I need…

…a new blog. This one is not very beautiful or functional. *sigh*Suggestions? 

No wonder my last post is complikate[d]

Apparently I’m incomprehensible!

What Ancient Language Are You?

Your Score: Linear B

You scored

You are Linear B. Even those who can follow you think you’re all Greek to them. Which, after all, is true – Linear B being the first known text for written Greek. To most people, you’re incomprehensible. But what do you care? You’re tough, hard, long-enduring and have greater nobility than most. Naturally, you don’t admit to borrowing extensively from your brother Linear A.

Link: The Which Ancient Language Are You Test written by imipak

But you guys understand me, right?

So, which ancient language are you?

HT dekker

Call off the search, I’m here.

I have been gone too long. Sorry. I didn’t mean to cause alarm. Just busy. You know how it goes. Oh, and yeah, we’ve had a bit of a virus going around but it’s not fun to speak of such things. In fact I couldn’t have spoken of such things had I wanted to: I lost my voice for about a week and somehow felt like the loss of my audible voice affected my written voice too, so, strangely, I couldn’t post in that time either. I think I just enjoyed the enforced silence. It was nice to be quiet. Oh, and my internet connection went down – well my wireless network anyway – for about a week. Thus the longer silence.

But, it’s back now and so am I,  as briefly as it may be. Exams need marking, reports are to be written, assessments to be set, about 14 novels to read – I have two classes doing book boxes at the moment so I have sooooo many novels to read – and I have a little sick boy waking up at all hours. Last week was a shocker. A complete shocker for so many reasons. There were glimpses of gold in amidst the rubble though and I’d prefer to post about these. So, with that said, I’m abandoning this update on the doom and gloom and will be back shortly with news of a happier kind.

How have you all been in my absence?

has

my header gone?

I want quality spam!

Why do all these spam people think I would like a replica rolex watch? Why do they think that if they send me 57 messages a day that will convince me? Why doesn’t anyone ever send any quality spam? Like spam that tells you where to get a nice cheap pair of Peter Alexander Pjs, or good books at bargain prices, or cheap opera or theatre tickets. That would be the kind of spam I’d like to receive.

I wonder if anyone sends Bible spam…

Why can’t people use spam for good instead of evil?

the beauty of cartography

More delicate than the historians’ are the map-makers’ colours.
Elizabeth Bishop 1911–79
‘The Map’ (1946)

While it has been argued that mapping is an act and representation of savage imperialism, and to a great extent I agree, I have always been drawn to the beauty of maps.

When I was a little Miss I loved to look at maps. I remember lying on the floor looking at maps with a friend of mine for hours. I loved the aesthetics of the maps and he loved the facts. While I was studying every colour and texture he was memorising the capital cities, populations and flags of most countries. People thought us strange but we didn’t care for the beauty of maps was ours and we hardly wanted to share it.

Today I am a little more mature, I’m willing to share, and I have discovered a gorgeous map blog that I would like to share with all of you. It’s called Strange Maps but I think it not strange, I think it beautiful. The maps on this site support the theory that cartography is an expression and representation of political dominance and control. A fact I find quite intriguing. To think that the manipulation of a representation of the landscape actually has an effect on the landscape of human history, human identity and world relations is quite amazing. The maps here are loaded with symbolic significance. They are powerful statements of the times and people who created them. And they are beautiful. Check it out.

Wow! Look @ this…

I am number 46 on the top 100 Growing Blogs list – you have to scroll a long way down to find me – and the only way I would have known is because they linked to me. I wonder what it all means…

I’m sure I only have about 13 readers.

the reward is in the task

…is what I’ve been told my whole schooling life. The reward is in doing a task and doing it well as if serving the Lord not men.

I went to a school in which awards, rewards, merit and demerit certificates were not given. We did not have school captains or prefects. We were not encouraged to compete with other students – unless competition was intrinsic to the task, such as it is in playing sport. We were not rewarded for achieving or performing well.

The rationale behind this was that all our gifts and abilities come from God and our purpose in using them should be to glorify Him. Also our motivation in doing things should be to serve and become more like Christ. Jesus is our motivation and serving and becoming like Him is our reward. As such the reward is in the task.

