i am sparticus: Words

Things I've learnt today

• Strepsils Extra can be taken every 3 hours! That's one extra strepsil every 12 hours compared to regular strepsils. Cashback!
• I could get a Nokia 6230 from T-mobile from only £30 as a replacement for my old T610.
• My new Nokia 6230 is lovely, although disappointingly it doesn't iSync (as of yet). This means copying all the contacts over the old fashioned way (one by one by bluetooth).
• Ipswich town going down by 2-0 and then coming back to win 3-2 after going down to 10 men is not unprecedented. It previously happened against Sheffield United, although I wasn't there that time.
• Nick Hornby says that going down two goals and then coming back is the best sort of result.
• The Deftones have covered a load of Weezer songs including 'Getchoo' 'Tired of Sex' and 'Say it ain't so'
• Mission Improbable over at The Gin Palace is wonderful. Click the green box!

Sales Assistant Assault

My phone has been the source of numerous problems to me for some time. Currently it's away being repaired under warranty for general outstanding issues of being absolutely rubbish and not doing anything right. Last Saturday I got my 12th bill from my phone service providers (t-mobile, who are pretty decent, especially compared to my last service providers), and I thought 'hey here's an idea, I can cancel my contract now, so I can get myself a new phone and be done with this continued phone problem'. So I wander into town this morning and head into phones 4 u, not because I particularly like the shop, but it happens to be closest. Immediately I'm approached by a sales assistant and I employ the standard 'get rid of the sales assistant tactic'.

Sales Assistant: Can I help you sir?
Me: No I'm just looking thanks.
S. A.: So you're planning on changing contract?
Me: Well, yes actually my contract has just come up to it's 12th month and my phone's awful. So I'm just starting looking for a new phone.
S. A.: Who's your provider?
Me: T-mobile.
S. A.: Oh yeah, they're crap, really ****.
Me: I'm sorry?
S.A.: Yeah, they're really crap. This years contracts on T-mobile suck, you don't want to be with them.
Me: I like my contract, it's just that my phone sucks and I want a new one. I'm just looking at new phones.
S.A.: If you want a new phone, you'll need to get a new contract.
Me: Yeah I know, but I'm just looking for now.
S.A.: Well, lets sit down and I'll go through some tariffs with you.
Me: I'm fine for now, I'm just looking at phones.
S.A.: Oh, well okay.

I'm really annoyed with this person. She swore, didn't listen to me and refused to let me be even though I obviously wanted her to go away. If I was the reporting to manager type person, she'd be so manager reported she wouldn't know what hit her.

So I'm coining a new term, Sales assistant assault where a sales assistant is so strong with you that feel intimidated by them.

Where Gangsta Homeboy and Coding Geek Meet

Word. I figure this rather geeky entry will be a lot more interesting if it's more street and down with it.

1. The poll-suggestion-vote-o-matic thing is back up and running. I looked at the code earlier and realised that I've completely forgotten how the code works. So the first person to break is gonna get a cap popped in their rear end.


2. I now have a really bling version of Apache running off my Mac, including pimped up fake sub-domains and mod_rewrite kicking off all over the place. For future reference, back up your .httpdconf file and learn terminal. Safe.

This Morning I Looked Out Of My Window And There Was Disco In The Sky

Created in the image of God

If we are created in the image of God, does that mean we have inherent value, or value only because of our relationship with God as bearers of his image. Thus if we lack a relationship of God, do we lack any inherent worth?

Grace, Faith, Legalism and Youthwork

One of the perks of my job not really being a real job but rather training is that I can mess up repeatedly and get away with it. However, as that's a story for another day, here's something fascinating that goes with another of those perks; being able to listen to R.E.M. and read books in work hours.

