Have a good day people!

I had the chance of seeing the film this afternoon and enjoyed it. The story is fairly predictable (in the film anyway) and the trailers I had seen ruined some of the twists and turns for me but this didn’t detract overly from my enjoyment of the film. The main reason I went to see it, to be honest, was for the CGI which met far exceeded my expectations. I wish my grandparents were still around so I could show them some of the imagery that we can create with computers now, I think they’d be pretty blown away.

Apparently the novels are a lot more directly anti-Church but this doesn’t really seem to come across in the film. From what I’ve read from Wikipedia even the novels aren’t that controversial, being more anti-dogma and encouraging free thought rather than blind adherence to what those in authority tell you. I don’t find this to be a negative message really at all, in fact I think it is a good one to give to our children.

When I’ve worked with children I’m always amazed by those who seem to want kids to stop thinking and just accept what they are told. This is the way to mental stagnation and the decline of the sciences and, ultimately, halting the advances in our society.

I want to try and read the books for myself rather than relying on second-hand summaries but, as far as I can see, Philip Pullman doesn’t attack my faith but he challenges me to form my own beliefs rather than relying on others to find the answers for me . There was another guy who liked to criticise and rebuke the guys in authority around 2007 years ago. It’s his birthday soon….

I’ve been toying around with the ideas of free speech the last few weeks and how free is free enough. I don’t have the right to make rascist insults or violent threats. Is this a bad thing or simply sensible?

I was reading James the other day and it talks about the tongue being “a restless evil, full of deadly poison” and sometimes I feel mine is certainly like that. So much of we say can upset others or make us look foolish. How does this affect free speech though?

“Sticks and stones will break my bones but words shall never hurt me” is told to children in the UK. This can’t be further from the truth. The question is not whether free speech can be a bad thing; it is clear it can hurt and cause damage, violence and hatred, but what limits we put on it and what sacrifices are acceptable in its name.

There was some controversy two weeks ago with two controverisal speakers at an Oxford debate being allowed a free platform to speak at the prestigious university. Some claim this gave legitimacy to their views and furthered their movements. Also we saw Aaron Seigo ask for people to give constructive criticism rather than just “sucking lists” for the KDE4 release and there was some heated discussion about whether this was a fair ask or not.

Even although these two discussions probably hurt some people and annoyed others I feel both were beneficial. Abraham Lincoln once said “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt” and I feel this is pertininet in these days when free speech is under discussion and heated debate fills the internet.

If you try and force people not to say certain things; be they complaints, rascist comments or denial of history then these views don’t simply die, instead they tend to occur behind closed doors and cliques and this is far more dangerous than being aware of them. The best way to confront idiotic or bigotted views is through public debate where they can be reasoned with rather than ignored.

With this in mind I personally think anyone should be able to say what they want, where they want and to whom they want. If it isn’t true, if it is offensive then they should be verbally repremanded but I don’t believe words and ideas should be punished simply for being.

With this in mind I’m glad to see the amount of heated discussion that occurs on Planet KDE and elsewhere on the internet. It may appear brash or rude but people only argue when they care and I think KDE is lucky to have a bunch of developers that cares so much about the software being great, even when sometimes their methods of vocalising it could be improved.

The first thing we were talking about is the bizarre way in which some people will behave in a working environment. I’ve always found people sucking up or tow toe the line a bit odd but it seems even stranger that some people intentionally misrepresent themselves at work; somehow hoping that this will be more likely to result in a promotion or recognition. Perhaps this results from society seemingly viewing how high you are on the work ladder and/or having a fancy title as being more important than actually being respected for your ability at your job.

As Christians we are also very good at misrepresentation. Frequently this is the misrepresentation of the core message of Jesus.

Check the following verses from Matthew 22:

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

This is Jesus’ message. This is Christianity. This is what every Christian should be focusing on every single minute of every single day and in their every single action. Why, then, do we add to this simple message?
I think this is because this message is so easy to recite but so hard to live. It is easier for us as Christians to judge others (and ourselves) according to rules selectively plucked from the Bible, not concerning ourselves that their meaning varies depending on their context or if they a relevant to our lives.

If we as Christians worried about this simple love (of God and other people) would people like Richard Dawkins really be complaining about the damage caused by our religion? Or instead, perhaps, would those who did not share our faith be glad for our contributions to the world.

Love God. Love People. This is what Jesus asks of Christians. How about we stop worrying so much about the other stuff and just get on with that instead?

