Where in the World are the Byrnes Family via Byrnesys Blabberings
I found a very interesting tool to play with, Public Profiler’s World names, it allows you to put in your surname and it tells you where in the world the most people with you surname live. Worth noting though that they don’t seem to have datasets for Africa, central and south America (not including Argentina) and the majority of Asia, interesting all the same. Unsurprisingly Ireland came out on top in the regions department but the top country was Australia!: Surname: BYRNES Group: CELTIC Subgroup: IRISH Language: ENGLISH Top Country - FPM (Frequency per Million) AUSTRALIA 314.28 IRELAND 269.14 UNITED STATES 49.77 NEW ZEALAND 43.99 CANADA 25.9 Top Regions - FPM MID WEST , IRELAND 1593.33 NEW SOUTH WALES , AUSTRALIA 567.29 NORTHERN... My Bad: Missing Christopher Wright via Byrnesys Blabberings
I only realised a few weeks ago that Christopher Wright, author of the Mission of God book, that I began reading a few weeks ago, spoke in Aberdeen at the ecumenical event Souled Out and I sat through the entire evening without realising who he was. My bad…...
The Bizarreness of the BBC’s liberalism via Byrnesys Blabberings
An excellent piece of writing by Nick Cohen in Standpoint regarding the some convoluted mindset of the BBC. …the disasters of the Bush Administration and their own intellectual and aesthetic inadequacies have allowed writers to get away with a bad faith that would have had them booed off the stage in less fevered times. As a matter of course, BBC writers have blamed crimes against humanity perpetrated by the enemies of the West on the “root cause” of Western provocation. Occasionally, but more frequently than the casual viewer might appreciate, they have gone a step further and presented the atrocities of totalitarianism as the atrocities of the West. Maybe they were frightened that they would upset their employers or friends if they wrote honestly. More... Disconnected thoughts on Presidential Candidates via Byrnesys Blabberings
I’ve been observing the presidential and party nominee races with from somewhat more of a distance than the last presidential election during which I was studying American politics. Firstly I have to say that I am glad that I can sit back here in Scotland and not have to be involved in American Politics, it seems such a messy playground, for Christians in particular, in a way that it isn’t the UK. That’s not to say UK Politics isn’t a messy playground but there is a much higher rate of political ignorance and apathy in the UK, there is not dream or great nation that anyone is striving to maintain, just the monotony of two parties who are only distinguishable from each other by the side of the house they sit on. Interestingly though, American politics does... Flickr Downloads via Byrnesys Blabberings
A few years ago I had just bought first digital camera I signed up for the new photo service flickr. Now Flickr is widely considered to be one of the best online photo storage sites and I have had a paid membership for the last 3 years. One added benefit of Flickr is that it provides an offsite backup for all of your photos which means should your external hard drive, PC and laptop all give up the ghost in one fowl swoop or are involved in some catastrophic event (such as a house fire!) all your precious memories are stored somewhere else. Should this ever actually occur though there isn’t to my knowledge a way to download your full catalogue of photos which sets us up for the entrance of freeware application Flump: "Flump downloads all the photos from a user-specified... The Kettles on…Gourmet Blend via Byrnesys Blabberings
Popped into MacBeans last week to pick up some beans and was feeling indecisive so I told the server that I had enjoyed the Old Brown Java I had a month or so ago and she recommended Gourmet Blend - Strength Rating - 4/5. "A combination of dark roasted Indonesian coffees and our Breakfast Special producing a beautifully balanced coffee with a bittersweet chocolate texture." The Beans smell delicious, not overly chocolate but a sweet coffee smell to them. It brews a very smooth coffee there is virtually no bitterness to the taste. I’m not sure if its because I am used to a bitter after taste but the coffee tastes somewhat weaker than the other two I’ve tried recently. When I have been grinding these beans and then pouring water into the cafetiere there has been a... I am Overfed via Byrnesys Blabberings
My Google Reader is stuffed to the max with RSS Feeds and despite my many valiant efforts I seem to collect more and more subscriptions. Afraid of missing anything I only unsubscribe from those feeds which veer off the subject for which I subscribed to them (which I accept may be the most hypocritical practice of all time considering this blog seems to have little unifying theme). Others have mentioned that when subscribed to vast hordes of RSS feeds they simply read the odd blog religiously whilst marking the rest as read and saving them for archive searches, unfortunately I seem to be unable to do this, be it my inclination towards excessive procrastination or something else but I cannot leave unread feeds in my reader, therefore I have come to the conclusion that I will definitely... Olympic Visions via Byrnesys Blabberings
I have really enjoyed the Olympics this year, it has been brought into my morning habit for the last couple of weeks and it has been great to see Great Britain performing so well (apart from some unfortunate flag waving by my look-alike cousin-so I’ve been told), here are a few photos from over the last few weeks (click on them for higher resolution versions): ... My two cents on writing your CV or Resume via Byrnesys Blabberings
Although I am not in HR I have been running a department for a couple of years now and am in charge of contracting individuals for specific projects, therefore I have seen a lot of CV’s, and I have decided partly in order to outwork my own frustration with CV’s but also hopefully as a resource for some, to outline the do’s and don’ts, when creating and sending a CV, in my humble opinion of course. First it is important to recognise as I mentioned above, that I am giving an opinion on CV’s, albeit from someone who has the authority to hire someone from their CV’s which should hopefully give my opinion a little more weight, but all the same I recognise that a good CV to me may not be a good CV for another person in my position but I believe that... Visual Words via Byrnesys Blabberings
Its interesting to see some visual interpretation of the words used recently on this blog. Thanks to Wordle - A great solution when there is no time to blog. HT: TSK & JasonClark Similar Posts:None Found... Words are just Words, Right? via Byrnesys Blabberings
I have been thinking about writing today and had a realization that writing is in fact a form that language that I increasingly enjoy. I am certainly not the worlds most natural writer, anyone who has met me face to face will know my primary language function is certainly verbal, but I have grown aware of the differences between the two forms of language, written and verbal.
