This bloke is on the front page of Webstat. I don't know why, but he annoys me a bit. Maybe he looks to smug. God loves him though. And so do I.
The dance thing was interesting. There are some strange dancers out there. I didn't get a lot of the work. Some of the pieces were more weird than others. Like there was one that was entirely to an answering machine and the messages left on it. No music. Very strange. I didn't get that one. There were others with poetry and lots of rolling around on the floor. I didn't get that one either.
The pieces done by my church were good though. They were more story based (Jo told me that), and I figured them out a bit better. I like stories. I was thinking it would be fun to get the dancers from church and make a film clip because I like film clips and it would be fun.
Tonight I'm going to Abundance, it's a dance thing at CCC. My church is performing. I'm not.
I also ate some lunch with Jo. I had some chinese seafood which wasn't very nice.
Today I spent loads of time walking around the city to various camera shops asking if they had a battery for Robert's camera (I need to send it to Uluru because the one he's using broke so now he can't film anything).
Every converstion went like this (except the one at Georges):
Me: Hi, I need a battery for a Panasonic DX-100.
Salesperson: Oh, ok. We have these. (Produces three Panasonic batteries for DS and MX cameras which clip on the back)
Me: They need to go inside the camera. It's for a DX-100.
Salesperson: Oh yes the DX-100. Older camera, about three years old.
Me: Yeah, triple chip.
The sales person then proceeds to pull out about 5 batteries that don't fit.
Salesperson: Sorry, we don't have one.
Me: Ok thanks.
I had that conversation about 20 times today. Except in George's where I said "I need a battery for a Panasonic DX-100", and the guy said "Sorry we don't have them" and I said "Ok".
In the end I found one shop with a dodgy imitation brand. I hope it doesn't blow up the camera. Unless of course it blows up the camera so they give us a new camera. That would be cool.
David and I just had long converstions about God, Bible, Jesus, nominalism, obidience, Counting Crows, old times, helping people, over analysing situations.
Was pleasant. I enjoyed. David's a good friend.
Chris has re-done an accoustic version of Snake (you'll like that Howie) from our marvellous little film Pure Joy.
Chris has re-visited Snake many times. I'm glad I haven't re-visited the film as many as he has the song. I'm also glad he made a verson without me singing. I think the song was the best thing to come out of that movie.
Pure Joy was a really bad movie.
I was thinking the other day (or was it today) that I am very glad that I am no longer aiming to be a world famous director. I don't know if I could have cut it. Film school might have refined me. Some of the stuff I do is alright. Other things are rubbish. Now it doesn't matter if I make rubbish. I only waste a few people's time. If I'm rubbish in youth ministry, that's God's problem. Partly. I guess I feel less pressure because I'm sure this is where God wants me. I'll do my best. I'll be obiedient. But it's freeing not having to worry about my own goals. When it's God's agenda and not mine, it makes it nicer.
The stakes in God's work are a little higher though.
Did I say I'm very happy to be in youth ministry? I am. Best thing I ever did.
Except perhaps something else that I'm not thinking about at the moment.
Don't ever say I'm un-commital.
I haven't done much today.
I went to a young adults ministry night thingy. We had fondue. I had one strawberry. I'm not very good at things I'm not running.
I saw an ad for an online dating thing which said "Sometimes fate can take too long, sign up now". Doesn't that defeat the purpose of believing in fate?
"Jesus was Gay!" says some dude.
I get a little bored with people trying to scandalise Jesus. This bloke recons Jesus was gay because of the book of John and the allignment of the planets when Jesus was born. It seems that those to sources are a little inconpatable. The man is from Brisbane.
I really like Peter Hollingworth.
His address is really good. I think he's a good man.
I just watched Romancing the Stone. It wasn't very good. We're really running low on DVDs to watch at Video Ezy. We asked Mark (our friendly Video Ezy man) if he was getting Our Lips Are Sealed in. Now it's always a little embarrassing asking if the video store has a Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen film in (because I'm constantly doing it). But Chris was in it and I went and visited him on the set with Andrew one cloudy day in mid-2000. I even got to see the Olsen twins themselves! It was soooo exciting. Anyway, I asked because I want to see it, but sadly I don't think Video Ezy Hornsby is going to get it in.
Quotes in my blog containing the word "dog":
"My printer is a dog."
"Exploding Dog"
"This computer is a dog."
"I'm a dog"
"There's a dude in the US who has been sentenced to spend 30 nights in dog house."
"I love my dog more. But my dog barks more than my computer and connects to the internet less."
"Bringing in the dog so she can eat it"
"I got a new t-shirt from my dog. Don't ya love dogs?"
"If my house does burn down I think I'll take the dog, the computer and my Lord of the Rings Extended Edition DVD."
And one more:
"My dog barks too much. Good night"
Someone from Brunei Darussalam visited my blog. Hello to Brunei Darussalam, from all of us here in Australia, that land of Kangaroos and Govenor-Generals.
I'm a little lost today.
I have nothing much to do. It's strange. I have no one visiting me, no one to visit. I have nothing to get ready for. I have no assesments to do. I do have things coming up, but today is not to day to do them. So right now I'm just floating around. I read Harry for a while on the couch and fell asleep, not that I was all that tired.
Now I'm seeing what I can find to do on the computer. I'm listening to Matchbox 20 on DVD. Maybe I'll go for a walk.
But then again, I have no where to go. And I'm a little lost.
