Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Photo Hosting

Yup, I was right - my photo hosting site no longer knows me. I don't know why; but my username and password doesn't work any more, and when I try to get my password e-mailed to me it says that it's doesn't have any user data for my e-mail address :-(

This really should be easier than it is.

Wot I Did This Week

Actually it's been a fairly busy week. Firstly there's work - we're busy doing system testing on the project we've worked on all year, so on the one hand it's fairly boring, but on the other hand it gets quite interesting at times. But to be honest, I enjoy going to work. I enjoy the work that I do (it changes enough that you don't get bored with it, but stays stable enough that you can become the expert on your section of it - for example, I do Crypto, and I've done various crypto-related components and apps through the year; now I'm doing system testing for the entire project); and I like the people I work with and the general vibe at the office. In fact, it works out this year that if I take two and half days leave, I get to be on holiday from midday on 22 December all the way through to 2 January, except that I almost don't want to because I'll miss being at work! Note that the operative word there is almost ... Of course, I'll also miss the adsl connection at work - I've only got dial-up at home, which is so slow (and expensive, since we pay a fortune for local calls) that it's not really worth it for doing anything beyond checking mail once a day.

So what else happened this week? Well, I sold my scooter, finally. I put it in the Cape Ads on Thursday, and the first people who phoned to ask about it actually bought it. So Friday morning I had to go get the change of ownership forms, and it was officially sold on Friday night. It's a bit sad, really ... it was a good bike, but I haven't even ridden it since I started the using the Kymco regularly, so it would be pointless to hang on to it. But then I do tend to become emotionally attached to stuff - apparently, when I was little, my parents sold the pram which I'd outgrown, and I cried terribly when they took it away. Of course, I have no proof of this, so I maintain that it's simply viscious slander ;-)

Also I went to the Dionysos festival at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens yesterday. It's really cool - they have an open air theatre, in the gardens (which is on the side of Table Mountain), and each year they perform an Ancient Greek play. So the setting is similar to how the Greeks would have seen it, and to make it more authentic it's performed just after sunrise. It's really a great experience (despite having to wake up ridiculously early). This is the 3rd year they've done it, and I've been to all of them so far. Last year they did Oedipus Rex, by Euripides, and the year before they did ... oh, now I've fogotten the name. But it's the one where Pentheus spies on the women - the Bacchae, that's it! Actually, that was the one b y Euripides, so who wrote Oedipus Rex, then? - and then gets torn apart by them while they're under the influence of Dionysos. Those were both great, but this year they did The Birds by Aristophanes. That would have been okay, but they tried to modernise it and make it relevant to the audience, which spoiled it. For example, one of the birds was a turkey - leading to one the characters to comment that it's an anachronism because America hasn't been discovered yet. And all the South African cultural references - the "long walk to freedom", how someone had a dop too many, the references to braaing snoek. Not to mention that instead of the traditional chorus (which is chanted, more than sung) they had background music and the lyrics were set to contemporary music, such as Singing in the Rain and some Gilbert and Sullivan songs. I understand what they were trying to do - the jokes and references would have been relevant to the Greek audience, so they were trying to provide us with that kind of authentic experience where the jokes and references were relevant to us. But if I wanted to see a contemporary South African comedy, I wouldn't have gone to see an Ancient Greek play. The actors were pretty good, though, especially the guy who played the pelican (Ryan Coetsee, according to the program) - he had all the little bird noises and motions down pat - and the guy who played Tereus (Johan Baird), but the guy who played Euelpides had such a heavy accent that you really had to concentrate to hear what he was saying. Anyway, it was okay, but next year I hope that they go back to a more traditional interpretation of whatever play they end up doing.

On the subject of Greek plays, I'd recommend Tom Holt's "The Walled Orchard" and "Alexander" to anyone who's interested in Ancient Greek life and theatre in particular - it's funny, and as far as I know it's a fairly accurate depiction of life in Ancient Greece.

So what else happened? I put up my tree and finished my Christmas shopping (now I just need to wrap the presents, but that's fun); I watched Team America (which was absolutely hilarious, although I still can't quite decide it was satire or propaganda); and that's probably it. So not a bad week, all round.

