2 weeks in Cyprus

So Becky and I came over to Cyprus for a couple of weeks.  The last time we visited was almost 2 years ago, so this is our first time here as a married couple.

It's relaxing, and interesting, and fun, and weird being back in Cyprus.  A few things have changed, many people come and go, which is usual...

We've been catching up with loads of people from the local church (various congregations), been sailing with my dad twice, been to a performance at theatre antidote, looked at their lighting system and helped look at the audio stuff they have, played loads of Settlers of Catan & Ticket to Ride with my parents and their usual Catan-Cronies (hi guys! Hope you like your new title...), we visited Nicosia, and went across (briefly) to the North, spent time with the cats (me being somewhat cat-starved), went for walks by the salt-lake, I bought a Cyprus coffee maker, and some other bits of (tasteful) Cypriotness.  Partly because I like Cyprus coffee, and partly because I hope we'll be heading back towards the ship(s) at some point, and would like to have some stuff from the country to show people.

I can't figure out how to make the webcam take pictures (I'm writing on mum's chromebook) so you'll just have to wait for photos of the coffee maker.

Anyway. (I can't write a blogpost without at least one paragraph starting with 'Anyway'.) We're off to the UK again in a couple days, which will be odd again.

As I mentioned, briefly, we are looking at heading back towards the ship(s) at some point.  Probably for a few months at the end of the year, if we can, and see if maybe we should be going out there for a few years again at some point - when, we don't know.

I'm looking forward to seeing our friends in the UK again soon,  but not really looking forward to the weather, or work, to be honest.  Seeing live theatre stuff again... I miss it a lot.  And being at sea, even if it is on a little boat.  And warm weather, even if not that warm.    OMNIvision is doing some cool stuff, and the team is amazing, and I'm glad to be part of it.  But documentary-type video production, media-engineering and web development are kind of interesting, but not really exciting any more for me.

Thinking that next week I'll probably be fixing broken mic cables and fighting stupid Internet Explorer broken-ness makes me very gloomy.

Still.  I'm in Cyprus now, spent the day sailing with my wife, my dad, currently I have a cat purring on my lap, about to play a game of Settlers, and go out for a meal this evening with some old friends, so, I really shouldn't complain!  This has been a really good fortnight.

Techy post

I appologise for how techy and geeky and boring this post is.

I even find it so myself.

But I need to get this off my chest, so I can actually write about interesting stuff later...

And some geeky people may actually find something comprehensible in here.  Perhaps even interesting.

If you want to read it, then if your eyes glaze over with techiness, then stop reading, drink a glass of water, scroll down to 'And another thing', and read from there.


So then.

Most of my recent work has been on the omnitube.org website.

It's a site I put together with David when I visited OMNIvision 4 years ago (now that seems weird!).  We put it together in about 2 weeks, based on a well known large complex CMS (Content Management System) called Joomla, which was the OM standard web-site-software-package, a few very large complex modules for that, specifically "VirtueMart", plus a bunch of my own hacks in php/javascript, plus a load of very clever HTML/CSS from David.  Since then, I'd done a few fixes for them, logging on from a 'net cafe in Singapore, and when Becky and I arrived at OMNIvision 2 years ago, it was basically in the same state.


The trouble was that in the 2 years since we'd put it together, the internet had changed quite a lot, and we hadn't had the time to really work on OMNItube to change with it.  Joomla had advanced significantly, as had Virtuemart, and alas, we couldn't smoothly upgrade to the latest versions of those without majorly breaking everything.


About a year ago (from now), I decided it was about time to do something about this, as I was scared that a now 3 year old install of joomla/etc without being able to have security updates was a bit scary.  Especially as we wanted to sell videos online, and DVDs, and so were doing credit-card type security stuff.  And the system admin wanted to upgrade the server, and I thought doing that would probably break everything again.


I spent about a week trying to upgrade things to the latest versions of joomla and virtuemart.  Some bits I got almost close to working, but in the end it just totally bogged me down.  Joomla + Virtuemart + all the plugins and modules which were installed to make everything work as we wanted ended up at around 7000+ files, and 800'000 lines of code.  Not joking.  So tracking down bugs and errors and trying even to find which function I was looking for took forever, and I simply don't have a big enough brain to hold that much in my head at once.

So after a week or two of working hard to try and upgrade things, I gave up, it was just too big a job for me to do on my own.  I'd made no progress, and it was still a big stinkin' mess.


We also had some new features we wanted to get working. Specifically, iTunes subscriptions, XML sitemap, facebook commenting/liking/etc, and related product lists.  The "search" system was also very broken, giving pretty much useless results most of the time.


I'd just read an article online about making stuff simpler, 'the no-framework framework' or something like that.  And looking at the SQL database, I figured I could write the iTunes and sitemap features we wanted in just pure basic php.  So I did.  It took about 3 days, which was pretty good, I thought, considering I'd not really done significant amounts of programming in about 4 years.

So then – perhaps alas? – I thought, well, why not re-write the whole of OMNItube in a similar manner?  I mean, how hard can it be?  It's a very simple website, after all....

In 2 weeks after that, I'd put together a quick 'demo' of the site, which took it's data from the joomla database, had all the basic functionality of the front end,  but in 700 lines of code, TOTAL.  No Joomla, No Virtuemart, nothing.

OK, so it was only the front end, if you wanted to actually add a new video or something you needed to edit the database manually, rather than use the horrendously over-complex somewhat-broken-by-our-CSS-mods joomla back-end, but hey!

