Guests and angst

On Saturday evening we had guests at Park Lane. We invited Vigo and Sinead over for dinner.

In the afternoon Sandra has become very very frustrated because she spent four hours trying to create a table structure in Word 2003. She felt that the table that she had been given to fill in for her assignment did not have enough space for her to fill in neatly. However the more she tried to create an electronic version properly the more it got worse and worse. And four hours later she had not not done any of the assignment, the table was still not working, and guests were arriving soon. I had an unhappy wife.

Anyhows when I saw how much the assignment was causing undue angst, I sat down and created a table properly, and then copied letter by letter, everything she had done into the relevant spaces. Once I had achieved this Sandra became a lot more relaxed.

(When it was time to print out the table at 11pm on Sunday night, we discovered that there was no more ink in the printer! We had to go rushing to my parents' house to sort this out.)

The evening itself was a great success. Very soon after Vigo and Sinead had arrived Sinead and Sandra had disappeared for an examination of Sandra's wedding dress. We discovered that the couple had recently got engaged; and Sinead's mind is full of wedding thoughts and plans and things.

Vigo also brought some chumus; and this was a perfect dip to add to our salad and carrot stick hors d'oevres. Vigo sells salads and whatnots to delicatessens and at markets. Recently he has added Sangria to his product list for when he supplies to functions. He has a Spanish neighbour that supervised his learning process with this drink. I said, "Ahh! Moshgiach Sephardi." Vigo and I found this very funny.

And then, whilst sipping on white wine, we had a delicious cheese Gruyere cheese fondue; followed by lemon-cheese cake flavoured ice-cream.

There was constant chatting and laughter all night. Sandra and Vigo are in many of the same classes at the Technikon, and Sinead has decided to go to University as a mature student to study Psychology.

After dinner, Sinead and Sandra, thoroughly enjoyed going through our wedding photogrpahs; whilst Vigo eyed out the Playstation games he wanted to play.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable evening - one we hope to repeat soon.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

When I was a little bit younger and a little bit shorter my parents decided to buy an Apple 2e computer. Robbie and I used to play with it avidly; and one of the games we used to play was Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy.

The game was actually written and designed by the author of the best selling book.

The game was a text based game; as in those days graphics were too slow to be used for this kind of thing. I used to play this game compulsively - until one day I somehow when trying to save or delete a saved file. Or save another file or something.

I am not sure how I did it - to be honest - I deleted some essential code for the game and it became unusable. Since I had not bought the game legally, and I was very young and short, I was stuck. I think I got 50c pocket money a week and Robbie got 25c a week in those days.

So I moved on to other games and projects.

Many many many years later I got hold of a DOS copy for windows and finished the game.

For some reason, I had always had issue that I had not completed the game.

I had got to the part when I had teleported into my own brain and was working out how to destroy my common sense.

So I finally completed the game about 15 years after I started it, and achieved a time of peace and satisfaction.

I still have that DOS copy running, on an old 486 PC; I have lying around.

And sometimes when I am feeling very nostalgic I start it up and play through the game. It never fails to amuse - and transport me back to when I was younger and shorter.

Anyhow, a new graphical version has been created by the BBC in order to celebrate the games 25th anniversary. (Actually two versions have been created.)

Its the exact same game; it just now has a visual component to go with it. I think the visual component actually makes some of the problems easier to solve.

I am sure if I had seen the "no tea" as a possession; as clearly, I may have solved the paradox genius problem earlier.

This problem took me the longest to solve.

Geez. So I am not the only one with problems with travel allowance red tape.

I have been told by the tax-man that my travel allowance is to be disregarded because I did not fill in my speedometer readings in my tax form.

Actually I received a long letter from Mr Green telling me that I did not do something correctly and so my travel allowance was being disregarded. He did not tell me that I had not filled the box on page three, three lines from the top.

I never understood that this was the real reason until after the month allowed for complaints had passed; the reason for this being that the "tax expert" who I first went to, did not explain this to me.

