This guy scares me.

pearls before swine

Need to escape?

Need to be challenged?

Then maybe you need to get out and try and get some of the pearls up for offer!

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA AH AH AH AH AH AH AH AH

Congratulations, swimming and snotty noses

I have been trying my best not to catch flu from Sandra. She has been blowing her nose constantly for the last few days. I have not yet caught it. I hope.

I saw Fox and Andrew this long weekend and I went swimming with Andrew at Battery beach.

Congratulations to Marc and Susanne (in Germany) on getting engaged!

Sandra is sniffling too close to me, I am getting out of this room.

later...

Promotion!

Well I got my promotion today! I have been promised it for well over a year now. But I made a decision to actively and relentlessly pursue it; after four months ago I got assurances from senior management that it would happen. And today I received my new salary!

I love Adar.

Tonight is also Purim. And its a nice very long weekend on the way.

Sandra got 70% (or 21 out of 30) on her chemistry test - which has made her quite happy.

On a sour note, our vacuum cleaner broke and we need to buy a new one.

Sandra wanted me to sit and examine the different vacuum cleaners being sold at the local hypermarkets. Ugggggg! I tried to - but it was really boring - so I had to put my foot down after the first ten minutes and say "no more!".

later...

Mr Miyagi

Our bonsai tree has been dying. Sandra bought it for me on my birthday. (But she would not let me look after it; as she thought I would kill it due to mismanagement.)

Well, it has been dying anyways....

Sandra and I had our disgreements about what was going wrong. I thought it was not in the sun enough, and that it was being made to soak in water. Sandra thought it was getting too much sun, and not enough water.

Well, the last weeks the leaves have been falling off.

Then.... we discovered that Mike was a bonsai tree hobbyist. He said we must bring it over and he will take a look.

So we did....

His garden was a bonsai tree haven. We had a pleasant time being shown the different trees and how they need to be looked after. It was actually amazing...

He then looked at our tree. He was amazed that moss had been grown all the around the tree. He lifted it up; and the soil underneath it was dry as dry can be.

Apparently the tree we have is a savannah tree. The moss was preventing the water from reaching the soil; as it was diverting the water away from the soil. The tree was dying of thirst. Also the pot was not really deep enough for the tree.

He said that a lot of these commercial bonsai tree people; do things like this to make the tree look more attractive; but what they do is detrimental to the health of tree - thus many of the trees bought commercially die.

So Mike helped us repot the tree; and explained how we need to look after it.

A regular Mr Miyagi.

later...

Long Weekend coming up!

I have a spider bite or something that was worrying me, so I took a walk across the road to the hospital to ask if I should worry or not.

Sandra came rushing after me, very excited that they may need to cut open the bite with a scapel. She was even very generous and offered to cut me open - as she has been learning how at the Technikon.

I ended up getting it examined by an Italian doctor who was more interested in my I.T.P. than in the spider bite. But he told me not to worry and that it should start getting better soon. (It has started getting better.) Sandra was very dissappointed in the lack of blood.

Last time I went I had an ingrown toenail and was operated on there and then. Sandra missed the opportunity to witness the pain and the blood (and give suggestions)... So she felt very let down that this time nothing fun happened.

Sandra seemed quite satisfied with her chemistry test; though she says she thinks she confused the definitions of atoms and elements. She says she went blank a little bit - as everyone does in exams. I told her I never went blank in exams. I think she ignored my information.

We are a quarter of the way into the month of Adar now.

The final and twelth month of the Hebrew calendar. (I know I know we celerate Rosh Hashana in October... but that is not actually the beginning of the year; rather it is the marker of the day the world was created.) Nisan, the next month in the Hebrew calendar is actually the first month of the Hebrew calendar.

This is meant to be the happiest month of the year; and joy is meant to be greatly increased during this month.

Anyone out there had any especially happy moments?

Later...

VOIP and Chemistry tests

Well, I now have set up Voice over Internet Protocol on my computer.

Go to Skype to set it up yourself. Click on this link to download it! link

This allows you to turn your computer into a telephone that works over the internet. That means that if you have a 24 hour internet connection, you can now make overseas telephone calls to other people with this software for FREE! If you have normal internet then it will only cost you the amount to make the call to connect to the internet to talk to people overseas.

This evening I chatted to my Uncle Jack in Jerusalem this way!

So, all of Sandra's friends and relatives, this could be an amazing way to keep in contact with Sandra, at worst, at the cost of a normal local telephone call.

Nice, hey!

Anyways, Sandra has a chemistry test tomorrow and I have spent the late evening quizzing her. So wish her luck!

later....

