I watched The Animatirx with David last night. It was pretty good, although I haven't seen so many women in underwear in an animated film ever. Perhaps not even in any kind of film. Mind you I only ever watch American animated films so that could be the reason. Arial never wore much.

My cousin got "FAR Q" put on the back of his year 12 jersey. It took the school 3 days to figure out there was a problem with it. I think that's pretty cool. I like stories like that.

I'm trying to make a flyer for TOOBSC and I'm having real trouble. I've spent the last two hours trying to figure out what to write, trying to figure out how to sell the show so to speak.

Ooo, I just had an idea...

I just saw a man in his front yard wearing pink pajama pants and I thought to myself "Good on him."

Silence is a very hard word for me to spell.

I usually write scilence. It just seems righter.

I just remembered that the Sparkly Bee folder had the e-mails I sent when I created a whole e-mail list, regular e-mail thing just to create an opportunity to e-mail the girl I liked. I need to get those e-mails back. They're history.

It worked too. She e-mailed me back. We had many an e-mail conversation. Almost our whole relationship was through e-mail. But she invited me to a party once. That was exciting.

Those were the days...

I'm at college. Mike rang me this morning at around 9:tooearly am and Mum said I was asleep. Then he rang back at around 10:notasearly am and Mum came in and gave me the phone. Mike asked if I was going to college, and for some reason I said "Yes". So now I'm here.

I photocopied some stuff, now I'm sitting around. Maybe I should photocopy some more. That will seem productive. Maybe I should go have a sleep on the couch.

I'm wearing my "Zac" t-shirt today. Everyone at McDonald's Rockdale thought I was the bomb. The all asked me where I got my shirt. And I got a round of applause when I left for wearing such cool shirt. That reminds me that I should give those shirts out.

We have some shampoo in our shower from a hotel which says on it: "Hair Shampoo". I see that and think to myself, "What other kind of shampoo are you going to find in a hotel bathroom?"

I just deleted a folder in my e-mail. That's a little annoying. I deleted the Sparkly Bee folder. I meant to delete just the e-mail about making your own dvds at home (that's a laugh) but I accidently did the whole folder. Doesn't matter, I think I have a back up of most of the important e-mails that were in there.

Ryan asked me the other day what sort of person I'd like to marry. I can't remember much of what I said. They were generally nice things I think. I do remember that I said, someone who loves God more than they love me. And the more I think about that the more I agree with myself. I think God focused marriages are much better than other people focused. And hugely better than self-focused ones.

And loving Jesus is very attractive.

Now for Sunday. Perhaps that's fresher.

I had a very stressful few hours. Trying to get the DVD burnt for The Opposite of Being Self-Centred. Worked from 6pm on Saturday trying to get everything done, up till 1:45pm today (Sunday, I'm still awake). The computer was being dodgy. I told David that everything would go wrong and then it would come good at the last minute. God would provide. And he did. But He was very last minute. I had to get David to come over to get the DVD burnt. I'd been trying for hours after many hassles and different programs, bad renders, blue screens of death. But I think I remained pretty calm, a bit stressed, but mainly calm. It's been good seeing God work on this film, so I figured He'd keep it up till the end. And yay for Him. And yay for David for being so helpful. He was my tech support all week. Fixing my computer. In contact with me all yesterday and today seeing how it was all going. Champ, that's what we call him.

At church we did a dress rehearsal of TOOBSC and it came off well. Quite messy, but it was good to see. David, Mum, Dad and Hannah arrived half way through to drop off the DVD and the DVD player, after David had got it working with his sweet whispering to the machine.

The credits I found out were missing people, and I spelt a last name wrong, and one person I gave completely the wrong last name. I'm not sure how I managed that.

Tonight we did TOOBSC in church and it was really good to see. It went really well. Seeing everything fit in. The dance, drama, video, it fitted nicely. Lots of talent went into that show. I'm especially fond of all the people that helped with the film (actors and crew). It makes me feel like we're all part of one big happy family.

The church liked the show too I think. Laughed in all the right places. I think we had the advantage of playing to a home crowd. I had almost two rows of visitors. Two girls from my youth group last week came to see it and I wasn't expecting them. That was really nice. And Anmol came. It was good to see him too. Plus the fam. Some extended.

I think this is all a little train of thought like. My brain isn't quite there.

After church a bunch of us went out to Manly for Sal's birthday (Happy Birthday, Sal!) which I didn't know was today, but that was good because I couldn't forget it. But that was fun. I sat around and had general useless conversation.

Graham and Liam from College came walking through Manly while I was there, which excited me. I said "G'day" and had general sillyness. Graham noticed I was wearing my "daggy" college jumper, which I refuse to wear at college. It was good to see them. I like Graham and Liam. Top blokes I say.

We stood around in the end of the car park and had a bit of "Tom Time" (I never really mean to have "Tom Time". I guess I just tell stories. Got it from me Mum I'd say. Oh well. As long as people stop listening to me when they don't want to.) I told everyone of my ordeals today and yesterday with the DVD. That wasn't a very interesting story. But I think I needed to get it out.

Drove home. Followed Sal as she dropped of Matt, Rachael, and Liz, so we could have a race to her house. She won. Beat me at the lights near her place. 10 seconds. We met outside her house, had a de-brief through car windows, and I drove home and spilt my Coke that I had bought in Manly.

Now I am home. And I think I might go to bed.

But I'd just like to thank, publicly, bloglicly, all the everyone who helped with, and inspired, and worried about, and prayed for The Opposite of Being Self-Centred. So many wonderful people in my world. It's made my day. God's made my day. And my life. Thanks God.

