Execution Rate Down in Mad George’s Kingdom

Curiously, in the time of George Dubya, the USA are executing fewer people.
But don’t read about it here, read about it at the Mail & Guardian.

I’ll reproduce my favourite bit of the article to get you interested (emphasis is mine):

Quietly but unmistakably, the anti-death-penalty movement in America has started to win. … How can they be winning when America’s liberals are losing every other culture war? Certainly not by telling anyone that killing people is wrong. The argument they prefer to employ, activists say, is that America is killing the wrong people. Or it’s killing people the wrong way. Or killing them at the wrong price. America just isn’t killing people properly.

Happy Birthday Stu!

It seems I’ve upset my dear middle brother by not phoning him on his birthday yesterday.

Sorry Stu!

Curiously, his birthday falls on the same day as International Talk Like a Pirate Day.
Ironically, I remembered that it was “talk like a pirate day” because it was his birthday, but forgot it was his birthday because I remembered it was “talk like a pirate day.” Silly me. Not concentrating.

Stu was full of woe. Here is how I know:

(10:38:44 AM) Neil: Sorry about that. I did remember, I just forgot to tell you I’d remembered. How was the day?
(10:41:43 AM) (@) StuDude: it was not marvellous – i kept on checking my phone for messages…
(10:41:52 AM) (@) StuDude: my hand gre tired
(10:41:55 AM) (@) StuDude: and my brain as well
(10:42:06 AM) (@) StuDude: and my mood darkened accordingly
(10:42:25 AM) (@) StuDude: until i went out
(10:42:39 AM) (@) StuDude: and still there were no happy thoughts directed towards me
(10:42:47 AM) (@) StuDude: i felt gutted
(10:42:59 AM) (@) StuDude: thoughts of suicide permeated my mind
(10:43:41 AM) Neil: That good, huh?
(10:43:51 AM) (@) StuDude: razor blades flitted in and out of my hazy tear-filled eyes
(10:44:02 AM) (@) StuDude: oops – vision
(10:44:12 AM) (@) StuDude: not eyes
(10:44:18 AM) (@) StuDude: tear-impeded actually
(10:44:18 AM) (@) StuDude: vision
(10:44:32 AM) (@) StuDude: eyes still whole
(10:44:37 AM) (@) StuDude:
(10:44:37 AM) (@) StuDude: for now

He too would have an amusing blog, if he were to have one. Which he won’t. Can hardly even get an email out of the man.

One more time. Sorry you’re a little upset, but I still love you bro’, so don’t read too much into it.

The Other Waffle Group

When ‘p’ comes before ‘s,’ you don’t get blogspot, you get blogpsot.

And theye shall hurl ye olde Bible towarde yonder noggin.

I should chat to Sam in Hong Kong more. Perhaps this kind of amusement will happen again.

The transcript from our MSN chat:

(03:51:18 PM) Neil: Angie is very very well. Have you checked out my blog lately? it has details regarding my life that you may or may not find interesting. http://thewafflegroup.blogpsot.com
(03:51:37 PM) Neil: Some of the details include things about Angie
(03:51:53 PM) Neil: She’s working for an NPO now
(03:52:56 PM) Neil: How is your wife? Not sure you’ve even ever told me her name, you secretive sneaky man
(03:53:27 PM) Neil: Do you have a blog by any chance? (one that I’ll be able to understand)
(03:56:14 PM) Samuel: bible study???
(03:56:22 PM) Samuel: huh?
(03:56:45 PM) Neil: Bible study? WTF?
(03:57:22 PM) Neil: Are you referring to the meditation?
(03:57:51 PM) Samuel: what’s that all about? amazing bible study??? your website’s got attacked?
(03:59:10 PM) Neil: Oh. Uh, typo: Should be: http://thewafflegroup.blogspot.com/
(03:59:24 PM) Neil: But that’s really funny
(04:00:04 PM) Samuel: 😀

 

Om

Ok. There wasn’t actually any omming, but we were guided through some Buddhist meditation techniques yesterday evening.

Angie, Quinn, and I joined forces to go to the meditation class. We were planning to go last week, but Quinn couldn’t make it and Angie was late and I was too nervous to go alone. By all expecting one another to be there this week, we carefully prevented ourselves from chickening out.

We went in to discover that the only seats still available were the front-row seats. Usually, people who arrive late get the seats at the back, but things here appeared to operate outside my realm of experience.

Then we were asked to all stand up, and Gen Kelsang Legden entered the room.
He really had incredible presence. He was simultaneously the most intense and most chilled-out person I’ve ever encountered.

He guided us through meditation, and then spoke to us about the importance of concentration. Concentration and focusing one’s mind. He spoke about a lot of things relating to this. He was captivating, fascinating, entertaining, and wise. A holy man with a sense of humour.
As Quinn said afterwards, ‘The drugs are free and the dealer is funny.’

It was a really incredible experience. I’m so glad I went, and I’m so glad that Angie and Quinn are also happy they attended. We’re so going back for more.

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The Waffle Master finds his happiness through Buddhist MeditationTM.
Shouldn’t you?

Dreaming of volcanoes

I recently discovered while reading about South Africa on wikipedia that South Africa politically owns the Prince Edward Islands. I starting thinking that I should pay a visit to this far flung South African destination. The islands have a volcanic origin, and the volcano is active. Technically, this means that there is a volcano in South Africa. How can we not visit the South African volcano?

Presumably because of this (but also possibly due to thinking about Mount Doom) I dreamed that I actually went to visit Marion Island.
I climbed up, but didn’t get all the way over to the edge because it was hot and glowing and dangerous-looking. Then it started to erupt. Kind of. It spat some rocks out into the air and I was worried that I might get hit on the head by them.
I decided it would be a good idea to get off the side of the volcano. As headed away from the crater, I noticed that the other tourists (yes, there were about five other people casually wandering about on the side of the volcano) were all wearing hard-hats. Why the hell wasn’t I given a hard-hat?

I feel a little less enthusiastic about visiting the place now.

Goblin’s Cove

I’ve been married 3 years now. Time hasn’t really passed all that slowly, which is a good thing because it proves I was having fun. Although it hasn’t all been fun, it has been predominantly fun.

Blah blah blah.
The point is that Angie and I went off on a mission to a place called Goblin’s Cove. It is situated near Magaliesberg. If you have Google Earth, you can check it out from the sky with this file.

It was a most excellent and restful visit.
We stayed overnight in an old railway carriage that had been refurbished to be more suitable as a hotel room. They pulled out a bunk to fit a double-bed into one of the cabins, and retrofitted a modern toilet and shower into the bathroom. They left the original fold-away sink in place. It had silly taps that you couldn’t really get your hands under, but it was an interesting experience.

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The passage inside the train

We spent most of Saturday there, just arbing, going for strolls, and reading. They have a weird menagerie that includes geese, rabbits, doves, and exotic chickens (yes, exotic is the only way to describe them and their plummage) in the same enclosure.

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Front view of Goblin’s Cove

There is also a gift shop, restaurant, and coffee shop. The decor is consistently bizarre and outlandish, and the architecture of the buildings is like something out of Middle-Earth (although the colours seem a little more garish than I imagined Middle-earth to be).

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Psychodelic coffee shoppe

We both loved the place (so thanks Angie (not the wife) and Sandor for the heads up), and plan to be going back sometime in (hopefully) the not too distant future.

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Goblin’s Cove – We’re lovin’ it!