Acknowledging
November 16th, 2009
Good point, Agatha – I have a vivid childhood memory of a goldfish called “The Cakes” …
Archive
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An Aussie connection
July 24th, 2009
Do people nowadays read the novels of Nevil Shute? I am reminded of “on the Beach”, whose starting point is a conflict during which the countries of the northern hemisphere have wiped each other out, and which takes place somewhere in Australia. It was made into a film, as was “No Highway”, which had James Stewart playing the part of engineer Theodore Honey. Nevil Shute had been an engineer himself, as revealed in his autobiography “Slide Rule”. I think that, eventually, he emigrated to Australia …
a C21 dilemma
July 7th, 2009
Thanks for the comments – much processing still to be done.
A Pokemon game (eg Pokemon Platinum) is an adventure. As you play the game, you go places, acquire and train Pokemon, gain distinctions. Your achievements are stored in the game. The 2cm by 2cm card is irreplaceable.
Readers of this blog may recall a real life adventure, when son and I travelled to a big city, and downloaded a unique Pokemon. Now, somebody else has that Pokemon. Or quite possibly, the game has been wiped, the record deleted.
Son has been (in my book) honest. There are ways to get ahead, often called ‘cheats’. He tells me that everyone else uses them. Until now, he has accepted that no son of mine is going to cheat. But what now? He would like something called an Action Replay, which I gather is a device which ‘helps’ to gain credits which otherwise would take time, effort, and skill to achieve. Arguably, we would be redressing an imbalance. But to me it would still be cheating …
breakIn
July 6th, 2009
On Saturday, our car was broken into. We don’t know how – the police think that we must have left a door open – although I don’t think that we did – I certainly locked the car.
Two games consoles (a Nintendo DS Lite, and a DSi), several games, and a case were taken. Also, as I discovered later, money had been taken from my wallet. The most significant loss wasn’t the actual goods, which can be replaced, and may be covered by insurance, but over a year of invested effort stored in the games which have gone. Son, along with his friends, spends much of his time playing Pokemon games – training and developing the characters within the games. As an IT professional, I’ve been for a while uncomfortable, knowing that valuable data was being stored, and that there was no way of backing it up. What happened this weekend, admittedly, I didn’t anticipate (although, strangely, I felt on Saturday that something bad was going to happen) …
disClosure
July 1st, 2009
Comments Off
On so many levels! I like agath’s suggestion – in many situations it could well communicate better, and avoid stigma (Is stigma too strong a word? perhaps a topic for another post).
This morning, I witnessed a scene that could have come straight out of Fly Away Home. A microlight was leading a skein of (unseasonal) geese over Holyrood Park …
The serious post
June 25th, 2009
While Cub Camp is still a recent memory, but not too recent, I hope that you will indulge me, and allow some introspection. As Ewan Aitken commented during the Cubs’ Own service on Sunday morning – why do you come to camp – and the answer – to hang out with your mates. But where does that leave the Aspie, who prefers not to socialise, because he finds it extremely difficult?
It was difficult. In general, I managed for periods of time, then collapsed (inside) and had to find a way to take time out. It might have helped if I had disclosed my condition to the leaders, but there wasn’t an obvious opportunity to do so. If there is to be future involvement, I may have to take that step …
homeSick?
June 23rd, 2009
Well, I can see the wisdom of organising a father / son camp. I think that I was missing family more than home comforts on that first Scout Camp, so that son has had a gentler introduction to the business of camping. That said, both father and son had their wobbly moments – well, son had wobbly moments, dad had a wobbly weekend. I liked the response of one mother (of a girl cub – there were mothers and daughters as well as fathers and sons) – I had just asked her daughter if she was enjoying herself (and she said “yes”), whereupon her mother said, “Don’t ask me, so that I shan’t have to lie!”
Ironically, one of the home comforts I missed this time around was the ability to enjoy a hot bath, but yesterday was our annual service visit, and to-day the boiler isn’t coming on …
flashBack
June 22nd, 2009
As a boy, I never went to Cub Camp. My first camp was a Scout Camp. I spent almost the duration of that camp looking forward to getting back home at the end. It was homesickness, pure and simple – the camp itself wasn’t that awful.
So this weekend, I attended, with son, my first Cub Camp …
Change (!)
June 5th, 2009
We’ve been told that towards the end of next week letters will be sent out telling each of us our destination in the new organisation. A certain sense of relief, and an observation: several times we asked if we would be consulted regarding where we would like to be placed – each time we received an answer that sounded like “yes”, but fell short of an actual commitment – it turns out that the honest, concise answer would have been “no” …
Sometimes my children ask questions to which I’d really like just to say “no”, but to which I often say “maybe” …
Reconclliation
June 4th, 2009
I know that many people, especially here, believe that they were wrong, but the ministers who opposed Scott Rennie’s appointment were the next generation of those who taught me the faith. What they were saying was not directed personally, but sprung from the quaint, old-fashioned notion that what God says carries more weight than public opinion.
In return, I have read the victorious supporters of Scott Rennie use language which is bitter, personal, and humiliating. I happen to welcome the General Assembly’s decision. I even disagree with the moratorium on ordaining gay ministers while the Commission does its work.
But I think that Christians should respect ministers who are only seeking to be faithful …