Angry Birds: An infographic of addiction.

Like like to play the occasional video game. I mostly play FIFA and F1, anything else and I just get bored. That is until Angry Birds came along.

I own all three of the Angry Birds games on my iPhone, and I think they are quite enjoyable. I am in no way addicted to playing it, but I know others who probably are.

AYTM have recently done a study into the addiction of Angry Birds and they put together a handy infographic to show their results to people like me who like pictures. You can find the original post here.

Go on. Take a break.

This week Kirsty and I went away for a few days to get a break, and to get some energy back after a particularly busy period of time. We went to the Hunter Valley.

Whenever we go away I am reminded of how important it is to take breaks from time to time to re-energise and re-focus. While this is hard to remember when we are busy, it is what we need. This is exactly what we did, and we are both all the better for it.

The place we were staying had an awesome view. This is a photo I took while we had afternoon tea on Tuesday.

All quiet over here…

Ok, it’s been a little while. Kirsty and I have been really busy. But I thought I would give an update on some of the things that we (I) have been up to recently.

1) 6 weeks ago Kirsty snapped a ligament in her ankle playing netball. Awesome. We have had quite a few appointments with doctors and physios. There was the possibility that she would of had to have surgery. It was good to hear that the surgeon thought that physio twice a week for a while would get things working again.

2) Another thing ive been doing a little bit of work on, is a new social media team at college. We have been working to raise the profile of college on twitter and fb. So far things seem to be going well, lots of interaction, and we have made some good plans for the future. Follow us on twitter @moorecollege. We will be giving away some freebies in the near future.

3) Ive started up a new design project with a good mate of mine. We are trying to provide some design services for people who can’t pay heaps, but need some nice looking design. We are hoping to launch later in the year. You can find out some more at tyrodesign.com

4) College has been busy as usual. Lots of essays and greek exams. Not sure what else to write here, except that I’ve spent the last month looking at the early Christian church in egypt. Happy to answer any questions you might have.

5) Next week Kirsty and I are heading away to the Hunter Valley for 3 days. We can’t wait!

Ill write about some of these things in detail soon. I’m starting to realise that I’m far too busy most of the time, but we press on.

Foo Fighters – Back and Forth

One of my anomalies as a person is my love of music. I have never been able to play any kind of instrument (except maybe the recorder, very badly), and I don’t think I can sing that well. But I really like music. Not all kinds of music though: Country does not feature in my CD collection.

One difficultly with music is that it is intensely personal. Different people like different music, and some people hate other kinds of music. I don’t like Justin Bieber and Country, some people really like Justin Bieber and Country.

Not really sure where this is going, but I wanted to share the trailer of a doco on the Foo Fighters that Kirsty and I recently watched. I was dubious at how good it would be, Kirsty even more so. But we really enjoyed it.

If you like their kind of music, have a look.

Space travel According to John

Recently I’ve developed a real interest in space exploration.

This is mostly sue to the recent retiring of the space shuttle program, and also the future plans for sending robots/satellites to places like Mars and Jupiter. My recent interest in all things space has made me remember times when I was a kid, when I would just be struck my the sheer enormity of space, and how my mind would imagine things about that the other planets would be like.

This week I stumbled upon a video that encapsulates perfectly the imagination of a child. His name is John, and this is what he thinks about space. Enjoy.

Space travel According to John from Jamie Stone on Vimeo.

Introducing: Tyro Designs.

I’m doing something that I don’t normally do, I am asking you for a favor. If you like things that are designed nicely, it might even interest you.

Recently I started a discussion with a good friend of mine about design and social media. We came to some realisations. One of them being the reality that decently designed stuff is pretty unattainable for the ‘little guys’. The little guys being individuals, churches and small businesses. Good quality design these days can be expensive, and for good reason, but the problem is that it then pushes it out of reach of the ‘little guys’.

What has been bourn out of this has been a new design ‘company’. We are calling ourselves Tyro Designs, and we are hoping that we can help in some way. We have started Tyro to help people get online (individuals, bloggers, musicians, etc) and to help people with offline visual design (posters, books, powerpoints, resumés, etc).

If you’re in this boat and would like some good quality design for less (most probably even free!) head over to the website and sign-up to find out when we launch the site. Additionally, you can like our facebook page and follow us on twitter.

We’d appreciate any help you could give us. Recommend us to your friends (we are working on getting a weekly competition going), sign up for our newsletter and keep in touch on facebook and twitter.

Christian Emotions.

This week at church we are starting a new series. It is a series on Christian Emotions.

We are running the series off the back of the same series, which has been running at the main site of Christ Church St Ives for the last little while. Our ‘mother’ church. I’m really looking forward to it.

It should be a really good series, my friend Luke Woodhouse will be preaching the series. Below is a promo video that Christ Church put together for the series. I really like it.

We Feel | The Gospel and Christian Emotions from Christ Church St Ives on Vimeo.

Do you need help understanding the internets?

The internet is a busy place. Sometimes it can be too busy. Technology is also a busy and ever changing industry. As soon as new technology gets released people seem to just start talking about the technology that will come along afterwards.

I felt this about a year ago when the iPhone 4 was released. As soon as it released, people started to talk about the iPhone 5. Which might be released in the coming weeks.

If you don’t have your head constantly in technology websites, you can miss stuff. Even more if you didn’t understand the technology in the first place.

If you are confused, it’s ok, there is some help. The ABC has put together a handy little website called “Technology Explained” to help out people who want to get caught up on where technology is up to. Below is a video about social media, and you can look at some more here.