The African Sky

Just sitting watching the African sky - splashed with orange and strawberry, as the encroaching night drinks up the last of its light.

Things hidden before, add their voices in praise to the dark, while others lament at the slow dying sunlight - crawling away to their underground holes to escape the icy cold fingers of night.

A peace settles down over the land. It is the sort of peace that calms your inner being, relaxes the mind and you find yourself, just wanting to sit in this bundu setting and commune with your maker - who ever you perceive Him to be.

The night brings his own contribution to your life and thoughts. He hides the busyness of life, the colour, the things that distract - leaving you to contemplate what was, what is and what could be. Visions and plans run races around you, and dreams and fantasy slowly make their way over to sit down with you on the fast cooling veranda, as the sun with its last breath - gives up the fight with the dark, and puts to bed its light.

I love times like this, the Piet-my-vrou, shouting out to whoever will listen. The cricket protected by the blanket of night - braving the predators to add its music to the orchestra of the night - just warming up, ready for the concert of a lifetime.

It's a time when I can evaluate what went wrong and what went right, to plan for a better tomorrow.
It's a time when I can just give way to dreams - allowing my mind just to wonder and have its way, and create for myself a world where we all are heroes, where all dreams are reality and where I can live to my full potential.

Then all of a sudden another unwelcomed visitor settles onto my skin, his icy, clammy fingers peeling the heat off my body. It's the chill of the African night, that penetrates right to my bones and introduces himself to me, assuring me he will not leave no matter what I try to do. He clings on with relentless determination and starts to find loopholes in my warm clothing and wormholes into my open mind - devouring my dreams as he does.

Time for bed, to dream other dreams over which I have no control, to plan other plans with forces that determine my fate, like it or not - and to wait for the resurrection of a new day and the new sun with its own challenges to be met, face to face - as the forces of light and dark gamble over who will win.

So I stand up - leaving the night to those who have come out of hiding to thrive in its welcoming blanket of darkness and cold - to do what has been planned for them to do, since the birth of time.

Dust of Time v Librarian 2.0

I found this article on a link from the "Shifted Librarian" site - both worth a look - see below. The only thing it does not mention is the role that the Web 2.0 tools are going to play in the way Librarian 2.0 will provide information. The whole way libraries operate will be driven by the patrons - and if my grandchildren are any thing to go by, these 'babes' are totally at home on the web, on social networks and on finding their own information. It is going to be vital that we all become Librarian 2.0 guru's so that we can provide them with links and suggestions that are accredited and of a suitable standard. If we don't the world of accredited information, peer reviewed articles and academically sound websites - may just be a thing of the past in the eyes of the users. We as librarians still digging in Web 1.0 will loose the foothold we have as information providers, albeit not the same way we provided information in the past, and be left in the dust of time.

Why you should fall to your knees and worship a librarian 

http://librarianavengers.org/worship-2/

Ok, sure. We’ve all got our little preconceived notions about who librarians are and what they do.

Many people think of librarians as diminutive civil servants, scuttling about “Sssh-ing” people and stamping things. Well, think again buster.

Librarians have degrees. They go to graduate school for Information Science and become masters of data systems and human/computer interaction. Librarians can catalog anything from an onion to a dog’s ear. They could catalog you.

Librarians wield unfathomable power. With a flip of the wrist they can hide your dissertation behind piles of old Field and Stream magazines. They can find data for your term paper that you never knew existed. They may even point you toward new and appropriate subject headings.

People become librarians because they know too much. Their knowledge extends beyond mere categories. They cannot be confined to disciplines. Librarians are all-knowing and all-seeing. They bring order to chaos. They bring wisdom and culture to the masses. They preserve every aspect of human knowledge. Librarians rule. And they will kick the crap out of anyone who says otherwise.

Goal Setting on Route ???

Saw a bus on the way to work this morning. One of those new ones with the destination scrolling past in bright neon lights. Really impressive - ready for 2010 I guess. Had a look at where it was going it said,  - ROUTE ???? -



That's it, that is all it said! I was still laughing when I walked into the office.  I remember a joke once of Alice in Wonderland talking to the Rabbit. "I don't know where I am going", she says. "Well", he says, "If you don't know where you are going, you will probably get there!" So many of us just wander "aimlessly' though life hoping by chance to fall into a new adventure, a new direction or that others will come and take us by the hand and lead us there without too much effort on our part.



Maybe my left side is too dominating at times - but honestly - 'if I dream a dream and see the vision' then I come right back to earth and start planning ways, to make the dream reality. That is what we all do right? No dream is unreachable - some may take longer than others to achieve, some visions may not be suitable for now - but down the line in a year or two, why not? I mean you don't have visions about something out of line with what you are busy with. Most of mine will add value to what I am already doing. Ok - some may be new, but they will still enhance those things I have a passion for. We do not have to create an audience or try to find one, 'if we meet needs' they will come in response to that with minimum advertising from our side. I really needed money for projects at my church - which is really poor. "There must be someone who will help - I mean the Internet community is massive". Well it took 3 years but twenty thousand rand later, and stock still streaming in, I met all my dreams and more.


I enjoy doing short, medium and long term planning - that way the challenge is always fresh, and the goals like a carrot keep me moving forward.


Friday I have to give a presentation on how I think we can use some of the Web 2.0 tools in a library environment to stop our library as an information supplier from falling off the bus. (Definitely the one going to ROUTE ???). I can't be there - have a camp to attend, so now I am busy working up a script and then I am going over to Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLwT) here at TUT. They have access to Camtasia - I am going to let them create a short Flash video on my feedback and send the DVD to the meeting. LOL. I can just see it - "and now we have Denyse with feedback for us on Web 2.0 - 'push play Sally' "!! I love technology.



