Merry Christmas!

It's just gone midnight so it is now Christmas Day in the UK. So right now many children around the world are either too excited to sleep or too tired from excitement to stay away awake - but either way they wait in anticipation of a day when they hope all their dreams, conjured up over the past weeks and months, will come true in a wonderfully magical day.

But there was a first Christmas Day. And on the eve of that day it could not be said that the world was waiting with any degree of excitement. But what they were about to receive was worth more than all the Christmas gifts exchanged since that day.

In some ways the first and the current Christmas day stand in stark contrast with each other. But on the other hand it could be said we have a lot in common with the world back then. Like the Bethlemhem townsfolk over 2000 years ago so many of us will go to sleep this Christmas Eve with no thought of Jesus. The magnitude of the fulfillment of the Old Testament promise in Christ, God Incarnate will not enter our heads.

As we heard in Church at the Carol Service the Wise Men did not come the simply bring presents to Jesus - and they certainly didn't do so just because God wanted to start a new holiday season, or come up with something to boost the local economy during those hard winter months! The Wise Men and the Shepherds came to worship Jesus - funny how we tend to gloss over that bit and focus on the gifts!

How long will it be until we truely celebrate Christmas? See you at church in the morning?

More Geek Stuff

As most of you already know and as alluded to in the previous post, I'm a geek. This is probably why I found myself reading an article from www.pcworld.com and finding it both informative and entertaining.

Anyway, I know a few of you are a bit like that too. So you might want to read the article about 'The 15 Biggest Tech Disappointments of 2007'.

My favourite line so far from it is:

"In 2007, the words "Internet security" joined the ever-growing list of self-canceling phrases, alongside "business intelligence," "Congressional ethics," and "Microsoft Works.""

Christmas @ the Castle

I'm still catching up with my blogging so you've probably already read all about this on Dermo's site.

Christmas @ the Castle took place from 7th to 9th December 2007. We spent the weekend at Castlewellan Castle enjoying some good craic and listening to Don Carson teach from the book of Jeremiah.

I must say that in learning from Jeremiah and in other recent conversations with people involved in organisations such as New Tribes Mission I have rediscovered the Old Testament. Its not just that it is full of cool stories but because it teaches so much about our God, his grace and his faithfulness to his promises. In the OT you learn quickly how serious sin is and why it took Jesus, the Son of God to die and rise again to atone (an old word, I know) for it.

Dermo (or David as he is now slowly becoming known) and myself had the honour of becoming the new @ the castle geeks. We sat with our laptops displaying Keynote slides (like PowerPoint but better - made by Apple, naturally), showing video, sorting the sound out and all those techy things that we enjoy so much.

The next '@ the Castle' is in June 2008. Check out www.atthecastle.org.uk for more details.

Manila

Let me start with an apology or two or three. One for not posting for while. The second to Laura for taking ages to moderate her comments. And three, to all of you for posting a picture of my legs. That said, they aren't that bad!

This was taken on the Friday afternoon after we had finally finished our week of training. It was great to relax by the pool for a bit and do a spot of reading (thanks to Dermo of the book!).

The work we had to do there was interesting. I enjoyed the various sessions (even Campaign Management - that is for Katya) and had great craic getting to know people from various parts of the world.

It was an eventful week. There had been a typhoon on the island before we arrived. Then on Tuesday I felt the earth move - literally. Apparently there was a 6.0 earthquake a few hundred miles north of where we were. The building rocked and we decided to evacuate. We were the only ones. As we left the building it was clear that it was business as usual for everyone else. Unused to such tremors we had obviously worried more than we needed to.

Later in the week several gents who were on trial for an attempted military coup back in 2003 managed to escape and hold up a few people in the Peninsular Hotel. Basically they wanted to try again but the army weren't having any of it and barged through the lobby doors in a tank thus ending the protests rather quickly. At this point I should probably mention I was not staying at the Peninsular Hotel - we were in the Edsa Shangri-La.

The hotel was definitely in festive mood judging by the music and the huge tree in the lobby.


Just when we thought all the excitement was over it transpired that seven of us were hit with food poisoning. On the last night I was encouraged to try an oyster - something I had never tried before and based on what I experienced over the subsequent days something I should never ever try again.

I'll just say that the flight from Hong Kong to London was unpleasant for me. Actually it probably wasn't much fun for those queued outside the loo when I finally resurfaced!

Things didn't begin to clear up until Tuesday - that was when I returned to work to discover the wide spread effects of the contaminated oysters.

