| semyl.co.uk |
[Thu 14 Jul 2011|00:05am] |
As you can probably tell, I don't use LiveJournal anymore. I don't know if any of you still do!
But just in case, and because I discovered that googling for "semyl" brings this journal to the top(!), I should let you know that I have recently started to blog again, and can now be found on semyl.co.uk.
You're welcome to catch up with me there :)
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| Website Status |
[Mon 27 Aug 2007|22:30pm] |
Sorry everyone,
My pictures website is also down now (you may have noticed my personal site disappeared a few months ago). I'm not sure why, but I'll try to track down my (free) host when I have time. In the meantime, you can let me know if it comes back online (check here: http://www.oxforddata.com/semyl/pictures). Or you can wait patiently until I find my host.. or another one - free 500MB anyone?
Also sorry that this is the post that I break my long silence with ;) I have vague ideas for a new personal website that would incorporate a journal of some sorts, but maybe until then I'll start using LJ again. Maybe. :)
Edit: Ok, I have a new host now and have reuploaded everything, so pictures.semyl.com goes there now. Let me know if there is anything not working! (1 Sept 2007, 21:54)
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| Ta-da! I present you.. pictures! |
[Mon 31 Jul 2006|02:02am] |
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Ok, they're all online now! All 1436 of them, or thereabouts. The usual place (pictures.semyl.com) and browse to Church-Life and US Blending Trip. Comments welcome on the pictures, would love to hear feedback from you!
Edit: Here's a sample of the pictures. Click above to go and see them all!
Beddy byes :)
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| Our Blending Trip to the USA! |
[Sun 30 Jul 2006|01:46am] |
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Well, I've just written a long email to send to the Lee-Keow family eGroup (yay for my cousins who started it, and my aunty who encourages us all to keep in touch!) detailing (yet relatively it is in brief!) our trip to the US that I've just returned from. So rather than type something out again, it's going to be added here!
Dearest all, Hi!
We had a wonderful time on the West Coast, we flew in to LA on the 29th June, and stayed in Riverside for the weekend. Then we went to Anaheim for the Summer Training, which was on the Body of Christ. Christ is the Head of the Body, and all the believers are the members of the Body! And actually it is the Christ *in* all the members that constitute the Body of Christ! We really need to be those who pray for a spirit of wisdom and revelation to see such a vision of Body of Christ, because it is not something physical, in the physical realm, but something completely spiritual, in the divine and mystical realm! One of the brothers shared how so many people are 'jumping over the walls' to get into America so their children can be born in the American 'realm' and have citizenship. How much more should we desire and aspire to 'jump over the walls' to get into the divine and mystical realm! We can only ever see things related to God, who is Spirit, in our spirit. Anything else is the wrong organ (just as you can't use your ears to appreciate the colours of Crater Lake, or your eyes to appreciate the sound of birds singing!).
We were there for a week, and then we travelled up north to Eugene, Oregon in two days, stopping for one night with the saints in Sacramento. In Eugene we had a Summer College Training (and for those of us here in the UK, that means university-age!). There were over 400 college students there, and it was a big encouragement to them all that even the 25 of us from the UK could be there to enjoy the Lord with them! This time we enjoyed the Humanity of Jesus and the Vital Group Living for the Church Life, as well as Morning Revival. Actually, these are not separate things at all, but are entirely related to the Body of Christ! In the Humanity of Jesus, we saw what a fine and perfect Man He was. A real Man, a genuine Man! He is what normality really is, we are the ones who are fallen and aren't normal. Is it really normal to have such extreme emotions about the most insignificant things? Or to not feel anything when it is a time we really should? Well Jesus was so balanced, He knew when to weep, He knew when not to destroy villages that did not receive Him (even though His disciples wanted to!!), He knew when to overturn the tables in the temple.. He had such a perfect Humanity, lived out in His resurrection life (strikingly, even before He physically resurrected!). To be normal, we need Jesus' humanity. But the sum total of this week of training is that we learnt that to have His humanity we need to 'Eat Jesus'! Eating Jesus makes us normal, normal Christians and normal human beings! What does it mean to 'Eat Jesus'? It means to call on His name! "Oh Lord Jesus!" It means to pray! It means to even pray-read the Bible, the Word of God, in this way taking it in, digesting it and assimilating it into our being! This is so crucial for our daily living, physically we need to eat food (tell Popo she needs to eat!), spiritually we also need to eat food, and our food is even God Himself!
So that mention of a daily 'living' brings me to the next line, which was the Vital Group Living for the Church Life. The brothers shared that to be 'vital' is to have the conditions of being living and active. 'Group' means more than two people. And 'living' means that this is not about having vital group meetings, but actual livings! In the book of Acts in the New Testament, the early church is shown as being those who go "house-to-house" and "day-by-day". This church-life was their living, not just something they do on the Lord's Day, or on home meeting night, or in the mornings during quiet time, but a real living. Wow, we find this so hard to do, I know I do! Because really, in ourselves it is impossible. So you know what, we need to Eat Jesus! And pray! Pray that the Lord will make us vital, will give us a vital companion, will add more to us so we become a vital group, will give us such a living, for the church-life, for the building up of the Body of Christ! See, it is all related! And finally now, Morning Revival. One really practical, and most crucial, way of having such a living is that every morning we need to wake up early and touch the Lord. When we wake, the first thing we should say, is "Lord Jesus, I still love You". We need to pray, read and eat the Bible. We need to touch the Lord every morning, and for Him to 'kiss us' (Song of Songs) with His presence. This supplies us for the day! But as I mentioned before, we can't just rely on this supply to see us through for the next 24 hours, we constantly need to turn to Him, getting a fresh supply from Him. He is always there, always ready to flow out and dispense Himself to us, it all depends on how much we are opened and turned to Him, to receive from Him!
Anyway, it was so enjoyable, and sorry it's long but just can't help flowing out here! Well following that we were due to begin our churching (visiting the saints and the local churches) and sightseeing part of our trip with a few days in Seattle. But thirty minutes after leaving Eugene, our tyre blew-out on the freeway! It was quite majorly damaged, you'll have to see the pictures on my website at http://pictures.semyl.com when I upload them! (They'll be under Church-Life, then US Blending Trip, then Day 17.) So because it took so long to get it fixed (we were all fine, and the other car with us ferried us to a nearby rest station) we ended up staying the night in that area, and cut Seattle out of our trip. We went instead to Portland and had a lovely time with the saints there, and visited Mount Hood. Where, I suppose rather unsurprisingly, there are layers of ice on such a hot and sunny day! We had a BBQ in brother Dan's home, where he has an elk head mounted on his wall.. and we ate the same elk in our BBQ!! Then we drove down to Roseburg (still in Oregon) and were there with the saints for a few days. We went to visit Crater Lake, which is just amazing - you have to go there if you've not been before! Again, pictures of that soon appearing on my website :) We also walked through a crevice in a volcanic rock (this whole sightseeing time just made the geographer in Rebekah ultra excited! I liked it too :D), visited Diamond Lake, which is surrounded by Mount Thielsen and Mount Balley, and saw Colliding Rivers, although it'd be much more exciting under flood conditions. That was all one day! And that evening we had a love feast, which is when the saints all bring food to share together (a bit like a pot luck) and some singing and enjoyment together with the church in Roseburg.
Then the next day we went further south and came back into California. We stopped for lunch with the saints in Redding, and went to Grand Buffet, wow - I've never been to a Chinese buffet with so much top quality food and choices. I was very impressed! And we stopped in Sacramento for a rest break too. Eventually, we got to Fresno somewhere in the middle of California, and were there with the saints for two nights (we separate into different homes when we arrive, and our hospitality and the local saints often join us for the sightseeing bits also). From there we visited Yosemite National Park, and saw some mega tame squirrels (I have some awesome pictures of them), Half Dome, and Yosemite Falls. We weren't able to hike up another waterfall that was there, but we had to take care of the time, and it meant we were also taking care of all the members of our group - some of the saints were in flip-flops, and one sister with us was in a wheelchair. (We managed to take her most places though!) Then we went to Tulare and another BBQ with the saints, and the Lord's Day morning we had a joint Lord's table meeting with the churches in Fresno, Tulare (they're quite close) and a few other localities. It was sweet, and in the prophesying meeting, almost all us UK saints shared what we had enjoyed of the Lord and seeing His Body in our time in the States. Basically, that we had had the truth in the Summer Training, and we had had the practical way to work and live it out in the College Training, and then in all our travelling we were able to see the expression and application of the Body! I forgot to mention, but after the tyre blew out of our van (which was owned by the church in Roseburg, and a brother from there [Buzz] was serving and driving with us), the next day the transmission also failed. So the church in Portland bought a new 15-seater van that we were able to use! But then the trailer carrying the luggage was unable to be hitched to it, so a brother flew from Boise, Idaho, to drive with us the rest of the way, with our luggage in a pickup belonging to a brother in Roseburg! Not to forget that when we initially broke down, some saints drove past and stopped, and one lived really near the freeway and was able to get his tools to help us!
