New Blogger Layout

If you are used to the old layout of this blog, I'm surprised.
Gratified, but surprised.
You really are a regular reader here?  Excellent.
Thanks
Spread the word.

Oh yeah.  Do you like the new layout?
Now I just have to figure out how to get things like "hit counts" back.

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Rice/Lloyd-Webber - a fine choice for one's first musical.


We're currently four days into the run of Joseph at Reps and having fun.
The show, Directed by Teri Grimmell with Musical Direction by Paul Shephard has not been without its little quirks.  The 'flu bug that has got into the team is being valiantly fought off and, with the help of electronic amplification (Rob Hollands and team), even the dodgiest and most damaged voices can be made passable.

Joseph is an interesting show.
Modelled remarkably closely on the original Genesis account (chap 37 and 39 onwards), all sorts of fun little side lights have been lifted from the Scripture straight into the script.  Supplement these with a rock-n-roll Pharaoh, a French café symbolising the hardships of Canaan and a calypso Judah, and it's a rollicking good fun show.

But what does it say to Joe Public?

As written, there are two portrayals of the underlying philosophy Tim Rice wrote into the lyric.
In the show prologue the Narrator tells us:

We all dream a lot.
Some are lucky, some are not.
But if you think it, want it, dream it,
Then it's real.
You are what you feel.

But all that I say,
Can be told another way.
In the story of a boy who's dreams came true.
And he could be you.

In other words, you are what you dream - existential humanism for Everyman.

Then, after Joseph is elevated to "Pharaoh's number two", he tells us that "Anyone from anywhere can make it if he gets a lucky break! "

And it all seems so real.
Salvation by fate!  You are what you turn out to be.

And this is where I need to come back to the source.  It isn't just your dreams or your lucky breaks.  Who controls your life?  Who do you choose to serve with your life?
In Acts 7, Stephen tells us the story again.

And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; but God was with him and rescued him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him ruler over Egypt and over all his household.

(Emphasis mine)
Not luck.  Not dreams. God.
God was with him.

In his lifetime, Joseph was instrumental in saving many lives.  But that's all.  He was an instrument.  A willing tool in the Hands of the God who did not fail him in his time of horror.

To paraphrase

It's the story of a boy who's God is true.
And he could be you.

["Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" runs at Reps until Saturday 25th September.  Booking at the Spotlight] 

So, how does Mail2Blogger work?

I love the idea of being able to post to the blog from email.
You never know, I may even get round to posting more often!

Having recently been given a Smart Phone, email is now firmly "anywhere" - and so too therefore is blogging.
And, as this little beast (HTC Kaiser, re-badged as an AT&T Tilt) also has a camera, you never know, I may even start posting pictures.

Time will tell.

In Joburg for Christmas

(BTW - I'm in Joburg for Christmas)

2009 - the coming of the Green Back. Officially

2009 - the coming of the Green Back.  Officially

Noone would have dreamed, in the last days of 2008 that the coming year would shape up so very differently.  Few men would have believed that in the silent realms of hyperinflationary economics, minds immeasurable different to ours were watching us.  And slowly and surely, they drew their plans against us.

(With apologies to H G Wells' remarkable "War of the Worlds")

But early in the year, Zimbabwe suddenly staggered from a dollarised black-market into a legalised multi-currency environment which turned out to be predominantly USD in Harare and the north of the country, and ZAR in Bulawayo and regions closer to the Rand monetary area.

Suddenly, the few Zimbabweans with jobs and money became relatively rich and were briefly able to buy, buy, buy to their hearts' content.

But slowly, although the shops in the more affluent areas continue to be well stocked (certainly relative to the preceeding years of run-away zillions of Zim dollars), the available pool of green-backs has been sopped up.
It will be a hard Christmas again.  But, as various commentators have pointed, this is what Zimbabweans can cope with.  If we learned nothing else in the last few years, you now know how little we need to survive.

What would Paul do?

I had thought of doing a brief "2009 in retrospect" (if I had time) today. But driving back from the shops (buying lunch for today, dog food for the time I'm away and Zimbo groceries to take with me as pressies), I had Acts playing in the car.
And this struck me...

• Act 20:24 I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. 

So what would Paul have done with 2009?

