UPDATE April 1, 2008

April 1, 2008

Theory of Thickness Vibrator on Rayleigh-Love and Bishop Model

This is the title of one of the papers presented at a conference I just attended. It was quite boring.

Hi, this is Victor. This will be an impersonal e-mail as I’m clinically depressed (diagnosed this week after a third doctor’s visit this morning). The e-mail will seem personal but will be impersonal. I’ve considered not sending these out many times or taking a break from weekly posts for various reasons.

It’s strange. I (Shane Claiborne first said this in my hearing) have never figured out how to live life without hurting people. I, myself, have gotten over most of those things so that I don’t get hurt by things because I understand that there are just things or events or things that don’t matter. For some reason I communicate with people more than they communicate with me, I send more e-mails than I receive (some don’t respond), I am asked to pray for more situations than I am updated (which sometimes makes you not want to help and pray if you’re not going to be told the status/update). Sometimes you just want people to be and not analyze, just be and live and love.

If you see me I walk with a limp. Part of it came from a wound from YES but I was asked to forgive. And I did. And there were other wounds which I was asked to forgive. But others have more trouble with that or have more to forgive. So it’s hard to live life when people don’t practice forgiveness like you are practicing. I once told a girl she stunk really hard. And I thought she was going to thank me. Instead she hated me for 7+ years. The funny thing is that my nose problems and allergies prevented me from ever smelling her odor in the first place; I was the only person who didn’t experientially know she stunk. I simply was trying to help because everyone (including her “close friends”) talked behind her back. I have an essay about it. You should read it sometime.

This is a blog of my friends A(u)dri and Brian. They are in Joburg working as missionaries. I put the link because I want you to see Carla and Adri all dolled up (they look very elegant and beautiful even though I haven’t met Carla). AND look at the picture of the Zulu wedding. I’m very jealous. I have been invited to 2 weddings here in Cape Town so far, but they are all “white people” weddings (“white wedding” means white dress church wedding).

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=145916936&blogID=372899723

And this is a picture that Anna (landlord/lady/housemate) sent me. She would marry Obama if he proposed.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/barackobamadotcom/2380364722/

Additionally, I’ve been told that I mentioned getting a mobile but didn’t include the number, so I’ve added the number at the end of the e-mail/blog. I even spent last week getting a car really quickly. So it’s strange; I’m back in the world I left. No more walking around without a watch, car, mobile phone. Now I have them all (my mobile phone is my watch) and I have all the payments I missed before—mobile payment, normal phone payment (paying more total money now for phone usage, the mobile does not make the bill go down), car insurance, car tracker service. In fact there are so many fees associated with the car—registration fee, licensing fee, roadworthy test fee, initial insurance fee, etc.—that I should have offered a lower price. As it is I bought it for something around $2k in USD. Strangely enough this 80’s Honda has an immobilizer (something that must be disarmed in order for the car to start), a gear lock (like a steering wheel jack but for the stick of the stick-shift), an alarm, and a tracker (if the car is stolen they can track it’s location if you armed the tracker when you got out of the car). So it’s apparently overkill South Africans tell me. And the tracker the previous owner had on the car is not free as I thought. I must pay for this service monthly. It does reduce my insurance payment, though. We’ll see by how much. I got the car through the mechanic at UCT who also sells cars for students who are leaving or have left. He’s nice because he’s honest and will tell you if the car is bad or not and if he would drive it. The only problem is that he’s busy and sometimes the queuing priority is hard to determine. You might be in the office but someone can come in and trump you. So actually getting the car to go through a roadworthy test and getting the paperwork done (I’ve finished my end) is taking a long while. Maybe he’ll be in tomorrow when I check again (Thursday). We’ll see. I agreed to take it while I was away at the conference. It’s a good car and will take care of Haley while here (she won’t take it though; I don’t need a car here in Cape Town).

So I have been running around all week last week and this weekend. I’m finally home and able to write an update. I had a holiday on Easter Monday, then a conference most of the week and then a jazz Festival and a Church (students and 20’s) camp [their word for retreat]. So I have been busy. I’ll tell you about it.