I had steak tonight with Kemp. Steak is real good.

Cleaning Out My Camera

I found this photo when I was cleaning out the camera the other day:



When I was playing Scrabble with Helen, Jon and Jan way back in April, these were the first letters I pulled out. No joke.

Camp Again

People regularly discuss with me the issue that we talk about going on camp and we don't actually camp while on camp. So if you're wondering, I went away on the weekend with the youth group, but we didn't camp. We stayed in cabins.

Going on camp, when you're leading the thing is a little bit of a worry. You have responsibility for 35 people who are the most precious things in the world to their 70 parents. It's kinda like taking 35 antique plates away except people care about plates less. Actually, I like teenagers a lot more than I like the good china. They're more fun.

Anyway 45 of us went away to the Blue Mountains to learn about God and eat camp food (which was really good this year). Getting up to camp is always a crazy process. You have heaps of excited young people running around and you have to put them all into cars. But you're never quite sure if you organised enough cars. And you find out that people who you thought were driving aren't and people who weren't going to drive are. And all the time people are asking questions about what car they're going in, where we're stopping, how we get there, where we're going to eat, which car is their child going in, and they're trying to shove their gear into different cars and shove permission forms and hundreds of dollars into your hand and tell you what sort of medication they'll be taking on the weekend. It really is literally mind boggling. But we made it. We had everyone in cars with one seat spare. It was great.

Except when I left instead of driving to camp, I decided to drive home instead. It was only when I was on the wrong side that I realised I had driven in completely the wrong direction. No worries I thought, I'll just adjust the route. So with much heckling from my passengers, a few route changes, and a few extra tolls and motorways, we made it to the mountains. And we made it there earlier than any of the other cars that left before us. We got our Maccas and we had time to spare. It made me feel pretty good.

That night everything went late, and there were people running around screaming till late into the night. But it was fun. It is good when you get to camp and you realise you have a whole weekend to spend with these people. Everyone's there to have a good time, so a little bit of rambunctiousness is acceptable.

On camp we had a speaker who is from the USA. It was fun having him, cause he was a good speaker, and he had an American accent. There's nothing that says "International Speaker" more than an American accent (unless you're in America of course, then I don't know what says international speaker...lederhosen?). He was a fun guy, and challenging. He had a good way of bringing the Bible to life, and putting you "in" the situation.

On camp we always do "the Sex Talk". We split the guys and girls, send a male leader to the girls and send a female leader to the guys. It's always much fun. I'm not sure why I like sex talks so much, perhaps because they're funny and they're honest. Everyone has a laugh, but everyone, at least on the panel, will share stuff they generally keep to themselves. So tis fun.

On Saturday morning one of the guys came up to me and showed me his bruised finger. Thinking back to my first aid training (which I'm very thankful I got) I asked if he could bend it (he could) then told him to put ice on it. Cause that's what you're meant to do I reckon. Anyway he headed off to spend the rest of the day running around and playing sport, so I figured he must have recovered alright, till the evening when one of the older girls brought him to me and said "Look at his finger, I think it's broken." So I had a look and it was a lot bigger and a lot bluer than before. Obviously my magic ice trick hadn't done what it was intended to do. I decided to get him to hospital just in case it was broken. I figured it probably was just bruised, but to be on the safe side... I rang his parents, got his sister (who was a leader on camp), designated an "Acting Camp Director", ate some dinner (priorities, if you're going to be sitting in a waiting room for hours it's good to make sure you've eaten) then we headed off to hospital. I had to leave my beloved camp behind.

Hospital was as long and boring as I expected it to be. The three of us spent three hours there. He got an x-ray, and was told he'd fractured his finger, and had to come back on Monday. And that was about it. It was just long. But I did enjoy spending three hours with these two people. We bonded and had a few laughs. But I reckon we would all have rathered been around for the talk and campfire instead. Oh well. We arrived back just in time for me to be able to tell people to go to bed.

3:30am and I'm woken up by one of the boys in the cabin next door who's worried about his friend. So I go and find the friend, get him up and we go for a walk and find a drink of water in the dining. He's not seeming too good and we can't quite figure out what's wrong. Until, 40 minutes later he tells me he needs to vomit. So we head off to the bathrooms and sure enough, he vomits. And with that he cheers up, there's jokes and laughs, and then I send him back to bed. Nothing to worry about. It's amazing what a good spew can do.

On Sunday, after the usual sitting around and sharing how good it's been we drove home. We gave the young people back to their parents and I collapsed onto the floor of my office for a sleep. That felt real good.

