Audience of One is the weblog of Matthew Weston, a UK student, Christian, technophile and musician.
I should really get the whole constantly updated Flickr thumbnails on the main page thing going. Ah well. The above is the first of a series taken with the 1Ds Mark II, not that you’d notice – the resolution being so much lower than the original size. (The EXIF data got lost converting from RAW. If you didn’t understand that last sentence, you’re well out of it.)
Matthew @ 21:33, March 29, 2006 to Miscellaneous | Permalink | Comments (3)
Colleague on phone: “How many photos can you fit on a CD? How many do you have? One hundred. Okay, let me just do some maths.” Points phone away from face, and hums a tune for five seconds. Turns back to phone. “Well, according to my calculations those should fit on fine.”
Colleague selling a memory card: “Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe the capacity of the memory card is a function of its width and height. Let me just find a ruler.”
Today, Jamie showed Matt (another member of staff) and me the “greenhouse” that appears to be accessible only from the roof of our office. It is directly on top of our building, made almost entirely of glass, has a window open to the elements and contains large numbers of Christmas decorations in boxes. Unfortunately our ladder doesn’t reach far enough for us to get inside.
We also have a hole in our wall that leads to a void above the next-door office’s basement that they can’t get to. While peering through the hole, Matt accidently set off the metal security shutters, trapping all the customers inside the shop for five minutes before we got them to reverse.
Rob: “Hey, it’s Rob calling from down the road. You got a S600 in stock? You did last week.”
Me: “Are we still showing it in stock?”
Rob: “Hang on a sec… no. You’re not. Sorry!” <click>
Today we were informed that we are now a “Canon-specialist dealer” and will be pushing Canon cameras and printers above all others. (We did so anyway because Canon are excellent, but now it’s company policy.)
Matthew @ 19:51, March 28, 2006 to Miscellaneous | Permalink | Comments (0)
Following the search phrase “who was the audience of Matthew?” turning up this website, I thought I would elaborate for future reference (assuming the searcher meant to add “‘s Gospel”). The Gospel of Matthew was written for a primarily Jewish audience. The book contains many references to Old Testament prophecies fulfilled, which leads to the belief that its readers would have been familiar with the Jewish Scriptures. Some scholars believe that it was written to aid the evangelistic efforts of some of the first Jewish converts, by explaining how it all began and how it fits in with the promise of the coming Messiah. Hope that’s of some help. Theopedia has more.
Matthew @ 12:21, March 27, 2006 to Miscellaneous | Permalink | Comments (0)
Awesome God is a CD from Sovereign Grace Ministries (for those who know about these kind of things, that’s C.J. Mahaney’s organisation) aimed at 7-12 year-old kids. I help out with the 9-11s at my church, and have also helped with the 7-9s (and have a seven-year-old cousin) so this seemed like something I could review.
I’d been getting increasingly frustrated with some of the kids’ songs we’d been singing in church. A lot of them seemed to be of the “Jesus, you’re my best friend” tradition, with nothing in them about why he should be and what else he should be (salvation and Lord respectively). (One of the songs is in fact called “Jesus, you’re my best friend” and is actually very difficult to sing.) There’s nothing wrong with singing about Jesus being your best friend, but songs are to “teach and admonish” (Collosians 3:16) also. It’s all very well singing “Jesus, you are my best friend; you will always be; and nothing will ever change that”, but when faced at school with non-Christians challenging your faith, unless you’re remembering why he’s your best friend you’re not going to be particularly encouraged. I like having good Christian songs and hymns stuck on my brain because it helps me remember what God is like and what he’s done. Songs like the above do not help.
So, to Awesome God. Well, immediately the lyrics attracted me. This is sound doctrine and catchy tunes which had me singing along and singing after the CD had finished. So far so good. However, I’m not sure all of these songs will work so well in a congregational setting. They’re almost too pop-song-like for their own good – catchy, but with confusing pauses designed to embarrass those who don’t know the song too well. Some would actually be quite tricky for your average kid to sing – I’m musical, so have almost no problem, but the best congregational songs are singable by the majority and I’m not sure these ones always will be. (Then again, I’d criticise the majority of songs we currently sing in our church along the same lines. I guess I’m just hard to please in this area.)
