The End

As you may have noticed, this blog has stopped! I haven't stopped however, so you can find my music and photography at My Sarmism Tumblr where you can follow me on twitter, or Like my Facebook page if you fancy.

Yorkshire Photos 2010

Statue of Saviour, originally uploaded by petersandbach.

Here's some of the output from a recent trip to Harrogate and Castle Howard in Yorkshire, UK.

Windswept Lorna

Windswept Lorna, originally uploaded by petersandbach.

Some of our arty photos of Budapest...what a wonderful city!

Glow

Glow, originally uploaded by petersandbach.

Playing with my new camera, and here are some of the outcomes...

Yeasayer Remix Competition

I've entered a contest to remix the track O.N.E. by Yeasayer. Please consider voting for me/sharing to get me off the bottom of the pack! There are some great tunes there so head to the site for a listen.

Click here to head straight to my track for a listen and to vote!

Austrian Adventures 2010

Some pics from our Radstadt snowboarding holiday.

Flickr pictures page

Colour-clear

Colour-clear, originally uploaded by petersandbach.

I've been suffering for my art out in the garden trying to capture some moments from the snowy winter we've had this January! This is my favorite - I love the detail in the branch and the depth of the colours.

My New Toy

I'm very excited about getting my life back (I've finally passed my last anaesthetics exam!) and have received this rather super new gadget for music making! This has more of a performance edge than most, so should hopefully herald some interesting new experiments in live music!

The Novation Launchpad, for Ableton Live.

I Will Seek You

I will seek you

I will seek your face

I will seek you when life leads me on paths that I fear

I will seek you when I'm tempted to hide from jeers

I will seek you when I feel unable

To withstand a life of a different label

I will seek your face when exhaustion draws me away

I will search for you when not inclined to pray

I will seek you

I will seek your face

I will seek you when victory and ecstacy reign in my heart

I will wander searching for you when my rambling pulls us apart

I will lie in your presence within the summer heat

I will shelter between your wing when storms upon the earth beat

I will seek you

I will seek your face

But finally when my journey in this place is complete

And my breath becomes scarce, all suggesting my body will suffer defeat

Then I will truly find you and forever rest in your presence true

And as I rewatch my life I can be happy, knowing that I honestly sought You.

Antique Shop Doorway, Cortona

Antique Shop Doorway, Cortona, originally uploaded by petersandbach.

New photos of our wonderful trip to Italy. Flickr houses the more arty ones and Facebook the more peoply ones...

Lorna's people ones can be found at her Facebook site

Being

I love to think,

But sometimes it's important just to be.

Like sitting in my bed listening to the rain,

Or enjoying the cessation of pain as I lay down my head.

Its in these moments of being that my life grows and shapes,

That I can focus on The Eternal,

The beginning and the end;

On becoming more of a friend to Him that made me for just that.

Dry

Ezekiel 37 (The Message)
Breath of Life

1-2 God grabbed me. God's Spirit took me up and set me down in the middle of an open plain strewn with bones. He led me around and among them—a lot of bones! There were bones all over the plain—dry bones, bleached by the sun.

3 He said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?"
I said, "Master God, only you know that."

4 He said to me, "Prophesy over these bones: 'Dry bones, listen to the Message of God!'"

5-6 God, the Master, told the dry bones, "Watch this: I'm bringing the breath of life to you and you'll come to life. I'll attach sinews to you, put meat on your bones, cover you with skin, and breathe life into you. You'll come alive and you'll realize that I am God!"

7-8 I prophesied just as I'd been commanded. As I prophesied, there was a sound and, oh, rustling! The bones moved and came together, bone to bone. I kept watching. Sinews formed, then muscles on the bones, then skin stretched over them. But they had no breath in them.

9 He said to me, "Prophesy to the breath. Prophesy, son of man. Tell the breath, 'God, the Master, says, Come from the four winds. Come, breath. Breathe on these slain bodies. Breathe life!'"