He told me to bring him all the relevant documenation.

I did this. He took three weeks to answer me. (I did remind him a number of time.)

He then told me that I needed to have provided a log book. But if I fill in a log book I would have to diddle it in order to be entitled to tax rebate for travel allowance.

I am no diddler so I left it.

I then later only found out from someone else who had been in similar situation to me; that if I filled in the form differently I could have got the tax reduction! He showed me where I needed to have filled in this information. It was too late then and the problem was compounded by the fact that this car no longer exists as well. I crashed it, in the pouring rain, at 100km/h on the freeway on the 29th December 2004.

This was probably why I did not fill in those little boxes to start with.

So I have to find R3 800 to cough up to the tax man.

(Oh.. I also submitted the tax forms 2 years late - an additional R600 fine.)

All because I did not understand the red tape. If I had filled in the forms on time and correctly all then would have been better. (I hesitate to say good - that will have to wait until I have tested this theory.)

But I think I understand it now.

It cheered my day up immensely to find out that Deputy Prime Minister of South Africa - also does not know how to fill in forms and deal with red tape - when it comes to travel allowances.

Stange but true as testified by Shaik; and noted by Judge Squires.

When Shaik replied that the government provided Zuma with a travel allowance, Squires quickly remarked: "Then why couldn't he pay for his own Mercedes Benz?"

Squires seemed surprised with Shaik's explanation that there was too much red tape for the government to pay for the car and asked: "Even for a minister or the deputy president?"

Shaik said yes.

Though its a bit worrying that someone who can not deal competently with bureaucracy could be the next executive leader of the biggest bureaucracy in this country - the government.

Did you know?

.

Did you know that Sandra is not bossy, she is just in charge of making my life better?

Did you know that there a student in Sandra's homeopathy class that says he can hold his breath until he loses consciousness?

Did you know that it was my fault that Sandra forgot her bag and text-books in the foyer of the building; because I should have thought that maybe she would do that?

Did you know that I think Sandra knocked the salad dressing onto the floor; and Sandra thinks I knocked it?

Did you know that any event its my fault; because I should have davka stopped it from happening?

Did you know that Sandra uses me as a test subject for what she hears in the lectures?

Did you know that today I was subjected to having my pulse measured at different places when I was trying to nap?

Did you know that a culture of study and learning is developing in our flat?

Did you know that I am already working on my 3rd UNISA assignment? Did you know that this one is on computer structure and architecture involving machine code programming?

Did you know that Sandra needs another coffee?

Did you know that I have lost 5 kilograms in 6 weeks?

Did you know that I still have 15 kilograms to lose in order not be overweight?

Did you know that it is Robbie's birthday next week?

Did you know that we are probably going to the cinema to watch "Finding Neverland" tomorrow evening?

Did you know next week there is a "Homeopathy Dinner" for all homeopathy students and their partners?

Did you know that right now, as I type these letters, Sandra is speaking to her mother on the phone?

Did you know that I am stopping now to go and watch "The Practice" on SABC 3?

Well... now you do.

This is quite a giggle...

Virtual Stan

Mandhla to the rescue.

Today after I finished transferring my pencil scribble into a laTex2e formatted pdf - and submitting it to UNISA; Sandra declared that we needed to walk down to my parents' home since we had no coffee left in the flat.

So, we wandered down the streets, walked up the driveway and into the outdoor brick-paved garage area.

Immediately I noticed a scrabbling sound from the thicket area that borders my parents' property with the flat next door.

There was a Hardee-Dar (a kind of bird that goes "Har Deeee Dar" whenever it feels the urge) trapped between the two wire fences. It needed to somehow scramble upwards - but not being good at much except flying and screeching "Har Deeee Dar" meant that the bird was not equipped with the ability to work its way out of the quandry. Instead it was trying repeatedly to squeeze through the tiny gaps in the fence. It was clear that not only was that impossible; but that the bird was not quite smart enough to realise that this solution was impossible - and I could see that it would keep trying to do the impossible until it got tired... and then it would then relax; until it could try again.