As to the album as something for kids to listen to (in the car etc.) I found myself feeling far more critical than I wanted to be. I wanted to really like this CD. I wanted to write a glowing review, but instead I found myself finding it slightly irritating after a bit. The reason is that it sounds, to my British-indie-rock-loving ear, too American. I hate using American in a bad way, but there’s just some typically American music that I don’t like. Production decisions on this album were very much American. This isn’t a bad thing for some people – for me, I found it very hard to recommend this recording, though I would probably recommend the songs.
All in all, kudos to Bob Kauflin and the team for wanting to do something like this. I like almost all of the lyrics (but I’m slightly fed up with church songs going on and on and on and on so Forever God’s chorus grated slightly), I think the songs are good for the musical and have no idea how an average church congregation (especially one full of kids) would cope, and I guess I’m just not a fan of the American pop-rock production though I can appreciate it’s well done.
To people chosing kids’ songs, either get hold of the album, or download the lead sheets and try them out on a piano. I’ll probably send the CD onto Richard Simpkin (music director at St Helen’s) for him to review next – he is the person whose opinion I value most on matters of music in church. To be honest, I’m not really qualified to write this review, but if Richard ever writes a review I’ll be sure to mention it here.
(There. Finally, I’ve got around to writing this review. It’s been far too long. Apologies to you all.)
Currently listening to: Sovereign One – Sovereign Grace Music
Matthew @ 16:20, March 25, 2006 to Reviews | Permalink | Comments (2)
The second manager I’ve had since starting at the camera shop left today. New Chris (as opposed to Old Chris, the first manager, who now runs a computer games shop) decided while on holiday abroad that he wasn’t coming back. So now, once again, the assistant manager is acting manager.
In other news, I got to play with a Canon 1Ds Mark II today. Pictures hopefully following shortly (it turns out they’re too complicated for the shop computer to understand…).
Matthew @ 19:37, March 23, 2006 to Diary | Permalink | Comments (4)
You type “exit” in the Firefox address bar to get it to quit.
Matthew @ 09:18, March 21, 2006 to Geek | Permalink | Comments (0)
Catch up on part one first.
Meanwhile, in another part of Oxford, someone else was pondering Life. He was also out wandering the streets, seemingly aimlessly. His steps had more purpose, however. He was killing time – waiting for someone. She would be coming out of the Kidlington police station in around half an hour’s time. Then, he was going to shoot her.
The instrument of his profession hidden in a bag on his back (not the kind of thing you hang around your neck in these parts of the world) he paced the pavements impatiently. He’d been waiting for this moment for years – waiting for the right opportunity. It terrified him in some ways that it was finally here. What if he messed up? Years of training himself up; countless hours aiming shots, until he could fire off a few successful rounds in seconds. There was a lot at stake – in some ways his whole career depended on it.
He glanced at his watch, and turned to walk towards the station. Now was the moment of reckoning.
The Kidlington police station was the headquarters for the whole region of the Thames Valley, reaching from the outskirts of London to the hills of the Cotswolds, in an elongated shape rather like a more rotund version of the river that gave it its name. As such, the officers inside were involved less with local cases, and more with the large cases in the area. There had recently been a series of attacks on police officers, and this was concerning many of the minds within. Organised crime was involved. Simultaneously and for no apparent reason, there had been a lessening of public sympathy towards the Force and their work. These things were possibly related to the young man currently approaching the DCI in charge of the investigation of the attacks.
Detective Chief Inspector Robbins left the station by the staff back door – and stopped abruptly as she noticed someone waiting for her. Her heartbeat quickened with the sudden surge of adrenaline. Now was the moment of reckoning.
Matthew @ 21:26, March 14, 2006 to Miscellaneous | Permalink | Comments (4)
I didn’t quite believe it at first but if you watch Disney’s Lion King you find all sorts of Communist imagery. There’s the song “Be Prepared”, which is all about revolution and assassinating the Royal family (like the Russian tsar Nikolas II), includes hyenas marching the goosestep and ends with Scar the lion on a pedestal with the Soviet sickle directly behind his head (okay, it’s a crescent moon, but it’s pretty obvious). Then there’s Scar’s conversation with Simba, when he tells him to run away (then tries to kill him) – almost like Stalin and Trotsky. Oh, and of course Stalin/Scar oversees a time where food gets less and less yet still claims everyone is better off under him than the previous lot. Just watch it carefully.
(In case you hadn’t realised, I watched the Lion King last night for the first time since I was seven and it was first released.)
