absolutwillie

Author: absolutwillie

  • a Roxette song comes to mind…



    Crash! Boom! Bang!

    Oh how wonderful January is…
    It doesn’t look that bad – but the wheel’s control-arm-thingamabob is bent (still doesn’t flap or quote musicals though), meaning the car won’t move. Estimated repairs = R10 Grand.

  • …and in despair, I came across this

    During one of the many Reformation battles, a young soldier found himself and his army being soundly defeated by the enemy. He and his comrades hastily retreated from the battlefield in defeat, running away in fear of their very lives.

    The enemy gave chase. The young man ran hard and fast, full of fear and desperation, and soon found himself cut off from his comrades. The soldier eventually came upon a rocky ledge containing a cave.

    Knowing the enemy was close behind, and that he was exhausted from the chase, he chose to hide there. After he crawled in, he fell to his face in the darkness, desperately crying to God to save him and protect him from his enemies. He made a bargain with God. He promised that if God saved him, he would serve Him for the remainder of his days.

    When he looked up from his despairing plea for help, he saw a spider beginning to weave its web at the entrance to the cave. As he watched the delicate threads being slowly drawn across the mouth of the cave, the young soldier pondered its irony. He thought,

    “I asked God for protection and deliverance, and He sent me a spider instead. How can a spider save me?”

    His heart was hardened, knowing the enemy would soon discover his hiding place and kill him. He soon heard the sound of his enemies, who were now scouring the area looking for those in hiding.

    One soldier slowly walked up to the cave’s entrance. As the young man crouched in darkness, hoping to surprise the enemy in a last-minute, desperate attempt to save his own life, he felt his heart pounding wildly out of control.

    As the enemy cautiously moved forward to enter the cave, he came upon the spider’s web – which by now was completely strung across the opening.

    He backed away and called out: “There can’t be anyone in here. They would’ve had to break the spider’s web to enter the cave. Let’s move on.”

    Years later, this young man, who made good his promise by becoming a preacher and evangelist, wrote about the ordeal. What he observed has stood by me in times of trouble, especially during those times when everything seemed impossible:

    “Where God is, a spider’s web is as a stone wall. Where God is not, a stone wall is as a spider’s web.”

  • aaaaaaarrrggh!

    Welcome to my first working week of 2008. So far, my constant source of unimaginable joy is, wait for it, this message on my business’ PC:


    If you take the amount of (hard earned) dosh I’ve had to shell out for this biotch’s maintenance over the last 4 months, I could’ve bought a fully kitted-out Mac Pro (the new one) with an Apple Cinema Display. Frankly, I think my business would’ve been better off too.

    *ggrrr* PC *ggrrr*

  • Mark Twain on Memetics

    Not sure how memes work?
    This Wikipedia entry might help as well:

    “A Literary Nightmare” is a short story written by Mark Twain in 1876. The story is about Twain’s encounter with a virus-like jingle, and how it occupies his mind for several days until he manages to “infect” another person, thus removing the jingle from his mind. The story was also later published under the name “Punch, Brothers, Punch!”

    The story is significant in that it is a fairly accurate description of a meme, and how it can replicate itself in a short time, thus acting like a virus in some respects.

    (In a nutshell, the story goes a little something like this)

    The narrator, Mark Twain, sees a catchy jingle in the morning newspaper. The jingle promptly attaches itself to his mind, such that he loses concentration and can no longer remember what he ate for breakfast, whether he ate at all, and what words he was going to use in his novel. The jingle mentally incapacitates him, until, a few days later, he takes a walk with his friend, the Reverend, and inadvertently transfers the jingle to the reverend’s mind. As this happens, Twain experiences a sense of relief, and returns to his normal life.

