Bonnke

Tonight Jo (sister) and I went to Hillsong Church to see Reinhard Bonnke speak. I heard that Reinhard Bonke (pronounced Bonky) was good, so I thought I'd go check him out. Plus I just wanted to say that I saw a guy with that name. What a cool name: Bonnke.

Unfortunately Reinhard wasn't there. I think he may have been at the City campus. Oh well. I enjoyed myself. I think Hillsong have gone more moderate these days. Or I have. But I had fun.

The offertory sermon which has never really filled me with excitement before was good. Dooley spoke about we never grow weary of doing good even if we aren't reaping at the moment (Gal 6:9,10). He told us a story about when God first convicted him at 17 to do good and he gave his pay packet to a missionary. He told us that he didn't reap lots of money the next day or week, but this week he reaped because he got to minister to 4,500 young people. I grinned. He'd hit the nail on the head. If I had been a penty I would have shouted "Amen". What a great way to reap from doing good, being able to bring the gospel to thousands of young people. That's the prosperity gospel I'm going for. Go Hillsong!

The speaker man was pretty good too, even if his name wasn't Bonnke. He had good illustrations between sin and disease. Impressed I was. So I had fun at Hillsong.

Robbie

Kemp said last Sunday that she didn't know what Robbie Williams would do with himself if he wasn't famous. He was made to be famous.

I reckon if Robbie wasn't famous he'd be that sleazy guy at the pub who gets drunk and drops his pants a lot. He'd flirt with all the girls and most of us would find him annoying but rather endearing at the same time.

Terrorism really sucks.

Undertime

I haven't been doing nearly as much work these past two weeks as I normally do. I work in an office full of people who never seem to stop working. I, on the other hand, do my best to take any opportunity I can to take some time off and avoid working (Lunch hours that last an hour, Blogfeed, phone conversations that should be 5 minutes that take 20.) I know I probably work an average of 5 hours overtime a week, but at my office, I feel like I'm the slack one.

This week though, I've been doing less. I can't find anything to do. Last week I read the Church Worker's Code of Conduct which is a bad sign, today I started cleaning my office which is a really bad sign. I'm trying to think of all the things I always wanted to do but never got around to doing. I've organised to have coffee (or ice chocolate, or beer, or lunch) with my leaders, which is fun, I like the catch ups. On Friday I might try and get the back TV at church working. Oh that would be fun. I'd need my electric screwdriver and everything.

Of course I could write a Bible study, or a roster, or a program. I could print envelopes and plan socials. But none of them sound nearly as exciting as getting a TV to work. Or I could convert all the sermons on the computer to mp3, I'm sure that's a priority. Or I could just clean my office. And I certainly should find more people I need to catch up with.

The possibilities are endless, and who knows, I might just end up working just the hours I'm paid for.

Ryan and Marrisa just slept together on their first date. Sandy didn't kiss his co-worker (which is a good thing). And I'm not all that interested in the next episode. This is a good thing.

While baking my banana cake (so pleased with myself) I started watching The OC. I'm not sure that this was a good idea. I hired a few dvds yesterday because someone had hired all The West Wing dvds. I think I could be about to get addicted. And it's such a trashy program too.

In the lift on my way to commy dinner I was holding my cake. The man in the lift said to me has he got out "Smells good."

I said "Good"

When I arrived at commy dinner I hopped out of the car with all my stuff. Just at that moment two cars came around the corner and startled me. I dropped the cake on the ground. Lucky it was sturdy, and I had it back in its container in less than 7 seconds.

Commy dinner wasn't vibey at all tonight. Hooray. People liked my cake. I thought the bottom was a little dry but the rest was good.

Now I'm off to the TV to see what happened with Ryan and Marrisa's date.


Oh Jed Bartlett, please come back.

Cake

I'm baking that cake I said I was going to bake. It's in the oven right now. I'm not sure how it'll go, but hey, it'll sound good even if it doesn't taste good.

Mosque

Tonight Chris and I went to Lakemba Mosque to hear a Muslim evangelist.

I picked Chris up at about 5 and we drove slowly over to Lakemba in masses of traffic. Despite the extraordinary automobilical turn-out we arrived early. We parked a long way from the mosque and walked up the road to meet Waleed. I was worried that I wouldn't recognise him because I haven't seem him in nine months and everyone outside the mosque seemed to have a black beard and flowing robes. Happily he recognised me and came over before I had seen him.

When going in we had to take our shoes off and put them on a shelf in a little room off to the side where you enter. In the room there were bits of scaffolding and lights lying around. They're renovating the mosque. They were doing that last time I was there too, but it's looking a lot better now.

Chris and I sat down the back and talked a little to Waleed. Ahmed came over too, who I had met before, and we chatted. At prayer time Chris and I were left alone while the guys prayed. We were joined by a young guy who wasn't praying. He told us that he was a Muslim but a bad one. He wasn't praying because he was too sinful. He didn't want to pray and be a hypocrite. It was very sad to meet him. I really wanted to get the chance to talk to him later. I would have loved to have told him about grace.

After prayer we were taken down the front to hear the evangelist talk. We met Ali again who we hung out with last time we were there. The speaker was a Texan man who used to be a Christian preacher. He was giving us a teaching about rights and limits. He said every Muslim has rights which are good. But all these rights have limits to give them balance. When he told us about the rights I thought they sounded more like laws, rather than rights ("Every one has the right to worship only one God", or something like that). So I was a little confused as to where the rights ended and the limits started. They all sounded rather similar to me.

But it was all interesting. And he was a good speaker, except when he spoke in Arabic, I didn't understand a word of it.

After the lecture I asked Waleed that if I could talk to the speaker. He told me to go and line up. There was a huge crowd of people wanting to talk to him, so Chris and I just stood near the back. Word got around, however, that the Christians wanted to meet the Sheik and we were ushered into the Imam's* office so we could have a private meeting. I felt like a celebrity.

The office was very plush it had big leather couches, a big desk, and a huge book shelf with many books with Arabic titles. After a little while the room filled up with 6 men and the Sheik who spoke. It was rather intimidating.

The Speaker warmly greeted Chris and I and then continued a conversation he was having with a new Muslim who had converted last night. Then he turned to us and asked us why we were here.

I told him I was interested in hearing his story about how he became a Muslim. But he told us it was too long to tell. Instead he went on to tell me that the Bible has been changed and is inaccurate. He quoted 1 John 5:8 and told me that that was changed in the 16th Century.

I agreed that the Bible has not been free from human corruption and told him also of Mark 7:16 for example, just to back up his point. I figure the best way to moot a point is to agree with it. But I made the point that the Bible translators are working to get rid of these additions not propigate them.

He asked me how people are saved if they haven't heard of Jesus. I told him that Romans tells us that God will judge people according to the law that is written on their hearts. He asked me what this proves about God. I was about to say "That he's gracious" but I didn't get a chance because I was told that it proves that God doesn't need Jesus for salvation, that God will save who he wants.

There was more to the conversation, and it was rather stressful. I was feeling like the minority. But I enjoyed it none the less. Being one of two Christians in a room full of Muslims talking about faith with an international Muslim speaker, in the office of the head Muslim for the whole of Australia and New Zealand, you can see how it would be both intimidating and exhilarating at the same time. Unfortunately, we didn't have long enough to talk. Just as I was getting my confidence up, the Sheik was told he had to go by his minder, so off he went.

When we went back to collect our shoes we were pulled aside into a darkened stairwell by a big guy who asked me "Do you know about the Bible?"

"A bit" I replied

"What's the deal with the bit when Jacob wrestles God? I've always wondered about that."

I told him how it was the story about how Jacob had to learn to submit to God to receive blessing, not wrestle the blessing from God, like he had been doing all his life. I felt like was conducting a clandestine Bible study in the dark, back corner of a mosque. Which I guess I was, except for the clandestine bit. If only he had asked me, "What's the deal with Jesus dying for our sins?"

After this Ali drove us to the local youth hang out where we were fed masses of food. We ate at a big table with the Sheik and the Imam (who's office we sat in before.) Everyone there was very good at greeting us. They all came over to shake hands with us and make us feel at home. They are a really lovely bunch of people. Waleed told me about his family and I got the impression that he was related to almost everyone in the room.

When we were done there Ali gave us a lift back to our car and we drove home. Just as we were leaving I invited Ali and Waleed if they wanted to come visit my church. They didn't sound excited but I'll keep working on them.

I had a fun night. I would have liked the chance to say more, but the opportunities didn't really present themselves. I might go back tomorrow night when the guy will tell his story about how he converted. Maybe then I'll get the chance to say more.



