Cute

While I was driving home tonight at around 11:45pm I got stopped at the lights near the TAFE. I had to stop because there was a man crossing the road with his dog and the dog had a little coat on and a flashing red bike light on his back so he didn't get driven over. It was very cute.

Below is an artist's impression of what the dog kinda looked like:

Day and Night

Today I had to teach a year 3 scripture class because my year 6 class are in Canberra. I went to the office and asked where my class room was and wandered down. I found a year 3 classroom about where I thought it should be and went in. The teacher said "Are you the Scripture Teacher today?"

"I guess so" I said. And sat down and began teaching the class. Unfortunately, the door opened about 5 minutes in and there was the real scripture teacher. I'd found the wrong year 3 class. But the real teacher, being a nice lady, decided to go and teach the class I was meant to be teaching. So everything was fine in the end.

Tonight I went out with the young adults of my church. First I drove the youth leaders into Darling Harbour in my van and we went to Starbucks for our Leader's Meeting. That was nice. Leader's meetings in Starbucks feels much more festive.

Once we had done our official business we trudged down to King St Wharf to go to Wagamama (it's a Japanese restaurant with a name that I thought was racist) with the other young adults. And we sat around and ate and talked and laughed. We ended the night at the James Squire Brewhouse. Of course this whole thing isn't really all that remarkable, but I thought I blog it anyway, for memories sake.

Vould You Like a Free 'Oliday

A while ago in a sermon I told the story about how I got called up that week by a company who was offering me a free holiday and faboulous prizes. Except I wasn't earning enough money to qualify. And I thought it was pretty funny.

Well since then I've been offered a free holiday and faboulous prizes at least three times and I'm still not eligable. I have to earn at least $45,000 a year and I don't. Today the phone woman asked me if I knew about her company, I said "Yes", and she said "Oh good" and proceeded to give me the same speil I've heard everytime I've made the mistake of not knowing about their company.

Oh well, at least they keep putting me in the draw to win thousands of dollars.

"Faith is the bird that knows the dawn and sings while it is still dark." - Unknown

Third Time Unlucky

So it's Podcast time again. One day early because Howie has to go to Tasmainia tomorrow to play with the Tasmainians.

Get the Podcast Here

Our usual disclaimer applies. We know it's not that good. The best way to solve boredom problems is to press stop, or fast forward. I figure the more appologetic we are for our late night silliness, the less people will think the podcast is dodgy. I'm not sure that works though.

Anyway enjoy. And if you have iTunes or iPodder or something you can suscribe to the feed at http://feeds.feedburner.com/howieshalfpipe

Yoi Hoi!

I Climbed a Tree Today

I haven't climbed a tree in years. But today Tim decided he wanted to climb a tree, so I joined him. It was good fun. Tim got higher up than me. I should climb more trees.



We played touch footy at youth group and someone scratched me on the arm. That's twice in a row at a games time that someone has drawn blood from me. How cool. But the game was exciting. We won 1-1. Of course some people would call that a tie, but in Christian sports, everyone's a winner.

Church was good too. It was great to see lots of people dancing at the end. I wanted to take a photo but I couldn't work out if that was good thing to be doing. It did look cool though, and it was great to see people so excited about God.

I got a hole in the pocket of my jeans today too. Chances are I'll now loose my keys.

I went bowling tonight. I won. I got 132 points. I'm so the best. I'm going to put that on my resume:

Achievements: Once got 132 points in ten-pin bowling

Early on Saturday morning is not a real nice time to get up. We got up early today to go to Martin's breakfast in the city. It was a difficult thing to do. But I like Martin. I think he's worth getting up for, so I'm pleased I did it.

Mouthing Off

Helen told me yesterday that she had noticed that I have been getting ruder. She said that I'm less likely to censor the things that I say. Which is interesting because I'd been thinking about that myself. Ever since I read James 3 a few months ago, I've been aware that I need to get better at not saying every stupid thing that comes to my brain. The fact that Helen noticed that I've been getting worse, months after I started thinking about it, doesn't seem like a good sign.

At least now I have more motivation to get better. I'm going to try and say less. I hear it's your frontal lobe that works as your censor. I'm going to try and rebuild that "7 millisecond broadcast delay" in my brain.

And maybe I won't be as rude in the future.

Except when it's really funny.

Happy.

What a nice looking word.

Podcast

This week's podcast is here and it's stupider than last week.

It's mainly stupid toilet humour and nudity jokes. Mothers wouldn't approve. And I say "turd", "friggin" and "balls", oops. They just slipped out.

Remember where to send complaints.

Here she is.

Lost Weight

I dropped my food yesterday.

I had just been at the lovely local take-away buying lunch. As I was walking out I noticed that, around the corner, there was a guy looking mournfully at some food on the ground that he must have dropped. His friend was standing near by laughing at him. As I walked around the corner, out of my plastic bag of lunch flew my little bag of two potato scallops. They hit the ground and slid across the tiles. I stared mournfully at them.

The guy who was laughing at his friend saw my scallops and started laughing at me too. I tried to put on a cheerful face, but scallops are so nice. It was probably pretty funny though.

Narcissistic Baby

I realised the other day that the photos I stick on my blog most often are of me. This led me to think that people may think that I love myself (which I do, but I pretend to a bit more self-effacing). Almost all the photos of me on my blog are of me being an idiot though. So people probably just think I'm a bit of a nut-case (which I may be).

For everyone's information I airbrushed out a pimple in the middle of my forehead on the below picture, just to see if I could. If you want to see the pimple, it's on the photo of me and my fat head lower down.

Make Poverty History Dude!

Poor Day

So today I did a little more to be making poverty history.

I went to the rally in Darling Harbour where some people gathered to wear white, look at displays and talk about Millennium Development Goals. I was with Rob and some guys from the youth group. It was fun. I really like the positive vibe this whole campaign has. It's not one of hate and anger. It's about positive challenge to our governments to do something.

I'd like to have photos, but my job today was to be taking photos for other people. I called myself the official Tear Australia photographer, because it sounds impressive if you're the photographer for an international aid organisation. But I think I may have just been Ben's photographer seeing as he handed me his camera and told me to take some photos, but not to fill it up because he wanted some space left for his kid's second birthday party this afternoon.

Yesterday at the station one of David's friends from Save the Children came up to me and I wasn't in mood to talk to them (I'm never in the mood). He said "Hi how are you?"

To which I replied "Fine."

He said "Can you spare a minute?"

"Nope" I said and kept walking.

It was only after that I realised I was wearing my "Make Poverty History" t-shirt. I thought perhaps that may have looked a little dodgy.

My other thought while being in the City making poverty history is, what do you do with Sydney's beggars? They see all of us marching around talking about poverty, but we didn't seem to do anything for them.

A drunk guy came up to me today while in Darling Harbour (I was wearing the t-shirt again). He said "Have you got forty cents?"

I said "Probably" and pulled out my wallet.

He said "I need some money to buy a beer"

I laughed and said "You want to buy a beer?" He told me he did. I admired his honesty. He then had a conversation with me about poverty and he got angry at me for not listening. But in the end he decided he liked me again. I never gave him the 40 cents.

