Christmas present ideas for children

Christmas is more than just buying presents, filling up on Turkey and tinsel.  Christmas is all about the birth of Jesus. But so that you can focus on the real meaning of Christmas I have done some searching online to find the best ideas I can for great christmas presents that will stand the test of time and keep the kids amused  until next Christmas. I have five children so kids christmas presents are my specialised subject…

1. Books

We are big fans of our local library – we regularly max out our library cards. But some books you’ll want to buy because the kids will read them over and over. Here are some top picks:

Philip Reeve’s Mortal Engine’s Quartet- great for 10+ year old boys -

I’ve been reading this series to my older kids and they have been hooked. It’s gritty, it’s got great action sequences, and there’s relationships too – so not bad for a mixed audience.The series is set in the future after the 60 min war – which leaves a devastated post apocalyptic earth at the mercy of the great steam powered traction cities. There’s some great twists and turns in the story line – so all is not as it seems. Enjoy the ride…

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The Roald Dahl TreasuryThis is a beautifully presented book on really good quality paper (I am big fan of books feeling good as well as reading well) It has lots of great illustrations and some real treats from the wide range of children’s books Roald Dahl crafted. From Matilida to the Nasty Nursery Rhymes. Well worth the investment as kids won’t want to give this book up and they’ll hold onto this book into adulthood.

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Magyk – we have just started this series and we’re really enjoying the pace and the clever ideas in each chapter. Its got a great hook for a begining, and Angie Sage does a great job of brining the character to life – giving them a real grace and humanity. Series are great because once a child is hooked on one – they’ll normally want to keep going – which is great for literacy.

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Tales of Prydian – this is the best fantasy series to read with 8-11 year olds. There are five books in the series and they are really engaging – great stories with powerful messages and dare i say great wisdom. I’d read a chapter a night with my two sons (8 and 9) and they would always beg me to read more. Don’t be put off by the really quite terrible Disney version of book 2 (The Black Cauldron.) I can’t recommend these books highly enough.

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NG Kids magazine £26.50 children aged 6 and above…

This is an amazingly good kids magazine combining some really good information about the natural world with news about films, computer gamesetc. You would not believe the number of conversations that my 9 year old started with my son introducing a fact at the right time – so the other day I burnt my tongue on a hot drink and my son says:

Son: “Dad, did you know it will take a week for you to grow a new taste bud.”
Dad: “How did you know that? “
Son: “it was in my NG kids magazine.”

In fact it has been a standing joke in our house, that if my son knows anything it’s from NG kids magazine. It’s been a great present that my Mum gave him last year and it’s so exciting for young children to get regular post through the door each month. There’s normally a free gift: a micro kite, a 3D booklet, a book sampler etc.

Lion Graphic Bible

As Christmas is a Christian festival – it might be worth helping your children get an angle on the Christian story. This is a very well produced version of the Bible with excellent full colour art work and gives young people a really good overview of the whole Bible. I used it with my oldest children and we read it together at bed time. The images are really well done and give a great sense of the dynamism and action of a lot of the bible stories. It literally starts with Genesis and ends with revelation covering both the narrative sections and a quick overview of the epistles.  It could be a great entry point for a lot of young people with the Bible.

Manga Jesus volume 1, Siku, Hodder and Stoughton

Graphic Artist Siku does an excellent job in capturing the drama of the gospel. This is a short book it is in black and white but printed on very high quality paper. It is artistically of an even higher standard than the Lion bible despite being in black and white. There are some very clever artistic touches that adds another dimension to this retelling of the gospel story.

2. Board Games

OK I admit it, I am mad keen on board games. They are a great family time investment – they teach co-operation, strategy and the art of losing graciously (and maybe winning graciously too). Here are our family favourites that will make some fun present options:

1. Pictureka

This is a very simple game, the object of the game is to find objects hidden inside a very detailed game board. There are individual and group challenges .Its great for a range of ages and is one of the few games that a 6 year old can play with adults. Its fast paced, family fun. We got this for Christmas last year and still play it regularly. Enjoy…

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2. Settlers of Catan

My sister bought this for me a couple of years ago, she got into it in Canada and it is an excellent game. Its has a level of complexity that makes it fun to play over and over but the basic rules are simple enough that my 7 year old regularly beats me. Its a trading game that is a cross between Monopoly, Risk and Sim City. We have the basic game plus a number of expansion packs – including Cities and Knights and Sea farers. All of the expansion packs we have really do add value to your original investment – but the basic game is very good in itself. Highly recommended.(WARNING – We played this with some friends at a dinner party, we all got so into the game that we had to take the Robber out of circulation as it was leading to some heated discussions !)

3. Uno

This is an all time classic – if you need a stocking filler for a neice or nephew this could be it. Very simple and compulsive game to play. You can get all sorts of varieties of the game (we had the Spiderman version for a while which had some special features – and a nice tin which made the game easy to store and very robust). There’s a fun Dr Who version too. If you happen to have the good taste to support liverpool fc there’s a great european heroes version ! But the basic game is probably still the best. A great game to take on holiday.

