My dog barks too much.

Good night.

My family and I just had a prayer session. It was good. I like to pray with my family.

Now I will go and get 5:30 hours sleep. Should be good.

If I don't post again for a few weeks, I love youse all.

(Someone from Poland read this Blog once and I even love them)

My head is itchy.

Well I'm off to Beach Mission in the morning. This might be my last chance to post for a while. However, if I can make a post I will. It will be very exciting posting from so far away. I guess really, with the way the web is, and modern technology these days, where ever you use the internet you aren't really any further away from anywhere else. Geography goes out the window.

But well I will be along way away from where I am now. And it will be my first time to post from a place that is not home. So that's cool.

We have had a lot of confusion about how I'm getting up to BM, I think I've been going with most of the team in separate cars over the past 24 hours. I figure I'll just get in the car whoever is at my house at 9:30 in the morning. I'm hoping its not a crusty old man with a van and a mattress in the back offering me a lollipop. Lucky I'm over 18 now.

I read that 27% of British Clergy privately rejected idea of the virgin birth (here). I thought "That's sad".

Today I have to do my preparation for Beach Mission, which I have done very little of. I leave for Beach Mission tomorrow so I think I need to do this. I have to create some stories, do some crafts, that sort of thing. And I want to get all that done by 1pm so I can watch The Fellowship of the Ring with the others before we go watch The Two Towers at 7:15. Yayness. I'm so excited. Sold out, that session is, sold out.

How excited am I?

I spent ages trying to get to Blogger last night so I could make a Christmas day post. But Blogger was having a kiniption (is that how you spell it?). Very sad for me.

But I had a nice day yesterday. I went to Austinmer to see my cousins. I went to church. I got Matchbox 20s new cd, yay.

My parents gave me what I asked for for Christmas, forgiveness of my large debt, but they also gave me $200 on top of that. How cool are they?

I ate some food, but now too much. And I got an SMS or three. All up it was a nice day.

What I read Yesterday:

"Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen one in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him
and he will bring justice to the nations.
He will not shout or cry out,
or raise his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.
In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;
he will not falter or be discouraged
till he establishes justice on earth.
In his law the islands will put their hope."

This is what God the LORD says-
he who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it,
who gives breath to its people,
and life to those who walk on it:
"I, the LORD , have called you in righteousness;
I will take hold of your hand.
I will keep you and will make you
to be a covenant for the people
and a light for the Gentiles,
to open eyes that are blind,
to free captives from prison
and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.

"I am the LORD ; that is my name!
I will not give my glory to another
or my praise to idols.
See, the former things have taken place,
and new things I declare;
before they spring into being
I announce them to you."

Almost Christmas now. I got a new t-shirt from my dog. Don't ya love dogs? I've gotta go to bed. Santa is coming.

I'm really bad at wrapping presents, but my new cd makes me dance.

Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.

For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are proved right when you speak
and justified when you judge.
Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
Surely you desire truth in the inner parts;
you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.

Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity.

Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will turn back to you.
Save me from bloodguilt, O God,
the God who saves me,
and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart,
O God, you will not despise.

In your good pleasure make Zion prosper;
build up the walls of Jerusalem.
Then there will be righteous sacrifices,
whole burnt offerings to delight you;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.

The Two Towers (Ryan thinks it's funny that I hyperlink and italicise the names of films) comes out in two days. Yay. I'm thinking that's gonna be the best present this Christmas. I'm a lot more excited about it that about my presents.

But I do like Christmas.

10:24 and the phone hasn't rung yet.

Today is Christmas Eve. That would usually be the day that I would have a sleep to make the time go faster, so I could get to the presents quicker. But not this time. No sir. I'm doing many things. I have presents to buy, presents to wrap, Beach missions to prepare for. All them exciting things.

I have done very little Beach Mission prep. I know that I'm bad, but I think I only realised on Friday that it's the end of the year. Before then it's just been near the end of the year. So between Friday and now there hasn't been anytime to do preparation because I have had to do end of year things (chill out, sit around, relax, buy presents, listen to carols). So now I think that it's about time I stopped doing end of year stuff and starter preparing of end of year/new year stuff. Yeah. That is perhaps what I might do.

I am sitting by the phone.

I am meant to be getting a phone call about this job at 10. I think it's an interview type phone call. Pehaps it is not. But whatever it is I am waiting.

I got up especially early for this phone call. 9:45. I have warmed my voice up so that I don't sound like I just woke up. I have even put on a t-shirt. I am still in my boxers though. I felt a little a little over-dressed at my last interview, but I don't think I'll have that problem this time. I'm so glad we aren't at that future were we all to video conferencing, that would be bad. Then I would have to dress up to talk on the phone in my own home, perhaps. Perhaps not too.

