Nathan runs St Eutychus. He loves Jesus. His wife. His daughter. His son. His other daughter. His dog. Coffee. And the Internet. He is the pastor of City South Presbyterian Church, a church in Brisbane, a graduate of Queensland Theological College (M. Div) and the Queensland University of Technology (B. Journ). He spent a significant portion of his pre-ministry-as-a-full-time-job life working in Public Relations, and now loves promoting Jesus in Brisbane and online. He can't believe how great it is that people pay him to talk and think about Jesus. If you'd like to support his writing financially you can do that by giving to his church.
Rubbernecking sounds like the kind of thing hormonal teenagers do in the back of the school bus. But no. Rubbernecking (verb) is the act of taking a squiz at something. In Brisbane, it’s the verb used to describe going flood spotting. Something the police and the Premier are eager for us not to do.
But we did.
Yesterday we had a little drive into Brisbane’s CBD. Here are the Instagram results.
Floating bins in the driveway of 111 Eagle St – a new development
Some fellow rubberneckers – beyond the police tape
A view of the Storey Bridge
One of the jetties at the Eagle Street Pier, the arch is the top of the pedestrian access gate
The other day I said I was ok with children being involved in ministry. From about 39 seconds into this video, you’ll see an example of the kind of thing for some reason I’m not comfortable with.
Especially touching is where he decrees and declares several multi-million dollar ideas for the children he is praying for.
When it comes to how to begin a new sentence, I’m a proud single spacer. I have been for as long as I can remember, even though I have vague memories of being taught to double space when learning to handwrite in primary school. Turns out I’m in the right.
“Every modern typographer agrees on the one-space rule. It’s one of the canonical rules of the profession, in the same way that waiters know that the salad fork goes to the left of the dinner fork and fashion designers know to put men’s shirt buttons on the right and women’s on the left. Every major style guide—including the Modern Language Association Style Manual and theChicago Manual of Style—prescribes a single space after a period. (The Publications Manual of the American Psychological Association, used widely in the social sciences, allows for two spaces in draft manuscripts but recommends one space in published work.) Most ordinary people would know the one-space rule, too, if it weren’t for a quirk of history. In the middle of the last century, a now-outmoded technology—the manual typewriter—invaded the American workplace. To accommodate that machine’s shortcomings, everyone began to type wrong. And even though we no longer use typewriters, we all still type like we do. (Also see the persistence of the dreaded Caps Lock key.)”
Man gets shot in head, sneezes bullet. Awesome. And true. Here’s the story.
“The bullet went through the right side of his head, behind his eye socket and lodged in his nasal passage but miraculously did no serious damage.
Bleeding heavily, he was taken to hospital in an ambulance shortly after midnight, but while waiting to be seen by doctors he sneezed and the bullet shot out of his right nostril.”
Only in Italy, because that’s where the Mafia can’t shoot straight.
“The 1% rule states that the number of people who create content on the internet represents approximately 1% (or less) of the people actually viewing that content (e.g., For every one person who posts on a forum, there are at least ninety-nine other people viewing that forum but not posting).
The “90-9-1″ version of this rule states that 1% of people create content, 9% edit or modify that content, and 90% view the content without contributing.”
For a while last week I thought about unsubscribing from the atheist blogs I read. They fill me with frustration. Especially the snarkiness that oft goes on in the comment thread. I even have a post drafted saying that I had made that a resolution for the year. But then I changed my mind. Bizarrely because I read this article on the Huffington Post about why atheists read articles by the religious…
“In my opinion, Atheists want to be well-informed. They want to know what others are saying, and then what they’re saying next. They wish to keep up with all that they’re contesting, not to change their minds. Others who I’ve spoken with speculate that some self-professed atheists may actually be agnostics who are seeking answers to address internal doubts.”
I think there’s a little in that. But I also think they like to gather together and hunt in packs because that’s what minorities do. And if atheists were in the ascendency I’m sure there’d be a bunch of Christian voices clamouring to shout them down.
Plus, the internet is an atheist playground. And they are the resident bullies. So it makes sense they go where the easy targets are and hang out in gangs elsewhere.
“I have a T-shirt problem: after years of buying them, my house is now full. Whilst recently trying to tidy up the situation I realised that I was subconsciously categorising them. As with everything on the internet, it ain’t a ‘thing’ until it’s visualised in an infographic. “
I was talking to my friend Mike O’Connor on Facebook today. Mike is the minister of the Presbyterian Church in Rockhampton. And I love the way he thinks about how to serve and engage the Rocky community. He’s got a good eye for a media story and keeps Christianity on the agenda in a positive way.
I’ve been watching on Facebook as the Rockhampton flood situation unravelled. Mike has been on the front foot the whole time. And the stuff they’re doing up there, with help from his network of friends around the country, is pretty phenomenal.
Here’s a little video they put together:
Here’s what they’ve got on the agenda as a church so far as Rocky continues to deal with current flooding, and future clean up. From Mike:
What they’re doing
1. We have become the child care facility for anyone wanting to have their kids minded during the clean up
1.a We are going to do evening BBQ to feed people when they pick up their kids
2. We were GIVEN 5 chest freezers (new) yesterday to freeze meals to give to people and when we’re done we can give the freezers away.
3. We are still organising a team of people who can just labour – door knocking an area to assist people in the clean up.
already in place and set to roll when the waters go down.
4. Obviously helping people from church flooded in.
How you can help
This sounds like a CMS ad – but you can help by praying, giving, or going.
Pray for the Rockhampton Church as they seek to serve their city.
There was a team from Brisbane lined up to come to Rockhampton to help – their status is now “unsure.” If you’ve got some spare time in the next weeks or months, and would consider travelling to tropical North Queensland to help out – let me know, and I’ll pass your details on to Mike. They’re particularly interested in hearing from tradesmen of all varieties. Especially electricians – who need to certify each house. But they’ll take anybody.
Give money…
You can give money to the Presbyterian Church’s Flood appeal by Direct Debit:
Presbyterian Church of Queensland
Westpac Bank
BSB 034 010
Account No 131237
There’s an Internet Law that describes why you people don’t comment…
It’s called the 1% Rule. It has its own wikipedia article. And getting a wikipedia article is more difficult than you might think. So it must be true.
But here:
That explains it.
January 13, 2011