I’m sorry for anyone who isn’t my wife who reads this, because this may get a bit mushy. But I’ve only got 30 minutes of battery on my laptop, so I may have to cut it short, but I want to dedicate this post to my beautiful wife.
She’s been waiting for this post for a while, as she one day discovered a journal entry I had written about a summer crush I once had. She was worried that she wasn’t journal material.
Well, I’m telling you now, and the entire world, that she was much more than journal material, she is wife material. Continue reading “My wonderful wife”→
“Every now and then”, he told the congregation, “I think about my death.” His words brought a low murmur of surprise from the parishioners.
“I don’t think of it in a morbid sense,” he qualified, smiling faintly. “I ask myself what I would want said. If any of you are around when I have to meet my day… I don’t want a long funeral. And tell them not to mention that I have a Nobel Peace Prize. Tell them not to mention where I went to school. None of that is important. I’d like somebody to mention that day that …Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to give his life to serving others… I’d like for somebody to mention that day that … Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to love somebody…
I want you to say that day that … I tried to be right on the war question… I want you to be able to say that day that … I did try to feed the hungry… I want you to be able to say that day that … I did try in my life to clothe those who were naked …
I want you to say on that day that … I did try in my life to visit those who were in prison …
Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice! Say that I was a drum major for peace! And all of the other shallow things will not matter. I won’t have any money to leave behind. I won’t have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind.
That’s all I want to say. If I can help somebody as I pass along … if I can cheer somebody with a word or song … if I can show somebody that he’s travelling wrong … then my living will not be in vain.
If I can do my duty as a Christian ought … if I can spread the message as the Master taught … then my living will not be in vain.”
Australia is a really odd nation. While we lap up shows like “The Biggest Loser” and have a rich sporting history, and perfect weather for getting out to the beach and exercising, in 2008 Australia became the world’s fattest nation. At that time, a report found that 26% of Australians were Obese.
Today, I read a news report that KFC were releasing “The Double” – a burger without a bun that has twice the cheese, twice the bacon and twice the chicken. It comes up at a total kilojoule count of 1939kJ (412 Calories) for the original recipie, and 2515kJ (535 Calories) for the Zinger burger. If you have the burger as a regular meal (which would be the most commonly requested), the chips add 1137kJ (241 Calories) or for a large chips 2403kJ (511 Calories). So this burger, in a meal ranges between 653 and 1046 calories. For a comparison, Males aged between 19 and 30 – to whom this burger is advertised towards should aim to consume 2400 calories a day if they are not doing any exercise. For me, as I’m trying to lose weight, I aim my meals to be around the 300 calorie mark.But it’s not just the calories. You’ve also got to take into account the fat (22.3g and 35.7g respectively for the two burgers), which for the Zinger Burger is about half the recommended daily Fat intake for an adult. In fact, the only good thing about this burger is that it doesn’t have a bun, which would certainly shoot the kilojoules up.
Yet, despite knowing this, take a look at this image, of a survey run at the bottom of this Sydney Morning Herald article on this burger.
Why Australia has an Obesity problem
At the time I grabbed this screenshot, 47% of 15474 voters approved of this burger. If this poll was representative of the Australian public (which it isn’t) that would be 11 Million people who think that this burger is acceptable.
Australia has an Obesity problem. The difficult thing is that it’s not just going to be a change in the food that fast foods give us that is going to fix this. It’s change in attitude, a change in mindset, from the entire nation, to help and support each other as we try to lose this dishonorable title of the World’s fattest nation.
The question posed by the Daily Post today is whether you prefer Texting or Calling. While I text far more than I call, I still most likely prefer calling – even though calling for work sometimes scares me.
Calling allows you to share the context of your voice, and I know of many different occasions where a text has been taken out of context, when there would have been no problem if it had been said on a phone call.
I do like the fact that a text can be replied to when you’re ready, where as a phone call, I always feel like I might be invading someones space. But I think that overall, a phone call is better, due to the immediate fact of being able to explain yourself.
