To the bitter ones

Open letter to the bitter people in my life; those that express their views and opinions on my church; those that love me but don’t love my church; those that dislike me and like my church even less:

It seems your expectations of the church and the people within it’s community are far and apart from mine.

My church, the church I read about in the bible, the church that God inhabits, the church which I am in 7 days a week is a community of people at various stages of life, mostly hurting people, who need what Jesus has to offer.

The church, SURFCiTY or any other church … offers me nothing more than a community in which I can be encouraged to seek God, to be loved by others and to fellowship with those closest to me.

If your church doesn’t look like this that might explain your bitterness to mine.

John Farnham … is back … again

Announced today at the Star City Lyric Theatre, John Farnham announces he’s back … again.

Word on the street is that Sadie the cleaning lady wouldn’t have him at home any longer as he “kept the place messy”.

Farnham is performing intimate (i.e. non-stadium) gigs throughout September and October this year.

Bad Payment

So I make this video for a member of my church, quote him my hourly rate of $39 per hour. He receives the video and is very outwardly happy with it, I invoice him for 21 hours and he leaves saying he will pay on that day.

The next day he returns to pick up the DVD and get the media file to play on his laptop in presentations because he is flying over to Africa to present this video to people that weekend. He mentions that I had made a slip-up in the invoice which I acknowledge and it was actually 19 hours, not 21. My bad, invoice fixed. He says he’ll pay that week.

The next week comes, no payment, he’s in Africa, I email him and he writes back angrily because I emailed him. States he will pay this week.

The next week (today) still no payment, so I email him:

Name Witheld, on receipt of the invoice you stated you would make payment on that day, afterwards you made me aware of an error of mine on the invoice which I corrected swiftly and you assured me you would make payment that week. Then you stated you would make payment by the end of the next week. All of these dates have passed.

I would appreciate your transparency, communication and swift payment regarding this matter.

Where I’m going with this is that if you’re going to use the C word when you describe yourself, or even when others describe you, remember who you’re working for … to be Christian is to be Christ like. No lying, no scamming, 100% truth. I would be happier, I’m sure most people would be happier, if you were 100% honest and say “I’m broke and I can’t pay you” … instead your lies make others lie because they form expectations based on your words, which turn out to be lies.

My situation now, I’ve committed to paying someone else $200 I owe them this week and I can’t … so I pray that God will provide … I’ve got no other solutions.

Describing Myself

Adam recently asked me to describe myself for our new business website – www.businesskickstart.com.au – and I was dumbstruck. After a few seconds I pumped this out:

Having recently learnt the vulcan hand gesture, become a marriage celebrant and learnt how to cook an omelette, Joshua has skills. He’s spent the last 27 years learning how to communicate effectively and specialises in new and emerging technology although Joshua, like most Queenslanders still struggles with the english language. Joshua earnt his stripes in the small business services business from an early age, supplying and servicing cash registers, stock control and EFTPOS equipment and has more recently found new challenges in broadcast radio, advertising and graphic design. He loves long walks on the beach, fizzy drinks and coastal communities without mobile reception.

Too pretentious?

Melbourne Zombie Shuffle

A cultural zombie … doing the Melbourne Zombie Shuffle … get it … the shuffle ….

Post Federal Budget 2009 Tweets

Last night in Australia our Federal Treasurer, MP Wayne Swan, previewed his 2009/2010 Federal Budget. Housemate Ash Punch and myself tweeted the event

Budget Tip from Budgets Past: start a war, it creates a new boom industry and spreads fear #ausbudget09

Tips for other countries rejecting the recession: keep your elderly employed, saves jobs from going to those pesky Gen Y’s #ausbudget09

Reporters seen at Lake Burley Griffin looking for rest of the swan family for comment on #ausbudget09

Gen X&Y respond to #ausbudget09 with a meh, they’re planning to borrow an extra $35 a week off gran or ask pa for a loan cause he has a job

Kevin Rudd says Gen Y don’t get jobs because someone needs to push poker chips down the series of new internet pipes he’s got #ausbudget09

