Zap! Pow!

Last week we, the youth group, went to Zone 3 (laser tag).

For the first game, I was amazing! I had hit accuracy of 161%! Which is pretty damn good if you ask me. I fired 68 shots and hit 89 people, or something like that.

In the second game one of the guys in the youth group decided that he wanted my gun and pack so he stole it and won the game. My accuracy dropped to 23% and my fleeting dreams of joining the SAS or a SWAT team were dashed. Oh well.

Confession

I'm not sure if I should be saying this, but I've been enjoying "Hips Don't Lie" by Shakira lately. I have a bit of a sing-a-long when it comes on the radio and my spirit lifts.

"Woo-oo, you know my hips don't lie, cause a manam manu ma na,
A lets go, a ponto, everybody do the fandango"

Or something like that.

Man

We sat in the pub tonight for our house meeting. I ate steak, watched the Origin and drank beer. I did enjoy that. Not the game as much as the food and drink. NSW were poor, sloppy, poor. On the other hand Queensland were on fire, so that was nice to see. Still, I'm a Blues man.

I think people had an intense conversation about Community while I was sitting there but I didn't really notice. I was too busy buried in a screen in thr corner.

I really shouldn't stay up so late. But Ryan is smart at making websites. I looking forward to living with that man. More because he's fun than because of his html skills. But they're pretty snazzy too.

3-1

That was fantastic!



Go Australia!

Ok. So now I'm a soccer fan.

I'm going to watch the football tonight at the Enmore. Yeehaa!

Oh it's working again now. Not sure what's up with that.

Warm Smell

I bought a heater for my room. And it has new heater smell blowing out of it. Oh. It just turned off. Crap heater. Now my legs are getting cold. I paid $23 for you and I get 7 minutes of warm air. That's over $3 a minute. I could go to the solarium for less that that!!!

Anger!

Busted

This morning I looked after Hannah and took her to her Saturday fun program. The problem with looking after Hannah in the morning is doing her hair 'cause I'm really bad at doing hair. This morning all I could manage to do was brush it. So when I dropped Hannah off, my friend Sam, as soon as he saw my sister when she entered the room, said "Hannah your hair is very messy"

So as I walked in behind her I said "Shut up. I can't do her hair, I'm not that skilled."

Soon a little girl who had been outside and overheard came in and said to me "You shouldn't say beep words." (I assume she was referring to the "Shut up")

Knowing she was right, I had to swallow my pride and say "You're right I shouldn't have said that. I'll try and find more appropriate things to say next time."

I should try not to offend little girls, I don't think it's virtuous.

Ranking Officer

Right now at Church the Senior Minister is away as is the Assistant Minister. Which makes me, the Youth Minister, the last remaining full-time staff member. I guess by chain of command I'm it. The remaining staff have taken to calling me the Senior Minister. It'll stay this way at least till Friday.

I'm planning on abusing the position. I might do a few communions for underage drinkers or condemn a few people to hell. Plus I might speed while wearing a clerical collar so I get let off. Oh what fun you can have when running a church!

The Question

Is this a Spork or a Spalyd?



Please note that I got the image from here.

I'm about to watch Raiders of the Lost Ark. Classic! I'm so excited.

With all this rain falling but never in the dam why don't they just move the dam? I'm sure it's not that hard is it?

Today could be day of the hair cut. Scary.

And while we're onto the whole "Reader comments thing" I have another question for all you readers out there (there's an average of 45 a day now, you're like an oversized public school class):

If you could say one sentence to the whole world what would it be?

Actually, scrap that, I can't remember ever complaining outloud that I do have all my social life taken up. But I could be wrong. Have you heard me complain?

Have your say, right here.

Ahh. I spent Saturday night alone in my house. Why is it that I complain that all my social life is taken up by stuff and then when I get a free Saturday night I have no social life to fill it with?

Anyway, I watched a DVD and ate take away food. Sal came around at one stage to drop a car off and I didn't invite her in for a drink. It was rather rude of me, sorry Sal. Oh well one day I'll learn to be friendly.

My Sister Waits



I like this photo. It looks a little posed, but it was what I saw when I walked out of the bathroom last night after brushing my teeth and I thought "I need to take a photo."

I broke my fake tooth off again yesterday. Generally even though it's loose it'll sit in my mouth pretty snug. This time though I broke off lots of the glue that held it in place.

It's rather embarrassing being in the middle of a conversation with someone and having your tooth fly out of your mouth. It's happened to me many times in the past two days.

Happily it's all fixed and I have masses of glue in my mouth this time because my dentist said, he doesn't want to see me again.

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.

I was writing a sermon tonight but I felt too dodgy to write so I spent the night sitting around the table with my sister and Jem telling stories of our lack of love lives.

Now I'm sleeping. I guess tomorrow will have to be sermon day. As well as everything else day.

Whole Lotta Soul

I haven't really recapped Soul yet. So I figure I will before I go to bed. I really am very tired right now. I haven't recovered yet, and I've been sleeping in my own bed since Saturday night.

But what was I saying?

Oh yeah. I reckon I'm gonna write in categories. That'd be new and interesting.

Youth

Taking a bunch of youth away on camp for a week is a scary, silly idea, and a lot of fun. I always complain about having to go and camp in St Ives. "I mean who camps in St Ives?" that's my line. But still I do it. We camped on the oval this year. That was good, flat soft and the domain of roaming dogs and their poo. Oh yeah and bees. For some reason there were heaps of bees at our campsite. But they only stung once so we coped.

Anyway, so I spent the week camping with 26 people from my youth group and we were joined by more each day. And it was all a lot of fun. I do like seeing young people regularly. Spending a week with some of my favourite people was cool. Even if every night that I sent people to bed I was told "You used to be cool Tom." Although I guess I should be flattered that I was ever considered cool in the first place.

It's also great to see them getting challenged and inspired. I guess that's a lot of the reason why we were there.

