Christmas, decking, gardening and the like...

Well, it's been a pretty good Christmas so far. Went to Bairnsdale to spend Christmas with the inlaws on their farm. Great time up there. Saw my Uncle and Auntie in Lakes Entrance while we were up there, and my cousin who has spent the last 15 years in Geneva and Bangkok working for the UNHCR.

Then back to Melbourne in our legendary brown car (yep, it made the trip just fine thanks everyone!) Mum and Dad came over from Adelaide and we spent a whole day cleaning the deck with a high-pressure hose and gardening. (I know, I know, not exactly fun. But I own a home now, so it's a necessary evil).

Today I went to day 4 of the Boxing Day cricket test against South Africa at the newly finished MCG - back up over the 100,000 capacity, it is truly an amazing stadium. Treated myself in the 33 degree heat to a Mattie Hayden century, and quick fire 72 from Symonds which included 6 sixes (an MCG record) and then South Africa lost 6 wickets in the final session. Couldn't have been better if I'd written the script!

Nothing profound or interesting to write at this point. I think I switched my brain off this week, so don't expect much before next week of any note!

God bless you all.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas all, and have a great holiday period. I'm off for a few days, although I'll post again soon. The first few weeks f this have been a lot of fun, so thanks for reading.

God bless,
Nath.

oh Darcy!

Well, Luke Darcy has gone and ruptured his Anterior Cruciate Ligament in training... So this year he won't even make it as far as round six... Sad sad day for all good Western Bulldogs supporters. Without him on the forward line and sharing the ruck it could be a bad sign.

A goat and a shoe.

I'm having one of those mornings. You know the ones where you think about just how good you have it really, and how very unbalanced the world really is? Sharon and I sponsor a child from Uganda through Compassion Australia (check them out at www.compassion.com.au - you can sponsor a child right off the page. Oh, and if you do, leave a comment so I know you did!). Compassion does all their sponsorship by partnering with local churches in the community. I think their method is excellent, so I love to support them.

We got a letter from our child last week, and she was just so greatful that we support her. She now has a goat and a shoe (we assume she means shoes - if not then we need to up our sponsorship money...) It sort of hurts. I mean, we don't even MISS the money we send. I honestly don't even notice it. Not one little bit. Yet she now has a goat and (some) shoes.

A while back, Darren Hailes posted a message on his blog (darrenhailes.blogspot.com) about being privileged. He even has a link up on the left hand side where you can put in your salary and it tells you roughly where you rank in the world rich list. Let's just say it's a little sobering.

The thing is, it actually makes me want to make more money. I guess I figure if I make it, rather than someone else, then more people may get a goat and a shoe. I think it's about time we got another sponsor child... And then maybe another...

Converted

I think I'm officially a Firefox convert now.

If you don't know what Firefox is, it's a web browser. I do a LOT of web browsing. Both in my job and at home, and frankly, it's now a sensational program. I used to find it buggy and unstable, but that's all changed with all the changes. And all the incredible extensions make it SOOOO much better than IE for browsing the web.

If you haven't yet, go download it and give it a try - and check out the extensions section at https://addons.mozilla.org/ as well.

You can even get an extension called ietab that lets you open links in IE, but still within a tab in Firefox. Now, you will either find that really cool and useful (some sites only work with IE), or you will be thinking 'huh'? I guess it's a matter of perspective...

More Carols, no mozzies!

Well, it's nearly 1 am, and I'm back from doing my second carols in gig in two nights in at Federation Square in the city. No mozzies like at the Box Hill gig last weekend! It was another great night, with I think close to 2000 there tonight. Good turnout and great fun. It seems at Christmas time there just isn't enough saxophonists to go around, so I end up playing more in about 3 weeks than I do for the rest of the year!

Had a bit of bloggers block the last few days - possibly because I've been so busy. So nothing profound to say tonight (of course, it could simply be that making updates to my Blog at 1 in the morning is not conducive to great moments of eloquent intellectualism!)... Come to think of it, not sure I ever really have them anyway... Night night!

A new look

I've gone green with the blog. Just doing some experimenting. Decided to try my hand at glassy looking graphics and made a new banner as well. Thought it came out alright considering my complete novice status as a graphic designer.

That's all for now, just a short entry. If anybody reading this has any thoughts on the new look please feel free to leave a comment...

