Here's a fun thing I was fiddling with at work today. And, yes, this was work.

Mute the sound on this video and watch it while playing the video below it. When that's finished, watch the video again, but play the music on the second video from about 2 minutes 55 seconds in. Essentially you're substituting the soundtrack from the first video with the soundtrack from the second two.

The first time you watch the video it's a fun little piece about happy day in Sydney when everyone is having a good time, and a clumsy man even gets rescued from the sea.

The second time you watch the video it's about a man who almost drowns as the callous, self-absorbed world passes him by.

Niffty, huh?

Video



Music 1



Music 2

This post has been writen by my friend and youth ministry blogging guru, Graham Baldock.

We tackle the big issues here.

I moved out of my place in Artarmon. When my housemate came home and found me using his razor to shave my bum I knew it was all over.

That's not true.

I moved because my lovely friends Chez and Johnny invited me to move in with them and work at living intentionally as in a more community like way. We're not going to be a "Community House", not yet, just a friendly, welcoming house and we may work out way up to the title of Community House.

Also they want to live closer to my work.

So I moved out of my place on Friday and Saturday. Now I'm technically homeless again. But I'm living with my parents till we find a place to live. And my parents now have Bluray and wifi so it's a good place to live.

I'm looking forward to the new adventure. Chick peas, tea, community and all that. Johnny's a poet and Chez is a vegetarian. How Newtown. But we're too hipster for Newtown, we're too hipster for the inner-west. How Newtown.

Macquarie Park here we come!

I was listening to an interview with Tim Keller the other day. He talked about how sometimes the issues for mature Christians are not about right and wrong but more wise and less wise. There are decisions we have to make and neither option is sinful, but one is better than the other and we need wisdom to figure out which is best.

I liked that. I feel like I spend a lot of time having to make those types of decisions. Sometimes trying to work out the answer you feel like if you pick wrong, it'll be sinful. But often it won't be sinful, just less wise.

I'd like to be wise.

I was up at Maccas after church tonight with the young adults. There were 12 of us. I was eating a salad because I was still full of sake and Japan food from Mother's Day (Happy Mother's Day Mum!). It was Seared Chicken Caesar in case you're wondering.

About two thirds of the way through my salad, there was some shouting at the back door of Maccas. I thought "Oh a fight, I hate fights, they make me nervous." Then I saw the manager and thought "Oh good the manager is going to break it up." I moved my head so I could see better and saw that there wasn't a fight instead two guys with balaclavas had come in the back door. One was holding a large kitchen knife and the other a small axe, a hatchet if you will, with a shiny red bit on it. It looked new. They were both wearing black and one of them was holding a small bag.

I thought "Oh good, it's not a fight. Must be a practical joke. Halloween isn't for a while. It's not a very funny joke. Whoever they're friends with on the Maccas staff is gonna be pissed."

They kept shouting. It occurred to me when they shoved the manager behind the counter and the people nearest the back door got up and ran out that it wasn't actually a joke but this was a real armed robbery.

We were seated at the other end of maccas, far from the counter and far from the doors. I had a view of all the doors and the counter. I was pretty pleased to be in such a good spot. The guy with the hatchet ran behind the counter to deal with the staff, who kinda stood there looking stunned, while the guy with the knife hung around to deal with the customers. He waved the knife and swore at all of us telling us to stay where we were. It wasn't that helpful. Every time he turned his back another group of customers would run out the nearest door.

The group of Christians behind us, closer to the action looked scared and one started praying loudly to Jesus. It's to be expected if you rob a maccas on a Sunday night that someone is gonna start praying. I didn't pray. I'm guess I'm not even a Sunday Christian.

As one group of people ran out the door the guy with the knife chased them out shouting about how they should stay where they were. At that point the Christians hopped up and ran out too. They had a small girl with them. It was probably the best thing to do.

The poor robber, on the other hand, couldn't keep control of his charges. I knew how he'd be feeling, it's the same feeling I used to get every week teaching scripture. You think you're big and scary and then everyone just ignores your threats and runs away. He was hemorrhaging potential hostages like an amateur. Should have watched Heat. Had he promised us all chocolate to stay and watch his robbery I'm sure we would have been more obliging, they don't do that in Heat, but it's probably a good tactic.

Anyway, my group, we stayed. Probably within 30 seconds of the guys coming in we were the only customers left in Maccas. It felt a little special having the restaurant to ourselves. Kinda romantic perhaps, like the empty ice rink in Rocky. If it wasn't for the guys with weapons, I might have proposed to someone.

As we sat there we looked around at each other and the general consensus seemed to be that we should stay where were. We were too far from any doors to get out quickly. It never really occurred to me to leave. I saw other people leaving and I thought "That's brave. They might get stabbed." I figured sitting still and doing what you're told was probably the safest option. Plus if we left I wasn't going to get to see what happened and how often in your life do you get to witness an armed robbery?

I also felt kinda like leaving was the wrong thing to do. Like if we ran away we were abandoning the Maccas staff to their fate alone. Of course I'm sure they didn't feel like they needed us there for support, but we were all in this together. I think perhaps the same reason that I often stay behind at events and help pack up is the same reason that I felt like I should stay behind in Maccas. Bailing early isn't right.

That said, I've never considered the ethics of being a bystander (or bysitter in our case) in an armed robbery. And probably escaping is just as valid option as staying.

Anyway, once it was clear to knife dude that he'd lost control of everyone except us, he headed over to the counter to help hatchet dude. They shouted a lot about giving them money and nothing else seemed to be happening.

I found the whole thing fascinating. I didn't really freak out or even get nervous. I was hoping no one got stabbed but only because I felt like that would complicate things more than I wanted them too. I also spent time wondering what was going on behind the counter, but a lot of my thoughts were just something like "Oh yes, so this is what an armed robbery feels like." I worried a little for my fellow church friends. Some of them were freaking out a small bit. I hoped no one did anything stupid. I also spent a while trying to figure out if the robbers would get angry if I kept eating my salad. I'm not sure what I decided. I think I might have snuck in a few bits while their backs were turned.

After a bit more kerfuffle behind the counter the two guys ran out the back door they had come through. The whole thing would have taken less than two minutes. There was a momentary lull in action as everyone tried figure out if it was over. Then a bunch of us jumped up and went to the counter to see what happened, people pulled out phones to write a Facebook status update and a bunch of the patrons who escaped came back in the door, presumably to pick up the food they'd left behind, no one wants to lose those last two nuggets. I pulled out my phone and thought about doing a Facebook status update but couldn't think of anything witty to write so I put it back in my pocket and went back to eating my salad.

I think there was a little bit of discussion about calling the cops, I'm not sure if anyone did. We were all too busy on Facebook.

Suddenly there was a whole bunch of debriefing going on. We found out that no one was hurt and the guys had only gotten $200 because the safe was on a time lock.

The next 15 minutes was spent debriefing, talking about what we saw, how we felt, making jokes. The adrenaline meant that everyone laughed louder. It was prime time to tell jokes cause it made you feel like you're really funny. It was just the chemicals in the brain laughing, but who cares, you gotta take what you can get.

Eventually the cops turned up, none of them had their sirens on which was disappointing. They took our details, told us to wait for the detectives, and then when they found out all we saw were two guys in masks, told us we could go.

I stayed a little bit longer, finished my salad, thanked everyone for sharing the bonding experience with me, then went home.

The salad was pretty good, in case you're wondering.

It's been interesting watching everyone's reactions to the death of Osama. It's rather distressing to see scenes of Americans waving flags and rejoicing in the death of another human. I take no joy in the death of anyone. I have no feeling that justice has been done.

How does shooting and killing Osama make payment for the thousands of lives he took? Death seems too easy. He deserved worse.

However I do feel like his death is an inevitable consequence of a life lived at war with the most powerful nation on earth. I have no dreams of the US capturing him and locking him up and reforming him. The US could not change his heart. They could not bring back the thousands who he killed. They could only take his life. They could only execute their role to be "agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer." It was justice done man's way.

Messy problems require messy solutions.

But this isn't really a solution, is it? Terrorism will go on. War and violence will continue. Atrocities will continue on both sides. No one will win.

