Stop writing and go to sleep

I emailed myself last night.

I wanted to write a few words to backdate a blip.

I started this when I was in bed, ready for sleep.

This is what I sent:

This wee treat was waiting for me when I got home tonight.

When we were on holiday, the weeWeir had borrow the Catnsrrzqw

I have no idea what I was thinking. I will stop doing that. And sleep.

Mass Observation Day

Yesterday, I noticed a tweet pointing people to the Mass Observation site: http://www.massobs.org.uk/12may2011.html

In 1937, Mass Observation called for people from all parts of the UK to record everything they did from when they woke up in the morning to when they went to sleep at night on 12th May. This was the day of George VI’s Coronation. The resulting diaries provide a wonderful glimpse into the everyday lives of all sorts of people on this day.

The Mass Observation Archive repeated this call in 2010 by asking for electronic diaries written on 12th May. This day, coincidently, was the first day of the new coalition government. These diaries are stored in the Archive alongside the 1937 documents. May 12th 2011 is likely to be quite an ordinary day but we would still like to have your diary.

Write as much as you can about what you do, who you meet, what you talk about, what you eat and drink, what you buy or sell, what you are working on, the places you visit, the people you meet, the things you read, see and hear around you and of course what you yourself think.

I thought it looked like a lark, so I captured my day. It wasn't the most exciting day, in fact pretty ordinary. But it was the day that I lived.

Hope you had a good day too.
01:30. awake to give the weeWeir a drink of water and a little milk.
01:35. back to sleep.
05:30: aware of Mrs theWeir being up to the weeWeir. Failure to move as sleep over came. Not the most helpful husband.
06:35: awake to check the time, a little bemused that my alarm had gone off at 6:17 and I didn't recall hearing it, never mind turning it off.
06:55: trying to wake up, but not having much joy
07:15: awake, turning over and committing the
07:20: check the weather forecast on the Met Office iPhone app to confirm method of transport to work. Cycling all the way it shall be. Resist the temptation to check Facebook app and quickly delete the day%27s Groupon offer email.
07:22: commit the day to God in prayer. Quite enjoying not rushing up and about.
07:30: realising I need to shave before cycling, get up and shave
07:40: changed, bag packed and water consumed, empty the kitchen bin on the way out to the garage - and the bike
07:45: Set off for work on cycle path alongside the A89, posting a couple of things on the way.
07:55: wave at a neighbour driving works van
08:12: join the Union Canal at Hermiston
08:30: opt to not take a photo for my eight-thirty blipfoto blog
08:38: arrive at EH1 2DH after 15 miles.
08:43: getting clean and changed
09:00: bump into a colleague and former school mate on the way to get breakfast from the staff shop, deleting email on the Blackberry on the way.
09:05: at my desk, starting up the Mac and looking at my to-do list on Wunderlist.
09:20: start working up updates to a PDF document being created to demonstrate an online tool. Photoshop crashes.
10:05: reading some stories on Google Reader while InDesign exports latest version of the document.
10:15: phone call from a hotel after a conversation last night, send a couple of text messages to friends and realise I forgot to reply to my Dad last night too. My bad.
10:35: martin appears and asks if I'm intentionally late for meeting him. Nope. Just forgot. My bad (again).
11:05: finish chatting with Martin, update Wunderlist with new tasks and edit priority of others accordingly.
11:25: another read of Google Reader while InDesign exports another version of the document. Conversations with IT guys about streaming audio and video internally nudge my understanding forward, but not enough to give us a solution we're able to use right now. The conversations will continue once the key-person returns from holiday.
11:40: must be lunchtime soon. Phone a former McColleague to converse about stopping automated page-turning in PDFs.
12:30: I had been thinking about lunch earlier, but got sucked into finished another couple of jobs on the list.
12:45: send email to new MD responding to his email from 06:37 today.
12:50: really getting hungry now. Off to get some food and back to finish typing up notes from a meeting yesterday.
13:20: lunch inhaled and time to help out McColleague for a few moments.
13:55: phone call to Roller Blind supplier to clarify some things on a quote we got last night.
14:15: back to fixing the PDF, more crashing of Photoshop and InDesign resulting in a call to IT Service desk to ask for a new Mac. Or at least some way to get these applications to work properly.
15:00: Mac support people call and walk me though a remote fix for the issue. I follow the process and the guy will phone back in an hour and see how I get on. First image I try to save as an EPS causes Photoshop to crash. Grrrrr.
15:15: eventually get the PDF updated, navigation all working and passed over to the *customer* for comment.
15:30: check weather conditions on the Met Office website then train times for journey home. Wind in face for 15 miles won't be happening tonight.
16:00: get changed and head for the train station.
16:14: on the train with the bike.
16:25: laugh at ridiculous rendering of East Coast Trains website on iPad.
16:34: off the train and cycling home
16:38: home and putting the bike in the garage
16:40: family time. Yay!
17:00: oven on for dinner.
17:08: realise oven was put on wrong setting and adjust accordingly.
17:15: dinner in the oven.
17:30: Mrs theWeir away out for the evening with a friend. WeeWeir and I getting ready for eating.
17:40: weeWeir starts eating dinner
18:25: weeWeir is finished dinner
18:40: supper for the weeWeir
19:00: dancing around the living room with the weeWeir to "Get up" by James Brown.
19:15: weeWeir in bed and sleeping after teeth, book, prayer and thank you's
19:30: get things ready for going to work in the morning
19:49: Salesman from Blind Studio phones back to confirm details and we agree a price.
19:50: GCarter arrives for chat.
20:30: alarm goes off for blipfoto blog, GCarter retrieves remote control car. Photo is taken. Posted online here: eight-thirty
20:45: remote control car goes back in the box. Unbroken. Phew.
21:40: Mrs theWeir returns home. Cake is consumed.
22:30: GCarter goes home after good chat and a little prayer
22:55: book train journey on the iMac after earlier hilarity at website rendering
23:25: conclude notes on the day for archives
23:40: sleeping.

