The Bandjoun nomad

It was a great time being away from Jo'burg albeit without my lovely wife. I must say I wasn't too sure what to make of whole week away from her but it's amazing how God works things out. The little gem of a town is called Arniston: Population is over 1000 people with the majority living in fishing houses. No banks, No Shopping malls AND NO NOISE!!!! The olden style of the houses reminded me a lot of Falconara Marittima and made me a bit home sick of a place I hold dear in my heart. We ate at the Arniston Hotel, the food was great and the service excellent. For the first time I had the Red Roman fish which is indigenous to South Africa. What a privilege! In the evenings I will have dinner surrounded by the whistling sound of the ocean and nothing but a dark abyss. I would walk back to the guest house in pitch dark streets and have no worry in the world. A truly memorable experience. #somemoreplease Arniston beach front ( Wikipedia ) The Arniston Hotel ...

For glory is the Lord's. We sing it, we pray it but our (my) lives (life) often does not reflect it. But from Psalms 24, There's the statement is clear... We are so quick to talk about the things we have achieved, learnt, overcome, designed, taught, gathered, won, lost, found, given, etc that eventhough it comes from a right place of sharing our experiences and even being vulnerable or humble, it often creates a false sense of significance of our value. I might not make sense but the more we speak about ourselves in any capacity (which includes our experiences with God), the less important is our focus on the glory and majesty of God. The declaration of the God's majesty has got nothing to do with who or what we are. To proclaim is the open and unashamed proclamation of the grandeur and strength of the God we serve. He's the one she should praise. In our growing understanding of him, we should become both physically and mentally less significant. Realising that ...

After dropping off a bible study at Park Station, I took Asterix to the park while watching pass by on their way back home. And that's when it dawned on me. The majority of us is just trying to make it through the day, week or month. Very few of us have any aspirations to do something noble with our lives that doesn't involve gratifying out selfish nature. We're so obsessed with materialistic things that line between want and need is no longer solid. The purpose and meaning of life has resorted to fulfilled our self made goals and completely ignores the need to seek the will of the one who created our ability to have desires. For God created man in his image (see the book of Genesis) so we may realise the true meaning of our existence not so we can use all these powers to make up our own purpose. May the father forgive us for its so clear that our wisdom is hos foolishness. One day we will all fave such truths. Until then...

I had a "healthy" discussion with a brother on facebook (where else) on what priority should a Christian have in his or her life. My status read, "The Bible has been given to transform us and NOT to inform us. #quote #wisdom #bible". (See Picture below) And based on my conversation with him, I realised the obvious truth in many of our lives and in our Christian circles: "Post Modern Christians feel this deep need to know before doing". Use of Romans 10:17 is often read and understood out of context and I must say I've been guilty of that A LOT of times. I often felt that the transformation and growth in my life (good or bad) was directly linked to how much information I knew from the bible. I felt this urge to get into my bible more so that I it would result in change in my life. And yet transformation or growth never came (or least not the way I expected). It always felt like a battle to do the things of God and do them consistently AND with zea...

I often find my myself wondering why I found myself in this trap of doing too many things at once while sacrificing the most important ones in the process. I often find myself in the rut of chasing time with God when I've just spent so much time researching "important" stuff on the internet.  Maybe I need to set time for the different things in my life: Quiet time, Personal Research, guitar playing, ministry work...  I mean there's a reason why I have Astrid  installed on my PC, tablet and phone. So I can remember to do/plan/research different things during the day. Currently it's just organised chaos.  One thing I that I can say I don't suffer from, "being bored". On the contrary, I feel like there's too many things that I'm involved in. But I'm not complaining, I just wish there was an easy formula that we all abide by that will enable us to judge how we can allocate our time. Maybe I've clearly missed the bigger picture... Ma...

Hidden camera investigation finds illegal commercial drone use in US : From an Indiana TV station. There is some really bad stuff here, including this: "When he did not know he was speaking to a reporter, Spencer said he could fly at any altitude that a customer would want.  He said he "wasn't supposed to" fly above 400 feet, but he sometimes flew above 1,000 feet or higher, depending on the job." Needless to say, that's reckless and irresponsible. Read the  whole piece : INDIANAPOLIS - A hidden camera investigation from the Call 6 Investigators found a growing threat from illegal business flights of drones nationwide, prompting concerns from Indianapolis pilots and calls for action in Congress. While the  Federal Aviation Administration  has not approved a single drone flight for business purposes anywhere in the country, the Call 6 Investigators found many businesses and entrepreneurs flying drones for aerial photography, including several that advert...

I had my first attempt, after months of anticipation, at flight testing my 2-meters wingspan glider. The electronics worked fine. The vertical surface (for rudder control) attachment looked a bit suspect but I couldn't wait anymore  I mean It had rained out for the past two weeks! There's only so much patience a guy can have! Well setting up the glider on the field I realised something crucial that I had overlooked (I think I blatantly ignored this one)... The weight balance of the glider made it tail heavy. To all my non-technical guys it means all the weight of glider didn't sit under the correct part of the wing but further away towards the tail. Simply put... the glider WILL NOT GLIDE... not properly anyway (and most probably break something on it's way down). But I decided to press on... I mean, YOU CAN still fly with a tail-heavy airplane... YEAH RIGHT! After assembling the glider and doing an electronics check, to check if the proof WAS REALLY in the puddin...

I've finally ventured into the real of robotics (A tiny little step I must add). I got this Kit from NETRAM  for only R700) with delivery included. This is an exciting step for me as my dream is to be able to design, build and flight test fully autonomous UAV with control station... From an android Tablet!. Crazy... I know! Here's a picture of me loading my first sketch on the Arduino board. I'm so excited for the next couple of months when I'll be connecting servos and making complex breadboard circuits. Bring it on!

