change is the only constant

i've never known where (the idea behind) that quote came from, but thanks to a quick google, i learn that it's from a greek philosopher by the name of heraclitus.

that was a digression.

this is to say/announce that i've finally decided to change the layout of this blog. goodbye rounders template, hello watermark by blogger. i've probably lost some of the various hacks and customisations that have been implemented over the years, but right now i don't think i could be bothered to care. maybe later.

i have no idea who actually reads this blog (anymore?), but if you're viewing the site in all its webpage glory, at least the embedded videos and pics fit in the blog post columns now. or you could just subscribe to the rss feeds if you're that keen on my blog :) all the cool kids do that these days. use rss feeds i mean, not necessarily for my blog.

anyways, looks like so far 2011 is at least as prolific in terms of numbers of posts as 2009 was. 11... that's less than one post a month on average. onwards and upwards i say!

Google's new flight schedule feature

from Plan your next trip with the new flight schedule feature - Inside Search:

finding flights is one of the most popular online activities, so to make it a little easier to find results for your travel-related searches, you can now see a quick summary of flight information right on the results page

i just gave it a test to see if it wasn't just an american thing, and it's not :) pretty nifty, and helpful for knowing which airlines do overnight flights vs. daytime flights for example. or how many airlines do direct flights from one city to another, such as:



now if only it could include more than just the non-stop flights, we'll have something super useful.

leaving a bad church?

pastor ying recently suggested that perhaps we often regard a church as bad (and thus want to leave) because/when "we expect more of our churches than we would of churches in missionary field", ie "we expect the church to grow up faster than what it really can".

or maybe we've got a naive understanding of what it means to serve the gospel:

Just as it’s crazy to think that going to war is like a walk in park and then are surprised that someone is shooting at you, why are we surprised when people shoot at us [in a gospel work context]?

so that's probably all the more reason we should actually strive to stay to fight for and defend the gospel in a bad church, helping to "move things from worse to better, from bad to good, from corruption to honesty, from error to truth."

nevertheless, there are some good reasons for leaving a church. read the whole series here: part1, part2, part3, part4, and part5.

A new kind of computer: Chromebook

hopefully when it comes time to replace my netbook, the chromebook will be available in australia.

and hopefully by then mobile internet would be more widely available and affordable. after all, "out of all the exciting announcements that came out of Google [recently], every single one of them relies on high speed broadband."



(direct link to video here, since my layout is too skinny and i can't quite be bothered to tinker with it atm)

Best Online Videos | Wimp.com

i don't normally do any youtube surfing, cos there's a lot of chaff amongst the wheat. so i was intrigued by wimp when anDrew mentioned it on his blog, where he says it has ruined his productivity. it's not quite at that stage for me (yet?), but so far in my brief exploration of the videos there i have found some nice/interesting/entertaining ones (ie. did not leave me feeling like i wasted my time to view crap), such as:

• Street dance in Paris.
• Every photographer needs this.
• Arranged marriage, can love be arranged?

as he warns though:

Only check it out if you're ready to be sucked in.