Baggas' Blog

… if I were creating a new blog that would be the title I think. Not that I live or have ever lived in Safety Bay, but it’s close to where we are, and I went to High School there, so I think it’s not too much of a stretch to use Safety Bay in the title…. sounds much more catchy than “From Port Kennedy to Sandy Bay”

Anyway, where the heck is Sandy Bay, some of you might be asking?

Sandy Bay is a suburb just to the south of Hobart, Tasmania where we will be moving in January 2012. Many of our friends have known this for a long time but I’ve never gotten around to mentioning it here for anyone who might stumble across this poor neglected blog.

In search of a new experience and adventure for our family we are relocating to Hobart. We finally found a rental house in Sandy bay close to the beach and shops and the CBD (5 min drive).  I have decided which medical centre I want to work at (5 minute drive away), and we have the kids enrolled in some great schools (also 5 minute drive or 10 minute walk away) – Hutchins for the boys, and St Michael’s Collegiate for Mia. (you guessed it – 5 minute drive!)

Keep an eye on this blog for regular updates about our adventures in Tasmania… also Owen’s website http://www.owenrocks.com has been revamped at he will be posting stories there too, so check that out as well.

Surely this must be one of the strongest starts to an album in the history of recorded music…. sounds wonderful on vinyl too!

Amazon Kindle developers take notice – I have an idea for you, or any other eBook platform that cares to listen.The next advance in eBook reading is what I’m terming “social reading.” This takes the explosion of eBook readers and combines it with your old fashioned book clubs and combines it with social networking like Facebook.

Kindle already incorporates a feature like this in an anonymous rudimentary form – you can see what passages other readers have highlighted. What I imagine however takes the basic idea and expands on it. Link your Kindle with your Facebook account or even just your amazon.com account and then you could share your highlights and comments with other users, and from there have a discussion thread about the passage. What a great way to enhance your reading of a book, to take part in a discussion about it’s contents and to see what others have said. Such a feature could be limited to your online friends/contacts or could be publicly open to any readers anywhere.

Anyway that’s my idea. I doubt I’m the first one to come up with it but it just came to me while reading. If any Amazon developers want to talk more about it, please feel free to get in touch

The Final Update

Well here it is – what is hopefully my final pedal board update for the rest of the year.

My list is empty. I now have no further Pedals that I’m intending to get. I have sold a lot of guitar gear this year including pedals and amps and have arrived at a rig that I am truly happy with. The final pieces of the puzzle were the awesome Strymon Timeline delay, and finally a new tube amp – a Vox AC15C1. To complement the amp I also added a footswitch to toggle the amp reverb and tremolo, and a Lehle Little Dual A/B/Y switch so I can switch between the “normal” and “top boost” amp channels or use them together.

Put the new rig through it’s paces on Sunday, using almost all of the pedals, and I have never been more contented with my tone.

Signal path is as follows :

• Line6 Relay G50 wireless
• Korg PitchBlack Plus Tuner – also acts as an A/B switch so I can plug in a second guitar in addition to my wireless
• Boss AW-3 Auto-wah – with manual control by Boss FV-500L (right one – uses as expression pedal)
• Wampler Leviathan Fuzz
• Wampler Ego Compressor
• Wampler Paisley Overdrive
• Wampler Pinnacle Deluxe Distortion
• Tim (Paul Cochrane)
• Boss FV-500L Volume (the left one)
• Strymon El Capistan (tape echo) – with Favourite Switch
• TC Nova Modulator (mods including chorus, tremolo, flange, vibrato etc)
• Strymon Timeline Delay <—> Tech 21 Midi Mouse for preset switching
• Strymon Blue Sky Reverberator
• Boss RV-5 Reverb
• Boomerang III Phrase Sampler / Looper
• Lehle Little Dual A/B/Y switcher

Besides, maybe now that I have my ultimate rig I should actually focus on something more important, like improving my playing.

Ok so I just discovered another Kindle feature today that is making me even more of an eBook convert. I like the way you can highlight stuff in Kindle (I’m using the iPad app rather than the actual Kindle device), and I like the way it also shows you what other people have highlighted, but beyond that I wasn’t really aware of how you can put it to use.

For a long time I’ve been a compulsive underliner in books but my problem has always been how to keep track of what I’ve underlined or how to find quotes later, without just flipping through the book.

The nice feature I’ve discovered in Kindle is that you have a webpage in your account where you can view all of your highlights and notes from all your Kindle books. Much easier to scroll through these, or use a text search, to find what you are looking for than having to flip through a whole book. You can also clip these highlights for use in other applications such as Evernote (or just about any software  I guess). HT to Michael Hyatt, whose blog I discovered this useful information on.  Read the link for more information about this feature and how to integrate this with Evernote.

Another thing I’m starting to appreciate about Kindle is the instant gratification of seeing a book recommended on a blog or by a friend, and being able to download and start reading it within a minute… although there are obvious risks in this as well if you are not disciplined in your book buying (a trap I have fallen deeply into in the past).

Finally the other simple good thing I’m appreciating about Kindle is that it is a space saver. As much as I still love the physical form of books, with a big move on the horizon for us, the thought of packing up my library of books and shipping them to our new home is quite daunting. Hence my leaning towards eBooks at present I am not compounding that problem. It’s also much better for travel and keeping what I’m reading with me at all times.

So I’m pretty much a Kindle convert now. For myself I wouldn’t buy the Kindle device itself as I love my iPad and the all-in-one functionality it gives me, but Jen is quite keen on the smaller form factor so we’ll probably get one for her in the next few months – perhaps when the next generation Kindles are released. Presumably we should be both be able to share the same library of purchased Kindle book titles which will be cool.

Time for another one of those posts where I list a few things I’ve been into lately. Work is a little quiet today, which I’m blaming on being the first day of school term. It’s been busy the last few weeks so hopefully today is just a temporary blip.

Music / Entertainment

- Bon Iver – loving the new album by Bon Iver – very atmospheric stuff; it’s like post-rock with vocals; and the first song is named after Perth

- Wicked – we saw this show last weekend at Burswood. Very entertaining. If you get the chance to see it then make sure you do.

- West Wing – watching our DVD collection of this show again. Definitely one of the best shows ever.

Computing / Tech

- Lion – the new Mac OS seems noticeably zippier, but I’ve had a few random crashes and it’s taking a while to get used to the new scroll bars and spaces; seems like a definite step in the right direction but I haven’t really come to grips with all the new features yet

- iPad Apps – no huge new discoveries lately; my Most used apps are :

• PressReader for news (now including Tasmania Mercury but still no Western Australian papers)
• OnSong – Music chord chart display app
• Tab Toolkit – awesome guitar tab where you can download “Power tabs” where you can listen to a midi audio track that follows the music. An amazing way to learn songs
• Pocket Bible – still the best Bible software around despite being widely ignored in reviews. The iPad experience is phenomenal.
• NoteMaster – useful notetaking software which syncs with Google Docs

- PS3 – enjoying playing Test Drive 2 Unlimited with the boys. Starting to get the hang of it despite some early frustrations trying to earn my driving license

- Strymon Timeline – this new delay pedal is perhaps the best effects pedal I have played ever. The delays sound so good and even the more weird sounds are usable. I’m fortunate to have one of only a handful of these in Australia so far.. to my knowledge I was the second person down under to get one  Pics and a pedal board update coming in the next week or so…

So here’s the hopefully penultimate pedal board update for 2011.

I have finally got my hands on the Timmy overdrive and swapped my second hand Tim for a new one. If you don’t have either of these pedals then you owe it to yourself to get on the waitlist. Paul Cochrane is a great guy who makes awesome pedals at a very reasonable price. Get on the list now and you’ll be thankful in 5-6 months time.

Also I’ve rectified my fuzz deficiency with the Wampler Leviathan fuzz. Brian is another top notch pedal maker with an excellent range to choose from. This pedal can produce some pretty wild fuzz growl but you can also dial it back for some relatively more subdued tones as well. A great pedal which adds yet another optional to my tonal palette.

The other pedal I’ve added is a Boomerang III looper. I sold my old Digitech JamMan looper and upgraded to one of these babies.  It’s very responsive and versatile and has no adverse effect on my tone. I’m still gradually exploring what this pedal can do but if you’re in the market for a live guitar looper you should have a serious look at the ‘Rang.

Signal path is as follows :

• Line6 Relay G50 wireless
• Korg PitchBlack Plus Tuner – also acts as an A/B switch so I can plug in a second guitar in addition to my wireless
• Boss AW-3 Auto-wah – with manual control by Boss FV-500L (right one – uses as expression pedal)
• Wampler Leviathan Fuzz
• Wampler Ego Compressor
• Wampler Paisley Overdrive
• Timmy
• Tim (Paul Cochrane)
• Boss FV-500L Volume (the left one)
• Strymon El Capistan (tape echo) – with Favourite Switch
• TC Nova Modulator (mods including chorus, tremolo, flange, vibrato etc)
• TC Nova Delay
• Boss DD-20 Delay –> with external tap tempo
  
• Strymon Blue Sky Reverberator
• Boss RV-5 Reverb
• Boomerang III Phrase Sampler / Looper

All are powered by the CIOKS DC-10 power supply (except for the Boomerang) and on a Diago Tourman pedal board.