So all up, camp was tops. I haven't really done it justice in this retelling. Because the best bits of camp aren't really the bits that are worth blogging. The best bits are the little jokes you have when you're lining up for dinner or seeing a young person connect with God in a way they haven't before or learning something new about someone while you're in a small group with them or connecting with a person who you don't normally get the chance to hang out with. And you get a whole weekend of moments like that that are what make camp special every time. And this camp was no different. Our speaker talked about the fact that God created camp because they're such special times. And I think I agree. Hooray for camp.

Gosh

In church last night we sang a song that went:

When I'm caught up in the flood
And when I'm walking through the fire
Then I'll get down on my knees and I'll pray
And I'll remember the promise you made

And it rather annoyed me because, who would, in the right mind, when they're walking through a fire get down on their knees to pray. In fact who walks through a fire. You run through a fire. Of course you pray, but not kneeling in the middle of a burning house, or building, or furnace.

And if you're caught in a flood, it's kinda hard to get down on your knees while you're being swept down Main Street.

Oh well. I'll cope. I guess I just shouldn't think too much about what I'm singing.

On Mondays I always look forward to my senior small group. They're a good bunch. And I like to go to the local high school. I do that on Monday's too. And in between those two is generally unstressfull. I heard the song "I don't like Mondays" on the radio today and I thought, "Actually, I quite like Mondays." Although seeing as I have Tuesday off, Monday is a little like Fridays. So perhaps I should sing "Tell me why I don't like Wednesdays" and then I'd be more correct.

Nick's the Man

Gone are the days of rainbows
Gone are the nights of swinging from the stars
For the sea will swallow up the mountains
And the sky will throw thunder-bolts and sparks
Straight at you
But I'll come a-running
Straight to you
But I'll come a-running
One more time

Heaven has denied us its kingdom
The saints are drunk howling at the moon
The chariots of angels are colliding
Well, I'll run, babe, but I'll come running
Straight to you

Nick Cave - Straight to You

X3

What I did do on Thursday which I will write about is see X-Men: The Last Stand. I went to see the 10:15pm session with Ryan and Anmol. We were aiming for the 9:30 session but it was sold out. So we went and had a beer then headed up for the last session.

The film was rather cool. Wolverine is one of the coolest characters around. And Magneto is one of the best bad guys in recent action movie history. I love the way him and Professor X relate. As one guy put it, they're on opposite sides, but they haven't fogotten their friendship. I loved the scene in the house where Jean Gray goes nutso and isn't real nice to Xavier and you can just see the pain on Magneto's face. Like he can't bear what's going on, even though this guy is his enemy. Yeah. It mad the character kinda complex, and I like complexity.

I think it was the weakest film in the francise, but still that doesn't make it bad by any means. It was cool to see Jean Gray blowing stuff up. And that climax, with Gray and Wolverine, that was cool. I can just imagine every Christian preacher watching it and their face lighting up for a moment as they see "Sermon illustration" and then deflating as the perfect illustration get's killed before their eyes. The film makers were like "Get an illustration out of that Christians". Actually I doubt they even thought about it, but I did. When you see the scene you'll know what I mean.

Ryan mentioned he thought the scene would have worked better if they hadn't said anything at all. I think he was right. But it wouldn't have been as explictly moving and may have left a little room for ambiguty and you can't have that in a $200 million film.

But don't let me drone on. It was fun. Go see it. I wanna be an X-man.

Oh and read this review. It made me laugh. Beware it has spoilers.

Damien Rice really is good if you want to feel nostalgic but you have nothing to feel nostalgic for. And isn't that a common desire.

Return

I did just spend 3 days on camp, but I don't think now will be the time to talk about it because I'll be up all night and I want to go to bed.

What I will say though is that I broke my 2 year McDonald's fast on the way to camp this weekend. I was so hungry and the only place to eat was McDonald's. So I got a large McOz meal. I was hoping that it would taste great because I hadn't had one for so long. But it was rather dull as Maccas tends to be. Anyway, I returned to the McDonald's eating community on Friday night. I'm not sure if it's a perminant return but I think I've made my point. At least, if I had a point to make, I would have made it. Sadly I still am unsure why I stopped eating McDonald's so here I am.

The Macca's fast: 15th May 2004-26th May 2006. May it hold hold heart diease and obesity off just that little longer.

I went to the dentist today. He put a filling in the hole that the root canal man gave me. Now I think the tooth is done, fully treated. Hooray. Only 3 months later and tooth one is fixed. Now for the one that's not actually there, and they've hardly started on that.