700 lines of code is something I can hold in my head, no problem.  Way better than 800 thousand!

So anyway, that's been the big project for me, over the last year.  It's taken me 3 re-writes, which is what took so long.  I really should have spent a lot longer learning stuff and looking at alternatives before launching in to it as I did...

I first wrote it doing all the SQL in-line, sort of saying "I need a list of the products, so the SQL for that is SELECT...blah.blah.blah" and so writing it then and there.  Which works for very simple stuff.  But I began to find patterns, of course, and so wrote functions and classes to abstract stuff out, which was good!  But each time I did something like that, it meant re-factoring and writing stuff I'd already done, to make use of the new abstract methods I was coming up with.

Eventually, though, it was all working, pretty much.

 I slowly switched over bits of the live system to my new creation over time,  so the video embedding system was first, then the iTunes feeds, then the front end, eventually, and finally I was able to delete the joomla system, and run entirely on my much smaller simpler pure-php non-frameworked version.  I guess about 6 to 8 months ago?

So after the crazy summer, I did a bit of cleaning up, backups, version-management, etc, And a guy called Chris came to work with us, who is interested in doing web / programming stuff.   So I chatted with him, showed him OMNItube, as it was then, and told him about my future plans.

I'd found a cool looking database library for PHP called 'Propel', which did much of the grunt work of doing SQL database querying instead of us having to do it.  I thought it looked cool, and would save us a lot of work in the future, and so Chris started work on porting OMNItube over to using Propel.  He also figured out a bunch of stupid stuff I'd been doing before, and found much better, simpler ways to do it.  Templating things, for the big example.

In some ways, I'd not really wanted to be working on any more OMNItube stuff for a while though.. I kind of thought 'it's working, I should probably just leave it until next year or something'.  But then after Chris left, I wanted to get his project all merged in to the main system, and not leave things in a mixed state, with 2 versions, his almost-done version, and the online-one with changes to it that I'd needed to make since he started....

Anyway.  I've spent the last few weeks hacking hard at OMNItube, until now it's stable and running well using the new Propel based system.  It's much simpler, much better, the administration/back-end thing is very cool, and generally just works great.

The whole thing is now 7000 lines of PHP, plus a few hundred of javascript and html, but still, that's quite manageable, and I'm reasonably happy with it.  I've even open-sourced one of the smaller more generic bits of the system, and plan to put a few more modules online too, in the hope other people can find them useful in the future.

I've learned a lot, during this project.  I understand from experience a load of programming concepts a lot better than I used to before.  I've learned quite how much I dislike PHP, for one thing.  It really is a botch on top of a hack on top of a temporary way to fix a problem.  If I were starting the project now, I think I would pick a cleaner, simpler, better language.  Possibly ruby, python, LISP, javascript, perl5, or even haskell.

Another thing though, I'm really bored of web development.  It's so much effort, and in the end, all you're left with is a bunch of patterns of pixels on a screen.

I SO miss acting, theatre, drama, etc.

And the trouble is, after a day fighting with programming problems, I don't then feel capable of doing anything creative.  It's like my brain has just given up, as has my emotional capacity to care about creativity.  All I want to do is crash, which isn't very nice for Becky, nor very helpful in building relationships, in staying up to date with anything actually interesting, or in keeping in practice with Clarinet or juggling or writing plays or whatever else I'd prefer, if I were less frustrated and computered-out to actually do.

Writing, for instance.  When I've been writing code, or trying to write code all day, I have no ability to write on this blog, say.  Or write newletters, or emails, letters, or even SMSs.

I've not really touched OMNItube now in about a week, which is why I'm able to write this post... but even still, I'm not quite able to break my brain out of that mould enough to write about anything interesting... all I can do is write about writing code.

Which I guess is a step in the right direction.

I'll write a more general, non-techy post soon

There is a reason...

There is a reason why I prefer text based / commandline / unix interfaces.

"Why?" You may ask?

So I had to update a website – basically changing from '2011' to '2012' – for someone.  Once I got in to the file manager (web based) I could find the graphics files to replace, reasonably easily, and upload new ones.

But I needed to update the text of the banner.  No .html files, or .inc or anything to edit.

So I went to the "WYSIWYG" editor section of the site.  I could edit everything, except that part.  And the footer.  And the page title. So, I could edit the "articles", but not much else.

After hunting around for a while, I decided to try the "Website Management" area.  Total different interface again, loads of settings boxes and tabs.  I found there on different pages where I could set the page title, and so on.  But I couldn't find the banner! Anywhere!

Eventually, this morning, I found it.

In "Website Management" -> "Structure" -> "Website Settings" -> "Code Injection" -> "Advanced" -> "Site Banner HTML Override -- Edited"

I hadn't found it before, because the section I needed was "Site Banner HTML Override", and to find that, I needed to look through a drop-down box which was displaying "Extra Header Code (within )" with some javascript includes.


SERIOUSLY.

What is wrong with just having a bunch of text files, and then letting me type

"grep 2011 *"

And it giving me a list of files to edit?  HOW is this graphical interface any easier?

OK.  So 'grep' isn't common English, I know.  Learning basic unix does have a steep looking learning curve.  At first.

In case you're interested, I started, months and months ago, writing an "English-like" command shell.

So you could type commands like:

"list all files which contain 2011"

and it should tell you.