This means I’ll be unable to do any KDE work, as it’s my one week of the year when I am completely internetless and computerless all week and far too busy to use one even if I had one to access! When I get back I have two days till the end of Summer of Code and seven days till the KDE-PIM feature freeze on the 25th, also the same day that I need to drive about 500 miles down to Ipswich in a van with all my worldly possessions!

For those in Edinburgh, I’m having a party on the 22nd for my 23rd birthday/goodbye so I hope to see some of you there. For those in KDE, I hope I’ll see you plenty on IRC as I work frantically to get some of these features into the tree.

Before the freeze I’m planning on getting attachment and category support for journals working, attachment support working for my blog kresource so you can e.g attach an image to a journal, reference it inline and have it uploaded when the blog post is uploaded (needs MetaWeblog or better), and get a WYSIWYG HTML editor working for journals and POSSIBLY for all incidences e.g. also events and todos.

Better get my kit packed for the 150 minute drive up to Altnacriche (near Aviemore). See you in a week, Internet!

Basically a church bought up an old double-decker bus, decked it out with nice kit and now use it for youth and adult outreach. I was reading about how recently they drove it into the centre of Edinburgh and gave a quiz and free alcohol to a bunch of students and then explained why.

No preaching, no judging, no pushing the image of “boring” Christians who can’t have a good time. I read about this sort of outreach and it makes me really happy. To often I feel Christians can completely fail to actually connect with people about why they have their faith, instead seeming a bit wierd or alien and as if they no longer can have a good time.

To those involved in this project: hats off to you and good work!

It’s a bit ridiculous. The current anti-religion movement headed by people like Dawkins is basically anti-Islam but without the balls to say it.

Recently I read a GREAT comment on Slashdot about this very issue, so I’ll quote it.

Martin Scorsese releases a film that was mildly heretical to Christianity. Some Christians stand around with placards protesting. Some boycott his movie. Most yawned and flip the newspaper to page two.

The very same year Salman Rushdie publishes a book that is mildly heretical to Islam. He received death threats and had to go into hiding. Noted peace activist turned Mulsim, Cat “Peace Train” Stevens, affirms that Rushdie should be killed. A fatwah was issued against booksellers (I was one) selling the tome. To this day, Rushdie remains in hiding.

Over a decade later another movie was released that was mildly heretical to Christianity. A bunch of Christians boycotted it. A few sermons were preached from a few pulpits. That was it. Dale Brown and Tom Hanks made a lot of money.

Near the same time, a Danish newspaper publishes some cartoons, a few of which were mildly heretical to Islam. The Islamic world threw a shit fit, and engaged in violent protest for weeks. People died. Newpapers around the world tossed out principles held since the dawn of the Enlightenment and refused to print the cartoons.

An opera that is planning to portray the severed heads of religious leaders is cancelled out of fear of violence… not because of the head of Jesus, but because of the head of Mohammed.

Are you beginning to see the picture? Certainly Christianity has a checkered past, but it embraced the Enlightenment and Reformation. It has moved past its sins. But Islam remains rooted in a violent medieval mindset.

I used to think it was just a small group of fanatic extremist Muslims that were the problem. But then I started to realise that mainstream Islam was not condemning the fanatics. They were being awfully quiet. Where was the outcry from mainstream Islam over suicide bombings? Where was the outcry from mainstream Islam over Hamas and PLO thuggery? Where was the outcry from mainstream Islam over Wahabism? Over female genital mutilation? Over “honor” killings? Over the torture and murder of homosexuals?

Western Civilization needs to STOP pretending that Islam is a religion of peace. It needs to stop sheltering Islam in the blanket of political correctness. It needs to stop pretending that the camel isn’t in the tent. It needs to take a break from bashing Christianity and recognize where the real danger lies.

(by BrandyBruck)

Now, the latter paragraph I think is going a bit far.

I wouldn’t say Islam is a danger but instead I do agree the focus should be taken off Christianity. If people want to accuse world religions of being dangerous they should instead talk specifically about events of the last 10-20 years rather than ancient history and lumping other all faiths into the basket of terrorism. Modern Islamic terrorists seem to be more politically and racially motivated rather than religiously, the religion is just the tool used to brainwash them into suicide attacks. Without religion they’d still be killing innocent people they might just be less likely to sacrifice their own lives in doing so.

I don’t know when I realised how happy I am, but I am truly blessed. I have a very heavy workload, but I’m on top of it, I made huge grounds with my project today, including doing something my supervisor reckoned I wouldn’t be able to accomplish in a month. I’ve got two flatmates who I get on really well with. I’ve got great friends at church and on my course. Most of all though, I’ve got the two best friends a man can have, Jesus and Lindsay (my beautiful girlfriend and soulmate).

