Links for January 14th, 2007

FUN
- Line Rider: A very fun and addictive little game online, in which you draw a sled run however you want and then watch the little man do it. Jason made the guy land in the splits, then do more than the splits in the air, and finally get a concussion, poor thing. Here's the really impressive and entertaining sled run some artist concocted.

- Test your musical skills in six minutes via Jon Reid. It's a very hard test and one is often forced to guess. I got 86.1% Correct; Jon got 88.9%! Chapeau!). Scroll down to click the "Start Test" arrow near the bottom of the page and be ready to listen hard! There are also pitch perception and rhythm tests available just below, but I haven't done those yet.

TRAVELS
- Jon Reid went scuba diving for Christmas! See his cool underwater photo of his family with santa hats on.

- In case this wasn't common sense to every travelling parent, Tsa.gov makes sure you realize:

NEVER leave babies in an infant carrier while it goes through the X-ray machine.

Good idea.

- Did you know that England, South Africa, and Australia aren't the only countries that drive on the left side of the road? Try Japan, India, Cyprus, Indonesia, Kenya, Pakistan and Jamaica, amongst many others. Having lived only in three right-driving countries until now, I had sort of been under the impression that "everyone" drove on the right except England and a couple of its former colonies. Not right, wrong.

ANIMALS
- In the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, where we live in the UK, they have Toad Patrols! It's a volunteer event once a year for a few days to pick up toads from a migratory route across a main road, put them in buckets, and release them in a less dangerous spot across the street!

- My friend Julie Leung started a Guinea Pig TV video blog with her three girls, starring their cute pet and the girls' voice talent. From the Hallowe'en clip, you can move on to find Chatterboy experiencing snow and also hear a song sung by the girls about his lovely droppings. See a photo of the guinea pig movie star with his head in the bowl.

- How to feed a cat a pill. Very funny.

CULINARY
- Pant-Ysgawn is a kind of Welsh goat's cheese on sale in the shops here. Try saying it to yourself a few times. Makes you feel sort of naked.

- A rather different bloggers' wedding cake. Yes, the whole thing is edible. Kind of unbelievable, but who says you have to do things the way they've always been done?

OTHER STUFF
- My husband's cousin, Angie in North Carolina, apparently has a child who can literally sleep standing up. She has photos of his other odd sleeping positions. Angie, congratulations on wireless in the house and condolences on the Treo in the toilet bowl!

- Kerry Woo over at Wonderdawg posts at a mind-boggling rate. Some funny samples include politically correct Christmas greetings and a photo of tans from different summer activities. And a cool one: an A-Z Thanksgiving list. You can tell I've been saving these links since the beginning of the holiday season!

- A great story of a dad and son, via Amanda Witt.

- Brant Hansen's blog is cynically very entertaining even if you never read a post: just read his blog post categories/topics down the right hand column. However, if you have ever been to church or thought about going, and you really want to squirm and be wonderfully disturbed and provoked, read this, followed by this. So thought-provoking. Then there's his Florida fellowship group website, What is church? A good question. We are still praying about what God wants us to do "for church" here in England, having been somewhere to meet with believers every Sunday morning for six months except two times we met in our living room just the four of us to worship (or when travelling). But still not having had peace about formally joining any of the groups we've visited. Perhaps You're leading us to something different at this point? Please guide us strongly and clearly, O God. And with unity. Sometimes I feel we are going in four different directions with the four people in our family. Happily, all towards Jesus, though...good thing He is to be found in many directions.

Comments

[Patricia Taylor]

Have you thought about starting a "home church" in your home? This just came to me. You have a piano (and now drums!) and voices to praise! William and I went to our first "Truth Project" teaching at Trinity this morning. It was excellent. Done by Focus on the Family. A real eye-opener! Can't wait until next time! I love you all. Mom

[jeffy]

"Try saying it to yourself a few times. Makes you feel sort of naked."

Oh, groan! (though I suspect if I had a clue how to pronounce Welsh I wouldn't have this reaction.)

I'm looking forward to trying the music test (and having my more musical family members trounce me).