101/1001 (Week 84)

Today’s post:

yesterday’s lost post,

re-written

Forgive me, readers, it has been seventeen weeks (and one day) since my last 101/1001 confession.  So what have I done?

I have:

• Exposed myself
• to two new experiences

I’m sorry – should that be on one line?

My two new experiences are:

• Started NaNoWriMo.  You’ll all be as sick of it as me by the end of November.
• Pressed a button in church.

That last one is not as dull as it sounds.  In fact, it’s so complicated, you might want to grab a notebook and pen so you can keep up with what follows.

The vicar grabbed me on my way in to church last Sunday and asked me to do it. Normally, his teenage daughter (for whom I have new-found respect, nay, adoration) presses all the buttons.  When she’s not there, other people do it.  Last Sunday, the vicar’s teenage daughter and other people were all doing other things.  I think the vicar asked me because I was the first person under seventy to walk in and, technept though I am, I have at least used a computer.

In the second service we use a netbook which goes through a projector onto a white screen above the pulpit.  We used to have a large hymn book, a small songbook, a long, thin service booklet and a sheet with the week’s three readings in full.  Throw in the notice sheet, the monthly prayer diary, the church magazine and sundry flyers for upcoming events and we realised as a church that the people of Jesus are not only trying to save the world, but also to kill it.  

That’s when we came out in favour of technology, if you don’t mind that you can’t look down after the service because of the crick in your neck – it’s a large building; the screen has to be high.

What puzzles me is why the traditionalists in the first service don’t embrace technology.  Okay, many of them are shrinking because of their humps and can’t look up at the projector, but have you tried holding a cornucopia of paperwork with arthritic hands and a cane, gloves and the back of the pew in front to stop you falling over?

Time for the service.

The vicar had given me some papers which I thought had the whole service on but which, as it turned out, had just his bit on.  I didn’t know that at the time, though I did remember afterwards him telling me beforehand.  When a different first screen appeared to the first screen I had on my paper, I panicked.  I scrolled through the whole service in thirty seconds, then back again.  Then forward again.  Then I realised my mistake.  Back to the beginning, and we could start.

Vicar made a little mistake during preparation of the service to be projected: he put the first prayer before the first hymn which was the third song and not after the first hymn which was the third song because it was too close to the second prayer which came after the first hymn/third song.  I dried the cold sweat from my fingers and pressed that button backwards and forwards and backwards and forwards until I found something that read like the words coming from his lips.  

Five minutes in and I was a nervous wreck.  When Mr Vic gestured halfway through the service that I should skip a screen because his sermon had over run by a slight fifteen minutes, I had my third new experience: fainting in church.

Back to 101/1001.  I have also:

• Done the usual things of watching new movies and reading new books but if they are interesting, I blog about them at the time.  I have not reached my targets yet and I am embarrassed to admit that I am closer to having watched a 101 new films than I am to having read a 101 new books.  I have read way more than a 101 books this year, however, including the Twilight series a dozen times.  Actually, it’s more than a dozen times, but I don’t want you to think I’m exaggerating so I played it down.
• Written 171 poems.  I am only eight behind target.  I’ll catch up during April’s NaPoWriMo, when I have to write a poem a day for thirty days, and I usually write about ninety in the whole month.
• Surpassed my target of 30,000 comments on my blog in 1001 days by 6,931.  As we are only just past the halfway mark, I think I need a new target.  I am going to be ambitious and aim for a total of 100,000 comments by the end of this challenge.  If nothing else, it will force me to be polite and answer each and every one of your delightful and helpful comments, which takes forever.   At least I’ll have an excuse to decline next time I’m asked to press the button in church.

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