Running Diary: 6km in 38min

Here's something new: Running Diary!

Every time I finish a run, I'm going to post a blog entry with the above title, along with the distance and time.  Its to keep me accountable and to track my progress.  It may be an empty post with a title, or some random ramblings about running.

At the beggining of the year, I committed to run the upcoming half marathon.  I trained up for Round the Bays and completed it on target (8.5km in 47min).  But then soon after that, winter came and I fell back.  Before long, the half-marathon deadline passed and I didn't think I was fit enough to run it.  So I am starting my training for next years half-marathon now!

My goal is to be able to run 10km by the end of Oct, 15km by the end of Jan, and 20km by the end of the summer.  Of course I intend to run Round the Bays again, hopefully beating my previous time, and I may be trying out the 100km Oxfam walk.

About: Salvation Army

Just a few excerpts taken from Wikipedia, to inform anyone interested as to what the Salvation Army is. I currently attend their Church services out in Howick. I already consider myself a regular member, but probably need to sign some proper documents to make it official.

The Salvation Army's stated objectives are:

The advancement of the Christian religion as promulgated in the religious doctrines—which are professed, believed and taught by the Army and, pursuant there to, the advancement of education, the relief of poverty, and other charitable objects beneficial to society or the community of mankind as a whole.

The Salvation Army was founded in London's East End in 1865 by one-time Methodist minister William Booth and his wife Catherine. Originally, Booth named the organization the East London Christian Mission, but in 1878 Booth reorganized it along military lines when his son Bramwell objected to being called a "volunteer" and stated that he was a "regular" or nothing. The name then became The Salvation Army.^[3]

When William Booth became known as the General, Catherine was known as the "Mother of The Salvation Army". William preached to the poor, and Catherine spoke to the wealthy, gaining financial support for their work. She also acted as a religious minister, which was unusual at the time; the Foundation Deed of the Christian Mission, stated that women had the same rights to preach as men. William Booth described the organization's approach: "The three ‘S's’ best expressed the way in which the Army administered to the 'down and outs': first, soup; second, soap; and finally, salvation."^[4]

The Salvation Army's main converts were at first alcoholics, drug addicts, prostitutes and other "undesirables" unwelcomed into polite Christian society, which helped prompt the Booths to start their own church.^[5] The Booths did not include the use of sacraments (mainly baptism and Holy Communion) in the Army's form of worship, believing that many Christians had come to rely on the outward signs of spiritual grace rather than on grace itself.^[6] Other beliefs are that its members should completely refrain from drinking alcohol (Holy Communion is not practiced), smoking, taking illegal drugs, and gambling.^[7] Its soldiers wear a uniform tailored to the country they work in; the uniform can be white, grey, navy, fawn and are even styled like a sari in some areas. Any member of the public is welcome to attend their meetings.

Do you watch TVNZ OnDemand?

TVNZ allows you to watch streamming TV, you get to watch some of the latest TV shows 12hours after they air on actual TV.  Check it out here.

Firefox plugins: Download from YouTube

These two pluggins are really awesome! See for yourself...

Download videos

Download MP3

John Piper's Christian Resource Library

One of my favourite and most respected bible teachers/pastor is John Piper.

And I have located his site Desiring God, a resource center where you can download in PDF all of his books, listen to his sermons, pod casts and many other great resources, all for free! This just goes to further increase my respect for him, as it shows he's not just trying to make money out of his books, he is actually giving them away, my idea of the ideal Christian author!

His main philosphy is “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.”

I highly recomend reading some of his material, or listening to his sermons. Great stuff!

Qwikir BrainDump

My company has released Qwikir BrainDump! Its still not open for public sign up but it is being used by several clients, and we use it as a way to interact with our clients. We have also been using it internally for some time. I have a private one too!

What is Qwikir BrainDump? Its a Knowledge-Networking platform. Its knowledge management meets social networking allowing for collaboration in a fun and free-flowing way.

What can you use it for? Anything where you want to share knowledge with other people. I have my own Old School BrainDump to share all things old school! I posted some old 80s cartoons up there for now, but feel free to contribute more stuff. Simply email the address: oldschool@braindump.co.nz and its in. Drop me a line and I can register you as a user.

Give it a go and tell me what you think of it.

Pricing

I found a very interesting article online about how clients rip you off for your products and services. It talks about how clients often get you to provide them with something but yet only pay you for a small fraction of the price its worth. Below is a video illustrating how ridiculous they are and the article gives you tips on how to avoid it.

Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future - Oscar Wilde

If Architects Had to Work Like Web Designers

An article I found here... http://www.digitalsurvivors.com/archives/000455.php

January 10, 2002

Please design and build me a house. I am not quite sure of what I need, so you should use your discretion. My house should have somewhere between two and forty-five bedrooms. Just make sure the plans are such that the bedrooms can be easily added or deleted. When you bring the blueprints to me, I will make the final decision of what I want. Also, bring me the cost breakdown for each configuration so that I can arbitrarily pick one.

Keep in mind that the house I ultimately choose must cost less than the one I am currently living in. Make sure, however, that you correct all the deficiencies that exist in my current house (the floor of my kitchen vibrates when I walk across it, and the walls don't have nearly enough insulation in them).

As you design, also keep in mind that I want to keep yearly maintenance costs as low as possible. This should mean the incorporation of extra-cost features like aluminum, vinyl, or composite siding. (If you choose not to specify aluminum, be prepared to explain your decision in detail.)

Please take care that modern design practices and the latest materials are used in construction of the house, as I want it to be a showplace for the most up-to-date ideas and methods. Be alerted, however, that kitchen should be designed to accommodate, among other things, my 1952 Gibson refrigerator.

To insure that you are building the correct house for our entire family, make certain that you contact each of our children, and also our in-laws. My mother-in-law will have very strong feelings about how the house should be designed, since she visits us at least once a year.

Make sure that you weigh all of these options carefully and come to the right decision. I, however, retain the right to overrule any choices that you make.

Please don't bother me with small details right now. Your job is to develop the overall plans for the house: Get the big picture. At this time, for example, it is not appropriate to be choosing the color of the carpet. However, keep in mind that my wife likes blue.

Also, do not worry at this time about acquiring the resources to build the house itself. Your first priority is to develop detailed plans and specifications. Once I approve these plans, however, I would expect the house to be under roof within 48 hours.

While you are designing this house specifically for me, keep in mind that sooner or later I will have to sell it to someone else. It therefore should have appeal to a wide variety of potential buyers.

Please make sure before you finalize the plans that there is a consensus of the population in my area that they like the features this house has. I advise you to run up and look at my neighbor's house that he constructed last year. We like it a great deal. It has many features that we would also like in our new home, particularly the 75-foot swimming pool. With careful engineering, I believe that you can design this into our new house without impacting the final cost.

Please prepare a complete set of blueprints. It is not necessary at this time to do the real design, since they will be used only for construction bids. Be advised, however, that you will be held accountable for any increase of construction costs as a result of later design changes.

You must be thrilled to be working on as an interesting project as this! To be able to use the latest techniques and materials and to be given such freedom in your designs is something that can't happen very often.

Contact me as soon as possible with your complete ideas and plans.

PS: My wife has just told me that she disagrees with many of the instructions I've given you in this letter. As architect, it is your responsibility to resolve these differences. I have tried in the past and have been unable to accomplish this. If you can't handle this responsibility, I will have to find another architect.

PPS: Perhaps what I need is not a house at all, but a travel trailer. Please advise me as soon as possible if this is the case.

Jesus, Basketball and Me

A few weeks ago I made a presentation to my home group with the above title. I asked the question what does Jesus haveto do with basketball?

To cut it short, I suggested that Jesus is Lord over all areas of our lives; including our jobs, hobbies and interests. What that means is, God created all good things, He created them for His glory, and we are to enjoy them best when we "experience" them the right way.

I believe God ultimately created basketball, and that it was created to showcase our God given talents and skills. Its both a skill game and a tactics game. So a Christian basketball player is not an oxymoron in the same way a Christian prostitute, or Christian theif would be.

Another question I proposed was; what kind of player would Jesus be like if He played basketball? Aside from being able to shoot miracle shots, what I really mean is what kind of attitude and personality would he bring onto the court.

One person who really personifies the Christian Sportsman is David Robinson:



"I can run. I can jump. I can block shots. I can dunk. But I can't take pride in that. I'm successful because God gave me the ability."

"What I need to do is have a great positive attitude and a great work ethic. Those two things validate me. Yes, it's important that I have good numbers, and I'm well-respected as a player. But I think it's more important that I'm respected as a man."

Let me propose this idea. Basketball is best enjoyed when we play it for the glory of God, honouring other players as real human beings, and respecting the game as it is created by God Himself. And let this also apply to everything else we do too.

Moving Out!

Downstairs to be precise. We have an independent flat downstairs which we have rented out forever, and the latest tenants have recently moved out. This gave me an opportunity to finally move into my own place for some independent living.

I negotiated a cheaper rent, and moved some furniture down. At the point of writing, I have moved most of the large items, such as the bed, tv, couches, computer. But still need to fill up the bathroom and kitchen areas.

I've been looking around for cheap fridges, preferably one with a freezer too.

And I'm looking forward to when I can invite you all for a flat party!