While I was driving to the the airport (well Dad was driving, I was a lot more passive in my travel) I got a phone call to say that the people who interviewed me liked me. So now I think this is the last hurdle to getting the job. It's all been really good so far. I am feeling that God has His hand quite firmly placed on this part of my life. It's a very nice feeling.

Jo's home now. I went to the airport without having any breakfast. I was very hungry until I had a dodgy chicken and vegie pie from a petrol station on the way home.

Jo comes home often now. Usually about as much as she leaves.

I'm going to Koorong today. They have extended Christmas trading hours till midnight tonight. How amazing is that. What a great place Koorong is. I have $20 to spend on myself there, and I have a present or two to buy. I figure I'll be able to sift through enough dodgy stuff to find at least three good things. Perhaps not. Michael is going with me because he has a $20 voucher too. The parents at my church are so nice. They got Michael, Becky and I vouchers for all our work at chruch this year. They are cool, I say, cool.

I wasn't planning on posting tonight, but I figure seeing as I'm here...

My sister didn't come home today. She was meant to come home from Bangladesh tonight, but there was fog in Dakka so she's coming home tomorrow morning. That makes me happy because it means I'll be able to be at the airport when she gets back. I couldn't go tonight because I had to be at a carols service.

I was thinking the carols service was going to be terribly long and boring, I have much dislike for carols. But it was ok. I was going to not go, but I figured I am employed by the church so I should at least turn up. But as I said, it was ok. I enjoyed the Bible readings, and I survived the carols, and it didn't go for too long so it was good.

Chris, Jem and David came 'round after church to watch Gremlins. That wasn't the plan, but that's what we ended up watching. I don't think it's a great movie. But it's sit through-able. I was one when it was made.

The interview was good. It was harder than the last "chat" I had. The questions were tougher, but it was good. I hope they liked me. I figure whether I get the job or not, that's not my problem. I'm sure I'll try and make it my problem, but really that's up to God. I guess now I have realised that I have left my current church and now if I don't get this job I have nothing else to do. So I'm trusting God that He has it under control. And if He doesn't have it under control then he probably doesn't have anything under control, and in that case we're all screwed.

But He does, so that's good.

I have to go to an interview today at the church with the yellow walls. I found out about it this morning. I'm not sure what to wear. I don't know how official it is. I feel a little un-prepared. Nothing a little prayer can't fix.

Perhaps they would like it if I put some shoes on.

I think these things are silly. But watch the video. Good for a laugh.

(What's the bet I'll be riding one in 10 years time? Who's gonna be laughing then? "Not I" said the boy.)

We had a sleep over for youth group last night. It was a lots of fun, and a little sad. It was probably my last time running Reg Spacy, due to next years movements.But it was cool. I was great hanging out with the "kids". They are a good bunch, I like them muchly.

We went to Pizza Hut. Seeing as it was all you can eat, Luis and I were encouraged to eat a drink concotions of various foods and drinks and ice cream and bacon chips. It wasn't too bad but I did gag a few times.

I also discovered a fun thing to do with jelly and lips and teeth. It's an individual activity, so don't worry.

I also got to tell the story of the bomb and the CityRail man. I think that's my story of the week. I think I've told it about 30 times now. Good thing Robert isn't around at the moment or he would complain about hearing it over and over again. Perhaps I will have to start complaining to me for him.

We looked at fairy lights too. They were nice. Some people put a lot of work into their displays. Some don't. Most don't, but that's ok, I still love them.

After our lights, we went to church and watched movies, and closed our eyes for extended periods of time.

When I told the kids that I wasn't going to be there next year, and neither was Becky, and Michael might not be around much, no-one cried. Oh well. Although I think I might have been a little uncomfortable if someone had cried. One day though, one day I say "I'm leaving" and someone will cry. I'll say it to my wife. I won't mean it, it'll just be a little joke. She'll cry, then I'll tell her I'm not really leaving and we'll all have a good laugh.

Was I talking about the youth group?

I got this cd today.

It's not like any of my other music. It's like a dance party, man. Rave. Ooo. I could go clubbing. That kind of music, of which I don't know much about. There are no gaps between the songs. Very hard to figure out what track you're listening to. But I'm having fun.

I bought it because I was buying lots of Chrissy presents and I thought, "Hey, Christmas is the time for giving, I'm going to give something to myself." So I did. Now I am experiencing new things. Ooo.

I haven't had lunch yet. Little hungry.

Ryan and I hopped on a train at Hornsby today. We went downstairs and the man in front of us with a hole in the back of his pants went to sit down on a seat. But when he looked at his seat he noticed that there was a shoe box sitting on the seat. He turned to Ryan and said "That could be a bomb."

