Consciousness – Page 36

One hot winter’s day…

is how one of my children began her recount today. One of the things I teach my kids is to always have a “catchy hook” and would not usually allow similar opening sentences. This one, however, I thought I’d let slide. It is oh so Townsville.

By the way – Maddie – Nathan is trying to get me to engage in a blog off with you but I thought we could be a bit more civil than that. Life is not all about competitions after all and I am so eager to hear about leggings not being pants. Keep up the good work.

August 7, 2009

On Twilight

Like little sister number two – see post below – I haven’t read Twilight or watched the movies. But people I respect have. And their opinions on the matter seem divided.

One thing I can’t understand. And I am a completely heterosexual male so this might be a case of perspective… but one thing I just don’t get – is how the guy from the Twilight movies is considered remotely good looking. Let alone the officially recognised “Sexiest Man in the World”…

I think my friend Benny put it best when he asked when the disheveled homeless look came in. Robert whatever his name is always looks like he’s spent the last week sleeping on the street. And perhaps he has. Derelict was a Zoolander satire – it wasn’t a prophecy.

August 7, 2009

Twhighlight.

Yes. I spelt it twhighlight on purpose. That is because i want to highlight some issues i have with the twilight series. Firstly, I have only read book one, so these may not be as well informed as others will know. But i am not sure why a trashy teen with poor plot line and terrible character development has managed to become such a hit. And people who hint that this may be the modern day Romeo and Juliette should read Romeo and Juliette – shame on you all. Poor Shakespeare. Anyway, first of all, i take issue to a book where the only reason i have to like a guy is their stunning good looks. Secondly, this same guy is 90 something years old but likes a 17 year old girl. Thirdly, this guy only likes the girl because he cant read her mind. That is weird right? He has some power/control issues. Fourthly, this guy may not eat humans (hey I like that in a guy too), but i am not sure why it is good that he eats raw deer instead…attractive i think not. Fifth, so the teenagers fall in love. This takes about 7/8th of the book then right at the end evil vampires are added to be saved from…what odd plot development. Finally, moving to the movie now i would like to point out that Robert Pattinson is a person, not a vampire. He is actually an actor – they pretend to be other people. I cant understand why girls around the world have forgotten this concept of people acting characters, especially of the mythical variety. He cannot bite you and make you a vampire so please stop with the Bite Me Robert business, its an embarrassment to female-kind.

That is all.
I’ll keep you posted.
(my next post will be about leggings not being pants – another issue i would like to rant about).

August 7, 2009

addictive

Oh my goodness. I cant believe people read my small blog entry. I cant believe that people commented either. Both findings were pleasant suprises. I didnt really have an asnwer to my asian face mask remarks other than they are very smart, so will out live us all because they rate health over fashion.

My next question about the society we live in is why do smelly people on the bus not realise they smell? I am talking about people who clearly live in homes with showers and access to deoderants. I cant understand it.

August 7, 2009

Big Macs

So Robyn has had her Mac for a while now. She was very excited when it arrived.

Well, today mine arrived…

It’s beautiful.

It’s very nice.

August 7, 2009

Separated at birth…

This probably isn’t the most flattering thing I’ll ever write about my father.

But, in watching the West Wing again I am further struck by the often eery similarities both in distinguishing features and facial expressions between dad and Toby Ziegler. There are lots of things that aren’t similar. But sometimes it’s just scary.

I’m just saying…

August 6, 2009

Toby’s Mac

Macs are cool. I don’t have mine yet, but already I know this.

I’m playing with Robyn’s now. And I like it. But this belief has been reinforced by a day watching the West Wing (starting from Series 1) – one of the perks of sickness.

I had never noticed this before. But Sam and Toby both write their speeches on Macs. How cool is that.

For all of those people thinking that this title was a reference to Christian music – you were wrong.

August 5, 2009

Blogology

I’ve been, as a result of some ill conceived posts in the last couple of weeks, and heated debates here and elsewhere, rethinking my approach to blogging. A little. Not a lot.

My problems involve a gap in my understanding of this blog and its function, and my approach to posting my thoughts and opinions.

Izaac is experiencing similar reservations much earlier in his blogging career. I’d like to prolong that career as long as possible, because I enjoy reading his thoughts and opinions.

To start with – I repent of the times when I have not been loving in the comments. It’s easy to forget that there’s no non-verbal communication at play and that other people own their opinions and positions much more vehemently than I may.

