Bethlehem - Place of Bread

Ok...

So I acted the role of a tourist in our Christmas production.

I think it was quite an interesting angle on the whole Christmas thing. Very different than the usual 3 Wise men angle.

One of the main themes throughout the play was that Bethlehem means Place of Bread and that Christ uses the metaphor of bread for his body.

The setting is a group of tourists touring modern Bethlehem accompanied by a Palestinian tour guide. Two of the tourists have in depth conversations about what the significance is of the modern walls around Bethlehem and then also the bread theme.

Bread plays a vital role in the production. Bread is a symbol of life and nourishment. That is what Jesus came to give to the earth, and what we (Christ's body) also need to do.

So Christ's body is the church, but Christ also compares His body with bread at the last supper.

Christmas Carols and chords

So I wanted a Christamas Carols songbook with chords for both Afrikaans and English.

here is what I have now:

[The entire word file was pasted in here, and took up a lot of space, will post a link as soon as I learn how to...]

Elder Dragon Highlander (EDH)

Decklist Decklists,

Well I did a google search for EDH decklists, and I found very few. So I'll put mine up here. Currently it is totally unsorted.

/NAME: Teneb, the Harvester
[EDIT: I had TENEB's here, but posting 3 lists was a bit heavy, will link to it when I figure it out]

/NAME: Meloku the Clouded Mirror
1 Sol Ring
1 Trinket Mage
1 Counterspell
1 Remand
1 Memory Lapse
1 Gauntlet of Power
1 Extraplanar Lens
1 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
1 Keiga, the Tide Star
1 Thieving Magpie
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Drift of Phantasms
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Skullclamp
1 Vedalken Shackles
1 Steal Artifact
1 Control Magic
1 Back to Basics
1 Copy Enchantment
1 Muddle the Mixture
1 Circular Logic
1 Jushi Apprentice
1 Sleight of Hand
1 Miscalculation
1 Spell Burst
1 Man-o'-War
1 Brainstorm
1 Mana Leak
1 Treachery
1 Bribery
1 Acquire
1 Impulse
1 Serum Visions
1 Opt
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Concentrate
1 Compulsive Research
1 AEther Spellbomb
1 Boomerang
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Grim Monolith
1 Mana Vault
1 Condescend
1 Cancel
1 Hinder
1 Forbid
1 Capsize
1 Ophidian
1 Repeal
1 Confiscate
1 Aeon Chronicler
1 Remove Soul
1 Future Sight
1 Magus of the Future
1 Tinker
1 Foil
1 Dismiss
1 Deep Analysis
1 Fabricate
1 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
32 Island
1 Miren, the Moaning Well
1 Minamo, School at Water's E
1 Temple of the False God
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Lonely Sandbar

//NAME: Numot, the Devastator
[EDIT: I had NUMOT's here, but posting 3 lists was a bit heavy, will link to it when I figure it out]

Self discipline vs willpower vs ...

I think quite a bit.

And I try to think about places in my life where i can grow. And I found one (well more than one but...)

One such a place is selfdiscipline.

I read an article yesterday on it that said many people say "I don't have willpower. And accordingly I cant get things done."

Last night I discussed the difference between selfdiscipline and willpower.

Self-discipline in my opinion is: When you do stuff you don't like. (Like washing the dishes; stuff that has to be done but which is generally not good.) Essentially selfdiscipline is overcoming laziness.

Merriam-Webster:
Main Entry: self-dis·ci·pline
Pronunciation: -'di-s&-pl&n
Function: noun
: correction or regulation of oneself for the sake of improvement

Willpower on the other hand is: Doing stuff that you fear. (Like asking your boss for a raise --- these things will differ from person to person. For some people it will be to talk before a crowd, others jumping from an aeroplane). Willpower is overcoming fears.

Merriam-Webster:
Main Entry: will·pow·er
Pronunciation: 'wil-"pau(-&)r
Function: noun
: energetic determination

The terms are related. In the book "the way of the superior man" by David Deida, he says that the superior man faces his fears but does not violate them. So you need to acknowledge your fears and respect them. Look them in the eye as it were. Don't go trampling over them as if they did not exist, for then you are not truly conquering them -- you are merely dismissing them. And do not quiver at the sight of them, because then there is no growth.

As far as self-discipline goes. I think having an accountability partner helps. Being totally honest and open. Telling him* what your fears are, how you are faring in facing them. Telling him what where you think you need improvement. And he needs to be someone who does not fear you, who can tell you straight up when you are fooling yourself.

