Ethical Conundrum
I was walking to Community Dinner on Tuesday and I saw some guys across the road at the bus interchange, about 25 metres away (I was outside Forty Winks, they were at the Toilets near Jack's) start arguing with each other. There were four of them. I was intrigued. I'd been watching them for a little while because they looked to be doing the usual business that goes on in those toilets.
Anyway they started arguing. And as I was standing at the lights about to cross William St, they started fighting. There seemed to be two-on-two with punching and kicking and all the rest. Also at the lights with me was an old woman and a young guy. The young guy was extremely interested. He started saying "Get 'im! Just F***ing get into 'im!"
When the lights beeped instead of crossing the road this man ran across the Highway to join in the fight. The Old Lady and I started crossing road. I don't think the Old Lady noticed the fight. I kept watching as I walked because it was rather interesting.
The last thing I saw of the fight was of the guy who'd been standing with me at the lights trying to break the top off a branch he'd found on the ground so he could use it in the fight.
I just kept walking.
I was wondering what I should have done. I didn't really like the idea of getting involved and trying to break it up, but I didn't feel particularly good walking away either. I felt like I should have done something. I decided I was allowed not to get involved because I remembered this verse:
Like one who seizes a dog by the ears
is a passer-by who meddles in a quarrel not his own. - Proverbs 26:17
But I can't say that verse convinced me not to get involved, it was more a justification of my desire not to do anything.
It makes me wonder what I would do in other situations.
The reasons I hope I would get involved:
My friends, family, people I knew, were involved
It was unprovoked/one party was not wanting to participate
They were in a weaker postion (Women, children, elderly, uneven)
The reasons I had for not getting involved on Tuesday:
I'd probably get hurt
No-one seemed to want to avoid the fight (I'd been watching for about 5 minutes before the fight broke out, both parties had plenty of time to walk away)
There was two-on-two (not three on one for instance)
The above verse
But still I felt more like a coward than someone who was morally right. I could have called the cops I guess. I'm not sure.
Jesus did say: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God." (Matt 5:9). While I do know that I've spent a lot of my life attempting to make peace, I can't help but feel in this situation I only succeeded in looking out for myself.
Views anyone?
I went to KFC today with some of the Staff. I ate it just because I forgot what it tasted like. Now I remember. It hasn't improved.
Or perhaps I'm just just a lowly pilgrim.
I'd rather not call myself a pilgrim, it sounds rather like I'm subtly extolling how humble I am.
I am feeling like a traveller though because I'm in a net cafe near Central Station. It's a backpackers one as opposed to a gaming one. This one is full of people talking in all sorts of foreign languages, where as gaming ones are full of people speaking Asian or bad language. To come to this one I had to join up with some thing called Global Gossip. They gave me a form to fill out where every field was mandatory, which I think is a little rude. When it got to Mobile Number I lied and clicked the box which said "I don't have one yet". I wouldn't have lied but they didn't have have a "I don't want to give you my number I just want to use the internet" box to tick.
Anyway net cafe forms are not all that interesting at the best of times, I can't see why you would want to read about them second removed on my blog.
I've spent the day (at least the meaningful half after 12pm) preparing for my sermon. I went to college and read and wrote in the Library. I didn't start falling asleep till about 3 hours in so I thought that was pretty good effort. Better than any of my study efforts.
This morning, after dropping Hannah at school, I bought myself the new U2 dvd. I'm all set to watch it tonight after Dosas. My life is quite full of U2 at the moment.
Now I'm just mooching around on the net continuing my sermon research while I wait for Dosas to start. Did you know that John Cadbury (who owned Cadburys in the 19th Century) created the Animals Friend Society a forunner to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals? He did. (Wiki told me)
That's all I have to say.
I've been a rather bad blogger these past few days. Wednesday and now it's Saturday. Hoi! That's disgraceful.
I'll try and write about all the things that I've missed. Here we go...
Well done Socceroos.
I have my exam tomorrow. I reckon I've done 2 hours study. That's a record for me in the past few years. I'll probably blitz it with that much work.
Hey Hey, Ho Ho, I went on a another protest march-o
I went on the IR Reform protests today. They were fun. Much like every other protest really. Lots of speechs and sore legs, a march and sore legs, then more speechs and sore legs. But still fun.
My favourite part is always the march. They're noisy, look good, there's lots of police and helicopters, you can walk in the middle of the road, you get to catch up with friends and you get to stand up for something you believe in, what more could you want?
The highest highlight of the day was being able to march along and shout "The workers, united, we'll* never be deafeated!" and shake my fist in the air. It was like a real protest.
People also shouted: "Whatdowewant?!"
"Workers rights!"
"When'owewann'em?"
"Now!"
Which I thought was silly seeing as we were protesting against our rights being taken away. So we have them now, when'owewan'em? Next year as well! Although that's not quite as catchy.
I hope the Government listens.
*or is it "will"?
U2 is coming to Australia!
From U2.com:
"Vertigo//2006 will commence in early February with stops planned in Mexico, South America, New Zealand, Australia and Japan."
Yeehaa!
I'm there, I'm there, I'm there!
Straight Talking
In John 11 Jesus proposes that he and his disciples go to Judea but they react saying "Rabbi, a short while ago the Jews tried to stone you, and yet you are going back there?"
Jesus replies "Are there not twelve hours of daylight? A man who walks by day will not stumble, for he sees by this world's light. It is when he walks by night that he stumbles, for he has no light."
Now if I was a disciple I would be rather frustrated by that response. I'm not particularly sure what that means and why Jesus said it there. I would have preferred Jesus just said "We cannot be deterred by fear" or "Stop being wusses we do what God wants" or "Sticks and stones may break your bones but I'm the Son of God!"
A bit further on Jesus is talking about Lazarus' death referring to it as having "fallen asleep". The disciples don't get this so Jesus puts it plainly "Lazarus is dead". That's what I'm talking about. That's the Jesus I can understand.