With this in mind, once again the violence and tragedy of this world points me to the God of this world, who brings justice not through a gun but through a cross. The life of one evil man cannot atone for the lives of the thousands of people he killed. But the life of one innocent God-man can, and does, atone for all the terror and atrocity done and to be done. The killing of an infinite God is justice for the sins of a finite race. And those who put their trust in this cross are put to death with Jesus, that they might also be given new life in the risen Jesus. It's a mercy undeserved through a death undeserved.

But justice does not just come through the cross. And Jesus will come again, and he will wield the sword. He will not let the unrepentant escape with just a simple death. Evil will meet its match.

One way or another the evil will be put to death, either at the cross of Christ, or at the sword of Christ. Justice will be done. Fear will end. Pain will cease. Life will reign. Goodness will prevail. God has won.

But until that day, I will not celebrate the death of the wicked at the hands of the wicked because I know that I too am wicked, and I too deserve a death worse that of being killed by a gun.

I will work for peace in this world. I will seek to do no violence and I will not encourage violence to be done in my name. But when evil is done, and terrible solutions are sought, I will look forward to the new and better world to come.

A new day is coming. God has won.

While Navy Seals were busy killing Osama Bin Laden, I went to the cinema to watch Justin Bieber. I was completing my challenge. I'm pretty sure I'm the only person who has taken me up on my challenge, but that's ok, I guess I'm just the only brave person who reads my blog. That's fine, you pansies, that's why I have a hairy chest and you don't.

I went to Event Maquarie. The first step was to go buy a ticket. I decided to go to the earliest session of the day. I figured 10:30am on a Monday was the time I was least likely to be stuck in a cinema full of Beiberised 12 year-old girls.

I lined up and spent the entire time in the line trying to figure out whether to ask for a ticket to just plain Never Say Never or to say something ironic and witty. I couldn't think of anything ironic and witty but I couldn't bring my self to call the movie by it's proper title just like I refuse to ask for a Brekky to GoGo at Boost juice. I ended up asking for "One to the Bieber movie."

I was expecting the woman to mock me or something but, like a true professional, she just gave me my ticket and asked where I'd like to sit. I said the middle, not that I was planning on sitting there. I had designated seating.

I took my ticket but no 3D glasses as I had my 3D glasses already in my pocket. Prepared like a scout, you wimps!

The next obstacle was getting past the ticket collector without being laughed at or jeered for being a grown man going to see Bieber in concert on a screen. The ticket collector, she was also very professional, didn't mock me once. I suspect it was all her experience collecting tickets for people going to see things like The Hottie of the Nottie and Sex and the City 2 which stopped her from grabbing her walkie talking and informing all her fellow staff members that there was creepy bearded man off to watch a tweenie girl's movie in 3D.

As I stood there embarrassed by my situation I realised that there is no ironic way to have your ticket ripped.

My last challenge was to make it into the cinema undetected. Happily I'd arrived late so the lights were already down and I could sneak in. As it turned out there was only one other person in the cinema. They were sitting right up the back. I pretended not to notice them and they pretended not to notice me. We had an unspoken agreement. We were like next-door neighbours passing in a porn shop.


Despite the rigmarole, I actually quite enjoyed the movie. I wasn't sure what I'd think of the movie. I never thought it'd be terrible. My embarrassment at seeing the movie had nothing really to do with the quality of the movie or Justin Bieber as a performer. It was only really that I was doing something that I really shouldn't be doing. I was doing something made for girls who are somewhere in-between ponies and vodka cruisers not for men who are somewhere in-between balding and a mortgage.

Anyway, it was an interesting movie. It gave me a good insight into Justin Bieber and what he's all about. From a youth ministry perspective it helped me understand teenage girl obsession a bit too. Also from a youth ministry perspective I left feeling pretty worried about what this life must be doing to the poor kid. To be literally worshipped by millions of girls must screw with the young man's head. From what I could see in the film, he has a solid bunch of people around him who keep in generally grounded. There seem to be some strong Christians there including his mum, so I'm hoping they work on him to keep him humble.

Bieber's music is pretty bland, but he is clearly pretty talented. The film itself is part concert film, part documentary about his rise to fame. The documentary bit was pretty interesting, the concert got a tad boring. I was ready for the film to end after about an hour.

Perhaps most interesting, and most embarrassing, is that the film did make me a tad emotional. Actually not a tad. I cried. Real tears. I know, it's terrible, and that's why I'm writing this so late in the post and hoping everyone has stopped reading by now.

There's a scene where Justin sings One Less Lonely Girl. During the concert the production team pick one girl out of the audience and invite her on to the stage with Bieber. She sits on a stool on the stage and he sings to her and gives her a bunch of flowers and dances around her. The scene in the film becomes a montage of girls getting given the chance to get sung to by their idol Justin Bieber, there is a lot of screaming and tears. And somehow, somehow in all that emotion, music, and in the joy of seeing all these young ones have their dreams come true, I got a lump in my throat and a few droplets of salt water trickled down from behind my 3D glasses into my lap. It was embarrassing and lovely all that same time. So emotionally confusing for a man like me.

I learnt then that there's no ironic way to cry during a Justin Bieber movie.

When the film was done, I left. I tried to sneak out without running into a cinema worker who might notice my puffy eyes. I think I was successful which is lucky, because despite all their professionalism and training I'm not sure they could have let that breach of manly conduct pass without out some public humiliation.

So did I learn from the experience? Yes I did. I learnt a lot. I learnt about Bieber. I learnt about the people who love Bieber. I learnt about facing your fears. And I learnt that if Beiber ever picks me out of the crowd for One Less Lonely Girl there is no way I'm going to be able to hold it together. I'm gonna be a blubbering mess.

The next post I write will be about Justin Bieber. So to avoid having two Bieber posts in a row, is the intro video I made for Donny Jaffa at Soul this year. Mum, you'll love it.

I have yet to go watch the Justin Bieber movie, I'll probably do it on Monday. However I have decided to be pro-Beiber, I probably won't enjoy the movie, but I don't think that should make me anti-Bieber. If I was discovered and given the opportunity to become a pop sensation when I was 14, I would have taken it. Bieber is just doing what anyone his age would do. And he hasn't done anything offensive, he hasn't been arrogant and talked himself up, he hasn't made racist or sexist music or remarks. He's been pretty innocuous really.

So I see no reason to have strong feelings about Bieber either way. But since so many people hate him so much, I'm going to like him. Go Bieber.

People don't have the slightest idea of just how hard it is to break somebody's jaw or eye socket. They think it's just the power. But it's the accuracy of the power. Every punch is thrown with bad intention and the speed of the devil. - Mike Tyson in Tyson

I'm currently at home, in the lounge terminal. On a stopover between Soul Survivor Conference and Byron Bay Blues and Roots festival. In 30 minutes my train leaves to take me to the airport.

Soul was awesome. Two kids in my youth group became Christians! Woot!

More later (if you're lucky).

Blues and Roots promises to be fun but probably with less Jesus.

Tonight I wrote a song with Matt for Soul Survivor. Then I chatted to him and Beck for a while. That was nice.

I came home. Everyone was asleep. It was 11:30pm. I watched an episode of The Wire.

Then I was hungry and I had one episode of The Wire left, ever. So I went to McDonald's, came home, and watched the episode. I'll write about the show later. The food hit the spot. I spilt some tomato sauce on my jeans.

Now it's 2:50am. And I'm probably going to go to bed.

And I'm happy. I can stay up late, watch TV and eat McDonald's whenever I want, because I'm a grown up and I'm on holidays.

Life is good.

Just in time for Soul Survivor and the sex talk, it's a brand old Wisdom with Tabitha. Enjoy.

I bought this t-shirt from Etiko the other day. It arrived this morning. I quite like it, but wearing it makes me feel like I'm on mission for a University Christian group. If I wasn't so theologically conservative I feel like I could wear it and people would say "Wow, yeah, Jesus was the ultimate socialist." However now I feel like I'm a conservative co-opting Jesus from the communists.

Still, I like the shirt.

I just saw this ad on Facebook:



Defence Force ads annoy me. Because they're like "Come join the Defence Force, have fun, make a difference, save some lives, help in disasters..." But they neglect to mention killing people.

