Michael Welsh

Michael Welsh http://yomcat.geek.nz/lifetype/index.php?blogId=1 Michael Welsh, the runner of Michael's Blog. Michael Welsh is also known as yomcat, and has a beautiful wifey called Melissa. Michael Welsh will talk about random stuff in Michael's blog. Stuff like advanced mathematics and pretty beads. If it doesn't offend people, it's not worth saying. yomcat 2010-09-06T21:03:52Z Questions http://yomcat.geek.nz/lifetype/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=1321&blogId=1 At any given time, I have a finite number of questions bouncing around in my head. Here is a sample (excluding all the ones related to my thesis, and they'll make no sense to the two of you that read this). Some are serious, some are silly. Some are both. Some are only semi-decidable. <ul> <li>Do I want to do a PhD?</li> <li>What is going to happen next year?</li> <li>Should I buy new shoes, or just continue to duct tape them up?</li> <li>Shoes or bare feet?</li> <li>Should I get Charlie a bigger HD?</li> <li>Why does church piss me off so much?</li> <li>Christianity - what's the point?</li> <li>Should I explain to Dad how to decrypt that email I sent him?</li> <li>How do you negate and simplify on a parse tree?</li> <li>Should I teach the first years my bad habits?</li> <li>Did anybody get <a href="http://yomcat.geek.nz/lifetype/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=1309&blogId=1">this blog post</a>?</li> <li>Why do people never take me at my word?</li> <li>How did the dirty dutch do so well?</li> <li>Should I really be running a pretest of TeXLive?</li> <li>What's so appealing about England?</li> <li>Why are Christians complete douches?</li> <li>Why are good relationships so hard to come by?</li> <li>Why does writing blog posts screw up the red underlines?</li> <li>How can I explain to people what I spend my days doing?</li> <li>What am I truly interested in and passionate about?</li> <li>How do I sum up Andrew's life in 3 letters?</li> </ul> Serious Stuff 2010-07-20T21:14:09Z yomcat New Shirt http://yomcat.geek.nz/lifetype/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=1320&blogId=1 I wants this shirt. The screen shot isn't very good because it's from a protected video (DRM is annoying). <img src="/photos/shirt.png" /> Stuff 2010-07-01T02:09:04Z yomcat More Listening http://yomcat.geek.nz/lifetype/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=1304&blogId=1 <audio src="http://yomcat.geek.nz/beats/vows.m4a" controls="controls"></audio> Serious Stuff 2010-03-29T16:24:37Z yomcat Friendship http://yomcat.geek.nz/lifetype/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=1256&blogId=1 Recently, I've been thinking about friends a lot. What is a friend? Who are my friends? Do I want more friends? And more. Currently, I claim I have 4 friends (who were all in my wedding party. Think about it). I'm comfortable with this, even if Melissa is the only one I see on anything like a regular basis. But what makes these people different from everyone else I know? With Melissa, the answer is obvious. In a way that even a first year could see. But the other three are different. I've known them all longer than I've known Melissa, and each one is different. They're all around my age, and I enjoy hanging out with them, to the extent that I look forward to seeing them (two of them have moved to some remote parts of the country) when I get the chance. I think it's partly due to chemistry, some stalking and lots of shared experiences. Almost all my favourite memories involve at least one of them. In fact, I can't think of any at the moment that don't. I know that I'm not a very friendly person, though people beg to differ. I'm very introverted, and more often than not, would rather hide in my room playing with Gordon or doing some maths than talk to someone (with 3 exceptions). In social situations when I don't know anyone (a wedding in Palmy over New Years is a great example) I just get bored, and sit there with Steve and play games. I grunt responses and don't talk to people (unless they're talking about maths, in which case they stop when I start using the words "simple kiddie maths" to describe whatever they're doing). I don't try to make new friends, and I'm fine with that. Formal occasions really, really annoy me. It's a hangover from school, and one I have no intention of changing. The informal nature of my wedding reflects this (though that was bordering on too formal). Back to friends, and some discussion about Jesus. I remember that All Saints did a talk on community or something like that, using Jesus as the example. They talked about how he had his 3 (Peter, James, John), his 12 (the disciples), his 72 and maybe something else. It was awhile ago and the podcasts got trashed when the crappy new website