Dalleyasuaurus Blogasaurus

That Figures

2010-12-02T22:24:00.001-08:00

I’ve been doing some work for www.figures247.com to get their website indexed in Google… so I’m hoping this might help jump start the index. I’ve already done a Sitemap and submitted it to Google – but no luck so far – hoping they will crawl the site through my blog.

Ready to Paint Dots - World Record On The Way

2010-12-02T11:13:00.001-08:00

It’s been two months in the making – but www.paintadot.com is finally here.

You can buy dots for just a dollar - paint them – invite friends to help and become a part of the biggest collaborative artwork ever in the history of the world. Last year in Israel (2009) 28300 people stuck their fingerprints down to create a giant Israeli flag - the current world record.

I’m looking to smash that – and I have a million dots to paint. Can you spare a dollar for a dot – or even better you can have a large role to play and paint a whole bunch.

When the painting is finished – we will hopefully have not only a new World Record, but also have a piece of artwork to auction for charity. The charity that has been chosen is the orphans of Kamphon Cham in Cambodia. You can see pictures on the www.paintadot.com website.

Visit now – Paint a Dot.

SEO Work for Coopers Store

2010-11-29T07:25:00.001-08:00

In Sydney is a wonderful family business – Coopers Store. They specialise in timber furniture that is hand made, especially timber dining tables and timber coffee tables.

This is the website address for Coopers Store, and below this post are some of the keywords we are seeking to optimise for. Coopers is a great business and if you live in Sydney visit one of their showrooms, or if you love great furniture – give them a ring and get something on a truck to where you are.

Coopers Main Keywords

Timber Dining Room Tables

Coffee Tables

Dining Room Tables

Dining Rooms Table

Furniture Dining Room

When we first took on SEO work for Coopers Store - they did not rank in the top 100 listings in Google for any of their keywords. Now we are proud to announce that in just one month – we have them in 15^th (Page 2) for their main keyword, Timber Dining Room Tables.

Why the Keyword Efficiency Index (KEI) Doesn't Work Properly

2010-11-23T09:47:00.001-08:00

The Keyword Efficiency Index is a concept developed by Sumantra Roy and used by thousands of webmasters and search engine optimization experts to try to choose more effective or efficient keywords for targeting in search results.

The basis is that a keyword (let’s say pink elephants) is searched for X times per month, let’s say 1000 times. The same keyword is targetted by Y number of websites (let’s say 25) and the maths looks like this. KEI is X*X/Y. The formula is X times itself and divided by Y.

So in the above example Pink Elephants is searched for 1000 times a month. 1000 times 1000 is a million, divided by 25 leaves 40000 as the answer. The answer is the KEI of the keyword.

In another fictional illustration, the keyword Yellow Elephant is only searched for 9 times a month but 100 websites are competing for that keyword. The maths says that 9X9=81 divided by 100 = 0.81.

So the first keyword (pink elephants) has a KEI of 40000

The second keyword (yellow elephants) has a KEI of 0.8

The higher the number the more likely the keyword is to bring success to the one doing the research. With this model you would focus on targetting pink elephants and ignore the yellow elephants.

Or at least that is the theory.

What this model neglects to mention is that not all competition is equal. If your website is competing against Facebook or Youtube for position you might not be likely to win… because they are too big. But if your competition is the Country Women’s Club with its 3 old ladies… you have a better chance.

Google has used a system of Ranking Pages to work out which websites are more valuable than others in terms of their power to rank. This system scores every website page on the internet out of ten. Ten is the ultimate score and only a few websites have that. Zero is nothing, and a score of 1 is the median webpage score. It goes from Zero to Ten in a hyperbolic curve where each increment is essentially something like ten times more valuable than the preceding number.

So back to the keywords.. If pink elephants has a KEI of 40000, but all its competition has page ranks of high numbers like 8, 9 or 10, what is the chance of succeeding with that keyword. Not much chance.

But if the yellow elephants has competition which is non existent in terms of page rank and it all has ranks of 0, what is the chance of succeeding with that keyword. The Likelihood is almost certain.

