A Break From Blogging

I'm going to take a break from posting on Sky and Field for about four months.

I have decided this because I am currently at a point where, after over two years of blogging on here, I am finding every upcoming deadline for a new post more of a hassle than an enjoyment. Perhaps my creativity has largely been spent. Or it might be that I only need to breathe for a bit, and then come back refreshed.

I will continue to post material from 5th January 2013, the start of next year, and then hopefully maintain my habit of posting every 5th, 15th and 25th of a month from that point onwards.

In the next few months I will be able to write material when I feel like it, and by January should have a few posts already scheduled as usual. I think that the important thing is not that I stop writing, but that I should not feel that deadlines are always looming nearby.

So I hope that everyone who reads this has a good rest-of-2012... I will see you again in 2013!

Ian



Image source: http://www.liesyoungwomenbelieve.com/index.php?id=533

Good Characters Make Bad Sequels

Most movie sequels seem to be worse than the original films that they follow. Why is this normal? You might think that films should get better as film makers re-use only the best material and ideas.

A sequel would only be made if the first movie was considered successful and popular, and a movie is only very successful and popular if it has good characters.

The Fields So Far

I have been posting an article on this blog three times each month for over two years now. I'm taking up one more post to dwell on that for a minute.

The old saying that 'practice makes perfect' seems to become increasingly self-evident as you get older. I know that many adults say that they wish they had been more devoted to some of the hobbies they enjoyed when they were younger, because they know that they would like to be enjoying the fruits of their persistence now.

I set myself a target to write something on this blog three times each month because I thought it would be challenging enough to push me, but low enough that I wouldn't burn out or get frustrated. So far, it seems like that was a good estimate.

Money, Coming and Going

When Jenny and I got married and brought our two lifestyles under one roof, we realized that we each manage our money in different ways. I look at what will be needed in the future, and budget so that I have enough, and Jenny keeps track of what she has spent her money on so she can tell when she needs to change her spending habits. I plan ahead for the future, Jenny analyses the past.

I do not think that either is the 'right' way to manage money, but I do think that using both of our methods together is a powerful combination.

Choosing how we watch our finance probably says something about our personalities.

Music, Memory and Marketing

When you sing a song, you are combining the sound of a melody with the meaning of words. The words by themselves, without a tune, would just be a quote. This shows that our minds are born tuned to remember things associated with a musical tune, because we all remember far more song lyrics than we do other quotes.

This is a powerful combination, and many parts of culture have already used this to their advantage. You have been influenced by the songs you know.

By songs, I'm not even beginning by thinking of the pop music industry. No, the time that this was recently brought to my attention was when watching scenes of celebration for the royal family on television.

God and Small Talk

A few years ago I started putting a question into conversations with friends who I knew were Christians. I was interested in both their response and their answers. The question was, “So how are things between you and God?” or, if they didn’t understand this, I would add “What has God done for you lately?”

I ask people this question for two reasons. First, I am passionate about God, and since I know I get excited by what He does in my own life, I know I would get equally excited by the things He is doing in my friend’s lives. It’s like being nosey, but in a good way. The second reason is to make a point, and hopefully to help some Christians to try and fight what I am trying to fight- the unspoken taboo that is our relationships with God.

Security vs. Value

Refunds, guarantees, warranty insurance and money back. Our culture, and our location in history, offers a sudden wealth of ways in which consumers can pay for something with money, and then get the money back again. This transaction in trade is so accepted and common now that many people try to deliberately flaunt these options on a daily basis with the aim of getting something for nothing.

But does the result of never paying for something diminish its value? I think that at least in our minds it does. If you buy something and are promised a refund if you aren’t happy with it, then you are less likely to care if it works because if it doesn’t you know you will take your refund and have lost nothing. But if you buy something and are told it is non-returnable, if you are told that you have bought it and therefore have to live with it, you will probably try to take better care. You will be more wary how you use it, and by comparison to the disposable item that you returned, your increased attention could be seen as a type of increased value.

Cities vs. Towns

Jenny and I weren't able to do a house hunt prior to marriage until we had done a town hunt. We both graduated from our universities at the same time, and had the option to pick any place in UK to start married life. Out of the two locations we narrowed our choices down to, a distinct difference was that one felt like a town and the other felt like a city.

A Thought About Funerals

A typical service in a Christian church has two main parts of the program: A time of musical worship, and a time for a sermon to be preached. Worship followed by learning, adoration leading to instruction.

