Tag: vanishing point

The Links Effect

Are you missing my daily links posts? Me too. It means posting links requires heaps more effort on my part. But there’s so much good stuff out there.

Izaac* has been fighting the good fight – collating suggestions for a response to atheist university students who are postering campuses around Sydney.

Ben came out of the hip-hop closet and let us all know about his history as an MC in a hip-hop posse.

There’s a pretty interesting discussion happening as a follow up to my abortion post over at the Fountainside.

Simone* has pointed her readers to another blog (Jean in all honesty) which is discussing the use of childcare for Christian parents. I refrained from commenting there because I’m a guy, and not a parent, but Simone’s husband Andrew* has put up a post where us guys can feel comfortable chiming in.

CafeDave is a little blog about cafes and marketing – so you can see why I’d like it – Dave posted his responses to the Jesus All About Life campaign as reported by Steve Kryger’s (very helpful) Communicate Jesus and discussed by a pack of raving atheists on mumbrella – atheists who can’t seem to distinguish the activities of churches from “tax payer funded activities” simply because churches receive certain tax exemptions. Churches are not for profit community organisations – no not for profit community organisations pay tax, and plenty of them (my employer included) advertise.

Recent new reader/first time commenter Drew has a blog. It’s worth reading. I particularly like his insights into the use of a blog as a tool for getting things done – including getting things off one’s mind. I read quite a few of his posts last night while watching NCIS.

Ali has a biting insiders view on what’s wrong with legal writing – I must agree, having started a law degree and been told that it’s all about plain writing and then sitting through hours of lectures, reading case notes and hearing lawyers talk, I can completely understand the sentiment behind the quote she shared.

Tim* had a go at me for giving up fast food. I should have a go at him for giving up grammar. But he makes some interesting points.

Dan* used his gloriously designed blog to reflect on a recent lecture on Christian ethics and the reconciliation debtate in two parts.

Byron Smith – whose name sounds suspcisciously like Bryson Smith – has posted a really helpful reflection on parenting that covers one of those little topics I’m toying with as future post fodder – the idea that indoctrinating your child is abusive. It’s not. As a Christian it’s the most loving thing you can do for your child.

I’m thinking about writing quite a few pieces on parenting – and this is not any kind of announcement – but I’m also struck by Queensland’s new surrogacy laws. On one hand they open up great possibilities for offering to formally adopt children from those considering an abortion, and on the other, they turn “parenting” into a right and privelige for everybody – rather than a responsibility and natural outcome of being part of the archetypal family unit. I’m not a fan of that part, but it’s not enough of an objection for me to not be a fan of the whole thing. My inner pragmatist realises that gay couples – particularly women – can have children whenever they want already, and this is, on the whole, designed to protect their child, and the biological father.

And for those of you wondering which of my posts from the last few days I’d bother reading if I were you it would be these:

* Denotes people I know in the real world…

NB: The photo at the stop is completely unrelated to the post, it was just text heavy and I hadn’t posted it before. It’s from Lucinda. You should go there. I would have put up a photo of a can of Lynx, if I had one.

That is all.

Quiztastic

Just so you know – Ben writes awesome quizzes.

I’m not going to try to steal his thunder with a quiz of my own. But they seem to turn readers into commenters in an effective manner. You should check them out. Even if it’s just for the cool cartoon he draws for each one – and the chance to learn about other people from the blogosphere.

All quiet…

Simone hasn’t posted since Monday. Stuss has posted just once this week, while Ben has posted just once today. Izaac has posted twice. Tim and Ben (Bathgates.net) once. The usually reliable Craig has posted only nine times this week. The man known around these parts as “The Moff” (I saw somewhere that someone called him that to some consternation) – has posted four times.

Amy and Tim are off to a promising start with six posts since Monday. Ali, who I missed out in the last little round up post, has posted three times this week…

Maybe the threat of traffic induced by this post and all the other bored desk jockeys out there will cause these people to update their blogs soon…

And the rest of you… what are we procrastinators to do?

Commenting would be a start. Lets talk.

Euty goes to Downsville

Ben has really stepped things up in the creativity department since I featured Simone as an example of the “creator” type of blogger and he was relegated to the “less prestigious” (in paraphrase) tier of “commentator”… if you have no idea what I’m talking about – see this post.

This would, were I corruptible, be an opportunity to play the two off against each other in order to see what kind of creativity they might produce… But lets face it… Ben’s pretty creative in his own right.

And this is awesome.

Knowing the creators

Ben was a little bit upset that he didn’t make it into the creator category of my post about types of bloggers. He’s lifted his game since. His bed face post was exceptional – a blend of creativity and his inimitable style of biting social observation.

Check out the bed head indicators… and read the post. Gold.

