My thoughts

It is that time of the year again, where I find myself in my parents home. The joy of this is that I can sleep in, eat more and definitely more tv. The down side is that there is absolutely no personal space. You are constantly bombarded with people talking, asking you questions and wanting your opinion on very trivial issues. After all these if I am asked if I will come back at the end of next year the answer will be absolutely.

Hello every one, sorry I went M.I.A for a while. This is what happens when there are deadlines to meet and people's feet to kiss. There is not much happening apart from the usually things, which are finding new ways to figure out something that nobody will use and different ways to 'eliminate' my boss/supervisor. I am not writing to vent about my boss today he has been quite nice. I don't know if he suspects that I want to drop out or his plans for me next year are so evil he cant help feeling sorry for me. Whatever the reason is, I am on red alert. I mean he told me "good job", he never says things like that ever. Something is up and I know it. The Scribbles Like I said this post is not about my supervisor. This post is about an honest opinion. So I have these three little scribbles  on my wall in the office. I draw when I am frustrated and want to think happy thoughts, doesn't really work but I still do it anywhere. So I have people come in a...

This is what I walked into today when I got to the office. A correction of my work. Not a very good and pleasant morning after all. p.s. This is just one out of 19 pages

The little white particles are the snow fall The very first snow I have ever witness occurred last week Tuesday. Just discovered the picture I took on that faithful day. This goes to show that global warming is real because snow does not fall in Pretoria. Did I mention it is freezing now because of a snow fall that did not last more than 20 minutes.

A few posts ago I mentioned that I had rediscovered my love for reading novels. This is true I did but I did not act  on as as I thought I would. I read a few books here and there but nothing concrete. That was a good thing because it meant I had time to concentrate on my research that would change the world as we know it . All these bare minimum novel reading came to an end last week when I discovered the evil called ibooks app on my ipad. I always knew it was there but I never knew what power it possessed. I didn't know I could have as many books as I wanted on that thing. Until last week the only thing I had on the app were pdf files of crochet designs and some documents I downloaded from my emails. I can not take credit for this discovery since is HB that showed me how to obtain the eBooks. I am sure he was not intending for me to sleep at 4 am in the morning because I just had to finish a book. So from last friday till now I have read a total of five eB...

There are days that you have to  force yourself to work, especially when you have a book chapter, an article, an abstract, a proposal and a thesis chapter to write before the end of the month (forgot to mention a mathematical model to formulate before the end of the week).  The last thing I need is a call from family. I love my family to bits but too much of everything is a bit of a problem. My mind has been programmed to  receive  sms and phone calls from them only on the weekends (so I mentally prepare myself for anything) but when you are called on a Wednesday............ that is when I  physically hurt myself not to say what I wont will regret but will and be forced to apologies  the torment of being the last child of the family  .  This is the dilemma I am faced with today and all hope of being productive is gone. I can't even give myself the reward I promised myself if I finish the article and book ...

 Spanish Steps  Fountain Trevi  Don't know the name of the place  Don't know the name of the place These are just a few sites in Rome that I went to. All work and no play...... I actually enjoyed the main reason that took me to Rome, the conference but I had to see Rome. The good thing is that it was summer so most of the pictures were taken around 6:30 pm and 9 pm. Rome was fun, food was great, the shops amazing. I was like a kid in a candy store everything was amazing until I had to go to the Vatican where my tour guild left me  (Story for another time) but I found my way back to my hotel and everything was rosy again.  On returning to South Africa, I had mixed feelings, I missed my friends so of course I am happy to be back but once I brought out my green passport and I saw the look on the immigration lady's face I knew why I do not like this place. Then the airline almost misplaced my bag, the keys to m...

One of the advantages of being in the academic world is that you get to travel to anywhere in the world in the name of research also known as conferences. You never really learn anything from the conference except, new food, people and better wine. This year my research has landed me in Rome, the amazing city packed full with history. Every step taken is on a floor that has seen so many people I mean Apostle Paul may have stood right where I stood today, just imagine that. History is not the only thing that is so exciting about Rome but the shops. I love shopping so it's like i'm in a dream and I don't want to wake up. Ok most of the shopping I am doing here is window shopping but it is better than nothing. I can't wait to get me my real Italian leather purse it's the least I can do. Enough about the renting and raving of how amazing Rome is, there is a really peculiar thing that is happening to me. Everybody keeps asking where I am from. Do I look different from...

Today is one of those days that you just want to stay in bed and sleep the whole day but alas!! you have to go to school. So, here I am in school doing absoloutely nothing (expect playing all the online games I can find) and wondering why did I waste my time today dressing up to school. You may wonder why it is problem for me to dress up to school, I mean it is school just throw on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and you are fine, right? Wrong!!!!!! It is that time of the year where the weather is not certain of what it wants to be summer, autum or winter. You literally have to dress for all three seasons at the same time. I thought I did today but the sun is shinning so bright I may as well have just gone to school with a bikini. On entering my office, it is freezing cold even my heater is feeling cold. I have a program to write (coding) and I just can't get my mind to tune into the geek station and start working. Sleep a d food is on my mind. I think my body has decided it i...

