I have decided that I'm getting worse at writing sermons.

I started at the keyboard for this one yesterday. I've been working on this one for two weeks.

I'm only now though going to actually write it.

Although this could be because I've had parties the last two nights, a super-awesome movie on Thursday, small group on Wednesday, day off on Tuesday, dinner with the Gowies on Monday and Once Was Lost for 18 months before that. And I only ever manage to write sermons at night. So really, I haven't really had the time. Till now.

Hurrah!

Lucky, I found a structure that I liked driving to the party tonight, until I got busted by a red-light camera. There were no cars around, and I looked at the green for the other direction and thought it was for me. It wasn't. Oops. Anyway, that ruined my train of thought. And cost me 3 points and $300. Gosh, that's like 4 tanks of fuel.

Party was fun though.

I dressed as Martin. I was from Peru. I looked hot.

Was awesome! So damn cool. I was grinning like like a school boy who grins for most of the film. It was so cool. Fighting robots, military jets and tanks and helicopters and guns. Yeah baby!

Oh I want to see the film again!

Only silly thing was John Turturro's character. Everything else was uber-super-kick-ass-spectacular.

Actually there were one or two other silly things, but still, not much.

I want Optimus Prime to be my friend.

The Wireless Router at home borked. So I have no internet at home.

So now I blog here though.

Off to see Transformers tonight! Yeah baby!

I stuck up a new Tabitha in case you're interested.

I got a cold. Bah.

Happily and sadly today was a day off, so it didn't make any dent in work. But it did make a dent in day off enjoyment.

Still I was determined to enjoy myself, so I hired Lethal Weapon 2 to satisfy the craving I got for the film on Friday. It was special, I like that movie.

I was then planning on watching World Trade Center but decided to watch an episode of Prison Break before it. I accidently pressed play all on the DVD and ended up watching 8 episodes. I'm now two episodes from the end of the season. Gosh. I know I complained about it before, but after they had that riot episode, I was back on the wagon.

I need to decided if I finish the show tonight or leave it for another day.

It's a hard choice. I have to work tomorrow so I don't want to stay up too late. Then again, I didn't get up till 11am today. So, hmm. Tough.

Goodness me the weekend started a long time ago.

I spent pretty much all of Thursday, Friday and Saturday trying to burn DVDs for the show. But I blogged that.

Once Was Lost was good. I enjoyed it. I think in many ways the show is our best project so far. We've come a long way in the past few years.

Being that I'm the DVD man (I pretty much have the whole show under my control!) I got to be in the sound castle at church, which I think is the best spot in the building. The sight lines in our church aren't very good for dance, so being up high means I get to see everything that goes on. Probably we should sell tickets to the sound booth for lots of money. It'd be like "Get the chance to see the premiere with the Director of Photography and the PowerPoint guy, and actually see the show!"

But what was I saying? Oh yes it was good. I think it all fitted better than anything else we've done. The dances I think were better. I enjoyed them especially the Apple dance, the mirror dance and the stomp. Whacking a drum covered in water that's back lit by a blue light looks cool. And the film all looked better. It most definitly sounded better. And I think Matt successfully managed to achieve his original vision, which was a task and a half, and I'm most impressed. Plus people responded to God so what more could we ask for?

Matt, Helen, Sal and Beck, youse did a wonderful job. Thanks for letting me hang out on the production team with you for a year and a half.

Being that I didn't write or direct the film this year, I felt less emotionally involved. Which made it all a lot less stressful. I felt like I could just watch the show and enjoy it, rather than worry too much about how everyone was feeling (though so far it seems everyone was feeling pretty good). I guess it's the life of a techy.

On Saturday night Matt and I slept over in the church to protect it from thieves. Everything was good, though not overly comfortable, till about 4am when I woke up because I heard a car drive down the drive way. It stopped, and people got out. I heard them check one of the doors, it was locked, so I listened as they walked around the building. I could hear them talking as they came to another door, they tried it and this time it opened. I heard as they walked into the church building.

