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: Yelping with Cormac McCarthy

Yelp is an online review/recommendation/gripe service which has recently launched in Australia. Cormac McCarthy is a southern gothic novelist, famous for such works as The Road.

Allegedly, if Cormac McCarthy were to Yelp, it would look like this:

Urban Outfitters

Union Square – San Francisco, CA

Cormac M. | Author | Lost in the chaparral, NM

Three stars.

And they come there in great numbers shuffling into that mausoleum that was built for them like some monument to the slow death of their world and among those tokens and talismans of that faded empire they forage like scavengers their faces frozen in a rictus of worldweary their clothes preworn in some tropical factory and they shop and they hunt with dullbrown eyes through that cavalcade of false trinkets and those shrinkwrapped mockeries laying there in silent indictment and they reach out to touch those trite things and their faces are slack but in their gullets a scream lies stillborn for they are the kings and the queens reigning over the death of their people and the world is not theirs and never was and the suffering and the horrors are not their doing but the work of their bankrupt forbears and before them stretches an abyss beyond man’s imagining and within their lifetime the promise of a coming reckoning measured in blood and in pestilence and they shuffle through that store near paralytic and finally they take a metal thing with a feather on it and they buy that thing.

If only YouTube comments and other feedback 2.0 looked read like this, the internet would be a more bearable place.

Money Talks: A visual guide to the global cashflow

Sometimes XKCD pulls off something amazing.

Like this incredibly detailed picture of the global cashflow…

Click it for a big and impressively detailed version.

Tumblrweed: Godzilla Haiku

Haikus are my favourite form of poetry.

Especially when they involve Rebecca Black. And Godzilla.

Or are just haikus about Godzilla… those are pretty awesome too…

Mugabe and the Chicken Dictators

This Nandos ad* is probably the finest example of the power of the meme to get an advertisement to cross from the commercial break to program content. It is beautifully produced. Clever. And controversial enough that for a while it was dominating the news cycle in South Africa, and around the world.

The ad got media coverage because it’s against the law to criticise Mugabe in Zimbabwe, and it doesn’t name him, there’s plenty of wink-wink-nudge-nudge references to the dictators who have propped up his reign over the years. It is finger licking good…

I will eat Nandos to thank them for their delicious campaign, and their delicious chicken.

*This was a scheduled post that didn’t go out last week – I just found it in my post queue and I think the ad is too good not to have posted here.

When the juxtaposition of “Schoolies” and “viral” is a good thing…

So. Schoolies week, for international readers and old people (lets face it – both of you are a minority in terms of the readership here) is a week where young school leavers traditionally do stupid stuff with alcohol. Scripture Union do a pretty awesome job of running camps for people who want to remember the week. I went. Back when I was a schoolie. Some people reading this were on the camp with me.

Anyways. This year SU Schoolies has gone viral with one of their nightly entertainment products (they have a variety show each night) – a parody of Party Rock Anthem – getting abundant media coverage (see Sunrise and ACA) and over 200,000 hits so far.

It’s a bit bizarre – my Facebook feed is filled with it. Which is to be expected given several of my Facebook friends were involved with the camp, are involved with SU, or made the video… but equally bizarre is that former colleagues and people I know who work in local government are posting it too. That’s the anatomy of a viral success.

So congrats to SU and the guys behind the video. They are, I think, the most famous YouTubers I know.

Meet Bulgaria’s Best Footballer…

Bojinov? Berbatov? Stoichkov?

Nope.

Boiko Borisov. The nation’s prime minister. Who, at 52, turns out occasionally for a third string Bulgarian league team. Which apparently speaks volumes about the quality of Bulgaria’s football leagues.

He’s been nominated in a novel protest vote in Bulgaria, where the citizens are revolting. Actually, I’m sure they’re quite nice. But they’d like more money spent on football…

iPhone Lens Kit is impractical and expensive

This bad boy will cost you $250. It comes with three different lenses.

“three optical-quality coated glass lenses: Wide Angle, Fisheye, and Telephoto. All wrapped up in a slim aircraft-grade aluminum jacket equipped with two tripod mounts (for portrait or landscape shots).”

Clever.

From photojojo.

Camera washes up on beach: A modern day message in a bottle

Cool story. This camera. A Canon EOS was underwater for over a year. Somebody with a little bit of tech knowledge found it, while diving, and managed to salvage some of the photos. The camera is obviously a write off. The photos were from August 2010, which meant it spent quite some time in the ocean and exposed to the elements.

The cool part of the story is that the guy who found the story managed to crowd source the contact details of the owner, reuniting photographer with photographs…

“The photographs, having spent 440 days on the ocean floor, have been reunited with the photographer and the family. I am very happy to have facilitated the journey back to where the photographs belong! I certainly didn’t anticipate the attention this created, any photographer finding my camera would do the same, right? Thanks again for the great help that came from all of you – the Google+ community. I received an email from the recipient of your help this morning:

“Again thank you so much!!! Seeing the pictures brings tears as we really had forgotten what we were missing by not having them.”

And in a nice little PR twist, perhaps predictably, Canon is replacing the camera for free. It is perhaps a better endorsement for the memory cards than for the camera maker – and San Disk are sending some free goodies to both the finder, and the photographer. Good news all round…

From Google+, Via Engadget.

Angry Birds Cookbook – how to cook an egg (in multiple ways)

How eggciting.

It’s available from Amazon

Some kids put this book through its paces on YouTube…

Tumblrweed: Kidcasting – children who play the child version of famous actors

Finding the right kid for a back story scene must be some sort of art form. So I appreciate that this tumblog exists to appreciate those who put effort into that obscure art.

And two from my favourite TV show (at the moment, anyway)… I wish they’d hurry up and put season 3 on air in Australia, and also that the stupid network in the US would guarantee its future on account of people who have taste thinking it is better than Two and a Half Men.

Off beat travel advice for travel off the beaten track…

I like this. Makes me want to go somewhere fun and exotic.

3. Steal soap from your hotel and give it to kids in developing countries as a present. Studies have shown that distributing soap to kids in poor countries saves lives. Travelers are always thinking up things to give to kids that ask for handouts (pencils, erasers, candies) but nothing beats the gift of clean hands. And don’t just collect 1 or 2 from your hotel bathroom. Hit the hallways while the cleaning staff are having a smoke and grab a couple handfuls from the service carts. When you’re saving lives, Go Big.

Cool list. Got any other novel tips for novel places?

Super Mario theme played by Accordion Trio

Yeah. This is a real thing.

Also, while we’re on the subject of impressive Mario related feats – here’s a stop motion of level 1-1 created in 500 hours of painstaking Mine Craft Play.

Terry Gilliam on animation and modern film making

Monty Python were, and are, funny. Terry Gilliam is, amongst other things, the man behind the animations in Monty Python movies… and possibly the inspiration for the animation style of South Park. I have no idea if that’s true – but the method he uses here is a bit like the method they use, only with slightly more detailed paper.

Here, an older, wizened, Terry Gilliam, takes a shot at Hollywood movie making, with Steven Spielberg in his sights.

He thinks happy endings are overrated, and stories should be real.

Here he talks about his approach to making movies.

Interesting stuff.

Tilt Shift Athens: Good real estate ad for a city going cheap…

I was here once. In Athens that is. Not on the Internet. But only for a day. It’s a great city with a pretty amazing history (and a fairly depressing present).

I love tilt shift.

Tumblrweed: Hipster Puppies

This pretty funny Tumblog seems to be a bit defunct now. Seems that’s what happens when you get a book deal.

But here’s what you’re missing out on…

And my favourite… a hipster puppy on a fixie.