Month: June 2011

My five favourite Web Comics

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life
Last panel of the xkcd webcomic "Philosop...
Image via Wikipedia

Bit of a light-hearted post today. I enjoy reading web comics, and some are better than others. Some I can really enjoy and want to read every day, others I can come back to and just read whenever. Here are my five favourite web comics.

5. Max vs Max

Max vs Max was a great story line written by Wes Molebash. It started in November 2009 and ran until December 2010, and follows Max as he deals with life after a divorce. Great artwork, with a wonderful story, with a few spiritual issues thrown in as well. If you’ve got the time, it’s a great read.

Max vs Max. First comic: Back in the Saddle.

4. Questionable Content

This is an incredibly good comic, that I could very much read every day for the rest of my life. Although this is a bad comparison, it is similar to Friends – you’ve got a group of friends who all congregate around a coffee shop, and you get involved in various aspects of their lives. You get to know and love the characters, and can’t wait to see what happens next. The comic has been going since 2003, and they’re currently approaching their 2000th comic, so there’s plenty to read and catch up on. Do it. It’s worth it.

Questionable Content. First comic: Employment sucks.

3. PC Weenies

I have the proud honour of owning the first PC Weenies book in Australia. I bought it because I love this comic series. Krishna has created an awesome character in Bob, who’s a tech guy working at “the mysterious Footle, the world’s largest search engine” and is obsessed with gadgets. I love the way that he so often captures the “I can’t believe you just said that” moment. He’s just about to publish his second book, so start getting familiar with characters now, just in time to buy the book!

PC Weenies. First comic: A New Beginning

2. PvP

PvP focusses on the team at a gaming magazine, specifically Brent, the sunglasses wearing, Mac adoring graphic designer. Having been around since 1998, there’s plenty to read here. It’s a great comic, lots of fun to read, and always interesting. The story tends to run from strip to strip, so might be worth going back a few comics to get yourself acquainted.

PvP. First comic: May 4, 1998.

1. XKCD

XKCD would have to be my favourite webcomic. It’s very much geek humour, but there’s a lot there for everyone. The artwork isn’t “great” – it’s just stick figures – but that’s part of its appeal. The best part about XKCD is that the Tool-tip text is sometimes funnier than the comic itself. Make sure you read it – just hover your mouse over the comic.

XKCD. First Comic: Barrel – Part 1.

So there’s my top 5 web comics. What are your favourites?

Right Job, Wrong Time

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life
Dog Rock - Albany, Western Australia.
One of the iconic landmarks of Albany - Dog Rock (Image via Wikipedia)

I was offered a job yesterday. It was, a couple of years ago, my dream job. It was teaching violin, 4 days a week, at schools in Albany. A couple of years ago – even possibly as late as last year – I might have jumped at the opportunity. This time, however, I turned it down.

Why? Well, I’m heading to college (hopefully – should find out on Wednesday) next year, and if we’re accepted to that, then I’m moving house. Working 4 days a week in Albany (which for those playing overseas is about a 4.5 hour drive, or around $200 each way for flights) would put a serious strain on my relationship with my wife, especially in the lead up to college, where we would be thrown into a boiler room of pressure, living in the college, studying every day with everyone else around us.

So I turned the job down. I know it’s the right thing to do, but it’s also incredibly hard for me to pass something up that I had wanted for so long. A full-time teaching job – doing for a living what I was trained to do, instead of my current situation – working three hours on a Friday morning teaching, and doing non-musical work the rest of the week. But it’s ok, as I know that God has called me to ministry in the Salvation Army, and in a couple of years, I will not only be doing what I was trained to do, but also what I was called to do.

I think that makes it all better.

Have you ever had to give something up that you really wanted, because the situation wasn’t quite right?

How I use my website

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life

I though that with the new layout, new posting regime and such, I would post a bit about how I plan to use my blog over the next six months – and possibly into the future.

Essentially, there will be three types of posts: daily posts, feature posts, and other.

Daily Posts

The post a day 2011 challenge promotes writing on your blog every day. As help, they provide daily prompts. Often, they are very simple questions, and wide-ranging so unlikely to fit to any blogs particular niche. But they often make you think about questions you may not have thought about before, and can sometimes provoke debate on some issues, so I shall endeavour to post one of these daily.

Feature posts

As this theme has the capability for feature posts, I plan to utilise these to their fullest. I don’t want a blog that is only posts about me, so these feature posts will be a bit longer, and look at particular issues in more depth. I might look at things to do with social networking, websites, or post some religious thoughts. Either way, I look forward to shaping.g these posts out over the course of a week, as opposed to the churn them out daily posts.

Other posts

This theme also makes use of other post types – aside, links, quotes, photos – so I’m going to try post some of these as well – bible passages I like, quotes from books or blogs, photos that I might take, and more.

So I hope I don’t annoy you with extra content, but I hope that it will provide a few gems for you.

An Expert (Image by Pete Prodoehl via Flickr)

How I accidentally became an expert (and how you can too!)

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Feature

An Expert (Image by Pete Prodoehl via Flickr)

I’ve been thinking about what I could write about on this blog. I want to be able to write some decent length posts that have some quality writing in them, as well as my airy-fairy short posts that keep the writing happening every day. And the change to this new theme, Twenty Eleven, allows me to have these feature posts along with those less-featureable ones. But what to write about. I think I may have spent a lunch break or two staring at my computer screen, browsing different sites and blogs, reading posts about “finding your niche” and “develop your microniche” trying to think about what I could write about.

And then it struck me. Some how – and I don’t know why this happened – I became an expert. It all happened rather accidentally. Yet, there are those around who treat me as an expert. In what field?

The internet for Churches. Continue reading “How I accidentally became an expert (and how you can too!)” →

Not good, but not bad

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life
Shane Warne. At the WACA gound on 15/10/2006 P...
Least trusted person in Australia? (Image via Wikipedia)

I want to write today about a story that has been in the News the last couple of days. Reader’s Digest published their list of the 100 most trusted people in Australia, and the person who came in position 100, Shane Warne, has been labelled the Least trusted celebrity in Australia.

Now, I’m sure Warnie doesn’t need me to go in to bat for him, but I’m not a fan of this misreporting that has been occurring. While Warne is the least trusted celebrity in this list, there are plenty of well-known celebrities who did not make the list. Just because he came last in the list, doesn’t make him the least. Continue reading “Not good, but not bad” →

We are all called

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, faith, Feature

As I did last week, I’m posting the Sermon that I preached on Sunday. This was at my church, at Floreat Salvation Army, and was part of my pre-college assessments. The reading that this sermon is based on comes from James 2:14-24. Continue reading “We are all called” →

Getting back into writing

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life
Two hands on a computer keyboard
(Credit: blary54 at sxc.hu)

At the beginning of the year, I signed up to the Post-a-day challenge. I thought it was a great idea, to get my mind thinking, my fingers writing and some content onto my blog. In that time, I’ve had some really good, really popular posts. My post on the viola for example, or my reflections on the Zangief Kid. I’ve had some stimulating discussion on my thoughts on Salvation Army Soldiership, and Climate Change. However, eventually, Life got  busy, and I found it difficult to find the time to write daily. I tried to draw it back to weekly posts, but could never get into the habit of doing it. So it dried up. to the point that I’ve had 3 posts since the beginning of May.

But I’ve decided to change that. Starting July 1, I’m going to attempt to publish a post every day for the rest of the year. I’m going to get back onto the Post-a-day bandwagon, and get it happening again. But I’m going to do it slightly differently this time. Continue reading “Getting back into writing” →