 

Lego

I know lego is expensive but for sheer playability and durabilty there is no other toy like it. My parents carefully preserved all my lego and so my kids are playing with bricks that are 20 years old. My sons and daughters still love the stuff – we have an amazing lighthouse that my 6 year old daughter built shining out in our lounge at the moment. beware the lego that has too many large parts that don’t allow you to change very much. The Star Wars and Harry Potter stuff isn’t that good, but the good old basic lego is unbeatable! Enjoy. Amazon have some deals on at the moment…

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Geomag

This is a great gift that kids and adults will want to play with. One part executive desk toy , two parts kids building block toy. Geomag is a collection of magnetic linking shapes, ball bearings and panels that fit together to make interesting geometric shapes. They are very compulsive to play with – and you find yourself driven to make all manners of shapes, spinning toys, pyramids etc.

We left it out on our coffee table and all our visitors got stuck in and started making structures with it.

A great toy for all ages.

 

3. Gadgets

Sometimes rather than getting relatives to buy lots of little presents, we have experimented with a joint present.

Mobile Phone? – tough one this – when is the best time to buy the kids a mobile phone? For our 10 year old this year was his year. We bought him a pretty cool phone which he has used mainly for games, music and the occassional text message. it’s nice being able to phone him when he’s round a mate’s house or when he’s out with my wife but her phone battery has died !

Camcorder – we bought this for our daughter last year and she’s made some cool movies with it when we were on holiday. It was better than a straight digital camera for her – though the stills on a dedicated digital camera would have been better.

Pocket digital camcorder , 5 megapixel camera and 2.36 inch screen £29.50

I tried to buy my kids a cheap digital camera kast year and I was really disappointed with the results. Even a 5 megapixel camera proved to be a bit of a dud producing really blurry pictures. So somehow the guys at vivitar have managed to make a handheld digital camcorder which does a great job of capturing video and replaying it on the generously sized lcd screen. I am so excited by this present can’t wait to give it to the kids this year ! It records straight to SD card so there’s no messing around with DVDs or Video tape. You can output the video to your PC / Mac and should be able to edit the movies on windows movie maker or imovie.You’ll need to buy an SD memory card.. but they are so cheap these days you’ll be fine.

For £30 you can’t go wrong with this camcorder and maybe you will end up with the next Spielberg or Fellini… enjoy.

Digital Camera – the boys made cool stop motion videos with these and also enjoyed being able to take their own snaps when we are out and about. This is the best of the relatively entry models you can get.

Nintendo DSi – this has some genuinely cool features – the downloadable pocketmoney priced games and the digital camera have been a hit in our home. It allows you to take pictures and then manipulate them – a fun feature is being able to compare two people in a picture to see how much they resemble eachother. Though there don’t seem to be any dedicated to DSi cartridges yet so you could buy a normal DS lite if the budget is short. Though Amazon are offering a DSi with a game for only £5.

4. Wii games

Wii games have a long shelf life in our house – FIFA09 was a major hit last yearas was Lego Batman as they have played it pretty consistently. So this year I would recommend:

Wii Sports Resort The motion plus device  adds a whole new dimesion of game play to the wii – with pinpoint accuracy in its response to movement. We trialled a few of these games at a festival this summer and games such as the frisbee, the fencing, jet skiing and the aerial dogfight are all really good fun. You will need to get another wii motion sensor for the two player games – (you get one free with the grandslam tennis )

Mario Party 8 (fun turn based family game – think Monopoly meets the Wii) £32 I really like the pace of this game. Its like playing a good old fashioned board game – but with some fun twists and mini games. In fact you get more than one game in the box – so its like having a family compendium. It crosses a lot of age boundaries.

Wii fit plus We bought a wii fit this year and it really is addictive – there are some really fun games like the Hula Hoop, Football headers, Down Hill Ski Slalom and other fun balance games. There is also a more serious side to the game – it will measure your Body Mass Index, your centre of gravity and will give you a digital display on how your weight is getting on each day. Its really fun and compulsiev too – I was doing really well until I ate a kebab and it showed up on my weight check! Wii fit does actually help you lose weight or stay in shape and the new version has even more games to make it fun. if you have got wii fit already – the  £16 wii fit plus might give it a new lease of life.

Mario Striker’s Charged this is a great fun game – highly addictive and a very good deal at the moment (£11.61) so its a great stocking filler. This is a very addictive high speed football game featuring all your favourtie characters from the Mario universe. You can play on your own, with a friend against computer generated teams or against your friends. You do need two num-chuks for multi-player mode. The genius of the game is that it keeps the action simple so passing , tackling and shooting is very easy – but there are also extra items to pick up, and special moves that add to the fun. So you can be playing a game and suddenly Mario goes super size or the Mole burrows under the goal keeper and shoots. I think this is a great soccer game for younger children and adults too – if you want realism go and buy FIFA 10.