Sandra thought that maybe a wire cutter to cut a whole a tiny bit bigger in one of the fences would be a solution. But, lo and behold, the fence was to hardy to be cut. Good thing that, as it makes its harder for burglars to get in. So she got a small hacksaw; and was on her hands and knees in the thicket. I think she was not succeeding; and I suspected her solution would not work.

And then Mandlha came wandering up the driveway.

I pointed out the problem to him.

He put down his bag, walked into the thicket; grabbed the bird firmly by the neck and the wings. Sandra was shouting protests; telling him that she was sorting the problem out. But Mandhla, just smiled; and pulled the bird up and out from between the fence.

He showed it to me; smiled and threw it into the air.

Sandra soon came out from the thicket; looking a bit worse for wear; and, little silly.

Quit Smoking

My brother-in-law Martin, tells me he is no longer going to smoke cigarettes. He is going to kick the habit.

I used to chain-smoke cigarettes. I quit smoking on the 8th December 2002.

The trick, for me, was to decide to quit no matter what. I do know that the times I failed to quit was when I gave myself "excuses".

For example, I would say - I am stressed; I will quit when there is less stress.

All that resulted from that, was that I then created an environment which encouraged stress.

But if you do not provide yourself with "escape clauses" then you do not try an create an environment where such "escape clauses" would apply.

I know that I was heavily addicted to nicotine.
I know that I quit by a decision of will.
I know once I had firmly and unequivocably made the decision - it was easy.

Anyways, I am quite proud of no longer being a slave to nicotine; and wasting my money on buying a product; that, when used correctly, will kill me.

Martin, I believe it is an excellent decision on your part to stop the cigarettes.

I succesfully quit.

My brother Robbie quit.

It is not difficult if you put your will into it.

squamous cuboidal

I don't know what squamous cuboidals are but Sandra has been going through terminology that she has learnt for anatomy.

And every now and then she says things like "Squamous Cuboidal".

I go "Exuse me?"

She says "Squamous cuboidal."

I go "Oh. Just checking..."

I did try and help her understand ionisation; and that an acid is a proton donor.

A what? A proton donor....

What's that. Thats something that is giving out protons to all and sundry.

Oh. And why is an acid a proton donor?

Because when ionised it produced the H+ ion.

Yah? So....?

Well, Hydrogen is made of one electron and one proton. So if it becomes a anion then it no longer has an electron. And therefore is just a proton?

Just a proton?

Yup...

So something that when something happens to it, releases H+, is a proton donor, is an acid.

huh?

Oh.

Umm.

Could you explain that again?

The Pillemers are at home...

Tonight Orli and Denzil came over for an evening visit. They have not seen the apartment in over a year and its been through quite a lot of changes since then. I painted the study, we have new furniture for the study etc etc. We chatted, laughed, drank coffee and listened to music. We also discovered we have a favourite restaurant in common (Mama Luciana's).

All in all, it was quite a plesant evening.

So this week has been quite a social week. On Monday night we went for a braai at Ralph and Maria's; and tonight we had company.

Since we got married, Sandra and I have been quite introverted. I wonder if this is a beginning of becoming a little more extroverted in our lifestyles.

I am making slow progress at converting my pencil solutions to the TeX format for my maths assignment. But if its finished by the end of the weekend I will be satisfied. If its not I will be quite frustrated.

Machines, Vanity and Head Scratching

This artist has done a very interesting thing. He has literally created a visual representation of the remembrance of him in the universe. If Kohelet is correct in his musings in Ecclesiastes... then eventually every trace of a remembrance of a person will disappear. Well, Dave has set up an internet enabled representation of this. Weird...

If you want to enjoy interesting puzzle-solving; I have been trying to solve this puzzle when I want to relax for the last week. I am getting closer to solving it. But as I only spend about 10 minutes maximum on it at a time. I still have to work the thing out. It is quite challenging.

