MazzeBlog

This was a fun and simple test if you ever need a break from work or whatever. My personal record is 23.562 seconds, let me now if you can beat it! And you better take a 'print screen' as evidence, and NO photoshop manipulation is acceptable!

Good luck!

Saint Maurice (also Moritz or Mauritius) was the leader of the legendary Roman Theban Legion in the 3rd century.

The traditional story of Christian mythology is that the legion, entirely composed of Christians, had been called from Thebes (Egypt) to go to Gaul, to assist Maximian, which they did valiantly. However, when Maximian ordered them to harass some local Christians, they refused, and Maximian ordered the unit punished. Every tenth soldier was killed, a military punishment known as decimation. More orders followed, they still refused, in part to encouragement from St. Maurice, and a second decimation was ordered. In response to their refusal to use violence against fellow Chistians, Maximian ordered all the remaining members of the 6,600 unit executed. The place in Switzerland where this occurred, known as Agaunum, is now Saint Maurice-en-Valais, site of the Abbey of Saint Maurice-en-Valais.

So reads the earliest account of their martyrdom, according to the public letter Eucherius, bishop of Lyons (c. 434 – 450), addressed to his fellow bishop Salvius. Alternate versions have the legion refusing Maximian's orders only after discovering a town they had just destroyed had been inhabited by innocent Christians, or that the emperor had them executed when they refused to sacrifice to the Roman gods.

Taken from www.wikipedia.com

I just read an article about four teenage schoolgirls in Bukit Bambu, of whom three got beheaded and the fourth got scarred for life, just for being Christians. This is not the first article I read about Christians getting persecuted and slaughtered for their belief.

But who cares when something like this happens? Amnesty? Nato? the UN? Anyone?
When I tell others about things like these, the first question that I get is "What's your source?", and as always the source is Christian, as no one else seems to bother about reporting about these occurances. And thus, the source is proclamed untrustworthy and cannot be taken into consideration and is swept away as "religious propaganda".

What about Sudan? What about muslim countries where they behead Christians as public entertainment?

I'm so tired of living in the west-world sometimes, especially in the EU. It seems like all Christians are declared as nutcases here, and nothing we say are to be taken to hard or too literate.

They call us intolerant, they say we are introvert and striving backwards.

But it's all already said in the Bible, this is how it's going to be and it will get worse.

It’s been snowing now for two days, even though spring should be at the doorstep by now. Snow is ok and so on, but it’s starting to be enough by now. I want spring, I want sun, bees, flowers, and small bunny rabbits!

But at the moment there’s just heaps of snow everywhere.
And what’s worse, I can’t wear my cool spring-jacket I just bought.

Well, I suppose spring will come, eventually…

One thing I really miss here in Vaasa, Finland, are those used books shops that can be found in other countries. You know such a bookshop as the little kid in the “Never ending story”-movie runs into. When we visited Blue Mountains, Australia, I couldn’t believe my eyes. There were tons of old antique-stores and used book shops. I remember walking into one of them looking for a copy of “Treasure Island”, there sat an old man with fuzzy gray hair and small round glasses, wearing black gloves with cut of fingers. It was amazing; he was like taken directly from a movie or something. The place was filled with old, heavy bookshelves and they were so full with books that all did not even have room in the shelves but were lying on the floor. He was reading a book, and after a while he looked up over the book and looked over his glasses in a sort of movie-fashion asking me: “Yes? Looking for something?”. I was stunned. It felt so unreal. I could have spent hours in those bookshops. The best part of it was a sign hanging on one of the shelves saying “Feel free to sit down and read, no need to buy anything”, and a comfy looking armchair besides it. Why don’t we have those in Finland? *sigh*

Ah, there's a 'new' blogger amongst us. Or at least a returned blogger.
He's a great friend and a very interesting person, it will be interesting to read his coming posts.
An artist, musician and father to a newly born son.
This is a man through whom I have aquainted myself with many interesting (read wierd) new bands and musicians.
Check his blog out n' say hellou.

I also know this person is familiar to many of you...