Went and saw Phone Booth tonight. Good movie. All about honesty and stuff. Accountability, humility, pride. Lots of good stuff. Made me want to be an honest person. Made me not want to cheat on my wife too. Or even fantasize about cheating on my wife. I think the film had some good morals in it. Being real. And all that. Worth a watch.
In the windows behind the phone booth there was a big window that said "Who do you think you are? And why?" I think that was symbolic.
Noodles left his rain coat and umbrella at college today and he rang me while I was still there to ask if I could bring them home for him. I said that was fine and travelled to Hornsby with them. When I got Hornsby I went to the place where I thought his front door was. I knew it was down the lane and around the back, because lives above a store. I found a stair case and decided that it must have been his, and when up it. At the top of the stair case (it was an outdoor concrete one) there was like a concrete back porch. There was a washing line, some windows and two doors. Now as my connundrim. Which door was his door? I looked at them both carfully and decided that it must be the one on the right because there was a lighted window in that one and I knew someone was home. I knocked on the door and waited.
I heard a woman shout "Who's at the door?" (It didn't seem to be to anyone in particular) and a figure arrived.
The door opened a notch and there was the face of a woman, who didn't look anything like a friend of Noodles. I knew this because the woman was just in her underwear. Well she was in a bra, I didn't think it was polite to look any lower. I asked "Is Nathan here?"
"No, he doesn't live here" Then she closed the door.
I decided to call him on mobile before I tried the other door. Just in case.
When I did find him he came from the other side and was wearing a lot more clothes.
We too have to conserve internet usage at the moment. Since networking all these computers our internet usage had gone up 600%. It's pretty cool. I am also conserving usage, but seeing as Rob and I will be paying for the difference, we should be alright.
I'm a fan of instant gratification.
I'm from the mircowave generation.
Were people from the old days, before microwaves, still into instant gratification? I reckon they were. People had no more patience then than they do now.
Now we're just impatient and have the technology for it not to be an issue.
Well, here I am, back, in college again.
I'm very tried. Quite happy. A little frustrated. A bit crazy.
My assessments are all done and that is a really lovely feeling. Makes me feel like I've got nothing to worry about. I guess I fo have a little to worry about and assesments and the like. Only one left. Two exams and one assesment. Then I'm a little free. Yay for me being a little free. Can't you see. I'm born three. Isn't that right Lee?
Rob and Jo were trying to figure out people at church to set me up with last night. It was a little strange. When things like that happen I feel like I'm in year 9 or something. Not that my year 9 was really what I figure it feels like to be in year nine. Maybe it's what it felt like to be in year 10, but really that's what it feels like to be in year 9 seeing as I wasn't a very normal year niner.
Young people were created to be in relationship with God. God is [the] one who seeks relationship with us. His desire for relationship with us is demonstrated at the cross. Get kids in touch with the cross and you get kids in touch with their Creator and their true identity.
I wrote that a while ago. Months. But I think it's pretty good, I want to put it in my essay but I can't find a spot, and I'd have to get rid of the "kids". Is it being vain if you're impressed with your former self? Was that my former self? I think it was. I'm a new man.
Today in the Sunday morning group the kids were really talkative and rude to each other. At the end I told them they weren't getting any food because they were too badly behaved and took to long to be quiet and the like. They weren't too pleased. I think they'll be alright though.
I have now written 3,125 words of Philosophy. Yay for me. I have to edit still. And I'm yet to back up any of my bits with scripture or smart youth ministers. But hey, we'll get there. The main thing is that the bulk is done. Now I just have to spend the next hour and a half or so making myself look like I'm not talking crap. Or at least, other people agree with my crap. Or maybe it's that I agree with other people's crap.
It's all too confusing.
I have another assesment to do today. It's my philosophy of youth ministry. The one that was due in last Monday. But then wasn't. I'm a little sick of doing assesments. I'm also sick of writing in my blog about assesments.
I'm going to try and get all 3,000 words written today, so I don't have much to do tomorrow. But I'm terribly under prepared. We'll see what happens. I would like to be doing this at another time, but I would never be prepared, when ever I did it, so I may as well do it now and get it over and done with.
I do hope I pass.
My Dad just called Rob and I dicks. He said "Goodnight Dicks".
Our washing machine is broken and I'm running out of clothes.
The CIA convened an open panel of scientists in January to discuss potential terrorist uses of life-science research, and the panel concluded that, despite the risks, openness in scientific study was absolutely crucial; in April, the CIA suppressed the panel's conclusions on openness as classified. And in March, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia accepted an award by the Cleveland City Club for his contributions to freedom of speech, which Scalia said he would be glad to accept at the club's meeting provided no television or radio coverage was allowed. [Federation of American Scientists Secrecy News, 4-2-03] [CNN, 3-19-03]
A student at George Washington High School, Charleston, W.Va. (who was not identified because of his age), was disciplined after he accidentally wedged himself in behind the shower wall in the girls' locker room, after allegedly taking a choice vantage point for peeping. Virtually immobile, the boy waited until school was out for the day and called his father on his cell phone. The father went to the gym and rescued the boy but later turned him in. [Charleston Daily Mail, 4-2-03]
"A Dorsey Drive convalescent facility reported that one Alzheimer's patient struck another Alzheimer's patient, but neither of them remembered the incident or wanted medical attention."
From here
I'm listening to Delirious now.