*I hear the Imam is the head for all the Muslims in Australia and New Zealand. And he was also the guy who flew to Iraq to negotiate for Douglas Wood's release. I was introduced to him tonight, so I'm feeling rather famous.

Bed is calling. Tonight has been fun. Chris Martin called Live 8 "the greatest event ever in the history of the world" or something like that. Which I think would be a debatable point but I enjoyed myself none-the-less. I think the Black Eyed Peas won themselves a fan in me tonight. They were tops performers. I'd go see them live. Maybe I should. Are the coming to Australia?

U2 were the best, because they just are. Bono could be a worship leader, except that he said "Give us what we f***ing want", which I've never heard from a worship leader yet.

Green Day were cool, as were Good Charlotte. And the heavy German band who sang in German I liked them.

I do hope that the G8 do something exciting. Go you good things, change the world! (That's my message to all the leaders of the G8 who I know are avid readers of my blog, except for the Japanese guy. He doesn't get my sense of humour.)

Now I must sleep.

I'm Watching Live 8

There's a boring guy on now, so I thought I'd blog. I'm having fun though.

Oh Green Day just came on. Gotta go!

Today I might bake a cake.

I also might not.

Getting on the Bandwagon

I'm off to the city today to wear white arm bands, wear white (at least the closest things I own to white) and Make Poverty History. How exciting.

I'm so glad they picked white over pink or lime green. I doubt I look good in either of those colours.

Donny's Done for the Year

Well tonight was another wonderful Marrickville Air Guitar experience.

For those you who want to know the score, Donny didn't get a place. But no one's crying over here.

Tonight I decided that before I was performing, I didn't want to get changed in the toilets. There were rather gross. It's always a tricky act trying to get changed while keeping the clothes you aren't wearing out of the urine and fecal matter. This time I was going to go into the change rooms. The main attraction for me was that, seeing as Marrickville is the premiere adult entertainment venue of the inner West, I would be getting changed in the strippers' change rooms. There were no strippers in the room tonight. In fact there were no strippers at the club tonight happily, but at least I can notch that one down on the list of things that I have done.

The change room was a very interesting place though. I think that everyone who went into the air guitar competition was either a very confident extrovert or rather weird, or both. This meant that the change room was full of wonderful people and most of them seemed to be wearing KISS make up.

There was one girl who started chatting to me. I'm not sure if she was just chatty or she was chatting me up. I would like to think that see was chatting me up. After all see had seen me without a shirt and in my boxers. We talked about her family, our shared heritage, adoption, film festivals, karaoke, and lots more, which is a rather odd experience when your surrounded by half-naked men wearing make up. She even took a photo of me and sang to me.

Later in the club she came up to me again and introduced herself to me, and I accidentally barred her because I was watching the other Air Guitarists. I felt rather bad about that. When I realised what I had done I couldn't find her to apologise. I'm sure she was thinking "You're friendly in the change rooms, but as soon as we get into the club you treat me like I'm a no-body."

Anyway, Donny's performance went well I think. He did everything right. The music that Jimmy made for the occasion was great, I got to climb the pole (all the way to the roof), I smashed my guitar and I almost got my timing right. What more can you ask? Oh and I had fun.

But there were other people who were better then me. There was a girl who was a trained pole dancer who probably destroyed her guitar doing extraordinary pole things but got way up on points because girls dancing on poles get high marks.

There was another man who dressed as a woman. And there was a man who wore a suit with the back cut out of it exposing his bare bum to us all.

It really was quite eventful.

In the end Donny didn't win any of the places. But I'm glad I did it. It was certainly an experience and I can now say that I've danced on a real pole dancing pole and gotten changed (and chatted up) in a strippers' dressing room.

I doubt I'll be entering any more Air Guitar Competitions again though. I'll have to get my thrills elsewhere.

I would be willing to say that we probably won't see Donny again at least until next April, and what a relief that will be.

Rock On!

For those of you who are getting worried I don't endorse strip clubs, pole dancing, or other forms of adult entertainment (except perhaps bingo, gardening and other activities like that). And you won't find me at Marrickville RSL on a Friday and Saturday when the real adult entertainment happens. Just thought I should clear that up.

One Last Time

I'm off to the RSL one last time tonight. I've been practicing in the living room. I'm almost ready. Should be fun. Tonight Donny Jaffa could be the Champion Air Guitarist of Marrickville RSL! Wow! What a title.

Looking forward to it.

I wrote this on 2nd June but I'm only posting it now. I had plans to fix it up and make it nice but I don't think I'll bother. I don't think it's written very well but I agree with my sentiments.

Rather Useless

I've been thinking a lot about Africa lately. Bono talked a lot about it in his book. Every question he managed to twist back to Africa. And now I'm reading the autobiography of Nelson Mandela. I have Africa on my mind.

Africa is a continent that is so sad to consider. It's being torn to pieces by AIDS, and we're not giving it the drugs it needs. We're not allowing the Africans into fair trade agreements. We're keeping the poor poor to keep the rich rich. Africa is a living, perpetual inditement of the oppression of the rich West.

For the past few weeks I've been thinking poverty, AIDS, water, fair trade. But I don't know what to do with it. Technology has made the world my neighbour. I can't ignore the poverty of this world, and I can't ignore my participation in a society that's built on the backs of the developing world. My clothes are made by children for a pittance and my cheap resources come to me at the expense of my marginalised fellow human beings.

I live in a system that's too big to change, I live in a country where I'm too far away to do much to help, but I'm close enough to be condemned.

I spent $555 on a computer monitor today. And how do I justify that when people there are people who don't earn that all year.

My toilet water is cleaner then the drinking water of 1 billion of the world's people.

6500 people die of AIDS every day.

30,000 children die of preventable diseases every day.

I get a headache and get a paracetamol out of the cupboard that's probably being made by the same people who aren't giving the drugs to Africans.

But in the end what can I do?

I look at my world and all I feel is rather useless.

How can I do anything, living and working in middle-class suburban Sydney? I'm a rich man working for rich people, eating at rich people's tables. I declare myself guilty because of my place of birth. My mother didn't die in childbirth and neither did I. I'm guilty.

My life doesn't suck. What did I ever do to deserve this? What have I ever done to pay off this perfect life that's been loaned to me.

I can't get Africa out of my brain. Maybe I should just drop everything and move overseas. Maybe I should be taking food to refugees, maybe I should be delivering AIDS drugs, maybe I should be walking around Africa just apologising. And when I'm finished there I can move on to India, and Asia, and South America and keep going till I've met every person I've indirectly exploited by living in Australia.

I feel rather useless.

Live 8

Live 8 is on on Saturday night, and I'm excited. I'm going home to watch it on Foxtel because I don't have Foxtel here in Chatswood.

I wonder if anyone will make jokes about how U2 don't need to wear white bands because they are a white band. I think not, because it's a pretty lame joke.

Drivetime

I drove from Ulladulla to Chatswood in 3hrs 20mins. I reckon that's pretty good time.

I was down in the 'dulla making music with Jimmy. He's good with a guitar that man.

I enjoyed driving by myself. I listened to music and made as much use of the 100km/h zones as possible. They're fun roads to drive. Driving with people is fun too, but time by yourself means that you can be alone with your thoughts. Of course if I had something important to think about that would have been better. Today I think the thing I thought about most as I drove was The West Wing. I keep having to remind myself that the people on the show aren't real.

I watched Lateline tonight and Alexander Downer was on it talking about Australia's relationship with China. What was amazing was how little he said, and how often he didn't give satisfactory answers to the questions. I also watched Tom Cruise on Rove Live and he was almost the same (Execept Rove didn't ask any good questions). It seems to me to be a problem when actors and politicians sound exactly the same.

Perhaps things would go better if they put actors on political programs and politicians on comedy programs. I'm sure everyone would say much more interesting stuff.

My other issue is, why does the Lateline logo have a full stop at the end of the logo?



Is it because they want the last word? Is Lateline just a very short sentence? "Lateline." I don't know and I find it rather annoying. It's a title damn it, not a sentence. Grr.

Paragraphs

Filming on the weekend was fun. We used the "Losmandy Ride-On Spider Dolly", which was cool. Everyone wanted to ride on it, so I guess it was living up to it's name.

Matt is a good director. He's friendly, calm, and good to his actors. When technical things were going wrong he didn't get outwardly stressed and have a go at us, he just trusted us to fix the problems. When we couldn't fix the problems, he was fine, and continued to trust us. He's a good director. Plus he brought us in on time and on budget. Actually there is no budget, but I'm sure if there was a budget we'd be on it.

