I don’t know how to Blog

moved January 21, 2009

Hey, I moved,

If you’re interested in continue reading my blog follow the link below

http://blogilliterate.blogspot.com/

Charlie Palmer Survive February 28, 2008

After a faltering start to the season the mighty Charlie Palmer secured their place in league 3 for another season with a game to spare no less.

It was a hard fought game last night against a very tidy team.  Even Johny got a couple of good goals last night although I don’t think he will catch up my goal tally for the season.  No matter what he says about his new shooting boots.  I had a mare last night, I felt a yard too slow and I think I hit one shot on target all night.  Oh well it’s the leagues whipping boys next week so with any luck I’ll get back on song.

 It’s not that I’m trying to cram in as many cliches as possible but I can’t help it.

It’s the last Thursday of the month club tonight so band practice will be swiftly followed by a trip to the Chinese, can’t wait!

Devon February 24, 2008

Me and Hel went down to Devon this weekend for Helens Nans 80th Birthday. After work we took the 4 hour drive down to Teignmouth to spend the evening with Helens Dads side of the family. It was great to spend the evening with the family and after recently celebrating my own Grans 75th birthday with my family it reminded me how lucky we both are to have the families that we have both got. We’ve both lost Grandparents over the last few years and Helen most recently but we’re still lucky to have such a close family with uncles and Aunts on both sides.

I’ve fallen in Love with Devon since I have been with Helen and over the last 6 years I’ve been greatful of the time we have spent down there. You can’t help being taken in by the views over the countryside and out to see, it’s just a beautiful and quaint part of the world. I love Nottingham and all it has but I love getting away to somewhere as peaceful as Teighnmouth.

The drive there and back always give time to reflect on things as well. As i’m the only one who has to stay awake my mind is what keeps me entertained. To be honest I’m quite angry and frustrated with things at the minute, I’m finding that I’m becoming over critical of things, particularly Church. I’m not going to go off on a rant now but the drive home was filled with thoughts about where we were going wrong but not a lot of solutions came from it. Somehow I need to focus on solutions not problems because I just seem to be getting into a downward spiral that way.

I’m looking forward to this week though and with a HOPE08 youth event on the horizon (Saturday 1 March @ Nottingham Boys High) it should be a good week.

Today has been our YP annual where all our young people are recognised for their contribution to Church.  Now I’m going to be positive on this one and repress my critical side for a moment.  It is really encourageing to see so many young people at our Church.  We are incredibly fortunate to have so many and I just pray that we are doing our best for them.

Well as I sit here hammering keys I can see it’s started raining which means for me I get an extra hour before going to Church, Bonus!

Oh and one other thing I wanted to mention Eduardo, it’s such a shame to see a prodigious talent succomb to such an injury as he sustained yesterday.  I suppose you fear the worst after something like that and it would be such a shame if his career is ended so suddenly.  I think it’s imporant to remember Martin Taylor as well, by all accounts it was a really unlucky mistake, though the red card was deserved I don’t think anyone would go out to cause that amount of dammage to a fellow professional and he must be affected by what has happened.  I hope Eduardo can make a full recovery as soon as possible

Emotional Music February 22, 2008

I love it when a new track or piece of music stirs something in me.  the last time this happened was seeing the new Apple lap top advert, I had to find the music they used.  The track is New Soul by Yael Naim, the first time I listened to it through It just made me feel really good.  I couldn’t listen to it without a smile on my face.

The next day I’m listening to radio 5, yes I listen to radio 5.  They were talking about a comment from head of radio 2, Lesley Douglas.  She said “For women there tends to be an emotional reaction to music. Men tend to be interested in the intellectual side of the music, the tracks, where albums have been made, that sort of thing.”  Either this isn’t right or I’m getting in touch too much with my feminine side.

Thing is I do’t know how music can fail to have an emotional response on what ever level, whether you are male or female.  I’ve got to be careful not to become hypocritical after my last post but I’m sure most people would say that the music they like makes them feel something.  I don’t really like comments like this that categorise responses or actions because of gender particularly those that insinuate that women hold all the rights to emotions.

Anyways I love the track and the words are really interesting,

I’m a new soul I came to this strange world hoping I could learn a bit about how to give and take
But since I came here
Felt the joy and the fear
Finding myself making every possible mistake

La la la la la la la la

I’m a young soul in this very strange world hoping I could learn a bit about what is true and fake.
But why all this hate?
Try to communicate.
Finding trust and love is not always easy to make.

