Power Down

Last week Thursday, our apartment block converted to solar power. The City Council duly came round, to check that everything was solid. Perfect, they said. All systems go. But five days later, the whole lot blew out. About 100 apartments went down. Management sent out a message that there had been a "short circuit", and people would be working through the night to fix it. Everyone should switch off their power at the mains. All night, there was digging outside our window, and hammering on the roof. When the morning came, management sent out a message: Things were not looking too good. OBSERVATION: I am in this moment recharging my computer from my car battery. Thankfully I have a good British inverter. (And one recharges the car battery from the engine).

Listen to My Leadership Seminar

On Saturday, I presented a two-hour leadership seminar at the Bible Institute of South Africa -- to kick off this year's Christian Leadership Programme. While I focus mostly on core themes of Paul's Epistle to Titus, I spend the first half hour looking at the huge fragmentation and proliferation of Churches in South Africa since 1994. At one stage, one new Church was formed every two days. What happened? Why? One may listen to the seminar here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAf8L0pPLuw

Invention 48: New Guitar

I believe this invention would significantly change the use and sound of guitars -- or any stringed instrument. You saw it first on this blog. A guitar's strings are strung between two fixed points: the headstock and the bridge. Now imagine that we make one end float. Most likely, we would make the bridge float. Now we have strings strung from the headstock to a floating bridge -- and via strings, we take the floating bridge to another headstock above the lower bout -- two strings, perhaps, or however many desired. Between the floating bridge and the lower bout headstock, we have therefore inserted a kind of springline reverb. OBSERVATION: This would make two differences to the sound of the traditional guitar. The plectrum striking the strings would be felt by all strings, and all strings would feel all strings' vibration. Moreover, the floating bridge could be used for a vibrato effect.

Church Elders

Paul's first instruction to Titus, in his epistle to Titus, was: "I left you behind in Crete, in order that ... you may appoint elders in every town." Yesterday I asked the participants in the leadership seminar that I presented: "If I were to say to your Church, 'Would the elders please meet with me over here,' how many Churches would know what I was talking about?" 8 out of 32 participants put up their hands, which is one-quarter. OBSERVATION: A rather telling figure, if this was the first thing Paul wanted to see in the Church.

Leadership Seminar

Today I presented a leadership seminar at the Bible Institute of South Africa, to kick off this year's Christian Leadership Programme. Here are participants discussing a question that I put to them. There were 30-40 participants -- numbers fluctuated during the seminar. OBSERVATION: I expected first-year responses to questions, but this was a particularly sharp audience.

Fisheye Comparison

This is a lens comparison, just for fun. The photo on the left was taken with a TTArtisan 7.5mm lens ($140). The photo on the right, with an AstrHori 10mm lens ($80). Both are fisheye lenses. The TTArtisan has an obviously wider angle of view. The AstrHori has a bluer tint -- and shows less contrast, due to a cloudy day. However, the AstrHori yields an amazing shot for an $80 lens. Where it all falls apart for the AstrHori is in low light (f/8 fixed aperture vs. f/2 for the TTArtisan).

South African Business

The purchase of my newest computer was another showcase of South African business at work. My Lenovo computer blew out in a township -- we were literally having power failures every few minutes. I called up Lenovo, and asked them whether they had the same machine, a 300e. Oh, they didn't know. they said, no idea -- I could go look on their website. Indeed, there it was, on the website. I should just contact Lenovo, it said. Well, I had just done that. So I called in at a Computer Mania store. Did they have the Lenovo 300e? No, they said, sorry, they couldn't help. Perhaps, I suggested, they might have something similar? Oh, ah, yes, now there was an idea. And I bought an Asus Chromebook. But this was a demo model, without an operating system. So I had to go back to Computer Mania. Before I left the store, they gave me a brochure, which showed me all that they'd got. And there was the Lenovo 300e!

Designs In Production

Spot the difference. Many of my designs have gone into production -- mostly with some additional engineering. This is one example among many. Top left is the Programmable Robot, designed by me, containing a microprocessor (its "brains") from Revolution Education. Top right is the Microbot, containing a microprocessor from ... Revolution Education. My design was merely copyrighted (not patented). So they were entitled to develop my idea.

Just Married?

After the wedding, couples may announce that they are "Just Married". However, in South Africa, the reality is that the marriage will be registered only a few days later. Sometimes it will be registered only weeks or months later. In the case of wife E and me, it was more than four months. The minister who married us e-mailed us: "Dear Thomas and E, I am happy to announce that your status on the Home Affairs system was upgraded to 'married'. Praise the Lord for miracles and having His hand on the admin at Home Affairs. Lots of love in Christ."

‘It Was Pride’

My city Church, following my departure, quickly shifted from a relatively large and dynamic Church to what one often refers to as a Church "in maintenance mode". AI suggests "in survival mode" or "on life support". My mother spoke only three words about all this, as best I know. She was the former minister's wife. She said to me, "It was pride." In the context, I understood her like this: people saw the Church booming -- it filled them with pride -- and they thought that they could do better. OBSERVATION: At the core of it, she could be right. I would identify a few factors.

Adorned with Flowers

Wife E was studying for a Bachelor of Theology degree. They asked her to describe who she would use to run the financial affairs of a Church -- the "kind of people you would look for". She asked me what kind of people I would look for. I jotted it down: they should have spiritual vision, should be qualified, trustworthy, believers, in good standing, and peaceable. The next morning I saw that E had adorned my list with flowers. "Spiritual vision" got one flower. "Trustworthy" got three. "Believers" got four.

Potential Inventions

Once in a while, on this blog, I put up (potential) inventions, which is ideas which could potentially be commercialised -- bearing in mind that many of my ideas have already been commercialised. This week I came up with a new musical instrument -- but I realised that it was too distinct, too elegant in its simplicity, to put up here. I intend to make a working prototype, and submit it to a publisher. OBSERVATION: It's one of those why-didn't-I-think-of-that designs. I'll say some more about it if and when it is published.

Human Rights Commission

Recently, I decided to take up a complaint against someone who was catalytic in my abduction at gunpoint in 2018. While it may seem a long time since, it took me this long to find the courage. And the time it has taken me is, incidentally, typical. I presented my complaint to the Legal Practice Council. But they responded that a) my information would not be confidential, and b) they would offer me no form of protection. That was asking too much. I referred the Legal Practice Council to the Human Rights Commission. OBSERVATION: I have not taken on everyone who was involved. Some have met their Moses. One or two may be too dangerous. If I felt there were no danger, I would not now be contacting the Human Rights Commission.

Serendipitous Encounter

Many years ago, I visited an art studio/gallery, on the edge of some marshes. Something prompted the artist to ask me whether I was associated with the Congregational Church in Sea Point. Yes, I said (not letting on that I was the minister). She said, “Oh! That Church set my son on track. It really put him right. He once was a deeply troubled young man.” Then she stared at me and said, “You look vaguely like that minister.” I said, "I am the minister!"

Double Murder

The farmer on whose farm I negotiated lobola (the bride price, so-called), and on whose farm E and I celebrated lobola, has just been sentenced to 10 years in jail for double murder. A young couple died in one of his guest houses, of carbon monoxide inhalation. OBSERVATION: This was a controversial verdict, and is to be appealed. In the interim, the farmer remains in jail.