This order enables the congregation to first focus on God and their relationship with Him. The sermon that follows can then be engaged with in a good frame of mind, in a more accurate sense of context. Worship enables me to momentarily break the habit of focusing on myself, of placing myself at the centre of the universe, and instead focus on God, placing Him in the centre of everything. When biblical teaching is received, we should first apply it to our relationship or understanding of God, and only to mankind after this. Worship could be said in this way to not only provide an accurate context for any sermon, but for any part of our daily lives.

If a typical church service consists of worship and then practical application, then I propose that funeral services are the reverse of this.

Short Story: The Man Who Found Centillion Yen

Jake looked the new currency exchange clerk in the eye, and at the same time tried to think quickly about whether he had missed something. "So," he checked with the man behind the counter, "if I sign this contract, then under this deal you will exchange all of my current belongings, everything I own, for the centillion yen note and a flight to China in twenty years time?"

"Yes." The man simply nodded.

Jake, still not moving, searched the man's face for any sign of mischief or illusion, but found nothing beyond the friendly smile. So his mind went over the facts.

Centillion yen! It would make millionaires look poor and desperate. It could buy countries. It could end world hunger, and it could afford world peace, but he could only spend it in China twenty years from now.

Evangelism - Part 2

The following is adapted from the second half of a talk I gave at WYnet Summer Camp 2011. The theme for the week was Discipleship, and I spoke towards the end of the event about mission-ship, or evangelism.

In the first half of the talk, I spoke about What evangelism is, the Context of bad news that makes the Good News worth listening to, and the Distractions of issues secondary to Jesus' death and resurrection.

I introduced the talk by saying that I knew they (the teens) had, or could get, advice on how to be "nice people" very easily, and therefore I wanted to cut straight to stuff about evangelism that could be applied in their school and college lives.

Who

A possbile next question for the simple act of evanglism is "Who do we evangelise to- friends or strangers?" Well, considering the example of Jesus, the answer appears to be "both." He gave lots of time and attention to explaining God to his closest friends, the disciples, but He also healed and preached to thousands of other people in first century Israel.

Evangelism - Part 1

The following is adapted from the first half of a talk I gave at WYnet Summer Camp 2011. The theme for the week was Discipleship, and I spoke towards the end of the event about mission-ship, or evangelism.

I introduced the talk by saying that I knew they (the teens) had, or could get, advice on how to be "nice people" very easily, and therefore I wanted to cut straight to stuff about evangelism that could be applied in their lives at school and college.

What

During my time at the University of Chester, I heard what I think is the best definition of evangelism I have ever heard. It went,

"Evangelism is just one beggar telling another beggar where he can get free food."

24 Games That Never Made It

Here is a small collection of games that probably didn't make it into your childhood:

1. Heads, Shoulders, Knees or Tails
2. Cops and Lawyers
3. Edible Jigsaw Puzzles
4. Water-Ski-Rugby
5. Real Snakes and Ladders
6. Solo Texas Hold'Em Poker
7. What's the Time, Mister Yogenschlangheifennhturichsuen?
8. Invisible Chess
9. Relay Darts
10. Truth or Truth
11. Real-time Snooker (none of this "taking turns" rubbish)
12. Latin Scrabble
13. Table-Javelin
14. Tranquilised Lions
15. Five-a-side Solitaire
16. Art-Attack Pictionary
17. Horizontal Rock Climbing
18. 100 meter staring contests
19. Guess the Law-Of-Thermodynamics
20. Underwater Basketball
21. Democratic Rupublic of Congo Roulette
22. Charades in the Dark
23. Keep-me-ups (with a shotput)
24. Rock, Paper, Scissors, Selotape, Card, Glue and Acrylic Paint

Read another post in Comedy...

Image source: http://desire-microblooms.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/confused-baby.html

Journeys Across Two Types of Fictional Landscapes

Regarding the journeys taken across them, I think that the landscapes in a fantasy story can speak to and inspire us more than the settings of a science-fiction one.

The fictional genres of science-fiction and fantasy have very different types of generic landscapes or settings. Science-fiction is usually set in the depths of space, possibly across many planets and maybe galaxies, with vessels flying between the worlds. Fantasy, by contrast, is usually set on a single world, possibly across many countries and maybe continents, with characters trekking or riding between settlements.

Science-fiction, even if it is not set in an idea of our own future, is seen to be futuristic because of how advanced the technology is. Fantasy, even if it is not set in any real history, is seen to be like past ages, with simplicity serving as an adjective for much of the imagined world.

