Mutterings - June 29

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Delicious :: Menu
2. Element :: Periodic (Table)
3. Cohesion :: Stick
4. Course :: Main
5. Blister :: Heel
6. Incomplete :: Definition
7. Socks :: Cat
8. Instruction :: Order
9. Pill :: Dose
10. Impressive :: Truth

Teaser Tuesday - June 24

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

'Henry, so nice to see you again.' Mr Okabe wore grey flannel pants and a hat that made him look like Cary Grant. Like Keiko, he spoke beautiful English.

Another one from Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford. I think this is heading toward the school of Dan Brown.. I spotted this sentence on p 238 'Even though near the end, as wonderful as it sounded, she'd had little appetite.' - the end is a character's death and the 'wonderful' relates to the menu in the previous sentence, it's not the end that is wonderful! I think that's just a little convoluted! What sort of hat does Cary Grant wear?

Mutterings - June 22

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Closed :: Pass (or the Cat & Fiddle Rd!)
2. Tourists :: Cameras
3. Footsteps :: in the snow - the Debussy prelude, here's Michelangeli playing it
4. Ginger :: Spice
5. Way :: Roman
6. Designer :: Handbag
7. Mattress :: Lumpy
8. Disaster :: McGonagall
9. Chips :: Fabrication
10. Campaign :: Banners

Teaser Tuesday - June 18

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

'I mean they weren't just Chinese, they were super-Chinese, if you know what I mean. They were like ice cubes in America's melting pot, you know - they had one way of doing things.'

Jamie Ford's Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet - our book group book of the month. A tale of the Chinese and Japanese communities in Seattle during World War II and its aftermath. Bit of a breathless style so far, I will see whether I settle into it! (Yes I'm late for Tuesday again!)

Mutterings - June 15

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Today :: Redhead (Today is a long running BBC radio news programme - Brian Redhead who lived locally presented it for many years)
2. Lips :: Kissed - and I think this poem of Edna St. Vincent Millay
3. Seethe :: Anger
4. Desired :: Afar
5. Patrol :: Border
6. Nails :: Cross
7. Pastry :: Choux
8. Jacket :: Metal
9. Button :: Holes
10. Feel :: Nerves

Teaser Tuesday - June 10

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

He wore a pair of nylon shorts and a green T-shirt that said "World Cup Soccer". ... Logic would dictate that this child would be selling something as well, children were industrious in Manaus: hawking fans and postcards and butterflies in wooden boxes, but his hands were empty.

Cheating slightly - two sentences from near the start of a page but it is my current reading and the conjunction of that, World Cup and Manaus was irresistible! Another teaser from Ann Patchett's State of Wonder -linking back to my previous teaser from this book.

Mutterings - Jun 8

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Fringe :: Beyond the..
2. Helicopter :: Rotor
3. Netflix :: App
4. Humor :: Cartoon
5. Niece :: Nephew
6. Summer :: Lazy
7. Crazy :: Paving
8. Arrival :: Birth
9. Nipple :: Suckle
10. Code :: Machine

Machuca - 2 bike rides

Trailer Machuca from Wood Producciones on Vimeo.

Last night we saw Machuca at Macc college, it's a film set in the dying days of Allende's Chile before the military coup. It tells of a friendship between 2 boys one privileged the other from a shanty town. The second is one of a number of boys put in the private school by the Roman Catholic headmaster much to the horror of the parents. It's a growing up story beautifully acted by the young characters, harrowing at times but a real understanding of living it difficult times. I thought the sports field scene was rather lifted from Kes but the scenes on the bike had real power particularly the concentration on the face of Matías Quer (Gonzalo) as he grows up. The film is dedicated to Gerardo Whelan the real life headmaster of a school in Santiago who taught Andrés Wood (the director), here's an interview with him.
I'm afraid the trailer doesn't have subtitles - the initial snippet has Pedro Machuca - the shanty town lad asking Gonzalo if all those shirts are his, the collisions between the cultures are very well done.

