Back in the R-D-G

Hey ho all, I arrived safely back in Reading today, to stay until graduation on the 6th of July. I do believe my calendar's pretty free, so feel free to txt/email/phone me so we can meet up and have some fun! :D

In other news, I didn't quite pass my driving test this morning. I personally blame old ladies walking out in front of my car when I was happily passing over a pedestrian crossing.

But there you go. I did however realise something as I was praying about the test, both yesterday and today. I found myself not praying to pass the test as such, but rather that God would give me peace about it. As things are, I did not pass - but this does not mean God loves me any less, nor that he hates my driving. No; it means it wasn't his will. And I hope and pray that he helps me humble my heart more and more, daily, so that I can trust his will & stop believing that I know best! He knows my driving's not quite up to scratch, and for the safety of everyone else, he's probably said 'no, not yet, you're not ready'. But take a step back - isn't that how God often moves and answers prayers? ;) man I love how God teaches you these things!

As my good friend Tash commented this afternoon, 'you can't trust them old ladies!'

Sleep beckons, so I shall go meet it and see what it wants. ttfn :)

TheWeeScottie

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weird is just your own personal brand of normal

Error of note

I love it when Windows pops up these little gems. The pic's of my laptop showing me my broadband's working fine, but insisting that the modem can't be found!










Aaah, God bless Windows ;)

TheWeeScottie

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weird is just your own personal brand of normal

Twilight's Gaze

Twilight's Gaze

Twilight's gaze carress the sky
as misty shadows trace the night
Fresh-lit lanterns dot the black
where once the void was all but clear
Tired trees now rest their leaves
as starlings take their daily rest
and clouds now take on shimmering shapes
as on daylight's stage, the curtain falls

Midnight blue to burnished bronze
the heavens ever proudly show
the maker's touch, displayed for all,
a touch so few can vouch to know.
Such beauty, power and glory shown
the greatest artist can't design
yet power and glory shared with love
that day he took this filth of mine
and nailed it to that cursed tree
where love and pain mixed bitter-sweet
took this darkened, crippled soul
drew scaled from eyes, restored my feet.

Midnight blue to burnished bronze
the sky displays for all to see
my father's hand I see in this
the one who took this broken me
and once, for all, bought back my life
as such, my praise shall ever be:
the God who drew this sky tonight
loved me enough to set me free

Midnight blue & burnished bronze

Don't you find it annoying when you get ready for bed, snuggle down, and then realise 10 minutes later that your mind's still rather active? This was how I found myself yesterday at 11.30pm, having headed to bed at 10.45pm. I guess it must have been seeing Gran this afternoon in hospital. One minute she was chatting away (as much as she could, giving the pain), and then unresponsive. And then nurses were rushing past us and we were off down the hallway out of the way. Not nice to see, especially when it's someone you care so much for. But, Praise God that she stabilised and was a lot more chirpy today!

Back to yesterday, I just couldn't sleep. So I dismounted the bed and rolled back my blinds to see a fantastic sky - graded from midnight blue to burnished bronze. Something about the ky always inspires awe in me, so I grabbed my sketch-book and pen and took to writing poetry as it formed in my head. A rhyming scheme develops as it progresses, but poetry at its most raw and powerful often doesn't rhyme or scan overly coherantly.

I guess those 2 colours, Midnight blue & Burnished bronze are going to stick with me for a long time now; each time, reminding me of God's power, glory and wonderful design - both in all I physically see, and in what I seek to trust in. So here is the poem, I hope you enjoy it.

Twilight's Gaze

TheWeeScottie

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weird is just your own personal brand of normal

Home diddly-home home

Slightly tired, and thoroughly 'bushed' (I fought a 20ft shrubbery for control of a wall whilst balancing on a step-ladder) I have to say that my stay at home has been a tad short-lived as I'm back to Reading on Tuesday for results then the CU ball on Wednesday (Woo Hoooooooooooooo!!!) and back home on Thursday until the following Saturday.

A crazy old week, I'm sure you'll agree but thankfully it's still Sunday and I'm thoroughly looking forward to wading through my unpacking (which has taken to smiling at me, knowing it is quite safe for a further week) and scaling the precipice to my nest-like bed near the ceiling.

I shall see you all hopefully soon, so in the mean time; in the immortal words of Fender, from 'Robots'...

'Au-resovoir, mes amis!'

TheWeeScottie

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weird is just your own personal brand of normal

Packing & nostalgia

As Friday nears, and I can't wait to go home and see my family I find myself packing up my room into boxes. Today has made me rather nostalgic, packing up 3 years of memories into boxes to head off and begin the next stage of my life as it were.