Greatly Exaggerated

The reports of Stevie being on this Monday's episode of Madam and Eve were greatly exaggerated.

However... he will be on an upcoming episode.

And apparently he is in the trailers of the show.

Stevie gets a full speaking cameo on television!

I have, to my surpise, seen Stevie twice on television. Both times were in adverts.

Well... Robbie just saw him in a trailer for the upcoming episode of Madam and Eve on Monday night on E.TV at 8:30pm!

because... Stevie has got a full speaking cameo role in this South African television series. The television series is called Madam and Eve, and its based on the cult South Africa daily newspaper cartoon of the same name. link

Here are some pictures and an in-depth analysis of the television show by the BBC. link

The show has won an international award.

Etv's Madam and Eve was selected from 19 entries from around the world to receive the second prize (a bronze rose) in the sitcom category at the 42nd Golden Rose Competition in Montreux, Switzerland. link

Tashi Tagg also got a small role in this television series, and she wrote about the entire process from the phone call telling you you have got the role to the rehearsal and the actual filming.

This is very interesting if you are interested in what Stevie must have gone through, in order to prepare, for the almost a minute that he appears on television screens; across South Africa; tomorrow night.

Last week I played a small role in Madam and Eve. You probably all know that Madam and Eve is a South African sitcom based on the comic strip of the same name, and I thought it would be fun to share what it's like behind the scenes on this kind of show. Through my eyes of course:).

Here is a link to her description of this process.

On other good news from the world of Stevie the University of Cape Town has hired him to direct the student production of Six actors in search of an Author by Luigi Pirandello!

Luigi Pirandello has won a nobel prize for his writings. link

An essential precis of the play according to London Online review :-

Luigi Pirandello received the Nobel prize for literature in 1934. It was awarded for his "bold and brilliant renovation of the drama and the stage." His first expolorations of his central theme, truth and reality, took the form of novels. Later he turned to theatre to continue that exploration, in 1921 writing Six characters in search of an author. The six characters have assumed a life off the page and are demanding an author to write them into a play, their original creator having given up the task. The characters object to the way actors act out their drama, implying that only they know the true sequence of events and can represent themselves best. This is the premise of the play, and characteristically for Pirandello its aim is to investigate levels of illusion and reality.

Here is a link to a full summary of the play (as well a brief analysis of each act.) link

Mazel Tov, Stevie!!!

Sandra now has three pairs of new shoes

This morning we went shopping at the Pavilion for new shoes for Sandra. She has been complaining for ages that she needs new shoes.

Now,.... shopping with Sandra is not an easy process.

It is not unusual for her to go shopping for hours and hours and try on thousands of items in millions of shops; and find nothing that is perfect.

Uggg....

Anyways,... after a lot of complaining by me, to please choose something since she says she needs them.

Now she has three new pairs, one pair of closed shoes, and two pretty pairs for going to fancy places. For example, next week Sunday, we are planning to go to the Marion Hill Monastory to listen to a classical music concert.

Sandra has also suggested that maybe we should get season tickets to the next season of the Natal Philharmonic Orchestra. Her violin teacher is a member of the orchestra and apparently she can get us quite a large discount. This would mean, that we would have nice seats; and that we would always sit in the same seats. A year ago I suggested the idea myself, but it was not met with incredible enthuisiasm. Now, that it is coming for her, I am quite pleased. So hopefully, soon our Thursday nights will include some classical music. Sandra already has the shoes she needs for Thursday evenings to be a success.

Sandra has a Chemistry exam in the coming week. Right now she is lying in bed with a tub of lemon cheesecake ice-cream and her chemistry textbook.

On Saturday morning we got a char to come and clean the flat. Sandra and her got on well. Her name is Star, and she used to work for Jenny many years ago. Anyways, she is coming again next Saturday. After that, if Sandra is still happy with her, she will come one day a week, during the week. Sandra thinks that Thursday may be the best day (if Star is happy with that day too.) This will be good, as Sandra does not have the time to clean. I do not either (and I do not know how, and when I do try - I always do it wrong.)

We also bought a 5000 piece puzzle this morning.

We both enjoy puzzling, so now there will be a puzzle in the lounge coffee table - for someone when they feel like puzzling a little bit. A 5000 piece puzzle, is quite a large puzzle, so it should entertain us for a few months at least. I find it can be quite relaxing to sit with a puzzle when I want take a break. (And its more constructive then staring at a television.)

My next assignment is a very difficult one. (Probably the most difficult). I need to take a deep breath, and start concentrating on it.

anyhows... later...

Another assignment done.

