Staring into Space

I haven't blogged for ages - not because I have nothing to say this time, but because the stuff I want to say I need an anonymous blog for - stuff I need to shout into the universe in general. Don't you ever need to do that?

Since I really don't want another blog -I will have to be satisfied with shouting it to the God of the Universe instead.

Let's see... what has actually been happening lately?  Hmmm. Bullets will do.

• It's been raining and I have had wet hairy dogs in the house!
• Have been to a birthday breakfast where I had the most delicious croissant, bacon and brie and enjoyed the great company,
• It was my folks 35th anniversary and his birthday dinner
• I locked my keys into the house when I was on the way to fetch My Girl from work and she had to get a lift to let me in! (so silly, eish!)
• Had to service the car, renew car licences, take Jack to the vet for his ear (which is fine), fixing My Girls car, booked for the next ICT Integration conference at the end of the month - been a rather hectic month financially
• Loving work - so many excited staff members with the new e-beams being installed at the end of the month. Awesome for me to be a part of this.
• Our 'homegroup' leaders have stepped out of leadership - expecting a baby and pressing work commitments made it a wise decision. Now we are homeless.
• OH OH OH. We won the rugby. Well - it's not really that we played THAT well, we won on penalties and at least it wasn't a Tri-Nations whitewash. I keep telling myself that we are lulling the opposition into a false sense of security before the RWC. Here's hoping! :)
• Been watching a fair amount of cricket - the England/India tests have been pretty good to have on in the background. As well as the Aussie/Sri Lanka ODI's.

Been a busy and rather tough week one way and another. So I will sit, stare into space and shout occasionally ... and I have no doubt that I will be back with something far more interesting.

Balancing Act

It's time to give myself a good talking to.

You know those times that you KNOW that you have to make some changes but it's just such a mission?

I am in one of those times. I need to find some balance between work and play.

Now don't think that my work is that demanding, or that they demand that from me, not at all. It's completely self-inflicted.

Those of you who know me (or read me) will know I recently attended a conference that completely changed the way that I see education. This is a great thing and I wouldn't change it - BUT, it also made me aware of tools and resources I had never heard of, and that I KNOW my children will LOVE and benefit from. I do, however need to be familiar with these tools before I can teach them.

Can you see the problem? Twitter and FaceBook don't help - I don't follow celebs on Twitter, I follow people in the "ICT in education business", every 5 minutes they introduce a new tool, or another awesome site that needs my attention. I never seem to have enough time to master everything that I want to!

The result of this is that... well, the cartoon is pretty close to the truth except for one, not so small thing. Even on the couch, I often have my laptop and find myself working. Hours feel like minutes and the next thing "My Man" is home and the day is gone.... and if I am not careful... it often slips into the evening too. Not good.

So, as difficult as this is at this point (because I am not unhappy doing all this research - but I do feel its unhealthy), I am going to just choose 4 new tools/resources to master for now - and I have to find a balance, I have to get to gym, get some fresh air, walk the dogs, something.

I just need to get some exercise.

I may need (make that definately will need) some sovereign intervention at this point!

FuNnY thing... before I had started writing this, I had decided on "only 3 things" to master! Eish.... I wonder if there is ANY hope for me....

C.S. Lewis says it best...

I came across this C.S. Lewis quote in a book of Philip Yancey that I read sometime ago and I love it all over again....

I think this will be a suitable contemplative for the next while...                                                                  

His Lordship Lying About...

When did I become "one of those people" who do posts about their dogs?

However....

I did one on the superb self-discipline of the pup... so one on his lorship seems apt.

Therefore,without further ado, this is the way that Jack lies!

I (heart) my boy....

No Time to Waste... I mean, Wait.

I got a Blackberry this week. It pretty and burgandy and matches my laptop! 

It wasn't smooth sailing though. We went in, filled in the paperwork and they told us they were offline and I would have to wait for the next day to get the phone. I was SO disappointed and very IRRITATED. The next day I went in and they said I needed a letter from My Man to collect it since he had added it to his existing contract, and I would have to come back later with a letter. I was ACID since he had been there and arranged this the night before. I phoned him at work and asked him to email them their instructions. I can't say that I was thrilled with my attitude at having to deal with all the 'red tape'. (I did however, apologise later for being somewhat abrupt.)

Anyway - this post is not about the Raspberry but it triggered a thought.

Rewind. Some years ago I was teaching Grade 4 about email. I introduced the lesson by doing a short "one man show".

"I hunted for a piece of writing paper, and a pen, then I sat down and wrote a letter. I searched  for an envelope.  At this point I realised that I didn't remember the persons address so had to go and look it up. I wrote it on the envelope and then realised that I didn't have a stamp. So I put the envelope in my bag.... and walked around a bit. (Days pass.....) Oh look! The letter is still in my bag! I forgot to buy a stamp... let me do it now. Go to the PO buy a stamp and stick it in the postbox. Then it has to be sorted and sent this side, and sorted and delivered on the receivers side."

(You get the picture by now...don't you?)  It could take days, weeks even months to reply to a letter or send one.  Hence the name - snailmail.

After this little piece of theatre I showed them the marvels of email. I opened my email on the projected screen for them to see, added the address that was memorised, typed a mail to My Man, and pressed "Send". Within 2 or 3 minutes I had received a reply from him, and his email went via the UK before it reached him.  "Is this not fantastic?" I asked them. "Yes!" they said. It was awesome!!!

Fast Forward. Those same children that I taught are now about 17 years old and the chances are good that they all have some kind of Smart Phone and can either BBM or Whatsapp and have various Social Media accounts.

Last night I bbm'd My Girl and waited, and waited, and waited...and eventually went to bed.

The point is that going from that generation where email was considered fast - we are now in a generation where email is almost taboo. Its just too slow. We don't want to wait for a response. We want it instantly. Straight away. No waiting.

Now, I love Technology and am in the business of embracing the advances of it, but I can't help wondering if this influences our attitude or our character in some way. How do we respond to people when we are told to wait for something?

Does it affect how we "wait on God".

What do you think?

It's All Distinctly Normal

Ho Hum.

I haven't blogged for a few days and really, weird as this is, since I do talk quite a bit, I have nothing to say. (Which probably means that when I do talk it's all a bunch of rubbish anyway!)

• I mean, you don't want to hear that we lost the first TriNations rugby, do you? No, I didn't think so.
• What about how our dogs have dug up virtually an entire strip of our back lawn? Riveting stuff, isn't it?
• Or that I need to replace the laundry taps? What on earth would you do without that piece of information?

I guess what I am trying to say is that life is normal. I guess after these holidays it just feels more normal than 'normal'.

I am in need of a seriaaaaas partay with lots of friends, very loud music, dancing, laughing and great food & wine! Somewhere. Soon.

So - I will leave you with yet another of my favourite songs, from one of my favourite bands that were out here last year... Enjoy.

(Yes, I am aware that these songs are old - but I like them... I am sure that I will share some of my newer favourites at some point)

Radioactive

I love everything, everything about this ... the band, the song, the video. Love. Love. Love.

Can't wait for their October tour!

(Let it buffer completely first or it will be ruined)