God's Garage Manchester

Time for a plug

God's Garage is an initiative for anyone who's perhaps interested in the message of Jesus but doesn't want all the clutter of religion that comes with "church". Although it's run by bikers it's not specifically aimed at bikers and all are welcome.

It's a place to go where you can feel comfortable discussing where your at with your faith or talk to someone about the issues your having without being judged.

You can find much more information by visiting the God's Garage web site.

No One Is Free Until Everyone Is Free

Slavery in the 21st century

In 2007 there was a huge amount written, spoken and evan a film about the campaign against the British slave trade and it's abolishment on the 25 March 1807. Here we are over two hundred years later and the slave trade is still rife throughout the world.

According to figures from the United Nations, UNICEF and Amnesty International there are:-

• 27 Million people in slavery (United nations, Amnesty International)
• 1.2 million children trafficked each year (UNICEF UK)
• 126 million children work in the worst forms of child labor (UNICEF)

If you want to make a difference then why not visit the The Stand. An event presented by an organisation called Hope for Justice being held at the NEC, Birmingham, England this November.

With music from Delirious, Tim Hughes, Yfriday, Four Kornerz, Bluetree, Paul Field and speakers like Andy Hawthorne, Steve Chalke and Ben Cooley, The Stand is an event designed to inspire and raise peoples awareness about the slave trade in the 21st century.

Oh Canada, Oh Canada

What can I say about my trip to Canada? Absolutely fantastic sums it up.

The whole trip went beyond my expectations, great hospitality and friendly people made this unquestionably my best holiday ever. I was so taken with Canada I'm considering going back again in July.

Clicking the images will open a javascript gallery.

Mutantpc goes Wordpress - not

After a week of building a Wordpress Theme and another week playing around with the WordPress functions, I've gone back to the way I know best - Coding using Notepad.

It's not that there's anything wrong with WordPress, it's very good in lots of way's, I just began to think I had more control using Notepad than using the WordPress web interface. For anyone wanting to regularly change the look of their site or who doesn't want to hand code it, it's ideal.

I recommend Wordpress as it's feature rich but I guess if I compared it to riding bikes, I'd rather be on an old Triumph than a hi-tech superbike with all the bells and whistles.

World tour heads to Canada!

My on going world tour gets underway again with a trip to Canada on the 30th April.

My friend in Canada has sent me the itinerary. Obviously it's an oversight on her part that she's forgotten to include which day we will be flying to York County, Pensylvannia to visit the Harley Davidson factory.

Itinerary

• Wed Apr 30: Official Canadian Greeting – "O Canada" sung by Oops a Daisy the clown.
• Thu May 1: Learning Canadian lingo, saying "eh" after everything
• Fri May 2: Peterborough Bikers Church
• Sat May 3: Crawford Lake Indian Village - Practice scalping on English chap…Indian Tradition
• Sun May 4: Freeway Community Church
• Mon May 5:
• Tue May 6: China Town- meeting my family (Sānhéhuì 黑社會)Triads from Macau
• Wed May 7: McMichael Canadian Art Collection
• Thu May 8:
• Fri May 9: Niagara Falls – Chicago Pizza on the way Portage and Canoe Trip over the falls
• Sat May 10: Visit all the Toronto Harley shops
• Sun May 11: Peoples' Church Toronto
• Mon May 12: Escape back to England

Give Up Yer Aul Sins

My first effort at putting a You Tube movie on MutantPC and quite surprisingly I was able to get it to validate after a couple of hours.

Based on the original recordings taken by Peig Cunningham in Dublin schoolrooms from the 1960's, (subsequently re-discovered and released by EMI record) this film dramatises the event as a TV crew arrive to record the children and we are treated to the story of John the Baptist told as only children can. It received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short at the 2001 Oscars.

The credit for the help with validation goes to A List Apart for some excellent articles on validating flash movies.

Give Up Yer Aul Sins is the brainchild of Brown Bag Films who have won international acclaim for their work.

Zen Garden submission - Fails to grow!

Over a year ago I submitted a web site to Zen Garden, the original and, in my opinion, best css showcase gallery site.

The idea behind Zen Garden is to use the downloadable css and html to build a web site. The challenge is that you may modify the css in any way you wish, but not the html. Not as simple as it sounds.

My submission How to Grow Prize Winning Vegetables didn't make the cut into the top sites category but nonetheless it got listed.

Swiss Moto 2008 - Zürich

I spent three days in Switzerland this week on business, not much time to do anything apart from work but I did manage to go to the opening day of the Swiss-Moto 2008 bike show for a few hours.

Clicking the images will open a javascript gallery.

Jesus - the great physician

I got chatting to a down and out bloke today, a five minute conversation and we went our seperate ways.

Thinking about it later I began to reflect on Jesus and who he chose to mix with when he walked the earth. Not for Him those who considered themselves righteous before God, rather he sought those who society shunned for whatever reason. The hated tax collectors (Jews who worked for the Roman rulers) and collected taxes from their own people, prostitutes, adulterers and lepers, in fact anyone who had been marginalized by society because of their circumstances.

2000 years later and Jesus is still reaching out to the rejected and the marginalized. No one is beyond His reach however low they may have sunk.

When Jesus heard it, He said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance." Mark 2:17 (New King James Version)

"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" Matthew 11:28 (New King James Version)