Sinful People Can Sin Less : "If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth." (1 John 1:8 NLT) We're all defective. We all have parts of our lives that simply don't work. None of us measure up to a standard of perfection. To pretend like you've got it all together when everybody knows you don't is silly. In fact, the Bible tells us it's self-deception. You will never be sinless on this planet, but it is possible to sin less . So why is it so hard to change stuff in us that we really don't like? 1. Because we've had our defects so long. Some of our destructive patterns were developed in childhood, perhaps in resistance to a pain or as a stress coping devise. These defects may be self-defeating, but at least they're familiar! 2. Because we identify with our defects. We often confuse our identity with our defects. When you see yourself connected to your defect, you set yourself up to perpetuate it. 3....

"Drones will save us, drones will destroy us" : FAA map showing all the states where agencies have applied to be one of six drone test sites picked by end 2013. Report on a FAA request for public comment on domestic UAV integration from  The Verge : Citizens sound off at FAA meeting Americans blast drone privacy policy in emotionally charged call for comments When it comes to allowing drones to fly over US soil, Americans are of two minds: embrace domestic drones for such uses as crop dusting, high wire inspection, search and rescue, and border security, or run screaming and seek shelter from the surveillance state in the sky. Those dueling views were on display yesterday during a " public engagement session " hosted online by the US Federal Aviation Administration to gather input from citizens on  the coming swarm . IT QUICKLY DEVOLVED INTO A MASSIVE VENTING SESSION The two-hour long livestreamed conference call was open to any member of the US public to par...

Let Go of Your Self-defeating Lies : "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us." (1 John 1:8 NIV) We lie to ourselves all the time: "I haven't gained any weight. I'm not hurting anyone. No one even noticed." But one lie is more dangerous than most: "It's not really a problem." You tell yourself that your finances aren't a problem, your marriage isn't in trouble, and your temper isn't out of control. Lying to ourselves is the number one way we mess up our lives. The Bible says,  "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1:8 NIV). Sin causes us to deceive ourselves, and deception causes us to sin. Behind every self-defeating act in our lives is a lie we've believed. Either we've lied to ourselves or we've believed one of Satan's lies. The Bible says our heart is "deceitful above all things" (Jeremiah 17:9). You ...

Eto'o ruled out for three weeks : Striker Samuel Eto'o will be out for three weeks after injuring his knee in Cameroon's World Cup qualifying win against Togo.

Well, All good things come to an end. I mean, how long did these boys expect to carry on like this. I've played the game (very amateur level I must add) and the winning mentality will only get you so far. After that, it should be all about enjoying the game and not "trying to keep the records clean. It's over: Bulls snap Heat's 27-game win streak : Miami Heat's 27-game winning streak was snapped Wednesday night by the Chicago Bulls, 101-97, when a furious comeback by LeBron James and his teammates fell short. It was an amazing journey none the less. Very well done boys!

Rato celebrated her " Forever 21" birthday last night with some friends and family. It was a joyous occasion eventhough she was still recovering from her operation. It was great to see Barnabas and Bertha bringing their two sons with them eventhough it was a school day. The love and laughter was clearly in abundance and the Lord multiplied the food as there was plenty to go around. Party hats, party horns was the order of the day and everyone joined in song and dance to celebrate an amazing soul with a beautiful serving attitude. It must be said that we had to sing Happy Birthday twice as Mpho (the 7 years old niece) had to go to bed early for school.  And then there was special performances... Wow is all I can say (The next posts will have links to the videos of the performances). Barnabas and Bertha took centre stage and they led us in song. They had such harmony between each other that it felt like we were in concert.  Eventhough Rato was in a bed clo...

How to DIY a ground station : Well first of all I'll start with the reason I chose to build this ground station instead of using a laptop So after many times of carrying the laptop around assembling and disassembling parts and cables xbees usb cables and such I figured my laptop days as ground station will be numbered Because of this I decided that I needed a ground station that would save me the need to deal with the assembling and disassembling in the field and will be more durable then my laptop First I had to plan my shopping and inventory list I had an old laptop with a broken screen that did not survive its frequent trips around and my poor handling skills And an older laptop screen that i planned on using with the other laptop mother board in order to do it I had to buy a lcd adapter that will let me use the vga port on the motherboard with the lvds laptop screen That's about what I had to start with The second thing was to look for a case that will be large enou...

Using drones to track elephants : From the scientific journal PLOS One : The use of a UAS (Unmanned Aircraft System) was tested to survey large mammals in the Nazinga Game Ranch in the south of Burkina Faso. The Gatewing ×100™ equipped with a Ricoh GR III camera was used to test animal reaction as the UAS passed, and visibility on the images. No reaction was recorded as the UAS passed at a height of 100 m. Observations, made on a set of more than 7000 images, revealed that only elephants ( Loxodonta africana ) were easily visible while medium and small sized mammals were not. The easy observation of elephants allows experts to enumerate them on images acquired at a height of 100 m. We, therefore, implemented an aerial strip sample count along transects used for the annual wildlife foot count. A total of 34 elephants were recorded on 4 transects, each overflown twice. The elephant density was estimated at 2.47 elephants/km 2  with a coefficient of variation (CV%) of 36.10%. The ma...

Comic for January 17, 2013 :

Roberto Mancini 'so sad' to see Mario Balotelli leave Manchester City for AC Milan and boss claims striker was like 'another one of my children' : Roberto Mancini admitted being ‘so sad’ to lose Mario Balotelli after the striker’s colourful and often chaotic career in English football ended with a £19.5million move to AC Milan.