Do I sing like a bird released?

My anticipated event of the year for 2007 was the Crowded House concert (though understandably not quite as eagerly anticipated as last year's event of the year). I managed to get near enough seats to the stage in the TSB arena (row H).

The first act was a Pluto. The usual rock kinda band. Nothing majorly memorable. The hidden gem of the night was Supergroove. They are a 7 piece NZ band that re-grouped just to be the opening act for Crowded House and they were just fantastic! There was great chemistry between the band members which led to an amazing performance and the guys just looked like they were having a good time up there! Its not always that you don't mind listening to more of the opening act. In fact, I almost felt like I was paying for 2 concerts for the price of 1!

Crowded House was great as well. They interspersed their new stuff with their old stuff. You could easliy tell when they were playing songs from the new album - no one sang along. In the middle of the concert it started to seem like a bit of a drag as they were playing a number of songs from their new album. I kinda of expected them to do that but I guess its not easy when you are such a iconic band that most people know the lyrics to your songs as well as the band did. And that was precisely what happened with the old stuff. It felt like a ginormous sing-a-long session at points. They played many old favourites like Don't dream its over, Take the weather and Pineapple head. They had 2 encores and finally ended the night with You better be home soon.

All in all, a great concert and a fantastic night of amazing music and enjoying the talents of other people. Hmm... I wonder what's playing in 2008 thats worth going to?

The Paul paper

In my quest to study theology, I took Chris Marshall's paper on Paul offered through Vic Uni's Religious Studies department in Trimester 2. As expected, it was not easy at all, but I have come away with a renewed respect (and frustration) of Paul's complete dedication in being the sent one to proclaim the mystery that is revealed in Christ and the glorious hope we have in Jesus (frustration because Paul did not seem any easier to understand!).

Andrei Rublev. Apostle Paul. c. 1420s. Tempera on wood. 160 x 109 cm

One key thing that struck me most was the way Paul would talk about his conversion experience. Or rather would not talk about it. The only place in the Bible that details what actually happens is in Luke's account in Acts 9. Paul himself hardly refers to his conversion other than as a way of contrasting what he was like before encountering the risen Jesus. His letters constantly point his readers towards Jesus: the good news and hope that is embodied in the his life, death and resurrection and furthermore urges his readers to model their way of life on Jesus. This may seem like obvious behaviour and attitude but I don't think it is what we hear much about today. People's testimonies are always peppered with the dramatic, so much so that most people think they need a dramatic story to become Christians or to be able to testify of God's grace and salvation. The drama usually is centred around their past and the conversion experience itself. But to Paul the drama is always about Jesus and the gospel of reconciliation. He always keeps the main thing, the main thing and urges everyone to do so.

I hope that I too am able to centre everything on Jesus. That Jesus will be the focus when I share stories about what is happening on campus or in my life, I too will encourage and help others to unpack the mystery that has been kept hidden from us through the ages but is now revealed in Jesus. And that I will help people believe in Jesus, not because it is an escape route from hell but because by believing the good news about Jesus they can be reconciled to God, seek to faithful ambassadors of Jesus and we will await in eager anticipation for God's righteous justice to prevail.

¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! ¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰ We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. ²¹ God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Cor 5:17-21 (TNIV)

facebook

I can post this and laugh because I am not on facebook.

Real Beer

I am learning to be a beer snob. And how do I know that? I have been to the 2 real ale places in New Zealand - Galbraiths (in Auckland) and The Twisted Hop (in Christchurch). They serve cask conditioned beer and its fantastic. I am now very picky about the beers I drink. I only drink the good stuff. Drinking good beer is not about drinking lots to get drunk. Its about the complex flavours that you get in the beer and it usually goes really well with food as well and its very refreshing.


My favourite beer in Galbraiths (in Auckland) is Bob Hudson's bitter. Its quite light and with a nice smooth finish.

I've only tried one of the beers in the Twisted Hop, which is the Golding Bitter. Its fruity and has a nice smooth and crisp finish. It has a really great aftertaste and linges well on your palate.


Mmm... me want some beer now. Expect more beer posts in the future...

Bored

I got bored so thought I would change change the template and play around with it a bit. I know I haven't posted for a while too. But mainly cos I can't be bothered and I have been a bit busy.

shift+F7

I had to sit for a test this morning. (Well, the lecturer called it a test as that department doesn't do exams. But I reckon its an exam - it had 20 short answer questions and 2 essays. Tests usually consist of 20 multiple choice or short answers or things like that. But I digress...)

It's been a wee while since I've had to sit for one of those things. A couple of things alarmed me. Firstly, I mentally kept wanting to hit Shift+F7 (for those who use Word a lot, you know what this function does!) Particularly when I wanted to describe Jesus being against something and all I could come up with was: Jesus' againstment... It took me almost a whole minute to figure out the word I was looking for was 'opposition'. Secondly, I kept wanting to 'cut and paste' portions of my essay. I even envisaged doing that as I was writing the essay especially since I kept thinking about things I should have said that would have worked better at the beginning of the essay rather than in the middle.

In short, I am so used to using the computer, or the word processor rather, to organise my thoughts that I can't quite seem to organise it anymore on paper and don't forget the time pressure. I feel sorry for my lecturer who will be reading my kind-of-coherent-but-not-very-organised-piece-of repeated-information, also known as answers the essay questions! Sorry, I am too caught up with technology that I'm not very good with pen and paper anymore!