Posts you might have missed

Too many posts to handle? Here’s a quick list of the posts you might have missed this week:
  • A bunch of links – March 2, 2009
    Posted on Monday, March 2nd, 2009 in web
    #39;Confessions of a Facebook Social Climber#39;Personal branding in the age of GoogleInternet Guru Seth Godin has something useful to say today.Mystery of the Belly Button Fluff Solved by ScienceFree Album – JaydioheadFacebook Photo Album DownloaderFloorplanner Presents Your Plans in 3D [Web Apps]This is another link pretty much only for the benefit of my wife – who rather than playing the Sims spends her time designing floorplans using online software.
  • A bunch of links – March 3, 2009
    Posted on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 in web
    Are You a Christian Hipster? | conversantlife.comWow. I am. According to this definition:brbr”Christian hipsters don’t like megachurches, altar calls, and door-to-door evangelism. They don’t really like John Eldredge’s Wild at Heart or youth pastors who talk too much about Braveheart. In general, they tend not to like Mel Gibson and have come to really dislike The Passion for being overly bloody and maybe a little sadistic.
  • A Manly win
    Posted on Monday, March 2nd, 2009 in Sport
    Manly won the World Club Challenge last night – the first NRL team to do so in the last five years. They’re also only the sixth team to do it in 17 years of WCC matches. Only two have been played in Australia.Bodes well for a good season for the mighty Sea Eagles. Who are also the deservedly the bookmaker’s favourites this year.
  • Election Scorecard: Craig Wallace’s Townsville ad
    Posted on Wednesday, March 4th, 2009 in Politics
    Labor MP for Thuringowa (and Minister for just about everything) Craig Wallace has a 17% margin. He’s in one of the safest seats in the state. He barely even needs to advertise.So why jump the shark and be filmed holding a puppy?His ad is positive though. It talks about “delivering” for North Queensland and highlights projects “he has delivered”.
  • Election Scorecard: Labor’s attack ads
    Posted on Wednesday, March 4th, 2009 in Politics
    The Labor Party is telling us we can’t trust Springborg because a couple of months ago he said the current economic climate was not like the Great Depression. That it was different. The ad runs a bunch of clips from world leaders (Obama, Rudd, and Brown) telling us what a crisis this is, and comparing the situation with the Great Depression.
  • Election Scorecard: LNP’s Debt Attack ads
    Posted on Wednesday, March 4th, 2009 in Politics
    Debt should not be a campaign issue in a recession. The fact Queensland has a big debt is a problem – but the future Queensland Government needs to be building infrastructure to create jobs.So campaigning on the fact that you’re not going to do anything to address rising unemployment is ridiculous.This raises a question for me – what happens when a state can’t pay off its debt – it’s not like infrastructure assets can be repossessed.
  • Evolution of a Nerd
    Posted on Monday, March 2nd, 2009 in Church
    My first post on this blog highlights my ongoing descent into nerdhood. While I don’t have the bespectacled (yet), triple-chinned, past-eating figure as described here, I have taken some healthy steps in the direction of becoming a nerd. 1. Blogging. To the readers who have ‘tuned in’ (sorry I don’t know what the web equivalent is) hoping for some of Nathan’s regular rants, my apologies.
  • Finding a niche
    Posted on Thursday, March 5th, 2009 in Culture
    Every time I drive down Ross River Road I think to myself “how can this place possibly continue as a business?”Finding a niche is one thing – being irrelevant is another.Has anyone ever used this place? I can’t for the life of me figure out how they pay their lease.According to the Word of Mouth Forum they’re good at their job.
  • Fox Sports subbed by monkey
    Posted on Friday, March 6th, 2009 in Media
    Can you spot the problem with the following sentence from this story?”Rumoured to of signed a four-year $450,000-a-year deal with the Sea Eagles back in 2005, Orford would likely have to take a pay cut to remain on the northern beaches with the club battling to reward last year’s premiers and remain under the salary cap.”If yes, please apply for a job sub-editing Fox Sports Online.
  • Frustration
    Posted on Sunday, March 8th, 2009 in Life
    I enjoy a good argument. So much so that I’m able to completely distance myself from the ramifications of taking a particular side in an argument just to see it continue. I am sure other people find this frustrating. Actually, I know for a fact that some people do.In my mind it’s only when arguing through an issue that you’re truly able to shape your thinking on something – at least that’s how it works for me.