I'm going on camp this weekend. Camps are not the easiest things in the world to organise. Lucky I'm the most organised person in the world.

Tapped Off

I am continually reminded that this world is falling apart. Decay is everywhere. My discman broke recently. How unhappy. Now I don't listen to music when I travel.

This house has a disagreements with light globes and regularly blows them.

And our bathroom door broke a while ago which meant we had to shower and go to the toilet with no door. It did wonders for the inner-exhibitionist in me.

Now the cold tap on our shower has died. So I bought some new taps today at the hardware shop. I thought it's just be take off the old tap whack on the new one, but no, the new tap doesn't fit! They looked the same from the front. So now I own two taps, but still our cold tap is dead. I'll have to go see if I can find a to fit this time. Other wise we'll have to call the land lady, but I don't want that to happen. It'll be like admitting defeat. Although I reckon that's the likely outcome.

We Built this City

I had the song "We Built this City" stuck in my head all night on Friday. Except the only thing in my head was We built this city, we built this city on rock and roll.

So I went and found the song on iTunes and downloaded it, expecting some kind of 80s rock classic. But alas the only thing good about the song is the bit I was singing. The rest of it is rather embarrassing for the whole human race. If ever we meet aliens we'll have to get to know them really well before we play them that song.

Although if I was a really good musician I'd use the chorus and write a new song around it. But it wouldn't be a rock song. Maybe a rather melancholic "Blower's Daughter" kinda track. How cool would that be?

I reckon I had a pretty good day today. I'm not sure that there was anything particularly special, I was just happy. Sundays usually leave me feeling exhausted and a bit flat, but today was happy. Jon, Helen and I went to dinner at some trendy Newtown place tonight and I had the biggest cafe glass of Coke I've ever had. It was tops. I was in heaven.

I love Coke.

I just watched Over the Top an 80s classic. Stallone arm wrestling his way into the heart of his disenfranchised 12 year-old son. It's doesn't get much better then that.

Here I am again
Back on the corner again
Back where I belong
Where I've always been
Everything the same
It don't ever change
I'm back on the corner again
In the healing game

Van Morrison - The Healing Game

Love Again

We did Love Is again tonight at an Anglican Church in the bit of Sydney I don't like. It was the first time we've been invited to perform this show outside of Black Stump or Soul Survivor, so it was fun.

I preached at the end, almost exactly the same message that I gave almost a year ago at church. It was weird doing it again. Going over it this week has been like being an actor getting back into character. I was in a different place last year when I wrote the talk and I had to get back there, conjure up the feelings and remember why I wrote what I did. It seems strange to talk about preaching like acting, but I guess it's only really about finding authenticity because there's nothing worse than a preacher who isn't authentic. Except maybe nuclear weapons and AIDS and domestic violence. But apart from those, and probably quite a few other things, there's nothing worse than a preacher who isn't authentic.

Anyway, it was good. The show was good. There is many a talented person involved. And I felt like the message went alright. So yeah.

Tomorrow I'm off to a first aid course. Yeehaa. I love first aid. I want to save everyone's life.

Fight Night

I went to the Mundine v Green fight at Aussie Stadium last night. I went with Matt, Mitch, Graham, and Matt's friend Jess. What a fun night it was. We five guys were just a small contribution to a stadium full of testosterone. I doubt you get many sporting events with a greater gender imbalance than there was last night.

Mitch, Graham and I arrived at 5pm (after a killer steak at the pub up the road from home), right at the beginning for 5 hours of undercard fights. There were 11 fights all up, and when you sit through 5 hours of men punching each other your attention sometimes wanes. You tend to watch some fights with interest and others barely register. But happily there was pleanty of other stuff to keep you interested. Like watching what happens on the field when two rival bikie gangs walk past and get surrounded by nervous cops. Or watching the reaction of the crowd when the women advertsing "men's entertainment" come near. Or seeing the look in the eyes of the man who drops his bottle of rum which you pick up for him and he thinks your going to steal it. Things like that. There was plenty to keep you interested.

On the undercard one of my two favouirte moments was when a fighter names Clinton who was knocked out one and half minutes in. He got punched, rather lightly it looked, then half a second later seemed to loose the will to fight and just drop. He didn't seem to actually get knocked out, the punch just seemed to be an excuse to get out. It was rather funny to watch. But you probably had to be there.

