They were at the St Marylebone Church and Health Centre
Oops!
Friday, December 17, 2004
st marylebone church & healing centre
We were carolling on Tuesday, when we saw these signs.
They were at the St Marylebone Church and Health Centre
Oops!
They were at the St Marylebone Church and Health Centre
Oops!
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
good intermingling skills
I was back in the old Chelmsford a couple of time this weekend, and it was nice.
Saturday night was the Helen Rollason thingy, with (Sh)enfield (or is that Shinfield?) Band and Chelmsford Songsters. One group were good, the other not so.
Sunday was a day at the Rink then back to Chelmsford for their Civic Carols and Cell Group.
It was at Cell group that we chatted for a bit, Dave poured drink over AJ and we tried to work out if "intermingling" was a word...
It is!
Tim
Saturday night was the Helen Rollason thingy, with (Sh)enfield (or is that Shinfield?) Band and Chelmsford Songsters. One group were good, the other not so.
Sunday was a day at the Rink then back to Chelmsford for their Civic Carols and Cell Group.
It was at Cell group that we chatted for a bit, Dave poured drink over AJ and we tried to work out if "intermingling" was a word...
It is!
Tim
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Sunday, December 05, 2004
the carolling season
Tis the season to be jolly, or so the song says!
It is of course the time for carolling too.
Since my band was disbanded, it fell upon me to be the duty 2nd horn player for the Regent Hall YP Band.
Being in the YP band only assures one thing.
We play proper carols. Proper carols such as "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town", "When A Child Is Born" and "The Snow Waltz".
We also managed to play "O Holy Night" and "Praise Ye The Lord", a feat not achieved by any other band.
A big well done to the publishers of the "Christmas Praise" books, as they actually incluse a timpani part! Whoopee doo!
Timbo
It is of course the time for carolling too.
Since my band was disbanded, it fell upon me to be the duty 2nd horn player for the Regent Hall YP Band.
Being in the YP band only assures one thing.
We play proper carols. Proper carols such as "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town", "When A Child Is Born" and "The Snow Waltz".
We also managed to play "O Holy Night" and "Praise Ye The Lord", a feat not achieved by any other band.
A big well done to the publishers of the "Christmas Praise" books, as they actually incluse a timpani part! Whoopee doo!
Timbo
Saturday, December 04, 2004
uniformed pom!
In my past few blogs, I have been raving about the wonders of modern technology.
An important part of my, and of most of the nation's, daily baggage is my mobile phone. As well as being a telecommunications device, mine happens to be equipped with a camera!
This camera has seen some interesting sights in recent days. The photos of my bruised thumb and the offending (or is that offensive?) Toblerone came from my camera phone, as did these:-
This from a man who wore an Army t-shirt and shorts on my first Sunday at the Rink!
Those crazy Australians!
Tim Mag
An important part of my, and of most of the nation's, daily baggage is my mobile phone. As well as being a telecommunications device, mine happens to be equipped with a camera!
This camera has seen some interesting sights in recent days. The photos of my bruised thumb and the offending (or is that offensive?) Toblerone came from my camera phone, as did these:-
This from a man who wore an Army t-shirt and shorts on my first Sunday at the Rink!
Those crazy Australians!
Tim Mag
the gay-ming world
Further to my earlier blog, I am writing to you on my laptop from in, not on, my bed.
Here is an article I found and liked...
By all accounts, The Sims is the most successful computer game on Earth. It's a game even non-gamers have heard of, and it's as addictive in its own way as cybersex and Doritos. I even spent a couple of months playing The Sims long-distance.
The Sims 2 improves on the original with a more detailed representation of what happens between the sheets -- the game calls it "woohoo" -- and a gene-transfer element that creates children who resemble their parents in looks and temperament. You can nurture or torment your Sims from infancy to old age and play for generations if you have the attention span to do so.
The game is about life, so you would expect it to include sex. What you might not expect is the matter-of-fact way in which this mainstream game accepts the full spectrum of human sexuality.
You can make your Sims straight or gay, bi or transgender. Sims of any sex can live together and make woohoo and become parents -- through DNA transmission for hetero couples and through adoption for same-sex couples. Gay Sims are not confined to expansion packs and add-ons. They're simply part of the game.
