Sleep

Earlier Infusion blog posts have discussed sleep - here's a link to a blog post On Sleep which notes that "the Bible says quite a bit on this topic, probably because sleep is both a good teacher and a revealer of the heart":

1. 
Sleep is a daily gift from God (Psalm 127:1–2).

2. Sleep reminds us daily of our need for God (Psalms 3:5, 4:8).

3. Excessive sleep exposes sin and leads to poverty (Proverbs 6:9–11, 20:13).

4. Sleep is sweet when we are walking in wisdom (Proverbs 3:19–24).

5. Falling asleep provides an opportunity to examine our hearts before God (Psalm 4:4).


Can the internet cure insomnia?

One out of 10 Britons can't fall asleep at night. But new online treatments for insomnia may mean that a cure is just a few clicks away? While some sleep experts say automated systems can help make insomnia treatment widely available, others think effective treatment requires the human touch.

See also other posts on sleep.

Antidote to Blue Monday

The BBC reports today is "Blue Monday"- the date in January when psychologists estimate that post-Christmas gloom is at its worst. Surfing the Web, I found that the Daily Mail claims it is "going to be the most depressing day in history", with the credit crunch adding to the misery of cold weather, fading Christmas memories and broken New Year resolutions.

But for the Christian, Lamentations 3:22-24 gives the promise:

Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.

Two endings and a new beginning

Some people fear that the world may end tomorrow (10 September) when the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, Switzerland gets turned on. [ BBC Radio 4 is offering special programmes about it all week, and has a Big Bang Day on the actual day of activation].

OR

This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper (T.S. Eliot The Hollow Men, 1925).

OR

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, I am making everything new! (Revelation 21)

As time goes by...

Infusion was originally known as Emmanuel & St. Mary's 20s & 30's Group when it started in 1996. We changed our name in 2000 for a number of reasons, including the fact that a number of members had become "30ish+" with the passage of time.

So it was interesting to see (via a friend's link on Facebook) that Twenty Thirty, a Christian organisation in the United Kingdom that organises social events for people in their twenties and thirties (whether single, couples or married), has recently expanded to include a wider age range and renamed itself Twenties Thirties Forties.

This blog has previously noted the Looking at life.. ministry from Care for the Family, aimed at supporting "20 and 30-somethings". At least their name will be able to stay the same even the age range moves on...

The joy of simply faffing around

How do you spend a Bank Holiday Monday? Visiting relatives or tacking the garden or DIY? As this is the last Bank Holiday until Christmas, maybe you should just take it easy? Read the Guardian on The joy of simply faffing around or perhaps catch up on some sleep....

Making time to think

From the BBC website:

When Barack Obama met David Cameron, the pair got around to discussing thinking time - and the lack of it. It's not just potential leaders of nations who are short of opportunities to reflect on the bigger picture. How can any of us grab thinking time during the working day?

... few of us complain of having too much time, whether at work or at home. As a public service, the Magazine asks how to grab yourself some thinking time - from those who've had time to think about it.

[Image from FreeFoto.com]

Blogging break over

The recent blogging break has been unintentional - it was in part due to a new job and the resultant tiredness when adjusting to a new routine, coupled with no longer having access to a really fast laptop. Then came our summer holiday and a hotel with a slow Internet connection.

All this time, though, possible blog topics and links have been bookmarked and a selection will get posted over the next few weeks. The Infusion blog is back....

20s & 30s event and website

Jacky has publicised the Care for the Family event: Better than Alright? An evening for everyone in their 20s and 30s. This will be held on 7th May in Nottingham at Notts County FC (a very accessible venue with ample parking). Tickets need to be booked in advance.

Care for the Family have also launched a new website for those in their 20s and 30s: www.lookingatlife.org.uk

Health news

The good news is.....this winter's norovirus outbreak may not be as bad as the media have made it out to be (which friend who is a doctor told me two weeks ago). The bad news is....your computer keyboard is a breeding ground for bacteria and almost certainly a health hazard! We can't all afford to use the ultrasonic cleaning discussed, but there are a number of websites that advise on How To Clean Your Keyboard, including this Step By Step Guide.

2008 trends (1)

After reading about the anticipated trends for 2008, I thought it might be interesting to see how relevant these are to life in Leicestershire. So here goes with a look at the first two trends:

• Make it yourself: while creating your own music, video and multimedia productions and posting them online has become commonplace (see this post about Loughborough musicians, for example), it is predicted that it will soon be just as easy to create physical goods - designing them online and having them professionally manufactured, and then joining online communities to share tips, market and sell their goods. For the past two Christmases I've used online sites to create photo calendars as gifts, although the trend takes this much further .
  