Stories, Maths, Politics and Board Games

Stories and numbers seem intertwined in a confusing way. That one should come from another seems odd, but they do have some things in common. Stories involve change, and our earliest lessons in maths teach us how to change numbers. Politicians, game designers, and many other workers in the world require some skill at translation from one to the other, yet I wouldn't know where any of us learned how to do this.

Short Story: The Expedition and the Time Shadow

Nakkie stood shoulder to shoulder between five other men. One of them was Simon from his own team, another looked like a builder from the third construction team, and the other three were cavers. They had been herded into the square room by all of Crune's boys about twenty minutes ago, turning the cube they had spent the last two days putting together into a torchlit cell with depressingly black walls. A single cell, in the deepest of six caverns, sitting one thousand, two hundred and fifteen feet below sea level. That was a lot of rock between them and the sunlight on the brazillian desert above their heads. Not for the first time on this trip, Nakkie didn't like the feel of this.

Religious Duality

Duality is where a person behaves differently around different people. I've gotten the impression that most of us notice ourselves using it while growing up- you learn to behave differently around your teachers than you do around your friends, for example. It can appear common sense in some situations, but in others it may cause us to question whether we are being genuine.

Of all the relationships a person can have, perhaps the most far detached categories are people and God. We relate to people every day, and can choose to relate to God as well, but should we behave differently around the creator of the universe because we cannot see or touch Him?

I am not referring to whether we should respect God or not. That is a question for beliefs and relationship, not for duality. I am instead asking whether we should be behaving very differently to God during our conversations with Him compared to when talking with friends on the street.

Graduation vs. Communion

After years of working hard, the ceremony of Graduation gives each University student a chance to recognise their success, and a sense of closure. It also accompanies at least one motivational speech about facing the future, and the challenges and rewards it may bring.

Graduation is a ceremony which marks the past and points ahead to a hopeful future. So I have found myself comparing it to Holy Communion in church.

The Illusion of Promotion

We imagine that the word promotion is a positive one, a word that defines success and achievement. But from a small amount of observational experience, when you look at how promotion can affect a person's life- not just the part of it that exists at work- I'm less convinced that it is always so positive.

Within the workplace, promotion is portrayed as a reward, a gift, given to someone with recognised talent. It can be said to be given so that a person has a job best suited to their level of competence, a distinctly flattering description.

However, in the context of a persons entire life, I think that very little may be gained from promotion. In some cases, I think that a person gains nothing at all, and instead they merely trade one benefit for another.

Short Story: The Shriggs

In the year five million and one,

a space monk travelled to Pum.

A planet of green,

he hoped he would meet

some nice aliens he could take home.

His space vessel landed on soil,

and his first impressions were royal,

for the beings called Shriggs

were polite little things

with nice food and big homes and green smiles.

But the monk found his learning was slow,

unable to let the Shriggs know,

that a vow to be silent

actually meant

he could only converse with a show.

Pre-Bible Christianity

Within any debate in Christianity, there is a lot of history. I often feel like I have little background knowledge of an issue that concerns my faith.

I think this is why I love the idea of what Pre-Bible Christianity must have been like. By this, I don't mean I dislike the Bible! I'm referring to the small period in history where the apostles such as Saint Peter and Saint Paul had begun to spread the Gospel by word of mouth, but the letters that would form the New Testament had not yet been written down or collected together. All that believers in the middle-east towns knew about Jesus was what they could remember from conversation.

Sight vs. Sound

Memory hides from me where the inspiration came from, but as a teenager I would enjoy asking friends a certain question. I would say, "If you had to be either deaf or blind, which you rather be?"

Most of my friends usually thought about it for a few seconds, and then they replied that they would rather be deaf. Or, in other words, they valued their sight more than their ability to hear. I began to think of this as a typical response from people in England, because most of us in this country have a desire to be independent.

Out of the five senses in our bodies, the sense of sight is probably the one that gives us most independence. Lose your sight and you can't see in front of yourself, can't read signs, and can't distinguish between colour coded items.You need to ask a helper what is going on around you, and feel which direction a guide-dog is pulling you towards for safety when walking.

Telepathy and Love

When we were dating, I commonly joked with Jenny that I was psychic and could read her thoughts. For some reason, she didn't believe me, but I now think that being psychic could be the best thing in a relationship.

Everyone assumes that you get to know a person better by spending time with them. If you have spent years living with someone, you are expected to know their habits better than someone you have only known for a few days. But when we say something like "he knows her really well,", what do we mean? It seems that we mean he can practically read her mind, or that he can accurately predict what she is thinking at any moment.