When we play the game “Apples to Apples” it’s a well known fact that anyone playing the card “Giant Squid” will win the round, no matter that adjective you’re trying to match to. Well, OK, maybe I should qualify that - any round where Alison is the judge.

In honour of that ruling, and I dont know if I win anything here, but the BBC News website and the New York Times have stories of the first giant squid captured on film in its native deep-sea hunting grounds

A live, adult giant squid has been caught on camera in the wild for the very first time.

Japanese researchers took pictures of the elusive creature hunting 900m down, enveloping its prey by coiling its tentacles into a ball.

The images show giant squid, known as Architeuthis, are more vigorous hunters than has been supposed.

I’m sure that other places are reporting it, but the BBC Website includes video of the beast!

…and for those who pointed out that I answered the “Friday Five” on a Tuesday … let it be known that I began writing the post on a Friday but quality control and the department for real and truthful answers wouldnt let it be published until now. Something tells me that I need to do some of the non-day-specific memes in future!

I took a look at the meme-list and found a fascinating Live Journal - pretend writer - a whole bunch of writing projects to stimulate blog entry creation.

1. What do you tend to focus on the most? Why do you think you focus on it?
    A. The past.
    B. The present.
    C. The future as you think it will be.
    D. The future as you are afraid it will be.

When you look at the Myers-Briggs personality test I come out as the kind of person who preserves the status-quo. I like order. I like structure. What I do now is shaped by the past - each step forward is a logical progression and outworking of the journey I have been on to this point. I am not the kind of person who is “flighty” in the sense of making random spontaneous hops from one thing to another.

I felt really crushed as we worked through one of the last VLI intensives on “vision and planning“. The book we were assigned (”Developing a Vision for Ministry in the 21st Century” by Aubrey Malphurs) was good, but left me feeling that I was unsuited (to the core of my being) for being a leader of anything that needs a forward-looking vision. I still have no answers to the questions / issues that the book raised.

I think that I live my life in the present and the past but with a fear of failure relating to the future. Does that mean I have voted for 3 of the 4 options? My focus is the present, informed by the past but driven by a future as Im afraid it will be, in other words, Option B. How’s that?

2. How many active prescriptions do you have at the moment. Of those, how many do you take regularly?

None and none. I rarely go to the doctor and certainly dont like taking medication. At most I’ll take an Advil here and there.

3. What is the most inexpensive, non-valuable thing you tend to collect and hoard? Why do you do it?

When I pay for an item I put the receipt into my back pocket. When the pocket gets too fat to sit on I pull out the contents and toss all of these snippets of paper onto my bedside table. There’s a “hoard” of inexpensive, non-valuable and irrelevant paper snippets floating around. Occasionally I’ll plunder the pile and find one of the “free movie ticket” freebie that my Moviewatcher card gets me here and there. So there’s some use to it all.

4. What is the most supernatural event you have experienced? Did you feel there was a specific reason that it happened to you?

Ummmm. It’s hard to pin down the most supernatural event. I think the telling thing - more so guilt inducing than anything - is how far back I have to go before I find a story to tell. It feels a little hypocritical to say I believe that God is living and active today, that He’s about the same stuff as in the bible, and then wimp out on opportunities as they arise. I hear stories from people I trust completely so why do I have to go back in time so far before I can tell tale of something He’s done? Have I been so afraid to risk and so lacking in faith?

Back in May of 1990, I was due to go to the youth camp at Hollybush farm (where Hollybush Christian Fellowship meet). A friend was going to pick me up from my house so I got my backpack ready and put my wallet into it for safe keeping. The car arrived outside and honked its horn and I raced out and jumped in. It was only after we had got to Hollybush that I realized all I had were the clothes on my back, having left my backpack on the couch at home! I prayed and felt reminded of Matthew chapter 6

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

So I pushed aside issues of not having a tent, or food for the weekend. In the evening meeting they invited people who wanted to be healed (physically) to come get prayer at the end of the service. I couldnt see too well from the balcony, plus I wanted prayer for something anyhow so I wandered down to the front, standing at the left side of the stage. A guy with a club foot was sitting on the stage edge about 4 feet from me. As people prayed for him I was shocked to watch his foot rotate back into a healthy position: God healed him of the condition completely. I chatted with another guy who told me that he’d come to camp with his children, had a large family tent for himself plus a smaller one that the kids were in, and that he had space in his tent for another person. He offered not only to let me use his tent and spare sleeping bag but also to feed me all weekend.

The rub came at the end of the weekend when I had to pay for the camp. I walked into the office and explained that I left my bag at home. They offered a reduced cost, and as I pulled out the contents of my pocket, it was precisely the right amount to be all square on costs. So, a weekend of faith building, of seeing God heal someone with my own eyes (not just in stories from other folk) and of direct provision. “Naturally supernatural”, as they say.