This ad does the same thing:



It seems dumb to me that the main job of the Defence Force, as far as I can tell, is to be better killing people than the people who might want to kill us (whether they're in our country, we're in theirs or we're both in a third country). I know that's a really simplistic view, but they don't carry guns and buy bombs for nothing. The ads just don't say what it's all about.

It'd be like being asked to work at Maccas and they say "Wear a uniform, clean some tables, operate a drive-thru" but no one mentions that the main reason why you're there is to sell burgers.

Still I guess death isn't a really attractive selling point. Or if they did use death as a selling point the kind of people it attracted might not be the kind of people the Defence Force wants.

This ad was a little more honest, back in the day. We used to sing a song in school to tune from the ad it went:

"Join the Army get your head blown off,
Doesn't matter if it's hard or soft."

They should have hired us to do their recruiting.

This'll make you love the film even more. So rich.

Everything Is A Remix: KILL BILL from robgwilson.com on Vimeo.

It was Facebook night tonight at youth group. We spent most of the night running around Hornsby trying to catch people pretending to be drug dealers. They were particularly bad drug dealers because they posted clues about their whereabouts on Facebook every few minutes. Despite that, one of the drug dealers managed to stay uncaught anyway. So good on them.

I didn’t get to go hunting though because I needed to monitor base camp and be ready to go out in my ambulance car if there were any emergencies. There weren’t. I also had to stay back and work on my talk. I had virtually no time to work on the talk this week, so it was feeling like a bit of a mess.

Despite my lack of preparedness I had a lot to say. I ended up with a 20-25 minute talk rather than the 10 minutes I had to give it in. I edited a lot.

What struck me this week is how concerned parents are about Facebook. At the beginning of the term we let the parents know what we were speaking on, and each week I’d send an email. No one has said anything about any topic, until this week when suddenly parents were wanting to know what I was saying about Facebook. I guess the concern is that Facebook is a vast world that they can’t control. And the dangers are huge for teenagers. You have issues of bullying, cyber-stalking, inappropriate relationships being formed, inappropriate photos being posted, and then kids just doing things which are generally dumb.

The potential audience for dumbness is massive.

One of the illustrations I did was got the youth to imagine they were in a hall and in that hall was everyone they know, parents, friends, enemies, youth leaders, siblings, teachers, everyone. And then to imagine that also in the room is everyone that everyone they know knows.

Then I got one of the male youth leaders up and got him to put on a bikini (over his clothes). Everyone thought it was very amusing, which it was.

Then I asked the girls to imagine how they would feel if they were standing in that hall, in front of all those people, in their bikini. Awkward. Embarrassed. Uncomfortable.

The boys I then pointed out they they’re likely to do dumb things like get in bikinis too. Of if I had an older audience I would have mentioned getting drunk, and doing dumb stuff at parties. Getting naked. The only naked photos I’ve seen on Facebook are of guys. And we probably don’t want everyone seeing how dumb we are.

The point was when you stick photos of yourself on Facebook, when you make comments on Facebook, when you post stuff, you have a potential audience of thousands. And the maths backs me up.

If you have your privacy settings on Facebook as Facebook recommends the you will have photos you post and photos of you set to be able to be seen by ‘Friends of Friends’.

If you are an average Facebook user, you’ll have 120 friends.

Now say my friend Bill takes a photo of me and posts it on Facebook, and he has his photo settings to ‘Friends of Friends’ too, then with just first degree friends, on average each photo has a potential audience of 240 people.

But because the photo is set to ‘Friends of Friends’ assuming Bill and I have no mutual friends, and none of our mutual friends have mutual friends (extremely unlikely, but it’ll make it easier for the maths) then the potential audience for the photo of me that Bill took jumps from 240 people to 28,800 people (if my maths is right). That is a lot of people.

So if you do something dumb on Facebook, the potential audience for your stuff up is huge.

I think the issue is probably bigger for girls. Guys can do dumb stuff and not too many people will be interested, but we live in a culture that expects girls to be sexy. So sticking photos of yourself in your swimmers or underwear on Facebook is a huge temptation. And if you do that boys (and men) are going to look, and friends of friends are going to look. And there are potentially thousands of people who will look at photos of unsuspecting teenage girls posing on Facebook who didn’t think things through.


The point of my talk tonight was, while Facebook offers us the ability to create a custom built identity and community, it won’t be able to live up to its promise. In Jesus however, we are given an identity that is not created online, is not subject to whether people ‘like’ it or not, it does not get better or worse with our successes and failures online and offline. It is safe and secure in the by the work of Jesus on the cross. And we are brought into a community, a holy nation, a royal priesthood and family of God. And that community is not made up of people you have a loose connection to, it’s made up of people who are your brothers and sisters. In Jesus we have an identity and community that is safe, secure and very healthy.

With that in mind, our difference means that we must live differently. I encouraged the youth to live differently because they are different; to treat Facebook not as a tool to shore up their identity and community but as a tool to love God and love others and to help others love God and love each other.


As Christians, I think if we could grasp that our salvation in Jesus affects our whole life, and our character and identity is shaped by Jesus in every aspect of our lives, we wouldn’t need to have think hard about whether our silly choices in the physical world are going to end up online. Our integrity of life would mean that whatever ended up online from what happened offline would fit in with our character online and offline. It would fit in with the character we portray to our parents, friends, family, teachers, bosses, work mates and perfect strangers.

Social networking puts an end to the double life of the Sunday Christian. Instead of making us stress about what goes online, it should keep us accountable in all our life because anything could go online. It should help us live lives of integrity in every facet of life.

That said my experience of teenagers is that integrity of character isn’t always first priority. Not because they don’t value integrity. In fact I think teenagers value integrity more than many adults. Teenagers seem less willing to accept the duplicity and hypocrisy of daily life that grown ups take as par for the course.

However teenagers are still working out who they are. They aren’t asking “How do I make sure I live consistently in all areas of life?” because they are still asking “Who am I? How should I live?” When they know who they are, then they can work at living consistently. Are they the one who drinks on the weekends, the one who obeys the rules, the one who rebels, who is selfless, who is ambitious, who is seductive, who is reserved, who is fun, who is funny, who is thoughtful, who is kind? They’ll test the various aspects of their character they find coming out to see what fits. They’ll ask, what brings peace, what brings comfort, what brings happiness. When they find the character traits that fit then they’ll start asking questions about integrity.

So back to Facebook, when teenagers are discovering and forming their character, Facebook becomes a vast stage for them to test their boundaries, and discover their character and having a couple of hundred people there they can give you instant feed back about the character you’re building. And while this can be potentially harmless, it can also be very detrimental. Facebook can be a permanent record of unthinking moments. One dumb Saturday night, which in the past could be forgotten or just remembered by the few who had to carry you home, can be kept for posterity, a permanent witness that people, friends and strangers are going to interpret however they want, and most won’t interpret the night in light of lessons learnt and character built.


I guess all this musing really just leads me to conclude that we need to be helping teenagers use Facebook well. We need to encourage them to live with integrity. To be living out the character traits of who they want to be rather than who they are discovering they are.

I think older people need to be feeding back online and offline to younger people about what they value in them and what they appreciate, so that they can form a character that isn’t just shaped by the feedback of their peers, which while important will only be one perspective.

Christian teenagers need to be taught to have their identity and community thoroughly grounded in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus so that they can live differently out of that reality. If that can happen, not matter what happens online, no matter what mistakes they make, no matter what dumbness they do, they will have something deeper to hold onto, a way of living that stems from something other than just peer opinion and a character that is rooted in an identity that goes beyond any social network.

The question is though, how do we do that?

Last Sunday it was my sister Hannah's 16th birthday. It was a big day!

Dad and Hannah were going to be going out on a sailing boat thing. Sailing for the Disabled or something. However the weather meant they couldn't go, the sailing trip had to be postponed.

Still Dad decided that Hannah couldn't turn sixteen without a trip on the water, it is after all an important Australian rite of passage, that sixteenth birthday boating trip. So Dad booked him and her onto one of those jet boats that fly around Sydney Harbour so you can see all the sights at ultra high speeds while vomiting over the side or into the face of the person behind you.

