tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-357941932009-02-21T00:03:16.796-08:00My news. My musings. My theories. My rambling. My ranting.Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04317343143952035225noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794193.post-1170157029002296462007-01-30T03:36:00.000-08:002007-01-30T03:54:06.716-08:00

I have moved my blog to http://www.cs.sun.ac.za/~skroon/personal/blog/ . I look forward to your visit. If you have a link to this blog in your blogroll or an article, I would much appreciate it if you could update the links. Thanks, Steve

Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04317343143952035225noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794193.post-1167822012509639552007-01-03T02:49:00.000-08:002007-01-03T03:00:20.413-08:00

20 December: played a 9-handi-plus-komi game against PW. Killed all of his groups. 21 December: drove to Stillbay 22-28 December: with my parents and my sister Kathy at Stillbay. Only notable activities was the annual gathering of the Heese and Klonus clans for the Christmas Tree on 24 December, and Christmas dinner on 25 December (Dalene made the pudding). Other great food Dalene made was "

Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04317343143952035225noreply@blogger.com77tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794193.post-1166601018125346272006-12-19T23:35:00.000-08:002006-12-19T23:50:18.136-08:00

Well, I am chuffed to say I've made 1 kyu! I don't really feel comfortable being 1 kyu, since lately most of my wins at 2 kyu have come from my opponent handing me the game from a winning position for them, often a very convincing winning position. But I'm there now, and my challenge is to hold on to my rank without slipping back down to 2 kyu. I have this feeling 1 dan is still far off,

Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04317343143952035225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794193.post-1166009373712092422006-12-13T02:51:00.000-08:002006-12-13T03:29:33.816-08:00

Reader, be warned. This blog post is about quite a variety of topics. The discerning reader will perhaps find it boring. But after 2 weeks without a post, I've got a backlog, and I'm not going to split it into multiple posts. So, one of the biggest reasons for the silence was that we moved house at the end of November. This was quite an adventure, since we needed to be out of our flat by the

Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04317343143952035225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794193.post-1164792863417775192006-11-29T01:07:00.000-08:002006-11-29T01:34:23.533-08:00

This last weekend was the fourth quarter 2006 SA Internet Go tournament, and I was involved in some serious ass-whippin'! I won group 2 in the last tournament, which qualified me to participate in group 1 this tourney, and with Victor Chow, 6-dan, and his wife, Aki Zhou, 5-dan, entering, the field was always going to be tough. I was the weakest player in the group at 2k, with Andrew Davies

Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04317343143952035225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794193.post-1164351486690155922006-11-23T22:39:00.000-08:002006-11-23T22:58:06.703-08:00

This post is about last night's Go. I arrived at Go last night with Adrian, and ended up chatting to Alex, who we bumped into there about our cell group's dynamics, and if/how he fits in there, and what he should do in the coming weeks. During the discussion, Konrad arrived. Our discussion went on a while longer, and Konrad took over the game I was going to play against Adrian. Alex went off

Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04317343143952035225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794193.post-1164101635694848242006-11-21T01:33:00.000-08:002006-11-21T01:33:55.703-08:00

Yesterday, our cell group met at our house for the last time before we move. We handled chapter 29 of the Screwtape letters, where Screwtape exhorts Wormwood to look after his patient's physical well-being as far as possible, since his untimely death will result in a failure for the Lowerarchy. Lewis points out that time is the devil's greatest ally in drawing people away from God. This led

Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04317343143952035225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794193.post-1164022415745115882006-11-20T02:54:00.000-08:002006-11-20T03:33:35.760-08:00

Due to a number of requests, I've put some of the wedding photos online. There aren't table photos and the like, since the pictures came to us on a DVD, and flickr only gives us 20Megs upload a month. The group photo also didn't make it, because that's about 10 Megs, so it gets rejected by Flickr. I can hopefully downsample it later, and upload it then. Of course, as part of the upload

Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04317343143952035225noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794193.post-1163575780719647792006-11-14T23:22:00.000-08:002006-11-14T23:29:40.720-08:00

Yesterday was Jaco's birthday. So we went out to the Rustic Cafe for a few drinks. Also there were Rory, Charl, Bernard, and Mahen (short for Mahendra, a colleague of Jaco's). Had a good time drinking beer and chatting with friends. Discussion ranged between Go, Final Fantasy, violence in South Africa, the Bush administration and American politics, heteropaternal superfecundation, Charl's

Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04317343143952035225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794193.post-1163485724193741172006-11-13T22:28:00.000-08:002006-11-13T22:28:44.296-08:00

Yesterday, our cell group took a break from the Screwtape Letters (a book by C.S. Lewis we've been working through), and listened to a sermon from the Moedergemeente in Stellenbosch. Richard preached about the importance of patience and perseverance in conditions which are hard, and when pain and suffering are all around one, and one can not understand what is causing it, or what the reason for

Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04317343143952035225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794193.post-1163428163565482802006-11-13T06:21:00.000-08:002006-11-13T06:29:23.566-08:00

Well, the server hosting my Go website was hacked. Now that seriously sucks. I was vastly impressed by the fact that the hosts had recent updates for us, so I haven't lost much. However, now security has been tightened up, making things a bit more of a pain to do. So the ranking system is still non-functional, and we can't upload images or files, and the gallery doesn't work. That kind of

Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04317343143952035225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794193.post-1163427607349310522006-11-13T05:59:00.000-08:002006-11-13T06:20:07.376-08:00

