Scared of the Sky

On Wednesday George W Bush was hustled into a bunker, missiles armed and a Black Hawk scrambled because of a fast moving, incoming cloud that threatened to blow up the White House.

The story speaks for itself really.

George W is expected declare a "War on Clouds" when he addresses the nation tomorrow.

Today I drove all over the world.

I went out to Penrith with two Youth Minister friends to hang out with another Youth Minister. Put three youth ministers in a car together and you get a lot of conversation about ministry practice, theology, Bishops, preaching, denominations, theological preferences of particular dioceses and marriage.

At college tonight we talked about "How to preach to a Post-Modern Audience"

Post-Modernity is interesting but I'm getting a little bored with being taught about it. There's only so many times you can hear that "In Post modernism truth is relative and experience is highly valued." I'm never all that conscious of preaching to "post-moderns" when I do preach. But from what I was told I should be doing at college, I do most of it already.

I'm going to bed and see if I can be asleep before one.

Famous people should have blogs.

Like how cool would it be if George Clooney had a blog. A real one.

Or Bono. The Bono Blog.

Yeah.

I'm only keeping my blog so that when I get famous people can look back and read this, and say "That's what Tom was like before he got famous." And woman's magazines will have plenty of material about me that they can exploit. "Raunchy old photos of Tom French in his underwear!" and "Before the Surgery: Exclusive photo's of Tom French before he had plastic surgery!"

The A380 is a really big plane.

See.

And they cost $339 million each. Pow. How exciting. I want to fly on one. I love big things.

Jews for Jesus get people upset again

It's funny how easy it is to upset people. There are Jewish groups that are upset with the Jews for Jesus and the Anglicans trying to convert Jews.

It seems that everyone likes their own evangelism and they don't like anyone else's. Like for a Muslim it's good for a Muslim to try and convert a Christian but it's bad for a Christian to try and convert a Muslim. For a Christian it's good for Christian to try and convert a JW, it's bad for a JW to try and convert a Christian.

Getting upset about evangelism from "rival" religions seems to me to be double standards. I believe in evangelism and I think all faiths should be allowed to practice it. We are not living in a theocracy. Every religion is viewed as having equal value. We should all be allowed to try and convert each other. May the best faith win.

A fear of evangelism by another faith seems to me to display a certain lack of faith in your own religion. If Christianity really is worth being part of people should be able to stick at it despite the attacks from other faiths. The same should be true for others.

I love it when people try and convert me. It's interesting, it's dialogue, it's informative, you feel valued (at least for a little while.) Perhaps, rather than get upset about other people trying to convert your followers, you should spend more time equipping them to see why there is no other faith worth following than your own.

Lactic

Today when I was in the New Chinese Supermarket with Mum I found a new drink I had never tried before.

It's a Fanta flavour from Hong Kong called "Lactic". It's milk flavoured Fanta. I got a bottle.



It tastes like Yakult gone fizzy. Weird. Asian countries have the craziest drinks. Good for them.

Today I have to write a Bible study, and prepare a sermon, on Jonah. I've decided that I am just going to have to watch Veggie Tales, I can't see anyway around this inevidible preparation.

Woohoo!

There's this t-shirt that I really like at Threadless.com. It has this design on the front.

I like it because I often think to myself "Hey, this is meant to be the future. It's 2005 and it's not nearly as exciting as The Jetsons made out." So the t-shirt really "vibes" with me.

But I have a problem with the last line on the t-shirt. "Where is my cure for this disease?" I was having fun until that point. It all suddenly gets serious. I've often thought about that t-shirt and how sad it is that they ruined it for me. Why do people have to bang their point home? Isn't subtly good enough anymore? Are we too scared that no-one is going to "get" us?

Oh well.

Hitting the Atmosphere

Well, Amy hit the atmosphere
Caught herself a rocket ride out of this gutter
and she's never coming back I fear
Anytime it rains she just feels a lot better
and that's all that really matters to me - Counting Crows

Yesterday I recieved 19 legitimate emails. Today I have recieved none. I think I must loose a lot of popularity on the weekend.

In other news I would like to announce that I am about to write the final scene of "Larry the Lover Boy". Yay!

Someone found my blog looking of "a ditch of water around a castle." I would just like to tell them, for easier searching in the future, that's called a moat.

Cutting toe nails is a lot more satisfying than cutting finger nails.

Well I've spent most of my day on the computer again. I've been doing that a lot lately. I guess that's what script writing does to you.