However because Dad doesn't really like vomiting, eating other people's vomit or sight seeing, he thought I might be more interested. I was, I'm not a fan of vomit, but jet boats sound fun. So I was going to be Hannah's chaperone.

In the afternoon Mum, Dad and Hannah had a birthday lunch of fish and chips then picked me up after my Sunday afternoon shop for socks and undies (three pairs of undies, five pairs of socks! Hooray!) and we headed down to Sydney Harbour.

When we arrived at Circular Quay, Hannah didn't seem that excited about going on a boat. She seemed to be more interested in dancing the conga and listening to didgeridoo. I think perhaps she saw the boat and was disappointed it wasn't a real jet boat. She was expecting something with afterburners. It just wasn't hardcore enough for her.

Still we tried to convince her. No luck.

"Hannah we're going to go on a boat! Let's go have fun on the boat!"

"No no boat! Bye bye boat!"

No matter how hard we tried, Hannah wouldn't come. We kept trying right up until it was time to step on to the boat. But it wasn't going to happen.

At the last minute Dad subbed in for Hannah and went on the boat with me. Mum and Hannah stayed on the land and waved us good bye while Dad and I went jet boating for Hannah's birthday. It was good fun. No one vomitted so I think Hannah was right in not going, it certainly wouldn't have been crazy enough for her. But for pansys like Dad and I, it was pretty good fun. Plus I think Dad got to go at disability rates. That's my Dad, always scamming the system.

After the boat we had and ice cream which Hannah liked.

Maybe next birthday we'll find a jet boat with afterburners for Hannah. Or I'm hoping perhaps Dad and I get to go sky diving for Hannah's birthday or something.

It's almost 3am. That's because I've been watching The Wire.

Oh yeah. That's what I'm talkin' about.

I don't want to go video crazy, but...

This is a camp I'm speaking on in May. It's cool. I've never seen a camp with a trailer before.

Judging by the trailer, I'm pretty sure I'm not epic enough to be there, but I'm glad I get to be involved.

This got me emotional.

The Kimyal People Receive the New Testament from UFM Worldwide on Vimeo.

I was at Jem and Gem's party on Saturday night and I was talking to this person who happened to be a girl. Win. She asked me what book I was currently reading. I said "I'm reading one about the sexualisation of young girls." (It's called Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls in case you're wondering.)

She replied "Oh by Melinda Tankard Reist?"

I said "Yeah I'm really enjoying it."

And then we talked about how good the book is. And I'm feeling like this girl was probably way impressed because I'm reading a book that's full of essays all about not turning women into sex objects and not letting young girls get caught up in our society's raunch culture. I'm pretty sure I'm scoring points for both intellect and feminism.

Then a little while later, high on the success of this last exchange, I start talking to her friend who happens to also be a girl, plus Irish. Double Win.

We get onto the subject of awkward train conversations. I begin telling the Irish girl a story about a man who started talking to me on the train that day about the book I was reading.

"What book were you reading?" She asks.

I reply, happily, "It's called, Getting Real: The Sexualisation of Young Girls"

She looks at me funny then says "...and I'm changing carriages right about now."

Oh dear, something's gone horribly wrong.

It's at that point that I realise that when the person you're talking to doesn't know the book you're talking about, and when you get the title wrong and say the book is called "The Sexualisation of Young Girls" as opposed to "Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls", it's not a win for intellect and sensitive feminism, it's a win for creepy guy at the party. Bugger.

No matter how hard I tried after that, I think she always just thought I was freak.

Next time, best just to say you're reading Dan Brown.

I have a challenge for you blog readers and writers. Go see Justin Bieber: Never Say Never all by yourself, then come back and report on your experiences. It'll be a test of your courage and fortitude. It'll develop character. It'll teach you about the world.

I'm gonna do it. Who's with me? Or perhaps, not with me?

It's Soul Survivor seminar time. I'm down to do four seminars. I'm pretty sure that's the most I've ever done at Soul.

I'm doing The Bible Makes Me Giggle Parts 1 and 2, Ten Reasons Not to Become a Christian (that one is like 4 years old now) and one more. It turns out they loved my sex talks so much last year that I'm down to do another one. I called it Sex Tips from a Single Guy because I thought it'd be a funny title. But now I have to think of sex tips for 13-16 year olds that don't involve having sex. Like I'm not going to be giving anyone advice on foreplay or good positions. I'm planning on talking about how they can get in-tune with God's view of sex so they go into marriage with a healthy view of sex.

The two that I have so far are:

- Don't get pornified - i.e. don't let porn and dictate how you should behave or look or how you should expect other people to behave or look.

- Think about sex hard and often - following on from the porn one, I think young people need to be re-educated in a healthy view of sex based on the Bible, which doesn't degrade women, men or sex. To do that people are gonna have to think spend a lot of time thinking through what sex is, isn't and should be.

And that's all I got.

So blog friends, I'm hoping that you'll be willing to give me some sex tips that I can share with my friends.

Thoughts?

"Pop culture is changing. It's becoming more rock 'n' roll. And the pop icons nowadays are very fearless, unapologetic, edgy and it's a lot for people to swallow sometimes. Because people still think pop star equals role model, but it's almost impossible to walk that line." - Rihanna

Expecting a pop star to be a beacon for morality is like asking a military general to be an advocate for pacifism. It's fundamentally opposed to the role they've been asked to play. Do we blame the supplier for their product or the consumers for creating the demand?

One of my friends on Facebook posted this video on another friend of mine's wall. I eavesdropped and thought it was pretty special. So here it is:

5 years ago yesterday (today in other parts of the world) Twitter was born and it took the world by storm.

5 years ago yesterday I got a haircut and it took my head by storm.

Since the creation of Twitter I have written 3 tweets and retweeted Justin Beiber once.

Since my haircut I have continued to worry that I have too little hair on my head and too much on my back.

Happy Birthday Twitter.

We all break the same. - Mutemath

So I had a coffee today with one of my friends who is a staunch Liberal supporter. I always enjoy meeting up with him because politically we tend to disagree on almost everything while theologically we agree on almost everything. It's always amazing to me that two people can have such similar views of faith, and of what we want the final outcome in society to be, and such vastly different views on how to get there. We have very enjoyable conversations. I like people who can disagree and argue their case well. I think he argues better than me. One day he could be Prime Minsiter. I hope so.

At one stage I mentioned that I'd consider voting Greens in this state election. I wasn't saying that I was voting Greens, merely expressing that I was an undecided voter and I like some of the Green policies. Anyway, he was pretty firm in letting me know that voting Green is a terrible idea for a Christian. He was telling me that the Australian Christian Lobby doesn't support any party they just tell you not to support the Greens. Good Christians don't vote Greens.

I often think about how in politics the Christian is generally faced with the issue of choosing between voting for conservative parties which are strong on individual morality, or the leftist parties which are strong on corporate morality. No parties seem to be able to handle being both, from a Christian point of view.

Anyway, I'm not sure who to vote for this state election. I told him he was allowed to send me whatever he wanted to show why I shouldn't vote Greens.

Meanwhile, I'm gonna try and work out who to vote for. This state election is even more uninspiring than the federal, which is a real shame because I like politics when you have good choices to make. Feel free to give me some voting advice.

I was going to vote for my friend Chris Simpson but it turns out I miss out on his electorate by a street. But if you're in Willoughby, I reckon, vote for Chris, he's a good guy, and he's not a Green.

I got Hillsong United's new album Aftermath the other day and I'm really enjoying it. It's like they've decided to make music that people will want to listen to, as opposed to music giant youth groups will want to sing along to. I didn't really mind their old stuff but it had a pretty limited lifespan and there was often a large amount of soungs which just seemed like filler. This album, however seems to be an album where they put a lot of work into making art. It's like Hillsong gone indie (if something as big as Hillsong can go indie). There's a lot of instrumentals going on and music that meanders along without having to fill every spare spot with catchy choruses and moving bridges.

There are still the songs that giant youth groups can sing, they're just not as prominent.

Anyway, I think it's an album worth getting.

