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I think it's about a week since I last blogged... Sorry to anyone out there who checks regularly but I've been pretty busy completing two essays and doing stuff for work. But be assured - I am still here! I will also endeavour to keep myself a little more regular over the closing two-and-a-bit weeks of the term (and my college career).
Two-and-a-bit weeks. Crazy!
The Red go marching on! What a game - I thought we should have had it sown up by half time, but fair play to Chelsea who could (should?) have won it in the second half. But that's sport for you...
Things are marching on in other areas too - some quicker than others. My science essay has been going well and I was hoping to get a good chunk of it completed by the end of tomorrow. Until, that was, I was contacted to say that forms (which I only received yesterday) and a personal reflection (which I only found out about yesterday) had to be in Edinburgh by Monday morning in order for me to attend this panel and not have to put the date back.
Then this Saturday is the Small Group Leaders training and there are still a few bits and pieces that I need to get done for it (mostly photocopying and collecting food etc), although we have a speaker coming and taking the morning which means less work for me. The great news is that the books that I ordered a few weeks ago have arrived which means that everybody there will get theirs.
So, marching on. Although at this rate I'll be crawling over the finishing line in a few weeks time! But I will be finished. Bring it on...
It is that time of the term again (and how I hope that this is the last time for a while that I have to start a post with a statement like that)!
One assignment has been handed in, another is close to completion, and so tomorrow I will get stuck into what is potentially the trickiest of the essays, for Christianity and Modern Science, the title I have chosen being: "What is meant by the 'fine tuning' of the universe and how has it revived the old Teleological or Design Argument?"
Of all the potential questions this is the one with (I think) the least 'hidden traps' and I have also found it quite interesting looking at 'fine tuning', and although I would be lying if I said that I had grasped it I hope that by the end of this week I will be slightly further down the road of understanding than I am now!
Today I'm having a day off!
It's been a busy week with lots of lectures (which though they are good is also mentally draining), some family visiting, and it's a busy time work wise too. So, as I have no lectures today, I decided that I would take the whole day off. I probably won't actually go back to study until Monday as tomorrow I'll need to continue spending time on the form for this, and on Sunday we are visiting a church down in Troon in the morning and then I have a meeting in the afternoon before the evening service at St Silas.
Today I am off to the Life of Christ play in Kelvingrove park which should be fun; especially as Pilate is a good friend of mine! I saw something similar in the South-East of England five years ago and it was excellent, I am sure that today will be too. Then in the afternoon YKW and I are heading for a session at the gym and tonight I am having a mate over for a bit of a boys night - curry, beer, computer games - and YKW is off with some girls doing something similar, but slightly more girly!
Happy days.
The old saying goes that there are only two certainties in life; death and taxes.
The thing about death is it can be just so unexpected. Things can be going along so nicely and then, suddenly, gone.
If you are into praying then do pray for those who have lost loved ones in the recent past. Whether that is individuals known to us or tragedies that we follow in the news, both locally and in the wider world.
Tonight is the big match; Glasgow is buzzing, 100,000 weegies have made the trip down to Manchester, and most of the rest will be watching it on TV back in 'Vegas.
I, unfortunately, will be doing none of the above because YKW's Mum is in Glasgow for the evening and we are going out for dinner! But I am holding out hope that we will be back in time for the penalty shoot out...
Plus I can console myself with the fact that nothing will stop me from seeing the bigger match this time next week.
I have a date - and not the sort of date that YKW needs to be concerned about! Between the 7th and 9th of July I will be attending the Bishop's Advisory Panel here which means that by the time I get back from my holiday here we should know what the decision is going to be. Very exciting; the end (beginning?) (some bit somewhere between the beginning and the end?) is now in sight.
The only downside is that I have to fill in some new forms. The frustrating thing is that whilst the forms are almost identical to the ones that I have done previously, they are still different enough that instead of a quick copy and paste it will actually be more like a not so quick few hours. Still, what else is Saturday morning good for?
Things are really starting to roll now and today I handed in my research project (I'm thinking it might inspire a book at some point) and completed my final interview with a Muslim person so I can start - and hopefully finish - writing that up tomorrow. I have also made good strides through the second assignment for the Islam course which is entitled, "'Islam is an Arabized reflection of Judaism.' What evidence do you find to either support or refute this assertion?" I am really enjoying this course and have found both the time spent meeting with three Muslims (plus extended family and mosque members) and also the work for the assignment incredibly interesting.
In other areas things are also rolling on. Of particular note is the fact that the panel I attended decided to subject another panel to me, and so I am going to be off to that before too long (quite soon hopefully, watch this space...) There may also be light at the end of the job tunnel and, as with everything of much (OK, not much!) interest, you'll read it here first.
Or second.
Or perhaps even third.
For the last few days I have been full of a pretty stinking cold which has been stopping me from sleeping well and causing me to get breathless at every day tasks. I think it's actually an infection now and if it doesn't clear up I'll need to get some antibiotics.
It is a pain because we had people with us for the weekend and I felt somewhat distant much of the time, it has stopped me from going running, and is just a bit gross generally - but I think I am risking spilling the unsavoury details now, so I'd better go.
I had a class earlier in the week where something was said that I just didn't understand. It was the Christianity and Modern Science class - which in itself may be considered a strange choice for me to have taken given that I didn't take GCSE physics and was kicked off the chemistry course before the exam (to save embarassing the school). Nevertheless, it looked like an interesting course (which it is), and so I went for it.
On Monday's class the lecturer was speaking about time, and told the following story;
There were two twins. On their 20th birthday one of them gets in a rocket and takes off: For the first year the rocket accelerates until it is travelling just slower than the speed of light and then for the second year it maintains that speed. After two years it turns around and spends the first year picking up its speed again until it is just short of the speed of light and then spends the second year continuing at that speed. The rocket lands back on earth exactly four years after it left, and he goes to find his brother to celebrate their 24th birthday.
But he can't find him, because his twin has died - of old age. In fact, in the four years that he has been travelling, hundreds of years have passed on earth.
He had been wearing a watch which had gone round 24 times a day for the past 1461 days; he had ticked each day off on his calendar; the annually-flowering-flower that he had taken to brighten up his space ship had flowered four times; and he had aged only by four years. But hundreds of years had passed on earth.
I don't get that. Apparently time isn't constant. I really don't get that. Feel free to explain...