On the station I did give a guy a dollar, which began a short conversation between Rob and I about the ethics of giving to people who seem quite likely not to spend your money on what they tell you it's for (usually a ticket to Newcastle or food for the pregnant girlfriend, I've found). I haven't quite figured it out yet but I think it's better to give and not judge because if I needed money I hope that people would give it to me. And Jesus' words often come to me, I just haven't figured out how to best apply them in this context.

Letterman

It's been such a long time to be awake. I got up at 5am this morning. I was in Martin Place at 7am. I was there to hold up a letter or two with some other social justice hippy types in-front of the Sunrise set on Channel 7. The letters spelt "Make Poverty History". I was the O in "History".

When we first arrived I had to put on a "Make Poverty History" shirt. The woman in charge gave me one which looked a little small. I looked at it and it seemed like a girl's shirt, but I didn't want to say anything in case I was a being rude, or fashion ignorant. I put the shirt on and asked if it looked funny, Rach and some other women I hadn't met before said it looked fine. It felt funny though. I tried a different shirt which still felt just as funny and just as feminine.

Then another MPH guy rode up and looked at me. I asked him if I looked funny. He said I looked fine except that I was wearing a girl's shirt. My suspicions were confirmed. Oh dear. I quickly asked if there were any guy's shirts, feeling rather stupid.

Now it may not seem like a big deal putting on a girl's t-shirt. But I am a little conscious that when I meet a bunch of new people I don't want their first impression to be of me putting on women's clothing. I got a man's shirt in the end and felt much better.

When 18 of us all had our letters we had to run around Martin Place, do dances, wave the letters about, do aerobics routines. It was all very taxing on my comfort zones. I will never be a dancer. I couldn't even kick my legs right.

We got to see Evermore play some music (because they happened to be playing there this morning) and the Sunrise people filmed the letters and the weather man gave us a plug.

We did a few photo shoots after that.

I caught the train home with a girl who thought I was 18. That was a nice change from people thinking I'm at least 2 years older than I am.

The rest of the day was work, small group and a movie and pizza night with Mil, Martin and Anmol. Now I'm feeling rather stuffed.

King

I just listened to an original recording of Martin Luther King, Jr's I have a Dream speech.

Ooo, goose bumps.

When we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
"Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!" - Martin Luther King, Jr

Spring

Today was the first day I felt Spring. The sun was out, that spring smell was in the air. It's the smell that makes me say "Mmm. It's Black Stump weather". And it's the smell of endless possibilities. I got nervous today because I smelt Spring. Spring makes me feel like anything could happen. It's not a conscious knowledge of what, but this subconscious feeling that something is in the air, something good. Life will be good.

Of course, this is just a feeling and Spring is usually about as new as Winter and as happy as Summer. But neither of them smell like newness, neither of them smell like happy, nervous anticipation. So in Spring I revel in my subconscious, just in-case it lives up to its odour.

What Howard would do if he were God

"I say to my fellow Australians, if there were a way that I could bring down the price of petrol, I would move heaven and earth to do so."
John Howard - 8th September 2005

Good thing he's got his priorities right.

From here

Bono knows Best

You've got to get yourself together
You've got stuck in a moment and now you can't get out of it
Don't say that later will be better now you're stuck in a moment
And you can't get out of it - U2

Popey

Yesterday I decided that I would like to get ordained as an Anglican minister, move to Rome and become the Anglican Bishop of Rome. Then when people ask what I do for a living I could say "I'm the Bishop of Rome" and they'll think I'm the Pope, but I'm not really. I'm sure it'd be a great way to impress people at parties. I could even wear my big hat and robes around the place just to give me that extra papal feel.

Popcorn and Coke for Breakfast

Today I woke up, had a shower then went to the movies. I watched Unleashed. I thought it was a rather nice way to start the day, a bit of violence and popcorn. I don't normally buy stuff from the Candy Bar*, but seeing as I hadn't had breakfast yet, today I bought.

It felt a little bit obscene watching people get beaten up while shoving popcorn into my mouth. But what can you do? I couldn't stop the violence and the popcorn tasted good.

I liked the film though. While it was violent, I didn't feel like it encouraged violence. Violence was always portrayed as wrong, it was never a way to solve problems (except maybe when used in self-defense). Of course, the whole film was sold on it's violence, so perhaps the film was sending mixed messages, but Jet Li is damn good a bashing people up. If we didn't have violent films we wouldn't have Jet Li. Plus I enjoy violent films.

I finished watching The Karate Kid Part III tonight. I've been working on it for about 2 weeks and I finally finished. It wasn't really worth watching. Sad really because the first film was tops!

I also watch Lords of Dogtown with Ryan, that was cool.

And that, my friends, is another thrilling example of my extensive movie review talent.

*Why do we call it the Candy Bar? That's a stupid name. Who says Candy? No Australians I know.

My Fame Spreads

Last night I also found a site where someone had done critique of my blog for a Uni assignment or something. I was most impressed. I didn't really understand what she was talking about, but I feel rather academic now that I've been critiqued.

And I was told that I got quoted in a Wikinews article about A30. Much fun indeed.

I've had a look at some of the other people's thoughts on A30 and I seem to be the only one who had something nice to say about the Police. Oh well. I don't mind being different as long as no one letter bombs me or calls me rude names.

Katrina

I spent a few hours reading about Hurricane Katrina last night. It's rather strange. It's all like an apocolyptic movie. Like Escape from New York. The thing that has amazed me about the whole thing is not the storm, or flooding, but the armed gangs. It horrifies me that people can be so selfish. The people who are shooting at doctors, nurses, Police, rescue workers. Why?

Life and death struggles seem to bring out both the best and the worst in people. I have no idea how I would behave in a similar situation.

Again, as usual, I feel inundated with the pain in this world. I don't know how to react. I feel as useless as ever. While this world may seem like a wonderful place, there are often times when you feel the need to scratch a lot deeper to find its goodness.

Five Courses

Jem and I had a 5 course meal for $12 in Chinatown yesterday. That's how the woman who ran the shop described it to us.

Here are the 5 courses:
1. One Spring Roll
2. One Dim Sim
3. One Small Bowl of Chicken and Corn Soup
4. Rice
5. Chicken and Plum Sauce.

It turned out that we made it to 4th course pretty quickly. And 4 and 5 we ate together. It was a good meal for $12, but I'd argue with them the legitimacy of calling it five courses.

After Lunch we went and saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Brilliant! So good. Laughing I was. Johnny was so cool. Tim Burton is a genius. I would see it again. Oh yes. I think I'm in love with the film. So fun, so absurd, so Burton, so Dahl. Yeah!

Tim Burton can do no wrong.*

*Not counting Planet of the Apes.

A Little Low and a Little to the Left

Ty made a comment that he would like to see my political leanings. He referred me to Political Compass. So I went and did it. This is me:



It turns out I'm in about the same place politically as Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. I always knew I was an inspiring person.

Boing

Spring has sprung,
The grass is riss,
I wonder where the birdies is?

