Random stuff

A Small Adventure

2011-01-27T19:45:00.000+10:00

Today I arrived at school 2 hours after I left home.

This was because I stopped to fill up for petrol.

Now you might think that filling up for petrol doesn't take that long, and you'd be right. But what it meant was that I was driving on the freeway a few minutes later than I normally would have been and the ute in the lane next to me blew a tyre.....and I got debris stuck in my car somewhere! So I had to stop on the side of the freeway and Traffic Control pulled up behind me. Both he and the guy in the ute checked under my car but couldn't see anything. I looked too. Nothing. But I was pretty scared being on the side of the road when the speed limit is 110km/h. Trucks move fast.

So I started off again, but the debris was still there. Had to pull into a BP and called my husband and my dad, who both came out to check it out. We went for a drive, and the debris must have gone because the noise in my car was gone. Phew! So they went home and I went to school.

And that was my adventure!

Dinner and hairstyles

2011-01-24T17:07:00.000+10:00

Yesterday it was my birthday and I'm 25!!

We had a big eating binge at Sizzler. Nearly had to roll home.

But I'm hungry now. Almost time for tea. Tonight I am making cumin lamb cutlets with lemony broccoli and green beans (courtesy of Michelle Bridges).

For my birthday I got lots of nice presents, and one of them was some money to spend on getting my hair done. I'm thinking of getting a style cut and dying it brown (or at least darker) with some blonde foils.

So.....2 questions for the faithful readers out there:

1) What are you making/eating for dinner tonight? (and can I have the recipe please)
2) What would you recommend I do to my hair?

:-)

What do you want to be when you grow up?

2011-01-20T20:22:00.000+10:00

I don't have to owe the swear jar if I talk about work on my blog, do I? ;-) (Otherwise I might need to get a second job to pay for it!)

Anyway, today I have been reading a novel about a Christian single girl who gets married. (Not the Ashley Stockingdale series, another one!) And it was very timely in that the main character had to make decisions about where she wanted her career to go, and how she ended up using her talents and doing the things she loved to make a living for herself and eventually her family, even though at first she thought she couldn't do it.

The author wrote a little about herself at the end of the book and the fact that she'd been through similar situations - that she had lots of dreams but didn't know what to do. After prayer and thought, she found a way to use her talents to serve God by writing, even though her dreams didn't make a lot of sense to anyone else.

I think I'd like to use my talents and passions to serve God and make a living, not just slog it out year after year at a job I don't love just to pay the bills. I'm not an advocate of just quitting because 'I don't feel like it today' - but surely there's a difference between an off day and a strong, continuing desire to be doing something else.

If you could choose to do any type of work and it was guaranteed that you could make a reasonable living out of it, what would you do?

I would:
- write, perform or direct plays! And maybe even films!
- write, perform and record music.
I might teach a little bit, but I don't think it's my passion in life.

Tell me yours!! :-)

The Swear Jar

2011-01-17T11:45:00.000+10:00

Most people create a swear jar because they swear too much. My friends and I decided we talk about school too much, and it annoys our spouses from time to time. (Three of us are teachers, three aren't).

So the concept of the swear jar has evolved - every time we talk about school, we are required to put $1 in the swear jar to save towards going to the movies together. Campbell reckons we'll be getting gold class tickets in February!

Last night I had a bad dream about making students cry and school being horrible. My two other teacher friends were there in the dream too, but not making students cry. I told everyone I owe the swear jar about $10!! (if I could afford it).

Don't say the 's' word.......'school'. (Uh-oh, make that $11!)

2011 - new year, new you!!

2011-01-16T00:29:00.000+10:00

Well, not really a 'new you', but maybe a chance to revive the blog for at least the fourth or fifth time?

For the last couple of years I've been doing an annual post, but there are some really precious memories on here and I would really like to keep blogging and keeping a record of stuff that happens. Random stuff, as per the title.

Some posts are embarrassing ("Did I really write that? I sound like a weirdo!") or just a bit in-your-face (putting out memos to all women interested in a particular guy.....what the?!). Things have definitely changed since my uni days, but that doesn't mean they're any less memorable or interesting. To me, at least. And if you find some humour, entertainment or encouragement in them, then that's double prizes! "You liked something I wrote - this pleases me." (A very strange quote from When Harry Met Sally)

So, a few things going down in GrooveTown
- The floods. Unexpected, huge and non-stop coverage. I think we will need to be patient for the next few months while clean up happens and we try and get back on our feet. Can't help feeling proud of the way everyone is working together to help each other out. Good on ya QLD. I was impressed with the way Anna Bligh and the Police worked to give us accurate information continuously, and they seemed to really be making an effort, not just being all political and saying the right words but not doing anything. Big shout out to the people co-ordinating the QPS Facebook page - couldn't have asked for a more up-to-the-minute, accurate place for info.

- Screenplays. Been reading books on how to write screenplays (aka movie scripts) and that's been really interesting. Looking into it. More on that later!

- Michelle Bridges 12wbt (12 week body transformation). Thinking about joining it for a bit of motivation and a bit of a challenge. BUT funding could be a problem - have to see how things go.

I don't really make resolutions for the new year, because I can't keep them. And this year I don't really have a plan except try to cope with whatever work throws my way. Keep my head above water for one more year. Then we'll see - maybe I can get a new career in the arts and bin teaching (or at least full-time teaching) for awhile.

What are your plans, hopes, goals, resolutions or dreams for 2011?

This is my 300th post!!

2010-03-31T18:16:00.000+10:00

Hi everyone. Noofishness is back in business - well sort of. So I think this is my annual post, although who knows? Maybe I will post again more.

New news: I got married! :-D So I hope my husband will read my blog. And hopefully I won't be like Julie from 'Julie and Julia' where she has a big fight with her husband and he walks out and she writes about it and apologises on her blog. First, I don't want to fight with my husband, cos he is awesome (hee hee hee). And second, I am somewhat of a believer in 'don't air your dirty laundry in public'. That's what a washing machine and a clothesline out the back are for, people! Sort it out amongst yourselves.

Now, I would like to have a little rant. The other day I read an article about anger, and how it is destructive, and more like what Satan does than what Jesus does (although Jesus was angry, it is true - but the article was focused on how our anger can lead to destruction and tearing people down, not benefiting them). So since then I have been noticing how utterly INFURIATED I get by some people and things in life, but have been trying not to just vent at them, since that can be destructive.

But, I would like to rant about my work. I work with some of the best people, so no worries there. And I do get quite a few holidays, which although sometimes I have to work a bit during them, is ok, because overall I do get more time off than the average person - but I still say I deserve it, since I interact with and manage hundreds of people (on an almost daily basis anyway). So I am not ranting about these things, but about the sheer RUDENESS of some students. Just a total lack of respect for themselves, other people, their property.....I know I shouldn't take it personally, but I get soooo mad sometimes. Why act like animals or little kids? Why not act your age? How hard can it be? I can't wait for Easter holidays.

The second thing I would like to rant about is people who purposely drive stupidly. Everyone makes mistakes sometimes. I make mistakes when I'm driving, and I try to correct them quickly and be courteous. I try not to speed and to move over when I am not going fast enough for some people. But just because you're on the outside lane doesn't mean you're on the autobahn, ok! There is still a speed limit! I'm not ranting about people who are accidentally 5 ks over. I'm talking about hoons like the guy who came right up behind me, flashed his lights, zoomed past me at who knows how fast when I moved, went up to the last possible inch behind the next guy, swerved to his left and cut off the guy next to him, then swerved back into the outside line, cutting off the guy he'd just tailgated, and slowed waaaaaaaay down, before burning off again up the freeway. Some days I just want to have a big sign attached to my car: "Ease up, turbo. It's a road, not a racetrack."

96.5 have been doing a great job of keeping us all aware on the roads in the last month or so by running "Radio Road Rage" where you ring up and tell them who in your family is on the road and which road so you can look out for them. It reminds me that people on the road have people waiting at home for them, so I try to be a little bit more patient and give a little extra room. It only takes 5 seconds more anyway.

So I guess that I would like to say, to students and to hoons - SETTLE DOWN!!! (And with this hugely hypocritical piece of advice, I will end my post ;-)

Happy Easter everyone, and may we remember the true meaning - not just chocolate (which we all love!) but celebrating the death and resurrection of Jesus. He is risen! :-)

Lolly and Pooky Muffin

2009-07-06T19:55:00.003+10:00

Lolly and Pooky Muffin. (Laurie is the Lolly and I am the Pooky Muffin).

I haven't written on this blog in like a year, but I'm back to do my annual post!!

I've learned a lot in the last year, and I'm still learning stuff. Maybe I'll share some of it later on. For now, hope all of you in blog-land are having fun.

The Forgotten Blog

2008-07-05T22:28:00.004+10:00

This blog has been largely under-used for a long time now. My discovery of Facebook, and to a lesser extent, MySpace, has been responsible for this. But a blog is more of a journal, a way of documenting ideas - Facebook is more for interacting with friends, and MySpace is for all the Gen Y-ers who think they're "so hot right now". The generations are a little ambiguous, but if Gen Y is people born between 1981 and 2000, then I am Gen Y - except I remember life before iPods, mobile phones, DVDs and the internet. We didn't even have a VCR until I was 6 - before that I played in the sandpit! (And afterwards too ;-) So much for the stereotype of a technology-dependent Gen Y-er. (Although I'm not doing much to help it by blogging and using Facebook so much, am I? ;-) What about you guys - what were some of your memories of life before these things? What did you do instead of internet/mobile/iPod etc?

I'm reading a book Ps Graham has been promoting like crazy, called "Do Hard Things". It's for teenagers, and how they need to rebel against low expectations society hands out to them. I'm not a teenager, but I do teach them, and I am absolutely fascinated by them. It's true that the expectations for teenagers these days are low, but I know some who do incredible things, stuff that I could never have done when I was their age.

In other news, Kids Klub has just finished, and today I am absolutely exhausted - but missing it all the same. I'm sure things will get back to normal in the next few days. It was so good to be able to hang out with Christian friends for a whole week - I've really missed that since I started work. I'm thinking about joining a young adult's Bible study group, and I want to sign up to play piano at the 10.30 service at my church. I don't want to get over-busy though - but I miss fellowship. I think I need to make more time for it. There will always be time to work.

That's all for now I think. If anyone wants to see pics of Kids Klub, it's on Facebook. If you don't have my Facebook and you're absolutely busting to see some, let me know and I'll post some here.

Signing out.

I get it!!!

2007-08-16T23:54:00.000+10:00

School is made for students.

Students are not made for the school.

Teachers and educators need to adjust their programs to students who aren't succeeding. Students shouldn't have to (and usually can't) change their learning style to fit the programs.

Good thing I learned this before I graduated!!!!

(I know, I know - they've been telling me this for the last 2 years. But it just clicked then. I'm slow, but I get there in the end.)

MAROONED! MAROONED! I'M ON A LAGOON!

2007-08-08T16:15:00.000+10:00

The only thing Dad liked better than Hey, Hey, It's Saturday, was the Best of Hey, Hey, It's Saturday.

So here are two of the best Red Faces acts, for all you uni students who take yourselves too seriously and need to laugh:

Raymond J Bartholomew, poet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlmH5lCh8vs

The Four Cups, Sarah Parry:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M68v5xEs7iU

And for all you uni students who already know how to laugh, laugh harder at these :D

Stuff

2007-08-07T16:28:00.000+10:00

Here I am, in the computer labs at uni, getting things together, or attempting to.

