We've had a month in the Surf Club but in the lead up to Christmas we are again without venue - so picnics in the forest, church in the park and other like activities will abound. The season of adapting continues raising disconcerting but exciting questions of "who are we?" and "what are we doing?"
Often the answer to these sorts of questions revolve around a "returning." What was our original vision? What did God place on our heart at the beginning? Are we still heading that way or have we gone off course? Often we don't need new vision we need a re-vision!
One of the things that has been close to our heart as a church since the time we began was to be a presence in Somerset that helps to build Somerset as a community with a growing identity. For instance, if we have hopes and dreams about buildings to have or to make use of, they revolve around having a facility that can be, in the true sense of the word, a community centre.
One of the ways in which communities are built is through a sense of being able to "do things together" in the local space. So, for instance, earlier this year some of us were involved in an Easter festival ran at a local school with some local leaders from Fusion Australia - it brought kids and others together to simply have fun in the local space.
We are planning a "Kid's Christmas" time in the park on Christmas Eve. Not only is it an opportunity for those on the fringes of the church who want to some form of spiritual expression over Christmas (without interrupting Christmas Day) - it is also an opportunity to build community.
On the eve of Christmas we can provide a safe and accessible time for children and families to gather around, engage with the Christmas story. And so we can do something community-building while sharing some gospel truth at the same time. What an opportunity!
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
Prayer Points - November 2008
This was just sent to our prayer points email list.
Dear Prayer Partners,
Thankyou once again for your ongoing support. Apologies that this - November's prayer points - are a little late. There has been a lot going on - keep an eye on http://will-briggs.blogspot.com for up to date information.
As you know we are going through a period of uncertainty with regards to our Sunday venue. There is much blessing in this difficulty as we seek God in the midst of it. It is a blessed time of being uncomfortable in a way that leads to growth and living lives pleasing to God and contributing to the substance of his Kingdom. Please keep praying for us - not just for the practical logistics of things but also for further and ongoing opportunities to learn about, grow in, and share the good news of Jesus.
Some points to guide your prayer:
1) Praise God for those who have joined us in the last few weeks during our interim time at the local surf club. We have five or more newcomers who have returned and blessed us with their presence and input. Please pray for them.
2) Please pray for our Christmas events - our annual "Kid's Christmas" will this year be held in a local park under a marquee. It is an opportunity to share the Christmas story and it's meaning with those who would otherwise not hear it.
3) Please pray for our Sunday gatherings during December - we are currently looking for places to meet for December 14th and 21st.
4) Please pray for those who are "stepping up" to organise outreach events and possibilities across the summer. There is the possibility of some outreach to musicians and other opportunities to connect.
5) Please pray for us as a Christian community - that we would be knit together through more than just Sunday services but in the sharing of life and mutual support generally.
6) Please pray that we would continue to be renewed in the vision of how to bring the gospel to where the people "are at" with boldness and courage.
God bless,
Will.
Dear Prayer Partners,
Thankyou once again for your ongoing support. Apologies that this - November's prayer points - are a little late. There has been a lot going on - keep an eye on http://will-briggs.blogspot.com for up to date information.
As you know we are going through a period of uncertainty with regards to our Sunday venue. There is much blessing in this difficulty as we seek God in the midst of it. It is a blessed time of being uncomfortable in a way that leads to growth and living lives pleasing to God and contributing to the substance of his Kingdom. Please keep praying for us - not just for the practical logistics of things but also for further and ongoing opportunities to learn about, grow in, and share the good news of Jesus.
Some points to guide your prayer:
1) Praise God for those who have joined us in the last few weeks during our interim time at the local surf club. We have five or more newcomers who have returned and blessed us with their presence and input. Please pray for them.
2) Please pray for our Christmas events - our annual "Kid's Christmas" will this year be held in a local park under a marquee. It is an opportunity to share the Christmas story and it's meaning with those who would otherwise not hear it.
3) Please pray for our Sunday gatherings during December - we are currently looking for places to meet for December 14th and 21st.
