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.

Twix or treat

Instructables is a veritable goldmine of ideas – a repository of human ingenuity – a hotbed of innovation… I could go on. It’s brilliant. Particularly when somebody gives you the run down on how to produce your very own giant Twix.

The instructions are in some sort of Spanglish – but the pictures tell the story.

Ingredients
2 packages of cookie Maizena
1 package of caramel candy
2 pounds of chocolate to milk


From what I can gather you need chocolate, caramel and some biscuits – based on my experience with Twix, I’d say Milk Arrowroots would suffice…

May 15, 2009

Shirt of the day: Swinedled

It’s been a while since I posted a shirt link. Mostly because I haven’t found any great ones for a while. But this is vaguely amusing.

May 15, 2009

Quick reference calendar

I’m genuinely bad at keeping a track of commitments in diaries, although thanks to the iPhone and it’s brilliance I’m getting better.

I’m not sure that having the months of the year etched into your fingernails like these guys did is helpful – but at the very least it’ll teach you not to bite off more than you can chew… perhaps. Found here.

May 15, 2009

A mug’s game

I like dunking biscuits in a nice frothy mug of hot chocolate – but never in a cup of coffee. Unless it’s a plunged or brewed cup without the smooth microfoamed texture of a well made espresso based drink… The problem (other than the somewhat dubious rules of etiquette surrounding the dunk*) is that I never have enough hands to carry a stash of biscuits and the mug. It’s seriously inefficient. The “Dunk Mug” is here to help.

What a concept.

* The Tim Tam Slam is an exception.

May 15, 2009

Bright idea

May 15, 2009

Poet, and don’t I know it…

Simone has been putting together some poetry 2.0 – bringing commenters together and uniting them in rhyme. I got some lines in the finished product…

Actually, and six years later I’m loathe to admit it, Poetry.com did send me emails telling me what a wonderful poet I was and wanting to include my work in a very special compilation of poetry*… you can see my poems here. Please feel free to ignore the badness of “Pariah”, it was written in a particular context where it was vaguely funny. The rest, they stand the test of time, in that they haven’t improved over time.

* I am aware that everybody who puts a poem on this site gets this offer, I’m also aware that despite the claims of Readers’ Digest I have not won $75,000.

May 14, 2009

A bunch of links – May 14, 2009

May 14, 2009

Fast food fast

Ahh, IGA, you’ve done it again. Stuck it to the big corporate man with this campaign that tries to convince us to give up fast food for a month. It’s an interesting move – I guess that IGA’s opening hours mean that fast food are their real competitors – because who seriously shops at IGA when Coles and Woolworths are open?

You go girlfriend. 

I do question the wisdom of openly antagonising the people with the biggest marketing budgets in the country. But IGA don’t have a choice really. When you consider that some of the top 50 advertising spenders in Australia (according to Nielsen Media’s 2007 report) were:

  1. Coles (number 2)
  2. Woolworths (number 5)
  3. McDonalds (17)
  4. Yum Restaurants (KFC and Pizza Hut) (number 35)
  5. Competitive Foods (Hungry Jacks, Dominos, Fasta Pasta) (number 48)

It’s hard enough having to compete with the other Supermarkets let alone the fast food guys.

That’s a lot to compete with in the pretty crowded market place market place.

So, could you go three weeks without fast food? I once did it for a year, it didn’t really make a difference to my weight though.

May 14, 2009

You know what’s a funny word…

Mishit.

You read it, and you think it should be spelt miss-hit, but it’s dictionarily correct.

That is all…

May 14, 2009

A bunch of links – May 13, 2009

May 13, 2009

Convergence coffee

Super-automatic coffee machines are not wildly appreciated in the “specialty” coffee world. There’s something nice about the manual coffee making process that appeals but this contraption is taking things to a whole new level. I guess you could call it a super-manual… It’s a coffee roaster, grinder and brewer in one beautifully gas filled unit.


Ignoring the problems with preparing your coffee immediately after roasting (due to beans needing to degas post roast), and you’ve got a beautiful and iconic piece of brewing technology.

Here are the directions…

“Take 50 green beans. Roast for 7 minutes for a medium roast, 9 minutes for a dark roast. Cool beans. Whilst grinding the cooled beans heat the water until air bubbles begin to pop. Place ground beans into water. Stir and brew for 4 minutes. Then pour and enjoy a cup of fresh perfect coffee.”

Here’s a video of the contraption in action.

I should mention that I spotted this marvel here…

May 13, 2009

Message to flies: DELETED!

I hate flies. It gets me in lots of trouble. Particularly when I kill them using my bare hands. It’s easy when you know how – and here’s a high tech study into the matter… and a tip from an expert:

“You shouldn’t swat where you see them. You should anticipate that they’re going to jump away from you. So you should extend your swat in the direction of the fly’s anticipated motion.”

Anyway, here’s a new little product from Fred and Friends… it’s sure to save me some troubles next Christmas lunch.

May 13, 2009

Nice Jobs

Here’s a nice little Apple ad featuring a portrait of Steve Jobs composed using Apple marketing slogans… found here.

May 13, 2009

Pacced to the rafters

In that last post I pondered how much Pacman is to much… I put it to you that painting a Pacman mural on your feature wall is possibly “too much”…

May 13, 2009

Materialistic Pacman

Just how much Pacman decor is too much? I’m not sure that’s a question that can be answered, but if you’re trying to find the point of over saturation by acquiring all the material you can lay your hands on – here’s a quilt cover, complete with movable pieces.

Found here.

May 13, 2009