Author: Neil Robinson

Living on Mars

I got back to the B&B today and squeezed shampoo into my hair. I lathered absent-mindedly before using the same hand to place the shampoo-bottle on the shower floor.

Blood dripped from my hand.

I was mildly alarmed. There was no sign of pain on my head, hand, or arm. Pain that would be indicative of a laceration. I lathered some more and rinsed and it seemed as if someone had scalped me.

Such is the dust on Sishen Iron Ore Mine. Don’t go there with long hair. Don’t go there if you are a bull — it will enrage you.

It’s been a long two days in the Northern Cape. The first day was long because I had to get up before 5am, and drive for 6.5 hours to get there — and then still wander around a mine for a bit.

The second day was long because Sishen Mine is huge. The pit alone is about 15km long and 5 km wide. it feels like we drove around the whole dam thing, but I fear we only really got to see a small portion of it — and that was just the morning.
Then in the afternoon we had a look at the plant. It’s the biggest processing plant I’ve ever seen. Throughput is lots. Not sure I’m allowed to say how much lots is, but the tons per hour entering the process is in the 1000s.
I’m used to gold plants — they’re not as big.

As an aside, I’m also struggling to keep to vegetarianism in this place. I don’t think I can get enough protein here that isn’t animal, and also not die (or at least become seriously malnourished).

Ah well. Perhaps there will be more on this tomorrow (but realistically Thursday is a better chance since I’m also going to the mine at night tomorrow).

Next week’s adventure

There will travelling, and it will be distant.

I’m off to Sishen, in the Northern Cape. ‘Tis a drive of 585km, and I’m leaving on Monday morning at an unmentionable hour. Returning on Friday.
There is a large hole in Sishen, and I’m going to check that the nice people who work at the hole are digging it properly. And that they’re bashing the rocks they dig up properly. And they’re not killing the trees and animals and stuff. And not pouring oil in the drains. That kind of thing.

Considering the size of the hole, I think they might struggle, but perhaps I’ll be wrong about that. I hope so.

When I get back, I’ll write an audit report. I’ll also hopefully write an account of my experiences. There may even be photographs.

Cross-hairs on Iran

I’m not looking forward to this one.

I draw your attention to this quote at the end of the article.

“It is absolutely parallel. They’re using the same dance steps — demonise the bad guys, the pretext of diplomacy, keep out of negotiations, use proxies. It is Iraq redux.” — Philip Giraldi, a former CIA counterterrorism specialist, in Vanity Fair, on echoes of the run-up to the war in Iraq

I wonder what the final excuse for bombing Iran will be? WMD probably. I wouldn’t expect Dubya to feel the need for originality in his warmongering. Stick to the formula.

Project B running along smoothly

The second batch of Project B was partially distributed at a charming dinner gathering last night. Quinn, Gaby, Chris, Lena, Angie, and Michael were all in attendance.
Michael is out from Wales, so that’s what kind of sparked the whole dinnering thing off.

However, this is not the point of the post:

The point is that Batch 1 of Project B has now been published on my Deviant Art account.

An explanation of what Project B is actually all about is included with the submissions, so go check them out:

Things are proceeding exactly as I had foreseen

Excellent news. The next batch of Project B is ready for packing and dispatch.

This means, soon, I shall publish the first batch on Deviant Art. This is yet another motivational incentive scheme I have devised, using the concepts of both immediate and delayed gratification:

Consider gift batches x, y and z.
Consider gift recipient groups X, Y, and Z.On completion of x, x is presented to X.
On completion of y, y is presented to Y and x is published on Deviant Art so that X, Y, and Z can all read x.
On completion of z, z is presented to Z and y is published on Deviant Art so that X, Y, and Z can all read y.

And so forth.

By completing the first batch, I am rewarded immediately by giving it to the recipient. But, I gain further reward at a later stage from the same batch by publishing it once I deliver the subsequent batch. Double the reward, double the enjoyment at the end of the day. In your pants.

Those of you who are recipients of the completed batch should expect some mail. If you didn’t get mail, you might be in the next batch. And herein lies a further incentive angle — pressure from those who have not yet received, but have a rough idea of what to expect from checking out Deviant Art (although, there may be some delay in getting that up there, but I’ll let you know when it’s up).

Procrastination Progress Report

I think it’s safe to assume that everyone has the context of this post, but just in case the hyperlink to the context is provided at absolutely no extra cost (twice).

If you’re reading this then it’s quite obvious that I’m doing well at the “writing blog entries” task. It is no longer being procrastinated.

Obvious drawback is that other things are. Although, it’s not really that serious considering it’s the weekend. So, if I avoided blogging, then I’d should be working, but I’m not going to do any work on the weekend.

Of course, that means I should skip work and look at Project A.
Nah, skip that too.

Project B: looking good kids.
In earlier discussions with Quinn it was decided that I should incentivise myself by issuing the gifts to recipients as they are completed. Since this behaviour could result in certain people getting upset because “they didn’t get one,” it forces me to actually complete all of the gifts.
Further, we decided that they would be distributed in batches. The first batch has already shipped. The second batch is almost ready to ship (one story left to write, but I know what to write). This means I wrote one story and conceptualised another. Productivity people!
Now, there is some concern that this particular batch might require an additional item, in order to avoid disappointment. So scratch that: two stories to write, but one already conceptualised and the weekend is but young.

Chess: I have played quite a bit today, happily avoiding other activities. I’ve discovered a rather amusing variant that they play on FICS, called “Atomic Chess.”
Now that’s an allusion to the atomic bomb because when you capture a piece, it “explodes,” removing the captured piece, itself, and all adjacent pieces from the board (with the exception of pawns, which stay behind). Now, if you don’t really play chess much, this won’t be of that much interest. But let me just say this: I feel a more apt name for the variant would be “Suicide Bomber Chess,” because there are no ballistic-missile pieces in chess.
That’s a useful piece you’re blowing up when you make a capture.

Unrelated (although not, since it is procrastination but not part of the structure): I’ve spawned a halfhaggis Flickr account. It has a couple of photos up that a posted to test whether F-spot integrated with it properly. It does. I’m mighty pleased because it’s so easy.
Perhaps I’ll start spewing out photos there on a regular basis. At least then, those who care, have a chance of actually seeing some my photos.

Online windows woes

Some time back I gave a little lesson on using one’s cell phone as a modem with linux.
I just recently tried to get it to work in windows, and have failed.

Even with Nokia’s built-in software effort, which should work “out-of-the-box,” I’ve had no joy. This gives me a warm fuzzy feeling deep down in my tummy, because Linux seems to support Nokia’s phone better than Nokia (in collaboration with Microsoft Windows) does.

Bean’s Great Adventure


Yesterday the Bean dog went for her usual run about the common grounds.

She ventured out in to the dam area (as is usual), and was gone for quite some time.
I began to get vaguely concerned when she returned, looking more brown and wet than I’d remembered her.

She was temporarily banished to the balcony until the bath was ready for her, much to her dismay.