"Yes, it could" Or something like that. Everyone in the carraige looked at the cardboard box and wondered if the box would blow up on us at any second.

"Maybe we should sit somewhere else" I said.

"Maybe you should sit somewhere else" Ryan said the the man with the hole in the back of his pants. The man thought that was a good idea and went and sat up stairs, above the bomb.

Ryan and I went to the other end of the carraige and discussed quickly what the appropriate responce was and if the shoe box might really be a bomb. We decided just sitting somewhere else probably wasn't best idea and resolved to go and tell the guard. We continured to the other side of the carraige where we found the other people from downstairs huddleing for safety except for the one hardy soul who kept his seat next to the bomb reading his book. I think he was staying to dig anyone out of the rubble once the bomb went off.

When the train reached Waitara, Ryan, a man with tattoos and I got of the train to raise the alarm. The man with the tattoos went straight to the guard, Ryan came a close second and me an excited, hopeful 3rd. When the man with the tattoos was talking to the guard, Ryan went off to tell the station man with the flag. He saw him and shouted down the platform something that sounded like "There is a bomb on the seat!".

By this stage the guard had decied to solve the problem. He very bravely ventured down to where the bomb was. Assesed the situation expertly, and with the precision of a skilled professional who has obviously been briefed and trained for this type of situation, gave the box a whack to see if it was empty.

The box bounced across to the opposite seat and came to a rest, we collectivly let out a sigh of releaf. The box was empty. CityRail bomb desposale team had saved the day again, and all us nervous travelers returned to our seats happy to be alive, except for the man with the whole in the back of his pants who was upstairs and oblivious to what was going on, and the man who was reading his book who was still clam and ready to dig out any survivours of the CityRail of December 19th, 12/19.

Appologies to Ryan who may have been a bit mis-represented, or not.

The women didn't turn up today and I haven't returned Raging Bull yet. I think the women are coming tonight, maybe I'll return the dvd tonight. I might get a new one. One that I'll watch perhaps. Perhaps I think is the operative word.

Can perhaps be an operative word?

Ryan told me some of the hits I'm getting could be from search engines, how sad is that.

I had lunch with David today. I had chicken nachos from MCP in the Food Court. Lots of sour cream, not much flavour. I didn't eat it all.

I also played volleyball tonight. Dispite a great effort by the White Knights we lost, 3-2. Very sad. We played a really good game. I did a spike or two. Sometimes I dive for the ball and eat sand and all that. I feel like a real pro.

Speaking of pros, I did a hit today in VB that was probably a carry. The ref said to me, "If I were a professional ref I would have called that."

So I said "If I were a professional player I wouldn't have done it."

Someone visited the blog today. At 1:57pm. Wow! Was that you?

We have to buy tickets to The Two Towers soon. I'm much excited. I think I will wet my pants if I'm not careful. Yay for movies. 7:15pm George St. How exciting.

I cooked stir fry tonight. It wasn't too bad. Mil and Gemma came around, and Ryan popped in later. We all sat around and conversed, it was nice. I can't quite remember what we talked about, but I remember it was a pleasant evening. Gemma is coming over in the morning to welcome some people that are coming to stay at my house that I have never met. I hope they aren't scary. It'll be good having Gemma to give me moral support. Or is it emotional?

I went to visit a church today and every computer there was connected to each other and had cable internet. They had yellow walls.

My church has orange walls and no cable.

I was once talking to a person about how I don't have a "wom", girlfriend, and they said I would never get I girl friend if I called them Wom. But I thought about it and I don't think that "Wom" is degrading or offensive at all. I figure it's kinda liberating for women. They now have a title like Man, Wom. And they don't have to have "Man" in it. The only letter they share is the M and that's an equal letter. That is feminist equality for you. So I reckon that it should be good to call women, woms. I think they should like it.

If they don't, I'll slap em.

I never watched Raging Bull. I started it but I didn't finish it. It was due back today but I didn't return it, maybe I will watch it now. But I don't think I will. I think I might just fall asleep and get up at nine am.

I think I might go watch Raging Bull now. I'll probably fall asleep but it's due back tomorrow.

Drumline looks like a silly movie with good drums in it.

I went to Katoomba. Nice. Warm.

I watched The Majestic, ok film I guess. Jim Carey wasn't bad.

I think that some people write interesting things they find in their blog not just all about their day, or anything about their day at all sometimes. Ryan does that. I was thinking about that while I was driving home. I think if I were writing in my blog a while ago I would have posted the story I found in the newspaper about the guy who used to go out to intersections at 3am and push his lawn mower through the intersection, naked, so that the red light camera would take a photo of him. That made me laugh.

