The Reason for God
10 April 2013
I don’t post links for many Christian things these days unless I actually think they are actually REALLY worth watching. So it’s in this context that I’m posting this video. Dr Tim Keller was invited to to speak at Google as part of Authors at Google talks back in 2008.
He was asked to speak on the reasons for belief in God. The video goes for just over an hour but the last 20 minutes or so are questions and answers. It’s well worth a watch especially if you don’t believe in God or necessarily sign up to Christian belief. He addresses why this is in his first point. Let me give you a taster summary for his talk.
- Why the reasons for God are important.
- How the reasons for God work.
- What the reasons for God are.
What ever your stripe you will enjoy this... at least what the Google employees are wearing at 54 minutes in.
tags christian, christians i respect, thinking, video
5 Albums I bought in the last 6 months...
04 April 2013
Lana Del Rey - Born to Die
I’m not really sure of the story here. Maybe I heard her voice on Triple J. I added a playlist of her album on Spotify and listened. Her husky tones bring to mind smoke filled men's clubs and Film Noir made the 30s 40s and 50s. The songs are poppy and catchy.
Owl City - The Midsummer Station
Total trash. I would never defend Owl City as good music. I bought this album because I have a couple of other Owl City Albums. I first listened to Owl City when Googling around about The Postal Service (another band I really like). From memory a number of critics mentioned that Owl City is similar to The Postal Service. I listened to and I liked it straight away. It’s very definitely pop and it’s great to dance and jump around to. Olivia and Ella like anything with the beat and some lyrics they can shout. They also picked up the tunes pretty easily.
Frank Ocean - Channel Orange
I like and own Kanye West’s album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. I think he’s a very good producer... but you wouldn’t let your Mum listen to that album. Frank Ocean is Mum friendly. A more palatable, gentle version, abate with a sprinkling of bad words. His style is probably closest to R&B with electronic keyboard, samples and subdued rhythms. I not really sure how I came to hear of him. He’s also pretty relaxing to listen to.
Ellie Goulding - Bright Lights
I saw the beautiful above video advertising an Octocopter last year (watch the video if you don't know what an Octocopter is). The video uses a remix of the track "Lights". Olivia and Ella really liked the video and the music. Again I added a Spotify playlist of album and began. I managed to also catch a performance she did in London as part of the iTunes music festival. Watched it on my big TV at home. It was very impressive. I enjoyed listening to her youngish girly voice.
Air - Moon Safari
This is a strange one. When I checked I was very surprised I bought it less than six months ago. I had the feeling that bought this album a few years ago. This is possibly because this is the oldest album here (1998). I think this was on high rotation on Triple J back in the early 2000’s when I lived at the Castle with Bernie and Chris. I’ve liked it ever since and finally got round to buying it. I find it dreamy and relaxing to listen to. If you were harsh you might call it chilled, electronic, elevator music.
Introduction the second
25 March 2013
It’s been a long time since I was in the habit of regularly writing. It’s certainly been a long time since I’ve written and published anything regularly maybe three years. A lot has changed in that time. The world has changed, communication has changed, the internet has changed, blogging has changed, and I have changed.
I’m somewhat foggy with what I want to achieve with writing here on my blog. Part of me thinks it may help somewhat in dealing with the difficulties of life, learning to be more resilient. Part of me thinks that in some small way I might be part of changing an opinion, helping someone think that little bit more deeply about life and positively transforming their life in some way. More certainly, for me writing has always been about communicating opinions, starting conversations, and expressing ideas and frustrations.
I know I enjoy writing. I like playing with words. I love to create the perfect sounding piece of prose, or well wrangled rhetorical flourish. I also like to think. I think a lot, maybe too much. Writing for me is not the beginning of an idea but rather the crystallising of it. Sitting and writing, is about working out how to communicate an idea in the clearest, simplest, possible way to share with others.
But I do all this knowing that I don’t always get it right. I get angry. I get frustrated. Grammar, spelling and punctuation errors are ever present waiting to trip me up. I don’t always write in ways that I should. Sometimes hurt people. I have many flaws, we all do.
