Acts 2
24 "But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power."

Upon scanning through the Bible reading this evening, taken from Acts chapter 2, my eye was caught on an alternate interpretation of a word. In the side-line of the bible i found that the word translated 'agony' here is literally 'birth pangs'. This adds quite nice imagery as to Jesus being reborn to life through resurrection after going through the birth pangs and labour of death.

Upon spending a day and night with my flatmate Seth's family, I was reminded a little more of why Jesus said that we must become like little children to enter His kingdom. For I witnessed how readily childen accept strangers and make them feel welcome without any suspicion, envy, or empty outward show.

Suit You Sir

Absent Friends - The Divine Comedy

Reading the Lives

People are the most interesting and difficult 'objects' to read. As soon as you think you have finished the book you look back and the pages have changed. No longer does their story read the same; you must keep reading until one day when the book is finally closed and its final print left for further reflection.

Photos: a reflection of someone else

It is amazing to revist photos long forgotten about. in an instant you are transported to a former era, a past history. the thoughts and feelings you once had, come flowing back through the sparking synapses. instead of seeing yourself as this person, you feel as an alien in this body of yours. so different are these two people, yet so similar they look. you smile and laugh, how stupid i was once was. years from now i shall experience the same.

Here Here to Brother Ross for this new design in the blog dome.

Great start to the week. Leave early for uni so that i could pump up me back tire that had been nursed to recovery after suffering a puncture. Upon arriving at the petrol station i discovered that i would have more luck trying to blow the tire up with my own two lungs than with their pump which had less air pressure than i could produce. after a quick shuffle to the next petrol station 15 mins away, i arrived 5 minutes late to class but thankfully they were waiting for me.

Congratulations to Michael and Rosalie Kloeg for the birth of their first child Charlotte Lieanne Kloeg.

So it has been said:

History About The Middle Finger!

Isn't history more fun when you know something about it?

Giving the Finger...

Before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French, anticipating victory over the English, proposed to cut off the middle finger of all captured English soldiers. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw
the renowned English longbow and therefore be incapable of fighting in the future.

This famous weapon was made of the native English Yew tree, and the act of drawing the longbow was known as "plucking the yew" (or "pluck yew").

Much to the bewilderment of the French, the English won a major upset and began mocking the French by waving their middle fingers at the defeated French, saying, "See, we can still pluck yew! "PLUCK YEW!"

Since 'pluck yew' is rather difficult to say, the difficult consonant cluster at the beginning has gradually changed to a labiodental fricative 'F', and thus the words often used in conjunction with the one-finger-salute are mistakenly thought to have something to do with an intimate encounter.

It is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows used w/ the longbow that the symbolic gesture is known as "giving the bird."

And yew thought yew knew everything.

Still one of my favourite albums over all time: Figure 8 by Elliott Smith

It's official: After 21 years of happy marriage Mr and Mrs ACL have decided to part their ways after a sudden break in the relationship over a game of soccer. Plans have been made to under go counseling to encourage reconciliation otherwise drastic measures such as forced confinement maybe undertaken.

Wedding photo of the ACL's: here and here

Twas only one week ago that i was savoring the sweet feeling of relief that my talk was over, and now i sit savoring the feeling of joints being jointed. for the past couple of days i have been hobbling around as best i could, however last night my knee had had enough. no more hobbling with out pain was his reply. that is when injuries really begin to be a problem. i slept on it and the knee seemed to be a little happier. i learnt a new gait to improve the condition of my knee. it involved bending my knee as little as possible and trying to keep most of my weight and time on my right knee. this shuffle seemed to help, and today i didnt have so much pain. as i am not really in the condition to be biking i planned to take the bus this morning for uni. after making sure i was a few minutes early for the bus i remember while waiting that i had forgotten my ACC forms. i had a dilemma!! do i stay here and catch the bus and thereby end up with more paper work and hassle with ACC or should i scale the hill to retrieve the missing documentation and thereby miss the bus. after rocking painfully to and fro i selected the second option and marched up the hill. after scrambling around for a couple of trying to find the horrid things i realised that i would have mount the cycle if i were to make it to my lecture on time. after cycling through the thick wall of misty rain i was but 100 m from uni when i heard a disconcerting sound. with in a second i was riding on the rim of my back wheel. Thankfully i was near the chem department so i was just able to make the lecture in time. not a good start to the day. the middle or belly of the day went fairly to plan except for a poor 100 mL beaker who came to an untimely end after bumping into Mr ground. But i did not end on a high note as i ended with the doctors appointment. amazing i was called for as soon as i entered the door. it was now time to hear the news good or bad. immediately the doctor, who happens to be the doctor for the Highlanders, knew that i had been misdiagnosed as having a grade one (good or bad??) medial collateral ligament strain. i was lain down and examined. the first couple of tugs and pulls were alright. but then.....then came the sit on foot and tug. something was no good there. he pulled and my knee came somewhat out of socket. my face showed it. unfortunately despite all my protests the doctor thought my knee was put back into its proper place. he invited a nurse to come and see this freak show. a tug and pull later, my knee was set straight, literally. Pop. as Duke Nukem would say, "Ah much better". i was all at once relieved. Twas an amazing experience going from incredible pain to none in a second. i have been diagnosed with a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament. it maybe just partially torn or completely destroyed. i have to make an appointment with an orthopedic specialist to ascertain the full extent of the injury and will begin physio tomorrow. well i suppose it is good to know where its at. Physio will be the treatment in the meanwhile but if the divorced ligament ends dont get back together with counseling i may end up having surgery to force them together. but apart from that all is well.

