Haikus are easy
But sometimes they don’t make sense
Refrigerator

Original source unknown.

Everyone likes to read, even if it’s just a little bit, sometimes! (I mean, you reading this post is proof of that, right?)

As previously mentioned, I’m currently reading The Kingdom of Couches by Will Walker.

In talking about the Bible, operating manuals and complexity, Walker writes:

Nobody reads operating manuals for pleasure, because they tend to be boring. Brett gets the impression that some students we meet with find the Bible boring. They only read it because they are supposed to or because they need to find a solution of some sort. Very few read the Bible because they long to discover the depth of mystery that is God and man and relationship between the two.

Well mister Walker, call me a geek, but I like to read operating manuals! OK, so I don’t read them terribly often, but they can be fun; You can’t tell me I’m the only one who reads instruction booklets just in case I’ve missed out some exciting feature or easy way to achieve a certain result with the latest new gadget!

I’ve recently finished reading “Canon EOS 40D” and Flash Photography with Canon EOS Cameras (Not quite a manual as such, but a great 60-odd page article on flash photography!) See? Manuals can be exciting!

I’d like to hear what you’re reading this summer (or winter if you’re on that side of the world)! I’d also be keen to hear what the last operating manual that you enjoyed reading was!

My recent post 100 Things to do Before I die is part of a competition at Litemind, where we had to write a list of something.

Here are my three favourite entries:

1. 150 Funniest Resume Mistakes, Bloopers and Blunders Ever - Some of these are pretty hilarious!
2. 35 Guaranteed Ways to Increase Your RSS Subscribers - While some of the ideas listed here are things that blog owners might hear often, there are also some things listed that I haven’t thought of or read before. If you have a blog, check it out!
3. Ten Things I Didn’t Know Until Last Week - Random trivia is something I enjoy from time to time. For quite a few of these I found myself saying, “Oh, I didn’t know that!”

Good luck to all those who entered the competition. For those of you who didn’t, check out the entires at Litemind (link above), there’s some good content out there!

Here are 100 things that I would like to do before I die, which I haven’t yet done (bar number 43 now).

1. Be interviewed on T.V.
2. Be in charge of an organisation with at least 50 employees.
3. Have a go at food photography.
4. Write and publish a non-fiction book.
5. Visit at least 10 countries.
6. Get married.
7. Have a family.
8. Send a singing telegram.
9. Recieve a singing telegram.
10. Drive a car that is worthy of wearing driving gloves (and wear them doing it).
11. Write/direct a stage production or movie and see it produced.
12. Act in a stage production or movie.
13. Go to a Broadway stage show.
14. Invent something simple that meets an everyday need.
15. Cook a flaming dessert.
16. Be an expert in a field where I can help others.
17. Win a photography competition.
18. Invent a board game and see it produced.
19. Live at least until my 90th birthday.
20. Have a picnic at midnight.
21. Scuba dive at Poor Knights Islands.
22. Watch a sunrise with someone special.
23. Have a bank account in the Cayman Islands (inspired by the movies…).
24. Get a traditional barber-shop shave.
25. Ride an African Elephant.
26. Ride the Hamilton to Auckland 100km cycle race on a unicycle.
27. Fly an airplane.
28. Fill up my bookshelf with books (it measures approx 2m x 2m!)
29. Sky dive.
30. Be friends with a prime-minister/president of a country.
31. Drive a steam train.
32. Organise and run a conference.
33. Climb to the top of a (reasonably) high mountain.
34. Ride a bobsled.
35. Take a trip in a submarine.
36. See God’s creation from space.
37. Have a unique business card that makes people go “wow”.
38. Win a game of Boggle against a friend that I can never seem to beat.
39. Learn to surf.
40. Own a house.
41. See a photo of mine in a famous gallery.
42. Compete in a TV game show.
43. Complete writing this list of 100 things that I have never done and would like to do.
44. Meet the (current) Queen of England.
45. Eat deep fried grasshopper in Thailand.
46. Watch the world-wide premiere of a movie.
47. Teach in front of 1000 people.
48. Visit a camera manufacturer’s research and development centre.
49. Work for Google.
50. Go to the Olympic Games.
51. Name a street.
52. Be with friends when doing as many things as possible from this list.
53. Ride in a Japanese bullet train.
54. Help build a house for a homeless family.
55. Pay off my student loan.
56. Try every sandwich at Subway.
57. Own a fast food restaurant, that is world famous for it’s pizza and burgers.
58. Create content that would attract over 1000 unique visitors to my website in one day.
59. Build a sandcastle that is at least 10m long.
60. Take part in a multi-day kayak adventure.
61. Write and publish a recipe book.
62. Publish a book of my photos.
63. Hold a world record.
64. Own a bookshop that is also a cafe with live entertainment.
65. Write a piece of software that is used by at least 100 other people on a regular basis.
66. Air travel in first class.
67. Organise a New Zealand-wide scavenger hunt for a large group of people.
68. Ride a helicopter to an important meeting.
69. Be in charge of a computer network of at least 100 users.
70. Build a 3 meter high snow man.
71. Learn four types of dance (with an intermediate degree of skill).
72. Cook dinner for someone famous.
73. Ski overseas.
74. Learn to snowboard.
75. Cycle the length of New Zealand.
76. Learn to speak conversational Mandarin
77. Ride in a hot air balloon.
78. Climb the great pyramid of Egypt.
79. Taste caviar.
80. Build a large treehouse.
81. Learn sign language.
82. Guest star in a British Comedy TV show.
83. Shoot under par on a golf course.
84. Shave my head.
85. Pull a prank so big that becomes famous.
86. Use a foreign accent for an entire day.
87. Invest in the stock market.
88. Learn to fence.
89. Learn how to eat properly with chopsticks.
90. Visit Machu Picchu.
91. Develop a roll of film from my own photographs.
92. Float in the Dead Sea.
93. Hold a “Settlers of Catan” tournament with a large group of people.
94. Spend no money for a month.
95. Drive a Formula 1 racing car.
96. Dive with sharks.
97. Swim with giant sea turtles.
98. Ride in a Russian fighter jet.
99. Find a message in a bottle.
100. Actually complete a game of World Domination Risk with 6 players.