We just had youth group and it was pretty crazy. But I'm pretty happy with it at the moment. It's fun. I think the kids are learning and that's nice. One day we'll get our format right. I told lots of kids off tonight. I made two kids leave the group and I had words with them. Then I had words with all the boys in Year 7 and 8. I think I tell people of because it gets things done, not because I'm angry. It's a pragmatic telling off, if that's the right word. I don't think I ever get angry at the kids. Or I never feel angry. I think people think I'm bottling it up.
In that case I guess I'm not as see-through as I feel.
Today I had to go and get a check up with the surgeon. He said I have to wear sandals so that my foot can heal. I hate sandals so I wear shoes all the time except when I go and see him. When I see the surgeon I take my shoes off and put sandals over my socks. I look like a doik, and I reckon everyone is looking at me thinking that. But it doesn't matter, I know I am pulling off an amazingly, complicated deception, so I'm very smug and satisfied.
He said my toe was healing well.
I listened to a lot of Counting Crows last night. Now that I think about it. Of the five Counting Crows cds at my house, I listened to all of two of them (Hard Candy, August and Everything After) some of another two (Recovering the Satellites (the computer died) and Across the Wire Disk 1 (Went to bed)) and none of one of them (Across the Wire Disk 2). That's a lot of Crows. I guess I was in the mood. I think at the end of one cd I'd start singing a song from the another one, and so I'd have to put that cd.
Having a song in my head governs my cd choices a lot of the time.
Liam from college doesn't like Third Day or Counting Crows. I don't know why I'm his friend. He does like Ben Harper though, so I'll pat him on the back for that.
I wonder what it means to be the Rain King?
I think I'd like to be the Rain King. It sounds like a good job.
Mr Jones reminds me of early mornings in year 6 when I would get up at 6 in the morning and make porridge. I would listen to the 2Day FM Morning Crew and every now and again they would play Mr Jones. It was nice.
It's been a long day. Oi.
I got up at 6:20am, 20 minutes late. There was a black out last night and my clock died so my alarm didn't go off. I woke up to my phone alarm. I was a bit happy about that. I only got to sleep at some time after 2am. I tried to sleep but I thought about too much. Too much anticipation about today. So 2am it was. Much to my disappointment.
We left here, Angus, Rachel and I, at 7:15, breakfast free and 15 minutes late. We managed to pick up Noodles and arrive at Mike's house in Gordon close to on time. We then made our way to Davo from there. We were aiming to be at Davo by 8:00am. We got there around 8:07. It wasn't too bad. We set up chairs, discussed, prayed, waited.
We waited for the storm. We were running scripture seminars for years 7 to 10 an hour at a time.
The were brought in at 8:40 or so and making much noise. The deputy gave them a stern talking to. And handed over to me and away we went. I had trouble talking loudly. My mouth was dry and croaked a little sounded like I was going through puberty. The year 7s were really rowdy. We went longer than planned because they were so badly behaved Angus had to keep telling them to shut up.
Once year 8 came through they were really well behaved. Really well. It was great. We got through our whole program, it was much slicker second time through, and I took a small group of kids who said very little, except at the end when one asked me why I belived in the existance of hell. While I was gearing myself up to answer that, the bell went and the kid was no longer interested in the answer.
Year 9. Bit worse behaved, but not too bad. They watched the video well. Small group talked a lot more, and kept asking me if I thought they were going to hell. Damnation seems to be much more interesting than salvation. Probably because they think we want to tell them they are going to be sent to hell rather than that they can be saved. It's strange. But I guess it's true. It's more fun to be told by someone that you're going to hell than able to go to heaven, when you're not planning on believing what they tell you.
Year 10. They were the rowdiest but also the most interested I think. They responded really well to the small groups. One girl told me she didn't believe in my God and asked what happens to the babies in limbo. I was happy not to remain on that subject. I don't often read up on the babies in limbo. But they wanted to talk, and had the best answers to the questions. I wish we could have had more time to talk.
All up I wish we could do more scripture. It would be good I think.
Afterwards some of us headed to Macca's (Angus, Rachel, Mike, Sal, Noodles). That was a bit of fun. I didn't eat much. I felt not as hungry as I should have. Shame really. I'll eat soon.
Post that, Sal came over and we finished the music, Hannah came home and broke Sal's necklace (it's always embarrasing when Hannah breaks other people's things) and we took her to John Williams. I dropped Sal home with her newly burnt cd and I cam home and fell asleep.
Now I'm here and I should be doing an assesment. Soon. Very soon.
Anyway it's been good. Long, but I've had a good day. Statisfying scripture, nice people. Good quality.
We prayed that God would use what we taught the kids today to impact their lives and bring them closer to God. I don't think anyone became a Christian, but I hope we played a small part in at least one person considering it. If not, we were obiedient. Praise the Lord! It's His work, not mine.
I keep getting letters from charity people asking for money.
I'm not that nice a person.
I just did the editing with Sal. Or most of it. It was a bit of fun. I got my room tidy, now my mother won't be embarrased. One day I'll become a wizz with the my sound editing. I'll become like Chris. He's a wizz. I was having trouble today figuring out which button zoomed in and zoomed out. Once I'm over that hurdle though...The sky's the limit.
I finished The Two Towers tonight. It wasn't a bad book. I am looking forward to reading that last one now. I think I'll read Harry Potter 3 next. Or maybe Rob's book, Things Snowball. Not sure. I'll know by the time I go to bed. Maybe I'll read youth ministry books till I get this assesment done.
