extra ordinary

I havent posted many thouhts here in a while.
My days seems to procrastinate harder than myself; I havent hit the sack earlier than midnight in about a week. Tonight will be another late one.
This morning I awoke and immediately checked the state of the environment on the otherside of my bedroom window.
And joy.
The sun appeared to be hanging in the sky in much the same way that large iron anvils do not.

I have black and white film left over from thailand.
A beautiful pacific northwest morning.
A head full of thoughts and ideas.
An empty stomach.
A nagging cracking noise in my second-to-smallest-left-foot-toe.
A spare tube of toothpaste.
I have alot of things.

lifeisntfair

Death probably is.

youlive,youlearn

At any rate, you live.

exitonly

gleaningsfromtheweek

Gleaned alot from the news this week.
FYI, I thought I might condense some of the more interesting stuff for you; a veritable round-up if-you-will.

A fascinating article this morning hinting at a split in the Republican party between traditional republican evangelicals and non-christian republicans caught my eye. Interesting thoughts from a non Christian on what Christians look like. Especially interesting to note the Pat Robertson commentary.

Princess Tony (like him or loathe him) apparently persuaded Bush not to bomb Al Jazeera's headquaters in Qatar; and [draw cynical breath here] has been speaking out for developing nations again (fair trade, this time). Still, he presented the issue in an easy enough way to understand for someone like myself.

Apparently, the whole man-on-the-moon thing was made possible largely by the help of Nazi scientists. But wait! No consiracy theories here, us Allies plundered the technichally advanced third reich just after the second world war ended.

I have a bad memory for general things. But a good memory for random data. This is explained fully by new evidence from the Nature Journal.

winternewsletter

Winter 2005 newsletter now up for grabs.
(I've been told that there have been some problems for peecee users viewing my blog with Msoft explorer; I'm working on trying to sort this out for you, but in the meantime try using firefox(?) or better still Safari(!))

noviolencepostnobills

The final podcast

November 22nd minutes, now available.

Part I

"...because I take your gold, and broadcast it..."
Part II
"...I see you on a white horse in shining armour looking down at me, the peasant..."
Part III
"...I'm heading towards the big giant fish that are often on maps made by Rand McNally..."
Part IV
"...take showers regularly, use cologne and look them in the eye becasue it shows you're not afraid of them..."

leavingonajetplane

Tonight we had a going away shindig for Ben.
Not so much going away, but leaving forever.
I cried for the first time in a year and a half. At least I think I cried. It was a strange hybrid between laughing really well and discovering tears from a deep well of sadness.
I felt the comfort and peace of assurance we will see each other again.
We often make cracks about groing old together and revelling in our senality; spraying kids with a hose pipe and abusing old-age leaway. Even opening up a pub together.
But there are nagging elements of truth to our joking which have almost become prophetic.
I love the friendship; I wouldnt change a thing.
I think that even God looks forward to it when we get together and laugh.
But for now my eyes will sting.

shoesshoesshoes

I see these shoes almost everyday.
They hang, nay loiter, on telephone lines just above the officeI work in.
This post is dedicated to women everywhere whom, as I understand it, love shoes.

Creating

I haven't really posted many of my thoughts here in a while.
I suppose that's because I have had a lot to digest recently.

I've been trying to figure out [exactly] what it is I enjoy doing.
It would be simple to make a list of what I do most often for recreation and draw logical conclusions, but that shoe has never seemed to fit in the past.
I find that I often blow hot and cold.
A couple of months ago it was everything apple flavoured.
Nowadays I find I couldn't care less about things that are apple flavoured.
At the moment it is chocolate milk.
But I know that next week it could be different.

I enjoy taking pictures, but would never consider myself a photographer.
I enjoy making things, but would never consider myself a carpenter etc.
I enjoy playing my guitars, but would never consider myself a musician.

And then this afternoon it hit me; it's the creation.
Creating is what I care about.
I take pleasure in accomplishment, not necessarily the product.

Which leads me to ponder how He would have felt on that seventh day.

welldonejamie

Congratulations to Jamie, obvious winner of the caption contest! Jamie, feel free to dish yourself an enormous slice of smug anytime you like...

Oh my goodness, what an incredible article I noticed in the latimes a couple of days ago; even if you're not interested in NK you should still read this one.

Caption Contest

Hong Kong MTR, April 2005.
Winner receives an enormous sense of self satisfaction.

onehundredandone

Posts.

this corner

I can't think of a corner in this city that my feet have courted more often.
Snared forever.

England v Agentina; Geneva Nov 12th 2005

It's never a friendly when it's against Argentina.
Congratulations on a 3-2 win, England.

podcasting: the return of.