Girls camp for Student Life is coming up this weekend - my last girls camp ever! I'm leading 2 worship sessions and doing a sort of talk/sharing/discussion thing. So I've got one worship session mostly under control (just short a song), the other one is just a few ideas floating about, and the talk/sharing thing is underway.

Two nights ago I had 5 hours sleep, and attempted to sleep in this morning, but my body insisted on waking up and my mind has refused to focus all day. Well, I'm sure I have more control over them than that....just one of those days I guess, but God is good, and He has been encouraging me. Thanks God.

I had my very very last lecture yesterday. Now it's about 4 more assignments and 2 more pracs to go, then I'm graduating.

Of course, the question looms: "What are you going to do next year?" I am giving it thought......probably too much worry and not enough clear, sensible thinking.

Time for lunch I think ;-)

Hahaha!!

2007-07-28T22:50:00.001+10:00

So Tiph thinks she suddenly owns this blog, does she? Well, that's not surprising, considering we shared a room for about 12 years, and she thought she owned that one too. (Just kidding - it's ok for you to post, Tiffany. For now, anyway)

So I've now discovered how to link from Facebook to this blog, so I hope you're all reading it out there!!!

Yesterday I winged it, but only a little bit. John and I were trying to get to Indro via train. I've never seen anyone so excited/unnerved by a train station before!! But he was very entertaining.

Anyway, I thought Indro train station was underneath the shopping centre, but turns out its actually down the hill....so we went to Chelmer, then jumped off and came back. Not very much winging happening there - I was content to aim for Goodna and visit Hann. But I was persuaded to do otherwise.

I think that's all. Maybe I'll post about Rocklea syndrome later.

International Takeover

2007-07-26T16:37:00.000+10:00

Hi, this is Tiph, Nicola's younger, American - dwelling sister. I have the power and authority to blog on Nicola's now, very abandoned blog. I think it's silly that all you people take myspace and facebook over blogging. It's like a metaphor for our world. No one reads books, we all go to the internet. Now, no one reads blogs, we just go to our mass produced, advertisement flooded excuses for our existence and try and find fulfillment there. Or maybe not. You never really can tell.

Anyways, I'm having a lot of fun in Southern California (or SoCal if you're in the loop, which I doubt many of the non-readers here are). I am laying the foundations for a hostile Australian takeover and as soon as the wombats are imported, the plan will be well underway. I'm also taking over their culture from the inside. The number of people that are now opting for the word "rubbish" over "trash" or "garbage" thanks to my doing is astounding. The next step is making meat pies available and wide spread. Can someone get me Mrs Mac's phone number?

I'd say comment away, but since you aren't reading this, don't bother.

Over and out.

Hey hey

2007-04-26T20:04:00.000+10:00

I haven't forgotten my blog! But I have also discovered a new thing called myspace :-D

Yeah, it's been busy.

So what's news:

I'm going to Woodridge State High for prac. This school has a rep that is a bit scary, but in actual fact I don't think it's that bad. My music prac teacher seems awesome, I haven't met my drama prac teacher yet.

Connexions has happened. I didn't blog about it, but it was great. AGMF has also happened, and I forgot to blog about that too, but it was also great.

Tomorrow I have 2 assignments due. One is finished. The other is almost finished. Hooray!!

Last night I played for Anne Wedlock's 50th birthday party, in our band FJ Blues. Everyone in the band had a blues nickname, except me. But I've got one now: Agent 88. Cos a piano has 88 keys, and that's what I play. It was just going to be '88', like '99', but I thought the Agent part sounded better, cos otherwise it makes me sound like I was born in 88. So now I'm Agent 88. "I'm on a mission from God."
Hehe, maybe not quite...........but we did have fun last night, and Anne used her party as a fundraiser for Care Outreach, so I think I speak for all the band when I say we were more than happy to provide some entertainment.

I'm excited to be in a band!!! :-D I hope we can do another gig.

To Do

2007-03-06T11:59:00.000+10:00

- Print everything -EVERYTHING - for all subjects.
- Do your readings!
- KTB203: draft unit plan, gather resources for workshop on Mon
- Reply to email
- ...............................

I feel so behind!

Oh well.

What to do?

2007-02-21T16:34:00.001+10:00

Core group leader?
Core group helper?
Music team leader?
Easter camp?
Help at Nightlife?

:-s

SL leadership camp 07

2007-02-07T17:05:00.000+10:00

John - a very *interesting* shot

John again

Hannah and the adventure of the sparklers!

Lighting them sparklers.....

Got 'em!

At the lookout

"We're being good - promise!"

More of the lookout

Music in Gary Cook's car - music for the modern woman!! Yeah! More power to ya, Gary!

People in the car park - going home!

Erina and Nova, our two Indonesian friends!

Who are these mysterious strangers?

Aha.

Our room - "The Hospital"

Our egg parachute device things

Stu holding our groups. Pete - you're an ideas man.

And the other group's.

Marketing the invention

Japan - our apartment

2007-02-07T16:12:00.000+10:00

The toilet. Note the tap at the top. When you flush, clean water comes out of the tap. You rinse your hands and the rest of the water is used to re-fill the toilet. Nice water-saving device. Maybe the State Government could take it on board.

Our bathroom/laundry area

The bedroom Jess and I shared

The げんかん (genkan) - entrance to the house where you take off your shoes. (Those aren't the shoes of 3 people - more like 6 people in the house at the time plus the shoes of the missionary who lives there and all her guest slippers)

Our shower

Our kitchen/dining room

With a cupboard and microwave

Our lounge room/Wai Ling's bedroom

Japan

2007-02-02T13:54:00.000+10:00

Some pictures from Japan!

(L to R)
Jody, Liz, Pamela, Jess and Wai Ling.

(Jody is the campus leader of the university we were at - Liz and Pamela are 2 missionaries who work there and Jess and Wai Ling are a student and a missionary from Monash SL!)

Changi (Singapore) airport. Can you believe they put plants in there? It's quite big.

Haha, me and Jess with our two favourite Korean-American guys!! (Peter on the left, Paul on the right). Peter is a student at the seminary at our local church. Paul is the multimedia consultant for the same seminary. Both volunteer at the university we were at.

A usual dinner at our house - soy sauce "soup", udon noodles, bok choy and egg! (Thanks Jess!)

One of the Christian students sharing his testimony at one of our events. This was totally unplanned, but EVERYONE sat down and listened!

This is my "I'm not Asian" photo. Liz is the only other Western-looking person in this photo.

Assurance of salvation

2007-01-17T16:18:00.000+10:00

Before the creation of the universe God thought of me. He fixed his gaze on me and chose me for himself. He did not choose me because I was already in Christ of my own doing, but that I might be in Christ. He did not choose me because he saw me as a believer, but so that I might become a believer. He did not choose me because I chose him, but so that I might choose him. He did not choose me because I was holy or good but so that I might become holy and good.

Everything I am and all I hope to be is rooted in God's freely choosing me. My faith, my hope, my work are not the ground of electing grace but only its effect. And so there is no ground for boasting except in God. And in the face of fear and loss of assurance and all my own defect, I speak this word of trust: "Who shall bring any charge against the Lord's elect!" (Romans 8:33).

John Piper, "God Has Chosen Us in Him Before the Foundation of the Earth"

We're out of beta

2007-01-13T21:43:00.000+10:00

Blogger has changed. "We're out of beta", it told me. Okay. Sounds....good.

I am back in Australia!! :-) And I am in Sydney. Tomorrow Tiffany flies to the States, and I head back home for the first time in 2 months.

There are lots of stories to tell, but a picture is worth a thousand words, so let me post some pictures for you in the next few weeks.

How is your summer?

Leaving Nagoya

2006-12-20T00:25:00.000+10:00

The time has come, the walrus said
To talk of other things......

So today was my last full day in Nagoya. I am going to miss all the people I have met - it was just awesome to get to know everyone, whether it was for 5 mins or for 5 weeks.

I am really glad that God has given me this opportunity, and I am looking forward to my week in Fukuoka.

Miss you all at home! How are Christmas preparations coming along?

in Japan

2006-11-27T18:04:00.000+10:00

Hi everyone!

I am here in Japan now!

I dont have a lot of time to write to you guys. Just wanted to say thanks for all the prayers and support and emails. Keep praying, cos it is kind of lonely here. And keep emailing!!!! The more the better!

I cant post any photos yet cos I dont have a firewire. Im currently at the uni and a newfound friend of mine (who is coming to QUT next year, btw) has used her friends number to log me in.....so im not sure how ok that is.......

We have done ministry in talking to ppl on campus. I have shared the kgp once, talked to a few ppl about CE, had a few spiritual conversations - this university is fairly open I guess. This is only the 4th day of ministry on campus.

Ive also met the Campus Crusade team here, and we have had a friendship party, which God used to bring about a fair few spiritual conversations. We went into the city on Saturday, and we saw Handels Messiah in the city, which was great. We also had a Thanksgiving celebration.

Pray for me, cos I am feeling a bit down, despite all of this, and I am having some spiritual struggles. I miss home a lot too, so it is hard, cos I dont have anyone close by to call on.

Take care everyone! Miss you all!

Panic!

2006-11-14T15:35:00.000+10:00

Mum thought that I might need a visa to go to Japan. So did her friend.

This was making me a bit stressed, considering I only have 3 days until I leave the country.

Thankfully this was on the Japan Embassy website:

Temporary Visitor's Visa

Permitted activities

Holiday, visiting relatives, participating in athletic tournaments as an amateur, business trip not involving the earning of money in Japan, attending lectures or trade fairs, academic surveys, research presentations or other similar activities during a short period of stay in Japan.
As of 1 December 1998, Australians travelling with a valid Australian passport no longer need a visa if their purpose of travel to Japan is for the above activities and the proposed period of stay is no more than 90 days. The Australian passport must remain valid during the period of the stay but there is no minimum period of validity required.

Whew!

Thanks for the prayers guys - I appreciate them soooo much. I wish I could take you all there with me! :-)

Japan!

2006-11-08T08:56:00.000+10:00

I have 9 days until I go to Japan....

I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who has supported me - some of you I don't even know, but God does, and I hope He blesses your socks off!!!! Because each and every one of you have sure blessed me.

I was getting stressed about how I was going to raise the support in time....but I checked and as of today I only have $700 to raise!!! :-D I have no idea where some of this money has come from, so if you have supported me and I don't know who you are, I just want to say thank you sooooo much.

I also want to say that God is the one who has organised all this - He knows exactly what He's doing. This trip is about depending on Him.

2 Corinthians 9:12-15
This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

Lunch!

2006-10-19T21:49:00.000+10:00

Yesterday on prac I didn't eat all my lunch. I had a whole sandwich left. When I got home, I was totally stressed out and busy, running around, getting ready for my lesson today. But I didn't want to waste the sandwich, so I put my lunch bag in the fridge. I made a fresh lunch for today, though, and left it there.

After my lesson (which was okay), I was with my supervising teacher in year 12 drama. A teacher came in and said, "Is Nicola here?" and I said yes. She came over and handed me the lunch bag that I had put in my fridge the night before.

What the?!

