Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
World Cup
I just want to mention that World Cup. I've not been watching it, due to the fact that even the earliest matches start at midnight. This coupled with the screen fast has meant that I've been limited to gleaning information from news sites and listening to disappointed Australians.
When the groups were announced, I thought an England/Australia second round clash could be on. As it happens, England's usual underperformance in the group stages has set us up for having to sweep aside Germany and (possibly) Argentina before we even get a sniff of the trophy. This depresses me a little.
However, I do squeeze some pleasure from Italy's inability to progress. And if I was the Irish I would be a bit miffed by France's refusal to take the competition seriously after having bent the rules to get there in the first place.
However, I will be watching the game on Sunday. Hope is a thoroughly Christian characteristic.
When the groups were announced, I thought an England/Australia second round clash could be on. As it happens, England's usual underperformance in the group stages has set us up for having to sweep aside Germany and (possibly) Argentina before we even get a sniff of the trophy. This depresses me a little.
However, I do squeeze some pleasure from Italy's inability to progress. And if I was the Irish I would be a bit miffed by France's refusal to take the competition seriously after having bent the rules to get there in the first place.
However, I will be watching the game on Sunday. Hope is a thoroughly Christian characteristic.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Post Strath
Yesterday I returned from a trip to South Australia. The Cornerstone team in Strathalbyn were running one of the annual mini-musters (i.e. a Cornerstone convention run on a smaller scale), and had invited me to be one of the speakers. Following the weekend mini-muster, some of our students stayed down for the whole week to have the experience of being part of a mission team. I remained with them for the week and learnt some interesting things. For example, in Australia people don't seem to have heard of Banoffee pie but they do have banana caramel pie, which is Banoffee pie in everything but name.
It was a busy week, but it was excellent in terms of giving all of us who were there an example of what life was like in a mission team. It was a great experience, and I also had some mighty fine cheesecake. All in all, a great time.
It was hugely encouraging to see what some of the guys who were at Canowindra last year had been getting up to. They had been doing some really great stuff with the young people in the town, and it helped me to realise that I had - in some small way - played a role in that.
I think my mini-muster talk is supposed to go up on the internet at some point, so I'll post a link to it here when it appears. Much of the content will not be new to regular readers of this blog, as I've been thinking through some of the related issues on these very pages.
It was a busy week, but it was excellent in terms of giving all of us who were there an example of what life was like in a mission team. It was a great experience, and I also had some mighty fine cheesecake. All in all, a great time.
It was hugely encouraging to see what some of the guys who were at Canowindra last year had been getting up to. They had been doing some really great stuff with the young people in the town, and it helped me to realise that I had - in some small way - played a role in that.
I think my mini-muster talk is supposed to go up on the internet at some point, so I'll post a link to it here when it appears. Much of the content will not be new to regular readers of this blog, as I've been thinking through some of the related issues on these very pages.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Screen Fast
I'm starting the screen fast today (just to recap - updating my blog is PRODUCTIVE screen time, and therefore it's OK). This means no more useless browsing of BoardGameGeek or looking up Transformers stuff on YouTube for a month. Nietzsche was right about several things, and one of them was "That which does not kill you makes you stronger."
Just for those of you who are not into alternative and underground music, my brother's band seem to be making a few waves. Going by the dubious moniker of 'Male Bonding', their first album release (on the prestigious Sub Pop label) seems to be doing very well. It's certainly a lot more listenable than some of his previous musical projects. He's worked hard and I'm proud of what him for it.
Because my blog is officially classified as PRODUCTIVE you might see more updates over the next month. But then again, you might not because I'll actually be away for three of the next five weeks anyway.
Just for those of you who are not into alternative and underground music, my brother's band seem to be making a few waves. Going by the dubious moniker of 'Male Bonding', their first album release (on the prestigious Sub Pop label) seems to be doing very well. It's certainly a lot more listenable than some of his previous musical projects. He's worked hard and I'm proud of what him for it.
Because my blog is officially classified as PRODUCTIVE you might see more updates over the next month. But then again, you might not because I'll actually be away for three of the next five weeks anyway.
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