Computer Brains

My internet connection has been down all week and shows no signs of being mended so here I am in the computer room. I'm getting rather worried as to how good I'm getting at Tetris, its all my computer will run properly at the moment; old dos games. but its still kinda fun, i even mangaed to beat the computer in a 2 player mode, thats like impossible! Also I've just discovered Street fighter, see when i was younger and all the nintendo and Sega stuff was out on the consoles I couldn't play them because we only had a pc, this was good in a way becasue instead my upbringing encorporated such excellent games as Commander Keen (1-7), crystal caves and galactix, all of which i have now rediscovered thanks to a wonderful (although a bit dodgy) disk I got off ebay, 300 freeware dos games and emulated dos games for about £4. So thats what i'm doing alot of now, playing old games that I never had done before, who needs Physics accelerated ultra high definition graphics enhansed real-time playability, when you can have two pixelated anime characters with over-exaggerated features throwing fireballs at eachother?!

Number 5..........

.........Oh what a flippin' surprise.

One of the oddest days of my short little existance

Well It all started with an e-mail; Do you want to come and pick up your guitar from me in person, : o Would I?!
So off i trundle at eight in the morning down to new street (note this is my first ever solo train journey!) to catch the connection to euston. The plan was to meet at about lunchtime, just after midday, well i got there and by the time i found the hotel it was about quarter to, so I told the receptionsist my buisness and she sent me to sit in the bar, with a complimentary glass of juice (how nice)
Well i waited, and waited, and waited, for about two hours, i guessed his fligt was delayed or something, he was coming straight from the plane. But then, looking out the window i noted a coach pulling up (he was with a big group travelling around the uk) and out of the crowd i noticed, the face you see in the photo, the most excellent guitar dude of them all; Bob Hartman! This was it, i'd get to meet him, so all excited i got up walked to the door, just to see the whole lot of them walking down the street! i didn't want to intrude (although with hindsight it wouldhave been better) so i let them go, only to return another hour later. By this time it was like 3 o'clock, but it was all worth it. The party of yanks poured into the hotel and i saw him leant up against a wall, i looked over to catch his glance, he saw me but looked away (he's so shy!) then I went up and smiled again and in his funny little american accent said "Matt? hey!" then i got to shake his hand! I'll never wash it again! (joke) well he was on a tight schedule so all this was a litte rushed, his smile kind of faded and said "i got some bad news" (oh dear) "they lost all our luggage...." (AARGH!) no way! no guitar! :'''( well that was aboutthe sum total of our conversation, I got a photo, but also have 23other pictures to take before I can develop the film. All in all the experience left me a bit unbalanced really, I was absolutley gutted about not getting the guitar, but it evened out the fact that i achived one of my life long aims! Plus the journey back was rather nightmarish, well, more boring, but the basic outcome was this; I've only just got in! its like 10p.m.!
However, even though I didn't get my guitar (i will later) i got to meet Bob Hartman, the dude who I can talk about for hours! Founder of my most favourite band ever, one of the excellent people who decided to begin the christian Rock music genre, an excellent person all round, but you know, you wouldn't think it. To look at he's no different to any other guy. And thats what's so cool about him, he's just an average Joe none of the fame has changed him at all, and yea, he is famous. Come on, how many people can say that they've played gigs in from of over 10,000 people recorded over 22 successful albums & kept a band alive for over 33 years despite unprecidented opposition from the industry and public!? You wouldn't think that that guy has written hundreds of real head banging rock songs, he's kind of quiet and introverted, a real thinker, but content and happy, kind of reminds me of me a little (well the quiet bit at least) I just wish I could play guitar and write songs like him! It was excellent, really cool, although it was short and rather uneventful, it'll take a very long time to forget today!

of burnt bridges and opened doors...