The other highlight (if you can call it that) was seeing Hoppa's proffessional debut. He was set up against this big, 45 year-old guy who looked like Lando Calrissian (who I mistook for Boba Fett, what a bad Star Wars fan I am). Hoppa came into the ring with the most excitement that anyone recieved who wasn't Mundiene or Green. And then went on to destroy the guy in 47 seconds. It was pretty massive. Poor old guy, one can't help but thinking he wasn't there because anyone thought he'd beat Hoppa.

When 10pm rolled around it was time for the main event, so after an Aboriginal smoking cerimony the fighters were brought out with much fanfair, booing and cheering. I was going for Green because I think Mundine talks himself up too much.

The fight was good. Green came out looking better for the first few rounds but never seemed to dominate. But Mundine had the stamina and managed to come out looking better at the end. But both fighters, as far as my amature eyes could tell did good. It was a close fight, but sadly Mundine did that bit better. And it really was sad.

When the fight finished Mitch gave me a lift home, but we sat in the carpark listening to Spoonman (and other Triple MMM late night-ness) first for the better part of an hour waiting for some movement. It was sad. I think walking may have been quicker.

I don't need more stuff, but gosh I want more.

Yay for the Government

While generally I won't be saying the above title, it looks like the change to copyright laws are close to becoming a reality. That makes me happy. Finally the Liberals are doing something I like. I still won't vote for them though.

Today I'm going to the movies. And how I love the movies.

The hygenist told me to floss regulalry. So I have. Twice.

24 odd hours

I was writing my sermon for tonight yesterday afternoon and I got a call from my Dad telling me that our dog, Tassa was very sick (she's been sick for months) and was probably going to die soon, and asking me if I would like to go and see the dog. So Jo and I hopped in the car and headed out to Hornsby for one last visit with the dog that we grew up with.

When we arrived Tassa stood up a greeted us. She wagged her tail, and we were told that that was the first time she'd moved all day. She was really sick, she was finding it really hard to breath, and couldn't lie down because she was so uncomfortable. She'd been standing up for 24 hours.

After a family conference we decided that we should take her too the vet to have her put down, rather than delay the inevitable.

At that stage it was about 6pm, so Dad called the after hours vet and arranged to meet her at the clinic. We picked up Tassa and all walked out to the car. As we were walking out, Hannah was amazingly perceptive and kept waving at Tassa saying "Bye bye Tassa, bye bye."

When we arrive at the vet, the Vet told us what was going to happen. She was just going to overdose Tassa on anesthetic and she would just drift off to sleep. When the Vet went out to get the stuff, we decided to send Hannah out with my Auntie while the procedure happened. So we sent Hannah over to pat Tassa one last time, she patted Tassa and said "Bye bye Tassa" and as she did that Tassa seemed to try to stand up or something and then she just went limp and stopped breathing. Most of the family were holding on to Tassa at the time. Mum called the Vet in, who had a listen to her heart and told us that it was slowing down, then her heart stopped all together and she was dead. All of us were there, in the room, we didn't have to get her put down, and she died as pleasantly as you could hope for. It was an amazing. It was like God had it all figured out. I am amazed at the graciousness of God, that he would orchestrate the death of even an old, rather insignificant, family dog.

I carried Tassa out to the car and we took her home and buried her in the bush. It was rather sad, as much as she was a nuisance sometimes, she was also our cute little dog. I'd grown up with her, she'd been in my life for 15 years, and I was always fond of her, even if I didn't do a real good job as showing it ("Tassa, shut up!" isn't exactly the greatest show of affection). And now our little dog is gone.

After that I stayed at my parents house writing the sermon. I was meant to go to a party last night, but the dog stuff got in the way.

On the way to work this morning I was driving down a road near church, and I saw a cyclist get hit by a car. He was riding on the left between parked cars and the car in front of me. The car turned to go into driveway just as the cyclist was riding past it and he got hit. He went up onto the bonnet then onto the ground.

I pulled over to see if I was needed, but I felt rather inadequate. It happened right outside the local oval so there were people everywhere. People stopped and came running and were on their phones and everything. I figured I was probably a little redundant, so when was sure there was nothing I could be doing I headed off to church. It was all a bit of a shock really. I hope the guy's ok. He looked like he would be. I hope the people in the car are ok too. I'm sure it's not easy coping with something like that.

So that was my odd 24 hours. The rest of the day was pretty normal. I did mother's day lunch with Mother and family which was nice. I visited the local retirement village with my diminishing youth group (there isn't a lot of enthusiasm for hanging out with old people) which was special, because it's always good visiting, blessing and being blessed by the people there. And I preached tonight which went better than I thought it would.