Ah sundays, such peaceful days. Tonight we had a remnant of youth around for tea and discussion as the planned study on Philippians fell through. Seth and I had slaved over the stove to prepare a two pots of soup to fill the masses, all 9 of them. My pumpkin soup went down a treat and seth's chicken and veg soup was enjoyed by all. after a few minutes of idle chatter we tried to get some discussion going. it wasnt long before we were onto GE. i was partly to blame for bringing this topic up having been spurred on by an article matt sent me. It was suggested that GE could be alright as long as we were trying to improve the creation as we have dominion over it, such as making crops resistant to bugs so more efficient food production can be achieved. however it was also said that really these modifications are made out of greed as we all ready produce enough food to feed the world population but due to politics it is not dispersed to those who need it. i personally think its just not worth messing with. God made it very good, and even after it has been corrupted i reckon the creation is much better now than we can ever achieve by messing with it. other topics brought up were about the UN, tongues, mormons and JWs. i thought it was a rather profitable time hearing other peoples opinions and reasons for these opinions, as well as seeing different peoples takes on passages from the old Bible. then after being revitalised with caffeine and sugar, the singing voices came out and away we went. twas nice to stand around singing good old favourites from the blue book of goodness. very encouraging. we now plan to do more singing regularly. now that everyone is sung out they have all gone home... until next time.

Days have past. i am a little worse for wears. the week was coming to a close and a good time was to be had. friday morning i met with a lecturer and got advice on the direction of my project. the final three Honours talks were given and we were off to the pub. this has become somewhat of a tradition after finishing a round of talks, and as according to tradition we partook of the good juices at the Cook. thankfully we arrived just in time before the kitchen closed. i got the excellent pub meal deal, a jug of the blackest monteiths and a burger with fries for only 8 smakers. it was nice to just sit down in the sun and relax knowing its all over. we sat and chatted for a couple of hours before i whisked off to a special afternoon organised by my former supervisor. after a quick nibble it was time to get ready for chem club. today i was in charge of serving the drinks and making sure the chips were topped up. it was an extra special chem club as we had toasties lovingly made by Heather the tea lady. everything was in the fridge chilling before the patrons began to arrive. we had stocked up large on monteiths black due to their ever increasing popularity. the next two hours flew by with few incidents. only one beer was spilt and that was during the clean up. it was all clean and tidy by 7.30 pm giving me a few minutes to run up stairs and check my email before getting ready for soccer. No emails latter i was dressed and ready to run. i met my fellow team members at the gym and prepared myself for the next 40 mins of scrabbling after the ball. the first half was pretty even, a new thing for us since we have been playing teams way out of our league the other two games. our goalie Cushla was doing a most excellent job only letting a couple goals in. after a brief rest at halftime we were back into it. however my game didnt last much longer. running after the ball like a fox with my tail on fire i ran and until i heard and felt a terrible disjointing pain in my left knee and fell crumpled on the ground. i writhed in agony for a couple of seconds before the medics arrived. a minute later i gained enough courage to stand up as the endorphines started kicking in. ice was on its way and someone did a raid of the chem department for tea towels to hold the ice in. i made my way to the side and found a place to lie down and ice my knee as the game went on. apparently we did pretty well for the rest of the game and only let in a couple of late goals. the debating team assembled as the moot "does lynton need to go to the emergency department or urgent doctors" was put forward to begin the debate. the majority were for the affirmative but i was certainly for the negative. However after putting forward the arguments "she'll be alright in the morning" and "the cost will set me back for weeks", the affirmative team was declared the winner and i was on my way to the emergency department. I hobbled there with my flatmate ben, or should i say doctor ben, but decided due to the queue and remembrance of the add "save the emergency department for emergencies" we decided to move on to the urgent doctors. after doing a cost/benefit analysis of the treatment, i decided to stick around and get seen. Ben snuck off for some comforting coke and beers, as i waited to be seen. soon enough it was my turn. after a rather short assessment of the damage done, i was assured that i shouldnt be surgery worthy. a bandage latter i was hobbling out. on the way home we stopped for some pizza and garlic bread. soon as i got home my mother received a wounded son call which went a little way to cheer this little soldier up. After 2 pills washed down with another monteiths, this time summer ale, i was off to bed. thankfully i was able to sleep and awoke fairly refreshed this morning. i have been hobbling around all today and i think i have now worked out the best way to hobble. i shall go back to the doctors on wednesday to reassess the situation, as hopefully the swelling will have gone down. unfortunately i have been hearing and feeling the unreasurring clicks of a knee torn of cartilage. i guess i shall just have to pray and hope for the best.

Today on this inaugural day, I have just completed one of the most terrifying tasks known to Honours students, the 15 min seminar. For weeks I have planned and practiced. I had the slide show pretty much down pat by the beginning of last week. The more times I practiced the easier it got. However that was not enough preparation for the day of the talk. I was third for the day, the last man to step forward and open up the darkest secrets of his research. For 35 long minutes I sat there, shaking more and more violently as the time of judgment came closer. The second round of applause had passed, it was my turn. The presentation opened which was a step in the right direction. Then I began. All I had memorised came flowing from my sparking brain cells to the tip of my tongue. Words were flying left right and centre. I tried to slow it down but all I seemed to do was create sporadic spurting of words separated by short pauses. There was no stoping it; it was coming out NOW!! Some minutes latter I reached the end. A sigh of relief slipped out. Now it was question time. I looked out to the dazed crowd. They had survived the continual discharge of knowledge that spurted out just like a boil that had been building up for days, no weeks, but only just. Eventually one lecture gained enough consciousness to ask a question. Ah ha, he asked just what my supervisor had warned me about minutes before the talk begun, though he wasn’t too happy with the pre-planned answer. In fact he wasn’t happy with a large bit of the project. Dodging and diving another couple of questions I was released and allowed to step down from the dock. I survive to fight another day.