"Did your mummy drop off your lunch for you?" teased my supervising teacher.

Oh no.

Suddenly I realised that my mum or my dad had seen that bag in the fridge and thought, "Nicola's gone to school without her lunch today.....and she was up so late. Why don't I take it in for her!"

I turned to my teacher, who was laughing.

"This isn't my lunch! I packed my lunch for today!!! This is yesterday's lunch!"

My teacher was almost in tears of laughter, and between fits, managed to point out that I was bright red.

All I have to do is say to him, "Lunch!" and he starts again. Hehehe :-) I do like to entertain.

prac

2006-10-13T21:19:00.000+10:00

Today I went to the pub to have lunch with some of the teachers from my prac school.

I feel a bit like a fish out of water. Everyone's really nice - but I'm just.........young. Naive? I feel like I don't know anything.

Plus, I just don't fit. Actually, I don't think I fit 100% anywhere - but pretty close in some places. Anyway, my supervising teacher, who insisted on shouting me a drink, was a bit taken aback that I don't really drink, and I wanted lemon lime and bitters (the drink of choice, hey Hann? ;-)

"Ah well," he said, "a few more years and you'll be drinking like the rest of us."
"Nah, I won't," I said. AWKWARD........

Isn't awkward such an awkward word?

Man alive. I gotta go get some sleep.

Pray for me guys! Pray I'm salt and light to the staffroom.

Question

2006-10-09T18:47:00.000+10:00

I heard this at VACC last night:

What do you wish you'd been told about Christianity by the older Christians when you first became a Christian?

Some responses (but feel free to expand on these, if you made them!)

- I wish they'd told me how good it was
- That being childlike is important
- That they've stuffed up and they still do
- That sometimes you'll make mistakes, or you'll be mad or disappointed with God
- That little things shouldn't get in the way of unity, of being the body of Christ

What about you? You can have as many as you like :-)

Melbourne

2006-10-03T22:11:00.000+10:00

I went to Melbourne.

It was pretty cool :-) I liked it - a beautiful place. A bit cold though.

I don't think I can go through the whole weekend, cos it would only bore you, so here are a few interesting points:

- I didn't know any of the people I spent an entire weekend with, before I went there. That includes Peter Brook, one of the dudes in Student Life national office, and co-ordinator of Summer Projects - but I guess we were "travelling buddies", since we took the same plane down and the same plane home.

- But all these new people were WONDERFUL. Apart from Peter, there was his dad, David (who was a missionary in Japan for over 25 years) - he helped with the training. There was Peter's sister Megumi (Meg for short - our mission is named after her), and her husband Simon (and these guys were also missios in Japan with OMF for 4 years). There was Wai Ling, the SL missionary going to Japan. She is sooooo cool :-D And of course the lovely Jess, who drove me around, showed me as much of Melbourne as she could in our limited time frame, and was generally a great companion :-) (She too is going to Japan)

- I met some others - Lori and Hannah, 2 stint missios at Monash Uni, who let us use their house and sleep in their beds (even though they didn't know me!) Melanie, the daughter of Meg and Simon. Steve, their friend.

- Peter, David, Simon, Meg, Steve, Wai Ling, Jess, Melanie, and I all had dinner at Simon and Meg's house, which turned out to be 2 streets away from my grandparent's place, so after dinner Jess, Wai Ling and I dropped in.

- Visited a Japanese church on Sunday morning. They prayed the pastoral prayer in Japanese. I understood one word - 'byoki', which means 'sick'. "Someone must be sick," I figured out. (woo, good deducing skills there :-p )

- Our trip to Japan is a pioneering ministry. This means that as long as everything we do is biblically sound, we can't do anything wrong, because nothing's been tried before. Our ministry will be in Seto, which is kind of an arty area of Japan. This I am looking forward to!

I think that'll do for now.

yesterday

2006-09-26T12:12:00.000+10:00

Just hanging out, just having fun
We're number one
Just hanging out, just having fun
Hey!
I'm a dude, he's a dude, she's a dude
We're all dudes
Hey! ~ Song from 'Good Burger' (see picture below)

Yesterday was a fun day :-) I woke up at 7:30ish to the sound of Janelle knocking softly on the door and saying, "It's 7:30."
On the radio I heard this song 'I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair". Silly - punk rockers were in the 80's and they had safety pins in their noses, not flowers in their hair - those were the hippies, and they were in the 60's/70's.

See? Punk........................................hippie. Very different.

Onto the train station, where Janelle, Missy and I were joined by Lisa and Trevor (and later Pete). Trevor amused himself taking photos of feet. (Janelle, if you've still got them on your phone and you email them to me, I'll post them here!) Then we went to......the blood bank.

Janelle had managed to convince us to give blood. It's not too bad, but it's not exactly painless either. Just stay calm, just stay calm. It's funny - I can watch operations on TV while eating my tea, but can't watch them stick a needle in my own arm. Anyway, the feeling of it being there is supposed to wear off after a couple of minutes, but mine took awhile :-s Just stay calm, breathe deep. Meanwhile Missy and Nelle were like old pros, and Pete looked like he was holding up well. Trev was off giving plasma in some other part of the bank. They gave us food and drink afterwards - how nice are they :-)

Lisa had to go to work, so we saw her off at the bus station. Then Pete took us up to the top of the Myer centre to play with the laptops. (We also had a go at the X-boxes/PS2's.) Then lunchtime - Missy refused to let us pay - we bought chickens and bread and mayo, and went to the botanical gardens and had a picnic. Pete took a picture of a kookaburra. Various people carried my sleeping bag. I don't think I carried it all day.

Off to uni, where Janelle and I needed to do some work. Everyone got onto MSN. Eventually Nelle did too ;-) I did for a bit, but later got off, trying to work. Eventually I gave up, and we all decided to leave. On the citycat. Pete tried to sleep on a seat. But Missy and I pushed him off. Whoops. Then he dangled my sleeping bag over the back of the boat.

We saw Stacie Orrico at 4pm. Az from Night Alive interviewed Janelle, me and Pete. He got Pete to try out his pick up line on me ("I'm a man of integrity") - but it didn't work, sorry Pete! Good try though, and I'm sure it'll work on the right girl ;-) Stacie sang well, we enjoyed it, and we hope we were on the radio (but none of us got to hear it). Then back to the top of the Myer centre and we watched the end of Monsters Inc. Hehe - they started dismantling walls around us. Janelle freaked out!! It was funny. This random person also came up and said, "I'll sit here too, make it more family-like - nah, just kidding."

We went to our train via the ice-cream shop. Then as we were walking to the train station, we saw our train pull in, so we had to run!!!! "NO STRENUOUS ACTIVITY FOR 24 HOURS!!!" I yelled as we ran, but we didn't have any choice. We missed the train in the end anyway :-(

We made plans to get to Trev's and continue our fun day. Trev picked up Lisa and picked us Cavill's plus one up. We met Pete at KG and zoomed off to Trev's, where we met Gavin, Trev's brother, ate sausages and mashed potatoes, and watched this hilarious comedy show and The 6th Day (an Arnie movie). Well, Nelle and I watched some of it, but couldn't really handle it, so we went upstairs and did assignment work/read Asterix comics. Then the movie finished, Missy spent FOREVER ;-) on the internet, Pete and Trev waved a huge screwdriver around (it was just sitting on the table) and we drew silly pictures on my uni book.

Then Pete drove us home.

What a great day! Thanks guys :-)

2006-09-23T21:37:00.000+10:00

I'm afraid I cannot update, because there is nothing I have at the moment that is worth saying.

Nothing funny, nothing profound, nothing sad, nothing beautiful.........

Actually, I did have a small thought occur to me this week. When I'm watching the news (usually Lateline, for those interested), and I'm seeing all these bombs and wars and people destroying each other, and I'm sitting there feeling frustrated and helpless because I can't change anything - there is something I can do. I can pray. It might not seem like a lot. But God is bigger than it all.

...all the nations of the world are but a drop in the bucket. They are nothing more than dust on the scales. He picks up the whole earth as though it were a grain of sand. (Isaiah 40:15b)

I suppose I can update after all.

Anonymous?

2006-09-19T23:41:00.000+10:00

These 2 dudes busted into Nightlife tonight.

"Is this the trivia night?" one asked (Janelle and I were doing a quiz about different countries that SL'ers are doing missions in).

"No, but you can stay if you want."

"Nah, I'm just looking for Alcoholics Anonymous!!!" said this guy. Then he asked, "Can I take a nametag?"

Some people just have no idea.

Catch 22

2006-09-07T20:07:00.000+10:00

On a website for a political party, they had a poll:

"Do you think news polls can accurately predict the results of this election?"

70% said no, 30% said yes.

But isn't that a catch-22? If you said, "No, polls can't predict results", then obviously this one is wrong. So the 70% who said "polls can't predict results" are wrong - and they can.

But if you said, "Yes, polls can predict results" then obviously the 70% percent who said they couldn't are right - therefore they can't.

Politics - "Let your yes be no and your no be yes." Amen, Pastor Graham.

Odds and ends

2006-09-05T22:51:00.000+10:00

Regarding the whole Steve Irwin thing, it was quite a shock, and pretty sad. However, I did hear a rather odd comment on a news program last night:

"How did you feel when you heard that Steve had died at the hands of a stingray?"

Pardon my ignorance, but I don't believe it was the hands that killed him, if you catch my drift.

Onto another topic: I found this word-picture in Proverbs that I thought was hilarious at the time:

"As a door swings back and forth on its hinges,
so the lazy person turns over in bed." (Prov 26:14, NLT)

Also,
"Interfering in someone else's argument
is as foolish as yanking a dog's ears." (Prov 26:17, NLT)

Oh, but this one was classic:
"Honouring a fool
is as foolish as tying a stone to a slingshot." (Prov 26:8, NLT)

They made me chuckle.

Blogging

2006-09-01T13:56:00.000+10:00

3 articles from a Christian online magazine known as Boundless, on the subject of blogging.

Blogging: The History and the Spirit

Blogging to Worship God

Blog Responsibly

Definitely food for thought.

2006-08-26T15:55:00.000+10:00

From 16 Myths About Atheists:

'don’t try to teach your religion in science classes by dishonestly giving it a new name and disguising it as “science”...'

Oh good, someone else finally got tired of Darwinism, did they?

Today

2006-08-23T15:25:00.000+10:00

There were 7 buses at the bus station this morning. Never seen that before.

Went surveying with Missy. Only did 2, but had a good chat to a girl who didn't like thinking about eternity, cos the whole concept was scary. Just shared something that had helped me when I get scared about thinking about it.

MUST DO MY ESSAY THIS FRIDAY. And probably Saturday as well.

Supertiph came to Nightlife last night. We were talking (loudly :-s ) on the train. Then she started carrying on about this time I was really mad with her.

"You don't need to tell the WHOLE TRAIN," I exclaimed.
"They don't know who we are!"
"By the time you've finished they will!"

We suspect that two girls sitting in a nearby seat were taping our conversations on their phone. Weird. Disturbing.

On another note, one magazine in Coles yesterday claimed that you could become famous by starting a blog. I don't think so.

Home group tonight - hooray! The fun continues.

Beware, Johnny.......