Sokkles

...I had a car. It was old, green and drank gas like a uhm... Like something that drinks an awfully lot, like a sailor! Or something.
It was old indeed and had some small faults here and there. But it was a fun car.
Now it's gone, sold to someone else who probably can take better care of it than I could.

It was a 73´ Ford Taunus, made in Germany. Only 33 years young.

We're probably going to buy a new car in late summer, it will be great to have a car again. They tend to develope personalities, and there's a special bond between a car and it's owner, even though it's a hate/love relationship it's still special.

It'll be interesting to see what kind of car I will find when I find a new one...

One of my daydreams has always been to become a cartoonist. I would love to make a living on drawing, it would be great.

Nowadays I've also started dreaming about doing a cartoon that actually could make a differance in the world. Make a change, for the better. To make a change for and in people.

The problem now seems to be my source of inspiration. Before becoming a christian I had my inspiration in depression and hurt, how wierd that ever sounds. And my best teacher was actually the comic book "Spawn", of which I have put in a picture here. And my drawing style still resembles that of that comic, even though my life has changed my drawing-technique has not, and I haven't had a clue of what to draw and how to do it now for a veeery looong time.

I need a new source of inspiration, and a new technique of drawing.

All my old works has literally been burned, they were quality works. But they were scary and ugly.

I've actually even applied for a small scholarship, don't know if that's the word for it? (Stipendium anyone?)
So that I could start doing comics on my computer.

We'll see what will happen.

PostScriptum, why isn't there any great published christian comic drawers out there? Well, if there are, please tell me about them!

I've always wanted to name a post that.

Well today is not a bad day, but I just feel sooo uninspired. My bachelors thesis is going so slow, and I recently got feedback on it. It went something like this: “You really have lots of work to do on this yet…”. Oh, yes. That’s exactly what I wanted to hear. Although it is no surprise at all, I know I could have done it a lot better, and I could have putted a lot more time and energy on it than what I have done so far.

I also have so many school-projects that are rather large and that should have been due about a year ago (or more). It all seems so huge right now.

I’m also thinking about getting a haircut sometimes soon, my hair is all wild and crazy. Wild and crazy is still ok, bit it’s starting to curl, it’s my natural curly hair that’s starting to play tricks on me. They could be nice looking, but right now my hair would fit better on a lady than on a real man, such as I am.

Well, other than that I haven’t got much else to say. Just wrote a laboratory report on atomic emission light from some sort of gas-lamp. I didn’t understand much of it.

I think I will try to post something more interesting later today; this post is being affected by me being in school right now. But I’ll post a picture of a part of my lab here, just for your delight! Later…

A friend of mine ones said”We Christians are the meek, we are the meek people”. He said it with a bit of sadness in his voice. I suppose it was because he’s been a fighter in his life, I don’t know much in detail about him but he’s lived a rough life and also been a boxer in some stage of his life. Well, perhaps it’s hard for someone who’s strong and though to be meek. But the word “meek” or perhaps it’s meaning, is hard to understand.

Jesus said “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth”, and we are called to be the meek. It’s always the meek who can hear and who follows God in the Bible. But how is one supposed to be meek, and in what way?

How much are we just supposed to turn our other cheek to, are we supposed to let people walk all over us all the time? Are we supposed to be a people who faint from paper cuts?
I think about the first congregation, in which they were hunted down, thrown to lions and made to live hidden in sewers. All those things had to make you rather tough, but still they had to be meek.

We are quite fast to hit back when we are mistreated today, we are quite proud in fact. But still we also tend to quickly find ourselves living in worlds that are quite safe, the ugly sides of society gets hidden from us or the other way around.

Are we in fact meek at all, maybe we’re just proud and weak, hiding from the world? I can’t imagine how it would feel like having your arm chewed off by a lion just because you’re are Christian. But maybe there’s where true meekness can be found?

Well it’s hard to find lions in Finland. And I think there are other ways to find meekness.
Don’t know if there’s a red thread in this post at all, but I’ll end with 1 Peter 2:20.

“But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God”