My Blog Sucks........

apparently!

HOPE....................

Hope is a buzz word this year, it keeps coming up. I read an article today regarding this HOPE, please bookmark the link or take a few minutes to have a look around the details of HOPE08. In short it is an initiative of the churches of Britain and Ireland which is helping to demonstrate Christian faith in action and to explain the meaning of that faith in villages, towns and cities throughout the UK. The article i read today was asking the question why nobody is hearing much about this, why people are backing away from this and it is in danger of disappearing into a black hole. In Northern Ireland it has been ignored.
Last night saw the start of this HOPE in belfast and there was 10,000+ people in attendance. Can you guess what my question is? I am not sure how many people will attend tonight and tomorrow but my guess is that the Odyssey Arena will be full over the next two nights. Thats 30,000 people in 3 days, impressive eh? Remember the 'other' HOPE i mentioned? The web details show lots of partners and support in the UK mainland but on the ground here in Northern Ireland did i mention that we have backed away and left it out to dry? Oh yea i did! I don't even want to mention the amount of CD releases due in the first half of 2008 that feature the word HOPE, its definitely a favorite word right now!
In the words of Silvio Dante, "Here's the thing;"
It sickens my sensitive little stomach when i look around and see groups and organizations tripping over each other to declare what is seemingly the same HOPE. I can hardly make an appeal for unity when 30,000 people will grace the seats of the premier arena in Northern Ireland this weekend, that is an unprecedented achievement at an 'evangelical' event BUT nobody in these circles EVER seems to know what each other id doing or planning and if they do there is little thought of uniting. I "hope" i am not being harsh but after reading the article today and then hearing about the crowds supporting the Belfast event i was angry and a little gutted for the organizers of the 'lesser HOPE' that is indeed, or at least in my opinion, the same HOPE!! I did hear one person say that the HOPE08 initiative hadn't enough fundamentalists around it to get it support in Northern Ireland but i would be best to avoid that line of thinking, unless you want to buy me a Grande Americano in Starbucks, il discuss anything over a free coffee :)
In conclusion, i do not know enough about the politics of how these 2 HOPES are working but i find it sad that HOPE is being declared here and on about 25 CD releases this year and there is no apparent collaboration anywhere. If you know otherwise please let me know to cheer me up...............................

How not to speak about customers........

It snowed last night. This was the scene as i came out of the house this morning to go to work. Anyway, enough of this snow nonsense! This morning a customer kissed me because i kept a Karen Kingsbury book for her!! That almost never happens! Then at lunch time i decided to have some chips so i went to a well known and very good chip shop in town and placed my order. It was then that i seemed drift into a parallel universe where everyone around was loud and used foul language! The loud foul language seemed to make the process of making my lunch almost impossible and after a few moments it was clear that they had just forgotten to start my order! So the "loud person" said sorry, i said it was fine because i am a nice guy and then i went back to minding my own business. The thing is, another customer who had just ordered seemed very annoyed that my order had been forgotten, i don't now why but i guess he thought maybe service would be quite lousy. Due to the confusion he got his food before me and left just as i was paying for mine. After he left and i grabbed my food the "loud person" said sorry again and then added that at least i wasn't an ignorant bugger like that other b%*tard!! In a nutshell, if you deal with the general public this is not how to speak in front of past, present or future customers

Did i say that the chips were nice? Beside from that it was a surreal day!

Angry.........

Last year we watched a sickening and disturbing documentary by Louis Theroux about Westboro Baptist in Topeka, Kansas. They are such a horrible bunch of nutters that i will not even grace them with a link to their website or to the wikipedia page about them! It would be best if you didn't read more about them, you will be disgusted enough by the following ....

from Fox news: A radical Baptist church in Kansas known for picketing the funerals of soldiers who perished in Iraq said it intends to protest Heath Ledger's memorial service with signs claiming the actor died and is in Hell because he played a gay character in “Brokeback Mountain.”

Here is their official documentation on this:



This shocking story has been blogged here here and here

p.s. i am not advocating hacking or any such practice but surely there is someone out there who can remove any web presence that Westboro Baptist may have? These people are a disgrace