Aberdeen Blogs

Photo 167/365: Dawn
Originally uploaded by rethought

Thursday, 2 July 2009 11:18 PM

Thursday, 2 July 2009 3:40 PM

50 books a year continued...

Wednesday, 1 July 2009 10:19 PM

Blindsighted by Karin Slaughter

My review

Wednesday, 1 July 2009 10:15 PM

Well, new years resolution was achieved back in January - join a band, so that's good.

I've sold more basses than I've bought this year so far, again that's good.

The second half of this year will be dedicated to buying our first property, and my continued musical development.

Wednesday, 1 July 2009 1:23 PM

Just got my iphone tethering to work finally.  I did a quick speed test on toast.net and was quite satisfied with the result.  As you can see below I was able to get a speed equivalent to a 2MB broadband line.

I’m hoping this will be useful for when I’m out and about with my laptop and I can’t get a decent wifi connection anywhere but my phone gets at least an edge or at best a 3G signal.

I don’t know whether or not this situation will ever present itself but it’s nice to know I have the option.

Part of my work today involved me setting up a laptop for tethering to a Nokia mobile phone, N82 I think it was.  To compare and contrast the 2 experiences might be a bit unfair, given the cost of equipment in each situation is vastly different, but from a user experience point of view, the Apple products fared a hell of a lot better.

I set up the tethering for my laptop there in a few minutes.  Turned on bluetooth on my phone and paired it with my MacBook, then simply enabled Internet tethering on my iPhone and the MacBook told me that it had found a new network connection and proceeded to use it (I had previously disabled the AirPort card on my MacBook).  The whole thing took about 2 minutes.  This time would be reduced in future tests because the bluetooth pairing would not have to be done again.

Compare this to the experience I had with the Dell laptop and Nokia phone.  I had to re-install the Nokia PC Suite software about 4 times before it would work reliably.  Once all the drivers for the various Nokia phone options had been installed by Windows and the operating system restarted, I was eventually able to get the Dell to recognise that it was indeed plugged into the Nokia via USB Cable.  After that I had to configure the PC Suite (OneTouch Access) software and tell it the network the phone was connected to (T-Mobile United Kingdom).  On about the 5th try we were able to establish a connection and eventually load a website.  The whole experience took about 30 - 40 minutes.

I know a lot of this may be down to the signal strength of the mobile phone and admittedly you only need to install the Nokia software once and that should be it, but even then the time taken to do this was quite substantial.

Just another reminder why Apple products are the business.  Fair enough you’re at the mercy of (ultimately) Steve Jobs and whatever he decides goes but so far I don’t have any problems with that and there’s definitely more pros than cons.

I”m looking forwards to Snow Leopard (Coming Soon), An iPhone 3GS in December hopefully and finally being able to afford iLife and iWork 09.

Recently I’ve been learning how to write applications for the iPhone.  It’s a bit different from the way I’m used to writing applications and it’ll take a while to get used to XCode and figure it out completely (Along with Objective-C 2.0) but it’s looking good so far and when I can find a book with info about the 3.0 API things can only get better.

Now if only I had an idea for a good iPhone app to make…

Tuesday, 30 June 2009 10:56 PM

Photo 166/365: Badge
Originally uploaded by rethought

Tuesday, 30 June 2009 9:34 PM

grahamb asked me ages ago to give a review of the most recent Yeah, Yeah, Yeah's album.

Well, three months later...
(That seems to be my delay on internet type things this year.)

ybunny bought the album, titled It's Blitz!, at the local music spot, OneUp.

My first reaction was, 'that's the YYYs?' It seemed entirely too...pop-y?, club-y? for them. Because of that, I initially didn't like it. I had loved the stripped down, surprising tone of Fever to Tell.

However, upon the second or possibly seventh time I heard it as I went in and out while ybunny listened and gamed in the bedroom, it grew on me.

