I think I should blog.

I am in an internet cafe at Miranda at the moment. I bought myself an hours worth of time on the computer so I could do some work, edit a script and send some emails. But the computer doesn't have word (should have checked that) and I can't edit the script. So now I've done all I can do and I have about 40 minutes to kill.

This cafe is hot an full of young males. There is one girl but she only arrived about 2 minutes ago. It's not a very pleasant cafe this one.

I went to college today for our first film and Jesus class (or whatever it's called). It was interesting, but I'm not sure I'll be very good at it. With the amount of movies that I watch, you would think I would be. But when I watch movies I think "That was good" or "That was bad" and that's about it. Sometimes I think technically, but never do I think about world view. And this course seems to be very interested in world view. Oh well...

After class we went and saw The Chronicles of Riddick. It was pretty bad. Vin Diesel when down a few notches in my book. But he's still go big muscles and a deep voice.

After the film I went and slept, Bible-d and prayed in a park near Westfield. It got cold and wasn't real nice by the end but I'm glad I did it now.

I think I could probably get away with leaving the cafe now. I've gone over half an hour so I won't have wasted my $3.

Here's an article about an interview which didn't happen. It's about a famous star's reveal all which never happened and never was going to happen, but still rates an article anyway.

I think someone was having trouble finding a story to write.

There are some people in the world who I think are fantastic. And I watch them carefully, and then when I find a fault or an imperfection in them, I think they are even more fantastic, because then I know that they are human like I am.

I was talking to Jem the other day about getting nervous. It's funny. I get nervous all the time. Especially when I turn up places and the beginnings of events. Like I was saying, I still get nervous turning up to church. And school I always got nervous going to school. And all sorts of places.

And sometimes preaching makes me really nervous. Not the actually getting up and speaking in front of people, but the pressure. The pressure to do well, to be funny, to teach the Word, to not say something wrong. I have a friend who said he vomits before most of his sermons. I have never done that, but I get close. And I'll often spend all day feeling queasy and have to take deep breaths.

Sometimes I get nervous in the middle of conversations with people, all sorts of people, and I can't think straight anymore, my stomach starts doing backflips and I have to concentrate on calming down. Usually it's just something they say that triggers me, but I can't quite figure it out.

Some places I am totally relaxed, and I look forward to being in those places, because I don't have to worry. Sometimes I get so nervous about getting nervous that I get nervous, if that makes sense.

It's not all the time, just sometimes. I doesn't really bother me most of the time, but it's an interesting quirk of me.

Now everyone who reads my blog will talk to me, and think "I wonder if I'm making him nervous." Don't worry, I'll be 'right.

I had potatos for lunch.

And Psalms and Daniel before it. One of my assignments this term is to preach at chapel at college. Scary. Getting up in front of a bunch of Bible College students and lecturers and talking about the Bible. Ohh dear. I could choose not to do it, but this will make me a stronger person.

I spent lots of money today. I bought a Johnny Cash cd. I'm quite excited.

I had "coffee" with Travis this morning. Bright and early. We talked about all sorts of things, like preaching, cars and motorbikes. I was quite pleased with myself.

I met Chris after that and we went on our outing. We went to Koorong, where I bought some cds and Bible reading stuff for church. I met my Koorong friend Scott there. He works there, but I know him from school. We had a D'n'M right in the middle of the music section, it was a surreal experience that can probably only happen in a Christian bookstore.

After bookstore Chris and I went to the city and wandered around his Uni. He visited people, and I stood there. We went to Broadway to watch I, Robot. There was food before and I ate Indian. The movie was good. Yep, I enjoyed, the script was good, and I think I only groaned once. That was when they put in the useless shower scene. What's with that?

Will made me laugh and the action was fun. I enjoyed.

Tonight was Parish Council and the room was very hot. Ray asked me about my announcement about the church heating when I paid out the parish council. He did it just to watch me stew. I knew he would, he's a rude man. Oh well, I love him anyway.

I drove there and back listening to Johnny Cash. He's cool.

I just tried to open a report for Parish Council tomorrow night and it didn't work. Then I thought "Why are you trying to open a report for Parish Council at 12:20am on a Sunday night, go to bed." So I will.

My Day

I woke up this morning and did my usual. I got an sms during my quiet time, I thought "None of my friends are up this early." And they weren't. But my friends at the tax office were. I got $621.22 from the Tax man. I wish the tax man was my Uncle.

