I just went up to vote but alas I was denied my democratic right and responsibility! My enrollment forms hadn't been processed yet! So I had disappeared out of my old electorate but hadn't arrived in my new one yet. I'm in an electoral void! I'm floating in no-mans land with no MP to represent me.

When I talked to the woman she said "Oh it looks like you're not on the roll. So you don't have to vote." She said it like it was a good think. "But I want to vote!" I wanted to shout. But I just said "Ok". She did inform me that I'd be fine for the federal election. That makes me fell happy because that's the one I care a lot more about. I'd be devastated if I didn't get to vote then. At least then there's a choice that seems worth making.

I had a dream last night about a documentary about a gay soldier in 1986 who died of a drug overdose. Because he didn't want his family to know he was gay he got his friends to put his body down a hole in children's play ground. It was a hole that children were meant to play in. Like a big, deep concrete hole. The dream was set in the States so I guess it's plausible. They do things like that over there.

It was only after the body started to smell and the police discovered it did his story come to light and reach the attention of the nation. It was his story that kick started the global gay movement.

Once the documentary had finished I realised that I had just had a brilliant dream. And I really should make that documentary. So I woke myself up and wrote it down on the pad next to my bed. I thought I could probably make it with Matt for Tropfest.

I was dreaming in that bit too. I have no pad beside my bed. And lucky too or I'd be writing down ideas like that all the time. Although, it has potential to be one whacked out mockumentary. Could be funny. I'll keep in in mind.

I have noting much planned tomorrow. Woohoo!

The people that host ChristianSpeakers.com.au had a crash a few days ago. They lost lots of information. The site was down for 3 days and now that it's back most of the data for the past few months is gone. As opposed to the 11 or so people that were on the database before, there are now only 5. Though the support thing says they're restoring old back ups, I'm not sure how old they're talking about. I'm not sure if mine has been restored or now. If they did, it's pretty darn old.

It's a bit sad. I don't want to have to re-get everyone to sign up. But we may just have to do that. Oh well. I'll see what comes. Maybe it'll give the site new energy or something.

The smell of hospitals in winter
And the feeling that it's all a lot of oysters, but no pearls
All at once you look across a crowded room
To see the way that light attaches to a girl - Counting Crows

In me tradition. Here's another hot photo of me. This is from Saturday night at the Establishment. You can see why they let me in.



Thanks to Louise for sending me the photo.

Dinner with the Celebrity (who, as I mentioned in the comments below I am declining to name, not out of some sort of reverse psychology name dropping thing, but for professional reasons) was pretty good. I was late. Google Directions gave me bad directions. I almost ignored them thinking I know better, but I thought Google might be more fun. Sadly, Google, for perhaps the first and only time in the history of cyberspace, was wrong.

Anyway, all the people who could have been annoyed with my lateness were gracious. The house of the Celeb was big. Big gates, big garden, big foyer, big tables, big everything really. We got given a little tour which was impressive and I think I only saw about 15% of the house. We got to see the private chapel. That was pretty cool. It reminded me of all the houses in England I saw with private chapels.

Our host was quite friendly if not a little intimidating. They were in the habit of asking tough questions and then waiting for your answer, and you know there is clearly a right and wrong. I was the first person (of the six of us who were visiting) to get tough questioned. It was a little scary, but I'd decided before coming not to worry about right answers but honest answers. Happily the honest one and the right one were the same thing, so that was a little relieving.

Dinner was served to us by the "maid" who appeared out of the kitchen with dinner and desert. She wasn't dressed like a made though. More like a normal person. We had tea and coffee in the lounge where we could ask questions. I asked one which I once been advised not to ask but it felt right and I felt brave. So I did and I got a good answer, no worries!

It was a good night I think. I enjoyed the chance to meet a person behind a reputation. The person is always more interesting than the caricature.

I really have not much to say in this post. But I felt with the last few posts, that I needed to stick in a post with this title.

I'm having dinner with a major Christian celebrity tonight. Woo. I have to dress up, I've been told. Pants, shirt, tie, and a jacket if it's cold. They didn't say anything about footwear so I'm wearing thongs. Or Ugg boots. Or stilettos. Yeah.

Yesterday was scripture at the high school again. I always in enjoy it. Though it's always hard. I never really feel like I'm good at the whole small groups thing, but sometimes you get good conversations. Most of the time the students don't seem to care about Christianity at all. Which I can understand. You're at school, you're put in a class room with 4 people you don't really know, and you're asked to think about the big questions of the world. I'm not sure I'd be all that enthusiastic to participate either.

But sometimes we hit gold and we get people who are interested and responsive. It definitely is for the ones and twos. But I hope they remember us in years to come and they think "The Christians weren't that bad."

I watched BoyTown last night with Ryan and Mil. It was a lot less good than I thought it would be. I laughed a bit. But mostly it was bad. I can't imagine owning the soundtrack. I think I'd want to kill myself if I had to listen to that anymore. Though I realise that was the point.

Sunday was like many Sundays except I spent most of the day having conversations about my haircut and people kept calling me "Kevin".

We said "Good-Bye" to Rector Steve. It didn't really feel like a "Good Bye" more like a birthday for him. But it was funny. And a bit sad. And a little bit racist. I haven't really got my head around him going. I'm sure I'll figure it out when he's gone. Then I'll probably notice it.

I went out farewelling on Saturday. I met Kemp in the city first for a food consumption and conversation. We ate as City Extra and I was reminded why City Extra is better to eat at at 3am when nothing else but Kebab places are open. But it was fun anyway.

Then it was off to Minus 5 to meet with a bunch of the Churchies to say good bye to Ben and Liz. Minus 5 is a bar at Circular Quay that is completely made out of ice. Actually that's not quite true, but the walls, furniture, sculptures, bar, and glasses are made out of ice. And the whole room is about -12 degrees. You get given a coat and gloves to keep you warm and you're only allowed in for 30 minutes. You get one cocktail.

Anyway that was pretty fun. Once you spent time establishing that "Yes, everything is ice" then you stand around for the 25 minutes making ice jokes with people. Poor old bar staff that must have heard them all before. I'm glad we were only in there for 30 minutes because we even started recycling jokes. But I'm happy I went. I felt a little like Edmund in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in the Palace of the White Witch, except there was no Witch and I got to take all my friends. Oh and the palace was a bar about the size of my living room. But pretty much Edmund.