Man and then I still have to help persuade the Librarians to create a blog presence with RSS feeds for the diplomas they cover, with a few other ideas I am dreaming up.

"Beam me up Scotty", I think we are ready to move this library into hyperspace after all.

The New Dispensation

Our old pastor is on his way out - he was a true believer, grounded on the Word of God, and filled with compassion for his fellow man. He is the type of person who will give you a lift to the dentist, sit with your grandmother as she passes over and marry your youngest.

But we are in a time of transition - the new pastor is a manager, through and through. He will 'sort out the church', get the administration into place, and preach fire and brimstone from the pulpit. I must admit he is a dynamic teacher - he uses PowerPoint, object lessons and really captures your attention when he brings the Word, but I will miss my old pastor.

My heart goes out to all of those of us who have 'birthed' something, be it a soccer club or a church. We have fed it, cleaned it, cried with it, enjoyed victories with it, and just when it's ripe and maturing, we have to hand over to someone who thinks differently to how we think, has different objectives, different visions and a totally different way of dealing with 'our children'. Fear sets in, we want to let go, let the 'new dispensation' have its way, but it is hard. All we built up - will it be gone in the twinkling of an eye.

We all want our monuments to live on after we die - be it in what we did or in the minds of our friends and family, but as the song says, 'there is a season..' and just maybe, the time for a new season is now.

But dear pastor, you don't know about blogs, or Twitter or Facebook - but you know about loving people and caring enough to 'feel what they feel' - so in this virtual world, I honour you, and sing your praises. You will be missed. We will never have another Jerry Nell - this world is too small for two of you.

Chicken Wings

Our country is on a downward spiral, no matter how positive we are told to be. Everyone shout Amen! But its not in the recession, or the AIDs epidemic, it's not just our failing health system, the secular educational policies or muncipality mismanagement of funds that tells me this - it's the chicken wings!

Went for supper the other night at the place, where kids drive you wild, people sing the same song for birthdays they have sung for ages, and the doors to the 'smoking areas' are left wide open, fumigating those of us who till this day, 'chose not to smoke and smell like an ashtray'.
My chicken wings arrive - slightly cremated and with several scorched feathers - so I call the manager, "Sir these wings have feathers on them". "Sorry, madam but that is how we get them nowadays". - "Right", I think to myself "and you do nothing to improve the situation".  Sigh - sign of the times!

I can remember when my mother about 50 years ago used to use a candle and burn off all the feathers - but that was before diet coke, the man on the moon and Television. We have moved into a new era, quality control is at a height, there is competition between suppliers, new computerised methods to clean things. So what has gone wrong. Are civilizations suppose to progress or move back in time? So I buy this whole chicken- nice and fresh. Thank goodness I looked inside- here was the gullet still filled with its last meal. I ask you with tears in my eyes - does no one care about quality anymore? Come on guys - what's with the feathers. Someone said its to do with letting the 'spirit escape' - please man, if the bird had a spirit you would be a murderer and I would become a vegetarian. What's with the purple marks and broken bones in the wings and the drumsticks - how on earth are you killing them - clubbing them to death?

And the fresh, cleaned fish still hanging onto its scales, or the frozen peas with 5 frozen beans in the packet - get real, what is happening? It is these little foundation things that tell me the 'rot' has set in from the ground up. When people stop caring about hygiene, quality and service - then we are well on our way back to the third world we struggled so hard to get out of all those years ago. Saw a man selling raw meat on a wooden table near the station. The flies zoomed on and off the meat, as he tried to shoo them away, while his customers crowded nearer to get some take away's for supper - so that is where we are going, I think I preferred the ending of 'Soylent Green' instead. Sometimes being old and closer to death than I was before has decided advantages after all.

Little Boxes

So, you want to be my friend, get to know me better. I'm not sure that is always a good idea - you may not like who you meet, or meet who you thought you would meet.

However, it's easy. Just jump the wormhole to the extreme left of your right shoulder - and you are on the right road to enlightenment.

So why the frown? Did you expect me to fit into the little box you created for me in your mind. I know what I say, and I know how I act - each move carefully calculated, and based on this you have created an uncomplicated image of me - that makes me appealing and easy to get on with.

But people are not uncomplicated - no person is truly  one sided, well except for Christ with Him it was WYSIWYG, but then he has been around since the creation of the world, and he is transparent and pure.
Me? Well that is a different thing altogether.

I have my public life, my family life, my personal life - you know the one that 'the sword' can cut to where bone and sinew meet, spirit and soul come together. I guess its the last 'life' that gives me the reason not to 'get too friendly with the natives'.
I don't want to rock your faith, or your world - so if I chose to remain anonymous  - then know this, 'you are not ready to meet me yet'. I don't mind playing the role of the box and keep everyone stable, but my inner man tears at the fabric of its prison at times - screaming to be set free.

Will I 'transport' myself back, open the windows of your mind, well its tempting at times, just to relax but that is not why I was called. I am gifted to build-up, not break-down. To give hope not to plant seeds of doubt. So I choose to live the boxed life and keep myself hidden down the dark tunnel of black space.

Few will find me, those rare souls who know where to look and how to peel back the layers of ones deep existence, but for the most I will remain hidden, until the Bema-Seat judgement - when all is revealed and all secrets laid bare. Where all motives and actions are tested 'by fire', where words and thoughts are brought into the light out of the dark recesses of our minds - then and only then will you know me, for who I really am - till then the box offers the hiding place I need, so that you can be free.