If I had a goal perhaps it would be this, to help myself and others along on this journey we call life, not as someone who has all the answers, but as a fellow traveler reflecting on experiences and the sometimes difficult world in which we find ourselves.
The stupidity of Steven Conroy and the Daily Telegraph
18 March 2013
See what I did there?
If you disagree with my title, your mind has probably already skipped to thinking how much you disagree with what I said. In fact, you might be tempted to skip down to the bottom of the page and just state your contrary opinion in the comments section without reading further. Perhaps your blood pressure has raised slightly...
On the flip side if you agree with my post’s title you’re probably experiencing feelings of smugness and perhaps even self-righteous congratulation and which will now shape how you understand and perceive what I’ve written...
My point is simple.
"The way in which an idea is communicated has an effect on how people respond."
If it’s overly simplistic and inflammatory, this has the effect of causing strong reactions, which push people deeper into already intrenched beliefs. This low brow approach appeals to people who think more simply, with others having neither the education, skills or impetus to read deeply on an issue. Rather they adopt what seems “right” and fits with how they already think about the world.
There are also other problems with this. The more inflammatory the tone, the more polarised the debate becomes. Instead of working toward ideas we have in common, we move away from a more centrist position and wind up adopting an extreme positions. In my experience (and upon reflection) I have found myself fighting for extreme positions, which when I’m thinking calmly and rationally, I don’t really agree with. This approach also stifles discussion, so rather than sitting round a table discussing things like adults we end up shouting one liners and ad-hominem arguments at each other across the playground.
Now of course now provocative headlines and commentary can be ok. Good examples of this include blogging and editorials where opinion is designed to spark discussion. Often I’ve seen that very effect here on my blog. But that’s a far cry from the front page of a newspaper where an Australian Senator is compared to a bunch of Military Dictators.
Important aside - While inflammatory opinion is generally unhelpful, I don’t think the media should be censored from printing such stuff. Part of living in a free and democratic society is that we allow people to express views we don’t agree with and even allow them to be presented in ways that are unhelpful.
What I do want to see is for the media (in this case the Daily Telegraph), take seriously the responsibility to present news in a fair and balanced manner and tone rather then seeking to push an unhelpful inflammatory agenda. Personally I think that reform and regulation of some sort is needed in the Media industry in Australia (more here), however I also agree the timeliness and manner in which Senator Conroy has gone about the issue of reform is counter productive and silly (I haven’t actually looked at the detail of what’s proposed).
However it’s one thing to do something unhelpful, naive, even stupid, but it’s another thing entirely to respond in an even stupider manner. As is so often the case, two wrongs don’t make a right. In this case the Telegraph has overreached in a childish, unhelpful and irresponsible way. They’d do better to sit down at the table with a cup of tea, talk calmly, and treat people like rational thinking adults.
UPDATE: It's also worth watching Media Watch's take on this from Monday.
tags blog, linkage, rant, stupid award, thinking
Love, relationships and other stuff
13 March 2013
The ABC does reality TV much better than the commercial channels. When I watch I don’t feel feel like I’m being patronised and having advertising shoved down my throat every second of the program.... Which brings me to Making Couples Happy a four show series that has just finished on the ABC (although you can still catch it on iView). The premise of the show is to counsel struggling couples and seek to improve overall happiness in their relationships. The show had some great one liners. I won’t detail them here but it’s definitely worth watching for that alone.
I’ve enjoyed it because it’s helped me think about my relationships. I found that it held a mirror up to some of my own behaviors showing the effects of engrained ways of thinking and acting. As the show went on I increasingly identified with some of the subjects.
One of the more helpful things was to do with Five Love Languages. If you haven’t heard or read about them before, it pays to check that Wikipedia link out. The basics are pretty simple and you don’t need to read the book to glean very helpful information, and while it’s a Christian-ish book, the principles are secular and universally helpful regardless of what you believe.