It was also argued that rewards could not be justified from a Biblical perspective. In God’s treatment of us we never get what we deserve. We always get far more than that. Far, far more. We ignore, despise, reject and scorn God by trying to live life our own way and He gives us a pardon that costs us nothing and Him everything! Even when we do try to please Him the Bible says that all our righteous acts are as filthy rags. Yet we are constantly given more grace, more love, more peace, more life, more joy.

Knowing that this was how I was taught for 13 years will help you understand the angst I felt at being given a ‘Thinking Blogger Award‘ by Rebecca. I don’t think I’ve ever received an award before – even when my professor wanted to nominate me for one at uni he rather amusingly missed the deadline – so I have never had to face this dilemma before. I have never had to ask myself, do I accept an award knowing that I don’t believe in them? or do I turn an award down on principle and shun the generosity of my awarder? No. I can’t. I don’t think I can do either.

I was reflecting on the content of my blog the other day, before the award was given, and I was thinking about how little I really post of any intellectual or spiritual quality. My blog is a place where I post my random, often angst ridden, and almost always trivial thoughts. The time I spend composing posts is minimal. The effort I actually apply in trying to write beautifully, reflectively and with quality is so minimal I think my name a joke. I considered stepping up the quality and content of my blog but dismissed the thought realising the commitment needed to turn this blog into one of quality was way beyond that which I am willing to invest. Sad really. I chose mediocrity.

In light of this, Rebecca’s award is truly undeserved- especially as it has been given to me by her; she received the award four times over and would be so worthy of a fifth nomination! even her post was metacognitive! – truly gracious and truly an example of how God treats me – with undeserved goodness & generosity. With grace. For this I am thankful and would like to say “thank you, Rebecca!”

Thank you for recognising the moments – as brief as they are – when I do actually think before I post. Thank you for generously giving me an award I don’t feel I deserve. And thank you mostly for reminding me that I should be doing all I can to use my gifts and abilities to serve God in everything I do, for the reward is in the task – it is in getting to know other bloggers with a heart for Christ and Christ-likeness, it is in learning more about God through them, and it is in becoming Christ-like in everything, even blogging.

Thanks to you for reminding me of all this, Rebecca! I will gladly accept your award as a token and reminder of grace! And I will graciously pass the baton on to 5 more thinking bloggers to do with as they please.

To the Dekker’s, John and Radagast – you often make my head hurt with all your thinking. That deserves an award.

To ish – your poetic word play always gets me thinking in new and creative ways about faith, life, the universe and digging holes. Thank you!

To Island Sparrow – your reflections on life are always so thought provoking, inspiring and uplifting. Thank you.

To Candy – you make me think often by being real about your life and faith both on your blog and via email. This has saved me from making some foolish decisions and is worth much more than a Thinking Blogger Award, so please accept this a a token.

And in the true spirit of unbounded grace I am exceding the 5 person limit – ’cause God always give us more than we are entitled to – in order to nominate more people:

Paul (probably – maybe liz) – if you want to think about the God delusion,who invented paediatrics, the meaning of U2 lyrics, Schaeffer, Christians and slavery, global warming and a plethora of other topics often presented from a Christian perspective with keen scientific insight, then Paul’s your man. He’s a thinker.

Lastly, but by no baffling means least, Andrew of A. Stark Place and A. Stark Magazine. I don’t think he stops thinking – ever. The best thing about Andrew’s thinking is that he thinks in often obscure and extremely funny ways which is just plain brilliant. For this I award and thank him.

Phew! That task was rewarding. I think I’m done.

Oh, apparently there is a button thingy you can put on your blog if you want to. I’ll put it in the comments for you to pick up if you wish.

Sorry if you made a comment while I was away that did not get posted. My spam filter catches more than it should and I haven’t figured out how to change the settings yet. If I’m around I’m able to override it but alas this was not the case last week.

So, if your comments was one of those deleted by anti-spam software, I’m sorry!

Moving in

Thanks for following me over. Welcome to my new home.