So, just a few more days remained, and we drove further south back to Riverside where it all started, this time taking the desert route. Man, it got hotter and hotter the further south we went. And yes I'm finding it incredibly hot here in the UK, and no aircon! But praise the Lord for the fan :D. Great to be back in Riverside again, even if only for one night for Rebekah and I. The next day we took a day trip to San Diego, went to the beach, went on the ferry, and had another BBQ with the saints there in the evening. Then a sister took us back to Cerritos (just Rebekah and I, all the others went back to Riverside) where we stayed with brother Abraham and his family - he has been to the UK and Oxford a few times for gospel meetings, and I know his youngest daughter Sharon as she was on the gospel team with me that went to Dublin in February (I knew her first, Rebekah knew Abraham first!). So we were only there for a really short while and then the next day sister Eunice took us to the airport. Rebekah flew off to Dallas, on her way to Austin to do her dissertation for the next six weeks, and I returned back to the UK! Dad picked me up the following morning, and I've been here since, trying to get over jetlag :)
Now I have about three weeks before my term restarts at FTTL on 21st August. Before that I have the weddings of two pairs of university friends to attend (quite excited about that!), and am starting to secure a dentist to take care of my dental treatment. The lawyer has been in touch and has sent me something to sign for an initial compensation amount of what we have identified so far, but the bulk of it all will come from the ongoing dental treatment! My teeth have been fine this whole trip, initially slightly sensitive in the first week, but I got used to it and was able to eat ice cream again ;). Now that I'm back they're a bit stiff again, I'm wondering if its a change in climate somewhat and it takes me a while to get used to it? Anyway, I just trust in the Lord to see me through all of this! Praise Him!
Ok, so that's all the news from over there/here!! Hope you've enjoyed the read - when you get me started, I can type for ages! :D
Lots of love to you all, all around the world!
Sarah
xx
PS: I've also been enjoying that our Lord is so available *everywhere*! It doesn't matter if I'm in London, or California, or Oregon, or Miami, or Toronto, or Birmingham, or anywhere else.. He passed through a process, He has made Himself available as the Spirit, that in my spirit I can just breathe Him in! "Oh Lord Jesus!"
There you go, that was the quickest entry ever ;)
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| Check It Out (I'm Number One!) - and the first USA entry |
[Sun 02 Jul 2006|09:32am] |
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(Links won't work)
| TEAM STATISTICS | | | pts | pos | | Phase 1 points | | 63 | 13 | | Phase 2 points | | 86 | 3 | | Phase 3 points | | 85 | 4 | | Phase 4 points | | 150 | 2 | | Hot Pick points | | 24 | 1 | | TOTAL POINTS | | 408 | | | Predicted total goals | | 145 | | | Total goals so far | | 138 | | | Perfect predictions | | 9 | |
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I'm not quite sure how I'm doing it.. but I am top of the league!!!! Three more matches, and if all remains the same, then I'll actually win this thing. This is too funny ;) Of course, I have doubts I'll actually win. As Benjamin said, Matt has made a huge leap up to second place, having correctly predicted every quarter finals match. That's way flukey, good job. We're both looking like we'll be close to our predictions of total goals scored in the tournament, it'll probably fall in-between what I reckoned (145) and Matt's estimation (140), with three games to go and the total on 138 at the moment. That at least I can take credit for attempting to calculate.. I reckoned two to three goals per game and just did a simple sum/guestimation. I'm also stoked at the way my hot picks are working out - after I'd chosen them and the tournament had started, I re-read the scoring rules and how it might have been profitable to pick a team on the outside and score high if it went through. But for some reason I chose what I considered to be safe bets and that has gone through for me, woot. My prediction for the next round is for my two remaining hot picks to go through to the finals, so hopefully that'll add more points in that direction too. We'll see. And this time I really won't be able to check the scores or how I've done, until well afterwards - I don't expect to have internet access from the 3rd-8th July, and the 9th-10th we'll be travelling north to Oregon, and then 10th-16th I don't expect to have Internet access. Following that it will all depend on which homes I'm in!
Anyway. Kinda sad that all I've done in the past few entries is talk about the World Cup, or rather talk about Benjamin's prediction game based on said World Cup. But Ben, you've made this my most interesting World Cup, so I commend you!
I am SO tired right now, and it's just gone midnight here, so I'll keep it short. Basically, despite all appearances, yes I am in California! We arrived just before midnight on Thursday 29th. Seemingly a mere 7.5 hours after we departed London, but in reality it was 15.5 hours, as we're eight hours behind here. Our journey was so long because we had a stopover in Washington, Dulles Airport (NOT Dallas, Texas!!), but the journeying was pretty smooth. On the second portion of our flight an elderly gentleman was sitting next to us and he helped to explain the slight chaoticness and madness with families (including pregnant ladies and infants!) dotted around the plane and last minute standby passengers coming in and taking up needed seats (I know the couple in front of us paid for three seats, one for their young boy, and ended up with him on their laps). This is fourth of July weekend and so Americans are doing their utmost to get home, whatever the cost! Literally.. the gentleman next to us said his business class flight from the UK to Washington D.C. cost over £2000!!! And then the Washington to LA leg cost over £300 (which sounds cheap compared to the former, but really it's pricey)! Fortunately for him, his insurance was taking care of costs (he got shrapnel in his leg in Afghanistan, and has spent the last six weeks in a hospital in London - interesting chap from what he told us) otherwise he wouldn't have paid such an extortionate amount for a flight. But it just goes to show how much Americans were keen to get somewhere before the weekend!
Ok, so as we got in to LA we got to see the whole city lit up. Man, LA must use so much electricity! Seriously! And I had no idea it was so huge.. 40 miles radius or something like that! That's massiveness! Anyway, we got out without a problem, didn't even have to go through customs again. Collected our luggage and then waited for the saints to pick us up. Lily and Jason came, they had made such a cool sign :D And then they drove us to Riverside where we are staying this weekend. I had to ask a lot of questions to work out exactly what and where was Riverside. Like, I didn't know if it was in LA, or it was a suburb, or it was a city outside, or what. Basically I seem to gather that it is a city in itself which is close by. Anyway, so by the time we got back to the sister's house, which is where we are staying (super cool!), and got bedded down, it was about 2.30am. Time for a good night's sleep, given that I'd barely slept the night before leaving (maybe 3 hours), and didn't sleep on the first flight at all (apart from the 20 minutes we were delayed in departing), but did doze a bit (the gentleman I mentioned before gave me the eye mask from his business class travel bag).
The night seemed to last long, and I must have slept well, yet it was only 7am when I woke on Friday 30th, and 7.30 when I started to get up. Liz, who's room I am staying in, had to get up and go to work, and Rebekah had been up since 6.30am. Nadia, Cynthia and Carenza, who had left London around the same time as us, but had been with the group on a direct flight and so had got into LA a few hours beforehand, were picked up by brother Bob and went with all the other UKers to Magic Mountain: Six Flags. Or is that Six Flags: Magic Mountain. Or something like that. Rebekah and I could have gone, but we figured we'd be tired, and we weren't overly keen to bother with a theme park, having done all that in Florida a number of times. So we hung out with the sisters in the sisters house, mostly Rose, who has Rebekah in her room, and Nancy. That was really cool :). We are here on a blending trip, and so am greatly enjoying the blending and building! And look forward to receiving these saints over in the UK if and when they come and blend with us there! Anyway, we went out with them to get smoothies at Jamba Juice (say "Jarrm-berr", not "Jam-ba", like us Brits do!), I went with the Strawberry Wild, and that was yum. And Rebekah was well excited because we ordered and paid for small smoothies, and the guy made so much that we ended up with the super-sized ones. Then we went to the garden store and Rose (gettit? hehe) bought some plants and pots. Then back on home to the cool AC. During that trip got to see the mountains in the daylight, and things of that nature! They're so close, it's so strange! Chilled out at the house in the afternoon, would have liked to have napped, but couldn't sleep - maybe that was a good thing. In the evening, Lily and Liz returned from work, so chatted to them a bit. Liz is a dental assistant, and she knows what she's talking about. Simply from hearing it was a car accident and from looking at my teeth during conversation, she said I'd need two crowns and one or two root canals. Which is exactly what the dentist back in Kidlington said to me. So while we're on the topic, just a brief update - I'm used to how they feel now and don't notice them so much. Yet I also think the bandage is wearing off (and Liz said it's supposed to last about a month, maybe two, and that's how long its been), and this past week my gum has been bleeding a bit. I've also noticed yesterday and today that one of the teeth is a little more sensitive to cold air again. So.. basically just keeping an eye on it, trying to remember I need a table and a knife and fork to eat. We finally got a copy of the referral letter that the dentist sent to the specialist for us, but that involved much chasing around. And we're still waiting to hear from the specialist, I'd not heard anything before I left.