West and East....

Last night Sandra had me trying to explain vectors to her. It was not that easy to describe to her that a vector has magnitude and a direction. At one point I asked if she knows the difference between West and East.

"Of course," she replied.
"West is capitalist and East is communist..."

ummmmm.

Pajamas at the Gate.

Hee Hee.

Oh... and now for something completely different...

This is a good read, especially if you have read Asimov voraciously. There was a period in my life when I chased down virtually every science fiction story that Asimov had ever written... I also used to buy the Science Fiction magazine Asimov's; since he always wrote the editorial.

I had a standing order at the CNA at Musgrave Center. Once a month I would rush to the CNA to get my copy. It was, and still is, one of the sources of high quality literary science fiction. But now there seems to be an online science fiction zine making available high quality literary science fiction to the needy.

I used to keep it on my bed side table. And every night before I went to sleep I would read a story. I had to be very sparing; as it had to last me until the next month's issue. A truly well written science fiction short story can make you re-imagine the world you live in, by seeing it from the perspective of... umm.. I am babbling. Anyways,... At the moment I have a text-book on distributed object-oriented middleware lying next to my bed. So I guess I shifted from science fiction to science non-fiction as my bedtime reading.

As I was saying, this wonderfully written short story suddenly made me revisit the world Asimov created. A world I lived in when a young teen-ager. It also made me realise how little I had truly thought about his famous three laws of robotics critically. Cory's story quite effectively and beautifully exposes what Asimov never fully confronted i.e. what kind of goverment control must neccessarily exist in order to create and enforce the infamous 3 laws of robotics. Now, in retrospect, I feel remarkably naive for not seeing what Cory makes obvious.

Go, Cory, Go.

Water is adhesive and cohesive!

Well I now know that water is adhesive and cohesive. And I know the difference between the two. I even know why - due to the weak Hydrogen boding caused by the electronegativity ( which is the effect of the fact that there is polar covalent bonding between the Oxygen and Hydrogen - resulting in the water molecule being charged.) This makes water an excellent transport mechanism.

This knowledge has been fascinating me. When I ate breakfast this morning I was thinking. "Hmmm... Peanut butter is very adhesive; but not as cohesive. Honey, on the other hand is cohesive, but not as adhesive."

Last night I was thinking, "Hmmm, both ice and water have lower densities than Cape Velvet..."

I also know that species is the lowest taxon in the biological classifaction hierarchy.

I also know other stuff. I know what a phenotypic characteristic is - for example.

Yup. Sandra has a test today.

I also have been working on my own courses. I finished a maths assignment on matrices. But Word does not have the correct formatting tools to produce mathematical type. I have thus started learning Latex2e in order to be able to create my assignment electronically. I found, downloaded and installed the Windows Implementation of the very powerful and useful program. I think if I ever write a short story or novel this will be the way to go. The final product is printed book quality. And this is the industry standard for publishing scientific texts!

The reasons I like it lots are:

(1) I don't think I have particularly nice handwriting, especially of mathematics.
(2) I can not submit handwritten assignemnts via the internet. And its a real hassle to get to the UNISA building to submit it via the non-internet method.
(3) I can easily read the typed format and catch any careless errors.
(4) Its looks uber-cool.

Last night, I finally got all I needed downloaded (its all free software!) and the markup knowledge worked out to format the text... and now its a matter of transferring the information into wordpad or notepad and then marking it up correctly.

I saw Meira on Sunday. She was in Durban for Richard Moshal's wedding. She took some photographs with her 5 megapixel digital camera. She looked a bit annoyed when I had to ask what it meant if a digital camera is 5 megapixels. Anyways, she took some photographs which she has promised to email me. So if you are reading this Meira, send me them soon!!!

We chatted a while about her interest in geneaology (she attended an international genealogy conference in Israel recently.) And her next planned event ( she wants to go on the March of the Living.) It was nice to catch up a little.