The plan to lift us out recession: Attach nation to ballooning deficit and float to somewhere nice … like Antartica … #ausbudget09

Wayne Swan still waiting for ‘that cheque’ from a royal friend of his in Nigeria. Until then we’ll dance the recession dance #ausbudget09

National Traffic Update: delays expected on the employment highway, road to retirement currently detouring thru exits 66 and 67 #ausbudget09

Attn GenY from @FederalBudget: learn to use the ’save’ feature on your life, it’s under the File menu next to ‘Ring Gramps’ #ausbudget09

Federal Labour Government forgets to book Zoot review on #ausbudget09 … knee jerk reaction is to call on Chuck Norris to make infomercial

#ausbudget09 news: Swan: I had #Swineflu (via @ash_punch)

Prime TV weatherman takes a diversionary hit for Wayne Swan: wouldn’t it be funny if there was a Bing Lee store in Beenleigh. Aust disagrees

In #ausbudget09 First Home Buyers Grant extended to ‘couch at mates place’ and ‘Datsun 180B’s’. More realistic for Gen X & Y’s in 2009/2010

@adamlloydjones RT: Best way to beat the recession? Change our country’s name to escape creditors, then take the phone off the hook

New revenue generator in Canberra in #ausbudget09: early morning ballooning deficit rides over Lake Burley Griffin

Experts say: green screen technology heaps warmer than actual lawn outside of Parliment House #ausbudget09

Joe Hockey says all Aussies now in debt $9000 each (Ed: because of the budget) , ANZ Bank offering interest free transfers and free piggy banks to taxpayers #ausbudget09

Kochie: #ausbudget09 is whimpy, Kevin Rudd replies: the Joke of the day isn’t that funny, Mel breaks it up, tells Kochie not to Stefanovic

ABC gets funding boost in #ausbudget09: plans for new series of Chaser so ABC can beat the comedy of @ash_punch & @joshuawithers next budget

Wayne Swan admits: SimCity goes back on the treasury shelf for another 50 weeks. WoW now back in the Computer’s DVD drive #ausbudget09

Matthew Johns publicly thanks Wayne Swan for flooding tomorrows newspapers with #ausbudget09 news.

Single mothers and unemployed young Australians swamp emergency departments with symptoms of Budget Flu (B1N1) … #ausbudget0

#ausbudget09 ……. ummmm ……… Swan Flu ……..

TV Week reported to be in talks with the Federal Treasury regarding naming rights for #ausbudget10 …. rebound?

Federal Treasury reported to be investigating a reality television concept for #ausbudget10 …. Australia’s Idle

sorry about last nights tweet comedy attack on #ausbudget but once I saw no comment from Wil Anderson, Rove or that whiny woman some1 had to

TV Week rumoured to be dumping ‘that awards night’ in light of new national awards ‘The Budgies’ winners get $900 statues #ausbudget09

The 2009 Golden Budgie goes to pensioners, 1st home buyers & small business #ausbudget09

Bible Reading With Josh

Today I’ve read through some chapters in the second book of Samuel, the first book of Chronicles, a Psalm and Matthew 22.

So far i’ve found men with 6 fingers on each hand and 6 toes on each foot, a naked man at a wedding and some insight into what heaven is like (no marriage apparently) and finally, like we learn in every chapter of the bible, God is the hero and he’s alive today.

Twitter says ‘Lean On Me’ to Australian Journalists

On a recent Google mission to see how badly my name could be portrayed through the search engine I found an article from the Courier Mail with my name splashed about on it:

This is not the first time Anna Bligh has been caught out deleting messages on Twitter.

The premier was in Mt Isa on March 5 and tweeted: “I’m in Mt Isa. It’s looking very green and the river is flowing”.

Bemused Twitter user Joshua Withers replied: “which Mount Isa are you at?”

