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.

A Twitter tribute to Steve Jobs

People are saying that Steve Jobs is our John Lennon. Or something. I can sort of see it. But cancer isn’t a gunpoint assassination. And technology isn’t music. Anyway. Watching the outpouring of grief on social networks surrounding the death of this admittedly pretty amazing guy has been pretty culturally revealing. Christians fall into a few camps – some have expressed hope that Jobs found Jesus, some have pointed out that a life lived for success on this earth is hollow, I did both. Some have thanked Jobs for the impact his products had on their ability to do ministry. I don’t think the Westboro Baptists are Christians. But they announced via iPhone on Twitter, that they’d be protesting Jobs’ funeral because he had a man made platform and didn’t acknowledge God, and he promoted immorality. Or some rubbish like that, pretty much ignoring any positive moral contribution Jobs may have been responsible for with his long term opposition to pornography.

Anyway. Those reactions are neither here nor there, so far as this post is concerned. Apparently more people tweeted about Jobs than about any other celebrity who has died in the Internet age. The tweets came faster, and lasted longer… Twitter made this graphic, posted on Flickr, using tweets about Jobs from yesterday, as their tribute. And I think it’s an interesting use of data.

#thankyousteve

If you check it out in its original size you can read the tweets.

Amazing timelapse video of amazing places in our amazing world…

Wow.

Landscapes: Volume Two from Dustin Farrell on Vimeo.

So much beauty. I don’t normally go for proofs of God’s existence from the natural world, because I think Jesus is a better starting point, and that while the world is meant to reveal a creator Romans suggests its almost human nature to suppress that knowledge… But it’s hard to watch this and not believe in a designer.

Smurfs in real life…

Not quite so cute now. Are they. When you think about it, Smurfs are more likely to be anthropomorphised rodents than little hominoids.

The artist, Nate Hallinan explains his approach

“The Smurf is actually the result of a symbiotic relationship between two organisms. We believe that Smurfs put their ’embryos’ in the button of a developing mushroom. From a distance, Smurfs seem like they are wearing a hat and pants but as you can see this is a fallacy. The fungus provides camouflage and protective epidermal layers for the creature, while the creature provides nutrients and mobility for the spreading of spores.”

Free PR Advice: Don’t cry over consumed milk

2% Partly Skimmed Milk Splash
Image Credit: Robbie’s Photo Art, Flickr

One of the big rules of the internet age, especially when emails can be circulated and become viral in, well, seconds, is never put anything in writing that you don’t want going viral.

PR companies should know this. Which is what makes this email from the boss of a PR consulting firm to his staff particularly special.

“So, I am gravely serious when I write this – if I catch someone not replacing the milk, or at least, in the case where the downstairs store has close already, not sending an email to the office so the first person that arrives (usually Christa or me) can pick one up upon arrival – then I am going to fire you. Im not joking. You will be fired for not replacing the milk, and have fun explaining that one to your next employer. This is not a empty threat so PLEASE don’t test me.”

Now he’s saying it’s all a big hyperbolic joke, and there’s been a misunderstanding… but that’s trying to shut the gate after the horse has bolted. Here’s the story on Business Insider.

Tumblrweed: Bad Lip Reading

Bad Lip Reading makes me laugh every time. Here they take on Michelle Bachmann.

And a music video…

And who can forget their take on Rebecca Black’s Friday…

Infographic: Nerds v Geeks

This debate has raged on through the history of St. Eutychus. I maintain that the terms are not synonyms, but highly specific nomenclature to describe two distinctly different subspecies.

From BitRebels.

Stopmotion animation (GIF) of stop motion puppetry…

This is amazing. I’m going to have to post about ten more things so it’s not giving those of you reading on the homepage a motion enduced fit. But wow.

Boing Boing posted this but appear to have deleted the post (also check out the old skool Apple themed design they’re rocking).

Some initial thoughts on Facebook’s Timeline

There’s a shortcut doing the rounds. You have to be a Facebook developer, which is incredibly easy. And only other developers will be able to see your new profile until they’re made public (you can sign up to get one when they’re made public here).

Facebook Timeline looks impressive. Don’t believe me? Let Don Draper convince you… That video is a mashup of a Mad Men pitch for a Kodak product and details about Facebook’s new profile format. It was created by a guy named Eric Leist.

I’ve got to say – I like these changes and this new design more than I’ve liked anything Facebook has done before, change wise. I’m not one of those people who complains about redesigns. I mean. Look what Facebook looked like when it launched. Navigation is intuitive – and it’s fun looking back through my own story, I’m looking forward to browsing through other peoples’ histories too. That’s what Facebook is for. Right?