Oh, and I still find my Friday evening conversation with Richard a bit amusing. I went to shul on Friday night, and as I was walking in Richard passed by me, rushing out and in like a whirl wind.

I said: "Hello. Richard. Haven't seen you in a while. How are you doing?"
He said: "Good. And you?"

I later found out, during the Rabbi's shpiel before Aleinu that Richard was getting married on Sunday, and that the entire Moshal family and guests were here to mark the Shabbat before the wedding. Hmm.

Anyways... Mazel Tov.

Lies and Deceptions or What to do if you are in Cape Town.

Stevie's play is on and in Cape-town. He has received funding from Artscapes to put on his edgy play. Well done, Steven Pillemer!!!

Stevie apparently does not currently have time to read this blog. The one reason is that he is busy selecting a suitable soundtrack. This entails lying on the couch in a sensitive frame of mind, listenining to approximately fifty thousand cd's and thinking "..does this sound right for *this* moment? ... hmmmmm..... ".

Nice work if you can get it. (And you can get it if you try.)

Also he can stretch his leg out straight in front of him without bending it; and he can stand on the palms of his hands and stretch his legs out straight. He said this is called yoga. Well... at least he is keeping busy...

Granny I am putting a link to a rave review on his play.

HERE.

If you "click" on the link above ie the word "HERE" (above and to the left) then you will be taken to another web site which has the review on Stevie's play.

If you "click" on the word "Artscapes" underlined in the first paragraph you will be taken to another web site that mentions Stevie's play. I often put links into my site, and the "clicking" principle I am applying here, applies in all other cases too.

Now Jonx Pillemer took the excellent photograph on the top right of this post. No-one else took it. Only Jonx. Let no-one be confused, or in the dark. You see, I don't want to receive a formal complaint about "copywrite" (sic) infringement because Jonx is not being a "fraier" (hebrew word alert), and is not letting himself just be exploited by anyone... He discovered that the Cape Times had published a photograph he had taken without attributing it to him. He wrote them a letter in which he explained to them this was uncool (and also illegal).

Well... at first they replied telling him this was their policy. But now they have officially apologised.

Its nice to see when corporates respond to Pillemer directives and directors.

Would you sleep outside a cinema?

Well would you? This guy would, and keep up a blog on it!

And become a celebrity and get written about in newspapers and stuff .

Well, would you?

Are there any movies in the universe so important to you that you would camp outside a cinema for month and months just to make sure you get a ticket for the first screening.

May the force be with him...

Over a year now...

Sandra says its over a year now. Well, she's right.

And...

Tonight, she tells me we have a date.

(.. to learn physics and how to convert ratios that have a time as either denominator or numerator...)

and of course, I have to start for my next assignment. I finished transferring my use case diagrams and state diagrams and class diagrams from pencil sketches to electronic form and submitted my first UNISA assigment.

Its just started raining.

My grandmother is re-reading the communist manifesto. She tells me its highly relevant. I told her that if she was re-reading it today; at least, she should have bought an annotated version. She just put her nose in the air ( she thinks she is quite knowledgeable enough to annotate it herself... )

Sandra is wondering whether any of her German friends have read the Blog, so if you are... leave a comment.

Doris and Martin read it yesterday... anyway its hot and I have coffee to drink.

Hope for Israel and Sandra becomes a Class Representative.

When I was last in Israel, just before I fell sick, I voted for Barak and I remember the huge celebrations in the street. I remember the ecstacy in the air. The huge relief that the country felt as it seemed that peace was dawning.

I have a distinct memory, and I do not know if its a false memory of something that did not happen; or if its an imagined wish projected by me into my memories.

But I have a very very real memory of seeing a photograph in the paper of Barak and Arafat, reclining in deck chairs next to a swimming pool.

The talk in the air was that conscription could soon be abolished. And then things started going wrong.

Very wrong.

