Hello there. :) I’m Steve, and I’ve always been a bit plain and simple really.
I don't drive, never went to uni, and have never drunk a glass of alcohol, so I guess I have yet to grow up. :)
Today however I’m an English teacher/radio ma Site statistics:Click here
Kids' Encounter 2007-10-22 01:59:00 I was wondering if you would consider serving in kid’s encounter this year.The above line is from an email I received from Kristen back in February, asking me to help out at Cession Church’s children’s group, and my immediate thought was this:Naarrgghhhh!!Despite having helped to take cubs camping in England, shown cartoons in orphanages in Romania, helped lead a Youth Fellowship group in Twickenham, helped teach illiterate kiwi kids on a camp in Arapohue, puppeteered for them in Auckland schools, worked as a schoolteacher in Highland Park for over a year, and, oh yes, actually been a kid for most of the last 36 years, they are still not my preferred company.Still, I knew the pattern of these challenges from God. I’m invited to do something I’ve never really done before. I acce Read more:Encounter
Healthy Leaders 2007-10-29 01:59:00 Yesterday I attended the second day of the Wesleyan-Methodist Church of New Zealand’s National Conference, albeit only for the last one-and-a-half seminars.The latter of these was entitled Dealing with Insecurity in Leaders
hip and was led by Rev. Rex Rigby.To illustrate the point, he opened by describing Moses are compulsive, Solomon as narcissistic, Saul as paranoid, Samson as co-dependent and Jonah as passive-aggressive.In a very concise talk, he then outlined seven aspects of what he called “healthy leaders”:1. Healthy leaders deal with their hurts.2. Healthy leaders are authentic.3. Healthy leaders have their own story to tell.4. Healthy leaders commit to personal growth. (including by being accountable)5. Healthy leaders look after those around them.6. Healthy leaders look after
The Book Of Proverbs 2007-11-07 01:59:00 One of my favourite Bible books as a kid was Proverbs.It’s not hard to figure out why. Most of it appears fairly up-front and easy to ‘get.’Reading it over the past month, I found that I had to take it all in a completely different way to the rest of the Bible. With this one I found that I was reading each verse separately, and pausing afterwards to let it sink in. Not a conscious decision, just the result of encountering so many apparently unconnected ideas one after the other like that.Most of the time I read my Good News Bible, mainly because it’s small and easy to carry about with me, but occasionally, when I have the chance, I dip into any other translation that’s easily to hand, and often it’s like reading a completely different book.Proverbs 10:10:(GOOD NEWS TRANSLATI
Manukau… What’s It Called? Manukau… Once Again! Manukau!!! 2007-11-06 01:59:00 Have you ever walked into a room in slow-motion?Y’know – like in movies? When the lead character is overcome with realization, or revisits a place of deep emotional significance many years after the event? The thing is that everyone else around them moves in slow-motion too, so you know that it’s just a cinematic thing – the character wasn’t actually walking very slowly into a room full of people, everything just seemed that way to him. Well, this afternoon I did exactly that.I went to Manukau to get my hair cut. I got off the bus (where, last April, I’d met Nigel on our trip down to Palmy), walked into the shopping centre, and… looked around me, and… just… slooooowwweedd - ddoowwwnnnn…I had been here once before. Nearly four years ago. After a coffee-shop, this w Read more:Again
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The Book Of Ruth, chapter 1 of 4 2007-11-05 01:59:00 Bible reading we did at Cession tonight. Though the voice is mine, I think the slides were masterminded by Brett, Melissa, Dave and Reuben. If this list is wrong, please tell me and I'll be pleased to amend it! :)Remaining chapters soon.
I'm No John Dorian Either 2007-11-08 01:59:00 Last night I dreamt that I was friends with Zack Braff's identical twin brother. Read more:Dorian
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency – Radio Series 2007-11-13 01:59:00 What happens when one of your favourite books, by one of your favourite authors, gets adapted for radio by one of your favourite producers?Something very special – you go in with high hopes, that actually get met.Producer Dirk Maggs has certainly taken a few liberties with the original novel of Dirk Gently's HolisticDetective
Agency… but then he’s entitled to. In fact, I rather hoped that the man who adapted the last three Hitchhiker novels so lovingly, by changing so little and magnifying so much, would give us quite a lot of new Dirk Gently material, and I wasn’t disappointed.Despite its mixed-up chronology, Maggs’ script comes out much clearer than the original book, although he does sometimes imply things so briefly that it’s easy to miss them. The final episode wraps ev Read more:Radio
No title 2007-11-08 14:00:00 Last Saturday night I went outdoors to go to the laundry-room, and in the pitch-darkness I managed to smash my shin right into our new neighbour’s wooden bench. I do this very rarely – I swore.The following day I sat down in flatmate Dave’s new rocking-chair, leant back and it went right over, tipping me out onto my head.Later that evening, after doing some filming with flatmate Cathy, I accidentally knocked the rocking-chair into Dave’s halogen light on the coffee-table, smashing the lamp to smithereens.The next day, outside Westfield shopping centre in Manukau, I was walking along when I actually managed to smack my forehead into a low-hanging tree-branch.Late the following night, at the end of the latest Cession / Creative meeting, just as I was about to quietly tip-toe out int
The Book Of Ruth, chapters 3 and 4 2007-11-18 20:30:00 If the video doesn't load for you, then please try clicking on this post's title - thanks! :) Thanks as always to Melissa, Dave and Melwyn, but particularly Brett for the loan of his sandal!Click here for Ruth chapter 1.Click here for Ruth chapter 2.
