One of my favourite things to order from an eating establishment is a ploughman’s lunch. It sounds like an ancient meal, something from a simpler, agricultural time. I remember buying a book that collected a series of sermons from Charles Spurgeon from the 1800s – the John Plowman talks – there was a whole group of …
Category Archives: long
lessons and seahorses
I was surprised to see a facebook event invite from a uni friend to a memorial service for his wife. With his dark sense of humour, and their relative youth, I thought this was just an amusing way to get in touch. It was not. Life was, in this case, demonstrated as far more fragile …
gap in the schedule
Normally a gap in the schedule would encourage me to take some time and write something up, but this time around – the end of my second uni subject and a few weeks’ break before the third one starts, my son’s tenth birthday party and the lead-in to Father’s Day, and full-time work – it …
We track our sleep now
In this podcast interview with Moira Weigel surveying the landscape of dating apps, and looking back at the history of “dating” – how women joining the workforce changed the nature of courtship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, one idea in particular stood out to me. Measurement. We are trying to make everything into …
turning 40
Ten years ago, I carved out a Saturday and invited whoever wanted to turn up to an all-day cafe crawl. For the transition from 39 to 40, life is a little differently structured. We had a couple of family events the weekend before my birthday, lunch with my coworkers on the day, an ice cream …
why you should buy this photocopier
Recently I watched this TED talk about charity, and how to measure effectiveness of what’s being done in the not-for-profit space. There are some great ideas contained there. There’s a commonly held notion that the percentage of donation income that covers overhead the single number that you need to read, to know which charity is …
Underestimating the power of a fresh start
Today was a fairly poorly-considered start to the year. Instead of having a ready-to-use check list of all the things I want to do differently, I treated it as any other day. Failed attempt to sleep in – kids had other ideas. Attempts a Christmas present jigsaw puzzle that proved too hard for the kids. …
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All you can eat content
When trying out an all-you can eat content site, it’s tempting to try and make the most of it. But what does it mean to get the most out of a subscription like that? How much value do you put on the discretionary use of your time? What price will your relationships pay when you …
back on the horse
Having reached an inflection point in my current workload, it’s time to try and recreate the habit of regular writing. I’m continuing to read, though it’s mostly a mix of online news sources related to tech and social media online news sources related to Christian thinking social media updates half-completed books on the Kindle my friend …
transitions
I read the Bible this morning, as I do pretty-much every morning. I’ve been crawling my way through Acts a few verses at a time. This morning I finished chapter 25. Paul is slowly, slowly, making his way towards Rome. When Acts is read quickly, it’s dominated by the big narrative arc: a bunch of people taking Jesus’ message …