The Shadow Proves the Sunshine

2006-08-21T13:51:00.000+10:00

That is a song by Switchfoot from their newest album Nothing Is Sound. The idea behind the song is that there are bad things in the world, that we are not all good as people, but that the shadow proves the sunshine - in other words, the fact that there are bad things and we recognise them as bad means that there must be some standard of good.

I agree with this theory. I don't agree with the theory that you need to have suffering or bad things in order to appreciate good things. God didn't make the world with bad things in it to make His goodness even more apparent - He created it perfectly in the first place. You don't need the shadow to have the sun, but you do need the sun to see the shadow.

Epiphany

2006-08-15T16:24:00.000+10:00

Bi-Lo really means "Buy-Low".

2006-08-12T13:19:00.000+10:00

After the previous post, I think I'm going a little nuts.

I'm not really serious about putting a Milky Way in the offering bag (although I'm sure it would be a nice surprise for the people counting out the offering!)

Strange

2006-08-12T13:14:00.000+10:00

I owe God a Milky Way.

On Wednesday morning I was walking to the bus in order to get to uni. I wanted to catch the 9:50 in order to make it to my 10am lecture. As I was about 100m away from it, I saw that the 8:35am bus was late and it was still sitting at the stop.

I told God that if He would hold the bus for me, I'd buy Him a Milky Way. (What I thought He was going to do with it, I have no idea). Sort of a buddy system - I'll look out for You, You look out for me.

Anyway, as I began running towards the bus, I thought I could make it, but it pulled away before I got there.

I sat down at the bus shelter, out of breath, and thought, "Stuff it, I'll buy You a Milky Way anyway."

I wonder if they accept Milky Ways in the offering bag at church?

I guess there's only one way to find out.

:-)

Convicting

2006-08-10T20:07:00.000+10:00

At uni on Monday morning, our guest lecturer was talking to us about various things, and then for some reason went a bit off topic, and said something very true.

"You know when the year 11 students get together in the locker area - guys and girls. And you turn around and you see that girl, or that guy, and you go...." (at this his tongue was hanging out, indicating drooling). "And you turn to your friend and you both go (drool)."

And then he said, "Have you actually asked that person's permission? Have you asked them if they want to be a part of that moment? Or are they just a piece of meat, just an object?"

I don't think he was a Christian, but that was one of the most (if not the most) convicting, challenging and helpful thing for my Christian walk this week. I hope it's the same for you.

Drama

2006-08-08T12:13:00.000+10:00

So one person did, once again, cry in our lecture/tute yesterday. But don't worry, she was crying about the little dots that were crying at her. So she's not traumatised or anything.

We were doing absurdism.

Absurdism will take me longer than I can be bothered to spend explaining it, but let's just say: it makes sense to me now. It didn't for ages.

Um, so yesterday was good.

I need lunch now. Janelle and I have a lecture together and it was talking about anti-discriminatory practices, but my mind was on lunch, and I wrote 'FOOD' at the top of my book.

Who am I kidding. Who cares what I wrote at the top of my book?

I need coffee and food. Janelle is 2 computers away and we are TALKING ON MSN. This just proves the drastic state society (or just us, really) are in.

More important and better things later.

Oh yeah, and I'm renewing my learners (AGAIN!) today.........

Miles and Nicola's Monopoly Rules

2006-08-05T22:50:00.000+10:00

*With thanks to Parker Bros*

* Rolling a double 1 on the dice = get $100 from the bank.
* Rolling a double 6 on the dice = the ATO (Australian Tax Office) rule. Give half of all your cash to the bank!
* Shuffle all the properties and deal them out evenly to each person before you begin the game (this speeds it up - everyone starts paying rent at once). Leave 3 properties out for negotiation - to be bought at double price if you land on them.
* If you pick up a Chance or Community Chest card and it tells you to pay money, put it in the middle of the board.
* If you land on a square that tells you to pay tax, pay half of it to the middle of the board and half of it to the bank.
* If you land in jail, you get half the money from the middle of the board.
* If you land on the "Just Visiting" jail square, choose between a Chance or a Community Chest card.
*If you land on a 'Community Chest' square, pick up a 'Chance' card. If you land on a 'Chance' square, pick up a 'Community Chest' card.
* If you land on a station - a) pay the rent to the person who owns it.
b) pay a dollar for every station the person owns (today Miles owned 3, so I paid 3 dollars) and get a ride to the next railway station. (But you have to get off after that).

This makes for a very fun game. Oh yeah, and Miles asked me to copyright it, so:
Copyright 2006, Miles and Nicola.

Journey

2006-08-04T23:22:00.000+10:00

A very wise girl told me that we believe our feelings too much. So true. At the moment I feel like following Jesus is just a painful exercise. But I have to have faith in the fact that following Jesus is indeed the best choice I could possibly make.

I have a long way to go....

Change of plan

2006-08-04T23:19:00.000+10:00

2 blogs is too many. So I'll get rid of the other one eventually.

Updating

2006-08-03T13:56:00.000+10:00

I'm updating my second blog every once in awhile. It has to do with what I'm learning at uni. So feel free to offer an opinion on whatever I'm writing about - I think that's what uni is for!

Yes, take me to the post on the literacy crisis!

No thanks.

The weekend

2006-07-31T22:40:00.000+10:00

Friday night: Winging it 2 with Janelle, Missy and Pete (and Mathieu joined us for a bit).

Pete! Turn left! ;-)

Saturday morning: Slept over at Missy and Nelle's. Went to sleep at 2, got up at 10.

Saturday afternoon: Jam session.

Saturday evening: 21st birthday for a girl in my home group.

Sunday morning: Church.

Sunday: Visiting grandparents.

This is beginning to sound like Adrian Plass (I read his 'Sacred Diary' on Friday night/Saturday morning)

MONDAY: Out
TUESDAY: Out
WEDNESDAY: Out
THURSDAY: Out
FRIDAY: Out
SATURDAY: Out! Out! Out!

I really need to clean my room. :-s Like, REALLY BADLY. Soon.

Am I on at Nightlife tomorrow night?

I tried cooking a meal tonight. Looked like I was storing up for a six month siege! Oh well.

Gotta go to bed now before I collapse from exhaustion. Goodnight!

P.S. PLEEEEEEEEASE comment. I mean it. If you have not commented in the last 3 weeks, your number is UP! Do it now! :-) *If those of you who have commented in the last 3 weeks would kindly refrain until others are up to date with their commentship - on the other hand, perhaps I won't have any comments if I wait for them :-p * Oh for goodness sake - just everyone comment! There is a 5 million word limit, though. Hehe.

Blog number two

2006-07-28T16:56:00.000+10:00

So.....

I have a second blog. I originally created it to put things on that I didn't want people to read.
"But if you don't want people to read it," I can hear you thinking, "then why did you create it?"
Well, I guess the truth is, I wanted people to "accidentally" read it and feel sorry for me.

Sometimes, I do silly things.

That was one of them.

So now I've taken the unreadable things off, put some readable things on and it's open for all to see. Except it's not as 'pink' - maybe the second blog is my 'emo' blog - although I cannot stand the term. Emo. It's like an emu gone wrong. Plus I'd like this blog to be full of both happy and sad/emo things - integrated, not "here is my dark side, here is my good side".

Maybe there'll be a special purpose for the second blog soon enough - it's got a lot of song lyrics on it. Maybe it's a "music/drama" blog. I don't know yet. If you've got any ideas, please, let fly in the comments. (That's a rather indelicate phrase, but you know what I mean.)

Congratulations!

2006-07-26T08:55:00.000+10:00

This is to certify that Nathan (most of you don't know him - he's a guy from my church) completed his I.T. course on Tuesday and will now be graduating to.......well..........only he knows, I guess!

Well done Nathan (if you're reading this).

And if you wanted to correct my "Sweet Revenge" terminology, there is a link to that post here.

:-D

2006-07-22T11:04:00.000+10:00

My blog looks funny, and I don't know why. When I view it, it's not showing any pictures. I think there's something wrong with Firefox.

I had all these great things I wanted to say, but now that I'm writing this, I can't think of them! Oh well.........

A quote from John Stott:

What form might the cost [of reconciliation] take?....If we ourselves are to blame, there will be the humiliation of apologising, the deeper humiliation of making restitution where possible, and the deepest humiliation of all, which is to confess that the wounds we have caused will take time to heal and cannot light-heartedly be forgotten...p.296, "The Cross of Christ"

He was talking about how it cost Jesus so much to reconcile us to God, and that reconciliation between Christians is costly.

I read Psalm 34 yesterday. It's one of my favourites :-D

Complete tangent: Just before (or during?) MYC I was reading a book (The Fight by John White, if you're interested - I recommend it) and it talked about how life as a Christian was about praying the prayer 'Not my will, but Yours be done'. Not, said the author, that life was to be a series of Gethsemanes (which is where this prayer was prayed - by Jesus), but it was to be a continual prayer. So I started praying it. For a long time I've been scared about what God will do if I surrender. I'm not entirely over it. But I keep praying this prayer. And I've noticed a couple of small changes:
I realised that God loves me and what He asks me to do is out of His love for me.
It makes it easier to choose God's way over mine.
Sometimes I can tell the difference between when God really wants something and when I'm just imagining things. (But only sometimes!)

That's it. It's still a struggle. I'm not over my fear of "what God wants" or "God's will". But I think it's getting better. Hope that was helpful for someone.

My phone is playing up. I want to get a new one. But I also feel like that would be a bit materialistic.......I probably only need a new phone battery to make it work better - that's like tens of dollars as opposed to hundreds of dollars. And I pride myself on making things last until they wear out. I think I'll get a new phone battery. It's kind of a novelty to have the oldest phone around.

I keep trying to write songs for other people, but it just doesn't work as well as writing songs for myself. Mind you, if I only write for myself, then I have to wait for ages until I get a good idea. There's always material if I write for other people, but those ones don't seem as good.....ah well, more work.

Btw, if anyone wants to take over sport in the park on Friday afternoons, let me know, cos I am unfortunately not available to do it anymore.

Have a good weekend!

The definition of "blessed"

2006-07-20T13:02:00.000+10:00

A feeling and/or perspective.

Something good that has been done or given to you, especially when you
did not deserve it.

Self realisation of the good things in life.

The feeling of joyfulness despite/regardless of circumstances.

Those were definitions that we offered at home group last night when asked to come up with a definition of 'blessed'. I'm sure it's by no means exhaustive - I would probably add to that definition that blessed is a state you are in, whether or not you realise it. But it could include realising good things in life too.

The Beatitudes ("declaration of blessedness") were what we studied.

Blessed are the poor in spirit - those who realise they are spiritually bankrupt, owe a massive spiritual debt and realise they cannot pay - for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Realising that I have no resources with which to deal with sin apparently makes me blessed - because only then am I one step closer to understanding that Jesus has done it for me, and accepting that fact.

Blessed are those who mourn - over their sin - for they will be comforted.

There's a line between mourning for our sin and feeling utter condemnation. Mourning leads to comfort - the realisation that I have been forgiven. Condemnation doesn't.

Anyway, that's just two that really stood out for me.

Windows Live Messenger

2006-07-19T14:42:00.000+10:00

Even if the name didn't contain the word 'Windows', I'm sure I'd be able to figure out that it was created by Windows due to the sheer dodginess of the program.

Ok, so perhaps that's an exaggeration. What I'm saying is that I can't figure out how to use it. Why are only 2 or 3 of my MSN contacts showing up? Can someone help me? If I'm using this thing at uni, I want to know what to do. Thanks.

