Tag: Links

The father of all links posts

Ah, another week, another post chock full of links from the narrow sector of the world wide that I like to call the blogosphere.

I thought I’d get a little bit geographically specific with this little link edition. Just to give you an idea of the spread of blogs that I read (that you should too). This is by no means comprehensive – but here are some of the homes of regular commenters, people I know, and people I reckon you should discover (along with some choice posts from their sites).

Right-o. Lets go.

Starting with those in my own neck of the woods – the Townsville scene… (in no particular order). 

  1. Tim – doesn’t post often and when he does it’s usually a YouTube video.
  2. Leah – is the Andrew Bolt of the North Queensland Christian blogosphere, or perhaps the Tim Blair. She also covered North Queensland’s lost and found saga this week where a local lad from a local church went missing in the bush, and was found a couple of days later.
  3. Stuss – has picked up the pace a little, though most of what she’s saying is about gardening and decluttering. Which is fine. Because both are good things.
  4. Phoebe – hasn’t really said anything for 21 days. I just counted. But no list of bloggers from Townsville would be complete without her.
  5. Joel – if Leah is the Tim Blair of the Townsville blogosphere then Joel is the Piers Ackerman.
  6. Carly – is an education student and gives some interesting insight into the female psyche with pieces like the one she wrote last week about Oprah.
  7. Chris barely posts enough to rank a mention. But he’s a blogger. In Townsville. So he sneaks in.

If you’re in Townsville, and I’ve missed you, let me know in the comments.

Moving south, here are some of the notables in Brisbane…

  1. Kutz – I mentioned his new endeavour last week. It’s been trickling along. I’m sure more comments from nice friendly readers would keep his motivation levels up.
  2. Tim and Amy – The same could be said for these two. They’ve kept a pretty steady pace and you should go over, read what they have to say, and say hello.
  3. Simone – well, I’ve talked about her blog enough for you to know what goes down over there. She gets a prize for being the third blogger to mention my dad* this week. Her little piece of speculation about narrative in the new creation was interesting enough to get my hippocampus firing today.
  4. Will Henderson – gets the prize for being the first to mention dad*, and also for being the first Acts 29 affiliated church planter in Australia – a story that apparently hadn’t received all that much coverage before I mentioned it the other day (based on some posts like this one from Jeff Attack)… check out the website for his upcoming plant. Unfortunately it’s a bit grungy. And we all know how I feel about grunge.

Now, on to Sydney. The city of my birth and home of many good blogs.

  1. Izaac is back from a holiday and taking on the challenge of posting about Christian love and social justice.
  2. Ben celebrated his birthday yesterday – and I promised him a link. Then he posted a story about how the Governator has the Conan sword in his office – that I was all set to feature in my next little string of “Curiosities” posts.
  3. At the fountainside Soph asks the important questions about train etiquette – something we’ll have to (re)familiarise ourselves with next year.
  4. Ben (of the Bathgate variety) lists five things that made him tough(er). I score one on his list.
  5. Dave Miers managed to scoop Mikey Lynch by posting an interview with Andrew Heard, one of the Geneva Church planting crew (another post on the network from Dave), before Mikey could wrap up his series of similar interviews with church planting figures (including Will Henderson and Al Stewart).

Mikey (from Tasmania) was also the second person to, somewhat vicariously, mention dad this week because his name came up in one of the posts from the aforementioned series of interviews.

It has also become apparent – from what Andrew Heard said on Dave’s blog and what Al Stewart said on Mikey’s – that the Geneva portmanteau was only a vicious rumour, and that the name is actually a reference to Calvin’s work in that city. Which is a good thing.

And to conclude, here are my favourite ten posts from my blog this week (including bits from Robyn and Benny).

  1. Benny on Ministry
  2. Robyn on Grammar (PS – you should all encourage Robyn to blog more – she needs some comment love…)
  3. Good bad haircuts
  4. Bad relevance
  5. How to pick a cafe
  6. Cool stuff to do with your photos/iPhone
  7. Tips from a guru (my dad – since he’s the flavour of the blogosphere these days…*)
  8. The one about being wrong.
  9. The one about yawning.
  10.  The one about being a PK, and the follow up about being a PK being a bit like being Harry Potter.

