Much happier stuffs!!

It was my girlfriend's birthday on Friday 18th July [yaaaaaay!!] & we had some great times, including seeing a little film which I've been banging on about for months - Wall-E. Here's what I thought about this film.

OK firstly this is an animated movie from the always-reliable Pixar & according to Empire it's a 5 star movie [check out full review here] which is normally a good recommendation but I digress!

The first thing that struck me was before the film even began - Pixar have a great habit of making a short [only a few minutes] animation before the feature presentation & this one was called Presto. This was definitely the funniest animated short I've seen as well as cleverly put together & perfectly animated. I won't spoil the plot but it had me & our party in stitches even before Wall-E had been seen!!

OK the main event - overall it had great comedy, moving moments, brilliant characters, as well as a distinct [& rather dark] message about technology. What I liked heartily was that the key characters only had a very limited vocabulary - Wall-E could not talk to begin with, then learned new words including his own name! This meant that with limited dialogue all the story-telling needed to be done with actions & gestures but this was done superbly & it was a memorable story - definitely one for the DVD collection when it arrives!!

One final thing to say was about one character called M-O [his entire vocabulary = MO] he was a robot with a cleaning obsession [well it was his job/life!] he was really funny & reminded me of many people who like to clean like they were obsessed [no names mentioned at all!!] Here is a pic because of the cuteness!!

Diss Update!

AKA Frustration 1 over.......Frustration 2 just beginning!!

Had a meeting with Si Davis [Oxford CYM Centre] & went through my dissertation resubmission 'issue' on Monday & I basically have to do a total redraft for the diss, in the next 2 weeks w00t fricking woot!! The key issue is that I went from an empirical to library-based & back again & as such my overall style seems really sketchy.

The bad news is that I have little drive or desire to do all this work for effectively getting 2 marks to bring my where I was originally marked at [twice grrrr!]. Also it looks like a massive battle, as I need to add in a methodology & some deeper & more specific definitions, as well as shift the entire diss to be more empirical. Seems a lot of work & I need to get it done before MWCC [2nd August].

The good news is that I've come up to see Maddie for a while, so I can make a constructive start [I'm currently sat on her lounge floor lolz!] & she's had a flick through & has given me a good start & now I can sit in my preferred working place [Starbucks lol] to try to get this darn thing done. Also I've managed to get some funding to keep me caffeinated for a couple of weeks [thanks mon grand-pere]

Expect a couple more blogs as things develop oh & if anyone wants to proof this bad boy - let me know ;o)

Disser...what-the-heck-is-going-on...tation

OK got some fatal blow news late on Tuesday - my dissertation needs to be resubmitted as it got a 38RC. Basically this epic failure [hence the pic!] caused me to panic/stress/smash things with hammers/grrrr/etc. Big shouts to Lego for giving me some comedy & a hug lolz! Then tried to get it sorted on the Wednesday, but there was nobody in the CYM Oxford office to try to sort out aaaanything. Frustration therefore continued for the whole day & evening - fail!

So went to see YouthBlog to try to get some advice & then went in to CYM Oxford on Thursday to retrieve my diss. To be honest it's not something which looks very major & I think that a very minor change will improve it. Basically my question for the dissertation was:

"How do young people view the Christian faith, as a faith or as a culture or subculture"

However, the chief criticism is that this looks like I should be looking at 3 separate
ideas, whereas in the introduction, my question changed to:

"How do young people view the Christian faith, as a faith or as a culture/subculture"

Obviously this looks massive/minor depending on how you look at it, but I think a small change or even losing the whole subculture idea might just tip the balance. We shall see on Monday when I meet with the head of Ox CYM.

Finally a big shout out to RevMiri & YouthBlog for their assistance & giving me sage advice on how to sort it.

CYM Completion

As we speak [ok blog!] I've finished all the work for my degree from CYM!!! This is great because it means no more writing journals or essays or [dare I say it] dissertations!

However, they were a great bunch of peeps the class of '08, so I though I'd give a celebratory shout out to them all for great & memorable times over the past 3 years.

So does this mean I'm done with education of the mind....you know what I don't think so - doing this degree has really given me a thirst for knowledge. But I don't think I need another degree or [dare I breathe it] masters, rather I think I should look closer to home...my bookshelf for one. I have collected a mass of books for both youth ministry & theology & I think I should start by really getting stuck into them, not for quotes, but for practical & realistic ideas!!

Watch this space for some actual random musings - come on it's about time!!

We continue

where have you been?!

OK bloggers it's been faaaaaaaar to long since my last blog - so I think it's about time for some updates - check back soon for what an earth has been going on!

Zidane Revengwe

ok & 1 more Zidane - he's so cool - he's my Heroes:

Young people...they like comedy to - cool!!

OK here is some comedy from teh youth of North Leigh - courtesy of m@r+ & t0m & YouTube. If you feel you might get offended by comedy...DO NOT PRESS PLAY!!

Just a quick blog to share a random link whilst on my dissertation interweeb usage have a look at this scary website. It's a anti-Christianity website with 50 "proofs" that god is "imaginary". In their own words:

"Billions of people attend millions of churches around the world to worship God. Yet the God they worship is completely imaginary. Their belief represents a delusion. It is easy to prove that God is imaginary. Start at the beginning with Proof #1 [prayer]"

This is quite anti-apologetic in its approach & reminds me of another militant atheist approach from Mr Richard Dawkins]

Six out

Dissertation

Dissertation blog

OK blog-fans, just a quick update about my dissertation. It’s going pretty good, am over 7000 [out of 8000-10500 limit] but am being severely challenged to keep motivated, so here is the run-down of what on earth I’m talking about;

1] Home situation; This is a tricky one, my home environment, after much reflection & processing has become just about the worst place for me right now.

