Baggas’ Blog

Work has been fairly quiet today, which is a good thing because I’ve had a number of different distractions…

Here’s one of them - a funny clip I discovered on YouTube. If you like the TV show Heroes you might appreciate this.

In matters that are obscure and far beyond our vision, even in such as we may find treated in Holy Scripture, different Interpretations are sometimes possible without prejudice to the faith we have received. In such a case, we should not rush in headlong and so firmly take our stand on one side that, if further progress in the search of truth justly undermines this position, we too fall with it. That would be to battle not for the teaching of Holy Scripture but for our own, wishing its teaching to conform to ours, whereas we ought to wish ours to conform to that of Sacred Scripture.

~ Saint Augustine (The Literal Meaning of Genesis)

Time for my weekly round up of what’s happening in my world :

LISTENING : my artist of the week this week would have to be Alison Krauss, who was suggested to me by a commenter on this blog. She’s an American singer and fiddler who, with her band Union Station, plays a combination of slow country and more up tempo bluegrass music. The bluegrass stuff is fine, but it’s her slower songs and haunting country ballads that have really got me hooked. She has a wonderful soprano voice which is far more pleasant and nuanced than most other country and pop artists. Perfect music to chill out to for a while.

WATCHING : still enjoying working our way through the TV series Heroes, although we’ve only got two more episodes left to watch before we’re caught up to the US, after which time we’ll have to suffer only watching one episode a week. I don’t know how I’ll be able to handle the suspense.

READING : on the weekend I started reading Sarah Sumner’s Men and Women in the Church. This is a book which tackles the sometimes contentious issue of women in ministry. While she gives a fair hearing to both the conservative and Christian feminist sides of this debate, ultimately Sarah comes to the conclusion that women should not be restricted from using their God-given gifts in whichever manner they are called, including preaching and church leadership. I found her reasoning quite convincing as she methodically works her way through the relevant Biblical texts (such as 1 Tim 2) whilst maintaining a clear hold on the bigger picture of the Bible as a whole. She helps expose how thousands of years of cultural bias against women and indeed the teachings of some of the church Fathers like Augustine and Tertullian, have influenced the way in which these texts are read. Now I would never claim to be a feminist, but I found Sarah’s case compelling and balanced, and a comfortable fit with our overall beliefs about God’s love and the equality of all humans in his sight (Gal 3:28). This book is an important one to read. It’s also very easy to read. Although academically rigorous, it’s written in short chapters and contains plenty of illustrations and personal anecdotes, making it fairly easy going. Also see some of Scot McKnight’s discussion on the book in 2006.

TREATING : work has been fairly calm this week, which is a good thing since I don’t have much inclination or motivation to be here this week. No babies born thus far this week and no serious health crises - just lots of straightforward consultations (which is why I can write this blog entry by 10am and still not be behind with my patients. Yesterday throughout the work day I managed to get done our home group study on Colossians, and still finished on time at 4 o’clock.)

Finally, let me leave you with a clip from Alison Krauss & Union Station so you can get an idea of why I like this music so much …

And if you enjoyed that take a look at this clip - Alison Krauss : When you say nothing at all (live)

I haven’t seen it feature in the mainsteam media much as yet, but reports are beginning to circulate on the net about Titanic director James Cameron’s latest documentary, about a tomb unearthed in Jerusalem which they claim is that of Jesus and his family. For some reason this doesn’t seem to be garnering the kind of attention that the Gospel of Judas got last year, even despite the Hollywood clout of Cameron. Perhaps because their premise and logic is so far-fetched that it simply smacks of a pseudo-controversy drummed up to sell books and videos.

