The Baptist Confession of Faith (1689) - Introduction

Some older posts on this blog I went through the 'Westminster Confession of Faith' which is an organised summary of Christian belief. Speed on till now and I have settled in the Baptist denomination for a big list of reasons (maybe that should be another blog post). So I thought it would be interesting to revisit the London Baptist version of the same document which is very very similar.

You may be thinking, 'Why do Christians not even agree? Don't you have the Bible? Why do you need these documents?'.  All good questions. Firstly the Bible is a small book - no really - I mean it! There are many much larger books in the world so there are things to talk about and huge complex concepts to discuss from the Bible. This means fellow Christians may have differences and they may group with the like-minded whilst still sharing the essentials with the 'other' church down the street. Secondly any creed or confession should merely summarise what we learn in the Bible. Lastly, the Scripture is more narrative and progressive than summarised and topical. I find an organised list easier at times.

Here's a link to the document that will be referenced in future posts:
The Baptist Confession of Faith (1689)

Staying Healthy For Winter

Definitely late autumn here now in Scotland though we have not experienced a frosty morning here (near the coast) and with the clocks changing winter is not too far away. I have been thinking about how to stay healthier for winter - fewer colds and sore throats would be nice! Hopefully this years cycling and general being outside in the sun more (good for vitamin D) will help. I have a few vitamin supplements I take too but always looking for something else.

New ways of staying warm are important, especially as I like to be outdoors all year round with dog walking and gathering firewood. A gift last year was a tube scarf which is pretty much as it sounds around 3 feet long with one third being thick fleece and the rest being lighter material. Tighter than a scarf it is also harder to lose. My wife has been raving about real wool jumpers so I am on a look out for one of those - I prefer fleeces which I can layer as required.

So what are your ways of staying warm and well in the winter? I would like some new ones to try from around the world :-)

Delete A Blog

Delete a blog... or about fifteen or so!

I have used Blogger for a long long time and my account was cluttered with retired blogs from years gone by that amazingly still got some traffic. Blogger is integrating with Google+ soon which prompted me to pop over and give everything a massive spring clean.

The 'new' Google style interface looked a bit odd at first but after playing with a few settings and browsing around it is easy to say that this is one of the best Google apps going. The interface is clean, uncluttered and has a much lighter feel than, say, Wordpress.

Hopefully it will be a while before I delete this blog. What do you think of the new Blogger?

The 180 Movie

33 minutes - watch it all here...

Photo Experiment : Pocket Telescope Zoom

Inspired by this photo which turned up on Twitter, I experimented with my pocket telescope (8x21mm) and the camera(3.2 Megapixels) on my phone. The photos below were taken next to Carnoustie Golf course - I should point out it was pretty windy so holding the telescope in place over the lens was not easily to do steadily.

The first picture is taken looking east at the Arbroath cliffs and the second looking out past Barry Buddon. I will definitely try again perhaps with a more powerful lens. I have many pictures of the beach after living there a number of years. Would be good to capture some of the activity out on the water from watersports to wildlife. Dolphins where are you? :-)

Music & Poetry at Barry Mill

Back to local history it seems! Next to Carnoustie is Barry and Barry has had a water powered mill for around 5 centuries. More info at wikipedia. Last year a local group managed to 'Save Barry Mill' from closure. This was partly fund-raising but also getting people attending. A number of events were organised including a couple of music nights. Last year was great fun so Marta and I looked forward to a night of 'music/poetry/comedy'. A different format and it worked well. Of course my Flip Camera came along too and below is a collection of highlights of the second half of the evening.

Shape and the Stylus - My iPad Thoughts

I try and keep this blog relatively geek-free but one tech topic that has come to mind recently is worthy of a wider audience than my 'coder' blog. Yes it is those smartphones and tablets. Don't worry I am not going to drone on about dataplans, signal coverage or apps! This is about shape, price and form factor.

I have used mobile devices and touch screens for many years when I was given an early Palm Pilot at work. These were amazing devices for the day. Remember a decent PC cost you around £1000 and here was something that would fit in your pocket that could run some decent applications for around £150. These devices got me used to using a stylus on a small device.

The iPad looks very nice and a bit expensive. Probably safe to say it will never have a stylus! This is a shame as both can work well together. My Nokia phone is touch most of the time but I can pull out the stylus based on preference (text entry for me). Android seems touch focussed too - I do not know of any stylus based devices for it. It would be nice to grow my iPod touch to an iPad size but only 'nice'.

My dream tablet device would be as follows - 7 to 10 inches, Stylus + touch input, optional keyboard, Wifi only, thin and running a Google OS (Android or ChromeOS). What sparked this imaginary device was watching some people with smartphones. People I saw seemed more comfortable holding the stylus and given the productivity boost and familiarity, I can't see it going away. It has mass appeal.

One other little quirk I have with mobile devices is price. Okay maybe we all are price quirky! I don't like small devices to cost more that the Palm Pilot price of at very maximum £200. There's something uncomfortable about carrying £400 of device in a pocket, sitting it on a table in a cafe or handing it to a child. So I hope a Google device can deliver on the £100 price point.

Okay two techie blog posts in a row. Something very different next time I promise!