Before i start, here is the River Avon in full flood in Bath.

From the central gardens

Today I went to my normal Sunday service and gathering at the Vineyard Church in Radstock. Normally we go round and do things in the community but today it was decided that we devote our time to prayer for the world and for the community about us. Everyone asked everybody else if they’d had a good Christmas and they all said yes. I think it is more a polite New Year pleasantry than anything else really because no one is going to say that they had a terrible time, but we are all alive to tell the tale so it can’t have been that bad.

A new couple came who I had not seen before and the woman’s name was Charlotte. I am interested in names so I looked it up on the spot and found that the name is of French origin meaning ‘freeman’ or ‘petite’ (not sure about that one). This name is the feminine form of Charles. The name Charles was a favorite among royal boys, and became a popular name for Queens, princesses and duchesses. So now you know.

My own name,  Brian,  is a masculine Irish name meaning “high” or “noble.” It is related to the old Celtic root brixs meaning “hill” or “high,” or the Old Irish word briíg, which translates to “might” or “power.” Brian is a name symbolic of strength and virtue, traits inspiring bravery, which will support Brians in reaching unimaginable heights.

Hmm I have a lot to live up to.

Set-up vs Set up

I had a little word joke with someone who said that the room had been set up in groups for prayer. The word ‘set up’ can be used in two senses, one not so good.

A setup can mean that clandestine arrangements have been made to bring someone into a position that they were not expecting. We can say I set someone up in order to play a practical joke on them. ‘It was all a set-up’

This is of course completely different from a planned staging of something which perhaps is a better way of describing a setup of the room. The passive sense ‘he was set up’ implies deceit.

Setting up a stage is of course neutral.  We set a table with cutlery, we set up the balls in snooker. However we can set someone up in a positive or negative way by for example giving them a job or a house in other words to benefit them. We can set up shop. We can set up a stall in the market to sell ice cream. Alas we can also set ourselves up to fail.

The phrase is context sensitive and there is a difference in emphasis depending on the meaning. We can say it was all a set up with emphasis on the first word, or plain ‘it was set up’ is the more neutral use with slightly more emphasis on the second word.

Check out the next time you use it.

Zoom or not to Zoom

Anyway the main topic today is about Zoom and I am going to copy in  the conversation I had with one of my many distant correspondents who help me with my assembly of my vast website on covid.

I wrote to a fellow researcher:

I am assembling a small coterie of keyboard warriors for mutual support. Do you know any kindred spirits apart from us?

She wrote:

Well my reply would be that my focus has to continue to be on developing/consolidating support locally and “in the flesh” as opposed to building up distant, on-line group connections “as if” they are local. (I’ve never been on any social media or been part of any on-line groups)

I literally just found the right words to express this to you this morning while listening to Curtis Stone.
He put it into words beautifully at 28 mins in.
https://freeworldnews.tv/watch?id=659a177e1825809f517e4e09

Brian:

Transcript of part of the video which is about going off grid and surviving.

Curtis says:

“I want to finish with one thing about people and it kind of brings us back to where I started when I when I said you’re the one you’ve been waiting for. We are the ones we have been waiting for. We need to know people in the flesh in the our place. So much of the world is online today and it actually will probably be our biggest danger especially when we look at Klaus Schwab and the frightening scenario, that whole thing.

You’ve seen it before probably a hundred times because it’s funny but it’s also kind of insane but the internet is our weakest point because they want everybody on it. They want you in the metaverse. They want you to do all your meetings on zoom. They want you working online all your friendship your friends are on Facebook and they’re not even people we really know.
We need to know people in the flesh, in the place to be connected to in the places we are because any lack of resources that you have can expand upon themselves almost exponentially with other people who share like mind and have a vision and a passion and a care for Humanity and want to survive with us”

Brian says:

I can say yes, yes yes to all your points. I think there is a place for zoom at  meetings. I ran one that lasted every week for two years and I have made friends out of those people and I see some of them in the flesh so to speak to this day. I don’t think Zoom necessarily excludes other methods of contact and I would not use this as an excuse. I think however that it is easy to get zoomed out and here the same old thing from people in a group. I think many people take to Zoom because they are lonely. I do wonder sometimes if I were to be able to invite all those people to meet face to face, how many people would do so.

Maybe we said the same thing with a telephone when it first came out. It was deemed however to be a necessity and you could say the same thing with a mobile phone. I think the main thing is to make a discipline that wherever possible we do attempt to meet people no matter how occasionally in the flesh and have real communication.

—– VIDEO LIBRARY——-

The benefits of castor Oil, from Rundown with Rachel. Thank you J.