Both happen once in a blue moon. Must be a blue moon tonight ‘cos they clash. Our street Christmas party is late because this is the first Sunday we’re all here at the same time – yep, since Christmas 2010! PeaceChurch happens when we have something significant to process and that was scheduled for tonight as well. We want to to take the Reconciliation Action Plan a little further now that the Notice of Intention has been lodged with Reconciliation Australia. Sounds like a lot of rigmarole, but it means our efforts to engage in the indigenous reconciliation process are gaining some traction – even if it only means integrating celebration of significant events into the church program and advancing local education and communication opportunities. The two clashing events may, in the end, have a lot to do with each other (and we can attend both events tonight as the times are staggered).
Meet St. Photini, The Samaritan Woman
In correspondence with an Orthodox priest some years ago, I was fascinated to learn that the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman was well commemorated on her saint’s feast day.
This gospel character that is often painted in misogynist terms from the pulpit is actually regarded by the ancient church as St Photini, “the Enlightened One” and “equal -among-the-Apostles”.
I, as a man among women of many congregations, find this very liberating. Read John 4 again, not focusing on “ooooh! she had 5 husbands and she’s de facto now!” – but that she was able to step beyond culturally conditioned boundaries to engage in lively repartee with a Jewish rabbi and receive and recognise the affirmation of an identity that she could joyfully announce to the rest of her community.
Never say die ’til a dead horse kicks you!
The annual family ritual gets under way – but without three of us right now because of teething problems with our ISP. We (at least my long suffering brother – g’day Al) kept a manual Excel chart of the 20 or so rounds with weekly and cumulative results. Each Friday we’d email our picks to him and he would diligently do the data entry. Interstate interaction grew pretty intense throughout the AFL season. Last year we abandoned the spreadsheet and let the AFL website host a “private competition” for us. Advantage – my bro was let off all the hack work, and, as long as folk signed up and sent their entries in, it hummed along. Disadvantage – the manual method included more tippers simply because Al used to chase up strays and goad them to put their entries in, making judicious allowances for latecomers and mis-entries. Last year was clinical, clean and lean – for not all, especially the Luddites among us, signed up. We also lost the banter and interaction on the way through. Trying it again this year – but at the opening of the season I can’t even log on to the site to see who’s signed up and who they’ve picked. What’s more I haven’t even been able to enter my household picks! Even worse, I picked the exact winning margin for the first game!
So I’m proposing to my patient and understanding family that we run a hybrid this year. I’ll do a spreadsheet and enter picks as well as using the AFL site (if and when I can get into it). If someone sends me a weekly screenshot of the results on the site – we can run them side by side.
“Never say die ’til a dead horse kicks you” is one of the memorable sayings my grandmother brought out from the old country!
[Edit: internet problem fixed and we’ve been able lodge our picks. So notionally we’re giving everyone a 3 game handicap!]
WordPress smiles upon me…
How good is this? The only day I couldn’t post because of no access to ISP server at my end, I post a retrospective post today – daring postaday2011 to include it without penalty – then, while reading my email backlog, I come across this unsolicited gift of grace from WordPress…
Everyone gets a pass for todayScott Berkun | March 22, 2011 at 5:03 pm | Categories: News | URL: http://wp.me/p23sd-ec |
WordPress.com had some server issues earlier today, which made it impossible to post or even draft posts for some time.
As a result, everyone participating in Post A Day can take a deep breath. Simply do a make-up post tomorrow, or if it’s not too late now, get your post up today.
Sorry for the inconvenience. If you want details on what happened, or to get real time updates on WordPress.com status, follow @wordpressdotcom on twitter, or make sure to follow @postaday, as we try to retweet their updates.
Synchronicity? Or just a lucky break?
By the way, my server issues are almost resolved. Back to normal (whatever that is) blogging tomorrow!
Surviving without internet (yesterday’s post!)
Easy-peasy – opportunity to clear the desk and the other backlogs.