Sorry I don't have many pictures. I may have a few on my other phone so I may publish more in due course. None of them are of my illness - so you can relax.

iWait, iPhone, iBlog

I'm sitting at Heathrow blogging on my iPhone while listening to the Zutons. They may be pretty quick to grab a gun rather than say, a wrench, but those Americans certainly know how to make some of the coolest stuff. Hope I don't offend any nation with that statement! But I guess if I am, an airport is the place to do it!

Only in America

A guy in America has injured both his legs while trying to undo some stubborn wheel nuts on his car - by blasting them with his 12-gauge shot gun at close range. Kind of indirectly shooting himself in the foot I suppose. And there is no mention of the wheel coming loose as a result. Full story on BBC News.

Where else in the world would there be anyone stupid enough to try that?!

iPhondling

I had my first encounter with an iPhone yesterday. The touch screen is brilliant both in the way it operates and in the way it looks. It is vibrant, bright, intuitive and boy does it look gooooood.

A couple of things are putting me off buying it. One is that it costs £269 and the other is that I have a feeling they'll bring out a 3G version next year.

Somethings worth considering and so far I haven't heard anyone asking:

1. What happens when they bring a new one out? Do we all have to buy it and transfer our contracts?
2. If we do that, will the our old handsets be of any use to anyone?
3. Will O2 continue to be the sole provider or will future generations of iPhones be open to all or maybe even exclusive to another operator?

But I think that even with the above taken into consideration I would have bought one - if I had the money to do so!

Wheely Good Day

Today was my little sister's birthday. But for several reasons too dull to mention we did most of our celebrating yesterday. We went out of lunch and did a spot of shopping. Sarah seemed to like the idea of nipping into shops, picking up stuff she liked but leaving the bill to her big brothers!
But the main event in my opinion was the Belfast Wheel. For those of you who don't know, Belfast City council have erected a big wheel at City Hall. For £6 you can go to the top of the world! Well, not quite the top of the world but if you are a bit squeamish about heights it feels like that. The ride was good craic and the view was great!We ended up sharing a pod (no idea what the technical term is but they looks like pods) with some Eastern Europeans. The girl who appeared to be with her mother made a call from the top of the wheel during which she stated that all was ok - this was the point that we thought it would be funny to scream. So we did, and it was.

Manila

Manila is a word used to describe those cardboard folders we all know and love but it is also a city in the Philippines. And that is where I have to go later this month!

I knew that my new job would entail some traveling but within a week of starting they are taking me half way round the world! While the journey will be tiring the trip should be a good experience.

What wasn't such a nice experience was my trip to the doctor today. I had to get two injections - vaccinations against Hepatitis A, Typhoid and a Tetanus booster. Actually I think that one injection contained a 3 in 1 vaccine so there is probably something I'm forgetting.

Anyway, my arms are sore and I now feel a tad groggy. I'm guessing that is some way I have a little bit of about four different diseases today so I suppose that was to be expected!

A Smashing Pumpkin

I'm starting to feel part of the furniture in our London office. When I arrived on Tuesday I was asked to help my new team to design and carve a pumpkin for the 5th floor's Halloween competition. But somewhat lacking in time and inspiration this was the best we could come up with.

It's pretty obvious that it is a likeness of Bono (isn't it?) but what you cannot see is my mobile phone hidden in the 'hair' that is playing a version of 'One Love' which we adapted to 'One Bridge' - the name of the new sales initiative and also the theme of the competition.

We were under pressure - being the team driving the 'One Bridge' project - and we didn't exactly come through with something good enough to win. Although a cheer-o-meter style vote was cast my rather over exuberant efforts were not rewarded.

Toilet Humour

I was in B&Q today. My vacuum cleaner hose split on me so I had to call in for some essential maintenance supplies - namely Gaffer Tape.

But two things happened on the way out. So small and insignificant in many ways but two things that indicate some personality traits quite possibly a few flaws!

One. I bought a battery stick on light thing. I could argue that I really needed it for my rather dimly lit cupboard - so I don't damage my vacuum cleaner in the dark again - but I fear that the main reason I bought it is because I'm a sucker for gadgets and I think I'm turning into my Dad. Just FYI - during a power cut you'd be forgiven for thinking my parents house is the place to be. Full of torches and lights and stuff. No batteries though!

Two. I saw a box that contained a toilet. No surprise there, I'm in B&Q and they sell all sorts of bathroom stuff. But the box was emblazoned with the words:

Toilet
To Go

For those of you who know me will understand why that got into my head and made me laugh. I laughed out loud at the till. The guy looked at me like I was crazy. Come on, you gotta see the humour in that. Its like saying 'TV - To Watch' or 'Chair - To Sit'. Explaining why I laughed didn't help to change that and I rather suspect that telling you all now isn't exactly making me look smart.