I said this is the penultimate update as I only have one more pedal I’m intending to add and then my board will be “complete” (yeh right). That is the Strymon Timeline delay which will hopefully be released sometime in the next month. I’m already in the process of selling other stuff to finance that one – they should have called it the Strymon Messiah instead of Timeline – the expectations are so high for this pedal!

After that I will be in retirement from the pedal market for the time being as we desperately try to save for adoption (which is looking increasingly less likely to happen) and possibly moving.. so my attention turns from the pedal market to the real estate market..

Obviously one of the killer uses of tablets is for reading news, magazines etc. And there’s a bunch of apps around which allow you to read the news in various ways. Some are aggregators of news from various sources, and many are apps which get news from a specific service (eg NYT, Slate, ABC, The Age, The Australian, BBC etc) Many of these apps are now moving to a paid subscription model, but as far as I can tell, there is still a lot of content in their physical newspapers that is not always on the net.

So what if you like reading newspapers the old fashioned way, flicking through the pages, browsing the headlines and reading what interests you, seeing the pictures, the layout, even the advertisements? If so then I have the perfect app for you – it’s called Press Reader. This is an app which allows you to download full copies of thousands of actual newspapers from around the world. You can then swipe through them like you’re reading a real paper, and then zoom in on the articles that interest you, or even have it read to you in audio. As a news reading experience it is hard to beat – it gives you a similar experience to reading a proper newspaper with all the convenience of the iPad. One of the papers I get on there is The Australian, and I actually think the PressReader experience far surpasses the physical paper, which I’ve always found unwieldy due to it’s large size (especially on planes). This app is perfect for the traveller.

The app itself is a free download and you are allowed to try out 7 full newspapers for free. After that it’s a subscription model either 0.99USD per paper or US$29.95 per month for unlimited downloads. When you think about it, the monthly plan is awesome value compared to subscribing to the physical paper. I now get 4 newspapers automatically downloaded onto my iPad every day for the price of less than one actual paper per day (and I could theoretically download much more than that if I had the time to read them).

Also if you subscribe you can read the same papers on your desktop through their associated Press Display website. The app works on your iPhone as well (although it’s nowhere near as cool) and there is one for android.

The range of papers available is very impressive, but not exhaustive. In Australia there is a good selection of national and state papers including The Australian, The Age, Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun etc however there are some big gaps. For example there are no Western Australian papers like The West Australian or Sunday Times. The Tasmania Mercury is another one I was interested in which was not there. If you live in some of the Eastern capitals I would have no hesitancy in recommending this app but if you are only interested in Perth or Hobart news you may want to wait… having said that I tweeted the company regarding these missing papers and they sent me some encouraging, albeit cryptic, replies – so watch this space.

Notwithstanding this I would strongly encourage anyone with an iPad to download this app and give it a try. It may not be for everyone but as far as I’m concerned it’s quickly become one of my top 2 or 3 most used apps on my iPad. It’s that brilliant!

I’m currently re-exploring the world of ereading. Although I’m usually a major early adopter of new technology I’ve been slow to jump on this bandwagon for two main reasons. One is that until I got my iPad recently I’ve not had a really suitable device for ereading. I’ve tried reading on my iPhone and haven’t found it a super comfortable experience (although I did read the entire Dune series of novels on my Palm Pilot whilst working in ICU back in 2002).

The other reason is that I like physical books – I like holding them in my hand and (perhaps more importantly for me) like collecting them. It’s the same reason I’ve never fully embraced digital purchasing of music (although I rip all my music to MP3) – I just love having that physical product to collect and hold.

But now, with the convergence of recently getting a usuable reading device (iPad 2) and also with thoughts of possibly moving house making my book collection seem a hindrance in some ways, and in other ways a sad indictment on my excessive accomodation to wasteful hoarding consumerism – with all that eReading seems a more practical and viable proposition.

The iPad 2 certainly is the perfect device. Just the right size that it’s comfortable to read anywhere. I never liked the idea of a dedicated reading device like a Kindle. I’m sure it’s good to use but I want one mobile device that (in combination with my phone) will take care of all my reading, media, and internet needs.

Unfortunately Apple’s iBooks app doesn’t live up to the potential of their device. Actually that’s not entirely true – the app is beautiful and a joy to read on. The problem is the iBooks store, which has an appallingly poor selection of books – at least the Australian one does anyway. Aside from some free classic novels I’ve downloaded, none of the newer books I was interested in buying were available in the iBooks store.

The Kindle App is very similar to iBooks in it’s function, and the Amazon store has a much better (though still not exhuastive) selection of books. It would be nice if the store was incorporated into the app instead of redirecting you to a website in a browser, but the process works okay. I decided today I wanted to read the new book by Christian writer and scientist Francis Collins (as an antidote to an irritating podcast I found myself listening to), and within a minute I had the book on my iPad. The super strong $A at the moment makes the Kindle store very attractive too.

So at the moment it’s Kindle for the win. I haven’t looked at any other eReading Apps so if anyone has any other good suggestions with a good range of books to buy and download, I’d love to hear it.

Bible Apps

Finally, a very brief word about Bible reading Apps. Once again the iPad experience of reading the Bible is a joy compared to the iPhone. The larger screen makes for a more pleasant, versatile and powerful experience.

I just want to mention my favourite Bible app. Everywhere I see the YouVersion Bible app mentioned which seems by far the most popular (including on the church webpage where I found that dodgy podcast). But do yourself a favour and check out Laridian’s Pocket Bible. This is a super powerful Bible app which allows for split screen mode so you can have a number of Bible translations (or notes, commentaries, dictionaries, devotionals etc etc) on screen at the same time – don’t know why YouVersion doesn’t have that. It also has excellent search, bookmarking and note taking facilities. All the Bibles are downloaded onto your device (iPhone or iPad or iPod touch) which means no worrying about having an internet connection. And there’s a huge range of translations available for this software. The other great thing about this company is that once you buy a title from them once you can then use it on any device which supports their software. Over the years moving from Palm to Windows Mobile to iPhone to iPad I’ve built up a huge collection of Bible versions from Laridian which I have been able to to transfer to new platforms and devices without any extra cost. It’s great.

Screenshots are below – click for larger images…

Wouldn’t it be awesome if every weekend had five days? It’s been great having these five days off work to celebrate Easter and ANZAC day. And there’s only three more work days until another weekend (hopefully those days will be pretty busy to compensate for all the time off… I fondly remember what it was like to get paid public holidays).

Anyway this five day weekend has been good – lots of relaxing around the home, reading, playing music, getting a few odd jobs done, playing with the kids, and watching movies. We’ve been watching The Godfather Part II which is so long you practically need a long weekend to get through it. Love playing the theme on my mandolin too!

… think I might schedule another 5 day weekend for the second half of the year…

Finally, here’s a YouTube video I found which demonstrates a few features of the software :

… Cross posted to Warnbro Worship Team blog …

Time for another pedal board update – I expect this will be the last for a little while, since I have much fewer gear purchases in the pipeline as I get serious about paying off debt and saving for Ethiopia…

Pedal Board March 2011 - Click for larger image

Signal path is as follows :

• Line6 Relay G50 wireless
• Korg PitchBlack Plus Tuner – also acts as an A/B switch so I can plug in a second guitar in addition to my wireless
• Boss AW-3 Auto-wah – with manual control by Boss FV-500L (right one – uses as expression pedal)
• Wampler Ego Compressor
• Wampler Paisley Overdrive
• MXR Distortion III
• Tim (Paul Cochrane)
• Boss FV-500L Volume (the left one)
• Strymon El Capistan (tape echo) – with Favourite Switch
• TC Nova Modulator (mods including chorus, tremolo, flange, vibrato etc)
• TC Nova Delay
• Boss DD-20 Delay –> with external tap tempo (the little green switch bottom left)
• Strymon Blue Sky Reverberator
• Boss RV-5 Reverb

All are powered by the CIOKS DC-10 power supply.

This update officially ends my use of multi-FX units, as I have retired my TC Nova System from the board. I was only using that for modulations most of the time, so decided to replace it with the Nova Modulator – allowing more space on my board for other stuff such as the Strymons. Speaking of which, the El Capistan is definitely worth the hype. This is a pedal with great sounds which enhaces my creativity immensely. And the Blue Sky is great also, although I’ve not had much time to play with it and come up with favourite settings just yet.

Next pedals on the list are the Strymon Timeline when it comes out, and one of the new Boss loopers. Oh and I’m also still waiting on a Timmy and new Tim at some point. Going to try and stick to my policy of not buying new gear, and anything I do get (such as those pedals above) will be funded by selling old stuff. Our adoption could happen any time from 2012 onwards so I really need to get serious about fixing my finances before then.