* I should point out that these constant mentions of dad being mentioned are a mixture of patri-pride and because I think it’s slightly funny that he feels a sense of discomfort about being in the spotlight. It’s not because I think he’s super special (though he is). And if you want to join the fan club here’s the video I made for his 50th.

On forgiveness

Forgiveness is hard. I’ve been talking to someone about that today and dug up these posts from around the blogosphere.

Kutzy, Kutzy Coup

Slowly and surely the people I know who I think should have blogs are starting blogs. And why not? Blogging is great. First there was Izaac. He’s been going strong for a couple of months, and he’s well worth a read. Then I managed to coax my sister Maddie into writing occasionally here.

Now my long time philosophical sparring partner, former housemate, good friend, and potential future workmate Kutz has started a blog. He did ask me not to mention this, but that was a week ago, and he’s since published it to his myriad friends on Facebook. So here’s the link.

He’s opened with a worthy contribution to the conversation about country ministry and where people should go.

There’s a bit of meaty stuff already, and I’d expect more of the same.

Now if only Dave Walker would start a blog…

The Links Effect

Are you missing my daily links posts? Me too. It means posting links requires heaps more effort on my part. But there’s so much good stuff out there.

Izaac* has been fighting the good fight – collating suggestions for a response to atheist university students who are postering campuses around Sydney.

Ben came out of the hip-hop closet and let us all know about his history as an MC in a hip-hop posse.

There’s a pretty interesting discussion happening as a follow up to my abortion post over at the Fountainside.

Simone* has pointed her readers to another blog (Jean in all honesty) which is discussing the use of childcare for Christian parents. I refrained from commenting there because I’m a guy, and not a parent, but Simone’s husband Andrew* has put up a post where us guys can feel comfortable chiming in.

CafeDave is a little blog about cafes and marketing – so you can see why I’d like it – Dave posted his responses to the Jesus All About Life campaign as reported by Steve Kryger’s (very helpful) Communicate Jesus and discussed by a pack of raving atheists on mumbrella – atheists who can’t seem to distinguish the activities of churches from “tax payer funded activities” simply because churches receive certain tax exemptions. Churches are not for profit community organisations – no not for profit community organisations pay tax, and plenty of them (my employer included) advertise.

Recent new reader/first time commenter Drew has a blog. It’s worth reading. I particularly like his insights into the use of a blog as a tool for getting things done – including getting things off one’s mind. I read quite a few of his posts last night while watching NCIS.

Ali has a biting insiders view on what’s wrong with legal writing – I must agree, having started a law degree and been told that it’s all about plain writing and then sitting through hours of lectures, reading case notes and hearing lawyers talk, I can completely understand the sentiment behind the quote she shared.

Tim* had a go at me for giving up fast food. I should have a go at him for giving up grammar. But he makes some interesting points.

Dan* used his gloriously designed blog to reflect on a recent lecture on Christian ethics and the reconciliation debtate in two parts.

Byron Smith – whose name sounds suspcisciously like Bryson Smith – has posted a really helpful reflection on parenting that covers one of those little topics I’m toying with as future post fodder – the idea that indoctrinating your child is abusive. It’s not. As a Christian it’s the most loving thing you can do for your child.

I’m thinking about writing quite a few pieces on parenting – and this is not any kind of announcement – but I’m also struck by Queensland’s new surrogacy laws. On one hand they open up great possibilities for offering to formally adopt children from those considering an abortion, and on the other, they turn “parenting” into a right and privelige for everybody – rather than a responsibility and natural outcome of being part of the archetypal family unit. I’m not a fan of that part, but it’s not enough of an objection for me to not be a fan of the whole thing. My inner pragmatist realises that gay couples – particularly women – can have children whenever they want already, and this is, on the whole, designed to protect their child, and the biological father.

And for those of you wondering which of my posts from the last few days I’d bother reading if I were you it would be these:

* Denotes people I know in the real world…

NB: The photo at the stop is completely unrelated to the post, it was just text heavy and I hadn’t posted it before. It’s from Lucinda. You should go there. I would have put up a photo of a can of Lynx, if I had one.

That is all.

