First, you may remember a wee while back that my lovely cuz brought me back a 30g video iPod from a trip to the states and I asked if anyone knew of a good way of mounting it in the car.

Well, was in Boots the Chemist today buying a battery for my Kurzweil and spotted these next to the cash desk (in the photo section…) Reduced to a fiver! Bought one, despite the fact that the packaging stated it was only compatible up to the 4th generation iPod. Sticking both the soft pads into the back has made it just about right for my 5th gen iPod and it works a treat in the car.

The only downside (so far) is that I’ve had to take the soft-case off my iPod as it won’t fit into this dock with it on! Argh…

Second, and still on the iPod, have a look at this:

Yes, that’s number two son (who will be two next month), and yes, that is my iPod, and yes he did put the headphones on himself. This was him fascinated by, and singing along to, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Micro-GT is a real tech-head and loves nothing more than a gadget with plenty of buttons on to get to grips with. He can already work our DVD players, VCRs and TVs. And Jo’s mobile phone. We’ve sourced her a new slider-phone after he discovered how to switch on and off her Samsung flip but I imagine it won’t be too long before he’s worked out this one too…

(P.S. Having kid’s CDs on your iPod is a fantastic way to ruin any musical credibility when playing shuffle play in the car.)

Received this email today and I’d urge you, if you believe in God, to sign the second petition.

IMPORTANT PLEASE READ AND FORWARD TO YOUR FRIENDS

We have recently seen the publicity regarding Downing Street petitions, which allow you to sign an online petition to Downing Street.

Please look at the following posted petitions and encourage others to sign up to the /forfaithschools petition.

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/faithschools/
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Abolish all faith schools and prohibit the teaching of creationism and other religious mythology in all UK schools. Submitted by Nicola Holt Deadline to sign up by: 15 November 2007 Signatures: 9571

If you disagree with this please sign up to the petition below (it’s very simple and takes about 1 minute!)

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/forfaithschools/

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to continue the support for faith schools and to ensure that in all schools the teaching of traditional ‘faith’ views of origins is included alongside the more recent scientific ‘theories’ which many scientists ‘believe’. Submitted by Jonathan Curry – Deadline to sign up by: 29 June 2007 – Signatures: 35

Let’s let the government know how we feel on this issue. Please forward this mail and let’s cancel out those 9571 signatures

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAhfZUZiwSE]

Let’s be clear – I’m against road pricing.

Personally I think that we already pay more than enough to the government to keep a car on the road:

• VAT on a new car
• VAT on parts and servicing
• Huge swathes of tax (approx. 70%) on fuel
• Annual MoT charge
• Annual Road Fund licence

The suggested charge of £1.24 per mile during peak times to drive around seems untenable – this would add around £25 to my DAILY commute to and from work. So that’s around £7,000 EXTRA a year just to get to work and back each day, excluding holidays and weekends? I only live 10 miles from my place of work. Get real…

The other issue is that I don’t believe for a minute that the government will (a) reduce other forms of tax on motoring or (b) improve public transport sufficiently to make journeys anything less than a ridiculous, expensive, uncomfortable inconvenience for the general public.

Privatising buses, trains and so on has meant one thing – if the service is not profitable then it doesn’t run. No big surprise there as it’s what business is all about. But why can’t the government understand that this is the inevitable outcome of such a plan? It’s short-termism – get some cash in the bank for selling the rights to run transport, don’t have the hassle of trying to sort out the problems and then sit back and criticise the private companies for not running a great service.

When I lived in London I used public transport virtually all the time. There was a choice of bus, tube or overland train with services at worst every 15 minutes throughout the day. The rest of the country doesn’t have this infrastructure. When we moved to the midlands, I did try to continue using public transport but after continually standing at bus stops for more time each day than it actually took to drive to work I gave up.

If you agree, then you really need to sign the petition here, and potentially sign up to the Telegraph campaign here. This is the sort of thing that the government are so strongly committed to that if you and I, the general public (and voters!), don’t get our voices heard will come in irrespective of what we think. There’s a good article here including some stuff about the London Congestion Charge which shows the strategy for getting these things through; if we don’t ask the public they can’t tell us not to do it…

I’ve been reading again. During a very recent bout of illness I picked up this book:

Together with a recent conversation with my good friend Nick and emails to/from my buddy Dave I’m really wondering about the current model of church and my place in it.

Nick has been really challenged about ‘church’ and why it’s so complicated. We’ve been in the same church for a number of years (we recently left) and there have been some major problems involving control from senior staff resulting in a great deal of dissatisfaction amongst a large part of the congregation. Nick mentioned that he’d been thinking about Acts 2, specifically the verses about the first church:

41-42That day about three thousand took him at his word, were baptized and were signed up. They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and the prayers.

43-45Everyone around was in awe—all those wonders and signs done through the apostles! And all the believers lived in a wonderful harmony, holding everything in common. They sold whatever they owned and pooled their resources so that each person’s need was met.

46-47They followed a daily discipline of worship in the Temple followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant and joyful, as they praised God. People in general liked what they saw. Every day their number grew as God added those who were saved.

All they did was made a commitment, met together regularly under the Apostle’s teaching, ate together, shared everything, made sure that the less well-off were catered for and enjoyed praising God. I guess that’s what most of us try to do in our churches but I’ve heard a few comments recently that make me wonder if we’re not getting a bit too like the rest of the world:

• It’s the budget meeting tonight. Everyone’s going to be putting forward their pet ideas for how we can spend all the money again…
• My pastor’s boss doesn’t want him to have a sabbatical. Sometimes he can be the most caring person imagineable and sometimes he just doesn’t see the wood for the trees…
• We’re on a quest to meet the needs of all the refugees in our area, despite the fact that our church leadership can’t seem to understand that we don’t have the resources to meet all these needs at the same time!
• I already only see my family on Friday nights and Saturday because when I’m not working I’m doing work for the [church] every evening. (This comment was NOT from a pastor!)

Also, life has changed dramatically for most people since churches started the usual Sunday morning and evening services and often this doesn’t work for unchurched people who go out on a Friday and Saturday night and don’t really surface until lunchtime on the following days!

Why is it that in most churches I’ve visited the Sunday morning service is the best attended?

Some of my male friends have started to meet together every other week to pray and to ask God if He wants to do something different, and if so, what! People like my online buddy Thomas are seeking to do something different that meets the needs of non-traditional church people.

Would you pray with us about the future of the church in the UK?

We’ve got a Hewlett Packard Laserjet 4L printer. It’s a bog-stock, old, fairly slow mono laser printer but it’s great for Jo’s Tupperware flyers and the sort of normal printing that we do.

Recently the toner started to run out so I shopped around for a replacement toner cartridge. The cheapest I could find a genuine HP cartridge was around £60 plus postage and packaging.

So, instead I bought this:

Total cost? £49.99 including all taxes and shipping from these people. OK, it was on special offer and is now £59.99 but it’s still the same price as a single HP-branded toner cartridge.

How can a new printer be cheaper than a single part that goes inside it??