Just had an interesting theological idea that I wanted to write down, as I don’t have those sort of ideas very often

It seems to me that an integral part of human nature, a key consequence of our sinfulness, is a tendency to bring negative results out of good things. This is borne out over and over again in the story of Israel, with their misuse of the blessings God had given them. It’s very often true in the history of the church as well. And it can be clearly seen in the history of our world in the last couple of hundred years – amazing advances in science and our understanding of the world (resulting from our God given creative intellect) yet leading to consequences such as the atomic bomb, environmental degradation, and vast global inequalities of excess and poverty. Another example is an improved understanding of creation itself and it’s origins being illogically misused to justify atheism and at it’s worst some of the most terrible atrocities humankind has seen (eg Stalin, Pol Pot)

The opposite observation can be made about God. A key aspect of His personality is that He brings good out of bad. The Bible abounds with examples of this – such as the stories of Joshua (esp Gen 50:20), the Exodus, Lazarus, and indeed Creation itself (bringing order out of chaos (Gen 1:2) – whatever your particular views are as to the process and speed with which He did that.) And of course the ultimate example of this is the crucifixion and then resurrection of Jesus – bringing life out of death, taking the worst of human sin and bringing salvation!

I’m sure other greater minds have written books on this subject before, but it only just occurred to me today. It’s an interesting concept to think about, and also a key way in which we can seek to be more like God – becoming “Good out of bad” type people, instead of “bad out of good”…

Non-guitar playing readers can tune out now (if the title didn’t already switch you off)…

It’s time for a long overdue update of the current state of my pedal board (here’s the last update, from Dec 2009). It’s undergone a radical remodelling over the past few months, with a number of new additions, and I’ve got it to a place where I’m pretty happy with the sound… for now.

First the basic infrastructure.

The board itself is a Diago Tourman hardcase, which I love. Very rugged case, easy to carry around, and to set it up all I have to do is lift off the lid, plug in a couple of power plugs and one lead to my amp and I’m ready to go.

Power is the CIOKS DC-10 power-supply, which I have mentioned previously. Heaps of power, no hum. Tremendous.

Pedal Board 2011 - Version 1 - Click for larger pic

Now the pedal signal chain is as follows :

• Line-6 Relay G50 wireless receiver <–> Boss TU-2 tuner (Tuner out)
• MCFX A/B box (for plugging in a second guitar in addition to my wireless)
• Boss AW-3 dynamic wah <—> Boss FV-500L expression pedal for manual wah control (also sometimes use this for Nova system expression pedal)
• Wampler Ego Compressor
• Wampler Paisley overdrive
• MXR Distortion III
• Paul Cochrane Tim overdrive/boost
• Boss FV-500L volume pedal
• TC Electronics Nova System (used mostly for mods, pitch effects, sometimes delays & reverbs)                  <—> Tech 21 Midi Mouse for patch switching
• TC Nova Delay (for rhythmic delays)
• Boss RV-5 (modulated reverb)
• Boss DD-20 <—> MCFX tap tempo switch
• Digitech JamMan looper (most of the time I leave this at home if I’m not using it to save space and to avoid needing the extra AC power brick, which is annoying)

Pretty happy with that setup at the moment. It gives me all the tones I need, with plenty of versatility and has virtually no extraneous noise. I’m also really loving the wireless – the Line-6 digital wireless is brilliant technology – very clear sound with virtually no dropouts and huge range. Even though I’m not running all over the place I’m still amazed how much better I feel not having a cord tying me down.

Still got a few plans to change it though over the coming months, including a new Tuner and some Strymon Pedals (can’t wait to try the new Timeline delay), so watch this space…

Happy 2011 to all! Hope this is a fruitful year for everyone!

some facts about 2011 :

• it is the year of the Rabbit, in the Chinese calendar
• it is also the international year of truth about Islam, according to the counter-Jihad calendar (Yikes! don’t think I’ll be subscribing to that one… lots of nutty stuff hitting my email lately)
• it is the year of the Cricket World Cup, to be held in South Asia (yay!) – my brother will no doubt be supporting the Canadian national cricket team eh? And with the current Australian team, that might not be as crazy as it sounds.
• according to the Ethiopian calendar, we are currently in 2003, until New Year on September 12.
• U2 will be taking their 360 tour to South Africa, South & North America… and if I won the lottery my first purchase would be tickets for myself and Jen!

Read the rest of this entry »

Just wanted to mention a phenomenal product I’ve discovered recently. The DC-10 effects pedal power supply from CIOKS.

I’m currently three quarters of the way through a major revamp of my effects pedal board, and along the way decided I needed to get a dedicated power supply, for two main reasons. One is so I didn’t have to use 4 separate “wall wart” power adaptors plugged into a power board which was messy and unsightly. Secondly, I discovered a whole lot of hum issues as I added new pedals which were very fussy about which power supply I could pair them with.

Theres a number of high quality power supply units out there of which the most popular seems to be the Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 2+.  These are quite expensive to buy in Australia but unfortunately sourcing them cheaper overseas from the USA is not an option as they are 110V only.

Then I discovered the CIOKS DC-10. This has switchable 110/230V voltage and a number of cool features. If you look at their website it compares favourably to the Voodoo Labs pedal in almost every department. And I was able to get it for less than $200, compared to well over $300 for a PP2+.

Some things I like about it are :

• isolated outputs solved all my hum problems instantly
• plug socket is hidden inside the box so no plug poking out
• multiple voltage settings with plenty of amps able to supply hungry pedals like TC Nova
• cool indicator LEDs for each output as well as a pulsing LED for the whole unit

My Nova Delay pedal, which needs 12V, seems to be even sweeter with this than with the supplied adaptor. Also I’m running my Tim overdrive pedal at 12V, which seems to give it an even fuller sound than 9V. Presently I’m powering 12 different things off it and still have a couple of outputs free.

Who knew I could get so enthused about a power supply, but I truly love this unit! Check out their website for more info on this and their other power units.

Depressingly quiet at work again (where are all the sick people?) so wasting time on the net as usual. Thought I’d post a review of the Diago Pedal Board Case.

Recently I started revamping my pedal board and found that I had outgrown my old trusty Gator Pedal tote (with soft case) so I started looking for a bigger alternative. I also wanted one that had a hard case or flight case so as to provide better protection for my gear. I looked at the Pedal Train series but the Pedal Train Pro with flight case was prohibitively expensive and also only marginally bigger than my old board. Then I came close to buying a Road Ready pedal board and case on eBay but I didn’t quite like the structure of it, with these movable foam blocks.

And then I discovered Diago, which I believe is a UK company. Their boards come in three sizes – the small Gigman, medium Showman, and large Tourman. The Tourman is huge, a bit bigger than a guitar case : Width – 1020mm or 40″; Depth – 450mm or 17¾”; Internal Height – 100mm or 4″ (be aware the 100mm internal height is lessened by the couple of centimetres of thick foam in the lid. My TC Nova System unit fits very snuggly inside such that the top layer of buttons and controls leave a decent indent in the foam, but the lid still closes nicely) Having said that I’m on track to completely fill it up once my pedal board rebuild is complete (will post more details and pics in  few weeks…)

These are a black Tolex type case made of solid plywood, with metal reinforced corners, strong latches and a heavy duty handle. I have no doubt that this case will offer very reliable protection to my pedals and should last long term. The bottom half is your board itself, with a velcro lined floor (they include a roll of velcro for attaching your pedals). The top half is the foam lined lid, which delatches and lifts off very easily. I love the simplicity of just taking a lid off, plugging into power and amp and being ready to go in a few seconds!

I really like this case a lot. Compared to some of the other pedal boards like the pedal train, there are some things that might be perceived as a disadvantage, but I knew exactly what I was getting and they don’t bother me. Firstly, unlike the pedal train you cannot neatly route all your cables underneath the board, but as long as you are tidy with your cables this isn’t necessarily a big deal. The good thing is you aren’t having to lift your board up out of it’s case every time you make an adjustment.

Diago Tourman : not mine. I'm using the space much more effectively than this

Secondly it’s a flat board – no slope. For me a flat board is fine and the advantage is that it makes for a relatively low profile case instead of the huge ones that the Road Ready Effects case and PT-Pro have. But if a slope is important to you then that might be a consideration.

Anyway I’m loving this board. It’s simple, strong, effective, and you’ve gotta admit it looks very stylish. I look forward to sharing my updated board pics with you in a couple of weeks when it’s complete, but in the meantime if you’re after a board, look no further than Diago. (I’m no surfer but I almost feel “surfer-cool” giving board recommendations… nah I guess not )

Have you ever hear an old recording of yourself talking and thought “did I really sound like that?”, or read something you’d written many years before and been shocked of how lame or juvenile it sounded?

Sadly I had an experience like that last night. I’m in the process of updating my effects pedal board and have my eye on some new effects so figured it was time to dust off some old unsused ones and put them on eBay to raise some funds. Of course I needed to test them out before doing this to make sure they were in working order.

The one that disturbed me the most was my Digtech GNX 4 multieffects unit. For well over a year this was my main source of tone – and people back then used to tell me they thought it sounded good. But playing back through some of my old patches last night I was horrified at the sounds that were coming out of it. Simply ghastly. Metallic and thin sounding tones. Hard to convey just how shocking this experience was for me. Did I really ever think that this sounded good??