Hi there. Decisions, i hate them, although without them i'd be rather robotronic, so i'm kind of glad i have the freedom, but why do they have to be so difficult to make!!??
Well I've made a few anyway, hopefuly they'll work out for the best, i really hope they do. Well for one, i'm not going to America, well not just yet anyway, i can't really warrant a whole year out so thats not going to happen. There was a suggestion that I could go just over this summer but its all kind of too short notice, and expensive and for another it just fells kind of, well not right, not at the moment, sounds odd but hey, its me! So instead i'll see what happens over this next year and maybe go next summer. Give me some moretime to plan and what have you. Then there's the biggy. The, in a sense, "life altering" one:
I'm moving house, i'm leaving, swanning off to another uni, in York.
Well, i know there's tonnes of different opinions on the subject, but if nothing else at least it was my own decision for once!!
I'll be sad to go, things probably wont ever be the same again, but change is a good thing, its healthy. I'll miss my friends here, and all the security and things that i've just got too used to. But it'll be an experiece if nothing else, and thats what life's about, isn't that right Suzie?
Its a bit scary, but kind of exciting too. I'm looking forward to it, in a strange sort of way, its like that weird enjoyment you get just before you go over the edge of the biggest drop on a rollercoaster. but saying that, the biggest rollercoaster i've ever been on, was the "hungry catterpillar" when i was a kid, but you get the idea!?
Well have fun everyone. Don't forget me when i'm gone!!!

I'm no good with HTML

Ok, can someone please tell me how to insert some HTML into this blog?! its not so much as getting it in there (i can copy and paste!!) but its where to put it. I tried and all i got was a messed up looking screen, all too big or small or bits missing. I want one of those map thingys that tell you who's reading (yes i know its not very exciting if its all just form one place!!) I've signed up and and they gave me the script to copy but where does it go and under which heading!?!?

Help!

Priminister's Question time...

1. Has there ever been a religion....

Well If we're talking in terms of certified religions, not the wierd cults or sects, then I suppose the nearest I can think of is Maybe Buddhism and Hinduism. The process of re-incarnation doesn't necessarily involve an "after"life since you're constantly being reborn in to this one, however If a hindu lives a perfect life they eventually Do believe their Atman (soul) becomes part of Brahman (god) and the same with a buddhist eventually they achieve Nirvana and become part of the transcendent (but not god) So as far as I know, thats as close as you get.

2. Would christianity still ....

Doubtless that the Roman empire did alot to spread chrisitnaity. However it was spreading before that, Paul (apostle) did loads to bring it to the further western world before he even got to Rome, and it was permeating through the Jewish culture of the time also. Maybe if it wasn't for the empire it wouldn't have got so far so fast but they were not at all the sole reason for its survival, indeed in the early years it was they who were doing most to destroy it! So i would say it helped, but without it now we'd probably just not have catholicism (whether thats good or bad, well...)

3. p=np

Is this your own version of a string theory?

4. The band.

Well officially I have no band. However, we who like to get together and jam once in a while and play the occasional "gig" At chuch events and in the local park, consist of: The beautiful and talented Rachel Fisher, normally on Keys and backing vocal, however she does sometimes sing lead, play flute, play clarinette (not so often) and now sax too. Then there's Stuart Hood, affecionately known as Stu/Stuie. he plays bass, writes songs and once tried to sing lead, he didn't try again. Then there's Dan Shirley. Our Drummer, he once walked into a library and asked to buy some drumsticks, the librarian responded "you do know this is a library?" so Dan whispered back "oh sorry, can I buy some drumsticks?" Then over the years we havehad various backing vocalists, why or where they come from I don't know, they just seem to turn up when they wish and unfortunately (no offence) sing out of tune, out of time and have little or no expression, and balme it on me when it goes wrong!!! And finally, there's me. Rhythm and lead guitar, electric and acoustic. i also for some reason unbeknownst to me get put on lead vocals : / they always make fun of hte amount of effects pedals I own, there is some truth in the fact that I use them to disguise terrible playing, but they shouldn't laugh, i'm usually the organiser of stuff too, and the one who has turned up to every practice (nobody else has) and when needed fills in for the bass, or drummer. However that leaves no guitar but hey. So thats a brief overview ofthe band. Unfortunately we have no name. any suggestions??

4. yes I do know someone who can teach you mandarin chinese, her name is sally, however she at the moment is living in china and unable to give lessons.

5. ... Belly laugh

Well firstly you need to develop a proper belly, a beer belly, therefoe you need to drink more ale!!! alternatively buy one of these: http://www.firebox.com/index.html?dir=firebox&action=product&pid=1388&src_t=cat&src_id=party

Then once you have developed a proper paunch, i think it comes naturally.

