The most interesting thing that happened to me today is the dream that woke me up this morning. I was teaching in some unspecified town, but somewhere in the country. Bizarrely, I won a car! A small white compact. I was leaving to go home, when I discovered that a button on the car’s lock made it fold up into an office chair. I folded it up into the chair and left it there in the parking space to go to chat some people I know. But when I returned, I could not unfold it back into a car again. Off again to ask for help, and when I returned the car had somehow unfolded itself. OK, so I drive off home and (now for the strange part) suddenly the cars ahead are driving wildly. Then I notice, as they probably had, that there is a tsunami coming! An enormous wave, at least a thousand meters high. Enormous. I try to drive away but I realize pretty soon that it is useless. Then I wake up.

I spent about 10 minutes trying to puzzle it out. What should I have done? I was clearly going to be hit. Would it have been better to get into some corner and risk becoming trapped, or better to stay in the open and hope to drift to the top. All the time I realized that the wave would probably be full of debris which, if it hit me, would kill me.

I had the chance to try the sauna at the gym across the road and well… I promised myself to be more positive about life. The best I can come up with is that it is better than nothing. Sorry, I cannot help myself. I have a duty to complain a little. The sauna is about 1.5 to 2.0 too big for the stove. That is the first thing a Finn would say if he walked into the sauna. (I have only been in the male sauna.) The second thing he would notice is that there is no bucket and ladle. Instead there is a button (a button!) against the wall that dispenses some quantity of water when it is pushed. And some time delay before the button works a second time. The result is that the temperature never goes above 85 degrees, which is much too low for me personally. My muscles simply do not relax. I guess if they push it up to 110 degrees someone might keel over and die. That must be the reason. But it seems somewhat pointless to keep a cool sauna.

Oh never mind. I’ve survived without sauna for a long time and I’ll keep on surviving. Until I don’t. I thought about the possibility to build my own sauna own day, but I’m not sure if it is even possible in South Africa. Well, not for any reasonable price. And maybe it is partly psychological.

OK, enough with the negatives. My new class of third year students are a great bunch. They are lively and intelligent and there are a lot of them. If I can master their names, I think this year’s course will be swell.

Apart from other thoughts, this also made me think about the strange subtle differences between American and British English. Do you say “Scott Kelly has got a small dick” or “Scott Kelly has a small dick”? Have you got any opinion, or do you have any opinion? The first way (with the “got”) just sounds odd to me, although I probably hear many times every day and do not notice it. But it feels clumsy in my mouth. I wonder how the Americans feel about the second way. They must use it from time to time, so…

I have acquired myself another luxury (over and above the smartphone). About two weeks ago, a Xhosa lady knocked on my front door and told me that she needed a day. By which I understood she was looking for someone to clean for once a week. I have never been comfortable with having a maid, or a char, but I’m just not disciplined enough to keep my place spotless. The tedium of cleaning *everything* once a week is overwhelming. Dishes and washing is one thing, but windows and floors and all the other hidden accumulation of dirt…  So I agreed with Sindizwa (her name) that she would clean for me once a week. I hope I’m paying her well (I took a small sample and rounded up) and she can come and clean as much or as little as she wants. She is also free to help herself to however much food she can eat, so I don’t think it’s a bad deal. Except that after the first week I had to increase a pay because my house was SPOTLESS. Except perhaps for the windows outside, but admittedly it has been raining and I forbade her to go outside in the cold. Except today she did sneak out to clean my kitchen windows.

Today she also brought along her young child, Siyamthanda. He is about five years old but very clever for his age. We had to communicate with my broken Xhosa (and I suspect that he is not a fluent speaker yet, either). Sindizwa comes from the southern Northern Cape. I’m not sure what dialect she spoke there (but you can hear that she has a faint accent), but in the Cape the Xhosa is a bit of a mix with English. I shall have to sharpen up my Xhosa skills.

1. Talking on a phone while driving — dangerous and rude.
2. Checking your phone when having a conversation with someone — very rude.

But these things are not really the fault of the phone, but rather the user. So having resolved not to do these things myself, I am boldly using the phone in private for all kinds of things. The fact that I can check my email is somewhat convenient. The calendar is very convenient. Browsing the web is quite nice. And there are a couple of nice apps like Google Sky Map and AllSports GPS. Also the camera works nicely.