November 8th minutes now available.

Part 1
"...or perhaps we could start using: "People-box"..."

Part 2
"...there's no more Amsterdam. It's gone, actually..."
Part 3
"...it was probably Nancy, sowing seeds of dissent..."
Part 4
"...and I think he had dinner with Arnold Schwarzenegger..."
Part 5
"Well, I'm kind of pursuing the whole Keira Knightley thing."
"Mmm. Is she taking the bait?"
"Well, I think she's playing the whole: "I've never even heard of you before" game."

To subscribe to Ben & Larph's podcasts, go to iTunes, click the "Advanced tab"; go - "Subscribe to Podcast".
Paste this address in: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Larph
iTunes should be grabbing us as soon as we are up.

the city.

"I love the city".

monet

Twenty five.

Why did Monet use the one white waterlilly?
And what next?

twenty blooming five

Twenty five.
It's a milestone. I haven't decided how I feel about it yet.
I'm still thinking. Still mulling.
Perhaps it will be better than twenty four.
Although twenty four has definetely been the most interesting year I've courted.
Perhaps not.
Right now.
Sort of feels...

I don't feel.

the forest

Somone asked me a question yesterday.

"You walk into a forest.
"Do you see the forest, hear the forest or feel the forest?"

soph soph soph

Sophia's current album of choice: Blindside - "About a burning fire"

Skyping

I got to talk to my parents for the first time since march today.

Since telephone calls overseas are just too blooming expensive, we used some net software called Skype; I can't recommend it enough.
Totally free, or you can may a minimal fee and use a computer to call a telephone.

guy fawkes night

Remember, remember the 5th of November: Guy Fawkes' night.

Usually in England we'd be setting fore to an obscene amount of wood and fuel whilst similarly lighting small explosives excused as fireworks.
Tonight we had a bit of a doo, and burnt our own home made Guys on the BBQ.

As for the podcast, they recorded it on "Garageband", and plan to do more before Benny Boy goes back to Aus. Larph and Benny Boy enjoyed bringing humour to the staff meeting minutes, but are open to suggestions for other topics...

Podcast Support

To subscribe to Ben & Larph's podcasts, go to iTunes, click the "Advanced tab"; go - "Subscribe to Podcast".

Paste this address in: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Larph
iTunes should be grabbing us as soon as we are up.

podcast pt II

Larph and Benny Boy vs The Staff Meeting Minutes.

Part II

"... the gate is your responsibility. The gate.
Check that it's there."

RSS Feed available... subscribe with iTunes etc etc.
(Check the Sidebar).

Okay, here we go again

Larph and Benny Boy vs The Staff Meeting Minutes.

Part I

"... the gate is your responsibility. The gate.
Check that it's there."

RSS Feed available... subscribe with iTunes etc etc.
(Check the Sidebar).

update

The podcast isnt up and running quite yet... had a bit of trouble finding somewhere that would host a 30Mb audio file... any ideas, please let me know.

Also a bit busy preparing for this conference tomorrow - out in Abbotsford, I'm doing something on discipleship.

Podcast: 1st Official

"... the gate is your responsibility. The gate.
Check that it's there."

It's finally here.

Benny boy and Larph vs The Staff Meeting Minutes.
[And other possible copyright infringements].

You can subscribe for this podcast and other future podcasts by following the "Feed" badge in the sidebar and subscribing... iTunes can catch all of the Staff Meeting Minutes goodness for you so that you won't have any excuse not to know what the gate code is... sort of.

riding the subway

Special k, this year.
Riding the escalator in the [incredibly deep] subway system to the sound of triumphant and patriot-inducing anthems.

ioncesnapped this oldman

I snapped this sweet old man.
He just seemed to be waiting.

testigntesting

Trying to set up a little corner with podcasting available (benny boy the consumate aussie and myself will be providing a satirical look at the weeks' staff meeting minutes).
Test run here.

The Sermon Vending Machine

Seoul, S.Korea.

tap water

The water came on every three or four days in special k.
The isolation and excitement compounded themselves when I decided to commit the event to tape one day.

Firefoxing

I have been messing around with the format of this blog over the weekend (as well as finally hammering out that new newsletter).
I have noticed that the format looks entirely different depending upon the type of browser you happen to be viewing it with at the time.*sigh*

I have also sorted out a bit of an rss feed... we'll see if it will work.
Oh, and if you're interested in using a really great browser that has nothing to do with Bill Gates, then check out Firefox.

(It's not perfect), but still a great tool.

Let me know if its not working.

Oooh, apologies to all who were mislead over the shanghai carrot - it was infact a ginseng.
(Thanks to Chris for spotting that one).