After a recent lecture about eating disorders [specifically anorexia & bulimia] I was reminded about how I was in my teenaged days how underweight I was [6 feet tall & well under 10 stone – you do the math] – yes I was before you start on my belly size :oP So anyways, I got to thinking about my eating habits…or lack of them!

I basically don’t eat breakfast, sometimes skip luncheon & normally eat dinner. This could be described as slightly unhealthy [ya think!]. Yet the reasons are not simple. What I have to contend with is my phenomenal grandfather, who has the unnatural ability to not comprehend how humanoids work. Basically I can’t use the kitchen on the basis that it a] never has any food b] if I cook ANYTHING it is too smelly [even though his main food seems to be fish – go figure] c] his entire diet consists of bread, cheese, fish, vegetables & fruit – all very commendable, but there are other people in the world, who have different tastes.

Just to top it all off, I’m either ignored or complained at, at all times – too lazy, not working hard enough, always on the computer, socially recluse, always playing games, cooking putrid food [oh really I thought it was called spag bol!]. For f@%k’s sake I’m a student, youthworker, outgoing, very sociable, amicable & a people person!!


2] Sickness; OK since I’ve started my dissertation; here’s what I’ve had to contend with; sore throat, instant-runny nose, stomach bug, diarrhoea, flu, headache, head cold, pain in my kidneys, bladder, prostate, back, knees, ankle & just to top it off a distinct lack of sleep!! What doesn’t help is stopping my pain suppressants [on the basis of wanting to work harder, faster, more!] but I don’t think I can keep that up – am going have to go back to it – d’oh! I reckon most of this is stress related, but to be fair if you don’t get stressed about a dissertation there’s something fundamentally wrong with you!


Right I can think of only one person trying to get in my way of finishing this dissertation, so if you read this – PRAY!! I think I need all the prayer I can get, many of you are already, but the more the better.

OK enough rambling [I’m doing enough of that in my dissertation lolz!], back to my dissertation…rambling!!

Note: Please treat this as reflective, non-offensive & with a degree of confidentiality & sensitivity.

& some more!

Right seriously - I need to go play Lego....I mean do some work!!





Six over & ouT

Yeah well!!

Winter Lolcatz:

Mooooore!!

More combedy!

Fail.

OK one more - I couldn't resist!!!

Reflection on Dissertation [Part 1 of.....many methinks!]

OK this is [probably] the last post of today but I thought I’d share a little of what is holding most of my attention – my dissertation! It’s about the following quandary:

Do young people engage with Christian faith as a faith, or a culture [or subculture]?

What I had mostly done was to do a shed-load of reading around my subject [which fried my brain rather well!] and make loads of notes! The plan was to research not just books but interview people as well. Then the intention is to write up my findings into between 8’000-1’1500 words.

But here’s the catch- it ain’t exactly easy!! I’ve got a supervisor who I’m meeting next Wednesday and hopefully he can kick my butt back into gear and get me focussed on getting this thing finished by the close deadline 23rd April – aaargh!!

Right enough blogging, I need to chillax, the go see my Maddie!!

Six ouT

Combedy!

Ahhhh lolcatz:

Reflection on Easter

Also I went back to my home church this morning & there as a good preach, but it affected me a bit more than I thought it would – a section from the Gospel of John [the Resurrection section]. But it wasn’t the Resurrection itself, but more a part about Nicodemus. It really interested me, as it almost described my feelings at the moment, going through the motions & doing religious things, going to events, etc. but not really ‘feeling’ it. I guess I‘m just not feeling spiritually fulfilled. Reflecting on this a bit more, I checked out more about Nicodemus, more specifically John 14-21:

Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."

Full context John 3.

I think that in this time of having to work really hard, I need to work on staying right with God; after all I have got to finish this degree, get a job, & work out the rest of my life [in so far as I can] – time for a little bit of reliance!!

[more-reflecting-than normal] Pikachu Out

Lego?

Also I have started my dissertation properly [more on that later!!] and to take a break from it I got my Xbox 360 back from Hobbit and TC, & got a new game to while away the hours of necessary downtime. It’s called Lego Star Wars.

Again it’s childish and silly, but so addictive lolz!! It’s not too difficult, very funny and a good productive use of my time! It’s easy enough for anyone to play, but I reckon I might be even able to actually complete the darn thing – well at least it will take my mind off my dissertation when I need to!

Six ouT!

Nerf Herder!

OK this is showing my regression back into childhood, but hey, what can you do!! I’ve recently bought a Nerf gun called the Maverick
& loved it so much I thought yeah let’s get a second!



Then I checked out the Nerf Website [insert link: http://www.hasbro.com/nerf/] & found some much more interesting stuffs, like the Recon



And then something else caught my eye a fricking sniper rifle called the Longshot.

Check it out - how rad it that!!



It’s sad, it’s childish, but it’s a heck of a lot of fun!!!

Six ouT

Silversun Pickups Live

& if you need further convincing, here's them on Jules Holland!!

Must see/hear!!

OK this is my top choon of the past few weeks it's from a little-known band called the Silversun Pickups & it's called "Lazy Eye". I first heard it on Adam Freeland's "Global Underground 32: Mexico City" album & it's been rocking my socks ever since - here is the video from YouTube, or go check them out here. Stick with it [especially from 02:45 it makes my hair stand on end still!!]

Enjoy!:



Six out!