Audience of One

Cambridge photos etc.

Cambridge photoset on Flickr.

I’m now terribly excited as I have a Flickr Pro account, but there’s an iPhoto bug in the export feature which is losing aperture information. Never mind, I’m sure it’ll be fixed eventually.

In other news, I was looking back at my photos of the latest Oxford animal rights demonstration, and rediscovered the sign “Vivisection is satanic” that a couple of people had. Interesting. Also “Would Jesus torture God’s creatures?” Well, no – he wasn’t a scientist, he was the Son of God. He had far more important things to do than save humanity from physical sickness. It shows how much Jesus and Satan have been minimised in public awareness, though. Jesus is the do-gooder, Satan is the do-badder (not a word, but it’ll do). While this is true, that’s a rather minimal interpretation of their role.

Mark 11:15-18 is just one story that turns the public idea of Jesus on its head. He wasn’t just a meek do-gooder – he was far more radical. Calling a group of his critics a “brood of vipers” isn’t exactly a meek response.

Anyway, that wasn’t what I was planning to write about. In fact, I’m not sure I was planning to write anything. (Do you find that other people’s pictures aren’t always the most interesting things? I do sometimes, so I apologise.)

Matthew @ 11:49, April 29, 2006 to Miscellaneous | Permalink | Comments (4)

Cambridge

I just attended a biochemistry lecture at the University of Cambridge. Amazingly, considering I haven’t done chemistry for a year and biology for three (and never got more advanced than phenotypes/genotypes in genetics) I understood quite a lot of it (though can’t remember any of it). Physiology this afternoon – unfortunately I’m not allowed in the dissection that’s currently taking place. I got some annoyed looks for not taking any notes in the lecture – apparently it’s considered arrogant, when in fact in my case it’s the opposite.

Medicine looks like such a fun degree – what a pity I’d throw up in half the classes. I can watch House okay though (apparently it’s the new favourite TV show of all the medics along with Green Wing. Scrubs has not quite been usurped, but it’s not currently on…).

Incidently, Cambridge is a lovely city, but now I’m over sixteen I have to pay to get into the Botanical Gardens. Sacrilege! I spoke my first word in those gardens, and now they’re charging me to relive my childhood.

Matthew @ 10:51, April 27, 2006 to Diary | Permalink | Comments (9)

With apologies to Mark...

Mark: Do you read Daring Fireball?

Me: Read it? I’m a member!

Mark: Yeah, well John Gruber sent me an email the other day.

Me: Really? A proper email?

Mark: Yeah.

Me: Well, I got an email from an A-list Christian blogger the other day.

Mark: Who was that?

Me: Tim Challies. That was cool.

Mark: We’re such geeks, you know that?

Me: Uh huh.

Conversation slightly paraphrased due to my bad memory.

Matthew @ 10:47, April 27, 2006 to Miscellaneous | Permalink | Comments (4)

Final day (library)

I slept this afternoon so hopefully will be making a lot more sense than last night. I don’t think I should allow myself to post a blog entry when I’m that tired.

Today my employment ended with my other job, that of library assistant. I came home via an animal rights protest that I almost got caught up in (managed to find a side alley while they came past, and took a few pictures of their placards and costumes). I returned home to Return of the King; though I had other things I should have been doing, I was tired and wanted to relax a bit first.

Five hours later having fallen asleep, I was woken up for supper, which was promptly followed by Doctor Who. Now I’m reasonably awake, but had fallen asleep just as the Black Gate opened and really don’t want to do what I have to: namely, prepare a presentation about Japan for the kids’ group I help with Sunday mornings. Tomorrow is our final meeting before I go, and because of the school holidays and the late notice of organising the trip, half of them won’t know I’m leaving until tomorrow.

I think that’s all to report for now. Next week, I visit Nathan in Cambridge (where I will attend a biochemistry and physiology lecture, just so I can say “I’ve attended medicine lectures at Cambridge!”), as well as do all the final shopping for my trip. I’m also accompanying my brother for his AS music recital (or part of it at least) and giving a short talk to the CU that I ran for almost two years (but haven’t been back to since I left school). There’s also more thank-you letters to write, Japanese to learn and cross-cultural awareness books to read and digest. So when I say I’ve finished work, what I mean is I’ll have the time to do all of the work I should have been doing since I decided to go to Japan, but haven’t got round to because of paid employment. (Paid employment really does get in the way sometimes.)