Anyway, before this story gets any more attention, let me point you in the direction of some good blog entries on the subject by some reputable New Testament scholars :

• Ben Witherington: THE JESUS TOMB? ‘TITANIC’ TALPIOT TOMB THEORY SUNK FROM THE START
• Darrell Bock : Hollywood Hype: The Oscars and Jesus’ Family Tomb, What Do They Share?
• Scot McKnight : Was Jesus Married? One More Time

For days now they’ve been forecasting rain and thunderstorms for Perth, yet the skies have remained dry. We’ve had constant clouds, high humdity, reasonably high temperatures, and yesterday even thunder and lightning - but no rain. You can almost feel the tension in the air, a pent up feeling that needs a good downpour to wash it away. So let the rain come - I think we’ll all feel a lot better when it does.

The earth we inhabit is not a permanent planet. It is, frankly, a disposable planet—it is going to have a very short life. It’s been around six thousand years or so—that’s all—and it may last a few thousand more. And then the Lord is going to destroy it. I’ve told environmentalists that if they think humanity is wrecking the planet, wait until they see what Jesus does to it. Peter says God is going to literally turn it in on itself in an atomic implosion so that the whole universe goes out of existence (2 Peter 3:7-13). This earth was never ever intended to be a permanent planet—it is not eternal. We do not have to worry about it being around tens of thousands, or millions, of years from now because God is going to create a new heaven and a new earth ~ John MacArthur

In the last year or so it seems that many more people and governments are starting to treat the environment as a serious issue. Just today we saw Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth win an Oscar, and in recent weeks we’ve seen both sides of Australian politics start campaigning on environmental issues. Even our Prime Minister John Howard has started to turn green, with his policies on water management and outlawing light globes.

Unfortunately though, there’s still a hard core of Christian fundamentalists giving the rest of us Christians a bad rap with comments like the one above. MacArthur’s article makes me very angry. He starts off by saying that we have a responsibility to care for the environment, and then goes on to present his “biblical” arguments why it’s not that important.

I won’t even touch his young Earth comments, but who is MacArthur to say that we don’t have to worry about the world being around “tens of thousands” of years or more? “Only the Father” (Matt 24:36) knows the timing of the “end of the world.” But even if MacArthur’s timelines were accurate, surely it is still grossly irresponsible to not be trying to do what we can to prevent/repair environmental problems which have the potential to have catastrophic effects on the next generation. Our children and grandchildren’s lives could be tremendously negatively impacted by the environmental degradation taking place today (not to mention the lives of untold billions in the third world) - using a pseudo-biblical or theological justification for not acting on the environment (”because we think Jesus is going to come back real soon!”) reminds me of the bridesmaids who let the oil run out in their lamps because the groom delayed longer than they expected (Matt 25) - surely being “ready for Jesus” includes not letting his created world fall to pieces in the meantime because of our mismanagement and neglect.

After reading it on and off over the last few weeks, last night I finished Martin Meredith’s The State of Africa - A History of Fifty Years of Independence. This book is an interesting, though ultimately rather depressing read, giving snapshots of the histories of most African nations since independance from colonial rule in the middle of the last century. The calvalcade of disasters and horrors is unrelenting, from the rule of Idi Amin and many other dictators, to famine, disease, and the scourge of AIDS, in the midst of an unending succesion of wars and conflict. Meredith doesn’t settle for simplistic answers as to why this has all happened - no one gets off without some share of the blame - European colonial powers like France and Britain, other Western countries like the US and communist Russia, but primarily corrupt and greedy African rulers are the main culprits.

It’s an easy to read book - one that’s quite good for quickly getting through a chapter or two at a time. It’s got some great maps and glossy photos. If you have any interest in Africa I’d recommend this book - well worth reading despite it’s depressing tone. Maybe it’s because of humility or maybe a lack of boldness or just utter hopelessness, but I was disappointed that Meredith didn’t offer any ideas or hope for the future. The book finishes by saying just how bad Africa is right now and that’s it - there is no further analysis or suggestions as to where we might go from here. That’s perhaps my only quibble with what is overall an excellent book.

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Two guys are drinking in a bar. One guy goes, “I haven’t seen you around here before”. The other guy goes, “Yeah. I’m new in town. Just moved here.”