Guiness World Records the video game This has been a real hit in my family. Loads of really fun minigames – including Fridge Throwing, the loudest burp in the world, Landspeed record. The great thing about this game is that if you only have 1 remote and a nunchuck you can still play 4 player mode on this. Colouful graphics and lots of really playable games. It’s a bargain game too – which is always nice. Buy this one you won’t regret it.

Super Smash Bros Brawl This is a fun game. You can play as a vast range of characters – from Sonic to Mario to Pokemon to the cast of Final Fantasy. Up to four players can play at the same time and you can use throws, punches, kicks and special attacks to try and fight against your opponents. The backgrounds are amazing and take their cues from video games new and old – my favourites are from the Game and Watches of the 80s. There are lots of characters, objects, soundtracks and special moves to collect so there’s lots to reward you for keeping on coming back and playing again. You don’t have to have a numchuck to play this game but it is definitely easier if you have. It’s really come down in price so snap it up as a stocking filler.

My Sims My 7 year old daughter loves this game. It has all the sociability of animal crossing but with the additional creativity and fun of its own. You create towns and villages, desigining and decorating houses, building your own furniture and then you go and make friends. My daughter made a fridge, decorated her own room and went prospecting for “essences” and was “being nice” to random people she met in her world not long after getting the game. With bright graphics and lots to explore this is a great game for kids who like being creative rather than competitive.

More ideas coming soon…

Cliff College Lecture

I had a really fun time with a great bunch of students at Cliff College in Derbyshire yesterday.

Here is the PDF from my lectures on evangelism.

cliff college krish kandiah

In the lecture I presented an alternative to pietistic, dualistic presentations of the gospel. I have written this up in a book called Destiny.

Cheers

Krish

Usain Bolt 9.58

The mens’ 100m sprint has always been the blue ribbon event at any athletics meet. But put Usain Bolt and Tyson Gay in the line up and you have a clash of the titans. The camera zooming into each runner before the race – shows how this event has changed. Only Tyson was relatively focussed, Usain speaks to the camera “I’m ready, are you ready? Let’s go!” he then gesticulates and pulls his classic pose before blasting the opposition off the track. Breaking his own world record by some distance and making Tyson Gay who ran the fastest time any US citizen has ever run look like a pedestrian – some 2 metres behind.

“lightning does strike twice” says the commentator.

There seems no limit to this man’s potential – he is still only 22 years old and the world is literally at his feet.

Watching him power down the track in slow motion – was awe inspiring. Ofcourse it reminded me of Eric Liddel in Chariot’s fire….

God made me for China, but he also made me fast and I feel his pleasure when I run…

Liddel had a whole other side to his life, his faith and his calling to China as a missionary was central to his life. Where do you go after you have accomplished the thing for which everyone will remember you? The Apollo astronauts had the same problem, Borish Becker experienced it after winning Wimbledon at 17. What do you do when you know nothing in your life is going to be as good as what has already past?

In my book Destiny I wrestle with some of these issues and quote C.S. Lewis who says:

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

U2 360 Tour review

It’d been 18 years since my last U2 gig – I tried to hitch hike with a friend to Paris (we ended up catching a bus…) but we did get to see Velvet Undergound supporiting the great U2 on their ZOOROPA tour on a gorgeous day in the open air.

Last night I witnessed the 360 event in full flight on u2’s opening night of the UK leg of their world tour.

Great things about the gig:

1. Visuals

The 360 claw is an amazingly imposing structure. It looks like a Klingon Space cruiser has landed. The screen is very impressive even when it is on TV mode when the warm up acts are on. But when “Vertigo” kicks in or “Crazy Tonight” it really comes online – I have never seen anything like it. It makes you feel you are on a theme park ride and you are travelling at a 100mph when in fact you are quite still and the screen is the only thing moving. Our seats were pretty high up – so having the screen was a must.

2. Energy

The band basically did a 2 hour set – with only a 60 second break – Bono’s stamina was very impressive he was bopping and dancing almost the whole time. His voice held out really well too. I kind of felt sorry for the rest of the band because he is such an incredible front man – we hardly heard from the rest of them. Larry Mullen Jnr on drums had a great night – but he has gone from looking like the youngest member of the band to the oldest. Adam Clayton ( I just found out he was born just up the road from me in Chinnor) was wearing some very bizarre sparkly shirt – I still can’t believe Naomi Campbell and him were an item at one stage…. Edge wore his trademark hat all night even though it was very warm where we were so under the billion candlepower lamps he was under I don’t know how he managed to keep the hat on and the lumberjack shirt… So the energy the guys generated was incredible. Elbow had an enourmous ensemble and yet they did not produce half the sheer presence of this four man band.

