I was inspired by Lesley's February 545 photo challenge. I took one at 548 because I didn't want to copy her idea. I'm original! I'm not planning on keeping this up but it's a fun idea.

I'm sitting at my desk. That could be a regular occurrence.

We went and saw Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy tonight. It was more interesting than my photo.

Today is Australia Day.

It's also 6 months since I bought my camera. Me and her, we're getting pretty close. To celebrate, here are some photos I took. I was going to do a best of the last 6 months of photography, but I haven't really taken that many photos, it's mostly been video. So I'll just chuck up some photos from when Gem, Hannah and I went to the zoo in December.

You can enlarge any images by clicking on them.



Hannah likes to fraternise with the evil Galatic Empire.



You'll notice there are not many images of animals, this is because Hannah was much more interested in the gardens.



We did however see a turkey.



Gem and Han



This is in honour of it being Australia Day.

We had fun at the zoo.


If you want to see more of my photos, you can always visit Flickr.

Today has been long and I'm not done yet. So here's a photo from today. Consider it 500 words of blogging. I'd say it was 1000 but it's not a fantastic photo.

Christmas had all the usual things that were pretty excellent this year. Presents, family, friends, Jesus, roast potatoes. I could blog about these things, but I won't. I've decided I might blog about 5 things which were less usual, but still quite wonderful.

1. The King Parrot



We were having community brunch on Christmas Eve. It was full of Christmas cheer, which I think is like generic cheer but with Christmas biscuits thrown in. I was in the kitchen doing something domestic, when a king parrot came and landed on our kitchen door. He was red and green and loving Christmas. It felt like the wildlife were in on the joy too.

2. I Love Carol

Actually, I love carols. But there's nothing wrong with Carol, I'm sure.

After having developed a hatred of carols from my years of forced carol singing throughout primary school, it's taken me a long time to recover. However, slowly over that last few years my aversion has been wearing off, I have learnt to forgive the Three Kings, Royal David's City and the Harking of Angels. So that this year I positively loved carols. Partly because many of them have such fantastic words, but also because when done well they sound great. I went to the midnight service at St Stephen's, Belrose for a bit of a sing and celebrate, and the team there (they know who they are) did a great job. Helped me celebrate Jesus more.

3. Sleep

On Christmas evening between 6pm and 7pm I had a nap. It rocked.

4. Christmas Night Movie

Anmol, Daviandra and I went to the movies on Christmas night. We had a drink before hand in bar and then watched Meryl Streep play The Iron Lady likaboss. She was pretty awesome and the movie wasn't half bad either. If only she ahd an arc reactor around her heart and the ability to fire weapons from her jacket sleeves, it could have been the best movie of the year. Movies, good friends and beer. Best way to do Christmas night in my book.

5. Skype

On Boxing Day at Christmas with my Dad's side of the family we skyped Jo and Victor. I didn't get to talk to them long because they were by far the most popular people not in the room, but it was nice to see them. I'm looking forward to seeing them (and their offsprung) for real, but till then, speaking Star Trek style will do pretty good too.


And that is the less usual of another happy Christmas.

Click for large.

So I bought myself a Canon 7D last Saturday. I have been thinking about buying one for about a year now. Finally I actually got around to getting it.

It's a very nice camera. Too nice for someone as unskilled as me. I got it for it's video capabilities, which are pretty sweet for a camera of it's price range. It's a DSLR camera so it's not primarily designed for video stuff. But it does do very good stuff.

When I was in the shop the woman showed me everything I needed to buy. Thousands of dollars worth of camera, lens, bags and filters. She said "Is there anything else you need?"

"I just need to know whether to buy it today or not." I said.

"Tell you what, if you buy it today I'll throw in a free dvd."

So I bought it. Who can resist a free dvd?

I went and played with it on Sunday. Me and one of the kids in the youth group made a video. I pretty much shot the video with the settings on straight out of the box. It's not a very good video but I learned a few things. Firstly I need to work on my focusing skills. Secondly, colour correction, better dynamic range and getting a good ISO is also important. But I'm looking forward to improving, which I'm sure I will.

Anyway, this is what we made.



This morning I was waiting to get picked up by Dan and April and spied some good mist, so I went and photographed it. This was one of the better ones I think. I still have a lot to learn, but I'm pretty happy with the camera.

Being teased for this shirt by colleagues. I can't see why.

I've been spending many hours at work in Photoshop this past week. It's been quite fun. I've been making posters and bookcovers for the ministry resources we put out. Sometimes, when I get carried away, I start to fancy myself as a real graphic designer. And then I look at size of my 14" display and remember that I wasn't hired for my photoshop skills, but my Jesus-skills. And Jesus workers doesn't need 30" displays.

