November 2008 Archives

I have hit bloggers block! Several times this week I have logged on with the hope of writing something but have failed to find the topic on which the something might be written. This uber case of bloggers block is further compounded by the fact that I am one of the two people with whom the resonsibility of the STEM department rests (Our boss has left thus leaving the deps' holding the 'baby'**). This has had a negative impact on creative thinking time!

I'm not ready to give up on Youthblog yet AND am still as passionate as ever about work with young people, faith, life ........... oh and Garden Sheds :-) So, I need your help!

What would be useful to raise debate about? What youth work/ministry challenges and conundrums have I failed to cover? What metaphorical itches could do with a collective scratch being started on? What is it that you wish Youthblog wrestled more with? Is there a one-off question that would make a useful blog post? Where do you as the Youthblog collective want to go?

I'm aware that I'm sounding a bit like a DJ on local radio! *Apply cheesy tone* "Hello listeners and welcome to Youthblog Radio, today it's a request show SOOOO over to you pop pickers, pick your pop!" *Cue annoying Jingle*

Shalom (and thank you)

(** This last 2 weeks has created additional load as not only has my boss left and left the two deputies holding the metaphorical 'baby' BUT in addition, my fellow deputy is on paternity leave and therefore actually holding a literal baby)

One of the things I'd love to do a course on is how to fully use Photoshop. At the moment I can only use a small percentage of it's capabilities, which is still fun but there are so many more possibilities. For our ladz weekend away I was chuffed with a group shop we got atop the Malverns but the other people in the background made the picture less striking. It was a fairly easy move though to remove them.

What is scary though is what a professional can do with a picture, the 'airbrushed' re-interpreting of reality! I thought this site therefore was fabulous. It's called Photoshop Disasters and is a great reminder of how many pictures are doctored AND that it can go very wrong when you start to mess with reality! Enjoy ........

1. Check out the reflection

2. Legs traditionally meet up with the body

3. Levitating plate

I reckon you could usefully use some of the images from the site for a session on media or reality. Have fun

(PS, I found this site on someone's blog at some point but have no recollection of who? (sorry) ht to you)

An insight into the demands and frustrations of being a social worker, well worth a read!
Only a matter of time, The Guardian

Hey, how was the conference? Having not been able to make it this year, I've been monitoring the web to see who is saying what, but so far .... very little in the way of comment (I guess people may still be recovering).

These are the posts relating to Southport and Eastbourne I've spotted:

Karen of Luton with an overview
Amanda reflects on the reflective listening seminar
Liz of Essex who mentions a "we love our youthworker" charter (anyone got more info?)
Schoolswork have some photos from Southport

Driving to work this morning I found myself wondering this:

Given that nearly every country is experiencing an economic downturn and thus having to borrow vast amounts of money to prop up their ailing economies,

who then are they borrowing from?

Twice next year I'll be jumping on buses for insanely long journeys to mainland Europe. This isn't a problem though as I am really excited about both, and twenty odd hours on a coach is fine providing you have a neck pillow and a sense of humour!

In July I am off to Taize with a bunch of young people for a week of living in community with the brothers there and 5000 other international visitors!

In April I am off to Lauterbrunnen in Switzerland as Gold Hill holidays have asked me to speak on one of their trips. I'm really looking forward to this as: it's such a fun and rewarding ministry opportunity, I get to ski to the max in the shadow of the Monch, Jungfrau and the Eiger ................. oh and it's a German speaking area so i get to inflict practice my German on the locals.

And of course, I very much hoping to be Greenbelting!

A quick reminder to all employed youth worker/ministers in the Diocese of Oxford: NEXT Monday (Dec 1st) is the network get together at Church House in Oxford. If you are coming and haven't let me know, please could you :-)

This is a bit of a geeky post today BUT hey stay with me 'cos it's potentially really useful!

If you already use Google Alerts then you are excused, if not ............... here's the low down.

If there is a subject that you regularly head off into the Googleverse to find out what's what on, then Goodle Alerts will save you a bunch of time. With a Google alert you just tell Google the subject you are interested in, say for example 'garden shed' or 'youth work' and once a day you get an e-mail report detailing where on the web that subject has occurred that day. You can also choose to only receive blog or web or video or group or news coverage. Genius!

