Urban Seed staff retreat

Last week (Wednesday to Friday) we has the Urban Seed staff retreat, down at Aireys Inlet. It was mostly a lot of talking, which is not that interesting for most people. So rather than having pictures of people talking, here are some pictures of the new monument to William Buckley (an escaped convict who was the first European to live in Victoria):

And these are some pictures I took down at the lighthouse (where they filmed Round the Twist):

Credo Zoo day

This week and next week Credo is closed. Tomorrow we're going away on staff retreat, to work out how we're going to manage to all keep working together for another year. Next week we'll be doing training. It's really nice to be having a break from doing lunch, because stuff has been really full on the last two months, and there hasn't been much time for a rest at all. A lot of us are sick. (I had influenza really bad last week.)
Today we went to Melbourne Zoo with Credo team. A lot of the enclosures were very nice, but as I said last time I went to the Zoo, some of the enclosures are actually quite awful. They really don't have enough space for animals like tigers or leopards.


This is the psychadelic meerkat video:

'On Earth as in Heaven'

I'm working with Marcus on an art installation for Tear's national conference in Sydney. The theme of this year's conference is 'On Earth as in Heaven'. These are some images I've produced using Gustave Doré and Philipp Veit's illustrations for Dante's Divine Comedy, and star maps from Ball's Popular Guide to the Heavens:



And here is an interview with N.T. Wright (Bishop of Durham) from Time: 'Christians Wrong About Heaven, Says Bishop'

'Homeless crisis at top university'

THE Rudd Government is facing pressure to boost income support for tertiary students, as Victoria's most distinguished institution — Melbourne University — reveals that hundreds of its students are homeless due to rising living costs.

Read the whole article at The Age, here.

Job Opportunity as Operations Coordinator

Urban Seed is looking for an Operations Coordinator. Position description can be downloaded here.

Horse riding

On Friday we took a van-load of Credo punters up to Plenty to go horse riding at Uncle Nev's.

'Methadone treatment "too expensive" for most addicts'

A new report has found the cost of methadone programs is too high for most heroin addicts.
The Federal Government funds methadone treatment, but most pharmacies charge a $60 dispensing fee.
The RMIT University study found the fee was a barrier for many heroin users wanting to kick the habit.
Report author Dr James Rowe says the Government subsidises dispensing fees for most other medications.

The full article is at ABC News, here.
(Props to Tim.)

More stars

Been doing more experiments with the star maps:




So far the last one is the only one I like a lot.

Ball's Popular Guide to the Heavens

On Monday afternoon I went into this little secondhand bookshop near Mehrin's work, and got a fairly old astronomy book for $12.50. It's called Ball's Popular Guide to the Heavens, and it was first published in 1892 - but I've got the 1952 edition:

I got it because it has really nice old star maps in it, and I want to use them in some art. This is what I've done this afternoon:

I really like using old scientific diagrams (like what I used for Dead Man Rising last year). I think it's because we often seem to think that we understand everything about how the world works, and looking at how we used to try to explain everything is a bit humbling, and allows me to experience more awe at God's creation.