A new way to feed

"After today, we won't need to worry about how to get fluids in you" we said to my little man as we tried nearly in vain to inject one 5ml syringe of water into his mouth at a time. "you need to drink lots for your surgery. We're going to put a special tube in your tummy so we can put the water straight down there and then you won't have to do this." Truely it has been so very difficult to get my son to drink anything at all. He drinks around 500ml a day of a special kids formula, and that's it. No water, no solids. That's his entire nutrient and hydration input. For all guesses he should be malnourished by now, but somehow, by the grace of God, he's still fighting on and still looking relatively healthy - if not a little thin.

PEG stands for percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy, a procedure in which a flexible feeding tube is placed through the abdominal wall and into the stomach. PEG allows nutrition, fluids and/or medications to be put directly into the stomach, bypassing the mouth and esophagus.

We've been waiting for this surgery for over a year now, having been pushed back multiple times by waves of COVID infections shutting down elective surgeries in hospitals. Partly that's because we've gone with the public health system because of our belief in such things, but honestly I don't think we could have gained much in this instance by going private. As I write this, I'm sitting in the waiting room in The Children's Hospital at Westmead, passing the time while his mother accompanies him for the last bit of prep before the surgery. It's a quick procedure and older kids and adults go home the same day, but he'll be here under observation for a few days while he heals up.

We're very excited about this change because it means that we can always give him the nutrition that he needs, even when he's unable to cope with eating it orally, but also it means independence from the very specific brand of formula that's the only thing that he will drink and, coincidentally the only thing that will meed his needs. With the tube we have the option to blend real food super smooth and feed that to him instead. Some dieticians in this country are concerned that you can't guarantee your own cooking will give him all the nutrients that he needs, but that isn't really any different from feeding our other two kids. On a rare occasion they've been known to survive solely on chocolate cereal and chicken nuggets, but on the whole we manage to feed them a nutritious diet - so why not apply the same effort to blended food.

As I round out this blog post, his procedure has been completed successfully and now we're just waiting on him waking up and beginning his recovery.

Spiritual Maturity

I just read the passage in Hebrows 5:11 - 6:3. It talks about beleivers being spiritually dull and being immature in that they need to keep going over the same basic Chrisitan principals over and over again. I don't want to be that kind of Christian that is always needing to be spoon fed basic teaching on salvation and repentance from pastors and church leaders, I want to do as Paul suggests and go on to spiritual maturity, consuming the solid food of Christian teaching, feeding myself instead of expecting it from pastors and teachers. I want to read the word more than I do at the moment and I want to be basing my life on what I read in the bible. God help me to live that kind of life of spiritual maturity.

New years LAN

I'm really keen to have a LAN party this December and January. I'm a gamer and I love computer games, there's no two ways about it. I don't like all the same games as other people, but that's fine. I'd be keen for Kelly to join us and also for Leigh's boyfriend Paul to come along as well. It's a good environment for friendships to form, and we know that from there, God makes his way ino conversations and people are saved. Relationships are key to salvation.

What does it mean to be a Christian?

What does it mean to be a Christian? Is it about doing good, living by the rules of a religion? Is it about filling in time here on earth while waiting for our ascent into heaven? There must be something more. Surely we have a purpose in this life beyond making money, sleeping, working and dying.

Something we really need to understand about the world is that, yes God loves us – but it's not about God loving us at all. It's about God. Everything is about God. He is the Alpha and the Omega, The beginning and the end and without him nothing that exists has come into being. The story the universe and therefore the meaning of life, the universe and everything is all about God, and we are his treasured creations.

We have been given life by God's breath and whilst we have made a mess of our world, He has given us quite an amazing planet to live on. God is worthy of worship, it's quite simple. He created the stars – do you have any idea how massive the universe is, how complex every star and planet, how intricate the human body? God is amazing! And every person on this earth should give him the glory for the great things he has done.

God's desire

God is really keen to make contact with the rest of the world, but he's not about to force himself on people like a dictator. Check out Ezekiel 36:22-23: “...It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name... I will show the holiness of my great name ... Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I show myself holy through you before their eyes.” (my emphasis added). And Habakkuk 2:14

“For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.”.