So another factor should be included… the quality of the competition. For this purpose we can take Google Pagerank to be that factor.

So the revised formula could work something like this.

The Keyword is Pink Elephants (using real statistics now)

This keyword is searched for 14800 times per month. It has 462000 entries competing for this keyword.

Now we find out the page rank for the first ten competing websites (because you want to be on the first page) and average them. The average page rank on the first page of Pink Elephants is 3.9 (comprised of 5 pageranks of 4, 2 pageranks of 5 and 3 pageranks of 3)

My proposed new formula works like this

X is still the number of searches per month

Y is still the competition

Z is the page rank

A is the inverse of the page rank (10 minues Z = A)

The formula is now X (Searchs) Times A (Inverse Pagerank) Divided by Y (Competition) equals AKEI (Adjusted Keyword Efficiency Index)

So for Pink Elephants the KEI with old formula is 474

However the AKEI for Pink Elephants taking into account the fairly stiff competition is 14800 times 6.1 divided by 462000 is 0.19 – a LOT lower.

Part of this is that we don’t multiply by itself and we only multiply by the amount left over after competition. So if there is less competition we get to multiply by a higher amount giving an increased number to divide by.

This new AKEI formula is more accurate.

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Author: David Alley – Freelance Web Designer

Permalink: http://www.webtechnologyqueensland.com/why-the-keyword-efficiency-index-KEI-doesnt-work-properly

Guinness Records Gives Thumbs Down to Record

2010-11-23T09:04:00.001-08:00

I heard back from Guinness World Records last week in regards to my website which I believe has the world’s largest webpage. After examining www.worldsbiggestwebsite.com and considering my application they had the following to say… very sad.

Claim ID: 3xxxxxx
Membership Number: xxxxxx

Dear Mr David Alley,

Thank you for sending us the details of your recent record attempt for 'Biggest Website Page'. We are afraid to say that we are unable to accept this as a Guinness World Record.

While we certainly do not underestimate your proposal, we do however think that this item is a little too specialised for a body of reference as general as ours. We receive many thousands of record claims every year and we think you will appreciate that we are bound to favour those which reflect the greatest interest.

Guinness World Records has absolute discretion as to which Guinness World Record applications are accepted and our decision is final. Guinness World Records may at its discretion and for whatever reason identify some records as either no longer monitored by Guinness World Records or no longer viable.

As your record application has not been accepted, Guinness World Records is in no way associated with the activity relating to your record proposal and we in no way endorse this activity. If you choose to proceed with this activity then this is will be of your own volition and at your own risk.

Once again thank you for your interest in Guinness World Records.

Yours sincerely,

xxxxxxxxxxx
Records Management Team

The World's Biggest Website

2010-11-10T07:22:00.001-08:00

One month ago I built what I believe is the worlds biggest website – or at least its the world’s biggest web page. The page is over 8 square kilometres in size… 2 kilometres wide by 2 kilometres high.

If you start scrolling it will take you over half an hour to get to the bottom or side of the site. If you want to see the whole website page at once you will need over 100 million computer screens.

I applied for a Guinness World Record about one month ago, and my application was received. I was told that I would be contacted within 4 weeks. Well, 4 weeks is up and I still haven’t heard - so it will be anyday now. Finger’s crossed.

The World's Biggest Website

2010-11-10T07:21:00.001-08:00

If you start scrolling it will take you over half an hour to get to the bottom or side of the site. If you want to see the whole website page at once you will need over 100 million computer screens.

Work for Rockhampton Builder

2010-11-01T17:43:00.001-07:00

I have just finished building www.howtosucceedintoughtimes.com which is a website based on a book Scott Kilpatrick wrote. I am also currently working on www.affordablequalityhomes.com.au which is his main building website.

The following keywords are words I’m optimising for Scott – so I gladly use this blog post to link these words to his site:

Rockhampton Builder

Yeppoon Builder

Gracemere Builder

House and Land Packages Rockhampton

House and Land Packages Yeppoon

House and Land Packages Gracemere

Build a house Rockhampton

Build a house Rockhampton Yeppoon

Build a house Rockhampton Gracemere

Display Home Rockhampton

Display Home Yeppoon

Display Home Gracemere.