It's been so long since I've properly blogged. Probably because I've been full on TOOBSC-ing since Tuesday night.

But I don't really feel like doing a big sum up.

Highlights of the week:

-Filming on Wednesday with Matt. Good stuff got. God provided. Low stress. Was fun.
-Steve Bevis on Wednesday. Fun outing. Much sillyness. Steve and his boys sounded the bomb. Wore a t-shirt till 3am.
-Making music with Matt and Chris. Progress made. Song sounding good.
-Youth group. Did a simulation of the Prodigal son with Louise stealing $13,000, convinced the kids that it was real. Then got Louise to arrive at youth group and we threw her a party. Some kids got very angry at Louise. I felt bad for lying. But we appologised at the end. 5 kids said they wanted to become Christians.

Next time I go to a fancy dress party...



http://www.smh.com.au/ftimages/2003/09/28/1064687656530.html

I finished editing the film clip last night. Now all I have to do is the credits, colour correction, put the sound on, put the music on, render it to mpeg2, and burn it to dvd. Let's see how the computer handles all that.

That post below was meant to have lots of stuff about Wednesday in it. And perhaps Thursday. I just haven't go round to it. So I'll leave it at that.

That quote was from a converstation on Wednesday night where I got picked up for my bad quoting of lyrics. But it wasn't as bad as I thought. I'm pleased I was kind of close. I think I said "I like to dance in brown pants in the comfort of my lounge room in suburbia".

I might fill in the blanks. Chances are there are some bits filled in on other blogs. But I want my own record.

This week has been a week of noticable God provision. I said on the train on Monday that God would have to provide this week because I have no-idea how everything was going to come together, and He's doing well as usual.

Exciting youth group night, too. But no time to talk. I have a film clip to edit.

Hey, Hey.

For the record:

I'd rather dance in ugly pants in the comfort of my lounge room in suburbia. - Regurgitator

It's been a long day, always ain't that right

But a good one.

Now it's time for bed.

Today is the last day of shooting for TOOBSC. That's exciting. I have till Sunday morning to get it finished.

When I was 11 I made up a word. I wanted it to go into general usage. The word was: Sindermenderic. It meant weird. You'd say something like "Dancing horses? That's sindermenderic man!"

I can see why it never caught on.

Yesterday was my first all shorts day. Wonderful. It was meant to Sunday but it was raining in Bathurst so I changed.

Today was my second all shorts day.

It feels like summer again.

So perhaps I have to talk about the weekend.

Friday night Howie and I leave at 8:30. Drive along. Get to Katoomba. Driving along. Road work area. My lane is about to close, I go to change lane and there's a car there. I go back to let the car past. The car comes in behind me. "Bwoop!" Lights flash. Cops behind me. Pull me over. My first ever breath test.

The cop walks up beside the car. I wind down my window as I struggle to get my wallet out of my pocket. I'm very friendly.

"G'day"

"Good evening. Have you been drinking?"

"Nope."

"The way you were driving it looks like you have"

"Yeah, it was that closed lane thing"

"Yeah, that's alright"

Or something like that. We conversed. He asked where we were going. We told him about Dubbo and the wedding (Wellington is near Dubbo). We were good friends. He asked me again if I'd had anything to drink. I gave the lame response of "Only Coke". I blew. I came up good. "Have a good time in Golburn". We got to go.

Then they followed us for a few kms, and left us at petrol station.

Lovely.

2 hours later we're driving through Orange. It's around midnight. We pass the Bunnings warehouse. We notice it has a nice carpark. Would be fun to drive around. So off we go. We find an entrance and around we go. We're driving at at least 40km/h and hour. Weaving in and out on non-existant traffic. We scream past those plants in concrete surrounded garden beds. We drive aound the back.

Howie recommends I park. We pick a spot. Park. Turn the nights off. Rob says he doesn't like the spot. Lights go back on. We reverse. The 20 second park is complete.

It's time to exit. One exit is blocked by an entering truck (who goes to Orange Bunnings carpark at midnight?). We go back to the way we came in. Screaming back at maybe 45km/h. We turn out of the carpark and theres ar car in front of me in the middle of the road. I pull to the left side to go past, but it pulls to the side too, blocks my way and puts it red and blue flashing lights on. Second time tonight. How exciting.

Three cops get out this time. A chick and two guys. We say good evening, and I say something like "This is my second time tonight."

We have quite an extensive conversation that involves at least one cop talking while the other two check out the car.

Some of the highlights of the conversation include:

Cop: You been drinking at all tonight?
Me: No
Cop: What were you doing in the car park?
Me: Driving around. We'd been driving for a long time and needed a break and we thought it would be fun to drive around the carpark.
Cop: Why'd you pick that carpark?
Me: It looked fun.
Cop: What did you do in the carpark?
Me: Drove around. Parked. Went to drive out, there we as truck there. So we drove the other way and met you.
Cop: How long'd you park for?
Howie: About 20 seconds.
Cop: Why'd you park?
Me: We were being silly. Thought it would fun.
Cop: That's not a good enough answer.
Me: (Thinks) No really. We were being silly. That's all.
Cop: You have any drugs in the car?
Me: No
Cop: Can I see your license?
Me: Sure.
Howie: While we've got this break I think I might get my jumper out of the back.

Howie gets out of the car, wearing no shoes, just his socks, to get his jumper.

Cop: Where are you guys from?
Howie: Hornsby
Cop: What are you doing here?
Howie: Going to Wellington to make a wedding video.
Cop: Where are you staying?
Me: The Maquarie Explorer Hotel, motel, thing.
Cop: It's a bit late?
Me: We have a friend minding the room for us.

Conversation lull. Howie is putting on his jumper.

