Hijacked

Nathan has gone away this weekend to learn how to be a better husband. He’s left me at home, alone and sick. Does anybody else see the irony in this?

I’ve given myself a somewhat ambitious task list to complete over the weekend despite my absent husband and ill health. 

1.       Hijack Nathan’s blog.

I think I can successfully tick this one off. Off to a good start.

2.       Master Greek. At least the first page of vocab anyway.

This one I think I’ll struggle with. I’ve been sporadically learning them for the past few weeks now and they are sticking in my brain very well. 

3.       Finish my 1st grade violin book.

I haven’t played my violin for at least 6 months because I broke the rosin. Having replaced this yesterday I’m ready for another shot.

4.       Design an outdoor setting which I could possibly build.

So I know that this one is far too ambitious but I thought I’d do some research away. Maybe Dad will be able to help… 

My intention is to give you an update by the end of the weekend.  

May 16, 2009

Card bored?

Business cards are over-rated, well the standard ones are anyway. I get a lot of business cards in the average work month – and most of them are average. And they end up in a bowl on my desk – much like my own in house business card draw, only without prizes. Boring and conservative cards don’t get noticed. They get filed. So a nice card is a nice point of difference.

A while ago I posted 10 novel business cards. Here’s a collection of 100. Most of the ten I posted are there, but there are others that are nice. 90 of them in fact…

May 15, 2009

Want a youth ministry that rocks?

Let Ignatius ignite you.

His essential ingredients of Youth Ministry:

  1. An Xbox 360
  2. A copy of rock band
  3. A book deal
  4. A moderately priced hair cut

He’s edgier than Mark Driscoll.

“Ignatius makes Song of Solomon look like Dr Zeuss”

And all about rigourous training and preparation…

“I’m very serious about preparation – I’ll spend two or three hours doing prayer lattes.”

It’s 10 minutes of awesome Youth Ministry instruction…

Relax children, it’s a mockumentary…

May 15, 2009

Killer craft


If you want your kid to look this awesome you can get the low down here. And why wouldn’t you? It’s quite a finning design. Found here.

May 15, 2009

A bunch of links – May 15, 2009

May 15, 2009

Ball loon

This is quite incredible.

It really wouldn’t be out of place in a circus – and I feel like I should know. Because last night Robyn and I hit big top for the Great Moscow Circus. It’s in Townsville for three weeks.

It was worth the price we paid for admission (free through a work contact) and probably worth the price others will pay.

There was a disappointing scarcity of scary animals – unless you’re scared by miniature ponies. Which Robyn isn’t – she wants four for the yard. She dreams of running our very own menagerie of rare and bizarre animals. That’s why ordinary people have pet dogs – and we have turtles.

It was actually a thoroughly enjoyable night – despite Robyn’s head cold/flu thing (she caught my man flu but it’s bashed her about a bit) – and it’s pretty cheap.

There are 13 performers (by my count) who each take on multiple roles (including selling pop-corn before the show and flashing trinkets and refreshments during intermission). It’s impressive. As is the guy on the ball – who prompted the post, and was discovered here…

May 15, 2009

Twix or treat

Instructables is a veritable goldmine of ideas – a repository of human ingenuity – a hotbed of innovation… I could go on. It’s brilliant. Particularly when somebody gives you the run down on how to produce your very own giant Twix.

The instructions are in some sort of Spanglish – but the pictures tell the story.

Ingredients
2 packages of cookie Maizena
1 package of caramel candy
2 pounds of chocolate to milk


From what I can gather you need chocolate, caramel and some biscuits – based on my experience with Twix, I’d say Milk Arrowroots would suffice…

May 15, 2009

Shirt of the day: Swinedled

It’s been a while since I posted a shirt link. Mostly because I haven’t found any great ones for a while. But this is vaguely amusing.

May 15, 2009

Quick reference calendar

I’m genuinely bad at keeping a track of commitments in diaries, although thanks to the iPhone and it’s brilliance I’m getting better.

I’m not sure that having the months of the year etched into your fingernails like these guys did is helpful – but at the very least it’ll teach you not to bite off more than you can chew… perhaps. Found here.

May 15, 2009

A mug’s game

I like dunking biscuits in a nice frothy mug of hot chocolate – but never in a cup of coffee. Unless it’s a plunged or brewed cup without the smooth microfoamed texture of a well made espresso based drink… The problem (other than the somewhat dubious rules of etiquette surrounding the dunk*) is that I never have enough hands to carry a stash of biscuits and the mug. It’s seriously inefficient. The “Dunk Mug” is here to help.

What a concept.

* The Tim Tam Slam is an exception.

May 15, 2009

Bright idea

May 15, 2009

Poet, and don’t I know it…

Simone has been putting together some poetry 2.0 – bringing commenters together and uniting them in rhyme. I got some lines in the finished product…

Actually, and six years later I’m loathe to admit it, Poetry.com did send me emails telling me what a wonderful poet I was and wanting to include my work in a very special compilation of poetry*… you can see my poems here. Please feel free to ignore the badness of “Pariah”, it was written in a particular context where it was vaguely funny. The rest, they stand the test of time, in that they haven’t improved over time.

* I am aware that everybody who puts a poem on this site gets this offer, I’m also aware that despite the claims of Readers’ Digest I have not won $75,000.

May 14, 2009

A bunch of links – May 14, 2009

May 14, 2009

Fast food fast

Ahh, IGA, you’ve done it again. Stuck it to the big corporate man with this campaign that tries to convince us to give up fast food for a month. It’s an interesting move – I guess that IGA’s opening hours mean that fast food are their real competitors – because who seriously shops at IGA when Coles and Woolworths are open?

You go girlfriend. 

I do question the wisdom of openly antagonising the people with the biggest marketing budgets in the country. But IGA don’t have a choice really. When you consider that some of the top 50 advertising spenders in Australia (according to Nielsen Media’s 2007 report) were:

  1. Coles (number 2)
  2. Woolworths (number 5)
  3. McDonalds (17)
  4. Yum Restaurants (KFC and Pizza Hut) (number 35)
  5. Competitive Foods (Hungry Jacks, Dominos, Fasta Pasta) (number 48)

It’s hard enough having to compete with the other Supermarkets let alone the fast food guys.

That’s a lot to compete with in the pretty crowded market place market place.

So, could you go three weeks without fast food? I once did it for a year, it didn’t really make a difference to my weight though.

May 14, 2009

You know what’s a funny word…

Mishit.

You read it, and you think it should be spelt miss-hit, but it’s dictionarily correct.

That is all…

May 14, 2009