launched. Anyway, I like to think of the equivalent of the 3 as friends. I can't really think of a better definition or axiomatisation, so you'll have to put up with that. Though thinking about it, the only person I currently share on that deep a level with is Melissa. Which may be because I share almost everything with Melissa, because she's so much closer to me than anyone else, and my life isn't going through crisis mode like it was a few years ago. Life just plods along, and nothing ever happens. I don't want to grow this little group thingy I have. Assuming the links still exist, it's been so long. And having a decent length conversation is too expensive. Am I scared of losing my friends? I guess I am. It is quite a frightening concept. That leads me to the next circle, the greater circle of friends. Or whatever it's called. Most people I know well enough fit into this category. Uni friends. Church friends. Don't think I have any from any other places. Workmates get into the next bit (PIRAW), along with more people from church and Uni, Palmy and who knows where else. These circles are much more fluid. Now some discussion: Do friends need to be bijective? This is actually quite a tough question. I would immediately say no, but I can't really back it up. Thinking about it, being a one-directional friend has some other name. Loving people or somesuch like that. So that means that friendship tends towards being bijective, even though it may not start out that way. Points to consider: <ul> <li>What makes a good friend?</li> <li>Is it "better" to have a few close friends, or lots of not-so-close ones?</li> <li>What effect does marriage have on friendships?</li> <li>Is it hard to be close friends with someone in a different life situation to you?</li> <li>Where does a mentoring relationship fit into all this?</li> <li>Is "doing coffee" really such a bad thing?</li> </ul> Ranting and Raving 2009-07-28T21:33:24Z yomcat I dunno http://yomcat.geek.nz/lifetype/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=1144&blogId=1 Well, this is called I dunno because I dunno what to call it. That's a good enough reason for me. After all, it is (just like worship) all about me. At church at the moment, people are quite keen on using astronomical objects to show how big God is. I find this model limiting. The Universe, no matter how much people preach about it, is finite. Or it loops, which is a tricky infinity (like the edge of a circle is infinite, but in R4). Anyway, I find it much simpler to have infinity (the mathematical construct) and make God bigger than that. Infinity is cool. It's where parallel lines meet. And it's blue. Serious Stuff 2008-07-12T20:21:10Z yomcat yomcat's new hat http://yomcat.geek.nz/lifetype/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=1073&blogId=1 Look and see. <img src="http://yomcat.geek.nz/photos/hat1.jpg" /> <img src="http://yomcat.geek.nz/photos/hat2.jpg" /> Serious Stuff 2007-11-26T20:16:44Z yomcat Ivan likes emos. http://yomcat.geek.nz/lifetype/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=1057&blogId=1 Ivan likes emos. He has a message for them. <img src="http://yomcat.geek.nz/photos/emo_1.jpg" /> <img src="http://yomcat.geek.nz/photos/emo_2.jpg" /> Serious Stuff 2007-10-27T14:41:54Z yomcat Absolute Truth http://yomcat.geek.nz/lifetype/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=1051&blogId=1 On Sunday, at church there was a talk on Truth, Love and Tolerance. I found myself disagreeing with large portions of the first two (there were 3 speakers) mini-sermons. The love one was because love is something that I've been thinking about lately (with my upcoming <a href="http://wedding.yomcat.geek.nz">wedding</a>) and I have some slightly different ideas of what love is all about (you may have to wait for my wedding to hear them though) But the truth one irked me. As far as I can recall, he was saying that the world doesn't like absolute truth and that Jesus is the only absolute truth. However, I am a mathematician. I deal with <a href="http://xkcd.com/263/">absolute truth</a> all the time. My world comprises of lots of absolute truths (and a few axioms). And even in my faith, I have more absolute truths than just Jesus. This might be because of my mathematical training (I have an axiomatic approach to my faith that has a habit of annoying arts student), but what about God? Or the bible? I suppose you could look at the trinity as an equivalence class, but I'll leave that for later... Stuff 2007-10-08T21:29:05Z yomcat Church yomcat (Renovation) http://yomcat.geek.nz/lifetype/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=1009&blogId=1 Church yomcat is starting this Sunday. It's just me getting grumpy about the level of teaching available out there, and deciding to do