My student loan application has been submitted, and in a month (while in Japan unfortunately) I will be applying for university accommodation. Uni draws near, but first Japan awaits. What fun! (That wasn’t sarcastic. I’m really looking forward to the next few months.)

Edit: Just reading back what I’ve written I realised I said “I think that’s all for now” and went on to write two paragraphs. For those of you with a greater knowledge of the English language than I have, is there a special word for this tendency? I seem to do it rather a lot. (Look, now there’s three paragraphs. I just never know how to stop writing.)

Matthew @ 20:17, April 22, 2006 to Diary | Permalink | Comments (4)

Final day

It was my final day at Jessops today. An end to targets. My last day at the library is tomorrow (so I should probably go to bed). This means an end to free CD rentals – and I’ve not even got onto the rest of Eels’ back catalogue! Disappointing. Still, no more selling extended warranties for me. And now for some sleep. (Once tomorrow is over the freedom will feel fantastic. At the moment, it’s still the “almost but not quite there” feeling.)

I wonder if I’ll finish Return of the King before I leave.

Man I’m tired.

Why, when I’m so tired, do I insist on staying up later? I think I feel like I don’t have enough energy to move – that it is somehow easier just to stay up later and later and later doing nothing than actually get some sleep. Stupid brain. Am I making sense?

Right. Bed. But first, Rice Krispies. Of all the food of this country, I will miss them the most. Oh, and sausages.

Currently listening to Switchfoot – Company Car (the lyrics were somehow appropriate as this song came on my iPod this morning…)

Matthew @ 22:48, April 21, 2006 to Diary | Permalink | Comments (6)

The story, continued

Have a read of part one and part two first.

“Now what weather do you imagine in that passage?” asked the tutor. He was short, balding, wearing a green tweed jacket and an undistinctive tie. He realised the stereotype attached to his subject (English) and profession (academic) and lived up to it as much as he could. The most recent novel on his office shelves was Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited. At home he read Harry Potter fan fiction (the novels themselves being hid inside Dickens’ dust jackets).

The student he was addressing looked down at the page of text in front of her. After last night, it was hard to concentrate.

“I imagine it’s cold but sunny – bright blue sky, maybe a few wispy white clouds…”

“And where in the text have you described this?”

The student suddenly realised what her tutor was getting at. “No – it’s not described in the text. I didn’t think it necessary.”

“Even after the snow of the previous section?”

The student paused. He had a point – sort of. Knowing what the weather was like was unessential to the scene, surely? She kept this to herself though – an argument over her use of pathetic fallacy (or rather its absence) would be forthcoming unless she stayed quiet.

“I guess you’re right.”

The tutor leaned back in his chair, taking the glass of port from his desk. “Right about what?”

The student looked up, suddenly confused. “About needing the description of the weather.”

“Did I say you needed the description of the weather?”

The student sighed resignedly and started to think. “No, but you implied it.”

“Right. It was implied. Just as in your text it was implied that the weather was snowy. Implication is powerful. Where does that leave you for the next scene?”

“Ah. Yes.” So he did have a point. The next scene, of course, relied on slightly more clement weather than snow. His point would have been obvious, had she not been very distracted (and not a little drunk) as she rushed it off after the party last night.

Last night! It wasn’t her fault she was out of it, what with the party replaying in slow motion every few minutes. The look on his face… she would have cried herself to sleep if she’d been able to sleep. As it was, she just cried.

Her tutor got up and went over to his bookcase. He started straightening a Dickens’ novel. “Right, Sarah, that’ll be all. Deadline is Tuesday. Any problems…” He left the offer hanging as usual. She got up, thanked him, and left the office, neglecting even to correct him – her name was Sandra, not Sarah.

The tutor grunted as she left the room. He’d called her Sarah last time – he was pushing it, using that name twice. She might notice that the forgetfulness was only for show. That said, she hadn’t corrected him this time. Maybe it didn’t matter so much.

He looked at his watch, then reached again for the port, and “Great Expectations”.

Matthew @ 20:38, April 19, 2006 to Miscellaneous | Permalink | Comments (2)

You know you've written too many thank-you letters when...

• You write “Thank you so much for my gift towards your trip to Japan”
• You start dating the letters in August as April starts with the same letter
• You write “Thank you” with a space at the start, and “thankyou” without at the end
• And vice versa
• You perfect writing the letter so that all the lines are perfectly justified
• You address envelopes and seal them without putting the letter inside
• You stamp envelopes sideways
• You stamp letters without envelopes
• You decide enough is enough and go to write a blog entry

Update:

• You spell “really” with a “w”
• You finish writing a text message and then start to write a letter in text-speak

Matthew @ 16:16, April 18, 2006 to Miscellaneous | Permalink | Comments (0)

Things I've seen recently

Elizabethtown

Cute but predictable, with some funny moments. Not as bad as people make out, but not as good as the few fans might argue.

