Gareth Bezett

Google pays a bounty to people who find vulnerabilities

2011-06-30T08:13:00.002+12:00

Read this article about the latest patches from Google for the Chrome browser.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9218020/Google_patches_7_bugs_in_Chrome_browser

I've not previous caught onto the fact that Google pays a bounty to people who report serious bugs. Interesting idea.

The Art of Admitting Failure

2011-03-31T15:15:00.000+13:00

The Art of Admitting Failure: "

This post is part of HBR's special issue on failure.

When it comes to business, we are incredibly unaccepting and fearful of making mistakes. And forget about admitting to our mistakes, as that may be construed as a sign of weakness.

But business and leadership is all about relationships. And in any relationship, things go wrong, mistakes are made, ups are followed by downs. The strength of a relationship is not how perfect it is, but how resiliently it deals with the inevitable failures.

In a world filled with real-time, tell-all social media, your ability to hide from your failures is, well, non-existent. You are much better off admitting that something is wrong and addressing it in as authentic and transparent a way as possible.

That's what Domino's Pizza CEO Patrick Doyle did in national television ads this past year. Domino's is known for primarily one thing — delivering pizza to your door in 30 minutes. Domino's gutsy move was to acknowledge that its pizza was far from stellar. In the ads, the company flashed quotes from customers like "Domino's pizza crust is like cardboard" and "Microwave pizza is far superior." One customer suggested, "I think Domino's pizza should start over."

That's what Domino's did. The company reconfigured its core product, testing combinations of dozens of cheeses, 15 sauces, and nearly 50 crust seasonings to find one that satisfied customers. In the ads, Domino's admitted that its pizzas were terrible, explained that it redesigned them, and asked people to give them a try.

Viewers of these ads described them as 'bold' and 'refreshing,' and gave the company credit for acknowledging what everyone already knew. More important, people tried the pizza and found they liked it. The result: store sales rose and quarterly profits doubled.

Domino's took a failure point — its horrible pizzas — and made it a rallying point. The company saw negative comments as a gift from customers, an opportunity to improve the product, rather than a liability.

How To Fail Successfully

Dealing with failure is part of being a leader. Rather than expend enormous energy to avoid it, you should build an organization that is resilient in the face of inevitable failures. Here are three steps that you can take:

1. Create a culture of sharing failures as well as success. When then-new Ford CEO Alan Mulally held his first staff meeting, he asked members of his team to give an assessment of their businesses as a "green," "yellow," or "red" light. They all gave their businesses a green light — and Mulally challenged each of them to come back the next week with a more realistic assessment of their businesses. The first executive to stand up and say "I have a red light" received a standing ovation from the CEO. They then sat down to tackle the problem as a team. Mulally had to create a new culture that could admit when something was going wrong, and do so early enough so that the organization could still have an impact on the outcome. Creating this culture has to come from the top. As a leader, you have to think about how you will set the stage for failures to come forward.

2. Reward the act of risk-taking. How many times have you heard a leader exhort, "We have to take more risks!" and then walk off the stage? In one organization, the executives decided that words had to be backed by action. They started highlighting when risks were being taken and showcased people who were sticking out their necks. They then came back and celebrated the results — regardless of whether it was a success or a failure. Without this, no one is going to take a risk that is meaningful — people will act only if they think there is a high chance of success.

3. Define the limits. While the admission by Domino's was refreshing, the company didn't open the door to everything it was doing. To make transparency and risk-taking more palatable to risk-averse executives, create "sandbox covenants." Figure out how what risks and failures are acceptable. Clearly define the walls of this sandbox and communicate the rules of engagement within those walls. Also explain what the consequences are if people step outside of the sandbox, both to them and to the company. By agreeing to these covenants in advance, there is greater confidence and security in knowing that the risks — and the failures — will be accepted.

Charlene Li is founder and partner at Altimeter Group, author of Open Leadership, and co-author of Groundswell.

HBR 2011 Agenda

2010-12-22T08:02:00.000+13:00

Worth a read if you're into other people's ideas.

http://hbr.org/web/extras/hbr-agenda-2011/home

Contacts Consolidation

2010-12-17T01:14:00.002+13:00

I bit the bullet this week and merged my cellphone contacts with Gmail. To do this, I used my Android phone's manage contacts function and copied all my phone contacts (and a couple from my sim that hadn't yet made it over) to my Google account. I then synced my contacts so that they were all available in Gmail on the web. I then turned off (using the display options) all contacts from my phone book (the contacts tab in the same bit and the dialer) except those from my Google account that had phone numbers. This still allows contacts without phone numbers to show up in the Gmail app in the phone.

I then went through the process of merging my contacts in gmail. Gmail has a built-ion facility to do this and before too long I had most of my email and phone number records together for each person. Pretty painless in the end.

Business Intelligence?

2010-12-15T10:13:00.001+13:00

Boss: what's the purpose of a Data Warehouse?
Gareth: to enrich SQL consultants

Zowie - Broken Machine

2010-12-08T01:00:00.000+13:00

Retrospective

2010-12-06T19:54:00.002+13:00

Not wanting a year to tick by without blogging, I guess a post is in order.

2010 has been an interesting one. I was unemployed for a good chunk of it. I finally got a job as a Systems Analyst which is a role that has me spending a lot of time producing documents, especially design documents. In the past I've largely been a one-man band so having to communicate my ideas to others in a structured way has been a challenge.

I'm now the chair of the Finance Committee for the Anglican Diocese of Wellington and have just been appointed to the board of a church school.

We went to the UK so attend my sister-in-law's wedding. Saw a bit of London and the English countryside plus Edinburgh and quite a bit of rural Scotland.

Not having a laptop from work while I wasn't working and not having one with my current job, I've moved most of my communication, organisation and documents to Google services. Considering I'm not paying for any of them, I'm very happy with how they work. I recently got an Android phone and have got my Google account set up on it. The only thing I haven't consolidated is my phone contacts with Gmail contacts as it'll be a bit of work to reconcile duplicates. I may or may not get round to it.

The weather in Wellington has been fantastic lately. I've been here for over ten years now and I can't remember hot weather this early. Hopefully we get a long hot one. I reckon we are due.

Summer City

2010-01-27T14:52:00.002+13:00

Once again, Wellington's Summer City programme has been fantastic, and it's not over yet. Tracey and I have taken advantage of a couple of the ASB Gardens Magic free concerts and might even get to one or two of the films in the gardens too. The only bad bit has been the weather. There have been a couple of concerts that we would have loved to see if not for rain.

