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.

Christian mission

Looking for a mission poster? From here. Captures the essence of suffering and the Christian life pretty nicely.

March 8, 2009

Shirt of the Day: great graph(ics)

Pacman turns thirty on May 22 next year. Apparently. Here’s an awesome shirt to celebrate this milestone:

 

If you just never could conquer the colourful ghost army in Pacman and you felt the need to call in the experts – this might be the shirt for you…

March 8, 2009

Frustration

I enjoy a good argument. So much so that I’m able to completely distance myself from the ramifications of taking a particular side in an argument just to see it continue. I am sure other people find this frustrating. Actually, I know for a fact that some people do.

In my mind it’s only when arguing through an issue that you’re truly able to shape your thinking on something – at least that’s how it works for me.

Arguing a point brings clarity to my position because it lets me consider the criticisms of my position and understand the applications of holding to a particular idea. Other people might not approach this the same way. 

Sometimes I find myself reading things that I know will frustrate me for the sheer purpose of entering into an argument – or I’ll bait an issue to create an argument out of it. I’m sure this is also annoying. 

Simone made an interesting point the other day:

“Today I’ve been bored, so bored that I was visiting blogs that annoy me on purpose so that I would get annoyed. Because its more fun to be annoyed than bored.”

I wonder how many people do this. I know I spend a lot of time reading things written by people I disagree with. Probably more time than I spend reading things by people I agree with. And I know too that my hits go up dramatically if I write something controversial that you, my readers, disagree with. 

So now I’m left wondering – should I write things I know will get a bite? It seems people want to bite, and it gives me the opportunity to argue. Or should I write things that there will be consensus on and not actually challenge anyone or anything. I like the first option. Your thoughts?

The danger is that if I go down this path there’s a real chance people will be offended – or caught up in an argument in an emotional sense – if I happen to attack one of their sacred cows. And that’s never really my intention in an argument. Unless I’m arguing about something that I think is a black and white issue, which, for example, climate change and charitable giving is not.

Also – Frustration is the name of a pretty cool card game. You should check it out.

March 8, 2009

A bunch of links – March 8, 2009

March 8, 2009

What would Jesus watch?

It’s an age old question – as old as moving pictures. But I’m not going to dwell on it now – except to say: Not this. I think it’s safe to assume Jesus has taste. 

Here’s a pretty scathing review from Christ and Pop Culture. This is real. And it is a complete ripoff of High School Musical.

Here’s the trailer from YouTube.

Sadly, it’s probably not the worst Christian kid’s programming on YouTube. No, that probably goes to this one:

Like everyone else – I laughed lots when John Safran pitched “Extreme Mormons” in John Safran vs God.

But it turns out the orthodox Christian church isn’t much better when it comes to sheltering Christians from pop culture. Because we all know that Disney’s High School Musical is dangerous. It contains dancing. Oh, so does Sunday School Musical.

March 8, 2009

A bunch of links – March 7, 2009

March 7, 2009

Fox Sports subbed by monkey

Can you spot the problem with the following sentence from this story?

“Rumoured to of signed a four-year $450,000-a-year deal with the Sea Eagles back in 2005, Orford would likely have to take a pay cut to remain on the northern beaches with the club battling to reward last year’s premiers and remain under the salary cap.”

If yes, please apply for a job sub-editing Fox Sports Online. The story was from AAP so if you want to be a journalist go get a job there.

March 6, 2009

JB High Five

JB Hifi, my favourite music shop… in fact my favourite shop, made it into the ASX-100 today. Good news for them.

JB Hi-Fi’s CEO attributes some strange factors to their success in this article:

“We’ve said this is JB – we’ve got a lot energy in the store, we’ve got industrial fixtures and settings, we won’t require our staff to wear uniforms. Then on top of that buying the right product and selling it at the right price.”

Interesting chronological emphasis – sure their products and prices are good – but he thinks its the industrial fit out that brings in the customers. Huh?

March 6, 2009

Jensen on Sacred Cows

“It is dangerous to shoot sacred cows. We all get upset, irrationally and emotionally when something we hold as precious is attacked. The more irrational our attachment the more anger is engendered when our favourite bovine is assailed.”

“One of the ways to test if something has become an idol is to remove it. If nobody notices or complains, it can safely be restored. If it is declared to be “the end of civilisation as we know it” – it is fairly safe to assume it has developed idolatrous importance to people.”

Dean of Sydney Phillip Jensen on Sacred Cows.