Mid-Life Crisis and Women

Do you know that women go through a mid-life crisis the same as men do? The woman of the 50's stayed at home, raised the kids and made oatmeal cookies, and dusted and ironed before preparing a meal for the bread-winners return from work. Today we do all of those things plus we compete in a male dominated business world, die early of heart attacks, have stress diabetes, and high blood pressure and we suffer personal crisis - trying to find ourselves in a mixed gender world which sends us mixed messages as to who it expects us to be and what it expects us to do.

Do you know a mid-life crisis is the most scary thing to go through? When you are born you are surrounded by friends and support, when you die - they rally again to sing your praises, deserved or not deserved, but when you go though a mid-life crisis - believe me, that you go through alone.

You say to yourself, "this cannot be happening to me, its a figment of my imagination' - but it's not, is it? It is as real as life and death. As sunrise and sunset - and if you are a women, nobody but nobody - understands. Not your husband, not your friends, not your family.

Friends say things like, "why bother to loose weight, you will never look like you looked twenty years ago', or 'You are very brave styling your hair like that".

Your husband says, as you desperately turn to him for real passionate love making - 'the kitchen is a mess, and we still have to pack the meat in the deep freeze". At this point I know exactly 'who' I would like to pack in the deep freeze and it isn't the sheep.

I wanted to scream, I wanted to cry, I wanted to feel 'special' just once again. Two men wanted me to sleep with them - %%$$#@ sex is boring enough in the deep freeze, why on earth would I want to sleep with anyone else. Men sense a 'crisis' like a dog smells a bitch on heat - why do all men think sex is the answer.

I wanted that warm romantic feeling again, walk holding hands, being appreciated for who I had become, for what I had achieved, not for who I was - that's a history lesson. I wanted to feel what it is like to kiss again just for the sake of connecting.

I wished I was fifty, so my mid-life crises could be over. I wished I could pack my bags and start again - but that was not the answer either. I read a bumper sticker it said, "It's a crisis I'm having!"

Looking back - I see now it was a learning curve and I enjoy reaching out to women at that point in their lives to say 'it's ok', just keep looking up. You learn to accept yourself for who you are, you learn to enjoy the love and the romance when it comes, and you learn to make peace, when it does not.

So what do I do now, 17 years later - well I've learned to find inner peace, I have learned how to find and meet new challenges to keep my life interesting and growing, how to be satisfied with what I've got and what I can still achieve.
And honestly with time, just between you and me - I have even learned how to thaw things in the deep freeze.
LOL pass the diet coke, I need to go gym.

Only this once will I answer this.

You asked:

Hi Denyse.. hope you are fine. Just want to ask, do you think other religions and peoples are lesser than you if they are not Christian?How do think peace will be achieved without tolerance and dialogue?Don't you think that any fundamentalism is dodgy either way and self positioning? Look forward to your answer! Lyn.

Here is my answer:

Hi lamb - I thought you did not want to talk about religion!
Then again Christianity is not a religion although some people try to turn it into one - its a relationship bought by sacrifice and blood.

Everyone as a person is equal. No religion makes a person better than another person. Sun shines on the 'good and bad' alike, and God loves everyone. The bible is full of the teachings by Christ about not setting the rich above the poor, or those who attend church above those who do not. As he said at one time 'If you want to become great - become a servant'. He demonstrated a servants heart, he even sat with the prostitutes and other no-go citizens in the then Roman world, but he never slept with them. He pounded discrimination into the ground, and attacked religious leaders of the day with 'Let you who is without sin throw the first stone', later calling them 'white washed tombs with rotting bones inside'.

But having said that - this is the Messiah we are talking about. Hundreds of prophecies in the old testament coming to fulfillment in the new, not skipping a heartbeat. This man said, 'if you have seen me you have seen God, the Father and I are one'. The Word also says, 'you who have the Son have life' - and its not talking about living. Jesus also made this statement - 'No man comes to the Father but by me'. You see its not Christians that are fundamental - it was Jesus. He set the ground rules and then put his 'money where his mouth is' by dying to fulfill the requirements of the Law for all who would become his followers.

We can be tolerant of everyone - Jesus was, but he also said, 'go to all the world and make people my disciples, teaching them all I have taught you, and baptising them'. This does not mean simply believers - think about it even Lucifer the fallen angel - believes! I don't know about you - but if we accept Christ and become a child of the living God, his Spirit joins to our spirits and we are 'reborn' so to speak - then it would be a very sad day if we did not follow up what the person we are following has told us to do - to tell others that God, loves them and has a plan for their lives. That the separation between him and them has been paid for by the blood sacrificial offering of the lamb of God, and that to be adopted into his family - is as simple as acknowleging we can never save ourselves, or do enough good deeds to earn our way into his presence - its a gift.

Sure there are a lot of religious people out there - even within the so called Christian churches, that may never see God in eternity because they miss the point, but at the same time - the God who created heaven and earth, who hung the stars in their places, who loves mankind with an everlasting love - is not looking for angels, or robots but for people who will accept His answer to the problems of sin that separate us from him. He does not offer any other way, no matter how noble the religion may seem. Only through Christ are we brought into a relationship with God. We do not have any grave for our God like other religions do - its empty.
We can talk, we can discuss, we can have dialog and tolerance but at the end of the day when we stand before an almighty God he will turn to us and say, 'what profit it a man, to gain the whole world - and loose his soul' - "what did you do about my offer of redemption?- did you accept it or reject it?"

