TheGeoffRe(y)port

I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, but I wanted to recommend a great blog. Jess (famous in these parts for things like that engagement story video, as well as being one of Bec’s bridesmaids) is a film student who writes great film reviews at Gold Stars (goldstars.wordpress.com). She’s not always right (she can’t agree with me all the time, but on the whole it is very rare that Jess would recommend a film that’s not worth your hard-earned cash, at least as an overnight rental.

So for really honest and genuine film reviews, as well as a bit of cheerful banter, head on over to Gold Stars and tell her why The Notebook was such a magnificent achievement in modern cinema, or why Daniel Day Lewis is a hack. (Not because it’s true, but it would be funny to watch!)

I thought the cartoon on the right was interesting, given the recent excitement over on Bec’s blog.

(Cartoon from xkcd)

I’ve written before about my obsessions (and I’m thinking in particular about the whole “stacking thing”), but partly due to the whole being married thing, I’ve become aware of some funny little things I do. So here they are:

1. Once I get home from work, I’m unlikely to have a proper conversation for about half an hour, or an hour if it’s been a long day. Then, I suddenly get a rush of talking-ness and everything is OK.
2. I have a nasty habit of bidding on things cheaply, thinking: “it’s OK - I’ll never win it at that price”. That’s how come I’ve got Original Munchkin which arrived on Friday.
3. I frequently talk back to the news. Worse to “current affairs” shows. Even Especially when there’s no one else around.
4. I think better when I have something in my mouth, which leads to either bouts of obesity, or an inability to lend my pen to anyone other than my wife. I’m flipping between the two.
5. There’s an air freshener in our public toilet at work that goes off periodically and sounds like someone sniffing. Every single time it goes off, it makes me freak out that there’s someone standing over my right shoulder.
6. My Google Reader is currently subscribed to 186 feeds. I know that’s too many, but there aren’t any that I’m willing to give up. Not all of them are blogs: I check the news headlines from the BBC World News, and The Age, and I also get things like IT security notifications just to keep an eye out. But it’s way too many.
7. Despite my football team only having made the finals twice while I’ve been alive, having also won the wooden spoon last year, and our prospects for this looking faint at best, I still bought a membership for my wife and I for the upcoming season.

So there you are. Does anyone share any of my freaky-ness?

This afternoon, I will marry my best friend.

That’s all. See you in late January.

Google, google, on the screen

Who’s the most famous Geoff you’ve seen?

Well. In the land of Oz, that can only be the number one result for the search term “Geoff” from google.com.au. Which at the moment is - “TheGeoffRe(y)port”. It’s a bit of a laugh really, it seems to me that there should be a whole bunch of sites that would be better served as the number 1 for that particular search term. But hey, while it lasts - why not point it out.

it’s time for a new theme. Obviously activity on TheGeoffRe(y)port has been a bit scarce, with most of my attention going towards wedding preparations, and the excess being exerted onto the grand venture that is amateur theology. But I want to get back going on here - post some more random thoughts, talk politics and sport, give general personal updates. So we’ll see.

I’m still not yet happy with the header: I think we’ll play around with it a little bit more yet. But I’ve decided that it was time for something a little less dark and wintery. The image in the polaroid will rotate in the near future, at the moment it’s just the single photo. It will be a bit of wait and see with this theme I feel: I like it, but I’m not in love with it. It might take some tweaking.

It’s simple, and worth knowing. Hat tip to Kingdom Journalism

The day that Steve Bracks (former Victorian Premier) resigned, he said that part of what he was proud of was that during his time in Government, they had changed the conversation to one around education, healthcare, blah blah. Now regardless of whether or not you agree that he did that, the point is a valid one. If you control the conversation, you control what is perceived to be valuable.

I think part of the reason that it appears the federal government is likely to lose the upcoming election is that they are no longer able to dictate the conversation with regard to media. Howard has used lots of the same lines as he used against Latham and Beazley, whereas Rudd at least seems to be offering something that sounds different enough that he has been able to change the way that the conversation is dictated.

Today is Blog Action Day. It’s a day when thousands of blogs all over the world, in all kinds of genres and niches are posting about the environment. In fact, you are reading one of those very posts. Because the conversation has changed. Where before the conversation around environmental concerns were mostly from the edges, or at least how much giving a token consideration to the environment would cost economically - it is now the mainstream that is talking about ways to take seriously the challenge to leave this earth in the same condition we start with.

As Christians, it’s time we stopped hiding behind ignorance or apathy and start trumpeting the cause of the environment. Because doing something about God’s creation is a kingdom purpose. And when the wider conversation aligns with the principles of the kingdom we have a responsibility to amplify that voice. We need to get behind people like Tri Robinson who are advocating the cause of the environment.

But even more - we need to get out there and do something. Whether it’s making lifestyle choices that can cut down on your transportation, limiting your use of extra plastic bags, choosing slightly more expensive but carbon-neutral energy options. Despite what Kermit might say - it’s relatively easy being green.

As you’ll have noticed, activity here on the report has been nigh on non-existent, since I started working on Amateur Theology. So far AT seems to be going quite well, but I thought it was probably pretty important to let you all know roughly where I see TheGeoffRe(y)port sitting now that I have another outlet for my theological musings and ruminations.

In the long term: I’d really like to have TheGeoffRe(y)port be roughly what it is right now, with slightly less theoretical theology, more commentary on news and current affairs, and slightly more personal slant on things. Ultimately I’m hoping that Amateur Theology will reach a place where I’m writing about 25% or less of the posts on there, so that it becomes a much more collaborative blog rather than Geoff’s blog that some other people post on once in a while. So TheGeoffRe(y)port is likely to contain more direct reflections on things that happen to me, while my Amateur Theology posts will probably end up more theoretical.

So the long and the short of it is: please stick around. It might get worse before it gets better, because between launching AT and the aforementioned wedding prep, my blogging time for the report has been reduced to not very much. But I won’t forget you, friends.

PS. Thanks to all the people who very generously have clicked on the advertisement links that they are only ever genuinely interested in - I received my first cheque from Google the other day - so there you go. Crime might not pay, but blogging kind of does.

I’m sure you’re probably sick of hearing about it, but I’ve launched Amateur Theology over the weekend, and it’s now got the first theology post over there. So from now on, I’d expect that pretty much all of my theology posts will go over there, and this blog will remain for personal/sporting/political stuff. And again I’d encourage anyone who has something they’d like published up on Amateur Theology to email me the submission at submissions@amateurtheology.org. I’m really hoping that it will be more than just a second blog for my crazy ideas and that we can actually build up a whole bunch of thoughts there.

The RSS Feed for Amateur Theology is at http://amateurtheology.org/feed/ if you wanted to subscribe: should hopefully be worthwhile.