Tuesday, December 5

Last Week's bloggerage

Bloggering 2

G'day bloggerites, sorry it's been a little while since my last blog, but it has been a very busy week!
However, it has been an interesting week to!

I had a meeting with Ant Sayles on Monday & found out about a fund for young people which I hadn't come across yet - the Youth Opportunities fund, which can help youth groups with capital & revenue funding. The only stipulation is the emphasis on young people participating in the bid - realistically they have to fill it out & be involved with all the stages of the bids - fantastic! Well a minor complication is that the bids needed to be in on Wednesday (i.e. 2 days ago) so speed was of the essence, this balanced with trying to finish an essay for Uni on management - d'oh! I managed to finish off the essay (yaaaay) then printed off 3 copies of the form to take to the Tuesday Group.

I had a bit of a chat with the Tuesday crew & explained the importance of the opportunity & about the speed of the response necessary. I'm pleased to say that they took the challenge & completed a form for both revenue & capital - for 7900 & 8000 respectively! Not bad for a student youthworker methinks lol!

Also had my last lecture days on Wednesday & Thursday. Wednesday was scary, yet informative - public speaking skills! Something which really scares me normally......& still does! But now I know how to prepare for my talks etc. Coolies!!!

Thursday, now that was a different kettle of Tuna! Ian M's opposite number in Peterborough - Paul turned up with loads of games & ides for group sessions for young people. We all thought he was nuts to bring the amount of stuff that he brought with him. However, the stuff he brought was very very cool: uni-hock, parachutes, scruples, hundreds & hundreds mini-beanbags, a giant inflatable cube, etc. & best of all he let us play - yaaaaaaaaaaay - be teenagers & small children for the morning lol! I don't think anyone got bored of throwing beanbags at each other all morning!

Fun as it was though, it still really challenged me to think about my own youthwork & what games we play. They may be fun(ish), but I think that with some more fun (youth-friendly) resources I might be able to enhance my youthwork practice.

Also on Thursday(this IS turning out to be a bit of a BIG blog!) I presented the funding bid to the PCC & their monthly meeting - nice! But people were both surprised & happy about it though - win!

OK (nearly there) Friday had lunchtime club in the Primary School in North Leigh, which went fine - we were rehearsing for the play at Christmas. However, the evening - now that was fun....kinda!

Rewind (my Friday night, open youth group) was both good, & bad! Good because I informed this group about the funding bid, but also because we talked about an article in the local newsletter (Nor Lie News) which had a report from the Parish Council criticising young people in North Leigh over them hanging out in the park next to the Primary School. The discussions were really interesting, & the group decided to look at their main hang-out area (skate park) which is currently unusable because it's covered in glass. The decision which came out of these discussions was to possible do some form of social action in the new year!

However, there was also some bad news as the leadership is going to be severely reduced in numbers, with the loss of both Kathy & now Katie from the Friday group.

Simon, signing off!

Sunday, November 26

Sundaynessess

Good avo once again blog-fiends & welcome to another blog from Simon's brain!

Today is Sunday (uh-hu) & I didn't go to my placement church, because I went instead to my home church as it was young AJ's baptism this morning. The service was very good - Andy Richens' serman was aimed mostly at newcomers to Christianity, which was good & challenged the congregation. The 2 testamonies were both interesting, especially the other guy Rob whose words really challenged the whole church!

So 2 baptisms this morning....then off to Aldates this evening with, that's right 6 more baptisms lol - isn't God wonderful!

Thursday, November 23

ahhhh Gears......of War

More blogging you say - surely not!

Tough - lol! Just for fun here's some more thoughts from yours truly, about.............something a little different - the gaming world of the XBox 360!

OK there's a new game on the 360 called Gears of War. It's a third person shooter set in a pseudo-earth with some very stereotypical Americans as the hero's (3 guesses as to the nationality of the American developers......hang on - d'oh!) who fight against some very tough enemies - none of you Call of Duty 2 shots & your dead type baddies, not 10 headshots & they're still charging at you - in a word.......cool!

The physics, graphics & sheer gameplay are all-encompassing & totally own you whilst play. Mind you it is an 18 certificate game, but seeing as I'm 25......who cares! It gory, they swear, but overall it's a blast (so to speak) to play.

There are just so many nice bits, like the system which allows you to get into cover & 'blind-fire' from cover & shred the enemies & the badass machinegun which is cool, but has a secondary function of.........a chainsaw - genious! So that I'd give this 11 out of 10 for the sheer audacity of it all. If there is only 1 gripe however it's this the snipering modes don't impress me too much, as the aiming is a little cumbersome, but apart from that - WOW just buy this game if you own or have 'borrowed' a 360 - a proper WIN!

ahhhh Gears......of War

More blogging you say - surely not!

Tough - lol! Just for fun here's some more thoughts from yours truly, about.............something a little different - the gaming world of the XBox 360!

OK there's a new game on the 360 called Gears of War. It's a third person shooter set in a pseudo-earth with some very stereotypical Americans as the hero's (3 guesses as to the nationality of the American developers......hang on - d'oh!) who fight against some very tough enemies - none of you Call of Duty 2 shots & your dead type baddies, not 10 headshots & they're still charging at you - in a word.......cool!

The physics, graphics & sheer gameplay are all-encompassing & totally own you whilst play. Mind you it is an 18 certificate game, but seeing as I'm 25......who cares! It gory, they swear, but overall it's a blast (so to speak) to play.