The tax man is a good example of earning good gifts from a higher power. If you are good, and pay the tax man lots of money, he'll give you lots of money back. If you are bad though, and you skimp, the judgment of the tax man will fall on you and he will punish you and take money off you. We insignificant humans spend much of our lives trying to make our tax man happy with good gifts of the fruits of our labor.

If I lived in ancient Mesopotamia, I'd add Tax Man to my list of other gods, like Baal, Ashtoreth and Mot.

I don't think the Tax Man knows much about grace.

Anyway, it was time for breakfast after my monetary blessings, but I didn't feel like breakfast. I sat in a chair at the end of my darkened kitchen feeling bler, then fell asleep for a bit. At ten to nine I said "No use sitting here like a sack of potatoes, best be off to work" so I went to work early.

Church was good. I got my drama group to be serious which I think was boring for them, but I was excited about it.

I hung out with many young people after church, and they're all a bunch of fun.

Lunch with Helen, then I worked on my sermon for a few hours.

We went to the retirement village with the youth group. It was smaller this time, but good. The residents were great. There was one lady who sang me a song about how I'm 21 three times. And then she'd say "But you're not 21 yet" and everytime I'd have to think of a new witty reply, because I can't use the same material twice, not even on someone with Alzheimer's.

Church was good. I got really nervous tonight. Some nights when I preach I get more nervous than others. Tonight was a very nervy one for me. I felt sick for most of the hour before I preached, but once I was there I was fine. Although I was a little parched.

Lauren told me I went a bit pentecostal tonight (until I started talking about sin, and then I went Anglican). It was funny. I got more excited tonight than usual. I spent most of the night talking about the gospel, so I think that's what excited me.

At Maccas, well, it was usual. Until I managed to snap the key* to the car while trying to destroy a happy meal toy. This was very funny for 5 minutes, and annoying and idiotic for the next hour while we waited for Ryan to turn up with a new key. Good on Ryan and good on my Mum for making sure the key got to us.

We drove home and Chris told me about his day, and that was the best bit.



*Thanks Chris for the photo.

God is fantastically good.

I'm having an ice cream and Willie Nelson cover song sermon break. It's tops.

Sermon writing time again. Gosh, sometimes, I wish typing sermons was as exciting as preaching them. There's just way too many letters in twenty minutes of talking.

I'm having a Friday night at home.

Not that I want to. But I have no money and I think I should sit on the couch and read commentaries on Colossians. I also think I should get some sleep because I have to be up very early in the morning. Buggarr. I don't like early mornings. Especially on Saturdays.

Life's been really strange lately. God's good, but he's doing weird things. He's answering prayers, all over the place it seems. And in other things, it's all just going to the dogs. And that often seems like God's got something to do with that too. Weird. I can't work it out. I look forward to looking back in a few months time and going "Ahh, right, I get it now".

At small group today the guys spent a lot of energy congratulating me on graduating from my green Ps. One guy even told his Dad I got off my Ps. I thought I was the only interested person.

We had fun. As much as I spend my whole time trying to get them to be quiet and concentrate, it's good.

I almost ran out of work to do today. I think, right now, I'm almost on top of what I need to be doing. Cool.

Rach started today. Welcome Rach. We had a SIM city meeting today, which was feeling a little lacking in testosterone. That seems to be a common theme at the moment.

I didn't eat much food today. 4 pieces of pizza. But I listened to some music. Sons of Korah, Counting Crows, The Wallflowers, and Matchbox 20.

Ding Ding.

I wonder if there's a connection between state of people's emotions and how often they post quotes on their blog.

Do you hear him coming, Lord
Do you hear his call
You hear us knocking
We’re knocking at your door
You hear us coming, Lord
You hear us call
You hear him scratching
Then you make us crawl - U2

Friggity Poopsicle!

Now that I'm back to the usual routine of life, my days have less to blog about. Well, at least I feel like they do.

I'm minding Hannah at the moment. This is good I like Hannah. I'm looking after her till she goes to school tomorrow morning. Fun. She's on the trampoline at the moment. We were watching a U2 dvd before, but she made me turn it off and put on The Lion King 2. It's not nearly as interesting. Actually, it seems like quite a dodgy movie, but I've never watched the whole thing.

Do not shnn God

I just got Christian spam. What is the world coming to?

Oh well, maybe it'll do some good somewhere.