Pyramid of Geezer

So, I have a proposition I’d like to make publicly to Ben (of Vanishing Point fame)…

The title of this post would make a good shirt wouldn’t it? A cool cartoon about grumpy old men… something like this media pyramid but about growing old and dividing your time between telling stories about the good old days, complaining about the youth of today, etc, etc…

I reckon Ben could draw something awesome… something in this vein…

But I digress, this pyramid was really the reason for this post. It’s from Wired.

Critic critique

Some of my friends are movie buffs. The annoying and condescendingly superior type. I like them. But they are movie snobs. I imagine I come across the same way when I’m talking about coffee or bagging out U2.

Critics are never happy. Well not until everything is 100% correct. This annoys me in every aspect of life except coffee (and when I’m bagging out U2). I find it particularly annoying when it comes to movies and reading movie reviews. Movies, in my mind (and this touches on the recent Wonderland discussion) are about entertainment and appreciation of execution. Both don’t have to be perfect for me to walk out of a movie feeling like I got my moneys worth. When both are perfect – ala the Godfather 1 – it’s a more satisfying experience obviously… but here are two examples of the problem…

An SMH review of Transformers 2
“Michael Bay thinks that movies are a sandbox and, to some extent, they are. The trick is to create something meaningful from the tools in the sandbox. The first film did that; the second is a sandy imitation.”

Here’s the problem with this review – Transformers is a movie based on a series of action figures. It’s made primarily for an audience of males who like having stuff blown up. By all accounts Transformers 2 has bigger, better explosions with bigger and better fights between the alien robots. Reviews that take plot and stuff like that into account are missing the point. Nobody cares. It’s going to make bucket loads of money.

Point Two is just a continuation of my conversation with Ben… he said that Tim Burton should relinquish some control of his movies in order to produce compelling visual spectacles with nice Burtonesque aesthetics.

I like to think of Tim Burton’s movies as a vehicle for his aesthetics – and I’m happy to enjoy them even if the plot makes no sense. Like in Mars Attacks.

Image etiquette

This link appeared in my shared items a while ago. It was in the grey area between funny enough to post and too obscure for everybody to care. But I feel like posting it now – after reading this thread on Ben’s blog.

Using other people’s images on your site is a grey area. Images are bandwidth hogs – and bandwidth is expensive. I tend to only use other people’s images (hotlinked) if I’m promoting their product or service with my post.

But this series of emails is just too funny not to be brought up at this point in the debate.


Things that brighten my day #1

Arguments about trivial things with a worthy opponent.

No rush

Ben (from Vanishing Point fame – not to be confused with occasional guest blogger Benny) says you shouldn’t see the movie “August Rush”. And with a review like this (in the comments of his post) who’d want to:

“This August Rush movie on the other hand thought it was so life-affirming and wonderful, but really was like the demonic love child of Hallmark and Anne Geddes.”

Perhaps a movie for the U2 fans amongst us…

Block party

It seems my blog-off rival, the dazzlingly insightful Ben McLaughlin knows which side his blog traffic is buttered on – he’s joined the Tetris loving fun – pointing to Google’s 25th birthday tribute… which looked a little like this

Blog Off: Update

Simone now has 19 posts (including a post that essentially amounted to her reposting my Sizzler toast recipe…)
Ben has 26 posts. All of them original.
I have 50. I’m going away for the long weekend though – so I suspect the others to put on a bit of a lead (remembering that I’m now on 0 after knocking over the 50 post handicap).

Vanishing Vanishing Point

Some blogs rise to the occasion – some fall apart at the first sign of pressure…

Blog off: Running Tally

I’ve just checked out the competition in this little blog off, and I’m quietly confident. Well, loudly confident if the truth be told.

Simone: 9 posts

Ben: 14 posts

Me: 28 posts (29 including this one)

Do check out the competition – and as far as the rules are concerned I’m on -22. They get a 50 post head start.

Posts at dawn

Simone, Ben, myself and others have entered into some sort of blog off. The rules have already been rigged so that I can’t win. But I plan to anyway.

Here’s how they’re sticking it to the man (me) with the rules… but feel free to enter…

  1. Nathan’s first 50 posts don’t count. Sorry they just don’t. We need a little head start. So Nathan starts at -50. For the rest of us, we start at zero. Blogger with the most posts at 11.59pm on the 30th of June wins.
  2. Any post that clearly has no point isn’t counted. To judge a no-pointer, we look to the blogger’s blogging history. If they wouldn’t have posted it last month, it doesn’t count this month. (luckily this doesn’t really rule out anything for me…)
  3. You (I) can only count posts in your main column!

Thankfully, I can’t see this actually harming the quality of the things I post.