The afterlife

OOOooOOOOoooh Spooky!
So does anyone actually know what's gonna happen to them for certain when they die? Even better, put up your hand if you've ever died but then lived to tell about it? Anyone? Anyone at all?
Nope? Ok then, so what does happen to all those lovely people who've lived perfectly good lives but then died, do they deserve to be eternally punished? Could God not find it in his heart to be comapssionate towards these people? Again, any takers to answer a question that is ultimately unanswerable? Anybody that sure of themselves that they feel qualified to answer for God himself? No? Ok then.

Basically Sarah my friend, I don't know, i don't know the mind of God. But how about we take our view of "Hell" a little differently.

This place of the damned has been dramatised by many people over many centuries, none of which had ever been there (and it's up to God whether they ended up there!) Some exemplified "fire and brimstone" to try and scare their poor peasant parishioners into comingto church and giving them more money. Other people have let their imaginations run wild from the biblical referencces to a place of "weeping and gnashing of teeth" where restless souls are eternally tormented by red demons with horns and a pitchfork. Well, i've read the bible form cover to cover, and bits in between, and well, I can't find any of that in there.

In classical Jewish culture there was however this one place, known as 'Sheol' the "abode of the dead". This was traditionally a place underthe earth where everyone goes when they die. Thats just it, everyone ends up there, good and bad, its just a place of a nothingness, not full of joy, nor endless torment.
Well i suppose those souls have got to go somewhere!
There was also the valley of Gehinnom. This was a real place outside of Jerusalem, where all the cack from the town was thrown and burnt. It also was once used for Child sacrifices to heathen gods, and obviously not the nicest place to be. It was the mixture of these two places that brought about the concept of what we in English now call Hell. Whether or not that is a correct definition and idea of the afterlife, still remains to be seen, i suppose untill its too late, for some people.

The significance of this is firsly that if when people die then they go to "Sheol" then this is neither a punishment nor a blessing, its just what happens, its the mechanism by which the universe is kept in spiritual balance so that there aren't millions of floating souls around the place. However more imporatntly, and more amazingly, is what you get if you switch the focus; you see, many people look and see God as damning people to eternal punishment if they don't do as he wants, and blessing them with eternal joy if they do. Well forget about the damnation, God doesn't buy into that i'm sure. He's just and holy and righteous, he knows what he's doing so obviously his decisions are right, but take the view that if you die you go to the same place as everyone else, well thats pretty annoying if you've spent your whole life trying to do what God wants you to do (this is very simplified you understand!) So instead he lets you go to heaven, where he is, thats a place where no one has ever been able to get to before unless they've been absolutely completely perfectly sinless. hmm, so i guess that counts me out!

So then AGAIN God switches the focus, to Jesus. with the death of Jesus all the crap that anyone had ever put into their life and was ever to put into their lives was sorted out, was paid for, was atoned for, what this meant was that anyone could get into heaven and wouldn't have to end up in sheol, instead of living in a state of "limbo" (i use the term very loosely) they actully get to enjoy their afterlife in the most perfect place ever created, now i think that sounds more like my kind of thing!

Now that leaves many other unanswered questions I know, and if you really want me to explain or ask them to me then i'll try, but basically to sumarise: The afterlife has always been focused on punishment, I think the main thing to say is that for one nobosy knows for sure, but what I believe is that punishment is not the focus of life after death. Its enjoyment. if you go to wherever, the same place as everyone else then thats a kind of default, if you deserve so much to be punished then thats up to God and like I said, i'm sure he knows what he's doing with that. But otherwise, if God wants you in heaven then that should be celebrated, that shoudl be the focus, thats the amazing thing.

But Hey, i'm Not God, I'm no biblical scholar, i'm not much of a theologian and i've never died and gone around the afterlife to see what its all about so feel free to question me. But God is forgiving, He is right, He is loving and compassionate, He understands all this much better than we ever could, and through the death of his own Son, if he wants to atone for us, why should we deny the gift? why shouldn't we joyfuly accept it and stop worrying about eternal punishment. The debt has already been paid in full, whether you feel like you deserve it or not its been done already. So now all you got to do is say yes. And stop worrying!

Well thats what I think.

Writers Block

I want to post here, but can't think what, therefore, I propose that someone suggest a topic, i'll select the best and then write my next post about my opinions on it and if i don;t have any opinions, i'll write about how i could form them. now who secondeth the motion?