Admittedly I was probably using a different guitar back then and may have had the amp EQ’d slightly differently but man these sounds were dreadful. And these were both my own patches that I’d spent hours tweaking (on the admittedly very good software editor) and the “Supermodel” patches that I’d bought separately.

Oh and I noticed this thing has a tap tempo button – don’t recall ever having used that during the time I played it before… another sign of how far I’ve come – tap tempo is essential to my sound now!

I almost feel bad listing this on eBay (and hope any eBay buyers don’t come across this blog!). The other alternative is told hold onto it to bequeath to my son, who just started learning guitar last week, but I’m not sure I want to get him started on bad tone at such a young age… or is it a phase we all must go through?? (I’m just ashamed that this was only 3-4 years ago for me)

Alright, moving on from that painful experience, I’ll share some of my feelings about the other old pedals I tested, all Boss ones… all these were done plugged straight into the clean amp channel. I didn’t play around with any overdriven sounds at all.

AW-2 Auto Wah

Does what it claims to. A perfectly fine AW, fairly quiet when switched off. I was able to dial in an interesting tremolo kind of sound with the speed set to maximum. However I won’t be needing this as I have the Boss Aw-3 Dynamic Wah, which is an even better sounding pedal. It includes tap tempo and also allows you to plug in an expression pedal for traditional wah use. This is what I do, and I think as a pedal wah it sounds better than most others I’ve tried, plus I still have the flexibility of using the auto-wah if I ever want to (rarely do though).

OC-2 Octaver

I can remember I used to like this pedal but playing last night I felt the tracking was lacking a little bit. Still good get some nice tones, but I won’t be needing this as there is a handy octaver built into my TC Nova System, which is the core of my pedal board and which I use mostly for the sterling modulation effects including chorus, phase, tremolo, reverbs, pitch effects, delays (although I like to have a couple of extra delay pedals as well for different options). All the TC Mod effects are top class, which is why I can off-load these old Boss ones.

GE-7 Equalizer

I’ve discovered I’m not a big fan of equalizers any more. Just don’t have the patience I guess. And this GE-7 is quite noisy, so off it goes.

EQ-20 Advanced EQ

This one is nicer, one of those big Boss double pedals. It’s much quieter – hardly any noise. It has a whole lot more bands (10 I think) and you can store 9 presets in the memory. If you like EQs this is a better one to have and there is a huge potential to sculpt your sound here, but as I said I’m not an EQ fan, and it takes up a lot of real estate, so off it goes.

BF-3 Flanger

This one was the surprise packet of the bunch. From the moment I plugged it in I was getting nice flanger tone. I’m not a big user of flange and it’s one area where I’ve found the Nova system has not immediately yielded brilliant results, but this Boss gives sounds I could use. And it’s not super loud, at least as far as flangers go. Think this one might be a keeper.

AC-2 Acoustic Simulator

I didn’t hate this one as much as I expected to, but it still sounds like a fake acoustic – very tinny. Someone on Karl’s blog mentioned at some point that they use this for lo-fi sounds, but I’ve never really needed that, so I think this one’s gonna go as well.

PS-5 Super Shifter

Now this is a nice pedal. It tracks quite well and is fairly intuitive to work. My Nova system pitch shifter is not so easy to work but it tracks even better and the sounds are even nicer, so the PS-5 will have to go. Besides I don’t commonly use pitch effects anyway.

PH-2 Super Phaser

This was the big failure of the group. I couldn’t really get it to work. It just made an intermittent high pitched whine, even when switched off. I don’t remember knowing this previously, but I noticed last night this is one of those old Boss AC pedals which need a different adaptor. Will play around with it some more, but doesn’t look like it’s in workable enough condition to put on ebay.

Righto, that’s that then.

I still can’t be bothered putting these on eBay (I hate selling stuff on there) but just need to focus on the other new stuff I need want to get my motivation up.

Herdim blue picks : imported from West Germany via the USA – can’t find these anywhere in Australia. Definitely worth the effort though

Below the jump is a joke I came across that I shared with about 5 people this morning, and sadly only 1 of them got the joke and thought it was funny.

Personally I thought it was hilarious. It’s one of those “walked into a bar” sort of jokes, but only works in text form…

I’ll post a photo clue to help you. Let me know what you think…

Read the rest of this entry »

Bumped into an old university colleague last week at a dinner, and found myself apologizing for this neglected blog, and hence am feeling the need to update it again.

But rather than a boring update about what’s going on in my life (which you could have got from facebook anyway), I’ll do something a little more useful, and direct you to some other things  that I’ve liked likely – things far more valuable and/or entertaining than this ole website…

Web

Stuff Christians Like – this is one of those “funny because it’s true” websites. If you’ve ever been in a church, this is well worth checking out… although I don’t always know whether to laugh or cry or get depressed. (also check out the similar concept : stuff white people like)

Storied Theology – another blog I’ve discovered recently. This guy Daniel Kirk is a Professor of NT at Fuller seminary and he writes some interesting and sensible stuff, most of which I resonate with. If you like Scot McKnight’s blog, this is a similar style

Music

William Fitzsimmons – this hairy guy makes some of the most beautiful music I’ve come across. An incredible soft voice with brilliant acoustic instrumentation with the occasional dash of electronics or female harmonies thrown in. Perfect music to just sit back and chill to for an hour or so. His albums Goodnight, and The Sparrow and the Crow flow perfectly together musically and lyrically. His lyrics are very personal, and range from quite sombre to uplifting in places – it’s like musical psychotherapy. I always love albums that take you on a sort of narrative journey. If you only buy one album this year, make it these two! I can’t mention this guy without quoting from his crazy bio :

William Fitzsimmons is one of the oddest people you will ever meet. Born the youngest child of two blind parents, William was raised in the outskirts of the steel city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Due to the family’s inability to communicate through normal visual means, William’s childhood home was filled with a myriad of sounds to replace what eyes could not see. The house was suffused with pianos, guitars, trombones, talking birds, classical records, family sing-a-longs, bedtime stories, and the bellowing of a pipe organ, which his father built into the house with his own hands. When his father’s orchestral records were not resonating through the walls, his mother would educate him on the folk stylings of James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, and Simon & Garfunkel.

Misty Edwards – in terms of church music, I’m really digging a couple of CDs from Misty Edwards at present. The music ranges from gentle acoustic stuff to quite hard edged rock and extended free-form experimental (for want of a better word) worship where she meditates on a passage of scripture. It’s taking worship music to a slightly different extreme. If you want to get an idea of where Misty is coming from then tune in to the live 24/7 worship broadcast from the prayer room at her home church IHOP (International House of Prayer – not pancakes!) – another website I’ve been frequenting lately.

Books

I’ll just list a few good books I’ve been reading lately :

A Thousand Splendid Suns (Khaled Hosseini) - harrowing tale of the lives of women in Afghanistan over the last half century.

The Radical Disciple (John Stott) – the final book from the legendary British Christian writer John Stott. Worth reading, with some great points, but it does feel like it was written by an old man.

Man and Woman, One in Christ (Philip Payne) - an excellent and super detailed book where Chris Payne puts up a solid Biblical case for the complete equality of men and women in all roles. Fantastic, even if a little over my head with his detailed discussion of the nuances of Greek and textual variants etc.

The god of small things (Arundhati Roy)  - since we’re watching the Commonwealth Games from New Delhi at present I grabbed this Booker Prize winning Indian novel off my shelf. Another fascinating gem from the subcontinent.

• Trying out the new noodle place… — at Noodler's Noodle Bar http://gowal.la/r/Xs7U #
• Lunch with Gav — at The Chase http://gowal.la/r/XKCH #
• Things are picking up at work – 2 full days in a row so far this week. #
• Something different for lunch today — at Jamaica Blue http://gowal.la/r/Yd3o #
• Amazing how many people are off on Asian holidays at the moment. Not a day goes by I don't talk to someone who's going! I want to go too!! : #
• Seems a gym has opened close to my work… might be worth checking out… but first I must eat my plate of chips #
• I'm at Jetts Fitness http://gowal.la/r/YqAy #
• Defending his source perhaps? RT @LaurieOakes For the author of those poisonous diaries to compare anyone else with a snake is truly rich #
• My two year old daughter can't stop talking about this guy on TV "Tony Rabbit" @TonyAbbottMHR #ausvotes #
• In other news @JuliaGillard has been caught in first broken promise of campaign : "we'll be praying" for K Rudd. Don't think so! #ausvotes #
• Read my review of Paul, the Spirit, and the People of God by Gordon D. Fee on LibraryThing Invalid URL #
• Read my review of The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini on LibraryThing http://boo.kz/fm #
• Shopping with my girl — at Rockingham City Shopping Centre http://gowal.la/r/YE63 #
• Last minute decision to go out for dinner and a show at Burswood. We don't do this sort of thing often enough! #
• is re-stringing my Strat, whilst listening to the Basement Birds #
• Dinner and a show — at Burswood Casino & Hotel http://gowal.la/r/YGrf #
• Up-market steakhouse — at Victoria Station http://gowal.la/r/YGuG #
• I'm at Burswood Theatre (Great Eastern Hwy, Burswood). http://4sq.com/cGKCCB #
• Always good to walk away from the casino with slightly more money than when you went in! Now for the show… #
• My Top 3 Weekly #lastfm artists: Fleetwood Mac (150), Basement Birds (38) and Paolo Nutini (37) #music http://bit.ly/bs6sqU #
• I'm at Warnbro Community Church in Rockingham, Western Australia http://gowal.la/r/YUSN #

Just realized today (only 2 days late this time) that Uni semester begins again this week. I’m now at the point in my degree where I’m thinking “now remind me why I’m doing this again?”