1. Finished what he was given to do.  (That counts towards the retrospect if I get that far)
2. Recognise that it was not only because it was such fun and so fulfilling
3. Acknowledge Who the commission (along with provision, opportunity and nudge) came from
4. Acknowledge that it is all about His Name and Glory

And what a neat, compact summary of what we are to talk about!

• to testify to the gospel of the grace of God

 Four words we take for granted, and on the back of which, even 2009 Zimbabwe makes sense!

It's raining...

I told you years ago that you shouldn't expect regular ZimLemming posts.
And I was right.

But the internet is a funny old place, so maybe I will dabble again for a while.

So, what has happened since last I was here?
Don't ask me. Just don't ask. I might tell you.

But that's why I'm here. To tell you. To let you in on my thinks and findings.
This week I find myself about to go off on holiday. Holy-days, surely. Three weeks south of the boervors curtain to round off a very full and very rewarding 2009.

So, assuming I pop in here again in January, adieu, have a great Christmas and I'll speak more then.

(Oh yes, and it is actually raining outside!)

SKYPE alert
OK, blame Mark Taylor.
You can now call me on SKYPE if you're a SKYPEr yourself.
My id is mikerjs
Technology, yes.

BTW, for those who want to know, Mark is definitely stepping up in the techno world.
Nothing like God moving a man from Harare to Horizon to play havoc with his "toys" fixation.
I offer you blogs of his mind (and politics) and heart.
You'll find links to the rest of him on one (or both) of these blogs.

(Hi Mark. Anyone who starts monitoring my BLOG is worthy of a mention and verbal abuse! Love and blessings to you and Rose)

In one sentence...

We had a Church Leaders' Weekend this weekend.
And, as this was a newly expanded crew, there was the obligatory "Introduce yourself" moment.

What do you say to introduce yourself without being, well, boring?

My contribution:

• I am Mike, and I can't be described in one sentence.

Later in the day, while driving home for the afternoon break, God challenged me on this.
Who am I to say that I can or can't be described in any way?
He alone knows all my paths and can decide on the limits of my existence.
And then I remembered that I can indeed be described in one sentence.

• I am Mike, and I'm a sinner, saved by Grace, and set apart for good works which He has prepared in advance for me to do.

That's better.
It feels a little pretentious, I know, but it's true.
Why He chose me is a wonder!

Chivero
Some will travel for hours and days to see wonders.
We are just so blessed of God that, within an hour of Harare, we have such marvellous wildlife!
My nephew is up from Joburg for a few days. Any excuse. Four of us (Bryden, Edgar Dacre - a long standing family friend, Mum and I) went out to Chivero National Park today.

As excellent as ever. Impala, tsesebee, zebra, warthog, giraffe, more zebra, rhino, fish eagles (with fish), more zebra, more impala, squirrels, zebra...
So close, so wonderful.
Such a privelege

Edgar joins "the diaspora" in a few weeks. How the glorious weather plays on his expectations of the UK wetness, is up to the imagination. We just provide the home-sickness in advance - not the ability to cope with it!

Bored moment last night
In the depths of another driver download (the road from WinNT4 to WinXP is paved with red-eyes and driver downloads), I did a search for "Mike Southall".

One of those "Where am I? Find me!" moments.

For my money, the best search engine for pictures is still AltaVista. (I probably shouldn't say that on a Google owned medium, but hey!)

Well, most of the "Mike Southall" returns from AltaVista are unknown to me, but one was this Blog as seen from "The Ageless Project"
Reminding me that it exists.

So I thought I'd write something.

• Something

While I'm here, I've taken off the "comments" links. Boatloads of spam drowned any real comments that might have been there.

Next stage ...
Dunno. Let's see how we go.

See you next year I fear!

Ha! We're back!
Three things to report tonight

Firstly, I'm back. Again. Much of the drivel I'd have puked at you has gone by email to a friend instead.
I guess I could have posted here as well, but didn't. Sorreee.
Will it improve? Don't count on it. Betting on ZimLemming regularity is as wise as investing in Zimbabwe's economy!

Secondly, new webring at the bottom of the page. Hopefully. I still don't trust code to come out right.
Check out the Blog*Spot ring. I haven't yet, but, hey, be brave.
Go there. At worst, your traffic will attract others back here!