Today at the retirement home that we were visiting with the youth I offered an old lady my phone number. It was all innocent on my part, but I got in trouble from the youth for chatting up old women.
Brothers, Sisters, Corpse and Noodle
I had a BSBB training day today. It was interesting being in a non-Christian training environment. Especially a Children's/Youth one. It's been so long since I've been in the real world properly I couldn't work out why we didn't open and close with prayer. It was good though. Good to meet a group of people who aren't Christians and aren't all that interested in whether you're one or not. They all seemed like good people.
Then tonight David and I went to see Corpse Bride. Tim Burton is a twisted man, but probably a genius too. It was very good. Funny, charming, good story. I was impressed.
For the record, as an act of civil disobedience against Greater Union's silly allocated seating David and I sat where we wanted. I'm going to write a letter.
Afterwards David and I had dinner at Chef's Lucky Noodle. The Noodle is always great. We talked a lot about power imbalances, pastoral care, being a Christian super-hero, and mentoring. I enjoyed.
I also returned my DVD 5 days late and David's book 4 years late.
Chlorine
Last night we took the youth group to the Sydney Olympic Aquatic Centre. It was a massive logistical event. We planned all our car spaces down to the very last person, then had extra turn up and drivers pull out. I did a lot of organising on the fly. We even almost left without one person but we got them in the end.
Apart from being extremely self-conscious of having to run around in just a pair of boardies, I had a great time at the pool. Youth Group socials are one of my favourite parts of my job. They mainly just involve playing with teenagers. What more could you want? Pools are good fun.
Today, two showers and much soap later, I still smell like chlorine.
Fact of the Year
Botton is the 65444th most popular surname in the USA.
From here
A little Stressful
We had Scripture Seminars on this morning, and I went to bed last night with less than enough volunteers coming, no game to play and no speaker. Scripture Seminars always stress me and these weren't particularly turning out well. Lots of people hadn't been able to make it and Stephen, who was meant to be speaking, was sick. Basically we had no seminars to run and we had 4 periods stuck with 100 students at a time and nothing to do with them.
I woke up this morning and showered while trying to work out at what point we cancel seminars.
The thing about seminars is that they never seem to look like we can run them. But I have this belief in me that even if the seminars don't look like they're possible to run, God'll come through and we'll run them. I don't think I've had a seminar which I've ever felt like they can run. But this one is the first time I've still been wondering if we can pull out on the morning of the actual seminars.
I decided on a game and drove to the school making up a talk in my head. As I drove a got a call from one of the volunteers saying they too were sick to come in. I arrived at school feeling rather ambivalent. Only a few leaders had turned up, some were running late. I couldn't run the game I had planned because there were no doughnuts at the shops. It may not sound like a big deal but with everything going wrong it was feeling like it could be the last straw. I had no speaker, no game, and very little ability to run small groups.
I started discussing with the other leaders at what stage we pull the plug. As we were talking the Acting Principal walked in and asked if we wanted the back doors unlocked to let some air into the room. I said "Yes" and chickened out of pulling out. I figured once you've had the doors unlocked there's no turning back.
Courtney rang one of her friends and got him out of bed to come join us, the rest of the leaders turned up and things felt a bit manageable. Chez thought of a game and Helen volunteered to MC the day. Once I was committed to doing it things felt a bit better. We prayed and waited for our first year to turn up.
The year sevens came in, and were as rowdy as ever, except the guy who usually shouts out "I love Satan!" was shouting "I love Jesus!" which I guess is a bit of an improvement (or a lot of an improvement depending on where you think his sincerity levels were at).
Helen welcomed everyone and we had the game which was fun. The students had to speak for a minute on a subject of our choosing without saying "um" or "ahh". They didn't really manage to do it.
Then it was my turn to speak. I've heard about a lot of preachers who have gotten into similar situations to me today. They have to give a talk or sermon at very late notice. And almost every time they say that they preached one of their best preaches then. It's funny. So I figured if I did have to talk God would come through. I preached and it did alright. I think it was probably the best scripture talk I've ever done. I got good feedback from the students and that never happens. And they seemed to come with me a lot more than usual.
My talk was about what God is like. Does he exist? And if he does, what's he like? I used the Prodigal Son because that was the last thing I preached on thankfully. And it all came out good.
Our small groups were big, but most leaders said they were productive. In the end the seminars turned into some of the best seminars we've done. "Good on God" I say. He does things like that.
Qld Premier demands Channel Ten reinstate Dan on Idol
Queensland Premier Peter Beattie has demanded the producers of Australian Idol reinstate Brisbane-based performer, Dan England. Because Queensland is not on Daylight Saving Time his fans say they were not able to vote for him.
Mr Beattie said "Look we were robbed. I mean Dan was robbed...I'm asking Channel 10 to wake up to themselves to turn back the clock to Monday and give him a fair go."
It's good to see Queensland politicians have such important things to worry about.
From Here
Does it seem a little worrying that the Police/Government wants to arrest people but they can't because there are no laws to do it, so they change the laws and arrest the people a week later? Doesn't that seem a little like those kids who you played with when you were young who would change the rules half way through the game to make sure they'd win?
But as I said before I am still for catching terrorists and stopping terrorism. I just hope we're going about it the right way.
Police have raided homes in Sydney and Melbourne arresting 15 men suspected of planning terrorist attacks.
It's hard to know what to think. I'm all for stopping terrorist attacks from happening. If that's what has happened then, good. I'm a little suspicious about the timing though. It seems these raids will do well to cement the case for the need for the new anti-terror laws.
I wish I could trust my Government because right now all I would feel would be pride and respect for the work of our police. I wish things were a lot more black and white.