We trotted off to The Establishment after we were ejected from ice land. I've always looked at The Establishment and thought it looked pretty swanky. I never thought I'd be cool enough to get in. But they let me in no hassles, so it immediately went down in my estimation. Any place that lets me in mustn't be as exclusive or special as I it could be.

But it was an alright place. I liked the look of it. The back "courtyard" reminded me of the bars in Hungary except without as much soul. We stood around and talked about MySpace. You can tell we're interesting people.

I left at around midnight with Sal. Seeing as we're almost neighbours we caught the bus to Central together. I don't actually think it was all that convenient for her, but it made my trip home more fun.

Sometimes I think to myself "You have the ugliest damn blog in the world." But that's about as far as it gets because I'm too lazy to change it.

I figure with a title like that my seedy men hits should go right up!

I just read this article in SMH about how liberal parents are letting their teenage kids have sex only if they also get into a pseudo-marriage/de-facto relationship as well. So they can sleep together only if they come to family functions, are really committed to each other, and think they're going to spend the rest of their lives together. But the author says, this is robbing teenagers of their independence. Instead they should indulge in well planned hook-ups.

"Domesticity is all well and good, but save it for the right person. Don't confuse domesticity with morality. Hook-ups and sexual friendships can be dignified and ethical when indulged in sparingly, with mutual respect, with protection and not for the sake of being cool or keeping up. If you are young, guard your independence at least as much as you guard your virginity."

It's like the author thought, "Oh we have a problem with people getting too committed too soon." (Which I agree with.) So they decided the best solution is to just tell the teenagers to have sex without the commitment. God forbid that not having sex could be a solution. I'm plenty independent and I'm plenty fine without having sex. And I'm pretty sure I'm placing a much higher value on sex by waiting till marriage than anyone who advocates that hook-ups are a good alternative to over-committed sex. If sex is so important that it needs to be protected from liberal parents, family diners and messy break-ups, maybe it should also be so important that it needs to be protected from giving it out to anyone who's happy to sleep with you as long as they don't have to love you too.

I just got a hair cut. It's been 8 months or so since the last hair cut because I hate haircuts. Every time I get one I think I complain about having to do it, and blog my fear. Anyway I haven't gotten any on this side of the Harbour Bridge since I've moved over here. The Inner West may try and make my hair alternative-trendy or bogan-attacked by a lawnmower. It's the difference between Newtown and Marrickville. It's the difference a suburb line makes.

Anyway, I plucked up my courage and went to Just Cuts at Marrickville Metro. When they ask me what I want I can never tell them because I'm hair style inarticulate. That's because I don't really know. You can't really say "Something that doesn't make me look like a doik. But not something too trendy either." So I mumbled something about having less hair. And I think that was it.

So Mr Haircutter did his job and now I look like Kevin Rudd. I thought as I left the hair dresser "It's probably not that bad you always think it's bad when you first get it done." But when I saw Ryan about a minute later he just burst out laughing.

Oh well. I guess this is why I get scared of hair cuts. But at least I know I won't look trendy.

However chances are my youth ministry is going go down the toilet. How am I ever going to be culturally relevant when I look like a politician?

I have just spent the last two hours writing exegetical notes on Jesus' clearing the temple in John 2:12-22. It's for college. It's a non-assessable class presentation so I rather enjoyed myself. I realised I could just write what I wanted to write not what would get me marks. I have decided though that I don't think I'll ever be one of those people who write academic books. Unless I can write one with lots of stupid examples and bad referencing, I wouldn't have drive to be scholarly.

The cold that's been doing the rounds at church has arrived with me today. Grr. I think I'll blame the Wrights. Though I was thinking, I'm pretty happy I'm not an Aborigine when Phillip and his snotty convicts arrived or I could be dead soon.

I went to see The Illusionist today. It was ok. Not nearly as good as The Prestige. Edward Norton was good as usual. But I think the film took itself too seriously. I'm not sure why people like Jessica Biel so much.

I also had a beer with Helen which was worthwhile. While we see each other quite often, it's rare we do something which is purely social. So that was good.

I ate some pasta with Ryan and Brett.

Oh and I stuck Sunday's sermon up here and there's a new Tabitha up too.

So the question of the evening is:

"Could Jesus still be the perfect sacrifice for sin if he didn't have a virgin birth?"

It was quite a day today. Probably not huge, but coming off the back of a big week, and a preaching weekend, it was a big day.

I preached last night which went well. Matt did a new song that I requested because it fitted in with my sermon. It was a funny feeling singing a song that I picked. It's like I have 5 people playing the song and 80 people singing a song, just because I thought it was a good idea. It gave me an odd sense of power. I guess worship leaders feel it all the time. But being a mere preacher it's rare for people to join you singing.

After church I worked till almost midnight on today's scripture seminars. It was the first chance I really got all week. And after much kerfuffle trying field a team of scripture teachers I managed in the end.

Scripture was good again. I'm glad I didn't stuff up too bad. I like going into the High School. It's tough but I like the people there so it's fun.

Tonight we had community dinner. I was feeling pretty stuffed. But I tried to stay with it. Tomorrow is off. Probably off to the movies. Yay.

I think I might have left my iPod in the car.

Jessica Simpson's Dad said about her: "Jessica never tries to be sexy. She just is sexy. If you put her in a T-shirt or you put her in a bustier, she's sexy in both. She's got double D's! You can't cover those suckers up!"

I wish I had a Dad as supportive as that.

“The president of the United States has claimed, on more than one occasion, to be in dialogue with God. If he said that he was talking to God through his hairdryer, this would precipitate a national emergency. I fail to see how the addition of a hairdryer makes the claim more ridiculous or offensive.” - Sam Harris

I thought that was good. It made me chuckle.

I've been reading a bit of anti-Christian stuff lately*. It's interesting. Not convincing yet, but I enjoy the stimulation. Plus some of the people writing are very smart and it's good seeing smart people do stuff smartly.