Because I am a naturally inclined to be a talker I have the misfortune of writing in the way I would speak. Some might say this is a good thing, but I am not entirely sure. verbal communication is quite transient, you say something and immediately it is gone, it is far less exact and concrete than written words. If you go too far in one direction whilst speaking it is quite easy to balance what you have said later... Zizek’s allure is meta-narrative via Byrnesys Blabberings
I am not sure what it is about Slavoj Zizek that I find so endearing, maybe it is because I visited his native Slovenia last year and so am fascinated by an intellectual product of the country’s socio-political history, or maybe it is because although I imagine I am at ideological polars with him, his willingness to hold on to 21st Century, albeit revisionist, Marxism is equally fascinating. I think above all of that, whatever you think of his conclusions and Lacanian projections we can’t help but be courted by Zizeks subversive meta-narrative. There is, I think, in all of us a desire to analyse and understand what is ‘really’ going on and Zizek’s lectures and writings attack our presuppositions from behind. Zizek always constructs his thesis on subjects... Mid Week Round Up via Byrnesys Blabberings
Theres plenty to get through today, normally there is a bit of a smorgasborg of topics, so decided to divide the round up a bit more topically this week (needless to say the topic headings are hopelessly inadequate), let me know if that is useful: Theology/Church Stuff: Scot McKnight just started blogging through a book Rachel gave me for my Graduation - The Mission of God by Christopher Wright Ill be reading it along with this series.
The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative
John Stackhouse has written an excellent post for people considering a PhD, well worth a read, it certainly quelled my fantasies of Post Grad work! Jason Clark gives you a peek into his PhD research. Andy White writes a helpful post on the subject of why your visions should be... CLAN Gathering 2008 via Byrnesys Blabberings
Due to our annual leave being used up with our honeymoon and a trip to see my good friend John get married, along with buying our flights for both of those occasions we weren’t expecting to be able to go to the New Wine Scotland event this year CLAN Gathering. Well due to some fortunate re-jigging of national holidays and someone generously helping us out with some of the finances we are going for a long weekend for the first few days of CLAN Gathering 2008 (sat,sun, mon) So I wont be back online until Tuesday. Like last year we will be helping to lead some worship times in the CLAN Community venue, which is the stream for student/20-something’s which will be good fun as the band haven’t really played together for 6 months until last year where we had a rusty yet... The Great Read via Byrnesys Blabberings
The Kettles on…Continental Blend via Byrnesys Blabberings
My last coffee purchase was just the right amount (125g) which meant the coffee beans were fresh right to the end, so I went back to MacBeans in my lunch hour and purchased CONTINENTAL BLEND - Strength Guide 5/5 Originally I had intended to try all of their ‘Pure Coffee’s but was won over by its description as I love strong coffee and have been feeling somewhat sleepy today. "Our darkest roast, producing a very strong coffee which is both rich in flavour and high in caffeine" The MacBeans website explains why coffee is sometimes blended instead of offered pure: "The purpose of blending is to combine a variety of coffee characteristics such as Aroma, Acidity, Body & Colour. Many commercial blends use a high percentage of cheaper, inferior quality beans... Firefox 3 Problems? via Byrnesys Blabberings
Whilst Firefox 2 used to use up RAM like no ones business (who even knows what that saying means!) Firefox 3 has been increasingly killing my Processor and over the last few days has thrown me a ‘Firefox has unexpectedly had to close’ type window. Granted I did have around 20 tabs opened at the time, and the very useful restore session function helped me get those live bookmarks back but still. Anyone else having problems?Similar Posts:None Found... Start of Week Round up via Byrnesys Blabberings
Where do you get your Theology Books from? via Byrnesys Blabberings
I have a few shelves of good theology books building up but I was wondering when I see the walls of professors offices, and some theology blogger’s lined with books, how do people build their theological libraries. Many Theological texts are well north of £30 and certainly many of the bloggers and prof’s must get review copies from publishing companies, I suspect others working in Churches have some form of book budget. But what about everyone else out there? As Ive mentioned in the past abebooks is an excellent tool for fiding sub-amazon prices. More recently I have also discovered a few smaller second hand theology bookstores, and a blem section on another publishers site, and of course the odd books of interest turns up on ebay now and again. Last year I was talking... As Kingfishers Catch Fire via Byrnesys Blabberings