I don't want to have anyone I know standing at the 'white throne judgment' just because I did not care enough to point them to an alternative to religion - a relationship with Jesus Christ. What they do with what I share - is up to them. I am not God, not Christ and not the Spirit. I am not there to persuade them or to drag them kicking and screaming into the Kingdom - I am called to be a 'seed-planter' - 'I am just a voice crying in the wilderness - prepare a way for the Lord'.

That's it - "life is a choice" and personally I feel really sorry for all these religious people because they are so sincere, and they do make a difference in others lives, but if being kind and humble and tolerant is all that is needed, why bother to die a humiliating, painful death on a tree to prove you love us and you are willing to take our punishment, just take the 'good ones up'. Blessings D'

Dust to Dust, Ashes to Ashes

In my 'other life' I dabble in writing poetry. So this thought crosses my mind - "capture your poems on the web for eternity". Don't we all have these fleeting ideas of grandeur and 'being remembered' that spur us to greater things.

Then a cloud settled down, 'get real girl' I thought to myself, what makes you think in 20 years when you are dust, that this blog, twitter, facebook and all the other social networks will still be grinding away, preserving your soul and spirit for all to meditate on.

Where is the glorious Roman empire of old that had the world in its grasp, where is the Egyptians with their first library at Alexander. What is left of these mighty civilizations - nothing, dust. Decaying monuments, burned out population that no longer play a role in peoples minds.

What happens if this blog and other social networks reach 'critical mass' - do they explode, implode, disappear into the mists of time, just a faded memory in their 'groupies' minds, that faithfully support them. Do they get archived together with everyone's dreams, memories, photos captured so diligently for 'future generations', replaced by the 'new kids on the block' yet to be conceived in the minds of their creators.

Nothing is permanent, all things end - well except spirit life. We live forever - but that is another topic for another day, for now - let me capture what I can in my lifetime as the sands run out.

They walk among us - in memory!

I remember writing a poem while still a teenager "I am what I am, one of the living dead, thoughts of salvation float in and out of my head".

They still walk among us you know!

I found myself during the time of the Beatles, Rolling Stones and the hippies. I opted for a hippy lifestyle, "make love not war', 'peace', "Lucy in the Sky with diamonds". I remember a gathering of the "flower people" at Kirstenbosch. I was tall, long hair with flowers (of course) thin as a rake and the local paper took a photo of me. It appeared on the front page and my poor mother had to hide the paper from my father so he would not see 'his innocent little lamb' and crush all his fantasies he had about me and my still playing with dolls. I was a ripe 15 year old and believe me, in those days I would climb out of my window (3rd floor apartment) watched by an ever growing unbeknown to me, 'fan club' and go to experience the 'delights of growing up'. Believe me - Barbie stayed at home.

All my then 'fling' wanted to do was marry me by tying cords around our arms", thank goodness I was not a romantic and told him what to do with his cords!

I still see them, walking among us. Shadows of their former selves. Most heading for 60 years of age. Their hair is still long, unkempt. Their clothing made of natural fibres and real 'come Jesus' sandals on their feet. They wear lots of beads, or course home-made jewellery. Today's generation write them off as eccentric, odd or just plain stupid to be dressing like that. But they should take the time to talk to them. Those hippies brought in the change needed to break away from the old Victorian traditions. The ever near threat of global atomic war that held us all in fear in its icy grasp, lost its hold when these 'flower power' children sat on the grass and listen to Simon Garfunkel and other 'foke singers' .

In their generation we landed on the moon and lost some of the 'old ways of doing things' in the process. The neat cut hair - gone. The hats and the tie to church - gone. The freedom to laugh in the wind and just be yourself - gained, the bomb never fell, Vietnam was a total disaster, so why worry about tomorrow. Just "are you going to San Francisco, you better wear some flowers in your hair"!

Today teens take it for granted, longer hair, casual clothes, freedom of speech, freedom of movement - but it was hard fought for by those pioneers of old, the 'free spirits' - years, and years ago. Brought with blood and sweat at a time when this 'new' lifestyle was not accepted as the norm. Why you could not even visit the Voortrekker monument if you wore jeans or shorts in those days, and if I went to 'town' it was in a dress preferably with gloves. Today the CEO of a large IT company earning millions, has a earring and my daughter has a tattoo - Oh my word, we have come a long way.

So let's not look with pity as they shuffle by - pony-tailed but balding on top. Let's not call it a 'freak show' when they wear loose clothing and beads more suited to a younger generation - they have earned the right -'those who walk among us still'.

So how do you know 'they are one of those?' - look a little deeper, "it's captured in their faces, and mirrored in their eyes', it reflects in their walk, their attitude to life of 'live and let live', and echoes in their laughter through time. Less we forget.

To Dye or not to Dye that is the question!

The other day I took a long cool drink out of the milk carton - I love these new nuked milks that last for 30 days as long as you don't open them. I suppose like eggs, fat on biltong, white bread and other 'they are gonna kill you' products - nuked milk may be on the list in future! My 'other' son came in and was horrified - "How can you drink out of the carton" - "huh? Why not? Is it one of the unforgivable sins? Milk tastes way cool just out of the box unpolluted by the air and glass". I wish you could have seen his face. Sigh - its not as if I have to share the box with someone else!