Sometimes I wonder what life would be like if I didn't believe in Jesus. It's a rather depressing thought. Hopeless would be the feeling that comes to mind when I consider it. Plus I'd be out of a job and I don't think I have many other skills outside Christian Ministry. I could dig holes I guess.

Perhaps I should get a qualification outside ministry. That way you could be sure that if I'm working in ministry I haven't lost my faith. Otherwise, if I ever lose my faith, I might just have to keep pretending so I don't end up homeless or something.

There would be some advantages to not being a Christian though. Such as sleeping in on Sundays. Getting drunk on Saturdays. Speeding. Gossip. Bitching. And being able to intentionally look at topless people at the beach.

Still the lure of Jesus is better than the lure of a more entertaining beach going experience. He has more long term benefits.


*Just for the worried ones, I've been reading a lot of pro-Christian stuff at the moment too, like my Bible, everyday. And that's much more inspiring and special. So don't start praying for my soul just yet.

Oh and I don't endorse excessive drinking, speeding, gossiping, bitching, perving on topless people, drugs, Nazis, illegal movie pirating or other dodgy stuff. I whole heartedly endorse sleeping in, especially on Sundays. Go to evening church.

Because I've been telling everyone, I thought I should blog it.

I heard this in the news on Nova the other day:

"People who take vitamin A are 16% more likely to die"

Fascinating. Seeing as I don't take Vitamin A I figured out that means I'm 84% more likely to live forever. That's pretty good.

So I got a MySpace for Donny. We all know I dislike MySpace (Ugly, ugly, ugly) but I figured, it'd be fun.

So if you wanna make Donny Jaffa your MySpace friend go to: www.myspace.com/donnyjaffa

I started adding friends to the MySpace thing, but it got too tedious, so I gave up.

You may have noticed there has been a lot of Donny Jaffa and Tabitha stuff lately. Jem going to Mexico has meant that I've started thinking about things a lot earlier than usual. I edited one of the new Tabithas last night (with help from my swanky new 500GB portable hard-drive, thanks David).

Though this could all be procrastination from the things I really should be doing. Perhaps I should go do that now. But I do love procrastination!

It's time to continue to make Jem an internet star. The next Wisdom with Tabitha video is up, so it's time to keep making Jem famous! Watch it, comment on it, rate it, stick it on your blog!



Hooray for internet fame!

I watched Man of the Year tonight with Ryan. The film was ok. It had some of the worst writing I've seen in a while. It took about 30 minutes for Robin Williams to make me laugh, which is pretty bad for a film about a comedian, but the film got better in the second half.

Anyway I did notice in the credits there was a guy named Ernest Dyck. I thought that was pretty funny. Wouldn't want to have a name like that I reckon.

People are questioning whether the destruction of the Death Star was an inside job.

I'm getting a little worried I've been fooled by the powers that be all these years.

Check it out.

I'm off to Church camp today.

One day I look forward to the time when I will have weekends. Two days off in a row at the same time as everyone else. Though being on camp should have its joys.

Next week is looking rather large. The beginning of the year is always larger than the other parts in my experience. This is always because I haven't got my act together.

Two nights ago I had a dream where I was getting attacked by a big, yellow, hairy spider. I didn't like it much. It's haunted me since.

When I was sitting in class yesterday one of the girls sat down near me and said "You look tired and miserable". It took me by surprise because I would never tell someone I didn't know they looked miserable in case they actually thought I was asking why they were miserable. And I wouldn't want to ask a stranger that, it would seem impolite.

I was in fact feeling tired and miserable. But I think I replied with "Yep. I'm pretty tired." I decided to ignore the bit about my feelings.

After college I got a $179 parking fine, which in my unhappy state actually cheered me up a little. I think it was the novelty factor. You don't get booked every day.

I came home and fell asleep and woke up feeling much happier.

When autumn comes
It doesn't ask
It just walks in where it left you last
You never know when it starts
Until there's fog inside the glass around your summer heart - John Mayer

I'm back on Blogfeed! Woo!

To celebrate I'm giving everyone free access to my blog! Even to my archives! It's a big day here at runnoft.blogspot.com.

I went to see Smokin' Aces today with David. It wasn't nearly as violent as I thought it'd be. With an R rating for violence I was expecting something that'd be difficult to watch. But it wasn't too bad at all. There was lots of shooting and stuff, but it wasn't all that gory.

As a film it was pretty good. Nothing earth shattering or anything, but it passed the time well and the last scene made me want to be a film maker. I love it when films make me want to make films. It's this bug that gets inside you and you have scenes shooting through your head and everywhere you look you see a good shot, and you want to be able just sit down at a computer and type and magic will come out. Sadly, it can't, but one day I'm going to get that a bug and there'll be a film at the end of it. That'll be fun.

For Lent I've been vaguely convinced by Gemma's suggestion to not buy anything new. But I was at Westfield today and I remembered I really wanted to get The "Born to Run" 30th Anniversary Special Edition Box Set. It's got a Concert DVD, a Making Of DVD and a remastered version of the album. So nice. Unfortunately being on de-consumerised Lent, I couldn't buy it. Plus I'm broke.

But David's back, and David hadn't bought me a Birthday present, so without prompting, David bought me a birthday present. Now I have a sexy box set, and I haven't bought anything new. Yeah. Thanks 'Vid.

I love The Boss.

Baby this town rips the bones from your back
It's a death trap, it's a suicide rap
We gotta get out while we're young
`Cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run - Bruce Springsteen

Welcome home David and Ryan. It's good to have yous home.

We got David from the Airport last night and promptly stuffed him full of Thai. Ryan woke me this morning by shouting at me as I slept. He's back to his old tricks.

And I just got to speak to Jem on MSN which was good fun too!

Now I'm off to hang out with some of the lads and lasses in Hornsby land.

We went back to Beacon Hill tonight to do the last of principle production for the film. I got there a bit late because I was packing up at church. When I arrived they were just working on the jib.

When the jib was half done someone looked across the vast view of the Northern Beaches and beyond and said "I think that's rain coming". And sure enough it was. We spent the next half hour or so holding umbrellas over all the equipment till we packed up and went home. It wasn't really the planned outcome. Maybe we'll get it shot next time.

