The rape of Mr Smith

I was going through a pile of my old papers a while back and I found a mock interview I had written out (from the net), of a guy who had been mugged. The interview is making a point about rape and how rape victims are treated. I looked about and found a similar interview on the net here. Its worth a read, I think.

Photo Blogs

I love photo blogs. Roger's blog is an excellent example. But then, he takes spectacular photos too, so maybe his blog isn't typical. At any rate, I don't have a digital camera so a full photo blog is not viable (and I recently lost most of the data, including photos, on my laptop due to a monumentally stupid "upgrade" attempt). Nonetheless, let me entertain you with the few photos I have hanging around on my hard drive.

The picture at the top is of my third year "Control and Optimasation" math class. From the left: Me (not the best picture!), Dr Remsing (lecturer), Harold, Adam, Razvan. Sitting upstairs in the math library, after a lecture. Aaah yes, back when I was an undergrad. Adam used to bring jelly math shapes to tuts.

Public Service Announcement

This announcement brought to my blog-reading public, dedicated to Jateen in response to his comment on my previous post.

I am, in the eloquent words of Oliver, a parsimonious shopper. I feel
strongly about paying the smallest possible amount for any given product.
This leads me on trails through Checkers, Clicks and Pick 'n Pay in search
of the cheapest possible All Bran Flakes, for example, or specials on Lux
Soap.

Last week my quest was for toilet paper. I usually get the plain 1-ply
Twinsaver, and that was my plan on this occasion. Since I was doing a big
bi-weekly shop, I thought I may as well buy bulk and keep costs down. So I
found sets of 4 rolls of toilet paper, and put one in my basket. I casually
looked at the single rolls to see how much money I was saving by buying in
bulk.

To my horror, I saw that it is, in fact, cheaper (per item) to buy single
rolls of Twinsaver toilet paper than the packets for four. We are being had.

Let me repeat that, as a warning to you all:
It is cheaper, per roll, to buy single rolls of 1-ply twinsaver toilet paper
than to buy packs of four.

Do not be taken in! Buy single rolls!

Umbrellas

I've been meaning to post this for an age and a half, so here goes.

The other day (now probably a month back), I was walking in a light rain, under my umbrella. As I was walking, I heard swish-swish, swish-swish coming from above me. I noticed that the swish-swish-es were in time with my steps, so I thought it may be the umbrella clasp swishing against the unbrella as I walked. I look at the clasp and it wasn't moving, so I discarded that explanation. So I thought, perhaps the rain is swishing off the umbrella with the up-and-down motion of my steps. I looked carefully and there really wasn't enough water on my umbrella to be doing that. So I was thouroughly stumped. I tried turning my umbrella different ways and all sorts, and couldn't figure it out.

Until I realised that the sound I was hearing was from my shoes, that had absorbed a bit of water and were somewhat squishy. Why was I hearing it from above me then? I can only assume that my umbrella was acting as a bit of a lens for the sound of my shoes, reflecting it back to my ears... so it sounded like it was coming from above.

Bizarre. Or can anyone else offer another explanation?

Wallpaper

A month or two ago I saw a friend of mine (Lester) had a world map inside the back cover of his diary. Naturally, I now need to own a diary with a world map inside the back cover. Unfortunately, it appears that these diaries cost of the order of R100, as opposed to other diaries with similar functionality which cost around R30. So the miser in me won and I bought the ~R30 diary. I resolved to draw a pretty world map to stick inside the back cover, but never got around to it. Also, it would be difficult because it would be alot of detail in a smallish map, if I wanted country and capital names, which I do.

Anyway, I put it behind me. But a couple of days ago it occurrec to me that I could get a world map (with country names and capitals!) as a wallpaper for my laptop. And actually, thinking about it, I only really want Africa, not the whole world. So I downloaded an appropriate picture off the web, altered it a bit so it didn't distort to fit on my screen. And now I have a map of Africa (with country and capital names!) for my wallpaper (at the top of this post).

I've already learned 3 capitals:
Mozambique - Maputo
Malawi - Lilongwe
Tanzania - Dar es Salaam

Global warming?

Global warming... it is us pumping gas into the atmosphere, or is it nature just getting on with things? Try this interview.

This post is the short version of a post which I accidentally deleted... Please let me know if you have any thoughts on the interview!

Peas and Sweet Corn

I was making cottage pie for supper tonight (it was yummy) and I made some veg to go with it. I was boiling the frozen pea-and-sweet corn mix, when I noticed that the peas and corn seemed to separate into pea regions and corn regions. So I thought maybe they just came out of the packet in frozen pea clumps and frozen corn clumps... So I swished the peas and corn around a few times in the pot and true's bob, every time they soon separated into pea regions and corn regions again. Bizarre. My theory version 1.0 is that the corn is lighter than the peas, so it gets caught in the currents in the boiling water and ends up together.

