carl spies

My 37 gazillionth post

Carl Spies — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 11:28:33 PST

So this is my the post I referred to in my tweet on Wednesday night what we call now, the twenty fourth of a month named December in a year by our current calendar as 2008, two-thousand years after the birth of a meme known as Jesus Christ, the Saviour of Mankind.

I write this post I think, well I feel more really, as a chronicle of a conscious shift I am reeling and feeling the reality of it, happening, washing, effervescing over me.

Strange language isn't it? It is to me.

I find, or ever increasingly find myself coming to some learnings 'very difficult to verbalise', and that because the 'realisations' defy words, symbols even. A fiendishly evasive and urgent ebullient set of learnings.

What this means is that I see myself looking at words furiously scribbled in my moleskin.

Profound realisations? Semantic signs pregnant with prophetic foreshadowings of great things to come from me? I don't quite know either and something around me, within me, feels like within all of us, is unleashing me to write this. Again neither do I 'get' why the style of this chunk of meaning is sequenced so. Anyhoo, straight from my consciousness to my moleskin to my consciousness to my mac to you via the internet I apparently earlier "got to know" in the Twitterness:

What this means: <-- the 'awakening' I guess (okay I'll just quote from the moleskin now. *ascends*

----------

I mindfully pursue my one true love:

to be a part of the soaring armada of ferocious learners and teachers ..... to unleash their full potential to pursue technologies that elegantly enhance mankind's inherent ability to collaborate to lift the entire race to astounding heights and depths of herself.

Yes I wholly mean Herself!

We've all felt that at some time 'as they call it' the undeniable enslaving concept of god as some eternal man with a growth trophy of pointless facial hair, uncannily obviously evolving away from.

-------------------------------

I realise I have less in common with Jesus than as Satan or Buddha or Krishna or Invader Zim for that matter.

I realise (real)ise and make real for myself by writing this. and I evoke this as the highest, absolutely ultimate point in my awakening as this instance of "existence" we "grasp obviously blindly grasping for some semantic evidence, some ratifying witness that our "now: foremost in conscious mind is our reality, our 'real' 'is' ataion? of our existence. Our forever flawed, design or fractally evolved perception, perceiving eternally ever expanding exploding and imploding infinity spiralling now.

*gasp* Aiy am breathless now as I write this in my moleskin with my rotring ... technological artifacts. Our piercing ever accelerating historic universal archive of our growth as a symbolic, semantic, time binding class of life. Thanks Korzybski and Mazlow and Erickson and Hoffman and Hall and All.

Well that was ... cathartic.

Feels like much of the blocks are cascading away.

*twirls*

it ends on page37 <-- which systemically I've designed to now get asked about.

circles ..... delicious circles )))))))))))))))))

^^^^^ catch that on twitter and try keep up with the circles, that's linked to the "now you know why I hesitate to blog" tweet

me likey for the Carl reading this, this point on the timeline .. and now .. and now ... ROFLMTAO

Ten Things I Hate About Myself

Carl Spies — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 02:07:58 PDT

So after wallowing in a molasses coloured quagmire of blog apathy, I nagged the Blog Demi-God of SA yet again for some inspiration, motivation and encouragement to help me get blogging once more.

Mike's sage advice: "Carl, you overthink things. You want each post to be this profound work of art. And that gets in the way of you writing anything."

I asked him to give me a topic, just to get going (by now my voice had reached that self-loathy whiny pitch). His response (after rolling his eyes): "Write a post called 'Ten Things I Hate About Myself'"

My shortlist (and I struggled 'cos I'm pretty full of myself (I hate that too!):