  • Gigapan and scare tactics
    Posted on Friday, March 6th, 2009 in Life
    Gigapan is an impressive inauguration interactive photo panorama doing the email rounds. It has been around for a while.This is the email doing the rounds.Subject: Big brother is watching you, check this out!This is a photo from the 2009 Inauguration, In which you can see IN FOCUS The face of each individual in the crowd !!!You can scan, double click and zoom to any section of the crowd.
  • Green =/= Sustainable
    Posted on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 in Politics
    In the comments on last night’s post – which is still generating discussion – I mentioned that I see a difference between “green” and “sustainable”.Sustainable living is driven by common sense. Green living is driven by ideology.Sustainable living will often cost less – economics are a factor. Green living will cost more it can require paying a premium to maintain ideological consistency.
  • Green is the new bleak
    Posted on Monday, March 2nd, 2009 in Church
    A recent comment on a recent post asked me the following questions:1. I am of the mind to think that when God gave us this planet to look after, it was sort of a house-sitting arrangement. He isn’t going to be too happy to come back and find we’ve trashed the joint, is He.2. Global pollution and/or global warming are going to have the strongest effect not on the ‘Western’ world but the poorest nations and peoples.
  • Philosophical Death Match: Science v Religion
    Posted on Wednesday, March 4th, 2009 in Church
    “Nonsense. There are so many phenomena that would raise the specter of God or other supernatural forces: faith healers could restore lost vision, the cancers of only good people could go into remission, the dead could return to life, we could find meaningful DNA sequences that could have been placed in our genome only by an intelligent agent, angels could appear in the sky.
  • Things I use: Firefox extensions
    Posted on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 in Links
    Stuss asked why she should bother switching to Firefox from Explorer. Apart from speed, moving away from the proprietary Microsoft platform, and security there’s one thing Firefox really has going for it. Extensibility. You can pretty much turn Firefox into whatever you want it to be. Thanks to the power of extensions.But when it comes to extensions for your Firefox experience there’s a lot of bloatware out there.
  • This is why you’re fat
    Posted on Monday, March 2nd, 2009 in Links
    Again. This one takes the cake.
  • Two ways to consume
    Posted on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 in Church
    The debate goes on back here. It’s been a thoughtful – and helpful I think – discussion on the environment, hippies, and sustainability. Join in. If you like.One of my objections to paying a premium to be green is that it seems like such a waste of money. For example, I don’t like that chickens live in terrible conditions in battery farms.
  • Warming to the debate
    Posted on Thursday, March 5th, 2009 in Culture
    It’s probably time I addressed Amy’s second point.2. Global pollution and/or global warming are going to have the strongest effect not on the ‘Western’ world but the poorest nations and peoples. I think we have not only an ethical but a moral duty to ensure that this planet can support everyone on it.I completely agree with the second sentence.
  • Waterworks
    Posted on Monday, March 2nd, 2009 in Coffee
    I hate the Greens. And the environmental lobby group. Which is a good thing – because not only does my coffee machine produce the carbon emissions of say a motorised scooter – drinking coffee is the least sustainable environmental exercise around when judged by water consumption in production. That is pre-cup production too.From the Economist:”A cup of coffee, for example, needs a great deal more water than that poured into the pot.
  • Why blog
    Posted on Wednesday, March 4th, 2009 in Life
    Simone often says the link is the ultimate blog love language. And I like her blog. I especially like commenting specifically when she’s tried to be vague about a situation I’m familiar with. This particular post questions why people blog. I put my answer there. It went something like this:”I blog for a few reasons – to track and log my thoughts, because I think the internet is full of crazy things that need documenting, and because I want space for my rants.
Why not subscribe to the RSS feed so that you don’t miss a beat. Or a post

March 9, 2009

Fish heads

The designer of this fish tank must have listened to too much They Might Be Giants.