*"Him" and "he", can also be "her" and "she", obviously.

But I think that the thing that most people need is God's-Willpower. The power to give over to God, that he will provide you with willpower to do His will.

Nationwide... Nightmare

So...

I flew up for a nice weekend at Hartebeespoortdam.

I bought some beer and some more liqour for the weekend. I could not drink all of it unfortunately.

The flight back to Cape Town was delayed by 2:30, and when I arrived at Cape Town International my bags were among the many that was not delivered.

I was promised that I would have the bags by 10:00 on the monday morning. By 10:00, no one had phoned me to tell me about the progress, so I phoned them. The bags had arrived in Cape Town!

I was promised that my bags would get to me before 12:00 initially and then when I phoned again, it was said I will have it by 5.

At 5 o'clock I called again, and I told the girl I expected to be phoned within an hour to tell me what happened to my bags. I was not optimistic... for good reasons. No-one phoned... and when *I* phoned this morning 8:30, the person who dealt with lost luggage was not in yet. I did not receive a phone call. I did receive an email reply to my SECOND complaint made through the webpage.

The manager said he'll get into it and told me to that if I did not receive it by noon I should let him know. At noon I phoned.

He must have done something then, because it arrived here at 1:00... roughly. The alcohol had all been removed from my bag. 13 Imported Beers (Amstel is imported nowadays) and a bottle gin.

There was one beer remained in the bag... It had a gash in, and presumably it leaked out... because my bag was WET.

I'm gatvol...

Facebook and the more...

So, the facebook bug bit me...

I have a profile. A lot of random people calls me FRIEND now...

Three People I call friends, I cannot locate.

1. Paul Storm. He helped me through my 3rd year acedemically.
2. Taetse Vorster. My roommate in second year.
3. Hilton Bastick. He helped me fail my first second year :)

Psalm 119:17-24

17 Doen goed aan u dienaar, dan sal ek lewe en aan u woord gehoorsaam wees.
18 Maak my oe oop sodat ek die kragtige werking van u wet kan ervaar.
19 Hier op aarde is ek op u beskerming aangewese, laat my tog nie sonder u gebooie wees nie.
20 Ek kwyn weg van verlange na u bepalings.
21 U straf die hovaardiges en die vervloektes wat van u gebooie afwyk.
22 Keer tog dat ek nie beledig of gesmaad word nie, want ek kom u verordeninge na.
23 Selfs al smee mense wat mag het komplotte teen my, sal ek my hou aan wat u neergele het.
24 U verordeninge is my vreugde, hulle is my raadgewers.

Psalm 119:9-16

Ok... I don't think it makes that much sense to do these posts in english, since I'm memorizing the afrikaans version.

It took me longer to memorize the second 8 verses. I don't think I'll keep up with 8 per day.


9 Hoe kan 'n jongmens sy lewe skoon hou? Deur hom te hou aan U woord.
10 Ek wil aan u gehoorsaam wees met my hele hart, laat my nie van u gebooie afwyk nie.
11 Aan u beloftes hou ek vas, hulle weerhou my van sonde teen U.
12 Aan u kom die lof toe, Here, leer my u voorskrifte.
13 Al u bepalings wil ek een vir een opnoem.
14 Om volgens U verordeninge te lewe gee my meer vreugde as al die rykdom van die wereld.
15 U bevele bly my altyd by, ek gee ag op die pad wat u aanwys.
16 Ek verlustig my in u voorskrifte, u woord vergeet ek nie.

Psalm 119

So...

The longest chapter in the bible.

It consists of 22 stanza's that in the hebrew each started with a different letter. Each stanza is 8 verses long. (176 verses) Each verse in each stanza starts with the same letter.

1 A
2 A
3 A
4 A
5 A
6 A
7 A
8 A

9-16 B

Etc.

And most of it is about the word of God, or the bible.

I am now reading it stanza by stanza (8 verses at a time). And I will try to memorize the whole psalm... (eek, now I put that in writing...)

