Still As Life

Bartholomew and Thaddaeus

Matt — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 21:47:22 +0000

I’ve just been looking at these two disciples, because you never hear about them!

The only references to them are:

Matthew 10:3

²These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; ³Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; ⁴Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

Mark 3:18

¹⁶These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter ¹⁷ James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means Sons of Thunder); ¹⁸Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot ¹⁹and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

Luke 6:14

¹³When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles: ¹⁴Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, ¹⁵Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, ¹⁶Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

Acts 1:13

¹³When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James.

So who are Bartholomew and Thaddaeus?

I’ve been trying to find out more about them. There isn’t much, but there are a few interesting things.

There is another disciple of note in Luke 6:14 and Acts 1:13, and that is Judas son of James. This is a different Judas to Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus.

According to Barnes commentary, Judas is Thaddaeus. Gill sheds a bit more light on this indicating that Thaddaeus is thought to be a deflexion of Jude, or Judas.

If this is the case, then it is interesting to note Jude 1:1.

Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James,
To those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ:

If you look at it in the Greek, the first word, Jude, is the Hebrew word used for “Judas”, “Juda” and “Jude”. So it seems entirely plausible that Thaddaeus is indeed a deflexion of this word.

Gill suggests that Thaddaeus is the Jude that wrote the book of Jude. It seems a little odd to me that where Luke has referred to Jude as the son of James in both the books of Luke and Acts, Jude himself indicates that he is the brother of James, not the son of James.

It does to some degree make sense as the congregations were referring to members as brothers and sisters in God. So while James may have been his father, he would also be his brother in Christ.

As for Bartholomew. I haven’t actually been able to find anything else on him thus far!

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Jesus’ Anointing at Bethany

Matt — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 21:30:48 +0000

I’ve been studying the book of Matthew in the Bible recently, and there some interesting things that I’ve picked up on this time that I’ve not really taken note of before.

Matthew 26:6-13 is one very good example. These verses are from when Jesus was in Bethany with his disciples, they were at the house of a man referred to as “Simon the Leper”. It is paralleled in Mark 14:3-9.

The way it goes down is that they are there reclining, a woman comes with expensive perfume in an alabaster jar. The disciples give her a hard time about it, saying that it could have been sold and used for a more something else rather than wasted (such as feeding the poor etc).

Jesus rebukes them though because he understands the deeper meaning behind it. The part I quite like though that I’ve not noticed before, and that no one ever includes when they retell this part of Jesus’ journey is Matthew 26:13 and Mark 14:9, the very end:

Matthew 26:13

“I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

Mark 14:9

“I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

Word for word in both books. This is so important, that people will hear about Jesus’ being anointed with expensive perfume by this woman whenever they hear the gospel. Jesus is basically prophesying that this will be part of the gospel.

I can imagine the disciples there trying to figure out what he means. Talking amongst themselves. What on earth is he going on about? They don’t even know all of the gospel yet. It makes a bit more sense in the Greek. The word that is translated to gospel is “euagelion”, which according to Strong’s Greek Concordance means “a good message, that is, the gospel”. If gospel is a newer, English word, then chances are in the Greek originally it may have just meant the good news, as we still often refer to it.

At this point though, the disciples only understand part of the good news, why is this so important? Look though, Jesus’ prophecy has proven true. It was recorded by two of the gospel writers as part of the gospel.

Can you just imagine later on down the track after Jesus’ death, the light bulb coming on over one of the disciples about this? Excitedly explaining what it actually meant and why Jesus rebuked them.

I think it’s pretty cool really. She just wanted to do something nice for Jesus and subsequently gets remembered through history for almost 2000 years so far for it.

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6 Skateboard Photography Tips

Matt — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 03:03:07 +0000

On Sunday if all goes to plan, I’m hoping to head up to Maroochydore for Red Bull’s Manny Mania Qualifier at the Alexandra Headlands Skate Park. The idea being that I could experiment with some action shots, particularly of skateboarders.

I decided it probably wouldn’t hurt to have a look at what tips are floating around the net when it comes to photographing skateboarders in action.

There are a number of resources I looked at (listed at the end of this post), and it seems to me that the recurring key tips when it comes to shooting skaters are:

1. Get your shutter speed right

This one might seem pretty obvious, but it is also very important. If you want crisp, clear shots, you need a fast shutter speed. Recommendations seem to vary from 1/200 to 1/250 or higher. Realistically though, you just need to make sure it’s fast enough to capture their movement without blurring. So if they are moving fast, set it higher. If they are moving slow, anything above 1/200 should be fine. If you want blur, then slow it down a bit.

