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.

Best job in the world

It has been remiss of me not to post about the best job in the world earlier. We had an embargoed briefing on the campaign from Tourism Queensland a while ago and I thought “this would be fun to blog about”… except we signed confidentiality agreements.

Tourism Queensland had to jump through massive HR hoops to run this campaign so they deserve all the coverage they’re getting. Even if they did have the little mishap with fake applications at the start. The message is reaching all corners of the globe. Osama Bin Laden has applied. But his application was rejected. Here’s the video:

February 4, 2009

Fowler signs

Robbie Fowler has signed for the North Queensland Fury. You heard it here second.

February 4, 2009

Things I use: The Evolution of a coffeesnob

coffee-evolution

That’s a graphical illustration of the typical path of the home consumption of a coffee snob. If you’ve skipped any of those stages good on you. The path from International Roast to roasting international beans at home is one filled with pitfalls and dangers.

The best way to traverse this is with the help of others. I’ve found the forum at coffeesnobs.com.au to be particularly helpful in my own personal coffee (r)evolution.

The forum was most helpful during the rebuild of Sheila, my Rancilio beastie.

I’ve collected a bunch of links to particular discussions that I think are vital to such a process.

1. Choosing a Grinder
2. Corretto
3. Buying used coffee equiptment – I’ve bought two grinders from this part of the forum, and been happy with both. I only bought the second because upgradeitis set in. Mostly because my other one was fine for home use, but I now roast beans for other people and take my machine to parties.
4. Plunger tips
5. Stovetop tips – you can get crema using a stovetop
6. Coffeesnobs glossary – helpful guide to finding your way around the forum.

This is something I would like to do when I have some spare time – but I also don’t want to electrocute myself. The Panasonic SD-200 breadmaker I use for roasting is annoying because you can’t just switch it on and make it spin. This modification adds a switch that just turns the motor on and off.

Other good coffee sites/articles:

“Ingredients for perfect espresso”
Knockbox – a forum moderated by the aforementioned Ministry Grounds (where I buy my green beans) Neil Atwood, good Australian alternative to coffeesnobs.
Home Barista – a world wide forum – mostly US centric. With a great “How tos” section
Whole Latte Love – full of reviews and stuff. Including this article on “rituals of espresso” that’s pretty helpful.
Coffeeparts – a great parts wholesaler who are more than happy to provide helpful customer service. I’ve bought a bunch of parts and paraphernalia from them.
Crema Magazine – an Australian coffee journal.
Cafe Grendel – a great coffee blog.
The Knockbox – another coffee blog run by an evangelical Christian who home roasts.

February 4, 2009

The best bits – February 4, 2009

February 4, 2009

Daily bread

Having just posted about a weird medical condition yesterday I feel a bit silly doing it again today. 

We’re tucking in to some freshly baked bread, fresh from the breadmaker, and I’m sure it has given me crazy hiccups. A quick google reveals I’m not alone. 

How should I cure my hiccups?

February 3, 2009

Bookmarks for January 4th

Best of the interweb:

February 3, 2009

Wipeout – it’s no knockout

Novelty Australian game shows probably hit their peak with It’s a Knockout.

If not then maybe the original Australian Gladiators. 

They hit new, unimaginable, lows with the Australian version of Wipeout. Watching stupid Americans hurt themselves was pretty compelling. Watching Australian trailer trash stand up and say “I’m representing all the female bus drivers in Australia while carrying my son’s first tooth” is less compelling. 

Also painful was seeing the personal trainer who was “the fat kid at school” yell some stupid catch phrase, and the horribly unattractive 38 year old single IT consultant in rainbow socks pitch herself to prospective suitors was just nasty. Ouch. Watching her crawl through mud saying “this isn’t what I had planned. This isn’t how it was supposed to turn out” made me wonder just what she was expecting.

I guess the pierced forehead was meant to be a turn on too?

7.51pm – Where did they get these people from? Angus Tandy “the Human Cannonball” seemed like the most normal one of the bunch. And he was wearing a white jump suit with racing stripes.

February 3, 2009

YouTube Twosday: so good it had to be posted

When I was a young lad I spent a lot of time playing with GI Joes. Call them Barbies with guns. Call them a terrible influence on a developing psyche. I call them awesome. So this movie, complete with ninjas, is on the must see list.

February 3, 2009

YouTube Tuesday: What’s the number for 911

Thanks to Pete for introducing us to that one.

February 3, 2009

A much nicer font

This is a much nicer font I made using that very cool YourFonts tool. nathan-biro

You can have it. For free. Download by right clicking and “saving as”. I don’t really expect anyone to use it. It’s just an example of what you can produce using that site.

I know it’s not in the league of my dad’s fonts. Like Foxjump (zip file).

foxjump1

Which was used by the Tasmanian government in its “love this” campaign.

But I spent way too much time today playing with that site.

February 3, 2009

K-Ruddy handout

For those who missed the news today – K-Rudd is giving something back to the workers of Australia. $950 a pop. The comrades in arms who have contributed to our time of economic prosperity. No doubt we’ll also be told to spend this cash to help stimulate the economy.

So now the question is “what to buy” – I wouldn’t mind spending it all on crappy USB products from Hong Kong… but can I suggest that if you want to make a positive contribution to reducing the abortion rate in Australia that you check out Free Money for New Lives a support service for mums who would otherwise have abortions.

The campaign was put together by a bunch of bible college students in Sydney and is a nice way for Christians to do something about the issue rather than picketing clinics where women are making pretty intense emotional decisions and are often close to psychological breaking point.

The group splits contributions between a couple of organisations. One aims to financially help mothers who want to keep their babies but are worried about the cost, and the other is a think tank – the Womens Forum Australia – that:

“works across the usual political and religious divides, to advocate for life affirming, pro-woman alternatives to abortion which would enhance women’s freedom to have their babies.”

In the end probably a much better cause than spending your money at “Brando” – which is a USB gadget seller based in Hong Kong. Spending your money off shore isn’t going to stimulate the economy at all anyway, so K-Rudd wouldn’t endorse that.

February 3, 2009

My font

nathans-font

I finally waded through the YourFont masses and created a quickly written font of my handwriting (right click and save as). This font was constructed with a stubbed niko, two stubbed nikos actually the first was out of ink.

I think I’ll play with this again later.

February 3, 2009

600

I passed 600 posts four posts ago. That’s a milestone of sorts. My posting rate growth is probably not sustainable – 346 of these posts came since October 2008. The other 258 were spread over a two and a half year period.

February 3, 2009

Stacks of fun

One BILLION DOLLARS. That’s what it looks like people. It’s in $100 notes and is a US billion. Which is different to the rest of the world. So it’s 10 million $100 notes.

The same artist has also stacked up your life* in Rolex hourglass sand.

*81 years.

Via Gizmodo

February 3, 2009

Fontastic

Fonts are fun. I shared a link to this site in the “best bits” post below but it’s worth a post all of its own.

YourFonts will create a font from your handwriting for “FREE” (as in beer). Will upload mine when it’s done.

February 3, 2009