In brief

Well after all of my Twitter nerves, not even a nibble from Uncle Bill. I feel all let down. Hopefully he will deliver soon...

Busy with a wonderful work project; analysis, modelling, and pictures. And no, not that kind of modelling and pictures! Work can never be exciting all of the time, but in those special times when it is, I operate in this great sense of flow. A feeling I relish. Everything becomes easy, parts of the puzzle just fall into place, and my laptop seems to have an irresistible allure. Long may this last.

Life is interesting on the whole right now. My community based projects clamouring for attention, amidst new work, the family, and a pressing need to get my unexercised body in shape for the Knysna half marathon in just 4 weeks. Time seems to have packed his bag for a holiday in somebody else’s house.

Gotta run, Bill may just have Tweeted me...

Tweeting Mad

I am no Twitter follower or tweeter myself. I guess if I am serious about moving with the times, I will need to get an account, like the millions of other early adopters.


When I look at the statistics behind Twitter, I get really scared. The top 3 Twitter accounts by number of followers are Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, and Barack Obama. The first 2 have more than 10 million followers each. Think about the power they have to sway a sizable following of people. It’s immense. Where any idea they have can be picked up in an instant anywhere around the world and acted upon.

The rest of the top 20 is mainly populated by singers and a couple of other people I have never heard of. It attests to the power of music and how with popular music comes notoriety.

Whether we like it or not, these are the role models of the world. These are the people our children will aspire to become. Are you happy about that? Not sure that I am. Where are the people of great goodness inspiring us all to be better than we are? Where are those people whose lives lead the way as examples of loving ones fellow man?

I got to number 60 on the list before I stopped and had a second look. Strangely enough not somebody I would ever have thought of following but his bio simply stated, ‘Sharing cool things I am learning through my foundation and other interests.’ Could it be that Bill Gates is now the man inspiring the world? Or are his ‘cool things’ all about money and power, and not ‘cool’ at all?

To satisfy my curiosity, I have become one of Bill’s groupies.

I am a little nervous...