It's on sourceforge, the first alpha versions of the code.


http://sourceforge.net/projects/daftshell/

The whole idea of 'natural language' interfaces fascinates me.  I should work on daftshell again, one of these days.

So. Yeah.  Graphical "easy" systems aren't always easy.

Windows Movie Maker

I wrote this a few months ago in a prayer meeting.  I know.  Very holy of me.

Windows Movie Maker [C:\Program Files\Movie Maker\MOVIEMK.exe] is a highly virulent productivity virus.  Not only effecting the computer it is hosted on, but having a socially engineered payload which self-propagates through USB sticks, video/data projectors, and various presentation media.

Reports have come in of this virus' unique capability to be transmitted through analogue forms such as VHS tape, and occasionally film.

Symptoms:

• Audience hypnotism
• Hours of time wasted by 'editor' and 'viewers'
• Computer lock-ups and data-loss
• Lowered expectations of quality
• Copyright infringement
• Physical injury
• Death

Response Actions:

• CTRL-ALT-DEL

[small print.  Dear lawyers, et al.  This is what's known as parody.  Just like the word 'Movie' is in the program title.  In other words, a joke.]

Beauty in the eye of the beholder?

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"... or is it?

By saying it is, we say beauty is only a subjective quality.

But by saying it isn't – by saying that something may be beautiful without our being able to appreciate it as beautiful – we divorce ourselves from our experience and our association between words and description...

Is it possible to say

"It's beautiful, but I don't like it."

Which I think I may have said, from time to time. In that I can see elements and aspects which, maybe I know, are considered beautiful, or perhaps I can see an underlying elegance and purpose, but aesthetically I find it displeasing... Some of Rembrant's paintings would fall in to this category.

The thing is, am I just susceptible to the cultural conditioning of my upbringing in saying something like this? I have preconceived notions of what is beautiful and what isn't? But then, my aesthetic sense is also formed (to a large degree) by the same...

So there's a whole philosophic field based around these very questions.

But I guess I'm kind of wondering... how variable language is. How our thoughts are modified by the language and words we use, and yet the language and words we use are modified and morphed by our thoughts.

So often, everything seems so vague, so fuzzy, so indefinable, so inexplicable, so possibly variable, so uncertain and indefinate, and so futile. *sigh*

You become your parents,

Or so they say.

And hereby, I think I will prove it true, to some degree:


Yes, I'm blogging pictures of settlers games, and home made food.

Now for some context.

So we got back from honeymoon two weeks ago - which means we've been married now for a month! Incredible.

Honeymoon was amazing - the perfect holiday, I think. We stayed in this gorgeous cottage / gatehouse / lodge , in Gatehouse of fleet:

Went for loads of walks (Dumfries & Galloway are lovely!):

(where I took quite a few photos of flowers and insects, cos it's cool)



Yeah. Honeymoon was cool! I thoroughly recommend it. Getting married first is a pretty good idea, too.

We visited Cream of Galloway who make icecreams:

(I love this photo!!! Becky isn't so keen on it though. heh heh heh)

Drank lots of coffee:

(I figure if I put a funny one of me, I'll get less flak for putting a crazy one of Becky...)

The house had a log fire,
where we made smores:


And generally had a wonderful time. Thanks to everyone who came to the wedding, helped us in so many ways, and gave us gifts and all that cool stuff. Getting married is awesome! Being married is even better.

So now we're back, we've been playing with some new kitchen toys (real chef knives, a blender, breadmaker, new plates and bowls and pans and pots and a yoghurt maker... wow! I feel really thankful and very embarrassed in a good way...). Thus the food pictures:

(making pancakes using a blender to make the batter - is this the ultimate in laziness? Whatever - it's fun! :-) )

Yes - we're having fun. Not having to walk half an hour home each night is VERY nice too. I may well post more pictures too, as I slowly sort them out. We haven't actually got all the pictures back from the wedding, we've seen some of them, but I'll post some of those too, later.

briefupdate

soveryquicklysorrythere'snotimeforalongerblogupdate,
I'mgettingmarriedin3daystimeandsoamquitebusysorting
outstuffandrunningaroundemailingandthingswhichiswhy
Ihaven'tbeenupdatingheremuchI'msureyouforgivemeso
longthanksI'llpostmorewhenbackfromHoneymoonGod
blessyouall,goodnight!

Jesus' teaching

Sometimes it seems a bit scattered - all over the place. I'd wondered for a while about the sermon on the mount, as He seems to jump from one topic to another in a somewhat haphazard manner.

Check this out:

(on their site)

ESV Bible - Matthew 7:1-14

Judging Others

"Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. ³ Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? ⁴ Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye? ⁵ You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

"Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.

Ask, and It Will Be Given

⁷ "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. ⁹ Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? ¹¹ If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

The Golden Rule

¹² "So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

¹³ "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. ¹⁴ For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few...

This is how the ESV sets out the passage. As you can see, it's nicely broken up in to paragraphs, with nice easy to spot headings, different verse numbers, etc. Usual Bible Printing Style(.css). Same as the NIV, KJV, NASB, and most other Bibles you find these days.

The trouble is, I can't imagine Jesus teaching quite like that. No pauses, just "1,2,3,59,60,61,10008,10009,10010" kind of thing.. No "Oh yes. By the way..." between totally unrelated topics.

Yes, OK. So they're all related to love, and relationships. Kind of.

Try and find something Jesus said that isn't, in some manner of speaking.

Anyway...

I was trying to figure this out.

