They are coming.....

So I’m a bit of a gadget nut. I like all things gadgety and technology related. Granted I live in a third world country, that fancies itself as a first world country with regards to the pricing of things. Therefore it is with no surprise that I cannot afford most of the things I like.

A few nights ago I watched a show called “Brave New World with Stephen Hawking” on the Discovery Science Channel which is all about the future of technology in the world. This episode featured something awesome and quite disturbing at the same time. It was a robot named iCub. Apparently this robot is something quite special because unlike all the other android or android-like creations, this one has the capacity to learn.
The premise of this endeavor is that the robot is like an infant child. Like human children this robot learns as it interacts with the world. It has the capacity to change its programming so it can make decisions based on these interactions. This is how it looks…

Hi. My Name is iCub and I have come here to kill you.

It’s all sounds very ideal: one day we’ll all own our personal intelligent robots that do everything we command. But let me remind you of a few warnings we have received over the years…

⦁ iRobot

Just one look at the picture of iCub and the first thing that pops into your mind is the movie iRobot. The world at the beginning of that movie is what I suppose everyone today is looking for. We all want a servant. Low maintenance servant, one that does not need maternity leave or Unemployment Insurance Fund benefits.

Until they start to develop “feelings”, “emotions” and a “conscience”.  So we all know the robots in that movie turned on their human “owners” and I’m sure if Will Smith was not alive and skeptical about those things then I am sure that they would have killed or enslaved the puny humans. **side thought:  why didn't they use just an EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse) to kill all the robots. I suppose then it wouldn’t be a very long or action packed movie… anyway…** What makes it even more freaky is the resemblance between the iCub and the iRobot. Do yourself a favour and look for it on YouTube.

⦁ The Matrix

Well now this is the ultimate robots- gone-wrong story.

Premise: The matrix is a computer program designed by the machines to keep the unsuspecting humans entrapped, while the real world is actually run by these machines and they keep the humans alive only for their energy so that the machines can survive. The humans are “living” in the matrix, while in reality they are in an unconscious state.  This came about many years ago when the machines rose to power and defeated the humans in a war. The last strike of the humans was to block out the sun so that the machines cannot harness its solar power, hence the fact that they have to use the energy that the humans produce in order to survive.

This is indeed a reality that could happen if these robots of ours evolve, because it is inevitable that this world that we live in will become too small for the two of us. **side note:  they used an EMP in the Matrix too kill those bastard machines**

⦁ Wall-E

I know… I know… the robot is the good guy… bbbbbbbbuuuuuuutttttttttttt….
The robot on the ship wanted to keep the humans captive on the space ship. Evil bitch!
What worries me about that movie is that the humans have become so reliant on the technology that they never did anything themselves and became morbidly obese because of their lack of activity… uhm…. Hello North America… stop watching tv and throw a ball or something…

So if you take anything from post let it be this… they are coming and we are enabling them. The reason why I am not particularly worried about it all is because of the fact that I will be dead by the time these things come to pass.

Peace. Love. Happiness

PS. I love side notes/thoughts. Just ask yo mama  :O

How bipolar am I? I know right...

Let's jump past the preliminaries of me saying that I haven't been blogging for months blah blah blah...

I'm back now and will try to do at least one post per week. Deal with it...

So I finished exams a few weeks ago and have had fun from then until last week.

First out of the gate was an awesome night partying at the beach, which ended up with me ridding my stomach from the mashed potatoes I ate a few hours before, into the toilet of "my friend's flat". All in all a great night.

Next up was my trip to Jeffreys Bay. Wow! What an amazing weekend! The Friday night we got very deep, thanx to some liquids. The Saturday morning was awesome though. Even though we only had about 3 hours sleep, I was not about to "vrek" my weekend away. I woke the others up at 7am and by 8am most of us were frolicking in the water having a great morning swim. Later that day after shopping for our braai for that evening we returned to the beach and frolicked again. Our second swim ended in us, literally, running from the life guards. Saturday night was all about herbs and laughter. *figure that one out*. We left the Sunday morning and went to Port Elizabeth for lunch. It was my second time having sushi and dumplings at Fushin. Best sushi and tempura prawns EVER! The ride back was pretty fun, except for one massive big pothole which, thanx to Shanaaz's driving skills we avoided deftly. When we got back to "the farm" we just dropped our luggage and went to watch Breaking Dawn. Again. I have now officially watched a movie 3 times at the cinema. Worth it though.