Hustle (series 3)

Started off well, but after a couple of episodes almost felt like it was running out of ideas. This was solved by the next week though, and the finale was suitably impossible and slick.

Persuasion (1995 film)

Possibly I should have read the book first, but the film is well acted and well put together and (apparently) faithful to the original. I really enjoyed this film, but don’t have much to say on it. It was just really well done and well worth seeing.

Doctor Who (new series)

The first episode wasn’t quite as spectacular as some would have it, but was nonetheless a good start. I will miss most of the new series by being in Japan, but will have far more interesting things on my mind to care. A new series of Spooks on the other hand would be a sore trial – thank goodness that’s not until autumn. (What if others don’t want to watch it at uni though?)

Matthew @ 12:19, April 17, 2006 to Reviews | Permalink | Comments (10)

Gross misconduct!

Now they tell me! Apparently the fact that I accepted a gift from a customer because I’d (out of working hours) upgraded the firmware on his SLR for him means that I could be fired for gross misconduct. How bizarre.

In other news, we are now getting five pounds for each customer we persuade to take out the “EasyPay 24” deal, effectively meaning we are paid to encourage people to get into debt. (I’m probably guilty of gross misconduct for mentioning this actually – such is the nature of business.)

What else to report? Well, aside from us becoming Canon specialists (and destroying our reputation for unbiased advice at a stroke) there’s our store target of accessories. For every a hundred pounds of camera, we’re supposed to sell twenty-three pounds of accessories. Our manager (if we had one) could lose his job if he doesn’t get us to meet this target. So we’re supposed to get customers to buy the accessories.

Fair enough – digital cameras need accessories. But a quantified cost? Not really. Oh, and the target has increased since I started – it was seventeen for the first week I worked but then went up to twenty, and up to twenty-three after Christmas. The company claim that meeting the target guarantees good customer service, but then they increase the target… slightly inconsistant. We all know the target is because cameras make no profit whereas accessories do. They just disguise it under the banner of customer service. If that was their real priority we wouldn’t have a target, and would just be told to sell the customer what they need. (Oh, and the number of accessories needed for an a hundred pound camera is approximately thirty pounds. It’s almost identical for a two hundred pound camera. Just so you know.)

I’ve enjoyed a lot of the work, but I’m glad I’m leaving. The pressure to pressure customers into things is terrible. Ever since we were bought out and the Jessop family (gasp, I said the name of the shop!) were kicked out the company has gone downhill. Half the employees don’t know anything about cameras any more…

So, goodbye to Jessops from next week, if they don’t fire me for gross misconduct first (not that the assistant manager would care that I’d taken a gift – I told him about it months ago…)

Matthew @ 20:33, April 13, 2006 to Diary | Permalink | Comments (7)

Materialism and God's provision

This year was always to earn money for various things, such as my laptop, but when thinking about it my goals for the year were purely selfish. My thinking was “if I don’t buy this stuff this year, I’ll never have another opportunity – so I’ll take the opportunity”. The slight problem with this thinking is that I wasn’t talking to God about it, and that he would provide what I needed when I needed it (if I needed it), and that if what I was wanting to buy was necessary for my future then God would find a way for me to get it. (It may have been that God would use my earning this year for me to get it, but as I wasn’t even praying about this I couldn’t exactly find out.)

So this went on for a few months, and it’s only really now that I’ve taken the step of stopping work a few months earlier than I would have done to go on a trip across the world that I’ve really begun to see how wrong my thinking was.

Let me give one or two examples. At the beginning of the year it was my plan to buy a laptop, a hardware interface, microphones and software to enable me to set up my own portable recording studio. This would help me with my degree (as it involves this area of music) and would help me realise my ambition of recording my own EP or album.

The problem with this was that I didn’t really know whether I’d be able to record the album, or indeed need the equipment for the course. The university has its own recording facilities – what I was trying to do was emulate a friend of my cousin’s who had done a similar thing with his own equipment (albeit with the help of a grant, rather than all his own money). I should have thought about this – this guy had got a grant to help him record his album (don’t ask how), so if God wanted me to do the same, surely he could provide something similar? I was so caught up on the desire to own the stuff that I ignored this – I wanted to get my hands on it, and soon, even though there might not be any real need.

