Brainwashing

So, I've been enjoying the World Cup rugby feast and don't buy in at all to the argument that says the Rugby minnows don't belong. Ask Ireland how they feel about the minnows!

But in the process I've been educating my own minnow - Rhys! He already knows how to catch and pass a rugby ball and how to score a try. So I thought it was time to take it up a notch as he has got to watch a fair bit with me recently.

My plan was to have him try to get around me with the ball in hand. I'd let him do that and score a try say 50% of the time - the other 50% I'd tackle him. So far so good - he ran the ball with enthusiasm and scored his tries and took the tackle like a man.

Then it was his turn to tackle me. So I run at him with the ball yelling "tackle me, tackle me". He comes charging at me, arms extended and...

...tickles me!

Something got lost in the brainwashing process, I guess...

Life Imitating Art

Twins separated at birth? You be the judge!

Art Imitating Life

So last night was Monday, which means its Flight of the Conchords time. Overall, the episode was a bit average - although some good moments as usual. But one stuck out to me as a fellow "Bret(t)". I speak of course of the American inability to hear the word "Brett" as anything other than "Britt". As Dave Barry once put it:

“Americans who travel abroad for the first time are often shocked to discover that, despite all the progress that has been made in the last 30 years, many foreign people still speak in foreign languages”

Or at least they have accents closer to the mother tongue!

So Bret is sitting talking to the girl (she's so hot she's making me sexist) and he tries to introduce himself. "I'm Bret" "Brit?" "No Bret" "Brit" "No b-r-e-t"

This is my life in America (except with an extra "t".

World Cup Dream Team

Rhett gave me the idea of naming my World Cup team so far based on the form of teams at this early stage of the tournament. So I'm gonna lay it out with a further thought: I will update this team every Monday till the final...

1. Tony Woodcock
2. John Smit
3. Carl Hayman*
4. Ali Williams
5. Victor Matfield*
6. Jerry Collins
7. Richie McCaw*
8. Juan Manuel Leguizamon
9. Fourie Du Preez*
10. Dan Carter*
11. Doug Howlett
12. Felipe Contepomi
13. Stirling Mortlock
14. Brian Habana*
15. Chris Latham

I'm thinking there will be some changes next week! Asterixed players are already selected for my final team - another way of saying they are head and shoulders the best in their positions in the world.

Flight of the Conchords

Prime TV has a knack of getting the really good shows - The Office, Extras, Robin Hood...and now The Flight of the Conchords! I saw this awesome folk duo last night - may favourite musical moments from the song, I'm Not Crying. First there is the lyrical genius of:

I'm not crying, noooo-ho-ho-ho.
There's just a little bit of dust in my eye
Just from the path that you made when you said your goodbye.
I'm not weeping cause you won't be here to hold my hand,
For your information there's an inflammation in my tear-gland.
I'm not upset because you left me this way,
My eyes are just a little sweaty today.
They've been looking around a lot, searching for you,
They've been looking for you,
Even though I told them not to.

Awesome!

Then this moment of excellence unequalled since Alanis Morisette's misstatement of irony:

I'm sitting at this table called love
Staring down at the irony of life.
How come we've reached this fork in the road,
And yet it cuts like a knife.

Priceless.

Anyways it made me laugh.

Shame On You

So the Labour-led government has finally found a limit on its political correctness. Having savaged our social policy in recent years with legislation covering topics such as de facto property rights, civil unions, legalisation of prostitution and parental discipline, the end is now in sight.

NZ has failed to vote for the UN Declaration on Indigenous Rights citing an incompatibility with NZ law. Except for one small detail: its a non binding declaration. So NZ could have happily signed off on this and pointed to the Treaty of Waitangi as its defining governing "legislation".

Its a cynical political move. With a dwindling voter base, shocked at the radical social engineering of recent years, Labour finally has to count the cost, ironically where the injustice is the greatest. In the end, they figure the Maori party will get the Maori votes anyway, so they better not offend the middle ground any more with spectres of reverse land grabbing and usurping of settler sovereignty.

No comment from John Key yet! Probably best to stay quiet on this one John...

Romans Course

This week I'm doing a Romans course at Carey Baptist College. So far its been good value. The lecturer is an enthusiast and I respect greatly his ability to translate the Greek on the fly. I have not been in a class like this before where the lecturer is so capable within his subject. It's also interesting being in a class of considerable diversity. Such a wide range of opinion. I have done my best to suppress my own starting points and just allow the text of Romans to speak. This can be a frustrating process if one is simply there to test one's own preconceptions (or the lecturer)! But he has a positive conviction that we should learn how to approach a book like Romans, rather than simply give us the answers. He's also prepared to allow for a healthy dose of mystery. Anyways, so far Wesley was right! ;)

Worship Restructuring

We're changing some of our worship planning processes at cession so we can free up more creativity and involve the right people in the right tasks. Its cool. One of the things this should allow us to do is action new initiatives like this: