tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63710892012-04-12T22:38:02.850+01:00The story of me, an American in Edinburgh, Scotland finding my place as a musician, a husband, a father and a Christian.Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10390048204597184850noreply@blogger.comBlogger284125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6371089.post-61641067719941333212007-09-02T13:27:00.001+01:002007-09-02T13:28:45.904+01:00

Well, you've served us well, darkebeerisathrillride.blogspot.com, but I'm afraid your era has come to an end. Introducing: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10390048204597184850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6371089.post-40864443205316996582007-08-31T23:56:00.000+01:002007-09-01T00:03:10.923+01:00

No, not for the baby, but for the new blog! Thanks for the suggestions, they got the creative juices flowing, but I ended up coming up with something on my own. It's not ready to be unveiled so you don't get to know what it is yet, but I'll give you a hint: it returns zero hits when googled in quotes. Care to take a guess?Also, for an update on the baby situation, head over to The Scot Vet.

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10390048204597184850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6371089.post-11378568429469277322007-08-30T23:06:00.000+01:002007-08-30T23:24:17.081+01:00

Here's a quick post, since I haven't gotten around to posting in a while. No baby yet, but that's not for a lack of...erm...waiting. We have an appointment at the New Royal Infirmiry tomorrow morning. They're seeing Jeni once a week now until she has the kiddo. The due date, by the way, is September 8. Instead of having a baby, we've been playing our new game Battlelore, which is pretty

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10390048204597184850noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6371089.post-51271300456776705182007-08-25T01:22:00.000+01:002007-08-25T01:42:45.084+01:00

So, I'm thinking of replacing this blog. While it has served me well on and off since 2004, I feel like it might be time to move on to something a little more with the times, with all that cool stuff like 'tags' and 'recent comments,' you know, the stuff all the cool kids are into. I also wouldn't mind ditching the once clever but now all to cumbersome 'darkbeerisathrillride' from my blog's

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10390048204597184850noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6371089.post-43838110687003911232007-08-22T23:50:00.000+01:002007-08-22T23:53:17.806+01:00

Dang, I'm feeling off the ball. Like, life-wise. I'm starting to have some vague idea of where I'm going, but I feel like I'm a loooong way off from it.Dang. No more late night Facebooking.

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10390048204597184850noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6371089.post-63389246407915106982007-08-17T21:35:00.000+01:002007-08-17T21:39:27.405+01:00

Anyone out there use Skype? Jeni and I love it, when it's working, which hasn't been the last few days. Any one else having this problem? It won't sign in. It'll just spend about 5 minutes trying and then quit unexpectedly. The Skype website says something's wrong, but I'm wondering if it's affecting everyone or just us mac people, or UK people, or basement dwelling people... Also, if you

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10390048204597184850noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6371089.post-12714328402329815692007-08-17T14:13:00.000+01:002007-08-17T15:33:01.059+01:00

One feature of a healthy church is that the individual congregation members know each other and care about each other. In Christian life this is marked by prayer. Prayer is one of the glues that hold Christian community together.The first and foremost community glue in the church is of course Jesus, who through himself binds us to the Father and to each other as members of the body of Christ

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10390048204597184850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6371089.post-47616451632073297332007-08-15T14:05:00.000+01:002007-08-16T11:28:07.341+01:00

As I mentioned in this post a few days back, I'm currently reading Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community by Wendell Berry, which was lent to me by my neighbor, Rob. The book is a collection of essays written in the early nineties, most revolving around the theme of respecting the land which provides our livelieness, something which Berry asserts that our current political, economic, and religious

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10390048204597184850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6371089.post-5874956985139616672007-08-13T21:34:00.000+01:002007-08-13T22:33:01.692+01:00

Many people live in dwellings with flat walls that join each other at 90 degree angles. Many people live in dwellings with ceilings that maintain at different points across the room an equal distance from the floor, or lacking this, slope in a linear fashion from one height to another across the room resulting in a ceiling which is, in the same manner as the aforementioned walls, flat. I am not

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10390048204597184850noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6371089.post-46246037214744005602007-08-13T06:54:00.000+01:002007-08-13T07:21:21.042+01:00

"We must see that it is foolish, sinful, and suicidal to destroy the health of nature for the sake of an economy that is really not an economy at all but merely a financial system, one that is unnatural, undemocratic, sacrilegious, and ephemeral." -Wendell Berry, Sex, Economy, Freedom & CommunityIn addition to the Oxford commas, there's a lot for me to like in this quotation. It links

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10390048204597184850noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6371089.post-7822060055963994292007-07-31T21:31:00.000+01:002007-07-31T21:58:59.968+01:00

So we went and got a phone today for the purposes of Jeni being pregnant/next year going to school way out in the boonies. It's a top of the line 5 years ago flip phone, nothing too fancy, normal camera phone. Phone was £34 plus £10 for prepaid minutes. Our idea was that we'd share the phone, with Jeni having it almost all of the time. In the UK all incoming calls are free on mobiles, so we

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10390048204597184850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6371089.post-11324401917855853652007-07-26T22:14:00.000+01:002007-07-26T22:15:46.331+01:00

...in Scotland the name "Fiona" only has two syllables.

