matt's journal

homework

2008-01-08T14:22:03Z

gosh physics is complicated!

-- imported from matteaston.net

a new year

2008-01-02T13:29:07Z

so this is the start of a new year. i’m looking forward to it very much, hopefully getting stuck into my phd and hopefully church will keep moving forward and getting more and more exciting. this year is a year of HOPE across the country, which is a great mission, aiming to bring hope to many people who are in need.

God spoke to me on sunday about priorities. the passivity issue is effectively just an issue of having incorrect priorities. i dislike the whole “new year’s resolution” thing because it seems a little contrived, but the new year is at least as good a time as any to start something new. i’m going to keep a private prayer journal as well as a public blog, so i can look back over it and see how God has answered my prayers. i’ve done it before and was amazed by the experience, so i’m now going to make it a priority.

-- imported from matteaston.net

friends

2007-12-10T18:10:43Z

i met with mark, my friend from the good ol’ uni days! he’s studying in london too so we wandered around trafalgar square, which is incidentally a really nice place to be. it was great to see mark again, and it reminded me of all my uni friends and how generally rubbish i am at keeping in contact! so i now resolve to make more effort, to be less passive in dealing with old and new friends, and to call up friends and catch up and stuff. am looking forward to it!

-- imported from matteaston.net

N.B. i forgot to change the default picture on my blog page so it looks like i'm pretending my friends are all skater chicks! i'm not... honest!

new website

2007-12-04T16:33:24Z

so here’s me playing with iWeb ’08. in general i don’t like web design software because it generates messy code and uses loads of images and stuff, but this is so easy to use and nice looking, i may have to keep using it!

we’ll see how it goes.

if you’re reading this on livejournal, the new site can be found at http://www.matteaston.net

note: i haven't managed to set up syndication on my blog without creating a whole new user, so this is a copy and paste job at the mo!

passivity

2007-12-02T21:40:01Z

hi all! here beginneth my passivity journal!

we talked about passivity at our church small group this week, and i need to be active about not being passive! i've decided to keep a log of when i've been passive and when i've been active. the activity of keeping a log is the first step to not being passive, because i actually have to do something! fun!

today i was sitting in church and didn't feel like going to talk to anyone. then i realised that was passive and i'd have to write it down, so i went and talked to someone, and it was actually ok! i still found it hard, but it was the right thing to do. as i keep going with this i'm hoping it'll get easier.

i didn't do everything on my to do list this weekend, but it did do more than i would usually do.

climate change?

2007-06-15T16:50:34Z

what do you think of climate change? does it matter what we think?

please discuss!

matteaston @ 2007-05-10T11:06:00

2007-05-10T10:06:55Z

gosh, it's a long time since i posted!

mmmm, materialism...

2007-02-18T19:06:59Z

it's a bit scary that the only thing encouraging me to post is a lust for new stuff... i'm so shallow.

please sign up to http://Apple.real-incentives.com/?referral=15273

just ome back from church weekend - should really post something spiritual...

gasp

2007-02-03T21:01:00Z

21st july!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

groovy baby!

2007-01-17T17:15:09Z

ooh, lookit, new posting interface! that shows how long since i used livejournal...

i've got a website! it's very exciting. i bought a domain and everything. check out www.matteaston.net!

the only problem is i don't have anything to put on it...

bad news

2006-12-07T08:16:45Z

we've just heard that farrah's sister, serena, has got cancer again. this is a bit of a bummer. she really doesn't want to have chemotherapy again, and we don't believe she should have to. we believe God is calling us to pray for a miracle, so she can be healed and not have to go through the nightmare treatment again.

if you are a person who prays, would you please find time to pray for serena; pray that she would be healed by God, and quickly, so she doesn't have to suffer the ordeal again. pray for strength for her and her family, and pray for faith in all of us to believe God can heal her. if you want any more information, do get in touch with us.

thanks.

yuk yuk yuk yuk yuk yuk yuk yuk yuk yuk!

2006-11-20T16:18:35Z

it's raining. england is yukky.