Abraham

His plan to reach the nations through people started with Abraham: Take a look at Genesis 12: 2-3:

I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.

This promise of God to bless Abraham and his descendants is given with the intention that Abraham and his descendants would bless all the peoples of the earth. We see also in Ezekiel 36 that God wants to use Israel to make his name known all over the earth, even though they had not done so well so far.

Blessings today

This blessing extends to us today. In Galatians 3:8-9 the author states “The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: "All nations will be blessed through you." So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.” and in Acts 3:25-26: “You are really the ones God told his prophets to speak to. And you were given the promise that God made to your ancestors. He said to Abraham, "All nations on earth will be blessed because of someone from your family." God sent his chosen Son to you first, because God wanted to bless you and make each one of you turn away from your sins.”

That's fantastic! The blessing is given to us non-Jewish follows of Christ as well, but why? So that we may be a blessing to others. We cannot simply accept that God has blessed us without accepting the second part of the statement in Genesis 12:2 that commands us to be a blessing to others.

Our mission

So how are we to be a blessing to others and make God's name great thought the earth. Jesus makes it clear in Matthew 28: 19: “Go and make followers of all people in the world. Baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”. Our mission is clear, we need to get about the business of sharing the great news of Jesus Christ with people from all over the world. Not all of us need to go overseas and preach, but all of us need to play a part in this task. For this is both the desire of God and the revealed destiny of the church.

And they sang a new song:
"You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
and with your blood you purchased men for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation. (Rev 5:9)

Timeless hymns

I heard an ad on the radio today that said "When it comes to worship, do you think of Charles Wesley before Chris Tomlin, is worship music more pipe organ than iPod to you?" Which started me thinking about timeless hymns of old like "How great thou art" and "Great is thy faithfulness". I know that that ad was directed at older people who would prefer the older songs to the newer stuff, but how do I feel about hymns and modern worship music?

First let me say that my parents took me to church since I was born and in that church we would sing an even combination of old hymns from the baptist hymnal and a selection of songs from the late 20th century, particulary the eighties from a number of sources such as Hillsong Australia (in the form of Geoff Bullock) and Vinyard. As a teenager I became very dissatisfied with this music in the light of my secular music tastes, experiences with a local youth group and churches I visited from time to time, and Christian music CDs I purchased from a local Christian bookstore. When I eventually left that church and joined the aforementioned youth group for other deeper and more positive reasons, I was also glad that I had left those songs behind me.

Nowadays, however I feel somewhat disappointed with the songs that I loved a few years ago and uninterested in the popular Christian worship songs being produced today. I feel a special connection with the timeless hymns of old who's lyrical and musical genius are insignificant compared the the anointing that God has placed upon them. In a few years the world will forget "How great is our God" and "Here I am to worship" but I doubt we'll ever forget "Amazing Grace" or "How great thou art". Something about these songs helps them to endure the tides of popular music as if unlike all other music they simply do not depend in any way on the musical taste of the culture or the listener.

So am I saying that modern worship songs are a waste of breath? Or that if you like them better than my favourite hymns you're a bad Christian? of course not. God's word is living and active, and part of that truth involves the writing of new songs. God is always speaking to His people and songs are a great way to cut past the intellectual barriers we put up. If Churches today sung only the old hymns then think of the many thousands of men and women who would not respond to the Gospel message and the many more who, though saved would struggle to connect with God. I am glad to live in an age where Christian music is being produced that helps ordinary people like me connect with God on an intimate level. On top of this, new songs often reveal something to me I hadn't considered or help me believe in my heart something I already agree with in my mind.

Just don't ever throw out my favorite hymns.

Mysterious Orbs

In the midst of a church service at a holiday camp this year someone exclaimed that the photos on their camera had little floating glowing orbs everywhere and that these orbs are actually angels. I was taken aback at how strongly they presented their case. I believe that angels do join us sometimes when we worship God, so I'm not trying to say that there aren't any angels present. I am saying that these glowing orbs are simply lens flares and all the photos that have been presented to me thusfar have been taken with the camera's flash on.