It's like having your very own media information butler.
*ahem* "Sir, there is some information at the door which may be of interest!"

Radio 4 tonight, Another case of Milton Jones. Well worth a listen if you enjoy a bizarre story held together by off-the-wall gags and wordplay.
(If you are not familiar with Milton, here's some of his stand up)

The tragic case of 'Baby P' has produced much media coverage and I have been saddened by the story, I have also been horrified by the judgmental vitriol that has been meted out by some of the Tabloid papers. I thought therefore that I would flag up this piece by Polly Toynbee that has some wise and sensible things to say.

And from a personal point of view: My regards to all Social workers doing a tough job within inevitably overstretched teams and limited resources, making a difference in tough situations where there are no easy answers or solutions.

If Escher had been bought lego set rather than a set of pencils?

I recently asked if anyone had youth-work-esque books from back in the day. The lovely Jo from Urban Saints had a trawl through the cellar and came up with this jolly useful guide to Outdoor Games! There's some advice for the cyclist (that I constantly breach):

"As regards the outer dress, the one rule to be attended to is that nothing should look loud and conspicuous, but it should be characterised by the quietness that is always the mark of a gentleman"

I doubt anyone is going to beat this age-wise, emerging as it does from 1892 but I'd still love any other tomes (or pictures of) that you know of.

(I also happen to know that in the cellar at Urban Saints is a brochure containing a photo of me age 15 at the Crusader Chess Tournament *sigh* those were the days!)

I've been spammed kindly sent details of a one day conference:

"Advance Beyond Target Chasing &
Strategically Measure Impacts & Outcomes.
Working In Partnership To Embed Measurement Into Your Service And Effectively Evaluate The Impact Your Work Has On Children & Young People's Lives"

I've applied a rhetoric filter and used a jargon translator* but I'm still not sure how embedding measurement means you will no longer be chasing targets! I'm also unsure what 'impact measurment' looks like? I guess that means I should go eh, all I need now is to overcome the negative impact the £450 fee would make on my limited budget!

In terms of impact measurement though, has this particular blog post made:

1. no discernible surface damage
2. a small dent
3. a definite hole with cracks spreading away edgeways
4. smashed the thing to pieces

* yes I realise the irony of me crtiticising verbiage

A Rubiks cube I can complete, yay!

Here's to achievable short term goals and easy wins (on the rare occasions they appear)

Big thanks to everyone who contributed to the debate on whether blogging still has a place on the virtual landscape, there was some useful wisdom therein. I have checked out Twitter but the time/benefit analysis was way un-encouraging, and I'm still mulling whether to get sucked into the temple porticos of the Facebook cult :-). I am going to work harder at categories and tags on the blog though and investigate how the side bar could better point towards specific subject threads.

My thanks to everyone who reads and/or comments to the blog, and to everyone who e-mails bloggable thoughts, questions or links (you are very much appreciated).

Shalom

(PS, fellow Bloggers: Are you having problems with Technorati? (it hasn't updated rank for about 12 months for me?). On the plus side though the Google blog search and related tools are getting really good!)

When is a child, a child and when is a youth, a youth?
I believe that one of the challenges to serious debate about societal attitudes to young people is the numerous and sometimes contradictory way these terms are used.

For example, yesterdays press release from Barnados caused some confusion it seems because of it's use of the word 'child!' Their assertion that society "casually condemns" children was rejected by a few of the people I spoke with (two of whom cited the vast amount donated to 'Children in need' two days before as proof we (as a society) do like children). Barnados though meant, pre 18's (or maybe pre 19's)

In general parlance 'child' means pre-adolescent or maybe pre-secondary school. In terms of political speak though and Children's services et al, 'Child' means pre-adult (up to the age of 18). Big confusion. If I do a word association game with adults, the word child normally elicits positive responses and the word 'teenager' or 'youth' is massively more likely to garner some negativity.