Ok, so then yesterday evening we went to a home in Marina Valley for a college-age meeting. And that was so cool. There were loads of saints there from Bellevue, Washington (right next to Seattle), although of course we thought at first they were from right here, seeing as we didn't know them anyway. Although that sister sitting there did look remarkably like Davine from Bellevue.. and she was looking at me like she knew and recognised me.. but Rebekah seemed to think it must have been her sister. And then we did the names thing, and it was Davine and she was waving madly at us! Awesome to see her there, we did expect to see her in the summer training, but didn't expect it that evening! Also a brother in Seattle said that we're expected to be up in Seattle (yay again!) for a day or two (and that was later confirmed with the UK lot today - there's even been talk of going to Vancouver!! But that may not work out due to the visas of some of our group). And Tricia was also there from the Winter School of Truth in London. Anyway, it was great. Food was good, the saints who had opened their home were Filipino, and one sister was excited that Rebekah and I could say "good afternoon" and "good morning" in Tagalog (although can't remember what "good night" is!). The sister who lived there, Nympha I think her name is, works for brother Bob in his computer software company, so we had a tiny chat about that *geek in me comes out :)* - I always used to talk to Bob about it! And we basically spent the evening singing songs and sharing enjoyment! Was a sweet time. And on the drive back, Rose and Nancy took us through UCR (University California Riverside - there may be a few "of"s and "in"s missing there) campus, which was cool.
Ok, so another night, and then up again this morning, Saturday 1st July.. my, it's July already!! Brother Bob came by and picked us UK sisters up, we first went to his place after dropping Nadia and Cynthia somewhere else, and there saw sister Leslie and Emily - that was lovely, we really miss this family back in the UK! And then we bundled back into the car/van and although a bit of semi-serious worry about the fact that Ruben from Spain was our driver, we were happy knowing at least he is comfortable driving on the right wrong (I jest) side of the road, and he did an awesome job all day. So, we drove to Anaheim for the FTTA graduation meeting. Which is like the ones we have in FTTL, only much larger! Was cool! Really enjoyed it and the trainee's presentation! It's a pity that it isn't practical for all the trainees to speak, that would be so cool to have each of their portions too. But I'm sure that what is shared is a corporate effort! Very exciting to see all the trainees I know from the gospel trip earlier this year graduating (Sharon, Gloria, Jenee, Joanna, Ming, Maren, Helena, Shawn, Jameson, Jeff), as well as see saints that I'd not seen for agggges (Kasia O), had not seen for a number of months (Brenda, Carolyn, Kayla, Esther, Sara, Eunice), had seen fairly recently (Abraham, Lisa, Phoebe, Jose, Peng, Jeanne), or
might not see again for ages [after the summer training] (Acacia B - the punk says she's actually emailed me twice since she left the UK, but I've not received them! :().. and many more in-between! It's also awesome to meet new saints - the ones from Bellevue, brother Abraham's wife (I think we'll stay with them just before leaving LA at the other end of this trip), and a few others who I don't remember now... I'm sure there'll be many more before this trip is out! :)
So after the graduation, we went hunting to find Acacia because I had a CD of pictures and videos from graduation to give her, and I thought she wasn't going to be here this coming week (turns out when she said 'Monday', she meant the following Monday!), and along the way finding many of the saints mentioned above. Eventually we tore ourselves away (so many saints! so awesome!) and made our way to Irvine, where a very amusing activity took place. Some saints opened their home to us, ordered pizza, and there we watched the video recording of the England - Portugal quarter final!! It was amusing we were actually doing this, and it was also amusing watching it with this bunch of young people, and even more amusing with the American commentators. Seriously!! They say, "Nothing-nothing" rather than "Nil-nil", and they pronounce Gerrard's name wrong, missed showing us a number of yellow cards, and every now and then alerts pop up on the screen saying, "Hey Kids! Watch such-and-such a program at such-and-such a time", which then blocked out the action in the bottom section on the screen, and in general made us really appreciate our good old British commentating ;) But it was amusing.
Ok, so once full time, extra time, and penalties were over (which they call "PKs" - penalty kicks I think!), we headed out of there. I don't think any of us were too disappointed for long, at least that disappointment was soon washed away at the beach! We went to Boaba Beach, or something like that - not quite sure what it was called or how it was spelt, we thought we were at Newport Beach until fairly late in the day!! But lots of fun taking pictures in front of masses of sand, getting our toes wet in the Pacific Ocean (the brothers had no hesitation about diving in in their shorts and jeans of course, while we ran daintily away from the waves as they came close ;)), watching the young surfers riding out the tide, browsing the beach front shops, strolling along the pier, watching the fishermen, eating at Ruby's the hamburger joint, seeing the sun set over the mountains, and of course enjoying the company of the saints! Fun fun! :)
Left there about half eight going on nine I guess, and drove back to Riverside. Lily and Nancy picked us up from brother Bob's, and now ready for a good night's sleep again! And it really is time to sleep :) I'd love to scatter this entry with pictures, but bed is calling. It's 9.28am where you guys are (in the UK)! Maybe tomorrow if I get time, otherwise as I said I probably won't have any for a while. So you'll just have to imagine the scene I've painted ;).
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| You'd think my world was revolving around football. Only a little bit! |
[Wed 28 Jun 2006|16:34pm] |
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Dudes! If I don't write this now, I probably never will. But I probably also don't have enough time here in the library in order to write a full entry, so maybe I'll see how time goes tonight. But still have to pack!
Anyway, the important news (don't laugh) is that I am currently second in Benjamin's World Cup Predictor. Would you believe it???! I certainly don't. And can only laugh at my expertise guesses that have got me to such a position. All throughout the first phase, Sarah M looked like she was clear in the lead. But then she dropped in the second phase, and kpo took over - I was fairly low down in this phase. Then in the third phase I got too middle-ish.. and now I am way up there! Don't know how long it will last, and once I review my predictions right now, they won't be changed regardless of who wins the following matches.. so we'll just have to see how things go.
| Pos | Manager Name | | Team Name | Points per phase | Perfect | TOTAL | | | | |
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | HP | Tens | POINTS | | | 1 | Amit Shrestha | | Crouch Potatoes | 95 | 74 | 93 | 88 | 16 | 6 | 366 | | 2 | Sarah Lee | | semyl | 63 | 86 | 85 | 96 | 14 | 8 | 344 | | 3 | Sack | | Sackatroids | 80 | 86 | 100 | 68 | 10 | 9 | 344 | | 4 | kpo | | the kpo administration | 82 | 106 | 59 | 78 | 11 | 8 | 336 | | 5 | RAY | | Raymondo's Finest Vindaloos | 75 | 76 | 99 | 76 | 6 | 7 | 332 | | 6 | Jonathan Boyd | | | 84 | 84 | 78 | 70 | 14 | 6 | 330 | | 7 | Rebecca Gray | | Steinadler's Comeback Tour | 71 | 97 | 71 | 86 | 0 | 8 | 325 | | 8 | Iain Gray | | Oop Norf | 76 | 63 | 81 | 98 | 6 | 3 | 324 | | 9 | Benjamin Alexander | | Admins don't cheat | 83 | 74 | 77 | 82 | 6 | 7 | 322 | | 10 | Matt | | Ultra Stalin FC | 80 | 76 | 70 | 88 | 6 | 4 | 320 | | 11 | Jonny | | I seed a birdie | 75 | 83 | 78 | 82 | 0 | 6 | 318 | | 12 | Sarah Milne | | golden raspberries | 90 | 56 | 70 | 72 | 5 | 7 | 293 | | 13 | Steve Gray | | Little Bro Utd | 61 | 70 | 84 | 70 | 4 | 4 | 289 | | 14 | Michael Dormandy | | Doomsday's Dragons | 76 | 73 | 79 | 40 | 11 | 5 | 279 | | 15 | Thomas | | Soft Mint City | 44 | 56 | 48 | 40 | 0 | 6 | 188 | | 16 | Thomas | | Soft Mint City | 44 | 56 | 48 | 40 | 0 | 6 | 188 | | 17 | lottie | | the winners! | 44 | 56 | 48 | 12 | 0 | 6 | 160 |
| TEAM STATISTICS | | | pts | pos | | Phase 1 points | | 63 | 13 | | Phase 2 points | | 86 | 3 | | Phase 3 points | | 85 | 4 | | Phase 4 points | | 96 | 2 | | Hot Pick points | | 14 | 2 | | TOTAL POINTS | | 344 | | | Predicted total goals | | 145 | | | Total goals so far | | 132 | | | Perfect predictions | | 8 | |
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I don't have time now to format and add all the scores for the different phases and whatnot, but you can get all those from Ben's site anyway. Maybe I'll do them on my return from the States if they're still available then!
Ok, I have seven minutes until logout, so a really quick (literally) overview of the past week.. I finished work on Friday, and didn't quite manage to get that last long test finished and checked in. It obviously wasn't as straightforward as I had hoped. But made notes on what needed to be done and "Re-Assigned" it back to Richard so he can have control of it again for when he gets back from holiday. Got home that evening and Tiffany came over for dinner, last time seeing her for the summer, and she'll be going back to China the day after we fly off to America. Late Friday night I packed, after uploading a few pictures and continuing to work on the Pictures DB. Then Saturday finished off the packing. Val (and Muriel and Ruth) came to pick us up and we went to Bower House for Catriona and Alfredo's wedding reception. Was lovely, although there a little late! Not had time to do those pictures yet, sorry. Then from there I got a ride with Donna to Wimbledon, the other side of London, and from there got a train to Surbiton, where I met Lizzy and Harriet. Harriet had just got knocked off her bike by a car opening its door! :( Anyway, Angel picked us up and we got to the Morales' for the young people's meeting. There were some people there who had been at the wedding, so I could have had a ride directly from them! But it was fine as I enjoyed chatting and fellowshipping with Donna as we drove. So had a fun YP meeting. There was a really cool activity we played to illustrate the mutual shepherding and flow of the Spirit. Filmed a bit of it and took pictures, although that'll also have to wait before going online. Then after that went back to Lizzy's (she and Harriet cycled from where they had left their bikes, I took the bus from there). Chatted to Lizzy for a while, and the bedded down in Vicky's room.