It was filming again today. It started at about 5:30am as I wandered hundreds of metres down my street to find my car buried in the rabbit warren of streets. This is the issue of getting home too late ore too early to get a park if there is a show on at the Enmore.

Anyway, we (Helen, Jon and I) made it to church late to meet the others. We got on the road and after a few shenanigans and stops to buy tape and breakfast we all made it all to Budgiwoi Beach, location one for the day.

We spent the day filming at the beach with a 3 metre high structure stuck in the sand and and a dingy on the beach. People kept looking at us as if we were a little strange. One kind surfer warned us that it'd be stupid to launch the dingy in the surf. Which is true. Had we tried to launch the boat we probably would caused someone or something a large amount of damage. It wasn't a particularly friendly see today.

It was slow work today for some reason. We did two shots in the water with a water proof camera case. They were pretty fun. It's hard work trying keep steady while the wave pound you and the the ocean is trying to suck you out to sea. Matt stood with me and kept me steady so I didn't drown. I did managed to get dumped in the shallows with the camera, it was extreme! And I was recording it all too! I'm sure it all looks fab!

In the middle of the day we got a large break while the special effects crew worked some magic. I slept in the beach tent. Brilliant!

When it was time to shoot again angry clouds were threatening and the whole thing had gone overcast. We moved fast and tried to make everything look the same. It was hard. Sea spray was covering everything and the lenses were misting up. But we got it all done.

Then, only 3 and a half hours behind schedule, we headed back to Sydney. We were planning on shooting again tonight, but alas the storm set in and we couldn't do it. I figured this was probably a good idea because we would have been filming on the top of a look out with a big, metal jib. I doubt the lighting rod thing, while looking cool, would have done much to advance the overall benefits of the production.

So we headed home. I came home to find the street full again and absolutly no where to park, so I took refuge at Jon and Helen's till it was safe to come home again. That was fun. Though I think we were all rather stuffed and sun burnt. They were kind to take me in in my hour of need.

I look forward to my rest tonight.

Today my job meant that I had to spend two hours playing laser tag and two hours eating Thai food and ice cream. I couldn't say this work doesn't have its perks.

People fight in the street here a lot more than they did in Hornsby. Must be the pollution.

Went to see Damien Rice tonight. Man, he was good. And Lisa (who I thought was called Sarah) she's fantastic. I'm finding it hard to find words to describe it, it's music the makes you want to melt. As long as melting is a good thing.

I love concerts.

And it was good fun to go with Luke, Ashleigh and Pip. They were good concert going companions.

I've still got me to be your open door,
I've still got me to be your sandy shore
I've still got me to cross your bridge in this storm
And I've still got me to keep you warm - Damien Rice

Ok loyal readers, here is your chance to make Jem an internet celebrity!

Now that Tabitha is working on YouTube, watch the video, rate the video, and link to it on your blog, tell your friends, stick it on bulletin boards, do all the rest. Of course this is a shameless push to get Tabitha seen but it'd be way cool if she got famous I reckon!

If you do this I will love you forever. At least, I'll love you till I make a lot of money and then I'll forget you, because I plan on forgetting the little guys.

I can hear the Queens honking their horns.

I went and saw the Queen Mary 2 today. It is rather large. Very cool boat I thought.

I did just learn that vacuuming your monitor is a quick way to dust it. It's also a quick way to scratch it. So don't bother.

I have a room that is almost clean. It's very odd.

"To be near Jesus is dangerous. It offers no prospect of earthly happiness, but involves the fire of tribulation and the test of suffering...only through fire may the kingdom be attained." - Joachim Jeremias "The Parables of Jesus"

I do sometimes wonder when I see quotes like that if perhaps I'm having too much of a good time here on earth. I really do genuinely enjoy my life. And it's not just an enjoyment of the goodness of God. (Although I do enjoy that.) I enjoy other things a lot. I enjoy Pataks Butter Chicken frozen meals, I enjoy my iPod, I enjoy cds, I enjoy Coke, I enjoy friends, I enjoy games, and I enjoy jokes. I do love to sleep, and sleep in.

Of course there are things that are hard, frustrating, sad, annoying, and distressing. But on the whole I'm having a good time.

So maybe I'm not near enough to Jesus. Maybe I'm not taking up my cross enough. Maybe I'm not giving up myself enough. Maybe if I was a good disciple of Jesus people would like me less and life would be less fun.

I figure I'll do my best to aim to be a good disciple of Jesus, and if life gets harder, so be it. I'd rather follow Jesus. But while my limited success at discipleship still allows me to eat Pataks Butter Chicken and listen to my iPod, I will. Hopefully even if I get slowly martyred for my faith, Jesus will still let me have frozen meals.

I was sitting in Staff Meeting today and we were getting told by one of the Wardens about the process for appointing a new minister. Basically what happens is the 5 nominators who were elected by the church, go and meet with 5 nominators from the diocese. The people from our church are meeting with the Parish Council in a few weeks, and I think they're working closely with the Wardens.

Anyway, the Warden told us, that the nominators would probably want to talk to us staff members too. At least talk to the Assistant Minister.

It was around then that I started wondering "How important are we in this process?" Basically, the Anglican system is set up so the the Senior Minister has almost all the power. He can delegate that power if he wants, and he does, to the Wardens, to the Parish Council, to the Staff, but in the end the buck stops with him.

When a Senior Minister leaves all the power reverts back to the Wardens. At least responsibility goes to them and the people in town (Bishops and stuff). In Anglican law, as far as I can tell (though I haven't done much research) the Staff aren't really factored in at all.

So I'm sitting there in Staff meeting wondering how important I am and it occurs to me that actually I'm not. All this power going to the people of the church, not the employees of the church, puts us in our place. We're not really the ones running the show. Maybe in the day to day, we run things, but in the end I am just a servant of the people. I'm employed by the people, I'm payed by the people, I work for the people.

At first, when I realised this I was a little bit miffed. In the old days it probably wouldn't have bothered me at all. But the past few months I've been groomed as "Senior Staff"*. I've been told I'm a leader in the Church. The Senior Minister, the Assistant Minister and I, we were the Big Three.

