Dances with Words

Yesterday I was walking to the beach and I noticed myself mentally correcting the kerning (the spacing between characters) in the numbers people have stuck on their fences and letterboxes.

Last night I was reading and the thought flittered into my mind that ctrl-s would be quicker than placing a bookmark to save my position.

I regulary want to press ctrl-z to undo actions that occur in real life, like when I drop my phone down the back of the desk I think “quick, ctrl-z… oh, hang on…”

Sometimes when I do something repetitive like washing dishes I think fleetingly that there must be way to automate this task through scripting a simple loop function.

Maybe I could write a program to automatically blog every couple of days. It could look up my calendar to see what I’ve been doing and write appropriately. Blogbot. I could sell millions.

The Youth Group talk went well, after a few of moments of initial brain malfunction I got on track and did okay. Afterwards I got a couple of pieces of positive feedback which I really appreciated. I’d like to do more of it, I think.

We had a How-To-Host-a-Murder party last night for a friend’s birthday. These are parties where you arrive in character and get a script that you have to play to for the night: someone has been murdered and all the guests are suspects. Huge roast beef dinner with lots of veg and even Yorkshire Puddings (never made them before) followed by the world’s best trifle made it a very memorable evening.

One thing that got me thinking was that our housemate Des came, and her character turned out to be the floozy – there’s always at least one – but she was by far the youngest, sweetest and most innocent person there. To her credit, she did well and didn’t get too embarrassed. It made me think about my friends. They are all very mature. I don’t mean that they don’t laugh at stupid jokes or do silly things, because we do – one guy turned up with a gorilla suit on last night – but we’ve all done tertiary education to various degrees, most of us more than one qualification, even. One of our circle will be a doctor by the end of the year – not medical but a PhD type. We talk about books we’ve read and current affairs over red wine, make sophisticated wordplay jokes, and enjoy the game of trying to figure out who the murderer is by following the clues. I love my friends. I wish I saw them more often.

The thing is, I don’t know anyone like that in our church. I spend far more time with people from there, and I love them as well and get along great with them, but we don’t share the same passions when it comes to ’secular’ interests. There’s only a few who are as educated, especially in my age group. Sometimes I feel very out of it in my church group, although I must admit not as much any more as I did when I first started going a few years ago. I have a great time with my church mates, but I enjoy the intellectual stimulation of my other friends too. Both alignments alienate me from the other.

I guess, in the end, it comes down to a statement I have made before, a statement that I think encapsulates my life: I am tragically balanced. Nothing to do about it but sigh and move on.

*sigh*

I’ve got to give my testimony at youth group tonight. Ooer. It’s not really very exciting. I mean, I know all testimonies are great, and mine’s got a few ups and downs that I can talk about for a few minutes, but really – if I’m going to get up and speak I’d rather preach. Fire and Brimstone, have the young whippersnappers quaking in their boots, yessiree.

Hmm, maybe I could work that in somehow.

I finally finished AS Byatt’s Possession. A great novel, overall – I felt some parts were drawn out a little too long, but the ending was excellent. Not too suprising, just enough of a twist to make you happy without ruining a great story.

I think I enjoyed this book for simple escapism. It has a few slightly pomo passages, but it concentrates on telling a story with interesting characters and setting, a plot that moves the reader through using stages with rewards, and an ending that can’t help but please the reader who has come to care about the protagonists. It left me feeling good.

Phone rings, I pick it up: “Hello, etc”
“Hello, this number called my phone this morning?”
“Er, rightyoh, what’s your name.”
Slight pause. “What’s YOUR name?”
“My name is James. I don’t think I know you. I didn’t call anyone who didn’t answer this morning.”
“My name is *insert name*”
“Nope, I still don’t know you.”
“Right. Maybe you called the wrong number?”
“I don’t think so. Do you live near Ocean Grove?”
“No, I’m from *insert random place*.”
“I don’t know anyone from there.”
“Right. Okay.”
“Yes.”
“Hmm.”
“Yes. So… what’s the weather like there anyway?”
etc etc

There are three possibilities:
1 – Someone is sneaking in to our house and making random phonecalls to people I don’t know.
2 – The whole Caller ID system doesn’t work properly.
3 – Someone is playing a practical joke… and I don’t think it’s me…

.. is the title of one of our readings this week for Perspectives. It’s very interesting, a bit of a contrast to the other articles this week. I like it. Its message is positive. I think I needed to read something like this just now.

Some excerpts, from Beyond Duty by Tim Dearborn:

So many conflicting and competing missions cry for our attention. We’re so easily drawn and quartered by the pull of divergent needs and calls. Without a central understanding of the biblical emphasis on the Kingdom of God, our terminology becomes one of “I bring you bad news of sad problems”.

No wonder the church and many organisations’ supporters are increasingly disinterested in mission! People cannot handle relentless exposure to catastrophes and crises. This is not the gospel. The gospel is good news of great joy!

Lack of interest in mission is not fundamentally caused by an absence of compassion or commitment, nor by lack of information or exhortation. And lack of interest in mission is not remedied by more shocking statistics, more gruesome stories or more emotionally manipulative commands to obedience. It is best remedied by intensifying peoples’ passion for Christ, so that the passions of his heart become the passions that propel our hearts.

Have you ever thought that the idea of watching television is much better than the act? And even the idea is pretty bad.

Tonight I just felt like chilling out, not working for a while. My eyes are tired, I don’t want to be in front of the computer any more – and even reading a book seems like too much trouble, so I thought a mug of hot chocky and a curl up in the corner of the couch with the tele on might be the go. Nice idea. Unfortunately the ‘television’ part of the fantasy is not living up to my hopes. Hence why I’m in here, freezing my fingers off writing wiblogs and about to give Gimp lessons to my wife.

Much better use of time, anyway.

*sigh*

That was the second time I’ve been interviewed on Rhema doing web reviews, I still haven’t met anyone who heard me the first time and this time I know two people who did, our housemate Des and my mother-in-law. We will ignore the fact that they were both only listening because they were tipped off immediately prior.

If you were to graph those results and extrapolate, you could draw the conclusion that the entire world population will hear my voice in 10.6 years.

I’m going to be on Radio Rhema again in the next 10 minutes.

If anyone wants to listen you can hear my slightly-less-than-dulcet tones by going to Rhema’s website and following the ‘Listen’ link at the top of the page.

I watch on tv the sixtieth
anniversary of bombing Nagasaki:
Japanese students offer bowls
of water, hung with streamers,
in memory of the burned.
Some died by melting, others
had their skin peeled and perished
exposing their innards to fiery hell.
The Japanese Prime Minister talks
of peace, of people, and of war.
Sobs escape my clenched teeth.