In our study group, we're using John Stott's notes, which give a rough interpretation as follows:

1-5, "Don't judge others"

6, "Don't waste your time trying to preach to unbelievers who refuse to believe."

7-11, "Ask God for stuff, and He'll give it to you."

12, "The Golden Rule".

13-14, "You must believe the right doctrine!"

15-..., "False prophets, etc"

Which although it fits nicely with the verse numbers, and the named paragraphs, jumps all over the place in terms of topic.

So Here's my take.

What if v6 ISN'T anything at all to do with unbelievers?

Check out 18:15-35, (the parable of the unrepentant servant, etc) as well as 6:14, just before this bit of the sermon as well, then Romans 2, 1 John (the whole letter...), and so on.

God seems pretty insistent about us forgiving others, and Him NOT forgiving us if we don't.

So as Good Evangelical Christians, we say "salvation is by grace, not works," and include forgiveness as a work - in other words - salvation isn't dependent on whether we forgive others.

BUT.

How can God forgive us when we don't forgive others? What if v.6 is actually about us Christians being the dogs & the swine? When we don't forgive others...

So then that ties v.6 in to the bigger picture.

7-11 is still a bit of a tangent.

I imagine Jesus trying to get his thought across, but almost stumbling over his sentences. Stopping, starting, trying again, trying to paint enough pictures that they would understand.

(He does rather lose His rag later, 15:16...)

So then. v7-11. (In the style of biblical re-interpretation popularized by the amazing Adrian Plass)

So Jesus pauseth, pushéd back his hair distractedly, and triethed another angle: "Look guys, God giveth to you, SO FREAKING GENEROUSLY, getst ye over yourselves already, and be generous to others... (includeth forgiving them)"(DSV).

Which ties in nicely, actually.

Then the rest of the chapter, taken in the same light, also works.

I'm not too keen on verse numbers and chapters. Certainly in the way that English bibles have of splitting them all up like this - perhaps in ways that aren't intended by the original author. We have no way of knowing.

If this passage is intended this way, then take the sub-paragraphs. The bit about "Ask, Seek, Knock", and so on, for instance. It's often / usually preached as a "Ask God for swag, and He'll give it to ya!" (and in more Calvinist churches, they add "As long as it is within His Will to do so..."). But if it's NOT?

Maybe there are lots of little things we take so totally out of context, that we might even think Jesus was OK with going to war over oil. Or revenge. Or giving up on people. Or loaning and expecting interest. Or using God's money to build a comfortable life for us on earth! Just think - it's hilarious what we might come up with.

Well. Hilarious in the "horrifying" sense of the word.

I know this is rather rough... but what do you think?

Theology and Perspective (Part 3...)

First check out Part 1, and Part 2.

So, returning to my original quote: love isn't a feeling, it's a decision.

And I said, there's some truth to it. However - I don't think that's the whole story.

We all long for love, and when we think of it, imagine the amazing soaring heights: long walks in the woods; laughter; passion; kisses in the moonlight; being held by someone who just wants to be with you; that secret, hidden spark; being known and knowing, intimately, deeply, unjudgingly; the look that's meant just for you...

And Josh Harris et al. are right in saying it's more than just the feeling we get from these things (incredible, inexplicable, wonderful and rewarding though it is...), and we must have something more, a decision, an act of the will, which keeps us going through the dark times. Though thick and thin, health and sickness, better or worse, richer or poorer. The thing which keeps us going though we're angry and tired, and the one we love drives us mad. When everything goes wrong and we want to give up - that "not-giving-up-ness", is also love. And without it, all of the first list are just a crashing cymbal, or breath of wind, cool, sweet, beautiful, but perishable, and of no lasting significance.

But the thing is, I don't think that just the decision is love.

And I think we can - by looking at it, or teaching it this way - miss the fact that 90% of the time*, life isn't passionate highlights, nor terrible lows, but plodding along in the day-to-day mundane boring normality.
[*Yes, I know. Fictional statistic for the sake of rhetorical prose. Forgive me.]

Does that sound bad?

If you get married, and have kids, then by the time they are old enough to leave home, you'll have spent two thousand HOURS ... doing the dishes.

Is that bad?

No. It's an integral part of love. Without the details, picking up the trash and the dishes, vacuuming the carpets, driving to work, none of the "perks" of love can exist - nor would they mean anything if they did.

What we need, I think, is not to say "I have decided to love", but "I am love". Following God's description of Himself in John's gospel as love. The famous passage in 1 Corinthians comes to mind, of course, as well. So instead of thinking, "I've decided to love Becky", or "I feel in love with Becky", I must say, "I am love Becky." (grammarians, have fun)

Then the things I do, the things I think, the things I say, will all come from that. The who I am.

And it must become part of the who.

So then, how does this all reflect back to theology, and the my thoughts about our perspective on God?

Well, I struggle to connect a lot of the bits and pieces of Christianity.

The theology, on one hand, with the practical out-working on the other, loving people on the third hand, loving God on the fourth, loving myself with the fifth hand, spiritual experience with the sixth, and by this stage, I've more than run out of arms.

The Christian life is for Octopuses.

