Weekly Head Voices #88: Just be yourself, they said.

I wish you all a zen-filled 2015! (I think zen trumps straight happiness, because zen means that you’re on your way to understanding and making peace with the mechanisms underneath the happiness, all the way down.)

So much has happened since I last stood on this soap-box. However, as Noeska explains, this means I have even less to write about than usual. (for those of you too busy to click: things further back seem far less relevant now, so less motivation to write down)

(Err oops! First rule of the blogging: We don’t talk about the blogging.)

At the start of the Christmas break, I spent a few days in my other home (that’s The Netherlands for those of you who haven’t been paying attention) taking part in the joyous occasion of the double-graduation of two Ph.D. students I had the pleasure of working with. Welcome freshly minted doctors Busking and Kok! May your learning continue every day, and may you make a continuing positive impact on the world around you!

Once back in extremely sunny South Africa, TNR, aka DWR, and family arrived for two meat-beach-beer-wine-mountain-stomping-good weeks. An interesting point of discussion during this time was whether the DWR could legally deduct all purchase of wine from his income. What a loophole! I saw parts of my neighbourhood I haven’t seen in decades (hello Paarl Mountain, you are still awe-inspiring!!) and some parts I’ve never been to before. Here’s a small selection (yes, that’s a subtle brag):

We had lunch and lots of good wine at Solms Delta in Franschoek. Beautiful place, delicious wine, fantastic service. Recommended by this blog(tm)!

I practically used to live on Paarl Mountain. Here’s a view from Paarl Rock, taken after the wind did its absolute best to try and blow us from Britannica rock.

(I also made this 360 degree photo sphere while at the very top of Britannica rock. Go look man!)

Here’s the beach in Pringle bay. Water looks lovely, but beware, it’s a GIANT ICE-BUCKET CHALLENGE!

Finally, the following is not something I personally experienced during my vacation (although some of my best friends are triangles), but just a bit of graphical backyard philosophy by Ultramegasaurus that floated over my timeline:

So that’s why I always get suspicious when successful people offer the advice of “just be yourself”! What I think we should do instead?

Be like water my friends.

Have a great week, see you on the other side!