Saturday

2006-07-15T15:22:00.000+10:00

I'm working.

On a SATURDAY.

But it's not too bad, because I'm getting things done.

Yesterday I had a three hour meeting with our new accountant (who also went to QUT - yeah!) He let me print out a bank statement from his computer - which was located on a desk smaller than mine, IN A CUBICLE!!!!! Images of Dilbert flooded my mind as I blurted out, "You really DO work in cubicles!" It was a real eye-opener. I think he might have laughed.

So let me add "accountant's office" to the places I have been to work: lawyer's firm, engineering office, high school and now, Level 5 of the National Bank house on the corner of Adelaide and Creek St.

MYC - how could I forget to post about it :-) I just thought everyone else was doing such a good job reporting on it - not to mention the PICTURES (of which I have none) - that I didn't really need to say anything about it. But I will make mention of a few noteworthy events, which did not occur in conjunction with George the monkey (unlike most other events at MYC :-p) - although everybody really does love George (myself included, perhaps Tim Muller excluded).

DAY 1: Before I got there, I was given a driving lesson. Thanks must go to Trev for his clear instruction, his patience and his calmness.
Then after we got there, it was time for registration. I said g'day to Tim and possibly contracted his cold - that night when I went to bed my throat was scratchy and my nose was starting to run.

DAY 2 - This might have been full-blown cold day. Not sure. Anyway, at some point during the week a few of us went to the chemist in order to stock up on Codral, vitamin C, tissues and, of course, the all-curing chemist jelly beans. (Note: If you eat half a packet within an hour, you will almost fall asleep during your next training session).

OTHER SIGNIFICANT MOMENTS:
Chatting with friends/missionaries and sorting some things out - questions answered, fears dealt with, opinions voiced, disappointment expressed, and afterwards I think we all felt a bit better. The amount of times someone said, "Can we go to the beach so we can talk?" was probably a record. But it was good.

Trev's car. What more needs to be said?

Holding Elijah (Jess and Kye's baby). I forgot how heavy babies can be - or maybe I'm just out of practice and was holding him wrong. It's been 11 years since my brother was a baby!

Being smart enough to bring a torch to NOT get scared by Missy hiding in the bushes on the walk up to the beach.

Talking with these randoms on the beach about Christianity/Jesus/God/Bible on the last night!!!! It was sooooo good! Relational evangelism? More of that, please!

Outreach - listening to a man who thought that the sooner life was over, the better - he needs hope. Pray for him.

Noticing Pete falling asleep, but forgetting about it when I was talking (is that why everyone was laughing when I was talking?)

Site A. I definitely prefer it to Site B. Except maybe the beds......too much SAND. Too much LIGHT. Too much NOISE. But I still like it more.

Going to the Ettamogah Pub on the way home - it's becoming a tradition........who will carry it on once us fogies in the old crowd are gone?

I didn't lose my voice this camp! Hooray :-)

Now I can go and get ready to paint the town red.....I'm not spending Saturday NIGHT behind the computer!

P.S. A cockroach crawled on me today. Ew.

"Give it to Mogg!"

2006-07-06T08:15:00.000+10:00

That was the cry that went up last night as we were watching the State of Origin.

The other cry that went up was, "I'm blind, I'm deaf, I wanna be a ref!"

Now I am not a sport fan. I particularly don't like football. This, in fact, was the first State of Origin game I've ever watched in full. However, Roy and H.G.'s commentary made it palatable ;-) And we had our own going that also made it fun.

The refs, as I said, were at times blind and deaf. I have been told that a 'knock on' occurs when the football bounces off/out of a players hands - not stomach - and rolls forward. However, when the ball was on the ground and a QLD player dove on top of it and it rolled forward, there was "No Try" because it was deemed a knock on.

However, when the ball rolled through a NSW player's arms, along his torso and off his right leg and rolled forward, that was not deemed a knock on and a try was scored. A little bit unfair, wouldn't you think?

Another highlight of the game was watching NSW plant the ball on the ground a few metres away from the line and jumping around, hugging each other as though they'd scored.

We thought Tate (and I have no idea who these guys are, I just saw them last night) was hopeless for most of the game - every time he got the ball, he fell over! But he redeemed himself with his big sprint to the try line. (Is that what it's called?) Meanwhile Mogg was, in Aaron's expert opinion (Aaron "Wolverine", not Aaron S), "the only Queenslander who wants to win!"

And just how many scrums can you put into one match? "10 minutes since we had a scrum? Well, maybe we should have another one!" That's what footy fans pay to see - a bunch of blokes standing around having a chat before attempting to mash each other into one big unit. How's your form, Queensland - two minutes left on the clock, and the ref decides there needs to be another scrum! So Qld takes its time, casually sauntering up to the scrum and having tea and bikkies while the NSW team have already assumed the position. Nice tactic, guys.

Well, overall, a few dodgy decisions by the refs - but a very exciting match, and I think it's about time Queensland won.

Psycho Jelly Babies!

2006-07-03T12:50:00.000+10:00

THE OPERATION

Siamese twins are born!

The operation

The anxious family

The crazy surgeon!

Hooray! It was a success!

Oh no!

We've had a bit of an accident!

Ooh.......not good.

Note the rather flattened one on the left.

RANDOM BABIES

Burnt baby

Drowning babies

Sick baby

Strangled baby

Drat that anaconda!

Homeless baby

THE STORY OF THE PYRO AND THE HOMELESS BABY

Pyro baby

Meets homeless baby on his property

"Get off my property!"

"Hehe."

Dead baby.

Psycho jelly baby.

CANOEING

Canoeing

In the toilet bowl

Oops, we got too wet and had to be thrown out...

MEDDLE NOT IN THE AFFAIRS OF DRAGONS......

For thou art crunchy......

........and will taste good with tomato sauce.

Wolverine?! Is that you?!

Acknowledgements:
Shelly for use of her camera
Aaron, Sally, Shelly and I for appearing in and taking the photos
Jelly babies for subjecting themselves to torture
Shelly for the photos

Sweet Revenge

2006-07-01T20:18:00.000+10:00

(with thanks to Nathan and Aaron for teaching me the game and giving it a name)

This is a game for people who are watching a movie they don't like. The aim is to score as many points as possible. Points are scored in the following way:

The person who is having their turn selects their ammunition (be it an anaconda - i.e. jelly snake - or a different type of lolly). They select a shot (eg. the hand of the person sitting in front of them) and give a call ("And the call will be - 'Stop throwing lollies!') If the lolly hits the target, 1 point is scored. If the lolly hits the target and the call is correct (i.e. the target responds in they way the person throwing the lolly thought they would), 1 point is scored. Extra points can be scored for ricochets or "lick-and-sticks"(i.e. the lolly sticks to the object).

At the end of the night the score was:
Nathan - 15 points
Aaron - 11ish points
Me - 9 points (I started on 7, because I came in late)
Warwick - 7 points (he also started on 7 because he came in late)

Kids Klub after parties are fun. They're even more fun with "Sweet Revenge".

Turkey Day

2006-06-29T16:55:00.000+10:00

There were a lot of "turkeys" on the road this afternoon.

1 - Motorcyclist decided to cut in front of my friend Aaron (not Aaron Sloper, another Aaron)
2 - A 4WD pushed in in the merge lane - just cos it could
3 - A maxi taxi cut in front of us
4 - A guy in a car wearing a stupid cap decided to change lanes while we were in the one next to him - he saw us just in time. (He later cut in front of a truck)

DRIVE PROPERLY OR GET OFF THE ROAD!

Kids Klub

2006-06-28T18:07:00.000+10:00

It's Day 3, and we are past the halfway mark.

Apologies Steve for the "jungle" set throwing you on Sunday night. Did you like the 'zebrama' (cross between a zebra and a llama)? "Here's a llama, there's a llama, twice a llama, caralarma, llama, llama llama! - I was once a treehouse, I lived in a cake, but I never saw the way the orange slayed the rake....." hmmm.....

Highlights: Just about everything. "It was good".

Lowlights: the injuries that have been sustained by some of the grade 5's (that is the grade I am helping with). Sorry to the girl who dislocated her thumb at games and we didn't notice. (Mind you, she did go to the Kids Klub nurse very quickly). General applause goes to the "Master Pastor" for being in the kitchen when he was due onstage.

Good work drama team - they loved you guys today.

More later.

2003

2006-06-24T20:23:00.000+10:00

I was cleaning up my year 12 Japanese folder last night, and found two things I thought I'd put on here.

The first was a short script (written in Japanese) set in a restaurant. This is a rough translation:

WAITER: Good evening.
CUSTOMER: Good evening.
WAITER: Please wait just a moment.
CUSTOMER: Why?
WAITER: All the tables are full. I'm not exactly sure what that line says!
CUSTOMER: Oh, that's fine.
(Some people get up and leave. The waiter clears the plates and returns to the customer)
WAITER: Thank you for waiting. Please come to a table.
(The waiter and customer go to a table. Customer sits down. Waiter gives her a menu. The customer looks at the menu).
WAITER: What would you like?
CUSTOMER: I don't know. What do you have in your sushi?
WAITER: Sushi is made of fish and rice and seaweed.
CUSTOMER: That's interesting, isn't it. Sushi please.
(Waiter goes to the kitchen)
WAITER: Excuse me.
CHEF: (yelling) WHAT?!
WAITER: Um...sushi please.
CHEF: How many?!?!
WAITER: I don't know. Excuse me. (He goes to the table)
CHEF: Hurry, hurry! (quietly) Idiot.
WAITER: (to customer) Excuse me. How many sushi?
CUSTOMER: Um...three sushi please.
WAITER: Three sushi?
CUSTOMER: Yes please.
WAITER: Excuse me. (He goes to the kitchen) Three sushi please.
CHEF: Yes! (He gives three sushi to the waiter on a plate) Then it says something I can't translate cos I don't remember that much Japanese anymore!
WAITER: Your cooking is very good.
CHEF: Go! Hurry up, hurry up!
WAITER: Yes! (He grabs the plate, starts to run and falls over)
CHEF: (screaming) IDIOT!!!!
(the waiter picks up the sushi, puts them on the plate and runs out to the customer)
WAITER: (to customer) Here is the sushi.
CUSTOMER: Thank you very much! (She takes a bite) This is superb, isn't it! This is the most delicious sushi I have ever eaten!

THE END.

The second was something I wrote when I was stressed and tired (in March!) after our music teacher was picking on us for not getting some homework done, or something equally ridiculous.

THE TEACHER FILES

The teacher peered over his glasses at the students.
"This school trains you to be lazy," he snarled. "In terms of homework you are all SLACK. You've had HEAPS of time to do it."
This was the sentiment that had been echoed by at least six other teachers that Monday morning. And it was only second period.
Well, she wasn't going to take it.

