I’m taking a brief sabbatical from my social sphere. Blogging, Tweeting, Facebook. 2-3 months.
I know, it’s counter-intuitive to what I do, professionally, but hey, I kinda do everything… professionally, so maybe I’ll take this break, professionally.
No, seriously, I need to focus on some stuff.
If it’s absolutely critical; king@rogueking.com
Otherwise, I’ll see you all in a few months.
Cheers.
Wednesday, January 20th. 12:20 AM.
There’s not a soul awake in the building, let alone at work. The office is deathly quiet and pitch black, lit only by the soft luminescent glow of the computer I’m typing on. Pages and windows flash across the screen as I bend the machine to my will. Mind and machine are one, and they are plotting the downfall of global economies and an ascent to glory like no other.
Vanity reigns supreme, and yet the quintessential cackling laugh of villainy is muted.
The thoughts that flash through my mind are many, and they are few. Focused and razor sharp, flying true to their mark but dulled by indecisiveness and self-perpetuated mediocrity. On the one hand, my brain is a soaring symphony of excellence and perfection, and on the other, an evanescent cacophony of thoughts, ideologies and memories that bear witness to a mind on the verge of insanity.
I am here. I am now.
1:19AM
Fatigue finally sets in, sipping away at the dregs of my mental reserves. I resist for a while, knowing well that I am only extending the inevitable. Twenty seconds later, I concede defeat. Pushing my chair away from the desk, I stand up and walk to the window.
Outside, a small measure of life continues. The loud thumping irony of a few merry-makers making more noise at night than an entire micro-economy during the day.
Neon lights from Fat Boys and Pavement Tandoori flicker to the beat of hip-hop music. A harsh clash of blue and red, reminding me that we live in a world governed by rules and law, and that the difference between heroism and villainy is choice. Split-second decisions that ripple through the sands of time, leaving chaos and order in their wake. Leaving a trail that will be studied, loathed, or glorified as examples of the frailty of our humanity. Studied by other people like me, who at this very moment are making the exact same choices, the only difference being, perhaps, in the magnitude of choice.
In front of Fat Boys, behind a parked car, a drunk man gropes an equally, if not more, drunk woman. They are oblivious to the world, their here and now having been decided a long time ago by several spirits, imbibed or otherwise. Her skirt goes up and his hands furtively find their way inwards.
Order. And chaos.
I love this view. It is a reminder of what I work for. It is a reminder of what I want to achieve and yet, in the deepest of ironies, to forget. It is the convergence of choice and kismet, focus and laziness, stupidity and timely wisdom, faith and wild-eyed disbelief.
It is the justification of past heres and nows.
1: 30 AM
Time marches on, and a new day beckons. New hopes, new challenges, new dreams and more importantly, new mistakes, and a chance to ponder even more on what exactly new is, considering we spend our lives doing the same things, or figuring out ways to do the same things better, and half the time, failing miserably.
Enough. I must leave.
With one final glance outside, I draw the curtains and shut down my computer. It takes a while, but finally, the whirring stops and the screen blacks out, plunging the office to absolute silence and darkness. I stay still for a while, thinking to myself how beautiful and perfect the nothingness is.
As I lock up the office and walk into the cold, dark night, a police patrol car tears past me, sirens screaming, lights blinking, heading towards town. Red and blue.
Order. And chaos.
Here, and now.
I have missed this.
Rumour ( NASA) has it that there will be an Annular solar eclipse this Friday, 15th Jan 2010, visible in most of Africa, including of course, Kampala, Uganda. And apparently, the eclipse will start in Uganda. Ooorah!!
It should be viewable from 8:00. From NASA’s local contact tables/statistics (60kb PDF), we should see it from 8:20AM local time (05:20 UTC) to 10:00 AM local time. Maximum eclipse will occur at 8:27 AM. Annular eclipse time is estimated at an average of 8 minutes at viewable places across the world.
An annular eclipse occurs when the Sun and Moon are exactly in line, but the apparent size of the Moon is smaller than that of the Sun. Hence the Sun appears as a very bright ring, or annulus, surrounding the outline of the Moon.