It's no different

Had our final rehersal for this weekend's three carols gigs in at Federation Square in the city. Had a great chat afterwards with some of the muso's from Richmond AOG. Afterwards, Dave and I talked with a couple of them about experiences in the church - things like what's really important, burnout and working too hard, but always doing stuff that's IN the church, and other things like that. JR mentioned that he was a little surprised that our experiences were basically exactly the same as theirs and that they figured it was kind of an AOG thing.

Well, it's not. Same stuff. Same challenges. Same issues. At the end of the day it's easy for us to get too busy, do too much. And interestingly enough most of it doesn't really reach out to communities that we actually need to help.

It may be a lesson we are learning at the Box Hill Salvos already, but it's worth mentioning anyway. If too much of what we do is inward, it isn't that much different from a self-serving social club for members. Funny, I don't recall Jesus doing much of that...

Copyright - apparently we are all criminals...

OK. I'm a bit of a tech junkie, and as an IT consultant by trade I get to feed it a bit. So on a techie kind of note I wanted to throw this out there. There is heaps of media attention surrounding copy protection of music and games. And the recent debacle with the Sony Rootkit (http://www.boingboing.net/2005/11/14/sony_anticustomer_te.html for details) is a classic case of this kind of thing.

When video recorders came out the industry made a big issue, as they had with tape recorders. All about how it was the end of the entertainment industry because nobody would ever do the right thing and buy product anymore. And yet, the industry boomed. Now they say the same thing about CD's and DVD's.

In a nutshell, CD's actually have a much shorter shelflife than people thought 25 years ago when they first came out. They scratch, they are susceptible to heat and other environmental factors etc. It is more than reasonable that a normal person may want to make a legitimate backup of stuff they already own. Will people do the wrong thing? Sure. They always have. But, stuff like the rootkit actually only stop those who are your average mum and dad type. These are not the ones causing the damage. Those who ARE a threat aren't stopped by such measures, as they aren't impossible to circumvent if you know enough.

So - the only people it impacts are those normal people out there who in general are doing the right thing most of the time. These are not the people that are causing issues. They are not the people selling countless 1000's of counterfeit CD's. Yet they are the ones who are expected to fork out another $30 if their CD scratches just because they aren't allowed to copy their original. Or maybe $500 for a piece of software with something like SafeDisc installed on it... The average person gets treated like the criminal, while those who profit outrageously from counterfeit goods just program a way around the problem and keep selling their products.

Below is a link to a great talk by an expert on the subject. It's a transcript of a speech given to some Microsoft employees who work on the Digital Rights Management (DRM) project. (DRM is a form of copy protection). If you have a spare 10 minutes and are interested in this topic have a read.

http://www.dashes.com/anil/stuff/doctorow-drm-ms.html

Ugly Australia

I'm not going to write a lot about this, I'm just too angry about it all. But I will say this - the problems in Sydney have upset me deeply. Hearing and reading the comments that amount to nothing more than deep seeded racism on both sides just distresses me. It's an ugly Australia.

There are lots of valid views about all of this, but one thing I know for sure - belting someone just because they look vaguely like someone else and may come from the same place is just idiotic. There is never a justification for that - by either side.

Carols and mozzies

Last night we had the inaugural Christmas Carols by the Lake in Box Hill Park. It was an incredible event. 100's of locals turned out, and the production team did an absolutely incredible job with it all. Tahnks particularly to Robbie, who was up until about 4am each of the last 3 days preparing for this event. That man is a machine, and very few people know just how much he does around the place!

Our two headliners were Gary Pinto (one of Australias premier vocalists, without a doubt) and Anne Robertson - recently of Australian Idol fame. I had the privilege of providing backing vocals for Anne, and it was a awesome fun! Man does she have an incredible voice!

Backstage I spent a fair bit of time talking to her and her older brother Irvin. They are working hard at seeing where this new fame takes them all and the ministry God has for them. Anne has a great opportunity as a role model for young Australian girls (you should have seen the crowds flock for her autograph!!!) and used it to explain how God has been such an integral part of her journey.

Oh yeh, we also had camels, a donkey, and Santa came on a real firetruck with sirens and everything!!!

We had mosquitos too, but they weren't quite so much fun.

My prayer for Anne is that as her career grows she can keep it real like Gary has done so successfully. That man is an amazing example of someone in the music industry that has kept hold of their faith and what they know to be true.

Peace and prosperity to both of you guys, and thanks to everyone involved in this huge night!

Brass bands... who needs 'em?

