RichRock : Running Free

By The Way:
Laptop Spec for reference:
Processor - AMD Athlon XP-m 1.8ghz, 512mb PC2100 RAM, 40gb HDD, Integrated graphics, cruddy smudged screen, and a heat system that doesn’t work…

So, I’m running Ubuntu 7.04 (aka Feisty Fawn), on my laptop. Great. It works a lot smoother than Windows 2000 ever did. I usually have Firefox, Thunderbird, Gaim, a terminal, text editor and occasionally Gimp or some other main package running. My processor in my Lappy doesn’t even want to wake up. In Win2K, It broke into a sweat just running Firefox. After I had waited 2 minutes for it to boot.
I kid you not.
So, now my challenge is to get a 30sec boot time out of my Linux desktop.
There we go. I’ll post times and info along the way.

And the curse of Arial continues. Today I did some research at work into web typography, and found this: sIFR - it stands for Scalable Inman Flash Replacement, which is a nifty way to say that someone has created a Truetype font in a flash .swf file, and it can dynamically replace standard text using CSS and javascript to id the relevant text. Cool. I think we’ll be using that at work real soon.
Anyway, the title of the blog - awesome evenings. Why? Just because they are. Spending time with the babe, or with a group praying together, or just on my own in the flat like now (the flatmate’s away) listening to some chilled dance tunes, writing this post. Evenings can be fun if there is a variety in life. I know, people can say variety is the spice of life, and seem to think that they can then do what they want to. To be honest, I sometimes don’t do what I want to in an evening, but it can still be fun. How? Simple. The fact that I am exercising a variety to my life. Many people who would claim to be bored are probably only driven by one or two things in their lives. For example, Playstation and PC. What fun is that? Or you could choose two things and still be bored.
Imagine if I went mountain biking everyday. I would get bored, not because I would get used to the adrenalin rush, but the same trail, same ride, it would lose its appeal. I love mountain biking because I do it most weekends (not every) and it’s often a different trail. The last time I went was awesome because me and my mate hit this fire road the other side of our local mountain, and it was a blast, it was fast and fun. Next time I ride that, it won’t have that new exhiliration, but I’ll want to do it faster, slide that corner, whatever. If I rode it every week I’d be bored.
Variety to what we do is essential. The same in our spiritual lives too. If we seek the same song styles, or sit in the same place, or react the same way to things, we will get bored. We have to look outside of the hole we are in and see new things. That’s why I love the praying with a different group, bringing something fresh to homegroup, etc. When I teach, I try to look at things differently. I see people light up because it’s new.
Anyway. I’m tired now. The cat allergy at my friend’s did it for me. I can breathe now, but man am I tired. I’ll post more tomorrow.

I hope people forgive the whole tongue in cheek heading. I for one, am glad that the same law of the land applies to the Hindu’s as well as the farmers who have lost their cattle in the Bovine Tuberculosis culls. Why should an animal be allowed to live, whilst posing a potential threat in terms of infection? Since when did religion give way to common sense?
We as Christians have a responsibility. To live by the law of the land, until it conflicts with the law of God. How can we live in the face of such injustice? That many farmers (I am related by relationship to some organic meat farmers) should suffer at the hands of our government and yet the hindu ‘god’ should live. That is not right. I for one applaud the strength of choice taken by the court of appeal. Yes, I understand that animals suffer, and so do men. God gave us a command to have dominion of the animals of the land. Think about this - natural selection - we should have lost (if) we were cavemen, trying to develop weapons… No, God kick-started farming and everything associated with it. Meat and all.
I know some people will find this offensive. If it makes you think about the state of things, then good. Try this:
Animals have never developed political, judicial and economic systems. Why have we? Whether this leads you to God, I do not know. But…
Can you imagine Lemurs becoming Maoist? Or Wildebeest adopting a democratic system, and peacefully protesting about the crocodiles that eat them during their migrations?

No.

I’m sorry, but many people go on about equality for all, and yet this goverment panders to the needs of the minorities - I am glad that someone had the balls (pardon my language) to stand up to this tide of ‘equality’ and say no.
Strong words and opinions from a strong minded Christian? Yes. There could be more. But I hear the sound of pitchforks being sharpened already. Get over this. It’s a cow. Animals don’t have faith, cannot save you, and do not have any influence over you (unless you’re worshipping them). Jesus came to be a sacrifice, a blood offering to stop all blood offerings. Jesus was not a cow, a dog, a sacred frog. He was God, in human form, come to save mankind from his sins, and in His resurrection we have victory.
Now it’s late, I’m going to sleep.

Seeing as I am now a paid web developer, and starting to get my work online, here’s a post that shows off some of the recent work. Bear in mind that this is a team effort, and other people have put varying amounts of work into concepts, graphics, and even functionality. But here you go :

Salmon Luke Holding Page - Children’s dinnerware range unlike any other.. Coming autumn.
GAI International site - International Insurance Company.

Enjoy!

Revelation is great. It’s not like hindsight or anything like that. It does work in a similar way though. I had been reading the book of Revelation, and there’s a great quote about that on the Simpsons - where the newscaster says ‘It’s in Revelations people!’. Anyway, I had read about Jesus wishing that people were either hot or cold.
To some people this may not make sense. Try this: take a glass of cold water, a glass of hot water and a glass of warm water. Try each one, and you will probably be disgusted at the warm glass of water. I am anyway.
So, there I was, making some teas and coffees for work, waiting for the kettle to boil. We have one of these funky kettles you can see into. Now, when the water heats up, it will go cloudy. Then it will start to boil and become clear at the point of boiling. To me, this was a reflection of what Christ was saying where he wished we were either hot or cold, not lukewarm (Revelations 3:16).
The other side of this is that when the water is cold, it is very static. There is no dynamic to a cold glass of water. It will only move when you move the glass. Warm water does little too. Hot and boiling water takes on a life that is completely unexpected. I watched the kettle boil and realised that the life of the water, had it not been for the lid, would have splashed out everywhere. Even when you look at hot water in a glass, on a sunny day, you can see a shadow cast by the thermal dynamics being played out in the water. Cold water does nothing. Hot water moves.
And so this should be in our lives. We should be hot for Christ, for God, for the Holy Spirit, and only then will we move with a dynamic provided by heat from God himself.