Sedition
Senator Andrew Bartlett has outlined on his blog the Government's definition of sedition. In the new Anti-Terror Laws you can get seven years for displaying seditious intention. Bartlett wrote:
"seditious intention means an intention to effect any of the following purposes:
(a) to bring the Sovereign into hatred or contempt;
(b) to urge disaffection against the following:
(i) the Constitution;
(ii) the Government of the Commonwealth;
(iii) either House of the Parliament;
(c) to urge another person to attempt to procure a change, otherwise than by lawful means, to any matter established by law of the Commonwealth;
(d) to promote feelings of ill-will or hostility between different groups so as to threaten the peace, order and good government of the Commonwealth. "
In that case, I'll join with him, in showing seditious intention. Disaffection is defined as "disloyalty to the government or to established authority". As long as our Government is trying to force dodgy laws on us I urge disaffection against the Government. When they will try and deprive their citizens (and those who may just happen to turn up on our shores) of their civil and human rights, I will urge disaffection. I will urge people to show their loss of affection and loyalty by voting the Government out, by writing letters, by telling their friends, by protest, by any peaceful means they can find.
There was an interesting article in SMH about how Jesus would have been easily charged with sedition under the new laws coming in. If Jesus can be charged with sedition, then me too! WWJD? Yeehaa!
Backish
I've been a rather slack blogger recently. I was going pretty much non-stop from Thursday 8:30am-2am everyday no-breaks. I slept in today but I'm still pretty tired.
The reason for all this was Impact, the Breakthru Artz concert. I was in charge of creating and running the DVDs and Powerpoints that had all the music and visual stuff for the whole show and getting the show. We had two projectors for the front and the back of the stage. I had to swap between the two making sure that either one or neither was on at a time. I had to make sure all the music started at the right time. Almost the whole show ran without a hitch. It was pretty good. We did well.
Unfortunatly the good run went to the dogs last night in church when the simple job of playing a DVD for a dance was just too hard for either me or Pete the sound man. We may have had a technological emotional breakdown.
I went to lunch with a family from Church yesterday. We had a barbeque and sat in the sun. It was rather fun as was youth group. I enjoy playing soccer but I really need to get fit, I feel like I'm going to die when I run around. Oh dear.
My Grandpa sent me this. Tis funny. He made it himself. He's a funny man.
http://muglets.com/6YBA
Something fishy is going on when the Government keeps trying to rush legislation through without a chance for people to look at it properly. Like when you're in a group and you try and fart quickly and quietly so people don't notice it was you that made everything stink.
Read My Thoughts
I went and had my 2nd interview for BSBB yesterday. It was a long one. 2 hours, but I had fun. I got asked lots of personal questions about traumatic experiences, my love life, how I learnt about sex, whether I do drugs, what I think of pedophilia, things that make me angry and more. Lucky I'm not all that worried about answering any of those questions for anyone. It didn't feel all that personal, but maybe I just don't have all that much I feel like hiding.
The best bit of the interview was when I got the results of my psychological profile. The man said to me "The test results say that you were quite defensive when you did it. Do you think you were defensive?"
I replied "No. I don't think I was defensive." I thought that was pretty funny.
The guy also asked me if I was a risk taker and if I thought I had a good amount of insight. Apparently the test said I was defensive, a risk taker, had low insight and therefore an inflated view of myself.
It did strike me as a bit odd that the computer that read my test thought I had an inflated view of myself but it's never met me. I could have a completely reasonable view of myself.
I don't think view is inflated at all. I'm pretty special and everyone knows it. I'm smart, witty, good looking, strong, caring, sporty, coordinated, tough but gentle, inspiring, universally loved, simply spectacular in every
detail and damn good at spelling.
The guy also said I answered two questions with true answers that he wanted to ask me about:
People can read my thoughts and Death would be a relief.
I can't remember why I thought that people could read my thoughts, maybe because I blog. It may also have been that I feel pretty transparent and people seem to know why I do what I do. I said that death would be a relief because heaven will be tops, not because I'm suicidal.
Anyway I got through to the next stage of the program. It's a training day, probably where you have to play hand holding get-to-know-you games, have lots of sharing times and climb over 3 metre high brick walls blindfolded. Things like that.
I'm enjoying the BSBB process though. The people at YWCA are nice, they give me water. And I'm looking forward to being a Big Brother.
I don't even know where my horse went. 6th or something by my TV watching.
But that's ok. Makybe was pretty special.
Tom's Melbourne Cup Tip
Ok folks, listen up. In 2003 I picked the winner, in 2004 I picked second place. So now you're all salivating for my pick for this year's Melbourne Cup. Well here it is:
RAILINGS
No.7
Of course I'd love to see Makybe Diva win again, 3 years would be smashing, but my odds are on Railings.
Yeehaa!
Today was a long day. But not as long as it could have been. I got to church an hour late. Damn daylight saving. I'm not sure if anyone in my house remembered, I sure didn't.
Too Hairy
This is the hairiest I have ever been in my life. In about an hour almost all my face will be clean shaven. Stay tuned for the mo, for tonight only!
Cramming
It's three weeks before our exam and our lecturer told us today "Just remember that there's always value in cramming." If studying now is called cramming I'd hate to think when he thought we should have started real study.
I walked in to teach scripture today and the kids saw my beard and said "Ooo gross". Then a kid put up his hand and said "If I get bored of this can I join Jewish scripture?"
It's nice to feel loved.
Tom's Beginner's Guide to U2
Well I did this for B, and because I'm excited. I'll stay up way too late writing this, but I'm having fun.
So here's the list.
1. Out of Control
U2's first single. You can't really make a guide without their first single. Probably not their best work, but certainly gives us a few pointers about where they might be heading.
2. New Year's Day
Off their third album War, this song has something to do with Poland and war I think. I've forgotten, but it's good. War was the first U2 album I owned, it was on cassette when I was 6. This song stuck with me.
3. Sunday Bloody Sunday (Live at Red Rocks)
Such an important song for U2. They copped a lot of flack about this song at the time. People thought it was a call to arms for the IRA but it was a call to peace which is why at the beginning of this version Bono tells the crowd "This is not a rebel song". I always like the bit at the end of the song when we're called to "claim the victory Jesus won". It gives me goose bumps.
4. Bad
I've heard that when it was released this song had the longest list of "tion"s (ie dislocation, separation, condemnation) in a song ever. I doubt that's true now, what with all them rappers and all, but it's an interesting thought.