Ok, less than two minutes left so better save this and maybe continue tonight!
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| My randomness works! |
[Tue 13 Jun 2006|23:23pm] |
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<td align="middle">Date</td><td>Group</td><td align="middle">Team 1</td><td align="middle" colspan="3">Your Prediction</td><td align="middle">Team 2</td><td>Result</td><td>Points</td>| 13th June | G | South Korea | 0 | -v- | 0 | Togo | 2-1 | 0 | | 13th June | G | France | 2 | -v- | 1 | Switzerland | 0-0 | 0 |
..Just obviously in the wrong order ;)
Feel free to stalk me here and see how I 'progress'.. haha.
PS: Benjamin, why is your php page called "tvextra"?
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| My room is just a heat trap! |
[Thu 08 Jun 2006|23:57pm] |
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It's baking up here. Maybe because I'm so high up - but I have my window as wide open as it will go, and warm air is just coming in. Actually, can barely feel the air at all, it's a still. Still, it's sort of pleasant. I think it's also high up enough that not too many bugs are flying in, I only get the occasional fly or wasp during the day!
So, you basically know what I do during the day (got home early today! Coz Alex gave Judith and I a lift to the station, and we also left a bit early as she thought the traffic was building up. And by early, I mean about half 6 ;))
Hmm, I take back that comment about bugs. The biggest bee-moth thing which is really loud when it flies into the walls, has just flown into my room. Eugh. Maybe I'll call it a bmoth. Catchy, don't you think?
Ok, so where was I. Monday evening, I went to Helen's for dinner straight after getting back from work (i.e. I got there about 7pm). She cooked me dinner, and we just had a lovely time chatting (and spoke to Tom too, he called while I was there :)), sharing, reading and praying together. As I was coming back, bumped into Michael, which made the walk much more pleasant. And good to see him finally! Tuesday evening, I went over to Rebekah and Yuri's for dinner straight after work, Yuri cooked stuffed mushroom! Was so nice :) And then Rebekah and I walked to town to meet Tracy and Tiffany at G&D's. I had Oxford Blue this time, it's my standard one - the one I know I always like, and will have if nothing else jumps out at me. We were there almost two hours, was so nice and relaxing, good to catch up with Tracy again after about six months! Then Tiffany got a kebab (I wasn't hungry, but one of these days, in the next two weeks - I'm feeling kebab! [If I can manage to eat it]). Wednesday it took me two hours to get home from work. The shuttle was late because of the traffic, and then once on the shuttle the ten-minute journey took thirty minutes, due to the roadworks. And so just missed the late train by a few minutes, so had to wait another half-hour for the next one, followed by the half-hour walk home. Just was home myself that evening, although did bump into Freddie, and then Rebecca M (from Merton) on my way back. Thursday, today, I got home early (yay, although that's all relative :)), and then later went over to Rebekah and Yuri's. Yuri did rice, prawns and green beans, chicken, and cauliflower cheese. Yum. Daian left a lot of food (lots of chicken!) in the freezer, so they're particularly keen to finish it before they need to leave. No complaints here. I washed up :). Then came on back. Should have gone to bed an hour ago, but it's never to late to go to sleep - nite!
By the way, I'm listening to the audio of brother Paul Onica's New Jerusalem class - it's good to be under the hearing of faith. Here's some for you:
"Who's in you? Christ! That means we are all corporately the tabernacle. Initially it was just Jesus who had God in Him. But now we all have God in us! So together, we are the tabernacle. Paul said, 'You are the temple of God!' The Holy Spirit is dwelling in you! Hallelujah! The New Jerusalem will be the ultimate consummation of this reality! There needs to be the ejecting of all the other things that are, you know, running around in us. But you just keep yourself in the organic union. I'll read you a good footnote. I think I read it last term; I'll read it again. Do you remember which one I'm talking about? Anyway. You just stay in the organic union. You know what's happening? Not only are you getting God, you know, to come in and saturate you, but everything else is out, out. That is not God, is out. It's not by you making a list. Now today, I'm going to deal with.. my temper. I mean, already you're just about to lose it when you [..].. I'm going to deal with my temper. No, you just stay in the mingled spirit and there is discharge and adding of God's element. Praise the Lord!"
"The consummation of the wife as the church. What does it mean the consummation of the church as the wife? Well in the ancient time, betrothing took place. A little ten-year-old girl was betrothed to so-and-so to be his wife. Problem is, she's only ten years old. So he can't touch her, she has to grow up. But when she grows up, she is consummated as his wife. What consummated her? Her growth. This is what is taking place in the church today. We are Christ's wife. Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her. Gave Himself up for her. But the church there in Ephesians 5 still has spots and wrinkles. That's His spouse, but some work needs to be done. But eventually, with the New Jerusalem, all the spots, all the wrinkles, all the immaturity, all the things are gone. And she has made herself ready. Hallelujah! Everytime you call "Lord Jesus", you're making yourself ready. Everytime we tell the Lord, "Lord I love You, Lord You're my lovely bridegroom," we're making ourselves ready! Spots are going out. God's element more and more is coming in. The growth then is the consummation."
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| A return to normality |
[Tue 06 Jun 2006|00:25am] |
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(Half of this entry was written last night)
I'd just like to comment that it is hard to eat sandwiches - because it is hard to remember that I have to rip bits off and tuck them into the back of my mouth, rather than taking a bite out of them. Anyway, this week I will be making my own sandwiches and taking them to work, because I don't fancy the challenge of ripping apart prawn marie rose sandwiches, or chicken club sandwiches, or BLTs.. or other such hard things. However, I am happy to report that my teeth are fine with hot things (like soup, presumably hot chocolate) and cold things (like ice cream ;)). I can also eat cake! However, they feel yukky really easily, I keep wanting to brush them. Don't know why, maybe it's the material the 'bandages' are made from.
So, I was planning on telling you about my weekend. I think it's been quite pleasant. Saturday, was very much a summer's day in Oxford. One of those happy-and-relaxed-because-you've-just-finished-Finals-and-so-can-just-hang-out-and-not-feel-you-should-be-in-the-library days. Of course, I just had the happy-and-relaxed bit this year, but I do remember the feeling. And it was nice to be out in the sunshine. Well, my day started relatively early compared to my restful week. I logged on to check emails, and lo and behold Lizzy was online! She's been in Malaysia for three weeks now, and we've been emailing, but this was the first time we'd been on MSN at the same time. So it was great to start the day with a quick pray with her. And it was quick because I was supposed to be meeting Helen at the end of the road ten minutes later. I probably would have made it, but it turned out I didn't have to, as about the time I should have got there, she called to say she was just leaving home, and she'd see me on the way. So I enjoyed a nice walk into town, and then met Helen and Esther. It was really nice to see them :) - the last time was in February. We didn't even do that much, we (Helen and I) basically helped Esther to wrap some presents (I was moving in slow-mo, Helen did most of it), stick paper to card (Esther made the *cutest* 'hug' book), look at the photo's I'd had printed (they turned out so nice! But have to wait a week to get the 240 I sent home), talking about our summers (some people are getting married!), making vague plans to get to Helen's wedding (Esther and I will travel together - that's about as far as we got), talking about all the other couples getting married this summer (I've never known there to be so many! I must be getting old or something.), and of course filling them both in on 'the accident'. I had to leave at 10.30, and Esther was doing something anyway, but I'm pretty sure I'll see them again soon. Although busy girls, can't get the same evenings free! (And I'm the one limiting it to evenings!)
Anyway, then I made my way to G&D's for the ice cream experiment. Well, I had already decided that I would be able to eat ice cream, and my teeth wouldn't hurt - and fortunately they didn't, so yay. Met Sarah M (from Wadham) and Claire C (from Merton) there, and we just had a nice time again, catching up, talking about weddings (it went on all day, and my bet is that it will right up until the end of August!). Also bumped into Sarah C (from Teddy Hall), which was a total surprise to the two of us.. because I'm 'not supposed' to be in Oxford, and I'd thought Sarah was in London working! But she's doing a masters/Phd here now. Sooo, I anticipate another trip to G&D's some time soon! Anyway, Sarah M had finished her exams the day before (yay), so she was in the happy-and-relaxed mode. And the following day (today!) she was going to head off on a 'tall ship' holiday for two weeks. Sounded fun, and quite adventurous! But was so nice to be able to see her on her day in between :). And of course, I explained the accident again (they'd all received my email anyway). I also had my first non-self-photo taken with them. It's hard to smile with your mouth shut in photos when you've spent ages getting a comfortable 'open mouth' smile. I'll get used to it. (I also spent the day seeing people for the first time since the accident, and explaining to people who didn't know already, and things of that nature. So good practice for.. every other day.)
