Author: Nathan Campbell

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.

Phonetics

I’ve now had my iPhone for two months. More than enough time to get used to it and post some useful reflections…

The iPhone is the most beautiful piece of gadgetry I’ve ever owned. In fact, I’d go further and say it’s the most beautiful piece of gadgetry my family has ever owned (and there have been lots of bits of gadgetry, and now my mum and little sister number 3 have them too)…

It’s interface is typical of Mac stuff – user friendly though slightly idiosyncratic. I like it. The form factor is elegant, my desire not to scratch it is greater than the desire I’ve felt with anything else – so much so that I forked out $17.95 for what’s essentially a rubber sleeve.

The best bit about the iPhone (other than the nice touch interface which plays a significant role in making every thing good) is the applications. And there are bucket loads… actually, having said that I’m reconsidering – wifi is also sensationally useful…

The worst bit is that I don’t get to play with it much at home – because my wife monopolises it.

I think, given that I’m in need of blog fodder for this blog off, that I might reflect on individual categories of applications – utilities, education, games, and miscellaneous – in separate upcoming posts.

June 3, 2009

Almost Shirt of the Day: Pong

A pongy shirt generally is in need of a good wash (or in some sad cases ala my black t-shirt a throw out). This one on the other hand is full of table tennisy/pong goodness. It’s also from glennz.com.

June 3, 2009

Shirt of the day: Perpetual motion

This Perpetual Motion Device from Glennz.com is pretty awesome though not technically possible. Glennz calls it “Eternal Exercise”…

June 3, 2009

Happy Birthday: Tetris


Tetris turned 25 yesterday (or today, depending on where you sit on the international date line). 25 years ago Russian progammer Aleksei Pazhitnov sat down and wrote the most addictive game ever.

It is arguably the greatest Russian invention ever. Greater even than the Great Moscow Circus.

The Guardian has a great feature on the game to celebrate the milestone.

Twenty-five years ago, inside the bowels of the Soviet Academy of Sciences in Moscow, a young artificial intelligence researcher received his first desktop computer – the Soviet-built Elektronika 60, a copy of an American minicomputer called a PDP-11 – and began writing programs for it.

But not numerical ones. He ended up creating one that would infest the dreams of those who played it, spurring addictions and even the suspicion that it was a Russian plot to divert the youth of America in a pointless exercise.

Here’s what it originally looked like…

And here’s what the creator looked like in 1989…

And here’s what he looks like now (on the right)…

And here are all my previous Tetris posts to mark the occasion.

June 3, 2009

Pac-ing on the calories

So you’ve always wanted your own Pacman action figure – only to realise that an action figure based on three quarters of a 2D circle isn’t really all the much fun. But lollies are always fun especially Pacman lollies. Especially these Pacman lollies.

June 2, 2009

Wiggedy Whack

The picture I made this post about is now unavailable…

I’m not sure you can actually buy this anywhere – but there is a modern alternative…

With reference to the title – I actually know Wickety Wak’s manager. I’m not sure if that really means anything to anybody. But hey. If you’re a big fan let me know, and I’ll hook you up.

June 2, 2009

Bangers and mash

We all know a good mashed potato needs just the right amount of seasoning. Which becomes easier if you can manage your dosage in caliber form… with these awesome salt’n’pepper pistols.

So Peter Piper now packs his pick of “pinch” or pepper… that was poor.

Found here.

June 2, 2009

Self filtering

You’ll be happy to know (particularly those following the whole blog off thing) that I generally only post about 40% of my ideas. Which means a 60% increase in posts shouldn’t be a problem.

June 2, 2009

A bunch of links – June 2, 2009

June 2, 2009

Geek Tattoo

This is the geekiest tattoo I’ve ever seen…

I hope for his sake that the tags aren’t closed.

June 2, 2009

YouTube Toosday: Con job?

Young Cons – the Young Conservatives (unless it’s a parody) have some issues separating America from the “Kingdom of God”… but this is pretty funny.

“The more money we spend the more mine is worth jack, the Bible says we’re a nation under God…”

Umm, that’s probably the Pledge of Allegiance you’re confused with…

June 2, 2009

YouTube Tuesday: Entertainering

Giant Pianos are the new black (and white), or at the very least the new Dance, Dance, Revolution.

Sadly, there are heaps more where that came from.

June 2, 2009

Soap Invaders

These soaps are obviously designed to lure geeks into the shower. And it just might work… but grapefruit scented? What were they thinking.

Found at Gizmodo.

June 2, 2009

Friend + Friend + Swiss Ball = Awesome

Somersaulting on one exercise ball is awesome – but two guys somersaulting on one exercise ball is doubly so. From here.

June 2, 2009

Pick your battles

This SolaPanel post comes at a particularly relevant moment what with all my inner-argumentative-angst navel gazing and debates about what issues are worth fighting for.

  1. Fight for what is right. (truth)
  2. Argue for what will work. (tactics)
  3. And keep quiet about everything else. (preference)

Fight for the God-given Biblical principles, argue for how to put them into practice and just leave all the personality or preference issues up to each person to work out for themselves.  I can hesitate on preference, in a meeting I can even back down on my view of tactics, but I must never back down on truth.

Me, I fight on all three, but care about 1 and 2 almost equally (and interchangeably – the media is the message afterall… Or something like that).

June 2, 2009