I still have to say that Fever to Tell is more to my taste, but several songs on the new album are quite worth a listen. 'Heads Will Roll' is probably my favourite for sound but again points to a club scene even in the lyrics: 'dance, dance, dance till you're dead...'.

Is it worth £10? Yeah (yeah, yeah).

< relurks >

Tuesday, 30 June 2009 9:23 PM

Photo 156/365: =/= Ramen
Originally uploaded by rethought

Monday, 29 June 2009 7:20 PM

I subscribe to this channel, 2 million hits in 2 days this got!

Monday, 29 June 2009 7:01 PM

At long last, the weather has improved and the sun is out. This was a topic of conversation on a radio show I was listening to and here were the following points that were raised as "important" and "valid".

No1: People thought that air conditioning units should be limited as too many people were walking into buildings that were ice cold. What would they prefer, be too hot that youfeel sick and faint, or wear an extra layer to keep a bit warmer.

No2: There should be a higher limit to the temperatures that you are allowed to work in before you get sent home. Makes you wonder how other countries who have temperatures 10-20 degrees warmer than us get any work done. They would maybe be allowed to work about 3 days a year.

No3: Work places should get half days for everyone to enjoy the weather. Well yeah I think we all want to be off when it is nice but shit happens.

How about we just work on the days we are meant to work regardless of the weather?

Monday, 29 June 2009 6:37 PM

This weeks “jokes” have predictably been interspersed with those about Michael Jackson’s untimely death, be warned…

1. After the sad news of M Jackson’s death authorities have said they will melt down his body and make kids toys, so they can play with him for a change.
2. For sale: 1 white glove good condition apart from soiled middle finger.
3. Advice 4 all new immigrants in the UK….. If you are trapped in a burning house or have been seriously injured + you are bleeding 2 death…. the new emergency number is 0898454576875423(snip)…456!!!
4. After great sex my thai girlfriend lies stroking my penis, I ask ‘do you want more sex?’ no, she replies, i’m just admiring ur cock, i really miss mine.
5. Apparently Michael Jackson’s girlfriend is devastated! She told Sky news…”first my parents left me in Portugal, now this!”
6. I found out last night that my granny made a porno film back in the fifties. I don’t know what disgusted me more, the fact she done it, or the fact that i carried on wanking after i recognised her.
7. Women are like parking spaces… Normally all the good ones are taken… so occasionally when nobody is looking you have to stick it in a disabled one.
8. Lady walking past pet shop see’s big sign in window “clitoris licking frog Available now” Fuuuck ! She thinks to herself I’m going in! “Hi there” she says to shopkeeper “can I see the clitoris licking frog please?” “Bonjour madame”

Monday, 29 June 2009 6:33 PM

Fractured by Karin Slaughter

My review

Monday, 29 June 2009 6:30 PM

Neil Young joined by Paul McCartney during his performance of A Day In The Life at Hyde Park two nights ago.

I was at Neil's Aberdeen concert last week, and it was one of the best I've been at in a long time - even without Macca guesting.

Monday, 29 June 2009 6:19 PM

My Linux based PC is currently in storage. This means that the iTeddy video converters are currently offline for the foreseeable future.

I will be looking at somehow hosting them on this web-host but I’m not sure that’s even possible as I don’t have direct privileges to install the software that’s required. I will look into this further and apologize for any inconvenience this is causing.

Monday, 29 June 2009 9:25 AM

Photo 163/365: Hot Enough For Ice
Originally uploaded by rethought

Sunday, 28 June 2009 8:27 PM

Gabi has been having some more fun with her Dell mini 9 - running the dark and mysterious (to us non geeks) UBUNTU ("Ubuntu" is an ancient African word, meaning "humanity to others" - how humorous of the LINUX people who can see the matrix and think everyone else can / should!)