-----Original Message-----
From: Everette Sams [mailto:azjsm@dallas.net]
Sent: Thursday, 22 July 2004 5:34 AM
To: Thomasw
Subject: Do not shnn God


Hello Thomasw,


Eternity is a really long time.If you or someone close to you has not accepted GOd
please do so tody. The following prayer can save you or someone that you love.


Say, "Oh God, save my soul. I'm so sorry that I have
sinned against you, but I have come home. I will
serve you, Lord, the rest of my life. Deliver me
from all my sinful habits. Set me free! I do believe
Jesus died on Calvary for me, and I believe in His
blood, that there is power in His blood to wash away
all my sins, all my sins!" Say, "Come into my heart,
Jesus; come on in, Jesus. Come on in!"

If you meant it, He has come. If you meant it,
Jesus is yours. Start reading your Bible, pray daily
and believe that somebody's listening; His name is Jesus.

I had a good day today.

I spent most of it preparing for my sermon and writing a Bible study. Sometimes I find that a bit tedious, but I had fun today. Sometimes things just flow and it feels good, and they did today.

I got excited writing about worship. It's fun to worship.

We had leaders meeting tonight and Helen talked about worship good. She's good Helen. I cooked some ravioli, which I enjoyed doing, I'm not sure how it tasted. I like cooking. I'm not very talented, but I enjoy feeling like I have achieved something.

We talked about the love of money in small group tonight, and I spent the whole time sitting there wondering if I'm too rich. And then wondering if I should give all my money away. I'm not sure if I have a love of money, but sometimes it certainly makes me feel guilty.

I prayed that I would see God work, and now I have. It's not what I wanted, or expected, and it's painful. But God is good and I want to see more.

To do lists are interesting things. They make me feel good when they're all done, but guilty the rest of the time.

I spend most of my time feeling guilty.

I'm cleaning up my room at the moment and I have discovered a few things. I have discovered that I have too many books for my book shelves. This is a good thing. I like books.

I have also discovered I don't dust very often. This is not a good thing. My room is disgusting, cobwebs and dead skin everywhere.

I have too much paper and not enough storage space. This is a bit annoying. I'm too good at keeping things I think may be important at some stage.

Oh well, at least my room is most of the way to clean.

The weekend that was, Without vowels.

Strdy

Wnt t drm thng wth Jm. vce wrkshp t b prcse. hd fn. W lstnd t Jhn Myr n th wy thr, hs gd mn tht Jhn.

Nght ws gm f Mnply wth Chrs, Jm, nml, nd Mchl. Lts f fn. t tk vry lng tm, bt wrth t. nml s hrd mn t brgn wth.

Sndy

Chrch, gd stff. 'm njyng 10m srvce t th mmnt. Sd t g bck t drm grp on Sndy mrnngs.

Hln nd hd lnch wth th Swns Snr. Fntstc hm ckd ml. Ht fd, ym.

630pm srvce ws gd t. Mccs ftr chrch, gd tmes, gd t hve lts f schl ppl wth s bfr schl gs bck. lk th schl flk, thy'r gd qlty.

No More Green Ps



Now I can drink and drive (a little), drive at 110km/h and take learners learning. Fun Fun.

Plus I won't look like a "young hoon", or someone who's borrowed the family van. Although I am both.

After I recycled my cheque for $150 the treasurer gave me a new one. This was the envelope it came in:

Want a 2003 Alfa Romeo hatchback for $379? I do. There's one just here.

I defy winter

I put my first jumper of the day on just then. Before then I have spent the morning wearing boxers, shorts and t-shirt, boxers again and long pants and a t-shirt. I'm bringing on summer I am. We're over halfway through winter so I say the warm weather is just around the corner. I'm going to will in the sunshine with my choice of day wear. It's all downhill to spring, froliking, warmth, beaches and fun from here, baby!

If I could make my life exactly the way I wanted it, I think I'd get rather confused. I'd probably spend a few days changing heaps of stuff so that by the end I wouldn't recognise my life anymore, and then I wouldn't know what I'd want.

I'd probably have a pretty good car though.

Just while I'm here.

I saw King Arthur yesterday. That was a bit frivolous. Fun though. I wonder why Keira Knightly had to go to war in her "Battle Bikini". Actually I know why, and it has nothing to do with historical accuracy. I went with Chris. He's a good man. I enjoy hanging out with Chris.