Are we people of such tradition and habit that we cannot escape the teachings of the past, you would sware it was hard-coded into our genes. Just like religion kills Christianity, so traditions can kill a dynamic life style which could be always moving forward, always on the look-out for something new.

Look don't get me wrong - its not that I go up against authority just by a matter of 'I will', its just that there is life beyond tradition and the way 'things have always been done' (Long live Queen Victoria).

You know you get women my age who are grey, sit around knitting and talking about their operations and pills they are taking - and look down upon me because I dye my hair. "I'm going to age gracefully' - "well", I think in the dark reaches of my mind, "that's ok for you dearie, seeing as you are ten years younger than me, but I teach students about Internet, Blogging, On-line databases. Can you imagine their faces when this grey grandmother walks in and says, 'boys today I'm going to teach you about Internet'" - yeah right.

This ties up with the die-hards who don't use a microwave, have never used instant coffee and instant gravy and for who the Internet is a mystery and not worth the time of day. My life and my time is too precious to waste on worrying whether the coffee is dehydrated and instant or whether is is ground from the beans and fresh. Its not that I don't like brewed coffee, home made gravy and grey little grannies - its just that in my life I have different priorities. People often ask me 'where do you get the time', 'how did you learn all this technology stuff' and other 'you have to be joking' questions.

Well the answers are easy - if its instant, if it improves my time management, if it frees up my life and in doing so gives me time to enhance my quality of living and time to do what I really love doing - then that is the way I go. It may take me longer to master than my 10 year old grandson, but in the end I get there just the same.



As for ageing gracefully - bring on the dye and the 'gym contract', granny is going through her mid-life crisis again. ROTFL

Supernatural v Sci-Fi

Decided to start a Sci-Fi fan club on www.mytalent.co.za - just for fun. What the heck I could be dead within the next ten years or so, may as well leave something of my alter-ego in the virtual world of lost words and hidden personalities.

Just finished watching Season 1 of Heroes. "Watch it granny" said my 13 year old granddaughter - so I bought two seasons, (must be ok - she is only 13) sat down with diet coke and started to watch a complicated, gory, fantasy come supernatural movie series.

Well its no Roswell - which was sticky sweet but still my favourite, and its no Carnivale - which I finished last week, which was - dark, to say the least and as I said before, borders on what I let though my eyegate but it has value. Spent most of the time wishing I could get Nick Stahl into a bath, and wondering if he had fleas in his clothes or if they actually washed them during the filming and just stuck some dirt on them again. Most of the cast that did the ground work stayed dirty to the point I wondered how on earth any of the women got off with them. In the fantasy world - they must have stank!! Still not a bad series - not all who seem good are good, and not all who seem bad are bad, but from a Christian perspective, anyone who heals someone and it kills the vultures or anyone else in the area - left me wondering about Revelation that warns of imitators of gifts in the last days. Maybe the series is closer to the truth than one realises.

Back to Heroes author must have kept their brain switched on 24/7 to write this series. You meet all the characters one at a time, (still wondering if more are going to crawl out of the woodwork in Series 2), get to know their lives, get frustrated at their lack of acceptance of their abilities, maybe Roswell just spoilt me. I found it frustrating that they took so long to start finding each other with special abilities, and of course the introduction of Sylar - the one with the inferiority complex who needs to feel acceptance by absorbing others abilities - put an edge on the movie which took away any thoughts I had of 'If my 13 year old granddaughter suggested it, it must be ok" Ha!! Last time I take what she says at face value. So here I am hopping back and forth in time, plus they throw in a curve ball with the "6 months earlier" - usually this type of scene is just a flashback, this one left me feeling I had maybe missed a chapter somewhere and fallen asleep

However the series is keeping me on my mental toes - as you really have to learn and remember your characters, time, place, things said, things suggested - to get the full value out of the interaction between the characters. Nothing done or said, no chance meeting of persons is co-incidental. Everything and everyone intertwines somewhere.

Something that scratched was Hiro Masi Oka. I felt Roswell was more plausible here. It is an unwritten rule that a future personality cannot travel back in time and meet their past personality. As one watches Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Supernatural movies - certain ground rules seem to be in place, but I guess now-a-days its the writers prerogative to break the rules, after all 'in my days' vampires would have burned to a cinder in the sun, now they glow like a mother of pearl shell - think of Twilight.

Plus Sylar and his absorbing brain habits, smacks a little of The Highlander - another movie which should have stopped while the going was good.

I see some similarity between Roswell and Twilight as far as copy-cat goes. Well maybe not copy-cat could just be the way movies are going now-a-days. Both have a romantic backdrop. Both lead roles are men with shall we say supernatural powers, that look down slightly giving their eyes and looks a slightly 'off world feeling' - that make them unreachable and off limits to mere humans. Both their leading ladies, look like sweet innocent little 16 year olds that could have been sisters in another life.

Mmm think of the possibilities of Roswell with a new unknown member of the pod-squad - Edward Cullen - minus the teeth. Well that is the things fantasy is made of immaterial if you are 16 or 60 - speaking for the feline section of course.

Oh I wish they would bring on Roswell: The Next Generation, that I could live without having nightmares - then again, they might be adults and survival is built into all our genes - right!?

The Recess of Our Minds

Have you ever taken time just to scan someone's Desktop - it's like in the old days, when we scanned someone's book collection, or today their DVD collection - you learn so much about the person. Hidden things, unexpected tips, revelations. Discussion points.

From my desktop you will find I am orderly like a typical left-brain, but there are things there that do not fit the profile. Items that point to the dominating right-brain.

