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.

The incredible Laurence Tureaud

Who is Laurence Tureaud you ask… he’s Mr T – the bodyguard/actor/wrestler/reality TV star/face of Snickers/recording artist/kitchenware endorser/Christian/cartoon character famous for roles in the A-Team, the first ever Wrestlemania and Rocky.

He’s been around. He’s an interesting guy. And he’s so diversely talented that there’s a little bit of Mr T to appeal to everybody.
For a starter he’s dead against “your mum” jokes – as this film clip demonstrates…

If that wasn’t your cup of tea – here’s his cartoon from the early 80s…

Here’s Mr T in the kitchen…

Here he is in action in the very first Wrestlemania tagging with Hulk Hogan…

Here’s his “Get some nuts” snickers ad…

And a collection of Mr T’s wise sayings from the A-Team…

And here, finally, for your viewing pleasure, is Mr T’s first fight against Rocky in HD…

May 9, 2009

Clockwork

It’s Mother’s Day tomorrow – or perhaps Mothers’ Day – depending on your marital status – or indeed your understanding of the definition of the day. Perhaps you’ve forgotten to buy a present. Well, you’re out of time. Unless you buy something online – and perhaps, given that you’ve forgotten your mum, you should buy a clock. Here’s some fun ones from around the interwebs – and where to buy them. The good ones aren’t cheap.

Binary Clock

Vaguely descriptive clock

Code clock

The “back to university maths” clock

The rolling narrative clock

The Digital Bookshelf clock

The magic bowl of water clock

May 9, 2009

A bunch of links – May 8, 2009

May 8, 2009

Slingo

I guess that’s the lingo slings talk? Maybe, anyway, as a title for my only post so far today it’ll have to do – and it adequately describes these slings that save you all the hassle of explaining your obvious injury. And anybody who has ever been obviously injured knows this is a painful thing to have to do. They’re designed by this guy – and they were here when I first sore (sic) them.

May 8, 2009

A bunch of links – May 7, 2009

May 7, 2009

X-rayted consoles

Some guy has decided it would be a good idea to x-ray consoles and their controllers and then put the results on Flickr. He’s probably right. It does look pretty cool.


Found here.

May 7, 2009

New twist on portable coffee

Meet the mypressi TWIST. A completely portable espresso machine that produces pressure courtesy of a cylinder of pressurised air (the same type used for whipped cream guns and soda siphons) in the handle.

It’s probably not the “first” portable coffee maker – I wrote about one a while ago… but it was bike pump powered.


May 7, 2009

Emoticonally challenged

Back in 2006 I wrote about why I hate emoticons. Basically if you use them incessantly or if your online dialogue is peppered with LOLs and ROFLs then I’ll probably find online discourse with you really annoying.

Emoticons and LOLs are starting to appear in actual verbal conversation. People now indicate laughter by saying LOL LOL LOL. If each of those LOLs is indicative of a bout of real life laughter then basically you’re abbreviating your response to things and packing in added hilarity. People also now feel the need to articulate the expression on their face – by saying “sadface” where they’d traditionally :( in typed text. This is sad. Particularly in the light of research that shows face to face communication is about 58 percent non-verbal, 35 percent “vocal” (tone etc)  and only 7% verbal (the words you use). And it’s annoying. This is a bit ranty, and it’s really just an intro to a story I just read and thought I’d share…

We may never know the degree of sorrow felt by a young Novosibirsk woman over the traffic cop she struck and killed with her car while driving drunk. But a senior traffic safety official said the “cynicism” of the suspect is exemplified by the text message – complete with emoticon – she sent her boyfriend after killing the officer:

“Honey, I killed a cop. I’m sorry :( What should I do?”

Yeah, nice. Her emotions are so beautifully captured by a colon and a parenthesis. That, to pick up another piece of online lingo is a “sympathy fail”.

The boyfriend’s priceless PR advice:

Create a “scandal and don’t say or sign anything.”

That is all.

May 7, 2009

Stuff you didn’t know about coffee: A gender agenda

Coffee hasn’t always been the social lubricant it is today – in fact, in the late 1600s there were major protests against its legal status in England. Protests led by women who claimed:

The fineprint claimed that coffee caused impotence, and that cafes kept men away from their family responsibilities. 

The ladies of the 1670s were pursuing their very own sexual revolution and coffee was in the firing line – and Charles II listened to their petition and shut down all the coffeehouses in England – which at that time refused service to women.

Eventually, 11 days later, the men posted a response, sanity prevailed and Charles II relented. 

May 6, 2009

Do you dare?

Another day, another lame segway rip off. This one’s for kids. The Dareway.

And according to this YouTube ad (you’ll have to click the post title to get it – they don’t come up in the sidebar) you’ll end up being a junior character from the Matrix – complete with leather trenchcoat.

Found here.

May 6, 2009

Piercing stare

Glasses would be such a pain, I’d lose them all the time, having to take them off and put them on and take them off all over again would be a recipe for losing those very expensive little visual aids.

So here’s a novel solution – pierced eyeglasses.

Found here…

May 6, 2009

Crime against fashion

If you’re a fashion disaster and you know it then you really ought to show it with this scarf. The public has a right to know.

May 6, 2009

A bunch of links – May 6, 2009

May 6, 2009

Wee little invention

So, you’re stuck in the bush, you weren’t prepared enough to bring bottled water with you – but you did have room to pack this new urine to water converter from YankoDesign.

May 6, 2009

Training Day

I had training today. Theoretically I’m now a nicer person. It was called AussieHost and it’s all about becoming more customer focused. It was an entertainment extravaganza…

May 6, 2009