mountain masala

church on the internet

well its very slick and cool. and american.... seems pretty much like willow creek online... not that that's necessarily bad...

LifeChurch

oh, and it has a free resources section.

I have to say that these guys are generous - you can download graphics, video, the sermon for free.

I hope that someone out there is doing a study of church online. this is sharp and slick - ie. church on tv via the internet.

community development handbook

I've just come across the book "Community Development and Partnerships" published by Curtin University of Technology in Western Australia. It's a reprint of some Canadian materials that are available free online.

You can read about it here on our new (and still developing!) College website.

smoking not burning

well, the fire didnt even get close to us, but it burned about 2000 hectares, a lot of bush and some farms, sheds and a couple of houses. there are one or more serial arsonists around, and yesterday about a dozen grass fires were lit around the hills, including one in town here. there are helicopters flying around everywhere. fire crews from all over SA are here, so we'll see what happens next.

fire in them hills

well its a freaky night here. bushfires 15-20 kms from here, on the other side of the next town in the hills (Echunga) and more or less heading in this direction. the air is smokey and sirens rush past every 15 minutes. earlier messages said that it was being contained and not a threat to Mt Barker, but the last message half an hour ago said it was a "threat to public safety". a long way and lots of farms between us and there, but of course our thoughts and prayers are with those in the thick of it .

a stinking hot day and night and now we have to keep the house shut up. the twins are away in Bunbury on the NCYC trip and Maddy is sleeping over with a friend in town here.

its all rather surreal...

personal stuff

I'm on holidays so this is random stuff...

the twins are at our national christian youth convention in perth, western australia. apparently having a great time.

all of our plumbing blocked up on christmas eve and was like that for nearly 2 weeks. up in the hills here we're on a septic system so everything is connected (somehow!) - toilet, shower, sink, dishwasher.... a really crap time, the worst of it being digging down several feet through hard clay to the pipe over several days, which has really made a mess of my back... at least we havent had guests...

now that I'm in the land of two sets of specs, I'm hanging out for my new reading glasses. I have had increasing difficulty reading over the last year, although computer screen has been fine. each of my eyes has been behaving differently, much to the bewilderment of the optometrist. however despite this apparently my vision is excellent, if they can just match the right lens with each eye as they change! as someone who has always thrived on books, i've found reading annoying, tiring and impossible, and I have a big pile of books waiting for sometime this coming week.....

bought some retro music - New Order, Cure, Bowie - stuff I've always meant to get and listen to....

we're about to dust off the fishing rods and tie on some new hooks and hit the beach. can't wait. a freshly caught fish is my holy grail, and i can still count on two hands the number of fish that I've caught (one of ellen's famous lines..." wow, dad, two fish in one day!"

our month of equipment disasters (plumbing, laptop transformer...) included the food processor starting to sound like a 747 while I was making Christmas mustards. I imagined the police examining the body - a processor blade in the gut and a body covered in fine yellow powder with a smell of vinegar, caraway and allspice... mmm... clearly the work of the german MI5... buying a new food processor was an experience! the shop assistant couldnt understand that we didnt use it to chop veggies, but really wanted to know how it could manage 2 cups of black peppercorns! (having said that, I've been whizzing veg this afternoon and it is such fun!!!)

after buying the food processor went to brighton (SA) and had the seafood platter at the jetty cafe, then back to marion to see "casino royale". great evening.

today we finally put back together the garden swing that was broken by the falling willow in Sept 05, and bought sugar soap to start painting maddy's room in whatever bohemian colour scheme she finally decides on... after stinking hot septic-ditch-digging weather it's been quite pleasant.

this is getting too long... so much personal stuff... i must be two weeks into a three week holiday and actually getting my life back. is that possible?

gosh i hope so.

who am i?

how good is this! thanks to dvblog for this excellent short film and technique.

Cross Examination by Josh Weinstein. (11 mb Quicktime movie)

a wonderful exploration of identity, trust, how people see us, relationship, etc......

survey of australian youth

australia 21 released a report in 2006 called "Flashpoints & Signposts: Pathways to success and wellbeing for Australia’s young people" (a 300kb PDF), based on collaborative work with the Australian Youth Research Centre at the University of Melbourne.

The overall purpose of the program is to identify ways to help young people to optimise their wellbeing and to realise their full potential against a background of often adverse trends in their physical and mental health and wellbeing and a rapidly changing social environment.

The program recognises that the social context of young people today is not that of earlier generations. It extends further than the family, the neighbourhood, and the school. The wider world beyond is no longer remote, nor its influences merely incidental.

One of the researchers is Dr Ani Wierenga, a former UC youth worker from Tassie.

on holidays

well I'm currently on holidays for a couple of weeks, so postings will be few and far between....

meanwhile, Propellerheads have an interview with Urban Myth Club about their use of Reason in making their debut album Helium.

I'm off to play with Reason some more...