I'm going to Katoomba tomorrow. Good night.

Perhaps today actually.

Today was quite a day. I got up at 6:30am! After going to bed at two, I was completly buggered. Usually I would survive but I have had very little sleep at all recently so now I'm bushed. What a great word, bushed.

Anyway, I went to our eight o'clock service at church with some NTE people (did I say I liked the NTE people? They were cool). Did I also say that we had the Kids Having Fun day at All Saints on Saturday and that was cool? Well it was. There were lots of kids there, and I got to run a game and hang out with everyone. I had a lot of fun. I can't believe how well all the NTE people did. They must have been buggered, they went from last Saturday till this Sunday straight without a break. Lectures, then ministry. Lots of damn work. But the kids day was cool.

I went to one of their staff meetings afterwards which was significant for me, but I'm not sure why. I didn't really feel like I should be there. I was just waiting to give Trevor and David a lift home, but it turned out I was invited to sit in on the meeting. It was long and I felt like I did when I got to go to my Dad's work with him when I was a kid, except with out any of the glamour or excitement. But yeah.

After that David, Trevor and Liz made Chicken Curry and stuffed eggs at our place. Did you know (I hope they don't mind me saying this) that all three of them got above 98 in their HSC and two of them got 100. I was blown away. People that smart in my house. I know Jo got heaps and so did Tim, but I read in the paper that only 22 people got 100 in the 2001 HSC and two of them were making stuffed eggs at my house. Who would have thought?

Now that I have said all that I think that if they read that they'd be all "It's not that big a deal". Perhaps it isn't but I could never imagine even getting close in my HSC. I'd never have the discipline. Or the smarts. But I think I was in the middle of talking about Sunday.

Yes, I went to church. In the sermon, the guest preacher told us as part of his opening illustration on Neo-Fundamentalism, that the Bible didn't tell us where the shepherds met Jesus or where the Magi met Jesus. So I looked it up, and it does tell us, so I didn't listen to the rest of the sermon because I was too distracted thinking about the shepherds and the magi.

If only I was like I used to be and never questioned anything told to me from the pulpit, life would be so much easier.

Sunday School was interesting. We were joined by Jane and Leela from the NTE and we played hang man where you got to guess a letter every time you got a question from the Bible right. But, much to my embarrasment, my kids had terrible Bible knowlege. My very last Sunday School and I see what a bad teacher I have been. Oh well I guess that why I'm stopping. I never thought I was doing a very good job. But I did get some short bread and a Koorong voucher, so I was pretty pleased. People at my church are very nice. I was hanging out for a cake, but vouchers and short bread is cool too.

Jono, Trevor and David came over for lunch as did Ryan and Jemma and that was fun. The three billets and I played Pass the Pigs. How cool is that game?

We also got to have the last Reg Sunday for 2002 today. That was strange. I think it went alright. I was encouraged and discouraged at the same time. It was a little strange, but then again, this whole week has been strange. We talked about the temporary nature of life but the unchanging nature of Jesus. We said that even though life was uncertain, Jesus was. Jesus never changes. When everything disappears, and plans fall apart, and the world goes crazy, Jesus is still there, Jesus is a firm foundation and his words will never pass away. It reminds me of a song I really like. If there is any message I would want to send the kids away with, it would be that. Hold on to Jesus. Tightly.

I really like Jesus.

We had a 4 minute church service tonight. It was meant to be a dinner but only one person had food. We were meant to go down to the Carols at 7pm people started telling me that the carols started at 7 so we had to leave earlier. So we met, we prayed, we had annoucements, then we went in peace to love and serve the Lord. 4 minutes straight. 6:36pm - 6:40pm.

Last on my things today, I filmed "Carols in the Park". I used Steve's camera and got sent up the back doing wide shots. I sat there for half the night feeling very critical and under utilised. I thought I could do a much better job. Then I had a look at my shot and realised it was on a slant and the people were over exposed, and I felt like a bit of an idiot. I think God decided to humble me. And he did. I put a lot more effort into my filming after that, and I had a better time.

After dropping Becky home and heading to David's we dropped in at Macca'a where we ran into Ruth and some of her friends. I gave Ruth my green Ps because she needed some. Ruth's cool.

I just added a web statistics thing. Look down the bottom. How exciting for me. Now I will really be able to tell how many people read my blog. At the moment I'm guessing 1. Me. I read it. As does, Robert and my Mum. But they all read from the same computer. So how many unique visitors will I have? One. But I'll keep you posted. Or Robert, my mother and I posted.

Often I check my blog to see if it's been updated. Then I see that it hasn't and I have to update it myself.

