Jon Jolly

As a part-time Mobile DJ, tagging and organising my music library is very important to me. I’ve previously spent hours changing incorrect track information and I currently have around 12,000 songs in my iTunes library. Playlists are essential to manage all the songs and I rely on Smart Playlists to filter genre, new songs, decades, etc. In the same way, giving a rating to each song is also vital so I can easily filter your Arcade Fire from your Aqua.

Now I realise that rating anything is a subjective experience based on the taste of the reviewer so not everyone will agree with my decisions. A good example is the website metacritic.com where they give music, movies and games an average rating out of 100 based on cumulative reviews from known publications. However, I recently realised that even the seemingly simple 5 star rating has hidden depth that can be used in a variety of ways to produce very different results.

For example, some people might only have music in their library that they enjoy or appreciate (probably a lot of people). Therefore 1 star could represent a casual liking of a song, while a 5 star equates to a passionate auditory experience which few songs ever attain. This approach would be similar to the four star rating in Halliwell’s Film Guide, helpfully explained by Chewing Pixels:

all films by default receive a zero star rating. Only exceptionally interesting and important films manage to receive a one or two star rating with a tiny handful (just over 1%) of the 23, 000 odd films covered receiving the maximum recommendation of Four Stars.

For me however, a song in my library always starts as a 3 star by default. This is the middle ground and a safe arena which the majority of tracks fall into; not great but not terrible, just OK. Anything below par becomes a 2 star or, if woefully inadequate and pathetic, a 1 star. In contrast, anything that rises above the norm and stands out becomes a 4 star, with particularly inspired compositions receiving the full 5 stars. Any track that has no stars is classified as not yet rated.

I currently have 408 5 star rated tracks. A random selection includes:

• Arcade Fire - Windowsill
• Daft Punk - One More Time
• Lupe Fiasco - Daydreamin’
• Gorillaz - Dare
• Bloc Party - The Prayer

So how do you rate your music and what’s in your 5 stars?

Recently I’ve been getting a few opportunities to write about my experience of working with young people. After writing an opinion piece for Youth Work Now back in January, I’ve been asked to write another one for the June edition. I’m focusing on the Government MyPlace investment into youth facilities.

In addition, as part of my involvement with The Rank Foundation I will be writing a chapter for an upcoming publication on the Foundation’s approach to youth work called Journeying Together. It’s planned for release next year and my outline should be complete by the end of the summer.

Last week at our 11-14’s group Ignite, we had an Arty Evening where we did a number of creative activities for the 50 young people who came. One of those activities was doing chalk drawings outside which the kids thoroughly enjoyed. By using a huge stack of playground chalks, we managed to cover the car park in colourful pictures and slogans (without any swearing). Some of the girls even drew chalk outlines like dead bodies around my car with the words “Police Line - Do Not Cross!” The picture above was taken after only the first of four groups, so you can imagine how crazy it looked at the end.

At the end of the night, it was getting dark and the team had a lot to clear up inside. We left the car park as it was, knowing there was nothing offensive there and hoping that it would rain overnight. I never really thought it would be a problem!

Anyway, next morning the chalk was still there and I got in a LOT of trouble for not having cleared it up! I spent the next 40 minutes outside with buckets of water and a stiff broom trying to scrub it off the tarmac while cars came in and out. More embarrassingly, I had to leave the job half finished as I was driving up north to my brother’s wedding. Apparently I now owe some guys in the church a huge apology as they ended up scrubbing the rest away on my behalf! This is after we trashed the carpet before Christmas by playing messy games with flour, custard and mashed potato. I’m on my second strike.

Lesson learned? Never assume it’s OK to leave things out!

I’m loving the satirical news posted over at NewsBiscuit and this particular article caught my eye!

‘Supply vicars’ unable to control unruly congregation

Rural parishes unable to find permanent members of the clergy have been forced to bring in supply vicars whose inexperience and lack of authority has made them vulnerable to disruptive parishioners, says a new report.

One temporary priest was reduced to tears with heckling and catcalling during his sermon, and when he looked up he saw that all the church-goers had turned their pews round to face the opposite direction. ‘These young supply vicars do not have the experience to be able to hold the attention of wayward Christians,’ admitted the Archbishop of Canterbury. ‘The moment they turn their back they are pelted with screwed up service sheets and Alpha Course leaflets made into paper planes, and many of them just don’t know what to do.’

In a small church in South Devon, one vicar was subjected to mass humming, while another gradually became aware that the mumbling and feigned coughing around the congregation was part of a daring game where each church-goer had to say the word ‘bollocks’ slightly louder than the last. In extreme cases of disruption, tearful vicars have run out to the vestry and phoned for the bishop, who has had to come down and give the congregation a serious talking to.

‘People imagine that church-goers are serene and gentle people, but nothing could be further from the truth’ said one vicar who has quit the Church after the pressure became too great. ‘On one occassion I asked the elderly congregation what they normally did for Evensong, and the old ladies told me they usually did black mass and sacrificed a goat to Beelzebub. How was I to know it was a wind up? It was only when I smeared the goat’s blood on my face and saw them giggling that I realized I had made a bit of an idiot of myself.’