The delicate balance of my body broke. The delicate balance of the peace broke. I had a physical operation. Israel and the Palestinians had military operations. I left Israel in order to return to my home town to attempt to deal with the brokenness of my body. And the Intifada began again.

In the last eight months my body has been brought back in balance and today something great happened to Israel and the Palestinians.

I feel that a new dawn in my life, and in life of Israel has begun.

On other notes. Sandra has become the class representative for the 1st year homeopath students. She said "It just happened". She loves being organised and organising - and I would have been surprised if she had not somehow happened to end up as the class representative. (She is a trustee on the body corporate of our building too.)

Her class was presented to their cadavers today. The dead bodies were not uncovered. But they were taken into the room filled with clinical death. She said that no matter how prepared she thought she was. No matter that she had bought the tools. That she had read the introductory texts. That she had researched on the internet. Nothing can prepare you for standing in front of a dead somebody, the tactile sensation of touching a dead human being (albeit still covered up). The smell.

Israel and Palestine have been filled with dead bodies on both sides of the conflict. Hopefully the smell of death will be brought back to soon to where it should be... In universities and technikons for the benefit of all living.

Today Sandra agreed to represent her fellow 1st years students. A new world has begun for her.

Today the old warrior Arik reached out and shook hands with the moderate Abbas. And somehow I feel that this carries much more hope than the moderate self-satisfied Barak and the warrior Arafat lying (pun intended) in deck chairs.

Chess, Cockaroaches and stuff

Eventually after driving all over Durban, we ended up buying 3 Lab coats for Sandra from Logan Medical Books on Umbilo Road. Whilst inside the bookshop I opened the standard Haematology textbook to see what was written about my illness. It described the condition quite succintly but when I got to the treatments I was quite dissapointed. All the treatments that did not work on me were listed, as well as the terrible treatments with horrific side-effects were mentioned. But the treatment that worked on me, with minimal side-effects was nowhere to be seen. I know its quite a recent treatment, and because of that it did take a while to get approval from my medical aid. I think its been used for about 3-4 years for my condition. But 3-4 years is long enough to get it into the text-book. On that note, my count on Saturday ( the text book motivated me to go and get pricked ) was 512. Which is better than I could have dreamed about having. It dropped down to the bottom of normal when I had the flue recently. (My mother hates it when I spell flue with an ee. She thinks flue should be spelt flu. She might be right, but I like the ee on the end. Maybe its because it feels Shakespearean or something.)

Today, the routine of dropping Sandra off at the Technikon began. It was nice having her in the car when I left home this morning. She is very excited. She spent Sunday transferring the introductory lecture from last week from her scribble to Word. (She said she was the only one who took notes...) She has also organised her files, labelling each one and colour coding stuff. We bought the dissection kit, and she then looked up each item on the internet to learn the terminology and uses of the items etc. She also found an online virtual dissection of a frog web site, as well as a cockaroach dissection walk-through. Uggggg.

I brought a chess board to work today, as I would like to play a game of chess at lunch time regularly.

I have almost finished my first UNISA assignment (due March 11); but I did part of it in rough with pen and paper and I still have to transfer those questions to electronic format before I can actually submit. But its basically done, which feels all organised and stuff. My life is way too full for me to be able to get assignments in if I only start working on them just before they are due. Especially 3rd and 2nd year courses. I have also been working through the text books for the assignments coming up next.

Shame Internet Explorer Shame

It seems that with Internet Explorer the image of the world showing "where in the world people are visiting this blog" - is not floating where it should be floating ( on the top right corner of the tan page. It should not be above it. ) This seems to be something wrong with Internet Explorer.

So all you guys out there using FireFox will see the page as I intended it to look.

And right now, all I can say is "Shame Internet Explorer Shame Shame Shame."

I might see if I can figure out how to get is working correctly on Internet Explorer. But I also might not. If Microsoft cannot get their browser to understand standards correctly then whoever wants to use it; maybe should just suffer the consequences.

Anyways use FireFox for the moment to view this site, if you want to see it exactly how I intend it to be seen.