Speaking of skills, let me show you one of my youth evangelism designs that didn't quite make the cut:

I'm pretty sure it's time for a hair cut.

And some hair plugs.



"Advanced hair, yeah, yeah."

I thought I might clean out the photos on the iPhone. All the photos I take and think "I'll blog that." So here they all are.

Photo One

Ever wondered what Time Crisis 2 was all about? Well the secret is on the side of the machine:



This is what it says "Time Crisis 2

There's another plot for the world in 1998

Mission: Prevent the launch of and enemy military satellite!

We have no time to be lost!

With your partner, shoot all enemies!

Is the evil "Wild Dog" still alive?"

I'm so glad we made it through 1998 ok. A better video game blurb I have never heard.


Photo Two

The other day my work mate when out to buy us all crazy Asian ice creams. She asked what we'd like. I asked for something crazy. So she came back with this:



I can only guess that the Korean says something like "Frozen Polar Bear Blood"

Turns out polar bear blood tastes a lot like chocolate. There's a survival tip for when you get lost in the Arctic.

Photo Three

I injured my nose trying on a jacket at SDS the other day. I had trouble working the zipper and it got me on the nose. Most people were too polite to ask what happened. I had to wear the scratch to the wedding. It looked much worse in real life.




Photo Four

I was on my way to the cinema the other day and discovered this piece of culturally relevant advertising by Sultana Bran:



As you can tell they have their finger on the teen pulse.

Photo Five

I was setting my alarm the other night, looked at all the various times stored in my phone, and noticed this:



I really do value that extra few minutes sleep.


Photo Six

One day, before the Witteveens left the country, they peer-pressured me into sticking pegs on my lip. Then they they went to Europe to peer pressure French women to hang coat hangers from their underarm hair. Now they're back and I'm not getting attached to any handy, household implements no matter what they say.




And thems are the photos.

I signed up to get some internets today. Fast internet. Good-bye wireless broadband! Hello ADSL2 and superfast Justin Bieber downloads!

I also went and door knocked my neighbours again and gave them invites to our house warming on Saturday. I feel like a Mormon. I reckon they're going to get sick of me soon. "Oh gosh, here comes that guy from Unit 5 again. Here to give us chocolates or another freakin' invite. We just want to relax! We have a security door at the front to keep people like him out!"

Oh and I'm pretty sure my flatmate is a wizard. I think he might even have a Pensive because he stores his memories in a box:

I'm in my new place. This is my new room. It had two picture hooks. Now it only has one.

I've been a little too busy to blog. Travelling all over Sydney preaching to school kids, which isn't that impressive because they have to be there.

Here's a duck that joined me for lunch in Picton the other day. As you can see it was so excited to be eating lunch with me it pooed.




And this is the vacuum cleaner before I vacuumed my previous room:



And this is it after:



As you can see, either I'm very good at vacuuming or very bad.

There is currently a girl asleep in our lunch room. She may be a homeless person or she may be a housemate's sister. It was dark so I didn't investigate. If she is a homeless person maybe we're turning our place into a single women's refuge. That'd be a great way for three single guys to meet some ladies. If we're not already doing it, I might put the idea to the boys for consideration.

We went over to Dee and Mark's for dinner. It was all very normal till the end of the night when my father asked to borrow a Hat from Dee. With that more craziness ensued than at an afternoon tea of Episcopal bishops.

While we're displaying iPhone photos, I took this on Australia Day morning.



I have the feeling he was getting into the Australia Day festivities a little too early.

When I had my Quiet Time this morning, this is what I saw.



As you may have noticed, things at our place are a little disjointed.

I may have to do a little more work on my iPhone panoramic photography skills.

See it very large.

I went and watched some fireworks down by the harbour last night with a bunch of Australians and Guatemalans. It was nice to be back watching the fireworks.

I didn't take any photos of the fireworks. But I did take a photo of Anmol, so that'll have to do.



Happy New Year

There is a tree over our washing line in which Rainbow Lorikeets are currently loving to sit and eat the flowers.

On Sunday Jenny brought in my clothes from off the line. This was the collection of clothes I discovered when I got home.



Freakin' birds.

This shows why you should always pick up your Hornsby and Upper North Shore Advocate off your driveway quickly. After 5 weeks it becomes somewhat unreadable.

I saw this poster the other night when out with the Bennetts:



Seeing as that looks like such a winner I've decided to run my own event for people with special needs. I'm going to call it:

Retardance Party
Get downs on the dance floor