Unemployment

2010-01-21T10:25:00.003+13:00

I'm unemployed. I left CSL at the end of November. I applied for a couple of jobs before Xmas that would have suited me well. It seems I was seriously considered as I had two interviews for each position which was encouraging. Since I started hunting again since 11 Jan I haven't had much in the way progress but it seems there are still jobs to apply for.

My CV has come along way since I first started out. I think I assumed that people reading my CV would be able to infer all manner of things that they never were going to.

Blackberry Calender not Synchronising Both Ways

2009-08-12T18:03:00.003+12:00

We've had a long-standing problem at work where appointments added to Blackberry handset do not show up in Outlook.

We run Balckberry Professional Software 4.1 which is a cut-down version of Blackberry Enterprise Software (BES) for small businesses and Exchange 2000. The problem only affected a small number of out users but was naturally frustrating. I searched for solutions via Google and tried my own troubleshooting. Evenually, I asked for support form Gen-i who sold us the software.

They pointed me in the direction of the "send as" and "receive as" permissions on the mailboxes in question. I could see that the BES account was denied those permissions on the affected accounts, but this setting was being inherited and I could not figure out from where. Further research showed that some built-in accounts are denied these permissions by default.

I needed to use the Exchange System Manager program to change the permissions on the Organisation to eliminate the "deny". The problem is that that program doesn't display the permissions by default and a registry hack is needed to make them accessable. The other option would have been to use a new account for the BES service.

Once I had done this, the problem disappear and I now have (probably temporarily) a couple of very happy users.

Moron Says What

2009-05-04T16:29:00.003+12:00

I am waiting to hear back from this band so that I can buy their EP which was launched on Saturday night.

SAN Hardware Failure

2009-04-28T14:50:00.003+12:00

Had a call from a lovely chap at Hewlett Packard about 1:30am this morning to say that my EVA4400 had reported a bad cache backup battery. The original firmware had a tendency to throw this particular error so I wasn't too concerned. I did, however, get up and check the management software which did show an actual error. When I arrived at the office at my normal time, I double-checked the physical hardware and it had the amber LEDs of an HP device with problems.

It took HP a little while longer to get back to me than agreed but once I had confirmed the error, a replacement was with me in a couple of hours. My assistant swapped out the unit and things appear to be back to normal. All very painless.

Crosstab Report Builder

2009-04-20T18:51:00.002+12:00

For anything other than our standard, predefined sales reports, our users have relied on pivot tables in Excel from granular data outputs. This is fine, if a bit slow, for users that are familiar with them. Pivot tables can take a while master if you don't use them regularly so I wanted to make things easier for those who don't.

There are plenty of how-tos out there for a stored procedure in SQL server that will dynamically create a cross-tab report. I decided to replicate the basic approach in an ASP page for a custom sales report. I allow the users to select to column and row heading fields and fields to filter one. The next page asks for a date range, has drop down boxes with the possible values for the filters selected and the choice of web page or Excel output. The value field defaults to value but I will give the option of quantity as well as increasing the field options down the track.

The Wonder Years

2009-04-19T07:23:00.002+12:00

The consensus on the interweb seems to be that:

Unlike most long-running popular American TV sitcoms, The Wonder Years has still not yet been released on DVD as official season box sets due to the cost of securing the music rights.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wonder_Years)

I guess this makes sense, the music from era was a critical element of the programme and securing the rights would be complicated to say the least. I guess we should be grateful that people have made the effort to upload Wonder Years content to YouTube.

Blackberry Intranet Portal

2009-04-10T15:38:00.003+12:00

Last night I knocked together a portal for my company intranet designed for our Blackberry mobile devices. There is nothing overly complicated about this when you are using Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES). Some simple design considerations are obviously required and I managed to produce a good result for a version 0.1 portal by just using the most basic html tags, just like it was 1996.

The complicating factor was that I use Windows Integrated Authentication in all parts of the intranet. This is so I can limit sensitive information or experimental features by user groups. The authentication passes nicely through the IIS web server to SQL Server so I can control data access in a granular way as required.

I didn't want my BB users to have to log on through their BB browsers and I didn't just want to start giving permissions to the default IIS anonymous user account. I created a user (domain\mobile) and set it IIS as the user for anonymous browsing for the mobile directory where I had made the BB-specific pages. When I tried to access the pages from either my BB or my laptop's browser, I got an error. Nothing I googled really answered my questions but eventually I figured out that I needed to grant rights for that user on the server (of course the server was a domain controller so I have to use domain security policies). The combination that seemed to work for me was "log on locally", "act as part of the OS" and "log on as a service". One of these may not be required but I was just pleased to have things working.

Now I can give my mobile user permissions that I'm happy for my BB users to have like access to the staff directory and the news service.

Update

2009-01-23T09:17:00.002+13:00

Here is a quick update for my public:
- Went to Tokyo from Xmas Day to New Years Day. Enjoyed it.
- Trying hard not to like Lady Gaga but not succeeding.
- Still have a real job.
- Haven't used sunscreen all summer.
- Playing Attack (Risk) on Facebook lots.

LisaNova

2008-08-03T14:27:00.002+12:00

I suggest that you all check out LisaNova on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/user/LisaNova

The One When Gareth Talks About the Football

2008-07-22T07:33:00.003+12:00

Went to the pre-season game between Phoenix FC and the Central Coast Mariners. Fantastic. "Same old Aussies, always cheating." A gripping 1-0 victory to the home team.

Plug

2008-07-11T20:50:00.001+12:00

I don't think I've told my public that I am officially a fan of Monocle magazine. Well, I am.

Odd

2008-07-11T20:44:00.002+12:00

I'm feeling good. Tracey things it might be because I'm not driving. She may be right. I had a trip to Auckland this week and not even that could get me down.

Work is going well. I'm being super productive. That has a lot to do with having a new, competent employee. This has meant I can delegate chunks of my workload and focus on where I add the most value.

Our new place in town is just great. Can't beat the location. There is a pretty good view and we are keeping it clean and almost tidy.

Seeing family in Hamilton next week. Mum is flying over for the week and I am going up for a night to catch up with her and the rest of the clan.

Google Reader Mobile on My BlackBerry

2008-06-25T10:14:00.001+12:00

Oh what an age we live in. Not only can I blog from the train I can also keep up with my favourite bloggers.

Charlie Wilson's War

2008-06-23T19:44:00.001+12:00

I saw the movie and I'm reading the book. I like the story for a number or reasons: the larger than life characters, the real-life adventure story and the insights into the workings of the CIA and US government. It' very easy to be a little smug reading it and knowing what happened to Afghanistan after the US lost interest.

Test Post from my BlackBerry

2008-06-23T08:15:00.002+12:00

Now I can neglect my blog from anywhere.

