Month: April 2005

Lani Scores Big

I’ve just been informed that Allanah has captured a Pikachu in the Safari Zone of Pokemon Sapphire.
I have no idea what that means, but Caleb seems to think it’s worthy of some sort of recognition.
So here it is.

C is for Correctness, Political

Stop the world. I want to get off.
The polar ice caps are melting. Near earth objects are threatening to wipe us out. The global economy is in uproar.
And The Cookie Monster is getting a health makeover.
That’s right. Once the paragon of excess (“Coooookieeeee! Augm nm nm nm…”) he’s being given a new songbook, including “A Cookie Is A Sometimes Food”.
Lies! All of it. I can only assume this is the work of The Usurper. Things ain’t been the same since The Little Red Devil arrived on the scene and started Elmo-cising. Grover got sidelined. Everyone can see Snuffleupagus. Now they’ve silenced the sole remaining voice of (in)sanity on The Street.
This CNN correspondent shares my outrage.

Let Loose The Dogs Of Ware

Is there a website out there that ticks you off? Here’s a great therapeutic exercise; with Netdisaster you can besiege your target with a multitude of plagues, including various forms of spilled breakfast goods.
Go nuts. Just don’t hammer BONWAG too hard.

Dave's Theo-Tech: Redaction, Republishing, Redemption

It’s been interesting to follow the recent trials and tribulations of the US Library of Congress as they struggle to come to terms with 21st century technology.
It occurs to me that there are some interesting spiritual parallels with their current problems.
The Big Issue is with the way they’re handling electronic documentation attached to “Orphan Copyright Works“. Without going into detail (like they do here) the office provided online documents which contained sensitive data relating to old copyright applications. Their solution was the cyber-quivalent of ‘sticking white paper over it’. Naturally enough, the techies quickly found a way to steam the glue off and get to the information. (UPDATE: It seems the LoC has fixed the problem.) Here’s an example of how NOT to hide a document’s text.
The main problem here is that although the information is obscured from view, it still exists somewhere in the document, and will one day bubble to the surface. (Highlight the previous paragraph with your mouse to see what I mean.) There are many cases where companies have sent out documents containing ‘hidden text’ which communicates a very different message to the one the company intended.
The solution is to delete the information completely, or better still, republish the document from a source which doesn’t reveal the information. (Instead of sending the document with the white squares on it, you print it again, or photocopy it. In the LoC’s case, they should have just deleted the text.)
Uh, yeah. OK. So what’s the spiritual parallel?

2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

It took a while for me to start to understand that concept in relation to sin in my life. If you accept that teaching, it means that God ‘redacts’ you – he ‘republishes’ you – so that it was as if sin didn’t exist in your life. There’s no ‘white stickers’. It’s not like the sin of your former life is hidden away somewhere, to re-emerge some day, in some awful public expose. Like the LoC.
However, that republishing comes at a price. Just like it costs to reprint a book, your redaction comes at a set, flat fee. The price is exactly: Jesus. And the printer is prepared to honour that fee until you get it right. In most cases, we get our money’s worth, and then some.
The ‘new creation’ is a powerful, popular concept that not many Christians – myself included – fully comprehend, much less take hold of. Once you can accept that your life is really washed clean by Christ’s blood, and all things have become new, not just covered over, you can stand in the light.
You’ll probably also end up with a smaller file size, too. But we’ll leave that for another Theo-tech lesson.

Dancing With The Stars

Today was ‘Medals Day’ at Dancepower, the ballroom dance studios Caleb and Allanah have been attending this year. It’s the day that the kids go before The Judges to qualify for their awards. This year, Ainslie and I were amazed at the progress our kids had made. Even Charli got game.
It’s only been a year since we noticed that the kids were having a great time with the more traditional steps we hauled out at The Ball. Ainslie found a ballroom dancing school near us, and now it’s a rare occasion for me to pick up Caleb and Allanah on a Saturday morning without some sort of minor award for their application in practice.
But this is where it really counts.
After putting in some very polished performances, Allanah scored Honours (95% up) in ‘Composite’ (Cha Cha, Slow Rhythm and Evening 3 Step), and Caleb also scored Honours for his Modern (Waltz, Slow Rhythm and Quickstep). Charli scored a mug and egg as a prize for her Macarena skills.
Caleb scooped the pool, though, with the ‘Most Outstanding Candidate’ award for the entire day. He’d been getting many compliments throughout the afternoon for his efforts, and it seems he’s being groomed – by the Powers That Be – for competition dance, if he wants it.
We’re all pretty proud. This could be the start of something big. And dripping with sequins.

In The Zone

I’d forgotten how long an hour lasts on radio.
Good to be back in the radio studio today – after a 10 year break – with Rodney for the first edition of Tech Zone. I’ve put a writeup on the official site, and you might even be able to listen to it on-demand one day.
I went in there armed with bucketloads of interesting background information about blogging, but ended up getting distracted talking to Rod and other folk on talk-back.
You see, I’ve been spoilt for air-time since leaving the radio announcer gig. As part of my current work, I’m called on to deliver hour-long presentations (and longer), which are basically one-man shows. Or one man and his PowerPoint. That’s a solid hour of techno-speak.
Sometimes, it’s in person. Mostimes it’s a virtual presentation to a room of as many as a hundred people from around the world, which I normally do from home. Over the phone.
In the dead of night.
In my pyjamas.
So, when fronting up to the studio today, I was *well prepared*. I had facts and figures and press releases and backgrounders which I never got to talk about. In a conference call, it’s very rare to have an ad break. You seldom play the Newsboys. You don’t have news at the top of the hour.
I’m not disappointed; don’t get me wrong. I’d rather be over-prepared than under-prepared. (That’s the radio equivalent of showing up on stage in your underwear and forgetting your lines.) Very few people realise that in radio announcing, normally, you get to talk on-air for what – 3 minutes in a whole hour.
I’m actually privileged that Rod let me rabbit on for as long as I did. I’ll be more succinct next week. There are some cool topics coming up, so have a look, see if there’s one that interests you, and call up or email us with your perspective. It’ll be interesting to see what this enterprise turns out like.
And before you ask – no; I did not do today’s show in my pyjamas.
But I could. If I wanted to. Ah, technology.
UPDATE: April 2: The recording of the show is now available at the Sonshine FM website (link above).