Ok, then exciting news when Tiffany called at 12.16 (according to my phone) to say that Moniek (and Mario ;)) had had their baby!! (About half an hour before.) It's a little girl - cuteness! I'm very excited to see her soon, maybe this weekend? Apparently she looks a lot like Mario.. hee. It's going to be so much fun watching her grow up!
Anyway, so I was with them until a little after 1pm, then headed back to grab some lunch. I was supposed to meet Helen again just before two, but once again was late - oops. This time it was because of the lunch eating, card writing, race watching (Race for Life - hordes of people wearing pink were flooding past), and Rebekah's-friend-bumping (Sedina - and they're having a St A's reunion tomorrow eve, aww). So we got ourselves into Somerville, and found our way to one of their JCRs, for Shannon's goodbye party. When we arrived, only Shannon and Jean were there, but throughout the afternoon many came and went (and we moved to sit outside on the grass, which was a great idea), giving Shannon the perfect opportunity to catch-up and say bye to people. It also afforded me a good opportunity to catch up with many friends I hadn't seen in quite a while. Although I admit I don't remember everyone's names! But Charlie W was there, Nick W, Heather, Jean, David D, and a few others I didn't really get a chance to chat to much. We rounded up there about 5 something, and then I went home for a bit before going over to Rebekah's for dinner. Tiffany (a different Tiffany!) came along, and soon after Chao, and we taught him how to play mah-jong. Was there till almost 11 something I think, then came on back. Was very glad to see they both wheeled their bikes home rather than cycled, as they didn't have lights!
Lord's Day morning, we (Rebekah, Tiffany, David and I) went to the table meeting in Reading. It was sweet, it always is. Brother Kam picked us up. There were lots of saints there this week, as I think some had just returned from the conference in Stockholm. Grace said Hi to me when we went in, she's so cute (she and Luke are Inesz's niece and nephew from Spokane, WA) and we sung one of her favourite songs - Splendid Church Life. But I didn't get to say bye to them after :( After the meeting, there were of course a lot of hugs from the sisters, and care from the brothers - most of the saints knew about my accident, some had heard the day after during the prayer meeting on Tuesday (I love the Body), and I'd emailed those I had addresses for.
We came on back to Oxford, and I didn't do a great deal in the evening. I did completely sort out my Favourites folder, and I replied to more emails, and I did my laundry, and generally rested because was feeling tired.
And I realise I didn't mention last weekend either. Well last Saturday, I think I went to Rebekah's for dinner. Um, it seems so long ago now, and can't really remember! I'm sure I did other things, but oh well. On Lord's Day, we went to Reading and brother Kam had picked us up again. After we got back, I went to the OICCU BBQ. It was really nice to see people again who I hadn't seen in so long, and who weren't expecting me to be there. Ben and Rebecca were there, Helen B, Amy, Mark (although I didn't talk to you at all!), Russell, Chris, Andy T, Greg, Jamie, Sam B, Jamin, Lee, Laura I, and a whole host of others. And many, many I didn't know also! And.. literally just after I arrived, someone said my name, and it was Claire M! Was SO surprised to see her - and she was surprised to see me! She was a visiting student from America, back when I was in the second year. And that's where she's supposed to be now.. and she didn't tell me she was passing through Oxford (literally for a couple of days), because she thought I'd be in London or some other city! So was really nice to see her a catch up :) So I had a good time, catching up and fellowshipping with my brothers and sisters.
Then I went with Ben, Rebecca and Jessica to Jessica's room in LMH, where they proceeded to teach me Rail Ticket to Europe, or some board game with a similar name. I improved the second time round. It was very hard to limit my saying of, "I don't know what to do".. as I'm sure it is the first time one plays a strategy-type game for the first time with experienced pros (they analysed the games afterwards, and they know the special routes off by heart). Twas fun.
Ok, I think that rounds off that weekend. Bank holiday Monday was a part of the weekend I suppose, and we all know what happened then. Seems like so long ago now, yet not!
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| The History of Sarah in Web Programming |
[Wed 31 May 2006|23:23pm] |
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This was supposed to be a comment on Matt's LJ - but it was too long!
Yay :) I may post one up on mine, we'll see. #2 might be hard for me to answer because I barely watch anything these days.
In answer to "What led you to the whole web programming side of things?" - here's the full history. Feel honoured, I'm writing it out for the first time ever :)
I was always interested in computers, and was overjoyed when we got our first one back in '94 or '95. That was a rubbish one though, we couldn't upgrade it. So we got another one a year or so later, and then in '97 we got the Internet. I used to use the TalkCity chatrooms (I did make one lasting friendship through that!), and built my first website with Geocities. I really don't remember how I came to find that site or why I wanted to build one. Maybe just because I saw other people's sites and got inspired. So my first site (which was yellow text on black background, and no images apart from some Geocities supplied lines and icons) quickly grew as I got ideas for content. Things like the directory of TLAs which is still on my website were created back then. And I had my friends write messages to the world, and put those all up on a page, as well as me writing messages about them.
Then in 2001 or so, I had a friend at college who was a bit geeky like me ;) and liked the design side of things, so he played around and came up with the base of the design that is currently my main site. He made those initial oval pictures of me, and the backgrounds of the side bar and top bar. There were some bugs with it, but I took it and ran with it - doing some research to work out a few things, putting my content into that format. That was the first time I was using frames, so all that was a new concept to me. It was all in HTML back then (and still is for the most part, it just pretends to be partly in PHP), so any updates I made meant I updated every single page. That version also grew a lot as I worked on it, adding much new content.
Then in 2002 I joined the DragonLink forum which was then brand new, and had a "featured member's website" bit that I submitted my site for, promptly won, and was the featured site for the rest of the time they had that feature. They also asked if I would like to be a moderator seeing as I seemed to know website etc, and so I agreed - that was actually my sole reason for joining the forum back then. I then went on to invite many of my friends to join, and as a thank-you, the then-management of DL bought me semyl.com as a domain name, and continued to renew it for about two years after that (but I did have to frequently email them to chase them up to renew it). Eventually, as the management changed/became uncontactable, I just gave up and in 2004 or 2005 I started paying for the name myself.
Throughout the course of my first year at university (2002-2003), I was still updating a little, that was when I created the forum and it went crazy for a month as many of the DL regulars came over to use it as DL was having some server problems. I had joined LiveJournal earlier in 2002, and 'integrated' that into my website through a link (but I use LJ as a site in itself anyway). In 2003 I met someone at a young people's Christian gathering who hosted websites, and so I applied to his hosting program and he accepted me and gave me 20MB. That was when my website moved to doyougetme.net, where it's been ever since. doyougetme.net has been very reliable, and the host is great for fixing things when problems arise.
So I think this was about when I started creating other websites. I had previously started on a few 'fan-sites', of games rather than people, but they didn't ever develop very far - they were too much work. And I had helped friends to start up their own sites on Geocities, but they didn't ever pursue those much. Once in university, I felt that the Christian Union at Teddy Hall should have one, so I created a site for them which was also hosted on doyougetme.net. It was created fairly quickly, and looked nice, and I submitted it to the OICCU website (Oxford Inter-Collegiate Christian Union) for their links page. So I guess that is what brought the current OICCU website administrator's attention to me as someone who could work on web pages, and in 2004 I was asked to take over as the OICCU website administrator. About the same time, I was asked to join the "OICCU 125th Anniversary" committee to work on their website. So that site was also built and created, still all in HTML, but now with frames ;).
About this time I did Networks and Operating Systems as part of my course, and one of our practicals was to build a small website. Rather than build something just for the sake of it, I decided to create a Pictures Directory. I had started to collect my friend's username and passwords for their uni-allocated webspace, and I used to host all my snap-happy pictures on there. This was mainly as a resource to share with my friends and others I knew, but as you once sent me the link to the pancake picture, randoms found it too! The Pictures Directory pulled all the index pages together on a manually updated HTML page. These links went off to various folders on my friends' webspace, making it look as if they were all part of one site. Then I did some research and found some scripts that generated a page with thumbnails and links when you supply it with a directory, basically an alternative index page. So I took that, and adapted it to create the index pages I wanted, taking in a directory of pictures, filtering out certain types, creating thumbnails, and the index page with all the appropriate links. I then would upload this to a friend's webspace, and add a link to it to the Directory.
The president-elect who was on the committee said that they wanted to redesign the OICCU website, and so when I started being the administrator during the Easter of 2004, I knew this was the goal. At that time I was still studying for my exams that year, so I didn't work much on the website during that time. But the OICCU website was built in PHP, and although it wasn't much to look at, the functionality behind it was very good. So I spent some of that vacation learning PHP and becoming familiar with the website. The previous administrator was far more techy than I was, and I was forced to research many of the things he said! I also kept meaning to install Linux as he recommended, but never got round to it! But was forced (in a good way) instead to find out about things like MySQL, Apache and PHP and set those all up on my computer.
So in the summer of 2004, the president (no more elect-) emailed to remind me about the redesign, which I hadn't forgotten about. So I redesigned the site to how it is today. I also experimented with a bit of DHTML, although to be honest I don't think much of what I 'learnt' was retained in long-term memory, it was more a matter of experimenting and plugging in things that worked. Throughout all this time, although I learnt a lot about PHP, I can't say that whatever programming technique I had was very good. A lot of the way I worked was through experimentation rather than actually knowing what I was doing. That was how I had worked in practicals too, looking back I can see I've come a far way from then!