My last Sunday School tomorrow. I'm a little sad. I like my Sunday School Kids. I'm giving them little presents (chocolates) with a card. On the bottom of the card I stuck Hebrews 12:1-3. I think it's very cool.

I went to Annie's party tonight. Always fun. Annie was much happier this time. The musical items were fun. We sung carols and played the animal came. Annie's parties are full of interesting people, and I like them.

Middle of the day I hung out with Ryan, which was nice, and I got to see Ted, and that was cool too. We (Howie, Ryan and I) ate pasta and drank Vanilla Coke together. It was just like old times. Ahhh. Perhaps new times. That would be nice.

Then tonight I bought 10 large pizzas from Pizza Haven for the combined youth night with All Saints run by the NTE people. That was fun. No body really knew who was in charge, so I had to take hold of the situation. I was very pleased with myself. I organised grace, made sure there was a pre-team briefing and a pre-thing prayer. I was like a leader. My leadership skills were shining through. It was good quality.

There were heaps of people there. I think there were like 20 people who were just leader types. Then there were the kids from All Saints and ours. It was cool. After running a youth group with 3 kids in it, seeing 35 people all together doing youth group was great. It would be so good if it was like that every week. Admittedly the leaders out numbered the kids, but hey, it was cool. I had a good time. having more people and more leaders, meant I got to spend more time with the kids. It was cool. I thank God for tonight. I would put it on a positive side of the sheet.

And we made up a dance in my Bible study group tonight. I think it's going to be a dance sensation. It's symbolic of our relationship with God and others, and how it's meant to work. It's inspiring stuff.

We finished tonight with MicroEasy Cheese Burgers and Cokes with Trevor and David (the billets) and some balloon animal making. They're fun people to hang out with.

And the woolies lady loved me.

After that I got some mail. And then I took two girls from the NTE mission thing to ISCF. That was kinda cool. They were friendly and I got to run the ISCF sort of. I didn't have anything planned so we rocked up and planned the meeting on the street before signing into the school.

I didn't expect there to be many kids there because it's the last ISCF of the year, but there turned out to be more there than I have ever seen before. The testimonies given by the girls were good, and the students (what a strange title for me to use) engaged and asked questions and the like, so that was cool.

I think I now know the names of five girls at ISCF. Good on me.

Today. Well.

I got up real early like to go have a meeting with my boss. But he cancelled on me. Again. We haven't had a meeting in about 3 months now. I could have destroyed the youth group, sacrificed a few kids and sent them on a violent crusade, and my boss wouldn't have any idea. Is this what people talk about when they talk about job freedom?

Whatever it is, I went back to bed.

I had quite a day today. And yesterday too.

Die Another Day was pretty poor. I feel they didn't do Bond right. I don't think it was to formula enough.

Last night after the movie we went over to the Castle's house to see Ryan. He was in bed. But we sat around in his bedroom for about an hour chatting with him. He hadn't slept in about 36 hours or something. I think he's a little crazy. While he was walking home from the airport he stopped in at a Taxi place to find out how to become a taxi driver, and he bought a UAC guide. The things you do on the way home from the airport.

I spent most of yesterday in a Tear brainstorming meeting to figure out how to give Tear to youth. My brain didn't storm much. Or at all I guess you could say. There were all these people in a room and I didn't say anything in front of the group the whole time. I guess I was a little over whelmed. They did have fruit though, and a very powdery apple which I threw out.

I also managed to have the Haggi 2 Bible Study and that went ok. The boys were a bit tired, but I still love the chapter. So I had a good time, I hope they did. It's just a really rich chapter.

We read our book and we only have about 50 pages to go. We might try and get that all done next week. I think I'll need a drink.

Very late and I have to get up early. Billets are cool.

Ryan got home. He walked home from the airport. I used two phrases to describe him tonight, "Crazy bastard" and "Bloody idiot". I'm very happy that he's home. Yay. Ryan's a dude.

Billets are coming soon. There are people from the NTE coming to our church to do mission stuff. Sounds like fun. We're getting some billets. I'm looking forward to it. I hope they can handle my house which tends to be a little crazy most of time. I think I descibed my house last night as a "House of Mirth". I think that's a good way to talk about my house, now that I know what mirth is. I think. Maybe it's a crazy house of mirth.

I've had a mildly productive day so far. I still haven't read LOTR: The Two Towers yet and Die Another Day comes out tomorrow. I booked an appointment with the the surgeon today. Yay.

I'm cooking dinner at the moment. Not because I want dinner at this time of night but I promised my mother I would cook dinner when I got home. I also promised my mother that I would ring the doctor about my in grown toenail, but I haven't done that yet. So that's what I'm doing. I'm also listening to Elevation the U2 dvd. Damn good. Good thing just to listen to I say. Even better to watch.