*sulks*

wild wadi

2006-11-18T17:45:28Z

we went to wild wadi today. it's a water theme park and it was so much fun!! we went round loads of slides and flumes and there was this huge slide called the jumeirah sceirah (read "scarer"). we had to climb for ages to get to the top and it took less than 10 seconds to come down again! you come off the slide at one point and fall through the air! re-entry into the water was rather more painful for men than women, if you get my drift... according to their advertising you go up to 50 mph, which is crazy!

seriously, it was so much fun. and little harry enjoyed splashing in the pool, and almost enjoyed the swim-seat we bought him. he went with us round the lazy river and enjoyed that too. we've had such a great time here, and we're not looking forward to our return to the frozen wasteland of surrey!

photos from dubai

2006-11-16T09:21:41Z

i've uploaded some photos from dubai using picasa. farrah's put them onto facebook too; if you look at her profile you should see them. let me know which you think is better!

Dubai November 2006

facebook

2006-11-13T17:44:37Z

hi guys. seeing as i linked livejournal from facebook, i should probably link facebook from livejournal. not sure where to put this, so i'll post it for now.

TURTLES!

2006-11-11T16:57:01Z

i saw a turtle today!we went snorkeling and saw cuttlefish and angel fish and a reef shark and barracuda and a puffa fish and so many others! then we saw this turtle! it was so amazing, a beautiful animal and lovely to watch. we followed it until it dived deep at the edge of the reef and we couldn't see it any more. i love turtles!

dubai is cool! and very hot!

2006-11-09T13:48:42Z

hi geezas! greetings from sunny dubai! farrah and i are out here visiting my sister elle, her husband ben and their little son harry. he's gorgeous! we're not sick of him yet after three days ;o)

it's a bit muggy here but very warm, and much nicer than the -2 degrees we had in england last week! enjoying having a holiday from work, it's our first proper holiday since the honeymoon over a year ago. but then, our friend paul pointed out that last month was his first proper holiday since his</emph> honeymoon 12 years ago, so we musn't complain!

just signed up to facebook as well, it's really good. can't believe they give you unlimited photo storage! no more flickr, i reckon. took me a while to remember my oxford alumni address, though. oops.

it's really funny, i had a prophetic dream a while back. it was about sitting here in dubai typing my livejournal on elle's computer. i was confused at the time because i hadn't yet signed up to livejournal, but now it makes sense! not a particularly helpful prophecy, i guess, but good to know God still has an interest in me!

my week...

2006-10-15T12:28:25Z

had a nice trip to glasgow this week. seemed to go quite well, and fixed all problems before i leave, so we might have some happy clients! yay! decided glasgow isn't the nicest part of scotland by quite a way, but the hotel i stayed in was quite pleasant, and the client payed for my food and drink so i had fun...

very nice to be home though: two nights feel like a very long time. still recovering from the 5am start on wednesday and the 6 and a half hour airport/aircraft experience getting home on friday. yukky.

played djembe at reroute this morning. reroute is the worship service for the youth in our church in woking. first time i've played a djembe on stage, but it seemed to go well. very good to see so many kids meeting with God.

ramblings of a bemused man

2006-10-07T10:51:29Z

ok, so maybe i don't paste very often...

a lot has happened since the last post, about a month ago! we've moved into our new house, i got a raise, farrah got a bonus, we've painted lots of things, been to ikea twice, got a new worship pastor at church, i had my birthday, seen some old friends and some new friends, booked tickets to dubai, planned work visits to glasgow and carlisle, and some other stuff.

i think this journalling thing only really works if people read it and post comments. otherwise i feel i'm wasting time, really. i guess i need to make some online friends to make it more fun. problem with being married is that i can't really spend many hours on the internet!

i'm really hairy today. i could take a picture to show you, but you'd all get scared.

raaagh. i'm sleepy.

posting

2006-09-06T12:02:47Z

jo's moaning that i don't post enough, so here i am. i don't know what she means, i posted less than a week ago! some of us have work to do... honest.

errr.... cheese.

incidentally, we were painting our new spare bedroom (that is, my sister and brother-in law were painting and i was supervising), and we noticed a llama on the wall. they get everywhere, you know. it's amazing how many llamas we've bumped into since moving to woking. must be the beast to be around here. now that the paint has dried, the llama has faded away, sadly, but he'll always have a place in our hearts.

in geeky news, i've nicked an old computer from work and i've put linux on it. i've always had a vague fascination with linux, and it seems to be good for a web server, so when we get into our new house i think i'll set it up and put websites on it and stuff. now i have a linux machine for messing about with, a pc for playing games on, and a mac for actually using as a computer. mmm, geeky.

happy now jo? what does "exanimate" mean anyway?

apathy

2006-08-31T07:05:54Z

yesterday our small group did a bible study about apathy.