Actually I remember why I’m doing it (so I can help the poor children overseas and the well off travellers here) but I’ve reached the point where I’m doing the last of the 5 compulsory core units in the Masters – the one I’ve been putting off since I withdrew from it in 2008 (the first and only time I’ve ever withdrawn from anything!).

My textbook arrived today and it is thick and scary and boring looking.

Many of the other students commenting on the “class blog” (it’s quite a technologically literate unit, but that’s about the only good thing I can say) seem unduly enthusiastic about what seems to me to be a boring unit, irrelevant to my current position and the rest of the content in my degree. The assessment structure is also confusing, and seems biased against those who are not working in this specific field, as it asks us to relate the subject to our own “organisation” – my organisation is me, a nurse, and a couple of secretaries. We don’t have policies for climate change or pollution or whatnot!

The good news for some is that there is no exam but I’ll admit I am quite partial to exams. Where there’s a clear idea of what information needs to be learned I’m quite happy to learn it, regurgitate it in an exam, and then store it away somewhere deep in the recessses of my mind. On reflection though, it probably is a good thing there’s no exam as there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of clear facts to be learned in this subject.

The real good news is that it will all be over by the end of October, after which I will only have one more unit before I finally become a Master. And that one’s an optional one, so I can try and pick something that’s actually interesting and cool to do in early 2011. Just need to struggle through the next 3 months first…

• Going to a Magic show — at Warnbro Community Church http://gowal.la/r/NCQB #
• Grabbing Sundaes on the way home from church. (@ McDonald's Family Restaurant) http://4sq.com/bmZbuQ #
• I just unlocked the "Super User" badge on @foursquare! http://4sq.com/aQB0RD #
• Lunch — at The Chase http://gowal.la/r/R6HZ #
• Birthday dinner — at Steel Tree @ The Foreshore http://gowal.la/r/RE55 #
• is watching #hillsong A Beautiful Exchange Bluray. Great music, great visuals… but not always quite in sync… #
• Doing another night of obstetrics cover tonight… then it's back into retirement for me Hope it's not too busy… #
• Bad policy from both sides and an ill-informed public. This migration debate makes me ashamed. Least inspiring election in memory #ausvotes #
• Bit of a slap in the face when you really go the extra mile for someone and they still disrespect you #
• Excellent wide ranging interviews with N T Wright : http://ping.fm/8bYQk #
• Meeting a beautiful woman for lunch… — at Steel Tree @ Settlers http://gowal.la/r/WoE2 #
• All joy and no fun – a very honest look at how parenting relates to happiness : http://ping.fm/cRCWj #
• is watching ABC News 24 – wondering how long it takes for them to run out of things to talk about #
• Last night, for the first time ever, I dreamed I was The Edge… and I had a completely alien green strat! Very disappointed to wake up #
• is taking my 3 youngsters to Freo for a day of fun & hijinks… and to give their mum some peace and quiet! #
• I just unlocked the "Explorer" badge on @foursquare! http://4sq.com/c5B4zr #
• Bacon & Eggs and Pancakes — at Ginos http://gowal.la/r/WTVc #
• I just earned the Cup o' Joe Pin on @gowalla! http://gowal.la/r/WTXd #
• I'm at Breaks fremantle in Perth, Western Australia http://gowal.la/r/WUvr #
• Photo: Relaxing place for coffee, with live jazz on a Saturday morning — at Breaks fremantle http://gowal.la/r/WUwj #
• I'm at Breaks (85 High Street, Fremantle). http://4sq.com/cmTJwW #
• I'm at Old Round House in Perth, Western Australia http://gowal.la/r/WUCG #
• Fish and chips by the harbour — at Joe's Fish Shack http://gowal.la/r/WVaZ #
• Day out with the kids has been fun, until one of them walked into a lamp post! #
• My Top 3 Weekly #lastfm artists: U2 (63), Jesus Culture (56) and Vicky Beeching (48) #music http://bit.ly/bs6sqU #
• I'm at Warnbro Community Church in Rockingham, Western Australia http://gowal.la/r/XaxK #
• Family lunch — at Steel Tree @ The Foreshore http://gowal.la/r/XbDP #

Fascinating graphical stats from the BBC, which illustrate the continuing growth of social networking, especially Facebook, which just passed half a billion users. And it seems to me that on a per-capita basis Australia is at the forefront of this revolution… and we spend the most time doing it as well!

It’s hard to overestimate the radical change facebook (and twitter to a much lesser extent) with the increasing availability of mobile internet, has had on our lifestyles in the last couple of years. We communicate with, and are connected to people, in a fashion that is completely new. Who could have imagined this sort of thing even 5-10 years ago?

Amazing.

Social Networking Stats (click for large version)

• Back to work today after a hectic 2 weeks off. I need a holiday to recover from my holiday! #
• RT @australian Terrorists blamed for Uganda restaurant attacks on World Cup crowds | http://bit.ly/9yU2AM I stayed near here #
• Disappointed that the beautiful huge trees across the road from my office have been bulldozed #
• Dinner with the kids and Jen — at Han's Cafe Rockingham http://gowal.la/r/veaA #
• Surprising but promising news : U2 possibly coming to Perth? http://ping.fm/8HwgJ #
• I'm at The Chase in Baldivis, Western Australia http://gowal.la/r/y2GD #
• post-lunch and a night on-call are taking their toll… nearly fell asleep between patients : #
• much busier day at work today… a few hundred more like this and we'll be sweet #
• Seems like a good day for a short drive…. #
• Riveting TV this morning. Exhaustive coverage of a gate, then a drive, a house, and now a door. Gripping stuff! #ausvotes #
• Amazing how much twitter is being mentioned on the TV coverage today. The first real #twitterelection #ausvotes #
• Not a bad speech from Tony Abbott. Liked the way he hit back at Julia's #movingforward #ausvotes #
• My Top 3 Weekly #lastfm artists: Brian Johnson (89), Hillsong (71) and Portland (69) #music http://bit.ly/bs6sqU #
• I'm at Warnbro Community Church in Rockingham, Western Australia http://gowal.la/r/MCN7 #

In lieu of a detailed post about any or all of these things, here’s a list of some stuff I’ve liked recently :

Music

• Midlake – Trials of Van Occupanther. Good 70′s style folk/rock album
• Brian Johnson – Love Came Down. Acoustic style worship album including cello and hammered dulcimer Sweet stuff.
• Hillsong – A Beautiful Exchange. Their new album is more of the same. Solid stuff but few standouts.

Books

• Malazan series – Stephen Erikson. First fantasy series I’ve read in years and one of the best, if most dense, I’ve ever read. After 4 books now I am hooked, and finally starting to follow some of the detailed back-stories. The endings of books 2 and 3 were very emotionally intense. Epic, brilliant stuff.
• The Reformation – Diarmid MacCulloch. Who knew a thick history book could be such a page turner? I’m currently reading this book and am enjoying it immensely. Good to finally get some balanced, in-depth story of a crucial turning point in history.

Movies - here’s a few I watched on the plane and in cinema recently

• It Might get Loud. Jimmy Page, The Edge, Jack White. If you don’t know who those guys are or the difference between Gibsons and Fenders then don’t bother. If you do know these things then this film is a must watch… I like the White Stripes but Jack White is out of his league with these other 2 legends.
• Anvil! The Story of Anvil. Great doco about a washed up Canadian 80′s metal band.
• Toy Story 3 – incredible conclusion to the trilogy. One of the few trilogies that just keeps growing with each installment. I must admit I got a little emotional here. Don’t bother with the 3D though – I don’t think it adds anything to the movie.

Places

• London. It rocks! Great city with a wealth of things to see and do. Say no more.
• Cambridge. If you ever get the chance to visit this University city then I highly recommend it. I was surprised just how much I loved this place. Heaps of brilliant architecture, quiet places to sit and reflect, and plenty of activities to take part in. Highlights include King’s College, Queens’ College and punting on the River Cam. Great place!
• Warnbro Church. Great vibe at present. Exciting times!

