Your result for The Which Discworld Character Am I Test...
You scored 90 intelligence, 47 morality, and 68 physical strengenth!
I recently discovered a Z-code interpreter for iPhone - Frotz - and my life is complete! Z-code is the way of coding those text based interactive adventure games which were the basis for my love of computers in the early 80's. There are any number of Z-code adventures which can be played on any Z-code interpreter, including several versions of the classic Will Crowther Colossal Cave/Adventure. But in particular Z-code was used by the company Infocom to produce some classic games of all time.
Ok, so I didn't camp out waiting in line, or even visit on the opening day, but I think that a visit within 48 hours of the opening "shows willing". The store was still pretty crowded (I'd say about 100 - 150) on each of the three floors, and it was exciting to be there. (The bagpiper busking directly opposite the Store just added to the vibe!)
See the rest of the pics (shot from my NON-iPhone, till 11th July) at Flickr.
Suzie is in the middle of a fine arts course which includes 2D imaging and digital photography, and the G5 is getting a bit long in the tooth, so we may return in the next few weeks to look at the 24" iMacs.
I'm now taking a new blog, nakedpastor (Darren put me onto ASBO Jesus, which in turn took me to nakedpastor). And this morning's post clicked with me, following my anti-institutional rantings of the other day.
Every once in a while I come to the realization that I don’t believe in church as it is. I don’t wish to support it. I don’t want to perpetuate its existence. I don’t want to reinforce its rules, its politics, its agendas, its programs. I want to get out of it altogether. I yearn to remove myself from this game completely and forever. I want, like the earliest hermits such as St. Anthony in Egypt, to retreat to the remotest desert and weave baskets. And I would do this not only as a way to get back in touch with raw simplicity and truth, but also as a demonstration of protest against the ecclesiastical system and its managers. Within, I’m done with it. When, oh when, will we ever ever realize that all we are doing with all of our ideas, visions, agendas, revolutions and reforms is tweaking that which imprisons us? We are the captains of modification. The result: people come along, take one look at the dolled-up corpse of our refined church, and say, “My, it looks really good!” just before we close the casket!
[From Flee to the Desert]
Well it's been a big week. Last Monday the removalists picked us up from sunny Cowra. They arrived at about 8.30am and left about 3.30pm. Airlie and I left at 5.30pm. Suzie left at about 7.00pm after cleaning the house (we're trying to sell it). Then a week ago today the removalists arrived at 9.00am at our new house and 3 hours later, left with the furniture in place and a mountain of boxes in the garage. We've been unpacking, cleaning, unpacking, cursing, unpacking and sleeping ever since.
Of course no move (and change of job) would be complete without a telecom fiasco, so of course I've had one, with my brand new mobile number turning out to belong to someone else who was very upset when suddenly their phone stopped working and I started getting their business calls! So I'm still waiting for the new mobile number, after which my business cards will have to be reprinted and all our friends and family will have to be sent a "Whoops those new contact details have changed already" email.
A nice thing is that my new employer pays for my internet access at home. A not-quite-so-nice thing is that it is 1/3rd the speed of the connection I used to have. Oh well, one of the first things they want me to look at is revamping the website. After I've done that (to show my IT 'cred') I'll ask for an upgrade of the Internet account - even if I have to pay the difference myself!
My new MacBook Pro is yet to arrive so in the office at the moment I am struggling to use the old computer which was left on my desk - MS Outlook on a Pentium 3 processor with a 15" monitor - Ugggggggh! If the Mac doesn't arrive soon I may expire!
Today was a 'down' day - I spent most of the day looking after Airlie while Suzie had a well-earned rest. Tomorrow I brave the Office again to get some important setting up stuff done and to look regularly and forlornly at the parcel delivery area for a package marked 'Apple'.
I've had it sitting around for a week or so, but this is the first time I've gotten to test out Ecto 3 which is in public beta (actually perhaps it's public alpha).
One of the things which looks nice is a media panel like the iLife apps to drag and drop photos, movies and audio. Here's a shot taken recently of Airlie, our adoreable daughter.
Other changes are not yet obvious.
Well, I don't know how long the link will last, but it was quite exciting to be in the local paper on Friday.
