Officially disguised as a Canadian
Recently on some or other social network (probably the elephant as opposed to the butterfly), I engaged with someone about the PayPal Honey debacle. If you’re unaware, you can watch a video on the red site. The conversation isn’t important. What’s important is that I miss the old web. I miss that it took threeContinue reading Remembering the old web
In the US and Canada, June is Pride Month. We’ve come a long way from 2001 when South Africa was lucky to have its first Pride Week in Johannesburg, a concept that has apparently continued since we invented it. I wrote some things on Twitter about Pride in the last few days, which I’m goingContinue reading Pride month
In August 2025 I did a live performance for the Calgary Fringe Festival, and told this story on stage. It has been said that I am the luckiest person I know, not least because I keep avoiding death by misadventure. At times I feel like Devon Sawa in Final Destination. One evening in November 2017,Continue reading In which Randolph almost dies by misadventure with a microwave
In my post about living with autism, I mentioned an incident from boarding school: I once took a phone message for a fellow pupil to call his family urgently. His father had died. I didn’t deliver the message. When the hostel was queried that evening, I looked around at everyone else, thinking “who could forgetContinue reading In which Randolph doesn’t fit through a window
This is one of the hardest posts I’ve ever written. On a late afternoon in July 1991, I spent several long minutes in a police holding cell, at the Randburg police station, to think about what I had done earlier that day. In 1990 and halfway through 1991, I spent 18 months of hell atContinue reading In which Randolph avoids doing hard time
Two major events took place in 2001, exactly a month apart. On 11 August 2001, my boyfriend at the time and I decided that I should play hooky from work. He was a student and wanted to go ten-pin bowling. We were due to meet with my best friend for lunch at his house afterwards.Continue reading In which Randolph is hit by a getaway car a month before 9/11
When I was ten years old I almost died*. It was a Thursday afternoon at 4:50pm. The very last episode of my favourite show in the world, The Littles, was starting at 5pm and my mother had just asked me to go to the corner store and get bread and milk. I suggested that itContinue reading In which Randolph is hit by a car and nearly dies
Between 2 and 6 May 1995, the Computer Faire & BEXA was held in Johannesburg. A young company called Internet Africa had a stall, and was selling modems and dial-up subscriptions to get online. We chose, on my mother’s advice, my initials rbsp as my username. Long-time readers will know that the first few lettersContinue reading Twenty years