I have uploaded my old website designed for ITM445 at Ryerson. Most of the content is there except for the video and the dj set that I had included in the original. I surely can't get those uploaded under the current conditions. You can find the link in the sidebar to the right.

I want to add more to this site but am having trouble building on top of Google's Blogger software. I may be switching shortly to a new frontpage such as drupal or mambo. I will regardless keep the weblog running.

Wednesday was the anniversary of Independance in Namibia and so a holiday for most in the country. I was going to head to the Independance Day celebrations at the stadium as I did last year, but instead opted for a lazy morning. In the afternoon I joined Kimera and friends to attend a New Years party for the small community of Bahai followers in this country. The party was great fun and included some performances by the youth , food and a pretty wild dance party at the end. When the dj set up the first track I was quite surprised to hear "The Game" rather that some sort of Middle Eastern rhythm!

Here is some info on the Bahai:
The Bahá'í Faith is a religion founded by Bahá'u'lláh in 19th century Persia. Bahá'ís number around 6 million in more than 200 countries around the world.

According to Bahá'í teachings, religious history is seen as an evolving educational process for mankind, through God's messengers, which are termed Manifestations of God. Bahá'u'lláh is seen as the most recent, pivotal, but not final of these individuals. He claimed to be the expected redeemer and teacher prophesied in Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and other religions, and that his mission was to establish a firm basis for unity throughout the world, and inaugurate an age of peace and justice, which Bahá'ís expect will inevitably arise.

"Bahá'í" can be an adjective referring to the Bahá'í Faith, or the term for a follower of Bahá'u'lláh (Bahá'í is not a noun meaning the religion as a whole). The term comes from the Arabic word Bahá’, meaning "glory" or "splendor".

The following 12 principles are frequently listed as a quick summary of the Bahá'í teachings. They are derived from transcripts of speeches given by `Abdu'l-Bahá during his tour of Europe and North America in 1912.[20] The list is not authoritative and a variety of such lists circulate.

• Unity of God
• Unity of religion
• Unity of mankind
• Gender Equality
• Elimination of all forms of prejudice
• World peace
• Harmony of religion and science
• Independent investigation of truth
• Universal compulsory education
• Universal auxiliary language
• Obedience to government and non-involvement in partisan politics
• Elimination of extremes of wealth and poverty

Source

On St. Patrick’s day this year we were invited to a ‘beer and skittles’ party. So my first thought was, who in this world would want to eat skittles alongside beer? That sounds pretty nasty to me. Turns out that skittles is an old European bowling like game which is the precursor to the standard bowling that we are used to. The lane, unlike bowling, was about 1/3 the size but had a small groove so that the ball would not too easily roll into the gutter. The best technique was to throw the ball at a slight angle so that it would sway from edge to edge as it rolled down the lane.

Oh yea, and we had beer!

From Wikipedia:
Skittles usually takes place in a skittle alley, and usually uses a single set of nine pins.

The pitch, like the pins and the rules, varies according to region, but is between 21 feet (6.4 m) and 36 feet (11 m) long to the front pin.

The balls are traditionally made of hardwood, often lignum vitae, though rubber balls may sometimes be found. They are between 4 inches (100 mm) and 6 inches (150 mm) in diameter, and have no finger holes. The player usually has a choice of sizes. A sloping wooden ramp along the side of the alley is often used to return them to the players.

Pins are vertical lengths of wood - traditionally from the wood of a cider apple tree in the west country, or sometimes synthetic materials. They are between 6 inches (150 mm) and 16 inches (400 mm) high, weigh up to 3 kg, with height, shape and weight all varying by region. The central pin (or sometimes the front pin) may be larger or differently shaped in some games. The pins are always arranged in a diamond pattern:

*
* *
* * *
* *
*

Usually three balls are thrown, and any pins that have been knocked down but that remain on the pitch are removed between throws. If all the pins are knocked down, they are put back by the sticker - so the maximum score is typically 27 (3 x 9), though this varies in different versions of the game.

Generally the ball is thrown to roll along the floor, but in some regions it is bowled rather like in cricket, either with or without a bounce - though with an under-arm swing action. Each player may have up to 12 'hands' (turns) during a match. Source



Skittles is apparently also very popular in Germany, hence the location of an alley in Windhoek. In the big ‘G’ they call the game Kegeln.



Definitly want to come back here for another game.



Everyone at the alley had their own technique.



On the way out we found a neat little tree that had grown around a golf ball!!!

Ok, so the volume of pictures on this site has definitely slowed.  Where is the content you say??? Well I will tell you what happened, my little camera, the one that came all the way from Australia to meet me in Namibia, recently bit the dust.  First the screen went, and I was getting some very trippy colors and distortion on the screen.  I kept taking pictures with the viewfinder but eventually it just stopped working.  No longer will the shutter open.  I can still get a sense of life, some beeping here, some blinking there…but generally the camera has retired.  

So it was great that I made the Fuji purchase while I was home in December.  Or I would be camera-less.  Unfortunately, that camera is not the easiest to take around with me.  It is not a 'snapper' as I like to call pocket sized cameras which you can take everywhere.  

Ill be on the lookout for a decently priced snapper to increase the volume of pictures.  Till then I wont have too many pictures to share…..booo !!!  

Saturday night was supposed to be a night of cosmic splendour as the sun, earth and the moon lined up to create a lunar eclipse. Basically the earth would be between the sun and the moon, blocking out the light on the moon and creating a red hazy light which is created by the light from earth’s atmosphere. This sight is said to be quite unique. I had booked the tripod from the University so that I could get a slow exposure shot of the moon close up. The eclipse was scheduled for 12 midnight.

Around midday I started to notice clouds congregating the sky. It had even rained for a brief period during the day. Of course the night of the eclipse would have to be one of the only completely overcast nights of the last few weeks!!!

I had plans to go out, but told my friends I would not be able to join them till after 12:30am. I tried to explain to them that there were cosmic forces at work, and the moon was going dark, but very few could understand what I was after. At around 11pm I started getting text messages like this:

Hey man, I hate to say it, but there is nothing going on up there. You need to get down here where the real party is at.

I officially gave up the eclipse at just before midnight. We head to the party and ended up having a really great time. It was for the better having arrived after midnight as most parties here don’t get started till then anyhow.

At around 2:30am the moon popped out of a hole in the clouds. I could see it was a half moon and the eclipse was still happening! You could just faintly see the light moving across the moon. About an hour later the moon was full again as the sun came around the earth and shone brightly upon the full moon. So it was pretty cool to see the moon go from half to full in the course of the evening!