I like the song, it's not one of my faves but I thought it was a good song to show the transitioning between their early years sounds and their middle years stuff. They had a new producer this album (Brian Eno) who started them in a different, vibier direction.
5. With or Without You
This is track 3 on The Joshua Tree arguably U2's greatest album. It was certainly the album that made them huge. The first 4 tracks of this album sound like a fanboy's dream playlist. It is a massive anthem filled album.
I'm not quite sure what this song is about but I think it has something to do with living trying to live a life of love, a Christ-like life. You can't live with Christ, it's too hard, but you cannot live without him. It's a good dichotomy between what's received and what's desired.
6. Bullet the Blue Sky
Someone once said The Edge's guitar in this song is the angriest guitar in rock history. It certainly a song filled with barely suppressed rage. It was written as a protest against the USA's foreign policy in Latin America, where it fed the civil wars and propped up despots to meet it's own agendas.
7. Running to Stand Still
This is the first song so far that wasn't released as a single. It's a song looking through the eyes of a drug addict. It's a painfully beautiful song.
8. All I Want is You
The album this is off, Rattle and Hum, has been viewed as a bit of a let down after The Joshua Tree. It was an attempt to find the roots of Rock 'n' Roll. I think it's good. But I think U2's all good. This song is one of their most spectacular love songs. It really just turns you to mush.
9. The Fly
The first single off Achtung Baby (my favourite album, damn solid!), Bono described this song as "the sound of four men chopping down the Joshua Tree." It showed a radical departure from classic U2, a time when they embraced irony, parodied themselves and the rock star life. This song is cool and I'm sure it has a message about consumerism or mass media or something in there too. I've never sat down and tried to work it out.
10. Love is Blindness (Live)
I dig this song. It makes you ache.
11. Mofo
From Pop this song shows U2 at their most non-rock, in their electronic, experimental stage. It's probably not the best song on the album but it is a good one to show where Pop was at. Pop is a damn fine album, not great, but it certainly has the foundations of greatness. So much potential. U2 say if they had an extra 3 months in the studio this album would have achieved what they were aiming for. You can just see the juicy goodness elusively floating under the surface. It's an album full of questions and doubt, but still clinging to hope by the barest of threads.
12. Walk On
Classic U2 are back. From All That You Can't Leave Behind, this is U2 at their simple song writing best. This song is wonderful. It was this album that made me fall in love with U2. It's very special.
13. All Because of You
A rocking, stomping, tribute to grace. Yeah baby!
14. Where the Streets Have No Name (Live from Boston)
Probably U2's most famous anthem, this song soars. It's the first song off The Joshua Tree and has gone on great guns from there. It's a staple song at U2 gigs. When it's played live it sends shivers up my spine, and I've only ever seen it on DVD or heard it on CD. It's wonderful. Bono has said whenever they play this song live, whatever their show has been like before it, you can always feel the Spirit enter the place. This song encapsulates why U2 are so great.
You can get the iMix here. If the link doesn't work search for "Tom's Beginner's Guide to U2".
How Fun is iTunes?
Hooray for Aussie iTunes. I just downloaded 13 U2 tracks that I don't own. And made a cd. So fun.
The Good Chaplin
This is the the story of a Muslim Army Chaplin who was put in Guantanamo Bay just for being suspected of being a terrorist. It's pretty horrible.
http://dox.media2.org/barista/archives/002447.html
If I were to disappear...
I've been reading stuff on all these new anti-terror laws, they look fun. ASIO and the Federal Police can jail people for "preventative" measures. So if they think you may be about to commit a terrorist offence, they can jail you. You don't have to be guilty, you just have to seem like you could be about to become guilty. And a court doesn't decide that, the police do. Plus they can bring you in for questioning and you don't have to even seem like a terrorist. You may just know a terrorist, or someone who seems like one. Or just know something about someone who seemed like a terrorist. And if they brought you in for questioning, you have no right to a lawyer and you aren't allowed to tell anyone you're there. If you tell anyone you can go to jail for it. Plus if the people you tell tell anyone they can go to jail too. That's getting jailed for telling someone that someone you knew got questioned by police because they may have know someone who may be about to be a terrorist or may know something that about some terrorism that may happen.
All this questioning can be done without the courts being involved. It's only when they get around to actually charging you with talking about talking to them, that the courts get involved.
Effectively this means that people can just disappear. The police can bring you in for questioning, or preventative detention and no-one will know you're there. They can just keep renewing their warrants to have you there and you don't have to turn up again. And if you do turn up you can't tell anyone where you've been.
So let me just say, if I do disappear, it may not be something as simple as a drowning or a late night walk in the bush that goes horribly wrong. I may not have run away. It may be that I am in police custody being questioned about things that I may or may not know about or I may or may not be about to commit.
And if I turn up and you ask me "Where have you been?" and I don't tell you, then I was probably detained by police.
The laws also state that people can be put under house arrest, given tracking devices, not allowed to attend meetings, and told who they can't talk to. This is almost the same as the banning orders the South African Government put on anyone they didn't like during apartheid.
But I don't have anything to worry about at the moment, I'm white and I'm not Muslim. How could I be a terrorist?
VHS Triumph
Just as we were leaving Video Ezy tonight we saw a bargain bin with a few old ex-rental VHS tapes for sale for $2 each. We had a look through the tapes and as David described them "They were the dregs of the dregs" (or something to that degree). I found one tape called Death Before Dishonor, it had a cheap holographic picture of a soldier in the desert pointing his pistol. Arm goes up, arm goes down, arm goes up, arm goes down... It was pretty dodgy. So I said to David "If I had $2 on me I'd buy that". He called my bluff and lent me $2. As I bought it I said to the guy at the counter "I just had to own this piece of cinematic history" He just grunted at me.
Now I own some stupid movie from 1987 which someone on IMDb said was a "feature length enlistment infomercial". Woohoo! I can't wait to watch it.