Matthew @ 14:34, March 13, 2006 to Miscellaneous | Permalink | Comments (3)
Matthew: Once apon a time in a far away kingdom there lived a king and queen. Their castle was at the top of a hill, and a river flowed past from its source near the castle. One day, the king decided to go for a walk by the river. It was hot, and so the king decided to go for a swim. Little did he know that it was a magic river, and as soon as he entered the water he turned into a fish.
David: The queen, noticing the absense of her husband, decided to go to look for him. Down by the river, she discovered a fish with a crown on its head, who called out –
Matthew: “Darling! I’ve been turned into a fish! The river is magic!” The queen, distraught, decided to join the king as a fish and also went for a sw-
Mum: No no no! She sent for servants to bring the fish up into a pond in the castle courtyard, and advertised far and wide for a wizard to reverse the enchantment. No, wait! A prince to reverse the enchantment, who would then win the hand of the princess!
Matthew: So princes came (Mum: I wonder if in this day and age the queen would have used email?) from far and wide, to laugh at the unfortunate king – for the princess was only five, and they weren’t particularly keen on waiting ten years before they could marry her.
David: Unknown to everyone, the fish was not in fact the king, but an evil killer fish who had eaten the king (who hadn’t really turned into a fish) and stolen his crown. With the princes all assembled, the fish proceeded to eat everyone in sight.
Matthew: Meanwhile, in the nursery upstairs, the princess threw a tantrum because she wanted to get married and couldn’t see why her mother wouldn’t let her for another ten years. Most of the castle died a horrible death – and the fish lived happily ever after.
Mum: You know, when David said he needed a fairy tale for his German homework I was imagining something slightly more… serious?
Matthew @ 15:16, March 12, 2006 to Miscellaneous | Permalink | Comments (5)
This morning, while talking to a colleague at the library, he made reference to the first chapter of Genesis, citing it as the Hebrew equivalent of “unintelligible business jargon”. On the contrary, I feel the account to be lucid – God created. However, there is more in the passage – there is a whole area of debate in Christian circles over what the correct interpretation is. To go into that at length would take far too long so I won’t attempt it. However, last night I heard a talk by Denis Alexander, a Cambridge academic, who is one of the most prominent Christian critics of the intelligent design movement, part of which I will attempt to report here.
Dr Alexander split his talk into two parts, the latter of which was about intelligent design. In the first part, he explored the concept of design in biology, and came to the conclusion that the concept is not useful in scientific study. Believing in a designer does not help form any new theories of biology, nor does it suggest any new experiments. He explained, concisely, how evolution works, and showed that, far from being a chance process, evolution has very predictable outcomes. He explained many different methods of evolution, from gene duplication and mutation to merging populations. Unfortunately I am not biologist enough to reproduce his explanation – I am sure there are many books on the subject. (One of his own, Rebuilding the Matrix, was on sale at a bargain price, but I’ve yet to begin it.) He also talked of where the notion of design should be discussed, if it isn’t necessary for biological study. Design belongs in the religious and philosophical sphere, rather than the scientific.
One of the points he returned to were two arguments related to design. He explained the concept of natural theology (from Romans 1:18-20), and said that this was accepting design first and foremost, and arguing that there must be a god. This is in the Bible – it is a valid argument. However the other argument starts with the existence of God, as revealed in Scripture, and argues that the world was designed.
In the second part of his talk, he explored the intelligent design (ID) movement. The thesis of the ID movement is that there are some biological mechanisms that could not have formed using the Darwinian idea of natural selection – they are “irreducibly complex”. The often-quoted example is that of a bacterial flagellum (a bacterial “outboard motor”). It has over thirty constituent proteins that work perfectly together, but are useless if only one isn’t present. The ID proponents argue that such irreducibly complex systems point to the presence of a designer. Evolution explains most of life – but the creator has intervened at particular points. (There were various quotes to back this up, notably from Michael Behe, author of Darwin’s Black Box.)
Dr Alexander started by arguing that ID is not a valid scientific theory. Theories can be tested – ID cannot. Theories also lead to experiments, whereas ID does not. He then went onto explain how, during the past few years, scientists have discovered evolutionary pathways that could lead to the development of the flagellum, and other irreducibly complex systems (gene duplication being one such method). He also argued that life is so complex, that there is almost no system that does not fit the ID proponents’ definition of an irreducibly complex system.