2. Experiment with angles

Skateboarding is a very versatile sport with many different tricks and possibilities. An eye level shot isn’t necessarily going to really show off what they are doing though. Low angle shots can make them seem higher and can give a completely different feeling to the image. High angle shots can give you something unusual, and a wide angle lens can help you fit everything in. Getting the sun behind them will give you a silhouette. Getting the right angle can give you cool shadows to play with as well, and you can use them for something different, such as just show the board and legs of the rider with their shadow being the main focus of the shot.

3. Show some attitude/character

Skateboarders can be very interesting characters and you can set some interesting scenes. Get the tricks at their most interesting point to give your shots more character, and show as much of the skater as possible to get their expressions, make the audience interested in what they are doing.

4. Work with your subjects

Skaters are creative too, they are making up tricks and they know what they want to do, so chances are they will have some good ideas for photos and what might work. Talk to them and see what they’d like to do.

5. Be prepared

Manual focus where appropriate, and always have your camera ready to shoot at the right time without the risk of auto focus deciding something else should be the focal point. Using manual focus also reduces the time your camera will need to take the photo, so as soon as you hit the button you’ll have your shot, meaning less chance of missing that perfect opportunity

6. Experiment

Whatever tips there are, experiment, you are a creative and the goal is to get the best shot possible, so try different things. Lie down on the ground to get the best angle, or go climb a try if necessary. Experiment with lighting and lighting sources. Don’t be afraid to try out something new.

Links and Resources

8 Tips for Skateboard Shooting - Digital Photography School
19 Radical Skateboard Photography Tips - Beyond Phototips
10 tips: BMX and Skate Photography - JPG Mag
Shot Composition Basics - HeyDay Skateboarding
How to Shoot Skateboarding - The Photo Forum
Skaters Cafe Photography Tips and Tricks Forum - Skaters Cafe

Enjoy and good luck!

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48hourslogo.com - Online Logo Design Contests

Matt — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 12:20:01 +0000

I haven’t come across these guys before, but was recently approached by them to write a short article about them. I figured why not? They provide an interesting service related to one of my fields of interest after all.

After having a bit of a look through their website, it’s pretty obvious that they provide online logo design in much the same way as the Australian based 99Designs. The main difference is where 99Designs is focused on designs in general, 48HoursLogo.com is focused solely on logo design for businesses through a logo contest format.

In other words, businesses seeking a new logo submit their requirements, then designers using the site are able to submit their design ideas to be voted on by the contest holder. It seems that the minimum cost for a logo through 48HoursLogo.com is indeed notably lower than that of 99Designs, and the process of creating your contest is potentially simpler as well. I quite like the option to check style designs that you like as it can give designers a good idea of the feel you are after without you needing to try and explain it.

As a designer myself, I’m not really a fan of the contest idea for designs, but there is indeed a great benefit to being able to get a lot of different design options available to you quickly, it’s just a pity the designers aren’t all paid fairly. My personal opinion is that design by contest devalues the work of a designer, unless each designer is getting paid fairly for the work they do, but then it isn’t really a contest either is it? I believe you can’t surpass hiring a professional designer to do your logo one on one, simply because if you pick the right designer and are willing to spend, you will get the best quality possible, not to mention a potentially valuable contact! If you do go with a contest to get your logo, at least pay the winning designer fairly. $500 should be the bare minimum for a logo, remember that this is your public image, what people will identify you with.

I wonder if they’ll still pay me after that last paragraph

If you have used 48HoursLogo.com, I’d be interested to know your opinion on them, or even if you haven’t, what do you think?

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Low Light Photography Experiments at Burleigh Heads

Matt — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 05:06:46 +0000

I find low light situations quite interesting to photograph as you can get some really interesting lighting with lots of contrast since the backgrounds are often nice and dark. I think part of the reason I find it particularly interesting to experiment with is that I currently don’t have any lenses with a wide aperture, so it is interesting to see what other sorts of effects I can get by changing the ISO or shutter speed.

I had some time earlier in February to spend some time playing with different settings on my camera in low light. There were obviously some really bad shots, but I thought I would share some of the ones I am particularly happy with.

Continue reading to see them, note that this is fairly image intensive.

Gas

Outside

Visitor

Visionary

Darken

Gassed Up

Spotlight

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Why A Star?

Matt — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 04:12:52 +0000

I started reading through the book of Matthew again recently, and in Matthew 2, it talks about the three wise men (or magi in some translations) that came from the East. Something I’ve heard and read many times, but I got to thinking, why was it a star?

¹Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,

²Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.

It’s also mentioned again in verses 9 and 10:

⁹When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.

¹⁰When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.

Why did they see a star? What does a star mean according to the Bible?

I did a bit of hunting with E-Sword and found some interesting verses.

Amos 5:26

²⁵Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?

²⁶But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.

²⁷Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the LORD, whose name is The God of hosts.

