It is one of those real dumb questions, well meaning but misguided. "Who is the best drummer in the world". It is like asking who is the best footballer or who is the best sportsperson. There are so many different skills and types of drumming that one person is not best at all of them. What we need are categories that we can group people into. For instance: Fastest drummer; Most versatile drummer; Time signature master; most varied playing; most driving drummer; most flexible footwork; most musical drummer; best recording production etc.
Then we can decide who we want to listen to in order to be inspired in a particular way.
I enjoy rock drummers but I quite enjoy the jazz elements that add a lot of interest to drumming. Every now and then I hear something special and something with a lot of dynamics and construction rather than a steady plodding metronome of a drum beat. That is cool.
Anyway, I am yet to hear many people touch Gav Harrison on his general ability in many areas. At the end of the day, the music sounds great and the drums are a large part. I used to think Neil Peart was real top quality but now I find his drumming for the most part was quite straight whereas Gav's is varied, versatile and interesting.
Thursday 30 April 2009
Wednesday 22 April 2009
The Reason we can rely on God
I was knocking together some thoughts the other day for a friend who is having a hard time with the whole "who am i" and "what is the point of life" type questions. They have a belief in God but they don't really know how it should pan out.
Anyway, I stumbled across a few things that I thought were really significant so I thought I should record them.
I don't have the space here to go into massive depth but one of the things is that we need to understand our position in Christ. We were sinners, we come to Christ, we do not become 'good people' we merely become vessels for Jesus. This means that God has forgiven us because of Jesus and it also means the important point is to allow Jesus to use us rather than thinking we need to 'learn' how to be better people. This is human religion and does not work. It also means that you do not have to be 'good' to be a Christian. It also means that you do not cease to be a Christian because you struggle with things.
Another point was that we need to remind ourselves why Jesus died. If we can become good people (even with Jesus' 'help') His death was meaningless. He could have helped us without dying. His death is actually for our death to sin. Only by this can we be free to allow Jesus to take control.
A major thing that I guess I hadn't thought of before was about how God has based our new life on the death of Christ and on our baptism as the mechanism to move into it. Why is that important? Because it is historical fact and not based on the current state of our life. (Well at least if you are baptised). This should give us hope because our relationship with God and our Christian new life does not come and go with the seasons or our mood or situation or our trials and temptations. None of those things change anything between us and God. It means we always have a foundation, a baseline, something to rely on in all situations and it means that we can forget that damaging thought process which says that because I am feeling distant or under pressure that my relationship with God has been damaged.
It is not damaged. It might be a bit quiet but it is based on only God's plans and not on us so it cannot be damamged by circumstances. This means that we are always a few seconds away from closeness with God again. It means we don't have to reject ourselves because of our situation since God hasn't!! Sweet.
Anyway, I stumbled across a few things that I thought were really significant so I thought I should record them.
I don't have the space here to go into massive depth but one of the things is that we need to understand our position in Christ. We were sinners, we come to Christ, we do not become 'good people' we merely become vessels for Jesus. This means that God has forgiven us because of Jesus and it also means the important point is to allow Jesus to use us rather than thinking we need to 'learn' how to be better people. This is human religion and does not work. It also means that you do not have to be 'good' to be a Christian. It also means that you do not cease to be a Christian because you struggle with things.
Another point was that we need to remind ourselves why Jesus died. If we can become good people (even with Jesus' 'help') His death was meaningless. He could have helped us without dying. His death is actually for our death to sin. Only by this can we be free to allow Jesus to take control.
A major thing that I guess I hadn't thought of before was about how God has based our new life on the death of Christ and on our baptism as the mechanism to move into it. Why is that important? Because it is historical fact and not based on the current state of our life. (Well at least if you are baptised). This should give us hope because our relationship with God and our Christian new life does not come and go with the seasons or our mood or situation or our trials and temptations. None of those things change anything between us and God. It means we always have a foundation, a baseline, something to rely on in all situations and it means that we can forget that damaging thought process which says that because I am feeling distant or under pressure that my relationship with God has been damaged.
It is not damaged. It might be a bit quiet but it is based on only God's plans and not on us so it cannot be damamged by circumstances. This means that we are always a few seconds away from closeness with God again. It means we don't have to reject ourselves because of our situation since God hasn't!! Sweet.
Thursday 9 April 2009
What is Democracy?
I wondered what democracy is. You might have though that it is based on the fact that if the majority of people want something then it is made so. Doesn't seem to be true though. I heard today that the government are planning to flood Google search results with non-extreme Islamic sites so that hardline ones are harder to find. The government really don't understand do they? If people in certain Muslim countries want to be hard-liners don't they have the right to do that? Isn't that democracy (as long as they don't commit crimes in other countries of course). What if they don't want democracy and want a dictator to rule everything to keep order, are they not entitled to that? What about if we all don't want the Iraq invasion, is that what happens? What happens if Christians want to believe that evolution is not true in the sense it is often reported and that God created the world, can they not believe that?
The reality is there are lots of forces dictating exactly what you can and can't do, what you are allowed to believe and what influence you actually have on the government and society. The only difference between me and someone else is that they think they are free to do whatever and I know that people are sinful and try to fit their management or government to their own beliefs about what is and what isn't allowed.
This my friends is the knowledge of good and evil, the lack of asking God about what is what and simply deciding for ourselves. It's not like we really know anything about the world at the end of the day - whoever we are.
The reality is there are lots of forces dictating exactly what you can and can't do, what you are allowed to believe and what influence you actually have on the government and society. The only difference between me and someone else is that they think they are free to do whatever and I know that people are sinful and try to fit their management or government to their own beliefs about what is and what isn't allowed.
This my friends is the knowledge of good and evil, the lack of asking God about what is what and simply deciding for ourselves. It's not like we really know anything about the world at the end of the day - whoever we are.
Wednesday 8 April 2009
Indirect hot water systems
You may have found on your heating system that when you have the hot water switched on and the heating off, some or all of the radiators still get warm. It seems really wrong and you might suspect a leaking 3-port valve or similar but usually the problem is much more mundane.
It is caused by hot water in the return pipe from cycinder to boiler convecting up into radiators naturally. The radiators will heat up only slowly and once the water cylinder is hot, the boiler will switch off but it is still a bit of a waste.
What can you do? You can fit check valves to the return pipes on the radiators or ideally fit less of them right next to the main return pipe rather than one per rad which might be excessive. Make sure you point them the correct way (towards the return pipe) and I would avoid double-check valves since the single check ones require enough pressure to open that I wouldn't want to overload the pump.
I did it the other day on a 22mm pipe which was the return for 3 radiators and now they don't get hot unless the heating is on.
Energytastic!
It is caused by hot water in the return pipe from cycinder to boiler convecting up into radiators naturally. The radiators will heat up only slowly and once the water cylinder is hot, the boiler will switch off but it is still a bit of a waste.
What can you do? You can fit check valves to the return pipes on the radiators or ideally fit less of them right next to the main return pipe rather than one per rad which might be excessive. Make sure you point them the correct way (towards the return pipe) and I would avoid double-check valves since the single check ones require enough pressure to open that I wouldn't want to overload the pump.
I did it the other day on a 22mm pipe which was the return for 3 radiators and now they don't get hot unless the heating is on.
Energytastic!
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