I just thought that I'd test out Firefox's new superfluous and hyperactive abominable and scatological spell checking.

Seems to work ok.

I had the best night I've had in a long time tonight.

I came home from church to find Jo in the backyard barbecuing dinner. It was vegie stacks. And they were real good. Good sauce, good cooking, yeah. Vegie food never tasted so good, except vegie pad thai.

I came home craving a beer so immediately Ryan and I headed up to the bottle-o to get a 24 pack. We came back and drank beer and ate dinner with Jo and Jem and Mil. Funny conversations. Plus we decided to go on a Road Trip in 2008! Yeah! I'm excited all ready.

Ryan and Jem got a craving for apple pie so they headed off in search of pie and I went inside to do the washing up. Martin came home while the pie shop was happening. But once Ryan and Jem got back with the pie I got a DVD craving, so Ryan and I popped out to Civic video to use their last 5 minutes of opening time to grab a DVD (or 3).

Then we came home and ate apple pie and watched Cars, which was awesome. Cars is one of the best, happy making films I've seen in a long time. I loved it, it brought continual joy to my innards the whole time.

And that was my night. It may not sound special, but things have been so tense (if that's the word) in my life lately that it was really nice just to hang out with friends and eat and drink and laugh and watch movies and I didn't have to think about anything. And tomorrow is a day off.

God is good to me.

The weekend is finished.

I preached on 1 Kings 21 tonight. It was one of those ones that takes it out of you. Like you're going fine when you're up there but you come off and you're wasted.

I enjoyed the sermon though. I now have three sermons on Elijah between 1 Kings 17 and 1 Kings 21 up my sleeve. That's the substance of a series there. That's set of talks for a camp. That's pretty good.

I'm finding sermons harder to write these days I think. Maybe not, but I seem to be struggling more to find illustrations, and express points and all that. I spent 5 hours yesterday staring at a blank screen. Maybe it's like one day I'll just stop being able to write sermons. I'll just run out of steam. I hope not though. I do like preaching.

I'd love to make a mini-series about Elijah. He's a dude.

This song is good.

Stopping

We watched It Just Stopped last night at the new Belvoir. It's a pretty swanky new theatre. Well, redone theatre at least. But they did so much fundraising that everything you look at has some lefty art lovers name on it. Or Russel Crowe or Geoffory Rush's name. They seem to have paid for half the building.

The play was an absurdist play where the existentialist disaster of the main character led to him finding greater meaning in the world, which was a twist. It was all rather odd though. There are a great big wall of Jelly Beans in the set that was cool.

The story started when all the gadgets of this couple's unit stopped working. No electricity, water, phones, tv, radio, mobile coverage. This was followed with lots of talk about the end of the world. That's what I liked the most. They talked about terrorism, and global warming, and war, and extreme poverty and basicially said "It's obvious the world is about to end". I've been wanting someone to make a film about the end of the world without exagerating what's going on now. I reckon the world is pulling itself apart enough at the moment that you have pleanty material for an end of the world film. Like how about a movie set in 20 years when the waters have risen 6 metres. That's not a The Day After Tomorrow kinda climate disaster, but it's much more scary. Like An Inconvienient Truth but not a documentary. Something with characters and a storyline. That'd be cool.

But all up the play was a little to self-conciously absurd for me. Whatever that means. Still, I do like a night out at the theatre. And I did get to see John Woods and ever since Blue Healers who hasn't wanted to see Sgt. Tom Croydon in the flesh?

New Places

We went to a pub down the road tonight. There are 4 pubs within 500 meters of my house and now I've been to 2 of them. 2 to go. It was fun to find something new with a big back yard.

This morning I put on my undies and there was a moth in them. I'll tell ya' that was a scary think to feel climing around my bum. The moth dust he left in there left me itchy for hours.

This house is like an avery for small flying things at the moment.

Oh Dear

From an article on SMH:

"Dr Jensen said the US church had made genuine attempts to express regret over global tensions but it was missionary-like in its position on human sexuality."

Maybe they're having a dig, maybe no one was paying attention. Either way, it's a little amusing. Immature and a pretty lame way of paying us Anglicans out, but it did make me giggle.

What Dr Jensen actually said was:

"The powerful individualism of American culture, and its triumphalistic belief that it leads the world in civic freedoms has captured the church. The new faith is a missionary religion. America is a missionary country, with its version of human freedom to export throughout the world."

From here and here.

Bible Happy

I wrote a Bible study on Luke 1:5-25 last week and it wasn't very good. It was simple and boring and badly put together.

Today I had to do it with my seniors (I did it with my juniors on Friday) and I was determined to make it good. So we did it and I put a lot more effort in giving back ground and pulling out connecting passages and I had lots of fun. I'm not sure how the rest went, one of the girls fell asleep, but I thought it was cool. Actually come to think of it one of the guys fell asleep too. That makes it two thirds of my small group fell asleep. Gosh.