But back to the point of this - I believe we all long for the excitement and adventure of faith. Of being part of something enormously bigger and more fantastic than ourselves; of knowing something (someone) deep inside of our hearts; fighting against evil; forgetting ourselves as we proclaim with great passion and joy the great truths, of sitting discussing until the wee hours about how fantastically beautiful each aspect of our Creator is, delving deeper and deeper into something incredibly vast and unending, and also of going out amongst the poor and needy, healing the sick, giving up luxuries with joy, being a useful part of a bigger kingdom.
[Note the '3 winds', btw]

Adrian Plass jokes of his fantasy walking through a church hall healing people in wheel-chairs.

But the biggest thing, I think, within this is the aspect of "forgetting ourselves".

We're SO self-obsessed, and when we finally forget ourselves, and reach in the reality outside of our own pettiness, we truly live.

I've been thinking about it a lot. Why books can be so absorbing; why I want to escape to Narnia, or Middle Earth, or Hogwarts; why it's so much easier to watch an episode of "Top Gear" than to write emails or invite the neighbours 'round for tea...

I think firstly, losing ourselves; Not having to "think about number 1", and get away. But then there's also the other bits of faith - being part of something enormously bigger, deep truths and fighting against evil, growing deeper...

To me, Narnia and all that is so very attractive, as fighting dragons and hunting in the forests seems so much easier than the battles I face. Peter grows up and becomes a man through slaying the wolf of Queen Jardis. I must grow up by memorising verses and remembering to take out the trash?

I'm convinced that this "escapism" is not wrong. It catches us, with the secret "joy" that C.S. Lewis talks of, and awakens our hearts to the calling of God. I cannot believe that God did not intend us to be adventurous. Just as it takes forever for Gandalf to convince Bilbo that hobbits are actually very good at adventuring, and that a safe happy small life in a hobbit-hole is actually a wasted life.

What we need is to be those adventurers, those bold warriors, those royal alive on-fire Lords and Ladies, as we do everything. As we wash the dishes. As we scrape ice off the car. As we pay our rent.

Just believing the right Christian theology - isn't enough. Just making a decision - isn't enough. Just discussing the right Christian concepts - isn't enough. Just doing the right Christian things - isn't enough.

We have to be christians.

Most of the time, I don't even know where to start.

Theology and Perspective (Part 2 of?)

Link to Part 1 (Read it First)

I played a bit with trying to make Venn diagrams in 3d. Using different shaped spheres, and so on. It's quite hard to make diagrams which actually help to make the subject clearer. Usually it actually becomes less comprehensible.

But here's the best I could come up with, showing 3 'winds' I believe are currently blowing through the Evangelical world:



Obviously, there's a heck of a lot more going on - just as in my previous post there are an awful awful lot of groups who don't fit into those gross generalisations. But I'm just focusing on a few areas - humour me. You can extrapolate the concepts out to whichever field of theological hooha you like.

So anyway. The 3 "winds":

Proclamation: A lot of people, especially amongst the Reformed Christians, but also amongst the Positive Christians are very 'preachy' – in that their primary effort seems to be going in to telling the rest of the world their position. All the traditional study aids go into this: exegesis, hermeneutics, preaching, everything goes into 'Tell the world the truth!'. And it's not just the Reformed groups, but all across the spectrum. There isn't a lot of open-minded-ness, because there IS an absolute truth, and our job is to tell everyone about it! One of the major shortfalls is that the people most influenced by this wind tend (I observe) to not be willing to challenge their own beliefs, but once they've "got it sorted" and have answers they're happy with, are happy to debate for the sake of convincing others, but aren't open to changing themselves. I met some Mormons a few months ago who told me, 'We'd like to tell you about what we believe, but if you want to just discuss and try to tell us about your beliefs, then we'll just go elsewhere. We're not going to be converted.'

Discussion: Especially in the so called 'Emerging Church', much effort seems to go into 'The Conversation'. In many ways, I suspect this is a reaction against the proclamation group - who were very much de regueur during the '80s, and are perceived to have built into almost a fortress of dogma. The Discussion seems to be reacting away from that, saying, 'Maybe Wayne Grudem didn't have everything right. Maybe the world is a bit more complex than a quick Systematic Theology can describe. It's certainly open for discussion. I don't know, but it's interesting – what do you think?' And in a sense, that's the big difference. What do you think? vs. This is the truth! And it's not just one group saying this – I think it's across the whole Church. Some people are becoming more open to uncertainty and relational discussion – which is positive, I think. And also, everything being open for discussion is also positive. It helps us to not become blinded.

It is a harder line to walk with integrity, though, I think, as if everything is open for discussion, how do you really know what you believe? And do you really believe it? It can also turn very easily into 'There is no absolute truth? Right? 'Cos, everyone has their own perspective, innit? Whaddya say?'

Doing: Many people have become disillusioned with much of this 'speaking not acting', and have just said "Stuff it, we're going to go and DO what Jesus said, never mind if we get it a bit wrong. He said He'd be with us, I'm sure He'll help us get it right along the way." Inspired by Mother Teresa, Saint Francis, etc. The so called "New Monastic Movement" may well lean this way. I lean this way myself, I think. It's partly why I chose to join Doulos, rather than go to a classroom based theology study. I wanted to DO, and not be spoon fed theory any more. The strength of this group is that it can become very much more loving and a real force for good, and earn the respect of non-Christians, and be a very visible light and salt in the world. Sitting in a parish centre talking about obscure theology over bad instant coffee - or hollering hellfire-n'-brimstone from a pulpit on the whole just get us ignored. The weakness is a tendency to become very "social gospel". 'Jesus told us to feed the hungry, care for the poor, etc, and it doesn't matter what we believe! If you're a Buddhist, but you're doing what Jesus said, then hey! That's pretty good too...'

