I was asked in the last post whether I was aware the audio was so out of sync – no, I wasn’t. But I don’t think it makes much difference given the production values are what they are…
Also, I make no apologies for the terrible voice overs – we were on a budget.
One of my old QUT lecturers reckons the Gordon Ramsay v Tracy Grimshaw feud is either a set up or being exploited by Channel Nine. I’m not so sure – but it could just be a smoke and mirrors ratings grab… he makes an interesting case.
Dr Jason Sternberg, a media lecturer at QUT, said with A Current Affair and Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares both being Channel Nine programs, it was possible the whole controversy had been set up in advance.
“A cynic would suggest it was contrived, that there are some pretty clever PR people out there,” Dr Sternberg said.
“And you’re dealing with A Current Affair, so it’s safe to be cynical. They are the masters of underhanded and dirty tactics.
“I would not be surprised (if it was), but there’s no evidence to suggest that.”
There’s been a bit of online chatter about the impact that the financial crisis is going to have on churches – the Sydney Anglican Diocese is perhaps going to wear the consequences more than anywhere else – which is sad, given that they train and resource most evangelical ministries in Australia in some capacity.*
“THE world’s richest and largest Anglican diocese has lost more than $100 million on the sharemarket and is investigating ways to cut programs and ministries across Sydney.”
According to the SMH the losses have been compounded by the fact they borrowed to invest.
“The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Peter Jensen, has written to clergy warning that the global financial crisis has caused significant losses. He said the diocese had borrowed money to invest and used the profits to build churches in 2007.”
In hindsight it’s easy to throw stones at that strategy – but is this ever “good stewardship” – the SMH headline makes accusations of “gambling” – which would seem inconsistent with their approach to investment in the business section.
*Though in my opinion too much stays in Sydney (this is purely to preempt accusations of backflipping following the discussion with Izaac a few weeks back…
Perhaps inspired by the “bed goes up, bed goes down” hospital bed – this beanbag is controlled by the whimsical waving of a wiimote. Here’s the original concept drawing…
Beautiful. Applied science. The laziest piece of furniture evolution ever. Amazing.
And you can make your own – thanks to Make Magazine.
The designers called it “the Beancat”…
“The Beancat is an all-wheel drive, battery powered bean bag chair, controlled by a Wii nunchuk. Getting a drink from the fridge has never been so much fun. The low profile drive, frame and controlling hardware are completely concealed so at first glance it’s just a simple bean bag.”
Here’s how you can make your own – complete with detailed diagrams.
Police should spend more time providing deterrents to people who speed and less time pulling them over for “allegedly” running stop signs.
They should install these billboards everywhere…
Found here.
What is it with Etsy users and macabre toys? I can’t complain too much – they’re great blog fodder… sadly this particular item is sold out, but there are other similar products available.
It’s probably the wrong time to be posting this with swine flu hysteria floating in the breeze… but how good would it be to always have bacon breath. Everybody loves the smell and taste of freshly cooked bacon – so why not grab these two bacon accessories and share the love…
Little sister number 2 is 21 today. It’s her actual birthday. She is contemplating a pet turtle as a present from the parentals – here’s a little bit of persuasive multimedia propaganda… featuring our crazy ninja turtle Frankie.
A few years ago two jaded young Christian males (myself included) sat down to write a highly cynical depiction of Christian dating in the context of Christian camps. It was called “The OCC” – the Obligatory Camp Crush. It’s now on YouTube. It’s amazing what you can accomplish in a sick day. I’ll be putting them up in a serial fashion – probably daily. But if you’re the impatient type feel free to head on over to YouTube and check them all out.
I don’t know about you – but I reckon it stands the test of time. Despite the obvious Queensland in jokes. It is set at an Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students (AFES) Mid Year Camp (MYC) – camps famous for bringing students from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and the University of Queensland (UQ) together.
There was an epilogue of sorts that I’ll need to track down, and a trailer produced using Lego that I similarly don’t have on hand.