I also think Kanye West's new album is worth getting. In someways it's similar to the Hillsong album. Not really content wise, United doesn't have one song which mentions mothers or what anyone does with mothers in the privacy of their home. But Kanye does feel like he's been pushing himself to make art, not just loud hip-hop with choruses that'll sell. It's an album not just a collection of singles made for iTunes. And in that way United and Kayne seem to have gone on a similar trajectory. I wouldn't be surprised if Kanye was an influence on some of those United guys but you're probably not allowed to list Kanye on the liner notes of your worship album.

So there you go, there's some music for you to go listen to.



I apologise for the daggy graphics in the video.

Why don’t folks who criticize Rob Bell for wanting to let too many people in also go after people like that who want to keep too many people out? Why are we rougher on salvific generosity than on salvific stinginess? - Richard Mouw, President of Fuller Seminary

From here

The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice. - Proverbs 12:15

Too many cooks spoil the broth. - Not from Proverbs


I have been getting a lot of advice lately, from all sorts of people. It's hard to listen to everyone and do everything. Especially when one piece of advice disagrees with another piece.

It's easier being a fool sometimes.

I was at a school today and I saw a year four kid come up to his chaplain and say "Excuse me, what do you think God's top two favourite things to do are? I'll tell you what I think; I think it's loving people and inventing stuff."

I'm pretty inclinded to agree. Quite the theologian that kid.

Prime Minister Gillard was on Q and A tonight, and it was a ripper of a show. Gillard was on fire. She did a really impressive performance. Political skills wise, it was kinda like watching John Howard at work, she was that good, plus, unlike with Howard, I didn't feel dirty afterwards.

I'm still not sure I'm a Gillard fan, but I think I have more respect for her. And I agreed with her on most stuff. I enjoyed her pragmatism and willingness to answer questions. I didn't ever really feel like she avoided the questions, even the tough ones. She didn't always seem like she was giving the most genuine answer, when have you ever felt that with pollie?

Even if you don't like Gillard, you can be impressed by some quality question handling, just like I'm impressed by Howard's skills. If you haven't seen the show, go watch it on iview. It was a cracker.

Just so you know, the image isn't from this Qanda, it's from last year, but tonight's one isn't around the web yet.

So here's a question we were pondering tonight, what happens with hens and bucks nights in gay marriage? I know everyone is debating about gay marriage at the moment but this is an issue that nobody is talking about.

Say two gay men decide to get married. Is Groom One allowed to go to the bucks' night of Groom Two? Or do they stay away? And are their male friends obligated to go to two separate bucks nights? Or do they just have to choose the groom they like the most?

Also, what about the men's female friends? What party do they go to? They don't have a party to go to. The men get two parties and the girls get zero. I know people feel that not allowing gay marriage is discriminatory, but allowing gay marriage is potentially discriminatory for all those who will be left out of bucks and hens nights everywhere. It's a catch-22 really. Someone's gonna have their rights impinged, the question is just who?

Dear Women,

If I was a CEO I'd give you equal pay (or 90% at the very least) because I care.

Just make sure you don't go and get pregnant.

Love,

Tom

My sister Jo had her baby. We're all very relieved because a few of us were worried that there was no baby and she just made up the baby to cover-up her love of Pollo Campero's deep fried chicken. But it turns our her fatness was not all chicken, some of it was child.

Or in fact, it was all chicken and they've just stuck photos of a baby on Facebook while she goes to Pollo Campero rehab.

But I'm gonna trust that while my family is sometimes devious about things like this, they're not skilled enough to execute a conspiracy of such massive proportions without my help. So I believe there is a baby and his name is Sebastian. And this is the alleged nephew:



Photo credit: Chochy Morales (my sister in-law once removed or something)

He's very cute.

I picked up Hannah, my younger sister, from after school care today, and I was talking to her about how she's an auntie and I'm an uncle, and I couldn't quite get my head around that. I feel the weight of responsibility now to do the barbecue at Christmas and forget birthdays, uncles have a hard job.

If you notice Sebastian is looking more white than brown. Seeing as his father is a good looking Latino we were hoping for a lady killer mixed-race kid. Mixed race people are almost always hot (unless you do something dangerous like mix an Irish with a Kiwi). They tell me the baby will get darker soon. I hope so. I only allow hot people in my family. Lucky he's a baby, because babies are always cute. He has until he's three to become good looking or I'm voting him out of the family.

Anyway congratulations to Jo for having a baby and not just some chicken. Congratulations to Sebastian for being born, beautiful and a symbol of Australia and Guatemala's friendship and close military alliance. Congratulations to Victor for becoming a Dad and sitting on a couch and eating sandwiches during the labour.


Just so you know, I am actually very thankful to God for Sebastian. I don't care how un-Latino he looks... well I don't care much. And I'm very proud of my sister for having a baby. I wouldn't do it even if I could. I'm really looking forward to meeting him, and forgetting his birthday regularly. Well done, Jo, Victor and Sebastian. Praise God for all his many blessings including children and Pollo Campero!

I read this blogpost on Ed Stetzer's blog about how huge amounts of evangelicals in the US are in favor of cutting foreign aid, welfare, unemployment benefits and education in the federal budget, as opposed to spending on the military and security.

I don't understand how a Christian can arrive at a view like that. Like if you said to Jesus "Should the government spend $10 on clean water for an African village or should it buy some bullets?" I feel like I know what Jesus' answer would be.

But Stetzer poses the question about how the church should be responding to the talk of the federal budget and the responses he got were enlightening.

Basically, the people who were in favour of budget cuts to aid and education seem to be saying that it's wrong for the Christian to be outsourcing their individual responsibility to help the poor to the government. Christians should be changing the world, not getting their government to do it for them. When we support aid we're just avoiding what we should be doing ourselves.

Now this idea makes more sense than just saying "Stuff poor people, let's buy tanks!" (Though tanks are awesome!)

The advantages to aid coming from the church and individuals is that it can bypass the government's political agenda, money doesn't have to be spent on propping up government backed dictators, or doing aid work to ultimately benefit the donor country. It means that aid can go where it's needed, with no agenda or a gospel agenda. Both agendas I think would be more appealing to Jesus.

However my view is that if the government is going to take the money that God has entrusted me with then I would like them to be spending it on things that seem to be more in-line with God's Kingdom values that nuclear submarines. Plus as a member of a democracy when the government that represents me spends money they do it on my behalf. So it is my responsibility to urge them to spend the money on the things that align with my values. As a Christian that falls more in the camp of aid and education than national security. I'm not shirking my responsibility by seeking that my government helps the poor and marginalised, I'm fulfilling it. And with the money that is left over after tax I still have a responsibility as a Christian to spend my money on helping the poor and marginalised. It's not either/or, it's both.

That's what I think. I might put some of that in a comment.

Anyway, what I am pleased about is that now I have a better understanding of why people disagree with government aid and it's not as loony as it first seemed.

Here are my Oscar picks for this year.

Actor in a Leading Role

• Javier Bardem in “Biutiful”
• Jeff Bridges in “True Grit”
• Jesse Eisenberg in “The Social Network”
• Colin Firth in “The King's Speech”
• James Franco in “127 Hours”

Actor in a Supporting Role

• Christian Bale in “The Fighter”
• John Hawkes in “Winter's Bone”
• Jeremy Renner in “The Town”
• Mark Ruffalo in “The Kids Are All Right”
• Geoffrey Rush in “The King's Speech”

Actress in a Leading Role

• Annette Bening in “The Kids Are All Right”
• Nicole Kidman in “Rabbit Hole”
• Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter's Bone”
• Natalie Portman in “Black Swan”
• Michelle Williams in “Blue Valentine”

Actress in a Supporting Role

• Amy Adams in “The Fighter”
• Helena Bonham Carter in “The King's Speech”
• Melissa Leo in “The Fighter”
• Hailee Steinfeld in “True Grit”
• Jacki Weaver in “Animal Kingdom”

Animated Feature Film

• “How to Train Your Dragon” Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois
• “The Illusionist” Sylvain Chomet
• “Toy Story 3” Lee Unkrich

