New Colour, Old Style

In May I wrote about the red skirt which seems to pop up in all official ballroom events (Intervarsity, medal tests, socials etc). I've been meaning to make another one in a different colour and my mom beat me to it recently. Turns out the pattern is fairly straight-forward. A simple tube skirt made from Lycra and six full circles inserted at regular intervals. The only terrifying thing is making sure you sew on a straight line (not my forte).

Hail the Victorious Parasol

I tend to read a fair number of vampire novels in my spare time and am currently awaiting the next instalment of The Parasol Protectorate by Gail Carriger. It is a wonderful mix of werewolves, vampires, Victorian England and Steampunk.

I'd highly recommend the series to anyone who likes British humour and some fantasy thrown into the mix.

Latin Flavour

As well as my ballgown I've been sewing a Latin outfit. The joke goes about a 1/10 of the fabric and the same amount of sparkle. After much debate I went for blue (options were lumo pink, green, red or blue). You need to be bright and sparkle for Latin, not my strong suit!



I wish I had proper photos of the inbetween steps but I changed design halfway through the process so what I started with is not at all what I ended up with.

Once again I used Swarovski Crystals from Crystal Catalyst and had to Hotfix each crystal on by hand with an applicator wand. Talk about taking forever. The sense of accomplishment when you're done is awesome, the hours prior are just painful. You can vaguely see the starburst pattern on the top and then there are crystals dotted over the whole skirt.



The skirt is two full circles, so it flares nicely when it spins and because it was sewn on the diagonal it flares more on one side than the other.

Ballgown Construction

I previously wrote that I've been working on a ballroom gown for Intervarsity. Well Intervarsity has come and gone and I can breath slightly and put up my aching feet (you try dancing in 2.5 inch heels everyday!).

I stated that I had learnt a lot while doing the project but my first major learning curve was a lack on any pattern that fitted me. I went browsing online and found this wonderful blog post: Step-by-Step Gown Construction Project but you needed a pattern. Never fear, when you can cut until it looks vaguely the same shape :)

I cut the dress out of Bon Bon Spandex, something I hadn't heard about before but has a beautiful 4 way stretch. My fuchsia/purple/pink fabric was attached to the mannequin (roughly my size) and cut to fit according to the step by step process outlined above.

The basic finished "shell" ended up looking like this. Please Note the black triangles that are added. Each is a quarter circle and makes the dress flare when you turn, looks cool, not so cool to sew.


At this point you can decorate the dress however you like. I ended up cutting out the back of the dress and adding criss-cross straps for my effect (turns out its pretty cold without material on your back) and adding lots and rhinestones and crystals from Crystal Catalyst (and a few sequinned flowers). The result...


A ballgown is not finished without wings (or whatever they are called). There are many different styles, sleeves, bits etc. Given my lack of sleeves I made three bands to slide onto my arms and attached chiffon in purple and black.

Gearing up for Intervarsity 2011

Its that time of year again. I missed Intervarsity last year due to my jaunt in Europe for the YSSP but as it is my last full year as a student I'm dancing again!

Things have been a little chaotic over the last few months preparing to dance a level I've never tried before: Novice. For those non-dancers, its the first level where you can wear sparkly outfits.

Cue sewing time :)

I've been sewing frantically for the last month to create both Latin and Ballroom outfits for this Saturday. The final pieces are going to a surprise (so no final photos til then) but I've learnt a huge amount in the process. I'll post the full process when I have decent final pictures, I've been capturing the inbetween stages on my phone with its poor excuse for a camera. Sneak peek:

Klein Joostenberg

Joostenberg is a wonderful venue for an outing on a sunny day. There is a bistro, pork butchery, nursery, honey shop and Ludwig's Roses.

About 35 minutes along the N1, a little before Stellenbosch, the little slice of vibrant colour has some of the most amazing pork you'll find in Cape Town. The prices are very reasonable and the portions large. There are even fires to keep warm in Winter in the bistro.

Ludwig's Roses is also well worth a wonder through. The have all sorts on sale and the names are hilarious. On the last visit there I spotted a "Steve Hofmeyr" rose, you never know what you'll find. My favourite though is still the "Durban July" climbing rose.

Medal Tests 2011

It is that time of year again, Medal Tests!


This year I did both Gold Ballroom and Gold Latin which proved to be a bit of challenge, mainly in finding time to practice. I'm busy moving, so that has taken up all my free time. I've also learnt something new, Corenza C and Vitathion when mixed will get you through a dance test if you have flu! (it is not advised for more than 1 dose).

Notice the red skirt, it seems to make an appearance at every medal test for the last few years, next time I promise to wear a different colour (my goal is to make another just like it). I'll post the results when I'm done.

