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.

Liveblogging QTC Preaching Week at Venn Theology

Venntheology.com is where I put college related stuff. Over the next three days QTC is hosting preaching week, featuring stuff from:

  • David Jones
  • Luke Tattersall
  • Phil Campbell
  • Gary Millar
  • Mike O’Connor
  • David Mansfield
  • Steve Cree

That’s a pretty good line up. In no particular order. Registrations for the event have closed – but if you feel like you’re missing out – or you’re here at preaching week and don’t want to take notes then I’ll be putting mine online. The talks are also being recorded, and I’m sure they’ll be added to QTC’s treasure trove of online resources.

That is all.

Something about not working with animals springs to mind…

For some reason Robyn and I just spend too much time watching Karl Stefanovic clips on YouTube. The enfant terrible of Australian breakfast TV has a special sort of charm. Both of these made us laugh.

Scary turtle eats scared pigeon

This is why our pet budgies don’t live near our pet turtles (you won’t find videos like this at heysoph.com).

Snowboarding Opossum wants you to visit heysoph.com

This, and other cute animal videos, available for your “awwing” pleasure at heysoph.com (a website updated for my daughter’s viewing pleasure).

To be honest, I’m having lots of fun finding cute videos to post there. Maybe I should start using Pinterest.

Darth Vader. Unicycle. Bagpipes. Absolutely necessary

Possibly this is somebody re-enacting a venn diagram of meme fodder.

Who knows what it is. It’s weird, and it made my Sunday night.

Via stellar.io

An eggciting idea: Eggion rings

Brilliant. Cook eggs in onion rings, or capsicum.

I think I will.

From Lifehacker.

Ultimate Tak Ball – Sport with Tasers

Ultimate Tak Ball is possibly the craziest sport in the world, sans the Fluorescent Light Bulb Fighting League.

Don’t tase me bro.

Trike Drifting combines stupidity with remedial cycling

But it looks pretty awesome. There’s a possible language warning on the soundtrack, but I couldn’t really tell what words they were singing.

A safe bet, or why you should always check the content of containers you sell on ebay, or how to prank somebody who sells you something on ebay

Umm. Wow. A guy who has since proclaimed himself “the stupidest man in the world” sold a safe on eBay. He couldn’t get it open, he assumed it was empty. Then the buyer left a line of feedback claiming that when he’d opened the safe he’d found $6,000.

“bought locked safe opened it and found $6,000.00 dollars in bills”

The internet inflated this figure and the story went viral.

Anyway. Here’s the listing, and the opening two paras:

“WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET. NOTHING MORE AND NOTHING LESS. PLEASE READ THE ENTIRE AD BEFORE BIDDING ON OUR ITEMS. IF YOU ARE INTERNATIONAL BIDDER, PLEASE CONTACT US FOR A SHIPPING QUOTE, BEFORE BIDDING. IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS REGARDING THIS UNIT OR ANY ITEM I HAVE FOR SALE, PLEASE CALL ME TOLL FREE AT 1-888-300-8838 . THANKS……..JIM

HERE IS A MAJOR FLOOR  OR IN GROUND SAFE. IT LOOKS LIKE TO BE A  7″ DOOR MEASURED ACROSS. IT IS A COMBINATION LOCK UNIT. IT IS VERY HEAVY. THE BASE OF THE UNIT MEASURES 9 1/2X9 1/2. IT STANDS 14 1/2″ TALL. IT IS A HEAVY DUTY SAFE. IT WEIGHTS ABOUT 60 POUNDS BY ITSELF. IF YOU CAN USE IT, GO AHEAD AND BID ON IT. I DID NOT GET THE COMBINATION FOR THE UNIT .SO YOU WILL HAVE TO CONTACT THE MAJOR SAFE COMPANY TO GET THE COMBINATION OR FIND SOMEONE THAT CAN OPEN THE UNIT UP./”

The all caps are so bad they make my eyes bleed. That may have been the motivation for the buyer, because it turns out, according to the seller, that this was a prank:

“Reply by j****e (Feb-16-12 15:29):
He was playing a practical joke the safe was empty there wasnt any money in it”

Anyway. Most funny stories turn out to be pranks these days. But the ones that get mainstream media coverage first are my favourites.

How to get more dropbox space in a slightly tricky fashion

So my recent Dropbox ad giveaway was pretty popular, and while I was scrounging around to see if I could get more free advertising dollars I came across this offer from Google. Because I work as a web and social media consultant (and I do), I could sign up to become a Google Engage Partner.