Art Direction

• “Alice in Wonderland”
Production Design: Robert Stromberg; Set Decoration: Karen O'Hara
• “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1”
Production Design: Stuart Craig; Set Decoration: Stephenie McMillan
• “Inception”
Production Design: Guy Hendrix Dyas; Set Decoration: Larry Dias and Doug Mowat
• “The King's Speech”
Production Design: Eve Stewart; Set Decoration: Judy Farr
• “True Grit”
Production Design: Jess Gonchor; Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh

Cinematography

• “Black Swan” Matthew Libatique
• “Inception” Wally Pfister
• “The King's Speech” Danny Cohen
• “The Social Network” Jeff Cronenweth
• “True Grit” Roger Deakins

Costume Design

• “Alice in Wonderland” Colleen Atwood
• “I Am Love” Antonella Cannarozzi
• “The King's Speech” Jenny Beavan
• “The Tempest” Sandy Powell
• “True Grit” Mary Zophres

Directing

• “Black Swan” Darren Aronofsky
• “The Fighter” David O. Russell
• “The King's Speech” Tom Hooper
• “The Social Network” David Fincher
• “True Grit” Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

Documentary (Feature)

• “Exit through the Gift Shop” Banksy and Jaimie D'Cruz
• “Gasland” Josh Fox and Trish Adlesic
• “Inside Job” Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
• “Restrepo” Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger
• “Waste Land” Lucy Walker and Angus Aynsley

Documentary (Short Subject)

• “Killing in the Name” Jed Rothstein
• “Poster Girl” Sara Nesson and Mitchell W. Block
• “Strangers No More” Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon
• “Sun Come Up” Jennifer Redfearn and Tim Metzger
• “The Warriors of Qiugang” Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon

Film Editing

• “Black Swan” Andrew Weisblum
• “The Fighter” Pamela Martin
• “The King's Speech” Tariq Anwar
• “127 Hours” Jon Harris
• “The Social Network” Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter

Foreign Language Film

• “Biutiful” Mexico
• “Dogtooth” Greece
• “In a Better World” Denmark
• “Incendies” Canada
• “Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi)” Algeria

Makeup

• “Barney's Version” Adrien Morot
• “The Way Back” Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng
• “The Wolfman” Rick Baker and Dave Elsey

Music (Original Score)

• “How to Train Your Dragon” John Powell
• “Inception” Hans Zimmer
• “The King's Speech” Alexandre Desplat
• “127 Hours” A.R. Rahman
• “The Social Network” Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

Music (Original Song)

• “Coming Home” from “Country Strong” Music and Lyric by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
• “I See the Light” from “Tangled” Music by Alan Menken Lyric by Glenn Slater
• “If I Rise” from “127 Hours” Music by A.R. Rahman Lyric by Dido and Rollo Armstrong
• “We Belong Together” from “Toy Story 3" Music and Lyric by Randy Newman

Best Picture

• “Black Swan” Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver and Scott Franklin, Producers
• “The Fighter” David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman and Mark Wahlberg, Producers
• “Inception” Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan, Producers
• “The Kids Are All Right” Gary Gilbert, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte and Celine Rattray, Producers
• “The King's Speech” Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Gareth Unwin, Producers
• “127 Hours” Christian Colson, Danny Boyle and John Smithson, Producers
• “The Social Network” Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca and Ceán Chaffin, Producers
• “Toy Story 3” Darla K. Anderson, Producer
• “True Grit” Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, Producers
• “Winter's Bone" Anne Rosellini and Alix Madigan-Yorkin, Producers

Short Film (Animated)

• “Day & Night” Teddy Newton
• “The Gruffalo” Jakob Schuh and Max Lang
• “Let's Pollute” Geefwee Boedoe
• “The Lost Thing” Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann
• “Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary)” Bastien Dubois

Short Film (Live Action)

• “The Confession” Tanel Toom
• “The Crush” Michael Creagh
• “God of Love” Luke Matheny
• “Na Wewe” Ivan Goldschmidt
• “Wish 143” Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite

Sound Editing

• “Inception” Richard King
• “Toy Story 3” Tom Myers and Michael Silvers
• “Tron: Legacy” Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague
• “True Grit” Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey
• “Unstoppable” Mark P. Stoeckinger

Sound Mixing

• “Inception” Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick
• “The King's Speech” Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen and John Midgley
• “Salt” Jeffrey J. Haboush, Greg P. Russell, Scott Millan and William Sarokin
• “The Social Network” Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick and Mark Weingarten
• “True Grit” Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland

Visual Effects

• “Alice in Wonderland” Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips
• “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1” Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi
• “Hereafter” Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojansky and Joe Farrell
• “Inception” Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb
• “Iron Man 2” Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

• “127 Hours” Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy
• “The Social Network” Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin
• “Toy Story 3” Screenplay by Michael Arndt; Story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich
• “True Grit” Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
• “Winter's Bone” Adapted for the screen by Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini

Writing (Original Screenplay)

• “Another Year” Written by Mike Leigh
• “The Fighter” Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson;
Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson
• “Inception” Written by Christopher Nolan
• “The Kids Are All Right” Written by Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg
• “The King's Speech” Screenplay by David Seidler

“Late Summer” by C.S. Lewis

I, dusty and bedraggled as I am,
Pestered with wasps and weed and making jam,
Blowzy and stale, my welcome long outstayed,
Proved false in every promise that I made,
At my beginning I believed, like you,
Something would come of all my green and blue.
Mortals remember, looking on the thing
I am, that I, even I, was once a spring.


I found it here.

This is a good film clip. It's certainly not your usual hip-hop fare. There are no jets, girls in bikinis, cars or bling. In fact it's not really like most film clips of any genre. It's not trying to be funny, it doesn't have some terribly unsubtle storyline running through it, it's not just an advertisment or a chance to be a sexy as possible.

If you want a music video where the video and the music work to serve each other, this is the one to watch. I'm impressed. If you're really keen watch the half-hour version, it's good too.

Today I had a shoelace coming out of my shoe and dragging on the ground. I noticed it just as I was walking into the toilets at Hoyts to do a wee. I had been planning to use the urinal but had to change my plans because, had I gone to the wee wall, there's a high chance my shoelace would have fallen through the grate and into the urine flowing rapidly below. I re-adjusted my heading and went to a proper toilet instead.

It's because of quick thinking and ingenious problem solving like this that wars are won, nuclear meltdowns are averted and men don't go around smelling like urinals as often.

It's also a clear indication of why men have harder lives than women. Women don't have to contend with such dangers or make decisions of such magnitude on a daily basis.


Speaking of women having hard lives, my sister's due to have a baby today. How exciting. If the nurses know about anatomy then she's having a small man. May he grow up to have clean shoelaces and a peaceful life.

I made a list of things I wanted to achieve by the end of the year today. If all goes according to plan, I'll have $1000 in a savings account and a tidy room.

Reach for the stars.

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

Happy Valentines Day and all that.

I've been thinking about being better at dating lately.

A friend challenged me to be engaged by the end of the year, and there's nothing I love more than a challenge. Except perhaps potato wedges. And Thai food.

Oh and movies.

But aside from those things (and some other things I've not mentioned), there's nothing I love more than a challenge.

Actually I only really like challenges when people are challenging me to do something I want to do. "Tom, I challenge you to go a month without eating Thai food." That's a crap challenge, who wants to do that?

"Tom, I challenge you to go the the movies 15 times in one weekend." Now that's a good challenge.

So getting challenged to be engaged is a good challenge because I would actually like to get engaged. I'm very happy being single, but I reckon I could be pretty happy being engaged too. Particularly if I was engaged to someone I was in love with, rather than just someone I was getting engaged to to successfully complete a challenge.

Still I didn't accept the challenge, because though I am romantically deficient even I can see that getting engaged to win a challenge is a bad reason to get engaged. Especially since my friend didn't offer me a reward for success. I would only get engaged to someone I didn't love if there was a particularly handsome reward, like a Ferrari, or my own kidnapped Thai chef to live in my kitchen and cook for me.

However what this thinking about relationships has meant is that I have decided to be more open to getting to know women this year. And I have also decided to let my friends meddle a bit more in my love life, like setting me up and stuff. The idea doesn't particularly excite me but if there is anything that the last half of my life has taught me, it's that I'm pretty much romantically incapable by myself. Perhaps it's more a team sport, so I should let people help out a bit more.