Steps in Construction of a Brick Veneer Home

2010-11-01T08:52:00.001-07:00

It has been said that having a new home built is almost as stressful as getting divorced. Whilst in reality that seems unlikely, the truth is that building a new home IS a stressful experience – mostly brought on by ignorance of the processes and what to expect. This article will help by going over steps in the construction of a new brick veneer home under Australian building conditions.

IMPORTANT POINT: No new home is a perfect creation – it was made by human beings and not by a factory. Many people think that their “new” home will be like other new products they buy in the shopping mall and it will have no defects. This is not true of homes becuase they are built by people and each new home has a number of minor defects. There is no such thing as a perfect new home. Understanding this point and expecting this will relieve a great deal of stress for anyone having a new home built.

Step One: Design: You will need a plan. You can look at plans that a builder already has, and which are costed with prices, or you can design your own. If you design your own it will need to be quoted. When designing your plan, consider things such as what direction the house will face, prevailing wind direction (and where to place windows), rainwater tank location, solar Hot water System placement and other things. Ultimately your friendly builder and draftsman will help you with some of these finer points.

Step Two: Costing: You will want to know how much it will cost. Typically a home is costed with a “base price” which means that the house will cost this much with standard fixtures and fittings, and typically no soft furnishings, driveways or other landscaping. You will want to obtain a list of what standard fittings and fixtures your home is costed with. For exampe this may mean you get a standard plastic bathroom tap instead of the pretty brass fixture your wife is wanting. Understanding what comes standard in your home means you will know what extra money you will need to spend to bring your new home to where you want it to be. Each builder should be able to give you a document showing what is standard and what is not. They should then be able to give you estimates for the ‘extras’ like driveways, curtains, carpets/floor-coverings, landscaping, pools, lawns, extra fancy kitchens (marble tops etc) and such.

Step Three: Pre-Contractual Agreement and Deposit: At this point the customer will make an initial deposit (don’t forget to get a receipt) which will cover drafting, costing, soil tests, and other early incidentals. Some builders will accept deposits as low as $1000. This deposit is to get the ball rolling with many of the things needed before any building can take place at all.

Step Four: Finance: Most people don’t have enough cash to just buy themselves a new home – so they need financing. At this point you will approach your bank and obtain the backing required to proceed with the project.

Step Five: Contracts: Your soil test is back – hopefully the soil is no reactive which means the house will not cost any extra. If the soil is Highly Reactive it can add up to 10% to the cost of your home. Plans are now drawn up and contractual agreements are ready to be signed. You get your lawyer to go over the detail and once you are happy with everything - sign on the dotted line. Make sure you understand the terms and conditions that have to do with going over time with construction, and to do with unforseen circumstances. Make sure you count rainy days that hold up construction (the builder will be counting them).

Step Six: Selection of Colours & Fixtures: Plans are now submitted to the local building authority for approval – this can take from several weeks to several months. While this is happening, now is your time to pick the colours of everything in your home – BEWARE, this can be a big process. Paint colour, brick colour, concrete style, tiles, bathroom fixtures, bath & toilet types, kitchen colours, roof and window colours, door types and door knob types…. the list is long. Make sure your builder gives you a list of his suppliers and what things you need to select. Take your time and proceed to choose everything in the home. If you choose better quality items - this will cause the cost of your home to rise. Also, be careful not to take too long in selecting everything because if this holds up construction (the builder can’t order if he doesn’t know what to order) – it will be your fault and you will not receive penalty delays in your favour.

Step Seven: Construction: Building commences - and takes place in a number of stages. As each stage is completed, there is often a building inspection and it must be approved by the local building authority before construction can continue. Once each approval is obtained, the builder submits the approval to your financier to recieve a progress payment. This is a part payment towards the total cost of the home. Under a normal building contract the stages of construction are:

Base Stage (concreting, underslab plumbing, initial electrical, site survey and house layout etc)

Frame Stage (frames and trusses are erected – roof is sometimes installed along with guttering and fascia)

Lockup Stage (prewire electrical completed, plumbing rough-in completed. External walls completed with all external doors fitted.

