It is Finished

Well I'm done with my assessment on Job. I tell you, this is the latest I ever want to hand an assessment in.

But at least it's done. And I actually quite enjoyed doing this assessment.

Dear Spammers

Incest doesn't excite me.

Not even if it's Russian.

George Says

"We will not do anything that harms our economy, because first things first are the people who live in America."

George W Bush's response to being asked what he would do about global warming shortly after becoming president.

When Ari Fletcher (George's press secretary) was asked if George would ask Americans to drive their cars less, he replied

"That's a big no. The President believes that it's an American way of life, and that it should be the goal of policy makers to protect the American way of life. The American way of life is a blessed one."

From here (pages 159-160 to be precise).

Angus Draws Pictures

My friend Angus made this while we were at College together. I like it, he's got talent that man. Check it out.

The day was good. The weather was cool. The rain was drizzly. I did a mail out and enjoyed myself.

I like the silly conversations in life. And I had majority of them today.

James is the Man

Ryan, Jem and I just watched Rebel Without a Cause, it was wonderful. James Dean is so cool, awesomely. Like Aragorn cool. The kind of cool where you just think, I'd love to be that person's friend, and hang out with them and feel my self-worth increasing because Aragorn and James Dean are friends with me. It's the kind of cool where he could do anything, say anything thing, make any face and you think "Wow".

You should see the film. It was tops.

We also ate at Anna Thai. 10 points for Anna Thai.

I Grope Grooms

First Jon...



..then Howie.



I just can't help myself I guess.

Visit

Some of the people from church came and ate dinner with Ryan and I at the pub tonight. They came to me which never happens. They were a long way from home. It made me feel loved.

Ministry Opportunity

Sometimes people like to help us poor folk who work in ministry by blessing us with material possesions because we can't afford much.

So if you feel like ministering to someone who only earns $40,500 a year and is the second highest earner in his house of 6, please consider supplying me with some of these basic needs:

- A Toyota Prius (I'd love to be able to save the planet, if only you'd give me a hand)
- An iPod (Preferably U2 and preferably 80GBs
- A new digital camera 'cause my last one died
- A big fat video editing computer packed full of juicy software

Please pray that the Lord makes you generous.

I'm really getting into "I Don't Feel Like Dancing" at the mo. Is that song cool?

My heart could take a chance
but my two feet can't find a way - Scissor Sisters

The Big Question

Nathan asked us last night "If you had to go live on a deserted island for four years and you could take one person you know, one person who is alive today but you don't know, one historical figure and one fictional character, who would you take?"

So I said:

Person I know: Ryan, because we're friends, we don't fight and he's single so he wouldn't be leaving anyone behind.

Person I don't know: Natalie Portman (obvious reasons)

Historical Figure: Esther, because she was beautiful and nice, and chances are, if there was just one girl Ryan and I would both fall in love with her and things would get rather awkward.

Fictional Character: Gandalf, because he's just awesome.

Anyway we were talking about it at dinner tonight and everyone was talking about bringing people who would challenge them intellectully and people who they could learn from and people who were concerned for social justice. And they were all making me feel rather shallow.

But I reckon girls would be important to bring because 4 years is a long time. I think it's a legitimate need. Or if not need, desire, because girls make life more fun, even if you're not attracted to them. But I'm rethinking the Natalie Portman idea. The whole celebrity thing isn't really attractive. Perhaps I'd take her character in Garden State, because she's cool. But then I'd have to get rid of Gandalf and I reckon four years hanging around with Gandalf would be an opportunity not to be missed. The rest of the fellowship did alright and they didn't have any females in their company.

Hmm. I'll have to keep thinking on this one.

I wish you could quote guitar solos on blogs. That'd be cool.

Iran are going to let tourists visit their nuclear facilities. That's heaps cool! I'd go.

Sketchy

I went to see Sketches of Frank Gehry with Ryan last night. He sent an email yesterday saying he had a free ticket and asking if anyone wanted to join him. And I though "Yep. I know nothing about the film, sounds fun."