I love discourse, discussion and argument. I love the free and frank exchange of ideas and opinions. What I don’t love is snide pedantry, discussion free of warmth, and comments just for the purpose of disagreement. Wise people whose company I enjoy most in the real world have indicated that I’m not as pleasurable here as in the real world – both in comments here, and elsewhere. One such person made a comment that offering sarcasm and objections without solutions is pretty hollow. I agree. I was convicted by that. And I think commenters here should be too.

Another person suggested that I need to be more careful that I don’t come across as an arrogant chauvinist. These comments both came from people I love and respect – so thanks guys.

It’s also becoming increasingly apparent that not all of my readers know me in the real world – and that’s exciting on some levels, but also scary. Because observers looking at some of my arguments in comments here and elsewhere may not be aware of the real world relationships at play. It’s just something else for me to be mindful as I write, and others to be mindful as they read.

But, the onus for fixing this “problem” does not rest solely on me…

You, dear readers (and commenters), have a job to do too.

1. Understand the medium.
This is a blog. It until very recently was a blog that bore my name, and as such could not be mistaken for anything but my thoughts and personal opinion. It needs to be read as such. It’s not gospel. It’s often not set in stone. I think of some of my posts as a bit of a journal tracking my thoughts, or an opportunity to flesh out my thoughts. I’m more than happy for you to engage, debate and discuss… but if you insult or annoy me it’s likely that I’ll respond defensively.

2. Play nice
I was pretty horrified a couple of weeks ago when I mentioned the oversharing saga on Facebook and one of my friends jokingly took another non-mutual friend to task for their lengthy response.
I’d like to think that the many people who come here would pay each other a certain degree of courtesy.

The blogosphere is a wonderful place – and it’s great for sharing ideas, meeting new people, networking, etc. But in every society there must be “rules”… Communicate Jesus has a list of “rules” that Desiring God (John Piper’s blog) uses to moderate discussion. I don’t really like them. They won’t really work here because I’m happy for people to do many of the things it rules out (commenting off topic, self promotion etc).

But I have one rule to propose. I am happy for people to disagree with what I have to say. I love discussing things. I don’t like constant negativity. I recognise that I will often say things that need to be disagreed with.

Also, given that my wife, and one of my sisters, are now blogging here occasionally (and I’m happy to throw open the doors to other people who express an interest in posting from time to time) I’m going to treat being nasty to them pretty seriously as is my want as a husband and brother…

So I’m instituting this rule:

If you are going to engage in commenting here you must write one encouraging comment for every two negative comments.

I’m not going to enforce this strictly. It would be too hard to police. But if I do notice a string of negativity I’m just going to edit your comments (because I have that power) to make them say really nice things about me. Or delete them.

Your thoughts? How can we make the online world – and this neck of the woods – a nicer place? What would make you comment more often?

August 5, 2009

Meal break Musings

Back by popular demand…so i was meant to write blogs here, but then i haven’t since the very first one. This is mostly because 1. I dont have time to write blogs. 2. I dont think people have time to read my blogs. Then with the marketing knowledge that i posses i thought about a solution to this problem – short blogs which i do have time to write in my lunch break, and that you have time to read during your lunch break. Not that i am assuming you would chose to use your precious 30 min meal break to come and read this. It should only take a couple of minutes, or less. It is really just going to be one sentence about something i’ve been muling over.

EG.

Why is it that – it is only socially acceptable for Asians to wear facemasks in public?

Hmmm…food for thought.

I’ll keep you posted (irregularly obviously!)

August 5, 2009

Spring cleaning

Spring has sprung – well, it feels like it has for those of us living in the tropics and enjoying 27 degree days.

I’ve done some further rethinking about how I structure this here page – and I’ve moved the daily posts of links out of the “Curiosities” column and into the far right.

You’ll also notice some new little images in the footer which were fun to put together. I may move to styling all my images like little polaroids, but we’ll see.

If you’ve got more suggestions for tweaks I should make – hit me up in the comments. I’ve got a fair bit of time on my hands this week.

August 5, 2009

This little piggy…

It seems I’ve picked up a case of H1N1. We’ll never know for sure… but Robyn went to the doctor yesterday and was diagnosed, and now I’m sick too. I’m going to the doctor this afternoon.

So expect more posts today, tomorrow and Friday.

