More Micallef – slight language warning – but this is a timeless monologue from 2001.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Month: February 2009
Coffee bar
A long time ago – in 2006 in fact – I contemplated making icecream reviews a regular feature on this blog. The idea never had legs. I never really found a worthy icecream contender.
Turkish Delight Cadbury icecreams were good. They would have scored a mention had the feature continued. As would the Drumstick Sundae line. Other than that there aren’t any particularly regular icecreams featured on the Campbell itinerary.
Until now. Weis Coffee Almond and Cream bars. Mmm. Fantastic. The. Best. Weis. Bar. Ever. And that’s a big call – the mango Weis bars are pretty spectacular. But these were great. Robyn gave them the thumbs up. They’re now on the menu. If you like coffee they should be on yours too. They’re no doubt as good as these things.
YouTube Tuesday: On the high horse
I was really struggling to find a video for my YouTube Tuesday post. Until I typed “Micallef” into the search box in a moment of inspiration.
I really want to get the DVDs from this Channel 9 series (I have the DVDs from his ABC and Full Frontal stuff if anyone wants to borrow them)… I remember this joke he did with the Dandy Warhols that would totally lose something being retold here – so I won’t. Instead, I give you, Micallef on his high horse…
No bones about it
This Brooklyn Cemetery has a lot of rules. And for every rule, there’s a sign. I can’t for the life of me figure out who goes to the cemetery to wash their car…
Good books?
The Times Online has just produced a list of “books for the religious” – I assume they’re a round up of newly released books rather than a catch all list of spiritual recommendations. Predictably they don’t include anything from an orthodox Christian standpoint.
Instead they recommend the following:
1. In Circles of Thorns: Hieronymous Bosch and Being Human, Justin Lewis-Anthony – a vaguely Christian book about the classic painting pictured above, with the summary from the Times saying: “that Jesus Christ is the calm centre in a circling, threatening world. It is that sense of peace that pulses through the book”
2. Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Israel Shahak
3. The Atheist’s Bible: an illustrious collection of irreverent thoughts, edited by Joan Konner
4. Making War in the Name of God , Christopher Catherwood
5. The Healing Word, Bishop Basil of Amphipolis
6. Creating a Future Islamic Civilization, Rashid Shaz
I’m pretty sure none of these would make my list. Although “Making War in the Name of God” sounds vaguely interesting.
I’m notoriously bad at collecting non-fiction books and then never reading them. I have a bookshelf full of half-read, or less, tomes of spiritual significance. Which ones should I read? What are your religious recommendations for others?
Obviously the seminal texts for each major religion are important to consider – and I think probably outside the scope of this Times article.
Atlantisn’t
There’s been oohing and ahhing over the weekend as some Google Earth watchers thought they might have found Atlantis. The blogosphere went crazy over the idea. Chris just posted a link to the googleblog today. Sunken mythical cities don’t really excite me. But this idea from the googleblog does. And google would be one company with the resources to make it happen.
“But we could map the whole ocean using ships. A published U.S. Navy study found that it would take about 200 ship-years, meaning we’d need one ship for 200 years, or 10 ships for 20 years, or 100 ships for two years. It costs about $25,000 per day to operate a ship with the right mapping capability, so 200 ship-years would cost nearly two billion dollars. That may seem like a lot of money, but it’s not that far off from the price tag of, say, a new sports stadium.”
That would be cool. And cheaper than building a real life, working, death star or Enterprise – or whatever was in those links I posted for calculating the cost of unrealistic science fiction technology a few weeks ago.
Wordle 2.0
The previously mentioned Wordle has got some great new functionality. Like adding an RSS feed for immediate analysis. Saves copying and pasting every post of your blog like I did last time. Although my feed is limited to just the last ten posts or something.
Here it is:
This story here about speeches from Springboard and Blight are an interesting example of the tag cloud as an assessment of being “on message”.
Speaking of which – here’s a wordle of my sermon from Sunday. Which did, as Simone and dad both pointed out, go for a bit too long. 30 minutes. I cut a bit out though. That’s the longest I’ve ever preached and I’m sorry for boring people and going past the 22 minute attention span of the average television watcher.
And here’s the passage itself.
The Strip
It seems I was right. Apparently The Wire, Underbelly and The Sopranos – and any other media “text” that demonise Strip Clubs are on the money.
The Courier Mail reports that Queensland’s adult entertainment businesses are regular law breakers and dens of iniquity.
Treasurer Andrew Fraser made a comment that I’m sure the Courier Mail story delighted in presenting in an almost out of context fashion…
“Treasurer Andrew Fraser yesterday defended his department’s enforcement, saying many “cowboy outfits” had been removed in recent years.”
I believe he was talking about businesses not complying with legislation – rather than a Western theme.
I promise this will be the last time I write about strip clubs. But it’s interesting to note that they aren’t particularly nice places after all. Remember that Mr Prime Minister.
A bunch of links – February 24, 2009
- F.lux Changes Your Screen Brightness By Time Of Day
- Web Blacklist Already Under Fire
- Bungee Cord Breaks
- Gaping hole costume
- Sunday Twitter at MarsHill
- How to Get More Out of Google Docs
- Missiological assumptions?
- #497. Giving your kid a Biblical name.
- Education Fail
- Get Your Own Space Invader Ice Cubes
- Turn Your Old Video Games Into Cash At Nintari
The Mars Hill Twitter experiment.