I set myself the goal of having an assigment finished before this weekend, and last night at twenty minutes to midnight I submitted my assignment on software project management. Wooohooo. I am making steady progress; but there is still the most difficult assignments to do. euuuuwch.

Its been raining the last few days, sometimes in downpours, which has made my drive to work and back a bit worrisome and difficult. Once or twice in the last few days its rained down so hard it has been difficult to see through the windscreen. This can be a problem when there are trucks and whatnots speeding at over 100km/h near you.

Last night I tried to help Sandra understand the different between distance, displacement, velocity and acceleration. She then had quite a simple graph of distance against time to analyse. If the physics does not get much more complicated than that, she should be O.K.

later...

Official Apology to the chihuahua!

I received the following official complant to my Daf Yomi post:

First of all I have to object to being characterized as "a modern orthodox friend". I am none of those. I really don't approve of modern orthodox as an appellation or as identity. And I am certainly not a friend of Ilan's whom I have never met.

I am a chihuahua, and it is my group.

Okay the group is actually managed by my owner's husband who is a friend of the blogger, but otherwise shares my opinions of modern orthodoxy. Also would not like to have my owner herself see him called modern orthodox because that could get him into trouble.

Also the blogger here should have linked the group or at least the thread so people could see the responses of other group memebers to his post.

I wonder what he thinks he's getting away with here. If I could reach him I would bite him.

In response.

(1) I apologise for incorrectly boxing this chihuahua into the modern orthodox appelation. He is whatever he says he is - and if anyone out there in the universe was misled by my label, I ask that you understand that I was wrong.

(2) Here is the link to the daf yomi group. link,

(3) I have appended the responses to that specific post to the Daf Yomi group. link.

(4) I will edit out the offending words from the original post
.
I hope you do, sir, accept my apology and do not dream about biting me any longer.

Cold Switzerland

I had not been checking my blog email address. But I discovered today that I have been receiving email on it. So I will start checking it on a regular basis.

One of emails I had received was from my Uncle Remond in Switzerland. He says its cold there and sent this picture.

He also recommends Marshall B. Rosenberg
"Nonviolent communication: A language of compassion" to all people who get angry with petrol station managers... as anger is not a good thing.

hmmph

On the weekend Sunday shopping I decided to try out the healthy jungle oats youghurt bars as a lunch time thingy to add to my lunch box.

I had one at lunchtime on Tuesday. It was delicious.

I got home. I decided I wanted to take a little nap.

I climbed into bed.....

...and found the bed full of empty jungle oats yoghurt bar wrappers.

Well, needless to say I did not have one for lunch today.

hmmph.

3% NaCl solution is more complicated than Nietszche

It also is isotonic to an onion cell. Well, that took me 3 hours on Saturday night to understand. It was important to Sandra from some reason.

I do now understand that the saline drip is 0.9% NaCl which is isotonic to blood. This is why this saline concentration is used when there is an intravenous drip stuck into my arm; (which has unfortunately been the case many times...). I now know that this is because distilled water is hypotonic to red blood cells and could cause them to explode or something; whilst a higher concentration of NaCl is hypertonic and would cause them to shrivel. I do find this more interesting than onion cells.

Unfortunately I did not get to go see the movie I wanted to see this weekend: Constantine. Hopefully, on Tuesday night I will.

I am half-way through my next assignment; which needs to completed before the beginning of the coming weekend if I keep to my tight schedule. Geez. I have not worked this consistently since first year university.

Sandra said something amusing this weekend.

She looked at me and said.

"Geez. This biology is difficult. I have never had any trouble understanding any university subject before... umm.. except for Nietzsche."

hmmm.

later...

2G or not 2G (But that was not even the question!)

On Friday night we went to the Bass's for Dinner.

Greg had bought a PC in 2000 and was just now running out of the space on his hard drive. A friend of his, gave him an old 6 Gigabyte hard drive that he had - on the basis that he would not be expected to help him install it.

I was there on Friday night, and Denzil suggested that I perhaps try add the hardware.

I decided to give it a go. We unscrewed the case. Upon unscrewing the case I discovered that there was not spare adapter plug to plug the hard drive in with. With most hard drive wires you get two adaptors - one for the primary hard drive and one for the slave of the hard drive. So, I had expected to find a free slave plug. But the CD-ROM was using that adaptor plug.

hmmmm. I thought. Lets just for now, see if I can get the computer to see the new hard drive. I unplugged the CD-ROM; and plugged the new hard drive in. Upon restarting, I then had a lot of trouble because the computer could not find any hard drives. I then plugged everything back in the way it was; and still it would not start.