I decided that now they were in the building I should probably confront them, so I hopped out of my sleeping bag and saw two guys wearing dark clothes and beanies holding a torch at the back of the church. "Hey!" I said as I walked to intercept them.

"We're security." One of them said.

"Oh you're security." I replied. I didn't know that 4am encounters with would-be robbers brought out my sarcastic side, but I guess when I have to fight off intruders my wit is my greatest weapon. However I'm not sure what I meant with my remark. I think it just seemed rather impossible to me that these two men in my church could be both thieves and security at the same time.

But by the time I got to the man I saw he had a badge on his jacket for the church's security company. So I said something even more witty like "Oh yes, you are security, I can see your badge." Damn Security people looking like thieves.

And then I told them what we were doing and they left and I had successfully defended the church from the people who protect the church. Matt managed to stay in bed the whole time. He only woke up when I said "Hey!". I'll tell ya, if Australia ever gets invaded and we have to go to war, Matt is gonna want me watching his back.

Last night after show number two we had a party at Liam's house. I have not much to say but I enjoyed it. I sat on two seats then went home. Lucky I had good people sitting next to me.

I'm sitting in the dress rehearsal for Once Was Lost now. Things are turning out alright. I started creating the DVD for tonight's show at 11:30pm on Thursday night. I finished at 1:30pm this afternoon. Things aren't meant to take that long. I did sleep in case you're wondering. I get to sleep while things render. It's just a long, long time.

Anyway, I'm hungry and looking forward to the break, so I can get lunch/dinner.

I wish I had a better DVD creator. Maybe it wouldn't put glitches in the sound too. Grr.

Show should be good though.

I had a doctors appointment to get my jabs at 9:40 this morning. But my doctor has failed to materialise. So they bumped me back to 2:30pm. What am I doing up this early then?

I'm not sure if today went as planned because I'm not sure what the plan was.

I got given my fatty hard drive last night so I could put the finishing touches on Once Was Lost. I spent an hour or two working on that, put it on to render for the DVD then went to bed. But as is the case these days, it'd crash on a regular basis. So I'd hop up at some horridly cold hour, restart the computer, put the file on to render and go back to sleep.

Mil and Martin left for South America this morning so I heard all their many farewellers stomping around at some silly hour. Then at about 7am I heard our phone ringing. I was only half awake and I though "Someone should get that". The phone kept ringing and I thought "Someone really wants to talk to Mil and Martin." The phone kept ringing and someone started banging on the door. I thought, as I remained mostly asleep, half dreaming "Gosh, now they have to answer the phone and answer the door." Then someone outside the house started shouting "Tom! Tom!" And I thought "Wow! That person wants to see me. I hope someone lets them in."

And then it dawned on me that maybe, there was no-one else home. So I forced my self to wake up and sure enough the phone was ringing, someone was banging on the door and shouting for me, and there was no-one else home. It was Stella, she had left money in our house, she was locked out and she had a cab waiting for her. The phone was ringing because Jo, Martin and Matt were taking it in turns to call from the Airport to try and wake me up, because they knew Stella was locked out. Apparently they rang 14 times before I let Stella in and she answered the phone.

I doubt I'd be any good in a fire.

Now that I was awake I checked the render, it had crashed so I put it on again and went back to sleep.

After I got up the rendering was still crashing.

It kept crashing right up until 1:20pm. This was the time that I had to leave to go to my exam. Which I had been planning on studying for today, but I was attending to DVD creation today.

While I sat in my exam I was more interested in whether the film was rendering or not.

I reckon I passed though. Not by much though. However, I could fail. It's certainly not beyond possibility.

When I got home the film had rendered! Woo!

Then I just had to make the DVD. Unfortunately that decided to take a long time too. From pressing the "Build" button on my DVD burning program it took about 3 hours. I was expecting maybe an hour. Hour and a half if things go bad.

