The awesomeness of this coaster really doesn’t need explaining.
I’m struggling to maintain any level of respectable quality with my headings with my current rate of posting.
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.
Underbelly Creep
Channel 9 (and regional counterparts WIN) seems determined to force as much Underbelly down our throats as they can through a diet of cross-promotion and re-runs.
Last week they ran a two minute news story in the Queensland statewide news about the fact that the happenings documented in Underbelly were real. They happened 30 years ago. I thought news was meant to be timely.
Seven’s relentless cross promotion of their programming during the Australian Open was bad enough.
But this constant diet of Underbelly takes the cake. It was even featured on Getaway tonight. With a Sydney restaurant that’s a regular feature in the new series.
It’ll be on Here’s Humphrey next in the one where Humphrey gets whacked by a gangster, or the cast will bring a famous Mafia pasta dish to the set of Fresh.
What took the cake for me was last night’s A Current Affair. I try not to watch it often. But last night it looked like they were going to have something serious to say about the Pakistani terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan cricketers.
But no – it was about the “seedy underbelly” of Pakistani cricket – lumping terrorism, match fixing and corruption into a package that used the word Underbelly about eight times – and then even showed a clip from the show.
This Sunday morning Underbelly is the advertised feature of the Today Show.
Underbelly is this year’s Gordon Ramsay – and we all know what happened to him. He appears to have been ignominiously pulled from Channel 9’s Thursday schedule, and his family man image is damaged beyond repair. That’s what happens when Nine flog you to death.
No doubt the Footy Show will also have an Underbelly themed segment next Thursday night. And then it will all start over again when there are DVDs to sell.
Finding a niche
Every time I drive down Ross River Road I think to myself “how can this place possibly continue as a business?”
Finding a niche is one thing – being irrelevant is another.
Has anyone ever used this place? I can’t for the life of me figure out how they pay their lease.
According to the Word of Mouth Forum they’re good at their job. They also offer “haircuts at barber prices” so maybe it’s just clever branding.
One, two, three, four
I declare a thumb war, yes this is entertainment – but the hazards are real.
Settle your disputes for good in this thumb wrestling ring:
I love pointless kitschy gadgets. But that’s enough for today.
Ice, Ice, invaders
Perfect for your next retro gaming party – and just $US7.99 (joystick not included).
Band aid solution: Bacon
Make your gaping flesh wounds look edible and desirable for just $3.99.
Lost in Translation
The “Where the bloody hell are you?” campaign went down like a lead balloon. So tourism boffins in Spain will be a little worried after this little slip up. From the Spanish Prime Minister. When announcing a new campaign.
“”There is a big increase in the number of Spanish tourists heading to Russia, the number is at 500,000, we have therefore decided to sign an agreement to stimulate, to favour, to f—,” he said, pausing briefly before ending the sentence with “to support this tourism”.”
Apparently the Spanish words for “to support” sounds very similar to the alternative he used.
Urban Camouflage
With trees being cleared all over the place to create warehouse sized shops it’s getting tougher than ever to find the right camouflage.
This guy is an expert. There are a few different examples on his site.
The best book to read is…
I inadvertently deleted my link post from yesterday’s google reading – I reposted it, but it didn’t pull in everything I’d highlighted. Of particular interest was the account from a non-practicing Jew of his year of reading through the Bible (only the OT). He blogged the experience. And he’s written a book.
And engaged in an interesting discussion with some people here. It’s worth reading. Especially when he answers the following question/statement from an angry atheist:
“Washington, D.C.: Wow, I find your assertion that everyone should read the Bible as smacking of so much relativism, I can’t believe it. I have read the beginning of the Bible and I found it so silly and laughable that I stopped. I’d really rather the chatters and your readers get caught up on history, science, literature, etc. instead of a book of fables. Would you also push for the teaching of satanic texts? I’m so tired of people acting so high and mighty about their religious preferences. Write an article on the truly important texts that people have never read (Plato, Aristotle, Copernicus, da Vinci, etc.) and I’ll take you seriously.
David Plotz: This seems to me a peculiar criticism. You live in a society that is shaped in every possible way by the Bible. The language you use, the laws you obey (and disobey), the founding principles of your nation, the disputes about abortion, homosexuality, adultery—these and so much else in your world are rooted in the Bible. You don’t have to read it for its truth value. You should read it to understand how your world got the way it is, the way you would read the constitution or Shakespeare.”
Corporate honesty
I pushed pretty hard to change my title from the impressive sounding (but utterly meaningless) “Corporate Communications Executive” to “Spin Doctor”. I failed.
It would be nice for the corporate world to be more honest about the work it does at times – these folders would help. They’re $US8.49 – a worthy price to confess the total crapness of the nature of your current projects.
Found via Foolish Gadgets – who continue to live up to their name.
Likaholix
I’m enjoying playing with Likaholix, this new Web 2.0 platform that basically lets you list everything you like. It’s in early, early beta stage but is accepting signups I think. If it’s not I have 10 invites to give away. Try to be the first to claim your things. It’s a combination of bookmarks and listing music, movies and books you enjoy. In fact you can list any thing (that is noun – regardless of how abstract). Provided it has a website.
I guess that will bring kudos when the plaform takes off. Which it might – someone left Google to start it.
Why blog
Simone often says the link is the ultimate blog love language. And I like her blog. I especially like commenting specifically when she’s tried to be vague about a situation I’m familiar with. This particular post questions why people blog. I put my answer there.
It went something like this:
“I blog for a few reasons – to track and log my thoughts, because I think the internet is full of crazy things that need documenting, and because I want space for my rants.
Oh, and sometimes it’s because I think I actually have something useful to say – often that’s either about PR or coffee.
My blog has an incredibly broad scope though – sometimes I think I should narrow it and have different blogs for different topics.”
So commenters – why do you blog? And if you don’t why don’t you? Do you think my scope isn’t clearly defined enough? I do have 16 categories.
Good Mark
Mark’s comment here is worth reading. It is pretty long. He hasn’t commented for a while. Welcome back to commenting Mark.
Actually, I’ve enjoyed a few of these environment discussions – thanks all of you for commenting.
I will post my next thoughts tomorrow.
March 4, 2009