Workaholic

2008-06-08T15:27:00.003+12:00

Somebody called me a workaholic today. Perhaps the fact that I am working on a Sunday that happens to be my birthday and emailing people about the work has something to do with it. What I find really interesting is that it doesn't matter what time of the day or night or what day of the week it is that I send an email, I almost always get at least one response from my colleagues in a matter of minutes.

This is good in a whole different way

2008-05-09T07:59:00.001+12:00

Explicit Lyrics Warning

More You Tube Goodness

2008-05-08T08:52:00.000+12:00

Blatant Commercialism

2008-03-24T18:52:00.005+13:00

Like most people, I commemorated the death and resurrection of my Lord and Saviour this weekend by spending a ridiculous amount of money. This was partly intentional, partly impulsive. I am quite happy with the CDs that I added to our collection, but slightly concerned at the proportion of country music that is included.

CDs bought this weekend:
- Me First and the Gimme Gimmes ruin Johnny's Bar Mitzvah
- The Juno Soundtrack
- The Oh Brother Where Art Thou Soundtrack
- Kingdom Come by Jay-Z
- Anchored in Love (a tribute album for June Carter Cash)
- The album that Loretta Lynn did with Jack White
- An album of old gospel songs by Loretta Lynn

Monthly Update?

2007-11-29T15:18:00.000+13:00

It's been over a month since my last post. There is not much to report. Work continues to be primarily working for the one company. There are still moves to employ me rather have me contracting, which I am open to, but not totally enthusiastic about. The reality it that I let the rest of my work slip by the wayside along with networking on my own behalf, so a normal job would reflect the situation. It would be nice to have it sorted one way or the other by Xmas. There is a new CEO starting at the company on Monday, which will be interesting at the very least.

On the subject of Xmas, Tracey and I plan to be in Hamilton with my mother's family for a week around Xmas and then probably at my step-mother's family farm near Gisborne around New Years. We will be joined in Hamilton by Tracey's mum. I'm hoping to relax a lot, work a litle and spend lots of time with Tracey. I will read The Economist and novels and maybe some theology texts that I never got around to during the year.

I'm preaching on the 9th, so if you want to see what I make of the second Sunday in Advent, then come to St Mary's, Karori at 10:30. I guarantee a sermon.

I watched the Sarah Silverman show on C4 last night after being intrigued by the adds I have seen for it and looking at some of her material on YouTube. I think that I would quite like the show, but just like the Mighty Boosh, I really can't be bothered going out of my way to watch it.

I'm smoking a lot. Not a lot by smokers' standards, but a lot by mine. It's almost every weekday and normally more than one a day. I'm unsure how I feel about it. It has definitely become a habit. I suspect that it is still not an addiction, based on my previous experience, but time will tell.

My good friend Julia Coleman was ordained a Deacon in the Church (Anglican Division) this month. Out of obligation, I went to the ordination service. Boy did it suck. 2 hours in church of which only about 40 seconds were actaully Julia getting done. I got told off by the Dean for talking near where he was trying to administer communion (Who actually thinks that it's a smart idea to try and distribute the Sacrement via the common cup to 1000 people at one time? Can we not apply technology to this business need?) and generally got very bored. Oddly enough, I actually enjoyed the costume party that night. Tracey and I went as June Carter and Johnny Cash - the theme was Saints and Sinner, so we covered off bother categories at the same time. I have my doubts that I will ever end up ordained, but God is very good at keeping his own counsel.

I plan to do only one Theology paper through Otago next year: a block cource on Christology taught over a week in Wellington. After that, I have the option of stopping my studies and walking away with a Certificate in Theological Studies. That would be an actual tertiary qualification - wow. Nothing like my wonderful wife who has two undergrad degress and now just finished an honours degree, but, actual letters after my name.

That's all for now. Smell ya later.

Arminianism

2007-10-23T12:04:00.001+13:00

Arminianism is not a theology that I had come across until recently. I suspect that it wasn't part of my Reformation studies becuase it was something that grew out of Calvinism and so possibly belongs to the Modern period (or perhaps I wasn't paying attention). I'll let you Google it rather than try to summarise it, but it is doctrine of salvation.

Anyhoo, I suspect that I far more Arminianist than Calvinist. So today, if anyone asks, I think I will call myself an Arminianist Orthodox Evangelical Catholic Christian.

And yet more preaching

2007-10-14T13:34:00.000+13:00

Yes, I am still alive.

I preached at the 8 and 9 am services at St Mary's, Karori this morning. This was my first ever atempt at any sort of planned public speaking without notes. I have had feed back that my previous preaching efforts relied a little too much on note reading so I decided to do away with them completely.

I got to choose my reading from Acts 6, so I went with v1-7 as an excuse to diverge off into some more church history, asking the question "can we see God at work in the history of the Church?" I looked at some examples including the choosing of the seven from the reading and pointed out some ways in which these very human-looking situations could actually reflect God at work.

Sadly, none of my material was anywhere near controversial, so I'm not expecting any formal complaints this time. I'll try harder in the future.

Good news for a aspiring dirigible operators

2007-09-30T19:03:00.000+13:00

The IRD has a depreciation rate for dirigibles.

Attention iPod owners

2007-08-22T10:29:00.001+12:00

Now, I know there is a plethora of iPod accessories on the market, but this range really appeals to me and I might even be tempted to buy an iPod just to have an excuse to buy.

http://www.fat-man.co.uk

Yes, those are valves.

Theory into Practice

2007-08-21T21:28:00.000+12:00

So, I'm fairly Augustinian: like St Augustine, I'm acutely aware of the total depravity of human nature. Therefore, I consider myself a hopeless sinner desperately in need of redemption. This has been a theological position that I'm quite comfortable with.

What I haven't really attempted is to actually do anything about my own sinfulness. I've relied on God to change me so that I will want to do the right thing more than I want to do the wrong thing. This has worked to varying degrees in some parts of my life and I think it is a valid approach. However, I've decided recently that I should try to cooperate with God on this project by trying to bring my actions and words into line with my beliefs.

I have no idea how this is going to work out and certainly don't want to turn into the sterotypical Christian who is allergic to fun. I don't want to get hung up on stuff that doesn't really matter, but I do want to deal with what needs fixing. I will keep you posted.

Navel-Grazing

2007-08-20T08:06:00.000+12:00

Gaining sustenance by eating the material deposited in one's belly button.

Worldview vs Values

2007-08-18T20:25:00.000+12:00

So, here's a question: is it possible to have a worldview that conflicts with one's values? If I had said "stated values" then I would say the answer is simply "yes".