Hello everyone, Read the following in square brackets very slowing and imagine a Mission Impossible sound track playing on the background to get the dramatically sense of what I am about to describe [Walk to the kitchen Take out the knife Walk back to the room Grab W (name withheld for privacy purposes, I still want my job) ................................... Ok enough of that A suicide bomber enters the meeting room Opens his jacket  Lifts his hand about to press a button on what looks like a phone .......................................... Ok enough of that I jump out of my sit Grab the next person sitting to me By the neck and try to not let go ........................................] Those were just a few of the very disturbing thoughts which warm their way into my head today.  You may wonder why. I was in the most boring meeting of my life that lasted for 2 hours.  I had to physically pinch myself every 2...

Sorry for not writing for so long. It has been a hectic month. First of all I had to finish all the three books of the Hunger Games series because I didn't want to watch the movie before reading the book. Then I had to read The Blink of an Eye, a novel by Ted Dekker. I have read it before but just had to do so because for some reason if I did not my life would not be complete.  I had to make four scarfs because winter is coming and you cant use the same scarfs you did last winter (what kind of scarf maker would you be). Yes I am an Engineer and I make scarfs, hats, in fact anything that you can crochet I can make it. I tell myself it calms me but its just an excuse I use to create some amazing unique designs that are one of a kind.  I find myself drifting away again hmmmm...............  All these were tactics not to do what I had to do which is write an academic article on my new research fancy. I wrote that I am now an author but I...

I promised to read one novel every week but due to circumstances beyond my control I have extend the reading of Count of Monte Christo for another two weeks. I am very sorry I can not praise or criticise  the book for you but do not worry I will definitely do that in two weeks. Now that the apology is out of the way, time for the main story of today's blog My first article You all know that all I whine about on this blog is my academic work and how I want to " silence " my supervisor ( I hope he never reads this). Today for the the first time I want to say what a wonderful supervisor he has been for the past few years, we have had our differences but we always sort our selves out. He is the best supervisor one could have. Why am I giving him all these praise you may ask, it is because my first journal article (paper) is about to be published. Now for those that are not so nerdy, this type of thing is equivalent to: Men: your...

So I finished the novel Neverwhere in record time. I still got it YEAH!!! I must say I am impressed on how the writer kept me intrigued through out the whole book (I get bored quite easily). My only problem is with the ending, it is not so realistic if I have to say so myself. Come on who would chose living in the sewage system and not taking a bath or eating some unrecognisable things for lunch over a wonderful bubble bath, good paying job and amazing shoes? Just because the latter is said to be boring. WHO!!!!? Anywhere that is a fantasy book so I cannot compare it to real life, did I mention the author also wrote Stardust. I've watched the movie, I wonder what the book would be like. This brings me to the next novel I have lined up for next week. The Count of Monte Cristo ( courtesy of HB library ) I've watched the movie where the very hot actor Jim Caviezel (just Googled his name I'm really bad with names of actors and musicians) ...

So, yesterday HB (real name protected for privacy reasons lol) gave me a novel to read. He did not do this out of the kindness of his heart, it was to shut me up for a few minutes so he could continue with is fantasy football game and to verify if the book was worth reading. After much begging and grovelling   I decided to give it a try. The name of the book is Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. It is about a man living an ordinary life in London and about to encounter some extra ordinary experience bla bla bla. ( Cover of the book courtesy google search ) You didn't really think I was going to give you the full story, did you? The truth is I am just on page 100 right now but I hope to finish soon then I can give my review of the book and if it was worth my time.  So far, the book is quite interesting and I cant wait to finish it. Its one of those books you want to read fast and yet slow so that the joy of it does n...

I told myself this year would be different. I would be more serious with my research, make new friends, make small talk with the weird creepy guy in the office across, eat less junk, shop less, be more attentive to my boss and supervisors, be more caring and compassionate, give more, drink less, exercise often, do one new thing every day ................ The list could go on and on and on and.................. you get what I mean. I haven't done most of the things on that list, especially talking to the weird creepy guy in the office across, he looks creepier this year than last. There is something off about him I just cant put my finger on. The excuse someone gave me once is because he is an academic YEAH RIGHT!!!!!  The good news is I finally wrote out my list and now I have to make a plan on how I am going to follow it. I've started with the research and I must say its going not really on point but at least I've written one sentence. I've trie...

Hi all Sorry all I know its been a long time since a wrote. Happy new year, 2011 is over and 2012 is almost gone but hey who is complaining? The thing is nothing much has been happening in my life. There has been some sort of truce between my supervisor and I, on the home front there has not been any drama and generally things have been going on smoothly. The above paragraph is what I would want to happen but its so not true. There has been so much drama that I developed ulcers from worrying. Can you believe that, ulcers because of someone else? No it is not because of a guy, I have never had man-problems some how that aspect of my life goes quite smoothly and is always fun. My drama is from the friend-family-acquittance side of humanity, those group of people can drive you nuts. In order not to be killed by people whose names I will not mention, I can not go into details the cause of the ulcers. Lets just say there was shouting, names calling and the silent treatment. I wish I was th...