In the spring of 2005, now in my third year, there was an OICCU mission called "Lost?", and I worked on that website also. I recall that OICCU committee at the time wanted to find someone else to do it, just because I was coming up to my Finals, and they didn't want the time pressure to be on me. But as I saw it, it was a quick thing to create and didn't need a lot of maintenance, so I said I'd do it. Following that, I passed on the administration of the OICCU website to another compsci who was at Teddy Hall, as my year as administrator had ended. I infused him with an appreciation for PHP, when we spent some time setting up a local server on his laptop. What I loved was the dynamic content and the server-sidedness which means you only have to change one file to change the way the entire site looks.
By this point, I had picked a third year project that was to create a website, an online portal called a Path Creation Scheme. A previous version of this site already existed, but I was working to add new features to it. This site relied heavily on access to the MySQL database, unlike the OICCU website which only used it for a couple of things, so I got to learn a lot more about that. I started working on it in earnest over the Easter vacation in 2005, and rather than working from the base that was there, I just started afresh but referred to the previous version for structure and methods. I had to learn about sessions, CSS, as well as getting the PHP to interact with the database (I hadn't had to work too much on these sections of the OICCU site), and in fact you know about this site as you helped test it! ;)
Once my project was out of the way, I concentrated on revising for my exams. But I did take a few hours to create a database and webpage to display the exam times of all my friends, indicating especially the first and last exams, and their location. Here I learnt a bit more about using different functions in PHP, and I had something that showed the current day and crossed off previous days. It was meant to be a really basic page, but I soon realised that if I wanted it to be expandable, then I'd better put it in a database and PHP it. Following that I emailed all my friends to find out their exam times, and populated it. I did update it once or twice more with a few features for clarity.
Now we come to the end of my degree, and the summer of 2005. In my project report I had stated a number of times that I would love to continue working on it to finish it as there were a few other things that I felt could be added, given more time. The OUCS (Oxford University Computing Services, who were behind the project) contacted me and said they would like to work on it to complete it over the summer, and gave me the specifics of what to accomplish. I was paid for doing this, my first and only paid website work to date!
At the same time in that summer, I was working in Sungard for the second time. I had picked up a lot of good practices the summer before; although the language we use at work is completely different, it was the thought processes behind automation programming and in particular how important clear commenting is, that I valued. These were used in my project in the third year. I was also aware that the webspace for myself and many of my friends who graduated that year would soon expire. So I thought of finding a webhost elsewhere. And I also had the idea of making it a database rather than just a directory. This was my big project of the summer, I worked on it more than the PCS project updates I was doing. My idea behind the Pictures Database was to input a directory and other details, have the PHP create a folder, copies of all the pictures and thumbnails, and put this into a database. I couldn't get it to work to run the uploading script from the server, so I ended up with having to run it on my machine, and then copying the created folder and files, and updating the database. It ended up working well this way, meaning I can check everything on my laptop before making things "live". I also added the search functionality and commenting. I could have just as easily downloaded something far more professional that already did this, but I had the desire to create something myself that I knew inside out.
I was constantly on the lookout for some free webspace in a fairly large quantity, and was struggling to find something that would work with what I had. I did seem to get one at one point, but then the host disappeared. However, it so happened that I had a desire to go to Exam Schools where the examination results were posted and take pictures of the honours lists. Once my results were out, I did so for Computer Science and Maths and Computer Science, and sent an email round to all the CompScis I knew. I also took some of the subjects that my friends did, in order to send them the links. One of the CompScis I emailed was very much affiliated with OUSU (Oxford University Student Union) and posted a link to the OxfordGossip forum without me knowing. Someone from the forum then emailed me to ask if it was possible for me to take pictures of the results for their subject. What ensued was my taking pictures of every single pass list available, hosting them on my uni server space, the OxfordGossip forum linking to all those (and hosting some themselves), and consequently thanking me for what I had done by giving me 100MB on their OxfordData server (they saw a note I had added to the old Pictures Directory asking for suggestions of free webspace) - they got a lot of hits for that, and would have been *the* source of exam results information for Oxford students everywhere.
So this is where the Pictures Database came from, and how it ended up hosted on OxfordData! Actually, I don't know if it is just me but their server seems to have intermittent problems. For the most part it is fine though, so I'm not complaining. I left the old Pictures Directory as it was, allowing what still works (some of my friends are on four-year courses) to work, and everything else to be a dead link. Of course I made it clear where the new site was ;)
So. I had a mad rush to finish off these two website projects at the end of the summer. Then I started the Training in August 2005, and planned completely to drop thinking about websites and PHP and things of that nature. In the first week of the training, I was asked if I worked on websites, and how good I was at them. So in the past year I have been working on the AmanaTrust website. Although nothing I have worked on right now is online (development is slow when you only do a few hours a week) - the current version is in PHP by name only - it all exists and is functional on a development server, and once I write up a manual so that anyone with permissions can update the site, then it will go live. For this site, I was able to integrate the structure of the pictures database I created for a gallery, and learnt a lot more about databases and accessing the data on them.
Now we come to the present time, summer 2006. I need to write that manual, and I'm working as well on the Pictures Database as you know. I recently (last week) added a log-in feature, although I notice that no one has found this year and registered ;). But logging in doesn't allow you to do anything so far apart from change your user details. I have plans for updates though, as are detailed on the site currently! In the past few days I have been distracted by finding the pictures I wanted to print with the Truprint 1PENCE offer (let me know if you want a referral, I get credited 20 free prints for everyone I refer :)). But the offer ends tonight, and I've made my order(s), and so I can go back to these other things.
Finally, I have vague plans to create a new PHP site which is a game this summer. I've thought about the basics of it, and it'll be quite complex. But what I've found over the course of these years and in all these website projects, is that I learn as I try. And the more I do, the better I get at it. And it is good to try and push the boundaries of what you are already able to do. You don't know till you try.
So, here we have the History of Sarah in Web Programming. (I did originally write Web Design, but to be fair I'm more for the functionality and a basic design than a wonderful looking site. I don't claim any originality for any of the sites I've created, for the most part, they were created by someone else or based on something else, or are mostly functional ;). Someone I know has asked me to do some web design to update his site, but I don't know how that'll go given this!)
Hope you enjoyed the read Matt :) This is good enough for an entry into my own journal, but I'll let your comment have first dibs on it!
Sarah Lee, 31 May 2006, 23:20
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| Near death experiences |
[Tue 30 May 2006|00:47am] |
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Remember I was telling you about the recent injury to my finger (it's all better now), and how it was one of the scariest experiences of my life? (Another particularly scary incident was when I was about 5 and thought my mum was going to die - but I think she was just ill. Must clear that story up with her).
Well, today's incident tops that. Have you ever had those nightmares about your hair falling out, and your teeth breaking in half? I can't say I've had them often, but they have occurred. One of those came true for me today - and it wasn't the hair one.
Now that I've built up some suspense, I'll just go ahead and tell you that today at 6.30pm I was involved in a road traffic accident. A car hit me from behind as we were both turning a corner - the sun was in the driver's eyes and he didn't see me. Apart from scratches and bruises, I'm physically fine - but yes, three of my teeth are broken in half. They hurt. The bike I was on, which I just borrowed today from Rebekah's friend (and is was brand new and sporting new accessories (a D-Lock that I had bought a less than two hours before)) was completely totalled, and crunched under the wheels of the car as the driver tried to reverse. I wasn't wearing a helmet.
All I can do is praise the Lord for His protection. Especially when I consider that it could have been SO much worse. I could not be here writing this entry right now. Christ is victor, and I love Him! I spent the next three and a half hours in an ambulance, at the police station, and at the emergency dentist. I now officially love our emergency services, they do a wonderful job.
I'm about to write a detailed account, but it'll be a protected entry so you need to log in to read it.
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| It's good to have fellowship.. |
[Fri 26 May 2006|11:17am] |
And outside of the church-life, this is called communication. Reason being that I just asked Alex if there might be a reason my Rational Robot crashes every single time there is a script execution error (and then I have to log out of Windows otherwise I can't open Robot again, and then I have to open all my programs again), and she had a fair idea why.
Of course, fellowship in the church-life, and even more so in the training, is not just a matter of communication. But we won't go into that now, I need to get back to it!
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| Alternative Bibles |
[Wed 24 May 2006|11:12am] |
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Don't worry, I'm not turning heretical. But until I'm assigned something new, I've been reading through the Intranet's Knowledge Index, and am now left with the PDF of the JavaScript Bible, Gold Edition. Would be good to learn a bit more about this rather than fluffing my way though copying the occasional bit of JavaScript in order to do something specific on a website.