    Some days after Twain was cured, the Reverend visits him; he is in a terrible state, as the jingle, which keeps on repeating in his head, has already disabled his concentration. He tells Twain of some incidents where the rhythm of the jingle influenced his actions, such as when churchgoers started swaying to the rhythm of his homilies. Taking pity on the man, Twain decides to cure him, and brings him to a meeting of university students. The Reverend successfully manages to transfer the jingle from himself to the students, curing himself and, at the same time, continuing the diabolical cycle of the jingle.

  • Your own Album meme!!

    I’m not too clear on the series of fortunate hyperlinks that led me to the blog of AtomicMrX – but I’m glad whatever happened, happened! I found this cool meme-post on his page (which he got from This Boy Elroy, who, in turn, got it from… you know how memes work).

    The idea is to combine the following steps (chaos theory anyone?) to create a brilliant new album:

    1. The first article title on this (random) wikipedia page, is the name of your band.
    2. The last four words of the very last (again, random) quote is the title of your album.
    3. Finally, the third (you guessed it, random) Flickr picture – no matter what it is – will be your album cover.

    Easy.

    My band, Render Plus Systems, will soon have an awesome cover for their debut album “Taking hold of it” – based on this photograph by »Ŗǿćҝ ĢĩяŁ«™:

    I’m too lazy to fire up Photoshop right now – but you get the picture ;0)

  • awesome feature from iafrica.com

    Different worlds? Maybe not…
    Jerome Simelane [Thu, 03 Jan 2008]

    I am a guy and he is a guy. We are from different worlds. Ja well, no fine — what the hell do I mean? Well, here’s the question: To all straight people, how many people do you know that are gay and your friends?

    I am the first to confess that I never thought about it. Now, having watched a few episodes of ‘Will & Grace’ I feel I’m qualified to talk on this subject simply because I can laugh myself stukkend while watching the show.

    It is a great programme, with sarcasm and satire that most open-minded people can relate to. It is both liberated and liberating.

    I never thought I would watch a ‘gay’ sitcom and catch myself laughing and that got me thinking that the whole issue about straight people not relating to gay people is overstated.

    In reality…

    One of my life-long friends just recently came ‘out’ to me. What I find disturbing is that his revelation made me uneasy at first. Okay, maybe not uneasy but I was shocked and flabbergasted.

    This oke, with whom I was so close, was gay and had been all along. It took me some time to process but I realised that it was not up to me to be judgmental — rather, I should be supportive.

    Fully aware of the stigma of being gay, lesbian, queer, moffie, or whatever (who knows what homosexuals are called these days) made me think that my friend (and I still refer to him as my bra) was going through identity hell. He didn’t need me to let his revelation get in the way of our friendship.

    Which brings me to the next question: “What is so strange about someone being gay?”

    Being heterosexual, I don’t expect others to say: “Hey, mfowethu, look, I’m straight!” Duh! That is no revelation to me, it’s like second nature. Which proves we tend to judge others, make assumptions and reach conclusions based on our own beliefs and way of navigating the world — and that subjectivity is so wrong.

    What’s the difference?

    Back to my friend: We hang together, talk about politics, cars, sex, blah, blah, blah. In actual fact, there is, or rather there was, no difference that was ‘out there’ for me to evaluate.

    Believe me, he is not a sissy or trying to be what he ain’t. Now I know that whenever we talked about J Lo’s behind, he was busy picturing Denzel Washington’s eyes or Brad Pitt’s torso and probably devouring Vin Diesel.

    But he’s still a guy’s guy to me — we haven’t stopped hanging out, drinking beer, chatting… (although I have to admit its hard to concur whenever he says, “That guy is cute”).

    So I guess if I’m going to be a friend I would have to hook him up with a decent, good-looking, to-die-for guy. I have no flippin’ clue where I might find such a person, but I am making an effort. And, whoever said that “plenty of fish in the sea” thing was lying. Sometimes there aren’t.

    True friends

    The saying, “you cannot choose family” should actually also extend to friends. We hit it off from the beginning and we have grown to know each other very well. A true friend would not desert another friend based solely on the fact that you are now attracted to a different gender.