Adoration is really good.
I'm looking forward to the scripture seminars now.
We are doing seminars on Thursday at the local High School. It should be fun. I've suddenly got excited about telling kids that God loves them. That's a cool thing to do. Spreading the love and all.
Our message is "God goes with you through life". We want to tell people that God loves them and cares about them when things are going well or going really bad. We want to run seminars that don't try and tell the kids too much, but that tell them the Gospel, relevantly. It won't be the "whole" Gospel, but our prayer is that it will be the true gospel. We want to bring them one step closer to a relationship with God. We are having small groups, and hopefully that will be will be good opportunities to tell kids what they need to hear. Angus is telling his testimony about how God has gone with him through life, how Jesus has saved his life.
Angus is an inspiring bloke. He makes me wanna love Jesus more.
How cool is it to know that God loves you?
Very.
Very Very.
Sal is coming over tomorrow to put some music together on my computer. I'm going to have to brush up on my music putting together skills. Mum wants me to tidy my room. She will probably get frightfully embarrased if I don't.
I'm also getting my long awaited hair cut and buying a jumper, if I'm hungry I'll eat lunch in the food court. Tomorrow night I might watch a movie.
It's my day off tomorrow, so as you can see I've filled it with whatever isn't work or assignments. I've been hanging out for this day for a long time. Oh the glory of doing the little things. Little things that have no dead line. Wonderful.
I am home now.
I caught the train home with Noodles tonight. The trains coming from Central were badly stuffed. We spent about 40 minutes on Central waiting for this train or that. But once on the train I fell asleep and said almost nothing to Noodles. It was a little strange. But we're still friends.
Sometimes I think this may happen to me.
I went to visit the Dean of my college today. I wanted to ask him if I could do my Youth Ministry subject next semester due to the Youth Ministry Philosophy problems of yesterday.
I walked in and said :"Deano, I need to talk to you. I've got issues"
Deano: "We know you've got issues. Which particular one do you want to talk about?"
Me: "For my Youth Ministry, I have my critical reflection done, but last night I found out at midnight that my philosophy was due in today. I thought it was due in next week."
Deano: "Well that depends on who you ask. If you believe that it's due in next week, then for you it's due in next week."
Me: "Really that's cool"
Andy (another lecturer who was in the room): "Now there's grace."
I think that's how the conversation went. As usual, I could be mis-quoting. Apparently there had been some mix ups with when the philosophy due, so mine is still due in at the end of next week. That is a little disappointing because I would have been happy not to do the philosophy this week. But hey, I'm still pretty happy.
I just ordered Adoration on the net to cheer myself up. James' blog has been influential tonight.
I just found out, from reading James' blog that I have a Ministry Philosophy due in tomorrow. That really sucks. I thought it was due in at the end of next week. I was gearing up for a big week of philosophy writing. Now I'm thinking that will probably change. I could be stuffed. But hey. I might fail a subject. Don't matter. I'll do it later or something.
I'm an idiot. I can tell you that.
Hell's bums.
We had an African man come to talk to our Sunday morning group today. I was planning on interveiwing him. I asked him what his full name was and he answer lasted half an hour and managed to include stuff about what life in Zambia was like, how many people had his last name in Zambia, how much water the average person needs to survive, the need for clean water in Africa and what people in Year 6-8 at school can do to help (give a dollar and become a pen pal). He even had photos to go with his answer. He had so much to say about his name, I didn't ask anymore questions.
His name was Felix Banda, in case you want the short answer.
I need to buy more mini-disks.
I want to put Hard Candy on mini-disk, but I've run out. I want to put it on a disk with This Desert Life but I don't own that at the moment. Not since Jo moved out.
My new jeans have a button up fly. Very annoying.
I finished my assesment. Now it just needs a proof read. I predict a pass plus.
I'm writing my Critical Reflection at the moment. I think I'm going to have too much to say. As much as I hate critical reflection, I do have a lot of stuff to write about. I'm one week into the term and halfway through my word limit.
That, if you ask me, is a shame.
I would like to say on the record that I don't like Gator. They download crap on to your computer. Usually I catch it before it comes but today they got through. Really annoy me Gator do.
I have a huge urge not to be at home today. I want to go to Westfield and buy a jumper and watch a movie. Or go on a road trip to Newcastle with Ryan. Instead I have to stay here and write assesments. I hate assesments at the moment. I only like assesments when they are finished.
This being an assesment day, I will probably find myself blogging useless stuff.
Last night, before the movie I went to the toilet. I picked the middle cubicle (is that how you spell it? I've never written "cubicle" before). While I was in there, doing what you do someone went into the one next door (which happened to be full of toilet paper) and said "Not like this, not like this." I thought that was a little strange.
It was explained to me tonight that it was probably a quote from the original Matrix. Switch says it just before she dies in the TV repair shop. That gives it a little more context for me, makes it no less strange though.
I had to go back to the hospital again today so that my Doctor could change my dressing. It was really cool. My bandage was black with blood. I love blood. Gore and no pain. The way is should be. Unless you're trying to impress some one. I never found showing people my ingrown toenail won me women. But people did like a look. I took my sock off last night before the film and all our crew in the front row crowded around to have a look. People all love a look.
