coming and going

i like my bed. don't get me wrong, it's not much of a bed. i mean, the mattress is a few years old, and the frame was inherited from my sister's room a while back. it's a bit hard in places, and the room is as damp and mouldy as a blue cheese sandwich. But compared to the various other forms of bed I've been sleeping on in the last few weeks, and that which I'm heading off to again tonight, it's pretty glorious.

I'm back yesterday from a summer scheme in Portstewart (somewhere near the top of "places you would expect to be least in need of evangelism"...) and head off in a couple of hours to Camp Alliance down at Kilbroney. The last couple of years I've been tutoring an activity called Camp Radio, which does what it says on the tin really. Was down in Costa del Rosta (Rostrevor to the rest of us) as the way the sessions are planned out means I have to record a couple myself before I start. Methods have changed a bit since last year. I have to admit, it's a bit of a jump from Cool Edit Pro on a struggling PC to Garageband on the MacBook. I was skeptical of using Garageband at first: I would have preferred something slightly more professional in appearance. But I have to admit, it's pretty genius as is. Though severely limiting in what you can achieve with the waveforms themselves, beyond basic volume and tonal adjustments (stuff like cleanup and noise removal just isn't happening) the interface is still pretty brilliant and so far the stuff sounds light years ahead of last season's whizz, crackle and boom...

Two weeks ago I was up at New Horizon and finally got to plow into Rob Bell's 'Velvet Elvis'. Having never finished anything even vaguely theological before, I read it in a day and half during a hectic week. You must read it. You must. You have to. And so on.

The other key resource I've picked up, or logged on to, is the *Essential website which is also worth trawling through for answers to, literally, most of the big BIG questions...

...that should keep us ticking over for a week!