Ever since being back I have just been extremely lethargic!! I have no idea why! My body might be trying to tell me something. I think it's time I become serious about my body...

Now look... I have always felt that food was meant to be eaten and enjoyed. Why should I not enjoy myself!?!?! That is why I've always been this fat. I have tried several times in my life to lose this weight, but I have never really been serious. I have even cut out carbs and sugar at one point and I lost about 2kg's in a week and a half. But inevitably I fell of the bandwagon. And now I'm currently back to what I was before I made the changes.

I now need to make changes to my life. Real changes. To a lot of aspects of my life! I realise that it's not just exclusively my eating habits or my lack of physical activity or my emotions (I'm an emotional eater. I eat when I'm happy, sad, apathetic, angry. Basically I eat when I "feel"). It definitely is a combinations all of these things. And I have to work through all of them. At this moment I dunno how, but I have enough faith in myself to know that it will work out.

I want to at least be "tit-less" when I graduate. I've graduated before and I die a little inside everytime I look at those pictures.

I will definitely keep you posted on how everything goes. I still have a lot to talk about but that will come soon enough.

Good to be back <3
Peace. Love. Happiness.

How Deep Does The Rabbit Hole Go...?

I am him. The prodigal son. I have left the blogging realm for a while. Undergoing a paradigm shift. You have many questions and although the process has altered my consciousness I remain irrevocably human. Ergo, some of my ramblings you will understand and some of them you will not... Concordantly while your first question may be the most pertinent, you may or may not realise it is also the most irrelevant.

So what has life been like since August 2011, you ask?

One thing comes to mind... CAPE TOWN!!! Even christmas day pales in comparison with my trip to my "hometown". I left on the 26th of Dec. I wanted to get there asap. I got there and hooked up with Gersh, Luci, Nobie, aunty M and naledz (who because of the limitations of her mental capacity felt that she needed to travel with the Intercape at the same time I travelled to exactly the same destination by way of Translux). Her bus broke down and was delayed. It's called karma! Hehehehe... Shaz came just in time for our new years celebrations.

I will give you the overview of my trip within in a few disjointed words... Love. Friends. Alcohol. Laughter. Beach. Alcohol. Train. Friends. Taxi. Cuteness. Oros. Mask. Rollers. Alcohol. Food. Crew. Mountain. Alcohol. Lllllaaaaayyyysssss. Weed. Friends. Sex (not me). Love.

In a very big nutshell it was easily the most awesome time of my life.

Then I had to return to the reality...the farm...the dump. The East London. Urgh! Yes, I'm still a student. Third year. Law. I'm loving what I study but I do not love the exams, the tests, assignments and workload. But I gotsta get that paper...

So now I'm being swamped with work and what makes it worse is the fact I'm a procrastinator of tsunami proportions.

This week is the camp weekend. I need to get a lot of work done so I'm not going.

My friends be wanting me to go on camp with them. I iz like "no I can't". They iz like "yes you can". I iz like "I can't be goingz with you coz I iz swamped". They iz like "please come, we iz be paying for you". I iz be like thinking "b!#*h I iz no living in the poverty!!!" I iz be hoping they have a great time.

So all of the above have led me, inexorably, here...

I think I'm gonna take this crappy, whiney blog in a new direction this year... *suspense music*

Remember...always take the red pill :)
Peace. Love. Happiness.

Flicks

Comedy... Drama... Thriller... Horror... Art Nouveau... Indie...

Just several genres of films that exist. Within each of those exist even more sub-genres. Within those thousands, probably even millions, of films exist.

But I am here to tell you only about a few special ones. Special to me anyway...

When I was younger and I was asked the question of type of movies I liked I would instinctively answer comedies. If I have to think back on which ones in particular, I would not be able to give you a single one, rather I would have to name the actor who starred in those comedies. Jim Carrey. From "The Mask" to "Ace Ventura" to "Dumb and Dumber". As I have grown up however I have come to appreciate Adam Sandler and some of his comedies. However if you were to ask me now what my favourite comedy is I would have to say "Kung Pow: Enter the Fist" it is by far the most silliest film ever made! I have come to realise that placing that film at the top of my comedy list, that I have the sense of humour of a 12 year old boy. I accept that.