The Matrix Reloaded
What I have to say is this:
Good fun. Damn good action. Too much talk. Could have done with a script editor. Damn good action. Wachowskis were very self indulgent, sometimes was good, sometimes was bad.
Very worth a watch.
Now I must sleep.
I went shopping for clothes today. Makes me upset. I really had a bad time. Fashion at this juncture in history sucks. Especially in the long pants department. I looked through every shop in Hornsby and there was nothing there. I found one pair of pants that I thought were ok in General Pants, so I went back to try them on and then relised they were for chicks. Man whats going on? It was all really bad.
In the end I bought of pair of jeans out of frustration. The lady asked me while I was in the change room if I liked them when I hadn't got my shorts off yet, so I said "I'm not there yet" and I think I sounded a little snappy. She said "Oh sorry" and hid from me. I bought the jeans after convincing the other shop assistant that I really didn't want a second pair for $45 (I almost said "I don't like these ones, why would I want another pair?") and quickly left the shop. On my way out I caught the eye of the shop assistant that I "snapped" at and smiled and said "Thanks" I didn't want here to think I didn't like her.
As I said to Mum though, I'm very lucky to have pants. Not many people in the world can afford to spend $65 on a pair of jeans, and even less on a pair of jeans they don't like. So I'm happy about that.
Must sleep not.
Much Movies tonight. Yay!
I think there are too many people with nothing to do reading blogs at the moment. Everyone's page views are going through the roof. I think it's because we who are doing nothing at home check everyone's blogs every 2 hours or so, just in case. It's good for people's hits. Says something about our lives.
I may have to go see the doctor again today because my toe has bled a lot and my bandage is really red and bloody. Kinda cool though. If I was in the war I could say I was shot in the toe.
Last three dvds I watched:
Sleeping With the Enemy-Not wonderful. Everyone was very serious. Julia Roberts was boring. Her character never managed to be all that happy. Or allowed herself to be happy. No one allowed themselves to be happy really. They were all just depressing and serious. But at least I can say I've seen it. I ate chicken while I watched it and the chicken was good.
About A Boy-Good film. I like Hugh Grant much more now. He's character was an idiot. They were cool. The film made me laugh. The romance was minimal and well done. The kid worked good. Good film.
K-19:The Widowmaker-Alright. Nothing spesh. I watched it on my computer with the sound turned up. That was fun. My computer is the bomb. Harrison Ford was a bit dull. The movie was ok. As I said nothing special.
All three are due back by 7pm. That's quite soon. I wonder if I'm allowed to drive. It's been over 24 hours. I reckon I can.
I have been talking about having a daily Something I learned today post on my blog, because people say "You learn something new everyday". I have the feeling this is un-true. So far today, I don't think I've learnt any thing. Actually that's un-true. Today I learnt that the wort metamorphasis comes from the greek word for transform. That's not all that useful, but there you go.
Yesterday I probably learnt something about hospitals. I learnt how to cook these pear muffin things. I forgot that again though too.
Maybe the phrase should be "You learn something new, and forget three other things, every day" or something like that.
Counting Crows Hard Candy is making a come back at my house at the moment. It just finished about 10 minutes ago. It's a damn good cd. All Crows cds are damn good though.
Hooty and the Blowfish are on now. They're alright. Robert picked them.
I just had a chat with a bot at MeBot. This is some of our conversation.
YOU: Do you know Jesus?
ME: I'm not with you...?
YOU: Are you a Christian?
ME: I only really know stuff about myself.
YOU: I'm asking you about yourself.
ME: well I never!
YOU: What is a bot?
ME: Hey, I don't know everything, and if I did, you wouldn't wait for me to download
YOU: What do you know?
ME: I know general stuff about myself.
YOU: Do you have hair?
ME: I don't understand!
YOU: Do you like girls?
ME: Was that English?
YOU: Yes
ME: Did I ask a question?
YOU: yes
ME: You surprise me!
YOU: Really?
ME: What are you on about?
YOU: You're quite useless.
ME: I'm not with you...?
YOU: Of course not.
ME: Can you rephrase that? ;)
YOU: I'd rather not.
ME: What are you on about?
YOU: Goodbye.
ME: Nice talking with you.
Jo from church now has a blog.
It's here.
I think it's cool. It's always good when more people get them.
I've had a sleep now. I wanted to sleep at the hospital, but I fell asleep at the wrong times, and at none of the right ones.
The anesthetic due to wear off in the next 20 minutes or so. I'm not looking forward to that. At that stage I plan to watch dvd or something.
I arrived at the hospital at 6:35am. I was a bit late. I was tired. It was raining. Dad was with me. Once I was in the room Dad went to park the car and I picked the last couch in the waiting room. It was the most uncomfortable couch there I think. It was like a pretend couch. No room for you bum.
I got admitted at 6:55 and Dad left me to it. He went home to help Mum with Han. He said he'd call the hospital at around 9 to see when I would be ready to go home. I'm not allowed to drive for 24 hours.
I didn't have my book with me, which I think was the biggest mistake of the day. I read Time magazines from 7 in the morning to 9:15. Which wasn't too bad but they were all really old. Pre-September 11. There was one thing in the magazine about how the US military was going to have to fight for funding with greenies and it wasn't looking good for the military. Things have changed a bit now mes thinks. Today was on tv but it was turned down low. I couldn't really hear it. The waiting room was really boring. I kept drifting off to sleep but didn't want to incase my name was called out. I could have had a sleep for two hours and not missed a thing. That would have been nice.