Sharing the love

I’ve given up on the daily link post. Feed readers will no doubt have noticed and appreciated this already. The multiple posting glitch was so very annoying for everybody. And it just ended up cluttering the page and obscuring the Curiosities posts I’d actually put effort into tracking down and writing up. So they’re gone. You will find my latest five shared items in the right hand column. If you want real time updates send an email to my gmail (which is n m dot(.) campbell at gmail.com – without the spaces, brackets and the word dot – you’ll figure it out, but spammers won’t) and become my friend on google reader.

Anyway, in the absence of a daily post of links here’s a post full of goodness from around the blogosphere – starting with five people I know in real life, and ending with five I’ve never met but who write funny, interesting or insightful stuff that I enjoy reading…

Those I know

  1.  Izaac has finished his series on prophecy which is meaty, engaging and considerate of people with different learning styles (it has diagrams). He’s been blogging regularly for a couple of months now, and if you haven’t jumped on the bandwagon now’s your chance. Do it. 
  2. Tim and Amy took on the blogging thing with gusto. And then slowed down. But they’re worth following because they’re pretty awesome.
  3. Geoff is another guy I’ve known for a long time – since we were kids taking the North Coast Christian camping scene by storm. He’s just started a blog. It looks promising thus far (he’s defined his scope pretty nicely). 
  4. Dr Joel blogs infrequently but in a rantingly engaging way – and often giving an insight into life in the Queensland Health system…  
  5.  Tim has updated his blog twice this week. That’s some sort of record.

Those I don’t

  1.  Jeff has thrown a couple of links my way – and you know that means he’s a purveyor of quality stuff…
  2. Guthers seems to be a man of great taste – beer and coffee. Awesome. He made a bit of a comeback this week after a two month break. Who knows if this return will be permanent – the fact that he writes about coffee regularly is enough for me. 
  3. Reuben went toe to toe with me as we took on one of team pyro’s angry Calvinists on the death penalty a while back.  
  4. Sam and Soph cover all the bases – coffee, Christianity, culture, journalism and they have a cracking white design. Like mine but without the clutter of columns. Rumour has it that Sam and Reuben were caught talking about this blog in a Moore College lecture the other day – I have spies everywhere people…
  5. Justin writes good stuff infrequently. He’s an Anglican minister in the heart of Sydney. He asks good questions. And provides good answers.

In the absence of my regular linkage I think I’ll turn this into a bit of a regular feature. If you’re out there, lurking, and you have a blog – let me know in the comments. I’d be particularly interested to know if you’re one of the five people I don’t know and you’re a reader.

I decided this week that I’m going to try to delurk on 10% of the blogs I read everyweek. Because I like the idea of blogs as conversations. Perhaps you’ll be next.

Also, kudos must go to Ben Bathgate for his excellent page on Mac software that’s worth checking out.

Post it post

I’ve been reading Daily Vowel Movements for a while. Since its Andrew became one of the many Andrews who comments here on occasion. It’s a blog with a nice regularity. You should check it out.

Friday is my favourite day, because on Fridays Andrew posts his pointless post it notes – which are every bit as amusing as the index card version they were inspired by. Here’s my favourite:

Links from August 11, 2009

Links from August 10, 2009

Links from August 9, 2009

Links from August 8, 2009

Links from August 7, 2009

Links from August 6, 2009

Links from August 5, 2009

Spring cleaning

Spring has sprung – well, it feels like it has for those of us living in the tropics and enjoying 27 degree days.

I’ve done some further rethinking about how I structure this here page – and I’ve moved the daily posts of links out of the “Curiosities” column and into the far right.

You’ll also notice some new little images in the footer which were fun to put together. I may move to styling all my images like little polaroids, but we’ll see.

If you’ve got more suggestions for tweaks I should make – hit me up in the comments. I’ve got a fair bit of time on my hands this week.

One for the books

I’m a sucker for a good bit of other person promotion. And it’s probably time I mentioned Goannatree anyway.

It’s a good place to read intelligent scholarship from a Christian who is into literature, the arts and all sorts of culture.

This week Goannatree is running a book giveaway to encourage lurkers out of the woodworks – and probably to score a swag of new readers. So get along, check it out. You won’t be disappointed.