Guy1 :”Oh yeah? What do you do?”

Guy 2:”I’m a logician”

Guy 1:”Logician? What’s that then?”

Guy 2:”Well, I take what someone says and, based on that, make a conclusion”

Guy 1:”What do you mean?”

Guy 2:”Let me give you an example. Do you have an aquarium?”

Guy 1:”Yes, as a matter of fact I do”

Guy 2:”So, you like fish huh?”

Guy 1:”Love ‘em. I could sit and watch fish all day”

Guy 2:”So, you like fishing?”

Guy 1:”Yes, I love fishing. Gives me a chance to sit back, reflect and relax”

Guy 2:”So, you go on fishing trips?”

Guy 1:”Yeh, I do. I just took my wife and kid down south last weekend for a fishing trip”

Guy 2:”Ah. So you are a heterosexual”

Guy 1:”Wow! That’s incredible! How did you know?”

They go on chatting like this for a while and then Guy 2 leaves. Guy 1 stays drinking at the bar and one of his mates walks in.

Guy 1:”Hey man, guess what? I was just talking to this new guy in town. He’s a logician.”

“Oh yeh? What’s that then?”

Guy 1:”Let me give you an example. Do you have an aquarium?”

“Nah man”

Guy 1:”Well, you are gay”.

[don’t know if you found that funny but it appealed to my warped sense of humour - I lifted it from Ben’s blog Hello Internet so go harrass him if you didn’t like it…]

P1000825

Originally uploaded by baggas.

One program I did get working on Vista with no problems is the Flickr Uploader, which allows you to upload photos easily to Flickr the online photo storage service. I’ve just uploaded a big batch of pics from the last couple of months so if you want to take a look just got to my Flickr site - also there are a big selection of pictures from our Africa trip last year.

But here’s a sample of what I uploaded this morning….

I’ve now been using Windows Vista for a few weeks on my home PC and laptop and I’m still liking it a lot. Very few crashes, and when a program does crash it recovers very quickly. The GUI is nice - looks good and functional, and the new explorer features are mostly an improvement.

But yesterday I struck my first serious snag. To date 95% of the software I have tried to install has worked fine, and those that haven’t worked have not been very important programs anyway so it was no great loss. But yesterday I discovered that x-Edit, the software for my Digitech GNX-4 guitar multi-effects board, simply will not install on Vista. This is a real shame because one of the coolest features of the GNX4 is the ability to be able to edit effect patches on the PC and hear the changes in real time as you play. I can also backup my effects onto the PC and use or edit downloaded effect patches from the web, including a great site called MFX supermodels which has a huge selection of different Amp emulators and Artist presets (eg Clapton, Hendrix, The Edge, Metallica, Satriani and just about any other guitarist/band you can think of - he does a great job at emulating their tones). The other benefit of the PC interface is that you can use it for multi-track recording although I haven’t seriously played around with that much.

But for the time being I can’t use any of that functionality on Vista, which is a real shame. I’m not totally helpless as I can still edit the patches on the board itself (it’s just a little more fiddly that way) and I do have an old XP laptop lying around somewhere that I’ll probably use purely for this reason. Will have to keep an eye on the digitech website for some updated software though.

… in this job are easy and light … but then once in a while the realities of death, grief and crisis hit you in the face. Those days are not so easy…

I’ll resurrect another old feature of the blog - a (theoretically) weekly list of what I’m currently feeding my brain :

LISTENING : Continuing our current country music kick ahead of a possible visit to the home of country music later this year, we’ve been listening to Keith Urban (esp his albums The Ranch and Golden Road) and the Dixie Chicks‘ latest album Taking the Long Way which is great, especially the song ‘Not Ready to Make Nice.’ I can’t believe this band lost fans and airplay over their stance against George W Bush and the Iraq war - what kind of free speech is that? Anyway their music is great and it’s a shame people’s narrow-mindedness is causing them to miss out on a great band. I’ve got hold of some other country music, from Jenny Watson, Alison Krauss, and Hank Williams, which I’ll be listening to more over the next week, as well as some of the Dixie Chicks’ older stuff.