something about it. There will be a website once I move the database over. Soon. In case you don't know, church yomcat (or renovation or whatever) is a bunch of people who meet together for encouragement, community and a depth of teaching not found in a normal church. It meets on Sundays at 11:30am till whenever, and has discussion over lunch. It meets at <a href="http://smaps.co.nz/nz/wellington/kilbirnie/yule+street/92/">92 Yule St</a> in Kilbirnie, Wellington (out the back in one of the sheds). For more details, contact Michael Welsh by <a href="mailto:yomcat@yomcat.geek.nz">email</a> or on (021) 366055. The first thing that is happening is an image-based study of Revelation. I assume that at least Revelation 1:1-8 will be completed, so a reading of that is recommended. Serious Stuff 2007-07-10T20:03:17Z yomcat Church http://yomcat.geek.nz/lifetype/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=999&blogId=1 <ol> <li>Why do you go to church?</li> <li>What do you like and dislike about how your church runs?</li> <li>What would the perfect church service be like?</li> </ol> And now why I'm currently in limbo about church: Church has been boring. Dull. All Saints, the church I have been going to since for the last 4 or so years has quite suddenly become unappealing. And it's not because the church has changed (it helps though). It's because I have changed. I no longer find it attractive or interesting. The teaching is at the same level as it was 4 years ago. I can find much better teaching on the radio and on the Internet. And many more viewpoints (which may or may not be better). I also go to <a href="http://www.vuwcu.org.nz">Christian Union</a>, which is a non-denominational group based at Uni. The teaching here is much better. I think it;s because the environment is so much different. It's at a university, so people expect to get a higher level of stuff, which we do get (well, compared to church at least). And yesterday I went to St. Giles, which is a Presbyterian church near to my house. Even though I didn't take my Laptop or cellphone or anything like that, I didn't get bored. We sung hymns, and had readings and had a sermon based on the reading. It was enjoyable. I didn't want to open the Bible to read it and tune out the service like I used to at All Saints. I was also the 2nd youngest member of the congregation, and I didn't feel uncomfortable. The level wasn't that high, though it was a bit more intellectual than any other church service I've been to recently, but it was better. I'm still trying to figure out why. My first guess would be the music. We had hymns, sung throughout the service, so it was broken up into bits. No big bang at the beginning, though we did sing Cwm Rhonda at the end, so that could be a big one at the end. Even though I don't particularly enjoy the style and stuff of hymns, I can't see any way that emotional manipulation can get into them when they are done in that style, so that's a plus. I'll be going back to All Saints this weekend, so maybe I'll look at it differently. I don't know. I also went to a Baptist church in Palmy, but that was horrible and I won't get into that here. Or anywhere. For the last few weeks, I haven't been to church. Except for yesterday. I have been listening to all sorts of stuff on the radio. Most of it (ie, Joyce Meyer) is crap. Oh, Benny Hinn is coming to Auckland. And I've got my podcasts, which are currently only 66/40 and Let My People Think. So I can get the teaching. And the music. I'm currently listening to a mixture of Sanctus Real, Kutless and Steven Curtis Chapman. I take my iPod lots of places. Music is the easiest thing to replace about church. Or maybe food is. And then there is the community. Last time I checked, CU was a bunch of Christians meeting and then having a feed (unless someone wants to show some stupid movie that no people will come to and nobody really wants to do anyway), which sounds like community in my book. CU is not a church though. So it doesn't offer all the stuff a church offers. Like marriage and big budgets and fancy buildings and all that stuff that gets away from what I think the heart of a "church" is. To me, "church" is a bunch of people who believe in and follow Jesus coming together to share and learn. And be encouraged to continue along the straight and narrow. Open the bible with the correct attitude and see where God leads you. A while ago, on the radio, some guy was talking about his book about how crap church in New Zealand (I think it was only NZ) is. He basically said that people who have been going to church for awhile already know all the stuff in the sermons and nothing is new. Then he proposed his idea of a working church, but then I had to go to work and missed it. However, I think he proposed something