Terror attacks on Uganda World Cup fans

Shocking news. I used to walk past this Ethiopian Restaurant almost every day the first time I was in Uganda. It was very close to the guesthouse we stayed in. In fact in recent months as we became more interested in Ethiopia I often thought about that Restaurant and wished I had had dinner there…

News of terrorist attacks like this is always sad and disturbing, but this time for me it’s a little more so as I know the place

• Had a great time at Matt & Jess' wedding yesterday – perfect English village wedding service & reception! Now I've just arrived in Cambridge #
• Photo: — at @Whipplesnaith http://gowal.la/r/n1fR #
• http://ping.fm/p/KbAd3 – View of King's College, Cambridge from top of Great St Mary's church tower #
• This cafe is actually an old church, where I am at a classical concert – Mozart's 40th sympho — at Michaelhouse Café http://gowal.la/r/ncix #
• Coffee before another day exploring Cambridge. Great place to sit, opposite King's College — at The Copper Kettle http://gowal.la/r/nss6 #
• Photo: — at The Copper Kettle http://gowal.la/r/nsv3 #
• I'm at The Church of the Holy Sepulchre-The Round Church http://gowal.la/r/ntay #
• I'm at Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences http://gowal.la/r/nufn #
• About to go punting on the Cam (@ Scudamore's Boatyards) http://4sq.com/aK1nOq #
• Photo: — at Scudamore's Boatyard-punt hire http://gowal.la/r/nuF5 #
• I'm at Queen's College http://gowal.la/r/nx6z #
• Beautiful place – have the chapel all to myself. Silence is truly golden (@ Queens' College) http://4sq.com/a10Alu #
• Loved Cambridge! If you ever get the chance to visit here I heartily recommend it. Now making my way back towards London Heathrow…. #
• http://ping.fm/p/26BZ8 – Sexist chocolate bar! #
• Is about to head to Heathrow for the long journey home… can't wait to see my family though! #
• I'm at @HeathrowAirport in London http://gowal.la/r/o4w3 #
• I'm at Servisair Lounges Heathrow Terminal 3 in London http://gowal.la/r/o4wc #
• Is in the lounge at Heathrow about to start the long journey home. Got to see the kids in a fuzzy skype which was nice. Can't wait to see th #
• I'm at Perth International Airport in Western Australia http://gowal.la/r/rdsg #
• After long flights, is glad to be home to my own house, a hot shower, and cuddles with the 2 of my children who are talking to me #
• Taking the boys to watch Toy Story 3 — at Ace Cinemas http://gowal.la/r/rMK8 #
• Had a positive meeting with our adoption social worker. Not much new info, but we'll blame the Ethiopian & Aust governments for that. #
• Now at Koorong – they have some good stuff but also some cringeworthy and cheesy stuff too. #
• Trying to resist spending too much. They have some great stuff here (and some really cringeworthy and ch — at Koorong http://gowal.la/r/spby #
• My Top 3 Weekly #lastfm artists: GUNGOR (220), Portland (51) and Hillsong (49) #music http://bit.ly/bs6sqU #
• I'm at Warnbro Community Church in Rockingham, Western Australia http://gowal.la/r/tFQk #

• Go England! #worldcup #eng #
• is watching Mia's swimming lesson then we're off to the airport! #
• I'm at Perth International Airport in Western Australia http://gowal.la/r/fzhF #
• I'm at QANTAS Club Lounge in Western Australia http://gowal.la/r/fAw3 #
• Photo: — at QANTAS Club Lounge http://gowal.la/r/fAxv #
• http://ping.fm/p/3KiFP – On my way to London via Singapore, but part of me wishes I was on that flight to Africa…. #
• Got a good seat though, 1B – wish I could travel international business all the time #
• Hanging in Singapore between flights — at SIN Changi International http://gowal.la/r/fMjw #
• I'm at Qantas Club @ Changi Airport. http://4sq.com/bMTErc #
• Made it to London. Settled in a cafe in Covent garden with free WiFi. Can't get my mobile to work though so first job is to buy a SIM card #
• I'm at Caffé Nero in London http://gowal.la/r/gfDD #
• Is at Piccadilly Maccas. Enjoyed Skyping the family back home, although I had to try 3 different places to get WiFi that worked. #
• I'm at Gordon's Wine Bar in London http://gowal.la/r/gJkh #
• I'm at Cleopatra's Needle in London http://gowal.la/r/gRkA #
• I'm at Tate Modern (53 Bankside, London) w/ 2 others. http://4sq.com/8esEnv #
• I'm at @tate http://gowal.la/r/gVVy #
• http://ping.fm/p/P48ut – I say, what a lovely morning for a stroll along the Thames! #
• I'm at Big Ben (Bridge Street, London). http://4sq.com/8xJMWp #
• I'm at Big Ben in London http://gowal.la/r/jcFt #
• Photo: — at Big Ben http://gowal.la/r/jcNM #
• Catching a train. Hope I've got the right one!? — at Victoria Station http://gowal.la/r/jiGu #
• A round of golf — at Beckenham Place Park http://gowal.la/r/jyns #
• Although I haven't played golf for over 18 months, today was perhaps my best ever 18 holes – very satisfying #
• I'm at Lost Society in London http://gowal.la/r/jQdz #
• Coffee before a day wandering around London — at Monmouth Coffee Company http://gowal.la/r/kaSv #
• Just walked down Drury Lane – no sign of the muffin man though #
• I'm at St. Paul's Cathedral http://gowal.la/r/kbET #
• Photo: — at St. Paul's Cathedral http://gowal.la/r/kbRe #
• http://ping.fm/p/U9Iqg – St Paul's cathedral – awe inspiring. About to sit in on the Eucharist service. #
• I'm at Buckingham Palace in London http://gowal.la/r/keMV #
• I'm at St. James's Park in London http://gowal.la/r/kfh5 #
• I'm at @DowningStreet in London http://gowal.la/r/kfuS #
• http://ping.fm/p/C14r3 – Horses may kick or bite, not sure about the guards though! #
• About to take a cruise on the Thames — at Embankment Pier http://gowal.la/r/kgnw #
• I'm at Tower Bridge http://gowal.la/r/kh44 #
• Shopping time! — at London Oxford Street http://gowal.la/r/kiTz #
• I'm at Marble Arch. http://4sq.com/apeb6U #
• is just about to catch a train from London to Suffolk for the weekend #
• I'm at Liverpool Street Station in London http://gowal.la/r/kK3B #
• I just unlocked the "Photogenic" badge on @foursquare! http://4sq.com/cae9Jk #
• Preparing for the wedding in a couple of hours. Fortunately my suit has survived the rigours of travel relatively uncreased. #
• enjoyed a round of croquet before we head off to the wedding #
• My Top 3 Weekly #lastfm artists: Fleet Foxes (56), Portland (42) and GUNGOR (26) #music http://bit.ly/bs6sqU #

• Hosted a great meeting of our #Warnbro Worldchangers team, planning next Saturday's dinner… should be a great evening #
• Just got my results for Epidemiology – a High Distinction! Now officially three-quarters finished my Masters. Two units to go… #
• I'm at The Chase in Baldivis, Western Australia http://gowal.la/r/9tdo #
• Supposedly iPhone OS 4 (iOS4) is released today, however it's not showing up when I check for updates in iTunes #
• Rudd vs Abbott political webcast – should be interesting… — at Warnbro Community Church http://gowal.la/r/9vjv #
• is updating my iPhone now – feels like a geeky kind of Christmas morning #
• The Complete Guide to Using iOS 4 http://bit.ly/ajIqZB #
• Lunch with Jenni & Mia — at The Chase http://gowal.la/r/9BcM #
• Wet and wintery here in Perth today – looking forward to enjoying a little bit of northern hemisphere summer next week… #
• Busier at work now which is good… missed lunch, which is not so good. #
• Wow. We could have a new Prime Minister tomorrow. I'm not a Gillard fan, but Labor would be crazy not to pick her in the current situation. #
• Finally one of my teams wins a #worldcup game. Proud to be a British Citizen right now #eng #
• An historic day with Australia having our first female Prime Minister – but a shame it had to come about in such an undignified fashion. #
• Poor Kev. Gotta feel sorry for the guy. What an awful, humiliating way to go. #
• has 2 speeches to give over the next 2 Saturdays – working on the first one now… #
• I'm at Warnbro Community Church in Rockingham, Western Australia http://gowal.la/r/dgjU #
• Sorry but I still can't bring myself to support New Zealand. #worldcup #nzl #
• Off to bed. Hope this chilly weather warms up for our new American friends next week, though by Tuesday I'll be enjoying the summery weather #
• was just watching the kangaroos outside the window here at work – they don't seem to mind the cold #
• I'm at The Chase Bar and Bistro (13 Settlers Ave, Baldivis). http://4sq.com/9Pl4Fz #
• Seems like Seniors day here at the pub. A veritable sea of white hair… #
• Does anyone else wish Twitter had a "Like" button? #like #
• My definition of slow service : when you finish your glass of wine before the food arrives. #
• I'm at Warnbro Church of Christ (Warnbro Sound Ave, Warnbro). http://4sq.com/ayWZiK #
• I just unlocked the "Local" badge on @foursquare! http://4sq.com/bkuFAx #
• had a great time at the Worldchangers dinner – we had some inspiring guests #
• My Top 3 Weekly #lastfm artists: Foy Vance (71), Portland (42) and Jesus Culture (22) #music http://bit.ly/bs6sqU #
• I'm at Warnbro Community Church in Rockingham, Western Australia http://gowal.la/r/eWVC #
• Better start getting organized for my trip to the UK tomorrow #

After an hour’s download and installing at home, I’ve spent most of this morning playing around with iOS4 on my iPhone (and seeing a few patients in between…)

And thus far I’m impressed. I love the folders feature, although it took me a while dragging app icons around on my phone to get it all organized. Now I can get to all my apps so much faster, without swiping through pages and pages of icons. And I can also download heaps more apps to play around with. Yay!