Pre-Paint Stage (the internal walls and doors are completed, plastering finished, and the house ready to be painted.)

Completion (all other jobs are finished including kitches, tiling, electical, plumbing fit-off, floor coverings etc)

Step Eight: Handover: The builder usually does his final inspections, the house is cleaned by a professional, locks are changed, final payment is made and keys are handed over. In most houses this happens without incident, but sometimes there are disputes. Very simply this is what usually happens… The builder will not usually hand over keys until he recieves all his money, and the owner will not usually pay until he is satisfied with the new home. So at completion, as an owner, make a list of your final fixups and other requests, give the builder time to organise them and then make the final payment.

And… pray that your home is not being built in the leadup to Christmas…

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Reproduction of this content is permissible as long as this Footnote Remains in place and credit and links remain with their rightful owners.
Permalink: – http://www.affordablequalityhomes.com.au/steps-to-building-a-new brick-veneer-home
Website: – http://www.affordablequalityhomes.com.au
Author: David Alley, SEO Consultant, Web Technology Queensland

The following keywords are words I’m optimising for AQH P/L, the builder who hired me to write this article – so I gladly use this article to link these words to his site:

Rockhampton Builder

Yeppoon Builder

Gracemere Builder

House and Land Packages Rockhampton

House and Land Packages Yeppoon

House and Land Packages Gracemere

Build a house Rockhampton

Build a house Rockhampton Yeppoon

Build a house Rockhampton Gracemere

Display Home Rockhampton

Display Home Yeppoon

Display Home Gracemere.

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The Best Builder in Rockhampton, Gracemere and Yeppoon

2010-11-01T07:42:00.001-07:00

If you don’t count working as a paperboy in High School, my first real job was for Scott Kilpatrick’s Affordable Quality Homes P/L. I started there in 1995 fresh out of school and the plan was that I would learn drafting and end up as a draftsman. Plans didn’t work out that way however and in my first two years there I did a huge variety of work which included:

A six week stint as a carpentry apprentice (replacing an apprentice who broke his neck)

Sales work in several display homes in Gracemere and Rockhampton

Wheeling big barrows of concrete around building sites

Cleaning houses ready for handover.

Supervising untrustworthy clients viewing their houses prior to handover (they try to change locks without paying)

Data Entry – hours and days of it.

Accounts Clerical work – where I saved more money by scrutinising invoices in 12 months than I earned.

Quasi Site Supervisor work – spending many days driving around building sites delivering gear and organising subcontractors.

Professional Floor Sanding – I only cost $10 an hour and soon learned how to sand timber floors saving my boss a tradesman’s wage.

Customer Relationships – handing over houses, dealing with customer requests and colour selections on new homes.

Maintenance on new homes – changing lightbulbs, locks, installing air conditioners and much more.

One whole week of my life was spent popping and glueing magnets on brochures – a job I was glad to finish.

And many more fun tasks… I think I learned a lot from Scott.

In my second year with Scott – the building industry was tight, and a number of builders were going out of business. Scott diversified and opened a second company called Quality Relocateable Homes P/L which built houses on-site in Gracemere and then shipped them on several trucks to location in various places around Queensland. This brought a whole new set of experiences which included travel, dealing with specialty construction and much more.

One of my favourite (or interesting) memories was one afternoon when we were jacking up a house to put onto the back of two prime movers to send out West to Emerald or somewhere like that. Scott had invented these amazing jacks which were big fly wheels which spun and crawled up poles gradually lifting the house slowly inch by inch. Each half of the house had 6 of these jacks which required 6 people to operate simultaneously – me being one of them. I had been given a shirt by KB’s Frames and Trusses and it was XL (extra large) and I didnt’ have it tucked in. The word came - we all hit our magic buttons to start jacking and the flywheel on my jack spun. My shirt got caught on the flywheel and wrapped right around pulling me into the jack. I yelled loudly to stop - but the noise of all the jacks whirring meant it was a little while before everyone else realised to stop. They all had to “wind the house down” to my level and then we all lowered further until my shirt came out. It was covered in grease and had a “grease track” right across it. It looked like I had been run over by a motorbike. The main thing was that I was safe. I tucked in my shirt - we wound up the house - and sent it on its way out west.