I spent the morning creating flyers for the youth group, I spent most of the day script writing (and accidently deleteting), I spent some of the afternoon with David eating hot chips and drinking Coke, and tonight I spent with Jem watching The Notebook. Neither of us cried.

It's been a rather quiet day.

More Wisdom



I'm getting very excited with all this video stuff. I've now uploaded the Wisdom episode about the pastor asking a girl to burn down the church.

Heh Heh. So much fun.

Get the video here.

For some reason, when you go to http://runnoft.blogspot.com at the moment it redirects you straight to the Blogger homepage. It's weird. But my hits for today are right up so I have no idea how anyone is getting to my blog.

In other news I registered www.sparklybee.com today so I can stick more videos up. I thought it might be fun to stick all the videos I have made (which don't break copyright) on the net. And I was talking to Jem the other day and we were thinking about making regular videos of "Wisdom with Tabitha" or something like that. Just to kill time.

Anyway I think I'll visit bed now. I have to write the rest of the script when I wake up.

I woke up later than planned today. Probably due to going to bed later than planned.

Every morning I eat a Top Deck easter egg before breakfast because they are sitting on the shelf in the pantry at eye height, just above the Corn Flakes. It's wonderful.

I had lunch with Tanya at the Greengate today which was very exciting. I was excited about eating a pub lunch, I like pub lunches, and hanging out with Tanya too. I don't think I've properly spent time with Tanya for ages. I think because I don't need to give her lifts places and she's not a youth leader anymore. So we had fun. Well, I had fun.

This week has been a mild catch up week. It's been most enjoyable. Ryan is coming round tonight. We're going to move furniture, eat noodles and watch a dvd. Probably a very blokey one.

At the moment I'm writing the script to Larry the Lover Boy (that's just the working title, we'll get around to changing it one day.)

I watched The Phantom of the Opera on DVD tonight and got all inspired to write. I went and found all my cds that make me most nostalgic and started typing. I'm having fun, but it's very late to be writing. I guess when you get inspired you should tap into it while you can.

I did enjoy watching the Phantom. I loved that musical. It was the first musical I saw when I was young and it was great. I'm such a romantic. I was lying on the bean bag alone and singing "All I ask of you" and "Music of the Night" at the top of my musical theatre lungs. If only I had followed my dreams to be an actor in the theatre...

Donny Jaffa

For Phil


At the Marrickville RSL


Interviewing Matt Gelding on stage

I was planning on writing a script today, instead I have sat at my computer all day and fiddled around. I've watched the Tropfest dvd, tried to get Podcasting to work and looked at old websites.

It's been an interesting day, although rather procrastinative. Is that a word?

I'm thinking I'll make a Donny Jaffa dvd. But not now. Perhaps I should at least start on the script.

Wisdom with Tabitha

Here it is, one episode of Wisdom with Tabitha.

I'm not sure why I made it net available, but it's fun. My first video thing on my blog.

In case you don't know what Wisdom with Tabitha is, it's a daily advice segment that we had at Soul in The Donny Jaffa Show.

If you want to watch it, right click on the link and select "Save Target As..." The file is 5.4MB so it may take a little time.

Here is the link

I'm eating a mini cheesecake that I bought last night (Sunday night, it's only 12:34am) at the moment and it's not very nice. Way too sweet.

Last night after church Helen, David and I went and saw Hostage. It was a good way to chill out. Not a fantastic film but it was good to just stare at a big screen for two hours.

Today I woke up late.

I went to Killara to hang out with my lovely friend Mike. We were going to go to the Greengate for lunch, which was an exciting idea for me, but in the end we ended up eating take away chicken burgers in his kitchen. I think it may have been too expensive.

I came home, hung out some clothes, dropped off the Donny Jaffa costume, picked up my dog from the Hayes then headed off to Croydon for dinner with Ryan, Jo and Jem. We had Sticky Date Pudding. It was real tops.

Today has been more exciting than it sounds.

Right now I'm making a Wisdom with Tabitha video so I can put it on the net. How exciting!

I've been rather zonked today, post Soul Survivor.

I had a very fun 5 days though. I decided that my favourite thing about the conference was spending 5 days with 30 of the youth. That doesn't sound as exciting to me as much of the other stuff, it was a rather unemotional event for me. But I don't think that having a good five days with people is unspiritual. But if I were to justify that (which may be unnecessary) would have to indulge in a long rant about community and the body of Christ.

Doing The Donny Jaffa Show was interesting. It was always a little scary going out in front of 300 people with very little material prepared and have to be funny for half an hour. "Be funny" is not a command that I'm all that comfortable with. But it seemed to me that I was funny enough.