1. I have a serious case of Adult Onset ADD - so much gets my attention. The older I get, the more wildly fascinated I get about pretty much everything around (and not around) me.
2. I'm still not married. And this deservedly after passing up/being a complete tool to the women I've loved.
3. I'm still pretty pissed off at the majority of my family for disappearing for 25years. Finding it hard to forgive and forget though I really should because I've already lost 25years.
4. I've started so many cool things with awesome humans, only to bail midway or switch to silent mode unexplicably. I'm sorry guys, I'm working at that and much better these days.
5. For my colleagues: I know I have a gazillion useful, profitable projects in various stages of dev. I'm working on closing the loops and the PMP training is really helping.
6. I make way too many altered state jokes/quips.
7. I'm becoming a bit of a no-sugar fascist after quitting most forms of refined sugar. If you see me snarling at your "4 spoons of sugar in coffee" habit, understand I just quit a really unhealthy habit and am feeling kinda proud.
8. I'm a model example of overpromise-underdeliver. I'm not lazy or stupid. I'm just now, learning to scope required resources/constraints more accurately. Still, I hate that I didn't fix this sooner.
9. I suffer from cobler's children syndrome. My blog needs a new coat of paint and some depth, like a few account managers from a supplier or two I know.
10. I can be pretty sharp-tongued at times (see #9). I often don't see the pain that ensues. This sucks and I wanna do something more inspiring with my tongue.

That's some of my laundry out in the open folks ...

A fun start to a whole slew of content I hope reveals how I go about making sense of the planet and navigating information age challenges, all the while patching my personal suck.

In closing, more evidence of the Stopforth's legendary motivational skill:

[10:32:58 - Mike]: just promoted ur blog on twitter thinking you'd posted about strat prof there
alas not! :P
[10:33:09 - Mike]: now you better blog plonker
[10:35:42 - Carl]: dude - it terrified me into writing a post right now - almost done and publishing in 3omins
[10:36:01 - Mike]: HAHAHAHA
[10:36:03 - Mike]: loool
Mike Stopforth has left the conversation.

11. I worry about being called a "plonker".

The Most Profound Music I've Ever Heard

Carl Spies — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 19:49:40 PDT

Dan Ellsey's musical performance is the most profound expression I've ever heard from another human being, is it just me?

Revealed! - Carl Spies Owns Share in Telkom SA

Carl Spies — Wed, 30 May 2007 13:22:56 PDT

Yup, it's true, I own a share ... ONE Share in Telkom SA .

Thanks to Richard and Alastair for sponsoring the investment.

This very cool act of generosity following after a group of us donated cash to the Telecoms Action Group (TAG) for the 1 pager in the Mail & Guardian on 19th Jan 2007.

The SA Telecoms Action Group met at Nino's Rosebank on Monday night to fill in the paperwork and have it confirmed by a notary (Mark Harris) and then VOILA - we were endowed with super mass action powers to:

Gain access to AGM's now where we get to participate.

We can then talk about pressing issues like:

1. What yarn to knit the tea cosies out of, in the Umtata District.
2. A play by play, gripping technological thriller involving: [a] what really happens when our vocal patterns are digitised into speech artifacts ... [b] what people will say 1000yrs from now when they replay those artifacts ... [3] how to really "pimp my VOIP up" to sound mega-cool 80's robotlike just to confuse future researchers. (I know I know, too much Futurama)
3. Whether Bakers Shortbread really is the perfect accompaniment with Rooibos Tea or Oumas Buttermilk Rusks rather, to offset the tanginess the tea leaves on the palate.
4. How if you say VOIP at least 50 times out loud in rapid succession, you'll approximate one of those battery operated attack choppers they sell at Toys-R-Us.

Regardless of the plethora of topics at our fingertips, we should be able to keep 'em busy for a while.

I guess this is the form of protest we get to take part in, as "The New Digital Hippies" (we also joined a newly formed Shareholers Education Association, which allows us access to some very smart info on our rights and how to exercise them, to maximise the pain .. er .. to carry our message across with poise and congruence ... and no MaX, I'm never joining Toastmasters :P )

Afrigator: I Love Thee (R)200 Ways

Carl Spies — Tue, 08 May 2007 00:30:45 PDT

So while I'm waiting for my:

"I'll blog anything for a t-shirt" shirt to come from the printers, I thought I'd take this opportunity to mention that there are still about 20 shirts available from Afrigator if you blog about them and their "Win an Ipod " competition.

