Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Who needs hand puppets?

Not when you can do amazing stuff with paint. Have a look here at some of the art creations of a dude called Guido Daniele.

Events

I have a confession, as it seems to shock a few people. No, I had never been to Melbourne Central before. Until yesterday. When I found all sorts of cool things.

I went shopping with KS for stationery (note: with an 'e'. I'm pretty pedantic) and did so, but also ended up buying new clothes. I don't like to be materialistic, but I can be. I got three new shirts, discovered a cool new shop. It's called T Bar.

T Bar, Melbourne Central: Home of cool shirts

So anyway, there's so many shirts and it's pretty much the coolest shop ever.

Also, we stopped a Smiggle to buy an awesome smelling jelly eraser and notebooks. K bought me a diary too, which I can use to finally get organised. Eventually.

I now need a job.

Postwise, I am in the process of writing 100 Things About Me, but it's taking ages and is harder than I actually thought it would be. And I've been distracted by finally learning how to play poker, playing poker, catching up with my little bro who's back from Germany, other things. But soon, it shall be done. Oh and I start the Youth Internship next week.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Nonsense

So how do you even write a good blog anyway? I have no idea. I don't think the secret is being deep, because as much as I like doing it, or like the idea of people seeing my thoughts as deep, I'm fairly amused by nonsense rambling blogs. I don't really have the consistency to keep people interested. Maybe it's just not very interesting. Anyway, it's 1:37 AM, and I can't sleep. I've turned fairly nocturnal in this 'Post-VCE' stage.

So. Today (by which I mean the 24th. I measure days by between when I wake and when I sleep) I woke up late, ate five sausage rolls for breakfast and lunch, and watched three episodes of South Park. What a sophisticated life I lead. Later, mum and I went to Monash Uni to do the fancypants enrolments. I got to see the common room for us supposed smart ones, although I think I'm a pretender.

Tonight I had dinner with friends. I was amused that I chose a $16.90 meal over a $17.90, partially on the fact that there's an extra dollar saved. Clearly, I need a job.

Finally, I did nothing after that, and now I sit writing this nonsense. Which I hope will lead to inspiration of something profound, but probably not. I am going to do this to see if it leads me to ideas of future blogs:

Things I Like:

  • God, most of the time. Probably don't give as much liking as I could.
  • Sports
  • A clean room, but not cleaning it
  • My blue shirt with birds and a tree with things in it
  • Finding out that that bird is actually a partridge and the things are pears
  • Feedback. I always wonder what people think when they read this stuff. I know you read it, because there's a thing that tells me. I don't care about comments so much, just curious
  • Punctuation. , ! @
  • Music. Playing, listening, seeing. I'm not going to be like "My life is the music," etc. But it's pretty cool. So cool, that when I had the hypothetical given to me, "Would you rather be deaf or blind?", I seriously considered blindness, so that I could still hear music.

Things I Dislike:

  • Having to clear my throat before bed.
  • Bad blogs. And I have a feeling this is one.
  • Itches.
  • My skin for hurting me.
  • Shallowness. Especially mine.
  • Not being very faithlike or a good example of what I believe in.
  • "I'm a better Christian than you" syndrome. Experienced at Beach Mission.
  • Haha my cynical side. It's pretty big.

Things I Am Proud Of In My Life:

  • Africa Aid, I wish I was more organised with it and that my passion for it was huge everyday. I really do love it, and being able to realise how good so many people are underneath.
  • Church, and that I love it now, and actively try to know people and God more. Most of the time.
  • KS. She makes me very happy.
  • Finishing Year 12 well. My goal last year was to be satisfied with my VCE results and to grow up a bit. Think I did a bit of both.
  • My little brother. He's one of my best mates. All my life people have told me and chosen me to lead stuff, and I have teased him about living in my shadow. But I reckon he is such an ace leader and person.

Things I Am Not Proud Of In My Life:

  • That this is quite hard to do in a public setting
  • My anger
  • How easy it is for me to put down people and things
  • How easy it is for me to feel better than others
  • My relationships with the rest of my family
  • Not putting in enough effort as I could have into things
  • Not being able to put in everything I'm not proud of here.

