Entries from November 2007 ↓

“Never mistake motion for action.”  – Ernest Hemingway

well, after a seriously total wipe-out of the coalition this weekend (wow!), it’s been fascinating to see all the reports of key liberal figures declaring that they knew it was going to be that way, which begs the question why they didn’t do something to change that…  the stupid elephant in the room of howard’s intended transfer of power to costello being one of them, not to mention climate change issues, work choices and a number of other stands they could have quickly made adjustments to in order to change the momentum.and, in a very smart move, which i should have seen coming but for some reason didn’t see, costello did the smartest thing he could possibly do by refusing the captaincy of the titanic, and is talking up a post-politics real-world gig.  after all, there’s absolutely nothing for him in taking the helm of a decimated liberal party which looks to be in opposition for at least the next 2 terms i would say.and, the worst possible thing happened in our seat of brand – labor actually rode on the coat tails of the big national swing to open up their margin in this seat, which basically means we’ll now be up for another 6 years of neglect…  i’m all up for being party loyal, etc., for those labor people who felt they just had to support the ALP, but the truth is that in our seat they would have been smarter to vote anything other than greens or alp, because they’ve just created a situation where the labor party can continue to take the area for granted.  i don’t say any of this because any great allegiance to either party – it just makes plain political sense. 

“If I had thought about it, I wouldn’t have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can’t do this.”  - Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M “Post-It” Notepads. the above quote sums up the counter-intuitive nature of much scientific endeavour, and probably a lot of other things too.  i know it applies to the church. 

An interesting quote from British politician Enoch Powell: “All political lives, unless they are cut off in midstream at a happy juncture, end in failure.

Probably applies equally to a great many professions, including boxing… :-)

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”— Mark Twain 

a quick tip i’m happy to pass on…i was having trouble with my blackberry pearl’s trackball not tracking left.  i had a mate who had similar issues, but i’d been fortunate to not having anything, in spite of me probably not giving my pearl the best care in the world – i just tend to shove it into my pocket, so i’m sure there is all kinds of dust and lint in the wrong places.the solution to this problem was to pull the little trackball out and clean around the magnetic rollers and sensors.  it’s a delicate operation, but seems to work just fine.  the best info i could find about this is here.  read it careful, proceed carefully…  and BIG TIP OF THE DAY…  note carefully the orientation of the bits as you remove them!  :-)  have fun! 

the aussie stockmarket continues to be dominated by the US scene today, and it’s just amazing to me how the markets work. i laugh at people who like to analyze things, and check company backgrounds and data, etc. frankly, asides from filtering out the odd company with big fundamental business problems, generally this sort of analysis is a waste of time, it seems to me. the stockmarkets are almost entirely driven by emotion – there is little logic to it, and anyone who approaches it from a purely analytical or rational point of view is going to get toasted.

today, for example, is an excellent illustration. leighton (LEI) is a company i have a bit of knowledge about, and in spite of this company being rock solid, making great profits, winning new and huge construction projects, etc., it plunged 6.1% today, largely due to the large fall on the US market which pushed our whole market down. by EVERY statistical and data-driven measure, there is no way leighton should be going down in value by that much, but it did, and largely because of the emotionally charged atmosphere of the current market situation led by the US.

i love hearing the economists and market analysts being interviewed on TV and radio, because they give these highly rational spiels about what happened and why, when it is plain that none of this is logical or predictable – it’s the reason why we have so many “experts” in this field… lots of people with well-researched opinions, but none of which can really explain why most of what happens actually happened. it’s a big crystal ball game, and unless you factor in the emotional angle by at least 80-90%, you don’t really understand how the markets work.

i came across this at scott hodge’s blog (and i believe he got it from david foster), and all i can say is AMEN! wherever is came from, i love this because it expresses so perfectly how i feel about some of the nonsense debates and critiques and battles going on in certain quarters about what seems patently obvious to me.

Here’s what I mean when I use the word emerging:

1. I believe that all of life is lived before God, that we do not compartmentalize our faith, doing one thing at church and another thing everywhere else.

2. I believe the disciplines of theology are meant to be entered into everyday life, not a separate discussion that is apart from the experience of conversion.

3. When I say emerging, I am really saying that I’m seeking where God is moving in this moment; where the new ideas, trends, methods, ways of presenting the gospel in our current culture are coming from; to seek to ride the wave that God is sending.

4. When I say emerging, what I’m saying is that there is no difference between clergy and laymen, that we’re all brothers and sisters in Christ, equally called, equally gifted, and equally responsible for the revolution of the gospel of grace.

5. When I say emerging, what I’m saying is, I have no particular loyalty to a set of systems or methodologies. In some sense I’m a pragmatist. I’m going to use what works and when it no longer works, I’m going to set those methods aside to see what new methods God is bringing to the forefront.

6. When I use the word emerging, I’m saying that I am sick and tired of labels between conservative, liberal, fundamentalist, and social action. I think we need to drop those labels and be men and women who love Jesus and who are loving the world in His name.

7. When I say emerging, what I’m saying is I’m trying to erase the false division that exists between profession and doing. My doing shall come out of my being.

8. When I say emerging, I’m saying I want to erase the so-called barrier between social action and love for Jesus. If we love Jesus, we love our brother, we love the poor, and we help those who are disadvantaged. And that’s not a compromise, that’s an outcome.

9. When I use the word emerging what I’m saying is I want to carry on a conversation not a confrontation.

10. When I use the word emerging I’m saying I want to be faithful to the gospel and to the foundation of God’s word. I want to use the kinds of words that people understand. I use words that bring people together, not words that divide them. I’m not looking for a fight. I’m looking to join a group of men and women who are part of this worldwide revolution of presenting the gospel in a dark, dangerous, sad world.

These are some of the things I mean by emerging. What do you mean?

just got through a 8 year old’s birthday party with squealing, giggling girls making a lot of noise, etc. it’s fun to watch them play and have fun, but the 2 minute attention span is a bit of a challenge! being a teacher with this age group must be a constant collage of activity.

it is kind of interesting to watch the 8 year social deal at work, and the politics of the relationships between the kids. quite intriguing to see how they all interact and play games and figure out who is who, etc. they design all kinds of characters and roles as part of their play – i don’t remember this as a boy. it was mostly just goodies and baddies, and those simple stereotypes got us by, whereas the girls have all kinds of subtle variations in the social structure of their play. take the boys to the park and it quickly settles into basic warfare with imaginary enemy forces, or they create two teams and go for it. the girls get into games involving sisters (twins), best friends, puppies, teachers, and mums. it’s another world.

and then they ate – and boy, did they eat! but, i guess it saves me picking at leftover lollies for the next week.

I’ve been really enjoying the subtle differences in the Mac OSX Leopard upgrade – very nice!

But, I ran into a small hitch last Sunday when I discovered that I suddenly couldn’t play video clips in my Keynote presentations. As a quick sidenote, I’ve been using Keynote for a while now instead of Powerpoint, and it is waaaay nicer to use. But, obviously video suddenly dying was a rather annoying problem.

I dug around the internet and discovered that the issue had to do with a Quicktime update that came down the pike, as well as the Perian utility which allows you to play wma files. Simple solution was apparently to delete Quicktime and reinstall it from download, but that didn’t seem to fix it for me. I then uninstalled Perian, and that did the trick. I’m all good to play my videos.

Not being in the Mac world for very long, I guess I’m figuring out how Apple handles big OS updates and the issues that arise. What seems to happen is a steady stream of updates from major software vendors to get their stuff into compliance, so there’s been lots of updates lately.