Soundclips

Just popped a couple more clips up on the 'Rhyme Of The Ancient Mariner' this evening. The playing's just appalling really, but they give an idea of a couple of the tones that little amp is capable of. Funny too, how despite it only being 7 watts I want to play it way too loud for living room recording.

It just sounds so much better cranked a bit though - I was enjoying it so much on Saturday that not only did my fingers hurt, but my ears too. Part of that is due to a new speaker. God was gracious and allowed me to acquire a 70's Celestion G12M for a few pounds on Ebay. Theoretically it had some problems, but these seem to stem from it having been mounted the same way up for 30 years in a 4X12. I flipped it over and bingo - the voice coil no longer seems to rub. This is a nice speaker, with authentic tones and a woodiness that's hard to believe until you hear it. It can go from stinging country/rockabilly tones right through to a metal growl, taking in the Byrds on the way. Lovely.

Ben was baptised this afternoon.

A cause for celebration, I think.









There were some *interesting* prophetic words given too. Looks like he'll have a very full future.

Acquisitive this evening.

Just closed a deal on one of these:



Unfortunately it's in West Virginia, so I won't have it until I can get another trip over there. My pale blue tele is probably being moved on to make space in the collection. Patience is a virtue, and at least it isn't cluttering up my livingroom. Tomorrow will be a tidying day. Presently I have 4 amps and 6 guitars out.

Chris has been very patient, so far......

Funny this evening

Both Ben and Sarah were out. Sarah was at a gig by 'Quench' in Oxford with some of her Sould Survivor friends. Ben went ice skating with the present GF.

Got back from collecting Sarah about 12.20am. As I approached the driveway I found progress blocked by a white car that looked rather familiar.

Around 5 seconds after pulling up behind it a head popped up from the driver's seat.

Then a second head, also from the driver's seat.

After much shuffling round inside and relocating of persons the white car was moved out of the entrance to the drive. Just in time, because a police car came along and started becoming interested in what could have been mistakenly construed as 'dogging'. Hmmm.

Sarah and I did laugh though. A lot.

Ben appeared indoors very sheepishly about 10 mins later.

Exciting

I listened to BBC radio 4 last night on the way to collect Ben from his GF's place.

For the first time in ages I was actually excited by the program. They were talking to bio-mimeticists about applying 'technology' found in nature to solve engineering issues and the creation of Von Neumann machines. A VN machine is a device that is self-replicating: it could constitute life by some definitions.

There was a group working with devices called 'rapid prototyping' machines. These construct 3 dimensional objects by operating like ink jet printers, building up layers of solid material over many passes of the print head. A recent breakthrough was the ability to create items with electrical conductors embedded in the construct, allowing items made to have more than a simple mechanical function. The team were planning to develop the idea to the point where such a rapid prototyping machine could make parts to build another rapid prototyping machine. They planned to publish their design under the GNU to allow any and everyone access to the technology. That way, not only could there be a rapid multiplication, but the design could be improved by the focussing of many diverse minds on the area.

It's the stuff of science fiction. Not AI-directed devices taking over the world, matrix style, but where one day you might hunt across the internet for a design, download it and then have a device create it (or the parts to assemble it). It might also be an alternative to buying ready meals. Just download the desired dish at breakfast time, then come home to find Chicken Tikka Masala with hash browns and ciabatta ready and waiting.

Imagination? Yes please.

Very odd Saturday

Having been off work most of the week, it feels peculiar now Saturdays come round for it to be just the same.

I've been giving Ben driving lessons, and we did around an hour together this morning. He's normally very good at this sort of thing, but driving's a little too demanding even for him to just jump in a car and be competent in 30 mins. The thing he's struggled most with is separating the sides of his body. Thus it was hard to push down with the right foot while lifting the left foot, and to hold the wheel still with the right hand while changing gear with the left.

For my Canadian friends, few in the UK believe in using automatic cars so he's learning with a normal gearbox and clutch. This has caused a few 'interesting' moments, where the brain goes into complete overload with too many things to do. However the upside is that he's gained in humility and respect for a female other that drives now.