This week, she somehow pressed a few tiny buttons together...and she changed her keyboard layout, unbeknown to her...until she tried to write an email! Trying to type in the @ sign kept dropping in the good old " (quote)... she fiddled, she poked...she called up the help files (written in "you should understand this, 'cos I did when I wrote it, mr Anderson" script)...

Anyhoo - according to Gabi - without knowing how, where or why, the keyboard somehow managed to fix itself (boy, boys, boys... don't ask).

This typeface is a tribute to that missing at sign... A fun, hand-drawn typeface, part of the "small stories" set Gabi is working on...

lots of love from Phil and Gabi (www.g-r-a.co.uk)

Sunday, 28 June 2009 11:00 AM

Last week, Gray's School of Art opened its doors to the public to showcase the work of all the graduating students of 2009... a fantastic date in the North East cultural calendar if ever there was one!

Gabi and I were particularly taken by the work of Tracy Gray (BAHons Graphics) - We thought that her "inevitable alphabet" project would work perfectly with Typeface A Week... and being the dedicated graduate - managed to make her way to look after her show on the Saturday morning (apres Graduation Party). We spoke, exchanged blogAddys and bing - she got back to us, very interested to participate. So thank you Tracy, well done for getting your BAHons, and thanks for wanting to share your work with us. Over to you:

"The ‘Inevitable Alphabet’ is a journey consisting of large posters with hand-drawn imagery and photography, with objects typically associated with the elderly e.g. Z = Zimmerframe. My aim is to break through stereotypical ideas of old age in order to encourage younger people to mix with the age group."

Check out http://peachplumpear-tee.blogspot.com/ for her blog

This typeface is now unavailable for download - but will be included in the limited edition CD Rom of all 52 Typefaces at the beginning of 2010. To secure a CD Rom, please email us (Phil & Gabi) at info@g-r-a.co.uk.If you would like to get involved in making a typeface for the project, please email us at : info@g-r-a.co.uk or leave a comment below!

lots of love from Phil and Gabi (www.g-r-a.co.uk)

Sunday, 28 June 2009 10:46 AM

It may not, strictly speaking, be soul music, but today's video couldn't be anything else.

Mrs Wife and I were due to see Michael Jackson in concert at the O2 Arena in London in three weeks' time, and I'm absolutely gutted that we'll now never have the chance.

This is the King of Pop's live televised coronation from the Motown 25th birthday party, when he performed the moonwalk for the first time in front of an audience.

Sunday, 28 June 2009 9:01 AM

I've posted fairly frequently in the past on the Google search terms that bring you strange denizens of the worldwide interweb to this far-flung outpost.

Two strange search queries directed punters this way earlier today (click on pictures to make them bigger):

First up, "sniffing sweaty jock cups". Beautiful. Just beautiful. Well man, whatever gets you off...
Then, perhaps even more disturbing:

Seriously, why would anyone want naked pictures of Ian Durrant? This search term has actually popped up here before.

You're a sick bunch....

Saturday, 27 June 2009 9:33 PM

Photo 163/365: Internatiional Potluck
Originally uploaded by rethought

Saturday, 27 June 2009 6:42 PM

Oh yeah...

Aren't roadies getting confident these days?

I bang on about telly and films but I keep forgetting about the music. Which is odd considering much of my life has been devoted to the creating, playing and listening of. For those of you who may not be aware, I spent about ten years of my life trying to 'make it' in the music biz - as you may have surmised, I didn't. It's still the thing that fills my life, like many I guess. Hours everyday listening to new and old tunes. So why I do keep forgetting to mention it?

She is a C-slapping disgrace. That is all.