Probably the biggest disappointment of the week, youth wise, was on Friday night when I promised everyone they could stay up as late as they wanted. I got all rugged up for a long cold night, and sat down in the middle of the oval ready to stay up till 3 or 4am and we got kicked off the oval by a security guard at 1am. How sad is that? Last year when we stayed up it was one of the funnest nights of the conference. But this year, well, no fun. And then I felt like a bad person because I'd promised everyone they could stay up then had to send them all to bed. Plus everytime people got annoyed at me for sending them to bed on the other nights I just said to myself "It's ok, I'll be nice to them on Friday night". But it didn't work like that. Oh well. I'll figure out a way to fix that next year.

Donny Jaffa

Every year we push the envelope with Donny, and this year was no exception. This year I had lots of people coming up to me saying "Were you allowed to say that?" But I guess that's half the fun of Donny, doing what you shouldn't be doing.

I think this year was the Donny Jaffa Show's best year. It was the year I felt best about. There is always huge pressure to "be funny" but I think I'm learning how that best happens. I haven't got it figured all yet, but I think I've learnt over years. Who would have thought I'd end up doing a comedy show? I must be nuts, I'll get high cholesterol.

The guests this year were all superb. Matt was very smooth and helped me out of a tough spot or two. Ali was funny and played the whole "Donny crush" thing real well. Mike was great. It was very hard to remain straight faced working with Mike. Ben was great. For a quiet Canadian he really packed a punch. I think he beat Uncle Jaffa. And Suzie was funny. She did really well especially since she wasn't playing herself and only had about 30 minutes notice.

For one of the nights I played Uncle Jaffa, Donny's atheist Uncle. Basically Uncle jiffy was an excuse to have a deep voice and to sing an atheistic worship song. And that's about all he was. People liked the song, but there wasn't much more to him other than that. It was wonderful when Ben tried to convert him because it put me in the difficult position of not being able to betray the character by becoming a Christian, and not wanting to disappoint the crowd by refusing. In the end I stormed off the stage opting for character over crowd appeal.

The UK crew are really good to Donna. They're fans and very supportive. Especially when I realised that many UK people don't seem to get the jokes, so it's good to have them supporting me, encouraging me and "getting it".

Donny did take a lot away from the conference for me. I didn't get to any seminars because I was burning DVDs the whole time. And whenever I met someone who knew I was Donny all they'd talk about was Donny. It made me feel rather self-obsessed because I kept having to have conversations about me, Donny and the show. I had to work to change the conversation to other things. Oh well.

"Wisdom with Tabitha" was good again. Jem's real tops, she plays Tabitha well. Tabitha always outshines Donny and rightly so I guess.

This year's new video "Amy's Video Diary" was definately the find of the year. I didn't know Suzie, who played Amy, from a bar of soap at the beginning of the conference. Actually that's not true, if you put her and a bar of soap in a room together I reckon I could tell them apart. Unless of course the soap was made into a really life like statue of Suzie and she stood really still. Anyway that's all beside the point. I was a little worried taking on a stranger to do 4 nights of video segment, but she did great. She was funny and good at working without a script. It was cool.

Um yeah. So that's Donny. Someone got their photo taken with me this year. I felt famous.

Meetings

The main meetings were good fun. Matt got different people to speak at every meeting which was interesting. There was a guy called Jim Yost who's one of those crazy, full on missionary guys. He was real cool. He challenged us in how we did evangelism and took risks. I liked having him verbally kick my spiritual butt.

We had a different worship leader most days too. I liked that. I think I liked the variety they all bought to their stuff.

I'm not sure I have much more to say about the meetings. The ministry times weren't as full on as other years. But that's neither here nor there. God still did stuff.

All up

I had fun this year. I didn't feel like it was a really spiritually significant week. But I did enjoy having plenty of time to spend with God even if it wasn't all life changing. I had good times singing and good times sitting alone reading my Bible. Plus there are heaps of cool people at Soul. People a good. I'm very glad I went. I'm even glad I camped. But still, who camps in St Ives?

Gluttons and Drunkards

I was talking to my house (the people not the building) last night about the party. And they asked me why I liked the party, especially the fact that it wasn't a "Christian" party. Why did I like the fact that people got drunk and smoked pot when I'm not exactly one who does either of those things? I told them because I think it's the kind of party that Jesus would go to. I was lying in bed at 3:something am on Monday night thinking, "These people are the "gluttons" and the "drunkards"" Well probably not gluttons because there was very little food at the party, and most people weren't drunk. But there were the people there who did drink and did smoke pot and how often do you meet them at church parties?

But I had a great time meeting different people, dancing with different people, seeing that my house was full of people from all different parts of life. Some who you'd never find in a church but I get to hang out with them, build relationships with them, have fun with them, because they came to my party. I didn't invite them but I hope they come back. I didn't get to talk to them enough. I want to be friends with all sorts of people, even people who do things that I might not necessarily agree with, because they're people worth being friends with. And people who Jesus would have been friends with.

I also enjoyed having Christians at my party, because well, I love them too.

"The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and "sinners." ' - Jesus (That's my man!)

I've been creating a dvd of all the Donny Jaffa dvds. I've been meaning to do this for years, but I've finally gotten around to making it happen. There are a lot of videos. I think there are 30 individual films on the dvd. That's heaps.

I spent all yesterday making it happen and now I'm burning my first copy hooray.

Actually scrap that. My DVD program just told me one of the videos was encoded with a bit rate that's too high. Grrr. Back the to burning board.

Warming

Last night's party was good fun. I'm not usually a fan of big parties. But this one was good. We probably had about 100 or more people here. It was rather squishy in this little house of mine.

I spent most of my time up stairs in mine and Jon's room chatting to people. That probably made the many people sardineing in my house more manageable.

The party kicked on till about 3am. We ended the night dancing to Michael Franti. I grooved, dude.

The thing I really liked about the party was that there were so many different types of people there. We all have very different friends. And all lovely friends as far as I can tell. There may have been some crashers but we wouldn't have known that.