And on the topic of it being a 'Bible', see how the enemy is working to corrupt our concept? The word 'Bible' just means book, yet today people think it is a particular book (or kind of book) that tells you what to do, how to behave, and things of that nature. That wasn't God's intention. There is a verse in the Bible that explains that the letter kills but the Spirit gives life (2 Cor 3.6). Believe it or not, this verse even refers to the Bible - as a book people use for doctrine, moral teaching and guidance on living, it is just dead letter which kills. But the Bible, plus the Spirit, is the revelation of God! The entire Bible reveals God, His purpose in creating man, and the way He will obtain His heart's desire. Many people, both Christians and non-Christians, think that the 10 Commandments are the law that we should keep in order to be qualified as a Christian. But actually these 10 Commandments are the revelation of God, and His divine attributes. And to expose fallen man, that we cannot match them! Who is holy? Only God is holy! (We could also go into how to become holy we have to become God, in life and nature, but not in the Godhead... but that's a whole other post!) The Israelites foolishly thought, "All You say, we will do." They didn't realise that the law wasn't there that they are perfect and keep it, because they were incapable of that (as illustrated almost immediately when they made the golden calf!). But the law was a child conductor (Gal 3.24), to conduct them to Christ. Not the law, but Christ! Not the letter, but the Spirit! Once Christ came, the law was abolished (many verses). Yet so many (myself included, it's in our fallen concept!) hold on to the law, the child-conductor, and love the child-conductor rather than Christ! Lord, do save us from this. Open our eyes to see just You! Save us from the law, the doctrines, the dead letter. Thank You that the Spirit gives life!
Anyway, now to the purpose of this post. A couple of funny quotes:
"Because computers generally are dumb electronic hulks, they aren’t very forgiving if you don’t communicate with them in the specific language they understand. When speaking to another human, you can flub a sentence’s syntax and still have a good chance of the other person’s understanding you fully. Not so with computer programming languages. If the syntax isn’t perfect (or at least within the language’s range of knowledge that it can correct), the computer has the brazenness to tell you that you have made a syntax error."
"The best thing you can do is to just chalk up the syntax errors you receive as learning experiences. Even experienced programmers get them. Every syntax error you get—and every resolution of that error made by rewriting the wayward statement—adds to your knowledge of the language."
This last one to me sounds like normal days in the divine dispensing. Let me rephrase: "The best thing you can do is to just chalk up your failures and defeats as learning experiences. Even those who have been Christian for a long time get them. Every time you fail - and every opening to the divine flow by turning to your spirit - adds to your being the element of Christ."
Acacia (one of the six who graduated this past term) just texted me to say she's off, back to the States! I'll miss her, but trust in the Lord to guide her every step, and will hopefully see her soon!
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| Good times |
[Tue 23 May 2006|21:44pm] |
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Here's another one for you Florence ;)
I was just reading this post which made me browse around to this post and this post, and then find my version which was this post.
What can I say, but.. good times! :) And we're reaching more milestones, eh?
Lisa, when are you going on to NY again for your training? If you are around in London between 26th July and 21st Aug, we have to do stuff. :)
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| Hello again world :) |
[Sat 20 May 2006|18:46pm] |
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Hello LJ buddies and random lurkers!
Just a quick entry to say hello again, and I'm sure over the next few weeks I'll fill you in a little on my past few months/year. I realised I was back when I started composing an LJ entry in my head two nights ago.
So just in brief until I write again, I'm on my summer break from FTTL now, having completed my first two terms, with another two to go. I'm in Oxford (in Norham Gardens), having moved here yesterday, and will be here for the next five weeks. I'll be working at Sungard again, I start on Monday. Following that, Rebekah and I are going to the west coast of the USA for 3.5 weeks, and then she goes to Texas for six weeks, and I'll return home for the three weeks before I restart at FTTL on the 21st August. I've also got a number of weddings to attend this summer!
Right now I'm heading off to Rebekah's for dinner, so I'll catch up with you all again another time!
PS: Not much has changed on this front...
<td align="center">You are a super geek
You are into everything that is geeky – which is hard because there are so many types of geeks. You are very smart and have a great imagination. People who call you a geek are just jealous, right?
Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com</td>
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| Winter Break |
[Sat 14 Jan 2006|05:37am] |
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Seeing as I've just spent the last couple of hours (note: this was many hours ago now!) reading old journal entries going back to July, and seeing as my excuse for not updating my journal was that I was in the training and couldn't, and seeing that I'm on my Winter Break and there are just a few days remaining, I suppose I should fill you all in on where I've been and what I've been doing the past four and a half months! (I'm well aware that "Just home for the evening - so hello all! :)" two weeks after the training, and an advert for an event two months into the training, don't count as keeping in touch. I'm also well aware that the two newsletters I've written are essentially pointless given that I've not sent them to a single person!) But first, I'll tell you what I've been up to in this three-week break, and then make another entry about my first term later.
So, break began on the 24th December. We had a graduation for the fourth-termers at the end of term, but I'll mention that in my FTTL entry. That afternoon I went home with my family, dropped my bags in my room, and got into bed. Well maybe not, but the general activity while being at home as been resting, and has been well appreciated. I've reverted to some of my old sleeping habits even, so I'm almost looking forward to Monday when I'm back on the training schedule! We had a sister staying with us until the 26th, from UCLA - Andrea. She's so sweet, was great to have her with us. And on the 25th we all went to our cousins who live in Stratford. I think the last time I saw them was the same time the previous year! (My family had seen them in between that though. I've just not spent a lot of time at home. This past week has been the longest period spent at home since Easter I think!) We don't celebrate Christmas now, and I've even tried to avoid saying "Happy Christmas" to people. But I've still appreciated the cards and texts, so thanks for those. And it was really nice to spend time with our cousins, we all had a wonderful time! We had a great meal together, Aunty Esther always cooks up a feast, and then after that we played family games until midnight. Wouldn't have stopped if it wasn't for the fact we got tired, and still had to walk home afterwards! We split into two teams, "oldies" (the parents and Kim), and "youngies" (Rebekah, Amina, Andrea and I). The oldies beat us, they obviously have superior knowledge and team coordination that comes with experience. Hee. Andrea left early on Boxing Day, which was slightly more complicated than usual due to trains not running, buses and tubes not running till 8.30am, etc. But it all worked out fine in the end, and she got to where she needed to be. She sent us a thank-you card with some pictures actually, really lovely to receive that!
So then from the 27th-1st Rebekah and I helped on a camp for the young people (aged 11-18), called the Winter School of Truth. Actually in our serving ones fellowship (just before the camp started, and every morning), we touched on the matter that we didn't want the Winter School to be a school as such, but a restaurant, somewhere where the young people can come and feast on the Lord! I really enjoyed it - especially seeing the Christ in all the young people! That was truly so precious, and something I've shared with lots of people already. Sometimes they can be unwilling or disobedient, during the break times, and even during meetings. But when you see the Christ shining in them, when they pray in a meeting, or testify after a meeting, declare a verse or a hymn together, or share their enjoyment from the message in the small group time. Wow, so sweet! These are little God-men, God is infusing more divine life into them each time they come to the Word, turn to their spirit, and exercise to enjoy the Lord!
Those in our small cluster were Hope, Faith, Peace (what wonderful names :)), Ruth, Lydia, and Acacia (but she got sick on the and was stuck in bed for a few days, the poor thing! Don't worry though, she's not one of the young people, and she got to learn a lot of verses and have lots of visitors while in bed [or while in sleeping bag on air-bed!]). And we joined with another cluster that was Sonja, Hannah, Miriam, Peju and Chai Wen for our group time. We also had activities in the afternoons - making murals, games, a "Bible bowl", and a song competition. For that we were with Anthony, Patrick, a brother who's name I keep forgetting, Damu, and Laurence.
So yeah, a fab (albeit tiring, especially after our four-week term) time. There were a few things I particularly enjoyed. The theme we were covering was God's full salvation. When brother Tim shared one of the messages, he had a diagram that was so helpful, I might even try to draw it out.
Right, let me try to explain, although I'm going to try to be brief, so do ask for clarification if necessary! First, the line of over the top is a time line, stretching from eternity past, to eternity future. Somewhere in time, we have creation. God created everything, and it was good. However, not too long after that, the fall came in. Actually the fall was in stages. It started with Adam and Eve eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and sin entering into them. This was the deadening of their spirit, which had been created to contain God as life! We then have Cain and Abel, when Cain killed his brother Abel in jealousy, and then forsook God and created his own culture. This is the ruining of the soul. We then have the days of Noah, when the whole earth was sinful and godless, and the fallen angels were having relationships with the daughters of earth (i.e. humans), which is completely not the way God ordained for it to be. This is the corruption of the body.
So we can see that man's entire tripartite being, spirit, soul and body, has been deadened, ruined and corrupted. And it was just going downhill, and resulting in death! But you know, the lake of fire was not originally created for man, and God wasn't happy with this situation. Hallelujah He had a way out! We have Jesus, God in His divinity put on humanity, and became a man. He lived a genuine human life for 33.5 years (I was also touched by what a denying the soul-life this was to the Lord Jesus. He could not have one argument with his brothers and sisters growing up, He could not think one bad thing against His parents. If He had done the slightest thing in His soul, He would not have been precious enough to die for our sins and accomplish judicial redemption!). And then He went to the cross, crucifying sin, death, Satan, the natural man, and all those things, and redeeming us and justifying us with God! In His ressurection, He became the life-giving Spirit (1 Corinthians 15.45b) to apply all these to us! Hallelujah for judicial redemption, we are those who can be redeemed by the blood of Christ!
