Inspiration today from the Daily Post topic, which is When you’re feeling down, what music makes you happy?
There’s a whole heap of music that makes me happy, and I’m going to share some of my favourites with you and explain why.
First up is a bit of an odd choice, as I wouldn’t normally listen to this band. However, Fleetwood Mac‘s Tusk always gets me bopping. I think it’s a mix of the jungle-esque drum beat and the “UCLA Sucks” Guitar riff. I think it’s hard to feel down when listening to this.
Next up is a style of music that will get be happy all the time. Ska music is so happy and boppy, I love it and it gets me happy all the time. I’ve got two favourite bands, Reel Big Fish and Sounds Like Chicken. I’ve chosen Reel Big Fish’s cover of Take on Me, and Sounds like Chicken’s Take one down
I went to the Metro meeting this evening, and heard our new Divisional Secretary speak. I must say that I feel sorry for the Corps they came from, and the new officers there, as he spoke very well, and seems like a very hard act to follow.
But he started the sermon off with sharing a conversation he had with the Territorial Commander, which when asked how he was settling into the new role he responded saying, “Got all the gear, no idea.”
It got me thinking, how many things do we have all the gear, but really have no idea about?
I’ve got a few things I can think of. My guitar is one. I’ve got an ok acoustic, though I wouldn’t mind upgrading, a decent electric, though I’ve always got my eye on one a bit better. I have the picks, straps, cables and more. I even have a very expensive pedal board that I’m sure I’m not using to it’s full extent. However, when it comes to playing guitar I know very little. Sure I can play chords, but I can’t play any lead lines. I really have no idea.
Golf likewise is something where I have all the gear but no real idea when it comes to it.
The big question is, accepting our areas of no idea about some things, what do we do about it?
What do you have all the gear for, but have no idea about?
A couple of days ago, I got a very sad message. It read: “We have decided that it is time for LADY to be put down. Vet coming on saturday. Will let you knw the time if you would like to be here.” It was from my dad. Lady is our cat. Continue reading “Farewell, Old Friend”→
On Sunday, my officer preached on a passage from Matthew. It was the passage where Peter asks how many times he should forgive someone who sins against him. While the sermon was on forgiveness, there was one insight that really got me thinking in a way I hadn’t thought about it before.
When the master, having already forgiven the servant around 150,000 years wages of debt, found out about the servant not forgiving another servant three months wages, he was furious and threw the man in jail until he could pay back his debt. Jesus says that this is how people who don’t forgive will be treated by God.
It was just a passing reference, but the way my officer explained this made a light click on in my brain. When we have been forgiven and we don’t then forgive we are like the servant. in the same way, if we are a Christian, but decide not to give up our old ways, we are just like the servant who did not forgive.
It’s tempting to live a life of sin, knowing that Jesus will forgive, but this passage seems to say that if you know about salvation but do nothing about it, you are just as bad as someone who never knew. Often is is 1 Thessalonians 5:23 that is used to say that we should keep our lives blameless until Christ returns. However, that seems to be based upon a misinterpretation. Instead, I believe it should be this passage – which some may say holds more weight due to coming from the words of Jesus – should be our encouragement to live loving and blameless lives.
This is an idea that I’ve heard passed around in many different forms during my time in the Salvation Army, so the ideas presented below are in no way new. But a friend and I were chatting one night, and we ended up combining a couple of ideas and having a thought that this might actually work, and work well. So I’m putting it out there, for others to comment, pick flaws, tell me why it would or would not work, so that we can start working towards the final goal. Continue reading “Transforming Soldiership”→
I’ve had a fun couple of days at work so far this week. I’ve been involved in doing tasks and using programs that I really have no experience in using.
Yesterday, I was involved in uploading a Community Service advertisement to be distributed to the various TV stations for Pancake Day. We discovered in the uploading process that we really knew nothing about what was needed to be done. We needed a clapper board. The ad was too long. The audio started in the wrong spot. The first frame marker was too far ahead of the first frame. Through some googling and playing around and trying things out in Premiere Pro, I eventually got it uploaded with everything that I needed. Until I discovered that the exporting process meant that the titles were no longer in the safe area for 4:3. I still have no idea how I should have fixed it, but either way, it’s uploaded, and will be on TV stations in the next couple of days.
Today, with our print designer away, it fell to me to put together the fortnightly printed edition of our newsletter, and also do some work on our quarterly (soon to be bi-monthly) magazine, this time using InDesign – another program that I have very little experience in. Using my trusty friend, Google, I eventually discovered how to do what I needed done, and am now just waiting for the printer to be fixed so that I can figure out how to print it.
Being part of this team means that it doesn’t matter who’s there, if a publication needs to be published, then someone steps up and gets it done, even if they don’t really know what they’re doing.
There are probably a few people you know like this. My mind goes to many people who I know in the Church. They’ll chip in and do stuff, even when they don’t really know how to do it. You learn quickly, and you do what you can, in order to get the job done. I feel more people should be willing to do this – because while you may not know how to do something, you’ll never know how unless you give it a try.
Inspired by Jeff Hester’s blog, I thought I’d write about the lessons that I’ve learned during my blogging every day so far this year.