WATCHING : At the moment we are in the grips of the TV series Heroes, as recommended by Father Roderick and my brother Scott. Courtesy of the latter, we have been watching some downloaded DivXs of the show, which is a good thing, as I would hate to have to watch just one episode a week. The suspense and plot development draws you in so much that you feel compelled to keep watching. Plus watching 2 or 3 episodes at a time makes it easier to remember who’s who and who can do what. A great show - very different and very addictive. Just wish they showed more of the Japanese guy Hiro - he’s so cool! Scrubs fans might recognize him as the lab tech, Franklin.

READING : currently I’m reading an interesting study on Colossians, Colossians Remixed, a history of Africa over the last 50 years, and I’ve just started N T Wright’s Reflecting the Glory, which is a series of daily readings for Lent.

EATING : Made some pancakes for the family last night since it was Pancake Tuesday, though I’m afraid they didn’t turn out all that good. Maybe I’ll try again at the weekend.

Howard heart-attack email carries virus - Security - Technology - theage.com.au -  I got two of these emails yeterday afternoon, and I must admit it made my heart skip a beat when I saw it. I wasn’t taken in enough to click on the link in the email, but it did make me do a scan of other news sites and check the TV news when I got home for any other reports of the Prime Minister’s demise.

Allow the conspiracy theorist in me to come out for a minute. Wouldn’t this sort of hoax email be a great ploy for the Australian Labor Party? The very fact that a John Howard heart attack is a believable story is a reminder to the electorate that the man is getting on in years. I believe they’ve had to turn up the PA at Parliament to enable Howard to hear properly, since his deafness is worsening. I don’t seriously think for a second that the ALP would be involved in this sort of thing, but any kind of reminders of Howard’s age will only serve to make Kevin Rudd, labor’s more youthful Howard clone, seem more comparatively appealing.

Periodically in the past I’ve given a snapshot of my day at work as a GP, and it’s about time I did it again (partly cos I felt the urge to blog and couldn’t think of anything else to say). So here it is, a day in the life of me :

0830 - arrive at work. Startup computer. Check Email. Answer blog comments. Plug my iPod in to the PC and start playing some Bright Eyes (Album : I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning). Go through paperwork. Sign about 20 pathology results and some hospital attendance faxes (for patients of mine who have been seen in Emergency in the last couple of days). Check the same path results on the computer so they will be stored in the patient’s computer files (we have this incredibly inefficient hybrid paper/computer system here)
Visit the hospital to check on my patient who delivered last night and her newborn baby.

Start seeing patients. Conditions for the morning include :

• Heart disease
• Antenatal checkup
• Drivers License Medical
• Planning induction of labour
• Olecranon Bursitis
• Baby immunisations
• Leg ulcer
• Antenatal checkup
• Baby sleep issues
• Baby immunisations
• Plantar fasciitis
• Scalp laceration
• Premature baby
• Antenatal checkup
• Antenatal checkup

Amidst all this I did a bit more sporadic paperwork. I like to do my paperwork and signing throughout the day - as it hits my in-tray I deal with it, thus avoiding a big pile at the end of the day. Did a few prescription requests. Had a couple of coffees. Leafed through The West Australian in the tearoom, and read some of my book (Colossians Remixed) whilst listening to Bright Eyes. Not all days are like this but today has been a very easy pace - of course having a few patients not show up is a part of that…. and I opened my office window and enjoyed the sound of the rain falling outside…

1158 - finished with last morning patient. Fixed problem with telephone system. Discussed a job-offer. Read some more of Colossians Remixed and listened to some more music. Enjoyed a drug company lunch of chicken and salad and a nice chat with some other doctors…

Anyway that’s enough for now - quite a good morning actually. Three more hours of the same and then I can head home. Unfortunately I’m on-call for the weekend so I can’t totally relax but at least it’s the end of another working week.