If you're wondering why that's news, good for you. It did not occur to me that this was anything to write about until I read an article in which editor Avery Score searches out U.S.-based games that have homosexual characters. While The Temple of Elemental Evil can reward your male swashbuckler with a gay pirate's hand in marriage and Fable permits multiple spouses of any sex, you have to turn to Japan to find a plethora of games with a wide range of sexual orientations.
You could argue that American game developers are mostly straight males creating games for mostly straight 14- to 34-year-old males (hence the availability of nude skins just weeks after the new game hit the shelves). And you could argue that while sex has always been a popular aspect of gaming, it's generally not the ultimate goal of the game plot, and therefore the characters' sexual orientation is of little importance.
But The Sims is specifically a relationship game (which probably accounts for its popularity beyond the young male demographic). How your Sim interacts with other Sims pretty much decides his or her fate.
Even if your Sim's primary aspiration is wealth, he or she can still only get rich through building the right relationships within the game. The other four aspirations depend on interSim relationships as well: romance, family, popularity and knowledge.
On my first foray into The Sims 2, I created an exotic female Sim with an aspiration for romance, bought her a house in Strangetown, furnished her with a refrigerator and a double bed, and sent her out to lure another woman home.
Unfortunately, I was in a hurry, unwilling to spend the time necessary to let my Sim develop relationships naturally. After about 10 minutes of Sim chat and my increasing frustration as I waited for Flirt to become an option, the other woman strode away and would not return. Perhaps she was offended by the way my Sim told all of the male visitors to leave, or perhaps my Sim was too eager.
Or maybe my Sim told one too many jokes. What can I say? I didn't have many actions to choose from. Either way, my Sim was rejected, a common event in the real-life relationship game as well. Whether that rejection came from the opposite sex or the same sex makes no difference -- it still brought my romance meter down. Romance is romance, regardless of sexual orientation.
The inclusion of gay relationships in The Sims and other games reflects the Will & Grace effect. For the majority of the gamer generation, there's nothing provocative, political or puerile about homosexuality in The Sims -- it's simply no big deal.
And I like that.
As we continue to redefine human communication through technology, I can imagine a future in which a person's sexual orientation truly makes no difference beyond helping determine who we want to sleep with. Whether we're gay or straight or somewhere in between will cease to be of concern to anyone but ourselves and our lovers, and future generations will roll their eyes at their elders and wonder what all the fuss was about.
And I like that too.
Here is an article I found and liked...
By all accounts, The Sims is the most successful computer game on Earth. It's a game even non-gamers have heard of, and it's as addictive in its own way as cybersex and Doritos. I even spent a couple of months playing The Sims long-distance.
The Sims 2 improves on the original with a more detailed representation of what happens between the sheets -- the game calls it "woohoo" -- and a gene-transfer element that creates children who resemble their parents in looks and temperament. You can nurture or torment your Sims from infancy to old age and play for generations if you have the attention span to do so.
The game is about life, so you would expect it to include sex. What you might not expect is the matter-of-fact way in which this mainstream game accepts the full spectrum of human sexuality.
You can make your Sims straight or gay, bi or transgender. Sims of any sex can live together and make woohoo and become parents -- through DNA transmission for hetero couples and through adoption for same-sex couples. Gay Sims are not confined to expansion packs and add-ons. They're simply part of the game.
If you're wondering why that's news, good for you. It did not occur to me that this was anything to write about until I read an article in which editor Avery Score searches out U.S.-based games that have homosexual characters. While The Temple of Elemental Evil can reward your male swashbuckler with a gay pirate's hand in marriage and Fable permits multiple spouses of any sex, you have to turn to Japan to find a plethora of games with a wide range of sexual orientations.
You could argue that American game developers are mostly straight males creating games for mostly straight 14- to 34-year-old males (hence the availability of nude skins just weeks after the new game hit the shelves). And you could argue that while sex has always been a popular aspect of gaming, it's generally not the ultimate goal of the game plot, and therefore the characters' sexual orientation is of little importance.
But The Sims is specifically a relationship game (which probably accounts for its popularity beyond the young male demographic). How your Sim interacts with other Sims pretty much decides his or her fate.