We also went out on the road for the first time.

As a cyclist, Ben has a lot of instinct that tells him to keep close to the kerb. As his passenger I have a lot of instincts that prefer if I survive. We had some entertaining moments where I encouraged him to move nearer the centre of the road. Louder. AND LOUDER. The lanes round here are lined with ditches, and some are deep. If our little Citroen goes down one, it'll only come back out as scrap.

But the boy done good. He was also heard to comment how amazing it is that 55mph feels really fast when you're holding a steering wheel, but 70mph feels so slow when you're a passenger. We might get that put in writing for Chris some time.



The rest of the time I just lounged around and slept quite a bit. Managed about 2 hours guitar playing this afternoon, which was necessary to keep the fingers moving. I replaced the speaker in my little AXL amp (Celestion super 8 in there now) in the hope of giving it a better balanced tone and getting rid of some of the 'fartiness'. When used straight it isn't particularly inspiring. The fendery forwardness of the other speaker has been removed, but it just sounds a little thin and flat now. However with the Korg processor plugged in it really rocks again, whether played clean with chorus or using a variety of overdrive tones.

It lacks the purity and harmonic richness of the Bluebuster but instead it has a kind of ease of use and straight ahead rockiness that works great. There's one exception - using a compressor/EQ combination the new speaker helps produce a fat clean jazzy tone that will makes the hairs stand on the back of your neck. It's a truly beautiful tone, and one that I used to draw complements from pro-musicians with, using the other little amp. Nice to know it's back again.

Getting there

By a tortuous path.

I was rough this morning! Managed to see the doctor - I've got a chest infection, bronchitis, but it hasn't progressed to pnuemonia, thank goodness. I'm sleeping downstairs tonight on the settee so I can be more upright and drain a little better. Also my snores won't disturb Chris that way.

I've done 1 full days work this week, and that half killed me.

A couple of grumpinesses and a good thing.

I'm a pretty tolerant chap, but some things annoy me. Listening to BBC radio-Oxford tonight in the car. They had an IT teacher on talking about computers and society.

I'd swear the guy was borderline 'learning disabilities'.

OK, I know a *little* about computers, but he was stupid, nothing less. And he's struggling to impart some kind of knowledge to children. Adding insult to injury, the presenters were discussing the internet but didn't know what a uniform resource locator (or link) was. The male presenter had one of those effete attempts at a cool regional accent, sounding like a northern Martyn W Smith, all the while mispronouncing words and clearly not having a clue what he was talking about.

Grrrr.

The good thing?

Lee, the guy behind the Christian musicians forum has launched Christian musicians radio.

The 64K MP3pro link is here and the 34/48K link is here. They should be showcasing new and independant artists - I might even get something up there. Who knows?

But it's not a bad listen. I've had it on all day while I've been home, and while I've not liked some stuff, it's definitely made me want to rock out some times, contemplative (big word right now) at others, and eased me round to focus on God. Sure there's downsides - way too much Rebecca StJames and imitators for my taste, but overall it's pretty good.

It's only in beta right now, so don't all leap on Lee's bandwidth, but I reckon it's got a future.

Lurgy strikes again.

Thanks to the generosity of my technician, repeatedly coughing in my direction last week, I've gone down with a heavy cold. Barely made it to church yesterday, managed about 2 hours work this morning, but the head's just full of pain and cotton wool. Feeling fairly wretched, although in a way, it's nice to be off work legitimately, even though I can't afford to be at all.



I've read more today than I have in several weeks, but only junk - the head's not up to content.

See you all round sometime.

Old but still reasonably true. One from the inbox.

NICKNAMES
* If Laura, Suzanne, Kate and Sarah go out for lunch, they will call each
other Laura, Suzanne, Kate and Sarah.
* If Mike, Charlie, Dave and John go out, they will affectionately refer to
each other as Fat Boy, Godzilla, Sh*t-Head and Four-eyes.