March 8, 2009

Digital enhancement

If I ever lose a digit I am going to request the prosthesis take the form of this YouSB.

March 8, 2009

This little light of mine…

Lets face it. Lava lamps are a thing of the past. 43 years in fact. There’s a bit of a retro theme happening today – what with references to Pacman and Ghostbusters – Lava lamps were a brilliant idea. But these alien abduction lamps are cooler. When they hit the market I’m in.

March 8, 2009

Christian mission

Looking for a mission poster? From here. Captures the essence of suffering and the Christian life pretty nicely.

March 8, 2009

Shirt of the Day: great graph(ics)

Pacman turns thirty on May 22 next year. Apparently. Here’s an awesome shirt to celebrate this milestone:

 

If you just never could conquer the colourful ghost army in Pacman and you felt the need to call in the experts – this might be the shirt for you…

March 8, 2009

Frustration

I enjoy a good argument. So much so that I’m able to completely distance myself from the ramifications of taking a particular side in an argument just to see it continue. I am sure other people find this frustrating. Actually, I know for a fact that some people do.

In my mind it’s only when arguing through an issue that you’re truly able to shape your thinking on something – at least that’s how it works for me.

Arguing a point brings clarity to my position because it lets me consider the criticisms of my position and understand the applications of holding to a particular idea. Other people might not approach this the same way. 

Sometimes I find myself reading things that I know will frustrate me for the sheer purpose of entering into an argument – or I’ll bait an issue to create an argument out of it. I’m sure this is also annoying. 

Simone made an interesting point the other day:

“Today I’ve been bored, so bored that I was visiting blogs that annoy me on purpose so that I would get annoyed. Because its more fun to be annoyed than bored.”

I wonder how many people do this. I know I spend a lot of time reading things written by people I disagree with. Probably more time than I spend reading things by people I agree with. And I know too that my hits go up dramatically if I write something controversial that you, my readers, disagree with. 

So now I’m left wondering – should I write things I know will get a bite? It seems people want to bite, and it gives me the opportunity to argue. Or should I write things that there will be consensus on and not actually challenge anyone or anything. I like the first option. Your thoughts?

The danger is that if I go down this path there’s a real chance people will be offended – or caught up in an argument in an emotional sense – if I happen to attack one of their sacred cows. And that’s never really my intention in an argument. Unless I’m arguing about something that I think is a black and white issue, which, for example, climate change and charitable giving is not.

Also – Frustration is the name of a pretty cool card game. You should check it out.

March 8, 2009

A bunch of links – March 8, 2009

March 8, 2009

What would Jesus watch?

It’s an age old question – as old as moving pictures. But I’m not going to dwell on it now – except to say: Not this. I think it’s safe to assume Jesus has taste. 

Here’s a pretty scathing review from Christ and Pop Culture. This is real. And it is a complete ripoff of High School Musical.

Here’s the trailer from YouTube.

Sadly, it’s probably not the worst Christian kid’s programming on YouTube. No, that probably goes to this one:

Like everyone else – I laughed lots when John Safran pitched “Extreme Mormons” in John Safran vs God.

But it turns out the orthodox Christian church isn’t much better when it comes to sheltering Christians from pop culture. Because we all know that Disney’s High School Musical is dangerous. It contains dancing. Oh, so does Sunday School Musical.

March 8, 2009

A bunch of links – March 7, 2009

March 7, 2009

Fox Sports subbed by monkey

Can you spot the problem with the following sentence from this story?