It will/should look something like this:
A little caution, buy some shades, looking directly at the sun with unaided eyes can be dangerous. From Wikipedia:
Looking directly at the photosphere of the Sun (the bright disk of the Sun itself), even for just a few seconds, can cause permanent damage to the retina of the eye, because of the intense visible and invisible radiation that the photosphere emits. This damage can result in permanent impairment of vision, up to and including blindness. The retina has no sensitivity to pain, and the effects of retinal damage may not appear for hours, so there is no warning that injury is occurring.
Under normal conditions, the Sun is so bright that it is difficult to stare at it directly, so there is no tendency to look at it in a way that might damage the eye. However, during an eclipse, with so much of the Sun covered, it is easier and more tempting to stare at it. Unfortunately, looking at the Sun during an eclipse is just as dangerous as looking at it outside an eclipse, except during the brief period of totality, when the Sun’s disk is completely covered (totality occurs only during a total eclipse and only very briefly; it does not occur during a partial or annular eclipse). Viewing the Sun’s disk through any kind of optical aid (binoculars, a telescope, or even an optical camera viewfinder) is extremely hazardous.
Glancing at the Sun with all or most of its disk visible is unlikely to result in permanent harm, as the pupil will close down and reduce the brightness of the whole scene. If the eclipse is near total, the low average amount of light causes the pupil to open. Unfortunately the remaining parts of the Sun are still just as bright, so they are now brighter on the retina than when looking at a full Sun. As the eye has a small fovea, for detailed viewing, the tendency will be to track the image on to this best part of the retina, causing damage. From Wikipedia
Have fun everyone.
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Offtopic:
“On that day, says the Lord God,
I will make the sun go down at noon
and darken the earth in broad daylight.”Amos 8:9
Meet Rover, an autonomous roving robot-ish thing. ( Pictures below )
Rover was borne yesterday in the Rogue Labs, and it took its first breath to much whirring of motors and blinking of lights. Rover is the result of many weeks of experimenting with a few PIC microcontrollers which a friend very very kindly lent me. [ Full Story ]
Basically, Rover is a mobile base unit I’m using as a platform for exploring autonomy in robotic systems. The motor control circuit and logic circuit are modular, meaning I can easily swap them out for components I’ll build later.
Rover’s “brain” is a PIC16F84A which controls the drive circuit on Ports A and monitors various inputs on Port B to determine what it should do when it detects something.
The drive circuit is an L298N 2-motor controller and a 7805 5v logic power supply/regulator for both the motor controller and the PIC.
Right now Rover has bumpers that detect a soft collision with an obstacle and then reverses while turning. So it basically runs around a room in a straight line until it hits something, then reverses while turning for a few seconds, then continues in another direction until it hits something else. Pretty cool to watch.
I’ll post videos later when I get a better quality camera.
I’ve have waited many many years to do this. [ Full Story ]
Over the next few days/weeks/months, I’ll be experimenting with non-tactile sensors like Sonar, IR and more outputs.
Also, since I’ve pretty much gotten the basics of Assembler and PICs, I’ll be moving on to more powerful microcontrollers and playing around with some advanced stuff.
Here are some pictures for you.
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Rogue FM: Steve Jablonsky – Arrival to Earth (Transformers Soundtrack)
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Memoirs: Thank you, Gonza! Thank you, Abba!
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Offtopic:
Both the man of science and the man of action live always at the edge of mystery, surrounded by it.
- J. Robert Oppenheimer
So, it’s official. We have a venue for the biggest Uganda Blogger’s Happy Hour yet, set for the 18th December 2009.
The lovely Yvonne (http://walkonby.wordpress.com) will be hosting us at her home in Bunga. Directions will come later. Once we’ve gotten some kind of map or something.
Set the hype-machines rolling, y’all!
The Mega Ugandan Blogger's Happy Hour - Friday 18th December 2009
Let’s rock!
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Rogue FM: Bajofondo Tango Club – Mi Corazon – Campo
Offtopic:
“Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we’re here we should dance.”
- Author Unknown
So here goes.
TEDx
Rocked. It was delightfully awesome. Great speakers, great organisers. Sadly, I was too much in a whirlwind after that to post a proper blog post about it. And I’m still in that whirlwind, so allow this to suffice. I spoke a little, here’s the video (I’m the dark shape in the video). Also, check out the “Related Videos” section for other TEDx speakers. More information can be found here and here. Also, a few photos should be here.