EATING OUT
* When the bill arrives, Mike, Charlie, Dave and John will each throw in
£20, even though it's only for £32.50. None of them will have anything
smaller and none will actually admit they want change back.
* When the girls get their bill, out come the pocket calculators.

MONEY
* A man will pay £2 for a £1 item he needs.
* A woman will pay £1 for a £2 item that she doesn't need but it's on sale

BATHROOMS
* A man has six items in his bathroom: toothbrush and toothpaste, shaving
cream, razor, a bar of soap, and a towel from M&S.
* The average number of items in the typical woman's bathroom is 337. A man
would not be able to identify more than 20 of these items.

ARGUMENTS
* A woman has the last word in any argument.
* Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.

CATS
* Women love cats.
* Men say they love cats, but when women aren't looking, men kick cats.

FUTURE
* A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband.
* A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.

SUCCESS
* A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend.
* A successful woman is one who can find such a man.

MARRIAGE
* A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't.
* A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change, but she does.

DRESSING UP
* A woman will dress up to go shopping, water the plants, empty the bins,
answer the phone, read a book, and get the post.
* A man will dress up for weddings and funerals.

NATURAL
* Men wake up as good-looking as they went to bed.
* Women somehow deteriorate during the night.

OFFSPRING
* Ah, children. A woman knows all about her children. She knows about
dentist appointments and romances, best friends, favourite foods,
secretfears and hopes and dreams.
* A man is vaguely aware of some short people living in the house.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
* Any married man should forget his mistakes. There's no use in two people
remembering the same thing.

* What a woman says: C'mon...This place is a mess. You and I need to
clean.Your trousers are on the floor and you'll have no clothes if we don't
do the laundry now.
* What a man hears: C'MON ... blah, blah, blah YOU AND I blah,blah, blah,
blah, blah ON THE FLOOR blah, blah, blah, NO CLOTHES blah, blah, blah,
blah, NOW

AMPFEST!

It's snowy oop noorth.


What kind of tone does that amp have?


On the way I had to take pics.


You've heard the phrase "life is loud"? These guys were DEAFENING. 100watts, 4X12 cab, smallish room. Turn it up to 11. They were so good you just didn't want to leave though.


Remember that little amp I built last week? These guys loved it.


I confess. I covet the little red cabinet to put my amp in.



Seriously though, that amp I built (using someone else's plan/circuit) is just fantastic. I've seldom come across something that I'd rather play than do anything else, but this one does it for me. I got it out after (late) dinner last night and just played it for all it's worth. The boys were very definitely back in town, but it's alright now. When I did go to bed, I was too stoked to get to sleep at first.

Sure, things will calm down later, but I'm just really grateful to have made this thing and be able to enjoy it like this.

Zoinks!

I really liked this.

Through Randall.

What's the opposite of women's lib?

Randall has caused some consternation over at his site, even collecting a 'christian' troll in the comments. It seems the women want to pull us down the their level in one particular area. Being the generous, big-hearted side of the species that we are, effort has been put in to allow them to instead rise up and stand alongside us.

A WORD OF WARNING. The language used on this site is normal everyday language, and will probably cause offense to Christians that haven't ventured outside their cultural ghetto for the last 30 years.

The Perfect Pastor

THE PERFECT PASTOR

A recent survey compiled all the qualities that people expect from the perfect pastor:

~ Preaches exactly 12 minutes.

~ Frequently condemns sin but never upsets anyone.

~ Works from 8 a.m. until midnight and is also a janitor.

~ Makes $60 a week, wears good clothes, buys good books, drives a good car, and gives about $80 a week to the poor.

~ 28 years of age and has been preaching for 30 years.

~ Wonderfully gentle and good-looking.

~ A burning desire to work with teenagers, but is always with the senior citizens.

~ Makes 15 daily calls to church families, visits shut-ins and the hospitalized, evangelizes the unchurched, and is always in the office when needed.


From CMF coffeeshop.

Self image.

I'm usually good with self image, seeing myself more-or-less as I am, with just a little flattery and self deception.

