Pic of the day

Tried to take a pic of a glass ball on our coffee table this afternoon. One of those glass balls with little air bubbles trapped inside. Can't explain why, but the photo showed up a blue flame swirling in the glass. No idea what caused it, but it looks cool.

When I grow up..

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a lighthouse keeper. On one of those lighthouses that you need a boat to get to. A place where I could look at the sea all day. and read as much as I want to.

Windmills of your mind

Probably sounds a bit soppy, but this song has stuck in my mind, and surfaces at very odd occasions. Obviously trying to tell me something...

Round, like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel.
Never ending or beginning,
On an ever spinning wheel
Like a snowball down a mountain
Or a carnaval balloon
Like a carousell that's turning
Running rings around the moon

Like a clock whose hands are sweeping
Past the minutes on it's face
And the world is like an apple
Whirling silently in space
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind

Like a tunnel that you follow
To a tunnel of it's own
Down a hollow to a cavern
Where the sun has never shone
Like a door that keeps revolving
In a half forgotten dream
Or the ripples from a pebble
Someone tosses in a stream.

Like a clock whose hands are sweeping
Past the minutes on it's face
And the world is like an apple
Whirling silently in space
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind

Keys that jingle in your pocket
Words that jangle your head
Why did summer go so quickly
Was it something that I said
Lovers walking allong the shore,
Leave their footprints in the sand
Was the sound of distant drumming
Just the fingers of your hand

Pictures hanging in a hallway
And a fragment of this song
Half remembered names and faces
But to whom do they belong
When you knew that it was over
Were you suddenly aware
That the autumn leaves were turning
To the color of her hair

Like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning,
On an ever spinning wheel
As the images unwind
Like the circle that you find
In the windmills of your mind

Pictures hanging in a hallway
And the fragment of this song
Half remembered names and faces
But to whom do they belong
When you knew that it was over
Were you suddenly aware
That the autumn leaves were turning
To the color of her hair

Like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning,
On an ever spinning wheel
As the images unwind
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind

Gatvol

gatvol

Pronounced: gaaat-fall. Meaning: very fed-up or irritated.
It is a South African word, derived from the Afrikaans language, but widely used in English (and some indigenous language conversation.)
Literal translation: gat(ass or hole) vol(full)
Probably intended to mean a dug hole full to the brim (“up to your neck with…”) , but given a slant by the double meaning of the word “gat”.

eg I am gatvol of the way my boss treats me.


There is no translation for this word in English. Or any other language that I know of. I’ll try to explain… take anger, pissed off, frustrated, depressed, stressed, tired. Put them all together, and increase it by a factor of five or so. That gets close to describing gatvol

Hajjar Mountains

Thease pics were all taken close to my office...

Cool Slideshows

My blogs

I have two blogs. This one. And one on yahoo. The yahoo one is a blog the whole family knows about, it's where I post shit and meet people. If you want to read it, go to my blog here

This one I want to keep for myself, where I put my thoughts and my history and my worries and my kak. It will of course still be available to all of you - I really value your comments. And your friendship. Maybe one day when I'm old I'll have it printed and bound for my family to read. If I'm brave enough.

The bush war

The bush war in Angola lasted for more than twenty years, from 1966 to 1989. The result was that everyone was affected. You were there. Or your son was. Or you Dad fought there. As with most wars, less than 10% actually ended up shooting the rifles they were issued with - but it affected us all. This is a collection of pics taken by the people involved, they are grainy and shitty, but it's a reminder of a time long ago and far away.

Thought for the day

It's been twenty one years since I fired a gun in anger. But I still remember them, and wonder where they are now. Mad Harry opened up a pub. De Villiers went back to being a butcher. My German mate was in the company plane when it flew into the mountain, long after the war. Blackie Swart died of a heart attack. The rest. I just don't know...

These stark men
Who have not yet celebrated
Their coming of age.
Whose carefree years have been pickpocketed
Out of their lives.
Who have lost the carelessness of youth.
Gained the callousness of Death’s companions
- Chas Lotter

Sand storm

We've had dust storms over the country for the last three days. There are small little sand dunes coming in under the doors, you can't see the road in front of you, and the temperature soared to 47 degrees (for the old fashioned countries, that is 117 degrees F). Dammit, and it's not even spring yet. They say the wind will slow down a bit, but the humidity is going up to 80%. Joy.... You can even see it from space

Deserts

I love deserts.
There is a simplicity there.
A lack of clutter.
A feeling of space.
Like being inside a meditation.

