Blog archive February 2003
26th February 2003
Spent this evening
a] working out the tables and making the pieces in Photoshop for the new Small Fire site with improved [i hope] photo management
b] catching up on Daniel's blog, in particular pursuing a thread on MBTI I spotted a while back but didn't follow up.
Daniel blogs so much things vanish into the archives quickly. He blogs so much it scares me and I often can't face looking [which makes it worse]. Partly it makes me feel like he is having all my Having A Life while I am having all his Not Having A Life [Steve's entry for today: 'worked late. got home exhausted and hungry. flopped. answered emails. went to bed". repeat ad nauseam].
But it's also just me being an introvert. When I get home from work I can only handle communication in small manageable doses. Equally i don't want to write loads, which has crippled this blog. What I mostly want to do to restore my soul is play wordlessly with colours and images. Hence the web redesigns which are as much therapeutic exercises in colour as anything else. If I could blog using colours not words I would blog more. In fact, given how I've set this thing up, I could just do that. Hmmm... if it would make me happier... it would, at least, be an exercise [though an inscrutable one] in emotional diary-keeping...
Posted by Steve at 11.15pm
24th February 2003
So why do priests have to be in the same room as the sacrament they're consecrating? do they have to be? how far away can they be? what if they say the words of consecration over a phone someone's holding over the bread and wine? is the sacrament valid? communion could happen anywhere - just ring a number and someone will speak the words of consecration. there could be a call centre of priests with lines manned 24/7.
or the priest could be present on a video link. would this be valid? what if there were lots of priests linked in from all over the world, saying a word each? still valid? the theology of consecration was worked out before media made telepresence possible. time to rethink?
Posted by Steve at 11.58pm
24th February 2003
Coming soon to your TV:
23 - Jack Bauer struggles to save the world on the day the clocks go forward
Posted by Steve at 11.53pm
23rd February 2003
There's a few new things in Wrandom writings - I've been going through my files and finding various pieces that never found a home - columns that never got published because something else topical came along, or they didn't fit the outlets I had at the time. More to come as I tidy them up.
Posted by Steve at 11.30pm
23rd February 2003
Record store epiphany:
that moment of community with people you have never met, standing in front of the section of the racks that you recognise as your own.
Posted by Steve at 11pm
23rd February 2003
Lately I've been listening to a lot of 70s David Bowie records. This is partly because the CDs were going cheap [I have the vinyl from first time around]. But much of what Bowie was writing in the late 70s seems pertinent again in today's climate of war - Heroes obviously, but such things as 'Fantastic Voyage' from 'Lodger':
In the event that this fantastic voyage
should turn to erosion and we never get old
remember it's true,
dignity is valuable, but our lives are valuable too.
we're learning to live with somebody's depression
and I don't want to live with somebody's depression
we'll get by I suppose
[it's a very modern world]
but nobody's perfect
[it's a moving world]
but that's no reason
[shoot some of those missiles]
think of us as fatherless scum
it won't be forgotten
cos we'll never say anything nice again, will we?
and the wrong words make you listen, in this criminal world
remember it's true
a loyalty is valuable, but our lives are valuable too
we're learning to live with somebody's depression
and I don't want to live with somebody's depression
we'll get by I suppose
[but any sudden movement]
and I've got to write it down
[they wipe out an entire race]
and I've got to write it down
[but I'm still getting educated]
and I've got to write it down
and it won't be forgotten
cos I'll never say anything nice again, how can I?
Posted by Steve at 7.15pm
23rd February 2003
New proverb:
The falling sock makes no sound
Posted by Steve at 7pm
18th February 2003
DoggerTM! Woof woof woof woof woof woof woof
the blog with *smells*
Posted by Steve at 11.25pm
18th February 2003
Google's purchase of Pyra has led to some amusing copy in the newspaper as they try to explain what blogs are to their more elderly or less net-conscious readers. Apparently the merger will take blogging into the mainstream beyond the net glitterati like us. C'mon, even pets have blogs nowadays... actually somebody is probably making money out of that in California right now.