Candle in light

Posted via email from theweir's posterous

words? those three

The other day, I was reflecting on our use of the phrase "I love you" and asked for your thoughts. You cab read them in the comments here, but here's some picks.

The giving and receiving of love is the most precious thing we can do. There's nothing else that comes from the depths of our being and speaks about our humility.

Money is great

Things are useful

Food is amazing

Time is valuable

But if we give these things without love then we aren't doing anyone any favours, are we?

The challenge for me - and hopefully for you - today is what does it mean to say "I love you"? What does it mean to live "I love you". What does it mean to be loving even in the face of hatred, pain, suffering, anxiety or tears?

What does resurrection mean to you?

On Easter Sunday (yes, a few weeks ago now), we were asked if we wanted to share a little something about what Easter means to us.

Easter for me is about death and resurrection.

I didn't prepare anything. I didn't expect to have anything to say, but when the moment came, I was compelled to share a few words.

Through tears and trembling, I said something like:

Resurrection and Easter is about:

Hope where there was none

Peace when their is none

Life where their is none

Grace where their is none

Wholeness where their is none

Strength where their is none

Forgiveness where their is none

How about you?

PS: I love this little video about resurrection.

Vote. Again.

Last year, I was on the cusp of becoming all politically focussed and all that.

While I've always had an interest in politics (thank you Mrs Smith and Modern Studies), I get fed up with hyperbole. Ironic, innit?

I cast my vote through the medium of Royal Mail this year, first time and all that. It was with a little trepidation that I clicked on the link from Gareth that pointed towards the Scottish Vote Compass, answered a few questions and BOOM. I saw my political preferences summarised in a couple of tasty charts.

While some (I'm looking at you Mike McQuaid) may contest the viability of such a short set of issue-related questions being enough to state political preference with complete infallibility, it's a nice wee bit of fun and got me thinking about the issues.

So much of the coverage (other than Brian's excellent blog) has been about the leaders and their charisma. Or lack of it.

Here's my results.

How they related to my ballot papers I won't say.

But it was interesting nonetheless.

Especially given that the pdf downloaded from the site contained a different (and less engaging) chart:

And also this:

I like that the star indicating where I am on the economic & social circle is almost dead centre. Kinda says "come and get me, candidates, I'm a moderate...".

Where did you end up?

we don't have a clue what's going on.

The future. The undiscovered country. "Next".

As I read it today, I loved this cartoon on the XKCD: Future Timeline. It's an image showing top-ranked Google search results of predictions/claims for each year until 2101. I won't post the image here as it's *way* too big.

If we're honest, we're all control freaks - to a greater or lesser extent. I've come to this conclusion in recent days after conversations with loads of people. More often than not we want to be in charge. That might be through simply understanding what is happening, or by literally being in control of what is going on. I know I am guilty of this a lot of the time.

But what struck me as I chuckled through Future Timeline was that we really have no idea what's next.

Sure, we knew there was a lot of fuss being made about a wedding last week. We knew that there was a sunrise and a sunset. But we didn't really expect to see news reports like this, this or this.

I guess during the last few weeks, it's been all too apparent what it means to have faith. To trust that God is good and that his Love (and Mercy) endures forever. To believe that He is able to do things in and through us that we just can't do on our own. Like cope. Or overcome. Or keep walking. Or stand when there's nothing left to stand on.

And faith comes through hearing. What I hear impacts what I believe. For sure. But I'm not blindly following, but humbly listening for the voice of the Father. He speaks. Often I'm not listening. Often I'm too caught up in what might be, what needs to be done, what seems to be important. This turtle cartoon speaks right to the heart of that. If I loose a file on a computer, is it really that important?

Maybe tomorrow we can walk on water. Who knows. I'm not worrying about it. Because that won't change a thing.

As a friend once said; "every breath is mercy".

Keep breathing.