I think this film will a notch above the last two we've done. Maybe not a huge notch but I think we're getting better.

Today I had lunch with my Mum. We went shopping together first then we went home and she cooked me some pasta while I unpacked the shopping. She was a little disappointed that I only wanted pasta for lunch, (she wanted me to eat something exotic) but she did a good job with it. She asked me about my love life out of a sense of motherly duty, but I had nothing to report.

I also had a drink with Martin and Emily today. We sat in the Monkey Bar and drank beer out of their really tall schooners. Now I smell like cigarettes.

Tonight I watched the interview on Enough Rope with Di Fingelton who used to be the Queensland Chief Magistrate. It was very interesting. She seems to be a very proud woman with a deep sense of justice (which is probably important in a magistrate), and I couldn't see how people couldn't respect her. I was very impressed.

Tomorrow I'll go to Ulladulla again. We're getting close, Ulladulla and I.

I had a dream last night that I had a job at a school as a disciplinarian. There was a girl who had received a rude note from some people in her class and I was called in to discipline the people. I walked into the class room and shouted a lot. I tried to send people out but they just talked back. I kept thinking "It would be so good if I could pick these people up and throw them out, but child protection won't let me." I even stood on the desks as I shouted. A bit of a Robin Williams, Dead Poets thing I guess.

When I used to go running there was a car that I would run past on my route which had a number plate with the letters "YTG". I always interpreted this as "Year to Go" and it was a hopeful sign for me that there was only a year to go for whatever I was waiting for. Unfortunately, that car was parked there for years, so either it didn't actually mean there was a year to go (for what ever it was that it was meant to have been predicting) or it was as accurate as the Millennium Train that arrived in the year 2004.

Tomorrow we start filming Love is (which has nothing to do with Love Actually) I'm thinking it should be fun.

I went to the hire place to pick up the dolly, the tripod and the mic today. It was fun but I felt rather stupid. I always do feel stupid there. The guys at the hire places are so smart. They ask me technical questions about how I'm shooting the film and what sort of camera I'm using, and what I'm doing for lighting. And I only come up with stupid answers. They work in the professional film and television industry and I'm just a small time youth minister with a handicam. At least I knew what he meant when he said "Do you want me to throw in a set of cans?"

Oh well, happily I got out of there with a car well stocked full of posh equipment and tomorrow I'll look a professional (except for the fact that I'm using a camera the size of a small rodent and my clapper board comes from Warner Bros. Movie World.)

Tomorrow will be fun. Now I'm going to bed.

Donny makes it through

Tonight I was back at the ol' Marrickville RSL, that neon lit paradise.

Matt, Lesley and I had a production meeting for the new film (Love is being the new title) while hours of Karaoke Semi-Finalists sung. It was a good plan.

At the end of the Karaoke I got changed into the Donny outfit and waited. I had my smallest crowd ever this time. Only Matt and Lesley this time. Donny was up first again. So when the announcement came, off I went. I got in my opening position and the wrong music came on. For some reason the music operator didn't cue the song to the solo he just played it from the beginning. Suddenly I started to feel rather naked.

While filled with horror I did my best to pretend that this is what was planned. I floundered around and did a few out of place moves and smiled at the judges and the old woman in the front. The minute felt like it went on for years. I was struggling to remember what actually happens at the beginning of Sweet Child O' Mine I'd only listened to it once today. Finally I was let off the stage, but I didn't feel all that impressive.

The competition that followed me was good. The costumes were great and the guitarists, bar one I think, were all better than me. There was one girl who did all sorts of dance moves which were rather intimidating. She some how managed to roll over the top of herself and keep playing the guitar. Wow.

The night ended with the announcements and amazingly Donny made it through to the Grand Final. So now Donny is competing at 8pm at Marrickville RSL next Thursday night. Could be fun. Come along if you're up for it.

And the winner is...

Thank you Scott for the the suggestion of Sweet Child O' Mine by Guns N Roses, Donny Jaffa shall be performing it tonight.

I had to walk around the whole of Chatswood trying to find a Guns N Roses cd with it on it. In the end I bought the Greatest Hits. Should be fun because I always thought I should own some Gunners.

Ryan and I went and saw Batman Begins on Monday night. It was cool. Dark, violent, smart, fun, cool. Yay Batman!

I love to have a Beer with David

Upon arriving in Chatswood from Bible Study tonight David asked me if I wanted to have a Coke with him. I thought this was a marvelous idea. Unfortunatly the Coke machine in the transfer lobby has stopped working. So we had to go further. We ended up at the bar downstairs where we had a drink.

It's great having a pub so close to home. I should make more use of it more often.

Tonight's quote of the night:

Me: I have one word for you: Stupid people
David: That's three words!

I have to find a song to play Air Guitar to on Thursday night. Any suggestions?

...I'm just a Little Unwell

Ryan's staying over. I just showed him to his room. Right now I feel like I've had an argument with someone, but I don't think I have. I can't remember having an argument. The last conversation I had was about what bathroom Ryan can use in the morning. I haven't had any conversations since then, there's no one else here, but I really feel like I just had an argument with someone. The darndest thing...

I thought I heard voices before I hopped into the lift last night too. I checked the lift to see if there was anyone in it, and there wasn't. There aren't many places to hide in a lift.

And on Wednesday night when I was leaving the church centre, I thought someone ran across the lawn in front of me, but there wasn't anyone there. There were three people in the car watching me who said there was no one there.

Leo and The President did just have an argument on The West Wing maybe that's it. Maybe I'm just getting too involved.

But that still doesn't explain the rest...

So Happy Right Now

I finished my exam today. I just wrote three of the worst essays of my life. My exam only had one thing in it that I studied for. I spent the whole 2 and a half hours counting down till 4:30pm because then it was all over. I'm not at all fussed about my exam. I reckon I have 50% chance of getting over 50%. And while I don't like academic failure, academics hasn't really been on my mind.

But I am exceptionally happy now. I am on holidays between now and 12pm Wednesday. That's the longest break I've had for a month. I expect to spend some time lying on a couch, some time sitting in a cinema, lots of time asleep, a little bit of time washing up, and some time at commy dinner. I have already had breakfast/lunch/dinner and a beer at Cheers in the City with Ryan this afternoon. Having much fun. Brain has gone to mush.

I couldn't remember the word ideology this afternoon. I could only think of idolotry, and I knew that was wrong.

Preach 3 done. My first sermon series done.

It was a good experience. Tough, but good. Tonight's sermon was emotionally the easiest. I think it was graciousness.

Tomorrow exam. And then some level of relaxation in my life. Hooray. Praise the Lord.

Study Day

I have an exam on Monday and today has been set aside as the one study day that I'll have. I haven't had the time before now.

As a result of this being a study day I have managed to have a quiet time that went twice as long as usual, blog, read the news, read some arguments between Jensens and anti-Jensens, find some pictures of massive poos (not for people who don't like poo), read a response to an anti-Wimber article in The Briefing in 1990, go shopping, and sleep on the couch for an hour. Tonight I'm going to a party. Procrastination is alive and well here.

If I pass this exam I'll prove that you don't have to read the Bible to go to Bible college. In fact you don't really have to read anything at all.

Refugees

Hooray for the Liberals!

Good on Mr Howard for changing refugee policy. I'm looking forward to the day when there is no mandatory detention, and no cruel visas, but for the moment these changes are good.

Government done good.

Yet another post about Bono

"Bono is by far the most pretentious rock star ever...but, like Batman, as long as he uses his powers for good, we can forgive him some things." - Chris Long, U2 Actung

Fourgotten Floors

In this building I noticed that there is no floor 4 or floor 14. But there is a floor B4.



I decided this was a little conundrum that I should investigate.

I just went to the Concierge (I'm so posh) to pick up the mail and my friend was on the desk, as I had hoped. She's one who recognises me and I don't have to ask for the mail, she's friendly. She also filled out a form about this apartment for me when I didn't know all the answers. She's cool.

Anyway, she was on the desk, so I asked her why there is no floor 4 or 14. She told me it's because the number 4 is a very unlucky number for the Chinese people. I didn't know that. As well as being no floors with 4 in it (except B4), there are no apartments with the number 4 in it.

I asked her why then, is there a B4. And that's because it's only a parking level. I made some joke about sleeping on the parking level but she didn't get it. She just looked at me and said "It's only for parking."

I persevered though and in the end got a smile after I said it was safe to sleep in your car on B5 and B3 but not B4. I admit, not a very funny joke, but sometimes you just have to keep working so that people know that you're joking, not just stupid. Of course, you can be stupid and joking, but it's better than just being stupid. Trust me, I know from experience.