On Saturday I went to a friend's 40th birthday party. While there, I met her sister for the first time. Now the wife of our recently-ex 'pastor' was already talking to her, and since Mary is a very good friend in her own right I insinuated myself into the conversation through my familiarity with her.

Now Mary is a good looking woman, but she is in her early-mid 60s. After she'd wandered off the lady engaged in conversation asked if we were married.

There's about 20 years between us :-?

Now I starting to wonder (and feel - actually I've been feeling it for a long time) that I'm getting old. Girls now feel able to relax and talk to me, which is nice but sends all the wrong messages. People even begun to defer to me and show respect.

Most of my normal male drives are intact, if a little diminished (thank goodness) and I'm still reasonably fit and slim. I STILL want to play guitar outrageously loud and in an antisocial manner. Nuts - I almost dress like a teenager most of the time I'm not at work. Must be that darned bald head, grey hair and wrinkles round the eyes. That and the fact that I'm polite and moderately considerate, I guess.

If I was a nonnie I think I'd have a sports car and a dolly bird by now.

It's trying

to snow here.

I hope that makes all my Canadian friends feel better.

:-)


Oh, BTW Ben was skiing in Austria last week. He didn't break anything, which is good, and also had a good time, which is also good.

Talking of building amps

This is it on the inside:



And this is it on the outside (the silver thing on top of the combo):



Plays sweetly, like I hoped it would. I've a couple of things that need to be done, like add power and standby indicator lamps, and a pentode/triode switch for reduced power. I'd also like to add a second channel for Fender type tones - this is much Marshall Territory. Despite the apparently huge transformers on top it's actually quite low output at only 7 watts into 8ohms. Mind you, they are LOUD watts. Through the Laney cab it's sitting on I can get enough volume to make my ears ring from that 10" speaker.

Clean tones are very sweet indeed - it's the first amp I've ever owned where I didn't automatically want a reverb or compressor to fill out the tones. Some of the drive tones are fantastic too, but I need to relocate some of the wires inside because of electromagnetic interference between them causing unpleasant harmonics. Next I need to build a cab to put the thing in. Can't decide at the moment whether to go for the budget/light weight option of 2 X 8" speakers or to save up for a top-end 12"er. I know the ultimate tone would be a Celestion blue alnico speaker, but they're around £140 upward. If I do a trip to the US again soon I may try for an Eminence 'Red Fang' - around £135 over here, but $99 from some US sources i.e. less than half that price.

I'll try to create some clips on Thursday or Friday night. Check out the 'Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner' for sound clips later.

Sorry for the lack of postage

Life is being full - both good and bad things.

Too much work - I've been (literally) running between tasks for the last week.

Busy outside work - built my first guitar amp last weekend, and it's good.

Maybe more this week - we'll see. I'm out tonight with a worship team get together, then shopping to the small hours, Tuesday is housegroup, Wednesday is circuit training.

Oh, Thursday I have an evening off.

Battle today

.....with someone I'd rather not have a big row with.

We use rented space in another lab for our cell culture work. When this lab was first set up we were the very original tenants, and something of a 'flagship' user for them. Now we're being messed around, having facilities changed, all kinds of hassles. We need stability and we need to use the right kinds of equipment, and this is primarily the areas that are being fiddled with.

The person doing the fiddling is both a longstanding friend and a Christian.

My *desire* is to go and shout (I'm VERY angry about it - lots of stuff has been done behind my back). My requirement is that we all get on well, and that the facility remains available a little longer.

This is not cool.

Just found this through Harmony Central.

What some of the car forums are saying right now...


Bentley Forums
- I used the ash tray today. How do I replace it?

Camaro/Firebird Forums
- My girl slept with my brother and my wife. How can I kill 'em? btw,
I have a record and I ain't going back.

Mustang forums
-Some punk kid in a Civic tried to race me.

Monte Carlo forums
-Why do I keep getting pulled over, it ain't stolen yo.

Civic forums
-Some punk kid in a Mustang tried to race me.

