The StrangeMinds of SmilyBorg

Hi all

Its been a busy month since my last post. I have moved out of my fathers house and into a flat with my girlfriend. Last week was mostly packing up her stuff, the weekend was moving it and this week has been unpacking. Most of my stuff still needs to be moved from the bluff though. Luckily my brother is gonna help me with moving my desk this evening.

One nasty bit about moving is internet-less-ness. We have been using cellphones for connectivity for the last week which is slow and gets really expensive. Luckily Telkom installed my phone line yesterday. Hopefully they wil activate adsl on it soon. Apparently it could take a week or 2 rather than the usual day or 2 thanks to the soccer world cup. Yet annother reason for me to despise the event.

Health wise, I think I’m ok. Been feeling pretty tired and crappy the last few days though. I think it might be after effects of over exertion while moving.

For those who don’t know, I have been growing my hair since I got back from Cape Town after Xmas. My fring now reaches past my eyes which is enough to really be annoying when it gets in your eyes. To reduce irritation, I have started wearing a hair band when I’m doing things that would get it in my eyes. Hopefully it won’t be too long befor I can just tie the whole lot back.

Anyway, that’s my bit for now. Time to grab some more caffiene befor heading back to the office.

Cya

SB

Its been ages since I last posted anything here so time for an update.

Today is my 29th birthday and life is still interesting. Interesting in the sense of the old Chinese curse. Sometimes its good and sometimes its not so good, but always something to make you think and learn from. I’m still learning loads about myself and others, which has the odd effect of showing you how little you know. I think I’m now more confused about who and what I am than I have ever been but that’s the price I pay for exploring. Maybe one day I will figure it out, maybe I never will, but at least the journey is interesting.

The past few years have been some of the more interesting ones I think, at least from a meeting people stand point. Growing up I met the types of people most people are used to. Doctors, accountants, teachers, engineers, etc. After school I started working and things were pretty much the same as when I was in school. I went to work, did what I was paid to do and came home. I would hang out with friends from time to time but we had grown up together so it wasn’t anything new. Then I started looking around at things outside of IT that seemed interesting. Thanks to the internet I was able to learn more about things and ideas that I was never exposed to before. Even better I was able to find people nearby that were interested in the same things. As a result, over the last few years I have met people who identify as witches, monks, hackers, polyamorous, swingers, slaves, sadists, masochists, kinky, cross dressers, transgender, queer, gay, lesbian and bi sexual. These are just a few that spring to mind and there are many more.

What have I learned through meeting these people? Well, people may take on various labels but underneath we are pretty similar in that we all just want to be accepted as we are. We are all different and we need to learn to be accepting of those differences as they help to provide us with the extremely varied experience that we call life. There is a nice phrase I learned from the kink community that I think puts things quite nicely. “Your kink is not my kink, but your kink is OK.” My grandmother put it a little differently when I told her about my polyamourous relationship. She said “as long as you are happy and no one is getting hurt, I’m happy for you” or something like that the conversation was a while back and my memory is fuzzy.

Anyway, my lunch break is over any I’ve probably gone on too long already. Until next time ….

SB

“It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion.
It is by the beans of Java that thoughts acquire speed,
the hands acquire shakes, the shakes become a warning.
It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion.”

Original version
——————————-
“It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.
It is by the juice of Saphu that thoughts acquire speed,
that lips acquire stains, stains become a warning.
It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.”
- Frank Herbert – Dune

Ok, so I admit I’ve been slacking on my blog posting lately. I’ve been busy with work, Ductape and just generally trying to keep my sanity from straying too far from its current point. Anyway, I figured that I might as well share a few of the more interesting things I’ve seen on the net lately. Before you ask how I find this stuff, I’ll tell you that I have 184 blogs and news feeds that I monitor via Google Reader. Yes I am nuts. I don’t read every item, but according to the stats, I have ready over 5000 items in the last 30 days. Anyway, on to the fun.

What’s your definition of ‘open source hardware’?
PATENT-B-GONE! Inventor Mitch Altman explains why he open-sourced his TV-B-Gone kit
Build It. Share It. Profit. Can Open Source Hardware Work?

Take a giga-pixel photo with any camera

Domino Logic
Domino Computation

USB audio DAC

Home Made CO2 Laser Build

Wireless Arduino programming using XBee’s
Bootload your chips without an AVR programmer
Tetris on… An Arduino
Arduino Bluetooth shield in the works

Hidden images in audio

DIY Flexible Printed Circuits

“Touchless” Multitouch in Processing

3D Scanning System uses Webcam

Homebrew parametric speaker

Electrical-facial stimulation as music visualizer – Too funny

Forging a Pattern Welded Sword

Make your own Halo Armour

Puzzling Home Design

A SteamPunk Keyboard
And Some more
Even an ergonomic one
And the one that seemed to start the craze

“Maker” is what I do, “steampunk” describes the style – The first California Steampunk Convention

Keys Can be Copied From Afar
Eavesdrop on keyboards wirelessly

7 Inspiring Infrared and HDR Photographers

Why Discovering Your Obsession Can Lead to Your Greatness

Re-Centering: Finding Your Way Back To The Life You Meant To Live

Ok, thats enough for now. Time for you to go and find interesting blog posts of your own. The public list of my shared items is available over at Google Reader.

Enjoy

SB

A while ago I found a great program for managing photos on your PC called Picasa. Its done by the guys at Google and is free to download from http://picasa.google.com/
They also have a web album option where you can choose which photos you wanna share on the web and it will upload them to the picasa web album site. They give you 500MB of space for free on their site. I use picasa for my photos on Windows and Linux. Its realy handy and has tools for adjusting the colours and stuff so the pics look right.

Take a look some time. I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.

Also check out my public web album at http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/rodney.karlsen

cya

SB

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