The Rodeo

I’m not a particularly sweary man, but lately I’ve found myself using disgusting language and it has just been jumping forth from my mouth.

It’s not when anyone else is around, but when I’m angry and alone.

⁶The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

 ⁷All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, ⁸but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

⁹With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. ¹⁰Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. ¹¹Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? ¹²My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

- James 3:6-12 (New International Version)

RodeoClown: working on words.

As of tomorrow, I’ll be working an extra day each week from the comfort of my own home (bringing the total to two days).

This means two days a week I get an extra three minutes sleep-in as Mat will come and wake me up instead of my alarm clock.

And this is all thanks to the magic of the internet (well, that and my boss) - I can log into my work computer from home and do everything I would normally do at work, minus four hours of commuting. Hooray again, I say!

The only thing that could make this any better would be for Remote Desktop to support dual monitors :S

RodeoClown: another happy telecommuter.

David hit me up with two audio files that are well worth listening to. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that you should grab them both right now and listen to them today. Together they are only forty-five minutes long, so you can easily find the time to fit them it, but they will have a measurable impact on your life:

 - The Poddy Renaissance 10 - Happy Reformation Day
Why the reformation was (and is) important, and what the 95 theses (not faeces) were all about. A good explanation of salvation by faith.

 - C.J. Mahaney - Cravings and Conflicts
What is the root cause of all conflicts? The answer is here. The best talk I’ve heard for a long, long time. Applicable to anyone who is in a relationship of any kind with another human (which covers pretty much everyone bar hermits).

RodeoClown: listen to them.

Did I say I’d get three minutes sleep in?

Today - 5:22am: “Daddy - need cuddle and kiss!”.

Alarm - 5:20am.

RodeoClown: awake.

If bananas cost an arm and a leg, is eating them comparable to canibalism?

RodeoClown: craving.

And this morning Matty did too. Got undressed and then did his own nappy (pull-up), pants and shirt. The only help he got was me telling him he’d stuck his leg through the wrong hole.

Jesse cut his first two teeth this week.

My little boys are all growing up.

RodeoClown: older.

St Andrew’s Cathedral - From The Dean: Sheik Hilali
Philip Jensen explains what was wrong with this whole incident and how the public reaction makes a mockery of such values as ‘tolerance’, ‘free speech’ and ’separation of church and state’. Excellent reading.

Learn to Love Board Games Again: 100+ Ways to Rejuvenate the Games You Already Own
The title says it all really. Make your old games fresh again.

Will It Blend? - Coke + Chicken = Cochicken
One of a series of ads for a Blendtec blender. This is the way advertising should be

Pac Pie Graph
Accurate.

Matthias Media: Christmas Cards 2006
Need some Christmas cards? These are pretty tops (I especially like E and G).

Reflections
Great puzzle game. I’m up to level 19/25 as of right now. Use the laser to light all the bulbs. Don’t hit any bombs. Take your time and figure it out.

Ode to the afternoon nap
I would love to have a nap every afternoon at work. I’d be a whole lot more productive.

Del.icio.us links brought to you today by the letter M and the number 1.

Really, he’s not.

RodeoClown: infected.

1) Don’t mumble (especially when English is your second language)!
2) I don’t know to call what I want my hair to look like - short, brush-backable, shaved on the sides
3) When I put my thumb and forefinger t-h-i-s far apart, it means that is how long I would like the hair on top of my head to be
4) Keep the $10 haircut - it is an acceptable price
5) Sweep the floor occasionally

RodeoClown: has cold ears.

The Boondocks - Guns and Video Games
Replace ‘Video Games’ with ‘Comics’, ‘Heavy Metal’, ‘Rock and Roll’, or whatever other cultural scapegoat you’d like. Still applies.

When you don’t “get” a verse
What should you do when a Bible verse just doesn’t make sense to you?

Office Space, The Horror Film
I like the movie before, but this version looks… different. Click click. Click click.

How Many Points Have You Earned?
Yep. That pretty much sums up the whole concept of grace.

The Royal College of Infanticide
Distressing. Our culture has no morality to speak of.

Del.icio.us links brought to you today by the letter N and the number 4.

Not by me. By Dr Ransom at Faith Fusion. It’s actually a review of the story, rather than the anti-Christ writings therein, which makes for a change.

I thought this quote was fantastic.

Brown spends so much of his time repeating the phrase “sacred feminine,” “sacred feminine” as if a religious mantra — which, of course, it is. It’s almost enough to make me want to head right out and punch a girl just for spite.

Read the review.

RodeoClown: unlikely to bother (with the book, not the review).

Wednesday I went and checked out Nintendo’s new console - the Wii (pronounced ‘we’).

