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I need some round labels. The ones that come on an A4 sheet that you feed through a laser printer.

Avery makes ’em, as does Redfern. The Avery 3/4″ round part number is 5408.

Wanting to support the locals instant gratification, I google for Avery 5408 site:co.za.

And lo and behold, WantItAll has it listed, at R1061 for 12 sheets. For comparison, Amazon lists them for $3.44 for 42 sheets. At the current exchange rate, that’s about R40.

I have no idea who shops at WantItAll but it sure ain’t me.

Good time to repost this.

* http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/25/british-embassy-tweet-white-house-burning-1814

100 years ago, it seems that everyone all over Europe was itchy as all hell, and all that was needed was a tiny spark.

Enter stage left, a troop of idiots students* who figure that killing the Archduke Ferdinand would be a just dandy way of getting the sweetties they’ve been stamping their foot about all along. This crazy is well matched on the Archduke’s side, who after being narrowly missed by a bomb in the morning sticks around town instead of getting the hell out**.

And even then all would have been well for Franz Ferdinand had they not got lost to the tune of accidentally finding Gavrilo where he sat nursing a cup of coffee, a grudge and a gun.

Not that anyone much cared.

But Europe was spoiling for a fight, and the finger poking and name-calling and posturing escalated. Germany had a long-polished plan to invade France which, by all accounts, it didn’t really want to use at the time, but then France went and tweaked Germany’s tail and then the trouble started.

Or at least, that’s how we mostly see things. Because history is written by the winners.

Nevertheless, the result was major bloodshed. Would they really have done it had they known what the price would be?

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

100 years later, and there’s still no end to itchy idiots, military posturing or war.

Remember.

* Repeating myself, of course.

** In the finest tradition of some authors whose work I like, I will mention that the whole story is exquisitely explained on Wikipedia, for the low low price of free.

Borepatch gets all lyrical.

Go read.

I just learned that Ann Rabson, co-founder of Saffire —The Uppity Blues Women passed away back in January.

When I grow up I want to play the piano like Ann Rabson.

The National Energy Regulator, NERSA, is holding public hearings on why Eskom should not more than double the cost of electricity in the next five years*. If anybody’s input is taken seriously, that would be a first for these kind of things**… or maybe I’m just cynical.

The difference between rich and poor, between developed and developing, is the availability of inexpensive energy. A kilowatt-hour is the same amount of work as a hard days labor by an adult. We’re rich because we have (or at least had) access to the hardworking servants of inexpensive energy. We have inexpensive electrical and mechanical slaves to do our work for us.

RTWT.

H/T to Claire.

* Because somewhere after 1994 they decided that maintenance was not as important as shiny new BMWs, so that got pushed out a bit until the system started breaking, and now they have to work overtime to catch up to where we were.

** There is a requirement for public consultation in all processes like this. There is however no requirement for actually taking said consultation seriously.

So we saddled up the teardrop, and headed north, half past six one Saturday morning.

First sleepover was Grunau, a tiny little place known pretty much as an overnight stop where the great North road (B1) crosses the great West road (B3). I had booked (and paid for) the house-in-town advertised by Grunau Chalets, but when we got there they’d given that to someone else, banking on completing the new units by the time we got there… they didn’t.

So the kids slept in the teardrop, and management gave me a sixpack of beer rather than some kind of a refund. And since (1) we all slept over, so I got what I wanted in the first place and (2) beer places were closed (Namibia stops selling beer at 13:00, not 17:00 like I’m used to on a Saturday) all was good.

(Like the road, this post is a bit long, so here’s a cutline for you)

Continue reading…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72jJh_e6eeg

I grew up with this guy :-)

My mother-in-law bought this vase from Maurits Lammers Antiques close to Rademacher’s outside George. She was told that it’s Satsuma, but not knowing anything about pottery I don’t know whether this is the case or whether it’s authentic (the price seems to suggest it’s probably not).

Well, it doesn’t say “Japan” anywhere, which suggests it might be original, but it also doesn’t have the cross-in-circle on the bottom, so…

Anyways, I’ve asked the nice people over at MetaFi, so answers will undoubtedly be found :-)