Eventually my name was called out. And I was taken into a special area by a nurse who took my temperature, blood pressure and pulse. That was mildly interesting. I was enjoying being a patient. Especially since I felt fine.
She gave me two gowns, booties and a cap and told be to take off my clothes, except my specially picked Sydney CBD boxers, and put on the surgical gear. She sent me to a change room. After I was changed I was to sit in the reclining chair with all the other people dressed like me and wait to be called. So this is what I did.
When I sat down there were three other people, all in the senior citizen age bracket, sitting in reclining chairs (although only one of them was reclining) watching Disney Playhouse on TV. It occurred to me that that program seems to be a direct rip off of Playschool (The old Playschool though, before they changed the look and sacked Benita), they even had Monica. It wasn't a particularly good episode. They were talking about dinosaurs, and I've seen the Playschool dinosaurs video many times, so they couldn't suprise me.
At 10am A Country Practise came on. That excited me. I hadn't had anything interesting to do the whole morning, now I had some coolness. ACP is a wonderful memory of my childhood. I used to love the show. But just as I was getting into the story another old woman arrived and complained so we had to channel changed to Kerri-Anne. Very dissappointing. Can't ruin a guy's morning more than making him swap from A Country Practise to Kerri-Anne, especially if you just sat through Disney Playhouse.
Anyway, I sat in my seat watching crappy morning television, bored to bits, with the only thing changing the situation was when cooking came on TV and then I was bored to bits and extreamly hungry (I hadn't eaten or drunk anything since 9pm yesterday, doctors orders).
While I was sitting there a nurse came in and said very loudly to me, "Tom French, I heard that name out there, I thought I knew that name, how's your mother?"
It was one of those terrible situation where you have no-idea who the person is. She didn't even look vaugely farmiliar.
At 12 another nurse came in (it never occurred to me how full of nurses hospitals are) and told me it was time. Yay! I was very excited. She took me down lots of corridors and past important hospital machinery and into a room that was next to the operating theatre (I could hear the oxygen and the ECG machine going, very ER). She told me to get on the bed and take my outer gown off because I had to get an injection. Now was my chance to show off my snazzy boxers. I took my outer gown off and the lady un-did the ties at the back of the other one. I'm sure she would have seen the boxers, and been suitably impressed. Then she told me to lie down and she covered me with a really toasty, warm blanket that must have been in the blanket oven, it was so good. Once she had made sure I was warm, she kept telling me it was very cold and they don't like having cold patients, she left me with yesterday's Newcastle Herald to read. And there I was again, waiting.
Later my surgeon came in and the nurse came back. She started hooking up an IV drip. This worried me. I didn't want a drip. That would ruin my day more than having A Country Practise turned off. Luckly the surgeon told her I wouldn't need it as I was only a local anesthetic. Then I felt much better. At 12:20 (there was a big clock on the wall) the anethesist came in and jabbed my toe. I asked him how many jabs I would be getting. "Four, but you won't feel two and three" was his reply. Well I felt 'em all. It was the most pain I've felt all day (so far, the anesthetic is still going strong, 6 and a quarter hours later). But they weren't too bad. Soon I only felt tingling and I was told they were almost ready to go into surgery. It had only taken 6 hours.
The theatre (number three in case you're wondering) was pretty cool. They had a really big light on the roof, and a little-er one next to it. There were ECG machines, drip machines, oxygen things, and probably many other machines that went "ping". It was cool. They didn't give me any of them though. They did use the big light.
The operation wasn't all that intersting. I would have liked to have watched but I was covered in blankets (the nurse was still insisting that I kept warm) and thoes green surgical cloth thingys. I saw a little bit though. And I felt the people cutting, no pain, just pressure. My surgeon didn't operate on me (I think he might have been having a cup of tea), his registrar did. The nurse that kept me warm asked me how my mother's day was. The rest of the people in the room weren't very good at making conversation with me, I suspect it's a skill they don't have to practice often.
At the end of the "procedure" (1pm) the surgeon did come in. He looked at my toe all wrapped up, poked the top of it and said "Looks good".
I was wheeled back to the recovery room on my bed and I met Heather the chirpy nurse. She was cool. Kept calling me Lovely Thomas, or Darling Mr French. She gave me some water and a 100mLs of crappy, Orchy apple juice. I also got a beef sandwich. It was all a bit bland (the water was good) but I enjoyed putting something in me.
Heather called my mother, or Mummy as she called her, and told her she could pick me up at 1:40.
At 1:45, Mum arrived, Heather got me my clothes. I got dressed. My toe started bleeding so I didn't put my sock on. The other nurse sent me back to bed and covered my dressings with more absorbant things and told me I was free to go home.
Ingrown toe-nail gone. I've had that toe for 2 1/2 years. Now it is gone. As I told the nurse, "Now I can stub my toe again"
It's time for a dvd.
Well Thomas just got back from hospital.
Was fun.
I'll update later. I have to lie down and put my foot up because it is going to bleed everywhere.
I just remembered that I know what I'm going to wear tomorrow. Well partly. I decided a few days ago that I would wear my boxers with the map of the Sydney CBD on them because they are the snazziest boxers I own. I figure that if they make me wear one of those hospital gowns then the surgeon will see my snazzy boxers poking out the back as say, "This bloke is classy."
Surgeons are very important and influential people so it's good to impress them.
