Category: Life

In Memoriam: Who I miss and who I’ll miss

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life
Image of Alan Alda taken at the World Science ...
I think I will miss this actor the most. (Image via Wikipedia)

I’m dispensing with today’s two Daily Post Prompts because the first one is similar to one I’ve already written on in this Challenge, and I’m not particularly interested in the second. So I popped into Plinky to take a look at some of their prompts, and one caught my eye: Which pop culture icon’s unexpected death affected you the most? Now, not many stars deaths have affected me badly, however, I expect to have some more affect me in the next few years.

See, up until now, most star deaths have been people who I didn’t know. I hadn’t seen their movies, or haven’t listened to their music. However, stars such as Alan Alda, whom I love from Hawkeye in M*A*S*H, is getting older. Now I know that I cried when I watched episodes in M*A*S*H when Radar left, or when Henry left. How will I be when they leave for good?

Stars from Star Trek I’m sure will bring similar reactions. And more. So while in this past year we have lost many great actors, such as Leslie Nielsen, and pop culture icon Gary Coleman, I know that one day, we will lose the actors that mean so much to my generation, and on that day we shall remember them.

Postaday2011 links

What’s the most important thing I’ve been putting off?

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life

This post apparently… That was today’s Postaday2011 topic. What’s the most important thing I’ve been putting off? Why haven’t I done it, and what do I need to do to make it happen.

I struggled to think of what to write all day. It’s tough. There’s some things that I’ve been putting off that are quite personal, and shouldn’t be shared on here. There are other things that are so very mundane, such as mopping the floor (I might get to it tomorrow on my day off) that don’t really make good reading on a blog.

So what have I been putting off? There’s one task at my job that I was given in my first week. I was to go and talk to all the staff about how they used the database, and how it could be made better. I’ve been in my job over 6 months, and I still haven’t done it. At my three-month review (which really happened at the end of 6 months), I highlighted this as something I hadn’t done, as did my manager. During my reflection in preparation of the review, I thought about why I hadn’t done it.

At first, it was because I was shy. I didn’t know everyone. I didn’t know what everyone did. I didn’t know what sort of questions to be asking. So I put it off. A while later, we had a work experience person who came to our unit, and I was asked to show her around. I knew all bar one or two people who I hadn’t had much to do with. So when I came to doing my reflection, I realised that I did know everyone, I just hadn’t realised it.

So I said in my review that when I got back from holidays, I’d get around to doing it. I still haven’t done it yet, because I came back and I’ve been in full swing in getting the directory ready. So what’s holding me back now? Time. Soon I’ll have some, and I’ll get around and do it. Though it probably won’t be for a couple of weeks yet. But soon I’ll get back on track.

Postaday2011 links

Good thing about posting later in the day is that I get to see some blogs I don’t normally see posts of. So make sure you check them out, there’s some good posts there.

Floody Brave!

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life

 

Water in the Loddon River has risen higher than the level levees in Kerang were designed to cope with. (ABC Local : Deborah O'Callaghan)

There have been some awful stories coming out of Queensland and Victoria. Heart-wrenching stories. Yet through all the stress and heartbreak, there are stories of incredible heroism and bravery. Like Jordan Rice, who pushed his brother into the arms of SES rescuers, telling them to save him first, only for him to be washed away by the flood waters before they could return to rescue him.

 

Or the town of Warracknabeal in Victoria, who upon hearing that the flood was headed their way, all banded together and built a makeshift levee, to help protect the town. They then proceeded to make repairs during the night, and pump water from overflowed drains back into the river. Their efforts will most likely save a great number of homes that would have been inundated by the floods. At a time when so many people could have been forgiven for packing up as much as they could and running – having seen the terrible devastating effects of the floods in Queensland, this town showed their brave side, took on the flood and saved homes.

I’m sure there will be many more stories of bravery coming out of these floods as we get into the recovery effort. The great thing about Australia is that when people are in need, we band together and help out where we can.

Postaday2011 links

God’s Love

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, faith, Life

God is patient, God is kind. God does not envy, God does not boast, God is not proud. God does not dishonour others, God is not self-seeking, God is not easily angered, God keeps no record of wrongs. God does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. God always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. God never fails.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8a (NIV, Paraphrased by me)

I love this passage, especially with this paraphrasing. I preached on this passage last year at a youth service. The basic premise of it was that God is Love, and when we look at the passage above in that light, we see what God’s love for us is like. God is patient – he will wait our entire lives if necessary to share in the joy of us accepting him as our Lord. God always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. But the most hope-filled verse comes right at the end: God never fails.