According to Amos, a star can represent a god.

Acts 7:43

⁴⁰Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.

⁴¹And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.

⁴²Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness?

⁴³Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.

New Testament confirmation that a star can indeed represent a god.

1 Corinthians 15:41

³⁹All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.

⁴⁰There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.

⁴¹There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.

Glory varies and comes in different shapes and sizes. In verse 41, one star is different from another in glory. If we think of stars in the sky, it’s clear that some are brighter and more brilliant than others. So if a star is a representation, or a symbol of a god, then it seems that not all gods are equal in glory.

1 Peter 2:19

¹²Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.

¹³Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;

¹⁴Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me.

¹⁵Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.

¹⁶For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

¹⁷For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

¹⁸And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.

¹⁹We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:

²⁰Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.

²¹For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

Something referred to as the day star can arise in our hearts, and when it does, it’s like a light that shines into a dark place and allows us to have a greater understanding of the Bible and prophecy in particular.

Revelation 8

¹⁸And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass;

¹⁹I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first.

²⁰Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.

²¹And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.

²²Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.

²³And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.

²⁴But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden.

²⁵But that which ye have already hold fast till I come.

²⁶And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:

²⁷And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.

²⁸And I will give him the morning star.

²⁹He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

The morning star can be given, according to verse 26, to the people who live according to God’s will (in the NIV the wording is “does my will to the end“).

Revelation 22:16

¹⁶“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”

So Jesus is the self-proclaimed Morning Star.

Conclusion

With this in mind, it seems to me to be reasonable to assume that the star the wise men, the magi, saw would have have been brilliant, glorious star outshining all of the other stars and probably would have been visible both day and night.

Further thoughts and passages of interest

There are some other interesting verses to note as well in the Bible relating to stars, however rather than being in the context of Jesus and God, they are referring to angels in general (Job 38:7) and to Lucifer/Satan, even to the extent where in Isaiah 14:12 he is also referred to as a morning star in some translations. The King James Version simply refers to Lucifer as the son of the dawn in this verse, the NIV though refers to him as both a morning star and a son of the dawn.

In Hebrew, it is a bit different again. Note that I don’t actually know Hebrew, so I am going off of the meanings of Hebrew words provided by Strong’s Concordance. The way I understand it is that in Hebrew, this verse simply says: “How did you fall from the sky son of dawn?”. There is one other word in there in Hebrew though between sky and son, in Hebrew according to Strong’s Concordance it is pronounced “Hay-lale”. According to Strong’s, it is based on the Hebrew word which is pronounced “haw-lal”. This word, according to Barnes Commentary and Strong’s Concordance means “to shine”. My understanding based on Strong’s is that haylale in essence is star, thus the sentence would read “How did you fall from the sky, Star, son of dawn?” I have capitalised star as it is used as a pronoun in this sentence. If it is dawn as this verse indicates, then it is a morning star as well.

Anyway, I’m going off on a bit of a tangent there and I’m already well past the conclusion! I would like to look further into where this leads, so I’ll write another blog at some point continuing on from this one, and if it goes where I think it’s going, it will be quite interesting!

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Rather Amusing Random Spam

Matt — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 05:53:05 +0000

I received 3 emails yesterday within about 5 minutes of each other, all from different email addresses, and they had just slight variations.

I’m not sure what the point of the emails was, there was no sneakily disguised link, no attachments, nothing at all, just the text. I thought they were quite amusing really. Anyway, enjoy, or don’t, up to you.

Spam Email 1

Moo Cow, Moo cow
Moo cow, moo cow,
How do you do, cow?
Very well, thank you,
Moo, moo, moo.
Two Little Birds Sitting On a Wall
Two little birds
Sitting on a wall,
One called Peter,
One called Paul.
Fly away Peter,
Fly away Paul,
Come back Peter,
Come back Paul.
Ladybird, Ladybird
Ladybird, Ladybird,
Fly away home,
Your house is on fire,
Your children all gone.
This Little Pig
This little pig went to market,
This little pig stayed at home,
This little pig had roast beef,
This little pig had none,
And this little pig went wee, wee, wee,
All the way home.

Moo Cow, Moo cow
Fly away Peter,
Two Little Birds Sitting On a Wall

Spam Email 2

Come back Peter,
One called Paul.
Your children all gone.

Spam Email 3

Two Little Birds Sitting On a Wall
How do you do, cow?
This little pig went to market,

Misc

Yep the last one did end with a comma, I didn’t just miss copying something.

Got any unusual spam of late? Anything similar to this?

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Flinders Beach Photos from January 23rd 2010

Matt — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 10:42:42 +0000

In January 2010 I was down on the Mornington Peninsula in Melbourne, Victoria. On the 23rd we checked out Flinders Beach, the water down there is amazingly clear and I got some really cool photos, especially in and around rock pools.

