Which "Princess Bride" character are you?

Vaguely continuing a theme (well, the film The Princess Bride does feature a pirate), here's something I came across on Facebook where I seem to be spending inordinate amounts of time at the moment.



Which Princess Bride Character are You?
this quiz was made by mysti

What this says about me is a little worrying? I'd probably have preferred something like the Impressive Clergyman, or maybe the Albino. Even Miracle Max's wife! Oh well. In other news, my Myers-Briggs personality type has either changed (not possible according to theory) or my preferences have become differently expressed, or summat. I was an ESTP according to an assessment a couple of years ago, now I'm an ENTP. Can we blame fatherhood for a move from details to big picture? Or the sense of a purposeful future for move to vision from immediate senses? Answers on a comment, please (and if you don't know Myers-Briggs/MBTI, let me know).

PS be patient - more serious posts on sins, ministry and maybe a few other things will pop up at some stage.

Talk like a Pirate

This just came to mind now, so I thought I'd post a 'heads-up'

International Talk Like a Pirate Day 2007 - Sep 19.

talklikeapirate.com

[PS blame the gap since last post on holidays, and discovering Bebo & Facebook]

Great Quote

PS Saw this on the side of a lorry on the M77 this morning! It was attributed but I can't remember the name.

Discovery consists of seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what nobody else has thought.

I may have got the odd word wrong but that was the gist of it. Fantastic eh? On a lorry, too.

G'night.

Seven Deadly Sins - Overview

So finally I begin my long-promised (but probably not long-awaited) series on the Seven Deadly Sins, readily acknowledging Wikipedia for factual and historical stuff (assuming that the Wikipedia article in question is both factual and historical!)

Long-time readers of this blog have probably given up and gone home long ago, but if they have survived, they might remember I mentioned sin and sins in January. This was because during the ICC Weekend Away, one of the issues that came up (at least in my head) was about sin. I was becoming a bit more aware of certain areas where I fail and fall. Now I know sin is not a popular notion in our (Westernised) culture at this point in time, it's all to do with postmodernism and the lack of absolute values and all that (so they tell me) but what is worse is that many Christians and Churchians don't talk about it much either. Don't worry, I'm not going to turn into a fire and brimstone preacher, but sometimes it might do us well to consider sin - what it is, what it does, and what we should do about it - without focusing so much on it that we lose focus on God, Christ, life, loved ones and all the important stuff. Of course 'what it is, what it does, what to do' would be a series if not a dissertation in itself, but suffice to say for now that my working definition includes: something that separates me from God, something that is unacceptable behaviour, not up to standard, and that has an impact on me and those around me. Further general thoughts on sin will hopefully become clear as I think about each of the seven.

And because there were several areas that I noticed coming up, some of which might possibly overlap with the so-called Deadly Sins, I thought they would be handy pegs on which to hang some confession and reflection.

So here's the list, courtesy of Wikipedia:

• Lust


• Gluttony


• Greed


• Sloth


• Wrath


• Envy


• Pride

Just for the record, I haven't seen the Morgan Freeman/Brad Pitt film Se7en, and don't particularly intend to.

I hope to reflect on and explore what the terms mean and meant, and what they mean to me (hey, now that is postmodern...)

So just to get it right, we probably shouldn't refer to Seven Deadly Sins but Mortal or Cardinal ones - the distinction being made by (primarily) the Roman Catholic Church between these (which could lead to eternal damnation and had to be resolved either by confession or perfect contrition) and venial sins, which were less serious and could be forgiven through any sacrament of the church (incidentally the RC church also has seven sacraments - as opposed to the Church of Scotland's two - but I don't think there are direct parallels with the sins. Might be an interesting study though...)

I had hoped to do a quick intro and one of the actual posts tonight but due to a few hyperlinks and my usual obsessive-completist tendencies, this will have to do for now. Oh yes, and don't hold your breath for the series to come out regularly or even quickly. I have a two-week holiday coming up!

Graduation and other oddities

So I graduated (again) on Saturday (07/07/07 - won't forget that date in a hurry!)
I am now David G Slater, B.Sc., B.A. (Theol.)
For those who are interested, my B.A. Theol is with majors in New Testament with Greek, and Practical Theology. I worked hard to ensure that my module choices gave me a double major or alternatively the option to choose one of two majors in my potential Honours year that I'm not now doing, including taking 30 credits more than I needed over my three years, and now they (my majors) gets very little mention. So much for Pride...
I am also trying to sort out going to Glasgow University, where I will (hopefully) get some more alphabet extracts to drag around my formal correspondance.

This is because the Kirk have accepted me as a Prospective Candidate in Training for the Ministry of Word and Sacrament, and the Presbytery of Irvine and Kilmarnock have nominated me as a full Candidate so assuming that I do all the relevant studying, attend the Candidates' Conferences, have three successful Student Placements and a fourth Probationer's Placement sustained, complete Church Law and Bible Knowledge Portfolios and probably get examined on walking with my left leg behind my right ear, I will nearly be a Church of Scotland Minister (assuming that one of the umpteen vacant charges is in agreement with myself and Cath that we are called to be their minister and minister's wife and they are called to be our charge).

But in spite of all the ifs and ands, it's been a big milestone that I have temporarily lost sight of through finishing my term, and indeed my time at ICC (you can tell I lost sight of it by the fact that it's almost 2 months after acceptance that I'm blogging it!). Before I was simply studying Theology in faith that God had called me to ministry. Now I have some sort of 'Status' in that representatives of the ?biggest denomination in Scotland (at least the biggest Protestant one, surely?) have confirmed that calling and I am 'in until I'm out' rather than being 'out until I'm in'.

