Da daaa!
I’ve made it to the end of November & National Blog Posting Month having posted 21 days out of 30! I think it’s a fair achievement for someone who’s rather sporadic with their blogging! I have a feeling that somehow I’ll never decide to do it again, but certainly it’s forced me to be more consistent. To be honest I have a fair few ideas for posts every month but I just don’t always make the time to actually do it. We’ll see if this energises me to continue more regularly over the next few weeks. Mind you tomorrow I’m off to Donegal on leave (YAY!) for 5 days so there will be radio silence.

On to today’s post then…I’d mentioned having recently bought 2 CDs, the first of which was commented upon on Friday. The second CD I bought was We are Together. It’s actually the soundtrack to the film, Children of Agape – We are Together. The film tells the story of a children’s orphanage in S Africa where the children have lost their parents as a result of AIDS. Cameras follow the children’s choir in this orphanage over a period of 3 years as they use music to overcome their hardships and their loss. I managed to see it when it was shown on Channel 4 back in the summertime and it’s tremendously moving. It’s the kind of film that makes you laugh and makes you cry. And actually I just wanted to up and go to S Africa and just be there for those kids. Seriously if you ever get the chance, get the DVD and watch it, there are a few clips on the We Are Together website. The CD includes 20 tracks sung by the choir and they are brilliant, the really young children have amazing voices despite being so young. My favourite at the moment is a tie between Pigogo – the Peacock song which is kind of happy and bouncy and the title track We are Together (Thina Simunye) which is more reflective and embodies some of the spirit of the children to stick together and not forget who they are. It’s really awesome stuff, go buy, profits go to the orphanage.

Hmmm…NaBloPoMo has kind of gone by the wayside for me having missed the last 3 days due to general busyness and perhaps a little lack of inspiration. However I’m still going to endeavour to post daily for at least two thirds of this month, to be honest the fact that I managed 8 days in a row wasn’t far short of a miracle and definitely a first in my 5+ years of blogging so I count that a success.

I was going to write today about a book I’ve been meaning to blog about for ages, but I’ll maybe save that for this weekend. What caught my eye today was a banner on the Belfast Telegraph website advertising an opportunity to “WIN A MEAL FOR TWO - When will the NI Executive hold its next full meeting?” The NI Executive hasn’t met since mid-June and since September 5 full meetings of the Executive have been cancelled. Basically if you guess the correct date that the NI Executive holds its next full meeting you win a meal for 2 at the Stormont Hotel (where else?). Please tell me it’s April Fools Day! I guess it’s a great an example of how NI humour deals with the idiosyncrasies of NI politics.

So…are you entering?

(Photo courtesy of Ukstudentlife.com)

I've been futtering (sp?) about with my template and blog layout for the last hour or so. You'll notice that I've added extra labels and a funky new date/calendar thing. I've been getting a bit fed up of the lighthouse background and have attempted to change my layout and upgrade to the new Blogger layout system but to be honest I've found it a bit of a pain in the neck as I couldn't get my Shelfari and PictureTrail widgets amongst other things to work. If I was fluent in html perhaps I'd get it sussed but to be honest I've run out of steam right now and I'll just stick with what I've got for the time being!

Got it sorted eventually!

Ten Blogging Commandments
Well no doubt bloggers in many places are posting eloquently about the result of the US elections. I figure I'm going to buck the trend and post about blogging (although for the record I think it's significant that Obama has been elected and the fresh sense of energy in the US that's being transmitted in the media is really quite moving). Evangelical Alliance held a 'Godblogs' conference in September and one of the things that came out of that were the 'Ten Blogging Commandments' loosely based on the Old Testament 10 Commandments to give bloggers 'a moral edge in a virtual world'. Interesting. Here they are:

1. You shall not put your blog before your integrity.
2. You shall not make an idol of your blog.
3. You shall not misuse your screen name by using your anonymity to sin.
4. Remember the Sabbath day by taking one day off a week from your blog.
5. Honour your fellow-bloggers above yourselves and do not give undue significance to their mistakes.
6. You shall not murder someone else’s honour, reputation or feelings.
7. You shall not use the web to commit or permit adultery in your mind.
8. You shall not steal another person’s content.
9. You shall not give false testimony against your fellow-blogger.
10. You shall not covet your neighbour's blog ranking. Be content with your own content.

There's some good stuff here, stuff that if we don't name it could easily just slip into our behaviour on the net. More info here.

Mark has alerted me to the fact that November is NaBloPoMo i.e. National Blog Posting Month. Basically the challenge is to blog every day for a month to get yourself into a habit of regular blogging. This is usually NOT my kind of thing – I don’t really want to fill up the internet with meaningless drivel every day of my life. But there’s been a bit of a dearth of posts since I came back from Arizona so I figure I just need a challenge to try and post something of consequence every day and see if I can do it. The results might be less than scintillating but sure what about it?!

