'...the devil took [Jesus] up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God throw Yourself down. For it is written: 'He shall give His angels charge over you,' and 'In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.'"
Jesus said to him, "It is written again, 'You shall not tempt the Lord your God.'"'
Matthew 3:5-7 (NKJV)
I find myself wondering if I have that sort of faith, that I could stand atop the Cathedral and throw myself off knowing that I would not dash my foot against the ground. Whats more do I have the faith not to need to throw myself off, trusting that it is true? For it is all well and good to say unto myself that I shouldn't test God because what happens if it goes wrong. Its all very well to say that I have the faith to walk into the lions den but quite another not to need to because not a doubt assails my mind. It is all very well to say that I have the faith to say 'I believe in God' whilst staring down the barrel of a gun, but in my mind I ask myself how I would truly respond. Sometimes I think I don't know what my response would be until I stand in that situation and yet to know my response beforehand so that I don't need to place myself in that situation. The kind of faith that trusts so completely in God that it needs not test Him.
Again in Matthew 17:20 (NKJV), Jesus says '...if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there', and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.' Could I look at Mt Cook and command it to move and see it move. Dare I raise my hand to the west and command thusly?
Does my inherent skepticism deny faith?

'Lord I believe; help my unbelief.' - Mark 9:24 (NKJV)

News

I am off to Balclutha for the summer. I have got a job with the meat processing company PPCS Ltd. and it will complete the 120 days of work experience required for engineering. What's more since I will have finished my degree the pay is going to be better than most students get paid. Furthermore, since Balclutha is within 6 hours drive of Christchurch I will be able to come back for a couple of weekends over the course of the summer. The job entails mapping of pipelines and interpretation of P & ID (Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams) for the plant then measuring flow rates, compositions, and conditions of effluent streams. This will then lead to a bunch of smaller projects for treatment of these streams. Also, I will be investigating techniques that could be employed to conserve water. It's actually quite exciting...in a Chem Eng way. This will give me funds for the year because, for those of you that haven't heard, I'm off flatting next year. What's more I am off to Bible College, Christchurch Branch (or should I say Bridal College...wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more, say no more) to do a Dip Grad for a year. I have been warned as a 'science' student that the work load will be intense since instead of reports I will have to write essays groan.

Anyway good luck to any one going through exams and have a great summer.

Laptop

I just found this for $1400. Could ppl please give me some feed-back asap about it. Here go the specs:



Processor manufacturer - Processor type - Clock speed; Intel Celeron 2 GHz
Data bus speed - 400 MHz
Chipset type Intel - 852GM
Memory RAM installed - 256 MB DDR SDRAM
Max supported RAM - 1 GB
Cache size - Cache type 256 KB L2 cache

Storage
Hard drive size - controller type - hard drive type - 30 GB IDE Portable
CD / DVD type - CD-RW / DVD-ROM combo
CD / DVD read speed - 24x (CD) / 8x (DVD)
CD / DVD write speed - 24x
CD / DVD rewrite speed - 10x
Floppy drive - None

Input Devices
Input device type - form factor - Keyboard,Touchpad

Physical Characteristics
Weight - 6.2 lbs
Dimensions (W x D x H) - 13 in x 11.5 in x 1.5 in
Form factor - Portable

Display
Display size - technology - form factor - 15" TFT active matrix
Max resolution - 1024 x 768
Color support - 24-bit (16.7M colors)

Video
Max resolution (external) - 1920 x 1440
Graphics processor - Intel 852GM

Audio
Audio input - None
Audio output - Sound card
Compliant standards - DirectMusic,DirectSound,DirectSound3D,Sound Blaster Pro
Networking / Telecom Networking device - Network adapter
Data link protocol - Ethernet,Fast Ethernet
Modem - 56 Kbps Fax / modem
Analog Modulation Protocol - ITU V.92
Expansion / Connectivity Expansion slot(s) total (free) - 1 (1 free) PC Card Type II,2 (1 free)
Memory
Port(s) total (free) / Connector type - 1 Parallel IEEE 1284 (EPP/ECP),1 Display / video VGA,2 USB,1 Network Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX,1 Modem Phone line,1 Microphone Input,1 Headphones Output
Expansion bay(s) total (free) - None

Power
Battery installed - 1 Lithium ion
Mfr estimated battery life - 3.2 hour(s)
Capacity - 4400 mAh
Power supply device - External 75 Watt Power adapter

Operating System / Software
OS provided - Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