Here is the first stanza, as I remember it in afrikaans. (I'm struggling to remember it all, but this is all part of the process... ok... darn, I had to look it up)

Psalm 119:1-8

1 Dit gaan goed met die wat onberispelik lewe, die wat wandel volgens sy woord.
2 Dit gaan goed met die wat sy verordeninge onderhou, die wat met hulle hele hart sy wil doen,
3 geen onreg pleeg nie en in sy wee wandel.
4 U het u bevele gegee dat dit ten volle uitgevoer moet word.
5 As ek maar net op 'n vaste koers kon bly en my aan u voorskrifte kan hou!
6 As ek al U gebooie in ag neem, sal ek nooit raad-op wees nie.
7 U bepalings is regverdig, as ek dit ter harte neem, sal ek U loof met 'n opregte hart.
8 Ek sal U verordeninge onderhou; Moet my tog nooit verlaat nie.

Life and Easter

This post was left as a draft for a while... so it's a bit dated.

So, earlier this year one of my sunday school girls told me that she does not believe in God. That she believes it is a load of BS.

Now Easter... It's about Christ being crucified as a passover lamb, as attonement for our sins.

God is real. No doubt. I experienced God's loving touch again this Easter. I am blessed to have an eye that can see God in ordinary things. That means, when other people see a beautiful sunset, I see a gift from God. People might say that that is no proof of God's existence... That is true, but I believe it is that perspective that differentiates the believers from the non-believers.

It's all about perspective, and my vision is clouded by this perspective of mine. And I'm glad for it.

K

Conspiracy theories in Cricket

So... A little bit of a saga going on in the Cricket World Cup.

Bob Woolmer DIED.

So who was he?

Well, I had a very high opinion of him. He moulded the South African Cricket team to quite a forceful unit in the late 1990's. He was the coach of the Hansie Cronje era. (and.. Hansie Cronje died pretty mysteriously as well...)

How involved was he in matchfixing schemes? Was it possible that someone thought he fixed the Pakistan vs. Ireland game, and killed him for it. The plot could get quite juicy.

But honestly; it does look sketchy that a man of 58 mysteriously dies less than a day after Pakistan is out of the world cup. However, I am not really someone who believes murder mysteries in real life.

I liked Woolmer. He tought guys like Cullinan and Kallis to sweep. Jonty was the guy who most took to that shot however.

May his soul rest in peace.

Yokohama...

So, I've been sponsored to go to PT yokohama. (full sponsorship) ---Magic the Gathering...

It is 20-22 April and I'm flying on the 18th 7:30 in the morning to JHB (where I have to wait about 2 hours so 4hrs total), then to Hong Kong (20 hrs) then from Hong Kong to Narita (8 hrs)...

Hang on... I forgot to take the time zones into account... well here is my flight plans...
Getting there:

CX 7312 18APR Cape Town / Johannesburg 0730 0930 (this is 2 hrs ,I know that)
CX 748 18APR Johannesburg /Hong Kong 1245 #0755 (this is 20 hrs ,but I'm wondering if it's absolute)
CX 504 19APR Hong Kong / Narita 0910 1435 (5 hrs)

Getting back:
CX 509 24APR Narita/ Hong Kong 0945 1325
CX 749 24APR Hong Kong / Johannesburg 2345 #0655
CX 7313 25APR Johannesburg /Cape Town 1030 1240

Oh and then take a taxi/bus/train to yokohama. 27 km. Not too bad.

It seems like japan is GMT+9 and hong kong is GMT +8. (and SA is GMT+2)

So it's either 32+7 or 32-7... I think it's 25 not 39 hrs. Still 25 hours is still 2x to europe.

I'm surprizingly nonchalant about this. It's not nearly the same excitement I had when I went to Paris. I'm not sure why.

World Cup Cricket...

So... The world cup's opening game was yesterday and the Windies won it.

South Africa... We must win this one. We are ideally situated to win this one. We'll almost surely reach the semifinals...

Question is: Where will we land in the Semi's

Personnaly I think the Semi- finalists are going to be, South Africa, Australia, Sri Lanka, and New Zealand.

I've put it in writing now.

K

2 months... :)

So, Nicola and I have been going steady for 2 months today. I am eating lunch with her at a restaurant called le spoon, and tonight I'm treating her to a fine dinner at Steffenie's place. It's an awesome restaurant with a view of the entire Helderberg Basin.

And of course, she'll be receiving flowers.

I was contemplating going to her work this morning and greeting her with bubbles (but I've done that before and I don't like repeating myself too often)... An sms she sent told me she anticipated it... And was slightly dissapointed at it not happening. But once you get predictable, you should change :)

So, the lady in my life

Nicola Kortenhoeven is the princess that I adore.
Here she is... on the left. The one on the right is Santie, a friend of ours.