matthew henry john bartlett

The Philosophy of Love [54min RA, via Philosophy Radio]

Ooo it’s going to be a good year. Yesterday evening on the way home from Riversdale Beach Richie F and I were talking about our favourite numerals. Seems 4 is right at the top of the pile. I like to close the top (like a triangle with extensions) and he likes to leave it open (like a U with extensions).

A good percentage of my favourite people came out to celebrate New Years at the beach where my extended family have been staying for the past week or so. It was a very good one. We slept in tents in a farmer’s paddock just outside Riversdale’s liquor ban. We made friends with our paddock neighbours, and helped the farmer clean up all the bottles cans boxers and toilet paper in the morning. Sometimes i’m flabbergasted at the quality of my friends. We all laughed until our ribs ached on New Years Eve Eve.

Read some pretty neat books while at the beach. Volume 1 of Marcel Proust’s Rememberance of Things Past (proust + monty python), which i think is the exact literary equivalent of a Chopin prelude. David Foster Wallace’s Broom of the System (review) which can be summed up as “Ends in mid sentence, he grinned wryly.” Orson Scott Card’s Homebody and Earthfall (4th in the Homecoming series) – neither his best work, but pleasant enough.

This is the year of acheiving. The year of taking opportunities. No thinking without doing. No theorising without action. No reading before bed. Productive Saturdays. No wasted time to chronicle.

I forgot to say – I know it’s going to be the International Year of Matthew because on New Years’ Day at half past five i saw the green flash.

Tool/Parabola fills me with such UNHOLY ENERGIES!!

A group is it’s own worst enemy
Bruce Sterling interview [via /.]

I feel angry now because the Council decided not to waive my $200 infringement fee for having my car sitting unused on the road outside my house waiting to be fixed for a WOF. I will take the hint and go ahead with my plans to get a bike and sell the car. Upon Kathy’s recommendation I asked the Customer Support Representative if I could perhaps do some community service, rather than trying to come up with the cash, but was told that that is not an option, though I can pay it off a little at a time.

I am reading Robert M Pirsig’s Lila: An Inquiry into Morals at the moment, which is a sort of sequel to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I think that he has perhaps found the Holy Spirit and called Him Quality. Also, Pirsig’s Giant, for whose benefit all in New York City work, puts me in mind of NTW’s ideas about the Principalities and Powers (which he gets from one Ren Girard apparently).

Remember stories don’t have meanings. Stories are meanings. There aren’t any meanings that aren’t stories.

End of end of free
Past and future of the blogosphere
Inventing diamonds [1982, via my boss]

I visited the RCNZ National Youth Camp on Friday evening, and stayed up all night with the people playing volleyball basketball and Metallica. Matthew Baird and i got a bit of paper and wrote some things at the top, and by the end of the night (the morning) this is approximately what it looked like:

WRITE YE GOOD THINGS
Write something nice anonymously about someone else at camp. Pass this page on to someone else

Hmm… just a random comment… I like the way that Hamish can make people laugh :) hehehe.

I love Rebecca she is so hot.

I like the way that Josh keeps trying to ride the unicycle even though we all know he can’t.

Jason is very good at drawing and Becky has a lovely smile.

I like Dion, he knows how to make people laugh.

Waterguns are fun in the early hours of the morning. Weeee!!

I love the free time and sport.

There was this shoe… but no. Very many people at camp smile. Rachel the committee person always says hello. There was a man with glasses, he said hello once too…

Tim thinks my sister is “hot”. Then he said I was hot too and so was my mum.

The cam nurse is cool she made me all better.

I love Marlene’s smiling eyes.

Good things? They are a little too “good” for me! LIfe is a rich tapestry of manifold blessings, poetry, people are two significant features of the good life. I am certainly a fan of Jess’ heaven-touched smile, her celestial countenance sets my soul souring. Good friends like Matt & Jono, beautiful brothers like Si & Chris, and creation istelf contains ample food for hearts starved of happiness. Arise, witness the dew as it kisses the face of the earth in the morning, then, with immaculate adroitness, transcends its nocturnal lover to join its lofiter brothers.

Jason is very good at encouraging others in their artistic persuits. Many pretty faces and smiles around the place.

I appreciate the positive comments about what others think of my ability as a leader, as I thought I was only doing my duty and not particularly well either. Thank you, people, once again.

My best friend Simon bought me (and two others) tickets to Turin Brakes. We went and saw them on Saturday evening at Indigo. Sleepers Union played before them.