I was never a fan of action films. There are 2 (or 5) that I do have to mention. First is the "Bourne trilogy". There is just something about a good spy movie that I like. The intrigue. The chase. The doomed romance. (I also like the "Mission Impossible" series but I refuse to put it on this list because one is not a fan of tom cruise, hence the brackets.) The best action film however is, and always will be, "Kill Bill". There is nothing about this movie that I do not like. The story. The direction. The way the story is so disjointed. But most of all I like the killing scenes. The whole movie is basically just one big killing scene. My favourite scene from both movies is where The Bride kills O'Ren. It is exquisitely done. Very artistic yet very brutal. One of the best scenes in film history!

I am not one for science-fiction but one cannot deny the brilliance of "The Matrix". It is a film that greatly affected pop culture. Today one can still find references to that infamous shot of Trinity suspended in mid-air. Another famous scene is the one where Neo bends backwards to avoid an Agent's bullets. I am pretty sure all of us have imitated that move one time or another. I like The Matrix for a lot of reasons but there is one reason in particular. The premise of the film is that we all are plugged into computers and living this virtual life. Although it is meant to be fiction it is not that far from the truth. Consider this... All of us these days have a mobile phone and we all have facebook pages, twitter accounts, BBM, whatsapp... We are all in fact plugged into technology and we socialise and live our lives through these technological mediums. So if you have think about it we actually are living in the matrix. Life imitating art? I would think so...

I have also come to appreciate a good drama. Horrors are also a favourite of mine. But I felt like have said enough for now.

I would urge all of you to watch all of these before you die.

Peace. Love. Happiness.

Friendships

So I'm sitting on toilet, as one does, pondering about random stuff and my brain locks on to the word relationships. That got me started on friendships.

Friendships have always been a tricky thing for me. I don't easily make them, because I don't easily trust, but when I do I give my everything. Like most things in my life if I do something I do it all out. "Go big or go home".

I started thinking about the really profound friendships I have had in my life. Those which are now lost and those who still remain.

The longest one is with one of my closest friends. One of the roots in the tree of my life. We have been friends for over 15 years. There have been ups and downs. Major ones, but still loyalty remains. I suppose it stems from us both being outcasts. One of the peculiarities of our friendship is that we can go weeks without speaking with or seeing each other and yet when we do it is like no time has passed at all. We recently went through a period of 6 months without speaking and yet when we spoke after that it was like we were the two nerds again back in high school talking a whole bunch of rubbish and laughing our heads off at out silly stupid jokes only we understand. That is a true friendship.

I have a sneaky way of measuring the depth of my friendships. I believe that if you can sit in silence with someone without being uncomfortable at all then you have a true friend at your side. I have made a lot of people uncomfortable by doing this and was fun seeing them squirm in the silence but try as I might they never turned out to be good friends at all.

Another is one I consider to be one of my best friends. We shall call her "Grace Adler". We knew each other for a while before we became friends. Funnily enough I can't really recall how our friendship started but one thing I know for sure is that I do not think that it is gonna end soon. She is one of the most real people I have ever met and one of the strongest too (although she does not always realise it). We have a lot of laughs but we also have sobering moments, and that is what it is all about.

It is not all about laughing and having good times. You can have those with anyone, even strangers. What matters is if you can take the good with the bad. Can you be there for your friend when they are not at their best? Can you tell your friend what's on your mind without fear of judgement? Can you handle harsh advice from your friend? Are you able to give hard advice to your friend? If you can be all of you and they are still by your side, hold onto them for a very long time.

Several of my longest running friendships, I realised, have been with people who are considered outcasts, hurt souls, those who have been marginalised.

There is one person in my life whom I can count to always put a smile on my face. Let's call him "Jack Mcfarland" lol

Then there is "Karin Walker". The rich socialite queen who irritates us all sometimes but we cannot live without her.

These are some of my real friends, my roots. Those that I wish I will have for the rest of my life.
Friends come and friends go. Longevity should never be the yardstick of a friendship. There have been people in my life whom I have known since birth yet our relationship never progressed more than a tenth of some of the ones I have now. Some people are just meant to be in your life for a season. They are meant to teach you one thing and then move on. If you can learn to accept that fact then you will learn to appreciate the ones that matter.

I suppose this is dedicated to those who have experienced the best and the worst of me and through it all chose to stick by me.

Relationships are fragile. They can take a lifetime to build and they can be ruined in a second. Treasure your friends.

They are your chosen family.

Peace. Love. Happiness.

Back and Forth

Bleh!

What a day!

