Everythin's up to date in Kansas City

...They've gone about as fur as they c'n go!

(If you have no idea what that's about, don't worry about it. Just read on. It's nothing to do with what I'm about to say.)

Well I'm on the move again. I've only been in Scotland a year since I was unceremoniously dumped by Canadian Immigration, but it feels like a long time.

I've finally decided that since I hate programming so much these days, I should really get on with it and do something else. In the words of Why Don't You (theme song), I'm going to "...switch off my TV set [or monitor in this case] and do something less boring instead."

The "something" I am going to do is a church planting course in Kansas City. I will be at the All Nations Training Center, doing CPx, which is the "Church Planting Experience".

I'm actually leaving in 2 and a half weeks which is not very long at all. There are still a few details to finalise such as my flat and... oh yeh.. all the money!

If you feel like supporting me financially by any chance, have a look to the right of the page here and you should see a PayPal donation button. You can use that to send me money. Isn't technology handy?

New look for the blog

I've been looking at the new Blogger beta and I decided to switch over. To make the most of the new layout tools, I decided to switch over my layout to one of the new templates. Now the layout editor is much more simplistic. It seems that not everyone who edits their blog layout really wants to tinker about with HTML and CSS all day. I have to say that when I'm not getting paid for it, the novelty does wear off a wee bit.

The new layout editor is much more like a proper content management system with blocks on the page where you can add/edit/delete page elements. All very nice.

Being the details kind of guy, though, I still want to make a couple of tiny CSS tweaks that I can't seem to get at right now. All in all, though, it's pretty good.

War Wounds on Flickr

For those of you who've been unable to play my video of my recent longboarding "war wounds", I've uploaded some pics to Flickr.

Go to this page to check them out:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/theken/tags/warwounds/

Käck

Yesterday I ate a Käck. It was quite nice.

Reflections on risk, pain and failure

I was reflecting for a brief second there on my experience yesterday with the longboard. If you didn't read yesterday's post, the gist of it is that I fell off and it was sore.

I was just thinking about various people's attitude to what happened. Someone said that it was time for me to start "acting my age" and that I can't treat my body like that. I began to think about what they meant by that. Was it simply the idea that grown-ups don't ride longboards (or any skateboards) or was it something else? Maybe it was an attitude that since grown-ups don't heal as quickly, we shouldn't risk things like that any more.

It just made me think, because I feel as if we lose our sense of adventure as we get older. Children are expected to take risks, to learn to ride their bike, skin their knee occasionally. However, if I, being 29, decide to take up a new hobby such as longboarding, there's not the same social acceptance of that. The general attitude is "ooh - watch you don't hurt yourself" and that sort of thing.

I was weighing up the two sides of my longboarding experience. I have had three months of fun with my board so far. I ride to church, I use it to get around and I really love the ride. There's something liberating about carving your way down the street with a smooth ride.

The flip side (excuse the pun) of my experience is the fall I had yesterday. Assessing how I feel just now, I have a bit of a sting on my left shoulder, elbow and hip. (Can you tell I ride regular?) I also have a bit of what I assume to be whiplash in my neck. I just realised today that I totally think all the fun I've had balances out the pain I've felt, and continue to feel. If I had never got on a longboard for fear of falling off then sure, I wouldn't be in pain just now, but I wouldn't have had the same great experences either.

Is this a pointless discussion? I don't think so. I think it highlights our attitude to risk, fear of pain, fear of failure and so on. I don't ride because I want to get hurt, that'd be pretty twisted. I ride because I love it. If I fail from time to time, I will learn from it and get up and start again. I reckon the only way you can guarantee you never fail is to never try.

I like taking risks. I think God made me that way for a reason. Time will tell!

War Wounds

Today, I fell off my longboard for the first time. Hopefully it'll be the last time as well! I was carving and the board turned too far and stopped instantly. I think I went over some loose stones that made it skid. I flew off it, rolled a bit and then landed on my back, finishing off with a wee bump to the head as well.

Being the sharing sort, I thought I would let everyone else see the assorted scrapes for themselves. (Mum, you probably wouldn't enjoy this one.)



Note: I realise I look somewhat out of it in this video. I just want to reassure everyone that I was very tired, slightly sunburnt, possibly whiplashed and in no way under the influence of anything questionable.

Tentmaking

I've been wondering about something lately. It's something about a biblical character that most people have probably never given a thought, or seen the relevance of. However, it kind of sums up where I am just now.

"Did Paul enjoy making tents?"

There's only one reference I could find to Paul being a "tentmaker" in the bible. (I used Bible Gateway, as opposed to a thorough personal study.) Despite the fact that so little is said of Paul's tentmaking skills, the word "tentmaker" has become a Christianese term for a job you do that isn't especially spiritual or enjoyable but you do it to pay the bills. I'm finding myself dying a bit each day as I sit in front of a computer in my empty flat. It really is rubbish. I'm convinced I should be doing something I'm passionate about.

This brings me back to the question, "Did Paul enjoy making tents?" Was it something he was passionate about or did it kill him on the inside? I only had a very brief look at the chapter where Paul's tentmaking was mentioned (Acts 18) but I can't help feeling the meaning was one of a brief, transitional phase where he returned to his previous trade because the people he was staying with also made tents. He didn't do it for years, desperate for something else.

Maybe the term "tentmaker" has been exaggerated from the original context, or maybe I just can't accept the conclusion that everyone else seems to have settled for, that fulfillment in your work is unimportant, and the paying of bills is all that really matters.

For me, I have this possibly naïve notion that we should be passionate about what we do. We'll see how it goes. I'll bet my income on it.