I'm done now.

I went and talked at the school. I got it done.

Last night I got a rough out line nutted out. It was a rehash of many different gospel talks put together. I spent all night dreaming about the talk. I woke up at one stage with a new talk in my head. I thought about writing it as I lay in bed but decided I should go back to sleep. I thought I would give it an audition while I was in the shower.

In the shower I couldn't work out why I thought it'd be a good talk in the middle of the night. Then I remembered that it was the middle of the night and things always seem good then.

After my shower I sat around the appartment trying to wake up and run through my talk but it was rather difficult. It was pretty early. I didn't really get much done. I could have been asleep.

I drove to the school and practised in the car. It did ok there.

At the school I got up to talk and did a rather advertisment for our youth group and then launched into it. I told them how last time I was at their school was feeling rather sick and was scared I going to vomit on them all. I thought they'd like a vomit story but they didn't seem all that impressed.

My talk was straight gospel. I don't like doing gospel talks often, because you feel like you have to convince people that you're telling the truth. And I don't like talking about judgement. And telling people that they're sinners. It would just be a lot easier to tell them the good news. But the good news isn't good news until they've understand the bad news first.

In the end it went fine. I didn't vomit on anyone. My stories when down ok. Some of them looked rather bored. But what can you do? That's school for you.

I'm going to eat some lunch. Hooray!

I'm talking at a school in 11 hours and I haven't got anything to say yet.

Ahhh!

While people make this world rather crappy, they also make it wonderful. I do enjoy people.

I also enjoy living on my own. I had my first conversation with a man in the lift today. My first comversation at these appartments with anyone who isn't a Concierge. I hopped in the lift and it went like this:

Man: Hi
Me: G'day
Man: How are you?
Me: Good. How are you?
Man: A bit tired actually. (Honesty, I like it.)
Me: Yeah it's late. You've got your shopping there. (He's holding two bags of shopping but in conversation with strangers it's good to state the obvious to establish that you aren't stupid)
Man: Yeah I didn't want to starve.
Me: Good idea
Lift: *Ding*
Me: Well, have a good one.
Man: Bye

Now I feel like I have a friend on the fifth floor.

Jo and I had breakfast today from 12pm-2:45pm, it was good. Yay for Jo.

Today I have blogged, eaten some Coco-Pops, watched 2 episodes of The West Wing, done the washing up, walked to the video store, then watched 2 more episodes of The West Wing. It's been a good day.

It's 1:42pm and I haven't had breakfast yet. I also haven't decided if today is a day off or tomorrow is. It think tomorrow. I'm not feeling very productive today.

The Week in Photos

Ulladulla
Tuesday


Mitch and Graham play at Funland


Funland in its Glory


The Early Incarnation of those Dancing Machines


A Lock

Boxing
Wednesday


Before the Boxing


After the Boxing

Donny Jaffa Plays Again!
Thursday


Donny with Fan


Donny with my Mum (Happy Birthday Mum)


Donny says "Make Poverty History!"


Donny Performs


Donny Rocks Out

Just before I go: You'll notice in the background of the stage there are poles. Those poles are Marrickville RSL's brand new Pole Dancing Poles for their adult entertainment. They had not yet been properly used on Thursday night but during my performance I got to dance with them. I got to dance on a genuine pole dancing pole. Of course my clothes stayed on and I couldn't do much as I was holding an air guitar but it was rather fun. I would have been a dream come true had I ever thought to dream of pole dancing.

Last night was one of the hardest preaching experiences I've had so far. I've never come off feeling quite as bad as I did last night. I felt like I was one of the few people in the room who didn't feel like dancing. But last night was probably one of the more important experiences I've had too. It was great to see people dancing in the isles.

I'm also glad Tim didn't die on his hamburger.

"Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom
or the strong man boast of his strength
or the rich man boast of his riches,
but let he who boasts boast about this:
that he understands me and knows me,
that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness,
justice and righteousness on earth,
for in those I delight"
declares the Lord.

Jeremiah 9:23,24

Home from camp. Week over. Sleep in. Hooray!

Donny Jaffa moves through to the Semi-finals of the Big Bang Air Guitar Competition at Marrickville RSL...

..as did everyone else who competed. Pfft.

Manliness Quotient Increasing



So Matt and I went to the boxing tonight, it was great.

Before the boxing we went to Eating World in Chinatown and ate Chinese and drank beer. We felt beer was appropriate. A steak would have gone better than Soya Chicken, but it wasn't bad. And the food was cheap and good.

We went into the Entertainment Centre which was filled with cops and macho young men. I decided it was a very different crowd from when I was there last to see Norah Jones.

Before the main fight between Mundine and Kessler there were 5 other fights on the undercard.

Most of them weren't majorly exciting but there was one guy, Mick Katsidis who fought last before the main fight who got a knock out half way through round 2 of a 7 round fight. He was pretty full on. I'd be happy to follow that man's career. Undefeated with 15 wins and 13 KOs, yeah baby.

Mundine vs Kessler was great. It was a very pro-Mundine crowd. I was going for Kessler myself. I think because he deserves respect. He came into the fight undefeated with 35 wins and 27 KOs. That's pretty good. I didn't like Mundine's chances of still standing by the end.

But they went the full 12 rounds. It was very exciting. Kessler fought better but everytime Mundine did anything remotely good the crowd go off. It's nerve racking watching them fight because the intensity just increases. By the last round I was on the edge of my seat, making all the right noises, going for Mundine. The crowd won me over, and I realised Mundine was going to loose, so the underdog factor got me. Sadly he lost on points but he stayed in, which is more than most of Kessler's other opponents have done.

I think I'm officially a boxing fan. I want to go back.

Boxing tonight. How exciting!

There's a man standing on my balcony. I wonder who he is.

What do I want to be when I grow up?

There are so many things I would love to do when I grow up. Well maybe not so many, but I often have thoughts that go through my brain and I think, that'd be cool to do that. I'm happy doing my life at the moment. And I have no immediate plans to go anywhere (unless I get fired or something). But in a few years time or so, it might be time to move on. I am continually ticking over ideas for my next life. I'm hoping I can do at least some of them. They're not in any particular order.

Go to TAFE and learn to fix TVs, DVDs and Sound Systems and stuff

Then I could open up a little store and fix things. That'd be fun. I'm not sure that I'm smart enough for that but I sure do like fixing stuff. Well I sure do like replacing batteries, and that's pretty close to fixing stuff.

Live and Work in America

I'm fascinated by America. I know I've said that before. But I am. I'd love to work in a church in America. Probably because the American Christian culture is pervasive in the Western church. And the Moral Majority has such an influence on how this world plays out. And I think people would like my accent.

Be a Husband and Father

Yep. I like women and I like kids. What more could you want?

One day I'd like to see if all my pontificating about marriage and relationships is really worth anything.

Work in a Developing Nation

Maybe I'm just trying to ease my guilty conscience but I think I'd like to learn from, and be inspired by, people who are poor in this world but rich in the Kingdom of Heaven. I'm not sure that I'd be all that helpful. I don't know if I have many skills that they can use of mine. But I'm happy to smile at them as say encouraging things like "Keep going" "Go get 'em" and "Will you pose for my digital camera?" Every poor community in the world needs a leachy, guilty westerner to support.

Become a Famous Speaker

I think it'd be fun to fly around the world speaking at conferences. More and more, the greatest appeal of this job is that you can peddle the same 6 six sermons and get them to perfect delivery. None of this stuff where you write a new talk every time and try and stumble your way through it. Oh no. You can have just a few and everyone will think you're great but really you're just well practiced.

Plus I could write books to sell at Koorong.

Be a stay at home Dad

I figure I could do this while I'm not speaking. I could write my bestselling books like "Teen Purity Again" and "The Prayer of Jabez for House-Dads" then go and pick the kids up from school. I could do a bit of house work, help them with their homework, cook some frozen meals for dinner. Sweet.

Make feature film

I'm waiting for the day when God says "Ok you did what I wanted you to do, now here's $10 million, go make a film" And I'll make a feature film that will be a small critical success on the festival circuit but won't get a distributor.

Be a Youth Minister in a struggling town in Western NSW

I'm sure I'd burn out within a week but they need people out west so desperately that they'll take anyone. The perfect place for someone like me. I'd like to take my training and experience where there is one youth minister for a whole diocese rather than one in every three churches. Or even two in one church (such as mine). I might be needed out west.