This was strange.

Eventually, I discovered it was because the plug had not been pushed firmly enough in.

But then, when I went into the CMOS to discover the available hard drives - Denzil and I noticed a very strange thing.

The current hard drive. The 2 Gigabyte Hard drive Greg had bought 5 years ago, was being discoverd as a 6 Gigabyte Hard drive.

I asked Greg about this.

He said, "No. I definitely bought the 2 Gigabyte hard drive. The 6 gigabyte option at the time was expensive and I thought not worth the money. Anyway, the specs should be written clearly on the in-side cover of the box."

I looked on the inside cover of the box...

It read 4 Gigabytes.

So Greg paid for a 2 Gigabyte hard drive. And he had just run out of disk space - and needed more quite urgently.

The label on the inside of the box said 4 Gigabytes.

The CMOS initialisation was telling me that the hard drive actually had 6 gigabytes.

So I then went into windows and looked at his C: drive.
I saw that it had 2 Gigabytes of space and was very nearly full.

I then went into the command line and ran the FDISK utility.

It told me quite clearly that there was 6 Gigabyte hard drive it was aware of.
It also told me it had only created 2 Gigabyte C Drive primary parition and that it was only using 33% of its hard drive capacity.

So I created an extended partition of the rest of the hard drive. I then created a logical D Drive of 4 Gigabytes on that partition.

I then formatted the D: Drive.

And... hey presto...

Suddenly there was now a 4 Gigabyte empty D: Drive ready for use by Greg and others.

Greg's problem had been solved.

There was still a spare hard drive lying on the side of the table.

I told Greg, that the next time I come by, I will try and remember to bring a another plug to plug that 6 Gigabyte hard drive in... and then he would have a total of 12 Gigabytes free.

Greg was not fussed as the actual problem had been solved.

It seemed that when the computer vendor was told that Greg wanted to buy the cheaper 2 Gigabyte hard drive; he gave him the more expensive 6 Gigabyte hard drive - and only made the OS aware of 2 Gigabyte of it.

Quite bizarre.

But not as bizarre as my mother's question at the dinner table that evening...

She asked "What is the name of lake in which people see the Loch Ness monster?"

Anyways....

Later.

Daf Yomi Group

[updated on 10 March due to official complaint]

For those of you who are intrigued by this sort of thing - the 7 year cycle of the study of the Talmud ended and began again on Robbie's birthday (ie 2 March 2005.)

A modern orthodox friend of mine decided to start a "daf yomi" internet group. He is going to manage it, and make sure that every day there is some kind of discussion about the page being discussed that day.

I made this post to it this morning.

>
> Beth mentioned she tries to wrap her mind around the gemara's flow of
> consicousness.

I remember when I was still living in Israel, I was going to a specific yeshiva (whose name will not be mentioned). At that point I was also trying to understand the best way of meeting the talmud.

It appeared to me, at the time, that the talmud was an ongoing conversation about a subject which was never directly mentioned; filled by an incredible assumption of knowledge.

It also seemed to me that to join in to the conversation, meant adding to it - not only trying to understand it. This was one of the resting pillars of the chevruta system. Perhaps this group could also be viewed as such an addition?

It also appeared to me that upon memorisation ( I memorised a page or two of kishdushin ) that were various of levels of association that only become apparent when a piece of text is held in the imagination itself. But that, of course, may have only been my imagination.

But in any event, I discovered an incredible enveloping effect; that made me understand why, in my only particular interpretation, people refer to the "sea of talmud" - as, in a sense, I felt as if I had taken a few steps into the sea and... although I had only got my feet a little wet... the sound of the waves had already drowned out all other worldly sounds.



... then tells us twice in two different ways that it
> is important to "connect Geula to Tefila".



I am of the understanding that Tefila replaced the Temple sacrifices; and, that Geula is in essence, that lack of that Temple. Thus Tefila is the scar of exile, or in Deriddean terms, a "supplement." [Footnote 1]

When viewed in this way, Tefila is ultimately the sign of Geula. (At many different levels of metaphor and actualisation. ) Right?

> So we actually are learning something about tefilla from the melachim
> here (the paragons of tefilla from a certain perspective).