What things would you like to do before you die?

From the Spiritual Types Test (emphasis mine):

You are a Lover, a feeling type, whose spirituality comes primarily from the heart or emotions. You value freedom, independence, and spontaneity. Along with your gift of enthusiasm, you show us how to have fun and appreciate beauty. More than any other type, you know how to experience joy. This puts you in a unique position to experience God in the moment, to revel in what is happening around you, and to be in the present tense.

To Lovers, God is a nurturing parent. Prayer for you is often extemporaneous, speaking to God about what is on your heart at the moment. Music moves you deeply; so does heartfelt preaching and worship. You believe that real faith must be shared. Consequently, many Lovers are interested in missions or in spreading the Gospel through the media. You are passionate about holy living.

On the other hand, a Lover’s impulsive behavior can get you in trouble. You sometimes focus on satisfying immediate desires to the detriment of investing in longer term needs. You have been known to exude a “holier-than-thou” attitude toward other spiritual types. That does not endear you to us. Guard against thinking that to be right everyone else must share a spiritual experience similar to yours. You also may need permission to acknowledge anger, disappointment, sadness, and doubt, and to allow yourself to be less than ideal.

When you’ve got a job that’s never really “off”, how do you separate your personal life from work?

In campus ministry, it’s very easy for the job to become life. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy campus ministry (or else I wouldn’t want to do it). But how does one separate work from “not-work”?

Should I want to separate the two? During the campus year, outside of campus hours, there’s a lot to do. Because I want to be friends to the students I work with, I want to spend time with them outside of campus (lest they think I see them as “projects”, or worse, should I actually start to see them in this way). At the same time, I don’t want to spend too much time with students, because then they’ll become my only friends. (I wonder if I’ve fallen into that trap somewhat, to the point where I haven’t had as good of a relationship as I could have with those from other circles this last year).

One thing I’ve done this year which has helped me in my work/not-work separation, is to place my computer in a room that is not my bedroom. Prior to this, if I tried to relax, I’d feel guilty about not doing work. When I tried to work, there’d be too many other distractions. As I prepare to move to Auckland, I expect to lose this privilege (with higher rent prices in Auckland, getting a spare room to use as an office is unlikely).

I mentioned that it’s easy for the job to become life. I’m not sure if that’s a bad thing (I’ve chosen a job which requires something other than the standard 9-5 work week — if that even exists anymore — and so for that reason I’ve hesitated asking how to separate work from “life”. I always want to be doing something that I’m passionate about (building God’s kingdom) for a job, because that is the purpose of my life (not saying that’s not possible in a secular job; that’s a whole ‘nother topic!)