Robyn wants to make it clear that we’re not dying. So it’s too early to start dividing up our possesions amongst yourselves.

August 5, 2009

Scamorama

I mentioned the other day that I was going to pull the scambaiting posts off my main page. They were too long for anybody not interested in reading through pages and pages of my interactions with random Africans.

Well, today I did it – so from now on you can get your scam fix here – or subscribe to my scam posts here – for the time being these posts will still appear in my full RSS feed…

You’ll see a link to the Scambaiting category in the far right column, and the headings of the last five posts to appear there.

To whet your appetite – here’s a wordle of all of Dr Paul’s correspondence to me…

August 3, 2009

Butter Chicken

I’ve been a bit inspired by my mum’s cooking blog (that doesn’t get updated very often) to put some of my recipes online occasionally.

It saves trying to write them down in a book somewhere to keep track of them.

Today’s recipe is for Butter Chicken – my Butter Chicken Recipe is deceptive – it contains no butter.

Ingredients

2 tins of Tomato Soup
1 medium size tub of natural yoghurt
1 dollop of cream
2 tablespoons almond meal
2 tablespoons garam masala
1 tablespoon turmeric
2 tablespoons Hungarian sweet paprika
1 tablespoon cumin
Curry powder (to taste – I used about a table spoon)
2 teaspoons of coriander
Chicken (I used about 4 thighs – but this could probably be safely increased)
Onions

Method

Combine tomato soup and yoghurt in a pot on low heat, add almond meal and spices, stir.
Brown the onions in a separate saucepan/wok, add the chicken (cut into chunks) on medium heat.
Once the chicken has started to seal add the sauce.
As the sauce starts to bubble add the cream, stir in. Cover.
Simmer on medium heat with a lid for 30-40 minutes.

Serve with rice and naan/roti/flat bread of some description/pappadams.

Leave any suggested improvements in the comments…

August 2, 2009

An Apple a Day…

Recently I purchased my first Mac. I quickly discovered that the Mac vs PC discussion is a touchy subject for some people and found it very ironic when a heated debate arose on my facebook wall.

I purchased a Mac because they have the reputation of working. Everytime. I don’t care that you can’t play games on a Mac as well as you can on a PC. I don’t care that you can’t watch movies to a high standard. I don’t even like playing computer games or watching movies. I don’t even care that you can’t customise it. I don’t even know how to customise computers, and, after watching my husband “improve” his PC, I wouldn’t want him to even try and customise my Mac. All I want to do is turn on my computer, use the internet, word process and then get on with my merry life without having to spend half of the day encountering problems. If I have to pay a little more for this reliability, then it’s money well spent in my opinion.

I should say here that the intention of this post is not to highlight the validity of my purchase. Neither is it weigh into the debate on Mac vs PC. If you want to have that debate at the end of this post go ahead, just don’t expect me to join in. I actually just want to relay this morning’s computer related events that I found vaguely amusing.

Having awoken to a beautiful winter Townsville morning, I decided to try and chat to my parents via Google chat. Unfortunately they were having technology issues at their end (they’re PC people) so the conversation didn’t take place. Throughout this time, Nathan had been on the upstairs desktop (PC) for well over three hours, trying to get a sermon written and some other pieces of work done. Every 3-4 minutes he popped down to see me while his computer restarted. Apparently he was having some troubles. What can I say, he has a PC. Lunchtime rolled by and he joined me for some Indian curry before returning to the computer to try and get some work done. It was about this time that I stared to hear banging coming from upstairs. Things were not going so well. Graciously I offered to let him use my Mac so he could get the work done. He told me that he’d been intending to do this all morning, if only he could retrieve the work he’d started on the PC. I don’t know about you, but spending roughly four hours trying to open a document seems a little unproductive.

It’s now about an hour after the banging stopped and I haven’t seen or heard from him in awhile. I don’t know if this means the computer is working or if he’s found a book to read. Most likely the latter.

August 1, 2009

Trying new things

I’ve been tweaking my design a bit in my allocated blog time today – rather than posting. Check out the funky new drop down menu in the top right of the design, and first time (and regulars coming back for the first time) visitors will get a nice little welcome message from now on.

Try it and tell me what you think.

Off to opening night of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music now. I’ll come back more cultured, but don’t worry, I’ve got a heap of trivial things to post tomorrow to get you through your weekend.

July 31, 2009