Tim Keller

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can; and
the wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
enjoying one moment at a time;
accepting hardship as the pathway to peace.

Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it.
Trusting that He will make all things right, if I surrender to His will.
That I may be reasonably happy in this life,
and supremely happy with Him forever in the next.

A few… well… 14 of us headed to Ratanga Junction Theme Park just outside Cape Town today. Posted below is the photo of us going down Crocodile Gorge – most fun. My darling amy decided to learn forward to avoid the drenching waterfall only to have her lower half soaked by the larger-than-expected stream of water gushing down the rocks.

My marks for UCT 2006.

Computer Science – Python Course: 83% (Distinction)

Computer Science – Java Course: 78% (Distinction)

Psychology 1: 69%

Mathematics 1: 61%

Applied Mathematics: 57%

Statistics: 50%

This week I’d like to highlight a really funky tool coming out of Digg Labs, Swarm! It uses the Digg database to display activity in a really cool way! Click the Digg Labs link below to see it

Years seems to be going faster and faster. This weekend signals one year of working for Umoya Networks, one year of being at UCT and one year of going out with the love of my life, amy! It’s really pretty scary because I so vividly recall my first day on the job at Umoya Networks, my first week at University, and my first date with Amy. It all seems like so long ago… but yet like yesterday… How amazing time is.

I concluded my first year exams this week – writing Applied Maths, Psychology, and Computer Science. Maths was a challenge, but Psychology and CompSci were good me thinks. Best of luck to anyone who wants to take the Applied Maths course next year. Its one mission and a half!For my UCT friends: I recently came across www.sweetjane.co.za – a local website for all things ‘UCT student life’ ranging from old essays and past papers, videos, images and the such. A great and interesting resource.

So I got into 3 months of leave from UCT now, and it feels great. This coming week Amy’s taken some time off from work to relax with me. So we’re gonna be hanging out on Monday and Tuesday. I’ll spend sometime at Umoya for the remainder of the week. I’m going to be developing umoya.net as well as writing a Network Traffic Monitor for them. It will grab data from our OpManager tool as well as many network nodes on the Private-MPLS (Satellite and Wireless links) and store them in a mysql database. Queries can then be run on this data.

I’ll then help my dad out at Sun Valley Primary, cordinating the media for their Academic Awards ceremonies. We’re doing dual data-projection of each class (video, audio, image) and hoping to make all the systems work seamlessly together. At the same time I’ll be starting ChirpAssess – a school assessment system to replace the present Excel-based system which is causing a world of problems. Similarly, I have to get the new ‘The Cavern Today’ website out by 1 December along with Adam Johnson and Bert van der Poel’s help. Should be fun. I’m thinking of using the Drupal base for it – we’ll see what comes of that.
Then over the christmas break I’ll be redeveloping a bunch of websites for various clients including a number of new clients. I look forward to the challenge. All in between that we’ll no doubt have the Myst Online – Uru Live launch which should be stunning! All in all, a pretty full holiday!

Today is a defining day in history…

BAGHDAD, Nov. 5 — Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was found guilty by a special tribunal Sunday of crimes against humanity for the torture and execution of more than 100 people from a small town north of Baghdad 24 years ago. He was sentenced to death by hanging.

The Washington Post

Way back when Microsoft were developing XP Media Center 2005, some hobbit at Redmond decided to create a black version of the default Royale Theme. For whatever reason this was never released… until recently.

Downloading

Extract files to �c:\windows\resources\themes\royale noir� and double click on �luna.msstyles�. Select �Noir� from color scheme. Code-signed by Microsoft. No UXTheme hack required.

http://www.tomwrote.info/downloads/royalenoir.rar

Credits

http://www.istartedsomething.com.nyud.net:8080/20061029/royale-noir/�

Hey I read this and thought it was quite good… It’s from the blog of the brother of the bride. Those of ya getting married take heed!

1. Your world is getting bigger today, not smaller! More history, more friends, more possibilities. Marriage is not the end of the search, it’s the beginning of all the searches that are more fun to do together.
2. Be the guardians of each other’s solitudes. Not only do you need to give each other space, you need to make each other space.
3. No difficult conversations after 10pm. Not only is it harder to solve problems when you’re tired, but at least half the time being tired is the problem.
4. The Dutch principle of Total Soccer means that any player can attack when there is an opportunity, and any player can defend when there is a need. In Total Marriage you only have two players, so this is even more important. Both of you should be able to do everything your team needs. You’ll have your preferences and strengths and habits, but if one of you goes down, the other one has to be able to cover.
5. Wedding rings don’t really come with magic powers. You will learn how to take care of each other one insight at a time. And even when you’re not sure how, show up and you’ll think of something.
6. Headphones; separate closets.
7. If you aren’t already the world’s leading experts on each other, you will be soon. It is thus your responsibility to be not only the world’s biggest fans of each other’s best qualities, but also the world’s staunchest fans of each other’s weaknesses and flaws.
8. Get pets. By far the easiest way to remember that you have to feed your shared life together is if part of it comes and stomps on you every morning.
9. No ultimatums. Ever.
10. Travel. Surprise and challenge yourselves. It’s easier to have a world together if you have a world to compare it to, and part of the fun of getting to know each other is putting yourselves, together, in positions where neither of you know what you’re going to do yourself.
11. Committing yourselves to one another is one of the most mature, responsible, focused decisions you can make. Balance it out by being immature, irresponsible and playful together as often as possible.
12. When people, especially your relatives, offer you long lists of marriage advice, just smile politely and nod until they finally shut up.

From: http://www.furia.com/page.cgi?type=log&id=245

Hey guys. For those of you at UCT with me studying the dreaded MAM1043H… May I suggest this website for background reading on Dynamical Systems, Numerical Methods and other sections covered this year.

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/topics/AppliedMathematics.html
I hope it helps!

Hey all, phew what a semester! Totally insane in every way! I’m back, and it feels good – lets see…

Right. First of all – Happy Birthday to me for 10/31. Thanks to all of ya who text’d, phone’d, and IM’d me – I think I got more text’s this year than ever before, awesome. It was my first girlfriend’d birthday and Amy got me loads of awesome goodies – she’s very nice (Check out her dA if you have a chance at www.solpalapody.deviantart.com). Its her birthday on 8 November! I gotta sort out her pressie this weekend!

Yesterday the two of us set off on a bit of a shopping trip into the northern suburbs and found the Olive Grove Bonsai Center. Bonsai is something I’ve been totally amazed by for most of my life and since about April this year, actively involved in. I bought a 8 year old Pyracantha which is presently in flower with beautiful white petals. These will die towards winter (southern hemisphere remember) and become Yellow Berries… I cant wait Its a great hobby.

I’ve also discovered the joys of the TWiT.tv podcast network. If you’re a geeky type and not listening to one of their podcasts, you’re really missing out. Its brilliant, and home to some of the net’s best podcasters.

I’m writing exams until 17th November so will be at home and blogging – I look forward to getting back into this blogging thing!