3. Elbow

It was such a treat to have Elbow as the supporting act. I’ve been a fan since this last album. Guy Garvey the front man came across as a very affable bloke. He must have been either very drunk or very nervous because his eloquence so apparent on the album was completely missing in his banter with the crowd, which mainly consisted of “are you ok?” , “are you ok over there?”, “are you still ok?” But his voice was amazingly pure, strong, clear and pitch perfect. Elbow did an excellent job – and would gladly have listened to another hour of them. Most people didn’t bother sitting down to enjoy Elbow and it wasn’t until they played “One day like this” that the audience really got involved with the music.

4. Back Catalogue

I am not a fan of the new album, “No line on the horizon” but U2 still kicked off with four songs in a row from the album. But it felt like the gig only started when started when the band played “Beautiful Day”

Here’s the complete setlist

Breathe
No Line on the Horizon
Get On Your Boots
Magnificent
Beautiful Day
Elevation
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of
Unknown Caller
The Unforgettable Fire
City Of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Pride (In The Name Of Love)
MLK
Walk On
Where The Streets Have No Name
One
Mysterious Ways
Encore:
Ultraviolet (Light My Way)
With Or Without You
Moment of Surrender

Having given the new album a good listen and after the concert – Unknown caller has grown on me.

So that means i now quite like: Magnificent, Stand up for your love, Unknown Caller and a little bit of Sexy boots – so the album isn’t a dead loss…

5. Political dimension

The emotional heart of the concert was Walk On which was dedicated to Aung San Suu Kyi, pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace laureate. Bono sung her MLK almost as a lullaby. Not that many people had a Aung San mask to wear – but I love the idealism, the passion and the commitment to the poor this band show.

More will follow…

What is Knowing all about?

I  was optimistic about this Nicolas Cage film after watching the trailer. Its been a while since he’s been in a good film – actually to be honest I can’t remember a film he has done well in. There was the bubble gum fun of Con Air and The Rock. I didn’t enjoy Leaving Las Vegas and NEXT was so bad it’s not worth mentioning. I have been reminded of Raising Arizona, which was one of the quirky Cohen bros early productions (and I haven’t yet seen Adaptation).

This film is about a young boy – Caleb, who in 2009 is given an envelope that has just come out of a time capsule that has been buried in his school for the last 50 years. Whereas all the other children are given pictures of space ships and flying cars as the children of 1969 were asked to draw their depictions of the future – little Caleb is given a page of numbers. When he gets it home his dad, John (aka Nicolas Cage) can’t sleep as he is grieving his wife’s death and manages to stumble across the numbers. Now luckily for Caleb his dad works at MIT and so he is able to work out that these numbers are accurate predictions of when major world catastrophes will take place and how many people will die in them.

SPOILER WARNING (So far everything I have told you is clearly depicted in the trailer. But if you read on it will spoil the movie for you.)

The movie then wrestles with the question of what you would do if you knew the future. As on the paper are three more dates and death tolls that have not taken place yet. Its an interesting dilemma and could have been a philosophically exciting line to follow in the film – but it is quickly skirted over.

Ever since the piece of paper with numbers has landed in Caleb’s hands he has been seeing spooky blonde haired dark suited men who whisper to him. They also drop strange black stones into his hands while driving pretty lame american cars around.

When we finally work out that this prophecy buried for 50 years is a warning about the End of Everthing we might ask why the spooky blonde guys only gave the world a week’s warning as they were shortsighted enough to leave the prophecy buried for 50 years? What was the point of giving us the future if there was nothing we could do about it?

There are a number of interesting biblical links:

1. Caleb – he was one of the spies into the promised land described in the Old Testament. Caleb along with Joshua was one of only two people of his generation that made it into the promised land – the parallel is that the Caleb in the film is also only one of two people who makes it into the new promised land.

2. John – he was the New Testament prophet who was given a vision of the future that in the Bible is called the book of Revelation.

3. Ezekiel – the book of Ezeikiel features in the movie quite a bit – mainly through a picture that the children colour in. When the space ship finally arrives at the end of the film it does have wheels within wheels – which Ezekiel the prophet describes:

¹⁵ As I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the ground beside each creature with its four faces. ¹⁶ This was the appearance and structure of the wheels: They sparkled like chrysolite, and all four looked alike. Each appeared to be made like a wheel intersecting a wheel. ¹⁷ As they moved, they would go in any one of the four directions the creatures faced; the wheels did not turn about as the creatures went. ¹⁸ Their rims were high and awesome, and all four rims were full of eyes all around.

Ezekiel 1:15-18

This picture of God appearing to his people in Exile in Babylon was designed to encourage them that no matter where they went God was with them. in this picture there are also four Angels / spiritual beings and that corresponds with the film’s depiction of the four spooky blonde haired men who are transformed into translucent beings. So they are supposed to be angels in the movie – they are not able to talk however and they do the strange thing with the black stones and why do they have to drive cars?