Dunno, so I'll address the best of this year's releases so far here (obviously 'so far' as I cannot go into the future..., yet). To contextualise I purty much 'get' about two new albums a week. (*coughs* and looks around sheepishly *coughs* ) There's been a lot of substandard material (which I shan't go into) but there's been so much good stuff in 2009 too. Most recently, Far by REGINA SPEKTOR has been lighting up my ears with some incredible production and fascinating lyrics. Not to mention the cracking songs! Similarly, Tale To Tell by THE MUMMERS has been a big hit here at SoTV Towers. A truly extraordinary piece of work. Sublime arrangements compliment equally bottom~huggingly boobicular melodies, sounding as fresh as a field full of mint~in~the~box Star Wars figures and quite unlike anything else. Plus they're a bunch of gals! If you're a fan of music in any way, The Mummers get my 100% guarantee of SoTV goodness.

Anything she can do...

Gurly sounds also reign supreme in Two Suns by BAT FOR LASHES which is one of a number of releases this year that channel a little known decade that some people call The Eighties. You can't go anywhere (sonically) in the UK without being bombarded by the stabbing synths and plinkety~plonk riffs. Visually, the 'people' (and I use the word quite wrongly) are imitating extras in a Blow Monkeys video. La Roux by, erm, LA ROUX is the epitome of this. She's got some good tunes but this piece of work highlights the ethos of the synth - its power lies in the briefness of the single whereas its weakness lies in the album. The synth simply cannot sustain a dozen songs or so. Or rather it can, it's the people programming them who don't have the imagination to do so.

... I can do better!

Hands by LITTLE BOOTS also suffers from synth-fatigue though the single New In Town is a trouser~abandoning track of supreme talent. Speaking of abandoning trousers, a~ha are back! Yay! Actually, they've never really been away. The crazy Norwegians released a so~so album a few years back (with a couple of excellent songs on it, it should be noted) that was slightly TAKE THAT~Y in its adultness but now their new CD, Foot of the Mountain, sees a return to Eighties sensibilities. Pop. That's what they're all about and the title track, another Gary Barlow~esque track, is as beautiful as it is thigh~squelching. (And that's a good thing in case you're wondering.)

Amy drums up support for her Visa application...

Harnassing the power of the synth for good are acts like PASSION PIT, whose Manners contains more than its fair share of top tunes, and THE BIRD & THE BEE. Their album Ray Guns Are Not Just The Future is terrific and Love Letter To Japan is one of my faves from this year. Yes, it is electronic but their tweet~tweet~buzz~buzz has a heart and humful melodies. Robo~pop is certainly de rigueur but it's not all sh*t and I feel compelled to mention Jigsaw by LADY SOVEREIGN. Musically, it's nothing but lyrically? I was entranced. So much so that I listened to it a few more times just to catch her wordy nuggets again. Rhyming 'purple' with 'turtle' made me larf more than the entire output of BBC THREE. If you get a chance check it out purely for the poetry. I wouldn't advise paying any money for it but if you're up for giggles then she's VFM. It's difficult these days to figure out who's being serious anymore. And that's the way (uh~uh uh~uh), I like it.

The invisble man gives Beyonce the once over. Twice.

Moving on from electro~pop and on to 'real' music. Not that it's any better, I should add. DUKE SPECIAL released another fantastic album, I Never Thought This Day Would Come. Nobody seems to be taking notice of this guy which is a great pity as his songs are gawjus and very poppy. Shame. Also pleasing me aurally are (and apologies for this description~less list):

Wild Young Hearts by THE NOISETTES
It's Blitz! by THE YEAH YEAH YEAHS
Radio Wars by HOWLING BELLS
The Golden Spike by SKY LARKIN
Veckatimest by GRIZZLY BEAR
Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix by PHOENIX
Gurrumul by GURRUMUL YUNUPINGU

There's more (much more) but I guess we'll have to wait 'til the end~of~the~year poll to see which ones 'stand' the test of 'time'.

Hold on, is Federer wearing Bespin fatigues??