Howie: Orange has good carparks.
Cop: You ever been to Orange before?
Howie: Nope.
Cop: Then how'd you know we have good car parks?
Me: We were just driving past and thought it looked good.
Cop: You didn't pull over and smoke a few cones did you?
Me: No.
Cop: You have any drugs in the vehicle?
Me: No.
Cop: Where's the video gear?
Me: In the boot... Oh no... There's one camera in the back, one in the boot.
Cop: You haven't been doing any drugs?
Me: No.

At that stage the other guy gets given the go-ahead to breath test me, while the other two look at the car some more.

I come up clean.

Cop: You moving on after this?
Me: Yep.

Two of the copes go back to their car. The breath tester keeps an eye on us.

Eventually he gets given a nod or something so he turns to us and says "You can go"

Me: Ok, have a good night.
Cop: You too.

They drive off past us. I give the lady a wave and she waves back.

After that Howie and I drove to Wellington. We arrived at 2:00am.

The rest of weekend consisted of a tiring wedding in a little bush church. Bad filming possitions. A long reception and a cool hotel room. We spent the first night with Angus, and the second with guy Gus knew from Disney. He was a friendly chap. Had converstions with us late at night as we lay in our beds. Fart jokes, and the like. Very male.

Gus gave us 20 litres of left over Coke. That was very cool.

We came home yesterday via the Bevis' in Hazelbrook and played cricket on the trampoline.

Dropped Howie in Gordon. I arrived back at work at 3:30pm.

The End.

I understood the speechy thing at the end "Bullet the Blue Sky" on Elevation the other night. We watched a documentary about John and Yoko and their "War is Over" campaign. It talked about John getting shot and all that. And a billboard commissioned by Yoko which said the 676,000 people were shot in the 20 years since John had been shot.

Now I no longer think, "Think that's a cool speech. Who's John? Who's Mon Chapman?" now I know. Mon's name is Mark. And John's is John.

Yeah.

I'm home. 700 and something kilometres in the past 48 hours. 1 wedding, 1 reception, 2 nights in a motel, 2 run-ins with the police, 1 youth group, and 1 church service.

I'm buggered. I'm half-way between passing out and having an emotional break-down.

But I have stories to tell. Perhaps that's tomorrow's job.

It'll all be good in the morning.

12:23am is a good time to get home except when it's much too late. Like tonight.

The problem is, I have that trait, as a male, where I want to find a solution to everything. Someone tells me a problem and I wrestle with myself not to offer a solution. It may not be a "male" trait, but I'm male and I have it.

Sometimes offering solutions is insensitive. Sometimes it fixes the problem.

Mum's picking a fight with me.

That's not really true. She wants to have a discussion with me about youth ministry practice. She disagrees with me I think.

I'm looking forward to a discussion actually. I like talking to Mum. Even when we disagree. She challenges me. There will be no break down in family relationships.

Tomorrow night I have to go to Dubbo.

Sunday morning I have to come home.

I don't think I have to go all the way, just most of the way.

Pow!

I can feel it coming, I think I know what it is.

It's all about to come down on me again. Or at least that's what I'm feeling. It's not. I don't think. I'm just at that stage where everything is mounting up and you go "I have way too much stuff to do, how am I going to get everything done?" and here it comes. Then I'll get to the otherside and say, "God goes with me all the way".

So bring on Black Stump I say!

Re-cap:

Wake up
Visit Jo minding Hannah in the front yard
Shower
Write Chapter List for DVD
Haircut
Drop off DVD
Pick Up Priscilla
Go to Summer Sanctuary (Westfield), Table of Dreams (with David, Chris and Cilla)
Visit RTA with Cilla
Play Scrabble because video editing not working
Go to Annie's to drop off clothes
Annie not home, come back
Sit around
Figure we can edit without computer
David arrives
Edit
Take Priscilla home
Sit around while David works magic
Have dinner with Fam
Have Bible Study with Fam
Pray, much silliness, with Fam
Wash up
Go to Summer Sanctuary for late night chocolate pudding
Blog

The Westfield Dog tonight was at: 38.29

I got a hair cut today. I decided today was the day. I assessed all the available days between here and Black Stump for haircuts, and I realised that today was the best day. Most money. Most avilablility. Most time for the initial "cutness" of my hair to grow out.

Problem being that today was also Howie's day of cut. That was a little sad. We went up together lamenting the fact that we were going together. We could see the "cute" labels coming. But it had to be done. So we did. We got similar but different hair cuts. I was hoping Howie was going to go for one of his more "crazy" cuts. Perhaps shave it all off again, but I knew that probably wouldn't happen. I would like to say that I have had "short back and sides" since year 8.

I think I always mention, everytime I get a hairy, how much I hate them. Hair cuts suck. I spend the first part of the day dreading it. The haircut feeling like I've made some horrible mistake. And the rest of the day feeling self-concious and short haired. The hair dresser asked if I wanted gel. I said "Yes" even though I don't like gel, I figure you have to have gel because haircuts are the one day in a season where I get "product" in my hair.

Anyway. I have short hair again now.

As Yudhana said to me on the train after a hair cut in year 10: "It'll grow out"

To explore the depths of sin to discover the depths of grace.

Liam was listening to Third Day before when I was blogging. I didn't think about it at the time but I remembered that Liam doesn't like Third Day. I even documented it in my blog once.

I pointed the finger at him and brought his hypocracy to the light. He said he was a closet fan. Like I'm closet fan of Me and Ty. Oops I didn't mean to say that.

Did I mention I know the drummer from Me and Ty? He drums. That's why he's the drummer. His name is Mike. That's not why he's the drummer. Unless they wanted a drummer called Mike and then perhaps it might be.