I was late to the dress rehearsal.

But I did get time to do my chores, cook dinner, hang out my washing, do some work for youth group, finish a puzzle we have downstairs. So time was not wasted. Still I wish I hadn't spend all day making a DVD.

Happily I'm home from the dress rehearsal with a bunch of changes to make for the next DVD for Saturday. Hooray! I'm going to start work now.

Oh boy, did I have a social day today!

I stayed at Mum and Dad's last night so I could have breaky with Mum this morning. We went out to the Field of Dreams and had toasted muesli. She's good my Mum.

I came home and met Ryan and Martin. We headed out to the cinemas to meet Jon and see Oceans 13. It wasn't a bad film. A lot better than the second one. Not as good as the first. We caught a taxi home which was fun. Probably because I would never think to catch a taxi. Plus taxis are warmer than buses.

Tonight I went over to Kemp's place for dinner. That too was happy. Jo cooked a fabbo dinner, especially the roast veggies. We had good talks and drank Coke.

I drove home in the "cyclonic" winds. Though apart from getting blown from one side of my lane to the other once or twice, it didn't feel all that cyclonic.

Guess who just spent $70 on socks and underwear.

Yep. I'm going to be good for a while.

The rain is bad for our locks. It makes them expand or something.

Yesterday afternoon I had just got home and was walking up the street after parking my car when Jo called me to find out where I was. She was walking down the other end of the street and didn't have her keys with her.

Happily we met at our driveway and I tried my keys in the locks of our two doors. But alas, drought is good for accessability to my house, rain is not. So we were locked out in the rain.

Knowing there was no use sitting in the rain till someone came home, we trudged off in search of a cafe to sit in for the next few hours till someone came home. We ate lunch and drank chai. It is a good thing living so close to so many cafes. It would have been a highly pleasent experience. I do like to spend time with my sister, except all I want do was lie on a couch with my book. But alas we were marooned in a dingy (wonderfully dingy) cafe. Still if there is anyone worth spending two hours on a wet Saturday with, it's Jo.

Finally Mil came home, we saw her drive past the cafe, and we got let in. But there was no time for couches and books. It was off to the Keith and Stella farewell do. That was an increasingly enjoyable night. After doing my duty and putting Hannah to bed (which included a 30 min nap or so for myself) I felt much more able to face the rigours of socialising. I did enjoy the people and I only got mildly abused for being an Anglican. Good stuff I reckon.

I did go to see the local high school's Season of Performing Arts. Although I didn't go to the whole season. Just one night really. Tonight.

I think I was a little underdressed to be going to the theatre, but I forgot I was planning on going when I got dressed. Plus, I was warm in what I was wearing.

But I always enjoy going to SOPA. It's good to see all the crew from church performing, and seeing them in a different context. Plus I get to see all the people from Scripture and people I meet here and there.

I couldn't find anyone to go with, so I bought a ticket by myself. When I sat down, it was just me surrounded by an ocean of chairs. The people in the auditorium who a knew (which was quite a lot) all thought my nigelation was pretty funny. But happily Pip was in the same loner situation as me and came and joined me. So now I had a friend in the sea of empty chairs. It was a much better out come.

Post-SOPA was a Maccas visit with Tim, Courtney and Nathan. Nothing wrong with a bit of late night Maccas and silliness. That's what I always say.

And there is a blog post.

After a tip from some of the youth, I did just discover StumbleUpon. It's amazing. It promises to bring a whole new level of success to my future procrastination. I figure what better way to spend a public holiday than learning how to waste time more effectively when the holiday is over.

So far the greatest discovery of the say is this site which is probably one of the most important sites on the internet.

Done.

Perhaps I didn't do a real good job. But I reckon I'll pass at least. And now I can sleep.

Plus I even wrote 92 words over my minimum! I'm amazing.

I'll properly check it in the morning.

