Matthew Henry John Bartlett

Clay Shirky: Communities, Audiences and Scale
John Patrick on ‘Free’ Healthcare

a cat came and slept
in my shadow as I sat
waiting for the train

Block most web ads with a customised HOSTS file [via /.]
Robots and unemployment

This morning’s breakfast at the Leuven was great. There were perhaps a dozen people there. I would list them but I have forgotten the name of Peter’s friend. Most of the troops arrived quite a while after 7.15, and we waited for everyone before we orderd. I had a big waffle with fruit and maple syrup on it. Next week I aim to be there at approximately 7.30 and order immedaitely. This is, I hope, the start of something that will develop its own momentum.

For good or ill, Transit NZ has said yes to the Wellington inner city bypass.

A few minutes ago I finished Wendell Berry’s book Remembering which I highly recommend.

New Credenda/Agenda out
The Magic Roundabout [via mefi]
ESV lets you turn off verse divisions

Alan Watts quotes:

One day, a farmer’s horse ran away, and all the neighbors gathered in the evening and said ‘that’s too bad.’ He said ‘maybe.’ Next day, the horse came back and brought with it seven wild horses. ‘Wow!’ they said, ‘Aren’t you lucky!’ He said ‘maybe.’ He next day, his son grappled with one of these wild horses and tried to break it in, and he got thrown and broke his leg. And all the neighbors said ‘oh, that’s too bad that your son broke his leg.’ He said, ‘maybe.’ The next day, the conscription officers came around, gathering young men for the army, and they rejected his son because he had a broken leg. And the visitors all came around and said ‘Isn’t that great! Your son got out.’ He said, ‘maybe.’

Brother William says:

Beware email and instant messaging and blogs, especially when they seem to be supporting momentous conversations. The body remembers sitting in its usual room at its usual computer and easily forgets the words and the persons behind them.

Probably every writer making a secondary world …every sub-creator, wishes in some measure to be a real maker, or hopes that he is drawing on reality; hopes that the peculiar quality of this secondary world …are derived from Reality, or are flowing into it.

Have you ever experienced intellectual vertigo?

Andrew Basden on
  having Asperger’s
  Christian Philosophy and Information Systems

I made pumpkin potato onion and mushroom soup for my flatmates. David Jono Aaron and I went out for tea to Deluxe and talked about blogging, blogging about theology, and theology. ‘Theology’ is probably the wrong word. ‘Theophilia’ might be better. We talked about what it means to love God, and if there’s a substantial difference between doing good and loving God. On the way home Jono bought a bottle of eight dollar Shiraz which turned out to be a nice way to celebrate the return of all my flatmates.

moments after I flushed my mullet down the toilet
[photo by Jono]

I’m going through some of my oldest CDs, having a bit of a prune. Right now I’m listening to Transmission volume 5, which David gave to me. Transmission, if I remember correctly, was a NZ-based Christian music magazine which ran for a few years, a few years ago. They included a CD with each issue. The music is OK at times, but it mostly seems really thin, dualist and escapist (please Jesus get me out of this terrible world). I feel like they aren’t grounded, rooted in the forms they’re playing in. It’s more like floating on top like oil on water, and (to change gears) mining others’ riches to ‘get the message out’.