My passions are pretty obvious… especially when it comes to food, and the incomparable Eva Stringleman provided a rather inventive Christmas present this year for yours truly!

Knowing my love of Chocolate in it’s many forms both milk and dark AND my devotion to Pepsi Max she devised the ultimate taste test for me. Can I tell the difference between 5 different forms of chocolate and can I taste the difference between Pepsi Max and Coke Zero?

Most people overestimate the ability of their taste buds to differentiate between subtle differences in food and drink. Professional food taster is actually a job, and usually requires a degree in food science. So I was not going to believe this would a simple task.

First of all I melted the five chocs into an ice cube tray because I would have been able to tell the difference in the shape of the squares – eg. Lindt has a very thin flat piece. Then put them into the fridge to harden again (now i’m not sure that affects the consistency of the chocolate but I think it worked ok!)

While I sat blindfolded Beci handed me small pieces of the chocolate to try and I tried to figure which brand they were.

So the result!

I was able to pick each of the different chocolates and got a 2/3 for Pepsi vs. Coke!

But it wasn’t as clear cut as I expected, quite a challenge to pick exactly what I was eating…

Anyway, I award this blog post ‘Random Post of the Year’, and would like to thank my sponsor Eva Stringleman for her brilliant idea!

Taste Test

For those of you interested the 5 Chocolates were:

• Nestlé Club Chocolate
• Lindt EXCELLENCE Dark 70%
• Cadbury Old Gold 70%
• Whittakers 50% Dark Block
• Whittakers 72% Dark Ghana

NOTE: I have a soft spot for Whitakers Chocolate a New Zealand family business dating back to 1896!

Things that are awesome!

Number 1: Funny man Dan No. 8

Number 2: Steve and Jeremy

Number 3: Full Episode 1 from Hillsong Kids Big: Supernatural!

Big Message 1: Supernatural BiG

Number 4: Top 100 Baby!

I am honoured to be number 7 on the list of Top Children’s Ministry Blogs. (down from last year though!)

And that’s what is awesome!

We at Hillsong Kids once lost an entire drive full of videos and content from our ministry. In fact this Tuesday myself and Nathan Mclean will be filming a new leaders training video because of that disaster.

So take heed and maybe join the World Back Up Day and back up all of your data.

I have backups, but they are currently all stored in my house.

My plan is to make a copy and move it to my office at work. That is insurance… the odds of my house and the church office burning down on the same day are astronomically small!

I want to learn how to ski, just so I can wear these!

A tiny screen embedded in the polarized and light-adjusting lens displays GPS metrics such as location, speed, and distance traveled.

From https://www.zealoptics.com/transcend

CAN IT TEXT? BLOG? SCROLL? WI-FI? TWEET? No. . . It’s a book.

Love this forthcoming children’s book called… It’s a Book.

Check out the trailer:

No matter how many electronic devices are available these days, you can’t deny the simple appeal of a good book. Monkey is reading a book, but his friend wants to know what the book can do. Does it have a mouse like his computer? Can you make the characters fight? And does it make loud noises? No, it’s a book. Monkey’s friend discovers that a good book doesn’t need fancy electronic accessories.

Who would have thought this book would have been even an idea a few short years ago!

The times they are a-changin’

I just knew there was another use for kids!

The Kid Workout

Merry Christmas 2010.

From all of us here at davidwakerley.com (and by all of us I mean me and various assorted chocolates that have found there way into blog headquaters) (and by blog headquarters I mean wherever my computer happens to be).

Wiley Vs. Rhodes

I almost sat down to write something of substance on this somewhat neglected blog, but instead you get a video of Cookie Monster trying out to host Saturday Night Live.

Sesame Street: Cookie Monster Auditions for Saturday Night Live

I hope that will be okay for now…

flomax online prescription left;”>

Conference has officially finished this year. Lots of highlights and new things. Full report to come, but right now enjoy the Hip-Hop.

Love it!

I’m in New Zealand, rockin’ Christchurch Airport with discount nexium generic my new Macbook Pro.

So the public wifi is called: PUBLIC – 30 Minutes Free!

Like its some kind of awesome announcement… this would be awesome: PUBLIC – Free!

In fact it wouldn’t even be awesome, its should be just the base requirements!

Anyway, i’ll take my 30 mins and use ‘em, and then search on Google this phrase: “How to get Wi-fi for free in Christchurch Airport”.