Lastly, I guess it would be remiss of me not to mention Thursday's event. It was, of course, the 25th anniversary of the release of Purple Rain by PRINCE. That man is a true genius - producer, writer (and not just for himself - Manic Monday, Nothing Compares 2 U, et al), multi~instrumentalist and amazing performer. Oh yeah, and movie director. (C'mon, UNDER THE CHERRY MOON isn't that bad - it's got STEVEN "Whispering" BERKOFF and KRISTEN "Scott" THOMAS for heaven's sake. Surely a sign of quality....) Anyway, Purple Rain is, for sure, one of my absolute nut~numbingly favourite albums. A true classic with no skipping whatsoever. Sadly he hasn't really released anything cohesive since 88's Lovesexy but I remember, and celebrate, the good times. Crikey, I've just realised, Batdance is twenty years old. Blimey, I'm old. Though I say that, I got refused Nurofen and Budweiser from my local supermarket 'cos I didn't have any ID! I'm flippin 35!!

Now that's what I call tit~grabbing!

Saturday, 27 June 2009 5:22 PM

Character is what you have left when you've lost everything you can lose.- Evan Esar

Saturday, 27 June 2009 10:46 AM

Photo 162/365: For Another Day
Originally uploaded by rethought

Saturday, 27 June 2009 6:07 AM

Friday, 26 June 2009 8:07 AM

RIP michael jackson. Aged 50 - well, what can you say to news like that? His bizzare, often higly suspect personal life aside - I don't think many people make it through life without enjoying at least a handfull of his tunes, from the Jackson 5' & Rockin Robin to Thriller and ...

Thursday, 25 June 2009 10:43 PM

Photo 161/365: Iz Rushin Keetan...
Originally uploaded by rethought

Thursday, 25 June 2009 7:45 PM

I used to smoke you will be appalled to hear.

Officially I ended it the second I decided to try and procreate about twelve years ago. Unofficially I ended it the time I decided to procreate a second time. All in all, I have not touched a cigarette for seven years.*

In between the birth of the first and second born of the Flying Martini children I lapsed slightly from time to time. But the cigarettes I smoked didn’t count, because I was in a foreign country when I smoked them.

As soon as we hit foreign soil Meeester and I would seek our favoured brand of local cigarettes, dependent on the country we were visiting, and arm ourselves up with a bunch of reasons why smoking on holiday was acceptable and permissable:

"It's immersing yourself in the local culture!"

"They are so cheap, it's like saving money!"

"This is the kind of country that if you don't smoke they think you are being rude. When in Rome...!"

I discovered that others have such smoking exemption excuses. For me, it was only “Smoking doesn’t count if you’re on holiday” but recently I have heard a few other choice ones from correspondents and friends of The Misssives.

Situations or places where smoking doesn’t count are:

• If you’re in the car
• If you’re trying to bond with new workmates in the smoking corner of the car park
• At parties
• If you've just had bad news
• At New Year (that's almost like a reverse New Year's resolution that one)
• If you’re with the band (my husband’s excuse)
• If you’re having a really shit day

You don't have to be a faux smoker to join in. There are other things that are slightly bad for you can turn you into a self-delusional nutcase. Such as alcohol.

Booze: It doesn’t count if:

If you are in a church. (Passing by one doesn't count)

The drink concerned has fruit other than lemon in it. Pimms is great for this. Why with a good helping of strawberries, cucumber and mint, that’s your Five a Day right there! It’s practically a health-drink, and should be available on the NHS. If you're drinking it at Wimbeldon you're doubly exempt as it is expected of you. If you are seen without a glass of it in your hand, officials may think you a foreign national and try to have you deported.

If the drink is Guinness or any other stout. They may have been having a laugh with the “Guinness is Good for You” advertising nonsense, but show me a woman whose mother hasn’t told them to get some stout down them if they are “run down” and I’ll show you a motherless child.

If you are a woman and you are menstruating or pre-menstrual. It doesn’t say so on the instruction leaflet inside the Feminax packet (but only because it wouldn’t probably be legal) but every girl knows they are only to be taken three times a day with a glass of white wine. Or else they don’t work. FACT. They teach that in sex ed when they divide the class up and take the girls into another room. That's what they're telling them in there, lads, nothing else.