Now one point / question. Do you need Right Beliefs (Orthodoxy) to live the Right Light (Orthopraxy), or can you only really develop the Right Beliefs when you're already living the Right Life - already following Jesus?

OK. So all of this is still very basic, very simple stuff. It is building there, And I will get back to my first post's beginning, very soon. This is definitely the sceneic route to where I think I'm actually going with this blog topic thing...

[on to Part 3]

Theology and Perspective (Part 1)

We frequently get told the typical 'Love isn't a feeling - it's a decision' aphorism beloved of the Joshua Harris school of thought.

And, of course, there's a lot of truth in that.

Going by the Self Help philosophy, virtually everything is a decision. You can decide to be happy, sad, excited, motivated, depressed, whatever - and Make It True In Your Life™.

And of course, we do have an element of choice in how we react to situations; our responces are not all pre-determined by DNA, our upbringing, nor instinct. Choosing to live purposefully (not in the Purpose Driven Life sense) - saying 'I'm going to sail to this specific place, whether or not it's easy, whether or not the wind is against me, whether or nor it's raining.' is more likely, I feel, to lead to something meaningful than simply being tossed around by whatever weather (whether favourable or not).

Ha! I managed it. Weather followed by whether in a sentence. Betcha didn't see that one comin'. All this blogging stuff is helping my spelling to impruve.

Now the Perciever (MBTI) in me says 'hang on a second, mate - you've got the whole thing backwards. It's not about the destination, it's about the journey. So actually, taking what weather comes at you along the way - being flexible; able to adapt to the situation; enjoying the mood - is more important than whether you're actually got some place to finally end up. And when you end up there, you're really just en route to somewhere else! There are no desinations, only stepping stones.'

So here's now an interesting concept. Totally un-scientific, un-tested, un-official and un-ilateral (OK, OK, superfluous punctuation for the sake of continuing the sequence humour. Sorry). The Church, in general, especially the Reformed branches of it, are dominated by J types. The theologians, especially, of the NTJs. This leads very easily to Us/Them; Saved/Unsaved; Elect/Damned; Christian/Heathen; Religious/Secular distinctions. At some level, this is fine. When it's implimented by well integrated balanced and loving Js, it can become an inspiration to many, and allow huge, complex theological issues to be understood slightly better by us plebs. The trouble comes when we don't realise that it is an abstraction, and that every piece of theology that we come up with - no matter how brilliant or water-tight it seems - is merely the wrestling of a fallen finite mind with concepts of an infinite perfect God.

Those of us who are not NTJs, when we pick up on NTJ thought patterns, and try to live that style, often pick it up very badly, and express the worst elements of it. I feel that myself, when I try to think or live as a Calvinist, become the worst form of Calvinist. I don't have the capacity inside to take those black and white and apply them without either falling into Lord of the Flies over-bearing judgementalism and pettiness, or else wishy-washing it out into something which would have me burned at the stake for relativism - should the Reformation Inquisition ever catch me.

My natural tendancy, I feel, would be to go to almost the other extreme, and say 'Look at Jesus' life. How He seemed to get distracted along the way by the people He met. He didn't go charging around from destination to destination, but wandered around meeting, healing, teaching, loving. We're not called to judge people as saved or unsaved - we're called to love them, and point them to Jesus.'

There's quite a lot of books being published basically saying that. Theres whole streams of Christianity going into this philosophy quite deeply. And it annoys the hell out of the Reformed dudes. I saw a video clip of that scarily smiling Joel Osteen bloke saying "You know, I ain't called to tell people they're, you know, like, going to hell. I'm just called to encourage them to go to God. Tell them about His love, y'all.". This was being mocked by the Reformed crowd, who were saying 'unless you tell people that they're going to hell, and the only way to salvation is through Jesus Christ, then you're leading them astray, Osteen, you're a false prophet!'

Now Joel Osteen is on one waaaay out limb of the Feel-Good Self-Help neo-Prosperity Post-Schuller "positive Christianity" thing, while WotM and others who mock him are waaaay along the other wing. Most of us, I suspect, are not exactly "somewhere inbetween", but more like a third group, wandering after Jesus, trying to love Him, love others, figure out exactly what we believe, and trying not to get hit by collateral from the missiles being thrown around in the wings.

Something like this, maybe:

Although I think the following may actually be better:

Where do you fit into the spectrum?

(Part 2 of at least 3)

Areopress, coffee, etc...

So I thought it might be interesting to post about some things which are adding to my life here.

First post is coffee. I'm quite the coffee fan, over here. Compared so some people, not so much, but for Carlisle, quite high up the coffee freak ladder.

Unless there is a hidden coffee community I'm not finding somehow.

I don't have a massive budget for going to flashy cafes or expensive bistros or whatever all the time, so what I'm more interested in is good tasting home coffee.


Here's my current collection of coffee related clobber.

First a fun story, and then I'll go into more detail about everything else, so if you're not interested in coffee, then you can skip the end. :-)

So when I moved into this house with Euan, there was a french press / cafetiere in the cupboard, so I thought "Oh good - I don't need to buy anything for making coffee, I can use that". So the first morning I boiled the kettle, let it cool for a while I put some ground coffee in the cafetiere, and then poured the water in.

I thought it was a pyrex pot, but alas, I was wrong. There was a tremendous 'crack!' sound, and coffee started to leak from the bottom. Oh no! What to do, lah?