    That he was secure enough to come out is an indication that he trusts me and I admire and have a lot of respect for my bra. Not a lot of people can do that.

    And even though this piece is entitled, ‘Different World’, how different are we, really, as people? So if you’re a guy and struggling to relate to a gay friend, here’s some advice — get some microwave popcorn and watch ‘Will & Grace’.

    I am a guy and he is a guy. Full stop.

    iafrica.com | highlife | his life | features Different worlds? Maybe not…

  • Everything is easier in America…

    Apparently, you can even do a course on “How to be gay” over there!
    Check this out:

    >> A course taught by professor David Halperin at the University of Michigan has been getting some attention recently. “How to be Gay: Male Homosexuality and Initiation” examines “the general topic of the role that initiation plays in the formation of gay male identity” via writing, studying it as a “sub-cultural practice”, and conducting some sort of self-reflective class experiment.

    It’s actually a class that has been taught, and has inspired controversy and discussion, for a few years.

    “In particular, we will examine a number of cultural artifacts and activities that seem to play a prominent role in learning how to be gay: Hollywood movies, grand opera, Broadway musicals, and other works of classical and popular music, as well as camp, diva-worship, drag, muscle culture, taste, style, and political activism. Are there a number of classically ‘gay’ works such that, despite changing tastes and generations, all gay men, of whatever class, race, or ethnicity, need to know them, in order to be gay? What is there about gay identity that explains the gay appropriation of these works? What do we learn about gay male identity by asking not who gay men are but what it is that gay men do or like? One aim of exploring these questions is to approach gay identity from the perspective of social practices and cultural identifications rather than from the perspective of gay sexuality itself. What can such an approach tell us about the sentimental, affective, or subjective dimensions of gay identity, including gay sexuality, that an exclusive focus on gay sexuality cannot? At the core of gay experience there is not only identification but disidentification. Almost as soon as I learn how to be gay, or perhaps even before, I also learn how not to be gay. I say to myself, ‘Well, I may be gay, but at least I’m not like that!’ Rather than attempting to promote one version of gay identity at the expense of others, this course will investigate the stakes in gay identifications and disidentifications, seeking ultimately to create the basis for a wider acceptance of the plurality of ways in which people determine how to be gay.”

    Then there’s the alternative method: six beers, an off-campus party, and that hot freshman from down the hall you’ve been studying from afar. <<

  • I was just offered some…

    Directions for Use:
    Ensure baby’s bottom is clean and dry.
    Spread Fissan Baby Bum Cream liberally
    over the bottom after every nappy change.
    (?)
    (I love my Mom!!)

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  • 1 Trillion Zim Dollars

    20071116-172806-1.jpg (JPEG Image, 750×363 pixels)

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  • Apparently, some (str8?) men need (more) help

    The page cannot be displayed because you need to approach some women

    The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. Your Mom told me you’ve been online for way too long and you
    need to go out and approach some women.

    Please, try the following:


    • Don’t click the Refresh button. Go outside now.
    • To go outside, first click Put On Shoes. On the Wussy tab, clic Time to Make a Girl’s Day. The Ass is Plastered to My Chair setting should match those provided by your pickup coach.
    • If you are addicted to information, try to cut down a bit.
    • Click the Make a Commitment button and approach one woman every day. It gets easier with every approach.
    • If you would like to be happier than you’ve ever been before in your entire life, click
      Go Out Into the Real World
    • There are many hot women out there in the real world who are tired of wussies who won’t come up to them and talk to them. If you are unable to get up, click back and pay for a coach to kick your ass.

    HTTP Error 404 – File or Directory not found.

    Internet Information
    Overload (IIO)

    Technical Information (for a better life)

    • Go to ApproachAnxiety.com and perform a title search for the words Fear, Overcome and Exhilaration.
    • Open Coaching Help, which is accessible in the Coaching Section, and search for topics titled Push Me into Approaches, Show Me How to Do It, and Understand My Irrational Fear.

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