But when we turned up it turned out the film was a documentary about an architect. Now I like documentaries and films and cinemas, but a documentary about an architect doesn't sound like it's gonna float my boat.

But turns out Frank Gehry designs good interesting things like this, this, and this. And it was fascinating to see the way he did it. Plus there were good interviews too. Well at least with this film director who spent the whole interview in a white bathrobe, smoking and drinking white wine. He made me giggle everytime I saw him. One of his golden quotes, while reclining in a golden arm chair was something like: "Criticise Frank Gehry? I wouldn't. It'd be like flies on a lions neck. It'd be like watching Apocalypse Now and saying 'Robert Duvall was overacting'." Yep, he was pretty funny.

Anyway, I was happily surprised. And it only cost me $3.50 for the Coke to quench my thirst from running up King St thinking we were late to the Dendy. $3.50 and 5% for the assessment I should have been doing.

Scrap That

I'm not enjoying buses so much anymore. I just waited at the bus stop for 20 minutes. There should have been about 5 buses in that time, but instead, there were just two. One drove straight past the bus stop and the other which was full. So now I'm driving to work I guess.

I get real joy out of the fact that T comes after S in the alphabet. And it always will.

Idea of Goodness

I had an idea to enhance my Outback Hippies Experience next year. I'm going to download on iTunes as many of the songs that they regularly play as I can and then I'm gonna learn the words. Then when everyone's singing I can sing along and not feel like an idiot 'cause I don't know the words. Plus it'll make me the WSFM boy too!

So far I've got:

All Along the Watchtower (Hendrix not Dylan)
Sultans of Swing
Brown Eyed Girl
Johnny B Goode
Blue Suede Shoes
I Shot the Sherriff

So the question is, what else do I need to get?

Healing

I do like public transport. I'm really enjoying buses. I used to be scared of buses. But I've been healed! Praise the Lord.

Actually I probably haven't been healed. If you told me to catch a bus from Kensington to Marrickville for instance that would freak me out, and I'd be scared the Bus Driver and passengers would laugh at me because I didn't know what I was doing. But at least when they did I could yell at them "Shut up, at least I've got a TravelTen!

I think I did a rather good job of letting people down today.

Bum.

"I don't belong here"

I'm home from Stump now. I've been home for a while actually. But I watched a DVD, ate some Pad Thai and watched some internet videos for a while.

Stump was good as always. I managed to get to a bit of music Revive, Intone, Sons of Korah, Ruben Morgan, The Valley. Perhaps some others. Sons of Korah were fantastic as usual. Warm your soul they do. The Valley were hardcore, one of those screaming bands (listen). I went 'cause Sal had a friend in the band. But I'm pleased I went because now I can say I've watched three songs of proper metal live and understood none of it.

I went to the Outback Hippies again last night. They kept me up till 3:30am with all they old school rock. It was great. It took a little while to get started this year, but everyone got into it by the end. I live my yearly dance.

I saw Mike because he was speaking. I got to apologise to him for my inappropriate comments at his church in July. He wasn't fussed but I wanted to say "Sorry" none the less, it's about rightness. It was good to see the Soul guys briefly. Actually it was good to see all sorts of people. I liked the whole catch up thing at Stump. While I thought it could be horrid at first I only had a few awkward conversations with people whose names I had forgotten. I did enjoy myself most definitely because of the people. Of course, it's obvious I like people. But I had fun camping with 5,000 of them. And I enjoyed the 15 or so that were in my site. Chris and nicks are good camp parents.

I did decide that if there is anything that Black Stump needs to improve on it's the whole teaching from the Bible thing. They have plenty of good people teaching things at Stump, but not many teaching from the Bible. I think I'd like more of that. I do love the Bible.

On the way home today Ryan and I had long chat about relationships and all that. It seems that both of us are scared of becoming creepy, middle-aged, single men. Please let us know if we become them. Actually, let us know if we just become creepy, at any age. I think the middle-aged bit is un-avoidable unless you do a James Dean, and the single bit will probably be pointed out to us enough whether we want people to or not.