Poverty and Equity

During the IIASA/NRF Poverty and Equity Workshop last week we heard a lot of people talk about Poverty and Equity but really what is the definition of poverty? Should we be focusing on the relative rather than the absolute?

My interest in the workshop was to speak to both IIASA and the NRF on the possibility of a Southern version of the YSSP I participated in last year, a YSSSP if you will. Nimi (the other South African YSSPer from 2010) and I discussed the concept and I wondered afterwards. Why do we as South African researchers try so hard to collaborate with European and American researchers, but what about the rest of Africa, the SADC region or even the other "south" nations, India, Pakistan, Brazil, Egypt? Surely they have more insight into the problems we face and have perhaps created unique solutions that are more indigenous in nature than a possible "north" solution? I've often thought of "North" vs "South" mentality as an Ivory Tower vs African Optimism.

Visiting Research sites in Cape Town

I was fortunate enough to be invited to attend the joint conference between the NRF, SADC Science government officials and IIASA in Cape Town last week. As part of the conference various visiting officials were taken on tours of some of Cape Town's research centres. We had a glorious walk through Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens where much of the countries biodiversity research is done, as a guide pointed out various species of interest. My favourite section of the gardens is still the Cycad garden and Bird Bath.

Rhodes Memorial and District Six featured as our historical element of the tours. For those unfamiliar with either the context or their meanings I suggest reading up on both. The District Museum is a veritable font of information and the map on the floor that ex-residents have personally filled in on their visits is rather enlightening. The guides are ex-residents and can tell many a story from the time.

Our site visits also included Koeberg Nuclear Power Station(including the inside!) complete with safety boot, earplugs and glasses. Let me just mention at this point that it is loud in there, I do not envy their resident engineers. One of the most interesting parts of the tour was the safety procedures in place and the emergency evacuation strategy in case of an accident.

Another facility that I have done a lot of work with in the past is the Centre of High Performance Computing (CHPC) in Rosebank. Open to research institutions throughout the country and potentially other SADC countries, the CHPC has a number of clusters for simulating various "Grand challenges". A few examples off the top of my head is protein folding, climate modelling, fluid dynamics for planes, ocean current modelling etc. These are applications I have seen presented at CHPC conferences over the years. I am sure there are many more.

Ringing in the New Year

A wedding on the 1st of January is definitely a nice way to start 2011 and especially when it happens to be in Hout Bay overlooking the ocean.

A new year starts with a new set of challenges, thesis chapters to complete and new dancing steps to learn. Hope everyone had an awesome party to ring in the New Year and made a few New Years resolutions (that aren't going to be broken by the end of the week)

The Sun Sets on 2010

The perfect end to a interesting and travel filled year...a Cape Town sunset taken across Hout Bay.

Ballroom Comm 2011

I'd like to congratulate the new committee for 2011. I'm sure they are going to come up with some crazy themes, plan a kickass formal and lead us to the trophy at IV.

Chair: Lara Milne
Vice Chair: Anique Kruger
Treasurer: Alistair Bowen-Davies
Socials: Bryce van de Laar
O-Week: Claire Martens
Medal Tests: Bernie Hubbart
Formal: Lucy Farrow
Intervarsity: Dominic Nunes
IT: Richard Parry

The photo comes from the formal a few weeks ago, the UCT IV winning formation gave a demonstration of their efforts.

ICT in the classroom

Today has been a voyage of discovery into software and technology available for the 21st century classroom. I had the opportunity to try out a touch screen that could be "written on" and displayed on a screen for the students to see. This definitely better than trying to move the mouse on a laptop screen.

I went to an afternoon lecture on Autograph, a software package for plotting graphs. This is integrated with an electronic whiteboard for a teacher to stand in front of a class and demonstrate the different graphs. I'm still getting used to

The last lecture of the day Peter de Lisle from Hilton College spoke about how Joomla can create a website for schools. From experience Joomla is very restricted to the template being used but I suppose it suffices for high schools. As he spoke he suggested all these extras that cost money, something that goes against his initial message that it is free. The template designer he used is R1000 and then there is the gallery manager etc etc.

ICT in Education

The second day of Innovate 2010 started with a few interesting applications of smartboards and Nintendo Wiis. It is interesting that they are using Python to communicate between the two. I've recently discovered that smartboards are becoming rather popular at schools around Cape Town (we even had one installed in EGS at UCT) but I'm not sure how effective they can be. I'm very keen to see what type of content teachers are developing to use on these teaching toys.

Robert and I presented Project Umonya today to a number of IT teachers from around South Africa. Speaking to them afterwards we discovered that many teachers are frustrated with the SACO format and how it doesn't fit into teaching IT, that the North West would really like a course of their own and that there may in fact be computer labs big enough to host courses at certain IEB schools (namely in Johannesburg)

While speaking to educators and NGOs who facilitate educational programs I've discovered a few resources that people may wish to browse, namely Living Maths, Free High School Textbooks (FHSST) and Fullmarks (website pending). Its amazing what resources are available. Project Umonya is hoping to feed their upcoming resource packs into the FHSST system for a greater distribution.