The other good thing was that the party wasn't like most of the Christian parties I attend these days. It went past 11:30pm and there was pot smoking and drunk people. I haven't been to a party like that since high school, and I only got invited to three then.

So it was good. I am happy our house has been warmed by so many different friendly people.

It's house warming party tonight and the only people left are the one who are sitting in the corner wearing dresses or stumbling around drunk. It's cool. I think commie house parties should end like this.

I have come home from Soul Survivor. It finished tonight. I'm tired and I have a sunburnt nose.

Donny seems to be coming together. I'm not as organised as last year, but I'm using a different approach this year. It's the less organised approach. Plus I'm planning on making segments of Donny at Soul this year too.

For those who are lost, I have to put together a DVD for every night I do the Donny Jaffa Show at Soul Survivor. And I usually show two video segments for every night I'm at Soul. This year I've done the usual "Wisdom with Tabitha" segements and I'm shooting the video diary of a camper at Soul. But those videos have to be shot at Soul so I'm not making the DVDs till I get to Soul this year. It should be a little nerve racking but hopefully it'll give us a more on the ball product.

Anyway I should go and at least create a show for tomorrow night so I'm ready there. And then I might go to bed because I have a bit to do tomorrow.

2404

This is post 2404.

Jem and I filmed "Wisdom with Tabitha" today. It's always fun doing Tabitha. It's embarrassing when you find yourself laughing at your own script. But then, I guess if I don't find my own jokes funny there is little chance other people will find it funny.

I had to go up the Hardy's Bay to shoot today because that's where Jem was. It's strange, we've been living in the same house for the past two months, but when we finally get around to filming Tabitha I have to drive 160kms to do it.

I got the Hannahvan back for those who are wondering. I got it on Thursday. I was getting a lift to work with Helen and the fix-it man called and said "Your car's ready". So I told him I'd be there soon. Seeing as we were driving straight past the mechanic I decided it would be easy.

The hard though was when I found out the cost: $1202 and I had to come up with it between the City and Chatswood. But I did it. And now I don't ever want the car to break down again. I'm sure it will comply with my wishes.

It's Easter but I haven't really noticed. That's no good. Lucky I can celebrate Jesus' death and resurrection any day of the year.

I'm Every Woman

I got a letter yesterday telling me I have a one year free membership to the YWCA (Young Woman's Christian Association).

On my welcome sheet it tells me that some of the benefits include:

- Membership in the premier women's organisation in Sydney
- Sisters in 90 countries around the world
- Quarterly Newsletters containing hot off the press issues and events for women.

I never knew I was going to be part of the club, but with benefits like that, how could I refuse.

I had a craving for hot chips today. So I bought some.

Yesterday I bought a mic for my camera. It's kinda swish. I hope it works.

Community Service

The Ashley Madison Agency is "committed to protecting and enhancing principles of personal freedom and social justice."

Ashley Madison is a website, set up like a dating website, except it for people who are already in relationships. It's designed to help people set up affairs.

Now I'd call that "personal freedom and social justice."

She Swears that She's Artsy

I went to Chris' 21st tonight. Parties are funny things. You go and stand around with a bunch of people, talk, drink, listen to speeches, then go home. There's no real goal to the whole thing. I guess the idea is to have a good time. I tend not to ever spend much time at the party talking to the person who's party it is. I always feel like they're too important to talk to me. Like when the bride or groom talk to me at the wedding, I always feel pretty special. They're like royalty and they come to talk to me.

Anyway, tonight was a good-er party. Chris and friends were the invited band, and they did well. But they seemed to get the best response when they started dancing. Chris has some mean moves up is sleeves, or would that be trouser legs? Although that sounds a little wrong.

Feel Good Movie of the Year

Ryan, Libby and I watched Wolf Creek tonight. It was a very well made movie, but not particularly pleasent. It made me wonder what the film added to the world.

The first half of the film was good. It was about 3 people on a road trip. It made me want to road trip. But the last half was just about a guy trying to kill and torture the three people who were having a good time.

It was probably the best made horror movie I've seen. But I'm not sure that well made can still justify its existence. It was pretty bleak and didn't leave me feeling at all like it was time well spent.

Oh well, I'll remember for next time.

Goats

I went and saw the Belvoir production of Edward Albee's "The Goat or, Who is Sylvia?" tonight. It was probably one of the most bizarre, unpleasant and disturblingly funny theatre experiences I have ever had. I liked it.

The play is about a family who have to deal with the revelation that their billiant and successful husband/father is having an affair with a goat. The play is so intense, it makes lots of shocking beastiality jokes, and it makes you watch the whole thing feeling horrified. You're laughing but there's no laughter in you. You watch as each character gets torn apart, their worlds come down, and you can find no way that the things are going to end well.

It was interesting that when the play finished some people just sat there looking shell shocked, most people seemed to look at each other and laugh (as we did), because there's nothing else you can do.

Albee seemed to be forcing us to ask questions about what limits there should be on our moral freedoms. Are our own subjective ideas about morality tearing apart what is most sacred? Does the idea that anything goes, "do what's good for you", really work? As one character put it: "What can get I get away with? That's what it's about for you? What I can get away with? I thought it was about love and loss."*

It was a good play. I'd see it again actually to try and figure it out better. Maybe I should buy the script. There were some fabulous lines. And in the end I was left to walk away trying to figure us all out.

"'You like the taste of blood,' he says. The boy shrugs. 'A poet's work,' he answers. 'To name the unnamable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguements, shape the world and stop it from going to sleep.'" - Salman Rushdie - "The Satanic Verses"

*Perhaps not quite that, but close

Why Everyone Loves Men

"We keep mistresses for pleasure, concubines for daily concubinage, but wives in order to produce children legitimately and to have a trustworthy guardian of our domestic property"

Apollodorus - some old, dead, Greek guy

Snotty Nose and Juicy Goss

I finished cleaning my room in Hornsby today. Only 6 weeks after I moved out. My mum will be so pleased. She's been bugging me about it for weeks.