I have put a clickable link in the margin on the left - under Archives and above Friends' Blogs. If you click on that icon you will be taken to the FireFox download page. If you click on the download button on that page and follow the instructions on how to download and install FireFox... you can get to rediscover the web ( and see this site as I intended. )

From the hoover to the cadaver

Sandra had her orientation lecture/introduction/tour yesterday for Homeopathy. She discovered that in Anatomy she would be dissecting a human cadaver. Apparently they will be divided into groups of six for this purpose. Specifically in this year (the first year of study) they are going to dissect and study the torso. So today after I get home from work we have to go and buy lab coats and a dissection kit. I think its kind of macabre.

So today is her last day as a "house-wife". Last night she said she had enjoyed her year as a house-wife; and that now she was going to have re-organise her day-to-day life completely. Now she is a very full-time student from Monday. Today is her last day free of pressure of studies and exams in a very rigourous and demanding department.

Little kids in smart white shirts on the side the freeway

I drive every day to work along the South Coast freeway approximately fifity-seven kilometers each way. Its a long drive and there many experiences that are normal to this daily trek.

1) There are often accidents I drive past. Sometimes horrific...
2) I never get used to the driving around (or over) the carcasses of dogs that have recently been killed.
3) There are always speed-traps with uncomfortable looking speedsters getting tickets from officious traffic police.
4) There are always vendors selling avocadoes and mushrooms. Vendors that I am much too scared to stop at; as there was an employee from where I work who was murdered when he stopped to buy an avocado by thugs hiding in the growth.
5) There is a very strange looking character who covers himself in oils and traditional Zulu clothings and sprints on the side of freeway into the flow of traffic (this is a normal sight in the morning).
6) There is another character also covered in shiny glistening oil who does a very funny walk alongside the flow of traffic. He has very frightening scarring on the side of his body. The first time I saw him I got terrified that the scarring was recent, that maybe he had just escaped from some kind of torture and needed immediate assisstance. But then I saw him the following day, and the day after, doing the same funny robotic walk.
7) There are shacks stretching into forever in which I can see signs of normal lives. Washing hanging up, people chatting.
8) And there are always children walking incredible distances to get to school.

Unimaginable distances.

Today there were two little children walking alongside the freeway. I had no idea where they started from or how far they were heading. As far as my eye could see in all directions there was no habitation or schools. The one child looked about 6 years old and the other one 9 years old. Although ths is not an abnormal type of sight for me to see on my drive to work; my mind always has trouble seeing this - as it is so foreign to the privledged world that I grew up in. And these children were particularly small. They also had such tidy neat clean smart white shirts on. Sparkling white button-up shirts. Smart grey school pants. Socks pulled up neatly. Shiny black shoes. Whoever had dressed them, obviously had taken great pains to make sure they were smart and filled with the confidence that comes from dressing well. But they were so small. Too small to be alone in a shopping center. Too small to be alone crossing a street in a suburb. But here they were, walking the freeway. It felt so sad.

The other night on television news there was a report on how scholars in a particular school in a rural area have to ford across a heavily flowing river every morning (and the previous day one scholar had been eaten by crocodile in this exact river) to get to school and then home again later.

I am not sure how one can expect any (but the truly exceptional) of these children to succeed at the level that one needs to move into the bourgeosie - if they have to face such trials and tribulations just to attend school.

And the schools themselves are not properly supplied. Today I discovered that there were bizarre difficulties faced at a school in the capital of Gauteng.

As my father and I tried to explain to Robbie yesteday. The world is not fair.

Other people have thoughts too...