I once said this about Ryan's blog:
Ryan keeps an online diary (that's not the full thing, but it's most of it). He writes down all his thoughts and everyone can read them. In fact he wants everyone to read them. He's very honest, it doesn't feel quite right reading it, so I'm not sure if I will keep reading it, I only started reading it yesterday. It's like, just because a striper wants you to see them nude, should you look? I think I just answered that question. Anyway, that may be an analogy of what his diary is like. He spends most of the time talking about Mil (the girl he likes), differentiation and sex. That's not true but they make a good triplet.
I think I told Ryan that. I told him I felt I was reading his dirty secrets. These days Ryan doesn't write dirty secrets, and I don't mind reading it. Maybe Reality TV has just desensitised (is that the right word?) me.
I really liked The Mole.
I'm very tried. I slept a lot on the train. I wouldn't mind going to bed now. Shame really. I'll stay up late tonight. Not because I want to, it just happens. I need to get more sleep in my life.
We had our first D-team, outside of youth group today too. One guy turned up. Good on him.
We played soccer with two of the guys in year nine. That was fun. I'm not a big soccer player, but today was good.
I think I'll have a lot of time to blog for a little while. The toe operation is on Tuesday. I might be bored with a sore toe for half a day.
Writing my blog on a 19-inch monitor means that I have to write a lot more to reach the end of the panel. It makes it harder to make a post look big. Sad really.
I'm back. It's been a while.
Preached tonight. Went good. God's fault I think. I was thinking was probably not going to be all that good. I wasn't feeling all that confident about the sermon. But it went well. I was happy. Not that that's all that important. But it's nice that things went alright.
I showed the video about starting bushfires. I think there were a lot of people who didn't understand how the video connected with the sermon. But it did. I only referenced to it once. I was at one stage going to get rid of the video because it wasn't fitting in with the sermon, but in the end I decided it should stay. Effort was put in.
Mitch tried to show the video at his church, but it had no sound. That was sad.
I had a Net Nanny thing on this computer for about 5 days. I was traying to get rid of porn pop ups and the like. Bloody thing wouldn't let me go and look at anything with the word naughty words in it. It wouldn't let me look at the website for cults incase I got converted. It is now deleated. Good bye. Now I can be cult-ified all I want.
I stayed at church tonight till 10:30pm making it a 12 hour day. I'm not planning on doing that next week. Next Friday I'm going putt putt golfing with the kids. That should be fun. I'll probably be buggered. Matrix was that night.
Yay.
Less than a week! Am I excited?
Yes.
We started D-teams today (small groups). I like small groups. It's good fun to hang out with the kids. I'm not sure how many people are going to turn up to my small group. We'll see. They didn't seem overly enthusiastic at youth group. But that's alright. They aren't required to seem overly enthusiastic. That's the role of the youth leader.
Amen.
There isn't anyone from church who has read this blog yet. I think only one person knows about it. I'm not hiding it. I'm just not advertising.
I could plug it in my sermon on sunday. Not that that would be a good thing to do. It might get me more hits though. There's no problem compromising your integrity if it's in the name of hits.
Today we had the first youth group for term 2. It was the new and improved youth group. And the verdict was: Ok.
It was ok. There was room for improvment on many fronts. But there was also good stuff that happened. I think it was agro kid day today. I encountered many an agro (perhaps just a little hypo) kid today. The didn't seem to be getting on with each other.
There was a girl who wanted to sit at the drums doing youth group. I asked her to move. She gave me an angel face, as if to convince me. I said "Would you please move?", so she gave me a greasy.
I got those last two links from this blog.
That blog is also strange. The woman who writes it has stigmata. She seems like a nice person.
This is a strange family.
Before I do go to sleep...
This is very cool.
I'm going to go to bed now.
I've finished editing the video for tomorrow. Sunday's one is on it's way. Now I am sleepy.
And my sleeping bag has been dry cleaned. That's a very good thing. It was smelly.
I got a phone call this morning from my Auntie. She wanted to know if I could keep her company in Hornsby for a few hours as she was off work and didn't want to go home. So I got to hang out and have lunch with my Auntie. It was good fun. I like hanging out with my Auntie.
She got me my birthday present ( a little late, but that don't matter) which was a gold class voucher for Greater Union. That's pretty cool. I think it will be fun.
While we were eating Ryan came into the food court to eat his lunch. We invited him to join us, and we all had a lovely time. It was good fun.
I guess I didn't have much to say yesterday.
I'm editing at the moment. It's fun. I'm putting the video for youth group tomorrow together. It's more gauwdy than most videos I make, but we're trying to do the "high energy' thing. It's pretty fun. I'm enjoying it. I'm hoping and praying that God makes these good quality. It could go really badly or really well. We'll see what happens, but I'm excited.
Robert said: "i felt good that i had lept up my side of the bargin".
This is an interesting concept.
I often find that I end my posts with something non-committal (eg "Perhaps") . This would make sense as I am quite a non-committal person.
Today my house is getting networked! Yay.
Louise (one of the leaders at youth group) noticed that on the roster for youth group I wrote for the camp week, "Camp. Yay.". She said that the "Yay" with a fullstop was a very unenthusiatic and sarcastic yay. I feel though it was a "Yay" or delight (Yay.). Just not a "Yay" of super delight (Yay!). I feel those yays need to be spared for very special occastions.
Perhaps.
I'm going out for Janet's birthday dinner tonight.