Really believing for great things at Kidsrock!

Have a great weekend Sydney! I pray that it isn’t just another weekend, but that Church goes forward and kids lives are changed for ever!

In other news tonight – why don’t you pop over to amazon.com and buy a copy of our Supernatural Kids DVD… or is that OLAY moisturiser?

discount cialis prices alt=”" width=”543″ height=”489″ />Buy your copy? or tube? Here

After many years or trying I have achieved the impossible! A perfect score on the Wii Fit Soccer Heading game!

I can only give thanks to my creator who has given me superior balancing skills! (Superior that is… to a new born gazelle).

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I shall now retire undefeated!

I have never claimed to be a handyman/D.I.Y’er of any description. But I present to you my Saturday morning efforts which have convinced me that I could probably get my own reality show called ‘Home Improvements with Dave’.

I would go into people’s homes and put up a floating shelf… of course the formula may run dry reasonably quickly especially if you didn’t want a floating shelf.

I used diflucan online prescription the below tools to put up a floating shelf.

And here she is in all her glory.

It’s the little victories in life that you need to celebrate!

(Yes it is straight).

For Christmas I got a Kindle.

I stopped buying CD’s a few years ago and really don’t ever want another plastic jewel case filling up my humble abode ever again. Alongside books they were one of the most annoying items of household stuff to move from old place of residence to new place of residence.

I spent thousands of dollars on CD’s over the years and I am old enough to have bought tapes. But since getting an iPod and Apple TV I have been slowly disposing of my collection as I have gone completely digital. That isn’t to say that I am one hundred percent happy. iTunes does not put enough information into it’s track listings. I like to read who the musicians, the producers, where the albums was recorded and lots of extra info that satisfies my insatiable geeky knowledge requirements.

Turning my book collection digital wasn’t a realistic option I thought – maybe it was the admiring looks that people give when you have a book shelf full of books. It says something about you when statistics suggest 42 percent of college graduates never read another book after college.

Maybe it comes from films… every really clever genius in the movies always has a library stocked full of thick tomes about history and architecture and entomology.

Maybe it was because I never had a TV in the house until I was 12 years old that fuelled my love of books and surprisingly… TV (making up for lost time I guess).

Well something has changed.

I used to have to order books from local book stores and wait weeks for delivery diflucan drug prescription because the somewhat obscure titles I like to imbibe were not always readily available in quaint Australia… and  by upon receiving them my passion for the topic may have waned and it will sit on a shelf for awhile waiting for such a time as… whenever.

I used to have to spend an inordinate amount of time finding stats/quotes/research that I just knew were around there somewhere if I could only just find them…

I used to love the smell and feel of a new book…

I now no longer want to buy another hardback, paperback, magazine, physical type book for the rest of my life.

The book store browsing is over, my book store is in my Amazon wish list. Every book I am remotely interested to read is on that list, and should at some point make it’s way to my Kindle.

I only just last week decided not to buy a book simply because it wasn’t available in digital form. I wrote an email to the publisher explaining why this is not a good business decision.

If I like a quote, or read a great statistic… I push a button and it saves it for me in a clippings file that I can search later.

If I want to read a book, it will most likely be available to read in 30 seconds from any where in cell phone coverage (and if not, probably by the end of 2010 – my prediction… listen up publishers).

I will have to live without the admiring envious glances at my collection of books as one day soon they will all be given away to new homes.

P.S. ALTHOUGH I need to point out this… books will never go away. They will always have a place. Perhaps one day in 2047 I shall sit down with my grand kids and pull out a magnificent illustrated hardback copy of the Chronicles of Narnia, and before I get to read a word they will marvel, and ask of me… “What were the dinosaurs like Grandfather?”

P.P.S. This Christmas was the first time that Amazon sold more digital books than physical books.

It may be that Settlers of Catan is the best game of all time, but I appreciated this post from Trevin Wax about low expectations.

Last summer, my parents introduced me and my wife to a European board game called The Settlers of Catan. This award-winning game has become wildly popular, especially among college students.

But Settlers is hard to play. The game is expensive. The rules are complicated. Each game requires more than an desyrel 75 mg hour.

To do well, you must master the art of trade, strategic planning, anticipation of loss, and clever surprise. The game is difficult, but people can’t get enough of it.

Read On!