I had a chat with my mother today about my relationships with people. I guess I learnt some stuff. I realised, but perhaps I already knew this and forgot, that following Jesus takes brains as well as commitment. It takes thought, and commitment to that, as well as just following. We can always mean to do the best, most loving things for our friends, but if you're not on the ball, if you're not always thinking, always praying, always dependent on God, you can mean to do the right things but not. You I guess can fall into false love that doesn't help anyone but yourself. False love that protects you while seeming righteous. And that might not be because you ever had malicious plans to look after yourself first, but you just weren't thinking.

I went to Tim's house today. Me and him, we ate butter chicken. And we watched a film called "The Closet" it was French, perhaps La Closet. Tim asked about our trip to Melbourne. So I told him.

This year, October 9th-11th, Robert and I went on a trip to Melbourne. We hopped in the car and drove. The idea was to drive with cds playing and when we got to the end of the 10th cd we'd find a place to spend the night. A motel or something. It didn't quite work out like that, but here are the statistics.

CDs going South

1. U2 - All That You Can't Leave Behind
2. The Whitlams - Love this City
3. Lifehouse - No Name Face
4. Crowded House - Live
5. John and Lizzie - Music for Far Away
6. Powderfinger - Internationalist
7. Ben Folds Five - Ben Folds Five
8. Five For Fighting - America Town
9. Counting Crows - Across the Wire (Cd 2)
10. Delirious - King of Fools
11. Matchbox 20 - Mad Sesion
12. dc Talk - Jesus Freak
13. Sonicflood - Sonic Praise
14. REM - Reveal

CDs going North

15. U2 - Achtung Baby
16. Matchbox 20 - Yourself or Someone Like You
17. The Elms - The Big Suprise
18. Jimmy Barnes - Hits Anthology
19. Counting Crows - Hard Candy
20. Newsboys - Take Me to Your Leader
21. U2 - Rattle and Hum
22. Travis - The Invisible Band
23. Ben Harper - The Will to Live
24. Hootie and the Blowfish - Musical Chairs
25. Mercy Me - Almost There

All up in 3 days we drove 2,158.6km and spent a lot of money.

Between us we saw one film (Road to Perdition), caught 2 Trams and 4 trains.

Melbourne had interesting cinemas, a nice park to sleep in and really dodgy tollway system for newbies.

That was our trip to Melbourne.

I had a nice time with Tim too.

I love U2.

I just went out to a coffee with a friend. I haven't seen her for a while, so it was good. We often end up having long conversations about God and the Bible and all that. And tonight was no different. We disagree, but that's ok. It's good to talk. I have fun. As I said I have a great time talking about Jesus and the Bible and stuff and tonight was no exception. Plus it's nice hanging out with a friend. She's a good bloke. Not that she's a bloke. But you know what I mean. Well I know what I mean, and I don't mean she's a bloke.

I went shopping for clothes today. I hate shopping for clothes. All the surf shops have t-shirts with big logos on them and I don't like them because I feel like I'm advertising. I like t-shirts to say something good or nothing at all. My Superman t-shit says "Superman is Cool", and that's a thing I want people to know. A t-shirt with a big Rusty thing on it says "Look!, I wear Rusty". To me anyway. I don't care if other people wear Rusty, I just feel a little self concious.

This site is funny

Well, hmm. I'm not sure I have much to say. Saturday morning involved driving up to Lake Mac with Sally from Beach Mission. We got to see fire on the F3 which was cool. I have been hanging out to see fire, and I got to see some. It's a shame it burns down houses and stuff.

We got horribly lost trying to find the turn off to the camp site. We were told to take the 23rd turn on the right, but we didn't bother to count just looked for sign posts. We missed our turn off. When we got to a place called Booloroo, or something like that, we figured we should find out if we were in the wrong place. Turned out we over shot the mark by about 15km. But we got there in the end.

The weekend was good we got a lot done but we had no free time, which was hard because I was hanging for a sleep (I had a terrible sleep the night before). I'm not doing a huge amount at mission this year which is nice. I do too much else where. But it should be fun to be on team.

For church Becky, Jo-Jo and I went to a chruch in Belrose. We got there early so we visited the grave yard near by, strange places them. Interesting though.

The chruch was cool. The sermon was nicely Bible based and then they did a lot of "waiting on the Spirit" stuff. I had a good time. Very different from St Pete's. They played music well too.

I had wedges for dinner.

I had a kebab at Westfield about 3 hours again, and I am still burping it. I had a Coke too. I like Coke.

