Jottings on science, religion, technology, pop culture, photography and faith from the Aotearoa New Zealand
Paul Teusner, who I met at the Virtual Theology colloquium, has some interesting material over at Crossing Over or Crossing Out? where he’s collating material relating to his work on “The Media’s Influence in Young People’s Religious Language and Imaginings.”
He’s also blogging at Slashing through the Information Jungle, which I think is an excellent name for a blog.
Check it out.
I’m always on the lookout for new material that I can use with our house group. With it being Lent I wanted to focus on the person of Jesus and how we should live. In looking for resources I came across Spirituality of Jesus by Jon Horne (Agapé) (scroll down the page).
A series of modules looking at John’s Gospel and how one might be “at home” with God. The book is aimed primarily as an evangelical tool to connect with people in the workplace but we’re adapting the material to work with our more devotional group. The things about it that struck me positively included:
We took a stab at it for the first time last night and it seemed to go well. I don’t know what the other Agapé stuff is like but this book seems like a good resource for getting into John’s gospel.
At the Virtual Theology I mentioned in passing the series of User Friendly cartoons that talked about auctioning advertising space on your body for cash. (http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20050205)
Now reality(?) catches up with virtuality in NZ with a pregnant woman doing just that via the main NZ online auction service. NZ Herald : Mother auctions her bump for advertising space
Reminds me of a clip I saw once over at Adbusters a while back called “Human Branding”. Cameras in a shopping mall focusing on all the different brands people paid to advertise. (It was submitted as part of a competition and it may still be floating around the internet.)
The colloquium was great. Some really interesting people & papers. Will post more later. Need to clear the head cold I came down with over the weekend first. Tim took the picture below at lunch (From left-to-right: Peter, Ian, Paul, me and Ann).
Just had an excellent late breakfast and coffee with Phil, a fellow PhD student in the School of Theology. Always good to catch up with someone else who’s walking a similar path to yourself. Good food, good drink and good conversation. A nice way to start the day and to try out a new café over on Te Atatu Peninsula.
Phil’s question to me today – “How would you define or describe forgiveness?”
Then, after reading some more interesting VT papers, the Virtual Theology Colloquium kicks off with dinner tonight. Time to meet the people who’s work I’ve been scrawling online comment on (and vice versa). The tomorrow we start unpacking our papers. The discussion should be stimulating. I’m looking forward to it. Time to meet some new people and catch up with some old faces.
Now this looks excellent. Just heard about it on the radio. An online encyclopedia of New Zealand put together by the Ministry for Culture and Heritage / Te Manatū Taonga.
Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand
In Māori, Te Ara means ‘the pathway’. Through interlinking text and image trails, the Encyclopedia takes you on a journey of discovery. Beginning with the theme of Peoples, it will eventually present a comprehensive guide to New Zealand – its natural environment, history, culture, economics and government.
Would have thought it would be called “Te Ara : The Encyclopedia of Aotearoa New Zealand” though.
Came across this the other day. A Star Wars fan film made, of all places, just down the road (New Lynn is a location). Described as,
a parody of fandom set in the heady days of 1999, a couple of weeks before the release of ‘The Phantom Menace’. The world is excited, people are queuing up, fans are dusting off their old jedi costumes and Jar Jar looks pretty darn cool.
In the middle of all this madness, young Star Wars fan Markus walks in a daze. After living and breathing Star Wars for most of his life, he’s having trouble getting his head around something the magnitude of a whole new movie. One of his fondest wishes is that it could all actually be real, that maybe there really are Jedi Knights, Corellian scoundrels and beautiful but deadly mercenaries. And maybe, just maybe, they need his help…
I thought it was funny (but then I’m tending toward “fanboy” status myself for a few things.) Be aware that it is a big download so probably not for non-broadband users.
More info at: Fanboys – A Short Film by Peter Haynes
Came across this today while tracking down information about the Star Wars fan file “Fanboys”.
Already. It’s still 25 degrees Celsius in the office and it’s midnight (ignore timestamp on posting – NZ daylight saving confuses MT). Did the pancake thing tonight with house group, talked about traditions, Lent and Jesus’ time in the desert. Leading into dipping into John’s Gospel as we journey toward Easter and autumn.
If Lent is linked with “lengthen”, as in days heading into spring, should the Antipodean equivalent be called “Short”, as we lose the sun a little more each day. Looking for some Aus/NZ Lenten poetry that captures this.
Interesting post on the teaching/researching tension: What Now?: Teaching release and release from teaching
This year I’ve ramped the teaching down so I can finish the thesis by the end of the year so it was interesting to see this perspective.
Via Maggi Dawn.