Now the word 'youth,' what does that mean? Again there is some confusion. The word is often taken to mean 'teenagers,' but when the media reports on any incident that involves a group of people who have some overlap with youth culture, e.g wearing hoodies, being in a group etc, it gets reported as 'Youth!' I believe this further compounds the fear of teenagers rather than realising we are often talking in actuality about people in their 20's. In one sense the media are correct here, 'Youth' can legitimately defined (Dictionary wise) as 'the period between childhood and maturity' but I am convinced that to the hearers 'youth' can have a number of different connotations.

For further confusion add in the term 'young people!'

In conclusion and by way of illustration of potential confusion:
The current Youth strategy is called "Aiming high for young people!" and would be part of what the local Children's Services are delivering on! This strategy flows from 'Every Child Matters' which is the underpinning approach for 'children and young people' from birth to age 19.
(And not only is there a confusing overlap and duplication here, the words convey a number of different meanings when received by society as a whole)

I watched Nacho Libre at the weekend and although Jack Black was fantastic in School of Rock I was not expecting much of this. There was something about the idea of Jack Black as a Mexican monk who has a wrestling alter-ego that wasn't grabbing me, I nearly didn't watch it.

To my surprise though I liked it and enjoyed some real laugh out loud moments. It's not high IQ, some of the stuff is a little infantile BUT for the most part I found it to be wonderfully absurd and funny. The wrestling sequences managed to combine hilarity and credible action into an entertaining mix, Jack Black is surprisingly agile!

The film sort of laughs at itself, and the absurdity works really well within that context.

"More than half the population believe UK children are "feral" and behave like animals, a survey has suggested.

Children's charity Barnardo's, which commissioned the study, said society "casually condemned" children."

The BBC article is here and it's depressing reading.

It will be interesting to see how this Barnados campaign will be received and whether it will fuel some healthy debate about societal attitudes.

Having posed the Killers question, 'are we human or are we dancer?' and enjoyed the responses enormously, it then triggered a related train of thought. Driving to work this morning I found myself wondering how many song titles I could thing of that were questions? Despite thirty miles of gentle cerebral exercise my list is disappointingly small. I came up with:

Where were you hiding? The Alarm
Is this love? Whitesnake
What's love got to do with it? Tina Turner
Where is the love? Black eyed Peas

Friday brain stretch ................. add to the list

We had an extremely good session on, and time of, prayer on the retreat. The inspiration for the session came from 'Working the angles' by Eugene Peterson. His book on pastoral ministry devotes a third of its content to prayer and within that, the importance of the Psalms as pivotal in prayerful engagement. The other book that informed our session was, 'Thirsting for God' by James W Sire which is a guide to using the Psalms in Prayer.

I plan to dig into these two books as it feels like there is some goodly accessible Spiritual Practice therein for use with young people (and leaders). The latter book in particular having some really useful outlines.

ht to Pete Maidment

How cool is this guy? My son is going to love this video although I suspect his wheelchair may not ;-)

ht to Chris

After a large delivery arrived at the office I was pleased to see my colleagues piled up the boxes to produce an impromptu fort. I salute anyone who in the midst of hard work invests time in generating fun! (I would, it's fair to say, like to be able to get to my desk tomorrow though!)

I've posted this video before but I think it stand a re-posting. I've used Pallet trucks in various jobs that I have had and this is a gutsy move with enormous capacity for it going VERY VERY pear-shaped. Mind you, messing around with industrial equipment for a bit of lunch break entertainment, is hard to top.

One of my hopes/aims in a couple of previous jobs was to persuade my colleagues to join me in putting together a Unicycle display team. I was convinced that if we practiced each lunch time in the car park we could re-create most of the Red Arrows display with a humorous twist. My colleagues though were rather keener on eating their sandwiches than learning to ride unicycles! (Can you imagine how cool it would have been though to see a group of unicyclists in diamond formation, streaming red, white and blue smoke, riding into the display arena before pealing off for a series of high speed passes narrowly missing each other!!!)

I love this 'call to worship' from the book, Alternative Worship! I won't write the whole thing up as it feels like a copyright no no, I hope the authors will forgive me writing some of it here:

"Life is an indescribable gift
Our worship is a celebration of that gift
And the giver.
In our worship we have rediscovered
God's marvellous affirmation of life.