One weird thing is that I’ve downloaded the iBooks software onto my iPhone, but can’t find the App icon anywhere. I can load the app by searching for iBooks on the search screen, but the icon is nowhere to be seen (and I looked in all my folders several times!). Weird and annoying.

I like the customisable backgrounds, little GPS icon and the new location services screen. Multitasking seems quite functional, and there is no hit in terms of performance, although I haven’t really pushed it too far just yet. In fact the whole phone feels considerably more zippy than with OS3.

For a good detailed rundown on iOS4, see this article from Gizmodo.

In other Apple related news, the Perth Apple Store opens this Saturday. Look forward to checking it out, but I’m afraid it will have to wait til I get back from my UK trip (leave next Monday).

Well the phoney election campaign is in full swing already. And tonight we saw what could be perhaps considered the first ‘debate’ of the year between the two leaders. Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott fronted a packed room in Canberra full of many of Australia’s key Christian leaders – ranging from Brian Houston of Hillsong, through Catholic Cardinal George Pell, and many other denominations – Baptists, Anglicans, Salvation Army, 7th Day Adventist, Assemblies of God, Coptic and Serbian Orthodox and many others. Was great to see Australian Christian leaders from such diverse backgrounds and beliefs united together under the one roof. And of course there were tens of thousands of us gathered in churches across the breadth of our nation watching via the webcast.

I won’t comment much on the politics or policies discussed, but I’ll give my impressions of how the 2 leaders came across.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd (Labor) was no surprise – he’s a smooth speaker although uninspiring and a little sleep inducing. Although this was a faith based forum and ostensibly Rudd was speaking to issues of faith, he didn’t really engage with the issues from a Christian or religious perspective. Rather he just used this as a brief hook into trumpeting his party’s policies and their particular version of recent political and economic history. We learnt nothing new about Kevin today, and nothing he said changed my opinion of him any further than it has already altered over the last 3 years.

Opposition leader Tony Abbott (Liberal) came into this (as he will the election proper) as a bit of a dark horse in my mind. I’ve never really seen him speak for any length of time, only in sound bites. The question will be if he can rise above the sound bites and convince the public of his qualities as a leader and as a person. Based on tonight, I think he needs to work on his oratory. His delivery was not great to start off with, a bit stilted, although he did get a lot better as he warmed up. I thought he engaged his specific audience of Christians a lot better than Rudd. He quoted scripture and dwelled more extensively on what it means to be a Christian in politics. This formed a much larger section of his speech in contrast to Rudd’s litany of policies (although he did get to that eventually). Abbott at least talked about his own Christian faith (including references to him as ‘The Mad Monk’) which Rudd failed to do. Abbott answered the questions in most cases just as clearly, and often more succinctly, than Rudd. However he failed to convince in his answer to the climate change question – I don’t think climate scepticism is going to win votes – he really needs to jettison this kind of equivocating language, even while he advocates a policy that may be less economically risky/or damaging.  But I said I wasn’t going to comment too much on the policies so I’ll leave it at that (just take the hint Tony – scepticism is not a vote winner).

I think Abbott had more to lose and gain from this evening. Rudd played it safe, showed us nothing new, and perhaps just further clarified people’s already formed (or forming) opinions of him. Abbott at this stage reminds me of one of the contestants in the early stages of Australian Idol – he’s got interesting potential, still seems a little awkward on the big stage and needs some coaching to hone his performance. He hit a few good notes and seemed to play to this specific audience better than the cut-n-paste speech of Rudd (change a few paragraphs and he could have made it to the athiests convention) but he also faltered at times. We’ll just have to wait and see how he goes in the final rounds and if he polishes his performance sufficiently to beat Rudd (or perhaps the wildcard contestant Julia Gillard – somehow I can’t even imagine her addressing a gathering like this?)

Very interesting weeks and months ahead in this country…

One disappointing note though – the questions did not give sufficient focus to global poverty. Really who cares about the Lord’s Prayer being said in Parliament or even the definition of marriage when billions of people are starving and dying from preventable diseases? I don’t want to say these issues aren’t important but surely they pale into insignificance compared to the level of suffering on a global scale? Poverty was tacked on to the end of the climate change question and neither candidate really addressed it (although Rudd at least did give foreign aid a brief mention in his speech). If only our developed world, our leaders, our churches, our people would wake up to this issue rather than blissfully ignoring it 99.9% of the time. Very sad that this wasn’t emphasized.

• Why is it that every time there is a boys movie night I can't go? Because I'm out almost every night! This week out M, T, W, Th, Sa, Sun.. #
• Having said that many boxes are being ticked, loose ends tied up and most of the big things that have occupied this semester are sorted out… #
• Good morning Australia – here we go… #
• A deferred dinner to celebrate our adoption approval (not that we ever need an excuse for — at Steel Tree @ Settlers http://gowal.la/r/5yxi #
• Adding the Deep Woods to my Drync cellar! #wine #
• After an almost full day yesterday, back to another quiet one at work today – busy morning so far but only two more between now and 3pm. #
• Pub grub for lunch again — at The Chase http://gowal.la/r/5FMi #
• enjoyed a great time at music practice – worked on a fantastic new song. Still can't help keep the country out though – there's just no stop #
• Another long lunch — at Steel Tree @ Settlers http://gowal.la/r/6YxP #
• The story of today is : kids with coughs #
• I'm at Subway in Baldivis, Western Australia http://gowal.la/r/8Anc #
• I'm at Maya Masala http://gowal.la/r/8BK1 #
• Having lunch with a mate — at The Chase http://gowal.la/r/8Mqy #
• enjoyed a quick spot of four wheel driving after work #
• is taking the boys for haircuts… seems like lots of other people had the same idea today #
• is heading up to Perth for the Operation Mobilisation dinner with George Verwer. Should be an interesting night! #
• back from a fantastic dinner to watch the second half of what looks like a pretty dodgy soccer match #worldcup #aus #
• My Top 3 Weekly #lastfm artists: Delirious (225), Jesus Culture (205) and Brooke Fraser (157) #music http://bit.ly/bs6sqU #
• I'm at Warnbro Community Church in Rockingham, Western Australia http://gowal.la/r/9feC #
• Exciting morning at #Warnbro – God is here! Hope my voice holds out… #
• After a super morning at #Warnbro time to chill on the couch with a good book, a cold brew, and some sweet music #
• Been looking at #foursquare vs #gowalla – not much between them, but I just think Gowalla is slicker and more attractive #

Stumbled across these videos this evening. Bill Hybels of WIllow Creek interviewing Bono. The third one is Hybels’ call to inspire churches to action on the AIDS and poverty crises. Excellent and necessary challenge.

“Stop asking God to bless what you are doing. Find out what God is already doing, cause it’s already blessed.”

Has Brian McLaren jumped the shark?

I’m just going to quickly run through the final chapters of this book, and my brief impressions.

16. The Church – fairly solid ground here. McLaren sees the Church as school of Christlike love. We need to be Spirit saturated people who’s focus is on love. No major problems there.

17. Sexuality – Brian correctly points out that there are much bigger threats to marriage and family than gay people, and he sees this issue as a distracting scapegoat, blown far out of proportion. No arguments from me there.  Whether you buy in to his generally pro-gay bias will depend in general as to whether you come into this chapter already sympathetic to his hermeneutic and to gay-rights in general. Brian writes nothing here that will effectively convince anyone who is staunchly in the opposite camp, and many of those will consider this a shark-jumping point. Personally I understand his POV and where he’s coming from, and this chapter, although weak, is not a shark jump for me.

18. Eschatology – once again I come into this chapter already sympathetic to McLaren’s critique of premillenial dispensationalist theology and its’ influence on politics and society. However once again Brian will not here convince anyone who holds strongly to this sort of belief system. The alternative he sketches is hard to get a grip on and he is very close to that shark when he minimizes the second coming of Christ. For a much better treatment of this issue see N T Wright’s Surprised by Hope. I do like his little look at the book of Jonah though, which I’ve been thinking about a bit recently.

19. Pluralism – this chapter will possibly be crunch time for a lot of readers. McLaren rightly acknowledges all the harm done by Christians towards those of other religions (or other brands of Christianity) through the ages. He then races through a series of universalistic passages in both the Old and New Testaments. And then he comes back to his old chestnut of the “Greco-Roman mind” which by now I am getting a bit tired of and don’t think is as all-pervasive as he makes out. McLaren’s analysis of John 14 is interesting and makes some sense. I don’t strongly disagree with most of this chapter but I feel McLaren minimizes the uniqueness and singularity of Christ (and His church) in God’s plan for humanity. For many (perhaps the majority) of readers McLaren is flying over that shark at this point in the book. I am inclined to be a bit more generous but I’d still suggest (if I’m allowed to mix metaphors) that he is on thin ice. We do need a new kind of Christianity, but it still needs to be one where Christ is at the centre of God’s plan for creation, and where the church is the primary ongoing agent of that plan. I think Brian would probably agree with that, but he’s just not explicit enough about it – due perhaps to his (valid, but excessive) fears of offending others; or maybe it’s just his “temperamental preference for understating rather than overstating” (p 225) – I wish at some points he’d get over that!