I got back from the Beach Mission Weekend Away about an hour ago. And well hmm. I've spent the last hour organising church, as I have spent the last two days organising church (over my moblie and costing me lots of money). Really chruch has just collapsed tonight. We were meant to be going church visiting, seeing what other churches were like, but people have progressively pulled out for various reasons. This has meant that there are now about 6 people going church visiting. I hope it's good all the same, now I just have to figure out chruch for next week. I'm tempted to can it and just tell everyone to go to "Carols in the Park" instead.

Did I say I got cheap Coke?

Oh yes, I did.

Must go to bed. Getting up at five thirty. Grrr. This will probably change, probably at 5:30 I will reach across and hit my alarm. But I must not plan that now. I must go to bed.

I have many phone calls I forgot to make today. Bad me.

I bought 2 litres of Coke for $1.45. How good is that?

Can I just say, on the record, for all those who are paying attention (especially you Ruddock and Howard), I think Mandatory Detention of Refugees sucks. I've heard that they are thinking about letting the women and children go. I think that's a good start, but it's still a poor effort. They should go the whole way, let them all go. I think it's just plain rude to lock people up. Perhaps it's ok if they are criminals, but as far as I can tell, the people in our detention centres aren't criminals, well, no more than you or I.

Anyway that's what I think and I hope Ruddock reads it.

Just got home from Youth Group and putting petrol in the car.

Youth Group was good. We had 4 kids but we're getting used having groups that small these days. We had our 2nd birthday party tonight, which was fun. We had mintie hunts, musical chairs, pass the parcel, and the like (Youthworks would slap me if they knew, actually I think the Dean might). It was good. Just as we were starting I saw three women standing around outside the church. I thought "Oh their looking for AA" (which meets under our church), then as we were heading into the church I saw the three women again. This time the were all looking at me, smiling and beconing (did I spell that right?). Oooo, raunchy. Then I realised that they were on my Beach Mission team and couldn't get up to the place where we are having our weekend away this weekend because the F3 is closed due to the fires. Looks like I've finally got my

BUSHFIRE EMERGENCY!

Boy did I become the action king. I left the kids there, with the other leaders, and we hurried off to see my rector to see if we could use the hall tomorrow. He said "Yes", we said "Thank-you". Phew, that was close, the fires nearly destroyed everything. But I saved the day.

Turns out the F3 has now been re-opened so we can all go up to the camp site. Oh well.

At the petrol station, where I was getting petrol for the car that ran out at the bottom of the drive, there was a guy from the Rural Fire Brigade. The petrol station man asked him if he'd been fighting fires and the man said he was on stand by. Then the petrol station guy (who is usually a lovely bloke) started complaining about why the fire brigade hadn't put out the fire earlier. I thought that was a bit rough. He seemed to think that the helicopters should have done it. I personally think the helicopters are doing a fine job. As are all the men in yellow, fighting fires. Good on 'em I say. Yay.

You can tell I'm really getting into this whole disaster thing, can't you?

I went to ISCF at the girl's school. Am I allowed to name it? What if I say something rude. Well it's the same one I went to yesterday, and seeing as I'm the only one who reads the blog (and perhaps my mother, if you are neither me or my mother e-mail me thomasw@ahill.com and say "Hello" or "Can I borrow a DVD?").


What was I saying? Went to ISCF. ISCF is difficult because I'm bad at making conversation. At the beginning Michael and I just sat there, made small talk with the teacher. But I turned to Michael and said "We're not very good at talking to people" so he said "Watch this" or something like that and went to talk to people. This forced me to go take a seat and converse too. Very good. I think I had at least 5 minutes of dialouge with various students all up, and I think that's a record for me. I wonder if God realised that I'm not very good at making conversation when He sent me off into the world of Youth Ministry?

Home from the shops now. I'm still getting into this blog thing.

I don't think my house is going to burn down. I have friends who's houses are a lot closer to the fire than mine. I can see smoke though. In the papers they keep saying that these are the worst fires in 400 years which I don't think is true. It might be but it seems that in the past 10 years there have been heaps of big fires, times when the whole country has been burning down and all of them have been called the worst fires on record. So I don't know. I figure when my house burns down then it will be the worst fires ever. I'll be willing to give the fires that title. Un-till then all the other fires get tied second place while we wait for the bush fire that's going to burn down my house.

No one has turned up for Bible study yet. Hmm. Maybe Haggai will have to wait a week. They were meant to be here 20 minutes ago. My other Bible study got canned because of the bushfires. Doesn't matter. I can still have a youth group meeting.

