Entries from December 2007 ↓

just gotta love “the west” this morning, and its front page story on the terrible incident up in geraldton on christmas night in which a farmer and his family were attacked while enjoying a night at the beach, and the fellow was struck with a cricket bat and killed after his family were attacked by a mob of idiots.

apparently, the police had received a number of calls about the situation, some up to half an hour before the man was killed, but didn’t turn up. here’s the best bit… the acting assistant commissioner, fred gere, had this to say when questioned about why the police did not respond:

“There were a significant amount of phone calls that came through and I’m not here to work out what times and dates and what other police resources were tied up at the time.”

ok, fella… here’s where i think you have a major misunderstanding as to what your job description is… this is EXACTLY your job, to work out why the police did not adequately respond to a murder happening in a very public space. good grief! what a ridiculous thing to say.

he goes on to say,

“It’s sufficient for me to say that the police response was more than adequate and on the information we received I’m more than satisfied with the police response.”

well, i’m so glad he’s satisfied, but that’s not the point is it? i’m sure the victim’s family aren’t so thrilled, the folks who took the time to call the police probably don’t think it was good enough, and i (as a member of the general public who likes to take my family to the beach) don’t think it’s good enough. again, a ridiculous thing for a senior police officer to say.

he’s happy, so that’s it… we can all move on now… nothing to see here…

“We are what we repeatedly do.”  - Aristotle

 We are, at essence, a bundle of habits.  The essential shape of lives is bounded by a set of habits and regular actions or inactions that define who we are.  We can aspire to all kind of things, wish we were different, etc., etc., but at the end of the day it’s about reshaping the stuff we repeatedly do.The scriptures describe faith as being a lot more than wishful thinking or hoping against all hope.  faith is about action, and action reinforces faith by beginning to reshape who we are.  i often hear people say that our lives ought to be more about “being” than “doing”, but i think this is wrong-headed.  the very essence of your being is actually defined by your doing.so, the trick is not about not doing anything, but more about doing the right things.  then you will end up being the kind of person you aspire to be.just a radical (?) thought… 

i had to send my blackberry pearl in for repairs/replacement on
last week, and so i’ve resurrected my old pocket pc smartphone for the interim… and it’s killing me! i want my BB back… pronto!

the good people at vodafone tell me i could be waiting 6 weeks for this to be resolved, and i just know this ppc just can’t cut it as a serious productivity tool. just poking this out on the dodgy touchscreen with stick is so painful that it ha reinforced to me how much i have loved not having a touchscreen. this alone will ensure that i’m not taking up space in the iphone queue.

so, if you have a spare blackberry or want to bless me with an upgrade to a blackberry curve, then let’s talk! :-)

hope you had a good christmas, wherever you are in the world.  we had an awesome one in warnbro, with a totally packed church for our christmas morning service, and then a fantastic lunch back at our place. it was a pretty cruisy day, and by the time we headed to bed it was well into boxing day.  it was close to 40 degrees yesterday, and slated to be 43 today, which is just insane weather.  oh for a white christmas!  this is absolutely nuts here, but i guess we haven’t had too many really toasty days recently, so we were due for it.  thankfully the old aircon (evap) is cranking away faithfully, barely keeping temp about 10 below outside, but it’s a big difference, so i’m not complaining. 

“If A equals success, then the formula is A equals X plus Y and Z, with X being work, Y play, and Z keeping your mouth shut.”  – Albert Einstein

For those guys out there…  I’d like to help you all become better men and husbands, so here’s my Christmas gift to you…  I’m going to pass onto you the SINGLE BIGGEST tip I can give you to help you have a VERY happy Christmas, and it involves something you can do for your wives.

Trust me on this…  Take me at my word and see if this is not true…

This tip, if you follow it, will bring a huge smile to your wife on Christmas Day, as well as making you a very popular guy.

This is it…  Memorize it, and do it.  I’m deadly serious…

*** Go out and buy your wife something really nice…  By nice, I mean something that you would have bought her before you got married to her when you were still trying to impress her.  By nice, I mean something that is probably more expensive than $100, is probably not made out of plastic, and might even glitter a little…

OK…  Now pay special attention to these TWO important points…

*** Firstly…  Make sure she does NOT (under ANY circumstances) know what this gift is.  DO NOT ask her to choose something for herself (HUGE MISTAKE!), do not discuss this with her, do not ask her advice…  Trust me on this.  This must be totally unknown to her.  Surprise is key.

*** Secondly…  Under NO circumstances make this a “practical” gift.  Women do NOT enjoy “practical” gifts because if they really wanted a dishwasher they would make you go get one, and getting one for Christmas is not going to make them smile.  Just trust me on this.  I’ve made this mistake several times, and I remember them well.  DO NOT follow in my footsteps.  Jewellery and other “impractical” items are perfect.  The kind of gift I’m talking about is the kind of thing they probably wouldn’t buy for themselves.  In fact, I’ll be honest and say that any gift that seems to have a practical use of any kind is pretty much scratched right off my list straight up.  Anything that plugs in and requires power or batteries is off the list.  Learn from me on this.

One other thing…  If your wife says that she really isn’t expecting anything and doesn’t want anything big, etc….  IGNORE this completely.  Be a man and go beyond her expectations.  If she isn’t expecting much from you, then you have ground to make up…

This Christmas, I have a totally impractical gift that my wife knows nothing about waiting for her.  It is of a value that suggests my sense of value for her, and she is going to be very excited on Christmas Day.  I hope you learn from my stupid mistakes and follow my advice.  This is my gift to you – you will not be disappointed if you follow my advice closely.

So, that’s it.  My gift to you…

M.

*** PS:  if you have already purchased a gift that a) your wife knows about, b) is practical, and c) is cheap, then you have a few days to fix this problem or regret your error. Do so immediately.

*** PPS: This advice works even better for birthdays.  Try it and see your fortunes grow…  :-)

meetings, meetings, meetings!  tuesdays are usually a big day of connecting with key people, and although they have a huge toll in terms of energy, there’s just some stuff that you cannot do any other way than face to face.  so, got a lot done, but bombed by the end of the day. 

got this from a shop window in our area…  

i came across this piece the other day, and i thought it was pretty right on…  i can honestly say that ministry has been a much tougher and complicated calling than i ever figured it would be.  there are conversations and situations that i never thought i’d ever have in my life, and the complexities of ministry life are not for the faint hearted.  it’s no surprise to me that so many people quit and walk away – there are a great deal of things in this world that are much easier to do.

thanks to david foster for the thought.

oh, and in case you were wondering how to look after your pastor, david foster has some good advice… :-) 

> Big day in church this morning. First service was way up from normal, with a bunch of new faces. Second service was also pretty packed.
> We gave Julie Newcombe, our kids pastor, a big thank you today as she wraps up her ministry with us. We’re really serious about kids ministry at Warnbro, so we’re already on the hunt for God’s replacement for Julie. It’s going to be a big challenge, but I’m trusting God to provide.
> Our café rocks. It’s a pretty simple operation, but it sure does an amazing job of creating and sustaining community. I’m hoping that our next building program will jazz the café right up, but in the meantime the café crew just do an awesome job of creating a cool, relaxed God space for folks to enjoy after our services. I love it.