La la la la la la la la

 I suppose you could go along the lines of it talking about starting out life trying to live a good life but what with everything being so bad out in the world it’s not always easy to stay true to those ideals.  Do you give up after making mistakes or do you continuing to try to give and take. 

However I find the line La la la la la la la la quite profound

Move February 21, 2008

It’s not that I’ve got a lot to say today being the reason for the 3 post’s in a day.  I’ve just got into blogging and I didn’t like Blogger.com so I moved and copied my recent posts over here.

If you want to disarm the Salvation Army, take away it’s music! February 21, 2008

Never has a single sentence caused me so much concern. This was on the front page of the Salvationist the other day and even after reading the article it related to I was still left slighty perturbed.

If this is a true statement then the SA is in a dire situation, with only one weapon in our armourey (to continue the analogy) how can we fully achieve our purpose? We can’t save souls with music alone, we can’t grow saints with music alone and we can’t serve suffering humanity with music alone.

Fortunately I don’t believe this to be the case. I see a vast array of opportunities for mission that the SA is embracing and using and they don’t all revolve around music. However, the Army does seem to have an image that puts music above all else, when we have far more effective weapons at our disposal

It’s about winning as well February 21, 2008

‘Charlie Palmer’, our wednesday night powerleague side, were beaten again on Wednesday night. After a glorious season last round getting promoted second woth only 2 losses to our name we’ve against higher class opposition this time round. Those that know me, know that I’m not big on losing but I found that I’ve enjoyed most of the games this season becuase of the attitude of the players on both sides. The cliche would be that games have been played ‘in a good spirit’. Mind you if we don’t get a few more wins under our belts we could be in danger of becoming one of those yoyo teams.

We played really well this week and with the return of our main goal scorer after a broken arm we challenged a team that spanked us in our previous encounter and took a 3-0 lead before being pegged back and going in 3-5 at the break. a pretty even second half saw us claw back to within a goal at 5-6 before succombing to fatigue and losing 6-9 at the final whistle.

I’ve never been one to completely agree with the ‘it’s the taking part that counts’ attitude. I really enjoy the competition and although I can appreciate the playing for ‘fun’ thing but I’ve always prefered to play when both sides want to win. I don’t like losing, in fact I really hate losing but I can accept it when being beaten fairly. I can say that I’ve after every game this season I’ve been able to walk off having enjoyed the game win or lose (and we’ve lost far more than we’ve won.

It frustrates me when I hear of competition being taken out of school sports, children need to be taught how to compete and how to lose. Kids also need to be taught how to win with grace and not to mock the efforts of the opposing player. Sport is about enjoyment and fun and taking part but there has to be a place for winning as well. By removing competition in order to be more inclusive you can exclude those that seek competition.

Well here’s hoping for a better result next week. I think we need another win to avoid relegation from about 3 or 4 games we’ll see

The Importance of being relevant February 21, 2008

Every week, about Wednesday, a copy of the Salvationist lands on my desk. For those of the you that don’t already know, this is the weekly magazine for people who attend the Salvation Army. Now that I work for the army I get mine that little bit earlier than most (how lucky am I).

The first thing I usually do is turn to the letters page or the new commitments page, it kind of depends what sort of mood I’m in. If I’m looking for encouragement I look to see how many people have made new commitments this week. If I’m looking for something to annoy me I turn to the letters.

This week I was slightly disturbed to read a letter entitled ‘Quality Lasts’. The letter is in essence about the lasting nature of the Songs in the Salvation Army Song Book and the quality of the King James version of the bible. The writer goes on to highlight the danger of dumbing down and using modern terminology in new songs and new translations to “suit short term advantage”. To be honest I don’t think the language used in songs or in the Bible is the real issue. I don’t believe people like Graham Kendrick, Matt Redman, Scott Townend, Chris Tomlin, etc would consider their hymn writing to be dumbing down at all. Neither would the people that put together the New Century Version, or the New Living Translation of the Bible. These people write in the style of the day ad the songs that they write, I believe, are God honoring. I don’t know the inner workings of a Christian songwriters mind but I would imagine they write first to worship God themselves by using their gifts but also to write songs that others can use to glorify God as well.

Songs are not the be all and end all of the Church but they play a huge part in corporate worship. Should we not, therefore, be adding to the current stock of songs by introducing and learning some of the new ones. I wonder what the reaction to the songs we still sing now was when they where first introduced to a congregation? Did everyone enjoy them or did a few not like the use of modern words and tunes? William Booth used songs of the day to attract and reach people. My question is when and why did we stop following that example?