Apparently some blogging platforms offer lots of clever widget thingies that render blogs inaccessible to some browsers.  This was demonstrably the case when Sean decided to add what he deemed a 'funky widget' to his blog, which succeeded in making Internet Explorer crash whenever anyone strayed onto his blog (power?!).  Being a kind soul, he has now removed said device but advised his readers to 'GET FIREFOX.'  So, if you happen to be one of the IE users who gave up reading Sean's stuff you can now view it again, and you could take his advice.

As I already had Safari as well as IE7 (IE8 may not have this wobble when it arrives in August) I decided I might as well download Firefox and play around a little with each.  I'm not overly keen on Safari, but I think that is largely a result of having used IE since time began: it's more about 'feel' than 'function'.  Firefox feels (and looks) a lot like IE, so is quicker to adapt to than Safari, but it does seem to run just a little slower than IE - maybe that's because it's doing lots of clever stuff I can't see?

Anyway, as this blog remains ultra low tech - nothing more complicated than the odd link - it should continue to run on steam driven machines with creaky old browsers for as long as anyone is daft enough to look at it.

I'm not very good at this 'take a break' stuff am I?  Essay still only 2/3 done and on hold for a day or two.  Midway through writing a 'talk' for this Sunday's outreach service I had a thought I wanted to record.

The hymns chosen consist of several creation-points-to-creator and a fair few cross-centric offerings.  The readings I'm using are Isaiah 49:16 (engraved on God's hands) as call to worship, parts of Pslam 19 (the heavens declare the glory of God etc) and John 10 (good shepherd).  The main thread of the 'talk' is along the lines that creation is amazing and can point us to God but can also make us feel very insignificant with God far away, but this is only part of the story.  The good shepherd gives a picture of God (or Jesus) who is close at hand, knows us intimately and is active in the very messiness of life - an immanent balance to the transcendent.

And this made my poor old grey cells go 'ping' and wonder whether the I AM sayings of Jesus are about immanence, a kind of earthing and earthyness of God?  If this is right, then undoubtedly some clever scholar has done it before.  And if it's heresy, well it's my heresy and I'll own it!  The shepherd is a very earthy, practical image; bread is very basic and tangible, as is water.  Granted images such as 'truth' are less tangible, but I quite like this kind of both-and of God (or Jesus as I AM) being utterly commonplace and earthy and mysterious and divine.  A God who is beyond my comprehension and yet at the same time as ordinary as the staples of life strikes me as worth contemplating.  I'm probably not expressing this too well, but it certainly made me go 'wow.'

Careful how you pronounce that, now!

I am sure you have all been deeply concerned for the plight for my fractured molar and have been praying hard for its restoration.  Well, a girl can dream!  Anyway, the answer to this particular maiden's prayer came in the form of a two-handed NHS practice hidden away in a back street staffed by two Polish dentists, and who not only had vacancies but could give me an immediate appointment.

So, it is quieter in Dibley as the novocaine is still effective, and I now have a repaired 'fang' ready to bite again in 3 hours when the new filling has set.  I was very impressed with this little dental practice... and relieved to have said tooth repaired rather than removed.

"If Father Quinn did carry out a blessing or some form of religious event, then it was wrong and it has absolutely no validity in the eyes of the Catholic Church and in the eyes of the Lord."  So says Father Ostigoni according to the Daily Record, when referring to the Rooney wedding at a deconsecrated monastery.   I can live with his views with respect to the catholic church or even civil law, afterall under UK law a marriage to be legally recognised has (at the moment) to take place in appropriately licenced premises and be conducted by, or in the presence of, a suitably authorised person.  But, having said that, I recall my horror when the RC priest I worked with recorded martial status of the parents of a baby he was about to baptise as 'unmarried' because they had been married in a registry office.  Maybe it's back to the 'irregular but not invalid' argument?

What really grates is the claim that God doesn't recognise the marriage.  Without wishing to start up the whole debate of what God does recognise as a marriage, never mind go near the area the Anglicans are embroiled with, I just wish we could all learn to be a little less keen to tell people what God won't like or acknowledge, then just maybe they might feel a little more inclined to give church a chance.  I know it's not easy, and the church should stand up for what it believes to be right, I just can't help feeling a little more humility might be helpful.  Somehow I can't imagine Jesus at Cana checking that the minutiae of local legal niceties had been followed before sending the servants off to fill those enormous water jars...

Last night I was phoned to help out my 12 year old niece with her science homework, which was an A-Z of terms associated with fuels and energy (allegedly, some of the questions clearly weren't!).  To my shame, I failed on one question which was 'thermal d...'

As it was read out over the phone, and as I don't know what the topic actually was, and as I don't recall the Year 7 'lie' I can't be sure what the intent was.  But does anyone have a four-letter (polite!) d-word for thermal in their vocabulary?

I was just quite pleased that I could instantly answer the question 'solvent for chewing gum' beginning with 'x' as xylene - but only because that's the only solvent I could think of beginning with that letter!  And I had to smile that my sister had not sussed that a word beginning with 'y' for a cold, sooty bunsen flame was yellow!  All good fun.