4) Please pray for those who are "stepping up" to organise outreach events and possibilities across the summer. There is the possibility of some outreach to musicians and other opportunities to connect.
5) Please pray for us as a Christian community - that we would be knit together through more than just Sunday services but in the sharing of life and mutual support generally.
6) Please pray that we would continue to be renewed in the vision of how to bring the gospel to where the people "are at" with boldness and courage.
God bless,
Will.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Text Wizardry
Currently working with Spell Check and Automatic Text Translation for text chat. Both are definitely something we're looking into adding to the system for launch and preview.
More information about this can be found in our forums :)
Sincerely,
- The Management
More information about this can be found in our forums :)
Sincerely,
- The Management
Friday, November 14, 2008
Kill It With Fire
As discussed in Identity Crisis I have been working on a little game design project.
"Kill It With Fire" is the name for my solo pen-and-paper game about maintaining a web presence while trolls try to bring it crashing down around your ears. Although it was mostly an exercise in design, it is actually playable.
The main design theory I was following was "system matters". The mechanics of the game had to be suited to the task at hand, practically as well as thematically. As play-testers have pointed out that the game seems repetitive and, at times, futile, I think I have captured the essence of holding back the mindless tide that is trolldom.
Kill It With Fire puts you in the role of a site-admin. Every day trolls assault your blog, forum, photo site, and even your personal life, but you have limited resources to undo their damage. You win by removing the last troll token on the board (representing . If at any point there are more than ten troll tokens on any one of your responsibilities you lose. Theoretically you could count the turns you survived before losing to compare your progress with others, but playing to a win or lose is usually enough.
You will need two regular six-sided dice and some counters (coins or tiddlywinks or fine) to play. The rules explain everything you need to know
Take a look and see what you think:
Kill it with Fire (File size 131K)
EDIT: File now located at Scribd.com
"Kill It With Fire" is the name for my solo pen-and-paper game about maintaining a web presence while trolls try to bring it crashing down around your ears. Although it was mostly an exercise in design, it is actually playable.
The main design theory I was following was "system matters". The mechanics of the game had to be suited to the task at hand, practically as well as thematically. As play-testers have pointed out that the game seems repetitive and, at times, futile, I think I have captured the essence of holding back the mindless tide that is trolldom.
Kill It With Fire puts you in the role of a site-admin. Every day trolls assault your blog, forum, photo site, and even your personal life, but you have limited resources to undo their damage. You win by removing the last troll token on the board (representing . If at any point there are more than ten troll tokens on any one of your responsibilities you lose. Theoretically you could count the turns you survived before losing to compare your progress with others, but playing to a win or lose is usually enough.
You will need two regular six-sided dice and some counters (coins or tiddlywinks or fine) to play. The rules explain everything you need to know
Take a look and see what you think:
Kill it with Fire (File size 131K)
EDIT: File now located at Scribd.com
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Our Blogging Bishop
Bishop Ross Nicholson, Missioner Bishop - Projects & Training within The Imagine Project has started a blog which will have various things relating to the Imagine Project and Leadership in general. Check it out: http://mitreswell.blogspot.com
Monday, November 10, 2008
Now With Search!
Quick update for things going on here at Andromeda3D:
New things being added all the time, so check back often!
Sincerely,
Andromeda3D Team
- Looking into the SimulCloud SDK system for Weather and Clouds
- Trying to work out something for Binaural Audio solutions in world
- Forums are back online
- Search Box on Andromeda3D site is now indexing and searching the Forums
- Trying to work out a solution for user inventory storage
New things being added all the time, so check back often!
Sincerely,
Andromeda3D Team
Sunday, November 9, 2008
One step at a time
The Connections Summer has begun. Since my last article three weeks have passed. In terms of our Sunday gathering we spent the first of these weeks in a marquee in a local park, the other two weeks in the local surf club.
It has been a time of being "emptied out" and being brought to a place of relying on God. We have had to re-evaluate what we do and re-engage with who God has made us to be. On November 2nd we had a brain-storm time together, recognising that "everything we do or have done is on the table." It is time to reboot, restart, respond to what God shows us.