Admittedly I'm an avid collector of geek memorabilia and have had some of my geek T's signed by Eric Raymond , John 'Maddog' Hall and Richard Stallman (and dayam was Stallman fussy about signing on anything with the word Linux printed on it .. had to get him to sign a blank T and then print *nix on it .. and all this after his performance at Wits where he ducked underneath the podium, donned headgear and rose up to promote the Church of Stallman)

So here's what I'm proposing to the Afrigator Team:

I think you folks are cool and admire the whole aggregation project. I'd really dig a T-shirt, more importantly, I'd dig one signed by Justin Hartman.

I've spent decent amounts of cash buying shirts from Mozilla and donating to the project, so in that spirit, I'll happily donate R200 towards the Dev Efforts of Afrigator in return for a cool shirt signed by the man!

Do we have a deal .. huh huh :)

Psychonauts Celebrate Bicycle Day - 19th April

Carl Spies — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 23:53:33 PDT

What do some of the brightest minds at Apple, Cisco, Microsoft and Oracle have in common? They're probably celebrating Bicycle Day today (covertly or overtly).

Q - Will they be using the Geek Wonder Drug ?
A - My Magic 8-Ball says: "Reply hazy, try again."

On April 19th, 1943 at 16h20, Dr. Albert Hofmann , chemist for Sandoz Pharmaceuticals in Switzerland, deliberately ingested the first dose of LSD. 3 days earlier, he had taken the first inadvertent dose by accidentally inhaling fumes as he worked. Hofmann first synthesized the compound on November 11th, 1938 and years later felt the "peculiar need" to examine it again.

After ingesting 250 µg, (about 10 times a baseline dose) he felt a sense of urgency to return home and described his experience as follows:

"I had to struggle to speak intelligibly. I asked my laboratory assistant, who was informed of the self-experiment, to escort me home. We went by bicycle, no automobile being available because of wartime restrictions on their use. On the way home, my condition began to assume threatening forms. Everything in my field of vision wavered and was distorted as if seen in a curved mirror. I also had the sensation of being unable to move from the spot. Nevertheless, my assistant later told me we had traveled very rapidly."

Dr. Hofmann called for a doctor, who examined him and could find nothing wrong physically other than pupils dilated the size of Argentina.

"Now, little by little I could begin to enjoy the unprecedented colors and plays of shapes that persisted behind my closed eyes. Kaleidoscopic, fantastic images surged in on me, alternating, variegated, opening and then closing themselves in circles and spirals, exploding in colored fountains, rearranging and hybridizing themselves in constant flux. It was particularly remarkable how every acoustic perception, such as the sound of a door handle or a passing automobile, became transformed into optical perceptions. Every sound generated a vividly changing image, with its own consistent form and color ... Exhausted, I then slept, to awake next morning refreshed, with a clear head, though still somewhat tired physically. A sensation of well-being and renewed life flowed through me. Breakfast tasted delicious and gave me extraordinary pleasure. When I later walked out into the garden, in which the sun shone now after a spring rain, everything glistened and sparkled in a fresh light. The world was as if newly created. All my senses vibrated in a condition of highest sensitivity, which then persisted for the entire day. This self-experiment showed that LSD-25 behaved as a psychoactive substance with extraordinary properties and potency. There was to my knowledge no other known substance that evoked such profound psychic effects in such extremely low doses, that caused such dramatic changes in human consciousness and our experience of the inner and outer world."

Hofmann turned 101 years old this January and is still as bright as a button ... er .. dot .. er ... he's just very lucid and productive.

For a detailed account of another scientist's experience with psychotropics, check out Alduous Huxley's 1954 Classic "Doors of Perception" (full version online here ). It gives new meaning to the words: trip, trippy and acid-freak.

If you're looking to experience that: "Whoa! All the surfaces are breathing and Mac's look even shinier" phenomenon, you're more likely to encounter it with a white/black collar professional than with that hippy at Greenmarket sporting worn leather sandals and a faded Kenyan kikoi who's always toting a bag of something that looks like rosemary.

Currently, LSD is classified as a Schedule 9 Prohibited Substance in South Africa, though local and international psychiatric communities are working on legislation to allow it's usage in therapeutic contexts. So don't do the crime if you can't do the time (and don't wanna end up sharing more than your tripped out stories with a cellie named Bubba).

