I hope it rains so much we spend the next three weeks drying our washing indoors.

Some things I am thankful for:

They started in an order, but quickly just became whatever came to mind

God
Jesus
Holy Spirit
My Family
My Friends
Movies
Bed
McCain's Crunchy Potato Wedges
The Wallflowers
Sleep
CDs
Books
DVDs
U2
My Computer
Video Editing
My Office
My Church
Young People
Old People
Middle-Aged People
Water
Fresh Air
Dogs that don't bark
Dogs that do
Green P-Plates
Black Licenses
Blogs
Email
Porridge
Fitness
Westfield
Steven Spielberg
Panavision
Youthworks
The Anglican Church
Noisy Speakers
Flashing Lights
Forgiveness
Health
Cars
Grace
The Gospel
The Bible
The Pub
New People
Old Friends
Mobile Phones
Digital Cameras
Woolworths
Adoption
Love
Doctors
Doors
Windows
Glasses
Hot Water Heaters
Paper
Mechanical Pencils
Triple Chip Cameras
Money
Being Broke
Heaven
Earth
Birthdays
Parties
Flirting
Honesty
Humour
Shenanigans
Shoes
Singing
and
Summer

Some days are better than others

Some days are dry
Some days are leaky
Some days come clean
Other days are sneaky
Some days take less but most days take more
Some slip through your fingers and onto the floor - U2

City, Cinema and Rude Awakenings

When I come to the city I spend a lot of time walking up and down it.

I have today. I keep thinking there might be something I want to watch on at the cinema so I walk to cinema, have a look, nope, nothing on. Then I'll find something else to do. And it'll occur to me that there might be something I want to watch on at the cinema, so I walk to a cinema and nope, nothing on. I've done that three times today.

In between I've bought a book, The Da Vinci Code (which looks set to be a rollicking good read, and completely heretical), had hot chocolate with Gloria (Jean), checked out Circular Quay, and looked at tall buildings. I'm not quite sure if I've had a good time yet, but it certainly beats sitting at home.

Speaking of home, I woke up this morning to a knock at the door. I decided to ignore it because I wasn't really dressed for visitors. I don't feel like parading around in only my boxers for just any old person that knocks on my door. Anyway, I waited until I heard the gate again and I decided they must be gone. "Away with you, you mystery knocker." Then the neighborhood dogs started barking. And I heard footsteps in the bush behind my house. This spurred me to action. I got up, looked out my window and noticed there was a person in my backyard. She was taking photos of my house. I had two thoughts about who she may be, 1. A thief casing our house, so they can steal all our expensive home appliances or 2. An Al Qaeda operative taking photos so she could bomb our house. Alert but not alarmed, I dressed myself in yesterday's clothes, and headed outside looking tough and half awake.


I walk out the door and by this stage she had moved to taking photos in the front yard. "Oh Hi, I'm and architect" (Likely story) "I talked to your Mum last night, she said I could take photos" (Who said you could talk to my Mum?) "I knocked on the door but no one answered" (That's because I didn't want to speak to you) "Did you just wake up?" (That's none of your business)

"Yes" I said

"I've already seen in your room" (What the hell!?! Was I in there?) "You mum showed it to me, she was embarrassed about the mess" (Everyone is out to get me) "Is this yours here?"

"No, mines the other one"

"Well, ok then. I've finished now."

"Ok"

"Bye"

Off she went and I went and had a shower.

Today was nice.

I went to Hillsong Conference tonight, and that was interesting. Large. Joyce managed to take the Bible out of context quite well, tickle our ears and give us fluff. They had cool flashing lights.

Tomorrow I am no longer going to Katoomba, Gus has gotten sick. I'll have to visit him later. That means I now have a whole day free...

I'm sure I'll fill it somehow.

I got up at nine this morning. I feel so, energetic.

Tomorrow I will go to Katoomba. That will mean I have to get up earlier. But I'm looking forward to it. I get to see Gus. I love Gus, he's great.

My hands smell like petrol.