I know I blogged last year about how happy I was being single, and I am still happy. Singleness rocks! But who knows I might get a wife who I love out of this, or even my very own Thai chef.

These are prime dating years of my life, what's the worst that can happen? Apart from losing my freedom and ending up married to someone I despise, things can't go too badly wrong can they?

I have tried to avoid blogging about gay marriage, but Dicker just wrote a good post on it which you should read, so I just thought I'd agree.

My general feeling is I'm quite happy for homosexual marriage to be allowed. Christians don't own marriage and I don't think we have the right to dictate who gets married and who doesn't. It's silly for us to impose our morality on a bunch of people who don't agree with our beliefs.

I do think that Churches should have the right to not marry homosexual couples. We shouldn't be forced to sanction something which we fundamentally disagree with.

What I'm wondering is, does the church currently have the right to discriminate against hetrosexual couples who want to get married? Could my pastor refuse to marry a couple who formed as an adulterous relationship? Could they refuse to marry someone who got divorced but didn't meet the Biblical guidelines for divorce? I assume they can, but I wonder if that will always be the case.

It's interesting that there is an article in SMH today about religious organisations fighting to maintain their rights to hire and fire in relation to the moral (particulaly sexual) behaviour of their employees and potential employees.

The writer seems pretty outraged that religious organisations would be so callous as to destroy someone's career because of an adulterous relationship even if their sexual conduct isn't directly related to their job. But I think if the religious institutions make clear the standards of behaviour expected from the outset they should be allowed to decide who they do and don't employ if it's vital to their faith.

If the NRL can fire or suspend a footballer for bad sexual conduct, though their sex life has nothing to do with how well they play football, then religious organisations should have similar rights, even if their standards of behaviour are a little more exacting.

Anyway, I'm sure there's something here for everyone to disagree with. But thems are my thoughts.

I had another night of youth group last night. I'm in my 11th year of youth ministry this year. I'm pretty sure that makes me some kinda veteran. If youth ministry had a life cycle, I would have died twice and now be reincarnated as a dolphin.

But what I've noticed in my many years of youth ministry is that there are a few things you can always expect to happen in youth ministry.

- If you have chips they will always end up on the floor. And if you have chips in a small group there is always one kid whose chip eating skills are slightly deficient, and they will end up with an inverted halo of chips on the floor around them, like they are some deity who has been visited by worshippers that lay offerings of crisps at their feet.

- If there's a ball, there will be soccer. It doesn't matter how small the room, or how un-soccer like the ball, if there's a ball there will be soccer. "Oh we're in a cupboard and I just found an elliptical cushion. Soccer!"

- You can say a thousand things of great spiritual importance but the one time you make a joke that you would never want the parents to hear, that's the one thing they remember and repeat for weeks.

- At any given moment in a youth night there is an 85% chance that there is at least one group of girls standing off to the side, giggling. In all my years of youth ministry, I have never once heard one of these conversations so I have no idea what they giggle about.

- In every youth leadership team for every one leader that is super organised there are five leaders who prepare during the first 10 minutes of youth group.

- People love to donate stuff to the youth group. Sometimes this is awesome and you score cool stuff usually it's not. "Oh I was just cleaning up and I found 200 old issues of "Popular Mechanics". I thought the youth group might want it so I've just left them in the youth cupboard for you."

- On that note, every church has at least on youth cupboard, but no one is quite sure whats in it or how it got there. Like the 40 pairs of stockings, the 4 half used rolls of toilet paper, or the box of lollies that went out of date in 1995.

- There is often a boy who all the girls like, and there is often a girl who all the boys like. And there is almost always a boy who all the leaders like and think the girls should like, but they don't and a girl who all the leaders like and think the boys should like, but they don't. This is eternally dissatisfying. (When I say the leaders like them I don't mean like-like, just to clear that up.)

- Youth leaders think their youth group should start dating each other until they do, then they think they should stop.

- There's always one kid who has been coming for a year, but no one can remember their name.

That's all I got for now. If you have more, feel free to add them. Right now, I should go get on with my day.

It annoys me when I read articles about what the Bible says from people who don't really know what the Bible says. I read an article by Katherine Feeney on SMH who "is a blogger, multimedia guru and entertainment reporter", and has decided to write about what the Bible says about sex. A little bit at least. She's really just using it as a spring board to get people to talk about how they make moral decisions on sex. None the less she speaks authoritatively about things I'm pretty sure she doesn't know about.

I'm sure it annoys scientists when I talk about science and molecules and nuclear atomising and stuff.

Aside from the fact that I was annoyed, it intrigued me that in the article she says this:

If the Bible is actually more erotic, more ‘liberal’ or socially progressive than otherwise assumed, does it deserve more credit as a contemporary reference point for our love and sex lives?

It's interesting that for her the way you decide if the Bible should have an influence is if it is erotic, liberal or socially progressive. She's not concerned if it's right, or true, or God-given. If the Bible is those things, it'll be those things because it's socially progressive. Eroticism, liberalism and social progression are the test for relevancy, authority and contemporary reference points.

That doesn't make much sense to me, I'd have things the other way around, but then again, I don't really know what I'm talking about.

I went and saw Black Swan tonight. It was intense. I spent the whole movie feeling uncomfortable.

However it was very, very good. Natalie was brilliant. And Aronofsky directs like a machine. And it hurts your brain. It's like Step Up gone evil.

I love Oscar season.

Remembered history says that David ran up to me on my first day of primary school and said "Will you be my friend?" and we've been friends ever since.

On Saturday I went to Melbourne see him get married to Andreana. It was, to be sure, a lovely wedding. If I'm honest I'll probably forget the vows, though I liked them more than most. I'll probably forget that I had to pretend to be a water pot, though I've never done that before, least of all in the middle of a wedding ceremony. I'll probably forget that there were people handing out food and drink before the ceremony or that the whole thing happened on soggy ground while the rain made empty threats to come. I'll forget the conversations I had before and after, I'm already forgetting them. I'll forget the jokes Howie and I made as MCs at the reception, and I'll forget Russell the manager of the bowling club who kept asking us questions about the wedding we didn't know, ("We're just the MCs!"). I'll forget that there were three different types of cake and that I forgot to bring a belt and a jacket. I'll forget that Anmol ate two cheeseburgers on our way home.

I'll forget most things about Saturday.

But then again, I've forgotten most of the things David and I have done together as friends. The few significant moments are eclipsed by the thousands of insignificant ones. But whatever the memories are, when David asked me to be his friend he changed our lives. Neither of us would be where we or who we are today, if it wasn't for that moment 23 years ago when David began something significant.

So while I will mostly forget the wedding, I probably won't forget that under a giant tree one February afternoon in 2011 in Melbourne, one of my oldest friends married one of his newest friends. They will profoundly change each other's lives. My prayer is that they help each other be the best David and Andreana they can be and they love each other in all the forgettable moments as well as the memorable ones.

For myself, I'm thankful that David is still beginning significant things and creating relationships that change lives.

I'm working on a talk for youth group on pop music so I'm listening to the top fifty. It took me till the second chorus of "Hold it Against me" to notice that when Britney Spears sings "If I said I want your body now, would you hold it against me?", it's actually a double meaning. She's a clever girl that Britney. A regular wordsmith. A Hemingway for the pop scene.

I was driving home today, and while I was stopped at some lights in Lindfield this little white car pulled up beside me. There seemed to be a lot of movement in the car, so I looked at it. Inside were two girls. The girls were looking at me and the girl in the passenger seat seemed to be leaning over the driver to wind down her window. I thought it was odd but didn't want to stare so I looked back at the car in front. The little car beeped so I looked back and both girls were still looking at me, the window was down now. They were giggling, one waved, and the other did the Thumb-Pinky wave at me. I thought "Oh goodness, I think they might be flirting." So I smiled an indulgent and probably rudely dismissive smile, and then drove off (the lights had changed) and tried not to look at them again, just in case they really were flirting. I don't know how to do inter-car flirting so I thought my best response was just to drive away as quickly as possible. Shame really, because had I known what to do, I could be partying with the ladies right now.