After struggling with my horrible, antiquated computed at work last year, I finally got them to get me a new PC. It’s much nicer, runs a lot faster, recovers from crashes easier, although for some crazy reason is running Windows2000 as it’s OS (which is a backwards step - the old computer had XP. Don’t know why they changed that)

Aside from improving my work efficiency and dramatically reducing my frustration levels, the other benefit of this new PC is that it has a sound card into which I could plug my old 2.1 computer speakers. And so I can now listen to music while I work. It’s a great way to chill out between patients or on the infrequent occaision that I get a lunch break. I’ve discovered a nifty piece of software called PodPlayer which reads the library and plays songs directly off my iPod, thus obviating the need for CDs or copying MP3s onto this computer. It works well and sorts the tracks by Artist/Album/Genre/Playlist just like in iTunes.

At the moment I’ve been listening to a bit of Keith Urban, since Jenni and I are on a bit of a country music kick at the moment. I’ve never really given country music a lot of time before, which is a shame, since it’s actually very enjoyable. Also been checking out the Country Music Channel on TV when I’ve had the rare moment to relax at home. Anyone else got any suggestions of some good current country artists worth checking out?

Another busy weekend spent doing all sorts of things, but in amongst it all I managed to install Windows Vista on my PC. And I must say, thus far I like it a lot. The install process was painless, the user interface is nice, and the whole system is running faster and smoother than it has in a long time. I particularly like the Windows Media Center component which among other things allows me to tune into and record digital TV including high definition, and also connects to my X-Box 360 to allow me to access this in my home theatre room. So in effect it’s turned my Xbox into a DVR or TiVo type machine, with the added benefit of being able to record HD content, pause and rewind live TV etc. To buy a standalone box that does that would cost me over $1000 so for that alone Vista has been a worthwhile investment (I got an OEM version super cheap). The only limitation is that HD content doesn’t stream smoothly using a wireless connection to my Xbox. It did however, work perfectly when I ran a long ethernet cable through the house, so later this week I’ll be working with my brother to install a permanent ethernet connection from the computer room to the theatre room. After that I’ll be able to ditch my digital set-top-box (or at least move it to the living room TV which is currently only running SD TV).

Almost all the software I have tried works fine on Vista, with only 2 exceptions that I can think of. One is that I was unable to get Trackmania running (a car racing game that the kids like) and the other is that despite Microsoft saying it should work, I kept getting errors when I tried to apply the WA daylight savings patch. Need to try and fine another way around that bug since the TiVo functionality needs accurate time to programme recordings.

But overall, Vista seems great so far!

Overnight my main hard drive on my home PC decided to bite the dust. I set it to do a routine defrag last night and when I returned to it this morning and was confronted with the Blue Screen of Death (aka BSOD). So it seems there is some major problem with my hard drive. I can get Windows to run in “Safe Mode” but when I reboot into normal mode it keeps going to the BSOD and BIOS is warning me of imminent hard drive failure.

Not to be deterred, after my annual round of golf this morning with my good friend Matthew (who returns to his home in London today - hope to visit you later in the year…) I decided to make the best of the situation. So on my way to work this afternoon I called in at a local computer store and picked up a new 320 Gig hard drive and a copy of Windows Vista. This weekend’s job will be to get the PC back up and running again with the new OS. I’ll let you know how it goes.

In the meantime, speaking of BSOD, take a look at this clip of Bill Gates at the Launch of Windows 98….

Ok now this is cool, well at least in a nerdy sort of way. I’m sure everyone has heard of Wikipedia by now, the incredibly useful internet encyclopaedia. Well now the StarWars Universe has it’s own version, the aptly titled Wookieepedia - the Star Wars Wiki. The depth of information here is surprising, going far beyond the six movies and deep into the vast realm of other Star Wars related fiction. A person could get lost in this world, and it seems to me some devoted fans probably have…