the corner office

I've just read that the death toll from Sunday's earthquake could be as high as 100,000. The disease-related deaths that will follow might double that number. It's hard to wrap one's mind around it. Ronwen and I were discussing earlier, why it is that we're so horrified by this, while many other humanitarian tragedies in the past year or two haven't affected us as deeply. I think it's perhaps because unlike Iraq, Sudan, or elsewhere, this is something that humans were incapable of stopping. That sounds counter-intuitive, but this wasn't human folly, something where we feel safe because the countries we live in are protected from war or unrest or famine. This was just nature, cruel and indifferent, reminding us that the same earth which sustains life can take it away just as easily. We tend to view ourselves as masters of this planet, and it is humbling, and terrifying, to be reminded that we're not, really.

Cynicism aside though, it is an awful catastrophe, and the loss and suffering are real, irrespective of why or how much the rest of the world is moved by it. That we are moved by it, is all that matters.

Father Christmas (actually, Ronwen) sent me a present a day early, delivered by a Berco Delivery van - The Return of the King Collector's DVD set. An awesome statuette of Minas Tirith, and hours upon hours of extended movie, and busloads of commentaries and documentaries and goodies. No marks for guessing how we're spending Christmas Eve :-)

To all of you who celebrate it, I hope you have a merry Christmas!

I was browsing a list of South African online retailers and found Cyber-chix.

Schweet. The first online day-old chicken broker in South Africa. There always has to be a first. But surely if one has to call a cell phone number, it's not really online, per se?

(and some of the meta tag keywords in the HTML source are just, well, a little odd.)

Good news is that I got my UNISA results this weekend. I passed all 8 subjects, and got 5 distinctions! So as soon as the University has done their admin stuff and confirmed my results, I'll be the proud owner of a BSc in Computer Science. Yay!

(Most frightening of all, after whingeing for 2 years about how I just couldn't zen with Formal Logic, I got 90% for the damned subject. Go figure...)

Now for Honours :-)

Things are getting boring around here but now that I've started a trend of documenting what movies I've watched, I have to keep at it.

White Squall on Saturday night. Not bad, except for the end which got all Dead Poets Society. I love the idea of sailing, but I'm not big on the idea of drowning. I think I'd stick with sea-going on big ocean liners that are less likely to sink. On average, y'know.

P and L came by to watch Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban on Sunday. The HP movies are great, I love the Tom Brown's School Days meets every child's dreams of magic vibe. The story was a little incoherent towards the end though. Will there be a fourth HP to tie things up neatly? Will Daniel Radcliffe, the lead actor, be married with kids by then? Is he already?

Oh, and re-watched the Witches of Eastwick tonight. Oldie but a goodie.

Felt like a DVD so we hired Spiderman II this afternoon. Ronwen got bored rather quickly but I enjoyed it muchly. Thank dog they didn't leave the romance thing dangling again. Romantic tension is a tough thing to manage. It adds to the story but leave it too long and you get everyone losing interest and saying "fer chrissakes, get over yourselves and shag already!" I felt that way at the end of Spidey 1. This movie also had a good set-up for Spidey III.

(The Rabobi thing is a South African reference. In the early 80s, when the SABC first started airing African language TV, the Spiderman cartoon series was dubbed into Zulu, and "Spiderman" was translated into "Rabobi" - and us whitey kids would watch "Rabobi" but have no clue what was happening dialogue-wise. Now, every time I hear the Spiderman song, I start humming "Rabobi! Rabobi! Blah blah blah blah Rabobi!")

It might say something about me but I'm a sucker for movies about crotchety old men. Nobody's Fool was on telly last night (I saw it on the big screen years ago as well). I'm also a sucker for movies set in snow-ridden towns in the middle of nowhere. Excellent and touching movie.

(Oddly, Nobody's Fool was on eTV a week ago, and SABC3 last night. Can't these people schedule things better?)

... you're in for a BIG frigging surprise. There's a story on CNN about a hunter who offed 5 other hunters and wounded three others, presumably over a fight over a deer stand. Hardcore.

Quoth one of the hunters:

"When you're hunting, you don't expect somebody to try to shoot you and murder you," Wagner said. "You have no idea who is coming up to you."

Dripping with irony, wot?

Waaaay back in 1989 or so, at the height of my cycling days, I borrowed a video tape from our local cycle shop owner, containing the 1988 or 9 Milk Race through Britain, recorded off of MNET at the time. I still have the tape, although it's a Betamax tape and I've no way of getting to the contents. At the very end of this tape, was the first 5 minutes of "The Fiendish Plot of Dr Fu Manchu." Peter Sellers as the 168 year old Dr Fu Manchu, playing the pipe organ at his birthday, and his elixir vitae getting wasted by a servant whose arm catches fire. Ever since, I've wanted to watch the rest of that movie.

Finally, it was on eTV tonight. Sad to say, the movie didn't quite meet the expectations that had been lingering for the last 15 years. Some delightfully obscure Peter Sellers stuff, but by no means brilliant, and the ending was an outright disappointment. I am glad I finally got to see it though!

I realised that people including most Sefricans might not know the source of the Klunt reference in my earlier post, so I figured I may as well share it:

A: 'Thus nufe fillum's got Stief Makween innit. Jew larkkim?'

B: 'Yers. Klunt Eastwards eggshi mah fafe-rit, bit Stief's orso kwart narse.'

... from the old but excellent "Ah Big Yaws. A Guard to Sow Theffricun Innglissh" by Rawbone Malong (aka Robin Malan). And if you or your parental units happen to own an older copy of this tome on how our fogies spoke, then hang on to it. Dealers are flogging them for 129 dollars at Amazon.com. Crazy!