“Rumoured to of signed a four-year $450,000-a-year deal with the Sea Eagles back in 2005, Orford would likely have to take a pay cut to remain on the northern beaches with the club battling to reward last year’s premiers and remain under the salary cap.”

If yes, please apply for a job sub-editing Fox Sports Online. The story was from AAP so if you want to be a journalist go get a job there.

March 6, 2009

JB High Five

JB Hifi, my favourite music shop… in fact my favourite shop, made it into the ASX-100 today. Good news for them.

JB Hi-Fi’s CEO attributes some strange factors to their success in this article:

“We’ve said this is JB – we’ve got a lot energy in the store, we’ve got industrial fixtures and settings, we won’t require our staff to wear uniforms. Then on top of that buying the right product and selling it at the right price.”

Interesting chronological emphasis – sure their products and prices are good – but he thinks its the industrial fit out that brings in the customers. Huh?

March 6, 2009

Jensen on Sacred Cows

“It is dangerous to shoot sacred cows. We all get upset, irrationally and emotionally when something we hold as precious is attacked. The more irrational our attachment the more anger is engendered when our favourite bovine is assailed.”

“One of the ways to test if something has become an idol is to remove it. If nobody notices or complains, it can safely be restored. If it is declared to be “the end of civilisation as we know it” – it is fairly safe to assume it has developed idolatrous importance to people.”

Dean of Sydney Phillip Jensen on Sacred Cows.

Perhaps his most telling criticism appears below – but the whole thing is worth reading.

One of our generation’s greatest sacred cows is the enlightened view of intellectual and rational discourse. There is the desire in some people to imagine that by the control of human reason we will be able to know God, or disprove His existence, or live a morally and theologically correct life. This emphasis can distrust those things emotional or miraculous; things which are unable to be controlled or which fit into our understanding.

March 6, 2009

Underbelly creep you won’t see on ACA

“Journalist arrested for links to hitman from Sydney’s seedy underbelly” – it’s almost the perfect opportunity for ACA to run a cross promotional Underbelly story. Only he’s one of their own. Ben Fordham. I can’t believe I missed this last week. Now the hitman (a nephew of Sydney’s mayor) has been arrested. No doubt he’ll come up with a plea bargain that sees the journo and his producer chucked in the slammer as an example.

Ben Fordham’s career as a corporate speaker will no doubt take off. He also has the added benefit of a PR manager – his famous father.

I remember watching the original story – where Fordham bravely foiled a “hit” and thinking they were crossing into some murky grey area of journalistic entrapment. Turns out it was murky enough for criminal charges.

I’m not sure how I feel about this. Personally, from a journalistic perspective, I loathe the sensationalism ACA and Today Tonight pursue. But I also think journalists should be able to become as involved in the story as they do. ACA ran an interesting piece last night where their journo, Martin King complete with prosthetic nose, lived as a homeless person for a period of time and explored the way Melbourne’s homeless are treated. It’s worth a watch.

Ben Fordham is getting a reputation as a bit of a toe rag. The police also cautioned him after an interaction with Belinda Neal last year. He was also the guy who brought us the controversial story about the “last tribe of cannibals” and their prospective dinner, Wawa. Who Nine didn’t rescue – and Fordham allegedly blew the whistle on Seven as Today Tonight made an illegal attempt.

So, what do you think? Should the courts thank Channel 9 for aborting this hit via their story, or should they throw the book at the guy?

March 6, 2009

Here comes Hamish

My fellow North Queenslanders. I urge you. Buy milk. It won’t be here tomorrow. And by tomorrow I mean next week.

Here comes another cyclone. Hamish. Yet another pansy name. Sorry to any Hamishes that might be offended – but it really doesn’t inspire fear and trepidation.

But it does mean “he who supplants”. So do these other names. Cyclone Diego sounds much more ominous.

March 6, 2009