My journey of faith (so far!)

Earlier this year I was asked to write an article for the church magazine on my journey of faith. Here it is.

I spent my early years in Birkdale on the Lancashire coast, my parents were occasional church attenders and I attended a Congregational (now URC) church there, I still remember being asked into the pulpit aged about 6 as part of a sermon being asked to read something!
As I grew older and busier church was left behind; I first moved to Macclesfield in the 60's when pharmaceutical companies set up there and my father moved with them. Eventually I returned to belief with becoming more independent and thinking around issues of significance, through looking at a meaning beyond ourselves and things like music and the vastness of mountain scenery were instrumental in that; I came to accept the reality of faith and a God I could then name.

After University I spent a few years in computing and then threw that over to join Scargill (a Christian community running holidays and conferences) and possible ordination. Scargill was a time of learning, of seeing me and other Christians values in a very hot house environment. Whilst there I met Beth we married and after a time in Leeds we moved to Macclesfield, we have 2 grown up children.

The last few years have been rather bumpy, events on various levels - family crises, losses of jobs (one very dubious) I'm currently looking around for employment, which in my 60s, has not been easy!

I have tried to follow the call of Christ particularly on justice issues - I was involved as a Traidcraft rep for over 20 years which helped me to think about issues of development and trade. For a number of years I've been a member of Changing Attitude a group which seeks to help the church to think positively about issues of sexuality. Both these calls have cost in terms of commitment and putting my self in difficult positions.

In the last few years I have gained much from the St Michael's contemplative prayer group - being silent in the presence of God and others to allow God to speak rather than a putting of my many concerns and agendas. Silence has its challenge but meeting God there without the defence of words makes me aware of our dependence upon him.

I am a Reader - someone who preaches & takes services. For many years this has been an opportunity to minister but also, I hope, to give time and space for me to hear God's call to me.

I think to draw together these thoughts as I've journeyed I've tried to meet God in the world as it is (and that's usually painful) and to hear His voice even in the noise and challenges we face everyday.
There's been a lot of long term journeys in the above, journeys are messy things it would be nice to arrive! But for the moment I try to find God in the journey, CS Lewis wrote `I believe in Christianity as I believe in the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but by it I see everything else.' Sometimes the messy nature of what's around us may obscure the view but the stops where is it clear and seeing the panorama give me confidence that the journey is worth while.

Mutterings - June 1

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Travel :: [broadens the] Mind
2. Glitz :: Glamour
3. Bark :: Tree
4. Wicked :: Witch
5. Fifth :: Amendment (not being an American I have only a sketchy idea what this is!)
6. Photography :: Darkroom
7. Yellow :: Belly
8. Counter :: Shop
9. Country :: Nation
10. Speech :: Figure of

Open Gardens

St Michael's Macclesfield is running an Open Garden event on 5/6 July this year in aid of the `Raising the Roof' fund. As part of that our (well Beth's) garden will be open - you can find the full list of gardens (as a pdf) here. Tickets are available on the day or you can get one from me. The photo is of our garden at the moment, no doubt things will be different in July! Hoping for good weather....

View Open Gardens in a full screen map

Updating Ubuntu

Earlier in the week I got around to updating the desktop to the new release of (K)Ubuntu 14.04 - I run the version using the KDE desktop - though I have lots of the ordinary Ubuntu packages installed too. Around 50 mins from the projected end of update the machine locked up - I was doing various other things at the time on it which may have contributed to this. No response to anything from mouse/keyboard - the sysrq magic keys had no effect either, but I was running an ssh server on the dekstop so I logged in remotely and rebooted.
When it came up again the boot screen appeared to think it was running 14.04 (rather than the previous 13.10) however at the login screen neither keyboard nor mouse got any reaction (and the ssh server wasn't running the machine hadn't registered with the router). I tried re-booting a couple of times with no effect.
I then broke into GRUB (at boot - press down the shift key) and booted the minimal 13.10 install (still there!) and ran the dkpg fix option (I previously tried minimal with 14.04 which again failed) which ran to completion. A reboot then gave me a working system!
Looking at the upgrade log file the last lines of /var/log/dist-upgrade/term.log read as follows:

