Love is Blind

Snorg Tees - Blinded By The Light

Browsing the web I came across this t-shirt. It turned what is a cliche killed oddity of human behaviour, into a comical moment of reality for me.

Why vegetarian friends are best...

New Webcomic: Snake and Dean

Tonight a new webcomic has been released online, Snake and Dean drawn by Warden Sones. It is described on it's website with the following...

Snake and Dean was born through a complicated polination process between vigilante ponytail advocate WARDEN SONES and a number of runny-outy pens.

The adventures of the titular duo coupled with other more or less random scratchings aim to create a distraction from the reader’s obvious inability to do mad backflips off rocks into the ocean and/or excel in their career.

I am looking forward to the future of this webcomic and will be watching it's new issues eagerly. =)

Where to find an Asus Eee PC 901 Linux

EDIT: The eee pc that RetailBlue are selling that I mentioned below, is the 900!!! And it is out of stock. Don't buy it if you are looking for the 901. For some reason their sale of the 900 made it into the 901 search. Now, it looks like there are no eee pc 901's with linux available. The wait shall have to continue to the end of the month, I think that is the rumour.

So I've been on the lookout for the Asus Eee PC 901 (Linux). All the retailers I've spoken to can't/won't get the linux version but have the Windows version. I did a quick search and found that the cheapest I can buy the Eee PC 901 is $526.70 (without postage) as listed here by one of my favourite websites, shopbot.com.au at retailblue.com.

Asus Eee PC 1000 is on the loose in Australia

Ok, so the Asus eee pc 1000 is on the loose in Australia. Evidence: http://www.jbhifi.com.au/computers/

I don't think there's much stock left, but it's not confirmed yet if it's the windows version (1000H) or the linux version (1000) yet. I'm heading over to a store at lunch time to check it out.

JB's price is $698 (although I heard it rumoured for $649 at JB).

Check out the specs for the 901, 1000 and 1000H over here at Engadget

Panoramic Fun

Do I Acknowledge God?

This question at first prompts an easy simple answer, "Yes." But do I really? I now believe this to be a very difficult to admit, "No."

Sure I acknowledge God when I pray. I acknowledge him in my thoughts throughout my day. But last week I had a conversation with supervisor. We discussed my strengths, weaknesses and the conversation resulted in a lot of praise being dealt out about me. But in all of my responses to the praise, there was not a single time I acknowledged God's hand in my success. Not once. Maybe in my head, but not from my mouth.

There were days I had asked God for strength, patience and for the skills needed to fulfill on my work, and he had answered them, for I have done great work for my employer. And while I was being praised for my work I may have humbly accepted the praise, but in not acknowledging God my work glorified me instead of glorifying God.

At this point I feel sick and disappointed in myself. But I am not staying in this place of disappointment. I apologise Lord for working to glorify myself, please forgive me and guide me. I am committing to acknowledging You (God) wherever I am present to Your (God's) work.

Discussing the difference between Listening, Analysing and Filtering.

I've been thinking about what it is to listen in conversation. Do I really listen to other people when they are sharing something with me, or do I filter and analyse instead. I suppose I should consider what these other two things are.

Filtering

"a porous device for removing impurities."

In the context of conversation, filtering is deciding if what we're hearing is right or wrong. Anything in the wrong category (the impurity category) gets filtered out.

Analysing

"examin[ing] methodically and in detail the constitution or structure of [something]."

Analysis is a great thing in science and engineering, and many other jobs. It gives us access to understanding, and in conversation it allows us to pull apart what someone is saying.

In conversation it is really easy to filter and analyse. It's a human default it seems: analyse someones intentions, filter what someone is saying deciding if we agree or disagree. And in a lot of situations it is great. At work analysis makes me the engineer I am. In a spiritual context filtering protects me from believing things that aren't consistent with my beliefs. But, every time we filter or analyse what we hear, we forfeit being truly present to what's being said.

When we're not present to what's being said, we:

• miss out on what's really being said


• open the doors to misinterpretation, hearing what we are expecting or want to hear


• create a substandard experience for the person speaking, by silently communicating we're not really listening.

Give listening a go. (For those who are married, making the distinction whether your listening or not makes a huge difference to your relationship.)

Firefox Download Day a Success, and I have a Certificate

Different approaches to studying the Bible

I know there are plenty of different methods to study the bible like the Swedish Method, or concept of S.O.A.P readings but what I'm interested in is literally approaches to studying the bible rather than the methods themselves.

When I study the word I come to it being intentional to get something of impact out of it. This might be an assurance of God's love, or an insight into how I can live life more effectively. Coming with an intention like this is good, but I've realised my intention manifests itself in such a way it may be causing me to miss things God wants to tell me. When I approach the Bible in this manner I read the bible expecting to find something and searching for it. And whenever we are searching for something, we at least have a rough idea of what we're looking for. The fact that we have even the tiniest preconceived idea of what we're looking for limits what we're going to see when we read the passage. It's like when your thinking of buying a new grey car. Suddenly you see all the grey cars people are driving around, standing out as if they're more prominent than red cars.

So what's another approach I can take to studying the bible? I think a good way is to first start with prayer, committing to God that you will remove any expectations you have, and that you want to give up your current understanding of what you're reading. Ask God that you will see what he wants you to see, and not what you already know. Going into the word having given up your preconceived ideas about the passage will give you the opportunity to read the passage in it's rawest form.

This may be a difficult thing for you to do. Many of our preconceived ideas are concreted into our subconscious, created when we were kids. But if we're going to read the word for what it is, we have to be willing to give up our own need to be right about our current beliefs and knowledge. We have to be willing to read the word, and acknowledge an understanding we have could be wrong.

I recognise this isn't the only way of approaching study, and I'm in no way suggesting you drop your current approach to study. I still think the first approach is a very powerful way of approaching the Bible, but I've come to realise that it was limiting my study, and so I'm giving this a go.

Please, if you have another approach to studying the bible, please post them as comments to this post. I am eager to see what other people think of this matter.

Do Ingenico take on Steggles?

Ingenico is one of the largest companies in the payment industry, and Steggles is a poultry producer in Australia. They don't really operate in the same market or compete at all, which may be making you think I've gone nutters.

But really, I do have a point, so hold on. I noticed Ingenico recently changed their logo (see below). My wife pointed out that it's very similar to the Steggles logo...Makes me wonder if Ingenico's 'Beyond Payment' is chicken.

Ingenico's Old Logo

Ingenico's New Logo

Steggles Logo

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