This is the athiest worship song Uncle Jaffa sang at Soul this year.

I Believe in Nothing

Verse 1
I believe that billions cells
Formed to become a fish,
Which climbed out of the sea
Then climbed into a tree
And into my home
And that Fish/Ape/Man is me
That Fish/Ape/Man is me

Bridge
If you go to the heights of the earth
You’ll find nothing
If you to depths of the sea
You’ll find nothing

Chorus
In the universe it’s plain to see
There’s no God there’s just you and me
I will sing with my lungs and be proud
From the rooftops I’ll shout it out loud
“I believe in nothing”

Verse 2
I believe in the really big bang
When nothing collided with nothing
And formed into something
And on that something grew an ocean
And a mountain here or there
And conveniently some air
Conveniently some air

Bridge
If you go to the heights of the earth
You’ll find nothing
If you to depths of the sea
You’ll find nothing

Chorus
In the universe it’s plain to see
There’s no God there’s just you and me
I will sing with my lungs and be proud
From the rooftops I’ll shout it out loud
“I believe in nothing”

Tag
Let us eat and drink
for tomorrow we die

Fire

One day I would like to disappear for many years, the come back with a big beard and a tanned, jungle-man body, and be wearing the skins of animals that I have killed and eaten in the wild. And when I arrive I will walk into the building (whatever building I first walk into) and say: "I have returned to set this world on fire and burn it to the ground."

Speaking of burning, it's sad to hear about St Barney's burning down. Jon saw it this morning as we drove past. Happily no one was hurt.

Hooray for free miners!

Travel Fun

Tomorrow I'm going to catch a bus all the way from the city to my work. Of course, that's not a big deal for lots of people but for me, well, I'm excited. I do love a good bus adventure these days, now that I'm not so scared of buses. They really were things of fear.

Howie and I want to go on a transport challenge like on "Top Gear". We're going to start in Newcastle then race from Newcastle to some obscure place in Melbourne as quickly as possible. One group will go in the car the other on public transport (including planes). I'm hoping more people want to do it because I reackon it'd be way fun if you didn't have to do it alone. Plus, I'd quite like to be on the public transport team.

I do it with my small group or something, but I'm not sure parents would want to shell out $100 or so dollars for a day's worth of transport fun.

Saturday Home

I'm home today and it's Saturday. I haven't got around to making anything happen today. I have a few ideas about how to fill my time today. I'll see what happens.

I'm happy to see the new Superman Returns trailer. Oh how exciting is Superman? The most wonderful superhero of all time I reckon. I'm so excited. Sadly the day the film comes out is the day after I leave Australia for Russia so I'm not sure where I'll see the film. I will refuse to watch it on a plane. I reckon if nothing else I'll go see it in England some where.

I found out last night that at the Enmore Theatre they're having a Breakdancing festival or something. I thought, how cool to go see that, but alas I will be out of the country for that too.

I went to see Dave Chappelle's Block Party last night with Ryan and Libby. It was cool. Lot's of lovely people who I want to be friends with. And it made me laugh. And it had lots of hip hop. Hip hop really is growing on me. I think when I get a car it'll have to have a good sound system, woofers, tweeters and them other ones, so I can listen to hip hop loudly and feel "pretty fly". Yo, wassup dawg?!?

We played Lock On at youth group last night. It's a laser tag game that you can play at home. When I was a young lad there were few of us who bought sets, and they're still around and going strong. They are much fun. Anyway we played it at church last night and it was most enjoyable. We ran around shooting each other. I wasn't very good at staying alive but I was good at killing people. In the first game I managed to obliterate a team of three almost single handedly. And that, my friends, is why you should always play all games against 11 year-olds who have never played before.

Although after that they got a bit wiser so I died with more regularity and with less success. That was because they learnt how to play and that they could reset their lives mid game by turning the switch on their headset on and off. Oh well, I guess it was a practical demonstration that eternal life comes to the shrewd and dishonest. Which is exactly what we like to teach at church.

Yesterday I was at the bus stop and some girls from the local high school who I've had for scripture seminars came up to me and said "We've decided that we love you more than Jesus."

I wasn't sure what to do with that. But we had a fun conversation.

Today I had no car. And it was good.

I am very tempted to stay up late tonight but I should sleep. Sleep is good for me.

The car broke down again today.

We were on our way to work, Helen and I, and smoke started to come out of the hand brake. We thought it was best that the car not be driven anymore.