The van ran out of petrol (not my fault this time) so I was on refilling duty. I had to go to the bottom of the drive with the petrol can and a funnel and pour it into the car. The can wasn't designed for pouring (I'm not sure why, I guess the designer only thought as far as putting the petrol in the can not getting it out) and as a result the petrol went all over my hands. Now I smell like someone who works on cars. Oh, how manly.

In other news...

I went out to the city with Tim today. We had fun. We caught a ferry to Woolwich because neither of us had ever heard of it so we thought it might be fun to explore. And explore we did. There were lots of big houses there. Very nice to look at. I think my two most used words of description were "disgusting" and "absurd". I'm such a middle class snob.

If I were rich I would like to live in a posh apartment. I'm a posh apartment kinda guy.

In Woolwich we discovered the Woolwich Pier Hotel so we stopped in for a drink. I don't often drink at 3:30pm but today was a special occasion. Tim had a Strongbow and I had a Kaluha and milk. I wish I liked beer. Then after our one drink we left and explored some more.

We almost missed the ferry. We leapt on board just before the ferry drove off. The gang plank had been pulled in already so we had to jump the frightening half metre gap between wharf and ferry. Action stars we are.

I trained it home and had a nice sleep listening to Johnny Mayer once Tim had alighted.

Tonight was pub night again, and well, it was small but pleasant. Helen's back. It was good to see her. The Blues won. Yay! I started off at the pub alone watching the footy. I felt almost completely content watching it, but then Chris and Jem and we had to move otherwise I'd keep watching and I wouldn't talk to anyone. But I think I should start watching the footy again. Maybe I should pick a team to follow and start paying attention. Hmm. Maybe I should go for Parramatta. Back to my old favourites. They're not doing very well, but hey, at least I won't be going for them because they play well.

Ok, I'm now a Parramatta supporter. Go the Eels.

Parramatta up the ladder, Balmain down the drain.

I watched A Walk to Remember last night. There's a sappy movie if I ever saw one.

I didn't cry. I've been asked a few times now if I cried. I think it is like the quintessential chick film. I like romantic comedies, but no one seemed to have much fun in this film. Sure they were happy and gazed into each others eyes, but no fun.

Oh well I'm glad I've seen it.

Lunch

Please don't change, please don't break
The only thing that seems to work at all is you. - Matchbox 20

Macy Gray is going to perform naked to raise money for AIDS.

I think that's kinda funny. I doubt I would enjoy the show. I reckon I'd be a little uncomfortable. I saw a show by Sydney Dance Company once with topless dancers in it. I wasn't quite sure where to look.

But I hope Macy has fun.

So the Weekend that was...

Yesterday I had a meeting with Matt and Sal about film projects and the making of them. It was encouraging that we left feeling good. Or I did. There was hope at the end of the meeting. I was worried it may not end up so good.

Then I spent the rest of the day writing my sermon. I went to work to do it. I sat in the park for a bit, under the tree, and prayed. Then it was writing time. I walked around the church centre preaching to no one, then spent a few hours on the computer typing my 17 pages of sermon. 17 seems so big. It was size twelve double spaced though.

At night of was off to Bar Reggio for David's ciao shindig. They had Coke in old fashioned bottles. It was great. I didn't have any Coke, but I was sorely tempted. I had lots of Sprite. They were in old bottle also, but weren't as appealing.

We stopped at the gleato place on the way home and Lesley lent me some money so I could have some. It did taste good.

I finished sermon writing when I got home.

Today I went for a run. I was up too early. It was dark when I left the house. Grr.

Church was good. Bill the locum preached good. He had good skills.

Then it was off to the Airport.

Saying bye to David was wierd. I don't really expect David to go away, he's always been around. Everyone else leaves, but not David. Well he has now. Good for him. God bless, David.

We went back to church and I polished the sermon.

At night I preached. It was interesting. I got good feed back but I felt like it had been badly constructed. I made a few bad choices about how to place things. But it was alright. You can't win them all. And I preached Jesus, so that was good. I think it's important to talk about Jesus.

Maccas happened as usual. Nothing to report.

I came home and started to organise my week. I'm filling it up with things to do which aren't work. Should be fun.

Bye David

I got stung by a bee once in year 7. I forget that. I don't think it made much of an impression on me.

