Olly (Warholized)

Olly (Warholized), originally uploaded by Headphonaught.

Loving... the new Simpsons title sequence

Nice. When it comes to TV families... I like the Ingalls AND the Simpsons :-)

Good hunting at the Fort...

Picked up a couple of nice things at the Fort this evening... Went there with my Folks and the we'ans to give Olly some piece and quiet (she had some cards to make) and give me something new to look at.

The magazines in Borders were a bust... can anyone recommend an interesting / inspiring magazine? MONOCLE rocks but thats about it... well that and MOJO (most of the time).

What I did like was the Starbucks tumbler and the Chinese notebook (above) I found.

I've wanted to convert to a tumbler for a while now... I want to reduce and reuse as much as I can... and I am also "tight" - Starbucks reduce the cost of a cuppa by 25p if you bring your own cup - I only need 23 cuppas to break even! so it'll start paying for itself in a month or so. I like the graphic too... its my kind of abstract.

Thing is... I had a d'oh moment. You get a free cuppa when you purchase the tumbler. I didn't know this when I bought a round for my peeps... and then ended up with a second chai latte (and a nagging caffiene headache) when I bought the tumbler.

Recommend you get one: save money... and do your bit to reduce your impact. Makes sense to me... although you can get cheaper cups.

As for the notebook... it was £1.00 in the Paperchase sale... half the pages are lined... half the pages are blank... and it has these interesting Chinese Propagandaist graphics front and back. Will be interesting to pull that out in "church circles" :-)

Picture posted with LifeCast... thoughts added later.

Escudo en Punta Arenas

Escudo en Punta Arenas, originally uploaded by salvacionista.

"Sangre Y Fuego"

fundamentalism really has nothing to do with religion...

“A fundamentalist is a person who considers whether a fact is acceptable to his religion before he explores it. As opposed to a curious person who explores first and then considers whether or not he wants to accept the ramifications. A curious person embraces the tension between his religion and something new, wrestles with it and through it, and then decides whether to embrace the new idea or reject it. Curious is the key word. [It has] nothing to do with organized religion. It has to do with a desire to understand, a desire to try, a desire to push whatever envelope is interesting. [...] What we’re seeing is that fundamentalism really has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with an outlook regardless what your religion is.”

Seth Godin as quoted by Blake Huggins

Made me think... I guess I've always been a curious person. Feel vindicated now. Thanks Blake... and Seth.

Loving me some Yellow Submarine...

I thoroughly enjoyed watching the Yellow Submarine on Friday afternoon. It is a film "of its time" but still stands proud and tall as an awesome, if somewhat surreal, piece of animation.

Here's a wee taster... enjoy!

Today's Wallpaper...

Posted with LifeCast

I Love You!

Posted with LifeCast

Freedom of Speech... (Update)

ekklesia have an interesting perspective on the Jasmine case I mentioned yesterday.

First off, its almost as if the Head had read my post:

Mr Read, the headteacher, explained: "We have 271 children in our school from a diversity of backgrounds... We encourage children to discuss their beliefs. What we do not condone is one child frightening a six-year-old with the prospect of 'going to hell' if she does not believe in God."

He added: "“We are a very, very open school and are in no way intimidating people. Unfortunately the context of the conversation between the two girls had a religious nature, but it could have been over any issue. When one pupil is upset by another and is crying, we take action.

“In absolutely no way are we trying to suppress discussion or make it difficult for pupils to discuss or express faith.

We then have a very astute observation from Simon Barrow of ekklesia:

"Before shouting 'persecution' Christians need to reflect much more seriously on how they would feel if their children received similar treatment by non-believers or those of other faiths, and the school tolerated it.

"The issue here seems to be that one young child frightened another. It is surely right that behaviour of this kind is respectfully challenged. I am sure the great majority of Christian parents will want to encourage children to speak with love and respect, rather than condemnation, towards others."

Its all about love and respect... not condemnation!

It would appear that the media isn't picking up on the fact Jasmine was wrong... but running with a "persecution" story to get people all excited and angry. Which, in turn, questions the ideals of free speech. It can only truly work if we are presented with all the facts and can debate them in a respectful manner.

Are we armed with all the facts?

I trust the BBC. I don't always like or get what they do... but I do trust their news service. Their news did report the "going to hell" comment. What worries me is that, according to this press release from ekklesia, not all news sources are making mention of what is the crux of the matter.

Hmm....

Surfin' the 'tinterweb... so you don't have to #8

Hey... its Friday the 13th... and these links have nothing to do with Friday the 13th or scary things in general. I am a big wuss, afterall...



I love "found sound" and I particularly liked the Soundtransit project because it takes found sounds, contextualises them and then packages them up for reference. Basically, you choose a "from" and a "to" location and it creates a found sound mp3 of your journey. I thought the Glasgow sounds were quite distinctive of ol' Sauchie herself.

Thanks to notcot #18,891.



I thought Nikki's Modern Proverbs as shown in my modern metropolis were very funny and thoughtprovoking (as all good humour is).

Thanks to notcot #18,865.



I thought this post from Chung Dha was interesting and an inpirational take on promo flyers.

This is not that new but at the moment there allot of companies using this method to promote their company. However this is actually only possible for countries where there is a cycling culture like the Netherlands. I actually like this marketing because they actually give something usefull, then just spreading a flyers which end up in the trash or on the ground after a few feet's when it is received. These saddle protectors they put over your saddle , are great because they are useful because they keep your saddle dry during stormy and snowy weathers.

It highlights the need to adapt to prevalent culture to be effective in promoting whatever it is you are promoting... and demonstrates potential longevity of promotional item if something useful/practical is created for distribution. Nice.

Thanks to notcot #18,845.



I would love to go snowboarding... and Coolhunting's gear review for their recent trip to the Crested Butte mountain resort is pretty special.

I've always fancied a wee snowboard trip... and am intrigued to see if you could amass the right gear for such a trip from charityshops with the help of discount stores like TKMaxx and secondhand-me-downs. Hmmm...



Thanks to swissmiss for the heads up to this fab post by Emily Chang on getting things done using Twitter. Its a must read for inhabitants of the Twitterverse.

In closing... a couple of podcasts worth your time and attention:



First off, we have the fab Homebrewed Christianity podcast who have remembered Darwin's birthday. Always challenging in the best possible ways. Nice one guys.



I then have a cheeky wee plug for the Something Beautiful podcast with the second part of the Vanderburg's interview. I sat this one out. In fact, I sat it out in Nando's and Starbucks with Olly, the we'ans, Susan and Scott... and was grateful to Stewart for picking it up. I dread to think what insults and insinuations I have coming to me :-)

So yeah... that's me. Enjoy. Check the posts out and check out the source blogs too for further inspiration.