I pressed post on this last night – I thought…
I hadn’t seen this before – Bill O’Reilly gets Rick Roll’d (and swears in response). Apparently the Christian Right is ok with that…
But this is perhaps my favourite. A Christian TV program that reads out and answers emails without appearing to vet them. Check it out.
I saw Avatar in 3D last night. I have nothing to add to every other review that mentions its stunning visuals and crappy storyline.
Andrew of Daily Vowel Movements summed it up like this.
I’d add Romeo and Juliette to that list. Being unoriginal is not a deal breaker. There are only six movie plot lines afterall. Take away the amazing use of light and 3D stuff and Avatar is below B grade.
But I do have this to offer – Avatar as an Atari game.
A weapons manufacturer for the U.S military has come under fire for including inscriptions that cite Bible passages on their sights.
A separation of powers spokesperson said the following:
“It allows the Mujahedeen, the Taliban, al Qaeda and the insurrectionists and jihadists to claim they’re being shot by Jesus rifles.”
Jesus did say he didn’t come to bring peace but a sword – although I suspect this misses the figurative sense he was speaking in…
Robyn shared some of our moving woes in her post yesterday. Not to be outdone I wrote a complaint letter. Complete with thinly veiled threats that only a PR person working for one of Townsville’s most publicised organisations can get away with…
To give some context – this is a copy of the letter the Real Estate Agent sent us yesterday:
Dear Robyn and Nathan,
Re: Our address
As per phone conversation today, you have been advised that an extension to vacate has been declined.
We respectfully wish to advise that if you do not hand keys back on the 27/01/2010, we have been instructed by the Lessor to lodge a claim against you with the Small Claims Tribunal, this will also go against your permanent rental history.
You were notified on the 26/11/2009 that you had to hand the keys back on the 27/01/2010.
Please feel free to contact the office if you require further information in relation to this matter.
Yours Faithfully,
J0hn Gr1bb1n Realty PTY LTD.
Here ’tis. I’ve replaced some letters with numbers just to avoid this coming up on google in the next few days. Once we’re out of there I’ll change it back for the world to see.
Dear J0hn Gr1bb1n, Karen Ernest and any other relevant staff,
Following a further phone call today regarding our exit of the property at <address> I thought I should put an official response in writing on the record.
My wife Robyn and I have been tenants at the Diprose Street Property since August 2007. We have paid the rent on time every week, have had the property inspected regularly with only minor issues to be corrected after each inspection (eg the dusting of a fan, floor mats under chairs etc). Despite one (I believe) official written warning about the placement of our wheelie bins on the curb, I consider us to have been good tenants who are above reproach.
The same could not be said of our lessor. I wish to place this note on the record – but would ask that it not be mentioned to the landlord until we have vacated the property. I am concerned that if the decision is left up to him we will not receive our due bond back after vacating the property, and I will be carefully documenting any discussions regarding our bond in order to make a case with the RTA if I feel these concerns are warranted.
We have reported minimal maintenance issues in our time in the property – and when we have the response has been less than timely on the behalf of the lessor.
For example, our rangehood cover detached within two months of us occupying the property due to some construction issues – a cupboard door opens into the range hood and disturbs it (we did not mistreat or “swing off” the cover as alleged by our landlord). Despite our timely reporting of this issue the maintenance has not taken place some years later.
We reported a dripping hot water tap in our shower which was not fixed for over a month – costing us money in electricity bills.
Living on site with the landlord has proved a terrible experience – so much so that I will be doing all that I can to make people aware of the situation at Diprose Street. I am not without resources in this department (as you might surmise from my signature block). Let me give you some examples of situations that have been less than professionally handled by our lessor – to the point that I requested that if he must address us in person he address me, and not my wife. Based on some telephone exchanges with your staff over the years I surmise that some of them feel similarly about dealing with the lessor in question.
Some time ago one of the other tenants in the property had a fire, their barbeque caught alight and caused some damage to the property. The lessor, when conducting maintenance on a dripping toilet, told us about the situation. And then yelled at us in a threatening manner about how these properties were his, he built them, and how he would not tolerate damage of this nature.
My wife’s father is a mechanic by trade, and on a visit (about 18 months ago) he changed the oil on my car. He is also a farmer and has a disposal barrel for oil and waste on the farm. He took the oil home with him to dispose of carefully, leaving a drip tray next to our bins on the garden bed to be disposed of in the wheelie bin the following week. Our lessor jumped to the conclusion that we had poured the oil in the garden bed. Berating my wife with an abusive and aggressive tone (leaving her close to tears) and refusing to listen to any response. He promised to monitor the trees and extract the money from us if they died. There has been no subsequent apology or acknowledgment that he was incorrect in his assumption.