My friend has every single document she is working on, displayed on her DeskTop. Scary thought -it looks about as inviting as her desk - hidden under molding paper piles, unanswered messages and massive 'I must do today' folders. Her desk is about as organised as her life.

But then I am finding it harder and harder to find people of my age who can communicate with me. So what do I do? I join Alpha at the local Methodist church. At first glance I see I have been allocated the 'golden oldie' group - well that is where I belong minus my 'auburn Nice and Easy' hair colour.

"So what do you do for a living" they ask after I have managed to bypass their, 'What church do you belong to" questions. My husband digs me in the ribs, 'answer them', he hisses in my right ear.

"Well I am a training librarian. I teach students how to access information sources via google, online databases and how to use Web 2.0 tools to communicate - you know like FaceBook, Blogger, g-mail, MySpace, Delicious . We even created a webpage for the Pharmacy students via Wiki - you know the same software they used to create Wikipedia. They worked in groups and put their whole assignment up on the web via Pharmwiki." I happy rumble on towards the cliff-face not realising the impending danger of my words.

The room grows deathly quiet. Eyes are narrowing and even in the heat of the room, arms are folding as the body language screams out at me. [Mental note to myself, 'stick to talking about your grandchildren and your operations].

"I can use e-mail", one lady pipes up breaking the silence. 'I had to learn it, my daughter lives in the USA". By this time I am ready to murder the hissing snake sitting to my right side and I am trying my best to find a 'backdoor' out of this conversation and back to the topic of the night - the Bible, inspired Word of God.

"So" says the facilitator with all eyes boring into my brain, 'how do you read the bible'. Whew - set free at last. "Well", I offer as down to earth as possible, "I like to do topic studies - you know take the index and a word like Armageddon and follow it from Genesis to Revelation. I have a study bible (large print of course - age is a factor), so following 'type and shadow' images - becomes really easy".

The e-mail granny takes me on, "Oh no, I just read it as is and ask 'what is this saying to me'. That is all we need to do".

Sigh!! "Yeah right" I think in the recess of my mind, "that way the story of Noah is about a man who heard God and listened to Him, and the story of Abraham offering his son Isaac as a sacrifice and God providing a goat in his place - tells us God provides if we obey' but dear woman - there are deep, deep spiritual meanings to these stories, that link to other stories found in the New Testament, why out of all of Jewish history God decides to capture these two (just for example) stories and surface reading is not going to reveal that to you'.

So I open my mouth to answer and what do I say, 'That will work too!". Cop-out. Peer Pressure. At my age, I need my head read. Then just to add injury to insult I add, 'I would be happy to teach you a little Internet usage, free of charge - it can be fun'.

Folded arms again, 'I admire you D' that someone of your age (that's right bring on the salt for the wound), understands these things, but I see no value in using any of this". [That does it, grandchildren and operations from now on]!

Wonder if I should tell these fun loving, kind hearted Methodists, I belong to a happy clappy church and besides training children and adults, I preach too. My next sermon is called 'Similar, I don't think so Mr Muslim"!! - nawh, that will really bury me for good and we still have 6 more meetings with a camp to survive - plus I have grown to like these 'old dears' grandchildren, operations, animals, holidays and all!!!.

Is there anyone out there that is over 55 years old that can communicate with me 'just on a surface level' will be cool!! LOL

We are not alone!

I was wondering, after my adopted son rode down the gate for the second time, what makes people who are really doing well in the world compared to most, 'haak uit' and systematically destroy their lives and those around them in the process by indulging in looking too deep into the bottle. There must be more... to life than this. Substance abuse is a cop-out and everyone, in the surrounding circles that it creates, like a pebble on the water - suffer.

There is this fallacy that 'its my life and I will live it as I please'. Get real, we are not alone. Whatever we do affects others either positively or negatively. Either physically or emotionally. Life is not an island and like it or not we share this planet and we share our lives. We are accountable to those who put their trust in us and open the inner sanctuaries of their minds to us. When we systematically destroy ourselves, it causes driftwood, and this driftwood hurts others.

Every action has a reaction. I remember when I took my Methodist youth to experience Believers baptism. They got filled with the Spirit and spoke in tongues - but they had to return to a Methodist environment. As my long suffering minister said, 'we are all in the canoe together and you are making a small hole in the bottom, and while we try to scoop out the water flooding in you say 'its for the best'. By all means, 'rock the boat' but don't drown us in the process". He had a point.

So young friends - if you really care about people who care for you, think before you leap off the edge into the abyss because you are going to take a lot of casualties with you, and most don't deserve the pain. Think about it, all they did was care enough about you to reach out. How about grabbing their hand that is offered to you and giving life a second chance without using crutches of alcohol and drugs.

Men verses Women

A young friend of mine is having boyfriend problems, but when I mentioned that most men and women approach relationships in a different way - I opened a can of worms that one just cannot discuss on a open social network like Facebook.

However here in the preview of my mind - I can say what I like (well to a point). That young man who threw the bible at me about Gods love being perfect and so all love is perfect - is very naive and very ill informed. We live in an imperfect world torn apart by sin and the results of sin, with even Christians sitting in the divorce courts today.

If you my young friend really think that women and men are similar in relationships, or how they think or how they respond to life - then you have a lot to learn and God has nothing to do with it. Men and women are about as alike as cats and dogs. We both breath, we both have blood, we both have brains and bodies but how we use them are very, very different.

You accuse me of generalization and I guess that is true, but so is the reverse. To say we are all the same is just as much of a generalization and an insult to women as you found it to be of men.