The Bruce Murray Singers present “Listen to the Music” 2007-11-18 01:59:00 I have to admit that when I first read this musical performance's tag-line “The best from the swinging 60’s to the legendary 90’s”, I had to wonder just what music there had been in the 90’s that had been legendary. I need not have worried however – numbers like Colours Of The Wind and Phantom Of The Opera easily proved me wrong.Heck, tonight put me in such a good mood that I’m even willing to count the ’91 remix of Bohemian Rhapsody. And these guys’n’gals knew exactly how to treat such a modern-day classic – dead straight.This joyous evening absolutely flew by, covering as it did a colossal range in barely two short hours. Pop, opera, gospel, even parody was covered as we got to hear one of the fab four crooning away at the end of his career…Finishing up with an Read more:Bruce
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Long In The Tooth 2007-11-14 01:59:00 In March 2004, I bought a tube of toothpaste.Today I bought another one, at reduction.In nearly four years, these have been the only two tubes of toothpaste that I have actually had to pay for in New Zealand. Read more:Tooth
The PERFECT HAMBURGER by Alexander McCall Smith 2007-11-22 01:59:00 This is one of those joyous books that I never want to grow out of.The simple pleasure of reading about a young boy’s friendship with an old man who no-one wants to see any more.Mr Borthwick’s hamburger shop is going out of business, thanks to a smart new Krustyburger, sorry, Hamburger House chain that’s opened up in town. Against impossible odds, Joe and Mr Borthwick must somehow turn public opinion around and make their ancient old-fashioned burgers popular again.Along the way they meet a whole chain of people who each help in their own little way, including a chef called the Great Casarolli.I could go on, but if that hasn’t piqued your interest, then it's probably not your sort of book.The Perfect Hamburger delivers exactly what it promises. Read more:Alexander
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Ecclesiastes 2007-11-22 01:58:00 I guess we all know a moaner.One of those people who has an infallibly negative outlook on everything, and is forever thinking the future through to disastrously doom-laden certainties.Heck, some of us even write Doctor Who reviews.Ecclesiastes has been baffling Bible-readers for millennia. “Why the heck was this included?” Oh, we can positively think around it and come up with a few reasons though. Like:1. To prove that God understands our deep yearning to understand him.2. To show that that way lies madness.3. No, maybe we were right before.If twelve chapters of one man’s depression about the futility of life is supposed to teach me something, it does rather propose the question of how much of it is to be taken as literal teaching.A young man who is poor and wise is better of
No title 2007-11-26 01:59:00 Old buddy Nigel, beginning his graduation speech at the Catholic Discipleship College in Takapuna today, after a 9-month course in Sacred Studies.
Waiheke Island 2007-12-02 21:00:00 There’s nothing like a deadline.For years now I’ve had an ambition to visit little Waiheke Island
, (partly because I can see it from my house) but with another trip home looming soon, early this morning I finally got it organised.Sitting on the Sealink ferry about to leave Half Moon Bay, I phoned Nigel and his brother Steve who would be joining me over there. They were still waiting to catch a different ferry from Devonport on the North Shore, which was further away, however an hour later they had arrived over there okay, but were still waiting for me.Even more bizarrely, when my boat did finally arrive in the little port, Nigel and Steve were nowhere to be seen, although their voices on my phone claimed that they were standing right in front of me.How was this possible? Were they in
The Song Of Songs 2007-12-01 01:59:00 ***FLIPPANCY WARNING - DON'T READ THIS UNLESS YOU ALREADY KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT.***I’m at a complete loss about this one.Some say it’s meant as an allegorical picture of God’s relationship with Israel, however since it doesn’t claim this about itself, that seems to require rather a lot of work on the part of the reader.Others say that it’s an allegorical picture of the relationship between Christ and the individual believer, but again, IMHO someone trying to write about that just would never have come out with this. Like my misgivings about the first chapter of Genesis being an allegory, if that had really been the case, then surely the author would have said so. And then there’s the theory that it’s just a literal poem about love between a man and a woman, or maybe how love b
Walk Like An Englishman 2007-12-03 01:59:00 Getting off the ferry at Half Moon Bay, I still had an hour’s walk ahead of me to get home.Taking a wrong turn rather cemented an idea I’d been lightly toying with for this evening – to do a bit of exploring and revisit some old haunts in the area.Living in Howick for the past two-and-half years, I’ve fallen into some bad habits. One of them would be getting used to being driven around by other people.Much as I enjoy my friends' company, I also feel really good that I took up jogging again this year.So anyway, with only a vague idea of how the many places I’ve visited in this corner of Auckland jigsaw together, (I never absorb geography unless I’m walking) my legs set-off on a trip down memory lane, and quickly found Bucklands Beach.Did I say memory lane? I don’t think I