The thought that set me off was that I tend to look for evolutionary explanation for behaviour in animals and humans (or should that be humans and other animals?) despite the fact that I don't believe in evolution. I'm not sure that believing or not in evolution is a value as such, but it was an interesting idea. I think evolutionary explanation for behaviour is something that is engrained is us by the education system and the media and could, therefore, be considered part of our worldview.

Can we see the world in a way that is contrary to what we believe?

Some context

2007-07-30T10:29:00.000+12:00

I'm well aware that some of your have missed my blogging. Some of you are probly relieved that you haven't had to read a post of any substance from me for some time. What I'd like to do today is offer a bit of context to explain my quietness.

Not long after becoming a Christian, I felt a very strong sense that it was time to leave my job. I ended up doing much the same work, making much the same money but with heaps of time free to serve the Church. I threw myself into pretty much anything that was on offer: work was secondary.

This year, particularly since March, things have started to drift back the other way. I have rationalised what I do for the Church down to some key areas and don't normally agree to do much else. I am now working a lot more. At first I was feeling a bit guilty about this and thinking that the "Christian stage of my life" was drawing to a close and I'd be back to normal soon. However, just lately I think God is trying to tell me that working for money more is part of His plan. I have been having fantastic conversations with people around me in a way that I almost never experience doing church stuff. As I am the open Christian in the building, people talk to me about spirituality and when I respond in a reasonable way, it encourages them to talk to me again, which they are doing.

So, not doing as much church stuff means I don't have quite as much to rant about becuase I'm not getting frustrated with the church. I'm also not doing anything new and exciting that I want to gush about. I am sticking to my knitting. I may not have it right (in fact I'm sure I don't have it perfect) but I'm not feeling so guilty right now. I'm having real trouble adjusting to my new schedule but I'm hoping this transition phase will be over soon.

Thanks for putting up the above.

No Agenda

2007-07-28T08:46:00.001+12:00

This weekend, I have no commitments. I have a few ideas about what I might like to do, but no obligations.

Here are some things that I might consider doing:
- Publishing my sermon notes from my last two outings
- Posting something theological here
- Taking Tracey to the craft show in town
- Mowing the lawns
- Start an Anglican Studies essay

If I do none of these things I won't be too upset. Right now I'm very comfortable on the couch watching Agenda.

Flinstonian

2007-06-27T17:58:00.000+12:00

What a great word. Let's all try to use it once a day.

Enjoy the cold

2007-06-14T16:15:00.000+12:00

I (along with my long-suffering wife) are off to Queensland for a week on Monday.

I make no promises about posting photos or videos, but I'm sure that I will want to show off my new digital video camera.

Another paper down, just 15 to go.

2007-06-11T13:20:00.000+12:00

I sat the exam for Medieval and Reformation Church History with Otago on Saturday. It covers the period 600-1600 AD, so there's quite a chunk of history there.

I have had a few revelations during the course of the paper that impact on my own faith today. Some of the more significant ones include:
- we tend to talk about The Reformation in the 16th Century, but reformation was a constant theme throughout the Middle Ages. We shouldn't imagine that Martin Luther emerged from a vacum
- corruption and abuse within the Church was probably not as widespread as I have believed it to be, however there were some truly amazing examples of total depravity in Church leadership. Let's not assume that we are immune from such problems today
- doctrine is dangerous. Protestant churches, as today, fragmented over donctrinal disputes that appear minor to me now

I'm pleased that my specific prayer that the course would not be dry and God-less were answered.

A good essay, apparently

2007-06-03T16:07:00.000+12:00

So, this essay was worth an A+. It's about the causes and effects of the Avignon Papacy (when the Popes were in France, not Rome) and the Great Western Schism (when there were two or three popes).

The Avignon papacy and the great western schism were both caused, to a significant degree, by the influence and interference of France. Turmoil in Italy prolonged the papacy’s time in Avignon, and a poor choice of pope pushed the church towards schism. With canon law being unclear on the ability to depose pope’s schism became a reality. Both of these important events in the history of the papacy led to a sullied reputation for popes and Church.

Not very red.

2007-05-29T15:27:00.001+12:00

create your own visited country map

Had a fight with a lawnmower?

2007-05-22T18:46:00.000+12:00

Before

After

$4 wine? As bad as you'd expect

2007-04-29T15:14:00.000+12:00

Picked up a bottle of Don Pedro from Woollies in K-town. If was on special: $3.99 down from $4.99. It's fairly awful.

Since Everyone Else Is

2007-04-24T17:06:00.000+12:00

You scored as Reformed Evangelical. You are a Reformed Evangelical. You take the Bible very seriously because it is God's Word. You most likely hold to TULIP and are sceptical about the possibilities of universal atonement or resistible grace. The most important thing the Church can do is make sure people hear how they can go to heaven when they die.

Reformed Evangelical

71%

Neo orthodox

68%

Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan

68%

Emergent/Postmodern

61%

Roman Catholic

61%

Classical Liberal

46%

Charismatic/Pentecostal

43%

Modern Liberal

39%

Fundamentalist

36%

What's your theological worldview?
created with QuizFarm.com

In Dork-land

2007-04-19T16:09:00.000+12:00

The good things about Auckland: Dunkin Donuts, Wendy's (Burgers, not Sundaes), that is all.

And yet more preaching

2007-04-16T13:27:00.001+12:00

I preached at all three morning services at St Mary's yesterday. The vicar has been kind enough to allow me to preach during school holidays so I can focus on children's ministry during term time. I will post my notes soon.

I still do not enjoy preaching. I was exhausted afterwards and couldn't stop for my usual post-preaching nap as we had to have lunch with the sister-in-law. When we finally got home, I got on the couch and didn't move till bed time (so, yes just like any other day). People are always nice after I preach, some of the compliments even sounded sincere, but I don't think I'm ever going to be a great preacher. That said, I don't think I'm completely terrible either, so should i ever have a parish of my own, I'll be able to do a passable job.

Let me explain

2007-04-09T21:45:00.000+12:00

So, I've been slack lately.

My biggest client has lost some staff recently and I've been partially filling the gaps and also helping keep things under control while new staff come on board. This is on top of what I normally do for them plus my other clients' projects and church stuff.

All in all, I've been rather busy. It's not that I don't have a few minutes to write a post, ot's just that I'm still not used to my new routine. Hopefully, as things settle down, I'll get back into the swing of things.

Bordering on Boring

2007-03-15T17:48:00.000+13:00

The Mrs and I went to the opening of Borders in Lambton Quay this morning. We had been watching the fit-out with interest. I didn't know much about Borders, but I have an interest in retailing and I like books, so we joined the small huddle of people waiting for 8am.