I’ll be away this weekend doing various testosterone filled activities in the aid of a friend’s stag weekend, should be good fun. There isn’t an end of the week round up this week, but theres plenty of those to dig through if your interested. Instead I’ve posted this poem from the Eugene Peterson book I’ve been reading:As Kingfishers Catch Fire - Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)As king fishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;As tumbled over rim in roundy wellsStones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’sBow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;Selves — goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,Crying What I do is me: for... The Kettles on… via Byrnesys Blabberings
F or a while now I have abstained from the horrendous brown mixture indigenous to the UK known as Instant Coffee, and focused my efforts on having better smaller quantities of the real deal and have come to appreciate the creation and consumption of a good cup of coffee. After reading some things online about coffee and attempted to make a concerted effort to buy things a little more local, I went to the only coffee roaster in Aberdeen yesterday MacBeans. Its pretty well known as it has been around since the 80’s, but the only reason I have been there is to get hold of speciality coffee’s such as Jamaica Blue Mountain for special occasions. As I said before, I have been trying to have better quality cups of coffee whilst drinking less altogether which has mean that the... Start of the week round up via Byrnesys Blabberings
Yes, only one post since last weeks round up and I have a plethora of posts for you. I am wondering if these round ups are overkill, but I do enjoy cataloging the finds for my own use at any rate. Andy White has re:launched his site with a fancy new design and lots of ‘:’s. Andy is a great blogger and I’m looking forward to reading more of his technology, blogging and Big Life words. I’m starting a new blog series on Missions in the 21st Century, it will focus on responses from guest bloggers and I’ve had some great responses already which I am excited to post over the next few weeks, so keep checking in for that. Cool Tools is a great blog that I keep bookmarked, it features reviews on great books, gadgets and software and always picks up on... End of Week Round up via Byrnesys Blabberings
Just a few things to keep you interested over the weekend Christian Resources charity Demarus has published some good resources for using the Narnia movie, a theme I picked up a little while ago in a round up. Trevin Wax posts a great insight into missions in his post ‘When the Missionary Honeymoon is Over’ - Trevin will hopefully be a guest on this site in the next few weeks as a part of a series I’m starting answering some questions on the subject of missions, so stay tuned for that. Theology Blog Inhabitio Dei has posted a template for reading the New testament in a week which I am planning to attempt along with my good friend at YWAM and lapsed blogger John Gillespie! I stumbled across a good web designer here in Scotland who created the episcopal denominations... Learning Language and why the french wont speak english to you via Byrnesys Blabberings
Here’s a post I found interesting from Trevin Wax who worked/s as a missionary in Romania about his journey of learning romanian."So, one day, I decided not to speak in English anymore to anyone.
The only time I would use English was when I did not know how to say
what I needed to say in Romanian. In such a circumstance, I would say
the desired phrase in English and then ask how to say it in Romanian.
When I would find out how to express myself in Romanian, I would repeat
the phrase or sentence in Romanian. That way, I would be learning even
when I didn’t know what to say.
Making the decision to speak only in Romanian was like taking the
training wheels off a bicycle. Yes, I fell off a lot and the bike kept
going wobbly for a while. But at least I was riding! And every... Update on the Chapmans via Byrnesys Blabberings
Should Women fight on the front lines?…they do in Narnia via Byrnesys Blabberings
There is an interesting post about the new Narnia film depicting Susan fighting in the battles when she does not in the books at the CBMW and how the director argues that he want to represent secular opinion on women fighting on the front lines stating: "When the issue of Susan not participating in the fight for Narnia was
introduced in the first film, I rejected it then. I was like, ‘Well if
she’s just gonna make sandwiches then give her a plate and a knife.’
It’s something that I don’t agree with so I wasn’t going to make a
movie like that." As the CBMW highlights: Lucy is presented as a model of steadfast faith in the face of
adversity. After she apologizes to Aslan for not obeying him the first
time and announces her determination to follow... Start of Week Round up via Byrnesys Blabberings
Mid Week round up via Byrnesys Blabberings
Probably the first of its kind in the UK, Worship Central, a really superb ministry from Holy Trinity Brompton, has worked with Kings College London to produce an MA in contemporary worship. Tearfund have begun publishing Daily prayer podcasts, though somehow whilst moving house last week I lost my iPod!Trevin Wax writes well on the subject of being ecumenical. A new free (ish) UK service called freesat is being launched which offers digital HD broadcasting and a good number of channels, even to those areas (like up here in the depths of Scotland) where you can’t get freeview.Had I not recently broken my canon SD300 I would be doing this in a second, lifehacker have featured free software which you can load onto your point and shoot canon through the memory card to...