Setting up openssh-server (1:6.6p1-2ubuntu2) ...
Installing new version of config file /etc/init/ssh.conf ...
Installing new version of config file /etc/pam.d/sshd ...
ssh stop/waiting
ssh start/running, proce

Yes it stops there! I had it down as a problem with the NVIDIA graphics driver, this might suggest something else - I wasn't connected via ssh when I was running the upgrade so it wasn't a a case of the connection dying. Still puzzled but putting this here in case it helps anyone else.
The other problem I found (so far!) is that Ctrl-Space doesn't appear to do anything - I use this key combo a lot - in Emacs. So it was a bit painful, a websearch reveled that ibus was the problem so I ran ibus-setup and stopped that grabbing Ctrl-Space for 'next input method' and assigned it to a different key.
So far everything else appears to work...

Mutterings - May 25

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Apple :: Tart
2. Queasy :: Nausea
3. Cheeks :: Blow
4. Nostril :: Snort
5. Tee shirt :: Slogan
6. Enough :: is Enough (a book about over exploitation of the Earth from the 1970s)
7. Maybe :: Perhaps
8. How? :: Paleface
9. Palace :: Garden
10. Satellite :: Telstar (shows my age!)

Teaser Tuesday - May 20

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

'I wanted to let you in on something very serious. The pope just phoned me from the Vatican, really pissed off at you.'

from Andrea Camilleri's The Shape of Water - our book group book of the month. An Inspector Montalbano mystery - here's a review. Needless to say that wasn't the Pope....

Mutterings - May 19

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Submit :: Concede
2. Evidence :: Partial
3. Investing :: Time
4. Awkward :: Posture
5. Body :: Count
6. Extension :: Plug
7. Period :: Free (that goes back a long way to school!)
8. Support :: Bridge
9. Carried :: St Christopher (that's probably a combination of this and the previous one!)
10. Anxious :: Nerves

Teaser Tuesday - May 13

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

Oh, Anders! To have been sent off on a mission you were never right for. To be regarded after your death as an error of judgement

I'm in the midst of a re-read of Ann Patchett's State of Wonder. I'm not sure if I hoped that this would be our book group's book of the month - it's on the list we draw randomly from.. but I picked this book up in a charity shop last week and thought I'd enjoy owning/re-reading it. Here's my original teaser, comments and a link to the author talking about it.

Mutterings - May 11

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Warning :: Gale
2. Resume :: Restart
3. Meeting :: Business
4. Squares :: Diamonds
5. Alternate :: Current
6. Prison :: Iron Bars (... nor iron bars a cage)
7. Swamp :: Monster
8. Games :: Leisure
9. Months :: Years
10. Share :: Generosity

First walk of the summer season

We were the only walkers this evening so cut the walk short but not before a good view across the fields.

Teaser Tuesday- May 6

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

And a day late...

In the middle of the trip
he picked some ripe lemons
and was throwing them at the water
until the water seemed golden.
And in the middle of the trip,
under the branches of an oak treee
the police came along and took him away.

Another from The Journals of Thomas Merton 'Run to the Mountain' - a bit of a cheat as here Merton is quoting from Lorca's poem The Arrest - Prendimiento de Antoñito el Camborio - here's the whole poem. Difficult in view of the circumstances of Lorca's own death.

Mutterings - May 4

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Death :: Skeleton
2. Skirt :: Avoid
3. Lust :: Pant
4. You :: Me
5. Repeat :: Ad Infinitum
6. Exhaustion :: Mental
7. Obstruction :: Road Block
8. Secret :: Squirrel
9. Shiny :: New
10. Tell :: William