Be Bono's good friend

When Bono and I become good friends, and I regularly hang out with U2, I hope none of them read my blog because I'm going to be a little embarrassed when they read things like this.

Be an Army Chaplin who jumps out of Planes

I think I'd like to combine my love of the military with my love of God. I'm not sure how this would fit in with my pacifist leanings, but I really like guns, planes, tanks and combat fatigues.

Be a Chaplin in a Private Anglican School

I think there's an appeal to working in a "Christian" environment where you get to evangelise every day. I'd like to try and make Chapel fun and the challenge of nominalism interests me. Plus it's still youth ministry stuff.

Work in a Church as a "Man devoted to Prayer and the Ministry of the Word"

I don't want to run a church but if they ever had a job open for a full time preacher, I'd apply. I'm note sure how it would work, but I think I'd spend all week hanging out with people from the congregation, working in the community, reading newspapers and books, and researching and writing sermons, and praying.

Being a Posh Car Delivery Man

I once met a guy who worked for company that serviced posh cars. He used to go over to their house pick up their Mercedes, BMW or Ferrari, then drive it to his work to be serviced then drive them back to the owner's house. How cool would that be? I'd have to learn to drive a manual.


So there you have my rather long list of things that I'd like to do. I'm not sure that I'll end up doing any of them, I'll see what God wants, but I can dream...

One sermon down, two to go.

I'm so glad I don't normally have to preach every week.

I just watched bit of a documentary about buskers. That'd be a fun job. Unless you were one of those buskers with a mental illness. That would be hard.

I ate meat balls for dinner.

I had fun at First Sunday tonight. I really enjoy the people at my church. They're a good bunch.

I'm about to embark another of those weeks that make you think they're going to explode you have so much on. But most of it looks fun.

Can I tell you my week? I've been telling everyone.

Monday: Sermon writing, college, sermon, maybe a movie
Tuesday: Ulladulla to visit Jimmy
Wednesday: Work, Boxing with Matt
Thursday: Sermon prep, Air Guitar Comp
Friday: Scripture Seminars, Small Group, Camp
Saturday: Camp
Sunday: Camp, Preach
Monday: Sleep in

Tonight Jem and Jo told me that when I preach I almost sound American. I sound like a cross between Matt Gelding and Mike Pilavachi. Neither of them are American. But they're both good preachers so I'll take it as a compliment.

Living in the unit again is bringing back all the memories from last time I was here. All the smells and sights are making me remember how I felt back in October. Especially the smell of the shower and the toilet. Not that I spent much time there, but they have very distinctive smells.

I'm listening to Switchfoot now because I bought that while I was here last and I played it a lot sitting here at the computer. It has decidedly enhanced the nostalgic experience.

I'm hoping to create some new memories this time. I'd rather not spend the next two months reliving October. As much fun as October was.

Some new memories are:

Bath

Last night, I was struggling to find energy to write my sermon (hey I should be doing that now) so I had a bath. It didn't help the energy levels, it ruined them. But it was good. I haven't had a bath in years, literally. Living in a house without a bath will do that to you. But this was great.

Timezone

I went to Timezone this afternoon with 5 of the guys from my small group. It was good fun. I lost Daytona twice but won the last game. I couldn't handle being beaten in a driving game by 5 guys who don't even have a license. My ego wouldn't have coped.

I have sore hand now from doing so much shooting on Time Crisis 3.

After Timezone I did some shopping. I bought some Coco-Pops. I'm hoping to win the Light Saber spoon.

Since moving in here I have created three pieces of washing up. A knife, a fork and a glass. It's all about economy.

12:05am Yesterday

This is what I wrote on Wednesday Night/Thursday Morning. I thought I should post it because that was the idea I think.

So I’m currently sitting here blogging on my new monitor. Sadly I still have no internet.

I’m listening to Elliot Smith (I think), Louise lent me the cd. It’s not bad. I hear he’s dead this bloke, which is rather sad.

My new monitor is big and flat and I just realised that I forgot to get a receipt for it, so its three year warranty might be hard to redeem if it dies. I’ll have to ring up tomorrow and ask for a receipt.

I went on camp this weekend. I got to go away with the youth group. How fun are youth groups? Fun.

It’s rather late to write a debrief. It’ll have to come out in a rather exaggerated form in my autobiography in 40 years time. But it was fun. It really is good to watch people be changed by God.

Tonight at Bible Study we had a man called Daniel Shayesteh come and tell us about his life. He told us how he was an extremist Muslim, fighting in the Iranian revolution. How he was the leader of a political party in Iran that had 98% of the vote. How he got kidnapped and tortured but escaped death. And how he because a Christian and how Christ has changed his life. It was a great story. He was an inspiring man. Now all he seems to do is tell people about Jesus.

I went to primary school with his daughters but I didn’t know their story. I wish that I had.

I want to be as excited about Jesus as he was.

I am offically moved into my new temporary home in Chatswood. Hooray.

I'm house sitting my my Grandpa's apartment again. I'll be here till the end of July. Fun Fun.

I'm sitting in Core games now.

I sat up late last night blogging. I have a new monitor so I wanted to use it. I wrote to dodgy posts in word. They were long, but dodgy. I might get around to fixing them. I was just happy to have a new monitor. It's a 19" LCD. Very nice.

It's funny how when you have no net at home, you come to places like Westfield to use it, and you can't think of anything worth blogging about. But you feel the need to blog because you don't have all day.

All my useful thoughts are gone.

This morning I sat at home and did sermon prep listening to classical music. That was most enjoyable.

David and I had lunch at Satay Queen in Hornsby. It is the ultimate dodge. Wonderful. I love a good dodgy little Asian take-away. Except we dined in. Fantatastic.

I have to go to college tonight for my last ever Preaching class. I would have one next week but I have an Air Guitar competition to go in.

Well now that I have giving the internet more useless text. I must be off. I ahve a Donny Jaffa suit to reserve.

Everybody's doing it

() smoked a cigarette
() smoked a cigar
() made out with a member of the same sex
(x) been in love that really depends on how you define "in love", I've certainly had very strong feelings
(x) been dumped I wouldn't want to put it that harshly.
(x) shoplifted
(x) been fired
(x) been in a fist fight Not a big one
() snuck out of my parent's house
(x) had feelings for someone who didn't have them back
(x) been arrested Well I got a warning and juvenilele record or something
() made out with a stranger But I once kissed a man I'd only met twice
(x) gone on a blind date
(x) lied to a friend
() had a crush on a teacher
(x) skipped school
() slept with a co-worker
() seen someone die
() had a crush on one of your myspace friends
() been to Canada
() been to Mexico
(x) been on a plane
() thrown up in a bar but I've...
(x) thrown up in Westfield
(x) set a part of myself on fire
(x) eaten sushi
(x) been moshing/crowd surfing at a show
() love someone and miss someone right now
(x) laid on your back and watched cloud shapes go by
() made a snow angel
(x) had a tea party
(x) flown a kite
(x) built a sand castle
(x) riden through puddles on a bike
(x) gone puddle jumping
(x) played dress up
(x) jumped into a pile of leaves
() gone sledding
(x) cheated while playing a game
(x) been lonely
(x) fallen asleep at work/school
() used a fake id
(x) watched the sun set
() felt an earthquake
(x) touched a snake
(x) been tickled
(x) been robbed
(x) been misunderstood
(x) pet a reindeer/goat
(x) won a contest
(x) ran a red light
() been suspended from school
(x) been in a car accident
(x) had braces
(x) felt like an outcast
(x) eaten a whole pint of ice cream in one night
(x) had deja vu
(x) danced in the moonlight
(x) hated the way you look
(x) witnessed a crime
(x) questioned your heart
(x) been obsessed with post-it notes
(x) squished barefoot through the mud
(x) been lost
(x) been to the opposite side of the country
(x) swam in the ocean
() felt like dying
() cried yourself to sleep
(x) played cops and robbers
(x) recently colored with crayons/colored pencils/markers
(x) sung karaoke
(x) paid for a meal with only coins
(x) done something you told yourself you wouldn't
(x) made prank phone calls
(x) laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose
() caught a snowflake on your tongue
(x) danced in the rain
(x) written a letter to Santa Claus
(?) been kissed under a mistletoe
(x) watched the sun set with someone you care about
(x) blown bubbles
(x) made a bonfire on the beach
() crashed a party
(x) gone rollerskating
(x) had a wish come true
() worn pearls
(x) jumped off a bridge
() ate dog/cat food
() told a complete stranger you loved them
(x) kissed a mirror
(x) sang in the shower
() have a black dress
(x) had a dream that you married someone
(x) glued your hand to something
() got your tongue stuck to a flag pole
() kissed a fish
(x) worn the opposite sexes clothes
() been a cheerleader
(x) sat on a roof top
(x) screamed at the top of your lungs
() done a one-handed cartwheel
() talked on the phone for more than 6 hours
(x) stayed up all night
() didn't take a shower for a week
() pick and ate an apple right off the tree
(x) climbed a tree
(x) had a tree house
() are scared to watch scary movies alone
() believe in ghosts
() have more then 30 pairs of shoes
(x) worn a really ugly outfit to school just to see what others say well to church
() gone streaking
() played chicken
(x) been pushed into a pool with all your clothes on
(x) caught a fish then ate it
(x) caught a butterfly
(x) laughed so hard you cried
() cried so hard you laughed
() mooned/flashed someone
(x) had someone moon/flash you
() cheated on a test
() have a Britney Spears CD
(x) forgotten someone's name
(x) slept naked

I'm at Commy Dinner now. I have to get my blogging fix in anywhere I can.

