So instead of laying around drinking cider in the sun here are five unrelated things I have been doing and thinking about in the last week.
1. I am getting rather excited about the Olympics, generally I am indifferent about most sport, but this seems an exceptionally large and important event, with all the added side news stories of human rights, smog and drugs. From tomorrow I will be glued to BBC1 and FiveLive.
2. Been watching a few films, Anchorman last night (never seen it before, and although it's very silly it made me laugh lots), some fairly poor Woody Allen efforts, Stardust, and on Sunday night re watched There will be Blood, which is just as good, if not better the second time.
3. Amazon sent me an email this morning telling me about a new book. “As someone who has purchased or rated books by Sophocles, you might like to know his new book will be released on 14 August...” amazing, after 2500 years he is still churning them out!
4. The SPCK bookshops saga rumbles on, I feel that some of the bloggers on this issue are getting a bit obsessed and occasionally silly about the whole matter, but it has been interesting to see that Private Eye magazine have picked up the story (http://spckssg.wordpress.com/2008/08/07/better-than-a-cartoon-private-eye/) and my sense of vanity notes that I got a mention on Phil Grooms blog (http://spckssg.wordpress.com/2008/08/03/sunday-sermon/).
5. Not totally unconnected from the previous point is the fact I have finally booked to go to Greenbelt this year. I was in two minds about going (saving money for the Rome trip being the main concern), but have decided to book it anyway. The year I missed going to Greenbelt felt odd, like I had not had a proper summer, or space to relax with like-minded people. I have also not seen some people for ages, such as Dave and Maddie, Ship of Fools people, Steve and all the other people I bump into year after year. The Wibsite (http://www.wibsite.com) gathering is also always an event to remember.
5 comments:
Sometimes a bit a silliness is needed just to help us lighten up a bit, Neil. But in the meantime we have people whose wages and pension contributions haven't been paid, there are suppliers with bills outstanding, and Mr J Mark Brewer seems to be merrily transferring funds left right and centre from one side of the business to another just to line his own pockets — as the Private Eye article highlights.
Mr Brewer declared war on me. He made a number of serious and false allegations about my reporting and he copied them to my editor at Christian Marketplace with the result that my August article was pulled.
To make matters worse one of the pages he demanded I take down was a page dedicated to helping the people whose lives have been wrecked by this business.
Obsessed? Believe me, I've barely even started yet!
Happy daze! We'll get your name in print one day.
>I feel that some of the bloggers on this issue are getting a bit obsessed and occasionally silly about the whole matter
I'd be interested to know the "silly" bits - certainly I'd concur that if in a campaign you get too much "this is fun all posting together" then you can lose sight of what the aims are, and Flash Mobs are especially vulnerable to that. OTOH a degree of lampooning helps networking and building momentum. And it may annoy Mr Brewer.
We're currently trying to direct the energy from a small explosion into a longer term detailed scrutiny exercise over months, which should be very worthwhile.
It will be interesting to see how well it works; it feels like building a road in front of a herd of elephants trying to decide where they will go next...
Thanks got posting.
Ooops.
Thanks FOR posting.
I might sugest that silly posts include...
http://asingleblog.wordpress.com/2008/07/28/hippo-and-python-deal-with-brewer/
http://spckssg.wordpress.com/2008/08/06/cartoon-competition/
and anything on this blog
http://gafcon.blogspot.com/
(although the humour of this whole site eludes me, I will admit!)
Phew
Nothing I was taking seriously...
Cheers.
Matt
Post a Comment