"WHY ARE TEACHERS ALWAYS SAYING 'YOU'VE HAD HEAPS OF TIME TO DO YOUR HOMEWORK'?" she yelled. "I DON'T RECALL HAVING HEAPS OF TIME TO DO ANYTHING SINCE JANUARY! YOU ONLY HAVE HEAPS OF TIME IF YOU DO ONE SUBJECT!"
"Hear, hear!" said another student.
She continued, "AND I MEAN, OBVIOUSLY I'M SLACK AND LAZY WHEN IT COMES TO HOMEWORK! I ONLY STAYED UP UNTIL ELEVEN O'CLOCK FOR THE PAST FEW WEEKS SO I COULD STUDY FOR OR FINISH MY TEN ASSESSMENTS! THAT IS SO SLACK! I HAVEN'T HAD A WEEKEND SPARE SINCE SUMMER HOLIDAYS BECAUSE I HAVE SO MUCH TO DO, BUT OBVIOUSLY THAT JUST PROVES HOW UTTERLY INDIFFERENT I AM TO SCHOOLWORK! I'M SO SLACK, I'M GOING TO GIVE UP SLEEPING, BECAUSE IT'S JUST A WASTE OF TIME!"
She sat down, glowering.

*Hmm....perhaps I should have taken it a bit easier in year 12.........*

MEMO.

2006-06-21T22:09:00.000+10:00

RE: ALL GIRLS INTERESTED IN AARON.

Attention, all women interested in Aaron.

In order to have a chance with him, you may be required to do some drooling. Preferably about his attractiveness, and while he is in your presence. Preferably not on him.

That is all.

Sciencentre

2006-06-19T21:48:00.000+10:00

I went there with my brother today, and we had a great time. We lifted an 80kg fridge. We made tidal waves, built a curving bridge and had it fall on us. We sat at chairs and a table 1.75 times bigger than an average adult. My brother's heart rate is 117 - no wonder he is so skinny. Mine's like 90-something. We learned that the three primary light colours are red, blue and GREEN, not yellow - but if you put them altogether you get white, and the secondary colours are magenta, cyan and yellow.

We had fun :-)

Tai Chi

2006-06-19T21:40:00.000+10:00

A cockroach in my lounge room is doing tai chi. It is unwell. It lifts one leg, and then the other. It tries not to fall off the almost vertical piece of paper it is clinging to.

I would kill it, but 1) I hate squishing them and 2) Dad said he would when he got home. He won't be home for half an hour, but I will hold him to it!
Meanwhile, the unopened packet of barbecue chips underneath the piece of paper are inaccessible.

I'm reading 'The Cross of Christ' by John Stott. It's the first really scholarly, well exegeted piece of theology I've read. I plan to read more. And what I love is that it's so thick - it's not a book I can read in 2 days. It's going to take me a week or more.

The cockroach is still watching me.

Joseph's Song part 2

2006-06-14T23:27:00.000+10:00

After posting Joseph's Song, I've been doing some reading and some thinking.

We never read in Joseph's story that he complained about his circumstances. We don't hear him yelling or accusing God of lying to him. We don't hear about him getting bitter. Maybe he did, but we never read about it. Instead we read about how he kept trusting God and kept being faithful to him. At the end of the story, Joseph is not bitter or angry - he says to his brothers that what they meant for harm, God meant for good. He didn't allow his circumstances to mess up his view of God.

Well, I'm afraid that I let my circumstances mess up my view of God. If I believe God is asking me to do something and it all goes wrong, then I have been known to ask God, "You don't lie, but were you lying to me? Why did this happen?" And I've been known to get bitter and angry.

Circumstances don't have to dictate my trust in God. God is good, His plans for me are good - it's hard to see that when things are going bad. And I'm so glad that we have the cross to look to as ultimate proof of God's goodness and love towards us. Joseph didn't have that, but he still trusted God.

I hope that next time things go wrong, I won't listen to the voice of Satan that says to me, "See how much your God loves you! If He really loved you, He wouldn't let this happen." I hope that I look at the cross and remember that there is no greater love than this: a man laying down his life for his friends.

Joseph's Song

2006-06-14T03:48:00.000+10:00

This was originally a poem, and originally written for someone else. But I had this chord progression that I happened upon last year - it's a bit haunting - and I thought they went together well, so we'll see how it goes. (Btw, it's loosely based on the story of Joseph in Genesis)

I had a dream once
Visions of great things
Plans -
Exciting, fulfilling
Beyond my wildest hopes

Bigger than all my desires
Bigger than all of me
God's plan for my life
So real, so true
I could almost reach out
And touch it

But it has not worked out
I am a slave, not a king
I've been imprisoned, not set free
And I am not fulfilled

My wildest hopes are dying
Was my dream wrong?
God, what are You doing?
I thought this was Your plan...

Did You lie to me?
My heart is broken
My dreams are dying
All I have is gone
I am dying of disappointment
God they say You never fail

But have You failed me?
They say You never lie
But have You lied to me?

God don't let me down
Please come through for me
Because I love You
And want to trust You again

Work

2006-06-13T11:42:00.000+10:00

Today at work, one of our employees was chasing some money from a company called the QLD Group (not the Queensland Group, the Q.L.D - Queensland Land Development - Group).

He didn't know the number, so he rang the operator and asked for them to connect him.

"Can you put me through to the Q.L.D Group please?"
"I'm sorry, I didn't get that."
"I want to talk to the Q.L.D Group."
Then the operator said, "I'm sorry, I didn't get that, can you spell it for me?"

!

One Week

2006-06-10T17:55:00.000+10:00

It's been
One week since you looked at me....

Sorry, blog.

Well, not strictly one week. But I know how you feel.

Due to popular demand.....

2006-06-10T17:49:00.000+10:00

Not really popular demand. I was teasing Pete for his lack of update, before he so graciously pointed out that my blog had been un-updated for longer than his. So I felt a bit silly and made an excuse about how nothing exciting has been happening to me lately.

But now I'm going to tell you what has been happening.

MONDAY: Writing assignment
TUESDAY: Work, Pancake manor and songwriting. Starting a cold?
WEDNESDAY: Writing assignment. Received email telling me we all had a week's extension on said assignment. Songwriting. Studying for exam. Home group. Not really a cold, just a scratchy throat.
THURSDAY: Studying. Songwriting. Coughing.
FRIDAY: Studying. Songwriting. More coughing. Couldn't sleep to 1:30am due to coughing.
SATURDAY: Exam at 8:30am. Talking to friends. Worn out by friends. Coughing. Chocolate purchasing. Medicine taking. Blog updating.

Maybe I'll post some song lyrics. Except I don't like some of them. And the music is like.....blah....but you don't have to hear that. Well, some of it is blah. I'll just call it a work in progress.

The Value of a Smile

2006-06-05T14:34:00.000+10:00

What is the value of a smile?

About 70 cents.

On Friday night I was having dinner with my family (including my grandparents, as it was their 50th wedding anniversary). Dad asked me to go and buy drinks at the bar for my sister, my mum and myself.

I went to the bar and ordered 2 LLB's and a Sprite. All of which cost me $5.90.
Sitting back down, I read the menu. Soft drinks were priced at $2.20 each.
"Dad," I said, "I bought three soft drinks at $2.20 - that's at least $6.60, if not more, since I don't know what LLB's cost. But I got it all for $5.90!"
"You must have smiled nicely at the guy at the bar - well done," said Dad.

I thought about that for a second.

"That's a saving of 70 cents. Is that all my smile is worth? I'm highly insulted!"

So that is the value of a smile. Maybe we should put GST on it as well.

RIGHT!

2006-06-01T19:57:00.000+10:00

That's my teacher voice.

Prac finishes tomorrow and I will be sad :-( I might volunteer to go back there sometime to help out. I feel lucky - I've had the opportunity to deal with behavioural issues that prac students in Brisbane haven't.

If you wanna cry
I'll give you something to cry about
If you wanna whinge
I'll give you something to whinge about
If you wanna yell
I'll give you something to yell about
If you wanna mope
It's your choice.

Those are some lyrics to an 'angry' song I'm writing. But I'm thinking it might not turn out so angry - it might just be a song about responsibility.

One day I'll pull my teacher voice on you, and you'll go "Settle down!" and then I'll send you to the RTC. Or you'll go, "whoa" and then, "Sorry miss."

;-)

Things I've loved about prac:
I have a lot more confidence. In confronting people. I never used to be able to. I have to confront students ALL THE TIME now. I think I'm better at acting annoyed, or expressing it when I really am annoyed. This may be both positive and negative.

The friendly teachers in my staffroom. They are AWESOME.

Not feeling judged by my appearance?? Weird hey. But I go to uni and there's girls who are like size 2 wearing these short, low-cut, tiny clothes........and I'm like "Aren't you cold?" :-p And I feel like they're thinking, "So do you regularly shop at St Vinnies or what?" and "Why don't you take up smoking and lose some weight?" and then I just feel insecure............teachers aren't like that. Not these ones, anyway.

Things I'm a little concerned about:
My attitude. I'm a bit more pushy. I'm a bit more ready for a fight. I'm a bit more cocky. And if you really want to, I'll probably take you on. I won't get personal.........but it's not going to be fun. So I've gotta watch that. It could be positive if I use it to speak up for what needs to be said - not for my own selfish purposes. But being human I'll probably - ok, will definitely - fail. But I won't set out to be selfish, promise.

Marking

2006-05-26T20:28:00.000+10:00

Apparently report cards are being changed so that everyone from grade 1 upwards is getting graded on an A to E scale, and the report cards are going to be written in 'plain English'.

I suggest we make it EXTREMELY plain English - instead of a system of marking from A, B, C, D and E, it should go:

A = Excellent
B= Good
C = Okay
D = Bad
E = Crap

I don't think anyone will have a problem understanding that, do you? :-p

Actually to be honest I think it's silly to grade everyone from year 1 upwards on an A to E scale. What about the kids who do their best but aren't necessarily cut out for school - branded a 'C' student from 6 years of age. I think that's disgusting. Wanting a clearer report card system is fine, branding children is not.

Blue Like Jazz quotes

2006-05-24T21:47:00.000+10:00

"I was guilty of using love like money, withholding it to get somebody to be who I wanted them to be.....
I repented. I told God I was sorry. I replaced economic metaphor , in my mind, with something different, a free gift metaphor or a magnet metaphor. That is, instead of withholding love to change somebody, I poured it on lavishly. I hoped that love would work like a magnet, pulling people away from the mire and toward healing. I knew this was the way God loved me. God had never withheld love to teach me a lesson." p219, 220.

Something worth applying. The author talks about this sort of thinking freeing him up to love unconditionally - people don't HAVE to be good before we give love. They can be bad, and we are free to love them and be interested in them as though they are the most important person in the world - because to God they are. And hopefully our love will have a good effect on them.

"I was in love once. I think love is a bit of heaven......When I was in love there was somebody in the world who was more important than me, and that, given all that happened at the fall of man, is a miracle, like something God forgot to curse." p151.

You know, I never thought of it like that.

Well...

2006-05-24T21:38:00.000+10:00

Well, I thought that last post would have generated a fair bit of discussion, being so 'deep', but I guess not, eh? Then again, the blogging community seems to have gone walkabout. Gone are the days when we used to update daily (okay, when I used to update daily.....) And that's not a bad thing at all. It just means I have to learn to exercise patience - unlike Gloria, who has to learn to exercise patients - sorry, but it's been a long day.

There are so many stories I think highlights and lowlights are in order.

HIGHLIGHTS:
One of the teachers in my staffroom wants to work at Griffith uni next semester, lecturing. It looked like she wouldn't be able to, as the school couldn't find a replacement for her. I went home and prayed she would be able to go. The next day she walked in and said, "They found a replacement! I can go!"

