String theory

This (xkcd) brought tears to my eyes. Literally. It's an absolute gem of a webcomic find.

Here comes the sun

A good news story from the CSIR - some researchers are studying solar disinfection of water. This would be an easy way to ensure much safer drinking water for many people in sub-saharan Africa, and would hopefully dramatically reduce fatalities in children.

Why I don't comment

Most of my friends have livejournal accounts. This appears to be an
accident of history. Anyway, I use iBurst to access the 'net. (Because Telkom, don't-get-me-started, took over 5 MONTHS to install just a normal phone line in
our house, and an adsl line would have taken some months more). But iBurst apparently,
at least from my location, accesses the 'net via some dodgy relays. Sooo, if I try to post to a livejournal account, I get the following message:


Your IP address (196.2.124.251) is detected as an open proxy (a common source of spam) so comment access is denied. If you do not believe you're accessing the net through an open proxy, please contact your ISP or this site's tech support to help resolve the problem.


Now I have asked them to fix this, repeatedly - but it seems that they don't understand the problem. *sigh*. So I'm going to keep this site updated with my progress. That way, eventually, when I have a real category of the ills of iburst, I will mail just the URL of the latest, scathing blog-post to their tech-support, and possibly to some of their marketing people too.

Anyway, as of today, I have mailed them at least twice - and have spoken directly to their sysadmin once, in the past few months. No progress.

Going for it

Today in our strategy session at work, about how to work as a team from shared values, the facilitator stressed how one has to commit to one's goals - how only by committing to them can one set in motion all sorts of synchronous events and energies that can help you achieve your goals.

He had a very cool quote about it, too, but I can't remember who from. Anyway, I've decided to actively pursue a new job. I really don't handle the commuting at all well. And while the strategy and planning sessions are encouraging, I don't hold out a hell of a lot of faith in our research group leader actually being able to usefully implement any of our grand ideas.

So, today I've emailed my updated CV to the Midrand branch of my old Cape Town employer, and I'm taking a copy to my doctor tomorrow. His son-in-law runs some high-tech company in Jo'burg, and my doctor (who is a really really nice man) has told him to look at my CV. Hey, who knows...?

I've also decided to do something about the dreaded "orange-peel thigh"syndrome. Recently, while watching a home video of myself swimming with my kid, I noticed that the thighs left a bit to be desired. So ....... ta-dah!..... I've bought a swimming skirt! It's fantastic - a virulent pink nylon skirt that is so hideously garish to behold that no-one will want to look at it for long enough to notice that I even have thighs under there - let alone what shape they are.

Roll on chocolate brownies.....