Pizza & 'Prophets'............

Last night we had us some Pizza with some friends and the banter was great. The conversation was, as usual, wide and varied but YES we got to talking about Todd Bentley. What usually happens is, someone thinks i have some better knowledge of these things due to my job at a Christian Bookshop. This is rarely always the case but with tattoo'd Todd i have an opinion and pushed to give it to a table with a mixture of Pentecostal, Presbyterian and Baptist's i decided i knew everyone well enough to say what i thought. As the words "i think he is a wingnut, perhaps a false prophet and this is very dangerous stuff" left my mouth i knew what might happen but amazingly we entered a very balanced discussion on the issue. Several of the group agreed with me, some were less skeptical but we didn't disagree on the point that 'something' is happening and it has came to N.Ireland. Watch the clip...



So, i have already given my opinion, perhaps rashly but i stand over it. I do not want to launch into a tirade about the guy because he needs our prayers, as do all those pastors from N.ireland who rushed to the front to 'get some' and have since brought 'it' back home. I am at a point in life where i have major fears about where the "church" is headed, about the stuff we are lapping up and how this generation is rejecting truth and Biblical certainty for experience and entertainment. I speak as someone who struggles often with the splintered 'church' and the effect of being dealt so many doctrinal and theological disagreements. I do not have all the answers, i am not certain about everything and chances are, neither are you. We do not need another "move of God" or "passing fad" to split us further, what we need, what Todd Bentley needs, what you and i need, is Jesus.

Update: It appears i have upset some with this post. I realize that some people may disagree with my opinion about this. Please feel free to comment and let me know if you think i have spoken out of turn. I am not a 'heresy hunter' and am not on some mission to hunt Todd Bentley down, it is current, it came up in conversation with friends and thats why it is appearing on 'supersimbo.' All the content on 'supersimbo' represents my views & opinions based on current issues that i am dealing with and in no way reflects those of my employer, my church or my wife!

Another great time lapse...........

This video was inspired by this guy and now that chain of creativity continues with the following video, check it out........


Tuesday 1st of July 2008 from Nigel Elliott on Vimeo.

Nigel has embraced the tumblr blog platform and stuck with it for while now, well done on that man, it is a cool platform BUT i have some issues with it! Anyway Nigel is my cousin and we share a love of music, macs and being miserable! Ok i'm kidding about being miserable! He has done a great job with this video.........

Fake Friends 'get together'............

Some people would say that cyber friends are fake friends!! Today Cherith and i met up with Karyne for coffee and some banter! This is the first time we have met up with a cyber blogger friend in this way, it was pretty cool. She arrived here from Canada really early this morning so she had been up for far too many hours but still managed to recognize me in the street when we accidently met earlier than originally planned. So fake friends we are NOT and we might even hit Canada next year to see all the other 'fake friends' we have there!! I almost forgot as well, Karyne very kindly brought me some Tim Hortons Coffee so i look forward to checking that out.............





The joys of web2.0 and cyber friends eh? Los blogged about cyber/fake friends here

Big shout out Sunday no 4...........

This week i am 'Big shouting" out to this site. Its one of the sites that Cherith discovered ages ago and now i am hooked to their crazy stories. Yes, the Alfred Hitchcock Birds Barbie Doll is a real product and yes you can have one, pre-order here. Sites like this, with useless information like this are what make the internet great. The wasting of time whilst reading about such nonsense is sublime and for some reason i love it, so Big shout out to Neatorama and all the other sites that are such a beautiful and tasty waste of my time and yours!

Glastonbury.........

We have been watching some of Glastonbury tonight on the BBC. We have caught loads of small parts of performances but managed to watch the full set by Amy Winehouse, read about it here. In a nutshell it was a car crash of epic proportions. She was a mess, her vocals seem to have descended into a complete shambles and her behavior was less than rational, its sad to watch.



Jay Z is on stage right now. He began his performance by "singing" wonderwall by Oasis in an apparent jibe at Noel Gallagher who said Glastonbury should not have a hip hop act as a headliner. Regardless of that matter his endless shouting about bitches and constant massaging of his own ego is kinda lame. I appreciate that he is talented but he is giving me a bit of a headache, i mean SO WHAT BRO, you can talk really fast over some samples? YAWN..................................

Cherith has also been blogging about JAY Z at Glastonbury here. She is much more eloquent than i................

THE BOOKSHELF.........