Tonight we invite you to bring all that you are
into worship
Your struggles and failures.
Your joys and fears.
Your faith and your doubts.
Your culture.
Your sensuality.
Your whole self ................ "

You should buy this book! (Liturgy that calls for worship and reality that trumps Religiosity and Nietzschian philosophy, what's not to love?)

I'm on retreat for 24 hours!
(although as my friend Kevin of Canada would ask, "Have I advanced far enough to justify retreating?)

A question for you though: Are you human or are you dancer?

Blogging is not without its rewards! As well as once been given a free cup of coffee at a conference on the basis of being 'the Youthblog bloke' I also occasionally (very occasionally) get sent free books. In reality though there's no such thing as a free paperback as in return for said freebie, I have to pen some sort of review.

So, 'The Messenger' by Paul Kercal arrived on my door mat last week and a quirky book is it too.

The book is aimed at 11-16 year olds and is written entirely as chat room or messenger stylee txt conversations between five friends and subsequently, the mysterious 'messenger' character of the title.

As a medium this is fascinating. Given that tween guys are renowned non readers, I can see the attraction of exploring different forms of visual type. At the same time though this style of msn txt is a medium utilized for conversation not for regular writing/reading. I wondered whether it would be appropriate, for comparable example, to give morse code operators - books that were rendered completely in dots and dashes.

The above is not a criticism, merely musing. But given that, the first experiment on readability was to give it to the tweenager who lives in the room next to our stairs. She will read anything that isn't bolted down or breathing but I knew she wouldn't finish it if it was, in her mind, annoying. Anyway, she read the book straight through ......... commented on the issues being 'spot on' and although it was, she said, 'confusing at times' her opinion was that it was good!

I have also read it cover to cover and actually it was a bit like watching a Shakespeare play, i.e at first the language is confusing and annoying but you quickly adapt and then virtually don't notice. Having said that though, when two conversations were happening simultaneously it was a bit draining as they were both there on the page fully formed, rather than unfolding in the way they would if these were two online conversations. But then hey, I'm not anywhere near the 11-16 age range the book is aimed at :-) LOL

Anyway, how do I review a book that's not really aimed at me? I reckon it's an interesting device and a story that tweens would enjoy, I wondered whether the Christ figure, 'Messenger' should have appeared a bit earlier in the book, but I do think it's a fascinating idea. I think the book is fun, a great experiment and well rendered. (I was worried that it would be a cringey facsimile of teen txt spk but felt it was on the mark). I thought the teenage humour and angst came across extremely well. I'm not sure it would work for 16 year olds ( I would put the age range more at 11-14/15) but I'll try and get some older teen reaction to it.

Overall: My tweenage daughter liked it ...... and hey, I did too!
L8rs ;-)

Now that's what I call very very very good value indeed ...... you should get one! (I can't even buy the wood for that price). An 8 x 6 is a worthy entree into the world of the Sheddist, and check out the double doors and the tongue n' groove construction, sweet!

(To my fellow pioneer ministers in the arena of the emerging shed culture, this represents a great chance to plant something authentic near you!)

In February my children's work colleague and I ran a retreat for employed Youth and/or Chirldren's workers, it was called DEPTH and went (correct me if I'm wrong) well. In 2009 we will be running another retreat which we've rather creatively entitled, "Depth 2"
We are returning to the Windmill Farm Conference Centre in the middle of nowehere 'cos it is a great venue.

This incarnation of Depth will revolve around leadership, both learning and reflection as well as all the usual space, prayer, malarky and GOOD food.
Depth2 final version.pdf

According to 'Wired,' the era of the blog is past. Me and my blogging brethren are the electronic media neanderthals stubbornly dragging our knuckles across the edges of the multi-layered Web 2.0 evolving landscape.

And actually, 'Wired' kind of have a point. I certainly read less blogs than i used to, I also find content and discussion in many more places. But in terms of additional media, like Jonny (who I picked this up from), it comes down to time. I don't have time to maintain a Facebook/Twitter (et al) presence as well, and so I concentrate instead on the blog.