I was reading Youth Ministry That Transforms and came across a fascinating statistic⁽¹⁾ about the change in priorities in parents and youth workers concerning their young people. Apparently back in the first half of the last century the items with a highest priority would form a cluster that centres on a personal religious life. So priorities would be things like "seeing prayer and reflection as worthwhile", "seeing God's role in the world as demanding a personal surrender to his will", "live each day with a sense of divine forgiveness", "has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ", "values the bible". This is opposed to items that cluster around "Moral Maturity", things like "Has a healthy self-concept about his or her valueness and worth as a person", "Takes a responsible view towards moral questions around issues like drug taking and sex", "Distinguishes between popular culture and the values of the gospel". In 1980 a survey was carried out where most of the respondents ranked the priorities concerned with moral maturity higher than those concerned with a personal religious life. You can kind of see the American bias in this, with 'leading a good life by not doing bad naughty things, like sex or drugs' being the signs of moral maturity but I can't see these results as being confined to America. In Britian we'd have the same overall results, but signs of moral maturity would be things like 'respects other viewpoints and religions', 'helps with a variety of things that take up their evenings', 'attends meetings regularly', 'helps on a sunday'.

What worries me about this, is that as far as I can see things haven't changed. We still focus on getting young people to being morally mature and not on having a personal relationship with Christ. We go down the route of legalism, teaching them to act in a certain way and to obey certain rules. If you look at the two different categories, the first one places stress on how you look in God's eyes, the second places stress on how you look in everyone else's eyes. It's worrying how much of my youth work is centred around getting people to act nice and look good in my eyes, when really they'll act nice when they start being concerned about how they look in God's eyes.
Pharisee, Tax Collector, prayer. Which one went home right in the yees of God?

Footnote

The Price of Wi-Fi

Why, I ask, is wi-fi so expensive? At its cheapest it's still £4.50 (just over $7) for an hour, which is ridiculous for a service that after the initial setup doesn't really cost anything to run. I'm sure that prices will drop sharply in the future, but I want the future now. If BT or some other big provider decided to drop the price to £2.00 an hour, or some even cheaper bulk deal, I'd be all over it.
Rant Over.

Twenty and Indeed One

In nine weeks time, on the 19th of November 2004, it will be exactly thirty four years since the third and fourth men to walk on the moon walked on the moon, one hundred and fourty one years since gettysburg was addressed and one thousand, five hundred and fourty four years since St. Hilarius became Pope. It will mark the fourty second birthday of Jodie Foster, the fourty third birthday of Meg Ryan and the 71st birthday of Larry King.

All this comes as way of introduction to the simple fact that on the 19th of November 2004 it is my 21st birthday and I have no idea what to do for it. If you have suggestions of how I can turn the following things into an epic party, then please let me know. Any suggestions used will guarantee you an invite.

• One medium sized living room
• One very small kitchen
• One large garden
• 160+ excellent CDs
• 60+ people in my address book who would probably attend
• Full access to the resources of a youth charity
• Keys to three town centre buildings in Ipswich, and one theological college in Cambridge

Answers on a postcard, or in the comments

Addenumumum

It should be noted that if, as I predict, after my first driving lesson my instructor turns around to in awe me and says 'Please, get out of my car, there is nothing I can teach you that will make you a better driver. Please take the test as soon as possible so that the whole world can witness your skill' then I'll have loads of cash to spend on the party. If, for whatever reason, this doesn't happen, I'll probably be rather poor. So the cheaper the suggestion the better.

In Vs. Out

Today I pose a deep theological question, which, inexplicably, is also practical. Who would have thought eh?
Anyway, before I get to the question, I'm going to outline two points. Feel free to disagree with them both, but this is where I'm coming from.