But the brother sharing the message made it so clear, that this judicial redemption is a basis. You can look at the diagram and see - it is the basis we stand on, but it doesn't bring us back to the line of God's Eternal Purpose.. it doesn't bring us to where He wants us, as vessels containing and expressing Him, His Bride and counterpart to dwell with Him for eternity. We're still down there, standing on the base of judicial redemption. But God has a way! He has the next stage(s) of organic salvation. Now, I'm not sure if I've got all the stages in there in the right places (I might have missed out Growth and Building, but the essence is the same), but basically, through these stages we will reach the place where God wants us to be. The first stage is regeneration. Some of you reading this are regenerated, and some of you aren't. Regeneration means to be saved in the divine life. Christ has accomplished judicial redemption on the cross, but unless that is applied to us, we are not regenerated. To be regenerated, we simply come to the Lord and believe into Him, calling on His name. The Bible says in Romans 10:13, "For whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.". And in John 1:12, "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God, to those who believe into His name", which shows that to believe into the Lord, receive Him!
So, remember that regeneration is the first step. But it's just the first step! This in itself doesn't bring us to where God wants us. Yes we are put in the right position with God, but in itself this doesn't accomplish His heart's desire. Which is why it is so important that Christians know this and aren't satisfied with just being redeemed. That's great, and our redemption can never be taken away from us, but we want to be those fulfilling God's heart's desire! So we have the following steps, the biggest one of which is transformation. Transformation is something that goes on our entire Christian life. But transformation is not an outward change, it is not a Christian trying to make themselves better in their actions and behaviour. Transformation is a matter of life, and of metabolism! To be transformed, we need to take in more of the element of God as life, as He grows in us, and this life issues in transformation! I love 2 Corinthians 3.18, "But we all with unveiled face, behold and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed, into the same image, from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit." This verse talks of transformation as a process, from one little stage of glory to another. We already have some Christ in us, He just wants to get in more! And then one day? We will be conformed to His image! And we will be glorified with Him, and He in us! This is how God gets what He wants, a corporate expression of Himself in the church, which is just all the believers fully constituted with Christ! And then the New Jerusalem, the mutual dwelling of God and man, together for eternity!
So what does it all mean to us? Well for those who are not regenerated, as I've stressed, that really is the first step. It's the only way to receive God as life - by believing and calling on His name. Even something as simple, "Lord Jesus, I believe in You, come into me!" That is really all it takes to start enjoying life with God! For those who are regenerated, we can't be satisfied with just that. We must strive to be those who love the Lord, pursuing after Him, and being open to Him and to His inner operating work! 1 Thessalonians 5:24, "Faithful is He who calls you, who also will do it." Phil 2:13, "For it is God who operates in you both the willing and the working, for His good pleasure." Practically, we just do what these young people were doing during the whole Winter School.. eating the Lord in His Word, exercising to turn to our human spirit which is mingled with God's Spirit, praying, and calling on the Lord. It is by these things (and more, these are just some of the ways) that drop by drop a little more Christ is infused into us! And it's a daily process!
Ok, I'm sorry, I seem incapable of writing "in brief"! But if you know me, you're probably not at all surprised :) And that was only the first week of my break! So I'll try to give you an "as brief as I can make it" summary of the following two weeks.
Well the new year was seen in whilst at the Winter School, and that was also wonderful. We had a special meeting at 11pm on the 31st, just a time of enjoyment, singing, and praying. Again, so glorious to see the young people praying to consecrate this coming new year to the Lord! And of course, very hard to get them all (and there were 170 or so of them!) to sleep afterwards ;). But at times such as those, you just have to remember the Christ in them! (And it's the same with saints and fellow-trainees etc.. it is so important to have a view of the church that each member is in the Body and each has Christ in them. Lord, give me such a controlling vision that I would see this more and care for this more!) So that made for very tired people the following morning, which was the last of the camp. But after our last meeting and prize giving for the teams/song competition/verse memorisation etc, we did have some baptisms, and they were really great also. Praise the Lord!
I then had a couple of days rest at home. Literally just a couple of days. Then after two hours sleep on the 4th, I met Kayla (who has just graduated from FTTL) at Victoria Coach Station, and we EuroLined it all the way to Paris. We were there for six days, and had a really good time. We stayed with Glenda in Saint Germain-En-Laye, and the day after we got there, Sarah W and Mandy arrived from Holland and stayed till we left on the 9th also! They were supposed to have been and gone already, so was very cool to be there at the same time. We had a sister's house in Paris! So, while I was in Paris, I got to visit Hilary :D Which was the real reason I wanted to go to Paris anyway! She lives in Maison Blanche, and it was great to see where she lives. The great thing about visiting people is that then you imagine them when they write you emails, etc. We had a really sweet time of fellowship together on afternoon, and then she came over to us (we're not really in Paris, but on the far west) on the Saturday evening for dinner. That was also really enjoyable, and we had Noris and her daughter Maria there with us too. Glenda (with help) cooked a fabulous meal, and then afterwards we sung some hymns together. Very sweet time. Another day, I just stayed home with Glenda and we helped in the Rhema office (which is in the basement), just sorting out sets for the free books and Bibles that Rhema gives out.
 
Left: Kayla and I, and the lovely dinner Glenda prepared for us
Right: Dinner on Saturday evening, this was just the salad course! L-R: Hilary, Kayla, Sarah W, Noris, Mandy, Maria, Glenda
On the Lord's Day, we went to Paris for the table meeting, which is in a hotel in central Paris. So I got to do my sight-seeing as we drove past the Louvre (is that how it's spelt?), Notre Dame, and the Eiffel Tower. And all in the warmth and comfort of the car too ;). On our way back we also went past on the hour, so saw the Eiffel all sparkly! Very cool. The table meeting itself was also very enjoyable. The saints in the church in Paris speak either French, Chinese, English, or a combination of the three - so that's what the meeting is in! I actually understood a lot more French during my time in Paris (and especially at the table, when everyone was talking slower!) than I expected to.. obviously a lot more French got constituted into me during GCSE than I gave myself credit for! After that we grabbed a bite to eat in the local area, and then did Rhema distribution. That was also fun, "Bonjour Madame/Monsieur, Bible gratiut?".. is embedded in my tongue now. Some people said, "Oui merci", and some people said, "Non merci". But the response in itself doesn't matter so much. It's just sowing!
 
Left: We had a blackout (for a few hours) one evening, and of course we took pictures
Right: Glenda cooking during the blackout. Fun!
The other thing I really liked about Paris, is the metro! Very efficient and smooth, or at least it gave that impression in the few days that I was there. It did take a bit of getting used to all the coloured lines, but otherwise it's fairly self-explanatory. And I made an amusing (for me) observation whilst on one of the trains.. "Everyone looks the same, they just speak different!" (Terrible grammar I know, but that's part of what makes it funny ;)). It's true, Paris is just as cosmopolitan as London really. And I so enjoyed trying to work out what I understood from billboards and posters too. I was a happy tourist, haha.
 
Left: This is only a small section of the cheese aisle in Carrefour!
Right: And that cheese ended up on our plates one evening. Yum! L-R: Sarah W, Glenda, Mandy, Kayla, Princea
So we left there on the 9th, and all day was pretty much spent travelling. Came home and slept. And that's pretty much what I've been doing since ;). Again that's a slight exaggeration, I've done a big clean out of my room (again), and in the process broken one of the shelves that runs along the top of my wall.. oops. Not so much broken the shelf, but pulled it out of the wall..! But Dad says the wall is very weak, so no biggy. Kinda worrying though, glad it didn't happen with more serious recuperations, the shelf was mega heavy!
Now there are just two days left before term restarts. Later on today(!) I plan to go to Oxford and stay the night at Rebekah's. Hopefully meet up with friends who are still there, although nothing specifically planned yet, lol. And then come back here on the Lord's Day. In the evening go to Ruth's birthday meal and see London friends (yay, as haven't seen them for agggges, since June I think!), and then straight to Bower House to settle in for the new term! And somehow I don't see myself making an entry on my first term within the next two days, but I'll try and write Newsletter 3 and post it/send it this time!
Au revoir, mes amies. And grace to you!
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| Chinese Gospel Forum on Sat 5th Nov in Covent Garden |
[Mon 31 Oct 2005|16:55pm] |
Hi all,
Just thought I'd tell you about a Forum (in the sense of a question-and-answer, discussion type thing, rather than an online forum) that is coming up this weekend.
It's a Chinese Gospel Forum on Sat 5th Nov, in Covent Garden, from 4-8.30pm. There's a panel of Christians who will take questions and things like that for the first bit, and then there's a free Chinese meal afterwards. The whole thing is going to be in Chinese, so if you don't understand Chinese, I recommend you go with someone who does!
See the attached poster below, and feel free to email *** for more information :).
There are also going to be similar Forums happening in Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol (I think) and maybe a few other cities, within the next two weeks. If you're interested let me know and I'll find out the details.
www.mswe1.org
PS: Yes, maybe I'll try and make a real update sometime soon :)
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| A quickie |
[Sun 11 Sep 2005|20:51pm] |
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Just home for the evening - so hello all! :)
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semyl's journal