So how do you separate work from not-work?

This post in particular is a follow up to the second post in this series, “Goals of an Online Support Presentation.” Read on for reasons behind the changes I’ve made to my online presentation!

To recap, the things I wanted to achieve in having an online support presentation (other than casting the vision for what I do) were:

1. Simple, not overwhelming with information.
2. Quick to load (not everyone has a broadband connection).
3. Easy for me to update.
4. Provide a way to contact me for more information.
5. Appear credible.

Simple, Quick to Load

I have recently restructured my online presentation and moved it so it’s hosted on this website (as opposed to a separate one, more on this topic below). At the same time, I’ve consolidated the information that used to be on several pages into one.

I believe this helps with the goal “Simple, not overwhelming with information”, because it means that less clicks are required to get through everything! One thing that also helped me decide to do this was the comment I heard at the MinistryNet conference, that Gospel presentations had a higher response rate when they were all on one page.

The initial reasons for having each part of the presentation on separate pages were the fact that this would mean each page could be fast to load, and secondly because each part of the presentation is on a separate page in the physical folder that I use when meeting in person. However, the first reason is not an issue if I keep things simple (without too many graphics, flash etc), and the second reason I’ve decided doesn’t really apply: Web design is not print design, there are key differences!

Easy to Update, Credibility

My presentation used to be hosted on the Student Life website, so that someone could go to josephgibbs.studentlife.co.nz to view it (note: that site doesn’t exist anymore). The advantage of this was that having the presentation at the official Student Life website helped create credibility. The downsides were:

1. It wasn’t easy to update (everything was coded by hand, the SL site had no content management system).
2. It was very much tied to Student Life. That is, should my role within Campus Crusade change, the studentlife.co.nz domain may no longer be relevant.
3. Someone else has taken over maintenance of the Student Life website, so I can’t be guaranteed the access I used to have to update it.

Hence, moving it here seemed like a good idea. I now use Wordpress to maintain the page.

Provide Easy Contact

Since updating my site with the new presentation, and also adding a new contact page on this site (with a simple form to fill out), I have now linked the presentation page to the contact page. Makes things simple as there’s only one page for me to update when my contact information changes!

Give Online

In previous posts of this series, I mentioned that I was trying to get a US staff account so that people could give online by credit card. I’m pleased to say that because of the helpful people at headquarters, I now have one of these! Of course, this only works in US dollars, and only US residents can get a tax receipt using this method, but it’s a start!

I also mentioned a service with which I could set up my own online donation system for credit cards in NZ dollars. Being that CCC is a registered charitable organisation, I asked for a discount on fees. Unfortunately, the answer was “no”.

So, what do you think about all this? I’d love to hear your opinions! I do plan another post in the near future, taking a look at what other people have done with their online presentations!

Tech buzzwords are getting worse (OK, so they’ve been pretty bad all along). Check out this ad from HP:

‘Webinar’? Sounds pretty corny to me! Not something that’ll be selling me anything. Does anyone pay attention to these things, or are we all buzzworded-out?

God is amazing! After meeting a guy to talk about my work with Student Life this morning, whom I neither knew personally nor was referred to, I’ve been given the opportunity to be interviewed by him on the radio this Saturday (I didn’t know he did a radio show when I met him)! I’ll be talking about my work with Student Life at 11:30am on Hamilton Community Radio (106.7FM, AM1206). Please pray that it goes well, and that God provides opportunities to get in contact with others who I can share the vision of this ministry with!

I’ve started reading The Kingdom of Couches by Will Walker, it seems good so far.

In talking about “The Space Between Close and Distant”, Walker says (emphasis mine):

The space between close and distant is the worst kind of loneliness, which is not that of being alone, but unknown. I have always been noticed and liked, but rarely known. The first time I really admitted this to myself was one morning at Mozart’s Coffee on Lake Austin. Mozart’s was packed, everyone working on something or trying hard to relax. I couldn’t help but feel that we were all addicted to doing stuff. It made me think of an ant farm, not in a demanding sense — we would likely not have plumbing or pineapple salsa without such productivity — but in a way that it seems we are all running around looking for something that is at the same time trying to find us.

I couldn’t agree more. And what is this pineapple salsa Walker speaks of, and more importantly, where do I get some? It sounds delicious!