People judge a post by its title
It’s surprising how important a title is to hook people in. From the last couple of weeks, here’s the dates that have spikes. January 21 – Who I miss and who I’ll miss; January 30 – Looking ahead in Web Design; February 3 – How I lost 6kgs in a month (without paying a cent); February 6 – The show that makes me cry. These are titles that make people think that it’s going to be interesting. I think one of the best post/title combinations I’ve had was one that was titled “Secret Confession” and I wrote the first paragraph as if it was going to be some great big, shameful secret confession. I probably tricked a few people, but I think it was a good hook.
Post regularly, post often
I think even if I wasn’t participating in the Postaday aspect, Posting regularly and often helps in so many ways. You get more visitors to the site (simply through having more posts for people to read), and you also get more experience in writing. While some of my posts haven’t been great reading, the more I write, the better I get at writing and formulating posts that do make good reading.
Link to get links
Since starting this, I have always tried to link to 4 posts participating in Postaday2011 on every post (except for the ones that I’ve had to schedule due to being away). I did this for two reasons: firstly, linking to someone’s post sends them a pingback and they then will come and view my post, generating traffic on my site. Secondly, people who read my post and see the links may click on them to see why I linked to them, giving them some traffic as well. While I haven’t received many links back, there have been a number of people who I have linked to, who have then come to my site and commented on my posts. It’s a great way of generating some community through this venture.
Moving Forward
Having posted 46 (47 posts with this one), I’ve also learnt some things that I’m going to attempt to do in the future. I want to try to get a couple of posts completed as drafts so that I’ve got some there in case I run out of time one day, or have no inspiration. I also want to start writing a couple of longer posts, ones that I can work on over a week or so, to really get some good content on here. I want to get more involved in linking – so that I not only link, but I comment on the people who I link to. Finally, I want to try to end more posts with a question to encourage comments. Seeing stats that people are reading my website are great, but I want to get to know them, and that can happen through comments.
And I’ll start with that now: are you participating in Postaday2011? What have you got out of it so far? What are you going to try to do into the future to make sure you get through the year?
Age has always been a funny thing for me. I’ve always felt a bit older than I actually was. Perhaps it was my time as a preachers kid, when my parents were ministers of a (to be honest) mostly elderly congregation. I would get to know them, and would relate well to them, even though I was only a kid.
Perhaps it’s my group of mates, who were all two years older than me – yet I fitted in with them like I was the same as them (to the point where they often forget that I’m younger than them).
Either way, I think it’s been good for me to be able to relate well with those that are older than me. It opens up opportunities, it helps with work (as I think I’m one of the youngest people in most offices that I work in), and it just works well.
That said, I have enjoyed having younger friends in recent times. Liesl’s friends are all a couple of years younger than me. And while sometimes they want to go clubbing when I’m kind of over that phase of my life, I think that it is good for me (and everyone) to have friends of all ages.
So while I’ve never lied about my age (never even tried to buy alcohol before I was 18 – which made me annoyed when I did and they didn’t check my id), I believe many have thought that I was older than I actually am.
I’m cheating a little bit. I forgot to write my post yesterday, so I’m writing it today, and using the date stamp feature in WordPress to make it appear that I posted it yesterday. But I don’t want to lie to you so I’m telling you the truth now.
Anyway, yesterday I went to the driving range, as I am attempting to get myself better at golf. One of the things I’m going to do is save up and buy myself a set of golf clubs that’s right for my body and swing. Buying a set of golf clubs is quite different to buying anything else. Say I was to buy myself a computer (something else I’m passionate about), I could compare the specs, and figure out what is going to be the best computer for my needs based on value for money. However, with a set of golf clubs, you can’t just choose what set you want, and compare prices across the board.
In the process of getting custom fitted, not only will they figure out what length the shafts need to be, but they will also discover what shape head for the irons you need, what driver will work best for you. They then choose a set based on your budget that will be the best for you.
Now, I’ve got to choose a store to buy my clubs from, as we’ll be telling people to buy me gift vouchers from there to give me some extra money for my clubs, or if it costs less – then that money that I’ve saved can either stay in savings, or go towards some golf lessons. But how do I choose which store to buy from?
There are three stores I’ve been considering – The Golf Box, Drummond Golf, and On Course (which are the pro shops on some courses). I went to Drummond yesterday and asked flat-out why I should buy from them. Drummond Golf seemed to have a really large range, which means that it’s more likely to find the best set of clubs for me. They also have the Drummond Club, which would give me a 5% discount – however it costs $35 to join. So unless I spend $701, I haven’t actually saved anything.
The Golf Box and On Course don’t have as large a range as Drummond, however, they don’t charge you to join their rewards club which also provides discounts (though doesn’t say how much the discounts are).
Club fitting at The Golf Box and Drummond Golf are essentially the same, they’ve got a practice net in the shop, you swing, they analyse your swing and choose the clubs that are best for you. Fitting at ON Course is slightly different. Some stores have the same technology as Golf Box, others use a more traditional method of club fitting. But the big difference is that they take you out on the driving range so that they can not only assess how you swing, but what happens to the ball in flight. This will help ensure I get a set of clubs that will be great for my game.
Finally, my dad pointed out something that On Course provide that the other stores won’t – a relationship. We’ve already got a relationship with the guys at Marangaroo due to playing there regularly. They know the course that I will be playing on. Also, if I’m going to get lessons – they’re the same guys, the same team that fitted me for my clubs can be the same guys that teach me.
So I think I’ve made my decision. If you want to buy me a present for my birthday in April, a Gift Voucher from On Course Golf would be fantastic.
Ben Clapton 