Scott is an excellent builder – he lives between Rockhampton and Yeppoon, but builds houses in both places as well as Gracemere, Mt Morgan and the surrounding area. He also has a display home in Rockhampton where you can look at plans and get prices on construction etc. I recommend his building services.

I enjoyed working for Scott – in total for about 7 years and did a lot of interesting things. In all that time my esteem for Scott has grown and I highly regard him. Now I’m working for Scott in a different kind of way – I’m building and maintaining his websites. I have just finished building www.howtosucceedintoughtimes.com which is a website based on a book Scott Kilpatrick wrote. I am also currently working on www.affordablequalityhomes.com.au which is his main building website.

The following keywords are words I’m optimising for Scott – so I gladly use this blog post to link these words to his site:

Rockhampton Builder

Yeppoon Builder

Gracemere Builder

House and Land Packages Rockhampton

House and Land Packages Yeppoon

House and Land Packages Gracemere

Build a house Rockhampton

Build a house Rockhampton Yeppoon

Build a house Rockhampton Gracemere

Display Home Rockhampton

Display Home Yeppoon

Display Home Gracemere.

What is a Website Worth?

2010-09-10T19:53:00.001-07:00

Just for intersests sake I discovered that you can find out what a website is worth is you want to buy it. Visit www.getwebsitevalue.com

New Multi Level Affiliate Program

2010-08-09T21:17:00.001-07:00

I am proud today to announce the launch our new Multi Level Affiliate Program for Web Technology Queensland. We invite users to join us in promoting our products and services to receive commission. We also invite users to promote the program itself and earn more commission from sales that other users make.

You can read moe about it at our Affiliate Program page or at our Frequently Asked Questions page.

Typically when you refer a sale you will get a straight ten percent commission, and if anyone else you signup to the program refers a sale, you get 3 percent of that sale too. And, it goes like that down 7 levels. Potentially you could make a self supporting income from this program. I hope it appeals to you.

What Does Labor, the Liberals, the Nationals & the Greens Believe

2010-08-05T21:39:00.001-07:00

If you are a Christian with what you consider to be biblical values, you might be surprised to see what our major political parties think. Courtesy of Australia Christian Values who have questioned all of the major parties, here is an Australian Christian Values Checklist.

My Sortfolio Listing

2010-07-24T23:33:00.001-07:00

Hello World – I now have a sortfolio listing: http://www.sortfolio.com/listings/8743-web-technology-queensland

The Dangers of Sunday School

2010-07-19T16:31:00.001-07:00

It has been long known that people learn values by observation and osmosis, rather than by specific teaching. The education of values just helps them understand, but not to obtain those values.

Schools, sunday schools and other places have an important part to play in the education of children, but in terms of teaching children values, – this is mostly done in the home.

We noticed in our church many years ago that our children grew spiritually better when we cancelled sunday school. We were in between buildings and unable to hold Sunday school for a long period of time. So instead of sending our children out during the sunday service to a “children’s meeting” we kept them in with the “big people.” Although this was unintentional it had the result of teaching the children to value what their parents value.

When you send a child out to his or her own thing, you are saying subtly that what the parents are doing is not important enough for the child. Later in life the child holds the same values – “church is not for me.” So we discovered that a sunday school, if held concurrently to a service, can teach bad values. They learn is by osmosis.

So for me the things that matter in youth work is:

The environment the youth are in,

The adults they are surrounded by,

And the values of that those adults hold.

To produce good outcomes in young people, its the atmosphere they are surrounded by that untimately makes all the difference. Teaching kids morals, or doing programs will only ever have a limited effect.

