Counselees Who Are Drunk?

There is a question which many counsellors must have asked themselves: should I counsel someone if they are drunk? The answer is generally no, because of impaired cognition, and in some cases, a loss of safety. My own answer, however, has been yes -- on condition that one is not endangered, and that that person is not beyond reasonable communication. I have three reasons for saying yes: they may have more to talk about than they usually do, there may not be a better opportunity to talk, and I believe that people do remember many things when drunk. OBSERVATION: It is a different matter if the potential counselee is high on something. To get the idea, see boom.com.

Recurring Fevers

In 2013, I was assaulted in Church, in my robes, by several people. I was quite badly hurt. However, apart from physical injuries, I contracted an infection -- apparently through nail scratches, which I had aplenty. At first, in 2013, I went down time and time again with fevers -- accompanied by characteristic swelling. A doctor diagnosed the infection (the diagnosis is elsewhere on my blog), and tried to cure it with antibiotics. But he had to prescribe increasingly powerful antibiotics -- until, he said, he had reached the final frontier. The recurring fevers were beaten back -- yet the infection still seemed to be hiding out. Now it is 13 years later, and I had been without the fever for a few years. I even said I was free. This weekend, the signature fever hit me again -- with characteristic swelling. It was a warm weekend, and I was shivering uncontrollably. Thankfully, two days later, I have recovered.

Early Schooling

For the first three years of my schooling, and for much of my fourth, I did not go to school -- I was home schooled. For the most part, I was on distant islands, surrounded only by Micronesian children -- the one exception being my sister. Finally, I spent a few months in a mixed English-Micronesian school on Tarawa, then a brief period at school in the UK. Then, my new life of schooling began in South Africa, in Grade 4. Immediately I was plunged into a group of White boys. They looked at me, and I was like them. I looked at them, and they were not like me. OBSERVATION: The teacher asked us what instrument we use to navigate. I said, the coconut cup. This led to a great commotion in the class. (The compass, incidentally, is less accurate).

Progressively Institutionalised

Godfrey Baldacchino, in the latest SHARE Magazine, writes: "A lifestyle that also privileges youth, business and careerism, will find it hard to accept and dedicate time to the old, the infirm and the chronically sick. These are, like death and dying, progressively institutionalised, away from public circulation." This has certainly been my experience in ministry. OBSERVATION: However, in my African family, quite the opposite holds true. People are not removed from public circulation. The reality of this is not easy.

Attempt Laws

If I understand Routh, who intended to assassinate Trump, fate had it that the assassination was never going to happen, therefore he could not be held accountable for something that was never going to happen. This is interesting! It is very hard to prove Routh wrong, because he is taking the argument to deep presuppositions. AI simply comments, "That’s not how attempt laws work."

Things Are Really Going

In city ministry, our office secretary said to me one morning: "Things are going in this Church! I mean, really going!" By which she was referring to everything being stolen! If it could be stolen, it was stolen. OBSERVATION: This required a shift of mindset of myself, as minister: theft was absolutely to be expected, and I should not be downhearted about it. This was not a suburban or country Church, where one could leave one's Bible in the pulpit, or plant something pretty in the garden.

‘She's Got Issues’

These days, people often come to a minister for counselling -- with only a shadow of a Christian background. Note that this is an "adult" post. A man came to see me for counsel. He said, "I bedded a woman I got to know. She then sat up on the edge of the bed and cried. I asked her what was wrong. She said that she had once been raped, and the memories had come flooding back to her. Reverend, she's got issues! She's more complicated than I thought! What shall I do?"

SHARE Magazine

Preview copies of the philosophy magazine, or journal SHARE February 2026 are now out. Printed copies will be distributed soon. Then the digital copy will appear. The theme is Social Philosophy in a Fragile World. I am a co-author of one of the articles, and solicited another two pieces inside.

Advice From ‘a Six-Year-Old Child’

AI need not be a super-intelligence, as it is by default. Today I received a reply from a government body, regarding accusations I had deservedly brought against it. But a child, I thought, could see through their reply! I asked an AI engine to simulate the mind of a 6-year-old child. Once I had my child, I asked it, did it "smell a rat" when presented with the government material? Oh yes, it said. This government body "appeared to be quite dismissive". It looked, too, as though it was "trying to downplay allegations". Thus a 6-year-old-child could see what they were up to. The government body is the Legal Practice Council.