But as I'm feeling rather pressured sitting here to have something good to write, I don't have much to say.

I was thinking that maybe one day I should do that (x) game that everyone is doing on their blogs but I would want to tell a story for most of them so it would take a mighty long time. Plus I'd be using up precious sermon illustrations.

I've been really enjoying Futurama lately. Funnies. Heh heh.

So long and no blogging.

The internet is down at my house. And I've been away. Good combination.

But I haven't had any revelations recently. I keep thinking what would I write if I were going to blog and the only thing that goes through my brain is "I'm in love with me." But I've already posted that before and it wasn't true the first time. Tomorrow I may write that post I've been planning on writing for the past two weeks.

I'm meant to be house sitting Stephen's house at the moment but after two attempts with two separate sets of keys, it's not looking likely that I'm going to be able to get into his house. Oh well. It's cheaper to live at home.

I'm reading Nelson Mandela's autobiography at the moment. He's a good man.

Oi, What a Game!

I just watched the State of Origin (on delay because I was at Bible Study tonight). That was fantastic. Except perhaps for the Queensland win. But it was a cracker of a match.

Well done.

Go the Blues!

Take the Money, Kid

"I remember one day after school one year ago, my parents asked me if I'd rather meet the Queen or earn a million dollars. I said I'd rather meet the Queen." - 9-year-old Harris Wang

From here.

Question

"How is it that there can be so much disagreement about the Bible but it can still be the Word of God? Wouldn't he do a better job of being clear?"

I found that written at the top of one of the pages in my pad yesterday. I don't remember writing it. I wonder if I was having a crisis of faith that day or just imagining one?

Yesterday I forgot to take my Bible to College and I discovered how hard it is to borrow a Bible from a Bible College Library. Perhaps because if all the Bibles get stolen from the College it'll no longer be a Bible College. It will have lost its uniqueness. In the end the Librarian let me steal a Bible for 2 hours.

Emancipation

Today I handed in a form to withdraw from learning Greek. Oi! It's great to be free.

At least, for a while...

Books

Inspired by Lesley's Post:

Books I have read this year:
(Although I'm not sure I remember them all)

There and Back again: A Hobbit's Tale - Sean Astin
Seven Types of Ambiguity - Elliot Perlman
Tell Me No Lies - John Pilger (Unfinished)
Life Together - Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Unfinished)
Film - Sean Condon
New Issues Facing the Christian Today - John Stott (Unfinished - But I'll be reading that for years)
I Believe in Preaching - John Stott
Bono on Bono - Michka Assayas (23 pages to go)

I don't seem to be very good at finishing books. But I do have plans to finish them all.

Books that are in my Pile
(In the vague order that I plan to read them)

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon
Long Walk to Freedom - Nelson Mandela
Dirt Music - Tim Winton
The Cost of Discipleship - Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Maybe I should finish the other "Boffa" first, it's only 90 pages long)
The Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie
Long Drive Through a Short War - Peter Wilson

And interspersed along the way:
Tell Me No Lies - John Pilger
New Issues Facing the Christian Today - John Stott

Continuing the Series on My Good Looks...

This is me in Kemp's glasses at Church last Sunday. I think I might become a student film maker with glasses like that...

Don't tell Helen but I can't find the DVD of "Aimee". They're performing it tomorrow. I'm sure it'll turn up.

That's not a very good title. But what can you do these days?

Last night was a very exciting night. Star Wars was getting wrapped up. It was going to be there for the finale of the biggest film series in cinema history. I love being a part of cinema history.

I went and saw Titanic before it was the biggest grossing film of all time, when it was just an expensive film about a boat. It wasn't anything all that special.

Anyway, I arrived at Town Hall station at 9:04pm. Walking out of the ticket gates I saw Chris and we walked to the cinema together. As we walked we discussed the fact the neither of us were anticipating watching a particularly good film. We were just there for the experience and because it was Star Wars.

When we arrived we found David and Ryan sitting in the line already. In my usual passively dictatorial style I got them to move to the back of the line so that we'd have more room for the rest of the 16 people joining us. It was a pointless exercise in the end and we should have joined them in their part of the line but I didn't know that at the time.


Ryan and Chris in the Line

For the next few hours we waited and many people from our group joined us. We moved up steadily in the line. Not because they were letting people into the cinema but because we were just getting more and more compacted. I would have liked to be surrounded by Jedi Knights and Sith Lords but there were very few dressed up people in my part of the line. I did manage to spend a lot of the night rubbing backs and bums with a fat, hairy man who's friends called him "Chewbacca", but that wasn't all that exciting.


The Line

At around 11:30pm someone started shouting at us to get our tickets ready. By this stage the whole of our crew was together. I'd given out all the tickets. Ryan asked me if I had given him his. I told him that I had. He looked through all his pockets and through his wallet. I looked threw all mine too. Neither of us could find a ticket. I was sure I'd given him his ticket.


More Line

In the end Ryan decided that he'd lost his ticked and he would have to see if anyone else could give him a ticket or he'd just go home. When he left I started counting and re-counting everyone to make sure I really had brought enough tickets. I couldn't specifically remember handing Ryan a ticket.

When we got let into the cinema we headed for our traditional front row. Once everyone was settled I kept counting our group. There were 16 people in our group in the cinema and Ryan outside. I had only bought 16 tickets. I had counted wrong. There was one ticket less than there should have been. I jipped Ryan of a ticket.

I felt so bad. As soon as I relised I went out of the cinema and rang Ryan to confess what a terrible person I was. I thought about offering him my ticket but I was sure he wouldn't have taken it. I wasn't sure how to fix it.

I went back into the cinema and couldn't join in the frivolities because I was feeling so guilty. I told Gemma what had happened. Seeing as she is a nicer person than I am she rang Ryan and offered him her ticket. He accepted, but before she could give it to him he rang me up to say a guy out the front had sold him one of his spare tickets for our cinema. How exciting! I still felt bad, but I was happy that Ryan was able to join us.

While we waited for Ryan I kept running over in my head if I had done the right thing and if I should have offered Ryan my ticket, or even forced him to take it. But I didn't. I had forgotten to buy enough tickets to a film before and my sister had given up her ticket so I could go. Why am I so bad at buying cinema tickets? And why is everyone else better at giving up their tickets than I am? I didn't really feel like I was a very good person at that stage of the night.

When Ryan arrived back in the cinema I gave him a hug. It was good to have him back. It's nice how mistakes can be fixed. There is grace in this world for people like me.

Before the film started there was a competition for the best dressed cinema patron, but I've already written about that.

The film started. As soon as the Star Wars logo came up on the screen there was a big cheer. It's a wonderful atmosphere. A cinema full of excited geeks. What better crowd could you ask to watch a film with?

Revenge of the Sith was good. It was dark and violent. I was hoping for decapitations before I went in and there were plenty of them. Not that that's what makes a good film, but it means the violence isn't childish.

Anakin and Padmé's dialog was the worst thing about the film. They sound like a cheap daytime soap. I still don't know what she ever saw in him. He was always such a whiny self-centred boy and then he grew up to be a moody self-centred man. Lines like "Anakin, you're breaking my heart!" and "Where you're going I can't follow" are pretty horrid. George should have given their scenes to other people.

But the action was cool. Obi-Wan and Anakin were tops light saber men. They kicked butt!

The whole film was rather tragic. Knowing what happened at the end was horrible waiting for it to happen. Any hopes you had for Anakin were vain. It gave a lot more emotional weight to A New Hope.