Went out with some of the Box Hill Salvation Army Brass Band last night, walking around the suburban streets of Box Hill knocking on doors, wishing people a merry christmas, handing out lollies for the kids etc while the band played carols.

It's the most fun I've had in ages. I got to chat to quite a lot of wonderful people and just generally had a great time.

It made me think though... I don't believe anything really other than a brass band would have had the effect on bringing out the people from the neighbourhood. A choir wouldn't have been loud enough, and a modern group not only would have required electricity, but just wouldn't have been the same.

I always enjoyed playing in the brass band as a little kid, but I have had a lot of reason to question the relevance in today's society over the last 10 years or so. Some of that I still hold to, but I DID get reminded of something last night - those blokes who sacrifice their time and energy both for rehersals and performances, and who come out to do this deserve our thanks. Me knocking on peoples doors without the band would just have been useless. Thanks band. You guys are great!

Innovate. Or stagnate.

The other morning I dragged myself out of bed to be at Pancake Parlour at 6:30 for a meeting my friend Dave had set up. It involved a number of people from within the Salvation Army, including a successful business man from Sydney, and an amazing bloke I've had the privilege to know now for about 8 years from the UK - Phil Wall. Dave set up the meeting to talk through an idea he has about a network of innovation for the Salvation Army.

This could be one of those things that one day will be seen as a catalyst, or a turning point for change within the movement. Why? Because it has the potential to celebrate, foster and encourage innovation within the Salvation Army, to help find new ways to meet peoples needs and to support those on the cutting edge.

Is this the first sort of 'innovative' thing the Army is doing? Of course not. People all over the world are birthing God-given ideas into incredible success stories. But this may be the first opportunity to attempt to bring these people together - to give them forums to discuss and meet and chew over issues together. The website (which doesn't exist yet, but will) could be a great forum for these things that will shape the future of the movement.

Why is this all so important? Well, one person at the meeting gave us some interesting figures they have of Salvation Army life in the Southern Territory... Over 20% attendance down, over 25% soldiership down, and over 50% junior soldiership down... Now, this may be because some Salvo churches are just using some different programs... but I doubt it. In isolated cases that will be true - but the reality is the movement IS dying. Certainly, there is a groundswell around the world of people who care, who are making things happen. Things like 61:4 http://www.salvationarmy.org.au/order614/ (here is an example - there are other 61:4's around the world), the War College http://www.thewarcollege.com/academics.html, the Roots movement http://www.rootsonline.org/ and others are all great examples. But these are still just a small part in the overall size of the Salvation Army worldwide. And worldwide, the story is possibly not so exciting, as those figures may suggest.

We have a choice - we have an obligation. Now as much as ever before there is need for the Salvation Army. But there is a need for relevance to our community context, and that comes with a free flow of new ideas. Not from the top - from the grass roots. Doing the same thing over and over again is a recipe for disaster...

You innovate or you stagnate. And if you stagnate, you die.

The beginning...

OK. So, I'm a bit slow on the uptake... Having a blog is now almost a little 'last year'. But, I figured I'd give it a shot and see if I actually could show any kind of consistency in posting to it.

Time will tell...

I envisage, like so many bloggers out there, that the ramblings posted here will be of little use to anyone but myself - I have no dillusions of granduer. And I don't even have a theme I'm going to follow. Just me and my 2 cents worth on the back alley ways of the information superhighway.

So, what do I have to say for this opening blog? Not that much really. It's gearing up to Christmas, and things are getting busy. Got rehersals 3 nights this week for carol services I'm playing sax and singing at with the Salvation Army and one in at Federation Square with Richmond AOG. Our first rehersal was last night, and 4 of us stayed back to work on some vocal stuff... 11:30pm I left. MAN did the alarm hurt this morning!

Still, Christmas is a great time for me - unlike so many others.

I sat at a MacDonalds for lunch today (no, I didn't get the healthy option, and yes, I DO feel guilty) read the paper and saw a big article including comments from the Salvos on homeless kids in Australia. The current estimate is over 500,000 children in Australia still below the poverty line.

That blew me away. There are only 20 million of us in this country, so kids can't take up more than maybe 2-3 million or so, depending on your definition of a child... so 500,000 is a bit staggering really.

Want to help out? Give to the Salvo Christmas appeal here https://www.salvationarmy.com.au/partners/donate.asp?oneoff=yes

That's all for now. Let's see if I actually post more than once... And lets see if anyone actually READS it too!

God bless,
Nath.