20-22. What do we do now? – no major doctrinal controversies here, but I found myself getting cheesed off with Brian’s presentation of  himself (and his compadres) as the new Martin Luther. He uses a silly rainbow coloured illustration to discuss stages of maturation of the Christian faith, and advises against looking down or being condescending towards previous stages, whilst all the while seeming to do just that (at least that’s how it felt to me). He did improve in the final chapter where he gives practical advice to those who are pondering similar questions; how they should manage in their current churches/situations. Pretty sensible, practical stuff.

CONCLUSION

I’m getting a bit tired of all this now so I’ll be quick and blunt. The answer to whether or not Brian McLaren has jumped the shark here depends on the perspective of the reader. I realise that’s a very postmodern kind of answer but it’s true. If you are new to his work or to this whole “emerging” conversation (I think they don’t like that term anymore but I don’t have a clue what the new one is) or are coming in with preconceptions about what you expect, then you will most likely find McLaren to be quite scandalous and liberal and even difficult to follow – and I respect and understand that view. Bt for someone (like me) who’s been following Brian’s books and his journey over the last 10 years or so will not find anything too surprising or shocking here. I don’t have any major arguments of substance with this book (although I’m really not a fan of this Greco-Roman box he wants to lump most of Christianity into), my issues are more of style and attitude. I think Brian is preaching to the choir here; and I don’t think that choir is as large as he imagines. For Brian to connect with a larger Christian audience he needs to tread a bit more softly, celebrate and affirm our faith as God’s primary plan for humanity (not just one religion among many), and add a healthy dose of humility.

If we go back to the TV metaphor of jumping the shark, it’s the point at which the show’s decline begins. And that’s a diagnosis that can only be made in retrospect. I think maybe this could represent that point for McLaren (or maybe he reached it 2 or 3 books ago)… but I guess only time will tell if he drifts further and further away from evangelical Christianity, or if somehow he can bring it back and recapture the magic of his early books and achieve a broader, more valuable influence. I continue to watch with interest.

PS : can someone buy me one of these??

How awesome is that!

Microsoft has just announced it’s revised Xbox 360 console and it does look pretty cool.  Slimmer and shinier and faster and quieter and cooler (hopefully). It’s ready to work with the new motion sensing peripheral now called Kinect (previously Project Natal) which looks like it could be a lot of fun if it works as well in real life as it does in the demo videos.

New Xbox-360 with Kinect

Perhaps most importantly, in this release they have fixed what I have always thought was the Xbox-360′s biggest flaw – no inbuilt WiFi. In an increasingly online world where people are wanting to play online, download demos, purchase games and content Microsoft have been shooting themselves in the foot by not providing an easy and instant way for users to connect their console to the internet either requiring an ethernet connection (which most people don’t have in their living rooms) or the purchase of a separate WiFi dongle. It’s been a real shame too, because Microsoft’s X-box Live in my opinion is a cleaner and easier to navigate environment than the PS3. Glad they’ve finally rectified this huge problem by including inbuilt WiFi.

Only main things I would have liked to have seen are user changeable generic hard-drives and inclusion of a Blu-ray drive. It is in this last area in particular that the Sony PS3 has any clear benefit over the Xbox. If Microsoft could have changed that then they would given themselves a big advantage.

See the post here at Engadget for more info…

In chapter 14 of A New Kind of Christianity, Brian McLaren asks and begins to answer the question ” what is the gospel?” And as he and others have done before, he asks us to read Paul in the light of Jesus rather than the other way round. For McLaren the essence of the gospel is the words of Jesus, “repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” He has expressed this in his other books and I don’t disagree, however here as elsewhere he never fails to really clearly set out what that means, or provide a useful synthesis between that and the Pauline writings… but maybe that’s just the residual effects of modern thinking making me want to make  something clear and systematic of something that in reality is organic and mysterious? Possibly true, but I still at some level remain unclear and unsatisfied with McLaren’s exposition of the gospel. He also begins to flirt with pluralism here, which may be the point at which Brian ultimately jumps that shark, but we’ll wait and see what he has to say in the relevant chapter later in the book…

He then goes on to look at the book of Romans. He views it as not being a systematic theology text but rather a letter to a mixed Jewish/Gentile church to foster unity in belief and practice, following in the steps of N T Wright and others. I’m already convinced on this point, however I don’t feel he gives Paul enough credit as a serious and structured thinker. McLaren seems to view Romans as a loosely dictated letter expressing his thoughts and feelings in a circuitous fashion. I disagree with this – Romans is a carefully thought-out and ordered treatise, just not in the linear fashion our Western minds can easily get a grip on, and with the goal discussed above rather than to expound a systematic theology of the gospel. See any of Wright’s work on Romans for a much better view of this.

Having said all that, in Chapter 15, Brian takes us on a quick fly through Romans which I found quiet clear and dare I say, systematic. Maybe I haven’t got my head totally around what these “re-readings” of Romans mean, but to me it still leaves us with the same result as before – a brilliant summation of the gospel that unifies Jews and Gentiles through faith in Jesus Christ. I do like the way McLaren and Wright and others dress it up, but it’s still the same old Romans underneath.

This brings us to the close of the first half of Brian’s book. No shark jumping yet.. but more treacherous waters potentially to come..

I can’t get enough of this worship band from California at the moment. Their music just takes things in a different direction compared to say Hillsong (and I’m not criticising them for a second, just emphasising the differences). There’s a lot more freedom and spontaneity in their worship, often resulting in 8-9 minute tracks! There’s a real life and energy in the vocals – I love the little “haha” laugh leader Kim Walker often does when she’s singing, like worshipping God is actually something that’s fun to do, that makes her laugh. It just seems so genuine.

I’ve posted some of their tracks before, but here’s a couple more from their second to last album “Your Love Never Fails” The first is the title track, that I just cannot stop listening to. The second features the brilliant vocals of Kim Walker – especially in the second half it is phenomenal. I love the semi-goofy stage presence she has also, like she’s just worshipping God in her own way, not trying to impress others. Listen out for her laugh in there too… I love that song but somehow the lyrics of the second verse still seem a little inappropriate but judge for yourself. Regardless, I am hooked on this band at the moment. Just wish we could introduce new songs a little faster at church – there’s just so much I would love for us to do!

For more, browse YouTube, check out their website, or even better, get hold of some of their CDs for yourself. Brilliant!

I’m going to race through the rest of this book a bit faster, partly because I can’t blog fast enough to keep up with my reading, and partly because I’m facing a busy week (out 6 out of the next 7 nights) and don’t have time to spend doing detailed reviews…

The next sections in the book (chapters 10 – 13) discuss God and Jesus, and their portrayal in the Bible. McLaren discusses an (for want of a better, and less loaded word) evolutionary understanding of God. As humankind moves through different developmental stages we view God in “developmentally appropriate” ways. McLaren continues with his sacred library view of the Bible and likens it to a collection of maths textbooks from the second grade up to college level. Just as second grader would understand the concept of negative numbers differently to a high school student, so humans have progressed in their understanding of God, and the library that is the Bible shows this progression. A very interesting metaphor and a concept worth pondering…

In the subsequent chapters Brian puts Jesus right where he belongs in the centre of his worldview. A couple of quotes are illustrative :

“God’s character is never revealed fully at any single point in the story, nor can it be contained simply in any list of propositions or adjectives derived from the stories of the past. Instead we can only discern God’s character in a mature way from the vantage point of the end of the story, seen in the light of the story of Jesus.” (p 114)

“for Christians, the Bible’s highest value is in revealing Jesus, who gives us the highest, deepest, and most mature view of the character of the living God.”  (p 115) (see also Col 1:15-20 John 1)

In the following chapter Brian acknowledges that we have constructed many different Jesuses and then goes on to give a valuable counter-cultural interpretation of Revelation. He finally gives a very brief sketch of what he believes to be the real Jesus, and it’s a vision I share – I just don’t feel that he gives enough space to fleshing out this sketch and why he believes it is right (see Wright’s Jesus and the Victory of God or any other of his Jesus related books for better work in this department). Having said that, the following chapter where McLaren looks at Jesus in the Gospel of John, drawing out the aforementioned OT themes from Genesis, Exodus, and beyond, is very good indeed. A fine rebuttal against the Jesus who came for the singular reason of saving people from hell.

In these latter chapters when he discusses Jesus Brian isn’t getting extremely controversial, although some readers will find his discussion of the progressive revelation of the character of God through the Bible (with it’s ultimate clear vision in Jesus) to be disturbing. I can certainly see that it would take quite a profound shift for some people to come around to this way of thinking, however for me at least I find this line of thought quite intriguing… no shark jumping yet.