Read it here.

The back story, is that our good friend Dave was approached to have his master’s thesis published as a book. A thesis and a book are two different things, and significant editing of the original would be required to make it more approachable, and slightly shorter. Having just moved to a recently earthquake ravaged country, he asked Maija and I if we would consider taking on the editing of his thesis. We were very honoured to be asked, and graciously accepted. We’re now a couple of days away from completion, so I’m taking a moment of repose.

Here are the 3 ways that God has blessed us through this:

1. We had recently been impressed by some friends who lent their personal expertise to some other friends for a project. Maija and I agreed that we wanted to be the same kind of people, and asked God for an opportunity. He provided!
2. I’ve been itching to write, and this provides me with an excellent opportunity. In the division of work, Maija tackles the high level concepts and ensures that we’re tossing out and keeping the right things. She’s the Masters student who studied discourse analysis, so this is exactly her speciality. That then leaves the rewording and paraphrasing to me, which is exactly what I want. God is good.
3. This is a paid gig, so it provides a nice little bonus for our work. We would honestly have done it without pay, due to the above 2 factors, but I’m not going to deny that this is a blessing also.

Once this project is done I really want to start a new writing project myself. I feel there is some momentum behind me… and I really don’t want that to die. Editing existing material is really a great way to get going though… a blank slate can be a terrifying thing. If anyone else has some interesting in collaboration writing, let’s do something!

Also… I’m reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. It’s great!

Such as:

- buying a car (looking for something used and cheap)
- saving for a trip to NZ for Christmas
- Maija finishing her thesis before the next baby comes
- welcoming another baby to the family
- starting to look for a new place to live (we will outgrow our current home in 12 months)

Fun times ahead!

“You can pray for a woman I just met. Got off alcohol only to get on prescription drugs, just lost her 2 little kids to the state, & her husband got arrested for beating her. Meanwhile, some people are really frustrated that their 3G connection is slow. Perspective is a great gift.”

I just finished a poll for Avaaz, a worldwide human action network. And the results from 40,000+ members trouble me slightly:

I don’t care about the specifics of global warming (or cooling), or climate change perse… but I am committed to being less wasteful and destructive on this planet. But not if it means I must turn a blind eye on HUMAN issues. I think Avaaz is a good organization, but it troubles me how their members have prioritized the above list.

Happy new year, everyone! From the four of us here in Finland.

So… I’m hunting for the perfect model. It needs:
- an 8-10 inch display
- graphics powered by Nvidia ION
- Windows 7
- multitouch swivel display
- upgradeable RAM
- full size (or close, >85% size) keyboard
- other obiqutious features that don’t really need listing (webcam, enough usb ports, etc.)

So far the Asus T91 seems to be the only machine sporting the tablet-style display with multitouch, but it lacks ION. There aren’t too many Nvidia ION powered machines yet, though the HP Mini looks good (but lacks the touch display and Windows 7). I think we’ll have to give it another few months…

It’s interesting to me… I find my experience of Christ changes over time. At present it seems intricately linked to my family, to my home. To the day to day. Tidying, working (from home), playing with James, loving my wife, are all spiritual matters. I believe life is inherintly spiritual. Now that I am removed from that usual climate, the forms of worship now typical for me… I feel empty, drained, exhausted, lonely. The struggles at work seem harder to clime over… the battles harder and faught with less support.

But as I said… highs and lows. I’m sitting in the lobby of a hotel where I’m staying for the weekend (currently waiting) for the wedding of one of my best friends. He was my best man, in fact. We’re going to have a blast. 2 hours from now I won’t feel or sound so melancholy at all.

Also… a friend of mine passed away from cancer this week, so I know that’s weighing on my mind and my soul.

Aghh… I’m rambling now. I know this reads very melancholy… I’m really not depressed… just trying to vent a little of my frustration/sadness/low energy, before the rest of the wedding party arrives :)

My (new) Finnish drivers license expires in 2056.

And here’s more pictures of our boy!

Upon arrival, the midwives seemed to relax just a little when they found out it was our first child. “This’ll take some time” I’m sure they were thinking. Until they checked Maija out, and found she was already 8cm dilated. This baby’s coming out!

