Demurral Over Marks

In my Homiletics class at Seminary, there was some demurral over the low grades I gave for Sermon Delivery -- curiously all of them distinctions. I said to the class, If I give you higher grades, the principal will haul me over the coals for awarding extravagant grades! I decided, though, to open up the grades to democratic decision. By democratic decision, the class raised them all! OBSERVATION: Each grade broke down into 12 categories, so that they were all well grounded.

South African Elections

South Africa held "mid-term elections" yesterday, and the results are still coming in (less than 50% complete at the time of writing). I claimed that I loved all our politicians equally, so that I found no reason to discriminate and vote for any ones in particular. Wife E, however, claims that if she had collected one cent for every unkind word I had said about South African politicians, she would be rich. OBSERVATION: For an event of such import, there seems to have been comparatively little media coverage. I took this photo after the last elections.

Theology Graduates

This is an ultra-wide-angle shot of theology graduates, which I took in December last year -- which I defisheyed (straightened out). It gives a small impression of the diversity of students at the Cape Town Baptist Seminary. OBSERVATION: It is a four-year degree -- which turns out palpably more mature graduates than the more usual three-year degree.

Malta Book Festival

Well I received an invitation from the Manager of the National Book Council of Malta to participate in the Malta Book Festival. They will subsidise some costs 75%. Alas, that does not include the plane ticket, as I am on the southern shores of Africa, while Malta is in the Mediterranean. If cost were no object ... OBSERVATION: Last year, I delivered the Annual Philosophy Lecture of Malta, all expenses paid.

200,000 Page-Views

I have continued to edit the occasional philosophy publication Pi Gamma. Although its articles have been few, it has continued to attract attention. Recently it passed 200,000 page-views.

Bio-Diverse City

In the absence of anything more intelligent to say tonight, here is some of the unusual vegetation surrounding Cape Town. Cape Town is one of the most bio-diverse urban areas in the world. It features 20 distinct vegetation types, seven of which occur nowhere else on Earth.

TENS Unit

TENS stands for Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation. TENS units may be very effective in controlling pain. Here is an extremely simple TENS unit, that I designed -- in fact it went into production, as a product of Yebo Electronics. The unit allows some adjustment of the pulse frequency through VR1, for experimentation. This TENS unit should give about one month's all-night service using an AA battery pack. If you wish to be sure that it is working, clip a miniature neon indicator across T1’s 220V primary or output coil -- a neon indicator requires in excess of 70-90V to illuminate, therefore this is “proof of the pudding” that the unit is functional. The two output leads may be soldered to large metal washers, to serve as elec­trodes. These are then thinly coated with moisturising cream and taped to each side of the pain­ful area. Or use professional conductive gel pads. OBSERVATION: The critical components -- transistor TR1 and transformer T1 -- are both available from Amazon. The transistor is available here* (five pieces), and the transformer is available here*. Component details will be found on the Internet.

*This is an Amazon affiliate link. I earn a commission, at no cost to the buyer. 

Robot Wars

The story of my blog over the last few months might well be called "Robot Wars". Robots ran rampant across my blog from the beginning of August to the end of October, pushing up my page-views into the millions and completely obscuring my real blog stats. Then Google came up with counter-warfare and scrubbed this wave of automated traffic. My page-views settled down again at the end of October.

Circular

It was more than a year ago now that attorneys requested that certain elders and deacons retract "defamatory claims" against me, made at the end of my city ministry. This matter came up late in the day, because the Legal Practice Council only revealed it in 2025. The elders and deacons concerned sent out a circular, which I did not see at the time, which "insinuates that our client [myself] had been charged with a criminal act". The police themselves (the Cape Town Cluster) issued a statement that this was not true, in any way. The attorneys gave said elders and deacons 30 days to "rectify this claim". OBSERVATION: And their response? None. It is still important to me today that those who received the circular should know the truth. A retraction was important, wrote the attorneys, "given the significance" of such claims "against a Reverend".

Before Electricity

I took this photo back in the day BE -- Before Electricity. Wife E's parents would welcome us on the farm with a candle and a roll of toilet paper. It was in the day BB, too -- Before Bathrooms. OBSERVATION: Those days only came to an end seven years ago -- in fact, still hold on the farm. E's parents left the farm at that time.