It's Good To Be A Guy

• Your last name stays put
• The garage is all yours
• Wedding plans take care of themselves
• Chocolate is just another snack
• You can be president
• You can wear a white T-shirt in the rain
• Car mechanics tell you the truth
• You don't give a r*** a** if someone notices your new haircut
• The world is your urinal
• You never have to drive to another gas station because this one's just too icky
• Same work...more pay
• Wrinkles add character
• Wedding Dress $5000; Tux Rental $100
• People never stare at your chest when you're talking to them
• The occasional well-rendered belch (etc!) is practically expected
• New shoes don't cut, blister, or mangle your feet
• Your pals can be trusted never to ask you: 'So, notice anything different?'
• One mood, ALL the d*** time
• Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds flat
• You can 'do' your nails with a pocket-knife
• You have freedom of choice concerning growing a moustache
• A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase
• You can open your own jars
• Dry cleaners and hair stylists don't rob you blind
• You can leave the motel bed unmade
• You get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness
• If someone forgets to invite you to something he/she can still be your friend
• Your underwear is $8.95 for a three-pack
• Everything on your face stays its original colour
• Three pairs of shoes is more than enough
• You can quietly watch a game with a buddy for hours without thinking: 'He must be mad at me'
• You can drop by to see a friend without having to bring a little gift
• You are not expected to know the names of more than five colours
• You almost never have strap problems in public
• You are unable to see wrinkles in your clothes
• The same style lasts for years, maybe decades
• You don't have to shave below your neck
• Your belly usually hides your big hips
• One wallet and one pair of shoes, one colour, all seasons
• You can do Christmas shopping for 25 relatives, on December 24th, in 45 mins

It's Good To Be A Man

Laptop

I am thinking of acquiring a laptop for myself in the near future. What I am looking for is something to do things like Uni work ie Excel, Word etc. as opposed to gaming. I am thinking about dvd capabilities as well. Can anyone offer me advice on this topic, ie speed, RAM, screen size/type etc. as I have no experience or comprehension of these weird and wonderful things.

For those of you that have been wondering here is the reason why have not been able to post for the past months.



These are vector plots where the length and direction of the arrows indicates the fluid speed and direction and the colour indicates the chloramine (smelly stuff) concentration. The top image is a cross-section of the Jellie Park swimming complex with no heat transfer through the walls (ie they are adiabatic for the art students out there) this means that no matter what the temperature outside the swimming pool complex the air inside the complex behaves in exactly the same manner. The next image is the same cross-section however this is when the temperature outside the complex is 15 deg C. The bottom image is the same cross-section however this is when the temperature outside the complex is 35 deg C. As can be clearly seen the fluid flow is quite different between the adiabatic case and the non-adiabatic cases. The 35 deg C has the best dispersion of chloramines with little or no areas of stagnation. 15 deg C is the worst with two large stagnant areas causing the chloramine concentration to build up in those places to the detriment of the patrons. However, 15 deg C is a better approximation of conditions in Christchurch and this case should be the one kept in mind when designing. Of interest was the 5 deg case (not pictured) the air circulation was better than all except the 35 deg case which was unexpected. This was caused by forced convection due to the air being heated over the pool and rising to the ceiling and then being cooled and sinking down the walls and being cooled further and then flowing across the floor and onto the pool etc. This got me really excited (sadly and geekly enough) because I hypothesised this reason when I saw this result and IT WAS CORRECT. I have actually learnt something after 3 years of Chem Eng!

As you can see very tedious but at least I just had to set a computer running and then could leave it for 24 hrs. I handed in the final report on Friday after much stress as I had to print 20 colour pages per copy and had no print credits on my account. So I ended up putting 10 bucks on and now have a -$20 balance. Not a good way to end Uni but my supervisor said I would be reimbursed.

In other news I just had both my parents 50th birthday and 25th wedding anniversary party yesterday. Just to clarify both my parents just turned 50 within 2 days of each other (not entirely unexpected :P, also just in case any of you are worried my father is older than my mother, the way it should be ;P) and also had their 25th wedding anniversary earlier this year. It was pretty cool and my parents got a dance instructor in for it since my dad dances as much as I do, sadly we were not taught how to dip ;). I had to work and arrived at the party just before the guests and was informed that I was to aid in the preparing of drinks and to make sure everything was kept topped up. Since I hadn't even seen the names of the drinks (non-alcoholic mixers) when the guests asked what they were like I couldn't even name half of what there was, let alone what it tasted like. My brother did another powerpoint presentation as he did for my 21st though a bit more tasteful.

The one really great thing was this morning all the extended family came around and we had a champagne breakfast. Mmmmmmm, waffles, bacon, eggs, hash browns... And of course the extended family is always cool.

Finally this hopefully will signal my return to the world of blogging with more posts to come.

Equality

There is no such thing as equality, it is an illusion

Light

If there was no light then there would be no darkness.