I got hay-fever because there was so much dust in my room. Vacuuming up all the dust and cobwebs felt like I was vacuuming up the remnants of my history in that room. There was so much of my life that I lived through in that room, all my teenage years, and now I'm out. My adolescence is gone up the vacuum tube. As James says, my life is like a mist that is around for a little while and then is gone.

I got sent some psychological tests for my candidacy today. They look fun. I like psychological tests, they're good fun. Probably because I like talking about myself. I have to sign a form though saying that I won't copy them or reproduce the tests in anyway. How sad. They may ask me crazy questions like "Saturday is the best day for torturing small animals. a)agree b)disagree c)unsure" and I won't be able to blog it. What's the point of that? What's the point of life if you can't blog it? Bah!

Perhaps the people who are considering my application for candidacy will Google me and find this blog. If so "Hello to all you candidacy selectors. I love Jesus."

They may find lots of juicy info about me here, but I doubt it. All the most juicy stuff I left off. Like all the secret affairs I've had with Wiccan Priestesses. That's for the other blog.

Inner Sadness

I went to find my car today. On my way home, when it was all dark and quiet on the back streets of Chatswood I went to visit the Hannahvan just to make sure she's safe, and not covered in parking tickets, and there she was, sitting there safe and sound. Although she looked so lonely, sitting there on a dark, unfamiliar, road. I almost cried. It was sad, I rarely feel love for that car, but I didn't like seeing her lonely. Tomorrow I'll go and take her to get sorted out.

Friday Night Fun

Last night after my small group social I drove home. At least started to drive home. But around Chatswood my car started making popping noises. That worried me some. Then they started to get louder and I started seeing visions of my car exploding into a massive ball of flame. My engine was super hot, boiling and bubbling away. I pulled over into a side street, found a place to park (deep in the heart of side-street-urbia cause it took me ages somewhere I could park), locked the car and left. I rang Jo to ask her when buses went through the Chatswood area to the City, but she and her friend kindly just came and drove me home. How very nice of them.

So now the Hannahvan is parked quietly somewhere in Chatswood, and I'll have to get a tow-truck to go get it. Grr. I reckon tow-trucks aren't cheap. Or maybe I can get Lubemobile, my mobile mechanic, to come and fix it. That could be good.



At the Bus Stop waiting for Jo.

Hook Ups

I was reading this blog post (I'm not a big fan of the whole commercialised blogs thing) on SMH today about Hooking Up. It's the idea that you have a friend who you sleep with regularly but you don't have any great commitment to. You don't have any of the relationship, not the phone calls or the dates or the need to meet the parents, just all the sex. It's like Super Pash-Pals.

I read about it a few months ago Cosmo too (I was waiting in the Check-out line, that's all, honest!) I found it disconcerting. What's kinda disconcerting is not that it's happening, because it was obvious that it was happening before they were writing about it in mainstream publications, but that it's so accepted that it is written about in mainstream publications without a trace of questioning that there might be anything wrong with it.

The assessment that I'm currently procrastinating from is about the passage in 1 Corinthians about people going to prostitutes. I've been reading about Corinth as a result. Corinth was a city that loved its sex. They had prostitutes at their temple and the way you worshiped was by having sex with prostitutes (I reckon that's probably an easy way to boost church attendance). Wives were encouraged not to be worried if their husbands were sleeping around because that was the natural way of things. Just like the stomach is designed for food, so our sexual organs are designed for sex. Everyone seemed to be happy to have sex with everyone.

It strikes me (as it seems to have struck many people) that Sydney, and much of the western world, is just like this. Sex isn't special, it just feels good. Sex is natural so everyone should feel free to do it. A hook-up is just the convenient way to keep yourself satisfied when you're too busy to commit to a relationship.

Nothing is new in all this, perhaps societies just go through cycles. They get less conservative, then there's a moral revolution, and things get more conservative. Human nature doesn't change, just our public acceptances of our sexual behaviour does.

I was thinking the other day, that if it was scandalous for a bikini to be worn 60 years ago (incidentally this year is the 60th anniversary of the modern bikini, I suspect there'll be world wide UN endorsed celebrations), then what will be scandalous for people to wearing (or not wearing) in 60 years time? Or will the moral revolution have come by then?

Anyway, I've been distracted by women's swim wear. I guess all this reminds me that, as a Christian, the more this happens the more I get alienated from society by my sexual morals. I've talked to people about it before and we seem to have come to the conclusion that it's our views on sex rather than anything else that most obviously defines us against general society. It should be our love, but in reality it's our lack of free-love. While I'm sure this will always be the case as long as we're going against one of our society's most worshipped past-times, I guess I wish we could be known for something different.

In the mean time I'll join my Muslim friends in being a prudish abstainer till marriage. I know it's un-cool, but I was never all that cool anyway.

I have an essay due in tomorrow, but by 8pm tonight it wasn't looking like I was going to get it finished at any reasonable hour. So I did some research and found that I only lose 5% for every week I'm late. So all incentive to finish it went out the window and I went out the door to the Pub.

I'll do it by next Friday. Yeah that sounds good.

Walking Away

Matt said:

"I've been thinking about the need to have the ability and the willingness to walk away from my faith if my faith is going to be real."

I'd love you to post about this one. I don't understand what you mean...

So I will.

I've been thinking about the fact that a faith without questions isn't really a growing, costly faith. The more we ask questions of faith and the more we get answers, the stronger (or weaker) our faith gets.

Those questions need to be real questions, where if you get the "wrong" answer you are willing to walk away from your faith. If we aren't willing to act on the answers to our questions, even if we don't get the answer that we want, then our faith is not faith, it's habit or ritual. Faith must be able to stand up to our questions, and if it doesn't we need to be able to chuck in the towel. We need to maintain the possibility that all we believe could be wrong otherwise our faith loses its value. Faith finds its values through the existance of doubt. There always has to be the possibility that you can chuck in the towel or how will your commitment ever be real? You won't be there because of your belief, you'll be there because stupidity or fear maintianing the status quo because that's what you do.