The role of the show was to get people seated in the Big Top before the main meeting. I did my job well if the tent was full at 7pm. It was interesting that all the jokes, games, video and silliness was all in service of the main meeting. It was important to remember that so I didn't invest the show with too much importance. But on the other hand I had to remember to make the show good because if it was boring, as well as me looking stupid, the show wouldn't have done it's job. So I had to have a good show for the main meeting, not so that I would look good. But if things did go bad, I would probably look stupid.

Anyway, the show was fun. The interviews were silly, I think my interview technique is rather useless. Everything is just an excuse for a joke, it's not really there so that people can learn things. The Conan O'Brian Show annoys me because Conan uses his interviews with his guests as an excuse to talk about himself. Donny uses the interviews as an excuse to make a joke. That's not much better. I have become what I despise. Nooooo!

The shows were also a little scary because I think was often in danger of offending people. There were often things that I said or did where I thought "Oops". But no-one complained loud enough for me to hear it.

The food at Soul this year was good. I looked forward to every meal. And it was cheap. How exciting! Cheap and good, everything you want for a week away.

I also managed to make it to quite a few seminars this year. Last year, I missed almost all the seminars because I was at home burning DVDs. By the grace of God, this year I had all the DVDs done early.

I'm not sure what else to say. I don't feel like saying lots of spiritual stuff. It's always worthwhile spending five days learning about God and singing lots of songs.

I think it might be time for me to go to Church. Yay! Ewan and I worked out that with all the time we spent at talks and praising God you could take 6 months off church. If only it worked like that...

I think I'll go to bed.

I have nice shiny new floors.

Yoop!

I'm currently in the middle of doing Soul. I can't write much, I have to run back.

Camping 10 minutes from home is a little silly but at least I'm getting more sleep than I do at home.

I finished all the Donny Jaffa DVDs at 4:30am last night. I was going to blog but I couldn't be bothered. Today, I'm chilling out. I woke up at 12:30 today while some workman banged away downstairs giving us a new floor.

This past 24 hours has been quite strange. I spent all the time while my DVDs were rendering taping up doors and cupboards so that floor dust wouldn't get in them. I also packed for Soul Survivor. It's a strange feeling packing your car and renovating your house at 3am.

While I was packing for Soul I found underneath some clothes a big envelope that contained my Diploma of Theology. It's amazing what you find tucked away in your room. I didn't know I had graduated from my college till then so I had a little graduation for myself and took photos. I can now officially put letters after my name. I graduated at 2:04am this morning.

I am Thomas John French Dip. Th.

I'm so important.

I've been doing a lot of video editing today. I have finished 10 videos today for Soul. Now I just have to put them on DVD.

I had wanted to do that before going to bed but I'm feeling I may have left my run a bit late. I'll have to do it tomorrow. Probably another late one tomorrow. Oh well.

Everyone left my house this morning at 4:30am. I'm the only one who stayed in bed. I'll be the only one who lives in this house for the next two weeks.

I was having a dream this morning about a guy who broke into my house and wanted to bash me. I woke up after that dream to the sound of the front door of my house being unlocked. I couldn't work out who it would be because everyone is away. I assumed it would just be some friend of ours who knows where the spare key is.

I heard them walking around and I tried to go back to sleep. I couldn't work out who it was though. I was hoping that whoever it was wasn't planning on robbing my house. The only thing in the living room at the moment is a tv though. I decided that if I heard them moving the TV I'd get up.

I heard the flick of a switch and a plug being fiddled with in the wall. I thought "That's it I'm getting up, someones stealing the telly." Then I heard this sound like a vacuum. "Who would come over to my house on a Saturday morning to vacuum my floors?"

I walked out into the living room and there was this big Islander bloke standing in the middle of the room with and electric saw plugged into the wall. We looked at each other and both tried to work out who shouldn't be there.

I said "Good morning"

And he said "I've come to fix the kick board on your dishwasher" (stupid diswasher)

Me: "Oh"

Him: "I rang yesterday and talked to your mum. You didn't know about that?"

Me: "No. Doesn't matter."

Him: "Ok. I bet I woke you up, eh?"

Me: "Yeah. Oh well. Have fun."

And then I went back to bed.

Well the day that just past was quite eventful but unbloggable for creative security reasons.

I spent the day filming stuff for Donny Jaffa (which I am doing this year for those that have been asking) and I thought it would be scary (which it was) but it was also quite fun. I ended my day eating a kebab in Newtown with Priscilla. The kebab made me feel dodgy like all kebabs are prone to do.