Thirdly, I'm addicted to the NPR program "Car Talk".
In this weekly show (which hits the web on Tuesdays), two brilliantly funny guys discuss car related topics and take phone calls. They call themselves "Click and Clack; the Tapet Brothers", and they are well worth a listen.
And when you do, then you'll find that you too are using "Ha! We're back!" as a catch phrase at least twice a day!

Someday, I'll go off about the joys and trials of capturing streamed realmedia. But not tonight

Good night and Happy Heroes' Holiday. - like dead guys need a holiday anyway. No matter, it's a welcome break for the rest of us. And at least, when the shops are shut, we can forget that we don't have the cash not to spend there.

We-blocker and Blog Rings
It's an e-jungle out here. You know it, I know it.
What are you doing about it?
If you are strong enough never to go where you shouldn't on the 'web, I don't believe you!

At the risk of getting rev'ed for advertising, can I recommend We-blocker?
Much like other packages (CyberNanny, SafeSurf, etc), We-blocker acts to stop you seeing web pages that you really don't want to or don't need to see.
However, I choose We-blocker over the others for a few reasons.

Firstly - price. Free. 'StruasBob! You can slip them a donation (if you have a credit card and live in a country with a currency!), but it works fine for free with only a "one in every 15 clicks" pop-up to remind you who you have to thank.

Second - ease of use. This is unfair. I'm not an expert in the other packages so they could be as good. But I am getting to really like how easy and intuitive We-blocker is.

Third - user input. You find a site you don't want to see, you can do three things. You could try remembering the URL so that you don't go back there (yeah right!), or you can tell We-blocker to block it for your purposes or, and here's the good bit, you can tell We-blocker you think other folk might want it blocked too. We-blocker then review the recommendations, and roll out updates on a regular (and invisible) basis.

So today I stumble across a cesspit, and push the button for an e-heads-up to We-blocker. Tomorrow, you are spared the same trap. No more depending on a group of specially desensitised specialists to decide what to block. We're in this war together. I help you, you help me, and that's the way we go.

And sometimes we find some really strange things.
There used to be a couple of "Christian Blog Ring" links at the bottom of this page. Used to be.
Don't ask me what was blockable on the one "Christian" link, but it has started being blocked by We-blocker. I trust them. If it's blocked, I'm not gonna waste my time digging for why. I've just removed the links from the page altogether.
It's easier that way!

Inflation
Central Statistical Office says that, for the month of April 2003, Zimbabwe's inflation rate hit a new level.
269%.
We are into an arena of unimaginables. How does one plan for anything?
I remember growing up hearing of folk in (then) Israel going straight from the pay office to the shops to buy anything and everything. Making sure that all the pay was spent imeadiately. Stockpiling whatever they could find - from jam to Jaguars. Anything to get the capital as goods rather than cash.
It was a joke.
We pitied them in a distant, far off way.

Now I buy a month's supply of bread at a throw, and that twice a week.
It freezes, and it's going up.
It's no longer "them" - it's "us".

And ZCTU says that we need to stock up on food because the next strike will be the big one.
What food?
OK, I'm at the top of the food chain, but what proportion of the population feel in a position to stock up on anything?
What proportion can find the necesaries to stock up on?

Where will it end?

And still we know it is not as bad as it might have been. Do you remember that "one hit wonder" STEP team band "Voyce" who came through Zimbabwe in the late '80s? They had a song which included the words

If the Lord had not been on our side
We would have been the ones who died
That's easy to say. Many are dying anyway. It almost feels as if God has abandoned us. I don't believe He has. It's not His style!
It would be so much worse if He had.

Make a comment!
I'm not sure if this is a good idea. This is the first time the "[View/Post Comments]" link has been attached.
It means that you can tell me (and the world) what you think of my blog entries. What a scary thought.
However, if no-one comments, it will be a bit of a downer, no?
So do this thing, OK?!

Great Wall Chinese Restaurant, Harare
Dinner for two. Great grub, great company, Great Wall.
I could go back there.
Where? You know - East Road, behind Reps
And not as bad as the Fingaz review from July 2002. (Not to mention the other bits of Grace Mutandwa's private life and newspaper article!)

So you were surprised I have a web page(/blog/whatever)?
Well now your dinner is on it. Ha!
Garlic chicken wings, gingery lamb something or other and grilled bananas. Ha!

Donate your PC
I love technology. Especially when it works.
Distributed technology is just such a technology.
What it means is something like this...