I also booked my DQT (Driver Qualification Test) yesterday at the RTA. I know I've said this before, but I love living really close to the RTA. 2 minutes walk and I'm there.

I'm doing the test on Monday. That means that by 12:30 on Monday I could have my full license. How exciting!

After the movie (which was after the RTA) I went to Macquarie and had a coffee (hot chocolate) with Travis, a bit of dinner, then it was off to Liz's party.

I got tired at around eight, but I soldiered on. The party was goodness. I had fun hanging out with all the church crew. There were a bunch of people there that I see almost every week but I never hang out with. It was good to see them outside of church. It was good to be there and not be the youth minister.

We played games and games are fun. And there was plenty of laughing. Laughing is good too.

So I'm here in Woolongong. The Uni to be exact.

Angus canceled on me today so I decided to catch the train to somewhere far away and vist a friend. I'm visiting Erin, she's very kindly letting me visit all her places of learning. As I like to blog from as many exotic locations as possible, I thought I'd take the opportinity as it arose.

Woohoo. I'm a long way from home, and I have a long train trip and book read between here and there. Plus I have what ever I end up doing with Erin today.

I had some fish and chips at the Unibar too. 'Twas good. I don't think I've seen Erin in over a year.

I fixed the pop-ups. It was Webstat. Well, they're gone now. Good-bye Webstat.

Now I have no idea how many hits I'm getting. I might sign up for another hits tracking thing later. But for now, I'll just live in ignorance.

I just visited my blog and I got a pop up.

Not happy Jan. Who's doing the pop-up? Is it Blogger? Is it Webstat? I don't know but I'm not happy. I don't like pop-ups. Pop-ups are evil. I can handle an unobtrusive ad or two, but pop-ups are horrid things which don't belong on a respectable publication like my blog.

I'll get 'em. Just you wait, I'll get 'em.

The pub last night was fun. Lots of people. I would have counted, but I don't like numbers.

Well sometimes I do. 16 people maybe?

Lots of us.

After the Pub some of us had an impromptu birthday party for Liz at my house. A quick trip to Wollies ensured that we had a cake and some party food (Microeasy Cheeseburger and TV dinner) and we were set. It was good fun. The party didn't go for very long, but it at least spanned over into midnight for Liz's birthday.

Yay for birthdays.

Happy Birthday Liz.

Hillsong Top of the Pops

Hillsong's For All You've Done has started at No. 1 on the Australian charts. SMH said so.

Cool.

Wahoo!

(I was going to say "Yahoo" but that's been stolen)

I had a meeting today with Helen, and Kaye later. It was my first meeting in a few weeks.

It wasn't anything special. It was the Term 3 ministry meeting. Things are getting planned, things are chugging along as usual. It's funny how meetings make things happen. It would be really good if the behind the scenes of youth ministry was really exciting and people could make documentaries about us. But, alas, it isn't exciting. The silliness is fun, but nothing worth filming. So sad.

Helen did throw a Bible at me at one stage.

I watched the end of Daredevil when I got home today. That was a stupid movie. Not worth watching really. The best bit of the movie was probably the Marvel logo intro at the beginning. I always like that bit. Apart from that, it was pretty useless.

I wonder if I have high expectations of myself?

Or maybe I have expectations of other's high expectations of myself.

Hmm.

I didn't do much today.

I planned a talk for Alpha, had some soup with Mum and Jo (sister) in Hornsby, and fell asleep in various chairs around the house. I felt a bit stupid today. Oh well it happens.

I also picked up the car from the mechanics. I'm not very good there. Whenever I drive out of the carpark I feel like they're all looking at me saying "He drove out of the car park all wrong. He did a three-point turn to get out. What an idiot. Could have just reversed out. What a waste of three points."

I went to Alpha toinght and no non-Christian's turned up so I gave a modified version of my talk. I made a lot of it up on the spot. I rehashed a little, I said stuff I've said before (especially to youth leaders) and hoped it'd be ok. I had fun. I felt better about the talk because most of it was impromtu, so if it was bad I had a good excuse.

I liked sitting around with the Chirstians too. I liked them all.

"I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"

I think that the HSC should be banned. It's a really silly idea that does silly things to people. Everyone gets so stressed and they shouldn't, it shouldn't be that important.

Year 12 was just lots of people telling us that the HSC was the end of the world. "If you do badly in that, well, you're stuffed."