Some crap for you

Your Bumper Sticker Should Be

Buckle up - it makes it harder for aliens to suck you out of your car

What Bumper Sticker Should Be On Your Car?

De La Rey, De La Rey

De la Rey, de la Rey… almal praat daarvan. Selfs hier in die land van Babel. Daar is nie ‘n CD te koop in die hele SA nie, almal kyk daarna op Youtube, die ver regses speel dit op hulle parties met ‘n traan in die oog, die goewerment vertel ons dis rassisties. Wat is dit? Ek kan nie glo dat ons weer die boere-oorlog wil oor baklei nie, en ek kan nie sien hoe dit betrekking het op ‘n wit/swart situasie nie? Voel ons volk rigtingloos? Leierloos? Het ons die groot oorlog verloor? Persoonlik glo ek nie nie die Afrikaner sal nog vyftig jaar as ‘n volk oorleef nie. Assimilasie is reeds aan die gang, en so baie van ons in ekonomiese ballingskap sal maar ons toekomste in ander lande begin skep. Is dit die rede? Ek weet nie – wat dink julle?

Ball lightning

You've all seen lightning - there's nothing quite as good as being in the middle of a decent summer thunderstorm. But have you seen ball lightning?

Ball lightning takes the form of a glowing, floating object often the size and shape of a basketball. It is sometimes associated with thunderstorms, but unlike lightning flashes arcing between two points, which last a small fraction of a second, ball lightning reportedly lasts many seconds. Sometimes the discharge is described as being attracted to a certain object, and sometimes as moving randomly. After several seconds the discharge reportedly leaves, disperses, is absorbed into something, or, rarely, vanishes in an explosion.

Ordinary ball lightning is probably "normal plasma." It is the kind of ball lightning produced in the laboratory. It spontaneously appears in the open-air, closed rooms, aircraft at altitude, and was seen in at least one submarine. It appears before, during or after lightning. About 5% are seen in clear weather.

Then you get extreme ball lightning:
• it glows in air;
• it originates from nothing visible;
• it lasts between 10 and 1200 seconds;
• it floats at about 1 meter/second;
• it is lethal or potentially lethal;
• it causes significant damage;
• it contains energy estimated at 100,000 to 1 billion Joules, far in excess of the energy density attributable to chemicals or electrostatics;
• it penetrates walls, glass and metal, generally without leaving a hole;
• it induces large currents but is in radial force equilibrium;
• it leaves black streaks on corpses without the spasm of electrocution;
• it can excavate tons of earth.

I saw it once as a kid - two balls of white light travelling parallel to the ground, following the contours of the hills. Didn't know what it was at the time of course - and my geography teacher thought I was nuts.

Fractals and the butterfly effect..

I've been looking at fractals again recently - and the butterfly effect. And why everything in our universe is related, and what need to learn from it. There's a reason for everything, but unfortunately being a rocket scientist doesn't mean you're clever enough to figure it all out. Especially with all the contradictions that life throws at us..

The so called "butterfly" curve is given by the equation (I think)

x = cos(u) (ecos(u) - 2 cos(4 u) - sin(u / 12)5.0)

y = sin(u) (ecos(u) - 2 cos(4 u) - sin(u / 12)5.0)

Quote of the day

I have a message to deliver to the cute people of the world...if you're cute, or maybe you're beautiful...there's MORE OF US UGLY MOTHERFUCKERS OUT THERE THAN YOU ARE!! So watch out. - Frank Zappa

Iron Maiden

Iron Maiden is a British heavy metal group that formed in the mid-70's. And they're still going strong. I took my son, who's 13, to go see them last night. To get some culture. I was amazed - lots of old rockers like me, all taking their kids to see real honest rock - grinning at each other and the young goths who are like we were, 25 years ago.....

I never thought I'd ever have the priviledge of seeing them live. Last night, in the middle of the desert, under the light of the three quarter moon, I saw Iron Maiden. And I am happy.