I am sure that once upon a time, I was told by a lamdan, that somewhere in the talmud, the rabbis' conclude that the names of the angels come from Babylon. By this, I was led to believe, that many of our people's "superstitions", or (If I wish to be more sensitive to people's "sacred cows" ) - "symbols by which through homilect/agadah certain principles are expounded" - such as heaven and hell; a dualism between messiah/G-d and devil/yucky guy; and, Tammuz (month names/Babylonian gods) - can be traced. The rabbis' of blessed memory when thus pointing out a historiucal understanding of how certain ideas came into Judaism, whilst using these ideas to explain concepts which are were not necessarily etymologically and religiously linked to these names. A prefiguration if you will, similar to how Christianity attempts to prefigure images in the Tanach to re-explain the Tanach to fit into its quite different religious mythologies.

I however, cannot provide a source for this assertion of mine - and perhaps the lamdan in question was incorrect.

Shabbat Shalom.

-- ilAn

Footnote 1: 'The French word *supplement* means both addition and replacement. The supplement both extends and replaces.', from Derrida for Beginners by Jeff Collins and Bill Maybin, Icon Books, 1996, p34.

As an aside to this footnote; interesting enough we pray for the end of geulah and the restoration of the Temple. But tefila's religious importance lies in its replacement of the Temple and the existence of Geula. Thus in a way tefila opposes itself i.e. we pray for the end of prayer. *ouch*

Jooppiidee Joop Joop

Last night for Robbie's birthday we went to Joop's place.

Here we all ordered the perfect fillet and pepper sauce steaks. My favourite, favourite favourite favourite, favourite meal.

(Except for Sandra who got a vegetarian platter.)

I gave Robbie the 2005 Guinness Book of World Records as a birthday present.

Sandra also got me to buy him a cake, into which she stuck three candles for the 30 year old.

The evening was a joy, and everybody was chatting away.

Sandra, about her courses...
Me, about my how clever I am...
Robbie and Daddy, about legal stuff...
Mommy was more listening to other people, than creating topics...

And all of us about the Shaik trial.

It was a lovely celebratory evening.

Tonight Sandra and I are going to the annual Homeopathy dinner and shin-dig at Kathmandu. (The bar not the country.)

So, tonight, I will get to meet some of the people she has talked about when telling me about her days at the DIT.

yada yada...

All A-OK (except for stupid petrol station managers)

My platelet count is approx. 236 (or 263). I cannot remember which. So thats good.

I went to get petrol this evening (after fetching Sandra from the DIT.) It was pouring with rain. Having filled up, the petrol attendant told me my petrol card had expired (by one day.) It expired at the end of February.

This is at the BP on Moore Road.

I said, well let me pay with my VISA card, since you have a shop here and can take VISA. Let me buy some money to pay you with. This stupid manager then came out to tell me he was going to charge me 5% of whatever money I "buy" for the service.

Arsehole.

So anyways, I agree. And then the attendant came back - saying my VISA card had been refused. I asked what the reason was. The ugly manager then said "Timeout, please try again...". So I said, "Please try again...".

He refused. He then said I needed to leave him with something valuable whilst I go and get the money. I offered him Sandra's student ID card. When he refused, Sandra asked him what on earth he wanted - did he want our house keys?

He refused that too (the idiot did not even appreciate that Sandra was being sardonic)...

He said he wanted something valuable enough that he would not risk being stolen from...

Geez... Arsehole...

So, I left him with my car and my wife and I walked across the road in the pouring rain to an ATM. At the ATM I used the exact same card to draw money.

I walked back, drenched, and gave the attendant cash.

I then marched into the BP 24 hour shop, and confronted the manager with many onlookers; whilst the attendant got my change.

I said my speech I had practised whilst walking through torrents of water.

"I drive approximately 700 kilometers every week. I generally always fill up with petrol at this garage.

I have been spending close to R1000 a month on petrol from this garage...

I cannot believe that my card could work across the road; and not work here.

But because of the unacceptable way you handled this situation, I will be taking my business elsewhere for at least 6 months; and probably much longer... this means that your behaviour has resulted in what seems to me to be significant lost revenue.

I just want you to clearly understand this."

When he nodded his head in an embarrassed understanding; I left.

Oh, I still paid the petrol attendant his tip.

And I have just completed another assignment this evening!

But I still have the darn headache.

later...

Baby Graham

One of my work colleagues is having a baby soon; and yesterday he received a rather Purimesque baby shower.

Strange.

I am feeling a bit out-of-sorts today. I also had a rather disturbing just-before-you-wake-up nightmare in which I woke up due to the alarm clock, and saw red petichiae on my arm. I was horrified as this meant that I would need to probably rush to the emergency at the Hospital.

But then the actual alarm went off, and I woke up and there were no little pink dots.

All in all, a horrible way to start the day. And I feel uggy. I think I will go and check my platelet count on my way home. I have had a headache for almost a week and a half now.

Blechhhhh.