The Christian and Technology by Fesko

There are a few of these about. This one is a hundred pages long and considers screens, social media, cars, books, V R and the evil and unpleasant side of the Net. His stance helps - neither pro not anti. He also avoids quirkiness and coming up with rules and has the right balance of information and comment. It probably helps that these chapters were originally prepared as devotionals for chapel in a theological seminary. Good for passing on to younger people but suitable for all. An EP title, it is the fifth or sixth Fesko title I've reviewed on this blog. He is quite prolific.

Wonderful moment. Wonderful Internet.

Latest Tweet. Put the radio on the other night. Heard two great songs back to back - Avril Lavigne Complicated/Maroon 5 She will be loved. Delightful. Wasn't sure what second track was exactly but easily able to track it down on the Internet. pic.twitter.com/Ey2OjBZfsY

— Gary Brady (@pregethwr) February 6, 2020

"Day off" Week 49

As noted in week 39 the luxury of a day off is not always possible and this is one of those weeks. So I have had to stagger as is necessary from time to time. So what I am doing is saying that the day is in three parts. I had an evening out last Monday to see Kate Rusby as reported and I''ll be pretty much relaxing also 4.30 - 7.30 pm on Saturday when we have our church social. The other component came yesterday when I took it rather easy after the Westminster Conference doing some blogging and reading about insid jokes on Wikipedia and exploring some other websites. Later I read the first stave of Dickens' Christmas Carol it being that time of year and the 175th anniversary of its publication. Everyone says it is a masterpiece. It is.

PS The Christmas social was great - lovely food and conversation and games. My annual quiz was bearable. We finished off with some performances inclduing a comedy sketch, a rendition of yakty sax and Rachmaninov's second piano concerto on piano and accordion. Lovely evening.

Dave Gorman Too much information

I was in a charity shop the other day and I saw a signed copy of Dave Gorman's Too much information (published 2014) which I picked up for very little. Gorman is somebody I am only vaguely aware of but this book, mostly about the Internet, was informative, fascinating, amusing and enjoyable to read. Gorman started as a comedian but has settled into this sort of analysis approach, which is full of mild humour but appears to have a higher motive. I was very interested in a piece near the end that gives some insight into how things are promoted on Google.

50 hours without

I woke up Friday morning to find the internet out (and the phone line too). It was another 50 hours or so before it was sorted out some time on Sunday. Thankfully mobile phones allowed us to report the fault and get calls diverted so we managed okay, which I am relieved to be able to say.

Wonders of blogging

One of the great things about blogging is the way you get to "meet" people you never would otherwise. It has happened to me two or three times now. The latest episode involves a man called Kjell from Norway. He is a similar age and like me he is a Focus fan. We enjoy each other's websites on the subject. (For mine see here).

We recently had some email correspondence and Kjell has very kindly sent me a pile of CDs containing rare and even obscure Focus material. It would be of little interest to most people but to fans like ourselves it is full of interest. I was particularly impressed by Kjell's unwillingness even to let me cover his costs. What a kind fellow. Thanks mate and tusen taak!

It is pretty obscure stuff. An example can be found here and another here.

LTS

Building work at the LTS continues apace. They have also recently appointed new administrator. I'm sorry to say though that the drinks machine is playing up!
It was good to be involved in interviews there on Monday. There were several candidates, all good men and all with interesting stories of how they were converted and have come to a conviction that God wants them to prepare for Christian ministry.
All based in the UK, there was great variety in these men in all sorts of ways – age (24-44 I think it was), background (3 were oriental, one was from Wales, one Afro-Caribbean Londoner and 2 quite different Englishmen), profession – some growing up in Christian homes some having no background at all, convictions about baptism and church order, way of speaking.
I was struck by two particular things – the involvement in various sorts of Pentecostalism that has marked several of them before turning from it and the Reformed influence the internet is having on people – particularly through John Piper, Tim Keller and others (John MacArthur, Paul Washer, etc). Indeed, the importance of the internet is clearly not to be underestimated.

Do you get these?

I'm sure I'm not the only one who gets these things. I try to spend only a second on them but this one caught my eye. It was in Comic sans font so I thought it might be genuine(!)

Dear Abbey Customer
Due to multiple attempt error while trying to login in to your online Abbey Account. We believed that someone other than you is trying to access your Account For security reasons, we have temporarily Flagged your Online Access and your access to online banking will be restricted if you fail to Verify and re-confirm your membership details.
...

The irony is that my spammer gets things I want but couldn't spot this! Ah the joys of e-mail.

Alan Davey, etc

My old friend Alan Davey breezed through here the other night asking questions. See his blog here. I got a brilliant find on the Utsira question thanks to someone on the island itself. The wonders of the internet. (Talking of which I could also find the Norwegian for many thanks [tusen takk] at the flick of a key. See here. Looking for a pic of Alan I also discovered that there's an Alan Davey in the rock band Hawkwind [Do you wanna ride in my silver machine, See yourself going by in a silver machine?] which I'd not known).

Anyway, the point of this post is that Alan (who clearly has a poor taste in music as he also took exception to Ekseption - official site here) asked about the phrase 'bang to rights' and I can't find anything about it on the net, beyond the fact it's criminal/police slang, which I might have surmised. Anyway can anyone out there help us?