March, 2010:

Empart’s Bike4Bike

If you know anything about me you know that I’m passionate about a number of things. Some of those passions include faith, India and bicycles. When I hear of a way to combine some of my passions I get very interested.

Empart is an international church planting organisation focused on fuelling community transformation amongst the least reached people in Asia.

They currently have an urgent need to raise money for bicycles for their church planters in India. The bicycles help them get from village to village sharing the Gospel.

Empart is hoping to raise money for over two thousand bicycles. The good news is that until this Friday, someone is prepared to pay for one extra bicycle for each one donated.

The bicycles only cost $125 Australian each and they can have an amazing effect.

To tell us a little more of the story you can listen to my interview with Jossy Chacko, the Founder and International Director of Empart. Just click the play button on the audio player at the bottom of this post.

If you’d like to take part in Empart’s Bike4Bike project you can get further details here.

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Kmart Apology

Mar 4th, 2010

by Rodney Olsen.

1 comment

On Monday I wrote a post titled Kmart Sucks. It was about the application Kmart had made to trade early on ANZAC Day.

In my original post I said, “I think that Kmart has seriously misjudged the mood of the Australian population on this one and I truly hope that not only will their application fail but that Kmart will issue an apology for their insensitivity.”

Thankfully Kmart’s Managing Director, Guy Russo, has listened to the public and withdrawn its application for longer trading. He has also apologised for getting it wrong.

Having listened to the strength of feeling from our customers and the broader community I will withdraw Kmart’s application for early trading on Anzac Day.

To best serve our customers my intent is for Kmart to be open when it most suits them.

This was the reason for our application for additional trading hours.

I got this one wrong and on behalf of Kmart, I apologise to the RSL, retired and current members of the Australian Defence Force and the wider community for any offence that this application has caused. – Kmart Managing Director Guy Russo

I don’t understand how they got it so wrong in the first place but it’s wonderful to see them putting their hand up and admitting the mistake. Well done.

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Talking to Guy Sebastian

Mar 4th, 2010

by Rodney Olsen.

6 comments

This morning during my radio programme on 98.5 Sonshine FM I had the opportunity to speak to Guy Sebastian, a singer/songwriter who first burst into our loungerooms back in 2003. His incredible talent has ensured an ever growing fan base and impressive album sales.

ARIA recently announced that his debut single from 2003, Angels Brought Me Here, was the number 1 single of the decade.

On his most recent album, Like It Like That, Guy seems to have truly found his own voice and style and has set himself up for an even brighter future.

The title track was the first single from the album and it stayed in the top ten for eleven weeks and still seems to be everywhere.

The second single, Art of Love, was a very tasty duet with Jordin Sparks.

The third single, All to Myself, has recently been released. It’s one of my favourites from the album … but then most of the tracks on the album are favourites of mine.

Click the play button on the audio player below to listen to our conversation.

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National Procrastination Week

Mar 4th, 2010

by Rodney Olsen.

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I read this morning that it’s National Procrastiantion Week. I don’t know who declared it so, and I imagine it’s only in the US, but LifeHacker has published an excellent post titled, It’s National Procrastination Week: Let’s Celebrate by Getting Stuff Done. It’s full of resources to help you overcome procrastination. You need to click on the link NOW. Don’t put it off.

Reading about procrastination made me think about an old blog post from about four years ago. Unfortunately it’s still just as fitting as it was back in 2006 when I first posted it. Here’s the post. See if you can identify with it.

Why do I torture myself? Why do I put things off until the last minute? Why do I ignore the looming deadline?

My name is Rodney and I’m a procrastinator. There, I’ve said it.

So often I will leave tasks that I know I must deal with until the last possible moment. I’ll busy myself with everything but the task at hand. I let myself worry about not having completed what I’m meant to complete. It drives me crazy. The later it gets, the more I worry about it but it still doesn’t move me to act. I know that I’m creating more stress than I need but it doesn’t stop me.

99% of the time, when I finally discipline myself to sit down and get the job done it’s a painless affair. I know that if I did that initially I’d safe myself a lot of grief. Why must I always propel myself towards the rapidly approaching deadline instead of just getting things done early?

Are you a procrastinator or have you developed a get in there and get it done work style? Are you the greatest cause of your own stress?

Why do I put tasks off? Maybe I’m afraid of failure. Maybe I’m afraid of success. Maybe I’m just lazy.

I think I’ll have to follow up on some of the suggestions that the LifeHacker post has listed. Maybe I’ll do that … tomorrow.

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The Carnival is Coming Back

Mar 4th, 2010

by Rodney Olsen.

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I’m having some friends drop in next week. They’ll be visiting from all over the world and you’re invited to join us. The next Christian Carnival is being hosted here at RodneyOlsen.Net.

The weekly Christian Carnival is an opportunity for Christian blog writers to share their best posts from the previous week. The topic of the post doesn’t necessarily have to focus on Christianity but it must reflect a Christian worldview, and the writer must be Christian to qualify. You may wish to consider that the readership of the Christian Carnival will be more varied than your usual readership, and you might do better contributing a post with broad appeal.

I’ve already received a number of contributions and I’m looking forward to offering readers of this blog some great links when the carnival is published.

If you’re a Christian and you’ve never contributed before, or if it’s been a while since you have, how about having a look through your posts for this week and choosing something to contribute. It doesn’t have to be a masterpiece, just a post that outlines your point of view or is designed to get others thinking. Being part of the carnival could be a great way to gain a little extra traffic at your blog.

The easiest way to get involved is to submit your article through the Blog Carnival Submission Form. Otherwise, you can email the submission address.

The deadline for submissions is Tuesday evening at midnight, Eastern (US) Standard Time. That means it’s midday Wednesday here in Perth, Western Australia.

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