Things I Am Looking Forward To This Year:

  • The Garage
  • Youth Internship @ DCC
  • Africa Aid growing
  • Vetamorphus small group continuing
  • Uni.
  • 'Mission Possible'. I dunno what it's really called, or if I'm officially on it. But it's a cool idea, and I'll write about it once I know more.
  • Social justice stuff at church.
  • There's lots more, but still thinking.

Well this has been a long post. Maybe tomorrow I'll get up, look at what I wrote at some ridiculous hour last night, and be ashamed. Or maybe I'll like something, and write a bit more, we'll see. For now, I think I will sleep.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Beach Mission '07

Just got back from 10 days at McCrae SUFM Beach Mission. Here's some stuff about/to do with it.

It's like a Christian mission for families who camp by the beach, most of whom are non-Christians. We put on skits, dramas and events for everyone like movie nights and an amazing race night, but also do small groups, etc. But to be honest, what I got the most out of Beach Mission was living with the team.

There were about 31 one of us, living all together and working together to do something for others. I don't know what it is, but I guess it's the 'living in Christian community' that did it. For the first days, I didn't really like it, because there were some teammates I wanted to hurt for being annoying and strange. But as the days went on, it got way better. The friendships I already had actually became better I think, I had some good chats, had fun with hypotheticals (which aren't really very clean... Digger), and I made some new good friends. Which leaves me at this...

Do I do Beach Mission next year? Maybe. Pros: mad team, got a few good relationships with some of the kids, the beach is pretty cool. Cons: I find some things strange about Beach Mission, and some parts of it I don't like, even though I'm just a new person who doesn't really have a right to come in and want to change anything. There's just some stuff that happens that I reckon presents a more negative view of Christianity than a positive. I also need to work on how easily I find it to get annoyed at people.

Well we'll see. Also, I got into Monash Arts/Theology at Church of Christ Theological College. Some nonsense with scores happened, my score went up, and I got a scholarship. Which is cool because now I don't have to pay mum and dad back for uni. Also, I have some uni buddies now haha.

Friday, January 05, 2007

Awesome Guitarist

A friend pointed this guy out to me recently on YouTube. It's such an awesome song, and amazing the way he plays. Trust me... once I start playing like I said I was going to do about five years ago, I'm going to do that. After about 20 years practice.

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

It Was Then That I Carried You...

So lots of people know this story. The one about the man questioning Jesus in a dream about why, during the darkest moments of his life, it seemed that Jesus disappeared from his side. This is an old feature from 1998, but I thought it was interesting. The story about Jesus and the man is nice, but it's kind of lame too. It's the perfect stuff for non-believers to use to call believers delusional. I know I would.

The article is set out as a debate. Jesus offers his point, by retelling the story. The counterpoint is offered by a guy who seems to have a lot of anger and pain. He tells a lot of his personal story, and it would make anyone depressed. So when we feel that low, is it really Jesus carrying us? Or are we left to go through that alone?

I went through a stage this year where the reason for my crap feelings was that I didn't feel connected to God or the church anymore, and I felt stupid at school for being Captain of Faith and telling the boys about something I didn't feel close to. So if the reason I was upset was that I didn't feel Jesus, was he there the whole time carrying me?

Click here to read the article.

If Jesus Had Instant Messenger...

I found this guy's instant messenger takes on the Bible pretty funny. Some might find it offensive, but like one of the blogs' commentors argued... God has a sense of humour too... just look at the platypus.

Here's one of the messages:

JudasIzzy23: Yo, how much silver for selling out Jesus?
JcDaMessiah: What?
JudasIzzy23: Shit. Wrong window. Christ.
JcDaMessiah: Yes?
JudasIzzy23: I sent it to the wrong window.
JcDaMessiah: I forgive you.


You can find the rest: Here (Volume 1) and here (Volume 2)

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Can you be rich, powerful and famous... and still be humble?

Really good questions in this blog I randomly found. Comments are pretty good too, something I'd love to know, especially if I kept going with my Africa Aid stuff. What if I got rich? What if I got famous? That's not at all why I do it, but what if it happened?. What then? Would I still care as much about the world?

I've always wondered about people like Bono, Bob Geldof, Paul McCartney, etc. They preach about saving the world, with money and with otherwise, and I've always wondered how much they give? How much should (if there is a should) they be giving? Did they always care? Or did it happen once they got bored with their riches and fortune?