That's why you need to be able to walk away.

For those who may be interested, I have no plans to walk away from my faith. And all my questioning comes up good. I have always found God to be faithful. I'm not going anywhere, I'm just open to the option incase one day I find it's all been an embarrassing hoax.

Yellowcard

I have heard that these guys aren't all that cool. I like them, I bought their cd a few weeks ago and it ain't too bad. Not too to bad for a bit of pop/punk. Perhaps that's their problem, ponk ain't cool.

They're a lot better than some teeny/middle-aged whingers (only musically of-course).

United Disconnected

I bought the new Hillsong United ablum on iTunes the other day and burnt it onto a cd. It's kinda fun. The beginning and the end of the album is good.

But the problem with the burnt cd is that I hadn't figured out how to take out the gaps between tracks yet (I've figured it out now) and since the cd has many tracks leading into each other, it's funny (and a bit annoying) when you have a the drummer count the band in and then there's a two second gap till the actual song starts. Perhaps it's like that gap between the life of Christ and his return to bring the Kingdom. But I reckon that's pushing it.

Falling in Love

Last night we were asked "If you could marry any fictional character, who would they be?"

I thought about it for ages and I couldn't think of who I'd go for. I know I've gotten crushes on people in books and films before, but I can't figure out who I'd marry, or even go out with. It's so sad. I need to go stare at the bookselves around my house.

I'll get back to you.

How about you? Thoughts anyone?

Thinking About It

Sometimes I have big thoughts floating around my brain. Sometimes I spend a lot of time thinking about rather insignificant things. Like I have spent a lot of time thinking about the best way to drive from my house to work or other places. And I have spent a lot of time considering all the different variables that there are for the trip.

I have been thinking about old school people because of the primary school reunion/birthday party on the other night. I'm not sure what I've been thinking. Perhaps meeting people from the past, who have been changed over time, who you haven't seen in between, warps your memory. Suddenly you're mixing the knowledge of who the person has become with the person they were.

I've been thinking about Avatars and what a beautiful idea they seem to be (as long as you don't look at the pictures, I'm not a big fan of Hindi art. I like Hindus though). How I wish I could call some people avatars and not feel idolotrous or like I'm betraying my faith.

I've been thinking about the need to have the ability and the willingness to walk away from my faith if my faith is going to be real.

I've been thinking about the future and how three years can feel like a long time and not very long at exactly the same time.

I've been thinking about the need to be vulnerable. Why do I appear invulnerable? Do I appear invulnerable? Do I express weakness as often as I feel it? Do I share pain when I feel it? Should there be more to being vulnerable than just being a means to the end of solving whatever the problem is? Or is it all over-rated?

I've been thinking about keeping my thoughts to myself.

I've been wondering, am I a bad person to live with?

I've been thinking about letting everyone down and I'd how I'd like to avoid that if possible. Failure is not an enticing option.

I've been thinking about how much fun it would be to see someone play at the Enmore Theatre.

I've been thinking about getting fit.

I'm always thinking about getting fit.

Just beyond the front and middle of my mind is the feeling that my life is always in the air, always waiting for the next thing, always looking forward, never ready to say "I've arrived". Some call this a discontentment, some call it holy discontentment. One is bad the other is good. One says enjoy the now, learn to be, learn the secret of contentment. The other says, this is not all there is, you'll never be content, you are an alien in this world. Maybe my key is to learn to be content to be discontented. This comes up regularly.

I've been wanting to find more time to have fun.

That spoof ad of the new Tourism campain is pretty funny.

I hired an XL2 to do test filming stuff for the next Breakthru Artz project. Ohhh baby, it's a real nice camera. I want my own.

Party On

We had a surprise party for youth group last night. It was a surprise party for the Aunty of some of the people in the group who no one else knew. It wasn't her birthday and there was no reason to throw her a party, we just did. It was a wonderfully absurd event.

We all got together and decorated the chruch centre, putting up streamers and balloons, making festive. Beck told us all that it wasn't just going to be the Aunty but her husband and kids. That worried me a little bit, especailly as I got the wrong impression that the kids were aged 1, 2 and 3. We had a few false alarms, I spent a few minutes squished into my hiding place in the dark, wondering if I had just planned the most stupid of youth group events. What if we scared the kids? Or the people don't like surprise parties from a bunch of stangers? Or what if it just flops and no one gets it?

But when they finally did arrive it all happened quite happily. It was a little odd saying "Surprise!" and then everyone having to go and introduce themselves. The family wandered in and we met them all. The kids were 7 and 11, not 1, 2 and 3. They were friendly, and not at all upset that we threw them a party. We all played "Draw the Tail on the Donkey" and "Musical Statues". It was all good fun, even if it was a rather odd thing to do. I'd do it again in a few years. Maybe.

Getting Lost

All this stuff about missing athletes at the Commonwealth Games is pretty funny I reckon. At least funny if they aren't in danger. I reckon if the only purpose that the games have served is giving people a chance to escape their country without having to jump on leaky boats then the games have served a good purpose.

I didn't think I'd say it, but hooray for the Commonwealth Games.

Heard a Story

I once heard a story about a man who was stuck down a hole and he couldn't get out. Lots of people were walking past and he was calling out to them. A priest walked past and he stopped and saw him, wrote a prayer on a piece of paper and threw it down to him . He told him to pray that pray so that God might look after him.

Another man was walking past and heard this guy calling out to him. When the man saw the predicament of the other man he hopped down into the whole.

"What did you do that for?" asked the first man "Now we're both stuck."

"Yes" replied the second man "but I have been here before and will show you the way out."


I'm not sure where I heard it, or if I've told the story right. But I remembered it then so I thought I'd blog it.

I got a hair cut today my mum says it's good because it hides my balding temples.