I've been trying out the new WebGallery option in iPhoto '08 and it's pretty spiffy looking.
See here.
HT to Evolving Thoughts for leading me to Mini-Mizer.
So is anyone using this? I like the idea but am unsure whether it's useful or a time waster. I would have plumped firmly for the latter but I seem to remember hearing that productivity Merlin Mann (of 43 Folders) uses Twitter, so now I'm wondering...
...mainly prompted by the amount of emotional energy being taken up by juggling moving houses and jobs, and more importantly my Dad's continued deterioration (after more than 3 months in hospital the doctors are now indicating that it may be unlikely that he will recover) but I did really want to write down the thoughts below somewhere.
I was listening to a few interesting podcasts from emergent uk when I heard a couple of people referring to emerging church in the context of people who are “believing without belonging”. I think the idea being highlighted was people can (and do) have Christian beliefs without needing to be 'joiners', without needing or wanting to commit to weekly attendance or being part of one 'congregation'.
On the other hand, most of the emerging church talk I had previously heard tended to talk about “belonging without (or before) believing”. The idea being that people want to belong and can be invited to join and experience Christian community without being subject to some checklist of beliefs. Once engaged with the community and having imbibed its values they would then be interested and prepared to hear about the beliefs which shaped the community of which they were a part.
So which is true? I think probably both. From the anecdotal evidence of my own non-church-attending friends and acquaintances I would say that many of them believe some things. For instance they may believe that there is a good God. They may believe that love is the central principle of life. They believe that there is more to life than the merely physical and that spirituality is important. They may believe that the life and teaching of Jesus is a view of the divine. But they do not believe that the earth was created in six days, that Jesus was born of a virgin or that there is only one path to God. Above all they do not believe that the church's edicts help them to understand or to live life constructively.
They are desperately seeking belonging. But they don't think they belong in the church. Mainly because they don't believe the things they think they'd have to believe. And because they're more interested in relationships than in institutions. They'll willingly get together with friends on a weekly basis. But they don't want to be told they have to get together once a week on Sunday mornings.
So what do I do about this? Well, it seems to me that I need both to find the commonality with their beliefs and to offer places of belonging. You see, I suspect in the end that neither “believing without belonging” nor “belonging without believing” is good enough. I think humans want to belong with those who believe as they do. (I know I'm desperate to find and hang out with some people who actually believe that St George will one day win another Premiership...)
Or maybe the real problem is with neat theories that parcel us up into one camp or another. Do you believe? Do you belong? I'm not sure if I do or not. Maybe we could just hang out together and wonder...
I feel guilty for not having blogged for so long. I've kind of been in hibernation...
Why? Well at the same time I've had the good, the bad and the ugly -
Good. In the past three weeks I've been offered and accepted a new position as an Adult Education Consultant with the ELM Centre in Sydney (Education for Life and Ministry - the Lay Education arm of the Uniting Church NSW Synod). Within the same three weeks we've looked at residences and chosen the place we will be living from 1st September, and I've made the announcement about my intentions to Church Council and then the whole congregation. So, overall good, but as you can imagine, stressful.
Bad. For the past three weeks my father has been in hospital. He has Type II Diabetes and as a result the circulation in his feet (one in particular) has been shutting down. He had a difficult bypass operation in which they had to use plastic veins because his own veins are shot or had been previously removed to use for heart or carotid artery surgeries. The operation has not been successful, so he is now facing amputation, at least of some toes and possibly the whole lower limb. But in the mean time they have diagnosed kidney damage (possibly as a result of the Diabetes medication) and evidence that he has had a minor heart attack after the operation. Then the blood thinners they put him on to try to help the heart and kidney conditions caused significant bleeding requiring a number of transfusions of blood and blood parts. He has been into and out of the ICU, and he is on constant morphine to deaden the pain of the foot. So, pretty much all bad, and as you can imagine, stressful.
Ugly. In the last week two major responsibilities came to a head - four performances of a play I've been rehearsing for the past six weeks, and a presentation I had to make along with our NSW Rural Chaplain, asking for the funding to enable him to continue in his position. The play went well, and we are hopeful that the funds will be made available for the Rural Chaplain but it was just a bit much coming all together. So, an ugly pressure, ups and downs, and generally, stressful.