Well, the blogging curse seems to have hit me: infrequent updates. Things have been quite busy the last while, and I've been trying to deliver some decent updates of my thesis to my professor, with which I have been moderately successful. Dalene had a good time in Malta, and came back a few days after my last post. In the last two weeks, I helped out twice at the night shelter, since the

Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04317343143952035225noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794193.post-1162071760580847942006-10-28T14:42:00.000-07:002006-10-28T14:42:40.613-07:00

So, it's quarter past eleven on a Saturday, and I'm in my office. I've decided I'm not going to get any more work done on my thesis tonight, so I'll head home soon. Tomorrow, I'll try some more.This is what comes from being addicted to web browsing and various other distractions. I've had to spend the weekend trying to do the work I should have done in the week...So, time for an update:Last

Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04317343143952035225noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794193.post-1161152210230977282006-10-17T23:16:00.000-07:002006-10-17T23:16:50.236-07:00

On Monday we found out that Dalene has officially qualified - she may officially now use the title Dr. de Beer (not Kroon, she kept her surname). And, of course, I am real proud of her. Except that she wants me to the graduation. *sigh*Am I not the picture of a dutiful husband (*martyr*).Otherwise, the wind has been blowing something awful here in Stellenbosch, denoting the real start of

Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04317343143952035225noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794193.post-1161151484832588632006-10-17T23:04:00.000-07:002006-10-17T23:46:58.946-07:00

Hi folks.Sunday evening is the last race of the 2006 Formula 1 season, and also the last race of Michael Schumacher's career. If you're a F1 fan, you probably have strong feelings about Schumi - whether positive or negative.While Fernando Alonso is very likely to win the championship this season, Michael still has a (very) outside chance - if he can win the race, and Fernando gets no points.

Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04317343143952035225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794193.post-1161066800723062352006-10-16T23:33:00.000-07:002006-10-16T23:33:20.733-07:00

So last night our cell group had a refresher course on helping out at the night shelter. It was good to see that Arion, the superintendent has a couple of new people eager to help him out. He told us that he had not slept the last two days, and with a test coming up this morning, he wouldn't be sleeping tonight either. So, regardless of any help he may already have, Arion could do with

Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04317343143952035225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794193.post-1160992921688917382006-10-16T02:57:00.000-07:002006-10-16T03:02:01.690-07:00

Yesterday nights sermon was about the right way of viewing success. The idea is that when we are driven to succeed in a desire to get recognition, fame, wealth, achievements, comfort, etc., we so often find ourselves wanting that little bit more, and are always left feeling unfulfilled. The sermon posited that God's love for you makes you worthwhile and that rather than being driven to achieve,

Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04317343143952035225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794193.post-1160992568767638062006-10-16T02:52:00.000-07:002006-10-16T02:56:08.766-07:00

This weekend I played in the Challenger's League of the Western Cape Closed - a tournament to decide the challenger for the title of Western Cape Meijin. Since qualification for this tournament is quite tough, I was quite stoked to qualify for it in the first place. With one withdrawal, I had to finish anywhere except last to qualify for next year's event automatically, but that seemed a tall

Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04317343143952035225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794193.post-1160734351631024922006-10-13T03:12:00.000-07:002006-10-13T03:12:31.663-07:00

Cool!Dalene gave me a copy of "God created the Integers", edited by Stephen Hawking as a gift yesterday. I hadn't heard of it, but it looks totally fascinating. It's thick, so it'll probably take a long time to work through, though...(The book is about the major developments in maths through history).

Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04317343143952035225noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794193.post-1160721044852326352006-10-12T23:30:00.000-07:002006-10-12T23:30:44.856-07:00

Last night's Go started with a discussion of the one space pincer of the two-space low approach to the star point, with Serdyn. There's one move in the standard sequence that still puzzles me, but I know a bit more about the sequence now, at least.Then I played Rory, in a comedy of errors. Rory tried to defend a group I was threatening to capture, but still allowed me a snapback in a

Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04317343143952035225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794193.post-1160678955316305062006-10-12T11:49:00.000-07:002006-10-12T11:49:15.330-07:00

I have an idea!If everybody who gets spam reports one spammer to a relevant authority and a door is closed because of some of those, the spammer's options will become less and less.So, go ahead. Report those spammers. And if you don't know how, ask me. I'll be happy to try and help you!

Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04317343143952035225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794193.post-1160650346964090962006-10-12T03:52:00.000-07:002006-10-12T04:00:31.790-07:00

So usually I get about 20 spam messages a day. Out of paranoia, I don't have a spam filter, in case a "Real E-mail" gets blocked.But as of this morning, I got over 100 spam messages since yesterday. Quite disconcerting. And all I've done in that time which may prompt it is: (a) follow a spam link to MySpace by accident (probably this), and (b) registered an accountand tried out reddit (

Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04317343143952035225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794193.post-1160484170303054592006-10-10T05:39:00.000-07:002006-10-10T05:42:50.316-07:00

=October 2006= ==10 October 2006== General news update I was halfway through today's entry and realized that if you're following these posts, you might be confused if I didn't announce up here: I am now a married man (since 12 August 2006). Honeymoon was great, we took a 12 day break to Kwazulu-Natal, involving a game lodge for 3 days, a house in Leisure Bay for 5, and visiting Carel and Adri

Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04317343143952035225noreply@blogger.com77