I'd like to say that's a load of crap. If you do bad in the HSC and you can't go to Uni you can take a few years off, get a job, go traveling, enjoy life without exams, then go to uni as a mature age student. They beat the HSC up to be the pinnacle of your educational career. If all you learn at school in your 13 years is how to write a few essays and do a major work or two then our schools are useless.

I'm only writing this because I keep seeing the year 12s, everyone is talking about trials and getting stressed, and I think it's silly. It's not the year 12s fault, it's the system's fault. It's the people who make the decisions and run the whole thing. I've heard many school people say to me, "Oh, and that year's out 'cause I'm year 12" Why do we feel it's necessary to set something up where people have to remove themselves from normal life for a year to prove they are smart enough to go to uni? That's stupid. What's the big deal?

I'm going to become the Minister for Education and I'm going propose a Bill and I'm going to call it "The Chill Out Bill: Freedom for Year 12s" And I'm going destroy the HSC. I'll figure out how to assess people's skills better, and I'm going fire any teacher who stresses year 12s out. They've made it through 12 years of education, they should have a year to have fun.

Damn the HSC, damn it straight to Hell.


Oh and God bless all you year 12s, even though you are doing the HSC, you need fear no evil. Once you've been out for a year, no one really cares. Study (a bit), do your exams, have fun, do it for God, and remember you're a valuable person whatever silly mark you get.

"I remember some years ago visiting a church incognito. I sat in the back row...I'm not going to identify the church. You won't be able to identify it; it's thousands of miles away from here. When we came to pastoral prayer, it was lead by a lay brother, because the pastor was on holiday. So we prayed that the pastor might have a good holiday. Well, that's fine. Pastors should have good holidays. Second he prayed for a lady member of the church who was about to give birth to a child that she might have a safe delivery, which is fine. Third he prayed for another member of the church who was sick, and then is was over. That's all there was. It took twenty seconds.

I said to myself, it's a village church with a village God."

John Stott when speaking on the need to have a global prayer focus.

I went to church again today. It was the first time since Tuesday. Yay!

It's strange going to morning church because I don't do it often. It's nice to go. It's nice to see something other than 6:30. Although I do love 6:30, we have fun there.

I didn't do huge amounts today. After church I spent almost the whole afternoon on the couch reading. It was very relaxing. At 4 I gave Helen her official "catch up" and then mooched around for a bit. I set up a dvd player, talked to people, prayed with Kaye and Tanya. That was fun. We prayed for the church, it is good to pray for the church.

Church was good. Sally spoke well. I'm still excited about the CDs. I wasn't quite with it tonight, at church or Maccas. I think I was a bit spaced out. But Maccas was fun.

I gave one of the girls in the youth a lift home, Rach kindly acted as the "official other old person" before I dropped her home too. When I got back to Maccas it was all locked up, and everyone was still inside. I was worried I might have to hang out outside till people came out. But Jo came and snuck me in via the automatic doors (most people come in via those doors, but most people aren't "snuck" in) and I felt very naughty. Well, not very, but I enjoyed sneeking.

Now I am home and about to eat dinner. The problem is not eating McDonald's is that it's a long time between meals sometimes.

Sometimes there are events in life where you think "Wanna blog that" but you can't. So you don't.

But it would be fun. Good for the memories.

I think that last post was quite boring.

But, sometimes it just has to be done. Even if it's boring, write it down.

I think I wanted to write about the RSL. I've been thinking all day "Must blog about the RSL."

Actually I've been thinking "Must blog about the Arr-ee" But I'm not quite sure how you write "Arr-ee" so I wrote RSL.

Chris and I went to the RSL last night. I've seen a lot of Chris lately. It's been good. It comes with many of our friends being out of the country at the moment I think.

The RSL was smoky as usual. And there were lots of people from my various schools there. It was a virtual school reunion. Although I didn't talk to anyone.

I had schooner of Tooheys New. I had my first full schooner of beer. I'm learning to be a man. It was fun going to the bar and saying "Schooner of New, thanks". Most enjoyable. One day I am going to actually enjoy the beer too, not just ordering.

I had a Lemon, Lime and Bitters second because I know I like that, and I couldn't think of anything else to drink that I wanted and didn't have Coke in it. I enjoy sitting there. We watched the footy and played Keno. Cool.

Then we headed to my house to watch a DVD. We watched Interview with the assassin. It was interesting. They made it like a documentary, but let themselves down by making it too un-realistic. It had a good concept though. It was like the Blair Witch of conspiracy films.