These standover tactics are uncalled for – and not fitting of the lessor/lessee arrangement. This is just a snapshot of life at <address> and serves to explain the trepidation we feel regarding our bond handover and the disappointment we felt upon receiving your letter dated 15 January 2010. The phone call referred to in paragraph one of the letter included a promise from myself to pay whatever amount is generated by us overstaying our lease by one day. The threat (attributed to the Lessor in the letter) to lodge a claim against us to the Small Claims Tribunal seems unnecessary and heavy handed, as does a threat to tarnish our permanent rental history on his behalf.
While I agree that we were notified on the 26th of the 11th regarding the date for us to hand our keys back there are mitigating circumstances in our request for a one day extension. We are relocating to Brisbane. The removalist we selected after obtaining a series of quotes (which we started doing early in the piece) closed down over the Christmas Period and only reopened last Wednesday. They had not advised us of their ability to collect our belongings on our preferred date (the 25th of January) prior to closing for Christmas – and it was not until last week that we learned they were unable to make the collection until the 27th. We are seeking to do the right thing by our Lessor, and by you, by having the carpets and blinds professionally cleaned after our furniture is removed. This is not possible until the afternoon of the 27th (we have booked both services). I believe a one day extension in this case is not only reasonable but warranted. The refusal, on behalf of the lessor, seems petty. But I would expect no less having lived under his gaze, and spoken to fellow tenants, over the past two years.
Please be advised that if the situation regarding our bond, the Small Claims Tribunal, or our rental history transpires in a less than adequate manner I will be using whatever means I have at my disposal to make our dissatisfaction with the process a matter of the public record. I do not want any future tenants to experience the pain we have without fair warning.
Yours Sincerely,
Nathan Campbell
Corporate Communications Executive
T0wnsvi11e Enterprise Limited
Simone tagged me in a meme. I don’t like memes but I get tagged in too few of them to take a stance. So here’s my desk, for the next four days and two hours.
These were taken with my iPhone and without much care.
I tag Amy (because she asked for it) and Anna (because she’s a professional student so it might be inspiring).
The FBI is clearly under resourced. This is funny.
The SMH Reports (this longish excerpt):
The FBI has admitted it used a photograph of a bearded Spanish politician as the basis for a mocked photofit of Osama bin Laden, to show how the terrorist leader might look now.
The US State Department was forced to withdraw the image, which was circulated around the world last week, after the discovery that it was not quite as technically sophisticated as the FBI had claimed.
The image of an older and greying bin Laden was meant to show how he might look without his turban and long beard. It appeared on a State Department website, rewardsforjustice.net, where a reward of up to $US25 million ($26.85 million) is offered for bin Laden, wanted over the September 11, 2001, attacks and the 1998 US embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya. The FBI said the photo of bin Laden would be removed from the website.
It created a stir in Madrid when a Spanish MP recognised strong elements of himself in the image and complained to the US.
Gaspar Llamazares, a member of Spain’s Communist Party, said his forehead, hair and jawline had been ”cut and pasted” from an old campaign photograph.
The FBI claimed to have used ”cutting edge” technology to reproduce new images of 18 of the most wanted terrorist suspects. But on Saturday a spokesman for the FBI, Ken Hoffman, admitted that a technician ”was not satisfied” with the hair features offered by the FBI’s software and instead used part of a photo of Mr Llamazares that he found on the internet.
How cool is this.
Because it doesn’t destroy the ball it is much cooler than the guy who hits baseballs with a Samurai Sword.
I haven’t spread the Link Love for a while. So here goes.
If you haven’t already done so you should read the following:
That’ll do for now.
If I had eight spare hours in my day I don’t think I’d be making this. Mostly because I don’t have that variety of artistic talent and inspiration, but partly because I’d be doing other important stuff like procrastinating on reading the first six chapters of my Hebrew text book.
McDonalds makes you go “mmm” then “urgh”… Lego just makes you go “hmm” and then “ahh”, and this little video made me go “aww”.
This Lego ad in the guise of a short film is possibly the greatest thing ever put on YouTube. It made me smile and feel all warm and gooey inside. And if I had my childhood Lego collection in the house I would be playing with it now instead of sharing it with you.