When you trust in God, and fully rely on God, how can you not be full of hope, because you believe, just like I do, that God never fails. He can do the impossible, and the improbable, and the unexpected. How can anyone be filled with anything other than hope when they know that?

Postaday2011 links

An interventionist God?

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life

The topic from The Daily Post today is a tough one. Do you believe everything happens for a reason? Why or why not? It’s a tough topic to look at, as a Christian.

Photo by Oladimeji Ajegbile on Pexels.com

See, as Christians, we believe that we have free will – God gave us free will, which led to the fall of man, and the need for Jesus to come to forgive all our sins. Yet, God is all-knowing, and all-powerful, and knows what we are thinking before we even think it. So does that change things, for although we have free will, God knows what we’re going to do before we do it.

There are also Christians who believe that God is an interventionist God – basically meaning he is still active and changing things in the world, and others who don’t. I tend to lean towards the non-interventionist God in a way, believing that he’s still active in our lives, but not controlling such things as the weather. This would not sit comfortably with those Christians who believe that the floods in Queensland were a message from God.

So, do things happen for a reason? Yes and no. Some things happen because we cause them – cause and effect. I know that if I pour a beer over someone, I’m likely to get punched in the face. Or if I help someone out who’s struggling with something, I’m likely to get warm fuzzies. However, somethings happen because it’s the way the world is designed, and there’s nothing we can do about it. We can’t stop the wind blowing, the rain raining, or the sun shining (although sometimes I wish its UV was a little less potent to my skin). What we can do is control how we react to these situations. Do we want to use natural disasters as an excuse to judge people, or do we want to use them as a catalyst to spark Christian action, helping those we do not know?

Postaday2011 links

Marriage advice from women

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life

Little Black Dress
A Little black dress never goes astray (Image by dragon762w (trying to catch up) via Flickr)

At our engagement party, we had two sheets, for marriage advice from men and women. I’m not certain where the advice from men went (maybe my wife hid it… just kidding), but here’s the advice we received from women.

  • The wife is ALWAYS right.
    • Always remind him of that ^^^
  • Give him breakfast in bed
  • Never use sex as a bargaining tool.
  • Once you got him he ain’t gonna change bad habits… or good ones either… we hope
  • Don’t touch the tool box
  • A LBD (Little black dress) never goes astray
  • The laundry basket is where the dirty clothes go. The wardrobe is where the clothes go. Don’t mix ’em up!
  • Forgive MUCH and never go to bed angry
  • Don’t listen to him. Women are right.
  • Utility bills go in his name. Credit cards go in hers.
  • Visa cards are a girls best friend but not when you have to pay for them so get him to do it!! Every girl needs retail therapy.
  • Don’t let your husband touch a tool box
  • Remember to treat the extreme highs & lows of marriage with the attitude of “it will pass” and love bears all things.

Postaday2011 links

Golf weeks 4 and 5

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life

Dolder driving range on Adlisberg in Zürich (S...
Image via Wikipedia

I forgot to write last week so I’m including it in this weeks post. I went to Hamersley Golf course and played 9 holes with my dad and uncle david (on my wife’s side – I have to say that because I also have an Uncle David on both my mum and my dad’s side). I shot a bit better than my last round – if you remember while I 2-putted every hole at Marangaroo, I didn’t hit a fairway off the tee. This round, I hit one third of them, a slight improvement, which saw me saving 4 strokes on my previous round, scoring 62. Consistency is still the big issue, sometimes I’ll hit it straight, other times it’s horrible. Hit a great drive on the 8th, however I pushed it and it ended up landing on the edge of the driving range. Had a shocker on the 9th, after hitting it behind the fence on the driving range (drop for recovery, no penalty), I missed the green, but shot a beautiful lob wedge at full swing to land just shy of the hole – an easy 1 putt to finish.

So that was last week. This week, I’m back at Wembley, on the driving range. One of the things I wanted to work on last week was my 3 iron from the fairway. There was a par 5 at Hamersley that while all my shots we straight, they had no distance on them. Ended up taking 3 or 4 3-iron shots before I was in range to use my 5-iron. So today I made sure to hit a good number of strokes from the grass with my 3 and 5 irons, and my 5 wood. They weren’t great, but there were a few good ones in there, so if I can just remember what I did for those when I get out on the course next week, I’ll hopefully be doing a bit better, and be able to save a few more shots.