4. The Tree of life - the two children who make it through to the next life – a new Adam and Eve as it were and they head off towards a beautiful alien tree of life that is described in both the book of Genesis and the book of Revelation – symbolising that God provides human beings with life and he wants us to enjoy life with him – and the pages of the Bible between these opening and closing books describe how God is able to give life to humanity despite human sinfulness.

The film interestingly replaces God with aliens and offers no redemption to the planet only doom with only two children escaping the cataclysm . (There were other pods but I didn’t see anyother people). It plays off of the growing sense of apocalyptic doom that is present in our movies about the future but offers no hope to most of us. The children both brought an rabbit with them – so there are probably echoes of Noah’s ark too…

If you want a different view take a look at my book Destiny… which presents the big story of the Bible in an accessibly way and provides a hope for the future by exploring God’s picture of the end of the beginning in the book of Revelation.

End of Top Gear?

It was very weird ending to Sunday’s Top Gear as Jeremy Clarkson eulogised rather than gloried in the Aston Martin V12 Vantage. Some are rumouring its the end of the show forever.

I wonder if it was more about Clarkson knowing the bitter sweet satisfaction of finding something as close to perfect as he can imagine. There’s that weird twinge you feel when you walk down the road with your toddler hand in hand with you skipping down the road with the sun on your face, feeling one day all this will be gone, the toddler will be grown up and won’t want to be seen dead holding your hand or skipping in public. Perhaps the finitude of life hit Clarkson…

Perhaps it was the temporality of all the greatest joys we know on earth.. that as CS Lewis tells are just

These things – the beauty, the memory of our own past – are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never visited.”

Could it be Clarkson was having a spiritual encounter in an Aston Martin pointing him to the Creator in one of humankind’s finest engineering creations?

Marley and Me (and my family?) review

In a Summer that has seen more dog films than I can remember.

My top dog films this season are:

1. Hotel for Dogs

2. Bolt

3. Beverly Hills Chihuahua

4. Marley and Me

Why does Marley and Me come last? Well I don’t think the film makers knew where to pitch it. It could have been a romantic comedy along the lines of the excellent Knocked Up or it could have been a romantic kids movie along the lines of equally excellent Enchanted or it could have been a dog movie along the lines of Hotel for Dogs which was the best live action kids and dog film I have seen since “Old Yeller.” but instead it fell between the stools and we get neither a kids movie nor an adult movie – just a sentimental journey which occassionally features a misbhaving dog.

I love dogs, I really would love a dog, but as a foster parent with 5 kids in the house a dog is not going to be practical for a while. This film did make me want a dog, but I didn’t want to be watching it with my kids. it wasn’t a funny enough, there weren’t enough dog related capers and there were a lot of sexual references and long bouts of dialogue that made the kids bored as Aniston and Wilson wrestly with infertility, miscarriage, birth, postnatal depression and midlife crisis. Yet I am not sure i would have watched it as an adult either.

The film also suffers from the most long and drawn out death scene I can remember since Philadelphia. Now i don’t mind a good blub, I remember sitting and crying my eyes out with the kids as we watched the Disney classic Old Yeller, but the death of the dog in Marley and Me went on for about 15 minutes. (check out my 10 year old’s review)

There were moments of great fun but really this film has gone to the dogs…

Wii games for kids Summer holidays

If it’s raining outside and the kids need to let off a bit of steam…

Here are the ultimate Summer wii games:
1. Mario Power Tennis

At under £20 this is a complete bargain and is my favourite wii game at the moment. it’s very demanding and you really have to “hit” the ball hard to return some of the serves. i love it and i think the kids think its great too. there are lots of mini games – gimmick courts but the main tennis play is excellent. I am a big fan of mario games and this is no let down. It’s well worth the money and even rivals mario strikers charged as the best mario game ever.

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2. Wii fit

we just got this as a birthday present in our house. Its really addictive and every one has their target fitness levels. It has lots of content ranging from full on press ups to really fun balance games like hula hoop and tight rope – this is a great game and is easy to get hold of now for around £50. I am currently king of the slalom and you’ll love the header compeitions and ski jump too.

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3. Wii Sports resort -

this looks amazing and comes with a complementary wii motion plus add on for your controller. The best games appear to be the frisbee throwing, fencing and table tennis. We haven’t got this yet but the reviews are excellent. let me know how you get on with it. I like the look of the plane dog fighting flying game – where you hold the wii remote (with motion plus add on) like a toy aeroplane and whizz it around the room.

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4. My Sims

if energetic fun isn’t for your kids – this is a great game for the more creative and social types. I bought this for my 7 year old daughter and she loves it. It involves exploring a really colourful environment, making friends and building a house and decorating it using various resources you have collected. It can be very addictive.

This again is on a bargain deal at Amazon for only £12. Which is cheaper than a family trip to the cinema and you’ll get more hours per pound ;o)

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5. Dora the Explorer rescues the Snow Princess

with its easy controls this is just the ticket for our three year old who likes having her own wii game to play with. the older children want to play too – but this really suits toddlers best. We thought we got a bargain from amazon for £17 but its only £9.95 now.