The Dangers of Earned Money

2010-06-24T05:15:00.001-07:00

Recently while listening to a financial author talk about money, he made the comment that he gives his children “pocket money” but they don’t earn that money. BUT, they do chores despite the fact that they earn money.

Many parents make the mistake of giving their children pocket money because they did chores and earned it. Subconsciously this reinforces the idea that they only work to earn money. So if the money was not there, they would not have to contribute and help the family out. This ideas runs opposite to how families are supposed to work and help each other.

So when something needs doing around the house and there is no financial incentive, nobody will do it. That is now how a family should be. Instead pocket money is given to provide the opportunity to learn how to handle money. Also, chores are done separately because children must learn how to contribute and help out a family that they belong to. Emphasis is placed on learning and having a good motivation through it all.

It’s also the same in church, and in the Kingdom of Heaven. God gives us good things not because we earn or deserve them either, but so that we might learn and grow.

Unicef Youth Forum

2010-06-15T05:20:00.001-07:00

Today I took some time and browsed Unicef’s Voices of Youth website as part of my studies for YMIS. The idea was to explore and see how sites like this one challenge young people to get involved in issues.

Once I logged onto the Main page there was a feature profile of a young lady from the Philippines who asked the question, “Is there too much violence on TV nowadays?” She also asked “If so, what do you think should the people concerned to about this?” Just reading those questions made me want to share my opinions and so I hit the reply button.

However I was not allowed to reply without an account - so I signed up for one.

During the signup process, where I filled out a lot of information about myself, one question was if I was willing to allow my profile to be featured. I actually answered no, but at that point I realised, this was an opporunity for every young person to have their opinions about many issued profile in a major way for all to see.

The Unicef website has a lot of forums, and a lot of people sharing opinions. It is a participatory, non conventional place for young people to share their feelings and to be heard.

Sites like Unicef help the voice of young people to be heard more readily because it gives a place for that voice to speak. The Unicef website is significantly interesting because it has an international focus, and many young people who live under dictatorships, or repressive regimes have an opporunity to have a say despite their political boundaries.

However, being International may also limit the usefulness of a site like Unicef’s Voice of Youth. This is because Governments may not pay so much attention to the voices that seem to be coming from other places. It may seem watered down.

New Website for Diane & Ferdi Miltenburg

2010-06-15T04:24:00.001-07:00

For many years, I’ve known Diane and Ferdi Miltenburg who have been running a house church here in Mt Morgan. Their ministry is called HIM (Hope International Ministries) They are committed and loyal people and love the community here. Last week I was blessed to be able to built a quick website for them while I’ve been stuck in bed with my broken foot up in the air. The website still has some small little areas to finish off, but its nearly there. Why don’t you pop over and check it out. The Lord bless the Miltenburgs.

What Exactly is an Asset?

2010-06-15T00:25:00.001-07:00

I’m someone who has invested in property over the last 5 years and I have some rental properties. I have always thought of my properties as being assets. I would never have admitted this, but I would also have subconsiously seen my tenants to have been liabilities. There are worries about how the tenants will treat the home and if the rent will be paid on time in full.

Over the last little while I’ve come to see in fact that it is the tenant who is the asset. Without a tenant the property itself becomes the liability. The tenant is the who pays the rent and provides the value to me - the property itself doesn’t do that. If there is no tenant, the property becomes an expense and a liability on my time and money.

Sometimes things we think are liabilities are assets – and in fact, most people and most things in society, if we look at them in the proper light are assets.

Asset Based Community Development

Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) is where we take a look at our community from the point of view of “what do we have that we can use together.” Its a positive way of anaylysing how we can use what we have and work together to achieve ends. Its a positive form of networking. When we look at our communities from this light, all sorts of things are seen as assets.

For example – many people are assets. Some people are elderly, have experienced many things and know many people. Because of their life experiences and position these people are assets. Connecting them with schools, churches or other community groups/projects enhances things tremendously.

Some people are “connectors” because they connect sections of a community together by being who they are, in their position and with their influence. In Mt Morgan these connectors are people like school Principals, church ministres, the matron of the hospital, certain business people, and believe it or not…. Ian Traynor, our postmaster. (he knows everything that goes on in town.)