Why there's a bird,
upon the wing!
Why that's absurd, the wing is on the bird!

- Unknown

Viva Los Muchos Revolutionos

I made that Spanish up, but I figure it could be real.

Ryan and I went to the A30 protest yesterday, it was way cool. It was the protest where you could protest anything you want. Some of the things we found people protesting about were Capitalism, VSUs, Workplace Rights, Public Education Funding, Refugees, Falun Gong, Globalization, Greed, The Environment, Rich People, Homophobia, Anti-Iraq Occupation, Drop the Debt and David Hicks. It was like a left wing pot-roast.

I decided I was protesting about Workplace Rights, Refugees and Drop the Debt.

The demonstration started in Customs Square with a bit of dancing and a lot of speeches. After the speeches the plan was to march to the Opera House. Depending on which speaker you listened to this was either going to be a peaceful march, or demonstration of militant action. While the speeches were on Ryan and I got bored so we did an advance march to the Opera House to have a look at the barricades. It was pretty cool, you couldn't get anywhere near the Opera House. There were big fences everywhere.

On returning to the square we heard some more speeches. Some good, some not so good. My favourite was the man who was telling us about David Hicks and asked us all to have 30 seconds of silence, go into our "heartspace" and send a message of support to Hicks. Then the man said in a rather eery voice "Daaviid, we'rrre with yooouuu."

Following the speeches it was time for the big march. We marched through Circular Quay blowing whistles, clapping and hitting drums. It was fun seeing all the rich people in their apartments and restaurants watch the rabble march by. They looked at us like we were a bit of a traveling circus.

When we got to the barricades people immediately climbed the fence and started rocking it. I think those people had been planning a violent protest all along. There wasn't much time for them to be worked into a frenzy, or provoked. Ryan and I were lucky enough to be few feet from the fence.

Soon, after much shaking and cheering, the fence broke, just meters from where we were. At this stage a long line of Police was moving down the fence getting people off. Once the fence broke people tried to get through but the cops pounced on them pretty quickly. As the crowd surged there seemed to be a bigger surge of photographers and cameramen. I think half the people at the fence were fighting with Police, the other half were fighting for a good shot.

After the Police cleared the fence the horses came down to clear about a meter between fence and protesters. At this stage I realised that the horses were heading right for me and I would rather not get crushed either by horses or fleeing protesters, so I moved a few feet back. It was pretty fun. I felt like I was in a real news story.

Once the horses had cleared the fence further, they left and the Police line held the protesters away. Following that nothing much happened. People shouted at the Police but that's about it. After about an hour of standing around Ryan and I decided to go home seeing as neither of us was looking likely to get arrested and we had made our point to the rich people, whatever point that was meant to be.

I think the Police were pretty impressive. They calmed the crowd very quickly and didn't react to the taunts of the protesters. They didn't do anything that I could see to inflame the situation. I think they were cool. They were certainly better behaved than our mob.

I'm not really a fan of violent protests. It's been interesting reading Long Walk to Freedom (which I finished on the train home last night) and seeing how long it was before the ANC decided to engage in violent struggle. Then seeing the contrast last night when we were told to take militant action because the Government is threatening to lower the minimum wage. I wasn't all that impressed. I fully believe in protest. But violence is a weak, irrational response when embarked upon at the drop of a hat. I don't endorse violent protests.

But it was quite interesting being part of one. Even if it didn't really get all that rowdy.

I like protesting. I like the right to protest. I like democracy. We can shout at the Government, break their fences, and call them fascists, and most of the time the Police just stood there. God Bless Australia.

Here's some photos:


This was when the first protest march arrived at Customs' House.


This is the Police. The Guy in the front in the Stockman's coat didn't like the protesters much and tried to break one of the hippy drummer's drum sticks. He couldn't do it because it was more of a drum log, it was straight from a tree and about 3cm thick.


"Reduce Greed". It made me laugh.


The Dancing Skeletons


The Barricades


Our Friends the Commies


On the Fences


Idyllic Protest Spot


When the Fence Broke


The Horses Arrive


Cops, and the Back of Ryan's Head

A30

I'm going to a protest today. I saw it was in the paper and I'm free this afternoon so I thought I'd turn up. I support most of what they're protesting about, but it seems more like some lefties thought "Oh there's a bunch of super-rich people in town let's make a racket!". But as I'm a bit of a lefty, and I want to exercise my democratic right to protest, I'll be there.

I'm also hoping to witness a bit of police brutality. Who knows, I could accidently get myself arrested.

Advice to the Young

If you are under-16 and ASIO tries to detain you or question you, tell them you are under-16 then leave because they can't do anything with you, they aren't allowed.

I'm getting more and more worried about our loss of civil liberties in our efforts to fight terrorism. Detaining, questioning and deporting Muslims who may be threat isn't going to make them any more sympathetic to our equal, democratic, non-discriminatory society.

I don't see why we need one set of laws for terrorism and another for all other crimes. It just opens up the possibility that terrorism can be used as an excuse for getting rid of anyone who the authorities have a problem with.

A Week Without Me

It's been a long week this past one. Interesting, rather intense, but straight forward.

It's been hard not being able to blog, I kept having thoughts about what I could blog about, but I couldn't do it.

At the moment I'm in the internet Cafe under the cinemas in the City. I've just spent the past hour in the park lying in the sun and reading about Nelson Mandela. I think I'm only 100 or so pages from the end. This really has been a long walk to freedom. Good though. I'm getting inspired.

Love Is was good. The past week was intense because of it. The lead up was hard because evangelistic messages always weigh heavily on me. But this had the added dimentions of having a production that carried artistic and personal significance for me going along with it. Not to mention the fact that in the message I publicly discussed the general state of my love life with about 300 people, many of them I had never met before. It was good for a laugh. I was once told that it has been said that comedy is born out of anger. I think often my jokes are born out of my inadequacies. If I can't fix it, I'll joke about it. It neutralises the threat to a certain extent. But it does tend to make much of my life public property.

The things we do for the gospel. Good thing it's worth giving up a lot more than a bit of my perceived dignity for.

The show on Saturday night was good. I liked seeing it all come together. The crowd felt a little flat to begin with. Perhaps a little ambivalent to interact with the show. But I think they came around. It was great to see that the show came off. Everything worked, it all felt cohesive, and it was good fun.

Giving the message was fun. I kept thinking that I making too much noise while treading on the stage. The radio mic was fun. I had decided to do the whole thing without extensive notes. That was both a blessing and a hindrance. It was good to be free but a little scary that I could stuff up real bad. It felt a bit like rock-climbing without a rope might feel (a little less dangerous though).

After the show we had pizza and Chinese and was feeling sufficiently stuffed that 10pm felt like 1am. When everyone else had gone home Anmol and I went and cleaned the kitchen in the church before going home. I'm always the last to go.