I didn’t do much in the way of experimenting with these, just used settings that I knew would work.

Check them out below, note that this post is fairly image intensive.

The Old Flinders Beach Railway

If I had the opportunity to reshoot this one I would do it a bit differently, probably from closer to the railway line so you can actually make out the tracks and so on. I liked it at the time, but it really is a bit bland and boring.

Mooring at the Jetty

I am really happy with this one, it could be a bit more to the left perhaps, but that’s about it really.

Black Browed Albatross

Albatross

Orange Pilot

Take Off

Sea Snail Rock Pool

Mimicing the Rocks

Hiding

Contrast

Bubbles

Fallen

Alight

Subtle Crab

The River

Side by Side

The Beach

Out to Sea

The Kite

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Thoughts on MySchool.edu.au

Matt — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 13:16:50 +0000

I’ve been looking through the Australian government’s new My School website, which shows the graded performance of schools around the country, both public and private in the areas of reading, writing, spelling, grammar/punctuation and numeracy.

After looking at all the schools I attended, and those that my sister attended that I didn’t, there seems to be a fairly consistent pattern.

Grade 7 seems to have the worst marks in general, and that seems to improve across the schools I looked at by grade 9. Of course, I can only look at 2 years worth of data, so I can’t really compare the same students as yet, but that does seem to be a consistent pattern across the two years.

Note that I only looked at 1 primary school as myself and my siblings both went to the same school for primary, so my thoughts here are more in relation to high schools.

It seems to me that the data currently shown is not actually very relevant, or useful for choosing a high school. The reason I say this is because it seems to me that the performance of the high school is directly affected by the primary school. It is my opinion that grade 12 averages should also be shown. I realise each state marks grade 12 separately, but the only way I can see to really determine anything useful from this information, in relation to a high school, would be to see the grade 12 performance. If a school average improves from grade 7 to grade 9, then it is logical that by grade 12 it should have improved more.

A school that has high performing grade 7 students for example doesn’t, in my opinion, reflect on that school at all, but on the primary school that is feeding most of the students into it. It’s not until the higher grades that the high school’s performance really can be shown, I mean in grade 7, they haven’t really had long at all to help any poorly performing students.

What do you think? I mean I don’t have kids, I’m just looking at it as a bystander, and honestly, I don’t know how relevant that data is without the year 12 results. The year I completed grade 12 which was only 4 years ago now, and the year before, my school was highly ranked in NSW, yet according to the My School data, it’s in general, a below average performing school. That doesn’t seem very consistent to me. How do you know if your high school is just performing well because it has a good primary school feeding it, but then the performance drops in senior years? Or is it well performing in senior years but with a bad feeder school? This just doesn’t tell us.

On another note, I find it quite pathetic that the news anchors and the Education Minister, Julia Gillard, all claim that the site is a huge success and that parents clearly want this information simply because the website received 1.5 million hits and crashed a few times on the day of launch.

In my opinion that simply indicates poor planning on the IT side. As for the views, there is no way to prove they were all parents, I’m not after all and I ran 10-20 searches on the day it went live. There are going to be numerous teachers looking at it to see how the school they teach at is performing, there are going to be ex-students curious to see how their school is officially performing and then students currently attending schools having a look at their school out of curiousity.

I in all sincerity do not believe it is as much of a success as the minister and media would make it out to be. It seems to me that it is more of a novelty for students and ex-students than anything else, with just enough information to appeal to parents, though I don’t believe it is enough information to truly make an informed decision.

I just had a thought though, the information is perfect for private schools. In my experience in rural areas, the public schools seem to outperform the private schools in grade 12, however the information on the My School website indicates that the private schools are better performing than the public schools. It makes me wonder if perhaps there has been a bit of a push from the private sector to put this information out there to encourage enrollments in their schools rather than public schools. Just a thought.

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VMWare Fusion “Failed to Lock the File”

Matt — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:58:25 +0000

I had a VMWare Fusion crash today with a Windows virtual machine running. When I tried to bring it back up though I got a “Failed to Lock the File” error. Restarting VMWare didn’t fix it, rebooting didn’t fix it. After a quick search I found an article on a similar issue with the Windows version of VMWare.

They suggested locating and deleting the .lck file in the virtual machine folder. I figured I’d try this, even though my situation was a bit different. To find the .lck files in OS X you will need to look inside the VMWare package. Simply right click on it and click “Show Package Contents”.

There were 3 .lck files inside my package, I could not get VMWare to open the virtual machine until I had deleted all 3. After doing so it worked perfectly fine. There does not appear to be any data loss except for what wasn’t saved prior to the crash.