Poor Obi-Wan would have felt terrible. When we meet him in A New Hope he would have been living with the guilt of discovering the boy and pushing for him to be trained as a Jedi, who became the most evil Sith Lord in the Universe. He would have felt responsible for the rise of the Republic and the slaughter of the Jedis. The poor guy.

I really liked the film. Well done George.

The night was good too. Next time I'm going to count everybody who wants a ticket 3 times and buy too many tickets anyway.


The Star Wars Group (at least the people who wanted to sit down the front)

Episode III was cool. The film was good fun. I'll say more later I think.

Before the film started they had a competition to see who was best dressed. There were lots of top quality costumes. They were all guys. Then, for the contestants they had a trivia quiz. One of the people who was dressed up asked the MC if he could ask a question. The MC allowed him, so he asked "How many of the man here have ever had sex?"

Only two guys put their hand up. That made my night.

Actually many things made my night but that was one of them.

Now I must sleep.

Star Wars here I come!

I just annouced to my Mum "I have some bad news." Then told my Mum that if they pass the new Anglican laws, and I become a Deacon (which I'm thinking about so I can do Chaplancy work) I'd get the title "Rev", I could wear robes and clerical collar (which I think is all rather funny). My mother looked horrified and then said "Are you sure you didn't want to tell my you're gay?"

Phew

Rob Thomas "wants Matchbox Twenty fans to know that the group is not breaking up, and to expect future albums and tours from the band. Rob also plans to continue collaborating with other artists."

From here.

Today it is exacly a year since I last ate McDonald's.

Oh actually, I think that might be a lie.

Scrap that.

Today is exactly 11 months since I last ate McDonald's, maybe.

Paris Hilton makes a worthwhile movie!*

"This is a very sexy movie. It's all about hot sorority girls in college, and everybody's beautiful. It's hot, and there are some sexy scenes with me." - Paris talking about her new movie National Lampoon's Pledge This!

I got it from here

*I was being sarcastic by the way

Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.

Psalm 73:25

It's worth saying again.

I went to Warringah Mall today and disliked the experience terribly. The carpark is horrible. I drove across kilometers of roof-top parking finding no spaces and wondering if I had changed postcodes yet. It's not really easy to drive around looking for a park. It is easy to just drive forever across endless, rooftops of concrete and cars. I have been there before and every time I get lost in the car park. You want to park near Hoyts and you end up over the other side near David Jones.

Once inside the mall I didn't like it either. But I think I was just punishing the mall for the carpark.

Let me say though, that Hornsby Westfield is a completely different story. I know Hornsby Westfield like the back of my hand. Every nook and cranny, almost.

On Thursday I bought a new sound system for my family. I had to pick it up from Bing Lee and they told be to drive down to the loading dock. So I got to drive down deep into the dark, depths of Westfield. It was lots of fun.

Bono Joke

Bono dies and goes to heaven. He meets God and God asks him what he believes. Bono says "I believe you're sitting in my seat."

I thought it was funny.

I got that from here.

Yesterday in Bible Study we talked about the Terri Schiavo case. It was probably one of the most interesting and intense Bible studies that I've been to. We divided the group into those people who would be prepared to take the feeding tube out, and those who wouldn't. Then we discussed it.

It was interesting because it all got quite personal. People talked about the times in their lives where they have had to confront death, life support and the value of those people who are less able than us. We talked about the point of human life and where it derives its value from.

We didn't come to any conclusions (as we rarely do in my Bible study group) but we came out with a greater appreciation of the complexities of the situation (or at least I did). Ethics are both wonderfully interesting and potentially extremely painful. Last night was a good reminder of that.

Today I did Greek work on the computer. It was more fun than I've ever had doing Greek before, but that's not saying much.

I also bought us a new sound system and DVD player for our house. It's very exciting, and works nice. Yay!

I was meant to be going to the boxing tonight to see Mundine fight Kessler but it's been postponed to June 8th. This is good because it means I can go to Bible Study and I like Bible Study. Especially exciting is the dinner at Bible Study. Alison makes wonderful food.

I'm feeling rather hungry. I haven't had breakfast yet. These Webpoint public internet access things are crap.

It is way too early to be awake on a day off.

I wagged Greek tonight. It was great.

I'm sure my lecturer will think I'm not in his class anymore. Last time I wagged a class he thought I'd quit the course. But I'm happy not doing Greek tonight. I looked at my book this afternoon and tried to do my homework and I realised I couldn't understand a word of it. I knew I'd go to class and not understand a word the lecturer said either and all I would do is doodle on my pad for 3 hours. So I thought I could better spend my time elsewhere. So I spent my time elsewhere.

I went over to Jo and Jem's house and played Social Worker games with Fi, Tracy, Jo and Jem. Things called "Strength Cards" which affirm your good points and build your self-esteem. There was laughs.

Then I caught the train home.

Going back in time...

I had lunch at Subway in Croydon Park today. Lunch at College was booked out, so I had to go elsewhere. I went to Subway. I'd never been there before, all I had were instructions for finding it from the lady in the office. When I tried to follow her instructions I found myself walking down a quiet little street going deeper and deeper into suburbia. But just when I was about to turn back, I found, like a oasis in a barren middle-class land, some multi-cultural shops. Hooray! There was even an "International Hairdresser" which I thought was rather odd, I have no idea how cutting the hair of someone who speaks Arabic is any different from cutting the hair of someone who speaks English, but I'll leave that to the specialists.

I ate my lunch at Subway and read my book in the sun. It was very pleasant. A nice intermission between Deuteronomy and Leviticus.

Happy Mother's Day Mother

I love my Mum. She's fantastic. I hope yours is too.

Yesterday my Mum had all the volunteers from the drop in where she works over to our house for a barbeque. I did quite well. I don't cope to well when my house fills up with people I don't know, but I didn't hide too much. I only really retreated to my room when I ran out of food to eat and the speeches started.

Being that the drop in centre is for people off the street and a lot of the volunteers are people who have joined the team after spending time there, my house was quite an interesting place. I do enjoy the change of meeting people who aren't middle-class, well adjusted, North Shore people. Not that I have anything against rich, "happy" people, but every now and again it's good to have a conversation with a drunk man in your kitchen who writes poetry to stop himself from getting into fights.

It was an interesting contrast to go from my house to church to run our youth night. The youth night was great. I love seeing young people who love Jesus. And I love it when people become Christians.

The theme of the night was "Bling Bling" (very biblical) and it made me very aware of how white, Australian and rock loving we all are. It wasn't a problem but most of us seemed rather lost with the whole Hip/Hop Gangsta thing when we tried to put it on. I think if I was Tupac or 50 ent I would have found the whole thing rather quaint: "Oh look it's the white Christians trying to be black rappers." Not that they'd say that, and I doubt they would describe anything as "quaint"

But I had fun and everyone was a little silly and in the end the night wasn't really about being a successful rip-off or send-up of another sub-culture, so I think we did fine. People became Christian and that was tops.

3 CDs and the Christian Bubble

On Tuesday I bought 3 cds:

Rob Thomas - Something to Be

Soul Survivor Live - Living Loud

Paul Colman - Let it Go

Paul Colman's cd isn't very good. Paul Colman Trio were a good band. They were fun, they had catchy melodies, they told stories in their songs. In Paul Colman's new album he seems to have sold out to the American Christian music scene. The cd is just full of bland, un-original worship. It's like the Newsboys, only boring. One or two tracks work well. "Last Night in America" seems to be on the verge of making a good statement but he seems to hold off a bit just in case the moral majority hears him right. If he did what he does well and wasn't trying to please the market he could do really good. But we get stuck with imitations of the popular.

Living Loud is good. As far as worship goes, it's enjoyable. There's a funky new version of "Lord I Lift Your Name on High" and everything fits together well. I don't find worship music cds overly exciting, but they are good sometimes. Good when you're in the mood to sing, be encouraged and praise Jesus. I think I'd rate this as their best live cd yet.

Rob Thomas, well, he's done great. After my lambasting him earlier this year for becoming an Enrique pretty boy, I take it back. His album is solid. It's not Matchbox 20, but it's definatly Rob Thomas. He has all the usual marks of heart broken angst and the music is driving. But he's also explored new stuff and most of it suceeds. It's not dull this album. I'm very impressed. He even sings about being Rob Thomas, where every song seems to be about breaking up, I appreciated that:

Hey man
Play another one of those heartbreak songs
Tell another story how things go wrong
And they never get back
My pain is a platinum stack
Take that s*** back
You don't wanna be me when it all goes wrong
You don't wanna see me with the houselights on
I'm a little too headstrong
Stand tall
I don't wanna get walked on

I still don't really like "Lonely No More"

I've been thinking about why I like secular music more than Christian music. I think the problem with Christian music (which isn't worship music) is that while it wants to compete with secular stuff, it can't. It can't explore the places that secular music can. Rob Thomas can sing about how much life sucks, Paul Colman can't. Christians have to sing "Life's hard but I've got Jesus" and "Today is hard but I'm happy because God will make everything better tomorrow." I'm waiting for more Christians to start singing "Life sucks, what the hell are you doing God?"

