Printers >:-(

Why would you design a printer that refuses to print in black and white because there was a problem with the cyan ink cartridge?

Gods can't die

In Stargate, they spend a lot of time fighting against false 'gods', and trying to persuade the people they have enslaved that they are not gods at all. Rightly so.

One of the things that sometimes convinces them is that a god can't be tortured, suffer fear or pain; and a god can't die.

Big problem with that argument - the real God was, and the real God did!

Of course, there were two huge differences. As he said, 'I lay down my life - only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.'*

I'm glad my God chose to die. I'm glad 'it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him'.**

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*John 10 v 17-18

**Acts 2 v 24

Words

If I'd said to you thirty years ago that there was a troll sending me spam on the web and I was going to change my browser, you would have had me committed to an insane asylum.

~Mark Forsyth on Word of Mouth BBC Radio 4

Poetry

Finally Free, Rend Collective

Arwen

Sorting out heaps of paper :-(

Found this sketch I did based on my mum mishearing me referring to Arwen* as half-elven :-)

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*From the Lord of the Rings, in case you have no idea what I'm on about.

Fantasy

I believe that fantastic literature has a unique ability to slide past our set opinions and prejudices, and encourage us to consider moral and spiritual truths in a new way. The classic fairy tales and fantasy stories are about the struggle between a simple, humble good and a powerful evil, and they constantly remind the reader that human effort is not enough — that supernatural intervention is required before good can triumph.What could be more Biblical?

~RJ Anderson in this interview

Autumn Equinox

Really cute doodle on Google today.

Echoes the one they had in spring (for some reason you sometimes need to click this one to see the animation):

If you click on them to view them large, and then use the arrow keys to flick back and forward between the two, you can see clearly how it's the same picture, but different colours.

áéíóú

If you hold down the Alt Gr key on your computer and press a vowel, you get the vowel with an acute accent over it.

~foliation

Exfoliation means to remove dry skin.
Defoliation means to remove leaves.
This is interesting.

Quote

There ought to be a sign posted in every Christian bookstore that reads: "The views expressed in these books do not necessarily express the views of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."

~Voddie Baucham Jr.

Procrastination

Does time spent putting off doing something count as time spent doing it?

Because the endless faffing seems to be a necessary preliminary to finally getting round to doing it.

Have done the thing. Greatly relieved.

Creation/evolution

The most useful thing I have heard anyone say about the differing views Christians have on this subject, was Chris Wright at Spring Harvest in 2006.

Unfortunately I didn't note down his exact words, just rough notes. But it was something like:

Christians who believe in a young earth etc shouldn't assume that those who don't lack integrity as to the Bible.

Likewise, those who believe in theistic evolution shouldn't assume that those who don't lack intelligence as to science.

Good advice. Remembered it for 10 years!

Rainbow ribbons

A fun RAINBOW craft we did a couple of years ago.

You will need:

• Jelly bracelets
• Carrier bags in the 7 colours of the rainbow: Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo (dark blue), violet (It may be tricky to find all the colours - I used a pale lime green M&S bag for 'yellow', which was sufficiently different from the more turquoisy colour I used for 'green'. WHSmiths bags are good for 'indigo') Don't worry if there's a little text on the bags.

Preparation beforehand:
Cut the carrier bags into strips about an inch or so wide. Easier if you do this horizontally (I didn't!) Now you have loops. Cut each loop in one place so you get a long strip.

What to do:
The kids will likely need a lot of help with this!

• Each child chooses a jelly bracelet. 
• Tie each plastic strip on to the bracelet using a larks head knot (see video) - make sure they're in order: Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet
  
• Run around and have fun!

Rainbow

The word RAINBOW has the exact right number of letters to make each letter a different colour of the rainbow. That is useful.

Quick drawing process walkthrough

I made a wee video showing how I draw my Lamp Bible Pictures illustrations. Never done anything like this before. Could have been more polished, but didn't want to take forever!

And here's the (mammoth) PowerPoint.

Imagination

The children were decorating their folders with stickers. I'd brought a handful of stickers from several packets (space, sealife, flowers etc), but I wondered if I had enough of each category. I needn't have worried.

6 year old girl: The seahorse is attacking the spaceship. The dinosaur is defending it.

A land flowing with milk and...

...marmalade*.

At least, that's how the kids at Sunday School interpreted the props Naresh brought to tell the story with yesterday :-)

They also thought the figs were onions.

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*See here