Stuff I meant to post but I didn't but now I am.

Hmm that title reminds me of a song. "Somebody told me that you're so stoopid, but I didn't believe them, but now I believe them." But anyway today I am going to post stuff I should have already posted.



Work

An interesting thing happened the other day. Not that something interesting happening is something of note. My existence is interesting and I don't like the concept of boredom. Perhaps I should say something unusual happened the other day.



Anyway. I went to my locker one morning, and found that my combination lock was gone. Weord. Especially weird since I had definately locked it the night before. Since I don't keep anything of value in my locker, I thought little of it. However the next day I went to my locker to get my overalls and found that my combination lock was on it again. "Oh good" I thought. But it was not all good. The combination had been changed, which is easy enough to do with these locks. Thankfully I got help from an expert lock technician (read locker thief unless you are PC) who showed me how to work out combinations. Very interesting.



Taumaranui

Jono is now back. He drove up from Wellington on Tuesday. I decided to drive down and meet him. It was a beautiful trip. I loved the scenery. We met in Taumaranui and had dinner. Nice litttle town actually. I wouldn't mind living there. I even picked up a hitchhiker on the way down. The Alfa seems to manage hills better than other cars I've taken for drives. It effortlessly tore up hills even in 5th. Nice. Jono had a minor accident on the way to meeting me, but thankfully, both him and the car were ok to get back. God is very good.



Tennis

I gave my little brother James (11) a game of tennis the other morning. Wowsers. He is good. I did manage to win, but he is an excellent player for his age. I'd actually like to play doubles with him. If anyone wants a game let me know!

Character

You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.

James A. Froude (1818 - 1894)

Grand Canyon

Score! My Grand Canyon rave from yesterday is in the Herald today. Pity the person editing it lengthened the first sentence. It was lacking punch. Oh well better in than out anyway.

Prayer Matter

Please pray for my mum. She's in hospital at the moment due to a negative reaction to the chemo. She has a low white blood cell count and has an infection.

Grand Canyon

Check A12 of the Herald, and then read on.





Don't be lazy now.....





I read Andrew Gumbel's comment about the creationist book on the Grand Canyon with great interest. I loved the way that it 'scientifically' dismissed the creationist perspective without providing any evidence or reason for it being an 'absurd theory' and ‘anti science’ other than it disagreed with broadly accepted interpretations. If the theory is so absurd as he and many scientists would say, why do they bother to publicly attack it and attempt to discredit it? Perhaps it isn’t as absurd as they are telling us. The only 'anti-science' viewpoints that I could see in the article were the viewpoints held by 'rationalists' and 'scientists' who seem to think their theory is fact and above all criticism. That's not science guys.

Quote of the Week

This week is the Kennedy clan's motto.



"Avise le fin"

translated.....

"Consider the end"



What a great motto... must be from a great clan comprising of great individuals.

Manage or Lead?

"Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things."

Peter Drucker and Warren Bennis



And;



"Effective Management without effective leadership is like straightening deck chairs on the Titanic"



Trogdor

Trogdor has a cave. I made it for him this afternoon. He is lurking there now. He is ready to devour those who dare to pass.

Rain

I felt it was going to rain today, and it did. I don't know if I should be scared that I can predict weather better than weather forecasters.



Progress

My goals are ticking along nicely. I am really getting the hang of Excel, and have made up some good spreadsheets for things at work. It is an amazingly useful programme, and I am only touching the surface of what it can do.



Book 1: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

Book 2: The Purpose Driven Life.

Book 3: The Christian Ministry.

Bible Book: I Peter



That's me at the moment!



Youth Leaders Meeting

Dwaine, Louise, Kirsten and myself had our first C.I.A meeting for this year last night. It was sooo good. There are two main things we want to do better than last year. The first is creating a servant-hearted youth group. the second is encouraging our 'core' to invite their friends to youth.... so we can preach to them hehehe. God has really blessed us with a united leadership team.



Font Size

Why has my font size to previous posts changed?

BBC's silent treatment here



14.01.2004



The BBC is to broadcast a live radio performance of an orchestra playing four-and-a-half minutes of silence.



John Cage's seminal work 4'33" will be the highlight of a concert on Radio 3.



The piece consists of four minutes and 33 seconds' worth of nothing. In readiness for the performance, Radio 3 bosses will have to switch off their emergency back-up system - designed to cut in when there is an unexpected silence on air.



The work has never been performed by an orchestra or broadcast on national radio in Britain before.



The BBC described Cage's piece, written in 1953, as "ambient silence".



It will be broadcast as part of the station's annual Composer Weekend.



TV viewers will be able to tune into BBC Four an hour later and watch the orchestra "performing" the piece.



Well for goodness sake. The words 'lost' and 'conned' come to mind. Presumably you'll have all the snobby musicians attending/listening, and talking about it as if it were some great work of art. "Oh I liked it better when the London Symphony performed it." Yeah go on.

Hmmm

I could be bothered, and then I couldn't.

Quote of the Week



Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.

Mark Twain



Goals

For those of you who don't know me, and couldn't tell I wasn't serious in my last post......I think goals/resolutions are a wonderful idea. Getting around to them is another thing. However when you've got Dad on your back like I did, they better be forthcoming. So I have come up with my list of goals for 2004.



My English teacher once wrote on an essay of mine "Say more with less". It was a great help. More delving, less froth. Less width more depth. Well that is a maxim that can be transferred from my writing to my life. Do less, but do it better. So this year I am cutting all the things I have been burdened with in the past year. I am refocusing on where I think God has called me, and I will put the time that I have gained (by cutting out other activities) doing a better job of the things I am doing.



Here is my goal list for 2004:-



Spiritual

· I will read through a minimum of 12 good solid Christian books this year.

· I will aim to read and study a book of the Bible per month.

· Every month on the last day of the month I will crack open the old prayer box.

Intellectual

· I will aim to get a good understanding of Excel.

Work

· Work my hardest to God’s glory, not for men.

· I would like heaps of opportunities to share my faith, and I want to take the opportunities I get.

Physical

· At least once per week I will go for a walk of at least 30 minutes.

Financial

· I aim to add $x to my term deposit savings account.

· I will keep an expenditure record to insure I stick to my financial plan for 2004.

C.I.A.

· This year I want to see the C.I.A touch team set up along with T’s and weekly practices.

· Continue the relationship focus of C.I.A, but get to deeper levels with the young guys

· I want to see C.I.A become a more servant focused group.

· I want to see friends of the young people beginning to attend regularly.

· This year I want to encourage young people to attend evening church.

· To find two young people and begin to train them up for leadership.

Other

· I will continue writing my personal journal.





All attempted relying on God's grace.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone! God bless you all.



As yet I haven't made any New Year's Resolutions. I am finding this difficult. You see, the trick is to set these resolutions with low expectations. To many people forget this. They try the biggies, like stop smoking, exercise three times a day etc etc.... and when they fail they get depressed. Why not be easy on yourself, and set low expectations which you won't be so upset about when you constantly fall short of them. Like "This year I hereby declare that I shall at some points of time not smoke".



Alternatively set such vacuous resolutions, that you can't help but keeping them. For example "This year I plan to watch less TV." That my friends is a very sneaky resolution. Less TV eh? Less TV than what? Or how about "This year I plan to be more proactive." More proactive than what or whom? No matter what you do you can be assured that you must be keeping it.