My fake tooth is sticking further out of my mouth think it used to. I think my other teeth are kicking it out. Perhaps I'll have to take anti-rejection drugs.

Plus my other big, front tooth seems to be dying, so perhaps my teeth have engaged in some kind of suicide pact, one of us goes, we all go. I wish they'd include me in these descions.

I was at work at 6am because I was preaching today and I needed to finish the sermon. I worked on it most of yesterday but I didn't get it finished.

Last night I went to Helen and Jon's engagement party and went home with Stephen to stay at his place so I didn't have to go all the way back home. He didn't have a computer which meant I could finish my sermon writing. So I got up at 5am and walked to church to finish the work.

Sadly I didn't sleep well last night. I kept waking up thinking I should be getting up. Then telling myself I should go back to sleep. Plus the pillows were too big. Oh well.

The sermon went well. I'll upload it at the blog soon.

It's too early to be at work.

Rebel

Tommy Lee (Motley Crew), Jason Newsted (Metallica) and Gilby Clarke (Guns N' Roses) are teaming up to form a super metal band called Supernova. But they need a singer. To find one they're going to do a series of "Rock Star" the reality TV show that found INXS' new front man.

Tommy Lee said: "We're going to pull out all the stops to find the most charismatic and musically talented lead singer to front Supernova. I love breaking the rules."

I fail to see how doing doing a reality TV show to find a lead singer is breaking the rules. I think I'd call it selling out. Unless he's means he's going to find a musically talented lead singer and that's breaking the rules. Sounds more plausable to me.

David Leaves Again



David's gone now.

We all went to the Airport way early to see him off. It wasn't nearly as painful as I thought it would be. 6am didn't feel like 6am. It was fun. It's much easier saying good bye a second time. He'll be back. And he'll stay in touch.

But it's still sad. David's pretty special.

I went to college after the airport. Today's discussion topics were prophesy, tongues, and women in church. All the controversial ones and I fell asleep many times.

Then it was off to work which mainly consisted of writing a Bible Study.

I have to preach on Sunday and my preparation is much further behind than I had planned. Oh well. I'll get there.

Good Bye

We had our last Commie Dinner with David before he goes to India. Everyone loves David. Everyone said nice things about him. He deserved them all.

Getting On

I just read an article where a Youth Minister was moaning about being old and at the bottom it said he was a six year youth ministry veteran. Gosh, it must be sad if you're a veteran after 6 years. Youth Ministers don't really stick around much. If you count my years in voluntary Youth Ministry I'm a 7 year veteran. But I'll be around for a bit longer.

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. Unless, of course he's a vegetarian, then he won't care, ungrateful bastard."

I love my Tool kit

I just fixed the roller door to our bathroom. It came of it's rail this morning. I have grease on my fingers.

I have a new screwdriver too that cost me $2.50 from the hardware store up the road. It's a pretty crappy screwdriver. Sometime screwdrivers will shread the screw head, but on this one the screw head shreaded the screw driver.

Anyway, it's fixed now, till it breaks again. But I'm happy for the moment.

This is my first blog from my computer at my new home.

Today I was a it tired but we had one of the best drama groups at church that we've had in a long time. We worked on scripts and the young people just seemed to get it. They did really good little pieces with their scripts. I was impressed.

I went to David's farewell thing at Manly today. That was quiet, but nice. I got a good park which pleased me to no end.

For youth group we went to the retirement village which is usually rather difficult. But today the residents had been waiting for us to arrive (they had been given the wrong time) and were very excited to see us. We didn't have much music but we all played a game with them and they liked that. It was really good to see that they do value having us around and we could all get something out of being with each other.

It's too late to be at work

It's so close to being midnight. I'm still at the office.

We had our Youth Group celebration night tonight. They're always a lot of work. But they're fun too. They have a wierd vibe that you only get when you have at these nights. It's probably because the church is decorated and the lights aren't as bright. Plus everyone is dressed up, and I'm not very relaxed.

We had a good speaker tonight.

Tonight I noticed how much Helen and I worked as a team on this stuff. There are some parts of ministry that I just chugged along at alone, and others that we did together. This was always an event we did together. Actually, she always did more work on these events so I did notice we were missing Helen a bit. She is good value.

Today we had my Aunty, Great Aunty, Step Grandmother and my Mother over to our house for lunch. It was fun but my room was messy.

I think I should go home.

I'll be back here in 9 hours.

You Were Acting Like it Was the End of the World

It's funny, I'm not hugely upset about U2 postponing. I was excited, but it was feeling too good to be true. And I've been waiting 8 years to see U2, I can wait another few months. What I well be upset about is if they come while I'm in Europe in July. That would make me most upset. Then it really will be the end of the world.

Anyway, the nerves are back as we await tour dates again.

I do hope the family member gets better.

This reminds me a bit of the Counting Crows kafuffle.

Thanks Anmol for the heads up.

I went to the Dentist this arvo. It cost $363 for a 1 hour visit where they took x-rays, photos and moulds. Pow! No wonder everyone says you should ask dentists to invest in the film industry.

I guess I should fill in the rest of what happened on the weekend. Just so you're not all in suspense.

I got woken up on at around 9am on Saturday morning by Jo and Jem poking their head into my room. They were on the phone to my concerned mother. I'm sure she wanted them to check up on me, make sure I wasn't dead or anything. I wasn't.

I got up and said "Hello" to my house and explained my new looks to those who were about. I had a conversation with my mother on the phone. That day we were going to my cousin's wedding and Mum offered to bring my clothes over to my house that I had been planning to pick up the night before. After that I got to sit down for a pancake breakfast. I liked the pancakes.

In between pancakes I looked for emergency dentist people. I tried one with an ugly ad that was close by, but they were booked out. I think I was a bit relieved about that. I found one in Chatswood that would have me as soon as I go there. So Jo (who had gone out to get a green slip) came and got me and we "raced" off to Chatswood.

On the way to Chatswood I called Mum to tell her we were no longer at our house. She had just got to our house. Oops. Sorry Mum.

