Blog moving to a new home!

After a long hiatus, I've decided to move this blog to a new home.

You can now find it (along with all the posts that were here) at its new address:

http://andrewdotni.ch/

Thanks for reading!

Andy>

Movember

Before

Anyone who knows me well would agree that changes to the amount and style of hair on my head are few and far between. Once I get into a habit, it tends not to change for some time. And then, suddenly, I'll decide it's time for something different and without warning, spring it on the world.

I may have just done that again.

I've had a small Van Dyck-style beard for a few years, but I decided that I wanted to try something different. And what better time to do it than Movember?

Angry face - Day 0!

Movember aims to raise support and awareness for mens' health issues, particularly depression and prostate cancer. Both of these issues aren't seen as "manly" things to talk about, so I think the association with facial hair (seriously, how hard do you have to work to make a beard/moustache unmanly) is a good way of breaking the ice.

I haven't yet decided what style I'll end up with by November 30 - any suggestions? And if you'd like to get on board and support me, you can do so over at my "MoSpace" page :D

Digital distractions: The Murderer

A while back I posted about my growing frustration with the constant distractions I allowed myself to deflected by. I'm still mulling over about what my response should be; I've taken some small steps, and I hope to share those another time.

In the meantime, have a listen to this short story by sci-fi author Ray Bradbury, called The Murderer.

In it, a psychologist examines a man who's had enough, and decided to take matters into his own hands…

The Murderer [MP3] (9MB, ~15 minutes) - (opens in a new window/tab)

Isaiah

I'll never forget the angel
  flying down with cleansing fire
fire too hot to touch.

My lips may be clean
  but still there are times
   when the scars smoulder with the memory.

And so on I go
  your searing stamp of approval
   the agony and the ecstasy
 a reminder that YHWH is Salvation…

Others on digital distractions…

Since posting about feeling endlessly distracted by machines, technology and up-to-the-nanosecond information, it seems I'm not alone. Mark Colvin (one of my favourite Australian journalists) broadcast a great interview with William Powers, author of the book Hamlet's Blackberry.

It's a fascinating interview, and sounds like a really good read.

• Read/listen to the story
• Check out the book.

Preaching to the choir of selves

I talk a lotta talk but I don't
walk a lotta walk,
I try to live to please You but I
just can't shake the awk..ward..

voice that nags and says "You know what?
maybe take your eyes off you;
fix 'em firmly back on Jesus and
remember…He loves you."

"He loves you when the going's good, when
all things come up Milhouse,
and just as much when things are grey,
and all you feel is s—house!"

"He knows you want to please Him
so remember that you do!
Now get out of your self-right funk
and go love others too…"

Sorry, I was miles away…

"Blinded by distractions,
lost in matter-less affairs…"
— dc Talk, "Day By Day"

Recently while sitting on a train, a largely unremarkable thing happened – so unremarkable it gave me pause for thought. What was this non-event?

I got a new PB in Bejeweled Blitz. Not just any Personal Best: I cracked the half-million mark (and beat my previous best by over 150,000)! I enjoyed the quick squirt of adrenaline as it shot through my body, and then I thought: "Huh."

For a while now I've become increasingly frustrated and annoyed at the way the Internet and smart phones have trained my attention patterns — the classic Gen-Y dance I call "The Context-Switch One-Step". Take your electronic distraction generator in one hand, drop your head slightly, place earphones in ears, and away we go, with a one-two-three, one-two-three, facebook-check, twitter-feeds, email-check, one-more-game, when's-that-tram, one-two-three…

…sorry.

Such constant "engagement" (from pellet-popping to drinking from the firehose) has made it very hard for my brain to either 1) switch off or 2) give undivided attention to just one thing. Sometimes this is a benefit, but mostly, it just leaves me distracted and not at rest.

This spills out into all sorts of areas; why bother taking the time to cook a healthy meal when "fast food" slips into the cycle more easily? Or learning a new skill? Or making any time investment at all?

But the place where rubber hits road for me the hardest is spending time with God — how can I be still when everything in my mind screams "hurry, hurry, faster, more!" How can I spend time meditating on a chunk of connected verses, when they seem to meld into a stream of 140-character morsels right before my eyes?

Aldous Huxley would be horrified…