Mario: This is your life

Mario’s creator Shigeru Miyamoto recently gave a tell all (almost) interview about the character Mario. The guys at ChurchCreate put some bits of the interview into nice graphics that you should totally check out.

You’ll learn all sorts of intereting bits and pieces about the mustachioed plumber.

Miyamoto made an interesting point about Mario’s development alongside the Nintendo platform from pre-NES days to the Wii.

“When we create games, the gamer really is the main character. In that regard it may not really matter who the main character is onscreen. But you know, Mario is someone who has become very familiar and I think it is that people are comfortable with becoming Mario.”

Mario really has grown and changed and evolved with the evolution of digital technology. The new technology is fresh and exciting and the next thing you know it becomes familiar and Mario follows that. He’s a familiar character, but he is also fresh because he is always doing new things based on what the technology allows him to do.”

Via ChurchCreate.

Shirt of the Day: Font Face

If Helvetica were a Mexican wrestler it would be called El Vetica. Or luchador (for those who know about these things).

Buy here.

News headlines posterised

This is cool. Some guy named Johnny Selman is turning news headlines into posters hoping to encourage more people to follow the comings and goings on the global stage.

Some samples:

“ANARCHISTS BLAMED FOR ROME EMBASSY BOMB ATTACKS”

“NUCLEAR SUBMARINE HMS ASTUTE RUNS AGROUND OFF SKYE”

DanKam: Make your Colourblindness disappear

I’m colour blind. If you’ve been reading for a while you’ll know this already. If this is a shock – please, take a seat, sip some water and calm down. It’s ok. I know you’ve just figured out why my clothes never really match and the explanatory power of that opening sentence has caused a revolution in your perception of me. But ease up turbo. Because this next bit of news will truly shock you.

There’s an iPhone app, called DanKam (apparently also available for Android) that essentially cures colourblindness. It is amazing. Following the success of Word Lens I thought “anything iPhone app developers say is now believable” and I took this for a spin. I was able to see one of those dot tests, well, the number in one of those dot tests, for the first time… but I’m not sure what I’m meant to be seeing in the right hand circle here…

Here’s a post on the programmer’s blog to explain away some of the magic.

Hopefully this will also help me overcome difficulties in such areas as calling my shots in pool (as in snooker, or billiards…) and driving (as in operating a motor vehicle).

Dough, a deer, a dough reindeer

An artist named Christopher Neimann set out to make some cool dough art for the NY Times. He succeeded. I think. There are more there.

Here are some more of my favourites.

Christoph Niemann - Holidays

Word Lens = Amazing

Check this out.

I downloaded the free version (a Spanish to English or English to Spanish module will set you back 4.99). And it works. Magic.

Fighting the war on Christmas

While I may think that some of the stuff these guys are saying is true – I may even agree with some of their thinking – I don’t think the way to fight the “War on Christmas”TM or put the “Christ back into Christmas” is to take an inflatable Santa to a firing range in order to pump him full of lead.

Dumb.

If Bieber were a Christian singer called “technopraise”…

He would look and sound like this monstrosity.

This kind of performance gives carols a bad name.

Dear Parents: a lesson in not giving your children instruments, iMovie and an internet connection

Once these videos are online, and have been discovered, there’s no turning back…

Merry Christmas

I’ve pretty much, as much as possible anyway, avoided writing anything too Christmassy this year. Because the Christian blogosphere tends to descend into a sea of red and white triteness at this time of year – or it starts banging on about some war on Christmas. I’m not hugely interested in writing either of those posts. So, let me say this: Merry Christmas.

And then let me point out that Christmas is about Jesus and church. That’s where the “mass” comes from. Right? But you don’t see anybody suggesting a “War on Church” – I guess because xmas still has the mass bit…

Anyway. Eat lots. Be good to your mother/wife/significant other. And if you are a mother/wife/significant other make sure you’re not doing all the work.

That is all.

My 2010 in photos

2010 has been a pretty big year for us. Moving. Changing churches. Starting a new job (or study)… they’re meant to be some of the most stressful things around. But is has been fun. Here are some photos. Consider this a photo essay of our year… If I can be bothered I’ll caption some of the photos later.

How to pick up (Christian) ladies: tips from Greg D

This slightly creepy guy named “Greg D” runs a slightly creepy website (which is now “under construction” so you might need to check out the cached version. And also includes video tips. His “meetup” group is still running.

Conversation starter: “Are you in a gang”…

Introducing geeks

Meet the Geeks: Short Film from Sano Sagara on Vimeo.

I think I’m a Bible geek. A coffee geek. A food geek. A wannabe tech geek. And an Internet geek.

What sort of geek are you?

My 13 Favourite YouTube Videos from 2010

A Monkey riding on a pig, with a catchy song

Creed Shreds (A slight written language warning on this one)

A bit of Remi Galliard

A Chimpanzee Riding on a Segway

Bill Bailey plays U2

Chinese army redub

Subtitled Hymns

Old School Christian Advertising

Ninja Fight

Joel Osteen on Bacon

K-Strass the Yo-Yo Master

Steve Jobs in adjectives…

An Anti-Farmville Ad

Defining Faith

My biggest problem with the New Atheists boils down to this:

That’s not faith. Here’s how Hebrews 11 defines faith:

1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for.

I would suggest, humble readers, that this definition of faith – belief in the unseen – is not the same as deliberately not seeing. Which is the way most atheists seem to frame it. Seeing something and denying it is not faith – which is a problem for some Christians, I’ll admit. But thought and faith are not in opposition – faith simply deals with that which we hope and do not see. I don’t have faith that a chair will hold me. I trust that it will. Because I have watched it, or experienced it, holding me. That’s where, I think, faith and trust are different.

If I had found any contradictory evidence (ala point 1 of the above definition), ie if I had seen it – then it would no longer be faith keeping me in a position (according to Hebrews 11) but stupidity. Taking something “on faith” does not mean not seeking to confirm the thing by investigation, or observation – and it does not mean holding a position contrary to logic, reason, or observation. This is where I think Atheists 2.0 have it most wrong. At least second most wrong. I think not believing in God is where they have it most wrong…

That is all.