After exploring the topic of Christianity in gaming a couple of weeks ago two things happened.
Firstly, Mika told me about this flash fighting game where you pick a Bible Character and fight other Bible characters.
Secondly, I read this other article on the matter that came with this quote from James Wyatt, a game designer (Dungeons and Dragons) who is also a Methodist minister. Because games are the new literature he appears to be talking about classic pieces of fantasy:
“Games aren’t a place where you are expected to cling to a belief in something that can’t be seen or proven,” Wyatt explains. “It’s a world where the power of gods is demonstrated daily. [The Lord of the Rings’] Gandalf was — almost literally — Jesus walking around with the adventuring party.” I’ll admit to being somewhat shocked when Wyatt, in a calm and fatherly tone, explains how awesome it was to cast aside the preconceptions of our shared faith: “Fantasy has this ability to open our eyes to the enchantment of our world, and to view real things with more wonder.”
To illustrate his point, Wyatt invokes Chronicles of Narnia author (and notable Christian scholar) C.S. Lewis:
“[A child] does not despise real woods because he has read of enchanted woods: the reading makes all real woods a little enchanted. This is a special kind of longing.” — C.S. Lewis, On Three Ways of Writing for Children
I had a little victory today. And I want you to know about it. If you’ve ever scrolled all the way to the bottom of the page here on the blog you may have noticed five Polaroid style pictures. Up until now three of them were the same photo, and the other two didn’t ever change. But no longer. With some coding wizardry and the help of Shashin – a great little Picasa plugin – these five slots will now be filled with five different random images from a Picasa album.
Very exciting.
I’m pretty happy with my efforts.
Here’s a sample.
You’ve heard, no doubt, of Will it Blend – the ever popular viral marketing approach taken by Blendtech Blenders. Well, today, for a change of pace, I give you “Will it Press” an exercise in cooking everything with a sandwich press.
This is pretty similar to the Mars Bar Toasted Sandwich
And here’s a “pressed” breakfast…
Similarly – the Waffleizer uses a waffle maker to cook just about anything… Like Waffleburgers
The Brick Testament made another appearance at church this morning. Last week’s story about Ehud the Ninja was always going to be hard to top. I went with another story from Judges (the one just after my least favourite story in the Bible).
Jephthah did something silly – but then he kind of redeemed himself a little, teaching a rogue tribe of Israel a lesson in the process. Jephthah was like a secret agent. Because all secret agents have passwords. It’s how they identify themselves to their helpers and friends in foreign countries.
As an aside – has anybody else noticed that the story of Jephthah and his daughter is exactly the same storyline as the Beauty and the Beast, and that he’s essentially Robin Hood.
Here’s the talk.
Today we’re going to learn about a guy who was a bit like a spy. A secret agent. Who here wants to be a spy when they grow up? Does anybody know about any spies?
Today we’re going to learn a story about a man named Jephthah. He was the leader of Israel a little while after Ehud.
Jephthah went off to fight some of the enemies of Israel – called the Ammonites – but one group of Israelites – didn’t help with the battle. And then they got angry at Jephthah and decided to fight him…
So Jepthath and the army of Israel fought against the Ephraimites.
And they drove them all the way to a river. The Ephraimites couldn’t beat Israel so some of them ran away.
Later, some of the survivors came back to the battlefield and tried to cross the river. But Jephthah, being a clever secret agent, came up with a plan to stop any of the Ephraimites escaping.
Ephraimites had different accents to the people from Israel. They were a bit like people from New Zealand and us. Have you ever heard a New Zealander say “fish and chips”. It sounds a bit different to how we say it. Well, there was a word that the Israelites said differently to the Ephraimites. Shibboleth. So Jephthah made that word the password. And he told his men at the river to check how people wanting to get past said the word.
And the Ephraimites couldn’t do it.
And when they couldn’t do it the Israelite “secret agents” judged them, and killed them.
We’re a bit like the Israelites. And Jesus is a bit like a secret agent. See, one day, God is going to judge the whole world. A bit like Jephthah judged the Ephraimites. And we have a password – a bit like Shibboleth – a password that God uses to sort people out.
Our password is Jesus. The Bible says that anybody who calls on the name of Jesus will be saved. Anybody who calls Jesus Lord. And only God’s people can do that. People who aren’t God’s people will be like the Ephraimites – they’ll be in trouble.
And do you know – that if you like people, and you want them to be part of God’s family – all they need is the password. They need to know that Jesus died for us, and them too. And because he died for us – we know the secret password.
The End.