along the lines of a school, or learning institution. That people cruise along and have separate groups based on Spiritual maturity. Or intellectual ability or whatever. Kinda like lots of cell groups. I didn't get much more than that, so I dunno how it all works. However, even this will be an improvement. "New" Christians can get the milk they need. And more experienced people can get the solids they need. I dunno how to do the splits, or anything, but I think his idea has potential. It has been suggested more than once that I start a house church. Considering that I'm going to be living in two separate places over the next 8 months until I get hitched, I'm thinking that the Internet can be my house. I'll have a few chats to Melissa over in Aussie, and see what comes up. But keep watching, and registrations of interest will be welcome. Oh, I might even make it physical if I can get a nice enough house. And it's likely to be very cell-group like. I'm open to suggestions. Serious Stuff 2007-06-18T23:07:59Z yomcat "Worship" http://yomcat.geek.nz/lifetype/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=965&blogId=1 Recently, I've been wondering what makes worship what it is. I mean, how do you define "worship"? And, more specifically, what makes a good "worship song"? Should worship even be a genre of music? To me, it seems that the worship songs are the ones that either are slow and manipulative or that build up nicely and make you "feel the thud" as the beat kicks in (like Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble). But these are just the slower pop songs. The songs that are better at making you feel something (I'm not sure what that emotion is because it's just so fake). The "soppy love songs" genre I guess. What lyrics make a good "worship" song? If I can sing a song to God, does that mean I should be able to change every instance of the word "God" (or derivatives thereof) to Melissa and still sing a perfectly fine song? Personally, I think not. Things like Sonicflood's In the Secret (I want to know you) illustrate this best. Does it mean I should sing half a bible passage and ignore the other half because it says something that doesn't fit in the little "nice Christian" box? I can't think any examples of this off the top of my head, but just look at a psalm. The whole psalm. (This doesn't work for all psalms, as some are quite fine to sing in church. But there are 150 of them...) Like <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2022&version=31">Psalm 22</a>. I like to call this psalm "the crucifixion psalm". But now try and imagine singing it (and all of it) in church. I can't see it happening. There is also the song of Deborah from <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=7&chapter=5&version=31">Judges 5</a>. Try singing verses 24-27 (about Jael and her tent peg). Or is "worship" just a stupid idea? This is my personal view. Worship as we know it is a stupid idea. It's singing some pop songs with questionable lyrics and what we get out of it is the emotional manipulation that the songs produce. Nothing about God, all about me. That's not worship in my book. And people that try and defend it just look as stupid as they do when they're waving their hands around in the air because it makes them look more holy or something. I dunno. It just looks so idiotic. It's also in perfect time with the music. Just look at the crowd at Parachute. It cracks me up every time. I don't think they know just how much like little insignificant fools they look. But significance is a subject for <a href="http://mrharvey.blogspot.com/2007/02/we-act-least-like-christian-in-church_27.html">another author</a> to address. And how many times have you heard people say stuff like "let's worship God {insert time here}" and "the worship {time} was bad". It's simply moronic. From my reading of the bible, worship is how we live. It's what we do all the time. Not just when somebody with some musical talent (which does not give them any theological strength or special God connection) tells us to and "leads" a few songs. James 3:1 says "Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly." Yet I know of many people that just think they are able to be perfectly good teachers because they know how to play guitar. That's not good enough. They are going to be judged more strictly and I fear that many will fall short. Should I even go to church? Late last year, I stopped going to church. I just stopped. Because I couldn't stand the entire "happy clappy Christian" image and the singing was really getting to me in ways I didn't like. This is the era of the Internet, so it's easy enough to get good teaching from many places (In my podcasts I have Chuck Missler, Ravi Zacharias and James Dobson) that it's quite easy to