Node Six Moves Offices
Our new premises are at Kisementi, above Banana Boat, side entrance. The new place is awesome, and we thank our clients, colleagues, friends and acquantices for the support they’ve shown us over the years. We believe that the next few years are going to be amazing.
December BHH
A few people think a blogger’s mega-bash for December is an awesome idea. The few people being Sleek, Streetsider, Darlkom and myself. The only problem is, we lack a venue. Opinions and suggestions welcome.
Okay, that’s it for now, still got lots of stuff to setup at our new offices., so cheerio!
—
Rogue FM: Windows Welcome Music. LOL
Offtopic:
“The problem with the cutting edge is that someone has to bleed”
- Zalman Stern
Okay, so the title is just to get your attention.
I signed up for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) after many years of thinking “maybe I should sign up for NaNoWriMo…” and after even more years thinking about writing a novel, short story or whatever.
So. I signed up for NaNoWriMo.
And putting my writing skills to shame, I ripped this straight from the site. Oh the shame. Read.
National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.
Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.
Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It’s all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.
Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that’s a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.
As you spend November writing, you can draw comfort from the fact that, all around the world, other National Novel Writing Month participants are going through the same joys and sorrows of producing the Great Frantic Novel. Wrimos meet throughout the month to offer encouragement, commiseration, and—when the thing is done—the kind of raucous celebrations that tend to frighten animals and small children.
In 2008, we had over 120,000 participants. More than 20,000 of them crossed the 50k finish line by the midnight deadline, entering into the annals of NaNoWriMo superstardom forever. They started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists.
There you have it.
I don’t know the title of my novel yet, we’ll see, and so far, I’m at a measly 531 words. *sigh* I’ll be posting the updates here, might even release the novel as a free ebook… just speculation mostly.
Interested? Check out the website.
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Rogue FM: India.Arie – Chocolate High (Feat. Musiq Soulchild)
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Offtopic:
“There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth…not going all the way, and not starting.”
- Buddha“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.”
- Jim Rohn
Come. Let’s sit down and have a brutally honest heart to heart. What I’m about to say… well, it’s going to hurt.
“What is your deepest fear, young man?”
There comes a time in a man’s life when he looks back at his achievements and hangs his head in shame. When he curls up in his bed and hopes to never wake up. When he realizes that the last odd years of his life have been pathetic and worthless. When he realizes, above all else, that he is a failure.
You were on the right path, but somewhere along the way, you fell. Hard. Really really hard. And the stupid thing? You liked it down there, wallowing in the mud. Thrashing uselessly like a pig in a pile of dung thinking you’re making progress. Yet all you’re doing is turning aimlessly in circles. Not moving one single inch, and yet drowning yourself in shit.
You watch your friends succeed. The very same people you were miles ahead of before you became paralyzed by stupidity, by impatience, by mediocrity, by apathy, by swag, by arrogance and by Godlessness. And now you’re at the back of the pack, limping uselessly, believing yourself to still be ahead of the game and yet seething with enough jealousy to melt their faces off.
Pure, absolute bollocks.
Read more
Friday was a public holiday, and I won’t even bother explaining what that meant.
The really awesome thing (and simultaneously frustrating thing) about extra long weekends is this;
Thursday feels like Friday. Then Friday reaches and you cannot tell whether it’s Friday or Saturday, and by the time Saturday comes around, your mind and body are so blissfully messed up that on Sunday, you’re so confused you don’t quite know what to do about it.
Last weekend was a particularly long (and blissful weekend). The annoying thing about extra long weekends is this;
If you’re broke, you’re screwed. If you have nowhere to go, you’re screwed. If you have no social life, you’re even more screwed. IF you’re all the above, God help you.
Yesterday (Wednesday 23rd Sept 09), I had the privilege of being interviewed by Shevonne Hunt, the producer of a radio show in Sydney, Australia called The Fourth Estate. She was doing a piece on Citizen Journalism during the Uganda riots and Rebekah Heacock [ Jackfruity ] told her about my tweets, so we got in touch. Rebekah and I are featured in the Citizen Journalism segment [ around the 20th minute. ].
The podcast was published today, and you can access it here: http://www.2ser.com/programs/shows/thefourthestate [ Click "Show Episodes" at the bottom and select the 25th September podcast. ]
Hope I did all of you justice!
—
Offtopic:
We must not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we began and to know the place for the first time.
- T.S. Elliot
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