Next week, I’m playing a round at Embleton golf course, a tight little 9 hole course of par 3’s and 4’s. Because of this, it has a par score of 32, as opposed to the usual 36. So for me to improve my score, I’m going to go up against my par score from Hamersley – plus 26, or a stroke score of 58. Embleton is a very different course than Hamersley or Marangaroo – no bush to speak of, the rough is actually very clear, so there shouldn’t be any lost balls… I hope…

Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

Time Travel

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life

Example of a music manuscript: Johann Sebastia...
Image via Wikipedia

1720, Köthen. Johan Sebastian Bach has just completed his latest composition, Sei Solo – a violino senza Basso accompagnato, or as they are more commonly known, Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for solo Violin. Out of all the dates, all the remarkable events, this is where I would choose to spend an hour if I could time travel. To hear Bach himself play the second partita in D minor in the cathedral where he worked, to hear the sound that Bach would have made, and to ask him about the Ciaconna.

For while there are other important moments throughout history that I would love to visit, there has been no other piece that has made such a significant impact on my life. On their own, each movement is incredible. As a sonata or Partita, it is an excellent example of violin writing. As a set, it is a masterpiece.

I’m going to leave it at that, and while there’s no videos of Bach playing (because it was a good couple of hundred years before even Audio recording was a possibility), I’m going to leave you with one of my favourite violinists, Yehudi Menuhin, playing the Ciaconna (an exceprt, because the entire piece is longer than 10 minutes, and I couldn’t find the second half).

Postaday2011 links

Back to the beginning

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life

My first post on this blog was way back in March, 2007, and it was entitled The Importance of Something Different, but I have a feeling that I had some posts created a bit earlier than that. Hmm…

My Website first appeared in June 2004, and was an HTML effort promoting me as a musician. It went through a few different redesigns, and it was the design in 2007 that introduced a blog. At that point, I was running WordPress on a spare computer at home, using it as a web server. I’ve since moved onto the WordPress.com servers where you view my site now.

I think part of the reason I started building my website was because I wanted a place where I could try out the HTML techniques that I was interested in learning. Plus I was able to share some feelings of what I was going through at the time, and share interesting videos.

I’m a bit sad that I’ve lost many of the posts from my old blog. I don’t know what happened to them, or remember what I didn’t do in transitioning over to this blog. But Thanks to the WayBack Machine, I’ve found my first post. Here it is, titled “Out into the wide blue yonder”:

Well… not quite yet. Though I’m half way there. I’m on my way but I haven’t started yet.

I’ve completed one course… and Advanced Diploma of Performing Arts, and am now just commencing a Bachelor of Music. I’m still a fair way off a career… but it’s kinda scary that I’m only 18 months from being outside of the University arena.

Current Goal: Become an orchestral violinist.

Other possibilities: Instrumental teacher, Musicologist, Music Critic

Pathways: Practice like hell, see what my new teacher can do for me. Get in as much experience in orchestras as possible, and learn as many orchestral parts as possible. Pick up new students to supplement income and pay for flights for auditions.

It’s nice to have something to aim for. For the past few weeks, my interest has been waning a little, but I’ve got my first lesson with my new teacher on Tuesday. I’m looking forward to it – I’m looking forward to seeing what she can do with me, and what I can do with her.

Well, that’s a rather odd Intro for where this blog is going. It’s basically going to be my forum for ideas about my career progress, interesting tidbits I pick up. I’ll also be adding in some Concert Reviews, and Classical Music news.

Maybe I’ll go through and post some interesting posts that didn’t make it through…

Postaday2011 links

2011 – ever looking forward

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life

I’m really excited about this year. There are lots of exciting things happening in my life. Lots of things that my wife and I have planned. For example, we have a couple of holidays that we’re looking forward to. We’re going to go to Margaret River for a weekend to see Michael Bublé, and we’re looking to go to Melbourne to stay for a week. I’m looking forward to visiting Kalgoorlie for the first time later this month – though I wish I had booked a bit of extra time there so that I could play a round on the Kalgoorlie Golf Course.

Speaking of which, I’m looking forward to playing lots of Golf this year. I’m planning on going every fortnight, and really hoping to get my round scores down. Start shooting more pars and bogies than double bogies and above. I’m also looking forward to getting my weight “below the line” – get down into the “ideal” BMI range.

I’m looking forward to some pretty significant achievements at work – putting together the directory for the Uniting Church for one thing, and developing a few new themes for the congregational website.

I’m also looking forward to progressing down the path towards becoming a Salvation Army officer, and exploring that calling deeper.

And finally, but most importantly, I’m really looking forward to celebrating my first anniversary with my wife. Definitely going to do something super special for that.

What are you looking forward to this year?

Postaday2011 links