10 So I prophesied, just as he commanded me. The breath entered them and they came alive! They stood up on their feet, a huge army.

11 Then God said to me, "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Listen to what they're saying: 'Our bones are dried up, our hope is gone, there's nothing left of us.'

12-14 "Therefore, prophesy. Tell them, 'God, the Master, says: I'll dig up your graves and bring you out alive—O my people! Then I'll take you straight to the land of Israel. When I dig up graves and bring you out as my people, you'll realize that I am God. I'll breathe my life into you and you'll live. Then I'll lead you straight back to your land and you'll realize that I am God. I've said it and I'll do it. God's Decree.'"

"When hope is gone, I'll call You Saviour" I've Had Questions by Tim Hughes.

OP-1 The Future is Coming

Having, as I do, an interest in electronic music, I'm incredibly excited at the new OP-1 from Teenage Engineering. This funky little gizmo is well away from release yet, but looks to be a hardware controller for your music software on your PC, as well as having built in synth and sequencer capacity. I WANT ONE!!

Sadly, they're a long way off from release yet!

Here's a pic anyway...

Lent Project

Another attempt at a daily photo blog for Lent 2009. Not been quite so strict this year (attempt not to become dogmatic!) but have tried to take a pic of something interesting every day. Doing lots of on-calls so you may notice a theme developing around views of Manchester from 7th floor on-call room!

Christians Against Poverty

In these times of economic turmoil, we learnt of a very relevant organsiation called Christians Against Poverty (CAP) last night in house group. Brilliant charity who offer free debt advice to anyone who needs it. The perfect solution for our troubled times when we're realising that our nation's recent prosperity has essentially been built on sand. We're proud to be supporting a CAP centre as Altrincham Baptist Church, so hopefully we can make a difference in our community, which is one of the most in-debt areas in the country...

I've just read...

A quick update on a couple of books I've just read in the Christmas period...

The Shack - a great allegory all about God.

God's Undertaker: Has Science Buried God? - A brilliant but concise look at the relationship between science and faith.

Ice on my car 3

Ice on my car 3, originally uploaded by petersandbach.

It's proper Winter up here! Very beautiful though...

Slavery

Since attending The Stand in November in Birmingham, I've really been thinking a great deal about modern day slavery and human trafficking. For those who aren't aware, slavery still happens today. In fact, it's incredibly common, even in the developed world. People are also trafficked across borders, having been tricked into working for nothing, and children are exploited as labourers. Pretty much every industry you can think of is affected by this, from steel manufacture to coffee, from chicken packing to prostitution.

I'm still trying to work out what my response to this sudden burst of knowledge and conviction is: I'm starting by writing about it here, telling people I know, and trying to increase my awareness.

These are some of the sites I'm using to find more information, and some of the people who are actually doing something.

Anti Slavery International

Stop the Traffik

Hope for Justice

The Ethical Trade Initiative

My feeling is that ordinary people like me need to get involved shouting for justice for those who are being exploited in this way. I think the church should be united in an obvious and vocal way against slavery and trafficking - our consumer power is massive and together we have a loud voice. We can use this opportunity to stand for those who are not able to support themselves, to care for the broken and needy in society - to do just what Jesus intended.

Geocaching

Lorna and I have discovered a great new hobby called Geocaching. Basically you look at the website http://www.geocaching.com/ and get some co-ordinates for a cache, which you then plug into your GPS (or Nokia N95) and start wandering!

The caches are usually a tuppaware, hidden very carefully in the countryside some where. They contain a logbook so you can prove you found it, and various other little prizes which can be traded for something you want to leave. I imagine kids would love it, and its great fun for adult kids too! It also takes you to places you never would have thought to go, and there's usually plenty of scope for good photos in many of the locations.

Another way to get out and about and enjoy creation!

New look

An ever so slight change to the appearance of the blog as I got bored! Not sure what I think of it yet so I'm going to try it for a while and see...