Mt Morgan as a community does have needs, and the Australian Bureau of Statistics and The Australian Newspaper have had plenty to say about that… but nowhere have I read anywhere about the assets of our town. So allow me to list a few assets that fall into the category of organisations and associations:

Norton Goldfields – local mining company

Rockhampton Regional Council

2 Schools

5 Churches

Several Sporting Clubs

Mt Morgan Promotion & Development Group

Footbridge Corner

The HUB – Relationships Australia

Learning Network Queensland

Even 4 Pubs are an asset – Providing Cheap Accomodation

2 Caravan Parks

And More…

Even in a small community of just a few thousand people – it’s amazing how many things we have which are assets. A bit of development of these resources and connecting their usefulness can results in tremendous things.

How to Break Your Leg in One Easy Step

2010-06-05T22:23:00.001-07:00

While playing football with some Seniors at the High School on Thursday I broke my leg. The leg has two bones running down the inside, the Fibula and the Tibia. Well, I had a meeting with the concrete at full speed and my fibula was the weakest link.

As I lay in the sick bay (infirmary) at the High School I felt these strange feelings of immense gratitude and thanks to God all over me. I knew that what was happening to me was actually very good, and that God was going to use this whole experience in a very good way. Despite the pain I was feeling physically at the time, I must say I had a tremendous sense of well being in every other way. When I phoned my wife to tell her that “I might have broken my leg,” she thought it sounded very strange coming from someone who sounded so “normal.”

The ambulance came to take me away (my first time in an ambulance) and they gave me some penthrox for the pain. This was a strange green tube that you suck on and it made me go very whoozy. I preferred the pain to the feelings that it gave me, and I had a lot of trouble being able to think and concentrate after sucking on that.

At the hospital I had X-Ray’s taken (shown above) which proved that my fibula was cracked all the way through. So I have had to have my leg set in a “back-slab” which is a caste which only coves the back of the leg and the front is all covered with multiple layers of wrapping. This is to help manage swelling in the leg. My beautiful lovely wife agreed to paint my cast for me. I joked that if I walked through grass I might lose my leg.

God has been very faithful and gracious to us in all the things that have happened in our lives. There has never been a moment where we can accuse God of any wrong doing. Even when “bad things” take place, there is always something good that comes out of it, and there is a promise in the scriptures that confirm this to us. “For I know that all things work together for the good of those that love God, and are called according to His purpose.” If you love Christ and are willing to obey Him, no matter what happens to you, there will be good come from it.

Remember Christ who died on the cross for our sins – it was undoubtedly the very best thing that has ever happened. However in that moment, a bystander looking up at a dying man would not have been able to understand that. So in the same way, when things happen that we don’t understand – TRUST GOD. Good things are taking place.

Scuba Diving at Middle Island Underwater Observatory, Great Keppel

2010-06-02T08:24:00.001-07:00

The underwater observatory has been shut for a number of years now, but it is still there and the fish that hang around it are still there. I was blessed to go scuba diving there last week and took a few photos. The owner of the observatory is Tower Holdings Pty Ltd and they have plans for it along with their resort on Keppel Island. However in the meantime – you can get a sort of a glimpse from my few photos.

Middle Island is in a green zone, so that means no fishing, no spear fishing and no collecting specimens. It’s a Marine National Park – and that’s a good thing because it preserves the beauty for the future.

The photos are a little dark because I’m new at taking underwater photos. Also, the glass on the observatory is all overgrown with algae so it makes it look like a shipwreck or something, but it’s actually a building constructed underwater. One day in the near future it will be used again and we all look forward to that.

Also, in the future I hope to begin a business doing underwater weddings, and I’m talking with Tower Holdings at present to discuss the use of this facility for that purpose a a viewing platform for the friends and family of the bride and groom. Enjoy these photos.

Finally Got a Gideons Red Bible after 20 Years

2010-06-01T06:04:00.001-07:00

Gideons as an organisation is made up of great Christian folks who hand out Bibles for free all around the world, and here in Australia too. They have these little tiny bibles in a variety of colours. When I was a grade 8 student I received a little red bible, but only a few years later I had no idea where it could be. I really wanted to get one again.