Very small. Very cool.
That remote in the pictureis what you use to play the games, it is motion-sensing, and you can also use it as a pointer on the screen. It’s a lot heavier than I was expecting.

The demo unit had Wii Sports running, a game that comes with the system including Tennis, Baseball, Bowling, Golf and Boxing. I tried out bowling and tennis.

Bowling consists of holding the remote in front of you - holding the trigger on it’s underside - and bowling, releasing the trigger when you want to let go of the ball. If you twist your arm as you bowl, it puts spin on the ball. Just like real bowling. Neat, but my shots always spin to the left… have to work on that.

Tennis is just hitting the ball, your little character (a ‘mii’) runs all by him/herself to the ball - you just swing the remote to hit the ball at the right time. Again, spin is put on the ball by twisting the remote as you ‘hit’. I played versus some random guy and lost because I wasn’t swinging like a real racquet. As soon as I did that, I got a sweet rally happening.

Super fun.

They are also releasing a new Zelda game at the same time, increasing my wanting this even higher.

One final benefit is that it plays all the old GameCube games as well, which would be fantastic as I discovered today that my GameCube died in a recent electrical storm (along with our microwave), meaning I have a dozen games sitting unplayable in our entertainment unit right now.

RodeoClown: wishes he had a spare $400.

Look beyond gas mileage when making an environmental choice
Sim will appreciate this: a Hummer has less (total) environmental impact than a hybrid. Might want to look at the assumptions that have been revealed in the comments too…

Iraq: It’s safer here.
I’m not 100% on the accuracy of the statistics, but if correct, there’s a good incentive to emmigrate from the US capital to Iraq.

Youth Ministry: Emo Evangelism
David explores the idea of ministering to a bunch of whingers… I mean emo kids.

I Am Not Offended (And If I Were…Who’d Care?)
If something you see or hear offends you, look and listen somewhere else.

The influence of fathers…
appears to be very significant in determining the actions of a child. Hmmm… pressure’s on.

Del.icio.us links brought to you today by the letter T and the number 2.

Matty loved this clip so much, he grabbed his ukelele and started to play along (well, he actually started banging it on the ground, but hey - that’s rock’n'roll for you).

RodeoClown: smells like awesome!

I’ve been holding onto this image all year.

The run-down: some guy doesn’t like the religion of Santa Claus and so puts up a billboard to make people think about not lying to their kids. People get all crazy and angry because someone dares to suggest that we shouldn’t tell our kids about Santa. Click the picture to read the story.

Note: as far as I can tell, this guy isn’t a Christian, so it’s not even some religious wacko who thinks it’s wrong.

The whole deal with Santa kind of makes me sad - we give presents to one another at Christmas to celebrate Jesus’ birth and it should be a time of joy and thanksgiving. Instead it becomes a huge consumer-fest with people having to buy the right presents, and kids getting upset because they didn’t get the latest toy they wanted.

I also hate the idea of lying to my kids - telling them about an imaginary fat man who gives them presents if they are good. This subverts the whole reason why Jesus was born and died - it was grace, not deserved in any way. The whole concept of Santa is kind of distressing to kids too - there is someone who judges them and watches every thing they do, just waiting for an excuse to give them a lump of coal at Christmas (kind of like some people’s view of God…). Although even this view has been subverted - everyone gets presents now, even if they have been naughty. Rich kids get more and better toys… why is that again, parents?

I’m not going to be lying to my kids. Ruth lists a good way to broach the whole topic with your own kids, and basically outlines what Jen and I have been planning to do anyway. Santa won’t be visiting our house this year - or any year. We celebrate Christmas, and will be giving our kids gifts from us to them in recognition of Christ’s free gift to us. They won’t have to earn it - just accept it.

I love my kids and don’t want to lie to them - I’d urge you to do the same.

RodeoClown: seeing red.

AndyM shares his views on Santa.

RodeoClown: approves (of the title)

NSW to roll out free WiFi service
I think this is the first thing the NSW state government has done right in a long, long time. If it eventuates.

How To Make (and grow) A Luffa!
Grow your own sponge for the bath/shower!

Greeting emergent church ‘conversationalists’ all across the fruited plain
The only sin in following tradition is expecting everyone else to do the same.

Twenty Sided - Transporter 2
The term “former special forces” has become movie shorthand for is invincible and has magical powers, but only cool ones and not gay like that Sailor Moon crap.

Don’t Buy Stuff You Cannot Afford
Probably the best advice you can give someone who keeps running themself into debt.

National Flags of the World (with client comments)
What would each country’s flag look like if it were commented on by non-designers (read: executives). I do approve of Canada’s new flag though.

It’s Never Been Built Before
Why software engineering is not like any other kind of engineering.

Del.icio.us links brought to you today by the letter P and the number 6.