Lamentations 2007-12-07 01:59:00 The will of the Lord alone is always carried out.Good and evil alike take place at his command.Why should we ever complain when we are punished for our sin?- Lamentations 3:37-39 Good News VersionPunishment has never made sense to me.I mean if Harry punches Tom, then that’s wrong.But if Harry then gets punched as punishment, that’s not really making it right. That’s just doubling the wrong.Even the argument that Harry needs to get punched in order to learn why punching people is wrong is a bit poor, because someone could just explain it to Harry in words, and then the wrong would not have to be doubled.For the above reason, whenever I find the assertion in the Bible, or anywhere else in the world, that sin must be punished, it has never made sense to me. The most defining example w
Cession|Creative 2007-12-05 01:59:00 About 18 months ago I was invited to pitch-in with Cession|Community’s fortnightly creative meetings, to help brainstorm and plan the content of our church services. I’m not much good in a crowd, so it took me a few of these to relax and start contributing, and to not feel self-conscious about falling silent for a long time. In fact, these meetings have become one of the things that I most enjoy about living here.Recently these things have been restructured to happen less frequently, but be open to more people attending. Not many people have responded so far, however as Brett said tonight, you need to be able to both contribute ideas and be okay with having many of them turned down by the group.I still have trouble finding the confidence to argue for an idea, particularly if it’s
BEE MOVIE 2007-12-08 01:59:00 Seinfeld is back. Or that’s how it felt.As soon as Jerry’s – sorry – Barry’s parents showed up and started rattling on in their own mindset, it felt like it was once more random weeknights on BBC-2 at 11:35pm. (or thereabouts)BEE MOVIE is great. It’s bursting at the seams with gags – both spoken and visual – and treads that thin line between telling a mindlessly unworkable story with a great deal of intelligence.And just for once it’s a CGI-cartoon in which the moral isn’t all about who your family is. (not that there’s anything wrong with that)Patrick Warburton plays David Puddy as usual.I had tears of laughter in the cinema during this one. This is brilliant.9.5 out of 10.
No title 2007-12-13 01:59:00 Bumped into Melissa on the bus into town tonight.Then, on Queen Street, I thought I spotted John going into Sky City.Then I went to see old friend Jamie competing against 12 other acts in the heats of yet another comedy award. Despite all the usual swearing, the night was cleaner than usual, giving room for several quite intelligent acts, of which Jamie’s was certainly one. A lot of laughter as a result, making a really good night out.And while I was there, I ran into Deanna too!
Conspiracy Busters - The Mistletoe Effect 2007-12-16 20:35:00 Tonight I was honoured to be asked to be Dave Pitman's guest-sidekick in his current series Conspiracy
Busters at Cession / Community Church. "Random Dave" is a challenge to upstage at the best of times, but I did my best anyway. The script and graphics are all Dave's. He'll be a researcher for The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy one day... (or maybe he secretly already is)...
No title 2007-12-15 01:59:00 Went to another games night with Chris, Kylie and Dave, and learnt the game Rummikub.
Luke 6:27-38 2007-12-17 01:58:00 Straight after the immediately preceding sketch, I had so much sweat in my eyes, that I could barely make-out the words...
Flight Times 2007-12-20 01:59:00 I was a bit better organised again this year.Sure – for the second year running I'd had to cancel recording a Christmas show for Hope City FM, but this year it was because I'd been asked to produce a sketch to go out on NewstalkZB.Somehow I'd done all my remaining lessons, chased around buying Christmas presents and souvenirs, backed-up all my computer files and even found time to – unprotestingly - pack.Usually, I hate packing. This time, although I got to bed at 5am, the thought never entered my head once. For some reason I was completely unaware of, this time it had struck me as an achievable task.After five hours of sleep – again an improvement on usual – I hauled myself out of bed, into the shower, through breakfast, and buzzed around the flat doing last-minute laundry and p Read more:Flight
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Filming The Past 2007-12-19 01:59:00 If we’re going to live forever, then what is the point of photographing something? Looking at the photo at a later date can only hold you back from experiencing something new.In spite of the above paragraph, one of my passions is preserving recordings.It probably partly stems from a lifelong fascination with the TV series Doctor Who, of which there are still 108 episodes for which the pictures are no longer known to be held by the BBC.Anyhow, the little bit of the world that I can do something about – stuff that I personally help to make – I tend to take great care over preserving properly.On 15th July this year, Jacob, Tyrone and myself were to perform a sketch written by Brett at Cession Church. Alas, shortly before the performance, I learnt that there could be no video copy made
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