Meanwhile… #21 – Another Update

Header 3 Hello there, friends and fans! It’s November 17, 2025– and here are some things that happened in the meantime!

This Is The Current State Of Things:

General News:I’m leaving for Cape Town today, to attend two seminars over the span of the week. The first one is CESNUR, the annual conference of the Center for Studies on New Religions based out of Italy and chaired by Prof Massimo Introvigne, one of the leading scholars in the field of new religious movements – which is the field I’m interested in. I’m really looking forward to it – it will be a two-day thing, there will be highly qualified and experienced people there – distinguished doctors and professors – and then there’s me, a bit of a yahoo with some skill and knowledge – and who still has some way to go in finishing my PhD next year! No pressure, right? That said, I have the backing, confidence and support of my supervising Professor, so that’s all that really matters, isn’t it? That conference ends on Wednesday evening, and then on Thursday I’ll be attending the second seminar, which is at UWC and focuses on the potential dangers of AI-generated deepfakes and how they could affect persecuted religious minority groups! Hopefully all will go well and I’ll be coming home again on Friday – and not with my tail between my legs! I know, I know, all will very probably go well. I just have the pre-trip jitters! Anyway, I’ll let you know how it went.

Meanwhile, after taking some persistent advice to split the topics on my Youtube channel, I created a new, separate channel for my tech videos: Tina Talks Tech. You can find the new channel here. I’ve already migrated the old videos there and also posted the first new one on the channel’s new home!

Current Writing Projects: With my time now fully occupied with research and assignments from varsity, I’m sorry to say: NONE. I’ll have no time available for writing fiction for the immediate future! At least not until sometime after I’ve handed in my PhD thesis sometime towards the end of next year! (It still doesn’t sound real to me, but yes, it really is happening!) So yes, I decided to give it a rest until I’m done with that whole PhD project. In the meantime, if you like, you can catch up on books you may have missed (there are over 40 of them!) or keep up by bookmarking What’s Brewing?

There we are, all caught up!

Other Stuff:

I Coined A Term.

Someone posted the below on Facebook. It set me to thinking about it. This is what I came up with.

I propose “Selfvation” (or “selvation”): a fitting, coined term that combines “self” with a suffix that evokes “salvation”, “motivation” or “elevation,” suggesting a personal awakening or elevation toward life and vitality – describing one who saves themselves. It effectively captures the idea of a radical, self-driven decision to start living fully, which aligns well with the opposite of suicide, a turning point toward self-empowerment and embracing life. Use it, don’t use it…

From Altars to Outrage: The Strange South African Devotion to Bigotry and Moral Panic

I wrote a new article during the past week, you can read it here.

Anyway, moving on – y’all have a nice day now. 🙂

The End:

As always, I’ll keep you posted about any new developments. Until then, be kind, be strong, take care of each other, and all the best!

Thanks to all of you for your support (you know who you are)! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Remember, keep reading!

Cheers!