At funerals. You are not allowed by law to refuse a drink at a funeral. It’s disrespectful to the deceased. In Catholic countries a drink refusal could get you stoned or run out of town.

If you’re outside in the sunshine. This goes back to the “on holiday” rule that I applied to smoking. The same applies to drinking. If you are on holiday you can have booze at any time of the day with impunity. Chances are that it’ll have fruit in it anyway, so you’re doubly exempt.

More excuses please in the comments box, please.

Thursday, 25 June 2009 2:19 PM

Photo 159/365: September Planning
Originally uploaded by rethought

Wednesday, 24 June 2009 9:45 PM

So much going on that I didn't have time to write about it...

Wednesday, 24 June 2009 12:16 AM

Photo 158/365: And Now It's Blue
Originally uploaded by rethought

Tuesday, 23 June 2009 10:06 PM

I was pointed in the direction of this site yesterday, and it's quite amusing. Basically little characters fight against each other. As you get more experience, you get better weapons and stats.

Take me on at http://neepheid.mybrute.com (linky)

Tuesday, 23 June 2009 12:52 AM

Why the hell do we pay it? I wonder if there is a case for the withholding part of it should the services it funds fail to be delivered.

Yes more rant fodder in the form of Aberdeen City Council. I am amazed that one organisation can piss me off so much. Never in the history of my life have I been so disappointed by one organisation for the simple fact that were any other company to annoy me half as much they would be booted out in favour of one of their competitors.

There is no alternative for the council though!!! They are it. For better or, more commonly, worse. I’m skirting around the actual grievance here aren’t I? Sit down for this one.

In the entire time I’ve been living in Aberdeen City I’ve NEVER had my brown bin uplifted by the garden rubbish lorry. Not once! It’s been emptied by the regular bin people on a couple of occasions as they could see it sitting there week after week, grass spilling out of it, uncollected.

OK there’s never any grass spilling out of it as I usually empty my grass cuttings, one and a half brown bins full with each cut, into a pile in the trees by my driveway. The point remains though that this is supposed to be uplifted, I pay to have it uplifted by way of council tax and I never have it uplifted!

Well the dumping into the trees has come to an end because of Aberdeen City Council’s latest great idea. I really mean great idea here without the slightest hint of irony because I fully support it.

We now have food waste bags. This is to recycle our food waste into compost at some site in the shire to the good of the environment in more than one way!

Food bags filled after a freezer malfunction

Some unintended yet beneficial effects have been that almost all our household waste is recycled. Our kitchen bin no longer whiffs when you open the lid as there’s no rotting bacteria ridden food remnants in there(only some plastics and other waste the council doesn’t recycle for some reason, North Ayrshire Council does!) and it’s actually more convenient. Scraping food into the worktop caddy beside the sink is easier than hauling each plate to the bin and back. Yay!!?

..Nay!

The problem is, that when it’s time to replace your little caddy’s biodegradable liner(which are supplied by ACC) you place the old one full of food into, yes, your garden waste brown bin!

Well there is NO WAY I can empty my brown bin into the trees now as the waste food would attract vermin and other unwanted guests wouldn’t it? I’ve actually been in touch with ACC about this in the past, before we had the food bags. They have confirmed that I should be having my brown bin uplifted and the dates on which that should happen.

I actually pay two lots of council tax, one for Aberdeen City and one in another area where I have another (empty) house. That equates to 2 lots of council tax for the use of one lot of services, I’m not even getting that!

Now to add insult to injury my regular recycling collection failed to materialise today. They collected the rest of the scheme but left me! Fuckers!

Thankfully I did manage to get a second bin delivered the other week before these fortnightly collections start. Can we say rat-tastic much!

Were there some competition available I’d not use ACC that’s for damn sure!

