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.

Tumblrweed: Scandybars

High quality scans of confectionary. That’s what Scandybars offers. And it delivers.

An Aero…

A Curly Wurly…

A Creme Egg.

Lord of the Muppets

SandBible.com does Christmas

Some very talented friends of mine are working through the gospel stories. In sand. I posted the Easter one last Easter. This Christmas one is equally sensational – and a really accessible and engaging presentation of the good news of Christmas.

We used it at our Carols night at Scots on Sunday and it worked. Get the full versions for a small price (it takes days of work to put these together) from sandbible.com.

On the relationship between correlation and causation…

While Michael Bay’s cinematic success and the number of explosions in his movies probably do represent a causal link, such incredible examples of correlating data points in different sets aren’t always linked. As demonstrated by these graphs from Business Week.

Engineering the perfect burger

Modernist Cuisine brought the art and science of food together beautifully in the pursuit of the perfect burger.

I want to try one. But wow. So complex.

Why Michael Bay likes explosions

Correlation would seem to indicate causation in this case… even though cool guys don’t look at explosions.

There’s a bigger exploration of the phenomenon known as “Bayhem” here. Some further stats…

Band makes film clip using iPhone games in real life as viral fodder…

… and I fall for it.

These karate kids are awesome

I challenge you not to at least smile while watching this…

Mario Bros Theme on an 11 Stringed Bass

11 Strings seems somewhat excessive. But musical excess and Super Mario Bros are two of my core themes in these parts. So here you go…

A new excuse for cheating at stupid games

There’s an adage amongst those who know my siblings and I, its almost axiomatic. When it comes to party games, and some board games (excluding Scrabble and Take Two which we generally take fairly seriously), we’re horrible cheaters.

I’ve never known why. I put it down to having a limited attention span and not believing most games are worth playing unless you win.

Turns out we’re just creative. So there. Stop oppressing us with your desire for boring conformity and let us think outside the box.

“The same enterprising mind that allows creative people to consider new possibilities, generate original ideas, and resolve conflicts innovatively may be what also helps them justify their own dishonest behavior, said the authors of the new study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
“Ethical dilemmas often require people to weigh two opposing forces: the desire to maximize self-interest and the desire to maintain a positive view of oneself,” wrote business professors Francesca Gino, at Harvard, and Dan Ariely, at Duke University. “Recent research has suggested that individuals tend to resolve this tension through self-serving rationalizations: They behave dishonestly enough to profit from their unethical behavior but honestly enough to maintain a positive self-concept as honest human beings.”

Turns out I’m also “ethically flexible”… who knew.

Na na na na na na na na, na na na na na na na na, Snuggie…

Brilliant. Be comfortable. Be warm. And fight crime. All at the same time.

Available for purchase on Amazon

Forging disciples and Japanese sword making

Sword making fascinates me. Proper sword making. Not those novelty blades you buy at cheap markets and in trinket shops. It’s so tactile. There’s something romantic about a forge and the hammering of red hot metal. But its archaic at the same time. And pointless (pun intended). Nobody runs around with swords any more. Except ninjas.

Korehira Watanabe makes Japanese swords. He’s trying to recreate a legendary blade by feel, without instructions.

Handmade Portraits: The Sword Maker from Etsy on Vimeo.

From the Etsy Blog:

Korehira Watanabe is one of the last remaining Japanese swordsmiths. He has spent 40 years honing his craft in an attempt to recreate Koto, a type of sword that dates back to the Heian and Kamakura periods (794-1333 AD). No documents remain to provide context for Watanabe’s quest, but he believes he has come close to creating a replica of this mythical samurai sword.

He’s motivated by handing down a tradition. And he says this cool thing about his disciple.

“I want my disciple to surpass me as a swordmaker. It is my duty to build up a disciple who is better than me. Otherwise the tradition will wear thin with time.”

That’s a nice difference between being in business for yourself, and being in business because you love what you do, or because you feel vocationally called to preserve a tradition or truth.

Here’s a previous post about a Taiwanese swordsmith.

Tumblrweed: Future Drama

Looking backwards at what people saw when they looked forwards is always an interesting exercise. Does anybody remember the TV show Beyond 2000? Future Drama looks at old product announcements and advertisements that made predictions about the future, and throws in some recent predictions for good measure.

Love it.

Fleet Foxes’ awesome stop motion video complements awesome song

I’m going to see the Fleet Foxes in about a month. That’s pretty exciting.

This film clip is apparently a stop motion number using cutout animation. Love it.

Bowsabers: Starwars theme as a cello duel

The Piano Guys strike back…

This one’s been doing the rounds – so shout out to those people who clogged up my Facebook feed with it.

It also has a nice little Darth Vader accordion cameo.