Overall, I was pretty disappointed. There were some magazines that I hadn't seen before, but nothing compared to a good magazine shops. I might be blind, but that there was no fiction A-Z section. All the books seemed to be categorised, and I couldn't figure out which category my favourite author would be in. The computer book selection was pretty predictable.

I couldn't even be bothered staying for free coffee and muffins.

Rushed

2007-03-04T20:26:00.000+13:00

So, sorry about not posting.

Tracey and I were invited to two weddings, a week apart, so we decided to have a holiday for the week in between. The weddings were great. They were very different from each other. One was in a church and one was in a paddock.

We spent the holiday in our tent. We had a couple of nights at Tolaga Bay, a couple at Napier and a couple more at the second wedding. The weather was great and I was glad we had a break later rather than at Xmas.

Theology classes start again tomorrow.

Sorry for the gap

2007-02-28T20:18:00.000+13:00

Been on holiday. Will post soon.

Things are good

2007-02-10T13:17:00.000+13:00

I don't know exactly why, but I've been really happy lately. This condition has persisted since before Xmas.

Had a serious talk about this with my spiritual director, analysing what implications this had on my spiritual journey.

The symptoms of this happiness have included: food tasting great and wanting to entertain at our house.

People I Like 1: Sam Harvey

2007-01-28T09:28:00.000+13:00

So I've been thinking about doing a series on posts of people that I like. I was going to start with my wife, but after some recent angst, I decided to give the honour to young Sam.

For those of you who don't know Sam, he's one of these enthusiastic yoof types who takes his walk with God rather seriously. Fortunately, this enables, rather than prevents, lots of good times. I highly recommend a beer with Sam.

In the short time I've known Sam, he's been active in this thing we call Youth Ministry. I couldn't think of a worse calling and I thank God constantly that I am being put to use elsewhere. Youth ministry seems to be one of the few places where "pastoring" goes on these day. I think the rest of us could learn a lot about how we are supposed to be working with people, rather than just delivering programmes.

Sam is one of the best ambassadors for God that I know. He just oozes the sort of stuff that people want: something to live for. What I've really appreciated is our mutual dissatisfaction with the status quo in the church. I'm not sure that our various conversations actually ever produced any answers, but that doesn't mean that they weren't fruitful.

God bless you Sam.

I start with a man

2007-01-25T09:48:00.000+13:00

and take away accountability and reason. This is the formula for writing a good female character, according to Jack Nicholson's character in As Good as it Gets.

So where are the men exhibiting accountability and/or reason? Are these two traits present anywhere today? The leadership of nations don't appear to exercise either. Our own politicians are very good at blame and justification, but not accountability. Where is the reason in the Global Order?

Why I am a cat person

2007-01-22T20:19:00.000+13:00

There is a small depression/hole at the front of our lawn. I've been trying to fill it up with lawns clippings and things. Right now there is a small grey cat sitting in the depression/hole sheltering from the wind. I like cats.

Natalie Portman Gangsta Rap

2007-01-16T19:39:00.000+13:00

This is completely innapropriate. Do not watch it if you have any sensibilities.

So You Tube have removed it due to copyright issues. Here's the Google Video version while it lasts.

What's your flavour of Christianity?

2007-01-15T21:27:00.000+13:00

I'd like to take a test that would tell me how evangelical, charismatic, etc, etc I am. Maybe someone knows of an Interet-based one. These labels are completely useless except for talking to people who care about these things. A Generous Orthodoxy is a good book to throw some light on this area.

So what sort of theology should we have? I wonder if there is or could be any consensus on this.

One smart idea might be to align our beliefs and practices with a group or individual who we think has got it right. Some options might include:

A local leader/personal mentor
The Pope
The primitive church (Acts 2 maybe?)
The church fathers/sub-apostolic church/pre-300AD
Jesus

For me there are some non-negotiables (does this make me fundamentalist?). The resurrection and the Trinity would make it into my list. I think a non-negotiable list sould be as short as you can make it. I'm unsure about what to do with the sacrements (baptism and communion) as for me they are very important, but the Salvation Army's non-use of them doesn't make them any less of a church in my book.

I'd like to be considered fairly orthodox, but even the meaning of that word probably depends on your theology.

but is it a train?

2007-01-13T14:25:00.000+13:00

For some reason, things seem to be looking good. I've done a bit of prayerful planning, goal setting and stuff. I'm really looking forward to this year. I have a rough shape for things and some specific ideas for my ministry and business.

Looks like I will be focussed on four areas of ministry:

Prison Fellowship
Children's Ministry
Outreach
Church service stuff (preaching, service leading)

With regard to business, I'm hoping to get some income from a relatively passive source, moving from the self-employed to the business-owner quadrant in Robert Kiyosaki language. It's only a small frist deal, but I'm hoping it might be the start of something.

So, there seems to be some light at the end of tunnel.

I am average

2007-01-01T11:55:00.000+13:00

I've just looked at the results for my first four Otago Theology papers which I have completed over the last two years. My average mark is equivalent to a B. How average.

Bell Bottom Blues

2006-12-30T15:58:00.000+13:00

Since blogging about music is in fashion:

One of my favourite songs. My favourite break-up song of all time.

The Anti-Sex-Talk Post

2006-12-30T10:32:00.000+13:00

I don't know why, but lately the messages about sex that the Church inflict on our youth have been getting up my nose. I have a few thoughts that I offer not as a complete position on sex but as some sort of counterbalance to the prevailing climate.

Sexual Sin is Not in It's Own Category
There is no scriptural support for the notion that sexual sin is somehow different and needs to be approached in a special manner. I contend that sexual sins stem from the same root as most others: trying to run our own lives. God has never put on my heart a desire to engage in sexual activity with someone who isn't my wife (if he does, I hope it's Keira Knightley). So, if I was to go out and commit some sort of sexual sin, I would be putting my own desires ahead of God's.

Now, I can hear some of you saying "but society puts such an emphasis on sex that we have to address it directly". I disagree. Western culture puts a high value on fulfilling our desires. It tells us that if we have some sort of problem, then we can consume something to make us better. If we are feeling down, a bit of retail therapy will improve our mood. Society treats sex as just another thing to be consumed.

As the Church, we need to address society's ills, but to over emphasise sex is not justified.

Sexual Sins within Marriage
Paul and Paula have been dating for 2 years. They both have agreed to wait until they are married, however, one night they have sex.

Christopher and Christine have been married for 2 years. One night, Christopher goes to a strip club with some mates from work. When he gets home, he and Christine have sex. Christopher is visualising the strippers and not giving any thought to Christine's fulfillment.