Quote of the day

"I've tried several varieties of sex. The conventional position makes me claustrophobic and the others give me a stiff neck or lockjaw." - Tallulah Bankhead

Food... the other type

After five years of living in the bush your stomach lowers it’s standards with regard to food quality. Roadside stalls make great fast food – so what if the fish has been fried 10 times already this morning and the oil is from last week… just throw some pili-pili sauce over it and eat.

Once a month or so we’d get head office executives or analysts or computer boffins coming up on fact finding trips (ie freebies away from the office). Our office was only 100km from the airport, but due to the ferry service and the quality of the road, the trip usually took between 5 and 9 hours.

At the ferry stop we’d usually offer them lunch, and we’d stop off at one of the upmarket restaurants like the one in the pic. The food was good, cheap, and volume made up for the slight lack of quality.

This is where the stomach bit comes in. Us in-country guys would be fine – the head office guys would be man down with the squirts (also known as the Tanzania two step) for the next 7 days. After which they usually got malaria as well and henceforth tried very hard never to come back… bunch of sissies they are.

Thursday funny

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What is this? How do I fix it?

Pasta

Spaghetti, vermicelli, fettuccine, linguine, lasagna, tortellini, ravioli. Pasta conjures up images of street cafes, and pretty young people laughing over a glass or two of Chianti…..

My family loves it – if they had a choice, they’d eat it 7 days a week. My daughter will not eat at a restaurant that doesn’t offer spaghetti bolognaise. Me? I hate the stuff. It has the same constituents as wallpaper glue. But that isn’t the reason..

We moved to the shores of Lake Victoria in Tanzania in mid-1998. As we were in a bush camp, food was prepared by cooks (chefs is the wrong word). Cooking capabilities were basic. They’d take either a piece of cow that had been hacked off with an axe, or some roadrunner chicken and chuck it in a pot of boiling water for 6 hours. This meat would then be scooped onto some rice, and voila – food. Vegetables and starch? Casava was the staple diet, but if they got it wrong you died of cyanide poisoning. Rice was the alternative. Veggies – can’t remember eating any.

The wife arrives and promptly takes over the kitchen. Time for training, how to cook 101, how to clean, and not to kill the food in front of head office visitors. How to cook 101 lesson 1 is pasta. The first time anyone has ever taught the cooks anything. They are overjoyed, and extremely pleased with their cooking prowess – the word chef gets bandied around. And to show their appreciation, they cooked pasta. For six weeks straight. Lunch and dinner. Every single day. Didn’t phase the kids. Me? I hate the stuff.

My Everest

My friend Belinda was talking about our personal Everests. Which got me thinking…

Anyone heard of lifestyle coaching? It sounds new age. Fuzzy. I come from a mining background. Fuzzy is not an option in mining. You’re more likely to hear “fuck off and fix it” than “how are you feeling today?”

I worked with a lifestyle coach. He is not fuzzy (www.adrianhayes.com). Ex SAS, climbed Everest, currently walking to the North Pole…. Successful business man (sold over 200 Airbus aeroplanes last I heard). Come to think of it, he’s one of those over achievers that piss you off. Except he’s a nice guy, quietly spoken. And you wouldn’t know what he’d achieved if other people hadn’t told you.

He made me think. Made me see what was really important. And then made it extremely clear what I had to do to get what and where I wanted to be. And not once did he actually tell me what to do. All he did was ask questions…. And if you ask the right questions, the answers are simple. And getting where you want becomes easy peasy too (actually not, the simple things tend to be fucking difficult to get right.). But at least you know which direction you should be heading in.

I’m heading for my personal Everest now. The good thing is that I was more or less heading in the right direction to start with. I just didn’t know it. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a steep fucken mountain to go climb...

Thursday funny

Sex and drugs and...

I want to talk about sex first….the drugs can wait till later. Unless you are legally married here, consensual sex is not allowed. At all. Not that it doesn’t happen of course. The huge prostitute industry is an indication. As is the social acceptance and expectation that men should have girlfriends. I’m sure women also have similar “activities” but that society is very closed, so I can’t really comment.

If you’re a foreigner here, you had better not get caught. She will go to jail. You will go to jail. For about a year. Then you get deported. A guy in the city I live in has just found out his long term girlfriend is pregnant. If the authorities find out, they’re in deep doggie doo doo. Their choices are rather brutal. She can leave the country for ever. Or they can both slip out, get married, and come back. But this has to happen before the bump gets noticed.