Steven Gerrard Cleared

I don’t mean Gerrard cleared off the line saving another crucial game for Liverpool.

But he was cleared off “affray” in a court case today.

I must admit to feeling torn about the incident.

1. We all make stupid mistakes, and punching someone in a bar when you are; self admittedly 7/10 (with 1 being stone sober and 10 being hammered) is something anyone could do. The fact it was an argument over music shows how stupid the whole thing was. Gerrard was reduced to tears in the court after a statement was given by Kenny Dalglish.

2. But the CCTV footage and the testimony given seems pretty condemning – Gerrard claimed self defence even though he hit the person first.

3. The problem seems to be that if it were you and I that committed this crime we’d be in prison. But because even David Turner QC the prosecutopr paid homage to Gerrard’s skill, describing him as a world-class footballer and “a star”. He added: “Wherever you go in Liverpool, and indeed the world, there are little boys proudly wearing that red Liverpool shirt with No 8 and the name Gerrard on the back of it.” So perhaps he was overawed by the process of prosecuting a legend.

4. I am die hard Liverpool supporter and particularly a Gerrard supporter. But this doesn’t feel right.

5. There but for the grace of God, go we all…

New Doctor, the first look

The guardian has just published the first pictures of the new doctor and side kick/partner “Amy Pond.”

I just watched the episode again where David tennant turned up after Christopher Ecclestone and I must say he didn’t look promising to begin with and now he’s my second favourite Dr of all time (second only to the spooky Tom Baker).

What do you think of the new one?

Torchwood Day 5 Children of Earth

Wow!

What a powerful piece of television. I haven’t been so gripped since the first two series of Spooks.

Loved the philosophical challenges of utilitarianism – can you quantify the greatest amount happiness for the most amount of people and therefore sacrifice whatever is necessary to make that happen. Jack and Yanto arguing that when one person is harmed all are harmed is difficult to sustain because that is not always the case – as the aliens rightly reply – thousands of children die from malnutrition every day, and as the director shows us abortion’s of convenience undercut the idea that every child is valuable. The programme’s bleak ending is based on the wrestling with the question of how to handle suffering, but I think also with the fact that we have no real basis for a moral ethic yet we can recognise that morality does exist.

Ofcourse as a christian I believe that the Christian story provides the best basis for a moral ethic. Where life is intrinsically valuable, because all regardless of ethnicity, age, academic ability, is valuable.

The idea of sacrifice of one child to save all the others – is also problematic – it seems to undercut Jack’s ethic that when one is hurt all hurt. Some will try and see a Christlike figure in Jack’s grandson. But he was an unwilling victim to everyone else’s plans. The christian gospel is based around a rescue of the human race through the willing sacrifice of the son – who deliberately became the saviour of the world. (see my book destiny for more on this)

Well done Torchwood – you used to be cheesy slightly naff and lightweight. But this week you have had on the edge of our seats….

Let’s hope jack is willing to come back again soon…

Michael Jackson Memorial Concert

The guardian is offering a live blog of the memorial.  That a UK broadsheet of the calibre of the guardian is covering this story, not a tabloid  is an indicator of the social significance of Jackson.

I want to reflect on the nature of the heroes that we worship… while there is no doubting Jackson’s immense talent, his creativity, his groundbreaking muscial genre busting albums, his bleeding edge use of technology in his videos, his almost magical gliding dancing feet. I am trying to work out if we loved him more because of extreme personality challenges, his relational difficulties, his obscenely extravagant spending?

His music often had powerful, wholesome yet incredibly cheesy messaging – yet I’d rather hear Michael Jackson sing it doesn’t matter if you are black or white, than about the need to have a one night stand with someone in a club.

This memorial is a circus, the elephants have come out, 3 billion people are watching. Part of me wants this to be the ultimate come back tour and we find out jackson did fake his death to drum up media attention and sell more records and tickets. Part of me wants this to be over as soon as possible and we can get on with enjoying Jackson’s finest musical moments and forget about the broken life he lived.

“This is a moment that I wished that I didn’t have to see coming… but I do know that God is good, and I do know that as much as we may feel that we need Michael here with us, God must have needed him far more,”

Steve Wonder

Torchwood night 2

Been thinking a bit about Torchwood today. The kids decided not to pull the “freeze” at 10.30am prank at school. Luke tried it – but no one noticed he had stopped moving – so that was a bit discouraging ;o(
Loved the creative take on “mule-bombers” planting an explosive device in Captain Jack Harkness while he was resurrecting after being shot was a masterstroke. But if jack will always resurrect, despite being blown up – is this the way that Harkness becomes the face of boe (beau)?

Torchwood – WE ARE COMING

Must say, I really enjoyed Torchwood last night. I have a love hate relationship with the programme – but with Russell T Davies scripting this time bang on – it was a great show.