If God wants me to get that kind of equipment then he’ll find a way when I need it. At the moment, I don’t really need it, and there are more important things to do with the money. (I still want to record my own album though, but I think I’ll wait till I’ve written some songs before I try and take that any further.)

A second example. Having bought my SLR (possibly a mistake, but now I’ve got it there’s nothing I can do) I had an extensible camera system. With an SLR you can swap lenses around. The lens my camera came with is pretty rubbish, so I’d love to get a new one. I’d been trying to decide for months whether or not to buy this lens I found (28mm prime f/1.8 – beautiful).

Finally, I realised that I didn’t need it, and that there were far more important things to spend my money on (like a keyboard so I can do gigs at uni – there’s still some things I do believe I should be buying). It was a tough decision, but I felt it was the right one – having been ignoring common sense talking about the lens for the past three months.

Two days later I was offered an even better lens (28-70mm L series f/2.8, worth £900 new!) for £140. Bargain! Surely that must mean God had seen my godly decision revoking the former lens and given me an even better one instead? He’d wanted me to give over my finances to him and I had, so now he knew I’d learnt my lesson he’d reward me. Right? Of course not. The first decision was relatively easy to make as the lens was really more than I could afford. This one was affordable, in fact a real bargain – that much harder to say no to. I still needed to learn the lesson.

After a couple of days thinking and praying about it, I decided not to buy the lens. (As my mum said, if I needed a lens like that in the future then God would provide a way when I needed it. This may have seemed like my only opportunity, but God would make other opportunities if it was something I needed.) I went into Dixons where my friend who’d offered me the lens was working, and told him. His immediate response was “Okay – would you like to borrow it when you go to Japan then?”

So God has provided a professional quality lens for my trip to Japan, without me spending a penny. As ever, it’s not what I was expecting at all, and I hadn’t even really been praying about it. Still, there you go. Finally having given up the materialism of wanting stuff (be it music or photography stuff), God provided for me anyway.

I’m not quite sure what the point of this entry is, but I quite like the story of the lens for some reason. It’s a really insignificant example of God’s provision.

Matthew @ 22:59, April 9, 2006 to Diary | Permalink | Comments (0)

Travels

I should probably mention it now, seeing as I’m leaving in three weeks time. I’m going to Japan for two and half months to work for a church in north Honshu. I’m not quite sure what I’m going to be doing there, or where I’m staying, but it’s all being organised and I’m sure I’ll find out in good time.

I’ve yet to discover what this means for my blog. I’d love to keep writing while in Japan (I’m sure there’ll be many things to write about) but I don’t know what internet access I’ll have, or indeed how much time I’ll have. I could be on dial-up, only able to get on for a few minutes every week or so to check email. We shall see.

If the worst comes to the worst, I will at least let you know. Hopefully though, Japan being the nation of high technology that it is (and considering the emailing habits of friends of my parents who’ve been at the same church for a few weeks) I will be online regularly. Whether I will be awake enough in the evenings to make sense I don’t know – I am going there to work after all.

So anyway, Japan awaits. Thought you ought to know.

Matthew @ 19:51, April 8, 2006 to Diary | Permalink | Comments (14)

The final straw

I saw this, and thought “Now is the right time to switch”.

Matthew @ 09:00, April 6, 2006 to Geek | Permalink | Comments (25)

Last night

“How many countries in the world end in ‘-stan’? I’ll give you a clue: nine. [Pause] But what are their names?”

Last night’s party was one of those evenings that works so well, even though you haven’t planned anything at all. It was almost one of those frustrating evenings when everyone cancels at the last minute, but wasn’t. (We even had someone who was supposed to be in London turn up for twenty minutes at the end.)

Three points from the evening. Firstly, vegetable crumble is fantastic. If you think crumbles have to be sweet, think again. Secondly, I’ve been promised a harp lesson by Sophie who I somehow forgot actually played it. This is very good news, as I will finally be able to understand how it actually works. Thirdly, I’ve discovered that I really am unique (at least among my male friends) in finding discussion of shopping and clothes interesting (though only up to a point). And on that topic, the final quote of the evening (from Nathan, about a lovely green scarf Xanna was playing with):

“Is that a towel round your neck?”

Currently listening to Daft Punk – Digital Love

Matthew @ 07:52, April 1, 2006 to Diary | Permalink | Comments (7)