Stuff Christians Like…
Hidden Valley
If I was a ninja looking to double think my opponents I’d put my top secret hidden base at a place called Hidden Valley. Which is probably why the platypus lives there.
Robyn and I had a nice getaway last night with our friends Chris and Julia. They’re visiting from Sydney. We were thinking of a day trip to Magnetic Island today but it’s raining so we decided the rainforest was the best option in this sort of weather. We made the trip via the Herveys Range Heritage Tea Rooms. Where we stopped for a leisurely lunch. They’ve now got baked potatoes on the menu – I think they’re a new addition. They do seem a little expensive though at $10.50 for two potatoes.
I rang the guys at Hidden Valley Cabins on Saturday and booked two cabins for Sunday night. I mentioned we were coming up in my Excel. They laughed. But said it should be ok. They were in the process of filling in pot holes.
10km of dirt road can feel like 100km. Particularly if you have to take the road at about 5km an hour to miss massive puddles, ditches and pot holes. If you’re going to make the drive in an Excel – wait until the road there is sealed by the Charters Towers Regional Council – that’s meant to happen in 2009. So stay tuned.
We made it up in one piece. Hidden Valley is Australia’s first carbon neutral resort. It’s also Australia’s first solar powered resort. Dinner at Hidden Valley is a family affair. We ate with owners Ian, Bonnie and Ross McLennan. Ross’s fiance Chelsea was back in town. All guests there get this kind of hospitality. It was a nice touch. Dinner was good too.
Prior to dinner we took a platypus tour. We didn’t see any platypus. There’d been a fair bit of water running through the areas they knew were platypus habitat so the poor little things had moved. Maybe. Turns out that platypus are the ninjas of the animal world. Here’s a list of their ninja attributes:
1. They have an inbuilt, poisonous, sharp sword on their back right leg. This can inflict pain on humans comparable to a stone fish.
2. They have an immunity to the poison of other platypus swords.
3. They hunt by detecting motion rather than sight, they have thousands of motion sensors on their bills.
4. They are nocturnal.
5. They’re almost invisible at night.
6. Light does not glimmer off their eyes.
7. They create intricate traps for predators in their burrows.
8. They are made for aerodynamic movement.
This morning we hit the waterholes in Paluma – Little Crystal was gushing, and Paradise Lagoon was nice until we got smashed by rain.
A bunch of links – February 22, 2009
- Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
- Starbucks VIA ReadyBrew instant coffee
- Daggers are drawn between Costello and Turnbull | smh.com.au
- Congenial Joe hides killer blow | smh.com.au
- The archdukes of hazard throw feuding Liberals into a wheelspin | smh.com.au
A positive review of Starbuck’s instant coffee…
More on the Liberal’s not so civil war.
And so, the SMH’s campaign for home town hero Joe Hockey’s political elevation begins…
Things going from bad to worse for the Liberal Party of Australia.
Saturday night television
We’re having a night in tonight. Tomorrow night we’re heading up the Paluma range to the much celebrated Hidden Valley Cabins. Australia’s first carbon neutral, solar powered tourism operator. I guess staying there is like buying a carbon indulgence. We should probably turn the aircon down a couple of degrees. We’ve got friends coming to town from Sydney and I’m taking Monday off. That will be nice.
I have left my coffee machine on all day – so that’s churned out the carbon.
My sermon is done. I think. I haven’t printed it yet so there’s always time for revisions. Robyn is playing poker on Facebook – and for some reason two of us playing simultaneously seems to kill its performance. .
So I find myself faced with Saturday’s incredibly lacklustre lineup of television programming. I remember a time when Saturday was the be all and end all of TV scheduling. I am probably biased in Saturday’s favour base on my parent’s obsession with The Bill.
Modernising religion
Hare Krishnas are an ancient sect. Followers of said sect still dress in old fashioned togas and sandles and do their hair in funny plaits when they go on singing and dancing sprees through the streets of modern cities. They also make stickers that say “smile” and run vegan restaurants. So they’re not completely stuck in the past. They’re not the Hindu equivalent of the Amish by any stretch of the imagination – and here’s photographic proof that they’re moving along with the times – at least in terms of musical accompanyment to said singing and dancing… They have embraced the piano accordian – some 80 years after the piano accordian was mainstream…
Look no Hans, Solo garage sailing and ebay news
Fresh from the successful sale of Luke Skywalker for a 150% profit on eBay I hit the garage sales this morning looking for a new breadmaker. I’ve given up fixing the old one.
This was my first solo garage sailing experience. It’s not as much fun by yourself. I did not manage to find a new breadmaker – I did however manage to find a new heatgun. It has never been used, and I got it for $20. They’re over $60 new. This one even has temperature control – a feature I would have liked on the old one.
Other than that the trip was pretty unproductive – I hit eight sales in less about an hour. One was selling miniature garden gnomes, another healing crystals and another a collection of stylised antique pencil sharpeners. Or pencil sharpeners shaped like antique furniture. They were $2 each. I didn’t buy them.
Luke Skywalker went to a lady from Glenelg – which is a palindrome. So that’s pretty cool. I listed a bunch of other Star Wars figurines last night – if they all go for anything like $5.50 Craig and I will feel pretty good about the whole thing. The Tie Fighter Pilot I listed last night is already up to $6.50. Here’s all the items I’ve got listed at the moment.