Anyway, I'm going back into hibernation now for a while...
I have just sent off an application for a position with ELM (Education for Life and Ministry), the Lay Education arm of the NSW Synod (Uniting Church). I'm feeling quite excited about the possibility, but am also trying to keep a lid on it in that 'job-application-don't-get-your-hopes-up' kind of way. I ought to hear within about a week whether they want to talk to me...
Anyhoo - as Homer says:
“Now we play the waiting game...
Aww, the waiting game sucks, let's play Hungry Hungry Hippos!”
Andrew Johnson of urban stone has tagged me for a 'four people, past or present, for dinner' meme. I don't think I've blogged this before but I've had the discussion and limiting it to four people is going to be hard, but here goes...
Isaac Asimov. My first choice - no contest. I would just love to have a long, rollicking conversation with this renaissance guy who wrote 500+ books on topics ranging from science and future prediction to archaeology and the Bible. And of course he is the author of the science fiction stories which formed my tastes as I devoured them, sitting in the library, lunchtime after lunchtime hiding from the bullies! I am not joking when I say that Asimov is one factor in my movement to a more liberal theology - for heaven without this feisty atheist would not, for me, be heaven at all.
Gough Whitlam. One of my passions in life is seeing the world changed for the better, and hence politics. And as a beneficiary of Gough's tertiary study reforms who now marvels (and despairs) at the huge debts current tertiary students rack up, I would be delighted to spend some time with this great, visionary, flawed, enigmatic, campaigner for a better Australia.
Jeri Lynn Ryan. Ok, so I'm a Star Trek tragic and who wouldn't want to have dinner with Voyager's 7 of 9? After all, dinner is about presentation as well as content and Jeri's good looks would grace any table (as the life–size cardboard cutout of '7' graces my study!). And as well as answering my constant stream of geeky questions about life on a Star Trek set, Jeri can also provide some culinary banter, being a lover of food, sometime moonlighting chef, and co–owner of Haute Cuisine restaurant Ortolon.
Mahatma Ghandi. Philosophy, law, theology, politics - this guy has got all topics of interest covered! And it would be awe-inspiring to talk to the person who has most significantly and successfully put into practise the non-violence teachings of Christ, and by so doing changed the world. I'm sure Ghandi would share my horror at the world situation, especially violence in Iraq and Palestine, but I also suspect he'd have some insightful and optimistic takes on what the future could hold. I need that now!
Well I know that as soon as I hit the 'Publish' button I'm going to think of someone I missed who ought to have made the cut but that's blogging...
BTW, speaking of urban stone, you really ought to check out Andrew's fantastic photos on Flickr. One has recently been used for an album cover!
For the past three days I've been trying (on and off) to put up a post about a little free utility called Thumbscrew. It's also worth mentioning that I got the tip-off on Thumbscrew from a handy site called FreeMacWare, which gives descriptions, with links, of hundreds of nifty bits of Mac freeware. I subscribe to their feed, which sends me a description of one app each day (though every time I visit to get the link I am seduced by the pretty little icons into exploring and testing ten or a dozen more!).
Anyway the reason for the blog title is that I wanted to include a couple of 'thumbscrewed' pics on the blog, with the thumbnail acting as a link to a Flickr page with the full-size photos. Now admittedly I haven't spend long on this, but I'm getting frustrated at how to do it in ecto. The built-in thumbnail settings seem to pre-suppose that you give ecto a pic which it uploads to your server and also generates (and uploads) a thumbnail. On the other hand if I treat the thumbscrew generated image as just an image to include inline in ecto then I can't see how to associate the link with the image. It would be easy as in an html editor, but my experiments with just adding html to the xhtml mode editing window seem always to lose me the code, the picture or both.
If anyone can help me out I'd appreciate it, and in the meantime, here are a couple of thumbscrewed pics:
Cullens Commentary
My name is Lindsay Cullen. I am a husband, father, Minister within the Uniting Church in Australia, IT guru, SF fan and all-round geek.
I have lots of thoughts but less opportunities to explore them. This is one such opportunity.