Arriving at Church on Sunday morning and finding that we'd been robbed was a rather surreal experience. I turned up to the sound desk and Tim was in it. He pointed at an empty bracket on the roof where the projector should have been and said "Projector?". Then he pointed at the spot where the computer should have been and said "Computer?" and at the place where the DVD player normally lives and said "DVD player?" It was at this point that I realised what was happening. At first I thought someone might just have done and over-zealous tidy-up but I was disabused of that idea by the time I had comprehened the empty computer spot.

But I held on to it as a better possibility than being robbed. A few of us went and searched the church just in case someone had decided that all the most expensive stuff in the church should live in a better place than where they belong, but it was a rather pointless exercise.

We lost almost every technical thing we needed to run the show (including the DVD of the show which was in the DVD player) but the losses didn't phase me much. It was just a hurdle that needed to be gotten over. Something always has to go wrong at the last minute and this was the problem for "Love Is". I immediately started thinking about how we could replace the stuff we needed by 6:30pm. I was worried about all the stuff Tim lost though. Things owned by a person have more significance than things owned by a church.

Pretty quickly everyone pulled together to get the show back up and running. Tim was great. There wasn't really a time where we thought we couldn't run the show, it was just a question of how. And we got back with a minimum of fuss although it was hard not to feel at least a bit stressed at times.

Steve and Stephen both prayed for the people who robbed us at the beginning of the services. It was good. I was happy to see the church praying for those who have hurt us. I love seeing love in action.

Sunday's show was a different affair. The crowd felt warmer, and having got to the show after the events of the day, made it a much sweeter event.

Preaching was good again. I paced less because Helen told my to. She choreographed my preaching. I was very scared that I had my fly undone, so much so that lost my place. I thought I could read it on people's faces. I think I thought they all seemed to have a look of embarrassed horror on their faces. But perhaps they were just worried about me in general.

It felt good sleeping last night.

I'll be Coming Home Next Week

I'm going to take a break from blogging for a week. I'll be back on the 29th. I thought I'd do this because I want to focus this week and this will be a tool to help.

Don't worry I'm not having a blogging crisis. I will be back.

And if you're really wanting your fix of Tom Time send me an email, or invite me out for a drink, or dinner. I don't mind.

Hope you're coming to Love Is.

Be Well.

George Sings

SMH linked to this guy who has created a song where George W sings Imagine by John Lennon. It's cool. Have a listen, it's called Imagine This.

Careful, John Lennon swears at the beginning of the track. It might hurt your ears.

Everything with the film ended up good. I managed to have about 3 and a half hours sleep, and half an hour before going to the dress rehersal. For some reason I'm still functioning ok.

The dress rehersals were good. Everyone's done very well. I think the show's going to be good.

Sadly watching the film in a different context I found things to fix. I was hoping to just be able to not have to touch the film for the next week but there are sound things to play with, and one or two little visual things to fix. Oh well. They shouldn't take long.

Tonight I went to Kristen's party. It was good. I was thinking I would be rather unawake, but I think I coped. There were many good people there. Sadly I have to be at work in some hours, why can't church be on at 2pm. Oh well, I'll be fine.

Now I'm going to bed.

Premiere crashed at least 10 times. I stoped counting at around 6. I'm going to render now while I sleep.

Long Night's Journey into the Night

I'm about to embark on the polish, render and edit night that must come in every growing film's life. This time I decided to get prepared. Seeing as I assume I'll be awake till around 4am (last night Matt amd I were working till 3am), I went to the shops first. I bought myself a frozen dinner, a box of Mars pods, a 1.25L bottle of Coke, and two tubs of frozen yoghurt. I figure if I'm going to be working I should make sure I'm enjoying it.

I also hired Seinfeld to watch while the DVD is rendering and burning. I hope that will pass the time better.

Well, best get started. I'll see how many times I can crash Premiere, or my computer tonight.

Time in the Sun

This morning after taking Hannah to school and finishing Sideways (I've been watching it slowly for about a week and it's now a week overdue but it was good) I did some editing of Love Is. After that I needed to go to college.

I had to drop a video and a cd off at Sal's house before I left, but I didn't leave enough time to drive there and back and catch the train. I really didn't want to drive, so when I got back home I decided to catch the train anyway and just be late. I arrived at College about 15 minutes late but my class were all outside sitting on the lawn. I walked up to one of my fellow classmates and she said "So you just found out?"

"What did I just find out?" I asked

"Class doesn't start till 3:30 because our lecturer is at a funeral"

What lovely news. I went off for a wander around Ashfield hoping to stumble across a park, and that's what I did. The sun was wonderful. I sat in it, in the park, for an hour and bit writing my talk for Love Is. I don't normally start talks this early, but I've been writing this in my head for the past month or so, so I figured it'd be good to get something on paper.

When I got back to college it turned out that they had started early, but that didn't really bother me too much. I'd had a lovely time in the sun.

Today is the day the Milk Goes Off

We have a carton of milk in the fridge that is going to go off on the 17th of August. I've been trying to work out what day of the week that will be, so that I can make sure I don't give myself gastro. Blogger tells me that today is that day.

I haven't blogged for a while because all the spare time I've had on the computer I've been editing. Matt came over last night and we fiddled with things till about 2am. Sal also came over for a tad but she didn't stay long. We did a bit of work making beautiful images to dance to, but the computer crashed, and it was all gone. Bah, now I have to do it all again.

Ryan, Anmol and I watched The Island tonight. I haven't seen a movie in ages so it was good to be back. I really liked the film. It's really just one big chase movie with heaps of things smashing. I think there were not-so-subtle references to concentration camps and emancipation of slaves (except this time the slaves were white and the guards black, at least in their uniforms). I actually found the scenes of "freedom" a little emotive. It's embarrassing that I could be a smidgion moved by a Michael Bay film but thems the breaks. However, it being basically an action movie, it was cool.

If I ever happen to accidentally become a famous director I'd like to direct big, expensive action movies. I doubt I would, but I would like to. I want big highway chase scenes with cars getting squashed by large metal objects falling of the backs of trucks. That'd be splendid.

Scarlett is still pretty tops, but they spent the whole of this film making her look like a model.

I have to preach in a week and a half. I'm starting to get nervous. Whenever I preach evangelistically I get nervous. This time it's with the film so I feel like I have a whole film riding on this ten minutes of talking. I also feel like if I don't preach well people won't make decisions. I'll try to remember not to take God out of that equation.

Lucky I love it or preaching would stress me out too much.

Flying

Of the 33 pages of script in the film, I've edited 29 of them. I would say I've done pretty well so far.

The sad thing about video editing is that you can't listen to music while you do it.

We had a production meeting today at Cafe Florence in Hornsby Mall. I had the continental breakfast. I like eating breakfast out, but I wasn't very good at getting up at 8am on a Saturday morning. There should be no numbers on the clock before 10am on Saturdays.

This arvo I had a Barbie with my small group. It was fun. We spent a lot of time throwing frisbees and kicking balls around. I think I could say that I enjoy kicking balls now. I never used to but I think that was because everyone was always better at it than me. They still are, but I'm less inclined to put any sense of self-worth on whether or not I can kick a ball.