I wonder whether it is time to pull the plug on the blog? Whether I should spend less time on the blog and diversify into other arenas, would a shorter witter on twitter be better?
I'm really interested to know what is useful and not useful in the Web 2.0 reality?
Has Facebook become the social hub, Twitter the arena for short personal update, and thus left the blog as the place of the less oft but more crafted piece of writing? Is it still possible to invest energy in only one online medium?

So, it Darwinistic terms: Should Youthblog roll over and die as it can no longer compete in the food-chain, evolve into a better adapted animal, .... or crawl on, shunning the impending implications of natural selection?

Frontier Youth Trust are a wonderful organisation and a hugely important influence on and enabler of youth work/ministry. They've recently set up a blog (here) and thus I sayeth:

Readeth the text therin, oh and Blog-roll them ye NOW!

How cool is this? we are talking uber amounts of youth group fun (although I shudder to think about the risk assessment).

Talking of fun: I've been using a Nintendo Wii recently with a number of groups. Running the thing through the data projector onto a big screen has worked really well for fun and participative competitions. Fab

Twelve months ago I wrote a post about feeling unwell with a continuous sense of fatigue. I had a series of tests, but despite much firing radiation at me and boring holes into me, nothing useful (or indeed un-useful) was found. While this was very good news it didn't change the fact I felt tired for a large proportion of the time, which was further complicated as when I tried to bash on regardless, I not only got more tired but suffered debilitating headaches.

This has been an ongoing situation and indeed has not changed. I need a lot of rest, if I do too much I pay for it. This has been incredibly frustrating and limiting, maddeningly so in fact.

I dragged myself back to the Doctor at the weekend though and had a really useful session. The Doctor went through my notes, asked a ton of questions and had me work through various diagnostic tests. The upshot of all of this is that he is convinced I have some kind of post-viral syndrome thing that is causing the continual fatigue.

I guess this at least gives me permission to stop fighting it!

It is with a certain lightness in my step and a glint in my eye that I head to the cinema each time a Bond movie is released. A two hour fix of high octane adventure, an indomitable (and British) hero and the security of knowing that the good guy not only wins, but does so with verve and panache. Moreover, the ability to leave the film knowing (as I'm sure all guys do) that there is a bit of 007 alive in our psyche, it's a license to dream.

It was therefore with a little trepidation this time, having heard the reviews, that I handed over my money wondering whether this Bond outing was indeed merely a quantum of solace, rather than the usual profusion of entertainment.

Well, it was recognisably a Bond movie and I did enjoy it! Daniel Craig was fantastic and exuded 007 credibility, while the action sequences were edge-of-the-seat brilliant; planes, cars, motorbikes and boats! The locations and cinematography were sumptuous and the film flew by feeling much shorter than it's actual length.

On the negative side though, it did seem like the plot and writing were a bit contrived and confusing at times, the fast pace disguising the fact that the plot(s) didn't always feel coherent. It also strayed sometimes into being akin to a 4th Bourne movie rather than the Bond adventure it should be, losing some essential 007 pre-requisites in the process.

Worth going to see though, oh yes!

I have removed this as it does seem to have an agenda .......... if you have expressed an interest then please drop me an e-mail.

Frightened that the Celine Dion track was about to start playing the seagull bravely embarks on a sacrificial Kamikaze dive

Ok, thanks for all the attempts at carbon-dating the Manual of Christian Youth work. The correct answer is 1963!! Now in terms of awarding 'Youthblog lapel badges of merit' this does pose a bit of a problem. It seems to me that Colin and Dot both have a copy of this book somewhere on their shelves (one, the American version, and one, the British) thus meaning that they might have had a teensy-weensy advantage! To that end I plan to send them some chocolate BUT award the Prize to Ruthe for the nearest actual guesstimate!

Please note that the referees decision is probably final and complaints should be sent to:
BAA, Terminal 5, Heathrow, England.