Tomorrow is the final day of the conference and I am keen to network a bit more and discover a few more useful contacts to help us on our way.

Innovate 2010

Yesterday was the first day of the three day conference in Innovate 2010 Schools ICT Conference held in Cape Town at the Cape Academy of Mathematics, Science and Technology. I first started working at this conference in 2001 (when I was still in high school) and today I am presenting for Project Umonya.

The first keynote speaker of the day Masha du Toit discussed Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants. I'd never really considered the difference or that the distinction existed, I'd sort of accepted that I was born when computers became ubiquitous but that others had an affinity to technology that could have existed in any age (someone had to invent the stuff)

The second keynote speaker for the event was Johannes Cronje from CPUT. He spoke about the Seven Ages of Technology in Education. It was a highly entertaining experience as he traversed the world of Shakespeare for examples.

During the afternoon I sat through what could have easily been a marketing pitch for Apple. I own an Apple MacBook and still felt both bemusement and despair of the missed opportunity to showcase a proper message. The Parklands Apple One2One project is an experiment in introducing laptops into the classroom. Teachers promoted iLife as the solution to all the learners problems. They forgot to mention that everything they trumpeted on iLife is available as Open Source software (and hence less expensive than buying a MacBook).

The Parklands teachers and IT specialists missed a key opportunity, one I hope others will correct over the next two days, that of user generated content. The team spoke about the learners enthusiasm at generating new content but this doesn't have to be done on a MacBook. I despair that the message was completely lost as the teachers attributed all success to the technology itself.

Rivendell reaches Cape Town

Saturday night UCT Ballroom Dancing Society held their annual formal at Kelvin Grove. The theme this year was Rivendell and we had a few elves drop in for the evening. My table for the evening could be classified as one of the two "golden oldies" table as we've all been around for a long time.

In true form I only finished my outfit the afternoon of the formal (and it fitted!). Months ago I made a necklace from a pattern called a Curl. Its composed of waves of beads that are woven into a necklace. I matched the beads to directly mimic my outfit (yes I plan ahead of time).

Phd Retreat

UCT Centre for Higher Education Department (CHED) and the National Research Foundation (NRF) are cosponsoring a PhD Retreat for second year PhD students from all faculties at UCT. We've spent two days talking about the lonely PhD journey, our PhD experience, writing advice and our career opportunities.

Some well-known UCT lecturers shared their PhD journeys and its rather nice to know that not all journeys go smoothly. One lecturer described a PhD as a "series of predicaments" and anothers advice was to "fake it til you make it".

Something for people to think about: What is your PhD metaphor? Mine is a Cape Town city centre road network, with its one way streets, circles, roadworks and no signposts. Regulated chaos :)

For those of you writing a thesis, try write your abstract according to the following:

Once upon a time researchers believed that... (literature review)

But then I thought that maybe ... (aims)

so what I did was ... (method)

and I've discovered that ... (findings)

which [has] changed the way that we ... (contribution)

I thought this set a completely inappropriate tone for thesis writing or paper writing but its meant to be the structure for an abstract, others disagreed and thought it was wonderful. The engineers seemed to agree with me.

Dr Albert van Jaarsveld (CEO of NRF) gave a very interesting talk on creating a "knowledge economy" and the plan of the NRF to create more PhD students every year. I also discovered that the NRF has a science and technology initiative in high school which Umonya may be able to partner with.

Conquering Maties

This weekend Project Umonya and the University of Stellenbosch co-hosted a Python course at the University of Stellenbosch (Maties). With 90 learners RSVP'd for the course we were in for a long long weekend full of lectures, tutoring and exercises.

The UCT team arrived with the sparrows to Stellenbosch to help with registration and the setup of computers to handle streaming between labs. We were experimenting for the first time with this in preparation for next years increase in students. After a few technical glitches we have found a suitable solution that can be reproduced with 'relative' ease.

Henk, Robert, Graham and I took turns lecturing the fundamentals of Python, from what is a program all the way through variables, loops, lists and even functions. Graham even demoed Visual Python to the advanced students.


Andre kindly came in to talk about Pygame, which I'm now keen to try out (when I have spare time).

If you are keen to get involved, email me and I'll send you the some info.

Chocolate Love

While I was rattling around Europe there were a few things I missed, Limnos being one of them. Its probably the people that I usually go with but the cakes and treats definitely have something to do with it. Yesterday I got to go and have a Vanilla and Chocolate Mouse cake heart.

Tornado!

I arrived in the office the other day to this contraption sitting on the conference table. Apparently our IT guy built a tornado simulation. Very cool.