Tonight Cherith built a new bookshelf for us. I watched! Yes, you heard, i watched. I threw out the empty packaging and made sure the camera was pointed in the right direction.......



Truth is, i am crap at building things, Cherith is very good at it and loves the challenge. She insisted that i did not help!! The bookshelf is better off without my contribution, trust me!

[crave]: creative chaos........

The majority of the photoshop work you saw in my time lapse the other day was for [crave]: (pictured below). Last year i designed the artwork for their latest album 'Waiting Games', i blogged it here, do take a look. These guys are awesome so it is great to be working with them again.....


as always the excellent photography is by Connor

Chaos@ragamuffinsoul.com

Lincoln Brewster

Lincoln Brewster's new track Today is the Day is well worth a listen folks. It is not in the UK just yet but stop on by his myspace for a listen. If you are in the USA click into iTunes here and get it purchased. HIs spell as lead guitarist for Steve Perry of JOURNEY in the mid 90's is only one of the cool things about this guy but that aside he really is a great musician, check him out.

Jesus wants to save Christians.....

I am not sure if you agree with Rob Bell on everything but thats not the point of this post. The point of this post is to say that i think his products are the best looking stuff the 'christian' market has seen over the last few years. The Nooma dvd's are packaged brilliantly, as was his first 2 books and the Everything is Spiritual dvd. I have to applaud the guys who come up with this stuff, they rock. I know, you may want to say that we should never judge a book by its cover, and that is quite correct but i am JUST talking about packaging here! I should add i do like the synopsis for the new book (pictured). It says: "There is a church not too far from us that recently added a $25 million addition to their building. Our local newspaper ran a front-page story not too long ago about a study revealing that one in five people in our city lives in poverty. This is a book about those two numbers." The fact that the book is titled "Jesus wants to Save Christians" is rather controversial, or at least it will be in N.Ireland. Perhaps i have a different sense of humor but when i hard that i laughed, i know some others who have gasped at the sheer awfulness of such a title! I am pretty sure that Rob is well aware of the criticism he will receive when he titles a book, film or sermon in this way. Anyway, the title is interesting to say the least BUT its another product from Rob that looks great.

Memory Lane Monday no.4

"Ok, Shaun Groves! Musician, teacher, husband, father and blogger to name but a few" That is how i began this post on Oct 22nd 2006. Shaun Groves had just been with us in Belfast, we enjoyed a great night of worship & song with Shaun but we knew we would. The night of the concert i was suffering from a bad head cold, that cold became a viral inner ear infection & to cut a long story short, i then had a very sucky 3 months!! This, of course, was not Shaun's fault but when he returned to Belfast again last year, i was sick & didn't make the gig! I was rather unimpressed that i didn't get to see Shaun again, i was less impressed with the amount of time i spent on the toilet that weekend! I hope that Shaun will return another time, Ireland loves him and personally i have been blessed greatly through his music, his blog and his ministry. Bless you Shaun.......

Big shout out Sunday no 3...........

I guess my first 'Big Shout Out Sunday' perhaps should have been to my wife! Oh well, circumstances dictated that it wasn't so here goes on no:3! My wife Cherith! I think she was, at first, very skeptical of my blogging but as time passed and she saw the wonderful addition that a blog can be to one's life she felt the need to get involved in this beautiful web world! Its pretty cool to share that interest now and i have to say she manages to always find cooler and better web stories than i could ever imagine. As she scans through Google Reader i always respond to her viewing with "wow what site is that on" or "oh send me that link." It is rarely the other way around!! Check out one of her latest brilliant finds here, its hilarious!
My wife blogs via Tumblr. Visit Cherith's Blog here

Today in Technicolor......

June 19th from ally simpson on Vimeo.

Thanks to this innovator and his Creative Chaos for the inspiration to do this!
I used this little program to make the clip

Coffee break.......

I had NO coffee on saturday and that began a week long break from caffeine. The break may end up being longer though! I suffered a few days of headaches and was pretty grumpy for a couple of the days. My head has been a bit dodgy today as well, dizzy and sore a bit. So why do things like this appear before me when i am on a break like this

"A strong cup of coffee in the morning can feel like a life saver. Now, one of the largest and longest studies of coffee drinking suggests that coffee may indeed boost your lifespan – providing you drink enough of the stuff, that is."

Read the full article here

H/T What if...

What traits do you have............?