I saw an artical in the paper today about the best way to lace your shoes so I relaced my left shoe. Once to make it look like a skate shoe, once to save lace, and once because the other two were stupid. Now my shoes are laces in the strongest way recommended, scientifically proven. I would hope that my life would be better as a result, and I think it is. My left foot doesn't feel any better, but psychologically I know that my left shoe is laced the best that it could be. Now I might begin work of my right shoe.

I went to a Christian Studies Seminar Day at a girls school today. It was fun. Got to hang out with lots of youth ministers from the area and run a discussion group with some year ten girls, who were very talkative, but friendly. And they were happy to answer the discussion questions and the like. We got to talk about Jesus too. That's always fun. I don't know why but I think I'm at my happiest when I get to talk about Jesus. And God, and the Bible and stuff. It was cool.

Well, Fires in Sydney. Yay. Bit of excitement. I was just talking to Mum and Dad and we were discussing how frightfully unprepared this house is. Our roof is covered in leaves and we don't know anything about fire safety. The bush next to our house is full of leaves. If the fire decides to come our way we may have problems.

It's funny because Mum didn't think our bush was connected to any others. She just thought we were in a small patch of bush in a vast sea of urbabninity. But Dad pointed out that the bush behind our house connected to the bush that is burning in Glenorie and Dural where they have lost 20 houses or something. If my house does burn down I think I'll take the dog, the computer and my Lord of the Rings Extended Edition DVD. Maybe my Superman shirt too. And my Bible. I like my Bible. It looks very worn an used. It has book marks and tabs. Makes me look like I'm going to heaven quicker.

I wish this thing had spell chek.

I just finished writing the Bible Study. Yay. Now I have to go do the washing up.

Writing Bible Studies is really good. We've been doing obscure Old Testament books at the moment and each one (Obediah, Habbukuk and Haggai) I read and went, "Riiight". I had no idea what to do with them. And usually I would just skip past them if reading them for myself, but doing the BSs has been great. It's really made me figure out what is really going on. For instance Haggai 2 was utterly perplexing for me, but now through guess the Holy Spirit and some online Bible Commentries it makes sence. It's all about Jesus, and God's covenant fulfilment and our attitude to God. I think. I may be wrong and teaching heresy in the Bible Study, but that's what I got out of it. Even in the obscure books, when I look it makes me go "Damn the Bible is good."

From what I've seen of Blogs people moan a lot. "I feel terrible", "Life could be better", or "Today was pretty boring". I hope I don't do that. I'd rather not whinge. My life's pretty good really. I am constantly connected to the internet, how could life not be good? How many people in the world are always connected to the internet? Not many. So if only for the internet I should be happy. But there are many other things to be happy about to. I am happy that Jesus loves me. Really. I'm not preaching. That just makes me happy. I was sitting in my quiet time the other day, moaning, and then I realised that, and thought "well at least that's one thing". That's one damn good thing. It's good to be loved. And I'm a bastard, and I'm still loved. Yay for me.

Maybe one day I'll become a famous writer like Phillip Yancy. I doubt it. But maybe.

Write Bible Study
Call Becky
Call Barry
Organise Church
Write e-mails
Clean Room

I've done none of them.

Oh well.

Post Reg Letters
Organise Church
Ring Barry
Ring Paul
Clean Room
Return DVDs
Write e-mails
Discern will of God

I did four of them.

I'm meant to be getting a computer soon. It will be a phat computer for editing on. But we just found out that Robert's camera is going to cost $1000 to fix. I don't really feel like getting a computer if I can't make any films. I'm not sure what to do. Maybe God doesn't want me to have a computer at the moment. I'll think about it. Pray about it.

I just got back from Jack's Island and no-one turned up. Kaia had a sleep then sprayed me with a water pistol. I got wet. I tried to play Patience but couldn't because the cards were working against me.

This is the kind of thing you are meant to write in a blog.

Well this blog template stuff sucks. I have, at the moment, this stupid olive coloured one and I can't get rid of it. I'll slap it soon. Maybe that will fix it.Oh well.

I think my first ever post was true. I think this Blog is languishing on the web. I guess the only reason I'm interested now is because it excited me to know that on the 2nd of June I rang up lots of posh Eastern Suburbs schools. I thought, "Wow, I remember doing that". I love dates and times, and statistics. As long as I don't have to thing too much. Anyway, must leave. I have a BS to write.

At the moment, I am a little distracted. I am meant to be writing a Bible Study on Haggi chapter two for tomorrow, but alas, I have found my blog. I looked at this last night but I couldn't post anything, and now I can so I'm very excited. Maybe I will bother to update this more often. I doubt it though. I'm not very good at remembering things right now.

I am listening to the Harry Potter soundtrack. Yay for Harry.

This Blog is regularly updated. I guess I just haven't done much between June last year and now.