http:// jon-walsh.com / journal /

This is a quick post to save people from the confusion I just went through…

Issue: Django raises a validation error for a blank field that is set to allow blank and/or null (more…)

Photo by Manu-chan

A few days ago, I was driving across a ridge (cliffs either side) at midnight, as one does… when low cloud cover passed over the road. I could see a few meters in front of me at best, and now realise why they put road reflectors on poles as well as on the road. It got so bad that I had to get out and look at which way the road was going, else drive off a cliff…

Slightly more recently I’ve been thinking about how emotions can often cloud our thinking as we walk the road of life. In intense emotions, we often lose sight of the bigger picture and solely focus on whatever we’re emotional about. Take anger for example: (more…)

Photo by Rennett Stowe

The first of possibly several reflections on Grace…

I think the first time I understood what the word “Grace” meant, was perhaps only a few years ago. I’d been a Christian for several years longer than that. I’d sung about Grace, I’d prayed about Grace… but I’m not sure I actually understood what it actually was all that time. (more…)

I’m extremely reflective these days… and I feel the need to understand everything about life, and how to live it. But this behavior has quite frequently gotten me into a lot of trouble. While I thoroughly want to understand life, and how I can best live it for the glory of God, I quite often forget to follow. (more…)

Recently, as I was about to wish someone good luck, I started to wonder why I would do such a foolish thing…

If God is with us and in us in spirit, why on earth do we put hope in something as foolish as luck?! Exaggeration aside, we’re obviously just expressing that we care about someone and want things to go well for them. But it’s still worth thinking about why we don’t encourage (in Christ) more than we currently do. (more…)

I think the world often sees Christianity as a big balloon that’s just waiting to be popped. There’s just so many different angles you can attack it from. It’s got so many pins pressed against it from all sides that it just doesn’t seem like something you could possibly have a solid foundation in. Yet there’s something peculiar about this big balloon… it doesn’t seem to have been popped yet!?

As a great number of ‘experts’ push their pins deep into this balloon, the world looks away, thinking that there’s not a chance of it surviving. If only they opened their eyes! (more…)

This is for Linux users who are having trouble changing the browser Thunderbird uses to open links with. Or users who want to stop all applications using their old browser, for whatever reason. (more…)

After spending a few minutes looking for a nice, light weight, “Verse of the day” program for Linux, I decided I’d taken too long and wrote my own.

It grabs the verse from the Bible Gateway feed and prints it. Very simple. But used in conjunction with something like Zenity, it serves it’s purpose quite nicely. I run mine as a startup program, so it shows it whenever I login. (more…)

Something I’ve been thinking about lately is the difference between socialising and fellowship. I think we often mistake them for the same thing, when really they can be very different. (more…)

This update fixes a few bugs, chooses some more logical shortcuts (removing some of the configs for consistency’s sake), and adds a few new features. (more…)