Today I had a meeting with Helen about the film in Starbucks. We had lunch together afterwards and were met by Mark and Anmol.

Following my chicken crepe, it was movie time. Mark, Anmol and I met Jo and Tinku and we headed off to Spiderman 2. Matt and Gemma joined us once we were in the cinema.

The film was good fun. I think it was better than the first one. It was a nice progression from the first. I think they did better with the characters, and it was all a bit meatier. The action was cooler too. Spiderman seems to have grown up a bit, he seems more used to his role. Worked well. I'm looking forward to number 3.

Tonight Tinku, Jo and I had dinner with Grandpa and Valentina. An enjoyable occasion. Japanese, eh. Raw fish, um, yep. I liked my food and the people. We had chocolate and tea back at the unit before I drove home listening to Achtung Baby loudly.

I hope it rains so much we spend the next three weeks drying our washing indoors.

Some things I am thankful for:

They started in an order, but quickly just became whatever came to mind

God
Jesus
Holy Spirit
My Family
My Friends
Movies
Bed
McCain's Crunchy Potato Wedges
The Wallflowers
Sleep
CDs
Books
DVDs
U2
My Computer
Video Editing
My Office
My Church
Young People
Old People
Middle-Aged People
Water
Fresh Air
Dogs that don't bark
Dogs that do
Green P-Plates
Black Licenses
Blogs
Email
Porridge
Fitness
Westfield
Steven Spielberg
Panavision
Youthworks
The Anglican Church
Noisy Speakers
Flashing Lights
Forgiveness
Health
Cars
Grace
The Gospel
The Bible
The Pub
New People
Old Friends
Mobile Phones
Digital Cameras
Woolworths
Adoption
Love
Doctors
Doors
Windows
Glasses
Hot Water Heaters
Paper
Mechanical Pencils
Triple Chip Cameras
Money
Being Broke
Heaven
Earth
Birthdays
Parties
Flirting
Honesty
Humour
Shenanigans
Shoes
Singing
and
Summer

Some days are better than others

Some days are dry
Some days are leaky
Some days come clean
Other days are sneaky
Some days take less but most days take more
Some slip through your fingers and onto the floor - U2

City, Cinema and Rude Awakenings

When I come to the city I spend a lot of time walking up and down it.

I have today. I keep thinking there might be something I want to watch on at the cinema so I walk to cinema, have a look, nope, nothing on. Then I'll find something else to do. And it'll occur to me that there might be something I want to watch on at the cinema, so I walk to a cinema and nope, nothing on. I've done that three times today.

In between I've bought a book, The Da Vinci Code (which looks set to be a rollicking good read, and completely heretical), had hot chocolate with Gloria (Jean), checked out Circular Quay, and looked at tall buildings. I'm not quite sure if I've had a good time yet, but it certainly beats sitting at home.

Speaking of home, I woke up this morning to a knock at the door. I decided to ignore it because I wasn't really dressed for visitors. I don't feel like parading around in only my boxers for just any old person that knocks on my door. Anyway, I waited until I heard the gate again and I decided they must be gone. "Away with you, you mystery knocker." Then the neighborhood dogs started barking. And I heard footsteps in the bush behind my house. This spurred me to action. I got up, looked out my window and noticed there was a person in my backyard. She was taking photos of my house. I had two thoughts about who she may be, 1. A thief casing our house, so they can steal all our expensive home appliances or 2. An Al Qaeda operative taking photos so she could bomb our house. Alert but not alarmed, I dressed myself in yesterday's clothes, and headed outside looking tough and half awake.


I walk out the door and by this stage she had moved to taking photos in the front yard. "Oh Hi, I'm and architect" (Likely story) "I talked to your Mum last night, she said I could take photos" (Who said you could talk to my Mum?) "I knocked on the door but no one answered" (That's because I didn't want to speak to you) "Did you just wake up?" (That's none of your business)

"Yes" I said

"I've already seen in your room" (What the hell!?! Was I in there?) "You mum showed it to me, she was embarrassed about the mess" (Everyone is out to get me) "Is this yours here?"

"No, mines the other one"

"Well, ok then. I've finished now."

"Ok"

"Bye"

Off she went and I went and had a shower.

Today was nice.

I went to Hillsong Conference tonight, and that was interesting. Large. Joyce managed to take the Bible out of context quite well, tickle our ears and give us fluff. They had cool flashing lights.