It has occurred to me that I could write apps to make some money for my house. I need a “house app” or several that I could sell. Unfortunately, it seems that Android Apps is not really a money making scheme and — more importantly — I am not yet able to do it from South Africa. I could (quite legally I believe) use my Finnish bank account. But there is another kind of hitch with this: our country’s admittedly draconian import and export regulations make it almost impossible (well, entirely impossible) to access any money I make in this way. I was at an Industry roundtable this afternoon and one of the complaints was that it is simply impossible for a SA based company to sell any kind of IP to the rest of the world. If you want to do this, consider basing your company in the UK or the US. And those overseas investors are not keen to do business with SA because of the Reserve Bank’s policies. Oh well.

Until Google reaches some kind of agreement with them, I’ll have to develop my apps in private. There happens to be an upcoming Android workshop presented by Google that I shall try to attend and perhaps I can pump them for information about how much progress, if any, they have made in this regard.

In particular, it has no intellectual component whatsoever. It does not stimulate my mind or express any idea other than its run-of-the-mill suburban existence. It is a really nice factory house. And I do not think I want to spend my money on constructing another one like it. I could buy one of the houses around here for R750K. There are some available.

Instead, I think the ideal house (for me) should be more stimulating. It should engage its occupants and its environment in a conversation. That sounds very highfalutin, but I have convinced myself at least that it makes sense. I want a house that is not purely functional but that makes me feel a certain way and makes me think about certain things. I have been looking at a lot of contemporary Japanese designs and I like the contrasts the architects bring out between light and shadow, open and closed spaces, clean lines and complex patterns formed by the “interaction” of those lines.

Modernism is still a strong force in architecture as far as I can tell. Perhaps it has persevered longer than in art because many pieces of art are hidden away in a gallery, whereas a lot of buildings are public spaces and always on display. You either have to own a work of art or go to a gallery to see it; buildings pass you by naturally as you drive to work or walk around in a city. In some sense, architecture is a more perfect art: an artwork is often an object with which the viewer may or may not interact, whereas a building forms part of the environment that shapes the viewer.

I like and agree with some of the philosophy of modernism:

Modernism can be highly rational or can appear to be schizophrenic. There is usually a raison d’être behind seemingly nonsensical geometries, albeit tortured at times. Its most severe self-critique is exhibited by the Deconstructionists, who border on avowed anarchy. Modernism is a reaction to a world that cannot have ideals, or whose philosophies, ethics, morals, and religion have failed. Modernism is highly individual. — Antoine Predock

Not that I agree with everything about Modernism. I do not want something that is purely functional and I am prepared to sacrifice the conventional when it is called for, but nor do I care much for the whimsy just for whimsy’s sake. There must be a name for what I believe, but I do not know enough but the discipline. Perhaps “Rationalism”?

So, what I want is a house that evokes serenity, which calls for a certain degree of minimalism. I want a certain kind of logic, and not to be driven crazy by irrational choices. I want something (or somewhere at least) that will challenge me with ideas about light and space. And I also want the house to push me just a little out of my comfort zone.

And definitely I do not want to sacrifice for three years, spend a lot of money and then be disappointed. I wonder if there is some connection between building a house and getting a tattoo?

Perhaps the solution is some meta-thinking: setting some deadlines for the decision (the sooner I start the better), trying to break the project (of saving the money) into phases, and planning some exit strategies. What I mean is that I might want to save a modest amount (of course it never hurts to save) and, if I reach some target in, say, 9 months, I up the game and start implementing some more serious measures. And if I reach some specified target after that I could implement the more severe level of sacrifices (living in a caravan off break and fruit juice, cutting off the internet, selling my car !!?). Hmm. Still pondering.

Instead I’m considering Lasik eye surgery. I am going to make an appointment tomorrow. It is not inexpensive (~R15K), but probably cheaper than what I may have to spend in the next twenty years on eyecare. My prescription has changed only a fraction (0.25 for one eye) and new lenses alone would set me back about R3K. The operation has its risks and I know someone who lost significant sight in one eye after this kind of treatment, but than was more than 15 years ago. I shall read up on the procedure a little, but ultimately I think it is best to go listen what the experts have to say.

I had wanted to make many more postings here while I visited Tampere, but the first six weeks were extremely busy and the last two weeks I completely relaxed.  So I’ll have to recount my adventures once I get back to the Replublic.