His final point showed that the ID movement, rather than espousing a form of natural theology (“nature reveals the creator”), had actually a very poor understanding of the Bible’s teaching of creation. It is interesting that the Bible never mentions nature, but always creation. God continually upholds his creation – he didn’t just sit back and let evolution take his course. This seems to be what the ID movement are suggesting, however. Dr Alexander concluded that, whereas the ID movement believed in a “god of the gaps”, he believed in a God of everything, who had used evolution to create everything in the world.
Somehow relating the talk without relating the arguments in detail doesn’t quite lend itself to discussion. I really should have taken notes. I have his book to read though.
The most interesting thing I learnt in the talk was the creation theology of the ID movement. Philip Johnston, the founding father of ID, has written about “theistic naturalism”, a description of how evolution took place under God. Of course, naturalism by definition means without God, so the phrase is somewhat of an oxymoron. We can talk about “theistic evolution”, but not “theistic naturalism”. Evolution is not necessarily a naturalistic process. Dawkins and his ilk may feel evolution proves naturalism, but the hallmark of the creator seems to me to be stamped over the whole concept.
(For the record, I believe the Genesis account of the six days of creation to be a poetic explanation of creation for a nation with no concept of science. It was not written to explain how exactly the world was created – the Bible is not a scientific textbook. It was written to show that God created, and he created everything.)
Matthew @ 21:11, March 11, 2006 to Science/Nature | Permalink | Comments (1)
As ever, I seem to be able to waste so much time doing things I don’t need to, putting off the things I need to or have been meaning to do for ages. As a result, the following things have (or haven’t) happened:
I’d like to say that they will happen shortly, but as I’m currently meant to be doing some web design for a client and am prevaricating by posting here, it looks like if I’m to take the moral of my own entry I won’t really have a chance for a few days at least. Still, I have a day off Thursday and the project should be finished by then.
In other news, I’ve rediscovered dc Talk. Thanks to the staff at the Oakes Holiday Centre, Sheffield, for always playing it on full volume while washing up.
Currently listening to dc Talk – Fearless
Matthew @ 13:11, March 6, 2006 to Diary | Permalink | Comments (3)
Currently listening to Gorillaz – Feel Good Inc.
Matthew @ 18:40, March 4, 2006 to Top Five | Permalink | Comments (13)
The snow swirled around the heads of the language students tramping through the cold streets of Oxford, observed from the warm insides of Caffè Nero by a young man of around the age of twenty-five. He sprinkled sugar into his tall, frothy latte, watching as the white grains mimicked the flakes outside the window. His forehead pursed in pensive thought, the young man contemplated Life.
It is a generally acknowledged truth that coffee shops are the best place in the world to contemplate Life. The caffeine-soaked atmosphere; the smartly-dressed businesspeople, arty intelligentsia and aspiring yuppies found in every similar establishment; the complex code required even to order the simplest drink: all these things combine to create an environment recognisable everywhere – from the streets of Paris to the malls of America, the coffee shop is a universal phenomenon, and one held in high esteem by those of a philosophical bent.
The name of the young man in question was Jamie, a name that singled him out as a member of that dying breed – the middle class. Nineteenth century philosophers had a particular antipathy for such people, the bourgeois. Twentieth century philosophers mostly were middle class. Life went through cycles; like the world’s changing weather, so societies shifted. Jamie’s thoughts touched this and other subjects as the light grew dimmer and the coffee grew colder.
Suddenly, as if he had made a decision, he drained his mug and left the shop for the cold streets outside. The snow had stopped but people were hurrying past with their coats around their necks, expecting another flurry. Jamie buttoned up his, and turned the corner into the Covered Market.
In fact, Jamie hadn’t made a decision. His general demeanour just happened to appear decisive to the untrained eye. Coffee exacerbated the effect. His caffeine-wired mind dancing from subject to subject as his eyes jumped from shop to shop – resting for just a moment on Ben’s Cookies before leaping away to a less indulgent target.
The sounds of a fiddle player busking on the other side of the market mingled with the cries of the fishmongers, and Jamie, shivering slightly from the cold, paused in the middle of the market. His thoughts returned to the here and now from their wanderings, and he realised that he had no idea what he was doing there.
“Not again…”
Matthew @ 11:11, March 3, 2006 to Miscellaneous | Permalink | Comments (7)