In this last week a friend offered a reflection on the current state of things. It was in response to my sharing how, at the EFAC conference in September, I was asked by someone whether I was satisfied with where the church was at. In response to that question I found myself answering "No, we're too "churchy", too mainstream." The Connections heart-beat has always resonated with a desire to be accessible to those who would not find "churchy" church accessible. My friend's reflection was a suggestion that the previous season was a (necessary) journey on a siding - and the current situation was God bringing us out of that siding to set us up for the next set of tracks.
The difficulty in this is a natural inclination for us to go back up that siding of "comfortable church" and to look for and bring about "churchy" things that are not going to help - we can think up plenty of "good things" which might not be the "right things." There is always the danger of jumping into the "busyness" of what we think is mission but in the end is spiritual stress.
Rather, we have to get back to the basics of a Christian community gathered around the Word of God. We are continuing our teaching series in Corinthians which encourages us in that gutsy counter-cultural gospel life. It's all about being authentic, radical, Jesus-focussed change-agents of ourselves as well as the world.
And so plans are starting to emerge. We will make use of our summer in Somerset. Our children in the congregation are really keen - they'll be doing things in the lead up to Christmas, inviting their friends along. The marquee will come out again on Christmas Eve, we hope, for "Kid's Christmas" in the park. We're changing around how we gather so that we both serve the inward needs of the church as well as being accessible to enquirers - we can learn from the cafe-church people a bit! There are many many ideas for everything from curry nights to kite flying to sand sculpting to book groups - ideas there for a person with the vision to motivate them and carry their burden through to completion. There is stuff to do.
But in the end, the new track we are on is more than just "doing." It is about the genuineness of our faith, and the courage of our day-to-day proclamation.
Continue to pray for us. There are plenty of logistics to sort out - we would like to stay at the surf club for the summer, beyond our November bookings, and the conversations about that are ongoing. But above all pray for us to have opportunities to share the hope that God has put within us, for inspiration and boldness to speak where we not normally speak, to act as we would not normally act, and so be overwhelmed by how God decides to use us.
It has been a time of being "emptied out" and being brought to a place of relying on God. We have had to re-evaluate what we do and re-engage with who God has made us to be. On November 2nd we had a brain-storm time together, recognising that "everything we do or have done is on the table." It is time to reboot, restart, respond to what God shows us.
In this last week a friend offered a reflection on the current state of things. It was in response to my sharing how, at the EFAC conference in September, I was asked by someone whether I was satisfied with where the church was at. In response to that question I found myself answering "No, we're too "churchy", too mainstream." The Connections heart-beat has always resonated with a desire to be accessible to those who would not find "churchy" church accessible. My friend's reflection was a suggestion that the previous season was a (necessary) journey on a siding - and the current situation was God bringing us out of that siding to set us up for the next set of tracks.
The difficulty in this is a natural inclination for us to go back up that siding of "comfortable church" and to look for and bring about "churchy" things that are not going to help - we can think up plenty of "good things" which might not be the "right things." There is always the danger of jumping into the "busyness" of what we think is mission but in the end is spiritual stress.Rather, we have to get back to the basics of a Christian community gathered around the Word of God. We are continuing our teaching series in Corinthians which encourages us in that gutsy counter-cultural gospel life. It's all about being authentic, radical, Jesus-focussed change-agents of ourselves as well as the world.
And so plans are starting to emerge. We will make use of our summer in Somerset. Our children in the congregation are really keen - they'll be doing things in the lead up to Christmas, inviting their friends along. The marquee will come out again on Christmas Eve, we hope, for "Kid's Christmas" in the park. We're changing around how we gather so that we both serve the inward needs of the church as well as being accessible to enquirers - we can learn from the cafe-church people a bit! There are many many ideas for everything from curry nights to kite flying to sand sculpting to book groups - ideas there for a person with the vision to motivate them and carry their burden through to completion. There is stuff to do.