• Local networking: although Facebook will still continue to grow, trend watchers expect the social networking phenomenon to diversify next year, with the rise of smaller, "local" sites for a single neighbourhood, street or building. The BBC report suggests that local networking sites could be "very useful, enabling people to post advertisements and helping with anything from lost cats to trader recommendations. They also have the potential to recreate the kind of community spirit we like to imagine existed in the days before we spent our lives glued to computer screens". You could argue that postcards in the windows of corner shops have done sort of networking this for years! However, this isn't ground-breaking stuff as many university (and some hospital) communities have offered this sort of interaction electronically for some years (through bulletin boards, portals and Virtual Learning Environments). However this trend again raises the issue of the digital divide and disenfranchises those without access to speedy online connections.

Trends in 2008

After considering 100 things we didn't know last year, the BBC consulted trend-prediction experts to discuss what will be the hottest trends of 2008. The list they produced identifies these:

• Make it yourself
• Local networking
• See-hear-buy
• Think blue
• Secret bling
• Radical transparency
• Body language

More on sleep

I love the serendipity of blogging... I write another post about sleep and the next day stumble across a podcast on the topic which discusses the Wellcome Collection's new exhibition of sleep and dreaming.

Cat nap or power nap?

It seems that sleep deprivation is becoming a national problem. I posted recently on the theology of sleep, but if you're still feeling tired all the time, the BBC website is offering top tips for nodding off.

The theology of sleep

Following on from my post on changing the clocks, I've come across a blog post on the theology of sleep and a sermon to download on A Biblical Understanding of Sleep. The latter is part of a series called Sanctifying the Ordinary* and there are messages on sleep, eating, work and leisure. They are all based on 1 Corinthians 10.31: "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God" . Finally, here are some Celtic prayers to help you prepare to sleep and a link to Night prayer from Common Worship.

* This links to a $20 CD but scroll down and you'll come to the individual free downloads

Changing the clocks

A reminder that you need to turn your clocks back an hour on Sunday (otherwise you may turn up at church an hour early!). How are you affected when the clocks change? An article in The Guardian explains how our biological clocks are affected and how we can adapt to the seasonal shift.

Smile, please, you're on email

If you’ve ever ended an e-mail message or an instant message with an emoticon, now might be a good time to pause and reflect on the work of Scott E. Fahlman. It is 25 years ago this month since Mr. Fahlman, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, invented the digital smiley face. After a colleague joked about a contaminated elevator on an electronic bulletin board and this remark was mis-interpreted, Mr. Fahlman had his eureka moment: He recommended that future quipsters mark their jokes with :-) to make sure no one misconstrued their comments.

Simon Jenkins picks up on the use of emoticons in today's Guardian: I'd rather mingle souls by letter than live a life of regret through email. He writes that he is concerned that "email has become a substitute for both the telephone and the letter, and an inadequate one at that. As against the telephone, email is a distancing device. It not only eliminates tone of voice, it prevents interruption or response. It is a one-way conversation, a monologue, with all the rudeness that can imply."

After stating that he feels emails ought to carry a standard health warning, he concludes: "do something you may not have done for ages. Write a proper letter, rewriting it if necessary. The recipient will be amazed and delighted that you have taken the time. You will have written what you meant to say, and I bet you will have used no emoticons."

Too busy......?

Christian Research reports on the findings of a five-year study, Distracted from God, which concludes that busyness is an obstacle to growth for Christians worldwide. Charleston Southern University School of Business looked at responses from over 20,000 Christians aged 15 upwards and across 139 countries. Fifty-four per cent of pastors said that they ‘rush from task to task’ - the highest score by occupation, maybe unsurprisingly. For 64% of teachers busyness interfered with the development of their relationship with God. The report showed that rushing about was not just a western symptom, but was ‘often’ or ‘always’ a way of life for Africans (33%), Australians (41%) and South Americans (42%).

Looks like the Archbishop of York was right in recomending we all start slowing down.. Maybe its worth trying the Obstacles to Growth Survey to assess yourself!

Where did you surf today?

There have been a number of news stories over the past couple of days looking at Web demographics in the light of an Ofcom report on The Communications Market 2007:

• Britain enjoying 'digital boom'

• Pathfinder kids

• The feminisation of the net

• In praise of...Silver surfers

They say if you can't beat them, join them - so perhaps now is the time to sign up for the Infusion Group on Facebook. Alternatively, maybe we should all get out more and get some ecotherapy by going for a walk!

Workers call for the return of the tea trolley

The Guardian reports on a survey by employment agency Office Angels. Office workers who were surveyed indicated that a full one-hour lunch break each day would boose morale considerably. Another key request was a return to the days of the tea trolley; this prompts a Guardian leader: In praise of the office tea trolley.

Info on the survey can be found in the Office Angels Press Releases Archive. The top traditions office workers wanted to see brought back were:

• Taking a full hour for your lunch break (39%)
• Annual ‘work outing’ (33%)
• Subsidised canteen (29%)
• The tea lady with her trolley full of sticky buns and afternoon delights (26%)
• Pub lunches - that last all afternoon! (23%)
• The sandwich man coming into the office with his selection of lunchtime treats (19%)