Eyebrow disaster

This morning I went to get my eyebrows shaped, tinted, and my eyelashed tinted. I have never plucked my eyebrows before - they are almost invisible so I felt no need. So today was my first eyebrow plucking experience... *ack* !! Why on earth would someone regularly do this to themselves?!?

As for the eyebrow tint. Oh dear, dear me. Dear, dear, dear me. Enough said.

The eyelashes are okay, nice actually :)

Otherwise, in my life:
I am at home, in East London. My brother is at home too, and he is also doing well. He is chilling in anticipation of more chemo next-next week. Which isn't the greatest to look forward to, but it will be a much lighter dose than the ealier ones. So if you're wondering what to pray for, the next round of chemo would be good... that it killes the remaining cancer. And that his bone marrow biopsy at the end of January is all good, and shows he is altogether in remission. And for provision for all the bills :)

Thanks to everyone who did a million things for me and John and my family. To the guys who came to the prayer meetings (especially the early morning ones!), thank you so much. And all the other people I know were praying. And all the people who helped with practical stuff, like sending John stuff or organising things, or helping me out when I was going to Cape Town. And probably even more things I can't think of off hand. Thank you.

Update

I haven't blogged in a while. I expect that most of you have been following my cousin Megan's blog to see how John is doing - its much more regular and thorough than mine! There is a link on the right if you haven't been before.

John is doing well. He finished his second run of chemo today and he is okay. Bit of yuckiness, sore eyes returning, nausea, but okay.

I am going to Cape Town tomorrow, hooray. I'm getting a lift, which has its pro's and con's. Its funny, but in a way I have grown fond of the bus.

Bus pros:

• its overnight so you don't waste a day
• you can read
• you can sleep, or at least doze
• you can look at lots of different towns
• you can ponder life, talk to God, rest - things their aren't enough of in my days

Bus cons:

• bus smell
• potentially dodgy people on the bus with you
• scary toilets
• late busses

Car pros:

• good company
• fun stops
• aircon, if you have it!
• your own timing

Car cons:

• you can't sleep really
• you often have to wake up horribly early

D-Day

Well, today is D-day for John. He has been in the flat with my mom, recouperating, for just over a week. At about 4 today he is going back to the hospital for more tests to see if he is ready for the next round of chemo.

I'm hoping he is! And I'm hoping for a good report, that he will be home soon.

Chantel asked me yesterday about the possability of John continuuing treatment in East London. I checked with my mom - she says that yes, he will continue with treatment in EL, but only the oral stuff. Anything they have to give him intravenously will be done in Cape Town, via J-line.

Will keep you all posted about the test outcome!

Just another day at the flat

An update on how my brother is doing:
He is still at the flat with my mom. He went in for blood tests on Monday and his WBC was still 1.3, as it was last Thursday. Hwever, his platelet count was high wich is great. Unfortunately the WBC wasn't high enough to start the next round of chemo. So he is just waiting at the flat for his WBC to increase. He is going in for tests again on Monday, so I hope that his counts will be high enough to start the next chemo then. Of course, chemo isn't something to look forward too, but the faster hings move the faster John comes home, and that is something to look forward too! People generally have between 4 and 9 rounds of chemo, with recovery period between. May it not be so long for John!

The (wonderful) comp sci department gave John some sort of 3G modem. !!! Very generous - thanks to Prof Wells and the department. So John has been trying to set that up. Its been a bit impossible though, because I have Fedora on my laptop and there are no drivers for the 3G card. (I am not a CS fundi, so I may b missing something here. Nonetheless, you get the point.) So Chris is going to download the Linux drivers which seem to be available on the Nokia website, hoorah. So that should be great for John when it gets down to him on Friday.

Generally, John is feeling rather good at the moment. Going for short walks, reading, eating my mom's cooking. Just chillin'

Fantastic News

Some fantastic news came in this afternoon! John's WBC was measured again today, and it was 1.3 -which is good. But the great news is that he can go home to the flat for a few days! Fantastic :)

Also, Nathan (on the left in the picture) has gone to visit John in Cape Town. He arrived this morning from Grahamstown on the bus (thats real devotion), and is leaving for home tomorrow afternoon. I bet he didn't expect so much excitement when he saw John! I expect they have been running around making preparations for John to go to the flat. He needs a "low microbial" diet, which basically means nothing that may have bacteria in it, that could take him out with his low WBC. So no yoghurt unfortunately.