VW Bug forum
- The Save the Earth concert was a success (pics)

Yugo Forum
- When's the last time yours ran?

Lamborghini forum
- Wind noise around 210MPH

Miata forums
- Some redneck jackass in a Chevy Tahoe just ran over my car (pics)

Chevy Tahoe forum
-Miata stuck in my undercarriage. How do I safely remove it? (pics)

Pontiac Fiero forum
- Just bought a new flame retardant suit (pics)

BMW 7-series forum
- Where to get service on my Rolex?

Cadillac forum
- Problems parallel parking at bingo.

Chevy Suburban Forum
- Is the price of gas going down anytime soon?

Buick Forum
- Is Medicare or Medicaid right for me?

Delorean forum
- Just got back from the future and blew a head gasket. Please help. I'm
from 1985.

Crown Victoria forum
- How come people never pass me on the highway?

Honda Accord forum
- Mom is giving me the car. Looking for some cheap, used 18 inch rims.

Toyota Echo forum
- Do our cars use AAA or AA's?

Ferrari forums
- Need suggestions about a business trip to Colombia. Want to get in
and out fast.

Porsche forums
- Tire just went flat. Is it best to trade or sell the car myself?

Saturn forums
- Roman candle landed on my fender. Melted and need to replace.

Jaguar forum
- Is the carbon fiber dash kit group-buy still on?

Mercedes forum
- My wife and her stink hole lawyer are trying to ruin me in divorce
court. How do I get them both killed and not get in trouble with my medical
board?

Mini forum
- Just flipped the Cooper after seeing The Italian Job. Suing the movie
company. (pics)

Dodge Viper forum
- I frightened myself on the way home from work yesterday. How to get pee
stains out of the leather?

McLaren F1 forum
-Some punk kid in a F16 tried to race me.

Dodge Minivan forum
- Where's the best place to post the soccer schedule so I don't forget
where I'm supposed to be?

Hummer forum
- Had a fender bender today. 24 hurt, 10 killed. Do I have to get the
black touch-up paint from the dealer? He's 25 miles away. That's $35
in gas.

Fiat forum
-Hello? Am I the only member?

Subaru WRX forum
- I hate cops. Got ticketed for drifting in the Walmart parking lot.

Chevy pickup forum
- How do I git the dried tobacco juice stains off the side of mah
truck?

Vette Forums
-Why did I pay $50k for something with a Cavalier steering wheel?

Ford 2.3 forums
-Help! Replaced everything, still doesn't start

Of weddings royal

A little quote from Harmony Central

From the Episcopal Church's "Tracts for Our Lives"

"Here in the United States the part of the Anglican Communion known as the Episcopal Church has solved the marriage of divorced persons by having the Bishop grant permission for divorced persons to marry. This arrangement permits people to participate in serial marriages while former spouses are still living. As a result of this policy, now permitted by changes in the marriage canons of the Episcopal Church, serial marriages are common among the laity, and many priests and bishops have multiple wives. When the Rt. Rev. James Pike, Bishop of California, died, he had the distinction of being the first bishop in the 1900+ year history of the Church to have three of his wives present at his requiem. More recently the former Bishop of Iowa, the Rt. Rev. Walter Righter, was tried in the Church for ordaining men who practiced Sodomy, in violation of Church Canons. He should have been tried for Adultery, because he had three wives, all living. However, he could not be tried for Adultery because the Episcopal Church had already changed the historic marriage canons and it was now permissible to have three or more wives.

If the canons of the Episcopal Church had been in place in England, King Henry VIII could have had all of his wives without having to make himself Head of the Church, and without beheading two of his wives. King Edward VIII could have married "Wally" and have had a long and enjoyable reign, and Prince Charles could marry Camilla and several other attendants at court and still hope one day to be crowned King.

There are many clergy and laity in the Episcopal Church, who do not believe in the serial marriages and divorces which have become a part of modern culture and of the Church in the United States. They believe in the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ regarding marriage, preserved for us in the written Word of God, the writings of the Church Fathers, and the liturgy of the Church."