So since it was only leaking very very slowly, I thought, well, I won't waste the coffee, I'll let it brew, plunge it very carefully, then pour the coffee out - if any glass did shatter, the plunger/filter will clean it out, and then I can see how bad the damage is.

So duely I followed the above plan, until the pouring bit. I lifted up the pot, only to find that in fact the crack had been ALL the way around the base! So when I lifted it up, the base stayed on the work surface, and the rest of the pot came up in my hand.

The coffee, alas, followed the laws of physics (I know, I can hardly blaim it...) and went everywhere.

No coffee for me that morning.

So I bought a new french press to replace the one I'd exploded, but by that time, I'd already found
...
A Krups espresso/filter machine.
...
in Charlie? (the used clothes / stuff team cupboard, when you leave, you can leave anything you don't want to take with you for others to have).

So I was quite surprised to find this in Charlie - until I looked it up online.

It has terrible reviews.

Here's my take - it's kinda fun to play with, but I'm not convinced by the 'crema' that the espresso part produces. It feels kinda fake to me, almost like the machine is somehow 'frothing' it to make it seem more real or something. The coffee doesn't taste too horrible, just ... meh. Not really rich and interesting. Maybe un-set up temperature and pressure stuff? I dunno. I'm no expert on any of this! The milk steaming wand is very cheap and plasticy, as well as seeming near impossible to actually steam milk in proper microfoam also seems to taint the milk with a kind of rubbery aftertaste. Maybe it's just me though...

The coffee grinder I bought in singapore a few years ago, and it's been getting lots of use over the last 2 and a half years or so. A very worth while investment - grinding the coffee beans freshly makes the biggest difference to taste of anything that I've found.

The Moka pot is also lots of fun - it's quite a lot more work than the areopress to make coffee and clean again afterwards, but also makes very good coffee, with quite a different flavour to -

the weird syringe thingy on the right of the picture.

It's called an Areopress - it's a relatively new way of making coffee, very 'low tech' in some ways. It makes coffee in a kind of hybrid way between french press / cafetiere and a filter machine (with hints of espresso method dashed in for extra flavour). You mix the ground coffee with hot water, and let it get totally imersed, like a french press, and then use the synringe bit to push the drinkable coffee through a paper filter. It's incredibly easy to clean, makes very nice coffee very simply and quickly.

I'm totally a fan of the areopress now. It's so portable and rugged too, I'll easily be able to take it to conferences and other events.

So that's my first coffee post this week. We'll see if I can remember to post further...

Back in the UK - for a while.

Hello Blog.
Hello everyone who reads this blog.
Hello google-bot.
Hello world.

It's me. Daniel. Back again. Exciting, wot?

So, we're back in the UK. I arrived back here literally 4 hours before getting on to a bus to go to TeenStreet in Germany, which we (OMNIvision) were doing video and some sound and lights and so on for. After two weeks of running this event, which I will tell you all about - later, which was very cool, we came back to the UK.

10 days later, Adam, Becky and myself went across to the Nederlands for our friends Jurgens and Eleanor's wedding. Which was lots of fun. We came back after that to the the UK again.

Bridget (from that biggish place near New Zealand... um, forgottern what it's called. Aus something? Something with trailers? or something?) also came with us back to the UK, and was here with us for about a month, hanging out, working at OMNIvision, and so on.

Then 10 days ago (or so) Bridget took us over to Malta, so see the Logos Hope for a few days, and also Becky's dad and church there. I'd never been to Malta before, but Becky grew up there, so that was VERY cool. Malta is beautiful.

I'll be posting more detailed stuff and photos later.. This is just to catch y'all up to date, you know.

So. We then came back to the UK, last week.

Now for the next scattered layer of events in between those all.

Yesterday we ran the video and lights for the Northern Women's Convention, which we've been doing for the best part of a decade every year now, I believe.

On friday morning, we set up our whole smaller OB unit (the bus - aka "The Tardis") at the main office for devotions, we filmed a bunch of stories people were telling. We hadn't set up the unit in a while, so this was good to check everything was working before the Women's convention... one bad camera cable, one missing focus adaptor, not much else actually wrong.

Two weeks ago, just before going off to Malta I ran sound and we did a spill-over room for the local Baptist church - as they had a new minister arriving (for the first time in decades) and so there were a few hundred people along. I'm in the middle of overhauling our sound equipment / side-racks stuff, so it's good as well getting these smaller gigs to test things on.

I also went down to the Quinta and ran sound for them for their big 30 years Quinta+OM celebration a few weeks ago.

I do enjoy doing live sound stuff. I still wonder quite frequently if I should somehow go and do some more official training for it...

Oh well.

So, that's the grand scope of my last few months, I'll post more details soon.

This week...

Some pictures from the week.

Treatment for insect bites.

Measurements of the new theatre building.

My blender mockup. We're still discussing.

You can't work efficiently in blender on a laptop without an external keyboard and mouse.

Beautiful Greek letters! I find keyboards and mice from supermarkets are the cheapest, and the longest lasting. Apple and Microsoft branded mice - just say NO!

More clutter destined for the trash.

Why it may be worth going to Sunday Morning "Church Services"

At a Sunday morning in Birmingham, the dude running the event got up to lead a prayer. Being an Anglican service, it was a pre-written one. Alas, he picked the wrong one, and only realised half way through:

"Lord God, we have sinned, oops. Sorry..."

Thoughts...