On Tuesday when I hanging out with Hannah I took her through the car wash. She thought that was great. I love car washes too. Once, Mil and some others off us took her car through the car wash. I think we were looking for something to do. We brought ice creams then through we drove through. It was an extremely laughous* event. I have that as a memory of when I have found something absurdly hilarious. I do like car washes.

*I made that word up.

2,329 Words Later

I've finished. Hooray. It's probably a silly idea to be blogging now, but it's not going to make much difference.

Here is an action shot of me typing my essay. I'm about 1,400 words in at that stage.



You'll notice that I'm reading the The NIV Application Commentary of Luke. I really shouldn't be seen reading that. Those commentaries are looked down upon by serious Bible Scholars. I should be embarrassed to be seen reading it. I think maybe because it's easy to read. Bible Scholars don't like things that are easy to read, it makes them feel dumb. It may also be because it has interesting anecdotes in it as well, Bible Scholars don't like interesting books, it makes them feel frivolous. It may be because it has a picture of Willow Creek on the front. I'm not sure what Bible Scholars think of Willow Creek, but serious Bible Commentaries are meant to have daggy covers, so they look boring to read.

I photocopied all the serious Bible commentaries, but I wouldn't have looked nearly as academic if in my "action shot" I was holding a photocopied piece of paper.

Anyway, I'm done now.

While writing this essay I learnt that in the ancient world they would use shellfish called Murex to get purple dye and "it would take about 12,000 molluscs to yield sufficient dye for one Roman toga." That's why purple was a very expensive colour to wear. (From here)

Good night.

I'm about to start writing my essay for the semester. I have one essay due this semester and I leave it till the night before it's due to write it. Of course I have never started writing an essay more than a day before it was due in my memory, so just because I only have one is no reason why I would change my habits.

Oh well, 2,225 words before bed. Off we go.

Sad

Last night I was about to go to bed but I got distracted clicking that "Next Blog" button in to top right corner of blogs. I do it sometimes hoping for a good blog to come along but they rarely do. Most of the time there are just people with posts that say "This is the start of my new blog. I wonder if I'll keep blogging?" or "Cheap Insurance! Cheap Insurance! Cheap Insurance!"

But last night, after about 30 useless blogs, I found one that was very interesting. It was written by this woman who was talking about her relationships. She would talk about how she was seeing one man who she fell in love with. But he didn't love her, so they broke up but promised to stay best friends and keep sleeping with each other. And then she had her ex-husband, who she was seeing again for a while, but not sure whether she should keep seeing, or sleeping with him. He was being too ambiguous for her and she still hadn't forgiven him for cheating on her. And she also had a blind date who she was sleeping with for a while, and guy she met on the internet.

At the end of every post this woman would write some piece of wisdom she had learnt from the most recent events. Like after having a break up with a guy who had been cheating on her but was still using her for the sex she said something like: "Just keep waiting, and keep searching, and something good will come along."

And there'd be all these stories of men treating her like a piece of meat and her friends would comment and just say "Lots of hugs" or "You can do it, I believe in you". And I wanted to go find her and say "Hey, woman, you're worth more than this!" It was horrible. I wanted to tell her to stop letting the men treat her so badly. To stop giving herself away, she's not that cheap.

But I couldn't. Even if I commented on the blog I would have just sounded like a raving Christian. Or a busy-body at the least. I couldn't really do anything for her. I didn't know her name, where she lived, who these people were she was talking about. All I knew were the intimate details of her life.

So really it was just a sad night's reading. Fascinating, but sad. I felt bad for the women we men have treated badly. But there isn't a lot I can do about that. I'll encourage the men I know to be good to woman and I'll try and treat them good myself. And I won't sleep with women who I'm just friends with, I'm sure that makes things messy.

I'm getting $768

That's why we like doing our tax return.
This is a secret line of text, just because I can.

Yesterday

I had a fun day yesterday.

Tim and I went for a walk and found a house with three purple Merc vans out the front. All the same model, all without number plates. It was cool. I was thinking they could be terrorist vans, Tim thought they could be ASIO. We were later informed they were owned by a man with a coffee business. Oh well.

I sat on the back verandah in the later afternoon sun in a cooshy chair reading my Bible for about an hour.

Church was in the round last night, thanks to Helen's instinctual sense of innovation. The very high point of that was there were plenty pillows around which meant pillow fights. I spent half my evening fighting with most of the younger youth group guys. A considerable boost to my self-esteem seeing as I am bigger than them.

After church we had a young adults gathering which the older youth came to. I spent most of the time sitting with some of them getting "words from God" for each other and reading random Bible verses. It was a rather fun game, although perhaps a little sacrilegious.

Update: I was just at a Parish Council meeting tonight and someone commented that the young people were very rowdy and were "bouncing off the walls" at church last night. I didn't mention that I was bouncing with them.

Devils and Dust

Fear's a powerful thing, baby
It can turn your heart black you can trust
It'll take your God filled soul
And fill it with devils and dust - Bruce Springsteen

It would be at this point that I would write a post about fear. Perhaps about how much of our lives are motivated by fear. Or perhaps the shape of our world now that terrorism has become the new evil. I could talk about how we're loosing our civil liberties, or how everytime a school kid accidentally leaves their backpack on the train it's going to get blown up by the Bomb Squad.

But I won't talk about them, because all I really wanted to do was quote those lyrics. All this stuff underneath is just an excuse to justify the quote. Still, it has got me thinking now. Perhaps when these germs of rumination have evolved they'll be a post at the end.

I just finished Season 4 of The West Wing. Damn cliffhanger, season finales. Grrr.

Follicool

While there are many nasty rumors going around that I am suffering from the early on set of male pattern baldness, I highly doubt they are true.

But since my hair line is beginning to take a little rest from covering the front of my head, I have decided it that I might not get a hair cut for a while. Just to celebrate the hair that I have. I had been toying with the idea for a while and it became a cemented decision tonight when my Grandfather asked if he could touch my head. Usually people like to touch my fluffy, sheep like hair, but tonight he wanted to touch my bald spot.

My Auntie told me that balding is caused by high amounts of testosterone. Wikipedia has since debunked this idea for me, but I have decided to ignore that and assume that my hair loss is a sign of my alpha maleness. Perhaps something important to note is that Apes and other primate species use balding "to convey increased status and maturity." (Thanks Wiki)

I also have been known to be teased for the amount of body hair that I have. Body hair actually is caused by testosterone, and Wikipedia has told me that "a hairy chest is considered as very masculine and attractive." (Please don't bother to check the context of that quote.)

So, since doing this research, I feel I must declare myself Alpha Male. At least
"Follicly Alpha Male". Hair loss and a hairy chest, how much more masculine can you get?

Tonight I watched Constantine, that was a bad, bad movie. Especially the bit where Keanu gave the Devil the finger on his way up to heaven. It was like Bill and Ted but taking itself seriously.

We had Mormans come to our Bible Study group tonight. I was all prepared to be as facinated by them as I was by the Muslims, but I wasn't all that interested. They were interesting like a bad science fiction movie. It got boring pretty soon.

Really, it's all just rather whacky.

