The Occasional Burning

For years Scary Bones had a vision of a world that was filled with goodness and righteousness. He spent most of his days in the employ of the Big Boss (who is many and one), where he did not make any headway career wise or any other wise. Sometimes in a previous life he moonlighted in Hollywood's blasphemous underbelly making people all around the world break into laughter. But after years of preaching and marketing to save his fellow men and women from the fiery fire of hell, he had a paltry following of just 50 people. This ignited a burning desire or fire within to do something big, something that would bring worldly attention to himself and his flock and maybe win favour with the Big Boss.

He organised a late night meeting with his think tank. They prayed, whispered and secretly met with the group that has no name but is, to no avail. One morning while watching the news on the sacred box he caught a glimpse of Obama Sin Pardon from a rival bearded clan who was world famous on another burning issue, and that inspired him. He thought of his inspiration as a secret memo from his boss. Once again under the cover of darkness he met with his think tank to tell them about his divine mission and the message that was revealed to him. He was to resurrect the ancient ritual of burning anything related to witchcraft. And since people of all colors have been joining the bearded clan in droves there must be witchcraft involved. His boss knew best and who was he to judge.

So on a warm summer morning he called a press conference at which only the A-Clan(the clan with no clan) attended.  He declared that the bearded clan's book of witchcraft shall be burned in public on the 11th of September to coincide with the end of the flaming birds. The A-Clan spread the word of the spoken day because they always considered the clan types as a helluva bunch who just did not understand the Book of Science.

Flaming birds, poverty, corruption, stolen land, war and just plain maliciousness had become somewhat normal and boring, so the sacred box clan and its sister clans jumped on the this new news worthy topic. It has been centuries since we have had a clan burning occasion (except of course in other exotic places where it happens fairly regularly). And so the word of the occasional burning spread like wildfire.

The bearded clans all around the world went into a religious fervour. Their think tanks got together and were at a loss on what to do. A small group from the bearded clan had an insurgent creative burst and decided to respond in similar fashion, threatening to burn Scary Bones much revered book as well. Just don't mess with a clan scorned.

The A-Clan watched on in disbelief thinking: "shoo we should be in the book selling business".

Ultimately the lizard clan stepped in and miraculously found a late, after-hours memo for Scary Bones. A memo he did not get due to his late night think tank sessions. And so the occasional burning turned out to be just smoke with no fire and 1 Afghan dead and 12 injured. Alas Scary Bones may not have grown his flock but now he is as infamous as Obama Sin Pardon and his Boss does not seem to care.

And who says where there is smoke there is fire. Sometimes there is just smoke.......

Unexpected Benefits

Do you know the feeling when you unexpectedly find something useful like money in an long unworn piece of clothing? Or an item of jewellery you thought you had lost, but found between your couch pillows? Well, I recently had that feeling after my DSTV was disconnected. You can't see the good feeling here can you? Well initially neither could I. I thought, what am I to do with all the time I used for watching TV and how would I ever get my entertainment fix now. Now, I would have to make conversation during my mental down time after a hard work day. Uugh!

A few days into my TV withdrawal, I began to feel a clarity of mind. An un-cluttering if you will. There was an emptiness that I really enjoyed. My short term memory area felt like it just had an upgrade and now has a lot more space. I now certainly had time to ponder upon this weird and strange mental phenomenon. I realised the best thing about not watching DSTV, is not seeing any advertising at all (even the fast forwarded ones for those with a PVR). I have had approximately four weeks of no adverts, and it feels wonderful. It is my unexpected benefit.

Advertising and marketing have a way of consciously and maybe subconsciously occupying your mind with things you don't really need but now want. For example, I was quite happy with my iPod until I discovered that a new and better iPod was now available. I somehow found myself convincing myself that my iPod was now old and maybe does need to be replaced. I was buying this logic, fortunately I caught myself in the act and put an end to it. My kids would see a KFC advertisement and then would want to have KFC to eat. Predictably, the next time we drove pass a KFC guess what the kids wanted.

Now, since my family and I have minimal exposure to advertisements, we have alleviated all these unnecessary wants and cleared our minds from its clutter. It sounds crazy, and you may think it does not affect you but it does in ways you don't even realise. Even if you dont give in to the ads by purchasing the product, your mind uses time and energy to consider it and make decision about it consciously and maybe unconsciously. Whereas in this case,  "out of sight, out of mind" rings very true. So I challenge you to take month off from viewing any commercials and let me know how you feel.

Bye 4 now  

My Kruger Park Visit In Pictures

What is it about getting a really good picture that makes me feel so good.  Is it the patience to wait for the right combination of elements?  

The Kruger National Park is the one place where I always hope to shoot my next great picture.  And on my recent trip there, I had a good feeling.  I had a sense that this time I was going to get my leopard in a tree.  Excited, and camera in hand I was ready.

Entering at an ungodly hour has its payoffs.  

This elephant was kind enough to take a break from trying to break off a branch to pose for the camera.

At Skukuza camp I found this beautiful bird.

and these pigeons having a go at each other.

He had an appointment to have his picture taken with a bushveld background

Found this Warthog feeding and it does this on bended knee eating the low growing grass

I had to get one scenic picture, which happens to have a hippo in there somewhere. Let see if you can find it

This was just an awesome close up picture. The eyes look amazing

Very colourful bird just sitting in a tree

Curious giraffe looking back at me

then turned around and coyly walked away

The zebra crossing in the park

Just reminded me of  Zazoo in the Lion King

These tortoises were watching the traffic on the Lower Sabie bridge. I could not get them to smile...

At Lower Sabie camp, I found these birds just cooling off in a bath

Giraffes having a drink courtesy of the Sabie river.

Not sure what this is but it posed for my picture.

Elephants frolicking in the river. The weather so good I was tempted to join them, but sensibility prevailed.

And in the sand.

Finally seeing this group of lionesses on my way out of the park.

Alas, NO Leopard in a tree.......Hopefully there will be another day!

Bye 4 now!