To create the photo below I simply placed a reflective piece of material just out of shot on the bottom left, the result - these lens flares.

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Ideas

I’m trying to get the old idea factory running – a.k.a. my brain. It seems to be a slow process and so far I’ve not come up with anything particularly funny.
Amos and I tried to do a follow up to this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjWf2chqMXY
That video was scripted (though we didn’t take the time to learn the lines, which was probably more funny than the actual jokes), but Amos and I just improved bad jokes about the wii. We said that a yellow wii would be the way to go because a red wii just isnt right and using someone else’s wii just doesn’t feel right.
Mainly the ideas are still in the tech department – such as: Syntara could have an awesome search page that searches all your database tables for something you want.

See more progress on: Make a movie

1st entry

Well I actually took some time this fine saturday to sit down and read some of the bible – Ephesians 4 – and write about what I’d written. Verse 21 and onwards is a fairly well known passage and it wasn’t exactly challenging to understand it’s meaning and application to my life – It speaks about putting on a new life of kindness to others, humility and satisfaction and putting away your old ways of hatred, jealously and pride – but at least I’m making a start on this. Once again the plan is about twice a week.
I’m really happy that I used the middle of my Saturday for journaling rather than using the 10 minutes before I fall asleep or the 10 minutes after I just wake up.

See more progress on: Journal regularly

Lazer tag madness

So I went to zone3 last night, which is this laser tag place where you run around in the dark and shoot each other with lasers. A brilliant concept if I may say so. Now, I go to this place all the time, I have a little chip that I insert into the pack that you wear that signs me in to their system so I get personalized stats and whatnot. Everything worked out fine for the first two matches, I came first in the free-for-all match, and third in the team match - plus my team won, but then in the third match I picked up a different pack and it wouldn't sign in. I tried to explain this to the person there but they didn't know what I was talking about, so I went in anyway, figuring the third game wouldn't go so well for me and it's best not to be on my stats. As soon as the game begins I realise that my gun has no laser sight so I can't see where I'm shooting. Though this could be good for not letting people know where you are, it sucks if you want to be a sniper or just hit someone who's hiding behind a wall. So I eventually decided to go and ask for a replacement gun, which they've happily given me before, only this time the owner wasn't there. When I asked for 'a gun with a laser please' the person put their hand on the sensor and fired the weapon which produced a shooting sound and proceded to tell me that the gun worked fine. I said 'no, it doesn't have a laser sight so I can't see where I'm aiming' and then they asked me why it mattered, saying it shouldn't be a problem, obviously that person doesn't actually play the game. Then we had so much trouble finding a gun who's RJ45 connector wasn't attached with blu-tac (u-tac for non-Aussies) and the person told me 'you know you'll get a different score, right?' - No you don't get a different score, the score registers to the pack, not the gun. Gosh!
So eventually I got back in the game and when all was said and done I got 7th out of 8. Go figure.

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Flock Browser, Swul, so many cool techs

So I just got myself this browser called Flock. Totally useless when I'm at work because I'll be totally distracted all the time, but boy is it awsome for social networking. It grabs all of my social online stuff and interacts with it. It's not totally awesome but it's pretty good. Facebook, twitter, flickr, digg, del.ico.us, everything I could think of.
Hey the thing i love most about these sort of things that combine lots of cool stuff is I find out about lots of cool stuff in the process. For example I found out about stumbleupon through using swurl. Brilliant app that takes me to pages I didn't know I wanted to go to but deep down I really did. I love the internet

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Working again

I started back at work again this week - yesterday and today. I'm working two days a week for this week and next week and then I'm back on full time. It feels like it's all happened too fast, for a moment there I was free to enjoy life and I had no stresses and now all of a sudden my every waking hour is booked up with work and other extra-curricular activities. I've been put back on production so I'll be getting up early on Sunday mornings as well. Any freedom I might have gained by going away for a few months has been snatched away from me.
I went to Sydney today to discuss the sale of our product with a potential client. The meeting went well and the clients are great people, so that was a bonus. Still, I had no interest in being there. I hope I put on a good face and asked the right questions. My boss said that everything that I said was perfect, which is an awesome bonus. Looks like I'll be looking after that product as it's manager, which is a bit of a burden but it could be fun.