I just had an idea about what I could do for a year of my life. When I finish my B.Th I could go to Film School for a year and get a Graduate Diploma of Directing, or something. That'd be way cool.

Postsecret

This website is facinating. People write a secret on a postcard and then send it to the guy who owns the blog. He puts them on the blog.

Let There be Light

For youth group on the oval yesterday arvo we finally had the key to the lights. We got to play sport on the oval with the oval lit up and I got to be the one to turn the lights on. It was so much fun. I love turning lights on, especially big ones, and I've never turned on big ones at the top of telegraph poles before. Apart from perhaps being the grounds keeper at Telstra Stadium, I reckon I've almost got the best job in Sydney.

The Hills Are Alive

Australian Story tonight was about Brian Houston. It was a really positive look at Brian and the whole Hillsong thing. Except for one epilogue statement at the end, the Houston family, and Hillsong itself, came out looking very good. It was very funny to see the old footage of Hills when in started. Brian had great hair.

I enjoy stuff about Hillsong. I'm getting much fonder of them as I get older (not that I'm a wise 22-year-old). Perhaps it's cause I found the bits in the Bible that talk about unity. I'm probably also getting soft.

I love Milo Cereal

I got my speeding fine in the mail today. I thought I was doing 72km/h but the letter told me I was doing 71km/h which could mean I sped up after getting flashed. An obvious ploy, always a good idea to make a fast get-away from the speed camera.

I want to get a photo of me speeding. I thought that could be fun (not that I endorse speeding.) The problem is in the letter it said I can only get the photo if I have a lawful interest. I'm not sure if "I think it would be fun to have a photo of me speeding" is a lawful interest. So I think I might just write and say "I was driving the car and would like to see the photo. Lots of Love, Tom" I'm still deciding if that's the best way to sign the letter.

I finished reading Harry Potter today. I'm not really all that satisfied. It was fun spending the time with Harry and friends, but I have to wait till book 7 for the real pay off.

The thing that is starting to get to me about Harry is how black and white the characters are. Everyone is either good or bad, there is no in between. Snape is the only person who was ever interesting in that respect, but that's been dealt with. So it's a little boring in that respect. The good thing about Star Wars is that the battle between the Dark Side and the Not-So-Dark Side is both internal and external. That's not the case in Harry and I think the books are much weaker for it.

Still they are fun.

Now I can go back to reading Nelson Mandela's book.

We filmed on the weekend.

I've enjoyed these film shoots a lot. Maybe I'm enjoying not having the stress of directing. There has been lots of silliness on set.

I've also been enjoying editing. I like making it all come together. Putting hours of footage into a coherent story. That's fun.

I think the production values are better on this shoot too. Each time we make a film we're getting better at it.

I really like Milo Cereal.

Leaving

I'm about to leave Chatswood after two months of living the high life here. It's been fun. I think I only washed up 4 times in 2 months. By halfway through the second month I was just rinsing glasses because I was thinking "Well I'll be moving out soon, no point in doing a wash up this late in the piece."

The unit is clean. The beds are made (not very well, but good for me) and all my stuff is packed. Today I'm off to film Love Is. Hooray!

I was in Chatswood mall before because I was doing some late night grocery shopping and almost half the teenage girls I saw were wearing small tops and short skirts. So I'm wondering what possesses a girl to wear so little on a winter night? And it must be very diffcult finding something to wear in summer when you've exhausted all your outfits in winter.

Jo and I just had Krispy Kremes from the new store here in Chatswood. It opened today. I don't like Krispy Kremes heaps but I thought it would be rather important that I ate there opening day.

We had fun.

I'm just about to finish a 14-hour day at work, and it's been good. A marvelous day.

I'm very privileged to work at a church full of God and lovely people.

Law Breaking

Jude Law is copping a beating in the press at the moment. It looks like female journalists are having a field day having a go a Law, and males in general (well at least two on SMH are, and I saw the cover of NW in Coles last night, so I think that's a pretty broad sample). It seems that Jude Law getting caught sleeping with the nanny has proved that not only is he incapable of fidelity, all men are.

Jemima Lewis told me that most men are still cave men at heart. They "must hunt, must slay, must strew old bones and dirty socks over cave floor. And, of course, the most basic evolutionary impulse of all: must sleep around."

Well, actually, most of those are rather appealing ideas. But I don't think an affinity for dirty socks is a proof of a lack ability to stay faithful.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this, perhaps just that I wouldn't want all men to be painted with the same brush. Or if we are all going to be labeled cheaters, I think it should be the male journalists that do it. But from what I can tell the male journalists aren't at all interested in this story.

Maybe, if people are going to have discussions about infidelity it shouldn't be just a male/Jude Law bashing exercise. There are worthwhile issues to talk about in this story and it's not whether or not Sienna will take him back, if Jude will demand the ring back, or if Jude's parents are getting involved.

The good news is though folks, Jude won't be sleeping with the nanny again. There's a new nanny and she's reported to be "a bit dumpy and not particularly attractive." There is some justice in this world.

Plus Soup

After a long day that I spent watching West Wing and Futurama, and reading Harry Potter, Ryan and I went to Soup Plus last night.

It was the first time I've been to Soup Plus at the new venue. It's become a very different place. This new venue feels like a cross between a restaurant, a bar, and a campsite dining room. The old one had a magnificent dingy, basement feel. The big wooden tables, and wooden benches, the darkness, and the low ceiling. It was great. The new place just didn't have nearly as much charm. It also seemed like the clientele had got a lot older too. Ryan and I were probably the youngest people there who weren't with their parents.

But on the up side we saw the Kings of Swing Band. They were fun. They played old Sinatra and Fitzgerald songs. There were 17 of them too. 17 wouldn't have fitted in the old venue. The soup was good. I had Pumpkin and Sweet Potato, and their croutons are lovely. Plus the staff were very friendly. It was fun. I think I'll go again.

Lior

On Saturday night Jo, Ryan, Jem and I went to see Lior at Carringbah Bizzo. I had been there the week before to see Jimmy's band Intone play.

We ate dinner at what was said to be one of the best Indian restaurants in Sydney, at least that's what the menus told us. The food wasn't bad. I would have liked to try their butter chicken. Butter chicken is how I judge all Indian restaurants. If the butter chicken is good than the rest of the place is probably good.

Jem has said that Lior is better than John Mayer live. While I haven't seen John live (neither has Jem) but I don't think Lior would beat John. At least he wouldn't have on Saturday night. Jo and Jem, the groupies, told me that he wasn't up to form. Maybe I just like John's music better.

Anyway, Lior was pretty good, despite his boredness. His band were fun, they all had good solos. The lead guitarist looked like he'd never escaped geekdom, like hang out in the Library geekdom. He was very good guitarist, which far outweighs hair dos, specticals and clothing choice when it comes to coolness. Lior sung a cool song about Mexico which I hope he puts on his next album. It was lots of fun.

I think that's all I have to say about Lior.

3 and a half

They say that when you're tried it has similar effects on you to being drunk. It that's true, I spent all day under the influence, because I was functioning on 3 and a half hours sleep. It certainly makes me go a little silly.