1. People who claim to be Christians who act as if they aren't Christians should be kicked out of the church.

   When I wrote to you before, I told you not to associate with people who indulge in sexual sin. But I wasn't talking about unbelievers who indulge in sexual sin, or who are greedy or are swindlers or idol worshipers. You would have to leave this world to avoid people like that. What I meant was that you are not to associate with anyone who claims to be a Christian yet indulges in sexual sin, or is greedy, or worships idols, or is abusive, or a drunkard, or a swindler. Don't even eat with such people. It isn't my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your job to judge those inside the church who are sinning in these ways. God will judge those on the outside; but as the Scriptures say, "You must remove the evil person from among you." (1 Cor 5: 9-13)

2. Legalism is bad, the church is open to all! Jesus is the gate to the underlying spiritual true church, he knows who is a genuine bona-fide Christian and who isn't ('I am the gate' John 10). God is the walls around his people (Zec 2:5) and he judges everyone.

Now theoretically this is all good. Christians can and should remove someone who is evil from their fellowship. Don't worry about the heathen's sins because God will judge that. But practically, evangelism happens on the fringe of the church. People become Christians generally after coming to church a few times. The average time it takes someone to become a Christian, in which they exist on the fringe of the church, is four years. So what do we do when they sin, do we say 'hey, you aren't a real church member as you aren't a Christian' and therefore let them do what they want, or do we say 'hey you're in the church, therefore you fall under the standards of the church, so give up your sinnning'.
The problem isn't helped by the fact that becoming a Christian and becoming part of a church (and baptism) is inextricably tied up in the New Testament.

I'm currently going with the thinking that unless they profess faith, they can do what they want, but this only works if the local church they are attending makes it clear that while they are part of the church they cannot genuinely partake in church until they believe in Christ. This should happen naturally if the focus of the church is on the building up of other Christians, as it biblically should be.

Here I'll leave it, and avoid the obvious dig at seeker sensative churches (but it's there if anyone wants to take it).

Upper Note

On a more up note, the message on the Easyworld website strongly implies Dav is going solo. Seeing as Dav wrote the songs and was the band's lead, it's a really silver lining. Possibly Platinum.
Also, I'm currently at Oxford Brookes on a residential. £2 a week for internet access, no-one else on site. Just downloaded 'Sympathy For The Devil, 5.2mb took approximately 5 seconds. That's a minute a second. Now that's fun.

Easyworld

Easyworld have split. Today is a black, black day.

No Mobile

My Phone is in for repairs, so I have no mobile for the next two weeks. I'm also away the best part of all of next week, so don't even bother trying to contact me with anything other than e-mail.

Fight, For Your Right

One of the perks of working for a relatively large Christian youth work organisation is that at least half your meetings don't take place in the evening. Of course, one of the downsides is that you still have to spend two or three nights a week attending meetings, but at least you can then chalk it up as time worked and take it off in lieu at some other point. And more importantly you can laugh at the church youth worker who spends his entire day planning what exactly he is going to do in tonight's meeting. This is all irrelevant though when it's your own church and you're attending the meeting out of your own free will.
So with all that in mind, I won't tell you a highly amusing anecdote to come out of the meeting, because really I shouldn't reveal details of things said, planned and discussed in confidence. So make up your own amusing anecdote, that finishes with these words: Well pause at least they'll be deaf and going to heaven

Here Comes The Bride

Sometimes things just slip by on this weblog. Huge events of momentous significance pass by without a single mention. This may seem like these huge momentous events pass me by without thought or concern but generally that's just not true. It's just I don't document them at the time for whatever reason. So with that caveat/preamble/excuse out of the way, my brother got married almost a month ago.
Isn't that exciting? My brother, married! Gosh! I have a sister-in-law!
Needless to say it was all very beautiful and a happy occasion for everyone. On a personal note I was particularly impressed that only three people looked at me and said 'it'll be your turn next'.

Your Personality Please

Hey happy campers. If you haven't recieved an e-mail from me in the last five minutes (so since around 16:31 BST), then that just shows I don't love you. No wait, no it doesn't. It shows that I haven't got your e-mail address. Big contact data loss in the Windows Xp -> Mac Os X transfer. So use the contact forms to give me your e-mail, your phone number, birth date, postal address or anything else you feel I ought to have. Get your groove on!