If you're considering a safe and controlled experience with psychotropics (beyond the most commonly consumed ones, like caffeine, alcohol and nicotine), you may want to consider attending the Santo Daime festival at Rustler's this September to "ride the plumed serpent".

Apple's Steve Jobs, mentions taking LSD as "one of the two or three most important things he has done in his life." Whether that contributed to his creativity (remember the line of dalmation spotted and candy coloured macs?) and business acumen, he doesn't say.

And finally, for all the *nix fans:

"There are two major products that come from Berkeley : LSD and UNIX. We don't believe this to be a coincidence." -- Jeremy S. Anderson

"Somethings happening to me!"

Carl Spies — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 19:15:52 PDT

Okay, usually the phrase ... "something's happening to me" ... is murmured/ uttered/ screamed/ bellowed" out in movies, sometimes horror flicks, sometimes action movies, sometimes in comedies ... amongst others.

I think my usage of the phrase finds itself slotted loosely in the action and drama genres, though with time and wisdom I'm sure I'll get to place it in comedy as well as documentary :)

Are these changes significant? I think so.

As with most significant changes, I expect to:

Lose some friends
Transform some friends
Gain some new friends

I'd like to say "I'm 'seeing things' more clearly"
though more accurately:
I'm seeing my 'seeing of things' more clearly

and to paraphrase Robert Frost: that is making all the difference

Four30 Slumptooons - Celebrating the Afternoon Slump

Carl Spies — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 05:01:15 PST

Late afternoons at the office summon those special states ... the kind that cause the watercooler to gurgle in Swahili while the unwashed masses gear themselves up for the commute home, wondering just how full their favourite jaunt will be tonight and whether that chick with the chain mail top will be back, 'cos boy do you have some lines worked out for her.

The ideas for this scheduled weekly post highlight the level of derangement brought on by that pre-dusk, pre-party sugar-low (which many of the lads working at Obsidian could attest to, (Warren dude, we need your skillz)).

*clasps hands firmly* *looks as devout as a freshly cast Benedictine Garden Gnome* * prays for protection against blogfade*

So yeah, if you're into arcane references, vicious plagiarism, repurposed content, cheesy one liners, vague hints at creativity and a little insight into what my brain comes up with on Friday afternoons, then stay tuned for more of this sorta stuff each Friday (submissions welcome):

#1 - Carlista Flockheart

#2 - The OZ Effect

Gearing up for MPH at the Sundome

Carl Spies — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 02:38:06 PST

<excerpt from my list of goals for 2007>
#811 : see at least 6 good shows away from the couch ... that require wearing pants
#812 : stop the hyperbole about how many goals I've set
#813 : lists are fun, make more
#814 : write a cool blog post just using lists
#815 : stop procrastinating and get on with the MPH post
</end excerpt>

Okay Okay, so I'm still a little wracked with engine envy after Mike got to play with a DB9 for a whole day. So I figured, what better way to achieve one of my 2007 goals AND fit into a room with Mike's now enormous ego, than to surround myself with a whole flock of sports cars AND Jeremy Clarkson, the veritable Paris Hilton of prestige motoring. (yeah I know, Jeremy Clarkson and Paris Hilton in one sentence, guaranteed to drive search engine traffic to my blog like flannel shirts to a heavy-set lesbo).

*makes Vroom Vrooom noises around the apartment*

So this Friday am off to see the MPH Show at the MTN Sundome, in part, to up my standing in the male "whoa I stroked this Lamborghini, dudes" ranking and to celebrate Dirk's birthday. For those of you who don't know Dirk, he's a porsche driving, Le Mans attending, Maths Freak <--- and much of my enjoyment of the MPH event is gonna be amplified by his commentary ... the man knows motoring.

Details of the show can be found here --> http://www.mphshow.co.za

"At the heart of MPH is a 75-minute, action-packed, live theatre production. Produced by Andy Wilman, the Executive Producer of BBC’s Top Gear, the extravaganza features never before seen sequences and stunts involving some of the world’s rarest and most desirable cars. All built on a passion for performance motoring."