Surf Camp

Campers
Originally uploaded by stainless32bitsteel

This year's surf camp was different to previous years in some ways, and yet in others it was the same. It's always a time of growing and learning things from God - often not what is being taught in the main meetings. Once again a small contingent of my best friends came along to camp and for the most part I felt pretty anti-social. Coming back from the ship I've found myself fairly inept at most popular games and I don't own anything newer than a PS2. I felt pretty down on myself for these petty reasons, and so harsh comments from some of the kids really got to me.
Over the course of the week, God helped me to get past my bad attitude and to see myself through his eyes. He doesn't care about skills or abilities, he cares about the heart - and when He is my strength, then I need not worry.
The last night of camp was amazing - when God told us to rejoyce him and we had the most awesome time of joyful praise, I felt so free and joyful. Praise God!

Graphic Novels

Graphic Novels
Originally uploaded by stainless32bitsteel

Today I just happened to be in Westfield Hornsby and I stopped by borders on the way home. I stumbled upon their graphic novels section wich blows Tugerah borders out of the water. I must return there another day with some friends. While I was there I purchased the first book of Initial D, looks good.

Shopping Carts

OrganiseInternet

Questions for a client requesting a shopping cart

Categories
Are there categories?

Are there sub-categories?
Can 1 product be in multiple categories

Can 1 product be in multiple sub-categories?

Products
Do products have sizes?
Do products have colours?
Do products have other options?
And do these size/colour/options cost different?
Can products be customized, eg. the users logo or information?

On special/Cross selling
Are there to be any 'on special' features?
Should there be a featured products section?
Are cross selling features required? (eg. 'You might also like...')

Stock
Are stock levels required?
Stock levels per size/colour/option?

Display stock levels on the website?

Allow purchase when insufficient stock available (back orders)?

User Login
Is a user login required?

If Yes

Do users need to see past/pending orders?

Are there different types of users

Can shoppers make purchases without logging in.

Can shoppers 'sign-up' for an account online?

if yes: Is the sign-up instantanious or is human approval required?

Shipping
Is an additional freight component required? If so, how is it calculated?

Would you like to use the free Australia Post calculator to calculate approximate postage costs (requires weight,height,width,length of each product)

Freight Calculations

Flat fee

Per item flat fee

Per item per state fee

Per item per postcode range fee

Australia Post Postage calculator

Payment options

There are 3 ways to process payment directly from your website:

1. Paypal payment page
2. Bank gateway
3. Directly through your website - 3rd party payment gateway

PayPal - Paypal payment page handles the transaction and bounces back to the website

Paypal keeps your funds in an account and you can manually withdraw funds into your bank.

Paypal does not charge a monthly fee, it only takes a percentage.

Steps:

1. Go to http://www.paypal.com.au
2. Click 'Sign up'
3. Choose business account or premier account (business allows you to sell under a trading name, rather than your personal name)
4. Fill in your details. You can change your e-mail at a later date.
   
5. Forward us your user name (e-mail) and password
   

Bank payment gateway - Your bank payment page handles the transaction and bounces back to your website.

Your receive the payment to your bank. Most bank gateways are poorly made and do not provide instant payment verification.

You will receive an e-mail with payment notification.

Steps:

Contact your bank to set up a payment gateway.

3rd Party Payment gateway - All payment is handled entirely by your website

Your receive payment directly to your bank

The customer payment experience is seamless, they remain on your website for the entire transaction.

Instant verification of payments.

Requires SSL certificate, extra costs.

E-way - prices:

Setup Fee:	$0.00 [RRP $599]	$0.00 [RRP $599]
Offer Expires:	24 Days!	24 Days!
First Year Fee:	$199	$285
Monthly Fee:	$0.00	$0.00
Fee Per Transaction: See bulk discounts	$0.50*	$0.50*
Total Cost:	$0.50*/transaction + $199/year	$0.50*/transaction + $285/year
24/7 Support:
eWAY Link Required1:
Online Reporting:

Cards Accepted:
Cards available on request:
Supported Banks:
Conditions:	All fees are NON refundable once the eWAY 30 day trial period has expired for new eWAY customers. Transaction fees are NOT included in yearly fees and are billed on the 1st of each month. The yearly fee in the second year is $350 RRP, however your company is under no obligation to renew your eWAY account in the second year.
Merchant Bank Fees:	All merchant service fees are additional to eWAY fees. For information on merchant fees please start an "Online eWAY Application". After completing our EASY 1-2-3 online registration you will be contacted by the selected banking partner(s) regarding pricing for merchant services.
GST:	All eWAY prices mentioned above include GST. You must be a registered Australian business to use eWAY.