Broken Phone

"My phone won't charge, so it means I'm going to have to be without a phone for a fortnight while I get it repaired."
"I'm sure a know someone who works as a phone repairman."
"Oh really? Who?"
"What's his name. Y'know, that guy. Wait a second. Isn't he your housemate"
"Oh yeah, I'd forgotten he repairs phones."

My Ipod 'God Loves His Children'

In all the fun of getting a new shiny ibook and going to see a giant stuffed turtle I forgot to mention yet another shiny gadget I purchased. A shiny shiny ipod. Due to the lovely people at Apple being lovely, you get £130 back if you buy and ipod with any apple laptop. So with the student discount as well, that works out to be an 20gb ipod for £70 quid (that's $124 US dollars for all you non-brits). Anyway, it's shiny, and amazing. As someone who only bought an ipod because I could sell it on ebay for £100 profit if nothing else, I'm never selling it. EVER. It's one of the coolest and cleverest pieces of software I've seen since my umm... ibook.
Anyway, half the reason I write this is to get the term 'God Loves His Children' with the word ipod to the top of google ranking for '"God Loves His Children" ipod'. The logic is my ipod has 'God Loves His Children' etched on the back, so if anyone finds it lost, then google will direct it home. Hopefully.

Museum Fun

Today, in a fit of maturity, I visited the National Museum and Gallery, Cardiff. I'd like to say that it was entirely my suggestion to visit the museum, however I can't take any credit, because my good friend Eleanor suggested it.
So we visited the museum and saw among other things The World's Largest Turtle (deceased), The Most Amazing Contraption For Storing Paper Drawings Ever and The Amazing Ants Of South America. The Ants deserve some elaboration. On the way there Ellie kept on about how fascinating the ants where. I was understandably doubtful. After all, exactly how fascinating can ants be? However all my doubts where laid to rest when I actually saw the amazing ants. You know how you start looking at a lava lamp and you find you can't look away? Imagine that, but 4000 lava lamps all running around like recently decapitated chickens. Truely awesome. Other highlights included the aformentioned turtle and paper holder (not a turtle and paper holder you understand but a turtle and paper holder), the wildlife photographer exhibit and the cezanne paintings.

Top Five Things That You Should Know About Straight Out Of The Box Macs

1. The Packaging is so sexy. I mean, really really sexy. I actually stopped half way through opening my ibook packaging because the packaging was so incredibly sexy. It's wonderful. I fully intend to pack my Mac away and make everyone in the world open in up. Except I'm never going to pack it away ever because...
2. The ibook itself is even sexier. I'm not even going to attempt to explain how damn fine it looks. Though if anyone asks, 'damn fine' is the answer I'm going to give.
3. It has the best power cables ever. No really. Power cables. What big crazy hippy thought making power cables sexy was a good idea? What were you smoking big crazy hippy? And now I've dug myself into a hole because I can't actually admit that the power cables are brilliant idea without giving in and admitting that the big crazy hippy was onto something. So I give in! Mr. big crazy hippy, I salute you and your pot smoking brain!
4. It connects to the internet. One of the things that scared me about getting a new mac was trying to get it online through our windows xp network shared internet connection do-hicky. Still, I plugged it into the connection, and lo and behold it just found the internet! None of this 'internet? what's that?' dialog boxes, instead 'uh, we've found this internet connection on this umm *cough* windows xp machine. We couldn't use it could we?' OF COURSE YOU CAN DEAREST MAC! TAKE ALL THE INTERNET YOU WANT!
5. I can fiddle with stuff!. So it's downloading software updates, and of course, when you're downloading software updates you better not play with it in case in all explodes, yes? NO! Carry on away software updates, I'm going to browse the internet and play chess and fiddle with apple works and open as many programs as possible and then press shift F9. HAHAHAHA.