I am unique, I don't think like men, I don't react like men do, and I have no desire to. At a meeting most men (notice I accompany you and say 'most') LOL, spread out their papers and pens and claim their territory. Those in charge speak the most and interrupt the most. Women put their knees together, pat their papers into a neat pile and take as little space as possible - we are not territorial at all and we generally nod in agreement to most of what is being said - which most men do not.

'Most' men like big offices - the bigger the office the more status. Not me, I am just happy to have an office of my own. Ask a man what he does for a living and he will tell you in such a way you think he owns the garage when in fact he is a junior motor mechanic. Ask a women and 'most' will say "I am only a ......" downplaying their role. Very few women will sound the horn of their achievements like men do.

Women commit to relationships lock, stock and barrel. When you say 'you love them' they believe you in childlike trust. Women get emotionally involved and 'most' once in love, would marry you if you asked them to. Men are not emotional creatures - their commitment to start with is on the surface by which time the woman is already into a deep relationship. I am not saying men do not change and commit in the end, but if you think all men enter into a relationship with the thought 'This is the woman I am going to marry and spend the rest of my life with' then you have a lot to learn.

I have been married for 37 years, met my hubby when I was 16 years old but it took more than the first few years to cement our commitment to each other, in such a way that we only had eyes for each other into eternity. I am still married to my 'boyfriend' today as we enter our 'senior years' and I would not swop him and who he is for all the world.

I think the girl you meet is going to be very fortunate as it seems you commit for life, first time around and you believe so does she. If you keep your relationship God founded and grounded you should have a long and happy marriage - but do try and rejoice in 'your differences', I don't think God ever intended for Adam to be an Eve and Eve to be a Steve.

Blessings.

We Come in Peace - yeah right!

Being a fantasy and Sci-Fi fan led me back to Potters latest escapades. Ho Hum!! After Roswell everything else is just kids fantasy. I know both Roswell and Potter are written for a much younger group than I belong to, but Roswell had a few 'adult threads' running throughout its series - one that touched me was 'humanity' and man's 'in-humanity'. Roswell was believable, while Potter is not but I guess that is open to debate. I have a friend whose mother is a practising witch. And don't give me that 'white witch' jargon - there is no such a thing even if she thinks so. You choose either light or the dark side. There are no witches in the light. But before I am labelled inhumane let me continue. In a way some things in Potter are believable I guess I can give it that, but it lacks depth that we all look for

Still with Roswell I found myself sickened in the stomach by what people do to things or people they do not understand. Why is life always 'shoot first ask questions later?' The experts say we make up our mind about new people within ten minutes based 90% on what their body language is saying - that's scary, I would hate to know how many people have written me off based on my body language which most of the time is defensive and withdrawn at new encounters. No wonder that those people who always run around looking for 'visitors' have 'dissection' on their minds. Then again that is generally what we are like - we want to 'dissect' people, to analyse them, to accept or reject them. If they are 'different to us' we very seldom let them into 'the inner sanctuary of our lives' do we? Over the years I have made an effort to open my friendship to those who others reject. It's been a humbling experience. Because the stone that is rejected is often the corner-stone that holds the whole arch up. These people do not stab you in the back, gossip about you. They are transparent and make loyal, supportive friends.

So one never knows what or who you are rejecting and what you are missing out on if you allow body language or first impressions influence who you accept. Maybe it may be an idea to 'hang ten' and give people a chance before we dissect them.

Life is to Short to Stuff a Mushroom

I don't have much free time in my life - too involved in Kingdom work but I have several philosophies, if one can call them that, over and above a unbending belief in the supernatural spiritual world where purity and evil are busy with an ongoing war, that helps me keep track of my life. Sometimes I look at my friends whose lives are spinning out of control, people who settle for second best or others whose lives have reached the doldrums of monotony and they have no vision for change, and I think to myself - "get a life woman"! We are where we are due to the decisions we make day by day. Life is a choice.

I know women who sit and cry about 'their lot in life'. One woman whose daughter is physically and verbally abusing her but she just stays in that situation. She does not want 'out' she wants prayer. Why?? If you stay to play in Satan's garden you are gonna get scratched by the thorns, believe me I talk from experience. Life is a choice and some people just make bad choices. Her husband abused her years ago, now her daughter abuses her but when you offer to help get her out of the situation she just sinks back and says "pray for me". Oh come on there has to be more to life than this. What is she addicted to - abuse? Does she find security in abuse? Is she too scared to move out of the situation because that will take her into an unknown world?

When people ask me how I am I respond, "healthy and happy" - why? Well 99% of my life I am happy, and I am not going to let the 1% of unhappiness drag me down. Waste of time and energy. There is always a way out. (that is biblical LOL)

Women tend to fuss and fret over minor issues in life. I always say, "if its not going to be an issue five years from now - its not worth making an issue over it now".

Who has time to stuff mushrooms now-a-days? There are so many facets of life one can be involved in. I never change my furniture around. Sherbet! - do you know how many people change their furniture around every week. I must admit to one vice and that is every five years or so I get teddy-bear to change the colours of the wall in the house, but then you have to ask yourself - "how long can you live with one dark green wall".

That is another thing to ask in life, "this thing I am doing now - can I live with it". A painting can look really 'cool' this summer and in five years time you are wondering what on earth made you buy the thing in the first place! I being right brained tend to rush into things without thinking them through to their conclusion - adds a window of expectancy and adventure to life at times. You know when you are abseiling off the cliff into the unknown - you have to be a fast thinker to make the thing work. Still I suppose we have to allow a certain amount of evolving in our life experience. Thank goodness I have learned to find answers as I fly.