But now the Big One is going and I'm not so big anymore.

I thought some more though, and this is the appropriate arrangement. I am just a servant of the Church, and of this Church in particular. I maybe a leader, but only with the authority given to me by the people who are not employed by the church. The youth ministry, it's not my ministry, it's the church's. The new minster, he may be my boss, but he's much more the Church's minster. If I'm consulted, that's nice. But it's not my right, and it's not a requirement.

I guess this just means that I should be thankful for the input I get and the rest of the time I can get on with serving the church.

*Let me just say I'm not sure why anyone would ever consider me mature or important enough to be called "Senior" but hey, you take the title you're given.

I went out with the Little today. We went to an internet cafe and played Need for Speed against each other. That was heaps of fun. But he's a better keyboard driver than me. He won most games. Although I'm a better drag racer. I know how to change gears using "shift". It made me want to go drive fast cars fast for real. I think I'd be better at that. Although if I drove into a lamp post it wouldn't just bounce out of the way like in the game, it'd probably kill me.

I came home and bummed around a little. I uploaded a Tabitha video to YouTube, which doesn't seem to be working yet. And then decided it might be time to head off to Matt and Beck's Engagement party.

I realised that getting to Clareville Beach from Enmore, is like getting to Newcastle from Sydney, but less pleasant. Especially when you're stupid enough to take the Spit Bridge. I arrived fashionably 2 hours late. I was the most fashionable person there I reckon. Except perhaps for the hair cut.

But the party was fun. I managed to avoid talking to most people. I don't think I was in party mode today. I did enjoy myself, I probably wasn't the best contributor to the socialisation of the party. I had fun play fighting with some little cousins I found. It made me look good with kids, and I didn't have to talk to adults! Yip! Everyone wins. Actually, I win twice, which is even better! Plus I like kids.

Tonight I hung out and at Thai with Jon and Helen. I know why I'm friends with them, 'cause I like them.

Update: Tabitha is working now. You can watch her here.

So I went to the Dentist again. He wanted to put a cap on some other tooth I have. He said it looked funny. I said "No". He wanted to make one of my other teeth whiter. I said "No". I'm standing up to my Dentist. None of this cosmetic dental stuff. God made me with one tooth missing. And he made me miss one tooth and kill another. As long as my mouth is functioning I'm still happy.

I went to work, and worked fast, and hard, and ran two small groups. Which were both good. Differently good. One snappy and quite contained. The other intense and all over the shop. But both good.

Had Anmol's party. Happy Birthday Anmol. Lots of food. Nice people. His parents are champs! Lots of food.

Last night I spent all night dreaming about driving a Bugatti Veyron. Shame the clip got taken off by the BBC. Chill out I reckon folks. "But who am I to ask you lick my sores?", who said that?

Good night.

This video made me squeal with delight! Bugatti Veyron going at 407 km/h. Yeah baby!

I'm not a real big fan of Valentine's Day (apart from this day when I must have been in a good mood). This may be because I'm bitter. I've never gotten anything for Valentine's Day, except for one flower in year 11, which was given by Kaia and Jemma and they gave one to everyone in our group, so it wasn't like they were being romantic*.

Then again, I've never given anything. Except for once I gave with some friends to the girl in our class we thought would like Valentine's Day the least. We got someone to sing "In the Ning Nang Nong" to her. We thought it was pretty funny. I'm not sure now if it was mean or not. We weren't trying to be mean.

So really I haven't really gotten into the day much at all. It was always filled with hope at school, only to be dashed when my crush didn't send me a flower. These days I don't really wonder if anyone is going to send me anything because that's my job to send stuff. I've learnt that now. If you've got a crush on someone you send them something, they don't instinctively know just to do something. But I wouldn't do anything these days, because I'd be so embarrassed to declare my love for someone on Valentine's Day. It'd doom your whole relationship to a future of pink cards and taking Richard Mercer seriously. It'd make me want to vomit. Even more than normal.

So let me just say to all you potential girlfriends, wives and pash pals out there: You will never get anything from me on Valentine's Day. I'll give you something the day before, and the day after. But Valentine's Day is a romance free zone! Cause you can't break tradition can you?

*They were being friendly and it was fun to get.

I have new computer at work. Woo! It has a 19" wide screen LCD monitor, 512MB ram, Duo Core Processor of some unknown speed, a removable USB hard drive (though I think that might be just on loan while I get my old stuff off it 'cause it seems to have most of my old computer on there, and it's only pretending to be 8GB large) and other bells and whistles. It's pretty fun having a new computer. I've spend a bit of time making it how I like it. No more silly XP blue and green for me!

Now I don't have to steal Nathan's computer to check my emails.

Tomorrow is Day One of the a new year with a new Year 6 Scripture class. Hopefully it'll go better than the last three years. Please God.

I did a photo shoot today for BBBS. Me and my Little, and another female Big and Little went out with a photographer into the depths of the City to look good and put our images to good use.

First it was the girls' turn for a cheesy milkshake shot. I got to hold the reflector thing.

Then we got our turn to stand on a crowded street and laugh and point at things with a small depth of field. I looked like a doofus. I think I need less hair on my head.

We got bought a burger and drink each as props and rewards. That was good. I like to eat. But the eating and drinking were only a quick distraction, because it was back to being photographed reading the paper together (I think it was JB Hi-Fi ad) and running around in the park. Then we got to go home.

It was pretty fun. I would like to be a model. I'm going to get some cosmetic surgery and make it my profession. It was a good way to spend an afternoon with my little brother. We're both pretty good looking.

Weeping may remain for a night,
but rejoicing comes in the morning.

Psalm 30:5

The camp was good fun. Nothing exceptional really. A camp like many camps. Except it wasn't Christian so there were no Bible talks, no one said (or sung) grace, and there was no worship anywhere to be heard (or seen, or practiced). Strange, it was like "We're on camp, but if there's no Jesus, what are we doing here?" I guess I feel like Jesus and the pursuit of the kingdom are a better reason for a camp than team building activities. But I did enjoy myself, and I did enjoy the team building activities. Hooray for High Ropes! It was good to spend a weekend with the "little" as they're called.