The Importance of Being Mike

I had a sleep on the couch in the lounge room for about an hour this afternoon. That's a little sad. I might not be able to get to sleep tonight.

Just then instead of writing sleep I wrote school. I'm not sure why. But it does remind me...

When person has a re-occurring dreams, do they have to be exactly the same? Because I often have similar dreams. I have a few re-occurring dream scenarios that keep coming back. They aren't the same dream, but they are always alike.

I often dream I go and work at the cinema again. And my boss is always there, and I always get in trouble and I feel annoyed because I don't work for him anymore. I'm usually just there as a favour or something. Which actually would be interesting. I would kinda like to go back for a day and see what it's like. Probably not very much though. The dreams are always set in the candy bar.

Another dream I often have is going back to school. Sometimes it's about going to class and thinking to myself, "I don't need to be here, I can leave if I want" and getting in trouble and not caring because I'm not really as student. Or sometimes, I'm at school with people who I never went to school with. Generally people from church. And it's exciting because I have all these friends at school and I feel really popular. Sometimes I'm at school with kids from the youth group, but I'm in year 11 or 12 and they're in year 7 or 8, but we still go to the same classes.

Generally it's a mix of two or three. I don't really know what it is.

I also dream about going on journeys a lot. Like going to Canberra, or Melbourne, or last night it was to Westfield. They always include huge numbers of people and are generally pleasant experiences. Lots of fun. Or at least I usually get to know people and have good conversations as we journey together. They also include many different modes of transport. There is always walking though. And they often happen over long periods of time, like at least a day and a night. Maybe more. And many obstacles along the way which slow our journey.

I'm not sure what they mean. Probably something about my desire for good relationships. Or something like that. I don't know. I hope I haven't accidentally revealed deep secrets hidden within my subconscious.

It's funny I never really dream about being at home, or at church, or at college. The three places where I spend most of my time, and where I spend the most significant parts of my life (generally) and they don't feature. People from those places feature in different contexts. Friends and family often turn up at the cinema.

I don't know. Doesn't matter. It's just interesting. I remember most of my dreams these days, and they are kinda fun. It's fun being back at work (the cinema) and knowing I don't have to be there, or being popular at school, or going on journeys. It's good.

Now I've talked about my dreams.

I once heard someone say that dreams are only interesting to the people who have them. That could be true. But that's why we love blogs because in they could be said to be the same.

Bono's Foreword

I was thinking the other night about writing a book. I thought "That'd be fun". Although I don't think I'd have anything to write about.

I decided it would be a book call something like "12: Twelve topics from Tom". Then I'd get family, friends, leaders, followers and strangers, to give me 12 different topics, and I'd write about them. The book would have twelve chapters. And an introduction by some famous theologian like John Stott or J.I. Packer. Or perhaps, someone more diverse, because it wouldn't be a theology book. Bono maybe. Yeah, Bono would write it. And it would be sold at Koorong, and ordered at K-mart.

Yeah.

All I have is a red gutair, three chords and the truth. - U2

Yeah. Bono's introduction might look something like this:

Aye, my good friend Tom. He's written a book.

I remember back a few years ago on a hot August morning (cold August night for Tom), I was eating my breakfast at the computer, eggs and toast, Ali cooked it for me. I was reading Tom's blog and I thought, "If this little bugger ever writes a book, I'm going to call him a self-indugent little prat." So I rang him then and there and told him. "If you ever write a book, I'll officially declare you a self-indulgent little prat."

He said "You're already a self-indulgent prat Bono, why can't I join the fun?"

I had to pay that, so now I'll let him join the ranks.

And then he'd probably quote the Message, because he likes the Message.

If I wrote a book it'd be like a paper version of my blog. Just longer, and less "day to day". And we don't need that in the world.

A found a verse in Ecclesiastes when I was preparing that I thought was worth putting on a blog:

The more the words,
the less the meaning,
and how does that profit anyone?

Ecclesiates 6:11

I might make that the thing on the said that says "Hold on everybody, it's Tom time!".

Irony, how we love irony.

How am I feeling at the moment?

I was up till 4am last night doing a DVD for Helen's major work. Before that I'd been at church for a dance party. Today I had the morning group to run, we did the tower of Babel. Today I was meant to write two 1000 word essays on Job and Ecclesiasties. I gave up.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. My brain isn't in the right space to writing essays. I decided to take a different option and do stuff that's due in in a month. The problem is that the stuff due in in a month is much harder. But I can't think about Old Testament wisdom literature at the moment. There's nothing coming out of my brain. Especcially when one of the questions has the word colophon in it.

So now I'm killing time. I could be reading my book. Or having a sleep. Or something. I'm blogging.

Being tried there's a chance that I'll talk about my feelings. I have none at the moment. It's only 3pm so it's a little early. I'd prefer to keep my feelings of my blog at times. But sometimes they just slip out.

I'm listening to The Elms at the moment. Yay for them.

I made a DVD. That's fun too. Now I'm having plans. Sparkly BeeVD perhaps?

Tonight wasn't a bad night. The kids were rowdy again. But had a good night. They talked a lot and Beck had a go at them, but I didn't feel too bad about it. I think they had fun. That was good. It was nice seeing a lot of kids there, perhaps they haven't all stopped coming. The D-teams in general are going well. My guys seem more enthusiastic. Ben came to me tonight to say he had a problem that his D-team was too big. That's a good problem to have.

There's still pleanty to do, but it wasn't too bad tonight. And I do like the kids. They're all cool.

I stood around after talking to Louise and Tim. It was one of those conversations where everyone just tells stories. Was fun. They laughed at me when I dropped some food on the floor, and rightly so.