I should sleep because I have to be in Roseville at 9am tomorrow morning. Oh goodness, this world never stops.

I've been watching too much television lately. I come home, I want to watch something while I eat my dinner and I just watch useless crap. I think I should do something about this. Either I have to stop wacthing stupid TV or I have to eat my dinner earlier when there are better programs on.

I should put on music when I come home. That's a good idea. That'll stop me from watching TV.

I think the dishwasher has made me watch more TV. Since I don't have to wash up I just sit on the couch. Yuck.

I'll fix this problem. I will.

I hope Foxtel breaks.

I'm all alone at the office today. I'm not completely sure where everyone is. Oh well. I'll see if I can manage to do work without everyone around.

Popes and stuff

I've been watching the stuff on the Pope recently and it's really interesting. I think as the Pope got older I liked him more and more. He seemed like quite a real guy. Being a good Protestant I probably shouldn't have been so fond of him but I was. It's sad watching the news, but I'm not overly distraught. I think it was good that he died because he was really sick. And he got to go be with God. I think Roman Catholics go to heaven. It was hard seeing him so sick and having to continually go to hospital. I felt especially sorry for him when he was making his Easter address. "Amen" was a last good word. I hope that wasn't just propaganda. I would like my last word to be something like that.

Now they have to pick a new Pope. That will be interesting. What a job. Being the most influential religious leader in the world would be a scary job. You'd probably feel a little in adequate.

In other news I've been writing scripts for "Wisdom with Tabitha" at Soul Survivor today. It's really hard to work out what isn't too offensive to put in a script. It's fun, but I hope I don't offend people. There's a chance. I hope I offend them over something worth while. When it's Donny Jaffa though, it will probably be because of something silly.

Tomorrow we're filming "Tabitha"

I bought tickets to go see Anthony Mundine fight today for the WBA World Super Middle Weight World Title. How fun. I've only ever watched one whole boxing match in my life, but I'm off to see a World Title fight. Tops!

I got a letter in the mail the other day from the Australian College of Theology telling me I have completed all requirements for graduation for a Diploma. They were only a year late.

My weekend just keeps going and going.

Happy Wedding Emily and Martin.



It was tops! I love the both of them.

I had to go and talk to the Principal of my college tonight and I got really nervous. I had to ask if I was late handing in an assessment (he teaches my preaching class) and I was hoping he wouldn't put me on detention for not knowing when my assessment was due in. I thought it would be fine, he seems like a pretty nice guy. But I was a little worried none the less.

When I got to him though, it was fine. I have a month till my assessment is due in. He didn't put me on give me a warning or anything. He was friendly to me.

I also told him that I enjoyed the college function that I went to on Tuesday night. I don't often go out of my way to give compliments but I really enjoyed myself so I thought it should be shared. I'm growing as a person.

Don Carson spoke at the function and he was cool. He awed me by being a smart guy. I think that I would be very intimidated if I was his friend. Lucky I'm not and I can just sit with another 500 people and wonder how he manages to pull things off so well. He spoke for an hour barely looking at his notes, never stuffing up his words, and saying good stuff the whole time. He was impressive.

Also impressive was the auditorium we were in. We were at Shore Grammar School and the auditorium was very cool. I wished I was back at school, and had somehow managed to be back at an exclusive, posh, boys school (as opposed to my un-exclusive, co-ed, tacky public school.) It was almost like a professional theatre. I would have been running school musicals every week had I gone to that school.

I sat in there wondering how they manage to hold school assemblies in that hall. I wouldn't be able to listen to the principal, I'd spend my whole time wondering when the Can-Can girls were going to come out and if they were selling Choc-Tops in the foyer.

Gosh life is hard sometimes.

I should be asleep but it doesn't feel like 1am.

I'm looking forward to April Fools Day although I'm sure at some stage I'll look like an idiot. I hope no one dies tomorrow because who ever tells me the news I won't believe them and then I'll feel guilty. Actually I hope no one dies any day, but especially tomorrow. If you are planning on dying tomorrow, put it off a day, you'll make everything less complicated.

That was not an endorsement of suicide by the way. I only meant dying by natural causes (or a car accident or something, but they're kinda natural these days anyway.) If you were planning on committing suicide tomorrow put it off a least a week. And if you get to the end of the week and still feel like it, put it off another week. And then keep putting it off till you don't feel like it anymore. Kinda like when you need to go to the doctor about that embarrassing rash.

I should be a suicide counselor.