History of the Bible?

I was looking forward to this series on Channel 4, but it makes a shockingly bad start.

Apparently to have ever begun believing in only one God, the Jews must have stopped believing in more than one, never to return.

This is despite the Bible being full of accounts of the Jews turning away from faith in the one true God, to worship the idols of other nations over and over again. Archaeological evidence of idol worship since the time of Moses doesn’t even come close to proving that the monotheistic creation account wasn’t written until much later.

I agree to some extent with John Polkinghorne, and the conclusion that the Bible is not a science text book; Genesis 1 alone isn’t what convinces me that the theory of evolution is wrong, but I’m with Greg Haslam in that my faith in God is rooted in real events.

Nobody Knows, Nobody Sees, Nobody But Me

My favourite band right now is Kings of Leon.

I got their Live At The O2 DVD for Christmas and have watched songs from it on my iPod many times since then.

There are some odd things about them, like some of the lyrics, eg. the finale, Black Thumbnail, contains the words “I’ll blow off in your sleep”.

They look a funny combination too, it’s not hard to believe Caleb (singer) and Nathan (drums) have brotherly fist-fights (apparently some of the odd lyrics are thanks to Caleb being on painkillers after these fights), meanwhile their brother Jared (bass) wears a waistcoat and drinks from a wine glass on stage.

Cousin Matthew (lead guitar) looks like he wants to be tough like his older cousins, wears a leather jacket, but still looks about 17 and pulls some silly guitar faces when he’s not really doing anything impressive. Which brings me onto his playing, he’s capable of some cool sounding stuff, but does very little more than play long high notes or the same note repeatedly, and pretty much uses just the one sound, which is getting a little boring now. I’d like to hear him show off a bit more and use one or two different effects; if Beneath The Surface is a sign of things to come I think I’ll be happy.

Anyway, onto the good stuff: this song has become a particular favourite of mine, especially since seeing it on the DVD:

I just now discovered the story behind it:

I’m very confused about what they believe. According to Wikipedia they were brought up travelling around churches with their preacher dad, but then apparently he was asked to leave the church, and then got divorced.

I wonder what Caleb meant by feeling terrible about saying “Jesus don’t love me”. I would think plenty of Christians can sympathise with the feeling of wandering in a Cold Desert at times, but if he’s clearly explained somewhere whether he would call himself a Christian or not then I have yet to find it. I would be intrigued to know.

What I can see is that they’re not living like I would expect Christians to live, for example, getting very drunk. I also thought it was slightly odd for Caleb to thank his mum for being at the gig just before playing Sex On Fire. Not that thanking his mum for being there is un-Christian-like, but y’know.

There’s an interesting range of people who like Kings of Leon, on the DVD you see some people moshing and some people making heart shapes with their hands. Caleb’s been quoted as saying it’s not cool that the sort of woman who wouldn’t have let him date her daughter now likes his music, so I think it’ll be interesting to hear what the next album sounds like.

100th Post: Steal My Car Fail

15 years old and it only cost £30 to get it through it's MOT (the one on the left)

I wanted something good for my 100th post, and last night some loser provided me with the following story about my lovely car.

I arrived at my car this morning to find, firstly, the rear windscreen wiper was not in the normal position (i.e. as if the engine had been turned off mid-wipe) I didn’t remember having windscreen wipers on last night so thought that a bit odd, but assumed it was just me.

I then came to the driver’s door and found it unlocked. I’m sure I didn’t leave it like that.

Anyway, I got in, and found a load of cables hanging from underneath the steering wheel. Definitely didn’t leave it like that.

But my car doesn’t start easily in the cold and wet, and the wannabe thief obviously gave up (or maybe they took it for a drive and brought it back – that was nice of them), and didn’t even bother taking anything. The CD player’s not worth nicking, but then I didn’t think the car was worth stealing either, I guess I was wrong. Shame I can’t drive it for a while though.

So basically, thank God for my brilliantly rubbish awesome car.

Get Better

Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip are back, advising us how not to fail at life.

I don’t agree with all of the suggestions in the video, but overall, I like the song.

Dignity vs. £12?

So while I was sitting in Kwik-Fit yesterday waiting for the MOT to be finished, an old man pointed to the poster shown below and said to me “Here’s a tip for you: if you need 4 tyres, get 2 done then come back the next day and get the other 2, that way you get 30% off.”

I didn’t want to correct him and make him feel stupid, but assuming each tyre costs £30, I could have saved him £12 by explaining it.

Dilemma.

(insert more interesting title than ‘A-Z of Music @ the Start of 2010′ here)

I thought it might be interesting to document my music taste at the start of 2010 and see how different it is by the end. (I did say might be interesting… it might not)

So, 1 song for every letter of the alphabet to represent my musical taste at the start of 2010 (to make it easier, the letter could be the first letter of the song title, artist, or album title)…

A – Angels & Airwaves – The Adventure

B – Bublé, Michael – Haven’t Met You Yet

C – Cash, Johnny – In My Life

D – Dreams – Fleetwood Mac (I like this more after hearing the story behind it)

E – The Empyrean – John Frusciante – Song to the Siren

F – Fly Me To The Moon – Frank Sinatra (Pete Allen Jazz Band concerts with fish & chips included are what all concerts should be like)

G – Gramercy Arms – Looking at the Sun (first heard this on Chuck)

H – Hey There Delilah – Plain White T’s (played and attempted to sing along to this A LOT)

I – I’m Taking You With Me – Relient K

J – Jason Mraz – Lucky (feat. Colbie Caillat)

K – Kings of Leon – Beneath The Surface (shame about the A-side to this song)

L – Lille – Lisa Hannigan

M – McFly – That Girl (again, played & sung along A LOT. sorry housemates.)

N – Now You’re Gone – Basshunter – Angel In The Night (just heard this a couple of days ago for the first time in ages)

O – Oopsy Daisy – Chipmunk (don’t know why I like this, but it’s had quite a few listens)

P – Paramore – My Hero

Q – Queen – Save Me

R – Röyksopp – What Else Is There? (classic Alphabet Soup)

S – Swift, Taylor – Hey Stephen (I may have had green hair, but Taylor thinks I look like an angel )

T – This Is Your Life – The Killers

U – Undisclosed Desires – Muse

V – Venice Queen – Red Hot Chili Peppers (I watched the Slane Castle DVD many many times before I realised the point of the intro to this song)

W – Weezer – (If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To

X – You Me At Six – The Consequence (There’s an x in their name, that’ll have to do.)

Y – You Really Got Me – The Kinks (hearing this as someone’s ringtone reminded me what a great song it is)

Z – Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs! – Hellogoodbye – Baby, It’s Fact

That’s a fair amount of time I probably should have spent revising, and if you’ve got this far, the same probably goes for you… unless you don’t have exams coming up. You probably still could have spent your time better though.

Maths Humour

Possibly as good as the exponential function alone at a party or the cat falling off a roof.

Can’t Work On A Snow Day

This should totally count as a mitigating circumstance.

…and it’s still snowing. Could be interesting trying to get my car to its MOT tomorrow.

A Blast From The Past

Conversation: Plans for New Year’s -> Cardiff -> Pontypridd -> Fireman Sam (Pontypandy) -> Kid’s TV ->

Happy Christmas

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