Genius!

I found this great cartoon on someecards.com that sums up my part-time business: puredisco.

This is quite a physical game that requires some contact but is a lot of fun.

Numbers: groups of around 6 or over. Works best with around 20
Suitable for: older children and teens (8-18’s) although many adults enjoy this too!
Preparation time: none
Venue: suitable for a small hall or area
Safety First: this game involves people knocking into each other, so has a slight risk of injury (although we’ve never had a problem). If you have particularly aggressive individuals, you might want to think about wearing padding or sumo-style suits.
Equipment needed:

• pen and paper to write down scores

The Game:
Get everyone to pair up with a partner and stand opposite each other a few feet apart while lining up with other pairs. You should end up with two lines of people facing off against each other with a big space between. This is your arena! Now number each pair from 1 upwards and ask them to remember it.

When the game starts, the referee calls out a number and that pair steps forward into the arena - except that they have to keep hopping on one foot while keeping their arms folded! The idea is that by hopping around and knocking into each other, the opponents have to try and make the other put their second foot back on the floor.

By keeping their arms folded during the game, it stops people from grabbing each other and pulling their opponent down. Instead they must try and catch the other off balance
The person that remains hopping wins the battle and gains a point for their team before returning to the line. Then another pair has a go.

The referee continues to call out numbers until each pair has had a turn. You can then repeat and allow everyone another chance or you start to call out 2 numbers at a time to create bigger battles and tag teams!

Wow! What a crazy few days. I’ve been suffering from a nasty head cold while struggling to get this blog up and running again. It was the website equivalent of pounding it with a defibrillator, willing it to stay alive. I’m pleased to say that the operation was successful and it looks like the patient will make a full recovery. The fine folks at Dreamhost have been invaluable and it’s great to have all the Wordpress features finally working as they should.

Youth work-wise, yesterday Pippa and I went to find out about running a Romance Academy locally. It’s a great programme for dealing with sexual attitudes of teenagers and we’re pretty excited about it. We just need to find enough time to make it happen - no small task!

Anyway, as the song goes: “Hello, hello, it’s good to be back!”

OK, so the blog is broken. All that spam has caused my hosting company to suspend the account, meaning I can’t access it via ftp.

In the meantime, I’ve moved hosts and set-up the blog again. I’m just waiting to import the past 4 years of posts to get it all back to normal! Currently, this is the only post on the entire blog! Strange huh?

I hope to get everything back to its usual state by Monday, but for now please be patient.

Dear God is a website where people send in their ‘prayers’ to be posted on the site. Similar to the creative confessional Postsecret, the site allows people to express their emotions and sentiments to whatever higher power they believe in.

It doesn’t matter what your version of God is… Jesus, Allah, Buddha or simply a spiritual universal energy… praying to a higher power soothes and heals. It’s scientifically proven that people who pray are healthier, happier and more resilient.

An interesting idea, and one that is capturing a lot of imagination and press. Go check it out as it is equally inspirational and disheartening.

ht: Digital Orthodoxy

This is part of an 11-session series for 11-14 year olds, teaching our mission statement and the importance of its values:

We exist to learn to follow Jesus, to show honour to God, to use our gifts to serve, to support each other, and to share our faith.

Session Aim: To learn how to share our faith with our friends

Activity: Now You’re Talking
Split people up into pairs and tell them have to take it in turns to talk about their favourite movie! They will have 1 minute each to tell the other person all the best bits about the film, why they love it, what happens, etc. After a minute, the other person gets a chance to share their movie. They are likely to get quite excited and animated as they talk about it. Explain that telling others about Jesus should be just exciting as talking about movies because of what He has done for us. Today we’re looking at how we can share our faith.

Read: 1 Corinthians 2:1-5

Dear brothers and sisters, when I came to you, I did not come preaching God’s secret with fancy words or a show of human wisdom. I decided that while I was with you I would forget about everything except Jesus Christ and his death on the cross. So when I came to you, I was weak and fearful and trembling. My teaching and preaching were not with words of human wisdom that persuade people but with proof of the power that the Spirit gives. This was so that your faith would be in God’s power and not in human wisdom.

Illustration: 8 Reasons I Don’t Share My Faith
This is a funny YouTube clip where a Christian explains all the reasons he doesn’t want to tell anyone about God. It may prompt some questions from the group, so be sure to focus on the purpose of evangelism and refer back to Jesus’ command in the Great Commission (Matt 28:19-20).

Discuss:

• Have you ever wondered what to say to others about God? What does Paul say about telling others?
• Paul was ‘weak and fearful’ when sharing his faith. Have you ever been nervous when telling someone about God?
• Do you know how to explain the Good News of Jesus?

Pray:

• Ask God for confidence, and for opportunities to tell friends about Him
• Pray for any issues affecting the group this week.

Challenge:
This week, practice telling a Christian friend about what Jesus has done for you! Don’t worry about words, but try to get it clear in your head.

Further Reading: 1 Peter 3:15-16

But respect Christ as the holy Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to answer everyone who asks you to explain about the hope you have, but answer in a gentle way and with respect. Keep a clear conscience so that those who speak evil of your good life in Christ will be made ashamed.