It's starting to look a lot like Christmas

I put up my christmas tree today, and all that, and as the song says,"It's starting to look a lot like Christmas". It doesn't really feel like Christmas, though, and I'm not sure why. Normally I'm really pumped for christmas, but this year it all just seems ... distant, I guess. It's probably partly because I bought most of my presents when I was in the US in October, so I haven't had much christmas shopping to do; it's probably partly because we've been quite busy at work (although we're going to the Mount Nelson for Christmas lunch on Wednesday ... yum yum!). And partly I blame the shops - they start with the christmas decorations and christmas music and christmas merchandise and christmas food so early[1] that you kinda learn to ignore it because you know it isn't even near Christmas yet - and then suddenly it is, and it's as though you've been caught unawares, even though the shops have been building up to it for ages.

But I've put up the tree, and decorated the house, and put batteries in my singing Santa ("Let's twist again, like we did last Christmas ... Ho ho ho ho"). My tree's quite cool, because it's one of those fiberoptic ones, so when it's switched on it's really colourful. It looks a bit boring switched off - I think I need to get bigger ornaments, because the ones I've got on it now get a bit lost. And it's a bit crooked, because the clever people who made it tried to fit a 1.2m tree into a 0.9m box. Which they accomplished by bending over the top 30cm or so at a right angle so that it would lie across the top of the box. I dunno. So I've straightened it as much as I could, but there's still a slight lean to one side near the top.

I'll try to take some photos to put up here, but I suspect that the place I use for photo hosting may have suspended my account due to inactivity. I really wish that blogger would just come up with some simple solution, like hosting the photos themselves.

[1] My local Pick'n'Pay is already selling Hot Cross Buns, can you believe it.

Hungry elephants in the roof

So it turns out that the elephants in my roof have been chewing on the wiring. This explains why my alarm went off yesterday morning, and again this morning. What's odd is that both times it was triggered just as I got to work ... methinks the elephants are waiting until I leave for work, make sure I'm not going to come back in because I forgot something, and then climb down out of the roof and have a party.

Elephants in the roof

Over the last couple of days, I've become aware that there is something living inside my roof. At first I thought it was a mouse, then I decided it sounded more like a bird. At five in the morning, though, it sounds more like a large cat. And it seems to get louder (and thus sounds larger) every night.

I'm going to put rattex or something up there, but I have to work up the courage first - I'm afraid that if I open the trapdoor a baby elephant might jump out at me.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

This post actually has nothing to do with the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - it just seemed like a good way to bring up the subject of my motorbike. But that's okay, because the book actually had nothing to do with either Zen or Motorcycle Maintenance, so I'm just keeping up the tradition.

I love my motorbike. I've been riding for about 6 years now, half of that on a 100cc Adley scooter, and almost all the other half on a 125cc Kazuma scooter. And while I definitely enjoyed riding, I have to admit to feeling a little bit too old for a scooter. But because they were both automatic, I was a bit nervous about getting a bike that actually required changing gears. I bought one recently, though, and while it took a bit of getting used (see one of my earlier blogs), it really does become second nature really quickly, and after riding it a couple of times it was really difficult to go back to riding the scooter - I kept wanting to change up to get more power! Now I've been riding the new bike - a Kymco Hipster 125; cruiser style, black and chrome, very nice - and I'm really enjoying it. It's got a lot more power than the scooter, you don't feel a bit silly riding it, and it's got a lot more power. And it's cool. It's still only a 125, but I'm happy with that - at least, I was until now.

Now I'm thinking more upmarket. Unfortunately, my licence only allows me to ride up to 125cc, so if I want to ride a bigger bike I need to get a new licence :-( And seeing as I've been putting off getting my car licence for the last year or so, I really should do that first. And I really hate going for tests. But I'm thinking that it may be worth it - the Hipster can get up to a decent speed, but the acceleration is a bit slow. It's not so noticeable in heavy traffic, but I rode home with a friend from work today, who just got a Honda VFR400 - now that thing's fast. Now I'm jealous ;-)

Even just with the Kymco, though, I'd like to join a bike club. It's really fun riding with other people, as opposed to just yourself - even if it's just a short ride - and I could do with meeting new people too. But I don't really know any of the clubs in Cape Town, and I'm not exactly your stereotypical biker. I'm sure most people aren't, actually, but you should have something in common with the club members apart from the bikes, and I don't think there're any clubs oriented to software-developers-in-their-late-twenties-who-don't-drink-much-and-only-have-a-125cc :-) I didn't do the Toy Run this year, although I did go down to Maynardville afterwards to walk around, look at the bikes, etc. But it's really something that's more fun to do with a group of people - or even just one other person - rather than by yourself. But next year I'm definitely going to the actual run; I should have done it this year, but I wasn't confident enough to ride with 6000 other bikes. Now I feel confident enough - never mind that it's only a week later ;-)