Who's sinning worse than whom? Not every sexual act withing a marriage is without sin.

Marriage is Not Going to Fix Your Sexual Sin
If you have a problem with pornography, getting married will not fix it. If you think that you are gay, marrying a woman will not change it.

Marriage is not the answer to your sexual problems. Marriage provides God's vehicle for good, life-long sex (and some other stuff) but it is not a sin-free zone.

Use Your Brain
It may just be me, but the idea that an act can be a sin 12 hours before a ceremony and the same act not be a sin 12 hours after a ceremony seems a little silly. However if, based on the weight of scripture and historical Church teaching on sex, you think that to have sex outside of marriage is counter to God's will then don't do it.

Please Don't Let Chasity be Your Entire Witness
There was a girl at my high school who was a Christian. She didn't have sex (I didn't either, but not by choice). I don't remember a single thing about her faith other than abstinence from sex. She wasn't nicer than average, nor did she stand out in any other way. Her entire witness to me in 5 years of school together was not having sex.

Please let your Christian walk speak more about God than just that he frowns on sex.

Thank you
I feel better having got that off my chest.

The Theology of Happy Feet

2006-12-29T21:29:00.000+13:00

I was told, just before the movie, that Happy Feet has some sort of left-wing bias/agenda and the greenie message came through loud and clear. What was less clear was the film's position on religion. On the surface, it seemed to be fairly critical.

The Emperor Penguins have a sort of religion. It involves a great mystical force that provides bounty (or not) and must be prayed to. The religious leaders are unwilling to accept any explanation for the loss of the food supply other than that the great penguin in the sky is angry. Their answer to adversity is to stick harder to their ways. This may well echo the "science vs religion debate".

It turns out that actually humans are responsible for the loss of fish (who would have guessed?). In the end, the religious leaders have to "mend their ways".

However if you look at the "wisdom" that is the basis of the religion, which mainly seems to be about sticking together to survive the long winter, none of it seems to be disproved or made reduntant in light of the events in the movie. As far as I can see, the problem is that religious leaders couldn't separate their "wisdom" from the other social constraints that seems to have been added. Let's not forget that not too long ago dancing was considered evil by some Christian groups.

So, I'm with Happy Feet. Let's dance, but we don't have to give up our wisdom to do it.

Working

2006-12-29T10:39:00.000+13:00

One of the side-effects of being self-employed is that down-time is expensive, so I'm trying to do a little bit of work each day. The good thing about most of my clients being closed or mostly closed is that I can catch up on the jobs that fell through the cracks during the year without new, urgent jobs coming through. The bad thing is that when I need support from third parties (eg Telecom), I can't get it.

It's nice having zero pressure so I can do nothing if I want to, but still have the sense of having achieved something most days.

I'm Just as Surprised as You

2006-12-27T15:45:00.001+13:00

I'm thinking of declaring 2007 the year of not trying to fix the church.

Our Problem is Not a Lack of Ideas

2006-12-27T15:31:00.000+13:00

Hardening of Heart

2006-12-19T20:20:00.000+13:00

Watching the crisis in the Episcopal Church in the USA, I've noticed a hardening in the attitude of people involved. One blog, in particular, which I once saw as quite moderate is now clearly on the "Anglican" (as the conservatives seem to call themselves) side of the debate.

I guess this is inevitable when people disagree on important stuff. Small slights cause greater offense. We can be grateful that there is no sign of this situation arising in New Zealand in the short term.

Missionary Order 2

2006-12-19T14:18:00.000+13:00

Why do we need something new (or a revived usage of something old) to "enable" mission?

In our diocese, we have people called Ministry Enablers. These work with mutual ministry parishes (where their aren't professional ministers in the traditional sense) to do ministry. I guess this suggests that we think that mutual ministry needs enabling.

Why is missional activity not the natural state of things? Am I right in thinking it's not? The authors of Mission-shaped Church seem to think that mission needs enabling. Where ministry is mostly done in the context of a parish, it can be very hard to start something that involves crossing boundaries. Do we need to distinguish between ministry and mission? I normally think of ministry as what we do for Christians and mission as what we do for other people, whether making them Christians is the overt purpose or not. However, the church also talks abut doing stuff for poor Christians in the third World as mission too.

So, a Missionary Order is a way of enabling missionary activity. It creates a formal structure in which individuals can do things that might otherwise be too hard in the context of a parish.

Wade in the Water

2006-12-18T21:38:00.000+13:00

Some cool kids (and me and the vicar) had a BBQ in Wilton Bush. We had a paddle in the stream. The BBQ area is cool. The BBQs cost $1 per 15 minutes. Pretty good value, I thought.

On the Primacy of Scripture

2006-12-18T21:09:00.000+13:00

Protestants are very keen on the Word of God as being the only authoritative source of doctrine. Catholics are too. The difference being that Protestants believe that the Bible is the location of the Word of God and Catholics believe the Word of God exists both in the scriptures and in the Apostolic Tradition (hence, Popes and Councils make rulings on things). This is a fairly basic and fundmental theological difference.

Being an Anglican, I'm allowed to see both sides of things.

Catholic:		Christianity existed before the New Testament. The Gospels were some of the later texts in the NT.
Protestant:		Yes, but in the early days the Apostles were still around.
Catholic:		Exactly, the teaching of the Apostles was the basis of Christianity. The Catholic Church preserves the teaching of the Apostles.
Protestant:		I'm not convinced.
Catholic:		I didn't think you would be.

Missionary Order 1

2006-12-18T17:56:00.000+13:00

Mission-shaped Church, the Church of England report on emerging missional expressions of church, commends some particular ideas for consideration by dioceses. One suggestion is the creation of "Bishops' Orders" to enable missionary activity inside the diocesean boundries. It suggests that the orders (a historical grouping of nuns/monks, knights, etc) be accountable to the bishop and be outside the parochial system.

The working title for my Missionary Order is The Order of Henry Williams, or the Williams Order for short. The title is deliberately not exciting as the structure is not the important thing and shouldn't detract from the actual work of the members. The name does continue the tradition of naming the order after something or someone (a patron saint) that reflects something of the values of the order. Williams changed the focus of missionary activity in New Zealand. Peviously, missionaries had hoped to pave the way for the gospel by engaging Maori with outreach activities such as education with little success. Williams made the gospel an upfront part of missionary work as well as continuing the outreach.

Clergy and laity could be licensed/authorised in the order itself rather than in a parish. This would permit them to engage in mission activities without reference to parishes (unless there was a clear overlap/conflict with an existing ministry). Some of this work would result in some "fresh expressions of church" which the order could help nuture and might grow into a parish in the future or that might fit well with an existing parish.

