matthew henry john bartlett

Diary of a person

Earlier in the week Matthew Baird recommended a trilogy he’s been reading of late by one Kim Stanley Robinson. I wandered down to the library and found only the last of the trilogy was available. Also on the shelf was The Martians, a compendium of short stories by KSR set in the same universe, so I’ve started that, and plan to read the others in reverse order.

KSR is great. The way he talks about human colonies on Mars gives me lots of good ideas for life here. I really appreciate it when an author will give me an appreciation for a whole new aspect of creation that I didn’t have before. In The Martians he’s done this for me for rock climbing, surfing and baseball. Which is pretty nifty for someone working in the science fiction genre. He mentions the book A Pattern Language (whose sequel was recently reviewed in Comment), and seems to have read Schumacher for sure.

It’s rare to find a sci-fi writer who isn’t a dickhead. Thanks Baird.

Alistair Cooke is dead

CRAFTSMANSHIP!!

I saw a schnippet of a TV news item about trouble a decade ago in Rwanda. I don’t remember the trouble then, and the item I saw is fading fast. I got annoyed at the TV for telling me again about all the crap in the world without the slightest hint of an idea of how to fix it. The germ of an idea came to me – a website (I don’t really like websites anymore, but they’re cheap and fast) that ran in parallel to say TV One news, and attempted to provide people with pointers on how they might help alleviate the difficulties highlighted in each news item.

O most esteemed visitors from Google, please allow me to present you with all the lyrics for Goldenhorse’s fine album Riverhead.

Project Aqua discussion at Maxim
Hella tight new photos from Jono
Truth exiled in debating

CRAFTSHANDSHIP
WOMAN CRAFTSMAN!!

CREATION AND RECREATION ONLY IS GOOD
FOR YE ARE GODS!!

On Saturday I did $300 worth of damage to my flatmate’s trumpet in the space of four seconds. Yesterday the guy whose van I rolled called me up “I’ve found a replacement, can I have $1,200 please”. I ate fresh salmon sushi for the first time today. Exciting times.

Lyrics: Pearl Jam/Man of the Hour
PJ Leithart on Feminism & Identity
Ezekiel is so cool
Pims from Baird: one two
A social history of wanking [via PhilBaker]
Situated Software

By the mighty power of eMule I am gradually downloading all the good CDs I’ve lost over the years. Today I got Pink Floyd/Meddle and Radiohead/Hail to the Thief back o yeah.

Eric S Raymond: The Cathedral and the Bazaar [via Sam M]

I recommend The Passion of the Christ.

Korg is here

On Being Asked to Write a Poem Against the War in Vietnam
by Hayden Carruth

Well I have and in fact
more than one and I’ll
tell you this too

I wrote one against
Algeria that nightmare
and another against

Korea and another
against the one
I was in

and I don’t remember
how many against
the three

when I was a boy
Abysinnia Spain and
Harlan County

and not one
breath was restored
to one

shattered throat
mans womans or childs
not one not

one
but death went on and on
never looking aside

except now and then like a child
with a furtive half-smile
to make sure I was noticing.

addendum [via consumptive]

Some one running
Motorcyclist in Chernobyl
Good spyware deleter
Normalise your mp3 collection

Press release at Scoop

Once every month or two I come across a new author or speaker who makes me happy and expands my horizons and gives me hope for better things. Recently: Wendell Berry, Brian McLaren, Brian Walsh, E F Schumacher. (All boys, interesting). Today: Dr John Patrick of Ottowa. Consider listening to his Meaning and Purpose in Medicine [22MB streamable MP3].

Telford Work, down on blogs
Building a search engine

GOD
or
OUR GOD
WHOSE?
ONUS
ON US

I was tempted to give up, but despair is a lazy kind of pride (so says Wendell Berry), so I’m re-reading that creed thing to see if my mutterings might help John to see that I am on the Lord’s side too.

Following Andrew’s points:

1. This to me is nicer than believing in God because of say the ontological proof. I think the doctrine of Creation (God saw that it was very good. Woman and Man messed it up early on. Creation looks and waits for God’s true children to treat it right) is one of the key ones that people around today need to hear.
2. Seems there’s a missing middle eight to this point about the role of those who do have particular knowledge of God.
3. Amen.
4. Yep, makes sense to me. Perhaps worth emphasising that’s not the end of the story, except for for Israel. Resurrection should probably be slotted in here.
5. Oooo yeah, like a hen sheltering her chicks.
6. The devolvment of Israel’s defining symbols onto Jesus is an important theme Reformed theology AFAIKA has missed.
7. I like the incompleteness/tentativeness Andrew shows after this point. Humility.
8. Wow, that’s a great summary.
9. Stimulating and inspiring to work. Evidently has been reading NTW.
10. Ah, that’s what I was looking for at point four. 10b feels like the ‘swept from off the land’ of our versification of Psalm 1.

As you were.

Consider coming to the eco-justice seminar being put on by the Anglican Chaplaincy at Victoria University. It’s going to be held on Saturday 8 May from 9am – 3pm at Ramsey House, 8 Kelburn Parade, Wellington. Register ASAP by emailing chaplaincy-ecojustice at vuw dot ac dot nz or calling them 04 463 5499. The cost is $25 for students/unwaged, $35 for everyone else. The AngChap events I’ve been to so far have all been rather good, and I’m going to this one. More details [430k PDF].

I recommend John Caputo’s book On Religion, which Dan Mulholland lent me for the weekend.

The peasants demand moire! [via mefi]

In some bars you can smell the loneliness and it gets on everything and maybe they have to rinse it off in the daytime.

Who loves God in The Lord of the Rings?

I don’t recommend Starsky & Hutch.
I do recommend 21 Grams.

Doug Wilson’s blog [thanks Aaron]

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’.

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

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.

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

Have you ever experienced intellectual vertigo?

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.

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.

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.’

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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