Perhaps that's why I appreciate U2. They aren't afraid to sing as Christains but they aren't worried about saying all the right things either. There is honesty which comes before a "good" portrayal of the Christian life and theological truth. Albums like Pop would be unacceptable in Koorong, but are probably more honest about seeking Christ in this world than much of the music is Koorong is. U2 are "lookin' for baby Jesus under the trash."

But I talk too much about U2.

I like non-Christian music because it lets you explore stuff that you can't explore when you're a Christian. I can't be self-centred, scream at the world and say it's justified like Linkin Park can. I can't constantly talk about having my heart broken like Rob Thomas can. I can't say "I may not go to heaven, but I hope that you go to hell" (Counting Crows) but it sure feels good to sing it. It's vicarously living a life without the moral confines of Christainity and with all the moral justification of a good melody. It let's you explore the truth of not having to always be making sure you're not denying "the Truth". And I think that that exploration gives Christains a better understanding of what life really is like, for people who believe and for those who don't. It doesn't mean that Jesus doesn't save the day, it just reminds us how much the day needs to be saved. It's the beauty of living outside a Christian bubble. Kill it! Kill the bubble, I say.

The day has ended. It was rather long.

I took Hannah to school this morning, which is always a joy. She's a good kid.

I went shopping for a new pair of jeans. I have been running low on pants. (English people call their underwear pants, crazy.) I was worried about going back to shop for long pants as I had an accident last time. I was in a rush and didn't have the strength of will to fight with the shop assistant so I accidentally spent $100 on jeans that are rubbed, dirty, have those pretentious, little sown up rips in them and are way too trendy for me.

So today I went shopping with trepidation. But I think it turned out alright. I bought jeans that I can live with and certainly aren't too cool. But I think they're cool enough that I won't get beat up by 15-year-olds on the station.

I came home and had a shower. The cleaners arrived while I was in the shower and I think they probably heard me singing.

Work was good. We set up for our big event tomorrow night. I enjoyed hanging around. When most people had left a few of us hung about for a silly sing along. Sam and Helen ate Indian with me.

Later tonight David and I watched In Good Company. It was a fun film. It made me laugh, it had a good ending but it wasn't perfect. It had a good little giggle at the corporate world. It inspired me to want to be a good husband and father when I get around to that part of my life. If "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" I could start a paving business.

Oh, I know a little more now. I'm going for the Liberal Democrats but I doubt they're going to win. The Conservatives seem like our Liberals and the other is Blair's party. Humpf. One day there'll be good politicians with a chance of getting power.

I can dream can't I?

Perhaps in the morning I will hear if there is a new British PM. I'm hoping it's not Mr Blair again, although I don't know much about the other guy except that he looks like John Howard's brother.

As Liz pointed out, today's date is 05/05/05. That's rather exciting. When I went to bed last night I set my alarm for 4:55am so that I could get up and blog. I wanted to blog at 05:05am on 05/05/05. But when my alarm went off the urge to celebrate the numerical patterns of the space time continuum were overwhelmed by the desire to go back to sleep. So I did.

Daze

I don't write much about my days these days. Probably because they aren't fantastically interesting at the moment. I'm pretty happy, but not much out of the ordinary is happening. I don't have interesting stories to tell.

Take today for instance:
7:00am - Alarm goes off
7:33am - Get up and shower
8:06am - Have quiet time
8:54am - Make breakfast and watch Spanish News on TV (Martin was watching it, I didn't understand a word but it all seemed to be about traffic)
9:15am - Leave house, drive to work
9:42am - Arrive at work
9:45am - Check my emails and blogs
9:55am - Prepare Scripture
10:14am - Go to Scripture
10:20am - Teach Scripture (They laughed at my jokes. I had to censor the Bible today. Instead of saying "Come and sleep with me" I changed it to "Hey there tiger!"
10:50am - The bell went, back to church
11:00am - Start reading "Time Management" article before staff meeting
11:37am - Staff Meeting
1:15pm - Lunch with Helen and Stephen
1:47pm - Do some work (I can't remember what)
2:25pm - Burn the sermons from last week onto cd, and blog from the church computer
2:55pm - Send many emails (I sent 17 or 18 today)
3:15pm - Call my small group
3:45pm - Send more email, plan teaching for youth group
4:45pm - Find Lauren and go shopping for dinner
5:20pm - Put Dinner on
5:25pm - Write scene matrix for Larry
5:45pm - Have a Prayer Meeting
6:15pm - Have a Leader's Meeting
7:55pm - Go to Bible Study
9:48pm - Rach drops Liz and herself home
9:55pm - Drive home
10:25pm - Arrive home and went to the toilet and read about Christian sports people
10:35pm - Go on the computer
10:47pm - Start blogging.

There's my day. Facinating no doubt. As you can see there is good reason why I haven't blogged much about my days recently. But I am pretty content.

I remember on September 11, 2001 when I read the paper the first thing I said was "Oh God." Then I remember thinking that the world was going to change. Within a few days I had written an email telling George W Bush that he shouldn't bomb Afghanistan and that if my country called me up to fight in the Army, I wasn't going to go.

For a little while the world seemed uncertain, we had no idea what would happen next. These days, the world has changed, but we know what's going on. There'll be some wars, terrorists will blow things up, the West will continue ignoring the disparity between the way it lives and the rest of the world. Things will change. But slowly.

If things go well, the UN Millennium Development goals will be reached, world poverty will be halved, this won't be such an unequal world. If things go badly, the "democratic" conquest of the world will continue. The little guy will loose out. The extremists (from all sides of the conflicts) will keep pushing their agenda through violence.

Probably there'll be a mix of both. Neither of them are mutually exclusive. There are people working on achieving both at the moment. But I think I'm more of a pessimist than optimist. I'm expecting the "wars and rumors of wars."

I'm thinking about this because last night Ryan and I watched a French documentary called The World According to Bush. It wasn't very interesting. It didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. It was like a more serious, less over-hyped and sensational, version of Fahrenheit 9/11. But I'm interested in this world. I'm just wondering how to best participate in it.

Today I had breakfast with Liam in St Ives, Lunch with Matt in Pymble, Coffee with Courtney in Frenchs Forest and Dinner with Sally in Terrey Hills. I'd call myself the social king but they were all meetings. They were fun though. The more I don't talk about what I'm meant to be talking about the more I enjoy meetings.

I also watched Napoleon Dynamite. It was freakin' awesome.

Now I'm going to bed. It'll be the first time I've been to bed during the night (as opposed to the morning) all week. Gosh.

I have been rather tired today. I fell asleep a few times in church tonight. I wanted to tell the preacher that I fell asleep because I got 3 hours sleep last night, not because I didn't like what they were saying. But I don't know if they caught me napping, so I didn't say anything. It's silly to say sorry for something that nobody knows you did.

My sermon today went well. The 8am congregation was good. As Stephen says, I could say anything and they'd think I was lovely. It's the charm of being a young person. But I was getting a little worried about the 10am. But people were nice to me. Just before the sermon Steve came up to me and asked me to preach the shorter 8am version of my sermon because time was running out and there wasn't space for the extended edition 10am version. It was probably a good call. The only disappointing thing was that I had to cut out a paragraph that involved a joke about throwing Jesus off a boat. What a funny thought. "Lord overboard!"

I was in the shower this morning worrying that no one would like what I was going to say. I had to walk myself through my sermon assuring myself that everything I had written I had gotten out of the text, and so even if people didn't like it, it's still Biblical. I'm there to preach the word, not entertain people.

I preached on the whole book of Jonah and that was good fun. Jonah is a fun guy. Mainly because he's rather melodramatic and the most reluctant of prophets. But also one of the most powerful. Who converts 120,000 people with a one sentence sermon? Jonah does, that's who. What a freak!

Tomorrow I am going to two pubs, two coffees, and I reckon I might go see a movie too. And then I might watch Napoleon Dynamite when I have a break.

Its annoying when you finish writing your sermon at 2amish and you realise that you have to preach it in 6 hours.

I'm hoping the next four hours of sleep are good.

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.