Anglican Church "split"

The Herald's headline: Church is split, declares Jensen. I think it is fair to say that the divisions over sexuality in the Anglican Church are serious, to say that "Peter Jensen, aligned with rebellious evangelical prelates in Asia" is probably pushing it a bit far. Is Dr Williams idea of a "looser federation" a split? Probably in some sense it is.

St Barnabas Fire Photos

On Saturday there was a brief period where I was able to have a look inside the remains of St Barnabas. Thankyou to the engineers and Barneys staff that made that possible. (If you would like better quality copies if any of these, please get in touch with me.)

Barneys photos to come...

There was a brief window on the weekend where some people were able to enter the site at St Barnabas to take a look. (Fire at St Barnabas) I managed to take a couple of photos, but I probably won't have them online for a couple of days. Well, at least not until I find my computer amongst the pile of boxes at my place.

I know it was only a building, but I think part of what is difficult is the association between the building and the memories of things that took place there. It has been interesting reading other blogs about the fire and seeing some of the memories others have of Barneys.

Big Fire at St Barnabas Broadway

Very very sad news: There was a big fire last night at St Barnabas Anglican Church, Broadway. The SMH has a story about it here.

I think I'm still in shock. We attended Barneys for more than 15 years.

Lemony Snicket

In case you don't already know (for some reason), the latest Lemony Snicket "A Series of Unfortunate Events" book came out this week. We were hoping this one would bring closure to a number of matters, but now that I have it in my posession I see that it is called "The Penultimate Peril."

Mad as...

After several weeks wait I finally got my Tilley hat today. Why a Tilley hat? Apart from being an excellent hat they come in sizes appropriate for large-brained people such as myself.

Magnets

It seems that someone from AIC Magnetics in Hong Kong has seen my fridge magnet collection web page. I think they misunderstood, and sent me an e-mail asking me if I want to buy some flexible magnetic sheet.

TV-B-Gone

After reading about TV-B-Gone (a small keychain device that claims to be able to turn off virtually any TV) I decided I needed something like that. There are many situations where I find there is a TV blaring at me that noone can do anything about. Unfortunately TV-B-Gone is not yet available in Australia. It was only the other day that it ocurred to me that my HP iPAQ 2210 has a remote control application (Nevo) in it. I got to wondering if I could use it in this type of situation. Anyway, the annoying (and loud) TV in the baby change room at my local Westfield is Samsung #26 in Nevo, and it works nicely.

Dishwasher

Yesterday I was permitted to use the dishwasher in our kitchen for the 3rd time in the last 3 1/2 years. I thought that rated a post.

Farewell Naomi - for now

Yesterday we travelled to Canberra to attend the funeral of Naomi Atkins. Naomi and Felicity were born prematurely to good friends of ours Graham and Karen in December last year. It is always difficult to go to a funeral of a small baby, but we found the funeral very helpful. It is good to keep in mind that as Christians God knew us while we were still being formed in the womb. We look forward to getting to know Naomi when we see her again in heaven.

I just finished reading Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (web site about Margaret Atwood). It is fiction, but very well researched fiction, and kind of along the lines of The Handmaid's Tale. It deals a lot with genetic engineering, but is quite a thought provoking look at where our society is going, particularly with regard to the influence of big business and governments on our society. I highly recommend it.

Nasa's Earth Observatory has a great satellite photo of Zurich today.

Sad news today: My iPAQ met with misadventure yesterday. Serious misadventure. Terminal serious misadventure. Screen smashed, case bent etc etc. It has been really strange, because I keep going to look up stuff in it, but then I remember that it's dead.

I found a great site about bushwalking today: The Australian Bushwalking & Camping
Reference Site. There are lots of great walks on the site all over Australia.

Another interesting view on what happened to Beagle: "Americans have found SOMETHING (aliens???) on Mars and wont let anybody to see it. It is classified. So Oddyssey reprogrammed Beagle to remain silent."

It seems that after NASA thought they had lost their first Rover they have now found it again. They seem to be scratching their heads as to what went wrong, but I think the cause is obvious: My first option was right on the mark, and somehow ... Beagle 2 is back, and it's NOT HAPPY.

Look, the Brits may as well give up now. It is quite clear that Beagle 2 is dead. I think the more important question is: Why won't the 2 American Rovers help look for Beagle? So far I have 2 possible answers:

1 - The reason Beagle 2 is missing is because the Americans shot it down. They didn't want to be upstaged, so they took the appropriate action. In space noone can hear you scream (etc). They are hardly going to help look when they don't want it to be found now are they?

2 - The American probe never went to Mars, nor has any American probe. All the pictures are generated from a small special effects company outside Hollywood. How do we know they really went to Mars? Because the pictures look similar to the ones from their last successful Mars probe? And I suppose you think that that one really went to Mars also?

On Saturday I finally got a chance to walk some of the coast track in the Royal National Park. We walked from Wattamolla to Garie. The scenery is amazing. As with the Spit Bridge to Manly walk, I will upload a GPS track log file when I get around to it.

Names, names and more names. What makes a good name? In particular, what makes a good name for a cat or a dog? A difficult topic, but after much discussion, good dog names include Max, Sid, Norman, Boof and Tracey. Good cat names include Sharon, Henrietta, Sabrina and Charles. Apologies to humans with these names who disagree.

Monday morning after a geocaching-less weekend, and someone has found M5 madness. After having searched for this one unsuccessfully for ages, I feel encouraged to have another crack at it.