Abury News

Gosh... we're well and truely into the second half of the year! I'm sorry that I haven't blogged often enough to cause some of you to restort to asking lotsa questions via email... and I still take a long time to reply. So here it is:

V has discovered a chiropractor, while who is getting a little too up close and personal for her personal comfort, seems to be making a difference to her aches and pains. And that's what counts.
S is doing well on the educational front although I think he's slacking by and not focused on getting the best of the situation. White kids don't have it easy. Pray that he'll finish the year strong!
M is only interested in one thing... making music! Sure he loves to hang out with his friends but I get the sense that if he could live in his bedroom all day long, he'd be a happy camper!
C is still pretty much at odds with us and her schooling reflects an indifferent and a somewhat defiant attitude. Please pray that the lights will come on... sooner rather than later!
I'm wondering what is going on. My employer is going through changes. Our context at home seems somewhat precarious. Our church support is somewhat shaky... which is never a good thing. We have some guest leaders from another church visiting us next month for some input. I'm praying for a break through!

And for my dear friend in Mesa... all I can say about your request for comment about SA being at a crossroad is 'amen!' SA is schizophrenic about apartheid, tolerance and service delivery. Some days it can behave so well and on others, it can yell in your face to leave the country if you don't like it! And I mean that literally... from the TV, some proud and pompous induhvidual will say that. Thank God there is a God. That He is the maker of heaven and earth. That in spite of any evidence to the contrary... we can have hope!

July 4th

It was yesterday. I kinda hate that day... cos it regurgitates lotsa memories, that generally get me moody. But it's nothing that a great hamburger and root beer couldn't fix!

Find myself beside a stream of empty thought
Like a leaf that's fallen to the ground
And carried by the flow of water to my dreams
Woken only by your sound

Alone I've walked this path for many years
Listened to the wind that calls my name
The weeping trees of yesterday look so sad
Await your breath of spring again

Far beyond the hills
Where earth and sky will meet again
Are shadows like an opening hand
Control the secrets
That I've yet to find, and wonder at
The light in which they stand

Lyrics from Wishbone Ash, "Leaf and Stream"

Being Intolerant

There's so many different worlds
So many different suns
And we have just one world
But we live in different ones^[1]

This kinda sums up nicely where SA is at right now. It amazes me how intolerant people are becoming. I mean it's bad enought that our freedom of speech is impaired and under scrunity whenever it is something 'political', especically when it comes to parody. Some people are way too sensitive and can't laugh at themselves. On the other hand we have xenophobia starting to manifest itself. Not good for the country. Or the unfortunate foreigners who find themselves victim of intolerance instead of a helping hand.

[1] Lyrics from Dire Straits, "Brothers in Arms"

The Sunday Times has graduated to a Post-Liberation newspaper

Freedom of speech... only if we say so!
David Bullard is being branded a racist for his Sunday Times column, which appeared on 7 April about an alternative South Africa had their been no colonisation by evil whites to disturb the rustic idyll of the locals. Mondli Makhanya, his editor axed him and speaking on Talk Radio 702 said the column was "extremely, extremely, extremely offensive" and "totally against the values of the Sunday Times and the country". Hmmm...

Are some people just blind? The media, Mr P Jordan and the Human Rights Commission can be rather hypocritical when it suits them. Can't they see that racism against whites is extremely offensive? Of course they can't! To such... it's about leveling the playing field and righting the wrongs of the past. It's about legalized programmes and agendas... by racial criteria 'nogal!' I think SA could've shaken off the shackles of apartheid by now had the ANC made policies along economic criteria instead and included all South Africans in their agendas. Certainly existing policies can be 'justified' but we're already a decade into demockracy and at the end of the day stuff still based on race is blatantly racial and such exclusivity is offensive!

But coming back to Mr B... he was hired to write satirical and scathing commentary of political figures and the SA scene. I wonder what the reaction would have been to a black journalist authoring that piece? It'll be a sad day when our local comedians are taken to the SAHRC just because someone can't handle fantasy!

I need heavy, heavy fuel!

yes if you wanna run cool
you got to run on heavy, heavy fuel^[1]

While this song has really nice melody, it's not the best song to be singing... but I like the sentiment, i.e. living on more than just whatever we're capable of or resources we may have. I guess at my age and where I'm at, I sometimes wish it were okay to partake in some natural herbs without being paranoid about being 'busted'. I guess that's why I like chilli and Habanero Sauce... they're legal ways to get a buzz without worrying about it. Although sometimes it does feel like one needs to do a handstand in the shower the morning after the night before.