But in the end, the new track we are on is more than just "doing." It is about the genuineness of our faith, and the courage of our day-to-day proclamation.Continue to pray for us. There are plenty of logistics to sort out - we would like to stay at the surf club for the summer, beyond our November bookings, and the conversations about that are ongoing. But above all pray for us to have opportunities to share the hope that God has put within us, for inspiration and boldness to speak where we not normally speak, to act as we would not normally act, and so be overwhelmed by how God decides to use us.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
New Jooce Account
Leave it to us to break the old Jooce account beyond repair :) We've made a new Jooce.com account under the name of AndromedaMedia and have migrated all of the files from the old account to the new Public Desktop for people to download.
Also we've taken the time to add some more downloads and videos to the public desktop, but be forewarned, the SimulCloud and SimulWeather demos require Shader Model 3 in order to work. No Macintosh versions have been posted on the Joocetop yet, but keep an eye out in case we get around to it.
Currently the Forums are offline, though rest assured somebody is working on getting them back and running again.
The Gallery section of our website has been updated as well, splitting between Images, Video and Audio. All three sections will expand in content over time, but what we have now should tide everyone over for the time being.
Just a reminder, there is currently no public prototype of Andromeda3D, so if anyone offers such a file to you, keep in mind that unless you get it from us it's not legit. Available to the public via our public jooce desktop are a myriad of technology demos for you to test out on your system. These tech demos are currently technologies that we are working with in order to add vast amounts of functionality to the finalized A3D browser system.
Also we've taken the time to add some more downloads and videos to the public desktop, but be forewarned, the SimulCloud and SimulWeather demos require Shader Model 3 in order to work. No Macintosh versions have been posted on the Joocetop yet, but keep an eye out in case we get around to it.
Currently the Forums are offline, though rest assured somebody is working on getting them back and running again.
The Gallery section of our website has been updated as well, splitting between Images, Video and Audio. All three sections will expand in content over time, but what we have now should tide everyone over for the time being.
Just a reminder, there is currently no public prototype of Andromeda3D, so if anyone offers such a file to you, keep in mind that unless you get it from us it's not legit. Available to the public via our public jooce desktop are a myriad of technology demos for you to test out on your system. These tech demos are currently technologies that we are working with in order to add vast amounts of functionality to the finalized A3D browser system.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Braaaaains!
So Halloween has been and gone for another year. I hope all the residents of the Trannisphere were able to take advantage of the season fora spot of dressing up. I certainly did. But before I discuss that...
Wasn't Dead Set good?
I had high hopes for the show, as Charlie Brooker is consistently entertaining on Screenwipe. But I also had deap-seated worries, because I hated the Nathan Barley series but found him pant-wettingly funny on the TV Go Home website).
I wasn't disappointed. It was funny, scary, and nicely satirical. There are some issues that pop up in horror that I have problems with (the ending Frank Darrabont's take on The Mist pushed those buttons), but Dead Set ended in a way that made sense, and felt right. Obviously as an optimist I'd have gone for a open-ended Butch and Sundance ending, but that's just personal preference. And it's out on DVD soon for those that missed it.
So, Halloween. I went out Friday night to The Wheel again, for their Halloqueen karaoke party. It was also my friend Hannah's birthday, so any excuse to dress up!
After Chrissy had hijacked my favourite outfit for herself, and Hannah had laid dibs on my goth wig, I decided to go for the old PVC witch look (sadly not as cool as Becky's one from the other year, but good enough). Unfortunately, despite trying it o weeks ago and loving it, I tried it on again Friday morning and had a fashion crisis - it didn't look right and I hated it!
Instead I went for a different witchy look, and dug out my top hat and skull staff. And when I got to Chrissy's to change I found she had a skull pendant and a cool bone bracelet which I horked, and had a last minute change to voodoo priestess. Sadly my pics are a bit blurry, and others were rather unflattering, so unless you scour Facebook, you'll have to imagine!
The night itself was pretty cool, and I met some new friends Amy and Shawnie. Amy hadn't dressed up, but Shawnie made an awesome Priss (from Bladerunner), and we spent the night chatting about all kinds of things.