We've booked our tickets to leave Cyprus in a month-ish. This time has gone SO fast ... it did last time too.

I've started thinking about "stuff". Very vague, I know. More, possessions type stuff. Here's a picture of my cupboard:


as you can see, crammed full of all kinds of bits and pieces. From recorders (blockflöten) to juggling balls to old marmite jars with elastic bands to rope to old telephones to candles to old CD players to scissors...

I know I'm naturally something of a hoarder, and don't want to throw stuff away... but on Doulos I think I either learned to be more balanced, or else some how got even more messed up! :-)

By the time I left AV, I had picked up quite a bit of "are we using it? No? Is it working? No? OK, then throw it away." - I know Ant and Adam will claim somewhat otherwise *cough*oldA&Hsound-desks*cough* - but I know I've actually changed a lot. So now, looking at all this stuff in my cupboard, things I haven't used in over 4 years now... I find it really hard to want to keep it.

How is it helping me to have this here? How is it helping anyone? Am I using it? No. Is it working? Well, some of it, kind of. Will I use it again?

Probably not... well... some of it? Maybe?

Sentimental value seems to be something I no longer really care about much.

I've thrown out the old hand-made juggling clubs (plastic milk bottles, newspaper and kitchen-roll centers :-) ) and broken telephones (for a juggling routine to do with communication), and some other odds and ends, but amn't sure what to do with the rest.

Does it actually behoove me ( I've been wanting to use that word for AGES! ha! Done it! ) to throw stuff away?

Now I'm going back to Carlisle for a few years, and getting married next year, I need to think more about such stuff, I guess. I will no longer be a batchelor, able to just keep random clutter in a cupboard. I'm fine with that. (I'm pretty sure I'll end up picking up more...)

I do have a lot of projects on the go at once. Juggling stuff - one day I will get back into it more; Obscure music stuff - I will take up the bagpipes one day; art stuff - I love painting, I just haven't done any for a while; computer programming - a hobby. I don't want a job of this! But a little is fun; graphic design... etc... etc...

But it's not very efficient. I know I need to prioritise, cut away the cruft. I don't NEED this stuff! But maybe not? Maybe actually having lots of clutter and things on the go is actually how I function best? Or maybe not?

Isn't it great being decisive? Well, perhaps? Or perhaps not? Some times? Er...

So.

How do you make big announcements?

Do you blow trumpets and dance and stuff?

Or pretend like nothing is up and act all blasé?

Which is less pretentious? Which is less gauche? (I am enjoying using all these fancy words, but I have to use the flippin' spell checker to make sure I get them right, which rather spoils the whole sophisticated air of the thing. Oh well.)

I kind of feel I should respect my British heritage, and get all worked up about the tiniest things (such as toasters, knots, AV, coffee machines, and so on) and drop big announcements as if they're specks of dust being flicked from ones mess-jacket (not that I have a mess jacket, but it sounds right, Bertie Woosterish).

Enough of this blithering.

I'm engaged to be married to the most wonderful girl in the world! Life is a happy thing, full of kittens and sunshine and gentle summer breezes, and stuff!

Hopefully that somewhat fell between the lines of fanfare and faux pas, hint and hyperbole, I shall now go and dance for a bit.

The Abomination is Dead.

I don't like Mobile Phones.

I was somewhat forced by various parents (well, mine, actually) to take one with me, when I first went off to Doulos, 5 years ago.

Here it is:



I named it "The Abomination".

5 years later, I have conceded that they are somewhat useful. Alas, I dropped it this week. It now only does this:



So it is deceased. Good bye Abomination.

Rest in Pieces.

Larnaca

We've been in Larnaca for a couple of weeks now, it's good spending time with mum and dad, the cats, friends, supporters, etc.

Not so good are the mozzie bites. I'm being rather eaten - if it's not mozzies, it's some other kind of wee beastie of the "eating daniel" variety.

We've been spending a lot of time reading, resting, and meeting people.

And playing a LOT of Settlers of Catan, probably the best board game around.

between a clock and the next place...

Again, it's that weird time - about a week before leaving. Time to start packing and preparing, yet also not quite late enough that you can pack everything without needing to unpack bits again over the next week.

I've just been reading this book, which is quite challenging. I recomend reading it. Basically, it's the story of a young radical student type, who couldn't sit back and watch all the injustice and insanity in the world, and couldn't support ways to end it from his couch or by sending a tenner a month to TearFund, but actually had to get his hands dirty, go live with the homeless in his area, visit Mother Teresa, work with them, and so on. The longish review on Amazon.co.uk is good - it is quite an americo-centric take on things. But suck the juice, spit the pips, you know.

So - yeah. Becky and I will be heading over to Cyprus in about a week, for a few months. It feels quite weird. We should be back here by September, God willing. So many details to organise, and also so much to just trust God about, things we have no control over.

Oh, btw, Bridget, this photo is for you:



OMNIvision's new mobile book shop opened for the first time yesterday! Since Becky has been running the thing so far, sorting the books and generally making things happen, she was running the cashdesk (the ones from Doulos, strangely enough, which got shipped over to us) and I was able to take her out for a tea and cheesecake break in the afternoon. Cheesecake is good stuff. The bookshop is doing well, we're all pretty excited to be able to provide this service for the church in Carlisle.

And here's the last photo for the day:



Playing with my camera, I found some open source firmware which lets me do very fast shutter speeds. A bit of a hack, but hey. Fun to play with.