Steps:

1. Visit http://www.eway.com.au/
2. Click "Register Now"
3. Click button to start application
   
4. Choose to start a new eway application
5. [To be continued]
   

DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS

Common elements

Whilst online stores come in many shapes and sizes there are elements common to all

• Product Listing
  The product listing can be simple or complex but it is always consistant. Every detail of a product from it's image to it's title to the position on the page is the same as the next product. This is because the visible list of products is generated from a database. Keep this in mind when drawing designs.

• Cart
  The cart is the shopping basket where items are placed that the customer intends on purchasing. It is crucial that a style is marked out for this feature, however it's structure is not particularly flexible.

• Delivery Address confirmation
  This screen is needed to ask the user where they want their order delivered to. In the case of a store that has logins, the user should be prompted with their stored address, but still allowed to change their address.

• Payment Gateway
  Whilst the payment gateway may differ from client to client, a launching platform is always needed to take the user to that gateway. This screen thanks the customer for their purchase, gives details of what they purchased and encourages them to click the pay link.

• OR in-line payment screen
  3rd party payment gateways such as eway (www.eway.com.au) enable users to enter their credit card details on the actual website. Users enter name-on-card, card number and expire date.
  

• Payment return
  When the user has paid, failed to pay or cancelled the payment – the customer must be presented with a friendly, accurate message confirming their payment action: Either their payment failed, they canceled the payment on purpose, or they successfully paid.

Variations

• Flat list

• Searchable list

• Advanced Search

• Product details view

• Category Based

• Login vs Guest

• Features and Specials

Flat list

A flat list simply displays all the products in the store on the one page. This list is usually top to bottom and could have a set order, or the customer could be able to click on the column headings to order by that column. Or you could have an order-by drop down box where the customer selects what to order the list by (eg. Price, name, category, manufacturer etc..) A flat list might have a thumbnail picture or it could be just text.

Searchable list

A searchable list is similar to the flat list, but with a search box on the same screen. When the customer enters something into a text box, or selects something fro a list, the flat list is updated. Good places for search boxes are at the top of the window or in the left hand bar.

Advanced Search

Advanced search is a seperate screen where the customer can enter very specific search chriteria. This is useful for large product databases. A list of fields and a 'Search' button appears on this screen. A link to this screen should appear somewhere on the product listing.

Product details view

Clicking on the product name might take the user to a screen where they can read a longer description about that particular product. Like the list view, ALL of the details must be consistant in their positioning and style. The image must be in the same place and the text the same size and color. Typical elements are an image, the product code and name, long description, price and any options. This screen could also have user feedback, rating out of 5 or ten stars and an 'add to cart' button (with quantity field).

Category Based

If the product list is longer than a few products you may decide to divide the list into categories. The first thing that they customer might see is a grid/table of equally sized icons representing the available categories. Clicking on an icon shows the product listing for products in that category in the same style as the above lists.

Login vs Guest

There may be a reason that you wish only existing users to purchase from your site, or you wish your customers to sign up for an account before they order. In this case you need to have a screen for them to log in (usually this appears when the customer begins to process their order – after they have browsed the available products, but if you wish to show only your prices to resellers or account holders, you can have this screen appear before the customer can see the products). You will also need a 'My Details' page where the customer can change their billing and delivery details.

Features and Specials

You might wish to draw your customer's attention to particular products from the very begining, either in a category index or in a flat list. A feature is a product which has not changed but you want to draw attention to, and a special is an item with a temporary drop in price - you would likely display the original price with a line-through and then the new price highlighted. These can appear on the side, or above the product list.