I am happy to announce that I am now starting my only assessment for the semester 1 week, 6 days and 5 hours after it was due in and 19 hours before it needs to be handed in if I don't want to fail.

Hooray.

57 words down, 2,193 to go.

I came home rather happy tonight for some reason. I'm not sure why. But I was in a good mood and then I ate two McCain's frozen meals and I was even happier.

That's nice.

Is it just me or is Avril Lavigne's new song one of the dumbest songs to come out in years?

Hey! Hey! You! You!
I don't like your girlfriend!
No way! No way!
I think you need a new one
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I could be your girlfriend

Is she 12?

In a second you'll be wrapped around my finger
Cause I can, cause I can do it better
There s no other
So when's it gonna sink in?
She’s so stupid
What the hell were you thinking?!

It's a dodgy premise for a song. I'm not sure you should glorify stealing someone's boyfriend. But worse are that the words are just appallingly bad. At least Lips of an Angel sounded like a good song (if you like that "I wish I was Chad Kroeger" kinda thing) But this song is just dumb. Like can she think of a better justification for stealing someone else's man than "She's so stupid".

Though I reckon if I was in Kindergaten I'd love singing this song. It's fun to shout things like "Hey! Hey! You! You!". Lots of joy to be had there. Except perhaps for the bit where Avril describes what she does to some mothers. I'm not sure Kindergateners should be singing that kind of thing.

During last week, one of the busiest weeks I can ever remember having, I started to get a cold. I decided it would be good to try and hold it off by sheer will power. So I did. From Tuesday to Saturday all I got was a sore throat. But then at about 10pm on Saturday night is hit me. I think maybe my body was waiting till I got "Once Was Lost" out of the way.

Anyway, it was one of the badder colds that knock you around and make the whole world disappear under a pile of snot and brain fog.

I wrote my sermon on Saturday night in that cold fog. And went through the whole of church life on Sunday like that. Preached about healing, sick. I thought that was rather funny. I was prayed for before the preach but it didn't make me well.

After church and the after church social I went to the shops to buy supplies for today's scripture seminars and to get some cold and flu medication. Sadly what I thought were cold and flu drugs turned out to be herbal tablets called "Cold and Flu Fighter". On the packet it says "May help relieve symptoms" which seems like a waste of time if you ask me. All sorts of things may help relieve symptoms but I'm not gonna pay $10 for them.

Anyway I came home, ate some microwaved butter chicken for dinner and took my herbal silliness and went to bed. I started to get the shivers like I had a temperature and after about an hour of stupid sleep I woke up feeling like I was going to vomit. Then I thought to myself "No I've got a cold, colds don't make you vomit" and tried to go back to sleep. But about 20 seconds later I realised "No, I really am going to vomit." And I only had time to stick my head over the side of my bed before I vomited on my floor.

I blame the herbal stuff.

Feeling there was more coming, I headed to the bathroom. I positioned myself over the toilet bowl, but then vomited with such force that only half made it into the toilet the other half ended up on the bathroom floor and walls.

I think this must have woken my sister up because she arrived at the end of the corridor and said "So this is what happens when you church prays for healing."

I spent the next half hour cleaning up myself and the bathroom. My amazingly kind and wonderful sister cleaned up the floor of my bedroom. And thank God we have floor boards. Happily that was only a little spew. Except I did manage to blow chunks on my mobile. But she cleaned that too. She's a way good sister.

Today I went and ran Scripture Seminars at the High School near Church. But that was rather tough. I was feeling rather horrid and found that controlling a class when you have no voice isn't all that easy.

After that though I came home and lay on the couch, slept and watched Flags of Our Fathers. It was most pleasant in that "I'm sick" kind of a way.

Tomorrow is off too. I'm hoping I'm feeling gooder tomorrow so that I can enjoy myself. Maybe I'll eat steak.

I finally finished editing the film (though I'll discover all my mistakes tomorrow). Now all that's left before tomorrow's dress rehearsal is to burn it to DVD. Woo!