It's bin a funny ol' 3 years, packed full of the joys and pains of uni life, holidays and family and friends. I look around and see my Disney collection - built up over 3 years of ebaying, my 6 large ring-bound folders of Electronic Engineering knowledge - some more well learnt than others, my guitar which I've had the huge privilege of leading CU worship with, my inflatable 'air' guitar which santa gave me last year, my hawaiian shirt collection which Si and I have unheld 'Hawaiian Friday' with for 2 years, and the final thing my gaze rests on is my bible.

It makes me stop and think; throughout the past 3 years, God's been there in the thick of things, both academic and personal lives. He's tried to teach me many things, knocking me to my knees sometimes when I just didn't get it. I've worked, and he's helped my focus. I've saught him, and he's answered without fail. I've cried, and he's cried with me and comforted me. I've praised, and he's accepted it and danced with me. I've been humbled, and he's smiled as I've finally understood more of his character and goodness. I've despaired, and he's reminded me of his faithfulness and plan for me. I've fallen, and he's picked me up and when necessary, carried me.

These 3 years have been exciting, painful, humbling, uplifting, despairing; real, times. And in all those times, God has been as real as the day he created me, as the day he sent Jesus to die for me, as the day he welcomed me with open arms into his family, as this day now where he walks with and teaches me. And as I look forward, I know God's calling me to India for 5-6 months next February, and then onto PGCE, hopefully at Reading. I don't know what the future holds, but God never changes, he continues to be faithful to my prayers and to guide me in his ways.

I may not know for certain what's coming around the corner, but 3 years ago I didn't know God as deeply as I do now. I can't wait to see what he teaches me in the time to come. Many good times have been had over the past 3 years, and I wouldn't exchange them for anything. But tomorrow beckons, and one day I'll know him face to face as I was meant to. Bring on the future, one day at a time :)

TheWeeScottie

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weird is just your own personal brand of normal

Hedgestoooooooooooooooock!!

Having had been home nigh-on a day, I've finally got enough energy to post on Hedgestock. Possibly the most fun I've had in a long time, considering the job was effectively car-parking! Yael and I set off at 4am to get there in time for starting work at 6 & spent Wednesday and Thursday parking cars in the baking heat, conveniently forgetting my sun-tan lotion. Sometimes I think I'd forget my head if it weren't so well glued-on... however, one of the cars I helped park had a member of the catering staff in it who offered me sun-tan lotion! Bargain! Never let it be said that God cares about the big thing in life, but not the little things ;)

After work we perused the various stalls, enjoyed 6 shots in the paint-balling tent & tried to get some beads from various vendors, to no avail! The evening was by far the best part of the 2 days there; The Who playing live! I'm not sure what I found better; The Who playing live on stage & getting within 15 feet of them, or seeing 300-400 bankers and investors decked out in beads and jumping up and down to The Who! An experience I'm not likely to forget for a loooong time!!

5 hours of sleep later, we awoke at 4am to pack tents up and cook bacon sarnies before the last stretch. It went smoothly, with a pot noodle each to sustain us til lunch time! So wrong, I know, but we're still alive and kickin! Thoroughly deaded by lunchtime, we finally found some of the magic banker beads and kept them as momentos. Barely conscious we arrived back in Milton Keynes to Yael's house to a home-made shepherd's pie before getting a good night's sleep and a safe journey back to Reading.

Brown as beef gravy, and miraculously not burnt, I have to say I slept rather well that night! ;) Bargain!
















TheWeeScottie

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weird is just your own personal brand of normal

New computer!!

It's been on the drawing board for a while now, but my friend John and I have just finished building my first home-made computer!
















For those of you who take one look at me and go, yes Tim, that's nice; it's black with blue trim, and it goes like the clappers. For those of you who know a thing or 2 about computers, here are the tech specs for it:

CPU: Athlon 64 4000+
RAM: 2GB
Hard Drives: 80GB (for OS-loading), 250GB (Both SATA-2)
Graphics: Geforce 6800GTX 256MB
Case: Coolermaster Centurion
Optical Drives: DVD-RW, DVD-ROM
Other: Floppy/Memory card

Ironically, for all the work we've done on it, I neglected to buy a power lead! Hopefully though, this will be arriving by the time I leave for hedgestock today.