This was an “Everybody’s Second Favourite Segment” production by Phil Enchelmaier and myself. Stay tuned for more such awesomeness from our past…
Gordon Ramsay made a bit of a splash by insulting his Channel Nine compatriot Tracy Grimshaw. This can go one of two ways – the “all publicity is good publicity” way will keep him in the public eye and generate some buzz for his new restaurant – he can appear to be bravely raging against the network machine, or, he gets hammered by the press, loses his slots on Channel Nine, his restaurant fails and his star fades. So far it’s looking like heading down the latter path.
It was either a gross tactical error or the start of a Symondesque piece of career sabotage.
What he said wasn’t nice. It was a purile bid for some “sensational” media coverage. He’s gone the way of the Chaser, and thus been “unfanned” on my Facebook profile.
Picking on your colleagues at a television network is an odd move. But, and I’m not in anyway condoning the treatment Grimshaw received, she’d be hypocritical to make that point after her editorialising the Matthew Johns saga the way she did. There are no doubt some Matthew Johns fans feeling pretty smug today.
I saw Ramsay on the Today Show on Friday morning and he was pretty rude there too, perhaps he’s sick of the constant cross promotion he’s been forced to do on his tour.
It seems I can’t go anywhere without my camera these days.
I’ve decided I’m far too excited by sillhouette photos and photos with the sun in shot. And clouds. Clouds are fun too.
I also, strangely, find this picture of shoes compelling enough to make it the “album cover” for my Picasa album.
We had church camp over the weekend. An interesting time with some important discussions about the future direction of our church – we’re looking at a plant in a new suburb/growth area in Townsville.
That’s all by-the-by. I’ll probably talk about it shortly.
The campsite we were staying at (a Girl Guides site in Bluewater) was powered and had a shared kitchen. Which to me is an opportunity to not suffer through hand grinding beans for the stove top. I brought Sheila* with me. And made a lot of coffees (and hot chocolates).
We went through 42 litres of milk (I think that’s right – by my count it was 14 three litre bottles). Close to 1.5kgs of coffee. And by my very rough estimate made about 150 drinks. Which awesomely justifies my decision to purchase Sheila on “ministry” grounds.**
I had catered on the basis of previous camp experience (and a bit of dinner catering experience) – which left me about half a kilo wrong in my calculations – people drink lots of coffee on camps, especially at morning tea. This meant buying coffee from Woolworths – which is an ethically difficult thing to do if you’re a believer in the superiority of freshly roasted coffee. There’s stuff on the shelves that was roasted in Italy – which surely sits on ships, in warehouses and on pallets in the store before even making it to the back of the shelf. In a word, it’s stale. I am going to, in its very own posts, formulate some sort of scored index of coffee.
I spent so long yanking the portafiller in and out of the machine that I have blisters. Barista blisters.
* My hundred kilo three group Rancilio Coffee Machine – named after the tank from Red vs Blue.
** not the website where I buy my coffee – but on the basis that I’d use the machine “for ministry” it’s how I internally justify every infrastructure splurge…
WWJS
Some churches just don’t get it. Particularly American churches – or at least in the case of the American churches I’m about to write about…
Just over a week ago a prominent late term abortionist was shot while attending his church. Those who are anti-abortion will no doubt not be grieving this loss as much as others – but most churches have been quick to condemn the killing (or at least to distance themselves from it).
Not these two…
The first, a church in Kentucky, is having an “open carry celebration day” – they want parishioners to bring their guns to church. Here’s what their “pastor” Ken Pagano has to say:
Speaking about those objecting to his planned celebration he said:
While he may not have made the link to the shooting directly – the journalist did – a link from the story’s intro takes you to the story about the killing.
Then there are those that have glorified in the killing…
I’m sure this is not the sort of commentary the church should be making about current events… nor the kind of mission Jesus gave us in the great commission.
But I propose, in order to take money out of the hands of these dangerous people, that we launch a range of Christian merchandise in the WWJS line – who/what would Jesus shoot… the money raised can be redirected to appropriate organisations like the Red Cross.
June 10, 2009