Sleepers Union sounded to me like Grandaddy turned up a notch, with a tone-deaf vocalist or three. Reasonably pleasant solid textures, quite structured songs. A little boring – (we will play this riff for eight bars, now we will play this one). After their last song all the gear was cleared off the stage and replaced with a keyboard and two acoustic guitars. This made me a little worried – how will I enjoy this without a flash drummer to watch? My worries were unfounded. They were fantastic. Two amazing guitarists and one amazing keyboard player. Usually when I know the words to a song a band is playing, I sing along, but their voices were so rich and their harmonies were so tight that I didn’t dare dilute them with my own. They pulled the nicest sounds out of their guitars. The keyboard player was a consummate musician also, backing up the guitars with piano, Rhodes and strings.

Joel G on intertextuality

Good ideas (creativity, inspiration) are communications straight from God. If you have a good idea, and you can’t think of any good reason why you shouldn’t, you should act on it as soon as possible. If you can think of good reasons why you shouldn’t act on it, it wasn’t a good idea straight from God in the first place. It is a terrible shame to waste these inspirations.

When i dance to try and impress girls i dance poorly, and rarely impress girls. When the calculating part of me surrenders control over my limbs and muscles to some other, deeper part, i dance beautifully, and impress girls.

My friend Lynton B (who turns 21 in a week) took me to the Big Day Out on Friday. It was nice. Flaming Lips, Basement Jaxx, Salmonella Dub, The Mars Volta, Shapeshifter, Muse and Flinns were highlights. Here we are just after getting in the gates:

Lynton’s brother Matthew writes poems to break bits off your rusty heart.

Latest issue of Credenda/Agenda

Yesterday I was granted the boon of meeting Deborah of Australia. Deb is a nifty restful complex thoughtful focused person, quite different from the very vague conceptions of her that I’d made from reading her blog. We talked and walked and bought some books, and it was all grand.

Yesterday I continued reading Hundertwasser on Architecture at the library for an hour or so. He is AMAZING. He thought and acted to break architecture’s back and press it into the service of humanity, and into harmony with the rest of Creation. I intend to photocopy some of the book. He was recommended to me by my darling sister Kathy.

Good church vision statements
Lyrics: Ben Folds Five/Fair
Chalk art [via chud & mefi]

Think over today, I don’t recall sinning at all. I grew up thinking that was impossible. It’s not.

My friends, I am pencilling in Friday, February 13 for a birthday celebration for me. My birthday was December 17, and i turned 24, but i was slack. I didn’t realise then that the International Year of Matthew was on the horizon. I aim to have dinner at The Jewel of Nepal in Newtown, and then head back to the flat in Oriental Bay for drinky-poos. Any objections?

John S II told me today that Grant Lee Philips has a shiny new album out soon. You can listen to the first few tracks of it in full at his site [RealAudio required]. After one listen, they haven’t grabbed me. It will be interesting to see if they do.

RDB’s reply-paid txt messaging idea
Lyrics: Tool/Lateralus
The Night Air: Pranks [30min, RealAudio required]
The Night Air: Showtime [30min, RealAudio required]

Sitcoms tell me that every show of strong emotion warrants laughter.

When Worldviews Attack!
Colossians updated [PDF, 35k]
My idea at halfbakery.com
Lego, Han Solo, Carbonite

YO Isaiah: tell Israel what their problem is! -
They are very pious in church, and they fast regularly
But when they get back home, they beat their slaves and
ignore the needy
Do I the Lord care that you reguarly attend the proper services when you ignore the hungry and oppress the poor?
Instead – THIS is how you should worship me: free the slaves, share your abundance, house the homeless in your own house. Then i will bless you like you want me to, and answer you when you pray. Then you will live in the garden of eden, and last for generations. If you make your worship services no longer lies, if you extend the Sabbath rest to those who need it most, THEN I will raise you up, and restore you to your former glory.
[Isaiah 58 ESV]

Short angry movie reviews from JH Kunstler

One thing that never fails to make me happy is when i walk into the Italian bakery ten minutes walk from my house and the possibly Italian woman behind the counter reaches straight for one of their amazing $2 foccacias and sometimes it’s still a little warm.

Says Peter Leithart today:

Faith is not a knowledge, assent, and trust confined to one sector of life or one set of life experiences. It is the determination of ALL action by loyalty to Jesus.

One David Lodge said

Literature is mostly about having sex, and not much about having babies; life is the other way round.

[via Today In Literature]

Recently completed site of mine
RDB’s new blog idea: IM-filter
Thomas Moore on the Irish Soul, Sex & Public Life

At the end of the day lovely Chaffers New World, tenish minutes from my door, mark down their yummy filled rolls to around $1.50. They also have delicious Chicken Teriyaki sushi for 85c each (is it still sushi without fish? what are individual units of sushi called? is all fish sushi raw fish sushi? should sushi be Sushi?) and they include a dollop of wasabi, tiny bottlet of soy sauce, and shavings of fresh ginger.

I am currently recording a food log, trying to figure out what i eat in a week, and what it all costs. I hope to find out whether it is financially a good idea to get a weekly weekly fruit & vege delivery from Yummy Tummy Organics, like David & Angela do.