I'm hoping to get Jeremy's autograph, watched plenty of episodes of "Top Gear" on BBC2 and really dig his presentation style. Even got to see him appear on an episode of BBC's 'What Not To Wear' with Suzanne and Trinny, where they condemned his denim jacket to the refuse heap and tried to tart up the lad's wardrobe a little. I'm a hopeless fan of make-over shows, and WNTW was one of my faves while S&T still presented it, those chicks have skills: "now, Linda from Surrey ... with this duct tape corset, lumo-pink sarong and pack of cheese-nacks, we can make you a star baby! ... works well in the office and by just adding this faux ferret waistband, you're all ready for a night at the boozer".

One small bit of kvetching quick (and would I be the Carl you all know and love if I didn't whinge a little?):

On the SA site, they have the following quote:

"It's still the only show that gets it. It embraces all that's good about cars. It's the only motoring event that I'd go to." Jeremy Clarkson

Now an astute application of "the google" reveals that Jeremy attends way more motoring events than just MPH (which he hosts). So what's the qualifier there ... "the only motoring event that I'd go to" if ...

[1] I didn't get so many comps, invites and schwag from all the other events
[2] I didn't enjoy travelling so much
[3] ... couldn't think of any more, it's lunchtime now and I'm hungry ... :)

but yeah, marketing schmucks, couldn't ya have chosen a better quote?

Blogtag: the first/last entry for 2006

Carl Spies — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 08:41:08 PST

[1] Dave Gale who birthed this round of blogtag, quoted the game as bloggers: "sharing five things about themselves that relatively few people know, and then tagging five other bloggers to be 'it'. He tagged [2] Mike who then tagged: 3] Dave Duarte [4] Me [5] Scott Gray [6] Peas on Toast and [7] Max Kaizen

So I'm up for a fun way to: Stretch the Johari a little (I know, I know) and Influence Rankings, and it doesn't seem to carry any risk (unlike playing Tag with 2 older brothers which rapidly descends into a game of stingers (with a soaked tennis ball) and you're 6 years old AND the laatlammetjie so they have way better co-ords and you end up howling like a banshee and mom gives you cake to ease the pain and you end up using cake a lot ... oh wait .. these ARE secrets ...)

These are 5 lesser known things, fleshed out a bit to give context as well as make a decent first post on this new site:

[short version]

(1) I love ice cream for breakfast, (2) I've experienced terrorism firsthand (3) My Xhosa name is Mlungisi, (4) I was on the 8pm news (5) I drove around an entire country in 1 day

[looong version]

1. I embrace the principle "It's never too late to have a happy childhood" - this can be evidenced by: my collection of action figures; Silver Surfer and Green Lantern comics; inflatable spidey; lego robotics and expansion sets; love for the word monkey or anything to do with monkeys; focus on the dessert menu at restaurants and love of anything but breakfast cereal for breakfast. How cool is ice cream for breakfast? How cool is it many, many weeks in a row? .. of course that gave rise to me signing up for personal training/coaching with Rodney King

2. I spent plenty of time growing up on a farm, Adamantia Ranch, in Zim, just outside Somabula. Dad farmed with maize, cattle, sheep and bred and trained horses (he was a hotshot Gymkhana rider). One night stands out pretty vividly (well besides the night my 2 boets and I got into a mulberry battle in the orchards and came home looking like the Purple Musketeers ... we where stained for days) ... anyways .. back to the story ... Terrorist raids where quite prevalent pre 1980 and one evening we got a warning via cb radio that a group of terrorists had been spotted on a farm adjacent to ours. Anyone familiar with that period of history in Zim will know that the "freedom fighters" were notorious for cutting off appendages of family members and forcing their peers to cook and eat them, besides the usual rape and beatings. Our family followed drills we where familiar with: drag all mattresses into the main passageway and wait there until they had either passed through the area or until help arrived. As a kid I was pretty stoked, it was exciting for me, my dad had trained in the Rhodesian Infantry and being my hero I figured he could take on any threat. It was only when I heard my gran sobbing that I realised this was not a game nor very exciting. Thinking back I recall this as the first time I ever feared for my life and that of my families. Writing this little glimpse is pretty cathartic for me, and gets me thinking about what it must have been like for my dad, being the only adult male in the home and tasked with protecting his mom, wife and three young sons. *makes note to chat with dad about that night and record it* ... okay .. enough heart on sleeve stuff, suffice it to say we saw some pretty nasty stuff early on in life and fortunately my boet's and I where young and resilient.