Which reminds me - sorry if I didn't give you enough of my time Chrissy. You seemed a little distant (I think understand why) and I felt uncomfortable bothering you too much. I hope you get things sorted out.
But overall it was a good night, and I got to sing lots (even though I started choking to death during Love's Unkind)
And finally, the best story of the night:
While we waited for a taxi, we stood outside the pub with the smokers. There were around ten of us, and a couple of us were pretty big people. Plus we were completely blocking access to the pub door, you'd have had to push past, or go completely around to get in.
Which is why we fell about laughing when a muppet in a passing car threw an egg and hit the bottom of the pub door, completely missing everybody! A guy in a vampire costume made the observation that it was probably the throwers vestigial sixth finger causing some top spin that made him miss :)
Wasn't Dead Set good?
I had high hopes for the show, as Charlie Brooker is consistently entertaining on Screenwipe. But I also had deap-seated worries, because I hated the Nathan Barley series but found him pant-wettingly funny on the TV Go Home website).
I wasn't disappointed. It was funny, scary, and nicely satirical. There are some issues that pop up in horror that I have problems with (the ending Frank Darrabont's take on The Mist pushed those buttons), but Dead Set ended in a way that made sense, and felt right. Obviously as an optimist I'd have gone for a open-ended Butch and Sundance ending, but that's just personal preference. And it's out on DVD soon for those that missed it.
So, Halloween. I went out Friday night to The Wheel again, for their Halloqueen karaoke party. It was also my friend Hannah's birthday, so any excuse to dress up!
After Chrissy had hijacked my favourite outfit for herself, and Hannah had laid dibs on my goth wig, I decided to go for the old PVC witch look (sadly not as cool as Becky's one from the other year, but good enough). Unfortunately, despite trying it o weeks ago and loving it, I tried it on again Friday morning and had a fashion crisis - it didn't look right and I hated it!
Instead I went for a different witchy look, and dug out my top hat and skull staff. And when I got to Chrissy's to change I found she had a skull pendant and a cool bone bracelet which I horked, and had a last minute change to voodoo priestess. Sadly my pics are a bit blurry, and others were rather unflattering, so unless you scour Facebook, you'll have to imagine!
The night itself was pretty cool, and I met some new friends Amy and Shawnie. Amy hadn't dressed up, but Shawnie made an awesome Priss (from Bladerunner), and we spent the night chatting about all kinds of things.
Which reminds me - sorry if I didn't give you enough of my time Chrissy. You seemed a little distant (I think understand why) and I felt uncomfortable bothering you too much. I hope you get things sorted out.
But overall it was a good night, and I got to sing lots (even though I started choking to death during Love's Unkind)
And finally, the best story of the night:
While we waited for a taxi, we stood outside the pub with the smokers. There were around ten of us, and a couple of us were pretty big people. Plus we were completely blocking access to the pub door, you'd have had to push past, or go completely around to get in.
Which is why we fell about laughing when a muppet in a passing car threw an egg and hit the bottom of the pub door, completely missing everybody! A guy in a vampire costume made the observation that it was probably the throwers vestigial sixth finger causing some top spin that made him miss :)
Saturday, November 1, 2008
More News From The Front Lines
Things happen for a reason these days, and we are pretty sure those who have been following our progress have been wondering just what it is that we're up to lately. Unfortunately we are unable to report our progress at this time in any detail past the vague "we're making progress" assertion of the past few months.
Some progress is being made with the P2P VoIP and Video Chat System, but as always it'll take more than just preliminary testing in order to fully integrate it all into a single browser system. The rest of what we've been up to is currently being covered in the beta section of our forums, so if you have an account with us, feel free to read up on the latest behind the scenes information.
Some progress is being made with the P2P VoIP and Video Chat System, but as always it'll take more than just preliminary testing in order to fully integrate it all into a single browser system. The rest of what we've been up to is currently being covered in the beta section of our forums, so if you have an account with us, feel free to read up on the latest behind the scenes information.
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