This morning I didn't hear my alarm which means I did not make it to class. It is not that big of a deal anyway. I despise that lecturer. It is obvious that he only qualified with his Masters recently but that still does not give him the right to come and try to lecture us while he himself learnt the same things only yesterday! I am of the opinion that a lecturer should at least have extensive experience before being asked to teach others. It's just common sense. He's the "lecturer" that "taught" me constitutional law last semester. Horrid man!

Although I did not attend class today I did have go to the campus because I needed to sort out some stuff for another module. There has been a trend recently where the lecturers feel that we students will enjoy working in groups with our fellow students. WRONG!!! Group works sucks! Big time! This is how it normally goes. We are sorted into groups of 10 or so then there are those few (about 4 or 5) which are keen to do the work and learn. Then there are those who just don't care about pulling their weight. They never attend group meetings and some hardly attend the classes but yet want throw a fit if they do not receive the same marks as those who made the time to help the group. Last year (and even last semester) I tried to cover for them and I was my normal helpful self. This time around however I have taken a different stance. I will not do anything for those type of people again. Now I could be all noble and say that I will not do it because I feel that me helping them is just enabling their laziness and by refusing to help them that I am teaching them a valuable lesson in discipline, but truth be told I am just sick of it. In fact I feel violated and taken advantage of. They should realise that they are studying law and when they are out in the real world there's not going to be a Garth Skye to help them along. They are gonna be crushed by more ambitious people.

One has to walk a fine line when one is a leader, especially in respect of friends. I am 100% sure that in taking this stance I will lose some "friends". But this is something I have to do for my own sanity. I have to take this stand. There's a saying that goes...

"If you can't stand for anything then you will fall for everything"

Moving swiftly along...

Today has been a very productive day as well. I returned to studying again. When I say studying I mean I actually read through my coursework without any need to. I just hope I can keep it up.

I also started exercising again today. I did Taebo and Hip-Hop Abs. I figured doing aerobic exercises should be much more beneficial than just riding my exercise bike (Mandy). Taebo is a killer! Iyoh! And I only did the basic workout. Could you imagine if I did the normal workout... Death by sweat!

Hip-Hop Abs on the other was very fun... and so sexual! All that thrusting your hips back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth... I prefer doing Hip-Hop abs to Taebo.

So let's just hope one can stick to the exercise plan because one MUST look sexy for Cape Town.

Well one has to go now.

P.S. Shaun T is SO gay!

Until next time...

Peace. Love. Happiness.

Age ain't nothing but a number

Ok... Uhm... Wow...

So it has been quite a while since my last entry. I have been busy. So many things have happened. I doubt I'll remember them all though.

The first thing that comes to mind is the camp that I attended last week. I had reservations about going because I am cynical like that sometimes. Surprisingly I enjoyed myself. Now you should know that I am not a mans man. But that is a whole other blog entry by itself. I digress... I spent the whole weekend with my girls and I had loads of laughs and photo shoots and adventures in the forest. For the first time at a camp I felt free to be me.

The Saturday evening however was an extremely emotional one. If you have watched "The Freedom Writers" you would be familiar with an exercise called "cross the line" where certain questions are asked and if it applies to you then you must cross the line. I became emotional not because of me and my situations but because of my friends and what they are going through. At that moment I felt so helpless when all I wanted to do is hold them and tell them everything will be ok.

So on my way back from camp I found out that Amy Winehouse has died and about the disaster in Norway. My heart goes out to everyone in Norway who lost family members or friends. I cannot say that I am surprised at what happened to Amy though but it is still sad none the less.

She died at the age of 27 and I found out that several former stars died at the same age. I found that intriguing and I did a bit of research on it (meaning I Googled my behind off). I discovered a lot of conspiracy theories, illuminati included. The most interesting article I found though purports that our life consists of cycles and they change drastically between the ages of 26-29. Most of it sounded "way-out-there" but it got me thinking... I am 27 and I HAVE noticed quite a few changes in my life. I have become much more mellow. Things that used to interest me in the past no longer matters. I value family more than before. I appreciate my friends a lot more also. Even the type of music I listen to has changed. So I suppose there might be some truth to that statement.

If I have a word (or several) of advice however it would be that you should not wait to be 27 to mature. Love your family. Appreciate your friends. Laugh as much as you can. Live your life, don't just watch it pass by you. You never know what might happen tomorrow.

From now on I'll try to post more entries more often. Until then....

Peace. Love. Happiness.