Never leave a good conundrum alone.

Randall recently posted this thread about someone he heard and was impressed by. My immediate reaction was "if he's so hot, why's he wearing a dog collar".

Erm, not the most tactful.

Sometimes I'm honest without fore-thought.

For me, the whole 'man of the cloth' thing is about pretence and control, rather than about righteousness or Godly living. I really don't feel happy about this area, and am instinctively suspicious of those that wear such things. Some of it is because I see this as part of the desire for men to control other men, part of it the desire for humans to replace God. I doubt many wearers feel this consciously, but I see this as all wrapped up in a tradition that was man's attempted usurpation of God in the church that dates back to the heresy of creating a clergy and a laity.

In new testament times this was the antithesis of those who lead and were faithful. Paul and Barnabus rushed into the crowds when pagan priests came to sacrifice to them. Their cry? "We are only men like yourselves". In a slightly different context, Paul calls Peter a hypocrite for refusing to be associated with 'ordinary' believers, instead holding back to appear somehow different. With some proper digging I believe I could find more scriptures to support this view without adjusting their original meaning or context.

While the dog collar may be accepted by society as the mark of someone who fits a particular religious pigeon hole, to me it's the mark of compromise with the world.

New photos

Fotopic has just come up with a java FTP tool, and this has been enough incentive to finish what I started last year.

There are now several hundred new images in my fotopic galleries.

There is a portrait section, some pics of us riding, flora and fauna from the alps, a day visit to Turin: all kinds of things.

Hope you enjoy them.

Irony

A SAN FRANCISCO MAN BECOMES FIRST AMERICAN TO GRASP SIGNIFICANCE OF IRONY

Jay Fullmer, 38, yesterday became the first American to get to grips with the concept of irony.

"It was weird," Fullmer said. "I was in London and like, talking to this guy and it was raining and he pulled a face and said, 'Great weather eh?' and I thought - 'Wait a minute, no way is it great weather'". Fullmer then realised that the other man's "mistake" was in fact deliberate.

Fullmer, who is 39 next month and married with two children, aged 8 and 3, plans to use irony himself in future. "I'm, like, using it all the time" he said. "Last weekend I was grilling steaks and I burned them and I said 'Hey, great weather'."

Evangelicals and their behaviour

Link to The Heresy here.

Apparently in practice they are no different from anyone else.

So is Salvation pie in the sky when we die?

One of the things that I HATE about me, is that some sins I enjoy. I don't beat my wife, don't get roaring drunk, abuse the kids or have affairs. But I KNOW there are things that I do, or want to do that I know are sin. A few months back I gave in briefly to something I thought was dealt with, and found myself crying out to God "where's the power in salvation? Why am I not changed? Why do I want to do these things?".

My experience is that salvation is a joint process. I have to want to be changed and have to put on the clean clothes of new behaviour to acquire the benefits of salvation. If I beat my wife then I have to wear the clothes of love, respect and protction toward her. If I surf net porn then I need to look for ways to sanctify my use of the internet - to bring God into the web with me, rather than surfing 'in secret' where we hope he doesn't see. If I have a problem with alcohol then I need either wear abstention or clothe myself with moderation. This all needs to be done in faith, asking Jesus to make real in our lives the actions that we are performing.

Sometimes God just steps in sovereignly and changes us in our habits. I believe that when this happens it's usually because those habits are not part of us, and are 'acquired'. But the thing that reflect our characters - usually excesses or deficits - these are the things that require putting on the clean clothes of salvation to see our characters redeemed. I've no data for this last paragraph - only experience.

I suspect a significant part of Christians not seeing change is because they aren't taught to look for or search for it. For a long time people have been taught "Jesus takes our sins away" without the necessary accompanyment "take up your cross and follow me". The sacrifice may not even know what the altar look like.

Desperation?

I've been wandering around on some of the blogs I've viewed in the past, this lunchtime.