Some clever clogs wants to find, for example, a drug that will bind with a cancer cell and stop it misbehaving and being cancerous.
Easy enough - in theory. We know the structure of a target molecule on the surface of the cell we just have to try other molecules to see if they will bind and then we can build the drug.

Any ideas on the number of possible molecules we could try?
No problem - use a computer.

Nope, the number is too big for a computer. Truly. The cost of a computer to do such a gob-smackingly huge and useful project far exceeds the research funding.

But Clever Clogs isn't beat.
What if, he muses, instead of using one super-computer with a super price tag, we use several ordinary computers which are already paid for (ie, free)?
You see, you and I are sitting at computers that are not using all their smarts. So, if we "donate" our spare processing capacity, together we all, worldwide, make up some humungous amount of processing power.

That's distributed processing.
I'm working with two organisations - one from my work PC (shhh!) and one from the PC at home. These two organisations send down "work" to my PC and the PC processes it and, when finished, sends it back. The impact on my PC speed is zero (or closer to zero than matters), and the dowload / return results time is also absorbed into other connection time such as when I download my email.

Good stuff.

Why do I use two different companies?
Simple - United Devices expect a smarter PC than the one I have at home, so they get to use my work PC. However, my older, slower PC at home is working away for Folding@home.

United Devices / Grid.org are at the University of Oxford. Currently we are working one two project lines - cancer and smallpox. (They "did" anthrax last year)

Folding@home however is on the other side of the pond at Stanford University. This is an interesting one as the research is to do with a family of diseases which includes Alzheimer's, Mad Cow (BSE), CJD, ALS, and Parkinson's disease.
What these diseases have in common is that all of them are the result of some important molecule getting bent. Literally.
If a dopamine derivative folds the wrong way, it can't bind correctly to its target site, and the result is Parkinson's disease. By running Folding@home we hope to learn more about these folding errors and maybe...

My Dad died of Parkinson's in March this year. We miss him massively - but I pray that someday, either through Folding@home or some other research, someone else will be spared the pain as their Dad is spared the horrors.

Meantime, I donate my PCs to the cause, and my knees to praying that those who do die in these horrible ways are ready to die.
Jesus said "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die." Dad lived in Christ and believed in Him. Even though he is dead, I know he, along with Lazarus and many others will live. Can I say the same for you?
Donate your PC - yes. But give Jesus your life as well. It's even more important!

And the rewards are better too!

You all come back now!
Having been a less than regular blogger, I'm aware that I have few (a.k.a. no) regular readers. My bad.

Blogging is, I guess, like any relationship. It requires continuous upkeep. However much effort was put in to start or at any stage in the past, the relationship depends on the effort put in now.
And putting in the same effort day after day, week after week is not necessarily enough either. I could publish "Mary had a little lamb" every day, religiously and without fail and it would not attract more readers. In fact less.
You'd be less likely to come back for "I wonder if he's changed" than you would for "I wonder if he's posted anything at all".
Or, if a husband brings home five red roses every day, religiously and without fail, that too will loose it's "specialness" with time. Although maybe initially an act of love and passion, it soon becomes an act of habit and duty. The impact comes when it stops.
"Where are my flowers? He didn't bring me flowers today. Is something wrong with him? Has the relationship died?"
Whatever is wrong with him has been so for a while, and the relationship too may have been dead for a while. You only just noticed.

Happily, not all things are so monotonous. Although GOD, unlike me, puts in the effort to maintain His relationship with us, He is not just doing the same thing every day. As Eugene Peterson translates the book of Lamentations in "The Message",

"GOD's loyal love couldn't have run out, his merciful love couldn't have dried up. They're created new every morning. How great your faithfulness!"

New every morning.
GOD 1 : Mankind 0.
Again.

Minor template edit.
Blog ring banners were mutilating the layout so I'm moving them from the right to the end of the page.
It looks like the rings may have collapsed in my absense anyway, but no matter.

He's back - I think
Nearly a whole year, and no ZimLemming post.
I know why, but I'll be nice and not go into the detail. Suffice it to say that the major problem is now over, and much of the follow on problems have now resolved themselves as well.

So I'm back.

I think.

Much has happened in the last 49 weeks, so I won't try and fill you in on it now. Rather, I'll call up issues "pole pole" as they become relevant.
For now, it suffices to say - "He's Baaaack!"