distracting weather

needing a little break from writing my paper (almost finished Mom!)..
so let's talk about.. the weather!
I left 3 feet of snow to come to Atlanta in mid-winter. Thanks to some environmental change 'mid-winter' now means a wonderful 20 degrees Celsius and rain! I can live here in that! The sound of the rain on the patio outside my window is soothing, and the smell and subdued light reminds me of driving the windy Lowveld roads up to Sabie in the mist.
There was a seminary party on friday night, and i fiddled a bit with my camera and it's settings. Above is me at 2:30 am in our lounge feeling thin, and below are some shutter speed and colour experiments.

open-source software

I've been meaning to escape the expensive, monopolising clutches of Bill and his Microsoft world for some time now. Ever since Mark Shuttleworth brought out Ubuntu Linux, and Justin showed me how to use it, I've wanted to switch. My main reason is that it is free, something very viable in South Africa. Similar to John Kerry, I also like it simply because it isn't Windows (or Bush), and that you are encouraged to fiddle with the programming.I haven't achieved my dream in it's entirety, but i did switch internet browsers a few weeks ago. Goodbye Internet Explorer 7.0, hello Mozilla Firefox. So far it has been great. My blog even looks better through Mozilla than IE. So, if you want to try something new, download it here. Even if it is just to read this blog ;) The next baby step is to change email software, and then maybe make the jump to Open Office before I Linux.

shuffling G

I finally gave in and am now the proud new owner of a teeny-tiny music machine:

There aren't any Mugg&Beans, N1 traffic, Cinema Nouveaus or familiar skylines here to run to when i'm feeling displaced, so... i listen to music instead. The music i have here i brought from home, so it comes with comforting memories from South Africa. The support structures i associate with the songs help me feel more at home in this strange place.

Last night i lay listening to Damien Rice and it transported me back to winter mornings at Jono's house - 62 Sauvignon, Bromhof: the site of early morning squash games with Vaughn; Young Adult braais; fresh paninis with basil, mozarella and tomato; and my rocking chair in the afternoon sun.

The ipod shuffle is great! It is really small and holds 250 songs. The palylist i've filled it up with for now has:

Arno Carstens, The Avett Bros, Ben Folds Five, Collective Soul, Counting Crows, The Cranberries, Damien Rice, David Gray, Freshlyground, Jack Johnson, Jamie Cullum, Jose Gonzalez, Matt Allison, The Narrow, REM, Simphiwe Dana, Sufjan Stevens, U2, White Lie and Yann Tiersen.

Yay for music!