I made it to church tonight too. Youth group was fun. We had a record number of people turn out of the retirement village today. We usually get about 10, today we got 28. That was cool! Unfortunately the residents didn't know we were coming and there were only 6 of them. The exact opposite problem of last time. But still a good problem to have.

Youth stuff is going off at the moment. It's great. God is doing stuff.

I'm off to BBBS camp. I'm sure that'll wake me up!

This Blog is cool. Most blogs are interesting because you know the person it's about. This one is just interesting. I'm hooked.

My iPod arrived. At least, he arrived with the TNT man, then left with the TNT man, cause no one was home. So I had to go to Mascot to the big TNT depot (which was cool) and get him.

I've named it "Poopy the Pod", so it must be male, because you can't call a girl "Poopy".

It should be fun. Hooray for Birthdays!

I went out on the town with Mil and Gemma today. We went to see Stranger than Fiction which was pretty good I reckon. It made me laugh, Will Farrel did a better job at toning himself down than I've ever seen from him. And it had good things to think about, like death, and sacrifice, and literature, and art, and probably other stuff. I did enjoy.

We also ventured to sushi train and a dancing machine. The girls did alright at the dancing, I on the other hand am not what one would call skilled. Maybe unco would be the word.

We parted company around then, I ventured off into the wilds of the Botanic Garden to plant myself among the pashing couples on the grass and read, pray and sleep. Then I came home and watched the special features on Superman Returns and ate Pad Thai.

We watched Ten Canoes tonight. It was good and funny. I didn't expect it to be funny but it was. I guess there was humour in Australia 30,000 years ago too.

Top marks. See it.

For my birthday my lovely relatives (Mum, Dad, Jo, Grandpa and maybe Hannah) banded together to give me lots of money to buy a swanky iPod. So I did. I bought an 8GB iPod Nano, with a Nike+ Sports kit and an arm band.

The idea is to use the gadget to encourage myself to get fit. I'm really excited about it, cause Nike+ gives you graphs, and stats and everything. I love statistics! So I reckon I might start running again. Maybe I should make a deal to pay $5 to my blog readers every time I fail to run three times a week or something. That'd motivate me. Though probably not a very good idea.

Happily though, if I don't ever get fit, I will listen to lots of music. Yeehaa!

I got my iPod engraved too. That was fun. It says "I'm a Happy Consumer. This is my iPod"

The Sopranos is awesome. Bacardi Breezers, on the other hand, are not. Ajak and Atem brought some orange ones over two weeks ago, and I've been the only person in the house willing to drink them. So I've been slowly working my way through them. They're horrid, disgustingly sweet. I don't know what teenage girls see in them. Drink Fanta.

As you all know I've been single for a while. Finally someone has done something about it, and as a very special birthday present, Howie has created a website just for me! Maybe now my dream girl will come along.

If you wanna check me out (and perhaps fall in love), go here: singlespeakers.com.au

Update:Oh look. Just there below, Howie has already posted this for me. Thanks Howie, always looking out for me.

Finally a place where peoplc can really get to know me for who I am.

Officeworks don't make very good Post-it notes.

I've been having a few meetings lately. They've been leader get togethers for various ministries. And I've had a really good time. I think a month of not doing ministry and just talking to people about doing it has tired me out. Now we're back. Youth Group starts tomorrow and I'm excited. It's good to be doing what I enjoy most.

Just found this. Figured I might give it a shot. Why bother with all the stuff in between eh?

I just signed up for Second Life as a man named Otto Bumstead. I have no idea what it is but SMH keep doing silly reports about it, so I thought I'd go become a virtual person. Hooray!

I'm the richest man in this whole damned world and in all the skies above.

We finished the massive weekend of filming today. Lesley has summed it up pretty well. I did have fun shooting today. It was interesting how much the impending announcement impacted the day. I told Matt this morning it was coming so he could manage the day well for the few people who had just found out at the morning service and the rest of the people who were about to find out.

But apart from that it was a fun shoot. I love the jib. And I really enjoying the camera. Shooting in Chatswood last night with big lights and council permission was heaps cool. Plus we have Guy with us who knows what he's doing. We feel like we're becoming more and more pro.

So good for us. Now I'm going to sleep. And sleep well. No alarm tomorrow morning. Thank you God.

Tonight Steve announced to the church that he is leaving the Church. He'll be gone in two months. He's off to take a job overseas. I've only known this since Wednesday, and it hit me for six. I had no idea it was coming. I haven't really got my head around it, it doesn't seem real. I haven't really been able to react to anything else since then. At least not at work. Wednesday was spent processing. Thursday was spent mainly in a staff meeting with the new team which was the oddest staff meeting I've ever been to I think. It's hard to figure out what's relevant anymore. It's hard to know how the year will look.

Everything is kinda up in the air. Of course, I'll still be the youth minister, and I'll still run the youth ministry. But who will run the church? And how will we find a new minister? How will we work with the interim minister? How will the church run when there is no senior minister for however long it is between Steve leaving and someone else arriving?

I guess everything is full of questions now. And I'm trying to process how I'm feeling. It's all pretty massive. I know what I thought 2007 was going look like. Now I have no idea. I just know it'll look different.

Finished filming again. Earlier than yesterday with no overtime that I know of. And I got an hour and half sleep in the middle of the day. Luxury.

We just finished filming. We were meant to go from 8am-9pm. But people left about half an hour ago. No worries. That's what happens when you make films, I've done them before.

I'm sure I learnt something important today but I haven't figured out what that is yet. I guess I'll get there when I've figured out which way up everything's gonna land.

The Google Plane isn't going to fly over our house. I was going to write "Bring David Hicks Home" on our roof. Oh well.

It's a good thing we all washed our cars today or otherwise it might not have rained.

Jo, Jem, Mil and I about to go on a community trip to get our cars washed. Soon, I'm going to have a smiling, sparkling van of love. Spink!

We bought a new gas bottle today because someone stole ours. And I just went outside to sit at our outdoor set and that's gone too. So now in the history of our house we've been robbed of a table, 6 chairs, a gas bottle and a laptop.

If anyone's seen any of them and wants to return them that'd be nice. I want to be able to drink beer outside without having to sit on the ground.