Howie posted his list of things which are "for chumps". I told him something negative about it. Something like it was a bit depressing. Or something about complaining. I'm not sure. I know he called me a "bloody idiot" afterwards.

Then he posted his list of things which are the bomb. As I complained about his last one, I thought I might endorse this one. I also wanted to make a comment on it but there are no comments on his blog. So I'll just post it here and comment on the whole thing.

coke - Agreed. Agreed. To the Max.

blackstump - Agreed. But I'd say Black Stump, because I'm a legalist and I like things to be right.

lasagne - Nah. It's alright, nothing special.

cinema - Fully agreed. The cinema gives me a reason to live. Not the only reason. Or the main reason. But its certainly a contributor for my desire to live life.

cherry ripe ice cream - Mmm. Its pretty good. Wouldn't make it on my list.

my blind hat - It was funny when you bought it.

bic intensity click pen - Nice to use, but I prefer my mechanical pencils. The posh ones that cost $10.

old Jamaica rum and rasin chocolate - Nope. Only when I'm really craving.

miller tripods - Yah. Yah. Love em. I'd hug 'em if I was that kind of guy.

the panel - Alright. Rather watch nothing though.

crowded house - Pretty damn good. Wouldn't make it on my list though.

counting crows - Definitely make it on my list. How good are the Crows?

U2 - WAAAHOOOO!!! Posh diddies! We love Bono. We Love The Edge. We love Adam. We Love Larry. Yay for U2!

"will you love me?" ( just testing to see if you're awake) - Damn right I'm awake! Why isn't this at the top of the list?

spaghetti bolognaise - Nope. Always takes me about 4 years to eat.

DVD - Yeah. Very cool. Except when you're trying to burn them, that's why I'm losing my hair I'll tell you. Not that I'm losing my hair.

Adobe premiere - Most of the time.

Ben thurley - He's pretty cool. I don't know him as well as Howie. But I like what I know.

Steve bevis - Beautiful Man.

Malcom - Nope. Was good to watch once.

Hot chips and gravy - From Charkies? Mmmm, yeah. And so many memories to go with that rich beauty of flavour. Wonderful.

Digital video - Yep. Tha' Bomb.

TEAR - Pretty good. Yep. I was just thinking about them last night, thinking "Good on them"

Fusion - Fusion is full of friendly people. And I don't hate Fusion, don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Whiteboards - Good, because you can rub stuff off them. I always have a greater desire to use whiteboards that I have need to.

Manila folders - No. I like tray files. They're cool.

Sleep - Oh yes. So much so. I would love more.

girlfirend - Howie's or mine? I like Howie's. Her name's Jo, just so she's not just "girlfriend". She's good quality. Mine. Don't have one. If I did though, I reckon she'd be the bomb.

Nuggets - Depends which ones? Macca's? They're alright. McOz is better, but it depends on my emotional state. Frozen Woolies ones? Yeah. They're tops.

Shoes - Mine have holes, but I love em anyway. Till I get new ones at least.

New boxer shorts - Dad got me some from England with the Union Jack on them. Like I said, they're the sort of boxers you want to get dacked in.

Remote controls - Hmm. Not on my list. But good none the less.

Tangara's - Nope. Those silver express ones I catch on Tuesdays. Ahhh. Beauty on rails. Except for the ugly yellow-ness

Those self cleaning toilets in the city - Hours of fun!

Train tickets - Mild interest.

Road signs - When they stay where they should be they're generally boring. When they're in someone's bedroom their generally illegal, but much more interesting.

Mail - Kids love getting mail.

friends - I have not enough and too many. I love my friends. All of em. I'd like to see more of them. Except near Christmas and Birthdays, then they get expensive.

5.1 surround sound - Yeah. That's bomb like.

Video Ezy Mark - He's cool.

George Clooney - We love George.

Kings canyon - Umm. I have no idea where that is. I'm guessing it's around Uluru.

Curtains - Mine are kinda weird. The leftovers of when my room was the spare room. Red theatre ones are really cool though.

Fire wire - Agreed.

3CCD triple chip - So much bombness.

google - Yeah, I'll pay that.

acoustic guitars - If they're steel string. Nylon doesn't do it for me. Pianos are cool. I wish I could play both. And the drums.

bean bags - They're ok. Too noisy when you're trying to watch a film. The Thomas the Tank Engine one Priscilla gave me works well though.

baileys - Yeah. Good drink that. If I got drunk I'd get drunk on that.

kahlua - Good too. But not as good as Bailey's though. If I got drunk on Baileys, I'd drink that when the Baileys ran out. Or if there was no Baileys at the start I wouldn't pass up the offer.

hey hey its Saturday - Nope. Take it off the list now. Not my cup of tea. Nor should it be anyone else's

youth - Yeah. They're cool. They add much richness to my life.

Maccas - Adds very little richness to my life. But it's good. And the company's usually good too.

The food court - I stand by my statement that I've never had a good meal there. But it's always good times in the food court and I love it to bits.

The table of dreams - How cool is the Table of Dreams. More people should come to the Table of Dreams.

Woollies frozen food section - Yes, Yes, indeed! It's a wonderful place. I'm even willing to walk through sanitary napkin and nappy isles to get there.

Pizza - Not bad. Not the bomb though.

Majic kebab - Yeah. But I don't go visit enough.

Film sets - I love filmsets. I love em. Gives me shivers of excitement.

Outside broadcasts - Not as good as filmsets, but they are still fun.


By the way this is all just my opinion. I have no problem with Howie, or anyone else thinking these things are the bomb. Except maybe Hey, Hey, It's Saturday, that I just find offensive.