Without acknowledging Mr Withers or referencing her previous tweet, Ms Bligh deleted the first message and posted a second , identical except for the words “and the river is flowing”

The Logies this year once again proved to be a fruitful place for Twitterers and Journalists alike, quoting Rove McManus from his Twitter

Congratulations twitter logie tweeters. You are now thinking for and writing all material for the Australian media. I’d ask for a cheque

It’s true that Twitter is a collective report on the state of the world today, well the state of the world of those that post to the service. But are the posts there to be reported on? Are journalists cheating or being lazy by doing a quick Twitter Search?

Or is your and my twitter feed there for the masses, unprotected and as such open to the media to use as well?

This same debate could rage over your Facebook or blog as well. My only argument for this abuse of public information is that sometimes it’s the only way I would find something out. In this light am I expecting to much of the media today to actually drive to the scene of a crime or accident and take their own photo instead of taking it off Twitpic?

WeAreHunted.com – The Interview

In recent travels it’s been made known to me that the next big thing after sliced bread and the colour ‘black’ is this internet thing we’re all keen about at the moment. The music industry has been shaken to the very core of recent times with blame being laid firmly on those pesky mp3’s and Apple Computer’s but it seems not all is bad in the world of 1’s and 0’s.

We Are Hunted

We Are Hunted is a collaborative effort between Native Digital and Wotnews that draws on the people power that is social networking and blogs to create a chart of the hottest 99 tracks in the world today. The technology behind the site is the same technology used to aggregate the news on Wotnews.com.au.

I threw an email their way with a few questions attached about how the chart was run and where it was going and this is how it all went down.

JW: What has been the driving force behind your team’s development of wearehunted.com?
WAH: We are huge music fans and consume music online, each in different ways. We had a mix of skills and decided to put together an essential online music property – something we wanted to visit every day.

JW: The website states the chart is driven by sentiment, expression and advocacy. Would you explain that on a more human and practical level. Is there an emotions engine that measures how many times a song title has the word “omg” next to it or do real people scour real blogs and websites?
WAH: The engine is automated. Our analysis includes sentiment detection to work out whether people like or dislike a track. Semantics to understand who people are talking about. Clustering and classification to group related artists and their noise. And network analysis to uncover the connections between artists and the people who write about them.

JW: Do industry sources, for good or for evil, have any impact on the chart? (i.e. Record labels, distributors or artists)
WAH: None whatsoever.

JW: Today on the chart there are remixes of current popular songs, mainstream popular music and a good portion are independent or emerging artists. There has even been some older popular songs come back into the chart. How would you say this reflects the community who influence the chart.
WAH: I think there is definitely a diversity of music tastes out there. Even within our team there’s a love for everything from commercial to rare DnB.

JW: Traditional charts have been geographically based and also split up into genres along with a mainstream chart. We Are Hunted has been billed as the chart for the people but the people still live in different cultures and have different music tastes, how will wearehunted.com reflect this diversity?
WAH: We Are Hunted will reflect the aggregate of all these people’s online musical activity.

JW: What vision have you got for the chart into the next 6 months and the next 1-3 years?
WAH: First and foremost we want the site to be an essential destination for its users. We access and analyse extraordinary amounts of data and we intend to work with companies to help them know and understand what we know.

I’m a big fan of what is happening in the We Are Hunted camp, it’s a website you can set to be your homepage because every day it’s a new chart. As a web application it runs very nicely and smoothly, you can click on a song and listen to it, although some of the audio is sometimes missing or a very different mix to the radio release or even album release.

The music you’ll find on there is very diverse, mainstream through to indie and everywhere in between. Typically it is music that demographically is appreciated by the 18-30 year old age bracket because they are the people that are typically blogging or tweeting about the music they’re loving, but that’s alright by me because I’m 27 and loving the music on the chart.

Load it up, set it as your home page and start blogging cause We Are Hunted is watching!

withersaway.com

withersaway.com

On a suggestion from John Saddington I’ve created my own personal branding website – putting everything that I am, out there on the web for all to see with all the links, the who’s where’s and why’s.

So check it out – withersaway.com