5:00 - Woke Up had quiet time
5:30 - Went for Run
6:00 - Shower
6:15 - Breakfast (Musili, mmm)
6:45 - Light Church History reading to keep the brain ticking
7:45 - Travel to work
8:30 - Check and reply to emails
9:00 - Write report
9:45 - Research for sermon
10:45 - Short break
10:50 - Bible Study prep for Term 2
11:03 - Help homeless man
11:04 - Back to Bible Study Prep
11:45 - Meeting with Bishop
12:15 - Lunch
12:45 - Phone calls
13:05 - Help Homeless Man again
13:06 - Resume phone calls
13:25 - Paraphrase Calvin's Institutes for Kids
14:00 - Meeting with Council Youth Panel
15:00 - Attend Prayer Healing Group
15:15 - Buy Carrots for the Dinner
15:30 - Fill out application form for Young Rotarian of the Year
15:42 - Refer Homeless Man to someone else
15:43 - Resume application form
16:15 - Prune Church Gardens
16:45 - Paint Church Doors
17:15 - Plan youth ministry care and support vision till 2012
17:45 - Visit from troubled youth
17:50 - Call Police
18:00 - Check emails and reply
18:15 - Go home

Really, I saw Tim off at the airport, went to work, did some, caught the bus home at the end of the day and watched most of Die Hard. Now it's off to bed. Filming tomorrow.

I was meant to go see the Dentist today but they changed the time on me and forgot to tell me. So I escaped that rather expensive and un-pleasant experience. But I just watched two episodes of The Sopranos so I keep getting flashes thinking that my Dentist is in the Mafia and he's going to pistol whip me for not turning up or something.

I've flossed every night since the last night I saw him except Christmas Eve, New Years Morning and one night when I was just too lazy. So hopefully he'll give me some mercy.

This could take a long time. These are the photos from the day Jo, James and I spent frolicking in the Cotswolds.



Being the navigator always brings you to the height of map wearing fashion. Note that I'm wearing my "Communist Party" t-shirt. It was the first time I wore it on the trip. I'd been too scared to wear it while I was in any of those ex-communist countries. I thought people might not have found it as funny.



Wheat



James and Jo walk on luscious Costwoldish Grass.



Now I know I went to England



Lost



Zipping along in the Mini of Fun. Boy that was a good Mini.



This graveyard was cool. Though not as old as I wanted it to be. No one buried in the 16th century or anything. Shame.

I thought it might be time to stick up my photos from when we were in England. I know it's been ages, but my blog is looking rather bare. So here are some photos of England land.



Actually this is in Austria. It's one of those toilets with a shelf. I needed to document it for anthropological purposes.



The clouds as we flew to England were pretty cool. We pretty much had sunset the whole way there.



More cool clouds



Everybody loves Buckingham Palace



"Superman" at the Odeon in Leicester Square. Yeah Baby!



Westminster Abbey



Our home in Oxford for three days

So there you go. Some photos. I'll stick up the rest, when I get around to it. Maybe now.

So we went shooting again on Sunday. I got up at 5am which was rather painful. I'd been planning to be in bed by 9:30ish, but the community house was visited by members of the extended community so 12:30am it was.

Anyway, I picked Helen and Jon up at first light and we drove to church to meet the crew and cast. Then it was off to Stockton Beach which was to double as our desert for the day.

Actually we made it to Stockton Beach only after breakfast and getting lost for an hour or two. But we got there.

Stockton Beach, as far as I can tell from the small amount that I saw of it, is the gathering place for the weekly weekend convention of dirt bikers. All over the place there are people with trail bikes and ATVs. This makes it difficult to shoot a scene that is meant to be set in a deserted desert. There's tracks everywhere and the noise of bikes regularly coming from all directions. Still we did our best.

During the day we managed to shoot all the stuff we wanted except one scene which we moved to a smarter place in the schedule. It was hard work spending all day walking around on sand, and harder work lugging equipment across dunes all day. And I didn't even carry the heaviest stuff.

The jib was good fun. And I'm enjoying having a camera assistant, who when he isn't distracted by the "Making of..." camera or anything else of mild interest, attends to my every need. Basically, after every shot (if it's hand held) I hand the camera to him and walk away. I hear this is standard industry practice. I'd feel bad doing it except the holding the camera all day might mean that the quality of my work goes down cause I can't hold the camera steady anymore I'm so tired.

I haven't seen the footage yet but I think I did a better job with Day Two than Day One. I'll watch the stuff tomorrow.

We finished our shooting at about 8:30pm. We all split up decided to travel home separately because we were tired and just wanted to get back quickly, but we all met up at McDonald's anyway. It may have been that we all wanted to avoid each other and accidentally bumped into everyone else none the less. The joys on only having one big rest stop between Newcastle and home.

I made it home by 11. It was a rather extended day.

So far today I've done pretty much nothing. It's been rather nice. I was thinking of cleaning my room. Which is still on the cards, but I'm downloading a trailer which is slow and has ground my super computer to a halt in almost all other areas. So now I'm down stairs blogging.

The reason I can't clean my room till my computer comes back to me is that I can't tidy up without music. It's physically impossible.

I have realised that in this house I am incapable of cooking almost anything except pasta. Which means that in these days of money saving attempts (which aren't working too well) the options for my home cooked meals are rather limited.

I think I might blog about Sunday. And seeing as it's Wednesday, it hasn't taken me that long to get there.

We had day one of shooting for Pilgrim today. It was a good day's shooting. Though I'm a bit disappointed with my work. When we watched the rushes it turned out that I was mostly over-exposed and a bit out of focus.

Part of it may have been the TV we were watching on. But still, it's a new camera and I'm not real good at figuring it out. I find the viewfinder really hard to focus with.

Anyway, I've going to have to do a better job tomorrow 'cause the stuff we shoot tomorrow is more important.

I did have a good time though. And today was useful for me to figure what I need to do tomorrow. One day I'd like to go to learn to actually do what I do, rather than just make it up as I go along.

After a day of sitting around the office trying to convince myself to do work, I went out with some of my lovely friends and watched Apocalypto, which, apart from being way too graphic in it's violence, was pretty good. The human sacrifices which showed you everything were a little too much. But the last half of the film is just this awesome chase. I loved it.