Posted by Steve at 10.20pm
16th February 2003
Was watching a documentary about the Hajj - the pilgrimage to Mecca and its environs that Muslims are enjoined to make once in their lifetimes. This isn't something that has been seen much [if at all] on TV before, since the presence of non-Muslims is forbidden, thus ruling out most of the Western world's camera crews. So I watched it to fill a gap in my education. The cameras followed various English-speaking Muslims through their pilgrimage, showing the processes and their reactions. I took away several things:
1. The power of pilgrimage as a tool of spiritual change - in terms of doing something, living out something, rather than just reading about it or talking about it;
2. The power of environment - how a change of spiritual and personal perspective can come from a change in surroundings, from the city to the desert, from being alone in one's beliefs to being together with other believers;
3. Perhaps the most powerful thing was seeing a young man find a sense of identity and personhood that no longer depended on material goods or his job/place in society. His sense of freedom was tangible - you could almost see the shackles of society drop from him. His joy and excitement was amazing to watch, and I wondered if this was what heaven would be like - if it is extraordinary to see one person unbound in this way, what would it be like to see millions of people rejoicing in the same way?
I'm describing this badly - things easier felt or seen than written about. But I ponder the lessons for Christian practice. My own deepest, most transformative God-moments come out of places or actions - this site is pretty much a hymn to that. How do we do pilgrimage now?
Posted by Steve at 11.10pm
16th February 2003
Some good photos from the Landing Place's worship parties. Their art studio looks like a pretty nice space in which to do alt worship stuff. Most of us spend too much time and effort turning bland church halls or pew-filled churches into inviting spaces, and then back again for 'normal' church. If we could leave the setup in place we could be so much more creative and less tired.
Posted by Steve at 11.10pm
16th February 2003
Posted by Steve at 1.35am
16th February 2003
This is better, no?
I didn't make the anti-war demo. I was just too tired after a late night work session on Thursday, and slept till midday. [Which is what Hakim Bey was saying about the cosmic evil of busyness.] Can't help thinking that the slogan 'Not in my name' should be rendered 'Over my dead body' :)
Posted by Steve at 12.20am
9th February 2003
Well I was going to add a couple more pages at least this weekend, but after updating the Labyrinth site and dealing with various emails I managed to add one piece of furniture which I had to draw twice. I was supposed to change the look of this blog too. Now it's time for bed so I can go to work in the morning. like I said, I need an extra day at the weekend.
Posted by Steve at 11.25pm
5th February 2003
Well I was going to spend this evening doing emails [including to you mr cloudburst] and writing by hand on paper to relatives. But then Jonny came home brandishing a copy of the new book 'Alternative Worship' which he and Doug Gay have been compiling for the last two years, and Jen got out a bottle of champagne, and the rest of the evening was lost in discussing Jonny's Myers-Briggs test results.
Back to the book. 'Alternative Worship' [a bit of a pun on the Church of England's standard liturgy book 'Common Worship'] consists of material for use in worship, given by a whole variety of alt w groups and authors [including me], and there's also a great CD-ROM put together by Jenny Brown of Vaux. The book isn't available to the general public until March 21st - probably to give the publisher [SPCK] time to manufacture and distribute and get review copies to magazines etc. But I hope when it comes out you'll all be buying a copy. This is the first time that a broad selection of the worship material circulating inside the alt w movement has been made available to those outside, and I think it might have considerable impact and perhaps change the way alt w is perceived. Not least because the quality of the stuff is stunning. No more loose criticism about "alternative worship has no theology" or "alt worship is just about 'if it feels good do it'".
Posted by Steve at 11.35pm
4th February 2003
Tap tap tap. It's the empty space that makes a blog useful.
Posted by Steve at 1.05am
4th February 2003
[Zen blog - what is the sound of one hand blogging?]
Posted by Steve at 12.35am
4th February 2003
Posted by Steve at 12.35am
4th February 2003
Well tonight I was going to write loads, but I got distracted by TV. Maybe this could be a blog about failing to blog. A blog of blanks that require your imagination to complete. A blog into which you can project your wildest fantasies. A blog that can be whatever you want it to be. [Sorry, the TV diet is showing]
Posted by Steve at 12.35am
2nd February 2003
This seems as good a moment as any to start a blog, given the attention this site's been getting over the last week or so. I just added three new pages in the Third Place section, with more to follow shortly.
But bedtime approaches. I hate these short weekends of only two days. Three are needed - one for catching up on sleep, one for household chores, and one to do something creative or relax.
Posted by Steve at 10.25pm