They give me a bunch of $75 vouchers. You set up a google adwords account (using a gmail address, and registering at google.com/adwords). I send you a voucher code. You build your own $75 ad campaign with your dropbox referral link.

We all win. Except me. But I get to give something away. First ten people who meet these criteria can have a code:

  • Vouchers can only be used on new accounts opened in the last 14 days with a new billing address located in Australia or New Zealand.
  • An AdWords account can use only one voucher.

PS email me to get the code, my address is floating around on the site somewhere. If you want to hire me as a consultant you can use that email address too. Though I’m currently fairly flat out.

Flight of the Bumblebee on Boomwhackers

Until I saw this video I had no idea what a boomwhacker was.

What Huxley thought of Orwell’s Dystopian Vision

Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World wrote a fan letter to George Orwell after reading a copy of 1984. While he enjoyed, if that’s the right word for these two extreme pessimists, Orwell’s vision of the collapse of society, he didn’t think it was quite bleak enough.


Image Credit: Letters of Note

These guys aren’t the type to invite along to a dinner party.

“Within the next generation I believe that the world’s rulers will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging and kicking them into obedience. In other words, I feel that the nightmare of Nineteen Eighty-Four is destined to modulate into the nightmare of a world having more resemblance to that which I imagined in Brave New World. The change will be brought about as a result of a felt need for increased efficiency. “

I’m thankful that God is sovereign, not these guys.

TMNT Stopmotion is a half shell of awesome

The effort behind this two minute clip is commendable. And the Ninja Turtles are always blog worthy fodder.

Getting in touch with your inner Luther

I’m currently working on an essay on the Reformation. When I say currently, I mean for the last four hours I’ve been finishing my reading with just a few more articles. No seriously. Just a few more. And on Tuesday I’ll write my thoughts into something cohesive, which will then be submitted by Friday.

That’s the plan.

Anyway. I’ve been enjoying reading some of the polemics written around the period of the Reformation. And while I probably owe much of my theological heritage to John Calvin, as a Presbyterian, I find Luther resonates a bit better with my personality, as a young hot-head blogger.

Anyway. The Luther Insult Generator has been doing the rounds online. Its popularity led to a server change, and thus a change in web address. So. Update your bookmarks. Snot-nose.

 

How to be a con man, and 5 other great lists

Lists of Note is from the guy who brings you the ever brilliant Letters of Note.

Contrary to popular belief, numbered lists have been around for longer than the blogosphere, and indeed for longer than the internet.

These 10 commandments for Con Men are good. A sample:

  • Be a patient listener (it is this, not fast talking, that gets a con-man his coups).
  • Never look bored.
  • Wait for the other person to reveal any political opinions, then agree with them.
  • Let the other person reveal religious views, then have the same ones.

I also enjoyed:

  1. Fumblerules of Grammar“Late-1979, New York Times columnist William Safire compiled a list of “Fumblerules of Grammar” — rules of writing, all of which are humorously self-contradictory”
  2. Henry Miller’s 11 Commandments of Writing“In the early-1930s, as he wrote what would become his first published novel — the hugely influential Tropic of Cancer — Henry Miller wrote a list of 11 commandments, to be followed by himself.”
  3. The rules for the Anti-Flirt Club“In the early-1920s in Washington, D. C., a lady named Alice Reighly founded the Anti-Flirt Club — an organisation “composed of young women and girls who have been embarrassed by men in automobiles and on street corners,” and which aimed to protect such women from future embarrassment.”
  4. Rules for Wives“In 1923, the Legal Aid Society of New York City published some advice to wives in the area, in the form of the following list of rules.” 
  5. How to Write – advertising legend David Ogilvy wrote a letter to his staff. Part encouragement. Part motivational lecture. Part kick up the bum.

The last one strikes me as either being straight out of Mad Men, or a preaching class. So I’ll reproduce it in full.

1. Read the Roman-Raphaelson book on writing*. Read it three times.

2. Write the way you talk. Naturally.

3. Use short words, short sentences and short paragraphs.

4. Never use jargon words like reconceptualize, demassification, attitudinally, judgmentally. They are hallmarks of a pretentious ass.

5. Never write more than two pages on any subject.

6. Check your quotations.

7. Never send a letter or a memo on the day you write it. Read it aloud the next morning—and then edit it.

8. If it is something important, get a colleague to improve it.

9. Before you send your letter or your memo, make sure it is crystal clear what you want the recipient to do.

10. If you want ACTION, don’t write. Go and tell the guy what you want.