Everyday when I drive to work I am surrounded by many cars filled with people, thinking people thoughts. When I go to town, or to a popular beach, or to a shopping center - there are many many people walking past me. But of these thousands and thousands of people that pass me by every week I hardly ever to speak to anyone (apart from the woman selling ice-creams or the petrol attendant.) But all these people are constantly thinking private thoughts. Entire universes of delights and worries and joys and heart-aches and trivialities and dreams and plans. But most of the time I do not see universes, I just see a blur of alienation. Simon Hoegsberg created an art project to try and pierce this alienation that exists between us in our society and stopped randomn people on the streets in New York and in Denmark, took a portrait photograph and then asked them what were the most recent thoughts that have passed through their minds. He recorded each thought monolgue verbatim. With these photographs and monologues he has created a very beautiful art project that he has called THE THOUGHT PROJECT. I found it lifted me out of the alienation of capitalistic society for a moment to see the open ( but hidden ) doorways into the other.

Commendation Award

Wow. The last time I got an award was at the Knesset when I was awarded for going beyond the call of duty in the work I was doing with blind students at Hebrew University. I had to read to blind students; and one elderly blind woman in particular; in order to qualify for a scholarship towards my then studies at Hebrew University. I spent time visiting her, to read to her at home as well as many hours in the University libraries. I helped her understand the material and I enjoyed her company. She nominated me; and I received an award at the Knesset for this good work. I felt at the time I was just doing what was expected from any mensch.

Well today, whilst I was eating lunch an Important Person at the corporate I work for came rushing to find me and tell me I needed to be at the Achievement Awards ceremony. I quickly followed him, my little heart beating a little faster. I walked into the boardroom which was filled with Important People and people receiving accolades. There was a camera that flashed, a man reading out a long explanation why each award was being given, a general manager shaking hands and congratulating, samoosas, cold drinks, a CEO, applause and lots of smiles. I had a moment of recognition and the General Manager called me a "Whizz Kid" whilst looking at me in the eyes, and said that I must keep up my good work. There were a dozen or so people receiving awards for all manner of successes. Everybody was in a good place.

(I was given a Commendation Award for improving my skills in Oracle database administration and development far beyond what was expected from me by the business. Although I felt I was just doing what I expected from myself.)

So, today I got an award for improving myself ( and I guess for being myself... ). It was not the knesset, but it still made me smile. Its always nice to get a pat on the back and a little nachas.

Quite amusing, Quite so, Quite Quite

I was quite amused by this satire of Prince Harry and his silly insensitive behaviour.
I found out about this satire via Jewlicious. Of their posts I found this one on the trendy Hollywood kabbalists the most amusing.

I also sent an email to Jewlicious. ( I also sent a similarly worded one to The View From Here.) This is the email I sent.

I see you have a list of Jewish Blogs on your blog roll. What qualifies as a Jewish Blog? I am Jewish and I have a blog at http://hardlyhere.blogspot.com/ does that make my blog a Jewish blog? My friend Harry has a blog and he is Jewish. His Blog is at http://casf.blogspot.com/

We both lived in Israel for many years. I lived in Jerusalem for approximately 4 years ( and made Aliyah ) but was forced to return to South Africa due to a serious illness. I hope one day to return to Jerusalem.

-- ilAn

Pirelli Relativity Challenge

I am not a Flash programmer in any way; which is a pity since I found this competition for 25 000 Euros for a 5 minutes Flash creation. You also would also have to have a pretty good understanding of Einstein's theory of relativity; but Sandra is studying physics this year and I could have got her to explain it to me. But with all the studying I am doing towards my computer science degree, my full-time job, and Sandra's chores for me - there is no way I have the time to learn Flash. And then I would also have to learn how to draw the kind of graphics necessary for this kind of thing. I am studying a third year course in computer graphics. But this is a very theoretical course and it appears much more based on much lower level stuff (such as the API itself) than what would be studied in a multi-media school. Warwick does that stuff so I informed him of this competition. He then showed me this amazing Flash website. Wow.... some of the Flash graphics on this site are stupendous in both their beauty and their artistry. Perhaps, Harry's associate was right when he thought Harry should recode his secret internet thinking graphs from Java into Flash. I can not tell you any more about that, since Adam says its secret and made me swear an email oath to secrecy.