Sunflower

I thought I'd better do another long overdue post on how my brother is doing! Megan's blog is great, very thorough, so I'm not sure that these is so much that I can add, but I will do anyway! Please do comment if you are reading this, so I can know to carry on.

I chatted to John for a while this evening, and he is doing well. At the moment he is sitting in the Sunflower Ward, the Haematology ward, recovering from the chemo from a few weeks ago. Actually, things have been going well. His eyes have cleared up alot, so they are not so light sensitive. You can see his eyes from a few weeks ago on the left there - looking pretty scary with most of the white red! Last I saw his there were still patches of red around his iris, but it was much better. I'm sure its even better now. So he is able to read now, which is fantastic, and he can concentrate for longer and go for walks in the garden periodically, which is great. There are several fairly scary ducks in the garden. The only problem with going for walks in the garden is that you have to lug this huge drip stand around and are fearful of falling and putting your J-line out, which would be nasty. So a nice sedate walk through the garden it is, no chasing the ducks :)

He is also feeling alot better in th evenings. For the last week or two he has been starting to feel yuck mid afternoon and by the evenings he often feels terrible. Last Friday night was horrible for him. But these past two nights have been much better.

Tomorrow is blood test day (Tuesday and Thursday), so we will get to see what his blood is doing - the big question. What he should have is White blood count (WBC) about 4.6, Red blood count (RBC) about 10 or something, I forget, and platelets about 120. I think I am making us the red blood count though. At any rate, his WBC was 0.8, 0.9, 0.9, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9 etc. for ages. It went up to 1.4 last week, but was 0.9 again on Tuesday. So tomorrow will tell again... I look forward to a WBC of 3 :)

Its a bit of a weird position to be in, waiting for your body to do something you have absolutely no control over (except to pray, of course). Normally, when you are sick you wrap up, have some soup and some meds, relax a bit, sleep a bit, and things come right. There is something you can *do* to quicken your recovery. Well, there is nothing (I know of) that you can do personally to make your bone marrow make white blood cells quicker! So its a bit of a weird situation. But as I said, you can pray, and that is what we have been doing! No one whose hope is in the Lord will ever be put to shame.

John

About 2 weeks ago my brother was diagnosed with leukemia.

This is him looking very sickshortly after they flew him to Cape Town, to the Constantiaberg mediclinic. He had just had surgery to put in something called a J-line, which puts the chemo (and various other stuff) directly into your jugular. You can see part of it under his chin on the left in the picture.

He is looking alot better now, and doing alot better. That initial surgery was rather hectic, with his body not dealing to well with it. One of the reasons that his body didn't deal so well with it was that his platelet count was so low he wasn't clotting, so little problems = big bleeding.

I'm going to see him in Cape Town again tomorrow, so I probably won't be able to give people too much news from there (and Megan is doing a fantastic job with her blog), but I will post when I can to keep people updated! I know that lots of people are wanting news of my brother.

Cultural evening

So the cultural evening (for which I was making vetkoek) was a couple of weeks ago now, and it was a big success!

The picture of the right is of our beautiful MC, Romona (left), and two of our pastors, Lester (centre) and Tendai (right). More pictures available here.

And the food came together nicely, I think. Thanks to my amazingly patient and super helpful digsmates! Sandra ended up making the vetkoek. We all had some part to play in the tomatoe relish stuff. Minoshni made ALL of the bean curry (!!) and the lassie. And Amanda and Mutsa and Tsungayi all helped out chopping the slightly dodgy mielies. And my brother gave up an evening of what should have been work to braai the mielies and wors!
Thanks you guys :)

Vetkoek

I am busy trying to make vetkoek for the Cultural Evening at church on Sunday. Well, tonight is the test run. good thing I did a test run because nothing is working. The stupid vetkoek burns on the outside and is still soggy on the inside. Yuck. And my tea tastes funny. And I feel sick from eating so much test half-cooked vetkoek. Yuck. Bleh. And my tea tastes really funny. Why does is taste funny? Maybe its because I used full cream milk instead of low fat. Either way, the fact remains that it tastes funny. And now I need to start (yes, start) making tomatoe relish stuff for said cultural evening. At least I know how to make tomatoe relishy stuff. But the kitchen is a huge mess now. Should I just push everything into the corner and make tomatoe stuff or should I wash first? Well, in order to get to the sink I would have to wade through the supper dishes which would be a mission, so perhaps I will just push to the side for now.

Test post

Testing testing how this whole blog thing works

A blog

I finally gave up and got a blogspot blog. Here it is. Hello world.