But, ignoring the narcolepsy inducing tones of my voice, I felt it was a positive experience. We covered salvation history from the time of King David to the End of the World. And we looked at prophesy, and Elijah and the work of John the Baptist. I think we looked at Luke, Mark, Matthew, Acts and Malachi, which I thought was pretty impressive.

So I don't know how the study went in comparison to others, but I'd hate to think what it would have been like if I just did the one I'd written last week.

I hate the feeling that there are so many people around you having a hard time and you can't help them.

Snooze

We had an audition today for the new production, and then I had a party to go to tonight. In between I had a few spare hours so I had a sleep on the floor of my office. It was wonderful. I slept for an hour and a half. I'm not sure why but sleeping on my office floor for a substantial amount of time, on comfy cushions is one of the most relaxing things to do. To wake up in my darkened office after a long nap...bliss. Probably because my office is where I work. So to sleep there just heightens the relaxation.

I know I've been a rather bad blogger. At least by my standards. Yesterday was too big to blog today. Not enough time. Soon though.

Dad bought me Union Jack boxers from the UK and I'm wearing them today for the first time. I love them. I'm sure wearing the Union Jack as underwear is making some statement about our colonial past.

Speaking of colonial past, I watched The Proposition with Ryan the other night, it was well done. And it wasn't as harrowing as I thought it would be. So many well written characters. Nick Cave can write good depressing music and good depressing films. Is there any sort of depressing writing that man can't do?

It is Finished

Well I'm done with my assessment on Job. I tell you, this is the latest I ever want to hand an assessment in.

But at least it's done. And I actually quite enjoyed doing this assessment.

Dear Spammers

Incest doesn't excite me.

Not even if it's Russian.

George Says

"We will not do anything that harms our economy, because first things first are the people who live in America."

George W Bush's response to being asked what he would do about global warming shortly after becoming president.

When Ari Fletcher (George's press secretary) was asked if George would ask Americans to drive their cars less, he replied

"That's a big no. The President believes that it's an American way of life, and that it should be the goal of policy makers to protect the American way of life. The American way of life is a blessed one."

From here (pages 159-160 to be precise).

Angus Draws Pictures

My friend Angus made this while we were at College together. I like it, he's got talent that man. Check it out.

The day was good. The weather was cool. The rain was drizzly. I did a mail out and enjoyed myself.

I like the silly conversations in life. And I had majority of them today.

James is the Man

Ryan, Jem and I just watched Rebel Without a Cause, it was wonderful. James Dean is so cool, awesomely. Like Aragorn cool. The kind of cool where you just think, I'd love to be that person's friend, and hang out with them and feel my self-worth increasing because Aragorn and James Dean are friends with me. It's the kind of cool where he could do anything, say anything thing, make any face and you think "Wow".

You should see the film. It was tops.

We also ate at Anna Thai. 10 points for Anna Thai.

I Grope Grooms

First Jon...



..then Howie.



I just can't help myself I guess.

Visit

Some of the people from church came and ate dinner with Ryan and I at the pub tonight. They came to me which never happens. They were a long way from home. It made me feel loved.

Ministry Opportunity

Sometimes people like to help us poor folk who work in ministry by blessing us with material possesions because we can't afford much.

So if you feel like ministering to someone who only earns $40,500 a year and is the second highest earner in his house of 6, please consider supplying me with some of these basic needs:

- A Toyota Prius (I'd love to be able to save the planet, if only you'd give me a hand)
- An iPod (Preferably U2 and preferably 80GBs
- A new digital camera 'cause my last one died
- A big fat video editing computer packed full of juicy software

Please pray that the Lord makes you generous.

I'm really getting into "I Don't Feel Like Dancing" at the mo. Is that song cool?

My heart could take a chance
but my two feet can't find a way - Scissor Sisters

The Big Question

Nathan asked us last night "If you had to go live on a deserted island for four years and you could take one person you know, one person who is alive today but you don't know, one historical figure and one fictional character, who would you take?"

So I said:

Person I know: Ryan, because we're friends, we don't fight and he's single so he wouldn't be leaving anyone behind.

Person I don't know: Natalie Portman (obvious reasons)

Historical Figure: Esther, because she was beautiful and nice, and chances are, if there was just one girl Ryan and I would both fall in love with her and things would get rather awkward.

Fictional Character: Gandalf, because he's just awesome.

Anyway we were talking about it at dinner tonight and everyone was talking about bringing people who would challenge them intellectully and people who they could learn from and people who were concerned for social justice. And they were all making me feel rather shallow.