LOWLIGHT:
I haven't told her yet that I prayed.

HIGHLIGHT:
But I wrote a note and will *hopefully* deliver tomorrow if I feel it's appropriate to do so.

LOWLIGHT:
She might think I'm weird and harrassing her.

HIGHLIGHT:
But the note sounds really normal and matter-of-fact, so hopefully she won't.

LOWLIGHT:
The kids are feral sometimes. I mean that in the true sense of the word - spitting, swearing etc.
LOWLIGHT AGAIN:
But if you see some of their family backgrounds, you understand why.
WEIRD LIGHT:
One of my friends on prac at a primary school had a dad say to her, 'I don't know why my son f****** swears.' (Yes, I believe he pronounced all the stars :-p )
HIGHLIGHTS:
The teachers in the staffroom are beautiful people and I will miss them all.
I love getting ready to do lessons - I like teaching.

I'm exhausted now and need to go to bed. But I will post a few great quotes from Blue Like Jazz too.

"Blue Like Jazz"

2006-05-20T17:02:00.000+10:00

That's the title of a book I've read by Donald Miller - "Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious thoughts on Christian Spirituality." It's a good read.

"I used to get really ticked about preachers who talked too much about grace, because they tempted me to not be disciplined. I figured what people needed was a kick in the butt, and if I failed at godliness it was because those around me weren't trying hard enough. I believed if word got out about grace, the whole church was going to turn into a brothel. I was a real jerk, I think." p. 79

The point of the chapter was to illustrate that acceptance of God's grace is fuel for obedience, not disobedience. And I think I agree......up to a point......maybe? In this chapter, the author said he loved to give charity, but didn't want to take it. I am like that. I don't like people doing things for me - it makes me feel slack, or it makes me feel like they think I can't do it.

So this idea: accepting God's grace and love will motivate us to obey Him. Outward discipline might curb some external behaviours, but it won't change us. The floor is open for comments. I, for one, certainly hope that grace and love are motivation for obedience and not disobedience, and I would like to be in that place.

Prac and pith helmets

2006-05-13T09:09:00.000+10:00

Prac highlights:

Having kids listen to me when I ask them to do stuff! (Trust me, it's an accomplishment)
Outsmarting a kid who thought he'd make me go to pieces when he stole the lesson plan
Friendly teachers
Opportunities to observe senior drama and music while doing my assessment with junior drama classes

Lowlights:
Mostly related to behaviour management issues

And now I bet you're wondering about the pith helmet.
For Kids Klub at church this year (has it come around again?!) it's a jungle theme.
The other night my sister was talking about safari suits. She said, "I want a pith helmet." (For those of you who don't know, they're those weird hats you wear with the safari suit).
I turned to her in shock. "You watch your language!" I said.

:-p

So now the pith helmet is the running joke. We're planning an ad for Kids Klub at church. Tiph is planning to be a character with a lisp - "Hello everyone, I jutht can't wait for Kidth Klub thith year, we're going to the jungle, and I'm going to wear my thafari thuit and my pith helmet."
Alternatively, she would come on wearing one and I would grab it off her head.
"Are you taking the pith?"

But we thought that might not go down too well ;-)

Heaven and hell

2006-05-07T16:32:00.000+10:00

I was reading OMF's website (http://www.au.omf.org) and there was this article and it was talking about how if people don't respond to the gospel, then they are going to hell.

And if you're a Christian you already know that, or maybe we all secretly hope that there is some way that other people can hear about it and respond to it........anyway, it kind of hit me that we need to evangelise, because people's eternal lives really are at stake.

Let me pause for a second - if you're reading this thinking, "How arrogant/narrow-minded can you get?!" - imagine that you were someone who lived in a country where there was no such thing as a church, where Christianity was non-existent, where you never got to hear a thing about it. And then imagine that it really was true that if you didn't accept that Jesus Christ lived, died and was resurrected for your sin - that you would go to hell. Wouldn't you be mad that I knew and I didn't tell you?

Why should people have to go to hell because I didn't tell them?

Less complacency and more action! If anyone reading this blog has a question about Christianity and what it means, just chuck a comment in and we can email.

Money

2006-05-05T23:40:00.000+10:00

Someone told me tonight that God wanted Christians to be rich, so that we could give more away.

And I said I didn't agree. Which was quite blunt, for me. But I didn't really see the point of an argument.

But now I'm on my blog where I might be listened to ;-) And so I want to say that, no, God doesn't want to make Christians rich to give more away. To God, it's not about the amount. Remember the rich people at the temple throwing stacks of money into the treasury? And then this widow came along and put in less than 2 cents - it might have been less than one cent - so basically nothing - and Jesus said she'd put in more than the rest of them, because they gave out of their abundance, but she gave all that she had.

And I agree - no matter how much or how little you have, giving 100% is still giving away everything.

Comments?

Highlights and lowlights

2006-05-05T23:12:00.000+10:00

HIGHLIGHTS:

Went to my prac school and all the teachers are really nice.
Last week went and saw a play at Harvest Rain, which was fantastic.
I get to do more shopping for prac.
Got to see Steven Curtis Chapman last night.
Got to hang out with my friends this week.
Having pretty good devotions/Quiet Times/sorry, God Times, Tiffany ;-) this week.

LOWLIGHTS:

Went to my prac school and the kids are....well, I guess they're kids. Not that interested in school, sneaking off to sick bay to get out of class, a game of brandy gone wrong.
Not sleeping enough.
Getting cranky and irritable at friends for no good reason.
Things aren't going so well for some of them.
My grandpa is sick. (Please pray for him)

Apologies

2006-04-30T23:17:00.003+10:00

So if you were at maccas tonight, and I said something mean to you, or did something mean to you (i.e. slap you on the face or wake you up by clapping right next to your ear), then I'm sorry. I was just getting too silly.

2006-04-24T10:16:00.000+10:00

I'm off to Loganlea State High School for my drama prac.

Not a word, Aaron, not a word.

Falling Out

2006-04-22T12:35:00.000+10:00

Face down
This carpet tastes like coffee grounds
Ground into my
Face now
And every angle's covered
With just another
Band-aid. ~Falling Out, Relient K

Yesterday I stacked it.

I was running towards the bus stop, thinking my bus was there. It had started raining completely unexpectedly. The tiles were slippery. I was wearing my rubber thongs.

All the seats were full of people waiting for buses as I slipped, started falling backwards, steadied myself, and fell forwards at the feet of two older ladies.

I got up (to cries of "Are you alright?") to discover it wasn't my bus after all.
So I sat down on the ground, hiding behind these ladies.

When my bus did come, this old dude asked me if I was alright, to which I grinned and said, "Yes, just did a big stack, that's all!"
He said, "Well you were very graceful."
"Really?! I didn't know"
"Well, you don't have to believe it if you don't want, it was just a compliment."
What? If it wasn't true, why give it? I thought. But, he was just trying to be nice, so I thanked him.

Then I got on the bus to go on my way to a clowning workshop ;-) Good thing I'd had some training.

AGMF photos 2

2006-04-20T14:57:00.000+10:00

photos 1 - for Aaron's convenience ;-)

2006-04-18T20:06:00.000+10:00

We're all good friends here at AGMF.... hey hann! you look awesome! :-)

like i said, all good friends.........

heh heh heh :-)

Um....bad hair day. and Gloria's tiger impression.

Her name is G! L! O! R! I! G-L-O-R-I-A - Gloria! (and me)

In the moshpit

At the bushdance.

Do the funky chicken......or something.

AGMF

2006-04-17T18:36:00.000+10:00

AGMF was really good.
Photos coming.

Things that happened:

Minimal sleep. (My tent was right near the talking area. Whoops!) I busted some people a few times for talking while I was trying to sleep :-s Actually, probably everyone saw a 'grumpy Nicola' at some point this weekend. Hope I wasn't too grumpy, and sorry if I was guys!

Music :-) Bands we saw: Sons of Korah, Scat, Mike Frost and the Icemen, Compliments of Gus, Soulframe, Parachute Band, Newsboys, Rebecca St James, Sounds Like Chicken, Falling Short, plus some people in the YWAM Chai Circle (love that place, and love the chai tea - it's my annual AGMF treat)

Absolutely amazing worship/Bible teaching. Felt like lots of things people were talking about were written or said just for me :-)

"Bust a move" - Lisa, Trev and I went to aerobics one morning. Hann and I did a hip hop workshop. Then I busted my knee and had to sit out. The next night I hurt the other knee playing soccer. Luckily Pete brought Tiger Balm and it was all ok.

Touring Toowoomba: Pete took us on some guided tours of good ol' Woomba. One night we took 2 cars, and Pete tried to confuse (annoy?) us by doing silly things eg. indicating left and turning right etc etc. Fortunately we managed to speed off and navigate our way back - we almost beat him ;-)

No shame: Janelle and I did karaoke. In front of 100 people. Singing 'I Believe I Can Fly' in 2 part harmony. And I wore pink penguin pyjama pants.

Alliteration: This guy called Cameron (he's a poet dude) did 2 Bible stories entirely with alliteration.
"Move the massive mahogany mast from your motion sensor, making the removal of the matchstick from your mate's motion sensor much easier."

No dancing:
"I went to the fancy pants ball
But could not dance at all"
This was because it was held in the cafe area - everyone was sitting down. Pete did the worm move and got busted by a security guard. So we all left.

SMS: So many messages saying "Where are you guys?!"

Food: It was good :-)

I think the best way to describe it would be- heaven practice.

Easter!!!

2006-04-13T14:42:00.000+10:00

Tomorrow is Good Friday.

If anyone out there reading this hasn't ever thought about why we celebrate Easter, then now's the best time to think about it.

Jesus died on the cross for us. That's not a small thing - see The Passion of the Christ.

A question lots of people asked after this film is, "Why? Why did He die?"

The answer is: God made us to have a relationship, a friendship, with Him. That is what He wants most from us - ourselves. To be His friends.

Unfortunately, you can't be friends with someone as perfect as God if you've got a lot of rubbish in your life - whether it's not helping enough with washing up or whether it's murder - we are imperfect.

The problem with the 'rubbish' (aka "sin") is that it keeps us from having a friendship with God. That's bad, because God is the source of all things good - without Him, there's not a single thing that is good.

So that means that when we die, cos of this sin, we remain distant from God - and that means that we don't go to heaven (which is where God is). We go to hell - eternally separated, cut off from every good thing.

This is a problem.

And we don't have the solution.

But God does! And He's made a way so that we don't have to spend eternity apart from Him :-) This is good news, quite literally.

Jesus is the way to God. He is God, the Son of God. He was born, lived a perfectly sinless life, never did a thing wrong. Then He was crucified on a Roman cross. While He was on the cross, God put on Him the sin of the whole world. He paid for it with His death.

We know that this payment worked, because before He died, Jesus predicted He would be resurrected 3 days after His death. And God did resurrect Him - this was proof that God accepted His payment.

So now we can have a choice. We can choose to accept Jesus' payment for our sins. This means we can be friends with God. We can go to heaven. It also means that we choose to let God be in control of our lives so we don't have to have all that rubbish/sin in our lives.

Or we can choose to make our own payment for our sins. This means we can't be friends with God. We are in charge of our own lives, but we won't be able to stop all the sin in them. And we can't go to heaven when we die.