Perhaps his most telling criticism appears below – but the whole thing is worth reading.

One of our generation’s greatest sacred cows is the enlightened view of intellectual and rational discourse. There is the desire in some people to imagine that by the control of human reason we will be able to know God, or disprove His existence, or live a morally and theologically correct life. This emphasis can distrust those things emotional or miraculous; things which are unable to be controlled or which fit into our understanding.

March 6, 2009

Underbelly creep you won’t see on ACA

“Journalist arrested for links to hitman from Sydney’s seedy underbelly” – it’s almost the perfect opportunity for ACA to run a cross promotional Underbelly story. Only he’s one of their own. Ben Fordham. I can’t believe I missed this last week. Now the hitman (a nephew of Sydney’s mayor) has been arrested. No doubt he’ll come up with a plea bargain that sees the journo and his producer chucked in the slammer as an example.

Ben Fordham’s career as a corporate speaker will no doubt take off. He also has the added benefit of a PR manager – his famous father.

I remember watching the original story – where Fordham bravely foiled a “hit” and thinking they were crossing into some murky grey area of journalistic entrapment. Turns out it was murky enough for criminal charges.

I’m not sure how I feel about this. Personally, from a journalistic perspective, I loathe the sensationalism ACA and Today Tonight pursue. But I also think journalists should be able to become as involved in the story as they do. ACA ran an interesting piece last night where their journo, Martin King complete with prosthetic nose, lived as a homeless person for a period of time and explored the way Melbourne’s homeless are treated. It’s worth a watch.

Ben Fordham is getting a reputation as a bit of a toe rag. The police also cautioned him after an interaction with Belinda Neal last year. He was also the guy who brought us the controversial story about the “last tribe of cannibals” and their prospective dinner, Wawa. Who Nine didn’t rescue – and Fordham allegedly blew the whistle on Seven as Today Tonight made an illegal attempt.

So, what do you think? Should the courts thank Channel 9 for aborting this hit via their story, or should they throw the book at the guy?

March 6, 2009

Here comes Hamish

My fellow North Queenslanders. I urge you. Buy milk. It won’t be here tomorrow. And by tomorrow I mean next week.

Here comes another cyclone. Hamish. Yet another pansy name. Sorry to any Hamishes that might be offended – but it really doesn’t inspire fear and trepidation.

But it does mean “he who supplants”. So do these other names. Cyclone Diego sounds much more ominous.

March 6, 2009

Gigapan and scare tactics

Gigapan is an impressive inauguration interactive photo panorama doing the email rounds. It has been around for a while.

This is the email doing the rounds.

Subject: Big brother is watching you, check this out!

This is a photo from the 2009 Inauguration, In which you can see IN FOCUS The face of each individual in the crowd !!!

You can scan, double click and zoom to any section of the crowd… wait a few seconds… and the focus adjusts.

The picture was taken with a robotic camera at 1,474 megapixel. (295 times the standard 5 megapixel camera)

Makes you wonder who’s watching us right now !

Gigapan is an impressive piece of technology. But at no stage did I wonder “who was watching me” – this sort of sensationalism annoys me. I would expect people to be taking photos at major public events.

Plus, the ability to capture the faces of everyone in the crowd is great for security. According to “Lie to Me” police could get in one of those facial specialists to look for angry people and identify shooters in a flash – imagine if this had been around the grassy noll.

March 6, 2009

A bunch of links – March 6, 2009

March 6, 2009

Cat people


Coming late to the party is better than not arriving at all. I’d never really stopped to consider what type of person spends all their comic book existence talking to their cat. My guess – a sad, lonely, and miserable person.

This hypothesis is backed up by the webcomic Garfield minus Garfield. Which has been around for a while – long enough to have produced a book – and you’ve no doubt heard of it already. It reinvents Garfield strips by removing the cat from the picture and giving us an interesting view into the psyche of the cat lover. Or, as they delicately put it:

“Garfield Minus Garfield is a site dedicated to removing Garfield from the Garfield comic strips in order to reveal the existential angst of a certain young Mr. Jon Arbuckle. It is a journey deep into the mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness and depression in a quiet American suburb. “

The results are surprisingly amusing.

March 6, 2009

If Mr Squiggle drank beer…

He’d do it out of these glasses.

I post a lot of rubbish inventions and gadgets here that you could probably find for yourself at Granny Mays, or any other novelty gift shop.

These glasses are something I’d actually buy. If I was still a single uni student.

March 6, 2009