When I get my own place I want have a spare room that people sleep in. That's a spare room that people sleep in, not just for people to sleep in, or for the sake of having a spare room.

I like the fact that my house doesn't have any spare rooms. It did, but they filled up, so you can't call them spare. I like the fact that many nights there are only 3 rooms in the house that don't have people sleeping in them, and none of them are carpeted, and they all have sinks.

For the love of God and the sake of all things good, why does SMH have a gallery of pictures from Legally Blonde 2?!?

By the way, don't click that link it's not worth going to.

Catch a falling star,
Put it in your pocket,
She'll burn your fingers,
and a whole right through you wallet.

Quick and the Dead

I just discovered that "The First Time" by U2 is on The Best of 1990-2000. That's a bit disappointing. We're using it in TOOBSC and I like to pick music that people aren't likely to know. Partly because it's distracting if they have other associations with the music, partly because it's nice to give people something new and let them make new associations with new music. Oh well. It's still a good song.

I've been trying to encode a Tear video all day. Premiere crashes everytime I try and do it. It'll encode other videos, just not this one. I might try in the morning. See if a sleep will cheer the computer up.

I was meant to write assessments today. Sadly, I have done very little assessment writing. I've spent all day working on videos.

1 in 1000. Usually I feel like part of the thousand than part of the one.

Wednesdays. What days are Wednesdays?

I went to visit Hannah at school today. It was Jump Rope for Heart day. Mum asked me to go a few weeks ago, I said I would, but Mum decided that I didn't want to and didn't organise for me to go. I rang the school this morning to find out what was going on. The woman told me it had already started so I slowly made my way up to the school. When I arrived I walked into the playgroud and I immedatly had two kids holding my hand. Hannah ran over and said "Hello". I think she was excited to see me. She then ran off to try and climb the fence while I was forced to sit down and watch a little girl play with a little ocean shaker toy.

I walked around the playground with Hannah as she compleated various tasks, like jumping over things, running around, and throwing. It was all very cute. I felt a little out of place though. It was all mothers, children and female teachers.

But it was fun. I met a lot of kids. I had one boy called Ian attach himself to me for half of lunch time while I watched Hannah ride her bike on the bike track. I talked to a teacher there whose kids I knew in school. She was a Christian and told me lots of good stories.

Then I went to food court.

I spent this afternoon making TOOBSC into AVIs for sound editing.

What days are Wednesdays.

Ever since Footboot has gone, my hits have dropped. A little sad, but I'll soldier on.

"Up Ya' Westfield!"

I went to the movies tonight with three friends at Hornsby Westfield. He He.

We went and saw Tears of the Sun. It was an interesting film. Very distressing at times. Very confronting and un-comfortable. But at other times it was good old American shoot 'em up. There was one terrible line where the black soldier, when asked if he was willing to risk his life for the African refugees said something like "I can't leave these people, because these people are my people. This land is my heritage." or something worse than that. Made me laugh a lot.

After the film we headed out of the cinema and did the film debrief. As we got to the bottom of the escalators from Greater Union I noticed some flashing blue lights and people running through the mall. I thought "Ooo this could be some excitement" and ran over to the window of the over pass to look down upon the water clock and it idyllic surroundings.

Down below there was nothing much of excitement. A few people standing around, a cleaner, a car driving through the mall, and a couple of Westfield security guards. Nothing unusual for 11:45pm on a Tuesday night. My three friends caught me up. One of them ran up to the couch in front of the window and jumped up onto it and started jumping up and down and waving. She then climbed onto the back of the couch and started tapping on the window or something to the people down below (I'm not fully sure what happened because I wasn't standing close enough). I looked down and saw the two security guards look up. They started to move towards the entrance.

"Ok, it's time to go now" said I.

We started to move towards the exit. My jumping friend started looking for another exit. One where there were no security guards. The rest of us encouraged her not to worry. We caught the escalators down and a security guard was moving towards us on the bottom floor. My friend tried to hide behind me. Realising that perhaps I am not yet quite well built enough to hide people behind me, I thought honesty was the best approach.

"She's behind me" I said to the security guard as we neared each other.

"You know it doesn't bother me. You're the ones who have to worry. That was all on security camera"

"Ooh, I'm on candid camera!" said my hiding friend

"They'll know next time you come here"

"Oh ok" I think I may have said.

We kept walking towards the corridor exit next to General Pants. My jumping friend went a head of us, and much quicker, filled with mirth (I think that means she was laughing a lot). I was trying to put up my friendly, responsible, youth minister air and not walk away too fast as that would be rude to the security guard. As the rest of us got to the corridor the security guard said something that we didn't quite catch.

"Sorry?" Three of us, who were not offenders and were not nearly as far down the corridor turned back.

"You know you guys just think this is a big joke. How would you like it if I came around to your house and started destroying your stuff?" I don't think he felt his security camera call had got to us enough.

I wanted to reply with "We don't live in a Westfield and neither do you" but held my tongue thinking that wasn't a good thing to say. I don't think we said anything. I continued to try and look friendly.

"You just don't care do you?" And with that he walked away. (This may not have been his last line but it was something like that)

"Ok, sorry." We replied "Have a good night"

And with that we left Westfield.

Cat

I don't think people should kill each other. I don't think it's a good idea.

I just woke up. I did Scripture Seminars again today. Another school. Another 350 kids. I think I've spoken to about 700 kids or so over the past week. That's a lot. Not that all of them were listening.

I did my talk 9 times all up. I'm very sick of it now. If I thought it was mediocre at the beginning I have no idea why anyone would want to listen to it now.

