've heard the joke before.

Seeing as I'm discussing work, I quickly mention what else I have to do this week. An interview. That was quick wasn't it?

If sister reads this before her email, please ask her (my kind blog monster) to write her signature big on a piece of paper, take a photo, and email it to me. These UCT application people are being difficult, and I've just realised that I need to fill in a different form to apply here next year than all the other forms. That is, I need to send in form five (which is not printed yet) instead of forms 1 & 3.

Anyway, a photo for all you lucky blog surfers: a dirty photo of Adam.

Alright then. It's a photo of dirty Adam, but who's keeping score.

Before I trundle off to my Qualitative Research lecture (always interesting to learn a new "-ism"), let me grace your pixels with a word of the day.

11 October 2003: PARAGON

paragon \PAIR-uh-gon; -guhn\, noun:A model of excellence or perfection; as, "a paragon of beauty; a paragon of eloquence."

Even his friends and business associates, men and women alike, were paragons of health: avoiders of fatty foods, moderate drinkers, health-club habitues, lovers of cross-country skiing, weekend canoe trips, and daylong hikes in the North Woods.-- Alvin Greenberg, How the Dead Live

Paragon comes from Middle French, from Old Italian paragone, literally, "touchstone," from paragonare, "to test on a touchstone," from Greek parakonan, "to rub against, to sharpen," from para-, "beside" + akone, "a whetstone."

n 1: an ideal instance; a perfect embodiment of a concept [syn: idol, perfection, beau ideal] 2: model of excellence or perfection of a kind; one having no equal [syn: ideal, nonpareil, saint, apotheosis, nonesuch, nonsuch]
Source: WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University
and http://www.dictionary.com/

This is all kind of like astrology. You make it. What I mean is, that it means different things to different people. It's all about constructionalism.

See also: Adam

What are the chances?

So yes, I agree, Port Elizabeth is meant to be the windy city, but I've never lived there. The problem is that it is not especially likely that Absolut would make an advert called Absolut Port Elizabeth. They would have to take out another full page ad explaining what the thing means and where PE is.

In an attempt to please the mother, here is a photo of me (somewhere in the middle there) at a fire in Simons Town. Now you can't see my *duh* expression. Happy?

Here's another photo. This one's cool because you can imagine the heat, almost. Think of how hot your hand gets if you hold it a few centimetres above a match (that's burning) or if you are standing next to a braai. Now, get into the braai, light another match, set your shoes alight and pretend to hack at a piece of charcoal for hours on end.

This photo shows one of the perks of night time fire fighting in Cape Town, although it doesn't show it too clearly. That is a view from Red Hill towards Simons Town Naval Base.

I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend. I didn't get much sleep, so I'm off now to hand in my psychology and then perhaps back to sleep. Night night!

Go for it

Hello. Now that I have people wanting to comment, they can't, so I've allowed anyone to be able to comment. Today is an exciting day for me. Well, last night was exciting. I was watching the weather report. OK, not too exciting, but have you ever seen a 100% chance of rain?

Cape Town Radar

www.weathersa.co.za

Look...

National Warning - Issued on Friday, 5 May 2006 at 05.00
Gale force north-westerly winds are expected along the coast between St.Helena Bay And Cape Agulhas and over the adjacent interior, spreading to Plettenberg Bay overnight. Very rough seas with wave heights exceeding 5.0m are expected to develop south of Lamberts Bay in the evening. Very cold, wet and windy conditions are expected to set in over the western high ground of the Western and Northern Cape with possible snowfalls on the south-western mountain ranges. Heavy falls of rain are expected in places near the mountains over the western parts of the Western Cape Province overnight.

CAPE TOWN
Min: 13°C
Max: 16°C
Discomfort Index: 19°C
Weather: Cloudy, rain mainly from afternoon (100%)
Wind: strong north-westerly
Sunrise: 07:23
Sunset: 18:01
Moonphase: First Quarter
Moonrise: 14:14

Looks like fun, don't you think, if not a little scary? The rain hasn't started yet, but the wind is definately here. It's freezing cold. London is even warmer than here.

Anyone have any idea where I could find Tharp & Wetzel's triadic model of reinforcement contingemcies operating in the natural environment (multiple feedback etc.)? Don't worry then. Back to the old trusty subject of the weather.

That's Cape Town right now

www.weathersa.co.za

Finally, I bid you all farewell for the weekend. It looks like it's going to be a cold, rainy and busy one, but I've always enjoyed playing in the rain.

And this is me upon learning about the expected rain. Shocked!