Monday, 22 June 2009 4:18 PM

Photo 158/365: Fresh Varnish
Originally uploaded by rethought

Monday, 22 June 2009 12:20 PM

Monday, 22 June 2009 9:55 AM

Photo 157/366: Whoosh
Originally uploaded by rethought

Sunday, 21 June 2009 9:40 PM

Last week, was a hectic week... I (Phil) have been concentrating on getting the NEOS (North East Open Studios) booklet off to print...and there was the small matter of going to the Gray's School of Art Degree Show on Friday night & Saturday... and we've been neglecting doing our demolition duties at Claypots - so TFAW was taking a low priority...





SO!... as we want to use typefaces to relate to our week's events... I thought "better late than never" - and in true fashion of "pulling it out the bag" - I've decided to upload an old font (CHEAT!) but - it was designed for the band I used to be in (Maple)...and fittingly, we recently got back together for a special benefit gig - and it all went swimmingly (much to Scot, Al, Murray and myself's surprise.)

The typeface is a mash up of metrostyle & times...if I remember correctly! It's a bit clunky, a bit unfinished and a bit prickly...yes, just like the band.

I've included a video of one of our performances for you to take stock of....enjoy (?)...




This typeface is now unavailable for download - but will be included in the limited edition CD Rom of all 52 Typefaces at the beginning of 2010. To secure a CD Rom, please email us (Phil & Gabi) at info@g-r-a.co.uk.If you would like to get involved in making a typeface for the project, please email us at : info@g-r-a.co.uk or leave a comment below!

lots of love from Phil and Gabi (www.g-r-a.co.uk)

Sunday, 21 June 2009 9:15 PM

We couldn't have some Sunday Soul without featuring this soul anthem at some point. Cracking live performance from Sam and Dave in Finland where they "are giving it to the grumpy Finns the hard way".

Sunday, 21 June 2009 9:27 AM

Photo 156/365: Metal Marker
Originally uploaded by rethought

Saturday, 20 June 2009 8:39 PM

Photo 156/365: Supper with Friends
Originally uploaded by rethought

Friday, 19 June 2009 10:00 PM

Meeester's latest cry for blogattention:

Putting fake flowers in the shrubbery

Don't ever miss a Misssive, subscribe!

Thursday, 18 June 2009 7:51 PM

Photo 155/365: F. & B. W.
Originally uploaded by rethought

Thursday, 18 June 2009 6:07 PM

Classy new advert from Vodafone featuring Lewis Hamilton, Heikki Kovalainen and Barry from EastEnders.

Thursday, 18 June 2009 5:04 PM

Click the picture to read the wonderful post from local listings site Gumtree.

Thursday, 18 June 2009 4:58 PM

Photo 153/365: Don't worry, I already mowed
Originally uploaded by rethought

Wednesday, 17 June 2009 10:16 PM

Mobile Number Marketing Opt-Out:

Thanks to @misssym for this sweet tip!

Check out the old link! haha!: http://www.118800.co.uk/removeme/remove-me.html

Wednesday, 17 June 2009 1:59 PM

In the face of the horrendous news that Nick Griffin's band of fascists has managed to return two Members of the European Parliament, the Royal British Legion has taken him to task for his abuse of the poppy.

(That makes it sound like he has a heroin addiction. He doesn't, at least not so far as I'm aware.)

Wednesday, 17 June 2009 6:40 AM

Photo 152/365: Grease Monkey
Originally uploaded by rethought

Tuesday, 16 June 2009 9:24 PM

This is a continuation of a series I’ve been running on the changing face of missions in the 21st Century, click here to read more.

I’m not discounting the fact that short term missions can be quite fruitful, but the long experienced feedback from short term missions is how they were greeted with hospitality and openness by the host community and come back far more transformed than the transformation they wrought whilst in that nation.

SO, are short term missions inefficient, ineffective, in one sense I would say yes; Often the combined travel costs for a short term missions to build something, help somewhere etc from a purely financial perspective would be much better spent employing locals to do the work. Tradesmen would likely do the work to a higher standard and the money would have more impact in the local economy.