They were interesting seminars. They taught the kids about the evolution of Fatherhood since the Industrial Revolution. Not exactly what I'd talk about in a scripture seminar, but that's ok.

It was a good experience. I'd do it again. But I'm always struck with scripture seminars, that I want to see more of the kids. You see people once a term and then we go. It's not very good for building strong relationships. Good I guess for preaching the Gospel. Not too good for living out the Gospel. You can tell a true prophet by their fruits but when you see people one hour a season, you don't even get much of a chance to let them know what sort of fruit you grow, let along show them you grow it.

Anyway, I do like seminars, they are worthwhile. But we need more of them.

This is a really cool collection of photos of Old Signs around Sydney.

These are a few of my favourite things.

Today Andy did one of the best lectures I've ever had at college. It was on Ezekiel 16. One of those times where you have many things to think about, many challenges to change, many encouragements to love God more fully, and comprehend God's love better. He was on fire. It was great.

On Saturday Ryan and I went to a Chinese Vegetarian resturant and had Crispy Chicken, and Curry Chicken (with fake chicken). We were the only white people in the resturant when we arrived and two of three when we left. The food was really good. I'd like to go back.

We also went to Koorong - what a place of many different things!

Two Evangelicals on a Train

Last Tuesday, I caught the train home from College. A few weeks before I sat in the single seat on the express home so I wouldn't have anyone sit next to me and I could get out easily at my stop, but I moved because I decided I was denying myself the opportunity to meet interesting people. Or at least share the same cubic metre or so with a complete stranger. So in the spirit CityRail community I sat in a two seater, next to the window.

Anyway, last Tuesday I did the same thing, I sat in a two seater with a vauge feeling that I might be doing something useful or at the least, mildly adventurous. I sat down, put my mini-disk on (The Healing Game - Van Morrison) pulled out my book (Prayer: Letters to Malcolm - C.S. Lewis) and my Jesus Trip jumper, made a pillow, and began my 20 minute wait till the train left.

At some stage, I put my book down on my knee and fell asleep.

Somewhere between Central and Strathfield I felt a nudge in my side. The person who sat down next to me while I slept had intruded, a little, on my personal space, and woken me up. I wasn't all that worried, but decided to rouse myself from my slumber. I looked across at the person who was sitting next to me and it was a girl who was around my age, looking like a Uni student, reading her Bible. I thought, "Cool".

Then I started thinking, "I should start a conversation. This is the reason why I am sharing such a small space with this person. I sat here just incase an opportunity like this arose, and now it has!" She was reading Deuteronomy. I started thinking of opening lines for the conversation. I thought “I read a sermon on Deuteronomy today”, might be good. But then decided against it thinking that perhaps that was a little un-cool.

I figured she would have known I was at least a bit on the Christian side having my Lewis book on my knee. I didn’t want to be rude. What if she didn’t want me talking to her. I decided to wait until the mini-disk finished. I did that, then waited a bit longer thinking “Should seize the opportunity. Should seize the opportunity.”

She finished what she was reading, closed her Bible and put it in her little Bible box and put it away. I suddenly had a window of opportunity. I turned to her and said:

“Did you finish your reading?” (Stupid question, “No, I’m still reading with the book in my bag.” But it may be the case that most conversations like that start with stupid questions)

She relied that she had. She was finding it a little tedious working through all the Laws.

And we were away. We talked about how I had read a sermon from Deuteronomy today, and about what we thought of Deuteronomy. We discussed what we did with our lives. She was a good Uni Christian, having spent almost all day with the Uni Christian group. She was a bit tired. I tend to fall asleep when tired. What church? Oh ok, do you know this person? Do you know that person? She’d never heard of my church. We talked a little more.

At Epping she got off. Good bye. And that was the end. I didn’t find out her name or anything like that, and I’m glad I didn’t. I didn’t sit in that seat to pick up. I sat there to perhaps meet people. And I met a person and had a conversation. Good for me. I never start conversations, sometime not even with people I know. Much less with people I don’t. But last Tuesday I did. How interesting.

Someone sat next to me today but I didn’t talk to her. She just ate Tiny Teddies and I looked out the window.

"It's not about you, it's not about me, it's not about us. It's about Him." - Steve Stanis, 2003

I'm about to go to sleep because I've been falling alseep all day.

It was pointed out to me today that when I said "God, I wanted to be a film maker!" it could be seen as rude to those people who attend my youth group.

To clear that up, it was not my intention to say anything about the people who attend my youth group, or the people that help me run it. I think both the kids and the leaders are wonderful, and if I could spend all day hanging out with them, I'd have a great time.

I guess I get a little dismayed at my own lack of abilty to do youth ministry. Like when I said I felt like a fraud, it's the same feeling. At times I feel like someone's, or quite a few people have, made a mistake somewhere along the line, putting me where I am.

When I next preach (not sure when that is for those wondering, maybe September 28th) I'll probably be preaching on Christ's strength in our weakness. It's a funny topic because I spend much of my life feeling weak. I guess it's something I have to learn about, and that's why I want to preach on it. Some say the preacher gets more out of a sermon than anyone who hears it.

Anyway, I need to trust God is working in my ministry. God's bigger than my mistakes, inabilities, and my successes. It's God's youth ministry not mine anyway. His problem not mine.

And may I just say, that I think there are many places where God is blessing the youth ministry. Even on Fridays when I find things difficult. He's good like that. We had 25 kids at the morning group this morning, and it was really cool. Even if it was slightly crazy. And I had a good D-team today with 2 guys. I don't think things are falling in a heap. He's a good God.

Actually, God is blessing the whole ministry. You know, because He's strong when we're weak. Yay!

At the moment I'm often looking out of the window and thinking to myself "It's Black Stump weather."