3. I served as a missionary for 2 years in the LDS, SACTM. I got to teach maths/science in township schools, work in hospitals, rural peace garden initiatives and work with families, teaching doctrines that encouraged learning, growth and development. While in Queenstown, I was given a name by one of the village elders, "Mlungisi" - meaning, 'one who restores' or 'makes things right'. To go with my cool Xhosa name I was also made an honorary member of the madiba isiduko(clan), so yeah, me and Mkhulu are like this *clasps hands together firmly* ;)

4. I made a 'guest appearance' on the national 8pm evening news, without even knowing it. I was in one of the last groups of SA lads to be conscripted to compulsory military service, trained as an operational medic and deployed in the Kruger National Park. One evening, just past midnight, my radio went bezerk calling for medical assistance along the kaftan (the electrified barrier with razorwire, that separates South Africa and Mozambique). Frelimo and Renamo where at it again and the battle had spilled over into the town of Rosano Garcia. Locals in the villages fled to the SA border and those who had blankets hurled them on the fence and climbed over, many didn't have that luxury and hurled themselves on the fence while others climbed over them, with mothers throwing their children over (SADF had turned off the current so the only menace left was the razorwire, which left no refugee's hands and legs unscathed). I grabbed my assistant and most of the supplies in my sick bay and hurtled toward the scene in our Mfezi (land-mine 'resistant' military ambulance). Being first on the scene, we sorted the group of about 80 refugees in order of severity of injuries and began treating them. The press from nearby Komatiepoort arrived and captured me on film, at work injecting and bandaging and suturing frantically. 2 medics, 80 casualties. 4 hours later we were done and the local SAP trucks arrived to take the refugees back to Mozambique for processing by their own government.

It was only a week later that I was hauled into the commandants office, to view the tape that was broadcast on national TV. There in full view, for the SA nation and my military superiors, can be seen my 9mm pistol shoved into the back of my pants all ghetto like. He was furious, how could I be so sloppy, anyone could have just snatched the gun while I worked. I was reposted to Rob Ferreira Hospital in Nelspruit for a month as "punishment" which was pretty much what I needed after some hectic rural events. Then after showing sufficient humility, I was assigned to Crocodile Bridge Base in the Kruger Park for the rest of my service period, where I got to deliver 2 babies, treat malaria, snake bites, tuberculosis and nasty venereal diseases 32 battalion picked up in villages (32 Batallion are the fierce soldiers made up of local South Africans, as well as Angolan lads who convert to the SA Defence Force, some of the toughest and scariest men I've ever had the opportunity to meet ... you don't want to be on the wrong side of these folk).

5. While employed by Obsidian and building up the training division, i got to to train in some pretty exotic locations, Mauritius was one of the places I got to train in and run RHCE exams quite frequently. There was a weekend overlap where my colleague and i where both in Mauritius, so we rented a little Peugeot and drove around the entire country in just 1 day, yup, one day to travel round the entire country :P 'Course this really isn't hard to do considering that the island is about 60km wide at it's widest point (North/South). Still, I'm pretty chuffed to have that achievement down ;)

Eep, the tone of this post turned pretty serious ... where did all that come from ... *ponders* ... well I'm gonna leave it like that, some sort of reference point for my frame of mind, lighter go-go gadget stuff ahead :)

I'm tagging these guys (mostly because they haven't posted in a while or not at all, lazy bums *hides behind new blog excuse* :P

Thomas - good buddy and colleague, building great things up in Ghana.
Roger - fellow mac geek and Drupal acolyte
Andre - housemate, designer and seriously skilled at skinning Drupal
Guy - the renaissance monkey and business dev consultant at Cycan
Anton - the deepest geek I know, who also taught me plenty of Linux and shares my passion for the human mind (no blog set up yet, that's what this week is for) ;)

Get to it pilgrims :)