Well can you credit that it’s officially 5 years to the day since I started blogging?! I can’t compete with prolific bloggers such as Ruthebabes who hit 200 posts after just 8 months and makes my 306 posts seem like a particularly feeble and paltry offering! I really have to be in the mood to write. Sometimes I’ll have an idea for something but I just don’t have the time and the moment passes, and often there are just other things calling for my attention.

I think when I started out to do this I thought it would be a great place to share thoughts and a few perspectives of the journey. It certainly has been that although to be honest I feel less comfortable these days about putting my deepest and most personal thoughts out in the public domain. At times recently I’ve been questioning the continued existence of this wee plot on cyberspace. But I think my feeling at the moment – however selfish it sounds – is that this blog provides a place for me to put down some markers, particularly in terms of travelling and kayaking, so that I don’t forget them. And if other people enjoy reading these things well then that’s a bonus. The spiritual stuff, well these days it’s only if I feel brave enough to share! Plus I think I’m a lot more content these days and I don’t feel the same pressure to ponder stuff ... So who knows what the future will hold?

(Any feedback will be welcomed particularly if you can tell me how to put pictures of books in my links section. I’ve also tried the new Blogger template customization thingymabobber but it didn’t lend itself to some things like my Picturetrail slideshow and ‘My Wanderings’ section.)

The picture comes courtesy of Rolf Hicker Photography

New Look
Yet another new template - quite liked the other one but it was doing my head in because my sidebar had dropped all the way to the bottom and I couldn't get it sorted. The new template needs to grow on me yet, but I think it'll do. Hopefully the sidebar will stay where it should!

Question:
What is with my links falling all the way to the bottom right of the page? I didn't put them there, honest! Oh to be fluent in html!...answers on a postcard...

Well folks, I’ve been somewhat AWOL in blogland in recent times…the reason being that I’ve been on sick leave for the past 2 months – basically I had been burning the candle at both ends for too long what with work and my Masters course. So I’ve kind of been hiding from the world. I’m not out the other side yet, though I’m getting there slowly but surely, it’s just going to take some time. I’ve been holding people at more than arm’s length over the past number of weeks, but gradually I’m coming out of my shell, though it’s still slow. After I went off I decided to start a new blog, my ‘Burnout Blog’ which as of now I’m making public for the first time (momentous eh?!). So if you’re interested you can surf over to the new site for a glimpse inside my head – not always pretty I can tell you! (oh and if you want to go chronologically you’ll have to read from the bottom up.) I’ll get back to this blog at some point in the future. Take care for now…

A convert at last!
Welcome to Georgina to the wonderful world of Blog! Incidentally I cam across an interesting article in the Times about blogging, it was actually quite scary in some ways. The writer was a bit of a sceptic of the blogging phenomenon, but my experience so far has been really great, I feel like some of life's lessons haven't passed me by as they would have if I hadn't been recording some reflections. From the Times articles it sounds like a lot of people spend a lot of time ranting and raving about things which is totally fair enough, and I certainly do my fair share, but I guess having a faith perspective adds value and depth to the experience. The article also made comments about bloggers being with egotistical or else desperately lonely. Yeah well, maybe there's an element of that with a lot of folk and there's certainly a temptation to make yourself look good - what profound comment can I come up with today kind of thing! I guess there's the danger that you can become wrapped up in your little blogworld, kind of an escape from reality. But in the Christian context there's got to be so much value in practising community, living it out together, sharing some soulfood for the journey. Anyway, random ramblings yet again!

I am beginning to like this thing! Mind you I can see the potential for addiction...is there a Bloggers Anonymous?

How the heck does this thing work? Pete, you have a lot to answer for!

So anyway, my reasons for blogging…
a) I think there is some value in attempting to capture & express thoughts in black & white rather than leaving them to float around aimlessly, especially when it comes to thinking about your spiritual growth
b) There are possibilities for tapping into a larger Christian community
c) Erm…had thought of something else but it escapes me, so what the heck, call me a blogger…whether I’ll keep it up or whether I’ll get myself inextricably tangled up in my own thinking…time will only tell!

Ok, ok, I give in! I’ve finally taken the big step of entering blogworld or whatever it is that you call it. Peer pressure maybe, more like “Pete Martin pressure” to be specific! No, I’m not that unwilling really, I’ve kind of warmed to the idea. Been kind of interesting, when Pete told me about it first, I was thinking, “No way Jose! You’ll not catch me exposing my innermost thoughts for all to see on the web!” I’m a bit of a clam so being open makes me uncomfortable, but I think there could be a few attractions. This is just a start so more will follow... gee you're excited, I can tell! Oh the suspense!