In the Dentist they made me fill out a form. When the dentist saw me he said "S**t, we had better fix that!" So it was straight into the chair for me, more anesthetic, and lots of glue. In the end I got my front teeth splinted together because they'd all been knocked loose and a new false tooth glued in. It's only temporary, but it does the job. It was cool. He had a box full of false teeth and he just pulled one out. How exciting.

It was off to Grandpa and Valentina's place for lunch and getting ready for the wedding. By that staged I was feeling pretty whacked. I had a new experience at lunch. I got some food stuck in my gum. Not just on my gum, or between my teeth, but under my new false tooth and up on the large excavation left by my old tooth. It was a rather interesting experience digging that out with a tooth pick.

After lunch and a shower it was off to the wedding. By the time I got to the wedding I didn't feel like talking to anyone. I was so tired. I didn't really get all that excited about the service and I fell asleep in the sermon. Everytime I woke up the minister was looking at me so I felt bad. I think my tiredness was cause by the fact that I hadn't slept much, I had only eaten two pancakes and a little salmon roll since the night before, and I had probably burned up heaps of energy going into shock and being full of adrenaline for most of the night before. But I could just be a pansy too.

I had a Boost Juice (Banana Buzz) and a sleep between the wedding and the reception and I felt a lot better for that.

The reception was in the Harbour Watch room in Pier One. It was a pretty spectacular location. I was put on the young, single counsins table, so I was sitting next to my 20 year old cousin on one side and a year 10 guy and his year 7 sister on the other. I think they were cousins of my cousins. I had trouble talking to those two. I had to remind myself that it's my job to talk to people their age because I could have any kind of interesting conversation with them.

I went home from the reception early.

Sunday was just a normal Sunday. Except I had lots of people coming up to me and asking me how I was. I told the story of my demise often. But that's ok, I was prepared for that. It's rather draining having to accept so much sympathy. But we have a lovely community.

These days things are nice. I get to take my stitches out myself tomorrow. My lip is healing well. It's rather annoying because it hurts for most of the day, but it's nothing to worry about. My teeth ache a bit, especially when I bite them. And tomorrow I'm off to the dentist to get myself checked out for my new permanent tooth. How exciting.

And that, my friends, is the exciting adventures of Tom and his Friday Night Skating.

This is in the car on the way to the hospital.


Life gets hard waiting for the Triage


While in the waiting room I decided to pass the time by getting some shots done for my new modeling portfolio.


Once I made it to be examined I tragically slipped into a coma.


My swanky hospital room


The Operation


We're going home (Sorry Matt)

I was planning on buying shower curtain rings all day today. Actually I've been planning to buy them for the past two weeks. But I didn't manage it today as I didn't manage it all the other days. Today movies, beer, hot chips and Coke got in the way. Certainly things I'd say that should take precedence, just don't tell the people I live with that.

Tomorrow I am off to head office for an interview for candidacy to become a deacon. I was going to wear shorts and a t-shirt till I realised some people might regard this as a big deal.

I hate dressing up.

On Friday I went Ice Skating with my year 6-8 boys small group. There were only about 5 of them so we fitted very nicely in the van. Once we got to the Ice Rink we ate a bit of dinner then headed off to skate.

We were there right at the beginning of the session, which I've never done before. I think that must be when all the hard core skaters get there because they all seemed to be really good. A lot better then me of my crew.

Skating was fun. I'm not sure why going in a circle on to thin pieces of metal is fun, but it is.

Once we'd been skating for an hour and a bit I got a feeling that something was going to happen to me, like I was going to fall over or something. Listening to my intuition (which sometimes pays off) I hopped off the ice to visit one of the boys who was sitting out because he had blisters from his boots. After a few minutes with him, I didn't feel like anything was going to happen any more, so I hopped back on the ice. I couldn't have gone more than about 5 meters before someone came flying round the corner and ran into me.

They hit me from behind which spun me around. Unfortunately my legs kept their momentum and came up from under me. I landed on the ice face first. I hit my chin, which caused to me to bite into my lip and knocked my front right tooth out of my mouth.

Of course I didn't know all this at the time. I got up saw blood on the ice, felt blood on my face and realised something was wrong. I could feel a hole in my lip so I got off the ice, found my hankie and put it on my lip. I went to find my boys to let them know that I was off to clean myself up. I went looking for the bathroom but by the time I got to the other side of the ring I was feeling a little lost and noticed that there was a lot more blood coming from my face than I could fix with a quick dab of the paper towel. I went to the skate hire man and he saw and gave me this worried look. "Go knock on the office door they'll look after you."

I went over to the office and lined up at the door behind some people wanting to buy cans of Coke (which I subsequently found out are $1.60, rather expensive if you ask me) but when the people in line saw me they gave me a look of horror and stepped to the side. I knocked on the door and the manager man let me into the office and sat me in a chair next to the water cooler. He was the only one in the office, so he seemed to be doing everything at once. He pulled out the first aid box, put on his rubber gloves and cleaned the blood off my arms and face. He threw out my hankie which was soaked in blood. I said "That was my best hankie."

He said "Oh, so you want me to get it back?"

And I said "No, it was a joke"

He got out some gauze to put on my chin, which I didn't even know was hurt. He whacked the gauze on and taped it too my face. At some stage during this I stuck my tongue through the hole where my tooth should have been and felt only lip. After a bit more examination with me tongue, and searching my mouth to make sure what I was feeling was right, I piped up and said "I think I lost my tooth." I can't remember how the man responded to that. He got me an ice pack and a drink of water, and gave some more gauze to dab at my lip to clean up the blood. We had a bit of a conversation about who I'm here with and he filled out a form with my name and address and phone number and stuff on it. I think so that they have my details if I decide to sue them. I won't sue them though, that'd be silly. Skating isn't exactly the sport you do thinking you're going to be completely safe. Plus I don't like the idea of suing people.

