I started a bit of IT casual/consulting work today…great to be doing stuff I love (sitting at a computer fixing things) and being paid for it! And of course very thankful for God for his constant provision.

The place is kinda cool too… they mix up radioactive recipes for hospitals and doctors doing radiotherapy. The room I’ve been working in is just down the hall from the lab. Close enough to hear the constant click of the Geiger counter.

Not glowing… yet.

I’ve just about perfected this. Takes just 3 mins to cook…tasting good, but still needs some tweaking.

‘Chocolate Mug Cake’

Hinted at in the last post…

I was faced with a problem last night. I hadn’t started reading the book, it was 270 pages long and the exam is tomorrow. I could have gone with summaries and notes, but I kinda wanted to read it but just hadn’t gotten around to it.

Enter speed reading: I’ve been reading a bit about it (link 1, link 2) and thought I’d give it a shot. It’s the bomb!! I got through the book in two sittings… last night and this morning taking about 4 hours total, and (I think) I got some good retention. We’ll find out tomorrow

I recommend you give it a try if you find yourself having to get through large blocks of reading.

The things that worked bast for me was

• Comfortable chair
• Good light
• Stopping sub-vocalisation (click the links above)
• using a piece of paper to track my reading down the page
• Taking a break every now and then to think back over what I’d read

Anyone got other reading tips?

photo via::fffffound.com

It’s a really great book and am glad I read it! This is the set text for Mission Foundations at college. It paints a sweeping picture of God’s saving activity across the stages of salvation history but also gives a good level of detail at each.

The section on intertestamental Jewish missionary endeavour made convincing use of the historical data (they argue that there was not organised, systematic evangelisation by 2nd temple Jews) and the investigation of what each gospel writer contributes individually to a theology of mission was great. For me the gold was the language of inclusion/ingathering. The OT presents Israel as under a general mandate to include (which happens in a few cases - ruth, rahab etc) but with Jesus death and resurrection a new eschatalogical age of ingathering has begun. The key is to realise that this is exactly what Isaiah’s ’servant’ would do (cf. Is 56 esp v8).

Another bonus, the book has an excellent synthesis/conclusion chapter which gives you the whole book in a few short pages.

So #4 on the list is done!

Apparently there are around 2 trillion ways to thread laces through the average pair of shoes according to this guy. It seems a little high, but I can’t be bothered doing the maths to check it. Anyway, his collection of alternate shoe tying patterns is interesting! check it.

How do you tie your shoes? Do you use any of the bizzaro alternates?

I’m tempted to try the checkerboard:

I have excessively long laces on my current pair of shoes so it might just put the huge dangling ends to good use…

#61 on the list was completed in unimpressive style for Adelaide. At least it was fun hanging out with Dave Miers and Rowena! Adelaide FC went down 3-0…

I have to admit that I didn’t know what the team colours were befor the game, but it became pretty clear when I saw the overwhelming sea of Adelaide supporters in their red get-ups:

Thanks for getting me up to the coast Dave, had a great time!! I’ll be back sometime for that pizza place too. very nice… so full of meat and cheesy goodness!

Google detects flu trends!

I wonder if they could also accurately predict the end of the world 2 weeks in advance? …perhaps based on how many users searched for “barack obama antichrist”? (here’s what I found, in case you’re wondering)

Anyone know of good ways to get rid of pigeons?? there is a shanty-town house behind us (i think it is abandoned) and it is infested with pigeons! which sucks because our clothes line is right over the fence from it. yeah. connect the dots.

So judging by this picture shooting oversized thumbtacks at them isn’t going to work

Our neighbours have a mango tree which is absolutely loaded with new fruit. it’s not ripe yet but they said that when it last fruited (which it does every 2 years apparently) they had them coming out of their ears…they said they’d send some our way when they start coming ripe. which makes me very happy. I love mango!

Since I am impatient, I got some mango this week and used it in last night’s meal - this is more Nick’s territory i  know, but hey i’ll have an amateur crack at food blogging…modified from Cajun Lamb with Manjo & Avocado Salsa. The Salsa is the main game for me. I used basil instead of the recommended coriander and served it with Moroccan seasoned chicken breasts.

Mango & avocado salsa

1 just-ripe mango, cheeks removed, peeled, finely chopped
1 avocado, halved, stone removed, peeled, finely chopped
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
1 long fresh red chilli, halved, deseeded, finely chopped
2 tbs finely chopped fresh basil
1 tbs fresh lime juice

Just combine it, toss and serve. Great summer flavour!

Continuing the retro-cool theme…

Some of you will have seen my cassette t-shirt design (on my merch page or on my body)

The images were sourced from tapedeck.org - an collection of high res tape images. It’s a pretty wacky idea for a website, but it is interesting to see the variations in packaging.

Best thing about tapes: Their usefulness in the production of the mixed tape. I have no idea how long I spent back in the day listening to rage and top-40 radio/super-request recording stuff to my next mixed tape!

Did you ever make one? for a love interest? did it work?