Youth Group

This one's a "file photo", recovered last week from my old hard drive. It is a photo of my Church's Youth group in 2009. In the background is our Canadian Assistant Minister. A Youth leader stands in the middle, and two Helpers on the right. OBSERVATION: I count 20 Youth in this photo. Sometimes this swelled beyond 30. The Church wanted to restructure the Youth after my departure, but they shut it down instead.

African Wedding

I thought that this was forever lost -- the original was badly damaged by the elements. However, here is a copy of E's and my marriage plan -- half a year before the event -- which I found on an old hard drive. Most of it had by now been well discussed. This post is about what made it distinctively African:

• LOBOLA: Of course, lobola. Translated, the bride price -- yet it is far more than that. In my experience, one receives most if not all of the lobola back, through generosity.

• INVITES: We had to accommodate limitless people somehow. This is African tradition.

• RETINUE: We deliberately went "European" here, with a modest retinue. African retinues may be large.

• ORGANIST: We didn't have one. We had traditional African singing (and African dress, for decoration).

• AFTER-CELEBRATION: Much of this was provided as a gift, by African tradition. In fact, half of the "European" reception was a gift.

• HONEYMOON: Originally, my new wife would mourn her parting from the family. However, we ultimately went "European", going on honeymoon soon after the wedding.

• TOTAL COST: This was greatly reduced, compared to the cost of a European wedding, mainly because the African family was deeply involved, and "I am because we are."

Caterpillar

Here's something that I designed many years ago. Without an explanation, one might wonder what on earth it is. It is designed to simulate the motion of a caterpillar -- the front and back sections being M1 (motor 1) and M2. VR1 controls, not the speed of the caterpillar (the speed of the motors does that), but the speed at which the front and back sections alternate. OBSERVATION: Front and back sections are mounted on two trays, which slide in and out of one another. The Chinese should convert this into a solar caterpillar. It would be more interesting than their solar beetles. You saw it first on this blog ...

POSTSCRIPT: With clever design, this would need only one motor.

Early Digital Video

I sought to back up a very old hard drive yesterday -- and mostly succeeded. This is a 2001 silent digital video of son M. Videos then were 120 by 160 pixels, in an array of 16 photographs in .AVI format. That was less than 0.02 million pixels 25 fps, and no sound. Compare with (now) more than 30 million pixels 60 fps, and HQ sound, as many frames as one likes.

CORRECTION: I measured the pixels, and corrected accordingly.

You Read It First ...

You read it first on my blog, nine days ago: "If my method is correct ... there will be a [stock market] crash in 2026". And I wrote, a month ago: "A major stock market crash is certain, about now. " Witness last night's The Economic Times headline: "US stock market crashes today." Or as it appeared on X: "$6 TRILLION ERASED IN 60 MINUTES." Depending how one does the figures, Microsoft is down 12%; Tesla is down 16%; silver is down 10%; and so on. OBSERVATION: I would not wish to be correct. Perhaps this is just a temporary correction. It would seem to show, though, that my predictions are not beyond the possible.

POSTSCRIPT: xAI comments that my predictive "linguistic method, which analyzes increases in public 'chatter' ... appears validated. US markets crashed on January 29-30, 2026." I have called it the Scarborough indicator.

More or Less

My nearest electronics store has the strange policy of selling one anything that is vaguely like the components they do not have. Then they seal them in plastic, before one pays for them at the till. So they have sold me, for example, 10μF capacitors instead of 100μF, 1W Zeners instead of 5W, 072 IC's instead of 071's, or one-core wire instead of two-core. For anyone with a basic knowledge of electronics, such are major differences. Their most recent swap was a classic: they gave me 4016 IC's instead of 40106's. As usual, they sealed them in plastic before payment. I went back and asked them for 40106 IC's. They would have to order them, they said. And so they ordered 4584's. There are no returns on semiconductors, mind you. That is policy. OBSERVATION: While I haven't ever tried 4584's, they should do what I want. But for someone like me, who is into experimental electronics, slight differences can be critical, such as input impedances or reverse voltages.