This structure doesn't solve the problem of what to actually do, but it does free mission-minded people from one perceived challenge in the Anglican church. Members of the order would not be tied to a parish and the maintenance and congregation-tending that parishes necessarily are focussed on to a greater or lesser degree. This also keeps mission-minded individials inside the church, maintaining episcopal oversight. This doesn't answer all the questions, or address every challenge.

BBQ and Concert in Prison

2006-12-16T21:56:00.001+13:00

The Mrs and I went to the Faith Based Unit at Rimutaka Prison. The menu in the unit had invite volunteers to say thanks for the ministries they perform there. This was Tracey's first time in a prison, but she faced the day cheerfully.

We started with a (very Pentecostal) service in the chapel. The BBQ lunch was fantastic. We sat with two guys with lots of experience in prison mnistry. Very interesting conversations. I met two new guys that Prison Fellowship wants me to work with.

The concert had to be cut short due to time constraints( there was a rugby game against another unit), but what we saw was of a high standard. It was a fantastic day.

Visit

2006-12-15T18:34:00.000+13:00

My Mum and step-father visited us this week. It was nice to have visitors to stay in our new house. Apprently Emirates is a great airline, which I sort of guessed.

Action

2006-12-15T18:31:00.000+13:00

Some good agitating going on over at Sam's Blog. Topics include the Christian Music Industry and the value of mission trips.

A new hope

2006-12-10T14:01:00.000+13:00

So, my wife now has a blog and as she is far more popular than I am, you'll want to rush right over there, ignoring anything I've written recently.

http://traceycraft.blogspot.com/

Let's ban Christmas

2006-12-08T12:11:00.000+13:00

Well the seasonal panic is setting in at the parish office. Christmas hardly seems worth the effort. I suggest either amalgamating Christmas and Easter into one festival or celebrating them on alternate years, so there is only one drama per year.

More Proof of Summer

2006-12-07T18:56:00.000+13:00

There are now a few dozen blooms on the pohutukawa in front of our section.

The Nativity Story

2006-12-06T18:38:00.000+13:00

Since our cell group is populated by the sort of people that would rather watch a Bible story than Borat, we went to see The Nativity Story last night. It was pretty good. It had a gritty, real feel to it, not at all a Disney treatment. I liked the foreshadowing of Jesus' ministry at various points.

What I like about the Anglican Church

2006-12-06T10:17:00.000+13:00

In an effort to be positive and "love the church I'm in", I'm working on a list of things to be grateful for:

It's very hard to have a narrow theology. As I spend more time around the church, I'm exposed to different points of view. This might not be quite so likely in a smaller, independent church where the senior pastor dominates the discussion on theology. As I consequence, for example, I have a broader (and growing) understaning of salvation than just not going to hell.
Standing in a liturgical tradition means there is base level of quality in worship. The Prayer Book is wonderful resource that provides a starting point for many types of private and communal worship and prayer. We don't have to fall back on trite prayers "from the heart" that always sound the same.
We are free to embrace a breadth of Christian experience. Catholic forms of prayer and contemplation are just as valid as a Nooma from Rob Bell.

Feel free to tell me what you like about your church. It makes a nice change from complaining constantly.

Trinitarian Theory

2006-12-03T20:47:00.000+13:00

I was discussing some elecments of Chrisitan belief with an 8 year old boy recently, as I do in various children's ministry programmes from time to time. At some point, he said to me "So Jesus was God? How can he be God's son and God?" I might have been overreaching a bit when I tried to explain the Holy Trinity to him.

Let me point out that Trinitarianism is not an optional belief in The Church. The Nicene Creed states that Jesus is of the same substance of the father and the Athanasian Creed leaves no wriggle room on the matter. The Anlgican church (and most other catholic denominations) holds the Nicene Creed as fundamental and Athanasius' Creed as being a true and valid description of the Christian Faith. To be Christian is to be a Trinitarian. Other groups on the periphery of Christianity dissent from this view, Unitarians being the most obvious.

There is a great deal of history around this point in the first centuries of Christianity. The question came into open debate in when Arius, a priest in Alexandria, starting publicly arguing with his bishop. The Christians who thought that Jesus was a lesser being than God (though certainly still far greater than humans) were knows as Arians. The Council of Nicaea (325) formulated a doctrinal statement that was supposed to present an anti-Arian position. This was adopted with only 2 objections. However, Arianism still flourished and Arians were the majority in many churches. When the Emperor Constantine was baptised on his death bed, is was an Arian who performed the sacrement (good point for refuting the Da Vince Code). Eventually, the Council of Constantinople (381) adopted the Nicene Creed (somewhat modified from the 325 text) as an official statement of faith.

Arius has some flawed but persuasive arguments and I can see why so many faithful Christians would be swayed by them. For a start, the idea that Christ was a created being (albeit of an entirely different order to us) is an easier idea to grasp that the notion that God is Three and yet One.

I'm almost relunctant to engage in discussion on the point because the idea that God paid our penalty himself is essential to popular theology. Could a perfect being that wasn't God take our place on the Cross with the same effect? Someone once told me that to be a fundamentalist meant to believe that it was essential to believe in Christ Crucified and Risen, which begs the question "who was Christ?". Orthodox Trinitarian Christian belief answers empathically that Jesus was God Incarnate. This is what we celebrate at Christmas: God became human, the Word became flesh.

I'm strangley compelled to reassess my faith in light of the question "what if Arius was right?" Now, I don't think he was, but I'm a bit afraid to think too hard on the matter. Is Trinitarianism really essential? I think it might be, but what if the rest of my faith remains viable without it? Is the penalty for heresy still death?

Why are leaves falling in spring?

2006-12-03T13:55:00.000+13:00

I am in the middle of cleaning up all the problem leaves (mainly in and around drains) around the property and wondering what life will be like in Autumn. Will I even have time to write for my public?

I know it's now technically summer (and I have the sunburn to prove it), but what's with all the leaves?!

General Rant 47

2006-12-01T11:39:00.000+13:00

I'm tired today. Had a great bunch of cool kids over last night and being kids, they stayed up later I would normally. I'm not complaining, because all the time I spend with grown ups isn't quite as much fun. The BBQing went super well (thanks for asking - Big Gay Al). And the entertainment revolved around DVDs of music videos: Weird Al Yankovich, Nature's Best. Lots of bad singing.

I'm leaning heavily on a lots of super people at the moment. Plenty of coffee and trips to the pub. I'm not sure why I'm feeling needy. It might have a bit to do with the wife's health being below average in the last week or so.

