Check this!!! “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley…. But played on the THEREMIN!! The world’s most peculiar instrument that is strangely cool. Believe it or not I have actually had a go on one!

Thousands of women gathered at the Centaur for a conference was enough to scare the living daylights out of these poor boys, but they don’t seem to show it!! Over to Mark, Jake, Jon and Dave!

I am not sure why but just now I was thinking about “tights” and why on earth in America they call them “pantyhose”!!?? I looked on the trusty Wikipedia and found the following information:

The term ‘pantyhose’ originated in the United States, referring to the combination of ‘panties’ (an American term for women’s underpants) with sheer nylon hosiery, meaning they are usually worn without other undergarments. In the United Kingdom, they are called tights, a term that refers to all such garments regardless of whether they are sheer lingerie or sturdy outerwear. In the U.S., the term tights is used for non-sheer garments typically made of a stretchy material like spandex, and worn during exercise or athletic activity, or as utility clothing.

Well… You learn something new every day!!

This is a pic of when Tim met his hero!!

Well this weekend has certainly been ‘varied’… Friday night was a barrel of laughs as She-ra, Wolverine and The Punisher made their way through town to Copa, where Steve Clarke was having a surprise superheroes party. I am not sure who was more likely to get arrested first, JT with big skewers sticking out of his hands, Luke who was wearing womens leggings, boots and a belt, or me with my plastic sword and cape!

Poor Steve thought he was going out to dinner, but instead, had to don a child’s Spiderman costume which was a little too small!!! So Spiderman wandered around for the evening in jeans for decency, whilst Mr Incredible, Catwoman, Batman and Clarke Kent played some music. What a fun night!

Last night was Tim’s 25th birthday, so we had a bit of a BBQ. I charged round town frantically at 7:00 trying to find a gazebo to shield the BBQ from the rain. We ended up with a monster of a gazebo which proves how little faith I have. I prayed that it would stop raining and it did!! So we now have a ridiculous looking gazebo in the garden for no real reason… I’m sure it will be useful. However it was an enjoyable evening.

Adobe! Not only are their products great, but their Indian service team are brilliant. They are calm, polite and interested. Hooray! I was enquiring about upgrading my license for Creative Suite as unfortunately CS2 existed before the Macbook Pro, so there are bugs when using it with an Intel Mac. Now that CS3 has come out I am unable to upgrade an educational license so have to purchase a new license Shame.

I was slightly embarrassed however that the phone was answered so quickly and that the lady in Glasgow (before India) heard me singing a tragic rendition of one the Commitments songs!!! Ooops.

I was sad just now… I was washing up when I heard a timid knock at the door. I answered to find a skin-headed teenager standing there with a large holdall. He smelt a little..er….’fragrant’ and had slightly goofy teeth. He was from some kind of organisation that are supposedly turning delinquents into entrepreneurs, by ‘training’ them and sending them out to sell household goods to earn some money for themselves instead of committing crime.

What a good idea! Until he opened his bag… Inside were a variety of goods that had just stepped out of the same factory as Poundland. Bless him, he was very well spoken and enthusiastic, so I stood and listened. He tried to sell me an ironing board cover, dusters, dishcloths, hankies, a feather duster, some floor wipes etc etc. I felt so sorry for him that I wanted to buy something just to encourage him, but in the end I just couldn’t bring myself to spend £7.99 on some fridge wipes, or £4.99 on some cheap dishcloths that you could buy for about 49p in Wilko!!

I was actually disgusted, is that seriously the very best us pig heads can come up with to help teenagers get some direction in life?? It is not entrepreneurial, it is disillusionment and exploitation in its very lowest form! No doubt this poor kid has to buy the products he sells, or give commission on what he gets rid of to some stinking rich laughing business person.

We sit here wondering why teenagers have no staying power, no enthusiasm etc and on the other hand we send them out on dead end missions to (as he even said) ‘keep them off the street’. Out of sight, out of mind, by sheer con. That isn’t even giving lip service to young people, it is just abuse as far as I am concerned.

How much would it take for someone to sit down with this lad and find out what he can do? It doesn’t take much to get someone excited about life and direction, you just have to give a monkey’s about it and them. I remember when I did my A Level art, I was terrified, having not done GCSE. I arrived at the class to find a new teacher (even more terrifying!) However, his character was so enthusiastic, so driven and so motivated that you could not help but join in and want to succeed! He started the course by saying “every single person in this class could get an A if they wanted to”. This was a bold and brave statement coming from a new guy who had never seen our work!

As the two years went on, he would enthuse about all our work even if it was rubbish, encouraging us to look at different artists, showing us how to do even better and always having time for each person. Legend. Sure enough, even though not everyone got an A, nobody failed art that year and several have gone on to study arts and are doing really well.

How much would it take for someone to have that level of enthusiasm when encouraging people with what to do next? This is where schools, churches and all organisations seem to fail really, as they suddenly pass the buck into the hands of the young person who is perhaps not ready to make such a big decision single-handedly. We say to the kid who apparently can’t succeed at anything “Oh why don’t you just get a shop job? ” or “Why not do a BTEC in business studies?” Well what is the use of that BTEC if you don’t know what to start a business in? If you can paint nails then you have a potential business, but would that occur to people in that kind of dilemma? Would they have the courage after being pooed on from on high by everyone else who can’t be bothered?

Enthusiasm is catching. Why did I not go from school to Uni and instead spend 3 years in youth work? Because I hate the fact that people don’t give others the time of day. I love to look for potential in people who think they have none, it is an exciting challenge. I hate people who instead make people into their ‘project’ so that they can get all the glory for it, as that is missing the point entirely.

So where is this going? The more I go through life, the more I realise that the people who I thought were great are maybe not so great and that the people who were not so great are actually not all bad. I have known the theory of this for years because Jesus modeled it, by hanging out with those who others frowned upon and looking for potential in them. He made disciples from fishermen, leaders from sinners and ate with thieves. However, the older I get, the more I GET it rather than just know it. I don’t always know how to apply it or how to be like Jesus in this respect, but I think we should look in church, in our work places etc for people who need to be encouraged, give them some time and encourage them forwards in life and towards God.

In the meantime, those teenage offenders… Is there anything better we can think of than getting them to sell dusters at extortionate prices so we can use them to play on people’s sympathies and make loads of money out of cheap products? Why don’t you just blow your nose on the teenager, it would cut out the product even! Grrr.

I found this today on a well-known auction site that rhymes with “we pay”(!) and wondered if they might perhaps be trying just a little TOO hard to con the general public into buying old tat. Love it. Which reminds me, must finally post this genius video… Completely unrelated *ahem* of course!!

I have finished painting the walls and the office is starting to show some vague semblance of order… In the middle of this I am working on several web sites (including our own!), trying to avoid doing the gloss work, freaking out about finalising the business banking and all the while wondering when we can get rid of the hideous curtains and lamp shade!! It is all good fun. Click the image for a larger view of elevation in action!!