If anyone else has copies of books from the Christian youthwork days of yore and beyond, I'd love to see them. Also note that I am available for after dinner speaking engagements on the subjects of:

'Christian Youth work before Steve Chalke'
'Brainstormers at Bream Sands, suffering for youth ministry'
'Youth work reflections from the pre-post-modernity paradigm'

Normally I hate Spam but ........ actually, I still hate Spam but I'm going to blog the contents of this particular bit of promotional mail. The inherent comedic possibilities of Venn Diagrams have been a rich vein* of humour here on Youthblog. This forthcoming book, Venn that Tune is therefore pitched well within this oeuvre**. The idea is that Venn diagrams and graphs are used as visually codified song titles, for example:

More details here

Captains Log Supplmental: Have just discovered that the author and I had exchanged e-mails in the past. *Embarassed smile!* I therefore apologise and wholeheartedly endorse the book, and I commend the author for not being the sort of chap who sends spam!

*Ok more of a 'middle-income capillary' than a rich vein
** I hope you forgive the use of the word, oeuvre ..... it's because my wife says I use the word, genre too much!

I had a great conversation with a bunch of young people about the idea of 'calling!' One of the questions that emerged was. 'what might being called look like?' I'm not sure this is an answer but I laughed when this picture reminded me of our discussion.

I am joining a religious community!

Well, kind of .... and only for a week. This summer will see me in Taize with a group from the Oxford Diocese to join 5000 other people from around the world.

Having heard so much about Taize over the years I am really looking forward to it .............. even more so after brother Paolo of Taize led an event here in Oxford yesterday alongside Bishop John and young people who have been to Taize.

If you want to know more about Taize, check out the video . If you want to come on the Oxford trip: booklet 2009.pdf

Ok folks, your best guess on year of publication? I'll find a prize for the winner :-)

Great to see Barack Obama has been given such a strong mandate to serve and lead his country. The coverage in the UK has really over-used the word 'historic' but there is no doubt that this is a massively significant result on so many levels.

If you haven't had chance to listen to his victory speech yet, you really should! It is a masterclass in vision and communication. It was incredible to listen to on the internet, what it must have been like to have been there I can't begin to imagine. There was also a really profound moment when the camera picked out the Rev Jesse Jackson in the crowd and briefly focused on him ......... a visual statement of one 'historic' significance of this election.

A Charity has contacted me with details of a couple of minibuses they wish to sell on. I am merely posting the info and no nothing of the buses (and am not in line for any commission)

"The first is a 2003 LDV Convoy diesel with 15/17seats, in excellent condition, ideal for school and youth work,etc. It has a long MoT til April. It is only 5 years old with all 15seats bolted+belted,+space for luggage(or one could add 2 more seats if required).We are open to offers around £4950.
And we will have a second similar very good bus, 2004 reg with very low mileage! This is only £5950ono."

E-mail me if interested and I'll put you in touch!
Picture for illustration only (not actual model advertised)

Captain's log supplemental: Worth checking out the van section of the autotrader web site where comparable buses are available for a grand less.

There is currently a worldwide survey happening looking at the 'spiritual health' of young people. I shall be very interested in the results BUT first we have to help!

If you can forward this online questionnaire to anyone who is 12-25 then that would be great, or just fill it in if you are significantly younger than me.

Shalom

I love this: Peter Kay's spoof of the multitude of X factor types shows, 'Britian's got the pop factor!' He plays Geraldine ('Ireland's answer to Enya!?') and performs the most absurd and eclectic medley amidst cheesily wonderful set-piece choreography. ROFL-ingly briliiant

Great post from Bishop Alan on, too much progress? His post is a great reminder of how easy it is to judge the mistakes of previous civilizations and yet fail to act on comparable situations we find ourselves in.

"History repeats itself
(has to, no-one listens)" Steve Turner

For when you can't decide whether to play Nintendo or Lego:

One of my favourite folders in my [computer] music file is the one labelled "Cover Versions"
I have quite a collection, I love it when an artist brings a whole new dimension to a song by playing their interpretation of it. Among my favourites are:

Natalie Merchant: I hope that I don't fall in love with you
Eva cassidy: Fields of Gold
Pete Yorn: Dancing in the Dark
Barenaked Ladies: Lovers in a dangerous time
Lyle Lovett: Stand by your man
(and for sheer LOL quality .... Rolf Harris: Stairway to Heaven

A great recent discovery though was the brilliant Richard Thompson singing 'Oops I did it again' from his "1000 years of popular music" live album (available here)

Any other recommendations for blisteringly original 'covers' ........