I wanted to find a way to help my kids reach cool status at school, so I tried to persuade them to get their whole class to freeze at 10.20am and after 60 seconds start saying: “we are coming” not sure the high pitched screaming without stopping for breath was going to be possible. Let’s see what happens….

Christiano Ronaldo at Real Madrid

this crowd is out just to see Ronaldo

hero worship

the purchased player paraded

see all the photos here.

Is this every footballer’s dream, to be worshipped as a celebrity?
The crowds packed in to Estadio Santiago Bernabeu just to catch a glimpse of the 80 million pound signing.
There was rapturous applause, security beating pitch invasions and euphoria as Ronaldo was “unveiled”.
Ronaldo loved it ofcourse.

Amazing Basketball Trickshots

Here’s a set of amazing basketball trickshots.

Thanks Phil for posting them.

Great Basketball Shot from 8th Grader

Just seen this on Chris Kidd’s blog.

Best kids DVD movies 2009

1. Bolt

its hard to fault Pixar – I don’t think they are the masters of Computer Generated Animation and i don’t think they have made a duff movie yet. This is a winning combination of a cute canine hero, a plot involving getting lost (see finding nemo), some lovable character (Rhino the pet hamster in his hamster ball) and some great high speed set pieces. The colours are great so kids of all ages will love watching this . The film is a cross between the best of the Incredibles and Finding Nemo – you’re bound to love it.

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2. Monster vs Aliens

This is a fun animated adventure film with a great heart – it works as a kids move that adults will enjoy it too.

When an Alien mothership turns up and aims to destroy the planet – the government calls on its secret stash of Monsters. The idea that the monsters would be kept imprisoned until they are needed is a bit negative and a tad on the utilitarian side, but I don’t think most people notice it. There’s fun galore with BOB the blob gets all the best lines, there might be slightly too many characters, but the central messages of the film are good ones – “don’t judge by external appearances” and  “people either love you for who you are or they don’t love you at all.” Enjoy…

3. Bed time stories

Adam Sandler plays a lovable Uncle who helps his sister out by looking after his nephew and neice while trying to hold down his job as a repairman in a hotel. Some great jokes, a feel good factor at the end and a lovable rodent with cute eyes, a pretty funny bee stinging tongue gag and the most annoying ringtone ever. It’s all done pretty well – the whole family enjoyed this one. This film is a lot more fun than the other film that came out with a similar idea – INKHEART.

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4. Boy in the Striped pyjammas

This is a powerful live action drama – set in the second world war. It tells the story of the holocaust through the eyes of a little boy whose father just happens to be an SS Officer who is put in charge of a concentration camp. Very young children should not watch this movie, but those of a more mature demeanor should be allowed to watch it with a parent. The ending is very bleak and the emotional impact helps us to make sure this must never happen again.(see my review here).

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5. Iron Man

My kids watched this film when i was away, but they tell me it was excellent and must be in the Top 5. let me know what you think. Robert Downey Junior stars in this all action film. It’d make a great gift for a boy – and is now only £4.98 on amazon.

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6. Game plan

Here’s another one the kids watched without me. I ordered it for them because it has a cute girl as the main lead and also features the Rock so both boys and girls will like this one. An incapable father estranged from his daughter gets a second chance at parenting her when her mother dies and she lands up on his doorstep. Great gift for a young girl (amazon have it for £4.98).

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7. Madagascar 2

It was always going to be hard to live up to the first film, but this film does a decent job. It tells the backstory of how Alex ended up in New York Zoo and what became of the granny that beat him up at the station. The Penguin’s steal the show (again) – the soundtrack is a particular strength too. Enjoy. (In case somehow you missed it – the double box set is available for a good price at the moment.).

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High School Musical 3

I have to admit I really like this trilogy. There are some amazing musical numbers – where the actors have to sing, dance and keep a basketball in the air. Plotwise i think the first film was the best, followed by the third and then the second film. But all of the films have really catchy tunes and great visual presence. If you are looking for a present for a girl in primary school – this is it.

Young People and the Bible

A while back i produced a list of helpful resources for engaging with the Bible. Well thanks to some generous publisher i have received some new books i wanted to add to the list:

1)  Shaped by the Story, Mike Novelli

This is an inspirational book for youthleaders. The author provides both a theological and a practical rational for using bible storytelling as the centre of youth ministry.The book includes testimonies from people that have tried the method out and also a DVD of a group using the material. We always need to be careful of “magic bullet” quick fix solutions – but Novelli certainly lays down the gauntlet for us to think creatively about engaging young people with the biblical story.

2) Jesus Story Book , Sarah Lloyd Jones

I haven’t got my copy of this yet, but it comes highly recommended by both Tim Keller and my friend Mark Meynell. I’ll keep you posted when I get to read it to my kids. But it could be a great book to take on holiday with you and your primary aged children and read one a day on you Summer vacation.