There are just so many nice bits, like the system which allows you to get into cover & 'blind-fire' from cover & shred the enemies & the badass machinegun which is cool, but has a secondary function of.........a chainsaw - genious! So that I'd give this 11 out of 10 for the sheer audacity of it all. If there is only 1 gripe however it's this the snipering modes don't impress me too much, as the aiming is a little cumbersome, but apart from that - WOW just buy this game if you own or have 'borrowed' a 360 - a proper WIN!

Thursday?! is it, already

Yeah well!

G'day bloggers, today young Simon is most confused - it's Thursday.......I think, but I don't know where the week has gone - but I have an idea!!

It's essay season in the world of the CYM student & as such I have one essay due in tomorrow & another next week - d'oh! However, the good news is that I've finished the one due tomorrow & submitted it today - winner! It was all about Christology & its relationship to prejudice/stereotyping that happens in my of contemporary culture. Somehow I even managed to get in a quote from Dylan Moran about prejudice of gay people which although is initially can be seen as comical , actually reflects some deep human judgements which are as present today as they have ever been, it's just that now we are more aware of them i.e. Enlightened.

The other essay.....well I haven't even started yet, but I'm going to get cracking on with it over the weekend - joy!

Also today we had small group again which was cool & really relevant to me at the moment as it was all about keeping going under pressure & this is what I'm feeling at the moment from all side of life. So like yesterday I found out that my girlfriend of nearly 2 years is going to be permanently moving down to Torquay pretty soon after Christmas - d'oh! Let's say that I don't have the most positive of views on long distance relationships, so how is that going to pan out......? I have no idea yet! But it seems like one thing after another at the moment & when things like my health are affected it's just no fun! I've now been feeling flu-like with a headache, dodgy stomach & an irritating cough for about a week & it's sapping my energy which makes me think that I need a break.....but I have too much to do so I end up working rather than recovering. It's not that my health is unimportant, it's just that I deem the work too critical. Hmmm.

Thursday!? Is it, already?

Yeah well!

Youthwork Conference Pt2

This blog was written on 21/11/06

Good avo my fellow blogfans!

Right I'm going to give some more feedback about Youthwork the Conference! But first.......congratulations to 2 people - my 'little' brother James, for making it to the grand old age of 24! (21/11/2006) Also to Ian for managing to read my last blog post on Saturday about an hour after I wrote it & talked to me about it that day - impressive Obi-Wan!

Right then the conference, it was weird bumping into so many of my fellow CYM students outside of Uni, as well as Ian (bizarro). The conference seemed to be a bit spread out for me & the venue & amount of people there was far bigger than up in Southport. It was really good, but unfortunately because I wasn't feeling too great still,my concentration was not as focused as I would have liked, also because I went in solo it lost any purpose of relation-building. I have to say that whilst everyone else was in groups, they may have had a better time. But don't misunderstand me I still enjoyed myself, but it could have been better!

Finally I'm now off to see Casino Royale with the famille crew, then it's off to group - more mixing & chilling - win!

Saturday, November 18

Uodate & exams

Hey-oh!

Right a quick update. Had my exam on Thursdays & that went pretty well, I finished both questions & added appropriate theory & theology & used the format from Ian etc. I think I've done ok, but will have to wait & see.

Then had an evening with Jennie which was cool. However, we both felt like pooh & so crawled home feeling sorry for myself!

Friday was a day of sleep mostly. I did the group in the evening, but felt like I should have been resting still & managed to lose my temper more easily then was strictly necessary.

Right now I'm sat listening to Andy Hickford at Youthwork The Conference in Eastbourne in a big theatre - bizzare!

Wednesday, November 15

Me

Now it's a little later in the day, we've finished for the day......which is nice! Had a really good/relevant/interesting lecture from Paul - Christology & it made my brain hurt lol! He also gave us some really good essay advice & so should help me loads when I come to write about what I'm going to write about.......huh!

Right I've also firmly made up my mind to definitely go to Youthwork The Conference down in Eastbourne this weekend ~ my boss called me today to confirm that my placement church had found me sponsorship to go to it & it should be really good - win!

Finally, the worship session that I ran......I think it went ok, but people listening tipo me freaks me out lol. I believe that those peoe listening appreciated the culture difference that I brought to the session & the use of different forms of media. I also think that the way I ran it was good.....to a point - when I got people into groups to pray with each other - there was no real purpose to it, which I think would have helped, also I think that the bible passage was not as applicable as I first thought. However, having said this, it is good to reflect on one's work & see where things can be improved. Also thanks to Steve for doing my observation & giving me reall constructive feedback - thanks mate.

Adious

Me....leading worship?!?!

Hey ho, another day, another blog!

I had group last night, which although was "not the best planned ever", still went really quite well! We played with soem new tech equipment that the youtth project may well end up getting from my Dad, which was fun, a mixing desk, amp & speaker set & even more fun, some CD-decks lol. I thought I'd bring along a shed-load of my old CD singles that I have been clooecting over the past couple of years & see what happens when you let some young people loose with some fun tech stuff!!

The results were pretty good actually! Based on my huge experience of being a DJ [huh!!]....or not! I explained the basics - mixing of 2 tracks into each other, with the idea of creating one seemless track, using a combination of cuing up & fading in one track to the next, & so on.


By the end of the evening we were getting some good sounds from the kit, & the speakers, amp etc. were more than capable of hodling their own & cranking out the tunes - win!!

This leads me nicely onto today.....for which I'm running the worship for uni.....in about 3 minutes ahhhhhhh!!

Anyways, I'm using as much contemporary worship ideas as I know, looking at what worship is & looks like.....a good debate, as my theology tells me that God does not care about what the tune sounds like or even the words....it's all about the heart of the worshipper......to be continued!