Movember is here!

It has begun!

Friends, countrymen, shave off your beards! Movember is upon us!

According to the Movember website, Movember is a month where proud men shave their faces and begin afresh to sprout their Mo's proudly.


The idea of Movember is to raise awareness of male health issues, and funds raised in NZ will be allocated to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of New Zealand.

Funds will be raised through the end of Movember Gala Party and sponsorships.

Individuals and Teams can sign up.

I haven't signed up yet (and, I may not :P), but I have prepared my Mo canvas for the mighty month of Movember.

'Mo Sistas' are also encouraged to get involved, possibly by sponsoring a Mo Brother or by spreading the Good News of Movember. One will even be crowned Miss Movember!

MOVEMBER - Changing the face of men's health.


Good luck, Mo Speed.

Disclaimer and Zeitgeist 2006

I wouldn't want anybody to read my posts as of late and think that I was going crazy.


Rather, in fact, I think that I am using my current place in time to challenge and consider the various points of view that have been fed to me over the course of my life.

Of course, it helps that I should be studying (that always encourages deep thought on unrelated topics!).

I can't help but think too much, it must be in my genes. I know that Paul has certainly inherited the philosphical bits of the McMahon Y Chromosome, too.

For those of you who weren't around in my personal life much this year (due to Blog-like distances separating us), you wouldn't have known that I broke up with my girlfriend of 11 months in August. I imagine that contributed to some of the questions I had of life & fate, but then again I've always had them.

As you may tell by my last post, I'm acutely aware that people are able to question God. I guess its natural for people to do that when things don't go their way. I'll enjoy my liberties in that area while I still have things to rant about.

But, all in all, I'm grateful for this year. It has been fun. In about 1.5 weeks I will do the last exam for my BSc Psychology - hooray! When I quit CompSci to go to Bible College, I never expected to still graduate from Auckland Uni eventually.

I expect next year to be just as fun as this year was. I'll be (hopefully) doing work as the lackey of an Applied Behavioural Therapist, and I have a couple of papers to finish at Bible College. That should give me time to think, I'm sure. As those of you who are closer to home know, I've been resurrecting old ties with some good friends I haven't seen in a while (and even attending a home group or two with them).

Since this feels like a diary entry, I'll complete the picture (I don't send you all enough emails anyway, so I'm sure this is just as good :P). I recently attended a local church called, 'Church of the Saviour,' with my friend Jasmine (of blog-commenting fame) and I also bumped into somebody else I knew there. They all seem nice, and we managed to laugh our heads off after the evening service. Perhaps it is a well timed happenstance when I feel so out of place at my old church now.

I'll also be going to SLC (Student Leadership Conference, the kind of Conferences where I met Chez) in Wellington (or thereabouts) with some buddies from EU after exams are all over. That should be fun, challenging, and a great time of mucking around like lunatics.

Oh, and singing.Exams are almost upon me, I shall sleep.

Have a great week.
[How did I make those South Parkesque versions of me? From here]

Bible Verses for Angry People

Thankfully, the Bible isn't just for happy clappy people:



Habakkuk Chapter 1 verses 2-3 says,

2How long, O LORD, will I call for help,
And You will not hear?
I cry out to You, "Violence!"
Yet You do not save.
3Why do You make me see iniquity,
And cause me to look on wickedness?
Yes, destruction and violence are before me;
Strife exists and contention arises.

Yeah, you tell 'em Habs. What's with that? Where IS God when we need Them*?

Psalm Chapter 13 verses 1-2 says,

1How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever?
How long will You hide Your face from me?
2How long shall I take counsel in my soul,
Having sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long will my enemy be exalted over me?

Yeah! Go King David, speak your mind, brother! So much for the ol' promises, huh? Meh, being sad sucks.

Psalm Chapter 22, Verses 1-2 says,

1My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?
Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning.
2O my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer;
And by night, but I have no rest.

Good question, 'why?'
Uh oh, we seem to have a pattern here. This problem seems so endemic that even Jesus has the same issue, here.

Oh well, at least it means we're all a bit Christ-like sometimes, only we happen to feel like rubbish at the time. Sweet irony.

All those little calendars with cute Psalms are nice and everything, but isn't it nice to read about people with real life problems every now and again?

Now all I need to figure out is how they got an answer.

Ground Control to Major Tom...?

Over and out.


p.s. I also love the way the Disciples were such 'special people' sometimes too:

Like then, then, then, then, then, then, then, and possibly also then.


*'Them' - the best english slang I have found for God. Them can denote a single gender-nonspecific friend, and also a plural. Seems to capture male-femaleness and trinity nicely, in my book. I have a problem saying Him all the time, like God is a big white-robed Santa Claus on a cloud.

Don't fight wars, invade Titans

Being the dedicated, fun-loving Pacifist that I am, I generally enjoy playing FPS (first-person shooter) games.

Yes, since Wolf 3D there has only been up... Doom, Quake, Doom II, Quake 2 & 3, Tribes 2...

Now of course computer games have graduated to propaganda-level quality, such as the fantastic suck-you-in soldier-simulation, America's Army.

And now, ladies and gents, I bring you: Battlefield 2142.

(click for better detail, and the original FUNNY website)

In the far future, there is only war. With spawnpoints. And no actual dying.

The irksome question

I have a question...

Why can people think of things they would do if they were God?

I mean, if God is of the calibre that the Bible suggests, presumably that would mean we should not be able to even *imagine* anything better.

Such as less children dying, less poor starving, and more people happy.

I guess its a twist on the 'problem of evil' vs. an omnipotent good deity.


It seems to suggest that either God doesn't exist, God isn't the way we think, or that this world is pretty much the best it can get.

Or I've forgotten something.

Still, its a very difficult issue to think my way around. Any suggestions?

Jesus was a Pentecostal?

I've been thinking a lot lately about how the Bible says that God relates to us.

Some scripture that I came across was this: (from 1 Corinthians, chapter 2)

1And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.

2For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.

3I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling,

4and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,

5so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.

That makes me think that Christians shouldn't have a life less ordinary, if the faith they proclaim is true. It makes me think that power should accompany their words.

That makes me think about Pentecostals, with their emphasis on 'power' and the Spirit.
For all of their faults, it makes me think they have got something right.

At least if you live so boldly, even should you fail you go out with a bang.

The Prodigal Son

Hello, Father, I'm back!

I didn't mean to be away for so long.

You probably hate me by now, I didn't contact you while I was away because I didn't like the thought of your reaction!

Hello?

Oh well, it's probably best you aren't in here. We didn't exactly leave on good terms.
I wonder what everyone else will think. They've probably been telling you I'm no good too, doing what I did. 'You're better off without him,' yeah, I can imagine.

I wonder where you've gone. It would be good to see you again... well, maybe.

I could always just leave again, make sure that everything in here is just as I found it.

But it is pretty cold out there, and the fire crackling away in the hearth here is really good.

I can't decide, maybe I'll just sit here a while and wait for you.