Lemon and Honey in the morning is a fantastic drink.

So it's Friday and a quiet one in the office. I'm the only one here and I'm still working through my list of things to do.

As far as I can tell I have three things left to do this week and then I'm done. And they're all phone calls. All I need is the courage to make them. As much as I've grown up I still hate phone calls.

I've been checking blogfeed all day but it's been very quiet. I guess that's why I'm blogging now, I want to make up for the lack of activity in the Blogverse (as David calls it).

I ran this morning. I managed to cut a minute and ten seconds off my time. I've noticed that in the early runs when you're getting back into things you can take huge chunks off your time. But as you progress it levels out and you don't feel like you're accomplishing nearly as much. Oh well, I've still got 1 min 40 seconds to get back to my top time. That'll give me something to do.

Kaye and I went to the high school today. I like going there. There are so many young people. It's cool. Usually when I get recognised there I get asked for a Chupa Chup. If they have any memory of the Christians at that school it'll be that Christians bring Chupa Chups. I'm not sure that's a good thing. Sure Chupa Chups are good, but they aren't exactly what we're there for.

I've been looking at the things people search for to find my blog.

The most hits I get are from people looking for:

Rebecca Cartwright, Beau Brady, Mike Pilavachi and The Olsen Twins.

Well there are no nude photos of any of them here, so you can go look else where. Or better yet, stop looking and go to bed.

I'm not sure that people are looking for nude photos of Mike.

I just got sent some junk mail trying to sell me medicine. That's not unusual, but it had in really small print that I couldn't read (size 1) this (I cut and pasted it into Word and blew it up):

You sleep with your eyes open.
When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
.
Candidate said he never finished high school because he was kidnapped and kept in a closet in Mexico
The ventilation system of any building is the perfect hiding place. No one will ever think of lookin
The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
You can take a picture of yourself from ten feet away without using the timer.
I feel uneasy indoors.
ps you come up with, and hear the music in your head.
You can outlast the Energizer bunny.

I have no idea why they put it there. Seems a bit strange to me, but there you go.

I had my last photography class tonight. It's nice to be finished.

Jo and I talked about it and decided that the best thing about the course was getting to see each other once a week. She's a good person my sister.

I didn't do huge amounts today. I mainly worked on my sermon. And went to the food court. Pretty quiet really.

I would like to blog about something theological. But there's nothing there. I think not going to college much this term has sent my brain to mush. I'm looking forward to being there once a week next semester. We're doing Daniel and Psalms. That'll be fun. I like Daniel. Crazy book that. And I might actually get a bit of a grasp on the exile. I always get confused between the Asyrians and the Babylonians and who did what to whom.

I finished the preaching book today. Shame really. I really enjoyed that. But at least I can get back to Narnia.

I have been thinking and saying "Just" in prayer does seem to minimalise our requests. Although it depends on why someone is saying "just". Is it a "just" because you don't want to waste God's time? Or is it a "just" because you only want something small? Either way it's not the end of the world. It seems to come from a misplaced reverence of God. "I'm just a small human and you're a big God, I don't know why you'd want to be bothered with me?"

But since we have Jesus we need no "just"s, at least we need no minimalisation of prayer. We can come to God with the most outrageous of requests and be allowed because of what Jesus done. But still a reverence of God is good, and beautifying of prayer for God is probably good. If it is for God. I want to pray beautifully for God sometimes, because He deserves the most beautiful prayers I can craft.

Sometimes "just" can be taken as an only. "I just want to praise you God" which means "I only want to praise you God" and then "just" is totally justified in its usage. The minimalisation is in our actions and our desires, not in our view of God and his works.

And chances are when people say "just" they don't think of any this. Here is a lovely example of where theology and practice don't match up. And the question comes, is our true theology defined in our intellectual beliefs or in our actions? Or at what point does our action define our theology rather than our thoughts?

I'm wondering if theology is the right word to use there. Perhaps theology and beliefs should be swapped around. But I know what I mean so that's ok.

Happy New Financial Year!

My New Financial Year's resolution is to save more money, make more money then buy more stuff so I'll be happy.

Woohoo!