I’ve recently taken over leadership of the youth band at church. Upon taking this up, the leader of the youth services (who just happens to be my wife) wanted to make very clear guidelines of what was expected of each of our positions. We decided that I would take care of the musical side of the youth services, rehearsing the band, choosing the songs etc. She would take care of preparing the meeting leads, leading the service and those sorts of things.
What we’ve found is that dividing that responsibility gives us the freedom to really focus on our areas, and do more with them than we could do if we had to do it all on our own.
Likewise, my manager recently started job-sharing with another person. While they’re still working it all out, they will divide up the tasks of one job, and divide it between the two of them, bringing their own strengths to each part. One will deal with the media, one will deal with more internal communications. One will deal with budgets, one will deal with writing. I think that this arrangement will allow them to focus on the areas that they work best in, and help lift the quality of output of our team higher than it has been before.
Dividing up your roles can give you freedom to focus on your strengths more, and help you improve the final result. How could you divide up your role(s) and what qualities would you be looking to add to give you the flexibility to work to your strengths?
Well what a busy day it was. Today was our Church Fete, one of the busiest days in our Church’s year. We had plants, handbags, cook books, sausage sizzle, cheap fruit and veg (bananas for $5/kg!), face painting and even a fashion parade!
The youth band played, and apart from some early sound issues with microphones not working, I was really pleased with it. We played a more contemporary set than we would normally play at a youth service, which allowed me to utilise our singers in a different way. I was able to spread some solos around which, I think, was greatly appreciated by the band. Plus, I finally got to play the violin for “Devil went down to Georgia.”
The Church fete is great, because our whole church pitches in and helps out on the day. From some of our youngest members to our oldest members, there’s a job for everyone on the day, and we raise a heap of money. The past couple of years we’ve raised over $10,000.
I watched the first game of the 2011 AFL season last night. It was the first time that the new Substitute rule was put to the test. A quick Google search this morning provided many news articles saying that it was a failure.
On Saturday, I treated myself to a golf lesson. I’ve been playing for a number of years, but had never had a proper lesson. While I did have some good things in my game (eg, my grip) I also had a number of things to correct in my posture.
My teacher got me to change only a couple of things, but that made big changes to my swing. Through practice to make it regular, it should hopefully bring my game down to a lower score.
What I liked about the lesson is that he didn’t make massive changes, only small ones. Bending my knees less, bending more from the waist, lifting up my chin. When we want to make changes in our lives, we often tend to look for the big changes. Problem with that is that we’ll fall off the bandwagon, and get disappointed. Instead, we should look for little changes that will make a big impact on our lives.
For example, one of the little changes I made to help me lose weight was to stop buying soft drinks when I was thirsty. Instead, I’ll have water, cordial, or fruit juice. These aren’t as bad as soft drinks, and it’s just a small change that will have a big effect on my life.
What small changes can you make on your life?
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Matthew 5:13-16 (NIV)
Have you been to the country recently? Just recently, I headed down to Margaret River for a weekend away. We were driving, and there were no lights anywhere. We looked up and saw the stars. Having escaped the light pollution that cities normally give, we could see all these stars lighting up the sky. It was really amazing. Continue reading “Let your light shine”→
I’ve recently been thinking about the possibility of selling my car. I’m definitely selling it at the end of the year when I (hopefully) move to Melbourne, but I’ve been thinking of selling it soon for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, it’s not going up in value, and only going down in value. Plus, it’s only going to cost me money in repairs. So by selling now, I’m saving money in repairs and getting more money for the car now than later.
Secondly, by selling the car now, I can put that money into a savings account, and instead of costing it money, it could be earning me money.
On the down side, catching public transport would increase the travel time to an hour (as opposed to 15-30 minutes), and would make things difficult in sharing one car between two people – working out who needs to use it when.
I think that there’s a fair few things to think about, but I thought I’d put it out there to the blogosphere to give their thoughts on the matter. So what’s your thoughts? Hit up the comments to let me know.
I’m sorry for anyone who isn’t my wife who reads this, because this may get a bit mushy. But I’ve only got 30 minutes of battery on my laptop, so I may have to cut it short, but I want to dedicate this post to my beautiful wife.
Ben Clapton 