Mum thinks I should change my jumper.
Mitch and I made a film for church today at college. It's about Bill the Biblical Bushman. It's a kid's show about enjoying creation. I'm not sure how good it will be. Probably middley good. Mitch was good. He's good value that man.
We had a scene where Bill showed the kids how to light a bush fire. That felt particularly naughty as I'm not one who usually thinks it's a good idea to light fires in the middle of the bush. But we did it, and it looked good and all the safety technicians were able to keep it safe and in check.
Today I only fell asleep in a lecture once. I think that's quite well done.
We learnt about 1 Samuel 2:17-4:1. I can't remember much though because I tuned out a lot. I do remember that I tuned it at one point and made an insightful comment about if Eli's sons were "Sons of Baibal" then Eli was "Baibal" (I wonder if I spelt that right).
Tomorrow is my day off. That's nice.
I finally got The Matrix Reloaded tickets. And I got them where I wanted them. Right in the heart of Sunny Sydney at 11:59pm. That will be one of the first public screenings in the whole world. Along with around 1,000 others that will be happening up and down the East Coast of Australia at the time. New Zealand will beat us, If I'm correct, but we'll kick America's bum by about 14 hours or so. That's always posh.
Anyway, I'm happy now. My credit card is less so, but that will improve with time.
I went and saw Nowhere in Africa with Jo on Saturday. It wasn't bad. I would hesitate to call it really good. It was good though. I wouldn't watch it again. It had good acting, and some interesting characters, who at many times annoyed me. But yeah, I won't watch it again.
We went out to lunch at City Extra afterwards. Jo and I were very sleepy. Someone probably spiked our drinks. I had a hamburger, which was large and difficult to eat, but it didn't taste too bad. David joined us, which was nice, but I fear we weren't very good company for him.
That night we went to a trivia night for Lifestart. It was alright. Not as good as other ones. I'm not a good trivia person. I'm terrible at Movies. I watch a lot of them, but I never remember much. Or enough. Oh well.
People are having inter-blog discussions at the moment. Very interesting. I wonder if the "interlectual" blog thing includes me. Is my blog interlectual? Ooo. That would be interesting.
I don't often talk "about refugees or venezuelan senators or social. dynamics" but, I guess I would if I were thinking about them.
I'm not angry at anyone. So don't worry about appologising. Ok?
Ok.
I wrote that last post for the benefit of Chook (Dave) who was interested in the blogs I was reading so I showed him a practical example of how blogging works or something like that.
I went for my walk. I walked down to the local cemetary. There's a spin out. I went into the section with the family vaults. They were like out of a movie. They were these brick buildings about three portaloos wide. They had columns and marble fronts. Some had gates where all the grave things were behind. Others had big vault like doors and the body was put inside. There were huge amounts of them. There were narrow streets with vaults on either side lined up like mini inner-city terrace houses.
I saw one vault that was being built still and no one owned it, so I stepped inside to have a look. It was strange. They had big, think concrete shelves to put the coffins on, and pipes, in each shelf, which I can only guess is for drainage. Body juice drainage pehaps. It was very interesting. It was weird to think that it would one day be full of dead bodies. Not spooky though.
Anyway. It was very interesting. I recommend a trip to the cemetary vaults one day for a bit of interest.
I didn't get much planned on the sermon though.
I talked to Matt when I got back and that was really helpful. Now I have a lot more to say.
I'm at work at the moment and I'm thinking about this sermon I have to do.
Struggle, struggle. I'm wrestling with the scriptures, as they say. I'm not sure what I'm going to say about it. It's a bit of work. Something will come eventually. At the moment though, it's a bit, blerr. I think I need to go for a walk. That's what I'll do. I'll go for a walk.
That might help.
Well here Tom is, blogging from work. We just finished a prayer meeting for the term in youth group. It was good quality. I thought it was a prayer meetin.
I don't often blog from here, but things have finished early. I'm thinking I might stick around here and do some planning for Sunday morning. I have to get that done tonight because tomorrow is my day off. No work on my day off. That's bad.
I'm going to see a film with Jo, then we'll have some lunch. We could possibly do it the other way around. One is not sure. We don't know what we'll see either. It should be fun though.
The lesson on Sunday is on the 1st and 2nd Commandment. We put them together because we only have 7 weeks to teach 10 so we felt those two went well together. Nice eh. I'm not sure what I'm going to do though. I guess that's why I have to plan it.
I found out yesterday that I'm preaching in a week. Actually it's a week and 3 days or something. This means I need to get to work. I should be fine though. I'm preaching on Psalm 8. I'm not very good at the Psalms so this should be a good chance to brush up on at least one of them.
I think I'll talk about God and all that stuff.
I also got the programs done. They look posh and they are all sent. Yay.
Yay, a second time.
I did got and see X-men 2 today (which I found out is X2 but really I think that's a stupid name). It was good fun. Good action I think. Hong Kong has had a positive infuence on action films I feel. Fights just aren't the same these days.
I had some hot Sara Lea Chocolate pudding and Streets Blue Ribbon ice cream tonight. I bought it from Woolies about an hour ago. It was very posh. Very nice. You should try some.
I think I'm might go and see X-men 2 at some stage today.
I just wrote a phone message for my dad down. I noticed that my hand writing is really messy. I think because I do very little hand writing. I type almost everything in my life. I'm not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing. It's not good for exams, I know that. They don't let you type them.
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