5. How old were you when you first realized that YOU were the adult now?

I dont really feel like I am “an adult” yet. I’m 35 at the time of writing and inside me I am still feeling like an imposter - you know how it is in the movies where the child pulls on his father’s clothes and suddenly all of the people treat him as if he’s his dad? (think of the familiar format used in “13 going on 30″, “Big”, and so on) Maybe it will dawn on me fully at some point?

The devil you don’t know

“‘The Exorcism of Emily Rose’ aims to get people talking about faith, not pea soup” writes Glenn Whipp in his review. He goes on to say

“Emily Rose” counters the raw escapism of “The Exorcist” with a dogged determination to get to the heart of the spiritual matter. A hybrid thriller that mixes courtroom arguments with psychological terror, “Emily Rose” follows the case of a priest (Tom Wilkinson) who stands accused of negligence in the death of a young woman he believed to be possessed. As his agnostic lawyer (Laura Linney) argues his case, we see through flashbacks the horrific story of the title character.

All of the reviews that I’ve read so far suggest that while scary in places the movie is mainly a thought provoking courtroom drama that poses strong questions but doesnt provide many answers, leaving the audience to process the issue for themselves.

Went to see Coldplay with Rilo Kiley as their opening band in concert at St Louis’s UMB Bank Pavillion on Saturday night. I’d never heard of Rilo Kiley and having heard them might be tempted to give their music a listen if someone loaned me a CD but I wasnt left with a burning desire to buy their music. The band’s live performance left me wondering if they hadnt decided on an overall lineup, or a distinct sound - the music changed styles as often as the band members exchanged places / instruments. Having checked their website it appears that this is their sound. They pride themselves on the ecclectic mix of different elements. Oh well.

This was the first concert that I’ve been to where I dont know the music all that well; I’d never heard of the supporting band and wasnt a huge fan of Coldplay. My exposure to them has been at the movie theatre, where snippets of their songs have been part of the “pre-show countdown”. (what a triumph of political correctness that term is!) Coldplay put on a good show and I suppose I should count myself lucky - they cancelled the 2 gigs immediately before coming to St Louis (Tampa, Florida on 14 September and in Birmingham, Alabama on 16 September). All in all, an enjoyable evening even if I didnt know the music.

Note to self: make sure the next live music event is one where the music is known and liked!

Found the quote online - from an unknown source:

Go see the movie, Sepember 30th! If you’re in St Louis, and want to meet up before the show for food and fun, and arrive at the theater together, let me know!

I keep an eye on the various searches that bring people to my site. I post a lot of song lyrics so the searches reflect that with snippets from songs littering the list. By far the most interesting are the searches that come in looking for me by name, or mentioning another name.

For instance, just recently there was a search that pulled up an entry from May 20, 2002 saying

And I have to re-iterate, email me: paul dot hawke at gmail dot com.

To those people who claim that Hurricane Katrina was a judgement on some sort of immoral behaviour - be that homosexuality, abortion or whatever - I want to let a picture speak for me:

Everyone suffered, whether moral or immoral, and everyone deserves compassion. It’s more than a little worrying to read in “Giving Patterns Reveal Increasing Focus on Those ‘Worthy’ of Compassion“

It took only 10 days after the hurricane hit the Gulf Coast for donors to exceed $602 million for relief efforts, according to data tracked by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. Similarly, 10 days after the attacks of Sept. 11, Americans had donated $239 million to relief efforts.

A quick glance at the big picture reveals an increasingly generous public. Total annual giving to all charities has climbed steadily from $231 billion in 2001 to $249 billion in 2004.

But closer scrutiny reveals that giving to human service causes - including legal services, food pantries and rehabilitation for ex-convicts - has declined every year from a $22.1 billion peak in 2001 to $19.2 billion in 2004. Hardest hit: small organizations, raising less than $1 million per year, received 3.4 percent less from private donors in 2004 than in 2003, according to Giving USA 2005.

If I say much more I am liable to put into print something I will regret later, as I have strong feelings toward certain segments of the community who feel it’s their place to interpret events, putting their warped spin on them be that political or theological. Folks, listen to what God himself says and stop trying to speak for him:

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?

And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

Matthew 5:44-48 (King James Version)

I was thinking about the up-coming National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and the motivations I offered Alison last year. I was called cruel and other things I cant repeat in polite company when I held out an entire season of Buffy as inducement. Yes, cruel, as I had the boxed set in hand and threatend to take it back to the store if she didnt make 40000 words.

With that in mind I think I’ll lay down a similar inducement on the heels of Apple’s announcement of a brand new IPod - the aptly named Ipod Nano. Its sleek. It’s geek heaven. It’s nearly 3 days of songs all in one place. And most of all, it’s the perfect “this is what you get if you complete Nano” prize. Yes! Complete Nano and you get a Nano! (offer subject to approval, non-wives need not apply, applicants must present wedding ring matching the judge’s to be eligable).

40,000 words	50,000 words (completion)
Stargate SG-1, season 8 (release date October 2005)	IPod Nano (4Gb storage, free engraving “NaNoWriMo Winner 2005″)

I believe that’s the gauntlet sufficiently thrown down.