June 30, 2009
Lifehacker
There aren't many blogs on my daily news-feed. When you're on dodgy 14.4k dialup you can't subscribe to everything. The following are my 'regular reads': Under the Acacias, Life in Niger, Achuka (children's book news), Greenhouse Blog (literary agent Sarah Davies – I'm a great fan of hers and hope one day to write something good enough for her to take on), and of course Charlie (whose June newsletter is up today). There are many other blogs which I really like and visit when I can, including lucy, simon, dad, laurie, dave, richard and boingboing.
And if you haven't yet come across it, may I bring to your attention another worthy blog: Lifehacker. I found it via some blog awards site or other, and have been a regular reader ever since. Lifehacker is all about enhancing and streamlining your life – living efficiently and healthily and using technology well.
A few of the articles are quite US-centric, but most are applicable wherever you are. This post about suncream is useful for us paleskins in Africa, for example.
The backbone of Lifehacker is productivity, and here are their top ten productivity basics
I've been putting into practice the organize more efficiently by staying put advice and finding it worthwhile.
There are also good articles on food (e.g. Twist and press for better grilled chicken) and fitness (e.g. Ditch crunches for press-ups and save your back
There's some great stuff on sleep and a good article about how to keep cats from destroying your furniture.
Then there's the computer stuff – very practical and easy to digest. I appreciate that Lifehacker is not just another hey-buy-this-cool-gadget blog, but rather a pool of practical (and cost-conscious) wisdom. Try this for starters – Lifehacker 2009 essential free windows downloads. I also liked this article about the new version of Opera – I've been using Opera for years and prefer it even to Firefox – apparently the new version has a 'turbo mode' for those of us on slow dialup; bring it on!
If you're a geek like me you'll love Lifehacker and add it to your blog feed straight away. If you're not a geek, I believe you'll still relish the occasional nugget of Lifehacker wisdom, not least this marvellous video on how to slice an onion like a pro.
June 20, 2009
Congratulations Keith and Lynne
Today is Keith and Lynne's WEDDING DAY!
Here is a short selection of greetings from Keith's friends and neighbours in Gorom-Gorom, Burkina Faso.
King Solomon's Mines
When I was twelve years old, one of my favourite books was KING SOLOMON'S MINES by Rider Haggard. A treasure map, a quest for gold, one gripping African adventure after another, this was a book that had everything. As it happens, it was the very first African adventure novel written in English - its publication in 1885 was surrounded by a huge publicity campaign, with posters all over London declaring it 'The Most Amazing Book Ever Written'.
Would you believe it, KING SOLOMON'S MINES was written as the result of a five shilling bet between Rider Haggard and his brother: namely, that Rider could not write a book half as good as Robert Louis Stevenson's TREASURE ISLAND. I'll leave it to you in the comments section to judge whether or not Rider Haggard should have claimed that five shillings!
Back in England this April, I watched the film of KING SOLOMON'S MINES one Sunday afternoon on Channel 5. Okay, so there are parts of the story (including its colonial attitudes) which grate, but basically it's still a cracking yarn. And I like to think of HACKING TIMBUKTU as a KING SOLOMON'S MINES for the twenty-first century. The hero Danny Temple is a hacker and traceur. The villains are a gold-crazed Facebook group with members all over the world. The African backdrop is as modern and authentic as I could make it. But at their heart, the stories are the same and Danny is basically a young Allan Quartermain. Boy finds map, boy embarks on quest, boy encounters many and various obstacles: will he get the gold?
Making the book trailer has been a hugely enjoyable process. I met Jason Brink in Ouagadougou back in January – an amazing stroke of luck – here was someone with the exact skill-set we needed, an IT professional who was also a parkour enthusiast. It was like meeting Danny Temple himself! Jason filmed many stunts in different parts of Burkina, and a hacking scene in Ouaga, and I'm very happy with the result. Thanks again to Helen Simpson, IT guru of Andersen Press, who did all the editing for the trailer.
If Jason's antics leave you wanting more parkour, here are my two favourite YouTube parkour clips:
If you get addicted, just click on 'Related Videos', or you could even sign up for a parkour lesson yourself at www.parkourgenerations.com
For the lowdown on the writing of HACKING TIMBUKTU, have a browse of the Hacking Timbuktu blog archive
Salam aleykum.
June 18, 2009
Hacking Timbuktu Book Trailer
My new book 'Hacking Timbuktu' comes out on 3 September. Here's a trailer to whet your appetite!
Many thanks to my friend Jason Brink for doing the stunts, and to Helen Simpson of Andersen Press for her great work on the editing.
World Horizons
Si tu veux construire un bateau, ne rassemble pas des hommes pour aller chercher du bois, préparer des outils, répartir les tâches, alléger le travail – mais enseigne aux gens la nostalgie de l’infini de la mer.
"The way to build a ship is not to bring people together to look for wood, prepare tools, assign tasks and make schedules – but rather, to inspire people to long for the infinite immensity of the sea."
Leadership is not generally something I covet; I much prefer to bumble along in the background. But when I was recently asked to assume leadership of our World Horizons teams in West Africa I felt a quiet confidence about it and said yes pretty much straight away. I start in September, even though I will be based in the UK for the first year.
The work will involve pastoral care of our teams in Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali and Chad. It will involve lots of Skype and a bit of travel. It will mainly involve longing. There's a worship song called How long which asks God: 'How long before you drench the barren land?' That's my prayer for the Sahel regions of those four countries. How long, o God, before life and love and forgiveness and integrity inundate this region? And how can we translate our longing into sensible prayer and action?
Having raised my eyes from the confines of Djibo town to the immensity of the Sahara, I am beginning to understand just how dizzyingly varied is the work of World Horizons in West Africa: schools, churches, children's clubs, tree-planting, craft groups, football camps, radio ministry and humanitarian relief. I will be blogging about some of it in the weeks and months to come. In the meantime, please pray that God gives me wisdom to lead well and not make a mess of everything.
Please pray for Charlie as well. She's in England at the moment and her pregnancy is progressing smoothly.
Alla hokku jam.