As i read this great post i was trying to figure out where 'supersimo' fits in with each of the '12 traits.' The truth is, i need to work on a few, i need to newly discover a few and i need to get better at a few! So, i thought id pick out a few things that i already am working hard at or need to work harder at;

Connectors: "Most successful bloggers that I’ve interacted with have an insatiable desire to connect with as many people as they can." I have begun to work harder at this in recent months, via the blog, facebook, twitter etc I have met some wonderful people via these avenues. I need to keep this up though.

Perseverance: "Successful bloggers know that it takes time to grow a blog" I have been doing this for over 3 years, you need to be patient if you want to build community or attract readers. It can be frustrating but i am "in for the long haul", are you?

Curiosity: "They are curious people who are always asking ‘what if….?" Now, i ask this a lot but i don't implement that "what if" on my blog/web presence enough so this, i have to work on. I have been given a great opportunity to do this at work, given a clean slate to innovate and direct a new area of our business so here goes........

Read the full article here. Which traits are you working on?

This resonates.............

"There is no such thing as an overnight success. It takes years and years of small victories. One small step building on another creating momentum."

H/T Brewster

Big shout out Sunday...........

Another new series shall begin right now with 'big shout out sunday'! Why? Well, why not? So, the first shout out goes to ONEHUNDREDHOURS (pictured below) These guys are the real deal, talented, honest, passionate and a complete blast onstage. Rock n Roll through and through, these guys display a kind of connection with God in their music that i can relate to. Its not just about the "mountain top" stuff that dictates so much "worship" music these days. They speak truth from real life experiences of love and loss. BUy their album iTunes,you won't be disappointed!

the Pope 'could' have a blog.........

I was about to go to bed BUT had to post this! The site this was posted on said this "I have no idea if the pope has a blog, but it is always interesting to me how organized religion can embrace modern ideas and technology, while keeping one foot so firmly planted in the dark ages."


H/T Jake Bouma

I was a LOSER...................

If you know me, then you know i HATED school! I have a few vaguely pleasant memories of school but what comes to mind more often is my utter disdain for my teachers, my classmates and everything about the whole stinking place! I guess you could say that this attitude made me a bit of a loser. I think i was a complete loser at school. I was arrogant but not in a way that made me popular with other arrogant folks, in fact i withdrew into an arrogant solitary world of my own. I often avoided conversation or interaction with others and as a result i became invisible. This suited me just fine! I remember in art class once as we approached the end of our GCSE coursework our teacher asked what grade we expected to get. It was times like this when i would emphatically make up for a previous 6 months of complete silence, you could bet your house on that! Though i doubt any of my contemporaries had houses to bet. Anyway, i listened as modest folks said "oh i hope for a C grade" or "perhaps i might scrape a B" and then it was my turn! "I am definitely getting an A" The class cringed! I got my A a few weeks later and then declared that "I had told you so".............see, i was a loser! There are probably a thousand examples i could give but i might make you hate me!
Anyway, i managed to acquire a change of attitude a few years later when i encountered God so its funny now to look back on my status as a Loser. This brief post was inspired by a comment about being a Loser at school! Thanks for reminding me of how big a Loser i was with your comment Sarah!

What were you like at school?

Buying Books online...............

Ok, i have some questions, some thoughts and some opinions! Those words should be the new "bloggers manifesto" but i doubt that will happen, though if it does please credit me! Today, I am curious about where people buy books online. I asked on twitter and so far amazon keeps being mentioned. I have bought books and music from amazon several times in recent years and have never once been unhappy or dissatisfied with the service. There are so many factors involved in what makes a good website/shop work but what does it for you? What keeps you going back and what impresses you? If you could add something to the site you buy from, what would it be? Just tell me what you think?

p.s i will explain why im asking soon!

Driscoll & Doctrine.........

Doctrine is a word that scares a lot of "Christians" and i have to say there have been times when i have heard it and switched off. When Mark Driscoll (left) started a sermon series on Doctrine he received several phone calls from pastors who lead large flocks asking if anyone is still coming out to listen. "The rule is, if you have a big church you're supposed to not talk about certain things that are controversial [or] divisive," Driscoll is 8 weeks into the 13 week series and so far i have been really hooked in on this one. In the past i have dipped in and out of his sermon series without ever taking in a full set. The entire "Doctrine" sermon series at Mars Hill will be published as part of a book series and small group curriculum will also be developed to accompany the book to help Christians and churches grow in "sound doctrine,"