Remember Me! I'm a star!

For decades various stars of the silver screen have been adding their mark outside Grauman's Chinese Theater (pardon the US spelling) in Hollywood. It is seen to be a great honour to be invited to place ones handprints, footprints and autograph in a slab of cement so that countless others can remember you in the years to come.

In a similar vain, others show their desire to be remembered by adding their distinctive marks in other places. This one, already mentioned in Dermo's blog was left by someone (and I'll not name any names) who clearly shows belief in their own stardom. And given where it was left - in our church, under the top lid in the old piano, in dust - it has the potential to be preserved for generations.

Belief is Free!

I downloaded a John Mayer song from iTunes recently because it was free. Even though it was free iTunes still sent me an invoice. I have included an excerpt from it below because I found it interesting and a little thought provoking.

Can belief really be free?

Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard

Apple have announced that OS X 10.5 Leopard will be on sale from Oct 26! I really want to get this as it looks sweet. But its £85 that I could do without spending. That said, when you consider that most versions of Windows Vista cost twice that and more, the new Apple OS is unbelievable value for money. And I dare say anyone upgrading to Leopard will not be disappointed. Compare that to the countless new Windows Vista users who are crying 'what?!' rather than the advertised 'wow!'.

Tempted to preorder now...mmmmmm

You can do so at the Apple Store.

Warning - fat person thinking

Just thinking - not my fault by the way because I'm an individual. If individuals cannot be blamed for being fat then what happens if a few fat people gather together- can you blame them as as a group? Do they have to be eating junk food while they are charged?

Bottom line, in my case, a big bottom line, is that that I am to blame for my own condition. Just in the same way that I am to blame for every stupid and wrong thing I do.

We seem to be a society focused on our 'rights' and not at all focused out our responsibilities or in disciplining our children or ourselves to live up to them!

Its not my fault!

Apparently I get to blame someone else for being fat. Isn't society great. Seems like the only person's behaviour I'm not responsible for is my own!

I'm off to to get a Kit Kat and its YOUR fault Mr Brown and everyone else around me including YOU reading this! But don't worry, its not your fault that its your fault. You could blame that on someone else - maybe even me. In that case, I'm sorry. But what am I apologising for?! I can't possibly take any kind of responsibility for this or anything for that matter!!

Check out the article on the BBC News site.

By the way, there would be a picture of some junk food, or Augustus Gloop or something in this blog but the picture thingy isn't working on Blogger today. Not my fault and probably not Blogger either. Its probably the government or YOU again!

Wispa

The Wispa is back! I spotted this beauty in Centra near where I work. About 20mins later it was a gonner - snaffled up as a perfect companion to my post-lunch coffee.

Apparently Cadbury responded to some online petitions and brought the popular bar back. But it is only out for a limited period so if you want one, go get one soon! Maybe if we eat enough on them they will make it a permanent relaunch!

Note, just realised Dave has already blogged about this and his photos are better.

The Rufus on fire!

I was at a Rufus Wainright concert on Tuesday night at the Waterfront Hall. I had been meaning to get and listen to his latest album so I could fully appreciate the live show. But I didn't manage to do that. As it turns out, it didn't really matter as it was a great show without knowing the songs!

I was particularly impressed when the band unplugged and Rufus sang without a microphone in tribute to John McCormack - a famous Irish Tenor who lived in the late 19th/early 20th century.

The Empress

While in London last week I, along with a few colleagues decided to try out an Indian Restaurant that had come highly recommended.

In short, it was fantastic. From the moment we walked in the door a gentleman whose name badge indicated he was to be known as Kod made us feel welcome. He and his other colleagues, Mash (that's what his badge said) being one of them, continued to wait on us.

I'm a little unfamiliar with the cast array of options in an Indian menu - so Kod just asked me what sort of thing I tended to like and he rustled something up. It was beautiful!

So I can also recommended it. I will certainly be back with my newly acquired 10% discount card! Also, you may be interested to know that they offer an Indian Shepherds pie - something that has gained the interest of some major super market chains.

Check out www.theempress.co.uk.

Firefox for Mac

I'm switching. Up until recently I used Safari for most of my browsing on my mac. Now though I use Firefox.

It was a pretty easy decision to make in the end. It just works better. There are a few features in Googlemail (Gmail) and even in Blogger that work with Firefox but simply do not appear in the Safari version.

Slightly disappointing as a usually hold Apple in such high regard.

So, if you want to unlock a few more bits and bobs on the web using your mac may I suggest that you...