I'll probably end up blogging about my bike a lot, but while I'm on the subject (and because it's currently playing on winamp), for some reason "Build me up Buttercup" by ... actually I don't know (but definitely not the version by Mean Mr Mustard) is, to me, the quintessential motorbike song. Don't ask me, because it doesn't actually have anything to do with motorbikes, but it just seems like a such a cool song to sing along to while riding. Probably because they used it in an advert on tv that also had a motorbike in it, so they've become linked in my mind. If I had to make a bike-rdiing playlist, that'd be on it - along with a lot of Guns n Roses and Alice Cooper, and probably some Def Leppard, and, without a doubt, Maroon 5. I'd love to listen to mp3s while riding, but then I'd want it really loud (so that I can sing with, but not hear myself, because I'm really no good at singing) and I wouldn't be able to hear any of those essential traffic noises. Oh well.

Back To Blogging

So it's been a really long time since I last blogged anything, and there're quite a few reasons for that. But I've decided to give blogging another try, if only for the opportunity to ramble on about my thoughts (read as: nothing in particular) without boring my friends and family. A blog is a strange thing - by it's nature, it's completely public; but to a degree it's also quite private because of it's anonymous nature - you probably don't know me, except by what you read here. And it also seems private because there's not much two-way conversation - sure, you can leave comments if you like, but if you don't, I don't know if anyone's even reading this. I could come up with some metaphor about releasing a post onto the net, in the same way that a small child might release a paper boat onto a river, never knowing whether it sinks around the corner, just out of sight, or whether it sails on to the sea, with other people noticing it on it's long journey - but I won't ;-)

But it is public, and while the odds are that no-one will read this, someone might - and would I really be writing this if I didn't think someone might read it? Possibly, but that's another issue - and while the odds are the someone who might read this doesn't know me, it's possible that they do. It's easy enough to google on my name and find this blog. And what you might not mind strangers reading, you might mind people you know reading - or vice versa, I guess. And what you might not mind friends and strangers reading, you wouldn't particularly want future employers, or your parents, or your children (if you have any) to read. So a blog is a very contradictory medium.

My aims with this blog hopefully aren't too contradictory - it's a place to put my thoughts, whether anyone reads them or not; it's a place where strangers or friends can maybe get to know me a bit better; it's a place where, if I ever do anything interesting, I can post about it and point friends and family to the post rather than having to repeat myself; and it may even, at times, be a place to say things that I would like people around me to know, but don't have the opportunity (or, in some cases, the guts) to say in real life - with the added advantage that I don't actually know if they've seen it, and they can choose to pretend that they haven't ;-)

The down side of this, which is some of the reasons that I gave up blogging before, is that firstly it takes a lot of time. More than you realise, and more than you intend when you sit down to write a quick post. Secondly, I tend to think about things while I'm riding my motorbike, or just before I fall asleep at night - not really a convenient time to haul out your laptop, or switch on your PC, or try to tap out a post on your PDA. So what I'd do before was make notes on a piece of paper, sometimes - but part of the function of blogging is as cathartic experience, and by the time I'd made detailed enough notes that I'd remember what I wanted to say in the morning, I lost the emphasis behind the idea and didn't really feel the need to go and post it. Which brings me neatly to another reason that I stopped blogging - that last sentence reminded me of a Snoopy cartoon (I actually have it on a noticeboard in my office) which I'd like to include here, except that it's such a mission to include pictures in a blog post. I have an account at a picture hosting site, but I have to log in there, find the picture, upload it, get the url, then post it in here with an tag (which I always forget the syntax for, even though it's ridiculously simple!). So a lot of the time it's just not worth the bother, since (like now), I'm typing this on my work laptop which I brought home for the weekend and which isn't connected to the net. But in the absence of the cartoon itself, I'll try to describe it: Snoopy's lying on top of his doghouse, at night; then he's lying on top of his doghouse, in the day - and he's saying to himself: "When you think about something at 3:00 in the morning ... and then again at noon the next day ... you get different answers." Which is true not only for coding (the reason I have it in my office), but also for deep thoughts in general - so maybe it's a good thing that I can't blog in the middle of the night when I can't sleep and lie there thinking deep thoughts about nothing in particular :-)

Anyway, given that I've just bought a laptop backpack, I can now bring my laptop home on my motorbike whenever I like - although it's pretty heavy, and I don't think I'll be doing it every day. But I'll probably bring it home every Friday, and I'll try to make a point of blogging at least once over the weekend, because I'm sure that there are millions of you out there waiting eagerly to hear what happened during the week ;-)