Positivity & Negativity

Thank you for your comment, Sarah. This particular photograph (the photograph in the post below) was taken in the afternoon on the day of the first Bryan Adams concert in Cape Town, 2006. As you, and our other valued readers, may recall, there was no electricity in Cape Town at that stage as load shedding was still a factor which our municipal manager was not able to control. I was at the V&A Waterfront, a major tourist attraction in Cape Town, South Africa's windy city. I decided that the Waterfront was the place to have lunch because I was hungry and they have generators. I was standing next to the harbour in this picture, holding an Uzzi bag and wearing sunglasses, in order to appear more stylish than I already blatantly am (are). I thank you again for your interest in my photographs which are available for US$33.87 including shipping.

Below please find a World Renowned representation of Cape Town, courtesy of absolutads.com

And before I write a post with absolut-ly (ha ha) no relevance to the subject, here it is - the relevance I mean. Positivity (+) Negativity (-). Bye.

I Managed One More

For a moment I thought I had sorted out my photo issues (see below), but it turns out I haven't. You'll see the rest in time though. Enjoy your day!




Now there are two of these damn things, and if I delete one, the other buggers off too. AARRGH!

My modelling days

The digital age has ushered in some weird and wacky things. Blogs for example. People writing whatever comes to mind (see Sarah's Blog for the completion of this thought), people taking countless photos with digital cameras... and cellphone cameras. What kind of photos do you take with cellphones? Yes, self portraits. Well, some of these aren't self portraits, but they're all pictures of me, and that, my valued reader, is the point of a blog.

This is where I give up trying to add the other photos cause Blogger is having some difficulties with itself.

Moving swiftly on, I decided (quite stupidly in retrospect) to analyse the validity of the word "falsity". Holy smoke, would you believe it... it actually exists.

falsity
n 1: the state of being false or untrue; "argument could not determine its truth or falsity" [syn: falseness] [ant: truth] 2: a false statement [syn: falsehood, untruth, false statement] [ant: truth]
Source: WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University

Well, enjoy your day. I'm off to complete my application for Clinical Psychology Masters and some other illegalities. Hee hee hee {read as evil laughter fading off into the dark abyss}.

I'm desensitized

From left to right: Gwen (Gran), Clare, Anne, Graham, Patrick, Sarah, Bevan, Me, Mom, Dad

So, another day, another dawn. On a day when I still have photos from home on my flash disk, and when the weather outside is chilly, what better way is there to spend one's time than to write on my blog, in a computer lab crammed with people escaping the rain and wind? I hereby award myself with the Trophy for the longest sentence on this blog to date.

These photos go back, back in the day, to Christmas 2004 and March 2003. The one on the top is lunch on Christmas day and the one underneath is me after my matric dance. Now... anyone who knows me will notice my Tourettes T-shirt. It was new then, so it only means I've had it for just over 3 years I think. Good quality.


I feel bad leaving you all with so little to read, so I'm off to find another word.

I'm back from the fields with my word.

de·sen·si·ti·za·tion (d-sns-t-zshn)n.
The reduction or abolition of allergic sensitivity or reactions to a specific allergen. Also called antianaphylaxis.
The mitigation of an individual's emotional response to a distressing stimulus by repeated exposure to or imagination of that stimulus.
Source: The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical DictionaryCopyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.

No, I'm not having some sort of crisis. I was injuring two birds with one pebble. I have to read up on it for my Health Psychology lecture so I thought I'd let you in on the definition at least. Shout if you want links to entire articles. I know they will be enjoyed by most people.

It's not me, it's you

So as it turns out, Blogger was having a problem with photos and posts and stuff over the long weekend, and it wasn't Telkom's inadequacies that kept me from posting my pics. Apparently (and this is getting VERY techno - i. e. the fact that I know this) Picasa, Google's picture thingy was also struggling with some gremlins. So, here are my photos. The one above is Johannesburg on December 26, 2003. Really cool, hey? And yes I did take that photo and no it isn't digitally manipulated.

This one hasn't been manipulated either.

I thought that seeing as I had put my impression of a Chinese person up on the blog, it was only fair that I put sister's impression up here too. You wanna see me laughing?

That's me laughing in early 2004. I haven't stopped since.

Now... my irritation for the day. I went down to Middle Campus (again) today to try and fetch some application forms - seeing as I'm graduating this year. They're still not out. Unbelieveable, don't you think. Thank goodness it wasn't a completely wasted trip because I fetched my academic transcripts, but still. You'd think they'd have 'em by now? Wouln' ya? Mmmm?

Now that I've topped the blog up with some photos and I've had a short tame rant all that is left for today is to add my word. What should it be? Chthonic? Nah. Everyone knows what chthonic is.

bete noire
n : a detested person; "he is an anathema to me", "Middle Campus is the bete noire of Upper Campus students" [syn: anathema]

Source: WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University

Clever bean hey?