Anyway, here are some shots from my sneak peak.

This is a “summary” of photos I was tagged in in September.

And places I visited.

Pretty nifty.

A significant time…

This could be game changing for businesses and churches in terms of creating content with some legacy value, there’s something nice about having an entity’s history there to play around with.

Bacon Gothic: A Bacon Font

Delicious. And perfect for your next meaty missive.

Love it, designed by Henry Hargreaves, via Dripbook

May the force be with your train trip…

I like this marketing campaign. It’s Japanese. It’s for Star Wars, for a new boxed set. What a clever use of everyday items…

Some details here.

Goodbye Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs died today. That’s sad. I’m probably more shaken by his death than any other celebrity death in my lifetime. It’s final. It means there’ll be no more Steve Jobs creations. He was a brilliant man, an innovator. A game changer. If I had to pick a CEO style hero, it’d be Jobs. What he did with Apple, and with Pixar, is amazing. He leaves a legacy – people love his products, people love his approach to business, everybody has learned a lot about the importance of design in production from him. And his death will rightly dominate internet discussions for the next few days, and you’d expect the business pages of most papers as people speculate…

From the media release:

Statement by Apple’s Board of Directors

CUPERTINO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today.

Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.

His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts.

Many people have commented suggesting Jobs is some sort of Messiah. But unlike Jesus – death is it for Jobs, which was what motivated his success. These words, from a speech Jobs gave to some uni students, are a pretty powerful expression of his worldview now.

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

I hope that Steve got to know Jesus in his last few weeks of his life, but this is a stark reminder for all of us that it doesn’t matter how brilliant you are, how much you revolutionise life for millions, death is waiting for all of us. Here are some more words from Steve Jobs from the same speech…

“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

Tumblrweed: Selleck, Waterfall, Sandwich…

Coppola on the metaphor behind the Godfather…

This letter from Francis Coppola, director of the amazing Godfather Trilogy, to Marlon Brando, star of Part 1, trying to persuade him to come back for a second round as Vito (the part eventually played by Robert De Niro) is pretty cool.

Cooler, perhaps, is this paragraph…

“All I’m saying is that if you will be in this movie; I will do my very best to make it be good; and human, and express the notion that the Mafia is only a metaphor for America and capitalism, which will do anything to protect and perpetuate itself. (I will do this anyway, if you’re not in the film…but if you were in it, it would be better, and you would help me with your ideas as I work on the script.)”

Did you know that was the metaphor? I just thought the Mafia was a metaphor for depraved human self-interest. But maybe that’s the same thing… I guess then the Corleone family is the “America” in that system, with a refusal to compromise some principles (the Corleones wouldn’t deal drugs), but a willingness to compromise on many others… Thinking through other elements of mafia culture within that metaphor is also a pretty fascinating exercise.

A (lengthy) primer on Graphic Design

This transcript of a radio piece provides a nice little snapshot of the inner workings of a graphic designer’s mind, when it comes to how they think about their own profession.

Some quotes.

“Graphic design has been likened to a wine glass. When we drink wine we barely notice the glass it’s served in. It wouldn’t be true to say that we don’t care what glass we drink out of — we wouldn’t choose to drink a rare vintage out of a Tupperware mug, for example — but it’s the wine that matters, not the vessel it comes in.”

“For many observers and commentators, graphic design’s embeddedness in commercial culture makes it into one of the specious modern black arts, like spin, hype and branding. And it’s undoubtedly true that most graphic design is about selling things in a consumer society.”

“Most recognise the fundamental difference between artists and designers: artists create work that comes from an inner impulse. Or to put it another way, they write their own briefs. Graphic designers, on the other hand, respond to briefs supplied by others — they are reactive. To go back to our glass of wine — artists supply the wine, graphic designers supply the glass.”

I, for one, appreciate the work of graphic designers. They make it possible to judge an object by its appearance because their work ties an object to a particular culture. And I like that.

Remove staples with roar power

I have a little bit of an affinity with the T-Rex, we share the honour of having slightly disproportionate length in our arms. But I probably wouldn’t pay $70 for a T-Rex Skull staple remover.

You might pay that much. Who knows. Apparently there are people out there who’ll pay $1350 for an ornamental elephant paperweight.

You could buy an army of T-Rex staple removers for that price, and face it – they’re slightly more functional than a paperweight.