I guess where all this is coming from is that "good thing" of mine and my thinking about marriages in general lately. Yes being married can be difficult at times. It also has wonderful times. I guess the issue is one of personal space and how much we are prepared to forgive and allow others, especially family, to invade that space and our heads.

[1] Lyrics from Dire Straits, 'Heavy Fuel'

"Everyone’s family seems crazy to an outsider"

Or is it being married that makes it so?
A quote from the character Jeff from the TV sitcom Rules of Engagement. I put it right up there with Third Rock from the Sun as one of my all-time fav shows. Jeff just does it for me. The last show I watched was where Adam's wacky-new-agey but very nice mother comes to visit them. I just crack up with Jeff's takes on life and marriage. Like when he talking to Adam about the early days of his wife (Audrey) and his mother's perspectives of marriage, "My mother feels that a wife should devote herself to her husband, greet him with a martini when he come home whereas... Audrey... is wrong!". Earlier on when Audrey was giving advice to Jen she says, "Jeff’s mother treats his dad like a king, which gives Jeff some hilarious expectations." Ahh... those languages of love.

It certainly is nice to be married. I've heard that married men live longer than single men but I'm pretty sure that married men are a lot more willing to die. Don't get me wrong, I say that light-heartedly. The mystery of this institution is simply that, a mystery but as a good friend (a marriage counsellor with an excellent marriage btw) who was often heard saying... why have a licence that doesn't have an expiry date other than death and never requires renewal? That should've been a clue right there but it came a little too late and there was a hint that something could be wrong on the wedding day when he saw his wife to be dressed in white and he was dressed in black and for a split second he wondered why that was so but then got distracted with actually getting married and only afterwards began the discovery of what being in love is all about. 'Cos that is what marriage is really about. But selfishness being what it is manifests and distracts from the true purposes of that wonderful but hectic thing called marriage and makes for such funny sitcoms like these.

"Sue the mothers"

and Vista proves that Microsoft have post the llot!
I was doing one of my periodic browses at Security Now (I'm a Steve Gibson fan) and came across this quote in Episode #93 (24 May 2007). It's from a transcript between Steve Gibson & Leo Laporte concerning software patents. Their discourse was triggered by Microsoft's declaration that since free and open source software was infringing their software patents, someone ought to be paying them. Yeah... right!

"STEVE:  And I think similarly there were original innovations in the industry that would qualify as being special enough that the company who produced it could get money for it. And after a while they just became the way things are done. And so people who are really anti-Microsoft say that Microsoft is beginning to turn to litigation because they’ve run out of creativity. And so they’re going to do what old, mature companies do."
"LEO:  Sue the mothers."

And that is why I just love LinuxMint. I hate being asked 'what's the best Linux?' That's not the right question. It's like 'what's the best car?' Find the one that works for you. Most car's will get one from A to B. The difference between one model and the next is how much are you willing to pay for the experience? While Linux has a 'free' context that doesn't mean that it's cheap, actually it's worth a lot of dollars that you get at a huge discount... like 100% most times! Comparing the $ cost of Linux to the $ cost of Microsoft is what gets me excited about using Linux. Not only is it hugely cost-effective but cost for cost why would you want to buy something that doesn't work that well in the first place. Listen... on occasions Linux also gives one serious headaches but the value it provides far outweighs that and in general it just works! Whereas you're paying Microsoft for those headaches! IMHO.

There's a saying that when you know better... you can do better! At least one has the option. The problem is for those that don't know better. They don't have that option! And umm... did I mention that I'm a MCSE? At work that is. At home, well... I'm at home!

How time flies...

I remember an article about one of my fav futurists, Raymond Kurzweil. He had developed this AI and asked, "What does time flies like an arrow mean?" One of the responses was, "that there is a sub-species of flies know as time-flies and they have a fondness for things called arrows." I thought it was pretty funnny...

Given this particular day... here's my sentiment...

Hi there, how are ya? It's been a long time
Seems like you've come a long way
My how we learn so slow
And heroes they come and they go
And leave us hind as if we're s'posed to know
Why do we give up our hearts to the past?
And why must we grow up so fast? ^[1]

That about sums it up for me!

[1] Lyrics by Joel Walsh

Fair-Ohs are African champs!

Ghana, Africa. 10 Feb 2008.
Egypt successfully defended the African Nations Cup (for football) by overcoming a physically tough challenge and beating four-times champions Cameroon in the final with a goal just 13 minutes from end time. The Egyptians extended their record number of titles to six. As for Banana-Banana they slipped down to last place in their Group D listing, so didn't make the knockouts but hey... if the USA can beat SA, I'm not surprised. Well done Fair-Ohs! Roll on 2010!