So it's over to you now. What are you going to choose?

update

2006-04-10T14:37:00.000+10:00

So here's an update.

This weekend was very busy and fun :-) One of those fantastic times when everything is just great!!!

Went to a wedding Saturday afternoon. Caught the bouquet. This has never happened before. When I say this to guys, they back away. Or they wink and nudge and say, 'Who's the lucky guy?' I'm out to disprove the bouquet theory - I'll be fifty and single and saying, "See! Told you it didn't work!" ;-)

Then went for a great driving lesson. I learned handbrake turns, burn-offs and how to drive backwards.

Onto my friend's 21st birthday party. Yay Nikki!! At her birthday party, she opened her fortune cookie, and the message on it was from her boyfriend Dan. It said, "Dear Nikki, I love you, will you marry me? Love Dan." She thought he was kidding until he pulled the ring out of his pocket. Yes, they are engaged :-) Congratulations!!! *Maybe that bouquet had a transfer effect??*

And then Sunday wasn't as eventful, but still good. So all in all a good weekend.

Essays and radios

2006-03-30T15:58:00.000+10:00

I don't want to write my essay. But it's due tomorrow.

I really just want to go to sleep now.

Oh well.

I have an idea - I'm going to do a little experiment. I'm going to listen to all the popular radio stations and compare and contrast them - after this essay, of course ;-)

My list of radio stations:
96.5
Triple J
Triple M
B105 :-s *I'd rather not do this one, I used to listen to it waaaaay too much - so I'll make this the shortest part of the experiment!*
97.3

Any others?

And then I'll need a list of criteria by which to measure them. Something like:
Style/s of music played
Amount of talk time
Lyrical content

Any other criteria I should include?

Library

2006-03-29T17:50:00.000+10:00

I was at the library today because I needed to borrow some books, but first I had to......*boom boom boom* clear my penalty points.

"If these librarians," I thought, "are going to be like my school librarians, then I'm for it."

So up to the desk I went. "I need to get my card cleared, cos I'm on full penalty points," then added a quick apology - not because I actually meant it :-s but because I just wanted to pre-empt any general carry-on - you know the drill - 'You need to bring your books back on time!' etc etc etc.

The librarian looked me in the eye. "This is a joyous day! A marvellous occasion!" he said, smiling.
"It is?"
"You don't have to pay me any money! I don't have to take your money!"
I explained to him the whole school librarian complex.
"Look," he says, "they're not my books. People are supposed to borrow them. If they're going to bring them back, they will. And if they're not, they won't. Now ye can begone - and borrow everything!" as he gave me my card.

What is this country coming to?

2006-03-28T11:51:00.000+10:00

I walked past a Red Rooster sign yesterday. It had a sign up for a meal deal called the 'Aussie Sunday'.

Below it read: "Available on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays only."

Connexions

2006-03-27T12:53:00.000+10:00

Hey all u crazytown people who went! :-) and those who didn't :-)

The lowdown:

The speaker was great. He spoke about encouraging one another, accepting one another, loving one another and serving one another - with lots of little extras in it as well, which I thought was great - like the whole strong faith/weak faith thing? That's given me heaps to think about.

Tim and Adam are crazy, and hanging out with them gets addictive. Break the addiction - have a day off! :-)

Hann and I nearly died!! Not really. We went on a bushwalk and a bunch of us decided to climb up a creek to get back to the path. There was this log that was about 1.5m (?) above the creek (with submerged rocks) - and nothing to hang onto either side. Think balance beam.

Anyway, with some difficulty, I didn't panic. Hann said "I"ll help you" and grabbed my hand. Then she started slipping - and you know those terrible moments of panic where you think "That's it!"? I had one of those. But I just grabbed her and she stopped moving. We lived. Whew. So yeah, I'm glad we did that. I feel like I accomplished something and conquered a fear :-)

On the way home we (i.e. Tim, Hann, me, Pete, Gloria and Mathieu) stopped for ice-cream. Pete ate a litre.

Oh yeah, and getting there was fun. Tim turned up at my place - I was in the middle of packing. Then we had to get Janelle before I finished. And then we stopped to buy some props for the MC stuff, and also some tea. By then it was 5pm and we had to be at the camp by 5:30 so Janelle could practice. So we sped home, grabbed my stuff, and took the shortcut to Mt Tamborine. It was funny!!!! :-)

That's all for now. Maybe more later.

Nightlife

2006-03-21T22:34:00.000+10:00

It was great tonight :-)

First, thanks Gloria for your testimony!!! :-) I didn't know all that stuff about you, but I'm so glad that you're here in Oz with us crazy people. You are a great friend, and your testimony really encouraged me. (There was something specific that I meant to thank you for, but I can't remember what it was.......I'll let you know if I do) But thank you!

Also Hann - great work with the music, like I said, the songs were GREAT and they really worked with the talk and they really spoke to me too, especially the first one (I love that one).

And then, of course, God! Thank You so much for using that talk to speak to people, and thanks that it was something I enjoyed doing! Maybe we can do it again sometime?

Thanks everyone for your encouragement and prayer :-)

Fun!

2006-03-19T11:57:00.000+10:00

Sport in the park is turning out to be a lot of fun.

We played soccer. It was 30 degrees. We were boiling.
Pete goes, "Can you fill up my water bottle?" as I was off to the drink taps. Pat asked the same question.

I couldn't pull the lid off Pete's. I finally did, filled the bottle, and couldn't push the lid back on. Turns out it's a screw-top lid.
"Yeah, it's a special lid," he said. "It doesn't leak, see?" and he shook it. Water splashed onto me and some other people. Then began an innocent game of Pete's own invention - how to 'accidentally' splash people. Soon it escalated into a big waterfight.
The climax was probably pouring my whole water bottle down the inside of Pete's shirt. Or Pete and Pat ganging up on me - I, with my 600ml and them with their 1 litre each.

At the end, we were all drenched. (Gloria had to dry herself off with a hand-dryer in the toilets) So we decided we couldn't let the good times stop. We went and saw 'Walk the Line' that night. The movie wasn't the greatest (I think you need to know more about Johnny Cash to appreciate it), but it wasn't the worst. And we had fun going to the video arcade and playing driving games. And Pete figured out how those water fountains in Queen St work (quite by accident). Then we all got home late. It was fun.

Whoa

2006-03-15T16:36:00.000+10:00

My blog was a year old last Friday. I forgot!

Happy birthday, blog.

Daisies and roses

2006-03-15T02:16:00.000+10:00

Daisy, give yourself away
Look up at the rain
A beautiful display
Of power and surrender
Giving us today
When she gives herself away....

Pain, give yourself a name
Call yourself contrition, avarice or blame
Giving isn't easy
Neither is the rain
When she gives herself away

Let it go, Daisy,
Let it go
Open up your fist
This fallen world
It doesn't hold your interest,
Doesn't hold your soul.
Daisy, let it go.........'Daisy', Switchfoot

I love that song. It's painful, but it's beautiful.

Why is it that roses smell the most beautiful when they die?
Why is it that (in most parts of the world) the trees and plants are the most gorgeous, brilliant colours when they are dying?

And maybe it's true that in dying to ourselves, in giving ourselves away, we are at our most magnificent.

a collection of thoughts

2006-03-14T22:49:00.000+10:00

Bands improve over time. (Some do, anyway)

downhere is one such band.

I loved their first CD. I never heard their second. Now I'm listening to some of their songs from their third CD. And I have to say - it's a similar style, but musically and technically, they have improved. And they weren't bad to start with.

"So why don't we do
What we were saved for......"

A thought. God has saved me for something. That means it has to be a good something - if it was a bad something, intended for bad, why bother saving me? Why not just leave me as I was?
"Unless of course," says some horrible little part of me that I prefer to ignore, "He was just playing a cruel joke. And now you're for it."

Well, if I was a bit younger I might get a bit freaked out and lose the plot for awhile. But now I'm a bit older and I just say - then look at the cross. He gave His Son. That's no joke. He's saved me now - that's it. End of story. He's not turning around and going, "No, I'm not" - cos it's too late, see. I'm already saved. There's no going back.

Ok, so I'm tired and all that was probably a bit weird. Never mind.

Time to go write lesson plans. (ha - imagine what they'll look like in this state of mind ;-)

Roll up! Roll up!

2006-03-13T20:44:00.000+10:00

See the Yermits video - (otherwise known as Connexions Camp promo)

Watch Tim wear a funny hat!
See Nicola acting emo!

Go to Luke's blog and follow the link.

Drama and music

2006-03-13T14:48:00.000+10:00

Drama teachers and music teachers seem to have such a complex about their subject areas - and I'm sure I'm going to find out why on prac :-s They make the funniest comments though.

My music teacher: (commenting on how little music is regarded as a worthwhile subject)
"What a great class! I can't wait for our music class on Friday, last period. It's a shame we're in the toilet block......"

My drama tutor: (commenting on kids' perceptions of us as teachers)
"In terms of year eights, you're old. And suddenly you don't know anything about music. You just die."

Carnivorous sheep, the Goodies and I

2006-03-12T20:35:00.000+10:00

I had a dream a couple of nights ago.

In this dream, I was hanging out at the Goodies house!!! Yeah :-)

Across the road was this farmer with some dogs and some sheep. These dogs were able to get over the fence into our yard, and then get back over. So were some of the sheep - only they had trouble getting back over.

One of them started biting me. We all realised that these sheep were trained to eat people, and somehow we all knew that the next morning all the sheep were going to stage a take-over of the Goodies' place and eat us.

We had to do something.

Someone suggested that we feed the sheep lots of food so they wouldn't eat us. Graeme and Bill were absolutely hopeless - they sat in the house doing nothing. Meanwhile Tim and I were out on the front lawn scattering every type of food we could find, so the sheep would eat it, and not us. All-Bran, even soap - we put it all on the front lawn. We tried to close our gates, but then one of my drama tutors from uni came along and walked through one and broke it - so we couldn't close it. We were all panicking - dawn was approaching. Then I suddenly had an idea.
"Wait a minute!" I yelled. "We don't need all this food! All we need to do is get a dog!"
Tim nearly had conniptions, he was so angry that we'd done all that work for nothing!

The sheep never came, because I woke up.
But yeah, me and the Goodies are friends now ;-)

Something found on someone else's forum

2006-03-11T21:19:00.000+10:00

"Be careful not to take long lingering looks at your own sin. It takes your eyes from where they should be. Believe God when He says that He will perfect the work begun in you. It's so much better when He is the one doing the perfecting."

Self control

2006-03-11T21:07:00.000+10:00

Saturday night, and I'm at home. Which is a bit boring, but the good news is that I just finished writing something for Nightlife. Hooray. You'll get to see it in a couple of weeks, if you go to Nightlife.

A lot of what I've been writing about has to do with self-control. I think I need to develop some - at least more than I have at the moment (come on people - does a person with self control sit and eat 2 doughnuts after both tea and dessert? I think not! :-)

Self control is broad - it covers lots of areas.
* Am I going to go off my head at that person who just ticked me off?
* Am I going to have that extra doughnut?
*Do I really need to watch another TV show?

It is smart. It says things like,
"If I write the assignment now, then maybe I can read the whole book tomorrow (instead of half now, half tomorrow)."
"5 hours on MSN is probably a bit too much."
"Maybe one Goodies episode, not six."

Oh, for more self control. See Titus 2:12.