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10390048204597184850noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6371089.post-72126823491226527212007-06-27T06:29:00.000+01:002007-06-27T06:43:54.935+01:00

Thanks to all of you who have been reading these posts and leaving comments. If you haven't read either of my previous posts on this book, here's the first, and here's the second. Ln, I do plan on writing a bit more about my thoughts on Christianity as a journey, but I'll leave that untill after my last few comments on this book.The second half of the book recounts ten services held at Ikon,

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10390048204597184850noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6371089.post-19626593522175260392007-06-25T22:21:00.000+01:002007-06-26T07:12:38.156+01:00

The Emergent movement is not at its heart about changing what we believe, but is about changing the manner in which we believe. Rollins describes the Emergent movement as a revolution in which "nothing changes and yet the shift is so radical that absolutely nothing will be left unchanged." As one would expect from this introduction, Rollins writes in such a way as to challenge the conventional

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10390048204597184850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6371089.post-31707548989596991602007-06-24T07:51:00.000+01:002007-06-24T08:02:40.159+01:00

The post I put up yesterday about Rollins' How (Not) to Speak of God was the first part of several pages I wrote in a Borders in Santa Monica after finishing the book. (You all know we're in L.A. for a month on holiday, right?) My original plan was to just post that document in several chunks, but I've decided to take a little while to expand on it and address whatever comes up in conversation

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10390048204597184850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6371089.post-74585121609305622352007-06-22T18:41:00.000+01:002007-06-22T19:52:05.282+01:00

The Emergent conversation is something that I know very little about. Andrew has been involved with Emergent get-togethers in So Cal, as he has mentioned on his blog, and Jeni and I even attended a church which described itself as “emergent” for a few months in Spokane. I know that the Emergent movement isn’t an attempt to create a new denomination or religion, nor is it an attempt for another

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10390048204597184850noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6371089.post-20620151688338670702007-06-09T14:03:00.000+01:002007-06-09T14:10:58.393+01:00

Here's an old song that's kind of appropriate to have stuck in my head before heading off to L.A.Without a ScreamAnother morning, in bed againWarm and snug with blankets pulled up to my chinA cold December I've never seenMy Southern California sun shine down on meI know that somewhere someone's coldSomeone's lonely, someone else is growing oldIf I could only get that through my head I might find

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10390048204597184850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6371089.post-47149845251753570362007-06-04T15:01:00.000+01:002007-06-04T15:16:00.800+01:00

Here's a new song for y'all, this time in glorious mp3 format for easy access by all the peoples. I didn't know until just a minute ago when I checked Anastasia's blog that yesterday was Trinity Sunday, so the timeliness of this song is naught but a happy coincidence. This is a simple little Trinitarian song that doesn't try to plumb the depths of the nature of the Trinity (seeing as how I only

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10390048204597184850noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6371089.post-71252340879619815022007-05-28T09:16:00.000+01:002007-05-28T09:30:19.027+01:00

Oh, you know. I've been here and there. I've mainly been helping Jeni study for her finals. I've been trying, and failing, at keeping our house in order between study sessions. In the time left over after all that I've been working on music. Oh! I also had coffee for the first time in my life. I think I'll post about the experience over on the Scotvet later today once I wake up a little.

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10390048204597184850noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6371089.post-38894377619135418742007-05-07T22:03:00.000+01:002007-05-07T22:31:13.737+01:00

This short post probably belongs in the comments on the post from two days back, but I didn't want it to get lost back in the shuffle.Nelle said:Liturgy does nothing for me. (Probably because I've never heard it done right.) So it looks like we won't be sharing a hymnal anytime soon.I want to do a quick term definition, or at least a clarification of how I use the term "liturgy." Liturgy is a

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10390048204597184850noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6371089.post-63858818952030519052007-05-06T23:07:00.000+01:002007-05-06T23:23:39.117+01:00

The style of worship here in Scotland is generally different than in the states. Now, to explain that fully is a longer post than I have time to write right now. I would also need to do it before two beers instead of after. (I was talking theology with Rob during the consumption of said beers so, you know, iz all good.) I will say that the difference is not in musical style, although most of

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10390048204597184850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6371089.post-21887224778806356422007-05-05T16:07:00.000+01:002007-05-05T17:41:09.599+01:00

WARNING Extremely long post ahead! If you just stopped by to goof off at work you might want to wait until you get home to read this. If you are procrastinating studying for finals, carry on.I think the advice Miranda gave in her comment on the last post, "pick a place and plant yourselves there no matter what (unless their theology is beyond wretched,)" is generally good advice and it was the

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10390048204597184850noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6371089.post-24774265721577238512007-05-03T21:37:00.000+01:002007-05-03T22:22:42.721+01:00

Man, guys. I'm not really doing so hot here right now. I feel like I've been a serious jerk to everyone I've come in contact with for the last few days. I feel like I'm being a real bad husband and that I don't understand the concerns of my wife. Life feels hard in Scotland right now. I long for what I claim to hate, things like tract housing and national chain retailers. I don't really

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10390048204597184850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6371089.post-5505370889838066822007-04-16T15:23:00.000+01:002007-04-16T15:47:25.445+01:00

So this comic thing is sort of fun. If you've been reading my blog for a while, and you probably have been, then you know that I've tried, and failed, at making comics a few times. We'll see how long this latest attempt lasts. As you can probably guess I'm just transcribing bits of real life conversation in comic form. I'll just post them here as I make them above the blog posts.So my first

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10390048204597184850noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6371089.post-5921658498123579072007-04-14T20:57:00.000+01:002007-04-14T21:03:56.727+01:00

Look, it's just like you're right here in Scotland with us! Just ask AJ and Rachelle, they'll tell you it's true.(By the way, AJ and Rachelle, my UK driving skillz have increased a bazzilion-fold since our little jaunt down death lane.)

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10390048204597184850noreply@blogger.com1