But I reckon girls would be important to bring because 4 years is a long time. I think it's a legitimate need. Or if not need, desire, because girls make life more fun, even if you're not attracted to them. But I'm rethinking the Natalie Portman idea. The whole celebrity thing isn't really attractive. Perhaps I'd take her character in Garden State, because she's cool. But then I'd have to get rid of Gandalf and I reckon four years hanging around with Gandalf would be an opportunity not to be missed. The rest of the fellowship did alright and they didn't have any females in their company.

Hmm. I'll have to keep thinking on this one.

I wish you could quote guitar solos on blogs. That'd be cool.

Iran are going to let tourists visit their nuclear facilities. That's heaps cool! I'd go.

Sketchy

I went to see Sketches of Frank Gehry with Ryan last night. He sent an email yesterday saying he had a free ticket and asking if anyone wanted to join him. And I though "Yep. I know nothing about the film, sounds fun."

But when we turned up it turned out the film was a documentary about an architect. Now I like documentaries and films and cinemas, but a documentary about an architect doesn't sound like it's gonna float my boat.

But turns out Frank Gehry designs good interesting things like this, this, and this. And it was fascinating to see the way he did it. Plus there were good interviews too. Well at least with this film director who spent the whole interview in a white bathrobe, smoking and drinking white wine. He made me giggle everytime I saw him. One of his golden quotes, while reclining in a golden arm chair was something like: "Criticise Frank Gehry? I wouldn't. It'd be like flies on a lions neck. It'd be like watching Apocalypse Now and saying 'Robert Duvall was overacting'." Yep, he was pretty funny.

Anyway, I was happily surprised. And it only cost me $3.50 for the Coke to quench my thirst from running up King St thinking we were late to the Dendy. $3.50 and 5% for the assessment I should have been doing.

Scrap That

I'm not enjoying buses so much anymore. I just waited at the bus stop for 20 minutes. There should have been about 5 buses in that time, but instead, there were just two. One drove straight past the bus stop and the other which was full. So now I'm driving to work I guess.

I get real joy out of the fact that T comes after S in the alphabet. And it always will.

Idea of Goodness

I had an idea to enhance my Outback Hippies Experience next year. I'm going to download on iTunes as many of the songs that they regularly play as I can and then I'm gonna learn the words. Then when everyone's singing I can sing along and not feel like an idiot 'cause I don't know the words. Plus it'll make me the WSFM boy too!

So far I've got:

All Along the Watchtower (Hendrix not Dylan)
Sultans of Swing
Brown Eyed Girl
Johnny B Goode
Blue Suede Shoes
I Shot the Sherriff

So the question is, what else do I need to get?

Healing

I do like public transport. I'm really enjoying buses. I used to be scared of buses. But I've been healed! Praise the Lord.

Actually I probably haven't been healed. If you told me to catch a bus from Kensington to Marrickville for instance that would freak me out, and I'd be scared the Bus Driver and passengers would laugh at me because I didn't know what I was doing. But at least when they did I could yell at them "Shut up, at least I've got a TravelTen!

I think I did a rather good job of letting people down today.

Bum.

"I don't belong here"

I'm home from Stump now. I've been home for a while actually. But I watched a DVD, ate some Pad Thai and watched some internet videos for a while.

Stump was good as always. I managed to get to a bit of music Revive, Intone, Sons of Korah, Ruben Morgan, The Valley. Perhaps some others. Sons of Korah were fantastic as usual. Warm your soul they do. The Valley were hardcore, one of those screaming bands (listen). I went 'cause Sal had a friend in the band. But I'm pleased I went because now I can say I've watched three songs of proper metal live and understood none of it.

I went to the Outback Hippies again last night. They kept me up till 3:30am with all they old school rock. It was great. It took a little while to get started this year, but everyone got into it by the end. I live my yearly dance.

I saw Mike because he was speaking. I got to apologise to him for my inappropriate comments at his church in July. He wasn't fussed but I wanted to say "Sorry" none the less, it's about rightness. It was good to see the Soul guys briefly. Actually it was good to see all sorts of people. I liked the whole catch up thing at Stump. While I thought it could be horrid at first I only had a few awkward conversations with people whose names I had forgotten. I did enjoy myself most definitely because of the people. Of course, it's obvious I like people. But I had fun camping with 5,000 of them. And I enjoyed the 15 or so that were in my site. Chris and nicks are good camp parents.

I did decide that if there is anything that Black Stump needs to improve on it's the whole teaching from the Bible thing. They have plenty of good people teaching things at Stump, but not many teaching from the Bible. I think I'd like more of that. I do love the Bible.

On the way home today Ryan and I had long chat about relationships and all that. It seems that both of us are scared of becoming creepy, middle-aged, single men. Please let us know if we become them. Actually, let us know if we just become creepy, at any age. I think the middle-aged bit is un-avoidable unless you do a James Dean, and the single bit will probably be pointed out to us enough whether we want people to or not.