Tomorrow I am no longer going to Katoomba, Gus has gotten sick. I'll have to visit him later. That means I now have a whole day free...

I'm sure I'll fill it somehow.

I got up at nine this morning. I feel so, energetic.

Tomorrow I will go to Katoomba. That will mean I have to get up earlier. But I'm looking forward to it. I get to see Gus. I love Gus, he's great.

My hands smell like petrol.

The van ran out of petrol (not my fault this time) so I was on refilling duty. I had to go to the bottom of the drive with the petrol can and a funnel and pour it into the car. The can wasn't designed for pouring (I'm not sure why, I guess the designer only thought as far as putting the petrol in the can not getting it out) and as a result the petrol went all over my hands. Now I smell like someone who works on cars. Oh, how manly.

In other news...

I went out to the city with Tim today. We had fun. We caught a ferry to Woolwich because neither of us had ever heard of it so we thought it might be fun to explore. And explore we did. There were lots of big houses there. Very nice to look at. I think my two most used words of description were "disgusting" and "absurd". I'm such a middle class snob.

If I were rich I would like to live in a posh apartment. I'm a posh apartment kinda guy.

In Woolwich we discovered the Woolwich Pier Hotel so we stopped in for a drink. I don't often drink at 3:30pm but today was a special occasion. Tim had a Strongbow and I had a Kaluha and milk. I wish I liked beer. Then after our one drink we left and explored some more.

We almost missed the ferry. We leapt on board just before the ferry drove off. The gang plank had been pulled in already so we had to jump the frightening half metre gap between wharf and ferry. Action stars we are.

I trained it home and had a nice sleep listening to Johnny Mayer once Tim had alighted.

Tonight was pub night again, and well, it was small but pleasant. Helen's back. It was good to see her. The Blues won. Yay! I started off at the pub alone watching the footy. I felt almost completely content watching it, but then Chris and Jem and we had to move otherwise I'd keep watching and I wouldn't talk to anyone. But I think I should start watching the footy again. Maybe I should pick a team to follow and start paying attention. Hmm. Maybe I should go for Parramatta. Back to my old favourites. They're not doing very well, but hey, at least I won't be going for them because they play well.

Ok, I'm now a Parramatta supporter. Go the Eels.

Parramatta up the ladder, Balmain down the drain.

I watched A Walk to Remember last night. There's a sappy movie if I ever saw one.

I didn't cry. I've been asked a few times now if I cried. I think it is like the quintessential chick film. I like romantic comedies, but no one seemed to have much fun in this film. Sure they were happy and gazed into each others eyes, but no fun.

Oh well I'm glad I've seen it.

Lunch

Please don't change, please don't break
The only thing that seems to work at all is you. - Matchbox 20

Macy Gray is going to perform naked to raise money for AIDS.

I think that's kinda funny. I doubt I would enjoy the show. I reckon I'd be a little uncomfortable. I saw a show by Sydney Dance Company once with topless dancers in it. I wasn't quite sure where to look.

But I hope Macy has fun.

So the Weekend that was...

Yesterday I had a meeting with Matt and Sal about film projects and the making of them. It was encouraging that we left feeling good. Or I did. There was hope at the end of the meeting. I was worried it may not end up so good.

Then I spent the rest of the day writing my sermon. I went to work to do it. I sat in the park for a bit, under the tree, and prayed. Then it was writing time. I walked around the church centre preaching to no one, then spent a few hours on the computer typing my 17 pages of sermon. 17 seems so big. It was size twelve double spaced though.

At night of was off to Bar Reggio for David's ciao shindig. They had Coke in old fashioned bottles. It was great. I didn't have any Coke, but I was sorely tempted. I had lots of Sprite. They were in old bottle also, but weren't as appealing.

We stopped at the gleato place on the way home and Lesley lent me some money so I could have some. It did taste good.

I finished sermon writing when I got home.

Today I went for a run. I was up too early. It was dark when I left the house. Grr.

Church was good. Bill the locum preached good. He had good skills.

Then it was off to the Airport.

Saying bye to David was wierd. I don't really expect David to go away, he's always been around. Everyone else leaves, but not David. Well he has now. Good for him. God bless, David.

We went back to church and I polished the sermon.

At night I preached. It was interesting. I got good feed back but I felt like it had been badly constructed. I made a few bad choices about how to place things. But it was alright. You can't win them all. And I preached Jesus, so that was good. I think it's important to talk about Jesus.