Presbyterians

Today in my sermon I told a story about some inhospitable Presbyterians I stayed with once. I used it as an excuse to have a fun dig at Presbyterians. But I told everyone that infact I have met some wonderful, friendly Presbyterians.

But after the services I was deluged by people walking up to me and telling me they were Pressies and giving me a wink. It seems that everyone was wanting for a chance to have a dig. As I told one guy later, I've met more unfriendly Anglicans than I've met unfriendly Presbyterians.

So may I state, for the record, I like Presbyterians.

They are a little odd though...

Working in the Administration

Seeing as I am in love with The West Wing (still) I often think of my work as kinda like the one in The West Wing. I have decided who everyone in the office would play if we were the Bartlet Administration. Steve, being the Senior Minister would be the President. I like having meetings with him, I pretend to be meeting with the President. Steve is very busy too, so when I get time to speak with him it's like when the senior staff get to meet with Bartlet.

Stephen, being the Assistant Minister would be Leo, the Chief of Staff.

Helen would be CJ, the Press Secretary. Not really because Helen's role is like CJs but because they are both woman, and they're both cool. Helen doesn't brief the press much, but if there was press it might not be outside her domain.

Belinda, the old Office Administrator, would have been Mrs Landingham, because they both worked with Steve/Bartlet, they were both efficient and fun, and they're both gone now. Happily, Belinda is still alive and well, unlike Mrs Landingham.

Kathy, the new Office Assistant, would be Debbie Fiderer, the new Secretary to the President. Mainly because they're both new.

Beck, the Student in Ministry, could be Donna, the Assistant to the Deputy Chief of Staff, but I don't think their roles are very similar. They are both females. The relationships are a bit similar though. I think Beck gets more independence than Donna.

I would be Sam, the Deputy Communications Director, mainly because Sam is younger than Toby (my other option I think), and Sam is more of a goody-two shoes. Toby is too depressing all the time. Sam loves speech writing too, and I love preaching.

I like dreaming that I work in the White House. Since starting to think that way I've been treating the Steve a lot more like the President. Or at least thinking of him that way. It's making me really good at respecting those above me, so it's not all bad this obsession.

I might start calling Steve, Mr Rector.

The World has Lost a Great

The man who invented the TV dinner, Gerry Thomas, died today. That man changed my life. There would be many starving single males if it wasn't for him. I wouldn't have survived the past two months if it wasn't for him. Farewell to the king!

Perhaps I will have a TV dinner in honour of him tonight.

Read it here.

Lost Classroom

In the continuing saga of my ineptitude at getting further education this semester, my class today is on a campus in Ashfield, but I don't know where it is. I'm going to a college which I can't find. When I first started high school I got lost trying to find the classroom that I was meant to be in. I'd wander round the school for a while with no idea. When your college stretches across two separate suburbs I think that will make wandering around trying to find my class room a decidedly more difficult task.

The good news is that I did buy myself a new lecture pad, it even has an envelope thing on the inside to hold my handouts.

UPDATE: I just rang the college to find out where it was and I got told off by the receptionist. I have the address now though, I'll be learning again soon.

Once more with Feeling

I've realised that I rarely blog about my day any more. I used to make sure almost every day got blogged. At the moment I'm in one of those phases where I only blog things that come to mind or are a little silly.

I'm wondering if I'm about to embark on a little journey of late night of introspection. I'm pretty happy at the moment. My emotional life it rather sunny. Maybe sunny on a Winter's day. Like today. Not sunny like Summer, exciting-and-full-of-adventure sunny, just sunny like "Isn't it nice to sit here in the sun while everywhere else is cold" sunny.

Beck had her first day of work at St Stephen's today. She had her first St Stephen's lunch with me. I was sad Helen wasn't around to inaugurate her with me. Helen and I have been doing lunches for years, we're like the lunch team. But sadly she wasn't around. Anyway, Beck and I ended up spending most of lunch talking about death, which is rather sad, but we were sitting in the sun so that was good. I ate butter chicken and burped it all day.

I cooked nachos for the leaders tonight. I got teased a lot but I think I deserve it.

On Friday Mitch and Graham came around to talk about youth ministry. We have a little youth ministers support group. It's nice. They were meant to arrive at ten and I forgot to set my alarm. I woke up at 10:03am. I shot out of bed and just as I got out the intercom buzzed and there was Graham on the video screen. I let him through the security door then raced back to my room to put some pants and a shirt on. He was waiting at my door for a little while but I think I did alright considering I'd been in bed a minute earlier.

After he arrived I had a shower while he read a book on church history sitting on the couch.

Today after Bible Study Ray gave me a long history of the Kosovo valley. It has something to do with the Roman Empire. It all sounded very interesting but I didn't quite follow.

Now it's time to watch The West Wing I'm going to try and finish season four before I move out of here. It's hard though, seeing as this is a sermon week. I'll get there though.

Turns out there wasn't much introspection at all.

Hi Ho Pilgrim

I just got home after catching one train, one bus, watching 4 movies and walking 25kms. It was a blast. My legs hurt and I'm ready for bed.

I just edited the first scene from Love is. I didn't edit the first scene, this was just the first scene I edited. I edited the stuff we shot on the weekend.

It was fun shooting on the weekend. It was nice because we only had one scene to film so we weren't working to any time constraints. The canoes that we filmed were very colourful, and the sun was out. I think the scene looks good.

I woke up this morning and decided I should check if my college semester starts today, just in case it does. I was pretty sure it started next Monday. But alas, it starts today.

The problem is that I can't remember what subject I'm enroled in. I'm pretty sure it's none of the subjects that are on today, so I have a little bit of time to sort myself out. Oh well, I guess I'll sort it out eventually.

Going to the toilet in winter when you're a girl must be horrible. But getting the opportunity to go to the toilet when you're tired and a girl must be a little bonus.

"My Heart Go All the Crackling"

I just found a web page that has translated my blog to French so I got Google to translate it back to English for me. It's rather amusing.

For example. My post about Norah Jones in March is translated:

I crushed one

I have the fancy for Norah Jones. Oh, so much.

I should not have left to see it yesterday in the night, it was tall, it made my heart go all the "crackling". It is a fantastic voice, it is a friendly person and it is large. Each time somebody in the auditoire(audience) shouted something to him as "You balance Norah!" Or "I love you Norah!" It recognizes it. And if it did not include/understand what they said that it would ask them to repeat it. How fresh is that? I mouse and incline the head with a auditoire(une goes down for hearing) of one, it asks for the clarification with a auditoire(une goes down for hearing) of 10,000.

And it made such a good music, it and its beautiful bande(orchestre). They was tops. Yay for Norah.

I think that I was one of little men there who was not trailed by their wife or girl friend and I think Jem and I was one of few groups of people minus the age of 35. But independently of our étrange(impair), Norah was fresh.

The post actually said:

I have a crush

I have a crush on Norah Jones. Oh, so much.