God has been getting me up in the night to pray a bit recently. This is new, but I find myself awake and I remember the words "I will arise in the night to praise you", which I think is from the rule of St Francis, so I do. I've had a few good "spiritual moments" and I think God appreciates the obedience. My sleep patterns, however are not so pleased.

My spiriutal week is still revolving around early morning prayer on Tuesdays, cell group Tuesday night and staff devotions on Thursdays. Sunday still feels like hard work.

My Apache

2006-11-29T08:45:00.000+13:00

I have been the recipient of a generous gift of an HTC Apache. I have spent a little bit buying an miniSD card a couple of good Bible translations for Pocket e-Sword. I'm now super organised and I have to do lists and my calendar working. I have about 300MB of music loaded and about the same of the talks from Changing World - Changing Church (I'm listening to Mike Frost currently).

I have been able to get the thing so set up that I'm less worried about having my laptop handy as I can do the bulk of urgent support on my Apache. This also means that my next laptop could be a big chunky powerful affair rather than a small portable one with great battery life.

I am handy

2006-11-26T17:50:00.000+13:00

My first DIY project is complete! A coat rack now resides behind the front door. It even works! As I type, coats are hanging from it without succumbing to the normal effects of gravity.

So I'm not condemned by Rome after all

2006-11-22T09:29:00.000+13:00

I've have taken the time to read what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says about what we call The Church. Clauses 817 to 819 deal with the fact that there is division in the Body of Christ. The treatment (post Vatican II) of this topic seems very fair and even generous. This is vastly different from what many Catholics, clergy and laity, have to say on the matter.

Some of the significant points are:

"Men on both sides were to blame" for many of the divisions
The sin of separation does not rest with the current members of Christian communities outside the Catholic Church
"All who have been justified in faith and baptism are incorporated into Christ"
"Christ's Spirit uses these Churches and ecclesial communities as means [sic] of salvation"
The Catholic Church accepts us "with respect and affection as brothers"

Note that this is the official English language version of the Catholic Church's faith. The Catechism is meant to be used by local churches to create their own catechisms for instruction of the faithful.

I essentially agree with most of what the catechism has to say on the nature of The Church. Clearly, I have trouble with the doctrine of Petrine precedence (Rome is the senior church because Peter was the senior apostle and he founded the church in Rome and the Popes are his successors), but the Marian points are less troublesome for me.

Glorious freedom

2006-11-18T13:32:00.000+13:00

The hero from the council came and fixed our flood.

Water, water everywhere

2006-11-18T10:20:00.000+13:00

We have a flood, cutting us off from the rest of the world.

I have a very smart wife

2006-11-16T21:57:00.000+13:00

My wife has had results from her two honours papers. She got a B+ for each of them. The grades themselves are good, but they are significant in that they indicate that, with similar results next year, Tracey should be looking at at least upper second class honours, which is what she needs for easy entry to the masters programmes that interest her. I expect her to do even better next year as whe will hopefully be back in the swing of uni after this year's effort.

A Trademe virgin no longer

2006-11-15T20:38:00.000+13:00

I am now the proud owner-to-be of a 3 burner barbeque.

Also, my blog is now on Blogger beta.

Akathist to Jesus Christ

2006-11-13T20:41:00.000+13:00

http://www.kencollins.com/pray-34.htm

This is a new one to me.

Developing a Healthy Prayer Life

2006-11-13T08:04:00.000+13:00

Notes from yesterday's sermon are now published. The opening paragraph is included below. You can download the entire sermon from here. This was week 5 of the Old Testment Challenge 2.

Our prayer life is a fundamental part of our ongoing walk with God. It is impossible to grow to spiritual maturity without a healthy prayer life. So what does a healthy prayer life look like? What lessons can we learn from Samuel’s birth and ministry?

Discernment

2006-11-09T21:15:00.000+13:00

In the intercession requests that come my way, prayer for guidance is second only to health issues.

Is this how it's supposed to be? Is the path supposed so obscure or do we just make it harder than needs to be?

The conventional wisdom seem to be that God doesn't let us know much beyond the next step so that it takes faith to be obedient and so that we aren't scared off by stuff that we can't currently imagine ourselves doing, but we will be prepared for when the time comes; but why do we have such a hard time figuring out what the next step is?

Getting back on the wagon

2006-11-09T21:07:00.000+13:00

I have been given a telling off by some of my more dedicated fans and I am under instructions to get back into posting regularly with some pith and vinegar. So be warned.

Being Blokey

2006-11-06T19:54:00.000+13:00

I bought some important shed supplies today:

- Linseed Oil (for staining wood)

- Turps (to thin the above)

- CRC 5.56

- Drill bits

- Small Chisel

- Padlock latch (for the door)

- 3 "antique" coat hooks to make a coat rack for behind the door

I also got Her Indoors some sparkly hot glue gun sticks she wouldn't complain about all the money I spent.

Bring Back Double Happies

2006-11-01T18:36:00.000+13:00

In my day (roll your eyes now) we played with Double Happies in the lead up to Guy Faulkes. These have long since been banned so now kids have to play with bigger, more dangerous fireworks, buring recycle bins and stuff. In retrospect, I think it was a mistake to ban Double Happies, it actually made thing less safe.

Sickness

2006-10-29T22:47:00.000+13:00

I'm sick.

Four Yorkshiremen

2006-10-25T20:28:00.000+13:00

Long Time, No Post.

2006-10-19T20:55:00.000+13:00

Been busy moving. Did my back in today moving the fridge, which was the last major item. Still haven't remembered the camera for posting pics.

Kanye West

2006-10-14T20:35:00.000+13:00

I've been listening to Late Registration a bit recently because I haven't put my CDs back in my car. I'm finding it hard to get sick of.

I'm on a mission for time pieces and sexy ladies
Let me introduce you to my CL Mercedes

Not all the lyrics are so "worldly" but some are much more. The Christian influence speaks to me. Not in the same way as the soppy love songs to Jesus we sing in church. More Applied Theology?

http://www.kanyewest.com/

When your mum (or wife) uses your middle name

2006-10-14T12:37:00.000+13:00

I was reading a commentary on the Gospel of Mark this morning (as one does when preparing for an exam including exegeses of Mark) and came across some interesting points on Jesus' interactions with demons. The concept that naming something accurately allows control over it is mentioned. This seems to be common thinking at the time.

I wonder if the thruth of this is reflected in the way that mothers use our full names when they want to get our attention. Does this count as Applied Theology?

A new house

2006-10-13T13:44:00.000+13:00

Today, we signed a rental agreement for a house in Karori. We take possession next week. Photos to follow soon.

This has been a long time coming, but it has been worth the wait. The house, section, location and price are all good.