Control Room
David and I watched Control Room tonight, a documentary about the Arab news network Al Jazeera and it's reporting on the Iraqi war.
It was a good film. I've heard it set out to put a human face on a channel that most people don't understand and only really know as the channel that plays Osama bin Laden's home videos. It did it's job well. The people who work there are intelligent and concerned for their people and for their role as journalists.
One of my favourite people in the film was Capt. Josh Rushing who was the Marine in charge of talking to Al Jazeera during the war. I was expecting him to all propaganda and silly lies, but he was smart, thoughtful and willing to learn. He would listen to the Al Jazeera people and give good answers to their questions. He talked at one stage how he was more disgusted when he saw pictures of American casualties than Iraqi casualties. And when he realised what he'd done, how he'd reacted, he was extremly upset. He said "It makes me hate war, but it doesn't make me believe that we're in a world that can live without war yet." I think I want to join his fan club.
Iraq is such a strange place. It's sad, but I pray that it goes well, that it finds peace and real independence.
I started watching season 5 of The West Wing tonight. It's good but not as good as the last four. There's no Aaron Sorkin and it feels like it's missing a limb. Plus the lighting seems to have gotten worse. But I shouldn't complain.
I watched Cinderella Man today. It was a fine, fine, movie. I got real tense in all the fights, especially the big one at the end. Usually I can pick the ending, but I couldn't on this one because it's a true story. Although it ended how you would expect a Hollywood movie to end, at least I wasn't too sure.
Russ and Renee did good and the main family was really sweet. The parents were so devoted to their kids and each other, it made my heart warm. It was a heartwarming boxing movie with lots of punching. I like that.
I had a lovely day today.
I woke up early, had a shower, did my hair (well, flattened my hair), and did my best to look spic, span and incredibly sane ready for my psychological examination for Big Sister Big Brother (For those who are wondering BSBB is a mentoring program for dis-advantaged young people who need mentors). Mum offered to give me a lift into the City so we dropped Hannah at school then sat in rainy day traffic for an hour. Happily I was only about 5 minutes late.
At the YWCA (who run BSBB) I was shown into a shoe-box sized conference room and given my test. It was like doing those Maths and Science Competitions in school. I had a book full of statements and I had to circle my answer on an answer sheet. It was all multiple choice so I guess I have about a 1-in-4 chance of being insane. All the statements had to be answered with either:
F - False, never true
ST - Slightly True
MT - Mostly True
VT - Very True
They seemed to ask a lot of questions about whether I get nervous, if I take drugs, if I'm physically ill and if I often think about killing myself (I guess it's not a good example to have your mentor nervous, high, vomiting or killing themselves while you're out on an esteem building outing to the Zoo.) The questions were things like:
I have trouble controlling my anger - F
I think I have a lot to offer the world - ST
People tell my I have a drug problem - F
I think there are people inside my brain stealing my thoughts - GOGODY (Get out! Get Out Damn You!)
I would make a good stand-up comedian (Don't ask me what that had to do with anything but the very thought of it made me nervous, which probably meant I should have changed my answers to some of the earlier questions)
My favourite questions came up every 40 questions. For some reason on 40, 80, 120, 160 etc they just asked bizarre questions;
40 - My Favourite poet is Ryzard Extamper (I don't remember his actual name)
80 - I sometimes get ads in the mail I don't want
120 - My favourite sport to watch on TV is High Jump
160 - Most people would rather win than lose
200 - My favourite hobbies are Stamp Collecting and Archery
I can't remember the rest, but they were bizarre questions. And I'm not making them up. Anyway, they were fun. The whole test was fun. I was disappointed I couldn't have more interesting answers to the questions though.
After the test I decided to go for a train trip. I had a few hours to kill in the City before I met Jem. Usually when I'm in the city I sleep in the park, but because it was rainy, and I was tired, I decided to find somewhere dry I could sleep, read my book, and listen to music, so I caught a train. I went to Wollongong. It was a lovely trip. I slept and read. So relaxing.
I wandered around the Gong for a bit when I got there, ate lunch, then caught the train back again, sleeping and reading. I think I will do that kind of thing more often. Perhaps next time I will go further.
When I got back I had beer with Jem. That was good too. She's fun, Jem.
Tonight I came home and watch a movie on Foxtel with Mum.
Weekend Round-up
The Motor Show was fun. Lots of big, expensive cars. And I wanted to own lots of them. Especially the Holdens. I think perhaps it may have been a place which encouraged coveting. Although no-one really seems to care too much about that commandment these days.
Howie gets excited about an F1
I wanted to touch these tires because they looked cool, but I was too scared
Fully sic bass, bro!
Last night I went to hear Lauren sing 60s and 70s music. She was good. And it was fun. There was lots of fun, boppy songs.
Afterward Matt, Beck and I went to the pub in Belrose for a drink. I was expecting it to have lots of Saturday night drinkers in there but there were only about 8 other patrons. It was rather sad. I guess Belrose isn't the place to hang on a Saturday night. We only had time for one drink before we were kicked out so they could close up. So sad.
Today I was tired. But my drama group decided that they wanted to do a sitcom for the concert. I'm looking forward to writing that.
We, the youth group, went to the retirement village today and had lots of fun. I laughed a lot with the residents. They were most fun.
Tomorrow I have a psychological examination for the YWCA Big Sister Big Brother program. I think that will be fun. I'm hoping they tell me I'm crazy.
Because I got Tagged
1. If money were no object, what would you be doing with your life?
Well, I'm going to take that not to mean that I have unlimited money, but that I have none at all. Because if money is "no object" then that would mean that it doesn't physically exist right?
So I'd probably be a subsistence farmer. I'd specialise in growing carrots, tomato, lettuces and soybeans (for when my sisters come around to visit), but I'd make sure I had a few goats and stuff so that I could make cheese for my Greek salads and swap them at the market when I went bartering. I probably wouldn't have a gambling problem.