What brings me to another point. Moving on. Why on earth do people let the past influence the future? I see lives of friends destroyed by bad relationships, bad decisions yet instead of taking the experience and vowing never to "let that happen again" and move on, they sit in the mess and make mud pies. Sigh!!
I have made several really bad decisions in my life and not all of them just affected me. Of course I have regrets, but I have to be realistic I cannot turn the clock back. Things I did were sin, would be nice to call it something else and sugar-coat it but sin is sin and I destroyed the faith of some people in me and almost shipwrecked my own spiritual walk in the process. It took me a few years to ask forgiveness and forgive myself - but I still moved forward albeit a little slower.

There is so much to do, empowering others through training, saving others through teaching, planting seeds into peoples lives that will help them mature as Christians, or see a glimmer of hope in their future. We feed the homeless from time to time, we cloth those who are cold, we supply stationary to poor kids - mainly by getting the 'haves' to share with the 'have not's'. You know the old story - "I complained about my old shoes till I saw a man without legs".

Mmm - my resolution could be "Be less Self Centred", Put the Past Behind You. Look around there is a dying world out there. Spiritually, mentally and physically. Make a difference". If you are lonely be a friend, if you are hungry share the little you have. If you have knowledge and wisdom on subjects - plant into others lives - as you do, your own life will gain meaning. If you are Christian - reach out physically and spiritually, bring hope to hopeless situations. If not become a seed planter into others lives. Doing good will not 'save you' or give you entrance into heaven - but at least you will 'feel good' about yourself while you still live. LOL

I think just maybe finding what excites you, and investing your energy into that will already make a difference. Let go and let God - not a bad idea at times!

"Right brains rock"

I personally think that right brained people are some of the most misunderstood people in the world. Sure we visualise the goal before the objectives are in place - so what. The idea that a creative person can never develop their left brain is bull dust. I am dominantly right brained but if I do IQ and other personality tests that the university insists on doing at all their so called 'team building' events, its very easy to manipulate them using my left brain. The last time I came out 50% left and 50% right, top creative, top managerial - they were shocked, not possible, not common. Well what did they think, I am not a space specimen in Roswell to be dissected. Somethings need to remain hidden. I am not a fool - those tests often determine your career path. Today I sit in a senior post, managing the training and the computer centre and give it my best shot. Thank goodness a large chunk of my work includes being creative.

Right brained people are the 'dreamers' of this world, but if determined enough can use their left side to make dreams a reality, we just work backwards. We are loners but are the seed planters in the brains of the lefties, who work out the technical, mathematical steps to create a new world.

We need each other for balance. The hardest part of our existence is getting the left brainers to accept us, as is, for who we are and stop trying to make us into something we are not. I am so tired of people telling me I am not a 'team player', 'I don't bring people on board'. Sigh!! How can you bring someone on-board right at the start when they are looking at 'step one' and you can see the 'final step' already materialised. It's not that they are not 'on-board' or that you have started something without them - its just that in your mind you have already seen the end product. If the worst comes to the worst - Right Brainers can go it alone and still come out on top.

As my director once said, after moaning at me again for moving alone - "just do the thing - its easier to say sorry than get permission". I really miss him sitting in the USA. He was a secret right brain acting as a left brain - pity. Today he is zooming around the USA on a really big bike experiencing the freedom of wind in his hair.

So for all of you 'right brains' out there - keep dreaming you never know what you will generate that will make the world a better place of all to live in. PS Left brains be patient with us - we have the creative mind of God when He created Eden. If you learn to 'tap into our thoughts' you may find something to work with that will revolutionize your world.

Is there more to life than this?

I wonder if there is a Bermuda Triangle for all the millions and millions of words written from peoples hearts and minds in blogs. How many of these ever find a home in a perfect strangers life who just happens to stumble over them. Still as I get older and more of a recluse - the thought of just dumping my totally irrelavant thoughts down onto a virtual sheet of paper - appeals to me. The 'blog becomes your friend' - scary thought.

Just finished the series of Roswell. Heaven only knows (and He is not telling me), how I missed it when it originally came out because I usually sniff out a good sci-fi when it hits the screen or TV channel. Took me about 2 weeks in my impossibly busy agenda. I am no owl but found myself watching till 1am in the morning. I kept promising myself, as soon as it gets to be repetitive, I'm dumping it and getting my life back. It never happened. Although it was written for older teenagers - the plot fascinated me, and 90% of the time was original enough not to give me the feeling - ho hum here we go again. Now I am saturated with Roswell, its oozing out of my pores but its old news - no one wants to chat about the plot, the characters, the movie any more. My generation - well their response was "what is Roswell', my friends - nope 99% Christian and would most probably go into rigger mortise if they knew I love sci-fi (not horror) and fantasy.

My poor teddy bear - has never eaten so many 'take outs' in his life, his wife was lost in the sci-fi Roswell and I did not stop until I watched all 3 seasons. Pity they do not continue now with a older version, may be less sticky sweet, now that that edge of innocence has left the casts faces.
Oh well you know what the bible says, 'in the last days we will 'dream dreams' - not that it was talking about sci-fi LOL but at least we can dream of the next season.

So if there is still someone out there young enough to remember Roswell, but old enough to make intelligent comments on it, someone who sat, like I just sat - every free waking moment glued to the laptop (set on Zone 1 as I fall in Zone 2) just to finish all three seasons - let me hear it. D'