The Chronicles Of…

Here’s something for all you theologisers out there! What are your thoughts on this?

A healthy church is a gathering where everyone gets what they don’t want.

What I mean by that is, church should not be be tailored to everyone’s liking. There should be hymns for people who don’t like hymns, kid’s talks for people who don’t like kid’s talks, long prayer times for people who don’t like long prayers and vis versa… There should be people and personalities there that don’t naturally connect – this is a healthy church.

Discuss.

John Calvin on the Psalms:

What various and resplendent riches are contained in this treasury, it were difficult to find words to describe… I have been wont to call this book, I think not inappropriately, ‘The Anatomy of all the Parts of the Soul’ for there is not an emotion of which any one can be conscious that is not here represented as in a mirror.

Calvin J., J. King (tr.). Commentary on the Book of Psalms, Vol. 1. Grand Rapids, 1979, p. xxxvii

It’s coming.

This is going to be a harder hit that i was prepared for. Not only is this the year I turn 30, but this year I’ve also sold my motorbike with 1000cc’s of pure joy, and now I’m driving a 7 seater Mitsubishi Nimbus (1990), and I’ve been talking to Fi about getting a digital radio for my B’day so I can listen to ABC702 clearer at home, and (this is the clincher) I’m starting to get cranky if I don’t get a chance to read the paper or a book on the weekend.

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?

it’s like a reverse mid-life crisis. Instead of trying to be young and hip I’m going the other way.

If you see me wearing slacks and boat shoes, you do me the favour… sneak up behind me and drive a hat pin through my brain, then nuke the Nimbus from outer space… it’s the only way to be sure.

Let myself quote myself…

We must be wary of any belief system that gives people a license to behave as they would naturally behave anyway.

But… the christian belief system grates against our natural inclinations to serve our own selfish desires.

Ahhh… it’s good to go to a rock concert with a real rock crowd.

I went to see Faith No More at the Hordern Pavilion (my favourite venue!) last night with James. The last time I saw them was 13 years ago at the same venue with Pete, Matt, Chris, (Spiro?) and some other 16/17 year olds.
Old.

I remember the concert in 1997 was really wild (might’ve been the first concert I crowd surfed at…?), and FNM have lost none of their rock. Neither have their fans.

It was the usual story down near the front where James and I were. Lots of guys mixed in with guys and their petite girlfriends taking up the space where you want the crowd to go crazy… I was ready for more disappointing crowd lameness… BUT! The lights went down. FNM played midnight cowboy (slow instrumental song) and built the anticipation. Then BOOM! First song, the crowd surged, the mosh pit went mental (pro. men-ull) and the girls and lady-boys came running out like squirrels from a bush fire.

It was great. No fear of treading on the precious and fragile, just free, crazy, uninhibited jumping, heading banging, and slamming! I was 17 again! Except now I’m bigger framed and 30kgs heavier, so the pit was not the intimidating “I might die here” place that I remembered.
I just let loose. It was great.

And at the end there was the nostalgic familiarity of being soaked with sweat and partially deaf. The sweat I can live with, but I do feel regret for not protecting my hearing better… I’ve come to realise that hearing is not only worth protecting just because you’ve got, but because I feel stupid when I have to ask people 3 times to repeat themselves or have my phone speaker set at 50 decibels above normal… next time.

I’d never heard of the support band “Eagles of Deathmetal” before but they put on a great show. I think they have the same drummer from Queens of the Stone Age… either way, they were much better than the Jesus Lizard who did support for the 97 show. If I remember correctly, their lead singer was wasted and he pulled out his old fella on stage…

I got up this morning at 5.40am to go for a bike ride to Bondi and back (I do this about twice a week to stop getting fat well slow down the fatness!).

I met my riding buddy at Stanmore station, and then made it as far as the Caltex servo in Enmore where I decide to put more air in my front tyre. The air compressor was broken so I decided to use my hand pump. I had to inflate the tyre to 95PSI (that’s a hell of alot of pressure!) and somewhere about 70PSI the valve on my inner tube breaks. It just broke. Pssssssfffff. Total flat tyre.

Ride over.

So basically i got up at 20 to 6 in the morning to ride my pushy to the servo in Enmore and then walk home…

Fail.

Does anyone know, if it’s possible to use WordPress software to run any kind of website?
You see the thing is, I really like the way the WordPress runs the “back-end” and I’m interested in building a website that has the same interface. Especially so I can use all the plugins that are made for it.
Ok geeks… over to you.

I got a new pushy yesterday! My old bike crapped itself after 5 years of ownership. I think i’ll get it fixed up and working again eventually, but it was too small anyway and not really suited for the riding i’m doing (you know, very similar to Le Tour kinda stuff…)

It’s a cell bikes X1 Classic. It’s nice and big with good running gear for good distance rides like to Cronulla and back once or twice a week (60kms each ride).

So look out world! This’ll help keep the fat away!

Someone stole my 6 year old Gen 3 iPod out of the Nimbus this afternoon… just walked on by and took it. Didn’t take the cables, or empty the glove box or take the spare change, or the power drill or the extension lead and grinder, just the iPod.

ipod stolen!

Sure I left all the windows down and the iPod on display in the centre consul… And Pete has warned me about known offenders in the area… but I refuse to accept fault for this! Why should I blame myself when someone else breaks the law?? I didn’t steal, they did.

It’s a sad state of affairs when the innocent are blamed for the misdemeanors of others. I bet an insurance company would blame me for not locking my car or winding up the windows… but hey, reality check, I’m not the thief here…

Anyway, the battery was dead and it was old… I’m hoping for a new iPhone soon! Woot!

The most inconvenient thing is that I don’t have Pearl Jam on play 24/7 in the car now…

Avatar. Saw it last night. It drew me in. I liked it.

I didn’t have great expectations of this movie, given what I already new of the story line, but I was suprised at how much I enjoyed it. My brother reckoned it was worth the price of admission just for the visuals, and he’s probably right.

Really, my only big hang up is the name of the precious mineral which is really the catalyst behind the story… They called it “unobtainium”. This is all a little John Bunyan/Pilgrim’s Progress for my liking…

Why not just go completely obvious and call the main characters Evil Villian, Hero, and Love Interest? Dumb.

Anyway, I’d go see it at the movies if I were you. Fairly spectacular.