Of course, if money were "no object" it could just mean that money would be purely conceptual, and only ever numbers in computers, never cash. So I'd never use an ATM and I'd only ever shop at places that had EFTPOS or Visa. In that case I'd probably do a lot of online shopping. I may have a business on eBay doing something, just because, well that's what people do.
2. Money is just that - an object, so why aren't you doing it?
Because I like the smell of cash, I'm not a very good farmer, online shopping is too cumbersome for things like grocery shopping and I've never seen anything on eBay that I've wanted to buy.
3. What's better: horses or cows?
Horses. Because who ever saw a Cowboy riding a Cow? And what did the Man from Snowy River ride down the mountain? Not a cow. And what do Aragon, Legolas and Gandalf ride? And the U2 song is not called Who's Going to Ride your Wild Cows.
4. What do you think the secret to happiness is?
A cold 600mL Coke, a good DVD, and a McCain's Chicken Parmigiana on a Friday night. Of course it's only a short amount of happiness, but it would have been boring if I just said "Jesus" or "Drugs".
5. When was the last time you had a dream that you either remember well or did not want to awake from? Can you share a bit?
Well I often remember dreams. I dreamt last night that I was on a Church camp and we went canoeing in blow up rafts. It wasn't a very interesting dream. I also dreamt that I shaved off my beard and I got upset because I forgot to take a photo of it for the blog.
6. When you were a little kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
An Engineer like my Dad because my Dad drove diggers and wore a hard hat. He didn't really drive diggers but he did wear a hard had. I'd still like to drive diggers and wear a hard hat.
7. Complete this statement: Love is......
Love Is (2005) - A film/dance production.
Using their unique blend of dance, shaky video and poor sound, Breakthru' Artz tell the engaging and wildly original story of a boy, a girl, and some other guy (complete with cheesy speech and sappy music). This is teen angst in all its glory. It's hip, it's fun, and it's a celebration of many of the wonderful ways in which creative Christians try and sneak the Gospel in on unsuspecting viewers. A must see!
;)
8. Can you tell a good story?
I'll tell you one about the dreamtime...
9. Can you remember your last daydream? What was it about?
It was three questions ago and it involved driving diggers and wearing a hard hat. Before that I think it was getting married, moving to Newtown, drinking freshly squeezed orange juice for breakfast and getting the paper in the morning from my 2-square metres of concrete front yard wearing a white bathrobe.
10. If you were to thank someone today, who would you thank?
I'm sure I'll thank lots of people today. I thank everyone, for everything. My thanks comes cheap therefore probably doesn't mean much.
Thanks folks.
Who's tagged next? Sam
Last night when I was looking after Hannah she decided to try and wash her hair using laundry liquid. She just opened the bottle and poured it on her head. It was a bit of effort to get it all out so I'm hoping now that her hair's whites are whiter and her colours are brighter!
Neotown
I went over to Ryan and Libby's place tonight. After small group I jumped in my car and drove over to Newtown. I hung out in their little flat then we walked up to King St to the Dendy and watched Howl's Moving Castle. The cinemas have lots of winding corridors and red walls. It's a bit like Alice in Wonderland. The film was lots of fun. I think the guy who directed it, Hayao Miyazaki, is way cool.
After the film, at about 11:40pm we went to a little cafe where we ate fruit and yoghurt and drank chai. Then I drove home.
I had lots of fun. I can see why people are falling in love with Newtown. It has pubs, cinemas, cafes, live music venues and a theatre, all on the one street and all open till late. There are always people around too. Plus get off the main street and there's heaps of narrow alleys, little parks and terrace houses. How fun. I reckon I'd like to live there. I approve of Newtown residents.
I got tomato sauce stuck in my beard tonight too. I felt like a had a real beard then.
The Disappointing Return
We're back. Click here for Podcast 4.
The good thing about books is that they're never "down for maintenance". They just sit there on the shelf for whenever you need them.
Last night I watched Serpico because I saw that it was on Foxtel. I'd been wanting to see it for a while. Years and years. It's directed by Sidney Lumet who is one of my favourite directors.
The film was about a cop who refused to take bribes when corruption was rife in the Police. He then went on to be instrumental in establishing means to get rid of huge amounts of corruption in the force. Throughout the whole film his integrity was tested and he suffered because of the choices he made through the actions of those who were on the take and because of his own frustration at trying to fight a corrupt system. I liked seeing a character who wasn't a goodie goodie, he just believed in his cause and doing the right thing. It inspired me to have integrity and to do what is right.
Dad and I cut down some trees this afternoon. It was fun. I got to climb ladders, saw trees and repair the Foxtel cable that we pulled down. We should be drinking beer and watching footy now. Except I'm writing a Bible study.
Ideas
Tonight The Idea of North came to our church to perform. It was fun. They're damn good. Good performers, fantastic singers, nice people. I was impressed. Our little church blessed with the best a cappella group in the country.
I invited one of them to join our youth group but I don't think she was interested. She was probably too old, but we can bend the rules for people who sing good.
I also spent a lot of today organising the mail out for youth ministry this term. I kinda enjoy dull, administrative jobs. As long as you have music, or people to talk to, or best yet, both, it's pretty good. I think I could cope with having more mail outs. I think I like the containedness. There's a lot less of the messiness of humans and their relationships. Just paper, folding, envelopes and a good cd with a lot of your attention. That's a pretty good way to earn a quid or two.
Face Conversation
I'm continually having conversations about my facial hair. People come up to me and say "Tom, you're growing a beard." And this generally gets one of three responses:
1. "I can't help it, it just comes out"
2. "Yes, I've been working hard."
3. "I just forgot to shave this morning."
Now I don't really mind people talking about it, but it's not a subject that has much variance. Sometimes people want to talk about the technicalities of my beard, which isn't always the most stimulating conversation either. "Yes, you're right my moustache doesn't really connect up properly."
Other times people tell me "You're starting to look like Jesus."
To which I reply "Bless you my child."
It's not always exciting conversation but I'm usually polite.