In short everyone has one of five different love languages. The theory goes that your personal love language is the the one that you use by default when interacting with others. For example my love language is Words of Affirmation, therefore in my relationships I offer words of affirmation to others.
The problems begin when (for example) my wife’s language is Physical Touch. So where I keep telling her I love her (words) she just wants me to give her a hug. On the flipside she just gives me hugs when I need to hear her say she loves me. Therefore when it comes to showing our love we actually miss each other entirely. Finding this out for the first time was a revelation. I can still remember thinking back over my past relationships and realising for the first time why some of them had hit the proverbial fan.
I’ve also found this sort of stuff doesn’t just apply to “partner” style relationships but relationships in general. To best express appreciation for a colleague friend or student it’s sometimes worth making sure you’re speaking their "love language"... of course you need to be careful here.
To summarise I found both the Five Love Languages and Making Couples Happy series very helpful. And you dear reader, might just find it helpful too.
I hate any facebook quiz*
09 January 2010
I’ve recently been alerted to a new scourge that is tearing at the very fabric of society and the social and communicative norms on which the great Internet itself was founded. I’m talking about the facebook quiz. You probably think it’s harmless bit of fun but how wrong you are. I am convinced that every time someone takes a facebook quiz somewhere in the world a small cute cuddly furry animal dies**.
“Mike has just taken the ‘Which Couch are You Quiz’…” Really? Are you serious? Since when has a human being ever looked like a couch? How has knowing this useless piece of information enriched my life? Will I be able to sit on my friend next time I visit or bump into them in the street? I don’t think so. My life will continue just the same whether little Jonny is a leather armchair or a bar stool.
If you want to share useless information with the world, start a blog that’s what I did.
*I think I originally wrote this about a year ago
**I have no evidence for this
tags rant
Does blogger even still work?
And more importantly does anyone read this blog?
tags blog, shameless self promotion
Brett Geeves again
08 July 2009
I've blogged before about Tasmanian cricketer Brett Geeves. He's got a new post up on his blog. It's hilarious and you should definitely read it right now.
Back to work.
The best problem in the world to have?
26 June 2009
Too much money! Am I the most successful fundraiser in MTS apprenticeship history? Well unlikely... I have however managed to raise extra money above and beyond my wage. In fact more than $2000 extra... this I'm told by MTS minions in high places is pretty rare.
My reason for posting this is two fold.
Firstly I want to again thank all the people who helped and contributed to my MTS apprenticeship over the two years I did it. I am extremely grateful and have been blessed by people's generosity. I am humbled that people believe in my Christian work and abilities.
Secondly I'm faced with the question of what should I do with the money? The Crossroads powers that be have offered the following options.
1. TBT for 2010
2. Jake Bevan and his MTS apprenticeship
3. A Crossroads Data Projector Laptop
4. UFC work by Mikey Lynch
What do you think?
tags christian, ministry, shameless self promotion, update
I'm sick at home but I'd rather be at work
I'm sitting at home on the couch surrounded by tissues, on an self enforced day off work sick. I have some sort of cold thing (just over a week after getting a "flu shot"). I know it's not a "cold shot" but still I hate crappy sick. This is made more frustrating given I really wanted to go to work today. I like my work.
My blogging has been pretty sparse mostly because I'm really busy. On the other hand I've been loving micro blogging on Twitter. I signed up for Twitter a while back and wasn't quite sure what to do with it. The clincher for me was integrating it into a little chat based program for Mac called Adium. Adium quickly and easily allows me instant chat multiplatform.
Most usefully I can update my status from Twitter* then it automatically updates across, MSN, Gmail chat, and of course Facebook. Tweets from people I'm following on Twitter pop up just like normal conversations in chat tab. It's very neat.
I know many of you out there aren't convinced by Twitter and would argue "it's just another thing" and "waste of time". However I think if you can integrate it somehow into the exisiting systems you use, you won't find it hugly intrustive or time wasting. Just some food for thought.
*Twitter support for Adium is still currently in beta and can be found here.
tags linkage, shameless self promotion, thinking
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