The Number 11 Mysteriously Dominates the Events of the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks in the USA.

It's amazing!

Today

Tried to pretend to do work (I couldn't find much to do).

Youth group was average.

Every now and again after a Friday night I say "God, I wanted to be a Film Maker!"

My father came home today. I really like my dad. I don't blog about him much but he's great. I was very happy to see him again. Yay for my Dad.

Thursday

I just wrote a good post but blogger is being a dogger.

So lets sum up even more.

I ate no breakfast. Did some Scripture seminars. Did a mediocre talk five times (thank God for the Holy Spirit, He'll fix it).

Came home. Ate noodles and corn flakes. Watched 20 minutes of Breakfast at Tiffany's (wonderful). Talked to Louise on the phone about prayer. Helen arrived. We played on computer and were silly I think we were both very tired. Helen went home.

I went to bed without any dinner.

It's been so long. I've been wanting to blog properly since Tuesday. So long. Should I sum up? Just quickly (That's what I always say).

Wednesday

Nice day. Sun was out. Spring had sprung. 3rd day in a row. Woke up, cleaned up, ate lunch, did banking, edited music, mooched, went to see Finding Nemo (good, funny, out of focus (I blame Hoyts), Pixar are the bomb, wish I could have seen the film 3 weeks ago), didn't eat dinner, went to bed.

All up it was a pleasant (Synonyms: affable, agreeable, amiable, charming, cheerful, cheery, civilized, congenial, convivial, copacetic, delectable, delightful, enchanting, engaging, enjoyable, fine, friendly, fun, genial, good-humored, gracious, home cooking, jolly, jovial, kindly, likable, lovely, mild-mannered, nice, obliging, pleasing, pleasurable, polite, refreshing, satisfying, social, sweet, welcome) day. I'd do it again if I had another Wednesday 3rd September, although I wouldn't have a roast pork from Staks again (actually I might, I've had 3 roasts there and they were all crap, so chances are I'll have a fouth).

On God giving the Ten Commandments:

One is presuming (is one not?) that this is the same god who actually created the audience he was addressing. This leaves us with the insoluble mystery of why he would have molded ("in his own image," yet) a covetous, murderous, disrespectful, lying, and adulterous species. Create them sick, and then command them to be well? What a mad despot this is, and how fortunate we are that he exists only in the minds of his worshippers.

I think this guy needs to read his Bible more. I don't think I'll bother saying anything more.

Ryan showed me the article

Mundine won his fight.

I must say, I didn't expect him to do it.

Now I'll have to change from a skeptic to a tall poppy cutter.

I'm a destination person, not a journey person. I get tired of going places, I just want to be there.

But I learn a lot along the way. It's better to take the journey, than just arrive where you want to be. But still, I'd rather it was all a bit easier.

I finished the talk. For now. I'll revisit it tomorrow. But it's good for now.

Now is bed time. Ahhh.

This got e-mailed to me. Yay for group e-mails, sometimes.

George Whatever Bush

I'm working on my talk for Thursday. I'm about to start my dinner of a Satay Chicken Hero and a Buddy from the BP. I'm setting myself up for a long slog.

I would like to say that at the moment I am quite glad I'm not over at Footboot.

I'm surrounded by sweaty soccer players. Most of the guys went out and played soccer tonight. I didn't. I'm not a big soccer fan. I'm not a big sport fan. Bler.

We had some missionaries come to fireside tonight. They had been at Murree Christian School in Pakistan. That was the school that got attacked by terrorist gunmen last year.

It was strange because there were missionaries at church last night, and missionaries at college tonight. They were both very different. It was different seeing people who are about to go on mission and people who have spent 15 years away on mission.

I was thinking that I have no idea where I will end up in my life. I could end up overseas, I could end up in some remote part of Austraila, I could end up in suburban Sydney. I don't really know. It's up to God. But I'm not really concerned. Not today. Maybe tomorrow.

I went out walking, with a Bible and a gun

I went for a walk this afternoon. I wanted to go somewhere where I could plan my talk for Thursday. Do the, find somewhere private, talk in an American accent thing. I went down to the river with my Bible and wandered along looking for a place where I wouldn't be disturbed by Sutherland Shire dog walkers (there are a lot of them). I crossedthe creek that runs into the river and decided to keep walking along the river. But as I walked I spied a staircase.

"Ooo" I thought, "A staircase". So I climbed it. And kept climbing, then did some turning, and some more climbing. There was level walking and more climbing. 20 minutes later I'm still going. There are bike tracks now, and I ran into a local with her dog. I said "G'day" and kept walking.

Eventually through the trees I spied some lush green grass. An oval perhaps? But there were things on the oval. Were they tractors? No they weren't tractors. What were they? As I came through the trees I discovered what they were. They were graves. Hundreds of graves. Stretching on as far as my eye could see. I had reached Woronora Cemetary. Too far away from college. I wandered through the cemetary as I like those sorts of places. I found my way to the exit. I read the sign at the entrance and it told me there was no thoroughfare to the Woronora River and people found not complying would be prosecuted.

This was a problem. I didn't think I'd be caught, but I did have a crisis of conscience. I couldn't bring myself to walk back through the cemetary, now that I knew it was wrong, so I had to walk all the way back to college via boring, conventional routes. I still hadn't planned any of my talk.

Eventually on the driveway down to college I turned off and disappeared into the bush to find a private rock to preach the gospel to. I did that. And I met some ants. The preaching was very difficult. I really am not finding this passage easy. I'm praying a lot about this one.

Now I'm back though and I've drunk a mug of Milo. All's nice.

We made it on the Black Stump website.

Here we are.