it was based on the parable of the good samaritan, which i've never really thought of about apathy, i always thought the priest and levite walked by on the other side because they were afraid of the robbers, but it hit me that apathy is simply not caring enough to overcome whatever holds you back. it may be fear, busyness or indifference, but if you truly cared enough you would do something to help. that is apathy—letting anything stop you from acting when you know you should.

so, you people that read this journal, it's your job to make sure i do something about it. our small group want to run a project for the needy people of woking. we don't know who they are or what they want, but we will find out and do it! please don't let anything get in the way, don't let apathy overcome me, because i believe that with God's help i can overcome apathy.

true riches

2006-08-23T10:24:01Z

just been reading matthew 19 and 20 about true riches and finding it really hard!

matthew 19 is talking about how difficult it is for rich people to get into heaven, and to store up true riches in heaven. now i understand all this, and it even makes sense to me, but it's really hard to reconcile with living in "the west". i really enjoy having nice things, and i try to be sensible and only buy what i need. but this is hard at present as we've just bought a new house and need some stuff to put in it. to be honest, we don't need to buy a dual-fuel oven, we could get a cheaper one. and do we need a coffee table when we've already got a cardboard box? could i spend my money on the kingdom instead?

part of the answer is that it depends how we view our home. we want it to be an open home where people can come and stay, where we can open it up to people that have greater needs than us. that's partly why we went for two bedrooms. another part is good stewardship---if we buy a crappy fridge at half the price of a good fridge, it'll break down much quicker and use much more electricity, so we'll end up spending more money! reference the vimes "boots" theory of social unfairness...

so viewing and using our home unselfishly, sharing with other christians and non-christians all seems to be what jesus is getting at, and the gist of writings throughout the new testament. and serving in this way builds up treasure in heaven. which sounds good, if we actually do it! so, although we are saved by grace through faith, we can build up treasure in heaven and earn our "well done, good and faithful servant!" which would be very cool. then matthew 20 hits you. jesus tells a story about people working in the vineyard, and those that have turned up at the end of the day and picked three grapes get the same pay as those who have worked so hard all day that they can no longer stand up straight. and this is what the kingdom is like. so i'll get the same reward as mother teresa, which is hideously unfair. how does this match up with what comes before?

i'll think about it... let me know if anyone has any answers!

tedium

2006-08-18T16:51:17Z

so i've succumbed to sneaking entries into my fledgling journal at work... the problem is, you work really hard all day, then finish something big at 5.05pm. so, you look at your "to do" list and realise that starting anything else now is a complete waste of time, i mean, there's only 25 minutes left until hometime and at least the last ten of those need to be used for glancing surreptitously at the clock and making your computer shut down really slowly, and the customers aren't that nice anyway so why should i rush to get anything done?

so here i am with nothing much to do and a journal to pad out. it's funny, i never really have anything to write or say, but it doesn't really matter because nobody really reads it anyway, and it's just a way of sorting out your brain. and my brain needs a lot of sorting out. not because it's particularly large, it's just a mess, like the inside of my pc.

on that note, let's trigger a "friendly discussion" on macs and pcs. i'm at work, but i'm actually typing this on a remote desktop to my mac at home. why? mainly because i can, i guess. and it looks prettier, and i like checking up on my mac to see if it's ok. i really want to get a mac at work, but there is absolutely no reason to, because i'd have to run windows on it and you can get a dell to do that at a hundreth of the price. poo. my reason is that it looks prettier and i could use it at home too, but my boss doesn't really like that reason. i tried to convince him that it would be useful to have a mac in the office for testing software on different platforms, but seeing as we already know there's absolutely no way our software would work on a mac, that didn't wash either.

oops, got distracted---someone wanted me to do work! well, i'm now at home with my beautiful wife, so i'd better sign off.

life or death

2006-08-17T18:38:36Z

so i've finally come to it, my first life or death situation. scary!

and i really don't know how to get out of it. i don't seem to have the skills to survive.

those pesky sandpeople. i've made my way into their base and they won't let me out. when i go through the tunnel, my sandperson disguise disappears and i have to fight againts five scary sandpeople, and worse, i have to do it all in my underwear.

bummer.

he will never leave you nor forsake you

2006-08-17T07:29:08Z

God's been really good to me today. i'm still struggling, and i don't feel as close to him as i want to, but he's been revealing things to me and helping me. don't have much time, but just wanted to give him a bit of glory after being discontent last night!