2 hours later… for a total of 4 hours labour… James Eden Puddle!

Born naturally and healthy, with a full head of red hair! Just like his uncle. 2.9kg… 6.3lbs. Mum and baby are doing great.

The grammatical genesis of ‘Johnny on the spot’ cannot be traced very clearly, but the phrase certainly originated from the longer and less expressive one, ‘Johnny is always on the spot when wanted.’ … The expression is to some extent a variation or rather a continuation of that other phrase, ‘He gets there.’” Johnny here must be a general name for any young male and doesn’t refer to a real person.

Source.

As is my custom, I offer a new years eve mix, commemorating 2008. Please enjoy responsibly.

2008 has been an excellent year for trance and house music. Just superb. And I think my New Years mix reflects that. We start off showcasing some juicy prog house, and gradually move into some of the best trance music I’ve come across in years. Biggups to all these artists, who are producing great music! And biggups to you for completing another year. Have a great new years celebration and an even better 2009.

J Puddy – Goodbye 2008 – high quality

J Puddy – Goodbye 2008 – low quality

Tracklist:
mango – every sunrise (joel armstrong remix)
dinka – slightly different
shiloh – push
chunk and twist – battery life
john dahlback – blink (d.o.n.s dbn chainsaw remix)
w&w – mustang
kate bush – running up that hill (infusion vs joel armstrong remix)
andy moor – fake awake
armin van buuren feat sharon den adel – in and out of love (the blizzard remix)
ilya soloviev – sunwaves (static blue remix)
ilya soloviev & paul miller – lover summer (orjan nilsen remix)
4mal – time is burning (topher jones)
sunlounger feat zara – lost

Happy New Year! Enjoy!

THERE IS nothing wrong with minority governments, per se. It depends what kind of minority. Do we want the kinds of minority Parliaments we have had in recent years, a clutch of hobbled regional or quasi-regional parties, fingers perpetually on the button, endlessly threatening to pitch us all into another pointless election in the vain hope that, if the swing voters can be distracted in their direction, if the splits go their way, if they can demean and belittle their opponents enough, if they can depress turnout even further than before, they might just fluke their way into a majority? Or will we accept that, whatever the ancient glories of the two-party system, it no longer exists?

If we must have five-party politics, let them at least be parties with real differences, and national appeal. Away with the system that guarantees the Bloc two-thirds of the seats in Quebec on the strength of little more than one-third of the vote. Away with the ghettos of Conservative Alberta, or Liberal Toronto, where it is scarcely worth campaigning, so predictable are the results. Away with “strategic voting,” and other attempts to tell people they may not vote for the party they support, but must vote against the party they fear. Away with the disgraceful situation of a party winning almost a million votes, as the Greens did this time out, and getting zero seats.

Indeed, when you think about it, many of the problems identified in this piece have their origins in the perverse incentives of our highly leveraged, winner-take-all electoral system. Why have the Tories degenerated into mush? Because they face no competition on the right, Reform-style uprisings being more or less outlawed for fear of “splitting the vote.” Why did the Liberals ignore their growing weakness all these years? Because they could still count on the bizarre distortions of first-past-the-post to reap a bushel of seats from one region or another. Why has the Bloc become an immovable blot on the national scene, long after its original purpose was exhausted? Ditto. Why have majority governments become next to impossible? Why has politics degenerated into such vicious, empty partisanship? Why do so many people no longer bother to vote? Because the system is broken, and if this election won’t persuade us to change it, nothing will.

Fair Vote Canada is a nonprofit, multi-partisan advocacy group for electoral reform in Canada. They published a paper back in 2005, on making Every Vote count, which you can read here. If that links goes down, I’m hosting a copy here as well. I encourage everyone to read it in it’s entirety, to gain an understanding of the voting alternatives, allowing you to decide for yourself if you think we’re currently being represented fairly.

(We’re not, by the way.)

In future, I’d use less potato (I used too much this time, admittedly), more mushrooms and spices, and roll the pastry thinner. All in all though, very easy, and very delicious.