Even if your Sim's primary aspiration is wealth, he or she can still only get rich through building the right relationships within the game. The other four aspirations depend on interSim relationships as well: romance, family, popularity and knowledge.
On my first foray into The Sims 2, I created an exotic female Sim with an aspiration for romance, bought her a house in Strangetown, furnished her with a refrigerator and a double bed, and sent her out to lure another woman home.
Unfortunately, I was in a hurry, unwilling to spend the time necessary to let my Sim develop relationships naturally. After about 10 minutes of Sim chat and my increasing frustration as I waited for Flirt to become an option, the other woman strode away and would not return. Perhaps she was offended by the way my Sim told all of the male visitors to leave, or perhaps my Sim was too eager.
Or maybe my Sim told one too many jokes. What can I say? I didn't have many actions to choose from. Either way, my Sim was rejected, a common event in the real-life relationship game as well. Whether that rejection came from the opposite sex or the same sex makes no difference -- it still brought my romance meter down. Romance is romance, regardless of sexual orientation.
The inclusion of gay relationships in The Sims and other games reflects the Will & Grace effect. For the majority of the gamer generation, there's nothing provocative, political or puerile about homosexuality in The Sims -- it's simply no big deal.
And I like that.
As we continue to redefine human communication through technology, I can imagine a future in which a person's sexual orientation truly makes no difference beyond helping determine who we want to sleep with. Whether we're gay or straight or somewhere in between will cease to be of concern to anyone but ourselves and our lovers, and future generations will roll their eyes at their elders and wonder what all the fuss was about.
And I like that too.
church signs
Church signs can be wonderful tools for outreach, but they often have a great many wise words to impart...
All found in real life...
Or at Church Sign Generator
Thanks to Dicky for that link.
All found in real life...
Or at Church Sign Generator
Thanks to Dicky for that link.
the broadband revolution
Times are a-changing in the wonderful world of internet technology. It is now easier than you think to access the world wide web.
In research by a Europe-wide company, it was found that 20 million more people have broadband internet access than last year. The UK alone has seen a 100% increase in broadband usage, second only to the 124% rise in Italy.
Following the installation of my wireless network, I purchased a new laptop and a few network cards. As I write I am sat away from my desk, watching TV. I can do important college "research", check my emails, and even give my blog fans their fix of Magic.
As Regina Lynn quoted in her Wired News column, the internet is invadin even the most intimate parts of our lives. She polled visitors to her website, and found that people would rather have online relationships than intimate time alone
"... I recently polled the Sex Drive forum to find out what people would choose if they were to spend a romantic evening alone with a technology. Obviously, this was an entirely self-selected, nonscientific survey, but the results reflected my expectations, so therefore they must be valid for the population at large. (Heh.)
People gravitated toward the relationship technologies, not the sex machines. Webcams won the contest, with mIRC and instant messaging a close second. None of these are directly personal. They merely connect us with one another, human to human. "
So with the internet at home, work, school, college and even your local Starbucks, it hardly seems possible to escape the so called "broadband revolution"
Happy surfing!
Tim
In research by a Europe-wide company, it was found that 20 million more people have broadband internet access than last year. The UK alone has seen a 100% increase in broadband usage, second only to the 124% rise in Italy.
Following the installation of my wireless network, I purchased a new laptop and a few network cards. As I write I am sat away from my desk, watching TV. I can do important college "research", check my emails, and even give my blog fans their fix of Magic.
As Regina Lynn quoted in her Wired News column, the internet is invadin even the most intimate parts of our lives. She polled visitors to her website, and found that people would rather have online relationships than intimate time alone
"... I recently polled the Sex Drive forum to find out what people would choose if they were to spend a romantic evening alone with a technology. Obviously, this was an entirely self-selected, nonscientific survey, but the results reflected my expectations, so therefore they must be valid for the population at large. (Heh.)
People gravitated toward the relationship technologies, not the sex machines. Webcams won the contest, with mIRC and instant messaging a close second. None of these are directly personal. They merely connect us with one another, human to human. "
So with the internet at home, work, school, college and even your local Starbucks, it hardly seems possible to escape the so called "broadband revolution"
Happy surfing!
Tim
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