I sat in the office trying to figure out what I should be doing. Wondering if I would be able to drive people home, how I would look at the wedding I had to go to the next day with out a tooth, wondering how much blood I was drinking.

Over the course of my time in the office I had a conversation with the man about how I was happy this had happened because I didn't want to have to iron my shirt for my wedding the next day, and I asked what would happen to my tooth. He said no one would find it and it'd get sucked up by the machine. It was all very serious for him. I tried some more light hearted banter about lost teeth and rubbish bins, but he didn't seem too keen to enjoy the moment. I figure it's not every day you get to loose a tooth so why not enjoy it?

I got the guy to summons one of my boys to the office so he could call his Dad and get the Dad to drive us all home. He did this then was sent out of the office again. He and the boys then peeked through the office windows at me. I smiled am poked my tongue through my new tooth hole at them. And they made pained faces at me went "Awwwww!"

At some stage the DJ came into the office. I recognised him as a guy who I went to school with. We had a conversation about the old school days (Him: "What year did you finish?" Me: "2000" Him: "I was the year above you. I don't remember you.") and then he proceeded to tell me that he's never going ice skating if people end up like me but what a fearless skier he is. He was fun. It was good to have someone to make a joke or two with. Although I did like the office man.

When the Dad arrived I took off my skate and left them in the office, then got ready to go. We collected our stuff, I put on my shoes and was stared at by everyone I walked past. Probable because I had blood on my clothes, some gauze taped to my face, a bloody lip and I was holding an ice pack to me chin. Either that or they were admiring my fashion choices.

The Dad took us to the car, prayed for us then droves us home. As we were leaving the boys were talking about my injury. Someone made a joke to which another of them replied "Not funny guys, Tom's just got hurt" I turned around and told the boys to make as many jokes as they wanted, I wouldn't be offended.

As we drove home I rang my boss. He was very concerned about me, I told him the injury was from all the drugs I had taken before small group.

Once back at church I met some concerned mothers and got my photo taken. The Dad waited to drive me to a hospital while I went to my office to collect my gear. In the office I met Matt and Beck who offered to drive me to the Hospital themselves. I figured this was a better idea, as they didn't have kids at home to look after. I took them up on the offer and, thanking him I sent the Dad on his way. He was very good to me. We have good parents at my church.

On the way to hospital Beck took photos for the photo essay that I'll post soon while Matt made haste. It was fun trip. Really it was, I was quite enjoying the novelty of the situation and it had lots of opportunities for jokes. Plus when you're injured people are more likely to laugh out of sympathy.

We made it to the hospital after getting a little lost. We went to Royal Prince Alfred because it's close to my home. Plus I figured we could get on TV if they're still making RPH.

When I was waiting for the Triage I asked the Ambulance Officer sitting next to me if Napisan gets blood out of jeans. She didn't seem to know how you got blood out of clothes which I thought was odd seeing as I figure Ambulance people must get covered in blood regularly.

Once I got to talk the Triage man he told me that he lost his front two teeth three times in his life. He looked fine.

We were sent round to the Emergency Waiting Room where Matt, Beck and I were to spend the next 5 hours of our life. Time went relatively quickly seeing as all we had to do was watch late night TV, read old magazines and do their cross words.

In the waiting room we met a few interesting people. We met some girls in pink togas who brought in a drunk girl who couldn't walk. They were fun. When they were leaving one of them said "I hope your tooth gets better." I told her it probably wouldn't.

I went outside at one stage to send a message to Helen. While I was out the front I saw some people running of the road and shouting "Call triple-0". As they came closer I noticed one of them was holding his head and had blood all over him. He went into the emergency ward. As I went back inside I found him standing in a puddle of his blood being treated by an Ambulance dude and I heard him telling the Triage that just down the street someone had smashed a vodka bottle over his head.

At 3:30am we were taken in to see a doctor. A nurse cleaned me up a bit, then gave me a tetanus shot. The Doctor arrived, gave me some anesthetic and put 5 stitches in my chin. Then we were free to go home.

Matt and Beck drove me home. I did my teeth carefully then went to bed.

Thanks Matt and Beck.

I think I'll have to continue the weekend later. This has been rather long. Oh well. Well done for reading this far.



Just after I arrived back at church. As you can see the missing tooth makes me look that much hotter.

This is my first post from home internet. Thank you David for making it work after it died.

I woke up this morning and bought some tickets to Jamie Cullum. It really is the year of people to watch, U2, Jamie, Coldplay, Mundine vs Danny Green. It's gonna be cool.

Filling in the Blanks

There's an RSL club near my work that Helen, Jon and I discovered the other week. I've been working there for 3 years and only now have we discovered it. It's like an oasis in the desert. It's got all the TVs, pokies, Old Men and gwaudy carpets of an RSL club and it's just down the road. It's fantastic. We've lunched there three times since we discovered it. It's been real exciting. I've had a roast everytime.

Tonight I went out with Priscilla for the night. We thought we'd catch up, so we did. We went to Mama's Kitchen, I've never been there before. Then wandered around the city.

Rick Warren said in The Purpose Driven Life something like "Don't write about what you did each day, no body wants to hear about that". And I'm like, "Hey, don't be so rude". Of course maybe no one does want to read about what I do each day, but don't burst my bubble. But I think the blogging phonomena may have proved him wrong there. But it may just prove that there are lots of people out there who like to write about their days, it doesn't prove that people actually want to read that.

Phew, I'd hate it if Rick Warren was wrong. My whole world would crumble. I'd have no sense of purpose.

Seeing as we're doing 40 Days of Purpose at our church one of the girls in my Bible study group brought her Purpose Driven Life to the group on Monday and said "So do we just bring this book now? Does it replace the Bible?" I reckon it was a valid question. I wouldn't mind replacing the Bible with the Purpose Driven Life, it'd be much easier to read in a year. Although it doesn't have as many good stories.

I am enjoying doing 40DOP though. I think it'll be good for our church. It'll be good for us all to be doing stuff together.