Now I know life often goes in cycles, but I can't help wonder if that isn't the answer to what I've observed. I've never made a secret of my belief that post modern thinking is inherently anti-Christian, and the christian forms that have been spun out of it carry an inherent 'wrongness' to me.

So I was intrigued to read a bunch of stuff that all sounds a little desperate to my ears. A couple of articles from Andrew Jones, a Leonard Sweet quote on Randall's blog, an article on 'the ooze'. I don't know, but they all had a feeling of slight desperation to them. Kind of trying to reassure people - all those others have got it wrong - WE are at the front of what God's doing.

I don't know. I hope in some ways that I've got it wrong, because some people will get hurt, but I think there will be some serious fall-out over then next couple of years as foundations get shaken.

Or maybe I just don't get it, and I'm all wrong. As unlikely as that might seem ;-)

Blessing (when you don't expect or look for it)

We've had quite a bit of expense recently - not just Christmas (as usual, well contained) but one of our cars needed a lot of work doing + taxing. On top of that we had a celebration on Oxford a couple of weeks back, and I really felt called to give generously. Chris was a little concerned because of recent cash burn, but went with it.

Anyway, cut a long story short, we didn't get a Christmas bonus this year (not that I expect it particularly, but it's nice when it happens). I'm grateful for the job I have and that I do earn well. However yesterday The MD told me that there should be 'a little extra this month to say thankyou' on my payslip. It was exactly 10 times what we'd given in the offering. God not only has a sense of humour, but he also can release resources when we don't expect it.

Amazing.

God has a sense of humour?

I was reading Mark 6 this morning, about where Jesus goes up the mountain to pray (after sending the crowds away) then at about 4 in the morning, walks across the lake to get to the other side.

It always puzzled me - why would Jesus walk on the water? Despite popular portrail, walking on water isn't a sign of holiness. There are accounts of people being caught up in the Spirit and transported elsewhere in an instant, so it wasn't that Jesus needed to walk that way. So how does one account for walking on water?

I wonder if this was omne of those occasions when that 'small, still voice' whispered "now I want you to do something different". Jesus couldn't have known that things would pan out like they did, and from the way Mark reads, he was fully expecting to walk on by. I might be way off beam here, but I reckon this was God's sense of humour, arranging circumstances to teach the disciples, and maybe even to tease theologians down through the ages.

Playing out.

I've talked here before about how the church I'm part of has heard God speak quite clearly about the need for simple, corporate worship, with everyone taking part rather than a full band of 'entertainers' playing at the front.

Well, as the person responsible for the worship team this has caused something of a roller-coaster of feelings. I recognise that this direction IS from God, and therefore I don't have a problem buying into it with my head - however the heart doesn't always follow. The stage I'm at now is that I have been playing in a reduced worship setting for so long that I'm forgetting how to play all kinds of stuff. And while I'm grateful for the other musicians, I also feel like I've been carrying everyone else musically, which in truth, I have been.

Why post this? Because I feel the need to get with a proper band again and rawk a bit. I KNOW this will benefit my worship playing too, just like running regularly helps stop you getting out of breath if you go for a long walk. I'd kind of hoped to get involved with the area youth bands, but there isn't really an opportunity there. What's left? A christian band would be great, but there's always the tension of "are we a worship band (no) are we an evangelistic band (no) so what do we play for then"? At the same time I don't really want to play in a nonnie-based band, with all the potential compromises about evil music and mixed messages that can go with that.

I'm still turning this one over - there must be a reasonable solution. I guess it doesn't really matter in the cosmic scale of things if I just sit around and get frustrated a bit more - certainly irrelevant compared to what Randall's just had to deal with. But then compared to life-or-death situations, most of what we do is pretty irrelevant.

I'm OK - just feeling a little disappointed.

Peculiar weather this morning.

Somewhat windy, no frost on the cars, yet a really BITING cold. However the oddest thing could be observed driving in to work this morning. Puddles on one side of the road were liquid - the other side were frozen, for about a mile on the road all along the top of the valley.

Bizarre.

Guess it would feel like a summer's day to my Canadian friends :-/