3) Lion Graphic Bible

This is a very well produced version of the Bible with excellent full colour art work and gives young people a really good overview of the whole Bible. I used it with my oldest children and we read it together at bed time. The images are really well done and give a great sense of the dynamism and action of a lot of the bible stories. It literary starts with Genesis and ends with revelation covering both the narrative sections and a quick overview of the epistles.  It could be a great entry point for a lot of young people with the Bible.

4) Manga Jesus volume 1, Siku, Hodder and Stoughton

Graphic Artist Siku does an excellent job in capturing the drama of the gospel. This is a short book it is in black and white but printed on very high quality paper. It is artistically of an even higher standard than the Lion bible despite being in black and white. There are some very clever artistic touches that adds another dimension to this retelling of the gospel story.

5) Bible Baddies, Bob Hartman, Lion

This is an excellent resource for retelling the stories of the Bible. The stories are incredibly well written and set a gold standard for what could be a narrative sermon. This book should not be restricted to children and could make a great resource for being read out in church services. Bob Hartman is incredibly gifted and he has not shied away from some of the more difficult bible stories including Ehud and Eglon, Jezebel, Barrabus etc. I used to read these stories to my kids at bed time – i think i enjoyed them even more than they did! It probably works best for pretty literate children over 8 years old.

6) Bite Sized Bible, Andy Bianchi, Collins

This is not a full bible but some of the key parts of the Bible broken down into bite size pieces. It works chronologically through the whole bible and includes one-line introductions to passages give their context and fill in the gaps as well as some cross references to help you find your way in the rest of the Bible. You can read each of the sections in about 3 to 4 minutes. It is a resource that I have dipped into for bed time bible stories with my kids. The book has a very badly thought out front cover with a picture of Eve offering the Adam a bite of the forbidden fruit – not sure what the link is between a bite size chunk of the Bible and the forbidden fruit?

7) Topical Memory System: life Issues, Navigators

This resource from the navigators tries to help Christians to memorise and internalise the Bible. It provides a short article and then a memory verse on life issues such as dealing with anger, depression, love, knowing God’s will, handling money etc. Authors of the articles include Jerry Bridges, Calvin Miller, Ted Engstrom. You get a little card to stick in your wallet to carry around with you for the day and you can chose which version of the Bible you want to use (NIV, KJV, NKJV and NASB). The danger is ofcourse that we learn the bible in an atomistic way that encourages a proof texting approach to the Bible. The strength of the course is it really does help us get the Bible into our hearts and minds – to have a passage of the bible ready as we face challenges in life. As the Psalmist says: “i have hidden your word in my heart that i might not sin against you.” Psalm 119:11 I recommend this as a great tool to use with teens you are discipling.

8.) The Street Bible, Rob Lacey

Rob Lacey had a real gift with words. This is more of a series of meditations on the bible than a translation per se. The author himself said: “No way is this the Proper Bible. It’s a trailer for, an intro to, an overview of
The Bible (capital “B”),For those who’ve never read it, And those who’ve read it so much it’s gone stale on them”. Rob’s use of language is very powerful and can help people give the Bible a fresh hearing. To get a flavour of it click here .

9) BIble Experience, Zondervan Publishing

This is a brilliant recording of the Bible with a purpose made score and some top quality list of voice actors this set of CDs or MP3s can bring the bible alive for a new audience. The cast include: Denzel Washington, Angela Bassett and Cuba Gooding Jr. My favourite part was to hear Samuel L. Jackson as John the Baptist – he brings his customary brilliance and attitude to the part. Stick the CD into your car and experience the Bible on the way to work or download the mp3s onto your ipod and enjoy the bible as you work out. Teens who are not great readers will enjoy this – but it could add some spice to the bible readings in your youth events and services too.

Best Michael Jackson covers and tributes

It is a testimony to Jackson’s music that the constant airplay of jackon songs on the radio – has made me want to listen to more of him not less.

But for those of you that want a different take on some of the Jackon classics I’d like to recommend the following:

1) Beat it – fall out boy

balancing both a faithful reproduction of the original with an even harder edge to the guitar and drums – i now like this even more than the original – which feels slow and plodding in comparison.

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2) Smooth Criminal – Alien Ant Farm

Again, a faithful but harder remake – that honours the original by bringing a powerful guitar base to the classic. There’s another version of Smooth criminal by Javier Alvarez that has a strange charm to it – its more unplugged check it out.

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3. Thriller

So Bollywood did Thriller – lets see this as homage, rather than a rip off…

Avoid:

I was going to buy the 25th anniversary edition of Thriller from Amazon (Itunes do a better deal as it includes the videos). But was really disappointed with the remixes – they all lose something in the remix – whether its the central guitar riff or even Jackson’s vocal – why would you want to hear Akon rather Jackson on ‘wanna be starting something.”

You also want to avoid anything that has an orchestral re-interpration about it.

- here were my reflections on the death of michael jackson.