Altogether, Mr. Tim is one happy bear :)

Mr. Tim's bank balance, is distinctly not! ;)

TheWeeScottie

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weird is just your own personal brand of normal

The Weekend of the wedding, the kilt & Kent

Having just dumped my bags and kilt on my bed, I feel like I'm good to drop! It's been an absolutely fab weekend and Sunday's not even over yet.

Friday saw me grab my kilt & head off to Tunbridge Wells in anticipation of my housemate Julie's wedding on Saturday. I spent a fab evening with Jonny, a good friend (and last year gradutate) of mine catching up and chilling out which was great. A rather nice spag bol followed by QI brought the evening to a nice close.

Saturday morning involved getting kilted-up (for want of a better adjective!) and Jonny, Si, Alex and Ryoko bundling into Jonny's car & heading off to Tunbridge Wells Baptist Church. One image from the weekend that's going to stick with me for a while is Julie walking down the isle. She looked absolutely stunning. I'm not going to post pics, but if you pop over for a cuppa I'll show you the pics! The service was good, lots of songs (woo!) and the message clearly God-orientated, putting marriage in the context of the church. Very refreshing! Upon being photoed from all angles, we arrived at The Highrocks to the surprise of a steam train trip & champagne before the reception! Marvelous fun, and at the reception Julie's dad and Phil both gave witty yet touching speeches. A fab afternoon had by all, and the weather was Sun for all to see! :D

After the reception I was hastily chauffered by Ruth's dad back to their house in Sevenoakes, Kent. WHAT a house! AND they have a trampoline!! So I was happy for a good 30 mins :) The sun continued through Sunday, being woken at 8 by David (Ruth's very young brother) and having a fun breakfast before church. A fantastic lunch of meatloaf, potatoes & amongst other things, 'family salad' (I hasten to add, not made from members of family) and a fun afternoon playing in the back garden ranging from trampoline to badminton and frisbee saw me on my way back to Reading with Ruth and dad in tow thoroughly shattered from the weekend and looking forward to a a relaxing evening in, but what an awesome time it was!

Bring on hedgestock on Tuesday-Thursday!

TheWeeScottie

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weird is just your own personal brand of normal

True hope

I've noticed you hear the word 'Hope' used in many different contexts, here are just a few:

'I hope I get this toy for my birthday'
'I hope I get the grades I need for this job'
'I hope to find true love'

We find that a large number of people, often including ourselves, hope in terms of something that might happen; something nice which we're aiming for, but may not come through or may turn out to be a dissapointment.

I was just reading a post by Kath, and 2 verses really stuck out to me at the bottom:

"But as for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more" -- Psalm 71:13-15

"But as for me, I watch in hope for the LORD, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me."
-- Micah 7:6-8

As Christians we have not a merely possible hope, nor a 'would be nice but that kinda thing never happens to me' hope, nor a hope that is pie in the sky. We have a hope in Jesus Christ for the future that cannot fail, cannot be changed, and has no chance of being reduced or downgraded from what it is; eternal life with our loving Lord and saviour Jesus Christ!

Be encouraged, because what we have in Jesus is not fleeting, nor is it based on a feeling or idea of our own. We are not running after something we can never catch; we are running this race of life, knowing that the goal of Heaven lies before us, that our futures are secure in him, that he is with us. And that should make us want to praise God from the depths of our hearts!

As for us, we have a hope that will never fail or grow cold or less interesting or less possible or less likely. We have a hope that is secure, the only hope that can sustain and guide us until the end of time when we'll stand on the shores of eternity and see that hope fulfilled perfectly as Jesus stands before us, before God & his righteousness is ours forever.

The one true hope; ours forever.

TheWeeScottie

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weird is just your own personal brand of normal

RPG

Over the Easter Hols I got started on writing a basic RPG (Role Playing Game) computer game as a way of relaxing/distracting myself from revision, and I just remembered it today! So that's what I'm going to be doing for most of today. Hurrah!

The game's a light take on the (potentially) serious running of RPGs, in that you have silly named items (e.g. the sweatband of french transformation) and enemies (e.g. 'baron von jinglestop', or an 'Asda smart-price ketchup golum').

Here's where you come in, oh faithful blog readers... Once I've finished the game's basic command structure, I'll be needing ideas for enemies, items, quests, areas, all sorts! So if you have any fun ideas, the sillier the better, then comment this post with them & I'll pop 'em down. You'll even get to be in the credits! Could you ask for a more prestigous reward?! Well yes, you probably could, but that's the way it is =D

I might post you a banana if I can find stamps.

and a banana.

TheWeeScottie

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weird is just your own personal brand of normal