So they have little white ones for nurses, little green ones for the army, little gold ones for doctors, and little blue ones as a general colour for everyone.

We had a Gideon member in our church and I asked for a replacement red one, but I was told no, they couldn’t do it because the rules said I could only get a red one if I was grade 8 – they offered me a blue one. The same thing happened again a few years ago when I asked another Gideon member. Last week however, finally after 20 years, I got a yes on my third attempt. God bless the Gideons for all the great work they do.

A quick quide to colours of gideons bibles.

Congratulations to Cadbury Chocolate

2010-06-01T04:35:00.001-07:00

A few months ago I wrote about the issue of slavery and how so much of the world’s chocolate (about 95%) is created on the back of slaves in Western Africa. Well, today I was so happy to be in the shops and see sitting on the racks, a heap of chocolate bars with the freetrade logo stamped on the packaging. I was so happy I bought a block of chocolate. This chocolate was made by real humans, paid real wages, and they benefit when I eat this chocolate. Well done to Cadbury. I’m proud that they have taken the initiative to fix this wrong from their point of view, and I hope that other chocolate manufacturers are able to follow their example.

God Knows Our Hearts

2010-05-31T05:05:00.001-07:00

Over the years I’ve heard many Christians say “God knows my heart.” Usually they say it after they make some kind of mistake and this saying is said as a kind of sentiment to reflect that “they meant well” so God won’t mind. At times it has been used to excuse all sorts of terrible behaviour.

Anyway, I want to examine this phrase for just one moment and see exactly what the Bible has to say about “our hearts.”

First of all 1 John 3:20 says that “God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything.” So yes, He does know our hearts. However is this a good thing?

In Proverbs 17:3 it says that “God tests our hearts.” So from this we can conclude that God not only knows our hearts, but that He examines them specifically. Finally in Jeremiah 17:9 it says that “the heart is deceitfully wicked.” In other words, our heart lies to us and cannot be trusted. It is evil and deceitful.

So if God knows our hearts – thats a bad thing, because our hearts are rotten to the core. The Bible says elsewhere that “our righteousness is as filthy rags.” So even that which is our very best, is still just junk in God’s eyes. What we think is a pure motive still reeks of selfishness. In fact, what the English Bible has translated as “filthy rags” is none other than “menstrual cloths” in the original intent. Our very best effort, our purest motive… it’s just a used tampon in God’s eyes.

So next time you make a mistake, or something doesn’t work out – don’t use the excuse “Its OK, God knows my heart.” No – pray for grace and keep yourself humble and close to God. There’s no future in anything else.

Listen to my MP3 – Is Your Diamond Real?

Finally, Proverbs 28:26 says “He who trusts in His heart is a fool.” So don’t assume the best about yourself, don’t trust your motives. Trust the Lord and cast yourself on His mercy.

Fishing at Great Keppel Island

2010-05-27T08:51:00.001-07:00

On Monday, my son and a few of my brothers and a cousin went fishing out at Great Keppel Island. My son who is 8 had never been on a boat before and had never been fishing before either. So it was a great day for him.

At the beginning of the day I prayed and reminded the Lord that in Bible times he abundantly gave fish to the 12 disciples and the Bible is full of great fishing stories. I asked if we could have some fish and particularly that my son could catch a fish. And God answered my prayer.

In fact it was an exceptional day’s fishing. We fished in a Blue Zone where normally the fishing is not that good, but even so, we landed about 60 fish. Many of the fish were good sized, but not big enough to keep. However we were able to keep ten fish and that night we dined on oven baked stripey. Delicious!!

As I thought about this I remembered that the Lord told us that we should “follow him” because he wanted to “make us fishers of men.” God is more interested in people than in fish.

I realised that if God answered an ordinary prayer for fish, He will certianly hear a prayer of effort regarding lost human beings that are all around us. If we are faithful, we will see a lot of human fish get caught for God.