Colour in black and white

This is quite a cool optical illusion thing, worth checking out.

Consolidation

For anyone who might notice these sort of things, I've imported a few posts from a previous blog that I used to keep, just to bring most of the stuff that I write together in one place. This would be why there are some posts that seem to come before the post that gives an introduction to the blog.

Of course, I write this and the most likely outcome is that no-one notices anyway. And yet I keep writing...

Reading for Relaxation

One other notable point that occurred during my trip away: I have now read my first P.G. Wodehouse. I had been strongly recommended to try something from him, and so whenever I was in second hand bookshops, I always had a quick look to see if I could pick anything up. It's a testament to his popularity, I suppose, that his books seem to be quite rare, but I did finally find a copy of Ring for Jeeves in the Blackwell's second hand section. 

I'm pleased to say I quite enjoyed it, and I think I've found a pleasant source of fairly lightweight reading (in the best sense of the term, as in not too heavy when you are looking for a little revival). The humour seems to be quite similar to that of Jerome K. Jerome, that I had the pleasure of sampling near the end of last year - rather focused on the charmingly absent minded. It does, however, make for embarrassment in public reading, randomly laughing out loud on a train is not considered the done thing in Britain...

I'm now back into the cycle for the reading group that I attend, after missing a couple of meetings, first due to illness then down to not hearing which book early enough to read it in time. The book this month is Nada by Carmen Laforet, a translation from Spanish about a teenager coming to study in Barcelona in the years after the Spanish Civil War. Quite a change in tone from my holiday reading, but the first few chapters seem promising, and shall be nice to be able to join a discussion again.

Wonderful Copenhagen

I'm now back from a very pleasant few days in and around Copenhagen on my half-term holidays. It's quite a wonderful place, and I'm already making mental plans for a return, maybe in the summer for a bit of a cycling tour. It was very cold, as I suppose one should expect if one visits Scandinavia in February, but although I'd like to return when it was a bit warmer, the cold does allow it to snow which added something to the place. It has quite a fairy-tale sort of feel to it in normal weather, but the snow made the old town look like the sort of scene you'd expect to see illustrated in a story book. It's not hard to see where Hans Christian Anderson got much of his inspiration from!

Other highlights of my short break include: walking around Hamlet's Elsinore Castle in the freezing cold and snow, lots of time to relax and read, lovely roommates in the hostel and ensuing evening conversations about home countries and the like, finding somewhere suitable to watch Ireland move one step closer to a first Six Nations trophy, finding a horse stable in the Carlsberg brewery and intrepid voyages decided over a cup of coffee while assessing one's options. A successful few days, me thinks.

It all has to end and it sometimes does so in a thump, as in this case. Tomorrow is the day decided for returning to school to plan lessons for the new term. Sigh.

Caution: Mathematician Unwinding...

As much as I love the jaunt into Oxford, I'm always left exhausted at the end of it, so this evening has primarily consisted of collapsing and not doing much. What has been my entertainment? Well, as a clue:

"We all use math everyday, to predict weather, to tell time, to handle money. Math is more than formulas and equations: it's logic, it's rationality, it's using your mind to solve the biggest mysteries we know."

Oh yeah. I love it, or at least I would love it more if it learnt that it's not math, it's maths (or maybe it's maz. Maybe I'm not the best one to point out the pronunciation here...)

The purpose of baptism

I've just returned from Oxford, where I spend a little time in the company of Doug Wilson, including hearing him speak at a talk addressing the misconceptions that surround the Federal Vision. These talks were rather helpful, and have given some food for thought, but one question that I want to mention, although not at this point answer, is the following:

If we believe that we are saved entirely through faith alone (which I do), what purpose is there in baptism?

That is to say, is it the case that we either accept the first clause (we are saved sola fides) and therefore could replace baptism by a public confession (or at least would simply have to retain baptism just to be obedient for obedience sake, which is not necessarily a bad concept), and the alternative is to reject sola fides and turn baptism into a ritual which either has to be completed as part of salvation or indeed brings salvation in and of itself.

It is easy to guess that I am beginning to feel that the above option do not comprise a complete set, and indeed that there are alternative ways of thinking, but as I said, I am not planning to answer my question now, I simply leave it as a place holder for future thinking. Be assured that although my fingers are not yet working on this topic, the cogs of my thoughts have begun to turn on the issue...

So the snow dance was the problem...

Finally!

The good news came on BBC Bristol this morning. As it is, I'm now writing this in bed...

Really? I hadn't noticed!

You know, for all the talk I make about how silly and annoying pupils are for pointing out the bleeding obvious during lessons, as in "Sir, it's snowing!", the BBC News website top story for most the last week has had a similar inclination. 

But then again, so has this blog. There's another severe weather warning for this evening. I'm putting away the snow dance, accepting the fact that it's a useless device. Still, here's hoping...

Sir, sir, it's snowing!

Further to yesterday's post, snow did not happen in time and I went in as normal. Except it was the worst of two worlds, seeing that it was snowing (leading to kids generally spending more time looking out the window that listening to my lesson), but not enough to get time off work. Drat. To look for silver linings though, I did indeed not stay up for the Superbowl, but even then it appears I missed another classic. Maybe it'll snow in a sensible fashion for next year...

Still, BBC weather forecasts heavy snow for this evening and the Met Office is putting at 60% chance, so the snow dance continues. 

Doing the snow dance...

It's cold and there is snow predicted this evening. Now if only I could ensure that tomorrow was a snowday, then I'd be able to stay up and watch the Superbowl...

I'm really not going to take that chance though. It's a tough, tough couple weeks ahead and I'm predicting a perfectly natural sleep debt without adding to it from my own stupidity...