I shouldn't have gone to see her last night, she was great, she's made my heart go all "pitter-patter". She's got a fantastic voice, she's a friendly person, and she's great. Every time someone in the audience shouted something at her like "You rock Norah!" or "I love you Norah!" she'd acknowledge it. And if she didn't understand what they said she'd ask them to repeat it. How cool is that? I smile and nod with an audience of one, she asks for clarification with an audience of 10,000.

And she made such good music, her and her handsome band. It was tops. Yay for Norah.

I think I was one of the few men there who wasn't dragged along by their wife or girlfriend and I think Jem and I were one of the few groups of people under the age of 35. But regardless of our oddness, Norah was cool.

Harry Potter comes out tomorrow.

Don't tell the Pope but I'm looking forward to it.

Online Matchmaking

I decided to do a little bit of online matchmaking so I typed in "A Wife for Tom" in Google Images, and this is who was first on the list:



Google Dating: "Surefire" I say.

Let me explain myself

You may have noticed that, for the past few days, I've been writing something that I have learnt each day. I thought I'd do it to test the saying "You learn something new everyday". So far it hasn't been a very good experiment, because while I have learnt something new everyday, I've been keeping my eye out for it. It's kinda been a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Today however has been a rather dud day. Seeing as I spent most of my day playing with envelopes and printers, I didn't learn a lot. I did have lunch with Lauren and that was a good respite.

I did learn things today, but nothing worth remembering. I learnt that Brad Pitt has gone to hospital with the flu and Scarlett Johansson wanted to shoot a sex scene topless*, but Michael Bay wouldn't let her. But neither of those things are world changing. SMH really does some high class reporting.

I learnt that when Jesus turned water into wine he made somewhere between 500 and 750 litres of wine. But I already knew that, I'd just forgotten.

Last night after midnight I learnt why the Secret Service is part of the US Department of Treasury. It's because when it was created it was designed to catch people who forge money. It still is. It was given the job of protecting the President in 1901 after the assassination of William McKinley that year, who was the 25th US President and had a pet parrot called "Washington Post". He was killed by Leon Czolgosz who didn't seem to have any real good reason for shooting the president, he was just an anarchist**. I don't know who looked after the parrot after McKinley died. Theodore Roosevelt was the president who succeeded McKinley.

Anyway, I got distracted. The Secret Service, who are meant to be dealing with forgery, protects the President because there weren't many other people who could take the job when it first went up for grabs. The FBI, DEA, CIA, ATF, NSA and all the rest didn't exist. The only other option was the US Marshals. They didn't get the job though. Probably because US Marshals doesn't sound as cool as Secret Service. One sounds like battery suppliers, the other sounds like a group of super heroes.

The Secret Service was created in 1865. The last law that Abraham Lincon signed before being assassinated himself was to create the Secret Service. People say this is ironic, but I don't think it is, because as I said before, they didn't start protecting the President for another 36 years. I think people have just loaded it with irony which isn't there. Then again you could say that irony is subjective, and then you can think anything you want is ironic. I think Alanis Morissettte subscribes to this view.

Anyway, I learnt, and pondered all that, before going to sleep least night, so I don't want to count that as learning something new today.

I did read today that Australia is buying up to 100 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters. We'll have them by 2012. I already knew that too, but I'm excited about it. I like fighter jets. So I think I'll have learnt that today.

Today I learnt that Brad has the flu, Scarlett isn't shy, and Australia's getting some new planes. Tomorrow I'm hoping to learn who looked after the parrot.

*My hits are going to go way up now. I mentioned "Scarlett Johansson" "topless" and "sex" all in the same sentence. Google here we come!

**I think he was fighting for the rights of the workers but isn't everyone these days?

Mail out done.

Now I'm going home.

Working Class Man

The thing about holidays is that they usually mean less work. Untill it's time for the mail out, and then it gets a bit fatter. Helen was hoping I'd have work to do while she was away, and I don't see myself getting out of here before 8, so I'd say she'll be satisfied. I've been here since 10:30. That's pretty early for me.

Learn Something New

Today (12th July 2005) I leant that there is a place in Sydney called "Rodd Point". That's cool.

Jem told me that.

Oh it Hurts

The West Wing Marathon finished just over an hour ago and whoever says that spending two days sitting on a couch watching TV is easy, is wrong. It's very hard. I have a splitting headache, I'm battling depression and having a severe self-worth crisis and I'm probably suffering massive internal hemorrhaging. I'm just glad it wasn't an OC, or worse yet Big Brother, marathon. I'm glad it was a show I liked.

I'm off to Coles to buy some Coke and some Panadol. That should be good in the short term.

Today I learnt

Today (11th July 2005) I learnt what a Filibuster is. It's obstructionist tactics to hold up legisation from passing in the US Senate. The person who is filibusting takes the floor in the Senate before a vote is taken and talks. And they keep talking, they cannot stop talking, they cannot lean on anything, they cannot go to the bathroom, they must keep one foot on the chamber floor at all times. Filibuster comes from a Dutch word meaning "Pirate".

There was a guy on The West Wing who did it. He read shrimp recipies, card rules and David Copperfield to the Senate for over nine hours. It sounds like fun. I think I'd like to try Filibusting one day.

The longest filibuster ever was done by Strom Thurmond in 1957 when he filibustered for 24 hours and 18 minutes. He was protesting the Civil Rights Act of 1957, which passed despite his dedicated filibusting to a vote of 60-15.

We just finished the 15th episode for the day. We're hitting the sack now. We're just over half way through. It's fun but darn hard. We ate salad for dinner because sitting on a couch all day watching American television inspires virtue in you. Or guilt. Guilt or virtue, either way they both get the job done.

Ryan and I are in the opening stages of our two day West Wing marathon. We've just watched 5 episodes in a row. It's way fun, but getting tough.

We are hoping to finish season 3 by tomorrow. We are two episodes from the end of season 2 now. We have 24 episodes to go. I'm a man, I can take it.

Sunday

I think that Sundays should be held on Friday. Then you could go to church, go out, stay up late, then have a whole weekend. I'm sick of falling asleep in church. I could compromise with a Saturday. Maybe I should become a Seventh Day Adventist.

Everyday

If you learn something new everyday, today I learnt that the Council of Nicea was held in 325AD and the Arian Controversy lasted for around 60 years.

I read my church history book at breakfast. Does that make me uncool?

The Rest

Before Hillsong I spent almost all day reading. It was great. I continued reading Mandela, I finished the Vineyard response to The Briefing and three papers by Dave Andrews on the meaning of the cross. All were interesting and stimulating. I didn't fall asleep once all day.

Tonight I went to a cocktail party at Libby's. The problem with cocktails is that they taste really nice so you want to keep drinking them. But if you keep drinking them you get drunk and it would be rather inappropriate to get drunk. Plus I wanted to drive home. So I had a Pina Colada and then sampled others. I drank pink Lemonade for the rest of the night, how sad.

Towards the end of the night I was eating chocolate moose. I was pretending to dribble it out of my mouth and then suck it back in again just for a laugh. But I accidentally laughed while doing it and managed to spit the moose all over myself and my sister who was sitting opposite me. It was rather funny, but a little gross too. Sorry Jo.

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.