But, there are a few reasons why short term missions should continue to play a part in Church life and whilst financial effectiveness should not be the only category considered by the Church as they look into short term missions.

Firstly, these days, who ever heard of a long term missionary who didn’t first go on a short term missions which infused them with passion for a people group/nation etc.

Secondly, the encouragement that can be felt by the injection of energy which accompany short term missions can impact the local missionaries and churches to be re-invigorated to see the Kingdom come in their community.

Thirdly, and in many ways the most lasting impact is the sending community of believers, as we go out, we encounter a holy interruption to our world view which has resulted from the monotony of life in our geographical locality, which creates a blinkered and over-simplified world view. When we leave we meet the real lives and churches behind the caricatures we create around phrases like ‘developing nations’, the ‘persecuted church’ and suchlike. We are transformed though having a genuine relational connection, not just a financial/political/conceptual relationship which is only a small part if a communities identity. We are transformed by knowing the people who are brothers and sisters in Christ in these nations and this knowing creates in us a resistance against the western political and religious rhetoric which patronises the reality which these Christians live in by .

I read this rehash of a missionary support letter in light of some of the considerations above by Andy Crouch at Christianity Today.

Dear members of Bethel Community Church: This summer eight of us will be traveling to spend time with our fellow Christians in ___________, and to serve their neighbors who are not Christians through the proclamation and demonstration of the gospel. Our purpose in going is to learn and to bring what we have learned back to this church. Frankly, we will benefit from this trip in more ways than will our gracious and generous hosts. Please support us in this endeavor to become the church God wants us to be.”

Further Resources I’ve been reading on this subject are:

• A Paper on the interaction of western culture Churches training Christians in cross cultural settings by David Livermore.
• Missionary Confidential – A Good blog discussing the realities of living as a missionary.

Tuesday, 16 June 2009 9:28 AM

As most people know I’m a Vodafone hater. I’ve been with the company since 1996 and it’s not getting any more likely that I’m going to rate them.

Anyhow, I’m within the last 30 days of my contract and have decided to shop around. When I phoned Vodacrud to make sure I knew how to leave them properly without incurring costs I got the mandatory sales pitch. I said I didn’t want Vodapoo as I fancied an iPhone. He gave me a blurb about another phone, the HTC Magic, being much better than an iPhone with faster processor and double the bandwidth capacity. All good then.

We eventually got to talking about pricing and the sums in my head weren’t adding up. So here they are now I’ve had a chance to research them.

I don’t use my phone for calls/texts it’s almost entirely for internet use(data).

So the guy offers me a 24 month contract(which I said no way to. I’m not being tied to them for 24 months!) at ~£35 for unlimited data and other perks I didn’t pay attention to around calls/texts. 600minutes free or something. This package features the iPhone killer, the HTC Magic.

So I nip on to the O2 website to check out their PAYT iPhone packages.

When you buy a new iPhone from O2 you get a 12 month unlimited data & wi-fi pack free, which you can continue afterwards for £10 per month.

So here are the sums…

Vodafone Phone - HTC Magic £35 x24months =£840

O2 PAYT Phone - Apple iPhone 3G S 16GB £440.40 +(12months @£10 for the data = £120) =£660.40

That’s £179.60 of a saving if you go with a pay as you talk package for 24 months without being tied in to a contract with Vodasuck AND a genuine iPhone. (Even at 18 months which you’d get the guy down to with no effort it’s £129.60 cheaper to go with O2)

I use Linux so this is probably all moot anyhow, I’d take the HTC for compatibility, also it seems to be a better phone AND it runs the awesome Google Android OS. Also I generally hate all things Apple for the “trendy” factor but it still goes to show how it’s not always cheaper to go for the contract. Especially with the dire and barely literate VodaIndia customer ‘care’.

Tuesday, 16 June 2009 9:17 AM