Sigh.

Personally I'm happy to pay a levy to rebuild Queensland. I won't because I don't earn enough, but if they decided to take 0.5% of my pay to go get a car out of a creek or something, that'd be fine by me.

I can't see what everyone's complaining about.

I left the Howie's tonight after doing some rehersing for our LIVE VIDEO tomorrow night and I called Ant to see what we were planning for tomorrow day. As I was talking on the phone, I could hear someone in the street talking. I looked around and saw someone else talking on the phone as they walked along. And they seemed to be only talking when Ant was talking. And suprise, suprise, it was Ant. I called him just as he walked down the street that I was in. Amazing.

So we hung up and talking in real life.

Tonight left my unit and I went downstairs to do my washing in the laundry. I left the unit door open. My housemate went out and thought I was in unit, so he closed the door. He hopped in his car and drove away. I kept sorting my washing. When I was done I went back up to the unit only to find the door was locked and I had no keys. Bugger.

I really needed to wee. I rang my housemate to find out how long he'd be out - about half-an-hour. I went to the park and did a wee, then I went to visit my friends the Witteveens. It was good. And my clothes got cleaned. So it was a productive night.

"You can never know the future, so make friends with the past and your present will be a kind companion."

I made that up myself.

just then

...thinking about going into the inspirational quote business.

"You can never know the future, and your past is out to get you, but watch out, it's the present that will punch you in the face while you're not looking."

Totally inspired

written for cynics.


"You can never grasp the future, the past is out of reach, but the present is in your hands."


OMG!


...freaking deep!

<3


I love me.

I remember hearing a lot during the early part of the Iraq war/occupation about people getting shot at checkpoints. The soldiers manning the checkpoint would signal for cars to stop and they'd keep coming, so the soldiers thinking they were a threat would shoot them. Then they'd find that in the car it was a just a family going to visit relatives or something equally benign.

I remember thinking "Why wouldn't those people stop?" I couldn't imagine why they would just keep driving and get shot up.

I read in Time magazine that when the soldiers would signal a car to stop they would hold out "an open palm, waving downward". It's a symbol we all know means "stop". Unfortunately for Iraqis it means "come". So they would come thinking they were doing the right thing, the soldiers would think they were a threat, and shoot them.

These days the soldiers stop cars by holding out a clenched fist.

I've kept thinking about that since I first read it. Something so simple, some small bit of cultural knowledge, could have saved so many innocent lives.

Communication is a dangerous and tricky business.

People often ask me what I do when I'm at work during the holidays. The answer to this question is vast and profound. Today I designed covers for the resource we're printing. And I looked at photos of boats, also for the resource we're printing. Plus I listened to This American Life on the internet. Not for work, but I'm doing work that means I can listen to stuff while I work, so I do.

I also ate fried rice.

So if you're wondering, that's what I do.

I went out to my car this morning and discovered I had a parking fine and a bird had pooped on my car, twice. Or perhaps two birds had pooped on my car once each. I'm not sure. Probably option two, I hear they work in pairs.

On the matter of the parking fine, it was for $430 because I was allegedly parking in a disabled parking zone. This is untrue. I was parked in a "No Parking" zone. It became no parking at 8:30 this morning, and I forgot that when I parked my car last night. So I was fined, but not fined for the thing I was doing. And the difference between a "No Parking" fine and a disabled parking fine is about $350.

So it looks like I'll be going to court, which is exciting.

As it turns out then, I'm more upset about the birds than the fine. Because the fine I can fight, the birds I can't.

I went to see Blue Valentine tonight with Lesley and Jem.

I had been wanting to see it ever since I read how they shot it. The film is set over two periods, about 6 years apart. So they filmed the first part 6 years ago, and the last part recently. That was a really exciting idea for me. To have people that committed to a project that they'd start it and come back. I can't think of anything which I started 6 years ago which I'd come back to. I'd just want to start the whole thing again.

The film itself is a pretty depressing look at how a relationship can fall apart. All the two main characters' initial stages of falling in love are intertwined with the dying days of their marriage. It's the sort of film that I watch and wish I was in a relationship because I'd love to see if I could do better. I'm not sure I could, it's probably just the arrogance of the untested but these sorts of films make me want to give it a shot. It's funny how films about relationships failing make me more desirous of a relationship than films where things go well.

Anyway, the film is very well done. Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling are both wonderful. The script is very well written. And the direction is pretty spot on. Nothing is over played. My biggest issue with the film is that I struggled to see how Ryan Gosling's character could change so much over the time period of the film, but I think that mainly is due to the wardrobe. The old-Gosling/new-Gosling change is most significant in his clothes. The worst bit of the film certainly is his 2010 wardrobe, all red-neck and seedy glasses. Still it's not actually a huge part of the film, but it did bug me.

Aside from that, it's excellent. It won't cheer you up, but it is quality cinema.

Today I spent most of the day at work reading celebrity tweets. It was hard. I want to go back to my normal work of watching YouTube. That's much better toil.

I brought in the new year by defending the US against it's Russian invaders in Modern Warfare 2* (Thanks to Dingo and his Xbox). It was pretty fun.

I heard the 9pm fireworks in the city, but the midnight ones were lost in the noise of automatic gun fire.

As I hoped, I had a very good NYE.

What I am excited about is the annual New Years KFC and movie. That never lets me down. Bring is on!


*Yes, I know Black Ops is out gamers, but I haven't finished MW2 yet

It's New Year's Eve.

And where am I?

I'm at home.

And I'm happy.

No, really, I am.


I spent a lot of time trying to work out what to do this evening. I had a few options. Parties, gatherings, fireworks. The problem with New Years Eve is that it's always so full of expectation of having an excellent night. And sometimes it is excellent but sometimes it's a real disappointment. Usually though, it has to do with expectations. If things go better than you expect, your NYE rocks. If they don't, it doesn't. If you want a quiet one and it's not quiet enough, or it's too quiet, your NYE sucks. If you want an awesome night out at a party or on the harbour but your friends are less fun than you hoped or your friends are having heaps of fun but they are somewhere else, you're let down.

Tomorrow my house mates come home. I've had the house to myself the past few days and it's been great. I've done a lot of sitting around, watching DVDs, sleeping and playing Xbox. I figured, I can just do more of that tonight. And it'll probably be exactly what I expect. The company probably won't do anything surprising, and I really do love having the house to myself. Expectations won't let me down.

So that's what I'm doing. I've watched a DVD, eaten butter chicken, read my Bible and prayed. Now I'm blogging (obviously), I might read soon, watch a DVD, who knows. I know it all sounds old and dull but so far it's been fun. I'm on holidays, so I'm gonna do what I want, and this is great.

On Wednesday I was talking to Lesley about what she was doing and she said she might just stay home. At the time the idea sounded appalling. However, it grew on me. Not that I don't like going out. But I don't like being let down, and for a night so full of expectation as NYE, I'm going to expect nothing, do not much, and probably come out on top. On the other hand, the flat could burn down, I could have a terrible accident and have my arm amputated by the DVD player and then the New Year's Eve will be a let down. So far, however, it's going well. Thanks Lesley.

Introverts unite (alone)!

I found out today that your friend and mine, Natalie Portman is engaged and pregnant.

While I wish her all the best, it's hard when all the people you've been holding a flame for fall for other people, and get on with life. First it was Winnie from The Wonder Years and now Natalie.

What's a man to do?

It's times like this when we need James Blunt to sing for our hearts. Sing it for me tonight Blunty:

I went to see Tron Legacy today with my Auntie. It was pretty awesome. It looked great. The 3D was as good as or better than Avatar. It wasn't obtrusive at all.

The opening credits were almost worth the price of the ticket along. But I love good opening credits. And what totally was worth the price of the ticket was the music by Daft Punk. It was great. The film could be an extended Daft Punk film clip. Plus it was nice to see their cameo.

The story was pretty silly. But it wasn't pretentious (unlike Avatar), it was just trying to be a whole lot of fun with a lot of cool stuff. And that it was.

You should probably go see Tron.

Here's my theological question for the week:

If Jesus decided not to die on the cross, would it have been a sin?

Someone on camp asked me and I'm still thinking it through.