Kemp said to me today "You're very hairy Tom"
I said "Shut up"
I haven't blogged much lately. I feel like not much that is all that remarkable has happened.
I went out to dinner last night with some of the people from Love Is. They were mostly dancers but dancers are pretty friendly. We went to Wockbar in Manly. Ben and I invented a new game where you cross your legs with each persons foot positioned in front of the other's opposite leg. Then you hit your knee and try and kick the other person's leg with your amazing reflexes. It's not exactly a high pain game, but I think it has potential.
I watched U2 on Conan O'Brian last night. It was a special U2 only show. I'm not a big fan of Conan and the show confirmed it for me. Although he did better than I've seen him ever do before. He managed to spend most of the show not talking about himself which is what he normally does in interviews. Probably the worst thing was not the show but the editing of the show. Foxtel seemed to have a bit of a hack at it which was very sad. We missed the end of Vertigo and cut straight to an ad. I was rather sad.
Miyagi Wisdom
"Never trust spiritual leader who cannot dance." - Mr Miyagi, The Next Karate Kid
I fell asleep in Hyde Park today. I slept on the grass and woke up when the wind blew cold. Sleeping in parks is good. At least when you have a bed you can go to.
Outside
I went to a Soul Night at a local church tonight. It was at an old church building that has recently had a church planted in it. It had an impressive set up. The sound guy showed me through their collection. It was very nice. Lots of radio mics, nice amps, good security system. Sweet.
When I arrived at the church it was full. People were overflowing from it. There were chairs set up outside the church in the carpark, so I decided to take one of them and listen on the outside speakers that had been set up. It was a nice night for it.
I decided to join in the worship. At first it was a little strange standing next to a mainroad, singing to a band a couldn't see, surrounded by kids playing footy, toddlers trying to run on to the road and passers by giving us funny looks. But as I stood there, it was good, because I realised it's a place where we should be worshipping more. Standing outside I could see the sky, I could see God's creation and I couldn't see the band (who are also God's creations but we won't go into that). Standing outside and singing "We must go" and "Fill us up and send us out" at least meant that I was one step closer to fulfilling that. I felt kind of stupid because there were only two of us singing outside, but it felt good too. Perhaps it felt like worship should feel more often. More uncomfortable and more costly.
Of course singing in a church carpark isn't that hard, but it's a growing experience. Maybe I'll start singing in shopping centres too. Alone.
Jesus, lover of my soul,
Jesus, I will never let you go!
But probably I won't. I doubt it'd do wonders for the Gospel.
With My Sister
I hung out with Jo today. It was fun. We had lunch together and talked about fashion and funnies, and then went to a movie.
We went and saw Little Fish which was really good. It was fantastically written. The characters were great. Cate's character was especially inspiring and Noni Hazelhurt's mother was lovely. Noni acted well too. It wasn't a particularly happy movie, but it sure did well.
Hooray.
We went and visited Grandpa and Valentina after the film and that was nice too. They're good fun.
Stump
I'm back from Black Stump and rather buggered. I was up till 4:30am this morning. Yahoo!
I didn't get hugely excited about Stump this year. Not because I don't like it, but I think because I take it more for granted now. It's like Christmas, it feels like it's always going to be there. It's better than Christmas though because it's longer, it's more fun, there's more music and you don't have to eat turkey.
Breakthru' Artz performed well. They're a talented bunch, especially them dancers.
Love Is went well. The DVD stuffed up at the beginning. It wouldn't play the first scene. I spent the whole pre-show time trying to make it work. In the end we just had to start the show and hope and pray that it came good. So the show started. The DVD stuffed up. I franticly pressed the buttons and prayed, I hear the dancers all prayed too, and the DVD worked for the first time that night.
I didn't mind that the show didn't have the preach at the end. It would have been out of context at Stump. It was strange sitting there, getting to the end of the show and telling myself I had to remain seated. I still feel like the show was made up of 3 parts but it was good to see that it worked standing alone. Yay team.
The other Breakthru' Artz show was good. I didn't do much with that. But I sat at the back and watched and it was a positive experience. I liked all the colours.
The rest of Stump was special. I didn't get to see many things. I went to a Youth Ministry Masterclass which was good. There were three youth ministers, one with the biggest youth group in Australia (literally), one with a medium sized group, and one who had been working with a group of about 12 or so. It was good to hear their stories and see what their core desires were like. It was affirming and challenging.
Paul Colman was fun and the Comedy Debate made me chortle and chuckle.
When I was walking through the village on Friday night a young girl walked up to me and said "Excuse me, would you give me a hug?" All these questions of what was allowed and not allowed and what Child Protections Guidelines say jumped to mind. And then I decided that the world needs more friendly hugs and there was little risk of anyone getting hurt, so I hugged her, and kept going.
It was one of those things that seems much more likely to happen when you get a bunch of Christians together because everyone loses their shyness because they know that everyone will be nice to them. Or at least should be.
We didn't do the commando course this year.
I showered everyday.
Hugh Evans did a really good talk this morning to send us out. I was impressed. He made me want to save the world. Or at least do my bit.
The Outback Hippies were fantastic as usual. They rocked and I sang, jumped and danced with the my traditional Stump crew for the whole 2 hours. The ground was really dry and it was so dusty in the tent I couldn't breath properly and had a sneezing fit in the last song. But it was lots of fun.
The weather was beautiful.
I liked the people I was camping with. They were good value.
I continue to appreciate God and his goodness to me.
The End
Finding Myself
It's too late to be awake. But I am. I got distracted this evening. Actually, come to think of it Karate Kid 4 is still on pause 16 minutes in from four hours ago. Hopefully it will improve in quality on pause, like when you reheat leftovers that have been marinating in the fridge for a day or two.
Anyway, I was stroking my ego just then and I was reading through my blog. I found a post where I said:
Australians should stop over moralising films. Speeches at the end of any feel good film are silly
Which I though was funny considering the speech I put at the end of Love Is.