Mel's pretty good quality. Even if he does hate some of my family.

Work is rather strange at the moment. I feel like I'm rebuilding a Youth Ministry from the ravages of the New Year. Sometimes I have meetings or discussions that leave me feeling really optimistic, other times I end up wondering how it's all going to end up.

But in the end I figure God will look after it all. He's good like that. And I think it's going to be a good year. One of the best I reckon.

My room suddenly smells like a fart. But I didn't fart and there is no one else in here.

Was probably Rodney the Ghost.

Had a dinner with Jo Kemp tonight which was fun. Good quality she is.

Plus we had a meeting for the filming of the next production. It should be fun. I do like a good shoot. We're getting a jib. I do love a good toy.

I did suggest to Matt that was do a commentary for TOOBSC now that I've finally got it almost ready for DVD (it's only been three years). I think it'd be pretty fun. I've never done a director's commentary before, so I think it'd be tops.

I just want to free up the space on my hard drive.

I've decided that filling the hours between 10am and 6pm at work if you have no ministry activities is really hard.

I watched 21 Grams tonight. It was a very good movie. When Christians talk about films about redemption and forgiveness and condemnation, I don't know why they don't talk about this one. It was very special.

For when the loss burned, their cornfields became green again. - From the end of the film

Here's a news story for the ages.

I, for one, am outraged that such a thing could happen at the happiest place on earth.

I've preached once so far, and I'm preaching all day. Should be fun. I was up till 1:30am finishing the sermon. I had two days to work on this one and still it managed to fill all the available time.

I was up again at 3am chasing a mozzie around my room.

I'm a little tired.

Ryan and I just watched Picnic at Hanging Rock. For a classic Australian film, it wasn't very good. I expected it to be full of mystery and suspense. I was worried I might get a bit scared. Instead it was badly written and mostly about the subplots. It was much less scary than when I watched it as a kid. No one got eaten alive by ants, which is what I thought happened. I guess my memory was a little off.

Oh well. At least I've seen it all now.

You can tell you're procrastinating when you find yourself reading the list of financial contributions to Wikipedia for no apparent reason.

"Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people." - Eleanor Roosevelt

I discuss all three. I'm not sure what that means.

Anyway, I think she's wrong.

She's also dead. But that's beside the point.

This website is cool.

I'm writing the 'Wisdom with Tabitha' scripts now.

Any suggestions?

For about 5 nights in a row I've had a mozzie in my room. I go to bed and turn out the light and then I hear "Zzzz". I wait till it gets right in my ear and I turn on the light and there is no mozzie to be seen.

I turn off the light and the same thing happens.

Sometimes the mozzie wakes me up its buzzing is so loud.

There have been a number of nights this week that I've found myself standing in the middle of my room at 2am, scantily clad in my night attire looking for this damn mosquito. I've seen him a few times, but I've never got to kill him. But one day I'll get him. One day...

When I was 14 I was on a camp and I was told that in 10 years only 10 per cent of the people on the camp would still be Christians. So when I went home I wrote a sign that said "Where Will You Be in 2007?" in an effort to remind myself to still be a Christian in 10 years time and stuck it on the back of our front door.

I remembered that tonight as many of us sat around following our New Years Day barbecue. And I thought "I'm here." In my family we've been talking about the arrival of this year for a while. And now it's here. I never thought I'd be here, living where I am, doing what I'm doing, but I'm glad I'm still with Jesus.

I'm thankful that I'm still a Christian. I'm thankful that all of my family are still Christians. I'm thankful that most of my friends are still Christians. I'm thankful that more of my friends are Christians now than they were in 2007.

Probably that camp in 1997 set me on a trajectory that has ended me up here. That camp motivated me to see teaching as important for my spiritual growth. It motivated me to own my spirituality. It taught me about the need to hold on to my faith. I think it started a fire in my that hasn't gone out.

It's been a great 10 years.

Maybe there was nothing in those statistics, but they pushed me, and here I am.

Hallelujah.

I wonder where I'll be in 2017...

Pet a snake: Yes. Done it. I'd love to own a snake.

Spend a week in an empty room: Only if I had to. Like if I was a political prisoner. Then I'd do it and think about how righteous I am.

Ride in a hot-air balloon: For sure.

Sky dive: Yep

Sing in front of a huge audience: Yes. Is 300 huge? Cause I've done that.

Scuba dive: Yes.

Sit in the front seat of a roller coaster: Done that. That's not as fun as the back because at the back you go fast down the whole hill. At the front you have the wait for the back to get over the hump.

Deliver a baby: That'd be cool. Although I think I would only be able to say "Push" and "You're doing great."

Swim across the Amazon River: If no one told me what was in it.

Change careers: I'd love to be an electrician

Disappear for a long period of time: Oh yes please. I'd love to.

Walk through the bush alone at night: Done that.

Join a space mission: Yes!

Tell everyone what you honestly think of them: Most people. Not you.

Call off your wedding: I guess so. If I thought I shouldn't marry the person. Probably, knowing my ability to procrastinate. I could have doubts a week after engagement and only get around to calling it a week before the wedding.

Walk naked through Hyde Park for 10 minutes during rush hour: No. At least not till I'm old and wrinkly and it's a really good joke.

Disarm a bomb: Probably not.

Clean the outside windows of a skyscraper: I often look up and think "I want that job!"

Draw a mustache on the Mona Lisa with a permanent marker : Not unless Jesus told me to, in person.

Go on tour with Elvis: That'd be the bomb!

Go swimming during a thunder storm: I guess so. But I'd be pretty nervous. I get nervous in the ocean at the best of times.

Perform surgery on your best friend: No.

Anyone else...

Thanks Lesley.

It's been a long December
and there's reason to believe
Maybe this year will be better than the last - Counting Crows

Because it felt like the time to pull the quote out again.

Happy New Year.

For all acquaintance be forgot, la da de da da daaaaa!

We braved the buses home. Those stupid horn things should be banned. I love fireworks. I'm happy to live in Sydney.

I'm feeling like I may have done the whole harbour thing now.

I'm looking forward to 2007 with you all.

G'night.