Virtual Methodist

I'm not a fan of John Lennon. I know that is almost a stoning offence in this season where people have been remembering the 30 years - yes 30 - since he was killed, but I just don't... I like him marginally more than Paul McCartney... particularly the Paul McCartney that keep on showing up on live shows to sing badly with people who could be his grandchildren... but I was never really a fan of the Beatles full stop... Anyway, with that admission out of the way, the one track by John Lennon that I do quite like, and actually bought at one point on vinyl... is "Happy Xmas (War is Over)". My liking of it is slightly diminished by the fact that it is now on that continuous loop of non-religious Christmas songs that plays in every shop from mid-November until Christmas Eve, but it is still better than most of the other musical tinsel... And a few years ago I devised a mime with it as a backing track, which, in the 3 minutes 34 seconds it allows, tells the story of the reco...

Everyone else is posting it, on facebook and blogs, so I wouldn't want to be left out... but I didn't want to post it until I had used it at last night's Carol Service. Its a clever send-up of our current obsession with the digital world, roughly telling the story of the first Christmas... It seems as if it (like many of the other viral videos eg. the flashmob Hallelujah Chorus in the food-court that I also used last night) is actually an extended ad, but since I don't know what it is actually advertising it isn't likely to impact on buy commercial activities... But it is a classic case of the kingdom of this world trying to subvert the coming kingdom, rather than, as Handel's Messiah would have it, the kingdoms of this world becoming the Kingdom of our God and of his Christ... But if we turn their efforts on their heads again and use them for God's glory, then the proper balance is restored... I think... Or is it... Or should I just stop and let you watch t...

Regular followers of this blog over the summer (what's wrong with you... have you nothing better to do with your time!) will know of my long summer love affair with a dusky voiced American lady called Maggie. Magellan Maestro, the GPS that was kindly lend to us by Ed and Lorrie Bawden for our time in Grand Rapids. Well, she impressed me so much that on coming home I was on the look out for a similar piece of kit at a reasonable price. And last week I spotted one... a Garmin Nuvi 300, at a third of its usual price. So it's a case of move over Maggie here's Gary... Now that's a female Gary, as this unit only offers female voices. Is there something wrong with a male voice telling you where to go? But anyway, she's not as sophisticated as Maggie... But I have simple needs. Getting me from A-B without a speeding ticket, accident or nervous breakdown will do. To see how she will work I have engaged in some Satnav cruelty I am ashamed to admit... I've programmed ...

A quick re-edit of a post I put up last week, whilst on my hols... I have just noticed that in the midst of my near fatal illness, I actually posted an earlier draft of the piece. Here is what it should have said... Just a quickie, as I'm dying (or as Sally might suggest, I have a mild summer cold). Despite my imminent demise I (with the help of Maggie the satnav) managed to get the family to our hotel near Niagara after an 8 hour trip (including breaks). This morning we then headed in to see the Falls themselves. And was amazed, nay horrified, at the astonishingly huge gulf between the beautiful, awe-inspiring power and majesty of Niagara Falls (both American and Canadian/Horseshoe varieties, though particularly the latter) and the tacky, commercial, dollar-gobbling gungy-ness (if that is a word) of the town that overlooks it and shares its name. After a jaw-dropping trip on the Maid of the Mist we got out of town as fast as we could to the much more genteel Niagara on the Lake. B...