Let me just clear some meeting dates first – uh, no access to calendar.
Well, how about ordering that printer ink that’s due – oh, can’t logon to supplier.
OK, I need to get that info on the solar panels – darn, web page not cached.
What about that research for tonight’s meeting, Where’s that book? – in some pile somewhere – how much easier if I could just Google what I want.
I need to phone David – and I’ve ditched the hard copy white pages in favour of the IT version which, of course, is now not available to me until tomorrow.
The electricity bill is due today but I can’t transfer the funds.
Postaday deadline approaching but can’t load it up!
Nah – I can get by without the internet!
Speaking (or Blogging) too soon
That will teach me. Brag about posting every day and approaching day 80 and my internet goes down! won’t be up until the end of the week. Who would have thought swapping an ISP belonging to the same company could be so complicated. Anyway, made it today with this gripe having found a wifi hotspot that is very slow. So that’s it for today and I’m still on track!
Bleeding hearts or bleeding minds?
Today’s Eureka Street article spells it out so plainly.
The remote detention regime that has given rise to the Christmas Island riot is born of a policy that has become stupid to keep defending.
Blame detention centres, not detainees – Eureka Street
We need politicians courageous enough to make a bilateral stance to remove the wedge on this issue and restore a humane system of processing asylum seekers.
Reflecting on Postaday2011
Let’s blog on blogging. Day eighty of meeting the WordPress “write a post a day” challenge has so far left me unphased. Sure there are times I’ve had to scratch around a bit to find something to write about, but, even on the deadline, something has usually appeared, even if quite innocuous. Surprisingly, the stats show that these are the posts that receive the most hits. Ironically, the most carefully polished and well argued posts receive little attention. One of my biggest surprises is the daily number of hits continuously received by a reference to a news report on geothermal energy in Perth from December 2009. Some of my more self-indulgent posts, like my recent agonising over whether to get an e-reader are also rating comparatively well.
Blogging gurus have often advised to keep blog themes and subject matter confined to a narrow field of interest in order to gain a dedicated following. I have gone in the opposite direction. This blog is similar to aiming a shotgun at a shed and firing off, hoping that some pellets might hit something. It has been far ranging and diverse – probably inviting one-off readers according to whatever tags are searched. No matter – large audiences are not the only reward of blogging. For me the delight is engaging the act of casting one’s bread upon the waters and waiting for whatever returns.
This is a minor blog in the crowded blogosphere, and it has nevertheless led to some interesting connections and conversations from places in the world that would otherwise have remained rather obscure to me. Wisdom has come from unexpected quarters and this is reward enough in itself.
So will I make it through with a daily post to December 31, 2011?
Let’s see what happens tomorrow.
Happy Super Moon Night
It’s very bright out there tonight – a super moon, they tell us. It seems so close you can reach out and touch it. How many love songs have the beau reaching up and plucking the moon from the sky for his SO? “Full moons come in different sizes because of the elliptical shape of the moon’s orbit — one side of the ellipse is about 31,000 miles closer to Earth than the other. When the moon is closest to Earth (at its perigee), it is 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than when it’s farthest from the planet (at its apogee).” (ABC News)
Apparently tonight the moon is at the nearest point to earth since 18 years. This, of course. is probably “ho hum!” for astronomers but fascinating and awesome for lay folk like myself. Happy Super Moon Night!
Christmas Island – chickens come home to roost
PM – Police poised for more violence on Christmas Island 18/03/2011.
Asylum seekers locked up indefinitely behind gates in overcrowded quarters on a tiny and remote Indian Ocean island.
Some have been there 20 months with no knowledge of expected outcomes.
A plot from “Lost”?
Nope, its what Australia’s Border Protection Policy looks like and there is no evidence that its architects have any regard for humanitarian care, mental health and agreed international conventions on the treatment of asylum seekers.
So they pull a McMurphy and attempt to make a break. Is anyone surprised?
Wondering Pilgrim 