the sinner/winner question

I have read this post on Nick Hanover's blog about 8 times and still don't know how I feel about it! As a Christian, I suppose I should be happy that people are willing to spread the word of God (albeit in a uniquely different way) but as someone who is responsible for upholding the law, it is tough to hear someone telling people they will "be condemned to an eternal ASBO in hell". I do find his methods quite aggressive at times, but then wonder if a band slowing down the traffic (even more) on Oxford Street while playing loud music is any less aggressive to the regular man in the street?

Phil Howard tells people to give up vanity and take up Christianity, while the officer tells people that there is more to life than shopping. So what makes the different ways of wording the same message anti-social?

While out on the beat a few weeks ago, there was a protest outside the London embassy of an Arabic speaking country by citizens of another Arabophile nation about a political matter. A member of public came up to me and complained that the protesters should be arrested for inciting racial and religious hatred. I asked them why and they said the protesters were dressed as Arabs and were speaking "muslamic". When I told they were dressed like Arabs because they were, and that they were speaking the Muslim language because they were Muslims, they stormed off muttering to themselves.

This begs the question of whether our open air ministry could be misconstrued. Are we inciting religious hatred as these Muslims were in the eyes of the person passing by? Where does the line between anti-social behaviour and religious hatred lie? When do we stop advertising our church and start trying to force God on people? Don't get me wrong, open air ministry has its place, but in this multi-racial, multi-faith and multi-cultural world, we should act with caution.

Please feel free to comment on this, or even to email me - this is something I have been thinking about for a while and would like to know what other people think!

Timmy "Winning sinner" Magic

tim's new cutlery

Image(256)
Originally uploaded by tim luke jones.

I ordered some new steak cutlery from Tchibo which arrived yesterday. I did however wonder why they had sent it in a huge box. The box was so large that It wouldn't fit throught the letter box and I had to go and get it from Edgware post office. I did check, and it would fit through the letter box. What a waste of a box and my effort!

By the way, I might need 7 people to come round and help me eat steak...

Timmy "knife new cutlery" Magic

i am a terrible father

I confess - I am a terrible father!
I forgot the 2nd birthday of my blog! That is bad. Very bad.

Here, therefore, is the official age of my blog as of now:

2 years old . . .
or 24 months old
or 104 weeks old
or 733 days old
or 17592 hours old
or 1055558 minutes old
or 63333513 seconds old

And my blog's next birthday is in 362 days 1 hrs 22 mins 27 secs (correct at time of publishing)

This does lead me on to remind you that I am the original blogger of the people on the left (I think) and that no-one else should attempt to steal my crown!

Timmy "Call the NSPCB (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Blogs)" Magic

i am an inspiration

It is true - it has been reported! I have been outed as an inspiration to someone! John Mitchinson, in his blog, said that I, and my blog, were part of the reason he had started blogging! Now isn't that exciting?

As a result he has made it onto my "friends who blog" list or, as it better known, my blogroll!

Timmy "Inspiration" Magic

things i did today

I did several things today, alot for a working day!

1) I went to my Safer Neighbourhoods training course at Shaftesbury Avenue.

2) I ate noodles in Chinatown.

3) I went to Wesley Owen where I saw Glyn Harries. He had big red marks on his face, which, it turns out, are the result of sticking 12 (yes, twelve) bulldog clips to his face. Ow!

4) I went to John Lewis to look at shoes and ended up on a £1000 rowing machine (it was made of wood and had water in it - very exciting!)

5) I recorded the Songster part of the soundtrack for the upcoming Regent Hall Band and Songsters DVD

6) I added Glyn to my 'Friends who blog' list

7) I blogged this...

8) I went to bed!*

Timmy "Active at work" Magic

* This hasn't happened yet, but will... soon...

some random phone photos i found

Here are some random photos from my phone camera, and ones that have been sent to my phone, including this one of Dave in his "I look like a modern day Jesus" phase



The largest Christmas card I have ever received



And a monochrome photo of my room



Timmy "Takes too many random photos" Magic

british football - norway style

Fa_premier_league_norway
Originally uploaded by tim luke jones.

This is British football as the Norwegians see it! The poster is an advert for the Norwegian coverage of Premiership football, and lists a number of teams as if their names were Norwegian. It made me smile but I have a weird sense of humour!

Timmy "Timøþi" Magic

things i have achieved this week

I have achieved a number of good things this week!

1) I installed the new release of Ubuntu on my old laptop. It's rather good, and rather better than the last release.

2) I managed to get my Wifi card to work on my laptop, so am able to do all kinds of fun internet related stuff. It's also rather good!

3) I installed a new switch box on the back of my Windows box so I can use the same monitor for both my Windows and Linux boxes.



4) I went to Amy's leaving party (boo hoo!) and took this nice picture of Megs and Bex



5) I added the "Friends who blog" links on the left hand side - and it only took 4 attempts to get it right.

6) I watched England beat Trinidad AND Tobago - a double well done for Sven and the boys.

Timmy "High Achiever" Magic

met police apologise for 'hurt'

Today the BBC News website reports on how sorry they are that they caused hurt to the two brothers arrested in the Forest Gate raids. I would like to point out how sorry AC Hayman looks, as displayed in the picture about halfway down the article.

Far be it for me to comment but if they were terrorists, the police would have been in trouble for shooting them, and if they weren't, the police would have been in trouble for shooting them.

Timmy "Trigger Unhappy" Magic

the unfair world cup

Whilst out and about the past few days, the team PC, Simon, and I decided that it was really fair that Holland should have to pay two countries at the same time, Serbia AND Montenegro when everyone else only has to face one country at a time. Thus we proposed that Serbia and Montenegro should play in their own separate competition with Trinidad and Tobago, St Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda and Bosnia and Herzegovina. This would, of course, promote fairness and give them an equal chance of winning the "Two Countries Together World Cup"

Timmy "Timmy and Magic" Magic

hamster fighting - a new sport

fighting-hamster
Originally uploaded by tim luke jones.

Forget cock fighting, forget bull fighting - the new sensation in pitting animals against each other has arrived! Details are in the picture

Timmy "Hamster Jam" Magic

mike mccredie's stag

On Saturday morning, at the filthy hour of 8am I set off on my way to Mike's stag party at Mayhem Paintball in rural Essex. There were 11 of us there and we were teamed up against another stag party to compete throughout the day. Most people escaped relatively bruise free, apart from Mike O who took a decent shot to the chest, Dan who was hit on the adam's apple and the stag who by definition had to take a few shots. Also hit was the man who came towards me not caryying the flag. As a result of him not carrying a flag, I assumed he was the enemy and fired 4 or so shots into his chest. He was mildly unimpressed!

After the jolly time of paintballing, we went to Writtle for a curry (my second in 2 days.) The banter was good, though disappointingly Mike managed to escape any pranks as well as going back to AJ's to stay the night. He claimed that he didn't want to be late for the meeting. We did, however, suggest that if he were handcufffed to the Army and Navy roundabout he wouldn't be late, just cold and ashamed.

Timmy "No it's not ringworm, it's a paintball bruise" Magic