Speaking of Love Is we're doing it again on Saturday, but I'm feeling rather disconnected and invulnerable. Probably because most people aren't going to know I wrote it, and I don't have to preach afterwards. People can hate it and I won't have to face them.
I'm a little sad there is no preach at the end. I feel like the preach was a part of the show. Like there were three distinct movements in the show, the Grandfather's Story, Josh's Story and God's/Our Story. So it's a little like having one part of a trilogy removed. Plus it was a show designed to carry the challenge at the end. Oh well, at least if the show works without the preach (which I think it will) it will prove that it isn't just cheap Christian propaganda (although it was probably that too) and it can stand on it's own. Plus I'm sure we'll do it again somewhere.
I finished reading my book, Weapons of Choice
I had wanted to read it for ages after I read an article in the Herald a while ago that was written by John Birmingham (the author) about how he came to write the book. He said he was sitting in an airport wondering how hard it would be to write a trashy airport novel, so he made up an rough synopsis on a napkin. He showed it to his friend who decided it was good idea and submitted the idea to a publisher without him knowing. The publisher asked him to write the book, so he did. I think that's how the story went.
The book is about a Naval Carrier fleet from the year 2021 who get accidentally transported back in time to 1941 right in the middle of the US Navy group sailing for the Battle of Midway.
There's lots of shooting and the future ships are cool. All the future stuff is cool, because it's not over the top futuristic like 2001, everything seems to be a rather logical evolution of technology we have now. The weapons are especially fun. I love war books. And this book is even more exciting because I've often found myself thinking "If I went back in time with today's weapons I'd be able to kick butt." Which is a rather obvious conclusion, but it's always been an intriguing idea. So I was pleased when this book came out.
The good thing about the book is that it speculates on where the war on terror will take us over the next 15 years. Plus it looks at the differences in society in the 1940s and the near future. How would a white, all male, military react to a multi-racial, multi-gender force arriving in it's midst and having to work with it? It doesn't idealise either group really.
But beyond all the anthropological exploration, it's basically just a war book. And that's fun.
Black Stump tomorrow!
I have been putting off returning my library books to College for ages because I don't like the drive and it's too far out of my way to catch the train unless I have more to do than put some books in a chute.
Anyway today I had the car with the cd player so I decided the trip to College was achievable. I drove to College, took my books in, but found that the Library was closed because of the holidays and I couldn't return my books. I drove home again.
Politics, Pub and Free Drinks
Today in Starbucks Ryan and I decided we might start a political party which is Christian, but mostly left wing. We tell everyone that we're against Abortion and Pornography and get all the votes of the religious right, but don't make a big deal that we also want to free the refugees, raise foreign aid, stop going to war against other countries illegally, save the environment, tax the rich, make education free, and lots of other lefty schemes.
I thought we could call out party "The Honest Party" or "The Biblical Party". Or "The Fishers of Men Party" so we get all the votes of those people who read it wrong and think we're "The Fishermen's Party".
Ryan also said that if we were going to become politicians in ten years we'll have to delete our blogs now. Sad that. You know then, if my blog disappears to vote for me in ten years.
After Starbucks we went to the Hornsby Inn where Ryan bought a beer and me a Coke. Or at least he tried except the woman decided that since I was drinking Coke I must be the designated driver and gave him the drink for free. It didn't matter that we both arrived in separate cars and only had one drink, the Coke was still free. That was fun. I should be a designated driver more often.
Jamie
I found Jamie Cullum's new cd, Catching Tales, in the shops today. How happy was I to find it? Quite. He's doing good for me at the moment. It has that new cd, "I don't know you but this could be the start of a beautiful friendship" feeling to it at the moment.
You worship the sun but
now can you fall for the rain?
- Jamie Cullum
Snakey Fish
Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!It would be good if Jesus told us what happens when we ask for ice cream because I like ice cream.
Matt 7:9-11
X&Y
I bought X&Y on Saturday. I had been holding out because everyone kept saying that Coldplay were almost better than U2, and Coldplay were going to be the biggest band in the world. So I decided I couldn't support such blasphemy. But I can't escape the album and the songs were getting stuck in my head, so I bought it.
It's a good album. Not U2 of course, but they're certainly solid. I do find Chris Martin's voice a little "same-same" sometimes, but you get over that. It's quite catchy, and I'm glad they aren't so reliant on the piano now, it gives the songs a bit more variety.
"Fix You" is a top quality song. So melancholy but full of hope. That's what I like.
It's been raining today. I haven't had a car. I haven't known where to go. So I'm listening to U2.
I watched Battle of Britain this afternoon which was fun. Lots of planes flying around and pilots saying "Tally-Ho!"
I should return my overdue dvd.
Hour Eleven
It's amazing. I can be working on a sermon for ages, but only ever finish writing it late the night before it is meant to be preached. Same with essays. And video projects.
I have been working on the sermon for tomorrow properlyfor the past two weeks (as opposed to thinking about itfor months) but I only managed to finish writing it just then. What is it with me and the last minute?
Well done Swans.
I just watched my first full game of AFL. It was fun.
Leauge is still better though.
Tonight I took 13 11-13 year-old boys Ice Skating. It was way fun. Except people kept falling over and hitting their heads.
I also taught scripture at our church's pre-school. I told the story of Jesus walking on water to a bunch of 3 and 4 year olds. They were very cute. I took a little Bugs Bunny figurine and a bowl of water in to show that Bugs Bunny can't walk on water and after the lesson they all crowded around wanted to play with Bugs Bunny. I felt so special.
Dukes
I went and saw The Dukes of Hazzard tonight with Sam, Martin, Anmol and Julian. I didn't know who Jessica Simpson was before I saw the film. Now I know and I think she's rather scary looking. Which is a bad thing because she's all over the film.
I liked the car driving, but other than that, it wasn't great.
Making My Sister Proud
This morning I met Matt for a catch up and I had breakfast. I had a fruit-salad with yoghurt, honey and museli and a chai latte. Jo would be pleased with me. I think it's the extra facial hair, it makes me more organic.
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.
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.