People think it’s funny talking about having a relationship with Jesus, and, to be honest, if you aren’t a Christian, I full on give you permission to call me a wierdo for it, because it does sound strange. Since becoming a Christian almost 4 1/2 years ago now, my life seems to just get exponentially better each year, and I become more fulfulled and satisfied with my life today, rather than looking forward to some future event or relationship or job or possession I need to make everything right in my life.

Things are right now. Things are great now. My project may not be done, but it’s in progress. I’m far from perfect, but I’m growing and improving as a person each year. I’m a dick, but I’m becoming less of one. I’m not married to Lindsay, but, I hope, I will be one day. This doesn’t matter though because I’m happy now. Thank you to all my friends, my family, Jesus and Lindsay for making my life what it is. I wish as I go to bed is that more people might be as lucky as I am.

Night.

I remember last year wanting to check the dates of this months Powerpoint, and searched the web for a bit. In the end, all I could find was Gareth’s blog. I asked Gareth and some others about this, and it turns out that Powerpoint didn’t have a website. As a budding geek, and a passionate web user for 11 years (at the time), I thought I’d offer my services to make Powerpoint a website for free.

Time passed, I had a little look at what needed doing, web software etc, and in the end, they decided to get someone else to do it. Slightly disappointed, but I understood that they might want someone outside of the team to do the site. This was in July.

Fast forward to Monday night. Was talking to a friend’s flatmate in the pub, a youthworker for a church in Edinburgh.
Her: “I spent ages last week trying to find the details for Powerpoint on the web. I just couldn’t find their site on Google, and in the end had to call someone instead.”
Me: “There is no site. It’s in development but not ready yet”
Her: “Surely they have a website?”
Me: “Nope.”
Her: “That’s surprising….”

Anyway, went home, talked to Gareth and had a think. It’s been six months since I was told they were getting someone else to do it. Someone who makes web sites for a living. I offered to get the website done for September, before my term and Powerpoint started.

It takes 5 minutes to set up a basic informational page with the times and location for Powerpoint. So Gareth and I did it. We spent about an hour, in total, and set up a page at http://powerpointedinburgh.wordpress.com, entitled “Powerpoint Edinburgh: the unoffical blog…“.

Finally, Powerpoint has a presence on the internet.
The thing that annoys me about this situation is that its fairly typical in Christian circles. Someone offers to do a job, and their timetable changes or they lose interest, so they don’t have time to do a task, in this case the Powerpoint website. Whereas in the Open Source community or in business these tasks would get delegated, they instead get clung onto, for reasons unknown to me. In business, this could happen, but people have bosses who will reassign these tasks to others. However, for an unknown reason to me, this doesn’t seem to happen in Christian circles. Maybe it’s trying to be nice to people, who knows, but it means things don’t get done, and perfectly qualified people with the time and passion for these projects (i.e. Gareth and I in this case) just get increasingly frustrated with the situation, and have to resort to setting up an “unofficial” site instead.

Thankfully, the internet is full of “unofficial” sites, frequently of better quality and more informative than the “official” site.

Perhaps we’ll step on people’s toes by doing this, but I hope not. Information that was not available before on the internet is now available, and to me, this is a good thing, regardless of motives, officiality and location. It’s 2007, and everywhere and everyone has websites, and 98% of youth today use the internet regularly. Powerpoint needed a website. It now has one.
Powerpwned.

Anyway, apparently you’re meant to tell your blog readers 5 things they might not already know about you. Sounds a lot like a CHAIN MAIL to me, things which I loathe with a passion.

So here we go:
1) I’m currently the fattest I’ve ever been, at about 10 3/4 stones. I want to try and get the fat off and regain it in muscle, as it’s clearly due to me having only one source of regular exercise this term.

2) I first kissed a girl aged 16, which I feel is a bit of a poor show, due to being a late starter, and due to the fact all women now love me. Note, I have never kissed a boy or animal before you hilarious people make hilarious replies.

3) I became a Christian aged 17, and I’m not from a church-going family. I’ll probably stick my testimony on here at some stage, but that’s a long story for another day.

4) I once got brought in front of the year head for bulling my now flatmate, Patrick, about 8 or 9 years ago. I didn’t though, honest.

5) My favourite computer game of all time is Deus Ex. It’s available for like a fiver now, and has the best story of any game ever, and will run on any even remotely newish system. Buy it and play it now. If I know you in person, you complete it, and don’t like it, I’ll actually give you the price of the game back.

Apparently you are meant to tag some others, so I tag:
Gareth, Andrew and Dave.