This probably doesn't make a lot of sense, and isn't what I was going to post on in detail when I started. But bed is beckoning so the other oddities will have to wait. Still, at least I'm back blogging - it may not be regular or daily but I am still here. Anyone reading this who hasn't yet fallen asleep, please post to say hi.

Incidentally, I haven't come to any great conclusions about our new PM except to agree with Nick Robinson's description of him as 'Not Blair'. Which, let's face it, is a good start...

Resource for 'Housedads'

I'm not actually a housedad, but do manage to spend more time at home than I would if I was on a 9-5, at least I have recently. So for all those dads out there, house- or not, I recommend DadsDinner.com. I haven't read it all yet, but I find it funny. [The management of Nodrog's Gruntlings accepts no responsibility for anyone who does not agree with me.] I particularly recommend 'Dear Dave' - no relation (I think. Much. Well as I said above I'm not a housedad. Look, just read it and laugh, ok? Or smile grimly if that's all you can manage - but remember that just looking after the wean for an hour on a Saturday afternoon may seem hard when you're going through it, but it's bound to get easier if you're doing it 24/7, right? Hmm...)

Survival or 'Thrival'?

Can't believe it's been over a month! This term was supposed to be an easier one... but I find that having more time allows more time for procrastination and plain time-wasting, as well as work expanding to fill the available (space-)time. Then of course I have tried to prioritise my family (still getting used to thinking of my wife and son under that heading instead of my mum and sisters!) - not always successfully - and there was a cold in there somewhere as well (or a series of 2 or 3 of them for spouse & sprog :-( )

Anyway, in the midst of 'end-of-term' stuff - despite lack of decent preparation, did quite well in my final Hebrew test of term, and think I've done an ok exam paper (2 hours) for Greek Text: Philippians. Now I just have to write a few thousand words about some children's songs, mostly before Friday, and I'll be fine!

But I've just been wondering - am I surviving this week (which also included a 'Personal Development Interview' as part of my C of S Ministry application) or thriving on it. I feel like I've 'survived' the two language modules rather than thrived (thriven?) as perhaps I did last term (at least in Greek - or that's how my revisionist memory records it...) but at the same time, I've been trying to depend utterly on God. I'm a long way off yet, but feel it ties in with Brother Lawrence's 'Practising the Presence of God', and have made some progress in small ways. What I wonder is, has this intention to depend on God, led to an actual 'thrival' in terms of my studies? I certainly seem to be a bit better at not being anxious in these last few weeks.

The proof of the pudding will probably be if I get this independent study work completed reasonably well. I also recently decided that perhaps I should embrace the fact that I work in what my placement supervisor calls an 'exponential' fashion - the graph of work against time shoots up as the deadline approaches! As long as I time things right, there isn't a problem!

BBC Anti-Progress?

OK so my post title is a bit exaggerated. I bookmarked this story a while ago but forgot to blog it until now. Still thought it was worth highlighting - it's so unusual to see anyone in mainstream media (he said, blatantly generalising) questioning the forward march of progress and especially technology - it's usually 'which gadget' not 'should we have gadgets' (I speak as a gadget fan myself...) Scroll down for some of the BBC readers' comments too - also refreshing (in some cases)>

This is part of my theory (not unique or even original, probably) that we are not postmodern entirely by a long chalk, yet - in the realms of science/technology, we are still modernist, seeking salvation from global warming, etc., by 'scientists' or by new technologies like energy-saving bulbs. (I got one. It went dud, for a while. I tried it again later, it worked, then died shortly afterwards. I know I can't base my decisions on one bulb, but it has decreased my inclination to try this method of saving the planet, at present.) TV adverts still sell on the basis of 'clinically shown to...' or just a picture of someone in a white lab-coat... I mean, what is going on? Is the appearance of authority all that's really needed? Just a stern voice ('Big Brother says come to the diary room') and we all follow because it's easier than thinking ourselves? (The oft-cited 'electric shock' experiment would be relevant here if I had a source).

Anyway, just thought I'd raise the point. Is progress always good?

Apologies

I don't know about you, but I'm kind of stuck in a Churchian(*) habit of saying sorry for anything, regardless of whether it's big or small, my fault or not, deliberate or accidental. Part of it may be British/Scottish cultural influence, especially when you apologise to someone who bumps into you! Anyway, check out this SmuloSpace blog entry about apologies.

It blows me away.

How can we as a church/faith and as (individual) faith communities get back to this kind of corporate movement, that will lead to a physical action/change in the world? As our college principal mentioned today, you may not be able to change the world, but you can change someone's world.



(*) I reckon a Churchian is someone who is an adherent of Churchianity, that well known parody of Christianity (**)

(**) Whether we should even refer to Christianity or use something like 'I am a Christ-follower' (or 'I try to be a Christ-follower') is a debate for another time, possibly.

New World Order

Am I the only one who finds reports of Gordon Brown's 'new world order' slightly sinister? See the BBC report and Nick Robinson's blog entry. I don't have a fully developed eschatology, as such, and take the scenarios portrayed by the Left Behind series and similar with a large pinch of salt, but it begins to make you wonder... how will things all end (if you're premillenial posttribulationist... if you're a pre-trib and a Christian then perhaps it's not quite so relevant!). I can't quite visualise Gordon Brown as the antichrist, but you never know...