avoid "church" and still get all the teaching you need without any of the singing. But there is no interaction. One of the reasons I've started going back to church again is the interaction with other Christians (the other one is my fiancee was getting quite upset at me for skipping church). So church is good. I think it just needs to be done differently. I'm not going to be able to change this, I don't want to teach (it's not my gift, I'm not going to pretend it is either) or sing (I have no musical talent) so I can't openly change stuff. I can rant on my blog all I like, but that's not going to change much. Not many people read my blog. And some of those that do share my views. I voice them regularly. I can't change much. I know that. But it doesn't stop me. I can hide behind my blog. Text like this is pretty weak and easy to do. Plus my blog posts are normally not very well organised (it's how I think - and it's almost 5am and God woke me up so I could help a friend at 3:10 and I haven't be able to get to sleep yet) so this isn't likely to create much difference. That's right. I am a coward at times. I can type my views and hide behind the text. This time, I encourage people to talk to me. My phone number is (021) 366055. I don't drink coffee, but I do eat McDonalds. So yeah... <tt>;)</tt> What is worship then? Worship is the act of living for God. It's the change that happens when you give your heart to God. it's a choice, not an emotion. It's the "dying to self" and "coming alive in Christ". It's helping people out at 4am when you would rather be sleeping. It's giving money to the poor. {insert <a href="http://thewatertank.blogspot.com">Water Tank</a> plug here}. It's doing your best even though you know that's not good enough and you're going to fail. It's offensive to people. It's hard work, and it's painful. It's making God the centre of everything you do. It's putting God before family, before work, before self, before sleep, before Melissa, before everything. It's a verb. It's not singing a song about yourself. It's not to do with music. It's not being a "happy clappy Christian" 24/7. It's not be in the same "on drugs" emotional state all the time. It's not easy. It's not for the faint-hearted. I personally think I could do better with alot of things. I'm not perfect. I'm a dismal failure at life. I lie, I cheat, I am hypocritical. I have a lot of material things (looking around my room, I can see a $4700 Laptop, a $1000 iPod, a $1300 Mac Mini, a $120 computer screen, a $150 iPod Shuffle, a $270 Cell Phone, a $120 cell phone, a $600 external Hard Drive). I'm not going to tell you what I do in terms of giving because that is between me and God, and I'm not going to advertise it by wearing armbands or something like that. I don't let my <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%206:1-4;&version=31;">left hand know what the right hand is doing</a>. So it's not your business, I'm not going to give you money if you ask. If you want some, send me a bank account number and give me a chance to do with being known at all. I'm a hellbound sinner. But I believe in God and I try (barely) to worship him. I admit that the feeling I can get from songs is good and makes me feel good. It's just not God. It's just an emotion from listening to a song. I've been listening to lots of TobyMac, Steven Curtis Chapman and Skillet recently. These artists invoke different emotions, but I like both of them. Music is good for making me feel better when I'm in a rut. And it's nice to have in the background to break the silence sometimes. At the moment it's helping to keep me awake (it's now 5:20). But everyone has different taste in music. Melissa likes some of the same stuff as me, but she also likes BarlowGirl and Rebecca St. James. She doesn't like Skillet and Pillar as much as I do. But that's cool with me. But she doesn't put the music above her God. That's worship in my book. There is also the small issue of the book called the bible. Sure, it's old. Sure, it's hard reading. But it's also the word of God. And just see what the <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%2019:11-24;&version=31;">Word of God</a> is going to do. So I don't think it should be ignored. I personally try to live by it. I don't live by all of it (look at that list of "stuff" I have) but I try. It's bloody hard work, but with the greatest pain comes the greatest reward. (If only you know what I went through to "get" Melissa. (I think only 1 person knows, and it's not Melissa.)) I think it's worth it. Ranting and Raving 2007-03-17T01:34:43Z yomcat Look http://yomcat.geek.nz/lifetype/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=960&blogId=1 <img src="http://yomcat.geek.nz/photos/ring.jpg" /> Press Releases 2007-03-01T18:01:18Z yomcat