Maccas happened as usual. Nothing to report.

I came home and started to organise my week. I'm filling it up with things to do which aren't work. Should be fun.

Bye David

I got stung by a bee once in year 7. I forget that. I don't think it made much of an impression on me.

Lemon and Honey in the morning is a fantastic drink.

So it's Friday and a quiet one in the office. I'm the only one here and I'm still working through my list of things to do.

As far as I can tell I have three things left to do this week and then I'm done. And they're all phone calls. All I need is the courage to make them. As much as I've grown up I still hate phone calls.

I've been checking blogfeed all day but it's been very quiet. I guess that's why I'm blogging now, I want to make up for the lack of activity in the Blogverse (as David calls it).

I ran this morning. I managed to cut a minute and ten seconds off my time. I've noticed that in the early runs when you're getting back into things you can take huge chunks off your time. But as you progress it levels out and you don't feel like you're accomplishing nearly as much. Oh well, I've still got 1 min 40 seconds to get back to my top time. That'll give me something to do.

Kaye and I went to the high school today. I like going there. There are so many young people. It's cool. Usually when I get recognised there I get asked for a Chupa Chup. If they have any memory of the Christians at that school it'll be that Christians bring Chupa Chups. I'm not sure that's a good thing. Sure Chupa Chups are good, but they aren't exactly what we're there for.

I've been looking at the things people search for to find my blog.

The most hits I get are from people looking for:

Rebecca Cartwright, Beau Brady, Mike Pilavachi and The Olsen Twins.

Well there are no nude photos of any of them here, so you can go look else where. Or better yet, stop looking and go to bed.

I'm not sure that people are looking for nude photos of Mike.

I just got sent some junk mail trying to sell me medicine. That's not unusual, but it had in really small print that I couldn't read (size 1) this (I cut and pasted it into Word and blew it up):

You sleep with your eyes open.
When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
.
Candidate said he never finished high school because he was kidnapped and kept in a closet in Mexico
The ventilation system of any building is the perfect hiding place. No one will ever think of lookin
The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
You can take a picture of yourself from ten feet away without using the timer.
I feel uneasy indoors.
ps you come up with, and hear the music in your head.
You can outlast the Energizer bunny.

I have no idea why they put it there. Seems a bit strange to me, but there you go.

I had my last photography class tonight. It's nice to be finished.

Jo and I talked about it and decided that the best thing about the course was getting to see each other once a week. She's a good person my sister.

I didn't do huge amounts today. I mainly worked on my sermon. And went to the food court. Pretty quiet really.

I would like to blog about something theological. But there's nothing there. I think not going to college much this term has sent my brain to mush. I'm looking forward to being there once a week next semester. We're doing Daniel and Psalms. That'll be fun. I like Daniel. Crazy book that. And I might actually get a bit of a grasp on the exile. I always get confused between the Asyrians and the Babylonians and who did what to whom.

I finished the preaching book today. Shame really. I really enjoyed that. But at least I can get back to Narnia.

I have been thinking and saying "Just" in prayer does seem to minimalise our requests. Although it depends on why someone is saying "just". Is it a "just" because you don't want to waste God's time? Or is it a "just" because you only want something small? Either way it's not the end of the world. It seems to come from a misplaced reverence of God. "I'm just a small human and you're a big God, I don't know why you'd want to be bothered with me?"

But since we have Jesus we need no "just"s, at least we need no minimalisation of prayer. We can come to God with the most outrageous of requests and be allowed because of what Jesus done. But still a reverence of God is good, and beautifying of prayer for God is probably good. If it is for God. I want to pray beautifully for God sometimes, because He deserves the most beautiful prayers I can craft.

Sometimes "just" can be taken as an only. "I just want to praise you God" which means "I only want to praise you God" and then "just" is totally justified in its usage. The minimalisation is in our actions and our desires, not in our view of God and his works.

And chances are when people say "just" they don't think of any this. Here is a lovely example of where theology and practice don't match up. And the question comes, is our true theology defined in our intellectual beliefs or in our actions? Or at what point does our action define our theology rather than our thoughts?

I'm wondering if theology is the right word to use there. Perhaps theology and beliefs should be swapped around. But I know what I mean so that's ok.

Happy New Financial Year!

My New Financial Year's resolution is to save more money, make more money then buy more stuff so I'll be happy.

Woohoo!